We make no allowance for the influence of centuries of heredity; we overlook the fact that their notions of right and wrong are based upon a totally different code of ethics from our own.
That faithful servant, who made away with his father’s murderer in obedience to the laws and faith of the tribe among whom he was born and bred, should have merely been dismissed from the service, without being in addition deported to the Andamans; and it would have been better for India in general, and an exalted personage in particular, had his sentence been thus simplified.
We lose sight of the fact that we are aliens ourselves, and only in possession of these countries by might, and not by right; our strength is that of a giant, and as such we use it. One of the most pitiable sights I ever saw was the incarceration of these few Burmese.
Our system was to blame and not the Assistant-Commissioner, than whom not a kinder or more humane man existed.
With the welfare of the people at heart, he resided among them in the centre of the town; and the very fact of his being able to do so in safety so soon after our conquest speaks volumes for native principles and his own moderation. Many a time and oft did I wend my way through the streets of an evening to keep him company, and return at night, without a sign of molestation.
The opposite side of the river, which was at this point narrower and deeper, was also hilly and laid out in plantations of custard-apples, the fruit of which did justice to the care and skill lavished upon them. Those in India were very inferior to them, as much so perhaps as is a crab-apple to a Ripston-pippin! After the rainy season, and as soon as it was sufficiently dry to admit of the operation, the undergrowth in and about them was set on fire, and a pretty sight it presented at night, as the zig-zag lines of flame ran up the hills in every direction.
I can quite understand how this annual celebration enriched the soil, directly through the distribution of carbon and potash, and indirectly from its increased exposure to the sun and atmosphere; but what passes my comprehension is how the trees themselves escaped injury.
Either the rapidity with which the flames advanced prevented any real danger accruing to them; or else the cultivators themselves must have devised some expedient whereby the trees were rendered fire-proof. They could be seen superintending the operation, regulating the direction of the flames, and beating out any that ascended too high with long bamboos. The soil on these hills was no doubt peculiarly adapted for this fruit, a fact which the inhabitants probably discovered by having seen some originally there in a wild state.