338 
THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. [Nov. i, 1894. 
and it extended from the Bhiraatittha Vihara (Bentota 
nnto tbe ford of the Kalanadi, (Kaluganga), a epaoe 
of about one yojana in width. 
And when he bad caused tbe great forest Maha- 
labojagaccba * to be cut down altogether and rooted 
up, be made a fine village thereon and planted a 
large grove of jak trees near it. 
The Atapattu Mudaliyar, in calling oar attention to 
the passage, writes : — 
" It appears that coconut estates on a large scale 
were planted on the South "Western Coast of Ceylon 
long before the arrival of the Portuguese. See 44th 
verse of the 86th chapter " Bhima-tittba" in 
modern Bentota " Kalanadi " is the Kaluganga- 
The whole of the coast line from Kalutara to Ben- 
tota formed one coconut garden, and was named 
after the King who caused it to be planted. 
" It is very interesting to find that the Sinhalese 
of that date had found the best soil in the Island for 
coconuts to plant the Royal garden. It is possible 
as you mentioned to me that on tbe Southern part of 
tbe coast; the coconut first grew from nuts washed 
ashore from the Eastern Archipelago." 
The strange part is, if there were extensive coconut 
groves in the South-west part of the i land before 
the advent of the Portuguese, thai there is little 
or no mention of tbe oocoout by the Portuguese 
historian Bibeiro or his French editor. Tbe 
areka and talipot palms are freely mentioned ; 
but tbe cooonut scarcely at all. It is only after 
tbe arrival of tbe Dutch that we bear of a stimu- 
lus to the extension of coconut planting being 
afforded. But even tben, it will take most people 
by surprise to learn that so late as a d. 1740 tbe 
opast line between Colombo and Kalutara— now a 
continuous cooonut grove— remained unplaDted and 
was described as " nine-tenths waste," and so 
Governor Van Imhoff in that year, proposed sur- 
veying and distributing this land in limited por- 
tions to " persons who are inolined to plant 
them with oooonuts and to pay Government 
duties on them." So, by a system of "Rsjakariya" 
right through, was all the oooonut planting (as a'so 
a'l the tank building and canal digging) done in 
Ceylon previous to tbe advent of the British. And 
yet we have no hesitation in saying tbat tbe 
present century, and indeed, the past fifty years have 
seen more than ten times tha area oovered with 
tbe oooonut palm that can be oredited to 
all tbe Kings or Governors in tbe twelve 
hundred and sixty years between a.d, 589 and 
1840 1 
♦ 
BOUND TO THE DARK CONTINENT. 
LETTER FROM MR. E. WOODHOUSE. 
Zanzibar, Sept. 19, 1894. 
HASTE IN GETTING ABOARD. 
When you have been takiDg it easy in anticipation 
of getting away on Sunday night or Monday morn- 
ing it rather puts one out to get a notice at 7 o'clock 
on Friday evening to be on board before 12 noon, 
the following day. 
The tailor hasn't brought the olothes ; tbe shoes 
haven't come ; the buttons to be put on and the 
bits of things that were to have been sewn up next 
afternoon have to be left undone ; whilst the dhoby 
hasn't turned up, &a. 
And tben hsviDg sat up the greater part of the 
night and spent the next morning in a whirlwind 
of packing and paying, and sending the old boy 
into a frenzy by bad language and irritation, you 
tush to the jetty and urging the boatmen to pull like 
mad, you get on board as the elook strikes 12 
noon, to be ooolly told " no chanoe of getting 
* Madelgasvanaya. 
away till midnigbt, you bad better sleep on board " 
is enough to turn a Eaint into a sinner all in a 
burry. The faot after all is that 
THE GOOD SHIP " MARQOIB BACHQUKHKM " 
did not leave her moorings till 10 o'clock, 
the following morning — and one wonders 
where tbe Oolombo agents of tbe Austrian 
Lloyd's Company expeot to go when " all 
things mortal fade away." About tbe said 
Austrian Lloyd ships, I must oonfess to a good 
deal of prejudice born of previous experience in 
voyages to Madras and Penang— and eo was 
agreeably surprised with tbe " Marquis." 
Roomy cabins and wide bunks well forward, away 
from the noise of the engines, excellent food, 
stewards who could speak English, as wall as most of 
the officers, baths available at any time and but 
few passengers. One or two little details seemed 
strange of course, no soap nor any provision made 
for any in the wasbstands, a ebeet given you for 
a bath towel, and eccentric forms of serving tbe 
food— not the least remarkable being a miniature 
mountain of real ice with a light ioeide. However, 
there was plenty of good food nicely cooked and 
abundance of vegetables. The Captain turned out 
to be an old acquaintance, having been on board 
the ss. " Orion " on one of my tripe to the -trait-. 
Hi6 English has improved somewhat, but he retains 
tbe same grim look and saturnine demeanour aa 
of yore, A young Indian engineer returning from 
a trip to Australia, and a Bavarian botanist aDd bis 
wife returning home from Sumatra and Java were 
the 
OTHEB SALOON PASSENGERS, 
whilst in tbe 2nd class was a maid who 
had been in the Seychelles and knows 
our old friend Edwards and bis family eret 
of Madulsima. The German doctor and the Bava- 
rian Botanist supplied most of the conversation 
at table, a good deal of whioh was understandable 
even without more than the merest smattering of the 
German language. One day on being served with 
bjefsteak and vegetables, the dootor would have It 
that meat was not good for human beings 
to eat, whereupon the botanist (ia the op- 
position as usual) declared it was gocd. 
After an animated discussion for some minutes, in 
which the dootor quoted 
CONFUCIUS AND MUHAMMAD 
and other authorities on his side of the question, the 
botanist deolared his opinion tbat Confuoius and 
Mohammed knew nothing about modern beefsteaks 
or they would have never put their veto on eating 
meat, and advised the doctor to imitate the example 
of himself and his wife and take a pieoe— which he 
eventually did. Other days we had long dissertations 
on "bananas," again on grasses and oitronella 
oil, and again on the different ships of tbe Austrian 
Lloyd's, and so on. We got on very well together, 
cocoa, oinohona, india rubber, the different 
botanical gardens, &c, &a., a word or two of Malay 
every now and again serviog to explain each other's 
meaning. 
THE WEATHER 
was fine save a few showers and the water 
was smooth, four days (to almost a minute) 
taking us from our moorings in Colombo 
to the Victoria Deck in Bombay, and a more 
comfortable time I have never had in anv vessel 
in the East. * 
THE GREAT WESTERN CAPITAL Or INDIA 
was bathed in monsoon showers during tbe two 
days we remained there, and this naturally made 
