CONCLUSION. 
297 
house on the beach, struck our tents, and took pos- 
session of our more substantial residence, where we 
remained with very little to vary the monotony of an 
in-door life during the period of the monsoon. 
I have now brought the first series of this work to 
a close, and, as the two first volumes have obtained 
a popularity beyond what I had ever anticipated, I 
am anxious to contradict a report which has prevail- 
ed to my prejudice respecting the right of authorship. 
It has been rumoured that in this work X have merely 
arranged the materials supplied by my brother, the 
Reverend Richard Macdonald Gaunter. Now, in order 
to check the tendency of such a rumour, I take this 
public opportunity of most unequivocally contradicting 
it, and declare that Mr. R M. Gaunter, so far from 
having furnished a single hint, did not even know of 
the existence of the Oriental Annual until the first 
volume was printed. The report, however originat- 
ing, is a mischievous calumny ; and I trust that those 
persons who have heard and believed it will receive 
this public assurance, that the whole of the volumes, 
quotations of course excepted, were exclusively writ- 
ten by me ; and I entreat them further to believe that 
I am incapable of putting my name to a book which I 
did not write. 
THE END. 
