t. There he may sit for hours, without hearing a
syllable spoken, unless he can himself begin, when they will answer
with friendliness. Again, both men and women have always a huge quid of
the betel, or areca-nut in their mouths, which renders their speech so
indistinct, that if you ask them the names of the various objects
before them, you can hardly distinguish between the sputtering sounds
they make. Often were we obliged to tell pater Philip to take his quid
out of his mouth, that we might hear what he attempted to articulate.
As to books and vocabularies, we found none, nor could we make any,
while our knowledge of the language was so imperfect.

Secondly, the unhealthiness of the climate; by which most of the
Missionaries were carried off before they could learn the language, or
just when they had got so far, that they were able to speak to the
natives. During the comparatively short period of the existence of the
Mission, eleven worthy Missionaries found their graves in Nancauwery,
and thirteen more, shortly after their return to Tranquebar, in
consequence of the malignant fevers and obstructions in the liver,
contracted in the island. These dreadful disorders, and the seasoning
fevers, which every newcomer must suffer, are all accompanied with such
pain in the head, dejection of spirits, and constant sickness, that the
senses are in a degree stupified, and learning rendered doubly
difficult. The mind being likewise filled with desponding views of the
possibility of relief and of future usefulness, the effect is very
unfavourable to that persevering diligence, with which such a barbarous
language must be studied; and death snatching so soon those away, who
had made some small progress, their successors must begin the uphill
work again and again, and the prospect of obtaining the aim of the
Mission is put off from one period to another.

Thirdly, our mode of life, and too great exertion in clearing and
planting, and other laborious work, which necessity obliged us to
undertake, was likewise a principal cause of the prevalence of various
disorders and complaints of the liver, the region of the stomach
swelling, and becoming quite hard below the ribs. All who were thus
affected, died either in the island, or soon after their return to
Tranquebar. I was not seized in this manner, but, besides other
illnesses, got a quartan ague, of which I have not lost the symptoms to
this day. When I mentioned it in a letter to Dr