126 
THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
grateful refreshment such a roacl affords to a traveller in 
this sultry climate, can only be conceived by those who have 
passed from Columbo to Caltura. The goodness of the roads 
here is remarkable ; and the vigour communicated by the cool- 
ness of the shades, is very sensibly felt by an European. I 
experienced this most satisfactorily, in a walk which I took 
from Caltura to Columbo in December 1799 - It was then 
nearly the hottest season of the year, and the distance be- 
tween the two places above twenty-eight miles. I left Cal- 
tura at nine in the morning, in company with two sets of 
palankeen boys, who were to go the same road. In time, 
however, I left my fellow travellers behind ; and after a delay 
of an hour in crossing the Caltura and Pantura rivers, and 
resting at Galkiest, I got to Columbo by half past four in 
the afternoon, having performed the journey in the heat of 
the day, and in the space of seven hours and a half. I men- 
tion this circumstance, to demonstrate how much less en- 
feebling the climate of Ceylon is to the constitution of an 
European, than any other part of India. There is no place 
on the continent which I have visited, where I could have 
walked above half the distance in the same space of time ; 
and yet the road which I travelled does not lie six degrees 
from the line. I could mention other instances of exertion, 
which the climate of Ceylon has permitted Europeans to 
make, where they were assisted neither by the goodness of 
the road, nor the shades of the groves. A soldier in the 
Bengal artillery left Columbo in the morning, and arrived by 
