Jfnr 1, 1899.] 
THE TROPICAL 
AGRICULTURTST. 
8-21 
uiiU'lly 8?. per cwfc., out of which there was a 
royal slice for the shippers. It may not be amiss 
to mention in this place the reply of a well- 
known Colombo retail trader who, when he was 
told that the officers' mess of a certain regiment 
was about to embark for England, coolly replied 
that they owed him just a thousand pounds 
sterling, but that he should not trouble them 
for the amount as they had always treated him 
in a most gentlemanly manner and he would behave 
towards them in a similar fashion, a declar- 
ation which evoked from a well-known joker 
of that period, ' What a world it is, Mr. Venn!' 
— a saying which since passed into a proverb. 
"The following years were memorable ones, long 
remembered from the sad and eventful changes 
which overturned many a hitherto prosperous 
planter. Leaf-disease and financial disaster each 
worked their share of havoc in nearly every dis- 
trict. In thfi course of ten years the face of the 
comitry was changed from smiling prosperity to 
a deepening gloom which gradually spread from one 
district to another until all vvore similar features. 
These were not times one cares to recall to 
memory : one would fain try to forget them. Hap- 
pily there were bright spots in that gloomy 
picture which modified the saddening recollection 
of what one would fain pass over. In cheery 
contrast to the misery to be found on every 
side were the redeeming features of calm self- 
denial and courageoris endeavour of scores of young 
planters who had to look upon actual poverty 
and semi-starvation, the results of the insolvency 
of their proprietors. Many an instance occurred 
of assistant managers of estates being indebted 
to native dealers in rice and fish in the bazaars 
for tlieir daily rations and occasionallj' for clothing. 
I have not forgotten how liberally some of the 
Chetties of Uva and Dimbula joined in raising 
funds towards enabling destitute planters to leave 
the island for more favoured lands in the south. 
"As one of the incidents illustrating the changeful 
tenor of Ceylon planting life I can call to mind 
how at a festive gathering in the Dimbula HaU 
one of the guests posted up a fictitious Renter's 
Telegram from London advising Plantation Coft'ee 
as up to 100s, which he caused to be exhibited 
by way of a joke. This elicited roars of laughter, 
but the figure was actually realised early in the fol- 
lowing year. I have in mind also words of warn- 
ing uttered by one of the speakers at the same 
meeting caiitiouing his feUow-planters against extra- 
vagant expenditure, for that a time mirjlit come 
when times would be so sadly changed that 
estates would probably be so sadly depreciated in 
value as to be sold for the value of the iron roofing 
on their stores, a prediction which I lived to see 
realised. 
""Dutlpause in my notes of recollections which 
might be extended over many sides of a news- 
paper sheet. Plaving jotted down such notes as 
occur to me at a time when my powers of memory 
are no longer what they were, I close my jottings 
asking readers to bear in mind the fact that, thank- 
ful for the share of health and strength left mc, 
I rejoice to know that a large measure of pros- 
perity is vouchsafed to those I leave in the island 
which has witnessed so many vicissitudes of for- 
tune in the past." 
It iiuist 1)6 confessed that tliere is not much tlirt 
is autobio<;raphieal in the above jiaper, after 1S58 ; 
but the sketch afforded of the vicissitudes in 
coll'oo and ivfcerwards cinchoua planting, carries 
with it the history of the Colony and of nearly 
every European, whether planter, merchant or 
journalist. Our own arrivcxl in the island dates 
from 1861 in the midst of "-hat were still the 
"good old times" when we had to content our- 
selves with a fortnightly mail from Europe ; when a 
foieign telegram— Keuter not having then appeared 
--was a rarity ; when the island was well 
supplied with a daily newspaper through the 
Observer publishing on Monday and Thursday, 
tiie Times on Tnesday and Friday, and the 
Examiner on Wednesday and Saturday. Easy- 
going days these were in the Fort of Colombo, 
when Mr. E. J. Darley and other " old hands " 
did tlieir banking as well as oHico business all 
in "white" with short white jackets— now relegated 
to the dinner table; when a black hat or boots, (or a 
pair of gloves) under any circumstances (save a fun- 
eral), were the occasion of derisive comment ; when 
everybody knew everybody else, and the gathering 
on Galle Face of an evening approached a good 
deal to that of one big family, and the illness of any 
one member disturbed the entire, but very limited 
community of ladies, and provoked ol^ers of nursing 
and aid from all sides ; when, moreover, the spirit 
of competition (outside the newspapers) was still 
very much in abeyance, so that it was thought 
unfair to compete at a land sale with the man 
who had taken the trouble to prospect for any 
particular lot and to cause it to be put up for sale; 
and when, for instance, we have personally known a 
Baillie Street merchant rush in to stop the press 
and get an advertisment altered, because he did 
not want to announce his quarter casks of Madeira 
as for sale until his neighbours, Mackwoods & Co., 
had disposed of all their stock, and he had just 
learned from "Frank Smith" that some still 
remained on hand I Those were the days of 
sailing ships, when a steamer, save Captaiu 
Donnan's little " Pearl", was scarcely ever seen in 
Colombo roadstead, and when the commanders of 
barques took many weeks at their ease in our port, 
to discharge and take in cargo. The first interrup- 
tion to these quiet, old times,— certainly the first 
public excitement we can recall— arose out of 
the American civil war, when Tinner elly 
cotton (largely dealt in by Colombo merchants) 
rapidly rose in 1S62-3, from 2Ad to Is 6J and 
more per lb., and ^lessrs. Darley, C. Shand, A. 
Gibson and J. C. Fowlie made rapid "fortunes" 
and retired. Those were the years too of one of 
the most somnolent governments that ever 
admiuistei ed affairs in British Ceylon : Sir Charles 
JIacCarthy was a polished scholar and speaker, 
but averse to travel or hard work : liis Colonial 
Secretary, Mr. Wm. Charles Gibson, was bent oa 
hoarding revenue ; and so Mi-. Card well as Secretary 
