үші А SKETCH OF THE LIFE OF 
As Bachanan did certainly make two and possibly made three voyages to India 
and the East before he joined the Indian Medical Service, and аз it has been shewn 
to be improbable that he ever served in the Navy, we may almost with safety 
conclude that, like many other adventurous young physicians of his day—his future 
friend and predecessor in the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, Dr. Roxburgh, ney be 
quoted as a known example --Васһапап served during this period as Surgeon’s mate, 
and in due cours? as Surgeon, on an East Indiaman. ‘The intervals between one 
voyage and another would naturally be considerable, since the sailings of the East 
Indiamen were seasonal. These intervals most probably were largely spent at his 
father’s house, at Leny. If so, these considerable and repeated periods of residence 
at home might easily, especially if his health were, as is possible, indifferent at the 
time, be confused by neighbours with a continuous and prolonged period of illness 
and inactivity. 
. Buchanan made no contributions to scientific literature between 1783 and 1794 
and the only published observations relating to this period appeared in 3821 in the 
Edinburgh Journal of Science, tive years after he retired. But a perusal of Buchanan's 
papers on the language, religion and literature of Burma, published in the Astatich 
Researches іп 1793-99 affords indications that the years which intervened between his 
graduation at Edinburgh and his receiving a commissicn from the Honourable East 
India Company must have been marked by wide reading and extended observation 
of men and things. 
9, SERVICE IN INDIA, 1794—1805. 
SURVEYS or Ava, CHITTAGONG, MYSORE AND NEPAL, 
Dr. Francis Buchanan entered the service of the Honourable East India Company 
as an Assistant Surgeon on the Bengal Establishment on 26th September, 1794. 
Soon after his appointment he was attached to the embassy which was deputed 
under Captain Michael Symes to the Court of Ava. This embassy left Calcutta on 
218t February, 1795 and, on its way to Rangoon, the vessel in which the embassy 
sailed culled at Port Cornwallis in North Andaman. Buchanan was thus given an 
opportunity of seeing something of the Andamans and of seeing and learning a good 
deal about Pegu and Ava before the embassy returned to Calcutta on 22nd December, 
1795. : 
From the account of this embassy published by Symes (now a Major) in 1800,2 
we learn how valuable as a colleague and how delightful as a companion Buchanan 
т---- — s TREE 
one visited by Symes and Buchanan, the origiml name of Port Cornwallis was again applied. In 1796 orders 
were issuel for the removal of the whole establishment to Penang. The present establishment in the Andamans 
dates from 1858 and, owing to the transfer of its original mme “Port Cornwallis " to the harbour in North 
Andamsn, for which that name is still used, the third settlement, 
of 1789, has, to prevent confusion, been renmed Port Blair іп commemoration of the original founder. 
