Excerpt from India and the Hindoos: Being a Popular View of the Geography, History, Government, Manners, Customs, Literature, and Religion of That Ancient People Of those who take this volume in hand, a few may recognize in tho author an acquaintance and friend, while to others he is a stranger, whose name even they have never before heard. To this latter and more numerous class, a few introductory statements may not be inappropriate. In the Fall of 1836 I sailed from Boston, a missionary to the natives of Southern India. My shipmates were the Rev. Messrs. Cherry, Cope, Crane, Muzzy, Tracy, Dr. Steele, and our wives. Two of these, Dr. Steele and Mrs. Muzzy, lie buried on tho continent, and Mrs. Cherry at Jaffna, Ceylon. Our destination was the ancient and far-famed city of Madura, where and in the neighboring villages Christian operations had been successfully commenced, under the direction of the Rev. Messrs. Todd, Eckard, Hall, Lawrence, Poor, and Dwight, the first and last three of whom were in the field when we arrived. After residing for about six years in that city, I removed to Madras, and was associated with Rev. Messrs. Winslow and Hutchings, and Mr. Hunt. Here I labored in preaching, superintending schools, and writing for the press, until the state of my health required a return to my native land, from which I had been absent ten years. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.