and Magazine of the Ceylon Agricultural Society. 



467 



As to the other products of the islands, 



COFFEE 



is at present the second in point of importance, 

 but erelong rubber will take precedence of it. 

 Before cacao proved the gold mine that for the 

 past ten years or so it has been, attention was 

 given to the experimental cultivation of various 

 caoutchouc-yielding plants. But tho colony 

 unfortunately had not a Wright, a Carruthers, 

 a Proudlock to advise them, and consequently 

 the more or less worthless manihot was encour- 

 aged to spread itself weed-like over both islands, 

 to the discredit of the less aggressive species. 

 Cacao then absorbed all the>r available energies 

 until the humanitarian campaign against that 

 product, the threatened blight on the capsules, 

 and the warnings of writers such as Chevalier and 

 Almada Megreiros as to the dangers of a mono- 

 culture, combined to stimulate ataking stock of 

 their resources and position. Hence, partly, their 

 invitation to me to visit S. Thome; and 



EXAMINE ITS RUBBER RESOURCES IN THE LIGHT 

 OF RECENT RANGOON EXPERIENCES. 



What I found, and the significance of it, are na- 

 turally matters primarily interesting the planters 

 who invited me, but I do not think I am giving 

 away any secret by mentioning that whether 

 the boycott of S. Thome" cacao continues or 

 cot, a year or two hence these islands may figure 

 as a regular and recognised source of planta- 

 tion rubber — Rambong and Castilloa chiefly, 

 Para being quite up to Eastern standards in 

 quality if not yet in quantity. The market for 

 S. Thome rubber will presumably be beyond 

 the range of boycott, as is now the case with its 

 coffee, and it will be interesting to see what 

 direction, if any, the campaign will then take. 



Just a word or two as to the 



DAILY LIFE ON THE PLANTATIONS. 



The morning bell calls the servicals (negro 

 labourers) to work at 6 a.m., when the Euro- 

 pean manager and those of his assistants 

 who reside at headquarters turn out, if they are 

 not already on the ground, muster the men and 

 women, set them their tasks, and start the work 

 of the plantations for the day. Similarly at the 

 dependencias or outposts. The muster is a curious 

 sight. The men turn out in striped blankets, or 

 in cast-off English uniforms. I noted several 

 jackets of the Essex Regiment on one roga, and 

 others of British infantry regiments not dis- 

 tinguishable, but the favourite garb was a sub- 

 stantial kind of black frock coat, labelled on the 

 collar "Ticket Collector, M. K." (presumably 

 cast-off clothing of the Midland Railway.) The 

 wearers were Mogambiques who told mo their 

 garments had been served out to them at 

 Quilimane for the voyage to S. Thome, and 

 they still wore them on the chilly mornings 

 and evenings on the plantations. The women, 

 whose children are still being nursed, take them 

 out with them to work, each mother placing 

 her child astride behind her, its face looking 

 up her spine, and bandaging it to her body by 

 means of a cloth passed round the bodios of 

 both and tied in front of the mother. The 

 children of from one to ten or twelve years of 

 age are loft in the barrack square, a creche 

 being provided for them and an old woman 



told off to look after them. But practically 

 they go where they like within the enclosure, 

 scrambling over the heaps of cacao, sailing 

 boats in the duck pond, and occasionally in- 

 vading the administrator's bungalow, where they 

 are received good humouredly and given choco- 

 lates("slave cocoa : ') by the ladies of the family, 

 then sent off to play outside. The 



PORTUGUESE UNDERSTAND BETTER THAN ANY 

 OTHER EUROPEAN NATION HOW TO MANAGE 

 BLACK PEOPLE, 



and it is an eye-opener to any European straDger, 

 knowing the stand off relations between white folk 

 and coloured in other parts of the world, to visit 

 a St. Thome roga and see how the band of little 

 niggers, who have never set eyes on him before, 

 will come up and chatter to him, taking his 

 hand in their little black paws and leading 

 him about with tho perfect confidence and ease 

 of, say, a well-bred French child — as free from 

 shyness as from impertinence. One can hardly 

 conceive a more practical disproof of the charges 

 of cruelty and brutality so recklessly brought 

 against the S. Thome planters, and brought 

 by men who have had the opportunity of seeing 

 things as they are. 



The muster over and the work of the day 

 begun, the mata bicho or meal corresponding 

 to the Indian chota hazri is sent out to the 

 workers, the Europeans adjourning to the bun- 

 galow for theirs. I say corresponding, but with 

 a difference. To an old Indian, accustomed to 

 tea and toast plus bananas brought to his bedside 

 when he awakes, the long wait of anything 

 from one to two-and-a-half hours in the damp 

 sunless air of a West African morning is a bit 

 trying at first, and the meal itself — salt cod 

 well soused in oil, with red wine to wash it down 

 — is strangely unlike what one naturally in- 

 clines to. However, every roga has its own 

 baker, and hot rolls and excellent coffee make 

 amends for the first part of the programme. 

 S. Thome possesses a quaint fruit known assafti 

 (canarium edule), eaten, boiled, with salt, which 

 tastes not unlike asparagus and like the durian 

 of Burma is said (once you acquire the taste 

 for it) to drag you irresistibly back to the island 

 wheresoever you may wander. This fruit 

 generally closes the meal, with a wafer of quinine 

 put on the table as a matter of course with the 

 pepper and the mustard. Apropos of 



QUININE, IT IS CURIOUS HOW DOCTORS DIFFER. 



The doctor 'of one roga where I was staying 

 entertained us by denouncing the practice of 

 taking a daily dose as a pernicious vice. The 

 system, he said, got accustomed to the drug, 

 but as five grains a day went nowhere in the 

 gallons of blood in circulation, sooner or later 

 the fever of the island got a footing in spite 

 of it, and then the dose had to be increased 

 to one dangerous to give in Africa, where an 

 overdose almost invariably produced haema- 

 turia. The practical planter, our host, would 

 have none of this heresy. " Mere doctors' talk," 

 said he. " Just another way of saying that you 

 invite the fever to come and put up with you. 

 Wait till ho comes, and then send a friendly 

 message to the doctor to come and join the 

 party T" What did I think ? I could only beg to 

 be excused from expressing an opinioutill I had 



