1842.] Report of the death of Mr. Csoma de Koros. 305 



got off his pallet, entered into conversation, chatted animatedly with me 

 for an hour on his favourite subjects of thought and enquiry. For the 

 first time since I had seen him, he this day shewed how sensitive he was 

 to the applause of the world, as a reward to his labours and privations. 

 He went over the whole of his travels in Thibet with fluent rapidity, 

 and in noticing each stage of the result of his studies, he mentioned the 

 distinguished notice that had been accorded in Europe and India to the 

 facts and doctrines brought to light by him. He seemed especially grati- 

 fied with an editorial article by Prof. Wilson, in the Supplement to the 

 Government Gazette of 9th July, 1829, which he produced, and bid 

 me read ; it related to the extreme hardships he had undergone while at 

 the monastery of Zemskar, where with the thermometer below zero for 

 more than four months, he was precluded by the severity of the weather 

 from stirring out of a room nine feet square ; yet in this situation he 

 read from morning till evening without a fire, the ground forming 

 his bed, and the walls of the building his protection against the rigours 

 of the climate, and still he collected and arranged forty thousand words 

 of the language of Thibet, and nearly completed his Dictionary and 

 Grammar. Passing from this subject, he said, in a playful mood, " I 

 will shew you something very curious," and he produced another num- 

 ber of Wilson's paper of September 10th, 1827, and pointing to an 

 editorial paragraph, desired me to read it first, and then hear the 

 explanation. It run thus : (after noticing some communications to the 

 Asiatic Society from Mr. Hodgson :) " In connexion with the literature 

 and religion of Thibet, and indeed of the whole of the Bhoti countries, 

 we are happy to learn, that the patronage of the Government has 

 enabled the Hungarian traveller, Csoma De Koros to proceed to Upper 

 Busahir to prosecute his Thibetan studies for three years, in which 

 period he engages to prepare a comprehensive Grammar and Vocabulary 

 of the language, with an account of the history and literature of the 

 country. These objects are the more desirable, as we understand Mr. 

 De Koros considers the recent labours of Klaproth and Remusat, with 

 regard to the language and literature of Thibet as altogether erroneous. 

 Mons. Remusat, indeed, admits the imperfectness of his materials, but 

 Klaproth, as usual, pronounces excathedra, and treats the notion of any 

 successful study of Thibetan by the English in India with ineffable con- 



