INTRODUCTORY. 19 



in the exploration of the 36,000 square miles which 

 may be taken to be the area of the central hills, besides 

 doing much to examine an almost equally extensive 

 tract of low-lying forest in the south of the province. 

 In later years the regular civil officers of the district, 

 those employed in the land revenue settlement, sur- 

 veyors, missionaries, and many others, have traversed 

 many j^arts of these mountains ; and a great mass of 

 information respecting their physical character and in- 

 habitants has been accumulated, which, although of very 

 unequal value, is yet a mine of useful ore from which 

 much good metal may be extracted. Much of this has 

 already been printed in the form of official Reports ; and 

 the cream of it has been abstracted into a Gazetteer 

 of the Central Provinces, the Introduction to which, 

 from the pen of Mr. Grant, late Secretary to the Chief 

 Commissioner, is a resume of the history of the province, 

 admirable for its conciseness and research. Good ma23s 

 of all but the remotest tracts have also now been made 

 available ; and statistical information of all sorts is 

 annually prepared with much care and made public by 

 the Government. 



My design, then, in thus venturing before the public, 

 is not that of attempting to rival these most complete 

 official documents in accuracy or extent of information, 

 but rather to present, in a more popular and accessible 

 form, the lighter and more picturesque aspects of a 

 country in which an increasingly large section of our 

 countrymen take an interest. Though most of w^hat I 

 shall have to say is founded on, or corroborated by my 

 own observation during many years of acquaintance with 

 the region described, I shall not refuse to avail myself oi" 

 well-authenticated material collected by others. 



