Introductory

If books of travel were not written the stay-at-home millions would know
little of the strange or interesting sights of this beautiful world of
ours; and it surely is better to have a vicarious knowledge of what is
beyond the vision than dwell in ignorance of the ways and places of men
and women included in the universal human family.

The Great East is a fascinating theme to most readers, and every
traveler, from Marco Polo to the tourist of the present time, taking the
trouble to record what he saw, has placed every fireside reader under
distinct obligation.

So thorough was my mental acquaintance with India through years of
sympathetic study of Kipling that a leisurely survey of Hind simply
confirmed my impressions. Other generous writers had as faithfully
taught what China in reality was, and Mortimer Menpes, Basil Hall
Chamberlain, and Miss Scidmore had as conscientiously depicted to my
understanding the ante-war Japan. Grateful am I, as well, to the legion
of tireless writers attracted to the East by recent strife and conquest,
who have made Fuji more familiar to average readers than any mountain
peak in the United States; who have made the biographies of favorite
geishas known even in our hamlets and mining camps, and whose agreeable
iteration of scenes on Manila's lunetta compel our Malaysian capital to
be known as well as Coney Island and Atlantic City--they have so
graphically portrayed and described interesting features that of them
nothing remains to be told. But to know Eastern lands and peoples
without an intermediary is keenly delightful and compensating.

The travel impulse and longing for first-hand knowledge, native with
most mortals, is yearly finding readier expression. Our grandparents
earned a renown more than local by crossing the Atlantic to view England
and the Continent, while our fathers and mothers exploring distant
Russia and the Nile were accorded marked consideration. The wandering
habit is as progressive as catching, and what sufficed our ancestors
satisfies only in minor degree the longing of the present generation for
roving. Hence the grand tour, the circuit of the earth, is becoming an
ordinary achievement. And while hundreds of Americans are compassing the
earth this year, thousands will place the globe under tribute in seasons
not remote.

For many years to come India and Ceylon will practically be what they
are to-day, and sluggish China will require much rou