EAST INDIA COMPANY – Manuscript epistolatory journal with drawings, describing an East India Company expedition to the Indies. March to September, 1773.

Manuscript account of a passage to India from Portsmouth in 1773, in English, with original illustrations and reference to the Siege of Tanjore.

Written “to Contribute in the least Degree to the Amusements of my Friends”, the present anonymous journal in the form of four long letters details an Englishman’s passage to the Indies, leaving from Portsmouth and journeying to Madras via the Madeira Islands, the Canary Islands, Cape Verde and the Anjouan Islands. Intended to be comical, the entries take excessive pains to deride the different cultures that he encounters. In India, for example, he writes, “They live or at least pretend to live upon nothing Else but Water & Vegetables, their Religion which is the most Superstitious kind of Paganism for bidding them to Eat of any kind of Flesh, or Drink out of the same Vessel with an European, upon pain of loosing Cast, which to them is one of the worst kind of Excommunications that you can possibly Conceive” (p. 75). At Praia, he takes pleasure in ridiculing the conditions of public and domestic life, calling out the state of the main fort, the governor’s house and native huts, and continues by criticizing the state of their livestock, noting that aside from the mules, ponies and goats, ‘the rest of their Cattle they are more abominably poor indeed […] Their Dogs are the most ugly creatures I ever saw”.

In the final pages, the author describes the final stages of the Siege of Tanjore and the conflict between the Raja of Thanjavur, Thuljaji Bhonsle (1738–1787), and the Carnatic Nawab, Muhammad Ali Khan Wallajah (1717–1795).

“The general and greatest Number of Military People are now at the Seige of Tanjour, which they expect will be taken in a few Days, the last Advices giving an account of their having advanced as far as the Ditch, & their being about to storm. This War is Carried on by the Nabob & our Troops are paid by him, during the whole Expedition. The rupture happening between the Tanjourians & himself, the affair was this; The King of Tanjour is a Raja who has for many years been Tributary to the Nabob, but finding himself grow Rich & powerful he has lately been very remiss in his payments & at the last absolutely reused them; The Nabob has therefore requested the Assistance of the Company to bring the Tanjourians under his Subjection, who by treaty are obliged to lend it him; The Reduction of Tanjour it is supposed will in a few years add near half a Million [?pounds] Ann. To the Nabobs Revenues, which are at present Valued at a Million & a half of Money. Great Interest has been made by all the English officers to get to this Seige as it is Imagined the plunder will amount to something very Considerable. The Nabob generally resides at his Garden House the name of which I have Forgot, it is very near to Fort St. George & is one of the most Elegant Buildings I ever saw; It is said the Nabob is a man of G[???] & Sense both Natural & acquired; he is fond of the European Customs & adops hem as far as is consistent with y[ou]r Paganism he is oblig’d to profess.”

The drawings comprise views of islands and landscapes as well as one botanical illustration in color.

Folio (366 × 236mm). 81 leaves of text in English plus 12 drawings including one in color and one folding (marginal worming in first few leaves, light spotting, offsetting from drawings). Contemporary English panelled calf, tooled in blind (rebacked, corners restored, light scratches); modern custom box.