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INDIA

The chief river in Ceylon, the Mahavelli Ganga,
drains northward from the mountains to Trincomali
harbour. Its source is near Adam’s Peak, and in its
course of 200 miles it waters what was once the granary
of Ceylon, but is now frequently pestiferous marsh
country. About 80 miles of it might be made navigable
if Trincomali were a commercial rather than a naval port.
The inhabitants of Ceylon are Singhalese in the
southern districts, Tamils in the northern, Vedda aborigines
 in the wildest and most inaccessible parts of the
forest country, Muhammadans,
 and Europeans.
 The Singhalese
ire probably of mixed
Hindu extraction, and
date their origin from
the Hindu invasions of
Ceylon about 500 B.C.
The Tamils are the representatives
 of those
periodic invasions from
Malabar which are recounted
 in the history called ¢ Mahawanso.” The
Veddas are rapidly disappearing. The European community
 is chiefly represented by a widespread class of
settlers of Dutch extraction, who are locally known as
Burghers. They fill all the clerkships and lower civil
offices of Government, and answer much to the Eurasian
element in Indian society. There is also a sprinkling of
Malays and Chinese in the island; but it is to the
developing character of Singhalese, who are now rapidly
being brought under the influences of European systems
of education, rather than to the effete and degenerate
iorm of European existence as exemplified in the descendants
 of a once robust Dutch ancestry, that we must look
for the regeneration of the social status of Ceylon.
English planters are not, as a rule, settlers in the
country, and Government officials never outstay their
period of active service. The Singhalese combine