6 EXPLANATORY INTEODTJCTION. 



of information regarding it ; and fewer still, of the visitors, 

 have contributed their mite towards bringing to the notice 

 of their fellow-exiles, that there is a pure air and restoring 

 climate at their command, where they themselves have regain- 

 ed all, of which the withering heat and enervating damp of the 

 plains, had combined to rob them. 



The Editor has been led to these remarks by the circum- 

 stance, that, when on the Hills, he could not discover any of 

 the publications he has alluded to, with exception to a few 

 in the possession of one individual ; and to these he will 

 have occasion to refer more particularly hereafter. 



To obviate the nebessity of notes, and to render the pre- 

 sent work more complete, as a guide to the Neilgherries at 

 the present day, the Editor has thought it better, to incor- 

 porate all the information he has collected from other sources, 

 as well written, as personally communicated, during his late 

 visit, and to modify Dr. Baikie's remarks, and the observa- 

 tions of other writers, accordingly. This will account for the 

 apparent anachronisms that occur ; and which might, other- 

 wise, strike the reader, and those more especially who are 

 familiar with the first edition, as affecting the accuracy of 

 what is stated in this. 



The lapse of more than twenty years has worked great 

 changes ; but the climate of the Hills remains the same, in 

 all its salubrity. 



It was only, as will hereafter appear, in the year 1819 that 

 the Neilgherries were ascended by two members of the Madras 

 Civil Service ; who, in the enthusiasm created by the grand 

 discovery they had made, gave to their Government a faithful 

 picture of what they had seen ; and, though far less vivid in 

 its coloring than the scene of magnificence which their 

 wondering eyes beheld, little credit was attached to it by the 



