[[1]]
Point de Galle
My dear Father
We arrived here yesterday at Point de Galle on the forenoon of the last day of the year having
sighted the hilly land of Cape Comorin on the previous forenoon. As we on
passing that celebrated promontory we could not help looking on it with feelings of
deep interest, not only from the many associations it recalls to the mind of every
boy, however ordinarily read in the History of British India, but as the first glimpse
of a land over which our various paths were to be pursued. In other respects it was
the least interesting of the four great Capes by which the continents of Asia Africa
America & Australasia are prolonged towards or within the endless waters of the
Southern Hemisphere. The curious sandstone cliffs of the Cape of Good Hope
with the Devil's Bay & Lion's Mount, are noble terminations to any headland; Cape
Horn presents a bold front of Greenstone packed with the
[[2]] snowy mountains of Fuegria; & the South extreme of Tasmania is
memorable from its curious basaltic columns, but Cape Comorin appeared more
of a slope than a steep & we were too far distant to appreciate the sizes of its
vegetation, which probably is its best feature in the eyes of a naturalist:
I know no sp cove or bay that exceeds the little harbor of Point de Galle in beauty:
it is so small that three or four ships of any size jostle one another, & surrounded
by groves of Pal Coura not Palms, more vigorous & fresh than I had elsewhere
seen. Behind & around were miles green with verdure, the waters are clear &
bright with here & there a projecting rock, over which the oceanic swell stumbles &
strikes along in white sheets of foam. The substantially built white washed walls of
the old Dutch fortifications & house contrasts brilliantly from a distance with the
[[3]] deep green groves in which they were half hidden, and the snug appearance
of the native cottages ensconced in the Palm woods was no less attractive,
though a closer inspection proved the appearances of neatness the one & propriety
in the other to be very deceptive. We had hardly anchored when our friend
Gardner came on board & gave me a hearty welcome to Ceylon *1 he had been
awaiting my arrival for some weeks & almost despaired of me coming at all,
previous to his necessary return to the Peradenia Garden was looking thoroughly
well & very little altered by the severe fevers experience had sustained upon him.
He conveyed a most kind invitation from Ld Torrington the Governor for me to
repair to Candy [Kandy] but this the shortness of our stay necessarily prevented.
Major the Commandant had most kindly provided rooms for my reception
[[4]] whither I repaired with Gardener immediately on landing on an oriental coast
& especially in Ceylon I was much struck with the swarm of inhabitants & the
effeminate features of the men. a tall slender prettily & a gracefully rather than well
proportioned race, with flowing hair gathered up in a knot & secured with a tortoise
shell comb. Our walk up to the village lay through an avenue of Thespesia
populnea & occasionally Jack & Mango trees, & along the beach there were heaps
of logs of Ebony & other rare timbers, piled up like in heaps as if they were no
more valuable better than so much Fir, Ash or Elm.
The "Precursor" & another steamer were busy coaling at the wharf, an operation
far from lending
[[5]] additional charm to the scene in short the association of three giant steamers
with a tropical cove of singular beauty & peacefulness is too novel & the contrasts it
affords too violent to be regarded without a repetition of the same feelings with
which when a boy I saw the first steamer disfiguring Lochlomond[sic] & a stage
coach established [two words deleted, illeg.] between Trossachs & Culloden. The
contrast was further heightened here by the enormous dimensions of the
vessells[sic] which rather looked as if left by a trick & than as having found their
own way in; the diminutive size of the land locked harbor, in comparison with the
boundless ocean a stones throw beyond; & the long shallows, of the natives with
their rude outriggers & paddles, clustering round them the mightiest inventions of
an age triumphing in inventions.
In the afternoon I walked with Gardner through the wooded lanes which strike
inland from the town. This was the first colony bearing traces of the
[[6]] a Dutch rule that I had ever been in, except the Cape of Good Hope which the
looses looses its nationality for the want of water wherewith to make canals &
difficulty of planting trees. Point de Galle was on the other hand tropical Holland
all over; avenues, ditches & canals reminded me of Holland Amsterdam & Lyden
& I was particularly pleased on a Botanical ramble to be able to point out to Gardner a
home & Demesne forcibly reminding me of Hartecamp, for some years the
Residence of Linnaeus (& the original "Hortus cliffortianus") & surrounded by a
wall with the identical quaint scalloped top which I had overlooked to see the
Liriodendron planted by that great systematist and philosophers hand. Soon
however we were beyond all further associations with the Dutch & Linnaeus than
the Cinnamon groves on one hand & the nomenclature of the Flora Zeylanica on
the other could suggest. The cocoa nuts, which absolutely monopolize the soil
near the sea & there cover
[[7]] the face of the earth becomes scarcer as you receding from the shore, a
dicotyedonous forest in the main succeding the perennial. The roads were greatly
varied, with Rice grounds inundated more or less, on both sides full of Gramineae,
Cyperaceae, & Leeches innumerable -- In the more watery places Gardner pointed
out to me Nymphaea stellata Damasonium Indicum Utriculia (floating) Hydrocera
triflora Ceratophyllum Limnophila & Typha augustefolia. Such Cyperaceae as
Rhynchospora, Fimbristylis, Scleria, Fuirena & Cyperus & Hydrocotyle Asiatica & Eragrostis. inhabited
drier Jussiaea villosa but still very wet places, with various Paspala Parsonia . In the
dryer[sic] still Sporobolus, Aristida, Setaria, Urochloa, Chrysan[part of mss missing]
&c. Frequently the road side was banked or ran along low hills & loose stone walls,
where Ferns frequented the shaded spots & various roadside weed there & the
more exposed places of the Ferns Aspidium propinquum, Phymatodes vulgare,
Adiantum rhizophora (a pretty creeping species) Nephrolepis splendens, Lomaria
scandens, Drymoglossum pilosum[?] Gymnogramma caudata, Pteris nervosa &
interrupta a Lygodium, Acrost. quercifolium, Gleichenia dichotoma, a Lindsaea &
Selaginella
[[8]] The weeds again were very often Acanthaceous, of which many genera
species & individuals prevailed, Acanthus ilicifolius, Ruellias several & Gendarussa,
Barleria prionitis Eranthemum montanum. Of Amaranthacea a few, as
Desmochaetum & Amaranthus together with other Tropical roadside genera as
Triumfetta, Sida acutifolia Phyllanthus, Convolvulus (like pes-caprae), Desmodia,
Cardiospermum Halicacbum , Solana, Hibiscus Surattensis, Tragia, Abutilon Indicia,
Desmodium 3--floreum & others, Leucas biflora & Zeylanica, Urena lobata Anisomeles
intermedia, Polygona, Lippia, Hedyotis, Herpestis monocera[sic], Clerodendron
infortunatum & inerme, & Triumf some Compositae Vernonia cinerea & zeylanica
Vernonia & zeylanica Wedelia calendulacea , Eclipta erecta, Emilia &c.
In the woods bordering the road, the most striking plants are the Palms, as Cocoa,
the Phoenix Sylvestris Toddy Palm Caryota urens & Areca Catechu, or Betel nut the
Pandanus odoratus with its curious stem leaves & fruit scarlet Erythrinas,
Dalbergias Calophyllum, Nauclea, Tabernaemontana, curious Plumeria.
Sonneratia acida the wood of which is used for
[[9]] fruit[?] boxes, Paritinea liliaceum, Terminalia Catalpa, whose curiously remarkable
coiled up embryo is served at dessert & eats like an almond. Several Fici &
especially the F.dernonum the scalerid leaves of which are employed to polish
wood. Bassia longifolia , Garcinia & Elaeocarpus oblongifolias, Artocarpus
pubescens & integrifolia the latter yielding a wood so useful as to entitle it to the
distinction of being called the Oak Mahogany of Ceylon, this wood is further of no
mean beauty & is employed commonly for doors, chairs & window frames.
Mussaenda frondosa & Viteza alata also appeared as large trees. Schleichera
trijuga (the Cingalese Oak). A Barringtonia with noble flowers & foliage Anacardium occidentale
occurs abundantly though an introduced plant originally. The species of shrubs
around smaller trees are very numerous, as Cassias, Grumesena, Desmodium
arborium, Randias, the beautiful Lyona Cocanea, Hedera terehinthacea,
Symploros, some Aurantica, Geruphia angustifolia, Grewias & Solana, Feronia
elephantum. Guams Asclepiadea, Zizyphus -- Sapium, Croton aromaticam,
Melastomaceae, & very many others. Two Leguminae a struck me as both having
a remarkably strobilosum inflorescence, very peculiar in the order to which they
belong. These were the genera Diserma & Flemingia plants genera in no other
respect allied. In numbers of Parasitic &
[[10]] Epiphytes I was disappointed, a Cymbidium was one of the few of the latter
habit & one Loranthus of the former.
One or two exotics have spread so successfully & abundantly as to deserve
mention, the Passiflora foetida, introduced in 1824, now a perfect pest a
Bryophyllum & the Allamanda cathartica whose glorious clusters of golden
blossoms contrasting with the deep green handsome foliage formed a superb
spectacle.
On our wal evening walk home the dark paths & banks were lighted up with fire
flies these do not dart & flutter like many of the S. American phosphorescent
Insects, but more resemble falling stars suddenly shedding a pale bright light as
they slowly fall & which is as suddenly extinguished. The effect was exactly that of
sprinkling gold leaf in a sun beam.
There is some intimate connection between phosphorescence in insect life &
humidity of the atmosphere. At Madras *2 I saw none, at Calcutta *3 they are rare
except during the rains, over the dry plains of Behar, Birbhoona, Shahabad &
Mirzapore I saw none except by the banks of Tanks: but on my arrival in an
equally torrid season on the moister
[[11]] plains of Purmeah (Purncah) they abounded. At Darjeeling I have seen but
few, though now the rains are settling in they are expected in abundance. So in
Gr[ea]t Britain the glow worm is generally haunts the moister counties, on the
E[ast]. coast of Scotland they are rare or unknown, but on the moister west
tolerably abundant: as in Wales Devonshire &c.
To return to Botany however, I must glance at the Cryptogamia before concluding
mosses were fairly represented, algae remarkably rare, chiefly a species of
Sargassum. Fleshy Fungi revelled on the sunny banks but the preponderance of
Lichens was most remarkably[sic] & this neither of the crustaceous exactly or
foliaceous groups, but of the Lecideae & Leconoras with incomplete & appressed
thalli. These adhere to the barks of the harder trees & even to the Cocoa nut,
coating their trunks (generally so unprolific) with curious discs of white, pale green,
or rusty brown.
On new years morning I was up at four to see Matilda off in the stage for Kandy,
unexpectedly as we had met at Suez in the Dessert[sic], at Aden in Arabia & here
again in the spice groves of Ceylon we felt like fellow travellers, each leaving home
for an indefinite period from with untrod paths
[[12]] to pursue; & we had each looked forward so confidently to our previous & this
meeting that the certainty of not seeing her again caused a blank in the future
voyages. James Smith visits on my returning to Ceylon & if I could only persuade
Gardner to accompany me thence to Singapore or Malana I would do so. Much will
depend on monsoons & money, whether I shall ever see Ceylon again.
Before Breakfast I enjoyed another short walk with Gardner where he showed me
the TrimerizaI think but forget the name he has notes of it growing on shady banks in abundance, he
differs from Lindley in his sense of its affinity, but from what I have since seen of
the Aristolochiae I am inclined to think the latter right in his conclusion as to its
affinity. I could not help gathering it though I had no paper to dry it in & have
preserved a good many specimens after a fashion.
The powerful sun of 8 AM unceremoniously drove us home, but after breakfast we
made another start in our kind hosts carriage, to call on a gentleman whose house
is laden with Cingular[sic] curiosities. Such as cabinet chair & table work of
beautiful wood, carved
[[13]] ornaments in Ivory, tortoiseshell Ebony, Elephants teeth & tortoiseshell, all
more beautiful from the substance employed than the task exerted in modelling it
the material. A cabinet of precious stones was really valuable but the jewels so totally
unfit in their present state for Cornhill[?] ship windows that I was very near asking
him when all was shown where the jewels were. I could not help thinking of Prof
Miller of Cambridge having kindly offered to meet me at his museum to show a
collection of diamonds valuable beyond computation, when I arrived the little man
was standing beside a box with about 600 ordinary bits of glass stuck on pointed
cards (I think). Unfortunately I was not shrewd enough to observe the double from
box hasps keys & staples that retained the captive stones & now ceremoniously
opened, for after an hours conversation on indifferent subjects, I was about to ask
to see the diamonds & was only prevented by Henslow's coming in when
conversation soon led me to infer that I had been an unconcerned spectator of the
display of as much wealth as would build Henslow a new College.
A cabinet of Ceylon shells both land & fresh water appeared both more attractive
both to myself & to Gardner. This forenoon we had torrents of rain with heavy
thunder & lightning, the latter soon passed over but we embarked under a torrent
[[14]] and were soon making our passage to Madras. At Madras, where we arrived
on the morning of Ja[nua]ry 5th we remained 4 days. The troubled Roads with its
fleet of Men of War & merchant ships is even agitated by a ground swell, rendering
landing most difficult & only practicable in the curious Massalah boats (employed
for all ships passengers) or the curious logs on which the native stands & all but
lives; looking more like some Triton or a sea horse or aquatic Dinosaur, than an
honest water boatman plying his ferry. There are however features too often
described to be worth recapitulating, though could I do justice to the imposing sight
of Ld Dalhousie's landing & reception it would indeed astonish you. It was not the
grandeur of scenery, which is of the very flattest description both really by nature &
in figure of speech, nor the stately procession of man of war -- boats which putting
in measured time in one long procession from ship to shore, gay with banners &
trim in array, when discipline overawes the spectator into reverence & admiration,
for his Lordship was taken in as ordinary a Massalah boat with as uproarious a
view of our disciplined flanks as well might be, & was rather flung ashore by the
boisterous surf like a seaweed, by in the all rolling element which no more staid its
or lesser pulsations for
bigger
him
[[15]] than it did its periodic flow for King Caractacus. The military music with the
roar of the guns saluting battery from Fort George were drowned in the billowing
waves. The superb array of military reaching in one unbroken line from for perhaps
2 miles were hidden behind a dense populace in front, the lances gay caps &
spear heads alone peeping over the heads turbans of the nation. & Except those
few of the English immediately surrounding Ld Tweeddale there were few white
faces to be seen. One feature in the scene to a foreigner was worth all the pomp of the
most brilliant seraphim that could salute monarch; & this I need hardly add was the
sea of natives extending in one unbroken one continuous mass for miles along the
beach -- more uniform in height than any European mob; the white turbans, black
faces, white Kufera over the body & again swarthy lower extremities all appeared
in a line so uniform & so continuous that the sea seemed to break at the foot of
some banded cliffs rather than on a shore pent in by a population. The very
simplicity of the attire was lent an imposing to the spectacle; these were the loyal
inhabitants receiving their supreme ruler, so perhaps more cordially than an English
crowd does a leader better personally known to them; but without tumult, strife for
place, or one instance of violence & theft. There was no bedifferring in dress no
act to display themselves; the European for the natives assembled in unity of
person with the one sole object of seeing & welcoming the foreign general, whilst
under
[[16]] similar circumstances as the Europeans spectator in England or elsewhere must so
deport himself as to in dress & ambition for prominence as to shew[sic] that he
intends to attract some of the attention if he cannot eclipse the principal in the
scene. It would be difficult to select elsewhere a spot when a population like that of
Madras could be viewed with the effect that the low track of the road admits of, -- a
people whose costume is so uniformly simple & occasion to bring marshal them forth
like the present. Under Lord Tweeddales hospitable roof I had the opportunity of
meeting many persons whose no less remarkable for their skill in positions of
command than in the knowledge of the productive resources of the country. To Walter
Elliott Esq in particular I am much indebted, he is an accomplished zoologist & no
less interested me in his conversation into res naturales, thus by his an instructive
lesson he gave me on the subject of Boodhist [Budhist] antiquities. The sculptures
& architectural remains to which he directed my attention were of rare beauty & in
excellent preservation, but I cannot here give you even a compendium of the
practical information I obtained; The winged lion with which I was so familiar in the
Syrian marbles & the sketches of my accomplished friend Walter Forbes struck me
as very remarkable & I have since learned from Hodgson that they are evidences
of the Asian origin of the Boodh religion propagated from the N[orth].W[est]. by
that great racetide which swept over all India N[orth] of the Peninsula, & which has
now replaced the Tamalias by Indo--Germanic tribes. This is however a subject I
must treat of in a separate letter & attempt to shew[sic] you how the three
prominent features of in the Physical Geography of this wonderful country. The
Snowy range, the Ghats & the
[[17]] malarious Terai have indicated the position of tribes of people as well as of
plants, & have regulated the migration of which both & assigned the limits to tribes
of all groups of the animal & vegetable creation from the subdivisions stripes of homo man
down to the genera of cryptogamia plants:-- And this not only by presenting
desert obstacles to the interchange of species on the one hand & the intercourse
of tribes on the other, but through the action of climate causes, themselves
reciprocally regulated by, if not wholly due to, the configuration in outline & elevation
of the continent. I was struck with the facilities for obtaining information from the
best sources, which the kindness of Lord Dalhousie has afforded me, that I feel more
inclined to gossip over the various novel facts & views brought under my notice
by men from all parts of the Madras Presidency, than to sift & to group them My
Of sights there are hardly any about Madras, the soil is of a brow a clay
sandstone called LD Iaterite. hard--baked in the tropical sun & gravelly on the surface with
much Iron in its composition. Under neath the earth would appear burrowed by
streams seeking a subterranean course to the sea, some of good water & some
of bad, & these are traced by the wells along over various parts of the town &
neighbourhood.
I spent a long time with Elliott at the little public Botanic Gardens, these are under
the generous care of an officer of the Engineers (Capt Worcester) who is, as Dr
Wight says in a letter to me, an excellent fellow, deserving well of his countrymen
for the unselfish manner in which he devotes his time & effective energies to the
Garden in the barren soil, of Madras. I do not think that we at home can appreciate
the amount of true love of science & zeal in its chores, required to mention even in
one's ownself the study of botanical science. In the great citys[sic] at home we
have companions &
[[18]] and friends besides advantages, in the country we find it a solace but to
pursue the subject in an Indian metropolis teeming with a native & European
population equally dead to, if not averse to the pursuit, requires much mental
exertion & more enduring patriotism. Especially in those cultivators who, with other
duties to perform, take charge unpaid, & perhaps unthanked, of public gardens. To
give you a sketch of what I may call Worcester's garden, it is a more properly a the
Horti agricultural establishment of a Hort. society of 8 acres, supported by private funds
& receiving no further encouragement from Gov[ernmen]t. than prizes to the value
of some hundred pounds, for samples of Cotton & Indigo & as much towards the
propagation of Sugar plants. The arrangement adopted is excellent one part
devoted to Horticulture, & 2d to propagation of good samples of Cotton, Indigo &
Sugar &c. & a third to an illustrative series of the more important plants
scientifically arranged, in short a Botanic Garden. The ground is trim & well kept,
laid out with considerable taste & has naturally been a favourite walk for the
subscribers. Our annuals & hardy perennials many of them thrive well, though the
tendency to spoil is remarkable, this in Stocks & prevalent enough at home, but
not so common I think in Pinks which is in India accompanied with a tendency run
to leaf. Mexican & some Californian plants thrive beautifully, especially Zinnias &
other Compositae. Mango, Avarshoas, Nyctanthes, Tamarind & Sugars with the
omnipresent Casuarinas are the prevailing Trees -- Hedging is made with Henna
as in Egypt, Bamboo, Lantana or Parkinsonia: In the outskirts of the [end of letter
missing] *4
ENDNOTES
1. The country formerly known as Ceylon is now called Sri Lanka.
2. The city formerly known as Madras is now called Chennai.
3. The city formerly known as Calcutta is now called Kolkata.
4. A note written in another hand states "conclusion missing".
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