THE EARLIEST KNOWN SURVEY OF SINGAPORE HARBOUR AND "THE FIRST APPEARANCE OF THE NAME 'SINGAPORE' ON A MAP OR CHART. Before this plan, Singapore was spelt 'Singapoora' or 'Sincapore' and a few other variants" (Mok Ly Yng); published in Calcutta on 1 May 1819. WE CAN TRACE NO COPY OF THIS LANDMARK CHART SOLD AT AUCTION.

Captain Daniel Ross conducted the survey of Singapore harbour on 7 February 1819 with the survey ship HCS Margaret and Frances (later renamed Discovery). Ross's chart is offered here, as first published on 1 May 1819 in the Calcutta Journal, together with Ross's description of the chart, which was published in the Journal on 6 April. The plan was not engraved in time to accompany the April article and was published the following month. "We have been favoured with the copy of a recent Chart of this new Eastern Settlement, from a Survey by Captain Ross, of the H.C.'s Bombay Marine, which we shall have reduced to the size of our Journal, and engraved. Captain Ross's description of the Port accompanies the Chart, and though it would be more agreeable to us that they should accompany each other in the same Number, yet we are unwilling to delay the publication of what must excite considerable interest at the present moment, until the Engraving can be completed." (Calcutta Journal, 6 April 1819, cols. 59-60). Some months later Ross's plan was engraved by John Bateman and published by James Horsburgh in London on 1 January 1820.