in a
hotel, as the difficulty of procuring lodgings in this place is very
great, and when you have procured them, you have to furnish them yourself
at a considerable expense. During this time I collated with Mr. Swan the
greatest part of what he had transcribed, and eventually I took up my
abode with Mr. Egerton Hubbard, a friend of Mr. Venning's, where I am for
the present very comfortably situated, and I do assure you exerting
myself to the utmost to fulfil the views of the Society. I have
transcribed from the Mandchou Old Testament the second book of
Chronicles, which when I had done, I put aside the Old Testament for a
season, and by the advice of Mr. Swan began to copy St. Matthew's Gospel
from the version of the New, executed by the same hand as the Old, with
the purpose of comparing it with that of Mr. Lipoftsoff. This task I
have just completed, and am now about to commence a transcript of the
Acts. Respecting this manuscript translation of the Old and New
Testaments I must here observe, that with scarcely one exception it is
the most laborious and best executed work of the kind which I have ever
seen, and I cannot but admire the diligence and learning of him who,
probably unasked and unrewarded, engaged in and accomplished it. The
style, as far as I can judge, is to an eminent degree elegant and
polished, and likely to captivate those whose taste is cultivated, and
with this advantage, it exhibits none of that obscurity which too
frequently attends refinement of language; and as for fidelity--it is
upon the whole executed as literally, and with as much adherence to the
original, as the genius of the Tartar language and the understandings of
the people, for whose edification it is intended, will permit. But the
notes and elucidations (which I copy not) which follow every chapter,
both of the Old and New Testament, constitute the most surprising feature
of this work. They are so full and copious, that they occupy far more
space than the text; indeed, I think I speak quite within bounds when I
say that for every page of text there are two of explanatory matter. The
author was a French Jesuit, and when did a Jesuit any thing which he
undertook, whether laudable or the reverse, not far better than any other
person? Staunch Protestant though I be, I am not ashamed to say that all
the skill and talent of our own missionaries, in acquiring languages and
making versions of the Scriptures, are, when compared with