Hanwella Rest House

A rather cryptic sounding Sinhala poem runs as follows:

Pun sandha séma payaala rata mædhdhé

Ran kendhi séma peeraala pita mædhdhé

Maara senanga vatakaragena yama yudhdhé

Lewké mæthindhu adha thaniyama wela mædhdhé

In English this may be rendered as:

Like the full moon shining in the middle of the country
Like golden strands combed down the middle of the back

[As] the armies of Mara surrounded [the Buddha] in the Yama war
The Minister Lewke is today alone in the middle of the field

This refers to an episode in the First Kandyan War of 1803-1805. Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe, the last king of Kandy was fleeing, having been defeated by the British in battle. As James Cordiner (A Description of Ceylon, London, 1807; Dehiwela, Tisara Prakasakayo, 1983) tells us:

The disappointed Monarch of Kandy was overtaken in his flight by Lewke Ralehamy, Dessauwe of the four corles, who led the attack on Hangwell, and the Maha Mottiar, or chief secretary of state, both of whose heads, in the violence of his indignation, he ordered to be immediately struck off; and left their dead bodies unburied in a ravine one mile beyond Royberg.

Sri Wickrama Rajasinghe

The battle from which Sri Wickrama fled was the last of the many skirmishes which followed the recapture by British troops of the fort at Hanwella (pronounced hung-wal-luh) - Cordiner's Hangwell.

The British forces involved in the battle were ad-hoc groups of soldiers of the 51st Regiment of Foot and the 65th Regiment of Foot, supported by Indian Sepoys and local Lascoreens, all under the command of Captain William Pollock of the 51st. The war-standard of the Kandyan kingdom, captured by Pollock during this battle, was later to be the basis for Sri Lanka's modern flag.

Hanwella, which means 'skin sands', was the site of an ancient ferry route across the Kelani river. When Mayadunne, the son of Vijayabahu VII (mentioned in the post on Menikkadawara) became king of Sitawaka, he built a fort here to protect the ferry. After the death of his son Rajasinghe I (see post on Pethangoda), the Portuguese occupied the fort and rebuilt it in their own style - mostly consisting of earthworks - in 1597.

The Dutch, who took over the lowlands of Sri Lanka from the Portuguese, built a new star fort at Hanwella using kabook (laterite) rock, completing it in 1684. One look at the plan of the fort shows that it was made according to the latest European design:

Plan of the Hanwella fort (Department of Archaeology)

Hanwella was on the border between the Kandyan and Dutch (and later, after 1796, British) territories, until the fall of the Kingdom of Kandy in 1815. It occupied a strategic position athwart the principal route from Colombo to the interior. It was also necessary to quell rebellions within the occupied territory: in 1797, shortly after the British occupied the lowlands, a rebellion broke out and sepoys of the 35th Madras Regiment were besieged within the walls of the Hanwella fort and took casualties.

The map below is an old Dutch one of Hanwella showing the location of the fort. Note that North is Down, a fact which may not be appreciated by Euro-centric readers.

A Dutch map of the fort situated at Hanwella

Robert Percival of the 19th Regiment of Foot tells us (An account of the island of Ceylon, London: C & R Baldwin, 1803) that the Dutch had built a rest house here, which was in a bad state of repair by 1800. According to Cordiner, the Fort at Hanwella was in a ruinous condition at the time of the Battle of Hanwella in 1803.

The Hanwella resthouse

The pleasant modern rest house occupies the site of the fort. In its grounds may be seen some of the remains of the military structure. And there is no mistaking the thick interior walls of the older parts of the building. Note the thickness of the walls surrounding this bedroom window:

Bedroom window

Nevertheless, the rest house is agreeable, being cool and affording a great view of the river; early in the morning one may even see the mountains of the central massif, and sometimes Adam's Peak. It is a wonderful place to sip tea and gaze at the water. In earlier days, this was done using two old stone seats which adorn the gardens overlooking the river. Here is one of them:

Stone seat and rear verandah of rest house

This stone seat has a history. In 1870 the rest house was visited by the then Duke of Edinburgh, Duke of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, and Rufus Sewell lookalike Alfred Ernest Albert. At the time he was captain of HMS Galatea, and was the first member of the Royal Family to visit Sri Lanka. This was soon after he had been shot and wounded in Sydney.

Alfred Duke of Edinburgh (photo courtesy of thePeerage.com website)

In 1875 it was the turn of his older brother the Prince of Wales Albert Edward (later Edward VII). Details of the prince's earlier visit to Travancore can be found here. Here he is with his fianceé Alexandra Caroline Marie Charlotte Louise Julia zu Schleswig-Holstein-Sonderburg-Glücksburg, Princess of Denmark, on their engagement in 1862.

Edward and Alexandra (photo courtesy Open University)

Edward later married Alexandra. In 1882, their two eldest sons, Jack-the-Ripper suspect and Duke of Clarence Albert Victor and Prince George Frederick Ernest Albert (later King George V), who were serving as midshipmen on HMS Bacchante, also sojourned here.

Princes Albert Victor and George (photo courtesy of English Monarchs website)

The visits of the princes were commemorated by inscribing the stone seats. The inscription on this seat marks the visit of Edward VII - presumably it had less moss on it when it supported the Royal Bottom:

Stone seat 2009

All of these confusingly-named Royal Alberts planted trees in the gardens, which Henry W Cave (The Book of Ceylon, London: Cassell, 1908) says were still flourishing some decades later. Today one particular tree, the Jak Tree (Artocarpus heterophyllus) planted by Edward VII behind the stone seat in the pictures above, has been preserved.

The Royal Jak Tree

The four princes, sitting on the stone seats, would have had a wonderful view of the river, later immortalised in this photograph (c. 1900) by HW Cave :

View from the rest-house, Hanwella

Alas, this view is no more. Instead there is a great big concrete bridge built smack in the middle of the prospect. Undoubtedly the bridge fills a great need, but one would have thought they would find a slightly less beautiful spot to ruin with it.

Modern view from the rest-house, Hanwella

The downstream panorama, on the other hand, is unspoiled. You can look out westward from the dining room across the gardens, dotted here and there with the ruins of the fort's ramparts.

Downstream prospect

A closer look at the bottom right of the photograph of the garden, above, reveals a log-like reptile. This might give one a bit of a shock, especially if one knows that, according to Percival, a private of the 19th Regiment of Foot was eaten by a crocodile here in 1800. However, in this case it turned out to be a Kabaragoya, a water monitor lizard (Varanus salvator), shown below in close-up.

A Kabaragoya all puffed up with its own importance

The kabaragoya puffs itself up when it sees a potential enemy. Usually, however, it keeps to itself. It eats snakes' eggs and so is a useful agent for controlling the serpent population. Unfortunately, it is hunted (illegally) for its oil, which is useless for everything except poisoning people and hexing them. There must surely be more efficient ways of getting rid of one's enemies than going out and killing a relatively harmless reptile - especially given the ease with which pesticides may be procured which would ensure the morbidity of one's victims.

Hanwella marked with blue pin

Hanwella may be reached from Colombo along the Low Level Road or the High Level Road. It is an obvious stop on the way to Nuwara Eliya up the Ginigathena Pass. It is also an excellent base of operations for visiting the Ruwanwella and Avissawella areas.

Lewke memorial (larger image here)

The place where Lewke Dissawe was executed is marked by a small memorial stone, which can be seen where the present Low Level and High Level roads meet, a short distance eastward from Hanwella rest house. The poem which began this post is carved thereon.

More on Daniel Detloff von Ranzow and immigration to Australia.

Following my posting on The Old Dutch House, I received a comment from Leo van der Plas of Delft, the Netherlands. His von Rantzau website is a veritable mine of information on that aristocratic Teutonic family.

He confirms that Daniel Detloff von Ranzow, who was transported to Australia in 1838, was a son of Carl Ludvig von Ranzow, the son of Daniel Detlev von Ranzow and Johanna Elizabeth Cramer. He adds that Carl Ludvig was a former governor of Riouw, then residing in Malacca and Liem Akhaniong.

He further mentions that the Malakkan newspaper in 1836 carried an account of a fight which occurred between Carl Ludvig, Daniel Detloff and a servant on one hand and a Mr de Wind on the other - certainly unfair odds for a fight, more like a mugging.

Entry on for July 1836 on p 93 of Asiatic Intelligence, in the Asiatic Journal and Monthly Miscellany, vol xx.

So Daniel Detloff the younger, No 6095 in the van der Plas Rantzau database, appears to have been of a rather fiery nature, to say the least.

His father, the 'poor old count' Carl Ludvig was born in Mannar, in Northern Sri Lanka. The ancient port of Maha Tittha ('great harbour') had been in existence for two thousand years before the Portuguese built a fort there in 1560. This was captured in 1658 by the Dutch, who rebuilt it in its present form in 1686.

So Daniel Detloff is definitely in contention for the first Sri Lankan Dutch Burgher immigrant to Australia. The first Sri Lankan immigrants, were however, the O'Dean family.

Hon. Frederick North, later 5th Earl of Guilford, established the 1st Ceylon regiment, the first Malay regiment in the British Army, in 1802. It wore the distinctive scarlet uniform of the 'redcoats'.

Drum Major Jainudeen, a Malay of the 1st Ceylon Regiment, went over to the side of the King of Kandy - who had his own Malay regiment, the Padikkara Peruwa - in the first Kandyan War of 1803-1805. Upon the fall of the kingdom in the 2nd Kandyan War 1815, he was captured and transported with his Sinhalese wife Eve and children to New South Wales. Their arrival on board the vessel Kangaroo was reported in the Sydney Gazette and New South Wales Advertiser of 17th February 1816.

He was originally known as William O'Deen or O'Dean, but later became Hooden. Later still he was identified as John Wooden and the family became totally 'Aussiefied' (or, given their final name, 'lignified').

For more on Sri Lankan immigration to Australia, see James Jupp, The Australian people: an encyclopedia of the nation, its people and their origins, Cambridge University Press, 2001; ISBN 0521807891, 9780521807890.

A postscript: a 2nd Lieutenant Henrik Mattheus van Ranzow served with the 3rd Ceylon Regiment under the British, possibly one of the sons of August Carel von Ranzow. The Dutch were common but rich, and the German aristocracy noble but poor, so the latter served the former as merceneries.

Another PS: in the Parliamentary Papers, Volume 34 (London: HMSO, 1840), on p10 of 'Colonial Pensions' are two items: L 22 10 s paid as pension to Count ACF von Ranzow aged 71, in January 1820 and L 15 paid to his son and daughter at the same time.

ADDENDUM  July 2012
Paul Thomas  of Monash university has written a scholarly article on O'Deen, which may prove definitive. An abstract plus a pay-to-download version is available at:

OODEEN, A MALAY INTERPRETER ON AUSTRALIA'S FRONTIERLANDS, Indonesia and the Malay World, 40:117

Colombo, the Pettah, the Dutch Museum & the von Ranzows

Colombo was called Kalanpu by Ibn Battuta. A mainly Muslim trading port, the Portuguese took it over in 1517 and drove out all the non-Christians. They built a large fort, which encompassed present-day Fort and Pettah.

The Dutch and Sri Lankan armies before Colombo

Allied with the Sinhalese king Rajasinghe II, the Dutch under Gerard Pieterszoon Hulft laid siege to and captured the fort in 1655. The Hollanders were in the employ of the Netherlands East India Company, the Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie or VOC.

The VOC logo

The hitherto feudalistic Lusitanian colony was henceforth to be run with capitalist, Teutonic efficiency. The thrifty Dutch reduced the size of the fort to the area now encompassed within the Colombo city-core known as the 'Fort'. The remainder (outside the new fort) became the outer fort, the 'Pettah'.

Map: Dutch Period Museum marked with orange cross

The Fort is divided from the Pettah by a broad canal, linking the harbour to the Beira lake, which may clearly be seen on the map.

The Dutch Period Museum (larger Photo available here.)

On Prince St in the modern Pettah lies the 'Old Dutch House'. It was built in the late 17th century and was originally the home of the Dutch governor, Thomas van Rhee (1692-1697). In 1796 the British, who displaced the Dutch, took it over and made it into a Military Hospital . Still later it became a post office. The building was restored in 1977-81 and was opened to the public in 1982 as the 'Dutch Period Museum'.

Entrance to the museum

The museum is open daily - except Fridays - from 0900 to 1700 (9 am to 5 pm). Embodying the architectural features of a tropical colonial Dutch town house, it displays old Dutch furniture and artefacts and portrays aspects of contemporary Burgher life and culture.

Old Dutch furniture

Among the items illustrating the Dutch period is a copy of a portrait of Gerard Hulft, the VOC's First Councillor and Director-General of the Indies, Commander-in-Chief of the military forces over the waters of Ceylon and the Coast of India. Hulft was killed during the siege of Colombo.

Gerard Hulft by Flinck (detail)

The original of the portrait by Govert Flinck is at the the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.

Among the original occupants of the Old Dutch House was apparently August Carel Fredrik von Ranzow (also known as August Carl Friedrich von Rantzow, 1789-1844), who styled himself Graf (Count). He was a scion of an aristocratic German-Dutch-Danish family with the (rather Ruritanian-sounding) name of von Rantzau , who traced their ancestry back to Charlemagne. A son of Count Ferdinand Anton von Ranzow of Wolffenbuettel, his progeny engendered Brohiers, Sissouws and Greves, among others. He returned to Brunswick and married an equally aristocratic baronness, and three of the ensuing sons returned to serve the VOC in Sri Lanka.

Another relative who served the VOC in Sri Lanka was Daniel Detlef von Rantzow (1741-1822), who is mentioned, in a list of those attending the funeral of a Robertus Cramer, as having married the daughter of OnderKoopman Salomon van Lier: "Anna Sophia Lier married in 1768, being a widow, with count Daniel Ditloff von Ranzow". He appears soon after to have married Johanna Elizabeth Cramer (possibly a relative of the aforementioned Robertus Cramer?).

Altogether, he had 22 children, one of whom, Ludvig Carl (born in Mannar, Sri Lanka) had numerous descendants, including the van Ranzows of California. Ludvig Carl's son Ferdinand appears to have served in Java. The Ranzows certainly went forth and multiplied.

The Slavic-sounding Detlev name seems to have been in the family since the early 1600s. Interestingly, the first von Ranzow immigrant to Australia appears to have been another Daniel Detlev von Ranzow (or Daniel Detloff Von Ranzow - born 1821), who had been transported in 1838 from Prince of Wales Island. The Australian National University's Elena Govor thinks he was Russian, from the Alaskan island of that name.

She says that he had

"non-European looks – yellow skin, dark hair and dark chestnut eyes. It is known that he was a literate man and had served as a captain’s mate on a ship, been arrested for an attempt to murder, sentenced for life in Bombay and deported to Australia. In 1841 he was released on parole."

Penang was named 'Prince of Wales Island' by the British, so he could possibly have been from there, rather than from an island of the same name in Alaska or Canada. It sounds like this Daniel Detlev was a mixed-race Burgher, possibly a descendant of the aforementioned Daniel Detlev. In which case, he was probably the first of many thousands of Sri Lankan Dutch Burgher immigrants to Australia.