Excerpt from Lives of Indian Officers, Vol. 2 of 2: Illustrative of the History of the Civil and Military Service of India House at Montrose, illuminated with lamps from top to bottom. There must have been something in all this greatly to inspire and encourage the young Scotch subaltern, for Malcolm him self had risen from the same small beginning, and now his 3 name was in every man's'mouth, and all were delighting to do him honour. What might not any young scot, with the right stuff in him, do in India? In all directions there was encouragement and assurances not likely to be thrown away upon a youth of young Burnes' s lively imagination. A M011 trose man had sent him out to India; an Eadinburgh man was now at the head of the Government of Bombay; a Glasgow man was Governor of the Madras Presidency, and now the son of an Eskdale farmer was receiving the plaudits of all classes of his countrymen, and returning for a while to his native land, a successful soldier and a successful statesman, amidst a whirl of popularity that might have fully Satisfied the desires of the most ambitious hero 111 the world. But to young Alexander Burnes the encouragements 'of the future were not greater, than the consolations of the present. I like the country amazingly, he ete to Montrose, and as yet am not at all desirous of a return to my own land. Here I have everything to be wished for - plenty of time to myself, a gentlemanly commanding officer, and several very pleasant brother-officers. But he added, for thoughts of home were still pulling at his heart, how dearly should I like to see little Charley or Cecilia trudging into my canvas abode - but, ah! That is far beyond probability. However, I may yet see Charley'in India, for he seems a boy made for it. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.