lowing Letter from him to the Se..eretary, dated Kandy, October 27, 1818, will shew how seasonable was his arrival at Ceylon, when a post of such importance and promise was so utterly destitute of Christian Instruction.

I have had full employment for the exercise of my Ministry among the numbers of our countrymen here, both civil and military, and especially in the crowded Hospitals; but hi-, therto, I have been precluded from any public Missionary Exertions.

The town has been almost wholly deserted by the Native Inhabitants, ever since the Rebellion broke out; but we have now the greatest encouragement to hope that God is about to restore to us the blessings of peace; and, with it, the people will return. I cannot be permitted, at present, to preach to the Natives; but I have obtained authority to open Schools; and have engaged two of the Priests to be the Masters of them. They will conform to my directions.

I do not propose to teach the Children English, in these first Schools; but hold this out, as the reward of diligence and good behaviour in learning to read and write their own language, and such other things as shall be required from them. They will be taught especially to read the printed character, as a step towards their receiving the Words of Eternal Life.

A few days ago, the Governor, in the prospect of the Rebellion being speedily put an end to, proposing to return himself to Colombo, desired that I might be asked whether I would consent to remain here, after he had left. I took time to consider of it: and, after well weighing all the circumstances the superior advantages which I have here for stu

dying the language, the prospect of a door being opened for preaching the Gospel to tens of thousands who have advantage which I have had of connever yet heard the joyful sound, the ciliating the good-will of many among the Priests and Head-men, whose influence is very considerable among, the people these things appeared to overbalance all that could be urged on the other side of the question. I therefore signified my assent; and, in consequence, the Governor conferred upon me the appointment of Assistant Chaplain to the Forces in Kandy, which, as long as I retain it, will save the Society my personal expenses.

I am applying myself as closely as possible to the acquirement of the language. My progress is not equal to my wishes: but I hope to surmount its difficulties, at least so far as to deliver a written sermon in it intelligibly, in less than a twelvemonth; and, before that, I hope, long before, to be permitted to preach to the Natives through an Interpreter.

I need not, I trust, say that I hold myself at the disposal of the Society? If they think that I ought to return to Colombo, I am most ready to do so: but if they think that the hold which we have on the Kandyan Provinces, the head-quarters of Budhism, which have never yet been summoned to submit to the Lord Christ, should not be relinquished, I hope they will send me a Colleague.

My situation is desolate indeed. I have learned here how to estimate the value of Christian Intercourse. How highly should I prize the advantage of one hour's conversation in a week with a Christian Friend!

I have had several very interesting conversations with Priests: two of them have taken the New Testament, with a promise to read it attentively.

and are practised by such as aspire to a character of peculiar sanctity and merit, and to prevalent influence with the Gods.

20

One of these modes is denominated "Oordhabahu.” The arms and hands are therein kept in a fixed position, above the head of the Devotee who practises this mode of superstition.

A figure of one of these Devotees, who stationed himself near Calcutta, was given in our Volume for 1816, p. 389.

In the Asiatic Researches, vol. v. Art. 2, there is an account of another, with a similar figure, by the late Go vernor Duncan. This man's name was Praun Poory. He lived at Benares, and is represented as a very intelligent man. At nine years of age, he secretly withdrew from his father's house, and proceeded to the city of Bethour, on the banks of the Ganges, where he became a Fakeer, about the year 1752. A short time afterward he went to Allahabad, to attend the great annual meeting of Pilgrims at that place. Hearing there of the merits attached to the Eighteen different kinds of "Tupisya," he made choice of that of "Oordhabahu." The first operation of this discipline he represented to be very painful, and to require preparation by a previous course of abstinence. It is obvious, indeed, that such a violence against nature as this absurd process implies, must be attended with restless irritation and pain, until feeling becomes extinguished in the limbs thus tortured into a forced position.

This poor creature seems, however, to have made his lower extremities pay for the imprisonment of his upper. Unlike the Fakeer of his order whose figure we before gave, and who sat with his legs tucked up under him till they became almost useless, Praun Poory appears to have exercised his rather unmercifully. The extent of his travels is almost incredible.

From Allahabad he traversed the whole length of the Peninsula, down to Cochin. From thence, crossing to Ramisher, he passed up the whole eastern coast to the Temple of Juggernaut, in Orissa. Returning, by nearly the same route, to Ramisher, he crossed into Ceylon, and paid his respects to the "Sreepud," a pretended print of the "Divine Foot" made on a mountain of immense height in that Island. From Ceylon he sailed to the Malay

Peninsula, and from thence again to Cochin. He now travelled up the western coast of the Peninsula, to Bombay; and continued his course, bending to the eastward to Hurdwar, where the Ganges enters the plains of Hindoostan. From that place of Hindoo Devotion, he set forward, westerly, through Cabul, and reached Meshid on the Caspian. Crossing to Astrachan, he reached Moscow in a journey of eighteen days. Returning to Astrachan, he traversed the whole of Persia; and, embarking at a port on the southern coast, sailed for Bussorah. After an ineffectual attempt to penetrate up the Tigris to Bagdad, he returned to Bussorah, and sailed from Muscat for Surat. From Surat he sailed to Mocha, on the Red Sea; and thence again returned to India. Landing at a port on the north-western coast, he travelled up the course of the Indus to Cashmere; and, entering Hindoostan, he reached Oude, and thence traversed Nepaul into Thibet, penetrating to a great distance, to a sacred lake called Maun Surwur. Returning back through Nepaul, he was charged with Despatches, by the administration there, to the then GovernorGeneral, Mr. Hastings. After this, he was sent to Benares, with Introductory Letters to the Rajah and the British Resident. Some years afterward, Mr. Hastings bestowed on him some posession in land, which he continued to hold when Mr. Duncan saw him, in 1792. He was still so fond of travelling, that he made short excursions every year into different parts of India, and occasionally as far as Nepaul.

Praun Poory delivered this narrative in Hindoostanee, while a servant of Mr. Duncan committed it to writing. His arms being wholly useless, he had exercised his memory with such success, that he enumerated the places through which he passed in these immense journeyings, and gave particulars concerning them, with surprising accuracy. Mr. Duncan had the utmost reliance on his not designing to impose in any part of his narrative; but considers that allowance must be made for inevitable defects of memory, in a relation extending through so many years, and comprehending such a number of objects.