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Published online by Cambridge University Press: 24 September 2009
page xliv note * This gentleman has lately had a certain number of gold and copper medals struck, at his own expense, with the head of Lord Bacon on one side, and the name of the person to whom the medal is given on the other, for distribution amongst such of the members of that Society as are the most distinguished for science. These medals, which are executed by Mr. Wyon, are specimens of the great perfection to which that distinguished individual has arrived in his art.
page xlvii note * Captain Owen, the brother of Sir Edward Owen, the present Commander-in-chief of the naval forces in India, collected during the survey which he some time ago made of the whole of the eastern coast of Africa, from Babelmandel north to Mozambique south, many very valuable memoirs relative to the different Mahomedan nations who have settlements along that coast. Captain Owen with the greatest liberality sent, previous to his departure for Fernando Po, the whole of these memoirs to Sir Alex. Johnston, in order that he might peruse them and communicate to the Royal Asiatic Society any part of the information they contained which he might think proper.
page xlvii note * Sir Charles Colville, while Commander-in-chief at Bombay, made a tour through different parts of India, and became thoroughly acquainted with the local peculiarities and the native inhabitants of the country. Mrs. Blair, the lady of Colonel Blair, Sir Charles's Military Secretary, who accompanied the Colonel on his tour, has taken very beautiful drawings of many of the places which she visited. As these drawings give an accurate view of some of the most classical and remarkable places which are mentioned in the history of India, it is to be hoped, for the benefit of all those who are interested in oriental history and oriental researches, that Mrs. Blair may be induced to allow them to be published.
page xlvii note † Sir George Staunton, both while he held a high office in the service of the East-India Company and while he acted as one of his Majesty's Commissioners in China, shewed the possibility of uniting the strictest attention to the duties of a public office with the most ardent zeal for acquiring a knowledge of the language and literature of the Chinese, and made, during his residence in China, the large and valuable collection of Chinese books (consisting of 2,600 vols.) which he some time ago presented to the Royal Asiatic Society. As Mr. Huttmann, the Secretary to this Committee, has acquired a very accurate knowledge of the Chinese language and literature, it is hoped he will have leisure, with the assistance of Sir George, to translate into English some of the most valuable of these works.
page xlix note * These consist of:–
First. The English translations of the answers given in Cingalese by several of the most learned of the Buddha priests and other literary characters on Ceylon, to questions which were officially submitted to them by Sir Alex. Johnston, while president of his Majesty's Council in Ceylon, relative to the history and doctrine of the Buddha religion as professed by the followers of Buddha on that island.
Secondly. English translations of the Cingalese works called the Mahavansie, the Rajah Valle, and the Rajah Ratnakari, which were reported to Sir Alex. Johnston by the Buddha priests, whom he had officially consulted upon the subject, to be in their opinion the most authentic histories which they possessed of their religion and their country from the earliest times to the beginning of the sixteenth century.
Thirdly. The English translation of the whole of that volume of Valentyn's history of the Dutch possessions in India which relates to the island of Ceylon.
Fourthly. English translations of a great many papers written by several Dutch inhabitants of Ceylon in Dutch at different times during the whole of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries relative to the history of the Buddha religion and the people of Ceylon.
All the translations from the Cingalese and Pali languages into English were either made or revised by the late Rajah Paxie, who was one of the best Sanscrit, Pali, and Cingalese scholars amongst the natives of Ceylon, and held for a great many years the office of Maha-Modliar, or chief of the cinnamon department on that island. He was the native chief of whom Sir Alex. Johnston has presented an engraving to the Society.
page xlix note † Some of these books relate to the systems of astronomy, astrology, geography, cosmography, and medicine, which prevail among the people of Ceylon, but most of them to the history and doctrine of the Buddha religion. Sir Alex. Johnston, in consequence of the official intercourse which he always kept up with the principal Buddha priests on the island of Ceylon, obtained from them in 1808 the very detailed catalogue of these works which he some time ago gave to the Society.
He had also in 1808 copies made of between five and six hundred of the most valuable of these works, all of which were unfortunately lost in the Lady Jane Dundas, in which he had sent them to England in 1809. As the originals are tin object of literary curiosity he is about to have other copies of them made on the island of Ceylon, which he means as soon as he can procure them to present to the Society.
The only work of the whole collection which he preserved is a complete copy of the Pansiyapayenasjatakaya, which he brought home with him in 1818, and which he has given to the library of the Society. As a complete copy of this work is the most difficult to be procured of any of the works on the Buddha religion, and as it contains the most authentic account of the whole of the doctrines of that religion, Sir Alexander has taken measures to have an English translation made of it for the use of the Society.
page lii note * Linnæus, besides his other great works on natural history, wrote the Flora Zexylanica.
page liii note * Monsieur Falck is descended from a family whose services in India have been productive of the greatest benefit to the Dutch East-India possessions, and is a cousin of the late Dutch Governor of the Island of Ceylon, William Emanuel Falck, whose name is still revered on that island, and is invariably associated in the minds of the natives of the country with the idea of the most impartial justice and the purest integrity. Sir Alexander Johnston, out of respect to the memory of this great man, has presented to the Royal Asiatic Society a very interesting drawing, in which Governor Falck is represented as signing, in the presence of his Council and the Candian ambassadors, the treaty of 1766, by which the King of Candia ceded to the Dutch East-India Company the whole circumference of the island of Ceylon, the acquisition of which had been the principal object of their policy from the time they first got possession of that island.
page lv note * It is not meant to be averred, that great praise is not due to the Honourable East India Company, for the great patronage and support which they have afforded to Oriental literature. To their servants, Europe is entirely indebted for a knowledge of the Sanscrit, and for the publication of many valuable works in that language–for a splendid and accurate edition of the Kāmoos, the Soorah, the Burhānī Kātia, the five books on Arabic grammar the Sharho Molla Jāmī, a valuable edition of the works of Sādī, the Life of Timour, the Makāmāt of Haūrī, the Hidāya, with an English translation, the Deewānī Hāfiz, the Dabistani Madhāhib, the valuable Persian selections, forming the Class-books of the College of Fort William–all that is known of the Hindustānī, a splendid and valuable Chinese Dictionary and Grammar, and the translations of some books of History, Tales, and Poetry, with a great variety of other works, in almost every department.
page lvi note * About to be published by Kosegarten.
page lvii note * Col. Briggs's translation of this work is now in the press.
page lvii note † This correspondence follows this letter.
page lx note * Some of these MSS. are upwards of 1,000 years old, and others present most valuable portions of the Pbiloxenian or Nestorian, exemplars. I myself have made considerable progress in such a collation; but having already burnt my fingers in speculations of this kind, I am not over anxious to try the experiment again.
page lxiii note * In consequence of this recommendation, Captain Low and Baboo Radhacant Deb were elected corresponding members of the Royal Asiatic Society on the 17th of May 1828.