Eight Years Wanderings in Ceylon | Page 8

from home and from a much-loved circle.
In my determination to reside at Newera Ellia, I hoped to be able to
carry out some of those visionary plans for its improvement which I
have before suggested; and I trusted to be enabled to effect such a
change in the rough face of Nature in that locality as to render a
residence at Newera Ellia something approaching to a country life in
England, with the advantage of the whole of Ceylon for my manor, and
no expense of gamekeepers.
To carry out these ideas it was necessary to set to work; and I
determined to make a regular settlement at Newera Ellia, sanguinely
looking forward to establishing a little English village around my own
residence.
Accordingly, I purchased an extensive tract of land from the
government, at twenty shillings per acre. I engaged an excellent bailiff,
who, with his wife and daughter, with nine other emigrants, including a
blacksmith, were to sail for my intended settlement in Ceylon.
I purchased farming implements of the most improved descriptions,

seeds of all kinds, saw-mills, etc., etc., and the following stock: A
half-bred bull (Durham and Hereford), a well-bred Durham cow, three
rams (a Southdown, Leicester and Cotswold), and a thorough-bred
entire horse by Charles XII.; also a small pack of foxhounds and a
favorite greyhound ("Bran").
My brother had determined to accompany me; and with emigrants,
stock, machinery, hounds, and our respective families, the good ship
"Earl of Hardwick," belonging to Messrs. Green & Co., sailed from
London in September, 1848. I had previously left England by the
overland mail of August to make arrangements at Newera Ellia for the
reception of the whole party.
I had as much difficulty in making up my mind to the proper spot for
the settlement as Noah's dove experienced in its flight from the ark.
However, I wandered over the neighboring plains and jungles of
Newera Ellia, and at length I stuck my walking-stick into the ground
where the gentle undulations of the country would allow the use of the
plough. Here, then, was to be the settlement.
I had chosen the spot at the eastern extremity of the Newera Ellia plain,
on the verge of the sudden descent toward Badulla. This position was
two miles and a half from Newera Ellia, and was far more agreeable
and better adapted for a settlement, the land being comparatively level
and not shut in by mountains.
It was in the dreary month of October, when the south-west monsoon
howls in all its fury across the mountains; the mist boiled up from the
valleys and swept along the surface of the plains, obscuring the view of
everything, except the pattering rain which descended without ceasing
day or night. Every sound was hushed, save that of the elements and
the distant murmuring roar of countless waterfalls; not a bird chirped,
the dank white lichens hung from the branches of the trees, and the
wretchedness of the place was beyond description.
I found it almost impossible to persuade the natives to work in such
weather; and it being absolutely necessary that cottages should be built
with the greatest expedition, I was obliged to offer an exorbitant rate of

wages. In about fortnight, however, the wind and rain showed flags of
truce in the shape of white clouds set in a blue sky. The gale ceased,
and the skylarks warbled high in air, giving life and encouragement to
the whole scene. It was like a beautiful cool mid-summer in England.
I had about eighty men at work; and the constant click-clack of axes,
the felling of trees, the noise of saws and hammers and the perpetual
chattering o the coolies gave a new character to the wild spot upon
which I had fixed.
The work proceeded rapidly; neat white cottages soon appeared in the
forest; and I expected to have everything in readiness for the emigrants
on their arrival. I rented a tolerably good house in Newera Ellia, and so
far everything had progressed well.
The "Earl of Hardwick" arrived after a prosperous voyage, with
passengers and stock all in sound health; the only casualty on board had
been to one of the hounds. In a few days all started from Colombo for
Newera Ellia. The only trouble was, How to get the cow up? She was a
beautiful beast, a thorough-bred "shorthorn," and she weighed about
thirteen hundredweight. She was so fat that a march of one hundred and
fifteen miles in a tropical climate was impossible. Accordingly a van
was arranged for her, which the maker assured me would carry an
elephant. But no sooner had the cow entered it than the whole thing
came down with a crash, and the cow made her exit through the bottom.
She was therefore obliged