View in Ceylon
CHAPTER V.
COLOMBO.
March 5th.—At 9.30 a.m. we dropped anchor in the harbour of Colombo, having come twelve miles under sail between noon and 11 p.m. yesterday, and ninety-eight since we began steaming.
Colombo seems to have grown and improved since we were here ten years ago. We were soon comfortably established in the new and splendid Oriental Hotel, and busy with letters and newspapers.
In the afternoon we did some necessary shopping beneath the welcome shade of the hotel arcades. Later, as soon as the air had become a little cooler, we drove along the sea-front, called Galle Face, and enjoyed the delicious sea-breeze. Everybody seemed to be out, driving, riding, or walking. In one spot officers and soldiers were playing cricket and football as energetically as if they had been on Woolwich Common.