HENRY DEROZIO,
THE
EURASIAN
POET, TEACHER, AND JOURNALIST.
With Appendices.
BY
THOMAS EDWARDS.
Calcutta:
W. NEWMAN & Co., LD., 4, DALHOUSIE SQUARE.
1884.
CALCUTTA:
PRINTED BV W. NEWMAN & CO., LIMITED,
AT THE CAXTON STEAM PRINTING WORKS, 4, DALHOUSIE SQUARE.
THIS
MEMOIR OF DEROZIO
IS
DEDICATED TO MY WIFE.
PREFACE.
Shortly after my arrival in India, I had some thoughts of writing a history of the Eurasian community. I found, however, on closer study of the subject, that, as a community, Eurasians can scarcely be said to have a history. They have founded no empire, built no cities, originated no industry, developed no policy, nor have they created either a philosophy, or a religion, or a school of thought in literature, science, or art. Whole sections of their lower ranks have in the past disappeared entirely among native races, and their higher ranks are being absorbed among pure Europeans. Nevertheless there is a sense in which they have a history, and that history is a record of exclusion and repression, from the year 1786, when the general letter of the Court of Directors (17th March) prohibited the wards of the Upper Orphan School, whose mothers were natives and whose fathers were Britons, from being sent to England for education, to the Viceroyalty of Lord Ripon, when the Forest School of Dehra and the Roorkee Engineering College were closed against the sons of Englishmen domiciled in India. Eurasians are the descendants of native mothers by European fathers, of every nationality, and, as a community, they have cast in their lot, since the days of Albuquerque, with the race to which their fathers belonged. The Dutch, Portuguese, French, and English, who each in turn fought for the mastery of India, left behind them descendants whose history as communities in no way differs from that of their fathers. There have been, however, men of some mark among them, whose names are not as well known as they deserve to be, and I set about collecting materials for a series of biographies, which would in some fashion picture the men and their surroundings. The individuals with whom I mainly concerned myself were Derozio, Skinner, of the Irregulars, Kidd, the ship-builder, and Ricketts, the contemporary of Derozio and the founder of what is now the Doveton College. This Memoir of Derozio is the first of the series, and, so far as I am concerned, it is likely to be the last. The English reading public of India who buy books is a very small public, and it is very doubtful if any book published in India by a private person ever did more than pay the printing charges; of course, I except what are called "text-books," which are prepared for University examinations and cramming purposes, and books used in Government offices. I have little hope that my Memoir will sell in numbers sufficient to pay even for the cost of advertisements which I inserted in several newspapers, asking for information and papers, &c., and offering a fair price for a copy of Derozio's critique on Kant, let alone the four years' labour I have had in collecting materials. I shall be delighted to realise that I am mistaken. In search of materials for this short Memoir of Derozio and for a collection of his poetry, I have ransacked every library in Calcutta to which I could get access — departmental, public, and private. I shall be happy to hear from any one who can give me any new facts about Derozio, or who will point out any untrue or unfair statement in my Memoir. I have to acknowledge, with many thanks, the very kind manner in which I have been aided in this bit of work by the Reverend Krishna Mohun Bannerjea, LL. D., one of the few surviving friends of Derozio, the Hon'ble Peary Mohun Mookerjea, of Ooterpara, who very kindly placed the unique library of that town at my disposal, Mr. Henry Andrews, a contemporary of Derozio, the late Peary Chand Mitter, and the officials of the Home Department of the Government of India, who very kindly allowed me to examine their library and their files.
The first rough draft of this Memoir appeared at intervals in the Calcutta Review. This rough draft has been corrected, re-casted, and in parts re-written.