, and his tongue ran faster than I could follow, and the
people, about one hundred, shouted applause. I continued my questions
and among other things asked if what I had heard of Vishnu and Brahma
was true, which he confessed. I forbore to press him with the
consequences, which he seemed to feel; and then I told him what was my
belief. The man grew quite mild and said it was _chula bat_ (good
words), and asked me seriously at last what I thought, 'Was idol
worship true or false?' I felt it a matter of thankfulness that I
could make known the truth of God though a stammerer and that I had
declared it in the presence of the devil. And this also I learnt, that
the power of gentleness is irresistible. I never was more astonished
than at the change in deportment of this hot-headed Brahmin.... Came
to on the eastern bank below a village called Ahgadup. Wherever I
walked the women fled at the sight of me. Some men were sitting under
the shed dedicated to their goddess; a lamp was burning in her place.
A conversation soon began, but there was no one who could speak
Hindoostanee. I could only speak by the medium of my Mussulman,
Musalchee. They said that they only did as others did, and that if
they were wrong then all Bengal was wrong. I felt love for their
souls, and longed for utterance to declare unto these poor simple
people the holy gospel. I think that when my mouth is opened I shall
preach to them day and night.

"October 31. My Moonshee said, 'How can you prove this book (the
gospel), to be the word of God?' I took him to walk with me on the
shore that we might discuss the matter, and the result of our
conversation was that I discovered that the Mussulmen allow the gospel
to be in general the command of God, though the words of it are not
His as the words of the Koran are, and contend that the actual words
of God given to Jesus were burnt by the Jews; that they also admit the
New Testament to have been in force till the coming of Mohammed. When
I quoted some passages which proved the Christian dispensation to be
the final one, he allowed it to be inconsistent with the divinity of
the Koran, but said, 'Then those words of the gospel must be false.'
The man argued and asked his questions seemingly in earnest, and
another new impression was left upon my mind, namely, that these men
are not fools and that all ingenuity and clearness of reasoning are
not confined to England and Europe. I seem to feel that these
descendants