2 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
[)OLY 2, I894. 
learn a trade. Unfortunately his father had no 
sympathy with his son's eager pursuit after all 
kinds of solid and useful learning, and gave no 
encouragement to his desire to leave home and 
push his way in the world. At length Mr. Peter 
Moir, a native of Laurencekirk and a cousin of 
his mother, hearing how James Taylor was 
situated at home, helped him to an introduction 
to Messrs. Hadden of London, who were then 
sending young men out to Ceylon as assistants 
on plantations. James Taylor's engagement ran 
as follows : — 
"Messes. G. & J. A. Hadden, London. 
"October, 1851. 
"I hereby engage myself to Mr. George Pride of 
Kandy, Ceylon, for the space of three years to 
act in the capacity of Assistant Superintendent, 
and to make myself generally useful, at a salary 
of £100 per annum to commence from the time 
of my arrival on the estate and to have deducted 
from my salary the amount of money advanced 
for my passage and outfit. 
"I am, gentlemen, your obedient servant, 
"(Signed) James Taylok." 
The young man sailed from London on 
October 22nd, 1851, when in his seventeenth yeaf. 
That he had trials for some time in his new 
sphere as in his native land we learn from a 
letter written home some years afterward*, 
in which he says : — " The firsc two years in 
Ceylon were the most uncomfortable in my life." 
Another time he sends his respects to all old 
schoolfellows, adding :— " We were a noble lot, and 
how well many of us have got on, especially John 
Ross, now Rector of Arbroath Academy." It 
seems James Taylor was a pupil-teacher under Mr- 
Soutar for some time before coming to Ceylon. 
We are able to supplement the above with 
some reminiscences of a contemporary, Mr. A. 
Morrison, who is still in our midst as a veteran 
planter. Mr. Morrison saw James Taylor in 
1851, and reports as follows : — 
" He was a big-headed, large-chested, burly 
lad, looking a picture of robust health, and had 
come to Fettercairn to confer with Henry Stiyen 
in regard to coming out to Ceylon as coll'ee 
planter, both having been engaged by Mr. Pete r 
Moir (then at home for the first time after nine 
years in the Island on the Haddens' estates) to 
come out here as Sinna Durais for the Prides on, I 
believe, three years' engagement on £100 a year. 
Both left Scotland towards the end of 1851, and 
coming round the Cape, must have arrived at Co- 
lombo in the early part of 1852. On arrival, Taylo r 
•was sent to Loole Condera and Stiven to Ancoom. 
bera. I believe Taylor had as P. D. Mr. William s 
who shortly afterwards re-opened old Sinnapittia 
and part of Weyangawatte as coffee estates for 
Capt. Henry C. Byrde. When I came out ill 
1857, Taylor was manager of Loole Condera ami 
Waloya, the greater part of which he had opened 
and never left until the time of his death after 
about 41 years' resilience." 
It may be surmised that there was nothing 
for the first 15 or 16 years, in the career of James 
Taylor as Assistant and afterwards full Superinten- 
dent on Loole Condera(of which Mr. George Pride 
was the then proprietor) to mark him off from his 
fellows, not even perhaps in his very close applica- 
tion to the duties allotted to him. In hi* turn, 
he had a succession of assistants who profited by 
his experience and careful mode of working, and 
all of whom seem to recall their former 
chief with feelings of esteem and regard.* 
Among them was Mr. George Mail land, an- 
other veteian still with us. who went to 
Loole Condera as " sinne durai " to learn the 
mysteries of "coffee planting" in 1861, and 
who returned— strange to say— for some months 
in 1884 to pick up "all about tea," the new 
product which was then clearly destined to 
supersede the old staple, coffee. Another of 
his Assistants was Mr. P. 11. Sliand who 
was on Loole Condera in ] 874- when Mr. 
Taylor took his first and only holiday out 
of Ceylon, t and even then he combined in- 
struction with pleasure ; for, his destination 
was Darjiling, where he doubtless observed 
and took notes of everything connected 
with tea as then cultivated and prepared. 
Before this, however, Mr. Taylor has been 
a pioneer in Loole Condera, under the in- 
structions of his proprietors, Messrs. Harrison 
and Leake (then constituting Keir, Dundas 
& Co., Kandy) with another product, namely, 
cinchona. There is no need that we should 
here repeat the story (which we have so fully 
narrated in the " Ceylon Handbook and Di- 
rectory ") of the " failure of coffee," or of 
the rise of the colony to the first import- 
ance as a producer of cinchona bark, until 
* Hera is a list of as many of Mr. Taylor's Assis- 
tants besides thosu given in she text, as we have been 
able to get :— Messrs. John Scat, J. H. Uauipb^H J 
M. Fm don, E. .S. Anderson, W. G. Mackiili K iu (no w ol 
Ooorg or Mysore;, G. F. Traill, H. F. Dunbar. G-o E 
Ba«l t y, A. L. Scott, F. E. Wttting, H.B. essy Hucjq' 
Milier, A C. Bonner. C. H. T. Wilkinson and J G 
Forsyth. 
f One- of James Taylor's little peculiarities was 
that when he opened a bottle of beer, which he 
did pretty often in the old davs, he alwav« 
poured a little ou the floor. This was a good 
plan of clearing any dust from the cork out 
ot the neck of the bottle, but it would 
have done equally well if a little of the 
beer had been poured into a glass kept for the 
purpose. No amount of "chaff," however would 
make old Taylor alter this habit, and on' a dav 
when he had a number of visitors at Lis hospita- 
ble bungalow, the floor would be verv wet indeed — 
Planting Correspondent 
