A Thousand Miles On An Elephant In The Shan States

In this fascinating travelogue, Samuel Hallett recounts his adventure riding an elephant through the hills and jungles of the Shan States in Burma. With vivid descriptions of the landscape, the people, and the elephant itself, Hallett brings the reader along on his journey and offers a unique perspective on this remote corner of the world. This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

Excerpt from Thousand Miles on an Elephant in the Shan States The importance of the Eastern markets to European commerce has long been recognised, and since the famous Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama rounded the Cape of Good Hope at the close of the fifteenth century, and the Portuguese occupied Malacca and established factories or trade depots in Burmah at Martaban and Syriam, the trade of Western China and Indo-China has been a prize which has attracted the commercial aspirations of every maritime mercantile community in Europe. In 1613, the Portuguese were ousted from Burmah, and six years later, the English and Dutch established factories in that country. Some years afterwards the Dutch were expelled, and in the middle of the next century the French became our rivals for a short time. In 1756 the chief of their factory was executed, and their factory was destroyed, never to be resuscitated. The first Englishman whose name is recorded in history as travelling in Siam and the Shan States is Thomas Samuel, who happened to be at Zimme when that place was recaptured by the Burmese in 1615. 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."

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1890 edition. Excerpt: ...A number of other persons also have poured forth their complaints of wrongs received from his Satee (Chetty, a banker and money-lender) Bahng Mew, and because he is wealthy he has confused the legal officers. "He has access also to princes and nobles, who support him in his wrongs. This royal mandate is issued to be made known to the princes, nobles, and Government officials within and without, forbidding all to give him any further support in his practices. Q 242 ENCOURAGING GAMBLING. If they persist in backing him up, they will no longer be objects of royal favour. Given, Saturday, 1st of the waxing, 6th lunation, year of the Eabbit, 8th of the decade, Siamese civil era, 1229 (May 4, 1867)." Eeturning to the subject of gambling. The latest law dealing with it was issued in 1794. In the previous reign an Act had been passed whereby the gambling-house keepers were not allowed to advance money for gambling purposes to the people. This caused a great falling off in the amounts paid to Government for the monopolies. The law of 1794 states that--"When his Majesty ascended the throne, having quelled all commotions, he was graciously pleased to revise the laws. What it was befitting should be retained, were left as before. What was not fitting, was abrogated; but this (former) proclamation on gambling was not repealed, because his Majesty was graciously disposed towards the common people, who were biassed by avaricious desires, because the managers of the gambling establishments trusted them and allowed them to get into debt, even though they had not at their homes the means of meeting their liabilities--still the managers trusted them; but they did not think of their children and wives, but borrowed from the managers, played, ...

“No one who loves elephants or how humans interact with wildlife should pass up Jacob Shell’s remarkable book.” —Dan Flores, author of Coyote America Giants of the Monsoon Forest journeys deep into the mountainous rainforests of Burma and India to explore the world of teak logging elephants and their intriguing alliance with humans. Jacob Shell’s narrative vividly depicts elephants’ extraordinary intelligence, and the complicated bond with individual human riders, a partnership that can last for decades. Giants of the Monsoon Forest reveals an unexpected relationship between evolution in the natural world and political struggles in the human one, while considering how Asia’s secret forest culture might offer a way to help protect the fragile spaces both elephants and humans need to survive.