Excursions, Adventures And Field-Sports In Ceylon: Its Commercial And Military Importance

Conscious that, in publishing these volumes, one of the author’s positive motives, and that a principal one, is a sincere desire to benefit a very large class of his fellow-countrymen, he should have committed them, unprefaced, to the candid judgment of his readers, had not some circumstances recently occurred, which seem to call for a few additional remarks. The book emphasizes on two of the points upon which it treats those of colonization and emigration, if ever government measures of colonization and emigration are to be expected to afford, to our suffering and redundant population, that relief of which it obviously stands in such urgent need. The time is, perhaps, not far distant, when the prudence of such a course will be manifest to everyone. These two volumes of work are an amusing collection of events, and observations made by the author during his stay in Ceylon in the capacity of the commandant of Galle and seven Korles and as the judicial agent of the government. It has a wealth of observations on daily life, customs, ceremonies along with notices on its flora and fauna. It contains plates in both the volumes to delineate the things properly and a map in the 2nd volume. The author arrived in Ceylon in 1819 and published the book in 1843.