Note 9 — Chapter XI

Dr. Archibald Campbell’s report on Csoma’s closing days, and his subsequent memorandum,9 will always be read with deep interest, the contents of which have been quoted already. Dr. Campbell again mentions in it Csoma’s ardent wish to reach Lassa, where, strengthened with his linguistic attainments, he formed enthusiastic hopes of realising the objects of his research. “Could he reach Lassa, he felt that Sanskrit would have quickly enabled him to master the contents of its libraries, and in them he believed was to be found all that was wanting to give him the real history of the Huns in their original condition and migrations. The power of acquiring languages was the extraordinary talent of Csoma. He had studied the following ancient and modern tongues, and was proficient in many of them: Hebrew, Arabic, Sanskrit, Pushtu, Greek, Latin, Sclavonic, German, English, Turkish, Persian, French, Russian, Tibetan, with the addition of Hindustani, Mahratta, and Bengali. His library at his death had a dictionary of each of the languages he was acquainted with, and on all were his manuscript annotations.”