[Footnote 1: Leang-shoo, b. liv. p. 10. Yuh-hae, "Ocean of Gems," A.D. 1331, b. clii. p. 33. The latter authority announces in like terms two other embassies with tribute to China, one in A.D. 523, and another in the reign of Kirti Sena, A.D. 527. The Tsih-foo yuen-kwei mentions a similar mission in A.D. 531, b. dcccclxviii. p. 20.]

But although all these embassies are recorded in the Chinese chronicles as so many instances of acknowledged subjection, there is every reason to believe that the magniloquent terms in which they are described are by no means to be taken in a literal sense, and that the offerings enumerated were merely in recognition of the privilege of commercial intercourse subsisting between the two nations: but as the Chinese literati affect a lofty contempt for commerce, all allusion to trade is omitted; and beyond an incidental remark in some works of secondary importance, the literature of China observes a dignified silence on the subject.

Only one embassy is mentioned in the seventh century, when Dalu-piatissa despatched "a memorial and offerings of native productions;"[1] but there were four in the century following[2], after which there occurs an interval of above five hundred years, during which the Chinese writers are singularly silent regarding Ceylon; but the Singhalese historians incidentally mention that swords and musical instruments were then imported from China, for the use of the native forces, and that Chinese soldiers took service in the army of Prakrama III. A.D. 1266.[3]

[Footnote 1: A.D. 670. Tsĭh-foo yuen-kwei, b. dcccclxx. p. 16. It was in the early part of this century, during a period of intestine commotion, when the native princes were overawed by the Malabars, that Hiouen-Thsang met on the coast of India fugitives from Ceylon, from whom he derived his information as to the internal condition of the island, A.D. 629—633. See Transl. by STANISLAS JULIEN, "La Vie de Hiouen-Thsang," Paris, 1853, pp. 192—198.]

[Footnote 2: A.D. 711, A.D. 746, A.D. 750, and A.D. 762. Tsĭh-foo yuen-kwei, b. dcccclxxi. p. 17. On the second occasion (A.D. 746) the king, who despatched the embassy, is described as sending as his envoy a "Brahman priest, the anointed graduate of the threefold repository, bearing as offerings head-ornaments of gold, precious neck-pendants, a copy of the great Prajna Sutra, and forty webs of fine cotton cloth."]

[Footnote 3: See the Kawia-sakara, written about A.D. 1410.]

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the only records of intercourse relate to the occasional despatch of public officers by the emperor of China to collect gems and medical drugs, and on three successive occasions during the earlier part of the Yuen dynasty, envoys were empowered to negotiate the purchase of the sacred alms-dish of Buddha.[1]

[Footnote 1: "In front of the image of Buddha there is a sacred bowl which is neither made of jade, nor copper, nor iron; it is of a purple colour and glossy, and when struck it sounds like glass. At the commencement of the Yuen dynasty, three separate envoys were sent to obtain it."—Taou-e che-leo "Account of Island Foreigners," A.D. 1350, quoted in the "Foreign Geography", b. xviii. p. 15. This statement of the Chinese authorities corroborates the story told by MARCO POLO, possibly from personal knowledge, that "the Grand Khan Kublai sent ambassadors to Ceylon with a request that the king would yield to him possession of 'the great ruby' in return for the 'value of a city.'"—(Travels, ch. xix.) The MS. of MARCO POLO, which contains the Latin version of his Travels, is deposited in the Imperial Library of Paris, and it is remarkable that a passage in it, which seems to be wanting in the Italian and other MSS., confirms this account of the Chinese annalists, and states that the alms-dish of Buddha was at length yielded by the King of Ceylon as a gift to Kublai Khan, and carried with signal honour to China. MARCO POLO describes the scene as something within his own knowledge:—"Quando autem magnus Kaan scivit quod isti ambaxiatores redibant cum reliquis istis, et erant prope terram ubi ipse tune erat, scilicet in Cambalu (Pekin), fecit mitti bandum quod omnes de terra obviarent reliquis istis (quia credebat quod essent reliquiae de Adam) et istud fuit A.D. 1284."]

The beginning of the fifteenth century was, however, signalised by an occurrence, the details of which throw light over the internal condition of the island, at a period regarding which the native historians are more than usually obscure. At this time the glory of Buddhism had declined, and the political ascendency of the Tamils had enabled the Brahmans to taint the national worship by an infusion of Hindu observances. The Se-yih-ke foo-choo, or "Description of Western Countries," says that in 1405 A.D. the reigning king, A-lee-koo-nae-wurh (Wijaya-bahu VI.), a native of Sollee, and "an adherent of the heterodox faith, so far from honouring Buddha, tyrannised over his followers."[1] He maltreated strangers resorting to the island, and plundered their vessels, "so that the envoys from other lands, in passing to and fro, were much annoyed by him."[2]

[Footnote 1: B. xviii. p. 15.]

[Footnote 2: Ming-she, b. cccxxvi, p. 7.]

In that year a mission from China, sent with incense and offerings to the shrine of the tooth, was insulted and waylaid, and with difficulty effected an escape from Ceylon.[1] According to the Ming-she, or History of the Ming Dynasty, "the Emperor Ching-tsoo, indignant at this outrage on his people; and apprehensive lest the influence of China in other countries besides Ceylon had declined during the reign of his predecessors, sent Ching-Ho, a soldier of distinction, with a fleet of sixty-two ships and a large military escort, on an expedition to visit the western kingdoms, furnished with proper credentials and rich presents of silk and gold. Ching-Ho touched at Cochin-China, Sumatra, Java, Cambodia, Siam, and other places, proclaiming at each the Imperial edict, and conferring Imperial gifts." If any of the princes refused submission, they were subdued by force; and the expedition returned to China in A.D. 1407, accompanied by envoys from the several nations, who came to pay court to the Emperor.

[Footnote 1: Se-yĭh-ke foo-choo, b. xviii. p. 15. This Chinese invasion of Ceylon has been already adverted to in the sketch of the domestic history of the island, Vol. I. Part IV. ch xii. p. 417.]

In the following year Ching-Ho, having been despatched on a similar mission to Ceylon, the king, A-lee-ko-nae-wah, decoyed his party into the interior, threw up stockades with a view to their capture, in the hope of a ransom, and ordered soldiers to the coast to plunder the Chinese junks. But Ching-Ho, by a dexterous movement, avoided the attack, and invested the capital[1], made a prisoner of the king, succeeded in conveying him on board his fleet, and carried him captive to China, together with his queen, his children, his officers of state, and his attendants. He brought away with him spoils, which were long afterwards exhibited in the Tsing-hae monastery at Nankin[2], and one of the commentaries on the Si-yu-ke of Hiouen Thseng, states that amongst the articles carried away, was the sacred tooth of Buddha.[3] "In the sixth month of the year 1411," says the author of the Ming-She, "the prisoners were presented at court. The Chinese ministers pressed for their execution, but the emperor, in pity for their ignorance, set them at liberty, but commanded them to select a virtuous man from the same family to occupy the throne. All the captives declared in favour of Seay-pa-nae-na, whereupon an envoy was sent with a seal to invest him with the royal dignity, as a vassal of the empire," and in that capacity he was restored to Ceylon, the former king being at the same time sent back to the island.[4] It would be difficult to identify the names in this story with the kings of the period, were it not stated in another chronicle, the Woo-heŏ-peen, or Record of the Ming Dynasty, that Seay-pa-nae-na was afterwards named Pu-la-ko-ma Ba-zae La-cha, in which it is not difficult to recognise "Sri Prakrama Bahu Raja," the sixth of his name, who transferred the seat of government from Gampola to Cotta, and reigned from A.D. 1410 to 1462.[5]

[Footnote 1: Gampola.]

[Footnote 2: Sŭh-Wan-heen tung-kaou, book ccxxxvi p. 12.]

[Footnote 3: See note at the end of this chapter.]

[Footnote 4: Ming-she, b. cccxxvi. p. 5. M. STANISLAS JULIEN intimates that the forthcoming volume of his version of the Si-yu-ki will contain the eleventh book, in which an account will be given of the expedition of Ching Ho.—Memoires sur les Contrees Occidentales, tom. i. p. 26. In anticipation of its publication, M. JULIEN has been so obliging as to make for me a translation of the passage regarding Ceylon, but it proves to be an annotation of the fifteenth century, which, by the inadvertence of transcribers, has become interpolated in the text of Hiouen-Thsang. It contains, however, no additional facts or statements beyond the questionable one before alluded to, that the sacred tooth of Buddha was amongst the spoils carried to Pekin by Ching Ho.]

[Footnote 5: Woo-heŏ-peen, b. lxviii p. 5. See also the Ta-tsing yĭh-tung, a topographical account of the Manchoo empire, a copy of which is among the Chinese books in the British Museum. In the very imperfect version of the Rajavali, published by Upham, this important passage is rendered unintelligible by the want of fidelity of the translator, who has transformed the conqueror into a "Malabar," and ante-dated the event by a century. (Rajavali, p. 263.) I am indebted to Mr. De Alwis, of Colombo, for a correct translation of the original, which is as follows: "In the reign of King Wijayo-bahu, the King of Maha (great) China landed in Ceylon with an army, pretending that he was bringing tribute; King Wijayo-bahu, believing his professions (because it had been customary in the time of King Prakrama-bahu for foreign countries to pay tribute to Ceylon), acted incautiously, and he was treacherously taken prisoner by the foreign king. His four brothers were killed, and with them fell many people, and the king himself was carried captive to China." DE COUTO, in his continuation of DE BARROS, has introduced the story of the capture of the king by the Chinese; but he has confounded the dates, mystified the facts, and altered the name of the new sovereign to Pandar, which is probably only a corruption of the Singhalese Banda, "a prince."—DE COUTO, Asia, &c., dec. v. lib. i. c. vi. vol. ii. part i. p. 51. PURCHAS says: "The Singhalese language is thought to have been left there by the Chinois, some time Lord of Zeilan."—Pilgrimage, c. xviii. p. 552. The adventures of Ching Ho, in his embassy to the nations of the Southern Ocean, have been made the ground-work of a novel, the Se-yung-ke, which contains an enlarged account of his exploits in Ceylon; but fact is so overlaid with fiction that the passages are not worth extracting.]

For fifty years after this untoward event the subjection of Ceylon to China appears to have been humbly and periodically acknowledged; tribute was punctually paid to the emperor, and on two occasions, in 1416 A.D., and 1421 A.D., the kings of Ceylon were the bearers of it in person.[1] In 1430 A.D., at a period of intestine commotion, "Ching-Ho issued a proclamation for the pacification of Ceylon," and, at a somewhat later period, edicts were promulgated by the Emperor of China for the government of the island.[2] In 1459 A.D., however, the series of humiliations appears to have come abruptly to a close; for, "in that year," says the Ming-she, "the King of Ceylon for the last time sent an envoy with tribute, and after that none ever came again."

[Footnote 1: Ming-she, b. vii. pp. 4, 8.]

[Footnote 2: Ibid., b. cccxxvii. p. 7.]

On their arrival in Ceylon early in the sixteenth century[1], the Portuguese found many evidences still existing of the intercourse and influence of the Chinese. They learned that at a former period they had established themselves in the south of the island; and both De Barros and De Couto ventured to state that the Singhalese were so called from the inter-marriage of the Chinese with the Gallas or Chalias, the caste who in great numbers still inhabit the country to the north of Point de Galle.[2] But the conjecture is erroneous, the derivation of Singhala is clearly traced to the Sanskrit "Singha;" besides which, in the alphabet of the Singhalese, n and g combine to form a single and insoluble letter.

[Footnote 1: A.D. 1565.]

[Footnote 2: "Serem os Chijis senhores da costa Choromandel, parte do Malabar e desta Ilha Ceilao. Na qual Ilha leixaram huma lingua, a que elles chamam Chingalla, e aos proprios povos Chingallas, principalmente os que vivem da ponta de Galle por diante na face da terra contra o Sul, e Oriente: e por ser pegada neste Cabo Galle, chamou a outra gente, que vivia do meio da ilha pera cima, aos que aqui habitavam Chingilla e a lingua delles tambem, quasi como se dissessem lingua ou gente dos Chijo de Galle"—DE BARROS, Asia, &c., Dec. iii. lib. ii. c. i. DE COUTO'S account is as follows: "E como os Chins formam os primeiros que navegaram pelo Oriente, tendo noticia da canella, acudiram muitos 'juncos' aquella Ilha a carregar della, e dalli a levaram aos portos de Persia, e da Arabia donde passou a Europa—de que se deixaram ficar muitos Chins na terra, e se misturaram por casamentos com os naturaes; dantre quem nasceram huns mistcos que se ficaram chamando Cim-Gallas; ajuntando o nome dos naturaes, que eram Gallas aos dos Chins, que vieram por tempos a ser tao famosos, que deram o seu nome a todos os da Ilha."—Asia, &c. Dec. v. lib. ch. v.]

In process of time, every trace disappeared of the former presence of the Chinese in Ceylon—embassies ceased to arrive from the "Flowery Kingdom," Chinese vessels deserted the harbours of the island, pilgrims no longer repaired to the shrines of Buddha; and even the inscriptions became obliterated in which the imperial offerings to the temples were recorded on the rocks.[1] The only mementos which remain at the present day to recall their ancient domestication in the island, is the occasional appearance in the mountain villages of an itinerant vender of sweetmeats, or a hut in the solitary forest near some cave, from which an impoverished Chinese renter annually gathers the edible nest of the swallow.

[Footnote 1: Sŭh-Wan-heen tung-kaou, book ccxxxvi. p. 12.]

* * * * *

NOTE.

As it may be interesting to learn the opinions of the Chinese at the present day regarding Ceylon, the following account of the island has been translated for me by Dr. Lockhart, of Shanghae, from a popular work on geography, written by the late lieutenant-governor of the province of Fokhien, assisted by some foreigners. The book is called Ying-hwăn-che-ke, or "The General Account of the Encircling Ocean."

"Seĭh-lan is situated in Southern India, and is a large island in the sea, on the south-east coast, its circumference being about 1000 le (300 miles), having in the centre lofty mountains; on the coast the land is low and marshy. The country is characterised by much rain and constant thunder. The hills and valleys are beautifully ornamented with flowers and trees of great variety and beauty, the cries of the animals rejoicing together fill the air with gladness, and the landscape abounds with splendour. In the forests are many elephants, and the natives use them instead of draught oxen or horses. The people are all of the Buddhistic religion; it is said that Buddha was born here: he was born with an excessive number of teeth. The grain is not sufficient for the inhabitants, and they depend for food on the various districts of India. Gems are found in the hills, and pearls on the sea coast; the cinnamon that is produced in the country is excellent, and much superior to that of Kwang-se. In the middle of the Ming dynasty, the Portuguese seized upon Seĭh-lan and established marts on the sea coast, which by schemes the Hollanders took from them. In the first year of Kia-King (1795), the English drove out the Hollanders and took possession of the sea coast. At this time the people of Seĭh-lan, on account of their various calamities or invasions, lost heart. Their city on the coast, called Colombo, was attacked by the English, and the inhabitants were dispersed or driven away; then the whole island fell into the hands of the English, who eventually subjected it. The harbour for rendezvous on the coast is called Ting-ko-ma-le."

To this the Chinese commentator adds, on the authority of a work, from which he quotes, entitled, "A Treatise on the Diseases of all the Kingdoms of the Earth:"—

"The Kingdom of Seĭh-lan was anciently called Lang-ya-sew; the passage from Soo-mun-ta-che (Sumatra), with a favourable wind, is twelve days and nights; the country is extensive, and the people numerous, and the products abundant, but inferior to Kiva-wa (Java). In the centre are lofty mountains, which yield the A-kŭh (crow and pigeon) gems; after every storm of rain they are washed down from the hills, and gathered among the sand. From Chang-tsun, Lin-yih in the extreme west, can be seen. In the foreign language, the high mountain is called Seĭh-lan; hence the name of the island. It is said Buddha (Shĭh-ka) came from the island of Ka-lon (the gardens of Buddha), and ascended this mountain, on which remains the trace of his foot. Below the hill there is a monastery, in which they preserve the nee-pwan (a Buddhistic phrase, signifying the world; literally rendered, his defiling or defiled vessel) and the Shay-le-tsze, or relics of Buddha.

"In the sixth year of his reign (1407), Yung-lŏ, of the Ming dynasty, sent an ambassador extraordinary, Ching-Ho and others, to transmit the Imperial mandate to the King A-lĕe-jŏ-nai-wah, ordering him to present numerous and valuable offerings and banners to the monastery, and to erect a stone tablet, and rewarding him by his appointment as tribute bearer; A-lĕe-jŏ-nai-wurh ungratefully refusing to comply, they seized him, in order to bring him to terms, and chose from among his nearest of kin A-pa-nae-na, and set him on the throne. For fourteen years, Teen-ching, Kwa-wa (Java), Mwan-che-kea, Soo-mun-ta-che (Sumatra), and other countries, sent tribute in the tenth year of Chin-tung, and the third year of Teen-shun they again sent tribute."[1]

[Footnote 1: There is here some confusion in the chronology; as Teen-shun reigned before Ching-tung.]

"I have heard from an American, A-pe-le[1], that Seĭh-lan was the original country of Teen-chuh (India), and that which is now called Woo-yin-too was Teen-chŭh, but in the course of time the names have become confused. According to the records of the later Han dynasty, Teen-chŭh was considered the Shin-tŭh, and that the name is not that of an island, but of the whole country. I do not know what proof there is for A-pe-le's statement."

[Footnote 1: Mr. Abeel, an American missionary.]



CHAP. IV.

CEYLON AS KNOWN TO THE MOORS, GENOESE, AND VENETIANS.

The rapid survey of the commerce of India during the middle ages, which it has been necessary to introduce into the preceding narrative, will also serve to throw light on a subject hitherto but imperfectly investigated.

The most remarkable of the many tribes which inhabit Ceylon are the Mahometans, or, as they are generally called on the island, the "Moor-men," energetic and industrious communities of whom are found on all parts of the coast, but whose origin, adventures, and arrival are amongst the historical mysteries of Ceylon.

The meaningless designation of "Moors," applied to them, is the generic term by which it was customary at one time, in Europe, to describe a Mahometan, from whatsoever country he came, as the word Gentoo[1] was formerly applied in England to the inhabitants of Hindustan, without distinction of race. The practice probably originated from the Spaniards having given that name to the followers of the Prophet, who, traversing Morocco, overran the peninsula in the seventh and eighth centuries.[2] The epithet was borrowed by the Portuguese, who, after their discovery of the passage by the Cape of Good Hope, bestowed it indiscriminately upon the Arabs and their descendants, whom, in the sixteenth century, they found established as traders in every port on the Asian and African coast, and whom they had good reason to regard as their most formidable competitors for the commerce of the East.

[Footnote 1: The practice originated with the Portuguese, who applied to any unconverted native of India the term gentio, "idolator" or "barbarian."]

[Footnote 2: The Spanish word "Moro" and the Portuguese, "Mouro" may be traced either to the "Mauri," the ancient people of Mauritania, now Morocco, or to the modern name of "Moghrib," by which the inhabitants, the Moghribins, designate their country.]

Particular events have been assumed as marking the probable date of their first appearance in Ceylon. Sir Alexander Johnston, on the authority of a tradition current amongst their descendants, says, that "the first Mahometans who settled there were driven from Arabia in the early part of the eighth century, and established themselves at Jaffna, Manaar, Koodramali, Putlam, Colombo, Barberyn, Point de Galle, and Trincomalie."[1] The Dutch authorities, on the other hand, hold that the Moors were Moslemin only by profession, that by birth they were descendants of a mean and detestable Malabar caste, who in remote times had been converted to Islam through intercourse with the Arabs of Bassora and the Red Sea; that they had frequented the coasts of India as seamen, and then infested them as pirates; and that their first appearance in Ceylon was not earlier than the century preceding the landing of the Portuguese.[2]

[Footnote 1: Trans. Roy. Asiat. Society, 1827, A.D. vol. i. 538. The Moors, who were the informants of Sir Alexander Johnston, probably spoke on the equivocal authority of the Tohfut-ul-mujahideen, which is generally, but erroneously, described as a narrative of the settlement of the Mahometans in Malabar. Its second chapter gives an account of "the manner in which the Mahometan religion was first propagated" there; and states that its earliest apostles were a Sheikh and his companions, who touched at Cranganore about 822 A.D., when on their journey as pilgrims to the sacred foot-print on Adam's Peak. (ROWLANDSON, Orient. Transl. Fund, pp. 47. 55.) But the introduction of the new faith into this part of India was subsequent to the arrival of the Arabs themselves, who had long before formed establishments at numerous places on the coast.]

[Footnote 2: VALENTYN, ch. xv. p. 214.]

The truth, however, is, that there were Arabs in Ceylon ages before the earliest date named in these conjectures[1]; they were known there as traders centuries before Mahomet was born, and such was their passion for enterprise, that at one and the same moment they were pursuing commerce in the Indian Ocean[2], and manning the galleys of Marc Antony in the fatal sea-fight at Actium.[3] The author of the Periplus found them in Ceylon about the first Christian century, Cosmas Indico-pleustes in the sixth; and they had become so numerous in China in the eighth, as to cause a tumult at Canton.[4] From the tenth till the fifteenth century, the Arabs, as merchants, were the undisputed masters of the East; they formed commercial establishments in every country that had productions to export, and their vessels sailed between every sea-port from Sofala to Bab-el-Mandeb, and from Aden to Sumatra.[5] The "Moors," who at the present day inhabit the coasts of Ceylon, are the descendants of these active adventurers; they are not purely Arabs in blood, but descendants from Arabian ancestors by intermarriage with the native races who embraced the religion of the Prophet.[6] The Singhalese epithet of "Marak-kala-minisu" or "Mariners," describes at once their origin and occupation; but during the middle ages, when Ceylon was the Tyre of Asia, these immigrant traders became traders in all the products of the island, and the brokers through whose hands they passed in exchange for the wares of foreign countries. At no period were they either manufacturers or producers in any department; their genius was purely commercial, and their attention was exclusively devoted to buying and selling what had been previously produced by the industry and ingenuity of others. They were dealers in jewelry, connoisseurs in gems, and collectors of pearls; and whilst the contented and apathetic Singhalese in the villages and forests of the interior passed their lives in the cultivation of their rice-lands, and sought no other excitement than the pomp and ceremonial of their temples; the busy and ambitious Mahometans on the coast built their warehouses at the ports, crowded the harbours with their shipping, and collected the wealth and luxuries of the island, its precious stones, its dye-woods, its spices and ivory, to be forwarded to China and the Persian Gulf.

[Footnote 1: MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE, on the authority of Agatharchidos (as quoted by Diodorus and Photius), says, that "from all that appears in that author, we should conclude that two centuries before the Christian era, the trade (between India and the ports of Sabaea) was entirely in the hands of the Arabs."—Hist. India, b. iii. c. x. p. 167.]

[Footnote 2: Pliny, b. vi. c. 22.]

[Footnote 3:

"Omnis eo terrore AEgyptus et Indi Omnes Arabes vertebant terga Sabaei."

VIRGIL, AEn. viii. 705.]

[Footnote 4: ABOU-ZEYD, vol. i. p. xlii. cix.]

[Footnote 5: VINCENT, vol. ii. p. 451. The Moors of Ceylon are identical in race with "the Mopillees of the Malabar coast."—McKENZIE, Asiat. Res., vol. vi. p. 430.]

[Footnote 6: In a former work, "Christianity in Ceylon," I was led, by incorrect information, to describe a section of the Moors as belonging to the sect of the Shiahs, and using the Persian language in the service of their mosques (c. i. note, p. 34). There is reason to believe that at a former period there were Mahometans in Ceylon to whom this description would apply; but at the present day the Moors throughout the island are, I believe, universally Sonnees, belonging to one of the four orthodox sects called Shafees, and using Arabic as their ritual dialect. Their vernacular is Tamil, mixed with a number of Arabic words; and all their religious books, except the Koran, are in that dialect. Casie Chitty, the erudite District Judge of Chilaw, writes to me that "the Moors of Ceylon believe themselves to be of the posterity of Hashem; and, according to one tradition, their progenitors were driven from Arabia by Mahomet himself, as a punishment for their cowardice at the battle of Ohod. But according to another version, they fled from the tyranny of the Khalif Abu al Malek ben Merivan, in the early part of the eighth century. Their first settlement in India was formed at Kail-patam, to the east of Cape Comorin, whence that place is still regarded as the 'father-land of the Moors.'"

Another of their traditions is, that their first landing-place in Ceylon was at Barberyn, south of Caltura, in the 402nd year of the Hejira, (A.D. 1024.) These legends would seem to refer to the arrival of some important section of the Moors, but not to the first appearance of this remarkable people in Ceylon. The Ceylon Gazetteer, Cotta, 1834, p. 254, contains a valuable paper by Casie Chitty on "the Manners and Customs of the Moors of Ceylon."]

MARCO POLO, in the thirteenth century, found the Moors in uncontested possession of this busy and lucrative trade, and BARBOSA, in his account of the island, A.D. 1519, says, that not only were they to be found in every sea-port and city, conducting and monopolising its commerce, but Moors from the coast of Malabar were continually arriving to swell their numbers, allured by the facilities of commerce and the unrestrained freedom enjoyed under the government.[1] In process of time their prosperity invested them with political influence, and in the decline of the Singhalese monarchy they took advantage of the feebleness of the king of Cotta, to direct armed expeditions against parts of the coast, to plunder the inhabitants, and supply themselves with elephants and pearls.[2] They engaged in conspiracies against the native princes; and Wijayo Bahu VII., who was murdered in 1534, was slain by a turbulent Moorish leader called Soleyman, whom his eldest son and successor had instigated to the crime.[3]

[Footnote 1: "Molti Mori Malabari vengono a stantiare in questa isola per esser in grandissima liberta, oltra tutte le commodita e delitie del mondo," etc.—ODOARDO BARBOSA, Sommario delle Indie Orientale, in Ramusio, vol. i. p. 313.]

[Footnote 2: Rajavali, p. 274.]

[Footnote 3: Ib., p. 284. PORCACCHI, in his Isolario, written at Venice A.D. 1576, thus records the traditional reputation of the Moors of Ceylon:—"I Mori ch' habitano hoggi la Taprobana fanno grandissimi traffichi, nauigando per tutto: et piu anchora vengono da diverse parte molte mercantie, massimamente dal paese di Cambaia, con coralli, cinabrio, et argento vivo. Ma son questi Mori perfidi et ammazzono spesse, volte i lor Re; et ne creano degli altri."—Page 188.]

The appearance of the Portuguese in Ceylon at this critical period, served not only to check the career of the Moors, but to extinguish the independence of the native princes; and looking to the facility with which the former had previously superseded the Malabars, and were fast acquiring an ascendency over the Singhalese chiefs, it is not an unreasonable conjecture that, but for this timely appearance of a Christian power in the Island, Ceylon, instead of a possession of the British crown, might at the present day have been a Mahometan kingdom, under the rule of some Arabian adventurer.

But although the position of the Arabs in relation to the commerce of the East underwent no unfavourable change prior to the arrival of the Portuguese in the Indian seas, numerous circumstances combined in the early part of the sixteenth century to bring other European nations into communication with the East.

The productions of India, whether they passed by the Oxus to the Caspian, or were transported in caravans from the Tigris to the shores of the Black Sea, were poured into the magazines of Constantinople, the merchants of which, previous to the fall of the Lower Empire, were the most opulent in the world. During the same period, Egypt commanded the trade of the Red Sea; and received, through Aden, the luxuries of the far East, with which she supplied the Moorish princes of Spain, and the countries bordering on the Mediterranean.[1]

[Footnote 1: ODOARDO BARBOSA, In Ramusio, vol. i. p. 292. BALDELLI BONI, Relazione dell' Europa e dell' Asia, lib. ix. ch. xlvii FARIA Y SOUSA; Portug. Asia, part i. ch. viii.]

Even when the dominion of the Khalifs was threatened by the rising power of the Turks, and long after the subsidence of the commotions and vicissitudes which marked the period of the Crusades, part of this lucrative commerce was still carried to Alexandria, by the Nile and its canals. The Genoese and Venetians, each eager to engross the supply of Europe, sought permission from the Emperors to form establishments on the shores of the Black Sea and the Mediterranean. The former advanced their fortified factories as far eastward as Tabriz, to meet the caravans returning from the Persian Gulf[1], and the latter, in addition to the formation of settlements at Tyre, Beyrout, and Acre[2], acquired after the fourth crusade, succeeded (in defiance of the interdict of the Popes against trading with the infidel) in negotiating a treaty with the Mamelukes for a share in the trade of Alexandria.[3] It was through Venice that England and the western nations obtained the delicacies of India and China, down to the period when the overland route and the Red Sea were deserted for the grander passage by the Cape of Good Hope.[4]

[Footnote 1: GIBBON, Decl. and Fall, ch. lxiii.]

[Footnote 2: DARU, Hist. de Venise lib. xix. vol. iv. p. 74. MACPHERSON'S Annals of Commerce, vol. i. p. 370.]

[Footnote 3: So impatient were the Venetians to grasp the trade of Alexandria that Marino Sanuto, about the year 1321 A.D., endeavoured to excite a new crusade in order to wrest it from the Sultan of Egypt by force of arms, Secreta Fidelium Crucis, in BONGARS, Gesta Dei per Francos, Hanau, 1611. ADAM SMITH, Wealth of Nations, b. iv. ch, vii DARU, Hist. de Venise, lib. xix, vol. iv, p. 88.]

[Footnote 4: GIBBON, Decl. and Fall, ch. lx. The last of the Venetion "argosies" which reached the shores of England was cast away on the Isle of Wight, A.D. 1587.]

Another great event which stimulated the commercial activity of the Italians in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, was the extraordinary progress of the Mongols, who in an incredibly short space of time absorbed Central Asia into one powerful empire, overthrew the ancient monarchy of China, penetrated to the heart of Russia, and directed their arms with equal success both against Poland and Japan. The popes and the sovereigns of Europe, alike alarmed for their dominions and their faith, despatched ambassadors to the Great Khan; the mission resulted in allaying apprehension for the further advance of their formidable neighbours towards the west, and the vigilant merchants of Venice addressed themselves to effect an opening for trade in the new domains of the Tartar princes.

It is to this commercial enterprise that we are indebted for the first authentic information regarding China and India, that reached Europe after the silence of the middle ages; and the voyages of the Venetians, in some of which the realities of travel appear as extra-ordinary as the incidents of romance, contain accounts of Ceylon equally interesting and reliable.

MARCO POLO, who left Venice as a youth, in the year 1271, and resided seventeen years at the court of Kubla Khan, was the first European who penetrated to China Proper; whence he embarked in A.D. 1291, at Fo-Kien, and passing through the Straits of Malacca, rested at Ceylon, on his homeward route by Ormuz.

He does not name the port in Ceylon at which he landed, but he calls the king Sender-naz, a name which may possibly be identified with the Malay Chandra-banu, who twice invaded the island during the reign of Pandita Prakrama-bahu III.[1]

[Footnote 1: Pandita Prakrama Bahoo III. was also called Kalikalla Saahitya Sargwajnya,—TURNOUR'S Epitome, p. 44.]

He repeats the former exaggerated account as to the dimensions of Ceylon; he says that it was believed to have been anciently larger still, and he shows incidentally that as early as the thirteenth century, the Arab sailors possessed charts of the island which they used in navigating the Indian seas.[1] Then, as now, the universal costume of the Singhalese was the cotton "comboy," worn only on the lower half of the body[2], their grains were sesamum and rice; their food the latter with milk and flesh-meat; and their drink coco-nut toddy, which Marco calls "wine drawn from the trees." He dwells with rapture on the gems and costly stones, and, above all, on the great ruby, a span long, for which Kubla Khan offered the value of a city. With singular truth he says, "the people are averse to a military life, abject and timid, and when they have occasion to employ soldiers, they procure them from other countries in the vicinity of the Mahometans." From this it would seem that six hundred years ago, it was the practice in Ceylon, as it is at the present day, to recruit the forces of the island from the Malays.

[Footnote 1: I have seen with the sailors of the Maldives, who resort to Ceylon at the present day, charts evidently copied from very ancient originals.]

[Footnote 2: See the drawing, page 612.]

The next Venetian whose travels qualified him to speak of Ceylon was the Minorite friar ODORIC, of Portenau in Friuli[1], who, setting out from the Black Sea in 1318, traversed the Asian continent to China, and returned to Italy after a journey of twelve years. In Ceylon he was struck by the number of serpents, and the multitude of wild animals, lions (leopards?), bears, and elephants. "In it he saw the mountain on which Adam for the space of 500 years mourned the death of Abel, and on which his tears and those of Eve formed, as men believed, a fountain;" but this Odoric discovered to be a delusion, as he saw the spring gushing from the earth, and its waters "flowing over jewels, but abounding with leeches and blood-suckers." The natives were permitted by the king to collect the gems; and in doing so they smear their bodies with the juice of lemons to protect them from the leeches. The wild creatures, they said, however dangerous to the inhabitants of the island, were harmless to strangers. In that island Odoric saw "birds with two heads," which possibly implies that he saw the hornbill[2], whose huge and double casque may explain the expression.

[Footnote 1: Itinerarium Fratris ODORICI de Foro Julii de Portu-Vahonis.]

[Footnote 2: Buceros Pica. See ante, Part II. ch. ii. p. 167.]

In the succeeding century[1] the most authentic account of Ceylon is given by NICOLO DI CONTI, another Venetian, who, though of noble family, had settled as a merchant at Damascus, whence he had travelled over Persia, India, the Eastern Archipelago, and China. Returning by way of Arabia and the Red Sea, in 1444, he fell into danger amongst some fanatical Mahometans, and was compelled to renounce the faith of a Christian, less from regard for his own safety than apprehension for that of his children and wife. For this apostacy he besought the pardon of Pope Eugenius IV., who absolved him from guilt on condition that he should recount his adventures to the apostolic secretary, Poggio Bracciolini, by whom they have been preserved in his dissertation on "The Vicissitudes of Fortune."[2]

[Footnote 1: Among the writers on India in the 14th century, A.D. 1323, was the Dominican missionary JOURDAIN CATALANI, or "Jordan de Severac," regarding whose title of Bishop of Colombo, "Episcopus Columbensis," it is somewhat uncertain whether his see was in Ceylon, or at Coulam (Quilon), on the Malabar coast. The probability in favour of the latter is sustained by the fact of the very limited accounts of the island contained in his Mirabilia, a work in which he has recorded his observations on the Dekkan. Cinnamon he describes as a production of Malabar, and Ceylon he extols only for its gems, pre-eminent among which were two rubies, one worn by the king, suspended round his neck, and the other which, when grasped in the hand could not be covered, by the fingers, "Non credo mundum habere universum tales duo lapides, nec tanti pretii." The MS. of Fra. JORDANUS'S Mirabilia has been printed in the Recueil des Voyages of the Societe Geogr. of Paris, vol. i. p. 49. GIOVANNI DE MARIGNOLA, a Florentine and Legate of Clement VI., landed in Ceylon in 1349 A.D., at which time the legitimate king was driven away and the supreme power left in the hands of a eunuch whom he calls Coja-Joan, "pessimus Saracenus." The legate's attention was chiefly directed to "the mountain opposite Paradise."—DOBNER, Monum. Histor. Boemiae. Pragae, 1764-85.

JOHN OF HESSE in his "Itinerary" (in which occurs the date A.D. 1398) says, "Adsunt et in quadam insula nomine Taprobanes viri crudelissimi et moribus asperi: permagnas habent aures, et illas plurimis gemmis ornare dicuntur. Hi carnes humanas pro summis deliciis comedunt."—JOHANNIS DE HESSE, Presbyteri Itinerarium, etc.]

[Footnote 2: De Varietate Fortunae, Basil, 1538. An admirable translation of the narrative of DI CONTI has recently been made by R.H. Major, Esq., for the Hakluyt Society. London, 1857.]

Di Conti is, I believe, the first European who speaks of cinnamon as a production of Ceylon. "It is a tree," he says, "which grows there in abundance, and which very much resembles our thick willows, excepting that the branches do not grow upwards, but spread horizontally; the leaves are like those of the laurel, but somewhat larger; the bark of the branches is thinnest and best, that of the trunk thick and inferior in flavour. The fruit resembles the berries of the laurel; the Indians extract from it an odoriferous oil, and the wood, after the bark has been stripped from it, is used by them for fuel."[1]

[Footnote 1: POGGIO makes Nicolo di Conti say that the island contains a lake, in the middle of which is a city three miles in circumference; but this is evidently an amplification of his own, borrowed from the passage in which Pliny (whom Poggio elsewhere quotes) alludes to the fabulous Lake Megisba.—PLINY, lib. vi. ch. xxiv.]

The narrative of Di Conti, as it is printed by Ramusio, from a Portuguese version, contains a passage not found in Poggio, in which it is alleged that a river of Ceylon, called Arotan, has a fish somewhat like the torpedo, but whose touch, instead of electrifying, produces a fever so long as it is held in the hand, relief being instantaneous on letting it go.[1]

[Footnote 1: DI CONTI in Ramusio, vol. i. p. 344. There are two other Italian travellers of this century who touched at Ceylon; one a "GENTLEMAN OF FLORENCE," whose story is printed by Ramusio (but without the author's name), who accompanied Vasco de Gama, in the year 1479, in his voyage to Calicut, and who speaks of the trees "che fanno la canella in molta perfettione."—Vol. i. p. 120. The other is GIROLAMO DI SANTO STEFANO, a Genoese, who, in pursuit of commerce, made a journey to India which he described on his return in 1499, in a letter inserted by Ramusio in his collection of voyages. He stayed but one day in the island, and saw only its coco-nuts, jewels, and cinnamon.—Vol. i. p. 345.]

The sixteenth century was prolific in navigators, the accounts of whose adventures served to diffuse throughout Europe a general knowledge of Ceylon, at least as it was known superficially before the arrival of the Portuguese. Ludovico Barthema, or Varthema, a Bolognese[1], remained at a port on the west coast[2] for some days in 1506. The four kings of the island being busily engaged in civil war[3], he found it difficult to land, but he learned that permission to search for jewels at the foot of Adam's Peak might be obtained by the payment of five ducats, and restoring as a royalty all gems over ten carats. Fruit was delicious and abundant, especially artichokes and oranges[4], but rice was so insufficiently cultivated that the sovereigns of the island were dependent for their supplies upon the King of Narsingha, on the continent of India.[5] This statement of Barthema is without qualification; there can be little doubt that it applied chiefly to the southern parts of the island, and that the north was still able to produce food sufficient for the wants of the inhabitants.

[Footnote 1: Itinerario de LUDOVICO DE VARTHEMA, Bolognese, no lo Egypto, ne la Suria, ne la Arabia Deserta e Felice, ne la Persia, ne la India, e ne la, AEthiopia—la fede el vivere e costume de tutte le prefatte provincie. Roma. 1511, A.D.]

[Footnote 2: Probably Colombo.]

[Footnote 3: These conflicts and the actors in them are described in the Rajavali, p. 274.]

[Footnote 4: "Carzofoli megliori che li nostri, melangoli dolci, li megiiori credo, che siano nel mondo."—Varthema, pt. xxvii.]

[Footnote 5: "In questo paese non nasce riso; ma ne li viene da terra ferma. Li re de quella isola sono tributarii d'il re de Narsinga per repetto del riso."—Itin., pt. xxvii. See also BARBOSA, in Ramusio, vol. i p. 312.]

Barthema found the supply of cinnamon small, and so precarious that the cutting took place but once in three years. The Singhalese were at that time ignorant of the use of gunpowder[1], and their arms were swords and lance-heads mounted on shafts of bamboo; "with these they fought, but their battles were not bloody." The Moors were in possession of the trade, and the king sent a message to Varthema and his companions, expressive of his desire to purchase their commodities; but in consequence of a hint that payment would be regulated by the royal discretion, the Italians weighed anchor at nightfall and bade a sudden adieu to Ceylon.

[Footnote 1: The Rajavali, p. 279, describes the wonder of the Singhalese on witnessing for the first time the discharge of a cannon by the Portuguese who had landed at Colombo, A.D. 1517. "A ball shot from one of them, after flying some leagues, will break a castle of marble, or even of iron."]

Early in the sixteenth century, ODOARDO BARBOSA, a Portuguese captain, who had sailed in the Indian seas, compiled a summary of all that was then known concerning the countries of the East[1], with which the people of Portugal had been brought into connection by their recent discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope. Writing partly from personal observation, but chiefly from information obtained from the previous accounts of Di Conti, Barthema and Corsali[2], he speaks of that "grandest and most lovely island, which the Moors of Arabia, Persia, and Syria call Zeilam, but the Indians, Tenarisim, or the land of delights." Its ports were crowded with Moors, who monopolised commerce, and its inhabitants, whose complexions were fair and their stature robust and stately, were altogether devoted to pleasure and indifferent to arms.

[Footnote 1: Il Sommario delle Inde Orientale di ODOARDO BARBOSA, Lisbon, 1519. A sketch of the life of BARBOSA is given in CRAWFURD'S Dictionary of the Indian Islands, p. 39.]

[Footnote 2: Two letters written by ANDREA CORSALI, a Florentine, dated from Cochin, A.D. 1515, and addressed to the Grand Duke Julian de Medicis.]

Barbosa appears to have associated chiefly with the Moors, whose character and customs he describes almost as they exist at the present day. He speaks of their heads, covered with the finest handkerchiefs; of their ear-rings, so heavy with jewels that they hang down to their shoulders; of the upper parts of their bodies exposed, but the lower portions enveloped in silks and rich cloths, secured by an embroidered girdle. He describes their language as a mixture of Arabic and Malabar, and states that numbers of their co-religionists from the Indian coast resorted constantly to Ceylon, and established themselves there as traders, attracted by the delights of the climate, and the luxury and abundance of the island, but above all by the unlimited freedom which they enjoyed under its government. The duration of life was longer in Ceylon than in any country of India. With a profusion of fruits of every kind, and of animals fit for food, grain alone was deficient; rice was largely imported from the Coromandel coast, and sugar from Bengal.

Di Conti and Barthema had ascertained the existence of cinnamon as a production of the island, but Barbosa was the first European who asserted its superiority over that of all other countries. Elephants captured by order of the King, were tamed, trained, and sold to the princes of India, whose agents arrived annually in quest of them. The pearls of Manaar and the gems of Adam's Peak were the principal riches of Ceylon. The cats-eye, according to Barbosa, was as highly valued as the ruby by the dealers in India; and the rubies themselves were preferred to those of Pegu on account of their density[1]; but, compared with those of Ava, they were inferior in colour, a defect which the Moors were skilled in correcting by the of fire.

[Footnote 1: CESARE DE FREDERICI, a Venetian merchant, whose travels in India, A.D. 1563, have been translated by HICKOCKE, says of Zeilan, that, "they find there some rubies, but I have sold rubies well there that I brought with me from Pegu."—In Hakluyt, vol. i. p. 226.]

The residence of the King was at "Colmucho" (Colombo), whither vessels coming for elephants, cinnamon, and gems brought fine cloths from Cambay, together with saffron, coral, quicksilver, vermilion, and specie, and above all silver, which was more in demand than all the rest.

Such is the sum of intelligence concerning Ceylon recorded by the Genoese and Venetians during the three centuries in which they were conversant with the commerce of India. Their interest in the island had been rendered paramount by the events of the first Crusades, but it was extinguished by the discovery of the passage round the Cape of Good Hope. In the period which intervened the word traveller may be said to have been synonymous with merchant[1], and when the occupation of the latter was withdrawn, the adventures of the other were suspended. The vessels of the strangers, in a very few years after their first appearance in the Indian seas, began to divert from its accustomed channel, the stream of commerce which for so many ages had flowed in the direction of the Red Sea and the Persian Gulf; and the galleons of Portugal superseded the caravans of Arabia and the argosies of Venice.

[Footnote 1: CAESAR, FREDERICK opens the account of his wanderings in India, A.D. 1563, as follows:—"Having for the space of eighteen years continually coasted and travelled in many countries beyond the Indies, wherein I have had both good and ill success in my travels" &c. He may be regarded as the last of the merchant voyagers of Venice, His book was translated into English almost simultaneously with its appearance in Italian, under the title of "The Voyages and Travaile of M. Caesar Fredrick, Merchant of Venice, into the East Indies, and beyond the Indies, written at sea, in the Hercules of London, the 25th March, 1588, and translated out of Italian by Mr. THOMAS HICKOCKE, Lond, 4to. 1588." The author, who left Venice in 1563, crossed over from Cape Comorin to Chilaw, to be present at the fishery of pearls, which he describes almost as it is practised at the present time. The divers engaged in it were all Christians (see Christianity in Ceylon, ch. i. p. 11), under the care of friars of the order of St. Paul. Colombo was then a hold of the Portuguese, but without "walles or enemies;" and thence "to see how they gather the sinnamon, or take it from the tree that it groweth on (because the time that I was there, was the season that they gather it, in the moneth of Aprill) I, to satisfie my desire, went into a wood three miles from the citie, although in great danger, the Portugals being in arms, and in the field with the king of the country." Here he gives with great accuracy the particulars of the process of peeling cinnamon, as it is still practised by the Chalias.]

In his dismay the Sultan of Egypt threatened to demolish the sacred remains of Jerusalem, should the infidels of Europe persist in annihilating the trade of the Desert. Stimulated by the Doge, he attacked the Portuguese merchantmen in the Indian seas, and destroyed a convoy off the coast of Cochin; an outrage for which Albuquerque meditated a splendid revenge by an expedition to plunder Mecca and Medina, and to consummate the desolation of Egypt by diverting the Nile to the Red Sea, across Nubia or Abyssinia![1]

[Footnote 1: DARU, Hist, de Venise, lib. xix. p. 114. RAYNAL, Hist. des Deux Indes, vol. i. p. 156. FARIA Y SOUZA, Portug. Asia, pt. i. ch. viii. vol i. pp. 64, 83, 107, 137.]

But the catastrophe was inevitable; the rich freights of India and China were carried round the "Cape of Storms," and no longer slowly borne on the Tigris and the Nile. The harbours of Ormus and of Bassora became deserted; and on the shores of Asia Minor, where the commerce of Italy had intrenched itself in castles of almost feudal pretension, the rivalries of Genoa and Venice were extinguished in the same calamitous decay.



END OF THE FIRST VOLUME.