1808.) 
fate rencontre mentioned above, he was 
obliged to throw himself upon the pro- 
tection of the English, in order to avoid 
the persecution of his countvymen. He 
procured a passage in an LKnglish ship, 
and was enabled to take with him one 
hundred and eighty valuable manuscripts 
of the different oriental languages, coins, 
medals and many other things which he 
had collected auring his residence in 
India. be 
On his arrival in’ England, he was 
treated as a prisoner of war; but on a pro= 
- per representation of his situation to the 
British government, he was immediately 
set at liberty. Before his return to his 
native country, he wished, for the sake of 
more information, to visit the University 
of Oxford, and inspect the manuscripts 
__ of the Vendidad, which had originally sug- - 
gested the enterprize he had now accum- 
plished. He collated the principal ma- 
nuscripts which he had brought, with the 
same works he found in the library, and 
returned to Paris in March 1762, afier 
an absence of nearly eight years, loaded 
with oriental collections, bat poorer than 
when he left his country, having now lost 
the small pittance which he formerly en- 
_ joyed. ‘He would long have remained so, 
_ if the Abbé Barthelemy and other friends 
had not been more attentive to his inter- 
est than he was himself. They repre- 
sented to the minister in the strongest 
terms, his zeal and success, and obtain- 
eda, pension for him, together with the 
title and appointment of translator of 
oriental languages to the Royal Library, 
in which he deposited the books of .Zo- 
roaster and other curious manuscripts, 
‘some of which were totally unknown in 
Europe. In 1763, his labouvs received a 
still-more flattering recompence, and to 
which he always attached the highest va- 
 lue; he was nominated a member of the 
demy of belles-lettres, vacant by the 
__ death of M. Bougainville. -le oceupied 
f his time in giving to the public a transla- 
tion of the sacred books of Persia, which 
be had collected with so much care and 
difficulty. This work made its appearance 
‘in 1771, under the title of the Zend d- 
—eesta. Two of the most valuable mianu- 
Scripts were the Vendidad and the Izes- 
 elné, which contain many valuable pas- 
sages from the writings of Zoroaster and 
— otherantient writers, for it cannot be ad= 
 Mitted that the whole of those pieces 
was from the pen of Zoroaster,as Augue- 
til endeavoured to prove. 
__ Asan author cannot remain insensible 
- te attacks made onthe principle which he 
“ae, MoxraLy Mac., No, 175. 
- 
> 
Memoirs of Anquetil Duperron? 
1FE 
considers as the basis of the edifice he 
has constructed ; so Anquetil was far from 
being satisfied with the suffrages he bad ob- 
tained, and which were in fact counterbas 
lanced by criticisms of considerable weight. 
He found some opposition evenin the acas 
demy, and certain foreign writers treated 
his production with considerable acri- 
mony. Among these was one celebrated 
for his profound knowledge of the litera- 
ture of many of the eastern languages, 
-for his works of taste and erudition, for 
being the founder of the academy at Cal- 
cutta, and who was not less distinguished 
by the manner in which he filled the of- 
fice of supreme judge of Bengal. This 
was Sir William Jones, who attacked An- 
quetil with considerable asperity. The 
latter perhaps felt that he had provoked 
these criticisms by some indiscreet plea- 
santries, in which be had indulged against 
the literati of Oxford, and had the good 
sense not to reply. 
To the translation of the works from 
the Zend and the Pehlwi, Duperron an- 
nexed an account of his voyages, contain- 
ing illustrations of the antiquities and geo= 
graphy of India; also the Life of Zoroaster, 
an exposition of the dogmas, rites and 
ceremonies of the Persians, and many 
curious notes, ‘Lhe greater part of his. 
manuscripts were upon various points of 
Indian history and literature, and he- be- 
came so prepossossed in faveur of the ori- 
entals, that he undertook to vindicate 
them against an assertion of Montesquicu, 
who represented them as mere slaves. 
For this parpose, Anguetil published in 
1779, a work intitled La Legislation 
Orientale; Tndian Legislation, or Consi- 
derations on Despotism in Turkey, Persia, 
and Hindostan. 
In shoit,, in’ France, Anguetil was the 
representative and literary agent of India; 
and under this title, M. Legentil, a Lieu- ' 
tenant-colonel in the service of one of 
the nabobs, addressed to him a collec- 
tion of upwards of two hundred manu- 
scripts in different languages, desiring him 
to make a present of them to the Royal 
Library, if he thought them worthy of 
being deposited there. He also received 
from Father Tieffenthaler, a missionary 
with whom he corresponded, a map of 
the Ganges, with variousgeographical par- 
ticulars relative to. the course of that ri- 
ver, which he communicated to Mr. Ber- 
noulli, of the academy of Berlin, who had 
undertaken to give a Description of India. 
To this important work he added his own 
observations which formed a véry mate- 
rial and interesting portion of it, 
: At 
