Eight Years Wanderings in Ceylon | Page 9

to start on foot in company with the bull,
sheep, horse and hounds, orders being given that ten miles a day,
divided between morning and evening, should be the maximum march
during the journey.
The emigrants started per coach, while our party drove up in a new
clarence which I had brought from England. I mention this, as its
untimely end will be shortly seen.
Four government elephant-carts started with machinery, farming
implements, etc., etc., while a troop of bullock-bandies carried the
lighter goods. I had a tame elephant waiting at the foot of the Newera
Ellia Pass to assist in carrying up the baggage and maidservants.

There had been a vast amount of trouble in making all the necessary
arrangements, but the start was completed, and at length we were all
fairly off. In an enterprise of this kind many disappointments were
necessarily to be expected, and I had prepared myself with the patience
of Job for anything that might happen. It was well that I had done so,
for it was soon put to the test.
Having reached Ramboddé, at the foot of the Newera Ellia Pass, in
safety, I found that the carriage was so heavy that the horses were
totally unable to ascend the pass. I therefore left it at the rest-house
while we rode up the fifteen miles to Newera Ellia, intending to send
for the empty vehicle in a few days.
The whole party of emigrants and ourselves reached Newera Ellia in
safety. On the following day I sent down the groom with a pair of
horses to bring up the carriage; at the same time I sent down the
elephant to bring some luggage from Ramboddé.
Now this groom, "Henry Perkes," was one of the emigrants, and he was
not exactly the steadiest of the party; I therefore cautioned him to be
very careful in driving up the pass, especially in crossing the narrow
bridges and turning the corners. He started on his mission.
The next day a dirty-looking letter was put in my hand by a native,
which, being addressed to me, ran something in this style:
"Honord Zur "I'm sorry to hinform you that the carrige and osses has
met with a haccidint and is tumbled down a preccippice and its a mussy
as I didn't go too. The preccippice isn't very deep bein not above heighy
feet or therabouts - the hosses is got up but is very bad - the carrige lies
on its back and we can't stir it nohow. Mr. _____ is very kind, and has
lent above a hunderd niggers, but they aint no more use than cats at
liftin. Plese Zur come and see whats to be done. "Your Humbel Servt,
"H. PERKES."
This was pleasant, certainly - a new carriage and a pair of fine
Australian horses smashed before they reached Newera Ellia!

This was, however, the commencement of a chapter of accidents. I
went down the pass, and there, sure enough, I had a fine bird's-eye view
of the carriage down a precipice on the road side. One horse was so
injured that it was necessary to destroy him; the other died a few days
after. Perkes had been intoxicated; and, while driving at a full gallop
round a corner, over went the carriages and horses.
On my return to Newera Ellia, I found a letter informing me that the
short-horn cow had halted at Amberpussé, thirty-seven miles from
Colombo, dangerously ill. The next morning another letter informed
me that she was dead. This was a sad loss after the trouble of bringing
so fine an animal from England; and I regretted her far more than both
carriage and horses together, as my ideas for breeding some
thorough-bred stock were for the present extinguished.
There is nothing like one misfortune for breeding another; and what
with the loss of carriage, horses and cow, the string of accidents had
fairly commenced. The carriage still lay inverted; and although a
tolerable specimen of a smash, I determined to pay a certain honor to
its remains by not allowing it to lie and rot upon the ground.
Accordingly, I sent the blacksmith with a gang of men, and Perkes was
ordered to accompany the party. I also sent the elephant to assist in
battling the body of the carriage up the precipice.
Perkes, having been much more accustomed to riding than walking
during his career as groom, was determined to ride the elephant down
the pass; and he accordingly mounted, insisting at the same time that
the mahout should put the animal into a trot. In vain the man
remonstrated, and explained that such a pace would injure the elephant
on a journey; threats prevailed, and the beast was soon swinging along
at full trot, forced on by