olics at the former place. A young Hindoo, of good birth,
seems to have had one of those remarkable natures that cannot rest
without truth. He had for seven years wandered to all the most famous
pagodas and most sacred rivers, seeking rest for his soul, but in vain.
Some Roman Catholics had given him a little brass crucifix, which he used
to set up before him as he prayed; but he had learnt little more of them,
and he was mournfully gazing at "the pagodas of Sirengam" (in his own
words), and thinking, "What is all this? what can it avail?" when some of
Swartz's catechists began to speak. "Will this be better than what I
have found?" he said to himself. He listened, was asked to remain a
fortnight at the station, and soon had given his whole soul to the faith.
He was baptized by the name of Nyana Pracasam, or Spiritual Light, and
became a catechist. His father and mother were likewise led to
Christianity by him, but the Roman Catholics, having begun his
conversion, considered that they had a right to him, and on one occasion,
when he was found reading to a sick relative, probably a member of their
Church, he was severely beaten, and was rescued by the heathen neighbours
when nearly killed.

Swartz seems to have regarded the Roman Catholics as in almost as much
need of reconversion as the Hindoos and Mahometans; and as in those days
their Church shared in that universal religious torpor that had crept
over the world, it is most likely that he found them in a very debased
condition.

With the Mahometans he had some success, though he found, like all other
missionaries, that their faith, being rather a heresy than a paganism,
had truth enough in it to be much harder to deal with than the Hindoo
polytheism. Besides, they accepted the Persian proverb, "Every time a
man argues, he loses a drop of blood from his liver." He was impeded
also by the want of a Persian translation of the entire Bible, having no
more than the Gospels to give the inquirers, and these badly translated;
and with Mahometans the want of the real history of the Patriarchs was
very serious. Some, however, were convinced and baptized, though by far
the greater number of his converts were Hindoos.

In 1776, a coadjutor, either German or Danish-trained, named Christian
Pohle, joined him at Trichinopoly, and thus he became free to reside more
constantly at Tanjore, where the Rajah always protected him, though
continually fluctuating in feeling towards