Page:Life in India or Madras, the Neilgherries, and Calcutta.djvu/389

Rh answer; and, not wishing to betray my ignorance, I kept the word of God from them. They wondered much, and wished to know of what religion I was. I told them ‘I was of the religion of the gospel.' This word I learned out of the Scriptures, but what it meant I could not have told them.”

A former friend of Shunkuru, when on his way to the city of Seringapatam, having met Shunkuru, now at Bangalore, called on him. Hearing from him of the Gospels in his possession, the friend borrowed them, but left Bangalore without returning them to the owner. Great was his distress. “I was so grieved at the loss of my book," says Shunkuru, “that, with tears in my eyes, I said in my prayers to God, 'All the people are become my enemies; and thou, O Lord, art become my enemy also; for I have lost my book. What shall I do? This is my fault; I did not read thy book, but neglected it; now thou hast taken it away and given it to those that will read it.'"

Having been deprived of this highly-prized treasure, he could not rest. Leaving his employment, he proceeded to Seringapatam, eighty miles distant, in search of it. After having spent some weeks to no purpose, he went one