We then passed on to Columbo, the capital of the island.
Ceylon, I may take occasion to mention, is not considered by our countrymen of the East to be in India.

We stared with all our eyes when this unexpected information was first given us, and fancied our merry friends were quizzing us.

But we soon learned that, in the technical language of that country, Ceylon does not form a part of India; still less does Sumatra, Java, or any indeed of the islands in the great tropical Archipelago.

New-comers are, of course, a good deal perplexed by these and sundry other local peculiarities in language and manners, which they at first laugh at as a good joke, then ridicule as affected, and lastly conform to as quite natural and proper.

Among Anglo-Indians the straits of Malacca, Sunda, and so on, together with the China sea, and those magnificent groups of islands the Philippines and Moluccas, are all included in the sweeping term--"To the eastward." At almost every part of this immense range I found further local distinctions, of greater or less peculiarity and extent according to circumstances.