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54 exposed after its auspicious beginning. Therefore he resolved to embark on a fresh enterprise and to plunge into the stream with all its eddies and currents.

According to the then modes and means of locomotion, Azamgarh was far removed from Calcutta. The distance, five hundred miles, may not seem long to-day by railway, but at that time it was very tedious by pinnace, by river steamer, by palanquin. Geographically the district may be described as lying near the north bank of the Ganges to the east of Benares. It adjoined the western border of Behar, and was one of the most easterly of the districts included in what were then known as the Upper Provinces. In after years Thomason wrote of it thus to his children, 'It was to me a field of victory, where such repute and status as I had in the service was founded,' but he added 'how far short have I fallen in the fulfilment of God's will.'