egimentos, Alvaras e mais ordens que se
expediram para a India_, _desde o establecimento destas conquistas;
Ordenada por proviram de 28 de Marco de 1754_.[1] These contain the
despatches to and from the successive Captains-General and Governors of
Ceylon, so that, in part at least, the replacement of the records lost
in the colony may be effected by transcription.

[Footnote 1: MSS. Brit Mus. No. 20,861 to 20,900.]

Meanwhile in their absence I had no other resource than the narratives
of the Dutch and Portuguese historians, chiefly VALENTYN, DE BARROS, and
DE COUTO, who have preserved in two languages the least familiar in
Europe, chronicles of their respective governments, which, so far as I
am aware, have never been republished in any translation.

The present volumes contain no detailed notice of the _Buddhist faith_
as it exists in Ceylon, of the _Brahmanical rites,_ or of the other
religious superstitions of the island. These I have already described in
my history of _Christianity in Ceylon._[1] The materials for that work
were originally designed to form a portion of the present one; but
having expanded to too great dimensions to be made merely subsidiary, I
formed them into a separate treatise. Along with them I have
incorporated facts illustrative of the national character of the
Singhalese under the conjoint influences of their ancestral
superstitions and the partial enlightenment of education and gospel
truth.

[Footnote 1: _Christianity in Ceylon: its Introduction and Progress
under the Portuguese, the Dutch, the British and American Missions; with
an Historical Sketch of the Brahmanical and Buddhist Superstitons_ by
Sir JAMES EMERSON TENNENT. London, Murray, 1850.]

Respecting the _Physical Geography_ and _Natural History_ of the colony,
I found an equal want of reliable information; and every work that even
touched on the subject was pervaded by the misapprehension which I have
collected evidence to correct; that Ceylon is but a fragment of the
great Indian continent dissevered by some local convulsion; and that the
zoology and botany of the island are identical with those of the
mainland.[1]

[Footnote 1: It may seem presumptuous in me to question the accuracy of
Dr. DAVY'S opinion on this point (see his _Account of the Interior of
Ceylon, &c_., ch. iii. p. 78), but the grounds on which I venture to do
so are stated, Vol. I. pp. 7, 27, 160, 178, 208, &c.]

Thus for almost every particular and fact