Oct. 1, 1902.] THE TROPICAL AGRICULTURIST. 
209 
crate of English fowls, Orpin.£,'tons and Minorcas ; 
these arrived in good condition, but after a time 
they one by one sickened and died ; the cobras 
accounted for some, others succumbed to heat 
apoplexy. Altocretlier they did not take kindly 
to theclimate. I had not the heart to write and 
tell the old lady about this, but some elephants' 
tails that Jack had in his possession came 
in handy. 1 got these mounted and framed in a 
case, with an inscription to the effect that it was 
presented tome as first prize for an exhibit in the 
Trincoraalee Poultry Show. It occurs to some 
people even now, who see the case hung up in the 
old home, that it is a somewhat incongruous 
prize for a poultry ahow ; but my relative explains 
that Ceylon is such a queer country. 
A SERIOUS CONSPIRACY. 
In the meantime the timber business was pros- 
pering ; we had settled down to a pastoral life 
and were happy. Then the blow fell. Our men 
returned one day with empty waggons, and re- 
ported that the proprietor of the place where they 
had been working had met with a domestic mis- 
fortune; his mother and grandmother had suddenly 
died.andno timber could be removed on that account. 
On sending to three land-owners the cooHps came 
back empty-handed with the same tale. We were 
liable to a penalty of a thousand rupees for breach 
of contract with the Government. We started off at 
once, provisioned for a week. If these people 
could not let us have wood, we must go furtlier 
afield and make fresh arrangements. A Win- 
chester repeater was taken along and revolvers. It 
was not contemplated to use these seiiously, but 
the villagers in the interior bore a very bad char- 
acter ; a display of force might be necessary. We 
also carried a gun for snipe and hare. Something 
in the way of game must be shoe each day for food. 
Tinned meat gets monotonous. As our procession 
approached tlie forest belonging to that orphan 
who had first refused to supply, there was an 
ominous tom-tom beating and blowing of horns. 
The wood lay stacked under the trees in corded 
bundles, and our frightened coolies proceeded to 
put it in the carts. This was the signal; they were 
instantly surrounded by a horde of naked savages, 
all carrying knives and screaming like demons pos- 
sessed. Our appearance from under the waggon 
tilt.and a rifle-shot fired in the air.caused a general 
8tampede,although they did not run far. 1 inquired 
for the landowner ; he could not be seen, but the 
Aratchi (headman of the village) was dragged 
forth much against his will. It was then we 
learned the true inwardness of all this trouble. 
Our landlord's nephew, thanks to the letter I had 
wiitten for him, had obtained a billet as clerk in 
the Kachcheri ; he had ferreted out the particu- 
lars of our contract, and then communicated to 
these people the astounding fact that we were 
receiving more money for wood than we paid for 
it. The result had been that each native owning 
a strip of jungle immediately sent in a tender for 
the supply of fuel for the Government locomotives ; 
they had no thought of keeping faith with ua. I 
showed the headman my repeating rifle and 
partially explained its mechanism, assuring him 
that from a distance of twenty miles, more or less, 
it must hit the mark every time, and would fire a 
thousand shots without a reload. He was n)uch 
interested, and no doubt made up his mind to steal 
it if an opportunity occurred. After seeing the 
oarta loaded and despatched we set out to call 
upon the native chief of the district (the Adigar), 
with the intention of lodging a complaint as to 
the unruly conduct of his people, and making 
some agreement with him for the regular supply of 
wood. It was three days' journey to this gentle- 
man's residence, and we never got there, 
IRREMEDIABLE DISASTER, 
On the evening of the second day we halted 
under some palms by a well, lighted a fire that 
the smoke should keep off the mosquitoes, and pre- 
pared to encamp. I noticed a man hiding behind 
some bushes near by, and reached for a revolver, 
not doubting that our friend, the Aratchi, had sent 
some one to annex that ritle. But it was not so. 
I fired a shot in his direction, when the man broke 
cover and ca.Vie rushing frantically towards us. It 
was our Tamil timekeeper; he could have come 
up before, but had taken a short cut across coun- 
try, and waited here in order to make his entrance 
with proper dramatic effect. The poor fellow 
threw himself flit on the ground, moaning piteously. 
He was covered with blood, and presented a 
most woeful appearance. Many of these sangui- 
nary stain? were artistically smeared on his body 
quite recently, but his tale was bad enough for 
anything. Disaster has indeed overtaken us. Our 
coolies, in attempting to remove another load of 
wood, had been attacked and severely beaten, two 
of them tied up and tortured, bamboo splinters 
put down their finger nails ; the bullocks were also 
shamefully maltreated. This was not all : the 
mob had looted our bungalow and burned the store 
of wood. We held a council of war. It would ba 
worse than useless organizing a punitive expedi- 
tion to the off'ending village; no one would be 
there, while we might do some damage and get 
into legal difficulty. lb remained only to return 
home as quickly as possible, and this we did, to 
find desolation ; everytliing portable was stolen or 
destroyed, and the coolie=! had run away not to 
return for many days. The most extraordinary 
feature of the whole affair to an Englishman un- 
acquainted with Eastern ways was the fact that 
everyone at Veyangodda professed to know nothing 
whatever of the outrage ; they had neither seen 
nor heard any disturbance. This occasioned some 
delay, as the rioters had to be identified, and it 
is impossible to say if the real culprits were 
eventually caught or not. The native police are 
not particular, so long as they get someone; but 
about a score of men were found for the next 
assizes. I saw them in the dock, and a sorry-look- 
ing lot they were. —PttZ^ Mall Gazette, Aug. 12. 
PLANTING NOTES. 
Rubber. — The attention of the Committee of the 
Liverpool Chamber of Commerce had been drawn to 
the desirability of urging the Colonial Government to 
instruct the natives, in a systemacic way, in the best 
methods of preparing rubber of different kinds for 
European markets. It was pointed out that the market 
price for rubber is at present so low that it would be 
well to encourage the natives to attend to the pro- 
duction of and to prepare the best qualities of rubber 
only ; that when the heavy porterage on the coast is 
taken into account it is essential to get the highest 
qualities of rubber, free from water, in order to be able 
economically to work at greater distance from the 
coast ; and lastly that so long as there is free com- 
petition amongst the coast merchants the native may 
rest assured that; he will pec the full market value for 
his produce at the shipping port. It was resolved 
again to press the matter upon the attention of His 
iJIajesty'a Government, — "Liverpool Chamber of 
Commerce," 
