Forbes, James, 1749–1819, James Forbes letter, Mangulore, 1772 February 8, copied between 1794 and 1800
- Call Number:
- Folio A 2023 69
- Holdings:
- Accessible by appointment in the Study Room [Request]
- Creator:
- Forbes, James, 1749–1819
- Title(s):
- James Forbes letter, Mangulore, 1772 February 8
- 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 79-82
- 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:
- From Onore (now Honnavar), Forbes sails to Mangulore (now Mangalore, or Mangaluru), where he writes his twenty-fourth letter. He begins with an apology: a sudden gale has prevented his observing many of the other towns along the coast. In Mangulore, however, he has managed to prepare an overview of the city and its inhabitants. According to Forbes, the city is the principal seaport of Haider Ali, the ruler of the kingdom of Mysore. Numerous European goods are sold here, above all, artillery, small arms, and other weaponry manufactured in Europe. The town is heavily fortified, with multiple fortresses, and, Forbes suggests, recent additions made at the request of the local Nabob (nawab). Forbes is not impressed with the remainder of the city and its inhabitants: “most of the houses are mean and dirty…we waited on the governor, but not liking either his mean appearance, or haughty behavior, we paid him a very short visit.” While the Portuguese maintain a presence in the city, Forbes explains that the English only send occasional servants to purchase goods. Forbes then turns to the life story of Haider Ali. In Forbes’s telling, Ali began his military career in the army of the ruler of Mysore and, after establishing himself as “an intrepid officer” rose through the ranks. Ali unseated the existing ruler, then a child: “at length, by cruelty, deceit, ingratitude, and every base passion that can influence the human mind, he established his throne in blood…” He now is, according to Forbes, “one of the most powerful sovereigns of the East,” distinguished as a “financier, a statesman, and a general.” He is, however, prone to drinking, and especially cruel while intoxicated. Forbes speaks of his civil servants as “know[ing] a sword hangs over their head every time they enter the Durbar.” He discusses Ali’s methods of intelligence collection as well: “silence on state affairs reigns in these despotic realms; for Hyder has the best and earliest notice of every thing that passes; he keeps the most vigilant Halcarras, or spies at all the courts & principal towns in Hindustan.” While Forbes’s hyperbolic depiction of Ali’s cruelty may stem as much from his own political background as historical developments, his comments on South Asian intelligence gathering do reflect a reality in which rulers constantly expanded their ability to monitor their own and other realms, often assuming and even acknowledging that other rulers would do the same. The text of this letter does not appear in <title>Oriental Memoirs</title>. Bibliography: Bayly, C.A. <title>Empire and Information: Intelligence Gathering and Social Communication in India, 1780-1870</title>. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.
- Physical Description:
- 4 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/3199566
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199566?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1