How an English military officer described Kerala’s coast in early 19th century

For the British, Lieutenant-Colonel James Campbell (1787-1858) was a war hero who played an important role in the Napoleonic Wars, particularly in the Iberian Peninsula. He also belonged to the class of military administrators that served in distant outposts of the empire, including New Zealand, where he spent the final years of his life.

Campbell meticulously maintained a diary, jotting down what he saw in his extensive travels. In 1819, he was appointed commander of the Galle district in Sri Lanka (then Ceylon), where he also became a magistrate. He lived in Ceylon for a few years and, being an active builder of the empire, made it a point to visit Bombay.

Campbell’s diary entries of the Malabar-Konkan coast found their way into a book published in 1840 titled “Excursions, Adventures, and Field-Sports in Ceylon.”

At the beginning of the chapter of his voyage to India, Campbell wrote that he wanted to compare the “so-much extolled Malabar coast with that of the greater part of Ceylon.”

He boarded the French ship Zenobia from Colombo for Bombay.
The journey took place in December. Campbell did not specify the year of his travel, but he mentioned his appointment as magistrate of the Seven Korles district, so it can be assumed that his notes were from the early 1820s.

This journey was undertaken before steamships became the standard mode of navigation, so Campbell travelled on a sailing vessel. At the time of his voyage, the English officer was still recovering from jungle fever, but the journey seemed to have a positive impact on his health.

“On the 12th, we were off Cape Comorin,” he wrote. “Towards evening all sea-sickness - from which I had suffered badly - being gone, I could eat anything put before me; and even enjoyed a glass, or rather nearly a bottle, of vin-de-pays, dignified with the name of claret; such were already the effects of sea air: indeed I soon began to forget all my ailments; and my companions congratulated me upon the appearance of returning health, indicated in my countenance.”

Campbell got a good glimpse of the Malabar coast the next day. “A long sandy beach, skirted with palm-trees, extending as far as the eye could reach; behind it a flat country, partially wooded, terminated by mountains of considerable height, and of various forms, several of them clad, even to their summits, in that resplendent light or brightness, with which a tropical sun, as it were, gorgeously decks the objects it shines upon; were the features which Travancore presented to our view,” he wrote.

The ship then passed the coast of Kollam or Quilon as it was then called. The historical city had been under the Dutch East India Company for 141 years. When Campbell’s ship passed it, it had been less than three decades since the British had forced out the Dutch.

Campbell said Quillon looked “tolerably well from the sea,” adding, “the country still retained the same partly bold and partly tame features; but, inland, it was not so altogether mountainous as it has been.”

The December seas were calm and the army officer seemed to enjoy the journey. “It was certainly delightful to glide along, so smoothly, upon the surface of the most tranquil sea upon which any of us had ever sailed,” Campbell added, adding that the heat was “oppressive.”

It took the vessel five days to reach Calicut, and the officer found the heat even worse off the southern coast of Kerala. “The evenings, however, sometimes become more endurable; but it was almost impossible to sleep in bed at night; as we were tormented by the increasing buzzing and biting of myriads of mosquitoes; whilst we were stewed in perspiration from the closeness and want of air in our diminutive holes called cabins and state rooms,” he wrote.

Campbell observed Calicut from a distance and said the city “looked well” from where the ship had anchored. “It stands upon a sandy beach; that part of it, which is inhabited by the Natives, being exposed, all day long, to the action of the sun, the heat in it must be unbearable; but the better looking houses, which slew themselves here and there in the midst of groves of palm-trees, seemed as if they were calculated to afford some kind of shelter, comfort, and perhaps coolness, to the unlucky Europeans destined to spend many of their best days in this coast,” he wrote.

Comparing the coastline around Calicut to that of Ceylon, Campbell said the former was “inferior in appearance” as it did not possess the “enchanting and lively green, which is everywhere to be seen and admired on the Ceylonese shore.”

He also took note of the Western Ghats, which were visible from the waters off Calicut. “Close behind Calicut, some high mountains, crowned by a table land, and intersected by deep ravines or fissures, elevate themselves abruptly; and in the distance, there are some variously formed and still more lofty mountains.”

Campbell sailed onward passing Mangalore and Goa before reaching Bombay. Finding the journey exhausting, he knew it was the most convenient mode of travel at that time, since there were no railways in India then.

In the 21st century, the era of passenger ships is well behind us in India. The only people who get a glimpse of the beautiful Malabar-Konkan coast now are fisherfolk, seamen and those travelling on cruise liners. Wouldn’t it be nice if some fairly comfortable passenger ferries connected cities on India’s west coast or even services linking northern and southern Kerala?

Europe has more than its fair share of such ferry services. Surely, some of us in India would prefer a sea journey over planes, trains and automobiles, even if it meant longer travel times!