TO THE COURT OF CANDY. 
387 
perceive the Candians skulking about the woods in our 
vicinity. The party sent out in the morning to make the 
roads, were obliged to return at one o'clock, on account 
of the rain thunder and lightning which began to be as 
severe as yesterday. 
Stltli. About eleven o'clock struck our tents to proceed to 
RanelHli, or, as it is called by the Candians, the valley of 
ijecicious stones, ten miles from Apolipitti. The day was 
nostst uncommonly hot, the thermometer being at 101°. In 
adddition to this, the road was exceedingly difficult and fa- 
ticiguing. I had here an opportunity of observing that the 
EEuropeans bore the extreme heat much better than the 
natives. The Bengal artillery men exerted themselves with 
the greatest perseverance, and the soldiers of the 19th re- 
giment were frequently obliged to assist in dragging the guns 
through the ravines and defiles. But such was the badness 
of the roads, that in spite of these efforts, and though the 
troops and pioneers had been employed two days in clearing 
away the stumps of trees and pieces of rock which ob- 
structed the passage, we were obliged after all to leave the 
guns five miles in the rear, with a covering party of two com- 
panies of Sepoys, while the Europeans and the rest of the 
native troops marched on to a very extensive tope of cocoa- 
trees near Ruanelli, called Ilesue Orti Palagomby Watty, or 
the King’s Royal Gardens, where we encamped. The leeches 
infested us in this march to a most alarming . degree ; most 
of the soldiers had their legs and different parts of their 
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