I have been under the surgeon’s hands since I embarked, with a slight attack of Hong Kong fever; consequently I could not enjoy my passage, and was disgusted with the sight of eatables and drinkables. I am now quite recovered, and a drive about the environs of this city in a palanquin has had a good effect. These palanquins are small carriages with forward and back seats, adapted for two persons, and on low wheels, drawn by small Sumatra ponies full of spirit. The drivers, or rather runners, are Malabars from Madras, of a dark ebony color. The costume of my man is a white scarf bound round the head, loose white pants coming to his knees, and a red sash about his loins, so that his limbs are perfectly free, and he runs beside the horse at the top of his speed, holding one rein and the trace at the same time for safety and support. These men will run to the end of the island, sixteen miles, if occasion requires. You not unfrequently see persons galloping on horseback, and the man running along to take the reins when the rider dismounts.
Singapore, near the Straits of Malacca, is a small city on a small island, well built by the English. It is a free port, and large numbers of vessels from all parts visit it for purposes of traffic.
Great numbers of Chinese, say as many as thirty thousand, have migrated to this point, and can be seen in every kind of pursuit; they monopolize almost every species of labor, and being more vigorous than the others, can work cheaper at the various mechanical branches. The greatest variety of costume and language is found here, congregating from all the East and all the islands, Singapore being in the high-road from east to west.
I shall proceed to Penang upon Prince of Wales Island, by steamer, and thence to the island of Ceylon, on the other side of the bay of Bengal, where I shall wait for the steamer from Suez, on her way up to Calcutta, and as Ceylon is represented as being a beautiful island, and I shall be there some two weeks, you may expect to hear from me.
LXV.
Kandy, Island of Ceylon, Sept. 16, 1851.
I find myself now one hundred and forty-four miles from Point de Galle, the place where I left the steamer on my route from Penang to Singapore. Galle is a small fortified town which was first occupied by the Portuguese, taken afterwards by the Dutch, and finally acquired by the English, who are now in full and complete possession of this large island, extending from 6° to 10° N. Lat., from the Tropic of Cancer, at the west entrance of the Bay of Bengal opposite the Coromandel coast. It is about two-thirds the size of Ireland, and once contained a large population, but at present only one and a half million. From Point de Galle I proceeded to Colombo, the chief commercial mart, distant by land seventy-two miles, winding along through almost uninterrupted cocoa-nut groves, for some sixty miles, with long lines of thatched cabins, villages at intervals, and the most peculiar and primitive population in many respects I have ever met with. The natives along the coast are copper-colored, with fine features and slender forms; they wear long hair, falling half down their backs when loose and male and female wear two shell combs, one over the crown, and the other of great height to make the coiffure behind; it is difficult at first to distinguish the sexes among the young. The cocoa-nut tree is the chief support; they pay some attention to fishing, however, in the oddest vessels that ever floated, consisting in many instances of simple “dug-outs,” with an outrigger of bent boughs, which are lashed to the side of the vessel, and to the end is attached a pointed log, floating on the surface, and if the canvas is carrying the bark over, they balance it by sitting on the outrigger, sailing with great rapidity.
The harvest of the cocoa is now at hand. The milk is refreshing, and quenches thirst; the fruit is not only eaten, but large quantities of oil are made from it for use and exportation. The bark is rotted in pits of water, and bruised, then the fibres are pulled and made into cordage and rope of different kinds. The trees stand from six to fifteen feet apart, and are from fifty to eighty feet in height; large use is made of the liquid that exudes from the off-shoots near the top of the tree, which is distilled into arrack, and the natives may be seen like ourang-outangs, moving from the tops of the trees on the cordage made from the fibre to aid in climbing, while lower down are the earthen vessels in which the juice is collected. After passing through the cocoa-nut forests the cinnamon plantations present themselves, within a range of eight to ten miles of Colombo, and are mostly owned by foreigners.
One of the vices to which the natives are mostly addicted is the excessive use of the betel, which is a composition of the betel-leaf, the areka-nut, and chanam or luire, made from the muscle-shell, to which is sometimes added tobacco; it not only has a stimulating effect, but causes the lips, teeth, and inside of the mouth to appear blood-red, and tends in time to blacken the teeth, which is considered by some a mark of beauty. The stranger, when he first finds himself among a group of dark, ebony Kandians, and copper-colored Cingalese, with a sprinkling of Malabars in the primitive state, and in the costume of our first parents, with their mouths full of betel, imagines he has fallen among demons; at least I did, though I soon became accustomed to the sight.
The old kingdom of Kandy successfully resisted the Dutch and Portuguese, and for a long time the English, as from their fastnesses in the mountains, without roads to facilitate the enemy, the natives were long enabled to keep possession of the interior, after their sea-ports were occupied, and until they finally succumbed to the English. It lies seventy-two miles from Colombo, and fourteen hundred and sixty-seven feet above the level of the sea, and is characterized by the grandeur of the mountain scenery, and its wooded hills and luxuriant vegetation. The climate is very pleasant, its average temperature being 74°. The approach to this place is full of interest and novelty.