Burt A. The Evolution of the British Empire and Commonwealth From the American Revolution
Подождите немного. Документ загружается.
During
the
Long
French
War:
(II)
The
Eastern
Hemisphere
155
to 15 inches
15
to
30
inches
30
to
50
inches
Above 50
inches
SOW//
ATLANTIC
OCEAN
Cape
Town'
Scale
o/
Miles
Based
on
map
from
C.
W.
De
Kiewiet's
A
History
of
South
Africa,
The
Clarendon
Press
South
African
Rainfall
and
it
extended
for
no
more
than
a
three
days'
trek,
about
sixty
miles,
which
was
the
limit
of
profitable
hauling
to
the
only
market.
The
pop-
ulation
of
this
more
compact
area
of
settlement,
including
the
town
which
had
grown
up
around
the
port,
numbered
scarcely
more
than
"
thirteen
thousand
whites, considerably
more
slaves,
and
nobody
knows
how
many
detribalized
Hottentots.
Beyond
lay
the
cattle
country,
into
which
sons
of
the
first
burghers
began
to
push
more
than
a
hundred
years
before
the
trekking
Boers
clashed
with
the
Kaffirs
on
the
Fish
River,
four
hundred
miles
to
the
east.
It
was
a
thirsty
land,
where
some
eight
thousand
whites
were
scattered
about
one
to
every
ten
square
miles.
Each
family,
with
its colored
dependents
and
its
herds
of
sheep
and
cattle,
was
a
solitary
community.
Once
a
year
some
of
the
stock
carried
its
own
meat
to
the
distant
market,
where
it
was
traded
for
the
few
things
the
owners
needed.
There
was
practically
no
156
CHAPTER
TEN:
other contact
with
the outside
world.
As
a
people,
they
had
been robbed
by
the
frontier
of
much of
the
civilization
that
their
ancestors
had
brought
from
Europe;
but
it
had
made
them
more
dependent
upon
themselves,
their
wagons,
their
horses,
their
guns,
and
their
Old Testa-
ment. When
the
company
would
neither
defend
them
nor
give
them a
free
hand
to seek
vengeance
for
the
lives,
cattle,
and lands
that
the
Kaffirs
had
taken,
the Boers
in
the
two
eastern
districts
of Graaff
Reinet
and
Swellendam
rose
in
revolt
and
established
the
first
independent
republics
in South
Africa
on
the
very
eve
of the
British
landing.
When
the
British
took
the
Cape
in
1795,
with
authority
from
the
fugitive
Prince
of
Orange
to
hold
it for
his
country
until
the close
of
the
war,
the
Dutch
East
India
Company
was
already
bankrupt,
the
colonists
welcomed
the
end of
its
selfish
rule,
and
most
of
the officials
were
glad
to
serve
under
the
new
sovereign.
The
British
promptly
swept
away
the
system
of
monopoly
and
economic
restrictions
that
the
com-
pany
had
carefully guarded,
and
reformed
the
administration
by
sub-
stituting
regular
salaries
for
fees
and
perquisites
of
office.
Less
happy
were
the
relations
between
the
conqueror
and
the
conquered
on the
eastern
frontier;
for
the
British,
who
quickly
quelled
the
rebels
by
a
show of
force
which
they
had
to do
again
in 1799
blamed
the
Boers
for
stirring
up
the
Kaffirs
and
tried to
keep
them
apart.
This
second
rising,
though
only
a
flash
in
the
pan,
let loose
a
Hottentot
rebellion
and
a
Kaffir
attack
that
drew
its
first
British
blood.
The
British
were
discovering
that
the
Cape
was
more
than
a
port
and
a
filling
station,
and
they
were
getting
an
unpleasant
introduction
to
the
complicated
problems
peculiar
to South
African
society.
The
first
British
governor,
an
excellent
man,
had
a
poor
opinion
of
the
colony
and
its
future;
he
reported
that it would
be
a considerable
expense
to
the mother
country,
which
the
government
there
expected.
3
He
agreed,
however,
that it
was
worth
it because
of
its
strategic
value
as
"the master
link
of
con-
nection
between
the
Western
and
Eastern
Worlds."
Though
there
is
good
reason to
believe
that
the
secretary
of
state,
if
riot the
whole
cabinet,
looked
forward
to
keeping
the
Cape perma-
nently, by
some
bargain
with
the
Prince
of
Orange,
the
Treaty
of
Amiens
provided
for
its restoration
to
the
Batavian
Republic
and it
was
accordingly given
up
in 1803.
Three
years
later, however,
the
British
were
back,
this
time
to
stay.
Public
opinion
in
Britain
would not
toler-
3
It had
been
costing
the
Dutch
company
more than
all
its other
East
Indian
stations
combined.
(Walker,
op.
dt.,
p.
111.)
During
the
Long
French
War:
(II)
The
Eastern
Hemisphere
1
57
ate
a second
restoration
of this
vital link of
communication
with
India,
and
the
government
said
so to the
Prince
of
Orange. During
the
peace
negotiations
at
the
close
of the
war
his
government
made no claim
and
did
not
even
express
a
desire
to
get
the
colony
back,
while the British
were
prepared
to
pay
whatever was
necessary
for
it.
The
amount
agreed
upon
was
2,000,000,
4
which
the Dutch were
to
spend
in
fortifying
the
French border of
Belgium,
which was then annexed
to Holland.
Contrary
to West
Indian
practice,
neither
the
capitulation
of
1795
nor
that
of
1806
contained
any
guarantee
to
preserve
the
existing
form
of
government;
and
during
both
occupations
the
governors,
though
instructed
to administer
the
colony
in
accordance
with its
established
laws
and
customs,
were
directed and
empowered
to make such
im-
provements
as
they
deemed
fit.
For
all
practical
purposes,
therefore,
the
Cape
was
treated as
part
of the British
Empire
before
it
was for-
mally
annexed,
which
of course
reflects
the intention
to
keep
it.
The
reforms
of the
first
occupation
were
continued
in the
second,
with less
direction
from
London,
which
had been
largely
responsible
for
the few
changes
made before 1803. As the
colony
held
little
attraction
for
British
traders and none for British
settlers,
there
was no
pressure,
either
there or
at
home,
for the
introduction
of
English
laws
and
insti-
tutions.
The
Roman
Dutch
law,
which has
prevailed
to
the
present
day
in
South
Africa,
was continued
with
scarcely any
question;
the estab-
lished
institutions of
government
were maintained
with little
alteration,
manned
mostly
by
experienced
Dutch
officials;
nothing
was
done,
or
even
attempted,
to
impair
the
full
prerogative
of
the British
Crown
over
the
colony,
so
that even
before
it
was determined
that
Trinidad
should
become
this
new and
strange
thing
called
a crown
colony,
the
Cape
was one.
What
was
introduced
was more
efficiency
in
the
administration
and
publicity
in
the courts.
The
English
mind
distrusted
the
secrecy
of
Dutch
criminal
procedure
and
insisted
upon
the
examination
of
wit-
nesses
and
the
accused
in
open
court.
The
old
court
of
policy
was
split,
the
burgher
half
becoming
a sort
of
municipal
council
and
the
official
half
a bench
of salaried
judges,
while
the
governor
exercised
legislative
and
executive
authority,
under
the control
of
the
secretary
of
state,
without
having
to
consult
any
officially
constituted
body
of
*
In
addition
to
this
2,000,000
and the
payment
of
1,000,000
to
Sweden
in
lieu of
the
Guiana
settlements,
the
British
government
assumed
a
debt
of
3,000,000
that the
Russian
government
had
incurred
in
Holland
and
could
not or
would
not
meet.
Hence
the
6,000,000
total
mentioned
on
page
93.
158
CHAPTER
TEN:
advisers
in
the
colony.
In
his
judicial
capacity,
however,
he
had
two
legal
"assessors" to
help
him decide
appeals,
both
civil
and
criminal,
and
had
to allow more
important
civil
cases
to
be
carried
to the
privy
council
in
England.
One of
the best
innovations
of
the time was
the
institution
of ckcuit
courts conducted
annually throughout
the
colony
by
judges
of the
high
court,
who
had to
report
not
only
on
all
the
civil
and
criminal
cases
they
tried
but
also on
"all
matters
touching
the
morality
and
good
Government
of
the
Country
Districts."
Because
they
had
keen
eyes
for such
things
as
the
work
of
the
Landdrosts,
or
local
magistrates,
the state
of
the
jails
and
roads,
the
treatment
of
slaves
and colored
dependents,
and education both
religious
and
secular,
these
judges
did
much to consolidate
the
sprawling
colony
and
to
improve
conditions
in
it.
Economically
the
Cape
was
decidedly
better off
than it had
been
under
Dutch
rule. Trade
was much
freer and
there was much more
of
it. A resident
garrison
of several thousand and
a
great
increase
in
the
number
of
ships calling
at
Cape
Town
enlarged
the
demand
for
pro-
visions. Even
the distant frontier felt
the effect of a better
market
for
meat.
The "corn and
wine"
country
had
never known
such
prosperity.
At
last
Cape
wine
had
a
real
sale
abroad,
thanks to
a tariff
discrimina-
tion
against
foreign
wines
in
Britain. For a
quarter
of
a
century
begin-
ning
in
1806,
the wine trade
flourished,
providing
most of the
colony's
exports.
Even
the
abolition
of the slave trade in 1807
brought
profit
to
South
African
owners
by
increasing
the
value
of
their
black
capital.
It
is also
worthy
of
note
that,
as
a
consequence
of
the
stopping
of
this
trade,
the free
burgher
population
soon
outstripped
the
servile;
and
the
human
lot
of
the
slave,
which had
always
been
better
here
than in
the
West
Indies,
improved
with his commercial
value. But
slavery
was
only
a
minor
phase
of
the
race
question
in
South
Africa,
and
this
began
to
be
more
complicated
as
a
consequence
of the
transfer
of
the
country
from one
empire
to
another.
The
coming
of
the British
opened
the
door for
an
influence
that
struck
at the foundations of
Cape society
and
produced
a
serious
inter-
nal
strain,
the effect of which is
still
felt
in
South Africa.
The
Boers
would
keep
the colored
races
down,
while the
British
would
help
them
up;
and because
the whites
have
always
been
greatly
outnumbered
in
that
country,
their
conflicting
attitudes
toward the
nonwhite
minority
of
the
population
has bred no
end
of
trouble. Before
the
arrival
of
the
British,
the
Boers
had
severely
frowned on the
teaching
of
Christianity
to
the shaded
majority.
In
this
they
resembled the
British
Caribbean
During
the
Long
French
War:
(II)
The Eastern
Hemisphere
159
planters,
who were
stoutly
opposed
to
having
missionaries
tamper
with
their slaves.
But
now a
vigorous
missionary
movement,
closely
allied
to
that
against
slavery,
was
springing
up
in the mother
country.
The
London
Missionary
Society,
by
a rather
striking
coincidence,
was
formed
in
the
very year
of
the first
capitulation
of
Cape
Town. Soon
the emissaries
of
this
organization
began
to invade the
colony,
and it
was not
long
before the
Boers
came
to
regard
them as
something
very
like
the
emissaries of
the
devil who
would turn South African
society
upside
down.
However
many
souls
they
saved
and
lives
they
lifted,
the
mission-
aries
had
a bad
effect
on
relations
between whites and
nonwhites,
and
between
Boer
and
British.
They
were
always siding
with the
underdog,
and
they
were
always
writing
home. Their
letters home
gave
heart-
rending
accounts of
how
miserably
the
slaves, Hottentots,
Bushmen,
and
Kaffirs,
were
treated;
and
these
accounts were broadcast from
Evangelical
and
Nonconformist
pulpits.
The result was
a
strong
and
steady
pressure
on
the
government
in
London,
which
passed
the
pres-
sure back to
the
governor,
to have the inhuman
conduct of
the
Boers
investigated
and
punished.
This
constant
prodding,
which the
gover-
nor
in
turn
had
to
pass
on
to his
officials,
roused
the
resentment of the
Boer
fanners,
who were
generally
innocent of
the
crimes
with
which
they
were thus
charged.
Again
and
again
the
governor
reported
back
to
London that
there
was little
or
no foundation for these evil stories
and that
the
colonists
were
a
well-behaved
lot,
but
he
was
impotent
to
check
the
poisonous
stream.
British
rule in South Africa
was
getting
off to
a
bad
start.
Ceylon
was taken from the Dutch
at
the
same time
and
for
the same
reason
as
the
Cape
of
Good
Hope.
Its
strategic
value to
the British in
India was
comparable
to that
of
the
Panama
Canal
to
the
United States.
Ceylon
controlled
the communications between
the
east coast and the
west
coast;
and the
English
East India
Company
had
had its
eye
on this
island
ever since
the main seat of
the
Company's power
had
shifted
from
Bombay
on
the
west to
Bengal
on the east. Its
only dockyards
were at
Bombay,
and
on
the
Bay
of
Bengal
it
had not a
single
harbor
that
seemed
capable
of
development
into
a
naval
base. This
lack was
serious because
the
dangerous
hurricanes
of
the
northeastern monsoon
season
obliged
the
fleet
to withdraw
to
the west
coast,
leaving
the
whole
of
the
east coast at the
mercy
of
any
hostile
squadron
that
might
enter
the
Bay
of
Bengal
between
October
and
March.
On
the east
side
of
the
island
of
Ceylon,
however,
at
Trincomalee,
nature had
formed
perhaps
160
CHAPTER
TEN:
its
most
perfect
harbor
in
the whole
of
the East.
Ceylon
was,
therefore,
the
inner
key,
as
the
Cape
was the
outer,
to
the defense
of India
against
European
rivals of the British.
Which
they
should
keep,
if
they
had
to
choose,
was not an
easy
question.
The
preference
seems
to have
been
for
Ceylon
on
strategic grounds
alone.
Economic
considerations also
favored
the retention
of
the
island
rather
than the
Cape,
for the latter had then no economic
value,
where-
as
the
former
was
supplying
the
world
with all its
cinnamon
and
many
of
its
pearls.
That the
cost
of
Ceylon
was
greater
than its
profit
to
the
Dutch
East
India
Company
was
probably
unknown to
the
British
when
a
dispatch
from
London
directed
the
governor
of Madras
to
undertake
the seizure
of the
island;
but
the
British
had
the
same
experience
dur-
ing
the
years
that
elapsed
before
the formal
cession
by
the
Treaty
of
Amiens
in
1802,
though they hoped
to
redress
the balance
with
time.
Until
1798,
from the
capitulation
of
1796,
Ceylon
was
administered
as an
appanage
of
the
Madras
presidency.
Madras
troops
had
con-
quered
Ceylon
at an
expense
of
some
12,000,
and
at first it
seemed a
most
profitable
venture.
The
pearl
fisheries,
which
were off the
north-
ern
part
of the west
coast,
brought
a
total revenue
of
nearly
400,000
during
the
three
seasons from 1796
to
1798,
but then the
banks were
exhausted.
It is
impossible
to
tell
how much the
Company
made
out
of
the
cinnamon. The
amount
exported
during
these
years
was
worth
about
650,000
in
London,
but
captured
Dutch
stores
accounted for
almost
half
this
amount and the
rest was
got by
overexploiting
the
plantations.
The
Company
also
tried
to
make
the
government
of
the
island
yield
a
surplus,
with
disastrous
results. Instead
of
taking
over
the native officials
and land
system,
as the
Dutch had
done
and
the
Portuguese
before
them,
the
Company
imported
a
full
complement
of
Indian
assistants,
whom it
recruited in
Madras,
and
imposed
the
rev-
enue and
land
system
of that
presidency.
Such
violence
to a
society
that
possessed
an
ancient
civilization,
and the
depredations
of
this
flock
of
"harpies,"
who
knew
nothing
of the
languages
or
the
customs
of the
country
and were
under no
effective
control,
provoked
the
Singhalese
to revolt within
eighteen
months.
Even
before the
rising,
which was
quickly suppressed,
unpleasant
accounts from
Ceylon
moved the
governor
of
Madras to
appoint
an
investigating
commission,
whose
report
in
1798
condemned the
folly
of
1796;
and before the
news
of the
revolt
could reach
England
the
cabinet
decided to
place
the
island
directly
under
the
Crown.
As the
directors
of
the
Company
objected,
a
compromise
was
reached and a
During
the
Long
French
War:
(II)
The
Eastern
Hemisphere
161
governor
was sent
out
from
England
to
establish dual
control.
He did
some
healthy
housecleaning,
but his
hands
were
too
tied
to establish
efficient
order.
The
directors
required
him
to fill vacancies
in
his civil
service
by
drawing
from
the
Madras
service,
whence
he could not
get
the
men
he needed.
He
had to
accept
the
dregs,
for
Ceylon
was too
small
and
poor
its
government
ran
deeply
in the
red
to offer
the
salaries
and chances
of
promotion
that
able officials
enjoyed
on
the
mainland.
Moreover,
the
island was so different
in
languages
and
problems
that it had to
have
its own civil
service.
The
governor
soon
persuaded
the
secretary
of
state
that
dual control
was
impossible.
The
decision
to
change
was
made late in
1800,
and
on
1
January
1802
before
the formal cession
Ceylon
became
a
crown
colony.
That
the
new
type
of
colonial
government
was
adopted
permanently
and
deliberately
for
Ceylon
before it was for
Trinidad or
the
Cape,
appears
clearly
in what the
secretary
of
state wrote
to
the
governor
at
Colombo
when
he
sent
him
his
new commission
and instructions.
He
definitely
stated
that
the
government
of
Ceylon
was not to
be
assimi-
lated
to that of
the West Indian
colonies,
but
was rather to be modeled
on
experience
in
India,
incorporating
as far as feasible
the
principles
that
had
been found
wise
in its
presidencies.
To
protect
the
natives and
the trade
monopoly
of
the
East
India
Company,
whose charter
excluded
British
competitors
from
eastern
waters,
all
Europeans
were
to
be
ex-
cluded
from
permanent
settlement
except
those who
were
in the
service
of the
government
or
were
specially
licensed
by
the
secretary
of
state.
This
was
only
natural,
for
Ceylon,
like
India,
had
no room
for
European
settlers
except
as
exploiters
of
native
labor,
and
these
were
to
be excluded
as
far
as
possible.
It
was
also
in
Ceylon
that
the British
government
inaugurated
its
regular
colonial
civil
service,
patterned
more or less after
that
of
the
East
India
Company.
Like
tie writers
of the
Company,
promising
young
men were
sent
out from
England
to
serve
an
apprenticeship
in
the
colony
and
ultimately
to fill
all
but
a
few
of the
highest
offices.
Pensions
were
guaranteed
so
that
the civil
servants need not think
of
lining
their
pockets by
extraofficial
activities,
and
promotion
was to
be
by
merit
as
determined
by
the
governor,
not
by
influence at home.
In
practice
this
system
did
not
come
up
to
the best
of
more modern stand-
ards,
but
it
was
a
great
improvement
upon
the
system,
or lack
of
it,
that
still
prevailed
in
the
other
colonies
and
even at home.
Unlike
the
Dutch
officials
in the
Cape
and
British
Guiana,
those in
Ceylon
were
rarely
employed,
and
then
only
in
a
minor
capacity.
They
were
not
162
CHAPTER
TEN:
anxious
to serve
the
British,
and the latter
had
litde
use
for them.
As
in
India,
there was
a
swarm
of lesser
government
servants
who
dealt
directly
with the
people
and
were
selected
from
them
after the
custom
of
the
country.
There was
a
strong
feeling among
the
British
residents
that
the
whole
body
of their
own laws
should
be
introduced;
but
this
received
no
encouragement
from the
home
government,
which
contemplated
the
use
of the
old
Singhalese
laws
and called
for
a
report
upon
them.
A
careful
investigation
then
revealed that
these laws
had
been
pretty
well
obliterated
by
generations
of enforcement of
Roman
Dutch
law.
Therefore the
Roman Dutch law was continued
with one
important
modification
in
favor
of
the
English system,
which
was
made
in
1810
on
the
advice of
the
able
second
governor.
Trial
by
jury,
which
was
denied in
the other
foreign
colonies
acquired
during
this
war,
was
then
introduced into this
ancient eastern
land.
There was no
plantation
slavery
in
Ceylon
to make
it
objectionable
there,
and
it was
desirable
because it
would
relieve
the
supreme
court of considerable
responsi-
bility
and make
trials
by
one
judge
more
acceptable.
The bench
was
to
decide whether a
jury
was to
be
composed
of natives
or
Europeans,
and a verdict
by
majority
vote
was allowed.
Ceylon
was a
heavy
financial burden
on
the mother
country.
Not
counting
the
cost
of the
new
naval
base at Trincomalee or the
garrison
of the
island,
which
numbered four or five
thousand,
there was a
chronic deficit. From 1802
to 1815 it
averaged
over
100,000
a
year.
5
The
civil establishment
was
more
elaborate and
expensive
than
that
of
any
other
colony,
and
quite
out
of
proportion
to
any
possible
revenue.
There was
litde to
be
got by way
of
direct
taxation,
because the
system
of land tenure
was
a
sort
of
feudalism,
labor
services
taking
the.
place
of
money
payments.
With the
failure
of the
pearl
fisheries,
the
princi-
pal
source
of
income was
cinnamon,
about
half of
which
was
stripped
from
government
plantations
established
by
the
Dutch.
The
cinnamon
was
sold to
the
East
India
Company,
which
by
its
charter
held
a
monopoly
of
the
trade
until 181
3.
6
The
Company
contracted in
1802
to
buy
it
for
60,000
a
year,
and
in
1814
signed
a
new
contract
raising
5
It
has
been
suggested
(Helen
Taft
Manning,
British
Colonial
Government
After
the
American
Revolution
[New
Haven,
1933],
pp.
460-461)
that
the
East
India
Company
may
have made
about as much
out of the
cinnamon
during
the
same
time.
6
With
the
renewal of
the charter in
this
year,
the
Company's
monopoly
was
confined
to the
China trade.
Hence the 1814
increase in
the contract.
During
the
Long
French
War:
(II)
The Eastern
Hemisphere
163
the
payment
to
100,000
for
a
slightly
increased
quantity,
which
was
the
limit
of
what the
colony
could
supply.
Another
problem
was
the
native
kingdom
of
Kandy,
which
covered
the mountainous interior
of the
island and which
neither
the
Portuguese
nor the Dutch had been
able to
reduce. In
1803 the first
governor
fool-
ishly
allowed himself to be
drawn
into a
war
for
its
conquest.
Ghastly
failure followed.
Malaria and
massacre
wiped
out
a
garrison
he
managed
to
put
in
the
town
of
Kandy,
and London
ordered
an
end to
the
expen-
sive
and futile
war.
Attempts
to
negotiate
a
peace
failed,
but
hostilities
ceased
in
1805
and were not
resumed for another
ten
years.
Then
the
native
king
provoked
a
renewal of the
war and the
campaign
of
1815
was
over
in a
trice
with
practically
no
fighting.
This
time
the British
had
taken
every precaution
to avoid
a
repetition
of the
fiasco,
and
the
king
had
thorougly
alienated
his
nobles,
7
who
eagerly
welcomed
the
invaders.
This last of
a
long
line of
sovereigns,
whose
rule
began
more
than two
thousand
years
before,
was
captured,
exiled,
and
pensioned.
His
realm
was
annexed;
the
nobles,
whom
he
had
deposed,
were
re-
stored
to the
rule
of their
provinces
under
the
supervision
of
British
officials;
and the
people
were
promised
that
their
"laws,
institutions
and
customs"
would
be
respected
and
their
"religion
of
Boodhoo"
would
be
maintained inviolate.
George
III
may
not
have
known
it,
but
he
then succeeded
the
exiled
monarch
as
the
spiritual
and
temporal
head
of
the Buddhist
church
of
Kandy.
His functions
as
such
were
performed
by
his
deputy,
the
governor,
and
included
the
appointment
and
dismissal
of
priests
until
the
missionaries
raised
a storm
against
this
official
sanction
of
"idolatry"
by
a Christian
government
and
the
colonial
secretary
in
1844
instructed
the
governor
to sever
all connec-
tion
with Buddhism.
Next
in
strategic
importance
to
Ceylon
and
the
Cape
was the
little
island
of
Mauritius,
which
lay
halfway
between
them
and
possessed
a
*
He
seems
to have
been
popular
except
with
his
nobles,
against
whom
he
protected
the
people.
But
he
was
a
fierce
tyrant.
Unable
to catch
his
rebellious
prime
minister,
the
king
had
the
latter's
young
children
beheaded,
and
he
"compelled
their
mother
to
witness
the executions
and
to
pound
the
severed
heads
with
a
pestle,
or
else be
publicly
raped."
He
provoked
the
renewal
of
the war
by seizing
ten
native
merchants
from
British
territory,
having
their
noses,
right
ears,
and
right
arms
cut
off,
and
sending
them
back
to Colombo
with
the
amputated
members
tied around
their necks.
Nine
died on
the
way.
(L.
A.
Mills,
Ceylon
Under
British
Rule
[London,
1933],
pp.
156-157,
citing
John
Davy,
An
Account
of
the
Interior
of
Ceylon
and Its
Inhabitants,
pp.
320-
322,
324.
Davy,
whose
book
was
published
in
1821,
served
in
Ceylon
as
a
member
of
the
Army
Medical
staff
from
1816
to
1820.)
164
CHAPTER
TEN:
fine
natural harbor.
When the French
were
expelled
from
India,
they
made
Mauritius
the
seat of their
trade,
government,
and
power
in
the
East,
and in
time of
war it
enabled
them
to
take
a
heavy
toll of
the
British,
for
every
European
vessel
bound to or
from India
had
to
sail
past
Mauritius. In the
single
month
of
October
1807,
privateers
and
warships
operating
from
this base
snapped
up
eighteen
British
East
Indiamen.
Finally,
in
1810,
an
expedition
from
India
took it
and
the
neighboring
French island of
Bourbon,
now
Reunion. At the
close
of
the war
the
British
government
restored
Bourbon,
which
though
larger
and
richer
had
no
harbor,
but would
not
consider
giving up
Mauritius
for the
simple
reason
that it had
been
too
dangerous
in
enemy
hands.
Already
this little
speck
in
the
Indian
ocean was
a crown
colony,
having
been taken over in
1811
from
the
Company,
to
which
it
was
of
no
value;
and its
budget
was
regularly
unbalanced,
chiefly
because
of
military expenditure.
No
attempt
was made
to
change
its
laws,
cus-
toms,
and
religion,
which
had been
guaranteed by
the
capitulation,
and
to this
day
it
remains
largely
French in
character.
Severed
from
Bour-
bon
and other islands which it
had served as
a
commercial
capital,
Mauritius
naturally
lost much
of its
prosperity.
But
it was not as
dead
as
the
dodo,
which it
had
preserved
until toward the end of the
seven-
teenth
century.
It
had
a
population
of
some
16,000
whites
who
had
begun
to
raise
tropical produce,
mostly
sugar,
from
a
soil
that
was
much better than
was
yet
realized,
with
slaves
imported
from
Madagas-
car,
only
five
hundred
miles to
the
west.
Though
the
abolition
of
the
slave
trade had
destroyed
the
advantage
of
being
so close to the
source
of
black
labor,
this new
colony
could
produce
sugar
so
much
more
cheaply
than
the
old
Caribbean
colonies that its
exports
of this
com-
modity
leaped up
to
25,000
hundredweight
in
1815
and to more
than
three times
that
amount in
1816.
Then out
of
compassion
for the
des-
perate
West India
planters,
the
home
government
granted
them
a
customs
preference
of 10
shillings per
hundredweight.
This
checked
the rise
of
Mauritian
shipments
for three
years,
at
the
end
of
which
they
resumed
their
upward
flight
more
rapidly
than
ever.
New
South
Wales,
a
quarter
of
the
way
around
the
globe
from
Mauritius,
was too
remote to be
touched
by
the
long
French
war;
but
peace
and
plenty
were
not the
lot
of the
first
British
colony
in
Australia
for
many
a
long
year.
It was
only
finding
its feet
as
the
war
drew
to a
close.
When the
fleet
of convict
ships,
after
a
seven
months'
voyage,
entered
Botany
Bay
in
January
1788
to
establish
the
colony
there,
it
was
discovered that this
was no
place
for
it.
The
rich
soil
and
the