so rapid a rate that he was soon almost overcome by 

 his embarras de richesse. He distributed them in 

 thousands to those planters, both European and 

 Native, already established, sending them to Assam, 

 Cachar, and Darjeeling, and even to Cashmere, 

 where he had induced the Maharaja to introduce the 

 cultivation. Government on the other hand held out 

 offers to the public of grants of laud on most liberal 

 terms, and of tea seed and seedlings gratis. 



In 1857-58 the Government plantations pro- 

 duced greater quantities of seed and seedlings. 

 More natives undertook the cultivation, on a 

 small scale, and a few with better success. But 

 European speculators, with bona fide capital, pre- 

 ferring perhaps to await the result of the opera- 

 tions of the few private planters already esta- 

 blished, or more probably from causes that will 

 be alluded to in another place, did not very 

 readily come to the relief of Government. To 

 work a tea plantation up to paying point, is a 

 labour of some years, and there was consequently 

 some delay before capitalists, with a certainty be- 

 fore them in Assam, could be satisfied of the 

 prudence of investing their money in the re- 

 mote regions of the Himalaya Mountains. The 

 time however was near at hand, and the forma- 

 tion of the Deyrah Dhoon Company (1859-60) 

 with a nominal capital of fifty lakhs of rupees 

 ( 500,000), and the purchase by it of the estates of 



