<A MONTHLY. I>* 
Vol. XVIIL 
COLOMBO, NOVEMBER 1st, 1898. 
[No. 5. 
"PIONEERS OF THE PLANTING ENTERPRISE IN CEYLON," 
(TTdrd Series,) 
WM. BOWDEN SMITH, 
PLANTER, VISITING AGENT AND MERCHANT, M.L.C., J.P„ 1858-1897. 
IM. BOWDEN SMITH was 
boi n in 18.39 — and spent the 
early years of his life at 
Brockenhurst, New Forest, 
Hants. From 1853 to 1857 
he was at Rugby, Dr. Goul- 
bourn being headmaster. 
In 1857 he was offered a 
cadetshij) in a Bengal Cavalry Ilegimont, which 
he declined, not liking the idea of such a long 
banishment from England. 
In 1858 he was preparing for Woolwich ex- 
amination, when he received glowing accounts 
of Ceylon and of the fortunes to be made tliere 
in coffee, from one of his brotheis who was at 
that time on the East India Station in H.M.S. 
"Fury." Accordingly Mr. Wm. Bowden Smith 
decided to give up Woolwich and cry his luck in 
Ceylon. He travelled by the old P. & O. steamer 
Colombo " from Southampton to Alexandria 
and S.S. "Nubia" from Suez to Galle. At that 
time the Ei^yptian Kailway was only completed 
as far as Zag-a-zig, a shore distance beyond Cairo, 
and from thence to Suez passengers were conveyed 
in two-wheeled vans, drawn by two mules and 
two ponies, into which six people were crammed 
sitting face to face. It was a very hot and 
ti'yiiig journey. Passengers were usually detained 
two days or more at either Cairo or Suez whilst 
their baggage v/as being brought across the desert 
on camels. The two days at Cairo enabled 
passengers to visit the Pyramids, but it was 
somewhat risky work in those days. Tlie voyage 
out from Southampton to Galle took about 34 
days and cost over £110 first-class, or nearly 
twice as long and double as much as it does now. 
Mr. Bow<len Smith landed at Galle in July 
1858. On arrival at Galle, he received a hospitalde 
welcome from Mr. Sonnenkalb, then a well-known 
merchant there, who has long since joined the 
majority anti jirobably there are now few 
in Ceylon who remember him. Galle, with its 
numerous hotels and with the mail steamers 
constantly callinir there, was a much more im- 
portant and lively place than it is now. The 
journey from Galle to Colombo was performed 
by coach, which was always more or less ex- 
citing, as after each change of horses one of the 
pair usually refused to start and all the ingenuity 
of the driver had to be used to get the beast 
to move. Mr. F. B. Templer was at that time 
District Judge of Kalutara and with him Mr. 
Bowden Smith stayed three days on his way to 
Colombo. His old friend, Mr. J ames Murray Robert- 
