combed tight back from the face, and fastened in a knot behind; a square tortoise-shell comb ornaments the top of the head.

The common people wear their hair dressed in the same manner, excepting that the women deck the knot behind with long pins of gold and silver set with precious stones. Neither sex wears any clothing above the waist, excepting when they become household servants to Europeans, when they put on a jacket. The clothing of the better sort descends to the heels, the common people are only covered to the knee. The Cingalese houses are better constructed than those of the same class of natives in Bombay, owing perhaps to the necessity of the climate, which is more damp and variable.

Schools for English, Dutch, and Cingalese, have been established in different parts of Ceylon. Those who are brought up in them are mostly baptized by the Dutch Protestant ministers, which opens to them small offices under government; hence they are becoming ambitious, and of course industrious. They build better houses, eat better food, and wear better clothes than their ancestors.

In the evening, when it was dark,' says our authoress, 'suddenly the wood seemed in a blaze; 18 or 20 of the inhabitants of a village, concealed by the brushwood, ran out of their houses with bundles of lighted cocoa nut leaves, and preceded us to the next hamlet, where they were relieved by others, and so on to Pointe de Galle. The effect of this illumination surpassed that of any I ever saw. Sometimes the straight tall trunks of the palm trees, whose fan-like heads remained in shadow, seemed to represent a magnificent colonnade; sometimes, where the creeping plants had entwined themselves round them, and hung in festoons from tree to tree, they appeared like some enchanted bower, dressed by fairy hands; while the graceful figures of the torch-bearers, scarcely clothed, yet glittering with barbaric gold and pearl, with their joyous shouts, recalled to our imagination the triumphs of Bacchus.

"Columbo, Feb. 28, 1810.----I am writing in a bungalo (a garden-house, or cottage) lent us by a friend, on the margin VOL. IV.--(64)

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of the beautiful lake of Columbo. It is divided into basins by projecting points, and interspersed with islands; its banks are dotted with villas, and fringed with as great a variety of trees as you see in England; it is only where, on some steep bank, the slender betle lifts its graceful trunk, that we are reminded of being in the East Indies.

On the road from Point de Galle to Columbo, Mrs. Graham and her party, on approaching a village, were met by all its dancing men with their musical instruments, to which they conducted them dancing and playing before them all the way. At the entrance of Ambolamgodda we found,' says she, 'what I suppose is the militia of the place drawn up to receive us. Three or four old bayonets stuck upon sticks, as many old bear-spears, old pikes, and weapons without names, composed the ragged armour of the ragged crew; and a Madras bed-cover, fluttering on a pole, served for a standard. At the head of this band marched the village Modeliar, who led us to the rest-house, where, after dressing ourselves, we sat down to an excellent dinner of the fish of the coast, part. of a wild hog, of which there are great numbers in the island, and other good things.

'When I went to my room at night, I found a lamp, of probably a more ancient form than any antique; a solid lump of wood, with a long stick inserted into it, supported half a cocoa nut shell, which contained the oil and the wick. The hand of art only was wanting to convert this rude lamp into an elegant piece of furniture; for the log was an unplaned piece of ebony, the stick a fresh bamboo, and the shell itself, whose form as a lamp is beautiful, takes a fine polish."

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During the whole journey Mrs. Graham and her party were treated with great attention and hospitality. On reaching a river,' says our authoress, our palanquins and servants went over in two or three small boats lashed together, and with them a number of people carrying lights; then all the village musicians in separate boats, having also their lights; and lastly our boat, dressed with white cotton, flowers, and leaves, and illuminated with the dried cocoa nut leaves. I really never saw so gay a scene; and it was with no small regret

that I reached the opposite shore, to shut myself up in my palanquin, and to listen to the monotonous song of my palanquin-bearers.

' March 1.--We have now been at Columbo some days; and I am so delighted with the place, and with the English society here, that if I could choose my place of residence for the rest of the time of my absence from England, it should be Columbo. We generally drive out before breakfast in a bandy, or gig, and go sometimes through the fort, which is extremely pretty. It is immediately between the sea and the lake, and only joined to the mainland by a causeway on each side of the water; and sometimes we go through the cinnamon gardens, which lie at the opposite end of the lake. The cinnamon is naturally a tall shrub, or rather tree, but it is kept low in the gardens for the sake of the young bark, which is gathered at two different seasons, though the same plants are not cut every season. When the sticks are cut, the bark is taken off with a little instrument, which peels the whole at once; it is then laid in the sun to dry, when it rolls of itself in the manner in which we see it in the shops. Great nicety is required in laying together a sufficient number of pieces for one roll, and in sorting the different qualities, the finest spice being always at the extremity of the branch. The soil in the gardens is fine white sand.

The elephants here are used for drawing timber out of the jungle, and for other public works; but the greater number of those caught in Ceylon are sold to the continent of India. The elephant-keepers teach their beasts a number of tricks, such as walking upon two legs, taking up people with their trunks, tearing up trees, and picking pins or small coins out of the sand. Yet, tame as they are, they are extremely sensible to injuries. One of those we saw, though habitually gentle and obedient, formerly killed a keeper who had been cruel to him. The number and variety of stories concerning the sagacity of the elephant told by those most in the habit of seeing and observing that animal, if they do not prove the truth of each anecdote, are yet strongly presumptive of his wisdom and docility. I was told by a gentleman, that, not

long ago, a considerable body of troops had to cross the Kistna, then much swollen by the rains, in doing which, one of the artillery-men who was mounted on a gun fell off in the middle of the stream, immediately before the wheel of the gun-carriage; his comrades gave him up for lost; but an elephant attending on the artillery had seen him fall, and putting his trunk to the wheel, raised it so as to prevent its crushing the man, and then lifted him out of the water unhurt.

On board the H. C. Cruiser, Prince of Wales, March 12, off the Malabar coast.--As this is the season when the land and sea breezes become less constant, previous to the setting in of the northern winds, we are creeping slowly along the coast, and so close to it that we see perfectly well the situation of every place as we pass. Cape Comorin, and the islands in its neighbourhood, make, from sea, like a high rocky point, and from thence the mountains rise as we advance towards the north. In some places they are so near the shore, that they literally seem to overhang it; in others they recede a few miles, leaving space for towns, villages, and fields. They are almost clothed to the top with "majestic woods of every vigorous green;" and it is only here and there that a wide tract of jungle-grass, or a projecting rock, interrupts the deep hue of these ancient forests. At the foot of the ghauts, or passes, the white churches of the Christians of St. John's and of the Portuguese, appear now and then among the cocoa nut woods which fringe the forest, and mix agreeably with the fishermen's huts, the native pagodas, and the ruined forts of decayed European settlements. The night scenery is not less beautiful; it is the custom to burn the jungle-grass before the rains, in order to fertilize the soil; and though the smoke only is visible in the day, at night you see miles of country glowing with red embers, or blazing with vivid flame.

March 20, off Calicut.We spent the afternoon of yesterday ashore at Calicut, where we busied our imaginations, endeavouring to trace the scenes of the first landing of Europeans in India, the meeting of the Zamorim and Vasco de Gama, the treachery of the prince, and the bravery and

presence of mind of the admiral; but the place has passed so often through the hands of conquerors, that every trace of former grandeur and importance is swept away. About four miles north of Calicut is a creek, where some have conjectured that the town of Calicut formerly stood, and where the Portuguese fleet must have lain during the monsoon. There

are a few heaps of stones and old walls near the spot; but if it be really the scite of old Calicut, the creek must have been much deeper than it now is, before it could have admitted even one of the ships.

May 4.--After passing slowly by Telichery, the Anjedive islands, and the picturesque point of cape Ramas, we came in sight of the fortress of Aguada, at the entrance of the harbour of Goa, and I entertained hopes of landing the next morning to see the old city, with its marble churches and magnificent monasteries, and to pay my respects to the tomb of saint Francis Xavier; but a contrary breeze sprung up in the night, and blew us far from the shore, so that I was obliged to reconcile myself to the disappointment, by reflecting on the present misery of that once flourishing colony, which would have embittered any pleasure I could hope for in admiring its exterior beauties. The old town is so unhealthy that a new one has been built at some distance, and the unpeopled streets of the ancient city echo only to the unfrequent tread of some religious procession. The colony is almost abandoned by the mother-country, and its inhabitants scarcely speak their native tongue intelligibly. Their poverty is such, that the women of the best families earn their subsistence by making lace, or artificial flowers, and working muslin.

• Trincomale, June 20, 1810.----Once more I find myself in Ceylon, or, as my great predecessor Sinbad the sailor calls it, Serendib. I left my friends at Bhandoop on the 31st of May, and on the 1st of June I sailed from Bombay in H. M. ship Illustrious, commanded by captain Broughton, who accompanied Vancouver in his voyage round the world. We stood out to sea for two days, to look for a favourable wind, as the monsoon was already set in in the neighbourhood of