Forbes, James, 1749-1819, James Forbes letter, Bellapoor, on the Banks of the Dahder, 1775 July 20, copied between 1794 and 1800
- CallNumber:
- Folio A 2023 69
- Creator:
- Forbes, James, 1749-1819
- Title(s):
- James Forbes letter, Bellapoor, on the Banks of the Dahder, 1775 July 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
- ContainerGrouping:
- volume 8, page 29-33
- Provenance:
- Yale Center for British Art, Paul Mellon Collection
- AccessRestrict:
- The materials are open for research.
- UseRestrict:
- 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.
- ScopeContent:
- Though Forbes continues to spend much of his time in Dhuboy (now possibly Dhuboi), the colonel of the company’s forces lives resides at Ragobah’s (Raghunathrao) camp, near Bellapoor, requiring Forbes spend considerable amounts of time away, living “by no means…that life of repose I had flattered myself with in Dhuboy.” Given this travel between the locations, Forbes spends this letter describing the season, and his own travels. Repeating his characterization of the landscape as an extensive garden, he writes that, during the rainy season, it has “double charms” and resembles a paradise. The monsoon, however, disrupts this pastoral beauty. Forbes describes his own difficulty traveling, even on elephant, given that state of the roads. He furthermore depicts the torrents that come with the increased rains, recounting how several camp attendants got swept away—even though “Indians are generally expert swimmers”—in a recent downpour. He reflects on these experiences with a quotation from Homer, from the Iliad, before claiming that “while I was sitting on the Elephant’s Houdah, waiting for the falling of the river, or some means of crossing it, the scene of Homer was suddenly realized.” The scene is that of a sudden downpour: Forbes takes shelter under his elephant, where he spends the night. The next morning, he “crossed the river on my favorite elephant with very little difficulty.” Portions of this text appear in <title>Oriental Memoirs</title>, volume 2, pp. 124-126.
- PhysicalDescription:
- 5 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
- FindingAidTitle:
- James Forbes archive
- Archival Object:
- https://archives.yale.edu/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199746
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199746?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1