nificence, which the traveller is obliged to explore at fome personal risk amidst forests, the exclusive haunts of wild beasts; for nature has here refumed her dominion, and triumphs over the fhort-lived pride of man. In a letter to a friend*, written after his arrival in Calcutta, he has briefly defcribed fome parts of his journey. "The Mahanada was beau

tiful, and the banks of fome rivers in the "Sunderbunds were magnificent; we paffed "within two yards of a fine tiger, who gazed " on us with indifference; but we took care "for feveral reafons to avoid the narrow

paffes at night. As we approached Cal"cutta, we perceived the difference of climate, "and thought of Bhagilpoor with pleasure " and regret.

"I find Calcutta greatly changed; the lofs

"by the natives from a word signifying snow, as equal in "elevation to any in the old hemisphere; and an obser"vation of Mr. Saunders at Perncia, added to a remark "of Mr. Smith on the appearance of Chumalury from "Moreng, gives abundant reason to think, that we saw "from Bhagilpoor, the highest mountains in the world, "without excepting the ANDES."

* Charles Chapman, Esq.

"of Mr. Haftings and Shore *,

I feel very

A fenfibly, and cannot but fear that the plea"fure, which I derive from other friendships

"formed in India, will be followed by the

pain of lofing my friends next season. "This was a great evil at the university, "and abates not a little the happiness I expected in this country.

"Will you have the goodness to ask "Mahesa pundit, whether the university of Tyrhoot is ftill fupported, and confers "degrees in Hindu law? One of our pundits " is dead, and we have thoughts of requesting "recommendations from the univerfities of "Hindustan, particularly from Benares, and "Tyrhoot, if it exifts; fo that the new pun"dit may be univerfally approved, and the "Hindus may be convinced, that we decide 46 on their law from the beft information we

* Warren Hastings, Esq. and Mr. Shore embarked in February 1785, for England.

+ The pundits are the expounders of the Hindu law; in which capacity, two constantly attended the supreme court of judicature, at Fortwilliam.

"I am juft returned," (thus he writes to another correfpondent, Dr. P. Ruffel, March 2, 1785,) as it were from the brink of an"other world, having been absent near seven "months, and reduced to a skeleton by fevers "of every denomination, with an obftinate "bilious flux at their heels. My health is "tolerably restored by a long ramble through "South Behar, and the district of Benares, of "which if I were to write an account, I muft "fill a volume."

They who have perused the description of Joanna, by Sir William Jones, will regret that this volume was never written. The objects presented to his inspection during his journey, afforded ample fcope for his obfervation, which was equally qualified to explore the beauties of nature, the works of art, the difcriminations of character, and the productions of learning and fcience. Many of the remarks and reflections which he made in this tour, are transfused through his various compofitions, two of which were actually written, during the course of his journey.

The elegant little tale in verse, under the title of The Enchanted Fruit, or Hindu Wife, was compofed during his refidence in Beyhar, and affords a proof of the fuccess of his enquiries, as well as of his fkill in the happy application of the intelligence obtained by

them.

The other production was a Treatise on the Gods of Greece, Italy, and India, which he afterwards revised, and presented to the fociety. The design of this effay was to point out a resemblance, too ftrong to have been accidental, between the popular worship of the old Greeks and Italians, and that of the Hindus, and between their ftrange religion. and that of Egypt, China, Perfia, Phrygia, Phoenicia, and Syria, and even remoter nations. The proof of fuch resemblance, if fatisfactorily established, would, as he remarks, authorize an inference of a general union and affinity between the most distinguished inhabitants of the primitive world, at the time when they deviated, as they did too early de

viate, from the rational adoration of the only true God.

To this journey, under Providence, he was in all probability indebted for the prefervation of his life, which without it might have fallen a facrifice to the accumulation of disease after his arrival in Calcutta, his health was almost completely restored.

He now refumed his functions in the fupreme court of judicature, and renewed the meetings of the fociety, which had been interrupted by his abfence. In his fecond anniversary difcourfe, which was delivered in February 1785, he notices with pleasure and furprize the successful progress of the institution, and the variety of fubjects which had been difcuffed by the members of it: and as in his firft addrefs, he had confined himself to the exhibition of a distant profpect only of the vast career on which the fociety was entering; in the second, he delineates a flight but masterly sketch of the various discoveries in hiftory, fcience, and art, which might juftly