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ADVERTISEMENT.

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It will readily appear to the most cursory reader of the following pages, that they were primarily intended for publication in a very remote land. In the year 1810, during the author's residence in that far country, a plan was formed by certain pious persons in Calcutta for translating Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress into Hindoostannee, for the use of such of the natives as were beginning to shew an interest in religious subjects. But upon making the attempt, the style of that celebrated

work and the manners therein displayed were found so entirely repugnant to the Oriental taste, as to render the prosecution of such design no longer desirable. A proposal was then made to the author to write. an Indian Pilgrim's Progress, adapted to the taste, the manners, and the peculiar prejudices of Hindoostann:in consequence of which, this little work was immediately composed with a sincere desire to assist in preparing the way of the Lord among a people, who have contributed, in no ordinary degree, to the extension of our national affluence and renown. Certain circumstances, however, occurring to prevent the printing of this volume abroad, the writer has been prevailed with to lead forth her Indian Pilgrim upon English ground; where, she trusts, if he make an

unusual, it may not be altogether an uninteresting spectacle. And though this humble traveller to Zion presents himself in the garb of a stranger among his fellow-subjects in this kingdom; it is nevertheless presumed, that he bears about him the marks of our common Lord and Master, exhibiting the most unequivocal proofs of his belonging to that sacred brotherhood, in which there is neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free. It has not been thought necessary, on this occasion, to alter those foreign appellations, which were indispensable to the original design of this undertaking: nor was it judged advisable to omit those allusions to Indian customs and usages, with which it abounds; since if they add nothing

to its embellishment, they will at least afford the European pilgrim an opportunity of comparing the reasonable services of Christianity with the superstitious vanities of Heathenism.

It may be proper here to state, that the story of the Pilgrim Bartholomew, as far as related by himself, presents the real history of a certain schoolmaster employed by the author and her friends in the instruction of native boys. Nor may it be amiss to add, that many of the facts and conversations introduced with relation to the Indian Pilgrim himself, were taken from real life.

February, 1818.

Shewing how the Sinner sought Salvation from the Hindoo Gods, but found it not.

Behold, they are all vanity; their works are nothing: their molten images are wind and confusion.They have no knowledge that set up the wood of their graven image, and pray unto a god that cannot save," -Isaiah xli. 29. xlv. 20.

-pi ada

AS I walked through the wilderness of this world, I came to a place where the thick-leaved branches of the pepul tree afforded a refreshing shade; there, having spread my chaudur upon the ground, I laid me down to rest, and was soon hushed to sleep by the rustling sound of the breeze among the branches of the tree. And in my sleep I had a dream, the which, when I awoke, I hastened to write in a book.

Behold, I saw before me, in my dream, a great city standing in a valley; and this city spread itself out exceedingly, to the east and to the west, to the north and to the south, even unto the utmost bounds of the habitable globe.

Above this mighty city, in the heavens, were

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