The chalias, moreover, are no longer, as formerly under the Portuguese and Dutch, adscripti glebæ for life, or slaves that could be purchased with the soil, but free labourers, who are entitled to demand proportionate pay for the lightest services rendered.
The Cinnamon Gardens in the neighbourhood of Colombo, although for the most part gone to decay, nevertheless impart to the whole scene a singularly cheerful, agreeable aspect. The bushes, from 4 to 6 feet in height, with their smooth, beautiful, light green leaves, resembling those of the bay-tree, and their pale, yellow flower-stamens shoot up doubly fresh and succulent, from the snow-white quartz soil in which they best thrive. The flowering season of the cinnamon is in January, and the fruit ripens in April, when the sap is richest in the shrub. In May the boughs are begun to be "barked," which process continues till October. The pruning and gathering of the yearling shoots, which are about the thickness of a man's thumb, is very laborious, and employs many hands. Each labourer cuts off as many as he can conveniently carry in a bundle, then, with the point of a crooked knife, made for the express purpose, strips the entire rind from the wood, carefully scrapes off the exterior corticle and innermost layer, and lays the stripped-off cinnamon rind, now reduced to the thickness of parchment, in the sun, where it dries and curls together. All round the hut, in which the peeling of the rind is carried on, is diffused a most exquisite aroma, caused by the breaking of the leaves or twigs. What is related, however, by various travellers of the fragrance of the cinnamon forests, which they have scented at a great distance seaward, would seem to indicate that this delicious odour emanates from various other aromatic plants in which Ceylon is so rich, rather than the cinnamon groves, the aroma of which, indeed, is not perceptible beyond the immediate vicinity. The best description of cinnamon is not so thick as stout paper, and is fine-grained, flexible, light brown, or golden yellow, sweet and pungent; the coarser qualities are thick-skinned, dark brown, acrid, stinging, and leaves a bitter after-taste. In the warehouses, the cinnamon rinds and canes sorted for shipping are piled upon each other, packed in bales of about 90 lbs. weight each, and carefully sewed. In all cavities and spaces between each layer an immense quantity of pepper is strewn, to preserve the cinnamon during its sea-voyage, by which both spices are benefited, the black pepper absorbing all the superfluous moisture, and gaining by the fragrance of the cinnamon.
Consequent on the diminution of cinnamon cultivation, which undoubtedly has resulted in great measure from the altered taste of mankind and the consequent extraordinary falling off in the demand for this once highly-prized spice, the cultivation of coffee in Ceylon has, during the last 20 years, increased tenfold; and it is solely owing to the dearth of available labour that this branch of produce, considering the splendid profits it returns, is not even more extensively carried on. In 27 districts there are 404 coffee plantations, covering a surface of 80,950 acres, of which, however, only 63,771 acres are really productive. These produced last year, 347,100 cwt., or 5½ centners per acre. To this must be added the quantity under cultivation by the natives, who possess about 36,000 acres of coffee plantations, and in the year 1859 alone, exported 180,000 cwt. We may safely assume, therefore, that the cultivation of coffee is on the eve of transforming this island of Ceylon, from a mere military station of England, into one of the most flourishing colonies of the British Empire. Twenty years ago there were exported barely 60,000 centners, worth £180,000. In September, 1858, the export exceeded 600,000 cwt., which represented on the spot a value of £1,500,000 sterling. "When capital and labour shall have become more plentiful," remarked to us a by no means over-sanguine resident, "Ceylon will have in its mountain districts 240,000 acres planted with coffee trees, yielding at the lowest estimate, 1,680,000 cwt. of coffee annually." Here, as among the high table-lands of Guatemala and Costa Rica, we have the reassuring evidence how one of the most important plants for the civilized man can be profitably cultivated, without having recourse to the blighting influences of slave-labour, at the same time making the lands in which it is produced both rich and prosperous.[84]
[84] The coffee-tree frequently suffers, especially in Ceylon, from an insect called the coffee-bug (Lecanium Coffeæ); as, however, this troublesome insect has only infested the coffee plantations since 1848, and this branch of cultivation has nevertheless increased so surprisingly since then, there seems no reason to dread that the coffee plant will suffer by these bugs, in the same manner or to the same extent as the vine by the ravages of the fungus.
While the cultivation of the coffee-plant has been followed by such splendid results, the repeated attempts to introduce the sugar-cane have been on the contrary as uniformly failures—so that of the numerous plantations established by Europeans, there are at present no more than five remaining. In all those localities where the temperature seemed adapted to the growth of the sugar-cane, the nature of the soil, and the too great humidity have prevented its thriving.
On the other hand, the island possesses two natural products in which but few spots on the globe are qualified to enter the lists with her, and which may be expected to increase in value and importance in proportion as science assumes her share in their exploration. These products are pearls and precious stones.
The most productive pearl banks lie on the west coast of Ceylon, between the 8th and 9th degrees of North latitude, near the level, dreary beach of Condatchy, Aripo, and Manaar. The pearl fisheries are a monopoly, and, therefore, under the inspection of the Government. Former governors had counted too much on the abundance of this natural treasure, and in their blind haste to fill the coffers of the State, had so exhausted the banks, that suddenly, from a source of revenue they became an item of considerable deficiency, and, from 1838 to 1854, could no longer be dredged. From a net annual return of £120,000 sterling, the yearly return had sunk to £10,000, of which nearly one-half was consumed in the attendant expenses. Now-a-days the work is gone about more circumspectly, a scientific examination having been made by a native naturalist, Dr. Kelaart, of all the oyster banks on the west coast. We had the pleasure, while at Colombo, of becoming personally acquainted with this very able, unassuming gentleman, who presented us with several memoirs of his own, touching upon the latest facts that had been ascertained with reference to the pearl oyster. One special result of his various researches has been the demonstration of two facts of the utmost importance to the pearl fishery, and which hitherto had not been fully ascertained—that this mollusc possesses locomotive powers; that its occasional disappearance is perfectly natural; and that, moreover, the pearl oyster may, without any injury, be transplanted from one locality to another—nay, even from salt to brackish water. The first-named observation explains the occasional disappearance of the pearl oyster from certain beds,[85] even when they have not been inordinately thinned by too keen a quest after gain; the latter opens up the pleasing anticipation of the pearl oyster being susceptible of very extensive propagation, by a process similar to that of pisciculture, or artificial breeding of fish (such as the colonies of edible oysters which are met with in the South of France), by transplanting them to such places as seem best suited to the conditions necessary to their highest development. What a splendid conception it were to plant the sea-coasts of Ceylon with pearls, and thus throw the wealth of the island in precious stones into the shade, by the treasures she would possess in the depths of the sea!
[85] This singular property of the oyster, in virtue of which it can be fed to as confirmed obesity as a prize-ox, and admits of nearly as much dexterity in "crossing," if we are to trust the palates of "gourmets," as the Southdown and Leicester breeds of sheep, has received its most extraordinary development in the vicinity of New York, where the amount of capital sunk in the oyster trade considerably exceeds £1,000,000! The finest of these are transferred as spawn from the beds in the East River, or Long Island Sound, to the "nurseries," which are situated in the brackish water near the head of the tide-way, just below the "Highlands of the Hudson." Here they are carefully tended for some months, till, their education being completed, they are re-transferred to their native beds, and fed there with oatmeal daily; while, by some mystery of the craft, the spawning season is postponed, except in the case of those that are selected for propagating the race.
Exactly at the period of our arrival at Colombo, the preparations were being resumed at Aripo for the take of the oysters, which commences at the beginning of February each year, and lasts about three weeks. It is, in fact, a sort of jubilee time for the people, at which the Governor and numbers of the wealthier classes mingle with the populace. Ordinarily this spot becomes at that season a rendezvous for the poor and the wretched, and a rallying point for all manner of abominable odours, filth, troublesome flies, and intolerable heat, despite which drawbacks the fishery is visited by thousands of boats, and hundreds of thousands of men, who flock hither with the alluring prospect of speedy and abundant wealth, or have been attracted from all parts of the Indian Continent by the singularity of the spectacle. Suddenly, as though evoked by the wand of a magician, a regular town starts into existence, of tents, or even neat huts, with bamboo and cabbage-tree palings, roofed over with palm-leaves, rice-straw, or coarse thick woollen cloth; booths for the sale of merchandise "rise like an exhalation" during the night to supply necessaries of all sorts to the converging multitudes from the interior, as well as the fleets of visitors from seaward; and last, not least, the divers themselves. Swindlers and mountebanks throng hither, adroit thieves creep stealthily about, all Indian customs and fashions are represented, all castes jostle each other. Priests, and the subordinate hangers-on of the various sects, hurry about, and jugglers and Nautch girls vie with each other in amusing the noisy multitudes.
The result of numerous experiments has proved that no diving apparatus can replace the human machine, the cost of which, moreover, is a fixed definite quantity, viz., the fourth part of the pearls brought up, which is the diver's share. In each boat, or "Dhonie," are ten divers, each having an assistant. Before the divers proceed to descend, a number of quaint ceremonies are gone through, and incantations murmured, as well in the boats as on shore, by the so-called "shark-charmers;" indeed, the superstition of the divers, who for the most part come from the Coromandel coast, is so great, that not one of their number, Christian or idolator, would continue in this employment without the countenance of the sorcerer; and the Government finds itself compelled to pay the impostors.[86] They levy a tribute of ten oysters upon each boat.