268 SCIENTIFIC APPARATUS, 



V. COLLECTION OF MAPS OF INDIA. 



The Figures in Brackets refer to the numbering of the Catalogue.. 



IN a series of maps of India and parts of India from the time of 

 Portuguese ascendancy on the coast to that of the most recent 

 issue from the office of the Surveyor-General, there are illustrations 

 of history, of the progress of cartography, and of the gradually 

 developing and increasing requirements of administration. The 

 rough plans, half picture, half map, are succeeded by more elaborate 

 charts, these by military route surveys, early topographical maps, 

 sheets of the atlas, and finally by elaborate topographical and 

 revenue maps adapted for all the wants of a complicated system 

 of government. 



Portuguese ascendancy on the coast is illustrated by a series 

 of very curious and interesting perspective plans of their principal 

 stations, including Goa, Bombay, Cochin, and Quilon (i). 



During the long period that the Dutch held sway on the west 

 coast of India very careful surveys were made, which resulted 

 in the beautiful series of maps and charts now preserved at 

 the Hague. These maps are quaintly ornamented, and enriched 

 with carefully executed coloured sketches of towns and forts. 

 There are charts of the Persian Gulf, of Gombroon and Muscat, 

 of the west coast of India, of the Malabar backwaters with 

 soundings, and of the gulf of Manar and Palk Strait, of Cochin, 

 and a series of plans of the forts and factories. Many of them 

 are by that great Dutch cartographer Van Keulen (2). 



On the rise of British power the first demand was for charts of 

 coasts, as the base of our operations was the sea. These charts 

 were obtained not more through the early work of marine sur- 

 veyors, than owing to' the indefatigable labours of Alexander Dal- 



