580 ikings of tbe 1Rofc, IRifle, ant> 6un 



to Ceylon was to shoot elephants. But, once landed in 

 that beautiful island, the instincts of the geographer, the 

 explorer, and the coloniser, which were as strong in him 

 as those of the sportsman, were awakened. It distressed 

 him to see a place like Newera Ellia, the sanatorium of 

 Ceylon, utterly neglected, and all its grand natural 

 capabilities ignored. For the Europeans in Ceylon at 

 that time were too indolent to make the slightest 

 attempt at exploration or cultivation of their beautiful 

 tropical isle. Baker, therefore, resolved to set them 

 an example and to found a settlement at Newera Ellia 

 with the object of developing the great natural re- 

 sources of the country. 



It comes as a shock to our national pride to find Sir 

 Samuel Baker expressing most emphatically the opinion 

 that the French are far superior to the English as 

 settlers. "A Frenchman," he says, "is necessarily a 

 better settler : everything is arranged for permanency, 

 from the building of a house to the cultivation of an 

 estate. He does not distress his land for immediate 

 profit, but from the commencement he adopts a system 

 of the highest cultivation." The Frenchman when he 

 leaves his country makes up his mind that he is bidding 

 an eternal adieu to his beloved France, and that he and 

 his posterity must look for all their future happiness 

 in the new land in which they settle. But you cannot 

 convince an English settler that he will be abroad for an 

 indefinite number of years : he consoles himself with the 

 hope that something will turn up to alter the apparent 

 certainty of his exile ; and in this hope, with his mind 

 ever fixed upon his return, he does little for posterity in 



