An historical, political and statistical account of Ceylon and its dependencies

Front matter

OPINIONS OP THE BRITISH AND COLONIAL PRESS OH MR. P RID HAM'S " M-AURIT IUS," &c. &c. COMPRISING THE FIRST VOLUME OF "ENGLAND'S COLONIAL EMPIRE," AS RECEIVED UP TO NOVEMBER 10, 1846. The opinious of the remainder of the British and Colonial Press, with those of the French, German, American, Dutch, and Belgian, will be found in the second volume of the work. *£* The notices have been placed in alphabetical order. " This is the first volume of what promises to be an important national work. The instalment now before us is brimful of valuable and interesting information, making up by far the most complete account of Mauritius which has yet been given to the world. The author has the qualifications necessary to the due fulfilment of the task which he has set himself. He is patient and painstaking, accurate and impartial.

It is obviously his ambition rather to instruct his reader than to distinguish himself. He never pompously puts forward any theories' of his own, nor is overtaken with paroxysms of fine writing, but it is ever his study to open out his budget of information with modesty and good faith, keeping his subject alwaj-s before his readers, and himself always in the background. And in such times as these, when every shallow pretender has some theory of his own to propound, the subject of colonization being especially tempting to these theorists, it is no small merit in a writer to go at once to the point, telling us, without periphrasis, what he knows, and leaving us, if it be worth our trouble, to infer what he thinks. We believe the work, as far as it goes, to be thoroughly trust worthy, and do not doubt that it will be continued to the end with no diminution of that impartial spirit, those undeniable evidences of laborious and conscientious investigation of the truth, which characterise the volume now before us.

" Mr. Pridham's materials are ample and varied, derived from every available source, and he has arranged them in a manner best calculated to keep every part distinct, and yet to give a unity and consistency to the entire work. Aster devoting a chapter to the physical aspect and geographical position of the island, he enters upon the history of the Mauritius from its earliest discovery, gives the first connected account yet published of the Dutch establishments, then treats of the French government of the island under different systems, details the many stirring events connected with the downfall of French supremacy, the final capture of Mauritius by the OPINIONS OF TUF. PRE9P. British, and its subsequent more peaceful history. The narrative is written in an easy, unaffected style, and is in no part unnecessarily diffuse.

Preface

. In presenting to the English reader a detailed account of an island, which, though uniting in itself no slight share of earthly advantages, is but little known, to the majority of the public, I am compelled to trench on his patience, while I explain the state in which I found its history, and to enter upon topics somewhat personal perhaps, yet topics that from their distastefulness to myself I should have been induced to omit, were it not for the appeal made to me by more than one of the press to enter more fully upon them, with a view to the more perfect elucidation of the subject. The collection of materials for the history of Ceylon, was commenced towards the close of 1846. The whole of 1847 was further spent in collation and arrangement; and the greater part of 1848, has been devoted to the task of revision, and carrying it through the press.

There are various modes of carrying on such a work, but I find by experience, that they are all resolvable into the same effect — collation and arrangement, printing and revision. Unless due importance be attached to the latter branch, a work is sure to be valueless the moment it appears ; and I have it on the highest authority, that from inattention to this particular, a recent work of considerable merit, in some respects, was known to be worthless on the day of publication. I am pretty well acquainted with the modes pursued by writers engaged in works analogous to some of the topics contained in my book ; to some, I repeat ; for my book is, 1 believe, unique in the comprehensiveness of its scope and purpose, and I certainly do not intend to follow their example. My ambition is to do a little, and that little, as far as possible, well; rather than, with breathless haste, to aim at bringing out a number of volumes, which, from the nature of things, could not fail to mislead.

I, at all events, will not introduce the system of the Minories into colonial literature. I have no desire to institute invidious comparisoi s between other works and my own, but for the sake of the V

PREFACE.

. great subject I have at heart, I could wish both the public and the press would exercise greater discrimination, and look more narrowly into what they are called on to approve. In the work before me, nothing has been taken for granted, but that I beforehand positively knew. Again, 1 have not, to save trouble, recorded information which I knew to be false or incorrect, because I thought the great majority of my readers would never inquire into its veracity, but I have en deavoured to set myself up as the severest critic, not only of the work itself, but of the agency employed in its execution. I have no wish to underrate the advantages of combination for carrying out a mighty undertaking. It is, perhaps, indispensable in the field of natural science ; it is alike useful for the general purposes of life.

The greatest political engine of modern times is its most successful embodiment. But there are certain conditions deemed essential to its right application. When, however, you turn to the till lately untrodden fields of commercial statistics and colonial research, you are still more disposed to examine the agency through which a given object is proposed to be consummated. You scrutinize the means to the end. If you find them in every case ridiculously dispro portionate, and you should hear a man's contributors them selves avow their dislike for the task they had undertaken, you must deplore that a writer, even though you may accord with his notions of political economy, should lend his name to the propagation of incorrect data, and thereby, erroneous con clusions. Again, in the field of colonial research, where you see a writer, who, if he can be said to hold any principles, worthy of the name, holds such as would be scouted by the intelligent mind, who is incapable of handling anything beyond the surface, employing copyists, unfit for anything beyond ordinary penmanship ; certainly incapable of testing, comparing, fusing, recasting, and the various processes to which such materials should be subjected ; and you find such a writer merely putting them into shape, and at once rushing into print, you can scarcely restrain your indignation, at such inconceivable charlatanry.

You are of opinion, that if a man borrow never so little from others, he should at least make such information his own, by the intelligence with which he groups, the philosophy with which he handles, and the c.i tical manner with which he reviews it. To you a colony per month appears the most outrageous form of scissors and paste, alike removed from the regions of calm and philosophic 1 in-

PREFACE.

. VI quiry, as from critical disquisition. Such a work appears to you more than a negative evil, it is a positive mischief, hardly a whit less derogatory to the reader who can peruse, than to the author who has composed it. The result of this monster evil is, to bring into disrepute all works, in any way or in the slightest degree tending to the same purpose, whether they may or may not be obnoxious to a similar charge, and thus to discourage the bringing science itself to an occasional standard of comparison, by which alone the errors and misconceptions, of constant occurrence, can be effectually grappled. In the conduct of this work, therefore, I have, with the exception of some of the departments of natural history, relied upon myself alone. I felt, from the first, that unless there were per fect similarity, nay uniformity of view between an editor and his contributors, and their whole sympathies were not cordially enlisted in a common object, such assistance were rather an impediment than an advantage.

In any point, then, wherein I have felt myself deficient, I have studied, by diligent application, to remedy that deficiency, and I shall continue to be personally responsible for the con tents of every volume I issue, for I feel sure that ac curacy,1 the great desideratum in a work of this descrip tion, can be guaranteed in no other manner. From the ear liest age, my views have been directed to the colonies of this 1 It may not be generally known that the Colonial statistician has to run the gauntlet through no ordinary maze of bewilderment, a specification of a few elements may, however, suffice to indicate the necessity of vigilance and caution. Thus the difference between the official and declared value of any given return, in general far exceeds the proportion between the rent of a house in England and the amount it is rated at to the poor-rate.

If then, through inconsiderate haste, such a return for any given year be taken down and grouped with returns of other years, based on a different calculation, as I know to have been of constant occurrence, it must be obvious that such a return is a far greater evil than no return at all, if the use of statistics be but rightly understood. Their advantage, I take it, consists in demonstrating progressive or retrogressive tendencies, and by laying bare to the eye of the statesman the operation of his policy, to encourage him to proceed with his amelioration if the result be successful, or to apply a corrective in case it should be injurious. I might shew that errors of a different nature are capable of arising from this same source, but I will pass on to clerical errors, a circumstance of too frequent occurrence.

This source is divisible into three or more heads, and its importance may be imagined when I state that the carelessness or incompetency of a clerk may neutralise the development of that very tendency which I have already explained to be the essential object of statistics. Another source of error may arise in the discrepancy between the local and imperial returns. Precision has never been even attempted till within the last few years, and much as Messrs. Macgregor and Porter have laboured to systematise this branch of their late department, much still remains to be done before the returns are entirely removed from the category of uncertainty.

PREFACE.

. empire. The web that romance had weaved, calmer inquiry saw no reason to drop ; the reality, if painted in more sober colours, has been found far to exceed in grandeur the most glowing sketch of the imagination. Can the reader wonder, then, that from imagining, I have finally been led to describe; that from forming opinions myself, I have at last endeavoured to form the opinion of others, on a subject of the highest personal interest, and of an importance scarcely less vital to my country? With regard to the degree of credibility to be attached to the Singhalese annals, something remains to be noticed, she question was formerly disposed of in a very summary manner, and resolved itself either into a total disbelief of their veracity, or into a conviction, that so large a proportion of fable was in terwoven with such almost imperceptible particles of truth, that it was alike useless and unprofitable to attempt to disin tegrate the latter, and that it was far better to leave them to float on the realms of fiction, than to compromise genuine history, by suffering them to be recast in her purer cauldron.

Time, if by chafing and fretting, he widen the gulf that sepa rates us from the past, leaves on some jutting promontory of space a relic, alike available to man in his researches into the affairs of man, as in his inquiries into the habits of inferior animals, or the mysteries of inanimate nature. Impelled by some such belief, a gifted Englishman undertook the task of examining and translating the annals of Ceylon. To this labour he brought all the qualities essential to success, a pro found knowledge of the language, a secret conviction that a hidden vein of truth pervaded that long despised mass — a belief, in his case, subdued by a severe und cultivated taste — a power of concentrating into a focus the elements of elucida tion that lay strewn around him ; and last, though not least, an indefatigable spirit of inquiry.

In the midst of these labours, he met with an unlooked for coadjutor.1 Guided by the experience of his predecessor, the new aspirant directed his attention into a distinct, though subordinate channel, the task 1 To my assertion, that we are indebted to Messrs. Turnour and Forbes for the history of Ceylon in its genuine form, some exception will, perhaps, be made, seeing that neither of those writers ever submitted it in the ordinary shape to the European reader. Such an exception, however, would be more literal than well founded, since the one by his epitome and translation of the Mahawanse, and the other by his inquiries into the scenes of the Ramayana, his desultory historical notices and his translation of inscriptions, have fairly won the title I have accorded.

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. VIII of verifying the statements of the historian, by a personal in vestigation of relics. He, too, brought no ordinary qualities to the task. To a classic taste, was, in his case, joined an innate vein of poesy, that enabled him not only the readier to detect similitudes, but to invest the subject with such charms, that everything connected with the antiquities of Ceylon, will long continue to interest the European reader. The result of his labours,1 has tended to confirm our belief in the general fidelity of the Singhalese annals. It has done more ; it has satisfied us, that in judging either the facts them selves or the hyperbolical mode of expression, in which they are conveyed by an European standard of comparison, we cannot fail to err. Given but the raw material and the human machines to work it into shape, any edifice however vast might be reared, any work however inconceivable might, in process of time be accomplished.

Both these elements we have elsewhere shewn to have been at the illimitable disposal of a Singhalese monarch. What then would otherwise appear hyperbolical, ceases to remain so, and sinks into authenticated matter of fact. Numerous examples are offered by Forbes, some shewing that circumstances that would be deemed in credible by the European, from their magnitude, others utterly improbable from the manner in which they have been declared to have been executed ; a third, apparently false, from the remarkable literalness with which they have been de scribed, have severally taken place in the proportion, manner, and minuteness, with which they have been actually recorded in these long rejected annals. With rf gard to the legendary tales of the Singhalese, pro- 1 In some respects the work of Forbes has been shorn of much of its value by an inattention to features, the presence of which was essential to enable the un initiated reader to comprehend the full scope of Singhalese history.

I will illus trate my meaning by a simple metaphor. In being carried through a new and unexplored country with which he desires to form a better acquaintance, the traveller looks every now and then for the termini where he may rest and compare actual facts with preconceived notions. If, on the contrary, he be whirled along at a rapid rate, he abandons himself to a lethargic indifference, under the con viction that an attention to the character of the country will no more avail him than indifference. So is it with the reader of the annals of a strange, and as he may think, uncivilized country ; he requires various aids and appliances on which the mind may, for a time, repose, and thereby enable him to unravel the web of th3 narrative. To supply this deficiency has been one of the aims of this work, and with a view to a combination of ideas, and present the scene of description in as vivid a light as possible, the aids of Geography have been called in without stint ; and the author, at a great sacrifice of labour, has there determined the site of all the ancient capitals and remarkable places of Ceylon.

TREFACE. perly so called, I have little to remark. They are little, if at all, more enveloped in fiction than the earlier mythi of Greecp, and the history of Gautama is truth itself in comparison with that ofthe Gods of the Hellenic peninsula. Where the expressions used and the incidents recorded are unmistakeably hyperbolical, it can be attributed alone to that love of ornament and amplification, of which even nature herself has in these climes held to man the pattern. But if on this account we reject a nation's history, Scripture itself must be rejected. Hyperbole has, from her birth, sat in the East at man's right hand, and we are reminded by a sad experience, that many of the inferior peoples of the West, have dipped their pens in her ink of gold. To sum up the share each writer has had in the treatment of the annals of Ceylon.

The diamond was first discovered by Tumour, and purified from the excrescences that encrusted it. It was tested, valued, and finally adorned by the glowing language of Forbes. To me has merely been reserved the task of setting it, I fear in a manner far from workmanlike, but yet, methinks, it has rather been from want of power than of will, if I have failed to interest the reader in this portion of the work. Thus much for the Singhalese annals. In respect to the ancient geography of Ceylon, and of the links in that chain of civilization, by which it may be said to be connected with the nations ofthe west, I believe I may lay claim to having furnished the first complete account. I have, also, largely added to the narrative of the Portuguese conquest, to which no less than twelve writers, including Ribeiro, Botelho, Castanedes, Osorio, &c. have contributed, and for which numerous and valuable MSS. have been placed at my disposal.

For the narrative of the subsequent supremacy of the Dutch, and their exclusive but ineffective policy, I am indebted to a nearly equal number of writers, and a variety of private documents. The history of the British occupation of Ceylon, I have brought down to the latest date, and have availed myself, as far as I could, of the appliances which time, reflections and investigation, had set to work in the colony, in solving certain disputed points. In Part II. I have fully treated of the laws of the Singhalese, compiled from various unpublished documents, and nearly identical with the code framed, for the Courts of Ceylon, by Mr. Armour, from the oral testimony of the united chiefs. The question of slavery, scarcely alluded to by any other writer, has been fully entered upon in the

PREFACE.

. X succeeding chapter. The reader, already acquainted with the published descriptions of the Singhalese manners and charac ter, will see that I have endeavoured to scan it from various and novel points of view, and to watch it while subject to suc cessive combinations, or while yielding to conflicting in fluences. Every chapter, in Part H., may also lay claim to original information, in one form or other. In Part III., I give the first published account of coffee and sugar planting in Ceylon. This is the more worthy of observation, inasmuch as several works on Ceylon have appeared since this branch of agriculture has become its professed staple. The Great Tank1 question, in which every interest in the colony is in some way or other involved, hut, where rightly understood, that of the coffee planter pre-eminently, forms the next subject of discus sion unhandled by preceding writers.

The succeeding topics of Coolie immigration, waste lands, and public works, naval and military defence, &c. were, in a similar manner, before unnoticed. A detailed account, then, follows, of the introduction of Christianity into Ceylon ; of the mission of Xavier, of the career of Vaz, of the success, or otherwise, of Christian missions, and the present aspect of religion in the colony. The progress of education is then viewed, through its several stages, till the reader is awakened to a notion of the success now beginning to attend a well directed energy in this direc tion. To this succeeds a complete account of the Yakkas, now called Veddahs, the Aborigines of Ceylon ; and my English readers, for the first time, learn the origin and history of the Tamulians in the Northern Province, and the arrival and settlement of both the Mookwas and Moors, in the same portion of the island.

The long chapter, forming nineteen-twentieths of Part IV. with the exception of certain fragments, for 1 If evidence were wanting to shew the direct application to the real interests of the planter, of every question affecting the supply of food to the labouring classes, proof might be furnished in the case of Ceylon ( independently of the known law that wages even where not positively regulated, are indirectly in fluenced by the price of food), to illustrate the serious loss the planter has sus tained from the exorbitant price of rice. The trade in this article, now in the hands of Moormen and Chitties, is subject to whatever fluctuations it may please that body to decree One of the conditions insisted upon by the Tamul Coolies before they would hire themselves out to the planter was the being supplied with rice at a fixed price, in all cases approaching the minimum rate.

What with the influence of the monopoly on the one hand and the greatly augmented cost of carriage, the result has been to add a large item of loss to the expenses of every estate, and that at a time when such an increased outlay may almost decide the fate of coffee planting altogether.

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. XI which I am, particularly indebted to Major Forbes, and in a less degree to Casie Chitty, the Malabar Member ofthe Legis lative Council, and a number of other writers, has been, in a great measure, compiled from original information, furnished from various reliable sources, and forms the only com plete and connected account of the physical aspect and topo graphy of Ceylon, as yet published. By a singular piece of good fortune, the appearance of the work has been delayed, until, by the arrival of Mr. Templeton, who has been engaged for fifteen years in exploring the natural riches of Ceylon, 1 am enabled to present the reader with a comparatively perfect account of every department of the natural kingdom. Mr. Templeton, in the most handsome manner, at once completed the list of mammalia, and besides furnishing me with the list of all his verified insects,1 gave me the benefit of 1 1 is revision to other portions.

The revision has been rendered complete, by the kind assistance of Messrs. White and Doubleday of the British Museum, and the botanical section, based on Mr. Moon's Catalogue ofthe Plants of Ceylon, has with considerable additions, and under due correction and revision, been sub jected to a similar ordeal by Mr. Teale of Versailles, and a pupil of Jussieu. The Appendix contains a proportionate amount of novelty for the English reader. Finally, I will complete this bird's-eye view of the work, by assuring my readers, that with every diffidence, as to the manner I have performed this work, a diffidence arising from the varied circumstances of youth and inexperience, I have considerable confidence in the value of the matter contained in it, and this I may be allowed to express, since success, in this par ticular, is earned by the ordinary qualities of patience and perseverance.

I have, certainly, every reason to feel grateful to the heads of departments for the prompt and effective assistance I have received at their hands. Every possible facility and indulgence has been extended to me, and 1 have enjoyed unlimited access to the State Papers, comprising, among other documents, the 1 After considerable research and personal inquiry in several directions I found that little was definitively known by Englr-h naturalists of the zoology' of Ceylon. Though, then, a portion of this department may not be arranged quite so methodically as t could wish, still I am assured it is generally to be depended upon, and when the results of Mr. Templeton's researches, and the invaluable labours of Dr. Gardner and other naturalists in other departments of natural science have been more fully set forth, I hope that a future edition will leave nothing to be desired under this head.

PREFACE.

. XII Memoirs of the Dutch Governors, the reports of their subordinates, and other rare MSS. To the Directors of the East Indian Company, I am in like manner indebted for free and unreserved access to every document that could illustrate the subject. To Sir Alexander Johnstone, my best thanks are due, for the warm interest he has taken in the progress of the work, and for the valuable information he has, from time to time, furnished me, in reference to the administration of the Portuguese and Dutch, with which he is particularly conver sant. But I should weary my readers, if I were to recite at length the various quarters from which I have received a zealous co-operation ; suffice it, then, to say, that I have been peculiarly fortunate in the command of materials, have con sciously omitted no means of obtaining the best and most original information, and in reference to topics of recent or ephemeral interest, have only to observe, that that department of the work has been brought down as nearly as possible to the date of the last mail.

Henceforth the reader may reason ably expect the more frequent appearance of the subsequent volumes ; as it is my intention, in order to save much ofthe time in testing information, to visit the more accessible colonies and dependencies. With this view, I am now on the point of de parting for the dependencies in the Mediterranean, which, with Heligoland, already visited, will form Vol. III. of this work. I should ill discharge the duty which I have imposed upon myself, of laying the actual state of the Colonies before the British public, were I to omit noticing, as briefly as the importance of the subject will permit, the advantages Ceylon offers in her mountain zone, for the settlement of the European immigrant. That this fact should have been so long hidden under a bushel, when a redundancy of population, in the one country, and a plethora of sustenance, in the other, mutually suggest a remedy on which one would suppose the merest in stinct would have long ago acted, must, under the circumstances, appear incomprehensible to the obtusest reasoner.

Here is a country, equal to the county of Lincoln in extent, blessed with an equally temperate, but far more salubrious climate, watered by perennial streams, adapted in nearly every direction for the growth of European grains, now at a great expense imported, and, generally, for European grasses, where the useless Andropogon now revels in wild luxuriance, within actual sight of markets with no ordinary demand — markets, such

PREFACE.

. as three-fourths of the British colonies are unable to enjoy, and then only at a considerable disadvantage ; and yet this country, far too chilly for the children of the sun, has, for years, been sighing in its loneliness, for the stalwart sons of the west to lay open its untold riches, and bear them as a hecatomb at the shrine of civilization. That one of the fairest portions of earth, should for ever be fated to hear but the deep lowing of the elk, or the shrill trump of the lordly elephant, it were safe to pronounce impossible, but from whence the Deus ex machind is to arise, and bear the hum of humanity into these silent plains, it would be equally idle to decide. Fancy might picture the little nucleus at Nuwera Elliya, gradually radi ating over this untrodden region, but reflection dashes down the cup, and asks a century for that snail-like operation.

Ignorance, at home moreover, deep-seated, bids men doubt how the climate of 7° N. lat. can compare in temperature with their own bracing abode, and heeding not elevation and other disturbing causes, treats as a fiction of the geographer, the intelligence of meteorological identity. With respect to the recent emeute, and the causes that have contributed to it, considerable misapprehension has, with one or two exceptions, prevailed in this country. By that portion of the press, which arrogates to itself the exclusive right of tirade against a particular department of the Govern ment, such a misconception were natural and consistent. But that an erroneous view should be formed by any of those whose range of vision is not broken by the film of prejudice, is inconceivable. If, under every conceivable case, an inferior people be justified in resistance to the will of a superior, as conveyed through its Government, simply because, in weaning it from the rude habits of a primeval barbarism, the latter demands some sacrifice from those it is about to elevate, then were the Ceylon insurgents justified in their hostile movement.