Mangoes for Her Majesty
On May 18, 1838 one Framji Cowasji Banaji of Bombay wrote a letter to Queen Victoria to accompany a consignment of mangoes which he had gifted to Her Majesty. The letter was reproduced in the July-August 2013 newsletter of the World Zarathushti Chamber of Commerce (WZCC).
According to the WZCC newsletter, Banaji was the first "native of India to send mango fruits to England." There were eight villages under his control and a number of wells had been sunk by the gentleman. More pertinently, he had one lakh mango trees in the garden on his estate.
Here is the transcript of Banaji’s letter:
"May it please your Majesty,
"The improvement and extension of Steam Navigation have now happily brought your Majesty’s Dominions in the Eastern World so closely together, that I venture most humbly and most respectfully to lay at your Majesty’s feet some specimen of the celebrated Bombay mangoes, in earnest hope that this delicious fruit which has never before been transmitted to Europe, may reach your Majesty in a state of preservation and prove acceptable. Such precautions have been adopted to preserve the fruits as appear most efficacious, but if the botanists of your Majesty’s Dominions at home can prescribe a preferable method, it shall be adopted in the transmission of further supplies of this or any other kind of fruit peculiar to the country, which has not either been seen in Great Britain.
"Your Majesty’s most obedient and faithful Eastern subject,
"Framji Cowasji."
There is no mention in the WZCC newsletter about Her Majesty’s reply to this missive, though it is common knowledge that she enjoyed the mangoes she received as gifts from India.