LAUREL. 
121 
Mr. Percival, can be more delightful to the eye 
than the prospect which stretches around Columbo. 
The low cinnamon trees which cover the plain, allow 
the view to reach the groves of evergreens, inter- 
spersed with tall clumps, and bounded every where 
with extensive ranges of cocoa-nut and other large 
trees. The whole is diversified with small lakes and 
green marshes, skirted all around with rice and pas- 
ture fields. In one part the intertwining cinnamon 
trees appear completely to clothe the face of the 
plain ; in another, the openings made by the inter- 
secting foot-paths just serve to show that the thick 
underwood has been penetrated, 
“ The soil best adapted for the growth of the cin- 
namon is a loose white sand. Such is the soil of the 
cinnamon gardens around Columbo, as well as in 
many parts around Nigumbo and Caltura, where 
this spice is found of the same superior quality. 
What is gathered at Matura and Point de Galle dif- 
fers very little from this, especially in those parts 
near the sea, which are most favourable to the 
growth of cinnamon. The quantity found in the 
other parts of the island is so trifling, as hardly to 
deserve notice. Of late years, little is procured from 
the interior ; and what is brought thence is coarser 
and thicker in appearance, and of a hot and pungent 
taste. The interior is not so well adapted by nature 
for producing this plant ; and the exactions and 
avarice of the Dutch at length reduced the king of 
Candy to such desperation, that he resolved to se- 
cure himself against their future attacks, by leaving 
