A CONFESSION ix 



The wilderness in its changeful tempers, the 

 pathless jungle, the fascination of finding your 

 way, of earning your food, of lying down to sleep 

 beyond the guarding night stick of the policeman, 

 —these are the things I sought in the larger world 

 of which our conventionalized smaller one is but 

 the gate way. To pass through this gate way, to 

 travel at will, by my own exertions, and un- 

 chaperoned,— and to tell you in my halting style 

 something of the human and brute life which I saw 

 in the big world— that is why I went into the won- 

 drous Par East, into India, Sumatra, Malay and 

 Siam. 



So there you have the "Foreword"— also the 

 confession. 



