Bombay, Goa, Calicut, Cochin, Angengo, Tutecorin, Negapatam, Jaffna-patam, Columbo, Point de Galle, Tranquebar, Tanjore, Tritchinopoly, Porto-Novo, Pondicherry, Sadras, Madras, Masulipatam, Calcutta, Chinsurah, Bandel, Chittagong, Macao, and Canton; and almost all the islands of the Malayan Archipelago, which were first conquered by the Portuguese. The greater part of the Portuguese in India are now subjects of the British Empire. The Author visited most of the places above enumerated; and in many of them he could not hear of a single copy of the Portuguese Scriptures. There is a Portuguese Press at Tranquebar, and another at Vespery near Madras; and pecuniary aid only is wanted from Europe to multiply copies, and to circulate them round the coasts of Asia. The Portuguese Language is certainly a most favorable medium for diffusing the true religion in the maritime provinces of the East.

It is

GOA will probably remain the theological school to a great part of India, for a long period to come. of vast importance to the interests of Christianity in the East, that this source of instruction should be purified. The appointed instrument for effecting this, is the Bible. This is "the salt which must be thrown into the fountain to heal the waters."* There are upwards of three thousand Priests belonging to Goa, who are resident at the place, or stationed with their cures at a distance. Let us send the Holy Scriptures to illuminate the Priests of Goa. It was distinctly expressed to the Author, by several authorities, that they would

*2 Kings ii, 21.

gladly receive copies of the Latin and Portuguese Vulgate Bible from the hands of the English nation.

THE PERSIANS.

THE Christian Religion flourished very generally int Persia till about A. D. 651; when, the Persians being subdued by the Saracens, Mahomedanism gradually acquired the predominance. Constantine the Great, addressed a letter to Sapor, King of Persia, which is preserved to this day, recommending the Christian Churches in his dominions, to his protection; and a Bishop from Persia was present at the Council of Nice in A. D. 325. It appears also that there was a translation of some portion of the Scriptures into the Persian Language at that period; for we are informed by Chrysostom that, "the Persians, having translated the doctrines of the Gospel into their own tongue, had learned, though barbarians, the true philosophy;"* and it is stated by another author in the following century, "That the Hebrew writings were not only translated into the Greek, but into the Latin, Ethiopian, Persian, Indian, Armenian, Scythian, and Sarmatian Languages."+

In the beautiful homily of Chrysostom on Mary's Memorial, preached about A. D. 380, in which he enumerates those nations, who, in fulfilment of our Savior's prophecy, had "spoken of the deed of Mary for a memorial of her," he mentions the Persians first, and the Isles of Britain last. "The Persians, Indians,

*Chrysostom, Hom. ii, in Johan.

†Theodoret, vol. iv, p. 555. We have entirely lost sight of some of these versions in the obscurity of Mahomedan darkness. It is not even known what languages are intended by the Scythian, Indian, and Sarmatian. The Christian Church must now retrace her steps, and endeavor to recover a knowledge which she has lost.

1

Scythians, Thracians, Sarmatians, the race of the Moors, and the inhabitants of the British Isles, celebrate a deed performed in a private family in Judea by a woman that had been a harlot,* pouring an alabaster box of spikenard on the head of Christ," thereby acknowledging him, while yet upon earth, as God's ANOINTED King, and embalming his body, (as our Lord himself explained it) in anticipation of his burial; concerning which act of faith and love he uttered the following prophetic declaration: "Verily, I say unto you, Wheresoever this Gospel shall be preached throughout the whole world, THIS also that she hath done shall be spoken of for a MEMORIAL of her;" Mark xiv, 9. The Isles of Britain are now the first to restore this memorial, and the Gospel which recites. it, to the Persians as well as to other Mahomedan nations, who were to lose it generally, during the great prophetic period of 1260 years.

A version of the four Gospels into the Persian Language of a former age remains to this day. It is a faithful translation, and seems to have been made immediately from the Syriac;t but the dialect and orthography are so ancient as to be scarcely intelligible even at Isfahan. The Romish Church has had several Missions in the kingdom of Persia for some centuries past. The Augustinian Mission from Goa commenced in the year 1602, "and was permitted by Sultan Murad

*Αλλα και Περσαι και Ινδοι και Σκύθαι και Θρακες Σαυρομαται και των Μαύρων γενος και οἱ τας Βρετανικας Νήσους οικουντες, Το εν Ιεδαια γενομενον λαθρα, εν οικια παρα γυναικός BETOGVEVμLEVYS, Wegiego. Chrys. Hom. lxxxi, in Matth.

The argument of Chrysostom is this, that nothing could have given so permanent a celebrity to so private an occurrence, but the Divine Word of HIM who foretold it. He supposes the woman to have been Mary Magdalene, but probably she was Mary, the sister of Martha.

This is the Version of the Polyglot.

to build convents in all parts of the Empire."* But they went into Persia, as into other countries, not with the design of instructing men in the holy Scriptures, but of teaching them the tenets and ceremonies of Rome. To this day, they have not published, under all the advantages of toleration which they enjoyed, a translation of the Bible, or even of the New Testament, into the Persian Language.

It is a reproach to Christians, that the only endeavor to produce a translation of the Scriptures into the language of that extensive kingdom should have been made by the Persians themselves. The representatives, of the Christian Churches in Europe, of every denomination, may well blush, when they read the following authentic relation of an attempt made by a Persian King to procure a knowledge of our religion.

"Towards the close of the year 1740, Nadir Shah caused a translation of the four Evangelists to be made into Persian. The affair was put under the direction of Mirza Mehdee, a man of some learning, who, being vested with proper authority for the purpose, summoned several Armenian Bishops, and Priests, together with divers Missionaries of the Romish Church, and Persian Mullahsf to meet him at Isfahan. As to the latter, the Mahomedan Priests, they could not be gainers, since the change of religion, if any, was to be in prejudice of Mahomedanism. Besides, Nadir's

conduct towards them had been severe, to an extreme and unprecedented degree; many of them therefore gave Mirza Mehdee large bribes to excuse their absence. Among the Christians summoned on this occasion, only one Romish Priest, a native of Persia, was a sufficient master of the language to enter upon Mahomedan Priests.

*Fabricii Lux Evang. p. 639.

a work of so critical a nature. As to the Armenian Christians, although they are born subjects to Persia, and intermixed with the inhabitants, yet are there very few of them who understand the language fundamentally. It was natural to expect that Mirza Mehdee, and the Persian Mullahs, would be more solicitous to please Nadir, and to support the credit of Mahomedanism, than to divest themselves of prejudices, and become masters of so important a subject. This translation was dressed up with all the glosses which the fables of the Koran could warrant. Their chief guide was an ancient Arabic and Persian translation. Father de Vignes, a Romish Priest, was also employed in this work, in which he made use of the Vulgate edition. They were but six months in completing this translation, and transcribing several fair copies of it.

"In May following, Mirza Mehdee with the Persian Mullahs and some of the Christian Priests set out from Isfahan for the Persian Court, which was then held in encampment near Tcheran. Nadir received them with some marks of civility, and had a cursory view of the performance. Some part of it was read to him; on which occasion he made several ludicrous remarks on the mysterious parts of the Christian Religion; at the same time he laughed at the Jews, and turned Mahomed and Ali equally into ridicule." And after some expressions of levity, intimating that he could himself make a better religion than any that had yet been produced, "he dismissed these churchmen and translators with some small presents, not equal in value to the expense of the journey."*

This version of the Gospels, prepared by command of Nadir Shah, is probably the same with that which *Hanway's Travels.