Forbes, James, 1749–1819, James Forbes letter, Anjengo, 1772 November 15, 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 November 15
- 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 6, page 65-79
- 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:
- Forbes’s twenty-ninth letter depicts the surroundings, flora, and fauna of Anjengo (now Anchuthengu). Forbes, however, begins the letter on a rather pessimistic note: the town is “one of those insignificant places that can never offer any new subject for the descriptive pen.” Nonetheless, Forbes provides a mix of descriptions and reflections on his new post and its accompanying creatures. The landscape is, Forbes admits, quite romantic. He describes the winding, mountainous terrain, and the dense foliage that “form a verdant canopy, impervious to the hottest beams of a tropical sun.” The lakes and forests host numerous plants unfamiliar to the English botanist, and Forbes “greatly enjoy[s] these scenes of rude magnificence.” He only rarely encounters villages; more often the land is, to his eyes, “wild and overgrown with wood.” This is not to say that it isn’t at least in some way productive. Forbes spends considerable time describing the two central products of the area around Anjengo: pepper and cinnamon. Forbes explains that the trade in the former is monopolized by the king of Travencore, and to cut down a vine would be to commit high treason. He also spends time detailing nature of the cinnamon grown at Anjengo: it is not true cinnamon—native to Ceylon (Sri Lanka)—but another, greatly inferior type. Only a well-trained eye can perceive the difference. Ginger, cotton, fruit, and other commodities are grow to a lesser degree as well. The sea at Anjengo is rough. Forbes recalls standing and looking out at the ocean: “a scene full of awe; and which most forcibly brings to mind that fine passage in the book of Job, where the power of Omnipotence is so eminently displayed.” The salt air finds its way into his house, located only steps from the shoreline. Forbes then begins a discussion of the various creatures found at Anjengo. He notes in particular the tiger and buffalo, both large and fierce. He likewise describes the dangers that alligators pose, suggesting that they often tangle with tigers, an encounter in which “generally ends in the Alligator losing his eyes, and being otherwise wounded, while the Tyger is drowned and devoured in an element unfavorable to his nature.” That does not stop Forbes, however, from keeping a pet alligator in his garden, at least until it got too big. Forbes makes brief mentions of birds and other aquatic animals, before turning to venomous insects, with which this area “is more infested” than “any I have yet seen.” He seems particularly transfixed by a small, slimy snake: its bile, he says, is fatal and, after chopping off its head, it simply uses its other end as a substitute. Forbes identifies the creature as the Amphisboena, though cannot find any fangs (even under a microscope) and therefore “I have some doubts as to their malignity.” Forbes concludes his letter with a lament over the ability of ants, termites, and other insects to eat their way through an entire chest of books and papers in a single night. Portions of this text appear in <title>Oriental Memoirs</title>, volume 1, pp. 347-363.
- Additional Notes:
- Note: this letter appears after letter 30 in volume five of the present manuscript.
- Physical Description:
- 15 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/3199616
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199616?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1