Letters of George Borrow | Page 5

J. Jowett JUNE 9TH, 1833 WILLOW LANE, ST. GILES,
NORWICH.
REVD. AND DEAR SIR, - I have mastered Mandchou, and I should
feel obliged by your informing the Committee of the fact, and also my
excellent friend Mr. Brandram.
I assure you that I have had no easy and pleasant task in acquiring this
language. In the first place, it is in every respect different from all
others which I have studied, with perhaps the exception of the Turkish,
to which it seems to bear some remote resemblance in syntax, though
none in words. In the second place, it abounds with idiomatic phrases,
which can only be learnt by habit, and to the understanding of which a
Dictionary is of little or no use, the words separately having either no
meaning or a meaning quite distinct from that which they possess when
thus conjoined. And thirdly the helps afforded me in this undertaking
have been sadly inadequate. However, with the assistance of God, I
have performed my engagement.
I have translated several pieces from the Mandchou, amongst which is
the . . . or Spirit of the Hearth ([GREEK TEXT]), which is a peculiarly
difficult composition, and which had never previously been translated
into a European language. Should you desire a copy, I shall have great
pleasure in sending one.
I shall now be happy to be regularly employed, for though I am not in
want, my affairs are not in a very flourishing condition.
I remain, Revd. and dear Sir, your most obedient humble servant,
GEORGE BORROW.

LETTER: 3rd July, 1833

To the Rev. J. Jowett WILLOW LANE, ST. GILES, NORWICH,
JULY 3rd, 1833.
REVD. AND DEAR SIR, - Owing to the culpable tardiness of the post-
office people, I have received your letter so late that I have little more
than a quarter of an hour to answer it in, and be in time to despatch it
by this day's mail. What you have written has given me great pleasure,
as it holds out hope that I may be employed usefully to the Deity, to
man, and myself. I shall be very happy to visit St. Petersburg and to
become the coadjutor of Mr. Lipoftsoff, and to avail myself of his

acquirements in what you very happily designate a most singular
language, towards obtaining a still greater proficiency in it. I flatter
myself that I am for one or two reasons tolerably well adapted for the
contemplated expedition, for besides a competent knowledge of French
and German, I possess some acquaintance with Russian, being able to
read without much difficulty any printed Russian book, and I have little
doubt that after a few months' intercourse with the natives I should be
able to speak it fluently. It would ill become me to bargain like a Jew or
a Gypsy as to terms; all I wish to say on that point is, that I have
nothing of my own, having been too long dependent on an excellent
mother, who is not herself in very easy circumstances.
I remain, Revd. and dear Sir, truly yours,
GEORGE BORROW.

LETTER: 4th August, 1833

To the Rev. J. Jowett (ENDORSED: recd. Aug. 13, 1833) HAMBURG,
AUGUST 4TH, 1833.
REVD. AND DEAR SIR, - I arrived at Hamburg yesterday after a
disagreeable passage of three days, in which I suffered much from
sea-sickness, as did all the other passengers, who were a medley of
Germans, Swedes, and Danes, I being the only Englishman on board,
with the exception of the captain and crew. I landed about seven
o'clock in the morning, and the sun, notwithstanding the earliness of the
hour, shone so fiercely that it brought upon me a transient fit of
delirium, which is scarcely to be wondered at, if my previous state of
exhaustion be considered. You will readily conceive that my situation,
under all its circumstances, was not a very enviable one; some people
would perhaps call it a frightful one. I did not come however to the
slightest harm, for the Lord took care of me through two of His
instruments, Messrs. Weil and Valentin, highly respectable Jews of
Copenhagen, who had been my fellow-passengers, and with whom I
had in some degree ingratiated myself on board, in our intervals of ease,
by conversing with them about the Talmud and the book Sohar. They
conveyed me to the Konig von Engeland, an excellent hotel in the
street called the Neuenwall, and sent for a physician, who caused me to
take forty drops of laudanum and my head to be swathed in wet towels,

and afterwards caused me to be put to bed, where I soon fell asleep, and
awoke in the evening perfectly recovered and in the best spirits possible.
This morning, Sunday, I called on the British