












EAST OF SUEZ




  PRESENT-DAY EGYPT

  By Frederic Courtland Penfield, Former American Diplomatic
  Agent and Consul-General to Egypt.

       *       *       *       *       *

  _Secretariat
  du
  Khedive_

  RAS-EL-TEEN PALACE,
  ALEXANDRIA, 4th November, 1899

  FREDERIC C. PENFIELD, ESQUIRE,
  Manhattan Club, New York.


  My dear Sir:

  I am commanded by H. H. The Khedive to
  acknowledge the receipt of the copy of your
  book "Present-Day Egypt," which you have
  so kindly forwarded for his acceptance.

  I am to say that His Highness has read it
  with much pleasure and interest, as it is the
  only book published on Egypt of to-day by
  an author thoroughly acquainted with the
  subject through long residence and official
  position in the country.

  I have the honor to be, Sir,
  Your obedient servant,
  (Signed) ALFRED B. BREWSTER,
  Private Secretary to H. H. the Khedive.

       *       *       *       *       *

  Revised and Enlarged Edition. Fully illustrated.
  Uniform with "East of Suez." 8vo. 396 pages. $2.50

  The Century Co.,
  Union Square New York




[Illustration: GULF OF MANAR PEARLING BOAT, AND DIVERS RESTING IN
THE WATER]




  EAST OF SUEZ
  CEYLON, INDIA, CHINA AND JAPAN


  By
  Frederic Courtland Penfield
  Author of "Present-Day Egypt," etc.


  Illustrated from Drawings and Photographs


  "East is East, and West is West, and
                  never the twain shall meet,
  Till Earth and Sky stand presently at
                  God's great Judgment Seat."
                                        _Kipling._


  [Illustration]


  NEW YORK
  THE CENTURY CO.
  1907




  Copyright, 1906, 1907, by
  THE CENTURY CO.

  _Published, February, 1907_


  THE DE VINNE PRESS




  TO THE MEMORY OF
  KATHARINE




Introductory


If books of travel were not written the stay-at-home millions would know
little of the strange or interesting sights of this beautiful world of
ours; and it surely is better to have a vicarious knowledge of what is
beyond the vision than dwell in ignorance of the ways and places of men
and women included in the universal human family.

The Great East is a fascinating theme to most readers, and every
traveler, from Marco Polo to the tourist of the present time, taking the
trouble to record what he saw, has placed every fireside reader under
distinct obligation.

So thorough was my mental acquaintance with India through years of
sympathetic study of Kipling that a leisurely survey of Hind simply
confirmed my impressions. Other generous writers had as faithfully
taught what China in reality was, and Mortimer Menpes, Basil Hall
Chamberlain, and Miss Scidmore had as conscientiously depicted to my
understanding the ante-war Japan. Grateful am I, as well, to the legion
of tireless writers attracted to the East by recent strife and conquest,
who have made Fuji more familiar to average readers than any mountain
peak in the United States; who have made the biographies of favorite
geishas known even in our hamlets and mining camps, and whose agreeable
iteration of scenes on Manila's lunetta compel our Malaysian capital to
be known as well as Coney Island and Atlantic City--they have so
graphically portrayed and described interesting features that of them
nothing remains to be told. But to know Eastern lands and peoples
without an intermediary is keenly delightful and compensating.

The travel impulse and longing for first-hand knowledge, native with
most mortals, is yearly finding readier expression. Our grandparents
earned a renown more than local by crossing the Atlantic to view England
and the Continent, while our fathers and mothers exploring distant
Russia and the Nile were accorded marked consideration. The wandering
habit is as progressive as catching, and what sufficed our ancestors
satisfies only in minor degree the longing of the present generation for
roving. Hence the grand tour, the circuit of the earth, is becoming an
ordinary achievement. And while hundreds of Americans are compassing the
earth this year, thousands will place the globe under tribute in seasons
not remote.

For many years to come India and Ceylon will practically be what they
are to-day, and sluggish China will require much rousing before her
national characteristics differ from what they are now; but of Japan it
is different, for, having made up their minds to remodel the empire, the
sons of Nippon are not doing things by halves, and the old is being
supplanted by the new with amazing rapidity.

Possibly it is a misfortune to find oneself incapable of preparing a
volume of travel without inflicting a sermon upon kindly disposed
persons, but a book of journeyings loaded with gentle preachment must at
least be a novelty