iV PREFACE. 



parent the hardships his resolution entailed upon him. He now 

 had recourse therefore to the only means open to a student, and 

 devoted several hours of each day to imparting to others the know- 

 ledge he had himself attained in various branches of study, parti- 

 cularly in medicine ; and it may here be mentioned that he so won 

 the hearts of those who at this time enjoyed the benefit of his 

 instructions by the peculiar openness and urbanity of his disposi- 

 tion, apart from the respect which the propriety of his conduct, and 

 the high order of his attainments always commanded from them 

 though scarcely his inferiors in age, that, when brighter days 

 came, they could not allow their connection to close, without pre- 

 senting him with a most handsome and flattering testimonial of 

 their regard, accompanied by a little ode of no small merit, expres- 

 sive of their deep respect and gratitude. During the first six 

 weeks of his new occupation the ordeal was such as he found it 

 difi&cult to stand ; for to make both ends meet, to keep up the ap- 

 pearance of a gentleman, and yet to pursue his own course of study 

 with unbroken zeal, he was often constrained to content himself 

 with a hasty meal by the fireside of his own little study at the close 

 of the day, preparatory to kindling the nightly lamp over which he 

 pored to an early hour of each succeeding morning. In after-life 

 he was accustomed facetiously to refer to this period of his life 

 with unaffected satisfaction, as having been equally one of high 

 moral benefit, and of genuine enjoyment. 



At the age of twenty-one he quitted the University with high 

 honors, — according to continental phraseology, with " the best 

 character*^ — and, soon after, obtaining a commission in the King's 

 service, he was appointed to a post immediately under Professor 

 Withusen, successor to his uncle in Frederick's Hospital, where his 

 own medical studies had been previously pursued. This he held for 

 some years, but becoming at length weary of the incessant toil, and 

 entire want of leisure, which the heavy duties of his situation entail- 

 ed upon him, and having from early youth hud a great desire to go 

 abroad, he determined on accepting the post of Surgeon to this colo- 

 ny of Denmark, which had just become vacant, and arrived in 

 Serampore early in 1H27, having left his native land in the previous 

 autumn with the intention of being absent for the term of only Jiva 

 years. Before the expiration of this period, however, he had formed 

 connections in India which considerably changed his views. He so 



