VIEWS IN THE EAST; COMPRISING INDIA, CANTON, AND THE SHORES OF THE RED SEA. WITH HISTORICAL AND DESCRIPTIVE ILLUSTRATIONS. BY CAPTAIN ROBERT ELLIOT, R.N. VOL. I. LONDON: H. FISHER, SON, & CO. NEWGATE STREET. 1833. PREFACE. THE original Sketches, from which the Engravings in these Volumes have been produced, were made on the spot in the years 1822, 1823, and 1824, and profess to be faithful delineations of the scenes that they are meant to represent. Artists of eminence were engaged in preparing the Drawings, and Engravers of well-known skill have been employed in completing the work. The descriptions of the Plates are selected from some of the best authorities that are to be met with on India subjects, and a considerable portion of the matter has been taken from the Journal of that most excellent man, Bishop Heber. The Views of the Buildings principally exhibit the remains of Mahomedan Mosques, Tombs, and Palaces, in their various and peculiar styles of architecture. The Cave Temples of the Hindoos form a considerable part of the work; and these alone, viewed as wonderful works of art, almost as old, for aught that is known, as the hills from out of which they are hewn, present objects as worthy the skill of a painter, as any thing that the world can produce. The scenes in China have necessarily been confined within the limits prescribed to European residents or visitors, in that extraordinary country. The barren and desolate shores of the Red Sea afford little variety for the exercise of the pencil, and therefore fewer of the subjects of the Plates have been selected from the Drawings that represent those wild and desolate lands. LONDON, January 31, 1833. |