island. My twelve months' tour in Ceylon being completed, I
returned to England delighted with what I had seen of Ceylon in
general, but, above all, with my short visit to Newera Ellia,
malgre its barrenness and want of comfort, caused rather by the
neglect of man than by the lack of resources in the locality.

CHAPTER II. Past Scenes - Attractions of Ceylon - Emigration -
Difficulties in Settling - Accidents and Casualties - An
Eccentric Groom - Insubordination - Commencement of Cultivation -
Sagacity of the Elephant - Disappointments - "Death" in the
Settlement - Shocking Pasturage - Success of Emigrants - "A Good
Knock- about kind of a Wife".

I had not been long in England before I discovered that my trip
to Ceylon had only served to upset all ideas of settling down
quietly at home. Scenes of former sports and places were
continually intruding themselves upon my thoughts, and I longed
to be once more roaming at large with the rifle through the
noiseless wildernesses in Ceylon. So delightful were the
recollections of past incidents that I could scarcely believe
that it lay within my power to renew them. Ruminating over all
that bad happened within the past year, I conjured up localities
to my memory which seemed too attractive to have existed in
reality. I wandered along London streets, comparing the noise
and bustle with the deep solitudes of Ceylon, and I felt like the
sickly plants in a London parterre. I wanted the change to my
former life. I constantly found myself gazing into gunmakers'
shops, and these I sometimes entered abstractedly to examine some
rifle exposed in the window. Often have I passed an hour in
boring the unfortunate gunmakers to death by my suggestions for