e country. These he held to
be even of less authority than the traditions of the same events which
had descended from father to son. On the information of learned
Singhalese, drawn apparently from the _Rajavali_, he inserted an account
of the native sovereigns, from the earliest times to the arrival of the
Portuguese; but, wearied by the monotonous inanity of the story, he
omitted every reign between the fifth and fifteenth centuries of the
Christian era.[1]

[Footnote 1: VALENTYN, _Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien, &c., Landbeschryving
van t' Eyland Ceylon_, ch iv. p. 60.]

A writer, who, under the signature of PHILALETHES, published, in 1816,
_A History of Ceylon from the earliest period_, adopted the dictum of
Valentyn, and contented himself with still further condensing the
"account," which the latter had given "of the ancient Emperors and
Kings" of the island. Dr. DAVY compiled that portion of his excellent
narrative which has reference to the early history of Kandy, chiefly
from the recitals of the most intelligent natives, borrowed, as in the
case of the informants of Valentyn, from the perusal of the popular
legends; and he and every other author unacquainted with the native
language, who wrote on Ceylon previous to 1833, assumed without inquiry
the nonexistence of historic data.[1]

[Footnote 1: DAVY's _Ceylon_, ch. x. p. 293. See also PERCIVAL'S
_Ceylon_, p. 4.]

It was not till about the year 1826 that the discovery was made and
communicated to Europe, that whilst the history of India was only to be
conjectured from myths and elaborated from the dates on copper grants,
or fading inscriptions on rocks and columns[1], Ceylon was in possession
of continuous written chronicles, rich in authentic facts, and not only
presenting a connected history of the island itself, but also yielding
valuable materials for elucidating that of India. At the moment when
Prinsep was deciphering the mysterious Buddhist inscriptions, which are
scattered over Hindustan and Western India, and when Csoma de Koeroes was
unrolling the Buddhist records of Thibet, and Hodgson those of Nepaul, a
fellow labourer of kindred genius was successfully exploring the Pali
manuscripts of Ceylon, and developing results not less remarkable nor
less conducive to the illustration of the early history of Southern
Asia. Mr. Turnour, a civil officer of the Ceylon service[2], was then
administering the government of the district of Saffragam, and being
resident