Passage from the Cape to Ceylon. CHAP. IV. Passage from the Cape to Ceylon-Trincomallee-The To ensure strong breezes after leaving the Cape, 1803. we steered to the southward as far as 38° S lati- August, tude; in which parallel we ran down most of our longitude. This was by far the most unpleasant part of our voyage: the weather being dreary and cold, with constant gales of wind from the N. W.; while a prodigious sea right aft, caused the ship to roll her gangways in the water almost every time she took a lurch. None but those who have experienced it, can form a just idea of the unpleasantness of running a fortnight or three weeks before the wind with a heavy sea; the continual agitation preventing one from receiving any thing like good rest or sleep during that period. Our daily progression, during this part of the passage, was from 250 to 266 miles a day, steering due east. Vide Chart. Having got into the 70th parallel of east longitude, we shaped our course to the northward, and left this stormy, latitude of the southern ocean. We soon got into the S. E. trades, and had no more disagreeable weather; a fine breeze wafting us along two hundred miles a day, till 1803. Health of the Crew. on the night of the 4th of September we saw the Sept. fires on the mountains of Ceylon, after a passage of one hundred and four days; without the least preparation for a long voyage, yet without losing a man by sickness, during this long run of upwards of thirteen thousand miles. There did not appear a single symptom of scurvy during this voyage; which can only be accounted for, by the discipline and cleanliness of the ship's company. As to antiscorbutics, there were only two or three cases of lime-juice on board the ship; which could not be of much consequence among 264 men. Much, indeed, I think, depends on keeping the men's minds employed, during long voyages, in little amusements and recreations, which are not at all incompatible with good discipline: every fine afternoon, therefore, the dance commenced under the half deck or gangways, which was kept up till eight o'clock, diffusing a general exhilaration of spirits through the whole of the crew. 5. We this morning saw the land, which proved to be the Friar's Hood, a mountain so called, from the resemblance which the peak of it bears to a hood; and which indeed seems to hang over on one side in a very singular manner. During this forenoon we kept steering along shore, about two miles and a half distant from it; not a little delighted with the prospect of the country, and fine flavour from the woods. The coast along this part of Ceylon, especially close to the shore, very much resembles the English coast between Yarmouth and Ipswich; except that along this beach appear numerous groves of cocoa-nut trees, interspersed with In Appearance of Ceylon. dian huts; or, as they are here called, bungalows Behind this, the scenery is truly romantic; the hills and mountains rising in the wildest order and most fantastic shapes imaginable: abrupt precipices, pleasant vallies, thick groves, towering cliffs, and lofty mountains, are here seen intermingled in " regular confusion," and clothed in nature's most verdant livery; affording a delightful prospect and relief to the eye of the mariner, fatigued with the dull monotony of a long sea voyage. Burst on the view "Candy's heights All forms assuming, bold-abrupt-grotesque,- From the singular appearance of some of those hills, mariners have been induced to confer on them as whimsical titles; such as the Friar's Hood, Dromedary's Back, and various other appeilations, from their fancied similitude to animals, or other objects. At day-light this morning found ourselves close in with Trincomallee harbour; but as the land-breeze was blowing fresh off shore, it was mid-day before we got to an anchor in Back Bay. The appearance of this place is very pleasant from the sea: the harbour is one of the most capacious in the world; the surrounding country covered with trees of the most luxuriant foliage; while Flag-staff Point, a rugged promontory that projects into the sea, and ends in a perpendicular precipice, forms a fine contrast with the smooth expanse of ocean below. Close to this cliff we anchored for a few hours, in order F 1803. Sept. 7. 1803. Sept. The Seven Pagodas. to give intelligence of the war to the ships in the roads; and then made sail for Madras. While passing in sight of the Danish settlement of Tranquebar, we captured a French ship in ballast, bound to Cochin on the Malabar coast. She had not had any intelligence of the war, though Admiral Linois, it seemed, had been ap prized of that event, as he had made his escape from Pondicherry roads some time before our arrival; Buonaparté having dispatched vessels with intelligence of the war, long before its actual commencement, to the different foreign settle ments. The only thing that attracted our attention on this coast, was an assemblage of ruins, called the Seven Pagodas, which are situated on a little hill of stone, that rises abruptly on the sea-shore from the surrounding plain: when viewed with a good glass, however, one or two only appear, rising as it were from the ruins of other buildings; the whole having indeed an antique and venerable cast*. "Mahabalipoorum, or the Seven Pagodas, "Situate about 38 miles to the southward of Madras, present to the distant view only a rock; but, on examination, the following curious ruins are found: "The attention is first arrested by a Hindoo Pagoda covered with sculpture, and hewn from a single mass of rock, about 26 feet high. A great surface of the rock, near this structure, is covered with figures in bas relief: the most conspicuous is a gigantic one of the god Crishna, with his favourite Arjoon in the attitude of prayer. Several figures of men and animals surround these, all proving the sculptor to have pos sessed no inconsiderable skill. "Opposite to these, and surrounded by a wall of briek, Mahabalipoorum. 1803. At night, the lightning was frequent, and exceedingly vivid over the land: this is generally Sept: the case in the S. W. monsoon. are several Pagodas, of great antiquity. Adjoining is an excavation in the rock, the massy roof of which is, seeming ly, supported by columns not unlike those in the cavern of Elephanta. Farther on is another excavation, now used as a shelter for travellers. A scene of sculpture fronts the en trance, in which are groupes of very interesting figures. "In the way up the rock a prodigious circular stone is passed under, so placed by nature on a smooth and sloping surface, that you are in dread of its crushing you before you clear it. The top of the rock is strewed with bricks, the remains (it is said) of a palace anciently standing on this site. Descending over immense beds of stone, you arrive at a spacious excavation; a temple dedicated to Siva, who is represented in the middle, of a large stature, and with four arms; the left foot rests on a bull couchant, a small figure of Brahma on the right, and another of Feshnu on the left hand. At one end of the temple is a gigantic figure of Veshnu, sleeping on an enormous cobra de capella, with several heads, and so disposed as to form a canopy over the head of the god. Near these, is a human figure suspended with the head downwards. "Over this temple, at a considerable elevation, is a smaller one, wrought from a single mass of stone. Adjoining is a temple in the rough, and a large mass of rock, the upper part roughly fashioned for a pagoda. This whole rock is a species of extremely hard granite, and must have taken immense labour and great numbers of men to have finished these structures. "East of the village, and washed by the sea, is a Pagoda of stone, containing the Lingam, and dedicated to Siva. Besides the usual figures within, one of a gigantic stature is öbserved stretched on the ground, and represented as secured in that position. "The surf here breaks as far out even as the ruins of the city, which was incredibly large and magnificent. Many of the masses of stone near the shore appear to have been wrought. |