The East India Vade-Mecum, Volume 1 (of 2): or, complete guide to gentlemen intended for the civil, military, or naval service of the East India Company.Williamson, Thomas
History
The East India Vade-Mecum, Volume 1 (of 2): or, complete guide to gentlemen intended for the civil, military, or naval service of the East India Company.
Williamson, Thomas
India -- Social life and customs -- 19th century -- Handbooks, manuals, etc.
To state the evil, without pointing out the remedy, would be next to
useless: but, when I suggest the means of avoiding those difficulties,
or any portion of them, attendant on arrival in a foreign land, it must
be understood, that I consider the stranger to be possessed of pecuniary
means: that is, that he can pay his way. Without this, he can do
nothing; and must undergo all the afflictions and miseries attendant
upon despised poverty, in every part of the globe. It may be proper to
point out in this place, that what might here appear to be liberal
calculations, will not suit the East; where every article of European
manufacture bears so enormous a price, where house-rent is so expensive,
and where it is indispensably necessary to retain so many servants. The
first thing to be done, (setting a letter of recommendation out of the
question,) should be to report arrival at the secretary’s office,
depositing the certificate of the Court of Directors’ licence to proceed
to India; without which, the party is treated as an alien, and scarcely
considered entitled to British protection. This does not arise from
ill-will on the part of government, or of the inhabitants; but from that
strict attention the politics of the country imperiously demand to be
paid to the several characters, and descriptions, of persons residing
within our territory.
The above relates equally to all persons in the civil or military
branches; the certificate granted at the India House must be produced,
in order to identify the party; but if it should have been lost, he
himself, together with the commander who received the order to take him
on board, must attend, to make affadavit to that effect, before the
appointment can be admitted upon the registers in India.
Such as appertain to the civil service, being always strongly
recommended and often finding many old acquaintances of their families
on the spot, require but little advice; nor does the cadet stand much in
need of instruction, as to the manner in which he should provide himself
with a home. All he has to do is to wait upon the town-major, at his
office in Fort-William, when he will receive the necessary order for his
admission into the Cadet Corps, at Baraset, about sixteen miles from
Calcutta.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account