George Forster ( – February 1791) was an English traveller and civil servant of the East India Company, on the Madras establishment. He has sometimes been confused with the German naturalist Georg Forster. He is notable for being the first Briton to have journeyed from India through Central Asia to Russia and published a journal of his travels.
Life In 1782 Forster undertook a journey that began in Calcutta, Bengal and passed through Kashmir, Afghanistan, Herat, Khorasan, and Mazandaran, crossed the Caspian Sea by ship, and then travelled to Baku, Astrakhan, Moscow, St Petersburg and then by ship to London.A Journey from Bengal to England through the Northern part of India, Kashmire, Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia by the Caspian Sea by George Forster. Volume 1 1798 and Volume 2 1808 R.Faulding, London.
In 1791 he was sent on an embassy to the Mahrattas, and died at Nagpore (called Nagpur in modern times).
Works He published in England Sketches of the Mythology and Customs of the Hindoos (84 pp., 1785); and on his return to India he wrote an account of his journey, the first volume of which was published at Calcutta in 1790. The narrative of his journey was completed from his papers, and published in London by an unknown editor as A Journey from Bengal to England through the Northern part of India, Kashmire, Afghanistan, and Persia, and into Russia by the Caspian Sea (2 vols. 1798). He also published in 1803 a work co-authored with Antoine Polier on the Sikhs, one of the earliest English language accounts on the group.A Character of the Sieks. From the Observations of Colonel Polier and Mr. Forster. (1803). [A Character of the Sikhs, from the Observations of Colonel Polier and Mr. Forster] – Also included is: An Account of the Jauts. [An Account of the Jats]. Published in: The Asiatic Annual Register, Or, A View of the History of Hindustan, and of the Politics, Commerce and Literature of Asia, Volume 4 - Section titled "Characters", pp. 9–15, Lawrence Dundas Campbell, E. Samuel, J. Debrett, Picadilly, 1803
References
Attribution