The Portuguese authorities, when they became interested
in the affairs of Ceylon, were not at all inclined to believe
in the impression, as being that of the foot-print of Adam ;
some attributing it to St. Thomas, and others to the Eunuch
of Candace, Queen of Ethiopia. Percival, in his account of
the island, apparently adopting this view, states, page 208,
that " the Roman Catholics have taken advantage of the
current superstitions to forward the propagation of their own
tenets; and a chapel which they have erected on the moun-
tain, is yearly frequented by vast numbers of black Chris-
tians of the Portuguese and Malabar races." But in this
respect he seems to have fallen iato an error; there are no
traces of such a chaptel on the mountain at the present day,
nor does it appear, upon inquiry, that there had been any
such in former times. Probably, when writing his work, he
had present, to his_ recollection traditions of the old Koman
Catholic church, which in the times of the Portuguese stood
on the spot now occupied as the great Saman D^wale, about
a couple' of miles from Batnapura, in which city there is



ADAM'S PEAK. 55



still a body of Roman Catholics, and a small chapel where
they assemble for worship.
Early Christian travellers have not failed to make mention
of the Peak in the narratives they have left of their voyages
and travels to the far East. Chief amongst these stands
Marco Polo, the celebrated Venetian whose travels through
the dominions of the Emperor Kublai Khan and adjacent
countries, A. D. 1271 — 1295, led Sansivino, the historian of
the city of Venice, to call him "the first before Columbus
who discovered new countries." He thus refers (book ill.
