From the PREFACE: THE great difficulty of procuring information respecting Assam will, I trust, be accepted as a justification for the publication of this little work, in which I shall endeavour to convey, however feebly, some knowledge of this comparatively unknown portion of our Eastern Empire. There are, doubtless, many intending emigrants who desire to learn something of the country in which they purpose spending some years of their lives, and what may be the probability of acquiring sufficient wealth to enable them to return home with a competence for the remainder of their days. When in such a position myself, my inquiries, addressed to travellers who seemed to know most corners of the world, obtained but meagre replies: "Assam—yes— beastly unhealthy hole; better not go there." Beyond this point their knowledge did not appear to extend. Other sources of information were consulted, but in vain was anything definite looked for. At length an old friend resident in Assam sent me the long-desired information, and this, together with my own subsequent experience, I now hand over to my readers. Taking into account the very extensive area of the district and its great commercial value to India, it is remarkable how little is known about it in England. The following pages by a rough Planter, which have not the slightest pretension to literary merit, may perhaps be found entertaining as well as useful to all interested in one of India's principal industries, namely, Tea—its planting, growth and manufacture; the strange surroundings, human and animal, of the European resident; the trying climate, and the daily life of the Planter who toils in the jungle far from civilization to provide the civilized with their cheering beverage. Brynderw, Dolgelly. October, 1883.
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