Colombo--Dullness of the Town--Cinnamon Garden--A Cingalese
Appo--Ceylon Sport--Jungle Fever--Newera Ellia--Energy of Sir E.
Barnes--Influence of the Governor--Projected Improvements.
CHAPTER II.
Past Scenes--Attractions of Ceylon--Emigration--Difficulties in
Settling--Accidents and Casualties--An Eccentric
Groom--Insubordination--Commencement of Cultivation--Sagacity of the
Elephant--Disappointments--"Death" in the Settlement--Shocking
Pasturage--Success of Emigrants--"A Good Knock-about kind of a Wife".
CHAPTER III.
Task Completed--The Mountain-top--Change in the Face of
Nature--Original Importance of Newera Ellia--"The Path of a Thousand
Princes"--Vestiges of Former Population--Mountains--The Highlands of
Ouva--Ancient Methods of Irrigation--Remains of Aqueducts--The Vale of
Rubies--Ancient Ophir--Discovery of Gold-Mineral Resources--Native
Blacksmiths.
CHAPTER IV.
Poverty of Soil--Ceylon Sugar--Fatality of Climate--Supposed Fertility
of Soil--Native Cultivation--Neglect of Rice Cultivation--Abandoned
Reservoirs--Former Prosperity--Ruins of Cities--Pollanarua--The Great
Dagoba--Architectural Relics--The Rock Temple--Destruction of
Population--Neglected Capabilities--Suggestions for Increasing
Population--Progress of Pestilence--Deserted Villages--Difficulties in
the Cultivation of Rice--Division of Labor--Native Agriculture.
CHAPTER V.
Real Cost of Land--Want of Communication--Coffee-planting--Comparison
between French and English
Settlers--Landslips--Forest-clearing--Manuring--The Coffee
Bug--Rats--Fatted Stock--Suggestions for Sheep-farming--Attack of a
Leopard--Leopards and Chetahs--Boy Devoured--Traps--Musk Cats and the
Mongoose--Vermin of Ceylon.
CHAPTER VI.
"Game Eyes" for Wild Sports--Enjoyments of Wild Life--Cruelty of
Sports--Native Hunters--Moormen Traders--Their wretched Guns--Rifles
and Smooth-bores--Heavy Balls and Heavy Metal--Beattie's Rifles--Balls
and Patches--Experiments--The Double-groove--Power of Heavy
Metal--Curious Shot at a Bull Elephant--African and Ceylon
Elephants--Structure of Skull--Lack of Trophies--Boar-spears and
Hunting-knives--"Bertram"--A Boar Hunt--Fatal Cut.
CHAPTER VII.
Curious Phenomenon--Panorama of Ouva--South-west Monsoon--Hunting
Followers--Fort M'Donald--River--Jungle Paths--Dangerous
Locality--Great Waterfall--Start for Hunting--The Find--A Gallant
Stag--"Bran" and "Lucifer"--"Phrenzy's" Death--Buck at Bay--The Cave
Hunting-box--"Madcap's" Dive--Elk Soup--Former Inundation--"Bluebeard"
leads off--"Hecate's" Course--The Elk's Leap--Variety of Deer--The
Axis--Ceylon Bears--Variety of Vermin--Trials for Hounds--Hounds and
their Masters--A Sportsman "shut up"--A Corporal and Centipede.
CHAPTER VIII.
Observations on Nature in the Tropics--The Dung Beetle--The
Mason-fly--Spiders--Luminous Insects--Efforts of a Naturalist--Dogs
Worried by Leeches--Tropical Diseases--Malaria--Causes of
Infection--Disappearance of the "Mina"--Poisonous Water--Well-digging
Elephants.
CHAPTER IX.
Instinct and Reason--Tailor Birds and Grosbeaks--The White Ant--Black
Ants at War--Wanderoo Monkeys--Habits of Elephants--Elephants in the
Lake--Herd of Elephants Bathing--Elephant-shooting--The Rencontre--The
Charge--Caught by the Tail--Horse Gored by a Buffalo--Sagacity of
Dogs--"Bluebeard"--His Hunt--A True Hound.
CHAPTER X.
Wild Fruits--Ingredients for a "Soupe Maigre"--Orchidaceous
Plants--Wild Nutmegs--Native Oils--Cinnamon--Primeval Forests--Valuable
Woods--The Mahawelli River--Variety of Palms--Cocoa-nut
Toddy--Arrack--Cocoa-nut Oil--Cocoa-nut-planting--The Talipot Palm--The
Areca Palm--Betel Chewing--Sago Nuts--Varicty of Bees--Waste of
Beeswax--Edible Fungi--Narcotic Puff-ball--Intoxicating Drugs--Poisoned
Cakes--The "Sack Tree"--No Gum Trees of Value in Ceylon.
CHAPTER XI.
Indigenous Productions--Botanical Gardens--Suggested Experiments--Lack
of Encouragement to Gold-diggers--Prospects of Gold-digging--We want
"Nuggets"--Who is to Blame?--Governor's Salary--Fallacies of a Five
Years' Reign--Neglected Education of the People--Responsibilities of
Conquest--Progress of Christianity.
CHAPTER XII.
The Pearl Fishery--Desolation of the Coast--Harbor of
Trincomalee--Fatal Attack by a Shark--Ferocious Crocodiles--Salt
Monopoly--Salt Lakes--Method of Collection--Neglect of Ceylon
Hides--Fish and Fishing--Primitive Tackle--Oysters and Penknives--A
Night Bivouac for a Novice--No Dinner, but a Good Fire--Wild Yams and
Consequences--The Elephants' Duel--A Hunting Hermitage--Bluebeard's
last Hunt--The Leopard--Bluebeard's Death--Leopard Shot.
CHAPTER XIII.
Wild Denizens of Forest and Lake--Destroyers of Reptiles--The Tree
Duck--The Mysteries of Night in the Forest--The Devil-Bird--The
Iguanodon in Miniature--Outrigger Canoes--The Last Glimpse of Ceylon--A
Glance at Old Times.
EIGHT YEARS' WANDERINGS
CHAPTER I.
Colombo--Dullness of the Town--Cinnamon Garden--A Cingalese
Appo--Ceylon Sport--Jungle Fever--Newera Ellia--Energy of Sir E.
Barnes--Influence of the Governor--Projected Improvements.
It was in the year 1845 that the spirit of wandering allured me toward
Ceylon: little did I imagine at that time that I should eventually
become a settler.
The descriptions of its sports, and the tales of hairbreadth escapes
from elephants, which I had read in various publications, were sources
of attraction against which I strove in vain; and I at length
determined upon the very wild idea of spending twelve months in Ceylon
jungles.
It is said that the delights of pleasures in anticipation exceed the
pleasures themselves: in this case doubtless some months of great
enjoyment passed in making plans of every description, until I at
length arrived in Colombo, Ceylon's seaport capital.
I never experienced greater disappointment in an expectation than on my
first view of Colombo. I had spent some time at Mauritius and Bourbon
previous to my arrival, and I soon perceived that the far-famed Ceylon
was nearly a century behind either of those small islands.
Instead of the bustling activity of the Port Louis harbor in Mauritius,
there were a few vessels rolling about in the roadstead, and some forty
or fifty fishing canoes hauled up on the sandy beach. There was a
peculiar dullness throughout the town--a sort of something which seemed
to say, "Coffee does not pay." There was a want of spirit in
everything. The ill-conditioned guns upon the fort looked as though
not intended to defend it; the sentinels looked parboiled; the very
natives sauntered rather than walked; the very bullocks crawled along
in the midday sun, listlessly dragging the native carts. Everything
and everybody seemed enervated, except those frightfully active people
in all countries and climates, "the custom-house officers:" these
necessary plagues to society gave their usual amount of annoyance.
What struck me the most forcibly in Colombo was the want of shops. In
Port Louis the wide and well-paved streets were lined with excellent
"magasins" of every description; here, on the contrary, it was
difficult to find anything in the shape of a shop until I was
introduced to a soi-disant store, where everything was to be purchased
from a needle to a crowbar, and from satin to sail-cloth; the useful
predominating over the ornamental in all cases. It was all on a poor
scale and after several inquiries respecting the best hotel, I located
myself at that termed the Royal or Seager's Hotel. This was airy,
white and clean throughout; but there was a barn-like appearance, as
there is throughout most private dwellings in Colombo, which banished
all idea of comfort.
A good tiffin concluded, which produced a happier state of mind, I
ordered a carriage for a drive to the Cinnamon Gardens. The general
style of Ceylon carriages appeared in the shape of a caricature of a
hearse: this goes by the name of a palanquin carriage. Those usually
hired are drawn by a single horse, whose natural vicious propensities
are restrained by a low system of diet.
In this vehicle, whose gaunt steed was led at a melancholy trot by an
equally small-fed horsekeeper, I traversed the environs of Colombo.
Through the winding fort gateway, across the flat Galle Face (the
race-course), freshened by the sea-breeze as the waves break upon its
western side; through the Colpettytopes of cocoanut trees shading the
road, and the houses of the better class of European residents to the
right and left; then turning to the left--a few minutes of
expectation--and behold the Cinnamon Gardens!
What fairy-like pleasure-grounds have we fondly anticipated! what
perfumes of spices, and all that our childish imaginations had pictured
as the ornamental portions of a cinnamon garden!
A vast area of scrubby, low jungle, composed of cinnamon bushes, is
seen to the right and left, before and behind. Above, is a cloudless
sky and a broiling sun; below, is snow-white sand of quartz, curious
only in the possibility of its supporting vegetation. Such is the soil
in which the cinnamon delights; such are the Cinnamon Gardens, in which
I delight not. They are an imposition, and they only serve as an
addition to the disappointments of a visitor to Colombo. In fact, the
whole place is a series of disappointments. You see a native woman
clad in snow-white petticoats, a beautiful tortoiseshell comb fastened
in her raven hair; you pass her--you look back--wonderful! she has a
beard! Deluded stranger, this is only another disappointment; it is a
Cingalese Appo--a man--no, not a man--a something male in petticoats; a
petty thief, a treacherous, cowardly villain, who would perpetrate the
greatest rascality had he only the pluck to dare it. In fact, in this
petticoated wretch you see a type of the nation of Cingalese.
On the morning following my arrival in Ceylon, I was delighted to see
several persons seated at the "table-d'hôte" when I entered the room,
as I was most anxious to gain some positive information respecting the
game of the island, the best localities, etc., etc. I was soon engaged
in conversation, and one of my first questions naturally turned upon
sport.
"Sport!" exclaimed two gentlemen simultaneously--"sport! there is no
sport to be had in Ceylon!"--"at least the race-week is the only sport
that I know of," said the taller gentleman.
"No sport!" said I, half energetically and half despairingly. "Absurd!
every book on Ceylon mentions the amount of game as immense; and as to
elephants--"
Here I was interrupted by the same gentleman. "All gross
exaggerations," said he--"gross exaggerations; in fact, inventions to
give interest to a book. I have an estate in the interior, and I have
never seen a wild elephant. There may be a few in the jungles of
Ceylon, but very few, and you never see them."
I began to discover the stamp of my companion from his expression, "You
never see them." Of course I concluded that he had never looked for
them; and I began to recover front the first shock which his
exclamation, "There is no sport in Ceylon!" had given me.
I subsequently discovered that my new and non-sporting acquaintances
were coffee-planters of a class then known as the Galle Face planters,
who passed their time in cantering about the Colombo race-course and
idling in the town, while their estates lay a hundred miles distant,
uncared for, and naturally ruining their proprietors.
That same afternoon, to my delight and surprise, I met an old
Gloucestershire friend in an officer of the Fifteenth Regiment, then
stationed in Ceylon. From him I soon learnt that the character of
Ceylon for game had never been exaggerated; and from that moment my
preparations for the jungle commenced.
I rented a good airy house in Colombo as headquarters, and the verandas
were soon strewed with jungle-baskets, boxes, tent, gun-cases, and all
the paraphernalia of a shooting-trip.
What unforeseen and apparently trivial incidents may upset all our
plans for the future and turn our whole course of life! At the
expiration of twelve months my shooting trips and adventures were
succeeded by so severe an attack of jungle fever that from a naturally
robust frame I dwindled to a mere nothing, and very little of my former
self remained. The first symptom of convalescence was accompanied by a
peremptory order from my medical attendant to start for the highlands,
to the mountainous region of Newera Ellia, the sanitarium of the island.
A poor, miserable wretch I was upon my arrival at this elevated
station, suffering not only from the fever itself, but from the feeling
of an exquisite debility that creates an utter hopelessness of the
renewal of strength.
I was only a fortnight at Newera Ellia. The rest-house or inn was the
perfection of everything that was dirty and uncomfortable. The
toughest possible specimen of a beef-steak, black bread and potatoes
were the choicest and only viands obtainable for an invalid. There was
literally nothing else; it was a land of starvation. But the climate!
what can I say to describe the wonderful effects of such a pure and
unpolluted air? Simply, that at the expiration of a fortnight, in spite
of the tough beef, and the black bread and potatoes, I was as well and
as strong as I ever bad been; and in proof of this I started instanter
for another shooting excursion in the interior.
It was impossible to have visited Newera Ellia, and to have benefited
in such a wonderful manner by the climate, without contemplating with
astonishment its poverty-stricken and neglected state.
At that time it was the most miserable place conceivable. There was a
total absence of all ideas of comfort or arrangement. The houses were
for the most part built of such unsubstantial materials as stick and
mud plastered over with mortar--pretty enough in exterior, but rotten
in ten or twelve years. The only really good residence was a fine
stone building erected by Sir Edward Barnes when governor of Ceylon.
To him alone indeed are we indebted for the existence of a sanitarium.
It was he who opened the road, not only to Newera Ellia, but for
thirty-six miles farther on the same line to Badulla. At his own
expense he built a substantial mansion at a cost, as it is said, of
eight thousand pounds, and with provident care for the health of the
European troops, he erected barracks and officers' quarters for the
invalids.
Under his government Newera Ellia was rapidly becoming a place of
importance, but unfortunately at the expiration of his term the place
became neglected. His successor took no interest in the plans of his
predecessor; and from that period, each successive governor being
influenced by an increasing spirit of parsimony, Newera Ellia has
remained "in statu quo," not even having been visited by the present
governor.
In a small colony like Ceylon it is astonishing how the movements and
opinions of the governor influence the public mind. In the present
instance, however, the movements of the governor (Sir G. Anderson)
cannot carry much weight, as he does not move at all, with the
exception of an occasional drive from Colombo to Kandy. His knowledge
of the colony and of its wants or resources must therefore, from his
personal experience, be limited to the Kandy road. This apathy, when
exhibited by her Majesty's representative, is highly contagious among
the public of all classes and colors, and cannot have other than a bad
moral tendency.
Upon my first visit to Newera Ellia, in 1847, Lord Torrington was the
governor of Ceylon, a man of active mind, with an ardent desire to test
its real capabilities and to work great improvements in the colony.
Unfortunately, his term as governor was shorter than was expected. The
elements of discord were at that time at work among all classes in
Ceylon, and Lord Torrington was recalled.
From the causes of neglect described, Newera Ellia was in the deserted
and wretched state in which I saw it; but so infatuated was I in the
belief that its importance must be appreciated when the knowledge of
its climate was more widely extended that I looked forward to its
becoming at some future time a rival to the Neilgherries station in
India. My ideas were based upon the natural features of the place,
combined with its requirements.
It apparently produced nothing except potatoes. The soil was supposed
to be as good as it appeared to be. The quality of the water and the
supply were unquestionable; the climate could not be surpassed for
salubrity. There was a carriage road from Colombo, one hundred and
fifteen miles, and from Kandy, forty-seven miles; the last thirteen
being the Rambodde Pass, arriving at an elevation of six thousand six
hundred feet, from which point a descent of two miles terminated the
road to Newera Ellia.
The station then consisted of about twenty private residences, the
barracks and officers' quarters, the resthouse and the bazaar; the
latter containing about two hundred native inhabitants.
Bounded upon all sides but the east by high mountains, the plain of
Newera Ellia lay like a level valley of about two miles in length by
half a mile in width, bordered by undulating grassy knolls at the foot
of the mountains. Upon these spots of elevated ground most of the
dwellings were situated, commanding a view of the plain, with the river
winding through its centre. The mountains were clothed from the base to
the summit with dense forests, containing excellent timber for building
purposes. Good building-stone was procurable everywhere; limestone at
a distance of five miles.
The whole of the adjacent country was a repetition Of the Newera Ellia
plain with slight variations, comprising a vast extent of alternate
swampy plains and dense forests.
Why should this place lie idle? Why should this great tract of country
in such a lovely climate be untenanted and uncultivated? How often I
have stood upon the hills and asked myself this question when gazing
over the wide extent of undulating forest and plain! How often I have
thought of the thousands of starving wretches at home, who here might
earn a comfortable livelihood! and I have scanned the vast tract of
country, and in my imagination I have cleared the dark forests and
substituted waving crops of corn, and peopled a hundred ideal cottages
with a thriving peasantry.
Why should not the highlands Of Ceylon, with an Italian climate, be
rescued from their state of barrenness? Why should not the plains be
drained, the forests felled, and cultivation take the place of the rank
pasturage, and supplies be produced to make Ceylon independent of other
countries? Why should not schools be established, a comfortable hotel
be erected, a church be built? In fact, why should Newera Ellia, with
its wonderful climate, so easily attainable, be neglected in a country
like Ceylon, proverbial for its unhealthiness?
These were my ideas when I first visited Newera Ellia, before I had
much experience in either people or things connected with the island.
My twelve months' tour in Ceylon being completed, I returned to England
delighted with what I had seen of Ceylon in general, but, above all,
with my short visit to Newera Ellia, malgre its barrenness and want of
comfort, caused rather by the neglect of man than by the lack of
resources in the locality.