Letters of George Borrow to the British and Foreign Bible Society





LETTER: February 10th, 1833



To the Rev. J. Jowett
WILLOW LANE, ST. GILES, NORWICH,
FEB. 10TH, 1833.

REVD. AND DEAR SIR, - I have just received your communication, and
notwithstanding it is Sunday morning, and the bells with their loud
and clear voices are calling me to church, I have sat down to
answer it by return of post. It is scarcely necessary for me to
say that I was rejoiced to see the Chrestomathie Mandchou, which
will be of no slight assistance in learning the Tartar dialect, on
which ever since I left London I have been almost incessantly
occupied. It is, then, your opinion, that from the lack of
anything in the form of Grammar I have scarcely made any progress
towards the attainment of Mandchou; perhaps you will not be
perfectly miserable at being informed that you were never more
mistaken in your life. I can already, with the assistance of
Amyot, TRANSLATE MANDCHOU with no great difficulty, and am
perfectly qualified to write a critique on the version of St.
Matthew's Gospel, which I brought with me into the country. Upon
the whole, I consider the translation a good one, but I cannot help