Forbes, James, 1749–1819, James Forbes letter, Darah, 1775 April 22, 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, Darah, 1775 April 22
- 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 7, page 153-156
- 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 update comes from Darah, where he and the English forces have made contact with what remains of Ragobah’s (Raghunathrao) army. Forbes quickly expresses the difference between rumor and reality, however: while Ragobah’s force was supposed to number over 30,000, but instead is at most 12,000 fighters. Forbes gives a quick overview of the forces and their commanders before addressing a more pressing concern, that is, the heat, and how one might find relief from it. Forbes laments: “I long to encamp near a running stream, with a few shady trees on its banks; for these are the highest luxuries I look for in this campaign.” Forbes suggests that no European can truly understand the weight of these words—without firsthand experience with the heat. He quotes James Thomson’s (1700-1748) “The Seasons” on the particularly wondrous shade of the tamarind tree, and likewise extols the banyan for its capacious branches. Only “those who travel thro India in these sultry months” truly enjoy the shade and water these groves afford. Forbes’s reflections on shade and water even take a theological turn. He explains that Muhammad promised his followers gardens of shade and clear, ever-running streams in paradise, a promise which “would have a powerful effect on his converts, natives of a hot sandy soil.” He then quotes William Collins’s (1721-1759) poem “Ecolgue the second: HASSAN; or, the Camel-driver,” on the pleasures of water and shade. Forbes manages to tear his mind away from the heat near the end of his letter, when he describes English preparations for battle. His hope is for a quick victory, so that “I shall then have the pleasure of writing to you from Poonah, the capital of the Mahratta empire.” Portions of this text appear in <title>Oriental Memoirs</title>, volume 2, chapter 16.
- 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/3199714
- Metadata Cloud URL:
- https://metadata-api.library.yale.edu/metadatacloud/api/aspace/repositories/3/archival_objects/3199714?mediaType=json&include-notes=1&include-all-subjects=1