be." They are wretchedly
uncomfortable, these awkward boats, for one not accustomed to them,
but experience demonstrates that they are quite safe. As to the
natives, they tumble recklessly about in a catamaran, holding on like
monkeys, both with hands and feet.

Some of the passengers were observant enough to watch the handsome
birds which followed us a thousand miles and more across the sea, even
into the harbor of Colombo. There were others of the same species
flying about near the shore, but we fancied it possible to select our
special fellow travelers, as they still kept near to the ship's masts,
though she was now at anchor. Food was thrown to them from the cook's
galley, and that important functionary declared that when the ship
resumed her voyage, on the following day, the flock of gulls would
follow it as closely as heretofore, even through the Suez Canal and
the Mediterranean Sea, until the far-away English coast was reached.

Thus much we have said by way of introduction, and having now landed
on this "utmost Indian isle," let us endeavor to intelligently depict
its unique characteristics, together with its past and present story,
for the entertainment and information of the patient reader.

The author who sits down to write upon a given subject is generally so
full of his theme that he must constantly put on the brakes, as it
were, to curb his fancy. He is never thanked for what he omits from
his pages, though there is so much which he might but does not
express, lest his readers should feel bored by a detailed account of
that which, with the added charm of time and place, may have had
unwonted interest for himself. It is to be feared that words rarely
convey the real spirit of what most fascinates the eye, and whatever
they do not help the reader to see, like glass, they darken.

CHAPTER II.

A Classic Island.--Topographical Position.--Maldive
Islands.--Lands rising out of the Sea.--Size of
Ceylon.--Latitude and Longitude.--A Link of a Powerful
Chain.--Important British Station.--"Mountain of the Holy
Foot."--Remarkable Mountain View.--Queer
Speculations.--Insect Life in the Island.--Acknowledged Gem
of the Orient.--Wild Elephants.--In Olden
Times.--Far-Reaching Historic Connections.--Arboreal and
Floral Beauties.--Perennial Vegetation.--The Feathered
Tribe.

Ceylon, the Lanka Dwipe, "resplendent island," of the Hindus, the
fabled isle of the