Man-eating tigers of Hyerabad

[India - Tiger Hunting]. [Manuscript diary of a big-game hunter].

€ 8,500.00

Two detailed diaries, in a single legible hand, recording tiger hunting expeditions in the Hyderabad region of India between 1848 and 1853. The anonymous author records a total of thirty-five kills during these periods, providing a forensic account of the hunt while utterly devoid of biographical information or comment on broader contemporary events: no mention is made, for example, of the Second Anglo-Sikh War that continued to rage.

Although the author was evidently a highly proficient and successful hunter, it is those entries that record his failures to secure his quarry which make for the most riveting reading: "a tiger reported to have killed upwards of 30 men over the last 4 or 5 months ... the villagers supposed it was two but I concluded it was one tiger that did all the damage ... I was just commencing my breakfast when a man ran up and reported the tiger had carried off a man early in the morning in the jungle a short distance to the S.W. ... Got ready the elephant and started home, leaving breakfast untouched. Several people accompanied me to show me the place ... they pointed at the place where the unfortunate man had been knocked over ... the men ... had seen the tiger rushing out ... and had shouted out, but it was useless, he was knocked over in a second, on the road his turban and stick were lying and there was a slight mark in the road as of struggling. The other ... men had made no attempt to rescue him except shouting and kicking up a row, as they knew he was too old a hand at man eating to be afraid of them ... the body was lying dragged into a dry mullah about 150 yards from the road ... the beast was lying down under one of the large trees about 100 yards ahead looking at us ... I let fly and he gave one bound and I never saw him anymore".

Though not identified as such, the diaries came from the estates of the Turnbull family. A candidate for authorship may be Calcutta-born British Army officer Montagu James Turnbull (1819-94), who served with the 7th Regular Light Cavalry in the Punjab. Accompanying the diaries is a hallmarked silver medallion engraved "A. D. Turnbull, Dec. 1832". Montagu Turnbull had a brother, Alexander David Turnbull (1819-64), who served in India with the Royal Engineers.