William Moorcroft, a veterinary surgeon, was the first European to make botanical collections in western Tibet and Kashmir. He was also a pioneer in being the first person to have a degree in veterinary surgery, and in being employed by the East India Company in this capacity. His work in the east became centred on exploration, however, with the undertaking of major expeditions in the Himalayas, Tibet and Central Asia.
Moorcroft was born illegitimate in Ormskirk, Lancashire, where he grew up on a farm. He was apprenticed to a surgeon in Liverpool in 1784, being inspired to study veterinary science by seeing the effects of cattle disease. He trained as a veterinarian in 1790-1791 in Lyon, France, before setting up practice as a horse vet in London. Gaining a good reputation for his treatment methods and his two respected publications on horse care, he came to the attention of the East India Company, which commissioned him to buy breeding horses. He thus travelled to India in 1808 to take charge of stud operations, leaving behind his wife, Mary. The stud at Pusa, Bengal, was in dire need of better breeding stock and so Moorcroft began his travels, ostensibly in search of horses, but also with an eye to exploring the unknown territory of northern India.
Moorcroft's first trip was to the north-west frontier, where he bought some stock in 1811 and gathered information on culture and politics as well as natural resources. He then explored the course of the Sutlej river with Captain Hyder Young Hearsey. This journey took him over the border into Tibet in 1812, where he reached the source in the Manasarovar Lakes. Moorcroft found a flock of Kashmir goats here, a source of fine wool; he collected both the goats and some plants with which to return to his base. The plants were the first to be sampled from the area, but his employers were not convinced he had achieved much on this trip. The goats were sent to Scotland where they died.
Back in Pusa, Moorcroft fathered two children with a woman named Purree Khanum before exploring again in 1819. This time he aimed to reach Turkestan in order to buy stallions for breeding. To avoid the Sikh-controlled region of the Punjab, he decided he would travel via Leh in western Tibet, where a dangerous route to Turkestan, via countless passes, begins. However, at Leh (where he was the first European to be seen for a century) Moorcroft was not granted permission by the authorities to proceed on the path to Turkestan and thus spent his time exploring Ladakh and Kashmir instead in 1822. In 1823 he attempted once more to reach Turkestan, this time heading through the Hindu Kush. Near Uri, east of Srinigar, his path was blocked by a Muslim chieftain who demanded the preposterous sum of 15,000 Rupees to let Moorcroft and his party through. The party returned to Srinigar and successfully reached the Punjab by another route before continuing on to Afghanistan, which he reached in December 1823.
Moorcroft was at Kabul by June 1824, despite being recalled to India, and finally reached his destination, Bokhara (in present day Uzbekistan), in February 1825. He found few horses to buy and the journey was a commercial failure. He did, however, organise a network of spies along his route to report on the activities of Russians. For this reason, Moorcroft is known as an early player in the so-called Great Game, the race for power in Central Asia. This was his final achievement, for he died shortly after beginning his return journey, at Balkh, Afghanistan, on 27 August 1825. He was suffering from a fever and no doubt weakened by his extraordinary journey.
Among a bundle of 23 plant specimens Moorcroft sent to Nathaniel Wallich in Calcutta were several species new to science, such as Gentiana moorcroftiana Wall. and Salvia moorcroftiana Wall. ex Benth. His copious expedition observations were edited by Horace Wilson and published as Travels in the Himalayan provinces of Hindustan and the Panjab, in Ladakh and Kashmir; in Peshawar, Kabul, Kunduz and Bokhara ... from 1819 to 1825 (1841).
Sources:
E. Alder, 1985, Beyond Bokhara: the life of William Moorcroft
E. Baigent, 2004, "Moorcroft, William (bap. 1767, d. 1825)", Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, online edn:
http://www.oxforddnb.com/view/article/19093, accessed 18 February 2011
R.R. Stewart, 1979, "The First Plant Collectors in Kashmir and the Punjab", Taxon, 28: 6-7
D. White, 1991, "Himalayan plant hunters No 1: William Moorcroft 1765-1825", Himalayan Plant Association Newsletter, 2: 38-39.
