Ballad, broadside ballad

Broadside printed with four ballads headed 'Please to Purchase this Paper Price One Penny Of a Poor Indian, A Native of Bengal, in Distress and in a strange Country, who seeks Protection on the Hospitable Shores of Great Britain.' Below the heading is a generic woodcut illustration of a bill sticker on a ladder mounting broadsheets to a wall and surrounded by children. Below is the heading 'The Indian's memorial' and four poems printed in three columns titled The Indian's Life', 'The Indian's address to British Ladies', 'Indian Hymn' and 'A Good Profit'.Copies of the sheet would have been sold by an Indian desperate to earn a living in Britain. Many Indian sailors, known as lascars, were hired to work on British ships, but were abandoned at British ports by shipping companies. They often had to make money from begging, or sweeping crossings, until they could find a ship making the return journey.