K,ICE CAHTS 15 MILES OEE. 
wretched old pony was spurred to a canter, nothing 
loath ; perhaps he smelt the rice, or had some vague 
presentiment, from former ex])eriences, that, when rice 
carts were emptied of their contents, his journey was 
over, and it was homeward-bound. At last the carts 
are reached, are stopped, and one is ordered to un- 
load and measure out, at the road-^side. The cart- 
men, of course, are only too glad to eet rid of a 
load before reaching the point of delivery, and the 
request is promptly attended to. 
A supply of rice, sufficient to relieve the urgent 
temporary wants of the estate, is measured out, and 
a number of the coolies, with light loads of half or 
even a quarter of a bushel each, sent on in advance 
to relieve the hungry ones left behind. 
The remainder of the men seize hold of the cart 
wheels, and turn them round with a will ; in fact, 
the cart now drives the bullocks, not the bullocks 
the cart. Singing as they go, deep ruts, mud holes 
into which the wheels sink to the axle, are as nothing 
against the united forces at the w'heels. As tie road 
gets good, they cease this labour ; but still act as a 
sort of convoy or escort to the cartmen. They are 
not going to let them out of their sight. They might 
stop, and the rice would not arrive for some days. 
The master is quite safe in spurring on his pony, 
and leaving carts and coolies behind, to come on at 
their leisure. No fear of the carts going astray now. 
And the next diy the coolies would arrive on the 
estate and report carts and rice all safely brought 
up to their destination. 
When the roads were so very bad, impassable 
during the government of Sir George William Ander- 
son, we seldom expected carts up to the estates, 
and used regularly to send coolies down to empty 
them, until at last the Colombo agencies could not 
get carts to engage to deliver beyond Pus sella wa. I 
recollect once getting a good “ wigging ” from the 
late firm of J. and G. S. & Co. it happened so : 
a batch of rice carts were at the bottom of the 
Atabage Pass. The cartmen came on and said 
they could come no further, the road was so bad ; 
I, not being short of rice, told them they must come 
on and fulfil their agreement. 
Well, back the cartmen go to Colombo and inform 
J. and G. S. & Co. that they could not proceed 
farther than Atabage, and that I had refused to 
unload them there ; up comes a letter by post, a 
very strong one. My conduct was very bad : “ I 
ought to have been only too happy to have had 
the rice for the unloading, even although fifteen miles 
