COLOMBO.

JEYLON is a most fertile island of British India, separated from the South entrance of Hindostan by the gulf of Manaar. Its chief productions are rice, cotton, tobacco, indigo, pepper, coffee, and a great variety of vegetables. The cocoa palm, Palmyra palm, talipot, tamarind, bread fruit, and cinnamon, are among the most useful of its trees; the last is cultivated to a great extent. The government consists of a governor, and executive and legislative councils. It has a bishop and clergy of the English church; and has government and other schools. Buddhism, however, still remains the almost universal creed.

The chief towns of the island are Colombo, the capital, Kandy, Trincomalé, Pointe-de-Galle, Jaffna, and Calpentyn.

Our illustration is a view of Colombo, the capital and principal sea port of the island and colony. It is situated on its western side, near a rocky headland by which the ancient mariners steered for the port of Galle, or Point-de-Galle, which is now a station where steam-boats call.

The fortified town, which is about a mile and a half in circumference, stands on a rocky peninsula, surrounded on three sides by the sea,

and having a lake towards the land, a moat, and drawbridges. Internally it is more like a European town than any other town in India, except Goa, the capital of the Portuguese dominions in the East, which is situate on an island at the mouth of the Mandona river. The buildings of Colombo are mostly in a plain Dutch style, and some of its streets are lined with trees. The modern fortifications were constructed by the Dutch, and few Europeans reside within the fort, except the military officers. The suburb of Colpetty, shaded by groves of the cocoa-nut palm, is a favourite retreat: The houses here are chiefly of one story, with broad verandahs. The large and lofty rooms are furnished with punkahs, floored with tiles, and, for the sake of the air, have windows opening to the ground; but they are not secure against the entrance of snakes, lizards, scorpions, and the many other insects of a tropical country. The open town to the east, is occupied by a mixed popu lation of Dutch and Portuguese descent; and in the suburbs are the humble mud-constructed dwellings of the native Shingalese, of the Dutch, Portuguese, Eurasians, Moors, and Malays. The pettah, or Black Town, the only ancient quarter, extends to the river Kalany-gunga, which enters the ocean three miles north of Colombo, after a westerly course of sixty miles, for three-fourths of which it is available for boats.

The principal public buildings of Colombo, are the government-house, the court-house, English, Dutch, and Portuguese churches and chapels, extensive barracks, a good military hospital, and the light-house. It has various museums, schools, hotels, and libraries.

The harbour, which is small, is defended by several forts, and the roadstead is safe only during the south-east monsoon; but Colombo is the entrepôt for most of the foreign trade of Ceylon.

The early name of the town was Kalan-totta,the Kalana Ferry, so called from its proximity to the river; the Moors corrupted it into Kalambu, and is so described about 1340, as the finest city of Serendib. The Portuguese, who occupied it in 1517, fortified it; and its designation, Kalambu had merged into Kolamba or Columbu, and was henceforward written Colombo, in honour of Christopher Columbus. The Dutch succeeded to the Portuguese, it being taken by them in 1603, and in 1796 it was taken by the English, who still remain in pos

session.

The population is about 40,000. The mean temperature 80°, or thereabouts; and at the change of the monsoon the rain falls down in a perfect deluge.

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