On 10 March 1784—half a year after he arrived in East India—Sir William Jones mentions in a letter that he had communicated with an “Abyssinian” (Cannon, Letters, vol. 2; emphasis added):
A summary of this conversation was printed in the first issue of Asiatick Researches (1788):
Bruce had returned to London in 1774 but did not publish his Travels until 1790.
Jones noted that he studied Ge’ez to some extent (Teignmouth, Memoirs):
He probably studied Ge’ez using Ludolph’s Grammatica aethiopica. It seems that Abraham did not act as Jones’s language teacher since Abram or other Abyssinians are not mentioned anywhere else in Jones’ works.
- William Jones’ reference for Abyssinia-related topics is James Bruce.
In his early years in India, Jones devoted much of his free time to studying Sanskrit and other India-related subjects. Jones and his wife usually lived in Krishnagar during the monsoon period (from June to October). Abram is unlikely to have stayed in Jones’ house for a substantial period.
- Rev Christoph Burckhardt wrote in March 1818 that Abraham had studied under an Englishman of great learning in India for three years (BFBS Report, 1819). It is conceivable that Abraham had arrived in Kolkota considerably before William Jones and was more closely associated with another person in The Asiatick Society and/ or the East India Company.
References
Cannon, Garland, ed. The Letters of Sir William Jones. 2 vols. Oxford etc.: Oxford University Press, 1970.
Cannon, Garland. The Life and Mind of Oriental Jones: Sir William Jones, the Father of Modern Linguistics. Cambridge etc.: Cambridge University Press, 1990.
Jones, William. “A Conversation with Abram, an Abyssinian, Concerning the City of Gwender and the Sources of the Nile”, Asiatick Researches [Bengal] 1 (1788): 383-88.
—. “On the Course of the Nile” [Conversation with Abram continued], Asiatick Researches [Bengal] 1 (1788): 389-90.
Teignmouth, Charles John Shore. Memoirs of the Life, Writings, and Correspondence, of Sir William Jones. London: J. Hatchard, 1804.
Teignmouth, Charles John Shore, ed. The Works of Sir William Jones. 13 vols. London: Stockdale, 1807. [Available for search/download on Archive.org]