Excerpt from Madame Prune To my good companions of the Redoutable, in memory of their true comradeship during our twenty-two months' voyage, I dedicate this book, in which I have aimed at recording only some few of the things which amused us, without laying stress upon our fatigues and our labours. Throughout it is but surface-skimming, written from day to day, nearly three years ago, before the Japanese had yet begun to Sprinkle with their blood the plains of Manchuria. To-day, despite the brutality of their initial attack, their courage beyond question deserves one's homage, and I wish to salute here, deeply and seriously, the heroic little yellow soldiers fallen before Port Arthur or on the way to Moukden. But it does not appear to me that the respect due to so many dead obliges me to alter the picture which remains with me of their country. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.