capable of containing perhaps two thousand people. The aged Missionary, the Rev. Mr. Pohlè, presides over this Church, and over the native congregations at this place. Christianity flourishes; but I found that here, as at other places, there is a famine of Bibles,' The Jubilee was celebrated on the 19th of July, being the hundredth year from the arrival of the messengers of the Gospel. On this occasion their venerable Pastor preached from Matth. xxviii. 19. Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost.'---At this station, there are about a thousand English troops. Mr. Pohlè being a German, does not speak English very well; but he is reverenced for his piety by the English; and both officers and men are glad to hear the religion of their country preached in any way.---On the Sunday morning, I preached in Christ's Church to a full assembly, from these words, For we have seen his Star in the East, and are come to worship him.' Indeed, what I had seen in these provinces rendered this text the most appropriate I could select. Next day some of the English soldiers came to me, desiring to know how they might procure Bibles. It is a delightful thing,' said one of them, 'to hear our own religion preached by our own countryman.' I am informed that there are at this time above twenty English regiments in India, and that not one of them has a chaplain. The men live without religion, and then they bury each other. O England, England, it

F

is not for thine own goodness that Providence giveth thee the treasures of India !

'I proceed hence to visit the Christian Churches in the provinces of Madura, and Tinnavelly.'

The friends of Christianity in India have had it in their power to afford some aid to the Christian Churches in Tanjore On the 1st of January of the present year (1810,) the Rev. Mr. Brown preached a Sermon at Calcutta, in which he represented the petition of the Hindoos for Bibles. A plain statement of the fact was suf ficient to open the hearts of the public. A subscription was immediately set on foot, and Lieut.-General Hewitt, Commander-in-Chief, then Deputy Governor in Bengal, subscribed 2501. The chief officers of government, and the principal inhabitants of Calcutta, raised the subscription, in a few days, to the sum of 1000l. sterling. Instructions were sent to Mr. Kolhoff to buy up all the copies of the Tamul Scriptures, to distribute them at a small price amongst the natives, and order a new edition to be printed off without loss of time.*

*The chief names in this subscription, besides that of General Hewitt, were Sir John Royds, Sir W. Burroughs, John Lumsden, esq., George Udney, esq., J. H. Harrington,

VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES

FOR THE HINDOOS.

HAVING now seen what the Hindoos are in their state of idolatry, as at Juggernaut, and in Bengal; and what they may become under the influence of Christianity, as at Tranquebar. Tritchinopoly, and Tanjore, it remains, to give some account of the translation of the Scriptures into the languages of the Hindoos.

There are five principal languages spoken by Hindoos in countries subject to the British Empire. These are, the Hindoostance, which pervades Hindoostan generally; and the four languages of the four great provinces, viz. the Bengalee, for the province of Bengal; the Telinga, for the

esq. Sir John D'Oyley, Colonel Carey, John Thornhill, esq., R. C. Plowden, esq. Thos. Hayes, esq., W. Egerton, esq., &c. &c.

Thus, while we are disputing in England whether the Bible ought to be given to the Hindoos, the Deputy Governor in Bengal, the Members of the Supreme Council, and of the Supreme Court of Judicature, and the chief officers of the Government, after perusing the information concerning the state of India sent from this country, are satisfied that it is an important duty, and a Christian obligation.

Northern Sircars; the Tamul, for Coromandel, and the Carnatic; and the Malayalim or Malabar, for the coast of Malabar and Travancore.

Of these five languages, there are two into which the Scriptures are already translated; the Tamul, by the Danish Missionaries in the last century; and the Bengalee, by the Baptist Missionaries from England. The remaining three languages are in progress of translation; the Hindoostanee, by the Rev. Henry Martyn, B. D. Chaplain in Bengal; the Malabar, by Mar Dionysius, Bishop of the Syrian Christians in Travancore; both of which translations will be noticed more particularly hereafter; and the Telinga, by Ananda Rayer, a Telinga Brahmin, by birth a Mahratta, under the superintendance of Mr. Augustus Desgranges, at Vizagapatam, a Missionary belonging to the London Society.*

Ananda Rayer, a Brahmin of high cast, was lately converted to the Christian faith, and has given undoubted proofs of the serious impression

The Christian church has now to lament the loss of two of the Translators of the Holy Scriptures, mentioned in this page, viz. the venerable bishop of the Syrian church, and the young missionary, Mr. Augustas Desgranges. Their WORKS do follow them. Rev. xiii. 14. "Pray ye, therefore, the Lord of the "HARVEST that he would send forth more labourers into his "Harvest." Luke x. 2. Second Edition.

of its principles on his heart.* It is remarkable that versions of the scriptures should be now

* The account of Ananda Rayer's conversion is given by the Rev. Dr. John, the aged Missionary at Tranquebar, in a letter to Mr. Desgranges.-This Brahman applied, (as many Brahmins and other Hindoos constantly do) to an older Brahmin of some fame for sanctity, to know, "what he should do "that he might be saved?" The old Brahmin told him, that "he must repeat a certain prayer four lack of times :" that is, 400,000 times. This he performed in a Pagoda, in six months; and added many painful ceremonies. But finding no comfort or peace from these external rites, he went to a Romish Priest, and asked him if he knew what was the true religion? The Priest gave him some Christian books in the Telinga language, and, after a long investigation of Christianity, the inquiring Hindoo had no doubt remaining on his mind, that "Christ was the "Saviour of the world." But he was not satisfied with the Romish worship in many points he disliked the adoration of images, and other superstitions; and having heard from the Priests themselves, that the Protestant Christians at Tanjore and Tranquebar, professed to have a purer faith, and had got the Bible translated, and worshipped no images; he visited Dr. John, and the other Missionaries at Tranquebar, where he remained four months, conversing, says Dr. John," almost

:

every day with me," and examining the Holy Scriptures. He soon acquired the Tamul language (which has affinity with the Telinga) that he might read the Tamul translation; and he finally became a member of the Protestant Church.

The Missionaries at Vizagapatam being in want of a learned Telinga scholar to assist them in a translation of the Scriptures into the Telinga language, Dr. John recommended Ananda Rayer;" for he was averse," says he, "to undertake any worldly