An account of the interior of Ceylon, and of its inhabitants. With travels in that island / By John Davy.

  • John Davy
Date:
1821
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: An account of the interior of Ceylon, and of its inhabitants. With travels in that island / By John Davy. Source: Wellcome Collection.

    11/574
    PREFACE. This work is formed from original materials, which I collected in Ceylon, during a residence on that station, on the Medical Staff of the Army, from August, 1816, to February, 1820. The substance of the three first chapters, on the physical state of the Island in general, and on some particular branches of natural history, is the result of my own enquiries, enriched by the contributions of some medical friends. The information contained in the fourth, fifth, and sixth chap- ters, on the Political Condition of the Interior, and on its Old Form of Government, was obtained from native sources; principally from Kandyan;chiefs high in office, and conversant with business, and who were constantly in attendance at the court of the dethroned monarch. The account of the Religion of the Singalese, and of the Boodhaical System, which forms the seventh chapter, was collected chiefly in Kandy, in conversations held with the most enlight- ened and learned of the priests, and after a good deal of laborious enquiry to ascertain the truth and avoid error, on a subject particularly liable to misconception. The information contained in the eighth chapter, on the Litera- ture and Arts of the Singalese, was also drawn from the fountain-