។

CEYLON IN

1893.

CHAPTER I.

PAST HISTORY.

The Ophir and Tarshish of Solomon-Northern and Southern Indian dynasties-Chinese invasion and connection with the island in ancient and modern times-Portuguese and Dutch rule-British annexation.

I

TAKE it for granted that the readers of this work will have some general acquaintance with the position, history, and condition of Ceylon. It is the largest, most populous, and most important of her Britannic Majesty's Crown colonies, which are so called because the administration of their affairs is under the direct control of the Colonial Office.

Ceylon has long been

"Confess'd the best and brightest gem

In Britain's orient diadem."

There can be no danger nowadays of a member of Parliament getting up in his place to protest against British troops being stationed in Ceylon on account of the deadly climate of "this part of West Africa," the "utmost Indian isle" being then confounded with Sierra Leone!

Known to ancient voyagers as far back as the time of King Solomon (of whose Ophir and Tarshish many believe

Ceylon to have formed a part), the story of its beauty, its jewels, and its spices. was familiar to the Greeks and Romans, who called it Taprobane, and to the Arab traders who first introduced the coffee plant into this island, and who placed in Serendib the scene of many of Sindbad's adventures. It was also known to the Mohammedan world at large, who to this day regard the island as the elysium provided for Adam and Eve to console them for the loss of Paradise, a tradition used as a solatium by Arabi and his co-Egyptian exiles some years ago, when deported from their native land. To the people of India, to the Burmese, Siamese, and Chinese, Lanká, "the resplendent," was equally an object of interest and admiration, so that it has been well said that no island in the world, Great Britain itself not excepted, has attracted the attention of authors in so many different countries as has Ceylon.

There is no land, either, which can tell so much of its past history, not merely in songs and legends, but in records which have been verified by monuments, inscriptions, and coins; some of the structures in and around the ancient capitals of the Sinhalese are more than 2,100 years old, and only second to those of Egypt in vastness of extent and architectural interest.* Between 543 B.C., when Wijaya, a prince from Northern India, is said to have invaded Ceylon, conquered its native rulers, and made himself king, and the middle of the year 1815, when the last king of Kandy, a cruel monster, was deposed and banished by the British, the Sinhalese chronicles present us with a list of well-nigh 170 kings and queens, the history of whose administrations is of the most varied and interesting character, indicating the attainment of a degree of civilisation and material progress very unusual

*See "Buried Cities of Ceylon," by S. M. Burrows, C.C.S., published by A. M. and J. Ferguson.

in the East at that remote age. Long, peaceful, and prosperous reigns-such as that of the famous king Tissa, contemporary with the North Indian emperor Asoka, 250 B.C.-were interspersed with others chiefly distinguished by civil dissensions and foreign invasions. The kings of Ceylon, however, had given sufficient provocation to foreign rulers when in the zenith of their power. In the twelfth century the celebrated king Prákrama Báhú not only defeated the rulers of Southern Indian states, but sent. an army against the king of Cambodia, which, proving victorious, made that distant land tributary to Ceylon.* On the other hand, in retaliation for the plundering of a Chinese vessel in a Sinhalese port, a Chinese army, early in the fifteenth century, penetrated to the heart of the hill-country, and, defeating the Sinhalese forces at the then royal capital, Gampola, captured the king, and took him away to China; † and the island had for some time to pay an annual tribute to that country. At that time.

* The king of Cambodia (Siam) in these days is a tribute-offerer to Lanká, as the following paragraph from a Sinhalese paper in 1886 will show

"PRESENTS FROM THE KING OF CAMBODIA TO THE BUDDHIST COLLEGE, MALIGAKANDA, COLOMBO.-Several gold images, an excellent umbrella, ornamented with precious stones, and a brush made of the king's hair, to be kept for use (sweeping) in the place where Buddha's image is placed, have been sent by the king of Cambodia to the high-priest in charge of the college. Two or three priests have also come down to receive instruction in Pali, etc., etc.-Kirana, April 19."

During a visit to China in 1884 nothing struck the author more than the exact resemblance between a Buddhist temple in Canton and one in Ceylon; the appearance of the priests, their worship and ceremonies, all were alike. Outside, in that Mongolian world, everything was so different; the country, the towns, the customs, and the people with their pigtails, their oval eyes, and loose dress, everything was strange and novel; but inside this Canton temple, before the shaven, yellow-robed monks, one felt for a moment carried back to "Lanká," and its numerous Buddhist temples.

† Of this defeat and capture no mention is made in the Sinhalese History, the Mahawanso; it was only by referring to the archives at Pekin that the facts were brought out.

the Chinese imported from Ceylon a large quantity of kaolin for pottery, which still abounds in the island. The close connection in early times between the island and the great Eastern empire constitutes a very interesting episode. Fa-hien, the Chinese monk-traveller, visited Ceylon in search of Buddhist books about 400 A.D., and abode two years in the island, giving a glowing account, still extant, of the splendour of Anaradhapura, then in its zenith, with its brazen (brass-covered) palace, great shrines and monasteries, with "thousands" of monks, dagabas, and the Perahera (Procession of the Tooth).

Ceylon was, however, exposed chiefly to incursions of Malabar princes and adventurers with their followers, from Southern India, who waged a constant and generally successful contest with the Sinhalese. The northern and eastern portions of the island at length became permanently occupied by the Tamils, who placed a prince of their own on the Kandyan throne; and so far had the ancient power of the kingdom declined that when the Portuguese first appeared in Ceylon, in 1505, the island was divided under no less than seven separate rulers. Ceylon, in the Middle Ages, was "the Tyre of Eastern and Southern Asia."

[For 150 years the Portuguese occupied and controlled the maritime districts of Ceylon, but it was more of a military occupation than a regular government, and martial law chiefly prevailed. The army of Roman Catholic ecclesiastics introduced under Portuguese auspices alone made any permanent impression on a people who were only too ready to embrace a religion which gave them high-sounding honorific baptismal names, and interfered seldom, if at all, with their continued observance of Buddhistic feasts and ceremonies. The Portuguese established royal monopolies in cinnamon, pepper, and musk; exporting, besides cardamoms, sapan-wood, areca nuts, ebony, elephants, ivory, gems, pearls, and small quantities of

tobacco, silk, and tree cotton (the "kapok" of modern times). I

The Dutch, who by 1656 had finally expelled the Portuguese rulers from the island, which the Lisbon authorities had said "they had rather lose all India than imperil,” pursued a far more progressive administrative policy, though, as regards commerce, their policy was selfish and oppressive. Still confined to the low country (the king of Kandy defying the new as he had done the previous European invaders), the Dutch did much to develop cultivation and to improve the means of communication--more especially by canals in their own maritime territorywhile establishing a lucrative trade with the interior. The education of the people occupied a good deal of official attention, as also their Christianisation through a staff of Dutch chaplains; but the system of requiring a profession of the Protestant religion before giving employment to any natives speedily confirmed the native love of dissimulation, and created a nation of hypocrites, so that the term "Government Christian," or "Buddhist Christian," is common in some districts of Ceylon to this day.

The first care of the Dutch, however, was to establish a lucrative commerce with Holland, and their vessels were sent not only to Europe, but also to Persia, India, and the Far East ports. Cinnamon was the great staple of export ; next came pearls (in the years which gave successful pearl-oyster fisheries in the Gulf of Mannár); then followed elephants, pepper, areca or betel nuts, jaggery-sugar, sapanwood and timber generally, arrack spirit, choya-roots (a substitute for madder), cardamoms, cinnamon oil, etc. The cultivation of coffee and indigo was begun, but not carried on to such an extent as to benefit the exports.

* The peeling of cinnamon, the selling or exporting of a single stick, save by the appointed officers, or even the wilful injury of a cinnamon plant, were made crimes punishable by death by the Dutch. See Appendix No. III. for Cinnamon.