MS 170/604 : Narrative of Her Captivity in Barbary, 1756. Journal of a Voyage by Sea from Calcutta to Madras, and of a Journal from there back to Dacca. (December 13, 1774-June 20,1775) / Marsh, Elizabeth Crisp

Item Overview

Title

MS 170/604 : Narrative of Her Captivity in Barbary, 1756. Journal of a Voyage by Sea from Calcutta to Madras, and of a Journal from there back to Dacca. (December 13, 1774-June 20,1775) / Marsh, Elizabeth Crisp

Alternative title

Journal of a Voyage by Sea from Calcutta to Madras, and of a Journal from there back to Dacca, December 13, 1774-June 20,1775.

Creator

Crisp, Elizabeth

Date Created

1756-1775

Date

1756/1775

Language

English

Collection

Bound Manuscripts Collection

Notes

Summary

Journal of a Voyage by Sea from Calcutta to Madras, and of a Journal from there back to Dacca ( December 13, 1774-June 20,1775 ); Narrative of her Captivity in Barbary (1756).

Description

Dates of execution from Elizabeth Marsh's journal, dated, presumably in her own hand, Dec. 13, 1774-June 20, 1776. Bound with a copy of her captivity narrative in the hand of her brother John Marsh. The captivity narrative, an account of the seven months in 1756 she was held in Morocco as prisoner of the sultan Sidi Muhammad, has title "Narrative written by Miss Elizabeth Marsh during her captivity in Barbary in the year 1756."

Table of contents

The journal documents the travels of Elizabeth Marsh Crisp from Dhaka (Bangladesh) down the eastern coast of India to Madrass (Chennai), with stops in Calcutta, and other ports including Balasore, Puri, Srikakulam, Machilipatnam and Pulicat, and her return to Dhaka, between Dec. 13, 1774 and early July 1776. Wishing to improve her ill health, Elizabeth Marsh departs for Calcutta on Dec. 13, 1774, leaving her husband James Crisp behind. Instead, Marsh travels in the company of a campanion Captain George Smith, often referred to in the journal as her "cousin." In Calcutta, she and Smith board the ship "Goodwill" for Madras (Chennai), arriving on Feb. 14, 1775. Marsh remained in Madras, an Asian city but somewhat familiar with its European streets, squares and buildings. From there, over the next 11 months, she make various excursions to settlements out into the Madras Presidency, accompanied by European and indigenous troops, traveling with "about 40 coolees...with peons, debashes etc." and eight sepoys and a havildar, native infantry of the East India Company. In particular, between June 1775 and February 1776, she was based in Ellore, a military settlement three hundred miles from Madras, where she resided in the house of Captain Smith who commanded a regiment at the settlement. Finally in the spring of 1776, the focus of the journal begins to look outwards at the people, places, and culture Marsh visited in her travels. En route to Aska, she describes her visit to the Hindu temple in Srikakulam, and although forbidden, enters an underground temple at one of the sacred sites in Ganjam to escape the intense heat. Rather than return to Calcutta by boat from Ganjam, Marsh decides to follow an inland route, through Lake Chilka, Manickpatam, and the pilgrimage site of Puri--with its two-hundred foot high temple to Vishnu, dating from the 12th century; Marsh comments extensively on all the pilgrims she observes travelling to that city. Heading towards Cuttack, the travelers encounter hostility and harassment, and famine in the surrounding area forces them to ration food. On June 13, 1776, Marsh and Smith part company, Marsh heading towards Calcutta, Smith to Ganjam. Her arrival in Midnapur brings her back to the safety of East India Company territory. The journal ends with Marsh's return to Calcutta on June 20, 1776, her six-week stay there with her friend Johanna Ross, and finally, her return to Dhaka to reunite with her husband and son, whom she has not seen for eighteen months.

Physical Description

Extent

65 pages.; 112pages.

Keywords

Genre

manuscripts (document genre)

Resource type

text

Subjects

Africa, North--Description and travel
Manuscripts
Captivity narratives--Africa, North