CO882-(1-2) — Page 93

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE

19.

Reference :-

C.O. 882

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PUBLIC RECORD OFFICE, LONDON

ALLY WITHOUT PERMISSION OF THE BE REPRODUCED PHOTOGRAPHIC- COPYRIGHT PHOTOGRAPH-NOT TO

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dyan Kingdom, and converse with the feeling of No persons," he says, the Kandyan people.

aware of the great and insurmountable anti- pathies and prejudices which sway the Kandyan minds can credit the assertion that the disturbance was occasioned by low-country men, for the Kandy- ans are, from infancy, habituated to view all low- landers with suspicion and distrust, and to consider them inferior in every respect. No one at all conversant with the Kandyan character can believe it possible that they would have been alluded into the meshes of a lowland plot for no other pretence than to qualify the whims of lowland marauders! With no prospect of benefit to themselves is it likely that the Kandyans, slow and cautious in all their undertakings, would become the tools of a band of miscreants, and expose their homes, and their hamlets, their wives and their children to the mercies of such a gang ?”

Mr. Caulfield, the Government agent for the Seven Korles in which Kornegulla is situated, and Mr. Brodie, a Justice of the Peace in the same dis- trict, give a still stronger illustration of the fallacy of such a supposition, as the ascendancy of low- country men on this unhappy occasion.

"The Bazaar keepers and dealers in all the Kan- dyan villages are Moors and low-country men (not Kandyans who despise such occupations) and both these gentlemen say, that the greatest sufferers by the rebellion and the loudest in their lamentations prer its occurrence were the low-country residents in the Kandyan Provinces, who were plundered by the rioters and fled in all directions carrying off such remnants of their property as they could save.” —-(Mr. Caulfield, page 149. Mr. Brodie, page 195). Mr. Templer, Principal Civil Officer, at Korne- gulla during the insurrection, says “that no single low-country men was engaged in it, nor has heard of any being of the party; they consisted wholly of Kandyan."-Page 128.)

Mr. Stuart, the Deputy Queen's Advocate, whose official and professional duties rendered him in- timately familiar with all the circumstances and parties concerned, states distinctly, in refutation of this error, that although “it was the case that some low country Singhalese were with the Kan- dyan, they were very few indeed, and to all intenta

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and purposes Kandyans in their habits and feelings, from having settled in the interior and formed connexions with the inhabitants" (page 40)... "Throughout the whole trials it is clearly shown that the low country Singhalese took no active part, or next to none at all in the matter. They were not mentioned in the evidence, and no share whatsoever is shown to have been taken by them. In one word, though a few may have been present, it was as significantly described by some of the witnesses a 'Kandyan rebellion”—(Page 48).

But the most satisfactory and convincing autho- rity on this point is that of Mr. Kenneth Mac- kenzie, the Assistant Agent at Badulla, who has been for the last ten years resident in various parts of the Kandyan kingdom.

In writing to me on the 21st October, 1849, in reference to this unexpected statement of Mr. Wodehouse as to the influence of the low-country men in arousing the rebellion in the Kandyan districts, he says, "One cannot but detect at a glance the utter ignorance of the Kandyan people, their country and their babita” which leads to such an assertion, "for who, having any knowledge of the jealous native of the central province does not know that there is a deep-rooted feeling of hos- tility to the low-country man, and that the Kandyan regards him with such suspicion and enmity as to render it almost impossible for him to settle in the country; their tastes and modes of living are no dissimilar that, except amongst the lowest castes

of Kandyans, the low-country man is seldom found. So unusual is it to find a low-country man amongst them, that the instant he is discovered suspicion at- taches to his character, and the Kandyans form the most unfavourable opinion, and are always on their guard against him.”

Mr. Mackenzie then proceeds to demonstrate the powerlessness of the low-country men to effect such

a movement against the Kandyans.

1st. From their paucity of numbers; and 2nd. From their destitution of all influence.

He says, “During my service for a series of yoam in the Kandyan cometry it has been my practice for the purpose of stafintical haformation, to pay attention to the number of foreigness resident

the native villages; to trace their history and note 8