Preface
These reminiscences first appeared in the
pages of "Good Words," and are now republished with several additions
and alterations. In determining to write them at all, my desire was to
increase the interest of people at home in that great country placed by
Providence under the British Crown, and in the noble and trying labours
there of so many of our countrymen; and also to quicken a sense of our
individual duty to aid to the utmost of our power — if by intelligent
sympathy only — in advancing the true civilisation of two hundred
millions of the humrm race.
The object of my journey
with Dr. Watson was to report to the Church of Scotland regarding her
missions in India. That comparatively little is said here upon this
subject, is due to the fact that it has been fully dealt with by both of
us in other forms for the information of those who sent us. In these
pages I confine myself to such topics as could not well find a place in
an official Missionary Report.
I must here express my obligations to
Messrs. Shepherd and Bourne, of Calcutta, for the right kindly accorded
to me to copy from their large and splendid series of photographs — the
best that exists of Bengal; and also to Mr. Grant for the privilege of
making use of the fine pictures in his two interesting volumes,
"Anglo-Indian Domestic Life," and "Rural Life in Bengal."
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