“Sep. 21st. An Old Brahmin came from Benares, whom Wheatly told me of. He knows most of our church-catechism. He told me that the [answers to] two questions, those respecting our duty towards God, and our duty towards our neighbour, contained the sum of all good. For a long time he had a very bad opinion of the English. The Mahomedans, he said, do abstain from _one_ kind of meat; but the English eat every thing. This bad opinion was confirmed by hearing a gentleman, whom every person praised as a good man, in a great rage, using many abusive expressions to a servant for killing a rabbit which should not have been killed. But when he read the holy Scriptures, he found them pure, and that our practices were not consistent with them. This led him to ask whether I thought all the English would be saved? I answered, No: which startled him very much. ‘I greatly fear,’ said he, ‘on that account.’ ‘If I lose caste, and afterwards come short of heaven, I shall fail in both worlds.’ This he said with tears. ‘But,’ said he, ‘I thought it must be so, because the tenth commandment says, Thou shalt not covet, &c.’ and then he told me a story of an English collector, who took by force a little spot of ground that he had devoted to the reception and entertainment of sick travellers, when he would not sell it to him: which stumbled him greatly. Baptism, and the eating of meat, which, he says, disagrees with him, are the rock he appears likely to split upon. I told him the _truth_, and pointed it out to him from the Scriptures. The Lord render it effectual to his salvation! I gave him a New Testament, at which he expressed great surprise, saying, he supposed it would cost several rupees; nor did he think my reason (viz.) the love of God, in giving his Son for me, sufficiently constraining to induce me to _give away_ a thing of such value. “Sep. 27th. The Brahmin came on Tuesday; and, after many endeavours to evade the force of God’s word, agreed, with much weeping, to be baptized. I have some doubt of his sincerity on this point. He is gone to Calcutta.