and villages; and the wicker-bound graves, each distinguished by a little cross of cane, of the poor people by the road side, are enough to tell even the most careless traveller that the country is, in a great measure, Christian. The Missions, however, are in a state which requires much help and restoration; their funds, which were considerable, have been sadly dilapidated since the time of Schwartz, by the pious men (but quite ignorant of the world) who have succeeded him, and though I find great piety and good-will, I could wish a little more energy in their proceedings at present.

I heartily wish I could stay here a month or six weeks, every hour of which time might be usefully and profitably employed. My time, however, is very limited, and I must press on to Travancore before the south-west monsoon shall have made travelling on the Malabar coast impossible.

Thence, I hope, after visiting Calicut and Cannanore, to return by Seringapatam to Madras, and thence to Calcutta.

Heaven bless you, my dear Charles.

Believe me ever your's affectionately,

REGINALD CALCUTTA.

1

TO R. WILMOT HORTON, ESQ.

Trichinopoly, April 1, 1826.

MY DEAR WILMOT,

I have been passing the last four days in the society of a Hindoo Prince, the Raja of Tanjore, who quotes Fourcroy, Lavoisier, Linnæus, and Buffon fluently, has formed a more accurate judgement of the poetical merits of Shakspeare than that so felicitously expressed by Lord Byron, and has actually emitted English poetry very superior indeed to Rousseau's epitaph on Shenstone, at the same time that he is much respected by the English officers in his neighbourhood as a real good judge of a horse, and a cool, bold, and deadly shot at a tyger. The truth is that he is an extraordinary man, who, having in early youth received such an education as old Schwartz, the celebrated Missionary, could give him, has ever since continued, in the midst of many disadvantages, to preserve his taste for, and extend his knowledge of European literature, while he has never neglected the active exercises and frank soldierly bearing which become the descendant of the old Maharatta conquerors, and by which only, in the present state of things, he has it in his power to gratify the prejudices of his people, and prolong his popularity among them. Had he lived in the days of Hyder, he would have been a formidable ally or enemy,

for he is, by the testimony of all in his neighbourhood, frugal, bold, popular, and insinuating. At present, with less power than an English nobleman, he holds his head high, and appears contented; and the print of Buonaparte, which hangs in his library, is so neutralized by that of Lord Hastings in full costume, that it can do no harm to any body. To finish the portrait of Maha Raja Sarbojee, I should tell you that he is a strong-built and very handsome middle-aged man, with eyes and nose like a fine hawk, and very bushy grey mustachios, generally splendidly dressed, but with no effeminacy of ornament, and looking and talking more like a favourable specimen of a French general officer, than any other object of comparison which occurs to me. His son, Raja Sewajee, (so named after their great ancestor,) is a pale sickly-looking lad of seventeen, who also speaks English, but imperfectly, and on whose account his father lamented, with much apparent concern, the impossibility which he found of obtaining any tolerable instruction in Tanjore. I was moved at this, and offered to take him in my present tour, and afterwards to Calcutta, where he might have apartments in my house, and be introduced into good English society; at the same time that I would superintend his studies, and procure for him the best masters which India affords. The father and son, in different ways, the one catching at the idea with great eagerness, the other as if he were afraid to say all he wished, seemed both very well pleased with the proposal. Both, however,

on consulting together, expressed a doubt of the mother's concurrence, and accordingly, next day, I had a very civil message through the Resident, that the Rannee had already lost two sons, that this survivor was a sickly boy, that she was sure he would not come back alive, and it would kill her to part with him, but that all the family joined in gratitude, &c. So poor Sewajee must chew betel and sit in the Zennanah, and pursue the other amusements of the common race of Hindoo Princes, till he is gathered to those heroic forms who, girded with long swords, with hawks on their wrists, and garments like those of the king of spades (whose portrait painter, as I guess, has been retained by this family) adorn the principal room in the palace. Sarbojee, the father, has not trusted his own immortality to records like these. He has put up a colossal marble statue of himself, by Flaxman, in one of his halls of audience, and his figure is introduced on the monument, also by Flaxman, which he has raised in the Mission Church to the memory of his tutor Schwartz, as grasping the hand of the dying saint, and receiving his blessing 1.

1 The Rev. Mr. Robinson being desirous to see also the Christian congregation at Kanandagoody, fifteen miles from Tanjore, and his Highness the Maha Raja's Chatteram, went to that place on the 15th April. He was much pleased to see a large congregation assembled, and after morning prayers, he gave a kind address to the Christians, animating them to be thankful to God for his great mercies shewed to them. The Chapel at this place is a decent thatched building. It is also used as a school. Fifty poor children of the Christians are here supported by the bounty of his Highness, but instructed at the expence of the Mission The houses of the catechist and schoolmaster, which

Of Schwartz and his fifty years' labour among the heathens, the extraordinary influence and popularity which he acquired, both with Mussulmans, Hindoos, and contending European governments, I need give you no `account, except that my idea of him has been raised since I came into the south of India. I used to suspect that, with many admirable qualities, there was too great a mixture of intrigue in his character; that he was too much of a political prophet, and that the veneration which the Heathen paid and still pay him, and which indeed almost regards him as a superior being, putting crowns and burning lights before his statue, was purchased by some unwarrantable compromise with their prejudices. I find I was quite mistaken. He was really one of the most active and fearless, as he was one of the most suc cessful Missionaries who have appeared since the Apostles. To say that he was disinterested in reare also thatched, are built near the Chapel. From Kanandagoody he went to his Highness's Chatteram, which is a Hindoo charitable insti tution, established by the present Maha Raja of Tanjore, not merely for the maintenance of Brahmins, but for the poor of every description. This charitable institution has saved many hundreds from perishing when a severe famine and the cholera prevailed some years ago in the Ramuad, Shevagunga, and Madura districts. A circumstance that renders this institution worthy of notice is, that there is a charity school attached to it, in which children are instructed in the Tamul, Gentoo, Maharatta, Sanscrit, Persian, and English languages; to this must be added the Christian charity school at Kanandagoody, above mentioned. There are also two hospitals attached to the charitable institution, one for men and one for women suffering by sickness. A beautiful bungalow is also erected over the Chatteram for the accom modation of gentlemen and other Europeans going to the southward or coming from thence.-Extract from a letter from the Rev. J. C. Kohloff-ED