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188 HISTORY OF THE INDIAN NAVY.

with which he siirvcyed a considerable part of tlie coast of India,
entitled his charts, until the snrvej'S of a more recent date,
made by officers of the Indian Navy, to a place among the
standard works of this descrij)tion ; and this will be considered
the more creditable to his zeal and abilities, when it is known
that he was self-taught in this useful branch of science. His
first essay in surveying was in the Persian Gulf, in the year 1785.
The inaccuracies of the existing charts of this sea, and the
deficiency of all authentic information relating to it, attracted
his attention whilst employed there in the Company's Service,
and he determined, with the limited means he possessed, to
make up the defects, and to rescue from darkness the navigation
of coasts frequented from the remotest ages of antiquity. It
was enough for those ships, which visited the Persian Gulf for
the purposes of trade, to guard themselves from the attacks of
pirates, who were formidable impediments to the peaceful
operations of surveying, and this necessity considered in con-
junction with the infant state of the art, sufficiently accounts
for this sea being so little known.
The length of time which a minute examination of the coast
would have required, was too great, and the obstacles to be over-
come too formidable, to admit of its being adopted ; but, as
anchorage at the mouth of the Hooghlj during the north-east monsoon, whicli,
however, was dechricd by the Admiral, who sailed from Madras for the Malabar
coast. Captain Eitchie surveyed the coasts of Bengal and the mouths of the
Ganges ; his work formed part of the material for Major Eennel's map of
Ilindostan, and many of his charts were engraved by Dalrymple, tlie eminent
hydrographer of the Company, while a MS. volume of his remarks is preserved
in the India Office.
Tliis volume is entitled Remarks upon the Coast and Bay of Bengal, the
outlets of the Ganges and interjacent rivers, according to the surveys of John
Ritchie, hydrographer to the United India Company. Contents.— 1. Entrance
to the Hooghly and remarks on its pilotage 2. Rivers eastward to the Megna,
;
Coast Islands ; 3. Chittagong and Islands 4. Tempests to which the head of the
;
bay is subject ; 5. Coast of Arracan ; 6. Coast of Ava to Cape Negrais ; 7. Andaman
Islands 8. Nicobnr Islands. Dalrymple engraved Ritchie's Chart of the Coro-
;
mandel and Orissa coasts (1771) and others (See Mr. Clement Markham's " Memoir
on tlie Indian Sui-veys.")
Captain Jervis says, in his " Report on Surveys," speaking of the work
done by Captains Ritchie, Blair, and Michael Topping—the latter on the
coasts of Arracan, the delta of the Ganges, audon the entire eastern coast thence
: —
to Cape Comorin "Captain Topping's observations on the currents on
the Bay of Bengal, of the 1st of March, 1788, of tlie 16th of January, and 26th
of June, 1792, may probably be found of essential service in future investigations
respecting the retreat or advance of the sea on the coast of India, and the exact
registration of the tides. His survey of the mouths of the Godavery river and
Coringa roads, 18th of September, 1790, and 21st of January, 1791, and his
proceedings and report on the Masulipatam Circar, drawn up with a view to
ascertain the practicability of applying the waters of the rivers Krishna and
Godavery, to the fertilisation of tlie land, and charts, observations, and levels,
communicated 20th of February, 1794, and 2nd of October, 1795, may probably
yet induce the Madras Government and autlioriiies at home to reconsider that
valuable jaroject." These services led to Captain Topping's appointment as
chief surveyor of Madras in 1794, when he drew up a scheme " for the improve-
ment of the geography and navigation of India."