30. “In support of the possibility to accomplish my engagement, I beg leave to state that I am acquainted with several ancient and modern European and Asiatic languages, and that my mother-tongue, the Hungarian idiom, is nearly related, not in words, but in structure, with the Turkish, Indian, Chinese, Mogul, and Tibetan languages. In every language of Europe, except the Hungarian, Turkish, and those of Finnish origin, there are prepositions like in the languages of Hebrew or Arabic origin, but in our tongue, like in the Indian, Chinese, and Tibetan, we have postpositions, and for the formation of different cases in declension, we have affixes with which to form from the same root several sorts of verbs. Our idiom [22] is not inferior either to the Sanskrit or Arabic, and I beg leave to confess that I am not merely a linguist—I have learnt several languages to learn polite literature, to enter into the cabinet of curiosity of remote ages, to acquire useful knowledge, and to live in every age and with every celebrated nation, as I do now with the British. 31. “It is recorded in Tibetan books that the ruin of the ancient Buddhists in the kingdom of Magadha, happened by the Turks, who, taking the city of Otantrapur, destroyed their colleges, killed many priests, and that those who escaped from the common peril fled southwards to India. I cannot now say in what year. There is frequent mention made of Magadha in Asia, the scene (according to what is related) of the most illustrious actions and the home of the most celebrated learned men. I have not yet had sufficient time to search after curiosities: I must first learn the language. I have read but few volumes as yet from the ‘Kahgyur’ and ‘Stangyur’; but if we consider the words of a prophecy by Shakya recorded in the ‘Kahgyur’ (probably introduced thither in modern ages from historical evidences), that ‘his religion or doctrine shall advance from north to south, from south towards the north, and from north to north,’ as it verily happened, since historians mention the Buddhists in Asia, Kashmir, Sindh, Malwa, Ujain, Singhala, Kalingah, Malabar, Ceylon, Bengal, Burmah, Bhutan, Tibet, and the Mogul countries in recent times: we have every reason to suppose that this Asia [eminence, the high country, which is a Sanskrit word, and its literal translation in Tibetan is Pakspa; this also is a title of honour for persons of high dignity, spiritual and secular, in the same manner as we use the words ‘highness,’ ‘eminence,’ ‘excellency’] is the same as the Asia of Ptolemy and of other ancient geographers and historians, and is an appellative name for high countries in general, and comprehends all the ancient Scythia on this side of the Imaus, consequently includes the Transoxiana, Khorassan, and Bactria. In the same manner India or