Page:Calcutta, Past and Present.djvu/257

 of Calcutta citizens in his day, perpetuated his name by a map of Calcutta, which he published in 1794, and for which every student of the past history of the town must be grateful.

Upjohn's life was one of adventure, and he experienced many changes of fortune. He reached India in the humble capacity of bassoon player in the band of Captain Wakeman, commander of the Rodney, a position to which we may conclude he had been driven by circumstances, for his varied attainments prove him to have been a man of some education. Possibly the desire to escape importunate creditors suggested the comparatively easy method of obtaining a passage to a land beyond their reach.

Upjohn next appears as a printer, and holder of a one-sixth share in the Chronicle. This journal, which had its offices in Bow Bazaar, where the Police Office now stands, failed in 1797, but long before that date Upjohn had become bankrupt, and his share was sold by the mortgagee in 1792. In the same year, Upjohn began his survey for the map, which he completed and published in eighteen months, a feat which, so far from obtaining praise, was censured by his contemporary critics as proof of careless haste, as they considered that such an