Forbes, James, 1749–1819, James Forbes letter, Maun-Poor, on the Banks of the Dahder, 1775 May 24, copied between 1794 and 1800
- Call Number:
- Folio A 2023 69
- Holdings:
- Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
- Creator:
- Forbes, James, 1749–1819
- Title(s):
- James Forbes letter, Maun-Poor, on the Banks of the Dahder, 1775 May 24
- Date:
- copied between 1794 and 1800
- Classification:
- Archives and Manuscripts
- Series:
- Series I: A voyage from England to Bombay with descriptions in Asia, Africa, and South America
- Part of Collection:
- volume 7, page 247-253
- Provenance:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- Conditions Governing Access:
- The materials are open for research.
- Conditions Governing Use:
- The collection is the physical property of the Yale Center for British Art. Literary rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. For further information, consult the Curator of Rare Books and Manuscripts.
- Scope and Content:
- The march continues from the banks of the Myhi (Mahi) River to Fazal-poor (Fazalpur) and beyond. Fatigued and faced with rough terrain, the going is slow, though the army eventually reaches the town of Sevasee-Contra. Forbes describes a well there in great detail: he marvels at its detailed ornamentation, and explains, “when we consider that in this country, for some hundred miles together, there is not a stone to be met with, the price of this grand reservoir must have been immense.” Yet he defends its construction, arguing that, though the price “must appear astonishing in Europe…let us recollect how noble the charity to dig a well in these thirsty climes; what high encomiums have ever been lavished on such public benefactors, by sacred & profane writers.” The stop at the well is too short for further description, and Forbes laments that he could not copy its carvings. The army moves through groves of fruit trees, filled with monkeys, peacocks, and other creatures. It is an incredibly fertile country, but one in which “the eye is soon tired for want of hills and dales, mountains & cataracts; and the other objects required in the picturesque & romantic scenes.” The land, though rich, does not live up to Forbes’s pictorial conventions. He follows this with another comment about the Marathas and their disinclination to any artistic pursuit, adding a quotation from James Thomson’s (1700-1748) “The Seasons” to “better describe their deficiencies.” This is, later, ascribed to the country as a whole, and linked to climate: it is “unfavorable to the exertion either of mind or body” and therefore makes any refinement impossible. Forbes does admit, however, “when the Mogul empire was in its glory,” the case was quite different. The remainder of the letter continues to describe the progression of the march: Forbes regrets that, due to its pace, he cannot add to his natural history collection. Portions of this text appear in <title>Oriental Memoirs</title>, volume 2, chapter 18.
- Physical Description:
- 7 pages
- Genre:
- Correspondence , Botanical illustrations, Ornithological illustrations, Travel sketches, Maps, Watercolors (paintings), Drawings (visual works), Engravings (prints), and Portraits
- Subject Terms:
- Forbes, James, 1749-1819. Descriptive letters and drawingsForbes, James, 1749-1819. Oriental memoirs
- Associated Places:
- EnglandItalyScotlandWales
- Associated People/Groups:
- East India CompanyForbes, James, 1749-1819
- Finding Aid Title:
- James Forbes archive
- Collection PDF:
- https://ead-pdfs.library.yale.edu/11734.pdf
- Archival Object:
- https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199729
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199729?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1