96 



Deaths Abroad. 



SWrke, then a considerable farmer, held 

 the rank of coJonel/ When Gen. Bur- 

 goyne marched with his army into tiie 

 neighbouring country, the Green Moun- 

 tain boys, as thej were called, hung on his 

 rear, and did good service. Burgoyne 

 was obliged to send ont large detach- 

 nients to bring in his convoys of provi- 

 sions. One to Bennington, under his 

 Hanoverian officers advance ; Starke 

 called ont his own regiment, and, with as 

 many more as he could collect, boldly 

 attacked this disciplined power, and gave 

 them a complete defeat, an event which 

 soon compelled Gen. Hiirgoyne to surren- 

 der. Since the war, Starke, now a major, 

 general, resided on his estate, and at- 

 tained the great age of ninety-three. In 

 his latter days, he was constantly pleasing 

 iiimself with speaking of his victory at 

 Bennington. An occurrence happened, 

 soon after the surrender of Burgoyne, 

 which was mentioned in the House of 

 Lords by the late Earl Stanhope. Bur- 

 goyne's troops, or the Convention army, as 

 they were called, were marclied from 

 Rossem to the southward under an Ameri- 

 can guard. They met oiie day a waggon, 

 driven by a man in a smock frock, with 

 whom the officers of the Americans shook 

 hands in the most familiar manner ; the 

 English officer, surprised at this, asked an 

 American who that waggoner was, and 

 received for answer, " What, do yon not 

 know him? why that is Starke, colonel 

 Starke, who banged you so dreadfully at 

 Bennmgton." The country, called the 

 Green Mountains, was soon called Ver- 

 mont ; and, under that name, was soon 

 after the revolution admitted as one of the 

 States of the Union. 



At Hingin Ghaut, in India, Lieut. Col. 

 JVilliam Lambton, superintendent of the 

 Grand Trigonometrical Survey in India, 

 while proceeding in the execution of his 

 duty from Hydrabad towards Nagpoor. 

 The Annals of the Royal and Asiatic 

 Society bear ample testimony to the 

 extent and importance of the labours of 

 Col. Lambton, in his measurement of an 

 arc of the meridian in India, extending 

 from Cape Comorin, in lat. 8. 23. 10. to a 

 new base line, measured in ;at. 21. (j., near 

 the village of Takoorkera, 15 miles S.E. 

 from the cily of Ellichpore, a distance ex- 

 ceeding that measure by the Englis-h and 

 French geometers, between Ihe parallels 

 of Greenwich and Tormentara in the 



island of Minorca, It was tlie intenlion 

 of Col. Lambton to haVe extended the arc 

 to Agra, in which case the meridian line 

 would have passed at short distances from 

 Bhopaul, Serange, Nurwur, Gualiar, and 

 Dholpore. At his advanced a^e, he 

 despaired of health and strength remaining 

 tor further exertion ; otherwise, it cannot 

 be doubted, that it would have been a j 

 grand object of his ambition to have pro- j 

 longed it through the Dooab, and acro.ss * 

 the Himalays, to the 32d degree of north 

 latitude. If this vast undertakin» had 

 been achieved, and that it may yet be 

 completed is not improbable, British India 

 will have to boast of a much larger 

 unbroken meridian line than has been 

 before measured on the surface of the 

 globe. Though the measurement of the 

 arc of the meridian was the principal 

 object of the labours of Colonel Lambton, 

 he extended his operations to the East 

 and West, and the set of triangles covers 

 great part of the Peninsula of India, de- 

 fining with the utmost precision the situa^ 

 tion of a very great number of principal 

 places in latitude, longitude, and eleva- 

 tion ; and affording a sure basis for an 

 amended Geographical Map, which is now 

 under preparatinn. The triangiilation 

 also connects the Coromandel and Mala- 

 bar coasts in numerous important points, 

 thus supplying the best means of truly lay- 

 ing down the shape of those coasts, and 

 rendering an essential service to naviga- 

 tion. It was the colonel's intention to 

 have himself carried the meridian line as 

 far north as Agra, and he detached his 

 first assistant. Captain Everest, of the 

 Bengal artillery, to extend a series of $ 

 triangles westward to Bombay, and when 

 that service should be completed eastward 

 to Point Palmyras, and probably Fort 

 William ; by which extensive and arduous 

 operation, the three presidencies of India 

 would be connected, and several obvious 

 advantages gained to geography and navi- 

 gation. But it is in the volumes of the 

 proceedings of various learned societies, 

 that the accounts of the labours of this 

 veteran philosopher, whose loss we la- 

 ment, must be looked for, and who for 

 twenty-two years carried on his operations 

 in the ungenial climate with unabated 

 zeal and perseverance, and died full of 

 years, and conscious of a well-deserved 

 reputation. 



TO CORRESPONDENTS, &c. 



The Supplementarij Numbe7- lo the Fifty-sixth Volume was puhlished oh the 

 3 1st of January, containing copious Extracts from some of the most celebrated 

 Works of the last six montlis; with Indexes, Title, ^e. 



Eruatum.— In the Table, page 33 of the present Number, after Flanders, for 

 Russia read Prussia. 



