TO those Europeans who reside in India, the study of its different Languages is confessedly of great importance, as tending to facilitate the interests of commerce, and to promote that free intercourse so necessary to the existence of mutual confidence between themselves and the natives. It is also highly important as a medium through which alone Europeans can become acquainted with the manners and customs of the different Indian nations, and with a variety of circumstances known to the great body of the people, and in which they are immediately interested.
It must be confessed that the number of Languages spoken in India, (almost every one of which is written in a different Character,) is a circumstance which deters this greater number of Europeans from the study of Indian literature. Those therefore who think it absolutely necessary to acquire one of them, usually choose the Hindoosthanee, and, with the assistance of a native servant who understands that language
