to drag the ponderous mass once more
to the bows.

When we got fairly clear of the harbour of Trincomalee, and caught
the monsoon, we dashed along-shore briskly enough; and having rounded
the south point of Ceylon, well named Dondra Head, or thunder cape, we
paid a visit to Point de Galle, celebrated for its bread-fruit and
cocoa-nuts. We then passed on to Columbo, the capital of the island.
Ceylon, I may take occasion to mention, is not considered by our
countrymen of the East to be in India. We stared with all our eyes
when this unexpected information was first given us, and fancied our
merry friends were quizzing us. But we soon learned that, in the
technical language of that country, Ceylon does not form a part of
India; still less does Sumatra, Java, or any indeed of the islands in
the great tropical Archipelago. New-comers are, of course, a good deal
perplexed by these and sundry other local peculiarities in language
and manners, which they at first laugh at as a good joke, then
ridicule as affected, and lastly conform to as quite natural and
proper. Among Anglo-Indians the straits of Malacca, Sunda, and so on,
together with the China sea, and those magnificent groups of islands
the Philippines and Moluccas, are all included in the sweeping
term--"To the eastward."

At almost every part of this immense range I found further local
distinctions, of greater or less peculiarity and extent according to
circumstances. At one place I was puzzled by hearing the name of a
whole country appropriated to a single spot. At Bombay, for example, I
remember it was the custom, at a certain season of the year, to talk
of going to the Deccan, which word properly includes an immense region
consisting of many provinces; whereas those who used this expression
meant, and were understood to express, only one point in it--a little
watering-place. Mere local words, in like manner, come to have a much
more expanded signification. The word Ghaut, I believe, means, in
strictness, a pass between hills; and hence, some bold etymologists
pretend, comes our word gate! The term, however, is now applied to the
whole range of mountains which fringe the western coast of India, just
as the more gigantic Cordilleras of the Andes guard the shores of the
Pacific.

But whether Ceylon be in India or not, this island is celebrated for
its precious stones; indeed, there are writers who believe that Mount
Ophir of the Scripture is Adam's Peak of Ceylon.