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I

1110 GRAPH,:

((ontinuel from the Asiatic Annual Resister.)

In addition to his duty as a member of the court•
ell, he held the office of commissary-general during
the years 1757-55, and 59; so that almost the
whole of his time was occupied in public basiness.
Yet fond of social pleasures, he found leisure to cul-
tivate the friendship of those in whcm he discovered
any estimable qualities. With Admiral Watson and
Sir George Pocock, he was in habits of great inti-
macy ; and with Captain Speke, who commanded
the flag-shp, then on the India station, be con-
tracted a close friendship, which not only contri-
buted to their own gratification, but tended to ad-
vaace the public service; for by their cordial and
united 'exertions many difficulties and ime.edienents
that obstruled the co-operation of the land and
naval farces, were either obviated or remaved. He
entertained a high esteem for Mr. James Alex-
ander, (late Lord Viscount Cale Jon) who was
his Depaty, as Accountant General. About this
time, too, he became acquainted with Mr. Alex-
ander li:lrymple, who has since acquired so much
merited reputation by his graphicalhydro works.
Dalrymple was then Under Store-keeper at . Ma.
dras ; and Orme perceiving that he had a capacity
fitted for a higher station, was desirous of gettin s him
nominated to succeed Mr. Alexander, as lipityt
Accountant. His endeavours in ths particular were
unsuccessful • but he continued with a generous at.
tention to cherish and befriend Dalrymple, whose
good natural parts, he rightly judged, might be
employed to the advantage of the public.
Though his official avocations prevented him
from applying to the study of classical literature,
for which he had in his youth imbibed an ardent
desire, they afforded him great facilities for colleet-
ing those historical materials. by which that lit.a
rary charatter he was so ambitious to gain, was
stined to be established. He was, however, ob-
liged to relinquish those pursuits sooner th in be
wished. The unwearied attention with which he
applied to them at last impaired his health ; and in
1759 he found it necessary to quit India, and return
to England with a very small fortune.
In the course of a year after his arrival, he began .
to digest the plan of his history of the military trans-
aCtions of the British nation in India, a work of
which he had long conceived the idea; and finding
that the original documents which he had obtained
would require considerable enlargement and illus-
tration, he investigated with sedulous industry and
diligence every source from whence information
could be derived. By these means he procured a
great mass of materials, of which a small part only
had previously been communicated to the public,
and that in a garbled state, through the medium of
partial
.narratives. In arranging those materials,
and in forming them into an historic composition,
he was occupied upwards of two years. In 17611
the first volume of his history was published, and
the reception it- met with was calculated to gratify
his expedations of literary fame, though it did not
reward his labours by a speedy sale. A second edi-
tion was not called for until 1775. To this volume
he prefixed a concise historical dissertation on the
M....shornmedan conquests and establishments in Hin-
dustan, comprising a review of the peculiar charac-
ter and customs of the alinda people. Having no
acquaintance with the learned languages cf Asia,
and therefore no access to some of the best authori-
ties on those important but complicated subjects, he
was led into a few mistakes and misconceptions;
which, however, are perfeCtly excuseable, as there
did not exist, at the period he wrote, any transla-
tions from Asiatic writers into any European lan-
guage, relative to the political history and civil in-
stituticns of Hindustan. His account of the Hindus
appears to have been principally derived from his
own actual observations, and is in general so accu-
rate, and is written with .such clearness and sim-
plicity, that we consider it as better calculated to
convey to European readers a distina idea of the
sseneral character and habits of those people, than
almost any of the more recent produdions on that
subject. With respect to the early Malts:rimed:at
conquests, his only guides were D'Herbels t, and
Petit de-la-Croix ; and be is therefore, for the most
part, correct, as far as relates to the Ghaznian and
Tartar conquerors; but regarding the subsequent
establishment of the Mogul dynasty, as well as the
history of its progress, and the institutions of its
most renowned princes, his account is sometimes
erroneous, and often defettive. His history of the
wars in the Carnatic, has not been more celebra-
ted than it deserves, for the faithfulness, impar-
tiality, and uniform accuracy of its narration.
Having, by this publication, introduced himself
to the world with so much advantage, he became
solicitous to support and advance his literary repu-
tation, by storing his mind with a competent know -
ledge of the ancient classics, which he knew to be
essential, not only. to the cultivation of a pure taste,
but to the attainment of eminence in literature.
With this view he applied himself with his usual
diligence to the study of the Greek language, whisl,
he had almost forgotten, and which, in a few year,.
he is said to have completely mastered. The truth..
tine which he thereby acquired strengthened his ha-
bits of thinking, in the same proportion that it in-
formed and polished his understanding, and his con-
versation, which had been always marked by strong
sense, received additional vigour and vivacity. His
company was therefore much solicited, and every
day brought him new acquaintance.
About this period (1769) his friend, Lord Clive,
finally returned from India; but soon after his arri-
val a coolness arose between him and Orme, which
terminated in the total dissolution of their friendshir,
several years before his Lordship's death. Of the-
cause of this disagreement we are not informed ;
but it is lamentable to observe the friendship of such
men as these perish like that of the most frivolous
claaratlers.
In 1770 he began to prepare the materials for the
second volume of his history, which the Court cf
Diroaors, with a just sense of ahautility of his writ-
ings, enabled him to amplify and corred, by giving