prejudices which Europeans in general too readily adopt, and which have of late years been greatly strengthened, by the works of Mr. Bryant and Sir William Jones. From the latter you will gain much useful information, provided you guard against his System of Chronology, which is erroneous throughout.

That Christianity was once respected in Asia is certain; for notwithstanding it has been scarcely tolerated during the Mahomedan Dynasties, it is well known that there is scarcely a village on the Coromandel coast, that does not contain Christians. In the little district of Dindigul, I ascertained that there were more than ten thousand, who believed in the Incarnation of Christ. These, you well know, have of late been represented as the very lowest order of the people; as destitute of truth, honesty and good faith; as merely Christians by name, totally ignorant of the tenets of the religion which they profess. This' is in general true: nevertheless there are very many pious and good people to be found among them; although their knowledge of Christianity is miserably circumscribed. No doubt the first object of the Protestant Missionaries will be to enlighten those who already believe in the incarnation of Christ, and thereby render Christianity respectable in the eyes. of the Hindus. It is absurd to suppose that an

enlightened Brahman, whose religion is founded on the purest system of ethics, can think well of that religion which receives into the bosom of its church the most abandoned and profligate of the Indians; who, to avoid the disgrace or punishment which awaits their dereliction of morality, become Christians; yet such is the fact. For it too generally happens that to believe in Christ is all that is required of an Indian: of course the apostate Hindus are the very scum of the earth. Those who have hitherto attempted the conversion of the superior Hindus have been very inadequate to the task. I never met with a single instance, where the missionary was well versed either in their Theology or Chronology. They too frequently, from a want of knowledge on these subjects, depreciate Christian virtues when presented in an Indian garb, and ridicule a chronology which they do not understand. I embrace with pleasure the task of convincing you, that the Hindu dates correspond with the Hebrew text of our Scripture, and that they date the Lotos creation five thousand eight hundred and seventeen years from the present time; which is only six years from the true period, according to the best calculations we have, and only two years, according to the vulgar era of Christ A. M. 4004. A Brahman who knows that the birth of their four

great Buddhas (prophets) correspond in point of date with those of Adam, Enoch, Noah, and Moses, of the Hebrew Scripture, smiles with contempt at those Europeans who attempt to regulate Chronology, by rejecting that of their established church for the Septuagint or Samaritan text: Those who attempt to convert the Brahmans to Christianity must recollect, that there is scarcely any Christian virtue, which was not enjoined by their great Buddha nearly five thousand years ago; and handed down to the present day. If, then, we wish to convince them, that an incarnation of the Deity took place 1814 years ago; or in the Cali year 3102, we must divest ourselves of that intolerant spirit, with which sarcasms have been thrown against their religion, their morality, and their chronology. One author tells us, "that if a "Sooda should get by heart, nay even if he should "read or listen to the sacred books, the law con"demns him to a most cruel death." Whereas, from a conviction that the Vedas are too abstruse for the generality of the people, a body of laws named Smyrta were composed, consisting of 18 books divided under the heads of the duty of religion, of justice, and of the punishment, or expiation of crimes *. These were compiled for

*This code is formed from the ordinances of Menu the son

of

the information of mankind in general; but for the further information of the lower casts in religious knowledge, the Pasupata and Pancharatra, with innumerable other works, were composed. The study of the Veda is enjoined to the three first casts; and the study of the latter works to the fourth, to whom, from their subordinate stations, and want of erudition, the Vedas were unintelligible. Thus an institution, wisely and humanely ordained to make religious knowledge general, is represented as a crime of the first magnitude. Mr. Halhed might have recollected that the Christians of the Latin Church are forbidden to read the Scriptures, and that the service is performed in a language which the lower classes are totally ignorant of: he must have known, that the lower classes of the Hindus are totally unacquainted with the Sanscrit language, in which the Vedas are written; and he ought to have known, that the Sanscrit, in which they are written, particularly the first Veda, is so obselete, as to be

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of Brahma, translated by Sir W. Jones from the gloss of Cullúca Bhatta. In the Manava Sastir, we read that "the Scripture "is an eye giving constant light: nor could the Veda Sostra "have been made by human faculties, nor can it be measured by "human reason unassisted by reverted glosses and comments: "he who completely knows the sense of the Veda Sostra while "he remains in any of the four orders approaches the divine "nature while he remains on this world."

illegible to many of the learned Brahmans, and that, in consequence thereof, it is the Veda of Vedas, so called from being compiled from the three divine Vedas, that is generally read.

The Hindu sects are so numerous, and the four original casts so divided, and subdivided, since they were first instituted, that an attempt to explain them would be as visionary as useless ; they are all branches from one great root, originally instituted for the purpose of establishing morality, subordination and good government, among the people in general. For the religion of the Hindus, although now clouded by fable, was not so originally and the Puranas, or Sacred legends, however monstrous they may appear to the eye of prejudice, are either religious symbols, or allegorical descriptions of past events.

The Hindus believe in one great primeval Cause, the Deity; whom, under whatever name adored, they suppose to have existed from all eternity, and who, (to prevent the profanation annexed to the pronouncing of his name) is usually described as the Self-existing. This great first Cause, is worshipped as universal, supreme, and infinite; is considered as a divine essence, incom

* The Brahman, the Cshatriya, the Vaitya and the Súdra