S24 Further Notes respecting the late Csoma de Korbs. [No. 167. 



deceased by himself, which appeared in the Journal of the Royal Asiatic 

 Society many years ago, and which was corrected by the subject of 

 it before his death. The number of the Journal containing the sketch, 

 with the author's manuscript corrections, is now in my possession, and 

 was, with the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, made over to 

 me, according to the intentions of the deceased, as expressed previ- 

 ous to his illness. 



Further, I have the pleasure to forward copy of a summary report of 

 the contents of the Thibetan works in the possession of the deceased in 

 A. D. 1825, which I cannot find has been published. It was forwarded 

 to me by Lieutenant Robinson of Sirsa, in the belief, that as the work 

 of de Koros it would be acceptable to me. If it has not hitherto been 

 published, it will be an interesting addition to the contributions of the 

 author.* At the time it was written, the European world was almost 

 altogether ignorant of the subject on which it treats ; and the author 

 himself had then but a faint glimmering of the light he afterwards shed 

 on it. To admire the zeal, and laborious perseverance, by which 

 he advanced in the ability to interpret the works he then so briefly 

 reported on, and to compare the later elucidations of Thibetan works 

 by the same pen with this his first essay in that line, will be a gratify- 

 ing task to the admirers of his attainments, and an useful incentive 

 to those who, in the commencement of a laborious study, may doubt 

 their powers of advancing in it to renown and eminence. 



From the date of the Biographical sketch (1825) until his death 

 on the 11th of April, 1842, the particulars of the life of Csoma de Ko- 

 ros, are not fully known to me. I believe that he visited Western 

 Thibet from Soobathoo in A. D. 1826, and that he continued to study 

 at the monasteries in that country, living in the poorest possible manner 

 until A. D. 1831, in October, of which year, I met him at Captain 

 Kennedy's house, at Simla. He was then dressed exactly as when I 

 saw him on his arrival at Darjeeling, in March 1842, in a coarse blue 

 cloth loose gown extending to his heels, and a small cloth cap of the 

 same materials, he wore a grizzly beard, shunned the society of Euro- 

 peans, and passed his whole time in study. 



In May 1832, he went to Calcutta, where he lived in the Asiatic 

 Society's Rooms, and had charge of the library until the beginning of 

 * Forwarded to the Asiatic Societv, in December, 1843. 



