Liter ary Discoveries i/i India. '231 



rcliaion. There are two circumstances wliich itwite us to 

 turn our eyes to the country of " the lirst generations of 

 men." The tolerant spirit of the Wahabian Mahoniedans 

 is a fair prognostic ; and promises to aid our endeavours to 

 restore to an antient counnunity of Christians the l)lessings 

 of knowledge and religious liberty. Another favourable 

 t:ircumstai)ce is, that some of the churches in Mcsopotanna, 

 in one of which the patriarch of Antioch now resides, arc 

 said still to remain in their pristine state, and to have pre- 

 served their archives and antient manuscript libraries. A 

 domestic priest of the patriarch, now ,iu Cochin, vouches 

 for the truth of this fact. We know from authentic his- 

 tory that the churches between the rivers escaped the gene- 

 ral desolation of the Mahomedan conquest, in the seventh 

 century, by joining arms with the Mahoniedans against the 

 Greek Christians, who had been their oppressors. The re- 

 vival of religion and letters in that once highly- favoured 

 land, in the heart of the antient \\ orld, would be, in the 

 present circumstances of mankind, an auspicious event. 



The Syrian Christians in Malayala still use the Syriac 

 language in their clwrclies : but the Malayalim, or proper 

 Malabar (a dialect distinct from theTumul), is the vernacu- 

 lar tongue. They have made some attempts to translate 

 the Syriac scriptures into Malayalim ; but have not 

 hitherto had the suitable means of effecting it. When a 

 proposal was made of sending a Malayalim translation to 

 each of their fifty-five churches, as a standard book, on con- 

 dition that they would transcribe it, and circulate the copies 

 among the people, — the ciders replied, Tint so great was 

 the desire of the people in general to have the Bible in the 

 vulgar tongue, that it might be expected that every man 

 trito could write would make a copy on ollas (palm leaves) 

 for his own family. 



It ought to be mentioned, to the praise of the present 

 bishop of the Romish church on the coast of Malabar, that 

 he has consented to the circulation of the Seriptu'cs 

 throughout his diocese. The Malayalim translation accjuircs 

 from this circumstance an increased iniportance, since there 

 will be now upwards of 200,000 Christians in Malayala 

 1* 4 who 



