India, Burma & the River Irrawaddy.- Forlong-Gordon

India, Burma & the River Irrawaddy.- Forlong-Gordon (Thomas Alexander George, Captain, surveyor in Burma, 1831-1914) Travel Journal, autograph manuscript, 310pp. excluding blanks (180pp. of diary and 130pp. of verse), a few pp. in pencil, 12 pencil sketches, some ff. loose, a few manuscript pieces loosely inserted, inner hinges broken, original half morocco, rubbed, gilt spine, some ff. edges with tears, sm. 4to, 1853-55.

⁂ "... the few inhabitants are fearful of going out of their doors almost, Tigers are so numerous. A poor native has just been killed while carrying a letter across the Aracan... ." - Forlong-Gordon.

Forlong-Gordon was the youngest son of William Forlong of Erines. In 1852, aged 21, he he set sail for Australia and experienced "cattle driving, horse hunting, shepherding, bullock driving... all so much in unison with my ideas of pleasure and freedom". In December 1854 he left Port Phillip on the Barque Appolline and sets sail for Calcutta. In India, he notes the high mortality rate, "Draper-dying of consumption", Bombay, "is a very dirty place... nor think it comparable to Madras. In Burma, Forlong -Gordon joins his brother in Prome as a trainee surveyor, Major General James Forlong, road engineer and later Chief Engineer to the Governor of Oudh. On the way he mentions the devastation caused by the second Burmese War and proves a perceptive observer, on tobacco production, the manner in which the natives use teak forests, the death of Captain Matagan, "killed by a band of armed Burmese... held him down while the others wounded him in 22 places", roads collapsing, difficulty of sleeping at night due to the rain and "the howling of tigers & wild elephants", visits Rangoon before leaving for India.