A Personal Narrative of Two Years' Imprisonment in Burmah (Paperback)

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1862 edition. Excerpt: ... mind what further means he could adopt to clip the wings of this subtle captive. At last he bethought himself of the holes pierced in the man's ears, which usually are large enough to save the trouble of carrying a cigar-case, and through these holes the ingenious Moung-lah contrived to pass strings, confining his ears also to the floor. One would have thought he had read Gulliver. Still the cautious "father" had his misgivings, and before leaving the prison, very strict injunctions were delivered to the Savage with the club, to watch the creature, and if it attempted to fly, he was to brain it as it rose. While all this was going on, the sufferer ceased not to ridicule all their preqautions, and to assert his own ability to elude them, as he fully intended to do in due time. The confidence of his manner raised the Chap. XVII. AN IRISH SOLDIER CAPTURED. 193 credulity of Mr. Rodgers. "These people know more than you think they do," said he to me. I suggested our tying ourselves to him, --perhaps he might take us under his wing, and so we should escape when he took his flight. "Wait till you see, sir." We did wait, and to the joy of our Chief, next morning, the bird had not flown. The gaolers soon began to doubt his powers; day by day the lashings were relaxed, and when it clearly appeared that he was an Inhabitant of this Earth only, and that he had no power to soar above it, no further means were taken to confine him to it. The poor lunatic was permitted to participate in the usual privileges of the prison. The next time the signal gun was fired from the riverside, while we were listening in breathless anxiety for some indication of the news it might announce, the silence was broken by the entrance of a new...