10 Biographical Memoir of Dr. Rottler. [No. 11, new series. 



Bottler's nomination appears to have been owing to the earnest 

 entreaties of the native congregation of Vepery Church.* The 

 arrangement however was brought to a close by the return of Mr. 

 Psezold to his former post about the month of September in the 

 following year. Bottler's appointment had been made by the 

 Madras Committee of the Society for Promoting Christian Know- 

 ledge, subject to the approval of their Home Committee, w r hich 

 was shortly afterwards obtained : Rottler likewise had accepted 

 that appointment subject to the sanction of his original pa- 

 trons, the Missionary College of Copenhagen, who, after repeat- 

 ed references to them, in 1807 finally declined to acquiesce in the 

 arrangement, and directed him to return to Tranquebar. 



This unexpected result had the effect of completely removing 

 Rottler from immediate mission work for several years. For soon 

 after his arrival at Madras he had been prevailed upon to accept 

 the Chaplaincy and Secretaryship of the Female Asylum, which he 

 had held for nearly four years at the time when the order for his re- 

 turn to Tranquebar arrived. He was willing to resign this charge ; 

 and this, together apparently with a sense of pain at the home de- 

 cision, led to the relinquishment of his connexion with the Danish 

 Mission, and as a consequence of this, with the Christian Know- 

 ledge Society also. Mr. Hough has placed this transaction in a light 

 which is very favourable to Rottler's character. He says,t " Dr. 

 Rottler was urged by the Governor Lord William Cavendish Ben- 

 tinck, and his lady, to undertake the vacant Chaplaincy and Secre- 

 taryship of the Female Asylum, his Christian character, amiable 

 temper, and other qualifications, pointing him out as a suitable 

 successor to the lamented Gericke : but though the appointment 

 was compatible with his Missionary office, and of some pecuniary 

 value, yet he declined to accept it, until he should obtain the con- 

 sent of the authorities at Copenhagen, and his permanent appoint- 

 ment to the Vepery Mission. The Directors hoped to remove his 

 scruples by procuring the sanction of the Danish authorities in 



* I have obtained this much desired information relating to Rottler's 

 Madras career, from the Revd. W. Taylor's Memoirs of the last centenary 

 of the earliest Protestant Mission at Madras. 



t History of Christianity in India, iii, 469. 



