2 
INTRODUCTION. 
There are two references to this appointment in the old Records of the Govern- 
ment of Bengal, which are interesting not only because they give further particulars 
regarding an event which may be described as epoch-making in the history of the 
British occupation of India ; since from Rennell and his four assistants sprang that 
vast edifice the 'Survey of India’, which now employs nearly 150 Europeans besides 
a veritable army of native Surveyors and servants, and has carried its labours far 
into the surrounding regions as well as throughout the whole of India ; but also 
because they show clearly the estimation in which the services of James Rennell 
were even then held ; and the expressions conveyed in them must have been the 
more gratifying, since the minutes of the Council at that period seem to have more 
often been directed towards the admonishment of their servants for lapses of conduct, 
than to rewarding them for zeal and industry. 
The first of these extracts runs as follows L : — 
Proceedings in Council , January 8 th, 1767. 
<c Mr. James Rennell having, in the surveys which have lately been carried 
on under his direction, given sufficient proofs of his abilities and assiduity in 
that branch, which may prove of great consequence to the Company’s posses- 
sions under this Presidency, — -It is agreed that he be appointed Surveyor- 
General, with the rank of Captain, and a salary of Rs. 300 per month in consi- 
deration of his merit and the labour of that employ.” 
The second extract gives, in a letter to the Court of Directors, the reasons of the 
Council for granting Rennell so high a salary , for though it may seem meagre enough 
according to modern ideas, it was exactly the same that Warren Hastings drew as a 
Member of Council in 1764. 1 2 
Letter to Court of Directors , March 30 th, 1767. 3 
“ So much depends upon accurate surveys both in military operations and in 
coming at a true knowledge of the value of your possessions, that we have em- 
ployed everybody on this service who could be spared and were capable of it. But 
as the work must ever be imperfect while it is in separate and unconnected plans, 
we have appointed Captain Rennell, a young man of distinguished merit in this 
branch, Surveyor-General, and directed him to form one general chart from 
those already made, and such as are now on hand as they can be collected in. 
This though attended with great labour does not prevent his prosecuting 
his own surveys, the fatigue of which with the desperate wounds he has lately 
1 Rev. J. Long — Selections from the unpublished Records of Government for the years 1748 to 1767 inclusive, 
Calcutta, 1869, No. 940, p. 492. 
2 Ibid., Introduction, p. xxvii. It must also be remembered that the Company’s servants in those days, above 
a certain rank, were allowed to participate in the profits derived from the trade in salt, betel, and tobacco; and it 
is probably for this reason that Sir C. Markham states (James Rennell, p. 45) that Rennell’s allowances on his first 
appointment in Bengal were from £ 900 to £1,000 a year. The numerous references to these commodities in the 
Journal perhaps indicate the personal interest that the writer must have taken in their production. 
3 Ibid., No. 929, p. 487. 
[102 ] 
