quebar, there being as yet no Bishop in India; and
thus many, the very best of his catechists, served for many years, at
Palamcotta, the first Christian minister produced by modern India. On
the whole, Swartz could look back on the half-century of his mission with
great joy and thankfulness; he counted his spiritual children by
hundreds; and the influence he had exerted upon the whole Government had
saved multitudes of peasants from oppression and starvation, and had
raised the whole tone of the administration. He was once or twice
unkindly attacked by Englishmen who hated or mistrusted the propagation
of Christianity. One gentleman even wrote a letter in a newspaper
calling a missionary a disgrace to any nation, and raking up stories of
the malpractices of heathens who had been preached to without being
converted, which were laid to the charge of the actual Christians; but
imputations like these did not meet with faith from any one whose good
opinion was of any real consequence to Swartz.

His strong health and the suitability of his constitution to the climate
brought him to a good old age in full activity. He had become the
patriarch of the community of missionaries, and had survived all those
with whom he had at first laboured; but he was still able to circulate
among the churches he had founded, teaching, praying, preaching and
counselling, or laying any difficulty before the Government, whose
attention he had so well earned. His last care was establishing the
validity of the adoption of Serfojee, who had grown up a thoughtful,
gentle, and upright man, satisfactory on all points except on the one
which rendered him eligible to the throne of Tanjore, his continued
heathenism. The question was referred to the Company at home, and before
the answer could arrive, by the slow communication of those days, when
the long voyage, and that by a sailing vessel, was the only mode of
conveyance, the venerable guardian of the young Rajah had sunk into his
last illness.

This was connected with a mortification in his left foot, which had been
more or less painful for several years, but had probably been neglected.
His Danish colleague, Mr. Gericke, was with him most of the time, and it
was one of his subjects of thankfulness that he was permitted to depart
out of the world in the society of faithful brethren. He suffered
severely for about three months, but it was not till the last week that
his departure was thought to b