ish Crown. Nor is this construction weakened by the fact,
that no immediate vengeance was exacted by the Governor in expiation of
that fearful tragedy; and that the private letters of Mr. North to the
Marquis of Wellesley contain avowals of ineffectual efforts to hush up
the affair, and to obtain a clumsy compromise by inducing the Kandyan
king to make an admission of regret.

[Footnote 1: Additional MSS., Brit. Mus., No. 13864, &c.]

[Footnote 2: DE QUINCEY, _collected Works_, vol. xii. p. 14.]

I am aware that there are passages in the following pages containing
statements that occur more than once in the course of the work. But I
found that in dealing with so many distinct subjects the same fact
became sometimes an indispensable illustration of more than one topic;
and hence repetition was unavoidable even at the risk of tautology.

I have also to apologise for variances in the spelling of proper names,
both of places and individuals, occurring in different passages. In
extenuation of this, I can only plead the difficulty of preserving
uniformity in matters dependent upon mere sound, and unsettled by any
recognised standard of orthography.

I have endeavoured in every instance to append references to other
authors, in support of statements which I have drawn from previous
writers; an arrangement rendered essential by the numerous instances in
which errors, that nothing short of the original authorities can suffice
to expose, have been reproduced and repeated by successive writers on
Ceylon.

To whatever extent the preparation of this work may have fallen short of
its conception, and whatever its demerits in execution and style, I am
not without hope that it will still exhibit evidence that by
perseverance and research I have laboured to render it worthy of the
subject.

JAMES EMERSON TENNENT.

LONDON: _July 13th, 1859._

PART I.

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.

CHAPTER I

PHYSICAL GEOGRAPHY.--GEOLOGY.--MINERALOGY.--GEMS, CLIMATE, ETC.

GENERAL ASPECT.--Ceylon, from whatever direction it is approached,
unfolds a scene of loveliness and grandeur unsurpassed, if it be
rivalled, by any land in the universe. The traveller from Bengal,
leaving behind the melancholy delta of the Ganges and the torrid coast
of Coromandel; or the adventurer from Europe, recently inured to the
sands of Egypt and the scorched headlands of Arabia, is alike entranced
by the vision of beauty which expands before him as the isla