ABSTRACT
W h e n Alexander Dalrymple studied the old records of the East India Company at Fort St George, between the years 1757-9, he became almost as interested in Cochin China as in the Eastern Islands. Both areas seemed to offer exceptional opportunities for an expansion of British commerce. As he him self explained, his studies had been cin quest to explore and compleat “A View of the Countries Adjacent to Pegu” 9 and his labours had been rewarded when he had chanced to come across £a letter to the King of Cochin China with Instructions to a person bound thither regarding the measures to be pursued in endeavouring to obtain a settlement there’ . He had immediately become curious as to the outcome of this earlier attempt to expand British trade, and had begun to search for further in formation. He had ‘met with many disappointments from Books being wanting and from the confusion of those still remaining’, but at last he had been fortunate enough to discover the Journal of Thomas Bowyear.1
