266 BiograpJilcal sketch of Col. Mackenzie, [July 



duct ion into the portal of Indian knowledge. Devoid 

 of any knowledge of the language myself, I owe to the 

 happy genius of this individual the encouragement to 

 pursue, and the means of obtaining, what I had so long 

 sought ; for which purpose an acquaintance with no less 

 than fifteen dilferent dialects, and twenty-one characters, 

 ^vas necessary. On the reduction of Seringapatam, in 

 1799, not one of our people could translate from the Ka- 

 narese alone ; at present we have translations made not 

 only from the modern characters, but the more obscure 

 and almost obsolete characters of the Sassanams (or in- 

 scriptions) in Kanarese and in Tamil ; besides what 

 have been done from the Sanscrit, of which, in my first 

 years in India, I could scarcely obtain any information : 

 but from the moment the talents of the lamented Bori A 

 were applied, a new avenue to Hindu, knowledge was 

 opened ; and though I was deprived of him at an early 

 age, his example and instructions were so happily follow- 

 ed up by his brethren and disciples, that an establish- 

 ment w^as gradually formed, through which the whole 

 of our provinces might be gradually analysed by the 

 method thus fortuitously begun and successfully followed 

 so far. Of the claims of these individuals, and the su- 

 perior merits of some, a special representation has been 

 made to this government. 



8. For these thirteen years, therefore, there is little 

 to shew beyond the journals and notes of an officer em- 

 ployed in all the campaigns of the time : first, towards 

 the close of the war of 1783, in the provinces of Koim- 

 batore and of Dindigul ; afterv/ards on professional du- 

 ties in the provinces of Madras, Neilore, and Guntore ; 

 throughout the whole of the war, from 1790 to 1792, in 

 Mysore, and in the countries ceded to the Nizam by the 

 peace of 1792; and from that period engaged in the 

 first attempt to methodise and eml^ody the geography 

 of the Dekkan, attempts that were unfortunately thwart- 



