260 
THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
some measure protected, yet their property is completely at 
the mercy of the rapacious officers of the court. They have 
long since been stript of every thing valuable, and many of 
them trust to the spontaneous fruits of their forests for a 
scanty subsistence, rather than cultivate fields whose produce 
must be shared with their oppressors. If a peasant chances by 
accident to find a precious stone of value, or is possessed of 
any thing of superior quality, even the fruit which he 
gathers, he is compelled to give it up to the king’s officers; 
or if it be of such value that they are afraid to appropriate 
it to themselves, they compel the unfortunate possessor to 
travel up with it himself, and at his own charge, to the royal 
residence, where he is often obliged to remain several days 
in waiting at the palace-gate before his present is received, 
and he dares not before then ever think of departure. On 
this account a Candian peasant on lighting by accident on 
a precious stone, will either destroy or leave it where it lies, 
rather than subject himself to the trouble and expence of 
carrying it to the royal residence * 
The principal revenues of the king consist of presents or 
contributions brought him by the people, or rather irregularly 
enforced by his officers, two or three times a year. These 
contributions consist of money, precious stones, ivory, cloth, 
corn, fruit, honey, wax, arms, and other articles of their 
own manufacture, such as spears, arrows, pikes, targets, tain- 
pot leaves, &c. 
Fear of the Europeans induces the king to practise the 
