X544(11)

PLATE XI. THE LAKE OF KANDY.

Kandy is seventy-two miles from Colombo, by the new and splendid road made under the direction of the royal engineer department, during the government of Sir Edward Barnes. In 1832, a light mail-carriage drawn by two horses was established by a Company, under the auspices and patronage of Sir Robert Wilmot Horton, performing the journey in twelve hours; and latterly a commercial coach, of a similar description, has been started by the mercantile body. The road as far as Maha Haine, thirty-six miles, or halfway (where a comfortable hotel was also established at the same time as the mail), is level and uninteresting, being skirted by paddy fields under water, or low jungle; but from hence it begins to ascend, and put on a bold and picturesque appearance, many of the hills being cleared to their very tops, and laid out in terraces for the cultivation of paddy. At Mawanelle, fifty-six miles from Colombo, a handsome stone bridge of four arches, over the Maha oya, was completed in 1833, under the superintendence of the royal engineer department. On the wall of a cottage near the bridge, occupied by a wild-looking old woman who sold hoppers and fruit, an extraordinary inscription in Cinghalese was pointed out to the author, to the effect that if the devil came that way, he teas ordered to go on and not enter.

About two miles beyond Ootian Kandy, and fifteen from Kandy, the ascent of the Kaduganava pass commences, and continues for nearly four miles to the summit, where a Doric column has been erected to the memory of the late Captain Dawson, R. E., by whom it was traced. The pass is the Simplon in miniature, the road being scarped along the sides of the mountain, and so skilfully traced, that the ascent is easy for carriages. It is frequently cut through the solid rock, and in one place, where the mass was too large for this, a tunnel about eighteen feet in length was formed by blasting. The road from the top of the pass to the Maha-villa ganga at Peradenia, about seven miles, is on a gentle descent and undulating. A beautiful bridge of one arch, 205 feet in span, constructed of satinwood, under the quartermaster-general's department, assisted by the royal engineers, replaced, in 1832, the ferry-boat by which the river was previously crossed; with the bridge above-mentioned it completes and secures the communication between Colombo and the ancient capital of the Kandyan kingdom, formerly almost inaccessible, and nearly a terra incognita even to the European inhabitants of the sea-coast of the Island.

From the river to Kandy is about four miles by a good road, which forms one of the fashionable rides and drives of the European inhabitants of Kandy, the botanical garden at Peradenia affording a delightful lounge. The first view of Kandy, called by the natives Maha Neura, or the great city, on which you come suddenly at a turn in the road, is very picturesque. It is surrounded by hills, none of them of any great height, on the top of one of which, called the Castle-hill, is a breastwork of earth enclosing a small barrack, with a flagstaff and an officer's quarter, overhanging the steepest part. On the summit of the highest mountain on the west side, are the remains of a work called the " Western Redoubt."

The town consists, principally, of one broad street, about two miles in length, containing an extensive and well supplied bazaar, near the entrance, whilst at the other end stands the ancient palace, a large pile built of stone, and covered with chunam. It contains within its walls, two Buddhist temples, a Hindoo pagoda, a cemetery, an arsenal, and numerous storehouses. A little beyond the palace is the main gate, where a guard is posted, beyond which is Malabar-street, leading up a steep hill to the road to the Luwelle ferry and Doombera, which affords the only approach to Kandy from the eastward, and that through a difficult pass.

The new residence of the governor, called here as at Colombo, the queen's house, is a handsome building in the Italian style of architecture, near the centre of the town.

The Lake, which lies nearly east and west, is one of the most attractive features of Kandy, being embosomed in hills which, in some parts, rise abruptly from its margin, their bases having been scarped to make the road, which runs all round it (a distance of about two miles), and forms one of the most favourite walks and drives of the European inhabitants, as well as a bathing and washing place for the natives. The insulated buildings formed, from their privacy and security, a favourite retreat of the late king; they are now used as a powder magazine and ordnance store. The ground it covers was formerly a swamp, or paddy fields; and it is said that it was at the suggestion of the unfortunate Major Davie, then a prisoner there, that the late king of Kandy resolved to convert it into a lake, by leading into it several small streams. For this purpose, the natives were forced to labour in great numbers, without hire, as was the case in all public works, called Rajah karriah, and the discontent thereby produced is said to have chiefly led to the rebellion amongst the Kandyans, which so materially assisted the British arms in the subjugation of their country in 1815. Thus this unhappy man was destined after all to become, however unwittingly, in the hands of Providence, the instrument for avenging the base and bloody treachery exercised by the tyrant against himself and the troops under his command ; and

thus, as Macbeth says -

" This even-handed Justice

Commends the ingredients of the poisoned chalice To our own lips."