CEYLON. In the Encyclopedia the reader will find a description of this island and its more re markable productions; with a short summary of its history, down to the year 1796, when the narking 'provinces then in possession of the • Dutch, were conquered by the arms of Britain. We now pro pose to continue the historical sketch to the present time ; and to add•such details relative 05 the pop lotion, productions, trade, and commerce of the island, as recent information enables us to supply. ' The conquered provinces remained, for a alsattoor time, as an appendage to the presidency of Madras; but were afterwards rendered independent of the East India Company, and annexed to the Crown of Great Britain. In the year ,1798, the King of Can dy died, and the Crown was transferred, by the in trigues of Peienia Talave, the Chief Adigar, or Prime-Minister, to a young Malabar, without birth, talents, or pretensions of any kind. The policy of the Adigar was decidedly hostile to the British Go vernment; and his object was to amuse them with delusive negociations, while he awaited a favourable Opportunity for expelling them from the island. After some time spent in secret preparations for war, hostilities were at length provoked by the ag gression) or the Candians, in the spring of 1802 ; and two divisions of the British forces were in con serence moved into the interior, from Columbo and Trincomalee, under Major-General Macdowall and Colonel Barbut. They experienced very little re sistance on their march, and the two divisions form ed a junction at Candy. The city, however, was tbund entirely deserted by the Government and in habitants, and had been set on fire in several places. The King had removed all his treasure, and the in habitants had carried away or destroyed everything valuable. Mootto Sawniy. the brother of the late Queen, was now removed to Candy, and placed by the British troops upon the throne; but the people of authority in the neighbouring country showed no dispositson to submit to his sway. The plan of the Chief Adigar appears to have been, to draw the British troops by detachments farther into the country, and then to cut off their re treat. This design he endeavoured to execute by means of the most profound and systematic dissimulation and treachery. Having lulled the Bri
tish officers into a delusive security, by the conclu sion of a treaty, which was intended only for decep tion, a great part of the troops were withdrawn from Candy, where they had begun to suffer from the sickliness of the rainy season, and a small garrison was left in the palace, under the command of Major Davie. The Candians, perceiving the success of their treachery, drew their lines nearer to the city, and entrenched themselves in strong positions in the immediate vicinity. In the mean time, the gar. rison daily decreased, in consequence of death and desertion ; and Major Davie, at length, found him. self under the necessity of submitting to a humiliat ing capitulation, the terms of which were only ob served by the Candians, until they had got their enemies completely into their power, when the whole detachment were wantonly and perfidiously massacred.
Elated with this success, the King of Candy now began to entertain hopes of the -total expulsion of the British from the island ; and a war of ravage end spoliation was carried on for some time, which -is remarkable only for the barbarity with which it was conducted on both sides. The repeated inva sions of the Candians, however, were uniformly re pulsed with great loss ; and hostilities were, at length, suspended by a sort of tacit consent, origi mating, probably, from the weakness of the enemy, -and the pacific disposition of the British administra -lien. Meanwhile, the many acts of tyranny and ar bitrary cruelty which had been exercised by the Candlan Monarch, justly rendered his odious this own subjects ; and a most barbarous outrage, com mitted upon some unoffending inhabitants Of the English settlements, at last called forth the full and final vengeance of the British government. The war which ensued in 1815, was short, and attended with the most decisive results. The capital was taken ; the King made prisoner and deposed ; and a grand convention having been held of the British authorities and the Candian chiefs, a treaty was pro posed and ratified, by which the dominion of the whole Island of Ceylon was vested in the Sovereign of Great Britain.