[44] This estimation of the number of the Roman Catholic Christians (48,000) is certainly too high, even if we should forget how the missionaries of the Romish church behave in regard to their so called converts. They insinuate themselves as physicians into the houses of the Indians; draw a wet cloth over the head and forehead of a sick person, even when at the point of death; mutter privately to themselves the baptism service; and think they have then made one Christian more, who is immediately added to their list.--The protestant missionaries have in the course of nineteen years baptised 19,340 persons. See _Neuere Geschichte der evangelischen Missions-anstalten_, 51st part, Halle 1797, 4to. p. 187. _F._ [45] In warm countries sensuality is more active, and the imagination more lively; and therefore the usages of the Catholic church must have greater effect on the Indians, who, when they become members of it, imagine that they only leave one idolatrous worship to embrace another. _F._ [46] The _Tschuderies_, or resting-places in India, are indeed beneficent establishments, but not to be compared with the large and elegant caravanseries in Persia and Turkey. Each, however, are suited to the nature of the country in which they are found. India is extremely populous, whereas in Persia and Turkey there are immense wilds and deserts, totally destitute of inhabitants. In the latter countries, merchants, for the sake of security, must travel in large bodies, and therefore require for themselves, their merchandize and cattle, resting-places of greater extent. _F._ [47] I must, however, confess that I have been sometimes robbed: but the _Kuli_, or other poor Indians, never took any thing else from me than liquor or provisions, which they found necessary for their support. As they are always satisfied with little, it may be readily comprehended that what they purloined was of no great value. During a residence of thirteen or fourteen years in India I never heard of any traveller being robbed or murdered on the highway. _A._----Travelling is not equally secure in every part of India. In the peninsula on this side the Ganges, Bengal and Oude, as far as the power of the English extends, there is nothing to be feared; but in the mountains, and farther towards the north-west, the same safety does not prevail. _F._