Forbes, James, 1749-1819, James Forbes letter, Anjengo, 1772 February 20, copied between 1794 and 1800
- Call Number:
- Folio A 2023 69
- Holdings:
- [Request]
- Creator:
- Forbes, James, 1749-1819
- Title(s):
- James Forbes letter, Anjengo, 1772 February 20
- 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 5, page 209-214
- 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:
- Letter twenty-eight depicts Forbes’s final arrival at Anjengo (now Anchuthengu). The ship first passes by another Dutch settlement, once prosperous under the Portuguese but now much reduced in size. It then continues along what Forbes describes as a hilly, romantic coastline, before reaching the waters around Anjengo. They land via canoe, as the surf threatens to capsize any larger vessel. Forbes ornaments his description of Anjengo with quotations from Homer and Virgil; the overall impression, however, is not a positive one. He compliments the plentitude of meat and game in the area, only to complain that the sandy soil makes vegetables quite scarce. And though he references the extensive groves of palm trees around the town, he warns, “The pleasures of imagination are generally greater than in reality.” That is, “Anjengo groves are not of that delightful kind,” but devoid of much foliage and flowers, and filled with the thundering sound of the surf. The burning sand makes any rest impossible. All in all, Forbes has “not the smallest temptation to stir out of my own house.” The inhabitants are not much better. Forbes explains, they “call themselves Portuguese,” and they do practice Catholicism. Yet, in his estimation, they are “converts from the very lowest tribes of the Malabars, [and] are so mean a race, that no person of any refinement can associate with them.” He qualifies this, saying, his description “by no means include[s] any of the Casts of Malabars, who are a different kind of people; and will in general appear in a very superior light.” But this description must, he says, wait for another letter. Portions of this text appear in <title>Oriental Memoirs</title>, volume 1, pp. 334-8.
- Physical Description:
- 6 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/3199601
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199601?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1