; :6o C E Y 
found himfelf exactly hi the fame dependent ftate as he 
was before his victories. The Dutch, becoming fuperior, 
fortified every one of his ports. They had befides a grant 
of coafic round theifland, twelve miles in breadth, reck¬ 
oning from the fea. The emperor maintained a magni¬ 
ficent court at Candy ; but at any time his good allies 
were pleafed, they could, by the tole interdiction of the 
article fait, make him and his fubjefts fubmit to any 
terms they chofe to dictate. 
The form and extent of the ifle of Ceylon, are very 
much undetermined. The figure which is generally 
adopted in the maps, is that of a pear, with the (talk 
turned towards the north. The length from Dondra- 
head fouth, to Tellipeli north, is about 280 miles; the 
greateft breadth, or from Colombo to Trir.coli, is about 
160. The latitudes of the two extremes in length, are 
between 5 0 50% and 9 0 51'. Its extremes of longitude 
are 79 0 50', and 82° io / . The illand rifes from the fea 
on every fide to the mountains, which run in chains, 
principally from north to fouth. The higheft and rudeff 
■traft is the kingdom of Conde Uda, which is impervious, 
by reafon of rocks and forefts, except by narrow paths, 
-which are alfo impeded by gates of thorns, ciofely watch¬ 
ed by guards. At the vveltern (kirt ofthefe mountains 
foars Hamalell, in the European language Adam’s Peak* 
It riles pre-eminent above all the reft, in form of a fu- 
gar loaf. On the fummit is a flat ftone, with an impref- 
fion refembling a human foot, two feet long, faid to be 
that of our great and common anceftor : this, however, 
is denied by Mr. Bryant, who thinks there are very few 
allufions in ancient hiftory to the antediluvian world. 
The Cingalefe fay, it is that of Buddo, their great deity, 
when he afeended into heaven, from whom they.expeCt 
falvation. The Mahometan tradition is, that Adam was 
call down from Paradife, and fell on this fummit, and 
Eve near Judda, in Arabia. They were feparated 200 
years, after which, as the legend goes, he found his 
-wife, and conducted her to his old retreat; there he 
died, and was buried, and there are two large tombs. 
To this day many votaries vifit his imaginary fepulchre; 
the Mahometans out of refpeft to our common father; 
the Cingalefe under the notion above-mentioned. All the 
vifitants are obliged to be drawn up by chains, fo rude 
and inacceffible is the way to this rock of fanCtity. From 
this mountain rallies the great river Mavila-Ganga, or 
Ceylonefe Ganges, which pafles unnavigable, clofe to 
Candy, a very long and rocky courfe, to the fea at Trin- 
comale. All the reft of the i-fle, except fome marfliy 
flats adapted to the culture of rice, are broken into thou¬ 
sands of hills, beautifully clothed with wood. The in¬ 
tervening valleys are often morally, or confiding of a 
rich fat foil; but the fertility of the open parts is aftonifli- 
ingly great. 
The ancient account given by Ptolemy of the mineral 
or foflil productions, is now in a great mcafure confirm¬ 
ed. Iron and copper are found here, and alfo black lead. 
A gold mine is laid to be latent in one of the great moun¬ 
tains, but the working is prohibited by the emperor. Of 
gems, the ruby, fapphire, topaz, the eleCtric tourmalin, 
and the cat’s eye, or pfeud-opal, and hyacinth, are met 
’with, But what occafions the negleCt of the mines, and 
of the gems, is the attention to the great ftaple of the 
illand, the important bark of the cinnamon-tree. Dr. 
Thunberg is very exaCl in his account of the gems of 
Ceylon. They are dug up about Matura, and the liber¬ 
ty of fearch is farmed for no more than 180 rix-dollars a 
year. Amethyfts, and an infinite variety of cryftals and 
cryftalline gems, are found in that neigbourhood. The 
inhabitants are called Cingalefe; thefe are aboriginal, 
and differ totally in language from the people of Mala¬ 
bar, or any other neighbouring nation. Their features 
are more like Europeans than any other. Their hair is 
long, and moft commonly turned up. They are black, 
but well made, with good countenances, and excellent 
•,morals. Their religion is derived from Buddo, a pro- 
L O N. 
felyte of the great Indian Foe : his doCVrine overfpread 
Japan and Siam, as well as that of Foe. It conlifts of 
the wildeft idolatry, and the idols, the objefts of their 
worlhip, are the moft monftrous and fantaftic. The 
pagodas or temples are numerous, and many of them, 
like feveral in India, are of hewn ftone, moft richly and 
exquifiteiy carved. The civil government is monarchi¬ 
cal. The emperor, in the time of Knox, was abfolute, 
and claimed the moft undifputable right over the lives 
and fortunes of all his fubjefts. He was a barbarous ty¬ 
rant, and took delight in putting his fubjefts to the moft 
cruel and lingering deaths. Elephants were often the 
executioners of his vengeance, and were direfted to pull 
the unhappy criminals limb from limb with their trunks, 
and fcatter them to the birds of the air, or beafts of the 
field. The emperor's court was at Candy, nearly in the 
centre of theifland; but he was, in Knox’s time, by the 
rebellion of his fubjefts, obliged to defert that city. 
The government is faid, by Wolff, to be at prefent very 
mild, and regulated by ltatute laws, the joint production 
of divers wife princes, and are confidered as facred by 
the Cingalefe. It is poflible that the tyrant, in the days 
of Knox, had deltroyed the liberties of his country, 
which were afterwards reftored. The author Robert 
Knox is a writer fully to be depended on; a plain honeft 
man, who, in 1657, tailed in one of the Eaft India com¬ 
pany’s lliips to Madras; and on liis return, in 1659, was 
forced by a ftorm into Ceylon, to refit: when his father 
(who was captain) went on Ihore, and, with fixteen more 
of the crew, were feizecl by the emperor’s foldiers, and 
detained. The captain died in a year’s time, but his fon 
lived nineteen years in the illand, and law the greateft 
part of it. At length, with difficulty, he made his 
efcape, and arrived in England, in September 1680. His 
hiftory of the illand, and of his adventures, were pub¬ 
lished in 1680 ; and appears to be the only authentic ac¬ 
count of the internal parts, and the only one that can be 
entirely relied on. 
There is in this illand a race of wild men, called We- 
das, or Bedas ; they fpeak the Cingalefe language, but 
inhabit the. depth of the woods, and the faftnefles of the 
mountains, and are, in all refpefts, as favage as animals 
in the ftate of nature. They wear their hair long, coi¬ 
led it together, and tie it on the crown of the head in a 
bunch. Their complexions are, comparative to the other 
Cingalefe, light: they inhabit the lhade of the woods, 
and their Ikins, that way, efcape the effeft of the burn¬ 
ing fun. They live entirely on flelh, or on roots; the 
firft they eat raw or dried, or preferved in honey. They 
live either in caves, or under a tree, with the boughs 
cut and laid round about them to give notice when any 
wild beafts come near, which they may hear by their mil¬ 
ling and trampling upon them. They are like them, 
without law, and, as Wolff fays, without religion. Knox 
rather afferts the contrary. The wilder fort never ffiew 
themfelves; the tamer will enter into fome kind of com¬ 
merce with their civilized countrymen. Their drefs is 
only a cloth wrapped round their waifts, and brought 
between their legs. A fmall axe is ufually ftuck in the 
wrapper. They are ficilful archers, and very nice in their 
arrows. The heads are of iron, made by the fmiths of the 
civilized people. They have no other means of befpeak- 
ing them, than leaving near the fliop a pattern, cut out 
-of a leaf, with a piece of flelh by way of reward: if he 
does the work, they bring him more meat, otherwife they 
flioot him in the night. 
This illand was celebrated by Pliny for its race of 
elephants, which were larger; and more adapted for war, 
than thofe of India. He alfo gives the methods of cap¬ 
ture. They are, at prefent, taken by different methods; 
and, after being tamed, are lent to the great annual fair 
at Jaffanapatam. The merchants of Malabar and Ben¬ 
gal, have notice of the numbers and qualities of the 
elephants to be fet up to fale ; fometimes 100 are fold at 
one fair. A full grown beaft, twelve or fourteen feet 
high, 
