of his journeys is begun it is well to say something of the man who made them.
By profession he was a soldier. In 1883, at the age of eighteen, he entered the Grenadier Guards ; and like most Guardsmen he was incessantly working to get on active service. It was the days of campaigns in Egypt ; and when preparations were being made for the advance on Khartum he went to Egypt, studied and passed an examination in Arabic and applied for an appointment with the Expeditionary Force ; but Kitchener, considering his lameness from his hunting accident would be a disqualification, rejected the application.
Baulked in Egypt, Pereira turned to China. In 1900 he joined the Chinese Regiment which was being raised by the British Government in the recently annexed port of Wei-hai-wei. And with this regiment he took part in the operations for the relief of the Legations in Peking during the Boxer Rising, and was slightly wounded.
Meanwhile his battalion of the Grenadier Guards had proceeded on active service in South Africa, and he was only able to get away from the Chinese Regiment in time to reach South Africa a few months before the end of the war. Then back again he went to China ; and in 1904 was appointed Military Secretary in Korea and was present at Chemulpho at one of the first actions in the Russo-Japanese War. In the following year he was appointed Military Attaché with the Third Japanese Army and was present at the Battle of Mukden. In October 1905 he was appointed Military Attaché at Peking, and after
IIIF Color HighRes
