o< MONTHLY. 
Vol. Xm.] COLOMBO, SEPTEMBER ist, 1893. 
[No. 3. 
''PIONEERS OF THE PLANTING ENTERPRISE IN CEYLON.'^ 
A. IVr. KEROUSON, C.M.O. 
LASTAIR MACKENZIE 
FERGUSON— the subject of 
this notice— was born in 
Wester Ross in the North of 
Scotland on 23rd January, 
1816, and he died in Colombo 
on the 26th December, 1892, 
Avithin a few weeks of com- 
pleting 77 years, 55 of which with but brief 
intervals, were passed in Ceylon. AVith no excep- 
tional advantages in education, his natural endow- 
ments and literary ability early manifested them- 
selves, a few of his youthful poetical writings 
receiving insertion in the Inverness Courier from so 
good a judge as Dr. Carruthers (the editor of 
Chambers' " English Literature") at a time when 
some of those of Hugh Miller were rejected. These 
writings attracted the attention of "Seaforth," 
the Rt. Hon. J. A. Stewart-Mackenzie (after a 
member of whose family A. M. Ferguson was 
named), a distinguished statesman, under whose 
auspices he came up to London and afterwards 
on his being appointed Governor, out to Ceylon. 
Mr. A. M. Ferguson landed at Colombo on 
November 7ch, 1837, and he was fond of 
describing the woefully deserted and depressing 
appearance of the open Colombo roadstead with 
its few native dhonies and perhaps one "sailer"' 
at that time, as compared with the wonderful 
development twenty and forty years later under 
the influence of the planting enterprise and still 
more with the picture presenced by Sir John 
Coode's magnificent breakwater, the big mail 
and commercial steamers and the manifold signs 
of trade and prosperity in the present day. 
From 1837 to 1846, Mr. A. M. Ferguson had a 
varied experience of the island, in business, as 
a planting pioneer in Uva, and as a Customs 
Officer and Acting Magistrate at JafTna,. In 
1844, his marriage took place there with Miss 
Mackerras who had come out from Scotland and 
who died in August 1890, their married life 
extending over some 46 years. Mr. Ferguson 
from the day of his arrival in Ceylon had been 
a frequent and esteemed contributor to the 
Colombo Observer, then owned and conducted by 
Dr. Elliott, and the latter in 1846 invited him 
to become his Assistant Editor. With the career 
and development of the Observer from that year 
onwards, his name was inseparably associated. 
He continued as co-Editor up till 1859 when Dr. 
Elliott, becoming Principal Civil Medical Officer 
and head of the newly-created Government 
Department, sold the Observer to his colleague. 
The death soon after of his long-tried friend 
the Doctor, the best-loved colonist in Ceylon, tried 
Mr. Ferguson very seriously, a severe attack of 
fever nearly carrying him oft', — this being almost 
his only serious illness during 55 years in 
Ceylon, until the last. We came out and joined 
our relative as Assistant Editor in November 
1861, and enabled him to take his first holiday 
outside of the island in March 1863. Mr. Feiguson 
had then been nearly 25i years in Ceylon with- 
out a change — he bad never seen a railway, the 
first of the London stiburban lines being under 
construction towards Blackwall as he left in 
November 1837, while Mr. Faviell and his staff 
arrived in Colombo to begin the line to Kandy, 
a few days after his holiday commenced. He 
went home via Bombay, making his fir.st rail- 
way trip over the Bore Ghaut. While in 
England, where he remained a year, he lost 
his eldest daughter suddenly, whom he had 
expected to bring out, his eldest son having 
died there two years before. Ketuining to 
Ceylon, after some years of work he was able 
• We had intended our Henior to come later in 
{iccount of ^tr. Tytlcv obliges nB_ to makej a change. 
the list, but the nou-rtiteipt of 
-Ed. T.A, 
"Old Colvuint'i 
