THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
10 r 
of Trincomalee and Point de Galle, and seldom venture to 
these roads for the following eight months. Coiumbo is by 
this means cut off from any intercourse by sea with the rest 
of the island, for two thirds of the year. As tins is (he chief 
place for the staple trade of Ceylon, the disadvantages arising 
from these circumstances are very considerable ; but such is the 
fury of the monsoon hurricanes here, that they can only be 
obviated by improving the communications by land, between 
Coiumbo and the more secure harbours on the east coast of 
the island. 
For six months of the stormy season, this side of the island 
is subject to astonishingly heavy falls of rain, accompanied 
with dreadful thunder and lightning, and violent winds blowing 
in shore. In the beginning of May 1799> a thunder storm 
broke on the fort of Coiumbo ; and several houses, particu- 
larly on the south-side, were struck and damaged. About 
half a mile from the fort a number of goats and oxen were 
at pasture, under the care of a boy; when he, and two and 
thirty of the cattle, were struck dead on the spot by one flash 
of lightning. A woman, in the black town, was also at the 
same time killed, and a child much hurt. For the space of 
an hour this storm continued, with the greatest fury I ever 
remember to have seen. Nor did the electric matter in the 
air seem at all exhausted by this explosion; as, a few nights 
after, there was another storm almost equally severe : but al- 
though the hospital, and several private houses, were struck 
by the lightning, providentially no lives were lost. 
