GEORGE FORSTER.
Born about 1750.—Died 1791.
It is greatly to be regretted that of the life of this
able and adventurous traveller little is known, excepting
that portion which was spent in acquiring
his reputation. He seems to have been born about
the year 1750. At the usual age he entered into the
civil service of the East India Company, and was
appointed to fill the office of writer at the Madras
presidency. Here he gradually rose in the usual
manner to offices of trust and emolument until the
year 1782, when he obtained permission to visit his
friends in England. Instead of adopting the usual
mode of returning by sea, he formed the hazardous
design of proceeding through the upper provinces of
India, Afghamistân, and Persia, into the Russian empire,
and thence by sea to England.
Fully aware of the difficulties and dangers of the route, he made every necessary preparation which could be effected in India, obtained bills upon merchants in various cities on his road, and, still further to ensure his safety, determined to adopt the Mohammedan character as soon as he should quit the British territories. With these views he proceeded to Calcutta in the spring of 1782, and, having remained some time at that city, set out on the 23d of May on his journey up the country. His mind was naturally full of those recent and memorable events which established the British power in India; and he visited with peculiar interest several of those fields where our countrymen had won their bloody laurels, and shattered to pieces the mighty fabric of the Mogul empire.
