1778
In some one of your letters which I do not recollect – you speak (with honest indignation) of the treachery and chicanery of the Natives. – My good friend, you should remember from whom they learnt those vices:– the first christian visitors found them a simple, harmless people – but the cursed avidity for wealth urged these first visitors (and all the succeeding ones) to such acts of deception – and even wanton cruelty – that the poor ignorant Natives soon learnt to turn the knavish – and diabolical arts which they too soon imbibed – upon their teachers.
I am sorry to observe that the practice of your country (which as a resident I love – and for its freedom – and for the many blessings I enjoy in it – shall ever have my warmest wishes – prayers – and blessings); I say it is with reluctance, that I must observe your country’s conduct has been uniformly wicked in the East – West‐Indies – and even on the coast of Guinea. – The grand object of English navigators – indeed of all christian navigators – is money – money – money – for which I do not pretend to blame them – Commerce was meant by the goodness of the Deity to diffuse the various goods of the earth into every part – to unite mankind in the blessed chains of brotherly love – society – and mutual dependence:– the enlightened Christian should diffuse the riches of the Gospel of peace – with the commodities of his respective land – Commerce attended with strict honesty – and with Religion for its companion – would be a blessing to every shore it touched at. – In Africa, the poor wretched natives – blessed with the most fertile and luxuriant soil – are rendered so much the more miserable for what Providence meant as a blessing:– the Christians’ abominable traffic for slaves – and the horrid cruelty and treachery of the petty Kings – encouraged by their Christian customers – who carry them strong liquors – to enflame their national madness – and powder – and bad fire‐arms – to furnish them with the hellish means of killing and kidnapping. – But enough – it is a subject that sours my blood – and I am sure will not please the friendly bent of your social affections. – I mentioned these only to guard my friend against being too hasty in condemning the knavery of a people who bad as they may be – possibly – were made worse – by their Christian visitors. – Make human nature thy study – wherever thou residest – whatever the religion – or the complexion – study their hearts. – Simplicity, kindness, and charity be thy guide – with these even Savages will respect you – and God will bless you!
IIB8 William Hodges (1744–97) from Travels in India
From the time of his death until the early years of the twenty‐first century, the artistic reputation of William Hodges was in eclipse; indeed, his career ended in failure and poverty. It looks rather different now. Hodges not only travelled far beyond Europe, he made important paintings and prints of the places he saw and wrote about them. Both his visual images and his written texts have, somewhat predictably, been read by post‐colonialist art historians for traces of his complicity in an ‘imperial aesthetic’ and the construction of a Eurocentric ‘Orientalism’. Undoubtedly, Hodges was a man of his time: he uses tropes of ‘curiosity’ and of the ‘picturesque’ to describe what he saw. He draws on the contemporary ‘stadial’ theory of human social development, which he absorbed on the second Cook voyage to the South Pacific (cf. IIB4 and IIC8). But his judgements are more nuanced than that. In his book on India, he responds positively to both Hindu and Muslim architecture, and to decoration on that architecture. But his European assumptions about lifelikeness make him critical of Hindu sculpture. He gives measured praise to Mughal miniatures and Hindu bronzes, he even relativizes his own Greek architectural heritage; but as a European artist, he cannot see past representational accuracy as the ultimate criterion of value in art. It may fairly be asked, how could he be expected to do otherwise? Particularly in contrast with the prevailing ethos of the nineteenth century, it is Hodges’ openness that is noteworthy, rather than his prejudices. The present short extracts are taken from Travels in India during the Years 1780, 1781, 1782 and 1783, 2nd edn, London, 1794: pp. 25–6 (on Hindu sculpture); pp. 59–60 and 65 (on Hindu architecture); pp. 122–4 (on the Taj Mahal); and pp. 149–51 (a comparison of Mughal and Hindu art).
The country about Colgong, is, I think, the most beautiful I have seen in India. The waving appearance of the land, its fine turf and detached woods, backed by the extensive forests on the hills, brought to my mind many of the fine parks in England; and its overlooking the Ganges, which has more the appearance of an ocean at this place than of a river, gives the prospect inexpressible grandeur.
From this place my route was continued to the village of Sultungunge; opposite to which, in the river, is the small island of Jangerah … This island is a rock, with a few trees growing from its interstices, and on the top is a small hermitage, inhabited by a Hindoo monk … This rock is considered by the Hindoos as a sacred place; and on many parts of it are pieces of sculpture relative to their mythology. I am concerned I cannot pay so high a compliment to the art of sculpture among the Hindoos as is usually paid by many ingenious authors who write on the religion of Bramah. Considering these works, as I do, with the eyes of an artist, they are only to be paralleled with the rude essays of the ingenious Indians I have met with in Otaheite, and on other islands in the South Seas. The time when these sculptures were produced I believe is not easy to ascertain; but thus much is certain, that the more modern works of sculpture of human figures, by the Hindoos, lay claim to very little more merit than the ancient productions. Some ornaments, however, that I have seen on Hindoo temples are beautifully carved.
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The city of Benares being the capital of a large district, and particularly marked as the seat of Bramin learning, it cannot but be considered as an object of particular curiosity, more especially, since the same manners and customs prevail amongst these people at this day, as at the remotest period that can be traced in history….
It certainly is curious, and highly entertaining to an inquisitive mind, to associate with a people whose manners are more than three thousand years old; and to observe in them that attention and polished behaviour which usually marks the most highly civilized state of society. […]
It is built on the north side of the river, which is here very broad, and the banks of which are very high: from the water, its appearance is extremely beautiful; the great variety of the buildings strikes the eye, and the whole view is much improved by innumerable flights of stone steps, which are either entrances into the several temples, or to the houses. Several Hindoo temples greatly embellish the banks of the river, and are all ascended to by Gauts, or flights of steps … Many other public and private buildings possess also considerable magnificence. Several of these I have painted, and some on a larger scale, such as I conceived the subjects demanded. […]
However partial I must feel, from habit and education, to the Greeks, whose free and unfettered genius, in a long series of ages, improved the original hut of a woody country into the incomparable beauties of a marble temple or palace; yet I freely avow that this by no means prevents my entertaining a similar partiality for countries, where different models have been brought to an equal perfection.
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To the south‐east of the city of Agra is a beautiful monument, raised by the Emperor Shah Jehan for his beloved wife Taje Mahel, whose name it bears, and is called, by way of eminence, the Taje Mahel … The Taje Mahel rises immediately from the river, founded on a base of red free‐stone, at the extremity of which are octagon pavilions, consisting of three stories each. On the same base