There are two conveyances from Pointe de Galle to Colombo—­the mail which leaves every day, and a coach which starts three times a week.  The distance is seventy-three English miles, and the journey is performed in ten hours.  A place in the mail costs 1 pounds 10s., and in the coach 13s.  As I was pressed for time, I was obliged to go by the first.  The roads are excellent; not a hill, not a stone is there to impede the rapid rate at which the horses, that are changed every eight miles, scamper along.

The greater portion of the road traversed thick forests of cocoa-trees, at a little distance from the sea-shore, and the whole way was more frequented and more thickly studded with houses than anything I ever saw even in Europe.  Village followed village in quick succession, and so many separate houses were built between them, that there was not a minute that we did not pass one.  I remarked also some small towns, but the only one worthy of notice was Calturi, where I was particularly struck by several handsome houses inhabited by Europeans.

Along the road-side, under little roofs of palm-leaves, were placed large earthen vessels filled with water, and near them cocoa-nut shells to drink out of.  Another measure for the accommodation of travellers, which is no less worthy of praise, consists in the establishment of little stone buildings, roofed in, but open at the sides, and furnished with benches.  In these buildings many wayfarers often pass the night.

The number of people and vehicles that we met made the journey appear to me very short.  There were specimens of all the various races which compose the population of Ceylon.  The Cingalese, properly so called, are the most numerous, but, besides these, there are Indians, Mahomedans, Malays, natives of Malabar, Jews, Moors, and even Hottentots.  I saw numerous instances of handsome and agreeable physiognomies among those of the first three races; the Cingalese youths and boys, in particular, are remarkably handsome.  They possess mild, well-formed features, and are so slim and finely built, that they might easily be mistaken for girls; an error into which it is the more easy to fall from their manner of dressing their hair.  They wear no covering on their head, and comb back all their hair, which is then fastened behind by means of a comb, with a flat, broad plate, four inches high.  This kind of head-dress looks anything but becoming in the men.  The Mahomedans and Jews have more marked features; the latter resemble the Arabs, and, like them, have noble physiognomies.  The Mahomedans and Jews, too, are easily recognised by their shaven heads, long beards, and small white caps or turbans.  Many of the Indians, likewise, wear turbans; but the most have only a simple piece of cloth tied round their head, which is also the case with the natives of Malacca and Malabar.  The Hottentots allow their coal-black hair to fall in rude disorder over their foreheads and half-way down their necks.  With the exception of the Mahomedans and Jews, none of these different people bestow much care upon their dress.  Save a small piece of cloth of about a hand’s-breadth, and fastened between their legs, they go about naked.  Those who are at all dressed, wear short trousers and an upper garment.