ate this
ideal location. More than that, I had learned the tea-growing business,
had devoted over three years to its careful study, felt myself in every
way competent, and had found a life in many ways suited to my tastes.
All this had to be abandoned. In India the white man lives in great
luxury. He has a great staff of servants, his every whim and wish is
anticipated and satisfied, his comfort watched over. To leave _this_,
to go straight out to the West, the wild and woolly West, where servants
were not! The very suggestion of such a thing to me on leaving India
would have received no consideration whatever. It would have seemed
utterly impossible, but "El Hombre propone y el Deos depone" as the
Mexicans say.

During the whole four years' stay in India I was practically barred from
ladies' society, nearly all the planters being unmarried men. Alas! for
twenty years longer of my life this very unfortunate and demoralizing
condition was to continue.

There were no railroads then to Cachar and no steamers, so I again
performed the journey to Calcutta in a native boat, and there,
by-the-bye, I witnessed the sight for the first time of an apparent
lunatic playing a game called Golf; a game which later was to be more
familiar to me, and myself to become one of the greatest lunatics of
all. The run home was in no way remarkable, except for the intense
anticipated pleasure of again seeing the old country.

CHAPTER II

CATTLE RANCHING IN ARIZONA

Leave for United States of America--Iowa--New Mexico--Real Estate
Speculation--Gambling--Billy the Kid--Start Ranching in
Arizona--Description of Country--Apache and other
Indians--Fauna--Branding Cattle--Ranch
Notes--Mexicans--Politics--Summer Camp--Winter Camp--Fishing and
Shooting--Indian Troubles.

My health seemed to have reached a more serious condition than imagined;
and so on the advice of my friends, but with much regret, I decided to
henceforth cast my lot in a more bracing climate. Having no profession,
and hating trade in any form, the choice was limited and confined to
live stock or crop farming of one kind or another.

Accordingly, after six months at home and on complete recovery of
health, I took my way to the United States of America, first to Lemars
in Iowa, where was a well-known colony of Britishers, said Britishers
consisting almost entirely of the gentlemen class, some with much money,
some with little, none of the