THE AUSTRALIAN ABROAD. BRANCHES FROM THE MAIN ROUTES ROUND THE WORLD. CHAPTER I. GALLE AND WAKHWELLA (CEYLON). CEYLON, "India's utmost isle," is a pleasant surprise to the Western-world man who may land at Galle after a wearying time at sea. Passing the "Promontory of Birds," which marked for ancient mariners the entrance to the harbour, he glides into its dancing waters and looks with delight at pleasant novelties all around. The general knowledge about Ceylon is that it is an English Crown colony, having a name for coffee, rice, and spices-chief among which is cinnamon; that the Portuguese had it from 1505, when they were the great maritime folks of the world, and kept it until a greater than they came in the shape of the Dutch, who, after eighteen years' war, took it from them in 1658, and kept it until 1796, when the greatest of all came, who then took it away from the Dutch, and under whose care it continues thriving and prospering, as do all places under British rule-the only protection needful to success. This "pearl drop on the brow of India," as Ceylon is called in Eastern figurative language, is of pearliform or lobe shape, 270 miles long by 140 broad. Its length is reckoned from the Galle district on its south to Jaffnapatam on its northern B end, and its breadth from Colombo on its western to Koemary on its eastern shore-a goodly possession of a place that one is not surprised to find has been a great one, a surprisingly great one, indeed, in its time, and has left indications that endure to testify to it. This pleasant land has had a further advantage that neither the greatness of its ancient capital, large as London, nor its Portuguese or Dutch owners could give to it. Its merits and failings have been sung by a poct who has told us that "Spicy breezes blow soft o'er Ceylon's isle, Where every prospect pleases, and only man is vile." About the latter part of the statement it must be remembered that the poet was also a bishop, and so had a professional as well as a poetical licence to sit thus in judgment on his fellowmen. They were, I afterwards found, very decent folk indeed -these condemned ones of Ceylon, and as good in all their religious observances as any reasonable bishop could desire— one liberal enough to admit that the New Jerusalem, like to the old, has many means of entrance. It is to be supposed that Bishop Heber meant the Cingalese only when saying that all men were vile in Ceylon's isle, but the anathematized natives may claim that the stigma attaches to the resident whites also, and very justly, was my humble opinion before leaving the island. They have in return the satisfaction, black, brown, and white alike, that the poet has saved their land and themselves to the knowledge of future ages. Other nations that had no poets have vainly sought to keep a name in the world's story "Vainly for fame all arts they tried, They had no poet and they died, In vain they fought, in vain they bled, The view of the pretty harbour of Galle, and fantasticallooking native boats, engages one's immediate attention and retains it for some time. In these queer-looking logs-just hewn out sufficiently for two thin men to sit in dos-à-dos—the natives actually ask one to trust one's self to the shore. It is true that the insecure looking craft-the narrowest of all floating boats-is really the most secure of all, being kept from overturning by an outlying log of the same length as the boat that floats alongside, about five or six feet distant, and is secured to the head and tail of the boat by two bamboos. In these craft the natives go outside the harbour, and away to sea, fishing, and always come safely back, subject to what sharks may do. As passenger-boats they are, however, susceptible of improvement. There is no possibility of turning round in one when a seat is once taken. My hands then hung over the sides of the boat, and could have been used, if need be and there were no sharks about, to help paddle it to the shore. As one travels for novel sensations, nothing but one of these "catamarans " served to take me to land. Not all of these catamarans came for passengers. The Cingalee has ideas of trade, and brings out his fruits and vegetables. He peddles also, and has a variety of novel and tempting tortoise-shell goods to offer to strangers. Jewellery is, however, his strong point-and his weak one too. He is so short of gold for manufacturing his goods, that he is unceasingly anxious to purchase, at premium, any gold coins that travellers may have. He wants the sovereigns, halfsovereigns, and napoleons, for melting-pot purposes, and to the melted gold he adds something that will eke it out. That is, however, done all over the world. His land produces many gems. Its surrounding seas are famous also for their pearls. Of the gems the blue sapphires and the rubies stand first. There are also moonstones, cinnamon stones, cat's eyes, and zircon diamonds, as also a garnet, so common as to be the pebble found in almost every streamlet. The Cingalee offers the stones in set and unset forms, but I grieve to say that he cannot be trusted-that is to say, not more than any other man. The imitation stones that he has on hand are more numerous than the real ones, and quite as good-looking. It is in this hasty taking the good-looking for good that we get so swindled in other things than Cingalese gewgaws. I am here offered a handsome-looking sapphire, from the gem-pits of Birmingham, for half-a-crown, and I cannot for the life of me tell it from another, born of this island, for which 20/. is asked. The Cingalee has got altogether a bad name as a peddler of jewellery that goes much against himself and his goods. Bishop Heber must, I think, have been got at in that way. "We learn in suffering what we teach in song." Had the vendors of blue glass sapphires and imitation emeralds never got the best of the bishop, he might not have penned the poetry which so glorifies Ceylon and stigmatizes its people. Looking about the primitive sort of boat that I am in, I see that its fastenings are all of cocoanut cordage. The sculls are secured in rings of the same material, and when a glance around can be spared, the approaching shores are to be seen all thickly fringed with the tall cocoanut-trees. In Ceylon's isle the cocoanut-tree is king. It is all around its shores. The nearer to the salt water the better for the growth of this tree. It is a singular-looking and not a graceful production-this common cocoanut palm. It won't grow straight, but inclines with a queer twist of its trunk much to one side. It carries all its branches and leaves, its flowers and fruit, up some forty to sixty feet or more in the air, and so has an ungainly look in the bare length of its notched, scaffold-polelooking trunk-always gouty about the foot. It is "from information received" on this passage over the harbour that I learn that Ceylon is only divided from the land of India by a channel of some sixty miles. It has in fact been washed off from that continent, as England has from the continent of Europe. The rocks that still abound in that passage have got the name of "Adam's Bridge." This channel was no doubt a good ford in his time, and legend has it that Adam lived in Ceylon. His footstep is shown in the interior to this day. I may again allude to it, but remark here that it was, from the print of it, just the sized foot of one who could have used the rocks of this channel for steppingstones. Apropos of narrow channels, my informant tells me that the way here from England by way of the Suez Canal is |