This work has been selected by scholars as being culturally important, and is part of the knowledge base of civilization as we know it. This work is in the "public domain in the United States of America, and possibly other nations. Within the United States, you may freely copy and distribute this work, as no entity (individual or corporate) has a copyright on the body of the work. Scholars believe, and we concur, that this work is important enough to be preserved, reproduced, and made generally available to the public. We appreciate your support of the preservation process, and thank you for being an important part of keeping this knowledge alive and relevant.

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1905 edition. Excerpt: ... perhaps be equally effectual though more slow in its operation. He went to Ayres and informed him that we had endeavoured to escape, mentioning every particular of our scheme, and, as far as I can learn, telling the whole truth; but fortunately naming a different evening from the one on which our unsuccessful attempt really was made on which Ayres exclaimed, "well Pereira you have made up a very fine story, but without a word of truth, for on the very night you mention, F--was setting with me over a bottle of wine; I'll take my oath of that for it was my birth night" this was true likewise, so we were saved for that time; but as Ayres knows that escape is in our heads he will, I fear, guard us with redoubled vigilance, and so far Pereira's design has taken effect. 6th February, 1780. Mr. F--has completely detected the pious father Ricardo, and his worthy colleague the smuggler, and sorely against their will compelled them to refund his money all to about twenty three rupees, which they pretend has been disbursed. We now discovered, that although our offers might tempt their avarice and lead them to deceive us, yet they dared not persevere in assisting our escape; as the consequence of detection would to them be inevitable death. ioth February, 1780. At length I begin to cherish hopes of our speedy release, as Sudder Khan returned last night from Seringa-patnam; but is encamped without the Town, waiting for a lucky day, till when he dares not enter his own house.--So how long we may still be detained, Heaven knows--Mr. F--and our friend Isaac propose paying him a visit tomorrow. February, 1780. They went out on Friday and again to-day, but have not yet been able to obtain an audience; and thus we may perhaps be led on a fortnight longer, ...

The contributions to this book amply demonstrate the richness, vitality, and complexity of the colonial transactions between Britain and India over the last two centuries, and they do so by approaching the topic from a specific perspective: by interpreting the rubric 'new readings' as broadly, creatively, and productively as possible. They cover a wide range of literary responses and genres: eighteenth-century drama, the gothic novel, verse, autobiography, history, religious writing, journalism, women's memoirs, travel writing, popular fiction, and the modernist novel. Brought together in one volume, these essays offer a small, but representative sample of the multifaceted literary and cultural traffic between Britain and India in the colonial period. In the richness and diversity of the various contributors' strategies and interpretations, these new readings urge us to return once again to texts that we think we know, as well as to explore those that we do not, with a freshly renewed sense of their complexity, immediacy, and relevance.

In Slavery, Abolitionism and Empire in India, 1772–1843, Andrea Major asks why, at a time when the East India Company's expansion in India, British abolitionism, and the missionary movement were all at their height, was the existence of slavery in India so often ignored, denied, or excused? By exploring Britain's ambivalent relationship with both real and imagined slaveries in India and the official, evangelical, and popular discourses that surrounded them, she seeks to uncover the various political, economic, and ideological agendas that allowed East Indian slavery to be represented as qualitatively different from its transatlantic counterpart.