COLOMBO, the capital and principal seaport town of Ceylon, on the west coast of the island, in 6° 55' N. lat. and 79’ 45'E. long. The municipal limits include an area of 6415 acres, which is divided into the nine wards of The Fort and Galle Face, Pettah, St Sebastian’s, St Paul’s, Cottanchina, New Bazaar, Marandana, Slave Island, and Colpetty. The fortified part of the town is about a mile and a half in circuit, and occupies a rocky promontory of but slight elevation, surrounded on three sides by the sea, and protected on the land side by a lake, a moat, and drawbridges. The Galle Face affords a favourite promenade for the European population; Pettah is mainly inhabited by natives and half castes; and Colpetty is a beautiful suburb. Most of the streets are finely shaded with a species of Hibiscus planted by the Dutch; and the most of the older European houses bear the marks of Dutch occupation. Colombo contains the Government offices and courts, and is the residence of the civil and military authorities, the seat of a Church of England bishop, and a centre for Roman Catholic, Wesleyan, Baptist, and other missionary organizations. The principal buildings are the Government or Queen’s House, the court-house, the town-hall, the lunatic asylum, the lazaretto, the military barracks and hospitals at Galle Face, Wellicadde jail, and Wolfendahl church; among the public institutions may be mentioned St Thomas’s college and collegiate school, founded by Bishop Chapman in 1821; Wesley college; the industrial school; the medical school, established in 1870, with six scholarships attached; a branch of the Royal Asiatic Society, with a museum; the United Service library; the military-medical and the colonial-medical libraries and museums; the Pettah library, established in ...