d simple as my forefathers, and as I am now. If my countrymen wish to
excommunicate me, why do they not do it now? They are at liberty to do
so."

After my return to America I visited her twice at the medical college in
Philadelphia, where she became everybody's favorite, being one of the
best students that ever crossed the threshhold of the institution. She
did not renounce her religion or her habits of life, but observed all
of these strictly. After three years of hard study she passed her
examination with high standing, and practiced a few months in American
hospitals, but she gradually succumbed to the dread disease, pulmonary
consumption, and returned to India after an absence of four years, only
to die in Poonah, the city where her ancestors had lived as highly
respectable people for two thousand years past. She left India with the
curse of the Brahmins on her head, but returned as the idol of her
people. Thousands upon thousands crowded around her home, almost
worshiping the frail, noble being whose youthful life was slowly ebbing
away.

Strange are the ways of Providence. When Rev. Dr. Fjellstedt kindled a
desire to see India in the bosom of the young country boy, who could
then have guessed that this boy was to become a medium to assist that
Brahmin woman who was destined to be the first one of the millions of
India to clear the way to education and liberty for her unfortunate
sisters!

Besides my report on wheat culture I sent numerous official reports to
our government on different industries, and other matters in India, such
as tea culture, the decline of American shipping in Asia, the railroads,
the population of India, our commercial relations with India, etc. These
reports attracted such attention in Washington that during the month of
February, 1883, I received orders from the state department to make a
tour of inspection to those provinces and cities which belonged to my
district and report to the government anything of national interest.
Shortly after receiving this order, which was accompanied by a leave of
absence for six months, I also received a cablegram from Holland
offering me the position of managing American director of the Maxwell
Land Grant Company in New Mexico, whereof more hereafter.

On the 12th of April I turned over all my official affairs to the
vice-consul, Mr. C. C. Bancroft, and took the steamer Raipatoonah for
Burmah, where I visited the most important seaports, Rangoon, Mulma