A Tea Planter's Life in Assam ... With ... illustrations by the author

Preface

. THE great difficulty of procuring information respecting Assam will, I trust, be accepted as a justification for the publication of this little work, in which I shall endeavour to convey, however feebly, some knowledge of this comparatively unknown portion of our Eastern Empire. There are, doubtless, many intending emigrants who desire to learn something of the country in which they purpose spending some years of their lives, and what may be the probability of acquiring sufficient wealth to enable them to return home with a com petence for the remainder of their days. When in such a position myself, my inquiries, addressed to travellers who seemed to know most corners of the world, obtained but meagre replies : " Assam — yes — beastly unhealthy hole ; better not go there." Beyond this point their knowledge did not appear to extend.

Other sources of information were consulted, but in vain was anything definite looked for. At length an old friend resident in Assam sent me the long-desired information, and this, together with my own subse quent experience, I now hand over to my readers. VI

PREFACE.

. Taking into account the very extensive area of the district and its great commercial value to India, it is remarkable how little is known about it in England. The following pages by a rough Planter, which have not the slightest pretension to literary merit, may perhaps be found entertaining as well as useful to all interested in one of India's principal industries, namely, Tea — its planting, growth and manufacture ; the strange surroundings, human and animal, of the European resident ; the trying climate, and the daily life of the Planter who toils in the jungle far from civilization to provide the civilized with their cheering beverage. Brynderw, Dolgelly. October, 1883. CONTENTS

Chapter I. Pace

General — Going out on Speculation — Salary — Cost of Living — Drawbacks of the Life — Abstemiousness Necessary — The Journey out — Amusements on the Voyage — Selection of Steamer — Places to be seen — Calcutta i

Chapter II

Description of Calcutta — Its Dirt — Hotels— Servants — Salaams — Horses and Ponies — Eden Gardens — Glare in the Sunlight — Native way of passing Time — The Paiiah — The Beestie Conveyances — The Indian Barber — The Hubble- Bubble Carrier — Cocoa-nut Oil — The Adjutant Bird — Ants — Rhada Bazaar — Purchases to be made — Hiring Servants 14

Chapter III

Leaving Calcutta — Different Routes— Goalundo— First Impressions on seeing a River Steamer — Jute Scenery on the Way — Sand-storms — Dangers of Navigation — Pilots— The Rains and the Cold Weather — Sights — The River as a Health Resort — Goalpara and Gowhatty — Bazaars — Change of Mosquitos — Fishermen — the J ungle 38

Chapter IV

The Naga Expedition — Impossibility of procuring anything except from Calcutta — My Landing — Ant-hills — Dimensions of Assam — Thibet — The Assamese and Opium-eating — Products of the Country— Religion — The Gossain — The Ryot — Women's Work — Where do the Fish come from ? — The Betel-nut — Superstitions — My Wife's Reception — Sport — Garden Work . . 67

Chapter V

The Bungalow — How it is Constructed — A Wet Night — The Bawurchee Khana — Hospitality to Strangers — Number of Servants necessary — Difficulties of Catering — The ever-present Chicken — Fish and Fishermen — Tasty Viands— Insects — Bedtime and its Troubles— Fanaticism — Earthquakes and Storms CONTENTS. VIII PAGE 153

Chapter VI

Ready-made Gardens Opening Out— Enemies to the Tea Plant —Old Planters and their Mode of Working— Government Obstruction— Value of Land — Selecting Seed— The Labour Difficulty— Clearing the Jungle— Plucking— Hoeing— Manufacturing— A Day's Work — Laziness of Coolies— Rolling by Hand and Machinery— Destruction caused by Animals in a Garden . . . . . ■ • ■ • • ' ' 7

Chapter VII

Coolies and their Troublesome Ways— How they are Procured— The .\greement (terms of — Payment stipulated, and Service for a certain Term of Years —The Coolie Protector— Coolies on their Travels — Inefficiency of Government Arrangements — Coolie Festivities and Rows— Pay-day — Love of Drink

Chapter VIII

Insects of Assam — A Spider's Lick— Mosquitos' Villainy — Centipedes and Scorpions- -Dinner Interruptions— A Quiet Night — Frogs — Beetles— Eccentric Mice— Indian „\nts— A White Ant's Capabilities of Devouring — Lizards for Wall Decorations—Flies—Bats—Gorgeous Butterflies — The Tortoise- Beetle— The Green Parrot— Varieties of Monkeys— Our Pet — The Great Carnivora and Graminivora .... 183 CH4APTER IX. Laws of Health— Recklessness in Living — Sunstroke— Necessary Medicines— Forms of Different Ills— Prickly Heat — Precautions when Camping Out — Jungle Fever — Enlarged Spleen — Cold-Weather Fever — Water Supply in Factories — The Coolie Hospital— Snake Bites 214

Chapter X

.\ssam as it is, and what it might have been — Short-sighted Policy of the Government — Expense of Labour — Bad State of the Tea Market — Brokers' Charges — Can Tea Pay ? — Expensive Buildings and Luxurious Surroundings — American Competition—Future of Indian Teas- Financial Arrangements — Social Difficulties — Summary — An Appeal . . .

Chapter I. General

— GOING OUT ON SPECULATION— SALARY — COST OF LIVING — DRAWBACKS OF THE LIFE — ABSTE.MIOUSNESS NECESSARY — THE JOURNEY OUT — AMUSEMENTS ON THE VOYAGE — SELECTION OF STEAMER — PLACES TO BE SEEN — CALCUTTA. IN the present days of overcrowding and consequent severe competition for any appointment worth having, a mania has developed for emigration. No matter what his present position or prospects in life may be, every young man imagines that there is a more than probable glorious future, that his social status will be ultimately bettered, if he can only get away from England, and either convert the hundreds that he possesses into a few thousands, or, unaided by capital, carve his way to a competency. These hopes are but occasionally B realised: the difficulties of making rapid fortunes in the Colonies are daily multiplying.

Young men emigrate to our several dependencies year after year, full of hope, energy, and health ; but too frequently return again, after a sojourn of a few years, penniless and broken in health, their life having been a continued struggle to earn a bare subsistence to keep body and soul together. To any man thinking of emigrating on the specu lative chance of finding something to do, with no certain situation to step into on arriving at his journey's end, my advice is, let him exhaust all his available interests to obtain something to do at home, even though it be but a poorly paid office ; then, if everything fail, as a very last resource, leave England. This is my most earnest advice to anyone turning his thoughts towards Assam, especially as a land of promise. It is worse than useless to start off on the chance of finding an occupation ; for there is already a surplus of competent men waiting for berths, and all subordinate positions, or nearly all, are filled up by young men, carefully selected on physical grounds, at home, so that there is no chance for men who go out speculatively.

Journeying out to Assam to have a look round — a proceeding that can only be resorted to by the capitalist in search of an invest ment—is not of much use either, unless the intending investor is a man of sound judgment and already knows something about tea. There are few con CH. I. SALARY. 3 cerns that require so much investigation before investing money in, whose figures are more puzzling and difficult to get at, than a going tea plantation. A mens sana in corpore sano is absolutely neces sary to resist this dreadful climate : the work is very hard, the sun a terrible enemy ; there are many com forts wanting, scarcely any society, and in his daily habits a man has to exercise an enormous amount of self-denial and discretion if he wishes to retain good health. Unfortunately, many in England on the look out for work are carried away by what seems to be a large salary.

Tempting offers of billets are occasionally to be seen advertised in the daily papers : one hundred and fifty rupees a month (equivalent, at the present rate of exchange, to about £150 per annum) to commence with, and the additional prospect of a steady increase at the rate of five hundred rupees a year for the first three years. This sounds well, but nothing can be more misguiding than these figures. One hundred and fifty a year to a London clerk seems to be abundant wealth, though among them are many whose yearly bills for education used to exceed that amount, now content to accept far less, and contrive — Providence alone knows how — to marry upon it. In Assam, this amount of pay just enables a man to exist, but that is all. Luxuries, which at home would be classed amongst necessities, are not for him.

Famine prices are paid for all English and American tinned provisions. The expenses of shipping to Calcutta, agents' fees for clearing, the additional journey up the river, and conveyance across country, all help to put pro hibitive prices on goods. Of course, this is on the supposition that the goods are shipped out direct from home : if ordered through shopkeepers in Calcutta they are from twenty-five to fifty per cent, more expensive. So far as yearly salary goes, Assam is indeed a land of promise ; but when a rupee is counted as a shilling, and that shilling has to pay for provisions brought out eight or nine thousand miles, with many intermediate charges en route, a shilling does not go very far, and one hundred and fifty rupees a month dwindle down into a very modest income indeed. Good living is absolutely necessary, poor diet being very reducing, and rendering a man more susceptible to the insidious fevers and other illnesses too numerous to mention.

In Assam, poor living cannot be too strongly condemned : it is false economy, and thoroughly unfits a man, in his struggle against the treacherous climate, for the trying work that he is called upon to perform. Hence the necessity for these large salaries (apparently, on paper) to com mence with, given to men who have to learn their business from its very commencement, and whose services, until they are fairly proficient in the language, are absolutely useless. The life is a much harder one, and the work requires more personal supervision, than would be, on the average, exacted by any of the regular professions or trades of England ; the THE JO URNE V O UT. CH. I. 5 hours are severe and irregular, and the variations of temperature caused by running in and out of the hot tea-houses are very trying.

To these discomforts add one more — an unquenchable thirst that is ever present, but is particularly noticeable after severe exertion, when the desire to drink some form of stimulant, so as to re-invigorate an exhausted system, is painful to a degree. This insatiable thirst is the great curse of the climate, and has accounted for many good men who have gone under the matti (earth), unable, through a deficiency of self-restraint, to resist its fascination. Such things render the life to an Englishman a strained, unnatural kind of e.xistence. I noticed that many really temperate men found — although on first coming out they had drunk nothing but water — the necessity, after a short experience, of taking regularly some form of stimulant — generally beer. If a man can get on without stimulants it is very much better for him to do so, both as regards his pocket — for thereby he saves an enormously expensive luxury — and his health.

And now a few remarks about the journey out. The best time to start, unless there is any immediate cause for hurry, would be at the commencement of November. The terrific heat of the Red Sea during the summer months is thus avoided, while the landing in Assam occurs at, or rather just before, the end of the cold weather. It is advisable to remember that the heat of the Red Sea during June, July, and August is a very severe trial to the novice making his initiatory trip, and it is as well, if circumstances permit, to avoid it. Landing in India during the cold season gradually prepares the new arrival for the coming hot weather, and lets him down gently. The much dreaded and talked-of voyage is after all a miserably prosaic affair ; uneventful, with scarcely an incident to break the monotony, except an occasional run on shore at one or other of the places of call.

To break the humdrum uniformity of the journey — a sufficiently excusable reason — it is much pleasanter on the first voyage to embark on a ship touching at the various ports en route. The expeditions on shore not only give a pretty clear insight into the habits of the people, differences of costume, curious surroundings, and other interesting matters ; but after the irksome confinement on ship-board, few but those who have felt the glorious sense of freedom on getting away from such restricted surroundings, even though but for a few hours, can thoroughly understand the sensation. Conversation for the ensuing few days, after a run on shore, is more varied and less wearisome ; the doings of each party are recounted for the benefit of those who stayed on board : altogether it makes a very appreciable difference to the liveliness of the passengers.

These days of the Suez Canal have discounted travellers' adventures, and reduced the possibility of risk and accident to a minimum. The average old Anglo- Indian, with memories still clinging to him of the CH. I. THE JOURNEY OUT. 7 voyage round the Cape, lasting over a period of one hundred days, thinks no more of journeying backwards and forwards between England and India than any ordinary Londoner would of an excursion to Margate by river steamer. The leading companies possess magnificent vessels, beautifully decorated, and fitted up with every imaginable comfort ; their engines are enormous, and as there is a very keen competition just now among the rival companies for the passenger traffic on the Indian and Australian lines, a very high rate of speed has to be maintained, in order to meet the requirements of a quick passage.

The average passage lasts from thirty to thirty-five days ; but out of this period some three or four days are con sumed in coaling or taking in cargo at the various points of stoppage. The British India Steam Navigation Company possess a splendid fleet of vessels, calling at Malta, Port Said, Suez, Aden, Colombo, Madras, and Calcutta, thus affording an opportunity of seeing a good many places of interest along the route. I went out in one of their vessels, and have seen no cause to regret my choice : everything was thoroughly comfortable and well ordered, the table lavishly kept — no mean auxiliary in helping to break through the dreadful ennui of a voyage, when the great point under discussion is how to kill time. The attendance was good, passengers a very pleasant set, and the captain, with whom always rests the power to make a voyage a success, one of the pleasantest and most sociable men that ASS A.M. it has ever been my good fortune to run across.

If it is my fate to go back again, may I find Captain Cosens sitting at the head of his table, spinning yarn after yarn in his old style ; then, indeed, will the journey be pleasant. But let us get to the end of our voyage quickly. At all ports EGYPTIAN WOMAN. where the ship touches a fleet of small boats rush out and surround her directly the anchor is let go, each boat bearing its com plement of shell merchants, feather merchants, vendors of fruit, jewellery, lace, cigar ettes, oranges, dates, photo graphs, curiosities of natural history, coral, and the thousand and one things pro duced by each country en route. There is a temptation to buy up a collection of these novelties, solely be cause they are cheap, but they take up an unfair proportion of the already FEATHER MERCHANT. all-too-circumscribed space in a small cabin, and are perpetually getting in the way.

Whenever there is the slightest motion on the ship the carefully stored-away incumbrances will unexpectedly leave CH. I. AMUSEMENTS ON THE VOYAGE. 9 their corners on the rack over their owner's head and fly about, describing odd tangents off his head and back, rendering it additionally uncomfortable for their unfortunate possessor, whose cup of wretched ness is already full, for the demon mal-de-mer has entered into him. A great deal of money is wasted in the purchase of these nick-nacks, — for the most part useless on the way, and broken or spoiled before the return journey is thought of. The box-wallahs (pedlers) who board the vessels, are mostly un principled ruffians, men without a conscience, a deficiency that has, however, been made up by a double stock of unblushing effrontery. They will ask for their wares just four times as much as they expect to obtain ; arguing and bargaining may reduce their prices to something like a rational figure ; but even when, after a long period of wrangling, a bargain has been struck, an uncomfortable feeling will pervade the purchaser and affect him with a strong conviction that the wily native has undoubtedly had the best of the negotiation.

The greatest insult that one can offer to any of these fellows is to give him, without demur, the price that he first asks. He feels that his common-sense has been outraged, that he has been much too moderate in his demands, and ought to have asked more. They are an unmitigated nuisance as they swarm over the decks, jostling each other and the passengers, — swearing, smelling, lying, bargaining at one and the same time. The novelty is at first intensely amusing, but this soon wears off. Of these A TEA TLANTER'S LIFE IN ASSAM. 10 licensed marauders perhaps the best behaved are the native jugglers and snake-charmers, who come on board at Colombo or Madras, and perform most extraordinary feats with the smallest possible amount of accessories. The chief places of interest on the way are the Church of St. John at Valetta, the Monastery of the Capuchins at the same place, bazaar at Port Said, the tanks of Aden, temple of SNAKE-CHARMER.

Buddha (containing the celebrated tooth of that divinity) at Kandy, near Colombo. These should certainly be visited if there is time. Those who prefer to remain on board, not caring to take part in such expeditions, will find quite sufficient amusement to occupy their attention in the pertinacity of the merchants, or watching the diving boys. A very considerable proportion of the younger inhabitants of Aden seem to lead an amphibious life, and live on CH. I. AMUSEMENTS ON THE VOYAGE. 11 the money that they can secure from passengers on the passing steamers. These young fellows are always good-tempered, cheerful, bright, and full of mischief; their skin is very black, their teeth bril liantly white, hair thick and woolly. With the aid of chitnam (lime) plastered thickly over the head and left to dry, the naturally black hair is dyed a golden yellow, a form of adornment much in vogue amongst the Somalis, and a sign of personal vanity : the ADEN BOY. yellower the hair becomes the better and nearer to the perfect standard of beauty.

A black face sur rounded by rough curly yellow hair suggests on first acquaintance a lusus naturœ, but the extraordinary combination is the only way that they have of showing that they too are susceptible to the dictates of fashion. Their knowledge of English is confined to one sentence: "Have a dive?" "Have a dive?" which they repeat over and over again in a sing-song chorus, ASSAM. 12 to the accompaniment of sundry well-directed thumps, made by the open hand applied sharply to the hollow of the side. Their little dug-out canoes, on which they dodge round the vessel, are of the most primitive construction, and have to be baled out every two or three minutes. For paddles, any piece of box lid is utilised. BOY AND CAMEL But we must leave Aden, its boys and its camels, and push on to our destination, Calcutta, where our trials by sea are ended.

However pleasant the voyage may have been, yet it is with a feeling of intense satis faction that we go down the ship's side for the last time, carrying away pleasant reminiscences of many kind nesses received at the hands of fellow-passengers (with whom, during our last few minutes together, we have exchanged promises to keep up a correspondence), and to go out again into that great bustling world where one's ideas can expand more easily, CALCUTTA. CH. I. 13 assisted by the congenial magnitude of one's surroundings. The peace, the entire cessation from brain worry, the splendid air, are very enjoyable for a time ; but the stir of life on shore is more suitable and agreeable to the restless activity which everywhere prevails during the present century. ASS A.M. 14

Chapter II. Description Of Calcutta

— ITS DIRT— HOTELS — SERVANTS — SALAAMS— HORSES AND PONIES— EDEN GARDENS— GLARE IN THE SUNLIGHT — NATIVE WAY OF PASSING TIME — THE PARIAH— THE BEESTIE CONVEYANCES— THE INDIAN BARBER — THE HUBBLE-BUBBLE CARRIER — COCOA-NUT OIL — THE ADJUTANT EIRD— ANTS— RH ADA BAZAAR- PURCHASES TO BE MADE — HIRING SERV.ANTS. THE passage of the Hoogly safely accomplished, notwithstanding all its dangers of odd currents and multifarious sand-banks springing up in most unsuspected places, than which for us not even Scylla and Charybdis had more terrors for the ancient mariners — here we have arrived at Calcutta. Thank goodness, the miles of slowly steaming by that dreary flat waste of land, which forms the river's banks and stretches from the Sunderbunds to Garden Reach, are things of the past. Visionary horrors dart across a too retentive memory of Saugor Island, an arid tract of desert, that seems at some period to have been cut adrift from the parent Sahara and settled down at the mouth of the Hoogly, for the sole pur pose of striking terror into the hearts of all new arrivals, who, full of delight at the near completion of Ul.

II i .U.CI 11 I t5 their voyage, must pass it on their way to Calcutta. Just fatclaw the capital, the King of Oude's palace forms .t great attraction Here the badly used old menarch has <] uietly settled down, after a somewhat troublous time of it, and has converted the palace into a kind of Zoological Gardens ; a hobby, by the way, which helps to dispose of by far the greater portion of his laige income- Thousands of his pigeons are lo be seen circling around the palace, on whose roof men are constantly at work waviny abuut lOUg bamboo sj:iejcs and shuuting, \n order to frighten them off, and keep them perpetually on the wtngi Calcutta from the river presents an imposing appearance : the Strand, in the foreground, bristling with the masts of countless ships from every corner of the globe, with a background of vast white palaces, their windows decctfated with bright gtccto snn •shutter.s. The dome of tin- Po# Ot'hcc.

A prOMIlQeflt point 111 the panorama f<>r the eye to rest on, thsos fajgfa above the surrounding buildings, making WC^S thoughts II y back to that grand old dome in Lbjlt5oa The leading tliorou^hfare^ of the town are broad, well kept and watered, but some of the turnings off the main streets are fiithy, badly-drained alleys, emitting such odours as to enhance considerably the value of lavender vtr&tCC. All the slrjet-5— if they can b-j con sidered worthy oj tin. name — in the native quarter of the town are a disgrace to Calcutta and thr,sc con nected with its municipal administration. They seem A TEA riANTER'S LIFE IN ASSAM. to be entirely guiltless of any attempt at drainage. The huts, or, more correctly speaking, dirty hovels, along side the street are built according to no plan or prin ciple.

The sweet will of the native tenant has caused to be erected a residence that no well-minded pig, having an eye to the first rudiments of sanitation, would take to. It is to be devoutly hoped that some time or another — may the day be not far distant, though probably not until after a few thousands of these people have been swept off by an epidemic, and the English quarter of the town has been threatened — the authorities will proceed to pull down these eye-sores, and replace them with something habitable. But that these places should remain as they do, stagnating in dirt, is very reprehensible, and the moral responsibility of the powers that be in case of an outbreak of infectious disease, would be a burden that I should not envy them. Calcutta — gigantic city though it is — boasts of only one fairly good hotel, the Great Eastern, carried on by a Company.

Here can be bought everything. The premises under the hotel have been fitted up as a vast store, which is kept freshly supplied with the latest English novelties by the continuous stream of ships coming out. The hotel itself is fairly comfortable, the table being kept on a very liberal scale, and the general arrangements as complete as can be expected in a huge establishment of this kind. As there are many extensive boarding establishments in the town, the hotel is mainly used as a place to put up at for a CH. II. HOTELS. 17 GREAT EASTERN HOTEL, CALCUTTA. c few days, until some more permanent arrangement can be made with one of the boarding-house keepers, if a lengthened stay is contemplated. Many of the best houses in Chowringhee facing the Maidan, and formerly private mansions, have been converted into boarding houses to meet the demand for this kind of living.

It is as well on arriving at the hotel to engage a servant to wait at table : there are always several to be found hanging about in the corridors, on the look out for employment. The supply of hotel waiters is limited in number, and the delay at dinner, caused by a crowd of eager attendants surrounding the servers is vexing, and not conducive to that calmness of mind which for good digestion is a sine qud non. Especially among the Kitmutgars a warm spirit of rivalry exists to secure each for his own master some choice dainty that has just come straight from the kitchen ; and it is quite a common occurrence for one man to watch his opportunity until another has got his hands full, then snatch and bear off in triumph the coveted dish- They are splendid waiters, quiet in their movements (they cannot make much noise as they walk, for boots are denied them when in attendance), stately in their carriage, very attentive, anticipating each little re quirement, anxious to please, and withal decidedly picturesque.

These men are usually engaged by the day, for which they get eight annas (about tenpence). Out of this pay they supply their own food. They devote to your service the whole day, from six in the CH. II. SALAA.MS. ■9 morning, when they bring chota hazree to your bed side, until after dinner, about nine o'clock ; then they make their salaams and retire for the night. The salaam is the most marked feature in the difference of greeting as adopted by Eastern and Western custom. The attitude of the hands, placed together before the face, suggests at first sight supplication, but the dignity which ordinarily accompanies the action cannot fail at once to remove the idea. Of course there are salaams and salaams ; the salaam of a native gentleman, or well-to-do merchant, and that of a street box-wallah are two very different things ; the former greets with an air of respectful equality, the latter with cringing servility dis tasteful to look upon.

The view from the hotel window, up and down Council House Street and overlooking the grounds of the Government House, conveys a fair notion of the size and wealth of Calcutta. Long lines of carriages, with magnificent embroidered trappings, the vari-coloured garments worn by their native owners, the cries of the hawker, the screams of the kites, as they lazily flap from house to house, and the bustle of foot-passengers, make the front of the hotel at five o'clock on an afternoon a most entertaining and lively spectacle. All the carriages — and their name is legion, for everybody keeps one — are remarkable for one very noticeable falling off. However gorgeous the conveyance and the liveries may be, the horses are invariably a most weedy broken-down looking set of screws. There are more miserable specimens of the equine race in this one town than could be matched throughout all England.

They are mostly Walers (a name given to all horses imported from Australia) or country bred : very few English horses find their way out so far. An extensive trade is done with Australia in horse flesh, there being a regular season for sending over large consignments for the periodical sales held in Calcutta. Most are sold at public auction, and command prices ranging from three hundred and fifty to eight hundred rupees : a fair specimen will average about four hundred and fifty on landing, when they are rough and in bad condition. After they have been on shore for some time, and have shaken off the effects of their voyage, their value is much enhanced ; besides, prices rule much higher for an animal when he is acclimatized. Burmah or Pigou ponies are generally used up-country. Ponies have much the best of it over the uneven ground on a tea plantation, and can be more easily handled.