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mingled sensations of pleasure and regret; of plea sure to think that so many of the Hindoos had been rescued from the idolatry of Brahma, and its criminal worship; and of regret when I reflected that there was not to be found among the whole body, one copy of the Holy Bible.

"The apostolic Vicar is an Italian, and corresponds with the society 'de propaganda fide.' He is a man of liberal manners, and gave me free access to the archives of Verapoli, which are upwards of two centuries old. In the library I found many volumes marked 'liber hereticus prohibitus.' Every step I take in Christian India, I meet with a memento of the inquisition. The apostolical vicar, however, does not acknowledge its authority, and places himself under British protection. He spoke of the inquisition with just indignation, and, in the presence of the British resident, called it 'a horrid tribunal.' I asked him whether he thought I might with safety visit the inquisition, when I past Goa; there being at this time a British force in its vicinity. It asserted a personal jurisdiction over natives who were now British subjects: and it was proper the English government should know something of its present state. The bishop answered, 'I do not know what you might do, under the protection of a British force; but I should not like (smiling, and pressing his capacious sides,) to trust my body in their hands.'

"We then had. some conversation on the subject of giving the scriptures to the native Roman catholics. I had heard before that the bishop was by no means hostile to the measure. I told him that I should probably find the means of translating the scriptures into the Malabar language, and wished to know whether he had any objection to this mode of illuminating the ignorant minds of the native Christians. He said he had none. I visited the bishop two or three times afterwards. At our last inter

view he said, 'I have been thinking of the good gift you are meditating for the native Christians; but believe me, the inquisition will endeavor to counteract your purposes by every means in their power.' I afterwards conversed with an intelligent native priest, who was well acquainted with the state and character of the Christians, and asked him whether he thought they would be happy to obtain the scriptures? 'Yes,' answered he, 'those who have heard of them. I asked if he had got a bible himself? No,' he said; but he had seen one at Goa."

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“Angamalee, a Syrian town containing three churches, -January, 1807.

"I have penetrated once more inland, to visit the Syrian churches. At the town of Cenotta, I was surprised to meet with Jews and Christians in the same street. The Jews led me first to their Synagogue, and allowed me to take away some manuscripts for money. The Syrian Christians then conducted me to their ancient church. I afterwards sat down on an eminence above the town, to contemplate this interesting spectacle; a Jewish synagogue, and a Christian church, standing over against each other; exhibiting, as it were, during many revolving ages, the law and the gospe, to the view of the heathen people.

"Angamalee is one of the most remote of the Syrian towns in this direction, and is situated on a high land. This was once the residence of the Syrian bishop. The inhabitants told me, that when Tippoo Sultan invaded Travancore, a detachment of his cavalry penetrated to Angamalee, where they expected to find great wealth, from its ancient fame. Being Mahomedans, they expressed their abhorrence of the Christian religion, by destroying one of the lesser churches, and stabling their horses in the great church. In this place I have found a good many valuable manuscripts. I had been led to sup

pose, from the statement of the Portuguese historians, that possibly all the Syriac MSS. of the Bible had been burned by the Romish church at the synod of Diamper, in 1599. But this was not the case.' The inquisitors condemned many books to the flames; but they saved the Bible; being content to order that the Syriac scriptures should be amended agreeably to the vulgate of Rome. But many bibles and other volumes were not produced at all. In the acts of the council of Nice it is recorded, that Johannes, bishop of India, signed his name at that council in the year three hundred and twenty-five. The Syriac version of the scriptures was brought to India according to the popular belief, before the year three hundred and twenty-five. Some of their present copies are certainly of ancient date.. Though written on a strong thick paper, like that of some MSS. in the British museum, commonly called eastern paper, the ink has, in several places, eat through the material in the exact form of the letter. In other copies, where the ink had less of a corroding quality, it has fallen off, and left a dark vestige of the letter, faint indeed, but not in general illegible. There is a volume, which was deposited in one of the remote churches, near the mountains, which merits a particular description. It contains the old and new testaments, engrossed on strong vellum, in large folio, having three columns in a page; and is written with beautiful accuracy. The character is Estrangelo Syriac; and the words of every book are numbered. But the volume has suffered injury from time or neglect. In certain places the ink has been totally obliterated from the page, and left the parchment in its state of natural whiteness: but the letters can, in general, be distinct. ly traced from the impress of the pen, or from the partial corrosion of the ink. I scarcely expected that the Syrian church would have parted with this manuscript. But the bishop was pleased to pre

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sent it to me saying, 'It will be safer in your hands than in our own;' alluding to the revolutions in Hindostan. 'And yet,' said he, we have kept it, as some think, for near a thousand years.' 'I wish,' said I, 'that England may be able to keep it as long. In lookingover it, I find the very first proposed emendation of the Hebrew text by Dr. Kennicot (Gen. iv. 6,) in this manuscript; and, no doubt, it is the right reading. The disputed passage in 1 John v. 7, is not to be found in it; nor is this verse to be found in any copy of the Syriac scriptures which I have yet seen. But notwithstanding this omission, and notwithstanding the great display of learning in maintaining a contrary opinion, I believe the passage to be genuine. The view of these copies of the scriptures, and of the churches which contain them, still continues to excite a pleasing astonishment in my mind: and I sometimes question myself, whether I am indeed in India, in the midst of the Hindoos, and not far from the equinoctial line. How wonderful it is, that, during the dark ages of Europe, whilst ignorance and superstition, in a manner, denied the scriptures to the rest of the world, the Bible should have found an asylum in the mountains of Malay-ala; where it was freely read by upwards of an hundred chuches!

"But there are other ancient documents in Malabar, not less interesting than the Syrian manuscripts. The old Portuguese historians relate, that soon after the arrival of their countrymen in India, about 300 years ago, the Syrian bishop of Angamalee (the place where I now am) deposited in the Fort of Cochin, for safe custody, certain tablets of brass, on which were engraved rights of nobility, and other privileges granted by a prince of a former age; and that while these tablets were under the charge of the Portuguese, they had been unaccountably lost, and were never after heard of. Adrian Moens, a governor of Cochin in 1770, who published some account of the Jews of Malabar, informs us that he

used every means in his power, for many years, to obtain a sight of the famed Christian plates; and was at length satisfied that they were irrecoverably lost, or rather, he added, that they never existed. The learned in general, and the antiquarian in particular, will be glad to hear that these ancient tablets have been recovered within this last month by the exertions of lieutenant colonel Macauley, the British resident in Travancore, and are now officially deposited with that officer.

"The Christian tablets are six in number. They are composed of a mixed metal. The engraving on the largest plate is thirteen inches long, by about four broad. They are closely written, four of them on both sides of the plate, making in all eleven pages. On the plate reputed to be the oldest, there is writing perspicuously engraved in nail headed or triangular headed letters, resembling the Persepolital or Babylonish. On the same plate there is writing in another character, which is supposed to have no affinity with any existing character in Hindostan. The grant on this plate appears to be witnessed by four Jews of rank, whose names are distinctly engraved in an old Hebrew character, resembling the alphabet called the Palmyrene: and to each name is prefixed the title of "magen" or chief, as the Jews translated it. It may be doubted whether there exist in the world many documents of so great a length, which are of equal antiquity, and in such faultless preservation, as the Christian tablets of Malabar. The Jews of Cochin indeed contest the palm of antiquity: for they also produce two tablets, containing privileges granted at a remote period; of which they presented to me a Hebrew translation. As no person can be found in this country who is able to translate the Christian tablets, I have directed an engraver at Cochin to execute a copper-plate fac simile of the whole, for the purpose of transmitting copies to the learned societies in Asia and Europe. The

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