THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
237 
been able to penetrate. A few villages are scattered among 
the surrounding hills ; and in those places where the woods 
leave some clear space, the soil though barren produces 
rice. 
About six or seven miles south of Candy lies the town of 
Nilemby Neur, which has also at times afforded a retreat 
to the king: lie has here a palace and store-houses. The 
remains of several other towns are found in various parts 
of the country. On the road from Candy to Trincomalee 
stood the town of Aletty Neur, where the king kept 
stores of grain and other provisions. This however as well 
as many other towns was ‘burnt to the ground by the 
Portugueze ; and nothing is now left but the remains of 
some temples and pagodas to testify that such places ever 
were in existence. 
The ruins of some towns, which appear to have been 
both larger and better built than those hitherto described, 
prove that the kingdom of the Candians was once in a 
more flourishing condition, and gradually tending by the 
natural course of things to civilization and opulence, when 
the invasion of Europeans deprived them of all those means 
by which they could have access to foreign nations, and an 
opportunity of importing either arts or manners into their 
own. In the nothern part of the kingdom lies the province 
of Noure Calava, where the ruins of the once famous and 
splendid city of Anurodgburro are still discovered. It 
stands almost at the northern extremity of the Caudian 
