A History of the Mahrattas v1.c6.5

v1.c6.5

Next to Mr. Elphinstone, to whom I am indebted, not only for the situation which procured me most of these advantages, but for an encouragement, without which I might never have ventured to prosecute this work, I am chiefly obliged to my friends, Captain Henry Adams, revenue-surveyor to the Raja of Satara, and Mr. William Richard Morris of the Bombay civil service, then acting as my first assistant. These gentlemen translated many hundreds of deeds and letters, numerous treaties, several voluminous histories; and, for years together, were ever ready, at all hours after the transaction of public business, to give up their time in furtherance of my object. Captain Adams is the compiler, in many parts the surveyor of the Map of Maharashtra, which accompanies these volumes.¹ I regret the necessity for its reduction from a scale of six inches to a degree to that of its present comparatively incomplete size; still, however, the situations and distances of the places laid down, will, I believe, be found more correct than those of any map of that country hitherto published; and I am equally bound to acknowledge my obligations for the information I obtained, as if it had been offered to the public in its more perfect form. The original materials for Captain Adams's map, were procured from his own surveys, from those of the late Captain Challen of Bombay, and of the late Captain Garling of Madras; which last were sent to me by Lieutenant Frederick Burr of the Nizam's service, filled up in many places from his own routes. Captain James Cruickshank, revenue-surveyor in Guzerat, with permission from the Bombay government, furnished me with such information as the records of the office of the late surveyor-general Reynolds afford, and with Sir John Malcolm's map of Malwa, which, although then unpublished, that officer readily allowed me to use. Finally, the Court of Directors granted me permission to publish the information thus collected.