the paradise a desert for ever. The venerable botanist was wounded
in his keenest part, but he lost not an hour in issuing orders and
writing off for new supplies of specimens and seeds, which years
after made the place as lovely if not so precious, as before. He
thus wrote to Dr. Ryland:--

"SERAMPORE, 22nd December 1823.

"MY DEAR BROTHER--I once more address you from the land of the
living, a mercy which about two months ago I had no expectation of,
nor did any one expect it more than, nor perhaps so much as, myself.
On the 1st of October I went to Calcutta to preach, and returned
with another friend about midnight. When I got out of the boat
close to our own premises, my foot slipped and I fell; my friend
also fell in the same place. I however perceived that I could not
rise, nor even make the smallest effort to rise. The boatmen
carried me into the house, and laid me on a couch, and my friend,
who was a medical man, examined my hurt.--From all this affliction I
am, through mercy, nearly restored. I am still very weak, and the
injured limb is very painful. I am unable to walk two steps without
crutches; yet my strength is sensibly increasing, and Dr. Mellis,
who attended me during the illness, says he has no doubts of my
perfect recovery.

"During my confinement, in October, such a quantity of water came
down from the western hills, that it laid the whole country for
about a hundred miles in length and the same in breadth, under
water. The Ganges was filled by the flood, so as to spread far on
every side. Serampore was under water; we had three feet of water
in our garden for seven or eight days. Almost all the houses of the