A railway has been built from Colombo, the shipping port, through
the mountains to the coffee-growing districts, a distance of
seventy miles, and this enabled us to visit Kandy, more than 1,600
feet above the sea, and the summer capital to which the government
repairs in hot weather. It is a beautiful little town, and gave us
the first breath of air with "ozone" in it that we had enjoyed
since we were on the Sierras. Our hotel fronts upon the square,
and is opposite the Buddhist Temple, celebrated as the receptacle
of that precious relic, "the sacred tooth of Buddha." A former
king of Ceylon is reputed to have paid an immense sum for this
memento of the departed. We were too near the temple for comfort.
The tomtom has to be beaten five times each day, and as one of
these is at sunrise, I had occasion to wish the priest and tooth
both far enough away. I wonder the Europeans don't indict this
tomtoming at unseasonable hours as a nuisance.
The Botanical Gardens here are rivalled in the tropics by those in
Java only, and upon seeing the display of luxuriant vegetation, we
fully understood how it had acquired its celebrity; but still all
is green. The great variety of palms, the bread-fruit, banyan,
jack-fruit, and others sustain this reputation. The chocolate tree
was the most curious to us; it has recently been introduced in the
island, and promises to add one more to the list of luxuries for
which Ceylon is famous. A fine evidence of the intelligence of the
Ceylon planters is seen in the fact that the association employs a
chemist to investigate and report upon the different soils and
what they are capable of producing; under his supervision various
articles are always under trial. Recently Liberian coffee has been
found to thrive in low latitudes unsuited for the Arabian variety,
which requires a higher district, thus rendering available for
this plant a large area, which has hitherto been necessarily
devoted to less profitable uses. Nothing nowadays can be
thoroughly developed without the chemist's aid, and the day is not
far distant when our farming will be conducted under his
instructions as completely as our steel manufacture is now.
Ceylon is noted for its pearl fisheries and its supply of rubies,
sapphires, and cats'-eyes as much as for its spices; and from the
hour the traveller lands until the steamer carries him off he is
beset with dealers offering precious stones, worth hundreds of
dollars in London or New York, for a few rupees; but those who
purchase no doubt find their fate in the story of the innocent who
bought his gold cheap. The government keeps the pearl fishery
grounds under proper regulations, and allows divers one half of
all they find, the other half going to the State Treasury. I was
told the value of the pearls found last year amounted to $400,000,
but the production seems to be falling off. In 1798 the fishery
was rented for £142,000 ($710,000). Now the government has to work
it and the net proceeds have never exceeded £87,000 in any year,
and have fallen as low as £7,200.
The government employed a naturalist to study the habits of the
pearl oyster. He labored for five years, but this time scientific
investigation seems to have failed and we know but little more
about the subject than before. Some genius will come, however, to
solve all questions. Science may be rebuffed twenty times, but it
never rests until the truth is known. This much is certain, that
these precious oysters leave their usual beds for years together.
There was no fishery once for twenty-seven years, from 1768 to
1796, and once before then it failed for about fourteen years.
When they do visit pretty Ceylon, their main residence is upon the
northwestern coast, sixteen to twenty miles from shore. It is
believed that the oyster reaches maturity in its seventh year,
when the pearl attains full size and lustre. If the oyster be not
secured then, it soon dies and we lose our pearl. Consider the
number of these jewels which fade away to their original elements
in the depths of ocean: for one we get, a million decomposed.
Did the poet know how true his words were when he said:
"Full many a gem of purest ray serene
The dark unfathomed caves of ocean bear."
The government brings the oysters to the beach and sells them to
the highest bidders in lots of one thousand. Can you conceive of a
prettier game of chance than this! Imagine the natives at work
opening the rough shells, expecting at every turn to find a pearl
worth a fortune!
The pearl fishers descend six to eight fathoms forty or fifty
times a day, and can remain under water from a minute to a minute
and a half. So much for practice. In the course of a million or
hundred million years, more or less, each successive generation
pursuing this calling, under the law of inherited tendencies,
these people might well return to the amphibious state and give us
an illustration of evolution, backward.
The pearl oyster is a large, round bivalve, sometimes twelve
inches in diameter. If Thackeray felt, as he said when he first
tried a Rockaway, as if he were swallowing a baby, what would have
been his impressions if he had tickled his throat with one of
these monsters? Sometimes a dozen, or even twenty pearls, are said
to have been found in a single oyster. I remember hearing in China
that a fresh water mollusc is made to grow pearls by the
introduction of foreign bodies within the shell. These produce
irritation which the shell fish seeks to allay by depositing
around them a layer of pearly matter, and thus pearls are formed.
It is a fact that the celebrated Linnaeus was paid $2,500 by the
Swedish Government for a plan he discovered for doing a similar
thing with the oyster. He bored through the shell and deposited
sand particles, between it and the mantle of fine tissues. It was
not a success; but some day the race will produce pearls from
cultivated oyster beds as we now get our eggs from chickens; that
is, provided the coming man is not to regard jewelry of all kinds
as barbaric--"_barbaric_ pearls and gold" are Milton's very
words, and great poets are prophets. The tendency is certainly in
that direction. The more ignorant the natives, the more ornamental
jewelry is worn, even if it be immense, heavy glass bracelets from
Birmingham. Already one says, how simple, how grandly simple she
was, with her hair plain, her ears unpierced, her head and neck
without a single ornament, save only a rosebud in the hair. Jewels
are to women what wine is to man--not recommended till after
forty; and a poor help at any age.
* * * * *
COLOMBO, Tuesday, January 21.
Ceylon was originally settled in 1517 by the Portuguese, who
obtained the right to erect a small factory at Colombo for
purposes of trade. This soon grew into a fort, and naturally the
whole west coast became theirs. The Dutch drove them out a hundred
and fifty years later, to be in turn expelled by the English after
they had occupied the island for just about the same period. As
with all their colonies, the Dutch left their impress upon Ceylon.
New industries were introduced, great public works constructed,
and, better than all, the education of the people was well cared
for. The trade with Holland became a source of much profit.
England has been master since 1796, nearly ninety years now, and
certainly the work she has to show for the less than a century is
marvellous indeed.
The people are not yet done rejoicing at the restoration of their
ancient village institutions, which took place in 1871. Europeans
had rudely swept these away and substituted courts after their own
fashion. After many years trial, they were seen to be unsuited for
the country, and the ancient village tribunals were reestablished,
as I have said, a few years ago. It will not do to conclude, as
many do, that India, Ceylon, and other of the Eastern lands, are
left almost bare of just laws and fair administration, for nothing
could be farther from the truth. The village elders, chosen by the
people of Ceylon, for instance, administer laws which are the
outgrowth of centuries, and as such are far better adapted to the
real conditions which exist than any other system of laws, no
matter how perfect, which have been found suitable in other lands
under conditions wholly unlike. Here in this charming island, as
indeed throughout all India, villages, or groups of villages, are
authorized to frame rules having the force of laws, and which
natives construe and administer.
I am amused at the ignorance of the average Englishman or American
upon Eastern affairs. He is always amazed when I tell him that so
far as representative institutions are concerned, there is not a
village in India which is not farther advanced in this department
of politics than any rural constituency in Britain. The American
county, village, district and township system is of course more
perfect than any other with which I am acquainted, but the English
is really about the most backward. The experiment in Ceylon of
restoring the native system has been an unequivocal success, even
beyond the expectations of its warmest advocates, and in addition
to the advantages flowing from the native courts, it is found that
the village committees are beginning to repair and restore the
ancient tanks and other irrigation works, which, under the curse
of centralized and foreign authority had been allowed to fall into
disuse.
The new blood of home rule in local affairs has aroused local
patriotism and established numerous bodies throughout the country,
each a centre from which good influences radiate, organizations
into which good impulses flow, to crystallize into works of public
utility, while at the same time an _esprit de corps_ is
created which must tell more and more. Wait till this plan is
tried in England and Scotland, and, above all, in unhappy Ireland!
I shall never despair of Ireland until at least a generation has
had such local institutions as we find in Ceylon's Isle. If that
people cannot develop under self-government, they deserve to fall
away and give place to a better race; but they will not fail.
Caste exists in Ceylon, although it is not so strictly preserved
as in India. Still, every calling is a caste, down to the
scavenger. The several castes do not intermarry, nor is it
practicable for one who has reaped great wealth and has natural
tastes and abilities above his caste, to do in this small island
what is readily done in India, viz., emigrate and set up in
superior style in some other part of the crowded empire. The
wealthiest native in Ceylon to-day is a fisherman, and yet he
cannot gain admittance to the society of poorer natives about him
of higher caste. If he were in India, and socially ambitious, he
would change his residence. I was told by several Europeans that
the bonds of caste in India are slowly weakening, and that when a
wealthy stranger comes to a district it is held wise not to
inquire too curiously concerning his birth.
Of all the castes, the tiller of the soil stands at the head in
Ceylon; even the skilled worker in iron is away below him. The
rural laborer with us must be taught to hold his head up. He is A1
in Ceylon.
The position held by Ceylon in ancient days as the great granary
of Southern Asia explains the precedence accorded to agricultural
pursuits. Under native rule the whole island was brought under
irrigation by means of artificial lakes, constructed by dams
across ravines, many of them of great extent--one, still existing,
is twenty miles in circumference--but the system has been allowed
to fall into decay. I am glad to know that government has resolved
to undertake the work of repair. Proper sluices are to be supplied
to all the village tanks, and the embankments are to be raised and
strengthened through the labor of the village communities. We may
yet live to see the fertility of the country restored to that of
its pristine days.
We saw the new breakwater which government is constructing here at
great expense. When finished it is proposed that the Indian
steamers shall call here instead of at Galle, the harbor of which
is dangerous. This may be a decided improvement upon the whole,
but the tourist who does not see pretty Galle and enjoy the long
day's drive through the island to Colombo will miss much.
Iron ore exists in Ceylon in vast deposits and is remarkably pure,
rivalling the best Swedish grades. It has been worked from remote
times, and native articles of iron are preferred even to-day to
any that can be imported. If cost of transportation is to keep
growing less and less, it is not beyond the range of possibility
that some day Britain may import some of this unrivalled stone for
special uses. There are also quicksilver mines, and lead, tin, and
manganese are found to some extent.
* * * * *
GALLE, Wednesday, January 22.
We reached here last night upon our return, stopping one night at
Colombo. Future travellers will soon miss one of the rarest treats
in Ceylon. The railway will soon be completed from Colombo to
Galle, and the days of coaching cease forever. We congratulate
ourselves that our visit was before this passed away, as we know
of no drive equal to that we have now enjoyed twice, and the last
time even more than the first.
During our trip down yesterday I counted within forty miles eleven
schools filled with young Cingalese. English is generally taught
in them, and although attendance is not compulsory, great
inducements are held out to parents to send their children. The
advantages of knowing the English language are so decided that I
am told parents generally are most anxious to have their children
taught. The school-houses are simple affairs, consisting only of
white plastered walls about five feet high, with spaces for
entrance. On this wall rest the slight wooden standards which
support thereof of palm-leaves, so that all is open to our view as
we drive past. The attention paid to this vital subject, evidences
of which are seen everywhere, is what most delights us. In 1874
there were 1,468 public schools on the island, attended by 66,385
scholars.
We were equally delighted to see numerous medical dispensaries,
where the afflicted natives can obtain advice and medicine free of
charge. On several huts we saw large placards denoting the
presence of contagious disease within. It is a great work that is
going forward here under English rule. By such means England
proves her ability to govern, and best confirms her sway against
domestic revolt or foreign intrigues. The blessings of good
government, the education of the people, and careful attention to
their health and comfort--these will be found the most effective
weapons with which to combat mutiny within, or Russian or any
other aggression from abroad. From all we saw in Ceylon we are
prepared to put it forth as the best example of English government
in the world, England herself not excepted.
* * * * *
SATURDAY, January 25.
At ten tonight we sailed for Madras and Calcutta by the English
mail steamer Hindostan, and were lighted out of the intricate
harbor by flaming torches displayed by lines of natives stationed
at the buoys.
"Flashes of flambeaux looked Like Demons guarding the river of
death."
The last sight of Ceylon's isle revealed the fine spires of the
Catholic Cathedral, which tower above the pretty harbor of Galle.
* * * * *