SO A SKETCH OF THE CARKER OF THE LATE J. R. LOGAN. 



I may mention one incident which occurred at this period as exem- 

 plifying his devotion to his favourite pursuit. In the year 1849-50, 

 I was surveying the Johor Eiver, when T asked him to accompany 

 me for change of air. I had at my service a small gunboat not 

 over well provided with hadjangs. Anchoring in the evening, I 

 turned in after the fatigues of the day and fell asleep, but was awoke 

 at midnight by a sudden turmoil. This proved to be a Sumatra, 

 bringing with it the usual squalls and rain. On looking for my 

 friend, I found him perched on the top of the powder cannister to save 

 himself from the wet, close by a lamp at which he was, and had 

 been all night, closely analysing the construction of the Dutch 

 language. Such enthusiasm surely deserved unalloyed success and 

 the applause of mankind. But the inscrutable ways of Providence 

 brought not about the reward that his friends would have entirely 

 desired, or which would have been entirely gratifying, to them. 

 Sic transit gloria mundi ! Logan is variously and at different times 

 mentioned along with Marsden, Leyden, Eaffles, and Crawfurd. 

 For my part, I would class him alone with Leyden. But in doing 

 so, even here there is considerable qualification. Both were bor- 

 derers, both men of intense energy and great powers of application. 

 With all this Leyden was a poet, a poet above mediocrity. I am not 

 aware that Logan ever wrote a verse. It is in the science of 

 language that Leyden and Logan are akin in genius, but Leyden's 

 sphere was translation, Logan's anatysis and comparison. Leyden 

 was an antiquarian, Logan an explorer of things as they are, a far 

 more difficult and deeper subject than the former, requiring great 

 and comprehensive knowledge, a highly matured judgment, and 

 close acuteness of critical powers. 



Fate was adverse to both ; neither brought their labours to full 

 consumation. Under happier circumstances, both would have illu- 

 minated the world with best stores of yet dormant mysteries, where- 

 in the complex skein of human races on this earth would have 

 been disentangled and brought within our ken. While I mention 

 Leyden and Logan as being men of much the same genius and 

 power, it would be neglectful not to denote their differences. Leyden 

 was born of the humbler classes, Logan of the middle. This is 

 only interesting in so far as it points a moral and illustrates life's 

 antithesis. In India, John Leyden, the shepherd's son, was the pri- 



