“He is frequently disconsolate, and betrays it in involuntary sentiment, as if he thought himself forlorn and neglected.… He told me with melancholy emphasis,” continues Dr. Gerard, “that on his delivering up the Grammar and Dictionary to the Government, he would be the happiest man on earth, and could die with pleasure on redeeming his pledge.”
Dr. Gerard has given expression in another place of the deep interest he felt for Csoma’s studies and in his personal concerns. On the 22d of January he wrote a private letter also to Mr. Fraser; a fragment only of it is extant, in the Library of the Asiatic Society in Calcutta. Even this fragment, however, is worth preserving, as it relates to Moorcroft’s papers, and shows the attempts made and the anxiety displayed by the Government to recover them after his death, and also bears [[100]]witness to the confidence felt in the ability and in the spirit of enterprise of the Hungarian traveller, when there were thoughts of entrusting him with the mission to Andkhoi in Bokhara, where Moorcroft died.
This is the fragment, dated Sabathú, 22d of January 1829:—
“My dear Fraser,—Since my return from Kunawar I often thought that I might be doing a service to the Hungarian traveller by just making known a few facts connected with his pursuits and situation in that sequestered region. I am anxious enough to believe that I shall not be imposing a tax on your patience, and I am sure I shall not be deceived in anticipating your views and estimation of an object so deserving of encouragement. It is natural in me to interest myself in Mr. Csoma’s welfare, since I was the first who received him at Sabathú, and I am now the last who has seen him amongst his researches, and on this account I perhaps have the best knowledge of his situation and the objects that can be obtained.
“In sending you the accompanying remarks,[1] I have a conviction that your own high and liberal mind may suggest some means calculated to bring Mr. Csoma into notice, for where merit is the appeal, I need not stay to consider the effect with you. I have a strong idea that Sir Charles Metcalfe would not be an unmoved spectator of zeal and talent so remarkable as that which characterises the individual who is now devoting himself to researches so interesting amidst the rigours of climate and the restraints of poverty. Sir Charles took sufficient interest in him from Moorcroft’s fate, when he forwarded my application to go to Ladak, for the purpose of requesting the Hungarian to undertake the trip for the recovery of his papers, to excite me to rely upon one so generous. And I am an” —— The fragment ends here.
What splendid testimony is this to the confidence [[101]]which was reposed in the unselfishness and ready self-sacrifice of the Hungarian scholar, who at that time was engaged in his studies at the Monastery of Pukdal! Moorcroft’s papers had been secured, before Csoma was made aware of the important project regarding himself.
William Moorcroft, the ill-fated traveller whose name is so intimately connected with the Hungarian philologist, was director of the Government studs in India. Attached to the cavalry, he arrived in Bengal in 1808, and was soon afterwards selected for employment as Government Agent in Western Asia; during his journey he suffered much hardship, and was more than once in danger of his life. In 1819 he started on a fresh expedition, accompanied by his relative, George Trebeck, and visited the Panjáb, Kashmir, Tibet, and Bokhara. Having faced many obstacles and escaped imminent perils, he was seized with fever and died on the 27th August 1825. His tomb is at Andkhoi in Bokhara, to which place he went for the purpose of buying horses for Government. Moorcroft’s diary was arranged and edited in two volumes by Dr. H. H. Wilson, under the title, “Travels in the Himalayan Provinces, by William Moorcroft and George Trebeck, in 1819–1825. London, 1841.” At page 338 of vol. i. is described the first meeting between Moorcroft and the Hungarian traveller in the valley of Dras in Ladak.
Gerard’s friendly pleading for Csoma was not without effect. We find extracts from his letter cited in the Government Gazette of 9th July 1829, with the following prefatory remarks:—
“The extracts read from Dr. Gerard’s paper respecting the labours of Mr. Csoma de Körös were of a most interesting nature, not only as giving a vivid idea of the admirable, we may say heroic devotion, of that singularly disinterested and enterprising person to the cause of literature, in spite of difficulties that would confound a [[102]]less determined spirit, but as referring to depositories of learning, which for ages have been confined to a peculiar people, of whose language and institutions but little is known to Europeans, but which, through the fortunate instrumentality of Mr. Csoma de Körös and his learned associate the Lama, it is hoped, will not long remain a fountain sealed to the literary world.”