S U LLIV AN' S VISIT_ TO- CEYLON. * .
qtYpxkti ,lihe other accessible regions, has been visited of late ,.47 AQUI.) 4-3 fr • variety or wild sports.; still. it_, ia,rintdso. ex', ba.us:ted as many countries, and it it were-it would {not :matter : skiii4 to Mr- Sullivan. A .quick eye fefobserve, a teeming fancy tclombine and illustrate what he sees, great animal spirits to give . *nation to his writing,, together with an easy thienoy of diction, yr.in.ld enable him to impress the natural scenery of a welbde- nerieillocality upon the reader, or to impart vivacity if not interest tohis own -ideas. As Mr. Sullivan is.aleo a -rapid writer, not dwelling upon the minutiae of things or,. puNsuing a topic -into , tediousness, be carries the reader rapidly over. the grennd; though- tlusy book wants the matter of his "Itambles. and Scrambles- in Anierica." At times there may be too much of his own notions : he sainelimes tosses off le. judgment on what he. acarcely under- stands,—as his contemptuous dismissal of the antiquities of Ceylon, and his deplorable account of Buddhism ; his ideas, of that religion being apparently drown from t4e,preeticen. of- theigneraut, end , degraded Cingalese, instead of the expositions of its sacred:hoot:0f- which is much as if a person, shOuld judge of Christianity -by, the conduct of some barbarous converts to Itomanisrp, instead of by -the Scriptures. $nch passages,however, are not frequent, and.
the_Y are always briet ;; -
., leve of varietyand of sport seems to have taken Mr; Sullivan: to Ceylon..„ After haring tried the excitement of A., :0)114es hunt- ing in.the prairies of the New- World, . there wan nothing left for him but elePhint-sbooting; unless he had paid a visit;to the lands or, Gordon Cjimiiiing in the interior of Afr4ca. , IP:4.3454, how- mere spar/amen. : In the excitement, o'f -the ,moinent, he liters the half-reasoning: elephant ; ,hnt.„-the ,deed is hardly cro-FtWhen compunctious visitings cense over him. Neither is his , riAludgment of elephant:shooting favOntable. , . Idea of the sport „from that day 6 'ex . p, was, that in ordinary p9.1. caste Was one of two extremes—either -tool. - -te- afford the necessary allsiinu -Of excitement,- or 'toe dingerons -te-; leaCe'• uci!itom fcfc-tOgalild'' senisatiiree.. The shooting ilv.very difficult, ..e-nd. req eti The SpOitsintilftethel draitExisifttligic a snap shot as I rh Wag af soipe.,-.--Of isaine,-. *titbit ithe:ele: pliant "tends tilL you taken deliberate .pot.-iehot .4 tivbeact, - uti shed pistol .sgb,, anybody who does not shut his emiriv.hag may make ceriamef g ;!=-but in thick jungle, when he is ciachkrapidly atOia, and only, ex- posing the vulnerable parts of his body for a second or two at a time, the hinter moat baits qiiicklaiilightniflg..!:.ElePhaationd- suipe'shooting illus- trate the old adage, that extremes frequently Meet.: Di Abe former case, you slay an enormous animal with an incred,kblystna ' -lead; in tbe bit-.
dieprepoitionen; and in .both 'cithes'it iS ' -alintihng, and the one 2feaiof ter, On 'deitrey:a Minute bird with :aii,.e2rIpen .9 powder arid. lead ape a ittniclatei Much- on practicie as the'dthiec-19 - 911if .).' • ' ' .. ., .P_ Thienature of the watind id thelitt elepliait•IL!idilit displayed in a re;. 41101,ibit. inar4er the soft porous nature. of the aniniareicrapittm.. The *hot ogteeed behIiid the ear; and we could feel the balkwifin zni! hush of the di* In'. the forehead, and with a knife cut it out at Once: , - ' The strictly narrative part of the book is a journey-from Point de Galle to Colombo, from Colombo to the old capital Kandy, and the. sanitary station NeWera Ella; of which the tourist &-.yes an indif- ferent account, as being too danip ; but be saw it in tharainy season. To these maybeadded the different excursions made through the less :frequented districts -of the island When the author was ac- conipanying a party of - elephant-shooters. . The narrative of his jomrney, thengli lively and striking (rem the incidents introduced, ...:-the manner- in which the picturesque character of the ecen4ry is brought before the reader, is not the nicin,feture. of the Wall.. That consists Of sketches ,of the author's sporting adventUres, as well as of the natives who aceeinPenied the party, and something lili,e-essays on the information he collected respecting the_.staple prtiductions of the island—coffee, sugar, and eocoentits : there are alsofacts relating to the natural history, climate, and diseases of .theisland, as Well as to the , condition and feelings of the "natural " man. This is an occurrence by the way, illustrating the :humanity of the uncivilized. - .
"During our march the next morning, ire passed what we 'thought was a
deaciPpolia. -The sight is so ordinary a one in Ceylon, espeeially. on! the roarls,which the Goolies frequent in their roigre,tion. to and from the main- land id India; that it scarcely attracts atteiltion, unless one's horse shies at it, and then one follows the example of the Pharisee of old,• of ' passing By on the other aide.' We had all-ptiesedlliiii"body; when one of the party, looking back at it, fancied he saw its white eleth inoCe; ' and as there was no. wind stirring he immediately told us: so, halting the Coolies,-we returned, and found, on examining the-object; that it was a very old man, to all ap- pearance perfectly dead ; however, Such was not the ease, for on lifting him up•we detected a slight quivering Of the .lipe We gave him some water, and in about ten minutes hiseyes opened,' and he stared wildly abont. • We gave him a cocoa-nut, which be drank With starving eagerness ; •tuid then put him in charge of the horse-keepers, who, *rapping him in a horse-cloth, carried him to our camping-ground some Mile and shelf distant:. here we fed' him delicately on fruit, milk, and whatever we .could - to_.noucish!him, and by degrees restored his strength. so far as to. enable him to tell' his story! He had been returning with a party of friends and relations fipin ,a, pilgrim- age to Itatoregam; and, falling sick, they kindly left hint On the road, witli. ontanything to eat Or drink, or any proteCtion from the-sun, ' till he sheilld- 'etzonger. We found him lying at the edge of -a Salt lagotiii," end" ft* days and nights he had not tasted -food or water; he had crawled to the lagoon, believing it to be fresh water ; and one. can Imagine his agony and„clespair on finding it was salt, and that lie. bad not strength to move away in tearchnf More. When we discovered hini, the pangs of death were over; and a very few minutes longer probably 'would have closed hie eiist- once I doubt whether we conferred any benefit upon him -by revivifying him; for, supposing. he ever recovered sufficiently to return to his friends,: one cannot imagine that, having once deserted and left him for dead, his • The Bungalow and the Tent ; or a Visit to Ceylon. By Eduard' Sullivan, Author of "Rambles and Scrambles in Anieritsi." 'Published by Bentley. resprcance in the ftunily circle trisnil be It-p riatte of much cOngratula,
• .to .
!,Xhe following account of the effects of stagnant and running! water in Ceyloth is .otiriaus. Could the!ptirifYing- ;plants be tratis.- planteiLauocestifully into soine; of! the reservoirs that supply our townal• - - • !!; ; • .
21, large. fresh-water lagoon; of a most green, slimy; Tropical appearance,:: producing . in abundance a lotus, of alnioat■ Victoria Ilegui. magnificence, stretches away to the back of the fort, and around it are situated-the bmi- galows of many of the Colombo merchants. The propinquity of this lake would, in any other Tropical country (in the West Indies certainly) be Considered' asinsurinta considerable amount of fever to the ; in fact, I doubt whether any advantage would be • suffieient to induce a West Indian to locate in macho position. • • However; Ceylon, in the matter of climate, standspeese, and offers a total antithesis as regards the healthiness of certain. districts to Most other Tropical countries. Whilst,the vioinity of tanks and.' levant of the Mast fcetid antIagueish [looking] charketer is perfectly healthy, - that of fivers is equally deadly. This apparent contradiction of the usual- lows Of-nature is accounted for by two reasons. The tanks are covered with • vaii°4•11Vatie:1)141'4, whipb,,by *kind Providence, are made to serve not only. aatilterers and purifiers Of the water itself, but even as consumers of a consider-- able pertion• of the noxious exhalations, that would otherwise poison the_ neighbourhood. The banks of rivers, on the contrary, are rife with fever : the cause assigned for it is, that during the rainy seasons they swell to a great size, and celled; the vegetable matter of. a large extent of country, owing to the rapidity with which they fall.at the commencement of the dry season, and the winding and intricate nature of their Course, the streameare uhabletomlear, themselves, and this acenraulationli left to decay in its bed, and infbet the Surroimding country. There iiists'also another reascin—the beds of the Ceylon rivers are almost invariably composed of sand, and the • stream, instead of sweephig down the decomposed vegetable matter it holds in its waters, as must be the ease in hard-bedded rivers, percolates through the sand, leaving the poisonous matter on the surface exposedlo•the burning rays of the Tropical sum".
And again in another district.'
-"The tanks are covered with a.sort of green weed, something resembling duck-weed; and this, at the same time that it imparts a greenish hue to the *liter, and renders it unpalatable to the taste, possesses a remarkable power of filtering it, and rendering it perfectly innocuous, by attracting to itself all- the aninialculm, which would otherwise be larking about in the fluid, ;(0 he probiblytwallowod•by the thirsty soul, to his great barn) and damage:. The COoliee 'are'perlbeflY aware of this provision of nature, and .drink with great contien''Of buy tank water where this weed or plant does not exist."
Another. point worth notice in Mr. Sullivan's volume is the,faet, often touched ,upowincidentally, of the-superiority of the civilized to the urieivilized man..., In the art-of -tracking wild - Alain-eat* by altiost-inipereePtible indicatiOns; when he has devoted his life 'to it, -1.4 the savage: alone superior. Of hiahnniaiiity we have just seen an. etimple. ile cannot bear the same' .burdens, he cannot endure the same exertion, lie has not the same pluck, and even in hisnwir jungle, swamps he-is .more obnoxions teltical disease than the European.' thnhearers were drooping and sicken- ing` around our sportsmen, and With difficUlty. kept up by enor- niousdesen of quinitie, the .ciViiiied Men escaped. Character and bleed may have shared in this p .but -we rather think that good living in....its. widest sense; the:" meat, fire; and clothes" of the poet; with -some assistance' from -"strong drinks," Was the true cause.
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