The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1899-05-25

Stars and Stripes" floating from many
masts. Our gunboat "Castine" con-
graduated us upon our safe arrival
by steaming alongside and exchang-
ing salutes. Upon arrival in a
harbor you at first become very OBJ
servant and of course many small
things, which at other times and
under ordinary circumstances, would
not come under your notice, i'm
press themselves very forcibly upon
you. One Of the most peculiar. to
me, is the ..outrigger boat" used by
the natives of the harbor. These
boats are generally Is feet long. Is
inches wide and two feet deep. From
the port side extends-one from the
bow and one from the stern-two
spars about ~ feet long, at right
angles to the boat; to the farther ends
OF these spars is roped another spar,
or more generally a log, about -
inches in diameter. parallel to the
boat; the spars and boat forming
nearly a square, the buoyancy and
weight of the log afrording the re-
quired equipoise for this narrow
trough. they are very difficult to
capsize.
Colombo is beautiful city as seen
from the harbor; everything looks so
clean, green and cool. 1t has 1877 900
population; it is seaport, COM
mercial city and the capital of the
island.
~, Nfo,oh o1ot oftor tho roufip a
duties of the day were over, l had my
much wished for desire granted. At
1890 a. m. l landed on the soil Of
Colombo with sufficient money and
much alacrity to see the curious
things and places Of that city. The
first place entered on my way from
the ietty was the Ceylon Tea Kiosk,
a nice cafe for refreshments in the
tea, chocolate and coffee line. This
place, as are many others, is merely
a pavilion surrounded by beautiful
flowers of unmentionable description.
The Ceylon tea, as procured, was
most refreshing.
On to the Bank OF Hong Kong we
went with the full expectation Of
securing 3 rupees for each one OF our
dollars, when much to our surprise and
discontinue, we found that the bank
had closed for the day Good Friday
and that if we wished our money ex-
changed would have to go to the
post office or else lend ourselves to
the mercy of the street money
changers. The post office would not
allow us more than p rupees pei
dollar. A rupee is an hundred cents
in last Indian money; valued at 81
cents in our money. The denomina'
tons are /. J, cents, 5, 10, 25, so, IS
and 100 cent pieces;1 l, 2, 5, 10 rupees,
paper.
After getting our money exchang-
ed, we hired carriage for the entire
day, to see the city. There is nc
need Of my saying anything relative
to the tropical plants and flowers
that bedeck the whole city. The
streets are very wide and kept abso'
lutely clean; the buildings are very
large and mostly all of them built Of
stone. The first place of interest we
visited was the Buddha Temple, in
which can be seen a sacred lamp Of
solid gold, standing four feet high; 6
rostrum upon which the priests
stand to deliver their lectures upon
the doctrine and under which are
buried all former priests of the same
caste who have 'scashed in their
checks''in order to defray expenses tc
a better land.
The temple contains Buddhas, O
several different races of people; We
saw the East Indian Buddha, also the
Philippine Buddha, both very similar
in size and fabrication. The Buddhs
of warship in this temple was in
closed in glass case. On an altar
just in front if it are kept numbers Of
sacred flowers with which the ma
tives worship their idol. The tree
from which these flowers are taken i:
inviolable. Should any one break
from the tree the smallest part of a
limb, he would be killed Immediately
hunted necessarily until the duty o.
execution had been performed.
In going out to this temple, com
monty called 'Joss House" you SET
the bathing places set apart for botl
male and female. Those for the mer
are far superior in every respect com
pared with those for the women. Ii
fact the places for the latter are
nothing more than mud holes; NJ
place upon coming out of the water
to closet themselves, and not ever
footing, more than the beach of thu
lake; while at the places for the mel
are erected marble slabs with s
marble flooring.
Any one is we'll repaid for expense
and trouble of going ashore by
seeing the grand and stately man
sions owned and occupied by Euro
peans and half castles. These stipend
Gus buildings form the center mark
of many acres of fertile soil covered
with most luxuriant vegetation
Flowers of every cline, beds of which
are most artistically arranged, make
the immediate front yard seem 8
veritable paradise. Above these
wave the majestic cocoanut palm
banana, breadfruit and banyan tree
The mercantile establishments art
not built, doors opening directly Out
on the street, but set back from the
front gate about IS or 100 yards.
person in passing would never thinl
that in this place of flowers ano
beauty the wrangles of commercial
strife are being constantly waged
In the yards before the stores yor
will find settees, tables and every
thing necessary to refresh yourself
All stores and residences of any note
are entirely surrounded by higf
stone walls; on the top Of these walls
bottles. having broken necks, art
bedded in mortar, forming a very
formidable obstacle to scale.
The museum is place of very
great interest. You find everything
on land and in the seas within it:
walls. l saw skeleton of a larg,
elephant showing the opening made
by the bullet that killed him. Also
sample tea which was cultivated or
the island and sold at $1O7 per pound
From the museum, we went to the