This 1817 book by 'A. M. Philalethes' traces the history of Ceylon (now Sri Lanka) from the classical period to 1815, providing details of the religion, laws and manners of the people. An appendix contains an account, originally published in 1681, by Robert Knox (1641 1720) of his nearly twenty-year captivity on the island. The identity of the pseudonymous 'Philalethes' is not certain: he may have been Robert Fellowes (1770 1847), who, however, never visited Ceylon, or the Revd G. Bissett, who did. The book, which includes topographical notes and a collection of moral maxims and ancient...