Page:Imperial India — An Artist's Journals.djvu/22

4 ever, the best authority on the history of the Rajpoots, and that history furnishes almost all that is poetical in the chronicles of Hindostan. In Pinkerton I found the travels of Sir T. Roe ( 1616) and Bernier ( 1664), besides much information from Hamilton and Buchanan. I am also much indebted to Malcolm's "Central India" and Grant Duff's "History of the Mahrattas," both books of high standing.

I think much of the lamentable ignorance of India found even in educated circles in England comes from the forbidding aspect of the old authorities on Indian matters. Why are most Indian books ponderous quartos? And who is bold enough to tackle the many, and, I fear I must say it, dry volumes of Mill's "British India"? Surely some readable and at the same time authoritative writer might undertake the history of this empire, and produce something that would carry a knowledge of India to the homes and firesides of the mass of educated English. At present Indian history, up to the time of the Mutiny, seems to be the property of savants who devote themselves to those parts of history which would please the "Dryasdusts" of Mr. Carlyle, or philologists who content themselves with lengthy reproductions of the vast epics of Hindoo mythology.

In my travels I have as much as possible avoided the mention of things English. Through want of time I left unvisited Cawnpore and Lucknow—those places hallowed in our recollection by the sufferings and deeds of our countrymen and countrywomen. I have mentioned but casually the siege operations of Delhi, though the taking of that city was one of the greatest achievements of our army. Such scenes, and the localities where they happened, have been described over and over again by worthier writers. I do not set up as an historian, and only strive to represent in indifferent prose the picturesque things that have caught my eye, both in nature and history; and surely, in dealing with the picturesque, one may fairly leave English history and manners out of sight. Neither is my journal by any means complete. I could have wished to pay a visit to Mandu, the ancient Moslem capital of Malwa, and Oojein, a still more ancient city, both of