Note {2} — Chapter XIV

Note 2.—Valentyn appears to be repeating a native tradition when he says: “In old times the island had, as they loosely say, a good 400 miles (i.e. Dutch, say 1600 miles) of compass, but at the north end the sea has from time to time carried away a large part of it.” (Ceylon, in vol. v., p. 18.) Curious particulars touching the exaggerated ideas of the ancients, inherited by the Arabs, as to the dimensions of Ceylon, will be found in Tennent’s Ceylon, ch. i. The Chinese pilgrim Hiuen Tsang has the same tale. According to him, the circuit was 7000 li, or 1400 miles. We see from Marco’s curious notice of the old charts (G. T. “selonc qe se treuve en la mapemondi des mariner de cel mer”) that travellers had begun to find that the dimensions were exaggerated. The real circuit is under 700 miles!