Vol. XVIII-l COLOMBO, SEPTEMBER 1st, 1898. [No 3. 
"PIONEERS OF THE PLANTING ENTERPRISE IN CEYLON," 
(Third Series.) 
FRANCIS RICMARD SABONADIERE, J.P., 
AND 
WM. AUGUSTUS SABONADIKRB, J. P., 
PLANTERS AND MERCHANTS :— 1839— 1891 ; AND 1845-1896. 
when he left home for Jamaica, to leain the 
West Indian mode of cultivating coffee, before 
coming to Ceylon ; and it is interesting that there 
is this link of age between Pioneers who formed 
the advance-guard of so many Ceylon Planters, 
turnished by the North-Eastern Counties of 
Scotland aiul the Channel Islands. How the 
former came to be connected with Ceylon has 
often been explained. The influx from the 
Channel Islands began through the connection 
of the Bird (or Byrde) family, or rather of 
Colonel Byrde with residents in the islands, and 
this Avill come out very clearly as we proceed 
wit!i our account of the Messrs. Sabona- 
diere. Certainly, no Pioneers connected with 
Ceylon had a better right to induce a flow of 
young planters than the Messrs. Byrde, seeing 
that to them belongs the honour of forming the 
very first coffee plantation in Ceylon. 
But to return to the subjects of our notice. 
We may be permitted first of all to say that the 
SabonadiGres were a Huguenot family originally 
from Nismes, in the Soutli of France, where there arc 
still residents — as a relative found out some years 
ago— spelling the name as Sabonadier witliout the 
final "e," but who belong to the Pioiuan Catholic 
HE BEOTHEES SABONADIERK 
deserve to be put in the very 
forefront of the Pioneer 
Planters of Ceylon. Both be- 
gan their career in the island 
at an unprecedentedly early 
age — as lads of only 16 
years ; both (but especially 
Frank) were among the very earliest batch of 
planters ; both earned general esteem by indus- 
trious, persevering and honourable careers ; and 
both clung to coffee as long as the industry 
had any return to make in Ceylon ; while, in 
Jamaica, William died, as he had begun life, 
a coffee planter. We had, personally, no idea 
until we began to utilise the dates and notes, 
kindly placed at our disposal by surviving re- 
latives, that the planting careers of the Messrs. 
Sabonadiere, ofl'ered such uniquely in eresting 
lessons of self-dependence, perseverance and ster- 
ling character from the very beginning — and this 
beginning, dating from an age wlien lads are 
usually sent to a Public School, in place of being 
shipped olf to try their fortune in a new and, 
then, almost unknown colony like Ceylon. Wc 
IjelievQ Ivobeib Boyd Tytler was of the same age 
