Forbes, James, 1749–1819, James Forbes letter, Bheel-poor Camp, 1775 August 6, copied between 1794 and 1800
- Call Number:
- Folio A 2023 69
- Holdings:
- [Request]
- Creator:
- Forbes, James, 1749–1819
- Title(s):
- James Forbes letter, Bheel-poor Camp, 1775 August 6
- 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 8, page 151-153
- 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 next letter takes a less precise approach to the vagaries of Indian and company politics: he claims that “from my present situation, as secretary to the Commander in Chief,” he is not “at liberty to engage on that subject.” He notes only that “Fully-Sihng [possibly Fateh Singh Rao Gaekwad] has made his peace with Ragobah [Raghunathrao]” and has signed a treaty to the company’s advantage. Forbes remembers the honor of meeting with the former, who is now at the camp. Forbes then turns his attention to the weather, and in particular, the monsoon and its effects. He admits that he had in previous letters praised its effect on the landscape. Now, however, he describes how “every body [is] troubled with a fever” and how the camp is filled with “breeding vermin of all kinds, attended with such fetid smells and noxious vapors, that in a morning we cannot see a yard before us.” Forbes has heard that Ragobah intends to move his camp, a rumor that prompts him to pity Govind-Row (the brother of Fully-Sihng), presumably for his exclusion from the treaty just signed. He declares himself “a citizen of the world,” and closes with a quotation from Richard Glover’s (c. 1712-1785) “Leonidas,” beginning, “All-bounteous Nature! thy impartial laws to no selected race of men confine.” This text does not appear in <title>Oriental Memoirs</title>.
- Physical Description:
- 3 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/3199765
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199765?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1