<A MONTHLY. I>* 
Vol. XIX. 
COLOMBO, OCTOBER 1st, 1899. 
No. 4. 
"PIONEERS OF THE PLANING ENTERPRISE IN CEYLON." 
{lliird Series.) 
R. E. LEWIS: 
MERCHANT, PLANTER AND EDITOR, 18*1-1870. 
lished in Ceylon, 
claims arising out 
Yx- R. E. LEWIS deserves a 
place in our roll of i^ioneers 
if for no other reason than 
that, so far as we can recollect, 
he was the writer of the first 
little history of systematic 
" Cofiee Planting," ever pub- 
But Mr, Lewis has special 
of his arrival at an early 
date in the Colony and to his interest 
in its development, not only as merchant, 
but also as planter and editor. He is now a 
veteran of 82 years in retirement in England, 
but, like so many other old pioneers, is still active, 
both mentally and physically, as may be judged 
by the following little note which reached us 
by a mail in July last from our old friend :— 
", You will be glad to know that in my 82ad year 
I am -in good health though not without infirmities; 
still active and energetic, for which I cannot be 
too thankful, still enabling me to make walking 
excursions into the country by the help of railways, 
for which the position of my residence offers great 
facilities, not only for all the Southern lines, but 
also several of the Northern. These excursions afiord 
healthful changes of air and exercise. My oldest 
Ceylon friend, Mr. Robert Nicol (A. & E. Orowe & Co.), 
passenger with me in the ' Achillea ' to Colombo in 
1841, still survives at Bervie, N.B." 
We may now proceed to a sketch of Mr. Lewis' 
career which will be chiefly autobiographic: 
The subject of the following memoir brought 
with him a nine years' experience of London 
business, especially in connection with the Colo- 
nial Produce Markets of Mincing Lane, and the 
wholesale trade in that produce in all parts of 
England and Scotland, The equalisation of the 
duties on all British-grown cofiee persuaded him 
that Coffee Planting in Ceylon would very soon 
become a new enterprise for the employment of 
Biitish capita], and prompted the desire to go 
out to the Colony to become a planter. By his 
father's advice, on the score of his youth, his voyage 
out was postponed until 1841, when it took place in 
Mr. Tindall's ship, the "Achilles," which arrived at 
Colombo in October, 1841, At the time of Mr. Lewis' 
arrival, there were only two vessels in the Colombo 
roadstead, and both belonged to Mr. Tindall, whose 
ships carried nine-tenths of the cargo and nearly 
all the passengers to and from Europe during the 
early "forties." Mr. Lewis was at once received 
into the office of his father's friend, Mr. H. I 
Albrecht, whom he had known for many years 
in his connection with the Produce Markets in 
Mincing Lane. The Colombo business passing 
through many vicissitudes was known then as 
Parlett & Co., and ultimately Parlett, O'Halloran 
& Co., which firm, after the death of Mr. Albrecht, 
