Page:Journal of the Straits Branch of the Royal Asiatic Society (IA journalofstrait781881roya).pdf/104

 I may mention one incident which occurred at this period as exemplifying his devotion to his favourite pursuit. In the year 1849-50, I was surveying the Johor River, when I asked him to accompany me for change of air. I had at my service a small gunboat not over well provided with kadjangs. Anchoring in the evening, I turned in after the fatigues of the day and fell asleep, but was awoke at midnight by a sudden turmoil. This proved to be a Sumatra, bringing with it the usual squalls and rain. On looking for my friend, I found him perched on the top of the powder canister to save himself from the wet, close by a lamp at which he was, and had been all night, closely analysing the construction of the Dutch language. Such enthusiasm surely deserved unalloyed success and the applause of mankind. But the inscrutable ways of Providence brought not about the reward that his friends would have entirely desired, or which would have been entirely gratifying, to them. Sic transit gloria mundi! is variously and at different times mentioned along with, , , and. For my part, I would class him alone with. But in doing so, even here there is considerable qualification. Both were borderers, both men of intense energy and great powers of application. With all this was a poct, a poet above mediocrity. I am not aware that ever wrote a verse. It is in the science of language that and  aro akin in genius, but 's sphere was translation, 's analysis and comparison. was an antiquarian, an explorer of things as they are, a far more difficult and deeper subject than the former, requiring great and comprehensive knowledge, a highly matured judgment, and close acuteness of critical powers.

Fate was adverse to both; neither brought their labours to full consumation. Under happier circumstances, both would have illuminated the world with best stores of yet dormant mysteries, wherein the complex skein of human races on this earth would have been disentangled and brought within our ken. While I mention and  as being men of much the same genius and power, it would be neglectful not to denote their differences. was born of the humbler classes, of the middle. This is only interesting in so far as it points a moral and illustrates life's antithesis. In India, Jony, the shepherd's son, was the pri-