Serampore

To Lady Olivia Sparrow, 1826 (incomplete)

Among several interesting Visitors I have had from the East, , &c none has been more interesting than Doctor Marshman from Serampore. 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.^*