r time, inclination, or eyesight for the
task, and I am apprehensive that my strength and powers unassisted are
incompetent to it' (praised be the Lord, they were not!), 'therefore I
should be glad to return home. Moreover the compositors say that they
are unaccustomed to compose in an unknown tongue from such scribbled and
illegible copy, and they will scarcely assist me to compose. Moreover
the working printers say (several went away in disgust) that the paper on
which they have to print is too thin to be wetted, and that to print on
dry requires a two-fold exertion of strength, and that they will not do
such work for double wages, for it ruptures them.' Would that have been
a welcome communication to the Committee? Would that have been a
communication suited to the public? I was resolved 'to do or die,' and,
instead of distressing and perplexing the Committee with complaints, to
write nothing until I could write something perfectly satisfactory, as I
now can; and to bring about that result I have spared neither myself nor
my own money. I have toiled in a close printing-office the whole day,
during 90 degrees of heat, for the purpose of setting an example, and
have bribed people to work whom nothing but bribes would induce so to do.

I am obliged to say all this in self-justification. No member of the
Bible Society would ever have heard a syllable respecting what I have
undergone but for the question, 'What has Mr. Borrow been about?' I hope
and trust that question is now answered to the satisfaction of those who
do Mr. Borrow the honour to employ him. In respect to the expense
attending the editing of such a work as the New Testament in Mandchou, I
beg leave to observe that I have obtained the paper, the principal source
of expense, at fifteen roubles per ream less than the Society paid
formerly for it--that is to say, at nearly half the price.

As St. Matthew's Gospel has been ready for some weeks, it is high time
that it should be bound; for if that process be delayed, the paper with
be dirtied and the work injured. I am sorry to inform you that
book-binding in Russia is incredibly dear, and that the expenses
attending the binding of the Testament would amount, were the usual
course pursued, to two-thirds of the entire expenses of the work.
Various book-binders to whom I have applied have demanded one rouble and
a half for the binding of every section of the work, so that the sum
required for the binding