238 
TIIE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
dominions, and borders on the province of Jafnapatam. Tn 
former ages this was the residence of the kings of Ceylon ; 
and has long been the place of their burial. Owing to its 
being at a distance from Candy, and the terrors of a barbarous 
court, it is much frequented by priests and other Cinglese, 
who come here to pay devotion to their saints. It was here 
that the stately temples and pagodas of the Ceylonese 
worship, formerly stood, as appears by the massy pillars and 
hewn stones which still remain. The Portuguese, however, 
made themselves masters of the town, and found in it more 
objects for their ravages than they had hitherto met with 
in the other parts of the island. They pulled down without 
remorse the religious edifices with which it was adorned, and 
transported the choicest of the materials to fortify Columbo 
and the other towns which they erected on the sea-coasts. 
This act of sacrilege tended more than any other thing to 
alienate the minds of the natives; and the Ceylonese still 
record it with horror. 
The whole of the king’s country, with the exception of the 
plains around Anurodgburro, present a constant interchange 
of steep mountains and low vallies. The excessive thickness 
of the woods, which cover by far the greatest portion of the 
country, causes heavy fogs and unwholesome damps to pre- 
vail. Every evening the fogs fall with the close of day, and 
are not again dissipated till the sun has acquired great 
power. The vallies are in general marshy, full of springs, 
and excellently adapted for the cultivation of rice and rear- 
