[INDIAN MUTINY] First Geography for Natives : or, guide to the map of the world

[CLIFT, Horace William]

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Calcutta : printed at the Calcutta School-Book Society's Press, and sold at their Depository, Circular Road, 1846. Sixth edition. Octavo (177 x 110 mm), original plum cloth (faded and with scattered stains); ownership inscription to front free endpaper: 'R. Moore of the 1 Company 6 Bn. Bengal Artillery Feby. 12 the [sic] 1857 Anno Domino [sic] the year of our Lord God 180 [sic] I.H.S. in him'; pp. iv, 48; upper margin of page 1 with a partially legible inscription '[MEERU]TT ART.Y: SCHOOL'; light soiling, a very good copy with a fascinating provenance (see below). An obscure geography textbook designed for Indian students published in Calcutta in 1846. Although there is understandably a focus on the Indian subcontinent, all of the world's regions are covered. The final two brief chapters are devoted to Australia and Polynesia, respectively. The text of the former reads: 'Australia consists of New Holland, Van Dieman's [sic] Land, New Zealand, Papua or New Guinea, New Britain, New Caledonia, the New Hebrides, and several other neighbouring islands. New South Wales (the eastern part of New Holland) and Van Dieman's [sic] Land have been colonized by the British; but the other islands are of little importance, and are imperfectly known. The natives are wretched savages, especially the New Zealanders, who devour human flesh. Sidney [sic] is a flourishing British settlement in New South Wales; Hobart Town, also a British settlement, is in Van Dieman's [sic] Land. Botany Bay was first colonized by convicts from Great Britain. Bass's straits separate New Holland and Van Dieman's [sic] Land; Cook's straits lie between the two islands named New Zealand.' The ownership inscription on the front endpaper, together with the inscription at the head of the main text, provide a tantalising link with the outbreak of the Indian Mutiny (otherwise known as the Sepoy Rebellion). The book appears to have originally belonged to theBengal Artillery School, located in Meerut (variant spelling: Meerutt), before it passed into the possession of R. Moore of the Bengal Artillery's 6th Battalion on 12 February 1857. A short time later,Meerut became the flashpoint for the eruption of violence on 10 May 1857 - the date acknowledged as the start of the rebellion. The Bengal Artillery was a component of the East India Company's Bengal Army, and it played a major role in a number of actions during the conflict; furthermore, most of the Indian personnel in the Bengal Native Artillery joined the uprising. In July 1857, Moore's 1st Company 6th Battalion was involved in the infamous Siege of Cawnpore, during which200 British women and children captured by the rebels were butchered in what came to be known as the Bibi Ghar massacre; their remains were thrown down a local well. A memorial in Kanpur (formerly Cawnpore) 'tothe women and children of the late ill-fated 1st Comp. 6th Battalion Bengal Artillery' killed on the 18th July 1857, was raised by 'a non-commissioned officer who formerly belonged to the 1st Company 6th Battalion.' We have not been able to uncover the fate of R. Moore, the owner of this book: did providence perhaps spare him from the Siege of Cawnpore?

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• Titolo: [INDIAN MUTINY] First Geography for Natives : or, guide to the map of the world
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