Sir Alexander Johnston an Wilhelm von Humboldt, 07.07.1829

19 Great Cumberland Place
7: July 1829.

My dear Sir.

we have just received from Sir Charles Colville the Governor of the Isle of France the translation of the Gospel of St Luke & part of that of St Matthew from the English into the Madagascan language as this is the first work what was ever printed on Madagascar[a] & as it will be an effort of curiosity to you & may possibly be of use to you in your researches into the South American languages the committee have at my request agreed to send it off immediately to you

Pray have the kindness after you have considered it, to write me fully what you think of the language. if you would wish any further inquieries to be made upon the subject, send me any instructions or queries which may occur to you & I will immediately forward them to Sir Charles Colville who is a friend of mine & will be delighted to procure any further information for you as to this or any other language in the Island of Madagascar.

Lady Johnston & I were happy to see  the Baroness Bulow looking so well the other day.

Lady Johnston & my daughters beg to be kindly remembered to you & I am

My dear Baron
Yours very sincerely
Alex.r Johnston.

Dr. Rosen will leave us shortly for Berlin. I will write you again by him. I hope you have heard good accounts from your brother the Baron Alexander

Fußnoten

    1. a |Editor| Zu den ersten auf Madagaskar gedruckten Büchern gehörte das Lukas-Evangelium von Griffiths und Jones; siehe Carol Holden (1997): Early printing from Africa in the British Library. In: The Electronic British Library Journal, S. 7f. (http://www.bl.uk/eblj/1997articles/pdf/article1.pdf). Dieses Evangelium befand sich in zwei Exemplaren in Humboldts Bibliothek: Schwarz 1993, S. 46 Nr. 337. 338. [FZ]