Forbes, James, 1749-1819, James Forbes letter, Bombay, 1768 November 25, copied between 1794 and 1800
- Call Number:
- Folio A 2023 69
- Creator:
- Forbes, James, 1749-1819
- Title(s):
- James Forbes letter, Bombay, 1768 November 25
- 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 2, page 145-161
- 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:
- Having already described the flora of Bombay and its surrounding area, Forbes introduces this letter as a companion piece, focused instead on the animals he has encounter throughout his several years residence. He begins with a brief overview of edible animals available in Bombay, before quickly moving on to a discussion of those more interesting for their cultural connotations, their strange habits, or their dangerous qualities. Among the semi-domesticated animals, Forbes gives particular attention to peacocks, squirrels, and monkeys, saying, “[the three] entirely occupy the roofs, and frequently the Attic story of their houses, where they are treated with hospitality and attention.” Other animals pose distinct threats to life in the metropolis: tigers, hyenas, and other carnivores have, fortunately, live primarily inland, while jackals scavenge along the outskirts of the town, and in graveyards. The most noble of the animals, for Forbes, is the white oxen, an animal “with eyes of uncommon brilliancy” and who “not many years ago” drew “most of the English carriages at Bombay.” Wealth, however, “the parent of taste and luxury, has now introduced the finest horses from Persia and Arabia.” Forbes compares these stately creatures to the last noble—the rat, a scourge who “are so large as to undermine warehouses, and destroy every kind of merchandize, so that they are a dangerous enemy.” Other animals are spoken of in similar ways, that is, while not necessarily defined by their economic effects, undoubtedly understood through the lens of the East India Company. The absolute worst creatures, however, are not the rats, but the snakes. They “wage war against every part of creation,” attacking animals as large as cows, slowly crushing their bones. Yet it’s the venomous snakes that pose perhaps the greatest threat, as they most frequently enter the city. Forbes describes his own encounter with a snake charmer, whose hooded cobra seemed docile enough, and responded calmly to Forbes’s presence. The next day, Forbes’s Muslim servant informs him—after an interesting confusion over the comparative frequency of Christian and Muslim prayer—that following Forbes’s departure, the cobra bit and killed an onlooker, without provocation. Forbes writes: “Mahomet again repeated his advice for praise and thanksgiving to Alla, and has set me down in his Kalendar for a very luck man!” The Hindus, according to Forbes, nonetheless display reverence towards the snakes; “the Indians are very averse to destroy them…I believe they almost pay divine honors.” The birds of India are, to Forbes, incomparably beautiful: “no words can describe the changeable hues of blue, green, and purple that vary with every motion of these little choristers.” Forbes singles out the bulbul for praise, though he expresses uncertainty as to its relation to the English nightingale and the bird featured so prominently in Persian poetry. Forbes includes an unknown translation of a poem ascribed to Amir Khusrau, depicting the separation of the bulbul from the rose, a common trope in Persian and Urdu poetic writings. The poem is illustrated with a watercolor of a bulbul and rose, as well as with a small image of a ring of pearls, with the closing explanation that “the stringing of pearl, as an idea of stanzas in Poetry, is very common in the Persian language, and frequently met with in the beautiful odes of Hafiz.” The final paragraphs of Forbes’s letter survey the more common birds found in the area of Bombay, and briefly list the fish available for consumption. Portions of this text are reproduced in <title>Oriental Memoirs</title>, volume 1, pp. 41-53.
- Physical Description:
- 16 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
- Archival Object:
- https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199385
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199385?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1