In connection with foreign trade the Mahawanso contains repeated allusions to ships wrecked upon the coast of Ceylon[1], and amongst the remarkable events which signalised the season, already rendered memorable by the birth of Dutugaimunu, B.C. 204, was the “arrival on the same day of seven ships laden with golden utensils and other goods;"[2] and as these were brought by order of the king to Mahagam, then the capital of Rohuna, the incident is probably referable to the foreign trade which was then carried on in the south of the island[3] by the Chinese and Arabians, and in which, as I have stated, the native Singhalese took no part.

[Footnote 1:  B.C. 543. Mahawanso, ch. vii. p. 49:  B.C. 306.  Ibid. ch. xi. p. 68, &c.]

[Footnote 2:  Mahawanso, ch. xxii. p. 135.]

[Footnote 3:  The first direct intimation of trading carried on by native Singhalese, along the coast of Ceylon, occurs in the Rajavali, but not till the year A.D. 1410,—­the king, who had made Cotta his capital, being represented as “loading a vessel with goods and sending it to Jaffna, to carry on commerce with his son.”—­Rajavali, p. 289.]

Still, notwithstanding their repugnance to intercourse with strangers, the Singhalese were not destitute of traffic amongst themselves, and their historical annals contain allusions to the mode in which it was conducted.  Their cities exhibited rows of shops and bazaars[1], and the country was traversed by caravans much in the same manner as the drivers of tavalams carry goods at the present day between the coast and the interior.[2]

[Footnote 1:  B.C. 204, a visitor to Anarajapoora is described as “purchasing aromatic drugs from the bazaars, and departing by the Northern Gate” (Mahawanso, ch. xxiii. p. 139); and A.D. 8, the King Maha Dathika “ranged shops on each side of the streets of the capital.”—­Mahawanso, ch. xxxiv. p. 213.]

[Footnote 2:  B.C. 170. Mahawanso ch. xxii. p. 138.]

Whatever merchandise was obtained in barter from foreign ships, was by this means conveyed to the cities and the capital[1], and the reference to carts which were accustomed to go from Anarajapoora to the division of Malaya, lying round Adam’s Peak, “to procure saffron and ginger,” implies that at that period (B.C. 165) roads and other facilities for wheel carriages must have existed, enabling them to traverse forests and cross the rivers.[2]

[Footnote 1:  In the reign of Elala, B.C. 204, the son of “an eminent caravan chief” was despatched to a Brahman, who resided near the Chetiyo mountain (Mihintala), in whose possession there were rich articles, frankincense, sandal-wood, &c., imported from beyond the ocean.—­Mahawanso ch. xxiii. p. 138.]

[Footnote 2:  Mahawanso ch. xxviii. p, 167.]