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SYRIAN CHURCHES.

churches in 1806, under the sanction of the Marquis Wellesley, confirms the preceding account, and has given an interesting and affecting detail of his reception by Mar Dionysius the bishop and the pastor of the Christian churches in Malabar: he describes the venerable metropolitan, at the age of seventy-eight, in his episcopal mitre and crozier, as a man of highly respectable character, eminent for piety, and devoted attention to his pastoral functions: in a conversation with the English divine, the Bishop said, "You have come to visit a declining church, and I am now an old man : but the hopes of its seeing better days cheer my old age, though I may not live to see them." On Dr. Buchanan's submitting to the venerable prelate his wishes in regard to the translation and printing of the Holy Scriptures, he replied, "I have already fully considered 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 Travencore 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 con

tain 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 belonging to all the churches. This Syriac version was carried to India, according to

THE MALABAR PROVINCE.

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the popular belief at the beginning of the fourth century, before the year 325 of the Christian æra; 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 formerly regal power in Malabar, and when Vasco de Gama arrived at Cochin in 1503, he saw the sceptre once swayed by their monarchs. At Udiamper is the Syrian church, at which Archbishop Menezes, from Goa, convened the synod of the Syrian clergy in 1599, when he burned the Syriac and Chaldaic books.

The extensive tract of country, now denominated the Malabar Province, having since the fall of Tippoo Sultan, formed part of the British empire in India, and been placed under the management of the Company's servants, a more accurate and comprehensive detail of the subjects slightly touched upon during my voyage on the Malabar coast, and residence in Travencore, will most probably be communicated to the public. The pride and insolence of the Nambouri Brahmins and Nairs will be checked under the English government, and by that means many new channels of information, which could not have been accessible forty years ago, will be attainable.

The King of Calicut was, in the Malabar language, called Samory, or Zamorine, that is to say, God on the earth.

Many of the singular customs of the high caste of S the Tamuri Rajah, or Zamorine, are amusingly described by Dr. Francis Buchanan. The present Za

morin, instead of possessing the power, wealth, and dignity of his ancestors, is reduced to a cypher, and subsists on a pension from the English East India Company. Notwithstanding his degradation and poverty, all the males of his family are called Tamburans, and all the ladies Tamburetti, appellations of high distinction as the Tamuri pretend to be of a higher rank than the Brahmins, and to be inferior only to the invisible gods, a pretension that was acknowledged by his subjects, but which is held as abominable by the Brahmins.

EXCAVATIONS AT SALSETTE.

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CHAPTER XIV.

Excavations at Salsette and Elephanta-Journey from Bombay to Salsette--Description of the great Temple there-Depredations of the Tigers-Island of Elephanta-Excavations—Grand Temple-Hymn to Narayena-Caverns and Temples at Ellora -Wars of the Kooroos and Pandoos from the Hindoo LegendsCemetery in the Desert of Sinai.

DURING my residence at Bombay I frequently visited the excavations of Canara and Elephanta: the former are hewn in the central mountains on the island of Salsette, contiguous to Bombay; the latter in a similar situation on the isle of Elephanta, seven miles from thence, and nearer to the continent. Soon after my return to England, an engraving was published from my painting of the large temple at the Elephanta; and the views of those stupendous works on both islands, since delineated by Mr. Daniell with the accuracy and effect which characterize all his productions, give a correct idea of their general appearance.

The nations of Asia, as well as of Europe, continued long ignorant of the origin and purport of these extraordinary caverns: later researches have thrown a light on their obscurity: the author of the "Indian Antiquities" has taken great pains to illustrate them; his minute investigations have the glow of oriental poetry, and are enriched by interesting anecdotes. If his com

parisons between the tenets of the Hindoo religion and the rites of the Eleusinian mysteries, together with his other hypothesis, do not entirely satisfy, they at least afford pleasure to the inquiring mind.

My first visit to Salsette was in the beginning of 1774; that island then belonging to the Mahrattas, we obtained a passport from the Pundit for our journey; and crossing a narrow arm of the sea which divides Bombay from Salsette, proceeded in palanquins towards the caves. Our party consisted of six English gentlemen, a small escort, and numerous attendants; which were as necessary on this excursion as in the former journey in the Concan, from being obliged to carry beds, provisions, and every thing wanted, on the heads of the villagers.

The first part of the road was through salt marshes and rice-fields, with few trees, or interesting objects: at sun-set we ascended a pleasant hill, and took up our quarters in a Portugueze church, near an extensive lake, bordered by mango-trees: the priest did every thing for our accommodation, partook of our supper, and at midnight left us to repose in his spacious dormitory.

At day-break next morning we renewed our journey to another church, five miles from the principal excavation: the country improved in beauty and fertility, its produce chiefly consisting of rice-fields, mango groves, and palmyra trees. After breakfast we proceeded towards mountains of difficult ascent, through narrow rocky paths rendered almost impervious by thickets and jungle grass, through which our palanquin-bearers could not penetrate, and we finished the journey on foot,