st authentic, and probably the most
ancient, is by no means the only existing Singhalese chronicle. Between
the 14th and 18th centuries several historians recorded passing events;
and as these corroborate and supplement the narrative of the greater
work, they present an uninterrupted Historical Record of the highest
authenticity, comprising the events of nearly twenty-four centuries.[1]

[Footnote 1: In 1833 Upham published, under the title of _The Sacred and
Historical Books of Ceylon_, translations of what professed to be
authentic copies of the _Mahawanso_, the _Rajaratnacari_, and
_Rajavali_; prepared for the use of Sir Alexander Johnston when
Chief-Justice of the island. But Turnour, in the introduction to his
masterly translation of the _Mahawanso_; has shown that Sir Alexander
had been imposed upon, and that the alleged transcripts supplied to him
are imperfect as regards the original text and unfaithful as
translations. Of the _Mahawanso_ in particular, Mr. Turnour says, in a
private letter which I have seen, that the early part of Upham's volume
"is not a translation but a compendium of several works, and the
subsequent portions a mutilated abridgment." The _Rajavali_, which is
the most valuable of these volumes, was translated for Sir Alexander
Johnston by Mr. Dionysius Lambertus Pereira, who was then
Interpreter-Moodliar to the Cutchery at Matura. These English versions,
though discredited as independent authorities, are not without value in
so far as they afford corroborative support to the genuine text of the
_Mahawanso_, and on this account I have occasionally cited them.]

From the data furnished by these, and from corroborative sources,[1]
Turnour, in addition to many elaborate contributions drawn from the
recesses of Pali learning in elucidation of the chronology of India, was
enabled to prepare an _Epitome of the History of Ceylon,_ in which he
has exhibited the succession and genealogy of one hundred and sixty-five
kings, who filled the throne during 2341 years, extending from the
invasion of the island from Bengal, by Wijayo, in the year B.C. 543 to
its conquest by the British in 1798. In this work, after infinite
labour, he has succeeded in condensing the events of each reign,
commemorating the founders of the chief cities, and noting the erection
of the great temples and Buddhist monuments, and the construction of
some of those gigantic reservoirs and works for irrigation, which,
though in ruins,