Reflections on the Death of Swartz-Testimonies of respect and veneration for his memory; from his brethren at Tanjore and Tranquebar; from Serfojee Rajah-Interesting anecdote of him-He erects a Monument to Swartz at Tanjore-Epitaph by the Rajah-Other proofs of his regard -His conversations with Dr. Buchanan, and Bishops Middleton and Heber-Reflections on the continued Superstition of the two Rajahs-Monument to Swartz at Madras, by the Court of Directors-Honours paid to his memory by the Government of Fort St. George-Eulogy by Dr. Kerr-His last Will.

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1798.

SUCH was the calm and peaceful, yet triumphant CHAP. departure of this distinguished missionary. The circumstances which attended his death were precisely those which might have been anticipated, from the uniform tenor of his life. The one had been eminently pious and consistent, exemplary and holy; the other was accompanied by those evident tokens of the divine presence, and those bright beams of divine consolation, hope, and joy, with which the heavenly Master, whom he had so long and so faithfully served, seldom fails to irra

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CHAP. diate "the chamber where the good man breathes his last."

1798.

The loss of so excellent and valuable a person, who had, during nearly half a century, occupied so conspicuous a place in the sphere in which. he moved, could not but be deeply felt by all who had either witnessed or participated in the im-. portant benefits of which he had been, in various ways, the instrument or the author. His missionary brethren, his native converts, the Society which he had so faithfully served, and upon whose Christian efforts he had reflected so much honour, the Hindoo prince, of whom he had been the most disinterested and able guardian and friend, and the East Indian government, both at home and abroad, to which he had been so cordially attached, and whose best interests he had so zealously and effectively strengthened and promoted, all vied with each other in the expression of their regret and sorrow at his removal, of their admiration and love of his singular excellences, and of their. grateful veneration for his memory.

The feelings of his immediate colleagues and friends at Tanjore, Trichinopoly, and Cuddalore, have been already expressed in the pious and affectionate memorials of Mr. Gerické and Mr. Kohlhoff. His brethren at Tranquebar, who, from his early connexion with that mission, always regarded him with peculiar esteem and love, in

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their letters to their European friends, mentioned CHAP his death" as an almost irreparable loss," and sympathised deeply on the occasion with their brethren of the English mission, as they all considered him more as a father than a brother. "Many tears," they write, "had been shed on his death throughout the country, by Europeans and natives, and even by the rajah of Tanjore, who looked up to Mr. Swartz with filial reverence, and for his sake showed much kindness to the missionaries and Christian congregations in that country. They praised God that he had not been taken from them on a sudden, but gradually, and in so edifying a manner."

On Mr. Gerické's return from Tanjore, he passed a few days at Tranquebar, when he and his Christian brethren there "mutually encouraged each other to follow the high example that had been set them by Mr. Swartz."

We have already seen, that the efforts of the excellent missionary to establish the validity of Serfojee's adoption, having been sanctioned by the approbation of the supreme government in Bengal, waited only the decision of the Court of Directors to be crowned with complete success. Intelligence of this important event reached India in the month of June 1798; when Ameer Sing was formally deposed, and the young prince was raised to the throne. It will readily be believed,

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1798.

CHAP. that the affection which had prompted him voluntarily to depart from the customs of his country, in bedewing the remains of his venerable friend with his tears, and following in the train of Christian mourners at his funeral, was no transient effusion of grateful feeling. On his accession to the musnud, mindful of the admonitions of his departed benefactor, he corrected various abuses, and endeavoured to render his subjects of every denomination happy, by a just and mild government, and was particularly beneficent to the poor Christians at Tanjore, in furnishing at large supply of grain for their support during a time of scarcity.

A treaty having been concluded with the new rajah in the following year, in consequence of which the forts of Tanjore were evacuated by the British troops, the English service was discontinued in the fort church; but the rajah permitted the missionaries to perform the Tamul service there, and promised to protect them from all molestation.

Notwithstanding this assurance, no sooner had the British garrison been withdrawn, and the forts replaced under the sole and absolute authority of the rajah, then a report prevailed that it was the intention of his highness to take down the Christian church which had been erected by Mr. Swartz, and to rebuild it on the esplanade. The

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whole of the small fort of Tanjore being holy CHAP ground, devoted originally to the purposes of the pagoda, together with the extreme anxiety displayed by the rajah, to efface, by extraordinary purifications, all the effects and traces of the pollution which had been inflicted on the pagoda, for twenty years, by its contact with an European garrison, gave a degree of probability to the report, that inclined the resident, Mr. Torin, to take an opportunity of speaking to the rajah on the subject.

"I was present, as interpreter," observes Colonel Blackburne, in whose expressive and elegant language the following anecdote, equally honourable to the rajah, and to the pious missionary, is related," at the interview between the rajah and the resident, when the latter, in the course of general and familiar conversation, alluded, with as much delicacy as possible, to the supposed intention of his highness to remove the church. The effect on the rajah was very striking. He became agitated; the colour heightened; he half rose. from his seat, and his first words, in answer to the resident, were an indignant reproach to that gentleman for paying any attention whatever to a calumny, which could be credited by none but those who were alike ignorant of his disposition and principles, and of the early events of his life. He eulogized, in glowing terms, the character and conduct of Mr. Swartz, spoke of his