A PLEASANT JOURNEY
In the first week of February 1894 I returned to Shanghai
from Japan. It was my intention to go up the Yangtse River as
far as Chungking, and then, dressed as a Chinese, to cross
quietly over Western China, the Chinese Shan States, and
Kachin Hills to the frontier of Burma. The ensuing narrative
will tell you how easily and pleasantly this journey, which a
few years ago would have been regarded as a formidable
undertaking, can now be done.
So begins one of the monumental travel books of the English language. Already the delightful ambiguity of tone so characteristic of Morrison is discernible—the straightforward declaration spiced with the charming undertone of gentle irony. The journey was almost without precedent. It traversed some of the most challenging
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