On the morning of the 18th of March we cast anchor in the harbour of Colombo, in the island of Ceylon, where we found two European ships, and one Savoyard, the owner of which was a French merchant named Le Fabre. M. Van de Graaf, brother-in-law of the often before-mentioned commandant of Cochin, M. I. G. van Angelbec, who was then governor of the Dutch possessions in the island of Ceylon, sent to meet us his three state carriages, one of which was destined for the commander of our frigate, and the other two for the rest of the officers. With this equipage we were conducted to a garden without the city, in which the governor-general, M. De Graaf, at that time resided, and where an elegant breakfast had been prepared for us. For a few days after I had sufficient time and leisure to wander about through the island, in order to make observations on the nature of the country and its productions; but I had nearly experienced the same fate as a hundred other travellers who visit both the coasts of India, and who, for want of the necessary knowledge of the languages, are obliged to put up with the erroneous information they receive from poor fishermen and other ignorant persons, which they afterwards, without reflection or proper examination, insert in their journals. Such, indeed, would have been the case with me, had I not met with people in Ceylon who understood both the Malabar and the Tamulic languages, and who were able to gratify my curiosity. My residence there was, indeed, too short to enable me to give a complete description of the island; but I can certainly communicate some useful information on the subject: and if I enlarge it by what I have learned from Knox, Sonnerat, Spilberg, Cossigny, and other travellers, I hope the reader will not think his labour lost to peruse it.