Page:The empire and the century.djvu/752

 The population is now probably over 8,600,000. About one-fifth of the land is under cultivation, of which rice and other grains account for 780,000 acres; coco-nuts, areca-nuts, etc., 800,000; tea, 880,000; cacao, 88,000; tobacco, 25,000; sugar-cane, 11,000; coffee, 4,000; while rubber-trees and other new products are estimated at 45,000. The probable eventual extension of the various cultivations is given as an additional 1,260,000 acres, but this I consider underestimated, as there are immense acres in the low country of the North Central, Northern and other provinces that with irrigation may offer inducements to capitalists to grow cotton, rubber, or coco-nuts, while apparently arid districts in the coral formation may be suitable for the growth of Sisal hemp or other fibre plants.

The history of the island shows that the aboriginal Veddahs, who were probably always nomad forest-dwellers, were conquered by the Sinhalese in the sixth century B.C., who were in their turn invaded and conquered by the Tamils 800 years later. The annals of the various dynasties, as given in the 'Mahawausa,' show that the Kings, both Sinhalese and Tamil, held their thrones on a tenure as precarious as their ancient Irish brothers, a large proportion dying by violence. To the terrors of the parricide Kasyapa, who, with the aid of the Premier, beheaded his father A.D. 478, we owe the most striking and interesting ancient ruin in Ceylon; for, fearful of the revenge of his brother Moggallana, who had collected an army in India to punish him, he fortified the rock of Sigiriya, which rises with perpendicular sides from the plain to a height of 600 feet, and maintained himself on this impregnable rock fortress for seventeen years. The extraordinary and daring ingenuity with which walls were built and passages constructed in positions that apparently would scarcely afford foothold for a cat compels admiration for the builders; and the extensive excavations under-