May 1, 1900.J THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURIST. 
72? 
DTSENTERY. 
We had just entered Upon a wet cycle, and the 
surroundings during the S.-W. monsoon were de- 
cidedly damp. There were no hungalow firephices 
in those early days, no flannel shirts, che rains blew 
tlirough the weather-boarding, and the bed-sheets 
had frequently to be wruni? out before retiring. As 
a believer in hydropathy, I did not dream of the 
danger of tliis ; but the result was, in the words of 
Dr. Charsley, " a rattling case of dysentery. " Few 
Europeans escaped in those days: my colleague 
Mr. Greig had to seek a drier climate, while I was 
carried into Kandy— 33 miles — by coolies, and was 
for some time despaired of. Tlie kindness and skill 
of Dr, Charsley** and attentions of Ur. Symons and 
Mr. Sprott can never be forgotten, particularly 
during convalesence, when they took me for drives 
to Peradeniya Gardens, where Dr. Thwaites did so 
much to encourage and gratify my taste for plants. 
It was during one of those visits that I saw the first 
cuttings of cinchona ever introduced into Ceylon 
being planted in a propagating frame. Meanwhile, 
poor Mr. Duckwortli had been left alone in the 
midst of crop, attempting woik for which he was 
thoroughly unficttd : the wet coffee lay 5 feet deep 
on the barbecue, the tinoke from which could be 
seen for miles around. 
The weather, however, hardened up by the end of 
December, and with the aid of a clever adaptation 
ot Clerihew — erected by our friend A. Greig — we 
struggled through the wet coffee, and by 1st March 
had the satisfaction of seeing Miner Cader cart 
away the last load to Colombo, over 20,000 bushels 
from about 300 acres in full bearing. 
w. X. D. 
Mr.Duckworth, tlioughnotaplanrer, wasagentle- 
man of refined tastes, and managed to employ his 
time in a very interesting, if not very profitable, 
manner : a musican of no mean order, he could paint 
passably and even dabbled in verse, would often 
send a messenger to call me from a distant corner 
of the estate to hear or see his latest effort, and if 
I could bu* suggest a word or a half note by which 
a line would go more smoothly, he was more jjleased 
than if I had added another cwt. per acre to the 
crop. "Don't go away,'' he would say, "tiffin is 
earning, and what do we pay kanganis for but to 
look after coolies," as if he had yet to learn, that 
kanganis were merely stuck on stones to warn 
the coolies of durai's approach. 
PLANTING AMD PLANTERS 40 YEARS AGO. 
Forty years ago the planters were a compara- 
tively small body, about 400 all told. TheS.D. 
was treated with more consideration than he 
probably is now ; relations with the Proprietor 
were most cordial, and seldom indeed did the S.D. | 
abuse the confidence or dishonour the position he 
was encouraged to occu])y. In after years, I occa- 
sionally did come across something diii'erent. Unce 
when making enquiries regarding the capabilities 
of an applicuit for a situation, his employer 
wrote:— "My only reason for parting with him 
is that he is apt to get too d— d familiar ; the sort 
* Our friend has forgotten to mention, how the 
first evening Ui'. Charsley saw hira in Kandy, he 
thought 30 serioasiy of his case that he said : — " If you 
have any little matters to put right, any important 
letters to write, I would advise you to see to them 
now. — Ed. I'.A. 
t Sinna BarAi—angUce " little master " or Assistant. 
T.A, 
of fellow who slaps you on the back when you go to 
visit him." This man did not get the appointment. 
Then there was "R.B. T." 's man to whom he gave 
a certificate merely stating : "I hereby certify that 
the bearer requires to be taken down a consider- 
able peg." And there is the other side, when the 
too exacting P,D. ordered his Superintendent 
to remove at once to the lowcountry and open 
some lands he had recently bought, to which the 
planter demurred as the place was known to heJiot 
andsicJdy- "Hot," said the irate proprietor, "Su- 
perintendents ouaht to be ready to plant coffee iu 
h 1 if we so desire them'. '■'■Maybe" retorted 
the cautious Scot, "but I'm thinking it won't be 
necessary." ''Whi/t" "Because you will doubtless 
all be resident proprietors there." 
At the time I speak of, Mr. Duckworth had a 
visit from the redoubtable Andrew Nicol. "A.N." 
and "W.N.D." were old friends or ratiier the 
descendants of old friends, for individually, truth to 
tell, there was little love lost between them. "A.N." 
though ill some respects less accomplished, hadmucii 
more energy than the somewhat phlegmatic " \V. 
N.D.'' over whom, moreover, he jjossessed a con- 
siderable influence, and at »his time managed to 
arrange for the transfer of my services to his own 
employ, with a view, it was thought, of nij- suc- 
ceeding Jas. S. Martin who was looking forward to 
a trip home. 
MY FIRST JIOVE. 
Meanwhile, I was sent to reclaim a half aban- 
doned estate in Matale East, the wholly abandoned 
Superintendent of which had been carried into 
Kandy suft'ering sadly from " D.T." 
Kabroosa had a history, dating from the famous 
rebellion of 1848, when every bungalow in the 
district was sacked with the solitary excep- 
tion of this one. The Matale Volunteer Corps 
had not yet been formed, and the " doraimar" of 
the day finding it necessary to be in Kandy 
on urgent business, the estate buildings were tlie 
more easily looted. The conductor on Kabroosa, 
however, was a bit of a strategist : he mustered a 
score of stalwart coolies, look them to the bun- 
galow, dressed them in dorai's clothes as far as 
they went, and seating them on chairs in the front 
verandah, armed each with an open Observer, and 
fearlessly awaited the approach of the enemy. 
By and by Appuliamy keeked out from the 
jungle on the opposite side of the stream, but 
seeing su3h an array of Mahatniayas beat a hasty 
retreat to Warriapola where the decisive battle 
was fought, resulting, sad to say, in one English 
Sergeant being wounded. The Government ot 
Ceylon very properly pensioneil this conductor. 
MY NEIGHBOURS. 
My near neighbours here were Wingate, a 
genial gentlemanly man, as were also the brothers 
Hope, nlways happy except when visiting the 
wind-blown wattie over the hill, where even the 
grindstone had to be staked and tethered to the 
ground 1 
llobt. Mitchell, on the adjoining estate, Was a 
rather unpolished piece of granite, but the soul of 
hospitality, whose .Sinhalese employer on his 
periodic visits invariably got drunk on champagne. 
"You must find those visits rather costly," I 
ventured to rensark one day. " Oh ! no," said Bob, 
" I just charge it to manuring," 
Poor Paul Macrae, on the opposite side of the 
stream, was then a fine active specimen of a hielau'- 
man, more at home in Gaelic Chan in English— a 
