Her Pen Now Came Into Extensive Requisition, And The Miscellaneous
Information With Which She Had Stored Her Mind Enabled Her,
With
the aid of great fluency of composition and unremitted industry, to
perform a quantity and a variety of literary
Labour, astonishing to
her friends, when they considered that Miss Roberts did not seclude
herself from society, but mixed in parties, where her conversational
talents rendered her highly acceptable, and carried on, besides, a
very extensive correspondence. History, biography, poetry, tales,
local descriptions, foreign correspondence, didactic essays, even the
culinary art, by turns employed her versatile powers. Most of these
compositions were occasional pieces, furnished to periodical works;
to some she attached her name, and a few were separately published.
Amongst the latter is a very pleasing biographical sketch of Mrs.
Maclean (formerly Miss Landon), one of her oldest and dearest friends.
It was now seven years since she had quitted British India, during
which period important events had occurred, which wrought material
changes in its political and social aspects. The extinction of the
East-India Company's commercial privileges had imparted a new tone to
its government, given a freer scope to the principle of innovation,
and poured a fresh European infusion into its Anglo-Indian society;
steam navigation and an overland communication between England and her
Eastern empire were bringing into operation new elements of
mutation, and the domestic historian of India (as Miss Roberts may be
appropriately termed) felt a natural curiosity to observe the progress
of these changes, and to compare the British India of 1830 with that
of 1840. With a view of enlarging the sphere of her knowledge of
the country, and of deriving every practicable advantage from a
twelve-months' visit, she determined to examine India on its Western
side, and (contrary to the urgent advice of many of her friends)
to encounter the inconveniences of performing the journey overland,
through France and Egypt. Previous to her departure, she entered into
an arrangement with the Asiatic Journal (the depository of most of
her papers on Indian subjects) to transmit, on her way, a series of
papers for publication in that work, descriptive of the objects
and incidents met with in the overland route, and of the "rising
presidency," as she termed Bombay. By a singular coincidence, the last
paper of this series was published in the very number of the Asiatic
Journal[B] which announced her death. These papers, which are now
before the reader, carry on the biography of Miss Roberts almost to
the end of her life.
She quitted England in September, 1839, and, having suffered few
annoyances on the journey, except a fever which attacked her in the
Gulf, arrived in Bombay in November, where she experienced the most
cordial reception from all classes, including the Governor and the
most respectable of the native community. Miss Roberts was known to
Sir James Carnac, and in his Excellency's family she became a guest
for some time, quitting his hospitable mansion only to meet with a
similar cordiality of welcome from other friends, at the presidency
and in the interior. Her residence at Parell has enabled her to draw,
with her accustomed felicity, in one of the papers published in this
volume, a lively sketch of the domestic scenes and public receptions,
as well as the local scenery, at this delightful place. It appears
from her letters that Miss Roberts meditated a tour into Cutch or
Guzerat, which probably was prevented by her subsequent illness. "It
is my intention," she wrote from Parell, December 30th, 1839, "to go
into the provinces, as I have received numerous invitations; I am at
present divided between Guzerat and Cutch: by going to the latter, I
might have an opportunity of seeing Scinde, the new Resident, Captain
Outram, being anxious that I should visit it." She adds: "I have
received much attention from the native gentlemen belonging to this
presidency, and have, indeed, every reason to be pleased with my
reception." She had projected a statistical work on this part of
India, and in her private letters she speaks with grateful enthusiasm
of the liberality with which the government records were opened to
her, and of the alacrity with which Europeans and natives forwarded
her views and inquiries. In a letter dated in February, 1840, she
says: "I am very diligently employed in collecting materials for my
work; I am pleased with the result of my labours, and think I shall be
able to put a very valuable book upon Bombay before the public. I
hope to go in a short time to Mahableshwar, and thence to Sattara,
Beejapore, &c." Her literary aid was invoked by the conductors of
periodical works at Bombay, to which she furnished some amusing
pictures of home-scenes, drawn with the same spirit and truth as her
Indian sketches. She likewise undertook the editorship of a new weekly
paper, the Bombay United Service Gazette, and with the benevolence
which formed so bright a feature in her character, she engaged
with zeal in a scheme for rescuing the native women, who (as her
observation led her to believe) impede the progress of improvement,
from the indolence in which they are educated, by devising employments
for them suited to their taste and capacity. The concluding chapter
of this volume contains some very sound and salutary reflections upon
native education.
Perhaps too close and unremitting application, in a climate which
demands moderation in all pursuits that tax the powers of either mind
or body, produced or aggravated a disease of the stomach, with which
this lady was seriously attacked when on a visit to Colonel Ovans, the
Resident at Sattara. Some indication of disordered health manifested
itself whilst she was in the Hills. Writing from thence in April, and
adverting to some incident which caused her vexation, she observed:
"My health is failing me, and I can scarcely bear any increased
subject of anxiety." She experienced in the family of Colonel Ovans
all the attention and sympathy which the kindest hospitality could
suggest; but her disorder increasing, she removed, in the hope of
alleviating it by change of air, to Poona, and arrived at the house of
her friend, Colonel Campbell, in that city, on the 16th of September.
She expired unexpectedly on the following morning.
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