1838.] 



Memoir on the Indian Surveys, 



425 



Although some valuable scattered notices both of the geography 

 and the trigonometrical operations have appeared from time to time in 

 the Transactions of the Royal Society and the Asiatic Society of Cal- 

 cutta, as well as in Major Rennell's Memoirs, and voyages and travels 

 of a still earlier date, very little, notwithstanding, of what has been 

 recently accomplished has, as yet, been described in any publication 

 generally accessible to the community, in a simple and connected form, 

 intelligible to readers of all classes. In endeavouring to supply this 

 deficiency, it were much to be wished that such an epitome had been 

 ready prepared to hand by those who have successively superintended 

 these operations, and were, therefore, most competent to do justice both 

 to the subject itself, and to the many meritorious individuals who have 

 been engaged in its execution, the memorials of whose unobtrusive 

 industry and talent would, but for such notice, be entirely forgotten 

 and lost. In default of such account, the following particulars will be 

 received v.7ith indulgence, and probably be found acceptable, inasmuch 

 as they are drawn from the best sources of information by one who 

 was for many years employed on that survey, and felt an enthusiastic 

 interest in its progress and execution. I should have deemed it pre- 

 sumptuous to have engaged to prepare this paper for the Society, but 

 for the conviction that the fulfilment of such an undertaking by any 

 other person would perhaps have been attended with considerable dif- 

 ficulty, and the conclusions, so drawn, might after all have been judged 

 far less satisfactory than as they now come from the pen of a soldier 

 little used to description, though intimately conversant with the nature 

 of the countries surveyed, the circumstances and capabilities of the 

 parties employed, and the several methods which were used under 

 all the discordant and conflicting emergencies, in despite of which so 

 much has been accomplished. 



It may be expected, however, that I should preface this account 

 with a few remarks on the progress of geographical knowledge gene- 

 rally, as an approprip.te introduction to that of Asia, and bring it down 

 to the period when our acquisitions in British India began to assume 

 an importance to the country, which demanded a more energetic ex- 

 ercise of authority, and established the East India Company in the 

 administration of its government. An analysis of this sort is chiefly 

 instructive as it illustrates the march of intelligence, and the advance 

 of the arts, and perhaps as throwing some light on communications 

 which have occasionally been received with interest by the Society 

 respecting the early navigation of the ancients. 



