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THE

WORK S

OF

MRS. SHERWOOD.

BEING

THE ONLY UNIFORM EDITION EVER PUB-

LISHED IN THE UNITED STATES.

VOL. IV.

NEW-YORK:

PUBLISHED BY HARPER & BROTHERS,

NO. 82 CLIFF-STREET,

AND SOLD BY THE BOOKSELLERS GENERALLY THROUGHOUT THE
UNITED STATES.

HARVARD COLLEGE LIBRARY

GIFT OF

JULIUS R. WAKEFIELD Feb 25.1932

3247-3

ADVERTISEMENT

ΤΟ

"THE INDIAN PILGRIM."

It will readily appear, to the most cursory reader of the following pages, that they were primarily intended for publication in a very remote land. In the year 1810, during the author's residence in that far country, a plan was formed by certain pious persons in Calcutta for translating Bunyan's Pilgrim's Progress into Hindoostanee, for the use of such of the natives as were beginning to show an interest in religious subjects. But upon making the attempt, the style of that celebrated work, and the manners therein displayed, were found so entirely repugnant to the oriental taste as to render the prosecution of such design no longer desirable. A proposal was then made to the author to write an Indian Pilgrim's Progress, adapted to the taste, the manners, and the peculiar prejudices of Hindoostan,in consequence of which, this little work was immediately composed, with a sincere desire to assist in preparing the way of the Lord among a people who have contributed, in no ordinary degree, to the extension of our national affluence and renown. Certain circumstances, however, occurring to prevent the printing of this volume abroad, the writer has been prevailed upon to lead forth her Indian Pilgrim upon English ground; where, she trusts, if he make an unusual, it may not be altogether an uninteresting spectacle. And though this humble traveller to Zion presents himself in the garb of a stranger among his fellow-subjects in this

kingdom, it is nevertheless presumed that he bears about him the marks of our common Lord and Master, exhibiting the most unequivocal proofs of his belonging to that sacred brotherhood in which there is "neither Greek nor Jew, circumcision nor uncircumcision, Barbarian, Scythian, bond nor free." It has not been thought necessary on this occasion to alter those foreign appellations which were indispensable to the original design of this undertaking: nor was it judged advisable to omit those allusions to Indian customs and usages with which it abounds; since, if they add nothing to its embellishment, they will at least afford the European pilgrim an opportunity of comparing the reasonable services of Christianity with the superstitious vanities of heathenism.

It may be proper here to state, that the story of the Pilgrim Bartholomew, as far as related by himself, presents the real history of a certain schoolmaster employed by the author and her friends in the instruction of native boys. Nor may it be amiss to add, that many of the facts and conversations introduced with relation to the Indian Pilgrim himself were taken from real life.

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