432 



Memoir on the Indian Surveys. 



[APRfl. 



Danville's maps of Asia and India, published in 1751 and \7^% he 

 eulogises with astonishment the skill and tact with which that excel- 

 lent geographer availed himself of the scattered notices derived from 

 vague itineraries and books of travels. 



This observation of Major Rennell, respecting Danville, may lead 

 ns to estimate the peculiar talent which enabled him also, under ex- 

 isting circumstances, to produce so much valuable information respect- 

 ing countries that were inaccessible to European observation ; it was the 

 talent of comparing and collecting, the habit of selection, and a judici- 

 ous application of such selection to one uniform system— requiring no 

 ordinary share of patient investigation and deference to truth, to the 

 exclusion of whatever might be either speculative or unknown. A 

 memorandum or simple route enabled him under such restraints to fix 

 the position of many interesting places with a very tolerable degree of 

 precision. To every thing there must be a beginning, and w-ith refer- 

 ence to those who are disposed to under value labours of this sort, it 

 may be well to offer in extenuation that the master hand is as frequent- 

 ly displayed in the first rude outline or design as in the finishing 

 touches of a portrait ; and a hasty sketch is, in its wa)'', calculated to 

 express frequently as much as can be conveyed by a more perfect de- 

 lineation. Wiih regard to Major Rennell's opinion, that the public 

 records at Goa contained much that might have served to illustrate 

 eastern geography generally, he was doubtless mis-informed, as I had 

 the most unlimited access to every thing of that sort for several years, 

 and was assured that if any thing had been deposited in the archives 

 prior to 1700, it had been abstracted or destroyed at the instance of the 

 Marquis of Pombal. 



Having once laid down a general plan, everything additional fell in 

 its proper place, and served at least to recommend more perfect and 

 accurate surveys to succeeding investigators. Such as his information 

 was respecting Berar and Bengal, it is still the most complete w^e pos- 

 sess, though the rewards and credits were in a measure bestowed on a 

 far less gifted and successful observer, Colonel Charles Reynolds. 

 There is one way, however, of satisfying those who are over-scrupu- 

 lous, and can find no merit in adjustments so dependent, as they may 

 argue, upon chance, which I will venture to affirm is unanswerable, 

 and that is, a comparison of the latitudes and longitudes of the princi- 

 pal points determined by Rennell, and the results of the great trigono- 

 metrical survey. The coincidences indeed were more than sufficient to 

 justify that remark made many years ago by Johnson, in his Tour to 



