[Footnote 1:  By Dutugaimunu, B.C. 164.  For an account of the present condition of this Dagoba at Bintenne, see Vol.  II.  Pt.  IX. ch. ii.]

To the question as to what particular race the inhabitants of Ceylon at that time belonged, and whence or at what period the island was originally peopled, the Buddhist chronicles furnish no reply.  And no memorials of the aborigines themselves, no monuments or inscriptions, now remain to afford ground for speculation.  Conjectures have been hazarded, based on no sufficient data, that the Malayan type, which extends from Polynesia to Madagascar, and from Chin-India to Taheite, may still be traced in the configuration, and in some of the immemorial customs, of the people of Ceylon.[1]

[Footnote 1:  Amongst the incidents ingeniously pressed into the support of this conjecture is the use by the natives of Ceylon of those double canoes and boats with outriggers, which are never used on the Arabian side of India, but which are peculiar to the Malayan race in almost every country to which they have migrated; Madagascar and the Comoro islands, Sooloo, Luzon, the Society Islands, and Tonga.  PRITCHARD’S Races of Man, ch. iv. p. 17.  For a sketch of this peculiar canoe, see Vol.  II.  Pt.  VII. ch. i.

There is a dim tradition that the first settlers in Ceylon arrived from the coasts of China.  It is stated in the introduction to RIBEYRO’S History of Ceylon, but rejected by VALENTYN, ch, iv. p. 61.

The legend prefixed to RIBEYRO is as follows.  “Si nous en croyons les historiens Portugais, les Chinois out ete les premiers qui ont habite cette isle, et cela arriva de cette maniere.  Ces peuples etoient les maitres du commerce de tout l’orient; quelques unes de leurs vaisseaux furent portez sur les basses qui sont pres du lieu, que depuis on appelle Chilao par corruption au lieu de Cinilao.  Les equipages se sauverent a terre, et trouvant le pais bon et fertile ils s’y etablirent:  bientot apres ils s’allierent avec les Malabares, et les Malabares y envoyoient ceux qu’ils exiloient et qu’ils nominoient Galas.  Ces exiles s’etant confondus avec les Chinois, de deux noms n’en out fait qu’un, et se sont appelles Chin-galas et ensuite Chingalais.”—­RIBEYRO, Hist. de Ceylan, pref. du trad.

It is only necessary to observe in reference to this hypothesis that it is at variance with the structure of the Singhalese alphabet, in which n and g form but one letter.  DE BARROS and DE COUTO likewise adhere to the theory of a mixed race, originating in the settlement of Chinese in the south of Ceylon, but they refer the event to a period subsequent to the seizure of the Singhalese king and his deportation to China in the fifteenth century.  DE BARROS, Dec. iii. ch. i.; DE COUTO, Dec. v. ch. 5.]

But the greater probability is, that a branch of the same stock which originally colonised the Dekkan extended its migrations to Ceylon.  All the records and traditions of the peninsula point to a time when its nations were not Hindu; and in numerous localities[1], in the forests and mountains of the peninsula, there are still to be found the remnants of tribes who undoubtedly represent the aboriginal race.