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EDITOR ' S INTRODUCTION
modesty is so extreme that he rarely appears in his own person throughout his work, and those particulars that
I have been able to obtain have been culled from various other sources— chiefly from the Madras Government Secretariat, from the British Museum, and from the Missions ttrangeres. The absolute retirement of the Abbe from
European society for a long series of years after his arrival in India, though it qualified him, as was said when his work first appeared, ' for penetrating into the dark and unexplored recesses of the Hindu character,' also veiled
him in an equal degree from the curiosity of his readers.
Major Mark Wilks, the accomplished historian of Mysore,
who in those days was British Resident in that province, in introducing the Abbe ' s work to the notice of the Government of Fort St. George, remarked: Of the history
' and character of the author, I only know that he escaped from one of the fusillades of the French Revolution and has since lived amongst the Hindus as one of themselves: and of the respect which his irreproachable conduct inspires, it may be sufficient to state that when travelling, on his approach to a village, the house of a Brahmin is uniformly cleared for his reception, without interference, and generally without communication to the officers of Government, as a spontaneous mark of deference and
respect.' Subsequently, however, Major Wilks became much more intimate with the Abbe, and the latter speaks of him years afterwards in terms of great affection as his patron and friend. With regard to the circumstance mentioned above as having induced him to leave France
'
and come to India, the Abbe remarked afterwards: It is quite true that I fled from the horrors of the Revolution, and had I remained I should in all probability have fallen a victim, as did so many of my friends who held the same religious and political opinions as myself; but the truth