MOORCROFT, WILLIAM (c. 177o-1825), English trav eller, was born in Lancashire, about i77o, and practised in London as a veterinary surgeon. He became inspector of the Bengal stud of the East India company in 1808. In this capacity he undertook a journey into Central Asia to obtain a stock of Turkoman horses.
With Captain William Hearsey he left Josimath, well within the mountains, on May 26, 1812. Crossing the frontier pass of Niti, they struck the main upper branch of the Indus near its source, and on Aug. 5 arrived at the sacred lake of Manasarowar. Returning by Bhutan, he was detained some time by the Ghurkas, and reached Calcutta in November. Moorcroft set out on a second journey in Oct. 1819. On Aug. 14 the source of the Beas (Hy phasis) was discovered, and subsequently that of the Chenab. Leh, the capital of Ladakh, was reached on Sept. 24, and a commercial treaty was concluded with the Government of Ladakh, by which the whole of Central Asia was virtually opened to British trade.
Kashmir was reached on Nov. 3, 1822, Jalalabad on June 24, Kabul on June 20, and Bokhara on Feb. 25, 1825. At Andkhui, in Afghan Turkestan, Moorcroft was seized with fever, of which he died on Aug. 27, 1825, his companion, George Trebeck, sur viving him only a few days. But according to the Abbe Huc, Moorcroft reached Lhasa in 1826, and lived there 12 years, being assassinated on his way back to India in 1838. In 1841 Moor croft's papers were obtained by the Asiatic Society, and published, under the editorship of H. H. Wilson, under the title of Travels in the Himalayan Provinces of Hindustan and the Punjab, in Ladakh and Kashmir, in Peshawur, Kabul, Kunduz and Bokhara, from 1819 to 1825.
See Graham Sandberg, The Exploraton of Tibet (1904).