MANUAL OF THK NILAGIRI DISTRICT. 293 



Jails, also a Club (the Club-liouse still used for this purpose CHAP. Xll. 

 was built by Sir William Rumbold, Bart., a partner of the famous „ . 

 house of Palmer and Co., Hyderabad), and lastly three largo shops History. 

 by Parsees from Bombay.^ The Bombay authorities also had not 

 been idle, and had established public quarters for their invalid 

 officers at the house known as Bombay House, Elk Hill, and pro- 

 vided a Medical Officer for their care.^ Meanwhile the selection 

 and the opening out of the Coonoor Pass by Mr. Lushington 

 led to the formation of a station at Coonoor, the first houses 

 being those built by and for the Pioneers. An experimental 

 farm had been begun at Kaity Valley under the Assistant 

 Commissary- General Major Crewe. I would here mention that the 

 establishment of a school, the building of the church, and the 

 scheme for hill colonization by Europeans, were in great measure 

 projected by Daniel Wilson, the eccentric but energetic Bishop 

 of Calcutta, the only Indian Bishop at the time, and his zealous 

 Assistant, Archdeacon Robinson of Madras. Bishop Wilson Bishop 

 arrived in Calcutta in 1832, and shortly afterwards began his Daniel 

 celebrated tour throughout his diocese which lasted five years, and 

 during which he travelled 13,000 miles. Of him Lord Dalhousie 

 remarked that he was the best man of business he had met in 

 India. This zealous bishop also advocated a scheme for the 

 Christian instruction of the native immigi-ants to the Hills. The 

 consecration of St. Stephen's was a great day. Bishop Wilson 

 took for his text the words " the wilderness and solitary place 

 shall be glad for them and the desert shall rejoice and blossom 

 as the rose.'' He referred to the natural wilderness as blooming 

 around them, and " the valleys, till lately abandoned to solitude 

 and desolation, teeming now with life, and in certain progress 

 towards that time when they shall stand so thick with corn 

 that they shall laugh and sing " — a prophecy which still remains 

 to be fulfilled. He left the hills for the West Coast, journeying 

 through Wainad. I cannot refrain from quoting his remarks 

 on this district, though the conclusion will probably not meet 

 with a response from the present settlers : — 



" The cotton, coffee, and tobacco of this district, its mineral and 

 other spontaneous productions, would, with even moderate care and 

 pains, become an overflowing stream of wealth, and of that which 

 statesmen love best — revenue. I never saw a country which, with a 

 little management, might be rendered so gloriously taxable." 



The station grew with marvellous quickness under Mr. Court of 

 Lushington's fostering care, but the expenditure he was incurring ^'j^®°*^°" ^^^ 



' The principal, Nesserwanjee Jehangeer, is now represented by Framjee and 

 Company. 



2 Several interesting sketches of Ootacamand and other places on the Hills 

 will be found in Harkness, Jervis, Baikie (Ist Edition), and a series of large 

 engravings by Captain McMurdy, all about 1834. 



