TO MR. SUTCLIFF.

'MY DEAR BROTHER,

Mudnabatty, Jan. 16, 1798.

'I have yours of February 7, 1797, which is the only one of your favours which remains unanswered. I now sit down to answer it, and must say that, though short, yet it contains multum in parvo, and has been a cordial to my heart.

'You are among the number of my dear friends, whose names I often mention in my poor prayers to God, and, give me leave to say, one to whom my heart is truly attached in the gospel. I rejoice to hear of your health, of your marriage, of your people, and of your happiness with them. They are a people whom I love, so far as I know them. revivals, and other changes in your parts, is to me peculiarly interesting; and I trust, upon the whole, there appears a degree of melioration in mundane affairs so far as they relate to the church of Christ.

The account of deaths,

'I am fully convinced of what you say respecting the propriety of keeping two journals; but owing to my numerous avocations, which engross all my time, I have long since dropped the practice of keeping any journal at all. I might plead my great disinclination to writing as an excuse, but I am ashamed to do it ; though that undoubtedly has its bad effect. Yet if you consider my situation, you will say that I have my hands full of labour; and yet I am scarcely perceived among the millions of Bengal. The translating the scripture, and correcting former translations,

constantly occupies all my candle-light, and often all my afternoons. This you will easily believe when you consider the difficulty of translating into a foreign language, and the labour of collating my translation with all the versions I have; as also the writing the whole with my own hand in the Bengal character, which is considerable labour, notwithstanding I write it nearly as quick as I do English. I have had no assistance from Mr. Thomas in this work, except his old copies of Matthew and Mark, James, and part of Luke; all which were so very imperfect and incorrect, that, setting aside the labour of writing, it would have been as easy to have translated the whole myself. At this time the Pentateuch, the New Testament, and eighty-five of the Psalms are done, and I hope in the course of this year to finish all, except the historical books from Joshua to Job. Besides this, I am learning the Sunscrit language, which, with only the helps to be procured here, is perhaps the hardest language in the world. To accomplish this, I have nearly translated the Sunscrit grammar and dictionary into English, and have made considerable progress in compiling a dictionary, Sunserit, including Bengali and English.

'I also maintain the worship of God, and expound in Bengali every morning; when about twenty people attend, and we sing Bengali hymns, which I have composed, I suppose in the style of Sternhold and Hopkins; but I did what I was able to do, and hope

it

may be attended with a blessing. When at home I constantly preach to them twice on the Sabbath. I

now preach at Dinagepore once a month, the particulars of which brother Fuller will inform you of.

'I have written to Mr. Schwartz, but have not his answer yet. You know that those good men are supported by the English society for promoting religious knowledge, and that their accounts are printed. I rejoice much at the missionary spirit which is lately gone forth. Surely it is the prelude to the universal spread of the gospel! I also see in the Calcutta papers that the pope was dying, the cardinals fled, and priests marrying, last June. I hope it was true ; and also that the old gentleman is dead and buried, and that no more of his seed or sort may any more exist in the earth. Your account of the German Moravian brethren's affectionate regard towards me is very pleasing. I am not much moved with what men in general say of me; yet I cannot be insensible to the regards of men eminent for godliness.

'What you hint respecting the natural history or other particulars of Bengal, I have adopted some time ago, and have separate books for every distinct class, as birds, beasts, fishes, serpents, &c. I intend, however, to trouble you a little from time to time with some account of their mythology and religion: and as the worship of the sun was performed in my sight last Lord's day, I shall begin with that; especially as I have not seen it noted by any writer on India. I preached on the spot to them, just in front of a long row of offerings in the evening.

The sun, called Soorjyo, or Deebahar, is supposed to be the governor of all bodily diseases, and is there

fore worshipped, to avert his anger, and to prevent diseases. Some valetudinarians worship him every Sunday, by fasting and offerings; but he is annually worshipped the first Sunday in the month of May, which was last Lord's day, Jan. 14. The name of this worship is Dhomma Bhau, or Soorjya Bhau. In these parts (for the manner, I am informed, is different in some circumstances, in different places) women appear to be the principal actors in the worship, though none are excluded, and even Mussulmans have so far Hinduized as to join in the idolatry. It was thus conducted. At the dawn of the morning a great number of offerings were carried into the open field, and placed in a row. The offerings which I saw consisted of fruits, sweetmeats, pigeons, and kids; and I suppose other things, as deer, buffaloes, &c., might be offered. By each person's offering is placed a small pitcher-like pot, containing about a pint and a half of water. A device, made of a water-plant, a species of phylanthus, made to represent the sun, is placed on the edge of the pot, as people in England place flowers. The pot, with all its appendages, represents the sun, perhaps as the vivifier of nature. By each offering also is placed a

what shall I

It resembles a

call it ?-an incense altar, or censer. chafing dish, is made of copper, and stands on a pedestal about a foot long. It is called a dhomachee. It contains coals of fire, and has a kind of incense from time to time thrown into it, principally the pitch of the saul tree, called here dhoona. By each offering also stands a lamp, which is kept burning all

day; and the women who offer take their station by their offerings. At sun-rise, they walk four times round the whole row of offerings, with the smoking dhoonachee placed on their heads, and then resume their stations again, where they continue in an erect posture, fasting the whole day, occasionally throwing a little dhoona into the doonachee. Towards evening, the Brahmun who attends the ceremony throws the pigeons up into the air, which, being young, cannot fly far, and are scrambled for and carried away by any one who gets them, for the purpose of eating. The Brahmun also perforates the ears of the kids with a pack-needle; after which, the first who touches them gets them. About sun-set, the offerers again take up the smoking dhoonachees, and make three more circuits round the row of offerings, making the whole number seven times in the day. I have not learned the reason of this number. After this, each one takes his or her offering home, and eats it, the worship being ended. Then the lamps are extinguished. I had some of these things presented to me; but in order to bear a testimony against the idolatry, I not only refused them, but others also brought on purpose for me by one present, telling them that it was a very wicked thing to eat things sacrificed to idols, which are God's enemies. I preached to them from Rev. i. 16: His countenance was as the sun shining in his strength,' and told them of the glories of the Lord of the sun, as Creator, Governor, and Saviour. I had a rich Fakir Mussulman come in the morning to hear me; he came from a distance. I had much talk with