20 
THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
place of all other tics ; and though they have not the smallest 
idea of political freedom, yet as their princes seldom violate 
their customs or the liberty of their persons, they cherish with 
enthusiasm the pride of immemorial independence, maintain the 
most inviolable attachment to their native kings, and would 
sooner die than swerve from their allegiance, or bear arms 
against them. The behaviour of the foreign nations who have 
successively invaded their island, lias tended greatly to nourish 
these sentiments ; and the cruelties of the Portuguese and Dutch 
have so exasperated them against all Europeans, that it will 
require much pains to reconcile their minds so far as that any 
confidence can be placed in them. 
All these causes combined to frustrate the attempts of the 
Dutch at forming a settlement in the interior of the island; 
and the difficulties which they encountered, made them affect 
to despise the advantages which they could not attain. They 
pretended to look upon the interior as an object of no con- 
sequence ; a poor and barren country rendered equally useless 
by the badness of its soil, and the unhealthiness of its climate. 
Such is the description, which after my arrival, I always heard 
given of it by the Dutch settlers ; but my own observation lias 
since convinced me, that either they were very little acquainted 
with the country, or that they were unwilling that any other 
European power should reap those advantages which their own 
short-sighted policy had made them neglect. 
But notwithstanding the Dutch seem to have been convinced 
that it was impracticable to retain possession of the interior* 
