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ROYAL ASIATIC SOCIETY. 69 



with the exception of but one Dutch service in the month. 

 Another charge was that most of the clergy who came out to 

 the Service in India, had other objects in view than the illu- 

 mination of the East with the light of the West, — that it was 

 for the sake of gain. The clergy would challenge the writer 

 to prove this malicious and dishonoring assertion. Another 

 assertion was that previous to the arrival of Governor Baron 

 Van Xmhoff, the Ceylon Church was tottering. The meeting 

 remarked that their own observation and experience, as also 

 the faithful statements they annually sent of the Church, were 

 not in accordance with that remark. It was also said that the 

 people were taught in a popish manner, which the meeting 

 supposed, meant, mere memory word. Some ministers present, 

 who had served in the Colony 30 years, declared that it had 

 ever been their utmost endeavour to impart a clear under- 

 standing of the fundamental doctrines, though they found that 

 notwithstanding many were too attached to earthly and sensual 

 things, to take to heart the spiritual truths inculcated. 



A few years afterwards (1750) the writer of this pamphlet, 

 on his return to Ceylon, as ordained minister, was confronted by 

 his fellow clergymen in the first consistorial meeting he at- 

 tended, when he retracted all his statements, confessing his 

 inability to prove them, upon which both parties cordially 

 united. 



It appears from an instance on record in 1751 that when 

 a slave, the property of a Mahomedan, embraced Christianity, 

 he obtained his liberty from Government. In 1748 a famine 

 prevailed in the Western Provinces, after long draught, which 

 caused a failure in the crop, and was immediately followed by 

 a great inundation. In twelve months of 57,585 native 

 Christians in this district 1,000 had died, of whom 70 were 

 Church members. 



