| John Tulloch Nash

“ And as we gazed on these fascinating fields, which in their beauty looked as if brilliantly bespangled with swarming butterflies, it was strange to realise the curious fact that in so beautiful a bloom lurked also a deadly poison. For is it not a notable fact in the opium trade that the poppy blossom not only fascinates India with its product, but demoralises, if not kills, China with its venom? ”

“ The town of Patna, though large, is in no wise very remarkable. It contains, however, an immense population of disloyal Mahomedans, and is one of the great centres of disaffection and intrigue in India. ”

“ Here the features of the country changed alternately from rich cultivated fields, to immense grass plains; and from those again to enormous crops of ripening scarlet chillies, which gave the whole landscape a bloodshot appearance of a singular and — as times were — very appropriate effect. ”