Francois Valentijn's Description of Ceylon (Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien, 1726)

The first twelve chapters on Ceylon in Valentijn's Oud en Nieuw Oost-Indien (Dordrecht, 1724-6).

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[Sinnappah Arasaratnam] Valentijn sailed from Holland in the service of the East India Company in 1685, when he was just 19. From then on he kept a record, ultimately Old and New East Indies, which is a primary source of information on parts of maritime Asia. This volume covers the part dealing with Ceylon, with substantial sections devoted to geography, topography, society, natural history and the record of historical tradition. There is also an almost contemporaneous account of the Dutch conquest of the island.