RAMBLES AND RECOLLECTIONS
OF AN
INDIAN OFFICIAL
GENERAL SIR W. H SLEEMAN. K.C.B.
RAMBLES
AND
RECOLLECTIONS
OF AN
INDIAN OFFICIAL
BY
MAJOR-GENERAL SIR W. H. SLEEMAN, K.C.B.
REVISED ANNOTATED EDITION
BY
VINCENT A. SMITH
M.A. (DUBL. ET OXON.), M.R.A.S., F.R.N.S., LATE OFTHE
INDIAN CIVIL SERVICE,
AUTHOR OF 'THE EARLY HISTORY OF INDIA'
'A HISTORY OF FINE ART IN INDIA AND CEYLON'.ETC.
HUMPHREY MILFORD
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
LONDON EDINBURGH GLASGOW
NEW YORK TORONTO MELBOURNE BOMBAY
1915
Transcriber's Note
In producing this e-text the numerous notes have been moved tothe end of their respective chapters and renumbered. The printed'Additions and Corrections' have been included in the relevanttext.
The map showing the author's route has been confined to the areaimmediately adjacent to the route, to preserve legibility whilemaintaining a reasonable file size.
In the printed edition the spelling of certain words is notalways consistent. This is especially true of the use ofdiacritical marks on certain words, even within a single page. Thise-text attempts to reproduce the spellings exactly as used in theprinted edition.
AUTHOR'S DEDICATION
MY DEAR SISTER,
Were any one to ask your countrymen in India what has been theirgreatest source of pleasure while there, perhaps nine in ten wouldsay, the letters which they receive from their sisters at home.These, of all things, perhaps, tend most to link our affectionswith home by filling the landscapes, so dear to our recollections,with ever varying groups of the family circles, among whom ourinfancy and our boyhood have been passed; and among whom we stillhope to spend the winter of our days.
They have a very happy facility in making us familiar with thenew additions made from time to time to the dramatispersonae of these scenes after we quit them, in the characterof husbands, wives, children, or friends; and, while thuscontributing so much to our happiness, they no doubt tend to makeus better citizens of the world, and servants of government, thanwe should otherwise be, for, in our 'struggles through life inIndia', we have all, more or less, an eye to the approbation ofthose circles which our kind sisters represent—who may,therefore, be considered in the exalted light of a valuable speciesof unpaid magistracy to the Government of India.
No brother has ever had a kinder or better correspondent than Ihave had in you, my dear sister; and it was the consciousness ofhaving left many of your valued letters unanswered, in the press ofofficial duties, that made me first think of devoting a part of myleisure to you in these Rambles and Recollections, while onmy w