The Boy Travellers in the Far East, Part Third / Adventures of Two Youths in a Journey to Ceylon and India; With Descriptions of Borneo, the Philippine Islands and Burmah

by Thomas Wallace Knox

SIGHTS IN COLOMBO.—RAILWAY JOURNEY TO KANDY.

Colombo consists of two parts, "The Fort" and "The Black Town." The Fort includes the foreign quarter: the government offices are here, and also the principal hotels and warehouses, as well as the residences of the English inhabitants. The Black Town, or Pettah, is made up of a mixed population, principally natives and half-castes, with a sprinkling of Moormen, Parsees, and other nationalities more or less uncertain. The Pettah formerly extended close up to the Fort, but when the Dutch were about to be attacked by the English, near the end of the last century, they cleared a space of several hundred yards, and it has remained clear ever since.

Our friends took a stroll through the Fort and down to the harbor, where they found a miscellaneous collection of ships from the coasts of India and Ceylon, and from other parts of the world. The harbor is accessible only to small vessels of native construction: foreign ships are obliged to lie farther out, and to land and receive their cargoes and passengers in lighters and row-boats. When the south-west monsoon is blowing the surf rolls unpleasantly from the sea, and the operation of landing or embarking is a serious one for nervous persons. A long pier or breakwater was begun in 1875, and the authorities promised to have it completed within ten years from the date of commencement. When finished, it will afford shelter for large ships, and greatly increase the importance of Colombo.

Frank asked the Doctor if the place was named for Christopher Columbus, the great navigator.

"Yes and no," was the answer. "It is called Col-amba in the native histories as far back as a.d. 496, and an Arabian traveller, in 1344, speaks of it as 'Kalambu, the finest town in Serendib.' It kept the name of Kalambu till the arrival of the Portuguese, who changed it to Colombo in honor of the famous Genoese discoverer of America. There has been a town or city here for nearly if not quite two thousand years, but it was never of much importance till the Portuguese, and after them the Dutch and English, held the island."

In the course of their promenade the boys discovered that the walls of the Fort were nearly two miles in circuit, and of considerable strength and thickness. The Doctor told them the Fort was built by the Dutch, and had been only slightly altered by the English, but there was a prospect that the most of the walls would be removed in a few years to make way for new buildings. The Fort stands on a promontory between the sea and a couple of lakes, and is consequently a place of great natural strength. The houses are solidly built, the streets are lighted with gas, and altogether Colombo is far from uncomfortable as a place of residence.

A BUSINESS STREET IN THE "BLACK TOWN."

Numbers of peddlers were in the streets, and the corridor of the hotel was crowded with them. They were of the same character as the itinerant merchants of Singapore and Point de Galle, and quite as persistent in offering their wares for sale. The goods were chiefly the products of India and Ceylon, and included some very pretty shellwork, carvings in ivory, ebony, and sandal-wood; Indian jewellery, and gems; the most of the latter being the false gems from Point de Galle. The boys were attracted by the models of Cingalese boats, and after a good deal of bargaining they bought one to send home. It was of the outrigger pattern, very much like those of Galle and the eastern coast, but with the outrigger larger in proportion to the size of the boat.