Tan interest which our splendid territories in the East are so justly calculated to excite, has been hitherto stifled by the overwhelming nature of the studies supposed to be necessary to the attainment of a very moderate degree of knowledge relative to their history, their antiquities, their religious creeds, and the modes and manners of their various inhabitants.
The fields of Oriental literature, until very lately, have been almost exclusively occupied by the researches of learned men, whose lucubration’s, though of the highest value, are not adapted to the general reader; while a vast quantity of information, of a more popular kind, remains locked up in expensive quartos, and is consequently inaccessible to a large portion of the community. The attempt. therefore, to remove some of the difficulties attendant upon an acquaintance with the numerous objects of interest and attention with which our Indian possessions abound, will doubtless prove acceptable to all inquiring minds; and though the plan of the present work does not admit of any detailed account of the various cities and provinces illustrated in the accompanying engravings, nothing has been omitted which the limits would allow, calculated to excite interest, and to induce the reader to enter more deeply into the study of Indian history.
Many of the scenes described in the following pages are familiar to the writer; and she has spared no pains in procuring information from the most authentic sources, concerning places which she had no opportunity of visiting in person. It has not always been possible to give the exact measurements or the dates of the buildings which embellish the splendid landscapes of Hindustan; and where these are wanting, the Author has endeavoured to invest the subject with an interest of a different nature, by the introduction of characteristic traits of the native inhabitants of the neighbourhood, the political history of the country, or descriptions of its scenery and natural productions.
In glancing over the engravings illustrative of a land almost unknown to those who have become its undisputed rulers, no eye can fail to be struck with the architectural splendours of its palaces, its temples, and its tombs. Art and nature have been equally prodigal in the embellishments of a soil rich in foliage, fruit, and flower, teeming with animal life, and watered by many a noble stream, whose glittering currents give fertility to the laughing plains, and valleys thick with corn.
The wild shores of the Red Sea, the populous rivers of China, and the gem-like isles of the Eastern archipelago, have furnished subjects for a work which embraces a very large and interesting portion of Asia; and amid the information which has been collected concerning these remote scenes, will be found extracts from the translation of a Persian MS., and the latest descriptions of Canton, taken from a periodical published in China, of which very few copies have found their way into this country. The author gladly avails herself of the opportunity afforded her to offer her thanks to those who have so kindly aided her researches. She feels most particularly indebted to George Bennett, Esp., author of "Wanderings in New South Wales," and to Sir Alexander Johnstone, and the Members of the Asiatic Society, for the access granted to the library of their establishment, and for permission to make use of some very valuable MSS., especially one relative to the city of Bejapore.
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