Bengalee Vocabulary,’ appeared at Calcutta in 1799. It is evident, from the lengthy preface to this work, that it was undertaken on political and practical, as well as on literary, grounds. Bengali at this time was, officially at least, an unrecognised vernacular, and Forster rightly insists on the absurdity and inconvenience of continuing to use Persian in courts of law. It was thus due to the efforts of Forster, seconded among Europeans by Carey, Marshman, and the other Serampur missionaries, and among the natives by Rāmamohan Ray and his friends, that Bengali not only has become the official language of the presidency, but now ranks as the most prolific literary language of India. The second volume appeared in 1802. Meanwhile Forster was also directing his attention to Sanskrit. We find from the advertisement of the ‘Bengali Vocabulary,’ appearing in the ‘Calcutta Gazette’ 26 Aug. 1802, that he had then finished, and proposed to publish by subscription, an ‘Essay on the Principles of Sanskrit Grammar,’ and as a sequel the text and translation of a native grammar, the ‘Mugdhabodha’ of Vopadeva. The latter work seems not to have been published; no trace of it, at all events, is to be found in the ordinary bibliographical works on the subject. The essay finally appeared in 1810, and from its preface we learn that it was submitted in manuscript to the ‘College Council’ in 1804, at which time ‘none of the elaborate works on Sanskrit by Mr. Colebrooke, Mr. Carey, or Mr. Wilkins had made their appearance.’ It is a laborious work, not, indeed, calculated to attract students to the pursuit of oriental learning, but abounding in tabular and statistical information, founded on the intricate and often merely theoretical lucubrations of the ancient native schools of grammar. In 1803–4 Forster was employed at the Calcutta Mint, of which he rose to be master. In 1815 he was ‘nominated to sign stamp paper.’ He died in India 10 Sept. of the same year.
[Dodwell and Miles's Bengal Civil Servants; Calcutta Gazette, as above.]
FORSTER, JOHANN GEORG ADAM (1754–1794), commonly known as George, naturalist, descended from a Yorkshire family which left England on the death of Charles I and settled in Polish Prussia, eldest son of Johann Reinhold Forster, also known as a traveller, naturalist, and writer, and a minister of the reformed church, was born in his father's parish of Nassenhuben, near Danzig, on 27 Nov. 1754. Reinhold Forster, who had become a minister at the desire of his father, was by inclination a student and a naturalist, and under his teaching George's talents were early developed in the same direction. In 1765 Reinhold accepted an invitation to Russia, and from that time, throwing off his clerical capacity, devoted himself entirely to scientific and literary pursuits. George was placed at a school in St. Petersburg, where he acquired a knowledge of Russian, and again accompanied his father when he went to England towards the end of 1766. Here Reinhold was from 1768 tutor of French, German, and natural history in the Warrington academy, and George, pursuing his general studies, was also acquiring a remarkable mastery of English. In 1770 the family removed to London, on a proposal from Alexander Dalrymple [q. v.] to employ Reinhold in the service of the East India Company. The plan fell through, and for the next two years the father supported his family by translating, in which work he was assisted by George, and especially, it is said, in the translation into English of Bougainville's voyage, published under the father's name in 1772. Reinhold Forster accompanied Cook in his second voyage as naturalist [see Cook, James], taking George with him as his assistant. On their return in 1775 the two in concert published ‘Characteres Generum Plantarum quas in Itinere ad Insulas Maris Australis collegerunt, descripserunt, delinearunt, annis mdcclxxii-mdcclxxv, Johannes Reinhold Forster et Georgius Forster’ (fol. 1775). A second edition, really the same with a new title-page, was issued in 1776. The publication obtained for George his election as fellow of the Royal Society, an honour which had been conferred on the father before the voyage. The Forsters, however, were in want of money; Reinhold was always in difficulties, and of the 4,000l. which had been paid him for the services of himself and son during the three years' voyage, much had been swallowed up in necessary expenses. He had expected to have to write the narrative of the voyage, and to reap a large profit; but Cook determined to write it himself, and as Reinhold would not submit to any compromise he was ordered by the admiralty not to write at all. He complied with the letter of the order, but set George to do it instead, and a few weeks before the publication of Cook's narrative George Forster's was published under the title, ‘A Voyage round the World in his Britannic Majesty's sloop Resolution, commanded by Captain James Cook, during the years 1772–5’ (2 vols. 4to, 1777). A translation into German was published in 1779. The circumstances of this publication naturally drew down on the Forsters the ill-will of the admiralty on the one hand and of Cook's friends on the other;
