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Ceylon - an account of the island
by Sir James Emmerson Tennent, KCS, LLDCompiling exclusively to LankaWeb by Tilak S. Fernando, London
Introduction (cont.)
Respecting the Physical Geography and Natural History of the colony, I found an equal want of reliable information; and every work that even touched on the subject was pervaded by the misapprehension which I have collected evidence to correct; that Ceylon is but a fragment of the great Indian continent dissevered by some local convulsion; and that the zoology and botany of the island are identical with those of the mainland.
Thus for almost every particular and fact, whether physical or historical, I have been to a great extent thrown on my own researches; and obliged to seek for information in original sources, and in French and English versions of Oriental authorities. The results of my investigations are embodied in the following pages; and its only remains for me to express, in terms however inadequate, my obligations to the literary & scientific friends by whose aid I have been enabled to pursue my inquiries.
It is with pain that I advert to the portion of the section which treats of the British rule in Ceylon; in the course of which the discovery of the private correspondence of the first Governor, Mr. North, deposited along with the Wellesley Manuscripts, in the British Museum, has thrown an unexpected light over fearful events of 1803, and the massacre of the English troops then in garrison at Kandy. Hitherto the honour of the British Government has been unimpeached in these dark transactions; and the slaughter of the troops has been uniformly denounced as an evidence of the treacherous and " tiger-like" spirit of the Kandyan people.
But it is not possible now to read the narrative of these events, as the motives and the secret arrangements of the Governor with the treacherous Minister of the king are disclosed in the private letters of Mr. North to the Governor-general of India, without feeling that the sudden destruction of Major Davie's party , however revolting the remorseless butchery by which it was achieved, may have been but the consummation of a revenge provoked by the discovery of the treason concocted by the Adigar in confederacy with the representative of the British Crown. Nor is this construction weakened by the fact, that no immediate vengeance was exacted by the Governor in expiation of that fearful tragedy; and that the private letters of Mr. North to the Marquis of Wellesley contain avowals of ineffectual efforts to hush up the affair, and to obtain a clumsy promise by including the Kandyan king to make an admission of regret.
I am aware that the are passages following pages containing statements that occur more than once in the course of the work. But I found that in dealing with so many distinct subjects the same fact became sometimes an indispensable illustration of more than one topic; and hence repetition was unavoidable even at the risk of tautology.
To whatever extent the preparation of this work may have fallen short of its conception, and whatever its demerits in execution and style, I am not without hope that it will still exhibit evidence that by perseverance and research I have laboured to render it worthy of the subject.
James Emerson Tennet
London
July 12th, 1859
[1]An Account of the Island of Ceylon by Capt. R. PERC1VAL. 4to. London, 1805.
[2]A Description of Ceylon, by the Rev. James Cordiner A.M. 2 vols. 4to London 18907.C,. Biset,
[3]Voyages and Travels to India, Ceylon, and the Red Sea, by Lord Vicount Valentia. 3 vols. 4to London, 1809.
[4]A View of the Agricultural, Commercial and Financial Interests of Ceylon , by A. Bertolacci Esq. London 1817.
[5]A History of Ceylon from the earliest period to the Year MDCCXV, by Philalethes, A.M. 4 to Lond. 1817. The author is believed to have been the Rev. G. Bissett.
[6]Henry Marshall, F.R.S.E went to Ceylon as assistant surgeon of the 89th regiment, in 1806, and from 1816 till 1821 was the senior medical officer of the Kandyan provinces.
[7]An Account of the Interior of Ceylon by John Davy, M.D. 4to.London 1821
[8]VALENTYN, in his great work on the Dutch possessions in India.
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