330 
These unhappy fugitives were thus separated and dispersed 
among die Malabar districts, until a remnant again collected, and 
were permitted by the king of Cochin to settle at Mottancheree, 
on the banks of Cochin river, where their descendants have con- 
tinued ever since. Samuel Abraham assured me, that they had in 
their possession a royal grant of Cranganore, and the district 
allotted to their ancestors, on their first establishment in Malabar, 
engraved on metal, and signed by the brahmin sovereign of the 
country. This is since confirmed by Dr. Claudius Buchanan, who 
procured a fac-simiie, engraven on copper, from the original brass 
tablet which he saw in the possession of the Cochin Jews in 1807; 
he has also published a translation from that made by the Jews 
into the Hebrew language: the original grant, as dated in the 
Malabar annals, corresponds with the year 490 of the Christian 
?era. 
J'he history of the Jews is the most wonderful of any in the 
annals of time: they are indeed a standing miracle! and however 
modern philosophy may raise doubts of revelation in some parti- 
culars, a people scattered over the face of the earth, yet preserved 
distinct and separate from every nation among whom they dwell, 
afford incontrovertible evidence of its truth. We trace them from 
the call of Abraham in Chaldea, and rest with delight at the tents 
and wells of the patriarchal shepherds: from those pastoral scenes 
we accompany them to Egypt, sympathize in their captivity and 
oppressions under an ungrateful monarch, and rejoice in their de- 
liverance from cruel bondage: we share in their adventures in the 
wilderness, and participate in their wars and conquests in Canaan. 
Established there, and dissatisfied with the theocracy, we view 
