CEYLON COFFEES. 1 23 



finest lands were purchased for the purpose, until, at the 

 end of a few years, it became a matter of notoriety that 

 the soil and climate of Ceylon were capable of producing 

 coffee equal in value to most kinds then grown, when the 

 influx of capital from England for investment in this 

 new branch of industry became simply enormous. In 

 1840, nearly 10,000 acres of mountain forest were 

 felled and planted in coffee, and in an exceedingly short 

 space of time the sale of crown-lands for coffee culture 

 averaged 40,000 acres per annum. The mountain ranges 

 on all sides of the district of Kandy became speedily 

 covered with plantations, the great valleys of Ambo- 

 gamoa, Doombera, Kotmalie and Pusilawa were occupied 

 by speculators, others settling in the steep passes of 

 Neurailla and penetrating the Ouvah and Badulla 

 districts, coffee-trees quickly blooming on every solitary 

 hill, even up to and around the very base of Adam's 

 peak. The first ardent adventurers pioneering their way 

 through pathless woods, living in log-cabins whilst felling 

 the forest and making their preliminary preparations for 

 planting, until, in a few years, the paths by which 

 they came were converted into roadways and their 

 cabins replaced by comfortable " bungalows." The 

 coffee cultivation mania in Ceylon, however, reached 

 its climax in 1845, when the governor, council, mili- 

 tary, judges, civil servants, and even the clergy pene- 

 trated the hills in their mad haste to become purchasers 

 of crown lands for coffee growing. The East India Com- 

 pany's officers crowded to Ceylon to invest their savings 

 in coffee lands, capitalists from England at the same 

 time arriving by every vessel, the bulk of the emigrants 

 as a class being more than ordinarily aristocratic, and 

 who, if not already opulent, were still in haste to become 

 more so. So dazzling was the prospect that expenditure 



