THE ISLAND OF CEYLON. 
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smaller animals, and will devour kids, goats, hogs, poultry, 
&c. first twisting their tail round their prey, to break its 
bones and squeeze it to death. 
Before I arrived in the island, I had heard many stories of 
a monstrous snake, so vast in size as to be able to devour 
tigers and buffaloes, and so daring as even to attack the 
elephant. I made every inquiry on the spot concerning this 
terrible animal, but not one of the natives had ever heard 
of the monster. Probably these fabulous stories took their 
rise from an exaggerated account of the rock-snake. 
Alligators of an immense size infest all the rivers of Cey- 
lon, and render them every where very dangerous : many 
persons continually fail victims to them. In the year 1799 3 
when Colonel Champagne was lieutenant-governor in the ab- 
sence of Mr. North, an alligator was sent him down for 
inspection by one of the principal Cinglese. It was full 
twenty feet in length, and as thick in the body as a horse. 
It was killed about thirty miles from Columbo, and required 
two carts placed one after the other, and drawn by eight 
bullocks, to transport its immense body, while part of the 
tail still hung trailing on the ground. On being opened, it 
was found to have in its belly the head and arm of a black 
man not yet completely digested. The skin was of a knotty 
horny texture, like that of a young rhinoceros, and quite 
impenetrable to a musket ball. In February of the same 
year, when the escort of the Governor, on his way to meet 
the Candian ambassador, arrived at Sittivacca, some of the 
