LETTERS

ON

THE STATE OF CHRISTIANITY

IN

INDIA;

IN WHICH

THE CONVERSION OF THE HINDOOS

IS CONSIDERED AS IMPRACTICABLE.

TO WHICH IS ADDED,

A VINDICATION OF THE HINDOOS,

MALE AND FEMALE,

IN ANSWER TO A SEVERE ATTACK MADE UPON BOTH BY

THE REVEREND ***

UPON

AUTHOR OF THE DESCRIPTION OF THE PEOPLE OF INDIA.

Cujus vult miseretur, et quem vult indurat.

ROM. ix, 18.

LONDON:

PRINTED FOR

LONGMAN, HURST, REES, ORME, BROWN, AND GREEN,

PATERNOSTER-ROW.

ΤΟ

THE HONOURABLE

THE COURT OF DIRECTORS,

AS A MARK OF HIS GRATITUDE,

AND AS A TESTIMONY OF HIS MOST SINCERE WISHES

FOR THE TEMPORAL WELFARE OF THEIR

HINDOO SUBJECTS,

AFTER HAVING VAINLY ENDEAVOURED TO PROMOTE

THEIR SPIRITUAL INTERESTS,

DURING A LONG RESIDENCE OF THIRTY-TWO YEARS

AMONG THEM, AS A RELIGIOUS TEACHER,

THESE LETTERS

ARE MOST RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED

BY

THEIR MOST OBEDIENT

AND FAITHFUL SERVANT,

THE AUTHOR.

ADVERTISEMENT.

THESE Letters were written at several periods, to friends who had asked the Author's opinion on the subjects therein discussed. Two of them, the second and third, were addressed to a dignitary of the established church, a learned and liberal-minded gentleman, who, so far from taking offence at the candour and freedom with which the Author expresses his sentiments, was pleased to return him his unqualified thanks for the same. The others were addressed to friends, who appeared equally satisfied at the independent, candid, and impartial manner in which the subject was treated, and who encouraged him to have the whole published for the information of the Public, among whom much misapprehension prevailed, chiefly occasioned by many erroneous statements, published of late years at home, by many well-intentioned authors, who, misled by too warm a zeal, and mistaking their own religious creed as the common