Royal Asiatic Society, 



377 



in the North, and Borneo, Celebes, New Guinea, and the other Eastern 

 Ishnids, as far as Torres' Straits, and the N. W. part of Australia, in 

 the South. 



As the Committee of Correspondence always direct their researches to 

 those parts of Asia to which the circumstances of the time have parti- 

 cularly called the attention of the public, they have directed their in- 

 quiries during the last year, to subjects intimately connected with those 

 three divisions of Asia ; and I shall take the liberty to explain to the 

 Meeting the nature, as well of those circumstances, as of the inquiries 

 made by the Committee, and the reasons I have for believing, from the 

 present feelings of the people of Asia in favour of useful knowledge 

 and literary distinction, that the proceedings of the Society are popular, 

 and w ill be encouraged throughout that great and interesting portion of 

 the globe. 



As to the first division of Asia, there are two circumstances v/hich 

 have particularly called the attention of the public to it. First, the 

 general conviction which prevails of the necessity and practicability of 

 establishing a direct and expeditious communication between Great 

 Britain and British Indi^^, either through the Arabian or the Persian Gulf- 

 Second, the general btlief which prevails, that the Russian Government 

 may, in consequence of the extension of its frontiers towards the sources 

 of the Euphrates and Tigris, attempt, in the event of a future war 

 betw^een England a.nd Russia, to aim a blow at the British possessions 

 in India through the Persian Gulf. ¥/ith a view to these two circum- 

 stances, the Committee have endeavoured to acquire a thorough know- 

 ledge of the geop;raphy and topography of that division of Asia; and 

 have derived so much information from the Surveys Qi the Indian Navy> 

 as to render it their duly, considering the debt of gratitude which the 

 friends of science owe to this distinguished body of men, to allude short- 

 ly to the history of their military achievements; their maritime surveys; 

 and diplom.atic negociations. 



The inhabitants of the Western coast of the peninsula of India, from 

 Cape Comorin, South, to Surat, North, have always, from the earliest times? 

 owing to a variety of causes, had a great propensity to piracy. In conse- 

 quence of this, the Great Mogul, as long as he exercised any authority over 

 that coast, kept up a navy, under the command of an Ad.niral called the 

 Sedee, for the protection of the trade which was carried on by his sub- 

 jects between India and the Persian and Arabian G nils. The British 

 Government, when Bombay was ceded to Great B; lluin by Poitv.ga!, 

 found it necessary to establish and keep up a nnvy for a similar pur- 

 pose ; and it expended 50,000/. a 3-ear upon tins navy from 1710 to 

 1756. In the latter year the Government had, upon an occasion of 

 great political importance to tlie Biitish in(ere>;ts in India, a full op- 



