■with some difficulty, when Mr. Elphinstone sent me the copy of the Memoirs of Baber in the original TurkI {i.e. The Elphinstone Codex) which he had procured when he went to Peshawar on his embassy to Kabul. This copy, which he had supposed to have been sent with Dr. Leyden's manuscripts from Calcutta, he was now fortunate enough to recover (in his own library at Poona). " The discovery of this valuable manuscript reduced me, though heartily sick of the task, to the necessity of commencing my work once more."
Erskine's Preface (pp. x, xi) contains various other references to Leyden's work which indicate its quality as tentative and unrevised. It is now in the British Museum Library.
XII
Little need be said here about the Memoirs of Baber.1 Erskine worked on a basis of considerable earlier acquaintance with his Persian original, for, as his Preface tells, he had (after Leyden's death) begun to translate this some years before he definitely accepted the counsel of Elphinstone and Malcolm to undertake the Memoirs. He finished his translation in 1813, and by 1816 was able to dedicate his complete volume to Elphinstone, but publication was delayed till 1826. His was difficult pioneer-work, and carried through with the drawback of working on a secondary source. It has done yeoman service, of which the crowning merit is its introduction of Babur's autobiography to the Western world.
XIII
Amongst Erskine's literary remains are several bound volumes of letters from Elphinstone, Malcolm,. Leyden, and others of that distinguished group of Scots who promoted the revival of Babur's writings. Erskine's grandson, the late Mr. Lestocq Erskine, placed these, with other papers, at our disposal, and they are now located where they have been welcomed as appropriate additions: Elphinstone's are in the Advocates' Library, where already (1826) he, through Erskine, had deposited his own Codex and with his
1 Cf. Erskine's Preface passim, and in loco item XI, cap. iv. The Memoirs of Baber, and ludex s.n.
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