d, of course, a sufficient
supply of funds. But the vessel on which he was a passenger
was wrecked as it approached the shore. He got ashore with
difficulty, drenched with sea-water, having lost his letters
of introduction and of credit, and with no resources but a
few coins which happened to be in his pockets. He knew nobody
in Calcutta. He disliked very much to present himself to
the persons to whom he had been commended by his friends in
America in that sorry plight with the possibility that he
might be suspected of being an impostor. Accordingly, he
determined that he would take care of himself. He walked
about the street to see what he could find to do. As he went
along he saw the sign of the _Oriental Quarterly Review._
He went in and inquired for the editor and asked him if he
would accept an article. The editor said that he would consider
it if it were brought in. Hall then went out and found a
bookstore. Going in he spied a copy of Griswold's "Poets
and Poetry of America." With a pencil and some sheets of paper,
he wrote an article on American literature, filled up with
pretty copious extracts. He took it to the editor of the
_Review_ who paid him for it, I think five pounds, and told
him that he should be happy to have him make other contributions.
Hall supported himself by writing for that review and some
other periodicals published by the same concern until he could
send home, get new letters of introduction and credit and
support himself as a gentleman. He spent three years in Calcutta
studying Hindostanee and Persian, and afterward, Bengalee
and Sanscrit. Later he removed to Benares, where he was appointed
to a tutorship in the Government College. Then he became
professor and afterward Inspector of Schools for Ajmere and
Mairwara. He was in a besieged fort for seven months during
the Indian Mutiny. He received the degree of D.C.L. from
Oxford in 1860. He went to London afterward to promote the
election of Max Mueller as professor at Oxford. While there
he was himself made professor of Sanscrit and of Indian jurisprudence
in London University. I saw him in England, I think in 1871,
when he was librarian of the great library of the East India
Company, having in charge not only a vast library, but the
archives of the East India Company going back beyond the time
of Cromwell. He showed me many interesting letters and documents
in manuscript of Cromwell, Nelson and other famous persons.