Rare chart of the modern day Panaji, surveyed whilst Portuguese Goa was under British Protection. It would continue to be the most actuate survey of the port until the second half of the nineteenth century.

During the Napoleonic Wars, the Portuguese fearful of French incursion into her overseas empire, sought British help. Britain agreed and between 1794 and 1816, provided naval and military protection, supplying a squadron, and some 10,000 men, to protect their India possession. It was during this period that David Inverarity completed this survey of Panaji, the principal port in Goa.

To the lower right is an text on remarks and directions, above this are numerous coastal profiles. To the lower left is extensive text with the title Memoranda, providing details on how to sail through the port's difficult waters.

The chart is dedicated by Captain David Inverarity, to his friend James Horsburgh. Little is known about Captain David Inverarity, though it would appear that he carried out several surveys, in the Far East, India, Sri Lanka and Madagascar during the late and early nineteenth century. He was close personal friends with William Dalrymple, and dedicated several charts to both him, and William Heather.

James Horsburgh (1762-1836) hydrographer to the East India Company, the foremost surveyor of Chinese waters of his day, was born and raised in the coastal town of Elie in the county of Fife. At the age of 16 he entered the naval profession as a humble cabin boy. He spent the majority of his formative years out in the Far East. On a return trip to London, in 1786, as first mate of the ship Carron, he made the acquaintance of Alexander Dalrymple, hydrographer to the East India Company and the British Admiralty. So impressed with Horsburgh's work was Dalrymple, that he undertook to publish the charts and sailing directions that he had compiled. Horsburgh would later return to England on a permanent basis in 1805, were he would publish his East India Pilot, a work containing fifteen charts, which he produced between 1806 and 1815, and covered the navigation from England to the China Sea. It was these charts, together with his comprehensive 'Directory for Sailing to the East Indies', that would gain Horsburgh the position of Hydrographer to the East India Company in 1810; a post he would hold until his death in 1836.

Rare. We are only able to trace two institutional examples: the National Library Board Singapore, dated 1847; Biblioteca Virtual de Defensa.