The Rev. Francis Cunningham appears to have been impressed by Borrow’s talent for languages, and fully alive to his value to an institution such as the Bible Society, of which he, Cunningham, was an active member. He accordingly addressed { 93a} to the secretary, the Rev. Andrew Brandram, the following letter:
A young farmer in this neighbourhood has introduced me to-day to a person of whom I have long heard, who appears to me to promise so much that I am induced to offer him to you as a successor of Platt and Greenfield. { 93b} He is a person without University education, but who has read the Bible in thirteen languages. He is independent in circumstances, of no very defined denomination of Christians, but I think of certain Christian principle. I shall make more enquiry about him and see him again. Next week I propose to meet him in London, and I could wish that you should see him, and, if you please, take him under your charge for a few days. He is of the middle order in Society, and a very produceable person.
I intend to be in town on Tuesday morning to go to the Socy. P. C. K. On Wednesday is Dr Wilson’s meeting at Islington. He may be in town on Monday evening, and will attend to any appointment.
Will you write me word by return of post, and believe me ever
The recommendation was well-timed, for the Bible Society at that particular moment required such a man as Borrow for a Manchu-Tartar project it had in view. In 1821 the Bible Society had commissioned Stepán Vasiliévitch Lipovzoff, { 94a} of St Petersburg, to translate the New Testament into Manchu, the court and diplomatic language of China. A year later, an edition of 550 copies of the First Gospel was printed from type specially cast for the undertaking. A hundred copies were despatched to headquarters in London, and the remainder, together with the type, placed with the Society’s bankers at St Petersburg, { 94b} until the time should arrive for the distribution of the books.
Three years after (1824), the overflowing Neva flooded the cellars in which the books were stored, causing their irretrievable ruin, and doing serious damage to the type. This misfortune appeared temporarily to discourage the authorities at home, although Mr Lipovzoff was permitted to proceed with the work of translation, which he completed in two years from the date of the inundation.