■'■ ■ ■ I "jrl f ' . '^r;'!'^ -.1 '^n- )'!' 
Vesaels aod fioDg the entfre cai;go of 34^ chesty into 
theses. The lawless luob then rotired with impu- 
nity, the King's Government being unable to 
cope with the giowing spirit of icsurieclion. 
The ship which arrived at Charleston landed the 
cargo, but the persecuted consignee disappeared, 
and the tea was abandoned to perish. Elsewhere, at 
New York and Philadelphia, ths patriots compelled 
the Company's ships to sail back with their tea to 
England.* This incident is commonly spoken of as 
being, one o£ the chief brands which kindled the 
American RevolutioD. 
Mr. Willson, it will be noticed, writes Avith a 
strong bias against the American «olouists, and 
his version of the incident cannot, therefore, be 
accepted as an impartial one. It is, however, a 
noteworthy fact, that lea had an inilucnce in the 
birth of the great American nation. 
THE llEMAINING REFERENCES tO TEA . 
in this worlc are brief. In 1784, we are told, "The 
Company stil! enjoyed a monopoly of the importa- 
tion of tea. But a huge duty of 50 per cent,, added 
to wholesale smuggling, sadly interfered with its 
profits.'' Then in 1786, we read, "combinations 
were formed among the Hong merchants, who, to 
cover themselves, laid higher prices on the teas 
and lower prices on the Company's imports. This 
had an injurious effect upon (he Company's trade, 
and the loss was considerable." Again, on the 
next page, it is recorded that "Tea being the 
Company's great staple, from tea coming its chief 
profit, with China and the jKast trade was pushed 
vigorously. Coming to the first decade of last 
century, we are informed the Company's " mono- 
poly of trade was fast slipping from its hands in 
India. It could not hope to hold it much longer. 
Yet to China and the tea trade it was to cling 
passionately for another generation. It has 
even been said, but with infinite exaggera- 
tion, that the corner-stone of the Compaoy's 
first greatness was tea. Certainly it was now 
freely admitted that tea was the financial 
prop of the Company," Iii 1830, when the affairs of 
the Company were once more the subject of parlia- 
.meutary inquiry, its opponents attempted to show 
that it " had acted illegally, in fixing the upset 
price of tea at its sales, and thereby forfeited 
its exclusive privilege and rendered itself liable 
to penalties for a breach of the law," But, says 
Mr Willson, "The evidence adduced by the 
Company on these points proved beyond doubt 
that in regard to the upset price of tea it had 
acted in strict accordance with the law ; that 
the calculations in support of an opposite view 
were utterly fallacious"; and he adds that 
*' It was the care and influence of the Company 
that secured for Britain the benefits of the tea 
trade." As an instance of the Company's 
bounty in connection with this trade, he refers to 
the compilation by Dr Morrison of his Chinese 
and English Dictionary, which was published by 
the Company at a cost of over £9,000. Under 
1831 we are told that "the Company's adversaries 
had promised to prove ... that it was in a con- 
spiracy to advance arbitrarily the price of tea so 
that it became a grievous tax upon the nation. 
They had signally failed to redeem this promise." 
This is the last reference to the Company's tea trade. 
In spite of its defects, Mr Willson's book is an 
exceedingly interesting and valuable one, and he 
has arranged his material most lucidly. Not the 
least interesting of the chapters is the last, 
headed " The Muse in Leadenhall Street," in 
which sketches are given of some of the noted 
men of letters who occupied posts iu India HousS] 
such as the two Millsi Charles Lamb, <bc. The 
volumes are rendered more attractive by a numbeir 
of excellent portraits and two characteristic 
frontispieces by Mr Maurice GreifFenhagen, 
A very great want of this work is an index. 
It certainly onght to have had one, and a full 
one too. This would have added considerably to 
the practical value of the book. D. F. 
: ^ . _ 
RIVAL STALKERS IN CEYLON. 
BY MAJOR J. S. EDYE. ,. 
The scene [a thrilliug drawing cover- 
ing two pages of the Graphic. — Ed. 
L.il.] depicts a true incident in buffalo- 
shooting in the south-east part of Ceylon. 
Leaving camp almost before daylight, 1 
travelled some four miles along footpaths 
made by the wild elephants through the 
forest, to a large open patch I knew of, some- 
thing like a mile square, and with some 
water and swampy: ground and reeds towards 
its centre. On reaching its edge I saw the 
herd of buffalo whose tracks I had noted 
the day previous, and they were well out 
from the forest. By the aid of rough ground 
and small patches of reeds, I managed to 
get within some 300 to 400 yards of them, 
and they then must hav^e got my wind, for, 
throwing up their heads and gazing round, 
they, without further delay, trotted oft to 
the edge of the forest. I retraced my steps 
as carefully as possible, so that I should not 
be seen, and then hurried through the forest 
in the direction they were travelling, and 
frequently heard them close in front ; but 
the wind was very shifty, and they were, 
more or less, travelling with it, and were 
evidently disturbed by the presence of man. 
Moreover, owing to the density of the forest, 
I had to get very close to them— fifty or sixty 
yards — before I could see them. At last the 
trees and undergrowth became thinner, and 
I caught several glimpses of their hind- 
quarters ; and after giving them a rest, to 
get over their alarm, I tracked on, and found 
they had moved out on to the edge of another 
open patch and were skirting the edge of the 
forest. Making a slight but rapid detour, 
which also placed me more favourably, on 
account of the wind, I brought myself abreast 
of them, when I found I was not alone. 
Someone else thought a juicy young buffalo 
calf, lagging behind a rapidly trareiliBg 
herd, would be an easy prey, and supply 
refreshment for two or three days. For 
there, standing on her hind legs, so as to 
gaze over the scrub, was a leopard, between 
the buffalo and myself, and apparently so 
taken up with circumventing a small calf 
that was finding the pace and thick grass 
I'ather too much for its powers, allowed me 
to have come up unheard. I had to decide 
quickly whether it should be a leopard or a 
buffalo, and selected the former, and dropped 
her with a bullet in the nape of the neck. I 
carried her well into the shade of the forest, 
and had about half skinned her, when a 
majestic elephant, stalking slowly along, 
feeding here and there and breaking off 
branches, nearly came right up to me. I 
had no licence just then to shoot an elephant, 
BO, after keeping still to watcU him awhile, 
