The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-06-05

Raja Singha. He was dethroned aud imprl
! soned in the Indian fortress of Vellore where
! he lived till 1882. His subjects saw in his
| DOWNFALL not the loss Of an independence by
! which they prO6ted but little, but rather the
! end Of hated and detested tyranny, for his
reign was but long series Of the most sangul-
While submitting the whole island to their
rule, the English had good sense enough to
declare that religious worship should remain
absolutely free. Ceylon has, in fact, been the
promised land of Buddhism since the time IL
was first introduced there-316 before Christ
There on the top fthe lofty rack which crowns
the Pic of Adam, is found the reverent impress
on which the followers of Sakia Mooni perceive
the footprint of Buddha as clearly as the Brah-
minis see in 1t that OF silva, and the Mohamme-
dams that Of Adam. The footprint sheltered by
an open pagoda has not less than fve feet in
length. One gets 10 1t by means of iron chains
through staircase hewn into the rock and the
pilgrimage is usually terminated by an offering
OF 1hododendron flowers. In Ceylon, near
Anuradhapura, is seen also the tree Bodhi,
sacred above all others, and certainly histori-
cally the Oldest OF the vegetable kingdom since
authentically II was planted 2Ss years before
Christ. Lastly in Handy, in a special temple,
there Is preserved in the inneTmost part of the
sanctuary, the Dalada, the tooth of the same
SokJa Mooni, miraculously preserved from the
pile where the rest of his body was burned.
Those who have had the original good fortune
to look at IL, report that it is two inches in
length, and seems rather to have been taken
out OF the jaw OF crocodile than from human
mouth; probably its size has been proportioned
to that OF the footprint OF which we Just made
mention.
Cinnamon, which for so long was the glory
and the wealth OF Ceylon, figures to-day on the
list OF the products OF the island only for
memOTy's sake; and the history OF its grandeur
followed by its fall, is fertile in economical in
strucuons, of which Great Britain was wise
enough to profit. Under the Government of the
Dutch, any. encroachment on the monopoly
which it laid claim to was punished with the
utmost severity. The English administration,
less severe, nevertheless preserved this mono.
poly up to the year 1882 and then reuouuced 1t
only in the firm conviction that nature had
gifted Ceylon with this precious tree to the ex-
clusion OF all other colonies; but some other
countries, above all Java, very soon destroyed
this illusion, and the Government which I'M
wisely had taxed the expectation of cinnamon
with 3s per pound, in very short time saw
itself outdanked by competition. Vanly it de-
creased the duties, vainly it sold, one after the
other, its splendid cinnamon gardens of Is to 20
miles in circumference-th hen with the
golden eggs had been killed, the gardens were
cut down and transformed into villas, and the
whole of the crop, the taxes on which formerly
were sufficient to pay more than the half OF the
expenses OF the colony, since 1868 amounts not
even to more than one million of francs.
Another source of wealth seems likewise to
have dried up, at least for the present; we mean
the pearl fishery which, on the northwest coast
Of the island, from NegOmbo to MaIaar. was
carried on from time immemorial. Still, in the
year 1868, it paid taxes to the extent of l,275 900
francs: but, in 1864, whether the fishing had
passed the limits OF moderation, or for any other
reason, the fact could no longer be denied tn at
this precious oyster had disappeared-and since
that time it has not reappeared.
This double mishap was fortunately amply
compensated by the extraordinary development
which the English gave to the production of
coffee.
Their predecessors had not been in the situa-
tiOn to direct their attention to this object on
account of their not being the masters of the
central part of the island, the only portion
where the nature of the soil is favorable to this
branch of culture. Great Britain began with 1t
in 1916; from 1925 the Governor OF Ceylon, Sir
Edward Barnes, understood that the future of
the island was therein, and he gave it strong
impulse by establishing himself, on his private
estates in Gangaroova, the first somewhat i'm
| portant plantation in the country. His exam
| pie rapidly found imitation: all the mountains
| around Randy, as we'll as most OF the large val
leys in the interior, we're soon covered with cot
fee plantations and during sel eral years twenty
| thousand hectares of land belonging to the
| crown were yearly sold and Immediately cleared
| for cultivation of coffee.
Circumstances favored this rapidly rising new
! culture. At the very time when the metropolis
| considerably reduced the import duties on
coffee the competition OF the other coffee pro-
| ducing countries was paralyzed by the question
Of emancipation and by The abolition OF the
slave trade, while, on the contrary, Ceylon in
| cessantly received new aborers from India, so
that from year to year the expectation in
creased, and in the year 1868 reached value OF
SO, 600, 600 OF francs. At no time had cinnamon
ever given such splendid results, and If the
| prophecies of the coonsts may be relied upon,
| within q very short time they intend to reach q
yearly production of 100000 tons of coffee,
| valued at more than 125, 900, 900 of francs.
The average crop of Brazil amounts to l25 0OC
tons per year; but during these latter times, the
production has remained stationary. That o.
| Java which seems to decrease, is 81, 600 tons
The total yearly crop ofall the countries in the
world which produce coffee, is estimated a
$4,000 tons.
In this enumeration of the products of Ceylor
1t would be unjust not TO mention the tavorltt
tree of its inhabitants-the precious cocoa tre
OF which the island is supposed to possess
twenty millions. Although in the list of colo
nal products, it figures far behind that of coffee
nevertheless the production of cocoanut oi
within the last fifteen years has increased ten
| fold, and amounted, in 1857, to over five million
OF francs Besides thanks to the variety of EN-
ployments for which it is used, this tree is th
Providence of the natives, who show it thei
gratetuness by an attachment the supersti
tious expression of which has something
touching in it. According to them, the ire
languishes and dies when it. is beyond thu
when the master to whom it gave its fruit goe
abroad.
Thus while, on the one hand, fortune pro
Vlded Ceylou with new sources of riches, on tn
other it took away from it old ones, such as Gin
Lamon and the pearl oyster. As to its preclou
stones, whose reputation goes back to the re
2 motest antiquity, and which were vaunted b
they yield to-day scarcely more than 25O,O0
n francs per year Here and there some are stll
: found, and the English who visit Neuera- Eli
h to spend the summer, there make it their pas
: time to search for them; but the microscope
: fragments OF sapphires and topazes which ar
u the result of their efforts will never enrich an
e one. In another part of the island the capita
5, | or The district, which formerly was the riches