Forbes, James, 1749–1819, James Forbes letter, Ahmed-abad, 1781 May 5, copied between 1794 and 1800
- Call Number:
- Folio A 2023 69
- Holdings:
- [Request]
- Creator:
- Forbes, James, 1749–1819
- Title(s):
- James Forbes letter, Ahmed-abad, 1781 May 5
- 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 11, page 219-224
- 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:
- The journey to Ahmedabad continues. It begins with a quick passage through several villages, one of which belongs to a group of dancers, “who frequently have lands and villages assigned to them by the Princes of Hindostan.” “Province of Guzerat” Forbes then offers an extended reflection on the province of Gujarat. It is, he regrets, accustomed to groups of robbers, leading to a large amount of uncultivated land and a greater frequency of large towns, which provide for a better mutual defense. He nonetheless finds it delightful, and describes the richness and diversity of plant and animal life in uncultivated areas. He praises the quality of oxen, and other domesticated creatures, and claims that “a friend at Cambay shewed me the skin of a Lioness, killed a few weeks ago, exactly resembling those from Africa.” This is a curiosity, however, and Forbes has not seen any lions in the wild. He closes this section of his letter by stressing the dangers of travel by night—due to tigers, one of which attacked and killed a horse in his party—but insists that, during the day, humans are safe. He concludes with a quotation from Psalm 104. “Mausoleums at Betivah” Forbes and his companions move on to another area, one that used to be part of Ahmedabad, but now forms its own village. It contains numerous tombs, the beauty of which quite astonishes Forbes. He writes: “the small cupolas which cover each tomb are of fine marble, curiously inlaid with festoons of flowers, in mother of pearl, as neat as in the snuff-boxes of Europe.” The local inhabitants insist that these structures are nothing compared to those found at Agra and elsewhere. As Forbes leaves the area, he notes other buildings, slowly falling into ruin. He closes with a quotation from Richard Glover’s (1712-1785) <title>Leonidas</title>. Portions of this text appear in <title>Oriental Memoirs</title>, volume 3, chapter 29.
- 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/3199981
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199981?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1