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CEYLON:

9144126

PAST AND PRESENT.

BY SIR GEORGE BARROW, BART.

WITH A MAP BY JOHN ARROWSMITH.

3074

LONDON:

JOHN MURRAY, ALBEMARLE STREET.

1857.

[blocks in formation]

LONDON: PRINTED BY W. CLOWES AND SONS, STAMFORD STREET,

AND CHARING CROSS.

26 x 35 3

PREFACE.

My first object in undertaking this little work was to give some notion of the curious and interesting narrative of "Robert Knox's" captivity in Ceylon from the year 1659 till his escape in 1679, and of his descriptions of the country—its inhabitants-and various other matters; for until "Philalethes" republished it in 1817, the work was so scarce as to be little known; and it is still only embodied in the quarto volume of his friendly re

viewer.

But from the " past" I was carried on to the "present;" and I hope that the sketch which I have given of the "Garden of India," and of its growing prosperity, may be found interesting, and in some measure useful, as the information which it contains has been collected from authentic sources, and has been brought down to the latest period.

I wish to call special attention to the Map accompanying this work, engraved by Mr. Arrowsmith on a reduced scale from a larger one compiled by him from actual survey; as it is the most complete and authentic map of the island which has yet appeared.

December, 1856.

G. B.

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