field diary 1832 deciphering problems

[arthurk]

3.1 - does say 'about', but must be a mistake

3.2 - 'space' and 'all'

3.3 - 'fine' and 'or' (the phrase from 'some of them' to 'fine trees' is in parenthesis, so 'or' follows on from 'oaks', and probably makes sense)

3.3a - possibly 'lofty'

[JanSeifert]

»
We started to day about 8 o’clock
and arrived at our halting ground
at 2 P.M., having made only 12 1/2
miles. About half the march
was up the valley of Singmai.
On our left we had the great western
ridge of Munnipore. Many of the
peaks of which are 5000 ft about [sic] the
valley and upwards of 8000 above the zea
but their appearance is not that of
any extraordinary height - for the
foreground is very deep and the
edge is carried up gradually
over a broad swelling ascent
of gentle acclivities. They appeared
highest early in the morning, when
their base was still in shade,
the next region was illuminated
by the rising sun. The third space
was covered by fog and mist and once
all occasional glimpses were
attained of the outline of the
ridge. For the last half of the
march we were wandering over the
spurs of the mountains, which
were almost entirely covered with
oaks – some of them which had escaped
the periodical burnings of the grass
were fine trees*– or winding through
«
(next page: narrow vales...)

the red passage is probably beyond my english

[arthurk]

A few more thoughts on this...

....Many of the
peaks of which are 5000 ft about [sic] the
valley and upwards of 8000 above the zea

I missed this before - should be 'sea'.

...The third space
was covered by fog and mist and once
all occasional glimpses were
attained of the outline of the
ridge.

the red passage is probably beyond my english

You've done very well - some of the letters are ambiguous, and there are evidently some mistakes too.

Looking at the red phrase in context, I wonder if what you have as 'once all' is actually 'over all'  - the letters 'over' also appear in the word 'covered' in the same line, and look very similar. This seems to make better sense than 'once all'. (I also thought it might be 'fogs' rather than 'fog'.)

[JanSeifert]

That fits way better, you are right.

Here todays last problem – as usual, it's margins. In fact, the rest of yesterday's. Although it's not very conclusive.

»
Kuitel mahke
Jany 9th

>away by a party
of Singphos and [??]
were somewhere
[in] the hands of the
[??]  when
hearing that there
were British officers
in Munnipore, they
fled in a canoe and
landed in the Burm-
ese territory. The
old woman looks
as if she was 60 years
of age and [??]
support the [??]
of [??]  – They are
rather good looking
people and seem
to have little affinity
with these [??].
«

There is probably proper names in it, and since the tour is the first contact, they will be certainly be misspelled (there is villages I have five different names for, each in different spellings as well), which makes it more difficult. The place name »Kuitel mahke« is one example. I have to look for the old maps of Pemberton and Jenkins in the Collections. There was never anything properly published of these early times.

(I tried to improve the legibility of the original as much as possible)

[arthurk]

This time I'll reply by editing your text in bold, with any extra comments in italics:

>away by a party
of Singphos and then
(probably - it fits the context; the letter to the right isn't part of it)
were somewhere
in the hands of the
('in' is OK)
[??]  when
('Kinghtle???' - you'll know more about the different tribes/groups than I do)
hearing that there
were British officers
in Munnipore, they
fled in a canoe and
landed in the Muni-
pore territory. The
old woman looks
as if she was 60 years
of age & can scarcely
support the labour
of travelling – They are
rather good looking
people and seem
to have little affinity
with these tribes.
(I think it's probably 'tribes' - it fits better than anything else I can think of)
«

[JanSeifert]

very good edits!

I want to come back to the first set of margins:

The »500 Assamese« bugged my, especially as the escaped in »a canoe«
So it may well be it's only 5 of them. But then, what's the thing behind the 5?

»
to which they had
been carried away
slaves by the Burmah
army. We are
accompanied by
a party of 500
escaped Assamese
who have found
their way back within
these 3 or 4 months.
an old woman is the
only one who was
carried off. The rest
have since been
born of Asam parents,
who were since dead
were carried >
«
(the red part still carries a problem, to be solved later I guess.)

[JanSeifert]

today I have been quite productive, so a number of questions arose:

4.1
»
up its bed. The pebbles &
boulders are most [??] [??]
the base of the [??] is probably of
clay slate but I had no opportunity
of seeing the naked rock.
   [& unfrequent?]
Except slight^ marks of crystallized
quartz veins adhering to the pebbles
I have seen no symptomes as yet
of an [??] to a lower forma-
tion than these two rocks.
«

[JanSeifert]

4.2

»
Our encampment is at the [entrance?]
of a valley of broken & rather stony
ground about 5 miles long and
«

[JanSeifert]

4.3

»
hill to the right. Behind us
is an extensive [??] land elevated
about 100 ft above this valley.
Our camp is thus [??] in languages
our people bellowing at each other
in 10 or 12 different languages.
«