A singular misfortune, which happily is not of everyday occurrence, befel the original manuscripts of this history, in consequence of which the author never lived to see in print his more than 20 years of labour.

The manuscripts were forwarded to a well-known English publisher through one of the great Missionary Societies in 1899 and—mirabile dictu—nothing more was heard of them!

The editor who was all along in collaboration with the author had occasion to visit England in 1900, and called on the publisher, but could get nothing more from him than that the manuscripts had been misplaced, that they could not be found, and that he was prepared to pay for them! This seemed to the editor and all his friends who heard of it so strange that one could not help thinking that there was more in it than appeared on the surface, especially because of other circumstances connected with the so-called loss of the manuscripts. However, we let the subject rest there. The author himself died in the following year (1901), and it has now fallen to the lot of the editor to rewrite the whole history anew, from the copious notes and rough copies left behind by the author.