The Singhalese are mostly employed in agriculture. They have small farms or country houses throughout the inhabited parts of the country, and live on the produce of their land. Many, too, are engaged in commerce, keeping little shops in the towns and villages, and the different trades are a good deal supplied by them; but it is becoming more and more uncommon for them to work as hired labourers, as they are getting too well off for this, and the Malabar Coolies, from the continent of India, have for some time past supplied the great demand for labour. These come over in companies of some hundreds together, and work on the roads and coffee estates for six months or so together, and then return quite enriched, as the wages in Ceylon are eight or ten times as great as they are in their own country. They lose great numbers by dysentery, as when the disease attacks them, they will take no medicine for it, but quietly lie down to die. Their companions leave them by the side of the road with a little rice, and pass on without taking any farther notice of them; and as they have very little physical strength, owing to their bad and insufficient food, and clothing too scanty for the colder climate of Ceylon, they soon break down under the disease, and may be seen on some of the roads in all stages of death and corruption. The northern parts of the island are almost entirely inhabited by the Malabars, whose language, appearance, manners, and feelings, are very different from those of the Singhalese.

Of the class which goes by the name of Moormen, there is not much to be said. They are for the most part a very fine athletic race of men, about the same colour as the Singhalese, that is to say, a dark copper-colour, but of much more strength of body and energy of character. They are chiefly employed in commerce, and by far the greatest part of the petty traffic of the island is in their hands; and as they are in a very flourishing condition, their wealth and importance are increasing. In religion they are Mahometans, and in all the principal towns, as well as in some villages almost exclusively occupied by them, they have their Mosques, and keep up their chief festivals with great pomp and show. They are people of a good deal of general morality, honesty, and decorum, and do not often let themselves down by any openly irregular conduct. But they seem very inferior to the noble and generous characters which are found among the real

Turks, while they share with them in an extreme jealousy of any one of their faith becoming a Christian, so that he would be morally certain of being murdered, were he to do so. Where these Moormen came from, or when they first settled in the island, is still, we believe, undiscovered.

The Portuguese arrived in Ceylon in 1505. At that time the island was inhabited by the Veddahs and civilized inhabitants. With the former they would have little to do; but they made an agreement with the natives to defend them from the Arabs, who used from time to time to make a descent on the island, and for this an annual tribute of so many hundred weight of cinnamon was agreed to be paid by the native king, until, partly by fraud and partly by force, they succeeded in making themselves masters of all the maritime parts of the island, while the king of Kandy continued to keep possession of the mountainous parts in the interior. From this time we have a regular and authentic history of the island, which may be seen in Knox's History; whereas before, though it would appear that there is no lack of materials out of which a regular history might be constructed, yet but little has yet been effected in this way from want of persons having the time and inclination to study the subject.* One thing, however, is clearly proved; viz., that Ceylon was formerly a very powerful kingdom; or, to speak more correctly, a number of kingdoms like the Saxon Heptarchy in our own country. Not only does history give an account of the different states, and of the events connected with them, but the modern traveller in Ceylon is surprised at coming upon colossal ruins of temples and fortifications in the most wild and uninhabited parts of the country, which are now occupied by few besides wild beasts. There is some difficulty in exploring these ruins, as like all other depopulated places, they are very much infested with malaria, and but few escape without catching fever. One of the most extensive of these ruined towns is placed in the interior, called Anuradjapoora, where there are still some few inhabitants and a European magistrate. The remains

* Mr. Knighton's History has been the last attempt at anything of the kind: but the person who has done most is the Hon. Mr. Turnour, who translated some years ago a very valuable work, called the Mahawanse, from the Pali. In his book there is contained an epitome of the History of Ceylon.

of the temples here are very fine, and show that this must have been as considerable a place in old times as it is represented to have been in history. In another place, there is a high rock, very strongly fortified, and in many parts of the country there are large dams built and lakes formed, and the hill sides terraced, so as to be fit for retaining the water necessary to make it suitable for growing rice. Major Forbes's book contains some very interesting accounts of some of these places which he visited and explored; but our limits do not allow us to do more than refer the reader to the work itself. Besides these indications of a very large population in parts which are now quite deserted, it is made out pretty clearly, that the sea has encroached very much on the island, and that there were formerly very large and flourishing cities at places now a considerable depth under water. All this, however, had passed away when the Portuguese arrived at the island, and the first place that they made themselves masters of was the town of Colombo, now the capital of the island, situated on the south-east shore. They do not seem to have been at all good masters, but, like other nations, to have thought more of enriching themselves than of doing any benefit to the conquered people. We will give an account of their doings from the Catholic Intelligencer:

"The Portuguese were the first Europeans who discovered this island. They landed there in the year 1505, and established a permanent and flourishing colony in 1536. Unfortunately the thirst for wealth and the lust of power, did not allow them to think much of the conversion of the natives. The beauty of the island, its climate, its mines of gold, its luxuries of every kind, had so enervated their character and demoralized their nature, that instead of raising the natives to the dignity of civilized beings and of christians, they themselves became degraded beneath the Indians of the forest. The name and the blessings of Christianity became obscurely known to the inhabitants of the island, by the occasional visits of one or two missionaries from Goa, and by the example and instruction of a few Portuguese merchants, who were not carried away in the general torrent of depravity. When the fame of the preaching and miracles of St. Francis Xavier on the coast of Coromandel had reached them, they sent ambassadors to that great apostle of the Indies, to solicit him to visit their island. To their honour it must be recorded, that they were the first of the Eastern nations whose thirst for the knowledge of Christianity was so great, that they sent a deputation to solicit instructors to come amongst them. The saint was so employed in establishing Christianity at Travancore that he could not personally attend to their request. He sent one of his priests, whose labours at Manaar were so successful, that in a short time the Manaroys, and the inhabitants of the neighbouring coasts, not only became Christians, but died generously for the faith. The cruel king of Jaffnapatam, on hearing that his subjects were abandoning their religion and embracing that of the white men (Portuguese), ordered them to be put to death; and in the course of that year about six or seven hundred of his subjects perished, amongst whom was his own eldest son. St. Francis Xavier himself visited the island two years after, where his preaching, his prayers, his fasts and his miracles, were followed by the same glorious effects which marked his course through the East. The number of Christians increased rapidly. The temples of Paganism were demolished, its idols destroyed, and churches of the true God erected all over the island. The labours of the saint were seconded by the zeal and virtues of the pious John III. of Portugal. In consequence of the representation of Xavier, he appointed upright and religious governors of his Indian possessions; persons who would feel more anxiety for the acquisition of souls to the field of Christ, than for the accumulation of wealth in their coffers. By these means Christianity was so universally established in Ceylon, that when the Dutch took possession of the island in 1650, the rites and ceremonies of pagan worship were little known." -pp. 12, 13.

While, however, it was owing to the occupation of the island by the Portuguese that Christianity was introduced, or at least revived for we have no means of ascertaining with any accuracy whether St. Thomas or his disciples ever visited the island when they preached on the opposite coast, though there were Christian churches discovered in the island in the sixth century-yet the Portuguese, as a body, did not govern so as to gain the affections of the natives, but, on the contrary, oppressed them so heavily, that when the Dutch made their appearance in 1632, the natives were induced to assist in admitting them. It was some time before the Dutch succeeded in making themselves masters of the Portuguese possessions; but they effected this at last, and in 1656 Colombo surrendered to them. Then the natives found out to their cost that they had gained nothing by the change of masters, and in respect of religion, the effect was most grievous. We will continue the narrative of the Colonial Intelligencer:

"It is a singular fact, connected with the introduction of the principles of the reformation in Ceylon, for be it remembered the Dutch were then protestants, that they enabled the then king of Candy, Isimalardarmé, son and successor of Raja Singhe, to send ambassadors to procure Boodhoo priests from the continent to re-establish the absurd and idolatrous worship of that god.* In p. 308 of Dr. Davies' interesting travels in Ceylon, he says, 'the religion of Boodhoo was at an extremely low ebb; its doctrines were forgotten, its ceremonies were in disuse, and its temples were without ministers. With the assistance of the Dutch, the king sent an embassy to Siam, and procured twelve Oupasampade priests, who came to Kandy, and instructed and ordained forty natives of the Oupasampade order, and very many of the Sampadoe.' This is confirmed by Captain Robert Knox, in his History of the State of Religion in Ceylon, published one hundred and fifty years ago. We shall now see if the religion of St. Thomas and Xavier received similar protection and assistance from these Christian conquerors. The Portuguese were not only deprived of their power and possessions, but their religion was proscribed, their public worship was interrupted, their churches violated and destroyed, their priests banished, or, if seized, punished by imprisonment, tortures, and death. Catholics were rendered incapable of holding any place of trust or enjoying any privileges. Their marriages were pronounced illegal, the administration of Sacraments strictly forbidden. In a word, persecution and a sanguinary code of penal laws oppressed the Catholics of Ceylon for more than one hundred and forty-five years. With such vigour was the persecution carried on and these laws enforced, that only thirty-seven years after the arrival of the Dutch, when the holy

* It is instructive to remark, how almost instinctively the 'apostolic' Church of England has throughout made common cause, not with the Roman branch of the Catholic Church' which first Christianized the island, but with the Presbyterian Dutch, whose Churches they still use in common with them. Of course, according to the theory of National Churches, it was the duty of the Catholic population of the island, when the latter was taken by the English, to become at once zealous Anglicans, and express the greatest abhorrence for the damnable errors of popery. Yet, even according to that theory, it was not their duty to become Presbyterians like the Dutch, because they are not a branch Church;' and so we do not see the force of the present High-church Bishop of Colombo's remarks, when, in a letter to the Society for Propagating the Gospel, about two years ago, he speaks of feeling ashamed for his country, when he saw in different places the churches built by the Dutch, and compared what they had done for Christianity, and what had been done by the English. What the Dutch did do for Christianity may be seen by the extract we have quoted. As for the churches, they were either taken from the Catholics or built by force labour, so that they cost very little, and even so they are not above one-fiftieth of the number possessed by the Catholics.