a large island in the East Indies, about 250 miles in length and 200 in breadth. It abounds in trees and shrubs, valuable both on account of their timber and the gums or spices they produce. Among these Mr Ives enumerates the euphorbium, tulip-tree, ebony, red-wood, caffia, cocoa-nut, cotton, lime, maguey, citron, coffee; the trees producing balsam of capivi, gum gamboge, lac, and ceylonename. This last is as yet unknown in Europe; but, according to the information of a Dutch surgeon, an oil or balsam is produced from it by distillation, which is of great use in paralytic complaints. There is also another gum named badule, which has been but lately discovered, and of which the use is as yet unknown. Here is also the black and yellow teak, the wood of which is of a most beautiful grain, but so hard that the cutting of it proves very destructive to the carpenter's tools. But the most remarkable, as well as the most useful, of the vegetable productions of Ceylon, is the cinnamon-tree, which grows wild in every wood on the south-west part of the island. The very young trees are not fit for rinding, and the old ones are cut down for firewood. The common flowering shrubs, of which the whole island is full, send forth a most agreeable fragrance every morning and evening. It abounds with high hills, between which the soil is a fat red earth; and the valleys are extremely pleasant, having a clear rivulet running thro' almost every one of them. Thus the finest fruits grow in vast plenty, and may be had at the most trifling rates; a pine-apple being bought for less than a penny, and so of the rest. Other provisions are almost equally cheap; cheap; a dozen of fowls or five ducks being sold for a rupee, not quite half-a-crown of English money. Here the Dutch show a poisonous fruit called by them Adam's apple. In shape it resembles the quarter of an apple cut out, with the two insides a little convex, and a continued ridge along the outer edges; and is of a beautiful orange colour. Pepper, ginger, and cardamoms, are also produced here; as well as five kinds of rice, which ripen one after another.

Ceylon produces also topazes, garnets, rubies, and other precious stones, which are discovered by washing the soil wherein they grow. It has likewise ores of copper, iron, and probably of tin, with veins of black crystal.

Common deer are found in this island in great abundance, as well as Guinea-deer; but the horned cattle are both very small and scarce, six of them weighed, all together, but 714 pounds, and one of these weighed only 70 pounds. They have, however, the largest and best elephants in the world; and their woods are infested by tygers, the most terrible of all ravenous beasts. They abound also with snakes of a monstrous size, one of which has been known to destroy a tyger and devour him at one meal. Mr Ives saw one 15 feet long and 30 inches in circumference. Spiders, centipedes, and scorpions, also grow here to an enormous size. Our author saw a spider here as large as a toad, with brown hair upon it, and legs as thick as the shank of a large tobacco-pipe. A scorpion, taken out of a piece of wood, was eight inches long, from head to tail, exclusive of the claws; the shell was as hard as that of a crab; and our author killed a centipede more than seven inches long. Here the mantis or creeping leaf is met with; which our author supposes to be a species of grasshoppers, having every member we see in common insects, though in shape and appearance it greatly resembles a leaf. It is of a green colour. The sea-coasts abound with fish, which are to be had very cheap. Neither harp-shells nor ventle-traps are to be met with here; but there are abundance of painted cockles, and others commonly called panama shells.

"The natives of this island (says our author) are the stoutest Indians I ever saw. Mr Knox in his history reports many strange things of their religion and customs, none of which I had any opportunity of seeing. He says 'that they have various ways of treating their dead. Some burn them, which is not uncommon in India; while others throw their limbs up into the forks of trees.' This may be true, because when our wood-cutters were once hewing down a stick of timber, there fell from it the skull and many bones of a human body; and I also saw here a human body hanging on a tree. Other historians relate, that the natives of Ceylon feed on human flesh: nay, that they eat the bodies of their deceased parents, imagining that no other sepulchre is so fit for them as their own bowels, since thereby they think they are changed into their own substance, and live again in themselves. This shocking custom is reported of the ancient Scythians, and possibly might have been used by the inhabitants of Ceylon, but is now in both countries entirely abolished; and yet even at this day these islanders are said to make cups of their parents' skulls, with a view, that in midst of their mirth and jollity they may be sure to preserve a respectful remembrance of them."

The Ceylonese make use of boats hollowed out of the trunks of trees, which are about 12 or 14 feet long, but only as many inches broad within. The tree part in the bottom is much larger; but when the boat, on account of the size of the tree, is too small, they make a trough on the top of it square at both ends. Some boats, however, are much larger, being built between two trees; and with these they coast along shore; the others are for fishermen. It lies from E. Long. 78° to 82°, and from N. Lat. 6° to 10°.

The conquest of this island was the first attempt of Albuquerque the celebrated Portuguese admiral. He found it well peopled, and inhabited by two different nations, the Bedar inhabiting the northern, and the Gingallos who dwelt in the southern parts. The former were very barbarous, but the latter a good deal more polished. Besides the advantages already mentioned, which these nations derived from their mines of precious stones, they carried on the greatest pearl-fishery in the East. These nations the Portuguese conquered, and tyrannized over in such a manner, that they afflicted the Dutch in expelling them from the island; and by their united efforts this was accomplished in 1658, after a bloody and obstinate war. All the Portuguese settlements fell into the hands of the Dutch East India company, who still keep possession of them, excepting a small district on the eastern coast without any port, from whence the sovereign of the country had his salt. These settlements formed a regular track, extending from two to twelve leagues into the inland parts of the island. The company have appropriated all the productions of the island. The several articles of trade are, 1. Amethysts, sapphires, topazes, and rubies; the last are very small, and very indifferent. The Moors who come from the coast of Coromandel buy them, paying a moderate tax: and when they are cut, sell them at a low price in the different countries of India. 2. Pepper, which the company buy for about 4d. per pound; coffee, for which they only pay 2d. and cardamom, which has no fixed price. These articles are all of an inferior quality, and through the indolence of the inhabitants will never turn to any account. 3. An hundred bales of handkerchiefs, pagnes, and ginghams, of a fine red colour, which are fabricated by the Malabars at Jaffnapatan. 4. A small quantity of ivory, and about 50 elephants, which are carried to the coast of Coromandel. 5. Areca, which the company buys at about 8s. 9d. the ammonian, and sells on the spot at L. 1, 13s. to the merchants of Bengal, Coromandel, and the Maldives; who give in return rice, coarse linen, and cowries. 6. The pearl-fishery, which was formerly of great consequence; but is now so much exhausted as not to bring in more than L. 8,750 per annum. 7. After all, the great object of the company is cinnamon. They purchase the greatest part of their cinnamon of the Indians who are subject to them, and, all expenses deducted, it does not cost them above 6d. per pound. The annual expenses of the colony may amount to about L. 96,250; their revenues and small branches of commerce produce only about L. 87,500. —This deficiency must be supplied out of the proceeds. fits arising from the cinnamon trade; and they are obliged to provide for the expenses of the wars in which they are frequently engaged with the king of Candy, who is at present the sole sovereign of the island. These are very detrimental to the interests of the Hollanders; for which reason they endeavoured to engage the good will of this monarch by showing him all imaginable civilities. The harmony, however, has been often interrupted. In a bloody war which terminated on the 14th of February 1766, the Ceylonese monarch was driven from his capital, so that the Dutch made a very advantageous treaty. Their sovereignty was acknowledged over all that part of the country they possessed before the troubles broke out; and that part of the coasts held by the natives was ceded to them. They were allowed to gather cinnamon in all the plains; and the court was to sell them the best sort, which is produced in the mountains, at the rate of £1:16:1s. for 18lb. The government engaged to have no connection with any foreign power; and even to deliver up any Europeans who might happen to stray into the island. In return for so many concessions, the king was to receive annually the value of the produce of the ceded coasts; and from thence his subjects were to be furnished gratis with as much salt as they had occasion for. The Ceylonese are in the most miserable situation: they are in a state of total inactivity; live in huts without any furniture; and subsist upon fruits: those who are the most affluent have no other covering than a piece of coarse linen wrapped about their waists.

CHACE. See Chase.