826 Further Notes respecting the late Csoma de Kurds. [No, 167. 



I recollect, that Mr. Hodgson had some correspondence with Csoma 

 de Koros during the stay of the latter at Titalya, the subject of which 

 was the possibility of his getting into Thibet, through Nipal ; so far 

 as my memory serves me, Mr. Hodgson invited him to come to Cath- 

 mandu, but did not give him any hope of being able to penetrate into 

 Thibet, from that city. At that time the deceased was employed in the 

 study of Sanscrit, which he continued with unabated perseverance until 

 his death. When here he told me, that he had lost much valuable 

 time from not having studied the Sanscrit previous to the Thibetan 

 language, the former he said was the key to the whole literature 

 of Thibet. It was on his then knowledge of Sanscrit, that he based 

 enthusiastic hopes of realising the objects of his research. Could he 

 reach Lassa, he felt that the Sanscrit would have quickly enabled him 

 to master the contents of its libraries, and in them he believed was to 

 be found all that was wanting to give him the real history of the 

 Huns, in their original condition and migrations, and to him this was 

 the completion of knowledge, as it was the star that led him on his 

 untiring way of thought and study for 24 years. 



In 1838, M. Csoma de Koros was asked by Captain Pemberton to 

 accompany him on his mission to Bootan, but as this did not give him 

 any prospect of reaching Thibet, he declined the invitation, and remained 

 in Calcutta until the beginning of 1842, when he left it for Darjeeling. 

 The power of acquiring languages was the extraordinary talent of M. 

 Csoma de Koros. He had studied the following ancient and modern 

 tongues, and was a proficient in many of them, — Hebrew, Arabic, San- 

 scrit, Pushtoo, Greek, Latin, Slavonic, German, English, Turkish, Persian, 

 French, Russian, Thibetan, with the addition of Hindoostani, Mahratta, 

 and Bengali. His library at his death had a dictionary of each of the 

 languages he was acquainted with, and on all were his manuscript 

 annotations. I have, &c. 



Darjeeling, December \2th, 1843. (Signed) A. Campbell. 



Catalogue of contributions to the Asiatic Society of Bengal on the lan- 

 guage, literature, 8{C., of Thibet, by the late Mr. Alexander Csoma 

 de Koros. 

 I. Geographical notice of Thibet, published in vol. 1, of the Journal 

 of the Asiatic Society of Bengal, No. 4, 1832, Page 122. 



