“ PIONEERS OF THE PLANTING ENTERPRISE IN CEYLON,”* 
(Second Series.) 
CHARLBS^., & FREDBRICK j:, HADDEN; 
PIONEER PLANTERS AND PROPRIETOIiS, FROM 1840 ONWARDS. 
F any of the early estate pro- 
prietors deserve to be com- 
memorated among the Pioneers 
of the Ceylon Planting In- 
dustry, they are dertainly the 
two gentlemen whose names 
stand at the head of our page 
on this occasion. Coming out 
as very young men, the Messrs. Hadden (cousins^ 
brought capital as well as energy and intelligence 
to the work before them. They did not spare 
themselves in the roughing which appertained to 
the life of the pioneer in those very early daysi 
and nearly 58 years have elapsed since they 
landed at Colombo, they being among the very first to 
travel out to Ceylon by the so-called “overland” 
route. Mr. Frederick Hadden is no longer with us 
though well represented in the Island by his sons. 
Mr. Charles S. Hadden — who, we are glad to say 
still survives with plenty of life and energy to devote 
to the duties of the country squire in England, — was 
only 20 years of ag"' when he landed at Colombo, and 
he is now in his 79th year, having been born on 
X’mas Day 1819, the same year though seven 
months after Her Most Gracious Majesty the Queen. 
*We have to apologise for interruptions in the 
monthly publication of our aeries of “Pioneers” caused 
by extra work in “ bookmaking ” in other directions. 
During the rest of 1898 we hope to continue the series 
at bi-monthly intervals, and among the Pioneers whose 
portraits and memoirs, or notices, are being arranged 
for are the Messrs. Frank and Wm^ Sabonadiere, Mr. 
John Capper, Mr. C. Tottenham and Mr. Wm. Bowden 
Smith, all of whom had to do with the development o 
the Colony in diverse ways, and are fairly entitled to 
be enrolled among our pioneers, — Ed. "T.A." 
Let us now turn to the narrative of their trip out 
to, and early days in Ceylon : — Frederick Hadden and 
Charles Stanton Hadden (cousinsj left London 
together for Ceylon in August, 1840, travelling 
through France to Marseilles, by French Steamer 
to Alexandria, by Nile boat to Cairo, to Suez on 
donkeys and to Bombay in the E. I. Coy.’s Gunboat 
“Zenobia.” From Suez to Aden and Bombiay a terrible 
voyage it was in this wretched old paddle steamer of 
.300 tons. The officers on board were allowed to 
receive £50 from each passenger and provide bed and 
board (7 passengers only). The steamer was said to 
have been employed in conveying pigs and cattle 
from Ireland to Liverpool before she was purchased 
by the East India Co. for a gunboat. Rats swarmed 
on board of her. When the “ Zenobia” steam 
gunboat made Bombay, the food on board was 
almost exhausted, there were a few fowls left alive in 
the coops which were under the seats round the 
quarter-deck, not more than five or six remained, 
and not one of them had all the toes remaining, 
for they had been eaten off by the rats, which 
attacked them in the night ! Mr. Hadden has often 
feared to relate this (though it is positively true) since 
many think it to be a bit of romancing. The machinery 
broke down twice on the voyage to Bombay which 
occupied three weeks. Four of the European crew 
were kept in irons on the quarter-deck all the time, 
and two officers were under arrest in their cabins. 
Our pioneers remained six weeks in Bombay with 
Mr. Alexander Hadden, a brother of Mr. C. Hadden 
and then on to Colombo on board the good old teak- 
built sailing ship “Recovery.” The young gentlemen 
landed at Colombo on 1st or 2nd November, 1840; they 
, had letters of introduction to the Hon. Geo. Tumour, 
^then acting Colonial Secretary, He advised the 
Messrs. Haddsn to buy land in the Amb.igamuwa 
