Chapter XXXIV: Book VIII (2)

This unexpected result has served to cast a suspicion on the title of Ceylon to be designated _par excellence_ the "Cinnamon Isle," and even with the knowledge that the cinnamon laurel is indigenous there, it admits of but little doubt that the spice which in the earlier ages was imported into Europe through Arabia, was obtained, first from Africa, and afterwards from India; and that it was not till after the twelfth or thirteenth century that its existence in Ceylon became known to the merchants resorting to the island. So little was its real history known in Europe, even at the latter period, that Phile, who composed his metrical treatise, [Greek: Peri Zôôn Idiotêtos], for the information of the Emperor Michael XI. (Palæologus), about the year 1310, repeats the ancient fable of Herodotus, that cinnamon grew in an unknown Indian country, whence it was carried by birds, from whose nests it was abstracted by the natives of Arabia.[1]

[Footnote 1:

[Greek:
Ornis ho kinnamômos ônomasmenos
To kinnamômon euren agnooumenon,
Huph ou kalian organoi tois philtatois
Mallon ie tois melasin Indois, autanax
Arômatikên hêdonên diaplekei.]

PHILE, xxviii.

VINCENT, in scrutinising the writings of the classical authors, anterior to Cosmas, who treated of Taprobane, was surprised to discover that no mention of cinnamon as a production of Ceylon was to be met with in Pliny, Dioscorides, or Ptolemy, and that even the author of the mercantile _Periplus_ was silent regarding it. (Vol. ii. p. 512.) D'Herbelot has likewise called attention to the same fact. (_Bibl. Orient._ vol. iii. p. 308.) This omission is not to be explained by ascribing it to mere inadvertence. The interest of the Greeks and Romans was naturally excited to discover the country which produced a luxury so rare as to be a suitable gift for a king; and so costly, that a crown of cinnamon tipped with gold was a becoming offering to the gods. But the Arabs succeeded in preserving the secret of its origin, and the curiosity of Europe was baffled by tales of cinnamon being found in the nest of the Phoenix, or gathered in marshes guarded by monsters and winged serpents. Pliny appears to have been the first to suspect that the most precious of spices came not from Arabia, but from Æthiopia (lib. xii. c. xlii.); and COOLEY, in an argument equally remarkable for ingenuity and research, has succeeded in demonstrating the soundness of this conjecture, and establishing the fact that the cinnamon brought to Europe by the Arabs, and afterwards by the Greeks, came chiefly from the eastern angle of Africa, the tract around Cape Gardafui, which is marked on the ancient maps as the _Regio Cinnamomifera._ (Journ. Roy. Georg. Society, 1849, vol. xix. p. 166.) COOLEY has suggested in his learned work on "_Ptolemy and the Nile_," that the name _Gardafui_ is a compound of the Somali word _gard_, "a port," and the Arabic _afhaoni_, a generic term for aromata and spices. It admits of no doubt that the cinnamon of Ceylon was unknown to commerce in the sixth century of our era; although there is evidence of a supply which, if not from China, was probably carried in Chinese vessels at a much earlier period, in the Persian name _dar chini_, which means "_Chinese wood_," and in the ordinary word "cinn-amon," "_Chinese amomum_," a generic name for aromatic spices generally. (NEES VON ESENBACH, _de Cinnamono Disputatio_, p. 12.) Ptolemy, equally with Pliny, placed the "Cinnamon Region" at the north-eastern extremity of Africa, now the country of the Somaulees; and the author of the _Periplus_, mindful of his object, in writing a guidebook for merchant-seamen, particularises cassia amongst the exports of the same coast; but although he enumerates the productions of Ceylon, gems, pearls, ivory, and tortoiseshell, he is silent as to cinnamon. Dioscorides and Galen, in common with the travellers and geographers of the ancients, ignore its Singhalese origin, and unite with them in tracing it to the country of the Troglodytæ. I attach no importance to those passages in WAGENFELD'S version of _Sanchoniathon_, in which, amongst other particulars, obviously describing Ceylon under the name of "the island of Rachius," which he states to have been visited by the Phoenicians; he says, that the western province produced, the finest cinnamon ([Greek: kinnamô pollô te kai diapheronti]), that the mountains abounded in cassia (Greek: kasia arômatikôtatê]), and that the minor kings paid their tribute in both, to the paramount sovereign. (SANCHONIATHON, ed. Wagenfeld, Bremen, 1837, lib. vii. ch. xii.). The MS. from which Wagenfeld printed, is evidently a mediæval forgery (see note (A) to vol. i. ch. v. p. 547). Again, it is equally strange that the writers of Arabia and Persia preserve a similar silence as to the cinnamon of the island, although they dwell with due admiration on its other productions, in all of which they carried on a lucrative trade. Sir WILLIAM OUSELEY, after a fruitless search through the writings of their geographers and travellers, records his surprise at this result, and mentions especially his disappointment, that Ferdousi, who enriches his great poem with glowing descriptions of all the objects presented by surrounding nations to the sovereigns of Persia,--ivory, ambergris, and aloes, vases, bracelets, and jewels,--never once adverts to the exquisite cinnamon of Ceylon.--_Travels_, vol. i, p. 41.

The conclusion deducible from fifteen centuries of historic testimony is, that the earliest knowledge of cinnamon possessed by the western nations was derived from China, and that it first reached Judea and Phoenicia overland by way of Persia (Song of Solomon, iv. 14: Revelation xviii, 13). At a later period when the Arabs, "the merchants of Sheba," competed for the trade of Tyre, and earned to her "the chief of all spices" (Ezekiel xvii. 22), their supplies were drawn from their African possessions, and the cassia of the Troglodytic coast supplanted the cinnamon of the far East, and to a great extent excluded it from the market. The Greeks having at length discovered the secret of the Arabs, resorted to the same countries as their rivals in commerce, and surpassing them in practical navigation and the construction of ships, the Sabæans were for some centuries reduced to a state of mercantile dependence and inferiority. In the meantime the Roman Empire declined; the Persians under the Sassanides engrossed the intercourse with the East, the trade of India now flowed through the Persian Gulf, and the ports of the Red Sea were deserted. "Thus the downfall, and it may be the extinction, of the African spice trade probably dates from the close of the sixth century, and Malabar succeeded at once to this branch of commerce."--COOLEY, _Regio Cinnamomifera_, p. 14. Cooley supposes that the Malabars may have obtained from Ceylon the cinnamon with which they supplied the Persians; as Ibn Batuta, in the fourteenth century, saw cinnamon trees drifted upon the shores of the island, whither they had been carried by torrents from the forests of the interior (_Ibn Batuta_, ch. xx. p. 182). The fact of their being found so is in itself sufficient evidence, that down to that time no active trade had been carried on in the article; and the earliest travellers in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, MARCO POLO, JOHN OF HESSE, FRA JORDANUS and others, whilst they allude to cinnamon as one of the chief productions of Malabar, speak of Ceylon, notwithstanding her wealth in jewels and pearls, as if she were utterly destitute of any spice of this kind. NICOLA DE CONTI, A.D. 1444, is the first European writer, in whose pages I have found Ceylon described as yielding cinnamon, and he is followed by Varthema, A.D. 1506, and Corsali, A.D. 1515.

Long after the arrival of Europeans in Ceylon, cinnamon was only found in the forests of the interior, where it was cut and brought away by the Chalias, the caste who, from having been originally weavers, devoted themselves to this new employment. The Chalias are themselves an immigrant tribe, and, according to their own tradition, they came to the island only a very short time before the appearance of the Portuguese. (See a _History of the Chalias_, by ADRIAN RAJAPAKSE, _a Chief of the Caste, Asiat. Reser._ vol. iii. p. 440.) So difficult of access were the forests, that the Portuguese could only obtain a full supply from them once in three years; and the Dutch, to remedy this uncertainty, made regular plantations in the vicinity of their forts about the year 1770 A.D., "_so that the cultivation of cinnamon in Ceylon is not yet a century old_"--COOLEY, p. 15. It is a question for scientific research rather than for historical scrutiny, whether the cinnamon laurel of Ceylon, as it exists at the present day, is indigenous to the island, or whether it is identical with the cinnamon of Abyssinia, and may have been carried thence by the Arabs; or whether it was brought to the island from the adjacent continent of India; or imported by the Chinese from islands still further to the east. One fact is notorious at the present day, that nearly the whole of the cinnamon grown in Ceylon is produced in a small and well-defined area occupying the S.W. quarter of the island, which has been at all times the resort of foreign shipping. The natives, from observing its appearance for the first time in other and unexpected places, believe it to be sown by the birds who carry thither the undigested seeds; and the Dutch, for this reason, prohibited the shooting of crows,--a precaution that would scarcely be necessary for the protection of the plant, had they believed it to be not only indigenous, but peculiar to the island. We ourselves were led, till very recently, to imagine that Ceylon enjoyed a "natural monopoly" of cinnamon.

Mr. THWAITES, of the Royal Botanic Gardens at Kandy, is of opinion from his own observation, that cinnamon is indigenous to Ceylon, as it is found, but of inferior quality, in the central mountain range, as high as 3000 feet above the level of the sea--and again in the sandy soil near Batticaloa on the east coast, he saw it in such quantity as to suggest the idea that it must be the remains of former cultivation. This statement of Mr. Thwaites is quite in consistency with the narrative of VALENTYN (ch. vii.), that the Dutch, on their first arrival in Ceylon, A.D. 1601-2, took on board cinnamon at Batticaloa,--and that the surrounding district continued to produce it in great abundance in A.D. 1726. (Ib. ch. xv. p. 223, 224.) Still it must be observed that its appearance in these situations is not altogether inconsistent with the popular belief that the seeds may have been carried there by birds.

Finding that the Singhalese works accessible to me, the _Mahawanso_, the _Rajavali_, the _Rajaratnacari_, &c., although frequently particularising the aromatic shrubs and flowers planted by the pious care of the native sovereigns, made no mention of cinnamon, I am indebted to the good offices of the Maha-Moodliar de Sarem, of Mr. De Alwis, the translator of the _Sidath-Sangara_, and of Mr. Spence Hardy, the learned historian of Buddhism, for a thorough, examination of such native books as were likely to throw light on the question. Mr. Hardy writes to me that he has not met with the word cinnamon (_kurundu_) in any early Singhalese books; but there is mention of a substance called "_paspalawata_" of which cinnamon forms one of the ingredients. Mr. de Alwis has been equally unsuccessful, although in the _Saraswate Nigardu_, an ancient Sanskrit Catalogue of Plants, the true cinnamon is spoken of as _Sinhalam_, a word which signifies "belonging to Ceylon" to distinguish it from cassia, which is found in Hindustan. The Maha-Moodliar, as the result of an investigation made by him in communication with some of the most erudite of the Buddhist priesthood familiar with Pali and Singhalese literature, informs me that whilst cinnamon is alluded to in several Sanskrit works on Medicine, such as that of Susrata, and thence copied into Pali translations, its name has been found only in Singhalese works of comparatively modern date, although it occurs in the treatise on Medicine and Surgery popularly attributed to King Bujas Raja, A.D. 339. Lankagodde, a learned priest of Galle, says that the word _lawanga_ in an ancient Pali vocabulary means cinnamon, but I rather think this is a mistake, for _lawanga_ or _lavanga_ is the Pali name for "cloves," that for cinnamon being _lamago_.

The question therefore remains in considerable obscurity. It is difficult to understand how an article so precious could exist in the highest perfection in Ceylon, at the period when the island was the very focus and centre of Eastern commerce, and yet not become an object of interest and an item of export. And although it is sparingly used in the Singhalese cuisine, still looking at its many religious uses for decoration and incense, the silence of the ecclesiastical writers as to its existence is not easily accounted for.

The explanation may possibly be, that cinnamon, like coffee, was originally a native of the east angle of Africa; and that the same Arabian adventurers who carried coffee to Yemen, where it flourishes to the present day, may have been equally instrumental in introducing cinnamon into India and Ceylon. In India its cultivation, probably from natural causes, proved unsuccessful; but in Ceylon the plant enjoyed that rare combination of soil, temperature, and climate, which ultimately gave to its qualities the highest possible development.]

The first authentic notice which we have of Singhalese cinnamon occurs in the voyages of Ibn Batuta the Moor, who, impelled by religious enthusiasm, set out from his native city Tangiers, in the year 1324, and devoted twenty-eight years to a pilgrimage, the record of which has entitled him to rank amongst the most remarkable travellers of any age or country.

On his way to India, he visited, in Shiraz, the tomb of the Imaum Abu Abd Allah, "who made known the way from India to the mountain of Serendib." As this saint died in the year of the _Hejira_ 331, his story serves to fix the origin of the Mahometan pilgrimages to Adam's Peak, in the early part of the tenth century. When steering for the coast of India, from the Maldives, Ibn Batuta was carried by the south-west monsoon towards the northern portion of Ceylon, which was then (A.D. 1347) in the hands of the Malabars, the Singhalese sovereign having removed his capital southward to Gampola. The Hindu chief of Jaffna was at this time in possession of a fleet in "which he occasionally transported his troops against the Mahometans on other parts of the coast;" where the Singhalese chroniclers relate that the Tamils at this time had erected forts at Colombo, Negombo, and Chilaw.

Ibn Batuta was permitted to land at Battala (Putlam) and found the shore covered with "cinnamon wood," which "the merchants of Malabar transport without any other price than a few articles of clothing which are given as presents to the king. This may be attributed to the circumstance that it is brought down by the mountain torrents, and left in great heaps upon the shore."

This passage is interesting, though not devoid of obscurity, for cinnamon is not known to grow farther north than Chilaw, nor is there any river in the district of Putlam which could bear the designation of a "mountain torrent." Along the coast further south the cinnamon district commences, and the current of the sea may have possibly carried with it the uprooted laurels described in the narrative. The whole passage, however, demonstrates that at that time, at least, Ceylon had no organised trade in the spice.

The Tamil chieftain exhibited to Ibn Batuta his wealth in "pearls," and under his protection he made the pilgrimage to the summit of Adam's Peak accompanied by four jyogees who visited the foot-mark every year, "four Brahmans, and ten of the king's companions, with fifteen attendants carrying provisions." The first day he crossed a river, (the estuary of Calpentyn?) on a boat made of reeds, and entered the city of Manar Mandali; probably the site of the present Minneri Mundal. This was the "extremity of the territory of the infidel king," whence Ibn Batuta proceeded to the port of Salawat (Chilaw), and thence (turning inland) he reached the city of the Singhalese sovereign at Gampola, then called Ganga-sri-pura, which he contracts into Kankar or Ganga.[1]

[Footnote 1: As he afterwards writes, Galle "Kale."]

He describes accurately the situation of the ancient capital, in a valley between two hills, upon a bend of the river called, "the estuary of rubies." The emperor he names "Kina," a term I am unable to explain, as the prince who then reigned was probably Bhuwaneka-bahu IV., the first Singhalese monarch who held his court at Gampola.

The king on feast days rode on a white elephant, his head adorned with very large rubies, which are found in his country, imbedded in "a white stone abounding in fissures, from which they cut it out and give it to the polishers." Ibn Batuta enumerates three varieties, "the red, the yellow, and the cornelian;" but the last must mean the sapphire, the second the topaz; and the first refers, I apprehend, to the amethyst; for in the following passage, in describing the decorations of the head of the white elephant, he speaks of "seven rubies, each of which was larger than a hen's egg," and a saucer made of a ruby as broad as the palm of the hand.

In the ascent from Gampola to Adam's Peak, he speaks of the monkeys with beards like a man (_Presbytes ursinus_, or _P. cephalopterus_), and of the "fierce leech," which lurks in the trees and damp grass, and springs on the passers by. He describes the trees with leaves that never fall, and the "red roses" of the rhododendrons which still characterise that lofty region. At the foot of the last pinnacle which crowns the summit of the peak, he found a minaret named after Alexander the Great[1]; steps hewn out of the rock, and "iron pins to which chains are appended" to assist the pilgrims in their ascent; a well filled with fish, and last of all, on the loftiest point of the mountain, the sacred foot-print of the First Man, into the hollow of which the pilgrims drop their offerings of gems and gold.

[Footnote 1: In oriental tradition, Alexander is believed to have visited Ceylon in company with the "philosopher Bolinus," by whom De Sacy believes that the Arabs meant Apollonius of Tyana. There is a Persian poem by ASHREP, the _Zaffer Namah Skendari_, which describes the conqueror's voyage to Serendib, and his devotions at the foot-mark of Adam, for reaching which, he and Bolinus caused steps to be hewn in the rock, and the ascent secured by rivets and chains.--See OUSELEY'S _Travels_, vol. i. p. 58. ]

In descending the mountain, Ibn Batuta passed through the village of Kalanga, near which was a tomb, said to be that of Abu Abd Allah Ibn Khalif[1]; he visited the temple of Dinaur (Devi-Neuera, or Dondera Head), and returned to Putlam by way of Kale (Galle), and Kolambu (Colombo), "the finest and largest city in Serendib."

[Footnote 1: Abu Abd Allah was the first who led the Mahometan pilgrims to Ceylon. The tomb alluded to was probably a _cenotaph_ in his honour; as Ibn Batuta had previously visited his tomb at Shiraz.]

CHAP. III.

CEYLON AS KNOWN TO THE CHINESE.

Although the intimate knowledge of Ceylon acquired by the Chinese at an early period, is distinctly ascribable to the sympathy and intercourse promoted by community of religion, there is traditional, if not historical evidence that its origin, in a remote age, may be traced to the love of gain and their eagerness for the extension of commerce. The Singhalese ambassadors who arrived at Rome in the reign of the Emperor Clandius, stated that their ancestors had reached China by traversing India and the Himalayan mountains long before ships had attempted the voyage by sea[1], and as late as the fifth century of the Christian era, the King of Ceylon[2], in an address delivered by his envoy to the Emperor of China, shows that both routes were then in use.[3]

[Footnote 1: PLINY, b. vi. ch. xxiv.]

[Footnote 2: Maha Naama, A.D. 428; _Sung-shoo_, a "History of the Northern Sung Dynasty," b. xcvii, p. 5.]

[Footnote 3: It was probably the knowledge of the overland route that led the Chinese to establish their military colonies in Kashgar, Yarkhand and the countries lying between their own frontier and the north-east boundary of India.--_Journ. Asiat._ 1. vi. p. 343. An embassy from China to Ceylon, A.D. 607, was entrusted to _Chang-Tsuen_, "Director of the Military Lands."--_Suy-shoo_; b. lxxxi. p. 3.]

It is not, however, till after the third century of the Christian era that we find authentic records of such journeys in the literature of China. The Buddhist pilgrims, who at that time resorted to India, published on their return itineraries and descriptions of the distant countries they had visited, and officers, both military and civil, brought back memoirs and statistical statements for the information of the government and the guidance of commerce.[1]

[Footnote 1: REINAUD, _Mémoir sur l'Inde_, p. 9. STANISLAS JULIEN, preface to his translation of _Hiouen-Thsang_, Paris, 1853, p. 1. A bibliographical notice of the most important Chinese works which contain descriptions of India, by M.S. JULIEN, will be found in the _Journ. Asiat._ for October, 1832, p. 264.]

It was reasonable to anticipate that in such records information would be found regarding the condition of Ceylon as it presented itself from time to time to the eyes of the Chinese; but unfortunately numbers of the original works have long since perished, or exist only in extracts preserved in dynastic histories and encyclopædias, or in a class of books almost peculiar to China, called "tsung-shoo," consisting of excerpts reproduced from the most ancient writers. M. Stanislas Julien discovered in the _Pien-i-tien_, ("a History of Foreign Nations," of which there is a copy in the Imperial Library of Paris,) a collection of fragments from Chinese authors who had treated of Ceylon; but as the intention of that eminent Sinologue to translate them[1] has not yet been carried into effect, they are not available to me for consultation. In this difficulty I turned for assistance to China; and through the assiduous kindness of Mr. Wylie, of the London Mission at Shanghai, I have received extracts from twenty-four Chinese writers between the fifth and eighteenth centuries, from which and from translations of Chinese travels and topographies made by Remusat, Klaproth, Landresse, Pauthier, Stanislas Julien, and others, I have been enabled to collect the following facts relative to the knowledge of Ceylon possessed by the Chinese in the middle ages.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Journ. Asiat._ t. xxix. p. 39. M. Stanislas Julien is at present engaged in the translation of the _Si-yu-ki_, or "Mémoires des Contrées Occidentales," the eleventh chapter of which contains an account of Ceylon in the eighth century.]

[Footnote 2: The Chinese works referred to in the following pages are.--_Sung-shoo_, the "History of the Northern Sung Dynasty," A.D. 417-473, by CHIN-Y[)O], written about A.D. 487,--_Wei-shoo_, "a History of the Wei Tartar Dynasty," A.D. 386-556, by WEI-SHOW, A.D. 590.--_Fo[)e]-Kou[)e] Ki_, an "Account of the Buddhist Kingdoms," by CH[)Y]-F[)A]-HIAN, A.D. 399-414, French transl., by Rémusat, Klaproth, and Landresse. Paris, 1836.--_Leang-shoo_, "History of the Leang Dynasty," A.D. 502-557, by YAOU-SZE-LEEN, A.D. 630.--_Suy-shoo_, "History of the Suy Dynasty," A.D. 581-617, by WEI-CHING, A.D. 633.--HIOUEN-THSANG. His Life and Travels, A.D. 645, French, transl., by Stanislas Julien. Paris, 1853.--_Nan-shè_, "History of the Southern Empire," A.D. 317-589, by LE-YEN-SHOW, A.D. 650,--_Tung-tëen_, "Cyclopædia of History," by TOO-YEW, A.D. 740.--KÉ-NË[)E] _si-y[)i]h hing-Ching_, "Itinerary of KÉ-NË[)E]'s Travels in the Western Regions," from A.D. 964-979.--_Tae-ping yu-lan_, "The Tae-ping Digest of History," compiled by Imperial Command, A.D. 983.--_Ts[)i]h-foo yuen-Kwei_, "Great Depository of the National Archives," compiled by Imperial Command, A.D. 1012.--_Sin-Tang-shoo_, "A New History of the Tang Dynasty," A.D. 618-906, by GOW-YANG-SEW and SING-KÉ, A.D. 1060.--_Tung-che_, "National Annals," by CHING-TSEAOU, A.D. 1150.--_W[)a]n-hëén tung-kaou_, "Antiquarian Researches," by MA-TWAN-LIN, A.D. 1319. Of this remarkable work there is an admirable analysis by Klaproth in the _Asiatic Journal_ for 1832, vol. xxxv. p. 110, and one still more complete in the _Journal Asiatique_, vol. xxi. p. 3. The portion relating to Ceylon has been translated into French by M. Pauthier in the _Journal Asiatique_ for April, 1836, and again by M. Stanislas Julien in the same Journal for July, 1836, t. xxix, p. 36.--_Y[)u]h-hae_, "The Ocean of Gems," by WANG-YANG-LIN, A.D. 1338.--_Taou-e chele[)o]_, "A General Account of Island Foreigners," by WANG-TA-YOUEN, A.D. 1350.--_Ts[)i]h-ké_, "Miscellaneous Record;" written at the end of the Yuen dynasty, about the close of the fourteenth century.--_Po-w[)u]h yaou-lan_, "Philosophical Examiner;" written during the Ming dynasty, about the beginning of the fifteenth century.--_Se-y[)i]h-ke foo-choo_, "A Description of Western Countries," A.D. 1450. This is the important work of which M. Stanislas Julien has recently published the first volume of his French translation, _Mémoires des Contrées Occidentales_, Paris, 1857; and of which he has been so obliging as to send me those sheets of the second volume, now preparing for the press, which contain the notices of Ceylon by HIOUEN-THSANG. They, however, add very little to the information already given in the _Life and Travels of Hiouen-Thsang.--Woo-he[)o]-pëen_, "Records of the Ming Dynasty," by CHING-HEAOU, A.D. 1522.--_S[)u]h-wan-hëen tung-kaou_, "Supplement to the Antiquarian Researches," by WANG-KÉ, A.D. 1603.--_S[)u]h-Hung këen-luh_, "Supplement to the History of the Middle Ages," by SHAOU-YUEN-PING, A.D. 1706.--_Ming-she_, "History of the Ming Dynasty," A.D. 1638-1643, by CHANG-TING-Y[)U]H, A.D. 1739.--_Ta-tsing y[)i]h-tung_, "A Topographical Account of the Manchoo Dynasty," of which there is a copy in the British Museum.]

Like the Greek geographers, the earliest Chinese authorities grossly exaggerated the size of Ceylon: they represented it as lying "cross-wise" in the Indian Ocean[1], and extending in width from east to west one third more than in depth from north to south.[2] They were struck by the altitude of its hills, and, above all, by the lofty crest of Adam's Peak, which served as the land-mark for ships approaching the island. They speak reverentially of the sacred foot-mark[3] impressed by the first created man, who, in their mythology, bears the name of Pawn-koo; and the gems which are found upon the mountain they believe to be his "crystallised tears, which accounts for their singular lustre and marvellous tints."[4] The country they admired for its fertility and singular beauty; the climate they compared to that of Siam[5], with slight alterations of seasons; refreshing showers in every period of the year, and the earth consequently teeming with fertility.[6]

[Footnote 1: _Taou-e ché-lë[)o]_, quoted in the _Hae-kw[)o]-too che_, Foreign Geography, b. xviii. p. 15.]

[Footnote 2: _Leang-shoo_, b. liv. p. 10; _Nan-shè_, b. lxxiii. p. 13; _Tung-tëen_, b. clxxxviii. p. 17.]

[Footnote 3: The Chinese books repeat the popular belief that the hollow of the sacred footstep contains water "which does not dry up all the year round;" and that invalids recover by drinking from the well at the foot of the mountain; into which "the sea-water enters free from salt." _Taou-e ché-lë[)o]_, quoted in the _Hae-kw[)o]-toô-ché_, or Foreign Geography, b. xxviii. p. 15.]

[Footnote 4: _Po-w[)u]h Yaou-lan_, b. xxxiii. p. 1. WANG-KE, _S[)u]-Wan-hëentung-kaou_, b. ccxxxvi. p. 19.]

[Footnote 5: _Tung-tëen_, b. clxxxviii. p. 17. _Tae-ping_, b. dcclxxxvii p. 5.]

[Footnote 6: _Leang-shoo_, b. liv. p. 10.]

The names by which Ceylon was known to them were either adapted from the Singhalese, as nearly as the Chinese characters would supply equivalents for the Sanskrit and Pali letters, or else they are translations of the sense implied by each designation. Thus, Sinhala was either rendered "_Seng-kia-lo_,"[1] or "_Sze-tseu-kw[)o]_," the latter name as well as the original, meaning "the kingdom of lions."[2] The classical Lanka is preserved in the Chinese "_Lang-kea_" and "_Lang-ya-seu_" In the epithet "_Ch[)i]h-too_," the _Red Land_[3], we have a simple rendering of the Pali _Tambapanni_, the "Copper-palmed," from the colour of the soil.[4] _Paou-choo_[5] is a translation of the Sanskrit Ratna-dwipa, the "Island of Gems," and _Ts[)i]h-e-lan, Se[)i]h-lan_, and _Se-lung_, are all modern modifications of the European "Ceylon."

[Footnote 1: _Hiouen-Thsang_, b. iv. p. 194. Transl. M.S. Julien.]

[Footnote 2: This, M. Stanislas Julien says, should be "the kingdom of _the lion_," in allusion to the mythical ancestry of Wijayo.--_Journ. Asiat_, tom. xxix. p. 37. And in a note to the tenth book of HIOUEN-THSANG'S _Voyages des Pélerins Bouddhistes_, vol. ii. p. 124, he says one name for Ceylon in Chinese is "Tchi-sse-tseu" "(le royaume de celui qui) a pris un lion."]

[Footnote 3: _Suy-shoo_, b. lxxx. p. 3. In the _Se-y[)i]h-ké foo-choo_, or "Descriptions of Western Countries," Ceylon is called _Woo-yew-kw[(o]_, "the sorrowless kingdom."]

[Footnote 4: _Mahawanso_, ch. vii. p. 50.]

[Footnote 5: _Se-y[)i]h-ké foo-choo_, quoted in the _Haè-kw[)o]-too che_, or "Foreign Geography," l. xviii. p. 15; HIOUEN-THSANG; _Voyages des Péler. Boudd_. lib. xi. vol. ii. p. 125; 130 n.]

The ideas of the Chinese regarding the mythical period of Singhalese history, and the first peopling of the island, are embodied in a very few sentences which are repeated throughout the series of authors, and with which we are made familiar in the following passage from F[)A] HIAN:--" Sze-tseu-kw[)o], the kingdom of lions[1], was inhabited originally not by men but by demons and dragons.[2] Merchants were attracted to the island, by the prospect of trade; but the demons remained unseen, merely exposing the precious articles which they wished to barter: with a price marked for each, at which the foreign traders were at liberty to take them, depositing the equivalents indicated in exchange. From the resort of these dealers, the inhabitants of other countries, hearing of the attractions of the island, resorted to it in large numbers, and thus eventually a great kingdom was formed."[3]

[Footnote 1: _Wan-hëen tung-kaou_, b. cccxxxviii. p. 24.]

[Footnote 2: The Yakkhos and Nagas ("devils" and "serpents") of the _Mahawanso_.]

[Footnote 3: _Fo[)e]-Kou[)e] Ki_, ch. xxxviii. p. 333. Transl. RÉMUSAT. This account of Ceylon is repeated almost verbatim in the _Tung-tëen_, and in numerous other Chinese works, with the addition that the newly-formed kingdom of Sinhala, "Sze-tseu-kw[)o]," took its name from the "skill of the natives in training lions."--B. cxciii. pp. 8, 9; _Tae-ping_, b. dccxciii. p. 9; _Sin-Tang-shoo_, b. cxlvi. part ii. p. 10. A very accurate translation of the passage as it is given by MA-TOUAN-LIN is published by M. Stanislas Julien in the _Journ. Asiat._ for July, 1836, tom. xxix. p. 36.]

The Chinese were aware of two separate races, one occupying the northern and the other the southern extremity of the island, and were struck with the resemblance of the Tamils to the Hoo, a people of Central Asia, and of the Singhalese to the Leaou, a mountain tribe of Western China.[1] The latter they describe as having "large ears, long eyes, purple faces, black bodies, moist and strong hands and feet, and living to one hundred years and upwards.[2] Their hair was worn long and flowing, not only by the women but by the men." In these details there are particulars that closely resemble the description of the natives of the island visited by Jambulus, as related in the story told by Diodorus.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Too-Hiouen_, quoted in the _Tung-tëen_, b. cxciii. p. 8.]

[Footnote 2: _Taou-e ché-lë[)o]_, quoted in the _Hae-kw[)o]-too ché_, or "Foreign Geography," b. xviii p. 15.]

[Footnote 3: DIODORUS SICULUS, lib. ii. ch. liii. See _ante_, Vol. I. P. v. ch. 1. p. 153.]

The Chinese in the seventh century found the Singhalese dressed in a costume which appears to be nearly identical with that of the present day.[1] Both males and females had their hair long and flowing, but the heads of children were closely shaven, a practice which still partially prevails. The jackets of the girls were occasionally ornamented with gems.[2] "The men," says the _Tung-tëen_, "have the upper part of the body naked, but cover their limbs with a cloth, called _Kan-man,_ made of _Koo-pei_, 'Cotton,' a word in which we may recognise the term 'Comboy,' used to designate the cotton cloth universally worn at the present day by the Singhalese of both sexes in the maritime provinces.[3] For their vests, the kings and nobles made use of a substance which is described as 'cloud cloth,'[4] probably from its being very transparent, and gathered (as is still the costume of the chiefs of Kandy) into very large folds. It was fastened with golden cord. Men of rank were decorated with earrings. The dead were burned, not buried." And the following passage from the _S[)u]h-wan-hëen tung-kaou_, or the "Supplement to Antiquarian Researches," is strikingly descriptive of what may be constantly witnessed in Ceylon;--"the females who live near the family of the dead assemble in the house, beat their breasts with both hands, howl and weep, which constitutes their appropriate rite."[5]

[Footnote 1: _Leang-shoo_, b. liv. p. 10; _Nan-shè_, b. lxxviii. pp. 13, 14.]

[Footnote 2: _Nan-shè_, A.D. 650, b. lxxviii. p. 13; _Leang-shoo_, A.D. 670; b. liv. p. 11. Such is still the dress of the Singhalese females.

]

[Footnote 3: _Tung-tëen_, b. clxxxviii. p. 17; _Nan-shè_, b. lxxviii. p. 13; _Sin-tang-shoo_, b. cxcviii p. 25. See p. iv. ch. iv, vol. i. p. 450.]

[Footnote 4: The Chinese term is "yun-hae-poo."--_Leang-shoo_, b. liv. p. 10.]

[Footnote 5: B. ccxxxvi. p. 19.]

The natural riches of Ceylon, and its productive capabilities, speedily impressed the Chinese, who were bent upon the discovery of outlets for their commerce, with the conviction of its importance as an emporium of trade. So remote was the age at which strangers frequented it, that in the "_Account of Island Foreigners,"_ written by WANG-TA-YUEN[1] in the fourteenth century, it is stated that the origin of trade in the island was coeval with the visit of Buddha, who, "taking compassion on the aborigines, who were poor and addicted to robbery, turned their disposition to virtue, by sprinkling the land with sweet dew, which caused it to produce red gems, and thus gave them wherewith to trade," and hence it became the resort of traders from every country.[2] Though aware of the unsuitability of the climate to ripen wheat, the Chinese were struck with admiration at the wonderful appliances of the Singhalese for irrigation, and the cultivation of rice.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Taou-e ché-lë[)o]_, quoted in the Foreign Geography, b. xviii. p. 15.]

[Footnote 2: The rapid peopling of Ceylon at a very remote age is accounted for in the following terms in a passage of MA-TWAN-LIN, as translated by M. Stanislas Julien;--"Les habitants des autres royaumes entendirent parler de ce pays fortuné; c'est pourquoi ils y accoururent à l'envi."--_Journ. Asiat._ t. xxix. p. 42.]

[Footnote 3: Records of the Ming Dynasty, by CHING-HEAOU, b. lxviii. p. 5.]

According to the _Tung-tëen_, the intercourse between them and the Singhalese, began during the Eastern Tsin dynasty, A.D. 317--419[1]; and one remarkable island still retains a name which is commemorative of their presence. Salang, to the north of Penang, lay in the direct course of the Chinese junks on their way to and from Ceylon, through the Straits of Malacca, and, in addition to its harbour, was attractive from its valuable mines of tin. Here the Chinese fleets called on both voyages; and the fact of their resort is indicated by the popular name "Ajung-Selan," or "Junk-Ceylon;" by which the place is still known, _Ajung_, in the language of the Malays, being the term for "large shipping," and _Selan_, their name for Ceylon.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Tung-tëen_, A.D. 740, b. clxxxviii. p. 17.]

[Footnote 2: _Sincapore Chronicle_, 1836.]

The port in Ceylon which the Chinese vessels made their rendezvous, was Lo-le (Galle), "where," it is said, "ships anchor, and people land."[1]

[Footnote 1: WANG-KE, _Suh-wan-hëen tung-kaou_, b. ccxxxvi p. 19.]

Besides rice, the vegetable productions of the island enumerated by the various Chinese authorities were aloes-wood, sandal-wood[1], and ebony; camphor[2], areca-nuts, beans, sesamum, coco-nuts (and arrack distilled from the coco-nut palm) pepper, sugar-cane, myrrh, frankincense, oil and drugs.[3] An odoriferous extract, called by the Chinese _Shoo-heang_, is likewise particularised, but it is not possible now to identify it.

[Footnote 1: The mention of sandal-wood is suggestive. It does not, so far as I could ever learn, exist in Ceylon; yet it is mentioned with particular care amongst its exports in the Chinese books. Can it be that, like the calamander, or Coromandel-wood, which is rapidly approaching extinction, sandal-wood was extirpated from the island by injudicious cutting, unaccompanied by any precautions for the reproduction of the tree?]

[Footnote 2: _Nan-shè_, b. lxxviii. p. 13.]

[Footnote 3: _Suh-Hung keën-luh_, b. xlii. p. 52.]

Elephants and ivory were in request; and the only manufactures alluded to for export were woven cotton[1], gold ornaments, and jewelry; including models of the shrines in which were deposited the sacred relics of Buddha.[2] Statues of Buddha were frequently sent as royal presents, and so great was the fame of Ceylon for their production in the fourth and fifth centuries, that according to the historian of the Wei Tartar dynasty, A.D. 386-556, people "from the countries of Central Asia, and the kings of those nations, emulated each other in sending artisans to procure copies, but none could rival the productions of Nan-té.[3] On standing about ten paces distant they appeared truly brilliant, but the lineaments gradually disappeared on a nearer approach."[4]

[Footnote 1: _Tsih-foo yuen-kwei_, A.D. 1012, b. dcccclxxi. p. 15. At a later period "Western cloth" is mentioned among the exports of Ceylon, but the reference must be to cloth previously imported either from India or Persia.--_Ming-she History of the Ming Dynasty,_ A.D. 1368--1643, b. cccxxvi. p. 7.]

[Footnote 2: A model of the shrine containing the sacred tooth was sent to the Emperor of China in the fifth century by the King of Ceylon; "_Chacha Mo-ho-nan,"_ a name which appears to coincide with Raja Maha Nama, who reigned A.D. 410--433.--_Shunshoo_, A.D. 487, b. xlvii. p. 6.]

[Footnote 3: Nan-té was a Buddhist priest, who in the year A.D. 456 was sent on an embassy to the Emperor of China, and was made the bearer of three statues of his own making.--_Ts[)i]h-foo yuen-kwei,_ b. li. p. 7.]

[Footnote 4: _Wei-shoo,_ A.D. 590, b. cxiv. p. 9.]

Pearls, corals, and crystals were eagerly sought after; but of all articles the gems of Ceylon were in the greatest request. The business of collecting and selling them seems from the earliest time to have fallen into the hands of the Arabs, and hence they bore in China the designation of "Mahometan stones."[1] They consisted of rubies, sapphires, amethysts, carbuncles (the "red precious stone, the lustre of which serves instead of a lamp at night")[2]; and topazes of four distinct tints, "those the colour of wine; the delicate tint of young goslings, the deep amber, like bees'-wax, and the pale tinge resembling the opening bud of the pine."[3] It will not fail to be observed that throughout all these historical and topographical works of the Chinese, extending over a period of twelve centuries, from the year A.D. 487, there is no mention whatever of _cinnamon_ as a production of Ceylon; although cassia, described under the name of kwei, is mentioned as indigenous in China and Cochin-China. In exchange for these commodities the Chinese traders brought with them silk, variegated lute strings, blue porcelain, enamelled dishes and cups, and quantities of copper cash wanted for adjusting the balances of trade.[4]

[Footnote 1: _Tsih-ke,_ quoted in the Chinese _Mirror of Sciences,_ b. xxxiii. p. 1.]

[Footnote 2: _Po-w[)u]h yaou-lan,_ b. xxxiii. p. 2.]

[Footnote 3: _Ibid_.]

[Footnote 4: _Suy-shoo_, "History of the Suy Dynasty," A.D. 633, b. lxxxi. p. 3.]

Of the religion of the people, the earliest account recorded by the Chinese is that of F[)A] HIAN, in the fourth century[1], when Buddhism was signally in the ascendant. But in the century which followed, travellers returning from Ceylon brought back accounts of the growing power of the Tamils, and of the consequent eclipse of the national worship. The _Yung-tëen_ and the _Tae-ping_ describe at that early period the prevalence of Brahmanical customs, but coupled with "greater reverence for the Buddhistical faith."[2] In process of time, however, they are forced to admit the gradual decline of the latter, and the attachment of the Singhalese kings to the Hindu ritual, exhibiting an equal reverence to the ox and to the images of Buddha.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Fo[)e]-Kou[)e] Ki_, ch. xxxviii.]

[Footnote 2: _Tae-ping_, b. dccxciii, p. 9.]

[Footnote 3: _Woo-hë[)o]-pëen_, "Records of the Ming Dynasty," b. lxviii. p. 4; _Tung-në[)e]_, b. cxcvi. pp. 79, 80.]

The Chinese trace to Ceylon the first foundation of monasteries, and of dwelling-houses for the priests, and in this they are corroborated by the _Mahawanso_.[1] From these pious communities, the Emperors of China were accustomed from time to time to solicit transcripts of theological works[2], and their envoys, returning from such missions, appear to have brought glowing accounts of the Singhalese temples, the costly shrines for relics, and the fervid devotion of the people to the national worship.[3]

[Footnote 1: _Mahawanso_, ch. xv. p. 99; ch. xx. p. 123. In the Itinerary of KÉ-NË[)E]'s _Travels in the Western Kingdoms in the tenth Century_ he mentions having seen a monastery of Singhalese on the continent of India.--KÉ-NË[)E], _Se-y[)i]h hing-ching_, A.D. 964--976.]

[Footnote 2: _Tae-ping_, b. dcclxxxvii. p. 5.]

[Footnote 3: _Taou-e ché-lë[)o]_. "Account of Island Foreigners," quoted in the "_Foreign Geography_" b. xviii. p. 15. _Se-y[)i]-ke foo-choo_. Ib. "At daybreak every morning the people are summoned, and exhorted to repeat the passages of Buddha, in order to remove ignorance and open the minds of the multitude. Discourses are delivered upon the principles of vacancy (nirwana?) and abstraction from all material objects, in order that truth maybe studied in solitude and silence, and the unfathomable point of principle attained free from the distracting influences of sound or smell."--_Ts[)i]h-foo yaen-kwei_, A.D. 1012, b. dcccclxi. p. 5.]

The cities of Ceylon in the sixth century are stated, in the "_History of the Leang Dynasty_," to have been encompassed by walls built of brick, with double gates, and the houses within were constructed with upper stories.[1] The palace of the king, at Anarajapoora, in the eleventh century, was sufficiently splendid to excite the admiration of these visitants, "the precious articles with which it was decorated being reflected in the thoroughfares."[2]

[Footnote 1: _Leang-shoo_, A.D. 630, b. liv. p 11.]

[Footnote 2: _Ts[)i]h-foo yaen-kwei_, b. dcccclxi. p. 5.]

The Chinese authors, like the Greeks and Arabians, are warm in their praises of the patriotism of the Singhalese sovereigns, and their active exertions for the improvement of the country, and the prosperity of the people.[1] On state occasions, the king, "carried on an elephant, and accompanied by banners, streamers, and tom-toms, rode under a canopy[2], attended by a military guard."[3]

[Footnote 1: Ibid.]

[Footnote 2: The "chatta," or umbrella, emblematic of royalty.]

[Footnote 3: _Leang-shoo_. b. liv. p. 10.]

Throughout all the Chinese accounts, from the very earliest period, there are notices of the manners of the Singhalese, and even minute particulars of their domestic habits, which attest a continued intercourse and an intimate familiarity between the people of the two countries.[1] In this important feature the narratives of the Arabs, who, with the exception of the pilgrimage made with difficulty to Adam's Peak, appear to have known only the sea-coast and the mercantile communities established there, exhibit a marked difference when compared with those of the Chinese; as the latter, in addition to their trading operations in the south of the island, made their way into the interior, and penetrated to the cities in the northern districts. The explanation is to be found in the identity of the national worship attracting as it did the people of China to the sacred island, which had become the great metropolis of their common faith, and to the sympathy and hospitality with which the Singhalese welcomed the frequent visits of their distant co-religionists.

[Footnote 1: This is apparent from the fact that their statements are not confined to descriptions of the customs and character of the male Singhalese, but exhibit internal evidence that they had been introduced to their families, and had had opportunities of noting peculiarities in the customs of the females. They describe their dress, their mode of tying their hair, their treatment of infants and children, the fact that the women as well as the men were addicted to chewing betel, and that they did not sit down to meals with their husbands, but "retired to some private apartments to eat their food."]

This interchange of courtesies was eagerly encouraged by the sovereigns of the two countries. The emperors of China were accustomed to send ambassadors, both laymen and theologians, to obtain images and relics of Buddha, and to collect transcripts of the sacred books, which contained the exposition of his doctrines[1];--and the kings of Ceylon despatched embassies in return, authorised to reciprocate these religious sympathies and do homage to the imperial majesty of China.

[Footnote 1: _Hiouen-Thsang_, Introd. STANISLAS JULIEN, p. 1.]

The historical notices of the island by the Chinese relative to the period immediately preceding the fourteenth century, are meagre, and confined to a native tradition that "about 400 years after the establishment of the kingdom, the Great Dynasty fell into decay, when there was but one man of wisdom and virtue belonging to the royal house to whom the people became attached: the monarch thereupon caused him to be thrown into prison; but the lock opened of its own accord, and the king thus satisfied of his sacred character did not venture to take his life, but drove him into banishment to India (Tëen chuh), whence, after marrying a royal princess, he was recalled to Ceylon on the death of the tyrant, where he reigned twenty years, and was succeeded by his son, _Po-kea Ta-To_."[l] In this story may probably be traced the extinction of the "Great Dynasty" of Ceylon, on the demise of Maha-Sen, and the succession of the Sulu-wanse, or Lower Dynasty, in the person of Kitsiri Maiwan, A.D. 301, whose son, Detu Tissa, may possibly be the _Po-kea Ta-to_ of the Chinese Chronicle.[2]

[Footnote 1: _Leang-shoo_, "History of the Leang Dynasty," b. liv. p. 10.]

[Footnote 2: _Mahawanso_, c. xxxvii. p 242. TURNOUR'S _Epitome_, &c., p. 24.]

The visit of Fa Hian, the zealous Buddhist pilgrim, in the fifth century of our era, has been already frequently adverted to.[1] He landed in Ceylon A.D. 412, and remained for two years at Anarajapoora, engaged in transcribing the sacred books. Hence his descriptions are confined almost exclusively to the capital; and he appears to have seen little of the rest of the island. He dwells with delight on the magnificence of the Buddhist buildings, the richness of their jewelled statues, and the prodigious dimensions of the dagobas, one of which, from its altitude and solidity, was called the "_Mountain without fear_."[2] But what most excited his admiration was his finding no less than 5000 Buddhist priests at the capital, 2000 in a single monastery on a mountain (probably Mihintala), and between 50,000 and 60,000 dispersed throughout the rest of the island.[3] Pearls and gems were the wealth of Ceylon; and from the latter the king derived a royalty of three out of every ten discovered.[4]

[Footnote 1: The _Fo[)e]-Kou[)e] Ki_, or "Description of Buddhist Kingdoms," by FA-HIAN, has been translated by Rémusat, and edited by Klaproth and Landresse, 4to. Paris, 1836.]

[Footnote 2: In Chinese, _Woo-wei_.]

[Footnote 3: _Fo[)e]-Kou[)e] Ki_, c. xxxviii. pp. 333, 334.]

[Footnote 4: _Ibid._, c. xxxvii. p. 328.]

The earliest embassy from Ceylon recorded in the Chinese[1] annals at the beginning of the fifth century, appears to have proceeded overland by way of India, and was ten years before reaching the capital of China. It was the bearer of "a jade-stone image of Buddha, exhibiting every colour in purity and richness, in workmanship unique, and appearing to be beyond human art[2]."

[Footnote 1: A.D. 405. Gibbon alludes with natural surprise to his discovery of the fact, that prior to the reign of Justinian, the "monarch of China had actually received an embassy from the Island of Ceylon."--_Decline and Fall_, c. xl.]

[Footnote 2: _Leang-shoo,_ A.D. 630, b. liv. p. 13. The ultimate fate of this renowned work of art is related in the _Leang-shoo,_ and several other of the Chinese chronicles. Throughout the | Tsin and Sung dynasties it was preserved in the Wa-kwan monastery at Nankin, along with five other statues and three paintings which were esteemed chefs-d'oeuvre. The jade-stone image was at length destroyed in the time of Tung-hwan, of the Tse dynasty; first, the arm was broken off, and eventually the body taken to make hair-pins and armlets for the emperor's favourite consort Pwan. _Nân-shè,_ b. lxxviii. p. 13. _Tung-tëen,_ b. cxciii. p. 8. _Tae-ping,_ &c., b. dcclxxxvii. p. 6.]

During the same century there were four other embassies from Ceylon. One A.D. 428, when the King Cha-cha Mo-ho-nan (Raja Maha Naama) sent an address to the emperor, which will be found in the history of the Northern Sung dynasty[1], together with a "model of the shrine of the tooth," as a token of fidelity;--two in A.D. 430 and A.D. 435; and a fourth A.D. 456, when five priests, of whom one was Nanté, the celebrated sculptor, brought as a gift to the emperor a "three-fold image of Buddha."[2]

[Footnote 1: _Sung-shoo,_ A.D. 487, b. xcvii. p. 5.]

[Footnote 2: Probably one in each of the three orthodox attitudes,--sitting in meditation, standing to preach, and reposing in "nirwana." _Wei-shoo,_ "History of the Wei Tartar Dynasty," A.D. 590, b. cxiv. p. 9.]

According to the Chinese annalists, the kings of Ceylon, in the sixth century, acknowledged themselves vassals of the Emperor of China, and in the year 515, on the occasion of Kumara Das raising the chatta, an envoy was despatched with tribute to China, together with an address, announcing the royal accession, in which the king intimates that he "had been desirous to go in person, but was deterred by fear of winds and waves."[1]

[Footnote 1: _Leang-shoo,_ b. liv. p. 10. _Y[(u]h-hae,_ "Ocean of Gems," A.D. 1331, b. clii. p. 33. The latter authority announces in like terms two other embassies with tribute to China, one in A.D. 523, and another in the reign of Kirti Sena, A.D. 527. The _Tsih-foo yuen-kwei_ mentions a similar mission in A.D. 531, b. dcccclxviii. p. 20.]

But although all these embassies are recorded in the Chinese chronicles as so many instances of acknowledged subjection, there is every reason to believe that the magniloquent terms in which they are described are by no means to be taken in a literal sense, and that the offerings enumerated were merely in recognition of the privilege of commercial intercourse subsisting between the two nations: but as the Chinese _literati_ affect a lofty contempt for commerce, all allusion to trade is omitted; and beyond an incidental remark in some works of secondary importance, the literature of China observes a dignified silence on the subject.

Only one embassy is mentioned in the seventh century, when Dalu-piatissa despatched "a memorial and offerings of native productions;"[1] but there were four in the century following[2], after which there occurs an interval of above five hundred years, during which the Chinese writers are singularly silent regarding Ceylon; but the Singhalese historians incidentally mention that swords and musical instruments were then imported from China, for the use of the native forces, and that Chinese soldiers took service in the army of Prakrama III. A.D. 1266.[3]

[Footnote 1: A.D. 670. _Ts[)i]h-foo yuen-kwei_, b. dcccclxx. p. 16. It was in the early part of this century, during a period of intestine commotion, when the native princes were overawed by the Malabars, that _Hiouen-Thsang_ met on the coast of India fugitives from Ceylon, from whom he derived his information as to the internal condition of the island, A.D. 629--633. See Transl. by STANISLAS JULIEN, "_La Vie de Hiouen-Thsang_," Paris, 1853, pp. 192--198.]

[Footnote 2: A.D. 711, A.D. 746, A.D. 750, and A.D. 762. _Ts[)i]h-foo yuen-kwei,_ b. dcccclxxi. p. 17. On the second occasion (A.D. 746) the king, who despatched the embassy, is described as sending as his envoy a "Brahman priest, the anointed graduate of the threefold repository, bearing as offerings head-ornaments of gold, precious neck-pendants, a copy of the great Prajna Sutra, and forty webs of fine cotton cloth."]

[Footnote 3: See the _Kawia-sakara_, written about A.D. 1410.]

In the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, the only records of intercourse relate to the occasional despatch of public officers by the emperor of China to collect gems and medical drugs, and on three successive occasions during the earlier part of the Yuen dynasty, envoys were empowered to negotiate the purchase of the sacred alms-dish of Buddha.[1]