1838.-] 



Memoir on the Indian Surveys, 



433 



the Hebrides, that many parts of India were better known than the 

 northern parts of Scotland. 



Many very intelligent officers soon followed in the train of Major 

 Rennell j Captain Moncrieff, of the Bombay Engineers, Captain Mac- 

 kenzie, of the Madras Engineers, and Colonel Charles Reynolds, who 

 were all three very early distinguished for their capacity in this line. 

 The former, in his progress through Canara and Malabar, produced a 

 valuable geographical sketch of those provinces subsequently incorpo- 

 rated by Colonel Reynolds in his large map of India.* 



It is not too much to conclude that some portion of the characteristic 

 spirit of Rennell had been communicated to all those who were placed 

 in connexion with him in his official capacity of surveyor-general ; for 

 about the time of the publication of his Memoir of a Map of Hindoo- 

 stan, a variety of documents were placed on record, which were suffer- 

 ed to pass unnoticed, and there is still much in them which would 

 deserve preservation. On the 14th January, 1780, Mr. Charles Chap- 

 man was deputed to the government at Cochin China, to inquire into 

 the advantages of a commerce with that country, and to endeavour to 

 establish a freedom of trade to all the Company's settlements, under 

 sanction of the ruling power of the place, A narrative of his pro- 

 ceedmgs and observations on Cochin China and Tonquin, in pursu- 

 ance of this mission, was forwarded to the Court. Another document, 

 with a set of drawings of lands as they appear in the eastern passage 

 to China, according to the bearings laid down, was sent in by Mr. 

 George Grey Townshend, on the 24th January,. 1791; and a further 

 description, with charts of Cochin China^. by Mr. George Taswell, on 

 the 9th August, 1799. Lieut. Colonel Kyd, of the Bengal Engineers, Mr. 

 Ritchie, Colonel Colebrooke, and Captain Blair, furnished at intervals 

 various astronomical particulars, and written information respecting 

 the Ganges and the Hooghly rivers, as did Lieut. Wood, Mr. Reuben 

 Burrows, and Mr. Michael Topping, on the coasts of Arracan, the 

 Delta of the Ganges, and the latter of the entire eastern coast, from 

 the embouchure of that river to Cape Comorin. The volume of astro« 

 nomical observations by Mr. Reuben Burrows, 31st January, 1791, 



* Captain Reynolds' Survey of Bednore, on a larger scale than any which had thea 

 been attempted (four miles to an inch) first brought him into public notice, and deserv- 

 edly so, both from the minuteness and accuracy with which it was executed, and its extent 

 and completeness, considering how very few there were at that time who paid any 

 attention to science. 



