patience of our numerous and hearty helpers in England; for their hopes, having been very sanguine, and now meeting with so long a disappointment, may at last decline, and their hearts be 'made sick.' On any other account I am not discouraged. I am sure the work of God must prevail, and I think it cannot be long first; for God having graciously brought the gospel here, and excited some to attend to it in a hopeful manner, is a kind of pledge to me that he will not forsake his work; and though caste and a great number of superstitions are great obstacles, yet I know there are only two real obstacles in any part of the earth, viz., a want of the bible, and the depravity of the human heart. The first of these God has begun to remove, and I trust the last will be removed soon; and when the Spirit is poured down from on high, all superstitions will give way. Be encouraged, therefore, brother, and encourage others, for now 'the darkness is past' in India, 'and the true light shineth.' Perhaps it may be as brother Ryland suggests; general knowledge may first prevail, and pave the way for losing caste and joining to the Lord. I thank you for your opinion upon and advice about receiving the natives while they retain their caste. I have since found it to be impracticable, for they would undoubtedly be cast out of society, in that case as well as the other. Mr. Schwartz's people have all lost caste, who are joined to his church. I have enough within myself to discourage me for ever; but I know the work is God's, and will therefore continue to go on in the strength of the Lord, and mention his

righteousness only. The failure of the African mission is a very distressing circumstance, and shows the importance of being very careful what men are sent on a mission.

'Bless God, we are all as cold as a stone in a political sense, except brother Fountain, and I believe he is cooling: he also hears perpetual lectures upon prudence in that particular. I know not how it may fare with him, but the company have rejected his application for leave to stay in the country, and have ordered him down to Calcutta. Mr. Udney has generously proposed to appoint him my assistant, in order to prevent his meeting with any disagreeable Occurrence. Orders are issued for every ship that arrives to give in a list of all passengers, without which she would not be permitted to land; and all magistrates, and officers of districts, have orders to make returns of all Europeans, British subjects not in the service of the king or company. Such orders must be strictly observed. The magistrate of Dinagepore sent to me, Mr. Thomas, and all others resident in his district, to send in our names, abodes, business, &c., and we did so. They give out covenants to some persons, licensing them to stay in India for a limited time. Mr. Fountain applied for these covenants, but, not being able to ascertain that he was in any employment, was refused; the covenants are granted to Mr. Thomas, myself, and Mr. Powel. I hope Mr. F. may obtain them after a time; but you see by this that some worldly employment is necessary to our being permitted to remain in this country.

'Mr. Thomas and myself are just arrived at home from an excursion to Bootan, in which we preached Christ in many places, where his name was never heard before, and were attended to with great ardour. The name of our Redeemer has been declared in that unknown country, and we have the greatest encouragement to hope a mission may be begun to great advantage in those parts. I will relate a little of our expedition. We set out from Moypaldiggy on the 6th instant, and arrived on the 10th in the Bootan country, viz., that part which is below the hills, for we did not ascend the mountains, our time not being sufficient to permit us to go through all the formalities required thereto. We went to a place called Gopalgunge, and waited on a Bootea officer, called the Jinkof; he received us very kindly, and we presented him with a few articles with which he was much pleased. Here we found that it would be necessary to see some more officers, and to get a regular permission to ascend the hills. The greatest part of the day we were in his house, which is large and made with bamboos and mats, with saul-tree pillars, and has an upper floor, on which he lives, made with split bamboos. He made us a present of some pieces of bacon about a foot long, but which were so stale as to be smelt at a great distance. After that, he treated us with tea, which they call runga. The teapot is a large bamboo, with a hole perforated through one of its knots on the inside, which is the spout; the tea is made into cakes with some composition, and is, when used, mixed with boiling water,

ghee,* and salt. We tried in vain to swallow it, though the Bootea drank very copiously of it. His kindness, however, was very conspicuous, and he drank our rum more than we wished him. The Booteas are greatly addicted to drinking spirits, and pride themselves in drinking much, though drunkenness is reckoned a shame among them. However, all will intoxicate themselves if they can get English spirits; they are taught to drink spirits as soon as they can talk; and in all their houses you see large pitchers (Culsees) about as large as a small bucket, full of Bengal arrack, which they drink as we should water. They are very stout, robust people, and with respect to dress, colour, and appearance, are like an amazing stout, athletic English waggoner, much weather-beaten. They have no stockings, but their dress is like a waggoner's frock, except the higher ranks, who have a garment much like an English gentleman's morning gown, of blue, red, or green stuff, with large figures wrought in it, like diaper. The women are tolerably white, their dress a petticoat, and a cloth which is so fastened from the shoulders to the waist as to appear like a monstrous pouch over the breasts, in which they keep every portable article, as in a pocket. Their hair is parted on the top of their head, and we saw no covering for the head of the females, though the men in office had different coverings for the head.

From Gopalgunge we went to Bote Haut (the

Ghee is butter melted down and then preserved for use, and is much used in all parts of Bengal.

natives call themselves Botes, but the Hindus call them Booteas), to see the Soobah, who is the greatest officer, that is, a kind of viceroy below the hills. A letter having been sent to him from the Jinkof, he sent two horses to attend us, and the Jinkof himself went with us. The procession was the most comical and singular that could be imagined, yet strongly proved their great attention to us. We were preceded by a band of Bengal music, if such it can be called; we were six horsemen, and servants, people to carry our baggage, tents, &c. (which, in travelling by land in this country, must be carried on men's shoulders), and spectators. We had near a hundred attendants on foot. On one horse was the Jinkof, led by two men, notwithstanding which he was sometimes first, sometimes last, and sometimes turning round, his horse being ungovernable: every mile or two he was stopping to drink spirits. A Hindu on another horse was much like him, except drinking; and we had enough to do to keep our horses out of their way, to effect which, we were always wheeling to the right or left. At our approaching the town, a number of females met us, and made their salam,* after which they ran before the horses, and all the inhabitants of the place, I should suppose two or three thousand, all Hindus, joined the procession.

'We went in this manner to the Soobah's house, who received us with great politeness, made us presents of silk, viz., a white scarf, in the name of the

Salam, the common way of bowing in India, performed by putting the right hand to the head, and gently bowing.