GALLE, or Pointde Galle, a town and port in the southern province of Ceylon, on the south-western coast, about 72 miles S. of Colombo, with which it is connected by a good carriage road. It was made a municipality in 1865, and divided into the five districts of the Fort, Callowelle, Galopiadde, Hirimbure, and Cumbalwalla. The fort, which is more than a mile in circumference, commands the whole harbour, but is commanded by a range of hilLs. Within its enclosure are not only several Government buildings, but an old church erected by the Dutch East India Company, a mosque, a Wesleyan chapel, a hospital, and a considerable number of houses occupied by Europeans. The old Dutch building known as the queen’s house or governor’s residence, which dated from the year 1687, was in such a dilapidated state that it was sold by Governor Gregory in 1873. Elsewhere there are few buildings of individual note, but the general style of domestic architecture is pleasant and comfortable, though not pretentious. One of the most delightful features of the place is the profusion of trees, even within the town, and along the edge of the shore—suriyas, palms, cocoa-nut trees, and bread-fruit trees. The ramparts towards the sea furnish fine promenades. In the harbour deep water is found close to the shore, and the outer roads are spacious; but the south-west monsoon renders entrance difficult, and not unfrequently drives vessels from their moorings. Galle is an important point on the lines of communication between Calcutta and Australia, and between Suez and Singapore. The Peninsular and Oriental Steam Navigation Company, the Messageries Maritimes, and the British India Steam Navigation Company have agencies at the port. The trade is mainly in the productions of the surrounding country, of ...which in 1873 there was shipped 11,477 cwts.
of cocoa-nut oil, 10,083 cwts. of cinnamoD, 23,377 cwts. of plumbago, and 22,932 cwts. of coir. Cotton goods are the principal import, 143,410 pieces being the amount for 1873. The inhabitants of Galle are of very mingled origin, comprising not only Singhalese European residents and Eurasian half-castes, who are locally denominated “Burghers,” as being mainly the descendants of the old Dutch settlers, but also “Moors” or “Moormen” (that is, Arabians or semi-Arabians), Hindus, Parsees, people from the Coromandel coast, and Maldivians. The Moors are largely engaged as lapidaries and workers in tortoise-shell; and the urgency of the itinerant vendors is one of the inevitable plagues of the European visitor to the town. According to the returns of 1871, the total population of the municipality was 47,059, distributed in 8979 families, occupying 7496 houses, and consisting of 24,294 males and 22,765 females.
G⅛lle, according to Sir J. E. Tennent, is the Tarshish of Solomon; but <JF this opinion there is no proof, even if it were certain that the Jewish fleets visited the island of Ceylon at all. The place is mentioned by none of the Greek or Latin geographers, unless the identification with Ptolemy’s Avium Promontorium or Cape of Birds be a correct one. It is hardly mentioned in the native chronicles before 1267, and Ibn Batuta, in the middle of the 14th century, distinctly states that Kali,—that is, Galle,—was a small town. It was not till the period of Portuguese occupation that it rose to importance. When the Dutch succeeded the Portuguese they greatly strengthened the fortifications, which had been vigorously defended against their admiral, Kosten; and under their rule the place had the rank of a commandancy. In the marriage treaty of the infanta of Portugal with Charles II. of England it was agreed that if the Portuguese recovered Ceylon they were to hand over Galle to the English; but as the Portuguese did not recover Ceylon the town was left to fall into English hands at the conquest of the island in 1796. The name Galle is derived from the Singhalese galla, equivalent to rock; but the Portuguese and Dutch settlers, being better fighters than philologists, connected it with the Latin gallus a cock, and the image of a cock was carved as a symbol of the town in the front of the old Government house.
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