1 APPENDIX. 



the priests of the Buddha religion in many of the Buddha temples that are situated 

 in the interior and the southern division of the island. The Committee consi- 

 der it to be a most fortunate circumstance for the Society in particular, and 

 for the cause of Oriental literature in general, that their researches in Ceylon 

 will be assisted and directed by Colonel Colebrooke, a near relative of the 

 learned Director of the Society, and a Parliamentary Commissioner on that island, 

 who is one of the original founders of the Society, and who, during many years 

 of his civil and military career, in different parts of India and Java, has eminently 

 distinguished himself, as well by the knowledge he acquired of the people and the 

 countries of Asia, as by the humanity, liberality, and philanthropy with which his 

 public measures and private conduct were marked, in every civil and military office 

 which he has licid, either under the Crown or the East-India Company, 



ON THE CONTINENT OF EUROPE. 



Some sovereigns on the continent of Europe have for centuries encouraged amongst 

 their subjects the study of the languages, the history, the geography, the antiquities, 

 and the literature of Asia; have established professorsliips of Oriental literature at 

 their respective universities, and have sent, at a considerable expense, many of the most 

 distinguished men in the country, to different parts of the world, for the express pur- 

 pose of prosecuting Oriental researches, and collecting for the ])uhlic libraries of their 

 respective nations scarce and valuable works, in all the different languages of the East. 

 Other sovereigns of Jiurope, though from the political changes which have taken place 

 in their res|)ective countries, they do not at present feel so great an interest as they 

 formerly did in the subject, yet have nevertheless preserved with care, as well 

 amongst the public archives of the co\mtry, as in their public and private libraries, 

 valuable information, in manuscript and in print, relative to the state and the people 

 of India during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. 



Russia, from the extent of Northern Asia, which is directly imder her dominion. 



the Buddha religion. Sir Alex. Johnston, in consequence of the ofBcial intercourse which he always 

 kept up with the principal Buddha priests on the island of Cejion, obtained from them in 1808 the very 

 detailed catalogue of these works which he some time ago gave to the Society. 



He had also in 1808 copies made of between five and six hundred of the most valuable of these works, 

 all of which were unfortunately lost in the Lad^ Jane Dundas, in which he had sent them to England in 

 1809. As the originals are an object of literary curiosity he is about to have other copies of them made 

 on the island of Ceylon, which he means as soon as he can prqcure them to present to the Society. 



The only work of the whole collection which he preserved is a complete copy of the Pansiyapayenas- 

 jatakaya, which he brought home with him in 1818, and which he has given to the library of the Society. 

 As a complete copy of this work is the most difficult to be procured of any of the works on the Buddha 

 religion, and as it contains the most authentic account of the whole of the doctrines of that religion, Sir 

 Alexander has taken measures to have an English translation made of it for the use of the Society, 



