306 MAN' DAL OF THE NILAGIKI DISTRICT. 



CHAP. XII. would be neglected to secure this important object. The 



Marquis of Tweeddale, like his predecessors, took a lively interest 



HrsTORv. in the Hills, and was perhaps more friendly to European settlers 



than any of them, Mr. Lushington excepted. Early in his 



reign the policy of the Home Government underwent a marked 

 change in regard to the grant of Government waste lands to 

 Europeans, which finds expression in the celebrated despatch of 

 Coffee plant- the 2 1st June 1843. It was during his governorship, which 

 ing begun. ^^^^^^ ^.^^ 23rd July 1848, that coffee planting by Europeans 

 was begun in the Waindd and on the western slopes of the 

 Nidumaleg. To him Ootacamand owes the Lake Eoad. But the 

 principal act which will cause his name to be remembered was 

 the determination to establish a military station on the Hills, 

 not a mere convalescent depot, but a cantonment, with a British 

 regiment permanently located there. The abolition of the depot 

 at Ootacamand seems to have intensified the desire of the 

 Government to have a home for soldiers in this salubrious chmate 

 at a lower elevation and on a more suitable scale. It will be 

 remembered that Lord Elphinstone also favored a similar scheme. 

 The subject of locating troops in the hills had for some time 

 been occupying the attention of the Government of India and 

 the Home Government, and already more than one such station 

 had been established in the north of India. The immediate 

 cause of its settlement was the determination of the Govern- 

 ment to build barracks at Bangalore and Trichinopoly. The 

 Marquis of Tweeddale desired to lay out the sum sanctioned for 

 Trichinopoly, about £45,000, in building barracks on the Nilagiris, 

 removing thither the European corps from Trichinopoly. 

 Orders were issued to select two sites, one near Ootacamand 

 and one near Coonoor, in the Jackatalla Valley ; the latter site now 

 known as Wellington, was pointed out to the Marquis by Captain 

 Ouchterlony, then engaged on the survey of the Hills. The 

 proposal to build near Ootacamand was abandoned for reasons 

 with which I am not acquainted, but the Government resolved 

 on building temporary barracks, similar to those used in Bengal, 

 in the Jackatalla Valley, though the medical officer reporting 

 on the site had brought to their notice that in one portion of 

 the area, though not that on which buildings were to be placed, 

 there existed ruins of a village which the Badagas asserted 

 had been abandoned for its feverishness. Though the proposal 

 to build barracks on the Nilagiris was approved by the Govern- 

 ment of India in February 1847, yet, owing to political reasons 

 regarding the disposition of European troops in India, the ques- 

 tion was not settled in the time of the Marquis of Tweeddale. 

 It must not be forgotten that at this time there were strategic 

 objections to the Nilagiris as a station for troops, which hardly 



