Its way whenever its own momentum would have carried it
into the stream. Although I thought the work admirably done, she
did not seem quite satisfied, and she presently got into the
stream, and gave one end of the log an extra push with her head,
which completed her task, the two trees lying exactly parallel to
each other, close to the edge of either bank.
*Directed of course by her driver.
Tame elephants are constantly employed in building stone
bridges, when the stones required for the abutments are too heavy
to be managed by crowbars.
Many were the difficulties to contend against when the first
attempts were made in agriculture at Newera Ellia. No sooner
were the oats a few inches above ground than they were subjected
to the nocturnal visits of elk and hogs in such numbers that they
were almost wholly destroyed.
A crop of potatoes of about three acres on the newly-cleared
forest land was totally devoured by grubs. The bull and stock
were nearly starved on the miserable pasturage of the country,
and no sooner bad the clover sprung up in the new clearings than
the Southdown ram got hoven upon it and died. The two remaining
rams, not having been accustomed to much high living since their
arrival at Newera Ellia, got pugnacious upon the clover, and in a
pitched battle the Leicester ram killed the Cotswold, and
remained solus. An epidemic appeared among the cattle, and
twenty-six fine bullocks died within a few days; five Australian
horses died during the first year, and everything seemed to be
going into the next world as fast is possible.
Having made up my mind to all manner of disappointments, these
casualties did not make much impression on me, and the loss of a
few crops at the outset was to be expected; but at length a
deplorable and unexpected event occurred.
The bailiff's family consisted of a wife and daughter; the former
was the perfection of a respectable farmer's wife, whose gentle
manners and amiable disposition bad gained her many friends; the
daughter was a very pretty girl of nineteen.
For some time Mrs. Fowler had been suffering from an illness of
long standing, and I was suddenly called to join in the mournful
procession to her grave. This was indeed a loss which I deeply
deplored.
At length death left the little settlement, and a ray of sunshine
shone through the gloom which would have made many despond.
Fortune smiled upon everything. Many acres of forest were
cleared, and the crops succeeded each other in rapid succession.
I had, however, made the discovery that without manure nothing
would thrive. This had been a great disappointment, as much
difficulty lay in procuring the necessary item.
Had the natural pasturage been good, it would soon have been an
easy matter to procure any amount of manure by a corresponding
number of cattle; but, as it happened, the natural pasturage was
so bad that no beast could thrive upon it. Thus everything, even
grass-land, had to be manured; and, fortunately, a cargo of guano
having arrived in the island, we were enabled to lay down some
good clover and seeds.
The original idea of cultivation, driving the forests from the
neighborhood of Newera Ellia, was therefore dispelled. Every
acre of land must be manured, and upon a large scale at Newera
Ellia that is impossible. With manure everything will thrive to
perfection with the exception of wheat. There is neither lime
nor magnesia in the soil. An abundance of silica throws a good
crop of straw, but the grain is wanting: Indian corn will not
form grain from the same cause. On the other hand, peas, beans,
turnips, carrots, cabbages, etc., produce crops as heavy as those
of England. Potatoes, being the staple article of production,
are principally cultivated, as the price of twenty pounds per ton
yields a large profit. These, however, do not produce larger
crops than from four to six tons per acre when heavily manured;
but as the crop is fit to dig in three months from the day of
planting, money is quickly made.
There are many small farmers, or rather gardeners, at Newera
Ellia who have succeeded uncommonly well. One of the emigrants
who left my service returned to England in three years with three
hundred pounds; and all the industrious people succeed. I am now
without one man whom I brought out. The bailiff farms a little
land of his own, and his pretty daughter is married ; the others
are scattered here and there, but I believe all are doing well,
especially the blacksmith, upon whose anvil Fortune has smiled
most kindly.
By the bye, that same blacksmith has the right stamp of a "better
half" for an emigrant's wife. According to his own description
she is a "good knock-about kind of a wife." I recollect seeing
her, during a press of work, rendering assistance to her Vulcan
in a manner worthy of a Cyclop's spouse. She was wielding an
eighteen-pound sledgehammer, sending the sparks flying at every
blow upon the hot iron, and making the anvil ring again, while
her husband turned the metal at every stroke, as if attending on
Nasmyth's patent steam hammer.
It has been a great satisfaction to me that all the people whom I
brought out are doing well; even Henry Perkes, of
elephant-jockeying notoriety, is, I believe, prospering as a
groom in Madras.
CHAPTER III. Task Completed - The Mountain-top - Change in the
Face of Nature - Original Importance of Newera Ellia - "The Path
of a Thousand Princes" - Vestiges of Former Population -
Mountains - The Highlands of Ouva - Ancient Methods of Irrigation
- Remains of Aqueducts - The Vale of Rubies - Ancient Ophir -
Discovery of Gold-Mineral Resources - Native Blacksmiths.
