yet. We wish to send another, in like manner, but do not think it proper yet. Notwithstanding the distressing circumstances mentioned above, I think the aspect of the mission to be very encouraging.

'I may mention a thing which I have long designed, but, for want of funds, have never been able to accomplish. I suppose the expense of doing it might be thirty rupees per month. I have always had a strong turn for natural history, and know nothing more fit to relax the mind after close application to other things. I have long wished to employ a person to paint the natural history of India, the vegetable productions excepted, which Dr. Roxburgh has been about for several years. The birds, insects, lizards, fishes, and serpents (many of the last have been drawn by Dr. Buchanan and Dr. Russel, with descriptions) would be amusing, would take little time, and might be of use. I could do it for that sum, and indeed intend to employ my own little property for that purpose, as soon as it can be spared from the family.

The Lord still smiles upon us. I some time ago

baptized three natives and my son William. Our number of baptized natives is now twenty-five, and the whole number of church-members thirty-nine. I was greatly pleased with a small excursion which I made, some little time ago, in Jessore. I hope there is the foundation of a work in those parts. We have now begun to print the second edition of the New Testament, and are about to publish some of our little pamphlets in the Hindusthani language. Dear Pearce's address to the Lascars is put into that language. We have also some thoughts of the Mahrattas. Α Mahratta pundit, whom we have retained, has made a beginning of some small portions of the scripture in that language, and the Devnagur letter will answer for that tongue and the Hindusthan as well as the Sunscrit.

'I see that I have inadvertently written some things to England which savour strongly of vanity, and which, when they have been printed, have made me wish they had never been written. I am not conscious of having felt the workings of vanity when writing them, and believe that the sentiments were what lay uppermost at the moment of writing; but

I wish they had not been published, at least in their present form.

My time is so much occupied with the second edition of the New Testament, and the remaining part of the Old, that, together with my other necessary avocations, the whole is completely engrossed, and my mind has acquired so much bias towards seeking out words, phrases, and idioms of speech, that it is nearly unprepared for any other undertaking, and I feel that there is a possibility of having the mind secularized whilst employed on bible criticisms. This, however, is an absolutely necessary work, and cannot be done without much repeated and close attention, and frequent revision. I therefore comfort myself with the thought that I am in the work of the Lord. The alterations in the second edition are great and numerous; not so much, however, in what relates to meaning as construction. I hope it will be tolerably correct, as every proof sheet is carefully revised by us all, compared as exactly with the Greek as brother Marshman and myself are capable of doing, subjected to the opinion and animadversion of several pundits, and some of it translated by a native into a collateral language of which we can form some idea, before it is printed off.

'Somebody, I think Morris, observed that Rowland Hill rather exulted in the thought that we had rendered ẞanriw by a word signifying, to drown. We, however, have not thought proper to alter it in the second edition, even after the most close investigation which we can make. There are several words which

we have chosen from, thus T, bathing; but this may be performed by pouring water all over the body as well as by immersion in it. A, an immersion and immediate emersion. This was a

plausible word, but I do not find that the Greek word has any idea of emersion belonging to it. I suppose it simply means to immerse, and that the emersion is a consequent and separate act. মজ্জন, নিমজ্জন, and , which signify immersion, and 4, the term which we have used, and which means the same. We have preferred this, because it is the most common. In its simple form, it means an immersing.

mean drown yourself.

immersion, its derivative, is compounded with 43 to give, and we very frequently hear a mother use it to her child, when bathing in the river; thus, 3 immerse yourself, but she certainly does not 3, the causal, is to immerse another person, or dip him. A, is to dive, and is to drown, viz., literally immersing to kill. Indeed, none of our friends, nor any new comers, are ever afraid of being drowned, which they might well be, if the word had such a meaning. We are, however, much obliged by his doubt, or whatever you may call it; it has occasioned us to examine the matter much more closely than before, and has confirmed us in the opinion, that, like immersion, it never means to drown, except as a consequence, which must follow if the person or thing remain immersed. There are many other words which we see occasion to alter, and I hope we shall

rejoice in any hint from any one on a subject so important.

The Lord has blessed us with twenty-five native church-members, who are all baptized on a profession of their faith. They do not all afford us equal pleasure, and we have been under the necessity of suspending some from communion for a time. Yet, with all their imperfections, they are our glory and joy. We have hope of one or two more; and, though things have not been so lively for these three months past as for some time before, yet we are not quite left. I hope the school, which is set up for the benefit of the natives, will not be in vain. It has had much to struggle with, but has existed and rather increased hitherto, and a degree of gospel knowledge has been communicated thereby. Our boarding-school, for the support of the mission, I esteem as one of the most essential parts of the mission itself. It now consists of thirty-five scholars, most of whom, if not all, may be expected to spend their days in India, to all of whom the Bengali or Hindusthani language is vernacular, and some of whom we may expect to be converted, according to the common course of Providence.

Of literary productions I have but little to say. I believe all our brethren make memoranda of whatever appears remarkable in either reading or common life; but the difficulty of obtaining accurate information, or of obtaining Hindu books, is very great, and that of reading them still greater. I am reprinting my Bengali grammar, with many alterations and