Henry J. Neils’
Travelogue of 1959 Great World Cruise
Henry J. Neils was a businessman from Minneapolis. He wrote a daily diary of his voyage on the 1959 Great World cruise. Presumably, the 30 faded typewritten sheets had been duplicated for distribution to his employees.
The transcribed document now forms 25 pages of the Timeline, accessible from links on the January, February, March and April 1959 month pages. This was the first special feature to be added to the Timeline as it entered its 2nd year of being on-line.
Henry's quoted text throughout the site start with this indicator: H.J.N.…
Henry J Neils’ Travelogue 13 March 1959
Colombo, Ceylon
H.J.N.…
Clear 78°F.
We were up at 6.00am, had breakfast in our room and were aboard the ship's launch at 8.30am for a short run to the pier.
Here we were assigned to our guide, Peter, and a Pontiac car for the seventy-five mile trip to Kandy, the former
capital of Ceylon.
It was a beautiful trip inland and up to elevation 1,700 feet. We were immediately struck by the contrast to India. Ceylon is green, while India was a brown, parched earth. We passed coconut palm groves, regular forests, tea and rubber plantations and rice paddies.
The rice crop has just been harvested and is being threshed by oxen and flail, not by modern machinery - water buffalo by the hundreds, cattle, elephants, bullock carts on the roads everywhere and people in the towns and in the fields.
The water buffalo is used for work in the fields, and not for meat. The bullocks transport most of the produce by a unique two-wheeled cart, with a palm leaf woven top, something like a prairie schooner. Instead of using a bit and bridle, the bullocks are guided by a rope through the nose with a knot on each side.
H.J.N.…
The men in the fields are covered with pink mud when their day's work is done. Then they
plunge into the nearest river or mud hole and clean up. They wear no clothes, so there is
no problem of getting them wet.
Photo: A Plâté Postcard No.40 circa 1955
The people in the towns are well-dressed compared with those in the country, and the tendency is toward western garb, especially with the men. Most of the women still wear saris like in India.
The elephants also need their baths and relaxation. They work about four hours and then go to the river or lake for a bath and siesta. They try to submerge as much as possible, only holding up the end of their trunks to breathe.
H.J.N.…
We had lunch at the Queens Hotel, but the food was not fit for a queen, not even an English queen! We visited the
Botanical Gardens which are world-famous for their variety of trees, especially spice trees, shrubs and orchids, too
numerous to mention. This was a real treat in spite of the heat, even at this elevation.
Next we drove to the University of Ceylon not far distant. The campus is comparatively new, on a beautiful site on the face of a small hill. It presents a fine panorama, with its terraced streets, walks and rows of buildings, one about the other.
[Photo: Caronia 1952: The Blouin Collection]
H.J.N.…
The return trip seemed twice as long because of the traffic on the narrow roads. Why many people do not get killed
every day is a mystery. The cars move very fast even through towns, the horns are blowing the pedestrians and cyclists
out of the way. The bullock carts act as good road-blocks, because they move too slowly with their heavy loads.
The traffic out of town was fantastic, but we made it because of the skill of Peter, our guide and driver. He seems to be able to read peoples’ minds as to their next move on the highway.
It was a pleasure to get back to the Caronia for a refreshing bath and cool comfort.
H.J.N.…
Ceylon has a population of nine million. Colombo is the capital and big port. Ships from over the world were in port
and entering and leaving the harbour. The tonnage is large for so small a country - about the size of Ireland.
The highest mountain is 7,000 feet. Rain falls in three months of the year, the remaining nine being dry, but much of the rainfall is stowed in the higher regions to provide irrigation throughout the year.
The banana trees yield a crop every two months. Coconut palms yield continuously. Rice and rubber, once a year. A rubber tree has to be eight years old before it can be incised for yielding its sap.
One-third of Ceylon is still wilderness, so there is room for expansion. It is surprising that there has not been more immigration from India.
The thirty-six mile separation by water has been a barrier. Otherwise Ceylon would have been swallowed up by the population giant of four hundred-million to the north, India.
Greetings to everybody. We are now half way around the World, both in time and distance.