They only wore waistcoats like the natives and had grown great beards.

They ran at one time into a "Parcel of Towns " and hid in a hollow tree. The river was full of alligators, and they encountered bears, hogs, deer, and wild buffaloes. At At length, as they descended, the river dried up, being only pools between sandy stretches, so they were able to walk in the bed of it; but even this had its drawbacks, as they had to take great care not to be seen, so they travelled by night, but when it was a "dark moon" they couldn't get on at all," the River anights so full of elephants and other wild beasts coming to drink."

At last, after nearly a week, having started from Anuradhapura on a Sunday, they arrived at the Dutch fort of Arripe on the coast, on Saturday afternoon, and were warmly received by the inhabitants, and sent first to Colombo and thence to Batavia, where they picked up an English ship.

On the way home Knox wrote his story, which was published through the East India Company. It is marvellous that having been so long away from civilisation, when apparently he had been unable to take any notes, he should have written down everything in such clear and detailed fashion, showing a wonderful memory.

His book gives a unique picture of the life of the Cingalese under the Kandyan kings. It is a wonderful contemporary record, and should be read by every one interested in Ceylon.

CHAPTER II

THE ROAD THROUGH THE JUNGLE

CEYLON is slung like a drop-pearl from the southernmost point of India. Where the major and minor axes cross one another, much nearer to the southern end than the northern, lies the hillcountry of which Kandy is the centre. Almost due north of Kandy, along the major axis, at some eighty-nine miles' distance, is Anuradhapura, which is just about half-way between Kandy and the north of the island.

The road between Kandy and Anuradhapura is itself bisected at Dambulla, where the main highway from Colombo to Trincomalee crosses it diagonally. Those who go to Anuradhapura by road will find Dambulla a convenient half-way house, but those who go by rail from Colombo do not visit Kandy at all. They start on the Kandy line, but change at Polgahawela junction some hours short of Kandy, and go directly north to Anuradhapura. The best train in the day, starting in the cool of the morning, catches a direct connection at the junction, and the journey takes five hours and a half. The scenes passed through are pleasant enough though not wildly exciting. The natives working in their paddy

fields, the buffaloes, with the little white cranes in attendance on them, and the palm and plantain plantations show many a peaceful picture, and beyond Polgahawela the line runs on straight through mile after mile of jungle of infinite tangle and variety, where masses of a bell-like flower are here and there broken by flashes of the royal red Gloriosa superba.

In the little clearings for paddy almost invariably there is a small thatch and mat shelter, raised on rickety-looking bamboo posts, in which the owners can sit in safety to scare wild creatures from the crop, and in the great tanks covered with lotus flowers lie the ungainly water buffaloes with only their heads showing.

The best time to visit Ceylon is not in the last but the first months of the year, and those who come earlier must be prepared to face some rain, more or less according to whether the monsoon, beginning in October, has already exhausted itself or not.

The roads are, as a whole, excellent, though sometimes narrow. Every motorist should manage to get hold of that fascinating, but curiously unequal, book Fifty Years in Ceylon,' by Major T. B. Skinner, because it is to Skinner we owe many of the main roads. He came out to Ceylon in 1818 as a lad of fourteen, and received a commission in the Ceylon Regiment, though he was so small that his full-sized sword was a serious embarrassment. When sent up-country and told to make a road with a gradient of "one in twenty," he had not the slightest idea what was meant ! 1 W. H. Allen & Co. 1891.

But without technical knowledge he set himself to the task, and succeeded so well that in later years he was put in charge of the public works -roads and bridges-then in the Quartermaster General's Department before the existence of the P.W.D., and under his superintendence the roads in the district now described were made. The Kandy-Dambulla road was laid out in 1831-2, and at Dambulla it met the Colombo-Trincomalee road, so far accomplished, which was then carried forward, and on the day it was completed an Order in Council abolished compulsory labour in the island, and thus freed the natives from an exaction, which, under their own later kings, had become almost as intolerable as the corvée in Egypt. In going to Anuradhapura by road from Colombo some choose the direct way by Kurunegala, but the greater number of people prefer to go via Kandy. It means about thirty miles more but the road is better, and there is an opportunity for seeing Kandy en route. This is preferable even for those who possess their own motors, but the argument is stronger still in the case of those who want to hire a car, because the first part of the journey from Colombo to Kandy is best accomplished by rail, as it involves a heavy climb, and the start by road can be made from Kandy, thus saving mileage. Excellent motors can be hired in either Colombo or Kandy (Walker Sons & Co. Ltd.), at the rate of about £4 (60 rupees) a day, including a competent chauffeur and his keep.

The grand scenery of this part of the railway is too well known to need description, the splen

dours of the rocky heights, clad with rich jungle growth, rising on one side, the ranges of the far hills and deep valleys on the other, spreading out as the train winds along a narrow ledge turning and twisting, are familiar to all who know anything whatever of Ceylon.

As already stated, the distance from Kandy to Anuradhapura is eighty-nine miles. There is a capital road map, published by the P. & O.S.N. Co., showing all the possible roads in the island; this should be obtained before starting.

From Kandy the first part of the way is excellent, and almost all in shade in the early morning. It was the end of December when I left the Queen's Hotel, and the weather, which had been very uncertain, and at times hopelessly wet, cleared up for the day and was as perfect as only Ceylon weather can be. The road winds around, dropping here and there steeply, with sharp curves requiring careful driving. The flowers for which Ceylon is so famous are seen in masses; they include the trumpet-shaped white blossoms of the Datura fastuosa, the little bright terra-cotta blossoms of the ubiquitous lantana, and immense yellow daisies, resembling leopard's bane in all but the foliage.

It gives one a queer sensation to look down on a little patch of cropped green by a waterhole and see tortoises feeding on the grass as rabbits do at home. But this is one of the local touches that add savour to the experience!

About three miles out the mighty River Mahawelliganga is crossed. In old days this formed a barrier, cutting off the hill-country of Rohuna,