British India in Its Relation to the Decline of Hindooism, and the Progress of Christianity

PREFACE.

AFTER a residence of nearly twelve years in India, exclusively devoted to the work of a Missionary, the Author was under the necessity of returning to his native land, and of leaving that sphere of labour in which he greatly delighted. In visiting the churches of England, Scotland, Ireland and Wales, the vast importance, and the urgent necessities of our Eastern Empire, have constituted the great theme of his sermons and addresses; the deliverance of Hindoos from priestcraft and superstition, is still the burden of his thoughts, his prayers, and his toils; and whether, in the good providence of God, he is directed to return to his field of labour, or is obliged to occupy a different sphere at home, the claims, the welfare and the conversion of India are bound up with his mortal existence, and must ever have a warm place in his heart.

the

As there was no book on India which associated

progress of missions with the history, the litera

ture, the customs, and the mythology of its people, and which combined a general view of this interesting field, with the advancement of the truth, many friends expressed a hope that some work would appear upon India, similar to those which have been published, by our brethren, upon other parts of the missionary vineyard.

In addition to this, it is, to the Author, a matter of deep and daily regret that, after fifty years of occupation by British power, India should be so unknown to the public at home, and that her transcendent interests should receive so little attention from the political, commercial and Christian world. Her immense distance from the seat of government, may, in some measure, account for this neglect ; but as steam-communication has, for some years, been established, and the mails pass, with considerable regularity, between England and Bombay, there is now some hope, that our Eastern Empire will soon receive that public attention which her great interests demand.

Should the present volume be useful in awakening more general interest in the affairs of India, in exciting greater compassion for the ignorance, degradation, and misery which prevail among its people, and in provoking the wise and the good of

PREFACE.

every denomination to increased exertion, and to fervent prayer for the conversion of its nations, the Author will not have written, nor published in vain.

To the Directors of the London Missionary Society, and to the friends of missions in general, no apology need be offered for the imperfections of the work; their agents have little time to polish their composition and embellish their thoughts; and those who contend for the truth, ought to be prepared to meet the shafts of the enemy, rather than renounce the imperative duty of pleading the cause of the oppressed, and advancing the interests of humanity.

The Author has to acknowledge his obligations to the Rev Dr. Bennett, for many kind suggestions.

To the gracious care and blessing of that Master whom he desires to serve, the writer commends this attempt to advance the interests of his kingdom; and hopes that a Christian public will receive it, in the spirit of the gospel, as the effort of one who reckons it his highest honour to be a missionary to the heathen, a friend of humanity, and an advocate of the rights, the liberties, and spiritual interests of India.

5, Barnsbury Street, Islington,

November 12, 1839.

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I.

EXTENT AND CONDITION OF INDIA.