Online Encyclopedia

COLOMBO

Online Encyclopedia
Originally appearing in Volume V06, Page 714 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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COLOMBO  , the

capital and
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principal seaport of
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Ceylon, situated on the west coast of the island . Pop . (1901) 154,691 . Colombo stands to the south of the mouth of the
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river Kelani . The coast-
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land is here generally low-lying, but broken by slight eminences . The
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great artificial harbour, enclosed by break-waters, is bounded on the south by a slight promontory . This is occupied by the quarter of the city known as the Fort, from the former existence of a fort founded by the Portuguese and reconstructed by the Dutch . In 1869 the governor,
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Sir Hercules Robinson (afterwards Lord Rosmead), obtained authority to demolish the fortifications, which were obsolete for purposes of defence, and required 6000 men to man them properly . The levelling of the walls and filling up of the
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moat made the Fort much more accessible and healthy, and since then it has become the business centre of the city . Here are situated Queen's713 House, the governor's residence; the secretariat or government offices, and other government buildings, such as the
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fine general
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post office and the customs house . Here also are most of the principal hotels, which have a peculiarly high reputation among
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European hotels in the East . A lofty tower serves as the principal lighthouse of the
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port and also as a
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clock-tower .

On the south

side of the Fort are extensive barracks . The old banqueting-hall of the Dutch
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governors is used as the garrison church of St Peter . To the north-east of the Fort, skirting the harbour, are the Pettah, the principal native quarter, the districts of Kotahena ant Mutwall, and suburbs beyond . In this direction the principal buildings are the Wolfendahl church, a massive Doric
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building of the Dutch (1749); the splendid
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Roman Catholic
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cathedral of St Lucia (completed in 1904); and St Thomas's College (1851), which follows the lines of an
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English public school . Close to this last is the
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Anglican cathedral of Christ Church . The Kotahena temple is the chief Buddhist temple in Colombo . To the north-east of the Fort is the Lake, a ramifying
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sheet of fresh
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water, which adds greatly to the beauty of the site of Colombo, its banks being clothed with luxuriant foliage and flowers . The narrow isthmus between this lake and the sea, south of the Fort, is called Galle Face, and is occupied chiefly by promenades and recreation grounds . The peninsula enclosed by two arms of the Lake is known as Slave Island, having been the site of a slave's prison under the Dutch . South-east of this is the principal residential quarter of Colombo, with the circular Victoria Park as its centre . To the east of the park a series of parallel roads, named after former
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British governors, are lined with beautiful bungalows embowered in trees . This locality is generally known as the
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Cinnamon Gardens, as it was formerly a Dutch reserve for the cultivation of the cinnamon
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bush; many of which are still growing here .

In the park is the fine Colombo Museum, founded by Sir

William Gregory; and near the neigh-• bouring Campbell Park are the handsome buildings of a number of institutions, such as Wesley College, and the General, Victoria Memorial Eye and other hospitals . South of Victoria Park is the Havelock racecourse . Among educational establishments not hitherto mentioned are the Royal College, the principal government institution, the government technical college and St Joseph's Roman Catholic college . Most of the
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town is lighted by
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gas, and certain quarters with electric
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light, and electric tramways have been laid over several miles of the city roads . The water-supply is
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drawn from a hill region 30 M. distant . Under British
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rule Colombo has shared in the prosperity brought to the island by the successive
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industries of coffee and tea planting . At the height of the coffee-growing enterprise 20,000 men,
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women and children, chiefly Sinhalese and
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Tamils, found employment in the large factories and stores of the merchants scattered over the town, where the coffee was cleaned, prepared, sorted and packed for shipment . Tea, on the contrary, is pre-pared and packed on the estates; but there is a considerable amount of
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work still done in the Colombo stores in sorting, blending and repacking such teas as are sold at the
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local public sales; also in dealing with cacao, cardamoms,
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cinchona bark and the remnant still
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left of the coffee industry . But it is to its position as one of the great ports of call of the East that Colombo owes its great and increasing importance . A magnificent break water, 4200 ft. long, the first stone of which was laid by the prince of Wales in 1875, was completed in 1884 . This
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breakwater changed an open roadstead into a harbour completely sheltered on the most exposed or south-west side; but there was still liability in certain months to storms from the north-west and south-east . Two additional arms were therefore constructed, consisting of a north-east and north-west breakwater, leaving two openings, one Boo ft. and the other 700 ft. wide, between the various sections .

The

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area enclosed is 66o acres . A first-class graving-
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dock, of which the Admiralty
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bore
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half the cost, has also been added . These improvements caused Galle to be abandoned as a port of call for steamers in favour of Colombo, while
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Trincomalee has been abandoned as a
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naval station . The port has assumed first-class importance,
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mail steamers calling regularly as well as men-of-war and the mercantile marine of all nations; and it is now one of the finest artificial harbours in the
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world . The extension of
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railways also has concentrated the trade of the island upon the capital, and contributed to its rise in prosperity . Colombo was originally known as the Kalantotta or Kalany ferry . By the
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Arabs the name was changed to Kolambu, and the town was mentioned by
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Ibn Batuta in 1346 as the largest and finest in Serendib . In 1517 the Portuguese effected a settlement, and in 1520 they fortified their port and bade
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defiance to the native besiegers . In 1586 the town was invested by
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Raja Singh, but without success . On its capture by the Dutch' in 1656 it was a flourishing colony with convents of five religious orders, churches and public offices, inhabited by no fewer than 900 noble families and 1500 families dependent on mercantile or
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political occupations . In 1796 it was surrendered to the British .

End of Article: COLOMBO
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