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 THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES
 
 THE VALE OF DUM3ERA..
 
 OLD CEYLON, 
 
 SKETCHES OF CEYLON LIFE IN THE OLDEN TIME : 
 
 BY 
 
 JOHN CAPPER, 
 
 AUTHOR OF THE "THREE PRESIDENCIES OF INDIA," 
 THE "gold fields," &C., &C. 
 
 WITH ILLUSTRATIONS BY CEYLON ARTISTS. 
 
 Colombo : 
 CEYLON TIMES PRESS 
 
 1877.
 
 COLOMBO: 
 PRINTED BY THE CE7L0N TIMES PRESS COMPANY, LIMITED.
 
 DS 
 C ' ° 
 
 *^^ANY of the following Sketches were published in 
 the early volumes of Dicke2^s' " Household Words," 
 more than a quarter of a century ago. Some are now 
 given for the first time, but nearly all refer to a period 
 between thirty and forty years ago. 
 
 In the hope that these pictures of " Old Ceylon " 
 may be acceptable to some of those who take an interest 
 in our beautiful island , they are now brought together, so 
 that the memory of bye-gone times may not pass away 
 for ever. 
 
 Colombo, September, 1878. 
 
 IK.iM^rH
 
 CONTENTS. 
 
 The Garden of Flowers fBlustratedJ 
 
 Our Cook's Wedding 
 
 Coffee Planting in the Olden Time 
 
 Dutch Colombo (BlustratedJ 
 
 Our Old Clerk 
 
 A Galle Legend 
 
 A Peep at the " Perahera " 
 
 Old English Colombo (lUustrated) 
 
 " Old Joe " 
 
 Phillip of Brassfounder Street 
 
 The Fine Old Native Gentleman (Illustrated) 
 
 HuLFSDORP (Illustrated) 
 
 The Cinnamon Peeler 
 
 Elephants and How to Catch Them 
 
 A Happy Valley (Illustrated) 
 
 Our Produce Dealer 
 
 Number Forty- two (Illustrated) 
 
 Our Coffee Mills 
 
 A New Year's Day (Elustrated) 
 
 Our National Tree . 
 
 The Kandyan's Captive 
 
 My Pearl Fishing Expedition (Illustrated^ 
 
 PAGE, 
 1 
 
 17 
 31 
 
 45 
 
 52 
 
 57 
 
 72 
 
 82 
 
 87 
 
 92 
 102 
 108 
 120 
 125 
 140 
 147 
 154 
 162 
 174 
 183 
 194 
 201
 
 ILLUSTRATIONS. 
 
 PAGK, 
 
 FRONTISPIECE The Vale of Dumbera. 
 
 Little Dochie . . . .11 
 
 Dancing the " Caffreina " . . . 50 
 
 The Old Tinker . . . .84 
 
 Reception of the Governor by the Maha Mudeliyar 105 
 The Courts at HuLFSDORP . . .113 
 
 A Happy Valley . . . .141 
 
 Number Forty-two . . , .155 
 
 Fishing Boats Making for Shore . .176 
 
 Returning from the Pearl Banks . . 202

 
 THE GARDEN OF FLOWERS. 
 
 n?HE Coffee Estate on "which I resided was situated in one of 
 t> the wildest and most beautiful districts of the island of 
 Ceylon, elevated far above the lixxuriant lowlands, where fra- 
 grant spices and waving palms told of wide plains and balmy- 
 winds. The plantation was on a broad table-land, fully three 
 thousand five hundred feet above the sea level, many miles 
 removed from the only European town in the interior, and at 
 least five miles from any other white man's dwelling. Within 
 a short walk of the lower boundary of my property, was a small 
 Kandyan village containing within itself the very pith and es- 
 sence of Cingalese society, a true type of the native community 
 of the interior. As I mixed so unreservedly and frequently with 
 the people, and saw so much of their every-day-life, it may be 
 interesting to give a faint outline of this little hamlet. 
 
 Malwattie, which was its name, signifies literally, a " gar- 
 den of flowers," and such in truth it was, when^I first visited it. 
 Unlike any European village, there was not such a thing as a row 
 of houses or huts to be seen : shops were unknown in that primi- 
 tive place, and until later years, no such incubus as a taver^ 
 keeper or renter was known there. Every little hut or cottage 
 was carefully shaded from the view of its neighbour, fairly 
 established on its own account, as much so, as though the in- 
 mates had written up in barbarous Cingalese characters, " No 
 connexion with the house next door." I never could learn 
 that there was any superstition among native hut builders, 
 as to the variation in the aspect of their domiciles, but certain 
 it was that no two dwellings faced precisely the same points 
 of the compass. One would be north-east, and the nearest to 
 it would be north-east and by oast : you might fancy you had
 
 found another facing a similar point, but on careful observa- 
 tion you would see that you could not make it any better than 
 north-east-and-by-east-half-east. I tried the experiment for a 
 long time, but was compelled at length, to give it up, I had 
 regularly " boxed the compass" round the entire village, but 
 in vain. 
 
 Partly from long' established custom, and partly from a 
 desire of shading their dwellings from the heat of the sun, the 
 Kandyans bury their isolated huts beneath a dense mass of the 
 rankest vegetation. At a short distance not a sign of human 
 habitation could be traced, were it not for the thickly growing 
 tops of bananas, areka palms, and bread-fruit trees, which are 
 ever found around and above their quiet abodes. 
 
 Malwattie formed no exception to the general rule in this 
 respect ; it was as snugly hedged, and fenced, and grown over, 
 as was Robinson Crusoe's dwelling after the visit of the sava- 
 ges. Every tiny hut appeared to possess a maze of its own for 
 the express purpose of perplexing all new-comers, especially 
 white men. The entire village did not cover more than an 
 eighth of a square mile, yet it would have puzzled any living 
 thing but a bird to have visited all the cottages in less time 
 than half a day, and very giddy, trying work it would have 
 been. 
 
 Small as was this primitive community, it had its superiors. 
 The leading men were the priest ef the little Buddhist Vihara, 
 or shrine ; and the Korale or headman. I will not distress the 
 reader by putting the names of these men in print, as they 
 would be perfectly unpronounceable, and moreover, as lengthy 
 as the approaches to their own dwellings. The entire names 
 of one Cingalese community would fill a small sized 
 volume. I will therefore, only speak of these persons as the 
 Priest and the Korale. 
 
 The latter was a rather respectable man, as things go in 
 Ceylon ; he was negatively irreproachable in character. He 
 had certainly never committed murder or theft on the Queen's
 
 highway. Perjury had not been charged against him, and as 
 for the faithful discharge of his few official duties, no one had 
 ever called that in question, though there were some rather 
 curious tales afloat on the subject of the last assessment on 
 rice lands. At the office of the Government Agent of the dis- 
 trict he was believed to be as active and honest as nine-tenths 
 of the native headmen, though to be sure that was not saying 
 very much for him. The villagers looked up to him with the 
 utmost veneration and respect, and no wonder, for on his fiat 
 depended the amount of rice tax their lands were to pay. He 
 was a venerable looking old gentleman, with a flowing white 
 beard, a keen, quiet eye, and an easy-going habit that might 
 have been called dignity or lazyness. It was his duty to render 
 to the Government officers a just account of the industry, if 
 such a term can be applied to any Cingalese, of his village ; to 
 furnish returns of the increase or decrease of the population ; 
 to give notice of all crimes and offences committed ; and in 
 short to represent the local government in minor details. For 
 all this, no salary was paid him. He was satisfied with the honor 
 of the office ; and yet, strange to tell, this Korale had so far 
 increased his property by gaining nothing, that he was a man 
 of some substance when I left the place, owning some hundreds 
 of cattle and rich in pasture lands. Education was unknown 
 to him ; he could scratch a little Cingalese on the dried leaves 
 used in place of paper, and I believe could count as far as ten. 
 His most complicated accounts were all on a decimal system, 
 and by the aid of numerous symbols known but to himself 
 and the erudition of the friendly priest, he contrived to trans- 
 act a multitude of business with the authorities. 
 
 The abode of this old patriarch would have furnished a 
 study for a lover of the antique. Everything seemed in keeping 
 with his long white board. The doors and windows, the 
 couches and three-legged table, all were hoary with years. 
 Even the atmosphere had a musty smell about it, as though it 
 had boon keeping him company ever since he was a little boy.
 
 In the midst of thick foHage, as bright and green as the 
 cottage was dark and cankery, it seemed at a distance, like a 
 huo-e wart on the rich vegetation. The coffee, the bananas, the 
 cotton, the jambo, the pau-pau grew in wild profusion. Of 
 what we should call garden, he had none, nor did he need any, 
 for the friendly villagers kept his daily wants amply supplied 
 from their own poor scanty patches. At early dawn the little 
 narrow pathway leading circuitously to his door, might be seen 
 tracked by men, women and children, laden with fruit, vege- 
 tables, and eggs for the Korale's larder ; he might well grow 
 stout and glossy and contented with his lot. There was such 
 a supply of vegetable diet introduced through his crazy old 
 doorway each morning, as might have fully satisfied the 
 vegetarians of Great Britain, with something to spare for the 
 pigs. But the old gentleman disposed of it all ; for he had a 
 little colony of feudal dependants hanging about his heels 
 behind his own barn of a place. These serfs tracked him 
 wherever he went ; one held a paper umbrella or a talipot leaf 
 over him in his walks : another carried his stick of office : one 
 beat off the musquitoes ; another fanned him to sleep with 
 a punkah. In short they did everything for him, save eat 
 and sleep, and these functions he performed for himseK to 
 perfection. 
 
 The old Korale was generally pleased with my visits, for 
 they added to his importance in the eyes of the little commu- 
 nity. He lived quite alone ; his wife had been dead some years, 
 and he had lost his only child by fever. His days were mostly 
 passed in sleeping, smoking and eating, varied occasionally 
 with a stroll round his rice fields, or those of his neighbours. It 
 was seldom that he visited Kandy, the ancient capital : as 
 for Colombo, the wildest freaks of imagination would never 
 induce him to contemplate a journey so far from his domestic 
 hearth. 
 
 It was a curious sight to behold this ancient being leading 
 such a hedgo-hog existence : rolling himself up in indolence,
 
 after every meal of rice and curry, in his little darkened, 
 cavern-like verandah ; and there, if no gnest arrived, falling 
 asleep until the next meal aroused him from his torpor, I have 
 found him thus, clad in semi-barbaric pomp, reeking with dirt, 
 and swelled with importance in a baloon-shaped Kandyan hat, 
 a flowing robe and loose jacket with shoulder-of-mutton 
 sleeves, secured by silver bangles ; an enormous mass of white 
 muslin wrapped, fold upon fold, around his waist. A petty little 
 mountain stream fell trickling and bubbling past the door, 
 over stones and sticks, and flowers and herbs, until it was lost 
 in the rice fields below, playing and gambolling as though 
 each tiny wave had been some frolicsome wood nymph. Little 
 could be seen from that shady portal, and not much more 
 heard, beyond the hum of myriad insects and the distant cry 
 of jungle birds. 
 
 Often have I sat with the Korale chatting on local and 
 other matters, for he was a man of gossip though of limited 
 ideas. I tried in vain to make him understand the position 
 and importance of other countries : of their great superiority 
 to the Kandyans, and of the features which distinguished us. 
 people of the west from orientals. He conld not be persuaded 
 that Europe was larger or a better place than Ceylon ; that 
 better corn and vegetables were grown in England, than on 
 the Kandyan hills ; or that a modern drawing-room was a 
 more comfortable sort of place than a Cing-alese Korale 's recep- 
 tion room, with earthen floor and leafy ceiling. Of some 
 description of politics he had gleaned a faint idea from the 
 reported contents of one of the local newspapers very demo- 
 cratic in its principles. He had an inkling that things were not 
 going on as they should do, and that a republic must be the 
 sort of government suited to the present wants of man, yet 
 strange to say he connected with his ideas of reform, a return 
 to those things which the liberality of the British Government 
 had abolished, forced labour and flogging at the discretion of 
 the headmen !
 
 The priest was of a far different stamp, not an educated 
 man in any European sense of the word ; but still with some 
 glimmering of mind within, just serving to render internal 
 darkness visible. He of course, could read fluently ; for it was a 
 portion of his duties to recite verses of their Pitakas or sacred 
 writings, morning and evening in the Vihara. He possessed a 
 fair share of curiosity, and a desire to know something of other 
 places and things. Nay, more, he frequently heard me read a 
 whole chapter of the Scriptures, with which he was much pleased 
 and frankly admitted that Christianity was the best religion 
 next to Buddhism. 
 
 His Vihara and dwelling were at one end of the range of 
 little hills, on the slopes of which the village of Malwattie was 
 situated, though above them considerably. It was the only 
 roof covered by tiles ; and, unlike the rest, might be seen at 
 some distance peeping out from amidst a dense mass of foliage. 
 To arrive at it the traveller had to wind his way along a weary 
 length of loose stones that led over low swampy ground, round 
 the edges of rice fields and up the sides of rather steep hills — 
 a slip from which bid fair to plunge the wayfarer down some 
 very ugly places. It was a path that should be trodden by 
 none but a tight-rope dancer, or a native of the country. 
 
 The view from the door of the shrine was highly pictures- 
 que, commanding a survey of many miles of mountain, forest 
 and prairie country, through which herds of cattle were dotted 
 like so many very small mice. His abode was mean in the 
 extreme, with scarce sufficient to make life supportable. The 
 rules of his order forbad him to acquire any property, and 
 he subsisted from day to day on charity — just as did his friend 
 the Korale. 
 
 The priest often visited me on the plantation, and examined 
 with much curiosity the various books and pictures about the 
 bungalow. On one of these occasions an incident occurred 
 which threatened at first to cut short our intimacy ; but was 
 eventually forgotten or laughed at. I had frequently pressed
 
 my yellow-robed friend to partake of my meal, and taste a 
 little port wine, of which I knew most of these people are very 
 fond — but in vain ; he professed the utmost dislike to any 
 strong drinks, independently of the restriction laid on them by 
 their rules. One day while conversing with him, I was called 
 away to the coffee store by one of the labourers, and left him 
 alone, sitting by my little jungle sideboard. As I was returning 
 immediately afterwards, and when near the door, I heard a 
 great coughing and spluttering, and strange choking noises. 
 Upon entering I found the priest almost dead with a fit of 
 coughing. He staggered against the wall, his eyes were stream- 
 ing with water, his hands clenched together, while down his 
 long golden robes, a jet black stream had made its sable way. 
 A bottle lay at his feet. The truth flashed across me in a 
 moment. The wary priest has gone to my sideboard to steal 
 a taste of the forbidden wine, and had, unfortunately, taken a 
 good draught from a quart bottle of ink ! 
 
 Next in importance to the characters already named, was 
 one Ranghamy the head constable, deputy sheriff, tax collector 
 and there is no saying what besides. He was the right hand 
 man of the Korale, not quite so stout, but more thick headed, 
 save when his own interests were concerned, and then it was 
 remarkable how his faculties brightened up and illuminated 
 the social atmosphere of Malwattie. Ranghamy was not a 
 native of the village, nor of the district ; none had ever 
 known wheuce he came except the Korale, and he had long 
 since forgotten. The hydra-headed official had a numerous 
 progeny of Rangharnies of both sexes, besides a large herd of 
 sleek, well-favoured cattle ; yet, oddly enough, he had neither 
 lands whereon to pasture the one, nor salary wherewith to feed 
 and clothe the other. Still they were all fed, clothed and 
 pastured. The junior head constable and the little female 
 deputy sheriffs, and the tax collectors in arms were clad in 
 whiter robes than any other young villagers. As for the 
 cattle they might have been exhibited at the Smithfield show,
 
 8 
 
 and won all the prizes by several stone of fat. Whether they 
 grew thns corpulent from any miraculous interference of 
 Buddha, or were fattened by some scientific process upon a few 
 constable's broken staves and collector's decayed tax books, or 
 whether they were daily driven upon other people's lands 
 who dared not complain to the Korale, and if they did, could 
 not expect the head constable to impound his own bullocks, 
 which of these might have been the case, I never learnt, though 
 I had my suspicions in the matter. Ranghamy was said to 
 have realised considerable suras by hiring ont his cattle 
 to the Moormen who convey rice and salt from the sea 
 coast on pack bullocks to the interior. Of this prosperity his 
 dwelling gave abundant proof; for he had not only English 
 crockery and cutlery, but a decanter mysteriously covered up 
 with a floor mat, in which it was whispered wine was once seen. 
 Two pictures in frames, in glaring colors, graced the walls, 
 while on a kind of shelf was placed, by way of ornament, a jar 
 with a faded gilt label, inscribed "leeches." 
 
 Not far removed from the constable in locality, and dig- 
 nity of office, was the village peon, and post holder, graceless 
 and lazy as any within the Central Province of the Island, and 
 that is saying a good deal : it would have been a difficult thing 
 to have shown that Puncheyralle, the Post Holder did anything 
 to entitle him to the name beyond bestowing an occasional 
 kick on the letter carriers or runners as they passed through 
 the village ; yet the man grumbled at receiving no more than 
 five rix-dollars, or seven shillings and sixpence a month, for the 
 discharge of these onerous duties. Puncheyralle had a rather 
 bustling little wife, who did all the heavy work for him, 
 except the kicking : the pigs, the garden, the fowls, all were 
 in her charge, and while she and the very small children 
 cooked the meals, and kept the house in order, their lord and 
 master lay on his back, or beat the tom-tom or native drum, 
 or perhaps gambled with a neighbour for a few copper 
 challies.
 
 The remainder of tlie village was made up of families 
 generally poor enough, who derived their sole support from the 
 produce of their patrimonial lands. In several instances the 
 domestic arrangements of these people, with a view of keeping 
 their little property from dwindling away by frequent divisions, 
 were singular enough to an English mind. There were two 
 or three households in which several brothers had but one 
 mfe amongst them,* and singular as this custom may ap])ear 
 to Europeans, they dwelt together most harmoniously : indeed 
 family quarrels were at that time exceedingly rare. 
 
 A picture of one of these groups is a portrait of them all. 
 Poor to abject misery in all but rice and a few fine grains, 
 these people are invariably landholders, some of them on an 
 infinitessimally small scale despite the marital arrangements I 
 have mentioned. At times the family will be large, swelled 
 by the addition of an aged grandfather or grandmother, or 
 some such relation, and with, occasionally, a numerous progeny 
 of all ages. Beyond the culture of their rice, of primary 
 importance, the ground that produces their few additional 
 necessaries such as chillies, tobacco and fine grain is lifctlo 
 enough, A few of them possess one or two buffaloes ; most 
 of them have a caricature of a pig and a few scarecrows of 
 fowls; but there is only one milch cow in the entire range 
 of Malwattie. 
 
 It was truly astonishing to see how early the young 
 children were put to tasks of strength. The boys were made 
 to look after the buffaloes and the rice-fields, while the girls 
 were set to weave mats, pound the rice from the husk, fetch 
 water, and such work. Often have I seen a little delicate child, 
 six or seven years of age, staggering up a tolerably steep path, 
 with an infant placed astride accross its little hip, and a huge 
 earthen chattio of water on its head. Such early toil as this. 
 
 * Since the date at which this was wiittcn (1852) Polygamy in the Kandynrv 
 country has been forbidden by legal enactment.
 
 10 
 
 equally early marriage, and generally poor and scanty diet, lead 
 to one inevitable result, premature old age. 
 
 The Priest «made a pretence at keeping schoocl but I 
 failed to learn the nature of the instruction he professed ta 
 give. A dozen dusky infants assembled within the porch of 
 the Vihare occasionally, and there, squatted on the ground, 
 chanted a dismal alphabetical chorus : but I never found any 
 progress made beyond this preparatory arrangement. 
 
 There was but one exception to the sameness of the 
 population of Malwattie ; it consisted of a small household, 
 not far from the foot of the hill near the Vihara, and closely 
 adjoining the bullock-track or bridle path leading past my 
 estate from the highroad. Here, beneath a pretty tope of 
 neverfadiug trees, where blossom and fruit and sweetest 
 perfumes played their part all through the year, dwelt a blind 
 old man and his pretty grand-daughter. The tiny hut they 
 dwelt in was not more diminutive than neat : so clean, and 
 white and fresh within; without, all was beauty and order. 
 Had a whole legion of mountain sylphs and wood-nymphs been 
 busily employed about the place all night long and every day, it 
 could not have been kept in more perfect and picturesque neat- 
 ness. The little fence around the cottage was so nicely trimmed ; 
 the garden in front so well swept and watered ; the orange and 
 lime trees so carefully tended, and always so delighted to bear 
 plenty of fruit for dear little Dochie to gather, that they did not 
 bend and droop with the heavy clusters of golden wealth, as some 
 trees would have done, but actually danced and leaped about 
 in the morning and evening breezes, as though their burden were 
 no burden but the merest pastime. 
 
 Pretty little Dochie, gentle little Dochie, was not more than 
 twelve years of age when I first made her acquaintance, one 
 hot morning in the dry season. I caught her gathering some 
 oleander blossoms and roses, and country jessamine, and thought 
 I had never seen anything half so lovely, barring her colour. 
 I reined in my pony and asked her for a draught of water ;
 
 11 
 
 mstead of looking alarmed, as would most of her class wlieu 
 
 thus accosted, she smiled good-natur- 
 edly, and tripped into the Httle cottage. 
 I was off my nag and in the pretty 
 n flower-garden when she came out vnth 
 a cocoa-nut shell of — not water, but 
 bless the dear child — rich, white, goat's 
 milk. I am not quite sure, but I 
 rather think I must have kissed her, as 
 I returned her the homely flagon ; at 
 any rate, we became the best of friends, 
 and it ended in Dochie taking me to 
 see her old bhnd grandfather, who was 
 busily working at a net of some sort, and then to inspect one 
 of the neatest little farm-yards, I had ever seen out of old 
 England. The whole place was a perfect miracle of industry 
 and neatness ; and I could not help asking how she managed 
 to keep it so. It appeared that their neighbours assisted, at 
 certain seasons, in working the garden and bringing it into 
 good order, and that the old man helped her to carry the water 
 from the little bamboo spout, which the villagers had fixed for 
 them to convey a supply from the hill stream at some distance, 
 to the extremity of their property. 
 
 They appeared to be in want of nothing that could make 
 them comfortable ; as to money, they had little enough, their 
 sole earnings being from the sale of her goats' milk, flowers 
 and fruit to wayside travellers. She assured me, that when 
 the pilgrims passed on their way to the sacred foot-print on 
 Adam's Peak, she sold as many flowers and as much fruit as 
 the garden could produce, and enabled them to be quite ex- 
 travagant in white cloths and handkerchiefs. 
 
 From that time forward I never passed through ^Malwattio 
 without a draught of fresh milk and a little bouquet gathered 
 by Dochie's own tiny hand. At length it came to my dis- 
 mounting regularly, and in course of time, amongst other things
 
 12 
 
 WQ talked of, were books and knowledge. Her dark bright eye^ 
 sparkled as I told her what wonders she might learn if she 
 could but read English books. The strange art was now her 
 sole thought, and one day she found courage to ask me how 
 she could learn it. I hesitated, for I did not quite see how to 
 help her ; but when I offered to send her a book with the 
 English alphabet, and moreover, to teach her to read the letters, 
 her joy was unbounded. In a few months, my pupil had not 
 only mastered the alphabet, but could spell small words, and 
 read several short sentences. Not content with this, I talked 
 to her of religion, and explained the nature and history of 
 Christianity as well as my ability allowed me. I was not quite 
 so successful here; but I was content to pave the way for future 
 labourers, and rejoiced to find her always anxious for truth. 
 
 It was, I think, quite a year after my first acquaintance 
 with Dochie, that one morning I alighted as usual and was 
 surprised to find my pupil absent, and in her place a young 
 Cingalese man, evidently of the low country. My surprise was 
 equalled by his own. In a minute after Dochie came bounding 
 in with eggs and milk, and some little light cakes just prepared 
 for the stranger, who, I then perceived, had his arm bandaged, 
 and altogether looked fatigued and ill. I did not remain long 
 that day ; and learned, on retiring to mount my pony, that the 
 stranger had sought refuge there very early that morning, 
 having in vain begged through the village for a resting-place ; 
 he had been robbed and beaten during the previous night on 
 some lonely track, and Dochie hesitated not one moment in 
 welcoming him within their little dwelling ; and, in her own 
 singleness and purity of heart, acting the good Samaritan. I 
 could but admire her kindness ; and yet mixed with admiration, 
 was a feeling akin to jealousy. I wished that it had been my 
 fate to have been robbed and beaten, if only for the pleasure 
 of being tended by the gentle Dochie. 
 
 Again months rolled on, the low-country stranger and the 
 robbers were all forgotten. Changes had been, meanwhile,
 
 13 
 
 stealing over the face of the hitherto changeless Malwattie, 
 and those not for the better. The worst of all innovations was 
 the establishment of an arrack tavern in the very heart of the 
 village. The Government in its anxiety to add to its revenue, 
 and increase its means of developing the resources of the 
 country, (I think that was what they termed it) had granted 
 permission to the renter of the arrack licenses for the Kandyan 
 country, to establish a few score additional taverns, one of which 
 novelties was located in, Malwattie ; and soon where before had 
 been quiet contentment, was nothing but brawling riot. It is 
 true the Executive presented an antidote with the poison, by 
 establishing a free school opposite the noisy tavern; but 
 education stood small chance in competition with arrack, and 
 for every new pupil at the desk there were a score of fresh 
 drunkards. This led to an increase in the duties of the police, 
 and soon after, to a salary to the head-constable ; crime was on 
 the increase ; law suits were instituted ; families at peace for 
 several generations, became deadly enemies ; and ere a year 
 had elapsed since the introduction of the tavern, the whole 
 social fabric of Malwattie was rent and disrupted into ugly 
 fragments. 
 
 I continued to visit my friends the Korale and the Priest, 
 both of whom, especially the latter, spoke bitterly of the arrack 
 nuisance, and looked upon the establishment of the school as a 
 direct attack upon Buddhism. I saw plainly however, that 
 there was another and deeper feeling, antagonistic to the 
 educational scheme, in the bosoms of these leading men of the 
 place. They felt that by diffusing enlightenment amongst the 
 poorest of the villagers, the British Government would in time 
 raise the masses of the people above the level of the headmen, 
 in which case their influence would at once disappear. Their 
 unflinching opposition was but little needed, for the native 
 cultivators could not be made to appreciate that knowledge 
 which their immediate superiors did not possess. Too prone 
 to take as their models those above them, the villagers were
 
 14 
 
 ■content to remain as tliey knew their fathers had been, and as 
 they saw Korales and Dessaves were. Unfortunately, those in 
 charge of Government schools have yet to learn that they have 
 been toiling with the broad end of the educational wedge 
 foremost ; that in Eastern countries enlightenment can only 
 flow downwards, never upwards : that to elevate the Indian 
 serfs, you must first improve the intellectual capacities of those 
 whom they ever have, and ever will regard as their patterns. 
 
 My progress with the flower-girl]s schooling was satis- 
 factory, and I had besides, the pleasure of finding her inclined 
 to cast aside the superstitions of Buddha. lu these tasks I 
 was at this time aided by the teacher of the Government school, a 
 Portuguese descendant, who seconded my efforts most zealously. 
 The months flew rapidly past, and twice a week found me and 
 Dochie seated beneath the shady foliage of a young orange 
 tree, deep in our labors. 
 
 It was quite the end of the hot season, that I was com- 
 pelled to leave my plantation and journey across the country 
 to the opposite coast of the Indian peninsula, in search of 
 Malabar labourers to secure the coming crop; I was absent 
 nearly two months, and found myself one cool pleasant day 
 in August riding homewards across the broad open prairie- 
 lands adjoining Malwattie. The rich foliage of the jungle 
 and the gardens shone as brightly as ever in the afternoon 
 sun. The hill-streams rippled as pleasantly down their stony 
 courses. Tet the village was no longer the spot I once knew 
 it ; brawling and angry words were easily met with ; its old 
 patriarchal peace and simplicity had departed from it. I rode 
 on musingly, and at length pulled up in front of Dochie's little 
 garden; I started in my saddle at observing that it also 
 was changed, and so sadly too. The friendly orange tree 
 with its yellow fruit and its pleasant shade, was not there. 
 The oleanders were drooping in the ground ; some of the 
 fence was torn down, and a vile black bullock, that I could 
 have massacred on the spot, was cruelly browsing over the
 
 15 
 
 flower-beds. The door was closed ; the shutters were fastened^ 
 I imagined all sorts of calamities to have happened, everything 
 in short but what was actually the case. I made one brief 
 inspection of the new neglected place ; then mounted my pony 
 and rode homewards fearing lest some villager should break 
 the tale of sorrow. 
 
 It was nearly evening when I rode up the winding path 
 leading to my bungalow, oppressed with a fear of I knew not 
 what. The old building stood, as it ever had done, quietly 
 and humbly in the midst of the coffee fields, but I saw at once 
 there were some changes. I could scarcely believe my eyes 
 when I beheld in the centre of the little grass plot, facing my 
 front verandah, some small flowering shrubs and an orange 
 tree so like the one I had missed from Dotchie's garden that 
 I began to fancy I was still down in the village, and that the 
 little flower-girl was peeping at me from behind some of the 
 coffee bushes. 
 
 As I stood looking at the orange tree my servant placed 
 a letter in my hand, traced in true native style, on a dry leaf 
 in Cingalese characters. It was from my pupil herself , and told 
 me in a few simple sentences all that had occurred. I breathed 
 more freely to find her alive. She was married, she said to a 
 young and rich Cingalese trader, a christian and inhabitant of 
 Colombo. She hoped shortly to be admitted a member of our 
 Church, and thanked me deeply for what I had done for her. 
 The old blind man her grandfather was with them, and they 
 were all happy. They trusted I should always bo so. In my 
 garden, she said, she had caused to be planted the orange tree 
 I had so often admired and sat under, with a few flowers from 
 her garden. She prayed that for many years to come, the tree 
 would yield me plentiful crops of cool, refreshing fruit. 
 
 The reader will perhaps smile when I say that, after read- 
 ing this note, I shed some tears, tears of real sorrow and pain. 
 Heaven knows I wished the poor girl well and happy ; but 
 though I never could have looked ou her other than as a gentle
 
 IG 
 
 innocent acquaintance, loveable for her simple purity, I felt 
 her departure keenly. To the many dwellers in the thronged 
 cities of the west, the loss of such a companion of my wild, 
 lonely, jungle-life, may appear trivial enough ; yet to me it was 
 an event. 
 
 My servant told me what the little note had omitted. 
 ' Dochie had been wooed and won with true Cingalese brevity, 
 by the same young low-countryman who had been so kindly 
 sheltered and tended by her when robbed and beaten, as I 
 have before told. He had been successful in trade, and had now 
 a large store in Colombo. 
 
 It was long before I ventured again near Malwattie. To 
 me it was no more a " garden of flowers " and least of all 
 did I care to pass by the green fence and gate where Dochie's 
 pretty smiling face had so often welcomed me. At last I 
 persuaded the old Korale to set some of the villagers to work 
 and open a new path for me nearer his own bungalow, by 
 which means I ever after avoided a spot, the sight of which 
 served but to fill me with vain regrets. The place and the 
 people were so changed that I soon become a stranger in tha 
 village.
 
 OUR COOK'S WEDDING. 
 
 fN some parts of the East, and especially in the Island of 
 Ceylon, there are many old customs which the progress 
 •of civilization has not as yet effaced ; and happily so, for 
 they serve to keep up a kind and friendly feeling between the 
 different classes and races of the country. One of these 
 time-honoured customs is the presence of European or burgher 
 employers at the weddings or family festivals of their 
 native servants who seldom omit inviting their masters 
 and families on such occasions. Being the guest of an old 
 resident of Colombo, I received an invitation to be present at 
 the nuptials of his head cook, a Cingalese of good ancestry, 
 who it appeared was to be united to the ayah or waiting-maid 
 of a neighbour. They were both Catholics ; and, as such, were 
 to be married at one of the churches with which the native 
 section of the town abounds. From some cause, my host 
 could not attend on the eventful day. I was, therefore, left 
 to make my way alone to the happy scene, which I learnt lay 
 at some distance from our bungalow, at the further end of the 
 long straggling outskirts. 
 
 Noon was the appointed time ; the Church of Saint 
 Nicholas the place ; and in order that I might examine the 
 locality I was about to visit, and which was entirely new to me, 
 I left my quarters soon after our breakfast of rice and curry. 
 It was a truly tropical day : the sea-breeze had not commenced 
 to blow, and the cool laud- wind had been fairly done up an 
 hour since. In mercy to the horse and the runner by his side, 
 I ordered the man to drive slowly. The sky seemed hot and 
 coppery — too warm to look blue ; and the great orb of Hght 
 and heat had a sort of lacquered hue that was oppressive in
 
 18 
 
 the extreme. Round the great lake, past the dry, stagnant, 
 putrid fort-ditch, to that part of the Black Town known as 
 Sea Street. How different from the quiet, broad Dutch streets, 
 or the cool, shady lanes and their fine old burgher mansions ! 
 Here all was dust, and dirt, and heat. A dense crowd of 
 people, of many of the nations of the East, was passing to 
 and fro, not, as with us, along the pavement — for there was no 
 footway — but horses, bullocks, carriages, donkeys, and human 
 beings all hurried along pell-mell : Arabs, Moormen, Chinese, 
 Parawas, Cingalese, Kandyans, Malays, Chitties, Parsees, and 
 Bengalis, were jostling each other in strange confusion. I 
 shuddered as I beheld a brace of overheated bullocks in an 
 empty cart, rush madly past me into the midst of a whole host 
 of men, women, and children ; but, strange to tell, no one 
 seemed any the worse : there was, to be sure, a little rubbing 
 of shins, and a good deal of oriental swearing on the occasion, 
 but no more. A vicious horse broke away from his Arab 
 leader, and dashed across the street, and down a narrow 
 turning, where women and children seemed to be literally 
 paving the way ; the furious animal bounded over and amongst 
 the living pavement, knocking down children of tender years, 
 and scattering elderly females right and left, but still harm- 
 lessly. I felt puzzled at this, and concluded that they wera 
 " used to it." 
 
 The thronged street, along which I was slowly travelling, 
 appeared to be the only thoroughfare of any length, shape, or 
 breadth. From it diverged, on all sides, hundreds of dwarf 
 carriage-ways — turnings that had been lanes in their younger 
 days. They were like the Maze at Hampton Court, done in 
 mud and masonry. I have often heard of crack skaters 
 cutting out their names upon the frozen Serpentine ; and, as I 
 peeped up some of these curious zigzag places, it seemed as 
 though the builders had been actuated by a similar desire, and 
 had managed to work their names and pedigrees in huts, and 
 verandahs, and dwarf-walls. Into these strange quarters few.
 
 19 
 
 if any Europeans ever care to venture; the sights and the 
 effluvia are such as they prefer avoiding, with the thermometer 
 standing at boiling-point in the sun. Curiosity, however, got 
 the better of my caution ; and, descending from my vehicle, 
 I leisurely strolled up one of those densely-packed neighbour- 
 hoods, much to the annoyance of my horsekeeper, who tried 
 hard, in broken English, to dissuade me from the excursion. 
 Whether it be that the native families multiply here more 
 rapidly, in dark and foul places, I know not ; but never had I 
 seen so many thrown together in so small a space. Boys and 
 girls abounded in every corner. As I passed up this hot, 
 dusty, crooked lane of huts, the first burst of the cool sea- 
 breeze came up from the beach, glowing with health and life- 
 I looked to see how many doors and windows would be gladly 
 flung open to catch the first of the westerly wind, and chase 
 away the hot, damp, sickly air within ; but I looked in vain. 
 Not a door creaked on its rusty hinges, not a window relaxed 
 its close hold of the frame ; the glorious light of day was 
 not to be permitted to shine upon the foul walls and floors of 
 those wretched hovels. 
 
 There was business, however, going on here and there. 
 The fisher and his boy were patching up an old worm-eateo 
 canoe, ready for the morrow's toil ; another son was hard at 
 work upon the net that lay piled up in the little dirty verandah. 
 Next door was a very small shoemaker, sharing the little 
 front courtyard with a cooper, who did not appear to be 
 working at anything in particular : but was rather disposed to 
 soliloquize upon buckets and tubs in general, and to envy the 
 hearty meal which a couple of crows were making of a dead rat 
 in the street. Farther on was a larger building, but clearly 
 on its last legs, for it was held up by numberless crutches. It 
 was not considered safe to hold merchandise of any description ; 
 and, as the owner did not desire the trouble and expense of 
 pulling it down, ho had let it out to a Malay, who allowed 
 strangers to sleep in it on payment of a small nightly foo. As
 
 20 
 
 I passed by, a crowd of poor Malabar s, just arrived from the 
 opposite coast of India, were haggling for terms for a night's 
 lodging for the party, and not without sundry misgivings ; for 
 some looked wistfully at the tottering walls, and pointed with 
 violent gestures, to the many props. 
 
 Wending my slow way back towards the main street, I 
 came upon a busy carpenter's shop — a perfect model of the 
 kind. In this country some carpenters are also carriage- 
 builders, and the place I then stopped to examine was the home 
 of one of these. It was a long, low, rambling shed, such as 
 we might consider good enough to hold cinders or firewood : 
 the leaf-thatched roof had been patched in many places with 
 tattered matting ; the crazy posts were undermined by the pigs 
 in the next yard, where they shared the dirt and the sun with 
 a heap of wretched children, and a score of starving dogs. 
 Every kind of conveyance that had been invented since the 
 flood, appeared to have a damaged representative in that 
 strange place. Children's shattered donkey-carriages, spavined 
 old breaks, and rickety triacles of the Portugues period^ 
 hackeries of the early Malabar dynasty, palanquins of Cingalese 
 descent, Dutch governors' carriages, English gigs, were all 
 pent up, with irrecoverable cart-wheels, distorted carriage- 
 poles, and consumptive springs. Had I possessed any 
 antiquarian experience, I doubt not I should have discovered 
 amongst the mass an Assyrian chariot or two, with a few 
 Delhi howdahs. The master-mind of this coach-factory 
 was a genuine Cingalese who, in company with a slender 
 youth, was seated on his haunches upon the ground, chisel in 
 hand, contemplating, but not working at a felly for some 
 embryo vehicle. After one or two chips at the round block of 
 wood between his feet, Jusey Appoo paused, arranged the 
 circular comb in his hair, and took another mouthful of 
 betel ; then another chip at the wood ; and then he rose, 
 sauntered to the door, and looked very hard up the little lane and 
 down it, as though he momentarily expected some dreadful
 
 21 
 
 accident to happen to somebody's carriage in the next street. 
 
 Once more in my vehicle, I threaded the entire length 
 of Sea Street, with its little dirty shops ; the sickly-smelling 
 arrack taverns ; the quaint of old Hindu temple, bedecked 
 with flowers and flags inside, and with dirt outside ; and the 
 whitewashed Catholic churches. Little bells were tinkling at 
 these churches ; huge gongs were booming forth their brazen 
 thunder from the heathen temples ; there was a devil-dance 
 in one house to charm away some sickness, and a Jesuit in the 
 next hovel confessing a dying man. There was a chorus of 
 many tiny lungs at a Tamil school, chanting out their daily 
 lessons in dreary verse, and a wilder, older chorus at the 
 arrack-shop just over the way, without any pretence to time 
 or tune. The screams of bullock-drivers ; the shouts of horse- 
 keepers ; the vociferations of loaded coolies ; the screeching of 
 rusty cart-wheels begging to be greased ; the din of the 
 discordant checkoo or oil-mill ; — all blended in one violent 
 storm of sound, made me glad to hasten on my way, and leave 
 the maddening chorus far behind. The open beach, with its 
 tall fringe of graceful cocoa-palms, and its cool breeze, was 
 doubly welcome. I was sorry when we left it, and drove 
 slowly up a steep hill : on the summit of which stood the 
 Church of St. Nicholas, my destination. 
 
 A busy scene was there. Long strings of curious-looking 
 rehicles were ranged outside the tall white church — so white 
 and shiny in the sun, that the bullocks in the hackeries dared 
 not look up at it 'I felt quite strange amongst all the motley 
 throng : and when I stared about and beheld those many carts, 
 and palanquins, and hackeries, I fancied myself back again in 
 Jusey Appoo's coach-factory. But then these were all gaily 
 painted, and some were actually varnished, and had red staring 
 curtains, and clean white cushions, and radient little lamps. 
 Nearer the church, were some half-a-dozen carriages, with 
 horses, poor enough of their kind, but still horses with real 
 tails. I glided in amongst the crowd, unnoticed, as I too fondly
 
 22 
 
 believed, and was about to take up a very humble position just 
 inside one of the great folding-doors, when I was accosted by 
 a lofty Cingalese in gold buttons and flowing robes, with a 
 gigantic comb in his hair, and politely led away captive, I knew 
 not whither. Down one side-aisle, and across a number of 
 seats, and then up another long aisle ; and to my utter discom- 
 fiture, I found myself installed on the spot, in the unenviable 
 post of a " Lion" of the day's proceedings. To a person of 
 modest temperament, this was a most trying ordeal. There 
 was not another white face there : Cookey had been disap- 
 pointed, it seemed in his other patrons, and knowing of my 
 intended visit, had waited for my appearance to capture me 
 and thus add to the brilliancy of the scene. 
 
 I bowed to the bride, with as little appearance of uneasi- 
 ness as I could manage ; but when I turned to the bridegroom, 
 I had nearly forgotten my mortification in a burst of laughter. 
 The tall uncouth fellow had exchanged his wonted not 
 ungraceful drapery for a sort of long frock-coat of blue cloth, 
 thickly bedecked with gay gilt buttons, and sham gold-lace : 
 some kind of a broad belt of gaudy colour hung across his 
 shoulders : he wore boots, evidently far too short for him, 
 which made him walk in pain ; and, to complete the absurdity 
 of his attire, huge glittering rings covered half of his hands. 
 The lady was oppressed with jewellery which, on these 
 occasions, is let out on hire : she seemed unable to bend or 
 turn for the mass of ornaments about her. White satin shoes 
 and silk stockings gave a perfect finish to her bridal attire. 
 
 As the party marched up to the priest, I felt as a captive 
 in chains gracing a Roman triumph. No one of all that crowd 
 looked at the bride ; they had evidently agreed among them- 
 selves to stare only at me, I felt that I was the bride, and the 
 father, and the best man. I looked around once ; and what a 
 strange scene it was in the long white church ! There were 
 hundreds of black faces, all looking one way — at me — but I 
 did not see their faces ; I saw only their white eyes glistening
 
 23 
 
 in the bright noon-day sun, that came streaming through the 
 great open windows, as though purposely to show me off. I 
 wished it had been midnight. I hoped fervently that some of 
 the hackery bullocks would break loose, and rush into the 
 church, and clear me a way out. I know nothing of how the 
 marriage was performed, or whether it was performed at all ; 
 I was thinking too much of making my escape. But in a very 
 short time by the clock, though terrifically long to me, I found 
 myself gracing the Roman triumph on my way out. The fresh 
 air rather recovered me ; and what with the drollery of handing 
 the cook's wife into the cook's carriage, and the excitement 
 of the busy scene, and the scrambling for hackeries, and the 
 galloping about of unruly bullocks, I felt determined to finish 
 the day's proceedings, I knew the worst. 
 
 I followed the happy couple in my vehicle, suceeded by a 
 long line of miscellaneous conveyances, drawn by all sorts of 
 animals. Away we went, at a splitting pace, knocking up the 
 hot dust, and knocking down whole regiments of pigs and 
 children. Up one hill, and down another, and round two or 
 three rather sharp corners, as best our animals could carry up. 
 At last there was a halt. I peeped out of my carriage, and 
 found that we were before a gaily decorated and flower- 
 festooned bungalow, of humble build : the house of the conjugal 
 cook. Up drove all the bullock hackeries, and the gigs, and 
 the carts, but no one offered to alight. Suddenly a host of 
 people rushed out of the little house in the greatest possible 
 haste. They brought out a long strip of white cloth, and at 
 once placed it between the bride's carriage and the house, for 
 her to walk upon. Still there was no move made from any 
 of the carriages, and I began to feel rather warm. At length 
 a native came forward from the verandah, gun in hand, I 
 supposed to give the signal to alight. The iiinii hulJ it at 
 arm's length turned away his head, as though admiring some 
 of our carriages and "snap" went the flint; but in vain. 
 Fresh priming was placed in the pan : the warrior once \nove
 
 24 
 
 nrlmired our carriagen, and again the " snap " was im])otent. 
 Somebody volunteered a pin for the touch-hole, another 
 suggested more powder to the charge, whilst a third brought 
 out a lighted stick. The pin and the extra charge were duly 
 acted upon. The weapon was grasped : the carriages were 
 admired more ardently than before : the firestick was applied 
 to the priming, and an explosion of undoubted reality followed. 
 The warrior was stretched on his back. Half the hackery 
 bullocks started and plunged out of their trappings, while the 
 other half bolted. To add to the dire confusion, my villainous 
 steed began to back very rapidly towards a steep bank, on the 
 edge of which stood a quiet, old-fashioned pony in a gig with 
 two spruce natives seated in it. Before they could move away, 
 my horse had backed into the ponychaise ; and the last I saw 
 of them at that time, was an indistinct and rather mixed view 
 of the two white-robed youths and the old-fashioned pony and 
 chaise performing various somersaults into the grass-swamp at 
 the base of the bank. 
 
 Glad to escape from the contemplation of my misdeeds, I 
 followed the bridal party into the little house. Slowly 
 alighting from her vehicle the lady was received by a host of 
 busy relations ; some of whom commenced salaaming to her, 
 some scattered showers of curiously cut fragments of coloured 
 and gilt paper over her and her better half — probably intended 
 to represent the seeds of their future chequered happiness and 
 troubles ; and then, by way of inducing the said seed to 
 germinate, somebody sprinkled over the couple a copious 
 down-pouring of rose-water. The little front verandah of the 
 dwelling was completely hidden beneath a mass of decora- 
 tions of flowers, fruits, and leaves, giving it at first sight the 
 appearance of some place between a fairy bower and a Covent 
 Garden fruit-stall. The living dark stream poured into the 
 fairy bower, and rather threatened the floral arrangements 
 outside : the door-way was quickly jammed up with the cook's 
 nearest and dearest relatives of both sexes ; while the second
 
 25 
 
 cousins and half -uncles and aunts blocked up the little trap- 
 door of a window with their grizzly, grinning visages. The 
 room we were in was not many feet square : calculated 
 to hold, perhaps, a dozen persons in ordinary comfort ; but, 
 on this occasion, compelled to welcome within its festive 
 mud-walls at least forty. A small oval table was in the centre ; 
 a dozen or so of curiously-shaped chairs were ranged about 
 the sides, in the largest of which the bride was seated. The 
 poor creature was evidently but ill at ease : so stiff and heavily- 
 laden with ornaments. The bridegroom was invisible, and I 
 felt bound to wait upon the lady in his absence. The little 
 darkened cell was becoming fearfully hot : indistinct ideas of 
 the Black Hole at Calcutta rose to my heated imagination. A 
 feverish feeling crept over me, not a little enhanced by the 
 oriental odours from things and persons about me. The 
 breeze, when it did manage to squeeze itself in, brought with 
 it the sickly perfume of the myriads of flowers and leaves 
 outside. Upon the whole, the half hour or so which elapsed 
 between our arrival and the repast, was a period of intense 
 misery to me, and vast enjoyment to the cook's family circle. 
 There was nothing to while away the hot minutes : I had to 
 look alternately at the bride, the company, and the ceiling ; 
 the company stared at myself and the lady ; while she, 
 in her turn, looked at the floor, hard enough to penetrate 
 through the bricks to the foundation below. In the first 
 instance I had foolishly pictured the breakfast, or whatever 
 the meal was to be, set forth upon some grassy spot in the 
 rear of the premises, under the pleasant shade of palms and 
 mangoe trees. 
 
 But the vulgar crowd must be kept off by walls ; and the 
 little oval table in the centre of the cabin was to receive the 
 privileged few, and to shut out the unprivileged many. 
 
 Dishes reeking hot, and soup-turcons in a state of vapour, 
 were passed into the room, over the heads of the mob ; for, 
 there was no forcing a way through them. A long pause, and
 
 26 
 
 then some more steaming- dishes, and then another panse, and 
 some rice-plates ; and at last, strugg-ling- and battling amidst 
 the army of relations, the bridegroom made his appearance — 
 very hot and very shiny, evidently reeking- from the kitchen. 
 He had slipped on his blue cloth, many buttoned coat, and 
 smiled at his wife and the assembled company as though he 
 would have us believe he was quite cool and comfortable. 
 
 It devolved upon me to hand, or rather drag the bride to 
 one end of the table ; opposite to whom sat her culinary lord 
 and master, as dignified, and important, as though his monthly 
 income had been ten guineas instead of ten rix-dollars. I 
 seated myself next to the lady of the hut, and resigned myself 
 to my fate ; escape was out of the question. Nothing short of 
 fire, or the falling-in of the roof, could have saved me. Our 
 rickety chairs were rendered firm and secure as the best 
 London-made mahogany-seats, by the continuous unrelenting 
 pressure of the dense mob behind and around us. The little 
 room seemed built of faces ; you might have danced a polka or 
 a waltz on the heads of the company with perfect security. 
 As for the window-trap, I could see nothing but bright shining 
 eyes through it. 
 
 The covers were removed, as covers are intended to be ; 
 but, instead of curiously arranged and many coloured dishes 
 of pure and unadulterated Cingalese cookery, as I had, in the 
 early part of the day, fondly hoped, there appeared upon 
 them a few overdone, dried up joints a V Anglaise ; a skinny, 
 consumptive baked shoulder of mutton ; a hard-looking boiled 
 leg of a goat ; a shrivelled spare-rib of beef ; a turkey that 
 might have died of jungle-fever ; and a wooden kind of dry, lean 
 ham, with sundry vegetables made up this sad and melancholy 
 show. All my gastronomic hopes, so long cherished amidst 
 that heated assemblage, vanished with the dish-covers, and 
 left me a miserable and dejected being. Ten minutes 
 previously, I had felt the pangs of wholesome hunger, and was 
 prepared to do my utmost ; at that moment, I only felt empty
 
 27 
 
 and sick. Could I have reached the many-buttoned cook, I 
 might have been tempted to have done him some bodily harm ; 
 but I could not move. The host had the wretch of a turkey 
 before him. Well up to the knife-and-fork exercise, he 
 whipped off from the breast of the skinny bird two slices of 
 the finest meat — the only really decent cuts about it — and then, 
 pushing the dish on to his next neighbour, begged him to 
 help himself. Of course, I had to attend to the hostess. I 
 gave her a slice of the sinewy lean ham before me, with two 
 legs of a native fowl, and began to think of an attempt upon 
 the boiled mutton for myself ; but there was no peace for me 
 yet. The bride had never before used a knife and fork, 
 and, in her desiperate attempts to insert the latter into one 
 of the fowl's legs, sent it with a bound into my waistcoat, 
 accompanied by a shower of gra\'y, and a drizzling rain of 
 melted butter and garlic. Feeling more resigned to my 
 fate, I proceeded to cut up her ham and chicken, and then 
 fancied the task was done ; but not so. Her dress was so 
 tight, the ornaments so encompassed her as with a suit of 
 armour, that all her attempts to reach her mouth with her fork 
 were abortive. To bend her arm was evidently impossible. 
 Once, she managed to get a piece of ham as high as her chin ; 
 but it cost her violent fractures in several parts of her dress ; 
 so that I became alarmed for what might possibly happen, and 
 begged her not to think of doing it again, offering to feed 
 her myself. Feverish, thirsty, and weary as I felt at that 
 table, I could scarcely suppress a smile when I found myself, 
 spoon in hand, administering portions of food to the newly- 
 made wife. Never having had, at that period of my existence, 
 any experience in feeding babies, or other living creatures, 
 I felt at first much embarrassed, somewhat as a man might 
 feel who, only accustomed to shave himself, tries, for tho first 
 time in his life, to remove the beard of some friond in a public 
 assembly. Fortunately for me, tho lady was blessed with a 
 rather capacious mouth ; and, as I raised, tremblingly and in
 
 28 
 
 doubt, a pyramid of fowl, ham, and onions, upon the bowl of 
 the Brittannia-metal spoon, my patient distended her jaws in 
 a friendly and hopeful manner. 
 
 During' my spoon performances I was much startled at 
 hearing, close to our door, the loud report of several guns 
 fired in quick succession. I imagined at first that the military 
 had been called out to disperse the mob, but as nobody gave 
 signs of any alarm or uneasiness, that could not have been the 
 case ; so I settled in my mind that the friends of the family 
 were shooting some game for the evening's supper. All that 
 I partook of at that bridal party was a small portion of very 
 lean, dry beef, and some badly boiled potatoes, washed down 
 by a draught of ha,rd, sour beer. I essayed some of the pastry, 
 for it had a bright and cheerful look, and was evidently very 
 light. I took a mouthful of some description of sugared puff, 
 light to the feel, and pleasant to look at, but in reality a most 
 heartless deception — a sickly piece of deceit : it was evidently 
 a composition of bean-flour, brown-sugar, stale eggs, and 
 cocoanut oil ; the latter, although burning very brilliantly in 
 lamps, and serviceable as a dressing* to hair, not being quite 
 equal to lucca oil, when fried or baked. To swallow such an 
 abomination was impossible, and, watching my opportunity, I 
 contrived at length to convey my savoury mouthful beneath 
 the table. This vile pastry was succeeded by a plentiful crop 
 of fruit of all kinds, from pine-apples to dates. Hecatombs of 
 oranges, pyramids of plantains, shoals of sour-sops, mounds 
 of mangoes, to say nothing of alligator-pears, rhambatams, 
 custard-apples, guavas, jamboes, and other fruit, as varied 
 in name and taste, as in hue and form, graced that hitherto 
 graceless board. I had marked for immediate destruction a 
 brace of custard apples, and a glowing, corpulent alligator- 
 pear, and was even on the point of securing them before 
 attending to my dark neighbour, when a loud shout, followed 
 by a confused hubbub, was heard outside in front. There was 
 a cracking of whips, and a rattling of carriage- wheels, and
 
 29 
 
 altoo-etlier a huge commotion in the street, which at once put 
 a stop to our dessert, and attracted attention 'from the inside 
 to the exterior of the house. My spirits revived from zero to 
 summer-heat, and thence up to blood-heat, when I learnt 
 that the arrivals were a batch of "Europe gentlemen," 
 friends of the cook's master, who had come just to have 
 a passing peep at the bride and the fun. Their approach 
 was made known by sundry exclamations in the English 
 lansruaare, and a noise as of scuffling at the door. How 
 our new friends were to get in, was a mystery to me : nor 
 did the host appear to have any very distinct ideas upon 
 the subject. He rose from his seat, and, with his mouth full 
 of juicy pine-apple, ordered a way to be cleared for the " great 
 masters;" but he might as well have requested his auditory 
 to become suddenly invisible, or to pass out through the 
 key-hole. There was no such thing as giving way : a few of 
 the first-cousins grinned, and one or two maternal uncles 
 coughed audibly, while the eyes of the distant relations at the 
 window were glistening more intensely, and in greater numbers 
 than ever. The stock of British patience, as I rather expected, 
 was quickly exhausted, and in a minute or two I perceived 
 near the door some white-faces, that were rather familiar to me 
 at a certain regimental mess-table. Uncles and brothers-in- 
 law were rapidly at a discount, and there appeared every 
 prospect of mere connexions by marriage becoming relations 
 by blood. Some giant of a native ventured upon the hazardous 
 speculation of collaring an officer who was squeezing past 
 him, and received a friendly and admonitory tap in return, 
 which at once put him Jiors do combat. The cook,"enraged at 
 the rudeness of his countryman, dealt a shower of knocks 
 amongst his family circle ; the visitors stormed the approaches, 
 and at last carried the covered way ; Cingalese gentry struggled 
 and pushed, and tried in vain to repel the invaders ; the fair 
 sex screauied, and tried to escape ; the mcles became general 
 and furious. I gave my whole attention to the bride, who
 
 30 
 
 kept her seat in the utmost alarm ; her husband was the centre 
 of attraction to the combatants, and in the midst of a sort of 
 " forlorn hope " of the native forces, the heavily loaded table 
 was forced from its centre of gravit}'-. Staggering and 
 groaning beneath the united pressure from fruit and fighting, 
 the wooden fabric reeled and tottered, and at last went toppling 
 over, amidst a thunder-storm of vegetable productions. It 
 was in vain I pulled at the unhappy bride, to save her ; she 
 was a doomed woman, and was swept away with the fruity 
 flood. When I sought her amidst the wreck and confusion, 
 I could only discover heaps of damaged oranges, sour-sops, 
 and custard-apples, her white satin shoes, the Chinese fan, 
 and the four silver meat-skewers. By dint of sundry excava- 
 tions, the lady was fairly dug out of the ruins, and carried off 
 by her female friends ; the room was cleared of the rebellious 
 Cingalese, and a resolution carried unanimously, that the 
 meeting be adjourned to the compound or garden at the back. 
 Under the pleasant shade of a to]je of beautiful palms, we sat 
 and partook of the remains of the feast. The relations, once 
 more restored to good humour, amused themselves in their 
 own fashion ; preparing for the dancing, and festivity, and 
 illuminations, that were to take place in the evening. Our 
 own little party sat there until some tinve after sunset, and 
 when we had seen the great cocoanut-shells, with their 
 flaring wicks, lighted up, and the tom-toms begin to assemble, 
 we deemed it prudent to retire and seek a wholesome meal 
 with our friends.
 
 COFFEE PLANTING IN THE OLDEN TIME. 
 
 Chapter I. 
 
 WN the month of September, 1840, I started from Kandy to 
 C^ visit a friend who was in charge of one of the new coffee 
 clearings then in progress. I was accompanied by a young 
 planter well acquainted with the country and the natives, and 
 who had offered to act as my guide. The clearing was distant 
 about twenty-five miles. The route we took since became 
 famous for rebellion and martial law ; and concerning which 
 one of the largest blue books of any session had been concocted. 
 As there was in those days no Matale Coach, we mounted 
 our horses a good hour before day-break so as to ensure 
 getting over the most exposed part of our journey before the 
 sun should have risen very high — an important matter for man 
 and beast in tropical countries. Towards noon, we pulled up 
 at a little bazaar, or native shop, and called for " Hoppers and 
 Coffee." I felt that I could have eaten almost anything, and 
 truly one needs such an appetite to get down the dreadful 
 black-draught which the Cingalese remorselessly administer 
 to travellers, under the name of coffee. A basin of turbid 
 inky-looking fluid covered with a thick scum of broken par- 
 ticles of coffee, that require to be skimmed off with the finger : 
 such was the beverage. 
 
 The sun was already rather high in the horizon when 
 we found ourselves suddenly at a turn of the road in the 
 midst of a " clearing." This was quite a novelty to me ; 
 so unlike anything one meets with in the low country or 
 about the vicinity of Kandy. The clearing in question 
 lay at an elevation of fully three thousand feet above the 
 sea-level, whilst the attitude of Kandy is not more than
 
 32 
 
 seventeen hundred feet. I had never been on a hill estate, 
 and the only notions formed by me respecting a plantation of 
 cofEee, were of continuous, undulating fields and gentle slopes. 
 Here it was not difficult to imagine myself amongst the 
 recesses of the Black Forest. Pile on pile of heavy dark 
 jungle rose before my astonished sight looking like grim 
 fortesses defending some hidden city of giants. The spot we 
 had opened upon was at the entrance of a long valley of great 
 width, on one side of which lay the young estate to which we 
 were going. Before us were, as my companion informed me, 
 fifty acres of felled jungle in wildest disorder ; just as the 
 monsters of the forest had fallen so they lay, heap on heap, 
 crushed and splintered into ten thousand fragments. Fine 
 brawny old fellows some of them ; trees that had stood many 
 a storm and thunder-peal, trees that had sheltered the wild 
 elephant, the deer, and the buffaloe, lay there prostrated by a 
 few inches of sharp steel. The "fall" had taken place a good 
 week before, and the trees would be left in this state until the 
 end of October, by which time they would be sufficiently dry 
 for a good "burn." Struggling on from trunk to trunk, and 
 leading our horses slowly between the huge rocks that lay 
 thickly around, we at last got through the " fall," and came to 
 a part of the forest where the heavy, quick click of many axes 
 told us there was a working party busily employed. Before 
 us a short distance in the jungle, were the swarthy compact 
 figures of some score or two of low country Cingalese plying 
 their small axes with a rapidity and precision that was truly 
 marvellous. It made my eyes wink again, to see how quickly 
 their sharp tools flew about, and how near some of them went 
 to their neighbours' heads. 
 
 In the midst of these busy people I found my planting 
 friend, superintending operations in full jungle costume. A 
 sort of wicker helmet was on his head, covered with a long 
 padded white cloth, which hung far down his back, like a 
 baby's quilt. A shooting jacket and trousers of checked
 
 33 
 
 country cloth ; immense leech-gaiters fitting close inside the 
 roomy canvas boots ; and a Chinese-paper umbrella, made up 
 his singular attire. 
 
 To me it was a pretty, as well as a novel sight, to watch 
 the felling work in progress. Two axe-men to small trees ; 
 three, and sometimes four, to larger ones : their little bright 
 tools flung far back over their shoulders with a sharp flourish, 
 and then, with a " whirr," dug in the heart of the tree, with 
 such exactitude and in such excellent time, that the scores of 
 axes flying about me seemed impelled by some mechanical 
 contrivance, sounding but as one or two instruments. I 
 observed that in no instance were the trees cut through, but 
 each one was left with just sufficient of the stem intact to keep 
 it upright ; on looking around, I saw that there were hundreds 
 of trees similarly treated. The ground on which we were 
 standing was extremely steep and full of rocks, between which 
 lay embedded rich veins of arable soil. Where this is the 
 case, the masses of stone are not an objection ; on the contrary 
 they serve to keep the roots of the young coffee plants cool 
 during the long dry season, and, in like manner prevent 
 the light soil from being washed down the hill-side by heavy 
 rains. My planter-friend assured mo that if the trees were 
 to be at once cut down, a few at a time, they would so encum- 
 ber the ground as to render it impossible for the workmen to 
 gain access to the adjoining trees, so thickly do they stand 
 together, and so cumbersome are their heavy branches. In 
 reply to my inquiry as to the method of bringing all these 
 trees to the ground, I was desired to wait until the cutting on 
 the hill-side was completed, and then I should see the 
 operation finished. ^ 
 
 The small axes rang out a merry chime — merrily to the 
 planter's ear — but the death-knell of many a fine old forest tree. 
 In half-an-hour the signal was made to halt, by blowing a 
 conch shell : obeying the order of the superintendent, I 
 hastened up the hill as fast as my legs would convey me, over
 
 34 
 
 rocks and streams halting at the top, as I saw the whole party 
 do. Then they were ranged in order, axes in hand on the 
 upper side of the topmost row of cut trees. I got out of their 
 way, watching auiiously every movement. All being ready 
 the manager sounded the conch sharply, two score voices raised 
 a shout that made me start again ; forty bright axes gleamed 
 high in air, then sank deeply into as many trees, which at 
 once yielded to the sharp steel, groaned heavily, waved their 
 huge branches to and fro, like drowning giants, then toppled 
 over, and fell with a stunning crash upon the trees below them. 
 These having been cut through previously, offered no resis- 
 tance, but followed the example of their upper neighbours, 
 and fell booming on those beneath. In this way the work of 
 destruction went rapidly on from row to row. Nothing was 
 heard but groaning, cracking, crushing, and splintering ; it 
 was some little time before I got the sounds well out of my 
 ears. At the time it appeared as though the whole of the 
 forest-world about me was tumbling to pieces ; only those 
 fell, however which had been cut, and of such not one was 
 left standing. There they would lie after lopping off the 
 principal branches until sufficiently dry for the torch that 
 would blacken their massive trunks, and calcine their many 
 branches into dusty heaps of alkali. 
 
 By the time this was completed, and the men put on to 
 a fresh " cut," we were ready for our mid-day meal, the 
 planters' breakfast. Away we toiled towards the Bungalow. 
 Passing through a few acres of standing forest, and over a 
 stream, we came to a small cleared space well sheltered from 
 wind, and quite snug in every respect. It was thickly sown 
 with -what at a distance I imagined to be young lettuces, or, 
 perhaps, very juvenile cabbage-plants, but I was told this was 
 the " nursery," and those tiny green things were young 
 Coffee plants with which it was intended to form the future 
 Soolookande Estate. On learning that we had reached the 
 " Bungalow," I looked about mo to discover its locality, but
 
 35 
 
 in vain ; there was no building to be seen ; but presently my 
 host pointed out to me what I had not noticed before — a small, 
 low-roofed, thatched place, close under a projecting rock, and 
 half hid by thorny creepers. I imagined this to be his fowl- 
 house, or, perhaps, a receptacle for tools, but was not a little 
 astonished when I saw my friends beckon me on, and enter at 
 the low, dark door. This miserable little cabin could not have 
 been more than twelve feet long by about six feet wide, and 
 as high at the walls. This small space was lessened by heaps 
 of tools, coils of string for '' lining " the ground before 
 planting, sundry boxes and baskets, an old rickety table, and 
 one chair. At the farther end, if anything could bo far in 
 that hole, was a jungle bedstead formed by driving green 
 stakes in the floor and walls, and stretching rope across them. 
 I could not help expressing astonishment at the miserable 
 quarters provided for one who had so important a charge, and 
 such costly outlay to make. My host however, treated the 
 matter very philosophically. Everything, he observed, is good 
 or bad by comparison ; and wretched as the accommodation 
 appeared to me who had been accustomed to the large, airy 
 houses of Colombo, he seemed to be quite satisfied ; indeed, he 
 told me, that when he had finished putting up this little crib, 
 had moved in his one table and chair, and was seated, cigar 
 in mouth, inside the still damp mud walls, he thought himself 
 the happiest of mortals. I felt somewhat curious to know 
 where he had dwelt previous to the erection of this unique 
 building, — whether he had perched up in the forest trees or in 
 holes in the rocks, as I had heard was done by the wild 
 Veddahs of Bintenna. 
 
 I was told that his first habitation when commencing 
 work up there, was suspended over my head. I looked up 
 to the dark dusty roof, and perceived a bundle of what I 
 conceived to be old dirty brown paper, or parchment-skin. 
 Perciving my utter ignorance of the arrangement, ho took 
 down the roll, and spread it open outside the door. It turned
 
 36 
 
 out to be two or three huge Talipot leaves which he assured 
 me was the only shelter he had possessed for nearly three 
 months, and that too, during the rainy season. They might 
 have measured ten feet in length, and possibly five in width ; 
 pretty well for a leaf or two : they were used by fastening 
 a stout pole lengthways to two stakes driven in the ground ; 
 the leaves were hung across this ridge-pole mid-way, and the 
 corners of them made fast by cords : common njats being 
 hung at each end and under the leafy roof. 
 
 The " Lines," a long row of mud huts for the coolies, 
 appeared to be much more comfortable than their master's 
 dwelling. But this is necessarily the case, for unless they be 
 well cared for they will not remain on a remote estate, such 
 as this one was then considered. The first thing a good 
 planter sees to is a roomy and dry set of " Lines" for the 
 people : then the " Nursery" of coffee plants, and thirdly, a 
 hut for himself. 
 
 The Superintendent assured me that none but those who- 
 had opened an estate in a remote district, could form any idea 
 of the difficulties and privations encountered by the planter, 
 " Folks may grumble as they like, down in Colombo, or in 
 England," said my friend, "about the high salaries paid to 
 managers, but if some of them had only a month of it up 
 here, in the rains, I suspect they'd change their notions." 
 
 He had had the greatest difficuly at first in keeping but 
 a dozen men on the place to clear ground for lines and 
 nurseries : so strong is the objection felt by Malabars to new 
 and distant plantations. On one occasion he had been quite 
 deserted : even his old cook ran away, and he found himself 
 with only a little Cingalese boy, and his rice, biscuit and dried 
 fish all but exhausted. As for meat, he had not tasted any for 
 many days. There was no help for it he saw, but to send off 
 the little boy to the nearest village, with a rupee, to buy some 
 food, and try to persuade some of the village people to come 
 up and assist him. When evening came on, there was no boy
 
 37 
 
 back, and the lonely planter had no fire to boil his rice. 
 Night came on, and still he was alone : hungry, cold, and 
 desolate. It was a Sabbath evening, and he pointed out to me 
 the large stone on which he had sat down to think of his 
 friends in the old country ; the recollection of his distance 
 from them and of his then desolate Crusoe-like position, came 
 so sadly, so bitterly upon him that the strong man wept like a 
 child. I almost fancied I saw a tear start to his large eye, as 
 he related the circumstance. 
 
 During that same night, as he lay sleeping supperless, 
 fatigue hav'ing overcome hunger, a great storm of rain and 
 wind arose, and far into the night he was rudely awoke by a 
 sensation of intense cold : looking upwards from his jungle 
 couch he saw a few stars twinkling between the flying masses 
 of clouds, the rain falling on him as he lay. A strong gust of 
 wind had swept away the talipot roof, and he had no resource 
 but to creep in beneath his wretched stick bed, and lay 
 shivering there until the cold morning broke. 
 
 Ceylon planters are proverbially hospitable ; the utmost 
 stranger is at all times sure of a hearty welcome for himself 
 and his horse. On this occasion, my jungle friend turned out 
 the best cheer his small store afforded. It is true, we had but 
 one chair amongst us, but that only served to give us amuse- 
 ment in making seats of baskets, boxes, and old books. A dish 
 of rice, and curry, made of dry salt fish, two red herrings, and 
 the only fowl on the estate, formed our meal ; and poor as the 
 repast may appear to those who have never done a good day's 
 journey in the jungles of Ceylon, I can vouch for the keen 
 relish with which we all partook of it. 
 
 In the afternoon we strolled out to inspect the first piece 
 of planting on the Soolookando estate. It was in extent about 
 sixty acres, divided into fields of ten acres by narrow belts of 
 tall trees. This precaution was adopted, I learnt, with a view 
 to protect the young plants from the violence of the wind, 
 which at times rushes over the mountains with terrific fury.
 
 38 
 
 Unless thus sheltered by belts or by " staking-," the young plants 
 get loosened, or are whirled round until the outer bark becomes 
 worn away, and then they sicken and die, or if they live, yield 
 no fruit. " Staking" is simply driving a stout peg in the 
 ground, and fastening the plant steadily to it, but it is an 
 expensive process, The young trees in these fields had been 
 put out during the previous rains of July, and though still 
 very small, looked fresh and healthy, I had always imagined 
 planting out to be a very simple and easy affair ; but I now 
 learnt that exceeding care and skill are required in the opera- 
 tion. The holes to receive the young coffee plant must be 
 wide and deep ; they can scarcely be too large, the earth must 
 be kept well about the roots of the seedling in removing it ; 
 and care must be taken that the tap-root be neither bent, nor 
 planted over any stone or other hard substance : neglect of 
 these important points is fatal to the prosperity of the estate. 
 The yellow drooping leaves, and stunted growth, soon tell the 
 proprietor that his superintendent has done his work carelessly ; 
 but alas ! it is then too late to apply any remedy, save that of 
 replanting the ground. 
 
 I left this estate impressed with very different notions 
 concerning the life and trials of a planter in the jungle from 
 what I had gathered from mere Colombo gossip ; and I felt 
 that superintendents were not at all overpaid for their skill, 
 patience, privations, and hard work. 
 
 Chapter II. 
 
 Having seen almost the commencement of the Sooloo- 
 kande Coffee Estate, I felt a strong desire towards the end of 
 the year 1846, to pay it a second visit, while in its full vigour. 
 I wished to satisfy myself as to the correctness of the many 
 reports. I had heard of its heavy crops, of its fine condition, its 
 excellent work, and not least, of the good management during
 
 39 
 
 crop-time.- My old acquaintance was no longer in charge ; lie 
 had been supplanted by a stranger. However, I went armed 
 with a letter from the Colombo agents, which would ensure 
 more attention than was comprised in providing a bed and 
 a meal. 
 
 I journeyed this time by another and rather shorter route- 
 Instead of taking the Matelle road, I struck off to the right, 
 past Davy's Tree, celebrated as the scene of the^^massacre of a 
 large body of British officers and troops by the treacherous 
 Kandians ; and crossing the Mahavilla Ganga at Davy's Ferry, 
 made the best of my way across the beautiful vale of Dombera, 
 and thence towards the long range of mountains forming one 
 flank of the Kallibokke valley. At the period of my former 
 excursion this long tract of fertile country was one unbroken 
 mass of heavy jungle : now, a dozen large estates, with bun- 
 galows and extensive works, were to be seen, enlivening the 
 journey, and affording a much readier passage for the 
 horsemen ; for wherever plantations are formed good jungle 
 paths are sure to be made. The ride was a most interesting 
 one ; mile upon mile of coffee lay before and around me, in 
 various stages of growth — from the young seedling just put out, 
 to the full-bearing bush, as heavily laden with red ripe coffee 
 berries as any currant-bush in England with its fruit. 
 
 It was then the middle of November, and the very height 
 of the planters' harvest. All appeared busy as I rode along, 
 gathering on the old properties ; weeding and " supplying " or 
 filling up failures on the young estates. I halted but once for 
 a cup of good wholesome coffee, and gladly pushed on, so as 
 to reach my destination in good time for breakfast. 
 
 The many lovely prospects opening before me caused 
 some little delay in admiration of the views ; and, by the time 
 I had ridden through the last piece of jungle, and pulled up 
 at the upper boundary of " Soolookando," the forenoon was 
 well advanced. The sun was blazing high above me, but its 
 rays were tempered by a cool breeze that swept down upon
 
 40 
 
 me from the neighbouring mountain tops. The prospect from 
 that lofty eminence was lovely in the extreme : steep ridges 
 of coffee extended in all directions, bounded by piles of 
 massive forest ; white spots, here and there told of bungalows 
 and stores ; a tiny cataract rushed down some cleft rock, on 
 one side ; on the other a rippling stream ran gently along, 
 thickly studded with water-cresses. Before me in the far 
 distance, lay outstretched, like a picture scroll, the Matelle 
 district, with its paddy fields, its villages, and its Tihares 
 skirted by a ridge of mountains and terminated by the Cave 
 Eocks of Dambool. At my feet, far below, lay the estate, 
 bungalow, and works, and to them I made my way by a narrow 
 and very steep bridle-path. So precipitous was the land just 
 here that I felt rather nervous on looking down at the whit© 
 buildings. The pathway, for a great leng-th, was bordered 
 by rose-bushes, in fullest blossom, perfuming the air most 
 fragrantly; as I approached the bungalow, other flowering 
 shrubs and plants were mingled with them, aud in such 
 excellent order was everything there that the place appeared 
 to me more like a magnified garden than an estate. How 
 changed since my former visit ! I could scarcely, recognise 
 it as the same property. The bungalow was an imposing 
 looking building, the very picture of neatness and comfort. 
 How different to the old Talipot-leaf and the dirty little mud 
 hut ! The box of a place I had slept in six years before, would 
 have stood easily in the dining room of this bungalow. A 
 wide verandah surrounded the building, the white pillars of 
 which were polished like marble. The windows were more 
 like doors ; and, as for the doors, one may speak of them as 
 lawyers do of Acts of Parliament : it would be easy to drive a 
 coach-and-six through them. The superintendent was a most 
 gentlemanly man, and so was his Bengalee servant. The 
 curry was delightfully hot ; the water was deliciously cool. 
 The chairs were like sofas; and so exquisitely comfortable 
 after my long ride, that, when my host rose and suggested a
 
 41 
 
 walk down to the works, I regretted that I had said anything 
 about them, and had half a mind to pretend to be too weary 
 for a walk. 
 
 The store was a spacious, zinc-roofed building : it was 
 boarded below, but the sides upwards were merely stout 
 raili), for ensuring a thorough circulation of air through the 
 interior. It presented a most busy apjjearance. Many strings 
 of Malabar coolies were flocking in, along narrow paths, from 
 all sides, carrying bags on their heads, filled with the ripe 
 coffee. These had to pass in at one particular door of the 
 store, into the receiving-floor, in the upper part of the buildin;^-. 
 A cangany was stationed there to see each man's gathering 
 fairly measured ; and to give a little tin ticket for every 
 bushel, on the production of which the coolies were paid at 
 the end of the month. Many coolies had their wives and 
 children to assist them in the field, and these brought home 
 very heavy bags of coffee likewise. 
 
 Passing on to the floor where the measuring was in 
 progress, I saw immense heaps of ripe, cherry-looking fruit 
 waiting to be passed below to the pulpers. All this enormous 
 pile must be disposed of before the morning, or it will not be 
 fit for operating on, and might be damaged. I saw quantities 
 of it already gliding downwards, through little openings in the 
 floor, under which I could hear the noise of some machinery 
 in rapid motion, but giving out sounds like sausage machines 
 in full " chop." Following my guide, I descended a ladder, 
 between some ugly-looking wheels and shafting, and landed 
 safely on the floor of the pulping room. " Pulping" is the 
 operation of removing the outer husk, or " cherry," which 
 encloses the parchment-looking skin containing a pair of 
 coffee beans. This is performed by a machine called a pulpor. 
 It is a stout wooden or iron frame, supporting a fly-wheel and 
 barrel of wood covered with sheet copper, perforated coarsely 
 outwards, very like a huge nutmeg-grater. Tlie barrel is 
 made to revolve rapidly, nearly in contact with two chocks of
 
 42 
 
 wood. The coffee in the cherry being fed on to this by a 
 hopper, is forced between the perforated barrel and the chocks ; 
 the projecting copper points tear off the soft cherry whilst the 
 coffee beans, in their parchment case, fall through the chocks 
 into the large box. These pulpers (four in number) were 
 worked by a waterwheel of great power, and turned out in six 
 hours as much coffee as was gathered by three hundred men» 
 during the whole day. 
 
 From the pulper box the parchment coffee- is carried along' 
 channels by water to the cisterns, enormous square wooden 
 vats. In these the pulped coffee is placed, just covered with 
 water, in which state it is left for periods va-rying from twelve' 
 to eighteen hours, according to the judgment of the manager. 
 The object of this soaking is to produce a slight fermentation 
 of the mucilaginous matter adhering to the " parchment," in 
 order to facilitate its removal, as otherwise it would harden the 
 skin, and render the coffee very difficult to peel or clean.. 
 When I inspected the works on Soolookande, several cisterns of 
 fermented coffee were being turned out to admit other parcels- 
 from the pulper, and also to enable the soaked coffee to be- 
 washed, coolies were busily employed shovelling the beans 
 from one cistern to another ; others were letting in clean 
 water. Some were busy stirring the contents of the cisterns 
 briskly about ; whilst some, again, were letting off the foul 
 water; and a few were engaged in raking the thoroughly- 
 washed coffee from the washing platforms to the barbacues. 
 
 The barbacues on this property were very extensive ; — 
 about twenty thousand square feet, all gently sloped away 
 from their centres, and smooth as glass. They were of stone 
 coated over with lime, well polished, and so white, that it was 
 with difficulty I could look at them with the sun shining full 
 upon their bright surfaces. Over these drying grounds the 
 coffee, when quite clean and white, is spread, at first thickly, 
 but gradually more thinly. Four days' sunning are usually 
 required, though occasionally many more are necessary before
 
 43 
 
 the coffee can be heaped away in the store without risk of 
 spoiling : all that is required is to dry it sufficiently for trans- 
 port to Kandy, and thence to Colombo, where it undergoes a 
 final curing previous to having its parchment skin removed, 
 and the faulty and broken berries picked out. Scarcely any 
 estates are enabled to effectually dry their crops, owing to the 
 long continuance of wet weather on the hills. 
 
 The " dry iioor" of this store resembled very much the 
 inside of a malting house. It was nicely boarded, and nearly 
 half full of coffee, white and in various stages of dryness. 
 Some of it, at one end, was being measured into two bushel 
 bags tied up, marked and entered in the "packed" book, ready 
 for despatch to Kandy. Everything was done on a system ; 
 the bags were piled up in tens ; and the loose coffee was kept 
 in heaps of fixed quantities as a check on the measuring. 
 Bags, rakes, measures, twine, all had their proper places, 
 allotted them. Each day's work must be finished off-hand at 
 once ; no putting off until to-morrow can be allowed, or con- 
 fusion and loss will be the consequence. Any heaps of half 
 dried coffee, permitted to remain unturned in the store, or not 
 exposed on the " barbecue," will heat, and become discoloured 
 and in that condition is known amongst commercial men as 
 *' country damaged." 
 
 The constant ventilation of a coffee store is of primary 
 importance in checking any tendency to fermentation in the 
 uncured beans ; an ingenious planter has recently availed 
 himself of this fact, and invented an apparatus which forces 
 an unbroken current of dry warm air, through the piles of 
 damp coffee, thus continuing the curing process in the midst 
 of the most rainy weather. • 
 
 When a considerable portion of the gathering is com- 
 pleted, the manager has to see to his means of transport, before 
 his store is too crowded. A well conducted plantation will 
 have its own cattle to assist in conveying the crop to Kandy ; 
 it will have roomy and dry cuttle-pens, fields of guinea grass,
 
 44 
 
 and pasture grounds attached, as well as a manure pit into 
 which all refuse and the husks of the coffee are thrown, to be 
 afterwards turned to valuable account. 
 
 The carriage of coffee into Kandy is performed by pack- 
 bullocks and sometimes by the coolies, who carry it on their 
 heads, but these latter can seldom be employed away from 
 picking during the crop time. By either means, however, 
 transport forms a serious item in the expenses of a good 
 many estates. From some of the distant plantations possessing 
 no cattle, and with indifferent jungle paths, the conveyance of 
 their crops to Kandy will often cost fully six shillings the 
 hundred weight of clean coffee, equal to about three pence per 
 mile. From Kandy to Colombo by the common bullock-cart 
 of the country the cost will amount to two or three shillings 
 the clean hundred weight, in all, eight or nine shillings the 
 hundred weight from the plantation to the port of shipment, 
 being twice as much for conveying it less than a hundred miles 
 as it costs for freight to England, about sixteen thousand miles.* 
 One would imagine that it would not require much sagacity to 
 discern that, in such a country as this a railroad would be an 
 incalculable benefit to the whole community. To make this 
 apparent even to the meanest Cingalese capacity, we may 
 mention that, at this present time,f transit is required from 
 the interior of the island to its seaports for enough coffee 
 for shipment to Great Britain alone, to make a railroad 
 remunerative. What additional quantities are required for the 
 especially coffee drinking nations which lie between Ceylon and 
 the mother country, surpasses all present calculation ; enough 
 however is carried away from this island in the course of every 
 year, the transit of which to its seaboard, would pay for a 
 net-work of railways. 
 
 * By sailing ship via the Cape. | f 1846.
 
 DUTCH COLOMBO 
 
 fNCE upon a time wlien good Queen Bess reviewed her 
 trusty troops at the Fort at Tilbury and sent lier gallant 
 fleet to meet the great Armada, the countrymen of Pedro 
 Lopez manned many guns on the Colombo ramparts, and the 
 flag of Portugal floated jauntily over each gateway. Where 
 now is the Fort stood then the Citadel, or inner fortress : the 
 outer walls of cabook and lime, armed with small brass guns, 
 extended along much of what is Norris' Road as far as Saint 
 John's river, then a veritable stream running from a portion of 
 the lake to the sea : this outer wall stretched along its bank 
 and terminated at the sea beach. Kayman'sGate and its tower 
 being then a guarded approach from the open country, where 
 the wooded hills of Wolfendhal and Hultsdorf in the distance, 
 were often infested by troops of the King of Cotta in wily 
 ambuscade. 
 
 The Dutch changed much of this, and though they did 
 their utmost to live at peace with the Native sovereigns, spared 
 no pains or cost to render their strong-hold impregnable. 
 Forts were constructed at Hangwella, Panebakere, Mutwall, 
 &c. The outer walls of Colombo along the river banks of Saint 
 John, were demolished : the swamp round the Fort was ex- 
 cavated and converted into the present lake, the earth removed 
 from it going to form Slave Island and a portion of the ram- 
 parts. At the same time the late Fort of Colombo was rebuilt 
 on a larger scale and on scientific principles, and it is supposed 
 must have occupied a quarter of a century in construction. 
 The strength that was gained by these means and the more 
 pacific policy of the Dutch, gave an amount of security to their 
 possessions which ultimately emboldened their principal officers
 
 46 
 
 r 
 
 and a few of the civilians, to build houses at some distance in 
 the country, at Hultsdorf, Grand Pass and Mattacooly on the 
 banks of the Kelani. At the happy period of which I write, 
 Proctors had not been invented : trade was in the hands of the 
 government, and comprised little else than cinnamon and 
 pepper. 
 
 Colpetty existed but as a native suburb : Mutwall and 
 Grand Pass were open country, dotted about by a few Dutch 
 villas, whilst the Pettah consisted of a number of pretty streets 
 pleasantly shaded by soorya trees, the houses tenanted by 
 families the heads of which occupied responsible posts under 
 the government. No native trader had then desecrated by his 
 half-nude presence, the many, well-kept rows of pleasant 
 cheery dwellings. 
 
 In the days to which these pages refer, communication 
 with Europe was carried on twice in each year, when the spring 
 and autumn fleets left Holland for Ceylon, laden with the goods 
 suited to tropical countries. Transported in the spirit to 
 those bye-goiie days, let us stand upon the Battenburg bastion 
 and look out to sea with the Port Master and his chief pilot 
 Jansz. The morning is bright, the air is cool and crisp, fresh 
 from Adam's Peak, and the flag of the Dutch republic floats 
 from the mast-head on the lofty outworks erected by the wave 
 washed rocks where once stood a Chapel to the Blessed Virgin. 
 The Chapel and the tower have long since disappeared, and the 
 massive rock on which they were erected is now partially 
 levelled ou the verge of the old Galle Buck. Between those out- 
 works and the fort walls the Port-Master dwelt, and they say 
 a prettier house was not to be seen in all Dutch Colombo, nor a 
 neater garden, or greener sward on which, on moonlight nights, 
 Dutch maids and lads met to do honor to the host's hospitality, 
 when was tapped for old citizens, many a store of ripe scheidam 
 or may be well vatted arrack. 
 
 A sail, a sail ! The signal is run up to the mast head, and 
 quickly a gun is fired from the Commandant's quarters to
 
 47 
 
 awaken all those who may perchance be still asleep or dozing 
 through the early morning. Yes, it is the spring fleet arrived, 
 just in time for Christmas ! And it is well, for stocks of all 
 kinds are low, and even his Excellency has been compelled to 
 use Kandyan tobacco and Caltura arrack in the place of the 
 veritable articles from Holland. In less time than it would 
 take to smoke a pipe of the true Virginian weed, the fort walls 
 are crowded with soldiers, civilians and native followers, all 
 anxious to see the three ships that are freighted with things 
 as dear to the colonists almost as life. On they come lazily, 
 their big sails flapping listlessly in the faint morning breeze, 
 until the roads are reached, anchors are dropped, and ropes 
 are coiled. 
 
 What a rush there is on shore to be sure ; burly Dutch 
 ofiicials accustomed to doze away their lives under the sooriya 
 trees before their offices, are on the move : troops are on the 
 march ; the Lascoryn guard are turned out with the prover- 
 bial band of tom-toms and reedy, shrieking pipes, and away 
 they go past the Justice Hall which at that time stood facing 
 the esplanade, just where the Council Chamber, Audit Oflace 
 and other public buildings now look out across the sea-walls. 
 The present fort Church of St. Peter's was then the Governor's 
 house, with many reception rooms and a great audience hall. 
 On they march round the esplanade extending partly over the 
 site of the present Government house, and midway on which 
 stood the fine old Dutch Church now levelled to the ground 
 and gone, and on through the water-gate to the landing jetty 
 where they draw up alongside the military guard assembled to 
 do honor to the Commander of the squadron and the official 
 new-comers. 
 
 A goodly crowd gathers about the landing place, and when 
 the three boats from the squadron pull alongside the jetty, the 
 guard presenting arms, and the Commander and his fellow 
 captains with a supercargo and a few passengers of both sexes, 
 step upon the soil of Ceylon, there is a great commotion and
 
 48 
 
 mucli interchange of salutations. Away the travellers are 
 whirled in several unweildly conveyances of which there are 
 no specimens in the present day, not even in the Museum. 
 Do they drive to the Commandant's to report their arrival, to 
 the Governor's to pay their respects ? To neither of these, but 
 to the Church on the esplanade, their first act on landing 
 being to return thanks for a safe and happy arrival at their 
 destination. The church in which this offering-up of thanks 
 was made, is standing no longer. Demolished on the capture 
 of the fort by the British, a portion alone remained standing- 
 until the year 1860, when, after having served as a powder 
 m agazine and then an ice house, it was finally razed to the 
 ground, its site forming part of the esplanade. It stood at 
 the south-west corner of the public green, close by where 
 a wicket still opens on the old Galle Buck, 
 
 The thanksgiving service over, the Captains proceed 
 to the Commandant's quarters to report their arrival, which is 
 done over a few pipes of veritable Viriginia produced in great 
 triumph by the skippers : that ceremony of Dutch good fellow- 
 ship being terminated, the party proceed to the Governor's 
 palace, a rare old building of such capacity that a Dutch 
 regiment could be drilled and put through its manoeuvres in 
 the public reception room, now the body of St. Peter's : as for 
 the audience hall and dining rooms, you could drive a carriage 
 and four round it with the most perfect ease with plenty of room 
 for the frisky leaders. Credentials are soon presented, and the 
 new ofiicials who have arrived by the fleet, are introduced and 
 welcomed by Mynheer Van Somebody. This ceremonial over 
 the party retire to the capacious verandah in the rear, looking 
 out upon a terrace of rare breadth leading down to prettily 
 laid out walks above a huge tank of water, where in modern 
 times there flourished a garden, which later still has degenerated 
 into a collection of carriage sheds and horses' stables at the 
 service of government ofiicials, though some of the fine old 
 trees remain living, monuments of the Dutch Governor's rule.
 
 49 
 
 Under a massivo tamarind tree were ranged many seats 
 and small tables ; and here in the cool evening His Highness 
 the Governor, and his chief officers were wont to find solace 
 in pipes and schiedam, after the heated labor of the day. To 
 this favorite spot the new arrivals were conducted, the ladies 
 from the fleet being consigned to the Grovernor's wife and her 
 family. Need it be said how earnestly the news of old 
 fatherland, of friends at home, of many long forgotten folk 
 were listened to, and how doubly welcome to the half-starved- 
 out officials were some stout flagons of the best Hollands and 
 a portly packet of fragrant Virginia. How the flavor of those 
 importations gave new zest to the guests' recitals of home 
 events, and how vast clouds of smoke rose and disported them- 
 selves amidst the wide branches of the tamarind tree above, 
 until supper was announced, when the guests followed the 
 slow steps of mine host towards the great refectory hall 
 where ponderous tables bore generous fare for all comers. 
 
 Not only the high officials grow merry on this red-letter 
 day for all Colombo, but citizens of every degree, — the lower 
 officials, the troops, the military and civil underlings have all 
 reason for rejoicing, now that the spring fleet has come, and 
 brought letters from friends and good cheer for every body- 
 Beer Street, now known as Chatham Street, is alive with 
 mirth and music : there is dancing and revelry within every 
 other house : a corner building with huge gables, looking out 
 upon the fort canal, where now a British wine merchant holds 
 goodly stocks of costly liquors, a merry motley party chiefly of 
 under civilians were entertained by the Captain of the Burghers. 
 The evening meal being over, the tables were moved aside, and 
 to the sound of mirth-provoking music the whole party joined 
 in the frantic movements of the Ceylon " CafEreina," a kind of 
 tropical " Cancan," in vogue to the present time. It is a dance 
 admitting of considerable latitude in regard to the movements 
 of legs and arms ; and it may bo said of the head too, and one 
 might almost marvel how it camo to pass that a dance of such
 
 50 
 
 vigorous vitality could possibly find favor in any country, so 
 near the equatorial line as Ceylon, especially in a Dutch colony ; 
 
 but it was a dance not pertaining so much to Hollanders as to 
 old Portuguese colonists who cherished it and went in for it on 
 every permissable occasion. Nevertheless it is a dance admit- 
 ting of much grace and pleasing effeet when accompanied by 
 moderately slow and not wildly frantic music : the gently 
 Sweeping undulations of a proficient in the Caffreina are as 
 pleasing and far more graceful than many modern drawing- 
 room dances. 
 
 There are other and quieter little parties coming off in 
 various parts of the Fort. Away beneath the Battenburg 
 bastion for instance, the Port Master, Van Cuylenberg, is enter- 
 taining a goodly gathering of friends on the green before his 
 pretty little Villa, where sooriya trees have been many years 
 struggling for a crooked and at times doubtful existence against 
 their dire enemy, the salt sea wind. But there they are 
 good-natured looking, humpbacked dwarfs, ready to extend a 
 friendly branch to any young lad or maiden looking for a seat
 
 51 
 
 on the soft sandy sward beneath. On the night on which this 
 " Toddy Party" was held, a good many lads and maidens were 
 accommodated by their steady friends, the sooriyas, some of 
 whose straggling branches descended so low as to form 
 veritable bowers within which goodness only knows what may 
 have occurred in matters of flirting. On an open space away 
 from the sly sooriyas, were placed small, round, big-legged 
 ponderous tables up to any weight of cakes and toddy jugs. 
 Oh, those jolly jugs of brown ware, of real Haarlem make, but 
 filled with sweet toddy-cup of Lanka ! How they leered out 
 upon the assembled guests as though to coax the young 
 maidens from their snug hiding-places. How proudly the 
 portly cakes oozing with luscious ghee and saccharine sub- 
 stances, peered down from their lofty vantage ground upon the 
 humble " hoppahs " that lay pell-mell on wide delft platters, 
 looking as abashed at their flat insignificance as though hoping 
 to be soon devoured and hid from sight. 
 
 But bless us, long before the good dame Van Cuylenberg 
 and the widow Plaats, and the elderly spinsters, the Van Graafs, 
 had half finished their critical essay on the dress and the 
 deportment of the female new comers, such games, such rompings 
 were a-foot in the moonlight, that must have driven a cynical 
 old on-looker bachelor like Van Graafs, the " powder master," 
 mad with envy. But even the nimble-footed Laura, the agile 
 Lydia, must yield in time, from frolicsome wearyness and as 
 pretty dimple-faced Laura positively refused then and there, 
 to dance the Caffreina, there was nothing for it but to take 
 to creature comforts, and so it came to pass that a groat 
 and happy gathering was seen around those dumpy, ponderous 
 tables whose loads of hoppahs and cakes, whose jugs of todd}^- 
 cup rapidly became small by degrees and beautifully less, until 
 the wise ones of the party gav6 the signal for dispersing, and 
 all made their happy way to pleasant homes not far away, to 
 dream of the bright and gorgeous things the fleet had brought 
 at that gay Christmas-tide.
 
 OUR OLD CLERK 
 
 (^^HE air about the old fort walls in the old fort streets was 
 }^ still and steamy. Not a leaf or a twig on the sooriya 
 trees, would have moved for love or money. The sky looked 
 as though it had been black leaded, and polished for the new 
 monsoon that was making itself heard in the distance, far out 
 at sea, — perspiring sparrows deserted the hot house-tops, — 
 crows forgot to " caw," so stifling was the weather in that 
 sultry month of May, 
 
 In a large, rambling, corner-house, near the south gate„ 
 wherein the last King of Kandy had been confined a state 
 prisoner before embarking on his Indian exile, things went 
 on as quietly as though a crisp land-wind were drifting 
 through the cool gloomy offices. Our old clork was placidity 
 personifi^ed, as calm and self-possessed as in his prime, and 
 yet the idea of having to make over the custody of the journal 
 and ledger, to a young English lad, as I then was, cannot 
 have been altogether agreeable to old Samuel's pride of place. 
 But there was no help for it : the business of the firm had 
 increased, the faithful chief clerk was growing aged apace, 
 and it was found no longer possible for him to fulfil the many 
 multifarious duties, hitherto entrusted to him, so implicitly 
 and so successfully. 
 
 Samuel had been prepared for the change, and now when 
 the time was come, when he was to know the firm's ledger 
 no longer, he put a bold face on it, and made a Dutch virtue 
 of an English necessity. Before inducting me, he looked me 
 well over, from head to foot, smiled half encouragingly, half 
 compassionately, as though he would say "you don't know 
 the weighty responsibility there is in that ledger," and then.
 
 53 
 
 t'dking the ponderous, strong-backed volume from an iron 
 safe, large and massive enough to have been some firm's 
 strong room, placed it before me, wiping it carefully and 
 delicately with his pocket-handkerchief. Had the ancient 
 Samuel been bestowing his eldest daughter upon me in 
 marriage, he could not have shewn more anxiety about ray 
 reception and treatment of the precious charge entrusted to 
 my custody. No horse-dealer could have taken more pains 
 to indicate the rare points of a steed, than did the old clerk, 
 to point out the beauties of his ledger, — liis alas, no longer. 
 
 Samuel was a Dutchman, as much as his father and his 
 grand-father : his mother was just as Dutch : and yet how 
 different to Knickerbocker's Dutchmen, or the dwellers on 
 the muddy banks of the Zuyder Zee. There was no ponderous 
 mellow frame, encased loosely in baggy trousers of any size. 
 No slouch hat, no long Dutch pipe : Samuel was slim, slight 
 and dry as his own snuff-box. A beautifully fitting, snow- 
 white jacket, and a yellow waistcoat, and nankeen trausers, 
 full with many pleats round the waist, and a vast cavern of a 
 pocket in which was hidden away a cambric handkerchief of 
 such marvellous dimensions, that one might have taken it to 
 be the youngest baby's sheet. Thin shoes and white cotton 
 socks, and above all a ponderous silver watch and massive 
 gold chain, made up his Indian Dutch exterior. 
 
 He was the firm's confidential clerk, but he waa a good 
 deal more than that : he was their chief negotiator and adviser 
 in all delicate treaties with obstinate native traders who 
 naturally wished to have all the bargains arranged after their 
 own indigenous way. He was the great ratifier of difficult 
 contracts for produde, or obstinate sales in the matter of wares 
 from Manchester, Sheffield, or Glasgow. He was the presiding 
 genius of the godowns, in which were stored and sorted, and 
 packed, rich spices and fragrant seeds, and valuable Coffee ; 
 ho was a sort of Hollando-oriental Simon-the-Cellarer, h\ 
 whose custody wore wonderful casks, and corpulent, strong-
 
 54 
 
 hooped vats, and curious bottles in dark, cobwebby corners 
 full of rat holes : he was the Plutus of the establishment, in 
 whose custody was all the coin which percolated through that 
 multifarious business, and never was man prouder than when 
 he strolled off to the strong room, with the bunch of massive, 
 jailor-looking keys in his bony hands, as though he had the 
 old Kandyan monarch, still safely in custody somewhere, and 
 was going to interview him. But perhaps the most instructive 
 sight was to see the old Clerk grapple a rebellious Moorman, 
 or a defiant, unbelieving Chetty, refusing to take over an 
 invoice of willow-pattern tea-pots, on account of a chip in one 
 of the spouts, or a parcel of grey domestics, by reason of a 
 little rustiness of the iron hoops outside the bales. Samuel 
 would in such a delicate case inveigle the rebel into a dark 
 Bastille-sort of room at one end of the dark inner verandah, 
 guarded by a huge polygar dog that knew the flavour of a 
 man's calf, and inside that gloomy sanctuary, with bolted door,, 
 such a change was wrought on the recusant buyer, as none 
 other but the ancient clerk could have accomplished. Whether 
 the means employed were moral, mechanical or chemical, is 
 to this day a mystery, and whether the trade was in mamoties 
 or muslins, Moorman or Chetty invariably came out of that 
 ordeal, a changed man, the goods were taken over, the 
 promissory note signed, and Samuel brought forth the baby's 
 sheet from his cavernous pocket, and smothered his chippy 
 visage in its ample folds in honour of the subtle victory. 
 
 In addition to all these duties Samuel was the supervisor 
 of all the other clerks of the establishment : in the present 
 day they would call him Director-General — he superintended 
 their work — looked after their arithmetic and their caligraphy, 
 and woe to the miserable man who had omitted to carry a 
 cipher, or cross a " t " or dot an " i " ! as for a blot of ink in 
 the account sales book, we should not like to have been the 
 guilty party, that's all. Of such rare quality was the old 
 chief clerk's training, such cunning penmen did he turn out of
 
 55 
 
 hand, that many a government emissary was employed to lure 
 Samuel to part with these precious subordinates. In vain the 
 Treasurer made secret gorgeous offers for a trusty cashier ; in 
 vain the Auditor-Genei^al tempted him for just one single 
 accountant. The overtures were received with scorn. Be it 
 known that Samuel " was passing rich, on ninety pounds 
 a-year " : but then, when those ninety pounds were paid to 
 him in rix-dollars, with figures of dropsical elephants on them, 
 and each rix- dollar of eighteen pence British currency, would 
 purchase half a dozen full-grown fowls or a coolie load of 
 eggs, or a hackery-load of country vegetables and fruit, we 
 may form some some sort of idea of the purchasing value of 
 the ninety pounds. 
 
 Follow him home to the paternal mansion after office 
 hours : see him in the bosom of his family in Zuyder Street in 
 the Pettah : what an unruffled, comfortable old Dutch bosom it 
 was : unfortunately it spoke only in the Portuguese tongue, 
 which in my case was a slight drawback, compelling me to 
 converse with Samuel and his olive branches. Regularly as 
 Christmas Day came round, the old clerk, his bosom and his 
 branches, paid a visit to the firm at the Colpetty mansion, on 
 which occasion there were any number of congratulations, and 
 jokes, and questions ; and after divers glasses of wine, the party 
 went away in the happiest of moods. 
 
 On New Year's Day the visit was returned, — a goodly 
 custom, and one which I rather think must have gone out about 
 the time when punkahs and other modern cheap innovations 
 came in. Clean and bright as was the chief clerk's old house 
 in Zuyder Street, on any day in the year, it was cleaner and 
 brighter on the New Year's festival day. The furniture was 
 doubly bees- waxed, the walls were trebly whitewashed, and 
 the glare of the noon-day sun was softened in that quite abode, 
 by drapery of the most rare and costly chintz. Even the 
 back yard was made cool and pleasant by an umbrageous 
 group of bananas thriving iu a rich stratum of alluvial bricks
 
 56 
 
 chastely picked out in white. I shall not very soon forget my 
 first New Year's visit, repeated through many seasons, — to 
 Samuel's peaceful happy home ; nor the genial glow which 
 stole over his dry stolid features, as he held up to his bright 
 eye, a glass of the firm's rich creamy Cape wine, at eighteen 
 shillings per dozen, unequalled at the figure, until he fancied 
 he could see an embryo bee's wing in it, and how he drank the 
 firm's health, and the firm drank his, and his belongings. 
 Those were the days when Waghorn was making his great 
 Egyptian experiment, before Renter was invented, or cheap 
 chemical champagne imported. A Dutch party in the Pettah, 
 of those days, meant nine o'clock to rest, after beer and a 
 meal of cake that would have served as capital dead-weight 
 for any ship requiring ballast. 
 
 But changes, which belong to our common lot, overtook 
 Colombo, and though the old clerk grown older, drew three 
 hundred pounds per annum, he was not one whit the richer 
 or happier. The firm had built up a larger business, and with 
 it had arisen a more imposing structure than the grim Dutch 
 Office of the olden time. At Samuel's prayerful request, they 
 had spared one portion of the old red-bricked wall, that he 
 might feast his dim eyes on the same bricks that had been so 
 often looked upon by his loved and honoured master, now 
 dead and gone. He could see it from his office chair, but 
 that large lofty room was no more the same ; he found it 
 draughty and chilly : he took cold and at last took ill, and 
 then greatly against his will, he took a pension, but on the 
 solemn understanding that he might attend the office once a 
 year, to see the general accounts closed, and the balance-sheet 
 drawn out. And this he did faithfully and cheerfully amidst 
 growing infirmities, until at length his own earthly account 
 was closed, by one final entry in the Wolfendahl registry.
 
 A GALLE LEGEND. 
 
 ^I'ANZS LEYDEN was as happy and jovial as it was possible 
 ^ for any ordinary Custom-House clerk to be, in tlie 
 sea-girt, sunny isle of Ceylon, The sleepy, apethetic peons 
 were perfectly taken aback as they watched the ebullition of 
 Dutch mirth that gushed from the person of the little chief 
 clerk. The oldest Custom-House underlings did not remember 
 to have seen so much jollity within the dark, dusky walls of 
 that strange, straggling old building; no, nob since they were 
 little boys, and first learnt to enjoy betel, Janzs was so elated, 
 that he made a very poor day's work of it, in his large, 
 solitary, prison-like office : he pretended, once or twice, to be 
 deeply immersed in some tables of exports : but it wouldn't 
 do : one column of figures danced about before his eyes, with 
 its vis-a-vis, and the totals at the bottom went up the middle 
 and down again, to the merry country dance, which he could 
 not leave off whistling. When he began a letter, he got to, 
 " It having come to the knowledge of the authorities that 
 certain kegs of brandy have " — he suddenly remembered that 
 the man he was addressing, was hanged for smuggling last 
 October. At last, after nibbing one or two pens, and untying 
 and re-tying a few bundles of very neglected and extremely 
 dusty papers with faded red-tape, he gave up the idea of being 
 busy. The truth was, that Janzs was about to be married; that 
 day week was to be the happy period, and as that was the first 
 event of the kind in his life, he conceived himself privileged to 
 be elated, and not altogether fit for office work. 
 
 Finding an excuse for closing the Custom-Houso at an 
 unusually early hour, the chief clerk saw that the establish- 
 ment (two subordinates, and three peons) had departed and
 
 58 
 
 left the old office in proper orrler ; and then, leisurely turning' 
 the huge key in the old ironbound door, gave it to the head 
 peon to deliver to the collector, who was, of course, quietly 
 smoking his pipe in his own verandah. The sentry was seen 
 to, a word exchanged with the corporal of the guard, and 
 Janzs strutted out from under the huge dark archway which 
 led from the strong fort of Foint-de-Galle towards the 
 suburbs, where many of the better class of burghers then 
 resided. In those days, even the chief clerk of a public 
 department could not afford to keep a carriage. None, indeed, 
 but the very highest colonial officials could venture on such a 
 piece of extravagance. This may be readily understood, when 
 I mention that the whole of the money salary received by 
 Janzs in one year, did not amount to more than some twenty 
 pounds of our English currency. It is true, there were addi- 
 tions in the shape of fees, and allowances of oil, wood, beef, 
 salt and other perquisites. Nevertheless, it did not on the 
 whole amount to more than a very decent living for a young 
 single man. 
 
 Such being the state of affairs, it cannot be matter for 
 surprise that Janzs should have felt certain doubts about the 
 future rising amidst his happy dreamings, as he wended his 
 way home to his humble low-roofed bungalow ; and thence to 
 Katrina, who dwelt with her father not far away on an old 
 Dutch farm. 
 
 If Janzs had been happy before, how much was his delight 
 increased when the old Dutchman, his future father-in-law, 
 pointed out to him a fine piece of pasture ground and wood- 
 land which he intended to give him on the wedding day. 
 Money he had little enough of, but he had some rich land, and 
 the young couple were to be in possession of some thirty 
 acres, which might, one day, be made to yield a comfortable 
 addition to the clerk's little income. Here was a field for 
 Katrina and Janzs to build hopes upon. Thirty acres of forest 
 and pasturage ! The thing appeared almost too extensive to
 
 50 
 
 contemplste in Imagination. The Fort of Galle occupied but 
 twenty acres, and was it possible that he, a poor Custom- 
 House clerk, should become the proprietor of half as much 
 more land than was spanned by that sturdy, rambling, old 
 fortress ? 
 
 The next day, Janzs engaged a canoe to take them both 
 to the identical spot ; and after duty — as soon as cargoes of 
 rice, salt-fish, and coir-rope could be hurried through the 
 usual official routine — he hastened from the old dark office, 
 and conducted Katarina to the bank of the river that flows 
 from the lofty mountain peaks, pass the Fort of Galle, into the 
 Indian Ocean. Half an hour's navigation, by means of poles, 
 took them to the scene of their speculations. They passed 
 many a pretty retired nook, many green paddy fields and palm 
 topes; many deep shady dells, overtopped by clustering 
 bamboos and towering arekas, where the echo of the cool 
 splashing waterfall was only broken by the low, soft, note of 
 the wood-pigeon, or chattering voice of the monkey. They were 
 delighted beyond their fondest expectations with the spot. 
 It was so near to the town ; it was so delightfully situated ; 
 it was so nicely timbered ; why, there were sufficient trees 
 upon it to build half-a-dozen bungalows, and still leave enough 
 for pleasant shade and firewood. And then the soil ! Janzs, 
 it is true, did not understand quite so much about agriculture, 
 as he did of entries and bonds, and registers ; but Katrina 
 declared it was magnificent. She had never seen such soil ; 
 why, it would grow anything. In short, they both arrived at 
 the conclusion that a handful of copper challies, flung broad- 
 cast upon the ground on any showery morning, would take 
 root before night, and grow into rix-dollars. Returning home 
 they indulged in all sorts of wild speculations about the future. 
 Kairina, naturally of an imaginative turn, ventured to hint at 
 a regular farm, cows and all ; and Janzs afterwards declared 
 that she even went so far as to suggest a flock of goats ; but 
 little Katrina always denied the charge most stoutly. They
 
 60 
 
 were to cultivate everything that would be wanted for food or 
 raiment, from chillies for curry up to cotton for dresses. In 
 short, they were to have a little Eden of their own making", 
 where discord and care should never enter ; where only- 
 sweetest blossoms and flowers and richest fruits should be 
 found ; where nothing that was bad, where everything that 
 was good, should be seen. It was to be a bright spot that 
 " Grarden by the River." 
 
 Well, they were married and were happy, as all young 
 married people are and deserve to be, and let us hope always 
 will be. In Ceylon, amongst the Dutch descendants to this 
 day, it is a common occurrence for young couples to take up 
 their abode for the first year or two of their married life under 
 the roof of the bride or bridegroom's parents. It may be 
 that economy sometime renders this prudent : or it may 
 happen that the young wife does not feel quite experienced 
 enough to undertake housekeeping all at once, and prefers a 
 little further schooling on many points of domestic details. 
 Be this as it may, it was a Gommon custom in the days I am 
 writing of ; and since Janzs was an orphan they took up their 
 residence with old Lourenz, his new parent. The week of 
 feasting and festivities, and congratulations over, they settled 
 quietly down at the paternal farm, as contentedly and as 
 happily as though it were all their own. The little stream at 
 the bottom of the long lawn that wound round the shrubbery 
 so coaxingly and silently, did not run more smoothly than the 
 current of their new-found existence. Janzs toiled harder 
 than ever at export and import duties, and occasionally 
 expressed regret to the head store-keeper, an old white- 
 headed Malay, that there was not double the quantity of 
 shipping entering the port. At his new home the clerk had 
 little to complain of. Many a sacrifice did old Lourenz make 
 to the comfort of the young couple. Janzs had free and 
 unlimited access to his tobc.cco-store and his dozen or two of 
 venerable meerschaums. Janzs was allowed one of the oldest
 
 61 
 
 and most valuable drinking-horns for his own special use ; 
 and, moreover, Janzs was permitted to sit, in the cool of the 
 evening, under the same wide-spreading mango-tree, and then, 
 pipe in mouth, fall gently asleep, while Katrina sang an old 
 scrap of a Dutch song, or plied her needle, or drove away the 
 mosquitoes from her father and husband. 
 
 Yet with all this, Janzs occasionally felt not quite at ease, 
 and was ungracious enough to vent his restless mood in 
 presence of the father, who heeded not his desire for a little 
 more independence, but quietly refilled his pipe, and settled 
 the question with the unanswerable argument — pooh ! pooh ! 
 Sometimes the thoughts of that sweet spot of wood and dell 
 by the rivei'-side came across the minds of the young people, 
 and they sighed as they thought of the remote chance of 
 seeing it as they had once hoped. Now and then Janzs thought 
 of raising money upon it, to cultivate a portion at least, and 
 erect a small bungalow ; but, a stranger to such proceedings , 
 he fancied the scheme was far too wild and visionary for a 
 clerk upon twenty rix-dollars a month to entertain. Each 
 time he sighed and gave up the idea. 
 
 Katrina had observed that her father had of late been 
 absent from the farm more frequently, and for longer intervals, 
 than was his custom ; and that, moreover, he smoked more 
 pipes and disposed of more schiedam during the evening, 
 under the mango-tree, than she ever remembered him to have 
 done at any time of her life. This state of things lasted for a 
 few months. Janzs longed more ardently than ever for 
 emancipation ; Katrina sighod for a farm of their own, and the 
 father plied more potently at pipe and dram. 
 
 At length old Lourenz told his children that he had a 
 mind to go and see how their little piece of land was looking, 
 and if they would go with him, perhaps they could contrive 
 amongst them all to plan something to be done with it. No 
 second bidding was needed. A largo covered canoe was pre- 
 pared with cushions and mats, and the party started on their
 
 62 
 
 visit, taking Avith them Katriua's younger sister and brother. It 
 was near the end of January — of all months the most agreeable 
 in Ceylon ; the evening was so calm, and soft and fragrant ; 
 the air appeared to be as though poured down from some other 
 and puree sphere, wafting with it songs of rich melody, and 
 scents of rarest flowers. Nature seemed hushed and wrapped 
 in sweetest peace. The monsters of the forests were at rest. 
 The mountains far away flung their deep, saddening shades 
 o'er many a league of plain : and even restless man looked 
 forth and felt subdued. 
 
 Their light and well-manned boat went boldly up the 
 stream, caring very little about the huge trunks of trees that 
 at this time of year are met with in most Indian rivers, as 
 thick as pebbles in a mill-pond. Torn from their birthplaces 
 by inundations, they float down the rapids ; until, arrested in 
 their course by some trifling obstacle, they get embedded in 
 the course of the river. The topes and dells and groves 
 appeared to Katrina and her husband more beautiful than ever 
 on that soft evening ; and, had not their own loved spot been 
 before them, they would gladly have landed a dozen times, to 
 walk about and admire the romantic scenery. At last a bend 
 of the river took them suddenly to where a rising wood-clad 
 field told of their little domain. 
 
 Bub that could not be their land. Why, it had a beautiful 
 little bungalow on it, and one of the sweetest gardens round 
 it that could be imagined ; all fenced and quite complete. 
 There were outhouses, too, and a huge pile of firewood, and a 
 nice winding path right down to the water's edge. Neither 
 Katrina nor her husband could at first believe that they had 
 not halted at the wrong spot : yet there was the hugh Jack 
 tree at the landing-place, and there were the yellow bamboos 
 and the green arekas by the little stream that came tumbling 
 down the hill-side like a child at play. Well, they both 
 declared they had never seen such a fairy transformation : it 
 was like a story in some Arabian book — only a great deal
 
 63 
 
 better : for it was all true, and would not disappear at daylight, 
 as many of such things were said to do. 
 
 There was no end to the discoveries made by Katrina and 
 her sist^, in their rambles over the place ; and though all was 
 in a very primitive form, there was the foundation for a 
 thousand comforts, and as many pleasures besides. Old 
 Lourenz seated himself very quietly under a huge bread-fruit 
 tree, and enjoyed his pipe and the contemplation of the 
 happiness he had stealthily bestowed. Labour costs but little 
 in the East ; and most of the materials for the building had 
 been found on the spot. Houses are seldom built of brick in 
 Ceylon, even for government use. The best are usually made ■ 
 of " Cabook," a ferruginous clay easily cut from the hill-sides. 
 It is quite soft when found ; but quickly hardens on exposure 
 to the air ; and in time becomes more solid and enduring than 
 any cement. Much of the work had been performed by the 
 neio-hbouring villagers, for a little rice or tobacco ; so that a 
 groat deal had been done for a very little outlay. It seemed, 
 however, to Janzs, as though a little fortune must have been 
 spent upon their land, and he was altogether lost in the 
 contemplation of so much valuable property. 
 
 The following week saw them in actual possession, and 
 Janzs taking lessons in farming from Katrina ; who assured 
 him that if he worked hard enough, and lived long enough, 
 he would make an excellent cultivator. By small degrees, and 
 with many kindly helps from friends and relations, the young 
 couple found they had a tolerable establishment growing up 
 in their charge. The clerk, at the risk of blistering his hands, 
 toiled in the opening air, morning and evening, whilst Katrina 
 overlooked a brace of coolies, who laboured through the heat 
 of the day. It was quite wonderful to see how things grew 
 and prospered round and about them. No one in the district 
 of Galle produced such delicious plantains as they grew ; their 
 poultry was allowed to be remarkably the finest in the valley ; 
 their butter the sweetest in the province, and as to bees, none
 
 64 
 
 thrived so well as did those of Katrina. What was better 
 still, Janzs had, about this time, an increase to his salary of 
 five rix dollars a month ; so that on the whole, it might, with 
 truth, be said that they prospered ; and indeed they deserved 
 to do so, and no one thought of envying them their humble 
 quiet happiness. 
 
 In this pleasant way a year rolled past. At that time a 
 vessel came into the harbour, from one of the Eastern Islands, 
 noted for its fine plantations of nutmegs ; a cultivation then 
 highly remunerative, but which the jealously of the Dutch 
 Government rigidly " protected," by carefully reserving it to 
 themselves. The commander of the ship had brought with 
 him, in a very careful manner, many hundreds of young 
 nutmeg plants, at the request, and for the especial benefit, of 
 the Receiver of Customs at Point de Galle. These were 
 brought on shore in barrels of earth as ship's stores, and left 
 in charge of Janzs ; who, shortly afterwards received orders to 
 despatch them to the country-house of his superior. One 
 barrel was presented by the collector to the chief clerk; who, 
 well aware of the great value of the nutmeg tree, conceived 
 himself to be at once on the high-road to fortune. 
 
 It would be difficult to paint the satisfaction with which 
 he knocked out the head of the barrel, on its reaching the 
 door of his little bungalow, and feasted his own and Katrina's 
 eyes on the sight of a hundred young nutmeg seedlings. It 
 appeared to him as though a hundred little guardian angels had 
 suddenly condescended to pay him a visit, to take up their abode 
 with him for the remaineder of his natural life. -But what 
 were they to do with them ? Plant them, of course. Yes, but 
 how and where? Katrina was, for once in her little life, 
 most completely at fault on a point of agriculture ; and, it 
 turned out on enquiry, that old Lourenz knew about as much 
 of the proper treatment, agriculturally, of the nutmeg tree as 
 did Janzs, or any of his office peons, or the old bald-headed 
 Buddhist priest who lived across the river.
 
 65 
 
 Great was the satisfaction of the chief clerk and his little 
 wife to find that one of the sailors of the vessel, which had 
 brought the plants, understood the mode of culture, and 
 was willing to come out to their farm and put them thoroughly 
 in the way of rearing fine nutmeg trees. Leave was obtained 
 from the skipper, and the sailor was soon installed as hired 
 cultivator under Katrina's own inspection. When Janzs 
 arrived home after the first day's operations, he was astonished 
 to find a number of moderately sized pits dug throughout his 
 best ground, at regular and distant intervals. He was with 
 difiiculty persuaded that these gigantic holes were necessary 
 for the reception of the Lilliputian plants. The sailor assured 
 him that unless the holes were made at least five feet deep, 
 and as wide as the outer branches of the future tree were 
 expected to extend, the plant would not thrive. The roots were 
 of the most delicate texture ; and it was only by forming for 
 their reception a roomy bed of light generous earth that they 
 would be enabled to arrive at the vigour necessary for the full 
 nourishment of the tree, and the perfection of abundant crops 
 of fruit. Janzs held up his hands in pure astonishment ; but 
 he supposed it was all right, when the two coolies flung basket 
 upon basket full of surface soil, and river mud, and dead leaves 
 and weeds, into these holes ; and when the sailor — gently as 
 a nurse with a young infant, placed two seedlings in each hole, 
 a few inches apart, filled in some more rich loamy earth around 
 them, pressed them softly down, and then finished the cere- 
 mony by a copious baptism of river-water from a cocoanut 
 shell — Janzs was so pleased with the imposing appearance of 
 the new plantation that he did not heed the sailor's reason for 
 placing the little seedlings in pairs ; it was to insure a sound, 
 healthy plant, the stronger of the couple being left, whilst 
 the more delicate plant was pulled out at the end of the first 
 six months. 
 
 This, however, was not all the care that was needed for 
 the young plants. A score of contingencies had to be guarded
 
 66 
 
 ao-ainst. There mio-ht be too much sun, or too much wet, or 
 the wind might loosen them and injure the roots. Cattle or 
 wild animals might get at them, and browse on their tender 
 leaves, which would be fatal to them. Insects might prey 
 upon the young shoot or the new bark. So that although, as 
 Katrina was assured, when the trees did survive all these 
 dangers, they would be certain to yield a lasting and golden 
 harvest, it would not be without a long trial of watchfulness 
 and care. But she was not easily daunted ; the prospect of 
 the future cheered on her little heart against all misgivings. 
 She made the sailor-planter show her how they fenced in the 
 nutmeg trees at Penang and the Moluccas : how they sheltered 
 them from the scorching rays of the noonday sun, and how 
 they protected them from the nocturnal attacks of porcupines 
 and wild hogs, by weaving prickly boughs around them on th© 
 ground. Katrina felt quite sure that she could manage the 
 whole plantation, and bring every tree to full bearing ; and the 
 sailor took his leava loaded with thanks and homely gifts. 
 Janzs thought himself the luckiest and happiest of Custom- 
 House clerks, to possess such a wife, and such a garden of 
 nutmeg trees. 
 
 Years rolled on in Ceylon, much as such portions of time 
 are in the habit of doing in other places. They brought with 
 them changes in men and things at the little sturdy fort of 
 Galle, not less than elsewhere. Few changes, perhaps, were 
 more apparent than those which were perceptible in the 
 nutmeg plantation I have described. The little white-washed 
 bungalow had spread forth wings on either side, and front and 
 ends were shadowed by jessamines and roses. Topes of 
 waving cocoa, and sago palms, and broad-leaved bananas flung 
 a grateful shade over the lawn, and the sweet flower garden, 
 and the path to the river-side. The Lilliputian seedlings were 
 no longer there, but in their places rose, proudly and grace- 
 fully, a whole forest of bright-leaved, flower-spangled nutmeg 
 trees : and amongst them might be seen, if you looked in the
 
 67 
 
 right place, Katriua, still busy, and smiling, and happy with 
 Janzs by her side, and a group of little rollicking children 
 revelling on the soft green grass. Unwearying care and 
 watchfulness had wrought wonders with those delicate nutmegs ; 
 and now the time had arrived when they were about to reap 
 the rich reward of perseverance and industry. Janzs con- 
 sidered himself, as well he might, a man of some substance, 
 In a year or two, or more, all those beautiful trees would be 
 in full bearing ; and if, as they gave promise to do, they bore 
 two or three hundred nuts each, there would be a little fortune 
 for him ; a larger yearly revenue than was enjoyed by his 
 superior, the Collector of Customs, and all the clerks and 
 peons together. 
 
 Fate, however, had decreed that all this was not to be. 
 Those richly promising trees were doomed to an early and 
 sudden death. 
 
 I mentioned how the collector had obtained a vast quantity 
 of these young nutmeg plants. There were several thousands 
 of them, and their cultivation had cost him some money, and 
 more trouble. But whether it was that he selected bad land, 
 or had them planted improperly, or neglected them afterwards, 
 there is nothing on record to tell. Certain it is, that his large 
 plantation became a complete failure, much to his vexation. 
 This was no whit lessened, when he learnt, and afterwards 
 witnessed, the entire success of his subordinate Janzs with his 
 little garden of nutmeg trees. 
 
 VanDort, the collector, was a weak-minded, mean-spirited 
 creature, as you will soon see. He brooded over his disap- 
 pointment for many a long day ; until at length, in the very 
 abjoctuess of his low heart, he thought that if he could nob 
 succeed, neither should Janzs. Ho know right well that there 
 was an old order in council, forbidding any one in the States- 
 General's possessions in the East Indies, to cultivate spices, save 
 and except in such Islands as they declared to be so privileged ; 
 namely, Coylun for cinnamon and pepper, and Moluccas and
 
 68 
 
 Penang' for the nutineg and cloves. Confiscation and imprison- 
 ment for the first offence were the mild consequences of 
 infringing this law. What the second offence was to be visited 
 with, was not exactly known ; but better lawyers than Janzs, 
 were haunted with an indistinct vision, that in such a case was 
 made and provided nothing short of the gallows. Now, Mynheer 
 VanDort was well aware of the existence of this severe order 
 when he planted his large piece of ground ; but he had reckoned 
 on being able to sell his plantation and retire to Europe before 
 the authorities at Colombo could hear anything of the matter ; 
 for, in all probability, there were not three persons in the 
 island who knew of the existence of such stringent laws. It 
 occurred to him that, as he had failed and nearly all his trees 
 had died, he might turn the success of his clerk to good 
 account on his own behalf, by informing the Governor of the 
 bold infraction of the laws by Janzs. 
 
 In those quiet, by-gone times, there were but few events 
 of importance to call for any exercise of power by the highest 
 authority in the colony. It was therefore, with no little bustle 
 that the Governor summoned his council to consider and deter- 
 mine upon the contents of a weighty despatch received from 
 Point de Galle. This was the letter of VanDort the collector, 
 informing them of the high criminality of his subordinate. It 
 did not require much deliberation to settle the course to be 
 pursued. The forbidden trees were ordered to be forthwith cut 
 down, the property confiscated, Janzs to be imprisoned for five 
 years, and the zealous collector to be rewarded with promotion 
 on the first opportunity. 
 
 Turn once more to the quiet, bright spot, the garden by 
 the river. Janzs was home as usual from his daily duties. It 
 was evening. Katrina had given her last orders to the gardener 
 and the stock-keeper. The children were gambolling on the 
 green-sward under the large mango-tree. The favourite nut- 
 meg trees were heavy with blossoms ; the sun was still lingering 
 amongst the topmost branches of the jambo trees. Everything
 
 69 
 
 gave promise of one more of those many happy evenings so 
 prized and loved by Janzs and his little wife, when a canoe 
 dashed heavily against the river-bank, and forth from it 
 sprang the fiscal of the district, attended closely by a half-dozen 
 of sturdy, grim looking Malay peons, armed with swords and 
 pikes. The officer of the Crown knew Janzs well : and, though 
 inclined to be friendly towards him, had no alternative but to 
 tell him, in a few words, the purport of his visit, and the 
 cause — those bright-leaved trees waving to the breeze, and 
 alive with merry blossoms. The poor clerk could be with 
 difl&culty persuaded of the reality of the sad news. A sight 
 of the Grovernor's warrant, however, settled all doubts, and 
 Janzs shortly afterwards staggered to the boat, between two 
 peons, like a drunken man. Katrina saw him to the water's 
 edge, and bade him be of good cheer, for all would yet be 
 well : though her sinking heart gave the lie to her lips. 
 
 The work of destruction did not occupy much time. Four 
 peons, with sharp axes, inade but a small matter of those young 
 and delicate trees ; and, in about half the time that was usually 
 spent in watering them, they were all laid prostrate on the 
 ground. The clicking of those bright axes fell sadly enough 
 on Katrina's ear ; 'each blow seemed to her to be a deadly 
 wound aimed at herself, and as the last of those long-tended 
 and much-loved trees fell heavily to the ground, her courage 
 and spirits fled, and she gave vent to her feelings in a flood of 
 tears. 
 
 Next morning she left that once loved spot, sad and spirit- 
 less ; and, taking her little ones with her, placed them in safety 
 with her father. She then sought her husband in his prison, 
 to comfort and console him, as best she might. None there 
 knew whence the blow came ; so little, indeed, did the sufferers 
 dream of how matters stood, that, a few days after the catas- 
 trophe, Katrina waited on the collector, and besought him, 
 for the sake of Janzs' long service, to intercede for him, and 
 obtain a remission of the cruel sentence.
 
 70 
 
 Weeks passed away, and it appeared that there was small 
 chance of any pardon from the Governor, who viewed with the 
 greatest displeasure any contravention of the Imperial laws. 
 Janzs abandoned himself to dispair : his friends considered 
 him a lost man. All but Katrina gave up hoping for him. She 
 never for a moment lost sight of anji chance which seemed to 
 promise success. Night and day she sought for some friendly 
 aid to carry out her plan. That scheme was to present a 
 petition to the Goveimor, in person : he was reported to be a 
 just man, though despotic in the administration of the laws. 
 Katrina felt certain that he knew not all the facts of their 
 little history, though the collector had assured her everything 
 had been told him. Amongst others whom she sought for 
 advice and aid, was the minister of their little church, who 
 listened to her with the patience of a child. He knew a good 
 deal of their history, though not aware of the facts connected 
 with their possession of the fatal nutmegs. He heard Katrina 
 tell her sad story, pitied her, condoled with her, bade her to 
 be of good cheer, and finally sent her away, full of faith and 
 hope. 
 
 The good old minister saw at once the wickedness of the 
 collector, for he knew who had laid the charge ao-ainst Janzs. 
 He went boldly, though carefully, to work : satisfied himself 
 of the fact of VanDort having planted nutmegs on a larger 
 scale than his clerk, though unsuccessfully : drew up a petition 
 to the Governor, obtained the signature of Janzs, and then 
 proceeded with it to Colombo, and laid it with his own hands 
 at the feet of their ruler. The good man was heard patiently 
 and in twenty -four hours after perusal of the petition, instruc- 
 tions were sent off to Galle to the Commandant, to institute the 
 most searching inquiry into the whole case. 
 
 It only remains to relate how the wicked collector was 
 detected, and dismissed the service. Janzs was not only 
 restored to the possession of his lands, but received the 
 appointment of collector of Galle, as compensation for his
 
 71 
 
 imprisonment. And so all went well. None was more delighted 
 than Katrina, who, however, would not be satisfied until they 
 were once more quietly settled on their pretty farm, by the 
 river side. There, for long years afterwards, they lived in the 
 enjoyment of health and ample means, which were, after all, 
 brought them, indirectly, by their nutmeg plantation : and 
 though none of those ominous trees were' any longer growing^ 
 there were hundreds of others, which yielded ample stores of 
 luscious grateful fruit, and flung a cool and balmy shade o'er 
 streams and flowers, in many a quite nook of that sweet garden 
 by the river. 
 
 -#^ig##4^
 
 A PEEP AT THE " PERAHERRA." 
 
 i^/|\ F the religious festivals of the Buddhists of Ceylon, that 
 ^^ known as the Perahorra is the most important. It is 
 observed at Kandy, the capital of the ancient Kings of 
 Ceylon, and at Ratnapoora the chief town of the Saffragam 
 district. Few good Buddhists will be absent from these 
 religious observances; and whole families may be seen journey- 
 ing on foot for many miles, over mountains, through dense 
 jungles and unwholesome swamps, along hot, sandy pathways, 
 loaded with their pittance of food and the more bulky presents 
 of fruit, rice, oil, and flowers, to lay upon the holy shrine 
 of Buddah, to be eventually devoured by the insatiable 
 priests. 
 
 In the month of July, 1840, I had a peep at the celebrated 
 Peraherra of Ratnapoora, where the shrine sacred to the 
 memory of Saman, rivals in attraction the great Dalada 
 Maligawa of Kandy. Like its mountain competitor, it has its 
 relic of Buddha enshrined in a richly jewelled casket, which 
 is made an object of especial veneration to the votaries of that 
 god. Saman was the brother of the famed Kama, the Malabar 
 conqueror who invaded Ceylon in ages long past, and 
 extirpated from its flowery shores the race of mighty giants 
 who had held its people in subjection for many centuries, a 
 sort of oriental King Arthur. To Saman was given the 
 district of Saffragam ; and the people of that country at his 
 death, promoted him to the dignity of a diety, as a slight 
 token of their regard. 
 
 The Ratnapoora festival is the more attractive by reason 
 of its being made the occasion of a large trafiic in precious 
 stones, with which the neighbourhood abounds. In this way
 
 73 
 
 the great, part of the BiidJhists manage to combine commerce 
 with devotion. 
 
 The road to the Saffragam district was, in the time at 
 which I travelled along it, a very barbarous and dangerous 
 affair, differing widely from the excellent traces which existed 
 through most of the maritime provinces of Ceylon. It was 
 then, in fact, little more than a mere bullock -track, or bridle- 
 path, with no bridges to aid in crossing the streams which 
 intersect it. The journey from Colombo to Ratnapoora may 
 now be easily performed in one day : at that time it required 
 a good nag and careful diligence to accomplish it in two ; 
 whilst swollen rivers often caused serious delay. 
 
 Day dawned as I got clear of the Pettah or Black Town 
 of Colombo, and crossed a small stream which led me to the 
 jungle or village road I was to follow. In England, we should 
 call such a muddy lane ; but here one knows little between the 
 good high roads and the bullock-track. Strange as it may 
 sound to home ti-avellers, one is often glad to sco the sun rise, 
 and feel it warm the heavy damp air in the tropics. Before 
 me lay a long straggling line of low jungle, indicating the 
 road : far away in the distance rose the high, bluff hill and 
 rocks towering over the once royal domain of Avishawella. 
 Around on ovory side, was water, completely hiding the fields 
 from view and only allowing a bush or a tree, or a hut-top, to 
 be seen peeping up through the aqueous veil, dotting the wide 
 expanse like daisies in a field. The rains had flooded the 
 whole of the low country which, inundated by many mountain 
 torrents, could not discharge the mass of streams neai-ly so 
 fast as it received them. Over and across all this watery 
 wilderness huge masses of misty vapour came rolling and 
 tumbling along as though shroiiding some titanic water-spi'ites 
 who had been keeping it up ratljer late the night before, and 
 were not quite sure of the way homo. One might have 
 imagined indeed, that it was some universal washing-day and 
 that the groat lid of tho national co[)por had just boon lifted.
 
 74 
 
 As the sun rose above the line of black rocks in the 
 distance, its rays lit up those misty monsters of the flood, 
 imparting to them life-like tints, which gave them beauty, and 
 forms they had not known bafore. As these sun-lit fogs 
 rolled on, a thousand shapes moved fitfully amongst them : 
 troops of wild horsemen ; crystal palaces with gilded gates ; 
 grim figures playing at bo-peep ; hills, towns, and castles ; 
 with many a ship at sea, and lovely cottages in quiet sunny 
 glades; — all these, and more seemed there. With the sea 
 breeze, all that array of cloudy creations departed, leaving the 
 air hot and stifling from the reflection of the sun's rays in the 
 endless flood about me. But where were the poor Singalese 
 villagers, their families, and their goods, amidst all this wreck ? 
 As I jogged along, the cry of a child, the crowing of a cock, 
 the bark of a dog floated across the ocean of mist, but whence 
 came they ? I looked to the right and to the left. I strained 
 my eyes straightforward, but not a soul, or a feather, or a 
 head was to be seen. Presently the fog cleared away, and 
 I could see over-head into the ^trees. There chairs, tables, 
 chatties, paddy-pounders, boxes of cloths, children in cots, 
 men, women, cats, dogs, all were seen in one strange medley, 
 curiously ensconsed amongst the wide-spreading branches of 
 the trees. Over their heads and on each side, mats and 
 cocoanut leaves were hung to keep off rain and damp fogs, 
 whilst against each side of the tree was placed a thick notched 
 stick, which served as a ladder for the whole party. Here 
 and there canoes were to be seen paddled across the fields, to 
 keep up communication between the different villages. It 
 was a strange but desolate spectacle, and I was glad to find 
 myself, at last, free from the watery neighbourhood, and once 
 more ridinfj on terra firma. 
 
 During the heat of the next day I turned aside to a 
 shady green lane. A mile along this quite pathway I was 
 tempted to rest myself at the mouth of a dark-looking cave, 
 by the side of a running stream of mountain water. Tying
 
 75 
 
 my pony to a bush I entered at the low archway, and found 
 myself at once in utter darkness ; but after a short time I 
 began to distinguish objects, and then saw, close to me, one 
 whom I should have least looked for in that strange, desolate 
 spot. It was a Chinaman, tail and all. My first idea was as I 
 looked at the figure through the dim light of the cave, that it 
 was nothing more than a large China jar, or, perhaps a huge 
 tea-chest, left there by some traveller ; but when the great, 
 round face relaxed into a grin, and the little pea-like eyes 
 winked, and the tail moved, and the thick lips uttered broken 
 English, I took a proper view of the matter, and wished my 
 cavern acquaintance " good morning," I soon gathered the 
 occupation of Lee-Chee in this strange place : the cave we 
 were then ia, was one of the many in that neighbourhood, in 
 which a particular kind of swallow builds the edible nests so 
 highly prized by the Chinese and Japanese for conversion into 
 soups, stews, and for ought we know, into tarts. The China- 
 man told me what I was scarcely prepared to learn, that he 
 rented from the Ceylon Government the privilege to seek 
 these birds' nests in the district, for which he paid the yearly 
 sum of one hundred dollars, or seven pounds, ten shillings. 
 Procuring a chule, or native torch, the Chinese nest hunter 
 showed me long ledges of shelving rock at the top of the 
 cavern whereon whole legions of curious little gummy-like 
 excrescences were suspended ; some were perfect nests, others 
 were in course of formation, and these latter I learnt were 
 the most valued ; those which had had the young birds reared 
 in them being indifferently thought of, and were only bought 
 by the lower orders of soup makers. Having rested myself 
 and pony I once more pushed on for Ratuapoora, where I 
 arrived, heated, jaded, and dusty, by high noon. 
 
 A chattie bath seldom fails to refresh the Indian traveller, 
 and fit him for the enjoyment of his ineal. In the cool of iho 
 evening I strolled out to watch the preparations for the 
 nightly festivities. These continue for about a fortnight,
 
 76 
 
 chiefly after sunset, though devotees may be seen laying their 
 simple offerings at the foot of the shrine, during most part of 
 the afternoon. The little bazaar of the town was alive with 
 business ; all vestiges of its wanted filth and wretchedness 
 were hidden beneath long strips of white linen and garlands 
 of cocoanut leaves and flowers hung around by bands of bright 
 red cloth. Piles of tempting wares were there ; beads, bangles, 
 aud scarfs to decorate ; rice, jaggery, and sweatmeats to eats 
 and innumerable liquors to drink, were placed in profuse 
 array. The streets and lanes poured forth long strings of 
 human beings, heated with the sun, flushed with drink, and 
 bedizened with trumpery jewellery, and mock finery. Poor 
 tillers of the soil ; beggerly fishermen ; mendicant peelers ; 
 half-starved coolies ; lean, sickly women, and poor, immature 
 children, passed onwards in the motley throng, burying their 
 every-day misery beneath the wild mirth of a night or two 
 at the Peraherra. 
 
 Following the living dark stream, as closely as the heat, 
 dust and strange odours would allow me, I arrived, at length 
 near to the temple of Saman. The edifice, of which I caught 
 a distant glimpse, was half concealed beneath the heavy 
 luxuriant foliage of cocoanut topes, arekas, plantains, and 
 banyan trees. An ocean of human heads filled up the space 
 around the building, from which proceeded the well-known 
 sounds of the reed aud tom-tom. Gay flags fluttered from 
 the four corners and the lofty pinnacle in the centre.; wreaths 
 of flowers, plaited leaves and ribbons of many colours waved 
 jauntily from roof to door; whilst round the pillars of the 
 walls and door-posts clustered rich bunches of most tempting 
 fruit. 
 
 Close by this busy scene, another group was forming 
 under a large and lofty pandal, or open bungalow. Forcing 
 my way to one corner of the shed, I found a company of 
 Indian jugglers consisting of two men, a girl and a child of 
 perha^js three years. The men were habited in strange
 
 uncouth dresses, with large strings of heavy bkick beads round 
 their necks; the girl was simply and neatly clad in white with 
 silver bangles and anklets, and a necklace of native diamonds. 
 It would bo impossible to detail all their extraordinary 
 performances, which far exceeded anything I had ever read 
 of their art. The quantity of iron and brass- ware which 
 they contrived to swallow was truly marvellous ; ten penny 
 nails, clasp-knives, &c., were all treated as so many items 
 of pastry on confectionery, and I could but picture to myself 
 the havoc a dozen of these cormorants would commit in an 
 ironmonger's shop. 
 
 Near the temple all was noise and confusion, and it was 
 with some difficulty that I forced my way through the dense 
 crowd, and reached the steps of the venerated shrine. The 
 priest stationed at the entrance made a way in for me as well 
 as he could, but the pressure inside was intense. Hundreds of 
 men and women pressed eagerly forward to reach the flight 
 of steep stone stairs which led up to the sacred depositary. It 
 was as bad as a crush to get into the Crystal Palace. My 
 passage was so slow that I had time to exa,mine and admire 
 the fine antique carved work on the pillars and ceiling of the 
 entrance-hall, as well as on the tall pilasters which lined the 
 ample staircase. There was a beauty of style and a high 
 degree of finish about this work that could not be attained in 
 Ceylon in the present day. Arrived, at length, at the inner 
 temple or sacred shrine above, I passed, with the rest, between 
 a richly brocaded curtain which hung in folds across tho 
 entrance at the top of tho stairs, and stood before tho famed 
 relic of Buddha or rather the jewelled casket which contained 
 it. I felt disappointinent at the spectacle here, arising, 
 pci'haps from my taking no interest in tho exhibition as a 
 religious ceremony, and looking at it merely as an empty 
 show, not far removed from the status of Bartholomew Fair, 
 Tho strong glare of a hundred lights, tho heat and crowd of 
 so many in so small a place, tho sickly poi'fumo of the piles of
 
 78 
 
 Buddha flowers heaped before the shrine by the pilgrims, the 
 deafening discordant din of a score of tom-toms and vile 
 screeching pipes, made me glad enough to descend the stairs 
 and flinging a rupee into the poor-box of the temple, to escape 
 once more into fresh air. 
 
 From the votaries of Saman I entered another crowd, 
 assembled round a gaily decorated building, which I at once 
 perceived was a Hindoo temple. Here to the sound of much 
 music, and by the light of many lamps a group of young 
 dancing girls were delighting the motley crowd. There were 
 but three of them, one a finely-made, tall, sylph-like creature 
 with really graceful movements ; the others younger, stouter, 
 and far less pleasing. A good deal of pains had evidently 
 been taken with their dress, to the value of twenty thousand 
 dollars. The graceful little jacket which the chief dancer 
 wore over her flowing white robes, sparkled and glistened with 
 something which was quite new to me as articles of ornament : 
 along the edge of her pure white garment shone a whole host 
 of fire-flies which by some ingenious arrangement had been 
 secured to the dress, and gave a strange and pleasing novelty 
 to the appearance of her attire, as she swept gracefully around 
 in slow and measured steps. The music to which these people 
 dance is anything but pleasing to an English ear : indeed, 
 there is scarcely a trace of rhythm in it ; yet they contrive to 
 measure their mazy and difBcult dance by its notes with 
 admirable precision. Long custom has so attached them to 
 their empty meaningless music that they can appreciate no 
 other. I am certain that M. Julian's band would scarcely be 
 listened to by the Singalese if they were a few tom-toms within 
 hearing. It is a curious fact that in the districts from which 
 these Nautch girls are brought, education is so rare that 
 they are generally the only lay persons within many days' 
 journey, who can either read or write. The priests can all 
 read, if not write, and they take care to instruct the temple 
 girls in order to enable them to learn the various songs and
 
 79 
 
 legends for recital at their periodic festivals. The rest of the 
 population they keep in the densest ignorance. 
 
 Leaving the dancers and priests I strolled towards the 
 broad Kaloo-ganga, whose quiet, palm-shaded banks stood out 
 in the sweetest contrast to the noisy revelry I had just beheld. 
 The moon was near the full, and rising high above the many 
 rich green topes of palms and drooping plantains, lit up 
 the peaceful scene with marvellous radiance. It is hardly 
 possible to conceive the magic beauty of moonlight in the 
 tropics : those who have witnessed it can never forget their 
 feeline: under its influence. The master hand of our finest 
 painters might attempt to depict it, but the affair would be a 
 dead failure ; and did it succeed, strangers to these climes 
 would pronounce it an unnatural painting. Even in its reality/ 
 it bears the impress of something half unearthy, and it requires 
 the testimony of the huge feathery leaves as they wave to thel 
 breeze, to assure one that the whole scene is not fictitious. \ 
 Fully as bright and radiating, though softer in its hue than 
 the broad sunshine, the moon poured down in living streams 
 its gifts of ether-light. The monster palms, the slender arekas, 
 the feathery bamboos and tamarinds revelled in the harmony 
 and glow of radiant moonlight, which, leaping down in 
 phosphorescent waves sprang on from leaf to flower, from bud 
 to herb, and streaming through the waving seas of giant, 
 emerald grass, died sparkling at his feet. 
 
 Some of the topes along this gentle river grew so thickly 
 that not the faintest ray of light found its soft way amongst 
 them : the deepest shade was there, and only in one of these 
 could I trace any vestiges of living beings. A little hut was 
 buried far away in the iutmost recesses of a tope, all bright 
 above, all gloom belov, . The door was open, and from it shone 
 a faintly glimmering Ught ; so tiny was the ray amidst that 
 heavy shade, so distant did it seem, that it defied all conception 
 of space, and made my eyes ache to gaze at it. I, at length, 
 distinguished faint sounds proceeding from it. They were
 
 80 
 
 those of a rog'ular liariiiony. Strolling nearer I heard that 
 thoy proceeded from cultivated voices. What a sensation ! 
 The music was that of the " Evening Hymn ! " and it came 
 upon me with the echoes of the uncouth Babel of heathenism 
 I had just left, still ringing in my ears. When I recovered 
 from the pleasant surprise, I found that the singers were the 
 family of a native missionary who had embraced Christianity, 
 
 The next day the bazaar was crowded with dealers in and 
 digo;ers for precious stones. Hundreds of Moormen, Chetties, 
 Arabs, Parsees, and Singalese were busily employed in the 
 barter ; and a most noisy operation it was. In the neighbour- 
 hood of Ratnapoora exist many tracts of clayey and gravelly 
 land, rich in rubies, sapphires, garnets, turquoise, and cats-eyes. 
 For the privilege of digging for these or of sifting them from 
 the sands of some of the rivers, the natives pay heavy rents to 
 Grovernment ; often sub-letting the ground, at large profits, 
 to needy speculators. Their harvest is usually offered for 
 sale during the Peraherra ; and be their gains what they may 
 they are generally rid of the whole amount before the end 
 of the festival. The existence of this source of wealth is 
 unfortunately, a bane rather than a blessing to the district • 
 for whole villages flock to the gem-grounds, delving and 
 sifting for weeks together, utterly neglecting their rice fields 
 and gardens. Arrack taverns have multiplied, intemperance 
 has increased, long tracks of fertile land have ceased to bo 
 sown with paddy, and the country people often buy their food 
 from strangers in place of growing it, as formerly. 
 
 Struggling and forcing a way through the busy crowd 
 were to be seen one or two Hindoo fakeers, most repulsive 
 objects, depending for subsistence on the alms of pilgrims and 
 others. One of these wretched creatures, in the fulfilment of a 
 vow, or as an act of fancied righteousness, had held his left arm 
 for so many years erect above his head, that it could not now 
 be moved — and grew transfixed, emaciated and bony. It 
 seemed more like a dry, withered stick tied to the body, than
 
 81 
 
 a part of itself. The otlier fakeer had closed his hands for so 
 long a period that the finger-nails had grown through the palms 
 and projected at the back of them : these miserable-looking 
 objects appeared to reap a tolerable harvest, and seemed to be 
 then in no pain. 
 
 Under the shade of a banyan tree, a grave-looking 
 Moorman was amusing a crowd of boys and women with the 
 recital of some wonderful legend or silly tale. The trade of 
 story-telling, in the East, is still a profitable one, if I might 
 judge from the comfortable appearance of this well-clad talker. 
 
 When I left Ratnapoora crowds were still flocking into 
 the town, for on the morrow the huge temple elephants were 
 expected to march in procession through the place, decked 
 out in all kinds of finery, but it was a wearisome spectacle, 
 and I was heartily glad to find myself once more on my 
 pony quietly winding through green paddy-fields and under 
 shady topes.
 
 OLD ENGLISH COLOMBO 
 
 fLD Colombo, — the Colombo of our early days, — the heart 
 of our city, — the Colombo "Fort" of the good, old 
 sleepy times, is numbered with the things which form a part of 
 history. The pick and mamotie have undone the solid work 
 of many weary years. What once formed the glory of that 
 rare, old, sturdy fortress, is levelled to the dust and trampled 
 under foot. Coolies with avalangahs, have effected what na 
 enemy ever dared attempt, for it was found, when cannon 
 were brought to bear experimentally on the walls at short 
 range, the heavy round shot had no effect but to find a 
 resting-place within the earthen bowels that lay beyond the 
 massive walls. 
 
 The picturesque in these modern days cannot hold its own 
 against the practical — effect must yield to usefulness, and so 
 the grass-grown battlements, the fine old crooked sooriya 
 trees, the bastions, the loop holed walls, the ancient gateway^ 
 the heavy drawbridge, fell to make Colombo more spacious, 
 breezy and healthful, but not more cheerful to look on. We 
 miss the rare old walls and their many associations, although 
 changes have come over the place since first it was Colombo, and 
 even in this our own time we fail to recognise some portions 
 that we knew of old. All that remain of the ancient fort and 
 its dwellings are here and there a few old Dutch houses, 
 ancient gable-ends that had never seen aught but one or two 
 straggling passers-by, and the few sooriya trees and mouldy 
 walls over the way : these may now look out across an open 
 space upon old ocean, and watch the white-sailed merchantman 
 float to the horizon like some bright nautilus until it fades 
 from sight.
 
 83 
 
 The labrinthine entrance to the fort, scarce wide enough 
 for two carriages to pass, gave the old grim moat and gateway 
 a smack of feudal times, savoring of old mystery, and of 
 beleaguering armies which made war against those sturdy 
 battlements, but all in vain. 
 
 And the dear old shady walks upon the ramparts, whence 
 we have for many a year looked out upon the setting sun, and 
 watched the tiny sails of fishing craft melting away in 
 distance, until lost amidst fleecy clouds on the horizon. 
 
 To the resident of the present time the Pettah is sought 
 as rarely as possible ; the heat and noisy crowd and choking 
 dust, giving it an unenviable reputation. Who would linger 
 there from choice : who passes through it but from neces- 
 sity. But let us invoke the aid of some good spirit and 
 conjure up an evening scene in that same quarter forty 
 years ago. 
 
 At the sea-side corner of Main Street looking out upon the 
 Racket Court ground and the Lotus Pond, stand one or two 
 quaint old tenements. In one of these was born and passed 
 his infancy, the late Queen's Advocate, a man who left his 
 mark behind him. At the opposite corner, overlooking the 
 burial-ground is a long stretch of buildings with upper floors 
 and verandahs skirting the side street and large Dutch rooms 
 with ample doors and windows. Here dwells a thrifty, busy, 
 carriage-builder and harness-maker destined at a later date to 
 lay the foundation of an ample fortune by means of Coffee 
 planting, then in its infancy : beyond these on either side, 
 shaded by pretty sooriya and a few oleander trees, the wide 
 verandahs are alive with Burghers and their numerous little ones. 
 Each dwelling has its quota : lamps are burning brightly above 
 them, the sound of merry laughter in all, of songs and music 
 in many, make up a living panorama that the traveller through 
 the Pettah of to-day could not realise. Beyond these dusty 
 limits, and away down Sea Street there has been no change 
 within the memory of living man. The same crowded
 
 84 
 
 fraternity of gauze-clad, port!}'- Chetties, with cold calculating" 
 eyes and thrifty ways, lodged in the same human warrens with 
 the same gaily -coloured ships painted on the house walls, 
 floating on seas of rainbow hues. The Hindoo temple is 
 perhaps somewhat more wickedly oi'nate and horribly grotesque 
 than of old, but otherwise there is no change in the thronged 
 Chetties' quarters. From eai-ly morning till far into the hours 
 of night these eager thrifty dealers, toil ever, fattening on their 
 ceaseless industry. 
 
 Kayman's Gate, a gate no longer, where a Swiss Guard 
 
 once kept watch and ward, 
 is still the busy centre of 
 a poor and struggling 
 population. The half-fed 
 mechanic may be seen 
 II following his vocation at 
 all hours. The old Tinker 
 at the corner who com- 
 bines the art of soldering 
 leaky coffee pots and ram- 
 shackled lanthorns, with 
 the more important craft 
 of undertaker, slaves at 
 his task all through the 
 sultry day, chatting at 
 odd moments with the small children, who by mea.ns of 
 coir-yarn bridles are playing at horses on a pile of coffins 
 close-by. 
 
 From these scenes outside the walls let us in imagination 
 pass across the drawbridge, and entering the crooked gateway, 
 take a survey of the streets within the Fort, when the evening 
 meal is over, and the residents, civil, military, and mercantile, 
 are lounging in their verandahs, or dropping in upon neighbours, 
 which in those primitive times, was the custom. The streets 
 are still whore they were, but how changed the dwellings and
 
 85 
 
 tho dwellers ! One by oue the old tenements have given 
 place to lofty offices, and now how few old buildings remain 
 to tell the story of other times. 
 
 In those days there were not many European residents 
 outside the fort. A straggling few in tho near portion of 
 Colpetty : one or two in Slave Island and at Kew-point, and 
 Captain's Garden ; and about as many in Mutwall, The majority 
 by far dwelt within the walls. High military officials resided 
 in those times within walls which form to-day a tailor's cutting 
 room in Hospital lane. Merchants resided in one half of a 
 house, whilst they carried on their business in the other portion ; 
 and when the day's work was over, the verandah in front 
 formed the family sitting room, to which military and civilian 
 neighbours resorted as a matter of course. Queen Street 
 looked in upon Prince Street, whilst hospitalities were 
 exchanged between Baillie Street and Chatham Street. A 
 stroll through the forfc after dinner was a pleasant mode of 
 passing the time, dropping in first on one neighbour and then 
 on another, until the evening round was completed. The 
 sound of music and of mirth resounded within the old grim, 
 grass-grown walls ; and if in those days society were small and 
 amusements few and simple, there were rarely complaints of 
 dulness : early hours were the rule, though there were a few 
 roystering mercantile or military spirits, men of a stamp 
 that have long since passed away, who too often for their healths' 
 sake, held revels towards the hours of morning. Tradition has 
 told how once when some of these roysterers were trenchingupon 
 daylight and during a heavy pause between their songs and 
 laughter, the voices of birds just waking, thrilled in their ears 
 from the branches of a sooriya tree close by. Enraged at the 
 tiny voiced rebuke, one of the revellers called to a sleepy 
 servant, "Boy, go out, and stop tho noise of those confounded 
 birds ! " 
 
 Young officers then dwelt in Baillie Street ; and well 
 do I remember tho astonishment caused by tho discovery of a
 
 -t 
 
 86 
 
 huge coach-wlioel beuoath the wooden flooring of one of the 
 humble tenements on the occasion of some repairs being carried 
 on, and how the neighbours were puzzled to account for its 
 deposit there, until old De Silva, the ancient clerk of the Kandy 
 coach ofBce, hearing of the discovery, recognized the wheel and 
 remembered its history. Two young ofiicers of H.M. 18th 
 Irish, lived once upon a time in that identical house, and Silva 
 remembered well when the coach office was just opposite, and 
 / how early one morning when the coach was about to be 
 horsed in its tri-weekly journey to Kandy, one of the wheels 
 was missing. Search was made in vain : the wheel was never 
 discovered, and the consequence was that no coach left that 
 day for the mountain capital. The young officers had hidden 
 the wheel under the wooden flooring of their bedroom, and 
 there it had remained until accidently unearthed. 
 
 In these latter times coffee has chanped all this. 
 Merchants need every foot of room that is available within the 
 Fort. Officers have been driven to their military quarters : 
 Civilians have taken flight in all directions ; and now, without 
 the walls, rice is doing in the Pettah, what coffee has 
 accomplished within. The Burgher element has receded 
 before the absorbing Chetties and Moormen, and one may 
 stroll along Main Street or Keyzer Street on any fine moonlight 
 night, and hear no sound of music, or soft voice within the 
 walls, meet no graceful forms, and see no dark bright eye, or 
 well turned ankle in wide, illuminated verandahs.
 
 "OLD JOE." 
 
 ^Tf N the early days of commercial life in the East, when the 
 •53* pagoda tree flourished in Ceylon ready to be shaken by 
 any resolute hand, " Old Joe" reigned supreme in Colombo 
 Bachelors' society, as the King of Good Fellows — the Lord of 
 conviviality. The smallness of the unofiicial circle in those 
 primitive times, was fully compensated for by the extent 
 of its hospitality. No strangers of any respectability, no 
 commanders of any of the few ships which frequented our 
 port, were allowed to take refuge in the dreary wastes of the 
 Government Eest House — a sombre, low- roofed building, 
 which occupied the site of the present Telegraph Offices. 
 There was a hearty welcome ; & cordial greeting, under the 
 roof of each one of the mercantile community, with detached 
 room in the rear of their houses for bachelors, and hot tiffin 
 at the offices in the fort, that could at any time be made to da 
 duty for a hearty dinner. 
 
 The subject of this notice was the head, and, I might add,, 
 the body of a commercial firm of good position : the other part- 
 ner constituted the legs, running about in all possible directions^ 
 touting for business, and, it was whispered, not particular as 
 to how he obtained it. "Joo" was the impersonation of 
 honor : Donald was supposed to have been, if not the inventor, 
 at any rate, the most diligent propounder of the philosophic 
 maxim, " Make money, honestly if you can, but make money.'* 
 So completely were they the representatives of opposites, that no 
 one could have believed they could have continued long together 
 as partners in business : nor would they but that each was content 
 to let the other " gang his ain gait." Had Donald's name 
 been Pholim or Kory, you would still liavo felt persuaded ho
 
 88 
 
 was from north of the Tweed : whilst on the other hand nobody- 
 could undertake to affirm, and indeed, nobody cared whether 
 Joe had been born north or south of the border-country. 
 
 In business matters Donald was the touter, Joe was the 
 purveyor. What one angled for and landed, the other 
 preserved, and usually, with consummate good humour and 
 unbroken faith. How often was the senior hurt and vexed 
 by the promises of his junior, so difficult of realization : how 
 coarsely savage was the other with the scrupulous exactitude 
 with which every business stipulation was more than fulfilled 
 in the spirit, if not in the letter. Donald was the ogre, the 
 evil genius of the office : from dewy morn to sultry eve his 
 chief aim appeared to be to make every wretched subordinate 
 still more wretched than he was, by fault-finding, by fining, by 
 storming ; in fact, by every conceivable mode of worrying- 
 It was joyous and thrilling to hear the sound " ship-in-sight,"" 
 from the flag-staff orderly, as he peeped into the ogre's den r 
 for all knew they would be free from their tormentor for that 
 day, and perhaps, the following. Thrusting the huge, broad- 
 brimmed, whitey-brown fluffy beaver on his uncombed, shaggy 
 head ; snatching up his ponderous white cotton umbrella, and 
 grasping in one hand a long tin case of estate plans he made 
 rapidly for the wharf, and slipping into the first canoe, 
 ordered the boatman to pull off to the strange ship, the first 
 to board her in the hope of catching a constituent or two in 
 want of a fine block of land in an accessible, salubrious and 
 picturesque district, of which his firm always had a number on 
 hand, ready surveyed, with the boundaries and bridle-paths cut. 
 
 The whole establishment, from the Dutch book-keeper 
 down to the Tamil office sweeper and errand boy, breathed more 
 freely ; and nothing in this sublunary sphere would have caused 
 them collectively and individually more heartfelt satisfaction 
 than for a gale of wind to have sprung up and carried a 
 particular canoe round the Island as far as the Groat Basses, ar 
 for the matter of that, to Trincomalie.
 
 89 
 
 The book-keeper strolled into the cool, inner office, where 
 was seated old Joe in loose attire, his shirt front flung wide open, 
 with two or three letters upon his desk waiting replies 
 at a convenient season. The burly chief treated his head 
 clerk as a trusted, faithful servant, and did not scruple to 
 consult him on many a knotty point in native dealings or 
 European commerce. The office-boy, no longer awed by 
 Donald's presence, peeped in at the sanctum door, revelled for 
 a few moments in the refulgence of the great presence within, 
 and then stepped to the back verandah, where he listened to 
 stories from the one-eyed bottle-washer who was preparing for 
 racking off three whole casks of Hodgson and Abbot's pale ale. 
 
 Four o'clock was the signal for closing up the heavy 
 work of the day, and preparing for the outgoing tappal ; for at 
 that date, there was but a mail coach to Kandy on each 
 alternate day, and none other. At the half hour, neighbours 
 looked in ; York Street came round the corner, King Street 
 looked up the Chief of Prince Street, and there being no 
 Chamber of Commerce, old Joe's was the established house of 
 call for most of the mercantile community without families 
 to take them home. But how compact that body : seven firms, 
 three of them with married partners, loft about half a dozen 
 commercial bachelors as the declared votaries of the rosy god. 
 
 The daily, or rather nightly round of social life in those 
 Colombo days, must, if the historian keep a faithful record, be 
 pronounced decidedly fast, and occasionally furious, carried too 
 often into the wee hours of the morning. At old Joe's the 
 nocturnal arrangements were discussed and determined : some- 
 times the party were to meet at the chief bachelor's mansion, 
 closely adjoining Captain's Garden ; sometimes in the long back 
 office room at the fort premises of Blackbird and Company, one 
 of the few old Dutch houses still remaining in Prince Street, 
 facing the General Post Office : but regularly once a week from 
 Saturday noon until early on Monday morning, the resort of 
 these juviul worshippers of Bacchus was the old Whi^t
 
 V 
 
 90 
 
 Bungalow, so named from the card parties made up there on 
 the Saturday night (we will say nothing about Sunday) 
 when they were joined by Jock Anderson and some few other 
 kindred spirits of the Ceylon Rifle Regiment. To attempt a 
 sketch of the scenes enacted within that river-side bungalow, 
 famed later for its many happy family gatherings, is beyond my 
 power and present purpose. Suffice it to say, that one 
 Saturday night was spent pretty much as another, varied only 
 by the guests who drove down to Mutwall point to partake of 
 the fun and frolic. 
 
 On some occasions cards were ignored : when an unusually 
 large number of the " Rifles " were present, more especially, 
 when Jock and a well-remembered theatrical member of the 
 Bar were there, the festive board had attractions superior to 
 the whist table, and songs, nay, even dances, formed the staple 
 of the nocturnal revels. I may here mention the fact that 
 " Old Joe" though burly in person, was nimble of foot, and 
 a most graceful dancer, despite his bulk. Many a time and oft, 
 towards the small hours of the morning, the ponderous old 
 Dutch table at whist bungalow would be cleared of all bottles 
 and glass, and " Joe," being called upon, kicking off his shoes 
 would dance one of his favorite Highland dances, a reel, or fling 
 whatever it might chance to be, on the well polished surface. 
 
 At this same bungalow there were on Sundays, meetings 
 of what were known as the Beef Steak ('lub, the members of 
 which composed of merchants, military ofiicers, and civil 
 servants, met there to discuss the best beef-steaks that could 
 be procured, and the ripest of country-bottled ale from the only 
 recognised brewery of those days — Hodgson and Abbot's. It 
 was in connection with one of these Sunday afternoon parties, 
 elongated well into evening hours, that a characteristic story is 
 related of Jock Anderson. Brave as a lion, the major was 
 docile as a lamb towards the juniors of his regiment, whom he 
 appeared to regard as his special proteges. One of the senior 
 lieutenants but recently arrived from Europe, had a turn for
 
 91 
 
 buUving, and on one occasion went so far with, his insolence 
 towards one of the joung subs present, that it became evident 
 the new comer was bent on a quarrel. Seeing this, Jock 
 Anderson rose and tapping the irrepressible lieutenant on the 
 shoulder, beckoned him to follow into the verandah. There, in 
 a few blunt words, the major gave the other a piece of his 
 mind. " They were there as the guests of the merchants, and the 
 harmony of the evening must not and should not be disturbed. 
 It was evident lieutenant so-and-so wished to provoke a duel 
 but he, the major never allowed ' his boys ' to go out, he 
 always acted for them, and on the present occasion, by — dash — he 
 would be found ready the next morning at gun-fire to put a 
 bullet through any part of the lieutenant's body he choose to 
 name, — and by — dash — h'ed do it too." — It is scarcely 
 necessary to add that the major's reputation as a shot was 
 such that the quarrelsome party subsided, and slunk back to 
 the table, a subdued and peaceful man.
 
 PHILLIP OF BRASSFOUNDER STREET. 
 
 fN eastern countries as well as in the west, there is a class 
 of men who appear to be as essential in the transaction of 
 daily business, as pen, ink, and paper. In the sunny tropics 
 just as in foggy London, the Broker is a necessity of our 
 daily business life. I am not about to describe the race of 
 fast young vivacious Englishmen who rush frantically round 
 the corners of our streets and suddenly disappear in some 
 merchants' office with all the gasping anxiety born of a 
 Renter's telegram, stamped on his face. No, I have in my 
 mind a stout, middle-aged party from Jaffna once — from 
 Checkoo Street more recently, in a snow-white turban, 
 marvellously turned-up slippers, and with apparently all the 
 family linen swathed about his middle. Why he came from 
 Jaffna, why he did not hail from Trincomalee or Batticaloa, 
 or even Kaits, I could never quite make out, any more than 
 I could solve the twin problem, why scarcely any but the 
 Jaffnarians are employed as brokers! 
 
 Once upon a time, perhaps thirty-five years ago, or suppose 
 we say " the round forty," it was not so. In those primeval 
 times our Broker was one Phillip Saverimuttu, a sort of 
 bamboo of a Canicopully in a ridiculous hat, with peaked corners 
 projecting in front, and a coolie-load of bed-curtain rings in 
 his ears. But these gentry are not so numerous now, and with 
 the exceptions proving the rule, Jaffna reigns supreme in 
 countinghouse and bank. 
 
 It may not, perhaps, be amiss, if in this place, I indulge 
 in a brief glimpse at history with reference to these two classes 
 of Brokers, so completely distinct and dissimilar. At the early 
 period to which I have already made reference, namely 1837,
 
 93 
 
 and indeed, for a dozen years afterwards, the Canicopully class 
 of brokers, cashiers and bill-collectors were alone in the 
 official and commercial world of Colombo. Their ancestors 
 had migrated to Ceylon from the opposite coast of India during 
 the later period of the Portuguese rule, as merchants, and were 
 well received by the Europeans, especinlly by the Dutch, who 
 had a keen eye to business, and saw that these traders were a 
 reliable and most useful class of men. Eventually many of 
 them weie employed by the Dutch Government as cashiers in 
 the Custom House, the Treasury and the Commissariat, for 
 the fact of their having embraced the Roman Catholic religion 
 did not stand in their way with the Dutch who were content 
 so long as they employed only Christians. 
 
 During the early days of British rule, the CanicopuUies, 
 who had never abandoned their occupation as traders, took 
 employment under English merchants, as brokers, and in this 
 capacity continued to act until a comparatively recent period, 
 when they began to be supplanted by another branch of the 
 same caste of Tamils, the Hindoo Tamils of Jaffna, or more 
 properly speaking, of the district of Manipay in the Peninsula 
 of Jaffna : these too, like the CanicopuUies, are of the Vellale 
 caste, but of an inferior branch : there are, in fact, several of 
 these, as it is a fact that the Tamils of other districts who 
 never leave their homes in search of employment in Colombo, 
 will not associate with this particular class of migratory Tamils, 
 We are assured that a Tamil from another district, having 
 married the daughter of a Manipay Hindoo, nevertheless had 
 his food cooked, and partook of it separately from his wife. 
 How they arranged with regard to their children I am not 
 informed. 
 
 Our original Broker, old Phillip Savarimuttu, performed 
 functions unknown to your modern Jaffnarian : not only was 
 he head cashier, and as such in charge of the strong-room, 
 and of the promissory notes in course of collection, but he 
 was custodian of the godowus and iuspcctor-gonoral of coffee
 
 94 
 
 pickers, coolies and bottle washers. When there were no 
 banks to do a discount business, bills were collected in regular 
 course by the Firm, or rather by its Canicopully, and he had 
 for this special duty a subordinate Canicopully, A great man 
 was Savarimuttu in those days, and when in the spring-tide 
 of the coffee season, with fully three score coffee pickers, 
 at work in the office yard strewn with parchment coffee, with 
 a squall of rain coming on, a dozen chetties taking delivery of 
 piece goods from the godowns, a cart-load of rupees coming 
 in from a Madras vessel, and a French skipper with two or 
 three boxes of sovereigns to be left in exchange for cinnamon 
 and oil, our Broker was in the full blaze and splendour of his 
 glory. It was amusing to see him patronise the Frenchman 
 I in Tamil, with his capacious mouth full of betel, bullying the 
 coolies and spluttering at the women, and coaxing the chetties, 
 all in the same breath and with the same set of features : and 
 bow, when the day's work was over, and the Firm drove away 
 in the mild family-bandy of the period, he gathered his snowy 
 robes about him like an oriental Roman, and strode solemnly 
 to his stuffy little home in Brassfounder Street. 
 
 The brokers of those early days were the sole negotiators 
 between the British merchants and the Chetty dealers of 
 Ceylon, the back bone of native trade. 
 
 The Nattucotta Chetties are those to whom I am referring : 
 they came over from the Negapatam district, never for a 
 permanency, usually for a period of five years, at the end of 
 which time their accounts with the firm in South India must 
 be squared up to a point, and no doubtful entries left for their 
 successors to deal with. 
 
 One of the most important and probably lucrative branches 
 of the Chetty trade of the olden time has departed from them : 
 they no longer deal in raw cotton, the whole trade in which was 
 transferred to Tuticorin when the cash advance system was 
 abolished : their dealings are now chiefly confined to manufac- 
 tured cotton goods, rice and coffee : these, at any rate, form their
 
 95 
 
 principal articles of trade, and some of them deal in them very 
 largely, to an extent indeed, scarcely conceiveable by those not 
 acquainted with the class. There are some Chetty firms who 
 trade in all these articles, but as a rule the cloth merchants 
 or piece goods Chetties deal in no other articles, whilst rice 
 merchants are generally prepared to traffic in coffee, though 
 as they confine themselves to the native qualities, and these 
 yearly decrease in quantity, their business in this arcicle of 
 produce is on the wane. Of these several descriptions of Chetty 
 firms there are about one hundred and fifty in Colombo, 
 nearly all having branches at Galle, Kandy, Gampola, Badulla, 
 Haldamulle, Ratnapura, and other stations, conducted on the 
 same system as the principal Colombo branches, for the latter 
 Firms are but representatives of or partners in Chetty Houses 
 in Negapatam and elsewhere, and their dealings are regulated 
 by well established custom. 
 
 Some of these firms are very wealthy, one Chetty being 
 reported to have out in advances, in rice and cash to planters, 
 as much as .£50,000. But we must state that, on the whole, 
 there is not nearly the same amount of capital embarked in the 
 Chetties business in Ceylon as in former days when a large 
 cotton business was done in Colombo : the transference of that 
 business to Tuticorin has shorn the local native trade of much 
 of its old prestige. The Nattucotta Chetties have always 
 carried on business with their own capital, they are not borrowers, 
 on the contrary they lend : they of course discount notes 
 received from purchasers of their goods, but even then not to 
 any great extent. Cautious in the extreme in all their money 
 transactions, they can yet appreciate the sterling qualities of 
 the European merchant and Planters of good standing, and in 
 them they will place unbounded confidence. I\Ieu's opinions 
 and feelings necessai'ily undergo considerable changes with 
 time and circumstances, but we can recall to mind in the days 
 when Banks did not exist in Ceylon, when every merchant 
 had his strong-room in which his supplies of rupees from
 
 V 
 
 96 
 
 ♦ 
 
 Madras were stored, in stout bags containing* from £100 to 
 ,£250 each, duly labelled with tickets bearing the initials of 
 one of the partners : large sums of money wei'e frequently 
 paid away to Chetties for rice from the coast, or for native 
 coffee from the interior, and I can remember when a 
 cart-load of bags of rupees were removed by the Chetty dealer 
 without counting, having implicit faith in the firm's initials. 
 Occasionally the Chetty would at the expiry of a week or so, 
 state that a few rupees were found wanting in one of the bags, 
 upon which the coins were handed over to him without question. 
 
 In the good, old fashioned days of which I am writing, 
 and indeed down to a much more recent period, the Chetties 
 when they made a contract with the merchant for coffee or 
 cotton, invariably received nine-tenths of the value of the 
 cotton and half of the value of the coffee, several months in 
 anticipation of the delivery of the produce . When we add that 
 in their purchases of cotton goods or other British merchandize, 
 they as invariably took all the credit they could get, some idea 
 may be formed of the advantages they possessed in their Ceylon 
 trading operations. 
 
 We have likened them to the Isvaelites, and as buyers 
 and sellers they may well compare with the gentlemen of 
 Duke's Place and Houndsditch. They will haggle for days 
 over a few rupees, bnt when the bargain is struck, adhere to it 
 with marvellous tenacity. In nearly all merchant's offices there 
 is what is known as "the broker's room," in which the Chetties 
 congregate for gossip, business, or perhaps for epistolatory 
 purposes. There they prepare such letters as must leave by 
 the afternoon tappal, and they make free use of the pens, ink, 
 and paper of the office for the purpose, so that there is some 
 economy as well as convenience in the use of the broker's room. 
 An incident once occurred in connection with this old established 
 custom of letter writing, strongly illustrative of Chetty character, 
 and which is therefore worth recalling. A well-known Chetty 
 of standing and rather portly presence, iu addition to a free use
 
 97 
 
 of a certain firm's stationery, used frequently to lounge up to 
 tte " Rag " partner, and hold up his addressed letter for a 
 postage stamp, which was of course never refused. But one day, 
 in an evil hour for the British merchant, he ventured to ask 
 his portly Chetty friend, through an interpreter, if he were 
 aware that stationery and postage stamps cost money, did he 
 imagine that merchants obtained them for nothing ; — Moona 
 Koona Roona eyed the Britisher for a minute, whilst he 
 scratched his massive shoulders, and then lessening his girdle, 
 took from his pouch and laid on the table an Oriental Bank 
 note for one hundred rupees, and strode haughtily out of the 
 office and up the street. Horrified at the unexpected result of his 
 question, the merchant sent after the Chetty, but Moona Koona 
 was proudly obdurate : he did not receive back the note for 
 many days afterwards, and we believe, was never again as 
 frequently, or as largely a buyer from the firm in question. 
 
 That the Nattucotta Chetties should be excellent men of 
 business, need not be matter for surprise, when it is known they 
 are initiated into the mysteries of figures and bargaining from 
 their earliest days : hence the marvellous rapidity and exactness 
 of their calculations, worked out on a simple ola, or dried leaf, 
 with an iron style. The entire caste follow no other occupation 
 than that of traders : they look forward to the business as their 
 inheritance, and accordingly begin life betimes, and in the most 
 humble capacity : a chetty lad though of wealthy parents, must 
 work his way upwards on the same footing as others, and both 
 in this respect, and in the custom of serving a certain period 
 of their lives in another country, approach very closely to the 
 practice amongst the young artificers of Germany. At as early 
 an age as six or seven, they will leave the parental roof and 
 begin life beyond the seas, with one of their neighbours, in the 
 capacity of cook-boy or office-menial. After gaining some 
 experience in the ways of the Chettie world, and becoming 
 tolerably adept at arithmetic, the young apprentice will be 
 promoted to the post of wharf-boy, in which capacity he forms
 
 98 
 
 an escort for all goods to and from the Wharf, and at that work 
 will probably remain several years according to his quickness 
 and aptitude. He will then be made salesman to the firm, 
 keeping an account of all goods coming in and going out, and 
 attending to the general dealings of the House. From that 
 position he is raised to the office of assistant accountant, then 
 made an accountant : a year or two more and he will be 
 appointed sub-manager and finally manager, representing often 
 vei-y large interests. Notwithstanding this the highest salary 
 that is generally paid to any of them, is Ks. 1,500 a year, some 
 are in receipt of as little as Rs. 350, As for the subordinates 
 their pay is most insignificant — usually a few rupees, their food, 
 one or two cloths, and a mat. Very little business is done by 
 Chetties in the morning : shortly before noon the manager, 
 his assistant and the accountant will sally forth for the day's 
 work, leaving the salesman and the office boys to attend to 
 buyers : in the evening after sunset, the day's proceedings are 
 posted up in the books, and a regular account made out, and 
 money transactions between one firm and others arranged. 
 It is not a little remarkable that as a rule, Chetties make scarcely 
 any use of Banks for the cusiody of their money, preferring to 
 retain possession of it themselves, and keeping it in a ponderous 
 chest on which the accountant sleeps at night. This practice 
 arises from no mistrust of the Banks, but from other consider- 
 ations. They do not care to go to the expense of cheque books 
 when they can pay away their money without charge : again, 
 in the event of death there is no difficulty about drawing out 
 money, there is also their practice of making cash loans to each 
 other for purposes of trade, which is invariably done at nig'ht. 
 Chetties seldom trouble the lawyers, whose services have to 
 be dearly purchased. Nearly all differences amongst themselves 
 are settled by the arbitration of a certain number of the oldest 
 and most experienced of their body, who are called, when thus 
 assembled, a 'Nagaram,' answering to the Bengalee " Punchaye" 
 or the European " Tribunal of Commerce." It is very rarely
 
 99 
 
 indeed, that any appeal is ever taken from their decision, which 
 is acted upon at once with most implicit reliance upon its 
 justice. Occasionally it may happen that some headstrong 
 Chettie will refuse to comply with the decision of the 'Nagaram' 
 in which rare case an interdict will be issued forbidding any 
 transaction with the refractory party, who deprived of all credit 
 or countenance amongst them, is very soon brought to reason. 
 The ' Nagaram ' takes cognizance of not only disputes, but 
 offences which are punished by fines paid to one of the 
 two Hindoo Temples in Sea Street, dedicated to the idol 
 " Supermanian." The " Nagaram " is held in one of these 
 temples, or at the office of one of the oldest and wealthiest 
 Chetties, 
 
 So much as regards the Colombo Chetties, but alas, for 
 the Saverimuttus and the Anandappas of these latter days, 
 their number is decreasing : a rival had appeared on the 
 field, destined at no distant day to supplant chem and theirs in 
 the not unlucrative tasks of the counting house and the godown. 
 All the Asiatic invaders of Ceylon have come from the North> 
 and true to historical traditions, Jaffna deputed Muttu iSawmy, 
 the one-eyed, to herald the way for a flight of young Jaffnarians. 
 
 How Muttu Sawmy had, many years before, settled in 
 Colombo as trader and money lender, and how from small 
 beginnings he had come to be the very Napoleon of Colombo 
 finance, the friend of Sir Robert Horton, the necessity of high 
 civilians and their wives, the dispenser of pearls, shawls and 
 official and commercial situations, is it not a matter of history, 
 and did he not import nephews, cousins and sons-in-law, whose 
 name was legion, and from that time have they not with 
 persevering and careful industry, earned for themselves 
 more favor than their old patron's shawls and pearls could 
 ever win ? 
 
 Now-a-days, although there are still one or two Anandappas 
 lingering about the outskirts of commerce, our Broker is a 
 Mauipay Tamil, garbed in flowing robes of purest white and
 
 100 
 
 ample turban. Like thu Nattucotta Chatties, lie began life in 
 the most humble capacity — has made himself all that he is. — 
 When a mere boy he came down from the North, just as Dick 
 Whittington walked into London, looking out for the golden 
 paving stones. If he did not discover the precious metal 
 under his feet, he was not long in finding a good deal of dirt, 
 and many odorous cesspits and noxious drains festering in 
 the noon-day sun, round about the crowded home he sought 
 in Checkoo Street, the house of his father's friend : there he 
 was put under that most useful course of training, learning to 
 exist on the smallest possible modicum of rice and salt fish 
 per diem. How he spent a year in keen observations of all 
 about him, how he was at length started fairly on the high 
 road to fortune by being installed in a merchant's office, or 
 suppose I say in a back verandah in Prince Street, how he 
 performed the important and responsible duties of taking press 
 copies of letters, and listening round corners when bargains 
 were being hatched, and earning kicks for his inquisitiveness, 
 all this is known as matters of family tradition, though it may 
 not be written in the chronicles of young Jaffna. 
 
 To-day he is a man of substance, and can undertake to 
 advance loans of startling amount to men of need, having 
 a realisable security to offer. Twenty years in the pursuit of 
 cotton and coffee contracts, in the disposal of hundreds of 
 rice cargoes and of many thousands of packages of British 
 manufactures from Manchester, Glasgow and Paisley, all of 
 which brought with them a commission from the Chettie and 
 Singhalese dealers, have added greatly to his store, and our 
 broker is now able to make large donations to the temple in 
 Sea Street, to build sundry capacious dwellings for Europeans 
 in the Cinnamon Gardens at a smart rental, to erect a showy 
 residence for himself with a pair of granite elephants to guard 
 the gate-way, and in many ways to earn for himself the regard 
 of British residents and the admiration and envy of indigenous 
 dwellers in Colombo.
 
 101 
 
 When some few years ago, his daughter was married to 
 a swell young broker of the town, was any thing ever known 
 to equal the lavish outlay on those nuptial festivities ? Half 
 the civilians, three-fourths of the military and the whole of 
 the mercantile community were invited to grace the festive 
 board with their presence, and many of them graced it. The 
 band of H. M. 150th Regiment was in attendance, though no 
 doubt many of the turban'd guests would have preferred 
 tom-toms, whilst a party of remarkably pretty and extremely 
 naughty Nautch girls twirled round in velvet and silver jackets, 
 and richly embroidered robes, to a most suggestive air. 
 
 But "our broker" is a very different looking personage 
 to Eamalingam in his daily domesticity. Stretched at full 
 length on a couch never desecrated by the brush of the 
 furniture cleaner of Brassfounder Street, surrounded by a 
 doubtful looking table, and a few ricketty chairs which know 
 not the filth of bees-wax and turpentine, he smokes his early 
 weed in the scantiest of gauzy raiment. There is a sweet 
 simplicity about his homely indigenous life : the crockery is 
 of the plainest, the chippiest and the crackedest : the water 
 from a cocoanut quenches his thirst ; his rice cost him little 
 enough, and as for the etceteras, they are supplied by willing 
 and devoted clients who minister to his gastronomic tastes 
 from sheer gratitude in the sense of favors yet to come. The 
 labors of the day over, he can return to the bosom of his 
 family, rather a capacious one by the bye, and sitting in the 
 cool of evening under the shade of the family vine, typified 
 by a group of leafy bananas, and closing his eyes, Philip 
 dreams the dream of his divinities — commission, interest, and 
 buksheesh.
 
 THE FINE OLD NATIVE GENTLEMAN. 
 
 fAM not prepared to assert that the race of fine old Native 
 Gentlemen is extinct : far from it : there are specimens 
 to be met with at the present time, lacking few of the qualities 
 of their ancestors, and in many respects worthy descendants 
 of worthy sires. But altered circumstances, modern education, 
 and a growing indifference towards them on the part of the 
 government, have gradually worked changes in their character. 
 Half a century ago the ancient prestige of the Mudeliyars was 
 unimpaired, and the same remark applies to the Chiefs of 
 the Kandyan districts as to those of the Maritime Provinces. 
 There were no brummagem Mudeliyars in those days. Rank 
 was not conferred for the erection of a pandhal, the concoction 
 of an address, or for a few years' service in a provincial 
 Kachcheri. Mudeliyars were in those olden times, of the first 
 Singhalese families of the land, and as such were invariably 
 regarded with respect by the people who were ever amenable 
 to their authority. Thus, the fine old Native Gentlemen of 
 bye-gone days were links in the chain which connected the 
 governing with the governed. 
 
 Created four centuries ago by the Portuguese rulers of 
 the Maritime provinces, continued with much consideration 
 by the Dutch, and upheld by the early British government, the 
 Mudelijars were recognised as the nobility of the Singhalese 
 people. In those days a Mudeliyar was the Lord of the Manor, 
 the owner of many broad acres, — a sort of feudal baron of the 
 soil, dwelling in the old paternal mansion, surrounded by an 
 army of retainers who were ready at all times to do his 
 bidding and work his will. That will was, that the people 
 of his district should prosper and be happy. Their interests
 
 103 
 
 were his care ; and no one, not even the most humble of the 
 poorest villagers, but could approach him and seek his help 
 in time of need. 
 
 The " Walauwa" of the Mudellyar was the audience hall in 
 which he sat morning and eveniag to receive and listen to 
 such as came to him with complaints or prayers. There he 
 talked over the affairs of the district with his subordinate 
 headmen, gave orders f >r r^ork to be executed or tithes to 
 be collected : there he received his friends and chatted for 
 an hour or two each day. His hospitality was as unbounded 
 as his means were ample. His larder was always well-filled 
 with game and fruit, and his cellar with good cheer. 
 
 In his home-dress he affected a negligence bordering on 
 the untidy, though his almirahs were full of the richest 
 fabrics from the looms of Holland, in cloth and velvet ; and 
 his strong boxes contained the finest diamonds and rubies. 
 On ordinary occasions, he is content with a plain white cambric 
 cloth and loose white coat. The only expensive articles which 
 he affected in daily life, were his gold-mounted spectacles, and 
 a jewelled tobacco box, for the Mudeliyar of the olden time 
 indulged in the narcotic leaf. Happy in the possession of 
 wealth beyond what even avarice could covet, he dreamt not 
 of adding to his acres, by those acts of extortion of which we 
 now hear so much. Possessing power and influence, which 
 gave to his merest wish the foice of a command, he knew no 
 disappointment, and enjoying honours which if inherited from 
 his fathers, he is equally certain can only descend to his sons, 
 neither jealousies nor rivalries disturbed the easy equanimity 
 of his mind. His sole ambition was to see the honoured name 
 which had come down to him from five generations, perpetuated 
 in his son, and if ever ho condescended to ask a favor, it was 
 in connection with this fond aspiration. Hence it was that 
 the history of the last Maha Mudeliyar of the great and noble 
 House of Illangakoon, furnishes an episode containing not a 
 few of the elements of feudal prestige and interest.
 
 104 
 
 It was in about the year 1810, vvlien Governor Sir Thomas 
 Maitland visited the Southern Province, that the MahaMudeliyar 
 Illangakoon, entertained his Excellency at his mansion near 
 Matara. The spacious dining room was lit in a manner that 
 eye had never till then beheld. The floor was covered with 
 thickest and softest of Dutch carpets, the furniture was of 
 ebony and calamander richly carved and massive withal. The 
 plate was of the purest silver heavily chased, and all, the work 
 of native artists. A hundred servants flitted hither and 
 thither. The luxuries of ice were then unknown, but a large 
 earthenware tank half filled with saltpetre and water did duty 
 for a refrisrerator : and a dozen bottles of the choicest 
 Madeira were standing in the cooling liquid. Tho old Dutch 
 clock, an elaborate work of art itself, struck seven, and the- 
 Maha Mudeliyar emerged from an inner chamber, dressed in 
 full court costume : his hair was done up in the usual knot, 
 held by an ample comb of the purest amber coloured tortoise- 
 shell, while a curved comb to match, circumscribed a forehead, 
 the open intellectual breadth of which was displayed to greater 
 advantage by this contrivance. His coat was of the finest 
 broad cloth of marine blue, while the large solid gold 
 buttons that studded it from cuff to waist, and the richly 
 worked " frogs" in place of the ordinary loops, gave to this 
 article of dress a splendour that was dazzling to look upon. 
 The studs,^six in number, that buttoned up the shirt-collar and 
 gleamed from his snow-white shirt-front consisted of a single 
 diamond, each of the size of a large pea. The waistcoat 
 buttons that confined the amplitude of a bosom heaving with 
 emotion, were also brilliants of the first water. From his 
 neck dangled a massive chain, to which was attached a medal — 
 a gift to his father from the Dutch Government in recognition 
 of life-long services. The cloth that served for his nether 
 garment, was of the finest cambric and of the purest white, 
 and silk stockings and pumps completed an attire, the tout 
 ensemble of which, if wanting in lightness, lacked nothing in
 
 105 
 
 ceremonial importance. Immediately a flourish of trumpets 
 announced the arrival of the Governor, the Mudeliyar descended 
 to his portico, and there received the representative of his 
 sovereign, with a dignified yet respectful welcome, removed 
 alike from misplaced familiarity and cringing servility, I 
 
 will not attempt any description of that dinner, the wine 
 that was drunk, or the toasts that were proposed and 
 responded to ; but one thing I may note, though calculated to 
 surprise my readers, — that not only was the conversation 
 between host and guest carried on in Portuguese, but most of 
 the speeches and the replies wore in that language. The 
 dinner at an end, a venerable retainer of the house who had 
 carried the Mudeliyar in his arms as a child, brought in the 
 sole heir of the house of lUangakoon. The happy and proud 
 father presented him to the Governor, who took him on his 
 knee, and after speaking a few kind words, placed him on the 
 table. The Governor rose and at the same time the assembled 
 guests stood up : he made a short address full of compliments > 
 to the host, and expressive of the hope that the little boy
 
 106 
 
 before them would grow up in health and strength, and 
 worthily maintain the ancestral honors of his house. The 
 family sword and the rich lace belt were then handed to the 
 Governor who proceeded to invest the boy of scarce seven, 
 years with the rank and insignia of Mudeliyar of the Morowak 
 Korle. Three British cheers hailed the newly-made Mudeliyar ; 
 glasses were filled all round, and his health drunk in brimming 
 bumpers. The boy-mudeliyar was in due course sent to the 
 seminary at Colombo, where he acquired the knowledge that 
 was to qualify him for the position he was destined to fill. 
 His salary in the meantime was regularly paid, and accumulated 
 into a respectable sum by the time he attained to manhood 
 and went back to take up the Mudeliyarship. Before the 
 good old man was gathered unto his fathers, he had the 
 satisfaction of seeing his son rise to the Attepattu Mudeliyar- 
 ship, That son too lived to a good old age, and left his name, 
 his wealth, and his honours to his son, who, not unworthily, 
 perpetuates the glories of their house as Mudeliyar of the 
 Belligam Korle and Mudeliyar of the Governor's Gate ; and so 
 long as nobility of birth, combined with much personal worth 
 continue to evoke a sentiment of regard, may the illustrious 
 house of Ilangakoon never want an heir in whom those virtues 
 are reflected ! But the civilization of the day, and other 
 circumstances are fast unloosing those ties which bound the 
 people to their hereditary Chiefs. A little knowledge, a little 
 influence, and a little favour, are now the three essentials of a 
 Mudeliyar. 
 
 Not longer than thirty years ago the Governor of Ceylon 
 made it his special care that once a year at least, the native 
 Chiefs of the maritime and mountain provinces were bidden to 
 his halls to partake of the liberal hospitality of their sovereign's 
 representative. There, after witnessing the mazy dance, supper 
 was served for the Chiefs in one long hall, radient with light 
 and hung with trophies and emblems of their native land. 
 The Governor walked amongst them, held converse with one
 
 107 ! 
 
 and the other, and before leaving the festive hall stood at one 
 end of the centre table and proposed the health of their Queen, 
 responded to with hearty loyalty. This good old custom is 
 observed no longer. A quarter of a century has passed away 
 since Kandyan and Low country Chiefs were thus bidden to the 
 festive board, and we must not wonder that they feel the 
 slighting neglect. We must cease to marvel how it has happened 
 that there is no longer the same feeling, the same public spirit 
 amongst them ; that few of them preserve their ancient 
 prestige, and that too often the decendents of the old feudal 
 lords of the soil, fall into habits that destroy alike their 
 influence and their self-respect. 
 
 Not alone in the neglect of former hospitalities towards 
 them do the native Chiefs of Ceylon find their prestige 
 lowered : they complain, and with good reason, of penniless 
 boys, cutcherry clerks, or low-caste adventurers basking in 
 the favor of indiscreet officials, thrust into the responsible office 
 of Korle Mudeliyar, to the destruction of all respect and the 
 subversion of all discipline within the district. How this 
 mistaken disregard of native usages affects the relations of 
 one headman with another may be imagined, when I tell how 
 a Mohandiram or inferior headman, has been know;n to receive 
 the Mudeliyar, his Chief, seated, Miilst the latter felt compelled 
 to stand in the presence of the inferior officer of a higher 
 caste.
 
 HQLFSDORP 
 
 w T is one of England's proudest boasts that wherever her 
 ^ flag is unfurled, wherever her supremacy is established, 
 there she carries the blessings of liberal institutions : she 
 conquers but to set free. The same justice which is provided 
 for the proudest son of Albion, is sent forth across the waters 
 to attend on the meanest swarthy subject of Her Majesty, 
 in distant India. At the same time, this beautiful feature of 
 our constitution, admirably as it reads on paper, excellent as 
 it sounds to the ear, but too frequently fails in its mission of 
 mercy ; and, in one way, or the other, proves rather the reverse 
 of an unmitigated blessing to those for whose special benefit 
 it was wafted over the seas. In India proper, the way to 
 justice, open though it is intended to be, becomes so overgrown 
 with rank bribery and extortion, that the poor Ryot has small 
 chance of passing the threshold : the very attempt to do so 
 subjects him to cruel, relentless persecution. In other places, 
 Ceylon amongst the rest, matters are widely different : here, 
 BO broad and open is the highway to the law, that none are 
 shut out from it ; but unfortunately, the Singhalese are fond 
 of disputation in every shape, having a dislike for action, 
 ^hey make up the deficiency in talk ; in addition to which, 
 their innate love of importance is gratified by the reflection 
 that for their sake, and at their instance, the " great Europe 
 master," as they term the judge, is busily occupied, books and 
 all included, for days together. So powerful has this 
 Singhalese passion for litigation become, that it is matter of 
 notoriety, in this country, that legal proceedings are instituted 
 in cases involving no greater stake than the one-fourth part 
 of a cocoanut tree, or the sixteenth share of a sterile paddy
 
 109 
 
 field. Nor are these the worst features in this state of things : 
 the litigious spirit begets a host of evil passions in family 
 circles, leading not unfrequently to acts of violence and even 
 bloodshed. So strongly has this passion for law taken hold of 
 the native population, that there are very few Singhalese who 
 wiU not willingly risk their little all to carry some frivolous 
 point against a neighbour, or a near and dear relation. This 
 state of society has raised up a race of harpies of the law, 
 whose name is truly legion, who thrive on the follies of the 
 litigants, and who too frequently fan the slumbering embers 
 into a blazing flame. 
 
 Of all the strange scenes which in the East strike a new 
 comer with their novelty, few appear so remarkable as a 
 Singhalese court of justice. There is in it such an odd jumble 
 of western and eastern life, of European forms and oriental 
 fashions, that the beholder, gazing on the scene for the first 
 time, feels rather at a loss to know if he be in a court of law^ 
 at a mock auction, or at a debating club. 
 
 The Criminal Sessions were on at Colombo with a rather 
 smart sprinkling of cases for the judge, who was sitting 
 in the tribunal, situated outside the fort, at some little distance* 
 The origin of these Courts being removed from the precincts 
 of the fort is curious. It is said that during the Dutch sway 
 in Ceylon, when the Supreme Court held its sitting within the 
 fortified walls of Colombo, an attempt was made by the then 
 governor, Rip Van-something, to overawe the judges in some 
 cases in which he was officially interested, whereupon they 
 claimed from their High Mightinesses of the Netherlands, the 
 privilege of holding session without the walls, which was 
 granted, and has been continued ever since. 
 
 A ride to the Courts at Hulfsdorp, overlooking the long 
 busy town of Colombo, is by no means a pleasant affair on a 
 hot, choking day during the dry weather. The red, scorching 
 dust blinds and burns one like so much quicklime. The 
 stench from many a half -dried ditch and stagnant drain blends
 
 110 
 
 harmoniously with the effluvia from the bazaar around, where 
 fish and meat blister and blacken in the burning sun, while 
 files of dozing oily natives lay steaming upon heaps of filth, 
 adding their own unclean aroma to the hot sickly atmosphere. 
 The neighbourhood is dense, teeming with dirt and chil- 
 dren. The coffin-makers are driving a roaring trade ; especially 
 one by the arrack tavern, for half the folks round the corner 
 died the night previously of putrid fish, sour pine-apples, and 
 stagnant drains, and the other half were expected to die on 
 the next day. I urged my sorry hack on at the top of his 
 speed, fully five miles an hour, past the crazy old Dutch 
 houses and the dusty, tumble-down Moormen's dwellings, up 
 the steep hill, on the brow of which stood a whole colony of 
 buildings, large and small, old aud new. This spot was 
 Hulfsdorp, whence, in days long past, the Dutch army which 
 besieged ancient Colombo — then in the hands of the Portuguese, 
 —poured a storm of shot upon the fortifications. It was, 
 afterwards, the country residence of the Dutch governor, the 
 present Supreme Court-house having been tenanted by a 
 long line of soveraign Mynheers. The spot is pleasant enough 
 after the dreadful streets below, commanding a fine view over 
 the fort to seaward, and enjoying an occasional breeze, when 
 there is any. A portion of the great triangular block of buildings 
 around the green, facing the road, is devoted to the Supreme 
 Court, another part to the District Court, and a third to the 
 Police Court, and sundry offices of Record. Around and about 
 this pile of law has sprung up a busy mass of quaint, 
 queer-looking edifices of all shapes, styles and sizes. These are 
 the houses of business of the fraternity of proctors, Dutch, 
 Portuguese, Tamil, and Singhalese, who, if they, as some 
 malicious people say, be really inflicted on the natives as a 
 chastisement for their sins, do their best to fulfil their mission. 
 Each doorway was chocked up by hungry applicants for law : 
 groups of litigants squatted beneath the clumps of dusty bananas 
 in the little stony court-yard in front, counting up their
 
 Ill 
 
 witnesses as commercial articles, not for export it is true, but 
 for home use, and are valued by a well-understood sliding-scale. 
 A witness in a murder case, if he be a stout swearer, costs five 
 rix-dollars ; in a land suit, witnesses may be had for two or 
 three dollars ; burglary or cattle-stealing witnesses are cheaper, 
 they cost about a dollar each ; whilst a few copper coins will 
 obtain all the swearing you want and something over, in an 
 ordinary assault case. 
 
 I hasten on, past all these scenes, to the Supreme Court, 
 whose labor was just commencing for the day. The court 
 house wherein sat the Puisne Justice in criminal sessions, 
 was a long rambling shed of a place, not unlike a paved barn 
 with a tiled roof. Making my way into the body of the Court, 
 I found it filled with the representatives of almost every nation 
 in the eastern hemisphere, blended with Dutch, Portuguese, 
 and English. I might have taken it for a masquerade by day- 
 light were it not for the Court on the little raised stage at one 
 end, with the dirty lion and unicorn, and the figure of Justice 
 looking quite knocked up by the climate. The judge wore a 
 very comical appearance in spite of his gravity. Seated 
 upon an open platform on a level with our faces, I could see 
 plainly enough, as he crossed his legs, that he wore high-lows 
 which required mending, with queer-looking worsted socks. 
 
 In a ricketty sort of sheep-pen on one side sat the jury 
 — a motley blending of several nationalities. The fore- 
 man was studying the coat of arms over the judge's head, 
 wondering when the lion and unicorn would finish fic^htinfr for 
 the crown. The rest of the jurors were either dozing or 
 amusing themselves in the best way they could. Opposite the 
 jury was a large parrot's cage without any top ; this was the 
 witness-box. Further away there was another parrot cage, in 
 which the crier of the court tried to keep order by creating 
 more noise than all the disturbers put together. 
 
 Grouped about a shabby-looking ale-house table, covered 
 with a rusty cloth of some impossible colour, were the
 
 112 
 
 European auditory and some three or foiir barristers and 
 proctors, the former of mixed races, the latter natives. 
 
 An important case was on : a native was being tried for 
 murder and the court was crowded to suffocation. The prisoner. 
 a haggard, broken-spirited man, was docked opposite th^ 
 judge, and glanced in a wild, frightened manner, from his 
 counsel to the Court, and then to the jury, wondering what it 
 all meant ; he had confessed his guilt, and why need they take 
 so much trouble with him ? The counsel for the prisoner was 
 on his legs about to say something : he was a European, a 
 hale, portly, bold man, with a twinkling, cunning eye and a 
 shining face. I was rather at a loss to know if he were going 
 to make a speech, or sing a comic song, but it ended in his 
 challenging the best part of the jurors — the best part in every 
 sense, for when he sat down, the foreman, who had been 
 studying the lion and unicorn so deeply and all his fellow 
 Europeans had disappeared, replaced by others of a kindred 
 hue with the prisoner. 
 
 It was a long and tedious affair, that trial, despite the 
 man's confession, and as all the intricate native evidence had 
 to bo translated and re-translated, T soon grew tired of the 
 scene, and bent my steps towards the minor courts close by. 
 Between the two localities were long dusty verandahs opening 
 into little dens of offices, where I saw through the dirty barred 
 windows, a strange collection of mouldy wooden cupboards, 
 ricketty desks and armless old chairs : heaps of dusty papers 
 were there too, and with them smoke-dried natives redolent of 
 heat and the dirt, as though they were convicted criminals 
 — Singhalese lawyers condemned for their enormous crimes 
 to toil for the rest of their lives over perplexing suits and 
 ghost-like documents. There were deputy-registrars, and trans- 
 lators, and process clerks, and a host of other legal subordinates, 
 caged up like wild beasts at a fair, How different from the 
 vicinity of the law courts at home ! There everything is cool, 
 solemn, silent, orderly ; here, it is all glaring sunshine, dirt
 
 113 
 
 noise, dust, and effluvia. The very pariali dogs curl up their 
 sickly noses and scamper hastily past. 
 
 Forcing my way through a mob of rather moist Malabars 
 and steaming Singhalese, I reached the District Court, where 
 the provincial judo;e sits all the year round in civil jurisdiction. 
 The court-yard in front, the enclosed space in the rear, the 
 filthy verandahs at the two ends, all were densely studded 
 with anxious groups of natives, smoking, talking, drinking, 
 quarelling, crying. Under the gloomy shade of some 
 bread-fruit trees, were ranged many members of some 
 Singhalese family who had evidently travelled from a 
 far-off village, to be present at the hearing of their case. 
 
 Out rushed a peon froui the crowded court, oud bawling 
 out some dreadfully singular name, he rushed back again as 
 suddenly as though he just remembered having left all his 
 earthly treasures within reach of those hungry lawyers, and 
 there was no time to be lost. The family group watched the 
 summoned witness as he disappeared amidst the army of suitors
 
 114 
 
 at the doorway, envying him the brief importance he was 
 about to assume in open court. 
 
 Around the entrance to this crowded seat of justice, 
 were wedged in compact masses, scores of curious and anxious 
 listeners. Amidst that crowd of Singhalese, Moors, Malays, 
 Tamils, and many other races, I observed an old woman seated 
 by the lintal on the brick floor, grasping with clasped hands 
 some curious little bunch of leaves and flowers ; and as she 
 rocked her body to and fro, muttering (half aloud some wordy 
 jumble, I observed that she cast her eyes at intervals upon 
 a tall, young man, her son doubtless, who, raised above the crowd, 
 could both see and hear what was passing in court. Their 
 case was then on, and the man was evidently telegraphing to 
 her the progress of the suit. The bunch of flowers in her 
 hands was a Buddhist charm, given by their village priest to 
 ensure success. I failed, however, in ascertaining the value of 
 the case. The last witness was not needed. The judge 
 summed up but briefly ; there was a momentary silence in that 
 Babel-place, the assessors concurred — the old woman ceased 
 to rock herself, she dropped the flower-charm, it was an evil 
 omen to do that ; a busy hum in court told all was over ; the 
 dark scowl on the tall man's brow needed no interpretation, 
 he sprang down from his elevated perch, and ran to the poor 
 old woman. She had fallen down in a fit, and lay apparently 
 motionless on the pavement. 
 
 My dress and colour obtained for me an entrance within 
 the doors, and after a time, a seat near the bench, whence I 
 could watch the proceedings, and note the many strange actors. 
 Perched in a rather roomy, but low pulpit, the judge was 
 listening to the opening of a fresh case from a young but leading 
 proctor, who leant over with his elbow resting on his Honour's 
 desk in the most familiar manner imaginable, just as one 
 might be discussing the state of the weather or the quality of 
 yesterday's dinner. A long table was before "the Court" 
 at a short distance, at which were seated the " Colombo Bar,"
 
 115 
 
 a motley group and curious to look on. They were Dutch 
 Portugese, Tamil and Singhalese : some were steady-going 
 business-like men, and some were very sharp gentry indeed, 
 especially one little parched fellow with close cropped hair 
 and careworn features : but there were several whom you 
 could not, by any imaginative faculty, connect with the Bar. 
 One curious object, out at elbows, leant listlessly over the dirty 
 table, staring at the sparrows up in the roof, whilst another 
 briefless member of the fraternity amused himself by emptying 
 the contents of an inkstand into his neighbour's pocket. 
 
 The case then on, though one of very common occurrence, 
 seemed to me a rather prepossessing one, from the fact of its 
 being a question of a bond debt: a suit which, however 
 easily to be settled by actual documentary proof, nevertheless 
 offered ample scope for a vast deal of very hard Singhalese 
 swearing on both sides, and, of course, in precisely opposite 
 directions. It involved a rather smart amount for a native to 
 meet, not less than one hundred and twenty-two pounds 
 British currency ; I'm afraid to say how much it was in the 
 benighted coin of the island, but more than I should like to 
 count. Well, the plaintiff swore as hard as a curry-stone, that 
 the defendent owed the money, and the defendant vowed 
 rather harder, I thought, that he did not owe so much as 
 a single copper-challie. Plaintiff chuckled all over as ho 
 produced the defendant's bond for the precise amount. It 
 was examined and conned over, and looked at in all possible 
 ways by every one interested, until at last the judge was on 
 the point of deciding as a matter of course, when the 
 defendant produced a document very similar in appearance 
 and handed it to the judge. It was a release in full for the 
 amount, duly signed by the plaintiff, and as duly witnessed. 
 
 Never shall I forget the Strange look of humbled morti- 
 fication and disappointed rage visible in the plaintiff's face, 
 nor the glow of merry bursting triumph that puckered up the 
 oily couutonauco of the buccussful defendant. The case was
 
 IIG 
 
 suddenly made as clear one way as the moment before it had 
 been equally lucid. The judge decided against the plaintiff 
 with all costs and a severe lecture ; which, as it afterwards 
 appeared, he deserved from a far more serious point of view 
 than was at the time believed. I was a good deal puzzled at 
 the stupidity of the man who could thus bring an action for a 
 debt of which he had granted a discharge ; but the puzzle was 
 cleared up a day or two afterwards, when I learnt all the 
 particulars from the proctor for the defendant in the matter. 
 
 The lawyer had been waited upon in his office by his 
 client in the bond case, who came to thank him for the 
 trouble he had taken in conducting his defence. After a few 
 introductory civilities, the proctor congratulated his native 
 friend on the success which had attended him in his recent 
 suit, and remarked on the great necessity that existed for 
 carefully preserving all documents relating to cash transactions 
 especially such as bore reference to property. The Singhalese 
 looked at his lawyer very hard, with a peculiar expression of 
 deep cunning stealing over his sable countenance. He drew 
 his chair somewhat nearer to him and glancing cautiously 
 round the room to ascertain if any one was within ear-shot, 
 told him in a low half-whisper, that he " had never paid the 
 money." The proctor, as may easily be imagined, was 
 astounded at this admission, although from his long acquaint- 
 ance with the native character he was generally prepared to 
 hear a good deal of rascality and duplicity. He begged his 
 client to explain what he meant ; how he came by the discharge 
 which the plaintiff had not attempted to disprove or set aside, 
 if, as he said, he had not paid the money. 
 
 The late defendant drew still more confidentially near to 
 his lawyer's seat, looking him steadily in the face, as if to 
 watch the effect his communication would have on him, he 
 whispered in his ear that he had not only never paid plaintiff 
 the money in dispute, but that he had never owed him the 
 amount^ nor any sum of money whatever ! This was a fearful
 
 117 
 
 staggerer to the lawyer, who looked all sorts of questions 
 at his client. The latter perceiving that his riddle was not 
 likely to be solved without his own assistance, condescended 
 to detail every particular relating to the recent suit. He had 
 been on bad terras, he said with the plaintiff, who was a 
 neighbour, for some months past, owing to his having obtained 
 a judgment against the latter in a trifling land case. The 
 plaintiff had been heard to say, that he would one day be 
 revenged on him, and the Singhalese are tolerably true to 
 their word in all these matters — the attempt was expected. 
 The revenge taken was to forge a bond from the defendant 
 to plaintiff for such an amount as must have effectually ruined 
 the former ; the deed was well drawn up, properly attested 
 and duly witnessed by men who, for a rupee a head, were 
 in court for the purpose, and actually did swear to the 
 genuineness of defendant's signature. The man would 
 assuredly have been ruined as was intended, but that he 
 happened to be as clever a rogue, and as unscrupulous as his 
 adversary. He had heard the old proverb about sharp 
 instruments cutting two ways, and acted upon it ; for he 
 concocted a forged discharge to the forged bond, signed by 
 twice as many witnesses as the bond itself, and some of whom 
 were the same parties who professed to have witnessed the 
 execution of the latter, and who, for a little higher bribing, 
 came into court to swear by the sacred tooth of Buddha, that 
 they had seen the plaintiff sign and deliver the discharge ! 
 The proctor went home that day a wiser man by a great 
 deal, than when he entered his little offico in the morning, and 
 deeply impressed with the difficulties flung round the path of 
 justice by the crookedness of the native character. 
 
 Having related the denouement of the above little plot, 
 I must terminate my day at the Colombo courts. After tho 
 decision of the case just alluded to, I bent my steps back to 
 tho Supremo Court, which was at that moment in a state of 
 intense commotion. It was evident that something of groat
 
 118 
 
 interest had happened ; for every tongue was in action, every 
 bare arm was flung about as though there had been a general 
 attack of St. Vitus's dance amongst the native population. 
 Great white eyes glared fiercely on their neighbours ; black 
 hair streamed over excitable, oleaginous shoulders ; muslin 
 turbans and snow-white scarfs danced about, and blended 
 madly with Turkey-red cloths and chintz sarongs ; bloodthirsty- 
 looking moustachoes curled to their uttermost tips in rank 
 defiance, while tobacco and betel-juice flew about in copious 
 showers, and much nearer to me than I could have desired. 
 What did it all mean ? Was the poor wretch of a murderer, 
 self-condemned as he had been, about to suffer the extreme 
 penalty of the law, then and there, on the spot, just to give 
 dame Justice an appetite for her afternoon meal ! I ventured 
 to question a respectable-looking man by my side, in clean, 
 white raiment ; but the poor creature muttered something 
 that might have been Ethiopic or Sclavonic. I tried a thin 
 weazen-faced old mnn in spectacles and cloth garments, and 
 the oddity replied in Portugese ! 
 
 Forcing my way into the body of the court, I at length 
 ascertained from a half-caste proctor, that although the prisoner 
 had pleaded guilty, and the evidence and summing-up of the 
 judge were dead against him, the jury had acquitted the man. 
 They knew far better than he did whether he was or was not 
 guilty, and in their wisdom had decided that he was mistaken 
 in his self-condemnation. The prisoner — the prisoner no 
 longer — could not be persuaded that he heard aright ; when 
 I reached the thronged table facing the dock, I found him 
 staring vacantly about him, with his long, bony hands clasped 
 firmly together ; the person in charge of him in vain tried to 
 move him from the spot. The ofl&cials were conversing 
 together in deep, earnest whispers, evidently as astonished as 
 the poor creature they had just being trying ; after a brief 
 time they dismissed the jury, having probably had sufficient 
 of their labour for that day and for many days to come ; and
 
 119 
 
 eventually the court rose and adjourned over until the 
 following morning, to allow themselves time to digest their 
 astonishment. 
 
 As I drove home from witnessing these strange scenes, I 
 could not resist pondering upon the crooked ways of orientals ; 
 upon the dim moral perceptions of our fellow-subjects in the 
 East. I called to mind the hackneyed Exeter Hall phrase of 
 " We are all brethren," and thoug-ht how much better for the 
 true advancement of the human family it would be, if, whilst 
 admitting the abstract truth of the above sentence, men paused 
 a while ere working out the theory by one universal rule of 
 legislation ; if they would bear in mind that there " is a season 
 for all things." Such worldly-wise philanthropists have yet to 
 learn that in regard to their " we-are-all-brethren" idea, 
 what is " sauce for the goose," is not always "sauce for the 
 gander."
 
 THE CINNAMON PEELER. 
 
 h^ VER the boisterous ocean, steam-borne for many a stormy 
 "^ day to where the white man trades on sunny shores, 
 over the burning plains, across the cloud- clapped ranges, and 
 then once more into the plains where slaves delve in the bowels 
 of the earth for precious metals, the bales of spice are borne, 
 and the long string of mules leave their rich burthens. On 
 stormy seas of snow-clad lands, across dessert tracks within the 
 distant Russian town where the grand pinnacle of a Greek 
 church rears its solemn front : soft trains of melody ascend 
 within the sacred pile and the rich streams of incense rise from 
 many an altar. In the orange grove just off the Plaza, where 
 the grass is thick and soft, and the Snowy blossom lends its 
 fragrance to the sweet air of southern Spain, a group of 
 laughing damsels seated on the velvet sward, sip their tiny 
 cups of chocolate, and pour out their little stores of scandal. — 
 Down in a dark, dank cellar-looking vaulted space, a mill-stone 
 moves steadily, unweariedly ; no motive power is seen, but a 
 grim-looking silent man in leather apron, armed with a giant 
 brush and heavy rod, tends to the mash of substances crushing 
 beneath the stone, into fine powder, almost impalpable. 
 
 Into all of these, into the powder ground for " Thorley's 
 Cattle Food", into the tiny cup of chocolate, sipped by young 
 Spanish damsels, into the incense on the altar, into the daily 
 drink within the fever-sticken depths of quicksilver mines, 
 our own special spice enters a part of the composition. Steam- 
 ers are freighted with it, mules are laden with it, droskies are 
 filled with it, waggons and vans are piled and heaped with 
 it, until it has become hard to say how much of it is a 
 necessary, and how much a luxury.
 
 121 
 
 Well may Spaniard, Russian, or Mexican dream of the 
 sunny land where grows this precious spice, as a bright spot 
 on earth, green, fresh and tropically radiant, teeming with 
 vegetable and insect life, where in the far off, olden, scriptural 
 times, gallies were freighted with ivory, apes and peacocks, — 
 with pearls, and spice, and perchance, with gold of Ophir. 
 
 But who, and what, and where are the oriental workers 
 who produce this precious spice ? Are they rich or poor, 
 honored or spurned, exalted or debased, free or slave ? 
 Within a low-roofed shed in which to enter, though not of 
 lofty stature, one must stoop, a row of silent, half-clad, half-fed, 
 quarter-washed, dark-skinned workers are seated on the 
 ground, plying a curious little knife which scrapes and scatters 
 the outer cuticle from long, half-round strips of young sapling 
 bark. These pieces are the cinnamon bark removed from the 
 ripe sticks on the previous day, left in a pile to undergo a 
 sort of semi-fermentation, and when scraped clean and sorted 
 carefully and trimmed scientifically, and packed and piped 
 delicately, one within the other, to the extent of three or four, 
 according to the thinness of the quill, or the fancy of the 
 quiller, they become the famed cinnamon of Ceylon, unique 
 in its quality, unrivalled in its production. Other countries 
 have essayed to grow it, — Java, China, India, Manilla, — and for 
 aught we know, other countries have started, as rivals in the 
 culture, but from cause of soil, or climate, or cultivation, or all, 
 failure has boon the final ending, and to this day Ceylon is the 
 sole country of the fragrant spice. 
 
 It was no doubt, owing to the presence of this precious 
 spice in quantities along the western sea-borde, not less than 
 the rich fertility of the country, which induced the early 
 European adventurers to fix on this harborless side of the 
 island, for a trading settlement, instead of in the vicinity of 
 Trincomalie with its miles of bays and inland waters, wherein 
 all the navies of the world might ride at anchor. The 
 spice, was, however, but seldom seen in Europe, so scarce and
 
 122 
 
 costly was it. Scattered in uncertain quantities along tlie 
 sea-coast, and in some of the jungles and chena lauds of the 
 interior, it was in those early days, and even up to the Dutch 
 time, collected chiefly in payment of tribute from the Kandyans, 
 or in lieu of taxes by the low-country Singhalese. No 
 cultivation of the plant was then attempted, nor was it even 
 brought together or preserved in special localities until a 
 century later, when the Dutch, keenly alive to their interests 
 in all commercial matters, took to cinnamon cultivation, if that 
 name could be applied to mere clearing out of masses of plants, 
 keeping down low jungle, and draining the ground from 
 stagnant water. That this was all that could have been done 
 by the Dutch Government, is evident from the records of the 
 cinnamon department of those days. 
 
 But there was yet another reason for this cultivation 
 being preferred to the old method of collection. Their 
 frequent warfare with the Kandyans rendered it often difficult 
 and sometimes impossible to procure the quantity needed to 
 make up their bi-annual shipments to Europe, hence it became 
 a matter of policy to secure a supply quite independently of 
 that hitherto gathered in the Kandyan jungles. 
 
 • The cultivation of the spice in the present time, is carried 
 on by labor of any description, but the operation of peeling is 
 with but few exceptions, in the hands of the chalias, or as they 
 were termed under the Dutch, the " mahabadde," derived 
 from the words " great tax," the chaiia people having been 
 compelled to pay a heavy tax to the government in prepared 
 cinnamon. In the present day, whilst they are free from the 
 tribute, they are deprived of the many privileges enjoyed by 
 their ancestors, being paid for the results of their labor at 
 certain understood rates which are sufficiently productive, 
 when a man is expert and has a wife and one or two children 
 to assist him : villages in the Galle district are the places of 
 residence of large numbers of peelers, but they have been 
 much scattered since 1833 when the monopoly in the spice
 
 12 
 
 9. 
 
 trade was abolished. In those palmy days the cinnamon 
 peelers had their own headmen, and could be tried for an 
 offence only by their European superintendent, a Government 
 official who was sworn in as magistrate of the " mahabadde." 
 Now, the peeler is but one of the common multitude, amenable 
 to the ordinary courts, and obliged to be content with four 
 or five pounds British currency at the end of the cinnamon 
 harvest, with which, and the produce of the fraction of 
 a field, and a miserable fenceless garden, he has to do 
 his best to pay for rice, a few common cloths, and a little 
 salt-fish, curry-stuff, and oil. Take him when you will, the 
 peeler never presents a cheerful exterior, his dress and bearing 
 give no outward token of prosperity ; the unwashed cloth and 
 uncombed hair tell eloquently of the daily struggle that is 
 going on with the demon want, and even on holidays he 
 and his belongings cut but sorry figures amidst the genial 
 gatherings of the village community. 
 
 There is no doubt that the abolition of rajakaria and 
 the privileges of the " mahabadde," have not bettered the 
 condition of the cinnamon peelers. In the early days of 
 British rule he was wont to receive from the Government 
 two-thirds of a measure of rice daily, with a measure of salt 
 per month, and subsistence money at the rate of three pence 
 a day, besides freedom from tolls, ferries, &c., in consideration 
 of which he was bound to deliver 80 lbs. to 100 lbs. of 
 cinnamon properly prepared. After the abolition of this 
 system, the Government paid them according to the quantity 
 and quality of the spice delivered, 5 id., 5d., and 4|d. per 
 pound. But the rate now is much lower, and when tho 
 exactions of the canganies and petty headmen have been 
 satisfied, there is not more than the sum we have mentioned 
 with which to support their families. But even this amount 
 is far more than is ever touched by largo numbers of cultivators : 
 the peeler is, however, an improvident man : migrating from 
 his village for mouths in the year, and herding with numbers
 
 124 
 
 of others in the estate "lines," he falls into improvident, 
 thoughtless ways, indulges in frequent potations, and when at 
 length he returns to his village with his hard-earned but 
 greatly reduced stock of coin, he has lost much of his 
 inclination for work : he turns to his field and his garden 
 with stolid indifference, and by the time his cash has nearly 
 melted away, he finds the season for cultivation almost over, 
 the field bearing abundant crops of weeds, and the garden 
 overgrown with brambles. He sighs heavily as he sees the 
 necessity for action in the reduced size of his rice bag. 
 Work for hire, he will not : he may perchance go out on a 
 fishing bout, or he may insist on the wife and children beating 
 out some coir husks, if he be in the Galle district, and with 
 the fibre he may work up a pingoe-load or two of coir yarn in 
 order to barter it for tobacco and food, but anything like 
 sustained industry is altogether foreign to the dreamy nature 
 of the cinnamon peeler.
 
 ELEPHANTS, AND HOW TO CATCH THEM. 
 
 c^ HE elephant is associated with my earliest recollections of 
 ® school-boyhood. Well do I remember the huge black 
 picture of the unwieldy animal in Mayor's Spelling Book, 
 the letter-press describing the creature as " not only the 
 largest, but the strongest of all quadrupeds," which is beyond 
 all question ; and furthermore, that " in a state of nature, it is 
 neither fierce nor mischievous ;" which is the very reverse of 
 fact, as hundreds of sugar and coffee planters, as well as many 
 a traveller could testify. In later years, I enjoyed a peep at 
 the sleepy-looking creature, cooped up in a sort of magnified 
 horse-stall, at the Zoological Gardens, in the Regent's Park, 
 and well I remember wondering how so much sagacity and 
 thoughtf ulness could be attributed to so apathetic and cumbrous 
 an animal. 
 
 The reader of Roman and (Irecian history may gather 
 how Pyrrhus for a time mastered the hardy veterans of Rome, 
 by moans of these then little-known and terrible creatures ; 
 and how Alexander found hundreds of them opposed to him 
 in the army of the Indian monarch. Keaders of more recent 
 history may learn how these animals formed a portion of 
 the vast armies of most of the Indian Nabobs, with which 
 the British forces came in contact. But twelve short 
 months ago, the elephant graced the civic triumph of the 
 newly-elected Lord Mayor of London, to the unmitigated 
 astonishment and delight of thousands of little boys and elderly 
 females. 
 
 Much, however, as I had heard and read of the elephant, 
 I never properly appreciated this animal, until I had been 
 a dweller in Eastern lands where I was witness of such
 
 12(3 
 
 performances by these huge creatures, that my feeling towards 
 them was raised from that of mere wonder, to something 
 more akin to respect and admiration. 
 
 In the course of my early morning rides about the vicinity 
 of Colombo, I frequently reined in my steed to watch the quiet 
 labours of a couple of elephants in the service of the Govern- 
 ment. These huge animals were generally employed in the 
 Commissariat timber-yard, or the Civil Engineer's department, 
 either in removing and stowing logs and planks, or in rolling 
 about heavy masses of stone for building purposes. I could 
 not but admire the precision with which they performed their 
 allotted task, unaided, save by their own sagacity. They were 
 one morning hard at work, though slowly, piling up a quantity 
 of heavy pieces of timber ; the lower row of the pile had been 
 already laid down, with mathematical precision, six logs side by 
 side. These they had first pushed in from the adjoining wharf ; 
 and, when I rode up, they were engaged in bringing forward 
 the next six for the second row in the pile. It was curious to 
 observe those uncouth animals seize one of the heavy logs 
 at each end, and, by means of their trunks, lift it up on the 
 logs already placed, and, then arrange it crosswise upon them 
 with the most perfect skill. I waited whilst they thus placed 
 the third row ; feeling a curiosity to know how they would 
 proceed when the timber had to be lifted to a greater height. 
 Some of the logs weighed about twelve hundred-weights. 
 There was a short pause before the fourth row was touched ; 
 but tHe difiiculty was no sooner perceived than it was overcome. 
 The sagacious animals selected two straight pieces of timber, 
 placed one end of each piece on the ground with the other 
 resting on the top of the pile so as to form a sliding way for 
 the next logs ; and, having seen that they were perfectly steady 
 and in a straight line, the four-legged labourers rolled up the 
 slope they had thus formed, the six pieces of timber, for the 
 fourth layer on the pile. Not the least amusing part of the 
 performance was, the careful survey of the pile made by one
 
 127 
 
 of the elephants, after placing each log, to ascertain if it were 
 laid perfectly square with the rest. 
 
 The sagacity of these creatures in detecting weakness 
 in the jungle-bridges thrown across some of the streams in 
 Ceylon, is not less remarkable. I have been assured that 
 when carrying a load, they invariably press one of their fore- 
 feet upon the earth-covering of the bridge to try its strength ; 
 and, that if it feels too weak to carry them across, they will 
 refuse to proceed until lightened of their load. On one such 
 occasion a driver persisted in compelling his elephant to cross 
 a bridge against the evident wish of the animal ; and, as was 
 expected by his comrades, the rotten structure gave way, 
 elephant and rider were precipitated into the river, and the 
 latter was drowned. 
 
 Having thus been much prepossessed in favor of these 
 docile creatures, I learnt with considerable interest in the 
 latter part of the year 1849, that an elephant ki-aal was in 
 preparation, in the Western Province of Ceylon, not many 
 miles from Colombo. 
 
 The word kraal signifies simply a trap ; inasmuch as the 
 wild elephants are caught by partly driving, and partly enticing 
 them within a large enclosed space, or trap. It is assuredly 
 much safer sport than elephant shooting, and generally attracts 
 a large number of spectators, I may here mention that in 
 spite of the scholnstic authority of Mavor's Spelling Book, the 
 wild elephants of Ceylon are far from being " neither fierce 
 nor mischievous." At times they descend upon the low 
 country from their mountain fastnesses in such numbers and 
 with such ferocity, as to carry with them destruction, and often 
 death. Elephant kraals are, therefore, resorted to for the 
 double purpose of ridding a neighbourhood of these dangerous 
 visitors, and supplying the Government with fresh beasts of 
 labour for their timber-yards and building establishments. 
 On these occasions the natives of the district turn out en masse 
 — from the rich Mudeliyar to the poorest cooly — to assist
 
 128 
 
 without remuneration ; all being interested in the success of 
 the affair. 
 
 The whole province was alive with excitement : nothing 
 was talked of at mess-table, or at Government House, but the 
 approaching kraal. Half Colombo, it was said, would be there ; 
 and, as the weather promised to be so fair, I could not resist 
 the temptation to witness the trapping of a score or two of 
 those unruly monsters of the forest. 
 
 Such excursions are always undertaken by parties of three 
 or more, for the sake of comfort. I joined four friends for the 
 occasion ; two gentlemen, and two ladies, mother and daughter. 
 They were well acquainted with the Government Agent of the 
 locality, who had promised them shelter, and good accom- 
 modation for witnessing the kraal. All arrangements having 
 been completed, our servants gaily turbaned, accompanied by 
 a swarm of coolies, bearing provisions, bedding, and other 
 comforts, started off one fine moon-light night ; and, at a 
 little before day-break on the following morning, we followed 
 them on the road ; the ladies in a small pony-chaise, and 
 myself and friend on our naj^s. Long before nightfall we 
 reached the village adjoining the scene of sport. We needed 
 no guide to the locality, for the narrow road was crowded with 
 travellers hastening in one direction. Every description of 
 vehicle lined the way ; from the Colonel's light tandem, to 
 the native bullock hackery with its ungreased, squeaking 
 wheels. 
 
 The scene at the village was singularly strange and 
 exciting. It was close to the banks of the Calany, a river of 
 some size and rapidity. Along the palm-shaded shore were 
 moored numberless boats ; many of them large flat country 
 barges, or pade boats, containing parties of visitors from 
 Colombo, who had prudently determined to take up their 
 abode in those floating residences for the night. The village 
 huts had been thrown open to the English visitors, after having 
 been well cleaned and white-washed. Their doors were gaily
 
 129 
 
 ornamented with strips of red and white cloth, flowers, and 
 the fresh pale-green leaves of the cocoa-palm. When the 
 little cottages were lit up for the evening, they looked 
 extremely pretty. 
 
 It was at once evident that there was not nearly sufficient 
 accommodation for all the guests. One of our party started 
 in search of his friend, the Government Agent, but in vain; 
 he had gone off in quest of the elephants, reported to 
 be coming up fast from the neighbouring dense jungles. 
 Consequently, we were left to our own resources. After some 
 delay, we succeeded in obtaining the use of one small room for 
 the ladies ; whilst, for ourselves, we sought shelter, for the 
 night, beneath the friendly and capacious roof of one of the 
 Fade boats, where we found a hearty welcome from a party of 
 young, rollicking coffee-planters. 
 
 Day had not appeared next morning when we were afoot : 
 and having sipped a cup of vile, half-boiled coffee, we started 
 to explore the wonders of the kraal, followed, of course, by 
 our servants, with sundry tin boxes and a hamper. 
 
 The neighbourhood in which the kraal was formed, 
 consisted of rugged, undulating ground, pretty thickly covered 
 with stout jungle. Heavy, low forest trees studded the stony 
 land, interwoven with thorny brambles, cacti, bamboos, and a 
 species of gigantic creeping plant, called appropriately, jungle- 
 rope, for it is strong enough to bind the stoutest buffalo that 
 ever roared. A number of narrow paths had been cut through 
 the jungle leading from the village to the kraal. Through one 
 of these winding, prickly tracks, we bent our slow way, seeing 
 little around us save hugely-branched trees, and thickly-matted 
 underwood. Half-an-hour's walk brought us to a halt. We 
 were at the kraal. I looked around ; but the only indications 
 of the industry of man in that wild spot, were sundry covered 
 platforms, raised amongst the leafy branches of trees, some 
 twelve feet from the ground. These places contained seats, 
 and were already filling with visitors : we followed the
 
 130 
 
 example, and mounting the rude staircase, obtained a good 
 view of what was going on. Before us lay a largo open space, 
 in extent about two acres, irregular in shape, and of very uneven 
 surface. A few stout trees were standing at intervals within 
 it ; beside which were to be seen groups of natives carrying 
 long white wands, for all the world like so many black stewards 
 of some public dinner or ball. Around this plot of ground 
 grew a wall of dense jungle ; and, on looking into this, I 
 perceived that it had been made artificially strong by inter- 
 twining amongst it the heavy trunks of trees, long bamboos, 
 and jungle-rope of enormous thickness. At first sight, this 
 natural wall did not appear to be anything more than 
 ordinary jungle ; such as might easily be forced by any 
 ordinary village buffalo. We were, however, assured by the 
 native master of the ceremonies, the head Korale, that this 
 jungle would resist the fiercest attacks of the strongest 
 Kandyan elephant. At one end of the enclosure I perceived a 
 narrow opening, partly covered with light brambles and 
 branches of trees. This was the entrance to the kraal ; so 
 arranged as to wear a natural appearance. Beside this 
 carefully concealed gateway were hidden a number of active 
 villagers, ready prepared with huge trunks of trees and 
 jungle-rope, with which they were to secure the passage 
 against any attempts at return, so soon as the elephants were 
 trapped. 
 
 The novelty of our situation ; the wild solitude of jungle 
 around us ; the picturesque appearance of the many groups of 
 natives within and about the kraal ; the stories of elephant 
 shooting, and trapping, and narrow escapes, with sundry 
 references to portly baskets and boxes of provisions ; all helped 
 to make the day pass away rapidly and comfortably enough. 
 Evening, however, brought with it a general debate as to what 
 should be done ; for there were still no signs of game being 
 near ; and few of us desired to spend the night in that open 
 spot, unless under a strong inducement. The discussion ended
 
 131 
 
 by an adjournment to the village and the Fade boat, where we 
 slept soundly. 
 
 The following day was spent pretty much as had been 
 the first. Some of the visitors gave strong signs of impatience ; 
 and towards evening, a few, of worse temper that the rest, 
 declared the whole afEair a complete take-in, and took their 
 departure for Colombo. Just then, intelligence was received, 
 by means of scouts, that the elephants to the number of forty, 
 were in full march towards the kraal. This set us all on the 
 tip-toe of expectation. Every one betook himself to his 
 appointed place. Ladies shrank away from the front seats, 
 and I detected one or two of my own sex casting anxious 
 glances towards the stairs. An equal bustle was visible within 
 the kraal. The head Korale rushed about full of importance ; 
 the black stewards with their white wands, grouped themselves 
 into parties of three or four, at irregular intervals amongst 
 the jungle surrounding the open space, and especially about 
 the entrance : but what duty was to be performed by these 
 gentry, was more than I could divine. It is true (I was told 
 by a native chief) that it would devolve on them to drive back 
 any of the elephants, when caught in the kraal, in the event of 
 their attempting to force the surrounding defences ; but the 
 idea of these poor creatures — some of them mere boys — being 
 of any service, with their little white sticks, appeared so absurd 
 and altogether ridiculous, that I thought I was being hoaxed 
 by the Korale. 
 
 The shades of evening descended, and scouts continued 
 to arrive from the driving party, with injunctions to hold 
 everything in readiness, for the herd were coming on. The 
 few torches that had been left to dispel the gloom were put 
 out, or removed from sight. The moon had not risen. Every 
 tongue was silent, save a few low whispers at intervals. Eyes 
 were eagerly strained towards the opening through which the 
 herd was expected to rush. Every ear was on the stretch to 
 catch the most remote sounds in that direction. One might
 
 132 
 
 have fancied, from the death-like stillness of the place, that 
 we were there awaiting our own fate, instead of that of 
 elephants. 
 
 We did not wait long in this suspense. A distant 
 shouting burst suddenly upon our startled ears. It drew 
 rapidly nearer, and soon we could distinguish the violent 
 cracking and snapping of branches of trees and low jungle. 
 Then we heard the quick tramp of many ponderous and huge 
 feet. There was no doubt but that the animals were close 
 upon us ; for torches were visil;le in the direction from which 
 they were coming : indeed the distant junole appeared to be 
 alive with lights. Every native stood to his arms, such as 
 they were. I could see the white wands glimmering about in 
 the black forest at our feet : some score or two of rifle-barreis, 
 long and ugly-looking instruments, of native make, were 
 protruded from various points. Several of the ladies of our 
 party wept; and I verily believe that some of the males 
 wished inwardly that they were of the other sex, to have the 
 privilege of fainting and being carried out of reach of danger. 
 But there was little time for attention, even to frightened ladies. 
 Our eyes were fixed upon the moving and rapidly approaching 
 lights. They appeared to burn less brightly as they came 
 nearer : then some disappeared, and soon the whole were 
 extinguished, and all was plunged in darkness. Still, on came 
 the furious monsters : bamboos crashed ; the thick jungle flew 
 about in splinters. A heavy tramping and tearing, and 
 snapping asunder of branches, — and there they were, safely 
 within the kraal. Then arose a shout, as if the clouds and earth 
 were about to meet, or to do something out of the common 
 way. 1 bent forward to catch a peep at the enemy. The 
 native body-guard waved their white wands. The entrance 
 was barred up in a twinkling, and the torches brought forward 
 to enable us to witness the proceedings, when a volley of loud 
 uproarious laughter fell upon our ears, blended with exclama- 
 tions of angry disappointment. All eyes were strained towards
 
 133 
 
 the clump of trees in the centre of the enclosure, where we 
 beheld a dozen or two of flaming chides or torches, waved to and 
 fro by some score of half -frantic villagers ; and there, as the 
 glare of torch light burst through the dense gloom, we beheld 
 couching together, in place of forty huge elephants, a knot of 
 village buffaloes, panting, and trembling, and tossing their 
 heads. A survey of those creatures told us how the matter 
 stood. There had been torches fastened to their horns, and 
 one or two of them had the remains of chules hanging to their 
 tails. There could not bo a shadow of doubt that the affair 
 had been a cruel hoax, and we were not long in ascribing the 
 origin of it to the real perpetrators — the party of young coffee- 
 planters with whom I had slept in the Pade boat. 
 
 The laughter of the evening, however, was not yet at an 
 end. The light of innumerable chules, now moving about, 
 discovered to us three nervous gentlemen snugly perched high 
 among the branches of a tree close by our si and. They had 
 made a rush up, in the first alarm of the onset ; but, however 
 easy fear had made the ascent, they evidently found it a 
 somewhat difficult cask to descend All eyes were at once 
 fixed upon the unlucky climbers, whose struggles to reach 
 the lower branches were hailed with roars of furious laughter. 
 Elephants, and buffaloes, and hoaxers were for the moment 
 forgott 'u. One of them was the District .Judge, a somewhat 
 cumbrous personage ; another, was an Assistant Agent, and 
 the third, a ( 'ommissioner of the Court of Requests, a thin 
 wiry fellow with a remarkably red face. There they wore, 
 kicking, and straining, and struggling in as pretty a fix as 
 any of the Civil Service had ever found themselves ; and it was 
 not until some bamboos and ropes had been handed up to 
 them, that they were able to reach the stand, and thence wend 
 their way off the scene. 
 
 By the time the kraal was cleared, the night was far 
 advanced, and the moon high in the horizon. Advice then 
 reached us that the elephants had made a detour from the
 
 134 
 
 line, and had taken it into their unruly heads to treat themselves 
 to a gambol across some score or two acres of prairie land ; 
 where they were amusing themselves with a good round game, 
 despite the coaxing of a decoy consisting of two tame elephants. 
 It was clear that nothing would be done on that night, and our 
 merry parties betook themselves back to the village. 
 
 Our number were evidently on the decline next day. 
 The patience of many had been exhausted. Towards evening 
 intelligence was brought in, that thirty-five elephants, of all 
 sizes were in full march towards us ; and, shortly afterwards, 
 the Government Agent of the district, and the native chief of 
 the Korle, came in from the driving, to see that all was 
 made ready for the proper reception of the jungle visitors. 
 Again all was hurry and bustle. Provision baskets and 
 nervous ladies were sent to the rear : wine bottles were placed 
 in reserve, and sundry parting salutes were made with packets 
 of sandwiches. Once more silence reigned over the kraal : 
 torches wore removed : the guards and watchers were doubled, 
 and an extra supply of the little white wands brought to the 
 front. 
 
 It was about two hours after dark when we heard the 
 first distinct shouts of the drivers, who were slowly forcing 
 the elephants towards the kraal ; the two tame ones leading 
 the way, and pointing out the advantages of that particular 
 path to their jungle friends. Those sounds seemed to approach 
 us at irregular intervals. Sometimes it appeared as though the 
 animals were not to be moved on any account, and then the 
 shouting died away ; again they drew rapidly near ; then 
 paused ; then forward, until we fancied we could distinguish 
 the fall of the elephants' huge feet amongst the thick under- 
 wood. At last there was no mistake about it; they were 
 close upon us. Our anxiety and curiosity became intense. 
 The tearing and trampling amongst the jungle was deafening. 
 Giant bamboos and branches of trees appeared to be snapped 
 asunder by the on-coming herd, like so many walking-sticks —
 
 135 
 
 in a way, in short, which made me tremble for the strength of 
 the kraal, and of our own elevated platform. 
 
 But there was little time for reflection of any kind. A 
 shot or two was fired in the rear of the advancing herd, 
 followed by a trampling of the leading elephants. The moon 
 at that moment began to peep over the distant range of low 
 hills; and, by its faint light, T could distinguish the dense jungle 
 bending and giving way on every side, and amongst it sundry 
 huge black forms rushing about in savage disorder, like 
 mountain masses up-heaved by some convulsion of nature. 
 The two decoys entered the enclosure at a brisk but steady 
 trot, and stationed themselves under the clump of trees, 
 without any notice being taken of them ; indeed, one of them 
 nodded knowingly to the Korale near him, as much as to say, 
 " It's all right, old fellow !" On came the wild elephants 
 at a thundering pace, tearing and bending, and smashing 
 everything before them; trumpeting and roaring at full pitch. 
 In another moment they were within the boundaries of our 
 fortress. 
 
 Never shall I forget the wild, strange beauty of that 
 uproarious moment. The moon was now shining sufficiently 
 on the kraal to light up the more open parts of it ; away under 
 the deep shade on one side, could be seen a dense, moving 
 mass of living creatures ; huge, mis-shapen, and infuriated, 
 trembling with rage and fatigue. Lighted chutes were gleaming 
 thickly, like fire-flies, amidst the neighbouring jungle. Felled 
 trees and rope barred up the narrow way, forming one monster 
 gate ; whilst busy groups of villagers, white wands in hand, 
 moved to and fro, and watched the furious herd. More lights 
 were brought to the front, and a blazing fire was kindled 
 outside the entrance, which, whilst it served to light up the 
 whole kraal, deterred the savage strangers from attempting 
 anything in that direction. 
 
 It was soon evident that the prisoners were not going to 
 take matters very quietly, Two of the stoutorft of their
 
 136 
 
 number slowly adv^anced and examined the walls, to see where 
 an opening might most easily be forced. And now we were 
 not less astonished than delighted at the use made of those 
 tiny white wands, which had before served only to raise our 
 contempt. Wherever the two elephant spies approached the 
 jungle-walls of their prison, they were met by one or two 
 villagers, who gently waved before them little snow-white 
 switches ; and, lo ! as if by some spell of potent forest magic, 
 the beasts turned back, skrinking from contact with the little 
 wands. Point after point was thus tried, but all in vain ; the 
 snowy magic sticks were thick within the jungle, and silently 
 beat back the advancing foe. 
 
 While the two scouts were thus engaged on their 
 exploring expedition, the tame elephants approached the 
 remainder of the herd, and walked slowly round them, shaking 
 their shaggy ears and waving high in air their curling trunks, 
 as though thev would say, ''Move at your peril." One of the 
 captives, a somewhat juvenile and unsophisticated elephant, 
 ventured to move from the side of its maternal parent, to take 
 a survey of our stand, when tame elephant Number One went 
 up to the offender, and sent him back with an enormous flea 
 in his ear ; tame elephant Number Two bestowing at the same 
 moment a smart tap on its skull. 
 
 Busier work was at hand. The scouts, evidently disgusted 
 with the result of their operations upon the outworks, appeared 
 to be preparing for a sortie, and treated with the most reckless 
 levity the admonitory taps of the elephant policemen : which 
 however, seemed to be far less unpleasant to them than a 
 tickle on the snout from one of the pigmy white wands. It 
 was plain that they intended to carry their object by a coiip de 
 trunk ; but a score of rifles peered forth. The ladies then shut 
 their eyes, and stopped their ears ; an elderly gentleman at 
 my elbow, asked, in a tremulous whisper, "what the guns were 
 for?" The inquiry was replied to by a loud trumpeting from 
 one of the pair of rebels, — a harsh screaming roar, like the
 
 137 
 
 hollow sound of a strained railway whistle, very much out of 
 repair. We had scarcely time to look at the poor brute 
 creating this disturbance, when we heard the sharp crack of 
 a dozen rifles around us — so sharp indeed, that our eyes 
 blinked asfain. Down tumbled one of the monsters with thick 
 torrents of hot, savage blood, pouring from many a wound 
 about his head and neck. His companion was not so easily 
 disposed of, though badly wounded. Lifting his enormous 
 trunk in the air, and bellowing forth a scream of defiance, 
 he made a rush at the jungle-wall. The two elephantine 
 policemen who had been narrowly observing his proceedings, 
 then made in between him and the ramparts, and succeeded in 
 turning him from his purpose ; but only to cause him to renew 
 his fierce attack upon another part of the defences. He 
 rushed at full speed upon the spot where our stand was 
 erected, screaming and lashing his great trunk about him, as 
 a schoolboy would a piece of whipcord. I felt alarmed. It 
 seemed as though our frail tenement must yield at the first 
 touch from the mighty on-coming mass of flesh, bone and 
 muscle. Ladies shrieked and fainted by the dozen : gentlemen 
 scrambled over each other towards the stairs, where a decidedly 
 downward tendency was exhibited. I would have given a 
 trifle, just then, to have been where the day before were 
 the Judge and the Collector, high amongst the branches. But 
 in much less time than I take to relate it, the furious animal, 
 smarting under many bullet wounds, had reached the verge of 
 our stand, heedless of the cracking of rifles, whose leaden 
 messengers flew round his head and poured down his shoulders, 
 many harmless. One last crack and down the monster fcU^ 
 close at our feet. That shot was the work of a mere lad, the 
 little son of a Kandian Koralo, who, coolly biding his time, 
 had fired his piece close at the creature's ear. Leaping from 
 his place, the urchin flung aside his long tapering rifle, and 
 drawing forth his girdle-knife, severed the elephant's tail 
 from the carcase, as his just trophy.
 
 138 
 
 These two having been disposed of, and a degree of calm 
 restored, the general attention was directed towards the herd, 
 which still remained in their original position. For a time 
 fear seemed to hold them motionless ; but when the extremity 
 of their danger rose before them, a number of the boldest 
 made a desperate rush at the entrance, but were easily turned 
 back when the watchers stirred up the great guard-fire, 
 whilst, from other parts of the kraal, they were soon repelled 
 by an application of white wands. In this way a good hour 
 was spent, at the end of which time the creatures appeared to 
 give up the idea of any further aggressive proceedings, and 
 remained subdued and calm, 
 
 A dangerous task had still to be performed — that of 
 securing the best of the herd for taming. Half-a-dozen of the 
 most active and skilful of the villagers crept slowly and care- 
 fully towards the frightened group ; each having a long stout 
 cord of jungle-rope in his hand, with a running noose at one end 
 of it. With stealthy, cat-like steps, these daring fellows went 
 amongst the herd, making some of us tremble for their safety. 
 Each of them selected one of the largest and strongest of the 
 group, behind which they crept ; and, having arranged the 
 " lasso" for action, they applied a finger gently to the right heel 
 of their beast, who feeling the touch as though that of some 
 insect, slowly raised the leg, shook it, and replaced it on the 
 ground. The men, as the legs were lifted, placed the running 
 nooses beneath them, so that the elephants were quietly 
 trapped, unknown to themselves, and with the utmost ease. 
 They then slipped rapidly away with the ends of the ropes, 
 and immediately made them fast to the trunks of the nearest 
 trees. The ropes, however, were far from being sufficiently 
 strong to hold an elephant who might put out his strength. 
 It was therefore, necessary to secure them still further, but by 
 gentle means. The two tame elephants were then placed on 
 active service : they were evidently perfectly at home, and 
 required no directions for their work. Walking slowly up to
 
 139 
 
 the nearest of the six captured animals, they began to urge 
 him towards the tree to which he was fastened. At first the 
 creature was stubborn ; but a few taps on his great skull, and 
 a mighty push on his carcase, sent him a yard or two nearer 
 his destination. As he proceeded, the man in charge of the 
 rope gathered in the slack of it ; and so matters went on 
 between this party — a tap, a push, and a pull — until at length 
 three of the elephants were close to as many trees. Two other 
 villagers then came forward with a stout iron chain. The 
 tame animals placed themselves one on each side of a 
 prisoner, pressing him between them so tightly as to prevent 
 the possibility of his moving. In a minute or two the great 
 chain was passed several times round the hind legs and the 
 tree ; and, in this way the captive was left ; helpless and faint 
 with struggling. The other five were similarly treated. After 
 which our party dispersed, pretty well tired, and quite prepared 
 for bed. 
 
 Early next morning I paid a last visit to the kraal, alone ; 
 my friends were fairly worn out. The remainder of the 
 elephants had been either shot or had forced their way out in 
 one or two places. The six captured animals were quiet — as 
 well they might be, after their long fast and incessant 
 struggling. Towards the end of that day, a very small portion 
 of food was supplied to them, just sufficient to keep them alive. 
 In this way they were to remain for a week or two, when, if 
 found sufficiently reduced in strength and temper, they were 
 to be walked about, fastened between two tame companions, 
 who assisted very effectually in their daily education — not, 
 perhaps, in the most gentle and polite manner, but still much 
 to the purpose. 
 
 At the end of two or three months, the wild and unruly 
 destroying monster of the jungle, might be seen quietly 
 and submissively piling logs of timber in the Government 
 yard, with a purpose like intelligence little short of that of 
 man.
 
 A HAPPY VALLEY. 
 
 fHERE was a spot not far from Lanka's latest capital, so 
 rich in sylvan scenery, so favored by nature in soil and 
 climate and locality, that they who knew its brightness, the 
 sunny, cheerful life of those who dwelt there, called it "The 
 Happy Valley." 
 
 The Vale of Dumbera was not always what it is. There 
 was a time, when, from one end to the other, the sweet aroma 
 of the coffee blossom, blended with fragrance from the lime 
 and orange flowers, loaded the air with perfume. One long 
 undulating stretch of coffee gardens, from Rajahwella at one 
 extremity, to Yahagaha Pitiya at the other, gave pleasant homes 
 and busy occupations for a dozen Europeans whose well-kept 
 bungalows were dotted through the valley. It was a good 
 morning's ride from one end to the other ; and in those days 
 when coffee fields were interspersed with jungle and wild 
 spots of low underwood and swampy ground, there was game to 
 be found for the seeking, — game in abundance, large and small. 
 
 Kondesallie, with its sylvan homestead and its long 
 undulating fields of coffee, was the parent of them all. About 
 the Manager's pretty bungalow, there were signs of English 
 care and thrift ; a poulty yard with cows and pigs roaming 
 about in happy indolence, gave to the place an air of comfort 
 which was good to see. The plantation was threaded by many 
 winding roads bordered by rose trees blossoming in one 
 continuous round of never-ending summer. 
 
 To the north of this charming spot, was then to be seen 
 the smaller but not less picturesque plantation of Gal Madua, 
 equally undulating, equally rich in verdure and fertility, equally 
 well loaded. Beyond it, was situated the little model estate
 
 Ul 
 
 of Talwattie, younger and smaller ; and beyond that, again, 
 further to the north, amidst broad acres of green patanas and 
 pretty sylvan glades, and vallies and some topes of palms and 
 arekas, was Yahagaha Pitiya, the bungalow of which stood on 
 a green knoll from which no signs of coffee were visible, every 
 planted field being hid by belts of jungle or groves of jak and 
 bread-fruit trees. From this charming spot, this oasis amidst 
 oases, the sweetest glimpses of scenery were to be had. 
 
 The huge rock at Matale, the lofty peak of Hunasgiria, 
 the Knuckles range, the Medamahanuwera hills, and away to 
 the west, the beetling crest of Hantane towering above many 
 a hill and valley. Nearer was to be seen a wide expanse of 
 undulating grass land, threaded by strips of paddy fields, with 
 
 here and there a Headman's rustic dwelling, revelling amidst 
 a thick grove of palms and jaks. For many a long mile, the 
 wide expanse of verdure lay stretched like a carpet, until, in 
 the distance, woodland and dells and undulating hills wcro 
 blended in one broad green landscape. 
 
 At one extremity of this " Happy Valley " the path led to 
 a pretty grassy walk ovorsluidcd by massive, wide spreading
 
 142 
 
 banyan and otlier trees, through the long vista of whose 
 pleasant foliage an ancient Dagoba was visible far in the 
 distance, besides which stood a " Pansela " in which an old 
 priest had dwelt for a life-time : from Yahagaha Pitiya to 
 this pretty sylvan spot, was a favorite evening stroll, and 
 there the planter and his family often sauntered ; and 
 seated at the old man's porch, held converse with him on 
 subjects upon which he loved to speak — the past history of 
 his country, the heroic deeds of a long race of sovereigns 
 passed away. 
 
 On the south side of the Valley, were, adjoining 
 Kondesallie, the thriving, picturesque estate of Pallikelle, partly 
 of cofEee, partly sugar, and the Deegalle Coffee plantation, 
 and beyond that the fine property of Rajahwella, whose rich, 
 deep, loamy soil and excellent situation, marked it out for a 
 long andprosperous career. Between these various properties, 
 were open grass lands, patenas, on which the estate cattle 
 found abundant pasturage, and across which the Managers 
 were able to enjoy a good morning canter, when work fell 
 slack, which it did not often ; for in those early days labor was 
 far less plentiful than at present : the few Tamils obtainable, 
 had to be supplemented by Kandyan villagers, g, most fickle 
 and uncertain class of workmen, with an occasional draft of 
 low country Singhalese, a still more unstable element in the 
 planter's calculation of work to be done. 
 
 Nowhere in all Ceylon was there at that time such a wide 
 stretch of Coffee as in the Vale of Dumbera. The mountains 
 and vallies of the Kandyan country were then one vast mass 
 of forest, untouched by planter's axe, save here and there a 
 small solitary clearing, the nurseries of a future gigantic 
 industry. On the Hantane and Hunasgiria ranges, away upon 
 the Knuckles, in the Kallibokke valley, and anon in Pusilava, 
 gaps had been made in the dense jungle, but few and far 
 between. Seen from above, these pioneer clearings would 
 appear like specks on the wide ocean of forest below, with
 
 14 
 
 o 
 
 here and there "at ]ong intervals, a small curling wreath of 
 smoke rising from the planter's solitary hut of mud and talipot. 
 Not a mile of roadway was to be seen throughout that great 
 stretch of forest ; not a bridge spanned any river ; all save 
 our " Happy Valley" was a vast expanse of jungle solitude, 
 the silence of which was only broken by the roar of the 
 elephant, the tread of the buffalo, or the cry of some winged 
 dweller in the woods, disturbed by village sportsmen. 
 Travellers and holiday-makers from the central capital, were 
 in those days, attracted by the novelty of Coffee estates in full 
 vigor, to drive to the Kondesallie ferry, stroll over the 
 cultivated fields, look in at the sugar works, call on the 
 Manager, and drive back to Kandy, convinced that they had 
 beheld the germ of what was one day in the remote future, 
 to become a marvellously expanded and wealth-bestowing 
 enterprise. It has realised all these expectations to the full ; 
 but alas at the cost of how many lives, how many shattered 
 fortunes and broken constitutions ! 
 
 Then, all was bright, sunny hopefulness. Seasons and 
 markets were less unstable than they have since been found : 
 the virgin soil was full of undeveloped vigor, and yielded 
 readily abundant crops, without a thought of fertilising agents. 
 If salaries were in those days small, they were at least ample 
 for the planters' wants ; when full grown fowls were three 
 pence each, eggs two shillings a hundred ; and as for beef, 
 you could have the shooting of a buffalo on any foggy morning, 
 when cattle trespassers found their forbidden way amongst 
 the young fields of Pallikelle sugar cane. 
 
 It was not all sunshine in that fertile valley : there was a 
 price to be paid for the wonderful abundance of the crops, 
 that season after season were gathered on the Dumbera plan- 
 tations. If the soil were fertile, it was rank with noxious 
 exhalations : but recently opened by the axe, the plough or 
 the mamotie, it was found that what favored vegetable life, 
 was fatal to animal health. In those portions of the valley
 
 144 
 
 which bordered on the steamy banks of the Mahavilla ganga, 
 fever asserted full sway, and carried of its victims by the 
 Score. So terrible was its effects, that on some occasions all 
 field work came to a dead lock; every available cooly on 
 the Deegalle estate was fully occupied in attending to the 
 sick or burying the dead. The Europeans did not escape. 
 Superintendents were invalided rapidly, and the Manager, a 
 well known planter of iron constitution and of marvellous 
 spirits, was the only person on the estate who was not 
 prostrated by the scourge. In the end, disease swept away 
 the whole available force of coolies on the estate, and it became 
 a very serious question as to how the growing crop of Coffee 
 was to be gathered and cured. Coolies must be had ; but where, 
 was the question . The estate was so notorious in Kandy and 
 its neighbourhood for unhealthiness, that it was in vain to 
 hope for recruits in that direction. A fine piece of finesse was 
 resorted to, in order to seduce unsuspecting Tamils to th© 
 locality. To have sent one of the superintendents stricken 
 with fever, as they were, to enlist coolies, would have been as 
 futile as to have mentioned the name of the estate for which 
 their services were required : a wiser plan was carried into 
 successful execution. The services of a young,, ruddy-faced 
 planter from one of the adjacent estates were secured, and he 
 was despatched with a fair supply of rupees and a couple of 
 burly canganies, not to Kandy, but to Matelle on the north 
 road, the halting place of immigrant coolies, on their way 
 from the coast of India, There a few scores of them were 
 engaged by the healthy-looking planter, marched in safe 
 custody by a circuitous route to the vale of Dumbera, and there 
 handed over to the care of the Deegalle superintendent, who 
 with sunken cheeks and hollow eyes mustered them on the 
 barbacue and commenced by administering a strong dose of 
 quinine to them all round. Before a month was spent the 
 lives of half their number were as good as forfeited, and the 
 rest were sore smitten with a mortal fear.
 
 145 
 
 But though disease played havoc with some portions of 
 this happy valley, it was upon the whole a cheerful, pleasant 
 spot and something more, for it was oftentimes the scene of 
 much boisterous roystering mirth. Tradition has told many a 
 tale of noisy gatherings on Saturday evenings, of Knuckles* 
 Bricks and Dumbera boys in the Deegalle bungalow. How the 
 revels were kept up until far into Monday morning, when 
 steeds were saddled in hot haste, and many an aching 
 head throbbed hotly as the muster-ground was reached at 
 day-light- 
 
 The small bungalow in which these protracted revels were 
 held, has long since disappeared : its site thickly overgrown 
 with thorny brushwood and lanthana, was once sought for by 
 friends of one of the early planters and was at length 
 discovered by the vast memorial-mound of empty bottles piled 
 up about the lonely spot. 
 
 The daring spirits of those early times who sometimes gave 
 too much to the rosy god, and wasted in revelry the energies 
 that were often overtaxed in heavy continuous work, amidst 
 privations unknown to planters of to-day, rarely if ever trenched 
 on the proper hours of work, but gave Avithout stint to their 
 employers every hour of thought and toil that could be 
 claimed. But hardy as were these planting pioneers, they were 
 but mortal : there were limits to their endurance, and those 
 bounds too often reached, claimed, though late, all the penalties 
 that disregarded laws of nature could exact. 
 
 Times have changed since then, and so have places. Years 
 have rolled onwards remorselessly, blighting many a fond hope. 
 A panic time of trouble and dismay brought desolation to the 
 valley once so happy. Beggared proprietors and bankrupt 
 agents sought aid in vain from penniless bankers, and in the 
 end well cared for estates with bungalows, and works and 
 coolies' lines, were sold for less than the land once cost. Money 
 seemed to have fled the countiy, and so men grew callous and 
 let the bramble usurp the place of coffee, and the relentless
 
 
 
 146 
 
 lanthana claim for its own the fairest fields in that fair valley. 
 The buffalo trampled down the honeysuckle and the vine, the 
 wild boar made his home admidst the roses : and where the 
 prattling sounds of tiny voices were once heard, the jackall 
 shrieked at night-fall. 
 
 Once more a change has come over this bright vale 
 of sunshine ; once more the cheerful sounds of pleasant voices 
 are heard o'er many an acre, and once again human industry 
 asserts its supremacy over the jungle. One large hearted 
 toiler has made his home down there, and by the sheer 
 force of skilful labor has rescued the land from barrenness, and 
 made it what it was in olden, long-forgotten times, a " Happy 
 Valley."
 
 OUR PRODUCE DEALER 
 
 fEN miles an hour, — not a yard less, dashing through 
 horse-traps and water gullies in the road, over treacherous 
 heaps of broken metal, along the edges of dangerous drains, 
 skirting ugly-looking culverts, on goes that fast-trotting mare, 
 black as night, sleek as velvet, safe as anything, through 
 Panadura, dashing into Morotuwa, scaring hackery bullocks, 
 scattering groups of children at Ratmalane, and flying like a 
 puff of dark wind past sober hired horses along Colpotty. 
 The whip is a middle aged Singhalese, clad in purest white, 
 with showy gold buttons on his jacket, watch and chain, and 
 the tallest of marvellous combs in his hair. He is a dealer in 
 produce generally, but in two articles especially. Matthea 
 Appoo was in early life much attached to coir, and in pursuing 
 the bent of his affection in the direction of that special article, 
 he had become an adept. He knew to a nicety how much 
 jackwood dye badly colored yarn would stand, without 
 betraying the hand of the manipulator, and had made money 
 by the device. But yarn was slow work, and he eventually 
 abandoned his first love for two other more attractive, because 
 more remunerative objects, — cinnamon and plumbago. There 
 is no sort of similarity in these two, on the contrary — one is 
 very heavy, the other is very light — one is dug from the 
 bowels of the earth, the other is shaved off, if we may so say, 
 from the earth's surface. There is this, however, in common 
 between them, they are both valuable articles, and are both 
 susceptible of a good deal of manipulation, so much so indeed, 
 that they might almost be classed as art-manufactures, instead 
 of as raw-products, seeing how much " cookiug " enters into 
 their composition.
 
 148 
 
 Matthes began his commercial and manufacturing career 
 at an early age : he had served his time to an uncle, and under 
 him had acquired a knowledge of many little matters, which 
 were afterwards turned to profitable account on a larger scale : 
 at fourteen he had become an adept at bargaining for cin- 
 namon, sorting it and even at " making it up," which is the 
 technical or artistic term for blending the bark of the real 
 cinnamon plant, with that of spurious spice, or of trees which 
 have no relationship to the " laurus " family. There is an 
 active trade carried on in America in wooden nutmegs. Ceylon 
 can equally boast its guava cinnamon, and its " laterite " 
 plumbago. 
 
 Beholding the dashing " whip " of the Galle road, one 
 would scarcely imagine the humbleness of his first beginnings 
 in the outskirts of Maradana : beneath the shady roof of a 
 primitive hovel, and a ricketty out-house, rented at eight 
 shillings a month, he mapped out his future career, content to 
 bide his time with small beginnings, his cheap and simple 
 conveyance at that period of his life was a bullock-hackery. 
 His first essays in the dying of worthless coir yarn, yielded 
 him profit, and gave him the means to lay in a stock of " palm 
 oil," which he distributed with great tact, amongst the 
 storekeepers and head coolies of the principal exporters in 
 the Fort. 
 
 It was a saying of a former popular Governor of Ceylon, 
 that "the best lubricator for the wheels of the State, is 
 champagne :" the State wheels ran pleasantly enough in his 
 time. Matthes was of pretty much the same opinion in regard 
 to the wheels of fortune, sparing neither thirty shilling 
 champagne, or two-guinea brandy with gilt labels. Those 
 who spend but little on themselves, can afford to be liberal to 
 others, especially when sprats are given to catch herrings, and 
 even larger fish. No wonder then, that the little shady hovel, 
 and its ricketty godowns in the black slums of Maradana, 
 were soon exchanged for a tiled dwelling, and a range of solid
 
 149 
 
 godowns, at we nre afraid to guess how much monthly rent, 
 in one of the main thoroughfares, at a convenient distance 
 from water carriage, and not very remote from the family 
 abodes of the storekeepers of two large buyers of native 
 produce. Cheerful, and occasionally not unprofitable evenings, 
 were spent in the society of the said storekeepers, who sipped 
 Matthes's liquor in the front verandah, and chatted about coir, 
 cinnamon, and plumbago, iu the most satisfactory manner, 
 until it was hard to say which were more sold, the produce or 
 the masters. 
 
 But no matter how many corks were drawn on these 
 
 occasions, the dealer was up at the usual hour to take his early 
 
 bath, and seek for the early worm, which he generally managed 
 
 to find. Coffee and hoppers despatched, his people began to 
 
 arrive, and by seven o'clock operations were in full play. 
 
 There were the cinnamon, storing rooms, the coir steeping 
 
 rooms, and beyond all, in later days, in another compound, 
 
 the plumbago manufactory, in which cart loads of " laterite," 
 
 or vulgarly " cabook," were converted into the finest plumbago, 
 
 by the skilled myrmidons of this ' Wizard of the Bast.' 
 
 Within his long range of godowns, there were many chambers 
 
 with intricate divisions and entrances, all piled with produce 
 
 in various stages of manipulation, and we may as well add 
 
 in varied modes, to suit the different tastes or capacities of 
 
 the dealer's buyers. For the lately landed British merchant, 
 
 fresh and green from the environs of Coruhill, Matthes had 
 
 bales of the smoothest and most golden looking spice that 
 
 ever Spanish Don set eyes upon : these were the produce of 
 
 an extensive tract of young guava trees in Saffragam, peeled, 
 
 prepared and dried as cinnamon, and so closely resembling 
 
 it in general appearance, savo that it was too pale and too 
 
 smooth, that unwary buyers might easily be imposed upon by 
 
 it ; but what about the sweet odour and the still sweeter-taste 
 
 peculiar to the bark of cinnamon : this is managed in a few 
 
 hours by immersion in largo tubs of the waste water from the
 
 : 150 
 
 distillation of cinnamon oil, and aftei'wards when dry, by the 
 slightest touch on each end of a bundle of the false guava 
 pipes, with a cloth saturated with cheap cinnamon oil, which 
 leaves behind it a searching and tolerably permanent aroma, 
 this perfume and the taste left by cinnamon water, are quite 
 sufficient for the newly caught shipper of native produce, eager 
 as he is to develop the resources of the country and add to 
 his own. For the buyer who has been two or three years in 
 the country, and has had an awakening to a sense of the 
 existence of guava trees* in Ceylon, our dealer has other 
 varieties of spice, almost as worthless, but less easy of 
 detection : these are the produce of spurious varieties of the 
 cinnamon plant, grown in the jungles of the interior, and 
 when cut young, presenting a good deal of the [external 
 appearance of the genuine article : this too is doctored in the 
 manner prescribed, and as eagerly bought by the advanced 
 griffin. A third mode of manipulation is by false packing, 
 which consists in filling the centres of pipes of good cinnamon 
 with pieces of guava bark or of spurious cinnamon : this 
 requires skilful operation and when well worked is not easily 
 detected. The sale of guava or jungle bark, which probably 
 costs about six pence the pound in Colombo, in place of spice 
 worth from eighteen pence to two shillings in ordinary years, 
 must be a lucrative business if a dealer can transact much of it, 
 and that much of it does change hands at these prices, advices 
 from home assure us, equally with the increasing wealth of 
 Matthes and his co-traders. 
 
 The plumbago trade has grown up marvellously of late : 
 from small beginnings it has come to be, like our friend 
 Matthes amongst shippers, in great request. Its value has 
 doubled, and its exports have trebled in not very many years. 
 
 * In Mincing Lane this guava spice is termed sassafiass bark, though why is 
 difficult to understand, as the sassafrass tree is totally different in growth and quality 
 from the guava tree.
 
 151 
 
 In former times it was known chiefly as a lubricant, and a 
 polishing powder for fire-grates, and some other such purposes. 
 Now its chief use is in the construction of crucibles for melting 
 obstinate metals, and again for a very different purpose, in 
 the manufacture of pencils in substitution of Cumberland lead 
 which is becoming more scarce and dearer year by year. For 
 both these latter purposes it is essential that the article be 
 pure and free from sand or soil of any kind, and in proportion 
 to this quality is its value. A shipper who is careful on this 
 point will insist on seeing every barrel filled and packed 
 in his own yard, before paying for it, yet with all this 
 precaution, he is not unfrequently sold by a clever legerdemain 
 between storekeepers and dealers, who occasionally manage to 
 pack away some of the cabook covered by plumbago artfully 
 rubbed over it. Some wholesale frauds of this kind have been 
 known to take place, always of course, with connivance on the 
 part of Bome subordinate in the shipper's employ. The most 
 notable instance of the kind occurred some dozen years ago, 
 when a loss of nearly a thoiisand pounds, was sustained by a 
 large exporter of plumbago who had most carefully seen to 
 the filling, packing and marking of every barrel of the finest 
 plumbago. Our friend the clever manipulator of guava 
 cinnamon, was in this case equal to the occasion. He had 
 supplied the fine silvery mineral and the barrels, and his men 
 had assisted in marking the packages for the merchant. His 
 procedure was to fill a like number of similar barrels with 
 rubbishing plumbago dust, mark the packages with the same 
 numbers and marks which are usually very simple, generally 
 one or at most two letters, send his barrels to the wharf 
 on the same day with the others, and then for a dextrous 
 quick hand to go carefully round in the dead of the night, 
 and by the light of a dark-lanthorn, mark a cross or a star 
 below the distinguishing letter on all the barrels of good 
 plumbago. On the morrow when the coolies went to load 
 th» plumbago in boats, they naturally loaded the barrels
 
 152 
 
 containing the rubbish as they alone had the mark indicated in 
 the shipping order, the others with the star beneath the initial 
 letter, they of course left on the wharf, and these were 
 afterwards either removed to the dealer's premises, or sold as 
 they stood on the wharf ready for shipment, and being found 
 of first rate quality, fetched a high price. It is scarcely 
 necessary to add that the shipper who had such a long and 
 angry correspondence with his American constituents, to 
 whom he made the consignment, never succeeded in tracing 
 the manner of the fraud or the perpetrators. 
 
 But let it not be supposed that all produce dealers are as 
 Matthes Appoo, given to manipulations of a doubtful kind. It 
 is not so. We do not care to venture on any guesses as to 
 the proportion which manipulating dealers bear to the plain 
 and straight-forward dealing contractors who conscientiously 
 give you the article they profess to sell ; suffice it to say there 
 are somewhat too many of the former to make the life of a 
 young beginner at merchandising quite one of velvet and 
 roses. That they are thus numerous is matter for deep regret- 
 But on the other hand, there are dealers, Singhalese and 
 Tamil, whose word may be taken as their bond, and whose 
 goods will pass the most cunning scrutiny without fail or fault. 
 Meantime Matthes has married the dowered dauohter of a 
 wealthy cart-contractor, and has taken a suburban villa some- 
 where in the direction of Mount Lavinia so as to be handy for 
 the plumbago business. He has a number of pits giving 
 employment to some scores of workpeople, who bring to the 
 surface many tons of the mineral monthly. At first Matthes 
 had no idea, but that of getting a few facilities from the 
 headmen in the matter of royalty, but when his pada-boats 
 were delayed, sometimes for weeks together, for the Mudeliyar 
 to come and see to the weighing of the plumbago, he became 
 so exasperated ^hat it needed small persuasion to induce him 
 to despatch his boat loads of the mineral, without the operation 
 of weighing, or the formality of paying the royalty ; and none
 
 153 
 
 were the wiser. That which he adopted at first in self-dtf ence, 
 he now practices from force of habit, and as he keeps a store 
 of good Kquor always at hand, the overworked headman does 
 not trouble himself to enquire whether the amount of royalty 
 paid by Matthes can possibly represent the extent of business 
 he must do to build up the fortune he is evidently making.
 
 NUMBER FORTY-TWO. 
 
 fHE true, original Number Forty-two — of which a copy 
 may be seen in any of the thousands of towns and cities 
 between Nepaul and Ceylon — is situated in the very heart of 
 the black town of Colombo, amidst the streets in which 
 dwell natives, half-castes, and Eurasians, or country-born 
 descendants of Europeans : it is to be found in the chief 
 thoroughfare of the town, if such a term as thoroughfare can 
 properly be applied to the narrow, choked up street, boiling 
 over with hot coolies, and enraged bullock-drivers. 
 
 This state of tropical conglomeration will be more readily 
 understood when I mention that the carriage-way or street 
 is the only passage available for pedestrians and equestrians, 
 for bipeds and quadrupeds. The Dutch, when masters of the 
 place, had provided every house with broad luxuriant verandahs, 
 covered in and nicely paved ; so that the dwellers in the town 
 might not only sit out under shade in the open air at 
 eventide ; but, during the furious heat of the day, could walk 
 from one end of the street to the other under these broad and 
 pleasant covered ways. Now,* many of these verandahs have 
 been appropriated and railed off, as open receptacles of all 
 sorts of merchandise. Where in former jolly days, radiant 
 Dutchmen sat and smoked their pipes, and quaffed Schiedam, 
 are now piled up motley goods to tempt the unwary 
 passer-by. Where buxom, merry-eyed lasses once flirted with 
 incipient burgomasters, are shiploads of rice, and cargoes 
 of curry stuffs. The perfume of the rose and the oleander 
 are supplanted by the caustic fragrance of garlic and salt-fish. 
 
 * A. D. 184.8.
 
 155 
 
 Dotted along these f rfigrnnt street, among rice stores, iron 
 depots, and dried fish warehouses, are the shops of the 
 Moorman traders, the only attractions for Europeans in this 
 quarter. Your regular Moorman shopkeepers, or bazaar-men, 
 possess such terrifically unpronounceable names that, by common 
 consent, their English customers designates them by the numbers 
 of their shops. In this way a little, thin-faced, shrivellod-up 
 Moorman, a small portion of whose name consists of Meera 
 Lebbe Slema Lebbe Tamby Ahamadoe Lebbe Marcair, is cut 
 down to Number Forty-eight ; which is the title he is known by. 
 The most flourishing of these gentry is certainly Number 
 
 Forty-two; a portly, oily-skinned, 
 well-conducted Moorman, with 
 a remarkably well-shaved head, 
 surmounted on its very apex by a 
 ridiculously little colored cap, like 
 an infantine bee-hive. His bazaar 
 is admitted on all hands, especially 
 amongst the fair sex, to be "first 
 chop." Yet a stranger would 
 imagine that the fiscal had pos- 
 session of the place and \^as on 
 the point of selling off by auction 
 the entire contents, so confused 
 and motley an appearance do they wear. 
 
 The doorway, narrow and low, is jealously guarded by a 
 pile of grindstones, surmounted by a brace of soup-tureens on 
 the one side, and by tools and weapons of offence on the 
 other ; so that the chances arc that, in trying to escape the 
 Newcastle and Staffordshire Charybdis you get caught upon 
 the sharp points of the Sheffield Scylla. Ouco past these 
 dangers, however, you forget all your anxiety and nervousness 
 in the bland sunny countenance of Number Forty-two. He is 
 truly delighted to see you, he is so anxious to place the whole 
 contents of his store at your complete disposal, that one might
 
 156 
 
 fancy his sole object in life was to minister to the pleasure of 
 the English community. 
 
 Number Forty-two directs your attention, in the most 
 winning manner, to a choice and very dusky collection of 
 hanging lamps of the most grotesque fashion. His fowling- 
 pieces are pointed out to you as perfect marvels. If you 
 require any blacking brushes, or padlocks, or Windsor soap, 
 or smoking caps, or tea-kettles, he possesses them in every 
 possible variety, just out by the very latest ship. 
 
 Our bazaar is by no means aristocratic. On the contrary, 
 it is most decidedly republican in all its tendencies. It admits 
 of no distinction of ranks. The highest born wares are placed 
 on an equal footing with the most lowly merchandise, the most 
 plebeian goods. Earthenware jostles cut-glass ; ironmongery 
 — and some of it rare and rusty too — elbows the richest 
 porcelain ; vulgar tin-ware hob-nobs with silks and satins. 
 Tart-fruits and pickles revel in ihe arms of forty yards of the 
 best crimson velvet. Pickled salmon in tins are enshrined 
 amongst Conventry ribbons. 
 
 I don't happen to require any of his perfumery or 
 preserves, nor am I anxious about muslins or plated-candle- 
 sticks : I simply want to select a few very plain wine-glasses, 
 and I know there are none better than at Number Forty-two. 
 Piles after piles of the fragile glass-ware are raked out from 
 under a mass of agricultural implements, and it is really 
 marvellous to see how harmlessly the brittle things are 
 towsled and tumbled about amongst ponderous wares and 
 massive goods. How peacefully the lions and the lambs of 
 manufactures repose together within the dusty dark walls of 
 Forty-two. 
 
 My friend with the bee-hive cap is never disconcerted 
 by any demand, however out of the common way. From 
 ships' anchors' and chain cables down to small minnikin-pins, 
 he has a supply of every possible variety of wares. I have 
 often asked for things that I never dreamt of requiring, just
 
 157 
 
 to try the wonderful resources of Number Eorty-two, and sure 
 enough he would produce the articles one by one. I thought 
 I had caught him once when I requested to look at a few 
 warming-pans, and pictured to myself how hugely chap-fallen 
 he would appear, to be obliged to confess that he had no such 
 things in his store. But not a bit of it. He stole away very 
 placidly into some dismal dark hole of a place, amongst a 
 whole cavern of bottles and jars, and just as I pictured him 
 emerging into broad daylight, dead-beaten, he came upon me 
 radiant and cheerful as ever, bearing a gigantic and genuine 
 " warming-pan," apologising to me, as he removed the coating 
 of dust from it, for having but that one to offer — it was the 
 last of his stock. 
 
 There was one peculiarity about ray friend with the bee-hive, 
 which must not be omitted. He never made any abatement 
 in the price demanded for his articles, be they of the latest 
 importation, or the remains of an invoice standing over since 
 he first started in business. A shop-keeper in nearly any other 
 country in the world would, at the end of a certain number of 
 years, clear out his old stock, and dispose of it as he best 
 could, to make room for new wares. But not so Number 
 Forty-two ; nor indeed any other number in that bazaar. 
 There lay the old-fashioned cotton-prints, and silk waistcoat 
 pieces, and queer-looking ribbons of no colour at all. Years 
 have rolled past since they first entered their present abode. 
 The merchant who imported them died of a liver attack a 
 dozen years since. They would not sell in eighteen hundred 
 and thirty, and therefore are not very likely to move off in 
 eighteen hundred and forty-eight ; but the same price is affixed 
 to them now as then, and the only chance for their disposal 
 would seem to be by the direct interposition of a fire or an 
 earthquake. Number Forty-two had doubtless hoard that 
 wines are improved by age, and ho may possibly imagine that 
 some mellowing and enriching process goes on in a lapse of 
 years, with regard to silks and muslins.
 
 158 
 
 This class of Indian shopkeepers have, moreover, a very- 
 confused and mystified conception of the real value of some 
 goods. They can tell you to a tinfle the worth of a dinner-set, 
 or of a dozen of Dutch hoes, but in millinery and other fancy 
 articles, they are often fearfully mistaken. A Moorman buys 
 what is termed in technical language, a " Chow-chow" invoice, 
 in other words, a mixed assortment of hardware and software, 
 of workables and wearables. He is told the lot is valued at a 
 hundred pounds sterling ; he offers eighty, and takes them at 
 ninety. He refers to the invoice on opening out the goods, 
 and gets on very well in pricing them until he comes to such 
 things as ribbons, gloves, lace, &c. ; which are the dear and 
 which the cheap he cannot possibly tell, and he therefore 
 tickets them at so much the yard or the pair all round, as the 
 case may be. In this way I often pick up a glorious bargain 
 at Forty-two, buying kid-gloves for eighteen-pence, for which 
 in London I should have to pay at least four shillings ; and a 
 trifle of real Brussels lace for my wife, at the price of the very 
 commonest Nottingham article. 
 
 The fortunes of Forty-two were once placed in the most 
 imminent jeopardy from a circumstance which happened in his 
 shop while I was there, and which became, at the time, the 
 food of all the hungry gossip-mongers of the place. My friend 
 had a Moorish assistant remarkably active, but dissipated and 
 impertinent. He was ugly beyond measure, and when he 
 grinned, which he frequently would do in spite of strict 
 injunctions to the contrary, he distended a cavern of a mouth 
 that was perfectly hideous. This creature had one day become 
 unusually excited, and it appears in the fervour of his jollity 
 had laid a wager with a young neighbour of kindred habits, 
 that he would kiss the first female customer who should set 
 foot within his master's shop on that morning, be she fair or 
 dark. I can imagine the horror with which poor Forty-two 
 beheld his grinning deputy fulfil his engagement by saluting 
 the fair cheek of an English lady, and that lady — as chance
 
 159 
 
 would have it — the wife of one of the high legal functionaries 
 of the ''place. The affair was hushed up as much as it could 
 })e, but in the end it oozed out ; and people, so far from 
 deserting Number Forty-two, actually flocked to it to hear the 
 particulars of the affair. The offender was dismissed ; but not 
 until he had imparted to that particular shop an unenviable 
 celebrity that might have ruined its owner. 
 
 There are other numbers besides Forty -two, which enjoy 
 a considerable reputation, all things considered, but they 
 certainly lack the fashionable repute of the aforesaid. For 
 instance, there is Number Forty-seven, a remarkably well- 
 conducted man, very steady, very civil, and exceedingly 
 punctual in settling his accounts with the merchants who 
 esteem him accordingly. This worthy Moorman transacts 
 business much on the same principle as his neighbours, but 
 unlike Forty-two and one or two other active numbers, he is 
 given to indulge in certain siestas during the heat of the day, 
 which no influx of customers can debar him from enjoying. As 
 the hour of high noon approaches, he spreads his variegated mat 
 upon the little, dirty, ricketty, queer-looking couch, under the 
 banana tree in the back court-yard by the side of the well, and 
 there, under the pleasant leafy shade, he dozes off, fanned 
 by such truant breezes as have the courage to venture within 
 such a cooped-up, shut-in pit of a yard, dreaming of customers, 
 accounts and promissory notes. During this slumber, it is 
 in vain for any one to attempt to coax a yard of muslin, or a 
 fish-kettle out of the inexorable Forty-seven. The somniferous 
 spell has descended upon his dwarfy deputy, who, rather than 
 wake his master, would forfeit his chance of Paradise ; and he, 
 no less drowsy himself, opens one eye and his mouth only, to 
 assure you that the article you require is not to be found in 
 their shop. You insist that it is. You know where to lay 
 your hand upon it. The deputy Forty-seven shakes his drowsy 
 head in somniferous unbelief. You seek it out from its dusty, 
 murky hiding-place, and prodjuco it before his unwilling face.
 
 160 
 
 He opens another eye, smiles, nods to you, and is away 
 again far into the seventh heaven. There is no help for 
 it, but to appropriate the article and pay for it on your next 
 visit. 
 
 Number Forty-eight is a small bustling variety of 
 Moorman, making a vast show of doing a large stroke of 
 business; but, as far as I could ever perceive, doing next 
 to nothing. He bought largely, paid as regularly as most 
 of other numbers, was constantly opening huge packing 
 cases and crates, and sorting out their contents into heaps ; 
 but I never remembered to have seen a single customer within 
 his shop. How the man lived was, for a long time, a perfect 
 mystery to me ; but I learnt at length that he disposed of his 
 purchases entirely by means of itinerent hawkers who armed 
 with a yard-measure and a pair of scales, and followed by a 
 pack of loaded coolies groaning under huge tin cases and 
 buffalo-skin trunks, perambulated from town to village, from 
 house to hut ; and by dint of wheedling, puffing, and flattering, 
 succeeded in returnino^ with a bag full of coin. 
 
 For Number Sixty-two I entertained a more than ordinary 
 respect. Unlike his Moorish brethren he possessed a remark- 
 ably rational name, — Saybo Dora. Originally a hawker, he 
 had by his steady conduct won the confidence of the merchants, 
 who supplied him with goods wherewith to open a store, at a 
 time when such places did not exist in the town. From small 
 beginnings he rose to great transactions ; and now, beside a 
 flourishing trade in the bazaar, carried on pretty extensive 
 operations in many smaller towns throughout the country. It 
 was by no means an unusual thing for this simply-clad 
 mean-looking trader to purchase in one day from one merchant, 
 muslins to the value of a thousand pounds, crockery for half 
 that amount, and perhaps, glassware for as much more. For 
 these he would pay down one-fourth in hard cash, and so great 
 was the confidence reposed in him, that his bags of rupees, 
 labelled and endorsed with his name and the amount of their
 
 161 
 
 contents, were received and placed in the strong-room of the 
 Englishmen without being counted, Saybo Dora's name on 
 the packages gave them currency. 
 
 So much for their business aspect ; but once I paid a visit 
 to Forty-two in his private dwelling. In one of the dullest, 
 dirtiest, and most squalid-looking streets of the black town 
 dwelt he of the bee-hive and portly person. The hut was 
 perched high up on a natural parapet of red iron-stone, with 
 a mound of rubbish in front. The day had been fearfully hot' 
 even for India ; the very roadway was scorching to the feet 
 thouCTh the sun had set, yet the tiny windows and the 
 ramshackling doors were all closed. Nobody was lying dead 
 in the house, as I first imagined might be the case. They 
 had only shut out the heat. 
 
 I found Forty-two enveloped in a sort of winding-sheet, 
 reclining on some coarse matting, and smoking a very large 
 and dirty hookah. A brazen vessel was by his side, a brass 
 lamp swung from the ceiling; and, on a curiously carved 
 ebony stand, was a little sort of stew-pan minus a handle 
 filled with sweatmeats. In an adjoining part of the dwelling, 
 divided off only by some loose drapery for want of a door, lay 
 sprawling on the earthen floor a leash of infantine, embryo 
 Forty-twos; while, shrouded in an impenetrable mass of 
 muslin, crouched Mrs. Forty-two, masticating tobacco leaves 
 and betel nut. Smoking, eating sweetmeats and curry, and 
 sleeping, form the sum total of the earthly enjoyments of this 
 race of people. Their sole exception to this dreary, caged 
 existence being an occasional religious festival, or a pilgrimage 
 to some shrine of great sanctity, when the muslin-shrouded 
 wife, the muslin-less children, the sweetmeats, the hookah and 
 the brazen vessels are packed into a hackery which, with its 
 huge white bullock, jingles and creaks over the ruts and stones 
 as though the wheels and axle had got a touch of Saint Vitus's 
 dance, and for that one day, at any rate, Number Forty-two 
 may be fairly said to be out of town.
 
 OUK COFFEE MILLS- 
 
 ^HE fine old English gentleman, who sits at home at ease, 
 ^ and sips his morning coffee, with the Times upon his 
 knees, is utterly powerless to fathom the depth of human 
 ingenuity, which, during the last quarter of a century have 
 been brought into the service of the coffee grower and the 
 coffee curer. The frugal house-wife may marvel at the rapid 
 strides with which the Ceylon article has risen in public estima- 
 tion and general value at home and abroad, until it has nearly 
 attained the foremost place amongst the coffees of the world. 
 
 The race for place between the coffee-producing countries 
 of the world, has been a long and a waiting race, so far as 
 Ceylon was concerned. She knew that the Mocha staple 
 was a strong opponent, while the Jamaica and Costa Rica 
 confederacies had long been favorites in the field, and could 
 always command the odds : she did not care much for Brazils, 
 and as for Java she was not fit for any distance. Well, for 
 years past, Mocha has had all the running at heavy odds, 
 say 100 to 85, with Jamaica a good second at 90 to 60, and 
 Costa Rica well on her quarter at 85 to 65, Ceylon all the 
 while waiting steadily upon them at 70 to 50, with Rio and 
 Java in the crowd. But, places have been changed lately : 
 there was some very close running in 1861, and now we find 
 the Ceylon berry has regularly overhauled the Jamaica favorite 
 and the Costa Rica pet, and left them behind, and is making 
 capital running for first place. We shall expect to hear in the 
 next report, that the Ceylon filly has won cleverly by a neck, 
 with Jamaica and Costa Rica completely distanced. 
 
 How all this has happened does not take long to tell, so 
 we will tell it and pass on to explain the means and appliances
 
 163 
 
 now in use throughout this city, for maintaining the high 
 position its chief produce has attained. The cultivation of 
 coffee in Ceylon has been all along, carried on under many 
 disadvantages and drawbacks. Fickleness of seasons, instability 
 of markets, uncertainty of labor supply, dearness and scarcity 
 of transport, and, after all, a long voyage to market. To meet 
 so many drawbacks our planters set themselves to see how 
 they could lessen the cost of production and curing, and 
 enhance the value of their product by greater care in the 
 preparation. The latter object has led by slow degrees, to 
 such improvements in machinery, processes, and appliances that 
 coffee-curing has become a scientific process, and hence the 
 presence of so many extensive buildings and tall chimneys 
 which are to be seen in every direction in the neighbourhood 
 of Colombo. 
 
 Forty years ago when coffee-curing was in its earliest 
 stages of infancy, such a thing as a Coffee mill did not 
 exist. The whole of the then small crops were dried on 
 mats spread in the front and back yards of Colombo fort 
 offices : not a bean of it was dried out of the fort, and the 
 peeling or removal of the parchment covering of the berry was 
 effected either by hand-peelers of a very rude and cumbrous 
 make, or by peelers worked off the engines of two oil mills. 
 It was, if we remember rightly, in the year 1840 that the 
 first regular coffee-curing establishment was formed out 
 of the fort, on the actual site of Messrs. Sabonadiere and 
 Company's mills, where may still be seen a small portion of the 
 original old walls and doorways : well do we remember when 
 the foundations of that unpretending coffee-curing store were 
 laid, how British merchants came out to look at them, and 
 shaking their sceptical heads, pronounced the firm which was 
 engaged in the building, no better than insane, for that all 
 the estates in Ceylon could never grow coffee enough to cover 
 those vast brick barbauuos ; and as for the peeler-wheels shod 
 with iron, why of course, they would crush all the coffee into
 
 1C4 
 
 triage ! Such were the predictions of the Colombo magnates of 
 1840. We have lived to see thirty cojffiee mills each of ten times 
 the capacity of the original coffee mill in Slave Island, and all 
 find ample work, whilst the weight and speed of the " peeler " 
 wheels have been doubled. 
 
 An account of the process carried on in any one of these 
 many mills will represent the work of the whole, for although 
 the special arrangements and disposition of drying ground, 
 peeling-house and picking and packing stores, may differ in 
 certain details, they all follow one general principle. 
 
 A stranger to Ceylon and unacquainted with the vissicitudes 
 of our climate, and the condition in which much of the first 
 parcels of coffee are received from the estates, might well 
 marvel at the massive character of the buildings, and the very 
 finished manner in which every appliance is completed. We 
 may as well inform those who are unacquainted with the fact, 
 that in the early months of the coffee season, say from October 
 to far into December, the weather is most variable, and the 
 parchment coffee received from the planters, is often saturated 
 with moisture to such an extent as to require a full week of 
 good Colombo sunshine to free it of superfluous water, to say 
 nothing of drying it for the mill. Of course, this makes the 
 curing rather costly, and the freight by railway very high, 
 as the charge for carriage is by weight. But it is often 
 unavoidable from long-continued rains up-country, combined 
 with a rush of ripe cherry blocking up the planters' stores, so 
 as to prevent them from turning it over, and therefore rather 
 than run the risk of heating, they consent to extra freight by 
 railway and extra growls from the Colombo curers. 
 
 During October and November, the manager of a coffee 
 mill leads a most harrassing life ; anxious to take advantage 
 of every blink of sunshine to air and if possibly, warm his wet 
 parchment, he is compelled to run risks and cover his wide 
 barbacues, as thinly as may be, and perhaps before it has had 
 an hour of fresh, warm, morning air upon it, a heavy squall
 
 165 
 
 sweeps over the ground, and ere three-fourths of the damp 
 cofEee can be gathered up, and placed within shelter, the 
 barbacues are swimming from the effects of the watery- 
 downpour. 
 
 When cofEee is received from the estate, unless the season 
 be far advanced, and there be hot dry weather up-country, 
 the bean inside the parchment is usually so soft as to yield to 
 pressure : as it would be impossible to remove the parchment 
 from it in this condition, as the soft cofEee berry could not 
 be preserved with so much water in its composition, it has to 
 undergo a good deal of exposure to the sun. 
 
 It is not necessary in describing the process of cofEee 
 curing and packing, as carried on in Colombo, that we should 
 give a sketch of any particular establishment. The mode of 
 procedure is identical in all of them, though there may be 
 modifications of arrangements in some not to be found in 
 others, and some of the larger or more recently erected mills, 
 have mechanical appliances for economising labor, not to be 
 found in others. Apart from these arrangements, however, 
 there is no essential difference in any of them. 
 
 Whether you enter the Blooming-hall Mills, or the United 
 Channel Island Stores, or the New Banff establishment, 
 between six or seven o'clock in the morning, the sight which 
 meets your eye is pretty much the same. The female part of 
 the indigenous population, will be streaming in to perform 
 their daily task of coffee-picking, some Singhalese, some Tamil, 
 some with sleeping babies, or toddling children, some free from 
 incumbrances, and thinking only of their new comboy of the 
 richest magenta, and their gorgeous hair-pin, receiving the 
 gate-keeper's knowing wink of the left eye, as an understood 
 and legitimate tribute to their personal attractions. And 
 here we may mention that in the coffee-picking world, fully 
 as much as in the western, civilized world, " kissing goes by 
 favor," and it is quite pleasant to see how readily the store 
 coolies lighten the labors of a pretty and unencumbered picker;
 
 166 
 
 * 
 
 her allowance of coffee for the day's work is brought to the 
 precise spot, close to an open breezy window where she works, 
 her mat will be spread for her, and one might almost imagine 
 though it would no doubt be a gross libel on the male portion 
 of the establishment, that the bushel which measured her bag 
 of coffee could not have been nearly so large as that which 
 meted out the daily allowance of her neighbour, the haggard- 
 looking woman with a squalling child. 
 
 Whilst these ladies are strolling in and assuming their 
 allotted tasks, a score or two of coolies will be busy carrying 
 out from the receiving store, and spreading not too thickly, 
 but according to the weather, the parchment coffee for the 
 day's drying on barbacues faced with bricks and tarred, having 
 sufficient slope to run off rain water. In the evening of 
 the second day it will be carried into another store near to the 
 peeling-house, and next day spread out on a barbacue further 
 up the yard, until by successive days' exposure it has become 
 sufficiently dry and hard to be placed in the troughs of the 
 peeling-mill and subjected to the rapid friction of the metal- 
 faced wheels. 
 
 Thoroughly well dried parchment coffee is rapidly cleaned 
 by being rubbed briskly between the hands, when the 
 parchment falls into dust, and the beans are found ready for 
 packing. The peeling-mill of the present day differs only 
 from that of early times in being larger, better hung, more 
 rapidly propelled, and of metal throughout with a corrugated 
 face. The mechanical arrangements for removing the coffee 
 and parchment dust known as "chaff" from the mill, and 
 separating them by means of fanners or winnowers, vary in 
 different establishments, but in all the process is the same : 
 so likewise we may say of the machinery for separating the 
 beans of various sizes by means of sizers, and removing the 
 pea-berry and broken beans, all of which are separately packed 
 and marked : the means for effecting these objects are 
 identically the same in all mills, but modified or combined
 
 167 
 
 with lifting apparatus, according to the requirements of each 
 place. 
 
 In the early coffee days of Ceylon all that was done to 
 the beans after being freed from the chaff was to pick out 
 damaged or defective pieces : afterwards the pea-berries were 
 removed by hand, and it was not until in more recent times 
 that it was found worth while to size the coffee, an operation 
 at first performed by hand, but eventually by sizers worked 
 by steam power. The coffee curer has ascertained that the 
 trifling additional cost of sizing is far more than compensated 
 by the enhanced value of the coffee which is found to roast 
 better when of even size. Greater care is also taken to remove 
 from the sound portion of the sample every bean in the 
 slightest degree injured, as it is found that the smallest cut 
 from the pulper is apt to favor decay before reaching the home 
 market, and seriously affect the flavor of the article. 
 
 The appliances for weighing and packing do not differ 
 materially in any of the mills, nor does the preparation of the 
 packages, in which great care is exercised, to the end that 
 when turned out of the coolies' hands they may be not only 
 sea-worthy, but coffee-worthy, in other words sound, strong, 
 and sweet. A good charring in the inside of the cask will no 
 doubt remove any slight resinous taint, but generally speaking, 
 care is used to employ only good sweet wood. How a sufficient 
 supply is to be obtained ten years hence, at the present rate of 
 consumption of eighty thousand casks a year, is one of those 
 things no coffee curer can undertake to explain. Up to the 
 year 1840 all coffee from Ceylon went home in bags; in that 
 year a small experiment was made by shipping pea-berry in 
 small boxes lined with paper : but this was a failure ; the good 
 woods were found too costly, and the cheap woods such as Hal 
 and Dawata imparted an objectionable flavor to the contents. 
 Ultimately kegs with the insides charred, were tried with 
 success : then larger barrels, and eventually casks of six to 
 nine hundredweights each.
 
 168 
 
 Packed in casks of various sizes so as to secure better 
 stowage, on ship-board, they are carefully marked with a view 
 to placing the head-staves perpendicular when in the ship's 
 hold, pressure above being found to damage the ends when 
 this precaution is not taken. From the time the casks of 
 coffee leave the mills, until they are on board ship, they do 
 not part company with a stout tarpauHne, so necessary is it 
 that damp should not in any way penetrate the packages, and 
 hence it is that, added to all the care that is given to our chief 
 article of export within the mills, it is cared for up to its latest 
 moments in Ceylon. 
 
 An account of our coffee mills would be manifestly 
 imperfect without a slight sketch of the presiding genius, the 
 store-keeper, who for many a year in olden days was master 
 of the situation. 
 
 The original of the type I am about to describe, may be 
 said to belong to a race nearly extinct in the present day : 
 born of the necessities of their time, they have been gradually 
 swept away by the necessities of a more advanced state of 
 things, and are now only to be met with in the bye-ways of 
 business, hanging on to the skirts of new comers unskilled in 
 their filchings, and captivated by the low rate of salary with 
 which they are content, as a cloak to daily and nightly 
 swindles. 
 
 Your proper store-man is a Singhalese, but I could 
 produce Malays fully as skilled in the craft of the professional 
 store-keeper, as any " Tepanis " or " Juanis." In the early 
 days of coffee in Ceylon, there were but few mills or stores 
 that could afford the salary of a European manager, and it 
 was moreover considered that on some such principle as that 
 contained in the old saying of " set a thief to catch a thief," 
 there was no person better able to work natives, than a native. 
 This highly popular delusion obtained credence for a score of 
 years, during which time the amount of fraud and peculation 
 that was perpetrated through the Colombo coffee stores, was
 
 169 
 
 such as would have constituted a handsome fortune for most 
 men, and actually did constitute a good many fortunes to the 
 successful Tepanis's and Juanis's of the New Banffshire stores, 
 and the United Channel Islanders' Mills of those ever to be 
 lamented days, now all dead and gone. As the rings on the 
 cocoanut tree indicate the age of the palm, so the jewellery 
 and the general mounting of our model store-keeper, are 
 pretty safe indications of his years in the profession. The first 
 two years of his toils and depredation at the mills, are marked 
 by pearl buttons and tortoiseshell sleeve-links in his jacket 
 and linen, a bullock hackery being his then ordinary mode of 
 conveyance ; the third and fourth years form the silver age of 
 " Tepanis" when sleeve links and buttons of that metal supplant 
 pearl, when the pony carriage replaces the hackery : gold 
 buttons, a watch and chain, a horse and carriage, mark the 
 last and crowning stage of the successful store-keeper, the 
 horse being required not so much to convey him daily to and 
 from the stores, as to carry him to the Cinnamon gardens, to 
 superintend the building of the block of extensive dwelling- 
 houses, which his " savings" have enabled him to erect at 
 considerable outlay. 
 
 As with the growth and expansion of all other industries, 
 there have been cycles and gradations in this branch of our 
 local industries, fructifying to the especial advantage of Tepanis 
 and his like. In the days of store-keepers' simplicity, when 
 they served their employers, even as the house dog his master, 
 they were content with the trifling fee in copper coin invariably 
 extracted from the palms of Singhalese toilers, on each weekly 
 pay-day, trifling in detail but important in the solid aggregate 
 of accumulated pay-day fruits. There was not much to be 
 said against this practice : at any rate though vicious in 
 principle all contributed alike, and none would have performed 
 a better day's work if freed from the small exactions. It 
 formed a pretty addition to the humble salary of the store- 
 keeper, so humblo indeed that employers must have had strange
 
 170 
 
 ideas of the purchasing powers of thirty rix-dollars monthly, 
 in the hands of their native subordinate, gaily decked as he 
 was and gorgeously attired when on New Year's Day, he and 
 all his belongings paid their annual visit to the head of the 
 firm as in duty bound, in all the glory of walking rainbows. 
 
 As years rolled on so passed away the simplicity of the 
 primitive store-keepers, and their morality, ever elastic, 
 underwent a change for the worse. The small copper coins 
 were found too insignificant, for the enlarged ideas of Tepanis 
 and his fellows. Silver was coveted, but silver could not be 
 had from the weekly recipients of wages, and so the indigenous 
 ingenuity of the race souoht for it in another direction, 
 where fine viens of the precious metal were quickly found, 
 constituting an ever yielding el-dorado, veritable diggings of 
 apparently prolific yield. This rich vein of metal was worked 
 pretty much as follows : — cartmen and boatmen bringing 
 coffee from the interior to the stores, were almost invariably 
 short in their deliveries, sometimes very much so, occasionally 
 only to a small extent ; for this a deduction had to be made 
 from their hire, and it was therefore, only a question of amount 
 of the compromise to be arrived at between the measurer of 
 coffee and the carriers, in order to arrange the little difference 
 and secure for the latter a clean receipt and full balance of 
 hire. Of course when coffee advanced in price, the inducement 
 to sell the parchment on the way, was so much the greater, 
 and in such cases the store-keeper was treated more liberally 
 in the matter of fees. It may seem strange to some of our 
 readers, that this system of bare-faced fraud has never been 
 exposed, when it is known that the owners of stores, or their 
 European office assistants, in their daily morning visits to the 
 mills, failed to detect the cheat, as it was the custom to see 
 any recently arrived lots of coffee measured in their presence, 
 occasionally, by way of check as they supposed, but in vain : 
 the measurement invariably turned out rather better than 
 usual, and so all suspicion was lulled. I remember a cafee
 
 171 
 
 which occurred many years ago, in which a coffee curer having 
 been assured by a discharged coolie, that tricks were played, 
 managed to have two bags of estate coffee secretly removed 
 from one of the carts conveying it to the store, by the coolie 
 in question. In the morning the parcel of coffee was found 
 to have been measured and turned out correct in the bushels, 
 though two bags were stated to be short in the tally. On 
 finding this the proprietor of the store ordered the parcel to 
 be re-measured before him expecting to find the quantity 
 short, but not so, the number of bushels was found to tally 
 exactly with that entered in the receipt, and the coffee curer 
 was non-plussed. The affair is managed in this way : in order 
 to prevent the possibility of detection by occasional checks in 
 the measurement by one of the principals, sufficient parchment 
 was invariably taken from another lot to make up the correct 
 quantity, and thus detection became impossible. But it will 
 be said what about the out-turn of the various lots ? If a 
 certain number of bushels of parchment were being constantly 
 received short, there must have been an eventual deficiency in 
 the quantity of clean coffee shipped : this was what happened, 
 and this fact fully explains the very irregular out-turn of 
 estate coffee in those days, which was known to range between 
 4 : 60 and 5 : 50 bushels to the hundred weight. After a 
 time these irregular results led to searching enquiries and 
 unpleasant questioning, and so the wily store-keepers resorted 
 to another dodge, in order to conceal the short receipts of 
 parchment in their stores : they professed to ship more coffee 
 than actually left their mills, by marking the casks in excess 
 of their actual contents : some pounds on each cask, did not 
 create suspicion, and on arrival in London the difference was 
 supposed to have arisen from driage on the voyage home. 
 
 The trick of false marking has been known to have 
 extended to the tare of the cask, which being marked on thf> 
 packages less than it was, necessarily made it appear that there 
 was more coffee in it than was actually tho case, and this has
 
 172 
 
 been known to have been restored to, in order to cover the 
 weight of a quantity of good clean estate coffee removed from 
 the mills during the day-time, under the pretence of it being 
 black and having been sold to a confederate outside at a 
 nominal figure, a little black coffee being placed on the top of 
 each bag of the good. To what extent this latter system of 
 robbery was carried on, it would be impossible to form any 
 opinion, but there is no doubt that the total of the fraudulent 
 gains of native store-keepers, and of some few not natives by 
 birth, but by proclivities, has been very large indeed. We 
 have been assured that frauds have been perpetrated in the 
 measurement of coffee even when most rigorously watched by 
 a European store-keeper of undoubted integrity : it has been 
 managed by a confederate secreting himself behind a heap of 
 bags of coffee in the evening, and being locked in all night, 
 employed the short space of the early dawn in making up 
 the deficiency in his lot, by abstraction from another parcel 
 near at hand. 
 
 But there are sources of gain for the model store-keepers, 
 other than in the bean itself. The stores have to be enlarged 
 by the addition of another extensive wing a new picking 
 house, and a new upper-story, all of which involve a good deal 
 of consultation between Maricar, the contractor, and Tepanis 
 the store-keeper, generally on Sunday at the villa residence 
 of the latter. The result of these diplomatic conference is, 
 that Maricar obtains the contract after deducting a certain 
 amount which had been added for the express purpose of beings 
 reduced by the zealous and faithful Tepanis in the interests of 
 his respected employer. About the same period a new house is 
 commenced in the Cotta road on a nice plot of ground 
 acquired by the honest industry of Tepanis, the masonry work 
 is done by Maricar's men, the bricks come from the same 
 kiln as furnish the materials for the new store building, 
 likewise the carpenter's work, and a year afterwards Tepanis 
 astonishes his numerous circle of friends, by informing them
 
 173 
 
 what a ridiculously small sum that house cost him : they cannot 
 imagine how it was done for the money, all except his younger 
 brother, who puts his tongue in his cheek, and winks quietly 
 at Tepanis as he drinks off another glass of that fine, nutty, 
 after-dinner sherry of 1833, advertised at 22s. Qd. the dozen.
 
 A NEW YEAR'S DAY- 
 
 ST HERE are some of our fellow-subjects in the East, who 
 ^ appear to have been rather, unfairly dealt with by 
 writers of Indian books, and colonial histories, inasmuch as 
 no notice has been taken of them, save in the official census, 
 in which, by the way, they figure rather prominently as 
 regards number. I allude to the Burgher inhabitants of our 
 large colonial towns within the tropics. 
 
 In Europe the term " Burgher " was applied, in olden 
 days, to all citizens or dwellers in principal towns, carrying on 
 trades or professions therein. In the East, or rather within 
 the tropics, it is used to designate the descendants of the old 
 Portuguese and Dutch colonists, a class at once numerous and 
 respectable. At the Cape Colony they form the majority of 
 settlers ; but in the tropical settlements of Ceylon, Singapore, 
 etc., they are outnumbered by other races. When the former 
 island was taken possession of by the British forces, many of 
 the Dutch civil servants returned to Holland or migrated to 
 Java ; but very many lacked the means to travel, or preferred 
 remaining where they had been born. Their descendants 
 have continued to fill many leading posts in the colonial 
 establishments, and nearly all the minor appointments in the 
 judicial and revenue departments are bestowed upon these 
 and the Portuguese Burghers. The Dutch have been, and are 
 to this day very careful not to intermarry with any Singhalese ; 
 thus their habits and their characters have undergone but 
 little change. The Portuguese, on the other hand, have been 
 far less scrupulous on this point ; and their descendants of the 
 present day are to be seen of every shade and grade, from
 
 175 
 
 the well-clad medical student, to the half starved, ill-clad 
 mechanic or the indolent bazaar-keeper. 
 
 If the English colonists contrive to monopolize the best 
 berths in the service, the Burghers have managed to secure to 
 themselves the most comfortable dwellings, with the best 
 gardens. The same jealous exclusiveness which has so 
 completely separated these two classes, impels the European 
 to take up his residence in a quarter as far removed as possible 
 from the suburbs usually occupied by the Burghers. The 
 English merchants and civil servants will be found located 
 along the edge of some high road, within a very small patch 
 of burnt-up paddock. Their tenements are of no particular 
 order, being mostly long rambling whitewashed places. A 
 few palms make an attempt at shading the hot verandah 
 in front : while the small tufts of cinnamon bushes are to be 
 seen struggling for life in parched sand, evidently disgusted 
 with their circumstance. How different the dwelling's of the 
 Burghers ! Some of these, it is true, are in the midst of 
 the Pettah or native town, but most of them will be found 
 scattered about in quiet, shady lanes. Many are quite hidden 
 from the passer-by, amidst dense little clusters of fruit- 
 trees, rose bushes, and evergreens — concealed amidst leaves 
 and flowers as snugly as though they were so many huge, 
 rod-bricked bird's nests. 
 
 It is seldom, indeed that anything occurs to break the 
 dull monotony of life in the East. With few public amuse- 
 ments, no promenades, colonists seldom meet each other save 
 in their churches. There are however, a few days in the 
 year when a little change in this clock-work existence takes 
 place amongst the Burgher population ; when hard visaged 
 Dutchmen relax the stern rigidity of their bronzed features, 
 and put on some gay suit of many colors. When portly 
 dames rouse up for the emergency, startle the quiet family 
 halls with their busy tongues, and scare the old house-dog 
 with the vivid brilliancy of bright ribands and new laco.
 
 17G 
 
 One of these very few and much prized occasions is New 
 Year's Day. 
 
 In the afternoon of the first day in January, 1850, I 
 strolled out from the old sturdy fort of Colombo, over a 
 lumbering wooden drawbridge, through some of the broad 
 prim-looking streets of the native town. The bland sea-breeze 
 played coyly with the feathery foliage of the tall palms and 
 arekas, and waved against the azure sky many a tope of 
 broad-leaved, bright-green bananas. Away upon the breezy 
 ocean far out from land, a little fleet of fishing canoes were 
 
 discernable making their swift way to shore with welcome loads, 
 the toilers of the deep eager to be with their friends and 
 join in the glad rejoicings of that welcome New Year's Day. 
 The native bazaar, at the corner of the town, with one end 
 jutting out upon the sea, was for once clean and gay. The 
 dealers in fish, fruit, and curry-stuffs appeared to have put on 
 new clothes with the New Year. The huge white turbans, 
 and gilt-edged muslin scarfs, glistened in the noon-day sun ; 
 and gorgeous, many coloured vests and wrappers vied, in the
 
 177 
 
 brilliancy of their tints with the piles of many-hued fruits 
 and balmy flowers. The very fish and vegetables appeared 
 cleaner than usual ; while spices, condiments and sweetmeats 
 looked down from many a loaded shelf upon the passer-by. 
 
 Leaving this motley scone, I passed on to the heart 
 of the dwelling-places of the middle-class of Burghers. 
 Before every house was an ample verandah partly veiled 
 by an open bamboo-curtain. In these lofty, cool retreats were 
 seated the many families of the place, receiving or giving the 
 good wishes of the season. Once upon a time the streets 
 were graced by rows, on either side, of shady spreading 
 sooriya-trees bending over the footways, and peeping in at the 
 verandahs, to see how the inmates were getting on ; winking 
 the large eyes of their yellow tulip flowers at the daughters, 
 and enticing pretty birds to come and sing amongst the leafy 
 branches. But this was in the good old days of sleepy 
 Holland. Now all are gone — green boughs, winking flowers, 
 and singing-birds : more's the pity ! 
 
 As I passed along I met many groups of old, young 
 and middle-aged, evidently families, in full native holiday 
 costume. They were in each case followed by two or more 
 turbaned, fierce looking domestics, bearing enormous trays 
 piled up with something hidden from vulgar gaze by flowing 
 veils of muslin. I could not help calling to mind the pro- 
 cessions of slaves in the Arabian Nights, which we are 
 informed followed the steps of Caliphs and Viziers, bearing 
 with them huge presents of precious things from subterranean 
 worlds. I watched some of those domestic embassies and 
 perceived that they entered the houses of some of the 
 neighbours ; there was a groat fluster and bustle, and no end 
 to talking and laughing in tho long verandahs. I entered 
 the dwelling of a Dutchman to whom I was known, and found 
 one of these family groups within. A rare merry scene it 
 was : the deputation had just arrived ; friends were shaking 
 hands ; tho groat black slave of tho Arabian Nights uncovered
 
 178 
 
 the hidden treasures on the tray, and lo ! there were discovered 
 — not piles of glittering sequins, and emeralds, and rubies, as 
 I had expected, but a few bunches of yellow plantains, some 
 green oranges, a handful of limes, half-a-dozen pine-apples^ 
 and a homely-looking cake frosted with sugar. These were 
 the universal New Year offerings amongst that simple com- 
 munity, given as tokens of good-fellowship and neighbourly 
 feehngs ; and as such, welcomed and cheerfully responded to. 
 Little corpulent glasses of cordials, or schiedam, were handed 
 round amongst ail arrivals, rich or poor; good wishes were 
 exchanged ; a few stale jokes were cracked ; inquiries were 
 made for the grandmother who was too infirm to join the 
 party ; and away went the neighbours with another slave and 
 another heap of hidden gifts, to the next acquaintance. 
 These presents are not confined to mere equals ; the most 
 humble menial scrapes a few challies together for the occasion 
 and lays at his master's feet an oblation of fruits and flowers. 
 
 The very grass-cutter, the miserable hanger-on of 
 stables, contrives somehow to get a few pines and plantains 
 on a blue-and-white dish ; and poverty-stricken though she be, 
 pours out her simple gifts before her master, with gentle 
 dignity. 
 
 Group after group went through the town. Gay parties 
 continued to amuse themselves in many a dusty verandah. 
 Scores of meerschaums sent forth circling clouds of fragrant 
 white smoke ; while many a dreamy Dutchman nodded in his 
 high-backed, richly-carved chair of ebony. The hour of 
 vespers approached. There were heard dozens of tinkling 
 little bells ; and forth came scores of damsels clad in pure 
 white. Again the dusty streets were busy and alive, and 
 many of the good Catholic verandahs lost their chief charmers. 
 
 Straying onward from this bustling neighbourhood, I 
 reached the outskirts of the town, where are to be seen some 
 of the prettiest and most retired of the Burghers' dwellings. 
 These are mostly fine old mansions of red brick, with solid.
 
 179 
 
 grim-looking gable-ends frowning down upon the old rusty- 
 gates, and the great round wall by the forest of plantain-trees. 
 I found myself standing before one of these, in a sweet green 
 lane lined with lofty palms, spreading gorekas, and huge india- 
 rubber trees. The heavy wall in front hid the sturdy mansion 
 from my view ; but the gates being open, I obtained a peep of 
 the oriental paradise within. Rare old fruit-trees on the grass- 
 plot were well laden with clustering, many coloured fruit ! 
 They must have been in bearing when the old gentleman in 
 the easy chair, and the pink cotton trousers, and black scull- 
 cap, was a mere child. How cool the place looked amidst all 
 that dense green foliage ! One might almost have caught a 
 cold in the head by merely looking in at the gate : the sun 
 evidently never troubled the little children playing on the 
 grass under the thick cluster of mangoes, sour-sops, and 
 plantains, except, perhaps, for a few minutes at noon. What 
 a jolly old house it was, to be sure, with verandahs as large as 
 the Burlington Arcade in London ; and such windows ! They 
 looked like so many roofs of hot- houses let sideways into the 
 walls ; and as for the doors, one might have fancied, from their 
 size, that the family were in the habit of keeping their carriage 
 in the back parlour, or setting out the dinner-table in the 
 doorway : there would have been abundance of room in either 
 case, and a little to spare too ! 
 
 There were nice beds of flowers on each side of the large 
 grass-plot, and orange trees ; and the passer-by peeping in far 
 enough, as I did, might have caught a glimpse of one or two 
 pairs of small pretty feet, and faces to match, hidden away 
 cosily among the roses and oleanders. Well, these are nice, 
 quiet, enjoyable places, and much better than the hot, dusty, 
 dignified rabbit-hutches of the English on the other side of 
 the fort ! 
 
 I passed on as my fancy led me, until I came to another 
 stout Dutch residence, which pleased me though not so much 
 as the other had done. It was altogether another description
 
 180 
 
 of house, thougli doubtless pleasant enough in its way. It 
 stood close upon the road with all the garden behind it, so 
 that one saw nothing but red bricks and little Dutch tiles. 
 
 There was no peeping in there, through any open gates ; 
 no catching the daughters quietly among the flowers. 
 
 The owner of the house chanced to be enjoying his pipe 
 in the capacious doorway; and seeing me surveying the 
 premises, he at once rose feom his quiet seat and bade me 
 welcome. When he learnt my desire to examine his mansion, 
 he gladly conducted me through the building to the garden. 
 The principal room or hall was of great size. I believe you 
 might have driven a stage-coach, which very frisky leaders, 
 round the dinner table, without fear of touching the army of 
 chairs ranged along the walls. I could almost fancy the 
 builder had made a mistake, and roofed in a good part of the 
 road. I looked up, and when at length I discovered the roof, 
 I wondered whether the sparrows building their nests so high 
 there, ever felt giddy and fell down and killed themselves 
 upon the tiled floor. The other rooms were less ample, but 
 all spacious enough, and well filled with ebony and calamander 
 furniture. There was a degree of polish about the windows, 
 and a sort of rakishness in the couch covers and ottoman 
 drapery, which filled me with admiration ; while the very 
 screen in the doorway had a jaunty air about it which there 
 was no resisting. 
 
 Right and left from the large house, extended backward 
 two ranges of sleeping apartments and stores, with long stone 
 terraces, filled with flowering shrubs in gigantic pots. At 
 the farther end were rows of huge, suspiciously-shaped jars, 
 looking as though they belonged to Ali Baba and the Forty 
 Thieves. At the termination of this pottery were wide flights 
 of steps leading to a neatly laid-out garden, full of the richest 
 flowers, and greenest shrubs, and most tempting fruit trees 
 the eye ever saw, or fancy pictured. There was a small 
 fountain in the midst, with a seat by the side, and round it
 
 181 
 
 lay scattered childrens' toys. On the whole, this was a pretty 
 place, but not so natural and home-like as the other ; besides, 
 the stifE terrace and the jars of the Forty Thieves rather 
 marred its natural beauty, whilst adding to its air of romance. 
 
 The evening was magnificent. A young and lovely moon 
 flung many a pale ray of light among the gorgeous foliage 
 that danced in the cool sea-breeze. The vast Indian Ocean 
 broke peacefully in phosphorescent waves curling upon a 
 pebbly shore. The air was soft and still, broken only by fitful 
 echoes from some merry-making party in the distance. 
 
 My drive home led me by the sea-shore, and as I gazed 
 out upon the far ocean, I noticed a little black shadow on 
 the horizon, like a ship or as the shadow of some mon- 
 strous winged thing. Tired of watching, I lay back and 
 dozed. I looked out aoain, and started to find how dark 
 it had become. The horse-keeper, too, was urging the animal 
 to its utmost speed. The little black speck on the horizon 
 had swollen to a mighty, hideous mass of thunder-cloud. 
 Already half the heavens were shrouded in pitchy darkness, 
 I opened my carriage window and looked out. The storm waa 
 coming up with giant strides ; some distance out at sea, a 
 wall of smoking, hissing, bubbling rain joined the clouds and 
 ocean, and shut out. all beyond. I could hear that mighty 
 cataract of tempest fall with a roaring sound, nearer and 
 nearer. Before me, all was dark and stormy : behind, the 
 many groves of waving palms still slept in early moon-light 
 beauty. The distant hills wore clear and bold, and seemed so 
 near, as though my voice could reach them. 
 
 It was in vain my horse was urged onward : the storm 
 was swifter than any living thing. The great black smoking 
 wall came hissing on ; and from its darkened crest, loud peals 
 of thunder burst. I have been in many a storm in my day, 
 but this was the most magnificent I ever beheld. To go onward 
 became absolutely impossible ; so fierce was the tempest. The 
 driver thoroforo turned the horse's head away from the sea,
 
 182 
 
 and patiently sat it out. Peal after peal of thunder rent the 
 air. It seemed as though all the powder-magazines in the 
 world were being blown up. First there was a cracking and 
 splitting, as of gigantic sheets of metal torn asunder ; then a 
 heavy rumbling like ten thousand loaded waggons being 
 galloped across an iron bridge. The air was no longer 
 darkened ; every foot of atmosphere seemed alive with light- 
 ning life. By the glare, I could see some of the noble palms 
 — at least seventy feet high — bending to the gale like willow 
 wands, and literally sweeping the ground with their feathery 
 leaves. More than one, upon that terrible night, was shivered 
 into splinters by the lightning; and many a stubborn one 
 that would not bend, lay crushed and helpless on its sandy 
 grave. 
 
 The howling of the wind, the thunder-peals, the heavy 
 pattering of the huge rain-drops, had well-nigh stunned me. 
 In nature, however, as with man, the fiercest outbreaks are the 
 soonest quelled. In half an hour the moon shone out again in 
 undimmed beauty. The air was calm and hushed : and the 
 parched earth and herbs, grateful for such a copious draught, 
 sent many a fragrant blessing on the breeze, to tell their 
 thanks.
 
 OUR NATIONAL TREE. 
 
 ^T dwellers in Ceylon, the cocoanut palm calls up a wide 
 ^ range of ideas; it associates itself with nearly every 
 want, and convenience of native life. It might tempt a 
 Singhalese villager to assert that if he were placed upon the 
 earth with nothing else whatever to minister to his necessities 
 than the cocoanut tree, he could pass his existence in happiness 
 and contentment. 
 
 When he has felled one of these trees after it has ceased 
 bearing (say in its seventieth year), with its trunk he builds 
 his hut and his bullock-stall, which he thatches with its leaves. 
 His bolts and bars are slips of the bark ; by which he also 
 suspends the small shelf which holds his stock of home-made 
 utensils and vessels. He fences his little plot of chillies, 
 tobacco, and fine grain, with the leaf-stalks. The infant is 
 swung to sleep in a rude net of coir-string made from the 
 husk of the fruit ; its meal of rice and scraped cocoanut is 
 boiled over a fire of cocoanut shells and husks, and is eaten 
 off a dish formed of the plaited green leaves of the trees, with 
 a spoon cut out of the nut-shell. When he goes a-fishing by 
 torch-light his net is of cocoanut fibre, the torch, or chule 
 is a bundle of dried cocoanut leaves and flower-stalks : the 
 little canoe is the trunk of the cocoa-palm tree, hollowed by 
 his own hands. He carries home his net and string of fish 
 on a yoke, or pingo, formed of a cocoanut stalk. When he is 
 thirsty, he drinks of the fresh juice of the young nut ; when 
 he is hungry, ho eats its soft kernel. If he have a mind to be 
 merry, he sips a glass of arrack, distilled from the fermented 
 juice, and ho flavours his curry with vinegar made from this 
 toddy. Should ho bo sick, his body will bo rubbed with
 
 184 
 
 cocoanut oil ; he sweetens his cofEee with jaggery, or cocoanut 
 sugar, and softens it with cocoanut milk ; it is sipped by the 
 light of a lamp, constructed from a cocoanut shell, and fed by 
 cocoanut oil. His doors, his windows, his shelves, his chairs, 
 the water-gutter under the eaves, all are made from the wood 
 of the tree. His spoons, his forks, his basins, his mugs, his 
 salt-cellars, his jars, his child's money-box, are all constructed 
 from the shell of the nut. Over his couch when first born, 
 and over his grave when buried, a bunch of cocoanut blossoms 
 is hung, to charm away evil spirits. 
 
 This palm is assiduously cultivated in Ceylon, in topes, 
 or plantations ; and it was long believed that the rude native 
 system of culture was the best : but experience has shown th& 
 fallacy of this opinion. Hence, the Singhalese continue to 
 find the manual labor, but the Englishman provides skill and 
 implements. 
 
 There is a good road to within a couple of miles of the 
 plantation I am about to describe ; so that the visitor has 
 little difficulty in performing this much of the journey. The 
 remaining two miles lie through a sandy track of very flat 
 and rather uninteresting country. Here and there, amidst a 
 maze of paddy fields, arecanut topes, and patches of low thorny 
 jungle, are dotted little white-walled huts. They are much 
 cleaner than any such near the towns of Ceylon ; attached 
 to each is a small slip of ground, rudely fenced, and half 
 cultivated, with a few sweet potatoes, some chillies, and a 
 little tobacco and fine grain. It was midday when I started 
 on foot, to this estate. The sun was blazing above in 
 unclouded glory. Under the shade of a breadfruit tree, the 
 owner of the first hut I got to was dozing and chewing 
 betel- nut, evidently tasting, in anticipation, the bliss of 
 Buddha's paradise. The wife was pounding up something for 
 curry ; the children were by her side — the boys smoking 
 tiny cheroots, the girls twisting mats. It was fortunate for 
 me that the sandy path was over-shadowed by jungle trees.
 
 185 
 
 or my progress would have been impossible. Not a breath of 
 air was stirring amidst that dense mass of vegetation ; not 
 a twig or a leaf could be persuaded to move ; the long and 
 graceful paddy stalks glittered and sparkled in their watery 
 resting places, as though they were made of the purest 
 burnished gold. The buffaloes had taken to their noon-day 
 watering places. The birds were evidently done up, and 
 were nowhere to be seen ; the beetles crawled feebly over the 
 cooler shrubs, but they could not get up a single hum or a buzz 
 amongst them all ; even the busy little ants perspired, and 
 dropped their lilliputian loads. Well, the dry ditch and 
 thorny fence that form the boundary and protection of the 
 estate were at least reached, and the little gate and watch- 
 hut were passed. The watcher, or lascoryn, was a Malay, 
 moustachoed and fierce; for the" natives of the country can 
 rarely be depended on as protectors of property against their 
 fellow-villagers. A narrow belt of jungle trees and shrubs 
 had been left quite round the plantation, to assist in keeping 
 out cattle and wild animals, which are frequently very 
 destructive to a young cocoanut estate, in spite of armed 
 watchers, ditches and fences. Passing through this little belt, 
 I found, on entering, an entirely new scene : before and 
 around me waved gracefully the long shining leaves of three 
 hundred acres of cocoanut palms, each acre containing, on an 
 averao-e, eighty trees. It was indeed a beautiful and interesting 
 sight. Two-thirds of these trees were yielding ample crops, 
 though only in their tenth year; in two years more they will 
 generally be in full bearing. Unlike the rudely planted 
 native garden, this estate had been most carefully laid down ; 
 the young plants had all been placed out at regular intervals 
 and in perfectly straight lines, so that, looking over the estate 
 in either direction, the long avenues presented one unbroken 
 figure, at once pleasing to the eye and easy of access. But if 
 these interminable masses of palms appeared a lovely picture, 
 when regarded at some little distance, how much was their
 
 18G 
 
 beauty heightened on a nearer inspection ! Walking close 
 under the shadow of their long and ribbon-like leaves, I could 
 Bee how thickly they were studded with golden-green fruit 
 in every stage of growth. The sight was absolutely marvellous : 
 were such trees, so laden, painted by an artist, his production 
 would, in all probability, be pronounced unnatural. They 
 appeared more like some fairy creations, got up for my special 
 amusement, resembling nearly those gorgeous trees which, in 
 my youth, I delighted to read about in the Arabian Nights, 
 growing in subterranean gardens, and yielding precious stones. 
 They hung in grape-like clusters around the crest of the tree ; 
 the large golden ripe nuts below, smaller and greener fruit 
 just above them, followed by scores of others in all stages, 
 from the blossom-bud to the half-grown ; it was impossible 
 to catch a glimpse of the stem, so thickly did the fruit hang 
 on all sides. I made an attempt to count them : — " thirty — 
 fifty — eighty — one hundred " — I could go no further ; those 
 little fellows near the top, peeping up like so many tiny dolls' 
 heads, defied my most careful numeration ; but I feel confident 
 there must have been quite two hundred nuts on that one 
 palm. Above the clusters of rich fruit were two feather-like 
 flowers, white as snow, and smooth and glossy as polished 
 ivory ; they had just burst from their sheaths, and a more 
 delicate, lovely picture could scarcely be imagined. 
 
 A cocoanut tree in a native Singhalese tope, will some- 
 times yield fifty nuts in twelve months ; but the average of 
 them seldom give more than twenty-five in the year. It is 
 therefore very evident that European skill may be employed 
 beneficially on this cultivation, as well as on any other. 
 
 I was at first rather startled at perceiving a tall half-naked 
 Singhalese away in the distance, with a gun at least half as 
 long again as himself, long black hair over his shoulders, and 
 bunches of something hanging at his girdle. He was watching 
 some game amongst the trees; at last he fired, ran, picked up 
 something, and stuck it in his girdle. What could it be?
 
 187 
 
 Parrot, pigeon, or jungle-fowl ? It was only a poor little 
 squirrel ; and there were at least two scores of these pretty- 
 creatures hanging at the waist of the mighty hunter ! 
 Fortunately, I could speak the native language, and was not 
 long in learning the cause of this slaughter. It appeared that 
 in addition to their pretty bushy tails, glossy coats, and 
 playful gambols, the squirrels have very sharp and active teeth, 
 and an uncommon relish for the sweet tender buds of the 
 cocoanut flower, which they nip of and destroy by scores, 
 and of course lessen by so much, the future crop of fruit. 
 Handsfull of the buds lay half-eaten around each tree, and I 
 no longer felt astonished at this species of sporting. 
 
 The ground had evidently been well cleared from jungle 
 plants, not one of such was to be seen in all this track : a 
 stout and healthy-looking grass was springing up along the 
 avenues; whilst at intervals, patches of Indian corn, sweet 
 potatoes, guinea-grass, and other products — intended for 
 cattle-fodder during dry weather when the wild grasses fail — 
 gave tints of varied luxuriance to the scene. 
 
 The ground at this part of the estate sloped a little, and 
 I came to an open space, somewhat marshy in appearance. 
 A number of cattle, young and old, were browsing about on 
 the long grass, or sipping a draught from the clear stream 
 which ran through the low ground. They were confined 
 within a rudo but stout fence, and on one side was a range of 
 low sheds for their shelter. The cattle appeared in good 
 condition ; they were purchased, when very young, from the 
 drovers who bring them in hundreds from the Malabar coast ; 
 and many were then fit for the cart, the carriage or the knife. 
 At the end was a manure shed, and outside stood a keeper's 
 hut, with a store attached, in which were piled up dried 
 guinea-grass, maize, etc. 
 
 The manure-pit was deep and large, and in it lay the true 
 secret of the magical productiveness of the trees I had just 
 seen. Good seed planted in light freo soil, well cleared
 
 188 
 
 aud drained, will produce a fine healthy tree in a few years ; 
 and if to this be added occasional supplies of manure and a 
 few waterings during the dry season, an abundant yield of 
 fruit will most assuredly reward the toil and outlay of the 
 cocoa-nut cultivator. 
 
 Leaving this spot, I strolled through the next field, to see 
 what a number of little boys were so busy about. There were 
 a dozen dark urchins, running about from tree to tree ; 
 sometimes they stopped, clambered up, and appeared to have 
 very particular business to transact at the stems of the leaves ; 
 but oftener they passed contented with a mere glance upwards 
 at the fruit. They had a sharp-pointed instrument in the 
 hand : whilst at the wrist of each was hung- a cocoanut shell. 
 I paused to see what one of these children was searching for 
 half hid as the little fellow was amongst the gigantic leaves. 
 Intently scrutinizing his motions, I observed that he forced 
 the little sharp instrument into the very body of the tree : 
 down it went to the inmost core of the giant stem : all his 
 strength was employed ; he strained and struggled amongst 
 the huge leaves as though he were engaged in deadly strife 
 with some terrible boa or cheetah. At last he secured his 
 antagonist, and descended with something alive, small and 
 black, and impaled on the barbed point of the little weapon : 
 a few questions elicited the whole secret. The cocoanut tree, 
 it seems, has many enemies besides squirrels : the elephant, 
 the wild hog, the rat, the white ant, the porcupine, the monkey, 
 and a large white worm, either attach it when young, or rob 
 it of its fruit when mature. But the most numerous and 
 persevering enemy which it has to encounter from the age of . 
 three years until long after it produces fruit, is cooroominiya, 
 or cocoanut beetle ; a black, hard coated creature, with beautiful 
 wings, and a most powerful little tusk, which it employs with 
 fatal activity to open a way into the stems of the palms. Its 
 labours commence in the evening, and by early morning it 
 ■will be buried half-a-dozen inches deep in the very centre of
 
 189 
 
 the tree, where, if not detected and removed, it feeds on the 
 soft pithy fibres, deposits its eggs, and does not depart in less 
 than two or three days. These holes are always made in the 
 softest and sweetest part of the tree, near the crown ; and in 
 young plants they prove seriously hurtful ; checking the 
 growth, and impairing the health of the future tree. In a 
 morning's walk an active lad will frequently secure as many aa 
 a score of these cooroominiyas, which after being killed, are 
 strung upon lilliputian gibbets about the estate, as a warning 
 to their live friends. 
 
 Farther on I perceived, gathered in anxious consultation, 
 three of the lads around a tree that was loaded with fruit ; 
 they looked up at the leaves, then at the root, then at tha 
 trunk. At last one little fellow started off, swift-footed as a 
 hare, and was soon out of sight. The others began scraping 
 the earth from the root as fast as possible : and all the 
 information they would impart was ^^ledcle gaha," or sick tree; 
 so that there was nothing for it but to imagine that the little 
 messenger had been despatched for the doctor. He soon 
 came back, not with the medicine-man, but a mamootie, or 
 Dutch hoe, and a cattle, or sharp bill-hook. And then the 
 busy work went on again. I little more time than I take to 
 tell the story, the soil was removed from about the root, a 
 hole was discovered in the trunk, and its course upwards 
 ascertained by means of a cane probe. With the cattie, one 
 of the boys commenced cutting and opening midway in the 
 trunk of the tree. On looking up, I perceived that the patient 
 gave unmistakeable symptoms of ill-health. The long leaves 
 were drooping at the end, and tinged with a sickly-yellow ; 
 many of the nuts had fallen off, and others had evidently half 
 a mind to follow the example. The flower, which had just 
 burst above, hung down its sickly head, weeping away the 
 germs of what had else been fruit. The hole was now 
 complete ; it was large enough for the smallest boy to force 
 his hand in ; and it soon brought away a basket full of pith
 
 190 
 
 and powdered wood from the body of the tree. There, amidst 
 the ruin, was the enemy that has caused so much mischief and 
 labour. It was an unsightly worm, about four inches in 
 length, and as thick as one's small finger, having a dull white 
 body and black head. I then began to wonder what had next 
 to be done, whether the tree would die after all this hacking 
 and maiming. Would the medicine-man now be sent for ? 
 No. The interior of the wounded tree, as well as the aperture, 
 was thoroughly freed from dirt and decomposed fibre — which 
 might have aided in hatching any eggs left by the worm — and 
 finally the root was covered up, and the opening and inside of 
 the palm tightly filled with clay. I was assured that not 
 more than one of ten trees, thus treated, ever fails to recover 
 its health. 
 
 The noctural attacks of elephants are checked by means 
 of lighted fires, and an occasional shot or two during the night. 
 Wild hogs and porcupines are caught in traps, and hunted by 
 dogs. The monkeys are shot down like the squirrels, and 
 tho white ants are poisoned. In spite of all these measures, 
 however, an estate often suffers very severely, and its pro- 
 ductiveness is much interfered with by these depredators. 
 
 The soil over which I had as yet passed had been of one 
 uniform description — a light sandy earth, containing a little 
 vegetable matter, and but a little. Afterwards I arrived at a 
 tract of planted land, quite different from its nature and mode 
 of cultivation. It was of a far stiffer character, deeper in 
 colour, and more weedy. This portion of the estate was in 
 former days a swamp, in which the porcupine, the wild hog, 
 and the jackal, delighted to dwell, sheltered from the 
 encroachment of man by a dense mass of low jungle, thorns, 
 and reeds. To drive away these destructive creatures from 
 the vicinity of the young palms, the jungle was fired, during 
 dry weather. It was then perceived that the soil of this 
 morass, although wet and rank from its position was of a most 
 luxuriant character ; a few deep drains were opened through
 
 191 
 
 the centre, cross drains were cut, and after one season's 
 exposure to the purifying action of the atmosphere and rain, 
 the whole of it was planted, and it now gives fair promise of 
 being one day the finest field in the plantation. 
 
 From this low ground I strolled through some long 
 avenues of trees on the right ; their long leaves protected me 
 from the heat of the afternoon sun, which was still considerable. 
 The trees on this side were evidenly older : they had a greater 
 number of ripe fruit ; and further away in the distance might 
 be seen a multitude of men and boys busily engaged in bearing 
 away the huge nuts in pairs, to a path or rude cart track, 
 where a cangany, or native overseer, was occupied in counting 
 them as they were tossed into the bullock cart. The expertness 
 of the boys in climbing these smooth, lofty and branchless 
 trees, by the aid of a small band formed by twisting a portion 
 of a cocoanut leaf, was truly astonishing. In a moment their 
 small feet grasped the trunk, aided by the twisted leaf, whilst 
 their hands were employed above ; they glided upwards, and 
 with a quick eye detected the riper fruit, which, rapidly 
 twisted from their stalks, were flung to the ground. Their 
 companions below were busy in removing the nuts, which for 
 young children is no easy task ; the nuts frequently weighing 
 fifteen or twenty pounds each, with the husk or outer skins on 
 them. The natives have a simple but ingenious method of 
 tying them together in pairs, by which means the boys can 
 carry two of them with ease, when otherwise one would be a 
 task of difficulty. Tho nuts have little, if any, stalk : the 
 practice therefore is to slit up a portion of the husk (which is 
 the coir fibre in its natural state) , pull out a sufficient length 
 without breaking it, and thus tie two together ; in this way 
 the little urchins scamper along with the nuts slung across 
 their shoulders, scarcely feeling the weight. 
 
 I followed the loaded carts. They were halted at a large 
 enclosure, inside of which were huge pens formed of jungle 
 sticks, about ten feet in height ; into these the nuts were
 
 192 
 
 stored and recounted ; a certain number only being kept in 
 each, as the pens are all of the same dimensions. Adjoining, 
 was another and still larger space, lying lower, with some 
 deep ditches and pits in the midst. Here the outer husk is 
 stripped ofE, preparatory to breaking the nut itself in order to 
 obtain the kernel, which has to be dried before the oil can be 
 expressed. Into the pits or ditches the husk is flung, and 
 left in water ten or fourteen days, when it is removed and 
 beaten out on stones, to free the elastic fibre from dirt and 
 useless vegetable matter. This is a most disagreeable opera- 
 tion, for the stench from the half-putrid husks is very strono-. 
 The fibre, after being well dried on the sandy ground, 
 undergoes a rude assortment into three qualities, in reference 
 chiefly to colour, and is then delivered over to the rope maker, 
 who works it up into yarn, rope, or junk, as required. Freed 
 from their outer covering, the nuts, are either sold for making 
 curries, in which they form a prominent feature, or they are 
 kept for drying ready for the oil-mill. 
 
 Having learned this much, I strolled through the small 
 green field and along a patch of guinea-grass, to see what was 
 going on in that direction.. The neat-looking building 
 adjoining was the superintendent's bungalow, and the long 
 sheds and open spaces in their front and rear were for drying 
 the nuts into what is termed copiJerah, in which state they are 
 ground up for pressure. It was a busy scene indeed, and the 
 operations require constant vigilance on the part of the 
 manager ; yet all the work is carried on in the rudest way, 
 and with the most simple implements. Half-a-dozen stout 
 lads were seated cross-legged on the ground, each with a heap 
 of nuts by his side. The rapidity with which they seized 
 these, and, with one sharp blow of a heavy knife, split them 
 precisely in half, and flung them away into other heaps, was 
 remarkable. It seemed to be done with scarcely an effort : 
 yet on handling the broken nut, one could not help being 
 struck with its thickness and strength. Smaller boys were
 
 193 
 
 busily employed in removing these he^ps of split fruit to the 
 large open spaces, where others, assisted by a few women, 
 were occupied in placing them in rows close together, with the 
 open part upwards, so that the kernels may be fully exposed 
 to the direct rays of the sun. In this way they remain for two 
 day, when the fruit partly dried, shrinks from the shell, and is 
 removed. Two more days' exposure to the sun in fine weather, 
 will generally complete the drying process. The kernels are 
 then called copperah, and are brittle and unctuous in the hand. 
 
 To convert this material into oil, the natives employ a 
 very primitive mill, worked by bullocks, and called a chechoo ; 
 this process is very slow, and the oil never clean. Europeans 
 have however obviated these objections, and manufacture the 
 cocoanut oil by means of granite crushers and hydraulic presses 
 worked by steam power. This is chiefly done in Colombo, to 
 which place of course the copperah has to be conveyed. The 
 refuse of the oil-presses, the dry cake or poonac, is very useful 
 as food for cattle or poultry, and not less so as a manure for 
 the palm-trees, when moistened, and applied in a partially 
 decomposed state. 
 
 Not a particle of this valuable tree is lost. The fresh 
 juice of the blossom, which is broken off to allow it to flow 
 freely, is termed, as we have said, toddy, and is drunk, when 
 quite new, as a cool and pleasantly refreshing beverage ; when 
 fermented, it is distilled, and yields the less harmless liquor 
 known as arrack. 
 
 All these operations are not carried on with ease and 
 regularity. The Singhalese are an idle race ; like many better 
 men, their chief pleasure is to perform as little work as possible. 
 This necessitates a never-ending round of inspection by the 
 European manager, who, mounted on a small pony, paper 
 umbrella in hand, visits every corner of the property at least 
 once in a day, often twice. Neither is it unusual for hiui to 
 make " a round" during the night. On the whole therefore, 
 he enjoys no sinecure.
 
 THE KANDYANS' CAPTIVE. 
 
 EVER had sun slione brighter, or sky looked more serenely 
 ^^ blue and heaven-like, or early morning-breeze breathed 
 softer, or palm trees waived more gracefully, or flowers looked 
 more sweetly, than sun, and sky, and breeze, and palms and 
 flowers on morning of the Christmas day of which I write, in 
 the ninth year from the opening of this century, when Kandy 
 looked from wh»re our captive saw it, with palace at his feet 
 and town stretched far away, like a tiled citadel amidst a fort 
 of straw.* 
 
 Above the town of Kandy on a grassy knoll, just in the 
 rear of the present pavilion grounds, not far above where stands 
 the Judges' bungalow, was at the time I write, a small building 
 placed amidst a tope of trees as a bird would hide its nest. 
 The hut, for it was little else, was looped around with creeping, 
 flowering plants, and on the little grassy knoll before it were 
 groups pf roses, jasmin and other tropical flowers, giving 
 evidence of more than native care and taste. Beneath a 
 spreading tamarind tree, the captive of the Kandyan monarch 
 sat, a pale and thoughtful man, gazing out on the hills that 
 faced him on the west, thinking of Christmas in Old England, 
 of Christmas where the yule-log blazed, and where those 
 whom he never more should see, his children, played, laughed, 
 and wondered why he did not come. 
 
 The captive was not alone. At his feet just as a petted 
 spaniel, sat a young girl with folded hands and thoughtful 
 face, knowing well his wandering thoughts and knowing how 
 
 * Under native rule none but the royal buildings and Temples were allowed to 
 be constructed of stone, brick and tiles ; all others were of mud thatched with straw.
 
 195 
 
 vain for him though not for her, content to let him think and 
 gaze in silence. The little house was decorated with ferns 
 and roses and many flowers taken prisoners from the woods 
 by Lenna's hand in honour of the day, the Christians' greatest 
 festival. 
 
 Six years had passed since the fearful tragedy which 
 placed the captive in the Kandyan's hand : those years had 
 told heavily upon him. Horror, remorse, grief, terror, had at 
 length given place to resignation. He had brought himself to 
 feel that in his lonely prison-life, he had to expiate the one 
 sad error, costing how many lives. Five years of the six had 
 been past in still drearier solitude, in one of the royal prisons 
 near Badulla.* His confinement at first close though not 
 rio-orous, had been gradually relaxed until he was left 
 unguarded. By degrees he had acquired the native tongue 
 from that most teachable of all agencies, female lips. The 
 young daughter of the chief to whose care he was confided, 
 took womanly pity on his loneliness, and did much to lighten 
 the sadness of his captivity. From her he had learnt the 
 first words of native language, and in turn instructed her in 
 English. 
 
 The girl was quicker than the man, and long before he 
 could wake himself clearly understood in the vernacular, she 
 could talk to him in Oriental Saxon. The key to language 
 once found the rest soon came : the book which had never left 
 his hands, which was his daily study, that book was an object 
 of her curiosity. By slow degrees, almost word by word, he 
 told her the good tidings in that volume. He related the 
 wondorous history that it chronicled. He taught her from the 
 precepts of its pages, until they thought as one and read together. 
 
 * In the days of the Kandyan Sovereigns there were three places to which the 
 prisoners were transported, one near Badulla, for light offenders of rank ; one in the 
 Seven Korales, for criminals of a deeper dye ; and a third, in the Bintenna district 
 immcdiitcly below Lagalla. Transportation to this locality was equivalent to death, 
 as, it was then so pettllential, tiiat nunc whu went there were known to return.
 
 196 
 
 During his banishment to Badulla repeated messages had 
 reached him from the king, inquiring of his health, wants and 
 wishes, sometimes making tempting offers if he would forswear 
 allegiance to his sovereign. At length the order had gone 
 forth to remove him to the capital. It was a long and weary 
 journey in those days from Badulla to Kandy : a chair on poles 
 conveyed him to the royal city. Lenna would not remain 
 behind, and so the litter was given up to her when the road 
 lay through rugged or steep places, and when they came to 
 pleasant smooth sward, she walked by his side, and thus they 
 came to Kandy where the king received his captive graciously. 
 Five years of peace had soothed the tyrant, and he bade his 
 nobles lodge their prisoner where he pleased, and so he chose 
 the hill-side knoll whence he could look towards the west. 
 Twelve months in Kandy had reconciled him somewhat to his 
 captive life, and in frequent interviews with the royal despot 
 he found more disposition to shew kindness so that sometimes 
 he began to hope. His Majesty had learnt the season of the 
 Christian's Festival had arrived, and it was his gracious 
 pleasure that the day should be a holiday, and that he would 
 in proper state give audience to the English officer in the great 
 "Hall of Seals."* The audience hall on ordinary occasions 
 was the building now used as the District Court, immediately 
 facing the Kutcherry which was then a portion of the royal 
 palace. On special occasions, such as the present, the recep- 
 tion was in the Hall of Seals, a lofty open building on the 
 ground where now stands the Kandy Girls' School, adjoining 
 the Dewale, and facing the esplanade on which there was 
 ample room for the royal troops to be paraded. The house 
 now occupied by the Government Agent was used as a Hall 
 of Spectacle f from the windows of which the Queen and 
 
 * So called from its being the place in which all presents from vassals or 
 foreign rulers were deposited, and where their seals were broken. 
 
 -}■ Davy mentions this building (Chap. X. p. 321) as the Queen's palace ; but 
 this according to my informant, was incorrect.
 
 197 
 
 ladies of the household could witness all public festivities, or 
 as the case might be, public executions, which in those days 
 were scenes of protracted barbarity. The royal executioner, 
 the king's elephant, was kept close by, ready to do his horrid 
 bidding at a word or sign. 
 
 It was in the morning of this day, the captive and his 
 companion were gazing from beneath their favorite tamarind 
 tree : he looked towards the west, and then gazed down upon 
 the busy scene below, upon the gay streamers and many- 
 colored flags that floated from roof, and tree, and leafy arch. 
 Crowds of villagers came flocking in by the various paths : 
 there were then no roads beyond the town, save one for 
 a portion of the way to the royal palace at Hangurankette. 
 Priests in yellow robes were clustering about the Maligawa ; 
 chiefs of all degrees in white and crimson robes, were 
 gathering near the palace, and the little island in the lake was 
 made gay with flowers and music. 
 
 The hour of reception was at high noon, and as the time 
 approached, the crowd below became denser and noisier, and 
 the harsh drums and shrieking pipes, belched foi*th a bar- 
 barous melody that made a Saxon's ear feel strangely. It was 
 the Christian's Pcrraharra, and as the captive object of all this 
 turmoil walked slowly and calmly, almost sorrowfully, towards 
 the busy scene, he was followed by a wandering army of 
 gazers, most of whom looked upon a white man for the first 
 time. Miles of white cloths, acres of bright red, oceans of 
 many colored drapery were spread along the dusty ground or 
 festooned along the shabby walls and palace. About the latter 
 nil was hushed as a sleeping child : they had a rather 
 unpleasant way of stopping noises in that part of his Majesty's 
 dominions, which generally proved efficacious. The still- 
 ness that was scarcely human, was in ill-keeping with the 
 fiendish pictures on the temple walls close by, on which were 
 painted plaintive shrieks and groans and other issuings of 
 human agony.
 
 198 
 
 At noon precisely, it pleased his Kaudyan Majesty to come 
 forth. His subjects received him as an Oriental race ever 
 received a despot who delights in the royal game of " heads 
 and tails." They received him with a great deal of feeling, 
 especially about the region of the neck. They held their 
 breath as he drew near, felt a tightness about their throats as 
 lie passed, and when he had gone on his way, men involuntarily 
 raised their hands and their heads to make quite certain that 
 they were in their right place. Raja Singha rode the royal 
 coach, a present from the English Governor, the British 
 captive walking by his side. That was a wonderful coach, the 
 Lord Mayor's was as nothing to it; gold and glass, and 
 precious stones, and silver bells, and velvet cushions, and gold 
 lace, were on it, and many other things too precious to be put 
 on paper, but not too precious to be sold by an old Dutch 
 auctioner in Colombo, whither it was despatched piece-meal 
 after the capture of the city by the British. Four stately 
 black horses drew the carriage at funeral pace to the " Hall of 
 Seals " where Rajah Singha alighted. The captive also entered 
 followed at a respectful distance by the royal betel-box and the 
 imperial spittoon, the gold stick and silver spoon in waiting, 
 the royal Ministers, and scores, of Lord Lieutenants and De- 
 puty Lieutenants of counties. Seated in his chair of State, the 
 King motioned the captive to stand near his royal person, and 
 bade him watch the evolutions of the imperial coach and four, 
 and the wheeling past of the household brigade of Plantain 
 Eaters. There was one small band of thirty-two amidst the 
 motley troops, which marched past, a gloomy band of ruffians, 
 nearly nude and carrying grim-looking instruments in their 
 hands. These were the royal torturers, each of the thirty-two 
 having a different grade of the art of torment to inflict. They 
 carried human gridirons, toasting forks of Cyclopean dimensions, 
 awkward looking surgical and dentists' instruments, and as 
 these thirty-two scowled on the people, the crowd shrank 
 back in hate and terror !
 
 199 
 
 Upon the whole it was a gala sight ; there were as many 
 jewels about the royal person and the chair of State, as would 
 have established an ordinary jeweller in business. But nobody 
 cared much about the jewels, or the chair of State ; they 
 gazed intently at the royal face, for smiles there meant 
 promotion, frowns something very difEerent. The captive was 
 arrayed by royal command in the uniform of a general officer 
 who had recently been waylaid and knocked over in the low 
 country. The lords of the household wore their best coronation 
 robes, and the headmen were marvels of greatness about the 
 body ; to see the miles of snow white cloth about them, you 
 might have taken them for cotton lords, or looking at their 
 enormous rotundity, that each one was a lord -mayor with his 
 " corporation." The captive thought not of the military 
 rabble, and the glass coach and four, but when questioned ho 
 replied to royalty like a book read backwards, and as it 
 happened that his Majesty had partaken of a good omelet 
 curry that morning, there was not a life missing when all 
 was over. Every one carried home his head between his 
 shoulders. And so the barbarous band struck up a dismal 
 clang, the savage troops fired their rusty ginghalls, the peoplo 
 shouted, the royal elephants sent forth their shrieking cries, 
 flags waved and weapons glistened in the noon-day sun : but 
 he in whose honor all this turmoil rose, heeded it not. Ho 
 saw but one small group of tiny figures, playing as last ho 
 saw them on a bright autumn day — his own loved children, 
 on the grass beneath the apple-trees ! 
 
 Twelve months passed away, and another Christmas Day 
 arrived : again the bright blue sky and morning breeze, and 
 flowers, and palm trees welcomed all living things ; but they 
 welcomed not the captive. Lenna was there alone, still gazing 
 westward for the coming of those whoso faith was her 
 own.
 
 200 
 
 Behind the shady tamarind tree, in a quiet nook, there 
 was a grave on which the grass was fresh. 
 
 ^» *^ Jj^ ?p 5|C 
 
 Five years later when British troops planted Old England's 
 flag upon the royal palace, men asked about the captive aud 
 his home. They were shewn the humble cottage then in ruins, 
 and the quiet spot behind the tamarind tree. A group of 
 officers was seen standing around the spot uncovered ; there 
 were then tivo graves !
 
 MY PEARL FISHING EXPEDITION. 
 
 fN the 25th February, 18 — , I arrived in the Bay of 
 Condatchy, the anchorage of Aripo, a passenger on 
 board the Government barque " Wellington." The Superin- 
 tendant of the Pearl Banks had invited me to accompany 
 him, and I had gladly accepted the offer. 
 
 Early the next morning, I landed with the Superintendant 
 at Silawatorre, a small village distant a few miles from the 
 station at Aripo. This was a most miserable little place 
 consisting of but a single row of small mud huts standing in 
 hot and dusty solitude, with topes of shady palms near 
 them; but far as the eye could reach inland or coastwise, 
 there was nothing to break the monotony of endless palm plains 
 save the distant white walls of the " Doric ;" a lofty stuccoed 
 government building at some distance, which glistened and 
 shone brilliantly in the rays of the morning sun. 
 
 There were a few dirty women, and thin-faced children 
 on the beach, whose curiosity had for the moment overcome 
 their sloth. Further on under some palms, stood the Ada- 
 panaar of Aripo or head man of the district ; a fine grey- 
 boarded old native, attended by his deputy the Maniagar, and 
 a few seedy4ooking followers armed to the teeth with paper 
 umbrellas and painted sticks. The Superintendant adjourned 
 with these strange-looking officials to a thatched open bungalow 
 by a small flag-staff, where they were soon engrossed in 
 details respecting the approaching fishery. The scene was 
 altogether so desolate and uninteresting, and the sun was 
 becoming so powerful, that I was glad to return to the ship 
 by the first opportunity.
 
 202 
 
 The following morning we stood out for the banks 
 near which the anchor was dropped, and for several days the 
 Superintendant and his boat's crew were occupied in placing 
 buoys with little blue and red flags attached, npon the edges 
 of the several beds which were to be fished. The weather was 
 oppressively hot ; the sky was without a cloud to break the 
 intensity of the sun's rays. 
 
 On the 5th of March we returned to our anchorage in 
 Condatchy Bay ; but this time closer to the shore. What a 
 
 change had come over the place ! The very sands of 
 the plain seemed to be redolent of life. The miserable row 
 of low, dirty huts had either been levelled to the ground or 
 were hidden from sight by numberless gaily-coloured booths 
 of all sorts of shapes, and sizes, ornamented with pale green 
 leaves of the palmyrah and cocoa palm and long strips of 
 white cloth. There were thousands of natives flocking and 
 struggling down to the beach, as though they expected us
 
 203 
 
 to bring on shore all the wealth of the pearl banks. Our 
 anchorage-ground was opposite the little flag-staff ; and about 
 us as thick as they could be moored, lay fully two hundred 
 native boats of various sizes, though of one build, being a short 
 rakish-looking barge ; so sharp and knowing, both forwards 
 and aft, that one might have imagined them to have been, 
 bloated London wherries. They were each manned by ten 
 oarsmen, a tindal or steersman and his deputy, besides a 
 cooly for baling out the water, for most of these craft leak 
 freely. They measure from eight to twelve tons, yet there 
 are very few nails about them, the omnipotent cocoanut fibre 
 serving to fasten nearly all Indian vessels and boats together. 
 
 After a lapse of four days spent by the Superintendaut, 
 the magistrate of the district, the government agent, and 
 the Adapanaar in various arrangements ; in publishing notices 
 and issuing instructions connected with the fishery— the first 
 diving day was fixed, and the boats to the number of two 
 hundred. Were forthwith in readiness. 
 
 The day previous to the fishery, the " Wellington " 
 once more stood out for the banks with the Superintendaut 
 and his boat's crew on board. The boats with their respective 
 complements of divers, were to leave precisely at midnight, 
 so as to arrive on the banks before day-light, the wind being 
 at that time off the land and in their favour. In order 
 to see as much as possible of their proceedings, I remained to 
 accompany the fleet with the old Adapanaar in his ten-oared 
 cutter. I lay down at dusk in a small shed attached to the 
 temporary military quarters, intending to snatch a few hours' 
 repose. But I soon found sleep was quite out of the question ; 
 I walked out and found the boatmen and divers far from 
 attempting any rest previous to their heav^y labours, merry- 
 iiiakiug on the sea-beach. Some were dancing, some beating 
 time on the tom-tom ; scores were chaunting their wild 
 songs, and all had been well supplied with toddy and arrack. 
 The night was pitchy dark, and but few stars were visible
 
 204 
 
 over fclie bright glare of many torches. A huge bonfire blazed 
 over the flag-staff, lighting up bazaars, palm-trees, and temples 
 in one lurid glare, and flinging a few rays on the distant 
 shining walls on the Doric. The shark-charmer too, stood 
 in all his glory, on the summit of one of the vast heaps of 
 blanched oyster shells : he was holding forth to the assembled 
 crowd with shouts and wild gesticulations, and as the glare 
 of the fire shot past him, he appeared to be clothed in flame, 
 whilst his gaunt arms flung long shadows over the distant 
 plain, like those of a monster windmill hard at work in the 
 midnight breeze. 
 
 The appointed time drew near ; a gong sent forth a few 
 notes of thunder ; and instantly all noises ceased. The shark- 
 charmer stole away, no one knew where ; some thought to pray, 
 more probably into the arrack bazaar ; the boatmen, divers, 
 and government peons crowding down the beach and through 
 the water, passed to their appointed posts in the boats. More 
 than four thousand human beings packed themselves into those 
 frail-looking craft ; and yet they were not so crowded as not 
 to leave room for the oysters. 
 
 The Adapanaar gave the final signal amidst a momentary 
 hush ; a small field-piece was fired from the base of the 
 flag-staff; and away went one hundred boats in gallant 
 style ! A loud discordant shout was raised on shore, answered 
 lustily by the crews and divers, and all was still again. The 
 land breeze was fresh : the water was smooth as glass ; and our 
 fleet made rapid way. The large yellow bamboo masts pointed 
 high in air, with their enormous, beautifully white, transparent 
 sails filling with the breeze, and lit up by the bonfire on shore, 
 seemed as though they were a host of huge winged creatures 
 of the deep. 
 
 On the soft cushions of our roomy craft T laid me down 
 beneath the awning's shade and slept some quiet hours. I 
 started from my rest on hearing some one near me giving 
 orders in a loud voice. It was still dark and looking out I
 
 205 
 
 perceived a bright small light not very far distant. It 
 was a signal-light at the mast-head of the " Wellington." 
 We were close to the " banks" and in a few minutes I 
 was on board the vessel. The fleet went astern, and there 
 quietly awaited day-light. By the time we had sipped a 
 cup of hot coffee, and smoked a cheroot, it was day-dawn, 
 and then a move was made. I passed once more to the 
 eoft cushions of the cutter, the Adapanaar saw all ready, 
 and in a few minutes a gun was fired and off we went as 
 before. 
 
 The fishing-grounds lay above half a mile a-head of the 
 bark, and arriving on them it occupied some time to arrange 
 the many boats in proper order, so as to prevent delay or 
 confusion. The sun was rising bright and gorgeous over the 
 land. All eyes were turned towards the " Wellington," 
 awaiting the expected signal to commence operations, five 
 divers in each boat were m.ounted on the gunwales armed 
 with their diving stones, nets and ropes ; the remaining five 
 stood eagerly watching them. The Superintendent was standing 
 on the vessel's poop, the boatswain by his side with the signal 
 halyards in his hands. Minutes seemed hours. At last 
 there was a move on the deck, and the signal-flag rose slowly 
 upwards ; the Union-jack fluttered in the morning breeze, 
 and just as it touched the mast-head, five hundred divers, with 
 their stones and nets, plunged silently in the sea. I shall not 
 easily forget the sensation I experienced when I saw the crowd 
 of human beings disappear in the depths below, leaving but a 
 few bubbles to mark their downward path. I pulled out my 
 watch ; a quarter of a minute elapsed, and not one of all the 
 hundreds appeared ; then a half, and then three quarters ; still 
 not one rose to the surface. I turned to the Adapanaar in 
 a tremor of anxiety, but he was sitting calm and quiet as an 
 oyster. How gladly my heart beat when I saw first a dozen 
 heads and shoulders, then fifty, then a hundred and more, 
 ascend to the surface, bubbling and spluttering, as well they
 
 206 
 
 migfht, after such a submarine excursion. And tlie bustle and 
 excitement began in good earnest, on all sides. The boatmen 
 helped to pull in the baskets full of oysters ; the divers, but 
 little fatigued, climbed over the boats' sides and saw their fish 
 counted into distinct heaps by the peon in charge of the boat. 
 Each appeared to have brought up from fifty to seventy 
 oysters. As the last of the divers came over the boats' sides, 
 the five hundred who had quietly waited their turn rose up 
 and, with their baskets and stones, plunged in as their 
 comrades had before them, as rapidly and as silently. 
 
 The arrangements for diving are exceedingly simple : — 
 the diving-stone is a piece of granite, conical-shaped, and 
 weighing about ten pounds ; through one end of it a double 
 cord of coir is rove, of sufficient length to reach the bottom 
 easily, one end of it being secured to the boat. When about 
 plunging in, the diver places his right foot on the stone and 
 between the double cord, using it as a stirrup ; the weight 
 suffices to hasten his descent, and on arriving at the bottom 
 the stone is cast away and pulled up by the boatmen, so as to 
 be clear of the basket rope : this rope is stouter, and single. 
 The diver seizes the hoop of the basket firmly between the 
 toes of his left foot — for the natives use their toes as actively as 
 we do our fingers — and when on the bank below, grasps the 
 basket in his left hand flings himself flat on his face, and 
 sweeps the oysters rapidly into his coir bag with his right hand. 
 When he has secured sufficient fish, he gives his comrades 
 above the signal by jerking the rope ; they immediately com- 
 mence hauling it in. To give himself an impetus upwards, the 
 diver lays hold of the rope for a second or two, then raises his 
 hand together above his head, and rapidly floats to the surface. 
 
 The da3^'s work over, the fleet pushed shorewards, the 
 breeze came up from the south-west fitfully at first, then 
 steadily : up went the great spider-legged bamboo masts, and 
 the wide-winged sails, and the sharp-nosed boats slipped 
 noiselessly landwards.
 
 207 
 
 The whole of the fleet having reached the shore, a party 
 of Malay riflemen and peons, cleared an open space between 
 them and the crowd on the beach, so as to allow the unloading 
 of the boats, which was at once commenced. The oysters were 
 divided on the sandy shore, into four equal parts, three of 
 which went to the Government, the remaining fourth was 
 shared amongst the boatmen, the divers, the tindal and the 
 boat-owner; the divers receiving twice as much as the boat-men, 
 and the owners rather more than the divers. The Government 
 oysters were carried up in basket to large bamboo enclosures 
 called cottoos, where they were kept until sold by auction on 
 the following day. The other share of the fish was disposed 
 of in a similar way ; though, sometimes, they were retained by 
 their owners on their own account, and the pearls found in 
 them sold afterwards. 
 
 There were many wealthy traders there from all parts of 
 India; but many more had with difiiculty scraped together 
 sums varying from a dozen pagodas _,to a dozen dollars ; men 
 who had purchased or borrowed the means of bidding at this 
 intoxicating auction : men who had left their famished families 
 without the means of obtaining a mouthful of rice : who had torn 
 the gold bangles and ear-rings from their wives and children, 
 and melted them into ingots to deal in the maddening trade 
 of Aripo. Some returned home rich beyond their expectations : 
 but many went back ruined, beggared, and broken-hearted, 
 unable to repay their loans, while some fled in terror to strange 
 lands, having lost the means of replacing monies taken by 
 them from sources of trust — ruined in means and reputation. 
 All this happens at every pearl fishery, and is not to bo 
 prevented, save by offering the fish in larger lots ; which, 
 though it might not prove quite so remunerative to tho 
 Government, would save much evil and suffering. 
 
 Some conception may bo formed of the immense masses 
 of oysters which at these times lay putrifying on tho burning 
 Bands of Aripo, when I mention that each boat will bring on
 
 208 
 
 shore, in one trip, from ten to twenty thousands of fish, making 
 a daily total of from one to two millions for the whole fleet. 
 The extremely hazardous results of* these auctions may be 
 gathered from the fact, that whilst in some instances as many 
 as six pearls of various weights and values are found in one 
 oyster of large size, one hundred oysters may be opened 
 without finding in them a single pearl. 
 
 Th» natives of India have a singular belief with regard to 
 the origin of pearls : it is, that those beautiful concretions are 
 congealed dew-drops, which Buddha, in certain months, showers 
 upon the earth, and are caught by the oysters whilst floating 
 on the waters to breathe. The priests, ever alive to their 
 own interests, keep up the strange belief, and make it the 
 pretext for exacting from the divers and boatmen of their 
 faith what are termed " charitj'- oysters" for the use of 
 Buddah, who, when thus propitiated, according to their 
 showing, will render the fish more rich in pearls in future 
 seasons- 
 
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