Excerpt from Burma, Vol. 1 of 2: Past and Present With Personal Reminiscences of the Country This work is written much in the form of an autobiography, and a preface, therefore, is hardly necessary; because, as the author writes principally in the first person, he explains as he goes along what otherwise would have been expressed in a preface. A few preliminary remarks, however, appear somewhat desirable, not by way of preface, but of apology. The author chose this form for several reasons. He has been writing as much for friends as for the general public. The past history of Burma has been gleaned from ancient Burmese chronicles and old Portuguese historians; but in writing of Burma of the present, he has been anxious to tell what he could of the country and its people from his own personal experiences, and to carry his readers with him through his career in India and Burma. Possibly he has been a little ambitious that his career should not be altogether unknown to his fellow-countrymen. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.