CiiAP. VI.] COFFEE PLANTING. 231 



pathless woods, and lived for months in log-hnts, whilst 

 felhng the forest and making their prehminary nm'series 

 preparatory to planting ; but within a few years the 

 tracks by which they came were converted into high- 

 ways, and their cabins replaced by bungalows, which, 

 though rough, were picturesque and replete with Euro- 

 pean comforts. The new hfe in tlie jungle was fuU of 

 excitement and romance, the wild elephants and leopards 

 retreated before the axe of the forester ; the elk supphed 

 their table ^\dth venison, and jungle fowl and game were 

 within call and abundant. 



The coffee mania was at its chmax in 1845, The Go- 

 vernor and the Council, the IVIihtary, the Judges, the 

 Clergy, and one half the Civil Servants penetrated the 

 hills, and became purchasers of crown lands. The East 

 India Company's officers crowded to Ceylon to invest 

 their savings, and capitahsts from England arrived by 

 every packet. As a class, the body of emigrants was more 

 than ordinarily aristocratic, and if not akeady opulent, 

 were in haste to be rich. So dazzling was the prospect 

 that expenditure was unlimited ; and its profusion was 

 only equalled by the ignorance and inexperience of those 

 to whom it was entrusted. Five miUions sterhng are said 

 to have been sunk within less than as many years ; but 

 this estimate is probably exaggerated. The rush for land 

 was only paralleled by the movement towards the mines 

 of Cahfornia and Austraha, but with this painful difference, 

 that the enthusiasts in Ceylon, instead of thronging to 

 disinter, were hurrying to bury their gold. 



In the midst of these visions of riches, a crash suddenly 

 came which awoke \ictims to the reality of ruin. The 

 financial explosion of 1845 in Great Britain speedily ex- 

 tended its destructive influence to Ceylon ; remittances 

 ceased, prices fell, credit failed, and the first announce- 

 ment on the subsidence of turmoil, was the doom of pro- 

 tection, and the withdrawal of the distinctive duty, whicli 

 had so long screened British plantations from competition 

 with the coffee of Java and Brazil. 



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