In 1800 Lord Wellesley, the British Governor General of India, appointed the surgeon and botanist Francis Buchanan (1762-1829) to conduct a survey of the kingdom of Mysore in the south of the country, which had recently been annexed by the East India Company. In the resulting three-volume report, first published in 1807, Buchanan (later known as Francis Hamilton) records the physical and human geography of this large area of southern India. He describes the agriculture, arts and commerce, indigenous religions and customs, natural history and society and antiquities of the regions through which he travelled, and illustrates his text with a map and engravings. Buchanan's journey began and ended at the British stronghold of Madras, and criss-crossed the whole of Mysore including a visit to the strategically important city of Sira and a long trip from south to north through the western coastal regions of Malabar and Canara.
