u 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [August i, 1893. 
quoting from Skinner, we may refer to some othei 
and contemporary writers, and first here is the 
rather meagre summary from our Table of Events 
in Ceylon : — 
Sin E. Barnbs, Governor, 1824-31. 
1824. Lieut-General Sir Edward Barnes, k.c.d., 
Governor ; Sir R. Ottlev, Chief Justice ; Hon'ble 
J. Rodney, Colonial Secretary. 
,, Building of the Pavilion, Kandy ; and of 
Mount Lavinia House, near Colombo. 
„ Moon's " Catalogue of Ceylon Plants " 
published. 
„ First regular Coffee Plantation opened. Although 
the first regular Coffee Plantation in Ceylon was 
opened in Ceylon in thia year, the enterprize 
is usually dated from thirteen years later, in 1837. 
1825. First English Steamer, the "Enterprise," in 
India. 
,) Bishop Heber visits Ceylon ; August 25, arrives 
at Galle ; Sept. 15, Kandy ; Sept. 2'J, leaves 
for India. 
1826. The infliction of capital punishment upon 
women, by drowning, in the Kandyan Provinces 
abolished. 
„ Uduvil Girls' Boarding School established by 
American Missionaries in Northern Province, 
1827. The export of Coffee for the year equalled 
16,000 cwts. 
„ Foundation of the Kotte Christian Institu- 
tion laid by the Governor, 8th November. 
1828. Nuwara Eliya established as a Military Con- 
valescent Station. 
1829. The Commissioners of Enquiry (Mr. C. H. 
Cameron and Lieut. -Col. Colebvooke), who were 
appointed to report upon all matters relating 
to the administration of the Govemmsnt of 
Ceylon, arrived at Colombo, 11th April. 
(, The Colombo Pettah Library instituted by 
the Burghers, 11th April. 
1830. Colombo United Service Library established. 
1831. The Colombo Friend-in-Need Society formed, 
16th March. 
„ The Kandy Bead via Kurunegala and Gala- 
gedara and that via Kadugannawa finished. 
J, Series of successful Pearl Fisheries from 1828 
to 1837. 
Besides building the Pavilion, Kandy, and 
Mount Lavinia House, — of which works some 
cuvioua infoj-mation is extant,* — a third Gover- 
nof'S residence was built in 1829 in " Barnes' 
Hall," Nuwara Eliya, the Sanatorium having 
been, first discovered to Europeans tliree years 
earlier, and selected as a Military Con- 
valescent, Station by Sir- Edward Barnes, f But, 
undoubtedly, the far-seeing wisdom and enter- 
piize of Governor Barnes were most fully 
* On a rocky headland, which projects into the sea 
a few miles from Morottu, are the remains of what 
was once the marine palace of the governors of Ceylon ; 
an edifice in every way worthy of the great man by 
■whom it was erected — Sir Edward Barnes. But in 
one of those paroxysms of economy wliich are some- 
times not less successful than the ambition of the 
Sultan in the fable, in providing haunts for those 
birds that phQosophise amidst ruins, the edifice at 
Mount Lavinia had scarcely been completed at an 
expense which has been estimated at £30,000, when 
it was ordered to be dismantled, and the buildings 
were disposed of for less than the cost of the window 
frames. — Tennent's Ceylon. 
f The first visit of Europeans to this lofty plateau 
was made by some English officers, who in 1826, 
penetrated so far in pursuit of elephants. Struck with 
its freshness and beauty, they reported their discovery 
to the Governor, and Sir Edward Barnes, alive to 
its importance as a sanitary retreat for the troops, 
took possession of it instantly, and commenced the 
Jbuilding of barracks, and of a bungalow for his own 
accommodation. He directed the formation of a road ; 
and within two years Neuera-ellia was opened (in 
1,829) aa ei convalescent station..— 
shown in liis raCitary and commercial roads 
between the sea-coast and the hill-country — hia 
"Bridge of Boats" over the Kclani (wJiieh is onl^ 
now after sixty years being super>>eded, ) and his 
projection of main thoroughfares ri^lit thix>ngli the 
3<andyan country to Badulia and Matale and 
tlience Nortli and East to Triiicomalee. If the 
first ami most potent means of extending civili- 
zation (according to Sir Arthur Gordon quoted 
i)y Charles Kingsley in " At^Last " ) be found in 
roa<ls — the second in roads — and tliis third again 
in roads, — to Sir Edward Barnes belongs pre- 
eminently the reputation of the far-seeing .States- 
man, the Educator an<l Benefactor of the people 
entruste<l to his care. AN Iien the British landed 
in Ceylon in 1796 there was not iu tJie whole 
island a single practicable road ; liefore Sir 
Edward Barnes resigned his (iovernment in 1831 
every town of importance was approached by a 
carriage road. Tiie permanent conijuest and 
quiet settlement of the Kandyans M-ho liad 
baffled I'ortugucHe and Dutch invaders for 3oO 
years was undoubtedly due to Sir Edward 
Barnes' iirst-class macadamized road from Colombo 
to Kandy, including tlie alt'Crnative route via 
Kurunegala (which ko completely answered the 
native tradition of their conquerors being those 
wlu) should make a road tlirough rocks) and 
the beautiful as well as substantial satinwood 
bridge (due to the jjenius of General Eraser) 
.across the largest river in the island, the 
Mahawelliganga, at Peradeniya. The first 
attempt at a census — or an approach to an 
accurate numbering — of the population of Ceylon 
was made by Governor Barnes in 1824, the 
result being a total of 851,440 which shewed that 
including omissions due to the hiding of people, 
there could not be more than a million of both 
sexes and all ages in the island seventy years 
ago, against the three millioiiB of our latest 
Census. But the same master-mind that con- 
ceived the system of carriage roads between the 
principal towns, was never satisfied until it demon- 
strated that tliere was an industry and trade in 
value capable of being developed in the hillcountry 
far in excess of the fabled mines of precious 
metals and jewels which the Portuguese, Dutch, 
and even early British had credited the Kandyao 
monarch with ct)ntrolling within his territory. 
The Dutch who began coffee cultivation in the 
lowcountry in 1740 Avere never aide to export 
more than 1,000 cwt. iu one year. Mr. Geo. 
Bird, under the direct encouragement of the 
Governor, began the first regular plantation at 
Sinnapitia, near Ganipola, in 1824, and then 
Governor Barnes himself, to stimulate and encour- 
age capitalists to settle, led the way next year, 
by opening Gangaruwa estate above what are 
now the Royal Botanic Gardens, Peradeniya — 
and a plantation, which, under the care ot Sir 
Edward Barnes' son — Mr. E. H Barnes,* an 
accomplished meteorologist and careful planter — 
did well up to the .sixties and seventies in coffee, 
while under cocoa and other products it is still a 
valuable property for its present owner and 
lessee. Had Sir Edward Barnes remained longer 
in the Island, coffee cultivation would have un- 
doubtedly developed much more rapidly than it 
did, the export in the year he left being only 
a few tliousand cwt., M-hile in 1837 — the year 
from which we usually date the active rise of 
the planting enterprise — it had risen to 30,uOO 
cwt. The cause is clearly explained by Tennent 
when he writes 
* He left Ceylon in June 1967 and Bold Gangaruwa 
in January 1872, 
