Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 27.djvu/19

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.

objects of scientific interest. In September 1863 Hislop accompanied the chief commissioner on a tour of inspection; on the evening of the 4th, while riding alone from Takalghal to Bori, he was drowned in the attempt to cross a small stream which was swollen through rain. His body was found the same night, and was buried in the Nagpoor cemetery. His wife, three daughters, and a son survived him. A large sum, to which many natives of India contributed, was raised for their support.

Hislop's work was much more than that of an ordinary missionary. Sir Richard Temple describes him as ‘among the most gifted and accomplished missionaries whom this generation has seen in India. Besides having much ability for organisation and education generally, for philology and antiquarian research, he had a taste and aptitude for physical science, especially botany and geology’ (Men and Events of my Time in India, p. 241). Hislop carefully studied the languages of the aboriginal tribes of his district, and in particular of the Gonds, and made a collection of their folklore. Geology was his chief study, and his labours in this direction were of much importance in the natural history of central India; for botany, however, he had a special taste; he also gave attention to zoology, working chiefly as an entomologist and conchologist; his notebooks are full of minute records of observations, illustrated by drawings in his own hand.

Hislop's ‘Papers relating to the Aboriginal Tribes of the Central Provinces’ (Nagpoor, 1866) were edited after his death by Sir R. Temple. In his lifetime his only independent publication was a sermon printed in 1860. But in 1853 he contributed to the ‘Royal Asiatic Society's Journal’ a paper on the ‘Geology of the Nagpoor State;’ he afterwards wrote two other papers for the same journal: ‘On the Age of the Coal Strata in Western Bengal and Central India,’ and ‘Remarks on the Geology of Nagpoor.’ Between 1854 and 1861 he contributed five papers to the ‘Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society.’

[Smith's Life of Hislop, with a portrait after a collotype taken in 1844 by D. O. Hill; John Wilson's Memorial Discourse, Bombay, 1864; Geological Society's Journal for 1864, pp. xxxix–xl.]

C. L. K.

HISLOP, Sir THOMAS (1764–1843), general, born 5 July 1764, was third and youngest son of Lieutenant-colonel William Hislop, royal artillery, who served in India in 1758–9, and died at Woolwich in 1779. His two elder brothers were killed in India, James at the battle of Pollilore in 1781, when acting as aide-de-camp to Sir Eyre Coote [q. v.]; William, a captain, royal artillery, at Cundapore, in 1783. Thomas entered the Royal Military Academy, Woolwich, as a cadet, 31 March 1778, and on 28 Dec. in the same year was appointed ensign in the 39th foot. In this regiment he served through the siege of Gibraltar, 1779–83, and obtained his lieutenancy. He appears to have made sketches of the siege (Heriot, Sketch of Gibraltar). He purchased a company in the old 100th foot in 1785, exchanged back to the 39th, and in December 1792 was appointed aide-de-camp to Major-General David Dundas [q. v.], on whose staff he served in Ireland, at Toulon, and in the expedition to Corsica. He brought home the despatches announcing the capture, on 19 Feb. 1794, of San Fiorenzo, for which he received promotion, and in May the same year was appointed aide-de-camp to Lord Amherst [see Amherst, Jeffrey], then commander-in-chief. He was employed by the Prince of Wales on a special mission in Germany, and on his return was appointed, on 25 April 1795, lieutenant-colonel of the 115th foot (or Prince William of Gloucester's Hanoverians), from which he exchanged once more to the 39th. He accompanied the 39th to the West Indies, and commanded it at the capture of Demerara, Berbice, and Essequibo in 1796. He remained in military command of those settlements until their restoration to the Dutch at the peace of Amiens. During that period he raised a corps of negroes, known as the 11th West India regiment, and afterwards disbanded. After his return home he obtained the colonelcy 8th West India regiment, was reappointed to the West India staff, and became lieutenant-governor of Trinidad. He joined the army under Sir George Beckwith [q. v.] at Martinique in 1809, commanded the first division at the capture of Guadeloupe in 1810, afterwards returning to his government at Trinidad, which he left in ill-health in 1811. On 28 March 1812 Hislop was appointed commander-in-chief at Bombay, and sailed in the Java frigate, which in December 1812 was captured by the United States frigate Constitution off the coast of Brazil. Hislop, whose bravery was conspicuous during the action, was put on shore on parole at San Salvador, whence he returned home. On 27 May 1813 he was appointed commander-in-chief at Madras (Fort St. George), and on 2 Nov. was created a baronet.

Hislop arrived at Madras late in 1814, and in 1815 commanded a corps of observation called the ‘army of reserve,’ collected on the Madras frontier. He was commander-in-chief of the ‘army of the Deccan’ in the