said I, 'I am about to take my leave of you, and to thank you for your hospitable attentions, (it had been before understood that I should take my final leave at the door of the inquisition, after having seen the interior,) and I wish always to preserve on my mind a favorable sentiment of your kindness and candor. You cannot, you say, shew me the captives and the dungeons; be pleased then merely to answer this question; for I shall believe your word: How many prisoners are there now below, in the cells of the inquisition?' The inquisitor replied, "That is a question which I cannot answer.' On his pronouncing these words, I retired hastily towards the door, and wished him farewell. We shook hands with as much cordiality as we could at the moment assume; and both of us, I believe, were sorry that our parting took place with a clouded countenance.

"From the inquisition I went to the place of burning in the Campo Santo Lazaro, on the river side, where the victims were brought to the stake at the Auto da Fe. It is close to the palace, that the vice-roy and his court may witness the execution; for it has ever been the policy of the inquisition to make these spiritual executions appear to be the executions of the state. An old priest accompanied me, who pointed out the place and described the scene. As I passed over this melancholy plain, I thought on the difference between the pure and benign doctrine, which was first preached to India in the apostolic age, and that bloody code, which after a long night of darkness, was announced to it under the same name! And I pondered on the mysterious dispensation, which permitted the ministers of the inquisition, with their racks and flames, to visit these lands, before the heralds of the gospel of peace. But the most painful reflection was, that this tribunal should yet exist, unawed by the vicinity of British humanity and dominion. I was not satisfied with what I had seen or said at the inquisition, and

I determined to go back again. The inquisitors were now sitting on the tribunal, and I had some excuse for returning; for I was to receive from the chief inquisitor a letter which he said he would give me, before I left the place, for the British resident in Travancore, being an answer to a letter from that officer.

"When I arrived at the inquisition, and had ascended the outer stairs, the door keepers surveyed me doubtingly, but suffered me to pass, supposing that I had returned by permission and appointment of the inquisitor. I entered the great hall, and went up directly towards the tribunal of the inquisition, described by Dellon, in which is the lofty crucifix. I sat down on a form, and wrote some notes; and then desired one of the attendants to carry in my name to the inquisitor. As I walked up the hall, I saw a poor woman sitting by herself, on a bench by the wall, apparently in a disconsolate state of mind. ' She clasped her hands as I passed, and gave me a look expressive of her distress. This sight chilled my spirits. The familiars told me she was waiting there to be called up before the tribunal of the inquisition. While I was asking questions concerning her crime, the second inquisitor came out in evident trepidition and was about to complain of the intrusion; when I informed him I had come back for the letter from the chief inquisitor. He said it should be sent after me to Goa; and he conducted me with a quick step towards the door. As we passed the poor woman I pointed to her, and said with some emphasis, "Behold, father, another victim of the holy inquisition!" He answered nothing. When we arrived at the head of the great stair, he bowed and I took my last leave of Josephus a Doloribus, without uttering a word.”

The foregoing particulars concerning the inquisition at Goa are detailed chiefly with this view; that the English nation may consider, whether there be sufficient ground for presenting a remonstrancce to

the Portuguese government, on the longer continuance of that tribunal in India; it being notorious, that a great part of the Romish Christians are now under British protection. "The Romans," says Montesqusquieu, "deserved well of human nature, for making it an article in their treaty with the Carthaginians that they should abstain from sacrificing their children to their gods." It has been lately observed by respectable writers, that the English nation ought to imitate this example, and endeavor to induce her allies "to abolish the human sacrifices of the inquisition;" and a censure is passed on our government for their indifference to this subject.* The indifference to the inquisition is attributable, we believe, to the same cause which has produced an indifference to the religious principles which first organized the inquisition. The mighty despot, who suppressed the inquisition in Spain, was not swayed probably by very powerful motives of humanity; but viewed with jealousy a tribunal, which usurped an independent dominion; and he put it down, on the same principle that he put down the popedom, that he might remain pontiff and grand inquisitor himself. And so he will remain for a time, till the purposes of Providence shall have been accomplished by him. But are we to look on in silence, and to expect that further meliorations in human society are to be effected by despotism, or by great revolutions? "If," say the same authors, "while the inquisition is destroyed in Europe by the power of despotism, we could entertain the hope, and it is not too much to entertain such a hope, that the power of liberty is about to destroy it in America; we might even, amid the gloom that surrounds us, congratulate our fellow-creatures on one of the most remarkable periods in the history of the progress of human society, the final erasure of the inquisition from the face of the earth."* It will

Edia. Rev. No. xxxii. p. 429.

indeed be an important and happy day to the eartî, when this final erasure shall take place; but the period of such an event is nearer, I apprehend, in Europe and America, than it is in Asia; and its termination in Asia depends as much on Great Britain as on Portugal. And shall not Great Britain do her part to hasten this desirable time? Do we wait, as if to see whether the power of infidelity will abolish the other inquisitions of the earth? Shall not we, in the mean while, attempt to do something, on Christian principles, for the honor of God and of humanity? Do we dread even to express a sentiment on the subject in our legislative assemblies, or to notice it in our treaties? It is surely our duty to declare our wishes, at least, for the abolition of these inhuman tribunals, (since we take an active part in promoting the welfare of other nations,) and to deliver our testimony against them in the presence of Europe.

This case is not unlike that of the immolation of females; with this aggravation in regard to the latter, that the rite is perpetrated in our own territoOur humanity revolts at the occasional description of the enormity; but the matter comes not to our own business and bosoms, and fail even to insinuate our disapprobation of the deed. It may be concluded then, that while we remain silent and unmoved spectators of the flames of the widow's pile, there is no hope that we shall be justly affected by the reported horrors of the inquisition.

TRANSLATION OF THE SCRIPTURES FOR THE ROMISH CHRISTIANS.

The principal language spoken by the Romish Christians in India are these four: the Tamul, the Malabar, the Ceylonese, and the Portuguese. The author has already had occasion to notice the three first. The Tamul version has been long since com

pleted by the protestant missionaries; and the Malabar and Ceylonese are in course of publication. It is now proper to explain, that excellent effects may be expected from the diffusion of the Portuguese scriptures in India. The Portuguese language prevails wherever there are, or have been, settlements of that nation. Their descendants people the coasts from the vicinity of the Cape of Good Hope to the sea of China; beginning from Sofala, Mocoranga, Mosambique, (where there is a bishop,) Zinzebar, and Melinda, (where there are many churches,) on the east of Africa; and extending round by Babelmandel, Diu, Surat, Daman, Bombay, Goa, Calicut, Cochin, Angengo, Tutecorin, Negapatam, Jaffnapatam, Columbo, Point de Galle, Tranquebar, Tanjore, Tritchinopoly, Porto Novo, Pondicherry, Sadras, Madrass, Masulipatam, Calcutta, Chinsurah, Bandel, Chittagong, Macao, and Canton; and almost all the islands of the Malayan Archipelago, which were first conquered by the Portuguese. The greater part of the Portuguese in India are now subjects of the British empire. The author visited most of the places above enumerated; and in many of them he could not hear of a single copy of the Portuguese scriptures. There is a Portuguese press at Tranquebar, and another at Vespery, near Madrass; and pecuniary aid only is wanted from Europe to multiply copies, and to circulate them round the coasts of Asia. The Portuguese language is certainly a most favorable medium for diffusing the true religion in the maritime provinces of the east.

THE COLLEGES AT GOA.

Goa will probably remain the theological school to a great part of India, for a long period to come. It is of vast importance to the interest of christianity in the east, that this source of instruction should be

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