tod lieu col james (1 Ergebnisse)

First edition. Quarto (12 1/8 x 9 1/2 inches; 307 x 245 mm). lx, 518, [1, eratta], [1, blank] pp. With nine engraved plates including frontispiece by W.F. Sterling after F. Mackenzie from original sketches by Colonel Hunter Blair, Numerous vignette engravings within the text. With half-title. Newer half green straight-grain morocco over marbled boards. Spine stamped lettered and stamped in gilt, with elephant motif. Edges dyed brown. Some minor offsetting from plates. Newer endpapers. Some previous owner's neat marginalia throughout, some in red and blue pencil, some in neat old ink and some in pencil. Still very clean inside. Overall very good. Lieu-Col. James Tod was an "army and political officer in India. Appointed on 29 May 1800 lieutenant in the 14th Bengal infantry, he went up country; in 1801, when stationed at Delhi, he was ordered to survey an old canal in the neighbourhood. In 1805 he was attached to the escort sent with his friend Graeme Mercer, envoy and resident at Sindhia's court. While travelling with the maharaja's camp, and afterwards from 1812 to 1817 when it remained at Gwalior, he was constantly surveying or collecting topographical information. In 1815 he submitted a map to the governor-general (Lord Hastings), in which for the first time the term 'central India' was applied to the Indian states later under the central India agency. Rajputana was also included in the area of his researches. together with the Indian Desert, into which he sent parties of explorers, whose Journals and notes of which, and others from Central and Western India form the Annals of Rajasthan. In 1817 Lord Hastings' expedition against the Pindaris took place, where Tod's local knowledge was invaluable- he had already sent in reports and plans for a campaign against them: he volunteered for service and was sent to Rowtah in Haraoits where he set up an Intelligence department which 'materially contributed to the success of the campaign'. He induced the Regent of Kotah to capture and surrender to his forces the wives and children of the leading Pindari chiefs.Ill health was the reason given for Tod's retirement in June 1822, though it did not prevent his journeying to Bombay by the circuitous route described in Travels in Western India, published after his death." (Oxford Dictionary of National Biography) HBS 68662. $5,000.