Proceedings of Societies. 



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which was established at Madura by Robertas de Nobiiibus, who was distinguished 

 by his talents, and by the thorough knowledge he had acquired of the Sanskrit and 

 Tamil languages ; and who seems to have intended, had his plans succeeded, to 

 have founded a college at that place, for the purpose of disseminating the princi- 

 ples of the Christian religion, and the sciences of Europe, through the country, in 

 the same manner as a knowledge of Tamil literature had been circulated through 

 the same country by the ancient Tamil college established at that place. The pro- 

 vince of Madura again became an object of literary interest in the eighteenth cen- 

 tury, in consequence of my grandfather, the fifth Lord Napier, of Merchiston, hav- 

 ing determined to write the life of his ancestor, John Napier of Merchiston, and to 

 prefix to it a history of the knowledge which the people of India had of mathema^ 

 tics. It appearing by John Napier's papers, that he had, from the information he 

 obtained during his travels, adopted the opinion, that numerals had first been disco- 

 vered by the college of Madura, and that they had been introduced from India by 

 the Arabs into Spain, and into other parts of Europe, Lord Napier was anxious to 

 examine the sources from whence John Napier had derived his information upon 

 this subject, and when he himself was abroad visited Venice and other places in 

 Italy, in which he thought it was likely he should find an account of the informa- 

 tion collected by the members of the Jesuit mission at Madura, upon this and other 

 parts of Hindu science. Having been successful in obtaining some interesting 

 documents relative to the object of his researches, he returned to Scotland, and 

 submitted them to the then Mr. Mackenzie (afterwards Colonel Mackenzie), 

 who had been recommended to him by Lord Seaforth, as a young man who had de- 

 voted himself to the study of mathematics , Lord Napier died before he had com- 

 pleted his life of John Napier, and Mr. Mackenzie, whose mind had been turned 

 to the subject of Hindu science by Lord Napier, applied for, and obtained through. 

 Lord Seaforth, a commission in the East India Company's Engineers, on the 

 Madras establishment, in order that he might have a favourable opportunity of 

 prosecuting at Madura, the site of the ancient Hindu college, his enquiries into 

 the knowledge which the Hindus possessed, in early days, of arithmetic, and the 

 different branches of mathematics. On Mr. Mackenzie's arrival at Madras, finding 

 that my father and mother (the latter being the daughter of his patron, Lord 

 Napier, and then engaged in completing the life which had been commenced by 

 her father), were stationed at Madura, where my father held a political situation, 

 of high trust under his friend Lord Macartney, he obtained leave from Lord 

 Macartney, the then Governor of Madras, to join them. As soon as Mr. Macken- 

 zie reached Madura, he began his inquiries relative to the ancient Hindu college 

 of that place ; and, in conjunction with my father and mother, formed the plan of 

 reviving, under the protection of the English government, the Hindu college. 

 In furtherance of this plan, my father having obtained from tne Nabob of Arcot, 

 the then sovereign of the country, some deserted ruins in the jungle, about a mile 

 from the fort of Madura, which were supposed to have been connected in former 

 days with the proceedings of the Hindu college, built upon them at considerable 

 expense, the house which has ever since been known at that place by the name of 

 Johnston House, and which is still my property, laying out its different compart- 

 ments, under the direction of Mr. Mackenzie, in such a manner as might best suit 

 the adaptation of it as a building in which the mathematical instruction that Mr. 

 Mackenzie wished to be circulated amongst all the natives of the country might 

 be pursued. The pillars which supported this house were divided into six com- 

 partments, upon each of which all the diagrams were to be carved which were 

 necessary to illustrate a course of arithmetic, geometry, mechanics, hydrostatics, 



