150 COFFEE PLANTING AND FINANCING. 
reader may enquire? They are good, indeed one 
might say brilliant, and, in all human probability, 
if blessed with good health, they will have attained 
independence by the time they reach middle age. 
On his arrival in Ceylon, the youth takes up his 
abode with an acquaintance of some years’ residence 
in the island, with whom he learns the rudiments 
of his trade, including the Tamil language, in order 
to be able to converse with his coolies. In some ~ 
eases he is at once installed in the post of Assistant 
Superintendert, for which he gets his londging and 
board, or, if he prefers it, £8-6-8 per month. While 
learning the arts of holing, lining, planting, handling, 
&e., the beginner keeps a sharp look-out after the 
sales of forest-land, which takes place at the Go- 
vernment Agent’s Office in Kandy at frequent inter- 
vals. He has made up his mind to settle in one of 
the new districts, say Dimbula, Dikoya, or the Mas- 
keliya Valley; the identical quarter he has chosen 
has been applied for, surveyed, marked out, and the 
auction is advertised in the Government Gazette. Our 
planter rides into Kandy on the appointed day to 
attend the sale, when there is a brisk competition 
ending by Lot 4,863, bounded on the north by Lot 
&c., and measuring 410a. 37. 2p., being knocked down 
to him at £4 10s. an acre. The price varies accord- 
ing to the run of popular taste for the moment, land 
going in some districts for the upset price of £1 an 
acre, while a block, perhaps inferior to it in coffee- 
bearing qualities, fetched £5, beeause it happens te 
lie in a locality where one or two lately opened es- 
tates have enriched their owners. However, such 
considerations are very far from troubling our friend, 
who makes a night of it in the Queen’s Hotel along 
with the other purchasers, and rides home to his bun- 
galow next morning with a bad headache, but the 
happy owner of a “wattie” im embryo. It is only 
a speck in the ocean of forest, but im anticipation it 
has already endowed its owner with the wealth of 
the De Soyzas, the princess of Sinhalese coffee plant- 
ers. Life would be a poor affair without its day- 
dreams, and the planter is but one of the many who 
start on their career, with a belief in their certainty 
of success which greatly aids them in reaching the 
goal. It would be better for a man to dig for dia- 
monds in South Africa, or plant cotton in the Fiji 
Islands, than to commence coffee planting, dispirited 
and mistrustful of himself. The first sharp attack of 
dysentery, or liver, will carry a man off as surely as 
the buoyant heart of the other will enable him to 
bear hunger, wet, and isolation without repining, as 
well as to resist the insidious attacks of disease. _ 
Having secured his block of land, the next thing 
