An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon (Knox 1681)
More actions
| Author | Robert Knox |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Published | 1681 |
| Publisher | Richard Chiswell (printer to the Royal Society) |
| Place | London |
| Total pages | 189 |
| Regions documented | Sri Lanka (Kingdom of Kandy) |
|---|---|
| Preparations | Dried leaf beaten to powder with jaggery, eaten on empty stomach |
| Uses documented | Medicinal (fever and ague from contaminated water) |
| Original held at | Royal Museums Greenwich (original manuscript); British Library (first edition) |
|---|
An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, in the East Indies is a book by Robert Knox (1641--1720), published in London in 1681 by Richard Chiswell, the printer to the Royal Society.[1] The book describes Knox's nineteen years of captivity in the Kingdom of Kandy (1660--1679) and contains the earliest known account by an Englishman of using cannabis medicinally in Ceylon.[2] Knox's sample of the plant, which he called bangue or Indian hemp, was later the subject of the first controlled experiment with cannabis in European scientific history, conducted by Robert Hooke at the Royal Society in December 1689.[2]
Robert Knox
Robert Knox was born on 8 February 1641 at Tower Hill in London. He first went to sea at the age of fourteen, joining his father, Captain Robert Knox senior, on the merchant ship Anne for a voyage to India.[3] The Knoxes set sail again for Persia and the Coromandel Coast of India in January 1658, in the service of the English East India Company. In November 1659 a storm destroyed the ship's mast near Masulipatam, and the East India Company ordered the crew to put ashore at Kottiar Bay in Ceylon for repairs.[1]
Upon arrival, Knox senior made the mistake of neglecting to send King Rajasinghe II of Kandy a letter of introduction and a gift. The king ordered the ship impounded and took sixteen crew members captive, including both Knoxes. The elder Knox died of malaria in February 1661. His son then spent the next nineteen years as a prisoner of the Kandyan kingdom, forbidden from leaving its borders, though he was allowed to move about and work. He subsisted as a farmer, moneylender, and pedlar, and became fluent in Sinhala.[1][3]
Knox eventually escaped with one companion, Stephen Rutland, in 1679, reaching the Dutch-held settlement at Arippu on the northwestern coast. He wrote his account of the captivity during the voyage home to England. His brother James introduced him to Robert Hooke, the polymath and Curator of Experiments at the Royal Society, who helped edit the manuscript and wrote its preface.[4] The book was published in 1681 under the imprimatur of both the Royal Society and the East India Company, and was translated into German (1689), Dutch (1692), and French (1693) within Knox's lifetime. It was a major influence on the works of Daniel Defoe, including Robinson Crusoe (1719).[3]
Knox continued to work for the East India Company as a sea captain until 1694, making four further voyages to the East. He died in London on 19 June 1720 and was buried at Wimbledon Church.[3]
The bangue passage
The cannabis passage appears in Knox's account of his escape attempts between 1673 and 1679. During clandestine journeys towards the Dutch-held northwestern coast, Knox and his companion were forced to drink from stagnant cattle ponds, causing violent fevers and ague. Knox describes the remedy they learned from the local population:[1][4]
We were fain to drink of Ponds of Rain water, wherein the Cattel lie and tumble, which would be so thick and muddy, that the very filth would hang in our Beards when we drank. By which means when we first used those parts we used often to be sick of violent Fevors and Agues. We learned an Antidote and Counter-Poyson against the filthy venomous water, which so operated by the blessings of God, that after the use thereof we had no more Sickness. It is only a dry leaf; they call it in Portuguez banga, beaten to Powder with some of the Countrey Jaggory: and this we eat Morning and Evening upon an empty stomach.
The passage documents three things of significance: that cannabis was widely enough known in the Kandyan kingdom that Knox and his companion could readily obtain and learn to use it; that the plant was known in Ceylon by a Portuguese-derived name (banga, i.e. bangue, from bhang); and that the preparation method involved drying the leaf, powdering it, and mixing it with jaggery (palm sugar) for oral consumption on an empty stomach. This is consistent with traditional South Asian bhang preparations documented across the Indian subcontinent.
Knox also describes the effects of bangue elsewhere in the Relation, noting that consumers become merry, laugh, sing, and speak, and that the plant is consumed socially by the Sinhalese population.[2]
Knox and Hooke
Knox and Hooke maintained a close friendship from 1680 until Hooke's death in 1703. Hooke's diary records frequent coffee-house meetings with Knox, including entries such as "Brought Chocolate for Knox, 4d" and "Capt Knox. Choc: 6d."[4] Knox brought Hooke gifts and curiosities from his travels, and Hooke in turn provided Knox with intellectual companionship and practical assistance.
In September 1689, Hooke's diary records that he received from Knox "2 books: one in Arabic, another in Malabaric [Malayalam] characters" along with "good discourse on Mauricius [Mauritius], the Cape, Bombay, etc."[4] Around this time, Knox also presented Hooke with samples of the plant he called "a strange intoxicating herb like hemp" or "Indian hemp." Three entries in Hooke's diary within a fortnight mention bhang in connection with Knox.[4]
Six weeks later, on 18 December 1689, Hooke delivered a lecture to the Royal Society describing the plant and its effects. See Robert Hooke Bangue Experiment (1689) for the full account of this lecture and its significance.
Knox was present at Hooke's deathbed on 3 March 1703 and took responsibility for arranging his burial.[3]
Queyroz on cannabis in Ceylon
Knox's account can be compared with that of Father Fernão de Queyroz, the Portuguese Jesuit historian, whose Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon (composed c. 1688, published in English translation in 1930) mentions cannabis in Ceylon. Queyroz refers to "a little hemp" in his account of the Kandyan kingdom.[5] Uragoda (1983) cites Queyroz for the Portuguese period importation of opium by the King of Kandy through Cotiar (Kottiar) near Trincomalee.[6]
Between them, Knox and Queyroz provide the two principal European accounts of cannabis and drug use in seventeenth-century Ceylon.
Editions and availability
The first edition (London: Richard Chiswell, 1681) is held by the British Library, the Bodleian Library, and other major collections. The original manuscript is held by the Royal Museums Greenwich.[3]
Modern editions:
- Knox, Robert (1911). An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon. Glasgow: James MacLehose and Sons. (Reprint with introduction.)
- Knox, Robert (1958). An Historical Relation of Ceylon. Dehiwela: Tissara Prakasakayo. (First Sri Lankan edition, introduction by Sarath Saparamadu.)
Digital facsimiles:
Significance for landrace documentation
Knox's Relation provides the earliest English-language account of cannabis use in Ceylon, predating the colonial regulation documented in Uragoda (1983) by almost two centuries. It establishes that cannabis was in common use in the Kandyan kingdom by the 1670s and documents a specific medicinal preparation (dried leaf with jaggery) for gastrointestinal illness from contaminated water.
The Relation also provides the material link between Sri Lankan cannabis and the first European scientific investigation of the plant: Knox's sample became the basis for Hooke's 1689 Royal Society lecture, the first detailed English description of cannabis and the first recorded attempt to grow the plant in England.
No botanical description of the plant itself appears in the Relation. Knox does not describe the morphology, growth habit, or cultivation of bangue, and his account is entirely concerned with its preparation and effects.
See also
- Sri Lanka — Country page
- Robert Hooke Bangue Experiment (1689) — Hooke's Royal Society lecture based on Knox's sample
- History of Opium in Sri Lanka (Uragoda 1983) — The foundational secondary source for colonial drug regulation
- History of Medical Cannabis in Sri Lanka (Weliange 2018) — Catalogue of Ayurvedic cannabis texts
References
Further reading
- Breen, Benjamin (2019). The Age of Intoxication: Origins of the Global Drug Trade. University of Pennsylvania Press.
- Frank, Katherine (2011). Crusoe: Daniel Defoe, Robert Knox and the Creation of a Myth. London: The Bodley Head.
- Hulugalle, H.A.J. (1965). Ceylon of the Early Travellers. Colombo: M.D. Gunasena.
- Williams, Harry (1964). With Robert Knox in Ceylon. London: Frederick Muller.
- Winterbottom, Anna (2009). "Producing and Using the Historical Relation of Ceylon: Robert Knox, the East India Company and the Royal Society." The British Journal for the History of Science 42(4): 515--538.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 Knox, Robert (1681). An Historical Relation of the Island Ceylon, in the East Indies. London: Richard Chiswell. Archive.org.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 Breen, Benjamin (2020). "'Theire Soe Admirable Herbe': How the English Found Cannabis." The Public Domain Review, 19 February 2020. [1].
- ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 3.3 3.4 3.5 Royal Museums Greenwich. "Captain Robert Knox of the East India Company, 1641--1720." [2].
- ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Boyle, Richard (2013). "Another of Knox's Discoveries." The Sunday Times Sri Lanka, 22 September 2013. [3].
- ↑ Queyroz, Fernão de (1930). The Temporal and Spiritual Conquest of Ceylon, trans. Father S.G. Perera. Colombo: Acting Government Printer (Ceylon), p. 65. Cited in Uragoda (1983).
- ↑ Uragoda, C.G. (1983). "History of Opium in Sri Lanka." Medical History 27: 69--76.