William Henry Jackson

“ Frequent burglaries of the premises, not infrequent murders in the neighbourhood, a street or two of wooden houses burnt every now and then, an occasional wild-cat hunt or cobra chase, strikings by lightning, an annual earthquake, periodic visitations of plague and cholera—these things offer variety to life.
Although we can never call the town-life of head-quarters "humdrum," it is touring in the jungle which furnishes the real emotional thrills. I have covered between 30,000 and 40,000 miles in the province of Burma, in all kinds of transport and all kinds of company ”

“ If you ask, as so many do: "Can an Englishman really enjoy being out there?" I should say If you're out there in the wartime spirit to "do your bit" it is all delight and romance; if you're out there in the poet-war spirit to "get your piece" (I see that my typewriter insists on spelling that word with an "ie" instead of an "ea") it is an alternate boiling and baking which soon makes you feel a good bit over-done.
Now, of the Burmese people—the first thing that strikes you is their language. ”

“ As a tax for cheerful endurance it is hard to decide between a midday walk barefoot over paddy-fields, baked so hard as to be like edge-wise broken tiles, or a two hours' tramp after lark through swampy grass with the snake calls incessantly audible on every side. ”