1838.] 



Memoir on the Indian Surveys. 



431 



such state of things Europeans found the navigation when they first 

 became acquainted with it; but for the successive improvements it has 

 undergone from this period, we are much indebted to the diligence of 

 persons unconnected with official duties.* 



The circumnavigation of the globe was, however, too much to be 

 taken on trust, and the relative situation of countries needed further 

 confirmation. These were pursued with unabated curiosity, till in 

 seeking to assign to objects their proper place on its surface, the pre, 

 cise form of the earth and its dimensions, new and still more intricate 

 problems were found to be indispensably necessary. It is in this stage 

 of the proceedings that we purpose to notice the most prominent par- 

 ticulars connected with the geography of Asia, more especially those 

 departments of it which relate to India, and the valuable maritime sur- 

 veys instituted and carried on by the public spirit and munificence of 

 the Honourable East India Compan}^ 



The contemporaneous experiments of Picard in France, of Snellius 

 in Holland, and Norwood in our own coiintry, for the measurement of 

 a degree on the meridian, had given rise to many curious speculations, 

 which, in conjunction with the mathematical deductions of Huygens 

 and Newton, revived in the early part of the eighteenth century the 

 contested problem of the determination of the earth's ellipticity. In 

 the researches incident to such inquiries, much new geographical mat- 

 ter had been added to that acquired from other sources, and every 

 resulting formula so obtained was systematically applied by Cassini 

 and Danville to the improvement of the charts and maps of other 

 countries. They were indeed remarkably qualified to originate geo- 

 graphical projects, and reduce the stores of information which were 

 daily flowing in from all quarters, and for a considerable period the 

 maps of the latter as respects India and the neighbouring countries 

 were the best we had. But a vast field had at length been gradually 

 opening out for like investigations in India, as in Europe, by the ex- 

 tension of the theatre of war to the most distant and hitherto un- 

 explored provinces, and the gradual subjugation of the princes lately 

 confederated with the French nation. Major Rennell of the engineer 

 corps, whose celebrity as a geographer is familiar to all of us, was 

 the first person who reduced the miscellaneous materials collected by 

 British officers on the same principles, and in pointedly stating his 

 obhgations to Monsieurs D'Apres' Neptune Orientale ; and to M. 



* HorsburgTi, the self-taught cabin-boy, antl one of the first hyclrogvaphers in the 

 world, is an instance in point. 



