Christianity In Ceylon:- Its Introduction And Progress Under The Portuguese, The Dutch, The British, And American Missions - HB

About the book:-An interesting book that traces the efforts of establishing the message of the Gospel in Ceylon from the start of the Portuguese occupation in 1505. The book is not a dry treatise as it describes a lot of instance of the habits of the people and their reaction to the priests. The book is rich with Buddhist philosophy and it is written in simple terminology. The book has six chapters that discuss; (1) the middle ages and the Portuguese period; (2) the Dutch period; (3) the British period; (4) the Brahmanical system; (5) Buddhism and demon worship and; (6) the moral and social character of the Sinhalese. This book is a reprint of the 1850 edition. About the author:-Sir James Emerson Tennent, 1st Baronet FRS, born James Emerson, was a British politician and traveller born in Ireland. He was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society on 5th June 1862. He entered Parliament in 1832 as member for Belfast. He became Secretary to the Board of Control, and in 1843 he was presented with a service of plate by the Calico printers of Great Britain as an acknowledgment of his getting a bill passed in Parliament for the copyright of Calico designs. He was a friend of both Charles Dickens and Dickens's biographer John Forster, and was the dedicatee of Dickens's last completed novel Our Mutual Friend (1865). He was knighted and appointed colonial secretary of Ceylon in 1845, where he remained till 1850. While he was there, an economic depression in the United Kingdom severely affected the local coffee and cinnamon industry. Planters and merchants clamoured for a reduction of export duties. Tennent therefore recommended to Earl Grey, Secretary of State for Colonies in London that taxation should be radically shifted from indirect taxation to direct taxation, which proposal was accepted.