cafion to receive the evidence of some Mugs, they produced a book in ftrange fquare characters, which they called Zuboor. Now Zuboor is the name by which the Pfalms of David are known in Afia. May not this book be the Pfalms in old Hebrew or Samaritan, and the people a fect of Jews? Can you give me any information on this head? Sir WILLIAM JONES to Mr. Justice HYDE. Garden, May 14, 1784. Many thanks, my dear Sir, for kind concern and attention. I was on your the bridge by Col.. Tolly's house in the midst of the ftorm, my horses mad with the fear of the lightning, and my carriage every moment in danger of being overset by the wind; I was wet to the skin, and faved from worse. inconvenience by the diligence of my fervants, who took off the horses and drew the carriage to a place of fafety. I am nevertheless in good health; but Lady Jones is Afternoon.......Indian Geography. Chess. Ariosto. not quite recovered from a fevere cold and rheumatism, attended with a fever. Remember that I am always ready to re lieve you at the chambers in the Loll Bazar *, and will cheerfully take the labouring oar next month if you please; especially, as I propose to spend the long vacation in a floating house, and to leave Calcutta as soon as the feffion is over; but I fhall return dead or alive before the 22d of October. I am inexpreffibly amused by a Persian translation of an old Sanfcrit book, called Siry Bha'gwat, which comprizes almoft the whole of the Hindu religion, and contains the life and achievements. of Crishen; it is by far the most entertaining book, on account of its novelty and wildness, that I ever read. Farewell, and believe me, dear Sir, Ever affectionately yours, WILLIAM JONES. * A house in Calcutta, where the puisné judges of the Supreme Court of Judicature attended by rotation in the evening, as justices of the peace. Sir WILLIAM JONES to Dr. PATRICK RUSSEL. Calcutta, March 10, 1784. You would readily excufe my delay in anfwering your obliging letter, if you could form an idea of the inceffant hurry and confufion, in which I have been kept ever fince my arrival in Bengal, by neceffary bufinefs, or neceffary formalities, and by the difficulty of fettling myself to iny mind, in a country fo different from that which I have left. I am indeed at beft, but a bad correfpondent; for I never write by candle-light, and find fo much Arabic or Perfian to read, that all my leifure in a morning, is hardly fufficient for a thoufandth part of the reading that would be highly agreeable and useful to me; and as I purpose to spend the long vacation up the country, I wish to be a match in converfation with the learned natives, whom I may happen to meet. I rejoice that you are fo near, but lament that you are not nearer, and am not without hope, that you may one day be tempted to vifit Bengal, where I flatter myself you will give me as much of your company as poffible. Many thanks for your kind hints in regard to my health. As to me, I do not expect, as long as I ftay in India, to be free from a bad digeftion, the morbus literatorum, for which there is hardly any remedy, but abstinence from too much food, literary and culinary. I rife before the fun, and bathe after a gentle ride; my diet is light and sparing, and I go early to reft; yet the activity of my mind is too ftrong for my conftitution, though naturally not infirm, and I must be fatisfied with a valetudinarian state of health. If you should meet with any curiofities on the coast, either in your botanical rambles or in reading, and will communicate them to our fociety, lately inftituted for enquiring into the history, civil and natural, the antiquities, arts, sciences, and literature of Afia, we shall give you our hearty thanks. There is an Abyffinian here, who knew Mr. Bruce at Gwender. I have exa mined him, and he confirms Bruce's account. Every day fupplies me with fomething new Life-V. II. D in Oriental learning, and if I were to stay here half a century I should be continually amufed. Sir WILLIAM JONES to April 13, 1784. * * I am difcouraged from writing to you as copioufly as I wish, by the fear that my letter may never reach you. I inclofe however a hymn to the Indian cupid, which is here faid to be the only correct specimen of Hindu mythology that has appeared; it is certainly new and quite original, except the form of the ftanza, which is Milton's.. I add the character of Lord Ashburton, which my zeal for his fame prompted me to publifh*. * Lord Ashburton died on the 18th of August 1783. His character, written by Sir William Jones, is published in vol. viii. of his works, page 538. I transcribe from it the last paragraph, as a proof of the gratitude and sensibility of the writer. "For some months before his death, the nursery had "been his chief delight, and gave him more pleasure " than the cabinet could have afforded: 'but this parental |