To remedy a few of these inconveniences, I propose taking a short trip to Bengal, as soon as I have seen how the climate of Puloo Penang agrees with my health, and, as in that region they are generally better informed with regard to all European matters, and better provided with reviews, magazines, and newspapers, I shall probably be able to discover that a good many of you have gone "to kingdom come," since I bad adieu to "Auld Reekie." But methinks I see you, with your confounded black beard, bull neck, and upper-lip turned up to your nose, while one of your eye-brows is cocked up perpendicularly, and the other forms pretty well the base of a right-angled triangle, opening your great glotting eyes, and crying, "But, Leyden !!!! tell me- - what the Devil you have been doing all this time!! -eh !!" "Why, Ballantyne, d'ye see, mark and observe and take heed-as you are a good fellow, and don't spout secrets in public places, I trust I can give you satisfaction safely."

"When I arrived in Madras, I first of all reconnoitred my ground, when I perceived that the public men fell naturally into two divisions. The mercantile party, consisting chiefly of men of old standing, versed in trade, and inspired with a spirit in no respect superior to that of the most pitiful pettifogging pedlar, nor in their views a whit more enlarged; in short, men whose sole occupation is to make money, and who have no name for such phrases as national honour, public spirit, or patriotism; men, in short, who would sell their own honour, or their country's credit, to the highest bidder, without a shadow of scruple. What is more unfortunate, this is the party that stands highest in credit with the East India Company. There is another party, for whom I am more at a loss to find an epithet. They cannot with propriety be termed the anti

mercantile party, as they have the interests of our national commerce more at heart than the others, but they have discovered that we are not merely merchants in India, but legislators and governors, and they assert, that our conduct there ought to be calculated for stability and security, and equally marked by a wise internal administra tion of justice, financial and political economy, and by a vigilant, firm, and steady system of external politics. This class is represented by the first, as only actuated by the spirit of innovation, and tending to embroil us every where in India. Its members consist of men of the first abilities, as well as principles, that have been drafted from the common professional routine for difficult or dangerous service: I fancy this division applies as much to Bombay and Bengal as to Madras. As to the members of my own profession, I found them in a state of complete depression, so much so, that the commander-in-chief had assumed all the powers of the medical board, over whom a court-martial was at that very time impending. The medical line had been from time immemorial shut out from every appointment, except professional, and the emoluments of these had been greatly diminished just before my arrival. In this situation, I found it very difficult at first what to resolve on. I saw clearly that there were only two routes in a person's choice; first, to sink into a mere professional drudge, and, by strict economy, endeavour to collect a few thousand pounds in the course of 20 years; or, secondly, to aspire a little beyond it, and by a superior knowledge of India, its laws, relations, politics, and languages, to claim a situation somewhat more respectable in addition to those of the line itself. You know when I left Scotland, I had determined at all events to become a furious orientalist, "nemini secundus," but I was not

aware of the difficulty. I found the expence of native teachers would prove almost insurmountable to a mere assistant surgeon, whose pay is seldom equal to his absolutely necessary expences; and, besides, that it was necessary to form a library of MSS. at a most terrible expence, in every lan guage to which I should apply, if I in tended to proceed beyond a mere smattering. After much consideration, I determined on this plan at all events, and was fortunate enough in a few months to secure an appointment, which furnished me with the means of doing so, though the tasks and exertions it imposed on me were a good deal more arduous than the common duties of a surgeon even in a Mahratta campaign. I was appointed medical assistant to the Mysore survey, and at the same time directed to carry on enquiries concerning the natural history of the country, and the manners and languages, &c, of the natives of Mysore. This, you would imagine, was the very situation I wished for, and so it would, had I previously had time to acquire the country languages. But I had them now to acquire after severe marches and counter-marches in the heat of the sun, night-marches and daymarches, and amid the disgusting details of a field hospital, the duties of which were considerably arduous. However, I wrought incessantly and steadily, and without being discouraged by any kind of difficulty, till my health absolutely gave way, and when I could keep the field no longer, I wrought on my couch, as I generally do still, though I am much better than I have been. As I had the assistance of no intelligent Europeans, I was obliged long to grope my way; but I have now acquired a pretty correct idea of India in all its departments, which increases in geometrical progression as I advance in the languages. The languages that have attracted my

attention since my arrival have been Arabic, Persic, Hindostani, Mahratta, Tamal, Telinga, Canara, Sanscrit, Malayalam, Malay, and Armenian. You will be ready to ask where the devil I picked up these hard names, but I assure you it is infinitely more difficult to pick up the languages themselves; several of which include dialects as different from each other as French or Italian from Spanish or Portugueze; and in all these, I flatter myself, I have made considerable progress. What would you say, were to add the Maldivian and Mapella languages to these? Besides, I have decyphered the inscriptions of Mavalipoorani, which were written in an ancient Canara character, which had hitherto defied all attempts at understanding it, and also several Lada Lippi inscriptions, which is an ancient Tamal dialect and character, in addition to the Jewish tablets of Cochin, which were in the ancient Malayalam, generally termed Malabar. I enter into these details merely to show you that I have not been idle, and that my time has neither been dissipated, nor devoid of plan, though that plan is not sufficiently unfolded. To what I have told you of, you are to add constant and necessary exposure to the sun, damps and dews from the jungles, and putrid exhalations of marshes; before I had been properly accustomed to the climate, constant rambling in the haunts of tigers, leopards, bears, and serpents of 30 or 40 feet long, that make nothing of swallowing a buffalo, by way of demonstrating their appetite, in a morning, together with smaller and more dangerous snakes, whose haunts are dangerous, and bite deadly; and you have a faint idea of a situation, in which, with health, I lived as happy as the day was long. It was occasionally diversified with rapid jaunts of a hundred miles or so, as fast as horses or bearers could carry me, by night or day, swim

ming through rivers, afloat in an old brass kettle, at midnight! O I could tell you adventures to outrival the witch of Endor, or any witch that ever swam in egg-shell or sieve; but you would undoubtedly imagine I wanted to impose on you were I to relate what I have seen and passed through. No! I certainly shall never repent of having come to India. It has awakened energies in me that I scarcely imagined I possessed, though I could gnaw my living nails with pure vexation to think how much I have been thwarted by indisposition. If, however, I get over it, I shall think the better of my constitution as long as I live. It is not every constitution that can resist the combined attack of liver, spleen, bloody flux, and jungle fever, which is very much akin to the plague of Egypt, and yellow fever of America. It is true I have been five times given up by the most skilful physicians in these parts; but in spite of that, I am firmly convinced that "my doom is not to die this day," and that you shall see me emerge from this tribulation like gold purified by the fire; and when that happens, egad I may boast that I have been refined by the very same menstruum too, even the universal solvent mercury, which is almost the only cure for the liver, though I have been obliged to try another, and make an issue in my right side. Now pray, my dear Ballantyne, if this ever comes to hand, instantly sit down, and write me a letter a mile long, and tell me of all our common friends, and if you see any of them that have the least spark of friendly recollection, assure them how vexatious their silence is, and how very unjust, if they have received letters; and, lest I should forget, I shall add, that you must direct to me, to the care of Messrs Binnie and Dennison, Madras, who are my agents, and generally know in what part of this hemisphere I am to be found. But, particularly, you are

my

to commend me kindly to your good motherly mother, and tell her I wish I saw her oftener, and then to your brother Alexander, and request him sometimes, on a Saturday night, precisely at eight o'clock, for my sake, to play "Gingling Johnnie" on his flageolet. If I had you both in my tent, you should drink yourself drunk with wine of Shiraz, which is our eastern Falernian, in honour of Hafez, our Persian Anacreon. As for me, I often drink your health in water, (ohon a ree!) having long abandoned both wine and animal food, not from choice, but dire necessity.-Adieu, dear Ballantyne, and believe me, in the Malay isle, to be ever yours sincerely, JOHN LEYDEN."

Leyden became soon reconciled to Puloo Penang, (or Prince of Wales island) where he found many valuable friends, and enjoyed the regard of the late Philip Dundas, Esq. then governor of the island. He resided in that island for some time, and visited Achi, with some other places on the coasts of Sumatra, and the Malayan peninsula. Here he amassed the curious information concerning the language, literature, and descent of the Indi-Chinese tribes, which afterwards enabled him to lay before the Asiatic society at Calcutta a most valuable dissertation on so obscure a subject. Yet that his heart was sad, and his spirits depressed, is evident from the following lines, written for new-year's-day, 1806, and which appeared in the Government Gazette of Prince of Wales' Island.

Malaya's woods and mountains ring

With voices strange and sad to hear,
And dark unbodied spirits sing

The dirge of the departed year.
Lo! now, methinks, in tones sublime,

As viewless o'er our heads they bend, They whisper, "Thus we steal your time,

Weak mortals, till your days shall end." Then wake the dance, and wake the song, Resound the festive mirth and glee;

Alas! the days have passed along,

The days we never more shall see. But let me brush the nightly dews,

Beside the shell-depainted shore, And mid the sea-weed sit to muse,

On days that shall return no more. Olivia, ah! forgive the bard,

If sprightly strains alone are dear; His notes are sad, for he has heard

The footsteps of the parting year. Mid friends of youth beloved in vain, Oft have I hailed the jocund day; If pleasure brought a thought of pain, charmed it with a passing lay. Friends of my youth for ever dear,

Where are you from this bosom fled? A lonely man I linger here,

Like one that has been long time dead. Foredoomed to seek an early tomb, For whom the pallid grave-flowers blow, I hasten on my destined doom,

And sternly mock at joy or woe!

In 1806, he took leave of Penang, regretted by many friends, whom his eccentricities amused, his talents enlightened, and his virtues conciliated. His reception at Calcutta, and the effect which he produced upon society there, are so admirably illustrated by his ingenious and well-known countryman, General Sir John Malcolm, that it would be impossible to present a more living picture of his manners and mind, and the reader will pardon some repetition for the sake of observing how the same individual was regarded in two distant hemispheres.

TO THE EDITOR OF THE BOMBAY
COURIER.

"SIR,-I inclose some lines,*which have no value but what they derive from the subject: they are an unworthy, but sincere, tribute to one whom I have long regarded with sentiments of esteem and affection, and whose loss I regret with the most unfeigned sorrow. It will remain with those who are better qualified than I am, to do justice to the memory of

Dr Leyden. I only know that he rose, by the power of native genius, from the humblest origin to a very distinguished rank in the literary world. His studies included almost branch every of human science, and he was alike ardent in the pursuit of all. The greatest power of his mind was perhaps shewn in his acquisition of modern and ancient languages. He exhibited an unexampled facility, not merely in ac quiring them, but in tracing their affinity and connection with each other, and from that talent, combined with his taste and general knowledge, we had a right to expect, from what he did in a few that he would, very years, if he had lived, have thrown the greatest light upon the more abstruse parts of the history of the East. In this curious but intricate and rugged path we cannot hope to see his equal.

"Dr Leyden had from his earliest years cultivated the muses with a success, which will make many regret that poetry did not occupy a larger portion of his time. The first of his essays which appeared in a separate form was "The Scenes of Infancy," a descriptive poem, in which he sung, in no unpleasing strains, the charms of his na

tive mountains and streams in Teviotdale. He contributed several small pieces to that collection of poems called the Minstrelsy of the Scottish Bor der, which he published with his cele brated friend Walter Scott. Among these the Mermaid is certainly the most beautiful. In it he has shown all the creative fancy of a real genius. His Ode on the Death of Nelson is undoubtedly the best of those poetical effusions that he has published since he came to India. The following apostrophe to the blood of that hero, has a sublimity of thought, and happiness of expression, which never could have been attained but by a true poet:

"Itis pleasing to find him, on whom nature has bestowed eminent genius, possessed of those more essential and intrinsic qualities which give the truest ex cellence to the human character. The manners of Dr Leyden were uncourtly, more perhaps from his detestation of the vices too generally attendant on refinement, and a wish (indulged to excess from his youth) to keep at a marked distance from them, than from any ignorance of the rules of good breeding. He was fond of talking, his voice was loud, and had little or no modulation, and he spoke in the provincial dialect of his native country; it cannot be surprising, therefore, that even his information and knowledge, when so conveyed, should be felt by a number of his hearers as unpleasant, if not oppressive. But with all these disadvantages (and they were great) the admiration and esteem in which he was always held by those who could appreciate his qualities, became general wherever he was long known; they even who could not understand the value of his knowledge, loved his virtues. Though he was distinguished by his love of liberty, and almost haughty independence, his ardent feelings, and proud genius, never led him into any licentious or extravagant speculation on political subjects. He never solicited favour, but he was raised by the liberal discernment of his noble friend and patron Lord Minto, to situations that afforded him an opportunity of showing that he was as scrupulous and as inflexibly virtuous in the discharge of his public duties, as he was atten

tive in private life to the duties of mo rality and religion,

"It is not easy to convey an idea of the method which Dr Leyden used in his studies, or to describe the unconquerable ardour with which these were pursued. During his early residence in India, I had a particular opportunity of observing both. When he read a lesson in Persian, a person near him, whom he had taught, wrote down each word on a long slip of paper, which was afterwards divided into as many pieces as there were words, and pasted in alphabetical order, under different heads of verbs, nouns, &c. into a blank book that formed a vocabulary of each day's lesson. All this he had in a few hours instructed a very ignorant native to do; and this man he used, in his broad accent, to call "one of his mechanical aids." He was so ill at Mysore, soon after his arrival from England, that Mr Anderson, the surgeon who attended him, despaired of his life; but though all his friends endea voured at this period to prevail upon him to relax in his application to study, it was in vain. He used, when unable to sit upright, to prop himself up with pillows, and continue his translations. One day that I was sitting by his bedside the surgeon came in. —“I am glad you are here," said Mr Anderson, addressing himself to me, 66 you will be

able to persuade Leyden to attend to my advice. I have told him before, and now I repeat, that he will die if he does not leave off his studies and remain quiet." " Very well, doctor," exclaimed Leyden, you have done your duty, but you must now hear me: I cannot be idle, and whether I die or live, the wheel must go round till the last ;" and he actually continued, under the depression of a fever and a liver complaint, to study more than ten hours each day.

"The temper of Dr Leyden was mild and generous, and he could hear with