In 1872 the Local Government of the province arranged to become purchaser of Dr. Mason's work on “Burma.” The author was an American missionary, who had spent nearly all his life in the country, and whose name is well known amongst Oriental scholars as having been the first to discover and bring to light Kaccayāno's Pali Grammar, which is to this day the handbook here in every village school. The last edition of “Burma” had been published in 1860. Since that date the writer had been amassing new collectanea, and it was agreed that he should personally supervise a fresh publication, which was intended, in his hands, to become a kind of encyclopædia of all scientific subjects connected with the province. But Dr. Mason was never destined to see the consummation of the work he had laboured at so long. For some time his missionary duties interfered with all active literary endeavour, and his death in 1874 finally prevented the execution of the original design. His notes and MSS., after remaining for three years in the possession of his widow, have been consigned by Government to one who is fully conscious how incompetent he is single-handed for the task.