E-text prepared by Melissa McDaniel
and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team
()
from page images generously made available by
Internet Archive
(https://archive.org)
| Note: | Images of the original pages are available through Internet Archive. See https://archive.org/details/lifetravelinlowe00paskuoft |
LIFE AND TRAVEL IN LOWER BURMAH
A RETROSPECT
BY
Deputy-Surgeon-General C. T. PASKE
LATE OF THE BENGAL ARMY
EDITED BY
F. G. AFLALO
(Authors of “The Sea and the Rod,” &c.)
LONDON
W. H. ALLEN & CO., LIMITED,
13, Waterloo Place, Pall Mall, S.W.
EDITOR’S PREFACE.
When my friend asked me to read through thesereminiscences in their original form, with a view toediting them, I had to tell him at the outset that theremoteness of the retrospect might probably prove aserious obstacle.
But, being neither a history nor geography, anddealing lightly with a number of topics that shouldbe of interest to many Englishmen, it soon occurred tome that they might perhaps find readers in spite of notbeing up to date.
It is the fashion nowadays—and it seems to me a somewhatinjudicious practice—to publish the record of one’stravels and experiences within a few weeks after returninghome, whereas many opinions that the writerwould naturally hold while still under the unsettlinginfluence of travel, might be at least very considerablymodified, were the final proof corrected ten yearslater, without losing in value.
The present form of these retrospective glances,which skim lightly over half-a-dozen years in some kindof chronological order, has been prepared from a manuscriptthat has during the past two years received manyamendments; so that the reader has at least an unbiassedaccount of a few years’ official residence in oneof the most promising of our Eastern possessions.vi
The appalling multiplication of English books isprobably destined to continue until Macaulay’s New-Zealandercontemplates the ruins of St. Paul’s, and itwould almost appear that the classes and masses arealike following Dr. Johnson’s advice: “Read anythingfor five hours a day and you will soon be learned.”
In spite, however, of the modern facilities for publishing,had there been no further object in view than thenarration of a few personal experiences, the authorwould never have launched another venture on thetr