A reader writes:

 

Dear Amitav
It would have slipped your mind but we spoke briefly during your sumptuous book launch in Mumbai last month. I had promised to send you details of a few books in Gujarati on China and related to the China trade published before 1850 – but have kept procrastinating – to read River of Smoke; having completed it, this is the least i can do.

  • Patell, Cowasjee Sorabjee Cowasjee: Chinno ahewal ??? ?? ??????  In two volumes. Bombay: printed at the Telegraph and Courier Press by Jeejeebhoy Byramjee, 1848. 432 + 457 pages. [Perhaps an earlier edition was published in 1844.]
  • Chinoye, Hormusji Framji: Chin ane England khatena veparnu ganit pustak. Bombay: printed at Daftar Ashkara Press, 1850.
  • Chinoye, Hormusji Framji: Calculation book of pearls; ?????? ????? ????? ?????? ?????. Bombay: printed at the Summacher press, n.d.

The first one is a massive tome; starts off with advice on preparation previous to a China voyage; then describes the route (and options) in detail; halts at Singapore for a chapater or two and then the usual stops at Macau and Lintin; i do not remember if it includes Hong Kong. It goes on to provide details of various Chinese provinces (probably translated from English) among other subjects. The other two are commercial handbooks; has a lot of incidental information on the China trade. There are also a couple of chrestomathies – basically Gujarati-English (and vice versa) glossaries of items of trade, etc.
And as they say, available in all good libraries, at least in Bombay.

 

What a pity that none of these have been translated. And how incomprehensible that no one has yet done a thesis on this subject!

 

 

 

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