Sunday, March 13th, 1898, Kandy, Ceylon

Queen’s Hotel, Kandy, Ceylon, Sunday, March 13/98.

We were soon ashore at Colombo yesterday morning, no trouble passing Customs, never opened out my bags. I went to the P&O office & arranged about a berth in the steamer due on Saturday or Sunday next for the straits & China, & I think it will be the “Verona”. They don’t guarantee any passages till the steamer is here but Cook’s told me, I called there also, these China going steamers are never full & every prospect of getting a berth. 25 were registered, & other 3 afterwards, for the same steamer. Next I went to the bank & got some cash, then to Lipton’s where I saw Mr. Duplex, the manager. He received me very kindly & gave me much information. He stays at the hotel where I had arranged for & sent on my luggage from the harbour jetty. He is a very smart little man & seems to have a great business in hand here & world wide. He was dispatching teas to Melbourne & on a very long table were dozens of tea tasting cups, which had been used prior to me calling. This was very London-like. He also told me of the marvellous success of the floating of the concern into a limited company, & had but an hour before received a wire from London telling him that the shares were [2:86] up to 50/- & that 50 millions had been subscribed for the 3 ½ millions stock, certainly a great success so far. I saw Mr. Duplex again in the Galle Face Hotel at night. Next I enquired about D. Allen’s son but was informed he was up at Nuwara Eliya.[1] This is double the distance & on the same road as Kandy is from Colombo. I wrote to him & he was to reply to this hotel by Tuesday. I may go on as far. It is the great resort during the hot season & is very cold all the year round. Colombo is a very fine place with a very grand harbour, & the Galle Face Hotel is built on the shore out of the town. A little & a charming place it is, the beautiful sea rolling up to within 30 yards of its frontage. There is no tide & it’s always the same high water mark. The breeze was delightful. It’s a very huge building & up to the mark every way. Gharrys & rickshaws by the dozens hanging about. I had my first ride in one about Colombo & then to the hotel. They are fine to ride in, light, & the coolie takes you along at a fair rate, hundreds of them about. I felt a little sorrowful at the position of being moved about by a fellow mortal as tho’ he were an animal for burden only. They tout for fares & swarm around one if he be on foot, & tho’ it was no part of the white man’s element on foot, natives too use them as freely, & a little cart drawn by very fine small bullocks which run very nicely are plentiful & seem well patronised At 4 afternoon I went by train along the coast, close to the shore to Mount Lividia[2] a very popular resort & had refreshments.

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Many of the Malta’s passengers were there. She was to sail at 10 p.m. A notice was posted before we left the ship & as they coal at Colombo, it’s a very dirty time on board. Also several Germans were at this place. Their steamer was Australia bound. Several fishing villages en route to Mount Lividia[3] & all use these Catamarans. Some we saw come in & run right up on to the sandy beach (& by the way we had not got anchored in Colombo harbour before the ship’s sides were swarming with these craft & others & steam launches & diving boys. These just on 3 bits of logs tapered at ends lashed together, & the boys kneeling with bamboo canes cut in two for paddling, & they can go a rate & dive & fetch the coins up smartly. The “Andrina”, Sturdy is in her, must have got away from Colombo as she wasn’t there. Many steamers there & great throng going on.) I left Colombo this morning at 7 & got to Kandy at 11:40.[4] What a most lovely & exciting railway journey. My hypsometer registered over 1,500 feet rise. We serpentined the mountains & the way the rail is cut on the face of the mountains is blood curdling, & you look down on to plains hundreds of feet below, & every hill side for long distances up are terraced & cultivated & as we got higher tea gardens were every where, some running right to the very tops of the mountains. Tea, tea, & tea is the topic here. Several of the travellers were interested in tea growing, some wishing they had never known it, & what a country for vegetation. The palm trees are most beautiful & cocoanuts  [sic] by thousands. What [2:88] luxurious growth, trees every where & you can’t get a glimpse beyond a few feet of the rail for miles together, but lower down, that is before the rise takes place, here & there were large clearances where rice & grasses were under cultivation & great swamps, men with oxen ploughing up to the knees in water. Most unhealthy part, so is Colombo. Everybody feels moist. If you close your hand & open it again you feel it quite moist. Well, the ride through the country was worth coming so far for & Willie can tell Miss Pape I fully appreciated her enthusiasm about Kandy & the journey to it. The time here now is 5:20 & it is exactly 12 at home, so the church will just be coming out.

There is a very large tank in front of the hotel, boats on it, & I see some soldiers here. I had a walk out before tiffin (2 p.m.) & saw through the Bhuddist temple which contains the sacred tooth. A guide soon picked me up & I took advantage. The tooth can’t, of course, be shown, but there were 2 priests in the temple & from one of these I got a piece [of] palm leaf on which he inscribed some word & handed it me with a plate for a fee. On these leaves the priests inscribe the words of their religion. It was quite a dolly house & many idols it contains. The old king’s palace is close by this temple & now occupied by the Governor, who presently is up at Nuwara Eliya. Close by this is a Church of England, & service at 6, so I purpose going & will leave off here for the present.

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[1] Inserted on facing page: “Nuwara Eliya”.

[2] Inserted on facing page: “Mount Lavinia”.

[3] Inserted on facing page: “Mount Lavinia”.

[4] Inserted on facing page: “to Kandy 5 hours’ ride”.