Description

About the Book:-Being a short description by this famous prisoner, this book gives the details of the author captivity, and the affairs that he was involved in during his captivity, between 1660 to 1679, in the kingdom of Conde Uda, located in the highlands of Ceylon, during the reign of Raja Singha II. Even though he was a prisoner, he was at some liberty to collate notices of the general description of the island and of the people. He further gives the reasons of his dentition, the different places he was imprisoned, the political intrigues, his meetings with missionaries, etc. This book is the second, but unconnected, volume in a set of two, dealing with voyages during the 16th and 17th centuries, and begins with a short summary of the voyage of J. H. van Linschoten. He was made prisoner with his son and died in 1660, leaving his unfortunate boy to grow to middle age in captivity. The latter, miserable as he usually was, employed his time admirably in observing and recording native customs, natural features, and recent Singhalese tradition. This work is a reprint of the 1902 edition.