| The HISTORY of
THE JOREHAUTE TEA COMPANY LTD
1859 - 1946 BY H.A. ANTROBUS
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INTRODUCTION
It was many years ago when I was in Calcutta, on those occasions particularly of bidding farewell to the elder planters on their retirement after 30 or 40 years in Tea, that I thought of the connecting link with the past history of their gardens which would be lost with their departure.
I knew that there existed very few written records. In the hustle of business life in Calcutta nothing was done. It was therefore until I was transferred to London and found the old records that I obtained material to pursue the matter.
I started to probe into these just before the war, but it is true to say that the work would have progressed far slower if it had not been for the need to find some useful occupation to relieve the boredom of living in an hotel when Begg Roberts & Co office was evacuated from London to Englefield Green during four years of the War.
There are several books on tea and the tea industry. None of these which I have read correlate with the history of the industry and development of a single company, which is what this account attempts to do.
It will be understood, therefore, that in these pages there is nothing new as regards the tea industry of Assam.
The Jorehaute Tea company Ltd is the second oldest to have been incorporated in the British Empire and which exists to this day--the oldest being the Assam Company. There are many older tea estates no doubt, but not, as far as I can discover, any duly constituted as limited liability companies.
The material from which the account has been written consisted chiefly of the Company's 18 Minute Books. In the first few years of the Company's existence it was the practice for the Managing Director to record as part of the Board's proceedings, every letter received and despatched, which gave most valuable and authentic information, not only of the Company's policy but an insight into the tenor of correspondence and the flowing phrases used then in business letters as opposed to telegraphic communications of today. The very few original letters that have been found are examples of that wonderful copper plate calligraphy for which old letters are famous.
With the expansion of the Company and the increase of correspondence these proceedings of the Board were abbreviated to the name of the person addressed, and the page of the copy letter book in which the communication would be found, the latter destroyed long years ago. From that date, about 1865, the Company's records are at the mercy of the writer of the minutes. By corrections that appear in Mr William Roberts handwriting, it is obvious that for a number of years were a matter for his personal concern, but thereafter, from the historian's point, they degenerate, though they were at the time they were written perfectly businesslike. To the chronicler of today, the minutes of the Jorehaute Company follow the general rule in that they raise questions which they do not answer and excite curiosity which they do not satisfy. What secretary of a company writes the minutes today from any point of view than that of the moment, for matters familiar to him are assumed to be known, and the details which he omits are just those which at a later time it is difficult if not impossible to reconstruct. In writing the history of an individual company I had in mind the preservation of records which might have been lost or forgotten, and that it might be of interest to some of those in the tea trade, but I did have in mind, also, that such a history would be of value to future member's of the Company's staff.
There may be young assistants who have wondered, on their first arrival in the country and being stationed on a particular garden, what at that place was their position in the Company, or what, in fact the Company was to mean to them. If sufficiently inquisitive , a newly-joined assistant might learn something from the senior managers, under whom he was posted, though that source of the information is not very reliable, for it is not until some planters are due for retirement that they have been able to sift the truth the truth from the distorted stories which they heard first when they came out to Tea.
I am conscious that to many who have experience of Assam this account will be incomplete. For these omissions I apologise. Communications with India were difficult during the war years and the stress and anxiety of those times people were preoccupied with other things, whilst they were afraid to entrust to the post papers and documents which would have been of such inestimable value. I have experienced the fact that, with rare exceptions, it is most difficult to obtain for the asking anyone's experience or knowledge of a particular incident of which I am sure they could give confirmation. One way to overcome the reticence is to write what is alleged to be the facts and ask for a correction. I would ask those who read this and can fill in what has been left out , amplify an account or correct a statement, kindly write to me , for in this way only can one expect to have a record eventually of the whole story.
It will be noticed that in this story of the Company's progress practically no reference has been made to the wives and families of members. In extenuation of this apparent discourtesy I must point to the chief material from which the account has been written, the Company's Minute Books, in which the subject matter is confined. strictly to business. I have appealed for information , anecdotes, or stories regarding the men who have been in the Company's service; it is hoped that those who respond to this will include, of course, the same of those admirable ladies who have shared in the vicissitudes and uncertainties of an industry based on agriculture snd the discomforts of the trying climate of Assam. Everyone appreciates that without the aid and companionship of these pioneer women the men could not have accomplished so successfully all that they have.
Before the history of the Jorehaute Company was completed there has occurred the death of Mr F.A.Roberts. It was a few months only before he died that I submitted to him the first draft of what had been written, and I was fortunate to obtain his criticism and notes from his remarkable memory of incidents of years ago. It will always be a regret
that he did not see the account completed, for it was with his help and encouragement that it was all done.
I take this opportunity to thank all those who have helped me with information and suggestions.
H.A.A.
138, Leadenhall Street
London EC3
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September 2004
COMMUNICATIONS AND TRANSPORT
In more recent years visitors to the, tea districts of Assam gained the impression that amongst the resident planting community there were only two topics of conversation-motor cars and tea. The former did not take precedence over the vital question of producing quality and quantity, but to possess a car that would negotiate what roads did exist was something worth talking about, for it meant neighbours could be visited and the weekly club day attended. Older residents of the more isolated gardens have painful recollections of what it was to be marooned on their gardens for months in the rains, through the roads being impassable for any means of conveyance they possessed.
With the metalling of roads throughout the Province this topic of conversation has tended gradually to assume less importance, but it may be of interest to remind those who know present-day means of transport only, of the conditions which existed when tea was first put out.
The original Commission of Enquiry set up by Lord William Bentinck in 1834 to ascertain the possibilities of growing tea in Assam took, on their voyage in 1835, about four and a half months to reach Sadiya from Calcutta. The whole journey was made by country boat up the Brahmaputra . But in those days, even, people spoke of some improvement having been made in communications, though it was admitted that they were very bad still.
The post from Calcutta was carried via Murshidabad, Malda, Dinapur, Rangpur to Dhubri, but this route was almost impassable in the rains to the dak runners, even. The only means of travel then was by river.
The journey down stream from Goalpara to Calcutta occupied from 25 to 30 days, and in the opposite direction eight days longer probably, but to gain an idea of the time taken for heavier craft, there is an account that at the time of the Burmese Wax in 1825, when supplies for the army were urgently required, a fleet of commissariat boats took 25 days to make their tedious way from Goalpara to Nagabera, a distance of about 30 miles, and as the chonicler comments, " there was no remarkable wind to impede their progress."
It is not recorded how long it took for the river journey only, or from which station the first consignment of tea was despatched, but what is regarded as the first shipment, that of eight chests comprising a total of 350 lb., was forwarded from Assam on May 8, 1838, and was sold in London on January 10, 1839.
Within the Province itself, in 1853, carts and carriages were unknown and the roads were few and bad. The two great trunk roads which run now east and west along both banks of the Brahmaputra had not at that time been commenced.
In 1859, when the Jorehaut Company was formed, the only means of transport to and from Assam was by river steamer.
It was the necessity for accelerating the transport of troops and their supplies, for there remained after the Burmese war much pacification work for the military authorities to do, which caused Government to establish, about 1847, a steamer service on the Brahmaputra. At first these boats ran at very uncertain intervals and they did not proceed beyond Gauhati. The Assam Company petitioned Government for an improvement in this service, and they asked only that there should be a regular monthly service to Gauhati, and in alternate months a steamer to go the whole way to Dibrugarh.
This service proved very soon to be wholly inadequate for the then small but expanding needs of the industry_ The accommodation was inadequate on the upward journey, particularly for the large numbers of urgently needed coolies being imported then for work on the estates.
When Mr. William Roberts went out to India , in 1859, to take over the newly-purchased properties of the Company, he reported to the Board that he, in collaboration with others who had interests in Assam , were making efforts to form, a " Steam Company " for the navigation of the " Berhampooter ".
The Calcutta agent in a letter to the Board dated September, 1860, reported that the India General Steam Company had arranged to despatch a steamer and flat to Dibrugarh every six weeks during the cold weather. This suggests that formerly sailings in the cold weather months, when owing to lower water in the river and consequent greater difficulty in navigation, the steamers ran only at longer intervals. This reference to the India General 'Steam Navigation Co. Ltd., in 1860, does not date the inception of that Company, its steamers had been operating in other parts of India since about 1844. It does show, however, that this was the first Steamer Company to cater for the tea industry's traffic on the Brahmaputra .
The Jorehaut Company possessed its own iron boats or flats. These were used not only for shipment of tea from the garden to the ghat or steamer station, but were taken in tow by the steamer to Calcutta . These boats would appear to have been of very similar type to the flats used today, though much smaller. Four new boats ordered in 1864 were 55 feet long by 9 feet 6 inches wide and 3 feet 6 inches deep, with curved corrugated iron roofs. One gathers something of their capacity from a report from the Calcutta agent in 1862, that he had received advice from Cinnamara of the despatch of 200 chests of tea by one of the Company's iron boats.
The Company had its own iron boats at Numaligarh up to 1898, though it was reported then that of the three existing boats one only was in fairly good order, the second required constant repairs and the third was not worth repairing. As it was decided to keep only the one boat and sell the others, it is presumed that it was not long afterwards that any boating that was necessary was arranged with local boatmen.
The difficulties of getting a season's crop transported then. compared with present-day facilities, is seen from a letter written by the Superintendent in April, 1863, to the Managing Director, in which he explains why, at that date, there remained still at Oating some of the teas of 1862 season.
•• I regret to say that owing to the shallowness of the Dhanseerra and the difficulty of procuring small boats of which to make 'mahs' s ' a considerable portion of the teas still remain at Oating, and it has been
thought advisable to retain what had already reached Numaligarh so as to make one shipment of the whole, to prevent confusion. As we have had heavy rain since the Ist, the river will most likely have risen high enough to admit of the iron boat going up to Gola Ghat and that the ' Lucknow,' advertised to leave Calcutta on the 9th instant will take all."
The minute books do not give the necessary detail to follow up the final disposal of Oating teas of 1862, but as the " Lucknow " would have had to make the trip up to Dibrugarh and back to Dhunsirimukh before picking up the consignment, it can be presumed that after arrival at Calcutta, with a sea voyage to undertake stilt of not less than three months by sailing ship via the Cape, it could not have been much before August, 1863, that the teas reached London !
Before turning to other means of communication within the Company's gardens, it is as well to recount all its connections with the river service, that vital lifeline between the Province .and the world outside. It was the Province's first line of communication and even though other and more rapid lines have developed since, these have at times broken down, but the river just goes rolling along. From the earliest days how many planters have not blessed a trip on the river for a day or a week or even more, to rid them of the aftermath of a dose of malaria, or other evils to which their flesh is heir. Until the advent of better means of conveyance to the more salubrious climate of some far away hill station, the planter, after sickness, had only the river and its service as a means of recuperation.
What planter has not experienced, after the heat and sweat of the daily Kamjari on the garden in the rains, the enjoyment of a long sleever on the deck of a river steamer, soothed back to renewed energy by the cool breeze, the chug of the paddles and the sound of the leadsman's " Tin bahm, milah nai ! " (Three fathoms and no bottom.) To say nothing of the welcome change of food, and in earlier days the luxury of an iced drink, which the commissariat department of the steamers was able to provide.
There would appear to have been competition for some years to secure the industry's carrying business on the Brahmaputra, for in 1862 the Calcutta Agent refers to a consignment of 150 chests of tea arriving by the Cleghorn's steamer " Berhamputer ". Although the India General Steam Navigation CO. Ltd., was the first in the field, it is to be noted that the Jorehaut Company made the first agreement for the carriage of its teas and stores in 1869 with the River Steam Navigation Co. Ltd. This steamer company offered reduced rates in consideration of the whole of the Jorehaut Company's goods being reserved for the boats of that company, provided no delay occurs in the despatch of their steamers, the agreement was for a period of two years.
The Company's books do not mention the agreements that were made subsequently until 1887. The Board had before them for consideration two proposals-one emanating from a new steamer company lately formed for building steamers and fiats and for establishing a new line of steamers on the " Bramapooter " River-the other made by the two associated steamer companies who have been. established for many years. The Managing Director was authorised to sign an agreement with the India General Steam Navigation Co. Ltd., and River Steam Navigation Co. Ltd., for a period of five years from July 1, 1888. Apart from showing that the Company supported then the two associated lines which have today the monopoly of the industry's river traffic, ' it indicates that the two companies had come to that joint working arrangement years previously to 1887, and that they had then and continued to have for some years, competition from other companies.
One presumes that the original and older steamers were the sternwheel paddle type, but there were attempts at record-breaking nevertheless, for in a letter dated June 22, 1861, from the Managing Director, when he was in Calcutta, to the Board, he reports that the Steamer " Madras " had returned from Assam, having accomplished the upward and downward trip, presumably to Gauhati only, in 37 days, including stoppages.
With a view to accelerating their service the steamer companies, in 1863, made Kooshtea the terminus for their Assam cargoes, the rest of the journey to Calcutta being done by railway. This was not a successful arrangement, however, for the rough handling the chests received in transhipment caused much damage. The carriage of tea direct to Calcutta was reverted to in May, 1864. This latter arrangement had the advantage that on occasion consignments could be loaded direct from the inland steamer or fiat into the sailing ship lying in the Hoogly at Calcutta .
In old letters there is nothing to be found in confirmation of stories one has heard of the lavish hospitality of the captains of these inland steamers, or of the lucrative trading they did with the communities at the different stations on the river. For many years after the formation of the River Steamer Companies their vessels were commanded by European skippers. In those days it would seem that the captain was responsible for the proper handling of his cargos- for presumably there were no stevedores at the main river stations or at the terminus. One gathers this from complaints made by Mr. James McIntosh, the Superintendent in 1863, who blamed the commander of the '' Agra " for damage to his chests, which damage he remarked did not occur on steamers commanded by Captain Morton of the " Lucknow ".
Amongst the property belonging to Cinnamara when the Company purchased it from George Williamson, there was what is described as " Also, a plot of land situated at the mouth of the Kokelah Nuddy, on the bank of the ' Berhampooter ' River, containing about three acres, held from Government under the usual annual rent-paying pottah, or lease, with a storehouse erected thereon." One has to admire the vision displayed by George Williamson, senior, in providing thus, some
ten miles from his garden, a depot for the unloading of his stores inwards and for the collection of his invoices of tea outwards. It would be interesting to know if this was the site of the Kokilamukh River station today, but knowing the vagaries of the banks of the Brahmaputra , that land may not exist or may be miles away from what is the station now.
Considering the intricacies of navigating the hundreds of miles of the Brahmaputra it is remarkable that there were so few accidents. In the first 35 years of the Jorehaut Company's existence, only, three losses are reported. The first was mentioned in the Agent's letter of February 7, 1862 , that the fiat " Mutlah " in tow of the steamer " Madras " struck against the rocks seven miles above Gowhatty, there were on board 175 chests of Cinnamara and 12 chests of Kohabar teas.
Of these consignments 83 chests were salved and, although the tea was partly damaged, it sold in Calcutta for nearly a rupee a pound. The insurance company in London settled the claim eventually at about 2s. 6d. a pound.
In 1891 the fiat " Nizam " in tow of the steamer " Mirzapore " was lost with about 8,000 chests of tea, of which 210 chests belonged to the Company. On this occasion the value of the loss was recovered at about 1s. a pound.
The third occasion was in 1894, when the flat " Borendra " was totally destroyed by fire when at Naraingunge---the Company lost 762 chests, the value of which was recovered at about 1s. I 1/2d. per lb.
INTERNAL COMMUNICATIONS
To turn from the river itself to other means of communication and transport between the Company's gardens and its neighbours, it is necessary to go back to the original prospectus of the Company to find what was provided in the way of stock-in-trade for the transport of man and goods.
Cinnamara possessed three good elephants and two elephant carts. At Numaligarh there were elephants, elephant carts, bullocks, ponies and boats.
That such conveyances were not provided at Koliabar and Oating is to be accounted for by the fact that the former garden has at its door the river steamer station of Silghat and the latter relied upon the Dhunsiri River for the transport of its teas via Golaghat. Numaligarh was nearer to the Dhunsiri than even Oating and eight miles only from Dhunsirimukh, but its more varied complement of means of transport had been acquired probably to deal with the cultivation of sugar which had been carried on there previously.
Of the elephant carts there is no description, or a statement of what was their capacity in chests of tea per trip, but at the outset this was for Cinnamara the only means of getting tea to the river for onward despatch to Calcutta and London . It must have been a painfully slow and cumbersome process to get an invoice to Kokilamukh -invoices of 200 chests were not an uncommon size even in 1860. Elephant carts were superseded by bullock carts, though elephants were used for hauling timber out of the forests and were a part of an estate's property for many years.
In 1896 the Superintendent reported that the Company's elephant " ]onakie " which was used for dragging logs for sawing purposes had had to be destroyed. In 1898 in reporting the death, which was presumed to be from snake bite, of one of the other elephants belonging to the Company, Mr. Showers proposed to replace it with another one if it could be procured at a moderate price. .
Good elephants, however, were not available often, and this difficulty was experienced as early as 1865. This is to be learnt from a letter to the Board dated October 17, 1865 , from Mr. G. B. Stevens, the Superintendent this letter gives also a hint of the transition to the use of bullock traction and to the coming of the pony and buggy.
" As I find it impossible to procure elephants, I purpose purchasing a few pair of up-country bullocks, four pair I estimate will do the work of one or two Cart Elephants, these will be then available for bringing in timber and other purposes. One cart as a 'muster' and wheels we shall require from Calcutta, the other carts that may be wanted can be made up here, as roads are opening out and getting more passable yearly, an extra cart or two will always be useful in bringing in tea from the out factories, charcoal, etc., etc.
" The bullocks I shall be able to obtain, I think, at some of the melas held in the neighbourhood of Rungpore in the cold weather.
" I hope you will approve of this. In a former letter you asked about two horses sent up by Mr. Williamson some years ago, one was sent to Numalligarh, but I learn that soon after its arrival there it went in the loins, was found useless and was sold by Mr. Lumsden, the assistant at Numaligarh for Rs.l 00, this sum was no doubt credited in the factory books; the other one died there only the other day, for a long time, I understand, it had been next to useless and both were old horses when sent up.
The roads and bridges being looked after and kept in better order than formerly, horses and ponies are much more common in Assam than they used to be, and generally speaking, with moderate care and attention, stand the climate very well. In the rains it is only along the high roads and not always then, these animals can be used, across country an elephant is absolutely indispensable."
Where means of transport affected the Company's business there is some reference to it in the minutes, but nothing is recorded about the mode of employees' conveyance either for their convenience or for their work on the garden. With the cutting of more roads throughout the Province, though they were so often little better than mud tracks, the bullock cart became for several years the chief and in many cases the only means of transport of merchandise between the gardens and the river, or the railway terminus, and on this account perhaps further mention of it is not made. For the second reason there is nothing mentioned of the pony and buggy except in 1884, when the Company discontinued the practice of supplying and maintaining horses and granted their managers and assistants a horse allowance of Rs.30 monthly. It may have been this which fostered that friendly rivalry between individuals to possess, when the very necessary commission was forthcoming, the best horses in the district and. for the senior men the best turn-out in which to visit neighbours and the Club.
Polo must have been introduced when ponies and horses became general. The Company-has encouraged their members always to take up this king of games and has done more to keep it alive in recent years than many other proprietors. The advent of the motor car, and those periods when there was not much commission with which managers and assistants could buy ponies, threatened to eliminate the game from the Province where it had found such favour originally. The Company's scheme to advance money to their men for the purchase of ponies has done good, not only for the sake of the game, but for the physical well-being of the men themselves.
It is difficult to state, without fear of argument, when the first motor car made its appearance in Assam , who introduced it and what was the make of car. It has been said, however, that the honour goes to Mr. Newton Gill, a planter then on the North Bank, who in 1904--5 brought his Darracq to Assam . Mr. Newton Gill gave up tea planting and became subsequently a local agent with the Tea Districts Labour Association. The ubiquitous Ford or " Tin Lizzie " was for a long time the only vehicle which could negotiate the ruts and potholes of the soft Assam roads. Now, with metalled roads and pucca bridges over the innumerable streams, any make of car or lorry practically can traverse the length and breadth of the Province.
Before this advance in means of conveyance was attained, however, there had appeared novelties on the roads of Assam , even, which included the planter who had his coach and four. Whilst there is the story of this Company's Superintendent who, to save time and what probably appealed also to his Scotch ancestry, money, had mattresses and his bedding put on a bullock cart and was driven all night at a leisurely two miles an hour to his out-gardens. The story is embellished by the report that one of his own assistants, driving his car home from the club one night, met this entourage, which refused to move to the side of the road to let him pass, so he got out of his car, beat the driver for his insolence and drove the bullock cart and all into the dhan-ket and drove on ? It was not until the assistant arrived at his own bungalow that he discovered that the bullock cart contained also his supply of soda-water. So for that night. or what was left of it, he had to do without more " belati-pani " with which to quench his thirst!
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SHIPPING
An account of the development of communications, should continue perhaps with that of the advent of the tramway and railways in the Province, but as they were much later in point of date, precedence should perhaps be given to the mention first of shipping from Calcutta to London.
The factor which stands out most in comparing the early days of tea with the present, is the matter of the time taken between the date of making the tea and its arrival on the London market. One would be disposed at first to blame this to the long sea voyage by sailing ship via the Cape . A further examination of the facts shows, however, that delay was occasioned chiefly by the garden's inability to make its boxes in proportion to its rate of tea production-a garden was making a new season's teas before it had finished packing the previous year's crop. Transport to the despatching station on the river, of tea that had been packed, was the next delaying factor.
These delays before the teas were put on board the sailing. ship in the Hoogly, are appreciated best from the Calcutta agent's letter to the Managing Director of February 18, 1862 , in which he advised that with a shipment he had made at that date there had been completed the despatch of half the crop of season 1861. Writing on July 11, 1863, the Superintendent advised that he had then shipped, from Assam, the first of that season's crop, that is, tea made in March-April, for in those days a larger proportion of the crop was produced in the first flushing months of the. season. This, it is to be noted, was an accelerated despatch, for in acknowledging his advice the Managing Director remarked that this early despatch was of much importance in many ways!As an indication of the total time taken, the first invoices of the Company's teas of season 1862, a consignment of 605 chests, was sold in London on May 5, 1863 . About 14 months after the date of production
The average voyage by sailing ship from Calcutta to London , via the Cape , took four months. In a letter to the Superintendent in 1862, the Managing Director advised that the " Areta " had arrived with 387 chests of tea after a long passage of nearly five months. In a letter dated January 11, 1864, there is reported the arrival on November 23, of the " City of Cashmere " with 100 chests, after a very rapid voyage of a little over three months from the Sandheads.
There is no romance attached to these tea ships from Calcutta to London , such as there was to the China tea clippers. The first mention of an ocean steamer is in 1861, when a consignment of corrugated iron was shipped by " screw steamer " to Calcutta this material was for rebuilding the Numaligarh factory which had been destroyed by fire.
Steamers in those days were not so reliable as sailing ships and accomplished the round voyage, via the Cape , from Calcutta no faster. The s.s. " Jason " left Calcutta early in March, 1862, at about the same time as the sailing ship " Marlborough ," both. carrying some of the Company's teas. The " Marlborough " docked at London on July 4, and the s.s. " Jason " berthed at the Victoria Docks on the 10th. It is to be noted, however, that the Managing Director, in his letter to the agents of July 26, advising the arrival of these teas, mentioned that the s.s. " Jason " was ashore an the Western Coast of Africa and that there was likely to be an average statement.
The Jorehaut Company were quick to take advantage of the opening of the Suez Canal in November, 1869, as a means of getting their crops home earlier, and on January 5, 1870, a cable was sent to the agents to " ship all Jorehaut teas via Suez Canal, freight not exceeding four pounds." To this the agents replied on January 18, asking that the necessary insurance be effected on a consignment of 400 chests which they had shipped in the s.s. " India " by that route.
Though this first shipment through the Canal was by steamship, consigments continued to arrive by sail for some years afterwards, for in 1870, and up to May, 1871, there is record of only one other shipment, in addition to the above, by steamer and that was 238 chests in the s.s. " Hotspur." The steamer was made more use of on the outward voyage for new assistants. Dr. Stobie and Mr. Huttmann, when they event out to join their respective appointments with the Company, sailed together in the s.s. " Euphrates," on August 19, 1863, from Greenock, via the Cape. This ship was scheduled to reach Calcutta by the end of October -it did not arrive at that port, however, until December.
Letters between London and India appear to have been very consistent in the time taken for the journey. Many of the earlier letters in 1859 did take two months to reach London, but in the early 1860's the average time for letters from Calcutta to London was a month, and from Assam six or seven weeks. Before the opening of the Suez Canal there were two mails a month_ They went alternately, one by P. & O. steamer from Calcutta to Suez , from there by rail to Alexandria , where they were transhipped to a steamer for London . The other went by railway from Calcutta to Bombay and from the latter port by steamer to Suez and then onwards. The railway had not then been completed across the whole of India . On the Calcutta side it had been built as far as Nagpur , from whence the mails were taken by dak runner over the 150 mile break to the terminus for their onward carriage to Bombay by rail.
Delays in the arrival of letters by this route were due, it would appear, more to the defects of the steamers than to the hazards of the journey performed by the dak runners and the railway across India . Writing on January 5, 1864 , the agents reported that owing to the steamer with the mail of November 26, having broken down in the Red Sea , the Managing Director's letter had not reached Calcutta , but that his letter of December 3, 1863 , via Bombay , had reached them that morning
Mr. Robert B. Pringle, when he went out to join the Company's service in 1862, travelled by the overland route; he left Southampton on September 3 and arrived at Cinnamara on November 30. Dr. William Durrant also, when he went out in 1865 by this route, took two months exactly for the journey to Cinnamara.
Considering the length of the voyage and the number of trips that were made in carrying the Company's produce, the recorded losses and damage to sailing ships was remarkably small.
There was the loss of the " LordClyde," Cowper, Master, from Calcutta to London on October 7, 1860, in Lat. 33 South, Longitude 28 East with, amongst other cargo, 60 chests of tea belonging to the Company. This was insured with the Royal Exchange Assurance Corporation, who settled the claim for 34 chests Pekoe at 2s. 10d. per lb. and 26 chests Souchoug at 2s. 4d.
In 1862 there was reported the loss of the " Colombo ," which was carrying mails, but where this occurred is not mentioned. In writing to the Calcutta agents. the managing director advised that he had received their letter of November 7, 1862 , which hadbeen recovered from the wreck of the " Colombo ," although it was in a damaged condition it was sufficiently legible. The cyclone that struck Calcutta in October, 1864, is a matter of history. The subject is referred to in the Calcutta agents' letter to the Managing Director of October 20, 1864------ " You will have seen from the newspapers an account of a violent cyclone which passed over the city on the 5th instant, doing immense damage to propertyand particularly to the shipping.
The ' City of Lahore. ' in which the last batch of tea was shipped, was cleared at the Customs and ready to drop down the riverwhen the storm came. In common with all the other vessels in the port she sustained serious damage and has had to discharge part of her cargo to undergo repairs. We have ascertained that this Company's batch of Tea is perfectly safe and has been landed in the bonded warehouses until the vessel is ready for sea again. The detention we are told will be a short one. We shall send you by next mail a pamphlet giving full particulars of the gale and do not therefore enter into detail here.
" It seems to have extended as far as Gowhatty in Assam , but by that time the fury of the storm would have appeared to have nearly spent itself and we are in hopestherefore the tea districts and especially those in which you are interested have escaped unharmed. Our latest letters from theJorehaut quarter are dated 5th instant, the day of the gale here, and no mention made of any unusual weather. It seems to have followed a north-easterly course from Calcutta , gradually decreasing in violence the further it went inland."
It was confirmed later that the storm had abated before it reached the Company's gardens.
On the outward voyage there was the loss in 1866 of the
·' Tenasserim," bound from Liverpool to Calcutta , carrying amongst its cargo a consignment of sheet lead for the Company's estates.
Of steamers of much later date, the s.s. " Queen Anne " was lost in the River Hoogly with 491 chests and in 1885 the s.s. " City of Manchester " with 114 chests. All were covered fully by insurance.
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PLACE NAMES
The names of places, gardens and roads throughout Assam are of interest-amongst residents their translation may become, however, a matter of heated controversy, a diversity of opinion caused probably by the individual's endeavour to translate the name into its Hindustani or Assamese equivalent. One wonders if these disputants overlook sometimes the claims of the ancient history of the Province, in the time of the Ahom dynasty, for the origin of the place name, and before Hindustani was spoken in that country.
It is questionable if the past history of Assam is a very strong point with the average tea planter-it is a fact, however, that there are not many written records which are readily available. Through many gardens there are mysterious earthwork embankments or bunds, which are known to the planters who will explain that they were built by some bygone king with slave labour, but the ever-invading jungle has in the course of time eliminated almost even these monuments of the past.
History tells us that there were very few stone or brick buildings in Assam in the early days, and that because the courts and palaces of those many nobles, the Bar Barnas. Bas Gohains, Burha Gobam and Phukans, were kutcha, 'they may yet have been maintained on the same sites for hundreds of years.
One has read in managers' reports of a section of tea having to be abandoned because it will not grow, the conclusion come to, confirmed probably by some local story, being that the area is an old village site. One can imagine a village after a visitation of cholera, smallpox, or some such virulent disease, having moved off to some other site and having left no trace, but one wonders if this site is not, in fact, where some former king or Burha Gohain has held court in a civilisation of centuries ago ? '
That is one aspect of the matter which is conjectural, but not so erroneous probably as the common idea that Assam had never been anything but a howling jungle, out of which the pioneers of the tea industry carved their gardens, adopting haphazardly as the distinctive name of the place that given to the area by some local inhabitant.
Without desiring to take sides in the controversy regarding names of places belonging to the Jorehaut Company, there are given for what they are worth, the following translations, and where it is possible reference has been made to the name in its connection with the history of the Province.
KOLIABAR. Should be spelt Koliabor, as it is said to derive its name from the Kolia species of the Bor tree (Ficus Elastica) which
abound at that place. There have been found in the neighbourhood, some pieces of carved stonework, parts, it is believed, of an old temple.
In point of date Koliabar is referred to in the history of Assam from 1532 as the place where the Mohammedan army in their battles against the Ahom rulers, halted for the rainy season. It is impossible to correlate the exact site of the Koliabar of history with the garden of that name today but it was there or thereabouts, for Koliabar of long ago was the scene not only of battles, but it was an important strategic point for the collection of troops and stores, and right down to the time of the British entry into the Province in 1793 it was used as a base by that small force. And later still it was a place that was occupied by the Burmese in their invasion of Assam , and from which they were driven eventually by the British troops in October, 1824.
NUMALIGARH. In the account of this garden as a division of the Company, reference has been made to the romance attached to it and to the translation of its. name into Numali, the name of a Princess, and garh, a fort in which she lived. It is, in addition, the only garden of the Company upon which has been found any monuments of historical interest, but it is not referred to particularly in the history of the Province, though it is possible that the romance may have taken place in the reign of the Ahom King Rajeswar Singh, 1751-1769, a monarch who preferred pleasure to the affairs of State.
KHARIKATIYA is the garden with the most variable spelling; Kharikatia, Koreekuttea, Koreakuttia, Khoreakuttia, Kharikatia, sometimes as one word, other times as two. The Company in its Annual Reports records four different ways of spelling the name from 1874, when the garden was opened it was spelt Koreekuttea, in 1923 it -was changed to Koreakuttia, and in 1925 an " h " was added to make it Khorea Kuttia, and then in 1939 it was abbreviated to KKharikatia. The spelling is a matter of unimportance probably, though local opinion would be for the shorter name of Kharikatia, whilst there would be some who would translate the name into the place where thatch was cut.
History, however, tells us that Kharikatiya Ali was the name of a road built in the reign of Rudra Singh, 1696-1714. Again, when the country was being over-run by the Moamarias in the reign of Gaurinath Singh, 1780-1795, the then Barha Gohain built a line of forts along the Namdang stream froze the Bar Ali to the Khari Katiya Ali.
It is not possible to identify this Khari Katiya Ali in relation to the other places named. In an old map of 1864 of the Assam Company's and neighbouring gardens, the Bor Allee is shown as running from the mouth of the Dikhoo river to Nazira, crossing the Namdang, which is marked as a tributary of the Dikhoo, the Dhodur Allee is shown as joining with the Bor Allee at Nazira and ending at the Desoi river somewhere above where present-day Moriani is, and the Khari Katiya Ali may have commenced there.
JOREHAUT. The name of the Company in its spelling of jorehaut has not varied, though the town and district from which it took its name is invariably and officially spelt: Jorhat.
We do not know if Mr. Wm. Roberts in naming his Company Jorehaut was influenced by the historical associations of that place, but it was of importance enough no doubt that the Company bore the name of what must have been one of the largest towns, and of a district, in the whole Province.
Although Jorhat as a town in India is insignificant in point of size, it is in the Province of considerable importance, though in history it is of less antiquity than such places as Gauhati, Nowgong, Sibsagas, Tezpur, etc., but it was once nevertheless, the capital of the Province, though this was when as an Ahom kingdom, Assam was declining.
It was in the reign of Gaurinath Singh, 1780-1795, that at Jorhat a fortified position was built at which to arrest, though unsuccessfully, the onslaught of the Moamarias.
In response to Gaurinath Singh's appeal to the Governor-General, Lord Cornwallis, a detachment of sepoys under the command of the famous Captain Welsh, was sent to his aid. A small party from this force under Lieut. Macgregor routed the Moamarias near Jorhat in February, 1794. It was this small force which drove the Moarmarias as far as Rangpur near Sibsagar, the then capital, and would have driven them back to their own county if it had not been for a change in policy when Sir John Shore succeeded Lord Cornwallis as GovernorGeneral. It was decided to stop active interference in Assam 's affairs, and Captain Welsh and his force were withdrawn.
As Captain Welsh foresaw, the Moamarias, emboldened by the withdrawal of his expedition, attacked Gaurmath again, who withdrew from Rangpur and made Jorhat his capital.
Later, when the Burmese overran Assam , they occupied Jorhat just before they returned to their own country in 1817. Again in 1819, when another force of Burmese at the instigation of the Bar Phukan, invaded Assam , the Ahoms in their retreat fell back on Jorhat.
When the British determined finally to go to the assistance of Assam against the Burmese, the latter in their retreat in 1825, concentrated their forces at one time at Jorhat, before despairing of defending that place they set fire to their stockade and fell back on Rangpur.
At the close of the Burmese War the Brahmaputra Valley was put in charge of an assistant to the Agent of the Governor-General, and this officer had his headquarters eventually in 1829 at Jorhat.
When the British Government decided to restore the Brahmaputra Valley to native rule, Purandar Singh was created the Raja of Central Assam and Jorhat in 1833-34 was made the capital of the new State.
Purandar Singh's administration proved a complete failure, and his' territories were placed once again under British officers and Jorhat lost its position as the capital of the Province, but it lost little, if one refers to McCosh's description of this royal court, written in 1838.
"The present representative of this once powerful dynasty (Svargadeo or Lord of Heaven, as he is pleased to call himself) now resides at Jorhat in noisy pomp and tawdry splendour; his resources
-limited to that of a Zemidar ; his numerous nobility reduced to beggary
or to exist upon bribery and corruption, and his kingly court (for he still maintains his regal dignity) more resembling the parade of a company of strolling players than anything imposing or sovereign."
CINNAMARA. Is a case where there are two possible translations, one that it is the place where a Chinaman was murdered-" cheana " (wallah) a Chinaman and " maro " to strike. The other derivation being from " chini " sugar, " mara " place (where it is made), or the place where they made sugar. It is known that sugar cane was grown in Assam before ever tea was produced; but with the latter the introduction of Chinese tea-makers and cultivators. It would seem that a connection with sugar-making would be the more probable meaning, particularly as that is of older origin.
RUNGAGORA is translated literally into Red Horse. When this garden was put out originally it was called Rungamatti or red earth, a name common to any garden on red bank soils. Rungagora is a name given to more than one garden in other parts of the Province. Rungagora is mentioned in the history of Assam as having been, about 1834, the capital of the District of Nowgong. This district is quoted as having extended at one time as far east as the Dhunsiri River . There is a Rungagora, an outgarden of the Amluckie Tea Co., Ltd., in the present Nowgong District, so it appears doubtful which, if either, of these gardens can claim historic importance.
SYCOTTA was from the time of its planting out and for many years subsequently spelt Sycotty. " Cotta " is a measure of land and the name could be translated into Sai cotta, or land which has not been used or cultivated. In one old lease it is spelt " Chaicottai," which could be made to mean a piece of land measuring six cottas, . ` chaff " meaning six.
TIOK. This Company's garden derives its name probably from the Tiok River , which flows along one boundary of the garden and thence into the Towkok River . This garden is not to be confused with another spelt Teok in the Jorhat District which is situated not far from a river Teok. This Teok, or a place of that name, is mentioned in history as where, in the reign o€ Gaurinath Singh, the Burha Gohain, during the war against the Moamarias in 1790 built a fort.
Of the other garden names the following are free translations :
BOKAHOLA = muddy swamp.
KATONIBARI = forest garden.
BORSAPORI = large grass land. Bor meaning " big " and •` sapori " or " chopri " grass land.
" Jan " means a stream, so LANGHARJAN and LOKOOJAN mean streams of those names, and RUNGAJAN the red stream.
MURMURIA = the place where people were beheaded.
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