Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 04.djvu/529

CEYLON. 451 C. G. S. Ceylon's early history was due to the labors of G«'orge Tumour (1794-1843), who devoted him- self to a study of the Pali chronicles, and com- posed an t'pitomc of Ihe Uiston/ of Vciilon from the year B.C. 543 t^^ a.p. 1708. His records pive the reigns of 105 kings who reigned during this period of '2341 years. He ba.scd his work cliielly on the most famous of the Singhalese books, the iliiliur<iii.ia. a metrical chronicle, in the Pali languagi^. which gives an account of the island during the above twenty-three centuries. The st<>r>" begins with the invasion of Vijaya, or Wijayo (B.C. 543), son of a petty Indian sove- reign in the country watered by the Ganges. He subdued the Yakkhas, the aboriginal in- habitants; married a daughter of one of the na- tive chiefs, whom he subsequently repudiated for an Indian princess ; and founded a dynasty that lield imdivided sovereignty in Ceylon for nearly eight centuries. He bestowed on his kingdom his patrimonial name of Sihala. or Sinhala — whence Sinhalese (Singhalese), Ceylon — and promoted the settlement" of colonists from the mainland. In the reign of the great King Tissa, called Devfinampiyatissa, or Devenipiatissa (B.C. 307), Buddhism was established as the national religion, and his reign was further remarkable by the planting of the sacred Bo-tree (B.C. 288) ; and now commenced the erection of those stupen- dous buildings already noticed. The next impor- tant epoch in Singhalese history is the usurpation of the Malabars (B.C. 237), foreign mercenaries from the Coromandel coast, to whom the native sovereigns had intrusted the defense of the island. Several Malabar invasions are chron- icled in the histors" of Ceylon, and these foreign- ers long contended with the native princes for supreme authority. Passing on to .^^.d. 1071. a native dynasty was then reestablished in the jierson of Vijaya Bahu, and his recovery of the throne delivered the country from the domina- tion of the ilalabars or Tamils for a time, and prepared the way for the restoration of the roal race nearly a century later in the person of the illustrious Parakrama Bahu. Parakra- nia's reign commenced in a.d. 1153, and it was oiie of the most renowned eras in the history of Ceylon. He devoted himself to religion and agri- culture, and besides many notable religious edi- fices; he cau.sed no fewer than 1470 tanks to be constructed, subsequently known as the 'seas of Parakrama.' Thirty years after the death of this monarch, the Malabars landed with a large anny and speedily conquered the whole i^and. In 1235 a native dvnasty recovered a part of the kingdom. During the reign of Dharma Parakrama IX. the Portuguese first visited Ceylon ( 1505) ; but it was in 1517 that they first formed a permanent settlement at Colombo for trading purposes. Their encroachments soon aroused the opposition of the patriotic Kandyans, and it is a remarkable fact that, although they were even ignorant of the use of gunpowder when the Portuguese came, in 1505, they ultimately excelled their enemies as musketeers, and were finally able to bring 20,000 stand of arms to bear against them. 'Amity, commerce, and religion.' v,as the Portuguese motto: but their rule in Ceylon is a sad storj" of rapacity, bigotry, and cnielty. They were at last driven from the island by the Dutch in 1058, after a contest of twenty years, when, ns Sir J. E. Tennent re- marks, "the fanatical zeal of the Roman Catholic sovereign for the propagation of the faith was replaced by the earnest toil of the Dutch traders to intrench their trading niono])olies; and the almost chivalrous energy with which the soldiers of Portugal resisted the attacks of the native princes was exchanged for the subdued humble- ness with which the merchants of Holland en- dured the insults and outrages perpetrated by the tyrants of Kandy ii)on their envoys and olVk-ers." But the purely military tenure of the Dutcli was destined to give place to the coloni- zation of the British. It was during the great European war succeeding the French Revolution that the English gained possession of the island. On .ugust 1, 1795, an expedition luider Col. James Stuart landed at Trincomalee, which was speedily captured, and finally the garrison of Colombo surrendered, on February 10, 1700. By this capitulation all the Dutch settlements and strongholds in Ceylon More ceded to th(^ English, though the island «as not formally annexed to the British crown till the Peace of Amiens, March 27. 1802. The native sovereigns, how- ever, continued in the possession of their moun- tain territory: but at length the Kandyan king, 'ikrauia IJaja Sinha, after perpetrating the most frightful atrocities on his own people, seized and nuirdered certain native merchants, British sul)j<'ct3, trading to Kandy. War followed; in January, 1815, Kandy was taken, and the tyrant was sent a captive to the fortress of Yel- lore. On March 2, 1815, a treaty was eonchidcd with the native chiefs, by which the King was for- mally deposed and his territories annexed to the British crown. Since then the island has made rapid strides in material prosperity; many im- portant public works have been completed, and others are still in progress. BinLioGE-PHY. Tennent, Ceylon (London, 1800); Gordon - Curamiug, Ceylon (London, 1891); Clutterbuck, About Ceylon (London, 1891) ; Carpenter, Ceylon (London, 1892) ; Sara- sin, Die Weddas von Ceylon (Wiesbaden, 1892- 93) ; Deschamps, Au pays des ^'cddas (Paris, 1892); Ferguson, Ceylon (Colombo, 1898): Le- clercq, L'lle de Ceylon (Paris, 1900) ; Blue Book of Ceylon (annual). For antiqtiities, consult: Cave, Ruined Cities of Ceylon (London, 1900) ; Burrows, Buried Cities of Ceylon (Colombo and London, 1899): Geiger, Ceylon: Reiseerin}i('rnii- rien (Wiesl>aden, 1898). For language and lit- erature, consult: Alwiz, .Sinhalese Handbook in Roman Characters (Colombo, 1880) ; Gtmase- kara, Coniprehensire fSrammar of ihe Sinhalese Language (Colombo, 1891) : Carter, English- Sinhalese Dietionary (Colombo, 1891); dough, Sinhalese-English Dietionarg (Colombo, 1890) ; Geiger, Littcralur und Spraehc drr Singhalesen (Strassburg, 1901). For religion, consult Cop- leston. Buddhi'^m in Crtilon (London, 1892). CEYLON TEA-TREE. See Eleodendron. CEZIMBRA, sa-zem'bra. A coast town of Pintugal, in the Province of Estremadura, about 18 miles south of Lisbon (Map: Portugal, A 3). It has a good harbor and fisheries. Population of the commune, in 1890. 8438: in 1900, 9000. C. G. S., or CENTIMETER-GRAM-SEC- OND SYSTEM. That system of units or stand- ards for the measurement of physical quantities which is based upon the centimeler as the unit of length, the gram as the unit of mass, and the mean solar second as the unit of time duration.