THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
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unsettled state of affairs, that government could not procure 
a sufficient quantity of it to pay the troops. This we have 
often felt a great disadvantage when ships occasionally touched 
at Columbo, particularly the vessel from Macao, as then were 
the only times at which many necessary articles could be 
procured. The foreign merchants would not take the copper- 
money of the island in payment, as it passes no where else ; 
our only resource on such occasions therefore was to carry 
our copper-money to the shroffs or money-changers, and pro- 
cure gold and silver from them for it on their own terms. 
The expence of living at Columbo is much more consider- 
able than might be expected. Every thing in Ceylon in gene- 
ral is indeed dearer than on the continent of India, from 
whence most of the articles in use are imported, and the 
expence of carriage has consequently to be added to their 
original cost. Horses and servants are particularly expensive. 
To keep one horse at Columbo will cost as much as to keep 
two at Madras. Servants* wages are also nearly double, as it 
is the custom to bring them from Bengal and Madras, and 
they, as well as their masters, must pay dearer for their 
clothes and food than in their native countries where these arti- 
cles are produced. The servants also stipulate for higher wages 
before they will come to Ceylon, as they are very much pre- 
judiced against it on account of its dearness, and distance 
from their homes and places of religious worship. There 
prevails also among the people of the continent a rooted 
