409 
piety, and devoted attention to his pastoral functions: in a con* 
versation with the English divine the Bishop said, 44 You have 
come to visit a declining church, and I am now an old man: but 
the hopes of its seeing better days cheer iny old age, though 1 may 
not live to see them/’ On Dr. Buchanan’s submitting to the 
venerable prelate his wishes in regard to the translation and print- 
ing of the holy scriptures, he replied, 44 I have already fully con* 
sidered the subject; I have determined to superintend the work 
myself, and to call the most learned of the clergy to my aid: it is 
a work which will illuminate these dark regions, and God will 
give it his blessing/’ 
Dr. Buchanan collected an ancient Syrian bible, and several 
valuable manuscripts among these churches; and the king of Tra~ 
vencore acceded to his request for sending a catalogue of all the 
Hindoo manuscripts in the temples of Travencore to the English 
college at Calcutta; a measure to which the brahmins were very 
averse. Those manuscripts are supposed to contain most of the 
Hindoo literature of the south of India. 
The Christians in Travencore, who exceeded two hundred 
thousand in number, were much in want of printed versions of the 
holy scriptures, having only a very few manuscript copies belong- 
ing to all the churches. This Syriac version was carried to India, 
according to the popular belief, at the beginning of the fourth 
century, before the year 325 of the Christian aera; at which time 
Johannes, bishop of India, signed his name at the council of Nice. 
Dr. Buchanan, in company with Colonel Macaulay, the British 
resident in Travencore, visited Udiamper, where Beliarte, king of 
the Christians, kept his court; for the Syrian Christians had for- 
a c 
