Constantinople


To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 1826 (incomplete)

Among several interesting Visitors I have had from the East, Constantinople, &c none has been more interesting than Doctor Marshman from . He has made himself Master of 22 Indian Dialects, into which he has translated the Scriptures. He has finished the Penteteuch for the 2d. Edition in Chinese;* and he has not only written all these but has printed them himself at his own Printing Press.* When I asked how he could survive such labours, his answer was "in the 27 Years I have spent in this Mission, I have never known one day’s head ach or heart ach. I had missed seeing him for three or four Months, and when I asked him where he had been, he told me he had been paying a Visit to the King of Denmark of whom he obtained an Audience with the greatest ease; he granted his petition at once, which was to allow him to erect a College and chuse their own Professors.* I did not know that Serampore had been a Danish Island.*