The library of the Asiatic Society of Bengal contained eleven hundred volumes in Tibetan, which no one had hitherto been able to catalogue. Canna not only undertook tho task, but when he was paid for it, remarked that he should have been willing to pay if ho had been a rich man for the pleasure of making the catalogue. The singular di.luterestedness of his character, the frugality of his habits and their eccentricity, his strange costume, which was always the long warm blue cloak of Transylvania under an Indian sun, all made Lim a noted personage iu Indian society, which however he shunned imtead of courting. The Indian scholars, especially Prinsep and Wilson, treated him with marked generosity and kindness; he was provided with apartments at the library of the Aeiatio Society, and for some time officiated as librarian ; his articles in English on 'subjects of Tibetan literature were revised by Profeanor Wilms and published in the journal of the Society, or in the 'Asiatic Researches,' and he was er.gag.el at the government expense to prepare a Tibetan grammar and dictionary. From the Indian journals his fame travelled home ward'', and the Transylmoiane were delighted to hear that their long miming countryman was now a celebrated scholar on the banks of the Ganges. The Transylvaulan diet voted him a suns of about 1401. for his support ; but CIOIDA, who received It with extreme gratifica tion as a token of hie country's approval, had already more money than be knew how to employ, and handed this over to Prinsep to purchase Indian books and manuscripts to be presented to native seats of lesiniog on his return. lie continued for some years at or about Calcutta, diligently employed in the study of Sanscrit and other languages, avoiding the society of Europeans, and for some time making only emulsions of no great moment. In 1842 he pre pared for a final expedition to a000mpliall the great ebjeet of his life. lie was at that time convinced that the laud of the Mears was to be found to the eat and north of Lassa, the capital of Eastern Tibet, sod on the western confines of China. On the 26th of March 1842, he arrived at Darjeeling on Isis way to Sikkim in Tibet, and Dr. Campbell, the superintendent at that etatiou, sent the vakeel of the rajah of Sikkim to visit him, to convince himself that the rajah might permit him to enter the country without danger. "The mired," says Dr. Campbell, "who is a man of intelligence and porno learning, was altogether annoyed at. finding a Feriughee a complete master of the colloquial language of Tibet, and so much his own superior in acqueintance, with the religion and literature of that country." While Csoma awaited at Darjeeling a reply to his application to the rajah, he was seized with illness, refused to take medicine, grew rapidly worse, and on the llth of April expired without a groan or struggle.
The news of his death was received with great regret throughout India and Europe, and more especially in his native country. The celebrated Hungarian novelist &Asses, the author of the Village Notary,' the English translation of which was so successful a few years ago, pronounced a funeral oration on him in October 1843, at a meeting of the Hungarian Academy, of which in his absence Caoma had been elected a member. It is from this oration that our par ticulars respecting his Hungarian life have been taken, those relating to his career in India are chiefly derived from the Indian journals. There is one passage in Eiitviis which an Englishman can hardly dtny himself the gratification of giving et length.
"Proudly and majestically stands the British nation among the widows of Europe; the five parte of the globe acknowledge its power, and its banner floats in command of the ocean ; but it is not this which constitutes the highest glory of Albion—which inspires every thinking man with involuntary reverence at the mention of its name. The constancy with which it centers& for the triumphs of mind ; the victories it has won in the field of humanity and science; the kiudred feeling which every great thought, every lofty sentiment, the just esteem which all true merit like that of Korosi excites in the English nation,—this it is which ideutifies its existence with civilisation, its supremacy with the supremacy of all that is high and noble ; which makes its name great and glorious among the nations of the earth.
It is to the English nation that we stand indebted, after God, for the glory that redouucls to us from what was effected by KIinnsi. In Teheran, Willock ; in Tibet, Moorcroft ; in Calcutta, Prinsep ; in Dar jeeling, Campbell—always and everywhere it was Englishmen who aided our countryman with their advice and their benefits ; who, recogulaing his merits, did heartily for him what his country could not do, or had failed to do, for her illustrious son ; and if by the Tibetan Grammar end Dictionary he redeemed his obligations, and could receive without a blush the benefit* of strangere, I yet discharge a sacred duty when, in the name of this Academy, in the name of every admirer of Korosi, in the name of the country at large, I publicly return our thanks to the most glorious nation of this earth for the sympathy and assistance which our countryman received at the hands both of its individual citizens and of its government." The original purpose of Caoma'e travels to the East was not attained. His example, however, has had imitators. Castron [Ceseiuter], who travelled to Russia in search of the dialects of Finnish, was, in fact, on the same quest as Csoma, as Finnish and Hungarian are certainly connected, though the degree of their con nection, like that of the Tartar languages in general, is a fruitful sub ject of discussion. But in searching for one thing, the Trauaylvanian traveller found another. Ile was not so unfortunate as ho invegiued in having devoted himself to the study of Tibetan ; for, ip doing so, he stumbled on a new field. In Itemusat'a 'Recherches sur Ica langues Tatarca,' published in 1820, but which Ceenna had not seen till he new it at Calcutta, the most unsatisfactory chapter is that on Tibetan, in which he successfully demonstratea that all written on the subject by Fourmout and Georg' is a mass of blunders, but is unable to point out what is to be substituted. The Dictionary of the Bho tents language (another name for Tibetan), published by Narshinan at Serewpore In 1820, from an Italian manuscript, is described as worthless by Schmidt of St. Petersburg and Fougaux of Paris, tho two great living authorities on the subject of Tibetan, who, on the contrary, unite in declaring that Caoma had completely entered into the spirit of the language ; that his Dictionary is a standard work, and that if they have succeeded in clearing up some points oven more than he did, it is to his guidance that they owe their proficiency. The title of the work is characteristic, 'Essay towards a Dictionary Tibetan and English : prepared with the agesatance of Bandd Seep, Rgyas Phun-Tahoge, a learned Ulm of 7.augakdr, by Alexander Ceoma do Ktirtai, Siculeellungarian of Transylvania, during a residence met Kamm, in the Himalaya Mountains, on the confines of India and Tibet, 1827.30.' It was published in one volume quarto at Calcutta, in 1834, and the Grammar followed in the same year. The articles on Tibetan literature by the author in the Journal of the Asiatic Socitty of Bengal are numerous; • and his analysis of the Kah-G3ur, the principal sacred book of the Buddhist religion, is priutcd In the twentieth volume of the 'Asiatic Researches.' In the preface to his Dictionary, he insinuates that he had discovered a striking connection between Sauscrit and Hungarian ; hut his views on this subject are not generally regarded as sound. In the course of his travels and researches, Csoma had altogether studied seventeen or eighteen languages, in several of which he was a proficient. His English is the English of a foreigner.