A Grammar of the Cingalese language.

Chater's book is the first English grammar of Sinhala, the major language of Sri Lanka, and the first major book to be published in Sri Lanka under British rule. Chater was a Baptist missionary who also published several religious texts in Sri Lanka.

William Martin Harvard was a Wesleyan missionary, who supervised the Missionary Press. He intended that the book '...may be copied by missiona[ries] coming out to the South of Cey[lon] and furnish matter for study on the voyage... Nov. 8. 1816'.