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blishment of the Asiatic Society of Calcutta, whose labours have 

 contributed so greatly to the advancement of our knowledge of the 

 languages and general condition of the provinces of our Eastern 

 empire. It is now more than fifty years since he returned to this 

 country, in possession of a competent fortune and vigorous health, 

 which he continued to enjoy, in conjunction with every social and 

 domestic comfort, with hardly any interruption, to the day of his 

 death. Sir Charles Wilkins was appointed, in 1 800, Librarian of the 

 great collection of Oriental MSS., which are preserved in the India 

 House ; and this Society is indebted to him for the catalogue and 

 description of the Sanscrit and other Oriental MSS., which were 

 presented to it by Sir William and Lady Jones. 



Sir Charles Wilkins was the father-in-law of Mr. Marsden, 

 though nearly his cotemporary in age. They went to the East about 

 the same time, and whilst one devoted himself to the study of the 

 languages and literature of the ancient and modern inhabitants of 

 continental India, the other availed himself of his position on the great 

 island of Sumatra and the Malayan peninsula, to gain a thorough ac- 

 quaintance with the present condition and past history of that active and 

 adventurous race, whose character has been so deeply and so generally 

 impressed upon the languages and customs of nearly all the tribes who 

 inhabit the innumerable islands of the Indian Archipelago and of the 

 Pacific Ocean. His account of Sumatra, which appeared soon after his 

 return from the East, may be considered as a model for all monographs 

 of the history, languages, customs, and statistics of a particular 

 nation. He subsequently published a Malay dictionary of great autho- 

 rity and value ; and in many separate memoirs, one of which appeared 

 the year before his death, he traced with great learning and research 

 the general characters and analogies of the East Insular and Poly- 

 nesian languages, and proposed an alphabet for their uniform and 

 intelligible transcription. Mr. Marsden was the author of four papers 

 in our Transactions on some remarkable natural phenomena in the 

 island of Sumatra, on the Mahometan sera of the Hejira, and on the 

 chronological periods of the Hindoos ; the two last of which show a 

 very extensive acquaintance with Arabian and Hindoo literature. He 

 published very elaborate catalogues of his fine collections of voca- 

 bularies and grammars, and also of his oriental coins ; the first of 

 which he presented in his life-time to King's College, London, and 

 the second to the British Museum. Mr. Marsden returned to En- 

 gland from the East at an early age, and was Secretary to the Ad- 

 miralty during the most eventful period of the late war. He con- 

 tinued to enjoy to an extreme old age, extraordinary vigour both 

 of mind and body, equally respected and beloved for his great learn- 

 ing and very varied acquirements, for Ms independent and disin- 

 terested character, and for his many social and domestic virtues. 



Captain James Horsburgh entered the sea service of the East India 

 Company at a very early age, and in a very humble capacity, and 

 raised himself by his perseverance, good conduct, and strong natural 

 talents to the command of a ship, in which he was employed, for a 

 considerable time, in a hydrographical survey of many of the coasts 



