They passed stores and large shops that were kept by men with foreign features, but with skins quite as dark as those of the natives. The Doctor said these men were descended from the Portuguese, who were the first Europeans to settle in Ceylon, and take possession of the country. Many of them had accumulated large fortunes, and their houses were on a scale that corresponded to the wealth of the owners. Many of these houses have fine gardens attached to them, and there are some gardens that cost many thousands of dollars. The Dutch, who held Ceylon after the Portuguese, and before the English occupation, have left a good many descendants in Colombo, and nearly all of them are rich and correspondingly happy. They spend their lives in Ceylon, and never think of going to Holland to reside. [Illustration: MOORISH MERCHANTS OF CEYLON.] There are a good many half-caste descendants of the Dutch and Portuguese, and where they are not transacting business on their own account, they are employed as clerks, either by the Government or by private individuals. The Parsees and Moormen are all merchants, and of late years they have been forced into competition with the Chinese, who have begun to invade Ceylon. [Illustration: A SUBURBAN SCENE.] Frank made the following entries in his note-book: "The Cingalese are said to make good house-servants and artisans, but they will not do much heavy work. For this purpose men called Tamils are imported from Southern India, when they do not come here of their own accord, and recently as many as 100,000 have come to Ceylon in a single year. They are employed on the coffee and tea plantations, and for all sorts of heavy work in the towns; they are larger and stronger than the native Cingalese, and are said to have bad tempers, which get them into a great many quarrels. [Illustration: A GROUP OF TAMIL COOLIES.]