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THE  LIFE  OP  WILLIAM  CAREY,  D.D. 


7 


THE   LIFE 


OF 


WILLIAM    CAEEY,  D.D 

SHOEMAKEK  AND  MISSIONAKY 

PROFESSOR  OF  SANSKRIT,  BENGALI,  AND  MARATHI  IN  THE 
COLLEGE  OF  FORT  WILLIAM,  CALCUTTA 


BY  GEORGE   SMITH,  LL.D.  C.I.E. 

FELLOW  OF  THE  ROYAL  GEOGRAPHICAL  AND  STATISTICAL  SOCIETIES  J   MEMBER   OF 
COUNCIL   OF  THE   SCOTTISH   GEOGRAPHICAL  SOCIETY;   AUTHOR  OF  THE 

'LIFE  OF  DUFF'  AND  'LIFE  OF  WILSON,'  ETC. 


Uvp  $\6ov  paXelv  ei's  rty»  yijv. 


WITH    PORTRAIT   AND    ILLUSTRATIONS 


LONDON 
JOHN   MUEEAY,   ALBEMAELE   STEEET 

1885 


The  right  of  Translation  is  reserved. 


HENRY  MORSE  STEPHEN* 


Printed  by  R.  &  R.  CLARK,  Edinburgh. 


TO 

MY  WIFE 

FOR  TWENTY  YEARS   MY  FELLOW-WORKER   IN 

CALCUTTA  AND  SERAMPORE 
IN  THE  SCENES  CONSECRATED  BY  THE  MEMORY  OF 

WILLIAM   CAREY 


5U701 


PEEFACE. 

ON  the  death  of  William  Carey  in  1834  Dr.  Joshua  Marsh- 
man  promised  to  write  the  Life  of  his  great  colleague,  with 
whom  he  had  held  almost  daily  converse  since  the  beginning 
of  the  century,  but  he  survived  too  short  a  time  to  begin  the 
work.  As  a  writer  of  culture,  in  full  sympathy  and  frequent 
correspondence  with  Carey,  the  Rev.  Christopher  Anderson, 
of  Edinburgh,  was  even  better  fitted  for  the  task.  In  1836 
the  Rev.  Eustace  Carey  anticipated  him  by  issuing  what  is 
little  better  than  a  selection  of  mutilated  letters  and  journals 
made  at  the  request  of  the  Committee  of  the  Baptist  Mis- 
sionary Society.  It  contains  one  passage  of  value,  how- 
ever. Dr.  Carey  once  said  to  his  nephew,  whose  design  he 
seems  to  have  suspected,  "  Eustace,  if  after  my  removal  any 
one  should  think  it  worth  his  while  to  write  my  Life,  I  will 
giye  you  a  criterion  by  which  you  may  judge  of  its  correct- 
ness. If  he  give  me  credit  for  being  a  plodder  he  will 
describe  me  justly.  Anything  beyond  this  will  be  too  much. 
I  can  plod.  I  can  persevere  in  any  definite  pursuit.  To  this 
I  owe  everything." 

The  Rev.  Dr.  Belcher  was  the  first  to  publish,  at  Phila- 
delphia, U.S.,  in  1853,  a  brief  biography  showing  the  man 
as  he  was.  In  1859  Mr.  John  Marshman,  after  his  final 
return  to  England,  published  The  Life  and  Times  of  Carey, 


viii  PREFACE. 

Marshman,  and  Ward,  a  valuable  history  and  defence  of 
the  Serampore  Mission,  but  rather  a  biography  of  his  father 
than  of  Carey.  In  1881  the  Rev.  Dr.  Culross  wrote  a  short 
and  charming  sketch  of  William  Carey.  Mr.  John  Taylor, 
Northampton,  has  lately  published  a  collection  of  facts  and 
extracts  relating  to  Carey,  in  his  Bibliotheca  Northantonensis. 
When  I  first  went  to  Serampore  the  great  missionary  had 
not  been  twenty  years  dead.  During  my  long  residence  there 
as  Editor  of  The  Friend  of  India,  I  came  to  know,  in  most  of 
its  details,  the  nature  of  the  work  done  by  Carey  for  India 
and  for  Christendom  in  the  first  third  of  the  century.  I 
began  to  collect  such  materials  for  his  Biography  as  were  to 
be  found  in  the  office,  the  press,  and  the  college,  and  among 
the  Native  Christians  and  Brahman  pundits  whom  he  had 
influenced.  In  addition  to  such  materials  and  experience  I 
have  been  favoured  with  the  use  of  many  -unpublished  letters 
written  by  Carey  or  referring  to  him ;  for  which  courtesy  I 
here  desire  to  thank  his  grandsons,  Frederick  George  Carey, 
Esq.,  LL.B.,  of  Lincoln's  Inn;  and  the  Rev.  Jonathan  T. 
Carey  of  Tiverton,  whose  son  is  now  carrying  on  the  Burrisal 
Mission  founded  by  his  great-grandfather ;  also  the  Rev.  C. 
B.  Lewis,  the  biographer  of  Thomas,  the  first  medical 
missionary;  and  the  venerable  widow  of  the  Rev.  Chris- 
topher Anderson.  Mr.  Baynes,  the  Secretary  of  the  Baptist 
Missionary  Society — which  is  worthily  conducting  in  Africa, 
on  the  Congo,  an  enterprise  greater  than  even  Carey  prayed 
for — has  generously  granted  me  the  use  of  several  engravings 
from  photographs,  which  he  had  taken  during  a  recent  visit 
to  Serampore.  Mr.  R.  Blechynden  junr.,  of  Calcutta,  caused 
the  records  of  the  Asiatic  and  Agricultural  Societies  there 
to  be  searched  and  copied  for  use  in  these  pages. 


PREFACE.  ix 

My  three  Biographies  of  Carey  of  Serampore,  Duff  of 
Calcutta,  and  Wilson  of  Bombay,  cover  a  period  of  nearly  a 
century  and  a  quarter,  from  1761  to  1878.  They  have  been 
written  as  contributions  to  that  history  of  the  Church  of 
India  which  one  of  its  native  sons  must  some  day  attempt ; 
but  also  to  the  annals  of  the  Evangelical  Revival,  which  may 
well  be  called  the  Second  Reformation ;  and  to  the  history 
of  English-speaking  peoples,  whom  the  Foreign  Missions 
begun  by  Carey  have  made  the  rulers  and  civilisers  of  the 
non-Christian  world. 

The  Life  of  the  Rev.  Krishna  Mohun  Banerjea,  D.L., 
C.I.E.,  Dr.  Duff's  second  convert,  and  from  his  baptism  in 
1832  to  his  death  in  1885  the  leader  of  the  Native  Christians 
of  India,  is  being  prepared  by  one  of  his  grandsons.  To 
complete  the  story  so  far  as  India  is  concerned,  we  still 
desiderate  such  a  record  of  progress  in  South  India  from 
Ziegenbalg  and  Schwartz  to  Anderson  and  Miller  as  Bishop 
Caldwell  could  give  us ;  and  a  biography  of  Charles  Grant,  for 
which,  I  believe,  there  are  abundant  materials. 

SERAMPORE  HOUSE,  MERCHISTON, 

EDINBURGH,  24th  Augiist  1885. 


CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEE    I. 

PAGE 

CAREY'S  COLLEGE  1 


CHAPTEE  II. 

THE  BIRTH  OF  ENGLAND'S  FOREIGN  MISSIONS       .         .         .27 

CHAPTEE    III. 

INDIA  AS  CAREY  FOUND  IT          .         .         .         .         .         .55 

CHAPTEE   IV. 

Six    YEARS    IN    NORTH    BENGAL — MISSIONARY    AND    INDIGO 

PLANTER     .........       79 

CHAPTEE    V. 

THE  NEW  CRUSADE — SERAMPORE  AND  THE  BROTHERHOOD     .      Ill 

CHAPTEE    VI. 

THE  FIRST  NATIVE  CONVERTS  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS         .     132 

CHAPTEE    VII. 

CALCUTTA  AND  THE  MISSION  CENTRES  FROM  DELHI  TO  AMBOYNA  .     157 


xii  CONTENTS. 


CHAPTEE    VIII. 

PAGE 

CAREY'S  FAMILY  AND  FRIENDS  .     178 


CHAPTEE    IX. 

PROFESSOR  OF  SANSKRIT,  BENGALI,  AND  MARATHI         .  207 

CHAPTEE    X. 

THE  WICLIF  OF  THE  EAST — BIBLE  TRANSLATION  .         .         .235 

CHAPTEE    XL 

WHAT  CAREY  DID  FOR  LITERATURE  AND  FOR  HUMANITY        .     272 

CHAPTEE   XII. 

WHAT    CAREY   DID   FOR   SCIENCE — FOUNDER   OF   THE  AGRI- 
CULTURAL AND  HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETY  OF  INDIA         .     294 

CHAPTEE    XIII. 

CAREY'S  IMMEDIATE  INFLUENCE  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN  AND  AMERICA     330 

CHAPTEE    XIV. 

CAREY  AS  AN  EDUCATOR — THE  FIRST  CHRISTIAN  COLLEGE  IN 

THE  EAST    .........     377 

CHAPTEE    XV. 

CAREY'S  LAST  DAYS    .  .411 


CONTENTS.  xm 


APPENDIX. 

PAGE 

1.   THE    BOND    OF    THE     MISSIONARY    BROTHERHOOD    OF 

SERAMPORE      .         .          .          .          .         .          .          .441 

II.  LATEST  JUSTIFICATION  OF  CAREY'S  PIONEER  WORK         .     451 
III.  THE  ANGLO -ORIENTAL  AND  THE  ANGLO -VERNACULAR  v. 
THE  EXCLUSIVELY  ENGLISH  SYSTEM  OF  EDUCATION  IN 
INDIA      .........      452 

INDEX  457 


ILLUSTRATIONS. 

WILLIAM  CAREY  AT  FIFTY  ....        Frontispiece. 

PAGE 

WILLIAM  CAREY'S  BIRTHPLACE         ....  4 

CAREY'S  "  COLLEGE,"  HACKLETON    .  .  .  .22 

CAREY'S  COTTAGE  AND  SCHOOL,  PIDDINGTON  .  .         24 

BIRTHPLACE  OF  ENGLAND'S  FOREIGN  MISSIONS,  KETTERING  .         53 
FIRST  MISSION  HOUSE  IN  NORTH  INDIA,  DINAJPOOR  .         99 

DANISH  LUTHERAN  (NOW  ANGLICAN)  CHURCH,  SERAMPORE   .        123 
PLAN  OF  SERAMPORE  ON  THE  HOOGLI          .  .  .125 

THE  FIRST  BRAHMAN  WHO  PREACHED  CHRIST          .  .140 

CAREY'S  CHRISTIAN  VILLAGE — BAPTISM  IN  THE  TANK          .       141 
CHRISTIAN  VILLAGERS,  SERAMPORE  .  .  .  .145 

KRISHNA  CHANDRA  PAL,  THE  FIRST  CONVERT          .  .       160 

HENRY  MARTYN'S  PAGODA,  ALDEEN  .  .  .191 

SHEEV  TEMPLE,  SERAMPORE  .  .  .  .196 

THE  SERAMPORE  COLLEGE  .....       384 
NATIVE  DIVINITY  STUDENTS,  SERAMPORE  COLLEGE    .  .       397 

CAREY'S  OFFICIAL  RESIDENCE  AND  BACK  OF  THE  COLLEGE  .       420 
CAREY'S  TOMB  433 


As  time  passes  it  appears  that  we  are  in  the  hands  of  a  Providence  which 
is  greater  than  all  statesmanship,  that  this  fabric  so  blindly  piled  up 
has  a  chance  of  becoming  a  part  of  the  permanent  edifice  of  civilisation, 
and  that  the  Indian  achievement  of  England,  as  it  is  the  strongest, 
may  after  all  turn  out  to  be  the  greatest  of  all  her  achievements.  "- 
PROFESSOR  J.  R.  SEELEY. 


LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY,  D.D. 


CHAPTER  I. 

CAREY'S   COLLEGE. 
1761-1785. 

The  Heart  of  England — The  Weaver  Carey  who  became  a  Peer,  and  the 
weaver  who  was  father  of  William  Carey — Early  training  in  Paulers- 
pury — Impressions  made  by  him  on  his  sister — On  his  companions  and 
the  villagers — His  experience  as  son  of  the  parish  clerk — Apprenticed 
to  a  shoemaker  of  Hackleton  —  Poverty — Famous  shoemakers  from 
Annianus  and  Crispin  to  Hans  Sachs  and  Whittier — From  Pharisaism 
to  Christ — The  last  shall  be  first — The  dissenting  preacher  in  the 
parish  clerk's  home — He  studies  Latin,  Greek  and  Hebrew,  Dutch  and 
French — The  cobbler's  shed  is  Carey's  college. 

WILLIAM  CAREY,  the  first  of  her  own  children  of  the  Eefor- 
mation  whom  England  sent  forth  as  a  missionary,  who 
became  the  most  extensive  translator  of  the  Bible  and 
civiliser  of  India,  was  the  son  of  a  weaver,  and  was  himself 
a  village  shoemaker  till  he  was  twenty-eight  years  of  age. 
He  was  born  on  the  17th  August  1761,  in  the  very  midland 
of  England,  in  the  heart  of  the  district  which  had  produced 
Shakspere,  had  fostered  Wiclif  and  Hooker,  had  bred  Fox  and 
Bunyan,  had  for  a  time  been  the  scene  of  the  lesser  lights  of 
John  Mason  and  Doddridge,  of  John  Newton  and  Thomas 
Scott.  William  Cowper,  the  poet  of  missions,  made  the 
land  his  chosen  home,  writing  Hope  and  The  Task  in  Olney 
while  the  shoemaker  was  studying  theology  under  Sutcliff 
on  the  opposite  side  of  the  market-place.  Thomas  Clarkson, 

B 


OF  WITjLIAM  CAREY.  1761 


born  a  year  before  Carey,  was  beginning  his  assaults  on  the 
slave-trade  by  translating  into  English  his  Latin  prize  poem 
on  the  day-star  of  African  liberty  when  the  shoemaker,  whom 
no  university  knew,  was  writing  his  Enquiry  into  the  Obli- 
gations of  Christians  to  use  means  for  the  Conversion  of  the 
Heathen. 

William  Carey  bore  a  name  which  had  slowly  fallen  into 
forgetfulness  after  services  to  the  Stewarts,  with  whose  cause 
it  had  been  identified.  Professor  Stephens,  of  Copenhagen, 
traces  it  to  the  Scando-Anglian  Car,  C^ER  or  CARE,  which 
became  a  place-name  as  CAR-EY.  Among  scores  of  neigh- 
bours called  William,  William  of  Car-ey  would  soon  sink 
into  Carey,  and  this  would  again  become  the  family  name. 
In  Denmark  the  name  Caroe  is  common.  The  oldest  English 
instance  is  the  Cariet  who  coined  money  in  London  for 
^Ethelred  II.  in  1016.  Certainly  the  name,  through  its  forms 
of  Crew,  Carew,  Carey,  and  Cary,  still  prevails  on  the  Irish 
coast  —  from  which  depression  of  trade  drove  the  family  first 
to  Yorkshire,  then  to  the  Northamptonshire  village  of  Yelver- 
toft,  and  finally  to  Paulerspury,  farther  south  —  as  well  as 
over  the  whole  Danegelt  from  Lincolnshire  to  Devonshire. 
If  thus  there  was  Norse  blood  in  William  Carey  it  came  out 
in  his  persistent  missionary  daring,  and  it  is  pleasant  even  to 
speculate  on  the  possibility  of  such  an  origin  in  one  who  was 
all  his  Indian  life  indebted  to  Denmark  for  the  protection 
which  made  his  career  possible. 

The  Careys  who  became  famous  in  English  history  sprang 
from  Devon.  For  two  and  a  half  centuries,  from  the  second 
Kichard  to  the  second  Charles,  they  gave  statesmen  and 
soldiers,  scholars  and  bishops,  to  the  service  of  their  country. 
Henry  Carey,  first  cousin  of  Queen  Elizabeth,  was  the  com- 
mon ancestor  of  two  ennobled  houses  long  since  extinct  — 
the  Earls  of  Dover  and  the  Earls  of  Monmouth.  A  third 
peerage  won  by  the  Careys  has  been  made  historic  by  the 


1761  WEAVERS  AND  PEERS.  3 

patriotic  counsels  and  self- sacrificing  fate  of  Viscount  Falk- 
land, whose  present  representative  was  Governor  of  Bombay 
for  a  time.  Two  of  the  heroic  Falkland's  descendants,  aged 
ladies,  addressed  a  pathetic  letter  to  Parliament  about  the 
time  that  the  great  missionary  died,  praying  that  they  might 
not  be  doomed  to  starvation  by  being  deprived  of  a  Crown 
pension  of  £80  a  year.  The  older  branch  of  the  Careys  also 
had  fallen  on  evil  times,  and  it  became  extinct  while  the 
future  missionary  was  yet  four  years  old.  The  seventh  lord 
was  a  weaver  when  he  succeeded  to  the  title,  and  he  died 
childless.  The  eighth  was  a  Dutchman  who  had  to  be 
naturalised,  and  he  was  the  last.  The  Careys  fell  lower  still. 
One  of  them  bore  to  the  brilliant  and  reckless  Marquis  of 
Halifax,  Henry  Carey  who  wrote  one  of  the  few  English 
ballads  that  live.  Another,  the  poet's  granddaughter,  was  the 
mother  of  Edmund  Kean,  and  he  at  first  was  known  by  her 
name  on  the  stage. 

At  the  time  when  the  weaver  became  the  lord  the  grand- 
father of  the  missionary  was  parish  clerk  and  first  school- 
master of  the  village  of  Paulerspury,  eleven  miles  south  of 
Northampton,  and  near  the  ancient  posting  town  of  Tow- 
cester,  on  the  old  Roman  road  from  London  to  Chester.  The 
free  school  was  at  the  east  or  "  church  end  "  of  the  village, 
which,  after  crossing  the  old  Watling  Street,  straggles  for  a 
mile  over  a  sluggish  burn  to  the  "  Pury  end."  One  son, 
Thomas,  had  enlisted  and  was  in  Canada.  Edmund  Carey,  the 
second,  set  up  the  loom  on  which  he  wove  the  woollen  cloth 
known  as  "tammy,"  in  a  two-storied  cottage.  There  his 
eldest  child,  WILLIAM,  was  born,  and  lived  for  six  years  till 
his  father  was  appointed  schoolmaster,  when  the  family 
removed  to  the  free  schoolhouse.  The  cottage  was  demol- 
ished in  1854  by  one  Richard  Linnell,  who  placed  on  the  still 
meaner  structure  now  occupying  the  site  the  memorial  slab 
that  guides  many  visitors  to  the  spot.  The  school-house,  in 


4  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1761 

which  William  Carey  spent  the  eight  most  important  years 
of  his  childhood  till  he  was  fourteen,  and  the  school  have 
more  recently  made  way  for  the  present  pretty  buildings. 

The  village  surroundings  and  the  county  scenery  coloured 
the  whole  of  the  boy's  after  life,  and  did  much  to  make  him 
the  first  agricultural  improver  and  naturalist  of  Bengal, 
which  he  became.  The  lordship  of  Pirie,  as  it  was  called  by 
Gitda,  its  Saxon  owner,  was  given  by  the  Conqueror,  with 
much  else,  to  his  natural  son,  William  Peverel,  as  we  see 
from  the  Domesday  survey.  His  descendants  passed  it  on 


WILLIAM  CAREY'S  BIRTHPLACE. 

to  Robert  de  Paveli,  whence  its  present  name,  but  in  Carey's 
time  it  was  held  by  the  second  Earl  of  Bathurst,  who  was 
Lord  Chancellor.  Up  to  the  very  schoolhouse  came  the 
royal  forest  of  Whittlebury,  its  walks  leading  north  to  the 
woods  of  Salcey,  of  Yardley  Chase  and  Eockingham,  from  the 
beeches  which  give  Buckingham  its  name.  Carey  must  have 
often  sat  under  the  Queen's  Oak,  still  venerable  in  its  riven 
form,  where  Edward  IV.,  when  hunting,  first  saw  Elizabeth, 
unhappy  mother  of  the  two  princes  murdered  in  the  Tower. 
The  silent  robbery  of  the  people's  rights  called  "  inclosures  " 
has  done  much,  before  and  since  Carey's  time,  to  sweep  away 
or  shut  up  the  woodlands.  The  country  may  be  less  beautiful, 
while  the  population  has  grown  so  that  Paulerspury  has  now 


1761  NORTHAMPTONSHIRE  AND  ITS  SHOEMAKERS.  5 

nearly  double  the  eight  hundred  inhabitants  of  a  century  ago. 
But  its  oolitic  hills,  gently  swelling  to  above  "ZOO  feet,  and 
the  valleys  of  the  many  rivers  which  flow  from  this  central 
watershed,  west  and  east,  are  covered  with  fat  vegetation 
almost  equally  divided  between  grass  and  corn  and  green 
crops.  The  many  large  estates  are  rich  in  gardens  and 
orchards.  The  farmers,  chiefly  on  small  holdings,  are  famous 
for  their  shorthorns  and  Leicester  sheep.  Except  for  the 
rapidly  developing  production  of  iron  from  the  Lias,  begun 
by  the  Eomans,  there  is  but  one  manufacture,  that  of  shoes. 
It  is  now  centred  by  modern  machinery  and  labour  arrange- 
ments in  Northampton  itself,  which  has  24,000  shoemakers, 
and  in  the  other  towns,  but  a  century  ago  the  craft  was 
common  to  every  hamlet.  For  botany  and  agriculture,  how- 
ever, Northamptonshire  was  the  finest  county  in  England, 
and  young  Carey  had  trodden  many  a  mile  of  it,  as  boy  and 
man,  before  he  left  home  for  ever  for  Bengal. 

Two  unfinished  autobiographical  sketches,  written  from 
India  at  the  request  of  Fuller  and  of  Eyland,  and  letters  of 
his  youngest  sister  Mary,  his  favourite  "  Polly  "  who  survived 
him,  have  preserved  for  us  in  still  vivid  characters  the 
details  of  the  early  training  of  William  Carey.  He  was  the 
eldest  of  five  children.  He  was  the  special  care  of  their  grand- 
mother, a  woman  of  a  delicate  nature  and  devout  habits,  who 
closed  her  sad  widowhood  in  the  weaver-son's  cottage.  En- 
compassed by  such  a  living  influence  the  grandson  spent  his 
first  six  years.  Already  the  child  unconsciously  showed  the 
eager  thirst  for  knowledge,  and  perseverance  in  attaining  his 
object,  which  made  him  chiefly  what  he  became.  His  mother 
would  often  be  awoke  in  the  night  by  the  pleasant  lisping  of 
a  voice  "  casting  accompts ;  so  intent  was  he  from  childhood 
in  the  pursuit  of  knowledge.  Whatever  he  began  he  finished; 
difficulties  never  seemed  to  discourage  his  mind."  On 
removal  to  the  ancestral  schoolhouse  the  boy  had  a  room  to 


6  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1775 

himself.  His  sister  describes  it  as  full  of  insects  stuck  in 
every  corner  that  he  might  observe  their  progress.  His  many 
birds  he  entrusted  to  her  care  when  he  was  from  home.  In 
this  picture  we  see  the  exact  foreshadowing  of  the  man. 
"  Though  I  often  used  to  kill  his  birds  by  kindness,  yet  when 
he  saw  my  grief  for  it  he  always  indulged  me  with  the  plea- 
sure of  serving  them  again;  and  often  took  me  over  the 
dirtiest  roads  to  get  at  a  plant  or  an  insect.  He  never  walked 
out,  I  think,  when  quite  a  boy,  without  observation  on  the 
hedges  as  he  passed ;  and  when  he  took  up  a  plant  of  any 
kind  he  always  observed  it  with  care.  Though  I  was  but  a 
child  I  well  remember  his  pursuits.  He  always  seemed  in 
earnest  in  his  recreations  as  well  as  in  school.  He  was 
generally  one  of  the  most  active  in  all  the  amusements  and 
recreations  that  boys  in  general  pursue.  He  was  always  beloved 
by  the  boys  about  his  own  age."  To  climb  the  highest  tree 
was  the  object  of  their  ambition  ;  he  fell  often  in  the  attempt, 
but  did  not  rest  till  he  had  the  nest  he  coveted.  His  uncle 
Peter  was  a  gardener  in  the  same  village,  and  gave  him  his 
first  lessons  in  botany  and  horticulture.  He  soon  became 
responsible  for  his  father's  official  garden,  till  it  was  the  best 
kept  in  the  neighbourhood.  Wherever  after  that  he  lived, 
as  boy  or  man,  poor  or  in  comfort,  "William  Carey  made  and 
perfected  his  garden,  and  always  for  others,  until  he  created 
at  Serampore  the  botanical  park  which  for  more  than  half  a 
century  was  unique  in  Southern  Asia. 

We  have  in  a  letter  from  the  Manse,  Paulerspury,  a  tradi- 
tion of  the  impression  made  on  the  dull  rustics  by  the  dawn- 
ing genius  and  loftier  pursuits  and  character  of  the  youth 
whom  they  but  dimly  comprehended.  When  fourteen  or 
fifteen  years  of  age  he  was  most  awkward  and  useless  at  any 
agricultural  work.  He  had  no  desire  to  join  with  other  boys 
in  play  and  games.  He  went  amongst  them  under  the  nick- 
name of  Columbus,  and  they  would  say,  "  Well,  if  you  won't 


1775         NATURALIST  AND  LOVER  OF  BOOKS.  7 

play,  preach  us  a  sermon,"  which  he  would  do.  Mounting 
on  an  old  dwarf  witch-elm  about  7  feet  high  (standing  till 
recently),  where  several  could  sit,  he  would  hold  forth.  This 
seems  to  have  been  a  resort  of  his  for  reading,  his  favourite 
occupation.  The  parents  said  he  seemed  to  be  always  awake 
at  whatever  time  of  the  night  they  might  speak  to  him.  The 
same  authority  tells  how,  when  suffering  toothache,  he 
allowed  his  companions  to  drag  the  tooth  from  his  head  with 
a  violent  jerk,  by  tying  around  it  a  string  attached  to  a  wheel 
used  to  grind  malt,  to  which  they  gave  a  sharp  turn. 

The  boy's  own  peculiar  room  was  a  little  library  as 
well  as  a  museum  of  natural  history.  He  possessed  a  few 
books,  which  indeed  were  many  for  those  days,  but  he 
borrowed  more  from  the  whole  country-side.  Eecalling  the 
eight  years  of  his  intellectual  apprenticeship  till  he  was  four- 
teen, from  the  serene  height  of  his  missionary  standard,  he 
wrote  long  after : — "  I  chose  to  read  books  of  science,  history, 
voyages,  etc.,  more  than  any  others.  Novels  and  plays  always 
disgusted  me,  and  I  avoided  them  as  much  as  I  did  books  of 
religion,  and  perhaps  from  the  same  motive.  I  was  better 
pleased  with  romances,  and  this  circumstance  made  me  read 
the  Pilgrim's  Progress  with  eagerness,  though  to  no  purpose." 
The  new  era,  of  which  he  was  to  be  the  aggressive  spiritual 
representative  from  Christendom,  had  not  dawned.  Walter 
Scott  was  ten  years  his  junior.  Captain  Cook  had  not  dis- 
covered the  Sandwich  Islands,  and  was  only  returning  from 
the  second  of  his  three  voyages  while  Carey  was  still  at 
school.  The  church  services  and  the  watchfulness  of  his 
father  supplied  the  directly  moral  training  which  his  grand- 
mother had  begun. 

The  Paulerspury  living  of  St.  James  is  a  valuable  rectory 
in  the  gift  of  New  College,  Oxford.  Originally  built  in  Early 
English,  and  rebuilt  in  1844,  the  church  must  have  pre- 
sented a  still  more  venerable  appearance  a  century  ago  than 


8  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1777 

it  does  now,  with  its  noble  tower  in  the  Perpendicular,  and 
chancel  in  the  Decorated  style,  dominating  all  the  county 
from  its  position  on  the  ridge  of  the  Watling  Street.  Then, 
as  still,  effigies  of  a  Paveli  and  his  wife,  and  of  Sir  Arthur 
Throckmorton  and  his  wife  recumbent  head  to  head,  covered  a 
large  altar-tomb  in  the  chancel,  and  with  the  Bathurst  and  other 
monuments  called  forth  first  the  fear  and  then  the  pride  of  the 
parish-clerk's  eldest  son.  In  those  simpler  and  possibly  not 
less  really  reverent  days  the  clerk  had  just  below  the  pulpit 
the  desk  from  which  his  sonorous  "  Amen  "  sounded  forth, 
while  his  family  occupied  a  low  gallery  rising  from  the  same 
level  up  behind  the  pulpit.  There  the  boys  of  the  free  school 
also  could  be  under  the  master's  eye,  and  with  instruments  of 
music  like  those  of  King  David,  but  now  banished  from  even 
village  churches,  would  accompany  him  in  the  doggerel  strains 
of  Sternhold  and  Hopkins  immortalised  by  Cowper.  To  the 
far  right  the  boys  could  see  and  long  for  the  ropes  under 
the  tower  in  which  the  bell-ringers  of  his  day,  as  of  Bunyan's 
not  long  before,  delighted.  The  preaching  of  the  time  did 
nothing  more  for  young  Carey  than  for  the  rest  of  England  and 
Scotland,  whom  the  parish  church  had  not  driven  into  dissent 
or  secession.  But  he  could  not  help  knowing  the  Prayer- 
Book,  and  especially  its  psalms  and  lessons,  and  he  was  duly 
confirmed.  The  family  training,  too,  was  exceptionally 
scriptural  and  thorough,  though  not  evangelical.  "  I  had 
many  stirrings  of  mind  occasioned  by  being  often  obliged  to 
read  books  of  a  religious  character ;  and,  having  been  accus- 
tomed from  my  infancy  to  read  the  Scriptures,  I  had  a  con- 
siderable acquaintance  therewith,  especially  with  the  historical 
parts."  So  he  wrote  long  after.  The  books  were  such  as 
the  sermons  of  Jeremy  Taylor.  The  first  result  of  all  this,  in 
family,  and  school,  and  church,  was  to  make  him  despise  dis- 
senters. But,  undoubtedly,  this  eldest  son  of  the  schoolmaster 
and  the  clerk  of  the  parish  had  at  fourteen  received  an  educa- 


1777  A  SHOEMAKER'S  APPRENTICE.  9 

tion  from  parents,  nature,  and  books  which,  with  his  habits 
of  observation,  love  of  reading,  and  industrious  perseverance, 
made  him  better  instructed  than  most  boys  of  fourteen  far 
above  the  peasant  class  to  which  he  belonged. 

Buried  in  this  obscure  little  village  in  the  heart  of  Eng- 
land, in  the  dullest  period  of  the  dullest  of  all  centuries,  the 
boy  had  no  better  prospect  before  him  than  that  of  a  weaver 
or  labourer,  or  possibly  a  schoolmaster  like  one  of  his  uncles 
in  the  neighbouring  town  of  Towcester.  Paulerspury  could 
indeed  boast  of  one  son,  Edward  Bernard,  D.D.,  who,  two 
centuries  before,  had  made  for  himself  a  name  in  Oxford, 
where  he  was  Savilian  Professor  of  Astronomy.  But  Carey 
was  not  a  Scotsman,  and  therefore  the  university  was  not  for 
such  as  he.  Like  his  schoolfellows  he  seemed  born  to  the 
English  labourer's  fate  of  five  shillings  a  week,  and  the  poor- 
house  in  sickness  and  old  age.  From  this,  in  the  first  instance, 
he  was  saved  by  a  disease  which  affected  his  face  and  hands 
most  painfully  whenever  he  was  long  exposed  to  the  sun. 
For  several  years  he  had  failed  to  find  relief.  His  attempts 
at  work  in  the  field  were  for  two  years  followed  by  distress- 
ing agony  at  night.  He  was  now  sixteen,  and  his  father 
sought  out  a  good  man  who  would  receive  him  as  apprentice 
to  the  shoemaking  trade.  The  man  was  not  difficult  to  find, 
in  the  hamlet  of  Hackleton,  nine  miles  off,  in  the  person  of 
one  Clarke  Nichols.  The  lad  afterwards  described  him  as 
"  a  strict  churchman  and,  what  I  thought,  a  very  moral  man. 
It  is  true  he  sometimes  drank  rather  too  freely,  and  generally 
employed  me  in  carrying  out  goods  on  the  Lord's  Day  morn- 
ing ;  but  he  was  an  inveterate  enemy  to  lying,  a  vice  to 
which  I  was  awfully  addicted."  The  senior  apprentice  was 
a  dissenter,  and  the  master  and  his  boys  gave  much  of  their 
talk  over  their  work  to  disputes  upon  religious  subjects. 
Carey  "  had  always  looked  upon  dissenters  with  contempt. 
I  had,  moreover,  a  share  of  pride  sufficient  for  a  thousand 


10  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.        •  1777 

times  my  knowledge  ;  I  therefore  always  scorned  to  have  the 
worst  in  an  argument,  and  the  last  word  was  assuredly  mine. 
I  also  made  up  in  positive  assertion  what  was  wanting  in 
argument,  and  generally  came  off  with  triumph.  But  I  was 
often  convinced  afterwards  that  although  I  had  the  last  word 
my  antagonist  had  the  better  of  the  argument,  and  on  that 
account  felt  a  growing  uneasiness  and  stings  of  conscience 
gradually  increasing."  The  dissenting  apprentice  was  soon 
to  be  the  first  to  lead  him  to  Christ. 

William  Carey  was  a  shoemaker  during  the  twelve  years 
of  his  life  from  sixteen  to  twenty-eight,  till  he  went  to  Lei- 
cester. Poverty,  which  the  grace  of  God  used  to  make  him 
a  preacher  also  from  his  eighteenth  year,  compelled  him  to 
work  with  his  hands  in  leather  all  the  week,  and  to  tramp 
many  a  weary  mile  to  Northampton  and  Kettering  carrying 
the  product  of  his  labour.  At  one  time,  when  minister  of 
Moulton,  he  kept  a  school  by  day,  made  or  cobbled  shoes  by 
night,  and  preached  on  Sunday.  So  Paul  had  made  tents  of 
his  native  Cilician  goat-skin  in  the  days  when  infant  Chris- 
tianity was  chased  from  city  to  city,  and  the  cross  was  a 
reproach  only  less  bitter,  however,  than  evangelical  dissent 
in  Christian  England  in  the  eighteenth  century.  The  pro- 
vidence which  made  and  kept  young  Carey  so  long  a  shoe- 
maker, put  him  in  the  very  position  in  which  he  could  most 
fruitfully  receive  and  nurse  the  sacred  fire  that  made  him  the 
first  English  missionary  and  the  most  learned  scholar  and 
Bible  translator  of  his  day  in  the  East.  The  same  providence 
thus  linked  him  to  the  earliest  Latin  missionaries  of  Alex- 
andria, of  Asia  Minor,  and  of  Gaul,  who  were  shoemakers, 
and  to  a  succession  of  scholars  and  divines,  poets  and  critics, 
reformers  and  philanthropists,  who  have  used  the  shoemaker's 
life  to  become  illustrious.  St.  Mark  chose  for  his  successor,  as 
first  bishop  of  Alexandria,  that  Annianus  whom  he  had  been 
the  means  of  converting  to  Christ  when  he  found  him  at  the 


1777         SHOEMAKER  MISSIONARIES  FROM  CRISPIN  TO  FOX.  11 

cobbler's  stall.  The  Talmud  commemorates  the  courage  and 
the  wisdom  of  "  Eabbi  Jochanan,  the  shoemaker,"  whose 
learning  soon  after  found  a  parallel  in  Carey's.  Like  Anni- 
anus,  "  a  poor  shoemaker  named  Alexander,  despised  in  the 
world  but  great  in  the  sight  of  God,  who  did  honour  to  so 
exalted  a  station  in  the  Church,"  became  famous  as  bishop  of 
Comana  in  Cappadocia,  as  saint,  preacher,  and  missionary- 
martyr.  Soon  after  there  perished  in  the  persecutions  of 
Diocletian,  at  Soissons,  the  two  missionary  brothers  whose 
name  of  Crispin  has  ever  since  been  gloried  in  by  the  trade, 
which  they  chose  at  once  as  their  only  means  of  livelihood 
and  of  helping  their  poor  converts.  The  Hackleton  apprentice 
was  still  a  child  when  the  great  Goethe  was  again  adding  to 
the  then  artificial  literature  of  his  country  his  own  true 
predecessor,  Hans  Sachs,  the  shoemaker  of  Nuremberg,  the 
friend  of  Luther,  the  meistersinger  of  the  Eeformation.  And 
it  was  another  German  shoemaker,  Boehme,  whose  exalted 
theosophy  as  expounded  by  William  Law  became  one  link  in 
the  chain  that  drew  Carey  to  Christ,  as  it  influenced  Wesley 
and  Whitefield,  Samuel  Johnson  and  Coleridge.  George  Fox 
was  only  nineteen  when,  after  eight  years'  service  with  a 
shoemaker  in  Dray  ton,  Leicestershire,  not  far  from  Carey's 
county,  he  heard  the  voice  from  heaven  which  sent  him  forth 
in  1643  to  preach  all  over  the  Midlands  righteousness, 
temperance,  and  judgment  to  come,  till  Cromwell  sought 
converse  with  him,  and  the  Friends  became  a  power  among 
men. 

Carlyle  has,  in  characteristic  style,  seized  on  the  true 
meaning  that  was  in  the  man  when  he  made  to  himself  a 
suit  of  leather  and  became  the  modern  hero  of  Sartor  Eemrtus} 
The  words  fit  William  Carey's  case  even  better  than  that  of 
George  Fox  : — "  Sitting  in  his  stall,  working  on  tanned  hides, 
amid  pincers,  paste-horns,  rosin,  swine-bristles,  and  a  name- 

1  Book  iii.,  cap.  i. 


12  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1779 

less  flood  of  rubbish,  this  youth  had  nevertheless  a  Living 
Spirit  belonging  to  him  ;  also  an  antique  Inspired  Volume, 
through  which,  as  through  a  window,  it  could  look  upwards 
and  discern  its  celestial  Home."  That  "  shoe-shop,  had  men 
known  it,  was  a  holier  place  than  any  Vatican  or  Loretto- 
shrine.  .  .  .  Stitch  away,  every  prick  of  that  little  instru- 
ment is  pricking  into  the  heart  of  slavery."  Thirty-six  years 
after  Fox  had  begun  to  wear  his  leathern  doublet  he  directed 
all  Friends  everywhere  that  had  Indians  or  blacks  to  preach 
the  Gospel  to  them — to  tell  them  how  God  would  give  Christ 
a  covenant,  a  light  to  the  Gentiles,  the  heathen,  for  the  Gospel 
was  to  be  preached  to  every  creature  under  heaven.1 

But  it  would  be  too  long  to  tell  the  list  of  workers  in  what 
has  been  called  the  gentle  craft,  whom  the  cobbler's  stall,  with 
its  peculiar  opportunities  for  rhythmic  meditation,  hard  think- 
ing, and  oft  harder  debating,  has  prepared  for  the  honours  of 
literature  and  scholarship,  of  philanthropy  and  reform.  To 
mention  only  Carey's  contemporaries,  the  career  of  these  men 
ran  parallel  at  home  with  his  abroad — Thomas  Shillitoe,  who 
stood  before  magistrates,  bishops,  and  such  sovereigns  as 
George  III.  and  IV.  and  the  Czar  Alexander  I.  in  the  interests 
of  social  reform ;  and  John  Pounds,  the  picture  of  whom  as 
the  founder  of  ragged  schools  led  Thomas  Guthrie,  when  he 
stumbled  on  it  in  an  inn  in  Anstruther,  to  do  the  same 
Christlike  work  in  Scotland.  Coleridge,  who  when  at  Christ's 
Hospital  was  ambitious  to  be  a  shoemaker's  apprentice,  was 
right  when  he  declared  that  shoemakers  had  given  to  the 
world  a  larger  number  of  eminent  men  than  any  other  handi- 
craft. Whittier's  own  early  experience  in  Massachusetts 
fitted  him  to  be  the  poet-laureate  of  the  craft  which  for  some 
years  he  adorned.  His  Songs  of  Labour,  published  in  1850, 
contain  the  best  English  lines  on  shoemakers  since  Shakspere 
put  into  the  mouth  of  King  Henry  V.  the  address  on  the 

1  Book  of  Christian  Discipline  of  the  Religious  Society  of  Friends,  1883,  p.  64. 


1779  THE  LAW  HIS  TUTOR.  13 

eve  of  Agincourt,  which  begins  :  "  This  day  is  called  the  feast 
of  Crispin."  But  Whittier,  Quaker,  philanthropist,  and 
countryman  of  Judson  though  he  was,  might  have  found  a 
place  for  Carey  when  he  sang  so  well  of  others  : — 

"  Thy  songs,  Hans  Sachs,  are  living  yet, 

In  strong  and  hearty  German  ; 
And  Bloomfield's  lay  and  Gilford's  wit 
And  patriot  fame  of  Sherman  ; 

Still  from  his  book,  a  mystic  seer, 

The  soul  of  Behmen  teaches, 
And  England's  priestcraft  shakes  to  hear 

Of  Fox's  leathern  breeches." 

The  confessions  of  Carey,  made  in  the  spiritual  humility 
and  self-examination  of  his  later  life,  form  a  parallel  to  the 
Grace  Abounding  to  the  Chief  of  Sinners,  the  little  classic  of 
John  Bunyan  second  only  to  his  Pilgrim's  Progress.  The  young 
Pharisee,  who  entered  Hackleton  with  such  hate  in  his  heart  to 
dissenters  that  he  would  have  destroyed  their  meeting-place, 
who  practised  "lying,  swearing,  and  other  sins,"  gradually 
yielded  so  far  to  his  brother  apprentice's  importunity  as  to 
leave  these  off,  to  try  to  pray  sometimes  when  alone,  to  attend 
church  three  times  a  day,  and  to  patronise  the  dissenting 
prayer -meeting.  Like  the  zealot  who  thought  to  do  God 
service  by  keeping  the  whole  law,  Carey  lived  thus  for  a  time, 
"  not  doubting  but  this  would  produce  ease  of  mind  and  make 
me  acceptable  to  God."  What  revealed  him  to  himself 
was  an  incident  which  he  tells  in  language  recalling  at  once 
Augustine  and  one  of  the  subtlest  sketches  of  George  Eliot, 
in  which  the  latter  uses  her  half-knowledge  of  evangelical 
faith  to  stab  the  very  truth  that  delivered  Paul  and  Augus- 
tine, Bunyan  and  Carey,  from  the  antinomianism  of  the 
Pharisee  : — 

"  A  circumstance  which  I  always  reflect  on  with  a  mix- 
ture of  horror  and  gratitude  occurred  about  this  time,  which, 


14  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1779 

though  greatly  to  my  dishonour,  I  must  relate.  It  being 
customary  in  that  part  of  the  country  for  apprentices  to 
collect  Christmas  boxes  [donations]  from  the  tradesmen  with 
whom  their  masters  have  dealings,  I  was  permitted  to  collect 
these  little  sums.  When  I  applied  to  an  ironmonger,  he 
gave  me  the  choice  of  a  shilling  or  a  sixpence ;  I  of  course 
chose  the  shilling,  and  putting  it  in  my  pocket,  went  away. 
When  I  had  got  a  few  shillings  my  next  care  was  to  purchase 
some  little  articles  for  myself,  I  have  forgotten  what.  But 
then,  to  my  sorrow,  I  found  that  my  shilling  was  a  brass  one. 
I  paid  for  the  things  which  I  bought  by  using  a  shilling  of  my 
master's.  I  now  found  that  I  had  exceeded  my  stock  by  a 
few  pence.  I  expected  severe  reproaches  from  my  master,  and 
therefore  came  to  the  resolution  to  declare  strenuously  that 
the  bad  money  was  his.  I  well  remember  the  struggles  of 
mind  which  I  had  on  this  occasion,  and  that  I  made  this 
deliberate  sin  a  matter  of  prayer  to  God  as  I  passed  over  the 
fields  towards  home !  I  there  promised  that,  if  God  would 
but  get  me  clearly  over  this,  or,  in  other  words,  help  me 
through  with  the  theft,  I  would  certainly  for  the  future  leave 
off  all  evil  practices;  but  this  theft  and  consequent  lying 
appeared  to  me  so  necessary  that  they  could  not  be  dispensed 
with. 

"  A  gracious  God  did  not  get  me  safe  through.  My  master 
sent  the  other  apprentice  to  investigate  the  matter.  The 
ironmonger  acknowledged  the  giving  me  the  shilling,  and  I 
was  therefore  exposed  to  shame,  reproach,  and  inward  remorse, 
which  preyed  upon  my  mind  for  a  considerable  time.  I  at 
this  time  sought  the  Lord,  perhaps  much  more  earnestly  than 
ever,  but  with  shame  and  fear.  I  was  quite  ashamed  to  go 
out,  and  never,  till  I  was  assured  that  my  conduct  was  not 
spread  over  the  town,  did  I  attend  a  place  of  worship. 

"  I  trust  that,  under  these  circumstances,  I  was  led  to  see 
much  more  of  myself  than  I  had  ever  done  before,  and  to 


1779  FEOM  PHAEISAISM  TO  CHRIST.  15 

seek  for  mercy  with  greater  earnestness.  I  attended  prayer- 
meetings  only,  however,  till  February  10,  1779,  which  being 
appointed  a  day  of  fasting  and  prayer,  I  attended  worship  on 
that  day.  Mr.  Chater  [congregationalist  minister]  of  Olney 
preached,  but  from  what  text  I  have  forgotten.  He  insisted 
much  on  following  Christ  entirely,  and  enforced  his  exhorta- 
tion with  that  passage,  '  Let  us  therefore  go  out  unto  Him 
without  the  camp  bearing  His  reproach.'  Heb.  xiii.  13.  I 
think  I  had  a  desire  to  follow  Christ ;  but  one  idea  occurred 
to  my  mind  on  hearing  those  words  which  broke  me  off  from 
the  Church  of  England.  The  idea  was  certainly  very  crude, 
but  useful  in  bringing  me  from  attending  a  lifeless,  carnal 
ministry  to  one  more  evangelical.  I  concluded  that  the 
Church  of  England,  as  established  by  law,  was  the  camp  in 
which  all  were  protected  from  the  scandal  of  the  cross,  and 
that  I  ought  to  bear  the  reproach  of  Christ  among  the  dis- 
senters ;  and  accordingly  I  always  afterwards  attended  divine 
worship  among  them." 

At  eighteen  Carey  was  thus  emptied  of  self  and  there  was 
room  for  Christ.  In  a  neighbouring  village  he  consorted 
much  for  a  time  with  some  followers  of  William  Law,  whose 
Serious  Call  had  made  Samuel  Johnson  a  Christian  indeed, 
and  they  completed  the  negative  process.  "  I  felt  ruined  and 
helpless."  Then  to  his  spiritual  eyes,  purged  of  self,  there 
appeared  the  Crucified  One  ;  and  to  his  spiritual  intelligence 
there  was  given  the  Word  of  God.  The  change  was  that 
wrought  on  Paul  by  a  Living  Person.  It  converted  the  hypo^ 
critical  Pharisee  into  the  evangelical  preacher  ;  it  turned  the 
vicious  peasant  into  the  most  self-denying  saint ;  it  sent  the 
village  shoemaker  far  off  to  the  Hindoos. 

But  the  process  was  slow ;  it  had  been  so  even  in  Paul's 
case.  Carey  found  encouragement  in  intercourse  with  some 
old  Christians  in  Hackleton,  and  he  united  with  a  few  of 
them,  including  his  fellow-apprentice,  in  forming  a  congrega- 


16  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1781 

tional  church.  The  state  of  the  parish  may  be  imagined 
from  its  recent  history.  Hackleton  is  part  of  Piddington, 
and  the  squire  had  long  appropriated  the  living  of  £300  a 
year,  the  parsonage,  the  glebe,  and  all  tithes,  sending  his  house 
minister  "  at  times  "  to  do  duty.  A  Certificate  from  North- 
amptonshire, against  the  pluralities  and  other  such  scan- 
dals, published  in  1641,  declared  that  not  a  child  or  servant 
in  Hackleton  or  Piddington  could  say  the  Lord's  Prayer. 
Carey  sought  the  preaching  of  Doddridge's  successor  at  North- 
ampton, of  a  Baptist  minister  at  Eoad,  and  of  Scott  the  com- 
mentator, then  at  Ravenstone.  He  had  found  peace,  but 
was  theologically  "  inquisitive  and  unsatisfied."  Fortunately, 
like  Luther,  he  "was  obliged  to  draw  all  from  the  Bible 
alone."  These  were  not  days  nor  was  that  a  country  in  which 
catechisms  or  manuals  of  theology  could  help  him.  He  had 
been  driven  from  the  formalism  of  the  Church  which  had 
cast  out  the  Methodists,  but  was  itself  to  be  baptized  with 
the  same  spirit  at  a  later  day. 

When,  at  twenty  years  of  age,  Carey  was  slowly  piecing 
together  "  the  doctrines  in  the  "Word  of  God  "  into  something 
like  a  system  which  would  at  once  satisfy  his  own  spiritual 
and  intellectual  needs,  and  help  him  to  preach  to  others,  a 
little  volume  was  published,  of  which  he  wrote  : — "  I  do  not 
remember  ever  to  have  read  any  book  with  such  raptures."  It 
was  Help  to  Zion's  Travellers;  being  an  attempt  to  remove 
various  stumbling-Nocks  out  of  the  way,  relating  to  Doctrinal, 
Experimental,  and  Practical  Religion.  By  Robert  Hall.  The 
writer  was  the  father  of  the  greater  Robert  Hall,  a  venerable 
man,  who,  in  his  village  church  of  Arnsby,  near  Leicester, 
had  already  taught  Carey  how  to  preach.  The  book  had 
sprung  out  of  a  sermon  delivered  at  the  1779  meeting  of  the 
Northampton  ministers,  who  desired  that  it  should  be  printed. 
It  is  described  as  an  "  attempt  to  relieve  discouraged  Chris- 
tians "  in  a  day  of  gloominess  and  perplexity,  that  they  might 


1783  BAPTIZED  IN  THE  RIVER  NEN.  17 

devote  themselves  to  Christ  through  life  as  well  as  be  found 
in  Him  in  death.  Of  this  book  Carey  made  a  careful  synop- 
sis in  an  exquisitely  neat  hand  on  the  margin  of  each  page. 
The  worm-eaten  copy,  which  he  treasured  even  in  India,  is 
now  before  us,  as  one  of  his  later  colleagues  brought  it  from 
his  library  at  Serampore  and  deposited  it  in  Bristol  College. 

A  calvinist  of  the  broad  missionary  type  of  Paul,  Carey 
somewhat  suddenly,  according  to  his  own  account,  became  a 
Baptist.  "I  do  not  recollect  having  read  anything  on  the 
subject  till  I  applied  to  Mr.  Eyland,  senior,  to  baptize  me. 
He  lent  me  a  pamphlet,  and  turned  me  over  to  his  son,"  who 
thus  told  the  story  when  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  held 
its  first  public  meeting  in  London  : — "  October  5th,  1783  :  I 
baptized  in  the  river  Nen,  a  little  beyond  Dr.  Doddridge's 
meeting-house  at  Northampton,  a  poor  journeyman  shoemaker, 
little  thinking  that  before  nine  years  had  elapsed,  he  would 
prove  the  first  instrument  of  forming  a  society  for  sending 
missionaries  from  England  to  preach  the  gospel  to  the  heathen. 
Such,  however,  as  the  event  has  proved,  was  the  purpose  of 
the  Most  High,  who  selected  for  this  work  not  the  son  of  one 
of  our  most  learned  ministers,  nor  of  one  of  the  most  opulent 
of  our  dissenting  gentlemen,  but  the  son  of  a  parish  clerk." 

The  spot  may  still  be  visited  near  the  Scarlet  Well,  but 
the  railway  has  diverted  the  river  to  the  other  side.  The 
text  of  that  morning's  sermon  happened  to  be  the  Lord's 
saying,  "  Many  first  shall  be  last,  and  the  last  first,"  which 
asserts  His  absolute  sovereignty  in  choosing  and  in  rewarding 
His  missionaries,  and  introduces  the  parable  of  the  labourers 
in  the  vineyard.  As  Carey  wrote  in  the  fulness  of  his  fame, 
that  the  evangelical  doctrines  continued  to  be  the  choice  of 
his  heart,  so  he  never  wavered  in  his  preference  for  the 
Baptist  division  of  the  Christian  host.  But  from  the  first  he 
enjoyed  the  friendship  of  Scott  and  Newton,  and  of  his 
neighbour  Mr.  Robinson  of  St.  Mary's,  Leicester,  and  we  shall 

c 


18  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1783 

see  him  in  India  the  centre  of  the  Episcopal  and  Presbyterian 
chaplains  and  missionaries  from  Martyn  and  Wilson  to  Lacroix 
and  Duff.  His  controversial  spirit  died  with  the  youthful 
conceit  and  self-righteousness  of  which  it  is  so  often  the 
birth.  When  at  eighteen  he  learned  to  know  himself,  he 
became  for  ever  humble.  A  zeal  like  that  of  his  new-found 
Master  took  its  place,  and  all  the  energy  of  his  nature,  every 
moment  of  his  time  was  directed  to  setting  Him  forth. 

In  his  monthly  visits  to  the  father-house  at  Paulerspury 
the  new  man  in  him  could  not  be  hid.  His  sister  gives  us  a 
vivid  sketch  of  the  lad,  whose  going  over  to  the  dissenters 
was  resented  by  the  formal  and  stern  clerk,  and  whose 
evangelicalism  was  a  reproach  to  the  others. 

"  At  this  time  he  was  increasingly  thoughtful,  and  very 
jealous  for  the  Lord  ol  Hosts.  Like  Gideon,  he  seemed  for 
throwing  down  all  the  altars  of  Baal  in  one  night.  When  he 
came  home  we  used  to  wonder  at  the  change.  We  knew  that 
before  he  was  rather  inclined  to  persecute  the  faith  he  now 
seemed  to  wish  to  propagate.  At  first,  perhaps,  his  zeal 
exceeded  the  bounds  of  prudence ;  but  he  felt  the  importance 
of  things  we  were  strangers  to,  and  his  natural  disposition 
was  to  pursue  earnestly  what  he  undertook,  so  that  it  was 
not  to  be  wondered  at,  though  we  wondered  at  the  change. 
He  stood  alone  in  his  father's  house  for  some  years.  After  a 
time  he  asked  permission  to  have  family  prayer  when  he 
came  home  to  see  us,  a  favour  which  he  very  readily  had 
granted.  Often  have  I  felt  my  pride  rise  while  he  was 
engaged  in  prayer,  at  the  mention  of  those  words  in  Isaiah, 
'  that  all  our  righteousness  was  like  filthy  rags.'  I  did  not 
think  he  thought  his  so,  but  looked  on  me  and  the  family 
as  filthy,  not  himself  and  his  party.  Oh,  what  pride  is  in 
the  human  heart !  Nothing  but  my  love  to  my  brother  would 
have  kept  me  from  showing  my  resentment." 

"A  few  of  the  friends  of  religion  wished  our  brother  to  exer- 


1783  FIRST  ATTEMPTS  AS  A  PREACHER.  19 

else  his  gifts  by  speaking  to  a  few  friends  in  a  house  licensed 
at  Pury;  which  he  did  with  great  acceptance.  The  next 
morning  a  neighbour  of  ours,  a  very  pious  woman,  came  in  to 
congratulate  my  mother  on  the  occasion,  and  to  speak  of  the 
Lord's  goodness  in  calling  her  son,  and  my  brother,  two  such 
near  neighbours,  to  the  same  noble  calling.  My  mother 
replied,  '  What,  do  you  think  he  will  be  a  preacher  ? '  '  Yes ;' 
she  replied,  *  and  a  great  one,  I  think,  if  spared.'  From  that 
time  till  he  was  settled  at  Moulton  he  regularly  preached 
once  a  month  at  Pury  with  much  acceptance.  He  was  at 
that  time  in  his  twentieth  year,  and  married.  Our  parents 
were  always  friendly  to  religion ;  yet,  on  some  accounts,  we 
should  rather  have  wished  him  to  go  from  home  than  come 
home  to  preach.  I  do  not  think  I  ever  heard  him,  though 
my  younger  brother  and  iny  sister,  I  think,  generally  did. 
Our  father  much  wished  to  hear  his  son,  if  he  could  do  it 
unseen  by  him  or  any  one.  It  was  not  long  before  an  oppor- 
tunity offered,  and  he  embraced  it.  Though  he  was  a  man 
that  never  discovered  any  partiality  for  the  abilities  of  his 
children,  but  rather  sometimes  went  too  far  on  the  other 
hand  that  often  tended  a  little  to  discourage  them,  yet  we 
were  convinced  that  he  approved  of  what  he  heard  and  was 
highly  gratified  by  it." 

In  Hackleton  itself  his  expositions  of  Scripture  were  so 
valued  that  the  people,  he  writes,  "  being  ignorant,  sometimes 
applauded  to  my  great  injury."  When  in  poverty,  so  deep 
that  he  fasted  all  that  day  because  he  had  not  a  penny  to 
buy  a  dinner,  he  attended  a  meeting  of  the  Association  -of 
Baptist  Churches  at  Olney,  not  far  off.  There  he  first  met 
with  his  lifelong  colleague,  the  future  secretary  of  the  mis- 
sion, Andrew  Fuller,  the  young  minister  of  Soham,  who 
preached  on  being  men  in  understanding,  and  there  it  was 
arranged  that  he  should  minister  regularly  to  a  small  con- 
gregation at  Earls  Barton,  six  miles  from  Hackleton.  His 


20  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1784 

new-born  humility  made  him  unable  to  refuse  the  duty, 
which  he  discharged  for  more  than  three  years  while  filling 
his  cobbler's  stall  at  Hackleton  all  the  week,  and  frequently 
preaching  elsewhere  also.  The  secret  of  his  power  which 
drew  the  Northamptonshire  peasants  and  craftsmen  to  the 
feet  of  their  fellow  was  this,  that  he  studied  the  portion  of 
Scripture,  which  he  read  every  morning  at  his  private  devo- 
tions, in  Hebrew,  Greek,  and  Latin. 

This  was  Carey's  "college."  On  the  death  of  his  first 
master,  when  he  was  eighteen,  he  had  transferred  his  appren- 
ticeship to  a  Mr.  T.  Old.  Hackleton  stands  on  the  high  road 
from  Bedford  and  Olney  to  Northampton,  and  Thomas  Scott 
was  in  the  habit  of  resting  at  Mr.  Old's  on  his  not  infrequent 
walks  from  Olney,  where  he  had  succeeded  John  Newton. 
There  he  had  no  more  attentive  listener  or  intelligent  talker 
than  the  new  apprentice  or  journeyman,  who  had  been  more 
influenced  by  his  preaching  at  Eavenstone  than  by  that  of  any 
other  man.  Forty  years  after,  just  before  Scott's  death,  Dr. 
Eyland  gave  him  this  message  from  Carey  : — "  If  there  be 
anything  of  the  work  of  God  in  my  soul,  I  owe  much  of  it  to 
his  preaching  when  I  first  set  out  in  the  ways  of  the  Lord ;" 
to  which  this  reply  was  sent : — "  I  am  surprised  as  well  as 
gratified  at  your  message  from  Dr.  Carey.  He  heard  me 
preach  only  a  few  times,  and  that  as  far  as  I  know  in  my 
rather  irregular  excursions ;  though  I  often  conversed  and 
prayed  in  his  presence,  and  endeavoured  to  answer  his 
sensible  and  pertinent  inquiries  when  at  Hackleton.  But  to 
have  suggested  even  a  single  useful  hint  to  such  a  mind  as 
his  must  be  considered  as  a  high  privilege  and  matter  of 
gratitude."  Scott  had  previously  written  this  more  detailed 
account  of  his  intercourse  with  the  preaching  shoemaker, 
whom  he  first  saw  when  he  called  on  Mr.  Old  to  tell  him  of 
the  welfare  of  his  mother. 

"When  I  went  into  the  cottage  I  was  soon  recognised, 


1784  INFLUENCED  BY  SCOTT,  THE  COMMENTATOR  21 

and  Mr.  Old  came  in,  with  a  sensible-looking  lad  in  his  work- 
ing dress.  I  at  first  rather  wondered  to  see  him  enter,  as  he 
seemed  young,  being,  I  believe,  little  of  his  age.  We,  how- 
ever, entered  into  very  interesting  conversation,  especially 
respecting  my  parishioner,  their  relative,  and  the  excellent 
state  of  her  mind,  and  the  wonder  of  divine  grace  in  the 
conversion  of  one  who  had  been  so  very  many  years  con- 
sidered as  a  self-righteous  Pharisee.  I  believe  I  endeavoured 
to  show  that  the  term  was  often  improperly  applied  to  con- 
scientious but  ignorant  inquirers,  who  are  far  from  self- 
satisfied,  and  who,  when  the  Gospel  is  set  before  them,  find 
the  thing  which  they  had  long  been  groping  after.  However 
that  may  be,  I  observed  the  lad  who  entered  with  Mr.  Old 
rivetted  in  attention  with  every  mark  and  symptom  of  in- 
telligence and  feeling ;  saying  little,  but  modestly  asking  now 
and  then  an  appropriate  question.  I  took  occasion,  before  I 
went  forward,  to  inquire  after  him,  and  found  that,  young  as 
he  was,  he  was  a  member  of  the  church  at  Hackleton,  and 
looked  upon  as  a  very  consistent  and  promising  character.  I 
lived  at  Olney  till  the  end  of  1785 ;  and  in  the  course  of  that 
time,  I  called  perhaps  two  or  three  times  each  year  at  Mr. 
Old's,  and  was  each  time  more  and  more  struck  with  the 
youth's  conduct,  though  I  said  little  ;  but,  before  I  left  Olney, 
Mr.  Carey  was  out  of  his  engagement  with  Mr.  Old.  I  found 
also  that  he  was  sent  out  as  a  probationary  preacher,  and 
preached  at  Moulton  ;  and  I  said  to  all  to  whom  I  had  access, 
that  he  would,  if  I  could  judge,  prove  no  ordinary  man.  Yet, 
though  I  often  met  both  old  Mr.  Ryland,  the  present  Dr. 
Ryland,  Mr.  Hall,  Mr.  Fuller,  and  knew  almost  every  step 
taken  in  forming  your  Missionary  Society,  and  though  I 
sometimes  preached  very  near  Moulton,  it  so  happened  that 
I  do  not  recollect  having  met  with  him  any  more,  till  he 
came  to  my  house  in  London  with  Mr.  Thomas,  to  desire  me 
to  use  what  little  influence  I  had  with  Charles  Grant,  Esq., 


22 


LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY. 


1784 


to  procure  them  license  to  go  in  the  Company's  ships  as 
missionaries  to  the  British  settlements  in  India,  perhaps  in 
1792.  My  little  influence  was  of  no  avail.  What  I  said  of 
Mr.  Carey,  so  far  satisfied  Mr.  Grant  that  he  said,  if  Mr.  Carey 
was  going  alone,  or  with  one  equally  to  be  depended  on  along 
with  him,  he  would  not  oppose  him ;  but  his  strong  disappro- 
bation of  Mr.  T.,  on  what  ground  I  knew  not,  induced  his 
negative.  I  believe  Mr.  Old  died  soon  after  I  left  Olney,  if 


CAREY'S  "COLLEGE,"  HACKLETON. 


not  just  before  ;  and  his  shop,  which  was  a  little  building 
apart  from  the  house,  was  suffered  to  go  to  decay.  While  in 
this  state  I  several  times  passed  it,  and  said  to  my  sons  and 
others  with  me,  that  is  Mr.  Carey's  college." 

This  cobbler's  shed  which  was  Carey's  college  has  been 
since  restored,  but  two  of  the  original  walls  still  stand,  forming 
the  corner  in  which  he  sat,  opposite  the  window  that  looks 
out  into  the  garden  he  carefully  kept.  Here,  when  his 
second  master  died,  Carey  succeeded  to  the  business,  charg- 
ing himself  with  the  care  of  the  widow,  and  marrying  the 
widow's  sister,  Dorothy  or  Dolly  Placket.  He  was  only  twenty 
when  he  took  upon  himself  such  burdens,  in  the  neighbour- 
ing church  of  Piddington,  a  village  to  which  he  afterwards 


1784  THE  COBBLER'S  SHED  HIS  COLLEGE.  23 

moved  his  shop.  Never  had  minister,  missionary,  or  scholar 
a  less  sympathetic  mate,  due  largely  to  that  latent  mental 
disease  which  in  India  carried  her  off;  but  for  more  than 
twenty  years  the  husband  showed  her  loving  reverence.  As 
we  stand  in  the  Hackleton  shed,  over  which  Carey  placed  the 
rude  signboard  prepared  by  his  own  hands,  and  now  in  the 
library  of  Kegent's  Park  College, "  Second  Hand  Shoes  Bought 
and  Sold," l  we  can  realise  the  low  estate  to  which  Carey  fell, 
even  below  his  father's  loom  and  schoolhouse,  and  from  which 
he  was  called  to  become  the  apostle  of  North  India  as  Schwartz 
was  of  the  South. 

How  was  this  shed  his  college  ?  We  have  seen  that  he 
brought  with  him  from  his  native  village  an  amount  of  in- 
formation, habits  of  observation,  and  a  knowledge  of  books 
unusual  in  rustics  of  that  day,  and  even  of  the  present  time. 
At  twelve  he  made  his  first  acquaintance  with  a  language 
other  than  his  own,  when  he  mastered  the  short  grammar  in 
Dyche's  Latin  Vocabulary,  and  committed  nearly  the  whole 
book  to  memory.  When  urging  him  to  take  the  preaching 
at  Barton  Mr.  Sutcliff  of  Olney  gave  him  Euddi man's  Latin 
Grammar.  The  one  alleviation  of  his  lot  under  the  coarse 
but  upright  Nichols  was  found  in  his  master's  small  library. 
There  he  began  to  study  Greek.  In  a  New  Testament  com- 
mentary he  found  Greek  words,  which  he  carefully  trans- 
cribed and  kept  until  he  should  next  visit  home,  where  a 
youth  whom  dissipation  had  reduced  from  college  to  weaving 
explained  both  the  words  and  their  terminations  to  him.  All 
that  he  wanted  was  such  beginnings.  Hebrew  he  seems  to 
have  learned  by  the  aid  of  the  neighbouring  ministers; 
borrowing  books  from  them,  and  questioning  them  "perti- 

1  The  shopmate,  William  Manning,  preserved  this  signboard.  In  1881 
we  found  a  Baptist  shoemaker,  a  descendant  of  Carey's  wife,  with  four 
assistants,  at  work  in  the  shed.  Then  an  old  man,  who  had  occasionally 
worked  under  Carey,  had  just  died,  and  he  used  to  tell  how  Carey  had  once 
flipped  him  with  his  apron  when  he  had  allowed  the  wax  to  boil  over. 


24 


LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY. 


1785 


nently,"  as  he  did  Scott.  At  the  end  of  Hopkins's  Three 
Sermons  on  the  Effects  of  Sin  on  the  Universe,  preached  in 
1759,  he  had  made  this  entry  on  9th  August  1787 — "  Gulielm. 
Careius  perlegit"  He  starved  himself  to  purchase  a  few 
books  at  the  sale  which  attended  Dr.  Eyland's  removal  from 
Northampton  to  Bristol.  In  an  old  woman's  cottage  he  found 
a  Dutch  quarto,  and  from  that  he  so  taught  himself  the  lan- 
guage that  he  translated  for  Eyland  a  discourse  on  the  Gospel 


CAREY  S  COTTAGE  AND   SCHOOL,   PIDDINGTON. 

Offer  sent  to  him  by  the  evangelical  Dr.  Erskine  of  Edin- 
burgh. The  manuscript  is  in  an  extremely  small  character, 
unlike  what  might  have  been  expected  from  one  who  had 
wrought  with  his  hands  for  eight  years.  French  he  acquired, 
sufficiently  for  literary  purposes,  in  three  weeks  from  a 
work  by  Ditton  on  the  Eesurrection,  which  he  purchased 
for  a  few  coppers.  He  had  the  linguistic  gift  which  soon 
after  made  the  young  carpenter  Mezzofanti  of  Bologna 
famous  and  a  cardinal.  But  the  gift  would  have  been  buried 
in  the  grave  of  his  penury  and  his  circumstances  had  his 
trade  been  almost  any  other,  and  had  he  not  been  impelled 
by  the  most  powerful  of  all  motives.  He  never  sat  on  his 
stall  without  his  book  before  him,  nor  did  he  painfully  toil 


1785  SENT  OUT  TO  PREACH  THE  GOSPEL.  25 

with  his  wallet  of  new-made  shoes  to  the  neighbouring  towns 
or  return  with  leather  without  conning  over  his  lately-acquired 
knowledge  and  making  it  for  ever,  in  orderly  array,  his  own. 
He  so  taught  his  evening  school  and  his  Sunday  congrega- 
tions that  the  teaching  to  him,  like  writing  to  others,  stereo- 
typed or  lightened  up  the  truths.  Indeed,  the  school  and 
the  cobbling  often  went  on  together,  a  fact  commemorated  in 
the  addition  to  the  Hackleton  signboard  of  the  Piddington  nail 
on  which  he  used  to  fix  his  thread  while  teaching  the  children. 
But  that  which  sanctified  and  directed  the  whole  through- 
out a  working  life  of  more  than  half  a  century  was  the  mis- 
sionary idea  and  the  missionary  consecration.  With  a  caution 
not  often  shown  at  that  time  by  bishops  in  laying  hands  on 
those  whom  they  had  passed  for  deacon's  orders,  the  little 
church  at  Olney  thus  dealt  with  the  Father  of  Modern 
Missions  before  they  would  recognise  his  call  and  send  him 
out  "  to  preach  the  Gospel  wherever  Grod  in  His  providence 
might  call  him."  These  extracts  are  made  from  the  Olney 
Church  Books  : — 

"  June  17,  1785. — A  request  from  "William  Carey  of  Moulton  in 
Northamptonshire  was  taken  into  consideration.  He  has  been  and 
still  is  in  connection  with  a  society  of  people  at  Hackleton.  He  is 
occasionally  engaged  with  acceptance  in  various  places  in  speaking  the 
word.  He  bears  a  very  good  moral  character.  He  is  desirous  of 
being  sent  out  from  some  reputable  church  of  Christ  into  the  work  of 
the  ministry.  The  principal  Question  was — '  In  what  manner  shall 
we  receive  him  ?  by  a  letter  from  the  people  of  Hackleton,  or  on  a 
profession  of  faith,  etc.  ? '  The  final  resolution  of  it  was  left  to  another 
church  Meeting. 

"  July  14. — Ch.  Meeting.  W.  Carey  appeared  before  the  Church, 
and  having  given  a  satisfactory  account  of  the  work  of  God  upon 
his  soul,  he  was  admitted  a  member.  He  had  been  formerly  baptized 
by  the  Kev.  Mr.  Kyland,  jun.,  of  Northampton.  He  was  invited 
by  the  Church  to  preach  in  public  once  next  Lord's  Day. 

"  July  17. — Ch.  Meeting,  Lord's  Day  Evening.  W.  Carey,  in 
consequence  of  a  request  from  the  Church,  preached  this  Evening. 
After  which  it  was  resolved  that  he  should  be  allowed  to  go  on  preach- 


26  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1785 

ing  at  those  places  where  he  has  been  for  some  time  employed,  and 
that  he  should  engage  again  on  suitable  occasions  for  sometime  before 
us,  in  order  that  farther  trial  may  be  made  of  his  ministerial  gifts. 

"  June  16,  1786. — C.  M.  The  case  of  Bror.  Carey  was  considered, 
and  an  unanimous  satisfaction  with  his  ministerial  abilities  being 
expressed,  a  vote  was  passed  to  call  him  to  the  Ministry  at  a  proper 
time. 

"  August  10. — Ch.  Meeting.  This  evening  our  Brother  William 
Carey  was  called  to  the  work  of  the  Ministry,  and  sent  out  by  the 
Church  to  preach  the  Gospel  wherever  God  in  His  providence  might 
call  him. 

"April  29,  1787. — Ch.  M.  After  the  Ord6.  our  Brother  William 
Carey  was  dismissed  to  the  Church  of  Christ  at  Moulton  in  North- 
amptonshire with  a  view  to  his  Ordination  there." 

These  were  the  last  years  at  Olney  of  William  Cowper 
before  he  removed  to  the  Throckmortons'  house  at  Weston 
village,  two  miles  distant.  Carey  must  often  have  seen  the 
poet  during  the  twenty  years  which  he  spent  in  the  corner 
house  of  the  market-square,  and  in  the  walks  around.  He 
must  have  read  the  poems  of  1782,  which  for  the  first  time 
do  justice  to  the  missionary  enterprise.  He  must  have  hailed 
what  Mr.  Browning  calls  "  the  deathless  singing  "  which  in 
1785,  in  The  Task,  opened  a  new  era  in  English  literature. 
He  may  have  been  fired  with  the  desire  to  imitate  White- 
field,  in  the  description  of  whom,  though  reluctant  to  name 
him,  Cowper  really  anticipated  Carey  himself : — 

"  He  followed  Paul ;  his  zeal  a  kindred  flame, 
His  apostolic  charity  the  same ; 
Like  him  crossed  cheerfully  tempestuous  seas, 
Forsaking  country,  kindred,  friends  and  ease ; 
Like  him  he  laboured  and,  like  him,  content 
To  bear  it,  suffered  shame  where'er  he  went." 


CHAPTER  II. 

THE  BIRTH  OF  ENGLAND'S  FOREIGN  MISSIONS. 

1785-1792. 

Moulton  the  Mission's  birthplace — Carey's  fever  and  poverty — His  Moulton 
school — Fired  with  the  missionary  idea — His  very  large  missionary  map 
— Fuller's  confession  of  the  aged  and  respectable  ministers'  opposition 
—  Old  Mr.  Ryland's  rebuke  —  Driven  to  publish  his  Enquiry — Its 
literary  character — Carey's  survey  of  the  world  in  1788 — His  motives, 
difficulties,  and  plans — Projects  the  first  Missionary  Society — Contrasted 
with  his  predecessors  from  Erasmus — Prayer  concert  begun  in  Scotland 
in  1742 — Jonathan  Edwards — The  Northamptonshire  Baptist  movement 
in  1784 — Andrew  Fuller — The  Baptists,  Particular  and  General — Anti- 
nomian  and  Socinian  extremes  opposed  to  Missions — Met  by  Fuller's 
writings  and  Clipstone  sermon  —  Carey's  agony  at  continued  delay — 
His  work  in  Leicester  —  His  sermon  at  Nottingham  —  Foundation  of 
Baptist  Missionary  Society  at  last — Kettering  and  Jerusalem. 

THE  north  road,  which  runs  for  twelve  miles  from  North- 
ampton to  Kettering,  passes  through  a  country  known  last 
century  for  the  doings  of  the  Pytchley  Hunt.  Stories,  by  no 
means  exaggerated,  of  the  deep  drinking  and  deeper  play  of 
the  club,  whose  gate -house  now  stands  at  the  entrance  of 
Overstone  Park,  were  rife,  when  on  Lady  Day  1785  William 
Carey  became  Baptist  preacher  of  Moulton  village,  on  the 
other  side  of  the  road.  Moulton  was  to  become  the  birth- 
place of  the  modern  missionary  idea ;  Kettering,  of  evangelical 
missionary  action. 

JSTo  man  in  England  had  apparently  a  more  wretched  lot 
or  more  miserable  prospects  than  he.  He  had  started  in  life 
as  a  journeyman  shoemaker  at  eighteen,  burdened  with  a 


28  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1786 

payment  to  his  first  master's  widow  which  his  own  kind 
heart  had  led  him  to  offer,  and  with  the  price  of  his  second 
master's  stock  and  business.  Trade  was  good  for  the  moment, 
and  he  had  married,  before  he  was  twenty,  one  who  brought 
him  the  most  terrible  sorrow  a  man  can  bear.  He  had  no 
sooner  completed  a  large  order  for  which  his  predecessor  had 
contracted  than  it  was  returned  on  his  hands.  From  place 
to  place  he  wearily  trudged,  trying  to  sell  the  shoes.  Fever 
carried  off  his  first  child  and  brought  himself  so  near  to  the 
grave  that  he  sent  for  his  mother  to  help  in  the  nursing.  At 
Piddington  he  worked  early  and  late  at  his  garden,  but  ague, 
caused  by  a  neighbouring  marsh,  returned  and  left  him  so 
bald  that  he  wore  a  wig  thereafter  until  his  voyage  to  India. 
During  his  preaching  for  more  than  three  years  at  Barton, 
which  involved  a  walk  of  sixteen  miles,  he  did  not  receive 
from  the  poor  folks  enough  to  pay  for  the  clothes  he  wore 
out  in  their  service.  His  younger  brother  delicately  came  to 
his  help,  and  he  received  the  gift  with  a  pathetic  tenderness. 
But  a  calling  which  at  once  starved  him,  in  spite  of  all  his 
method  and  perseverance,  and  cramped  the  ardour  of  his 
soul  for  service  to  the  Master  who  had  revealed  Himself  in 
him,  became  distasteful.  He  gladly  accepted  an  invitation 
from  the  somewhat  disorganised  church  at  Moulton  to  preach 
to  them.  They  could  offer  him  only  about  £10  a  year, 
supplemented  by  £5  from  a  London  fund.  But  the  school- 
master had  just  left,  and  Carey  saw  in  that  fact  a  new  hope. 
For  a  time  he  and  his  family  managed  to  live  on  an  income 
which  is  estimated  as  never  exceeding  £36  a  year.  We  find 
this  passage  in  a  printed  appeal  made  by  the  "very  poor 
congregation  "  for  funds  to  repair  and  enlarge  the  chapel  to 
which  the  new  pastor's  preaching  had  attracted  a  crowd : — 
"  The  peculiar  situation  of  our  minister,  Mr.  Carey,  renders 
it  impossible  for  us  to  send  him  far  abroad  to  collect  the  Con- 
tributions of  the  Charitable  ;  as  we  are  able  to  raise  him  but 


1786  FIRED  WITH  THE  MISSIONARY  IDEA.  29 

about  Ten  Pounds  per  Annum,  so  that  he  is  obliged  to  keep 
a  School  for  his  Support :  And  as  there  are  other  two  Schools 
in  the  Town,  if  he  was  to  leave  Home  to  collect  for  the 
Building,  he  must  probably  quit  his  Station  on  his  Return, 
for  Want  of  a  Maintenance." 

His  genial  loving-kindness  and  his  fast  increasing  learn- 
ing little  fitted  him  to  drill  peasant  children  in  the  alphabet. 
"  When  I  kept  school  the  boys  kept  me,"  he  used  to  confess 
with  a  merry  twinkle.  In  all  that  our  Lord  meant  by  it 
William  Carey  was  a  child  from  first  to  last.  The  former 
teacher  returned,  and  the  poor  preacher  again  took  to  shoe- 
making  for  the  village  clowns  and  the  shops  in  Kettering 
and  Northampton.  His  house  still  stands,  one  of  a  row  of 
six  cottages  of  the  dear  old  English  type,  with  the  indis- 
pensable garden  behind,  and  the  glad  sunshine  pouring  in 
through  the  open  window  embowered  in  roses  and  honey- 
suckle. 

There,  and  chiefly  in  the  school-hours  as  he  tried  to  teach 
the  children  geography  and  the  Bible  and  was  all  the  while 
teaching  himself,  the  missionary  idea  arose  in  his  mind,  and 
his  soul  became  fired  with  the  self -consecration,  unknown 
to  Wiclif  and  Huss,  Luther  and  Calvin,  Knox  and  even 
Bunyan,  for  theirs  was  other  work.  All  his  past  knowledge 
of  nature  and  of  books,  all  his  favourite  reading  of  voyages 
and  of  travels  which  had  led  his  schoolfellows  to  dub  him 
Columbus,  all  his  painful  study  of  the  Word,  his  experience 
of  the  love  of  Christ  and  expoundings  of  the  meaning  of  His 
message  to  men  for  six  years,  were  gathered  up,  were  in- 
tensified, and  were  directed  with  a  concentrated  power  to  the 
thought  that  Christ  died,  as  for  him,  so  for  these  millions  of 
dark  savages  whom  Cook  was  revealing  to  Christendom,  and 
who  had  never  heard  the  glad  tidings  of  great  joy. 

Carey  had  ceased  to  keep  school  when  the  Moulton 
Baptists,  who  could  subscribe  no  more  than  twopence  a 


30  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1786 

month  each  for  their  own  poor,  formally  called  the  preacher 
to  become  their  ordained  pastor,  and  Eyland,  Sutcliff,  and 
Fuller  were  asked  to  ordain  him  on  the  10th  August  1786. 
Fuller  had  discovered  the  value  of  a  man  who  had  passed 
through  spiritual  experience,  and  possessed  a  native  common 
sense  like  his  own,  when  Carey  had  been  suddenly  called  to 
preach  in  Northampton  to  supply  the  place  of  another.  Since 
that  day  he  had  often  visited  Moulton,  and  he  thus  tells  us 
what  he  had  seen : — 

"  The  congregation  being  few  and  poor,  he  followed  his 
business  in  order  to  assist  in  supporting  his  family.  His 
mind,  however,  was  much  occupied  in  acquiring  the  learned 
languages  and  almost  every  other  branch  of  useful  knowledge. 
I  remember,  on  going  into  the  room  where  he  employed  him- 
self at  his  business,  I  saw  hanging  up  against  the  wall  a  very 
large  map,  consisting  of  several  sheets  of  paper  pasted  together 
by  himself,  on  which  he  had  drawn,  with  a  pen,  a  place  for 
every  nation  in  the  known  world,  and  entered  into  it  what- 
ever he  met  with  in  reading,  relative  to  its  population, 
religion,  etc.  The  substance  of  this  was  afterwards  published 
in  his  Enquiry.  These  researches,  on  which  his  mind  was 
naturally  bent,  hindered  him,  of  course,  from  doing  much  at 
his  business  ;  and  the  people,  as  was  said,  being  few  and  poor, 
he  was  at  this  time  exposed  to  great  hardships.  I  have  been 
assured  that  he  and  his  family  have  lived  for  a  great  while 
together  without  tasting  animal  food,  and  with  but  a  scanty 
pittance  of  other  provision." 

"  He  would  also  be  frequently  conversing  with  his  brethren 
in  the  ministry  on  the  practicability  and  importance  of  a 
mission  to  the  heathen,  and  of  his  willingness  to  engage  in 
it.  At  several  ministers'  meetings,  between  the  years  1787 
and  1790,  this  was  the  topic  of  his  conversation.  Some  of 
our  most  aged  and  respectable  ministers  thought,  I  believe, 
at  that  time,  that  it  was  a  wild  and  impracticable  scheme 


1786  PRONOUNCED  A  MISERABLE  ENTHUSIAST.  31 

that  he  had  got  in  his  mind,  and  therefore  gave  him  no 
encouragement.  Yet  he  would  not  give  it  up ;  but  would 
converse  with  us,  one  by  one,  till  he  had  made  some  impres- 
sion upon  us." 

The  picture  is  completed  by  his  sister : — 

"He  was  always,  from  his  first  being  thoughtful,  re- 
markably impressed  about  heathen  lands  and  the  slave-trade. 
I  never  remember  his  engaging  in  prayer,  in  his  family  or  in 
public,  without  praying  for  those  poor  creatures.  The  first 
time  I  ever  recollect  my  feeling  for  the  heathen  world,  was 
from  a  discourse  I  heard  my  brother  preach  at  Moulton,  the 
first  summer  after  I  was  thoughtful.  It  was  from  these 
words :  '  For  Zion's  sake  will  I  not  hold  my  peace,  and  for 
Jerusalem's  sake  will  I  give  him  no  rest.'  It  was  a  day  to 
be  remembered  by  me ;  a  day  set  apart  for  prayer  and  fasting 
by  the  church.  What  hath  God  wrought  since  that  time  ! " 

Old  Mr.  Eyland  always  failed  to  recall  the  story,  but  we 
have  it  on  the  testimony  of  Carey's  personal  friend,  Morris  of 
Clipstone,1  who  was  present  at  the  meeting  of  ministers  held 
in  1786  at  Northampton  at  which  the  incident  occurred. 
Eyland  invited  the  younger  brethren  to  propose  a  subject 
for  discussion.  There  was  no  reply,  till  at  last  the  Moulton 
preacher  suggested,  doubtless  with  an  ill -restrained  excite- 
ment, "  whether  the  command  given  to  the  Apostles,  to  teach 
all  nations,  was  not  obligatory  on  all  succeeding  ministers  to 
the  end  of  the  world,  seeing  that  the  accompanying  promise 
was  of  equal  extent."  Neither  Fuller  nor  Carey  himself  had 
yet  delivered  the  Particular  Baptists  from  the  yoke  of  that 
hyper -Calvinism  which  had  to  that  hour  shut  the  heathen 
out  of  a  dead  Christendom,  and  the  aged  chairman  shouted 
out  the  rebuke — "  You  are  a  miserable  enthusiast  for  asking 
such  a  question.  Certainly  nothing  can  be  done  before 

1  Memoirs  of  the  Life  and  Writings  of  the  Rev.  Andrew  Fuller,  by  J.  A. 
Morris,  1816,  p.  96. 


32  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1786 

another  Pentecost,  when  an  effusion  of  miraculous  gifts, 
including  the  gift  of  tongues,  will  give  effect  to  the  commis- 
sion of  Christ  as  at  first."  Carey  had  never  before  mentioned 
the  subject  openly,  and  he  was  for  the  moment  greatly  mor- 
tified. But,  says  Morris,  he  still  pondered  these  things  in 
his  heart.  That  incident  marks  the  wide  gulf  which  Carey 
had  to  bridge.  Silenced  by  his  brethren  he  had  recourse  to 
the  press.  It  was  then  that  he  wrote  his  own  contribution 
to  the  discussion  he  would  have  raised  on  a  duty  which  was 
more  than  seventeen  centuries  old,  and  had  been  for  fourteen 
of  these  neglected  :  An  Enquiry  into  the  Obligations  of  Chris- 
tians to  use  Means  for  the  Conversion  of  the  Heathens,  in  which 
the  JReligious  State  of  the  Different  Nations  of  the  World,  the 
Success  of  Former  Undertakings,  and  the  Practicability  of 
Further  Undertakings,  are  considered,  by  WILLIAM  CAREY. 
Then  follows  the  great  conclusion  of  Paul  in  his  letter  to 
the  Eomans  (x.  12-15)  :  "  For  there  is  no  difference  between 
the  Jew  and  the  Greek.  .  .  .  How  shall  they  preach  except 
they  be  sent  ? "  He  happened  to  be  in  Birmingham  in  1786 
collecting  subscriptions  for  the  rebuilding  of  the  chapel  in 
Moulton,  when  Mr.  Thomas  Potts,  who  had  made  a  fortune 
in  trade  with  America,  discovering  that  he  had  prepared  the 
manuscript,  gave  him  £10  to  publish  it.  And  it  appeared 
at  Leicester  in  1792 — where  it  was  reprinted  in  1822 — as  a 
pamphlet,  "  price  one  shilling  and  sixpence,"  the  profits  to 
go  to  the  proposed  mission.  The  pamphlet  form  doubtless 
accounts  for  the  disappearance  of  both  editions  now;  only 
three  copies  are  known  to  be  in  existence. 

This  Enquiry  has  a  literary  interest  of  its  own,  as  a  con- 
tribution to  the  statistics  and  geography  of  the  world,  written 
in  a  cultured  and  almost  finished  style,  such  as  few,  if  any, 
University  men  of  that  day  could  have  produced,  for  none 
were  impelled  by  such  a  motive  as  Carey  had.  In  an  obscure 
village,  toiling  save  when  he  slept,  and  finding  rest  on  Sunday 


1786  HIS  SUKVEY  OF  THE  WORLD.  33 

only  by  a  change  of  toil,  far  from  libraries  and  the  society  of 
men  with  more  advantages  than  his  own,  this  shoemaker,  still 
under  thirty,  surveys  the  whole  world,  continent  by  continent, 
island  by  island,  race  by  race,  faith  by  faith,  kingdom  by 
kingdom,  tabulating  his  results  with  an  accuracy,  and  follow- 
ing them  up  with  a  logical  power  of  generalisation  which  would 
extort  the  admiration  of  the  learned  even  of  the  present  day: — 

"  This,  as  nearly  as  I  can  obtain  information,  is  the  state  of  the 
world  ;  though  in  many  countries,  as  Turkey,  Arabia,  Great  Tartary, 
Africa,  and  America  except  the  United  States,  and  most  of  the  Asiatic 
Islands,  we  have  no  accounts  of  the  number  of  inhabitants  that  can  be 
relied  on.  I  have  therefore  only  calculated  the  extent,  and  counted  a 
certain  number  on  an  average  upon  a  square  mile  ;  in  some  countries 
more,  and  in  others  less,  according  as  circumstances  determine.  A  few 
general  remarks  upon  it  will  conclude  this  section. 

"  FIRST,  The  inhabitants  of  the  world,  according  to  this  calculation, 
amount  to  about  seven  hundred  and  thirty-one  millions  ;  four  hundred 
and  twenty  millions  of  whom  are  still  in  pagan  darkness  ;  an  hundred 
and  thirty  millions  the  followers  of  Mahomet ;  an  hundred  millions 
Catholics  ;  forty-four  millions  Protestants  ;  thirty  millions  of  the  Greek 
and  Armenian  churches,  and  perhaps  seven  millions  of  Jews.  It  must 
undoubtedly  strike  every  considerate  mind  what  a  vast  proportion  of 
the  sons  of  Adam  there  are  who  yet  remain  in  the  most  deplorable  state 
of  heathen  darkness,  without  any  means  of  knowing  the  true  God, 
except  what  are  afforded  them  by  the  works  of  nature  ;  and  utterly 
destitute  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  of  Christ,  or  of  any  means 
of  obtaining  it.  In  many  of  these  countries  they  have  no  written 
language,  consequently  no  Bible,  and  are  only  led  by  the  most  childish 
customs  and  traditions.  Such,  for  instance,  are  all  the  middle  and 
back  parts  of  North  America,  the  inland  parts  of  South  America,  the 
South-Sea  Islands,  New  Holland,  New  Zealand,  New  Guinea  ;  and  I 
may  add  Great  Tartary,  Siberia,  Samojedia,  and  the  other  parts  of 
Asia  contiguous  to  the  frozen  sea  ;  the  greatest  part  of  Africa,  the 
island  of  Madagascar,  and  many  places  beside.  In  many  of  these  parts 
also  they  are  cannibals,  feeding  upon  the  flesh  of  their  slain  enemies 
with  the  greatest  brutality  and  eagerness.  The  truth  of  this  was 
ascertained,  beyond  a  doubt,  by  the  late  eminent  navigator,  Cook,  of 
the  New  Zealanders  and  some  of  the  inhabitants  of  the  western  coast 
of  America.  Human  sacrifices  are  also  very  frequently  offered,  so 

D 


34  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1786 

that  scarce  a  week  elapses  without  instances  of  this  kind.  They  are 
in  general  poor,  barbarous,  naked  pagans,  as  destitute  of  civilisation  as 
they  are  of  true  religion. 

"  SECONDLY,  Barbarous  as  these  poor  heathens  are,  they  appear  to 
be  as  capable  of  knowledge  as  we  are ;  and  in  many  places,  at  least,  have 
discovered  uncommon  genius  and  tractableness  ;  and  I  greatly  question 
whether  most  of  the  barbarities  practised  by  them,  have  not  originated 
in  some  real  or  supposed  affront,  and  are  therefore,  more  properly,  acts 
of  self-defence  than  proofs  of  inhuman  and  blood-thirsty  dispositions. 

"  THIRDLY,  In  other  parts,  where  they  have  a  written  language,  as 
in  the  East  Indies,  China,  Japan,  etc.,  they  know  nothing  of  the  gospel. 
The  Jesuits  indeed  once  made  many  converts  to  popery  among  the 
Chinese  ;  but  their  highest  aim  seemed  to  be  to  obtain  their  good 
opinion  ;  for  though  the  converts  professed  themselves  Christians,  yet 
they  were  allowed  to  honour  the  image  of  Confucius,  their  great  law- 
giver ;  and  at  length  their  ambitious  intrigues  brought  upon  them  the 
displeasure  of  government,  which  terminated  in  the  suppression  of  the 
mission,  and  almost,  if  not  entirely,  of  the  Christian  name.  It  is  also 
a  melancholy  fact,  that  the  vices  of  Europeans  have  been  communicated 
wherever  they  themselves  have  been  ;  so  that  the  religious  state  of  even 
heathens  has  been  rendered  worse  by  intercourse  with  them  ! 

"  FOURTHLY,  A  very  great  proportion  of  Asia  and  Africa,  with  some 
part  of  Europe,  are  Mahometans  ;  and  those  in  Persia,  who  are  of  the 
sect  of  Hali,  are  the  most  inveterate  enemies  to  the  Turks  ;  and  they 
in  return  abhor  the  Persians.  The  Africans  are  some  of  the  most 
ignorant  of  all  the  Mahometans,  especially  the  Arabs,  who  are  scattered 
through  all  the  northern  parts  of  Africa,  and  live  upon  the  depreda- 
tions which  they  are  continually  making  upon  their  neighbours. 

"  FIFTHLY,  In  respect  to  those  who  bear  the  Christian  name,  a  very 
great  degree  of  ignorance  and  immorality  abounds  amongst  them. 
There  are  Christians,  so  called,  of  the  Greek  and  Armenian  churches, 
in  all  the  Mahometan  countries  ;  but  they  are,  if  possible,  more 
ignorant  and  vicious  than  the  Mahometans  themselves.  The  Georgian 
Christians,  who  are  near  the  Caspian  Sea,  maintain  themselves  by  sell- 
ing their  neighbours,  relations  and  children,  for  slaves  to  the  Turks 
and  Persians.  And  it  is  remarked,  that  if  any  of  the  Greeks 'of  Anatolia 
turn  Mussulmen,  the  Turks  never  set  any  store  by  them,  on  account  of 
their  being  so  much  noted  for  dissimulation  and  hypocrisy.  It  is  well 
known  that  most  of  the  members  of  the  Greek  church  are  very  ignorant. 
Papists  also  are  in  general  ignorant  of  divine  things,  and  very  vicious. 
Nor  do  the  bulk  of  the  church  of  England  much  exceed  them,  either 


1786  HIS  SURVEY  OF  THE  WORLD.  35 

in  knowledge  or  holiness  ;  and  many  errors  and  much  looseness  of 
conduct  are  to  be  found  amongst  dissenters  of  all  denominations.  The 
Lutherans  in  Denmark  are  much  on  a  par  with  the  ecclesiastics  in 
England,  and  the  face  of  most  Christian  countries  presents  a  dreadful 
scene  of  ignorance,  hypocrisy,  and  profligacy.  Various  baneful  and 
pernicious  errors  appear  to  gain  ground  in  almost  every  part  of 
Christendom  ;  the  truths  of  the  gospel,  and  even  the  gospel  itself,  are 
attacked,  and  every  method  that  the  enemy  can  invent  is  employed  to 
undermine  the  kingdom  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ. 

"  All  these  things  are  loud  calls  to  Christians,  and  especially  to 
ministers,  to  exert  themselves  to  the  utmost  in  their  several  spheres  of 
action,  and  to  try  to  enlarge  them  as  much  as  possible." 

Having  proved  that  the  commission  given  by  our  Lord  to 
His  disciples  is  still  binding  on  us,  having  reviewed  former 
undertakings  for  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  from  the 
Ascension  to  the  Moravians  and  "  the  late  Mr.  Wesley "  in 
the  West  Indies,  and  having  thus  surveyed  in  detail  the 
present  (1786)  state  of  the  world,  he  removes  the  five  im- 
pediments in  the  way  of  carrying  the  Gospel  among  the 
heathen,  which  his  contemporaries  advanced — their  distance 
from  us,  their  barbarism,  the  danger  of  being  killed  by  them, 
the  difficulty  of  procuring  the  necessaries  of  life,  the  unin- 
telligibleness of  their  languages.  These  his  loving  heart  and 
Bible  knowledge  enable  him  skilfully  to  turn  in  favour  of 
the  cause  he  pleads.  The  whole  section  is  essential  to  an 
appreciation  of  Carey's  motives,  difficulties,  and  plans  : — 

"FIRST,  As  to  their  distance  from  us,  whatever  objections  might  have 
been  made  on  that  account  before  the  invention  of  the  mariner's  com- 
pass, nothing  can  be  alleged  for  it  with  any  colour  of  plausibility  in 
the  present  age.  Men  can  now  sail  with  as  much  certainty  through 
the  Great  South  Sea  as  they  can  through  the  Mediterranean  or  any 
lesser  sea.  Yea,  and  providence  seems  in  a  manner  to  invite  us  to  the 
trial,  as  there  are  to  our  knowledge  trading  companies,  whose  commerce 
lies  in  many  of  the  places  where  these  barbarians  dwell.  At  one  time 
or  other  ships  are  sent  to  visit  places  of  more  recent  discovery,  and  to 
explore  parts  the  most  unknown  ;  and  every  fresh  account  of  their 
ignorance,  or  cruelty,  should  call  forth  our  pity,  and  excite  us  to  con- 


36  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1786 

cur  with  providence  in  seeking  their  eternal  good.  Scripture  likewise 
seems  to  point  out  this  method,  '  Surely  the  Isles  shall  wait  for  me  ; 
the  ships  of  Tarshish  first,  to  bring  my  sons  from  far,  their  silver  and 
their  gold  with  them,  unto  the  name  of  the  Lord,  thy  God.'  Isai.  Ix.  9. 
This  seems  to  imply  that  in  the  time  of  the  glorious  increase  of  the 
church,  in  the  latter  days  (of  which  the  whole  chapter  is  undoubtedly 
a  prophecy),  commerce  shall  subserve  the  spread  of  the  gospel.  The 
ships  of  Tarshish  were  trading  vessels,  which  made  voyages  for  traffic 
to  various  parts  ;  thus  much  therefore  must  be  meant  by  it,  that  navi- 
gation, especially  that  which  is  commercial,  shall  be  one  great  mean  of 
carrying  on  the  work  of  God  ;  and  perhaps  it  may  imply  that  there 
shall  be  a  very  considerable  appropriation  of  wealth  to  that  purpose. 

"SECONDLY,  As  to  their  uncivilised  and  barbarous  way  of  living,  this 
can  be  no  objection  to  any,  except  those  whose  love  of  ease  renders 
them  unwilling  to  expose  themselves  to  inconveniences  for  the  good  of 
others. 

"  It  was  no  objection  to  the  apostles  and  their  successors,  who  went 
among  the  barbarous  Germans  and  Gauls,  and  still  more  barbarous 
Britons  !  They  did  not  wait  for  the  ancient  inhabitants  of  these  countries 
to  be  civilised  before  they  could  be  christianised,  but  went  simply  with  the 
doctrine  of  the  cross  ;  and  Tertullian  could  boast  that  '  those  parts  of 
Britain  which  were  proof  against  the  Roman  armies,  were  conquered  by 
the  gospel  of  Christ.'  It  was  no  objection  to  an  Eliot  or  a  Brainerd 
in  later  times.  They  went  forth,  and  encountered  every  difficulty  of 
the  kind,  and  found  that  a  cordial  reception  of  the  gospel  produced 
those  happy  effects  which  the  longest  intercourse  with  Europeans  with- 
out it  could  never  accomplish.  It  is  no  objection  to  commercial  men 
It  only  requires  that  we  should  have  as  much  love  to  the  souls  of  our 
fellow-creatures,  and  fellow-sinners,  as  they  have  for  the  profits  arising 
from  a  few  otter-skins,  and  all  these  difficulties  would  be  easily  sur- 
mounted. 

"  After  all,  the  uncivilised  state  of  the  heathen,  instead  of  affording 
an  objection  against  preaching  the  gospel  to  them,  ought  to  furnish  an 
argument  for  it.  Can  we  as  men,  or  as  Christians,  hear  that  a  great 
part  of  our  fellow-creatures,  whose  souls  are  as  immortal  as  ours,  and 
who  are  as  capable  as  ourselves  of  adorning  the  gospel  and  contributing 
by  their  preachings,  writings,  or  practices  to  the  glory  of  our  Redeemer's 
name  and  the  good  of  his  church,  are  enveloped  in  ignorance  and 
barbarism  ?  Can  we  hear  that  they  are  without  the  gospel,  without 
government,  without  laws,  and  without  arts,  and  sciences  ;  and  not 
exert  ourselves  to  introduce  among  them  the  sentiments  of  men,  and  of 


1786  ANSWERS  OBJECTIONS  TO  MISSIONS.  37 

Christians  ?  Would  not  the  spread  of  the  gospel  be  the  most  effectual 
mean  of  their  civilisation  1  Would  not  that  make  them  useful  mem- 
bers of  society?  We  know  that  such  effects  did  in  a  measure  follow 
the  afore-mentioned  efforts  of  Eliot,  Brainerd,  and  others  amongst  the 
American  Indians ;  and  if  similar  attempts  were  made  in  other  parts 
of  the  world,  and  succeeded  with  a  divine  blessing  (which  we  have 
every  reason  to  think  they  would),  might  we  not  expect  to  see  able 
divines,  or  read  well-conducted  treatises  in  defence  of  the  truth,  even 
amongst  those  who  at  present  seem  to  be  scarcely  human  ? 

"  THIRDLY,  In  respect  to  the  danger  of  being  killed  by  them,  it  is 
true  that  whoever  does  go  must  put  his  life  in  his  hand,  and  not  con- 
sult with  flesh  and  blood  ;  but  do  not  the  goodness  of  the  cause,  the 
duties  incumbent  on  us  as  the  creatures  of  God  and  Christians,  and 
the  perishing  state  of  our  fellow-men,  loudly  call  upon  us  to  venture 
all,  and  use  every  warrantable  exertion  for  their  benefit  ?  Paul  and 
Barnabas,  who  hazarded  their  lives  for  the  name  of  our  Lord  Jesus 
Christ,  were  not  blamed  as  being  rash,  but  commended  for  so  doing ; 
while  John  Mark,  who  through  timidity  of  mind  deserted  them  in 
their  perilous  undertaking,  was  branded  with  censure.  After  all,  as 
has  been  already  observed,  I  greatly  question  whether  most  of  the 
barbarities  practised  by  the  savages  upon  those  who  have  visited  them, 
have  not  originated  in  some  real  or  supposed  affront,  and  were  there- 
fore, more  properly,  acts  of  self-defence,  than  proofs  of  ferocious  disposi- 
tions. No  wonder  if  the  imprudence  of  sailors  should  prompt  them 
to  offend  the  simple  savage,  and  the  offence  be  resented  ;  but  Eliot, 
Brainerd,  and  the  Moravian  missionaries  have  been  very  seldom 
molested.  Nay,  in  general  the  heathen  have  showed  a  willingness  to 
hear  the  word  ;  and  have  principally  expressed  their  hatred  of  Chris- 
tianity on  account  of  the  vices  of  nominal  Christians. 

"  FOURTHLY,  As  to  the  difficulty  of  procuring  the  necessaries  of  life, 
this  would  not  be  so  great  as  may  appear  at  first  sight ;  for,  though 
we  could  not  procure  European  food,  yet  we  might  procure  such  as 
the  natives  of  those  countries  which  we  visit,  subsist  upon  themselves. 
And  this  would  only  be  passing  through  what  we  have  virtually 
engaged  in  by  entering  on  the  ministerial  office.  A  Christian  minister 
is  a  person  who  in  a  peculiar  sense  is  not  his  own ;  he  is  the  servant 
of  God,  and  therefore  ought  to  be  wholly  devoted  to  him.  By  enter- 
ing on  that  sacred  office  he  solemnly  undertakes  to  be  always  engaged, 
as  much  as  possible,  in  the  Lord's  work,  and  not  to  choose  his  own 
pleasure,  or  employment,  or  pursue  the  ministry  as  a  something  that 
is  to  subserve  his  own  ends,  or  interests,  or  as  a  kind  of  bye-work.  He 


38  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1786 

engages  to  go  where  God  pleases,  and  to  do  or  endure  what  he  sees  fit 
to  command,  or  call  him  to,  in  the  exercise  of  his  function.  He  virtu- 
ally bids  farewell  to  friends,  pleasures,  and  comforts,  and  stands  in 
readiness  to  endure  the  greatest  sufferings  in  the  work  of  his  Lord,  and 
Master.  It  is  inconsistent  for  ministers  to  please  themselves  with 
thoughts  of  a  numerous  auditory,  cordial  friends,  a  civilised  country, 
legal  protection,  affluence,  splendour,  or  even  a  competency.  The 
slights,  and  hatred  of  men,  and  even  pretended  friends,  gloomy  prisons, 
and  tortures,  the  society  of  barbarians  of  uncouth  speech,  miserable 
accommodations  in  wretched  wildernesses,  hunger,  and  thirst,  naked- 
ness, weariness,  and  painfulness,  hard  work,  and  but  little  worldly 
encouragement,  should  rather  be  the  objects  of  their  expectation. 
Thus  the  apostles  acted,  in  the  primitive  times,  and  endured  hardness, 
as  good  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ ;  and  though  we  living  in  a  civilised 
country,  where  Christianity  is  protected  by  law,  are  not  called  to  suffer 
these  things  while  we  continue  here,  yet  I  question  whether  all  are 
justified  in  staying  here,  while  so  many  are  perishing  without  means 
of  grace  in  other  lands.  Sure  I  am  that  it  is  entirely  contrary  to  the 
spirit  of  the  gospel  for  its  ministers  to  enter  upon  it  from  interested 
motives,  or  with  great  worldly  expectations.  On  the  contrary,  the 
commission  is  a  sufficient  call  to  them  to  venture  all,  and,  like  the 
primitive  Christians,  go  everywhere  preaching  the  gospel. 

"  It  might  be  necessary,  however,  for  two,  at  least,  to  go  together, 
and  in  general  I  should  think  it  best  that  they  should  be  married 
men,  and  to  prevent  their  time  from  being  employed  in  procuring 
necessaries,  two,  or  more,  other  persons,  with  their  wives  and  families, 
might  also  accompany  them,  who  should  be  wholly  employed  in  pro- 
viding for  them.  In  most  countries  it  would  be  necessary  for  them  to 
cultivate  a  little  spot  of  ground  just  for  their  support,  which  would  be 
a  resource  to  them,  whenever  their  supplies  failed.  Not  to  mention 
the  advantages  they  would  reap  from  each  other's  company,  it  would 
take  off  the  enormous  expense  which  has  always  attended  undertakings 
of  this  kind,  the  first  expense  being  the  whole  ;  for^  though  a  large 
colony  needs  support  for  a  considerable  time,  yet  so  small  a  number 
would,  upon  receiving  the  first  crop,  maintain  themselves.  They 
would  have  the  advantage  of  choosing  their  situation,  their  wants 
would  be  few  ;  the  women,  and  even  the  children,  would  be  necessary 
for  domestic  purposes  :  and  a  few  articles  of  stock,  as  a  cow  or  two, 
and  a  bull,  and  a  few  other  cattle  of  (both  sexes,  a  very  few  utensils  of 
husbandry,  and  some  corn  to  sow  their  land,  would  be  sufficient. 
Those  who  attend  the  missionaries  should  understand  husbandry,  fish- 


1786  HIS  MISSIONARY  IDEAL.  39 

ing,  fowling,  etc.,  and  be  provided  with  the  necessary  implements  for 
these  purposes.  Indeed,  a  variety  of  methods  may  be  thought  of,  and 
when  once  the  work  is  undertaken,  many  things  will  suggest  themselves 
to  us,  of  which  we  at  present  can  form  no  idea. 

"  FIFTHLY,  As  to  learning  their  languages,  the  same  means  would  be 
found  necessary  here  as  in  trade  between  different  nations.  In  some 
cases  interpreters  might  be  obtained,  who  might  be  employed  for  a 
time  ;  and  where  these  were  not  to  be  found,  the  missionaries  must 
have  patience,  and  mingle  with  the  people,  till  they  have  learned  so 
much  of  their  language  as  to  be  able  to  communicate  their  ideas  to 
them  in  it.  It  is  well  known  to  require  no  very  extraordinary  talents 
to  learn,  in  the  space  of  a  year,  or  two  at  most,  the  language  of  any 
people  upon  earth,  so  much  of  it  at  least  as  to  be  able  to  convey  any 
sentiments  we  wish  to  their  understandings. 

"  The  missionaries  must  be  men  of  great  piety,  prudence,  courage, 
and  forbearance  ;  of  undoubted  orthodoxy  in  their  sentiments,  and 
must  enter  with  all  their  hearts  into  the  spirit  of  their  mission  ;  they 
must  be  willing  to  leave  all  the  comforts  of  life  behind  them,  and  to 
encounter  all  the  hardships  of  a  torrid  or  a  frigid  climate,  an  uncom- 
fortable manner  of  living,  and  every  other  inconvenience  that  can  attend 
this  undertaking.  Clothing,  a  few  knives,  powder  and  shot,  fishing- 
tackle,  and  the  articles  of  husbandry  above  mentioned,  must  be  pro- 
vided for  them  ;  and  when  arrived  at  the  place  of  their  destination, 
their  first  business  must  be  to  gain  some  acquaintance  with  the  lan- 
guage of  the  natives  (for  which  purpose  two  would  be  better  than  one), 
and  by  all  lawful  means  to  endeavour  to  cultivate  a  friendship  with  them, 
and  as  soon  as  possible  let  them  know  the  errand  for  which  they  were 
sent.  They  must  endeavour  to  convince  them  that  it  was  their  good 
alone  which  induced  them  to  forsake  their  friends,  and  all  the  com- 
forts of  their  native  country.  They  must  be  very  careful  not  to  resent 
injuries  which  may  be  offered  to  them,  nor  to  think  highly  of  them- 
selves, so  as  to  despise  the  poor  heathens,  and  by  those  means  lay  a 
foundation  for  their  resentment  or  rejection  of  the  gospel.  They 
must  take  every  opportunity  of  doing  them  good,  and  labouring  and 
travelling  night  and  day,  they  must  instruct,  exhort,  and  rebuke,  with 
all  long  suffering  and  anxious  desire  for  them,  and,  above  all,  must  be 
instant  in  prayer  for  the  effusion  of  the  Holy  Spirit  upon  the  people  of 
their  charge.  Let  but  missionaries  of  the  above  description  engage  in 
the  work,  and  we  shall  see  that  it  is  not  impracticable. 

' '  It  might  likewise  be  of  importance,  if  God  should  bless  their 
labours,  for  them  to  encourage  any  appearances  of  gifts  amongst  the 


40  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1786 

people  of  their  charge  ;  if  such  should  be  raised  up  many  advantages 
would  be  derived  from  their  knowledge  of  the  language  and  customs 
of  their  countrymen  ;  and  their  change  of  conduct  would  give  great 
weight  to  their  ministrations." 

This  first  and  still  greatest  missionary  treatise  in  the 
English  language  closes  with  the  practical  suggestion  of  these 
means — fervent  and  united  prayer,  the  formation  of  a  catholic 
or,  failing  that,  a  Particular  Baptist  Society  of  "  persons  whose 
hearts  are  in  the  work,  men  of  serious  religion  and  possessing 
a  spirit  of  perseverance,"  with  an  executive  committee,  and 
subscriptions  from  rich  and  poor  of  a  tenth  of  their  income 
for  both  village  preaching  and  foreign  missions,  or,  at  least, 
an  average  of  one  penny  or  more  per  week  from  all  members 
of  congregations.  He  thus  concludes  : — "  It  is  true  all  the 
reward  is  of  mere  grace,  but  it  is  nevertheless  encouraging ; 
what  a  treasure,  what  an  harvest  must  await  such  characters 
as  Paul,  and  Eliot,  and  Brainerd,  and  others,  who  have  given 
themselves  wholly  to  the  work  of  the  Lord.  What  a  heaven 
will  it  be  to  see  the  many  myriads  of  poor  heathens,  of 
Britons  amongst  the  rest,  who  by  their  labours  have  been 
brought  to  the  knowledge  of  God.  Surely  a  crown  of  rejoic- 
ing like  this  is  worth  aspiring  to.  Surely  it  is  worth  while 
to  lay  ourselves  out  with  all  our  might,  in  promoting  the 
cause  and  kingdom  of  Christ." 

So  William  Carey  appealed  to  others ;  so  he  gave  himself. 
"A  sublimer  thought,"  Wilberforce  afterwards  declared  to 
the  House  of  Commons,  "  cannot  be  conceived  than  when  a 
poor  cobbler  formed  the  resolution  to  give  to  the  millions  of 
Hindoos  the  Bible  in  their  own  language." 

Carey  thus  projected  the  first  organisation  which  England 
had  seen  for  missions  to  all  the  human  race  outside  of 
Christendom  ;  and  his  project,  while  necessarily  requiring  a 
society  to  carry  it  out,  as  coming  from  an  "  independent " 
church,  provided  that  every  member  of  every  congregation 


1786  HIS  MISSIONARY  IDEAL.  41 

should  take  a  part  to  the  extent  of  fervent  and  united  prayer, 
and  of  an  average  subscription  of  at  least  a  penny  a  week. 
He  came  as  near  the  New  Testament  ideal  of  all  Christians 
acting  in  an  aggressive  missionary  church  as  was  possible  in 
an  age  when  the  Established  Churches  of  England,  Scotland, 
and  Germany  scouted  foreign  missions,  and  the  Free  Churches 
were  chiefly  congregational  in  their  ecclesiastical  action,  and 
were  only  learning  to  escape  from  the  Erastian  yoke. .  While 
asserting  the  other  ideal  of  the  voluntary  tenth  or  tithe  as 
both  a  Scriptural  principle  and  Puritan  practice,  his  common 
sense  was  satisfied  to  suggest  an  average  penny  a  week,  all 
over,  for  every  Christian.  At  this  hour,  a  century  since 
Carey  wrote,  and  after  a  remarkable  missionary  revival  in 
consequence  of  what  he  wrote  and  did,  all  Christendom, 
Evangelical,  Greek,  and  Latin,  does  not  give  so  much  as  three 
millions  sterling  a  year  to  Christianise  the  majority  of  the 
race  still  outside  its  pale.  It  is  not  too  much  to  say  that 
were  Carey's  penny  a  week  from  every  Christian  a  fact, 
and  the  prayer  which  would  sooner  or  later  accompany  it, 
the  three  millions  would  be  thirty,  and  Christendom  would 
become  a  term  nearly  synonymous  with  humanity.  The 
churches,  whether  by  themselves  or  by  societies,  have  yet  to 
pray  and  organise  up  to  the  level  of  Carey's  penny  a  week. 

The  absolute  originality  as  well  as  grandeur  of  the  uncon- 
scious action  of  the  peasant  shoemaker  who,  from  1779,  prayed 
daily  for  all  the  heathen  and  slaves,  and  organised  his  society 
accordingly,  will  be  seen  in  the  dim  light  or  darkness  visible 
of  all  who  had  preceded  him.  They  were  before  the  set 
time ;  he  was  ready  in  the  fulness  of  the  missionary  prepara- 
tion. They  belonged  not  only  to  periods,  but  to  nations,  to 
churches,  to  communities  which  were  failing  in  the  struggle 
for  fruitfulness  and  expansion  in  new  worlds  and  fresh  lands  ; 
he  was  a  son  of  England,  which  had  come  or  was  about  to 
come  out  of  the  struggle  a  victor  charged  with  the  terrible 


42  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1786 

responsibility  of  the  special  servant  of  the  Lord,  as  no  people 
had  ever  before  been  charged  in  all  history,  sacred  or 
secular.  William  Carey,  indeed,  reaped  the  little  that  the 
few  brave  toilers  of  the  wintry  time  had  sown,  and  he  acknow- 
ledges their  toil,  while  ever  ignorant  to  the  last  of  his  own 
merit,  with  a  humility  that  is  pathetic.  But  he  reaped  only  as 
each  generation  garners  such  fruits  of  its  predecessor  as  may 
have  been  worthy  to  survive.  He  was  the  first  of  the  true 
Anastatosantes  of  the  modern  world,  as  only  an  English-speak- 
ing man  could  be — of  the  most  thorough,  permanent,  and 
everlasting  of  all  Eeformers,  the  men  who  turn  the  world 
upside  down,  because  they  make  it  rise  up  and  depart  from 
deadly  beliefs  and  practices,  from  the  fear  and  the  fate  of 
death,  into  the  life  and  light  of  Christ  and  the  Father. 

Who  were  his  predecessors,  reckoning  from  the  Ee- 
naissance  of  Europe,  the  discovery  of  America,  and  the  open- 
ing up  of  India  and  Africa  ?  Erasmus  comes  first,  the  bright 
scholar  of  compromise  who  in  1516  gave  the  New  Testament 
again  to  Europe,  as  three  centuries  after  Carey  gave  it  to  all 
Southern  Asia,  and  whose  missionary  treatise,  Ecclesiastes,  in 
1535  anticipated,  theoretically  at  least,  Carey's  Enquiry  by 
two  centuries  and  a  half.  The  missionary  dream  of  this 
escaped  monk  of  Eotterdam  and  Basel,  who  taught  women 
and  weavers  and  cobblers  to  read  the  Scriptures,  and  prayed 
that  these  might  be  translated  into  all  languages,  was  realised 
in  the  scandalous  iniquities  and  frauds  of  Portuguese  and 
Spanish  and  Jesuit  missions  in  West  and  East.  Luther 
had  enough  to  do  with  his  papal  antichrist  and  his  German 
translation  of  the  Greek  of  the  Testament  of  Erasmus.  The 
Lutheran  church  drove  missions  into  the  hands  of  the  Pietists 
and  Moravians — Wiclif 's  offspring — who  nobly  but  ineffect- 
ually strove  to  do  a  work  meant  for  the  whole  Christian  com- 
munity. The  Church  of  England  thrust  forth  the  Puritans 
first  to  Holland  and  then  to  New  England,  where  Eliot,  the 


1786  HIS  FORERUNNERS.  43 

Brainerds,  and  the  Mayhews  sought  to  evangelise  tribes 
which  did  not  long  survive  themselves. 

It  was  from  Courtenhall,  a  Northamptonshire  village  near 
Paulerspury,  that  in  1644  there  went  forth  the  appeal  for  the 
propagation  of  the  Gospel  which  comes  nearest  to  Carey's 
cry  from  the  same  midland  region.  Cromwell  was  in  power 
and  had  himself  planned  a  Protestant  Propaganda,  so  to  the 
Long  Parliament  William  Castell,  "  parson  of  Courtenhall," 
sent  a  petition  which  resulted  in  an  ordinance  creating  the 
Corporation  for  the  Propagation  of  the  Gospel  in  New 
England.  These  were  days  when,  longing  after  a  living 
unity  opposed  to  the  corrupting  uniformity  of  the  Papal 
Church,  good  men  all  over  Europe,  and  especially  in  England, 
proposed  schemes  pan-protestant,  pan-sophic,  pan-methodic, 
and  so  on.  Seventy  English  ministers  had  backed  the 
Courtenhall  petition,  and  six  of  the  Church  of  Scotland, 
first  of  whom  was  Alexander  Henderson.  The  corporation 
failed  to  do  much  for  the  Eed  Indians,  although  Eobert 
Boyle  governed  it  for  thirty  years  and  became  the  friend  of 
Eliot.  But  it  familiarised  the  nation  with  the  duty  of  caring 
for  the  dark  races  then  coming  more  and  more  under  our 
sway  alike  in  America  and  in  India.  The  Moravians  taught 
the  Wesleys  and  Whitefield  to  care  for  the  negroes  of  the 
West  Indies.  The  English  and  Scottish  Propagation  Societies 
sought  rather  to  provide  spiritual  aids  for  the  colonists  and 
the  highlanders. 

The  two  great  thinkers  of  the  eighteenth  century,  who 
flourished  as  philosopher  and  moralist  when  Carey  was  a 
youth,  taught  the  principles  which  he  of  all  others  was  to 
apply  on  their  spiritual  and  most  effective  side.  Adam 
Smith  put  his  finger  on  the  crime  which  had  darkened  and 
continued  till  1834  to  shadow  the  brightness  of  geographical 
enterprise  in  both  hemispheres — the  treatment  of  the  natives 
by  Europeans  whose  superiority  of  force  enabled  them  to 


44  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1786 

commit  every  sort  of  injustice  in  the  new  lands.  He 
sought  a  remedy  in  establishing  an  equality  of  force  by  the 
mutual  communication  of  knowledge  and  of  all  sorts  of 
improvements  by  an  extensive  commerce.1  Samuel  Johnson 
rose  to  a  higher  level  alike  of  wisdom  and  righteousness,  when 
he  expressed  the  indignation  of  a  Christian  mind  that  the 
propagation  of  truth  had  never  been  seriously  pursued  by 
any  European  nation,  and  the  hope  "that  the  light  of  the 
Gospel  will  at  last  illuminate  the  sands  of  Africa  and  the 
deserts  of  America,  though  its  progress  cannot  but  be  slow 
when  it  is  so  much  obstructed  by  the  lives  of  Christians." 2 

The  early  movement  which  is  connected  most  directly 
with  Carey's  and  the  Northamptonshire  Baptists'  began  in 
Scotland.  Its  Kirk,  emasculated  by  the  Eevolution  settle- 
ment of  Queen  Anne,  had  put  down  the  evangelical  teaching 
of  Boston  and  the  "  marrow  "  men,  and  had  cast  out  the 
fathers  of  the  Secession  in  1733.  In  1742  the  quickening 
spread  over  the  west  country,  and  the  year  after  John  Bonar, 
the  minister  of  Torphichen,  published  his  letter  On  the 
Duty  and  Advantages  of  Religious  Societies.  In  October 
1744  several  ministers  in  Scotland  united,  for  the  two  years 
next  following,  in  what  they  called,  and  what  has  since 
become  familiar  in  America  as,  a  "  Concert  to  promote  more 
abundant  application  to  a  duty  that  is  perpetually  binding — 
prayer  that  our  God's  kingdom  may  come,  joined  with 
praises ; "  to  be  offered  weekly  on  Saturday  evening  and 
Sunday  morning,  and  more  solemnly  on  the  first  Tuesday  of 
every  quarter.  Such  was  the  result,  and  so  did  the  prayer 
concert  spread  in  the  United  Kingdom  that  in  August  1746 
a  memorial  was  sent  to  Boston  inviting  all  Christians  in 
North  America  to  enter  into  it  for  the  next  seven  years.  It 
was  on  this  that  Jonathan  Edwards  wrote  his  Humble 

1  Wealth  of  Nations,  Book  IV.,  Chap.  VII. 

2  Introduction  to  The  World  Displayed. 


1786  THE  CONCERT  FOR  PRAYER.  45 

Attempt  to  promote  Explicit  Agreement  and  Visible  Union 
of  God's  People  in  Extraordinary  Prayer  for  the  Revival  of 
Eeligion  and  the  Advancement  of  Christ's  Kingdom  on  Earth. 
This  work  of  Edwards  came  into  the  hands  of  Carey 
when  at  Moulton,  and  powerfully  influenced  the  Northamp- 
tonshire Association  of  Baptist  ministers  and  messengers. 
At  their  meeting  in  Nottingham  in  1784  Sutcliff  of 
Olney  suggested  and  Eyland  of  Northampton  drafted  an 
invitation  to  the  people  to  join  them,  for  one  hour  on 
the  first  Monday  of  every  month,  in  prayer  for  the  effusion 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  of  God.  "  Let  the  whole  interest  of  the 
Eedeemer  be  affectionately  remembered,"  wrote  these  catholic 
men,  and  to  give  emphasis  to  their  oscumenical  missionary 
desires  they  added  in  italics — "  Let  the  spread  of  the  Gospel 
to  the  most  distant  parts  of  the  habitable  globe  be  the  object 
of  your  most  fervent  requests.  We  shall  rejoice  if  any  other 
Christian  societies  of  our  own  or  other  denominations  will 
join  with  us,  and  we  do  now  invite  them  most  cordially  to 
join  heart  and  hand  in  the  attempt."  To  this  Carey  pro- 
minently referred  in  his  Enquiry,  tracing  to  even  the  un- 
importunate  and  feeble  prayers  of  these  eight  years  the 
increase  of  the  churches,  the  clearing  of  controversies,  the 
opening  of  lands  to  missions,  the  spread  of  civil  and  religious 
liberty,  the  noble  effort  made  to  abolish  the  inhuman  slave- 
trade,  and  the  establishment  of  the  free  settlement  of  Sierra 
Leone.  And  then  he  hits  the  other  blots  in  the  movement, 
besides  the  want  of  importunity  and  earnestness — "  We  must 
not  be  contented  with  praying  without  exerting  ourselves  in 
the  use  of  means.  .  .  .  Were  the  children  of  light  but  as  wise 
in  their  generation  as  the  children  of  this  world,  they  would 
stretch  every  nerve  to  gain  so  glorious  a  prize,  nor  ever 
imagine  that  it  was  to  be  obtained  in  any  other  way."  A 
trading  company  obtain  a  charter  and  go  to  its  utmost  limits. 
The  charter,  the  encouragements  of  Christians  are  exceeding 


46  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1786 

great,  and  the  returns  promised  infinitely  superior.  "  Suppose 
a  company  of  serious  Christians,  ministers  and  private  persons, 
were  to  form  themselves  into  a  society." 

The  man  was  ready  who  had  been  specially  fitted,  by 
character  and  training,  to  form  the  home  organisation  of  the 
society,  while  Carey  created  its  foreign  mission.  For  the 
next  quarter  of  a  century  William  Carey  and  Andrew  Fuller 
worked  lovingly,  fruitfully  together,  with  the  breadth  of  half 
the  world  between  them.  The  one  showed  how,  by  Bible 
and  church  and  school,  by  physical  and  spiritual  truth,  India 
and  all  Asia  could  be  brought  to  Christ ;  the  other  taught 
England,  Scotland,  and  America  to  begin  at  last  to  play  their 
part  in  an  enterprise  as  old  as  Abraham ;  as  divine  in  its 
warrant,  its  charge,  its  promise,  as  Christ  Himself.  Seven 
years  older  than  Carey,  his  friend  was  born  a  farmer's  son  and 
labourer  in  the  fen  country  of  Cromwell  whom  he  resembled, 
was  self-educated  under  conditions  precisely  similar,  and 
passed  through  spiritual  experiences  almost  exactly  the  same. 
The  two,  unknown  to  each  other,  found  themselves  when 
called  to  preach  at  eighteen  unable  to  reconcile  the  grim 
dead  theology  of  their  church  with  the  new  life  and  liberty 
which  had  come  to  them  direct  from  the  Spirit  of  Christ  and 
from  His  Word.  Carey  had  left  his  ancestral  church,  the 
Church  of  England,  at  a  time  when  the  biographer  of 
Eomaine  could  declare  with  truth  that  that  preacher  was  the 
only  evangelical  in  the  established  churches  of  all  London,  and 
that  of  twenty  thousand  clergymen  in  England  the  number 
who  preached  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Jesus  had  risen  from  not 
twenty  in  1749  to  three  hundred  in  1789.  The  methodism 
of  the  Wesleys  was  beginning  to  tell,  but  the  Baptists  were 
as  lifeless  as  the  Established  Church.  In  both  the  Church 
and  Dissent  there  were  individuals  only,  like  Newton  and 
Scott,  the  elder  Eobert  Hall  and  Eyland,  whose  spiritual 
fervour  made  them  marked  men. 


1786  FALSE  CALVINISM  OPPOSED  TO  MISSIONS.  47 

The  Baptists,  who  had  stood  alone  as  the  advocates  of 
toleration,  religious  and  civil,  in  an  age  of  intolerance  which 
made  them  the  victims,  had  subsided  like  Puritan  and 
Covenanter  when  the  Eevolution  of  1688  brought  persecution 
to  an  end.  The  section  who  held  the  doctrine  of  "  general " 
redemption,  and  are  now  honourably  known  as  General 
Baptists,  preached  ordinary  Arminianism  and  even  Socin- 
ianism.  The  more  earnest  and  educated  among  them  clung 
to  Calvinism,  but,  by  adopting  the  unhappy  because  mis- 
leading and  unscriptural  term  of  "  particular  "  Baptists,  gra- 
dually fell  under  a  fatalistic  and  antinomian  spell.  This 
false  Calvinism,  which  the  French  theologian  of  Geneva 
would  have  been  the  first  to  denounce,  proved  all  the  more 
hostile  to  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel  of  salvation  to  the 
heathen  abroad  as  well  as  the  sinner  at  home,  that  it  pro- 
fessed to  be  an  orthodox  evangel  while  either  emasculating 
the  Gospel  or  turning  the  grace  of  God  into  licentiousness. 
From  such  "  particular  "  preachers  as  young  Fuller  and  Carey 
listened  to,  at  first  with  bewilderment,  then  impatience,  and 
then  denunciation,  missions  of  no  kind  could  come.  Fuller 
exposed  and  pursued  the  delusion  with  a  native  shrewdness, 
a  John-Bull-like  persistence,  a  masculine  sagacity,  and  a  fine 
English  style,  which  have  won  for  him  the  apt  name  of  the 
Franklin  of  Theology.  For  more  than  twenty  years  Fullerism, 
as  it  was  called,  raised  a  controversy  like  that  of  the  Marrow 
of  Divinity  in  Scotland,  and  cleared  the  ground  sufficiently  at 
least  to  allow  of  the  foundation  of  foreign  missions  in  both 
countries.  To  us  now  it  seems  incredible  that  the  only  class 
who  a  century  ago  represented  evangelicalism  should  have 
opposed  missions  to  the  heathen,  on  the  ground  that  the 
Gospel  is  meant  only  for  the  elect,  whether  at  home  or  abroad ; 
that  nothing  spiritually  good  is  the  duty  of  the  unregenerate, 
therefore  "  nothing  must  be  addressed  to  them  in  a  way  of 
exhortation  excepting  what  relates  to  external  obedience." 


48  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1789 

The  same  year,  1784,  in  which  the  Baptist  concert  for 
prayer  was  begun,  saw  the  publication  of  Fuller's  Gospel 
Worthy  of  all  Acceptation.  Seven  years  later  he  preached 
at  Clipstone  the  famous  sermon  in  which  he  applied  the 
appeal  of  the  Lord  of  Hosts  (in  Haggai)  to  the  Jewish 
apathy — "  The  time  is  not  come  that  the  Lord's  house  should 
be  built" — with  a  power  and  directness  which  neverthe- 
less failed  practically  to  convince  himself.  The  men  who 
listened  to  him  had  been  praying  for  seven  years,  yet  had 
opposed  Carey's  pleas  for  a  foreign  mission,  had  treated  him 
as  a  visionary  or  a  madman.  When  Fuller  had  published 
his  treatise,  Carey  had  drawn  the  practical  deduction — "If 
it  be  the  duty  of  all  men,  when  the  Gospel  comes,  to 
believe  unto  salvation,  then  it  is  the  duty  of  those  who  are 
entrusted  with  the  Gospel  to  endeavour  to  make  it  known 
among  all  nations  for  the  obedience  of  faith."  Now,  after 
seven  more  years  of  waiting,  and  remembering  the  manuscript 
Enquiry  which  had  not  then  seen  the  light,  Carey  thought, 
action  cannot  be  longer  delayed.  Hardly  was  the  usual 
discussion  that  followed  the  meeting  over  when,  as  the  story 
is  told  by  the  son  of  Eyland  who  had  silenced  him  in  a 
former  minister's  meeting,  Carey  appealed  to  his  brethren  to 
put  their  preaching  into  practice  and  begin  a  missionary 
society  that  very  day.  Fuller's  sermon  bore  the  title  of  The 
Evil  Nature  and  the  Dangerous  Tendency  of  Delay  in  the  Con- 
cerns of  Religion,  and  it  had  been  preceded  by  one  on  being 
very  jealous  for  the  Lord  God  of  Hosts,  in  which  Sutcliff 
cried  for  the  divine  passion,  the  celestial  fire  that  burned  in 
the  bosom  and  blazed  in  the  life  of  Elijah.  The  Elijah  of 
their  own  church  and  day  was  among  them,  burning  and 
blazing  for  years,  and  all  that  he  could  induce  them  to  pro- 
mise was  vaguely  that  "  something  should  be  done,"  and  to 
throw  to  his  importunity  the  easy  request  that  he  would 
publish  his  manuscript  and  preach  next  year's  sermon. 


1791  ORDAINED  PASTOR  AT  LEICESTER.  49 

Meanwhile,  in  1789,  Carey  had  left  Moulton  for  Leicester, 
whither  he  was  summoned  to  build  up  a  congregation,  ruined 
by  antinomianism,  in  the  mean  brick  chapel  of  the  obscure 
quarter  of  Harvey  Lane.  This  chapel  his  genius  and 
young  Eobert  Hall's  eloquence  made  so  famous  in  time  that 
the  Baptists  sent  off  a  vigorous  hive  to  the  fine  new  church. 
In  an  equally  humble  house  opposite  the  chapel  the  poverty  of 
the  pastor  compelled  him  to  keep  a  school  from  nine  in  the 
morning  till  four  in  winter  and  five  in  summer.  Between 
this  and  the  hours  for  sleep  and  food  he  had  little  leisure ;  but 
that  he  spent,  as  he  had  done  all  his  life  before  and  did  all 
his  life  after,  with  a  method  and  zeal  which  doubled  his 
working  days.  In  a  letter  to  his  father  we  have  this  division 
of  his  leisure — Monday,  "  the  learned  languages  " ;  Tuesday, 
"  the  study  of  science,  history,  composition,  etc.";  Wednesday, 
"I  preach  a  lecture,  and  have  been  for  more  than  twelve 
months  on  the  Book  of  Eevelation";  Thursday,  "I  visit  my 
friends";  Friday  and  Saturday,  "preparing  for  the  Lord's 
Day."  He  preached  three  times  every  Sunday  in  his  own 
chapel  or  the  surrounding  villages,  with  such  results  that 
in  one  case  he  added  hundreds  to  its  Wesleyan  congrega- 
tion. He  was  secretary  to  the  local  committee  of  dissenters. 
"Add  to  this  occasional  journeys,  ministers'  meetings,  etc., 
and  you  will  rather  wonder  that  I  nave  any  time,  than  that  I 
have  so  little.  I  am  not  my  own,  nor  would  I  choose  for 
myself.  Let  God  employ  me  where  he  thinks  fit,  and  give 
me  patience  and  discretion  to  fill  up  my  station  to  his  honour 
and  glory." 

"  After  I  had  been  probationer  in  this  place  a  year  and 
ten  months,  on  the  24th  of  May  1*791  I  was  solemnly  set 
apart  to  the  office  of  pastor.  About  twenty  ministers  of 
different  denominations  were  witnesses  to  the  transactions 
of  the  day.  After  prayer  Brother  Hopper  of  Nottingham 
addressed  the  congregation  upon  the  nature  of  an  ordination, 

E 


50  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1791 

after  which  he  proposed  the  usual  questions  to  the  church, 
and  required  my  Confession  of  Faith ;  which  being  delivered, 
Brother  Byland  prayed  the  ordination  prayer,  with  laying  on 
of  hands.  Brother  Sutcliff  delivered  a  very  solemn  charge 
from  Acts  vi.  4 — '  But  we  will  give  ourselves  continually  to 
prayer  and  to  the  ministry  of  the  word.'  And  Brother  Fuller 
delivered  an  excellent  address  to  the  people  from  Eph.  v.  2 — 
'  Walk  in  love.'  In  the  evening  Brother  Pearce  of  Birmingham 
preached  from  Gal.  vi.  14 — c  God  forbid  that  I  should  glory, 
save  in  the  cross  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  by  whom  the 
world  is  crucified  unto  me  and  I  unto  the  world.'  The  day 
was  a  day  of  pleasure,  and  I  hope  of  profit  to  the  greatest 
part  of  the  Assembly." 

Carey  became  the  friend  of  his  neighbour,  Thomas  Eobin- 
son,  evangelical  rector  of  St.  Mary's,  to  whom  he  said  on  one 
occasion  when  indirectly  charged  in  humorous  fashion  with 
"sheep-stealing  " :  "  Mr.  Eobinson,  I  am  a  dissenter,  and  you  are 
a  churchman ;  we  must  each  endeavour  to  do  good  according 
to  our  light.  At  the  same  time,  you  may  be  assured  that  I 
had  rather  be  the  instrument  of  converting  a  scavenger  that 
sweeps  the  streets  than  of  merely  proselyting  the  richest  and 
best  characters  in  your  congregation."  Dr.  Arnold  and  others 
opened  to  him  their  libraries,  and  all  good  men  in  Leicester 
soon  learned  to  be  proud  of  the  new  Baptist  minister.  In 
the  two  chapels,  as  in  that  of  Moulton,  enlarged  since  his 
time,  memorial  tablets  tell  succeeding  generations  of  the 
virtues  and  the  deeds  of  "  the  illustrious  W.  Carey,  D.D." 

The  ministers'  meeting  of  1*792  came  round,  and  on  31st 
May  Carey  seized  his  opportunity.  The  place  was  Notting- 
ham, from  which  the  1784  invitation  to  prayer  had  gone  forth. 
Was  the  answer  to  come  just  there  after  nine  years'  waiting  ? 
His  Enquiry  had  been  published;  had  it  prepared  the  brethren? 
Eyland  had  been  always  loyal  to  the  journeyman  shoemaker 
he  had  baptized  in  the  river,  and  he  gives  us  this  record : — 


1792         FORMS  THE  FIRST  ENGLISH  MISSIONARY  SOCIETY.  51 

"  If  all  the  people  had  lifted  up  their  voices  and  wept,  as 
the  children  of  Israel  did  at  Bochim,  I  should  not  have 
wondered  at  the  effect.  It  would  only  have  seemed  propor- 
tionate to  the  cause,  so  clearly  did  he  prove  the  criminality 
of  our  supineness  in  the  cause  of  God."  The  text  was  Isaiah's 
(liv.  2,  3)  vision  of  the  widowed  church's  tent  stretching  forth 
till  her  children  inherited  the  nations  and  peopled  the  deso- 
late cities,  and  the  application  to  the  reluctant  brethren  was 
couched  in  these  two  great  maxims  written  ever  since  on  the 
banners  of  the  missionary  host  of  the  kingdom  : — 

EXPECT  GREAT  THINGS  FROM  GOD. 
ATTEMPT  GREAT  THINGS  FOR  GOD. 

The  service  was  over ;  even  Fuller  was  afraid,  even  Eyland 
made  no  sign,  and  the  ministers  were  leaving  the  meeting. 
Seizing  Fuller's  arm  with  an  imploring  look,  the  preacher, 
whom  despair  emboldened  to  act  alone  for  his  Master,  ex- 
claimed :  "  And  are  you,  after  all,  going  again  to  do  nothing  ?" 
What  Fuller  describes  as  the  "much  fear  and  trembling"  of 
these  inexperienced,  poor,  and  ignorant  village  preachers 
gave  way  to  the  appeal  of  one  who  had  gained  both  know- 
ledge and  courage,  and  who,  as  to  funds  and  men,  was  ready 
to  give  himself.  They  entered  on  their  minutes  this  much  : 
— "That  a  plan  be  prepared  against  the  next  ministers' 
meeting  at  Kettering  for  forming  a  Baptist  Society  for  pro- 
pagating the  Gospel  among  the  Heathen."  There  was 
more  delay,  but  only  for  four  months.  The  first  purely 
English  Missionary  Society,  which  sent  forth  its  own  English 
founder,  was  thus  constituted  as  described  in  the  minutes  of 
the  Northampton  ministers'  meeting. 

"At  the  ministers'  meeting  at  Kettering,  October  2,  1792,  after 
the  public  services  of  the  day  were  ended,  the  ministers  retired  to 
consult  farther  on  the  matter,  and  to  lay  a  foundation  at  least  for  a 
society,  when  the  following  resolutions  were  proposed,  and  unanimously 
to  :— 


52  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1792 

"  1.  Desirous  of  making  an  effort  for  the  propagation  of  the  gospel 
among  the  heathen,  agreeably  to  what  is  recommended  in  brother 
Carey's  late  publication  on  that  subject,  we,  whose  names  appear  to  the 
subsequent  subscription,  do  solemnly  agree  to  act  in  society  together 
for  that  purpose. 

"  2.  As  in  the  present  divided  state  of  Christendom,  it  seems  that 
each  denomination,  by  exerting  itself  separately,  is  most  likely  to 
accomplish  the  great  ends  of  a  mission,  it  is  agreed  that  this  society  be 
called  The  Particular  [Calvinistic]  Baptist  Society  for  Propagating  the 
Gospel  among  the  Heathen. 

"  3.  As  such  an  undertaking  must  needs  be  attended  with  expense, 
we  agree  immediately  to  open  a  subscription  for  the  above  purpose, 
and  to  recommend  it  to  others. 

"  4.  Every  person  who  shall  subscribe  ten  pounds  at  once,  or  ten 
shillings  and  sixpence  annually,  shall  be  considered  a  member  of  the 
society. 

"  5.  That  the  Eev.  John  Kyland,  Reynold  Hogg,  William  Carey, 
John  Sutcliff,  and  Andrew  Fuller,  be  appointed  a  committee,  three  of 
whom  shall  be  empowered  to  act  in  carrying  into  effect  the  purposes 
of  this  society. 

"  6.  That  the  Rev.  Reynold  Hogg  be  appointed  treasurer,  and  the 
Rev.  Andrew  Fuller  secretary. 

"  7.  That  the  subscriptions  be  paid  in  at  the  Northampton  minis- 
ters' meeting,  October  31,  1792,  at  which  time  the  subject  shall  be 
considered  more  particularly  by  the  committee  and  other  subscribers 
who  may  be  present. 

"Signed,  John  Ryland,  Reynold  Hogg,  John  Sutcliff,  Andrew 
Fuller,  Abraham  Greenwood,  Edward  Sherman,  Joshua  Burton, 
Samuel  Pearce,  Thomas  Blundel,  William  Heighton,  John  Eayres, 
Joseph  Timms  ;  whose  subscriptions  in  all  amounted  to  <£l3  :  2  :  6." 

The  procedure  suggested  in  "  brother  Carey's  late  publica- 
tion" was  strictly  followed — a  society  of  subscribers,  2d.  a 
week,  or  10s.  6d.  a  year  as  a  compromise  between  the  tithes 
and  the  penny  a  week  of  the  Enquiry.  The  secretary  was 
the  courageous  Fuller,  who  once  said  to  Kyland  and  Sutcliff : 
"  You  excel  me  in  wisdom,  especially  in  foreseeing  difficulties. 
I  therefore  want  to  advise  with  you  both,  but  to  execute 
without  you."  The  frequent  chairman  was  Eyland,  who  was 
soon  to  train  missionaries  for  the  work  at  Bristol  College.  The 


1792  THE  BACK  PARLOUR  IN  KETTERING.  53 

treasurer  was  the  only  rich — and  not  self-denying — man  of 
the  twelve,  who  soon  resigned  his  office  into  a  layman's  hands, 
as  was  right.  Of  the  others  we  need  now  point  only  to 
Samuel  Pearce,  the  seraphic  preacher  of  Birmingham,  who 
went  home  and  sent  £70  to  the  collection,  and  who,  since  he 
desired  to  give  himself  like  Carey,  became  to  him  dearer  than 
even  Fuller  was.  The  place  was  a  low-roofed  parlour  in  the 
house  of  Widow  Wallis,  looking  on  to  a  back  garden,  which 
many  a  pilgrim  still  visits,  and  around. which  there  gathered 
thousands  in  1842  to  hold  the  first  jubilee  of  modern  missions. 
Already  the  centenary  is  at  hand. 

Can  any  good  come  out  of  Kettering  ?  was  the  conclusion 
to  which  the  Baptist  ministers  of  London  came,  with  the  one 
exception  of  Booth,  when  they  met  formally  to  decide  whether 
like  those  of  Birmingham  and  other  places  they  should  join 
the  primary  society.  Benjamin  Beddome,  a  venerable  scholar 
whom  Eobert  Hall  declared  to  be  chief  among  his  brethren, 
replied  to  Fuller  in  language  which  is  far  from  unusual  even 
at  the  present  day,  but  showing  the  position  which  the 
Leicester  minister  had  won  for  himself  even  then : — 

"  I  think  your  scheme,  considering  the  paucity  of  well-qualified 
ministers,  hath  a  very  unfavourable  aspect  with  respect  to  destitute 
churches  at  home,  where  charity  ought  to  begin.  I  had  the  pleasure 
once  to  see  and  hear  Mr.  Carey  ;  it  struck  me  he  was  the  most  suit- 
able person  in  the  kingdom,  at  least  whom  I  knew,  to  supply  my  place, 
and  make  up  my  great  deficiencies  when  either  disabled  or  removed. 
A  different  plan  is  formed  and  pursued,  and  I  fear  that  the  great  and 
good  man,  though  influenced  by  the  most  excellent  motives,  will  meet 
with  a  disappointment.  However,  God  hath  His  ends,  and  whoever  is 
disappointed  He  cannot  be  so.  My  unbelieving  heart  is  ready  to 
suggest  that  the  time  is  not  come,  the  time  that  the  Lord's  house 
should  be  built." 

The  other  Congregationalists  made  no  sign.  The  Presby- 
terians, with  a  few  noble  exceptions  like  Dr.  Erskine  whose 
Dutch  volume  Carey  had  translated,  denounced  such  move- 


54  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1792 

ments  as  revolutionary  in  a  General  Assembly  of  socinianised 
"moderates."  The  Church  of  England  kept  haughtily  or 
timidly  aloof,  though  king  and  archbishop  were  pressed  to 
send  a  mission.  Hence  Fuller's  reference  to  this  time  : — 
"  When  we  began  in  1*792  there  was  little  or  no  respectability 
among  us,  not  so  much  as  a  squire  to  sit  in  the  chair  or  an 
orator  to  address  him  with  speeches.  Hence  good  Dr.  Sten- 
nett  advised  the  London  ministers  to  stand  aloof  and  not 
commit  themselves."  One  man  in  India  had  striven  to  rouse 
the  Church  to  its  duty  as  Carey  had  done  at  home.  Charles 
Grant  had  in  1787  written  from  Malda  to  Charles  Simeon 
and  Wilberforce  for  eight  missionaries,  but  not  one  Church 
of  England  clergyman  could  be  found  to  go.  Thirty  years 
after,  when  chairman  of  the  Court  of  Directors  and  father  of 
Lord  Glenelg  and  Sir  Eobert  Grant,  he  wrote: — "I  had 
formed  the  design  of  a  mission  to  Bengal :  Providence  re- 
served that  honour  for  the  Baptists."  After  all,  the  twelve 
village  pastors  in  the  back  parlour  of  Kettering  were  the  more 
really  the  successors  of  the  twelve  apostles  in  the  upper  room 
of  Jerusalem. 


CHAPTEE   III. 

INDIA  AS  CAREY  FOUND  IT. 

1793. 

Tahiti  v.  Bengal — Carey  and  Thomas  appointed  missionaries  to  Bengal — The 
farewell  at  Leicester — John  Thomas,  first  medical  missionary — Carey's 
letter  to  his  father — The  Company's  "abominable  monopoly" — The 
voyage  —  Carey's  aspirations  for  world  -  wide  missions  —  Lands  at 
Calcutta — His  description  of  Bengal  in  1793 — Contrast  presented  by 
Carey  to  Clive,  Hastings,  and  Cornwallis — The  spiritual  founder  of  an 
Indian  Empire  of  Christian  Britain — Bengal  and  the  famine  of  1769-70 — 
The  Decennial  Settlement  declared  permanent — Effects  on  the  landed 
classes — Obstacles  to  Carey's  work — East  India  Company  at  its  worst 
— Hindooism  and  the  Bengalees  in  1793 — Position  of  Hindoo  women — 
Missionary  attempts  before  Carey's  —  Ziegenbalg  and  Schwartz  — 
Kiernander  and  the  chaplains — Hindooised  state  of  Anglo-Indian  society 
and  its  reaction  on  England — Guneshan  Dass,  the  first  caste  Hindoo  to 
visit  England — William  Carey  had  no  predecessor. 

CAREY  had  desired  to  go  first  to  Tahiti  or  Western  Africa. 
Pearce  preferred  the  Pelew  Islands,  whence  Captain  Henry- 
Wilson  had  brought  the  king's  son  to  England.  The  natives 
of  North  America  and  the  negroes  of  the  West  Indies  and 
Sierra  Leone  were  being  cared  for  by  Moravian  and  Wesleyan 
evangelists.  The  narrative  of  Captain  Cook's  two  first 
voyages  to  the  Pacific  and  discovery  of  Tahiti  had  appeared 
in  the  same  year  in  which  the  Northampton  churches  began 
their  seven  years'  concert  of  prayer,  just  after  his  own  second 
baptism.  From  the  map,  and  a  leathern  globe  which  also  he 
is  said  to  have  made,  he  had  been  teaching  the  children  of 
Piddington,  Moulton,  and  Leicester  the  great  outlines  and 


56  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1793 

thrilling  details  of  expeditions  round  the  world  which  roused 
both  the  scientific  and  the  simple  of  England  as  much 
as  the  discoveries  of  Columbus  had  excited  Europe.  When 
the  childlike  ignorance  and  natural  grace  of  the  Hawaiians, 
which  had  at  first  fired  him  with  the  longing  to  tell 
them  the  good  news  of  God,  were  seen  turned  into  the  wild 
justice  of  revenge,  which  made  Cook  its  first  victim,  Carey 
became  all  the  more  eager  to  anticipate  the  disasters  of  later 
days.  That  was  work  for  which  others  were  to  be  found.  It 
was  not  amid  the  scattered  and  decimated  savages  of  the 
Pacific  or  of  America  that  the  citadel  of  heathenism  was 
found,  nor  by  them  that  the  world,  old  and  new,  was  to  be 
made  the  kingdom  of  the  Christ.  With  the  cautious  wisdom 
that  marked  all  Fuller's  action,  though  perhaps  with  the 
ignorance  that  was  due  to  Carey's  absence,  the  third  meeting 
of  the  new  society  recorded  this  among  other  articles  "  to  be 
examined  and  discussed  in  the  most  diligent  and  impartial 
manner — In  what  part  of  the  heathen  world  do  there  seem 
to  be  the  most  promising  openings  ? " 

The  answer,  big  with  consequence  for  the  future  of  the 
East,  was  in  their  hands,  in  the  form  of  a  letter  from  Carey,  who 
stated  that  "  Mr.  Thomas,  the  Bengal  missionary  "  was  trying 
to  raise  a  fund  for  that  province,  and  asked  "  whether  it 
would  not  be  worthy  of  the  Society  to  try  to  make  that  and 
ours  unite  with  one  fund  for  the  purpose  of  sending  the 
gospel  to  the  heathen  indefinitely."  Tahiti  was  not  to  be 
neglected,  nor  Africa,  nor  Bengal,  in  "  our  larger  plan,"  which 
included  alone  four  hundred  millions  of  our  fellow  men, 
among  whom  it  was  an  object  "  worthy  of  the  most  ardent 
and  persevering  pursuit  to  disseminate  the  humane  and 
saving  principles  of  the  Christian  Eeligion."  If  this  Mr. 
Thomas  were  worthy,  his  experience  made  it  desirable  to 
begin  with  Bengal.  Thomas  answered  for  himself  at  the 
next  meeting,  when  Carey  fell  upon  his  neck  and  wept, 


1793  SET  APART  AS  A  MISSIONARY.  57 

having  previously  preached  from  the  words — "  Behold  I  come 
quicldy,  and  My  reward  is  with  Me."  "  We  saw,"  said  Fuller 
afterwards,  "  there  was  a  gold  mine  in  India,  but  it  was  as 
deep  as  the  centre  of  the  earth.  Who  will  venture  to  explore 
it ?  'I  will  venture  to  go  down/  said  Carey,  ' but  remember 
that  you  (addressing  Fuller,  Sutcliff  and  Eyland)  must  hold 
the  ropes.'  We  solemnly  engaged  to  him  to  do  so,  nor  while 
we  live  shall  we  desert  him." 

Carey  and  Thomas,  an  ordained  minister  and  a  medical 
evangelist,  were  at  this  meeting  in  Kettering,  on  10th  Janu- 
ary 1793,  appointed  missionaries  to  "the  East  Indies  for 
preaching  the  gospel  to  the  heathen,"  on  "£100  or  £150  a 
year  between  them  all," — that  is,  for  two  missionaries,  their 
wives,  and  four  children, — until  they  should  be  able  to  sup- 
port themselves  like  the  Moravians.  As  a  matter  of  fact, 
they  received  just  £200  in  all  for  the  first  three  years  when 
self-support  and  mission  extension  fairly  began.  The  whole 
sum  at  credit  of  the  Society  for  outfit,  passage,  and  salaries 
was  £130,  so  that  Fuller's  prudence  was  not  without  jus- 
tification when  supported  by  Thomas's  assurances  that  the 
amount  was  enough,  and  Carey's  modest  self-sacrifice.  "  We 
advised  Mr.  Carey,"  wrote  Fuller  to  Ryland,  "  to  give  up  his 
school  this  quarter,  for  we  must  make  up  the  loss  to  him." 
The  more  serious  cost  of  passage  money  was  raised  by  Fuller 
and  by  the  preaching  tours  of  the  two  missionaries.  During 
one  of  these,  at  Hull,  Carey  met  the  printer  and  newspaper 
editor,  William  Ward,  and  cast  his  mantle  over  him  thus — 
"  If  the  Lord  bless  us,  we  shall  want  a  person  of  your  business 
to  enable  us  to  print  the  Scriptures  ;  I  hope  you  will  come 
after  us,"  as  he  did  in  five  years. 

The  20th  March  1793  was  a  high  day  in  the  Leicester 
chapel,  Harvey  Lane,  when  the  missionaries  were  set  apart 
like  Barnabas  and  Paul — a  forenoon  of  prayer;  an  afternoon 
of  preaching  by  Thomas  from  Psalm  xvi.  4 ;  "  Their  sorrows 


58  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1793 

shall  be  multiplied  that  hasten  after  another  god  "  ;  an  even- 
ing of  preaching  by  the  treasurer  from  Acts  xxi.  14,  "  And 
when  he  would  not  be  persuaded,  we  ceased,  saying,  The  will 
of  the  Lord  be  done  "  ;  and  the  parting  charge  by  Fuller  the 
secretary,  from  the  risen  Lord's  own  benediction  and  forth- 
sending  of  His  disciples,  "  Peace  be  unto  you,  as  My  Father 
hath  sent  Me  even  so  send  I  you."  Often  in  after  days  of 
solitude  and  reproach  did  Carey  quicken  his  faith  by  reading 
the  brave  and  loving  words  of  Fuller  on  "  the  objects  you 
must  keep  in  view,  the  directions  you  must  observe,  the 
difficulties  you  must  encounter,  the  reward  you  may  expect." 

Under  date  four  days  after  we  find  this  entry  in  the 
Church  Book — "  Mr.  Carey,  our  minister,  left  Leicester  to  go 
on  a  mission  to  the  East  Indies,  to  take  and  propagate  the 
Gospel  among  those  idolatrous  and  superstitious  heathens. 
This  is  inserted  to  show  his  love  to  his  poor,  miserable, 
fellow  creatures.  In  this  we  concurred  with  him,  though  it 
is  at  the  expense  of  losing  one  whom  we  love  as  our  own 
souls."  When  Carey's  preaching  had  so  filled  the  church 
that  it  became  necessary  to  build  a  front  gallery  at  a  cost  of 
£98,  and  they  had  applied  to  several  other  churches  for 
assistance  in  vain,  he  thus  taught  them  to  help  themselves. 
The  minister  and  many  of  the  members  agreed  to  pay  off  the 
debt  "  among  ourselves  "  by  weekly  subscriptions, — a  process, 
however,  which  covered  five  years,  so  poor  were  they. 
Carey  left  this  as  a  parting  lesson  to  home  congregations, 
while  his  people  found  it  the  easier  to  pay  the  debt  that  they 
had  sacrificed  their  best,  their  own  minister,  to  the  work  of 
missions  for  which  he  had  taught  them  to  pray. 

John  Thomas,  four  years  older  than  Carey,  was  a  surgeon 
who  had  made  two  voyages  to  Calcutta  in  the  Oxford  Indiaman, 
had  been  of  spiritual  service  to  Charles  Grant,  Mr.  George 
Udny,  and  the  Bengal  civilian  circle  at  Malda,  and  had 
been  supported  by  Mr.  Grant  as  a  missionary  for  a  time  until 


1793  BENGAL  HIS  FIELD.  59 

his  temper,  eccentricities,  and  debts  outraged  his  friends  and 
drove  him  home  at  the  time  of  the  Kettering  meetings.  Full 
justice  has  been  done  to  a  character  and  a  career  somewhat 
resembling  those  of  John  Newton,  by  his  patient  and  able 
biographer,  the  Eev.  C.  B.  Lewis.1  John  Thomas  has  the 
merit  of  being  the  first  medical  missionary,  at  a  time  when 
no  other  Englishman  cared  for  either  the  bodies  or  souls 
of  our  recently  acquired  subjects  in  North  India,  outside  of 
Charles  Grant's  circle.  He  has  more  ;  he  was  used  by  God 
to  direct  Carey  to  the  dense  Hindoo  population  of  Bengal — to 
the  people,  and  to  the  centre,  that  is,  where  Brahmanism  had 
its  seat,  and  whence  Buddhism  had  been  carried  by  thousands 
of  missionaries  all  over  Southern,  Eastern,  and  Central  Asia. 
But  there  our  ascription  of  merit  to  Thomas  must  stop. 
However  well  he  might  speak  the  uncultured  Bengali,  he 
never  could  write  the  language  or  translate  the  Bible  into  a 
literary  style  so  that  it  could  be  understood  by  the  people  or 
influence  their  leaders.  His  temper  kept  Charles  Grant  back 
from  helping  the  infant  mission,  though  anxious  to  see  Mr. 
Carey  and  to  aid  him  and  any  other  companion.  The  debts 
of  Thomas  caused  him  and  Carey  to  be  excluded  from  the 
Oxford,  in  which  his  friend  the  commander  had  agreed  to 
take  them  and  their  party  without  a  license;  clouded  the 
early  years  of  the  enterprise  with  their  shadow,  and  formed 
the  heaviest  of  the  many  burdens  Carey  had  to  bear  at  start- 
ing. If,  afterwards,  the  old  association  of  Thomas  with  Mr. 
Udny  at  Malda  gave  Carey  a  home  during  his  Indian 
apprenticeship,  this  was  a  small  atonement  for  the  loss  of 
the  direct  help  of  Mr.  Grant.  It  was  the  epistles  of  wrong- 
headed  zealots  like  Thomas  and  Fountain,  their  first  colleague, 
which  called  forth  the  ridicule  of  wits  like  Sydney  Smith 
who  were  unworthy  to  be  named  with  Carey,  Marshman,  and 
Ward,  and  gratuitously  obstructed  Fuller  and  Wilberforce  in 

1  London  :  Macmillan  and  Co.,  1873. 


60  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1793 

their  lifelong  efforts  for  toleration  to  Christianity  in  India. 
If  Carey  proved  to  be  the  John  among  the  men  who  began 
to  make  Serampore  illustrious,  Thomas  was  the  Peter,  so  far 
as  we  know  Peter  in  the  Gospels  only. 

Just  before  being  ejected  from  the  Oxford,  as  he  had  been 
deprived  of  the  effectual  help  of  Charles  Grant  through  his 
unhappy  companion,  when  with  only  his  eldest  son  Felix 
beside  him,  how  did  he  view  his  God-given  mission  ?  The 
very  different  nature  of  his  wife,  who  had  announced  to  him 
the  birth  of  a  son,  clung  anew  to  the  hope  that  this  might 
cause  him  to  turn  back.  Writing  from  Eyde  on  the  6th  May 
he  thus  replied  with  a  sweet  delicacy  of  human  affection,  but 
with  true  loyalty  to  his  Master's  call : — 

"Beceived  yours,  giving  me  an  account  of  your  safe 
delivery.  This  is  pleasant  news  indeed  to  me ;  surely  good- 
ness and  mercy  follow  me  all  my  days.  My  stay  here  was 
very  painful  and  unpleasant,  but  now  I  see  the  goodness  of 
God  in  it.  It  was  that  I  might  hear  the  most  pleasing 
accounts  that  I  possibly  could  hear  respecting  earthly  things. 
You  wish  to  know  in  what  state  my  mind  is.  I  answer,  it  is 
much  as  when  I  left  you.  If  I  had  all  the  world  I  would 
freely  give  it  all  to  have  you  and  my  dear  children  with  me;  but 
the  sense  of  duty  is  so  strong  as  to  overpower  all  other  con- 
siderations ;  I  could  not  turn  back  without  guilt  on  my  soul. 
I  find  a  longing  desire  to  enjoy  more  of  God ;  but,  now  I  am 
among  the  people  of  the  world,  I  think  I  see  more  beauties 
in  godliness  than  ever,  and,  I  hope,  enjoy  more  of  God  in 
retirement  than  I  have  done  for  some  time  past.  .  .  .  You 
want  to  know  what  Mrs.  Thomas  thinks,  and  how  she  likes 
the  voyage.  .  .  .  She  would  rather  stay  in  England  than  go 
to  India ;  but  thinks  it  right  to  go  with  her  husband.  .  .  . 
Tell  my  dear  children  I  love  them  dearly,  and  pray  for  them 
constantly.  Felix  sends  his  love.  I  look  upon  this  mercy 
as  an  answer  to  prayer  indeed.  Trust  in  God.  Love  to 


1793          SELF-DEVOTED  TO  THE  SEE  VICE  OF  GOD  ALONE.  61 

Kitty,  brothers,  sisters,  etc.  Be  assured  I  love  you  most 
affectionately.  Let  me  know  my  dear  little  child's  name. — 
I  am,  for  ever,  your  faithful  and  affectionate  husband, 

"WILLIAM  CAKEY. 

"  My  health  never  was  so  well.  I  believe  the  sea  makes 
Felix  and  me  both  as  hungry  as  hunters.  I  can  eat  a  mon- 
strous meat  supper,  and  drink  a  couple  of  glasses  of  wine 
after  it,  without  hurting  me  at  all.  Farewell." 

She  was  woman  and  wife  enough,  in  the  end,  to  do  as 
Mrs.  Thomas  had  done,  but  she  stipulated  that  her  sister 
should  accompany  her. 

By  a  series  of  specially  providential  events,  as  it  seemed, 
such  as  marked  the  whole  early  history  of  this  first  mis- 
sionary enterprise  of  modern  England,  Carey  and  Thomas 
secured  a  passage  on  board  the  Danish  Indiaman  Kron 
Princessa  Maria,  bound  from  Copenhagen  to  Serampore. 
At  Dover,  where  they  had  been  waiting  for  days,  the  eight 
were  roused  from  sleep  by  the  news  that  the  ship  was  off  the 
harbour.  Sunrise  on  the  13th  June  saw  them  on  board. 
Carey  had  had  other  troubles  besides  his  colleague  and  his 
wife.  His  father,  then  fifty-eight  years  old,  had  not  given 
him  up  without  a  struggle.  "  Is  William  mad  ?"  he  had  said 
when  he  received  the  letter  in  which  his  son  thus  offered 
himself  up  on  the  missionary  altar.  His  mother  had  died 
six  years  before  : — 

"LEICESTER,  Jan.  17th,  1793. 

"DEAR  AND  HONOURED  FATHER — The  importance  of 
spending  our  time  for  God  alone,  is  the  principal  theme  of 
the  gospel.  I  beseech  you,  brethren,  says  Paul,  by  the 
mercies  of  God,  that  you  present  your  bodies  a  living  sacri- 
fice, holy  and  acceptable,  which  is  your  reasonable  service. 
To  be  devoted  like  a  sacrifice  to  holy  uses,  is  the  great 
business  of  a  Christian,  pursuant  to  these  requisitions.  I 
consider  myself  as  devoted  to  the  service  of  God  alone,  and 


62  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1793 

now  I  am  to  realise  my  professions.  I  am  appointed  to  go 
to  Bengal,  in  the  East  Indies,  a  missionary  to  the  Hindoos. 
I  shall  have  a  colleague  who  has  been  there  five  or  six 
years  already,  and  who  understands  their  language.  They 
are  the  most  mild  and  inoffensive  people  in  all  the  world,  but 
are  enveloped  in  the  greatest  superstition,  and  in  the  grossest 
ignorance.  ...  I  hope,  dear  father,  you  may  be  enabled  to 
surrender  me  up  to  the  Lord  for  the  most  arduous,  honour- 
able, and  important  work  that  ever  any  of  the  sons  of  men 
were  called  to  engage  in.  I  have  many  sacrifices  to  make. 
I  must  part  with  a  beloved  family  and  a  number  of  most 
affectionate  friends.  Never  did  I  see  such  sorrow  manifested 
as  reigned  through  our  place  of  worship  last  Lord's-day.  But 
I  have  set  my  hand  to  the  plough. — I  remain,  your  dutiful 
son,  WILLIAM  CAREY." 

When  in  London  Carey  had  asked  John  Newton  :  "  What 
if  the  Company  should  send  us  home  on  our  arrival  in 
Bengal  ? "  "  Then  conclude/'  was  the  reply,  "  that  your  Lord 
has  nothing  there  for  you  to  accomplish.  But  if  He  have,  no 
power  on  earth  can  hinder  you."  By  Act  of  Parliament  not 
ten  years  old,  every  subject  of  the  king  going  to  or  found  in 
the  East  Indies  without  a  license  from  the  Company,  was 
guilty  of  a  high  crime  and  misdemeanour,  and  liable  to  fine 
and  imprisonment.  Only  four  years  previously  a  regulation 
had  compelled  every  commander  to  deliver  to  the  Hoogli 
pilot  a  return  of  the  passengers  on  board  that  the  Act  might 
be  enforced.  The  Danish  nationality  of  the  ship  and  crew 
saved  the  missionary  party.  So  grievously  do  unjust  laws 
demoralise  contemporary  opinion,  that  Fuller  was  constrained 
to  meet  the  objections  of  many  to  the  "  illegality "  of  the 
missionaries'  action  by  reasoning,  unanswerable  indeed,  but 
not  now  required  :  "  The  apostles  and  primitive  ministers 
were  commanded  to  go  into  all  the  world,  and  preach  the 
gospel  to  every  creature  ;  nor  were  they  to  stop  for  the  per- 


1793  HIS  JOURNAL  ON  THE  VOYAGE.  63 

mission  of  any  power  upon  earth,  but  to  go,  and  take  the 
consequences.  If  a  man  of  God,  conscious  of  having  nothing 
in  his  heart  unfriendly  to  any  civil  government  whatever,  but 
determined  in  all  civil  matters  to  obey  and  teach  obedience 
to  the  powers  that  are,  put  his  life  in  his  hand,  saying,  '  I 
will  go,  and  if  I  am  persecuted  in  one  city  I  will  flee  to 
another,'  .  .  .  whatever  the  wisdom  of  this  world  may  decide 
upon  his  conduct,  he  will  assuredly  be  acquitted,  and  more 
than  acquitted,  at  a  higher  tribunal." 

Carey's  journal  of  the  voyage  begins  with  an  allusion  to 
"  the  abominable  East  Indian  monopoly,"  which  he  was  to 
do  more  than  any  other  man  to  break  down  by  weapons  not 
of  man's  warfare.  The  second  week  found  him  at  Bengali, 
and  for  his  companion  the  poems  of  Cowper.  Of  the  four 
fellow-passengers  one  was  a  French  deist,  with  whom  he  had 
many  a  debate.  He  sorely  missed  the  preaching  in  which  he 
had  delighted. 

"  Aug.  2. — I  feel  myself  to  be  much  declined,  upon  the 
whole,  in  the  more  spiritual  exercises  of  religion ;  yet  have 
had  some  pleasant  exercises  of  soul,  and  feel  my  heart  set 
upon  the  great  work  upon  which  I  am  going.  Sometimes 
I  am  quite  dejected  when  I  see  the  impenetrability  of 
the  hearts  of  those  with  us.  They  hear  us  preach  on  the 
Lord's-day,  but  we  are  forced  to  witness  their  disregard 
to  God  all  the  week.  0  may  God  give  us  greater  success 
among  the  heathen.  I  am  very  desirous  that  my  children 
may  pursue  the  same  work  ;  and  now  intend  to  bring  up  one 
in  the  study  of  Sanskrit,  and  another  of  Persian.  0  may 
God  give  them  grace  to  fit  them  for  the  work !  I  have 
been  much  concerned  for  fear  the  power  of  the  Company 
should  oppose  us.  ... 

"  Aug.  20. — I  have  reason  to  lament  over  a  barrenness  of 
soul,  and  am  sometimes  much  discouraged ;  for  if  I  am  so 
dead  and  stupid,  how  can  I  expect  to  be  of  any  use  among 


64  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1793 

the  heathen  ?  Yet  I  have  of  late  felt  some  very  lively  desires 
after  the  success  of  our  undertaking.  If  there  is  anything 
engages  my  heart  in  prayer  to  God,  it  is  that  the  heathen 
may  be  converted,  and  that  the  society  which  has  so  gener- 
ously exerted  itself  may  be  encouraged,  and  excited  to  go  on 
with  greater  vigour  in  the  important  undertaking.  .  .  . 

"  Nov.  9. — I  think  that  I  have  had  more  liberty  in  prayer, 
and  more  converse  with  God,  than  for  some  time  before  ; 
but  have,  notwithstanding,  been  a  very  unfruitful  creature, 
and  so  remain.  For  near  a  month  we  have  been  within  two 
hundred  miles  of  Bengal,  but  the  violence  of  the  currents  set 
us  back  when  we  have  been  at  the  very  door.  I  hope  I  have 
learned  the  necessity  of  bearing  up  in  the  things  of  God 
against  wind  and  tide,  when  there  is  occasion,  as  we  have 
done  in  our  voyage." 

To  the  Society  he  writes  for  a  Polyglot  Bible,  the  Gospels 
in  Malay,  Curtis's  Botanical  Magazine,  and  Sowerby's  English 
Botany,  at  his  own  cost,  and  thus  plans  the  conquest  of  the 
world : — 

"  I  hope  the  Society  will  go  on  and  increase,  and  that 
the  multitudes  of  heathen  in  the  world  may  hear  the  glorious 
words  of  truth.  Africa  is  but  a  little  way  from  England ; 
Madagascar  but  a  little  way  further ;  South  America,  and  all 
the  numerous  and  large  islands  in  the  Indian  and  Chinese 
seas,  I  hope  will  not  be  passed  over.  A  large  field  opens  on 
every  side,  and  millions  of  perishing  heathens,  tormented  in 
this  life  by  idolatry,  superstition,  and  ignorance,  and  exposed 
to  eternal  miseries  in  the  world  to  come,  are  pleading ;  yea, 
all  their  miseries  plead  as  soon  as  they  are  known,  with  every 
heart  that  loves  God,  and  with  all  the  churches  of  the  living 
God.  Oh,  that  many  labourers  may  be  thrust  out  into  the 
vineyard  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  and  that  the  gentiles  may 
come  to  the  knowledge  of  the  truth  as  it  is  in  Him  !" 

On  the  7th  November,  as  the  ship  lay  in  the  roads  of 


1793       CONTRASTED  WITH  CLIVE  AND  WARREN  HASTINGS.  65 

Balasore,  he  and  Thomas  landed  and  "  began  our  labours." 
For  three  hours  the  people  of  the  bazaar  listened  with  great 
attention  to  Thomas,  and  one  prepared  for  them  a  native 
dinner  with  plantain  leaf  for  dish,  and  fingers  for  knives  and 
forks.  Balasore — name  of  Krishna — was  one  of  the  first 
settlements  of  the  English  in  North  India  in  1642,  and  there 
the  American  Baptist  successors  of  Carey  have  since  carried  on 
his  work.  On  the  llth  November,  after  a  five  months'  voyage, 
they  landed  at  Calcutta  unmolested.  The  first  fortnight's 
experience  of  the  city,  whose  native  population  he  estimated 
at  200,000,  and  of  the  surrounding  country,  he  thus  con- 
denses : — "  I  feel  something  of  what  Paul  felt  when  he  beheld 
Athens,  and  'his  spirit  was  stirred  within  him.'  I  see  one 
of  the  finest  countries  in  the  world,  full  of  industrious  in- 
habitants ;  yet  three-fifths  of  it  are  an  uncultivated  jungle, 
abandoned  to  wild  beasts  and  serpents.  If  the  gospel 
flourishes  here,  '  the  wilderness  will  in  every  respect  become 
a  fruitful  field/  " 

Clive,  Hastings  (Macpherson,  during  an  interregnum  of 
twenty-two  months),  and  Cornwallis  were  the  men  who  had 
founded  and  administered  the  empire  of  British  India  up  to 
this  time.  Carey  passed  the  last  Governor-General  in  the 
Bay  of  Bengal  as  he  retired  with  the  honours  of  a  seven 
years'  successful  generalship  and  government  to  atone  for  the 
not  unhappy  surrender  at  York  Town,  which  had  resulted  in 
the  independence  of  the  United  States.  Sir  John  Shore,  after- 
wards Lord  Teignmouth,  who  had  been  selected  by  Pitt  to 
carry  out  the  reforms  which  he  had  elaborated  along  with  his 
predecessor,  had  entered  on  his  high  office  just  a  fortnight 
before.  What  a  contrast  was  presented,  as  man  judges,  by 
the  shy  shoemaker,  schoolmaster,  and  Baptist  preacher,  who 
found  not  a  place  in  which  to  lay  his  head  save  a  hovel  lent 
to  him  by  a  Hindoo,  to  Clive,  whose  suicide  he  might  have 
heard  of  when  a  child  ;  to  Hastings,  who  for  seventeen  years 

J 


66  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAfiEY.  1793 

had  stood  before  his  country  impeached.  They  were  men 
described  by  Macaulay  as  of  ancient,  even  illustrious  lineage, 
and  they  had  brought  into  existence  an  empire  more  extensive 
than  that  of  Rome.  He  was  a  peasant  craftsman,  who  had 
taught  himself  with  a  skill  which  Lord  Wellesley,  their  suc- 
cessor almost  as  great  as  themselves,  delighted  publicly  to 
acknowledge ;  a  man  of  the  people,  of  the  class  who  had  used 
the  Roman  Empire  to  build  out  of  it  a  universal  Christendom, 
who  were  even  then  turning  France  upside  down,  creating  the 
Eepublic  of  America,  and  giving  new  life  to  Great  Britain 
itself.  The  little  Englishman  was  about  to  do  in  Calcutta 
and  from  Serampore  what  the  little  Jew,  Paul,  had  done  in 
Antioch  and  Ephesus,  from  Corinth  and  Rome.  England 
might  send  its  nobly  born  to  erect  the  material  and  the  secular 
fabric  of  empire,  but  it  was  only,  in  the  providence  of  God, 
that  they  might  prepare  for  the  poor  village  preacher  to  con- 
vert the  empire  into  a  spiritual  force  which  should  in  time  do 
for  Asia  what  Rome  had  done  for  Western  Christendom.  But 
till  the  last,  as  from  the  first,  Carey  was  as  unconscious  of  the 
part  which  he  had  been  called  to  play  as  he  was  unresting  in 
the  work  which  it  involved.  It  is  no  fanatical  criticism,  but 
the  true  philosophy  of  history,  which  places  Carey  over 
against  Clive,  the  spiritual  and  secular  founders,  and  Duff 
beside  Hastings,  the  spiritual  and  secular  consolidators  of  our 
Indian  Empire. 

Carey's  work  for  India  underlay  the  first  period  of  forty 
years  of  transition  from  Cornwallis  to  Bentinck,  as  Duffs 
covered  the  second  of  thirty  years  to  the  close  of  Lord 
Canning's  administration,  which  introduced  the  present  era 
of  full  toleration  and  partial  but  increasing  self-government 
directed  by  Parliament. 

Carey  had  been  sent  not  only  to  the  one  people  outside 
of  Christendom  whose  conversion  would  tell  most  powerfully 
on  all  Asia,  Africa,  and  their  islands — the  Hindoos ;  but  to 


1793  BRITISH  INDIA  A  CENTUKY  AGO.  67 

the  one  province  which  was  almost  entirely  British,  and  could 
be  used  as  it  had  been  employed  to  assimilate  the  rest  of 
India — Bengal.  Territorially  the  East  India  Company  pos- 
sessed, when  he  landed,  nothing  outside  of  the  Ganges  valley 
of  Bengal,  Bihar,  and  Benares  save  a  few  spots  on  the  Madras 
and  Malabar  coasts  and  the  portion  just  before  taken  in  the 
Mysore  war.  The  rest  was  desolated  by  the  Marathas,  the 
Nizam,  Tipoo,  and  other  Mohammedan  adventurers.  On  the 
Gangetic  delta  and  right  up  to  Allahabad,  but  not  beyond, 
the  Company  ruled  and  raised  revenue,  leaving  the  other 
functions  of  the  state  to  Mohammedans  of  the  type  of  Turkish 
pashas  under  the  titular  superiority  of  the  effete  Emperor 
of  Delhi.  The  Bengali  and  Hindi-speaking  millions  of  the 
Ganges  and  the  simpler  aborigines  of  the  hills  had  been 
devastated  by  the  famine  of  1769-70,  which  the  Company's 
officials,  who  were  powerless  where  they  did  not  intensify  it 
by  interference  with  trade,  confessed  to  have  cut  off  from  ten 
to  twelve  millions  of  human  beings.  Over  three-fifths  of 
the  area  the  soil  was  left  without  a  cultivator.  The  whole 
young  of  that  generation  perished,  so  that,  even  twenty  years 
after,  Lord  Cornwallis  officially  described  one-third  of  Bengal 
as  a  jungle  inhabited  only  by  wild  beasts.  A  quarter  of  a 
century  after  Carey's  language  was,  as  we  have  seen,  "  three- 
fifths  of  it  are  an  uncultivated  jungle  abandoned  to  wild  beasts 
and  serpents." 

But  the  British  peace,  in  Bengal  at  least,  had  allowed 
abundant  crops  to  work  their  natural  result  on  the  popula- 
tion. The  local  experience  of  Shore,  who  had  witnessed  the 
horrors  he  could  do  so  little  to  relieve,  had  united  with  the 
statesmanship  of  Cornwallis  to  initiate  a  series  of  administra- 
tive reforms  that  worked  some  evil  but  more  good  all  through 
Carey's  time.  First  of  all,  as  affecting  the  very  existence  and 
the  social  development  of  the  people,  or  their  capacity  for 
being  educated,  Christianised,  civilised  in  the  highest  sense, 


68  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1793 

there  was  the  relation  of  the  Government  to  the  ryots  ("  pro- 
tected ones  ")  and  the  zameendars  ("  landholders  ").     In  India, 
as  nearly  all  over  the  world  except  in  feudalised  Britain,  the 
state  is  the  common  landlord  in  the  interests  of  all  classes 
who  hold  the  soil  subject  to  the  payment  of  customary  rents, 
directly  or  through  middlemen,  to  the  Government.     For 
thirty  years  after  Plassey  the  Government  of  India  had  been 
learning  its  business,  and  in  the  process  had  injured  both 
itself  and  the  landed  classes,  as  much  as  has  been  done  in  Ire- 
land.    From  a  mere  trader  it  had  been,  more  or  less  con- 
sciously, becoming  a  ruler.     In  1786  the  Court  of  Directors, 
in  a  famous  letter,  tried  to  arrest  the  ruin  which  the  famine 
had   only  hastened  by  ordering  that   a   settlement  of  the 
land-tax  or  revenue  or  rent  be  made,  not  with  mere  farmers 
like  the  pashas  of  Turkey,  but  with  the  old  zameendars,  and 
that  the  rate  be  fixed  for  ten  years.     Cornwallis  and  Shore 
took  three  years  to  make  the  detailed  investigations,  and  in 
1789   the   state   rent-roll   of  Bengal  proper   was   fixed   at 
£2,858,772  a  year.     The  English  peer  who  was  Governor- 
General  at  once  jumped  to  the  conclusion  that  this  rate  should 
be  fixed  not  only  for  ten  years  but  for  ever.     The  experienced 
Bengal  civilian  protested  that  to  do  that  would  be  madness 
when  a  third  of  the  rich  province  was  out  of  cultivation,  and 
as  to  the  rest  its  value  was  but  little  known  and  its  estates 
were  without  reliable  survey  or  boundaries.     We  can  now  see 
that,  as  usual,  both  were  right  in  what  they  asserted  and 
wrong  in  what  they  denied.     The  principle  of  fixity  of  tenure 
and  tax  cannot  be  over-estimated  in  its  economic,  social,  and 
political  value,  but  it  should  have  been  applied  to  the  village 
communities  and  cultivating  peasants  without  the  intervention 
of  middlemen  other  than  the  large  ancestral  landholders  with 
'hereditary  rights,  and  that  on  the  standard  of  corn  rents. 
Cornwallis  had  it  in  his  power  thus  to  do  what  some  years 
afterwards  Von  Stein  did  in  Prussia  with  the  result  seen  in 


1793  LANDLORDS  AND  TENANTS.  69 

the  present  German  people  and  empire.  The  dispute  as  to  a 
permanent  or  a  decennial  settlement  was  referred  home,  and 
Pitt,  aided  by  Dundas  and  Charles  Grant,  took  a  week  to 
consider  it.  His  verdict  was  given  in  favour  of  feudalism. 
Eight  months  before  Carey  landed  at  Calcutta  the  settlement 
had  been  declared  perpetual ;  in  1795  it  was  extended  to 
Benares  also. 

During  the  next  twenty  years  mismanagement  and  debt 
revolutionised  the  landed  interest,  as  in  France  at  the  same 
time,  but  in  a  very  different  direction.  The  customary  rights 
of  the  peasant  proprietors  had  been  legislatively  secured  by 
reserving  to  the  Governor- General  the  power  "  to  enact  such 
regulations  as  he  may  think  necessary  for  the  protection  and 
welfare  of  the  dependent  talookdars,  ryots,  and  other  cultiva- 
tors of  the  soil."  The  peasants  continued  long  to  be  so  few  that 
there  was  competition  for  them  ;  the  process  of  extortion  with 
the  aid  of  the  courts  had  hardly  begun  when  they  were  many, 
and  the  zameendars  were  burdened  with  charges  for  the 
police.  But  in  1799  and  again  in  1812  the  state,  trembling 
for  its  rent,  gave  the  zameendars  further  authority.  The 
principle  of  permanence  of  assessment  so  far  co-operated  with 
the  splendid  fertility  of  the  Ganges  valley  and  the  peaceful 
multiplication  of  the  people  and  spread  of  cultivation,  that 
all  through  the  wars  and  annexations,  up  to  the  close  of  the 
Mutiny,  it  was  Bengal  which  enabled  England  to  extend  the 
empire  up  to  its  natural  limits  from  the  two  seas  to  the 
Himalaya.  But  in  1859  the  first  attempt  was  made  by  the 
famous  Act  X.  to  check  the  rack-renting  power  of  the  zameen- 
dars. And  now,  just  a  century  since  the  first  step  was  taken 
to  arrest  the  ruin  of  the  peasantry,  the  legislature  of  India  has 
again  tried  to  solve  for  the  whole  country  these  four  difficulties 
which  all  past  landed  regulations  have  intensified — to  give 
the  state  tenants  a  guarantee  against  uncertain  enhancements 
of  rent,  and  against  taxation  of  improvements  ;  to  minimise 


70  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1793 

the  evil  of  taking  rent  in  cash  instead  of  in  kind  by  arranging 
the  dates  on  which  rent  is  paid  ;  and  to  mitigate  if  not  pre- 
vent famine  by  allowing  relief  for  failure  of  crops.  As  pion- 
eering the  work  of  Carey  and  his  colleagues  all  through  was 
distinctly  hindered  by  the  treatment  of  the  land  question,  for 
it  at  once  ground  down  the  mass  of  the  people  and  created  a 
class  of  oppressive  landlords  destitute  for  the  most  part  of 
public  spirit  and  the  higher  culture.  Both  were  disinclined 
by  their  circumstances  to  lend  an  ear  to  the  Gospel,  but  these 
circumstances  made  it  the  more  imperative  on  the  mission- 
aries to  tell  them,  to  teach  their  children,  to  print  for  all 
the  glad  tidings.  Carey,  himself  of  peasant  extraction,  cared 
for  the  millions  of  the  people  above  all;  but  his  work 
in  the  classical  as  well  as  the  vernacular  languages  was 
equally  addressed  to  their  twenty  thousand  landlords.  The 
time  of  his  work — before  Bentinck ;  and  the  centre  of  it — 
outside  the  metropolis,  left  the  use  of  the  English  weapon 
against  Brahmanism  largely  for  Duff. 

When  Cornwallis,  following  Warren  Hastings,  completed 
the  substitution  of  the  British  for  the  Mohammedan  civil  ad- 
ministration by  a  system  of  courts  and  police  and  a  code  of 
regulations,  he  was  guilty  of  one  omission  and  one  mistake 
that  it  took  years  of  discussion  and  action  to  rectify.  He  did 
not  abolish  from  the  courts  the  use  of  Persian,  the  language 
of  the  old  Mussulman  invaders,  now  foreign  to  all  parties ; 
and  he  excluded  from  all  offices  above  £30  a  year  the 
natives  of  the  country,  contrary  to  their  fair  and  politic 
practice.  Bengal  and  its  millions,  in  truth,  were  nominally 
governed  in  detail  by  three  hundred  white  and  upright 
civilians,  with  the  inevitable  result  in  abuses  which  they 
could  not  prevent,  and  oppression  of  native  by  native  which 
they  would  not  check,  and  the  delay  or  development  of 
reforms  which  the  few  missionaries  long  called  for  in  vain. 
In  a  word,  after  making  the  most  generous  allowance  for  the 


1793  HINDOOISM  A  CENTURY  AGO.  71 

good  intentions  of  Cornwallis,  and  conscientiousness  of  Shore, 
his  successor,  we  must  admit  that  Carey  was  called  to  become 
the  reformer  of  a  state  of  society  which  the  worst  evils  of 
Asiatic  and  English  rule  combined  to  prevent  him  and  other 
self-sacrificing  or  disinterested  philanthropists  from  purifying. 
The  East  India  Company,  at  home  and  in  India,  had  reached 
that  low  depth  of  infamous  opposition  to  light  and  freedom 
in  any  form  which  justifies  Burke's  extremest  passages — the 
period  between  its  triumph  on  the  exclusion  of  "  the  pious 
clauses"  from  the  Charter  of  1793  and  its  sullen  defeat  in 
the  Charter  of  1813.  We  shall  reproduce  some  outlines  of 
the  picture  which  Ward  drew  : — x 

"On  landing  in  Bengal,  in  the  year  1793,  our  brethren  found 
themselves  surrounded  with  a  population  of  heathens  (not  including 
the  Mahometans)  amounting  to  at  least  one  hundred  millions  of  souls. 

"  On  the  subject  of  the  divine" nature,  with  the  verbal  admission  of 
the  doctrine  of  the  divine  unity,  they  heard  these  idolaters  speak  of 
330,000,000  of  gods.  Amidst  innumerable  idol  temples  they  found 
none  erected  for  the  worship  of  the  one  living  and  true  God.  Services 
without  end  they  saw  performed  in  honour  of  the  elements  and  deified 
heroes,  but  heard  not  one  voice  tuned  to  the  praise  or  employed  in  the 
service  of  the  one  God.  Unacquainted  with  the  moral  perfections  of 
Jehovah,  they  saw  this  immense  population  prostrate  before  dead 
matter,  before  the  monkey,  the  serpent,  before  idols  the  very  personi- 
fications of  sin  ;  and  they  found  this  animal,  this  reptile,  and  the 
lecher  Krishmi  and  his  concubine  Radha,  among  the  favourite  deities 
of  the  Hindoos.  .  .  . 

"They  found  that  this  immense  population  had  no  knowledge 
whatever  of  the  Divine  government ;  that  they  supposed  the  world  to 
be  placed  under  the  management  of  beings  ignorant,  capricious,  and 
wicked ;  that  the  three  principal  deities,  the  creator,  the  preserver, 
and  the  destroyer,  having  no  love  of  righteousness,  nor  any  settled 
rules  of  government,  were  often  quarrelling  with  each  other.  .  .  . 

"  Through  their  ignorance  of  the  divine  law,  of  the  corruption  of 
the  heart,  and  of  the  deep  turpitude  of  sin,  these  people  imagined 
that  the  waters  of  the  Ganges  had  virtue  enough  in  them  to  purify 
the  mind  from  its  earthly  stains  ;  and  hence  they  saw  the  whole  popu- 

1  Farewell  Letters  on  Returning  to  Bengal  in  1821. 


72  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1793 

lation  residing  in  its  neighbourhood,  morning  and  evening  crowding  to 
the  river  ;  they  saw  this  holy  water  carried  for  religious  uses  to  the 
most  distant  parts,  and  the  dying  hurried  in  their  last  moments  to  re- 
ceive their  last  purification  in  the  sacred  stream.  Under  the  delusion, 
that  sin  is  to  be  removed  by  the  merit  of  works,  they  observed  others 
undertaking  long  and  dangerous  pilgrimages  in  which  thousands 
perished  ;  while  others  were  seen  inflicting  on  their  bodies  the  most 
dreadful  tortures,  and  others  were  sitting  through  the  day  and  through 
the  year,  repeating  the  names  of  their  guardian  deities.  .  .  . 

"Respecting  the  real  nature  of  the  present  state,  the  missionaries 
perceived  that  the  Hindoos  laboured  under  the  most  fatal  misappre- 
hensions ;  that  they  believed  the  good  or  evil  actions  of  this  birth 
were  not  produced  as  the  volitions  of  their  own  wills,  but  arose  from, 
and  were  the  unavoidable  results  of,  the  actions  of  the  past  birth  ;  that 
their  present  actions  would  inevitably  give  rise  to  the  whole  com- 
plexion of  their  characters  and  conduct  in  the  following  birth  ;  and 
that  thus  they  were  doomed  to  interminable  transmigrations,  to  float 
as  some  light  substance  upon  the  bosom  of  an  irresistible  torrent.  .  .  . 

"  Amongst  these  idolaters  no  Bibles  were  found  ;  no  sabbaths  ;  no 
congregating  for  religious  instruction  in  any  form  ;  no  house  for  God  ; 
no  God  but  a  log  of  wood,  or  a  monkey  ;  no  Saviour  but  the  Ganges ; 
no  worship  but  that  paid  to  abominable  idols,  and  that  connected 
with  dances,  songs,  and  unutterable  impurities ;  so  that  what  should 
have  been  divine  worship,  purifying,  elevating,  and  carrying  the 
heart  to  heaven,  was  a  corrupt  but  rapid  torrent,  poisoning  the 
soul  and  carrying  it  down  to  perdition  ;  no  morality,  for  how 
should  a  people  be  moral  whose  gods  are  monsters  of  vice  ;  whose 
priests  are  their  ringleaders  in  crime;  whose  scriptures  encourage 
pride,  impurity,  falsehood,  revenge,  and  murder  ;  whose  worship  is 
connected  with  indescribable  abominations,  and  whose  heaven  is  a 
brothel  ?  As  might  be  expected,  they  found  that  men  died  here 
without  indulging  the  smallest  vestige  of  hope,  except  what  can  arise 
from  transmigration,  the  hope,  instead  of  plunging  into  some  place  of 
misery,  of  passing  into  the  body  of  some  reptile.  To  carry  to  such  a 
people  the  divine  word,  to  call  them  together  for  sacred  instruction,  to 
introduce  amongst  them  a  pure  and  heavenly  worship,  and  to  lead 
them  to  the  observance  of  a  Sabbath  on  earth,  as  the  preparative  and 
prelude  to  a  state  of  endless  perfection,  was  surely  a  work  worthy  for 
a  Saviour  to  command,  and  becoming  a  Christian  people  to  attempt." 

The   condition   of  women,  who  were  then  estimated  at 


1793  HINDOO  WOMEN  LAST  CENTURY.  73 

"  seventy-five  millions  of  minds,"  and  whom  the  last  census 
shows  to  be  now  124,000,000,  is  thus  described  after  an 
account  of  female  infanticide  : — 

"To  the  Hindoo  female  all  education  is  denied  by  the  positive 
injunction  of  the  shastru,  and  by  the  general  voice  of  the  population. 
Not  a  single  school  for  girls,  therefore,  all  over  the  country  !  With 
knitting,  sewing,  embroidery,  painting,  music,  and  drawing,  they  have 
no  more  to  do  than  with  letters  :  the  washing  is  done  by  men  of  a 
particular  tribe.  The  Hindoo  girl,  therefore,  spends  the  ten  first  years 
of  her  life  in  sheer  idleness,  immured  in  the  house  of  her  father. 

"  Before  she  has  attained  to  this  age,  however,  she  is  sought  after 
by  the  ghutuks,  men  employed  by  parents  to  seek  wives  for  their  sons. 
She  is  betrothed  without  her  consent ;  a  legal  agreement,  which  binds 
her  for  life,  being  made  by  the  parents  on  both  sides  while  she  is  yet 
a  child.  At  a  time  most  convenient  to  the  parents,  this  boy  and  girl 
are  brought  together  for  the  first  time,  and  the  marriage  ceremony  is 
performed  ;  after  which  she  returns  to  the  house  of  her  father. 

"  Before  the  marriage  is  consummated,  in  many  instances,  the  boy 
dies,  and  this  girl  becomes  a  widow  ;  and  as  the  law  prohibits  the 
marriage  of  widows,  she  is  doomed  to  remain  in  this  state  as  long  as 
she  lives.  The  greater  number  of  these  unfortunate  beings  become  a 
prey  to  the  seducer,  and  a  disgrace  to  their  families.  Not  long  since, 
a  bride,  on  the  day  the  marriage  ceremony  was  to  have  been  performed, 
was  burnt  on  the  funeral  pile  with  the  dead  body  of  the  bridegroom, 
at  Chandernagore,  a  few  miles  north  of  Calcutta.  Concubinage,  to  a 
most  awful  extent,  is  the  fruit  of  these  marriages  without  choice. 
What  a  sum  of  misery  is  attached  to  the  lot  of  woman  in  India  before 
she  has  attained  even  her  fifteenth  year  ! 

"  In  some  cases  as  many  as  fifty  females,  the  daughters  of  so  many 
Hindoos,  are  given  in  marriage  to  one  bramhun,  in  order  to  make 
these  families  something  more  respectable,  and  that  the  parents  may 
be  able  to  say,  we  are  allied  by  marriage  to  the  kooleens.  .  .  . 

"  But  the  awful  state  of  female  society  in  this  miserable  country 
appears  in  nothing  so  much  as  in  dooming  the  female,  the  widow,  to 
be  burnt  alive  with  the  putrid  carcase  of  her  husband.  The  Hindoo 
legislators  have  sanctioned  this  immolation,  showing  herein  a  studied 
determination  to  insult  and  degrade  woman.  She  is,  therefore,  in  the 
first  instance,  deluded  into  this  act  by  the  writings  of  these  bramhiins ; 
in  which  also  she  is  promised,  that  if  she  will  offer  herself,  for  the  benefit 
of  her  husband,  on  the  funeral  pile,  she  shall,  by  the  extraordinary 


74  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1793 

merit  of  this  action,  rescue  her  husband  from  misery,  and  take  him 
and  fourteen  generations  of  his  and  her  family  with  her  to  heaven, 
where  she  shall  enjoy  with  them  celestial  happiness  until  fourteen  kings 
of  the  gods  shall  have  succeeded  to  the  throne  of  heaven  (that  is, 
millions  of  years  !).  Thus  ensnared,  she  embraces  this  dreadful  death. 
I  have  seen  three  widows,  at  different  times,  burnt  alive  ;  and  had 
repeated  opportunities  of  being  present  at  similar  immolations,  but  my 
courage  failed  me.  .  .  . 

"  The  burying  alive  of  widows  manifests,  if  that  were  possible,  a 
still  more  abominable  state  of  feeling  towards  women  than  the  burning 
them  alive.  The  weavers  bury  their  dead.  When,  therefore,  a  widow 
of  this  tribe  is  deluded  into  the  determination  not  to  survive  her  hus- 
band, she  is  buried  alive  with  the  dead  body.  In  this  kind  of  immo- 
lation the  children  and  relations  dig  the  grave.  After  certain  ceremonies 
have  been  attended  to,  the  poor  widow  arrives,  and  is  let  down  into 
the  pit.  She  sits  in  the  centre,  taking  the  dead  body  on  her  lap  and 
encircling  it  with  her  arms.  These  relations  now  begin  to  throw  in 
the  soil ;  and  after  a  short  space,  two  of  them  descend  into  the  grave, 
and  tread  the  earth  firmly  round  the  body  of  the  widow.  She  sits  a 
calm  and  unremonstrating  spectator  of  the  horrid  process.  She  sees 
the  earth  rising  higher  and  higher  around  her,  without  upbraiding  her 
murderers,  or  making  the  least  effort  to  arise  and  make  her  escape. 
At  length  the  earth  reaches  her  lips — covers  her  head.  The  rest  of  the 
earth  is  then  hastily  thrown  in,  and  these  children  and  relations  mount 
the  grave,  and  tread  down  the  earth  upon  the  head  of  the  suffocating 
widow — the  mother  ! — Why,  my  dear  friend,  the  life  of  the  vilest  brute 
that  walks  upon  the  earth  is  never  taken  away  by  a  process  so  slow, 
so  deliberate,  so  diabolical  as  this.  And  this  is  the  state  of  your  sex 
in  British  India  ! — In  how  many  situations,  where  we  expected  it  not, 
are  we  reminded  of  the  testimony  of  the  Divine  word  :  in  every  part 
of  the  heathen  world,  in  the  miserable  state  of  woman,  what  a  con- 
firmation of  the  denunciation,  '  To  the  woman  he  said,  I  will  greatly 
multiply  thy  sorrow.'  .  .  . 

"Every  year  more  than  seven  hundred  women  (more  probably 
fourteen  hundred)  are  burned  or  buried  alive  in  the  Presidency  of 
Bengal  alone.  How  many  in  the  other  parts  of  India  ?" 

Before  Carey,  what  had  been  done  to  turn  the  millions  of 
North  India  from  such  darkness  as  that  ?  Nothing,  beyond 
the  brief  and  impulsive  efforts  of  Thomas.  There  does  not 
seem  to  have  been  there  one  genuine  convert  from  any  of  the 


1793  THE  COAST  MISSION  IN  SOUTH  INDIA.  75 

Asiatic  faiths ;  there  had  never  been  even  the  nucleus  of  a 
native  church. 

In  South  India,  for  the  greater  part  of  the  century,  the 
Coast  Mission,  as  it  was  called,  had  been  carried  on  from 
Tranquebar  as  a  centre  by  the  Lutherans  whom,  from  Ziegen- 
balg  to  Schwartz,  Franke  had  trained  at  Halle  and  Friedrich 
IV.  of  Denmark  had  sent  forth  to  its  East  India  Company's 
settlement.  From  the  baptism  of  the  first  convert  in  1707 
and  translation  of  the  New  Testament  into  Tamil,  to  the  death 
in  1798  of  Schwartz,  with  whom  Carey  sought  to  begin  a 
correspondence  then  taken  up  by  Guericke,  the  foundations 
were  laid  around  Madras,  in  Tanjore,  and  in  Tinnevelli  of  a 
native  church  which  now  includes  half  a  million.  But, 
when  Carey  landed,  rationalism  in  Germany  and  Denmark, 
and  the  Carnatic  wars  between  the  English  and  French,  had  re- 
duced the  Coast  Mission  to  a  state  almost  of  inanition.  Nor 
was  Southern  India  the  true  or  ultimate  battlefield  against 
Brahmanism  ;  the  triumphs  of  Christianity  there  were  rather 
among  the  demon -worshipping  tribes  of  Dravidian  origin 
than  among  the  Aryan  races  till  Dr.  Miller  developed  the 
Christian  College.  But  the  way  for  the  harvest  now  being 
reaped  by  the  Evangelicals  and  Anglicans  of  the  Church  of 
England,  by  the  Independents  of  the  London  Missionary 
Society,  the  Wesleyans,  and  the  Presbyterians  of  the  Free 
Church  of  Scotland  and  America,  was  prepared  by  the 
German  Ziegenbalg  and  Schwartz  under  Danish  protection. 
The  English  Propagation  and  Christian  Knowledge  Societies 
sent  them  occasional  aid,  the  first  two  Georges  under  the 
influence  of  their  German  chaplains  wrote  to  them  encourag- 
ing letters,  and  the  East  India  Company  even  gave  them  a 
free  passage  in  its  ships,  and  employed  the  sculptor  Bacon 
to  prepare  the  noble  group  of  marble  which,  in  St.  Mary's 
Church,  Madras,  expresses  its  gratitude  to  Schwartz  for  his 
political  services. 


76  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1793 

It  was  Clive  himself  who  brought  to  Calcutta  the  first 
missionary,  Kiernander  the  Swede,  but  he  was  rather  a 
chaplain,  or  a  missionary  to  the  Portuguese,  who  were 
nominal  Christians  of  the  lowest  Eomanist  type.  The 
French  had  closed  the  Danish  mission  at  Cuddalore,  and  in 
1758  Calcutta  was  without  a  Protestant  clergyman  to  bury 
the  dead  or  baptize  or  marry  the  living.  Two  years  before 
one  of  the  two  chaplains  had  perished  in  the  tragedy  of  the 
Black  Hole,  where  he  was  found  lying  hand  in  hand  with 
his  son,  a  young  lieutenant.  The  other  had  escaped  down 
the  river  only  to  die  of  fever  along  with  many  more.  The 
victory  of  Plassey  and  the  large  compensation  paid  for  the 
destruction  of  old  Calcutta  and  its  church  induced  thousands 
of  natives  to  flock  to  the  new  capital,  while  the  number  of 
the  European  troops  and  officials  was  about  2000.  When 
chaplains  were  sent  out,  the  Governor- General  officially  wrote 
of  them  to  the  Court  of  Directors  so  late  as  1795  : — "Our 
clergy  in  Bengal,  with  some  exceptions,  are  not  respectable 
characters."  From  the  general  relaxation  of  morals,  he 
added,  "  a  black  coat  is  no  security."  They  were  so  badly 
paid — from  £50  to  £230  a  year,  increased  by  £120  to  meet 
the  cost  of  living  in  Calcutta  after  1764 — that  they  traded. 
The  Eev.  John  Owen,  a  friend  of  Cecil,  retired  with 
£25,000  in  ten  years,  and  that  was  only  a  modest  half  of 
what  some  of  his  colleagues  realised  chiefly  from  shares  in 
Clive's  monopolies.  Preaching  was  the  least  of  the  chaplains' 
duties;  burying  was  the  most  onerous.  Anglo-Indian  society, 
cut  off  from  London,  itself  not  much  better,  by  a  six  months' 
voyage,  was  corrupt.  Warren  Hastings  and  Philip  Francis, 
his  hostile  colleague  in  Council,  lived  in  open  adultery.  The 
majority  of  the  officials  had  native  women,  and  the  increase 
of  their  children,  who  lived  in  a  state  worse  than  that  of  the 
heathen,  became  so  alarming  that  the  compensation  paid  by 
the  Mohammedan  Government  of  Moorshedabad  for  the 


1793  HE  HAD  NO  PREDECESSOR.  77 

destruction  of  the  church  was  applied  to  the  foundation 
of  the  useful  charity  still  known  as  the  Free  School. 
The  fathers  not  unfrequently  adopted  the  Hindoo  pantheon 
along  with  the  zanana.  The  pollution,  springing  from  Eng- 
land originally,  was  rolled  back  into  it  in  an  increasing  volume, 
when  the  survivors  retired  as  nabobs  with  fortunes,  to  corrupt 
social  and  political  life,  till  Pitt  cried  out ;  and  it  became 
possible  for  Burke  almost  to  succeed  in  his  eighteen  years' 
unjust  impeachment  of  Hastings.  The  literature  of  the  close 
of  the  eighteenth  century  is  full  of  alarm.  Professor  Seeley 
is  within  the  truth  when  he  emphasises  the  two  dangers  as 
these — lest  the  English  character  should  be  corrupted,  and 
lest  the  balance  of  the  constitution  should  be  upset.1 

Kiernander  is  said  to  have  been  the  means  of  convert- 
ing 209  heathens  and  380  Eomanists  of  whom  three  were 
priests,  during  the  twenty-eight  years  of  his  Calcutta  career. 
Claudius  Buchanan  declares  that  Christian  tracts  had  been 
translated  into  Bengali — one  written  by  the  Bishpp  of  Sodor 
and  Man — and  that  in  the  time  of  Warren  Hastings  Hindoo 
Christians  had  preached  to  their  countrymen  in  the  city. 
The  "  heathen  "  were  probably  Portuguese  descendants,  in 
whose  language  Kiernander  preached  as  the  lingua  franca 
of  the  time.  He  could  not  even  converse  in  Bengali  or 
Hindostani,  and  when  Charles  Grant  went  to  him  for  infor- 
mation as  to  the  way  of  a  sinner's  salvation  this  happened — 
"  My  anxious  inquiries  as  to  what  I  should  do  to  be  saved 
appeared  to  embarrass  and  confuse  him  exceedingly.  He 
could  not  answer  my  questions,  but  he  gave  me  some  good 
instructive  books."  On  Kiernander's  bankruptcy,  caused  by 
his  son  when  the  father  was  blind,  the  "  Mission  Church  "  was 
bought  by  Grant,  who  wrote  that  its  labours  "have  been 
confined  to  the  descendants  of  Europeans,  and  have  hardly 
ever  embraced  a  single  heathen,  so  that  a  mission  to  the 

1  The  Expansion  of  England,  1883. 


78  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1793 

Hindoos  and  Mohammedans  would  be  a  new  thing."  The 
Rev.  David  Brown,  who  had  been  sent  out  the  year  after  as 
master  and  chaplain  of  the  Military  Orphan  Society,  for 
the  education  of  the  children  of  officers  and  soldiers,  and  was 
to  become  one  of  the  Serampore  circle  of  friends,  preached  to 
Europeans  only  in  the  Mission  Church.  Carey  could  find  no 
trace  of  Kiernander' s  work  among  the  natives  six  years  after 
his  death.1  The  only  converted  Hindoo  known  of  in  Northern 
India  up  to  that  time  was  Guneshan  Das,  of  Delhi,  who  when 
a  boy  joined  Clive's  army,  who  was  the  first  man  of  caste 2 
to  visit  England,  and  who,  on  his  return  with  the  Calcutta 
Supreme  Court  Judges  in  1774  as  Persian  interpreter  and 
translator,  was  baptized  by  Kiernander,  Mr.  Justice  Chambers 
being  sponsor. 

William  Carey  had  no  predecessor  in  India  as  the  first 
ordained  Englishman  who  was  sent  to  it  as  a  missionary  ;  he 
had  no  predecessor  in  Bengal  and  Hindostan  proper  as  the 
first  missionary  from  any  land  to  the  people.  Even  the 
Moravians,  who  in  1777  had  sent  two  brethren  to  Serampore, 
Calcutta,  and  Patna,  had  soon  withdrawn  them,  and  one  of 
them  became  the  Company's  botanist  in  Madras  —  Dr. 
Heyne.  Carey  practically  stood  alone  at  the  first,  while  he 
unconsciously  set  in  motion  the  double  revolution,  which 
was  to  convert  the  Anglo  -  Indian  influence  on  England 
from  corrupting  heathenism  to  aggressive  missionary  zeal, 
and  to  change  the  Bengal  of  Cornwallis  into  the  India  of 
Bentinck,  with  all  the  possibilities  that  have  made  it  grow, 
thus  far,  into  the  India  of  the  Lawrences. 

1  In  the  only  reliable  life  of  Kiernander,  in  the  Calcutta  Review  for  1847, 
vol.  vii.  pp.  124-184,  the  Rev.  James  Long,  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society, 
claims  for  Carey  and  his  colleagues    "all  the  credit  due  to   an   original 
attempt  in  devising  and  carrying  out  three  excellent  plans  which  have  laid 
so  broad  a  foundation  on  which  to  build  the  native  churches  "  of  North  India. 

2  Pliitschau  in  1711  took  one  of  his  converts,  Timothy,  home  to  Halle 
to  be  educated  as  a  missionary. 


CHAPTER   IV. 

SIX  YEARS  IN  NORTH  BENGAL— MISSIONARY  AND 
INDIGO  PLANTER. 

1794-1799. 

Carey's  two  missionary  principles — Destitute  in  Calcutta — Bandel  and  Nuddea 
— Applies  in  vain  to  be  under-superintendent  of  the  Botanic  Garden — 
Housed  by  a  native  usurer — Translation  and  preaching  work  in  Cal- 
cutta—  Secures  a  grant  of  waste  land  at  Hashnabad — Estimate  of  the 
Bengali  language,  and  appeal  to  the  Society  to  work  in  Asia  and  Africa 
rather  than  in  America — The  Udny  family — Carey's  summary  of  his  first 
year's  experience — Superintends  the  indigo  factory  of  Mudnabati — Indigo 
and  the  East  India  Company's  monopolies — Carey's  first  nearly  fatal  sick- 
ness— Death  of  his  child  and  chronic  madness  of  his  wife — Formation  of 
first  Baptist  church  in  India — Early  progress  of  Bible  translation—  Sanskrit 
studies  ;  the  Mahabarata — The  wooden  printing-press  set  up  at  Mudna- 
bati— His  educational  ideal ;  school- work — The  medical  mission — Lord 
Wellesley — Carey  seeks  a  mission  centre  among  the  Bhooteas — Describes 
his  first  sight  of  a  Sati — Projects  a  mission  settlement  at  Kidderpore. 

CAREY  was  in  his  thirty-third  year  when  he  landed  in  Bengal. 
Two  principles  regulated  the  conception,  the  foundation,  and 
the  whole  course  of  the  mission  which  he  now  began.  He 
had  been  led  to  these  by  the  very  genius  of  Christianity 
itself,  by  the  example  and  teaching  of  Christ  and  of  Paul,  and 
by  the  experience  of  the  Moravian  brethren.  He  had  laid 
them  down  in  his  Enquiry,  and  every  month's  residence 
during  forty  years  in  India  confirmed  him  in  his  adhesion  to 
them.  These  principles  are  that  (1)  a  missionary  must  be 
one  of  the  companions  and  equals  of  the  people  to  whom  he 
is  sent ;  and  (2)  a  missionary  must  as  soon  as  possible  become 


80  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1794 

indigenous,  self-supporting,  self -propagating,  alike  by  the 
labours  of  the  mission  and  of  the  converts.  Himself  a 
man  of  the  people  yet  a  scholar,  a  shoemaker  and  a  school- 
master yet  a  preacher  and  pastor  to  whom  the  great  Eobert 
Hall  gloried  in  being  a  successor,  Carey  had  led  the  two  lives 
as  Paul  had  done.  Now  that  he  was  fairly  in  Calcutta,  he 
resumed  the  divine  toil,  and  ceased  it  not  till  he  entered  on 
the  eternal  rest.  He  prepared  to  go  up  country  to  Malda  to 
till  the  ground  among  the  natives  of  the  rich  district  around 
the  ruined  capital  of  Gour.  He  engaged  as  his  pundit  and 
interpreter  Earn  Basu,  one  of  the  professing  inquirers  whom 
Thomas  had  attracted  in  former  days.  Experience  soon 
taught  him  that,  however  correct  his  principle,  Malda  is  not 
a  land  where  the  white  man  can  be  a  farmer.  So  he  became, 
in  the  different  stages  of  his  career,  a  captain  of  labour  as  an 
indigo  planter,  a  teacher  of  Bengali,  and  professor  of  Sanskrit 
and  Marathi,  and  the  Government  translator  of  Bengali.  Nor 
did  he  or  his  associates  ever  make  the  mistake — or  commit 
the  fraud — of  the  Jesuit  missionaries,  whose  idea  of  equality 
with  the  people  was  not  that  of  brotherhood  in  Christ,  but 
that  of  dragging  down  Christian  doctrine,  worship  and  civilisa- 
tion to  the  base  level  of  idolatrous  heathenism,  and  deluding 
the  ignorant  into  accepting  the  blasphemous  compromise. 

Alas  !  Carey  could  not  manage  to  get  out  of  Calcutta  and 
its  neighbourhood  for  five  months.  As  he  thought  to  live  by 
farming,  Thomas  was  to  practise  his  profession;  and  their 
first  year's  income  of  £150  had,  in  those  days  when  the 
foreign  exchanges  were  unknown,  to  be  realised  by  the  sale 
of  the  goods  in  which  it  had  been  invested.  As  usual, 
Thomas  had  again  blundered,  so  that  even  his  gentle  colleague 
himself  half  -  condemned,  half -apologised  for  him  by  the 
shrewd  reflection  that  he  was  only  fit  to  live  at  sea,  where 
his  daily  business  would  be  before  him,  and  daily  provision 
would  be  made  for  him.  Carey  found  himself  penniless. 


1794  FIRST  MISSIONARY  ATTEMPTS.  81 

Even  had  he  received  the  whole  of  his  £75,  as  he  really  did 
in  one  way  or  other,  what  was  that  for  such  a  family  as  his 
at  the  beginning  of  their  undertaking?  The  expense  of 
living  at  all  in  Calcutta  drove  the  whole  party  thirty  miles  up 
the  river  to  Bandel,  an  old  Portuguese  suburb  of  the  Hoogli 
factory.  There  they  rented  a  small  house  from  the  German 
hotel-keeper,  beside  the  Augustinian  priory  and  oldest  church 
in  North  India,  which  dates  from  1599  and  is  still  in  good 
order.  There  they  met  Kiernander,  then  at  the  great  age  of 
eighty-four.  Daily  they  preached  or  talked  to  the  people. 
They  purchased  a  boat  for  regular  visitation  of  the  hamlets, 
markets,  and  towns  which  line  both  banks  of  the  river.  With 
sure  instinct  Carey  soon  fixed  on  Nuddea,  as  the  centre  of 
Brahmanical  superstition  and  Sanskrit  learning,  where  "  to 
build  me  a  hut  and  live  like  the  natives,"  language  recalled 
to  us  by  the  words  of  the  dying  Livingstone  in  the  swamps 
of  Central  Africa.  There,  in  the  capital  of  the  last  of  the 
Hindoo  kings,  beside  the  leafy  tols  or  colleges  of  a  river  port 
which  rivals  Benares,  Pooree,  and  Conjeveram  in  sanctity, 
where  Chaitanya  the  vaishnaiva  reformer  was  born,  Carey 
might  have  attacked  Brahmanism  in  its  stronghold.  A  pass- 
age in  his  journal  shows  how  he  realised  the  position.  Thomas, 
the  pundit,  and  he  "  sought  the  Lord  by  prayer  for  direction," 
and  this  much  was  the  result — "  Several  of  the  most  learned 
Pundits  and  Brahmans  wished  us  to  settle  there  ;  and,  as  that 
is  the  great  place  for  Eastern  learning,  we  seemed  inclined, 
especially  as  it  is  the  bulwark  of  heathenism,  which,  if  once 
carried,  all  the  rest  of  the  country  must  be  laid  open  to  us." 
But  there  was  no  available  land  there  for  an  Englishman's 
cultivation.  From  Bandel  he  wrote  home  these  impressions 
of  Anglo-Indian  life  and  missionary  duty : — 

"  26th  Dec.  1793. — A  missionary  must  be  one  of  the 
companions  and  equals  of  the  people  to  whom  he  is  sent,  and 
many  dangers  and  temptations  will  be  in  his  way.  One  or 

G 


82  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1794 

two  pieces  of  advice  I  may  venture  to  give.  The  first  is  to 
be  exceedingly  cautious  lest  the  voyage  prove  a  great  snare. 
All  the  discourse  is  about  high  life,  and  every  circumstance 
will  contribute  to  unfit  the  mind  for  the  work  and  prejudice 
the  soul  against  the  people  to  whom  he  goes ;  and  in  a  country 
like  this,  settled  by  Europeans,  the  grandeur,  the  customs, 
and  prejudices  of  the  Europeans  are  exceeding  dangerous. 
They  are  very  kind  and  hospitable,  but  even  to  visit  them,  if 
a  man  keeps  no  table  of  his  own,  would  more  than  ten  times 
exceed  the  allowance  of  a  mission ;  and  all  their  discourse  is 
about  the  vices  of  the  natives,  so  that  a  missionary  must  see 
thousands  of  people  treating  him  with  the  greatest  kindness, 
but  whom  he  must  be  entirely  different  from  in  his  life,  his 
appearance  in  everything,  or  it  is  impossible  for  him  to  stand 
their  profuse  way  of  living,  being  so  contrary  to  his  character 
and  so  much  above  his  ability.  This  is  a  snare  to  dear  Mr. 
Thomas,  which  will  be  felt  by  us  both  in  some  measure.  It 
will  be  very  important  to  missionaries  to  be  men  of  calmness 
and  evenness  of  temper,  and  rather  inclined  to  suffer  hard- 
ships than  to  court  the  favour  of  men,  and  such  who  will  be 
indefatigably  employed  in  the  work  set  before  them,  an 
inconstancy  of  mind  being  quite  injurious  to  it." 

He  had  need  of  such  faith  and  patience.  Hearing  of  waste 
land  in  Calcutta  he  returned  there  only  to  be  disappointed. 
The  Danish  captain,  knowing  that  he  had  written  a  botanical 
work,  advised  him  to  take  it  to  the  doctor  in  charge  of  the 
Company's  Botanic  Garden,  and  offer  himself  for  a  vacant 
appointment  to  superintend  part  of  it.  The  doctor,  who  and 
whose  successors  were  soon  to  be  proud  of  his  assistance  on 
equal  terms,  had  to  tell  him  that  the  office  had  been  filled  up, 
but  invited  the  weary  man  to  dine  with  him.  Houseless,  with 
his  maddened  wife,  and  her  sister  and  two  of  his  four  children 
down  with  dysentery,  due  to  the  bad  food  and  exposure  of 
six  weeks  in  the  interior,  Carey  found  a  friend,  appropriately 


1794  FIRST  EXPERIENCE  OF  CALCUTTA.  83 

enough,  in  a  Bengali  money-lender.1  Nelu  Butt,  a  banker 
who  had  lent  money  to  Thomas,  offered  the  destitute  family 
his  garden  house  in  the  north-eastern  quarter  of  Manicktolla 
until  they  could  do  better.  The  place  was  mean  enough,  but 
Carey  never  forgot  the  deed,  and  he  had  it  in  his  power  long 
after  to  help  Nelu  Dutt  when  in  poverty.  Such,  on  the  other 
hand,  was  the  dislike  of  the  Eev.  David  Brown  to  Thomas, 
that  when  Carey  had  walked  five  miles  in  the  heat  of  the  sun 
to  visit  the  comparatively  prosperous  evangelical  preacher, 
"  I  left  him  without  his  having  so  much  as  asked  me  to  take 
any  refreshment." 

Carey  would  not  have  been  allowed  to  live  in  Calcutta 
as  a  missionary.  Forty  years  were  to  pass  before  that  could 
be  possible  without  a  Company's  passport.  But  no  one  was 
aware  of  the  existence  of  the  obscure  vagrant,  as  he  seemed, 
although  he  was  hard  at  work.  All  around  him  was  a 
Mohammedan  community  whom,  through  his  pundit,  he 
addressed  with  the  greatest  freedom,  and  with  whom  he 
discussed  the  relative  merits  of  the  Koran  and  the  Bible  in  a 
kindly  spirit,  "  to  recommend  the  Gospel  and  the  way  of  life 
by  Christ."  He  had  helped  Thomas  with  a  translation  of  the 
book  of  Genesis  during  the  voyage,  and  now  we  find  this  in 
his  journal  two  months  and  a  half  after  he  had  landed  : — 

"Through  the  delays  of  my  companion  I  have  spent 
another  month,  and  done  scarcely  anything,  except  that  I 

1  At  this  time,  and  up  to  1801,  the  last  survivor  of  the  Black  Hole 
tragedy  was  living  in  Calcutta  and  bore  his  own  name,  though  the  missionary 
knew  it  not.  Mrs.  Carey  was  a  country-born  woman,  who,  when  a  girl,  had 
married  an  officer  of  one  of  the  East  Indiamen,  and  with  him,  her  mother, 
and  sister,  had  been  shut  up  in  the  Black  Hole,  where,  while  they  perished, 
she  is  said  to  have  retained  life  by  swallowing  her  tears.  Dr.  Bishop,  of 
Merchant  Taylor's  School — Clive's  School — wrote  Latin  verses  on  the  story, 
which  thus  conclude — 

"...  Nescit  sitiendo  perire 
Cui  sic  dat  lacrymas  quas  bibat  ipsa  fides." 

— See  Echoes  from  Old  Calcutta,  by  Dr.  Busteed,  of  the  Mint  there,  1882, 
pp.  31-35. 


84  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1794 

have  added  to  my  knowledge  of  the  language,  and  had  oppor- 
tunity of  seeing  much  more  of  the  genius  and  disposition  of 
the  natives  than  I  otherwise  could  have  known.  This  day 
finished  the  correction  of  the  first  chapter  of  Genesis,  which 
moonshi  says  is  rendered  into  very  good  Bengali.  Just  as 
we  had  finished  it,  a  pundit  and  another  man  from  Nuddea 
came  to  see  me.  I  showed  it  to  them ;  and  the  pundit  seemed 
much  pleased  with  the  account  of  the  creation;  only  they  have 
an  imaginary  place  somewhere  beneath  the  earth,  and  he 
thought  that  should  have  been  mentioned  likewise.  .  .  . 

"  Was  very  weary,  having  walked  in  the  sun  about  fifteen 
or  sixteen  miles,  yet  had  the  satisfaction  of  discoursing  with 
some  money-changers  at  Calcutta,  who  could  speak  English, 
about  the  importance  and  absolute  necessity  of  faith  in  the  Lord 
Jesus  Christ.  One  of  them  was  a  very  crafty  man,  and  tried 
much  to  entangle  me  with  hard  questions ;  but  at  last,  finding 
himself  entangled,  he  desisted,  and  went  to  his  old  occupation 
of  money-changing  again.  If  once  God  would  by  his  Spirit 
convince  them  of  sin,  a  Saviour  would  be  a  blessing  indeed  to 
them :  but  human  nature  is  the  same  all  the  world  over,  and 
all  conviction  fails  except  it  is  produced  by  the  effectual 
working  of  the  Holy  Spirit." 

Earn  Basu  was  himself  in  debt,  was  indeed  all  along  a 
self-interested  inquirer.  But  the  next  gleam  of  hope  came 
from  him,  that  the  Carey  family  should  move  to  the  waste 
jungles  of  the  Soondarbans,  the  tiger-haunted  swamps  south- 
east of  Calcutta,  and  there  cultivate  a  grant  of  land.  With  a 
sum  of  £16  borrowed  from  a  native  at  twelve  per  cent  by 
Mr.  Thomas,  a  boat  was  hired,  and  on  the  fourth  day,  when 
only  one  more  meal  remained,  the  miserable  family  and  their 
stout-hearted  father  saw  an  English -built  house.  As  they 
walked  up  to  it  the  owner  met  them,  and  with  Anglo-Indian 
hospitality,  invited  them  all  to  become  his  guests.  He  proved 
to  be  Mr.  Charles  Short,  in  charge  of  the  Company's  salt 


1794  SETTLES  IN  THE  SWAMPS.  85 

manufacture  there.  As  a  deist  he  had  no  sympathy  with 
Carey's  enterprise,  but  he  helped  the  missionary  none  the 
less,  and  the  reward  came  to  him  in  due  time  in  the  opening 
of  his  heart  to  the  love  of  Christ.  He  afterwards  married 
Mrs.  Carey's  sister,  and  in  England  the  two  survived  the 
great  missionary,  to  tell  this  and  much  more  regarding  him. 
Here,  at  the  place  appropriately  named  Hashnabad,  or  the 
"  smiling  spot,"  Carey  took  a  few  acres  on  the  Jamoona  arm 
of  the  united  Ganges  and  Brahmapootra,  and  built  him  a 
bamboo  house,  forty  miles  east  of  Calcutta.  Knowing  that  the 
sahib's  gun  would  keep  off  the  tigers,  native  families  squatted 
around  to  the  number  of  three  or  four  thousand.  Such  was 
the  faith,  the  industry,  and  the  modesty  of  the  brave  little 
man  that,  after  just  three  months,  he  wrote  thus  : — "  When  I 
know  the  language  well  enough  to  preach  in  it,  I  have  no 
doubt  of  having  a  stated  congregation,  and  I  much  hope  to 
send  you  pleasing  accounts.  I  can  so  far  converse  in  the 
language  as  to  be  understood  in  most  things  belonging  to 
eating  and  drinking,  buying  and  selling,  etc.  My  ear  is 
somewhat  familiarised  to  the  Bengali  sounds.  It  is  a  lan- 
guage of  a  very  singular  construction,  having  no  plural  except 
for  pronouns,  and  not  a  single  preposition  in  it :  but  the  cases 
of  nouns  and  pronouns  are  almost  endless,  all  the  words 
answering  to  our  prepositions  being  put  after  the  word,  and 
forming  a  new  case.  Except  these  singularities,  I  find  it  an 
easy  language.  I  feel  myself  happy  in  my  present  under- 
taking ;  for,  though  I  never  felt  the  loss  of  social  religion  so 
much  as  now,  yet  a  consciousness  of  having  given  up  all  for 
God  is  a  support ;  and  the  work,  with  all  its  attendant  incon- 
veniences, is  to  me  a  rich  reward.  I  think  the  Society  would 
do  well  to  keep  their  eye  towards  Africa  or  Asia,  countries 
which  are  not  like  the  wilds  of  America  where  long  labour 
will  scarcely  collect  sixty  people  to  hear  the  Word  :  for  here 
it  is  almost  impossible  to  get  out  of  the  way  of  hundreds,  and 


86  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1794 

preachers  are  wanted  a  thousand  times  more  than  people  to 
preach  to.  Within  India  are  the  Maratha  country  and  the 
northern  parts  to  Kashmeer,  in  which,  as  far  as  I  can  learn, 
there  is  not  one  soul  that  thinks  of  God  aright.  .  .  .  My  health 
was  never  better.  The  climate,  though  hot,  is  tolerable ;  but, 
attended  as  I  am  with  difficulties,  I  would  not  renounce  my 
undertaking  for  all  the  world." 

It  was  at  this  time  that  he  drew  his  strength  often  from 
the  experience  of  the  first  missionary,  described  by  Isaiah  in 
all  his  solitude: — "Look  unto  Abraham  your  father,  for  I 
called  him  alone  and  blessed  him  and  increased  him.  For 
the  Lord  shall  comfort  Zion  ;  He  will  comfort  all  her  waste 
places."  The  sun  of  His  comfort  shone  forth  at  last. 

Carey's  original  intention  to  begin  his  mission  near  Malda 
was  now  to  be  carried  out.  In  the  opening  week  of  1794  the 
small  English  community  in  Bengal  were  saddened  by  the 
news  that,  when  crossing  the  Hoogli  at  Calcutta,  a  boat  con- 
taining three  of  its  principal  merchants  and  the  wife  of  one 
of  them  had  been  upset,  and  all  had  been  drowned.  It  turned 
out  that  two  of  the  men  recovered,  but  Mr.  E.  Udny  and  his 
young  wife  perished.  His  aged  mother  had  been  one  of  the 
godly  circle  in  the  Eesidency  at  Malda  to  whom  Thomas 
had  ministered ;  and  Mr.  G.  Udny,  her  other  son,  was  still 
the  Company's  commercial  Eesident  there.  A  letter  of  sym- 
pathy which  Thomas  sent  to  them  restored  the  old  relations, 
and  resulted  in  Mr.  G.  Udny  inviting  first  the  writer  and  then 
Carey  to  become  his  assistants  in  charge  of  new  indigo  fac- 
tories which  he  was  building  on  his  own  account,  Each 
received  a  salary  equivalent  to  £250  a  year,  with  the  prospect 
of  a  commission  on  the  out-turn,  and  even  a  proprietary 
share.  Carey's  remark  in  his  journal  on  the  day  he  received 
the  offer  was  : — "  This  appearing  to  be  a  remarkable  opening 
in  divine  providence  for  our  comfortable  support,  I  accepted 
it  ...  I  shall  likewise  be  joined  with  my  colleague  again, 


1794  FIRST  ATTEMPT  TO  PREACH  IN  BENGALI.  87 

and  we  shall  unitedly  engage  in  our  work."  Again  : — "  The 
conversion  of  the  heathen  is  the  object  which  above  all  others 
I  wish  to  pursue.  If  my  situation  at  Malda  should  be  toler- 
able, I  most  certainly  will  publish  the  Bible  in  numbers." 
On  receiving  the  rejoinder  to  his  acceptance  of  the  offer  he 
set  this  down : — "  I  am  resolved  to  write  to  the  Society  that 
my  circumstances  are  such  that  I  do  not  need  future  help 
from  them,  and  to  devote  a  sum  monthly  for  the  printing  of 
the  Bengali  Bible."  This  he  did,  adding  that  it  would  be 
his  glory  and  joy  to  stand  in  the  same  relation  to  the  Society 
as  if  he  needed  support  from  them.  He  hoped  they  would 
be  the  sooner  able  to  send  another  mission  somewhere — to 
Sumatra  or  some  of  the  Indian  Islands.  From  the  first  he 
lived  with  such  simplicity  that  he  gave  from  one-fourth  to 
one-third  of  his  little  income  to  his  own  mission  at  Mud- 
nabati. 

Carey  thus  sums  up  his  first  year's  experience  before 
leaving  his  jungle  home  on  a  three  weeks'  voyage  up  the 
Ganges,  and  records  his  first  deliberate  and  regular  attempt 
to  preach  in  Bengali  on  the  way. 

"  8th  April  1794. — All  my  hope  is  in,  and  all  my  comfort 
arises  from,  God ;  without  His  power  no  European  could 
possibly  be  converted,  and  His  power  can  convert  any  Indian  : 
and  when  I  reflect  that  He  has  stirred  me  up  to  the  work, 
and  wrought  wonders  to  prepare  the  way,  I  can  hope  in 
His  promises,  and  am  encouraged  and  strengthened.  .  .  . 

"  19th  April — 0  how  glorious  are  the  ways  of  God ! 
1  My  soul  longeth  and  fainteth  for  God,  for  the  living  God, 
to  see  His  glory  and  beauty  as  I  have  seen  them  in  the 
sanctuary.'  When  I  first  left  England  my  hope  of  the  con- 
version of  the  heathen  was  very  strong ;  but,  among  so  many 
obstacles,  it  would  entirely  die  away  unless  upheld  by  God. 
Nothing  to  exercise  it,  but  plenty  to  obstruct  it,  for  now  a 
year  and  nineteen  days,  which  is  the  space  since  I  left  my 


88  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1794 

dear  charge  at  Leicester.  Since  that  I  have  had  hurrying  up 
and  down ;  a  five  months'  imprisonment  with  carnal  men  on 
board  the  ship  ;  five  more  learning  the  language ;  my  moonshi 
not  understanding  English  sufficiently  to  interpret  my  preach- 
ing ;  my  colleague  separated  from  me ;  long  delays  and  few 
opportunities  for  social  worship ;  no  woods  to  retire  to,  like 
Brainerd,  for  fear  of  tigers  (no  less  than  twenty  men  in  the 
department  of  Deharta,  where  I  am,  have  been  carried  away 
by  them  this  season  from  the  salt-works) ;  no  earthly  thing 
to  depend  upon,  or  earthly  comfort,  except  food  and  raiment. 
Well,  I  have  God,  and  His  Word  is  sure ;  and  though  the 
superstitions  of  the  heathen  were  a  million  times  worse  than 
they  are,  if  I  were  deserted  by  all,  and  persecuted  by  all,  yet 
my  hope,  fixed  on  that  sure  Word,  will  rise  superior  to  all 
obstructions,  and  triumph  over  all  trials.  God's  cause  will 
triumph,  and  I  shall  come  out  of  all  trials  as  gold  purified  by 
fire.  I  was  much  humbled  to-day  by  reading  Brainerd.  0 
what  a  disparity  betwixt  me  and  him  !  He  always  constant, 
I  as  inconstant  as  the  wind ! 

"  22d  April. — Bless  God  for  a  continuance  of  the  happy 
frame  of  yesterday.  I  think  the  hope  of  soon  acquiring  the 
language  puts  fresh  life  into  my  soul ;  for  a  long  time  my 
mouth  has  been  shut,  and  my  days  have  been  beclouded 
with  heaviness;  but  now  I  begin  to  be  something  like  a 
traveller  who  has  been  almost  beaten  out  in  a  violent  storm, 
and  who,  with  all  his  clothes  about  him  dripping  wet,  sees 
the  sky  begin  to  clear:  so  I,  with  only  the  prospect  of  a 
more  pleasant  season  at  hand,  scarcely  feel  the  sorrows  of  the 
present. 

"  23d. — With  all  the  cares  of  life,  and  all  its  sorrows,  yet 
I  find  that  a  life  of  communion  with  God  is  sufficient  to 
yield  consolation  in  the  midst  of  all,  and  even  to  produce  a 
holy  joy  in  the  soul,  which  shall  make  it  to  triumph  over 
all  affliction.  I  have  never  yet  repented  of  any  sacrifice  that 


1794  DISCUSSION  WITH  BRAHMANS.  89 

I  have  made  for  the  Gospel,  but  find  that  consolation  of 
mind  which  can  come  from  God  alone. 

"  24th. — Still  a  continuance  of  the  same  tranquil  state  of 
mind.  Outwardly  the  sky  lours,  but  within  I  feel '  the  soul's 
calm  sunshine  and  the  heart-felt  joy.'  Hope  more  strongly 
operates,  as  the  time  of  my  being  able  to  speak  for  Christ 
approaches ;  and  I  feel  like  a  long  confined  prisoner  whose 
chains  are  knocked  off  in  order  to  his  liberation.  .  .  . 

"  26th  May.— This  day  kept  Sabbath  at  Chandureea  ;  had 
a  pleasant  day.  In  the  morning  and  afternoon  addressed  my 
family,  and  in  the  evening  began  my  work  of  publishing  the 
Word  of  God  to  the  heathen.  Though  imperfect  in  the 
knowledge  of  the  language,  yet,  with  the  help  of  moonshi,  I 
conversed  with  two  Brahmans  in  the  presence  of  about  two 
hundred  people,  about  the  things  of  God.  I  had  been  to  see 
a  temple,  in  which  were  the  images  of  Dukkinroy,  the  god  of 
the  woods,  riding  on  a  tiger;  Sheetulla,  goddess  of  the  smallpox, 
without  a  head,  riding  on  a  horse  without  a  head ;  Punchanon, 
with  large  ears  ;  and  Colloroy,  riding  on  a  horse.  In  another 
apartment  was  Seeb,  which  was  only  a  smooth  post  of  wood 
with  two  or  three  mouldings  in  it,  like  the  base  of  a  Tuscan 
pillar.  I  therefore  discoursed  with  them  upon  the  vanity  of 
idols,  the  folly  and  wickedness  of  idolatry,  the  nature  and 
attributes  of  God,  and  the  way  of  salvation  by  Christ.  One 
Brahman  was  quite  confounded,  and  a  number  of  people  were 
all  at  once  crying  out  to  him,  '  Why  do  you  not  answer  him  ? 
Why  do  you  not  answer  him  ?'  He  replied, '  I  have  no  words.' 
Just  at  this  time  a  very  learned  Brahman  came  up,  who  was 
desired  to  talk  with  me,  which  he  did,  and  so  acceded  to 
what  I  said,  that  he  at  last  said  images  had  been  used  of  late 
years,  but  not  from  the  beginning.  I  inquired  what  I  must 
do  to  be  saved ;  he  said  I  must  repeat  the  name  of  God  a 
great  many  times.  I  replied,  would  you,  if  your  son  had 
offended  you,  be  so  pleased  with  him  as  to  forgive  him  if  he 


90  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1794 

were  to  repeat  the  word  '  father '  a  thousand  times  ?  This 
might  please  children  or  fools,  but  God  is  wise.  He  told  me 
that  I  must  get  faith ;  I  asked  what  faith  was,  to  which  he 
gave  me  no  intelligible  reply,  but  said  I  must  obey  God.  I 
answered,  what  are  His  commands  ?  what  is  His  will.  They 
said  God  was  a  great  light,  and  as  no  one  could  see  him,  he 
became  incarnate,  under  the  threefold  character  of  Brhumma, 
Bishno,  and  Seeb,  and  that  either  of  them  must  be  worshipped 
in  order  to  life.  I  told  them  of  the  sure  Word  of  the  Gospel, 
and  the  way  of  life  by  Christ;  and,  night  coming  on,  left 
them.  I  cannot  tell  what  effect  it  may  have,  as  I  may  never 
see  them  again." 

At  the  beginning  of  the  great  rains  in  the  middle  of  June 
Carey  joined  Mr.  Udny  and  his  mother  at  the  chief  factory. 
On  each  of  the  next  two  Sabbaths  he  preached  twice  in  the 
hall  of  the  Eesidency  of  the  Company,  which  excluded  all 
Christian  missionaries  by  Act  of  Parliament.  As  an  indigo 
planter  he  was  able  to  be  registered,  and  he  received  the 
Company's  licence  to  reside  for  at  least  five  years.  So  on 
26th  June  he  began  his  secular  duties  by  completing  for  the 
season  of  indigo  manufacture  the  buildings  at  Mudnabati, 
which  was  done  in  a  fortnight,  and  making  the  acquaintance 
of  the  ninety  natives  under  his  charge.  Both  Mr.  Udny  and 
he  knew  well  that  he  was  above  all  things  a  Christian  mis- 
sionary. "These  will  furnish  a  congregation  immediately, 
and,  added  to  the  extensive  engagements  which  I  must 
necessarily  have  with  the  natives,  will  open  a  very  wide  door 
for  activity.  God  grant  that  it  may  not  only  be  large  but 
effectual." 

These  were  the  days,  which  continued  till  the  next 
charter,  when  the  East  India  Company  was  still  not  only  a 
body  of  merchants  but  of  manufacturers.  Of  all  the  old. 
monopolies  only  the  most  evil  one  is  left,  that  of  the  growth, 
manufacture,  and  sale  of  opium.  The  civil  servants,  who 


1794  THE  EAST  INDIA  COMPANY  AS  MANUFACTURERS.  91 

were  termed  Eesidents,  had  not  political  duties  with  tributary 
sovereigns  as  now,  but  from  great  factory-like  palaces,  and  on 
large  salaries,  made  advances  of  money  to  contractors,  native 
and  European,  who  induced  the  ryots  to  weave  cloth,  to  breed 
and  feed  the  silkworm,  and  to  grow  and  make  the  blue  dye 
to  which  India  had  long  given  the  name  of  "  indigo."  Mr. 
Carey  was  already  familiar  with  the  system  of  advances  for 
salt,  and  the  opium  monopoly  was  then  in  its  infancy.  The 
European  contractors  were  "  interlopers,"  who  introduced  the 
most  valuable  cultivation  and  processes  into  India,  and  yet 
with  whom  the  "  covenanted "  Eesidents  were  often  at  war. 
In  Beerbhoom  district,  for  example,  one  Eesident,  celebrated 
in  his  time,  did  his  best  to  ruin  Mr.  Erushard,  a  Calcutta  mer- 
chant, who  was  contractor  for  the  supply  of  silk  there,  and 
one  of  whose  partners  Mr.  E.  Udny  had  been.  The  Eesidents 
had  themselves  liberty  of  private  trade,  and  unscrupulous 
men  abused  it.  Clive  had  been  hurried  out  thirty  years  before 
to  check  the  abuse,  which  was  ruining  not  only  the  Company's 
investments  but  the  people.  It  had  so  spread  on  his  de- 
parture that  even  judges  and  magistrates  and  chaplains,  as 
we  have  seen,  shared  in  the  spoils  till  Cornwallis  interfered. 
In  the  case  of  Mr.  G-.  Udny  and  purely  commercial  agents  the 
evil  was  reduced  to  a  minimum,  and  the  practice  had  been 
deliberately  sanctioned  by  Sir  John  Shore  on  the  ground  that 
it  was  desirable  to  make  the  interests  of  the  Company  and  of 
individuals  go  hand  in  hand. 

The  days  when  Europe  got  its  cotton  cloth  from  India  and 
called  it "  calico,"  from  Calicut,  and  its  rich  yellow  silks,  have 
long  since  passed,  although  the  latter  are  still  supplied  in  an 
inferior  form,  and  the  former  is  promising  once  more  to  raise 
its  head,  from  the  combination  of  machinery  and  cheap  labour. 
For  the  old  abuses  of  the  Company  the  Government  by  Parlia- 
ment has  to  some  extent  atoned  by  fostering  the  new  industries 
of  tea,  coffee,  and  cinchona,  jute  and  wheat.  The  system  of 


92  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1794 

inducing  the  ryots  to  cultivate  by  advances,  protected  by  a 
stringent  contract  law,  still  exists  in  the  case  of  opium.  The 
indigo  culture  system  of  Carey's  time  broke  down  in  1860  in 
the  lower  districts,  where,  following  the  Company  itself,  the 
planter  made  cash  advances  to  the  peasant,  who  was  required 
to  sow  indigo  on  land  which  he  held  as  a  tenant  but  often  as 
a  proprietor,  to  deliver  it  at  a  fixed  rate,  and  to  bear  the  risk 
of  the  crop  as  well  as  the  exactions  of  the  factory  servants. 
The  result  of  Government  interference  then,  with  the  refusal 
of  a  contract  law  such  as  protects  the  opium  monopoly, 
was  the  cessation  of  indigo  cultivation  in  four  districts  of 
the  delta,  and  the  destruction  there  of  an  industry  which 
circulated  half  a  million  sterling  annually  among  the  people. 
It  still  flourishes  in  the  upper  districts  of  Bihar,  especially 
in  Tirhoot,  on  a  system  comparatively  free  from  economic 
objections. 

It  did  not  flourish  with  Carey,  Thomas,  or  Mr.  Udny  in 
Malda  and  Dinajpoor.  Carey  does  not  seem  to  have  been 
long  in  discovering  the  evils  at  the  root  of  the  system  two 
generations  before  it  collapsed.  In  a  paper  which  he  wrote 
on  the  agriculture  of  Dinajpoor  for  the  Asiatic  Researches, 
to  which  we  shall  hereafter  refer  in  detail,  he  condemns  the 
"ryotti"  method  of  cultivating  indigo,  as  it  is  technically 
called,  because  it  is  subject  to  many  inconveniences,  and 
therefore  liable  to  many  objections.  These  are  that  the  whole 
business  is  conducted  by  giving  advances  to  the  ryots  pre- 
viously to  their  sowing  of  the  seed,  and  by  receiving  the 
produce  at  a  certain  number  of  bundles  of  a  given  measure 
for  a  rupee ;  but  since  "  many  of  them  scarcely  ever  intend  to 
fulfil  their  engagements,  the  application  of  a  remedy  would  be 
difficult,  especially  as  the  devising  of  it  must  depend  upon 
experiments,  to  the  making  of  which  the  poverty  and  pre- 
judices of  the  cultivators  would  prove  an  almost  invincible 
obstacle."  As  missionaries,  both  of  the  Baptist  and  the  English 


1794  INDIGO  PLANTING  AND  MAKING.  93 

Churches,  extended  their  preaching  and  teaching  over  the 
rural  districts  of  Bengal,  they  had  these  evils  forced  upon 
them  as  obstacles  to  the  progress  of  their  good  work.  Had 
the  planters,  generally  kindly  and  often  Christian  men,  been 
owners  of  unencumbered  "concerns,"  doubtless  a  remedy 
would  have  been  found  in  time.  But  from  the  want  of 
county  courts  and  police  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  pressure 
of  the  rent  question  on  the  other,  the  discontent  was  fanned 
into  something  like  a  jacquerie,  and  the  otherwise  beneficial 
industry  was  destroyed. 

The  plant  known  as  "  Indigofera  Tinctoria "  is  sown  in 
March  in  soil  carefully  prepared,  grows  to  about  5  feet,  is 
cut  down  early  in  July,  is  fermented  in  vats,  and  the  liquor 
is  beaten  till  it  precipitates  the  precious  blue  dye,  which  is 
boiled,  drained,  cut  in  small  cakes,  and  dried.  From  first  to 
last  the  growth  and  the  manufacture  are  even  more  precarious 
than  most  tropical  crops.  An  even  rainfall,  rigorous  weeding, 
the  most  careful  superintendence  of  the  chemical  processes, 
and  conscientious  packing,  are  necessary.  One  good  crop  in 
three  years  will  pay  where  the  factory  is  not  burdened  by 
severe  interest  on  capital ;  one  every  other  year  will  pay  very 
well.  Personally  Carey  had  more  than  the  usual  qualifica- 
tions of  a  successful  planter,  scientific  knowledge,  scrupulous 
conscientiousness  and  industry,  and  familiarity  with  the 
native  character,  so  soon  as  he  acquired  the  special  experience 
necessary  for  superintending  the  manufacture.  That  experi- 
ence he  spared  no  effort  to  gain  at  once. 

"  1st,  2d,  and  3d  July. — Much  engaged  in  the  necessary 
business  of  preparing  our  works  for  the  approaching  season 
of  indigo-making,  which  will  commence  in  about  a  fortnight. 
I  had  on  the  evening  of  each  of  these  days  very  precious 
seasons  of  fervent  prayer  to  God.  I  have  been  on  these 
evenings  much  drawn  out  in  prayer  for  my  dear  friends  at 
Leicester,  and  for  the  Society  that  it  may  be  prosperous; 


94  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1794 

likewise  for  the  ministers  of  my  acquaintance,  not  only  of 
the  Baptist  but  other  denominations.  I  was  engaged  for  the 
churches  in  America  and  Holland,  as  well  as  England,  and 
much  concerned  for  the  success  of  the  Gospel  among  the 
Hindoos.  At  present  I  know  not  of  any  success  since  I  have 
been  here.  Many  say  that  the  Gospel  is  the  word  of  truth ; 
but  they  abound  so  much  in  flattery  and  encomiums,  which 
are  mere  words  of  course,  that  little  can  be  said  respecting 
their  sincerity.  The  very  common  sins  of  lying  and  avarice 
are  so  universal  also,  that  no  European  who  has  not  witnessed 
it  can  form  any  idea  of  their  various  appearances  :  they  will 
stoop  to  anything  whatsoever  to  get  a  few  cowries,  and  lie  on 
every  occasion.  0  how  desirable  is  the  spread  of  the  Gospel ! 

"  4th  July. — Eather  more  flat,  perhaps  owing  to  the  ex- 
cessive heat ;  for  in  the  rainy  season,  if  there  be  a  fine  day, 
it  is  very  hot  indeed.  Such  has  been  this  day,  and  I  was 
necessitated  to  be  out  in  it  from  morning  till  evening,  giving 
necessary  directions.  I  felt  very  much  fatigued  indeed,  and 
had  no  spirits  left  in  the  evening,  and  in  prayer  was  very 
barren.  .  .  . 

"  9th  July  to  4th  Aug. — Employed  in  visiting  several  fac- 
tories to  learn  the  process  of  indigo-making.  Had  some  very 
pleasant  seasons  at  Malda,  where  I  preached  several  times, 
and  the  people  seemed  much  affected  with  the  Word.  One 
day,  as  Mr.  Thomas  and  I  were  riding  out,  we  saw  a  basket 
hung  in  a  tree,  in  which  an  infant  had  been  exposed ;  the 
skull  remained,  the  rest  having  been  devoured  by  ants." 

Success  in  the  indigo  culture  was  indeed  never  possible 
in  Mudnabati.  The  factory  stood  on  the  river  Tangan,  within 
what  is  now  the  district  of  Dinajpoor,  thirty  miles  north  of 
Malda.  To  this  day  the  revenue  surveyors  of  Government 
describe  it  as  low  and  marshy,  subject  to  inundation  during 
the  rains,  and  considered  very  unhealthy.  Carey  had  not  been 
there  a  fortnight  when  he  had  to  make  this  record : — 


1794  FEVER-STRICKEN  AND  BEREAVED.  95 

"5th,  6th,  7th  July. — Much  employed  in  settling  the 
affairs  of  the  buildings,  etc.,  having  been  absent  so  long,  and 
several  of  our  managing  and  principal  people  being  sick.  It 
is  indeed  an  awful  time  here  with  us  now,  scarcely  a  day  but 
some  are  seized  with  fevers.  It  is,  I  believe,  owing  to  the 
abundance  of  water,  there  being  rice-fields  all  around  us,  in 
which  they  dam  up  the  water,  so  that  all  the  country  here- 
abouts is  about  a  foot  deep  in  water ;  and  as  we  have  rain, 
though  moderate  to  what  I  expected  the  rainy  season  to  be, 
yet  the  continual  moisture  occasions  fevers  in  such  situations 
where  rice  is  cultivated.  .  .  .  Felt  at  home  and  thankful 
these  days.  0  that  I  may  be  very  useful !  I  must  soon  learn 
the  language  tolerably  well,  for  I  am  obliged  to  converse  with 
the  natives  every  day,  having  no  other  persons  here  except 
my  family." 

Soon  in  September,  the  worst  of  all  the  months  in  Bengal, 
he  himself  was  brought  near  to  the  grave  by  a  fever,  one  of 
the  paroxysms  continuing  for  twenty-six  hours  without  inter- 
mission, "  when  providentially  Mr.  Udny  came  to  visit  us,  not 
knowing  that  I  was  ill,  and  brought  a  bottle  of  bark  with 
him."  He  slowly  recovered,  but  the  second  youngest  child, 
Peter,  a  boy  of  five,  was  removed  by  dysentery,  and  caste 
made  it  long  difficult  to  find  any  native  to  dig  his  grave. 
But  of  this  time  the  faithful  sufferer  could  write  : — 

"  Sometimes  I  enjoyed  sweet  seasons  of  self-examination 
and  prayer,  as  I  lay  upon  my  bed.  Many  hours  together  I 
sweetly  spent  in  contemplating  subjects  for  preaching,  and  in 
musing  over  discourses  in  Bengali;  and  when  my  animal 
spirits  were  somewhat  raised  by  the  fever,  I  found  myself  able 
to  reason  and  discourse  in  Bengali  for  some  hours  together, 
and  words  and  phrases  occurred  much  more  readily  than  when 
I  was  in  health.  When  my  dear  child  was  ill,  I  was  enabled 
to  attend  upon  him  night  and  day,  though  very  dangerously 
ill  myself,  without  much  fatigue  ;  and  now,  I  bless  God  that 


96  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1795 

I  feel  a  sweet  resignation  to  his  will.  I  know  that  he  has 
wise  ends  to  answer  in  all  that  he  does,  and  that  what  he 
does  is  best ;  and  if  his  great  and  wise  designs  are  accom- 
plished, what  does  it  signify  if  a  poor  worm  feels  a  little 
inconvenience  and  pain,  who  deserves  hell  for  his  sins  ?" 

A  still  harder  fate  befell  him.  The  monomania  of  his  wife 
became  chronic  for  the  rest  of  her  life.  A  letter  which  she 
wrote  and  sent  by  special  messenger  called  forth  from  Thomas 
this  loving  sympathy : — "  You  must  endeavour  to  consider  it 
a  disease.  The  eyes  and  ears  of  many  are  upon  you,  to  whom 
your  conduct  is  unimpeachable  with  respect  to  all  her 
charges;  but  if  you  show  resentment,  they  have  ears,  and 
others  have  tongues  set  on  fire.  Were  I  in  your  case,  I  should 
be  violent ;  but  blessed  be  God,  who  suits  our  burdens  to  our 
backs.  Sometimes  I  pray  earnestly  for  you,  and  I  always 
feel  for  you.  Think  of  Job.  Think  of  Jesus.  Think  of 
of  those  who  were  '  destitute,  afflicted,  tormented.' " 

A  voyage  up  the  Tangan  in  Mr.  Udny's  pinnace  as  far  as 
the  north  frontier,  at  a  spot  now  passed  by  the  railway  to 
Darjeeling,  restored  the  invalid.  "  I  am  no  hunter,"  he  wrote, 
while  Thomas  was  shooting  wild  buffaloes,  but  he  was  ever 
adding  to  his  store  of  observations  of  the  people,  the  customs 
and  language.  Meanwhile  he  was  longing  for  letters  from 
Fuller  and  Pearce  and  Eyland.  At  the  end  of  January  1795 
the  missionary  exile  thus  talks  of  himself  in  his  journal : — 
"  Much  engaged  in  writing,  having  begun  to  write  letters  to 
Europe ;  but  having  received  none,  I  feel  that  hope  deferred 
makes  the  heart  sick.  However,  I  am  so  fully  satisfied  of 
the  firmness  of  their  friendship,  that  I  feel  a  sweet  pleasure 
in  writing  to  them,  though  rather  of  a  forlorn  kind ;  and 
having  nothing  but  myself  to  write  about,  feel  the  awkward- 
ness of  being  an  egotist.  I  feel  a  social  spirit  though  barred 
from  society.  ...  I  sometimes  walk  in  my  garden,  and  try 
to  pray  to  God ;  and  if  I  pray  at  all  it  is  in  the  solitude  of  a 


1795  FIRST  CHURCH  FORMED.  97 

walk.  I  thought  my  soul  a  little  drawn  out  to-day,  but  soon 
gross  darkness  returned.  Spoke  a  word  or  two  to  a  Moham- 
medan upon  the  things  of  G-od,  but  I  feel  to  be  as  bad  as 
they.  .  .  .  9th  May.  I  have  added  nothing  to  these  memoirs 
since  the  19th  of  April.  Now  I  observe  that  for  the  last 
three  sabbaths  my  soul  has  been  much  comforted  in  seeing 
so  large  a  congregation,  and  more  especially  as  many  who  are 
not  our  own  workmen  come  from  the  parts  adjacent,  whose 
attendance  must  be  wholly  disinterested.  I  therefore  now 
rejoice  in  seeing  a  regular  congregation  of  from  two  to  six 
hundred  people  of  all  descriptions — Mussulmans,  Brahmans, 
and  other  classes  of  Hindoos,  which  I  look  upon  as  a  favourable 
token  from  God.  .  .  .  Blessed  be  God,  I  have  at  last  received 
letters  and  other  articles  from  our  friends  in  England  .  .  .  from 
dear  brethren  Fuller,  Morris,  Pearce,  and  Eippon,  but  why 
not  from  others  ?  .  .  .  14th  June.  I  have  had  very  sore  trials 
in  my  own  family,  from  a  quarter  which  I  forbear  to  mention. 
Have  greater  need  for  faith  and  patience  than  ever  I  had,  and 
I  bless  God  that  I  have  not  been  altogether  without  supplies 
of  these  graces.  .  .  .  Mr.  Thomas  and  his  family  spent  one 
Lord's  day  with  us,  May  23d.  .  .  .  We  spent  Wednesday, 
26th,  in  prayer,  and  for  a  convenient  place  assembled  in  a 
temple  of  Seeb,  which  was  near  to  our  house.  ...  I  was 
from  that  day  seized  with  a  dysentery,  which  continued  nearly 
a  week  with  fearful  violence  ;  but  then  I  recovered,  through 
abundant  mercy.  That  day  of  prayer  was  a  good  day  to  our 
souls.  We  concerted  measures  for  forming  a  Baptist  church." 
To  his  sister  he  wrote,  on  the  llth  March,  of  the  church, 
which  was  duly  formed  of  Europeans  and  Eurasians.  No  native 
convert  was  made  in  this  Dinajpoor  mission  till  1806,  after 
Carey  had  removed  to  Serampore.  "  We  have  in  the  neighbour- 
hood about  fifteen  or  sixteen  serious  persons,  or  those  I  have 
good  hopes  of,  all  Europeans.  With  the  natives  I  have  very 
large  concerns ;  almost  all  the  farmers  for  nearly  twenty  miles 

H 


98  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1796 

round  cultivate  indigo  for  us,  and  the  labouring  people  work- 
ing here  to  the  number  of  about  five  hundred,  so  that  I  have 
considerable  opportunity  of  publishing  the  Gospel  to  them. 
I  have  so  much  knowledge  of  the  language  as  to  be  able  to 
preach  to  them  for  about  half  an  hour,  so  as  to  be  understood, 
but  am  not  able  to  vary  my  subjects  much.  I  tell  them  of 
the  evil  and  universality  of  sin,  the  sins  of  a  natural  state,  the 
justice  of  God,  the  incarnation  of  Christ  and  his  sufferings  in 
our  stead,  and  of  the  necessity  of  conversion,  holiness,  and 
faith,  in  order  to  salvation.  They  hear  with  attention  in 
general,  and  some  come  to  me  for  instruction  in  the  things  of 
God." 

"  It  was  always  my  opinion  that  missionaries  may  and  must 
support  themselves  after  having  been  sent  out,  and  received 
a  little  support  at  first,  and  in  consequence  I  pursue  a  very 
little  worldly  employment  which  requires  three  months'  closish 
attendance  in  the  year;  but  this  is  in  the  rains — the  most 
unfavourable  season  for  exertion.  I  have  a  district  of  about 
twenty  miles  square,  where  I  am  continually  going  from 
village  to  village  to  publish  the  Gospel ;  and  in  this  space  are 
about  two  hundred  villages,  whose  inhabitants  from  time  to 
time  hear  the  Word.  My  manner  of  travelling  is  with  two 
small  boats ;  one  serves  me  to  live  in,  and  the  other  for  cook- 
ing my  food.  I  carry  all  my  furniture  and  food  with  me 
from  place  to  place,  viz.  a  chair,  a  table,  a  bed,  and  a  lamp. 
I  walk  from  village  to  village,  but  repair  to  my  boat  for 
lodging  and  eating.  There  are  several  rivers  in  this  extent 
of  country,  which  is  very  convenient  for  travelling." 

Carey's  first  convert  seems  to  have  been  Ignatius  Fer- 
nandez, a  Portuguese  descendant  who  had  prospered  as  a 
trader  in  Dinajpoor  station.  The  first  reformed  place  of 
worship  in  Bengal,  outside  of  Calcutta,  was  built  by  him,  in 
1797,  next  to  his  own  house.  There  he  conducted  service 
both  in  English  and  Bengali,  whenever  Carey  and  Thomas, 


1796  FIRST  ATTEMPTS  AT  BIBLE  TRANSLATION.  99 

and  Fountain  afterwards,  were  unable  to  go  out  to  the  station, 
and  in  his  house  Thomas  and  Fountain  died.  He  remained 
there  as  a  missionary  till  his  own  death,  four  years  before 
Carey's,  when  he  left  all  his  property  to  the  mission.  The 
mission-house,  as  it  is  now,  is  a  typical  example  of  the  bun- 
galow of  one  storey  which  afterwards  formed  the  first  chapel 
in  Serampore,  and  is  still  common  as  officers'  quarters  in 
Barrackpore  and  other  military  stations. 

Side  by  side  with  his  daily  public  preaching  and  more 
private  conversations  with  inquirers  in  Bengali,  Carey 
carried  on  the  work  of  Bible  translation.  As  each  new  por- 
tion was  prepared  it  was  tested  by  being  read  to  hundreds  of 
natives.  The  difficulty  was  that  he  had  at  once  to  give  a 
literary  form  to  the  rich  materials  of  the  language,  and  to  find 
in  these  or  adapt  from  them  terms  sufficiently  pure  and 
accurate  to  express  the  divine  ideas  and  facts  revealed  through 
the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek  of  the  original.  He  gives  us  this 
unconscious  glimpse  of  himself  at  work  on  this  loftiest  and 
most  fruitful  of  tasks,  which  Jerome  had  first  accomplished 
for  Latin  Christendom,  Ulfila  for  our  Scandinavian  fore- 
fathers, Wiclif  for  the  English,  and  Luther  for  the  Germans 
of  the  time. 

"  Now  I  must  mention  some  of  the  difficulties  under  which 
we  labour,  particularly  myself.  The  language  spoken  by  the 
natives  of  this  part,  though  Bengali,  is  yet  so  different  from 
the  language  itself,  that,  though  I  can  preach  an  hour  with 
tolerable  freedom  so  as  that  all  who  speak  the  language  well, 
or  can  write  or  read,  perfectly  understand  me,  yet  the  poor 
labouring  people  can  understand  but  little;  and  though 
the  language  is  rich,  beautiful,  and  expressive,  yet  the  poor 
people,  whose  whole  concern  has  been  to  get  a  little  rice  to 
satisfy  their  wants,  or  to  cheat  their  oppressive  merchants  and 
zameendars,  have  scarcely  a  word  in  use  about  religion.  They 
have  no  word  for  love,  for  repent,  and  a  thousand  other 


100  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1796 

things  ;  and  every  idea  is  expressed  either  by  quaint  phrases 
or  tedious  circumlocutions.  A  native  who  speaks  the  language 
well  finds  it  a  year's  work  to  obtain  their  idiom.  This  some- 
times discourages  me  much;  but,  blessed  be  God,  I  feel  a 
growing  desire  to  be  always  abounding  in  the  work  of  the 
Lord,  and  I  know  that  my  labour  shall  not  be  in  vain  in  the 
Lord.  I  am  much  encouraged  by  our  Lord's  expression,  c  He 
who  reapeth '  (in  the  harvest)  '  receiveth  wages,  and  gathereth 
fruit  unto  eternal  life.'  If  I,  like  David,  only  am  an  instru- 
ment of  gathering  materials,  and  another  build  the  house,  I 
trust  my  joy  will  not  be  the  less."  This  was  written  to  the 
well-beloved  Pearce,  whom  he  would  fain  have  had  beside 
him  at  Mudnabati.  To  guide  the  two  missionaries  whom  the 
Society  were  about  to  send  to  Africa  on  the  salaries  which  he 
and  Thomas  had  set  free  for  this  extension,  Carey  adds : — 
"  They  will  do  well  to  associate  as  much  as  possible  with  the 
natives,  and  to  write  down  every  word  they  can  catch,  with 
its  meaning.  But  if  they  have  children  with  them,  it  is  by 
far  the  readiest  way  of  learning  to  listen  to  them,  for  they 
will  catch  up  every  idiom  in  a  little  time.  My  children  can 
speak  nearly  as  well  as  the  natives,  and  know  many  things 
in  Bengali  which  they  do  not  know  in  English.  I  should  also 
recommend  to  your  consideration  a  very  large  country,  per- 
haps unthought  of:  I  mean  Bhootan  or  Tibet.  Were  two 
missionaries  sent  to  that  country,  we  should  have  it  in  our 
power  to  afford  them  much  help.  .  .  .  The  day  I  received 
your  letter,  I  set  about  composing  a  grammar  and  dictionary 
of  the  Bengal  language,  to  send  to  you.  The  best  account  of 
Hindu  mythology  extant,  and  which  is  pretty  exact,  is  Son- 
nerat's  Voyage,  undertaken  by  order  of  the  king  of  France." 

Without  Sanskrit  Carey  found  that  he  could  neither 
master  its  Bengali  offshoot  nor  enrich  that  vernacular  with 
the  words  and  combinations  necessary  for  his  translations  of 
Scripture.  Accordingly,  with  his  usual  rapidity  and  industry, 


1796  FIRST  STUDIES  IN  SANSKRIT.  101 

we  find  that  he  had  by  April  1796  so  worked  his  way 
through  the  intricate  difficulties  of  the  mother  language  of 
the  Aryans  that  he  could  thus  write  to  Eyland,  with  more 
than  a  mere  scholar's  enthusiasm,  of  one  of  the  two  great 
Vedic  epics  : — "  I  have  read  a  considerable  part  of  the  Mafia- 
barat,  an  epic  poem  written  in  most  beautiful  language,  and 
much  upon  a  par  with  Homer ;  and  was  it,  like  his  Iliad,  only 
considered  as  a  great  effort  of  human  genius,  I  should  think 
it  one  of  the  first  productions  in  the  world ;  but  alas !  it  is 
the  ground  of  faith  to  millions  of  the  simple  sons  of  men,  and 
as  such  must  be  held  in  the  utmost  abhorrence."  At  the 
beginning  of  1798  he  wrote  to  Sutcliff: — "I  am  learning  the 
Sanskrit  language,  which,  with  only  the  helps  to  be  procured 
here,  is  perhaps  the  hardest  language  in  the  world.  To 
accomplish  this,  I  have  nearly  translated  the  Sanskrit  grammar 
and  dictionary  into  English,  and  have  made  considerable 
progress  in  compiling  a  dictionary,  Sanskrit  including  Ben- 
gali and  English." 

By  this  year  he  had  completed  his  first  translation  of 
the  Bible  except  the  historical  books  from  Joshua  to  Job, 
and  had  gone  to  Calcutta  to  obtain  estimates  for  printing  the 
New  Testament,  of  which  he  had  reported  to  Mr.  Fuller : — "  It 
has  undergone  one  correction,  but  must  undergo  several  more. 
I  employ  a  pundit  merely  for  this  purpose,  with  whom  I  go 
through  the  whole  in  as  exact  a  manner  as  I  can.  He  judges 
of  the  style  and  syntax,  and  I  of  the  faithfulness  of  the 
translation.  I  have,  however,  translated  several  chapters 
together,  which  have  not  required  any  alteration  in  the  syn- 
tax whatever :  yet  I  always  submit  this  article  entirely  to 
his  judgment.  I  can  also,  by  hearing  him  read,  judge 
whether  he  understands  his  subject,  by  his  accenting  his 
reading  properly  and  laying  the  emphasis  on  the  right  words. 
If  he  fails  in  this,  I  immediately  suspect  the  translation ; 
though  it  is  not  an  easy  matter  for  an  ordinary  reader  to  lay 


102  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1795-6 

the  emphasis  properly  in  reading  Bengali,  in  which  there  is 
no  pointing  at  all.  The  mode  of  printing,  i.e.  whether  a 
printing  press,  etc.,  shall  be  sent  from  England,  or  whether  it 
shall  be  printed  here,  or  whether  it  shall  be  printed  at  all, 
now  rests  with  the  Society." 

Fuller  was  willing,  but  the  ardent  scholar  anticipated 
him.  Seeing  a  wooden  printing  press  advertised  in  Calcutta 
for  £40,  Carey  at  once  purchased  it  on  his  own  account,  but 
the  good  Mr.  Udny  insisted  on  paying  the  cost.  When 
set  up  in  the  Mudnabati  house  its  working  was  explained  to 
the  natives,  on  whom  the  delighted  missionary's  enthusiasm 
produced  only  the  impression  that  it  must  be  the  idol  of  the 
English. 

But  Carey's  missionary  organisation  would  not  have  been 
complete  without  schools,  and  in  planning  these  from  the  very 
first  he  gives  us  the  germs  which  blossomed  into  the  Seram- 
pore  College  of  1818  on  the  one  hand,  and  the  primary  school 
circles  under  native  Christian  inspectors  on  the  other,  a  system 
carried  out  ever  since  the  Mutiny  of  1857  by  the  Christian 
Vernacular  Education  Society,  and  adopted  by  the  state  de- 
partments of  public  instruction. 

"  MUDNABATI,  2fttJi  January  1795. — Mr.  Thomas  and  I 
(between  whom  the  utmost  harmony  prevails)  have  formed  a 
plan  for  erecting  two  colleges  (Chowparis,  Bengali),  one  here 
and  the  other  at  his  residence,  where  we  intend  to  educate 
twelve  lads,  viz.  six  Mussulmans  and  six  Hindoos  at  each 
place.  A  pundit  is  to  have  the  charge  of  them,  and  they  are 
to  be  taught  Sanskrit,  Bengali,  and  Persian  ;  the  Bible  is  to 
be  introduced,  and  perhaps  a  little  philosophy  and  geography. 
The  time  of  their  education  is  to  be  seven  years,  and  we  find 
them  meat,  clothing,  lodging,  etc.  We  are  now  inquiring  for 
children  proper  for  the  purpose.  We  have  also  determined 
to  require  that  the  Society  will  advance  money  for  types  to 
print  the  Bengali  Bible,  and  make  us  their  debtors  for  the 


1796-9  THE  SCHOOL  AND  MEDICAL  MISSION.  103 

sum,  which  we  hope  to  be  able  to  pay  off  in  one  year  ;  and  it 
will  also  be  requisite  to  send  a  printing  press  from  England. 
We  will,  if  our  lives  are  spared,  repay  the  whole,  and  print 
the  Bible  at  our  own  expense,  and  I  hope  the  Society  will  be- 
come our  creditors  by  paying  for  them  when  delivered.  Mr. 
Thomas  is  now  preparing  letters  for  specimens  which  I  hope 
will  be  sent  by  this  conveyance. 

"We  are  under  great  obligation  to  Mr.  G.  Udny  for 
putting  us  in  these  stations.  He  is  a  very  friendly  man  and  a 
true  Christian.  I  have  no  spirit  for  politics  here  ;  for  what- 
ever the  East  India  Company  may  be  in  England,  their 
servants  and  officers  here  are  very  different ;  we  have  a 
few  laws,  and  nothing  to  do  but  to  obey."  Of  his  own 
school  he  wrote  in  1799  that  it  consisted  of  forty  boys. 
"The  school  would  have  been  much  larger,  had  we  been 
able  to  have  borne  the  expense ;  but,  as  among  the  scholars 
there  are  several  orphans  whom  we  wholly  maintain,  we  could 
not  prudently  venture  on  any  further  expense.  .  .  .  The 
boys  have  hitherto  learned  to  read  and  write,  especially  parts 
of  the  Scriptures,  and  to  keep  accounts.  We  may  now  be 
able  to  introduce  some  other  useful  branches  of  knowledge 
among  them.  ...  I  trust  these  schools  may  tend  to  pro- 
mote curiosity  and  inquisitiveness  among  the  rising  genera- 
tion, qualities  which  are  seldom  found  in  the  natives  of 
Bengal." 

The  Medical  Mission  completed  the  equipment.  "  I 
submit  it  to  the  consideration  of  the  Society,  whether  we 
should  not  be  furnished  with  medicines  gratis.  No  medicines 
will  be  sold  by  us,  yet  the  cost  of  them  enters  very  deeply  into 
our  allowance.  The  whole  supply  sent  in  the  Earl  Howe, 
amounting  to  £35,  besides  charges  amounting  to  thirty  per 
cent,  falls  on  me ;  but  the  whole  will  either  be  administered 
to  sick  poor,  or  given  to  any  neighbour  who  is  in  want,  or 
used  in  our  own  families.  Neighbouring  gentlemen  have 


104  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1797-9 

often  supplied  us.  Indeed,  considering  the  distance  we  are 
from  medical  assistance,  the  great  expensiveness  of  it  far 
beyond  our  ability,  and  the  number  of  wretched,  afflicted 
objects  whom  we  continually  see,  and  who  continually  apply 
for  help,  we  ought  never  to  sell  a  pennyworth.  Brother 
Thomas  has  been  the  instrument  of  saving  numbers  of  lives. 
His  house  is  constantly  surrounded  with  the  afflicted ;  and 
the  cures  wrought  by  him  would  have  gained  any  physician 
or  surgeon  in  Europe  the  most  extensive  reputation.  We 
ought  to  be  furnished  yearly  with  at  least  half  a  hundred 
weight  of  Jesuit's  bark." 

Around  and  as  the  fruit  of  the  completely  organised 
mission,  thus  conducted  by  the  ordained  preacher,  teacher, 
scholar,  scientist,  printer,  and  licensed  indigo  planter  in  one 
station,  and  by  his  medical  colleague  sixteen  miles  to  the 
north  of  him  at  Mahipal,  there  gathered  many  native  in- 
quirers. Besides  the  planters,  civil  officials,  and  military 
officers  to  whom  he  ministered  in  Malda  and  Dinajpoor 
stations  there  was  added  the  most  able  and  consistent 
convert,  Mr.  Cunninghame  of  Lainshaw,  the  assistant 
judge,  who  afterwards  in  England  fought  the  battle  of 
missions,  and  from  his  Ayrshire  estate,  where  he  built  a 
church,  became  famous  as  an  expounder  of  prophecy.  Carey 
looked  upon  this  as  "the  greatest  event  that  has  occurred 
since  our  coming  to  this  country."  The  appointment  of  Lord 
Mornington,  soon  to  be  known  as  the  Marquis  Wellesley, 
"  the  glorious  little  man,"  as  Metcalfe  called  him,  and  hardly 
second  to  his  younger  brother  Wellington,  having  led  Fuller 
to  recommend  that  Carey  should  wait  upon  his  Excellency  at 
Calcutta,  this  reply  was  received : — "  I  would  not,  however, 
have  you  suppose  that  we  are  obliged  to  conceal  ourselves,  or 
our  work  :  no  such  thing.  We  preach  before  magistrates  and 
judges  ;  and  were  I  to  be  in  the  company  with  Lord  Morning- 
ton,  I  should  not  hesitate  to  declare  myself  a  missionary  to  the 


1797-9  VISITS  BHOOTAN.  105 

heathen,  though  I  would  not  on  any  account  return  myself  as 
such  to  the  Governor-General  in  Council." 

Two  years  before  this,  in  1797,  Carey  had  written : — 
"  This  mission  should  be  strengthened  as  much  as  possible,  as 
its  situation  is  such  as  may  put  it  in  our  power,  eventually, 
to  spread  the  Gospel  through  the  greatest  part  of  Asia,  and 
almost  all  the  necessary  languages  may  be  learned  here." 
He  had  just  returned  from  his  first  long  missionary  tour 
among  the  Bhooteas,  who  from  Tibet  had  overrun  the  eastern 
Himalaya  from  Darjeeling  to  Assam.  Carey  and  Thomas 
were  received  with  great  dignity  and  kindliness  by  the 
Soobah  or  lieutenant-governor  of  the  country  below  the  hills, 
which  in  1865  we  were  compelled  to  annex  and  now  admin- 
ister as  Jalpaigori  District.  They  seemed  to  have  been  the 
first  Englishmen  who  had  entered  the  territory  since  the 
political  and  commercial  missions  of  Bogle  and  Buchanan- 
Hamilton  sent  by  Warren  Hastings.  They  were  received  as 
Christian  Lamas  in  full  durbar  at  Bhote-Hath. 

"  The  genuine  politeness  and  gentleman-like  behaviour  of 
the  Soobah  exceeded  everything  that  can  be  imagined,  and 
his  generosity  was  astonishing.  He  insisted  on  supplying  all 
our  people  with  everything  they  wanted  ;  and  if  we  did  but 
cast  our  eyes  to  any  object  in  the  room,  he  immediately  pre- 
sented us  with  one  of  the  same  sort.  Indeed  he  seemed  to 
interpret  our  looks  before  we  were  aware ;  and  in  this 
manner  he  presented  each  of  us  that  night  with  a  sword, 
shield,  helmet,  and  cup,  made  of  a  very  light  beautiful  wood, 
and  used  by  all  the  Bhooteas  for  drinking  in.  We  admiring 
the  wood,  he  gave  us  a  large  log  of  it ;  which  appears  to  be 
like  fir,  with  a  very  dark  beautiful  grain  :  it  is  full  of  a  resin 
or  turpentine,  and  burns  like  a  candle  if  cut  into  thin  pieces, 
and  serves  for  that  use.  In  eating,  the  Soobah  imitated  our 
manners  so  quickly  and  exactly,  that  though  he  had  never 
seen  a  European  before,  yet  he  appeared  as  free  as  if  he  had 


106  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1797 

spent  his  life  with  them.  We  ate  his  food,  though  I  confess 
the  thoughts  of  the  Jinkof 's  bacon  made  me  eat  rather  spar- 
ingly. We  had  much  talk  about  Bhootan.  and  about  the 
Gospel ;  and  the  appellation  of  Lama  was  given  to  us,  which 
appears  to  mean  teacher,  and  which  title  is  emphatically 
given  to  the  Grand  Lama. 

"  We  found  that  he  had  determined  to  give  all  the  coun- 
try a  testimony  of  his  friendship  for  us  in  a  public  manner  ; 
and  the  next  day  was  fixed  on  to  perform  the  ceremony  in 
our  tent,  on  the  market-place.  Accordingly  we  got  instructed 
in  the  necessary  etiquette ;  and  informed  him  we  were  only 
coming  a  short  journey  to  see  the  country,  were  not  provided 
with  English  cloth,  etc.,  for  presents.  The  time  being  come, 
we  were  waited  on  by  the  Soobah,  followed  by  all  his  ser- 
vants, both  Bhooteas  and  Hindoos.  Being  seated,  we  ex- 
changed each  five  rupees  and  five  pieces  of  betel,  in  the  sight 
of  the  whole  town ;  and  having  chewed  betel  for  1}he  first  time 
in  our  lives,  we  embraced  three  times  in  the  Eastern  manner, 
and  then  shook  hands  in  the  English  manner ;  after  which, 
he  made  us  a  present  of  a  piece  of  rich  debang,  wrought  with 
gold,  each  a  Bhootan  blanket,  and  the  tail  of  an  animal  called 
the  cheer  cow,  as  bushy  as  a  horse's,  and  used  in  the  Hindu 
worship.  .  .  . 

"  In  the  morning,  the  Soobah  came  with  his  usual  friend- 
ship, and  brought  more  presents,  which  we  received,  and  took 
our  leave.  He  sent  us  away  with  every  honour  he  could 
heap  upon  us ;  as  a  band  of  music  before  us,  guides  to  show 
us  the  way,  etc.  .  .  .  The  Soobah  is  to  pay  us  a  visit  in  a 
little  time,  which  I  hope  to  improve  for  the  great  end  of 
settling  a  mission  in  that  country." 

Carey  applied  his  unusual  powers  of  detailed  observation 
and  memory  in  noting  the  physical  and  mental  characteristics 
of  these  little  Buddhists,  the  structure  of  the  language  and 
nature  of  their  books,  beliefs,  and  government,  all  of  which 


1799  FIRST  SIGHT  OF  WIDOW-BURNING.  107 

lie  afterwards  utilised.  He  was  often  in  sight  of  snowy 
Kinchinjinga  (28,156  feet),  behind  Darjeeling,  and  when  the 
Soobah,  being  sick,  afterwards  sent  messengers  with  gifts 
to  induce  him  to  return,  he  wrote  : — "  I  hope  to  ascend  those 
stupendous  mountains,  which  are  so  high  as  to  be  seen  at  a 
distance  of  200  or  250  miles.  One  of  these  distant  mountains, 
which  is  seen  at  Mahipal,  is  concealed  from  view  by  the 
tops  of  a  nearer  range  of  hills,  when  you  approach  within 
sixty  miles  of  them.  The  distant  range  forms  an  angle 
of  about  ten  degrees  with  the  horizon."  But  the  time  did 
not  come  for  a  mission  to  that  region  till  the  sanitarium 
of  Darjeeling  became  the  centre  of  another  British  district 
opened  up  by  railway 'from  Calcutta,  and  now  the  aboriginal 
Lepchas  are  coming  in  large  numbers  into  the  church.  Sub- 
sequent communications  from  the  Soobah  first  informed  them 
of  the  Garos  of  Assam. 

On  his  last  visit  to  Calcutta,  in  1799,  "to  get  types 
cast  for  printing  the  Bible,"  Carey  witnessed  that  sight  of 
widow-burning  which  was  to  continue  to  disgrace  alike  the 
Hindoos  and  the  Company's  Government  until  his  incessant 
appeals  in  India  and  in  England  led  to  its  prevention  in  1829. 
In  a  letter  to  Dr.  Eyland  he  thus  describes  the  horrid  crime : — 

"  MUDNABATI,  1st  April  1799. — As  I  was  returning  from 
Calcutta  I  saw  the  Satiamoron,  or,  a  woman  burning  herself 
with  the  corpse  of  her  husband,  for  the  first  time  in  my  life. 
We  were  near  the  village  of  Noya  Serai,  or,  as  Eennell  calls  it 
in  his  chart  of  the  Hoogli  river,  Niaverai.  Being  evening,  we 
got  out  of  the  boat  to  walk,  when  we  saw  a  number  of  people 
assembled  on  the  river-side.  I  asked  them  what  they  were 
met  for,  and  they  told  me  to  burn  the  body  of  a  dead  man. 
I  inquired  if  his  wife  would  die  with  him ;  they  answered 
Yes,  and  pointed  to  the  woman.  She  was  standing  by  the 
pile,  which  was  made  of  large  billets  of  wood,  about  2 \  feet 
high,  4  feet  long,  and  2  wide,  on  the  top  of  which  lay  the 


108  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1799 

dead  body  of  her  husband.  Her  nearest  relation  stood  by 
her,  and  near  her  was  a  small  basket  of  sweetmeats  called 
Thioy.  I  asked  them  if  this  was  the  woman's  choice,  or  if 
she  were  brought  to  it  by  any  improper  influence?  They 
answered  that  it  was  perfectly  voluntary.  I  talked  till 
reasoning  was  of  no  use,  and  then  began  to  exclaim  with  all 
my  might  against  what  they  were  doing,  telling  them  that  it 
was  a  shocking  murder.  They  told  me  it  was  a  great  act 
of  holiness,  and  added  in  a  very  surly  manner,  that  if  I  did  not 
like  to  see  it  I  might  go  further  off,  and  desired  me  to  go.  I 
told  them  that  I  would  not  go,  that  I  was  determined  to  stay 
and  see  the  murder,  and  that  I  should  certainly  bear  witness 
of  it  at  the  tribunal  of  God.  I  exhorted  the  woman  not  to 
throw  away  her  life,  to  fear  nothing,  for  no  evil  would  follow 
her  refusal  to  burn.  But  she  in  the  most  calm  manner 
mounted  the  pile,  and  danced  on  it  with  her  hands  extended, 
as  if  in  the  utmost  tranquillity  of  spirit.  Previous  to  her 
mounting  the  pile,  the  relation  whose  office  it  was  to  set  fire 
to  the  pile,  led  her  six  times  round  it,  at  two  intervals, — that 
is,  thrice  at  each  circumambulation.  As  she  went  round  she 
scattered  the  sweetmeats  above  mentioned  among  the  people, 
who  picked  it  up  and  ate  it  as  a  very  holy  thing.  This  being 
ended,  and  she  having  mounted  the  pile  and  danced  as  above 
mentioned  (N.B. — The  dancing  only  appeared  to  be  to  show 
us  her  contempt  of  death,  and  prove  to  us  that  her  dying  was 
voluntary),  she  lay  down  by  the  corpse,  and  put  one  arm 
under  its  neck  and  the  other  over  it,  when  a  quantity  of  dry 
cocoa-leaves  and  other  substances  were  heaped  over  them  to 
a  considerable  height,  and  then  Ghee,  or  melted  preserved 
butter,  poured  on  the  top.  Two  bamboos  were  then  put  over 
them  and  held  fast  down,  and  fire  put  to  the  pile,  which  im- 
mediately blazed  very  fiercely,  owing  to  the  dry  and  com- 
bustible materials  of  which  it  was  composed.  No  sooner  was 
the  fire  kindled  than  all  the  people  set  up  a  great  shout — 


1799  FAILURE  OF  THE  INDIGO  MANUFACTURE.  109 

Hurree-Bol,  Hurree-Bol,  which  is  a  common  shout  of  joy, 
and  an  invocation  of  Hurree,  the  wife  of  Hur  or  Seeb.  It 
was  impossible  to  have  heard  the  woman  had  she  groaned,  or 
even  cried  aloud,  on  account  of  the  mad  noise  of  the  people, 
and  it  was  impossible  for  her  to  stir  or  struggle  on  account  of 
the  bamboos  which  were  held  down  on  her  like  the  levers 
of  a  press.  We  made  much  objection  to  their  using  these 
bamboos,  and  insisted  that  it  was  using  force  to  prevent  the 
woman  from  getting  up  when  the  fire  burned  her.  But  they 
declared  that  it  was  only  done  to  keep  the  pile  from  falling 
down.  We  could  not  bear  to  see  more,  but  left  them,  exclaim- 
ing loudly  against  the  murder,  and  full  of  horror  at  what  we 
had  seen."  In  the  same  letter  Carey  communicates  information 
he  had  collected  regarding  the  Jews  and  Syrian  Christians  of 
the  Malabar  coast. 

Mr.  G.  Udny  had  now  found  his  private  indigo  enterprise 
to  be  disastrous.  He  resolved  to  give  it  up  and  retire  to 
England.  Year  after  year,  with  one  partial  exception,  inun- 
dations had  ruined  the  plant  or  the  manufacture,  and,  to 
crown  all,  agrarian  discontent  was  showing  itself  like  that 
which  culminated  in  1860.  Thomas  had  left  his  factory,  and 
was  urging  his  colleague  to  try  the  sugar  trade,  which  at  that 
time  meant  the  distillation  of  rum.  Carey  rather  took  over 
from  Mr.  Udny  the  out-factory  of  Kidderpore,  twelve  miles 
distant,  and  there  resolved  to  prepare  for  the  arrival  of 
colleagues,  the  communistic  missionary  settlement  on  the 
Moravian  plan,  which  he  had  advocated  in  his  Enquiry.  Mr. 
John  Fountain  had  been  sent  out  as  the  first  reinforcement, 
but  he  proved  to  be  almost  as  dangerous  to  the  infant  mission 
from  his  outspoken  political  radicalism  as  Thomas  had  been 
from  his  debts.  Carey  seriously  contemplated  the  setting  up 
of  his  mission  centre  among  the  Bhooteas,  so  as  to  be  free 
from  the  intolerance  to  Christianity  of  the  East  India  Com- 
pany. The  authorities  would  not  license  Fountain  as  his 


110  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1799 

assistant, — would  they  allow  future  missionaries  to  settle 
with  him,  would  they  always  renew  his  own  licence,  and 
what  if  he  must  cease  altogether  to  work  with  his  hands, 
and  give  himself  wholly  to  the  work  of  the  mission  as  seemed 
necessary  ? 

Four  new  colleagues  and  their  families  were  already 
on  the  sea,  but  God  had  provided  a  better  refuge  for  His 
servants,  till  the  public  conscience  which  they  were  about  to 
quicken  and  enlighten  should  cause  the  persecution  to  cease, 
while  the  East  India  Company  itself  became  the  victim  of  its 
own  fears. 


CHAPTER  V. 

THE  NEW  CRUSADE— SERAMPORE  AND  THE  BROTHERHOOD. 

1800. 

Effect  of  the  news  in  England  on  the  Baptists — On  the  home  churches — In 
the  foundation  of  the  London  and  other  Missionary  Societies — In  Scot- 
land— In  Holland  and  America — The  missionary  home — Joshua  Marsh- 
man,  William  Ward,  and  two  others  sent  out — Landing  at  the  lona  of 
Southern  Asia — Meeting  of  Ward  and  Carey — First  attempt  to  evangelise 
,  the  non-Aryan  hill  tribes — Carey  driven  by  providences  to  Serampore — 
Dense  population  of  Hoogli  district — Adapts  his  communistic  plan  to  the 
new  conditions — Purchase  of  the  property — Constitution  of  the  Brother- 
hood— His  relations  to  Marshman  and  Ward — Hannah  Marshman,  the 
first  woman  missionary — Daily  life  of  the  Brethren — Form  of  Agreement 
adopted  in  1800  expanded  in  1805,  and  revised  in  1817  and  1820 — Carey's 
ideal  system  of  missionary  administration  realised  for  fifteen  years — 
Spiritual  heroism  of  the  Brotherhood. 

THE  first  two  English  missionaries  to  India  seemed  to  those 
who  sent  them  forth  to  have  disappeared  for  ever.  For  four- 
teen months,  in  those  days  of  slow  Indiamen  and  French 
privateers,  no  tidings  of  their  welfare  reached  the  poor  pray- 
ing people  of  the  midlands,  who  had  been  emboldened  to 
begin  the  heroic  enterprise.  The  convoy,  which  had  seen  the 
Danish  vessel  fairly  beyond  the  French  coast,  had  been  unable 
to  bring  back  letters  on  account  of  the  weather.  At  last,  on 
the  29th  July  1794,  Fuller,  the  secretary;  Pearce,  the  beloved 
personal  friend  of  Carey ;  Eyland  in  Bristol ;  and  the  con- 
gregation at  Leicester,  received  the  journals  of  the  voyage  and 
letters  which  told  of  the  first  six  weeks'  experience  at  Bala- 
sore,  in  Calcutta,  Bandel,  and  Nuddea,  just  before  Carey  knew 


112  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1794 

the  worst  of  their  pecuniary  position.  The  committee  at 
once  met.  They  sang  "with  sacred  joy"  what  has  ever  since 
been  the  jubilee  hymn  of  missions,  that  by  William  Williams — 

"  O'er  those  gloomy  hills  of  darkness." 

They  "  returned  solemn  thanks  to  the  everlasting  God  whose 
mercy  endureth  for  ever,  for  having  preserved  you  from  the 
perils  of  the  sea,  and  hitherto  made  your  ways  prosperous. 
In  reading  the  short  account  of  your  labours  we  feel  some- 
thing of  that  spirit  spoken  of  in  the  prophet,  '  Thine  heart 
shall  fear  and  be  enlarged.'     We  cordially  thank  you  for 
your  assiduity  in  learning  the  languages,  in  translating,  and 
in  every  labour  of  love  in  which  you  have  engaged.     Under 
God   we  cheerfully  confide   in  your  wisdom,  fidelity,  and 
prudence,  with  relation  to  the  seat  of  your  labours  or  the 
means  to  carry  them  into  effect.     If  there  be  one  place,  how- 
ever, which  strikes  us  as  of  more  importance  than  the  rest,  it 
is  Nuddea.     But  you  must  follow  where  the  Lord  opens  a 
door  for  you."    The  same  spirit  of  generous  confidence  marked 
the  relations  of  Carey  and  the  committee  so  long  as  Fuller 
was  secretary.     When  the  news  came  that  the  missionaries 
had  become  indigo  planters,  some  of  the  weaker  brethren  of 
the  committee,  estimating  Carey  by  themselves,  sent  out  a 
mild  warning  against  secular  temptations,  to  which  he  re- 
turned a  half-amused  and  kindly  reply.     John  Newton,  then 
the  aged  rector  of  St.  Mary  Woolnoth,  on  being  consulted, 
reassured  them  :   "  If  the  heart  be  fired  with  a  zeal  for  God 
and  love  to  souls,"  he  said,  "such  attention  to  business  as 
circumstances  require  will  not  hurt  it."     Since  Carey,  like  the 
Moravians,  meant  that  the  missionaries  should  live  upon  a 
common  stock,  and  never  lay  up  money,  the  weakest  might 
have  recognised  the  Paul-like  nobleness,  which  had  marked 
all  his  life,  in  relinquishing  the  scanty  salary  that  it  might  be 
used  for  other  missions  to  Africa  and  Asia. 

The   spiritual  law  which  Duffs  success  afterwards  led 


1794  THE  SPIRIT  OF  MISSIONS  GONE  FORTH.  113 

Chalmers  to  formulate,  that  the  relation  of  foreign  to  home 
missions  acts  not  by  exhaustion  but  by  fermentation,  now 
came  to  be  illustrated  on  a  great  scale,  and  to  result  in 
the  foundation  of  the  catholic  missionary  enterprise  of  the 
evangelicals  of  England,  Scotland,  Ireland,  America,  Germany, 
and  France,  which  has  marked  the  whole  nineteenth  century. 
We  find  it  first  in  Fuller  himself.  In  comforting  Thomas 
during  his  extremest  dejection  he  quoted  to  him  from  his 
own  journal  of  1789  the  record  of  a  long  period  of  spiritual 
dejection  and  inactivity,  which  continued  till  Carey  com- 
pelled him  to  join  in  the  mission.  "  Before  this  I  did  little 
but  pine  over  my  misery,  but  since  I  have  betaken  myself  to 
greater  activity  for  God,  my  strength  has  been  recovered 
and  my  soul  replenished."  "  Your  work  is  a  great  work,  and 
the  eyes  of  the  religious  world  are  upon  you.  Your  under- 
taking, with  that  of  your  dear  colleague,  has  provoked  many. 
The  spirit  of  missions  is  gone  forth.  I  wish  it  may  never 
stop  till  the  Gospel  is  sent  unto  all  the  world." 

Following  the  pietist  Franke,  who  in  1710  published  the 
first  missionary  reports,  and  also  the  Moravians,  Fuller  and 
his  coadjutors  issued  from  the  press  of  J.  W.  Morris  at  Clip- 
stone,  towards  the  end  of  1794,  No.  I.  of  their  Periodical 
Accounts  relative  to  a  Society  formed  among  the  Particular 
Baptists  for  Propagating  the  Gospel  among  the  Heathen. 
That  contained  a  narrative  of  the  foundation  of  the  Society 
and  the  letters  of  Carey  up  to  15th  February  1794  from  the 
Soondarbans,  as  well  as  an  eccentric  communication  from 
Thomas,  which,  as  we  shall  see,  called  forth  the  ridicule  of 
Sydney  Smith  and  the  defence  of  Southey.  Six  of  these 
Accounts  appeared  up  to  the  year  1800,  when  they  were 
published  as  one  volume  with  an  index  and  illustrations. 
The  volume  closes  with  a  doggerel  translation  of  one  of 
several  Gospel  ballads  which  Carey  had  written  in  Bengali 
in  1798.  He  had  thus  early  brought  into  the  service  of 

I 


114  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1794 

Christ  the  Hindoo  love  of  musical  recitative,  which  was 
recently  re-discovered — as  it  were — and  now  forms  an  import- 
ant mode  of  evangelistic  work  when  accompanied  by  native 
musical  instruments.  The  original  has  a  curious  interest  and 
value  in  the  history  of  the  Bengali  language,  as  formed  by 
Carey.  As  to  the  music  he  wrote  : — "  We  sometimes  have  a 
melody  that  cheers  my  heart,  though  it  would  be  discordant 
upon  the  ears  of  an  Englishman." J 

Such  was  the  immediate  action  of  the  infant  Baptist 
Society.  The  moment  Dr.  Eyland  read  his  letter  from  Carey 
he  sent  for  Dr.  Bogue  and  Mr.  Stephen,  who  happened 
to  be  in  Bristol,  to  rejoice  with  him.  The  three  returned 
thanks  to  God,  and  then  Bogue  and  Stephen,  calling  on  Mr. 
Hey,  a  leading  citizen,  took  the  first  step  towards  the  founda- 
tion of  a  similar  organisation  of  non-Baptists,  since  known  as 
the  London  Missionary  Society.  Immediately  Bogue,  the  able 
Presbyterian  minister  who  had  presided  over  a  theological 
school  at  Gosport  from  which  missionaries  went  forth,  and 
who  refused  the  best  living  in  Edinburgh  when  offered  to 
him  by  Dundas,  wrote  his  address,  which  appeared  in  the 
Evangelical  Magazine  for  September,  calling  on  the  churches 
to  send  out  at  least  twenty  or  thirty  missionaries.  In  the 
sermon  of  lofty  eloquence  which  he  preached  the  year  after 
he  declared  that  the  missionary  movement  of  that  time 
would  form  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  man, — "  the  time  will 
be  ever  remembered  by  us,  and  may  it  be  celebrated  by 
future  ages  as  the  ^Era  of  Christian  Benevolence." 

On  the  same  day  the  Kev.  T.  Haweis,  rector  of  All  Saints, 
Aldwinkle,  referring  to  the  hundreds  of  ministers  collected 
to  decide  where  the  first  mission  should  be  sent,  thus  burst 
forth :  "  Methinks  I  see  the  great  Angel  of  the  Covenant 
in  the  midst  of  us,  pluming  his  wings  and  ready  to  fly 
through  the  midst  of  heaven  with  his  own  everlasting  Gospel, 

1  Periodical  Accounts,  vol.  i.  p.  525. 


1796      FORMATION  OF  THE  GREAT  MISSIONARY  SOCIETIES.        115 

to  every  nation  and  tribe  and  tongue  and  people."  In  Hin- 
dostan  "  our  brethren  the  Baptists  have  at  present  prevented 
our  wishes  .  .  .  there  is  room  for  a  thousand  missionaries, 
and  I  wish  we  may  be  ready  with  a  numerous  host  for  that 
or  any  other  part  of  the  earth." 

Scotland  was  the  next  to  take  up  the  challenge  sent  by 
Carey.  Greville  Ewing,  then  a  young  minister  of  the  kirk 
in  Edinburgh,  published  in  March  1796  the  appeal  of  the 
Edinburgh  or  Scottish  Missionary  Society,  which  afterwards 
sent  John  Wilson  to  Bombay,  and  that  was  followed  by  the 
Glasgow  Society,  to  which  we  owe  the  most  successful  of 
the  Kafir  missions  in  South  Africa.  Eobert  Haldane  sold 
all  that  he  had  when  he  read  the  first  number  of  the 
Periodical  Accounts,  and  gave  £35,000  to  send  a  Presbyterian 
mission  of  six  ministers  and  laymen,  besides  himself,  to  do 
from  Benares  what  Carey  had  planned  from  Mudnabati ;  but 
Pitt  as  well  as  Dundas,  though  his  personal  friends,  threatened 
him  with  the  Company's  intolerant  Act  of  Parliament.  Evan- 
gelical ministers  of  the  Church  of  England  took  their  proper 
place  in  the  new  crusade,  and  a  year  before  the  eighteenth 
century  closed  they  formed  the  agency,  which  has  ever  since 
been  in  the  forefront  of  the  host  of  the  Lord  as  the  Church 
Missionary  Society,  with  Carey's  friend,  Thomas  Scott,  as  its 
first  secretary.  The  sacred  enthusiasm  was  caught  by  the 
Netherlands  on  the  one  side  under  the  influence  of  Dr.  Van 
der  Kemp,  who  had  studied  at  Edinburgh  University,  and  by 
the  divinity  students  of  New  England,  of  whom  Adoniram 
Judson  was  even  then  in  training  to  receive  from  Carey  the 
apostolate  of  Burma.  Soon  too  the  Bengali  Bible  transla- 
tions were  to  unite  with  the  needs  of  the  Welsh  at  home  to 
establish  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society. 

As  news  of  all  this  reached  Carey  amid  his  troubles  and 
yet  triumphs  of  faith  in  the  swamps  of  Dinajpoor,  and  when 
he  learned  that  he  was  soon  to  be  joined  by  four  colleagues, 


116  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1799 

one  of  whom  was  Ward  whom  he  himself  had  trysted  to 
print  the  Bengali  Bible  for  him,  he  might  well  write,  in 
July  1799  : — "  The  success  of  the  Gospel  and,  among  other 
things,  the  hitherto  unextinguishable  missionary  flame  in 
England  and  all  the  western  world,  give  us  no  little  en- 
couragement and  animate  our  hearts."  To  Sutcliff  he  had 
written  eighteen  months  before  that : — "  I  rejoice  much  at  the 
missionary  spirit  which  has  lately  gone  forth :  surely  it  is  a 
prelude  to  the  universal  spread  of  the  Gospel !  Your  account 
of  the  German  Moravian  Brethren's  affectionate  regard  towards 
me  is  very  pleasing.  I  am  not  much  moved  by  what  men  in 
general  say  of  me  ;  yet  I  cannot  be  insensible  to  the  regards 
of  men  eminent  for  godliness.  .  .  .  Staying  at  home  is  now 
become  sinful  in  many  cases,  and  will  become  so  more  and 
more.  All  gifts  should  be  encouraged,  and  spread  abroad." 

The  day  was  breaking  now.  Men  as  well  as  money 
were  offered  for  Carey's  work.  In  Scotland  especially  Fuller 
found  that  he  had  but  to  ask,  but  to  appear  in  any  evangelical 
pulpit,  and  he  would  receive  sums  which,  in  that  day  of  small 
things,  rebuked  his  little  faith.  Till  the  last  Scotland  was 
loyal  to  Carey  and  his  colleagues,  and  with  almost  a  prevision 
of  this  he  wrote  so  early  as  1797 : — "  It  rejoices  my  heart 
much  to  hear  of  our  brethren  in  Scotland  having  so  liberally 
set  themselves  to  encourage  the  mission."  They  approved  of 
his  plans,  and  prayed  for  him  and  his  work.  When  Fuller 
called  on  Cecil  for  help,  the  "  churchy  "  evangelical  told  him 
he  had  a  poor  opinion  of  all  Baptists  except  one,  the  man 
who  wrote  The  Gospel  Worthy  of  All  Acceptation.  When  he 
learned  that  its  author  stood  before  him,  the  hasty  offender 
apologised  and  offered  a  subscription.  "  Not  a  farthing,  sir !" 
was  the  reply,  "you  do  not  give  in  faith";  but  the  persistent 
Cecil  prevailed.  Men,  however,  were  a  greater  want  than 
money  at  that  early  stage  of  the  modern  crusade.  Thomas  and 
Fountain  had  each  been  a  mistake.  So  were  the  early  Afri- 


1799     JOSHUA  AND  HANNAH  MAESHMAN  :    WILLIAM  WARD.      117 

can  missionaries,  with  the  exception  of  the  first  Scotsman, 
Peter  Greig.  Of  the  thirty  sent  out  by  the  London  Missionary 
Society  in  the  Zfy^only  four  were  fit  for  ordination,  and  not  one 
has  left  a  name  of  mark.  The  Church  Mission  continued  to  send 
out  only  Germans  till  1815.  In  quick  succession  four  young 
men  offered  themselves  to  the  Baptist  Society  to  go  out  as  assist- 
ants to  Carey,  in  the  hope  that  the  Company  would  give  them 
a  licence  to  reside — Brunsdon  and  Grant,  two  of  Ey land's 
Bristol  flock ;  Joshua  Marshman  with  his  wife  Hannah 
Marshman,  and  William  Ward  called  by  Carey  himself. 

In  nine  months  Fuller  had  them  and  their  families 
shipped  in  an  American  vessel,  the  Criterion,  commanded 
by  Captain  Wickes,  a  Presbyterian  elder  of  Philadelphia,  who 
ever  after  promoted  the  cause  in  the  United  States.  Charles 
Grant  helped  them  as  he  would  have  aided  Carey  alone. 
Though  the  most  influential  of  the  Company's  directors,  he 
could  not  obtain  a  passport  for  them,  but  he  gave  them  the 
very  counsel  which  was  to  provide  for  the  young  mission  its 
ark  of  defence  :  "  Do  not  land  at  Calcutta  but  at  Serampore, 
and  there,  under  the  protection  of  the  Danish  flag,  arrange  to 
join  Mr.  Carey."  After  five  months'  prosperous  voyage  the 
party  reached  the  Hoogli.  Before  arriving  within  the  limits 
of  the  port  of  Calcutta  Captain  Wickes  sent  them  off  in  two 
boats  under  the  guidance  of  a  Bengali  clerk  to  Serampore, 
fifteen  miles  higher  up  on  the  right  bank  of  the  river.  They 
had  agreed  that  he  should  boldly  enter  them,  not  as  assistant 
planters,  but  as  Christian  missionaries,  rightly  trusting  to 
Danish  protection.  Charles  Grant  had  advised  them  well, 
but  it  is  not  easy  now,  as  in  the  case  of  their  predecessors  in 
1793  and  of  their  successors  up  to  1813,  to  refrain  from 
indignation  that  the  British  Parliament,  and  the  party  led  by 
William  Pitt,  should  have  so  long  lent  all  the  weight  of  their 
power  to  the  East  India  Company  in  the  vain  attempt  to 
keep  Christianity  from  the  Hindoos.  Ward's  journal  thus 


118  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1799 

simply  tells  the  story  of  the  landing  of  the  missionaries  at  this 
lona,  this  Canterbury  of  Southern  Asia  : — 

"  Lord's-day,  Oct.  13,  1799. — Brother  Brunsdon  and  I  slept  in  the 
open  air  on  our  chests.  We  arrived  at  Serampore  this  morning  by 
daylight,  in  health  and  pretty  good  spirits.  We  put  up  at  Myerr's,  a 
Danish  tavern  to  which  we  had  been  recommended.  No  worship  to- 
day. Nothing  but  a  Portuguese  church  here. 

"  Oct.  14. — Mr.  Forsyth  from  Calcutta,  missionary  belonging  to  the 
London  Missionary  Society,  astonished  us  by  his  presence  this  afternoon. 
He  was  wholly  unknown,  but  soon  became  well  known.  He  gave  us 
a  deal  of  interesting  information.  He  had  seen  brother  Carey,  who  in- 
vited him  to  his  house,  offered  him  the  assistance  of  his  moonshi,  etc. 

"  Oct.  16. — The  Captain  having  been  at  Calcutta  came  and  in- 
formed us  that  his  ship  could  not  be  entered,  unless  we  made  our 
appearance.  Brother  Brunsdon  and  I  went  to  Calcutta,  and  the  next 
day  we  were  informed  that  the  ship  had  obtained  an  entrance,  on  con- 
dition that  we  appeared  at  the  Police  Office,  or  would  continue  at 
Serampore.  All  things  considered  we  preferred  the  latter,  till  the 
arrival  of  our  friends  from  Kidderpore  to  whom  we  had  addressed 
letters.  Captain  Wickes  called  on  Kev.  Mr.  Brown,  who  very  kindly 
offered  to  do  any  thing  for  us  in  his  power.  Our  Instructions  with 
respect  to  our  conduct  towards  Civil  Government  were  read  to  him. 
He  promised  to  call  at  the  Police  Office  afterwards,  and  to  inform  the 
Master  that  we  intended  to  stay  at  Serampore  till  we  had  leave  to  go 
up  the  country.  Captain  Wickes  called  at  the  office  afterwards,  and 
they  seemed  quite  satisfied  with  our  declaration  by  him.  In  the 
afternoon  we  went  to  Serampore. 

"  Oct.  19. — I  addressed  a  letter  to  the  Governor  to-day  begging  his 
acceptance  of  the  last  number  of  our  Periodical  Accounts,  and  inform- 
ing him  that  we  proposed  having  worship  to-morrow  in  our  own 
house,  from  which  we  did  not  wish  to  exclude  any  person. 

"  Lord's-day,  Oct.  20. — This  morning  the  Governor  sent  to  inquire 
the  hours  of  our  worship.  About  half-past  ten  he  came  to  our  house 
with  a  number  of  gentlemen  and  their  retinue.  I  preached  from 
Acts  xx.  24.  We  had  a  very  attentive  congregation  of  Europeans  : 
several  appeared  affected,  among  whom  was  the  Governor." 

The  text  was  well  chosen  from  Paul's  words  to  the 
elders  of  Ephesus,  as  he  turned  his  face  towards  the  bonds 
and  afflictions  that  awaited  him — "  But  none  of  these  things 


1799  THE  BIBLE  AND  THE  PRESS.  119 

move  me,  neither  count  I  my  life  dear  unto  myself,  so 
that  I  might  finish  my  course  with  joy,  and  the  ministry 
which  I  have  received  of  the  Lord  Jesus,  to  testify  the 
gospel  of  the  grace  of  God."  It  proved  to  be  a  history  of 
the  three  men  thenceforth  best  known  as  the  Serampore 
missionaries.  Ward,  too,  the  literary  member  of  the  mission, 
composed  the  hymn  which  thus  concluded : — 

"  Yes,  we  are  safe  beneath  Thy  shade, 
And  shall  be  so  midst  India's  heat : 
What  should  a  missionary  dread, 
For  devils  crouch  at  Jesus'  feet. 

"  There,  sweetest  Saviour  !  let  Thy  cross 
Win  many  Hindoo  hearts  to  thee  ; 
This  shall  make  up  for  every  loss, 
While  Thou  art  ours  eternally." 

In  his  first  letter  to  a  friend  in  Hull  Ward  used  language 
which  unconsciously  predicted  the  future  of  the  mission  : — 
"  With  a  Bible  and  a  press  posterity  will  see  that  a  mission- 
ary will  not  labour  in  vain,  even  in  India."  But  one  of  their 
number,  Grant,  was  meanwhile  removed  by  death,  and,  while 
they  waited  for  a  month,  Carey  failed  to  obtain  leave  for 
them  to  settle  as  his  assistants  in  British  territory.  He  had 
appealed  to  Mr.  Brown,  and  to  Dr.  Eoxburgh,  his  friend  in 
charge  of  the  Botanic  Garden,  to  use  his  influence  with  the 
Government  through  Colebrooke,  the  Oriental  scholar  then 
high  in  the  service.  But  it  was  in  vain.  The  police  had  seen 
the  missionaries  slip  from  their  grasp  with  annoyance,  because 
of  the  liberality  of  the  Governor -General  of  whom  Carey 
had  written  to  Eyland  a  year  before.  "  At  Calcutta,  I  saw 
much  dissipation ;  but  yet  I  think  less  than  formerly.  Lord 
Mornington  has  set  his  face  against  sports,  gaming,  horse- 
racing,  and  working  on  the  Lord's  day;  in  consequence  of 
which  these  infamous  practices  are  less  common  than  for- 
merly." The  missionaries,  too,  had  at  first  been  reported  not  as 


120  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1799 

Baptist  but  as  "  Papist,"  and  the  emissaries  of  France,  believed 
to  be  everywhere,  must  be  watched  against.  The  brave  little 
Governor  let  it  be  understood  that  he  would  protect  to  the  last 
the  men  who  had  been  committed  to  his  care  by  the  Danish 
consul  in  London.  So  Ward  obtained  a  Danish  passport 
to  enable  him  to  visit  Dinajpoor  and  consult  with  Carey. 

It  was  Sunday  morning  when  he  approached  the  Mudna- 
bati  factory,  "  feeling  very  unusual  sensations,"  greatly  excited. 
"  At  length  I  saw  Carey  !  He  is  less  altered  than  I  expected  ; 
has  rather  more  flesh  than  when  in  England,  and,  blessed  be 
God  !  he  is  a  young  man  still!'  It  was  a  wrench  to  sacrifice 
his  own  pioneer  mission,  property  worth  £500,  the  school,  the 
church,  the  inquirers,  but  he  did  not  hesitate.  He  thus 
stated  the  case  on  the  other  side  : — "At  Serampore  we  may 
settle  as  missionaries,  which  is  not  allowed  here;  and  the 
great  ends  of  the  mission,  particularly  the  printing  of  the 
Scriptures,  seem  much  more  likely  to  be  answered  in  that 
situation  than  in  this.  There  also  brother  Ward  can  have  the 
inspection  of  the  press ;  whereas  here  we  should  be  deprived  of 
his  important  assistance.  In  that  part  of  the  country  the 
inhabitants  are  far  more  numerous  than  in  this ;  and  other 
missionaries  may  there  be  permitted  to  join  us,  which  here 
it  seems  they  will  not."  On  the  way  down  Carey  and  Ward 
made  the  first  attempt  to  evangelise  the  Santal  and  other 
simple  aboriginal  tribes  —  whom  the  officials  Brown  and 
Cleveland  had  partly  tamed — during  a  visit  to  the  Eajmahal 
Hills,  round  which  the  great  Ganges  sweeps.  The  Paharias 
are  described,  at  that  time,  as  without  caste,  priests,  or  public 
religion,  as  living  on  Indian  corn,  and  by  hunting  for  which 
they  carry  bows  and  arrows.  "  Brother  Carey  was  able  to  con- 
verse with  them."  Again,  Ward's  comment  on  the  Bengali 
services  on  the  next  Sunday,  from  the  boats,  is  "  the  common 
sort  wonder  how  brother  Carey  can  know  so  much  of  the 
Shasters."  "  I  long,"  wrote  Carey  from  the  spot  to  his  new 


1800  TAKES  UP  HIS  RESIDENCE  AT  SERAMPORE.  121 

colleagues,  "  to  stay  here  and  tell  these  social  and  untutored 
heathen  the  good  news  from  heaven.  I  have  a  strong  per- 
suasion that  the  doctrine  of  a  dying  Saviour  would,  under  the 
Holy  Spirit's  influence,  melt  their  hearts."  From  Taljheri,  near 
to  that  place,  to  Parisnath,  Eanchi,  and  Orissa,  thousands  of 
Santals  and  Kols  have  since  been  gathered  into  the  kingdom. 

On  the  10th  January  1800  Carey  took  up  his  residence 
at  Serampore,  on  the  llth  he  was  presented  to  the  governor, 
and  "he  went  out  and  preached  to  the  natives."  His 
novitiate  was  over ;  so  began  his  full  apostolate,  instant  in 
season  and  out  of  season,  to  end  only  with  his  life  thirty- 
four  years  after. 

Thus  step  by  step,  by  a  way  that  he  knew  not,  the  shoe- 
maker lad — who  had  educated  himself  to  carry  the  Gospel  to 
Tahiti,  had  been  sent  to  Bengal  in  spite  of  the  Company 
which  cast  him  out  of  their  ship,  had  starved  in  Calcutta, 
had  built  him  a  wooden  hut  in  the  jungles  of  the  Delta,  had 
become  indigo  planter  in  the  swamps  of  Dinajpoor  that  he 
might  preach  Christ  without  interference,  had  been  forced  to 
think  of  seeking  the  protection  of  a  Buddhist  in  the  Himalayan 
morass — was  driven  to  begin  anew  in  the  very  heart  of  the 
most  densely  peopled  part  of  the  British  Empire,  under  the 
jealous  care  of  the  foreign  European  power  which  had  a 
century  before  sent  missionaries  to  Tranquebar  and  taught 
Zinzendorf  and  the  Moravians  the  divine  law  of  the  king- 
dom ;  encouraged  by  a  governor,  Colonel  Bie,  who  was  him- 
self a  disciple  of  Schwartz.  To  complete  this  catalogue  of 
special  providences  we  may  add  that,  if  Fuller  had  delayed 
only  a  little  longer,  even  Serampore  would  have  been  found 
shut  against  the  missionaries.  For  the  year  after,  when 
Napoleon's  acts  had  driven  us  to  war  with  Denmark,  a 
detachment  of  British  troops  took  possession  of  Fredericks- 
nagore,  as  Serampore  was  officially  called,  and  of  the  Danish 
East  India  Company's  ship  there,  without  opposition. 


122  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1800 

The  district  or  county  of  Hoogli  and  Howrah,  opposite 
Calcutta  and  Barrackpore,  of  which  Serampore  is  the  central 
port,  swarms  with  a  population,  chiefly  Hindoo  but  partly 
Mussulman,  unmatched  for  density  in  any  other  part  of  the 
world.  If,  after  years  of  a  decimating  fever,  each  of  its  1701 
square  miles  still  supports  nearly  a  thousand  human  beings, 
or  double  the  proportion  of  Belgium,  we  cannot  believe  that 
it  was  much  less  dense  at  the  beginning  of  the  century. 
From  Howrah,  the  Surrey  side  of  Calcutta,  up  to  Hoogli  the 
county  town,  the  high  ridge  of  mud  between  the  river  and  the 
old  channel  of  the  Ganges  to  the  west,  has  attracted  the 
wealthiest  and  most  intellectually  active  of  all  the  Bengalees. 
Hence  it  was  here  that  Portuguese  and  Dutch,  French  and 
English,  and  Danes  planted  their  early  factories.  The  last  to 
obtain  a  site  of  twenty  acres  from  the  moribund  Mussulman 
Government  at  Moorshedabad  was  Denmark,  two  years  before 
Plassey.  In  the  half  century  the  hut  of  the  first  governor 
sent  from  Tranquebar  had  grown  into  the  "  beautiful  little 
town  "  which  delighted  the  first  Baptist  missionaries.  Its  in- 
habitants, under  British  administration  only  since  1845,  now 
number  25,000.  Then  they  must  have  been  fewer,  but  then 
even  more  than  now  the  town  was  a  centre  of  the  vishnoo- 
worship  of  Jagganath,  second  only  to  that  of  Pooree  in  all  India. 
Commercially  Serampore  sometimes  distanced  Calcutta  itself, 
for  all  the  foreign  European  trade  was  centred  in  it  during 
the  American  and  French  wars,  and  the  English  civilians 
used  its  investments  as  the  best  means  of  remitting  their 
savings  home.  A  few  months  before  the  missionaries 
came,  the  offing  of  Serampore  had  presented  a  busy  scene, 
when  on  23d  May  a  cyclone  snapped  the  flagstaff,  desolated 
several  houses,  swept  the  river,  and  wrecked  a  Danish  ship 
with  a  result  thus  described  by  the  contemporary  annalist. 
The  crew  were  clinging  to  the  topmasts,  and  the  native  boat- 
men refused  to  save  them  "  till  the  Eev.  Mr.  Freuchtemibt, 


1800 


SERAMFORE. 


123 


a  Danish  missionary,  sprang  into  a  boat  and,  by  the  offer  of 
reward,  seasonably  reinforced  with  menaces  and  a  vigorous 
application  of  his  cane,  prevailed  on  the  boatmen  to  carry 
him  to  the  wreck  and  carry  the  trembling  wretches  to  the 
shore.''  Who  this  "  missionary "  was  we  fail  to  discover, 
since  there  was  nothing  but  a  Portuguese  Catholic  church  in 
the  settlement,  and  the  governor  was  raising  subscriptions 


DANISH  LUTHERAN  CHURCH  (NOW  ANGLICAN),  SERAMPORE. 

for  that  pretty  building  in  which  Carey  preached  till  he  died, 
and  the  spire  of  which  the  Governor-General  is  said  to  have 
erected  to  improve  the  view  of  the  town  from  the  windows 
of  his  summer  palace  at  Barrackpore  opposite. 

Removed  from  the  rural  obscurity  of  a  Bengali  village, 
where  the  cost  of  housing,  clothing,  and  living  was  small,  to 
a  town  in  the  neighbourhood  of  the  capital  much  frequented 
by  Europeans,  Carey  at  once  adapted  the  practical  details 
of  his  communistic  brotherhood  to  the  new  circumstances. 


124  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1800 

With  such  wisdom  was  he  aided  in  this  by  the  business 
experience  of  Marshman  and  Ward,  that  a  settlement  was 
formed  which  admitted  of  easy  development  in  correspond- 
ence with  the  rapid  growth  of  the  mission.  At  first  the 
missionary  community  consisted  of  ten  adults  and  nine  chil- 
dren. Grant  had  been  carried  off  by  death  caused  by  the 
dampness  of  their  first  quarters.  Brunsdon  was  soon  after 
removed  by  fever  caught  from  standing  on  an  unmatted  floor 
in  the  printing-office.  Fountain,  who  at  first  continued 
the  mission  at  Dinajpoor,  soon  died  there  a  happy  death. 
Thomas  had  settled  at  Beerbhoom,  but  joined  the  Serampore 
brethren  in  time  to  do  good  though  brief  service  before  he 
too  was  cut  off.  But,  fortunately  as  it  proved  for  the  future, 
Carey  had  to  arrange  for  five  families  at  the  first,  and  this  is 
how  it  was  done  as  described  by  Ward  : — 

"  The  renting  of  a  house,  or  houses,  would  ruin  us.  We  hoped 
therefore  to  have  been  able  to  purchase  land,  and  build  mat  houses 
upon  it ;  but  we  can  get  none  properly  situated.  We  have  in  conse- 
quence purchased  of  the  Governor's  nephew  a  large  house  in  the 
middle  of  the  town  for  Ks.6000,  or  about  .£800  ;  the  rent  in  four 
years  would  have  amounted  to  the  purchase.  It  consists  of  a  spacious 
verandah  (portico)  and  hall,  with  two  rooms  on  each  side.  Eather 
more  to  the  front  are  two  other  rooms  separate,  and  on  one  side  is  a 
store-house,  separate  also,  which  will  make  a  printing-office.  It  stands 
by  the  river-side  upon  a  pretty  large  piece  of  ground,  walled  round, 
with  a  garden  at  the  bottom,  and  in  the  middle  a  fine  tank  or  pool  of 
water.  The  price  alarmed  us,  but  we  had  no  alternative  ;  and  we 
hope  this  will  form  a  comfortable  missionary  settlement.  Being  near 
to  Calcutta,  it  is  of  the  utmost  importance  to  our  school,  our  press,  and 
our  connection  with  England." 

"From  hence  may  the  Gospel  issue  and  pervade  all 
India,"  they  wrote  to  Fuller.  "  We  intend  to  teach  a  school, 
and  make  what  we  can  of  our  press.  The  paper  is  all  arrived, 
and  the  press,  with  the  types,  etc.,  complete.  The  Bible 
is  wholly  translated,  except  a  few  chapters,  so  that  we  intend 
to  begin  printing  immediately,  first  the  New  and  then  the 


1800 


THE  MISSION  SETTLEMENT. 


125 


Old  Testament.     We  love  our  work,  and  will  do  all  we  can 
to  lighten  your  expenses." 

This  house-chapel,  with  two  acres  of  garden  land  and 


separate  rooms  on  either  side,  continued  till  1875  to  be  the 
nucleus  of  the  settlement  afterwards  celebrated  all  over  South 
Asia  and  Christendom.  The  chapel  is  still  sacred  to  the 
worship  of  God.  The  separate  rooms  to  the  left,  now  fronting 


126  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1800 

the  Hoogli,  became  enlarged  into  the  stately  residence  of  Mr. 
John  Marshman,  C.S.I.,  and  his  two  successors  in  the  Friend 
of  India,  while  beyond  were  the  girls'  school,  now  removed, 
the  residence  of  Dr.  Joshua  Marshman  before  his  death,  and  the 
boys'  school  presented  to  the  college  by  the  King  of  Denmark. 
The  separate  rooms  to  the  right  grew  into  the  press  ;  farther 
down  the  river  was  the  house  of  the  Lady  Ehumohr  who  became 
Carey's  second  wife,  with  the  great  paper-mill  behind ;  and, 
still  farther,  the  second  park  in  which  the  Serampore  College 
was  built,  with  the  principal's  house  in  which  Carey  died, 
and  a  hostel  for  the  Native  Christian  students  behind.  The 
whole  settlement  finally  formed  a  block  of  ten  acres,  with 
almost  palatial  buildings  on  the  right  bank  of  the  Hoogli, 
which,  with  a  breadth  of  half  a  mile  when  in  flood,  rolled 
between  it  and  the  Governor-General's  summer  house  and 
English -like  park  of  Barrackpore.  The  original  two  acres, 
enlarged  to  seven,  became  Carey's  Botanic  Garden  ;  the  houses 
he  surrounded  and  connected  by  mahogany  trees,  which  grew 
to  be  of  umbrageous  beauty.  His  favourite  promenade  be- 
tween the  chapel  and  the  mill,  and  ultimately  the  college,  was 
under  an  avenue  of  his  own  planting,  long  known  as  "  Carey's 
Walk." 

The  new  colleagues  who  were  to  live  with  him  in  loving 
brotherhood  till  death  removed  the  last  in  1837  were  not 
long  in  attracting  him.  After  his  disappointment  in  Thomas 
and  Fountain  he  must  have  narrowly  scanned  them  during 
the  first  month  at  Serampore.  The  two  were  worthy  to  be 
associated  with  him.  They  so  admirably  supplemented  his 
own  deficiencies,  that  the  brotherhood  became  the  most  potent 
and  permanent  force  in  India.  He  thus  wrote  to  Fuller  his 
first  impressions  of  them,  with  a  loving  self-depreciation  : — 
"  Brother  Ward  is  the  very  man  we  wanted  :  he  enters 
into  the  work  with  his  whole  soul.  I  have  much  pleasure 
in  him,  and  expect  much  from  him.  Brother  Marshman 


1800  SKETCH  OF  THE  BROTHERHOOD.  127 

is  a  prodigy  of  diligence  and  prudence,  as  is  also  his  wife  in 
the  latter  :  learning  the  language  is  mere  play  to  him ;  he 
has  already  acquired  as  much  as  I  did  in  double  the  time." 
After  eight  months  of  study  and  evangelising  work  they  are 
thus  described:  —  "Our  brother  Marshman,  who  is  a  true 
missionary,  is  able  to  talk  a  little  ;  he  goes  out  frequently,  nay 
almost  every  day,  and  assaults  the  fortress  of  Satan.  Brother 
Brunsdon  can  talk  a  little,  though  not  like  Marshman. 
Brother  Ward  is  a  great  prize  ;  he  does  not  learn  the  lan- 
guage so  quickly,  but  he  is  so  holy,  so  spiritual  a  man,  and 
so  useful  among  the  children." 

Thus  early  did  Carey  note  the  value  of  Hannah  Marsh- 
man, the  first  woman  missionary  to  India.  Grand-daughter  of 
the  Baptist  minister  of  Crockerton  in  Wiltshire,  she  proved 
to  be  for  forty-six  years  at  once  a  loving  wife,  and  the  equal 
of  the  three  missionaries  of  Christ  and  of  civilisation  whom 
she  aided  in  the  common  home,  in  the  schools,  in  the  con- 
gregation, in  the  Native  Christian  families,  and  even,  at  that 
early  time,  in  purely  Hindoo  circles.  Without  her  the  mission 
must  have  been  one-sided  indeed.  It  still  gives  us  a  pathetic 
interest  to  turn  to  her  household  books,  where  we  find  entered 
with  loving  care  and  thoughtful  thrift  all  the  daily  details 
which  at  once  form  a  valuable  contribution  to  the  history 
of  prices,  and  show  how  her  "  prudence  "  combined  with  the 
heroic  self-denial  of  all  to  make  the  Serampore  mission  the 
light  of  India.  Ward's  journal  supplies  this  first  sketch  of 
the  brotherhood,  who  realised,  more  than  probably  any  in 
Keformed,  Eomanist  or  Greek  Hagiology,  the  life  of  the 
apostolic  community  in  Jerusalem  : — 

"  January  18,  1800. — This  week  we  have  adopted  a  set  of  rules 
for  the  government  of  the  family.  All  preach  and  pray  in  turn  ;  one 
superintends  the  affairs  of  the  family  for  a  month,  and  then  another  ; 
brother  Carey  is  treasurer,  and  has  the  regulation  of  the  medicine 
chest ;  brother  Fountain  is  librarian.  Saturday  evening  is  devoted  to 
adjusting  differences,  and  pledging  ourselves  to  love  one  another.  One 


128  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1800 

of  our  resolutions  is,  that  no  one  of  us  do  engage  in  private  trade  ;  but 
that  all  be  done  for  the  benefit  of  the  mission.  .  .  . 

"  August  1. — Our  labours  for  every  day  are  now  regularly  arranged. 
About  six  o'clock  we  rise  ;  brother  Carey  to  his  garden  ;  brother  Marsh- 
man  to  his  school  at  seven  ;  brother  Brunsdon,  Felix,  and  I,  to  the 
printing-office.  At  eight  the  bell  rings  for  family  worship  :  we  assemble 
in  the  hall  ;  sing,  read,  and  pray.  Breakfast.  Afterwards,  brother 
Carey  goes  to  the  translation,  or  reading  proofs  :  brother  Marshman  to 
school,  and  the  rest  to  the  printing-office.  Our  compositor  having  left 
us,  we  do  without :  we  print  three  half-sheets  of  2000  each  in  a  week ; 
have  five  pressmen,  one  folder,  and  one  binder.  At  twelve  o'clock  we 
take  a  luncheon  ;  then  most  of  us  shave  and  bathe,  read  and  sleep 
before  dinner,  which  we  have  at  three.  After  dinner  we  deliver  our 
thoughts  on  a  text  or  question  :  this  we  find  to  be  very  profitable. 
Brother  and  sister  Marshman  keep  their  schools  till  after  two.  In 
the  afternoon,  if  business  be  done  in  the  office,  I  read  and  try  to  talk 
Bengali  with  the  brammhan.  We  drink  tea  about  seven,  and  have 
little  or  no  supper.  We  have  Bengali  preaching  once  or  twice  in 
the.  week,  and  on  Thursday  evening  we  have  an  experience  meeting. 
On  Saturday  evening  we  meet  to  compose  differences  and  transact 
business,  after  prayer,  which  is  always  immediately  after  tea.  Felix 
is  very  useful  in  the  office  ;  William  goes  to  school,  and  part  of  the 
day  learns  to  bind.  We  meet  two  hours  before  breakfast  on  the  first 
Monday  in  the  month,  and  each  one  prays  for  the  salvation  of  the 
Bengal  heathen.  At  night  we  unite  our  prayers  for  the  universal 
spread  of  the  Gospel." 

The  "  Form  of  Agreement "  which  regulated  the  social 
economy  and  spiritual  enterprise  of  the  brotherhood,  and  also 
its  legal  relations  to  the  Baptist  Society  in  England,  deserves 
study,  in  its  divine  disinterestedness,  its  lofty  aims,  and  its 
kindly  common  sense.  Fuller  had  pledged  the  Society  in 
1798  to  send  out  £360  a  year  for  the  joint  family  of  six 
missionaries,  their  wives,  and  children.  The  house  and  land 
at  Serampore  cost  the  Society  Ks.6000.  On  Grant's  death, 
leaving  a  widow  and  two  children,  the  five  missionaries  made 
the  first  voluntary  agreement,  which  "  provided  that  no  one 
should  trade  on  his  own  private  account,  and  that  the  product 
of  their  labour  should  form  a  common  fund  to  be  applied  at 


1800  THE  BOND  OF  THE  BROTHERHOOD.  129 

the  will  of  the  majority,  to  the  support  of  their  respective 
families,  of  the  cause  of  God  around  them,  and  of  the  widow 
and  family  of  such  as  might  be  removed  by  death."  The  first 
year  the  schools  and  the  press  enabled  the  brotherhood  to 
be  more  than  self-supporting.  In  the  second  year  Carey's 
salary  from  the  College  of  Fort- William,  and  the  growth  of 
the  schools  and  press,  gave  them  a  surplus  for  mission  exten- 
sion. They  not  only  paid  for  the  additional  two  houses  and 
ground  required  by  such  extension,  but  they  paid  back  to  the 
Society  all  that  it  had  advanced  for  the  first  purchase  in 
the  course  of  the  next  six  years.  They  acquired  all  the 
property  for  the  Serampore  mission,  duly  informing  the 
home  committee  from  time  to  time,  and  they  vested  the 
whole  right,  up  to  Fuller's  death  in  1815,  in  the  Society,  "to 
prevent  the  premises  being  sold  or  becoming  private  property 
in  the  families."  But  "  to  secure  their  own  quiet  occupation 
of  them,  and  enable  them  to  leave  them  in  the  hands  of  such 
as  they  might  associate  with  themselves  in  their  work,  they 
declared  themselves  trustees  instead  of  proprietors." 

The  agreement  of  1800  was  expanded  into  the  "  Form  of 
Agreement "  of  1805  when  the  spiritual  side  of  the  mission 
had  grown.  Their  own  authoritative  statement,  as  given  above, 
was  lovingly  recognised  by  Fuller.  In  1817,  and  again  in 
1820,  the  claims  of  aged  and  destitute  relatives,  and  the  duty 
of  each  brother  making  provision  for  his  own  widow  and 
orphans,  and,  occasionally,  the  calls  of  pity  and  humanity, 
led  the  brotherhood  to  agree  that  "  each  shall  regularly 
deduct  a  tenth  of  the  net  product  of  his  labour  to  form  a  fund 
in  his  own  hands  for  these  purposes."  We  know  nothing  in 
the  history  of  missions,  monastic  or  evangelical,  which  at  all 
approaches  this  in  administrative  perfectness  as  well  as  in 
Christ-like  self-sacrifice.  It  prevents  secularisation  of  spirit, 
stimulates  activity  of  all  kinds,  gives  full  scope  to  local  ability 
and  experience,  calls  forth  the  maximum  of  local  support  and 

K 


130  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1805 

propagation,  sets  the  church  at  home  free  to  enter  inces- 
santly on  new  fields,  provides  permanence  as  well  as  variety 
of  action  and  adaptation  to  new  circumstances,  and  binds  the 
whole  in  a  holy  bond  of  prayerful  co-operation  and  loving 
fellowship.  This  Agreement  worked  for  seventeen  years, 
with  a  success  in  England  and  India  which  we  shall  trace, 
or  as  long  as  Fuller,  Eyland,  and  Sutcliff  lived  "  to  hold 
the  ropes,"  while  Carey,  Marshman,  and  Ward  excavated  the 
mine  of  Hinduism.  It  failed  at  the  English  end  only,  when 
Fuller  was  succeeded  by  men  less  worthy  to  put  their  hands 
to  this  ark  of  God ;  in  India  it  survived  the  life  of  its  saintly 
founder. 

The  spiritual  side  of  the  Agreement  we  find  in  the  form 
which  the  three  drew  up  in  1805,  to  be  read  publicly  at  all 
their  stations  thrice  every  year,  on  the  Lord's  Day.  No  one 
will  understand  William  Carey,  or  do  justice  to  the  Seram- 
pore  brotherhood,  who  does  not  study  that,  as  we  republish 
it  elsewhere.1  It  is  the  ripe  fruit  of  the  first  eleven  years  of 
Carey's  daily  toil  and  consecrated  genius,  as  written  out  by 
the  fervent  pen  of  Ward.  In  the  light  of  it  the  whole  of 
Carey's  life  must  be  read.  In  these  concluding  sentences  of 
the  Agreement  the  writer  sketches  Carey  himself : — "  Let  us 
often  look  at  Brainerd  in  the  woods  of  America,  pouring  out 
his  very  soul  before  God  for  the  perishing  heathen,  without 
whose  salvation  nothing  could  make  him  happy.  Prayer, 
secret,  fervent  believing  prayer,  lies  at  the  root  of  all  per- 
sonal godliness.  A  competent  knowledge  of  the  languages 
current  where  a  missionary  lives,  a  mild  and  winning  temper, 
and  a  heart  given  up  to  God  in  closet  religion;  these,  these 
are  the  attainments  which,  more  than  all  knowledge  or  all 
other  gifts,  well  fit  us  to  become  the  instruments  of  God  in 
the  great  work  of  human  redemption.  .  .  .  Finally,  let  us  give 
ourselves  unreservedly  to  this  glorious  cause.  Let  us  never 

1  See  Appendix  I. 


1805  SPIRITUAL  AIM  OF  THE  BROTHERHOOD.  131 

think  that  our  time,  our  gifts,  our  strength,  our  families,  or 
even  the  clothes  we  wear  are  our  own.  Let  us  sanctify  them 
all  to  God  and  His  cause.  Oh !  that  He  may  sanctify  us 
for  His  work.  Let  us  for  ever  shut  out  the  idea  of  laying 
up  a  cowry  for  ourselves  or  our  children.  If  we  give  up  the 
resolution  which  was  formed  on  the  subject  of  private  trade, 
when  we  first  united  at  Serampore,  the  mission  is  from  that 
hour  a  lost  cause.  .  .  .  Let  us  continually  watch  against  a 
worldly  spirit,  and  cultivate  a  Christian  indifference  towards 
every  indulgence.  Eather  let  us  bear  hardness  as  good 
soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ.  ...  No  private  family  ever  enjoyed 
a  greater  portion  of  happiness,  even  in  the  most  prosperous 
gale  of  worldly  prosperity,  than  we  have  done  since  we 
resolved  to  have  all  things  in  common.  If  we  are  enabled 
to  persevere  in  the  same  principles,  we  may  hope  that  multi- 
tudes of  converted  souls  will  have  reason  to  bless  God  to  all 
eternity  for  sending  His  Gospel  into  this  country." 

Such  was  the  moral  heroism,  such  the  spiritual  aim  of 
the  Serampore  brotherhood ;  how  did  it  set  to  work  ? 


CHAPTER   VI. 

THE  FIRST  NATIVE  CONVERTS  AND  CHRISTIAN  SCHOOLS. 
1800-1810. 

A  carpenter  the  first  Bengali  convert  —  Krishna  Pal's  confession  —  Caste 
broken  for  the  first  time — Carey  describes  the  baptism  in  the  Hoogli — 
The  first  woman  eonvert — The  first  widow  convert — The  first  convert 
of  writer  caste — The  first  Christian  Brahman — The  first  native  chapel 
—  A  Bengali  "experience"  meeting — Carey  founding  a  new  com- 
munity as  well  as  church — Marriage  difficulties  solved — The  first  native 
Christian  marriage  feast  in  North  India — Hindoo  Christian  death  and 
burial — The  first  Christian  schools  and  school-books  in  North  India — 
Creighton's  memorandum — The  first  native  Sunday  school — Boarding 
schools  for  the  higher  education  of  country-born  Christians — Carey  on 
the  mixed  Portuguese,  Eurasians,  and  Armenians— The  Benevolent  In- 
stitution for  destitute  children  of  all  races — A  hundred  schools — 
English  only  postponed — Effect  on  native  opinion  and  action — The 
leaven  of  the  Kingdom — The  Mission  breaks  forth  into  five  at  the  close 
of  1810. 

TOR  seven  years  Carey  had  daily  preached  Christ  in  Bengali 
without  a  convert.  He  had  produced  the  first  edition  of  the 
New  Testament.  He  had  reduced  the  language  to  literary 
form,  with  the  help  of  Earn  Basu,  who  to  the  last  did  every- 
thing for  the  propagation  of  the  new  faith  except  give  up 
himself.  He  had  laid  the  foundations  in  the  darkness  of  the 
pit  of  Hindooism,  while  the  Northamptonshire  pastors,  by 
prayer  and  self-sacrifice,  held  the  ropes.  The  last  disappoint- 
ment was  on  25th  November  1800,  when  "  the  first  Hindoo  " 
catechumen,  Fakeer,  offered  himself  for  baptism,  returned  to 
his  distant  home  for  his  child,  and  appeared  no  more,  prob- 


1800  THE  FIRST  CONVERT.  133 

ably  "  detained  by  force."  But  on  the  last  Sunday  of  that 
year  Krishna  Pal  was  baptized  in  the  Hoogli,  and  his  whole 
family  soon  followed  him.  He  was  thirty-five  years  of  age. 
Not  only  as  the  first  native  Christian  of  North  India  of  whom 
we  have  a  reliable  account,  but  as  the  first  missionary  to 
Calcutta  and  Assam,  and  the  first  Bengali  hymn-writer, 
this  man  deserves  study. 

Carey's  first  Hindoo'  convert  was  three  years  younger  than 
himself,  or  about  thirty-six,  at  baptism.  Krishna  Chandra  Pal, 
born  near  the  neighbouring  French  settlement  of  Chanderna- 
gore,  had  settled  in  the  suburbs  of  Serampore,  where  he  worked 
as  a  carpenter.  Sore  sickness  and  a  sense  of  sin  led  him  to  join 
the  Kharta-bhajas,  one  of  the  sects  which,  from  the  time  of 
Gautama  Buddha,  and  of  Chaitanya,  the  reformer  of  Nuddea, 
to  that  of  Nanak,  founder  of  the  Sikh  brotherhood,  have  been 
driven  into  dissent  by  the  yoke  of  Brahmanism.  Generally 
worshippers  of  some  form  of  Vishnoo,  and  occasionally,  as  in 
Kabeer's  case,  influenced  by  the  monotheism  of  Islam,  these 
sects  begin  by  professing  theism  and  opposition  to  caste, 
though  Hindooism  is  elastic  enough  to  keep  them  always 
within  its  pale  and  ultimately  to  absorb  them  again.  For 
sixteen  years  Krishna  Pal  was  himself  a  gooroo  of  the 
Ghoshpara  sect,  of  which  from  Carey's  to  Duff's  earlier  days 
the  missionaries  had  a  hope  which  proved  vain.  He  re- 
covered from  sickness,  but  could  not  shake  off  the  sense  of 
the  burden  of  sin,  when  this  message  came  to  him,  and,  to  his 
surprise,  through  the  Europeans — "Jesus  Christ  came  into 
the  world  to  save  sinners."  At  the  same  time  he  happened 
to  dislocate  his  right  arm  by  falling  down  the  slippery 
side  of  his  tank  when  about  to  bathe.  He  sent  two  of 
the  children  to  the  Mission  House  for  Thomas,  who  imme- 
diately left  the  breakfast  table  at  which  the  brethren  had 
just  sat  down,  and  soon  reduced  the  luxation,  while  the 
sufferer  again  heard  the  good  news  that  Christ  was  waiting  to 


134  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1800 

heal  his  soul,  and  he  and  his  neighbour  Gokool  received  a 
Bengali  tract.  He  himself  thus  told  the  story  : — "  In  this 
paper  I  read  that  he  who  confesseth  and  forsaketh  his  sins, 
and  trusteth  in  the  righteousness  of  Christ,  obtains  salvation. 
The  next  morning  Mr.  Carey  came  to  see  me,  and  after  in- 
quiring how  I  was,  told  me  to  come  to  his  house,  that  he  would 
give  me  some  medicine,  by  which,  through  the  blessing  of 
God,  the  pain  in  my  arm  would  be  removed.  I  went  and 
obtained  the  medicine,  and  through  the  mercy  of  God  my 
arm  was  cured.  From  this  time  I  made  a  practice  of  calling 
at  the  mission  house,  where  Mr.  Ward  and  Mr.  Felix  Carey 
used  to  read  and  expound  the  Holy  Bible  to  me.  One  day 
Dr.  Thomas  asked  me  whether  I  understood  what  I  heard 
from  Mr.  Ward  and  Mr.  Carey.  I  said  I  understood  that  the 
Lord  Jesus  Christ  gave  his  life  up  for  the  salvation  of  sinners, 
and  that  I  believed  it,  and  so  did  my  friend  Gokool.  Dr.  T. 
said,  '  Then  I  call  you  brother — come  and  let  us  eat  together 
in  love.'  At  this  time  the  table  was  set  for  luncheon,  and  all 
the  missionaries  and  their  wives,  and  I  and  Gokool,  sat  down 
and  ate  together." 

The  servants  spread  the  news,  most  horrible  to  the  people, 
that  the  two  Hindoos  had  "become  Europeans,"  and  they 
were  assaulted  on  their  way  home.  Just  thirty  years  after, 
in  Calcutta,  the  first  public  breach  of  caste  by  the  young 
Brahman  students  of  Duff  raised  a  still  greater  commotion,  and 
resulted  in  the  first  converts  there.  Krishna  Pal  and  his 
wife,  his  wife's  sister  and  his  four  daughters  ;  Gokool,  his  wife, 
and  a  widow  of  forty  who  lived  beside  them,  formed  the  first 
group  of  Christian  Hindoos  of  caste  in  India  north  of  Madras. 
Two  years  after  Krishna  Pal  sent  to  the  Society  this  confes- 
sion of  his  faith.  Literally  translated  it  is  a  record  of  belief 
such  as  Paul  himself  might  have  written,  illustrated  by  an 
apostolic  life  of  twenty-two  years.  The  carpenter's  confession 
and  dedication  has,  in  the  original,  an  exquisite  tenderness, 


1802  FIRST  EPISTLE  OF  THE  CHURCH  OF  INDIA.  135 

reflected   also   in  the   hymn1   which   he   wrote   for   family 

worship : — 

"SERAMPORE,  I2th  Oct.  1802. 

"  To  the  brethren  of  the  church  of  our  Saviour  Jesus  Christ,  our 
souls  beloved,  my  affectionately  embracing  representation.  The  love 
of  God,  the  gospel  of  Jesus  Christ,  was  made  known  by  holy  brother 
Thomas.  In  that  day  our  minds  were  filled  with  joy.  Then  judging, 
we  understood  that  we  were  dwelling  in  darkness.  Through  the  door 
of  manifestation  we  came  to  know,  that  sin  confessing,  sin  forsaking, 
Christ's  righteousness  embracing,  salvation  would  be  obtained.  By 
light  springing  up  in  the  heart,  we  knew  that  sinners  becoming 
repentant,  through  the  sufferings  of  Christ,  obtain  salvation.  In  this 
rejoicing,  and  in  Christ's  love  believing,  I  obtained  mercy.  Now 
it  is  in  my  mind  continually  to  dwell  in  the  love  of  Christ :  this  is 
the  desire  of  my  soul.  Do  you,  holy  people,  pour  down  love  upon 
us,  that  as  the  chatookee  we  may  be  satisfied.2  I  was  the  vilest  of 
sinners  :  He  hath  saved  me.  Now  this  word  I  will  tell  to  the  world. 
Going  forth,  I  will  proclaim  the  love  of  Christ  with  rejoicing.  To 
sinners  I  will  say  this  word  :  Here  sinner,  brother  !  without  Christ 
there  is  no  help.  Christ,  the  world  to  save,  gave  his  own  soul !  Such 
love  was  never  heard  :  for  enemies  Christ  gave  his  own  soul  !  Such 
compassion,  where  shall  we  get  ?  For  the  sake  of  saving  sinners  he 
forsook  the  happiness  of  heaven.  I  will  constantly  stay  near  him. 
Being  awakened  by  this  news,  I  will  constantly  dwell  in  the  town  of 
joy.  In  the  Holy  Spirit  I  will  live  :  yet  in  Christ's  sorrow  I  will  be 
{sorrowful  I  will  dwell  along  with  happiness,  continually  meditating 
on  this  ; — Christ  witt-save  the  world !  In  Christ  not  taking  refuge, 
there  is  no  other  way  of  life.  I  was  indeed  a  sinner,  praise  not  know- 
ing.— This  is  the  representation  of  Christ's  servant,  c<  ,,  „ 

Such  is  the  first  epistle  of  the  Church  of  India.  Thus 
the  first  medical  missionary  had  his  reward ;  but  the  joy 
proved  to  he  too  much  for  him.  When  Carey  led  Krishna  and 
his  own  son  Felix  down  into  the  water  of  baptism  the  ravings 

1  The  English  translation  is  still  used  by  Baptists,  beginning — 

"  Oh  !  thou  my  soul  forget  no  more 
The  Friend  who  all  thy  misery  bore." 

2  The  chatookee  is  a  bird  which,  they  say,  drinks  not  at  the  streams 
below  :  but  when  it  rains,  opening  its  bill,  it  catches  the  drops  as  they  fall 
from  the  clouds. 


136  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1800 

of  Thomas  in  the  schoolhouse  on  the  one  side,  and  of  Mrs. 
Carey  on  the  other,  mingled  with  the  strains  of  the  Bengali 
hymn  of  praise.  The  Mission  Journal,  written  by  Ward,  tells 
with  graphic  simplicity  how  caste  as  well  as  idol-worship 
was  overcome  not  only  by  the  men  but  the  women  repre- 
sentatives of  a  race  whom,  thirty  years  after,  Macaulay  de- 
scribed as  destitute  of  courage,  independence,  and  veracity, 
and  bold  only  in  deceit.  Christ  is  changing  all  that. 

"  Nov.  27. — Krishna,  the  man  whose  arm  was  set,  overtook  Felix 
and  me,  and  said  he  would  come  to  our  house  daily  for  instruction  ; 
for  that  we  had  not  only  cured  his  arm,  but  brought  him  the  news  of 
salvation.  .  .  . 

"  Dec.  5. — Yesterday  evening  Gokool  and  Krishna  prayed  in  my 
room.  This  morning  Gokool  called  upon  us,  and  told  us  that  his  wife 
and  two  or  three  more  of  his  family  had  left  him  on  account  of  the 
gospel.  He  had  eaten  of  Krishna's  rice,  who  being  of  another  caste, 
Gokool  had  lost  his.  Krishna  says  his  wife  and  family  are  all  desirous 
of  becoming  Christians.  They  declare  their  willingness  to  join  us,  and 
obey  all  our  Saviour's  commands.  Gokool  and  his  wife  had  a  long 
talk  ;  but  she  continued  determined,  and  is  gone  to  her  relations. 

"  Dec.  6. — This  morning  brother  Carey  and  I  went  to  Krishna's 
house.  Everything  was  made  very  clean.  The  women  sat  within  the 
house,  the  children  at  the  door,  and  Krishna  and  Gokool  with 
brother  Carey  and  I  in  the  court.  The  houses  of  the  poor  are  only 
calculated  for  sleeping  in.  Brother  Carey  talked  ;  and  the  women 
appeared  to  have  learned  more  of  the  gospel  than  we  expected.  They 
declared  for  Christ  at  once.  This  work  was  new,  even  to  brother 
Carey.  A  whole  family  desiring  to  hear  the  gospel,  and  declaring  in 
favour  of  it !  Krishna's  wife  said  she  had  received  great  joy  from  it. 

"  Lord's -day,  Dec.  7. — This  morning  brother  Carey  went  to 
Krishna's  house,  and  spoke  to  a  yard  full  of  people,  who  heard  with 
great  attention  though  trembling  with  cold.  Brother  Brunsdon  is 
very  poorly.  Krishna's  wife  and  her  sister  were  to  have  been  with  us 
in  the  evening  ;  but  the  women  have  many  scruples  to  sitting  in  the 
company  of  Europeans.  Some  of  them  scarcely  ever  go  out,  but  to 
the  river  ;  and  if  they  meet  a  European  run  away.  Sometimes  when 
we  have  begun  to  speak  in  a  street,  some  one  desires  us  to  remove  to 
a  little  distance  ;  for  the  women  dare  not  come  by  us  to  fill  their  jars 
at  the  river.  We  always  obey.  .  .  . 


1800  THE  FIRST  BAPTISM.  137 

"  Dec.  11. — Gokool,  Krishna,  and  family  continue  to  seek  after  the 
Word,  and  profess  their  entire  willingness  to  join  us.  The  women 
seem  to  have  learnt  that  sin  is  a  dreadful  thing,  and  to  have  received 
joy  in  hearing  of  Jesus  Christ.  We  see  them  all  every  day  almost. 
They  live  but  about  half-a-mile  from  us.  We  think  it  right  to  make 
many  allowances  for  ignorance,  and  for  a  state  of  mind  produced  by  a 
corrupt  superstition.  We  therefore  cannot  think  of  demanding  from 
them,  previous  to  baptism,  more  than  a  profession  of  dependence  on 
Christ,  from  a  knowledge  of  their  need  of  him,  and  submission  to  him  in  all 
things.  We  now  begin  to  talk  of  baptism.  Yesterday  we  fixed  upon 
the  spot,  before  our  gate,  in  the  river.  We  begin  to  talk  also  of  many 
other  things  concerning  the  discipled  natives.  This  evening  Felix  and 
I  went  to  Gokool's  house.  Krishna  and  his  wife  and  a  brammhan 
were  present.  I  said  a  little.  Felix  read  the  four  last  chapters  of 
John  to  them,  and  spoke  also.  We  sat  down  upon  a  piece  of  mat  in 
the  front  of  the  house.  (No  chairs.)  It  was  very  pleasant.  To  have 
natives  who  feel  a  little  as  we  do  ourselves,  is  so  new  and  different. 
The  country  itself  seems  to  wear  a  new  aspect  to  me.  .  .  . 

"  Dec.  13. — This  evening  Felix  and  I  went  to  see  our  friends  Gokool 
and  Krishna.  The  latter  was  out.  Gokool  gave  a  pleasing  account 
of  the  state  of  his  mind,  and  also  of  that  of  Krishna  and  his  family. 
While  we  were  there,  Gokool's  gooroo  (teacher)  came  for  the  first  time 
since  his  losing  caste.  Gokool  refused  to  prostrate  himself  at  his 
feet  while  he  should  put  his  foot  on  his  head  ;  for  which  his  gooroo 
was  displeased.  .  .  . 

"  Dec.  22. — This  day  Gokool  and  Krishna  came  to  eat  tiffin  (what  in 
England  is  called  luncheon)  with  us,  and  thus  publicly  threw  away 
their  caste.  Brethren  Carey  and  Thomas  went  to  prayer  with  the  two 
natives  before  they  proceeded  to  this  act.  All  our  servants  were 
astonished  :  so  many  had  said  that  nobody  would  ever  mind  Christ  or 
lose  caste.  Brother  Thomas  has  waited  fifteen  years,  and  thrown  away 
much  upon  deceitful  characters  :  brother  Carey  has  waited  till  hope  of 
his  own  success  has  almost  expired  ;  and  after  all,  God  has  done  it  with 
perfect  ease  !  Thus  the  door  of  faith  is  open  to  the  gentiles ;  who  shall 
shut  it  ?  The  chain  of  the  caste  is  broken  ;  who  shall  mend  it  ? " 

Carey  thus  describes  the  baptism : — "  Dec.  29. — Yesterday 
was  a  day  of  great  joy.  I  had  the  happiness  to  desecrate  the 
Gunga,  by  baptizing  the  first  Hindoo,  viz.  Krishna  and  my 
son  Felix :  some  circumstances  turned  up  to  delay  the 


138  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1800 

baptism  of  Gokool  and  the  two  women.  Krishna's  coming 
forward,  alone,  however,  gave  us  very  great  pleasure,  and  his 
joy  at  both  ordinances  was  very  great.  The  river  runs  just 
before  our  gate,  in  front  of  the  house,  and,  I  think,  is  as  wide 
as  the  Thames  at  Gravesend.  We  intended  to  have  baptized 
at  nine  in  the  morning ;  but,  on  account  of  the  tide,  were 
obliged  to  defer  it  till  nearly  one  o'clock,  and  it  was  adminis- 
tered just  after  the  English  preaching.  The  Governor  and  a 
good  number  of  Europeans  were  present.  Brother  Ward 
preached  a  sermon  in  English,  from  John  v.  39 — '  Search  the 
Scriptures.'  We  then  went  to  the  water-side,  where  I  ad- 
dressed the  people  in  Bengali ;  after  having  sung  a  Bengali 
translation  of  '  Jesus,  and  shall  it  ever  be,'  and  engaging  in 
prayer.  After  the  address,  I  administered  the  ordinance,  first 
to  my  son,  then  to  Krishna.  At  half-past  four  I  administered 
the  Lord's  Supper ;  and  a  time  of  real  refreshing  it  was.  .  .  . 

"  Thus,  you  see,  God  is  making  way  for  us,  and  giving 
success  to  the  word  of  his  grace !  We  have  toiled  long,  and 
have  met  with  many  discouragements  ;  but,  at  last,  the  Lord 
has  appeared  for  us.  May  we  have  the  true  spirit  of  nurses, 
to  train  them  up  in  the  words  of  faith  and  sound  doctrine  ! 
I  have  no  fear  of  any  one,  however,  in  this  respect,  but  my- 
self. I  feel  much  concerned  that  they  may  act  worthy  of 
their  vocation,  and  also,  that  they  may  be  able  to  teach  others. 
I  think  it  becomes  us  to  make  the  most  of  every  one  whom 
the  Lord  gives  us." 

Jeymooni,  Krishna's  wife's  sister,  was  the  first  Bengali 
woman  to  be  baptized,  and  Easoo,  his  wife,  soon  followed ; 
both  were  about  thirty-five  years  old.  The  former  said  she 
had  found  a  treasure  in  Christ  greater  than  anything  in  the 
world.  The  latter,  when  she  first  heard  the  good  news  from 
her  husband,  said  "  there  was  no  such  sinner  as  I,  and  I  felt 
my  heart  immediately  unite  to  Him.  I  wish  to  keep  all  His 
commands  so  far  as  I  know  them."  Gokool  was  kept  back 


1800  THE  FIRST  BRAHMAN  CONVERT.  139 

for  a  time  by  his  wife,  Komal,  who  fled  to  her  father's,  but 
Krishna  and  his  family  brought  in,  first  the  husband, 
then  the  wife,  whose  simplicity  and  frankness  attracted  the 
missionaries.  Unna,  their  widowed  friend  of  forty,  was  also 
gathered  in,  the  first  of  that  sad  host  of  victims  to  Brahman- 
ical  cruelty,  lust,  and  avarice  to  whom  Christianity  has  ever 
since  offered  the  only  deliverance.  Of  124,000,000  of  women 
in  India  in  1881,  no  fewer  than  21,000,000  were  returned  by 
the  census  as  widows,  of  whom  669,000  were  under  nineteen 
years,  286,000  were  under  fifteen,  and  79,000  were  under 
nine,  all  figures  undoubtedly  within  the  appalling  truth. 
Jeymooni  and  Unna  at  once  became  active  missionaries  among 
their  countrywomen,  not  only  in  Serampore  but  in  Chander- 
nagore  and  the  surrounding  country. 

The  year  1800  did  not  close  without  fruit  from  the  other 
and  higher  castes.  Petumber  Singh,  a  man  of  fifty  of  the 
writer  caste,  had  sought  deliverance  from  sin  for  thirty  years 
at  many  a  Hindoo  shrine  and  in  many  a  Brahmanical  scrip- 
ture. One  of  the  earliest  tracts  of  the  Serampore  press  fell 
into  his  hands,  and  he  at  once  walked  forty  miles  to  seek 
fuller  instruction  from  its  author.  His  baptism  gave  Carey 
just  what  the  mission  wanted,  a  good  schoolmaster,  and  he 
soon  proved  to  be,  even  before  Krishna  in  time,  the  first 
preacher  to  the  people.  Of  the  same  writer  caste  were  Syam 
Das,  Petumber  Hitter,  and  his  wife  Draupadi  who  was  as 
brave  as  her  young  husband.  The  despised  soodras  were 
represented  by  Syam's  neighbour,  Bharut,  an  old  man,  who 
said  he  went  to  Christ  because  he  was  just  falling  into  hell 
and  saw  no  other  way  of  safety.  The  first  Mohammedan 
convert  was  Peroo,  another  neighbour  of  Syam  Das.  From 
the  spot  in  the  Soondarbans  where  Carey  first  began  his  life 
of  missionary  farmer,  there  came  to  him  at  the  close  of  1802, 
in  Calcutta,  the  first  Brahman  who  had  bowed  his  neck  to 
the  Gospel  in  all  India  up  to  this  time,  for  we  can  hardly 


140  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1804 

reckon  Kiernander's  case.  Krishna  Prosad,  then  nineteen, 
"  gave  up  his  friends  and  his  caste  with  much  fortitude,  and 
is  the  first  Brahman  who  has  been  baptized.  The  word  of 
Christ's  death  seems  to  have  gone  to  his  heart,  and  he  con- 
tinues to  receive  the  Word  with  meekness."  The  poita  or 
sevenfold  thread  which,  as  worn  over  the  naked  body, 


KRISHNA  PROSAD,  FIRST  BRAHMAN  WHO  PREACHED  CHRIST. 

betokened  his  caste,  he  trampled  under  foot,  and  another 
was  given  to  him,  that  when  preaching  Christ  he  might  be 
a  witness  to  the  Brahmans  at  once  that  Christ  is  irresistible 
and  that  an  idol  is  nothing  in  the  world.  This  he  voluntarily 
ceased  to  wear  in  a  few  years.  Two  more  Brahmans  were 
brought  in  by  Petumber  Singhee  in  18  04,  by  the  close  of  which 
year  the  number  of  baptized  converts  was  forty-eight,  of 


CAREY'S  CHRISTIAN  VILLAGE  — BAPTISM  IN  THE  TANK.        To  face  page  141. 


1804  THE  FIRST  NATIVE  CHRISTIAN  CHURCH.  141 

whom  forty  were  native  men  and  women.  With  the  instinct 
of  a  true  scholar  and  Christian  Carey  kept  to  the  apostolic 
practice,  which  has  been  too  often  departed  from — he  conse- 
crated the  convert's  name  as  well  as  soul  and  body  to  Christ. 
Beside  the  "  Hermes  "  of  Eome  to  whom  Paul  sent  his  saluta- 
tion, he  kept  the  "  Krishna  "  of  Serampore  and  Calcutta. 

The  first  act  of  the  first  convert,  Krishna  Pal,  was  of  his 
own  accord  to  build  a  house  for  God  immediately  opposite 
his  own — the  first  native  meeting-house  in  Bengal.  Carey 
preached  the  first  sermon  in  it  to  twenty  natives  besides  the 
family.  On  the  side  of  the  high  road,  along  which  the  car  of 
Jagganath  is  dragged  every  year,  the  missionaries  purchased 
a  site  and  built  a  preaching  place,  a  school,  a  house  for 
Gokool,  and  a  room  for  the  old  widow,  at  the  cost  of  Captain 
Wickes,  who  had  rejoiced  to  witness  their  baptism.  The 
Brahman  who  owned  the  neighbouring  land  wished  to  sell  it 
and  leave  the  place,  "  so  much  do  these  people  abhor  us." 
This  little  purchase  for  £6  grew  in  time  into  the  extensive 
settlement  of  Jannagur,  where  about  1870  the  last  of  Carey's 
converts  passed  away.  From  its  native  chapel,  and  in  its 
village  tank,  many  Hindoos  have  since  been  led  by  their  own 
ordained  countrymen  to  put  on  Christ,  as  in  the  picture.  In 
time  the  congregation  in  the  chapel  on  the  Hoogli  became 
chiefly  European  and  Eurasian,  but  to  this  day,  on  the  first 
Sunday  of  the  year,  the  members  of  both  churches  meet 
together  for  solemn  and  joyful  communion,  when  the  services 
are  alternately  in  Bengali  and  English. 

The  longing  for  converts  now  gave  place  to  anxiety  that 
they  might  continue  to  be  Christians  indeed.  As  in  the  early 
Corinthian  Church,  all  did  not  perceive  at  once  the  solemni- 
ties of  the  Lord's  Supper.  Krishna  Pal,  for  instance,  jealous 
because  the  better  educated  Petumber  had  been  ordained  to 
preach  before  him,  made  a  schism  by  administering  it,  and 
so  filled  the  missionaries  with  grief  and  fear ;  but  he  soon 


142  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1803 

became  penitent.  Associated  with  men  who  gave  their  all  to 
Christ,  the  native  members  could  not  but  learn  the  lesson  of 
self-support,  so  essential  for  a  self-propagating  church,  and  so 
often  neglected  in  the  early  history  of  missions,  and  even 
still.  On  baptism  Krishna  received  a  new  white  dress  with 
six  shillings ;  but  such  a  gift,  beautiful  in  itself,  was  soon 
discontinued.  A  Mohammedan  convert  asked  assistance  to 
cultivate  a  little  ground  and  rear  silkworms,  but,  writes  Mr. 
Ward  bowed  down  with  missionary  cares,  "  We  are  desirous 
to  avoid  such  a  precedent."  Although  these  first  converts 
were  necessarily  missionaries  rather  than  pastors  for  a  time, 
each  preacher  received  no  more  than  six  rupees  a  month 
while  in  his  own  village,  and  double  that  when  itinerating. 
Carey  and  his  colleagues  were  ever  on  the  watch  to  foster  the 
spiritual  life  and  growth  of  men  and  women  born,  and  for 
thirty  or  fifty  years  trained,  in  all  the  ideas  and  practices  of 
a  system  which  is  the  very  centre  of  opposition  to  teaching 
like  theirs.  This  record  of  an  "  experience  meeting  "  of  three 
men  and  five  women  may  be  taken  as  a  type  of  Bengali 
Christianity  when  it  was  but  two  years  old,  and  as  a  contrast 
to  that  which  prevails  nearly  a  century  after  : — 

"  Gokool.  I  have  been  the  greatest  of  sinners,  but  I  wish  only  to 
think  of  the  death  of  Christ.  I  rejoice  that  now  people  can  no  longer 
despise  the  Gospel,  and  call  us  feringas  ;  but  they  begin  to  judge  for 
themselves. 

"  Krishna  Prosad.  I  have  this  week  been  thinking  of  the  power  of 
God,  that  he  can  do  all  things  ;  and  of  the  necessity  of  minding  all  his 
commands.  I  have  thought  also  of  my  mother  a  great  deal,  who  is 
now  become  old,  and  who  is  constantly  crying  about  me,  thinking  that 
I  have  dishonoured  the  family  and  am  lost.  Oh  that  I  could  but  once 
go  and  tell  her  of  the  good  news,  as  well  as  my  brothers  and  sisters, 
and  open  their  eyes  to  the  way  of  salvation  ! 

"  Ram  Roteen.  In  my  mind  there  is  this  :  I  see  that  all  the  debtahs 
(idols)  are  nothing,  and  that  Jesus  Christ  is  the  only  Saviour.  If  I 
can  believe  in  him,  and  walk  in  his  commandments,  it  may  be  well 
with  me. 


1803  FOUNDING  A  CHRISTIAN  COMMUNITY.  143 

"Rasoo.  I  am  a  great  sinner  ;  yet  I  wish  continually  to  think  of  the 
death  of  Christ.  I  had  much  comfort  in  the  marriage  of  my  daughter 
(Onunda  to  Krishna  Prosad).  The  neighbours  talked  much  about  it, 
and  seemed  to  think  that  it  was  much  better  that  a  man  should  choose 
his  own  wife,  than  that  people  should  be  betrothed  in  their  infancy  by 
their  parents.  People  begin  to  be  able  to  judge  a  little  now  about  the 
Christian  ways. 

"  Jeymooni.  In  this  country  are  many  ways :  the  way  of  the  debtahs  ; 
the  way  of  Jagganath,  where  all  eat  together  ;  the  way  of  Ghoshpara, 
etc.  Yet  all  these  are  vain.  Yesoo  Kreest's  death,  and  Yesoo  Kreest's 
commands — this  is  the  way  of  life  !  I  long  to  see  Kreest's  kingdom 
grow.  This  week  I  had  much  joy  in  talking  to  Gokool's  mother, 
whose  heart  is  inclined  to  judge  about  the  way  of  Kreest.  When  I 
was  called  to  go  and  talk  with  her,  on  the  way  I  thought  within  my- 
self, but  how  can  I  explain  the  way  of  Kreest  ?  I  am  but  a  woman, 
and  do  not  know. much.  Yet  I  recollected  that  the  blessing  does  not 
come  from  us  :  God  can  bless  the  weakest  words.  Many  Bengali 
women  coming  from  the  adjoining  houses,  sat  down  and  heard  the 
word ;  and  I  was  glad  in  hoping  that  the  mercy  of  God  might  be 
found  by  this  old  woman.  [Gokool's  mother.] 

" Komal.  I  am  a  great  sinner;  yet  I  have  been  much  rejoiced  this 
week  in  Gokool's  mother  coming  to  inquire  about  the  Gospel.  I  had 
great  sorrow  when  Gokool  was  ill ;  and  at  one  time  I  thought  he 
would  have  died;  but  God  has  graciously  restored  him.  We  have 
worldly  sorrow,  but  this  lasts  only  for  a  time. 

"  Draupadi.  This  week  I  have  had  much  sorrow  on  account  of 
Petumber.  His  mind  is  very  bad  :  he  sits  in  the  house,  and  refuses 
to  work ;  and  I  know  not  what  will  become  of  him  :  yet  Kreest's  death 
is  a  true  word. 

"  Golook.  I  have  had  much  joy  in  thinking  of  God's  goodness  to  our 
family.  My  sisters  Onunda  and  Kesaree  wish  to  be  baptized,  and  to 
come  into  the  church.  If  I  can  believe  in  Kreest's  death,  and  keep 
his  commands  till  death,  then  I  shall  be  saved." 

Carey  was  not  only  founding  the  Church  of  North  India ; 
he  was  creating  a  new  society,  a  community,  which  has  its 
healthy  roots  in  the  Christian  family.  Krishna  Pal  had 
come  over  with  his  household,  like  the  Philippian,  and  at 
once  became  his  own  and  their  gooroo  or  priest.  But  the 
marriage  difficulty  was  early  forced  on  him  and  on  the 


144  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1803 

missionaries.  The  first  shape  which  persecution  took  was  an 
assault  on  his  eldest  daughter,  Golook,  who  was  carried  off 
to  the  house  in  Calcutta  of  the  Hindoo  to  whom  in  infancy 
she  had  been  betrothed,  or  married  according  to  Hindoo  law 
enforced  by  the  Danish  and  British  courts.  As  a  Christian 
she  loathed  a  connection  which  was  both  idolatrous  and 
polygamous.  But  she  submitted  for  a  time,  continuing,  how- 
ever, secretly  to  pray  to  Christ  when  beaten  by  her  husband 
for  openly  worshipping  Him,  and  refusing  to  eat  things 
offered  to  the  idol.  At  last  it  became  intolerable.  She  fled 
to  her  father,  was  baptized,  and  was  after  a  time  joined  by 
her  penitent  husband.  The  subject  of  what  was  to  be  done 
with  converts  whose  wives  would  not  join  them,  occupied  the 
missionaries  in  discussion  every  Sunday  during  1803,  and 
they  at  last  referred  it  to  Andrew  Fuller  and  the  committee. 
Practically  they  anticipated  the  Act  in  which  Sir  Henry 
Maine  gave  relief  after  the  Scriptural  mode.  They  sent  the 
husband  to  use  every  endeavour  to  induce  his  heathen  wife 
to  join  him ;  long  delay  or  refusal  they  counted  a  sufficient 
ground  for  divorce,  and  they  allowed  him  to  marry  again.  It 
is  curious  that,  in  the  elaborate  discussions  on  Sir  Henry 
Maine's  Act,  the  fact  that  Carey's  learning  and  good  sense 
had  anticipated  the  remedy  which  it  legalises  was  not  known 
or  referred  to.  The  other  case,  which  still  troubles  the  native 
churches,  of  the  duty  of  a  polygamous  Christian,  seems  to  have 
been  solved  according  to  Dr.  Doddridge's  advice,  by  keeping 
such  out  of  office  in  the  church,  and  pressing  on  the  con- 
science of  all  the  teaching  of  our  Lord  in  Matthew  xix.,  and 
of  Paul  in  1st  Corinthians  vii. 

In  1802  Carey  drew  up  a  form  of  agreement  and  of  service 
for  native  Christian  marriages  not  unlike  that  of  the  Church 
of  England.  The  simple  and  pleasing  ceremony  in  the  case 
of  Syam  Das  presented  a  contrast  to  the  prolonged,  expensive, 
and  obscene  rites  of  the  Hindoos,  and  it  attracted  the  people. 


1803  THE  FIRST  NATIVE  CHRISTIAN  MARRIAGE.  145 

When,  the  year  after,  a  Christian  Brahman  was  united  to  a 
daughter  of  Krishna  Pal,  in  the  presence  of  more  than  a 
hundred  Hindoos,  the  unity  of  all  in  Christ  Jesus  was  still 
more  marked  : — 

"  Apr.  4,  1803. — This  morning  early  we  went  to  attend  the  wed- 
ding of  Krishna  Prosad  with  Onunda,  Krishna's  second  daughter. 
Krishna  gave  him  a  piece  of  ground  adjoining  his  dwelling,  to  build 
him  a  house,  and  we  lent  Prosad  fifty  rupees  for  that  purpose,  which 
he  is  to  return  monthly,  out  of  his  wages.  We  therefore  had  a  meet- 
ing for  prayer  in  this  new  house,  and  many  neighbours  were  present. 
Five  hymns  were  sung  :  brother  Carey  and  Marshman  prayed  in 
Bengali.  After  this  we  went  under  an  open  shed  close  to  the  house, 
where  chairs  and  mats  were  provided  :  here  friends  and  neighbours  sat 
all  around.  Brother  Carey  sat  at  a  table ;  and  after  a  short  introduc- 
tion, in  which  he  explained  the  nature  of  marriage,  and  noticed  the 
impropriety  of  the  Hindoo  customs  in  this  respect,  he  read  2  Cor.  vi. 
14-18,  and  also  the  account  of  the  marriage  at  Cana.  Then  he  read 
the  printed  marriage  agreement,  at  the  close  of  which  Krishna  Prosad 
and  Onunda,  with  joined  hands,  one  after  the  other,  promised  love, 
faithfulness,  obedience,  etc.  They  then  signed  the  agreement,  and 
brethren  Carey,  Marshman,  Ward,  Chamberlain,  Earn  Koteen,  etc., 
signed  as  witnesses.  The  whole  was  closed  with  prayer  by  brother 
Ward.  Everything  was  conducted  with  the  greatest  decorum,  and  it 
was  almost  impossible  not  to  have  been  pleased.  We  returned  home 
to  breakfast,  and  sent  the  new-married  couple  some  sugar-candy,  plan- 
tains, and  raisins  ;  the  first  and  last  of  these  articles  had  been  made  a 
present  of  to  us,  and  the  plantains  were  the  produce  of  the  mission 
garden.  In  the  evening  we  attended  the  monthly  prayer-meeting. 

"  Apr.  5. — This  evening  we  all  went  to  supper  at  Krishna's,  and  sat 
under  the  shade  where  the  marriage  ceremony  had  been  performed. 
Tables,  knives  and  forks,  glasses,  etc.,  having  been  taken  from  our 
house,  we  had  a  number  of  Bengali  plain  dishes,  consisting  of  curry, 
fried  fish,  vegetables,  etc.,  and  I  fancy  most  of  us  ate  heartily.  This 
is  the  first  instance  of  our  eating  at  the  house  of  our  native  brethren. 
At  this  table  we  all  sat  with  the  greatest  cheerfulness,  and  some  of 
the  neighbours  looked  on  with  a  kind  of  amazement.  It  was  a  new 
and  very  singular  sight  in  this  land  where  clean  and  unclean  is  so 
much  regarded.  We  should  have  gone  in  the  daytime,  but  were  pre- 
vented by  the  heat  and  want  of  leisure.  We  began  this  wedding 
supper  with  singing,  and  concluded  with  prayer :  between  ten  and 

L 


146  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1803 

eleven  we  returned  home  with  joy.  This  was  a  glorious  triumph  over 
the  caste  !  A  Brahman  married  to  a  soodra,  in  the  Christian  way  : 
Englishmen  eating  with  the  married  couple  and  their  friends,  at  the 
same  table,  and  at  a  native  house.  Allowing  the  Hindoo  chronology 
to  be  true,  there  has  not  been  such  a  sight  in  Bengal  these  millions  of 
years  !" 

In  the  same  year  the  approaching  death  of  Gokool  led 
the  missionaries  to  purchase  the  acre  of  ground,  near  the 
present  railway  station,  in  which  lies  the  dust  of  themselves 
and  their  converts,  and  of  a  child  of  the  Judsons,  till  the 
resurrection.  Often  did  Carey  officiate  at  the  burial  of 
Europeans  in  the  Danish  cemetery.  Previous  to  his  time 
the  only  service  there  consisted  in  the  Government  secretary 
dropping  a  handful  of  earth  on  the  coffin.  In  the  native 
God's-acre,  as  in  the  communion  of  the  Lord's  table,  and  in 
the  simple  rites  which  accompanied  the  burial  of  the  dead  in 
Christ,  the  heathen  saw  the  one  lofty  platform  of  loving  self- 
sacrifice  to  which  the  Cross  raises  all  its  children  : — 

"  Oct.  7. — Our  dear  friend  Gokool  is  gone  :  he  departed  at  two 
this  morning.  At  twelve  he  called  the  brethren  around  him  to  sing 
and  pray ;  was  perfectly  sensible,  resigned,  and  tranquil.  Some  of  the 
neighbours  had  been  persuading  him  the  day  before  to  employ  a  native 
doctor  :  he  however  refused,  saying  he  would  have  no  physician  but 
Jesus  Christ.  On  their  saying,  How  is  it  that  you  who  have  turned 
to  Christ  should  be  thus  afflicted  1  He  replied,  My  affliction  is  on 
account  of  my  sins ;  my  Lord  does  all  things  well !  Observing 
Komal  weep  (who  had  been  a  most  affectionate  wife),  he  said,  why  do 
you  weep  for  me  ?  Only  pray,  etc.  From  the  beginning  of  his  ill- 
ness he  had  little  hope  of  recovery;  yet  he  never  murmured,  nor 
appeared  at  all  anxious  for  medicine.  His  answer  constantly  was,  '  I 
am  in  my  Lord's  hands,  I  want  no  other  physician  !'  His  patience 
throughout  was  astonishing  :  I  never  heard  him  say  once  that  his  pain 
was  great.  His  tranquil  and  happy  end  has  made  a  deep  impression 
on  our  friends  :  they  say  one  to  another,  '  May  my  mind  be  as 
Gokool's  was  ! '  When  we  consider,  too,  that  this  very  man  grew  shy 
of  us  three  years  ago,  because  we  opposed  his  notion  that  believers 
would  never  die,  the  grace  now  bestowed  upon  him  appears  the  more 
remarkable. — Knowing  the  horror  the  Hindoos  have  for  a  dead  body, 


1803  FIRST  BURIAL  OF  A  NATIVE  CHRISTIAN.  147 

and  how  unwilling  they  are  to  contribute  any  way  to  its  interment,  I 
had  the  coffin  made  at  our  house  the  preceding  day,  by  carpenters 
whom  we  employ.  They  would  not,  however,  carry  it  to  the  house. 
The  difficulty  now  was,  to  carry  him  to  the  grave.  The  usual  mode 
of  Europeans  is  to  hire  a  set  of  men  (Portuguese),  who  live  by  it.  But 
besides  that  our  friends  could  never  constantly  sustain  that  expence,  I 
wished  exceedingly  to  convince  them  of  the  propriety  of  doing  that 
last  kind  office  for  a  brother  themselves.  But  as  Krishna  had  been  ill 
again  the  night  before,  and  two  of  our  brethren  were  absent  with  brother 
Ward,  we  could  only  muster  three  persons.  I  evidently  saw  the  only 
way  to  supply  the  deficiency;  and  brother  Carey  being  from  home,  I 
sounded  Felix  and  William,  and  we  determined  to  make  the  trial ;  and 
at  five  in  the  afternoon  repaired  to  the  house.  Thither  were  assembled 
all  our  Hindoo  brethren  and  sisters,  with  a  crowd  of  natives  that  filled 
the  yard,  and  lined  the  street.  We  brought  the  remains  of  our  dear 
brother  out,  whose  coffin  Krishna  had  covered  within  and  without  with 
white  muslin  at  his  own  expence ;  then,  in  the  midst  of  the  silent  and 
astonished  multitude,  we  improved  the  solemn  moment  by  singing  a 
hymn  of  Krishna's,  the  chorus  of  which  is  '  Salvation  by  the  death  of 
Christ.'  Bhairub  the  brahman,  Peroo  the  mussulman,  Felix  and  I 
took  up  the  coffin ;  and,  with  the  assistance  of  Krishna  and  William, 
conveyed  it  to  its  long  home  :  depositing  it  in  the  grave,  we  sung  two 
appropriate  hymns.  After  this,  as  the  crowd  was  accumulating,  I 
endeavoured  to  show  the  grounds  of  our  joyful  hope  even  in  death, 
referring  to  the  deceased  for  a  proof  of  its  efficacy :  told  them  that 
indeed  he  had  been  a  great  sinner,  as  they  all  knew,  and  for  that 
reason  could  find  no  way  of  salvation  among  them  ;  but  when  he 
heard  of  Jesus  Christ,  he  received  him  as  a  suitable  and  all-sufficient 
Saviour,  put  his  trust  in  him,  and  died  full  of  tranquil  hope.  After 
begging  them  to  consider  their  own  state,  prayed,  sung  Moorad's 
hymn,  and  distributed  papers.  The  concourse  of  people  was  great, 
perhaps  500  :  they  seemed  much  struck  with  the  novelty  of  the 
scene,  and  with  the  love  and  regard  Christians  manifest  to  each  other, 
even  in  death  ;  so  different  from  their  throwing  their  friends,  half 
dead  and  half  living,  into  the  river  ;  or  burning  their  body,  with 
perhaps  a  solitary  attendant." 

Preaching,  teaching,  and  Bible  translating  were  from  the 
first  Carey's  three  missionary  methods,  and  in  all  he  led  the 
missionaries  who  have  till  the  present  followed  him  with  a 
success  which  he  never  hesitated  to  expect,  as  one  of  the 


148  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1800 

"  great  things"  from  God.  His  work  for  the  education  of  the 
people  of  India,  especially  in  their  own  vernacular  and  classical 
languages,  was  second  only  to  that  which  gave  them  a  litera- 
ture sacred  and  pure.  Up  to  1794,  when  at  Mudnabati  he 
opened  the  first  primary  school  worthy  of  the  name  in  all 
India  at  his  own  cost,  and  daily  superintended  it,  there  had 
been  only  one  attempt  to  improve  upon  the  indigenous 
schools,  which  taught  the  children  of  the  trading  castes  only 
to  keep  rude  accounts,  or  upon  the  tols  in  which  the  Brahmans 
instructed  their  disciples  for  one-half  the  year,  while  for  the 
other  half  they  lived  by  begging.  That  attempt  was  made 
by  Schwartz  at  Combaconum,  the  priestly  Oxford  of  South 
India,  where  the  wars  with  Tipoo  soon  put  an  end  to  a  scheme 
supported  by  both  the  Eaja  of  Tanjore  and  the  British 
Government.  When  Carey  moved  to  Serampore  and  found 
associated  with  him  teachers  so  accomplished  and  enthusiastic 
as  Marshman  and  his  wife,  education  was  not  long  in  taking 
its  place  in  the  crusade  which  was  then  fully  organised  for 
the  conversion  of  Southern  and  Eastern  Asia.  At  Madras, 
too,  Bell  had  stumbled  upon  the  system  of  "  mutual  instruc- 
tion" which  he  had  learned  from  the  easy  methods  of  the 
indigenous  schoolmaster,  and  which  he  and  Lancaster  taught 
England  to  apply  to  the  clamant  wants  of  the  country, 
and  to  improve  into  the  monitorial,  pupil -teacher  and 
grant-in-aid  systems  of  the  present  hour.  Carey  had  all 
the  native  schools  of  the  mission  "conducted  upon  Lan- 
caster's plan." 

In  Serampore,  and  in  every  new  station  as  it  was  formed, 
a  native  free  school  was  opened.  We  have  seen  how  the 
first  educated  convert,  Petumber,  was  made  schoolmaster. 
So  early  as  October  1800  we  find  Carey  writing  home  : — 
"  The  children  in  our  Bengali  free  school,  about  fifty,  are 
mostly  very  young.  Yet  we  are  endeavouring  to  instil  into 
their  minds  Divine  truth,  as  fast  as  their  understandings 


1800  FIRST  BENGALI  SCHOOLS.  149 

ripen.  Some  natives  have  complained  that  we  are  poisoning 
the  minds  even  of  their  very  children." 

The  first  attempt  to  induce  the  boys  to  write  out  the 
catechism  in  Bengali  resulted,  as  did  Duff's  to  get  them 
to  read  aloud  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount  thirty  years  after,  in 
a  protest  that  their  caste  was  in  danger.  But  the  true  prin- 
ciples of  toleration  and  discipline  were  at  once  explained — 
"  that  the  children  will  never  be  compelled  to  do  anything 
that  will  make  them  lose  caste ;  that  though  we  abhor  the 
caste  we  do  not  wish  any  to  lose  it  but  by  their  own  choice. 
After  this  we  shall  insist  on  the  children  doing  what  they 
have  been  ordered."  A  few  of  the  oldest  boys  withdrew  for 
a  time,  declaring  that  they  feared  they  would  be  sent  on 
board  ship  to  England,  and  the  baptism  of  each  of  the  earlier 
converts  caused  a  panic.  But  instruction  on  honest  methods 
soon  worked  out  the  true  remedy.  Two  years  after  we  find 
this  report : — "  The  first  class,  consisting  of  catechumens,  are 
now  learning  in  Bengali  the  first  principles  of  Christianity ; 
and  will  hereafter  be  instructed  in  the  rudiments  of  history, 
geography,  astronomy,  etc.  The  second  class,  under  two 
other  masters,  learn  to  read  and  write  Bengali  and  English. 
The  third  class,  consisting  of  the  children  of  natives  who  have 
not  lost  caste,  learn  only  Bengali.  This  school  is  in  a  pro- 
mising state,  and  is  liberally  supported  by  the  subscriptions 
of  Europeans  in  this  country." 

Carey's  early  success  led  Mr.  Creighton  of  Malda  to  open 
at  Goamalty  several  Bengali  free  schools,  and  to  draw  up 
a  scheme  for  extending  such  Christian  nurseries  all  over  the 
country  at  a  cost  of  £10  for  the  education  of  fifty  children. 
Such  a  scheme,  as  far  in  advance  of  those  of  later  educational 
reformers  who  have  neglected  to  notice  it,  as  Charles  Grant's 
was  even  of  Creighton's  in  1792,  was  warmly  recommended 
by  Carey  and  was  published  by  the  Society.  Only  by  the 
year  1806  was  such  a  scheme  practicable,  because  Carey 


150  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1800 

had  translated  the  Scriptures,  and,  as  Creighton  noted,  "  a 
variety  of  introductory  and  explanatory  tracts  and  catechisms 
in  the  Bengali  and  Hindostani  tongues  have  already  been 
circulated  in  some  parts  of  the  country,  and  any  number  may 
be  had  gratis  from  the  Mission  House,  Serampore."  As  only 
a  few  of  the  Brahman  and  writer  castes  could  read,  and  not 
one  woman,  "  a  general  perusal  of  the  Scriptures  amongst 
natives  will  be  impracticable  till  they  are  taught  to  read." 
But  nothing  was  done,  save  by  the  missionaries,  till  1835, 
when  Lord  William  Bentinck  received  Adam's  report  on  the 
educational  destitution  of  Bengal  j1  and,  in  spite  of  the 
despatch  of  1854,  virtually  written  by  Marshman's  son  and 
by  Dr.  Duff,  it  became  necessary  for  the  Government  of  India 
to  appoint  a  commission  of  inquiry  in  1882-83. 

Kef erring  to  Creighton's  scheme,  Mr.  Ward's  journal  thus 
chronicles  the  opening  of  the  first  Sunday  school  in  India  in 
July  1803  by  Carey's  sons  : — 

"  Last  Lord's  day  a  kind  of  Sunday  school  was  opened,  which  will 
be  superintended  principally  by  our  young  friends  Felix  and  William 
Carey,  and  John  Fernandez.  It  will  chiefly  be  confined  to  teaching 
catechisms  in  Bengali  and  English,  as  the  children  learn  to  read  and 
write  every  day.  I  have  received  a  -letter  from  a  gentleman  up  the 
country,  who  writes  very  warmly  respecting  the  general  establishment 
of  Christian  schools  all  over  Bengal." 

Not  many  years  had  passed  since,  in  1780,  Eaikes  had  begun 
Sunday  schools  in  England.  Their  use  seems  to  have  passed 
away  with  the  three  Serampore  missionaries  for  a  time,  and 
to  have  been  again  extended  by  the  American  missionaries 
about  1870.  There  are  now  100,000  boys  and  girls  at  such 
schools,  and  three-fourths  of  these  are  non-Christians.  , 

As  from  the  first  Carey  drew  converts  from  all  classes, 
the  Armenians,  the  Portuguese,  and  the  Eurasians,  as  well  as 

1  See  Periodical  Accounts,  vol.  iii.  pp.  445-451,  for  "  Memorandum  on 
the  most  obvious  means  of  establishing  Native  Schools  for  the  introduction 
of  the  Scriptures  and  useful  knowledge  among  the  natives  of  Bengal. " 


1800  WORK  AMONG  EURASIANS  AND  EUROPEANS.  151 

the  natives  of  India,  he  and  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Marshman  especi- 
ally took  care  to  provide  schools  for  their  children.  The 
necessity,  indeed,  of  this  was  forced  upon  them  by  the  facts 
that  the  brotherhood  began  with  nine  children,  and  that 
boarding-schools  for  these  classes  would  form  an  honourable 
source  of  revenue  to  the  mission.  Hence  this  advertisement, 
which  appeared  in  March  1800  : — "  Mission  House,  Seram- 
pore. — On  Thursday,  the  1st  of  May  1800,  a  school  will  be 
opened  at  this  house,  which  stands  in  a  very  healthy  and 
pleasant  situation  by  the  side  of  the  river.  Letters  addressed 
to  Mr.  Carey  will  be  immediately  attended  to."  The  cost  of 
boarding  and  fees  varied  from  £45  to  £50  a  year,  according 
as  "  Latin,  Greek,  Hebrew,  Persian,  or  Sanskrit "  lessons  were 
included.  "  Particular  attention  will  be  paid  to  the  correct 
pronunciation  of  the  English  language"  was  added  for  reasons 
which  the  mixed  parentage  of  the  pupils  explains.  Such  was 
the  first  sign  of  a  care  for  the  Eurasians  not  connected  with 
the  army,  which,  as  developed  by  Marshman  and  Mack, 
began  in  1823  to  take  the  form  of  the  Doveton  College. 
The  boys'  school  was  soon  followed  by  a  girls'  school,  through 
which  a  stream  of  Christian  light  radiated  forth  over  resident 
Christian  society,  and  from  which  many  a  missionary  came. 

Carey's  description  of  the  mixed  community  is  the  best 
we  have  of  its  origin  as  well  as  of  the  state  of  European 
society  in  India,  alike  when  the  Portuguese  were  dominant, 
and  at  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century  when  the 
East  India  Company  were  most  afraid  of  Christianity: — 
"  The  Portuguese  are  a  people  who,  in  the  estimation  of 
both  Europeans  and  natives,  are  sunk  below  the  Hindoos  or 
Mussulmans.  However,  I  am  of  opinion  that  they  are  rated 
much  too  low.  They  are  chiefly  descendants  of  the  slaves  of 
the  Portuguese  who  first  landed  here,  or  of  the  children  of 
those  Portuguese  by  their  female  slaves ;  and  being  born  in 
their  house,  were  made  Christians  in  their  infancy  by  what  is 


152  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1810 

called  baptism,  and  had  Portuguese  names  given  them.  It 
is  no  wonder  that  these  people,  despised  as  they  are  by 
Europeans,  and  being  consigned  to  the  teachings  of  very 
ignorant  popish  priests,  should  be  sunk  into  such  a  state  of 
degradation.  So  gross,  indeed,  are  their  superstitions,  that  I 
have  seen  a  Hindoo  image-maker  carrying  home  an  image  of 
Christ  on  the  cross  between  two  thieves,  to  the  house  of  a 
Portuguese.  Many  of  them,  however,  can  read  and  write 
English  well  and  understand  Portuguese.  .  .  . 

"  Besides  these,  there  are  many  who  are  the  children 
of  Europeans  by  native  women,  several  of  which  are  well 
educated,  and  nearly  all  of  them  Protestants  by  profession. 
These,  whether  children  of  English,  French,  Dutch,  or  Danes, 
by  native  women,  are  called  Portuguese.  Concubinage  here 
is  so  common,  that  few  unmarried  Europeans  are  without  a 
native  woman,  with  whom  they  live  as  if  married ;  and  I 
believe  there  are  but  few  instances  of  separation,  except  in 
case  of  marriage  with  European  women,  in  which  case  the 
native  woman  is  dismissed  with  an  allowance :  but  the 
children  of  these  marriages  are  never  admitted  to  table  with 
company,  and  are  universally  treated  by  the  English  as  an 
inferior  species  of  beings.  Hence  they  are  often  shame-faced 
yet  proud  and  conceited,  and  endeavour  to  assume  that 
honour  to  themselves  which  is  denied  them  by  others.  This 
class  may  be  regarded  as  forming  a  connecting  link  between 
Europeans  and  natives.  The  Armenians  are  few  in  number, 
but  chiefly  rich.  I  have  several  times  conversed  with  them 
about  religion  :  they  hear  with  patience,  and  wonder  that  any 
Englishman  should  make  that  a  subject  of  conversation." 

While  the  Marshmans  gave  their  time  from  seven  in  the 
morning  till  three  in  the  afternoon  to  these  boarding-schools 
started  by  Carey  in  1800  for  the  higher  education  of  the 
Eurasians,  Carey  himself,  in  Calcutta,  early  began  to  care 
for  the  destitute.  His  efforts  resulted  in  the  establishment 


1810  FKEE  SCHOOLS  IN  CALCUTTA  AND  SERAMPORE.  153 

of  the  "  Benevolent  Institution  for  the  Instruction  of  Indi- 
gent Children,"  which  the  contemporary  Bengal  civilian, 
Charles  Lushington,  in  his  History  extols  as  one  of  the 
monuments  of  active  and  indefatigable  benevolence  due  to 
Serampore.  Here,  on  the  Lancaster  system,  and  superintended 
by  Carey,  Mr.  and  Mrs.  Penney  had  as  many  as  300  boys 
and  100  girls  under  Christian  instruction  of  all  ages  up  to 
twenty- four,  and  of  every  race — •"  Europeans,  native  Portu- 
guese, Armenians,  Mugs,  Chinese,  Hindoos,  Mussulmans, 
natives  of  Sumatra,  Mozambik,  and  Abyssinia."  This  official 
reporter  states  that  thus  more  than  a  thousand  youths  had 
been  rescued  from  vice  and  ignorance  and  advanced  in  use- 
fulness to  society,  in  a  degree  of  opulence  and  respectability. 
The  origin  of  this  noble  charity  is  thus  told  to  Dr.  Eyland 
by  Carey  himself  in  a  letter  which  unconsciously  reveals 
his  own  busy  life,  records  the  missionary  influence  of  the 
higher  schools,  and  reports  the  extension  of  the  mission  over 
a  wide  area.  He  writes  from  Calcutta  on  24th  May  1811 : — 
"  A  year  ago  we  opened  a  free  school  in  Calcutta.  This 
year  we  added  to  it  a  school  for  girls.  There  are  now  in  it 
about  140  boys  and  near  40  girls.  One  of  our  deacons,  Mr. 
Leonard,  a  most  valuable  and  active  man,  superintends  the 
boys,  and  a  very  pious  woman,  a  member  of  the  church,  is 
over  the  girls.  The  institution  meets  with  considerable 
encouragement,  and  is  conducted  upon  Lancaster's  plan.  We 
meditate  another  for  instruction  of  Hindoo  youths  in  the 
Sanskrit  language,  designing,  however,  to  introduce  the  study 
of  the  Sanskrit  Bible  into  it ;  indeed  it  is  as  good  as  begun  ; 
it  will  be  in  Calcutta.  By  brother  and  sister  Marshman's 
encouragement  there  are  two  schools  in  our  own  premises  at 
Serampore  for  the  gratuitous  instruction  of  youth  of  both 
sexes,  supported  and  managed  wholly  by  the  male  and  female 
scholars  in  our  own  school.  These  young  persons  appear  to 
enter  with  pleasure  into  the  plan,  contribute  their  money  to 


154  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1810 

its  support,  and  give  instruction  in  turns  to  the  children  of 
these  free  schools.  I  trust  we  shall  be  able  to  enlarge  this 
plan,  and  to  spread  its  influence  far  about  the  country.  Our 
brethren  in  the  Isles  of  France  and  Bourbon  seem  to  be  doing 
good  ;  some  of  them  are  gone  to  Madagascar,  and,  as  if  to 
show  that  Divine  Providence  watches  over  them,  the  ship  on 
which  they  went  was  wrecked  soon  after  they  had  landed 
from  it.  A  number  of  our  members  are  now  gone  to  Java  ;  I 
trust  their  going  thither  will  not  be  in  vain.  Brother  Cham- 
berlain is,  ere  this,  arrived  at  Agra.  .  .  .  We  preach  every 
week  in  the  Fort  and  in  the  public  prison,  both  in  English 
and  Bengali." 

Carey  had  not  been  six  months  at  Serampore  when  he 
saw  the  importance  of  using  the  English  language  as  a  mis- 
sionary weapon,  and  he  proposed  this  to  Andrew  Fuller.  The 
other  pressing  duties  of  a  pioneer  mission  to  the  people  of 
Bengal  led  him  to  postpone  immediate  action  in  this  direc- 
tion ;  we  shall  have  occasion  to  trace  the  English  influ- 
ence of  the  press  and  the  college  hereafter.  But  meanwhile 
the  vernacular  schools,  which  soon  numbered  a  hundred  alto- 
gether, were  most  popular,  and  then  as  now  proved  most 
valuable  feeders  of  the  infant  Church.  Without  them,  wrote 
the  three  missionaries  to  the  Society,  "  the  whole  plan  must 
have  been  nipped  in  the  bud,  since,  if  the  natives  had  not 
cheerfully  sent  their  children,  everything  else  would  have 
been  useless.  But  the  earnestness  with  which  they  have 
sought  these  schools  exceeds  everything  we  had  previously 
expected.  We  are  still  constantly  importuned  for  more 
schools,  although  we  have  long  gone  beyond  the  extent  of  our 
funds."  It  was  well  that  thus  early,  in  schools,  in  books  and 
tracts,  and  in  providing  the  literary  form  and  apparatus  of 
the  vernacular  languages,  Carey  laid  the  foundation  of  the 
new  national  or  imperial  civilisation.  When  the  time  for 
English  came,  the  foundations  were  at  least  above  the  ground. 


1810  TURNING  BENGAL  UPSIDE  DOWN.  155 

Laid  deep  and  strong  in  the  very  nature  of  the  people,  the 
structure  has  thus  far  promised  to  be  national  rather  than 
foreign,  though  raised  by  foreign  hands,  while  marked  by  the 
truth  and  the  purity  of  its  Western  architects. 

The  manifestation  of  Christ  to  the  Bengalees  could  not 
be  made  without  rousing  the  hate  and  the  opposition  of  the 
vested  interests  of  Brahmanism.  So  long  as  Carey  was  an 
indigo -planter  as  well  as  a  proselytiser  in  Dinajpoor  and 
Malda  he  met  with  no  opposition,  for  he  had  no  success. 
But  when,  at  and  from  Serampore,  he  and  the  others,  by 
voice,  by  press,  by  school,  by  healing  the  sick  and  visiting 
the  poor,  carried  on  the  crusade  day  by  day  with  the  gentle 
persistency  of  a  law  of  nature,  the  cry  began.  And  when,  by 
the  breaking  of  caste  and  the  denial  of  Krishna's  Christian 
daughter  Golook  to  the  Hindoo  to  whom  she  had  been 
betrothed  from  infancy,  the  Brahmans  began  dimly  to  appre- 
hend that  not  only  their  craft  but  the  whole  structure  of 
society  was  menaced,  the  cry  became  louder,  and,  as  in 
Ephesus  of  old,  an  appeal  was  made  to  the  magistrates  against 
the  men  who  were  turning  the  world  upside  down.  At  first 
the  very  boys  taunted  the  missionaries  in  the  streets  with  the 
name  of  Jesus  Christ.  Then,  after  Krishna  and  his  family 
had  broken  caste,  they  were  seized  by  a  mob  and  hurried 
before  the  Danish  magistrate,  who  at  first  refused  to  hand 
over  a  Christian  girl  to  a  heathen,  and  gave  her  father  a 
guard  to  prevent  her  from  being  murdered,  until  the  Calcutta 
magistrate  decided  that  she  must  join  her  husband  but  would 
be  protected  in  the  exercise  of  her  new  faith.  The  commo- 
tion spread  over  the  whole  densely-peopled  district.  But  the 
people  were  not  with  the  Brahmans,  and  the  excitement  sent 
many  a  sin-laden  inquirer  to  Serampore  from  a  great  distance. 
"The  fire  is  now  already  kindled  for  which  our  Eedeemer 
expressed  his  strong  desire,"  wrote  Carey  to  Eyland  in  March 
1801.  A  year  later  he  used  this  language  to  his  old  friend 


156  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1810 

Morris  at  Clipstone  village  : — "  I  think  there  is  such  a  fer- 
mentation raised  in  Bengal  by  the  little  leaven,  that  there  is 
a  hope  of  the  whole  lump  by  degrees  being  leavened.  God 
is  carrying  on  his  work ;  and  though  it  goes  forward,  yet 
no  one  can  say  who  is  the  instrument.  Doubtless,  various 
means  contribute  towards  it;  but  of  late,  the  printing  and 
dispersing  of  New  Testaments  and  small  tracts  seem  to 
have  the  greatest  effect." 

In  a  spirit  the  opposite  of  Jonah's  the  whole  brotherhood, 
then  consisting  of  the  three,  of  Carey's  son  Felix,  and  of  a 
new  missionary,  Chamberlain,  sent  home  this  review  of  their 
position  at  the  close  of  1804  : — 

"  We  are  still  a  happy,  healthful,  and  highly  favoured  family.  But 
though  we  would  feel  incessant  gratitude  for  these  gourds,  yet  we  would 
not  feel  content  unless  Nineveh  be  brought  to  repentance.  We  did 
not  come  into  this  country  to  be  placed  in  what  are  called  easy  circum- 
stances respecting  this  world  ;  and  we  trust  that  nothing  but  the  salva- 
tion of  souls  will  satisfy  us.  True,  before  we  set  off,  we  thought  we 
could  die  content  if  we  should  be  permitted  to  see  the  half  of  what  we 
have  already  seen;  yet  now  we  seem  almost  as  far  from  the  mark  of 
our  missionary  high  calling  as  ever.  If  three  millions  of  men  were 
drowning,  he  must  be  a  monster  who  should  be  content  with  saving 
one  individual  only  ;  though  for  the  deliverance  of  that  one  he  would 
find  cause  for  perpetual  gratitude." 

In  1810  the  parent  mission  at  Serampore  had  so  spread 
into  numerous  stations  and  districts  that  a  new  organisation 
became  necessary.  There  were  300  converts,  of  whom  105 
had  been  added  in  that  year.  "  Did  you  expect  to  see  this 
eighteen  years  ago  ? "  wrote  Marshman  to  the  Society.  "  But 
what  may  we  not  expect  if  God  continues  to  bless  us  in 
years  to  come  ? "  Marshman  forgot  how  Carey  had,  in  1792, 
told  them  on  the  inspired  evangelical  prophet's  authority 
to  "expect  great  things  from  God."  Henceforth  the  one 
mission  became  fivefold  for  a  time. 


CHAPTER  VII. 

CALCUTTA  AND  THE  MISSION  CENTRES  FROM  DELHI 
TO  AMBOYNA. 

1802-1817. 

The  East  India  Company  an  unwilling  partner  of  Carey — Calcutta  opened  to  the 
Mission  by  his  appointment  as  Government  teacher  of  Bengali — Meet- 
ing of  1802  grows  into  the  Lall  Bazaar  mission — Christlike  work  among 
the  poor,  the  sick,  the  prisoners,  the  soldiers  and  sailors,  and  the  natives 
— Krishna  Pal  first  native  missionary  in  Calcutta — Organisation  of  sub- 
ordinate stations — Carey's  "United  Missions  in  India" — The  missionary 
staff  thirty  strong — The  native  missionaries — The  Bengali  church  self- 
propagating — Carey  the  pioneer  of  other  missionaries — Benares — Burma 
and  Indo-China — Felix  Carey — Instructions  to  missionaries — The  mission- 
ary shrivelled  into  an  ambassador — Adoniram  and  Ann  Judson — Jabez 
Carey — Mission  to  Amboyna — Remarkable  letter  from  Carey  to  his  third 
son. 

THE  short-sighted  regulation  of  the  East  India  Company, 
which  dreamed  that  it  could  keep  Christianity  out  of  Bengal 
by  shutting  up  the  missionaries  within  the  little  territory  of 
Danish  Serampore,  could  not  be  enforced  with  the  same  ease 
as  the  order  of  a  jailer.  Under  Danish  passports,  and  often 
without  them,  missionary  tours  were  made  over  Central 
Bengal,  aided  by  its  marvellous  network  of  rivers.  Every 
printed  Bengali  leaf  of  Scripture  or  pure  literature  was  a 
missionary.  Every  new  convert,  even  the  women,  became 
an  apostle  to  their  people,  and  such  could  not  be  stopped. 
Gradually,  as  not  only  the  innocency  but  the  positive  politi- 
cal usefulness  of  the  missionaries'  character  and  work  came 
to  be  recognised  by  the  local  authorities,  they  were  let  alone 


158  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1802 

for  a  time.  And  soon,  by  the  same  historic  irony  which  has 
marked  so  many  of  the  greatest  reforms — "  He  that  sitteth  in 
the  heavens  shall  laugh  " — the  Government  of  India  became, 
though  unwittingly,  more  of  a  missionary  agency  than  the 
Baptist  Society  itself.  The  only  teacher  of  Bengali  who 
could  be  found  for  Lord  Wellesley's  new  College  of  Fort 
William  was  William  Carey.  The  appointment,  made  and 
accepted  without  the  slightest  prejudice  to  his  aggressive 
spiritual  designs  and  work,  at  once  opened  Calcutta  itself  for 
the  first  time  to  the  English  proselytising  of  natives,  and 
supplied  Carey  with  the  only  means  yet  lacking  for  the 
translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  all  the  languages  of  the 
farther  East.  In  spite  of  its  own  selfish  ignorance  the  Com- 
pany became  a  principal  partner  in  the  Christianisation  of 
India  and  China. 

From  the  middle  of  the  year  1801  and  for  the  next  thirty 
years  Carey  spent  as  much  of  his  time  in  the  metropolis  as 
in  Serampore.  He  generally  rowed  down  the  eighteen  miles 
of  the  winding  river  to  Calcutta  at  sunset  on  Tuesday  evening 
and  returned  on  Friday  night  every  week,  working  always 
by  the  way.  At  first  he  personally  influenced  the  Bengali 
traders  and  youths  who  knew  English,  and  he  read  with 
many  such  the  English  Bible.  His  chaplain  friends,  Brown 
and  Buchanan,  with  the  catholicity  born  of  their  presbyterian 
and  evangelical  training,  shared  his  sympathy  with  the 
hundreds  of  poor  mixed  Christians  for  whom  St.  John's  and 
even  the  Mission  Church  made  no  provision,  and  encouraged 
him  to  care  for  them.  In  1802  he  began  a  weekly  meeting 
for  prayer  and  conversation  in  the  house  of  Mr.  Kolt,  and 
another  for  a  more  ignorant  class  still  in  the  house  of  a  Por- 
tuguese Christian.  By  1803  he  was  able  to  write  to  Fuller : — 
"  We  have  opened  a  place  of  worship  in  Calcutta,  where  we 
have  preaching  twice  on  Lord's  Day  in  English,  on  Wednesday 
evening  in  Bengali,  and  on  Thursday  evening  in  English." 


1807  VARIED  WORK  IN  CALCUTTA.  159 

He  took  all  the  work  during  the  week  and  the  Sunday  ser- 
vice in  rotation  with  his  brethren.  The  first  church  was  the 
hall  of  a  well-known  undertaker,  approached  through  lines  of 
coffins  and  the  trappings  of  woe.  In  time  most  of  the 
evangelical  Christians  in  the  city  promised  to  relieve  the 
missionaries  of  the  expense  if  they  would  build  an  unsectarian 
chapel  more  worthy  of  the  object.  This  was  done  in  Lall 
Bazaar,  a  little  withdrawn  from  that  thoroughfare  to  this  day 
of  the  poor  and  abandoned  Christians,  of  the  sailors  and 
soldiers  on  leave,  of  the  liquor-shops  and  the  stews.  There, 
as  in  Serampore,  at  a  time  when  the  noble  hospitals  of  Cal- 
cutta were  not  and  the  children  of  only  the  "  services  "  were 
cared  for,  "  Brother  Carey  gave  them  medicine  for  their  bodies 
and  the  best  medicine  for  their  poor  souls,"  as  a  contemporary 
widow  describes  it.  He  had  in  the  end  to  meet  half  the  cost 
of  the  building  out  of  his  own  pocket,  and  as  the  number  of 
churches  in  Calcutta  increased,  the  chapel  became  one  of  the 
two  Baptist  places  of  worship  in  the  city.  Here  was  for  nearly 
a  whole  generation  a  sublime  spectacle — the  Northampton- 
shire shoemaker  training  the  governing  class  of  India  in 
Sanskrit,  Bengali,  and  Marathi  all  day,  and  translating  the 
Eamayan  and  the  Veda,  and  then,  when  the  sun  went  down, 
returning  to  the  sooiety  of  "  the  maimed,  the  halt,  and  the 
blind,  and  many  with  the  leprosy,"  to  preach  in  several  tongues 
the  glad  tidings  of  the  Kingdom  to  the  heathen  of  England 
as  well  as  of  India,  and  all  with  a  loving  tenderness  and 
patient  humility  learned  in  the  childlike  school  of  Him  who 
said,  "Wist  ye  not  that  I  must  be  about  my  Father's 
business  ? " 

Street  preaching  was  added  to  the  apostolic  agencies,  and 
for  this  prudence  dictated  recourse  to  the  Asiatic  converts, 
at  first  altogether.  We  find  the  missionaries  writing  to 
the  Society  at  the  beginning  of  1807,  after  the  mutiny  at 
Vellore,  occasioned  as  certainly  by  the  hat-like  turban  then 


160 


LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY. 


1810 


ordered,  as  the  mutiny  of  Bengal  half  a  century  after  was  by 
the  greased  cartridges  : — 

<f  We  now  return  to  Calcutta  ;  not,  however,  without  a  sigh.  How 
can  we  avoid  sighing  when  we  think  of  the  number  of  perishing  souls 
which  this  city  contains,  and  recollect  the  multitudes  who  used  of  late 
to  hang  upon  our  lips ;  standing  in  the  thick-wedged  crowd  for  hours 
together,  in  the  heat  of  a  Bengal  summer,  listening  to  the  word  of  life ! 
We  feel  thankful,  however,  that  nothing  has  been  found  against  us, 
except  in  the  matters  of  our  God.  Conscious  of  the  most  cordial 
attachment  to  the  British  Government,  and  of  the  liveliest  interest  in 
its  welfare,  we  might  well  endure  reproach  were  it  cast  upon  us  ;  but 
the  tongue  of  calumny  itself  has  not  to  our  knowledge  been  suffered  to 
bring  the  slightest  accusation  against  us.  We  still  worship  at  Calcutta 
in  a  private  house,  and  our  congregation  rather  increases.  We  are 
going  on  with  the  chapel.  A  family  of  Armenians  also,  who  found 
it  pleasant  to  .attend  divine  worship  in  the  Bengali  language,  have 
erected  a  small  place  on  their  premises  for  the  sake  of  the  natives." 


KRISHNA  CHANDRA  PAL,  THE  FIRST   CONVERT. 

Krishna  Pal  became  the  first  native  missionary  to  Cal- 
cutta, where  he  in  1810  had  preached  at  fourteen  different 
places  every  week,  and  visited  forty-one  families,  to  evangel- 
ise the  servants  of  the  richer  and  bring  in  the  members  of 


1811  MISSION  TO  POOR  CHRISTIANS  IN  CALCUTTA.  161 

the  poorer.  Sebuk  Earn  was  added  to  the  staff.  Carey  him- 
self thus  sums  up  the  labours  of  the  year  1811,  when  he  was 
still  the  only  pastor  of  the  Christian  poor,  and  the  only  resi- 
dent missionary  to  half  a  million  of  natives  : — 

"  Calcutta  is  three  miles  long  and  one  broad,  very  popu- 
lous ;  the  environs  are  crowded  with  people  settled  in  large 
villages,  resembling  (for  population,  not  elegance)  the  en- 
virons of  Birmingham.  The  first  is  about  a  mile  south  of  the 
city ;  at  nearly  the  same  distance  are  the  public  jail  and  the 
general  hospital.  Brother  Gordon,  one  of  our  deacons,  being 
the  jailer,  we  preach  there  in  English  every  Lord's  day.  We 
did  preach  in  the  Fort;  but  of  late  a  military  order  has  stopped 
us.  Krishna  and  Sebuk  Earn,  however,  preach  once  or  twice 
a  week  in  the  Fort  notwithstanding ;  also  at  the  jail ;  in 
the  house  of  correction  ;  at  the  village  of  Alipore,  south  of 
the  jail ;  at  a  large  factory  north  of  the  city,  where  several 
hundreds  are  employed  ;  and  at  ten  or  twelve  houses  in  differ- 
ent parts  of  the  city  itself.  In  several  instances  Eoman 
Catholics,  having  heard  the  word,  have  invited  them  to  their 
houses,  and  having  collected  their  neighbours,  the  one  or  the 
other  have  received  the  word  with  gladness. 

"The  number  of  inquirers  constantly  coming  forward, 
awakened  by  the  instrumentality  of  these  brethren,  fills  me 
with  joy.  I  do  not  know  that  I  am  of  much  use  myself,  but 
I  see  a  work  which  fills  my  soul  with  thankfulness.  Not 
having  time  to  visit  the  people,  I  appropriate  every  Thursday 
evening  to  receiving  the  visits  'of  inquirers.  Seldom  fewer 
than  twenty  corne  ;  and  the  simple  confessions  of  their  sin- 
ful state,  the  unvarnished  declaration  of  their  former  ignor- 
ance, the  expressions  of  trust  in  Christ  and  gratitude  to  him, 
with  the  accounts  of  their  spiritual  conflicts  often  attended 
with  tears  which  almost  choke  their  utterance,  presents  a 
scene  of  which  you  can  scarcely  entertain  an  adequate  idea. 
At  the  same  time,  meetings  for  prayer  and  mutual  edification 

M 


162  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1804 

are  held  every  night  in  the  week,  and  some  nights,  for  con- 
venience, at  several  places  at  the  same  time :  so  that  the 
sacred  leaven  spreads  its  influence  through  the  mass." 

On  his  voyage  to  India  Carey  had  deliberately  contem- 
plated the  time  when  the  Society  he  had  founded  would 
influence  not  only  Asia,  but  Africa,  and  he  would  supply 
the  peoples  of  Asia  with  the  Scriptures  in  their  own  tongues. 
The  time  had  come  by  1804  for  organising  the  onward 
movement,  and  he  thus  describes  it  to  Eyland  : — 

"  Hth  December  1803. — Another  plan  has  lately  occupied 
our  attention.  It  appears  that  our  business  is  to  provide 
materials  for  spreading  the  Gospel,  and  to  apply  those 
materials.  Translations,  pamphlets,  etc.,  are  the  materials. 
To  apply  them  we  have  thought  of  setting  up  a  number  of 
subordinate  stations,  in  each  of  which  a  brother  shall  be 
fixed.  It  will  be  necessary  and  useful  to  carry  on  some 
worldly  business.  Let  him  be  furnished  from  us  with  a  sum 
of  money  to  begin  and  purchase  cloth  or  whatever  other 
article  the  part  produces  in  greatest  perfection :  the  whole  to 
belong  to  the  mission,  and  no  part  ever  to  be  private  trade  or 
private  property.  The  gains  may  probably  support  the  station. 
Every  brother  in  such  a  station  to  have  one  or  two  native 
brethren  with  him,  and  to  do  all  he  can  to  preach  and  spread 
Bibles,  pamphlets,  etc.,  and  to  set  up  and  encourage  schools 
where  the  reading  of  the  Scriptures  shall  be  introduced.  At 
least  four  brethren  shall  always  reside  at  Serampore,  which 
must  be  like  the  heart  while  the  other  stations  are  the 
members.  Each  one  must  constantly  send  a  monthly  account 
of  both  spirituals  and  temporals  to  Serampore,  and  the 
brethren  at  Serampore  (who  must  have  a  power  of  control 
over  the  stations)  must  send  a  monthly  account  likewise  to 
each  station,  with  advice,  etc.,  as  shall  be  necessary.  A 
plan  of  this  sort  appears  to  be  more  formidable  than  it  is  in 
reality.  To  find  proper  persons  will  be  the  greatest  difficulty, 


1804  ORGANISATION  OF  NEW  STATIONS.  163 

but  as  it  will  prevent  much  of  that  abrasion  which  may  arise 
from  a  great  number  of  persons  living  in  one  house,  so  it  will 
give  several  brethren  an  opportunity  of  being  useful,  whose 
temper  may  not  be  formed  to  live  in  a  common  family,  and 
at  the  same  time  connect  them  as  much  to  the  body  as  if  they 
all  lived  together.  We  have  judged  that  about  2000  rupees 
will  do  to  begin  at  each  place,  and  it  is  probable  that  God 
will  enable  us  to  find  money  (especially  if  assisted  in  the 
translations  and  printing  by  our  brethren  in  England)  as  fast 
as  you  will  be  able  to  find  men. 

"  This  plan  may  be  extended  through  a  circular  surface 
of  a  thousand  miles'  radius,  and  a  constant  communication 
kept  up  between  the  whole,  and  in  some  particular  cases 
it  may  extend  even  further.  We  are  also  to  hope  that  God 
may  raise  up  some  missionaries  in  this  country  who  may  be 
more  fitted  for  the  work  than  any  from  England  can  be. 
At  present  we  have  not  concluded  on  anything,  but  when 
Brother  Ward  comes  down  we  hope  to  do  so,  and  I  think 
one  station  may  be  fixed  on  immediately  which  Brother 
Chamberlain  may  occupy.  A  late  favourable  providence  will, 
I  hope,  enable  us  to  begin,  viz.  the  College  have  subscribed 
for  100  copies  of  my  Sanskrit  Grammar,  which  will  be  6400 
rupees  or  800  pounds  sterling.  The  motion  was  very  gener- 
ously made  by  H.  Colebrooke,  Esq.,  who  is  engaged  in  a 
similar  work,  and  seconded  by  Messrs.  Brown  and  Buchanan; 
indeed  it  met  with  no  opposition.  It  will  scarcely  be  printed 
off  under  twelve  months  more,  but  it  is  probable  that  the 
greatest  part  of  the  money  will  be  advanced.  The  Maratha 
war  and  the  subjugation  of  the  country  of  Cuttak  to  the 
English  may  be  esteemed  a  favourable  event  for  the  spread- 
ing of  the  Gospel,  and  will  certainly  contribute  much  to  the 
comfort  of  the  inhabitants." 

Two  years  later  he  thus  anticipates  the  consent  of  the 
local  Government,  in  spite  of  the  Company's  determined 


164  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1805 

hostility  in  England,  but  the  Vellore  mutiny  panic  led  to 
further  delay  : — 

"  25th  December  1805. — It  has  long  been  a  favourite  object 
with  me  to  fix  European  brethren  in  different  parts  of  the 
country  at  about  two  hundred  miles  apart,  so  that  each  shall 
be  able  to  visit  a  circle  of  a  hundred  miles'  radius,  and  within 
each  of  the  circuits  to  place  native  brethren  at  proper  dis- 
tances, who  will,  till  they  are  more  established,  be  under  the 
superintendence  of  the  European  brethren  situated  in  the 
centre.  Our  brethren  concur  with  me  in  this  plan.  In  con- 
sequence of  this,  I  thought  it  would  be  desirable  to  have  leave 
of  Government  for  them  to  settle,  and  preach,  without  con- 
trol in  any  part  of  the  country.  The  Government  look  on 
us  with  a  favourable  eye ;  and  owing  to  Sir  G.  Barlow, 
the  Governor-General,  being  up  the  country,  Mr.  Udny  is 
Vice-President  and  Deputy-Governor.  I  therefore  went  one 
morning,  took  a  breakfast  with  him,  and  told  him  what  we 
were  doing  and  what  we  wished  to  do.  He,  in  a  very 
friendly  manner,  desired  me  to  state  to  him  in  a  private 
letter  all  that  we  wished,  and  offered  to  communicate 
privately  with  Sir  G.  Barlow  upon  the  subject,  and  inform  me 
of  the  result.  I  called  on  him  again  last  week,  when  he  in- 
formed me  that  he  had  written  upon  the  subject  and  was 
promised  a  speedy  reply.  God  grant  that  it  may  be  favour- 
able. I  know  that  Government  will  allow  it  if  their  powers 
are  large  enough." 

Not  till  1810  could  Carey  report  that  "permission  was 
obtained  of  Government  for  the  forming  of  a  new  station 
at  Agra,  a  large  city  in  upper  Hindostan,  not  far  from 
Delhi  and  the  country  of  the  Sikhs,"  to  which  Chamberlain 
and  an  assistant  were  sent.  Erom  that  year  the  Bengal  be- 
came only  the  first  of  "The  United  Missions  in  India." 
These  were  five  in  number,  each  under  its  own  separate 
brotherhood  on  the  same  principles  of  self-denial  as  the 


1817  THE  FIVEFOLD  MISSIONS.  165 

original,  each  a  Lindisfarne  sprung  from  the  parent  lona. 
These  five  were  the  Bengal,  the  Burman,  the  Orissa,  the 
Bhootan,  and  the  Hindostan  missions.  The  Bengal  mission 
was  fourfold — Serampore  and  Calcutta  reckoned  as  one 
station ;  the  old  Dinajpoor  and  Sadamahal  which  had  taken 
the  place  of  Mudnabati ;  Goamalty,  near  Malda  ;  Cutwa,  an 
old  town  on  the  upper  waters  of  the  Hoogli ;  Jessor,  the  agri- 
cultural capital  of  its  lower  delta  ;  and  afterwards  Monghir, 
Berhampoor,  Moorshedabad,  Dacca,  Chittagong,  and  Assam. 
The  Bhootan  missionaries  were  plundered  and  driven  out. 
The  Hindostan  mission  soon  included  Gaya,  Patna,  Deegah, 
Ghazeepore,  Benares,  Allahabad,  Cawnpore,  and  Delhi  itself. 
From  Nagpoor,  in  the  very  centre  of  India,  and  Surat  to  the 
north  of  Bombay,  Carey  sought  to  bring  Marathas  and 
Goojaratees  under  the  yoke  of  Christ.  China,  where  the 
East  India  Company  was  still  master,  was  cared  for  by  the 
press,  before  Morrison.  Not  content  with  the  continent  of 
Asia,  Carey's  mission,  at  once  forced  by  the  intolerance  which 
refused  to  allow  new  missionaries  to  land  in  India  proper,  and 
led  by  the  invitations  of  Sir  Stamford  Baffles,  extended  to 
Java  and  Amboyna,  Penang,  Ceylon,  and  even  Mauritius. 
The  elaborate  review  of  their  position,  signed  by  the  three 
faithful  men  of  Serampore,  at  the  close  of  1817,  amazes  the 
reader  at  once  by  the  magnitude  and  variety  of  the  operations, 
the  childlike  modesty  of  the  record,1  and  the  heroism  of  the 
toil  which  supplied  the  means. 

At  the  time  of  the  reorganisation  into  the  Five  United 
Missions  the  staff  of  workers  had  grown  to  be  thirty  strong. 
From  England  there  were  nine  surviving,  or  Carey,  Marsh- 
man,  Ward,  Chamberlain,  Mardon,  Moore,  Chater,  Eowe,  and 
Robinson.  Raised  up  in  India  itself  there  were  seven — 
the  two  sons  of  Carey,  Felix  and  William;  Fernandez,  his 
first  convert  at  Dinajpoor;  Peacock  and  Cornish,  and  two 

1  Periodical  Accounts,  vol.  vi.  pp.  294-337. 


166  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1802 

Armenians,  Aratoon  and  Peter;  two  were  on  probation  for 
the  ministry,  Leonard  and  Forder.  Besides  seven  Hindoo 
evangelists  also  on  probation  there  were  five  survivors  of  the 
band  of  converts  called  from  time  to  time  to  the  ministry 
— Krishna  Pal,  the  first,  who  is  entered  on  the  list  as  "  the 
beloved " ;  Krishna  Das,  Earn  Mohun,  Seeta  Earn,  and 
Seeta  Das.  Carey's  third  son  Jabez  was  soon  to  become 
the  most  advanced  of  the  three  brothers  away  in  far  Am- 
boyna.  His  father  had  long  prayed,  and  besought  others  to 
pray,  that  he  too  might  be  a  missionary.  For  the  last  fifteen 
years  of  his  life  Jabez  was  his  closest  and  most  valued 
correspondent. 

But  only  less  dear  than  his  own  sons  to  the  heart  of  the 
father,  already  in  1817  described  in  an  official  letter  as  "  our 
aged  brother  Carey,"  were  the  native  missionaries  and  pastors, 
his  sons  in  the  faith.  He  sent  forth  the  educated  Petumber 
Singh,  first  in  November  1802,  to  his  countrymen  at  Sook- 
sagar,  and  "  gave  him  a  suitable  and  solemn  charge  :  the 
opportunity  was  very  pleasant."  In  May  1803  Krishna  Pal 
was  similarly  set  apart.  At  the  same  time  the  young  Brahman, 
Krishna  Prosad,  "  delivered  his  first  sermon  in  Bengali 
much  to  the  satisfaction  of  our  brethren."  Six  months  after, 
Ward  reports  of  him  in  Dinajpoor : — "  The  eyes  of  the  people 
were  fixed  listening  to  Prosad ;  he  is  becoming  eloquent." 
In  1804  their  successful  probation  resulted  in  their  formal 
ordination  by  prayer  and  the  laying  on  of  the  hands  of  the 
brethren,  when  Carey  addressed  them  from  the  divine  words, 
"  As  my  Father  hath  sent  me  so  send  I  you,"  and  all  com- 
memorated the  Lord's  death  till  He  come.  Krishna  Das  was 
imprisoned  unjustly,  for  a  debt  which  he  had  paid,  but 
"  he  did  not  cease  to  declare  to  the  native  men  in  power 
that  he  was  a  Christian,  when  they  gnashed  upon  him 
with  their  teeth.  He  preached  almost  all  night  to  the 
prisoners,  who  heard  the  word  with  eagerness."  Two  years 


1806  THE  NATIVE  CHURCH.  167 

after  he  was  ordained,  Carey  charged  him  as  Paul  did  Timothy, 
"  in  the  sight  of  God  and  of  Christ  Jesus,  who  shall  judge  the 
quick  and  the  dead,"  to  be  instant  in  season  and  out  of 
season,  to  reprove,  rebuke,  exhort  with  all  long-suffering  and 
teaching.  Ram  Mohun  was  a  Brahman,  the  fruit  of  old  Petum- 
ber's  ministry,  and  had  his  ability  as  a  student  and  preacher 
of  the  Scriptures  consecrated  to  Christ  on  the  death  of  Krishna 
Prosad,  while  the  missionaries  thus  saw  again  answered  the 
invocation  they  had  sung,  in  rude  strains,  in  the  ship  which 
brought  them  to  India  : — 

"  Bid  Brahmans  preach  the  heavenly  word 

Beneath  the  banian's  shade  ; 

Oh  let  the  Hindoo  feel  its  power 

And  grace  his  soul  pervade." 

So  early  as  1806  the  missionaries  thus  acknowledged  the 
value  of  the  work  of  their  native  brethren,  and  made  of  all 
the  native  converts  a  Missionary  Church.  In  the  delay,  and 
even  failure  to  do  this,  of  their  successors  of  all  Churches  we 
see  the  one  radical  point  in  which  the  Church  of  India  has 
as  yet  come  short  of  its  duty  and  its  privilege : — 

"  We  have  availed  ourselves  of  the  help  of  native  brethren  ever 
since  we  had  one  who  dared  to  speak  in  the  name  of  Christ,  and  their 
exertions  have  chiefly  been  the  immediate  means  by  which  our  church 
has  been  increased.  But  we  have  lately  been  revolving  a  plan  for 
rendering  their  labours  more  extensively  useful ;  namely,  that  of  send- 
ing them  out,  two  and  two,  without  any  European  brother.  It 
appeared  also  a  most  desirable  object  to  interest  in  this  work,  as  much 
as  possible,  the  whole  of  the  native  church  among  us  :  indeed,  we  have 
had  much  in  them  of  this  nature  to  commend.  In  order,  then,  more 
effectually  to  answer  this  purpose,  we  called  an  extraordinary  meeting 
of  all  the  brethren  on  Friday  evening,  Aug.  8,  1806,  and  laid  before 
them  the  following  ideas  : — 

"  1.  That  the  intention  of  the  Saviour,  in  calling  them  out  of  dark- 
ness into  marvellous  light,  was  that  they  should  labour  to  the  utter- 
most in  advancing  his  cause  among  their  countrymen. 

"  2.  That  it  was  therefore  their  indispensable  duty,  both  collectively 


168  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1810 

and  individually,  to  strive  by  every  means  to  bring  their  countrymen 
to  the  knowledge  of  the  Saviour ;  that  if  we,  who  were  strangers, 
thought  it  our  duty  to  come  from  a  country  so  distant,  for  this  purpose, 
much  more  was  it  incumbent  on  them  to  labour  for  the  same  end. 
This  was  therefore  the  grand  business  of  our  lives. 

"3.  That  if  a  brother  in  discharge  of  this  duty  went  out  forty  or 
fifty  miles,  he  could  not  labour  for  his  family  :  it  therefore  became  the 
church  to  support  such,  seeing  they  were  hindered  from  supporting 
themselves,  by  giving  themselves  wholly  to  that  work  in  which  it  was 
equally  the  duty  of  all  to  take  a  share. 

"4.  We  therefore  proposed  to  unite  the  support  of  itinerant 
brethren  with  the  care  of  the  poor,  and  to  throw  them  both  upon  the 
church  fund,  as  being  both,  at  least  in  a  heathen  land,  equally  the 
duty  of  a  church. 

"  Every  one  of  these  ideas  our  native  brethren  entered  into  with 
the  greatest  readiness  and  the  most  cordial  approbation." 

Carey's  scheme  so  early  as  1810  included  not  only  the 
capital  of  the  Great  Mogul,  Surat  far  to  the  west,  and 
Maratha  Nagpoor  to  the  south,  but  Lahore,  where  Eanjeet 
Singh  had  consolidated  the  Sikh  power,  Kashmeer,  and  even 
Afghanistan  to  which  he  had  sent  the  Pushtoo  Bible.  To 
set  Chamberlain  free  for  this  enterprise  he  sent  his  second 
son  William  to  relieve  him  as  missionary  in  charge  of  Cutwa. 
"  This  would  secure  the  gradual  perfection  of  the  version  of 
the  Scriptures  in  the  Sikh  language,  would  introduce  the 
Gospel  among  the  people,  and  would  open  a  way  for  introduc- 
ing it  into  Kashmeer,  and  eventually  to  the  Afghans  under 
whose  dominion  Kashmeer  at  present  is."  Carey  and  his  two 
colleagues  took  possession  for  Christ  of  the  principal  centres 
of  Hindoo  and  Mohammedan  influence  in  India  only  because 
they  were  unoccupied,  and  provided  translations  of  the  Bible 
into  the  principal  tongues  avowedly  as  a  preparation  for  other 
missionary  agencies.  All  over  India  and  the  far  East  he 
thus  pioneered  the  way  of  the  Lord,  as  he  had  written  to 
Ryland  when  first  he  settled  in  Serampore  : — "  It  is  very 
probable  we  may  be  only  as  pioneers  to  prepare  the  way  for 


1817  THE  MISSION  TO  BURMA.  169 

more  successful  missionaries,  who  perhaps  may  not  be  at 
liberty  to  attend  to  those  preparatory  labours  in  which  we 
have  been  occupied — the  translation  and  printing  of  the 
Scriptures/'  etc.  His  heart  was  enlarged  like  his  Master's  on 
earth,  and  hence  his  humbleness  of  mind.  "When  the  Church 
Missionary  Society,  for  instance,  occupied  Agra  as  their  first 
station  in  India,  he  sent  the  Baptist  missionary  thence  to 
Allahabad.  To  Benares  "  Brother  William  Smith,  called  in 
Orissa  under  Brother  John  Peter,"  the  Armenian,  was  sent 
owing  to  his  acquaintance  with  the  Hindi  language  ;  he  was 
the  means  of  bringing  to  the  door  of  the  Kingdom  that  rich 
Brahman,  Eaja  Jay  Narain  Ghosal,  whom  he  encouraged  to 
found  in  1817  the  Church  Mission  College  there  which  bears 
the  name  of  this  "almost  Christian"  Hindoo,  who  was  "exceed- 
ingly desirous  of  diffusing  light  among  his  own  countrymen." 
The  most  striking  illustrations  of  this  form  of  Carey's  self- 
sacrifice  are,  however,  to  be  found  outside  of  India  as  it  then 
was,  in  the  career  of  his  other  two  sons  in  Burma  and  the 
Spice  Islands. 

The  East  India  Company's  panic  on  the  Vellore  mutiny 
led  Carey  to  plan  a  mission  to  Burma,  just  as  he  had  been 
guided  to  settle  in  Danish  Serampore  ten  years  before.  The 
Government  of  India  had  doubled  his  salary  as  Bengali, 
Marathi,  and  Sanskrit  Professor,  and  thus,  with  the  old 
irony,  had  unconsciously  supplied  the  means.  Since  1795  the 
port  of  Eangoon  had  been  opened  to  the  British,  although 
Colonel  Symes  had  been  insulted  eight  years  after,  during 
his  second  embassy  to  Ava.  Eangoon,  wrote  the  accurate 
Carey  to  Fuller  in  November  1806,  is  about  ten  days'  sail 
from  Calcutta.  "  The  Burman  empire  is  about  eight  hundred 
miles  long,  lying  contiguous  to  Bengal  on  the  east ;  but  is 
inaccessible  by  land,  on  account  of  the  mountains  covered 
with  thick  forests  which  run  between  the  two  countries. 
The  east  side  of  this  empire  borders  upon  China,  Cochin 


170  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1807 

China,  and  Tongking,  and  may  afford  us  the  opportunity  ulti- 
mately of  introducing  the  Gospel  into  those  countries.  They 
are  quite  within  our  reach,  and  the  Bible  in  Chinese  will  be 
understood  by  them  equally  as  well  as  by  the  Chinese  them- 
selves. About  twenty  chapters  of  Matthew  are  translated 
into  that  language,  and  three  of  our  family  have  made  con- 
siderable progress  in  it." 

This  was  the  beginning  of  Eeformed  missions  to  Eastern 
Asia.  A  year  was  to  pass  before  Dr.  Robert  Morrison  landed 
at  Macao.  From  those  politically  aggressive  and  therefore 
opposed  Jesuit  missions,  which  alone  had  worked  in  Anam 
up  to  this  time,  a  persecuted  bishop  was  one  day  to  find 
an  asylum  at  Serampore,  and  to  use  its  press  and  its  purse 
for  the  publication  of  his  Dictionarium  Anamitico-Latinum. 
The  French  have  long  sought  to  seize  an  empire  there.  That, 
at  its  best,  must  prove  far  inferior  to  the  marvellous  province 
and  Christian  Church  of  British  Burma,  of  which  Carey  laid 
the  foundation  ;  and  Judson,  and  the  Governors  Durand, 
Phayre,  and  Aitchison  built  well  upon  it. 

On  24th  January  1807  Mardon  and  Chater  went  forth, 
after  Carey  had  charged  them  from  the  words,  "  And 
thence  sailed  to  Antioch  from  whence  they  had  been  recom- 
mended to  the  grace  of  God,  which  they  fulfilled."  Carey's 
eldest  son  Felix  soon  took  the  place  of  Mardon.  The  in- 
structions,1 which  bear  the  impress  of  the  sacred  scholar's 
pen,  form  a  model  still  for  all  missionaries.  These  two 
extracts  give  counsels  never  more  needed  than  now  : — 

"  4.  With  respect  to  the  Burman  language,  let  this  occupy  your 
most  precious  time  and  your  most  anxious  solicitude.  Do  not  be 
content  with  acquiring  this  language  superficially,  but  make  it  your 
own,  root  and  branch.  To  become  fluent  in  it,  you  must  attentively 
listen  with  prying  curiosity  into  the  forms  of  speech,  the  construction 
and  accent  of  the  natives.  Here  all  the  imitative  powers  are  wanted  ; 
yet  these  powers  and  this  attention,  without  continued  effort  to  use  all 

1  Periodical  Accounts,  vol.  iii.  pp.  329,  422. 


1807  INSTRUCTIONS  TO  MISSIONARIES.  171 

you  acquire,  and  as  fast  as  you  acquire  it,  will  be  comparatively  of 
little  use. 

"  5.  As  soon  as  you  shall  feel  your  ground  well  in  this  language, 
you  may  compose  a  grammar,  and  also  send  us  some  Scripture  tracts 
for  printing  ;  small  and  plain,  simple  Christian  instruction  and  Gospel 
invitation,  without  any  thing  that  can  irritate  the  most  superstitious 
mind. 

"  6.  We  would  recommend  you  to  begin  the  translation  of  the 
Gospel  of  Mark  as  soon  as  possible,  as  one  of  the  best  and  most  certain 
ways  of  acquiring  the  language.  This  translation  will  of  course  be 
revised  again  and  again.  In  these  revisions  you  will  be  very  careful 
respecting  the  idiom  and  construction,  that  they  be  really  Burman  and 
not  English.  Let  your  instructor  be  well  acquainted  with  the  lan- 
guage, and  try  every  word  of  importance,  in  every  way  you  can,  before 
it  be  admitted.  .  .  . 

"  In  prosecuting  this  work,  there  are  two  things  to  which  especi- 
ally we  would  call  your  very  close  attention,  viz.  the  strictest  and  most 
rigid  economy,  and  the  cultivation  of  brotherly  love. 

"Remember,  that  the  money  which  you  will  expend  is  neither 
ours  nor  yours,  for  it  has  been  consecrated  to  God  ;  and  every  unneces- 
sary expenditure  will  be  robbing  God,  and  appropriating  to  unnecessary 
secular  uses  what  is  sacred,  and  consecrated  to  Christ  and  his  cause. 
In  building,  especially,  remember  that  you  are  poor  men,  and  have 
chosen  a  life  of  poverty  and  self-denial,  with  Christ  and  his  missionary 
servants.  If  another  person  is  profuse  in  expenditure,  the  consequence 
is  small,  because  his  property  would  perhaps  fall  into  hands  where  it 
might  be  devoted  to  the  purposes  of  iniquity ;  but  missionary  funds 
are  in  their  very  circumstances  the  most  sacred  and  important  of  any 
thing  of  this  nature  on  earth.  We  say  not  this,  Brethren,  because  we 
suspect  you,  or  any  of  our  partners  in  labour ;  but  we  perceive  that 
when  you  have  done  all,  the  Rangoon  mission  will  lie  heavy  upon  the 
Missionary  Funds,  and  the  field  of  exertion  is  very  wide." 

Felix  Carey  was  a  medical  missionary  of  great  skill,  a 
printer  of  the  Oriental  languages  trained  by  Ward,  and 
a  scholar,  especially  in  Sanskrit  and  Pali,  Bengali  and 
Burman,  not  unworthy  of  his  father.  He  early  commended 
himself  to  the  good- will  of  the  Eangoon  Viceroy,  and  was  of 
great  use  to  Captain  Canning  in  the  successful  mission  from 
the  Governor -General  in  1809.  At  his  intercession  the 


172  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1813 

Viceroy  gave  him.  the  life  of  a  malefactor  who  had  hung  for 
six  hours  on  the  cross.  Eeporting  the  incident  to  Byland, 
Dr.  Carey  wrote  that  "  crucifixion  is  not  performed  on  separate 
crosses,  elevated  to  a  considerable  height,  after  the  manner  of 
the  Eomans ;  but  several  posts  are  erected  which  are  con- 
nected by  a  cross  piece  near  the  top,  to  which  the  hands  are 
nailed,  and  by  another  near  the  bottom,  to  which  the  feet  are 
nailed  in  a  horizontal  direction."  He  prepared  a  folio  diction- 
ary of  Burman  and  Pali,  translated  several  of  the  Buddhist 
Sootras  into  English,  and  several  books  of  Holy  Scripture  into 
the  vernacular.  His  medical  and  linguistic  skill  so  com- 
mended him  to  the  king  that  he  was  loaded  with  honours  and 
sent  as  Burmese  ambassador  to  the  Governor-General  in  1814, 
when  he  withdrew  from  the  Christian  mission.  On  his  way 
back  up  the  Irawadi  he  alone  was  saved  from  the  wreck  of 
his  boat,  in  which  his  second  wife,  his  children,  and  the  MS. 
of  his  dictionary  went  down.  Of  this  his  eldest  son,  who 
"  procured  His  Majesty's  sanction  for  printing  the  Scriptures 
in  the  Burman  and  adjacent  languages,  which  step  he  highly 
approved,"  and  at  the  same  time  "the  orders  of  my  rank, 
which  consist  of  a  red  umbrella  with  an  ivory  top,  gold  betel 
box,  gold  lefeek  cup,  and  a  sword  of  state,"  the  father  wrote 
lamenting  to  Eyland  : — "  Felix  is  shrivelled  from  a  missionary 
into  an  ambassador."  To  his  third  son  the  sorrowing  father 
said :  — "  The  honours  he  has  received  from  the  Burmese 
Government  have  not  been  beneficial  to  his  soul.  Felix  is 
certainly  not  so  much  esteemed  since  his  visit  as  he  was 
before  it.  It  is  a  very  distressing  thing  to  be  forced  to 
apologise  for  those  you  love."  Mr.  Chater  had  removed  to 
Ceylon  to  begin  a  mission  in  Colombo. 

In  July  1813,  when  Felix  Carey  was  in  Ava,  two  young 
Americans,  Adoniram  Judson  and  his  wife  Ann,  tempest- 
tossed  and  fleeing  before  the  persecution  of  the  East  India 
Company,  found  shelter  in  the  Mission  House  in  Eangoon. 


1813  ADONIRAM  AND  ANN  JUDSON.  173 

Judson  was  one  of  a  band  of  divinity  students  of  the  Con- 
gregational Church  of  New  England,  whose  zeal  had  almost 
compelled  the  institution  of  the  American  Board  of  Foreign 
Missions.  He,  his  wife,  and  colleague  Eice  had  become 
Baptists  by  conviction  on  their  way  to  Serampore,  to  the 
brotherhood  of  which  they  had  been  commended.  Carey  and 
his  colleagues  made  it  "  a  point  to  guard  against  obtruding  on 
missionary  brethren  of  different  sentiments  any  conversation 
relative  to  baptism  " ;  but  Judson  himself  sent  a  note  to  Carey 
requesting  baptism  by  immersion.  The  result  was  the  founda- 
tion at  Boston  of  the  American  Baptist  Missionary  Society, 
which  was  to  win  such  triumphs  in  Burma  and  among  the 
Karengs.  While  Judson  wrote  to  Serampore,  which  he  once 
again  visited,  leaving  the  dust  of  a  child  in  the  mission  burial- 
ground,  "  I  am  glad  to  hear  you  say  that  you  will  not  abandon 
this  mission,"  Carey  pressed  on  to  "the  regions  beyond." 
Judson  lived  till  1850  to  found  a  church  and  to  prepare  a 
Burmese  dictionary,  grammar,  and  translation  of  the  Bible  so 
perfect  that  revision  has  hardly  been  necessary  up  to  the 
present  day.  He  and  Hough,  a  printer  who  joined  him, 
formed  themselves  into  a  brotherhood  on  the  same  self- 
denying  principles  as  that  of  Serampore,  whom  they  besought 
to  send  them  frequent  communications  to  counsel,  strengthen, 
and  encourage  them.  By  1816  Judson  had  prepared  the 
Gospel  of  Matthew  in  Burmese,  following  up  short  tracts 
"  accommodated  to  the  optics  of  a  Burman."  "  Brother  Carey 
has  never  yet  preached  in  Burman,  but  has  made  consider- 
able progress  towards  the  completion  of  a  grammar  and 
dictionary,  which  are  a  great  help  to  us,"  wrote  Mrs.  Judson 
to  Rev.  S.  Newell  on  23d  April  1814. 

Carey's  third  son  Jabez  was  clerk  to  a  Calcutta  attorney 
at  the  time,  in  1812,  when  Dr.  Eyland  preached  in  the 
Dutch  Church,  Austin  Friars,  the  anniversary  sermon  on  the 
occasion  of  the  removal  of  the  headquarters  of  the  Society 


174  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1814 

to  London.  Pausing  in  the  midst  of  his  discourse,  after  a 
reference  to  Carey,  the  preacher  called  on  the  vast  congre- 
gation silently  to  pray  for  the  conversion  of  Jabez  Carey. 
The  answer  came  next  year  in  a  letter  from  his  father: — 
"My  son  Jabez,  who  has  been  articled  to  an  attorney,  and 
has  the  fairest  prospects  as  to  this  world,  is  become  decidedly 
religious,  and  prefers  the  work  of  the  Lord  to  every  other." 
Lord  Minto's  expeditions  of  1810  and  1811  had  captured 
the  islands  swept  by  the  French  privateers  from  Mada- 
gascar to  Java,  and  his  recall  had  put  an  end  to  the  active 
hostility  of  the  authorities  to  Christianity.  Sir  Stamford 
Baffles  governed  Java  in  the  spirit  of  a  Christian  states- 
man. The  new  Governor -General,  Lord  Moira,  afterwards 
Marquis  of  Hastings,  proved  to  be  the  most  enlightened  and 
powerful  friend  the  mission  had  had.  In  these  circum- 
stances, after  the  charter  of  1813  had  removed  the  legislative 
excuse  for  intolerance,  Dr.  Carey  was  asked  by  the  Lieutenant- 
Governor  to  send  missionaries  and  Malay  Bibles  to  the  fifty 
thousand  natives  of  Amboyna.  The  Governor-General  re- 
peated the  request  officially.  Jabez  Carey  was  baptized, 
married,  and  despatched  at  the  cost  of  the  state  before  he 
could  be  ordained.  Amboyna,  it  will  be  perceived,  was  not 
in  India,  but  far  enough  away  to  give  the  still  timid  Company 
little  apprehension  as  to  the  influence  of  the  missionaries  there. 
The  father's  heart  was  very  full  when  he  sent  forth  the  son, 
and  this  hitherto  unpublished  letter  gives  us  a  fuller  know- 
ledge of  the  man  than  any  document  we  have  yet  found  : — 

"  24tth  January  1814. — You  are  now  engaging  in  a  most 
important  undertaking,  in  which  not  only  you  will  have  our 
prayers  for  your  success,  but  those  of  all  who  love  our  Lord 
Jesus  Christ,  and  who  know  of  your  engagement.  I  know  that 
a  few  hints  for  your  future  conduct  from  a  parent  who  loves 
you  very  tenderly  will  be  acceptable,  and  I  shall  therefore 
now  give  you  them,  assured  that  they  will  not  be  given  in  vain. 


1814  THE  IDEAL  OF  A  MISSIONARY.  175 

"  1st.  Pay  the  utmost  attention  at  all  times  to  the  state  of 
your  own  mind  both  towards  God  and  man ;  cultivate  an 
intimate  acquaintance  with  your  own  heart ;  labour  to  obtain 
a  deep  sense  of  your  depravity  and  to  trust  always  in  Christ ; 
be  pure  in  heart,  and  meditate  much  upon  the  pure  and  holy 
character  of  God ;  live  a  life  of  prayer  and  devotedness  to 
God ;  cherish  every  amiable  and  right  disposition  towards 
men ;  be  mild,  gentle,  and  unassuming,  yet  firm  and  manly. 
As  soon  as  you  perceive  anything  wrong  in  your  spirit  or 
behaviour  set  about  correcting  it,  and  never  suppose  yourself 
so  perfect  as  to  need  no  correction. 

"  2d.  You  are  now  a  married  man,  be  not  satisfied  with 
conducting  yourself  towards  your  wife  with  propriety,  but 
let  love  to  her  be  the  spring  of  your  conduct  towards  her. 
Esteem  her  highly,  and  so  act  that  she  may  be  induced 
thereby  to  esteem  you  highly.  The  first  impressions  of  love 
arising  from  form  and  beauty  will  soon  wear  off,  but  the 
esteem  arising  from  excellency  of  disposition  and  substance 
of  character  will  endure  and  increase.  Her  honour  is  now 
yours,  and  she  cannot  be  insulted  without  your  being 
degraded.  I  hope  as  soon  as  you  get  on  board,  and  are 
settled  in  your  cabin,  you  will  begin  and  end  each  day  by 
uniting  together  to  pray  and  praise  God.  Let  religion  always 
have  a  place  in  your  house.  If  the  Lord  bless  you  with 
children,  bring  them  up  in  the  fear  of  God,  and  be  always  an 
example  to  others  of  the  power  of  godliness.  This  advice  I 
give  also  to  Eliza.,  and  if  it  is  followed  you  will  be  happy. 

"  3d.  Behave  affably  and  genteelly  to  all,  but  not  cring- 
ingly  towards  any.  Eeel  that  you  are  a  man,  and  always  act 
with  that  dignified  sincerity  and  truth  which  will  command 
the  esteem  of  all.  Seek  not  the  society  of  worldly  men,  but 
when  called  to  be  with  them  act  and  converse  with  propriety 
and  dignity.  To  do  this  labour  to  gain  a  good  acquaintance 
with  history,  geography,  men,  and  things.  A  gentleman  is 


176  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1814 

the  next  best  character  after  a  Christian,  and  the  latter 
includes  the  former.  Money  never  makes  a  gentleman, 
neither  does  a  fine  appearance,  but  an  enlarged  understand- 
ing joined  to  engaging  manners. 

"4:th.  On  your  arrival  at  Amboyna  your  first  business 
must  be  to  wait  on  Mr.  Martin.  You  should  first  send  a 
note  to  inform  him  of  your  arrival,  and  to  inquire  when  it 
will  suit  him  to  receive  you.  Ask  his  advice  upon  every 
occasion  of  importance,  and  communicate  freely  to  him  all 
the  steps  you  take. 

"  5th.  As  soon  as  you  are  settled  begin  your  work.  Get 
a  Malay  who  can  speak  a  little  English,  and  with  him  make 
a  tour  of  the  island,  and  visit  every  school.  Encourage  all 
you  see  worthy  of  encouragement,  and  correct  with  mildness, 
yet  with  firmness.  Keep  a  journal  of  the  transactions  of  the 
schools,  and  enter  each  one  under  a  distinct  head  therein. 
Take  account  of  the  number  of  scholars,  the  names  of  the 
schoolmasters,  compare  their  progress  at  stated  periods,  and 
in  short  consider  this  as  the  work  which  the  Lord  has  given 
you  to  do. 

*  "  6th.  Do  not,  however,  consider  yourself  as  a  mere 
superintendent  of  schools,  consider  yourself  as  the  spiritual 
instructor  of  the  people,  and  devote  yourself  to  their  good. 
God  has  committed  the  spiritual  interests  of  this  island — 
20,000  men  or  more — to  you ;  a  vast  charge,  but  He  can 
enable  you  to  be  faithful  to  it.  Eevise  the  catechism,  tracts, 
and  school-books  used  among  them,  and  labour  to  introduce 
among  them  sound  doctrine  and  genuine  piety.  Pray  with 
them  as  soon  as  you  can,  and  labour  after  a  gift  to  preach  to 
them.  I  expect  you  will  have  much  to  do  with  them  respect- 
ing baptism.  They  all  think  infant  sprinkling  right,  and  will 
apply  to  you  to  baptize  their  children ;  you  must  say  little 
till  you  know  something  of  the  language,  and  then  prove  to 
them  from v Scripture  what  is  the  right  mode  of  baptism  and 


1814  THE  IDEAL  OF  A  MISSIONARY.  177 

who  are  the  proper  persons  to  be  baptized.  Form  them  into 
Gospel  churches  when  you  meet  with  a  few  who  truly  fear 
God ;  and  as  soon  as  you  see  any  fit  to  preach  to  others,  call 
them  to  the  ministry  and  settle  them  with  the  churches. 
You  must  baptize  and  administer  the  Lord's  Supper  accord- 
ing to  your  own  discretion  when  there  is  a  proper  occasion 
for  it.  Avoid  indolence  and  love  of  ease,  and  never  attempt 
to  act  the  part  of  the  great  and  gay  in  this  world. 

"  1th.  Labour  incessantly  to  become  a  perfect  master  of 
the  Malay  language.  In  order  to  this,  associate  with  the 
natives,  walk  out  with  them,  ask  the  name  of  everything  you 
see,  and  note  it  down  ;  visit  their  houses,  especially  when  any 
of  them  are  sick.  Every  night  arrange  the  words  you  get  in 
alphabetical  order.  Try  to  talk  as  soon  as  you  get  a  few 
words,  and  be  as  much  as  possible  one  of  them.  A  course  of 
kind  and  attentive  conduct  will  gain  their  esteem  and  con- 
fidence and  give  you  an  opportunity  of  doing  much  good. 

"  8th.  You  will  soon  learn  from  Mr.  Martin  the  situation 
and  disposition  of  the  Alfoors  or  aboriginal  inhabitants,  and 
will  see  what  can  be  done  for  them.  Do  not  unnecessarily 
expose  your  life,  but  incessantly  contrive  some  way  of  giving 
them  the  word  of  life. 

"  9£A.  I  come  now  to  things  of  inferior  importance,  but 
which  I  hope  you  will  not  neglect.  I  wish  you  to  learn 
correctly  the  number,  size,  and  geography  of  the  islands  ;  the 
number  and  description  of  inhabitants;  their  customs  and 
manners,  and  everything  of  note  relative  to  them  ;  and  regu- 
larly communicate  these  things  to  me. 

"  Your  great  work,  my  dear  Jabez,  is  that  of  a  Christian 
minister.  You  would  have  been  solemnly  set  apart  thereto 
if  you  could  have  stayed  long  enough  to  have  permitted  it. 
The  success  of  your  labours  does  not  depend  upon  an  outward 
ceremony,  nor  does  your  right  to  preach  the  Gospel  or  admin- 
ister the  ordinances  of  the  Gospel  depend  on  any  such  thing, 


178  .      LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1817 

but  only  on  the  Divine  call  expressed  in  the  Word  of  God. 
The  Church  have,  however,  in  their  intentions  and  wishes 
borne  a  testimony  to  the  grace  given  to  you,  and  will  not 
cease  to  pray  for  you  that  you  may  be  successful.  May  you 
be  kept  from  all  temptations,  supported  under  every  trial, 
made  victorious  in  every  conflict ;  and  may  our  hearts  be 
mutually  gladdened  with  accounts  from  each  other  of  the 
triumphs  of  Divine  grace.  God  has  conferred  a  great  favour 
upon  you  in  committing  to  you  this  ministry.  Take  heed  to 
it  therefore  in  the  Lord  that  thou  fulfil  it.  We  shall  often 
meet  at  the  throne  of  grace.  Write  me  by  every  oppor- 
tunity, and  tell  Eliza  to  write  to  your  mother. 

"  Now,  my  dear  Jabez,  I  commit  you  both  to  God,  and  to 
the  word  of  His  grace,  which  is  able  to  make  you  perfect  in 
the  knowledge  of  His  will.  Let  that  word  be  near  your  heart. 
I  give  you  both  up  to  God,  and  should  I  never  more  see  you 
on  earth  I  trust  we  shall  meet  with  joy  before  His  throne  of 
glory  at  last." 

Under  both  the  English  and  the  Dutch  for  a  time,  to 
whom  the  island  was  restored,  Jabez  Carey  proved  to  be  a 
successful  missionary,  while  he  supported  the  mission  by  his 
official  income  as  superintendent  of  schools  and  second  mem- 
ber of  the  College  of  Justice.  The  island  contained  18,000 
native  Christians  of  the  Dutch  compulsory  type,  such  as 
we  found  in  Ceylon  on  taking  it  over.  Thus  by  the  labours 
of  himself,  his  sons,  his  colleagues,  and  his  children  in  the 
faith  William  Carey  saw  the  Gospel,  the  press,  and  the  in- 
fluence of  a  divine  philanthropy  extending  among  Moham- 
medans, Buddhists,  and  Hindoos  from  the  shores  of  the  Pacific 
Ocean  west  to  the  Arabian  Sea. 


CHAPTER  VIII. 

CAREY'S  FAMILY  AND  FRIENDS. 

1807-1812. 

The  type  of  a  Christian  gentleman — Carey  and  his  first  wife — His  second 
marriage — The  Lady  Rhumohr — His  picture  of  their  married  life — His 
nearly  fatal  illness  when  forty-eight  years  old — His  meditations  and 
dreams — Aldeen  House — Henry  Martyn's  pagoda — Carey,  Marshman, 
and  the  Anglican  chaplains  in  the  pagoda — Corrie's  account  of  the 
Serampore  Brotherhood — Claudius  Buchanan  and  his  Anglican  establish- 
ment—  Improvement  in  Anglo-Indian  society — Carey's  literary  and 
scientific  friends— Desire  in  the  "West  for  a  likeness  of  Carey — Home's 
portrait  of  him — Correspondence  with  his  son  William  on  missionary 
consecration,  Buonaparte,  botany,  the  missionary  a  soldier,  Felix  and 
Burma,  hunting,  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope,  the  duty  of  reconcilia- 
tion, a  cure  for  asthma,  living  near  to  God. 

"  A  GENTLEMAN  is  the  next  best  character  after  a  Christian, 
and  the  latter  includes  the  former,"  were  the  father's  words 
to  the  son  whom  he  was  sending  forth  as  a  Christian  mis- 
sionary and  state  superintendent  of  schools.  Carey  wrote 
from  his  own  experience,  and  he  unwittingly  painted  his  own 
character.  The  peasant  bearing  of  his  early  youth  showed 
itself  throughout  his  life  in  a  certain  shyness,  which  gave 
a  charm  to  his  converse  with  old  and  young.  Occasionally, 
as  in  a  letter  which  he  wrote  to  his  old  friend  Pearce  of 
Birmingham,  at  a  time  when  he  did  not  know  whether  his 
distant  correspondent  was  alive  or  dead,  he  burst  forth  into 
an  unrestrained  enthusiasm  of  affection  and  service.  But  his 
was  rather  the  even  tenor  of  domestic  devotion  and  friendly 
duty,  unbroken  by  passion  or  coldness,  and  ever  lighted  up 


180  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1807 

by  a  steady  geniality.  The  colleagues  who  were  associated 
with  him  for  the  third  of  a  century  worshipped  him  in  the 
old  English  sense  of  the  word.  The  younger  committee  men 
and  missionaries  who  came  to  the  front  on  the  death  of 
Fuller,  Sutcliff,  and  Eyland,  in  all  their  mistaken  and  self- 
seeking  conflicts  with  these  colleagues,  always  tried  to 
separate  Carey  from  those  they  denounced,  till  even  his 
saintly  spirit  burst  forth  into  wrath  at  the  double  wrong 
thus  done  to  his  coadjutors.  His  intercourse  with  the 
chaplains  and  bishops  of  the  Church  of  England,  and  with 
the  missionaries  of  other  Churches  and  societies,  was  as  loving 
in  its  degree  as  his  relations  to  his  own  people.  With  men 
of  the  world,  from  the  successive  Governor- Generals,  from 
Wellesley,  Hastings,  and  Bentinck,  down  to  the  scholars, 
merchants,  and  planters  with  whom  he  became  associated  for 
the  public  good,  William  Carey  was  ever  the  saint  and  the 
gentleman  whom  it  was  a  privilege  to  know. 

In  nothing  perhaps  was  Carey's  true  Christian  gentle- 
manliness  so  seen  as  in  his  relations  with  his  first  wife,  above 
whom  grace  and  culture  had  immeasurably  raised  him,  while 
she  never  learned  to  share  his  aspirations  or  to  understand 
his  ideals.  Not  only  did  she  remain  to  the  last  a  peasant 
woman,  with  a  reproachful  tongue,  but  the  early  hardships  of 
Calcutta  and  the  fever  and  dysentery  of  Mudnabati  clouded 
the  last  twelve  years  of  her  life  with  madness.  Never  did 
reproach  or  complaint  escape  his  lips  regarding  either  her 
or  Thomas,  whose  eccentric  impulses  and  oft-darkened  spirit 
were  due  to  mania  also.  Of  both  he  was  the  tender  nurse 
and  guardian  when,  many  a  time,  the  ever-busy  scholar  would 
fain  have  lingered  at  his  desk  or  sought  the  scanty  sleep 
which  his  jealous  devotion  to  his  Master's  business  allowed 
him.  The  brotherhood  arrangement,  the  common  family, 
Ward's  influence  over  the  boys,  and  Hannah  Marshman's 
housekeeping  relieved  him  of  much  that  his  wife's  illness 


1808  CHARLOTTE  EMELIA  CAREY.  181 

had  thrown  upon  him  at  Mudnabati,  so  that  a  colleague 
describes  him,  when  he  was  forty-three  years  of  age,  as  still 
looking  young  in  spite  of  the  few  hairs  on  his  head,  after  eleven 
years  in  Lower  Bengal  of  work  such  as  never  Englishman 
had  before  him.  But  almost  from  the  first  day  of  his  early 
married  life  he  had  never  known  the  delight  of  daily  converse 
with  a  wife  able  to  enter  into  his  scholarly  pursuits,  and  ever 
to  stimulate  him  in  his  heavenly  quest.  When  the  eldest 
boy,  Felix,  had  left  for  Burma  in  1807  the  faithful  sorrowing 
husband  wrote  to  him  : — "  Your  poor  mother  grew  worse  and 
worse  from  the  time  you  left  us,  and  died  on  the  7th  Decem- 
ber about  seven  o'clock  in  the  evening.  During  her  illness 
she  was  almost  always  asleep,  and  I  suppose  during  the 
fourteen  days  that  she  lay  in  a  severe  fever  she  was  not 
more  than  twenty-four  hours  awake.  She  was  buried  the 
next  day  in  the  missionary  burying-ground." 

About  the  same  time  that  Carey  himself  settled  in  Seram- 
pore  there  arrived  the  Lady  Ehumohr.  She  built  a  house  on 
the  Hoogli  bank  immediately  below  that  of  the  missionaries, 
whose  society  she  sought,  and  by  whom  she  was  baptized. 
On  the  9th  May  1808  she  became  Carey's  wife,  and  in  May 
1821  she  too  was  removed  by  death  in  her  sixty-first  year, 
after  thirteen  years  of  unbroken  happiness. 

Charlotte  Emelia,  born  in  the  same  year  as  Carey  in  the 
then  Danish  duchy  of  Schleswick,  was  the  only  child  of  the 
Chevalier  de  Ehumohr  and  the  Countess  of  Ahlfeldt.  Her 
wakefulness  when  a  sickly  girl  of  fifteen  saved  the  whole 
household  from  destruction  by  fire,  but  she  herself  became  so 
disabled  that  she  could  never  walk  up  or  down  stairs.  She 
failed  to  find  complete  recovery  in  the  south  of  Europe,  and 
her  father's  friend,  Mr.  Anker,  a  director  of  the  Danish  East 
India  Company,  gave  her  letters  to  his  brother,  then  Governor 
of  Tranquebar,  in  the  hope  that  the  climate  of  India  might 
cause  her  relief.  The  Danish  ship  brought  her  first  to  Seram- 


182  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1808 

pore,  where  Colonel  Bie  introduced  her  to  the  brotherhood, 
and  there  she  resolved  to  remain.  She  knew  the  principal 
languages  of  Europe ;  a  copy  of  the  Penstes  of  Pascal,  given 
to  her  by  Mr.  Anker  before  she  sailed,  for  the  first  time 
quickened  her  conscience.  She  speedily  learned  English,  that 
she  might  join  the  missionaries  in  public  worship.  The  barren 
orthodoxy  of  the  Lutheranism  in  which  she  had  been  brought 
up  had  made  her  a  sceptic.  This  soon  gave  way  to  the 
evangelical  teaching  of  the  same  apostle  who  had  brought 
Luther  himself  to  Christ.  She  became  a  keen  student  of  the 
Scriptures,  then  an  ardent  follower  of  Jesus  Christ. 

On  her  marriage  to  Dr.  Carey  she  made  over  her  house 
to  the  mission,  and  when,  long  after,  it  became  famous  as  the 
office  of  the  weekly  Friend  of  India,  the  rent  was  sacredly 
devoted  to  the  assistance  of  native  preachers.  She  learned 
Bengali  that  she  might  be  as  a  mother  to  the  native 
Christian  families.  She  was  her  husband's  counsellor  in  all 
that  related  to  the  extension  of  the  varied  enterprise  of  the 
brethren.  Especially  did  she  make  the  education  of  Hindoo 
girls  her  own  charge,  both  at  Serampore  and  Cutwa.  Her 
leisure  she  gave  to  the  reading  of  French  Protestant  writers, 
such  as  Saurin  and  De  Moulin.  She  admired,  wrote  Carey, 
"  Massillon's  language,  his  deep  knowledge  of  the  human 
heart,  and  his  intrepidity  in  reproving  sin ;  but  felt  the 
greatest  dissatisfaction  with  his  total  neglect  of  his  Saviour, 
except  when  He  is  introduced  to  give  efficacy  to  works  of 
human  merit.  These  authors  she  read  in  their  native 
language,  that  being  more  familiar  to  her  than  English.  She 
in  general  enjoyed  much  of  the  consolations  of  religion. 
Though  so  much  afflicted,  a  pleasing  cheerfulness  generally 
pervaded  her  conversation.  She  indeed  possessed  great 
activity  of  mind.  She  was  constantly  out  with  the  dawn  of 
the  morning  when  the  weather  permitted,  in  her  little  car- 
riage drawn  by  one  bearer;  and  again  in  the  evening,  as 


1809  A  LOVE-LETTER.  183 

soon  as  the  sun  was  sufficiently  low.  She  thus  spent  daily 
nearly  three  hours  in  the  open  air.  It  was  probably  this 
vigorous  and  regular  course  which,  as  the  means,  carried  her 
beyond  the  age  of  three -score  years  (twenty-one  of  them 
spent  in  India),  notwithstanding  the  weakness  of  her  con- 
stitution." 

It  was  a  pretty  picture,  the  delicate  invalid  lady,  drawn 
along  the  mall  morning  and  evening,  to  enjoy  the  river 
breeze,  on  her  way  to  and  from  the  schools  and  homes  of  the 
natives.  But  her  highest  service  was,  after  all,  to  her 
husband,  who  was  doing  a  work  for  India  and  for  humanity, 
equalled  by  few,  if  any.  When,  on  one  occasion,  they  were 
separated  for  a  time  while  she  sought  for  health,  she  wrote  to 
him  the  tenderest  yet  most  courtly  love-letters,  of  which  Dr. 
Culross  has  already  published  this  delightful  specimen  : — 

"  MY  DEAREST  LOVE — I  felt  very  much  in  parting  with 
thee,  and  feel  much  in  being  so  far  from  thee.  ...  I  am  sure 
thou  wilt  be  happy  and  thankful  on  account  of  my  voice, 
which  is  daily  getting  better,  and  thy  pleasure  greatly  adds 
to  mine  own. 

"  I  hope  you  will  not  think  I  am  writing  too  often ;  I 
rather  trust  you  will  be  glad  to  hear  of  me.  .  .  .  Though  my 
journey  is  very  pleasant,  and  the  good  state  of  my  health,  the 
freshness  of  the  air,  and  the  variety  of  objects  enliven  my 
spirits,  yet  I  cannot  help  longing  for  you.  Pray,  my  love, 
take  care  of  your  health  that  I  may  have  the  joy  to  find  you 
well. 

"  I  thank  thee  most  affectionately,  my  dearest  love,  for 
thy  kind  letter.  Though  the  journey  is  very  useful  to  me,  1 
cannot  help  feeling  much  to  be  so  distant  from  you,  but  I  am 
much  with  you  in  my  thoughts.  .  .  .  The  Lord"  be  blessed  for 
the  kind  protection  He  has  given  to  His  cause  in  a  time  of 
need.  May  he  still  protect  and  guide  and  bless  His  dear 
cause,  and  give  us  all  hearts  growing  in  love  and  zeal.  ...  I 


184  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1809 

felt  very  much  affected  in  parting  with  thee.  I  see  plainly 
it  would  not  do  to  go  far  from  you  ;  my  heart  cleaves  to  you. 
I  need  not  say  (for  I  hope  you  know  my  heart  is  not  insen- 
sible) how  much  I  feel  your  kindness  in  not  minding  any 
expense  for  the  recovery  of  my  health.  You  will  rejoice  to 
hear  me  talk  in  my  old  way,  and  not  in  that  whispering 
manner. 

"I  find  so  much  pleasure  in  writing  to  you,  my  love, 
that  I  cannot  help  doing  it.  I  was  nearly  disconcerted  by 

Mrs. laughing  at  my  writing  so  often ;  but  then,  I 

thought,  I  feel  so  much  pleasure  in  receiving  your  letters 
that  I  may  hope  you  do  the  same.  I  thank  thee,  my  love, 
for  thy  kind  letter.  I  need  not  say  that  the  serious  part  of 
it  was  welcome  to  me,  and  the  more  as  I  am  deprived  of  all 
religious  intercourse.  ...  I  shall  greatly  rejoice,  my  love,  in 
seeing  thee  again ;  but  take  care  of  your  health  that  I  may 
find  you  well.  I  need  not  say  how  much  you  are  in  my 
thoughts  day  and  night." 

His  narrative  of  their  intercourse,  written  after  her  death, 
lets  in  a  flood  of  light  on  his  home  life  : — 

"  During  the  thirteen  years  of  her  union  with  Dr.  Carey, 
they  had  enjoyed  the  most  entire  oneness  of  mind,  never 
having  a  single  circumstance  which  either  of  them  wished  to 
conceal  from  the  other.  Her  solicitude  for  her  husband's 
health  and  comfort  was  unceasing.  They  prayed  and  con- 
versed together  on  those  things  which  form  the  life  of  personal 
religion,  without  the  least  reserve ;  and  enjoyed  a  degree  of 
conjugal  happiness  while  thus  continued  to  each  other,  which 
can  only  arise  from  a  union  of  mind  grounded  on  real 
religion.  On  the  whole,  her  lot  in  India  was  altogether  a 
scene  of  mercy.  Here  she  was  found  of  the  Saviour,  gradually 
ripened  for  glory,  and  after  having  her  life  prolonged  beyond 
the  expectation  of  herself  and  all  who  knew  her,  she  was 
released  from  this  mortal  state  almost  without  the  conscious- 


1809  SICK  NIGH  UNTO  DEATH.  185 

ness  of  pain,  and,  as  we  most  assuredly  believe,  had  'an 
abundant  entrance  ministered  unto  her  into  the  kingdom  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.' " 

When,  on  24th  June  1809,  Carey  announced  at  the  dinner 
table  that  he  had  that  morning  finished  the  Bengali  transla- 
tion of  the  whole  Bible,  and  he  was  asked  how  much  more 
he  thought  of  doing,  he  answered  :  "  The  work  I  have  allotted 
to  myself,  in  translating,  will  take  me  about  twenty  years." 
But  he  had  kept  the  bow  too  long  and  too  tightly  bent,  and 
it  threatened  to  snap.  That  evening  he  was  seized  with 
bilious  fever,  and  on  the  eighteenth  day  thereafter  his  life 
was  despaired  of.  "  The  goodness  of  God  is  eminently  con- 
spicuous in  raising  up  our  beloved  brother  Carey,"  wrote 
Marshman.  "  God  has  raised  him  up  again  and  restored  him 
to  his  labours ;  may  he  live  to  accomplish  all  that  is  in  his 
heart,"  wrote  Eowe.  He  was  at  once  at  his  desk  again,  in 
college  and  in  his  study.  "  I  am  this  day  forty-eight  years 
old,"  he  wrote  to  Eyland  on  the  17th  August,  and  sent  him 
the  following  letter,  every  line  of  which  reveals  the  inner 
soul  of  the  writer : — 

"  CALCUTTA,  16th  August  1809. — I  did  not  expect,  about  a 
month  ago,  ever  to  write  to  you  again.  I  was  then  ill  of  a 
severe  fever,  and  for  a  week  together  scarcely  any  hopes  were 
entertained  of  my  life.  One  or  two  days  I  was  supposed  to 
be  dying,  but  the  Lord  has  graciously  restored  me  ;  may 
it  be  that  I  may  live  more  than  ever  to  His  glory.  Whilst 
I  was  ill  I  had  scarcely  any  such  thing  as  thought  belonging 
to  me,  but,  excepting  seasons  of  delirium,  seemed  to  be  nearly 
stupid;  perhaps  some  of  this  arose  from  the  weak  state  to 
which  I  was  reduced,  which  was  so  great  that  Dr.  Hare,  one 
of  the  most  eminent  physicians  in  Calcutta,  who  was  con- 
sulted about  it,  apprehended  more  danger  from  that  than 
from  the  fever.  I,  however,  had  scarcely  a  thought  of  death 
or  eternity,  or  of  life,  or  anything  belonging  thereto.  In  my 


186  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1809 

delirium,  greatest  part  of  which  I  perfectly  remember,  I  was 
busily  employed  in  carrying  a  commission  from  God  to  all 
the  princes  and  governments  in  the  world,  requiring  them 
instantly  to  abolish  every  political  establishment  of  religion, 
and  to  sell  the  parish  and  other  churches  to  the  first  body  of 
Christians  that  would  purchase  them.  Also  to  declare  war 
infamous,  to  esteem  all  military  officers  as  men  who  had  sold 
themselves  to  destroy  the  human  race,  to  extend  this  to  all 
those  dead  men  called  heroes,  defenders  of  their  country, 
meritorious  officers,  etc.1  I  was  attended  by  angels  in  all  my 
excursions,  and  was  universally  successful.  A  few  princes 
in  Germany  were  refractory,  but  my  attendants  struck  them 
dead  instantly.  I  pronounced  the  doom  of  Eome  to  the 
Pope,  and  soon  afterwards  all  the  territory  about  Eome,  the 
march  of  Ancona,  the  great  city  and  all  its  riches  sank  into 
that  vast  bed  of  burning  lava  which  heats  Nero's  bath. 
These  two  considerations  were  the  delirious  wanderings  of 
the  mind,  but  I  hope  to  feel  their  force,  to  pray  and  strive 
for  their  accomplishment  to  the  end  of  my  life.  But  it  is 
now  time  to  attend  to  something  not  merely  ideal. 

"  The  state  of  the  world  occupies  my  thoughts  more  and 
more  ;  I  mean  as  it  relates  to  the  spread  of  the  Gospel.  The 
harvest  truly  is  great,  and  labourers  bear  scarcely  any  pro- 
portion thereto.  I  was  forcibly  struck  this  morning  with 
reading  our  Lord's  reply  to  His  disciples,  John  iv.  When  He 
had  told  them  that  He  had  meat  to  eat  the  world  knew  not 
of,  and  that  His  meat  was  to  do  the  will  of  His  Father  and 
to  finish  His  work,  He  said,  'Say  not  ye  there  are  three 
months  and  then  cometh  harvest?'  He  by  this  plainly 
intended  to  call  their  attention  to  the  conduct  of  men  when 
harvest  was  approaching,  for  that  being  the  season  upon 

1  The  sight  of  the  red  coat  of  the  military  surgeon  who  attended  him  gave 
this  form  to  his  delirious  talk  : — "  I  treated  him  very  roughly  and  refused 
to  touch  his  medicine.  In  vain  did  he  retire  and  put  on  a  black  coat.  I 
knew  him  and  was  resolved. " 


1809  THE  WORLD  AND  THE  SPIRITUAL  HARVEST.  187 

which  all  the  hopes  of  men  hang  for  temporal  supplies,  they 
provide  men  and  measures  in  time  for  securing  it.  Afterwards 
directing  their  attention  to  that  which  so  occupied  His  own 
as  to  be  His  meat  and  drink,  He  said,  '  Lift  up  your  eyes 
and  look  upon  the  fields  (of  souls  to  be  gathered  in),  for  they 
are  white  already  to  harvest.'  After  so  many  centuries  have 
elapsed  and  so  many  fields  full  of  this  harvest  have  been  lost 
for  want  of  labourers  to  gather  it  in,  shall  we  not  at  last 
reflect  seriously  on  our  duty?  Hindostan  requires  ten 
thousand  ministers  of  the  Gospel,  at  the  lowest  calculation, 
China  as  many,  and  you  may  easily  calculate  for  the  rest  of 
the  world.  I  trust  that  many  will  eventually  be  raised  up 
here,  but  be  that  as  it  may  the  demands  for  missionaries  are 
pressing  to  a  degree  seldom  realised.  England  has  done 
much,  but  not  the  hundredth  part  of  what  she  is  bound  to 
do.  In  so  great  a  want  of  ministers  ought  not  every  church 
to  turn  its  attention  chiefly  to  the  raising  up  and  maturing  of 
spiritual  gifts  with  the  express  design  of  sending  them  abroad? 
Should  not  this  be  a  specific  matter  of  prayer,  and  is  there  not 
reason  to  labour  hard  to  infuse  this  spirit  into  the  churches  ? 
"  A  mission  into  Siam  would  be  comparatively  easy  of  in- 
troduction and  support  on  account  of  its  vicinity  to  Prince  of 
Wales  Island,  from  which  vessels  can  often  go  in  a  few  hours. 
A  mission  to  Pegu  and  another  to  Arakan  would  not  be 
difficult  of  introduction,  they  being  both  within  the  Burman 
dominions.  Missions  to  Assam  and  Nepal  should  be  speedily 
tried.  Brother  Eobinson  is  going  to  Bhootan,  but  Sister  E.  is 
very  poorly,  and  his  fears  are  so  high  about  personal  safety 
that  my  hopes  from  him  are  greatly  lowered  thereby.  I  do 
not  know,  anything  about  the  facility  with  which  missions 
could  be  introduced  into  Cochin  China,  Cambodia,  and  Laos, 
but  were  the  trial  made  I  believe  difficulties  would  remove. 
It  is  also  very  desirable  that  the  Burman  mission  should  be 
strengthened.  There  is  no  full  liberty  of  conscience,  and 


188  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1807 

several  stations  might  be  occupied ;  even  the  borders  of  China 
might  be  visited  from  that  country  if  an  easier  entrance  into 
the  heart  of  the  country  could  not  be  found.  I  have  not 
mentioned  Sumatra,  Java,  the  Moluccas,  the  Philippines,  or 
Japan,  but  all  these  countries  must  be  supplied  with  mission- 
aries. This  is  a  very  imperfect  sketch  of  the  wants  of  Asia 
only,  without  including  the  Mahometan  countries ;  but  Africa 
and  South  America  call  as  loudly  for  help  and  the  greatest 
part  of  Europe  must  also  be  holpen  by  the  Protestant  churches, 
being  nearly  as  destitute  of  real  godliness  as  any  heathen 
country  on  the  earth.  What  a  pressing  call,  then,  is  there  for 
labourers  in  the  spiritual  harvest,  and  what  need  that  the 
attention  of  all  the  churches  in  England  and  America 
should  be  drawn  to  this  very  object ! " 

Two  years  after  the  establishment  of  the  mission  at 
Serampore,  David  Brown,  the  senior  chaplain  and  provost  of 
Fort  William  College,  took  possession  of  Aldeen  House,  which 
he  occupied  till  the  year  of  his  death  in  1812.  The  house  is 
the  first  in  the  settlement  reached  by  boat  from  Calcutta,1 
along  the  right  bank  of  the  Hoogli,  which,  from  this  point 
down  to  the  Botanic  Garden,  opposite  the  Garden  Eeach 
suburb  of  Calcutta,  has  not  changed  for  centuries.  Aldeen  is 
five  minutes'  walk  south  of  the  Serampore  Mission  House,  and 
eighty  years  ago  there  was  only  a  park  between  them.  The 
garden  slopes  down  to  the  noble  river,  and  commands  the 
beautiful  country  seat  of  Barrackpore,  which  Lord  Wellesley 
had  just  built.  The  house  itself  is  embosomed  in  trees,  the 
mango,  the  teak,  and  the  graceful  bamboo.  Just  below  it, 
but  outside  of  Serampore,  are  the  deserted  temple  of  Bullub- 
poor  and  the  Ghat  of  the  same  name,  a  fine  flight  of  steps  up 
which  thousands  of  pilgrims  flock  every  June  to  the  adjoining 
shrine  and  monstrous  car  of  Jagganath.  David  Brown  had 
not  been  long  in  Aldeen  when  he  secured  the  deserted  temple 

1  See  plan  on  page  125. 


1807  MISSIONARY  UNITY  AT  ALDEEN.  189 

and  converted  it  into  a  Christian  oratory,  ever  since  known 
as  Henry  Martyn's  Pagoda.  For  ten  years  Aldeen  and  the 
pagoda  became  the  meeting-place  of  Carey  and  his  Noncon- 
formist friends,  with  Claudius  Buchanan,  Martyn,  Bishop 
Corrie,  Thomason,  and  the  little  band  of  evangelical  Anglicans 
who,  under  the  protection  of  Lords  Wellesley  and  Hastings, 
sweetened  Anglo-Indian  society,  and  for  once  made  the  names 
of  "  missionary  "  and  of  "  chaplain  "  synonymous.  Here  too 
there  gathered,  as  also  to  the  Mission  House  higher  up,  many  a 
civilian  and  officer  who  sought  the  charms  of  that  Christian 
family  life  which  they  had  left  behind.  A  young  lieutenant 
commemorated  these  years,  when  Brown  was  removed,  in  a 
pleasing  elegy,  which  Charles  Simeon  published  in  the  Me- 
morials of  his  friend.  Many  a  traveller  from  the  far  West 
still  visits  the  spot,  and  recalls  the  memories  of  William 
Carey  and  Henry  Martyn,  of  Marshman  and  Buchanan,  of 
Ward  and  Corrie,  which  linger  around  the  fair  scene.  When 
first  we  saw  it  the  now  mutilated  ruin  was  perfect,  and  under 
the  wide-spreading  banian  tree  behind  a  Brahman  was  reciting, 
for  a  day  and  a  night,  the  verses  of  the  Mahabharat  epic  to 
thousands  of  listening  Hindoos. 

"  Long,  Hoogli,  has  thy  sullen  stream 

Been  doomed  the  cheerless  shores  to  lave  ; 
Long  has  the  Suttee's  baneful  gleam 

Pale  glimmered  o'er  thy  midnight  wave. 

"  Yet  gladdened  seemed  to  flow  thy  tide 
Where  opens  on  the  view — Aldeen  ; 
For  there  to  grace  thy  palmy  side 

Loved  England's  purest  joys  were  seen. 


"  Yon  dome,  'neath  which  in  former  days 
Grim  idols  marked  the  pagan  shrine, 
Has  swelled  the  notes  of  pious  praise, 
Attuned  to  themes  of  love  divine." 


190  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1807 

"We  find  this  allusion  to  the  place  in  Carey's  unpublished 
correspondence  with  Dr.  Eyland  : — "20th  January  1807. — 
It  would  have  done  your  heart  good  to  have  joined  us  at  our 
meetings  at  the  pagoda.  From  that  place  we  have  success- 
ively recommended  Dr.  Taylor  to  the  work  of  the  Lord  at 
Bombay,  Mr.  Martyn  to  his  at  Dinapoor,  Mr.  Corrie  to  his 
at  Chunar,  Mr.  Parsons  to  his  at  Burhampoor,  Mr.  Des  Granges 
to  his  at  Vizagapatam,  and  our  two  brethren  to  theirs  at 
Kangoon,  and  from  thence  we  soon  expect  to  commend  Mr. 
Thompson  to  his  at  Madras.  In  these  meetings  the  utmost 
harmony  prevails  and  a  union  of  hearts  unknown  between 
persons  of  different  denominations  in  England."  Dr.  Taylor 
and  Mr.  Des  Granges  were  early  missionaries  of  the  London 
Society,  Presbyterian  or  Congregational ;  the  Piangoon brethren 
were  Baptists  ;  the  others  were  Church  of  England  chaplains. 
The  "  beggarly  elements  "  of  sacramentarianism  and  the  con- 
sequent priestcraft  of  sacerdotalism  had  not  then  begun  to 
afflict  the  Church  in  India,  which  had  not  even  a  bishop  till 
after  1813.  There  were  giants  in  those  days,  in  Bengal, 
worthy  of  Carey  and  of  the  one  work  in  which  all  were  the 
servants  of  one  Master. 

Let  us  look  a  little  more  closely  at  Henry  Martyn's  Pagoda. 
Here  is  the  picturesque  ruin,  which  the  peepul  tree  that  is 
entwined  among  its  fine  brick  masonry,  and  the  crumbling 
river-bank,  will  soon  cause  to  disappear  for  ever.  The  ex- 
quisite tracery  of  the  moulded  bricks  may  be  seen,  but  not 
the  few  figures  that  are  left  of  the  popular  Hindoo  idols  just 
where  the  two  still  perfect  arches  begin  to  spring.  The  side 
to  the  river  has  already  fallen  down,  and  with  it  the  open 
platform  overhanging  the  bank  on  which  the  missionary  sat 
in  the  cool  of  the  morning  and  evening,  and  where  he  knelt  to 
pray  for  the  people.  We  have  accompanied  many  a  visitor 
there,  from  Dr.  Duff  to  Bishop  Cotton,  and  have  rarely  seen 
one  unmoved.  This  pagoda  had  been  abandoned  long  before 


1807  HENRY  MARTYN'S  PAGODA.  191 

by  the  priests  of  Eadhabullub,  because  the  river  had  en- 
croached to  a  point  within  300  feet  of  it,  the  limit  within 
which  no  Brahman  is  allowed  to  receive  a  gift  or  take  his 
food.  The  little  black  doll  of  an  idol,  which  is  famous  among 
Hindoos  alike  for  its  sanctity  and  as  a  work  of  art — for  had 
it  not  been  miraculously  wafted  to  this  spot  like  the  Santa 
Casa  to  Loretto  ? — was  removed  with  great  pomp  to  a  new 


HENRY  MARTYN'S  PAGODA,  ALDEEN,  SERAMPORE. 

temple  after  it  had  paid  a  visit  to  Olive's  moonshi,  the 
wealthy  Eaja  Nobokissen  in  Calcutta,  who  sought  to v  pur- 
chase it  outright. 

In  this  cool  old  pagoda  Henry  Martyn,  on  one  of  his 
earliest  visits  to  Aldeen  after  his  arrival  as  a  chaplain  in 
1806,  found  an  appropriate  residence.  Under  the  vaulted 
roof  of  the  shrine  a  place  of  prayer  and  praise  was  fitted  up 
with  an  organ,  so  that,  as  he  wrote,  "  the  place  where  once 
devils  were  worshipped  has  now  become  a  Christian  oratory." 


192  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1807 

Here,  too,  he  laid  his  plans  for  the  evangelisation  of  the 
people.  When  suffering  from  one  of  his  moods  of  depression 
as  to  his  own  state,  he  thus  writes  of  this  place  : — "  I  began 
to  pray  as  on  the  verge  of  eternity ;  and  the  Lord  was  pleased 
to  break  my  hard  heart.  I  lay  in  tears,  interceding  for  the 
unfortunate  natives  of  this  country  ;  thinking  within  myself 
that  the  most  despicable  soodra  of  India  was  of  as  much 
value  in  the  sight  of  God  as  the  King  of  Great  Britain."  It 
was  from  such  supplication  that  he  was  once  roused  by  the 
blaze  of  a  Suttee's  funeral  pyre,  on  which  he  found  that  the 
living  widow  had  been  consumed  with  the  dead  before  he 
could  interfere.  He  could  hear  the  hideous  drums  and  gongs 
and  conch-shells  of  the  temple  to  which  Eadhabullub  had 
been  removed.  There  he  often  tried  to  turn  his  fellow- 
creatures  to  the  worship  of  the  one  God,  from  their  prostra- 
tions "  before  a  black  image  placed  in  a  pagoda,  with  lights 
burning  around  it,"  whilst,  he  says,  he  "  shivered  as  if  standing, 
as  it  were,  in  the  neighbourhood  of  hell."  It  was  in  this 
pagoda  that  Brown,  Corrie,  and  Parsons  met  with  him  for  the 
last  time  to  commend  him  to  God  before  he  set  out  for  his 
new  duties  at  Dinapoor.  "  My  soul,"  he  writes  of  this  occa- 
sion, "  never  yet  had  such  divine  enjoyment.  I  felt  a  desire 
to  break  from  the  body,  and  join  the  high  praises  of  the 
saints  above.  May  I  go  '  in  the  strength  of  this  many  days.' 
Amen."  "  I  found  my  heaven  begun  on  earth.  No  work  so 
sweet  as  that  of  praying  and  living  wholly  to  the  service  of 
God."  And  as  he  passed  by  the  Mission  House  on  his  upward 
voyage,  with  true  catholicity  "  Dr.  Marshman  could  not  resist 
joining  the  party :  and  after  going  a  little  way,  left  them  with 
prayer."  Do  we  wonder  that  these  men  have  left  their  mark 
on  India  ? 

As  years  went  by,  the  temple,  thus  consecrated  as  a 
Christian  oratory,  became  degraded  in  other  hands.  The 
brand  "  pagoda  distillery "  for  a  time  came  to  be  known  as 


1807  MISSION  LIFE  IN  SERAMPORE.  193 

marking  the  rum  manufactured  there.  The  visits  of  so  many 
Christian  pilgrims  to  the  spot,  and  above  all  the  desire  ex- 
pressed by  Lord  Lawrence  when  Governor-General  to  visit 
it,  led  the  wealthy  Hindoo  family  who  now  own  the  pagoda 
to  leave  it  at  least  as  a  simple  ruin.  There  it  still  stands, 
but  the  river  is  fast  encroaching  on  it. 

Corrie,  afterwards  the  first  bishop  of  Madras,  describes 
the  marriage  of  Des  Granges  in  the  oratory,  and  gives  us  a 
glimpse  of  life  in  the  Serampore  Mission  House  : — 

"  1806.  Calcutta  strikes  me  as  the  most  magnificent  city  in  the 
world  ;  and  I  am  made  most  happy  by  the  hope  of  being  instrumental 
to  the  eternal  good  of  many.  A  great  opposition,  I  find,  is  raised 
against  Martyn  and  the  principles  he  preaches.  .  .  .  Went  up  to  Ser- 
ampore yesterday,  and  in  the  evening  was  present  at  the  marriage  of 
Mr.  Des  Granges.  Mr.  Brown  entered  into  the  concern  with  much 
interest.  The  pagoda  was  fixed  on,  and  lighted  up  for  the  celebration 
of  the  wedding  ;  at  eight  o'clock  the  parties  came  from  the  Mission 
House  [at  Serampore],  attended  by  most  of  the  family.  Mr.  Brown 
commenced  with  the  hymn,  '  Come,  gracious  Spirit,  heavenly  dove  ! f 
A  divine  influence  seemed  to  attend  us,  and  most  delightful  were  my 
sensations.  The  circumstance  of  so  many  being  engaged  in  spreading 
the  glad  tidings  of  salvation, — the  temple  of  an  idol  converted  to  the 
purpose  of  Christian  worship,  and  the  Divine  presence  felt  among  us, 
— filled  me  with  joy  unspeakable.  After  the  marriage  service  of  the 
Church  of  England,  Mr.  Brown  gave  out  '  the  Wedding  Hymn ' ;  and 
after  signing  certificates  of  the  marriage,  we  adjourned  to  the  house, 
where  Mr.  Brown  had  provided  supper.  Two  hymns  given  out  by 
Mr.  Marshman  were  felt  very  powerfully.  He  is  a  most  lively,  san- 
guine missionary  ;  his  conversation  made  my  heart  burn  within  me, 
and  I  find  desires  of  spreading  the  Gospel  growing  stronger  daily,  and 
my  zeal  in  the  cause  more  ardent.  ...  I  went  to  the  Mission  House, 
and  supped  at  the  same  table  with  about  fifty  native  converts.  The 
triumph  of  the  Cross  was  most  evident  in  breaking  down  their  preju- 
dices, and  uniting  them  with  those  who  formerly  were  an  abomination 
in  their  eyes.  After  supper  they  sang  a  Bengali  hymn,  many  of 
them  with  tears  of  joy  ;  and  they  concluded  with  prayer  in  Bengali, 
with  evident  earnestness  and  emotion.  My  own  feelings  were  too  big 
for  utterance.  0  may  the  time  be  hastened  when  every  tongue  shall 
confess  Jesus  Christ,  to  the  glory  of  God  the  Father  ! 

0 


194  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1808 

"  On  Friday  evening  [Oct.  1  Oth],  we  had  a  meeting  in  the  pagoda, 
at  which  almost  all  the  missionaries,  some  of  their  wives,  and  Captain 
"Wickes  attended,  with  a  view  to  commend  Martyn  to  the  favour 
and  protection  of  God  in  his  work.  The  Divine  presence  was  with 
us.  I  felt  more  than  it  would  have  been  proper  to  express.  Mr. 
Brown  commenced  with  a  hymn  and  prayer,  Mr.  Des  Granges  succeeded 
him,  with  much  devotion  and  sweetness  of  expression  :  Mr.  Marshman 
followed,  and  dwelt  particularly  on  the  promising  appearance  of  things  ; 
and,  with  much  humility,  pleaded  God's  promises  for  the  enlargement 
of  Zion;  with  many  petitions  for  Mr.  Brown  and  his  family.  The 
service  was  concluded  by  Mr.  Carey,  who  was  earnest  in  prayer  for 
Mr.  Brown  :  the  petition  that  '  having  laboured  for  many  years  with- 
out encouragement  or  support,  in  the  evening  it  might  be  light,'  seemed 
much  to  affect  his  own  mind,  and  greatly  impressed  us  all.  After- 
wards we  supped  together  at  Mr.  Brown's.  .  .  . 

"  13th  Oct.  I  came  to  Serampore  to  dinner.  Had  a  pleasant  sail 
up  the  river :  the  time  passed  agreeably  in  conversation.  In  the 
evening  a  fire  was  kindled  on  the  opposite  bank  ;  and  we  soon  per- 
ceived that  it  was  a  funeral  pile,  on  which  the  wife  was  burning  with 
the  dead  body  of  her  husband.  It  was  too  dark  to  distinguish  the 
miserable  victim.  .  .  .  On  going  out  to  walk  with  Martyn  to  the 
pagoda,  the  noise  so  unnatural,  and  so  little  calculated  to  excite  joy, 
raised  in  my  mind  an  awful  sense  of  the  presence  and  influence  of 
evil  spirits." 

Corrie  married  the  daughter  of  Mrs.  Ellerton,  who  knew 
Serampore  and  Carey  well.  It  was  Mr.  Ellerton  who,  when 
an  indigo-planter  at  Malda,  opened  the  first  Bengali  school, 
and  made  the  first  attempt  at  translating  the  Bible  into  that 
vernacular.  His  young  wife,  early  made  a  widow,  witnessed 
accidentally  the  duel  in  which  Warren  Hastings  shot  Philip 
Francis.  She  was  an  occasional  visitor  at  Aldeen,  and  took 
part  in  the  pagoda  services.  Fifty  years  afterwards,  not  long 
before  her  death  at  eighty-seven,  Bishop  Wilson,  whose  guest 
she  was,  wrote  of  her : — "  She  made  me  take  her  to  Henry 
Martyn's  Pagoda.  She  remembers  the  neighbourhood,  and 
Gharetty  Ghat  and  House  in  Sir  Eyre  Coote's  time  (1783). 
The  ancient  Governor  of  Chinsurah  and  his  fat  Dutch  wife  are 
still  in  her  mind.  When  she  visited  him  with  her  first  hus- 


1808        THE  ECCLESIASTICAL  ESTABLISHMENT  PROJECTED.         195 

band  (she  was  then  sixteen)  the  old  Dutchman  cried  out, 
'  Oh,  if  you  would  find  me  such  a  nice  little  wife  I  would 
give  you  ten  thousand  rupees.' " 

It  was  in  Martyn's  Pagoda  that  Claudius  Buchanan  first 
broached  his  plan  of  an  ecclesiastical  establishment  for  India, 
and  invited  the  discussion  of  it  by  Carey  and  his  colleagues. 
Such  a  scheme  came  naturally  from  one  who  was  the  grand- 
son of  a  Presbyterian  elder  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  con- 
verted in  the  Whitefield  revival  at  Cambuslang.  It  had  been 
suggested  first  by  Bishop  Porteous  when  he  reviewed  the 
Company's  acquisitions  in  Asia.  It  was  encouraged  by 
Lord  Wellesley,  who  was  scandalised  on  his  arrival  in  India 
by  the  godlessness  of  the  civil  servants  and  the  absence  of 
practically  any  provision  for  the  Christian  worship  and  in- 
struction of  its  officers  and  soldiers,  who  were  all  their  lives 
without  religion,  not  a  tenth  of  them  ever  returning  home. 
Carey  thus  wrote,  at  Eyland's  request,  of  the  proposal  which 
resulted  in  the  arrival  in  Calcutta  of  Bishop  Middleton  and 
Dr.  Bryce  in  1814  : — "  I  have  no  opinion  of  Dr.  Buchanan's 
scheme  for  a  religious  establishment  here,  nor  could  I  from 
memory  point  out  what  is  exceptionable  in  his  memoir.  All 
his  representations  must  be  taken  with  some  grains  of  allow- 
ance." When,  in  the  Aldeen  discussions,  Dr.  Buchanan  told 
Marshman  that  the  temple  lands  would  eventually  answer  for 
the  established  churches  and  the  Brahmans'  lands  for  the 
chaplains,  the  stout  Nonconformist  replied  with  emphasis, 
"  You  will  never  obtain  them."  Whatever  be  the  judgment 
of  our  readers  on  an  establishment  which  during  the  seventy 
years  of  its  existence  at  a  cost  of  ten  millions  sterling  has 
given  us  at  least  the  brief  and  beautiful  episcopates  of  Heber 
and  Cotton,  we  may  regret  that  Carey's  principles  were  not 
applied  so  as  to  enable  civilians  to  help  themselves,  while  the 
Government  should  confine  its  care  to  the  supply  of  military 
chaplains  only  on  a  non-intolerant  system.  And  we  may  all 


196  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1810 

accept  the  conversion  of  the  idol  shrine  into  a  place  of  prayer 
— as  Gregory  I.  taught  Augustine  of  Canterbury  to  transform 
heathen  temples  into  Christian  churches — as  presaging  the 
time  when  the  vast  temple  and  mosque  endowments  will  be 
devoted  by  the  people  themselves  to  their  own  moral  if  not 
spiritual  good  through  education,  both  religious  and  secular. 

The  change  wrought  in  seventeen  years  by  Carey  and  such 
associates  as  these  on  society  in  Bengal,  both  rich  and  poor, 
became  marked  by  the  year  1810.  We  find  him  writing  of 
it  thus  : — "  When  I  arrived  I  knew  of  no  person  who  cared 
about  the  Gospel  except  Mr.  Brown,  Mr.  Udny,  Mr.  Creighton, 
Mr.  Grant,  and  Mr.  Brown,  an  indigo-planter,  besides  Brother 
Thomas  and  myself.  There  might  be  more,  and  probably 
were,  though  unknown  to  me.  There  are  now  in  India 
thirty-two  ministers  of  the  Gospel.  Indeed,  the  Lord  is  doing 
great  things  for  Calcutta ;  and  though  infidelity  abounds,  yet 
religion  is  the  theme  of  conversation  or  dispute  in  almost  every 
house.  Afew  weeks  ago  (October  1810),  I  called  upon  one  of  the 
Judges  to  take  breakfast  with  him,  and  going  rather  abruptly 
upstairs,  as  I  had  been  accustomed  to  do,  I  found  the  family 
just  going  to  engage  in  morning  worship.  I  was  of  course 
asked  to  engage  in  prayer,  which  I  did.  I  afterwards  told 
him  that  I  had  scarcely  witnessed  any  thing  since  I  had  been 
in  Calcutta  which  gave  me  more  pleasure  than  what  I  had 
seen  that  morning.  The  change  in  this  family  was  an  effect 
of  Mr.  Thomason's  ministry.  .  .  .  About  ten  days  ago  I  had 
a  conversation  with  one  of  the  Judges  of  the  Supreme  Court, 
Sir  John  Eoyds,  upon  religious  subjects.  Indeed  there  is 
now  scarcely  a  place  where  you  can  pay  a  visit  without 
having  an  opportunity  of  saying  something  about  true 
religion." 

Carey's  friendly  intercourse,  by  person  and  letter,  was  not 
confined  to  those  who  were  aggressively  Christian  or  to  Chris- 
tian and  ecclesiastical  questions.  His  literary  and  scientific 


1812  HOME'S  PORTRAIT  OF  CAREY.  197 

pursuits  led  him  to  constant  and  familiar  converse  with 
scholars  like  Colebrooke  and  Leyden,  with  savants  like 
Eoxburgh,  the  astronomer  Bentley,  and  Dr.  Hare,  with 
publicists  like  Sir  James  Mackintosh  and  Eobert  Hall,  with 
such  travellers  and  administrators  as  Manning,  the  friend  of 
Charles  Lamb,  and  Baffles. 

In  Great  Britain  the  name  of  William  Carey  had,  by 
1812,  become  familiar  as  a  household  word  in  all  evangelical 
circles.  The  men  who  had  known  him  in  the  days  before 
1793  were  few  and  old,  were  soon  to  pass  away  for  ever. 
The  new  generation  had  fed  their  Christian  zeal  on  his 
achievements,  and  had  learned  to  look  on  him,  in  spite  of 
all  his  humility  which  only  inflamed  that  zeal,  as  the  pioneer, 
the  father,  the  founder  of  foreign  missions,  English,  Scottish, 
and  American.  They  had  never  seen  him ;  they  were  not 
likely  to  see  him  in  the  flesh.  The  desire  for  a  portrait  of 
him  became  irresistible.  The  burning  of  the  press,  to  be  here- 
after described,  which  led  even  bitter  enemies  of  the  mission 
like  Major  Scott  Waring  to  subscribe  for  its  restoration, 
gave  the  desired  sympathetic  voice,  so  that  Fuller  wrote  to 
the  missionaries  : — "  The  public  is  now  giving  us  their  praises. 
Eight  hundred  guineas  have  been  offered  for  Dr.  Carey's  like- 
ness. .  .  .  When  you  pitched  your  tents  at  Serampore  you 
said,  '  We  will  not  accumulate  riches  but  devote  all  to  God 
for  the  salvation  of  the  heathen/  God  has  given  you  what 
you  desired  and  what  you  desired  not.  Blessed  men,  God  will 
bless  you  and  make  you  a  blessing.  I  and  others  of  us  may 
die,  but  God  will  surely  visit  you.  .  .  .  Expect  to  be  highly 
applauded,  bitterly  reproached,  greatly  moved,  and  much  tried 
in  every  way.  Oh  that,  having  done  all,  you  may  stand ! " 
Little  did  the  great-hearted  Andrew  Fuller  dream  that  his 
own  death  in  two  years  would  be  followed  by  the  most 
grievous  wounding  of  the  missionaries,  not  from  their  enemies 
but  from  the  house  of  their  friends. 


198  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1808 

Carey  was,  fortunately  for  posterity,  not  rebellious  in  the 
matter  of  the  portrait;  he  was  passive.  As  he  sat  in  his 
room  in  the  college  of  Fort  William,  his  pen  in  hand,  his 
Sanskrit  Bible  before  him,  and  his  Brahman  pundit  at  his 
left  hand,  the  saint  and  the  scholar  in  the  ripeness  of  his 
powers  at  fifty  was  transferred  to  the  canvas  which  has  since 
adorned  the  walls  of  Eegent  Park  College.1  A  line  engraving 
of  the  portrait  was  published  in  England  the  year  after  at  a 
guinea,  and  widely  purchased,  the  profit  going  to  the  mission. 
The  painter  was  Home,  famous  in  his  day  as  the  artist  whom 
Lord  Cornwallis  had  engaged  during  the  first  war  with  Tipoo 
to  prepare  those  Select  Views  in  Mysore,  ike,  Country  of  Tipoo 
Sultaun,  from  Drawings  taken  on  the  Spot,  which  appeared  in 
1794. 

Of  his  four  sons,  Felix,  William,  Jabez,  and  Jonathan, 
Carey's  correspondence  was  most  frequent  at  this  period  with 
William,  who  went  forth  in  1808  to  Dinajpoor  to  begin  his 
independent  career  as  a  missionary  by  the  side  of  Fernan- 
dez. Eecalling  his  own  experience  in  the  same  district  the 
father  thus  writes  : — 

"CALCUTTA,  29th  September  1808.— DEAR  WILLIAM— I 
suppose  that  you  are  arrived  at  Sadamahal  before  now.  .  .  . 
You  will,  I  trust,  feel  the  weight  and  importance  of  the  work 
in  which  you  are  engaged,  and  may  God  enable  you  to  devote 
yourself  entirely  to  it.  You  will  meet  with  numerous  dis- 
couragements both  from  the  people  to  whom  you  are  gone  to 
make  known  the  word  of  Life,  and  from  what  you  feel  in 
your  own  mind,  but  take  courage,  the  cause  is  the  cause  of 
God,  and  though  it  may  not  be  immediately  successful  will 
assuredly  be  so  at  last.  Consider  yourself  as  devoted  to  the 
work  of  the  Lord,  and  lay  yourself  out  to  promote  by  every 
method  in  your  power  the  cause  of  the  great  Kedeemer.  .  .  . 

"A  ship  is  just  arrived  which  brings  the  account  that 

1  See  Frontispiece. 


1809  CORRESPONDENCE  WITH  HIS  SON.  199 

Buonaparte  has  taken  possession  of  the  whole  kingdom  of 
Spain,  and  that  the  Eoyal  family  of  that  country  are  in 
prison  at  Bayonne.  It  is  likely  that  Turkey  is  fallen  before 
now,  and  what  will  be  the  end  of  these  wonders  we  cannot 
tell.  I  see  the  wrath  of  God  poured  out  on  the  nations  which 
have  so  long  persecuted  his  Gospel,  and  prevented  the  spread 
of  His  truth.  Buonaparte  is  but  the  minister  of  the  Divine 
vengeance,  the  public  executioner  now  employed  to  execute 
the  sentence  of  God  upon  criminal  men.  He,  however,  has 
no  end  in  view  but  the  gratifying  his  own  ambition." 

"SQth  May  1809. — When  you  come  down  take  a  little 
pains  to  bring  down  a  few  plants  of  some  sort.  There  is 
one  grows  plentifully  about  Sadamahal  which  grows  about 
as  high  as  one's  knee,  and  produces  a  large  red  flower.  Put 
half  a  dozen  plants  in  pots  (with  a  hole  in  the  bottom). 
There  is  at  Sadamahal  (for  I  found  it  there)  a  plant  which 
produces  a  flower  like  Bhayt,  of  a  pale  bluish  colour,  almost 
white ;  and  indeed  several  other  things  there.  Try  and 
bring  something.  Can't  you  bring  the  grasshopper  which 
has  a  saddle  on  his  back,  or  the  bird  which  has  a  large  crest 
which  he  opens  when  he  settles  on  the  ground  ?  I  want  to 
give  you  a  little  taste  for  natural  objects.  Felix  is  very  good 
indeed  in  this  respect." 

"  CALCUTTA,  1st  November  1809. — Yesterday  was  the  day 
for  the  Chinese  examination,  at  which  Jabez  acquitted  him- 
self with  much  honour.  I  wish  his  heart  were  truly  set  on 
God.  One  of  the  greatest  blessings  which  I  am  now  anxious 
to  see  before  my  death  is  the  conversion  of  him  and  Jonathan, 
and  their  being  employed  in  the  work  of  the  Lord. 

"  Now,  dear  William,  what  do  we  live  for  but  to  promote 
the  cause  of  our  dear  Eedeemer  in  the  world  ?  If  that  be 
carried  on  we  need  not  wish  for  anything  more ;  and  if  our 
poor  labours  are  at  all  blessed  to  the  promotion  of  that  desir- 
able end,  our  lives  will  not  be  in  vain.  Let  this,  therefore, 


200  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1810 

be  the  great  object  of  your  life,  and  if  you  should  be  made 
the  instrument  of  turning  only  one  soul  from  darkness  to 
marvellous  light,  who  can  say  how  many  more  may  be  con- 
verted by  his  instrumentality,  and  what  a  tribute  of  glory 
may  arise  to  God  from  that  one  conversion.  Indeed,  were 
you  never  to  be  blessed  to  the  conversion  of  one  soul,  still  the 
pleasure  of  labouring  in  the  work  of  the  Lord  is  greater  than 
that  of  any  other  undertaking  in  the  world,  and  is  of  itself, 
sufficient  to  make  it  the  work  of  our  choice.  I  hope  Sebuk 
Earn  is  arrived  before  now,  and  that  you  will  find  him  to  be 
a  blessing  to  you  in  your  work.  Try  your  utmost  to  make 
him  well  acquainted  with  the  Bible,  labour  to  correct  his 
mistakes,  and  to  establish  him  in  the  knowledge  of  the  truth. 
"  You  may  always  enclose  a  pinch  of  seeds  in  a  letter." 
"  17th  January  1810. — Felix  went  with  Captain  Canning, 
the  English  ambassador  to  the  Burman  Empire,  to  the  city  of 
Pegu.  On  his  way  thither  he  observed  to  Captain  Canning  that 
he  should  be  greatly  gratified  in  accompanying  the  Minister 
to  the  mountains  of  Martaban  and  the  country  beyond  them. 
Captain  Canning  at  his  next  interview  with  the  Minister 
mentioned  this  to  him,  which  he  was  much  pleased  with,  and 
immediately  ordered  several  buffalo -carts  to  be  made  ready, 
and  gave  him  a  war-boat  to  return  to  Eangoon  to  bring  his 
baggage,  medicines,  etc.  He  had  no  time  to  consult  Brother 
Chater  before  he  determined  on  the  journey,  and  wrote  to  me 
when  at  Eangoon,  where  he  stayed  only  one  night,  and  re- 
turned to  Pegu  the  next  morning.  He  says  the  Minister  has 
now  nearly  the  whole  dominion  over  the  Empire,  and  is  going 
to  war.  He  will  accompany  the  army  to  Martaban,  when  he 
expects  to  stay  with  the  Minister  there.  He  goes  in  great 
spirits  to  explore  those  countries  where  no  European  has 
been  before  him,  and  where  he  goes  with  advantages  and 
accommodations  such  as  a  traveller  seldom  can  obtain. 
Brother  and  Sister  Chater  do  not  approve  of  his  under- 


1810  HIS  SONS  FELIX  AND  WILLIAM.  201 

taking,  perhaps  through  fear  for  his  safety.  I  feel  as  much 
for  that  as  any  one  can  do,  yet  I,  and  indeed  Brethren  Marsh- 
man,  Ward,  and  Eowe,  rejoice  that  he  has  undertaken  the 
journey.  It  will  assist  him  in  acquiring  the  language ;  it 
will  gratify  the  Minister ;  it  will  serve  the  interests  of  litera- 
ture, and  perhaps  answer  many  other  important  purposes,  as 
it  respects  the  mission ;  and  as  much  of  the  way  will  be 
through  uninhabited  forests,  it  could  not  have  been  safely 
undertaken  except  with  an  army.  He  expects  to  be  absent 
three  months.  I  shall  feel  a  great  desire  to  hear  from  him 
when  he  returns,  and  I  doubt  not  but  you  will  join  me  in 
prayer  for  his  safety,  both  of  mind  and  body.  .  .  . 

"  One  or  two  words  about  natural  history.  Can  you  not 
get  me  a  male  and  female  khokora,  I  mean  the  great  bird 
like  a  kite  which  makes  so  great  a  noise  and  often  carries 
off  a  duck  or  a  kid  ?  I  believe  it  is  an  eagle,  and  want  to 
examine  it.  Send  me  also  all  the  sorts  of  ducks  and  water- 
fowls you  can  get,  and,  in  short,  every  sort  of  bird  you  can 
obtain  which  is  not  common  here.  Send  their  Bengali 
names.  Collect  me  all  the  sorts  of  insects,  and  serpents,  and 
lizards  you  can  get  which  are  not  common  here.  Put  all  the 
insects  together  into  a  bottle  of  rum,  except  butterflies,  which 
you  may  dry  between  two  papers,  and  the  serpents  and  lizards 
the  same.  I  will  send  you  a  small  quantity  of  rum  for  that 
purpose.  Send  all  the  country  names.  Let  me  have  the 
birds  alive  ;  and  when  you  have  got  a  good  boat-load  send  a 
small  boat  down  with  them  under  charge  of  a  careful  person, 
and  I  will  pay  the  expenses.  Spare  no  pains  to  get  me  seeds 
and  roots,  and  get  Brother  Eobinson  to  procure  what  he  can 
from  Bhootan  or  other  parts. 

"  Eemember  me  affectionately  to  Sebuk  Earn  and  his  wife, 
and  to  all  the  native  brethren  and  sisters." 

"  5th  February  1810. — Were  you  hunting  the  buffalo,  or 
did  it  charge  you  without  provocation  ?  I  advise  you  to 


202  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1810 

abstain  from  hunting  buffaloes  or  other  animals,  because, 
though  I  think  it  lawful  to  kill  noxious  animals,  or  to  kill 
animals  for  food,  yet  the  unnecessary  killing  of  animals,  and 
especially  the  spending  much  time  in  the  pursuit  of  them,  is 
wrong,  and  your  life  is  too  valuable  to  be  thrown  away  by 
exposing  it  to  such  furious  animals  as  buffaloes  and  tigers. 
If  you  can  kill  them  without  running  any  risk,  'tis  very  well, 
but  it  is  wrong  to  expose  yourself  to  danger  for  an  end  so 
much  below  that  to  which  you  are  devoted.  .  .  . 

"I  believe  the  cause  of  our  Eedeemer  increases  in  the 
earth,  and  look  forward  to  more  decided  appearances  of  divine 
power.  The  destruction  of  the  temporal  power  of  the  Pope 
is  a  glorious  circumstance,  and  an  answer  to  the  prayers  of 
the  Church  for  centuries  past.  .  .  . 

"  I  send  you  a  small  cask  of  rum  to  preserve  curiosities 
in,  and  a  few  bottles ;  but  your  best  way  will  be  to  draw  off 
a  couple  of  gallons  of  the  rum,  which  you  may  keep  for  your 
own  use,  and  then  put  the  snakes,  frogs,  toads,  lizards,  etc., 
into  the  cask,  and  send  them  down.  I  can  easily  put  them 
into  proper  bottles,  etc.,  afterwards.  You  may,  however,  send 
one  or  two  of  the  bottles  filled  with  beetles,  grasshoppers,  and 
other  insects." 

In  the  absence  of  Mr.  Fernandez,  the  pastor,  William 
had  excluded  two  members  of  the  Church. 

"  4th  April  1810. — A  very  little  knowledge  of  human 
nature  will  convince  you  that  this  would  have  been  thought  an 
affront  in  five  instances  out  of  six.  You  would  have  done  better 
to  have  advised  them,  or  even  to  have  required  them  to  have 
kept  from  the  Lord's  table  till  Mr.  Fernandez's  return,  and  to 
have  left  it  to  him  to  preside  over  the  discipline  of  the  church. 
You,  no  doubt,  did  it  without  thinking  of  the  consequences, 
and  in  the  simplicity  of  your  heart,  and  I  think  Mr.  Fernandez 
is  wrong  in  treating  you  with  coolness,  when  a  little  conversa- 
tion might  have  put  everything  to  rights.  Of  that,  however, 


1810  THE  DUTY  OF  EECONCILIATION.  203 

I  shall  say  no  more  to  you,  but  one  of  us  shall  write  to  him 
upon  the  subject  as  soon  as  we  can. 

"The  great  thing  to  be  done  now  is  the  effecting  of  a 
reconciliation  between  you,  and  whether  you  leave  Sadamahal, 
or  stay  there,  this  is  absolutely  necessary.  In  order  to  this 
you  both  must  be  willing  to  make  some  sacrifice  of  your 
feelings  ;  and  as  those  feelings,  which  prevent  either  of  you 
from  making  concessions  where  you  have  acted  amiss,  are 
wrong,  the  sooner  they  are  sacrificed  the  better.  I  advise 
you  to  write  to  Mr.  Fernandez  immediately,  and  acknowledge 
that  you  did  wrong  in  proceeding  to  the  exclusion  of  the 
members  without  having  first  consulted  with  him,  and  state 
that  you  had  no  intention  of  hurting  his  feelings,  but  acted 
from  what  you  thought  the  urgency  of  the  case,  and  request 
of  him  a  cordial  reconciliation.  I  should  like  much  to  see  a 
copy  of  the  letter  you  send  to  him.  I  have  no  object  in  view 
but  the  good  of  the  Church,  and  would  therefore  rather  see 
you  stoop  as  low  as  you  can  to  effect  a  reconciliation,  than 
avoid  it  through  any  little  punctilio  of  honour  or  feeling  of 
pride.  You  will  never  repent  of  having  humbled  yourself 
to  the  dust  that  peace  may  be  restored,  nothing  will  be  a 
more  instructive  example  to  the  heathen  around  you,  nothing 
will  so  completely  subdue  Brother  Fernandez's  dissatisfaction, 
and  nothing  will  make  you  more  respected  in  the  Church 
of  God. 

"  It  is  highly  probable  that  you  will  some  time  or  other  be 
removed  to  another  situation,  but  it  cannot  be  done  till  you 
are  perfectly  reconciled  to  each  other,  nor  can  it  possibly  be 
done  till  some  time  after  your  reconciliation,  as  such  a  step 
would  be  considered  by  all  as  an  effect  of  resentment  or  dis- 
satisfaction, and  would  be  condemned  by  every  thinking 
person.  We  shall  keep  our  minds  steadily  on  the  object,  and 
look  out  for  a  proper  station ;  but  both  we  and  you  must  act 
with  great  caution  and  tenderness  in  this  affair.  For  this 


204  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1811 

reason  also  I  entreat  you  not  to  withdraw  yourself  from  the 
church,  or  from  any  part  of  your  labours,  but  go  on  steadily 
in  the  path  of  duty,  suppress  and  pray  against  every  failing 
of  resentment,  and  bear  anything  rather  than  be  accessory  to 
a  misunderstanding,  or  the  perpetuating  of  one.  '  Let  that 
mind  be  in  you  which  was  also  in  Christ,  who  made  himself 
of  no  reputation.'  I  hope  what  I  have  said  will  induce  you 
to  set  in  earnest  about  a  reconciliation  with  Brother  Fer- 
nandez, and  to  spare  no  pains  or  concession  (consistent  with 
truth)  to  effect  it." 

William  had  applied  to  be  transferred  to  Serampore. 

"  3d  August  1811. — The  necessities  of  the  mission  must 
be  consulted  before  every  other  consideration.  Native 
brethren  can  itinerate,  but  Europeans  must  be  employed 
to  open  new  missions  and  found  new  stations.  For  were 
we  to  go  upon  the  plan  of  sending  Europeans  where  natives 
could  possibly  be  employed,  no  subscriptions  or  profits  could 
support  them.  We  intend  to  commence  a  new  station  at 
Dacca,  and  if  you  prefer  that  to  Cutwa  you  may  go  thither. 
One  of  the  first  things  to  be  done  there  will  be  to  open  a 
charity  school,  and  to  overlook  it.  Dacca  itself  is  a  very 
large  place,  where  you  may  often  communicate  religious 
instructions  without  leaving  the  town.  There  are  also  a 
number  of  Europeans  there,  so  that  Mary  would  not  be  so 
much  alone,  and  at  any  rate  help  would  be  near.  We  can 
obtain  the  permission  of  Government  for  you  to  settle  there, 
and,  in  short,  everything  may  be  so  settled  as  to  give  you  an 
opportunity  of  labouring  for  God  without  the  fear  of  leaving 
your  house  exposed. 

"  I  ought,  however,  to  say  that  I  think  there  is  much  guilt 
in  your  fears.  You  and  Mary  will  be  a  thousand  times  more 
safe  in  committing  yourselves  to  God  in  the  way  of  duty  than 
in  neglecting  obvious  duty  to  take  care  of  yourselves.  You 
see  what  hardships  and  dangers  a  soldier  meets  in  the  wicked 


1811  MISSIONARIES  ARE  SOLDIERS.  205 

trade  of  war.  They  are  forced  to  leave  home  and  expose 
themselves  to  a  thousand  dangers,  yet  they  never  think  of 
objecting,  and  in  this  the  officers  are  in  the  same  situation  as 
the  men.  I  will  engage  to  say  that  no  military  officer  would 
ever  refuse  to  go  any  whither  on  service,  because  his  family 
must  be  exposed  to  danger  in  his  absence ;  and  yet  I  doubt 
not  but  many  of  them  are  men  who  have  great  tenderness  for 
their  wives  and  families.  However,  they  must  be  men  and 
their  wives  must  be  women.  Your  undertaking  is  infinitely 
superior  to  theirs  in  importance.  They  go  to  kill  men,  you 
to  save  them.  If  they  leave  their  families  to  chance  for  the 
sake  of  war,  surely  you  can  leave  yours  to  the  God  of  pro- 
vidence while  you  go  about  His  work.  I  speak  thus  because 
I  am  much  distressed  to  see  you  thus  waste  away  the  flower 
of  your  life  in  inactivity,  and  only  plead  for  it  what  would 
not  excuse  a  child.  Were  you  in  any  secular  employ- 
ment you  must  go  out  quite  as  much  as  we  expect  you  to  do 
in  the  Mission.  I  did  so  when  at  Mudnabati,  which  was 
as  lonesome  a  place  as  could  have  been  thought  of,  and 
when  I  well  knew  that  many  of  our  own  ryots  were  dakoits 
(robbers)." 

William  finally  settled  at  Cutwa  higher  up  the  Hoogli 
than  Serampore,  and  did  good  service  there.  He  suffered 
from  asthma. 

"  23d  March  1814 — In  all  such  cases  have  immediate 
recourse  to  strong  purgatives,  blisters,  etc.,  as  directed  by  Dr. 
Wallich.  You  must  expect  returns  of  these  paroxysms,  but 
be  not  discouraged.  I  trust  a  persevering  use  of  the  means 
prescribed,  joined  to  a  great  deal  more  exercise  than  you  have 
been  accustomed  to,  and  especially  that  cheerful  tranquillity 
which  the  principles  of  the  Gospel  inspire,  will  in  time  be 
effectual  to  remove  or  greatly  weaken  the  disorder.  .  .  . 

"  Let  us  live  near  to  God,  and  seek  His  glory  in  all  we  do, 
and  let  us  be  careful  that  what  we  do  be  right,  and  the  divine 


206  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1812 

blessing  will  attend  us,  God  will  smile  upon  our  labours,  and 
we  shall  have  more  abundant  cause  to  rejoice  in  all  that  He 
does  by  us  and  by  others." 

Thus  far  we  have  confined  our  study  of  William  Carey  to 
his  purely  missionary  career,  and  that  in  its  earlier  half.  We 
have  now  to  see  him  as  the  scholar,  the  Bible  translator,  the 
philanthropist,  the  agriculturist,  and  the  educator. 


CHAPTEK  IX. 

PROFESSOR  OF  SANSKRIT,  BENGALI,  AND  MARATHI. 
1801-1830. 

Carey  the  only  Sanskrit  scholar  in  India  besides  Colebrooke — The  motive  of 
the  missionary  scholar — Plans  translation  of  the  sacred  books  of  the  East 
— Comparative  philology  from  Leibniz  to  Carey — Hindoo  and  Moham- 
medan codes  and  colleges  of  Warren  Hastings — The  Marquis  of  "Wellesley 
— The  College  of  Fort  William  founded — Character  of  the  Company's 
civil  and  military  servants — Curriculum  of  study,  professors  and  teachers 
— The  vernacular  languages  —  Carey's  account  of  the  college  and  his 
appointment — How  he  studied  Sanskrit — College  Disputation  Day  in  the 
new  Government  House — Carey's  Sanskrit  speech — Lord  Wellesley's 
eulogy — Sir  James  Mackintosh  —  Carey's  pundits  —  He  projects  the 
Bibliotheca  Asiatica — On  the  Committee  of  the  Bengal  Asiatic  Society — 
Edition  and  translation  of  the  Ramayana  epic — The  Hitopadesa — His 
Universal  Dictionary — filoge  by  the  Vice-President  of  the  Bengal  Asiatic 
Society — Influence  of  Carey  on  the  civil  and  military  services — W.  B. 
Bayley;  B.  H.  Hodgson;  R.  Jenkins;  R.  M.  and  W.  Bird;  John 
Lawrence. 

WHEN,  in  the  opening  days  of  the  nineteenth  century, 
William  Carey  was  driven  by  the  faithlessness  of  the  English 
Government  to  settle  in  Danish  Serampore,  he  was  the  only 
member  of  the  governing  race  in  North  India  who  knew  the 
language  of  the  people  so  as  to  teach  it,  the  only  scholar  with 
the  exception  of  Colebrooke  who  could  speak  Sanskrit  as 
fluently  as  the  Brahmans.  The  Bengali  language  he  had 
reduced  to  writing  and  made  the  vehicle  of  the  teaching  of 
Christ,  of  the  thought  of  Paul,  of  the  revelation  of  John.  Of 
the  Sanskrit,  hitherto  concealed  from  alien  eyes  or  diluted  only 
through  the  Persian,  he  had  prepared  a  grammar  and  begun 


208  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1802 

a  dictionary,  while  he  had  continually  used  its  great  epics 
in  preaching  to  the  Brahmans  as  Paul  had  quoted  the  Greek 
poets  on  the  Areopagus.  And  all  this  he  had  done  as  the 
missionary  of  Christ  and  the  scholar  afterwards.  Eeporting 
to  Eyland  on  August  1800  the  publication  of  the  Gospels 
and  of  "several  small  pieces"  in  Bengali,  he  excused  his 
irregularity  in  keeping  a  journal,  "  for  in  the  printing  I  have 
to  look  over  the  copy  and  correct  the  press,  which  is  much 
more  laborious  than  it  would  be  in  England,  because  spelling, 
writing,  printing,  etc.,  in  Bengali  is  almost  a  new  thing,  and 
we  have  in  a  manner  to  fix  the  orthography."  A  little  later, 
in  a  letter  to  Sutcliff,  he  used  language  regarding  the  sacred 
books  of  the  Hindoos  which  finds  a  parallel  more  than  eighty 
years  after  in  Professor  Max  Miiller's  preface  to  his  series  of 
the  sacred  books  of  the  East,  the  translation  of  which  Carey 
was  the  first  to  plan  and  to  begin  from  the  highest  of  all 
motives.  Mr.  Max  Miiller  calls  attention  to  the  "  real  mis- 
chief that  has  been  and  is  still  being  done  by  the  enthusiasm 
of  those  pioneers  who  have  opened  the  first  avenues  through 
the  bewildering  forests  of  the  sacred  literature  of  the  East." 
He  declares  that  "Eastern  nations  themselves  would  not 
tolerate,  in  any  of  their  classical  literary  compositions,  such 
violations  of  the  simplest  rules  of  taste  as  they  have  accus- 
tomed themselves  to  tolerate,  if  not  to  admire,  in  their 
sacred  books."  And  he  is  compelled  to  leave  untranslated, 
while  he  apologises  for  them,  the  frequent  allusions  to  the 
sexual  aspects  of  nature,  "  particularly  in  religious  books." 
The  revelations  of  the  Maharaj  trial  in  Bombay  are  the  prac- 
tical fruit  of  all  this. 

"CALCUTTA,  Vlth  March  1802.  —  I  have  been  much 
astonished  lately  at  the  malignity  of  some  of  the  infidel 
opposers  of  the  Gospel,  to  see  how  ready  they  are  to  pick 
every  flaw  they  can  in  the  inspired  writings,  and  even  to 
distort  the  meaning,  that  they  may  make  it  appear  incon- 


1802        PLANS  TRANSLATIONS  OF  THE  VEDA.         209 

sistent ;  while  these  very  persons  will  labour  to  reconcile  the 
grossest  contradictions  in  the  writings  accounted  sacred  by 
the  Hindoos,  and  will  stoop  to  the  meanest  artifices  in  order 
to  apologise  for  the  numerous  glaring  falsehoods,  and  horrid 
violations  of  all  decency  and  decorum,  which  abound  in  almost 
every  page.  Any  thing,  it  seems,  will  do  with  these  men 
but  the  word  of  God.  They  ridicule  the  figurative  language 
of  Scripture,  but  will  run  allegory-mad  in  support  of  the 
most  worthless  productions  that  ever  were  published.  I 
should  think  it  time  lost  to  translate  any  of  them  ;  and  only 
a  sense  of  duty  excites  me  to  read  them.  An  idea,  however, 
of  the  advantage  which  the  friends  of  Christianity  may  ob- 
tain by  having  these  mysterious  sacred  nothings  (which  have 
maintained  their  celebrity  so  long  merely  by  being  kept  from 
the  inspection  of  any  but  interested  Brahmans)  exposed  to 
view,  has  induced  me,  among  other  things,  to  write  the  Sans- 
krit grammar,  and  to  begin  a  dictionary  of  that  language. 
I  sincerely  pity  the  poor  people,  who  are  held  by  the  chains  of 
an  implicit  faith  in  the  grossest  of  lies;  and  can  scarcely  help 
despising  the  wretched  infidel  who  pleads  in  their  favour 
and  tries  to  vindicate  them.  I  have  long  wished  to  obtain 
a  copy  of  the  Veda  ;  and  am  now  in  hopes  I  shall  be  able  to 
procure  all  that  are  extant.  A  Brahman  this  morning  offered 
to  get  them  for  me  for  the  sake  of  money.  If  I  succeed,  I 
shall  be  strongly  tempted  to  publish  them  with  a  translation, 
pro  lono  publico" 

It  was  not  surprising  that  the  Governor-General,  even  if 
he  had  been  less  tolerant  and  enlightened  than  Lord  Wellesley, 
found  in  this  missionary  interloper,  as  the  East  India  Company 
officially  termed  the  class  to  which  he  belonged,  the  only  man 
fit  to  be  Professor  of  Bengali,  Sanskrit,  and  Marathi  in  the 
College  of  Fort  William,  and  that,  till  its  virtual  abolition 
thirty  years  after,  he  held  not  only  this  position  but  that 
of  Translator  of  the  laws  and  regulations  of  the  Government. 


210  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1802 

In  a  memoir  read  before  the  Berlin  Academy  of  Sciences, 
which  he  had  founded  in  the  first  year  of  the  eighteenth 
century,  Leibniz  first  sowed  the  seed 1  of  the  twin  sciences  of 
comparative  philology  and  ethnology,  to  which  we  owe  already 
fruitful  results  of  the  historical  and  critical  school.  That 
century  was  passed  in  the  necessary  collection  of  facts,  of  data. 
Carey  introduced  the  second  period,  so  far  as  the  learned  and 
vernacular  languages  of  North  India  are  concerned — of  develop- 
ing from  the  body  of  facts  which  his  industry  enormously 
extended,  the  principles  upon  which  these  languages  were 
constructed,  besides  applying  these  principles,  in  the  shape  of 
grammars,  dictionaries,  and  translations,  to  the  instruction 
and  Christian  civilisation  alike  of  the  learned  and ,  of  the 
millions  of  the  people.  To  the  last,  as  at  the  first,  he  was 
undoubtedly  only  what  he  called  himself,  a  pioneer  to  pre- 
pare the  way  for  more  successful  civilisers  and  scholars. 
But  his  pioneering  was  acknowledged  by  contemporary2 
and  later  Orientalists,  like  Colebrooke  and  H.  H.  Wilson,  to 
be  of  unexampled  value  in  the  history  of  scientific  research 
and  industry,  while  the  succeeding  pages  will  show  that  in 
its  practical  results  the  pioneering  came  as  nearly  to  victory 
as  is  possible,  until  native  India  lives  its  own  national 
Christian  life. 

When  India  first  became  a  united  British  Empire  under 
one  Governor-General  and  the  Eegulating  Act  of  Parliament 
of  1773,  Warren  Hastings  had  at  once  carried  out  the  provi- 
sion he  himself  had  suggested  for  using  the  moulavies  and 
pundits  in  the  administration  of  Mussulman  and  Hindoo 

1  The  pregnant  language  of  Leibniz  is  "Brevis  designatio  meditationum 
de  originibus  gentium  ductis potissimum  ex  indicia  linguarum." 

2  In  a  criticism  of  the  three  Sanskrit  grammars  of  Carey,  Wilkins,  and 
Colebrooke  the  first  number  of  the  Quarterly  Review  in  1809  pronounces  the 
first  "  every  where  useful  laborious  and  practical.     Mr.  Wilkins  has  also  dis- 
cussed these  subjects,  though  not  always  so  amply  as  the  worthy  and  un- 
wearied missionary.     "We  have  been  much  pleased  with  Dr.    Carey's  very 
sensible  preface." 


1802  THE  MARQUIS  WELLESLEY.  211 

law.  Besides  colleges  in  Calcutta  and  Benares  to  train  such, 
he  caused  those  codes  of  Mohammedan  and  Brahmanical 
law  to  be  prepared  which  afterwards  appeared  as  The 
Hedaya  and  The  Code  of  Gentoo  Laws.  The  last  was  com- 
piled in  Sanskrit  by  pundits  summoned  from  all  Bengal 
and  maintained  in  Calcutta  at  the  public  cost,  each  at  a 
rupee  a  day.  It  was  translated  through  the  Persian,  the 
language  of  the  courts,  by  the  elder  Halhed  into  English  in 
1776.  That  was  the  first  step  in  English  Orientalism.  The 
second  was  taken  by  Sir  William  Jones,  a  predecessor  worthy 
of  Carey,  but  cut  off  all  too  soon  while  still  a  young  man  of 
thirty-four,  when  he  founded  the  Bengal  Asiatic  Society  in 
1784  on  the  model  of  Boyle's  Koyal  Society.  The  code  of 
Warren  Hastings  had  to  be  arranged  and  supplemented  into 
a  reliable  digest  of  the  original  texts,  and  the  translation  of 
this  work,  as  done  by  pundit  Jaganatha,  was  left,  by  the  death 
of  Jones,  to  Colebrooke  who  completed  it  in  1797.  Charles 
Wilkins  had  made  the  first  direct  translation  from  the 
Sanskrit  into  English  in  1785,  when  he  published  in  London 
The  Bhagavat-Geeta  or  Dialogue  of  Krishna  and  Arjoon,  and 
his  is  the  imperishable  honour  thus  chronicled  by  a  contem- 
porary poetaster : — 

"  But  lie  performed  a  yet  more  noble  part, 
He  gave  to  Asia  typographic  art." 

In  Bengali  N.  B.  Halhed  had  printed  at  Hoogli  in  1783,  with 
types  cut  by  Lieutenant  Wilkins,  of  the  Bengal  army,  the 
first  grammar,  but  it  had  become  obsolete  and  was  imperfect. 
Such  had  been  the  tentative  efforts  of  the  civilians  and 
officials  of  the  Company  when  Carey  took  up  or  rather 
began  anew  the  work  from  the  only  secure  foundation,  the 
level  of  daily  sympathetic  intercourse  with  the  people  and 
their  brahmans,  with  the  young  as  well  as  the  old. 

The  Marquis  Wellesley  was  of  nearly  the  same  age  as 
Carey,  whom  he  soon  learned  to  appreciate  at  his  proper 


212  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1798 

value  and  to  use  for  the  highest  good  of  the  empire.     Of  the 
same  name  and  original  English  descent  as  John  and  Charles 
Wesley,  the  Governor-General  was  the  eldest  and  not  the  least 
brilliant  of  the  Irish  family  which,  besides  him,  gave  to  the 
country  the  Duke  of  Wellington  and  Lord  Cowley.     While 
Carey  was  cobbling  shoes  in  an  unknown  hamlet  of  the  Mid- 
lands and  was  aspiring  to  convert  the  world,  young  Wellesley 
was  at  Eton  and  Christ  Church,  Oxford,  acquiring  the  classi- 
cal scholarship  which,  as  we  find  its  fruits  in  his  Primitice 
et  Beliquice,  extorted  the  praise  of  De   Quincey,  and  has 
marked  many  of  our  statesmen  on  both  sides  down  to  Mr. 
Gladstone.     When  Carey  was  starving  in  Calcutta  unknown, 
the  young  lord  was   making  his   mark  in  the   House   of 
Commons  by  a  speech  against  the  Jacobins  of  Erance  in  the 
style  of  Burke.     The  friend  of  Pitt,  he  served  his  apprentice- 
ship to  Indian  affairs  in  the  Board  of  Control,  where  he 
learned  to  fight  the  directors  of  the  East  India  Company, 
and  he  landed  at  Calcutta  in  1798,  just  in  time  to  save  the 
nascent  empire  from  ruin  by  the  second  Mysore  war  and  the 
fall  of  Tipoo  at  Seringapatam.     Like  that  other  marquis  who 
most  closely  resembled  him  half  a  century  after,  the  Scottish 
Dalhousie,  his  hands  were  no  sooner  freed  from  the  uncon- 
genial bonds  of  war  than  he  became  even  more  illustrious 
by  his  devotion  to  the  progress  which  peace  makes  possible. 
He  created  the  College  of  Eort  William,  dating  the  foundation 
of  what  was  fitted  and  intended  to  be  the  greatest  seat  of 
learning  in  the  East  from  the  first  anniversary  of  the  victory 
at  Seringapatam.     So  splendidly  did  he  plan,  so  wisely  did 
he   organise,  and  with   such  lofty  aims  did  he  select  the 
teachers  of  the  college,  that  long  after  his  death  he  won  from 
De  Quincey  the  impartial  eulogy,  that  of  his  three  services  to 
his  country  and  India  this  was  the  "  first,  to  pave  the  way 
for  the  propagation  of  Christianity — mighty  service,  stretch- 
ing to  the  clouds,  and  which  in  the  hour  of  death  must  have 


1798       THE  COMPANY'S  CIVIL  AND  MILITARY  SERVANTS.       213 

given  him  consolation."  Carey's  eulogy  and  Wellesley's 
opinion  of  Carey  we  shall  come  to  in  its  proper  place,  but  it 
is  the  combination  of  the  two  that  gives  these  words  their 
truth. 

When  Wellesley  arrived  at  Calcutta  he  had  been  shocked 
by  the  godless  vice  and  sensual  ignorance  of  the  Company's 
servants.  Sunday  was  universally  given  up  to  horse-racing  and 
gambling.  Boys  of  sixteen  were  removed  from  the  English 
public  schools  where  they  had  hardly  mastered  the  rudiments 
of  education  to  become  the  magistrates,  judges,  revenue  col- 
lectors, and  governors  of  millions  of  natives  recently  brought 
under  British  sway.  At  a  time  when  the  passions  most 
need  regulation  and  the  conscience  training,  these  lads  found 
themselves  in  the  presidency  towns  or  interior  of  India 
with  large  incomes,  nattered  by  native  subordinates,  encour- 
aged by  their  superiors  to  lead  lives  of  dissipation,  and  with- 
out the  moral  control  of  even  the  weakest  public  opinion. 
The  Eton  boy  and  Oxford  man  was  himself  still  young,  and  he 
knew  the  world,  but  he  saw  that  all  this  meant  ruin  to  both 
the  civil  and  military  services,  and  to  the  Company's  system. 
The  directors  themselves,  although  most  guilty  by  their 
jealous  exclusion  of  even  the  suspicion  of  Christianity  from 
India,  addressed  in  a  public  letter,  dated  25th  May  1798, 
"  an  objurgation  on  the  character  and  conduct "  of  their  ser- 
vants. They  re-echoed  the  words  of  the  new  Governor- 
General  in  their  condemnation  of  a  state  of  things  "  highly 
discreditable  to  our  Government,  and  totally  incompatible 
with  the  religion  we  profess."  Such  a  service  as  this  pre- 
ceding the  creation  of  the  college  led  Pitt's  other  friend, 
Wilberforce,  in  the  discussions  on  the  charter  of  1813,  to 
ascribe  to  Lord  Wellesley,  when  summoning  him  to  confirm 
and  revise  it,  the  system  of  diffusing  useful  knowledge  of  all 
sorts  as  the  true  foe  not  only  of  ignorance  but  of  vice  and  of 
political  and  social  decay. 


214  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1800 

Called  upon  by  this  objurgation  to  prevent  the  evils  he 
had  been  the  first  to  denounce  officially,  Lord  Wellesley 
wrote  his  magnificent  state  paper  of  1800,  which  he  simply 
termed  Notes  on  the  necessity  of  a  special  collegiate  training 
of  Civil  Servants.  The  Company's  factories  had  grown  into 
the  Indian  Empire  of  Great  Britain.  The  tradesmen  and 
clerks,  whom  the  Company  still  called  "  writer,"  "factor,"  and 
"  merchant,"  in  their  several  grades,  had,  since  Clive  obtained 
a  military  commission  in  disgust  at  such  duties,  become  the 
judges  and  rulers  of  millions  responsible  to  Parliament. 
They  must  be  educated  in  India  itself,  and  trained  to  be 
equal  to  the  responsibilities  and  temptations  of  their  position. 
If  appointed  by  patronage  at  home  when  still  at  school,  they 
must  be  tested  after  training  in  India  so  that  promotion 
shall  depend  on  degrees  of  merit.  Lord  Wellesley  antici- 
pated the  modified  system  of  competition  which  Macaulay 
offered  to  the  Company  in  1853,  and  the  refusal  of  which  led 
to  the  unrestricted  system  which  has  prevailed  with  varying 
results  since  that  time.  Nor  was  the  college  only  for  the 
young  civilians  as  they  arrived.  Those  already  at  work  were 
to  be  encouraged  to  study.  Military  officers  were  to  be  in- 
vited to  take  advantage  of  an  institution  which  was  intended 
to  be  "  the  university  of  Calcutta,"  "  a  light  amid  the  darkness 
of  Asia,"  and  that  at  a  time  when  in  all  England  there  was 
not  a  military  college.  Finally,  the  college  was  designed  to 
be  a  centre  of  Western  learning  in  an  Eastern  dress  for  the 
natives  of  India  and  Southern  Asia,  alike  as  students  and 
teachers.  A  noble  site  was  marked  out  for  it  on  the  stately 
sweep  of  Garden  Eeach,  where  every  East  Indiaman  dropped 
its  anchor,  and  the  building  was  to  be  worthy  of  the  founder 
who  erected  Government  House. 

The  curriculum  of  study  included  Arabic,  Persian,  and 
Sanskrit ;  Bengali,  Marathi,  Hindostani  or  Hindi,  Telu- 
goo,  Tamil,  and  Kanarese ;  English,  the  Company's,  Moham- 


1800  THE  COLLEGE  OF  FORT  WILLIAM.  215 

medan  and  Hindoo  law,  civil  jurisprudence,  and  the  law  of 
nations ;  ethics  ;  political  economy,  history,  geography,  and 
mathematics ;  the  Greek,  Latin,  and  English  classics,  and  the 
modern  languages  of  Europe ;  the  history  and  antiquities  of 
India;  natural  history,  botany,  chemistry,  and  astronomy. 
The  discipline  was  that  of  the  English  universities  as  they 
then  were,  under  the  Governor- General  himself,  his  col- 
leagues, and  the  appellate  judges.  The  senior  chaplain,  the 
Eev.  David  Brown,  was  provost  in  charge  of  the  discipline ; 
and  Dr.  Claudius  Buchanan  was  vice -provost  in  charge  of 
the  studies,  as  well  as  professor  of  Greek,  Latin,  and  English. 
Dr.  Gilchrist  was  professor  of  Hindostani,  in  teaching  which 
he  had  already  made  a  fortune;  Lieutenant  J.  Baillie,  of 
Arabic  ;  and  Mr.  H.  B.  Edmonstone,  of  Persian.  Sir  George 
Barlow  expounded  the  laws  of  regulations  of  the  British 
Government  in  India.  The  Church  of  England  constitution 
of  the  college  at  first,  to  which  Buchanan  had  applied  the 
English  Test  Act,  and  his  own  modesty,  led  Carey  to  accept 
of  his  appointment,  which  was  thus  gazetted: — "The  Eev. 
William  Carey,  teacher  of  the  Bengali  and  Sanskrit  lan- 
guages." The  other  "teachers"  were  Dr.  Dinwiddie,  of 
mathematics;  Mr.  Du  Plassy,  of  modern  languages;  and 
Mr.  Lumsden,  of  Persian.  Mr.  Eothman  was  secretary. 

The  first  notice  of  the  new  college  which  we  find  in 
Carey's  correspondence  is  this,  in  a  letter  to  Sutcliff  dated 
27th  November  1800  :— "There  is  a  college  erected  at  Fort 
William,  of  which  the  Eev.  D.  Brown  is  appointed  provost, 
and  C.  Buchanan  classical  tutor :  all  the  Eastern  languages 
are  to  be  taught  in  it."  "  All "  the  languages  of  India  were 
to  be  taught,  the  vernacular  as  well  as  the  classical  and  purely 
official.  This  was  a  reform  not  less  radical  and  beneficial  in 
its  far-reaching  influence,  and  not  less  honourable  to  the 
scholarly  foresight  of  Lord  Wellesley,  than  Lord  William 
Bentinck's  new  era  of  the  English  language  thirty-five  years 


216  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1801 

after.  The  rulers  and  administrators  of  the  new  empire  were  to 
begin  their  career  by  a  three  years'  study  of  the  mother  tongue 
of  the  people,  to  whom  justice  was  administered  in  a  language 
foreign  alike  to  them  and  their  governors,  in  the  Persian 
language  of  their  former  Mohammedan  conquerors.  That  all 
the  peoples  of  India,  "  every  man  in  his  own  language,"  might 
hear  and  might  read  the  story  of  what  the  one  true  and 
living  God  had  done  for  us  men  and  our  salvation,  Carey  had 
nine  years  before  given  himself  to  acquire  Bengali  and  the 
Sanskrit  of  which  it  is  one  of  a  numerous  family  of  daughters, 
as  the  tongues  of  the  Latin  nations  of  Europe  and  South 
America  are  the  offspring  of  the  speech  of  Csesar  and  Cicero. 
Now,  following  the  missionary  pioneer,  as  educational,  scien- 
tific, and  even  political  progress  has  ever  since  done  in 
the  India  which  would  have  kept  him  out,  Lord  Wellesley 
decreed  that,  like  the  missionary,  the  administrator  and  even 
the  military  officer  shall  master  the  language  of  the  people. 
The  five  great  vernaculars  of  India  were  accordingly  named, 
and  the  greatest  of  all,  the  Hindi,  which  was  not  scientific- 
ally elaborated  till  long  after,  was  provided  for  under  the 
mixed  dialect  or  lingua  franca  known  as  Hindostani. 

When  Carey  and  his  colleagues  were  congratulating  them- 
selves on  a  reform  which  has  already  proved  as  fruitful  of 
results  as  the  first  century  of  the  Eenaissance  of  Europe,  he 
little  thought,  in  his  modesty,  that  he  would  be  recognised  as 
the  only  man  who  was  fit  to  carry  it  out.  Having  guarded 
the  college,  as  they  thought,  by  a  test,  reactionary  for  India 
like  that  of  the  ecclesiastical  establishment  afterwards,  which 
bound  it  to  the  Church  of  England,  Brown  and  Buchanan 
urged  Carey  to  take  charge  of  the  Bengali  and  Sanskrit 
classes  as  "teacher"  on  Ks.500  a  month  or  £750  a  year. 
Such  an  office  was  entirely  in  the  line  of  the  constitution  of 
the  missionary  brotherhood.  But  would  the  Government 
which  had  banished  it  to  Serampore  recognise  the  aggress- 


1801     APPOINTED  TO  THE  COLLEGE  OF  FORT  WILLIAM.    217 

ively  missionary  character  of  Carey,  who  would  not  degrade 
his  high  calling  by  even  the  suspicion  of  a  compromise  ?  To 
be  called  and  paid  as  a  teacher  rather  than  as  the  professor 
whose  double  work  he  was  asked  to  do,  was  nothing  to  the 
modesty  of  the  scholar  who  pleaded  his  sense  of  unfitness  for 
the  duties.  His  Master,  not  himself,  was  ever  Carey's  first 
and  only  thought,  and  the  full  professorship,  rising  to  £1800 
a  year,  was  soon  conferred  on  the  man  who  proved  himself 
to  be  almost  as  much  the  college  in  his  own  person  as  were 
the  other  professors  put  together.  A  month  after  his  appoint- 
ment he  thus  told  the  story  to  Dr.  Eyland  in  the  course  of 
a  long  letter  devoted  chiefly  to  the  first  native  converts  : — 

"  SERAMPORE,  15th  June  1801.  .  .  .  "We  sent  you  some  time 
ago  a  box  full  of  gods  and  butterflies,  etc.,  and  another  box 
containing  a  hundred  copies  of  the  New  Testament  in  Ben- 
gali. .  .  .  Mr.  Lang  is  studying  Bengali,  under  me,  in  the  col- 
lege. What  I  have  last  mentioned  requires  some  explanation, 
though  you  will  probably  hear  of  it  before  this  reaches  you. 
You  must  know,  then,  that  a  college  was  founded  last  year 
in  Fort  William,  for  the  instruction  of  the  junior  civil  servants 
of  the  Company,  who  are  obliged  to  study  in  it  three  years 
after  their  arrival.  I  always  highly  approved  of  the  institu- 
tion, but  never  entertained  a  thought  that  I  should  be  called 
to  fill  a  station  in  it.  The  Eev.  D.  Brown  is  provost,  and  the 
Eev.  Cladius  Buchanan,  vice-provost ;  and,  to  my  great  sur- 
prise, I  was  asked  to  undertake  the  Bengali  professorship. 
One  morning  a  letter  from  Mr.  Brown  came,  inviting  me  to 
cross  the  water,  to  have  some  conversation  with  him  upon 
this  subject.  I  had  but  just  time  to  call  our  brethren  together, 
who  were  of  opinion  that,  for  several  reasons,  I  ought  to 
accept  it,  provided  it  did  not  interfere  with  the  work  of  the 
mission.  I  also  knew  myself  to  be  incapable  of  filling  such  a 
station  with  reputation  and  propriety.  I,  however,  went 
over,  and  honestly  proposed  all  my  fears  and  objections.  Both 


218  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1801 

Mr.  Brown  and  Mr.  Buchanan  were  of  opinion  that  the  cause 
of  the  mission  would  be  furthered  by  it ;  and  I  was  not  able 
to  reply  to  their  arguments.  I  was  convinced  that  it  might. 
As  to  my  ability  they  could  not  satisfy  me ;  but  they  insisted 
upon  it  that  they  must  be  the  judges  of  that.  I  therefore 
consented,  with  fear  and  trembling.  They  proposed  me  that 
day,  or  the  next,  to  the  Governor- General,  who  is  patron  and 
visitor  of  the  college.  They  told  him  that  I  had  been  a  mis- 
sionary in  the  country  for  seven  years  or  more  ;  and  as  a 
missionary  I  was  appointed  to  the  office.  A  clause  had  been 
inserted  in  the  statutes,  to  accommodate  those  who  are  not  of 
the  Church  of  England  (for  all  professors  are  to  take  certain 
oaths,  and  make  declarations) ;  but,  for  the  accommodation  of 
such,  two  other  names  were  inserted,  viz.  lecturers  and 
teachers,  who  are  not  included  under  that  obligation.  When 
I  was  proposed,  his  lordship  asked  if  I  was  well  affected  to 
the  state,  and  capable  of  fulfilling  the  duties  of  the  station ; 
to  which  Mr.  B.  replied,  that  he  should  never  have  proposed 
me  if  he  had  had  the  smallest  doubt  on  those  heads.  I 
wonder  how  people  can  have  such  favourable  ideas  of  me. 
I  certainly  am  not  disaffected  to  the  state  ;  but  the  other  is 
not  clear  to  me. 

"When  the  appointment  was  made  I  saw  that  I  had 
a  very  important  charge  committed  to  me,  and  no  books 
or  helps  of  any  kind  to  assist  me.  I  therefore  set  about 
compiling  a  grammar,  which  is  now  half  printed.  I  got 
Earn  Basu  to  compose  a  history  of  one  of  their  kings,  the 
first  prose  book  ever  written  in  the  Bengali  language ;  which 
we  are  also  printing.  Our  pundit  has  also  nearly  translated 
the  Sanskrit  fables,  one  or  two  of  which  Brother  Thomas  sent 
you,  which  we  are  also  going  to  publish.  These,  with  Mr. 
Foster's  vocabulary,  will  prepare  the  way  to  reading  their 
poetical  books ;  so  that  I  hope  this  difficulty  will  be  gotten 
through.  But  my  ignorance  of  the  way  of  conducting  colle- 


1801  PROFESSOR  OF  SANSKRIT  AND  BENGALI.  219 

giate  exercises  is  a  great  weight  upon  my  mind.  I  have 
thirteen  students  in  my  class ;  I  lecture  twice  a  week,  and 
have  nearly  gone  through  one  term,  not  quite  two  months. 
It  began  4th  May.  Most  of  the  students  have  gotten  through 
the  accidents,1  and  some  have  begun  to  translate  Bengali 
into  English.  The  examination  begins  this  week.  I  am  also 
appointed  teacher  of  the  Sanskrit  language ;  and  though  no 
students  have  yet  entered  in  that  class,  yet  I  must  prepare 
for  it.  I  am,  therefore,  writing  a  grammar  of  that  language, 
which  I  must  also  print,  if  I  should  be  able  to  get  through 
with  it,  and  perhaps  a  dictionary,  which  I  began  some  years 
ago.  I  say  all  this,  my  dear  brother,  to  induce  you  to  give 
me  your  advice  about  the  best  manner  of  conducting  myself 
in  this  station,  and  to  induce  you  to  pray  much  for  me,  that 
God  may,  in  all  things,  be  glorified  by  me.  We  presented  a 
copy  of  the  Bengali  New  Testament  to  Lord  Wellesley,  after 
the  appointment,  through  the  medium  of  the  Eev.  D.  Brown, 
which  was  graciously  received.  We  also  presented  Governor 
Bie  with  one. 

"  Serampore  is  now  in  the  hands  of  the  English.  It  was 
taken  while  we  were  in  bed  and  asleep ;  you  may  therefore 
suppose  that  it  was  done  without  bloodshed.  You  may  be 
perfectly  easy  about  us  :  we  are  equally  secure  under  the 
English  or  Danish  Government,  and,  I  am  sure,  well  disposed 
to  both." 

For  seven  years,  since  his  first  settlement  in  the  Dinajpoor 
district,  Carey  had  given  one-third  of  his  long  working  day 
to  the  study  of  Sanskrit.  In  1796  he  reported  : — "I  am  now 
learning  the  Sanskrit  language,  that  I  may  be  able  to  read 
their  Shasters  for  myself;  and  I  have  acquired  so  much  of 
the  Hindi  or  Hindostani  as  to  converse  in  it  and  speak  for 
some  time  intelligibly.  .  .  .  Even  the  language  of  Ceylon  has 

1  In  his  almost  perfect  New  English  Dictionary  Dr.  James  A.  H.  Murray 
enters  this  word,  which  stands  for  accidence,  as  obsolete,  but  we  find  it  used 
here  so  late  as  the  beginning  of  the  nineteenth  century. 


220  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1804 

so  much  affinity  with  that  of  Bengal  that  out  of  twelve  words, 
with  the  little  Sanskrit  that  I  know,  I  can  understand  five  or 
six."  In  1798  he  wrote  : — "  I  constantly  employ  the  forenoon 
in  temporal  affairs  ;  the  afternoon  in  reading,  writing,  learn- 
ing Sanskrit,  etc. ;  and  the  evening  by  candle  light  in  translat- 
ing the  Scriptures.  .  .  .  Except  I  go  out  to  preach,  which  is 
often  the  case,  I  never  deviate  from  this  rule."  Three  years 
before  that  he  had  been  able  to  confute  the  Brahmans  from 
their  own  writings;  in  1798  he  quoted  and  translated  the 
Eig  Veda  and  the  Purana  in  reply  to  a  request  for  an  account 
of  the  beliefs  of  the  priesthood,  apologising,  however,  with  his 
usual  self-depreciation  : — "  I  am  just  beginning  to  see  for  my- 
self by  reading  the  original  Shasters."  In  1799  we  find  him 
reading  the  Makabliarata  epic  with  the  hope  of  finding  some 
allusion  or  fact  which  might  enable  him  to  equate  Hindoo 
chronology  with  reliable  history,  as  Dr.  John  Wilson  of  Bom- 
bay and  James  Prinsep  did  a  generation  later,  by  the  discovery 
of  the  name  of  Antiochus  the  Great  in  two  of  the  edicts  of 
Asoka,  written  on  the  Girnar  rock.  In  the  story  of 
Yoodhi  Shtheera,  the  great  Pandoo  king,  the  son  of  the  god  of 
justice,  and  his  invitation  to  the  Eaja-sooya  sacrifice  of  a 
king  who,  he  thought,  might  have  been  the  contemporary 
of  Solomon,  Carey  had  casually  hinted  that  a  solution  might 
be  found.  A  request  from  home  that  he  should  be  more  par- 
ticular in  his  researches  on  that  subject,  led  to  the  curious 
letter  on  page  524  of  vol.  i.  of  the  Periodical  Accounts. 

By  September  1804  Carey  had  completed  the  first  three 
years'  course  of  collegiate  training  in  Sanskrit.  The  Governor- 
General  summoned  a  brilliant  assembly  to  listen  to  the  dis- 
putations and  declamations  of  the  students  who  were  passing 
out,  and  of  their  professors,  in  the  various  Oriental  languages. 
The  New  Government  House,  as  it  was  still  called,  having 
been  completed  only  the  year  before  at  a  cost  of  £140,000, 
was  the  scene,  in  "  the  southern  room  on  the  marble  floor," 


1804  COLLEGE  DISPUTATION  DAY.  221 

where,  ever  since,  all  through  the  century,  the  Sovereign's 
Viceroys  have  received  the  homage  of  the  tributary  kings 
of  our  Indian  empire.  There,  from  Dalhousie  and  Canning 
to  Lawrence  and  Mayo,  and  their  still  surviving  successors, 
we  have  seen  pageants  and  durbars  more  splendid,  and  repre- 
senting a  wider  extent  of  territory,  from  Yarkand  to  Bangkok, 
than  even  the  Sultanised  Englishman,  as  Sir  James  Mackin- 
tosh called  Wellesley,  ever  dreamed  of  in  his  most  imperial 
aspirations.  There  councils  have  ever  since  been  held,  and 
laws  have  been  passed  affecting  the  weal  or  woe  of  from  two 
to  three  hundred  millions  of  our  fellow-subjects.  There,  too, 
we  have  stood  with  Duff  and  Cotton,  Eitchie  and  Outram, 
to  mention  only  the  dead,  representing  the  later  University  of 
Calcutta  which  Wellesley  would  have  long  anticipated.  But 
we  question  if,  ever  since,  the  marble  hall  of  the  Governor- 
General's  palace  has  witnessed  a  sight  more  profoundly  signi- 
ficant than  that  of  William  Carey  addressing  the  Marquis 
Wellesley  in  Sanskrit,  and  in  the  presence  of  the  future  Duke 
of  Wellington,  such  words  as  follow. 

The  seventy  students,  their  governors,  officers,  and  pro- 
fessors, rose  to  their  feet,  when,  at  ten  o'clock  on  Thursday 
the  20th  of  September  1804,  His  Excellency  the  Visitor 
entered  the  room,  accompanied,  as  the  official  gazette l  duly 
chronicles,  by  "  the  Honourable  the  Chief  Justice,  the  judges 
of  the  Supreme  Court,  the  members  of  the  Supreme  Council, 
the  members  of  the  Council  of  the  College,  Major-General 
Cameron,  Major-General  the  Honourable  Arthur  Wellesley, 
Major-General  Dowdeswell,  and  Solyman  Aga,  the  envoy  from 
Baghdad.  All  the  principal  civil  and  military  officers  at  the 
Presidency,  and  many  of  the  British  inhabitants,  were  present 
on  this  occasion  ;  and  also  many  learned  natives." 

After  Eomer,  who  was  to  leave  his  mark  on  Oriental 
scholarship  in  Bombay,  had  defended,  in  Hindostani,  the 

1  Primitias  Orientates,  vol.  iii.,  Calcutta,  1884. 


222  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1804 

thesis  that  the  Sanskrit  is  the  parent  language  in  India,  and 
Swinton,  in  Persian,  that  the  poems  of  Hafiz  are  to  be  under- 
stood in  a  figurative  or  mystical  sense,  there  came  a  Bengali 
declamation  by  Tod  senior  on  the  position  that  the  transla- 
tions of  the  best  works  extant  in  the  Sanskrit  with  the 
popular  languages  of  India  would  promote  the  extension 
of  science  and  civilisation,  opposed  by  Hayes.  Carey,  as 
moderator,  thereupon  made  an  appropriate  Bengali  speech. 
A  similar  disputation  in  Arabic  and  a  Sanskrit  declamation 
followed,  when  Carey  was  called  on  to  conclude  with  a 
speech  in  Sanskrit.  Two  days  after,  at  a  second  assemblage 
of  the  same  kind,  followed  by  a  state  dinner,  Lord  Wellesley 
presented  the  best  students  with  degrees  of  merit  inscribed 
on  vellum  in  Oriental  characters,  and  delivered  an  oration,  in 
which  he  specially  complimented  the  Sanskrit  classes,  urged 
more  general  attention  to  the  Bengali  language,  and  ex- 
pressed satisfaction  that  a  successful  beginning  had  been 
made  in  the  study  of  Marathi. 

It  was  considered  a  dangerous  experiment  for  a  missionary, 
speaking  in  Sanskrit,  to  avow  himself  such  not  only  before 
the  Governor- General  in  official  state  but  before  the  Hindoo 
and  Mohammedan  nobles  who  surrounded  him. 

A  few  months  before,  Dr.  Gilchrist,  sympathising  with 
Carey  in  his  philanthropic  labours,  had  caused  some  excite- 
ment by  assigning  such  theses  as  Caste  and  Sati  "  repugnant 
to  the  natural  feelings  of  mankind  and  inconsistent  with 
moral  duty."  Disregarding  the  indignation  of  the  college 
teachers  he  altogether  outraged  Mohammedan  intolerance 
by  giving  out  this  subject — That  the  natives  of  India  would 
embrace  the  Gospel  as  soon  as  they  were  able  to  compare  the 
Christian  precepts  with  those  of  their  own  books.  Anti- 
Christian  Englishmen  helped  the  leading  Mohammedans  to 
memorialise  Lord  Wellesley,  who  replied  that  he  saw  nothing 
wrong  in  the  thesis,  but  to  allay  Mussulman  fears  he  would 


1804  LORD  WELLESLEY  ON  CAREY.  223 

have  it  changed.  This  had  led  to  Dr.  Gilchrist's  indignant 
resignation  and  return  to  Edinburgh.  After  all  this  we  may 
be  sure  that  Carey  would  not  show  less  of  his  Master's 
charity  and  wisdom  than  he  had  always  striven  to  do.  But 
the  necessity  was  the  more  laid  on  him  that,  as  he  had  told 
Fuller  on  Lord  Wellesley's  arrival  he  would,  do  if  it  were 
possible,  he  should  openly  confess  his  great  calling.  Buchanan, 
being  quite  as  anxious  to  bring  the  mission  forward  on  this 
occasion,  added  much  to  the  English  draft — "  the  whole  of  the 
flattery  is  his,"  wrote  Carey  to  Fuller — and  sent  it  on  to  Lord 
Wellesley  with  apprehension.  This  answer  came  back  from 
the  great  proconsul : — "  I  am  much  pleased  with  Mr.  Carey's 
truly  original  and  excellent  speech.  I  would  not  wish  to 
have  a  word  altered.  I  esteem  such  a  testimony  from  such 
a  man  a  greater  honour  than  the  applause  of  Courts  and 
Parliaments." 

"  MY  LORD,  it  is  just  that  the  language  which  has  been  first 
cultivated  under  your  auspices  should  primarily  be  employed  in 
gratefully  acknowledging  the  benefit,  and  in  speaking  your  praise. 

u  This  ancient  language,  which  refused  to  disclose  itself  to  the 
former  Governors  of  India,  unlocks  its  treasures  at  your  command, 
and  enriches  the  world  with  the  history,  learning,  and  science  of  a 
distant  age. 

"  The  rising  importance  of  our  collegiate  institution  has  never 
been  more  clearly  demonstrated  than  on  the  present  occasion  ;  and 
thousands  of  the  learned  in  distant  nations  will  exult  in  this  triumph, 
of  literature. 

"  What  a  singular  exhibition  has  been  this  day  presented  to  us  ! 
In  presence  of  the  supreme  Governor  of  India,  and  of  its  most  learned 
and  illustrious  characters,  Asiatic  and  European,  an  assembly  is  con- 
vened, in  which  no  word  of  our  native  tongue  is  spoken,  but  public 
discourse  is  maintained  on  interesting  subjects  in  the  languages  of 
Asia.  The  colloquial  Hindostani,  the  classic  Persian,  the  commercial 
Bengali,  the  learned  Arabic,  and  the  primaeval  Sanskrit  are  spoken 
fluently,  after  having  been  studied  grammatically,  by  English  youth. 
Did  ever  any  university  in  Europe,  or  any  literary  institution  in  any 
other  age  or  country,  exhibit  a  scene  so  interesting  as  this  ?  And 


224  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1804 

what  are  the  circumstances  of  these  youth  !  They  are  not  students 
who  prosecute  a  dead  language  with  uncertain  purpose,  impelled  only 
by  natural  genius  or  love  of  fame.  But  having  been  appointed  to  the 
important  offices  of  administering  the  government  of  the  country  in 
which  these  languages  are  spoken,  they  apply  their  acquisitions  im- 
mediately to  useful  purpose  ;  in  distributing  justice  to  the  inhabitants  ; 
in  transacting  the  business  of  the  state,  revenual  and  commercial ;  and 
in  maintaining  official  intercourse  with  the  people,  in  their  own  tongue, 
and  not,  as  hitherto,  by  an  interpreter.  The  acquisitions  of  our 
students  may  be  appreciated  by  their  affording  to  the  suppliant  native 
immediate  access  to  his  principal ;  and  by  their  elucidating  the  spirit 
of  the  regulations  of  our  Government  by  oral  communication,  and  by 
written  explanations,  varied  according  to  the  circumstances  and  capaci- 
ties of  the  people. 

"  The  acquisitions  of  our  students  are  appreciated  at  this  moment 
by  those  learned  Asiatics  now  present  in  this  assembly,  some  of  them 
strangers  from  distant  provinces  ;  who  wonder  every  man  to  hear  in 
his  own  tongue  important  subjects  discussed,  and  new  and  noble 
principles  asserted,  by  the  youth  of  a  foreign  land. 

"  The  literary  proceedings  of  this  day  amply  repay  all  the  solicitude, 
labour,  and  expense  that  have  been  bestowed  on  this  institution.  If  the 
expense  had  been  a  thousand  times  greater,  it  would  not  have  equalled 
the  immensity  of  the  advantage,  moral  and  political,  that  will  ensue. 

"I,  now  an  old  man,  have  lived  for  a  long  series  of  years  among 
the  Hindoos.  I  have  been  in  the  habit  of  preaching  to  multitudes 
daily,  of  discoursing  with  the  Brahmans  on  every  subject,  and  of 
superintending  schools  for  the  instruction  of  the  Hindoo  youth.  Their 
language  is  nearly  as  familiar  to  me  as  my  own.  This  close  inter- 
course with  the  natives  for  so  long  a  period,  and  in  different  parts  of 
our  empire,  has  afforded  me  opportunities  of  information  not  inferior 
to  those  which  have  hitherto  been  presented  to  any  other  person.  I 
may  say  indeed  that  their  manners,  customs,  habits,  and  sentiments 
are  as  obvious  to  me  as  if  I  was  myself  a  native.  And  knowing  them 
as  I  do,  and  hearing  as  I  do  their  daily  observations  on  our  govern- 
ment, character,  and  principles,  I  am  warranted  to  say  (and  I  deem  it 
my  duty  to  embrace  the  public  opportunity  now  afforded  me  of  saying 
it)  that  the  institution  of  this  college  was  wanting  to  complete  the 
happiness  of  the  natives  under  our  dominion  ;  for  this  institution  will 
break  down  that  barrier  (our  ignorance  of  their  language)  which  has 
ever  opposed  the  influence  of  our  laws  and  principles,  and  has  despoiled 
our  administration  of  its  energy  and  effect. 


1804  CAEEY  ON  LORD  WELLESLEY.  225 

"Were  the  institution  to  cease  from  this  moment,  its  salutary 
effects  would  yet  remain.  Good  has  been  done,  which  cannot  be 
undone.  Sources  of  useful  knowledge,  moral  instruction,  and  political 
utility  have  been  opened  to  the  natives  of  India  which  can  never  be 
closed  ;  and  their  civil  improvement,  like  the  gradual  civilisation  of 
our  own  country,  will  advance  in  progression  for  ages  to  come. 

"  One  hundred  original  volumes  in  the  Oriental  languages  and 
literature  will  preserve  for  ever  in  Asia  the  name  of  the  founder  of 
this  institution.  Nor  are  the  examples  frequent  of  a  renown,  possessing 
such  utility  for  its  basis,  or  pervading  such  a  vast  portion  of  the 
habitable  globe.  My  lord,  you  have  raised  a  monument  of  fame 
which  no  length  of  time  or  reverse  of  fortune  is  able  to  destroy  ;  not 
chiefly  because  it  is  inscribed  with  Maratha  and  Mysore,  with  the 
trophies  of  war  and  the  emblems  of  victory,  but  because  there  are 
inscribed  on  it  the  names  of  those  learned  youth  who  have  obtained 
degrees  of  honour  for  high  proficiency  in  the  Oriental  tongues. 

"  These  youth  will  rise  in  regular  succession  to  the  Government  of 
this  country.  They  will  extend  the  domain  of  British  civilisation, 
security,  and  happiness,  by  enlarging  the  bounds  of  Oriental  literature 
and  thereby  diffusing  the  spirit  of  Christian  principles  throughout  the 
nations  of  Asia.  These  youth,  who  have  lived  so  long  amongst  us, 
whose  unwearied  application  to  their  studies  we  have  all  witnessed, 
whose  moral  and  exemplary  conduct  has,  in  so  solemn  a  manner, 
been  publicly  declared  before  this  august  assembly,  on  this  day  ; 
and  who,  at  the  moment  of  entering  on  the  public  service,  enjoy  the 
fame  of  possessing  qualities  (rarely  combined)  constituting  a  reputation 
of  threefold  strength  for  public  men,  genius,  industry,  and  virtue  ; 
these  illustrious  scholars,  my  lord,  the  pride  of  their  country,  and  the 
pillars  of  this  empire,  will  record  your  name  in  many  a  language  and 
secure  your  fame  for  ever.  Your  fame  is  already  recorded  in  their 
hearts.  The  whole  body  of  youth  of  this  service  hail  you  as  their 
father  and  their  friend.  Your  honour  will  ever  be  safe  in  their  hands. 
No  revolution  of  opinion  or  change  of  circumstances  can  rob  you  of 
the  solid  glory  derived  from  the  humane,  just,  liberal,  and  magnanimous 
principles  which  have  been  embodied  by  your  administration. 

"  To  whatever  situation  the  course  of  future  events  may  call  you, 
the  youth  of  this  service  will  ever  remain  the  pledges  of  the  wisdom 
and  purity  of  your  government.  Your  evening  of  life  will  be  con- 
stantly cheered  with  new  testimonies  of  their  reverence  and  affection, 
with  new  proofs  of  the  advantages  of  the  education  you  have  afforded 
them,  and  with  a  demonstration  of  the  numerous  benefits,  moral, 

Q 


226  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1805 

religious,  and  political,  resulting  from  this  institution  ; — benefits  which 
will  consolidate  the  happiness  of  millions  in  Asia,  with  the  glory  and 
welfare  of  our  country." 

The  Court  of  Directors  had  never  liked  Lord  Wellesley, 
and  he  had,  in  common  with  Colebrooke,  the  Orientalist, 
keenly  wounded  them  by  proposing  a  free  trade  movement 
against  their  monopoly.  They  took  their  revenge  in  an  order 
that  his  favourite  college  should  be  immediately  abolished. 
He  took  good  care  so  to  protract  the  operation  as  to  give  him 
time  to  call  in  the  aid  of  the  Board  of  Control,  which  saved 
the  institution,  but  confined  it  to  the  teaching  of  languages 
to  the  civilians  of  the  Bengal  Presidency  only.  The  Directors, 
when  thus  overruled  chiefly  by  Pitt,  created  a  similar  college 
at  Haileybury,  which  continued  till  the  open  competitive 
system  of  1854  swept  that  also  away;  and  the  Company 
itself  soon  followed,  as  the  march  of  events  had  made  it  an 
anachronism. 

The  first  law  professor  at  Haileybury  was  James  Mackin- 
tosh, an  Aberdeen  student  who  had  leaped  into  the  front 
rank  of  publicists  and  scholars  by  his  answer  to  Burke,  in  the 
Vindicice  G-allicce,  and  his  famous  defence  of  M.  Peltier 
accused  of  a  libel  on  Napoleon  Buonaparte.  Knighted  and 
sent  out  to  Bombay  as  its  first  recorder,  Sir  James  Mackin- 
tosh became  the  centre  of  scholarly  society  in  Western  India, 
as  Sir  William  Jones  had  been  in  Bengal.  He  was  the 
friend  of  Eobert  Hall,  the  younger,  who  was  filling  Carey's 
pulpit  in  Leicester,  and  he  soon  became  the  admiring  corre- 
spondent of  Carey  himself.  His  first  act  during  his  seven 
years'  residence  in  Bombay  was  to  establish  the  "  Literary 
Society"  in  his  own  residence,  Parell,  since  that  time  the 
Government  House  of  the  province.  He  drew  up  a  "  Plan 
of  a  comparative  vocabulary  of  Indian  languages,"  to  be  filled 
up  by  the  officials  of  every  district,  like  that  which  Carey  had 
long  been  elaborating  for  his  own  use  as  a  philologist  and 


1805  PROJECTS  A  "  BIBLIOTHECA  ASIATICA."  227 

Bible  translator.  In  his  first  address  to  the  Literary  Society 
he  thus  eulogised  the  College  of  Fort  William,  though  fresh 
from  a  chair  in  its  English  rival,  Haileybury  : — "  The  original 
plan  was  the  most  magnificent  attempt  ever  made  for  the 
promotion  of  learning  in  the  East.  .  .  .  Even  in  its  present 
mutilated  state  we  have  seen,  at  the  last  public  exhibition, 
Sanskrit  declamation  by  English  youth,  a  circumstance  so 
extraordinary,  that  if  it  be  followed  by  suitable  advances  it 
will  mark  an  epoch  in  the  history  of  learning." 

Carey  continued  till  1831  to  be  the  most  notable  figure  in 
the  College  of  Fort  William.  He  was  the  centre  of  the  learned 
natives  whom  it  attracted,  as  pundits  and  moonshees,  as  in- 
quirers and  visitors.  His  own  special  pundit  was  the  chief 
one,  Mrityunjaya  Vidyalankar,  whom  Home  has  immortalised 
in  Carey's  portrait.  In  the  college  for  more  than  half  the 
week,  as  in  his  study  at  Serampore,  Carey  exhausted  three 
pundits  daily.  His  college-room  was  the  centre  of  an  inces- 
sant literary  work,  as  his  Serampore  study  was  of  Bible  trans- 
lation. When  he  declared  that  the  college  staff  had  sent  forth 
one  hundred  original  volumes  in  the  Oriental  languages  and 
literature,  he  referred  to  the  grammars  and  dictionaries,  the 
reading-books,  compilations,  and  editions  prepared  for  the 
students  by  the  professors  and  their  native  assistants.  But 
he  contributed  the  largest  share,  and  of  all  his  contribu- 
tions the  most  laborious  and  valuable  was  this  project  of 
Bibliotheca  Asiatica. 

"  July  24:th,  1805. — By  the  enclosed  Gazette  you  will  see 
that  the  Asiatic  Society  and  the  College  have  agreed  to  allow 
us  a  yearly  stipend  for  translating  Sanskrit  works  :  this  will 
maintain  three  missionary  stations,  and  we  intend  to  apply  it 
to  that  purpose.  An  augmentation  of  my  salary  has  been 
warmly  recommended  by  the  College  Council,  but  has  not  yet 
taken  place,  and  as  Lord  Cornwallis  is  now  arrived  and  Lord 
Wellesley  going  away,  it  may  not  take  place.  If  it  should,  it 


228  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1807 

will  be  a  further  assistance.  The  business  of  the  translation 
of  Sanskrit  works  is  as  follows :  About  two  years  ago  I 
presented  proposals  (to  the  Council  of  the  College)  to  print 
the  Sanskrit  books  at  a  fixed  price,  with  a  certain  indemnity 
for  100  copies.  The  plan  was  thought  too  extensive  by  some, 
and  was  therefore  laid  by.  A  few  months  ago  Dr.  Francis 
Buchanan  came  to  me  by  desire  of  Marquis  Wellesley  about 
the  translation  of  his  manuscripts.  In  the  course  of  conver- 
sation I  mentioned  the  proposal  I  had  made,  of  which  he 
much  approved,  and  immediately  communicated  the  matter 
to  Sir  John  Anstruther,  who  is  president  of  the  Asiatic 
Society.  Sir  John  had  then  been  drawing  out  a  proposal  to 
Lord  Wellesley  to  form  a  catalogue  raisonnb  of  the  ancient 
Hindoo  books,  which  he  sent  to  me,  and  entering  warmly  into 
my  plan,  desired  that  I  would  send  in  a  set  of  proposals. 
After  some  amendments  it  was  agreed  that  the  College  of 
Fort  William  and  the  Asiatic  Society  should  subscribe  in  equal 
shares  300  rupees  a  month  to  defray  the  current  expenses, 
that  we  should  undertake  any  work  approved  of  by  them, 
and  print  the  original  with  an  English  translation  on  such 
paper  and  with  such  a  type  as  they  shall  approve ;  the  copy 
to  be  ours.  They  have  agreed  to  recommend  the  work  to  all 
the  learned  bodies  in  Europe.  I  have  recommended  the  Eama- 
yana  to  begin  with,  it  being  one  of  the  most  popular  of  all  the 
Hindoo  books  accounted  sacred.  The  Veda  are  so  excessively 
insipid  that,  had  we  begun  with  them,  we  should  have  sickened 
the  public  at  the  outset.  The  Eamayana  will  furnish  the 
best  account  of  Hindoo  mythology  that  any  one  book  will, 
and  has  extravagancy  enough  to  excite  a  wish  to  read  it 
through." 

In  1807  Carey  became  one  of  the  most  active  members  of 
the  Bengal  Asiatic  Society.  His  name  at  once  appears  as  one 
of  the  Committee  of  Papers  along  with  those  of  the  patrons, 
Sir  George  Barlow,  then  acting  as  Governor- General,  Lord 


1807  TRANSLATION  OF  THE  RAMAYAN  EPIC.  229 

Lake,  the  commander-in-chief,  and  Colebrooke,  the  president. 
In  the  ninth  volume  of  the  Asiatic  Researches,  for  that  year, 
there  appears  for  the  first  time  the  announcement  that  the 
Society's  original  rule  refusing  to  publish  "  mere  translations 
of  considerable  length"  had  been  abrogated,  and  scholars 
were  invited  to  communicate  translations  and  descriptive 
accounts  of  Asiatic  books.  Carey's  edition  of  The  Eamayana 
of  ValmeeTci,  in  the  original  Sanskrit,  with  a  prose  translation 
and  explanatory  notes,  appeared  from  the  Serampore  press 
in  three  successive  quartos  from  1806  to  1810.  A  fourth 
volume  was  consumed  in  the  great  fire  which  destroyed  the 
printing-office  and  press  in  1813,1  and  was  never  published. 
The  translation  was  done  by  "  Dr.  Carey  and  Joshua  Marsh- 
man."  Until  Gorresio  published  his  edition  and  Italian  trans- 
lation of  the  whole  poem  this  was  the  first  and  only  attempt 
to  open  the  seal  of  the  second  great  Sanskrit  epic  to  the 
European  world.  In  1802  Carey  had  encouraged  the  publica- 
tion at  his  own  press  of  translations  of  both  the  Mahabharata 
and  the  Eamayana  into  Bengali.  Carey's  Eamayana  excited 
a  keen  interest  not  only  among  the  learned  of  Europe  but 
among  poetical  students.  Southey  eagerly  turned  to  it  for 
materials  for  his  Curse  of  Kehama,  in  the  notes  to  which  he 
makes  long  quotations  from  "  the  excellent  and  learned  Baptist 
missionaries  of  Serampore."  The  late  Dean  Milrnan,  when 
professor  of  poetry  in  Oxford,  drew  from  the  same  storehouse 
many  of  the  notes  with  which  he  enriched  his  verse  transla- 
tions from  both  epics.  Of  the  four  recensions  of  the  text  of 
the  Eamayana  Weber  writes  that  Gorresio  follows  that  of 
Bengal,  published  by  Carey.  A.  W.  von  Schlegel,  the  death 
of  whose  eldest  brother  at  Madras  early  led  him  to  Oriental 
studies,  published  two  books  of  the  Benares  recension  with  a 

1  Thirty  years  after,  on  clearing  out  the  store-room  of  the  press  which 
succeeded  that  of  1813,  we  found  imperfect  proofs  of  the  fourth  volume,  and 
made  them  over  to  Mr.  J.  Talboys  Wheeler  for  his  History  of  India  from  the 
Earliest  Ages. 


230  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1807 

Latin  translation.1  Mr.  Balph  T.  H.  Griffith  has  most  fully 
and  pleasantly  opened  the  treasures  of  this  epic  to  English 
readers  in  his  verse  translations  which  he  has  published  from 
time  to  time  since  1868.  Carey's  translation  has  always  been 
the  more  rare  that  the  edition  despatched  for  sale  in  England 
was  lost  at  sea,  and  only  a  few  presentation  copies  are  extant, 
one  of  which  is  in  the  British  Museum. 

Carey's  contributions  to  Sanskrit  scholarship  were  not 
confined  to  what  he  published  or  to  what  appeared  under  his 
own*  name.  We  are  told  by  H.  H.  Wilson  that  he  had  pre- 
pared for  the  press  translations  of  treatises  on  the  metaphysical 
system  called  Sankhya.  "  It  was  not  in  Dr.  Carey's  nature  to 
volunteer  a  display  of  his  erudition,  and  the  literary  labours 
already  adverted  to  arose  in  a  great  measure  out  of  his  con- 
nection with  the  college  of  Calcutta,  or  were  suggested  to 
him  by  those  whose  authority  he  respected,  and  to  whose 
wishes  he  thought  it  incumbent  upon  him  to  attend.  It 
may  be  added  that  Dr.  Carey  spoke  Sanskrit  with  fluency 
and  correctness." 

He  edited  for  the  college  the  Sanskrit  text  of  the  Hito- 
padesa,  from  six  MSS.  recensions  of  this  the  first  revelation 
to  Europe  of  the  fountain  of  Aryan  folk-tales,  of  the  original 
of  Pilpay's  Fables.  H.  H.  Wilson  remarks  that  the  errors 
are  not  more  than  might  have  been  expected  from  the  varia- 
tions and  defects  of  the  manuscripts  and  the  novelty  of  the 
task,  for  this  was  the  first  Sanskrit  book  ever  printed  in 
the  Devanagari  character.  To  this  famous  work  Carey  added 
an  abridgment  of  the  prose  Adventures  of  Ten  Princes  (the 
Dasa  Kumara  Carita),  and  of  Bhartri-hari's  Apothegms.2 
Colebrooke  records  his  debt  to  Carey  for  carrying  through  the 
Serampore  press  during  five  long  years  from  1802  to  1807  the 
Sanskrit  dictionary  of  Amara  Sinha,  the  oldest  native  lexi- 

1  Mr.  Gust's  article  in  the  Calcutta  Review,  vol.  xxiv.  (1854),  republished 
in  his  Essays  (1880),  gives  the  best  popular  account  of  the  Ramayana. 

2  See  Indian  Wisdom,  by  Prof.  Monier  Williams,  p.  508. 


1811  THE  BENGAL  ASIATIC  SOCIETY.  231 

cographer,  with  an  English  interpretation  and  annotations. 
But  the  magnum  opus  of  Carey  was  what  in  1811  he  described 
as  A  Universal  Dictionary  of  the  Oriental  Languages,  derived 
from  the  Sanskrit,  of  which  that  language  is  to  be  the  ground- 
work. The  object  for  which  he  had  been  long  collecting  the 
materials  of  this  mighty  work  was  the  assisting  of  "  Biblical 
students  to  correct  the  translation  of  the  Bible  in  the  Oriental 
languages  after  we  are  dead,"  an  undertaking  of  which  we 
shall  write  in  the  next  chapter. 

For  twenty-eight  years  Carey  continued  to  be  one  of  the 
most  active  members  of  the  Bengal  Asiatic  Society.  He 
rarely  missed  a  meeting  for  twenty-six  of  these  years,  and  he 
continued  an  indefatigable  and  zealous  member  of  the  Com- 
mittee of  Papers.  His  contributions  to  its  researches  and 
proceedings  we  shall  deal  with  when  we  come  to  his  services 
to  science.  It  was  in  language  like  this  that  Daniel  Wilson, 
the  ablest  of  all  the  Calcutta  bishops  after  the  first,  spoke  of 
Carey  from  the  chair  of  the  vice-president  of  the  Society  on 
the  2d  July  1834  :— 

"His  Bengali,  Marathi,  Telinga,  and  Panjabi  dictionaries  and  gram- 
mars, his  translation  of  a  portion  of  the  Ramdyana,  and  other  works, 
are  on  our  shelves,  to  testify  the  extent  of  his  learning  as  an  Oriental 
scholar.  It  is  well  known  that  he  prepared  some  time  ago  an  elaborate 
dictionary  of  the  Sanskrit  language,  the  manuscripts  of  which,  and 
a  considerable  portion  of  the  work  already  printed  off,  the  result  of 
many  years'  intense  labour  and  study,  was  destroyed  by  the  fire  which 
burnt  down  the  Serampore  premises.  He  had  also  been  of  great  assist- 
ance, as  the  author  testified,  in  the  editing  of  Baboo  Ram  Komal  Sen's 
Anglo-Bengali  dictionary.  .  .  .  During  forty  years  of  a  laborious  and 
useful  life  in  India,  dedicated  to  the  highest  objects  which  can  engage 
the  mind — indefatigable  in  his  sacred  vocation,  active  in  benevolence, 
yet  finding  time  to  master  the  languages  and  the  learning  of  the  East, 
and  to  be  the  founder,  as  it  were,  of  printing  in  these  languages,  he 
contributed  by  his  researches  and  his  publications  to  exalt  and  promote 
the  objects  for  which  the  Asiatic  Society  was  instituted.  The  close  of 
his  venerable  career  should  not  therefore  pass  without  a  suitable  record 
of  the  worth  and  esteem  in  which  his  memory  was  held  ;  and  his  lord- 


232  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1804-34 

ship  begged  to  move  that  the  following  minute  be  entered  on  the 
journals  of  the  Society  :  it  was  seconded  by  Colonel  Sir  Jer.  Bryant, 
and  carried  unanimously  : — *  The  Asiatic  Society  cannot  note  upon 
their  proceedings  the  death  of  the  Kev.  William  Carey,  D.D.,  so  long 
an  active  member  and  an  ornament  of  this  institution,  distinguished 
alike  for  his  high  attainments  in  the  Oriental  languages,  for  his  eminent 
services  in  opening  the  store  of  Indian  literature  to  the  knowledge  of 
Europe,  and  for  his  extensive  acquaintance  with  the  sciences,  the 
natural  history,  and  botany  of  this  country,  and  his  useful  contributions 
in  every  branch  towards  the  promotion  of  the  objects  of  the  Society, 
without  placing  on  record  this  expression  of  their  high  sense  of  his 
value  and  merits  as  a  scholar  and  a  man  of  science,  their  esteem  for 
the  sterling  and  surpassing  religious  and  moral  excellencies  of  his 
character,  and  their  sincere  grief  for  his  irreparable  loss.' " 

Through  the  College  of  Fort  William  during  thirty  long 
years  Carey  influenced  the  ablest  men  in  the  Bengal  Civil 
Service,  and  not  a  few  in  Madras  and  Bombay.  "  The  college 
must  stand  or  the  empire  must  fall,"  its  founder  had  written 
to  his  friends  in  the  Government,  so  convinced  was  he  that 
only  thus  could  proper  men  be  trained  for  the  public  service 
and  the  welfare  of  our  native  subjects  be  secured.  How  right 
he  was  Carey's  experience  proved.  The  young  civilians 
turned  out  after  the  first  three  years'  course  introduced  that 
new  era  in  the  administration  of  India  which  has  converted 
traders  into  statesmen  and  filibusters  into  soldier-politicals, 
so  that  the  East  Indian  services  stand  alone  in  the  his- 
tory of  the  administration  of  imperial  dependencies  for 
spotless  integrity  and  high  average  ability.  Contrast  with 
the  work  of  these  men,  from  the  days  of  Wellesley,  Hastings, 
and  Dalhousie,  from  the  time  of  Canning  to  Lawrence  and 
Dufferin,  the  provincial  administration  of  imperial  Eome,  of 
Spain  and  Portugal  at  their  best,  of  even  the  Netherlands  and 
France.  For  a  whole  generation  of  thirty  years  the  civilians 
who  studied  Sanskrit,  Bengali,  and  Marathi  came  daily 
under  the  gentle  spell  of  Carey,  who,  though  he  had  failed  to 
keep  the  village  school  of  Moulton  in  order,  manifested  the 


1804-34  MEN  INFLUENCED  BY  CAREY.  233 

learning  and  the  modesty,  the  efficiency  and  the  geniality, 
which  won  the  affectionate  admiration  of  his  students  in 
Calcutta.  We  have  seen  how  he  had  drawn  to  the  higher 
life  a  judge  like  Cunningham  of  Lainshaw,  and  a  youth  like 
Lang.  A  glance  at  the  register  of  the  college  for  its  first  five 
years  reveals  such  men  as  these  among  his  best  students. 

The  first  Bengali  prizeman  of  Carey  was  W.  Butterworth 
Bayley,  whose  long  career  of  blameless  uprightness  and 
marked  ability  culminated  in  the  temporary  seat  of  Governor- 
General,  and  who  was  followed  in  the  service  by  a  son 
worthy  of  him.  The  second  was  that  Brian  H.  Hodgson 
who,  when  Eesident  of  Nepal,  of  all  his  contemporaries 
won  for  himself  the  greatest  reputation  as  a  scholar,  who 
fought  side  by  side  with  the  Serampore  brotherhood  the 
battle  of  the  vernaculars  of  the  people,  and  who  still 
rejoices  in  a  green  old  age.  Charles,  afterwards  Lord  Met- 
calfe  had  been  the  first  student  to  enter  the  college.  He 
was  on  its  Persian  side,  and  he  learned  while  still  under 
its  discipline  that  "  humility,  patience,  and  obedience  to  the 
divine  will"  which  unostentatiously  marked  his  brilliant 
life  and  soothed  his  spirit  in  the  agonies  of  a  fatal  disease. 
He  and  Bayley  were  inseparable.  Of  the  first  set,  too,  were 
Richard  Jenkins,  who  was  to  leave  his  mark  on  history  as  Nag- 
poor  Eesident  and  author  of  the  Eeport  of  1826  ;  and  Eorner, 
who  rose  to  be  Governor  of  Bombay  for  a  time.  In  those 
early  years  the  two  Birds  passed  through  the  classes — Eobert 
Mertins  Bird,  who  was  to  found  the  great  land  revenue  school 
of  Hindostan;  and  Wilberforce  Bird,  who  governed  India 
while  Lord  Ellenborough  played  at  soldiers,  and  to  whom  the 
legal  suppression  of  slavery  in  Southern  Asia  is  due.  Names 
of  men  second  to  those,  such  as  Elliot  and  Thackeray,  Hamil- 
ton and  Martin,  the  Shakespeares  and  Plowdens,  the  Moneys, 
the  Eosses  and  Keenes,  crowd  the  honour  lists.  One  of  the 
last  to  enjoy  the  advantages  of  the  college  before  its  abolition 


234  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1804-34 

was  John  Lawrence,  who  used  to  confess  that  he  was  never 
good  at  languages,  but  whose  vigorous  Hindostani  made 
many  an  ill-doing  Eaja  and  Nawab  tremble,  while  his  homely 
and  kindly  conversation,  interspersed  with  jokes,  cheered  and 
encouraged  the  toiling  ryot. 

These,  and  men  like  these,  sat  at  the  feet  of  Carey,  where 
they  learned  not  only  to  be  scholars  but  to  treat  the  natives 
kindly,  and — some  of  them — even  as  brethren  in  Christ.  Then 
from  teaching  the  future  rulers  of  the  East,  the  missionary- 
professor  turned  to  his  Bengali  preaching  and  his  benevolent 
institution,  to  his  visits  to  the  prisoners  and  his  intercourse 
with  the  British  soldiers  in  Fort  William.  And  when  the 
three  days'  work  in  Calcutta  was  over,  the  last  tide  bore 
him  swiftly  up  the  Hoogli  to  the  study  where,  for  the  rest  of 
the  week,  he  gave  himself  to  the  translation  of  the  Bible  into 
the  languages  of  the  people  and  of  their  leaders. 


CHAPTER  X. 

THE  WICLIF  OF  THE  EAST— BIBLE  TRANSLATION. 
1801-1832. 

The  Bible  Carey's  missionary  weapon — Other  vernacular  translators — Carey's 
modest  but  just  description  of  his  labours — His  philological  key — Type- 
cutting  and  type-casting  by  a  Hindoo  blacksmith — The  first  manufacture 
of  paper  and  steam-engine  in  the  East — First  printer's  bill  for  six  years' 
translations — Carey  takes  stock  of  the  translation  work  at  the  opening  of 
1808 — In  his  workshop — A  seminary  of  Bible  translators — William  Yates, 
shoemaker,  the  Coverdale  of  the  Bengali  Bible — "Wenger — A  Bengali 
Luther  wanted — Carey's  Bengali  Bible — How  the  New  Testament  was 
printed — The  first  copy  offered  to  God — Eeception  of  the  volume  by  Lord 
Spencer  and  George  III. — Self-evidencing  power  of  the  first  edition — The 
Bible  in  Ooriya — In  Maghadi,  Assamese,  Khasi,  and  Manipoori — Mara- 
thi,  Konkani,  and  Goojarati  versions — The  translation  into  Hindi  and 
its  many  dialects — The  Dravidian  translations — Tale  of  the  Pushtoo  Bible 
— The  Sikhs  and  the  Bible — The  first  Burman  version  and  press — 
The  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society— William  Key's  help— Deaths, 
earthquake,  and  fire  in  1812  —  Destruction  of  the  press  —  Thomason's 
description  of  the  smoking  ruins — Carey's  heroism  as  to  his  manuscripts 
— Enthusiastic  sympathy  of  India  and  Christendom — The  phoenix  and 
its  feathers. 

EVERY  great  reform  and  revolution  in  the  world  has  been,  in 
the  first  instance,  the  work  of  one  man,  who,  however  much 
he  may  have  been  the  product  or  representative  of  his  time, 
has  alone  conceived  and  alone  begun  to  execute  the  move- 
ment which  has  transformed  society.  This  is  true  alike  of 
the  moral  and  the  physical  forces  of  history,  of  contempor- 
aries so  apparently  opposite  in  character  and  aims  as  Carey 
and  Clarkson  on  the  one  side  and  Napoleon  and  Wellington 
on  the  other.  Carey  stood  alone  in  his  persistent  determina- 


236  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1804 

tion  that  the  Church  should  evangelise  the  world.  He  was 
no  less  singular  in  the  means  which  he  insisted  on  as  the 
first  essential  condition  of  its  evangelisation — the  vernacular 
translation  of  the  Bible.  From  the  Scriptures  alone,  while 
yet  a  journeyman  shoemaker  of  eighteen,  "  he  had  formed  his 
own  system,"  and  had  been  filled  with  the  divine  missionary 
idea.  That  was  a  year  before  the  first  Bible  Society  was 
formed  in  1780  to  circulate  the  English  Bible  among  soldiers 
and  sailors,  and  a  quarter  of  a  century  before  his  own  suc- 
cess led  to  the  formation  in  1804  of  the  British  and  Foreign 
Bible  Society.  From  the  time  of  his  youth,  when  he  realised 
the  self -evidencing  power  of  the  Bible,  Carey's  unbroken 
habit  was  to  begin  every  morning  by  reading  one  chapter  of 
the  Bible,  first  in  English,  and  then  in  each  of  the  languages, 
soon  numbering  six,  which  he  had  himself  learned. 

Hence  the  translation  of  the  Bible  into  all  the  languages 
and  principal  dialects  of  India  and  Eastern  Asia  was  the 
work  above  all  others  to  which  Carey  set  himself  from  the 
time,  in  1793,  when  he  mastered  the  Bengali.  He  preached, 
he  taught,  he  "  discipled  "  in  every  form  then  reasonable  and 
possible,  and  in  the  fullest  sense  of  his  Master's  missionary 
charge.  But  the  one  form  of  most  pressing  and  abiding  im- 
portance, the  condition  without  which  neither  true  faith,  nor 
true  science,  nor  true  civilisation  could  exist  or  be  propagated 
outside  of  the  narrow  circle  to  be  reached  by  the  one  herald's 
voice,  was  the  publishing  of  the  divine  message  in  the  mother 
tongues  of  the  millions  of  Asiatic  men  and  women,  boys  and 
girls,  and  in  the  learned  tongues  also  of  their  leaders  and 
priests.  Wiclif  had  first  done  this  for  the  English-reading 
races  of  all  time,  translating  from  the  Latin,  and  so  had  begun 
the  Eeformation,  religious  and  political,  not  only  in  Britain 
but  in  Western  Christendom.  Erasmus  and  Luther  had 
followed  him — the  former  in  his  Greek  and  Latin  New  Testa- 
ment and  in  his  Paraphrase  of  the  Word  for  "  women  and 


1805  VERNACULAR  TRANSLATORS  OF  THE  BIBLE.  237 

cobblers,  clowns,  mechanics,  and  even  the  Turks  " ;  the  latter 
in  his  great  vernacular  translation  of  the  edition  of  Erasmus, 
who  had  never  ceased  to  urge  his  contemporaries  to  translate 
the  Scriptures  "  into  all  tongues."  Tyndale  had  first  given 
England  the  Bible  from  the  Hebrew  and  the  Greek.  And 
now  one  of  these  cobblers  was  prompted  and  enabled  by  the 
Spirit  who  is  the  author  of  the  truth  in  the  Scriptures,  to 
give  to  South  and  Eastern  Asia  the  sacred  books  which  its 
Syrian  sons,  from  Moses  and  Ezra  to  Paul  and  John,  had 
been  inspired  to  write  for  all  races  and  all  ages.  Emphatic- 
ally, Carey  and  his  later  coadjutors  deserve  the  language  of 
the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  when,  in  1827,  it  made 
to  Serampore  a  last  grant  of  money  for  translation  : — "  Future 
generations  will  apply  to  them  the  words  of  the  translators  of 
the  English  Bible — '  Therefore  blessed  be  they  and  most  hon- 
oured their  names  that  break  the  ice  and  give  the  onset  in 
that  which  helped  them  forward  to  the  saving  of  souls.  Now 
what  can  be  more  available  thereto  than  to  deliver  God's 
book  unto  God's  people  in  a  tongue  which  they  understand  ?'  " 
Carey  might  tolerate  interruption  when  engaged  in  other 
work,  but  for  forty  years  he  never  allowed  anything  to 
shorten  the  time  allotted  to  the  Bible  work.  "  You,  madam," 
he  wrote  in  1797  to  a  lady  as  to  many  a  correspondent, 
"will  excuse  my  brevity  when  I  inform  you  that  all  my 
time  for  writing  letters  is  stolen  from  the  work  of  transcribing 
the  Scriptures  into  the  Bengali  language." 

When  stripped  of  the  extravagance  of  statement  into 
which  they  have  grown  in  the  course  of  a  century  in  the 
missionary  periodicals  and  on  the  popular  platforms  of  Eng- 
land, the  facts  are  more  remarkable  than  the  pious  myth 
which  has  accreted  round  them.  From  no  mere  humility, 
which  in  his  case  was  as  manly  and  honest  as  his  whole  nature 
and  not  a  mockery,  but  with  an  accurate  judgment  in  the 
state  of  scholarship  and  criticism  at  the  end  of  last  century, 


238  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1803 

Carey  always  insisted  that  he  was  a  forerunner,  breaking  up  the 
way  for  successors  like  Yates  and  Wenger,  who,  in  their  turn, 
must  be  superseded  by  purely  native  Tyndales  and  Luthers 
in  the  Church  of  India.  He  never  justified,  he  more  than 
once  deprecated  the  talk  of  his  having  translated  the  Bible 
into  forty  languages  and  dialects.1  As  we  proceed  that  will 
be  apparent  which  he  did  with  his  own  hand,  that  which  his 
colleagues  accomplished,  that  which  he  revised  and  edited 
both  of  their  work  and  of  the  pundits,  and  that  which  he 
corrected  and  printed  for  others  at  his  own  Serampore  press 
under  the  care  of  Ward.  It  is  to  these  four  lines  of  work, 
which  centred  in  him,  as  most  of  them  originally  proceeded 
from  his  conception  and  advocacy,  that  the  assertion  as  to  the 
forty  translations  is  strictly  applicable.  The  Bengali,  Hindi, 

1  THIRTY-FOUR  TRANSLATIONS  OF  THE  BIBLE, 
MADE  AND  EDITED  BY  DR.  CAREY  AT  SERAMPORE. 

First 
Published  in 

1801.  BENGALI— New  Testament ;  Old  Testament  in  1802-9. 

1811.  Ooriya                   ,,                            „              in  1819. 

1824.  Maghadi                „  only. 

1815-19.  Assamese              ,,                           „             in  1832. 

1824.  Khasi. 

1814-24.  Manipoori. 

1808.  SANSKRIT  „  „  in  1811-22. 

1809-11.  HINDI  „  „  in  1813-18. 

1822-32.       Bruj-bhasa  ,,  only. 

1815-22.       Kanouji  ,,     „ 

1820.  Kosali— Gospel  of  Matthew  only. 

1822.  Oodeypoori — New  Testament  only. 
1815.       Jeypoori 

1821.  Bhugeli 

1821.  Marwari 

1823.  Bikaneri 

1824.  Bhatti 

1822.  Haraoti 
1832.  Palpa 
1826.  Kumaoni 
1832.  Gurwhali 
1821.  Nepalese 


1803  HIS  THIRTY-FOUR  BIBLE  TRANSLATIONS.  239 

Marathi,  and  Sanskrit  translations  were  his  own.  The 
Chinese  was  similarly  the  work  of  Marshman.  The  Hindi 
versions,  in  their  many  dialects,  and  the  Ooriya,  were  blocked 
out  by  his  colleagues  and  the  pundits.  He  saw  through  the 
press  the  Hindostani,  Persian,  Malay,  Tamil,  and  other  ver- 
sions of  the  whole  or  portions  of  the  Scriptures.  He  ceased 
not,  night  or  day,  if  by  any  means,  with  a  loving  catholicity, 
the  Word  of  God  might  be  given  to  the  millions.  His  home 
correspondent  in  this  and  purely  scholarly  subjects  was  Dr. 
Eyland,  an  accomplished  Hebraist  and  Biblical  critic  for 
that  day  at  the  head  of  the  Bristol  College.  Carey's  letters, 
plentifully  sprinkled  with  Hebrew  and  Greek,  show  the 
jealousy  with  which  he  sought  to  convey  the  divine  message 
accurately,  and  the  unwearied  sense  of  responsibility  under 
which  he  worked.  Biblical  criticism,  alike  as  to  the  original 
text  and  to  the  exegesis  of  the  sacred  writings,  is  so  very 
modern  a  science,  that  these  letters  have  now  only  a  histori- 
cal interest.  But  this  communication  from  Carey  to  Eyland 
shows  how  he  and  the  brotherhood  worked  from  the  first : — 
"  CALCUTTA,  14^  Dec.  1803. — We  some  time  ago  engaged 

First 
Published  in 

1811.  MARATHI— New  Testament ;  Old  Testament  in  1820. 

1820.  Goojarati  „  only. 

1819.  Konkani  ,,                  Pentateuch  in  1821. 

1815.  PAN JABI  ,,                          ,,  and  Historical  Books  in  1822. 

1819.  Mooltani  „ 

1825.       Sindhi — Gospel  of  Matthew  only. 

1820.  Kashmeeri— New  Testament ;  and  Old  Test,  to  2d  Book  of  Kings. 
1820-26.       Dogri  ,,  only. 

1819.  PUSHTOO. 

1815.  BALOOCHI. 

1818.  TELUGOO  ,,  and  Pentateuch  in  1820. 

1822.  KANAEESB  ,,  only. 

Six  EDITED  AND  PRINTED  ONLY  BY  CAREY. 
Persian.  Burmese— Matthew's  Gospel. 

Hindostani.  Singhalese. 

Malayalam.  Chinese  (Dr.  Marshman's). 


240  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1803 

in  an  undertaking,  of  which  we  intended  to  say  nothing  until 
it  was  accomplished ;  but  an  unforeseen  providence  made  it 
necessary  for  us  to  disclose  it.  It  is  as  follows  :  About  a  year 
and  a  half  ago,  some  attempts  were  made  to  engage  Mr. 
Gilchrist  in  the  translation  of  the  Scriptures  into  the  Hin- 
dostani  language.  By  something  or  other  it  was  put  by. 
The  Persian  was  also  at  the  same  time  much  talked  of,  but 
given  up,  or  rather  not  engaged  in.  At  this  time  several 
considerations  prevailed  on  us  to  set  ourselves  silently  to 
work  upon  a  translation  into  these  languages.  "We  accord- 
ingly hired  two  moonshees  to  assist  us  in  it,  and  each  of  us 
took  our  share  ;  Brother  Marshman  took  Matthew  and  Luke ; 
Brother  Ward,  Mark  and  John ;  and  myself  the  remaining 
part  of  the  New  Testament  into  Hindostani.  I  undertook 
no  part  of  the  Persian;  but,  instead  thereof,  engaged  in 
translating  it  into  Maharastia,  commonly  called  the  Mahratta 
language,  the  person  who  assists  me  in  the  Hindostani 
being  a  Mahratta.  Brother  Marshman  has  finished  Matthew, 
and,  instead  of  Luke,  has  begun  the  Acts.  Brother  Ward  has 
done  part  of  John,  and  I  have  done  the  Epistles,  and  about 
six  chapters  of  the  Eevelations ;  and  have  proceeded  as  far 
as  the  second  epistle  of  the  Corinthians  in  the  revisal :  they 
have  done  a  few  chapters  into  Persian,  and  I  a  few  into 
Mahratta.  Thus  the  matter  stood,  till  a  few  days  ago  Mr. 
Buchanan  informed  me  that  a  military  gentleman  had 
translated  the  Gospels  into  Hindostani  and  Persian,  and  had 
made  a  present  of  them  to  the  College,  and  that  the  College 
Council  had  voted  the  printing  of  them.  This  made  it  neces- 
sary for  me  to  say  what  we  had  been  about ;  and  had  it  not 
been  for  this  circumstance  we  should  not  have  said  any  thing 
till  we  had  got  the  New  Testament  at  least  pretty  forward  in 
printing.  I  am  very  glad  that  Colonel  Colebrooke  has  done 
it.  We  will  gladly  do  what  others  do  not  do,  and  wish  all 
speed  to  those  who  do  any  thing  in  this  way.  We  have  it 


1803  SANSKRIT  THE  KEY  TO  TRANSLATION.  241 

in  our  power,  if  our  means  would  do  for  it,  in  the  space  of 
about  fifteen  years  to  have  the  word  of  God  translated  and 
printed  in  all  the  languages  of  the  East.  Our  situation  is 
such  as  to  furnish  us  with  the  best  assistance  from  natives  of 
the  different  countries.  We  can  have  types  of  all  the  different 
characters  cast  here ;  and  about  700  rupees  per  month,  part 
of  which  I  hope  we  shall  be  able  to  furnish,  would  complete 
the  work.  The  languages  are  the  Hindostani  (Hindi), 
Maharastia,  Oreea,  Telingua,  Bhotan,  Burmah,  Chinese,  Cochin 
Chinese,  Tonquinese,  and  Malay.  On  this  great  work  we 
have  fixed  our  eyes.  Whether  God  will  enable  us  to  accom- 
plish it,  or  any  considerable  part  of  it,  is  uncertain." 

But  all  these  advantages,  his  own  genius  for  languages, 
his  unconquerable  plodding  directed  by  a  divine  motive, 
his  colleagues'  co-operation,  the  encouragement  of  learned 
societies  and  the  public,  and  the  number  of  pundits  and 
moonshees  increased  by  the  College  of  Fort  William,  would 
have  failed  to  open  the  door  of  the  East  to  the  sacred 
Scriptures  had  the  philological  key  of  the  Sanskrit  been 
wanting  or  undiscovered.  In  the  preface  to  his  Sanskrit 
grammar,  quoted  by  the  Quarterly  Review  with  high  appro- 
bation, Carey  wrote  that  it  gave  him  the  meaning  of  four  out 
of  every  five  words  of  the  principal  languages  of  the  whole 
people  of  India : — "  The  peculiar  grammar  of  any  one  of  these 
may  be  acquired  in  a  couple  of  months,  and  then  the 
language  lies  open  to  the  student.  The  knowledge  of  four 
words  in  five  enables  him  to  read  with  pleasure,  and  renders 
the  acquisition  of  the  few  new  words,  as  well  as  the  idiomatic 
expressions,  a  matter  of  delight  rather  than  of  labour.  Thus 
the  Ooriya  (Orissa),  though  possessing  a  separate  grammar 
and  character,  is  so  much  like  the  Bengali  in  the  very 
expression  that  a  Bengali  pundit  is  almost  equal  to 
the  correction  of  an  Orissa  proof  sheet ;  and  the  first  time 
that  I  read  a  page  of  Goojarati  the  meaning  appeared 

R 


242  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1807 

so  obvious  as  to  render  it  unnecessary  to  ask  the  pundit 
questions." 

The  mechanical  apparatus  of  types,  paper,  and  printing 
seem  to  have  been  provided  by  the  same  providential  fore- 
sight as  the  intellectual  and  the  spiritual.  We  have  seen 
how,  when  he  was  far  enough  advanced  in  his  translation, 
Carey  amid  the  swamps  of  Dinajpoor  looked  to  England  for 
press,  type,  paper,  and  printer.  He  got  the  last,  William 
Ward,  a  man  of  his  own  selection,  worthy  to  be  his  colleague. 
But  he  had  hardly  despatched  his  letter  when  he  found  or 
made  all  the  rest  in  Bengal  itself.  It  was  from  the  old  press 
bought  in  Calcutta,  set  up  in  Mudnabati,  and  removed  to 
Serampore,  that  the  first  edition  of  the  Bengali  New  Testa- 
ment was  printed.  The  few  rare  and  venerable  copies  have 
now  a  peculiar  bibliographic  interest ;  the  type  and  the  paper 
alike  are  coarse  and  blurred. 

Sir  Charles  Wilkins,  the  Caxton  of  India,  had  with  his 
own  hands  cut  the  punches  and  cast  the  first  complete  Ben- 
gali fount  of  types  from  which  Halhed's  Bengali  grammar 
was  printed  at  Hoogli.  He  taught  the  art  to  a  native  black- 
smith, Panchanan,  who  went  to  Serampore  in  search  of  work 
just  when  Carey  was  in  despair  for  a  fount  of  the  sacred 
Devanagari  type  for  his  Sanskrit  grammar,  and  for  founts  of 
the  other  languages  besides  Bengali  which  had  never  been 
printed.  They  thus  tell  the  story  in  a  Memoir  Relative  to 
the  Translations,  published  in  1807  : — 

"  It  will  be  obvious  that  in  the  present  state  of  things  in  India  it 
was  in  many  instances  necessary  to  cast  new  founts  of  types  in  several 
of  these  languages.  Happily  for  us  and  India  at  large  Wilkins  had 
led  the  way  in  this  department ;  and  by  persevering  industry,  the 
value  of  which  can  scarcely  be  appreciated,  under  the  greatest  dis- 
advantages with  respect  to  materials  and  workmen,  had  brought  the 
Bengali  to  a  high  degree  of  perfection.  Soon  after  our  settling  at 
Serampore  the  providence  of  God  brought  to  us  the  very  artist  who 
had  wrought  with  Wilkins  in  that  work,  and  in  a  great  measure  im- 


1807  TYPE-CUTTING  IN  SERAMPORE.  243 

bibed  his  ideas.  By  Ms  assistance  we  erected  a  letter-foundry  ;  and 
although  he  is  now  dead,  he  had  so  fully  communicated  his  art  to  a 
number  of  others,  that  they  carry  forward  the  work  of  type-casting, 
and  even  of  cutting  the  matrices,  with  a  degree  of  accuracy  which 
would  not  disgrace  European  artists.  These  have  cast  for  us  two  or 
three  founts  of  Bengali ;  and  we  are  now  employing  them  in  casting 
a  fount  on  a  construction  which  bids  fair  to  diminish  the  expense  of 
paper,  and  the  size  of  the  book  at  least  one-fourth,  without  affecting 
the  legibility  of  the  character.  Of  the  Devanagari  character  we  have 
also  cast  an  entire  new  fount,  which  is  esteemed  the  most  beautiful  of 
the  kind  in  India.  It  consists  of  nearly  1000  different  combinations  of 
characters,  so  that  the  expense  of  cutting  the  patterns  only  amounted 
to  1500  rupees,  exclusive  of  metal  and  casting. 

"  In  the  Orissa  we  have  been  compelled  also  to  cast  a  new  fount  of 
types,  as  none  before  existed  in  that  character.  The  fount  consists  of 
about  300  separate  combinations,  and  the  whole  expense  of  cutting  and 
casting  has  amounted  to  at  least  1000  rupees.  The  character,  though 
distinct,  is  of  a  moderate  size,  and  will  comprise  the  whole  New  Tes- 
tament in  about  700  pages  octavo,  which  is  about  a  fourth  less  than 
the  Bengali.  Although  in  the  Mahratta  country  the  Devanagari 
character  is  well  known  to  men  of  education,  yet  a  character  is  current 
among  the  men  of  business  which  is  much  smaller,  and  varies  consider- 
ably in  form  from  the  Nagari,  though  the  number  and  power  of  the 
letters  nearly  correspond.  We  have  cast  a  fount  in  this  character,  in 
which  we  have  begun  to  print  the  Mahratta  New  Testament,  as  well 
as  a  Mahratta  dictionary.  This  character  is  moderate  in  size,  distinct 
and  beautiful.  It  will  comprise  the  New  Testament  in  perhaps  a  less 
number  of  pages  than  the  Orissa.  The  expense  of  casting,  etc.,  has 
been  much  the  same.  We  stand  in  need  of  three  more  founts  ;  one  in 
the  Burman,  another  in  the  Telinga  and  Kernata,  and  a  third  in  the 
Seek's  character.  These,  with  the  Chinese  characters,  will  enable  us 
to  go  through  the  work.  An  excellent  and  extensive  fount  of  Persian 
we  received  from  you,  dear  brethren,  last  year." 

Panchanan's  apprentice,  Monohur,  continued  to  make 
elegant  founts  of  type  in  all  Eastern  languages  for  the  mission 
and  for  sale  to  others  for  more  than  forty  years,  becoming  a 
benefactor  not  only  to  literature  but  to  Christian  civilisation 
to  an  extent  of  which  he  was  unconscious,  for  he  remained 
a  Hindoo  of  the  blacksmith  caste.  In  1839,  when  he  first 


244  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1820 

went  to  India  as  a  young  missionary,  the  Eev.  James 
Kennedy  1  saw  him,  as  the  present  writer  has  often  since 
seen  his  successor,  cutting  the  matrices  or  casting  the  type  for 
the  Bibles,  while  he  squatted  below  his  favourite  idol  under 
the  auspices  of  which  alone  he  would  work.  Serampore 
continued  down  till  1860  to  be  the  principal  Oriental  type- 
foundry  of  the  East.2 

Hardly  less  service  did  the  mission  come  to  render  to  the 
manufacture  of  paper  in  course  of  time,  giving  the  name  of 
Serampore  to  a  variety  known  all  over  India.  At  first  Carey 
was  compelled  to  print  his  Bengali  Testament  on  a  dingy, 
porous,  rough  substance  called  Patna  paper.  Then  he  began 
to  depend  on  supplies  from  England,  which  in  those  days 
reached  the  press  at  irregular  times,  often  impeding  the 
work,  and  was  most  costly.  This  was  not  all.  Native  paper, 
whether  mill  or  hand-made,  being  sized  with  rice  paste, 
attracted  the  bookworm  and  white  ant,  so  that,  as  Mr.  J. 
Marshman  confesses,  the  first  sheets  of  a  work  which  lingered 
in  the  press  were  often  devoured  by  these  insects  before 
the  last  sheets  were  printed  off.  Carey  used  to  preserve  his 
most  valuable  manuscripts  by  writing  on  arsenicated  paper, 
which  became  of  a  hideous  yellow  colour,  though  it  is  to 
this  alone  we  owe  the  preservation  in  the  library  of 
Serampore  College  of  five  colossal  volumes  of  a  polyglot 
dictionary  prepared  by  his  pundits  for  the  Bible  translation 
work.  Many  and  long  were  the  experiments  of  the  mission- 
aries to  solve  the  paper  difficulty,  ending  in  the  erection  of 
a  tread-mill  on  which  relays  of  forty  natives  reduced  the  raw 

1  Life  and  Work  in  Benares  and  Kumaon,  1839-77,  London,  1884. 

2  Mr.  John  Marshman,  in  his  Life  and  Times  of  the  three,  states  that 
Fry  &  Figgins,   the  London  typefounders,  would  not  produce  under  £700 
half  the  Nagari  fount  which  the  Serampore  native  turned  out  at  about  £100. 
In  1813  Dr.  Marshman's  Chinese  Gospels  were  printed  on  movable  metallic 
types,  instead  of  the  immemorial  wooden  blocks,  for  the  first  time  in  the 
twenty  centuries  of  the  history  of  Chinese  printing.    This  forms  an  era  in  the 
history  of  Chinese  literature,  he  justly  remarks. 


1820  THE  FIRST  STEAM-ENGINE  IN  INDIA.  245 

material  in  the  paper-engine,  until  one  was  accidentally 
kiUed. 

The  enterprise  of  that  pioneer  of  manufactures  in  India, 
Mr.  William  Jones,  who  first  worked  the  Eaneegunj  coal- 
field, suggested  the  remedy  in  the  employment  of  a  steam- 
engine.  One  of  twelve-horse  power  was  ordered  from  Messrs. 
Thwaites  and  Eothwell  of  Bolton.  This  was  the  first  ever 
erected  in  India,  and  it  was  a  purely  missionary  locomotive. 
The  "  machine  of  fire,"  as  they  called  it,  brought  crowds 
of  natives  to  the  mission,  whose  curiosity  tried  the  patience 
of  the  engineman  imported  to  work  it;  while  many  a 
European  who  had  never  seen  machinery  driven  by  steam 
came  to  study  and  to  copy  it.  The  date  was  the  27th  of 
March  1820,  when  "  the  engine  went  in  reality  this  day." 
From  that  time  till  1865  Serampore  became  the  one  source 
of  supply  for  local  as  distinguished  from  imported  and  purely 
native  hand-made  paper.  Even  the  cartridges  of  Mutiny 
notoriety  in  1857  were  from  this  factory,  though  it  had  long 
ceased  to  be  connected  with  the  mission.  It  stopped  only 
when  the  Secretary  of  State  for  a  short  time  ordered  all 
official  indents  for  stationery  to  be  supplied  from  London, 
an  unjust  policy  which  has  been  denounced  and  given  up 
as  unfair  to  the  native  and  local  industries  and  to  the  tax- 
paying  public. 

We  present  our  readers  with  the  first  printer's  bill  for  the 
translations,  omitting  only  the  columns  of  sicca  rupees,  which 
are  given  in  pounds  sterling.  Each  sicca  rupee  was  worth 
half-a-crown  in  those  days,  and  till  it  was  superseded  by  the 
lesser  Company's  rupee,  or  florin. 

Dr.  Carey  thus  took  stock  of  the  translating  enterprise 
in  a  letter  to  Dr.  Eyland  : — 


246  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1807 

TRANSLATIONS  OF  THE  HOLY  SCRIPTURES.          Dr. 
1801.  To  2000  Bengali  Testaments,  1st  edition,  on  Patna  paper, 


8vo,  900  pages          .             .             .                         . 

£1250 

0 

0 

500  Matthew's  Gospel  in  Bengali,  do.,  118  pages 

31 

5 

0 

1802. 

1000  Pentateuehs,  do.,  732  pages 

375 

0 

0 

1803. 

An  edition  of  900  of  Job,  Psalms,  Proverbs,  Ecclesiastes, 

and  Solomon's  Song,  do.,  400  pages 

250 

0 

0 

900  of  the  Psalms  alone,  do.,  220  pages 

42 

3 

6 

1805. 

465    Matthew's    Gospel    in    Mahratta,    Nagri    type 

(quarto),  108  pages   .             .   -         . 

58 

2 

6 

it 

Bengali    pundit's  wages  for  seven    years,  down  to 

December  1806          ..... 

210 

0 

0 

ii 

The    Hindostani,    Persian,    Ooriya,    and    Mahratta, 

pundit's  wages  from  March  1803  to  April  1806 

252 

12 

6 

>  > 

Eight  months'  wages   for  pundits    in  the    different 

languages,    including    the    Chinese,   from  May  to 
December  1806          ..... 

462 

19 

3 

1806. 

5  J 

1500    Bengali  Testaments,    2d  edition,    on   Bengali 

paper,  8vo,  900  pages           .... 

562 

10 

0 

1807. 

» 

10,000  Luke,  Acts,  and  Romans,  do.,  264  pages,  at 

12  as. 

937 

10 

0 

>J 

Seven  months'  wages  for  pundits  in  the  different  lan- 

» 

guages,  including  the  Chinese,  from  January  to  July 
An  edition  of  the  Prophetic  books,  8vo,  660  pages, 

435 

13 

5 

1000  copies   ...... 

312 

10 

0 

£5180 

6 

3 

CONTRA. 

Or. 

1799. 

By 

Cash  received  from  the  Edinburgh  Missionary  Society 

£250 

0 

0 

1800. 

J> 

Do.  collected  from  1798  to  1799 

200 

0 

0 

1801. 

J> 

Do.           1799  to  1800 

1142 

17 

4 

1802. 

3) 

Do.            1800  to  1801 

20 

10 

0 

1803. 

|| 

Do.           1801  to  1802 

1157 

5 

5 

1804. 

5  ) 

Do.           1802  to  1803 

17 

12 

0 

1805. 

Do.           1803  to  1804 

23 

1 

6 

1806. 

9  9 

Do.           1804  to  1805 

-j 

Received  from  England  by  way  of  America  in  books,  etc. 

] 

9 

10 

In 

Amount  received  from  America  in  September  1806     . 

357 

6 

6 

}> 

Do.  in  October              ..... 

517 

7 

6 

ii 

Messrs.  Alexander  and  Co.  from  the  fund  raised  in 

India             ...... 

637 

10 

0 

1807. 

}J 

Do.  for  seven  months,  from  January  to  July    . 

487 

10 

0 

» 

2398  dollars  from  America       .... 

617 

5 

0 

Amount  received 

£6726 

15 

1 

Expended 

5180 

6 

3 

Balance  in  hand 

£1546 

8 

10 

"  22d  January  1808. — Last  year  may  be  reckoned  among 
the  most  important  which  this  mission  has  seen, — not  for  the 
numbers  converted  among  the  natives,  for  they  have  been 


1808  BIBLE  TRANSLATION  WORK.  247 

fewer  than  in  some  preceding  years,  but  for  the  gracious  care 
which  God  has  exercised  towards  us.  We  have  been  enabled 
to  carry  on  the  translation  and  printing  of  the  Word  of  God 
in  several  languages.  The  printing  is  now  going  on  in  six 
and  the  translation  into  six  more.  The  Bengali  is  all  printed 
except  from  Judges  vii.  to  the  end  of  Esther  ;  Sanskrit  New 
Testament  to  Acts  xxvii. ;  Orissa  to  John  xxi. ;  Mahratta, 
2d  ed.,  to  the  end  of  Matthew ;  Hindostani  (new  version)  to 
Mark  v.,  and  Matthew  is  begun  in  Goojarati.  The  trans- 
lation is  nearly  carried  on  to  the  end  of  John  in  Chinese, 
Telinga,  Kurnata,  and  the  language  of  the  Seeks.  It  is  carried 
on  to  a  pretty  large  extent  in  Persian  and  begun  in  Burman. 
The  whole  Bible  was  printed  in  Malay  at  Batavia  some 
years  ago.  The  whole  is  printed  in  Tamil,  and  the  Syrian 
Bishop  at  Travancore  is  now  superintending  a  translation 
from  Syriac  into  Malayala.  I  learnt  this  week  that  the 
language  of  Kashmeer  is  a  distinct  language. 

"  I  have  this  day  been  to  visit  the  most  learned  Hindoo 
now  living;  he  speaks  only  Sanskrit,  is  more  than  eighty 
years  old,  is  acquainted  with  the  writings  and  has  studied 
the  sentiments  of  all  their  schools  of  philosophy  (usually 
called  the  Darshunas  of  the  Veda).  He  tells  me  that  this  is 
the  sixteenth  time  that  he  has  travelled  from  Eameshwaram 
to  Harhu  (viz.  from  the  extreme  cape  of  the  Peninsula  to 
Benares).  He  was,  he  says,  near  Madras  when  the  English 
first  took  possession  of  it.  This  man  has  given  his  opinion 
against  the  burning  of  women. 

"  I  have  written  a  description  of  the  Buffalo,  which  I  now 
send  for  the  Periodical  Accounts.  I  shall  occasionally  add 
some  other  observations  on  the  natural  history  of  India." 

Four  years  later,  in  another  letter  to  Eyland,  he  takes 
us  into  his  confidence  more  fully,  showing  us  not  only 
his  sacred  workshop,  but  ingenuously  revealing  his  own 
humility  and  self-sacrifice  : — "  Wth  December  1811. — I  have 


248  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1811 

of  late  been  much  impressed  with  the  vast  importance  of 
laying  a  foundation  for  Biblical  criticism  in  the  East,  by  pre- 
paring grammars  of  the  different  languages  into  which  we 
have  translated  or  may  translate  the  Bible.  Without  some 
such  step,  they  who  follow  us  will  have  to  wade  through  the 
same  labour  that  I  have,  in  order  to  stand  merely  upon  the 
same  ground  that  I  now  stand  upon.  If,  however,  ele- 
mentary books  are  provided,  the  labour  will  be  greatly  con- 
tracted ;  and  a  person  will  be  able  in  a  short  time  to  acquire 
that  which  has  cost  me  years  of  study  and  toil. 

"  The  necessity  which  lies  upon  me  of  acquiring  so  many 
languages,  obliges  me  to  study  and  write  out  the  grammar  of 
each  of  them,  and  to  attend  closely  to  their  irregularities 
and  peculiarities.  I  have  therefore  already  published  gram- 
mars of  three  of  them ;  namely,  the  Sanskrit,  the  Bengali, 
and  the  Mahratta.  To  these  I  have  resolved  to  add  grammars 
of  the  Telinga,  Kurnata,  Orissa,  Punjabi,  Kashmeeri,  Goojar- 
ati,  Nepalese,  and  Assam  languages.  Two  of  these  are  now 
in  the  press,  and  I  hope  to  have  two  or  three  more  of  them 
out  by  the  end  of  the  next  year. 

"  This  may  not  only  be  useful  in  the  way  I  have  stated, 
but  may  serve  to  furnish  an  answer  to  a  question  which  has 
been  more  than  once  repeated,  '  How  can  these  men  trans- 
late into  so  great  a  number  of  languages  ? '  Few  people 
know  what  may  be  done  till  they  try,  and  persevere  in  what 
they  undertake. 

"  I  am  now  printing  a  dictionary  of  the  Bengali,  which 
will  be  pretty  large,  for  I  have  got  to  page  256,  quarto,  and 
am  not  near  through  the  first  letter.  That  letter,  however, 
begins  more  words  than  any  two  others. 

"  To  secure  the  gradual  perfection  of  the  translations,  I 
have  also  in  my  mind,  and  indeed  have  been  long  collecting 
materials  for,  An  Universal  Dictionary  of  the  Oriental  languages 
derived  from  the  Sanskrit.  I  mean  to  take  the  Sanskrit,  of 


1811  PROJECTS  A  UNIVERSAL  SANSKRIT  DICTIONARY.  249 

course,  as  the  ground- work,  and  to  give  the  different  accepta- 
tions of  every  word,  with  examples  of  their  application,  in 
the  manner  of  Johnson,  and  then  to  give  the  synonyms  in 
the  different  languages  derived  from  the  Sanskrit,  with  the 
Hebrew  and  Greek  terms  answering  thereto  ;  always  putting 
the  word  derived  from  the  Sanskrit  term  first,  and  then  those 
derived  from  other  sources.  I  intend  always  to  give  the 
etymology  of  the  Sanskrit  term,  so  that  that  of  the  terms 
deduced  from  it  in  the  cognate  languages  will  be  evident. 
This  work  will  be  great,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  I  shall 
live  to  complete  it;  but  I  mean  to  begin  to  arrange  the 
materials,  which  I  have  been  some  years  collecting  for  this 
purpose,  as  soon  as  my  Bengali  dictionary  is  finished. 
Should  I  live  to  accomplish  this,  and  the  translations  in  hand, 
I  think  I  can  then  say,  '  Lord,  now  lettest  thoti  thy  servant 
depart  in  peace.' " 

The  ardent  scholar  had  twenty-three  years  of  toil  before 
him  in  this  happy  work.  But  he  did  not  know  this,  while 
each  year  the  labour  increased,  and  the  apprehension  grew 
that  he  and  his  colleagues  might  at  any  time  be  removed 
without  leaving  a  trained  successor.  They  naturally  looked 
first  to  the  sons  of  the  mission  for  translators  as  they  had 
already  done  for  preachers.  The  third  of  the  ten  Memoirs 
of  Translations,  which  were  published  from  first  to  last, 
thus  sketches  in  1811  the  plan  of  the  Bible  translation 
seminary,  on  a  scale  of  the  same  combined  magnificence 
and  practical  utility  which  the  turning  of  half  Asia  to 
Christ  demanded : — 

"  The  advantages  which  youths  trained  from  their  infancy  to  gram- 
matical studies,  and  at  the  same  time  habituated  to  speak  the  various 
languages  of  India,  must  necessarily  possess  beyond  those  who,  perhaps, 
commencing  grammatical  studies  late  in  life,  have,  still  later,  to  acquire 
a  foreign  idiom,  must  be  obvious  to  all.  A  seminary  for  training  up 
youths,  so  as  to  fit  them  for  the  work  of  foreign  translations  in  the 
various  languages  of  Asia,  has  therefore  been  for  some  time  in  our  con- 


250  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1811 

templation.  To  this  the  consideration  of  another  fact  has  greatly 
incited  us.  Translation,  like  many  other  employments,  is  a  work  for 
which  experience  alone  can  duly  capacitate  any  one.  The  result  of 
many  years'  experience  may  be  communicated  in  a  regular  course  of 
instruction,  and  although  this  will  not  form  actual  experience,  it  may 
prove  a  valuable  preparation  for  the  work,  as  well  as  inspire  the  mind 
with  a  love  thereto.  We  have  therefore  laid  the  foundation  of  such 
seminary  at  Serampore,  where  youths  are  instructed  in  the  Greek, 
Hebrew,  and  Latin  languages,  while  they  are  acquiring  and  perhaps 
conversing  in  the  languages  in  which  they  may  probably  have  to 
examine  the  translation  of  the  word  of  God.  This  seminary,  of  course, 
embraces  all  the  rising  branches  of  the  mission  families,  and  such  other 
youths  as  seem  fitted  by  their  capacity  and  disposition  to  make  a  due 
proficiency  in  those  studies,  and  to  assist  hereafter  in  the  work.  The 
number  of  youths  in  this  course  of  tuition  is  at  present  ten,  of  whom 
six  belong  to  the  family  at  Serampore.  The  eldest  of  these  is  eighteen, 
and  the  youngest  nine.  All  of  them  have  commenced  the  study  of 
Latin,  five  of  them  are  studying  Greek,  and  four  Hebrew.  One  of  the 
latter  has  also  been  reading  Syriac  these  three  years  past.  It  is  need- 
less to  particularize  their  various  degrees  of  proficiency  in  the  lan- 
guages of  India.  Suffice  it  to  say,  that  Chinese  and  Sanskrit  are  those 
which  are  studied  most  critically,  as  forming  the  basis  of  nearly  all 
the  dialects  from  Persia  to  Japan,  and  from  Cape  Comorin  to  the 
Snowy  Mountains.  We  can  by  no  means  assure  ourselves  that  all 
these  youths,  when  come  to  manhood,  will  apply  to  the  work  of  trans- 
lation, or  that  all  of  them  will  devote  their  talents  expressly  to 
religion.  If  a  majority  of  them,  however,  should  bend  their  attention 
to  sacred  literature,  the  end  of  thus  training  them  up  will  be  fully 
answered.  In  every  undertaking  of  this  nature  some  risk  of  loss 
must  be  incurred.  In  choosing  grown-up  young  men  (could  we  pro- 
cure them),  the  probability  might  be  that  a  great  part  of  them  would 
never  have  their  minds  so  imbued  with  the  love  of  philology  as  to 
become  useful  in  translating  the  word  ;  and  in  thus  training  up  youths 
from  their  infancy  to  classical  and  Oriental  literature,  the  risk  of  a 
number  of  them  preferring  other  pursuits  is  perhaps  not  greater,  while 
the  superior  efficiency  of  those  who  may  from  inclination  attach  them- 
selves to  the  work  must  be  evident.  Nor  perhaps  are  we  to  account  all 
those  entirely  lost  to  the  great  work  of  perfecting  the  translations  of  the 
Scriptures  who  may  prefer  secular  employments.  They  will  still  have 
acquired  the  ability  of  assisting  in  the  work,  and  it  is  almost  a  necessary 
consequence  that  they  should  feel  an  attachment  to  the  studies  of  their 


1815  WILLIAM  YATES.  251 

youth.  Hence,  if  business  preclude  their  actually  engaging  in  the  work 
of  translation,  it  may  still  leave  them  opportunity  for  examining  and 
occasionally  improving  those  made  by  others  ;  a  work  which  the  bent 
of  mind  given  them  by  their  youthful  studies  will  make  them  esteem 
rather  a  recreation  than  a  serious  burden.  Hence,  if  to  a  goodly 
number  of  efficient  translators,  who  make  the  work  the  grand  business 
and  delight  of  their  lives,  there  be  added  a  band  of  able  coadjutors, 
scattered  probably  over  the  various  parts  of  Asia,  the  work  may  be 
likely  to  be  effected,  even  though  only  one  half  of  the  youths  thus 
educated  should  prefer  the  winning  of  souls  to  the  accumulation  of 
wealth." 

To  Dr.  Carey  personally,  however,  the  education  of  a 
young  missionary  specially  fitted  to  be  his  successor,  as 
translator  and  editor  of  the  translations,  was  even  more  im- 
portant. Such  a  man  was  found  in  William  Yates,  born  in 
1792,  and  in  the  county,  Leicestershire,  in  which  Carey  brought 
the  Baptist  mission  to  the  birth.  Yates  was  in  his  early  years 
also  a  shoemaker,  and  member  of  Carey's  old  church,  in 
Harvey  Lane,  when  under  the  great  Eobert  Hall,  who  said  to 
the  youth's  father,  "  Your  son,  sir,  will  be  a  great  scholar  and 
a  good  preacher,  and  he  is  a  holy  young  man."  In  1814  he 
became  the  last  of  the  young  missionaries  devoted  to  the 
cause  by  Fuller,  soon  to  pass  away,  Eyland,  and  Hall.  Yates 
had  not  been  many  months  at  Serampore  when,  with  the 
approval  of  his  brethren,  Carey  wrote  to  Fuller,  on  17th 
May  1815  : — "  I  am  much  inclined  to  associate  him  with  my- 
self in  the  translations.  My  labour  is  greater  than  at  any 
former  period.  We  have  now  translations  of  the  Bible  going 
forward  in  twenty-seven  languages,  all  of  which  are  in  the 
press,  except  two  or  three.  The  labour  of  correcting  and 
revising  all  of  them  lies  on  me."  By  September  we  find 
Yates  writing  : — "  Dr.  Carey  sends  all  the  Bengali  proofs  to 
me  to  review.  I  read  them  over,  and  if  there  is  anything  I 
do  not  understand,  or  think  to  be  wrong,  I  mark  it.  We 
then  converse  over  it,  and  if  it  is  wrong,  he  alters  it ;  but  if 
not,  he  shows  me  the  reason  why  it  is  right,  and  thus  will 


252  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1815 

initiate  me  into  the  languages  as  fast  as  I  can  learn  them. 
He  wishes  me  to  begin  the  Hindi  very  soon.  Since  I  have 
been  here  I  have  read  three  volumes  in  Bengali,  and  they 
have  but  six  of  consequence,  in  prose.  There  are  abundance 
in  Sanskrit."  t:  Dr.  Carey  has  treated  me  with  the  greatest 
affection  and  kindness,  and  told  me  he  will  give  me  every  in- 
formation he  can,  and  do  anything  in  his  power  to  promote  my 
happiness."  What  Baruch  was  to  the  prophet  Jeremiah,  that 
Yates  might  have  been  to  Carey,  who  went  so  far  in  urging 
him  to  remain  for  life  in  Serampore  as  to  say,  "  if  he  did  not 
accept  the  service  it  would  be,  in  his  judgment,  acting  against 
Providence,  and  the  blessing  of  God  was  not  to  be  expected." 
Yates  threw  in  his  lot  with  the  younger  men  who,  in  Calcutta 
after  Fuller's  death,  began  the  Society's  as  distinct  from  the 
Serampore  mission.  If  Carey  was  the  Wiclif  and  Tyndale, 
Yates  was  the  Coverdale  of  the  Bengali  and  Sanskrit  Bible. 
The  learned,  the  saintly  Wenger,  their  successor,  was  worthy 
of  both.  Bengal  now  waits  for  the  first  native  revision  of 
the  great  work  which  these  successive  pioneers  have  gradu- 
ally improved.  When  shall  Bengal  see  its  own  Luther  ? 

The  Bengali  Bible  was  the  first  as  it  was  the  most  im- 
portant of  the  thirty-four  translations  completely,  or  partially, 
made  by  Carey.  The  province,  or  lieutenant -governorship 
as  it  now  is,  has  the  same  area  as  France,  and  contains  nearly 
double  its  population,  or  seventy  millions.  Of  the  three  prin- 
cipal vernaculars,  Bengali  is  spoken  by  thirty-seven  millions 
of  Hindoos  and  Mohammedans  ;  Hindi,  Hindostani,  and 
Oordoo  by  twenty-five  millions  ;  and  Ooriya  by  about  six 
millions  of  Hindoos  in  Orissa.  It  was  for  all  the  natives  of 
Bengal  and  of  India  north  of  the  Dekhan  ("  south ")  table- 
land, but  especially  for  the  Bengali-speaking  people,  who 
have  increased  till  they  are  as  numerous  as  the  French,  that 
William  Carey  may  be  said  to  have  created  a  literary  language 
ninety  years  ago. 


1800  THE  FIRST  BENGALI  NEW  TESTAMENT.  253 

The  first  version  of  the  whole  New  Testament  Carey 
translated  into  Bengali  from  the  original  Greek  before  the 
close  of  1796.  The  only  English  commentary  used  was  the 
Family  Expositor  of  Doddridge,  published  in  1738,  and  then 
the  most  critical  in  the  language.  Four  times  he  revised  the 
manuscript,  with  a  Greek  concordance  in  his  hand,  and  he 
used  it  not  only  with  Earn  Basu  by  his  side,  the  most  accom- 
plished of  early  Bengali  scholars,  but  with  the  natives 
around  him  of  all  classes.  By  1800  Ward  had  arrived  as 
printer,  the  press  was  perfected  at  Serampore,  and  the  result 
of  seven  years  of  toil  appeared  in  February  1801,  in  the  first 
edition  of  2000  copies,  costing  £612.  The  printing  occupied 
nine  months.  The  type  was  set  up  by  Ward  and  Carey's 
son  Felix  with  their  own  hands  ;  "  for  about  a  month  at  first 
we  had  a  brahman  compositor,  but  we  were  quite  weary  of 
him.  We  kept  four  pressmen  constantly  employed."  A 
public  subscription  had  been  opened  for  the  whole  Bengali 
Bible  at  Es.32,  or  £4  a  copy  as  exchange  then  was,  and 
nearly  fifty  copies  had  been  at  once  subscribed  for.  It  was 
this  edition  which  immediately  led  to  Carey's  appointment 
to  the  College  of  Fort  William,  and  it  was  that  appointment 
which  placed  Carey  in  a  position,  philological  and  financial, 
to  give  the  Bible  to  all  the  peoples  of  the  farther  East  in 
their  own  tongue. 

Some  loving  memories  cluster  round  the  first  Bengali 
version  of  the  New  Testament  which  it  is  well  to  collect. 
On  Tuesday,  18th  March  1800,  Ward's  journal  records : — 
"  Brother  Carey  took  an  impression  at  the  press  of  the  first 
page  in  Matthew."  The  translator  was  himself  the  press- 
man. As  soon  as  the  whole  of  this  Gospel  was  ready,  500 
copies  of  it  were  struck  off  for  immediate  circulation, 
"which  we  considered  of  importance  as  containing  a  com- 
plete life  of  the  Eedeemer."  Four  days  after  an  advertise- 
ment in  the  official  Calcutta  Gazette,  announcing  that  the 


254  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1801 

missionaries  had  established  a  press  at  Serampore  and  were 
printing  the  Bible  in  Bengali,  roused  Lord  Wellesley,  who 
had  fettered  the  press  in  British  India.  Mr.  Brown  was  able 
to  inform  the  Governor-General  that  this  very  Serampore 
press  had  refused  to  print  a  political  attack  on  the  English 
Government,  and  that  it  was  intended  for  the  spiritual  in- 
struction only  of  the  natives.  This  called  forth  the  assurance 
from  that  liberal  statesman  that  he  was  personally  favourable 
to  the  conversion  of  the  heathen.  When  he  was  further  told 
that  such  an  Oriental  press  would  be  invaluable  to  the  College 
of  Fort  William,  he  not  only  withdrew  his  opposition  but 
made  Carey  first  teacher  of  Bengali.  It  was  on  the  7th 
February  1801  that  the  last  sheet  with  the  final  corrections 
was  put  into  Carey's  hands.  When  a  volume  had  been  bound 
it  was  reverently  offered  to  God  by  being  placed  on  the  com- 
munion table  of  the  chapel,  and  the  mission  families  and 
new-made  converts  gathered  around  it  with  solemn  thanks- 
giving to  God.  As  Tyndale's  version  had  broken  the  yoke  of 
the  papacy  in  England,  Carey  thus  struck  the  first  deadly 
blow  at  Brahmanism  in  its  stronghold. 

When  the  first  copies  reached  England,  Andrew  Fuller 
sent  one  to  the  second  Earl  Spencer,  the  peer  who  had  used 
the  wealth  of  Sarah,  Duchess  of  Marlborough,  to  collect  the 
great  library  at  Althorp.  Carey  had  been  a  poor  tenant  of  his, 
though  the  Earl  knew  it  not.  When  the  Bengali  New  Testa- 
ment reached  him,  with  its  story,  he  sent  a  cheque  for  £50  to 
help  to  translate  the  Old  Testament,  and  he  took  care  that  a 
copy  should  be  presented  to  George  III.,  as  by  his  own  request. 
Christopher  Anderson  tells  the  tale  of  the  presentation.1  Mr. 
Bowyer  was  received  one  morning  at  Windsor,  and  along  with 
the  volume  presented  an  address  expressing  the  desire  that 
His  Majesty  might  live  to  see  its  principles  universally  prevail 
throughout  his  Eastern  dominions.  On  this  the  lord  in  wait- 

1  Annals  of  the  English  Bible,  vol.  ii. 


1806  THE  BIBLE  IN  BENGALI.  255 

ing  whispered  a  doubt  whether  the  book  had  come  through 
the  proper  channel.  At  once  the  king  replied  that  the 
Board  of  Control  had  nothing  to  do  with  it,  and  turning  to 
Mr.  Bowyer  said,  "  I  am  greatly  pleased  to  find  that  any  of 
my  subjects  are  employed  in  this  manner." 

This  now  rare  volume,  to  be  found  on  the  shelves  of  the 
Serampore  College  Library,  where  it  leads  the  host  of  the  Carey 
translations,  is  coarse  and  unattractive  in  appearance  compared 
with  its  latest  successors.  In  truth,  the  second  edition,  which 
appeared  in  1806,  was  almost  a  new  version.  The  criticism 
of  his  colleagues  and  others,  especially  of  a  ripe  Grecian  like 
Dr.  Marshman,  the  growth  of  the  native  church,  and  his  own 
experience  as  a  Professor  of  Sanskrit  and  Marathi  as  well  as 
Bengali,  gave  Carey  new  power  in  adapting  the  language  to 
the  divine  ideas  of  which  he  made  it  the  medium.  But  the 
first  edition  was  not  without  its  self  -  evidencing  power. 
Seventeen  years  after,  when  the  mission  extended  to  the  old 
capital  of  Dacca,  there  were  found  several  villages  of  Hindoo- 
born  peasants  who  had  given  up  idol-worship,  were  renowned 
for  their  truthfulness,  and,  as  searching  for  a  true  teacher  come 
from  God,  called  themselves  "  Satya-gooroos."  They  traced 
their  new  faith  to  a  much-worn  book  kept  in  a  wooden  box  in 
one  of  their  villages.  No  one  could  say  whence  it  had  come ; 
all  they  knew  was  that  they  had  possessed  it  for  many  years. 
It  was  Carey's  first  Bengali  version  of  the  New  Testament  of 
our  Lord  and  Saviour  Jesus  Christ.  In  the  wide  and  elastic 
bounds  of  Hindooism,  and  even,  as  we  shall  see,  amid  fanati- 
cal Mussulmans  beyond  the  frontier,  the  Bible,  dimly  under- 
stood without  a  teacher,  has  led  to  puritan  sects  like  this, 
as  to  earnest  inquirers  like  the  chamberlain  of  Queen 
Candace. 

The  third  edition  of  the  Bengali  Testament  was  published 
in  1811  in  folio  for  the  use  of  the  native  congregations  by  that 
time  formed.  The  fourth,  consisting  of  5000  copies,  appeared 


256  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1809 

in  1816,  and  the  eighth  in  1832.  The  venerable  scholar,  like 
Columba  at  lona  over  the  seventy-second  psalm,  and  Baeda 
at  Jarrow  over  the  sixth  chapter  of  John's  Gospel,  said  as  he 
corrected  the  last  sheet — the  last  after  forty  years'  faithful 
and  delighted  toil :  "  My  work  is  done ;  I  have  nothing  more 
to  do  but  to  wait  the  will  of  the  Lord."  The  Old  Testament 
from  the  Hebrew  version  appeared  in  portions  from  1802  to 
1809.  Such  was  the  ardour  of  the  translator,  that  he  had 
finished  the  correction  of  his  version  of  the  first  chapter  of 
Genesis  in  January  1794.  When  he  read  it  to  two  pundits 
from  Nuddea,  he  told  Fuller  in  his  journal  of  that  month 
they  seemed  much  pleased  with  the  account  of  the  creation, 
but  they  objected  to  the  omission  of  patala,  their  imaginary 
place  beneath  the  earth,  which  they  thought  should  have  been 
mentioned.  At  this  early  period  Carey  saw  the  weakness  of 
Hindooism  as  a  pretended  revelation,  from  its  identification 
with  false  physics,  just  as  Duff  was  to  see  and  use  it  afterwards 
with  tremendous  effect,  and  wrote  : — "  There  is  a  necessity  of 
explaining  to  them  several  circumstances  relative  to  geography 
and  chronology,  as  they  have  many  superstitious  opinions 
on  those  subjects  which  are  closely  connected  with  their 
systems  of  idolatry."  In  the  forty  years  of  his  mission- 
ary career  Carey  prepared  and  saw  through  the  press  five 
editions  of  the  Old  Testament  and  eight  editions  of  the  New 
in  Bengali. 

The  whole  number  of  completely  translated  and  published 
versions  of  the  sacred  Scriptures  which  Carey  sent  forth 
before  his  death,  with  the  help  of  his  brethren,  was  twenty- 
eight.  Of  these  seven  included  the  whole  Bible,  and  twenty- 
one  contained  the  books  of  the  New  Testament.  Each  trans- 
lation has  a  history,  a  spiritual  romance  of  its  own.  Each 
became  almost  immediately  a  silent  but  effectual  missionary 
to  the  peoples  of  Asia,  as  well  as  the  scholarly  and  literary 
pioneer  of  those  later  editions  and  versions  from  which  the 


1824         THE  BIBLE  IN  THE  OEISSA  AND  BIHAR  TONGUES.          257 

native  churches  of  farther  Asia  derive  the  materials  of  their 
lively  growth. 

The  Ooriya  version  was  almost  the  first  to  be  undertaken 
after  the  Bengali,  to  which  language  it  bears  the  same  re- 
lation as  rural  Scotch  to  English,  though  it  has  a  written 
character  of  its  own.  What  is  now  the  Orissa  division  of 
Bengal,  separating  it  from  Madras  to  the  south-west,  was 
added  to  the  empire  in  1803.  This  circumstance,  and  the 
fact  that  its  Pooree  district,  after  centuries  of  sun-worship 
and  then  shiva- worship,  had  become  the  high -place  of  the 
vaishnava  cult  of  Jaganath  and  his  car,  which  attracted  and 
often  slew  hundreds  of  thousands  of  pilgrims  every  year,  led 
Carey  to  prepare  at  once  for  the  press  the  Ooriya  Bible. 
The  chief  pundit,  Mritunjaya,  skilled  in  both  dialects,  first 
adapted  the  Bengali  version  to  the  language  of  the  Ooriyas, 
which  was  his  own.  Carey  then  took  the  manuscript, 
compared  it  with  the  original  Greek  and  corrected  it  verse  by 
verse.  The  New  Testament  was  ready  in  1811,  and  the  Old 
Testament  in  1819.  Large  editions  were  quickly  bought 
up  and  circulated.  These  led  to  the  establishment  of  the 
General  Baptist  Society's  missionaries  at  Cuttak,  the  capital, 
whence  to  this  day  they  have  evangelised  the  country  and 
are  hastening  the  decay  of  the  Jaganath  pilgrim  abuses,  in 
brotherly  harmony  with  the  calvinistic  Baptists  and  other 
evangelical  missionaries.  In  1814  the  Serampore  Bible 
translation  college,  as  we  may  call  it,  began  the  preparation 
of  the  New  Testament  in  Maghadi,  another  of  the  languages 
allied  to  the  Bengali,  and  derived  from  the  Sanskrit  through 
the  Pali,  because  that  was  the  vernacular  of  Buddhism  in 
its  original  seat;  an  edition  of  1000  copies  appeared  in 
1824.  It  was  intended  to  publish  a  version  in  the  Maithili 1 

1  The  Bihari  and  English  Dictionary  of  Dr.  Hoernle  and  Mr.  Grierson, 
dealing  with  the  four  Gaudian  languages — the  Maithili,  Maghadi,  Bhoj- 
poori,  and  Baiswari — has  only  just  (1885)  appeared — Part  I.  Calcutta. 

S 


258  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1811-20 

language  of  Bihar,  which  has  a  literature  stretching  back  to  the 
fourteenth  century,  that  every  class  might  have  the  Word  of 
God  in  their  own  dialect.  But  Carey's  literary  enthusiasm 
and  scholarship  had  by  this  time  done  so  much  to  develop 
and  extend  the  power  of  Bengali  proper,  that  it  had  begun 
to  supersede  all  such  dialects,  except  Ooriya  and  the  northern 
vernaculars  of  the  valley  of  the  Brahmapootra.  In  1811  the 
Serampore  press  added  the  Assamese  New  Testament  to 
its  achievements.  In  1819  the  first  edition  appeared,  in 
1826  the  province  became  British,  and  in  1832  Carey  had 
the  satisfaction  of  issuing  the  Old  Testament.  To  these 
must  be  added,  as  in  the  Bengali  character  though  non- 
Aryan  languages,  versions  in  Khasi  and  Manipoori,  the 
former  for  the  democratic  tribes  of  the  Khasia  hills  among 
whom  the  Welsh  Calvinists  have  since  worked,  and  the  latter 
for  the  curious  Hindoo  snake-people  on  the  border  of  Burma, 
who  have  taught  Europe  the  game  of  polo. 

Another  immediate  successor  of  the  Bengali  translation 
was  the  Marathi,  of  which  also  Carey  was  professor  in  the 
College  of  Fort  William.  By  1804  he  was  himself  hard  at 
work  on  this  version,  by  1811  the  first  edition  of  the  New 
Testament  appeared,  and  by  1820  the  Old  Testament  left  the 
press.  At  the  same  time  he  was  busy  with  a  version  in  the 
dialect  of  the  Konkan,  the  densely-peopled  coast  district  to 
the  south  of  Bombay  city,  inhabited  chiefly  by  the  ablest 
Brahmanical  race  in  India.  In  1819  the  New  Testament 
appeared  in  this  translation,  having  been  under  preparation 
at  Serampore  for  eleven  years.  Thus  Carey  sought  to  turn 
to  Christ  the  twelve  millions  of  Hindoos  who,  from  Western 
India  above  and  below  the  great  coast-range  known  as  the 
Sahyadri  or  "  delectable  "  mountains,  had  nearly  wrested  the 
whole  peninsula  from  the  Mohammedans,  and  had  almost 
anticipated  the  life-giving  rule  of  the  British,  first  at  Panipat 
and  then  at  Assye.  Meanwhile  new  missionaries  had  been 


1820-29  THE  BIBLE  IN  MARATHI  AND  GOOJAKATI.  259 

taking  possession  of  those  western  districts  where  the  men  of 
Serampore  had  sowed  the  first  seed  and  reaped  the  first  fruits. 
The  charter  of  1813  made  it  possible  for  the  American  Bap- 
tists to  land  there,  and  for  the  local  Bible  Society  to  spring 
into  existence.  Carey  and  his  brethren  welcomed  these  and 
retired  from  that  field,  confining  themselves  to  providing, 
during  the  next  seven  years,  the  Goojarati  version  for  the 
millions  of  Northern  Bombay,  including  the  hopeful  Parsees, 
and  resigning  that,  too,  to  the  London  Missionary  Society 
after  issuing  the  New  Testament  in  1820.  But  the  new 
comers,  who  found  the  way  prepared  for  them  by  Carey's  toils 
of  twenty  years,  showed  a  tendency  to  ignore  and  then  cast 
contempt  on  what  Serampore  had  done  for  Maharashtra  and 
its  varied  peoples.  The  second  edition  of  Carey's  Marathi 
New  Testament  appeared  in  1825,  and  formed  the  object  of 
criticisms  which  brought  that  accomplished  scholar  William 
Greenfield  to  the  rescue.  In  a  Defence1  he  exposed  the 
ignorance  and  error  of  the  objections.  Even  so  late  as  1829, 
immediately  after  his  arrival  at  Bombay,  the  Scottish  John 
Wilson  had  publicly  to  remind  the  American  missionaries 
that  Carey  had  published  his  Marathi  grammar  and  dic- 
tionary at  Serampore  in  1810,  three  years  before  their  pre- 
decessors were  allowed  to  land,  and  had  admitted  several 
Marathas  to  church  communion.2  When  the  Konkani  version 
was  attacked  ten  months  after  Carey's  death,  by  the  ignorant 
assertion  that  there  is  no  such  language,  the  late  Finlay 
Anderson,  an  official  of  experience,  wrote,  "  the  translation  is 
good  and  understood  by  the  pundits."  Dr.  Wilson  pointed 
out  that  the  language,  unknown  to  inexperienced  new-comers, 
is  the  medium  of  ordinary  intercourse  among  the  lower  orders 
as  far  south  as  Goa.  Mr.  Gust  treats  it  as  the  Goadesee,  in 

1  A  Defence  of  the  Serampore  Mdhratta  Version  of  the  New  Testament, 
(Bagster). 

2  The  Life  of  John  Wilson,  D.D.,  F.R.S.,  p.  36,  2d  edition  (Murray), 


260  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1813 

which  the  Jesuits  formed  a  large  literature.1  Mr.  Christopher 
Anderson  justly  remarks,  in  his  Annals  of  the  English  Bible, 
published  forty  years  ago  : — "  Time,  however,  will  show,  and 
in  a  very  singular  manner,  that  every  version,  without  excep- 
tion, which  came  from  Carey's  hands,  has  a  value  affixed  to 
it  which  the  present  generation,  living  as  it  were  too  near  an 
object,  is  not  yet  able  to  estimate  or  descry.  Fifty  years 
hence,  we  repeat,  the  character  of  this  extraordinary  and 
humble  man  will  be  more  correctly  appreciated." 

It  was  in  a  very  different  spirit  that  Carey  had  welcomed, 
had  invited  the  labours  of  his  few  contemporaries  in  the  wide 
field  of  Bible  translation.  When  in  1804  Colonel  Colebrooke 
had  translated  the  Gospels  into  Persian,  and  Mr.  Hunter  into 
Hindostani,  he  said:  "I  am  very  glad  that  Colonel  Cole- 
brooke has  done  it.  We  will  gladly  do  what  others  do  not, 
and  speed  those  who  do  anything." 

In  none  of  the  classes  of  languages  derived  from  the 
Sanskrit  was  the  zeal  of  Carey  and  his  associates  so  remark- 
able as  in  the  Hindi.  So  early  as  1796  he  wrote  of  this 
perhaps  the  most  widely  extended  offspring  of  the  Sanskrit : — 
"  I  have  acquired  so  much  of  the  Hindi  as  to  converse  in  it 
and  preach  for  some  time  intelligibly.  ...  It  is  the  current 
language  of  all  the  west  from  Eajmahal  to  Delhi,  and  per- 
haps farther.  With  this  I  can  be  understood  nearly  all  over 
Hindostan."  By  the  time  that  he  issued  the  sixth  memoir  of 
the  translations  Chamberlain's  experiences  in  North- Western 
India  led  Carey  to  write  that  he  had  ascertained  the  existence 
of  twenty  dialects  of  Hindi,  with  the  same  vocabulary  but 
different  sets  of  terminations.  The  Bruj  or  Brijbhasa  Gospels 
were  finished  in  1813,  two  years  after  Chamberlain  had  settled 
in  Agra,  and  the  New  Testament  was  completed  nine  years 
after.  This  version  of  the  Gospels  led  the  Brahman  priest, 
Anand  Masih,  to  Christ.  The  other  Hindi  dialects,  in  which 

1  See  Appendix  II. 


1818  EDWARDES'  STORY  OF  THE  AFGHAN  BIBLE.  261 

the  whole  New  Testament  or  the  Gospels  appeared,  will  be 
found  at  page  238.  The  parent  Hindi  translation  was  made 
by  Carey  with  his  own  hand  from  the  original  languages 
between  1802  and  1807,  and  ran  through  many  large  editions 
till  Mr.  Chamberlain's  was  preferred  by  Carey  himself  in 
1819. 

We  may  pass  over  the  story  of  the  Dravidian  versions,  the 
Telugoo  New  Testament  and  Pentateuch,  which  did  in  Bellary1 
what  the  first  edition  of  the  Bengali  had  done  near  Dacca  ; 
and  the  Kanarese.  Nor  need  we  do  more  than  refer  to  the 
Singhalese,  Persian,  Malayalam,  and  other  versions  made  by 
others,  but  edited  or  carefully  carried  through  the  press  by 
Carey.  The  wonderful  tale  of  his  Bible  work  is  well  illus- 
trated by  a  man  who,  next  to  the  Lawrences,  was  the  greatest 
Englishman  who  has  governed  the  Punjab  frontier ;  his  life  is 
being  written  by  Mr.  Euskin.  In  that  portion  of  his  career 
which,  in  his  own  charming  style,  Sir  Herbert  Edwardes  gave 
to  the  world  under  the  title  of  A  Year  on  the  Punjab  Frontier 
in  1848-49,  and  in  which  he  describes  his  bloodless  conquest 
of  the  wild  valley  of  Bunnoo,  we  find  this  gem  embedded. 
The  writer  was  at  the  time  in  the  Gundapoor  country,  of 
which  Kulachi  is  the  trade-centre  between  the  Afghan  pass 
of  Ghwalari  and  Dera  Ismail  Khan,  where  the  dust  of  Sir 
Henry  Durand  now  lies  : — 

"A  highly  interesting  circumstance  connected  with  the 
Indian  trade  came  under  my  notice.  Ali  Khan,  Gundapoor, 
the  uncle  of  the  present  chief,  Gooldad  Khan,  told  me  he 
could  remember  well,  as  a  youth,  being  sent  by  his  father  and 
elder  brother  with  a  string  of  Cabul  horses,  to  the  fair  of 
Hurdwar,  on  the  Ganges.  He  also  showed  me  a  Pushtoo 
version  of  the  Bible,  printed  at  Serampore  in  1818,  which  he 
said  had  been  given  him  thirty  years  before  at  Hurdwar  by 
an  English  gentleman,  who  told  him  to  '  take  care  of  it,  and 

1  The  Bible  its  own  Witness.     Notes  of  a  tour  by  Rev.  Mr.  Lewis  in  1872. 


262  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1818 

neither  fling  it  into  the  fire  nor  the  river ;  but  hoard  it  up 
against  the  day  when  the  British  should  be  rulers  of  his 
country !'  Ali  Khan  said  little  to  anybody  of  his  possessing 
this  book,  but  put  it  carefully  by  in  a  linen  cover,  and  pro- 
duced it  with  great  mystery,  when  I  came  to  settle  the  revenue 
of  his  nephew's  country, '  thinking  that  the  time  predicted  by 
the  Englishman  had  arrived  !'  The  only  person,  I  believe,  to 
whom  he  had  shown  the  volume  was  a  .Moolluh,  who  read 
several  passages  in  the  Old  Testament,  and  told  Ali  Khan 
'  it  was  a  true  story,  and  was  all  about  their  own  Muhom- 
mudan  prophets,  Father  Moses  and  Father  Noah.' 

"  I  examined  the  book  with  great  interest.  It  was  not 
printed  in  the  Persian  character,  but  the  common  Pushtoo 
language  of  Afghanistan ;  and  was  the  only  specimen  I  had 
ever  seen  of  Pushtoo  reduced  to  writing.  The  accomplish- 
ment of  such  a  translation  was  a  highly  honourable  proof  of 
the  zeal  and  industry  of  the  Serampore  mission ;  and  should 
these  pages  ever  meet  the  eye  of  Mr.  John  Marshman,  of 
Serampore,1  whose  own  pen  is  consistently  guided  by  a  love 
of  civil  order  and  religious  truth,  he  may  probably  be  able  to 
identify  '  the  English  gentleman '  who,  thirty-two  years  ago 
on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  at  the  then  frontier  of  British 
India,  gave  to  a  young  Afghan  chief,  from  beyond  the  distant 
Indus,  a  Bible  in  his  own  barbarous  tongue,  and  foresaw  the 
day  when  the  followers  of  the  '  Son  of  David '  should  extend 
their  dominion  to  the  '  Throne  of  Solomon.' " 

Hurdwar,  as  the  spot  at  which  the  Ganges  debouches  into 
the  plains,  is  the  scene  of  the  greatest  pilgrim  gathering  in 
India,  especially  every  twelfth  year.  There  three  millions 
of  people  used  to  assemble,  and  too  often  carried  epidemic 
disease  like  cholera  all  over  Asia  which  extended  to  Europe. 
The  missionaries  made  this,  like  most  pilgrim  resorts,  a 
centre  of  preaching  and  Bible  circulation,  and  doubtless  it 

1  Then  Editor  of  the  Friend  of  India. 


1820  THE  PANJABI  AND  BURMESE  BIBLES.  263 

was  from  Thompson,  Carey's  missionary  at  Delhi,  that  this 
copy  of  the  Pushtoo  Bible  was  received.  The  Panjabi  Bible, 
nearly  complete,  issued  first  in  1815,  had  become  so  popular 
by  1820  as  to  lead  Carey  to  report  of  the  Sikhs  that  no  one 
of  the  nations  of  India  had  discovered  a  stronger  desire  for 
the  Scriptures  than  this  hardy  race.  At  Amritsar  and  Lahore 
"  the  book  of  Jesus  is  spoken  of,  is  read,  and  has  caused  a 
considerable  stir  in  the  minds  of  the  people." 

When  Felix  Carey  returned  to  Serampore  in  1812  to 
print  his  Burmese  version  of  the  Gospel  of  Matthew  and  his 
Burmese  grammar,  his  father  determined  to  send  the  press  at 
which  they  were  completed  to  Rangoon.  The  three  mission- 
aries despatched  with  it  a  letter  to  the  king  of  Ava,  com- 
mending to  his  care  "  their  beloved  brethren,  who  from  love 
to  his  majesty's  subjects  had  voluntarily  gone  to  place  them- 
selves under  his  protection,  while  they  translated  the  Bible, 
the  Book  of  Heaven,  which  was  received  and  revered  "  by  all 
the  countries  of  Europe  and  America  as  "  the  source  whence 
all  the  knowledge  of  virtue  and  religion  was  drawn."  The 
king  at  once  ordered  from  Serampore  a  printing-press,  like 
that  at  Eangoon,  for  his  own  palace  at  Ava,  with  workmen  to 
use  it.  In  this  Carey  saw  the  beginning  of  a  mission  in  the 
Burman  capital,  but  God  had  other  designs  which  America, 
through  Judson  first  of  all,  is  now  splendidly  developing,  from 
Rangoon  to  Kareng-nee,  Siam,  and  Bhamo.  The  ship  con- 
taining the  press  sank  in  the  Rangoon  river,  and  the  first 
Burmese  war  soon  followed. 

Three  months  after  the  complete  and  magnificent  plan  of 
translating  the  Bible  into  all  the  languages  of  the  far  East, 
which  the  assistance  of  his  two  colleagues  and  the  college  of 
Fort  William  led  Carey  to  form,  had  been  laid  before  Fuller 
in  Northamptonshire,  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society 
was  founded  in  London.  Joseph  Hughes,  the  Nonconformist 
who  was  its  first  secretary,  had  been  moved  by  the  need  of 


264  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1809 

the  Welsh  for  the  Bible  in  their  own  tongue.  But  the  ex- 
Governor-General,  Lord  Teignmouth,  became  its  first  presi- 
dent, and  the  Serampore  translators  at  once  turned  for 
assistance  to  the  new  organisation  whose  work  Carey  had 
individually  been  doing  for  ten  years  at  the  cost  of  his  two 
associates  and  himself.  The  catholic  Bible  Society  at  once 
asked  Carey's  old  friend,  Mr.  Udny,  then  a  member  of  the 
Government  in  Calcutta,  to  form  a  corresponding  committee 
there  of  the  three  missionaries,  their  chaplain  friends  Brown 
and  Buchanan,  and  himself.  The  chaplains  delayed  the 
formation  of  the  committee  till  1809,  but  liberally  helped 
meanwhile  in  the  circulation  of  the  other  appeals  issued  from 
Serampore,  and  even  made  the  proposal  which  resulted  in 
Dr.  Marshman's  wonderful  version  of  the  Bible  in  Chinese 
and  Ward's  improvements  in  Chinese  printing.  To  the  prin- 
cipal tributary  sovereigns  of  India  Dr.  Buchanan  sent  copies 
of  the  vernacular  Scriptures  already  published.  The  delay 
was  due  to  the  "  bishop  "  theory,  which  has  so  often  imperilled 
the  extension  of  pure  Christianity  from  the  days  of  Con- 
stantine,  and  the  interference  of  the  Bishops  of  Eome  with 
the  Scoto-Irish  missions,  to  the  present  hour  in  Ceylon  and 
Bombay.  Even  so  late  as  1859  we  find  the  annalist  of  the 
Bible  Society  down  to  its  jubilee  officially  putting  the  case 
topsy-turvy  when  he  ascribes  to  Carey,  Marshman,  and  Ward 
only  "  vernacular  knowledge  and  zealous  assiduity,"  but 
"erudition"  and  personal  influence  to  "certain  members  of 
the  Established  Church."  Very  different,  because  altogether 
free  from  ecclesiastical  prejudice,  was  Southey's  estimate  of 
the  facts  in  the  Quarterly  Revieiv. 

From  1809  till  1830,  or  practically  through  the  rest  of 
Carey's  life,  the  co-operation  of  Serampore  and  the  Bible 
Society  was  honourable  to  both.  Carey  loyally  clung  to  it 
when  in  1811,  under  the  spell  of  Henry  Martyn's  sermon 
on  Christian  India,  the  chaplains  established  the  Calcutta 


1830  THE  BIBLE  SOCIETY.  265 

Auxiliary  Bible  Society  in  order  to  supersede  its  correspond- 
ing committee.  In  the  Serampore  press  the  new  auxiliary, 
like  the  parent  Society,  found  the  cheapest  and  best  means 
of  publishing  editions  of  the  New  Testament  in  Singhalese, 
Malay alam,  and  Tamil.  The  press  issued  also  the  Persian 
New  Testament,  first  of  the  Eomanist  missionary,  Sebastiani 
— "  though  it  be  not  wholly  free  from  imperfections  it  will 
doubtless  do  much  good,"  wrote  Dr.  Marshman  to  Fuller, — 
and  then  of  Henry  Martyn,  whose  assistant,  Sabat,  was 
trained  at  Serampore.  Those  three  of  Serampore  had  a 
Christ-like  tolerance,  which  sprang  from  the  divine  charity 
of  their  determination  to  live  only  that  the  Word  of  God 
might  sound  out  through  Asia.  When  in  1830  this  auxiliary, 
which  had  at  first  sought  to  keep  all  missionaries  out  of  its 
executive  in  order  to  conciliate  men  like  Sydney  Smith's 
brother,  the  Advocate-General  of  Bengal,  refused  to  use  the 
translations  of  Carey  and  Yates,  and  inclined  to  the  earlier 
version  of  Ellerton,  because  of  the  translation  or  transliteration 
of  the  Greek  words  for  "  baptism,"  these  two  scholars  acted 
thus,  as  described  by  the  Bible  Society's  annalist — they, "  with 
a  liberality  which  does  them  honour,  permitted  the  use  of 
their  respective  versions  of  the  Bengali  Scriptures,  with  such 
alterations  as  were  deemed  needful  in  the  disputed  word  for 
'  baptism,'  they  being  considered  in  no  way  parties  to  such 
alterations."  From  first  to  last  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society,  to  use  its  own  language,  "  had  the  privilege  of  aiding 
the  Serampore  brethren  by  grants,  amounting  to  not  less 
than  £13,500."  Of  this  a  large  proportion  had  been  given 
by  Mr.  William  Hey,  a  well-known  surgeon  at  Leeds,  who  had 
been  so  moved  by  the  translation  memoir  of  1816  as  to  offer 
£500  for  the  publication  of  1000  copies  of  every  approved 
first  translation  of  the  New  Testament  into  any  dialect  of 
India.  It  was  with  this  assistance  that  most  of  the  Hindi 
and  the  Pushtoo  and  Panjabi  versions  were  produced. 


266  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1812 

The  cold  season  of  1811-12  was  one  ever  to  be  remem- 
bered. Death  entered  the  home  of  each  of  the  staff  of  seven 
missionaries  and  carried  off  wife  or  children.  An  earth- 
quake of  unusual  violence  alarmed  the  natives.  Dr.  Carey 
had  buried  a  grandson,  and  was  at  his  weekly  work  in  the 
college  at  Calcutta.  The  sun  had  just  set  on  the  evening  of 
the  llth  March  1812,  and  the  native  typefounders,  com- 
positors, pressmen,  binders,  and  writers  had  gone.  Ward 
alone  lingered  in  the  waning  light  at  his  desk  settling  an 
account  with  a  few  servants.  His  two  rooms  formed  the 
north  end  of  the  long  printing-office.  The  south  rooms  were 
filled  with  paper  and  printed  materials.  Close  beyond  was 
the  paper-mill.  The  Bible-publishing  enterprise  was  at  its 
height.  Fourteen  founts  of  Oriental  types,  new  supplies  of 
Hebrew,  Greek,  and  English  types,  a  vast  stock  of  paper  from 
the  Bible  Society,  presses,  priceless  manuscripts  of  diction- 
aries, grammars,  and  translations,  and,  above  all,  the  steel 
punches  of  the  Eastern  letters — all  were  there,  with  the 
deeds  and  account-books  of  the  property,  and  the  iron  safe 
containing  notes  and  rupees.  Suffocating  smoke  burst  from 
the  long  type-room  into  the  office.  Bushing  through  it  to 
observe  the  source  of  the  fire,  he  was  arrested  at  the  southern 
rooms  with  the  paper  store.  Eeturning  with  difficulty  and 
joined  by  Marshman  and  the  natives  he  had  every  door 
and  window  closed,  and  then  mounting  the  south  roof  he  had 
water  poured  through  it  upon  the  burning  mass  for  four 
hours,  with  the  most  hopeful  prospect  of  arresting  the  ruin. 
While  he  was  busy  with  Marshman  in  removing  the  papers 
in  the  north  end  some  one  opened  a  window  for  the  same 
purpose,  when  the  air  set  the  entire  building  on  flame. 
By  midnight  the  roof  fell  in  along  its  whole  length,  and  the 
column  of  fire  leapt  up  towards  heaven.  With  "solemn 
serenity  "  the  members  of  the  mission  family  remained  seated 
in  front  of  the  desolation. 


1812  DESTRUCTION  OF  THE  SERAMPORE  PRESS.  267 

The  ruins  were  still  smoking  when  next  evening  Dr.  Carey 
arrived  from  Calcutta,  which  was  ringing  with  the  sad  news. 
The  venerable  scholar  had  suffered  most,  for  his  were  the 
manuscripts ;  the  steel  punches  were  found  uninjured.  The 
Telugoo  grammar  and  all  the  Bible  versions  in  the  press  were 
gone.  The  translation  of  the  Kamayana,  on  which  he  and 
Marshman  had  been  busy,  was  stopped  for  ever ;  fifty  years 
after  the  present  writer  came  upon  some  charred  sheets  of  the 
new  volume,  which  had  been  on  the  press  and  rescued.  Worst 
of  all  was  the  loss  of  that  polyglot  dictionary  of  all  the 
languages  derived  from  the  Sanskrit  which,  if  Carey  had  felt 
any  of  this  world's  ambition,  would  have  perpetuated  his 
name  in  the  first  rank  of  philologists. 

With  the  delicacy  which  always  marked  him  Dr.  Marsh- 
man had  himself  gone  down  to  Calcutta  next  morning  to 
break  the  news  to  Carey,  who  received  it  with  choking 
utterance.  The  two  then  called  on  the  friendly  chaplain, 
Thomason,  who  burst  into  tears.  When  the  afternoon  tide 
enabled  the  three  to  reach  Serampore,  after  a  two  hours'  hard 
pull  at  the  flood,  they  found  Ward  rejoicing.  He  had  been  all 
day  clearing  away  the  rubbish,  and  had  just  discovered  the 
punches  and  matrices  unharmed.  He  had  already  opened 
out  a  long  warehouse  nearer  the  river-shore,  the  lease  of 
which  had  fallen  in  to  them,  and  he  had  already  planned  the 
occupation  of  that  uninviting  place  in  which  the  famous 
press  of  Serampore  and,  at  the  last,  the  Friend  of  India 
weekly  newspaper  found  a  home  till  both  ceased  in  1875. 
The  description  of  the  scene  and  of  its  effect  on  Carey  by  an 
eye-witness  like  Thomason  has  a  value  of  its  own  : — 

"The  year  1812  was  ushered  in  by  an  earthquake  which 
was  preceded  by  a  loud  noise  ;  the  house  shook ;  the  oil  in  the 
lamps  on  the  walls  was  thrown  out  ;  the  birds  made  a  frightful 
noise  ;  the  natives  ran  from  their  houses,  calling  on  the  names  of  their 
gods  ;  the  sensation  is  most  awful  •  we  read  the  forty-sixth  Psalm. 


268  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1812 

This  fearful  prodigy  was  succeeded  by  that  desolating  disaster,  the 
Serampore  fire.  I  could  scarcely  believe  the  report  ;  it  was  like  a 
blow  on  the  head  which  stupefies.  I  flew  to  Serampore  to  witness  the 
desolation.  The  scene  was  indeed  affecting.  The  immense  printing- 
office,  two  hundred  feet  long  and  fifty  broad,  reduced  to  a  mere  shell. 
The  yard  covered  with  burnt  quires  of  paper,  the  loss  in  which  article 
was  immense.  Carey  walked  with  me  over  the  smoking  ruins.  The 
tears  stood  in  his  eyes.  *  In  one  short  evening,'  said  he,  '  the  labours 
of  years  are  consumed.  How  unsearchable  are  the  ways  of  God  !  I 
had  lately  brought  some  things  to  the  utmost  perfection  of  which  they 
seemed  capable,  and  contemplated  the  missionary  establishment  with 
perhaps  too  much  self-congratulation.  The  Lord  has  laid  me  low, 
that  I  may  look  more  simply  to  him.'  Who  could  stand  in  such  a 
place,  at  such  a  time,  with  such  a  man,  without  feelings  of  sharp 
regret  and  solemn  exercise  of  mind.  I  saw  the  ground  strewed  with 
half-consumed  paper,  on  which  in  the  course  of  a  very  few  months 
the  words  of  life  would  have  been  printed.  The  metal  under  our  feet 
amidst  the  ruins  was  melted  into  misshapen  lumps — the  sad  remains 
of  beautiful  types  consecrated  to  the  service  of  the  sanctuary.  All  was 
smiling  and  promising  a  few  hours  before — now  all  is  vanished  into 
smoke  or  converted  into  rubbish  !  Return  now  to  thy  books,  regard 
God  in  all  thou  doest.  Learn  Arabic  with  humility.  Let  God  be 
exalted  in  all  thy  plans,  and  purposes,  and  labours  ;  He  can  do  without 
thee." 

Carey  himself  thus  wrote  of  the  disaster  to  Dr.  Eyland  :— 
"25th  March  1812. — The  loss  is  very  great,  and  will  long 
be  severely  felt ;  yet  I  can  think  of  a  hundred  circumstances 
which  would  have  made  it  much  more  difficult  to  bear.  The 
Lord  has  smitten  us,  he  had  a  right  to  do  so,  and  we  deserve 
his  corrections.  I  wish  to  submit  to  his  sovereign  will,  nay, 
cordially  to  acquiesce  therein,  and  to  examine  myself  rigidly 
to  see  what  in  me  has  contributed  to  this  evil. 

"  I  now,  however,  turn  to  the  bright  side ;  and  here  I 
might  mention  what  still  remains  to  us,  and  the  merciful 
circumstances  which  attend  even  this  stroke  of  God's  rod ; 
but  I  will  principally  notice  what  will  tend  to  cheer  the 
heart  of  every  one  who  feels  for  the  cause  of  God.  Our  loss, 
so  far  as  I  can  see,  is  reparable  in  a  much  shorter  time  than 


1812  HIS  LOSSES  IN  THE  FIEE.  269 

I  should  at  first  have  supposed.  The  Tamil  fount  of  types 
was  the  first  that  we  began  to  recast.  I  expect  it  will  be 
finished  by  the  end  of  this  week,  just  a  fortnight  after  it  was 
begun.  The  next  will  be  the  small  Devanagari,  for  the 
Hindostani  Scriptures,  and  next  the  larger  for  the  Sanskrit. 
I  hope  this  will  be  completed  in  another  month.  The 
other  founts,  viz.  Bengali,  Orissa,  Sikh,  Telinga,  Singhalese, 
Mahratta,  Burman,  Kashmeerian,  Arabic,  Persian,  and  Chinese, 
will  follow  in  order,  and  will  probably  be  finished  in  six  or 
seven  months,  except  the  Chinese,  which  will  take  more  than 
a  year  to  replace  it.  I  trust,  therefore,  that  we  shall  not  be 
greatly  delayed.  Our  English  works  will  be  delayed  the 
longest ;  but  in  general  they  are  of  the  least  importance. 
Of  MSS.  burnt,  I  have  suffered  the  most ;  that  is,  what  was 
actually  prepared  by  me,  and  what  owes  its  whole  revision 
for  the  press  to  me,  comprise  the  principal  part  of  MSS.  con- 
sumed. The  ground  must  be  trodden  over  again,  but  no 
delay  in  printing  need  arise  from  that.  The  translations 
are  all  written  out  first  by  pundits  in  the  different  lan- 
guages, except  the  Sanskrit  which  is  dictated  by  me  to  an 
amanuensis.  The  Sikh,  Mahratta,  Hindostani,  Orissa,  Telinga, 
Assam,  and  Kurnata  are  re-translating  in  rough  by  pundits 
who  have  been  long  accustomed  to  their  work,  and  have  gone 
over  the  ground  before.  I  follow  them  in  revise,  the  chief 
part  of  which  is  done  as  the  sheets  pass  through  the  press, 
and  is  by  far  the  heaviest  part  of  the  work.  Of  the  Sanskrit 
only  the  second  book  of  Samuel  and  the  first  book  of  Kings 
were  lost.  Scarcely  any  of  the  Orissa,  and  none  of  the  Kash- 
meerian or  of  the  Burman  MSS.  were  lost — copy  for  about 
thirty  pages  of  my  Bengali  dictionary,  the  whole  copy  of  a 
Telinga  grammar,  part  of  the  copy  of  the  grammar  of  Pun- 
jabi or  Sikh  language,  and  all  the  materials  which  I  had 
been  long  collecting  for  a  dictionary  of  all  the  languages 
derived  from  the  Sanskrit.  I  hope,  however,  to  be  enabled 


270  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1812 

to  repair  the  loss,  and  to  complete  my  favourite  scheme,  if 
my  life  be  prolonged." 

Little  did  these  simple  scholars,  all  absorbed  in  their 
work,  dream  that  this  fire  would  prove  to  be  the  means  of 
making  them,  as  well  as  the  work,  famous  all  over  Europe 
and  America  as  well  as  India.  Men  of  every  Christian  school, 
and  men  interested  only  in  the  literary  and  secular  side  of 
their  enterprise,  had  their  active  sympathy  called  out.  The 
mere  money  loss,  at  the  exchange  of  the  day,  was  not  under 
ten  thousand  pounds.  In  fifty  days  this  was  raised  in  England 
and  Scotland  alone,  till  Fuller,  returning  from  his  last  cam- 
paign, entered  the  room  of  his  committee,  declaring  "  we  must 
stop  the  contributions."  In  Greenock,  for  instance,  every 
place  of  worship  on  one  Sunday  collected  money.  In  the 
United  States  Mr.  Eobert  Ealston,  a  Presbyterian,  a  merchant 
of  Philadelphia,  who  as  Carey's  correspondent  had  been  the 
first  American  layman  to  help .  missions  to  India,  and  Dr. 
Staughton,  who  had  taken  an  interest  in  the  formation  of  the 
Society  in  1792  before  he  emigrated,  had  long  assisted  the  trans- 
lation work,  and  now  that  Judson  was  on  his  way  out  they 
redoubled  their  exertions.  In  India  Thomason's  own  congre- 
gation sent  the  missionaries  £800,  and  Brown  wrote  from  his 
dying  bed  a  message  of  loving  help.  The  very  newspapers 
of  Calcutta  caught  the  enthusiasm ;  one  leading  article  con- 
cluded with  the  assurance  that  the  Serampore  press  would, 
"  like  the  phoenix  of  antiquity,  rise  from  its  ashes,  winged 
with  new  strength,  and  destined,  in  a  lofty  and  long  enduring 
flight,  widely  to  diffuse  the  benefits  of  knowledge  throughout 
the  East."  The  day  after  the  fire  ceased  to  smoke  Monohur 
was  at  the  task  of  casting  type  from  the  lumps  of  the  molten 
metal. 

In  two  months  after  the  first  intelligence  Fuller  was  able 
to  send  as  "feathers  of  the  phoenix"  slips  of  sheets  of  the 
Tamil  Testament,  printed  from  these  types,  to  the  towns  and 


1815      FEATHERS  OF  THE  PHCENIX — LORD  HASTINGS*  VISIT.      271 

churches  which  had  subscribed.  Every  fortnight  a  fount  was 
cast ;  in  a  month  all  the  native  establishment  was  at  work 
night  and  day.  In  six  months  the  whole  loss  in  Oriental 
types  was  repaired.  The  Eamayan  version  and  Sanskrit 
polyglot  dictionary  were  never  resumed.  But  of  the  Bible 
translations  and  grammars,  Carey  and  his  two  heroic  brethren 
wrote  : — "  We  found,  on  making  the  trial,  that  the  advan- 
tages in  going  over  the  same  ground  a  second  time  were  so 
great  that  they  fully  counterbalanced  the  time  requisite  to 
be  devoted  thereto  in  a  second  translation."  The  fire,  in 
truth,  the  cause  of  which  was  never  discovered,  and  insurance 
against  which  did  not  exist  in  India,  had  given  birth  to 
revised  editions. 

When,  in  1815,  the  Governor-General,  Lord  Hastings,  his 
wife,  and  Bishop  Middleton,  with  the  staff,  visited  Serampore, 
and  for  two  hours  inspected  every  detail  of  the  mission  estab- 
lishment, declaring  that  though  they  had  heard  much  of  the 
latter  it  far  exceeded  their  expectations,  what  interested 
them  most  was  "  the  room  appropriated  to  the  learned  natives 
employed  in  the  translation  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  ;  the  sight 
of  learned  Hindoos  from  almost  every  province  of  India  pre- 
paring translations  of  this  blessed  book  for  all  these  countries. 
When  the  Afghan  pundit  was  recognised  he  was  immediately 
pronounced  to  be  a  Jew."  The  Maithili  pundit  could  recite 
80,000  lines  of  Panini's  Grammar  and  some  of  his  commen- 
tators. On  returning  to  Barrackpore  that  great  statesman 
sent  Es.200  to  Dr.  Carey  for  the  native  workmen.  He  was 
the  first  Governor- General  to  visit  a  Christian  mission,  and 
his  immediate  predecessor  had  persecuted  it. 


CHAPTEK  XL 

WHAT  CAREY  DID  FOR  LITERATURE  AND  FOR  HUMANITY. 

The  growth  of  a  language — Carey  identified  with  the  transition  stage  of 
Bengali — First  printed  books — Carey's  own  works — His  influence  on 
indigenous  writers — His  son's  works — Bengal  the  first  heathen  country 
to  receive  the  press — The  first  Bengali  newspaper — The  monthly  and 
quarterly  Friend  of  India — The  Hindoo  revival  of  the  eighteenth  century 
fostered  by  the  East  India  Company — Carey's  three  memorials  to  Govern- 
ment on  female  infanticide,  voluntary  drowning,  and  widow-burning — 
What  Jonathan  Duncan  and  Col.  Walker  had  done — Wellesley's  regula- 
tion to  prevent  the  sacrifice  of  children — Beginning  of  the  agitation 
against  the  Suttee  crime — Carey's  pundits  more  enlightened  than  the 
Company's  judges — Humanity  triumphs  in  1832— Carey's  share  in  Ward's 
book  on  the  Hindoos — The  lawless  supernaturalism  of  Rome  and  of 
India — Worship  of  Jaganath — Regulation  identifying  Government  with 
Hindooism — The  swinging  festival — Ghat  murders— Burning  of  lepers 
— Carey  establishes  the  Leper  Hospital  in  Calcutta — Slavery  in  India 
loses  its  legal  status  — Cowper,  Clarkson,  and  Carey. 

LIKE  the  growth  of  a  tree  is  the  development  of  a  language, 
as  really  and  as  strictly  according  to  law.  In  savage  lands 
like  those  of  Africa  the  missionary  finds  the  living  germs  of 
speech,  arranges  them  for  the  first  time  in  grammatical  order, 
expresses  them  in  written  and  printed  form,  using  the  simplest, 
most  perfect,  and  most  universal  character  of  all — the  Roman, 
and  at  one  bound  gives  the  most  degraded  of  the  dark  peoples 
the  possibility  of  the  highest  civilisation  and  the  divinest 
future.  In  countries  like  India  and  China,  where  civilisa- 
tion has  long  ago  reached  its  highest  level,  and  has  been 
declining  for  want  of  the  salt  of  a  universal  Christianity,  it  is 
the  missionary  again  who  interferes  for  the  highest  ends,  but 


1793  CAREY  GIVES  BENGALI  LITERARY  FORM.  273 

by  a  different  process.  Mastering  the  complex  classical 
speech  and  literature  of  the  learned  and  priestly  class,  and 
living  with  his  Master's  sympathy  among  the  people  whom 
that  class  despises  and  oppresses,  he  takes  the  rude  popular 
dialects  which  are  instinct  with  the  life  of  the  future ;  where 
they  are  wildly  luxuriant  he  brings  them  under  law,  where 
they  are  barren  he  enriches  them  from  the  parent  stock  so  as 
to  make  them  the  vehicle  of  ideas  such  as  Greek  gave  to 
Europe,  and  in  time  he  brings  to  the  birth  nations  worthy  of 
the  name  by  a  national  language  and  literature  lighted  up 
with  the  ideas  of  the  Book  which  he  is  the  first  to  translate. 

This  was  what  Carey  did  for  the  speech  of  the  Bengalees. 
To  them,  as  the  historians  of  the  fast  approaching  Christian 
future  will  recognise,  he  was  made  what  the  Saxon  Benedict 
had  become  to  the  Germans,  or  the  Northumbrian  Baeda  and 
Wiclif  to  the  English.  The  transition  period  of  English, 
from  1150  when  its  modern  grammatical  form  prevailed,  to 
the  fifteenth  century  when  the  rich  dialects  gave  place  to  the 
standard  literary  form,  has  its  central  date  in  1362.  Then 
Edward  the  Third  made  English  take  the  place  of  French  as 
the  public  language  of  justice  and  legislation,  closely  followed 
by  Wiclif's  English  Bible.  Carey's  one  Indian  life  of  forty 
years  marks  the  similar  transition  stage  of  Bengali,  includ- 
ing the  parallel  regulation  of  1829,  which  abolished  Persian, 
made  by  the  Mohammedan  conquerors  the  language  of  the 
courts,  and  put  in  its  place  Bengali  and  the  vernaculars  of 
the  other  provinces. 

When  Carey  began  to  work  in  Calcutta  and  Dinajpoor  in 
1792-93  Bengali  had  no  printed  and  hardly  any  written 
literature.  The  very  written  characters  were  justly  described 
by  Colebrooke  as  nothing  else  but  the  difficult  and  beautiful 
Sanskrit  Devanagari  deformed  for  the  sake  of  expeditious 
writings,  such  as  accounts.  It  was  the  new  vaishnava  faith 
of  the  Nuddea  reformer  Chaitanya  which  led  to  the  com- 

T 


274  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1801 

position  of  the  first  Bengali  prose.1  The  Brahmans  and  the 
Mohammedan  rulers  alike  treated  Bengali — though  "  it  arose 
from  the  tomb  of  the  Sanskrit,"  as  Italian  did  from  Latin 
under  Dante's  inspiration — as  fit  only  for  "demons  and 
women." 2  In  the  generation  before  Carey  there  flourished 
at  the  same  Oxford  of  India,  as  Nuddea  has  been  called,  Eaja 
Krishna  Eai,  who  did  for  Bengali  what  our  own  King 
Alfred  accomplished  for  English  prose.  Moved,  however, 
chiefly  by  a  zeal  for  Hindooism,  which  caused  him  to  put  a 
Soodra  to  death  for  marrying  into  a  Brahman  family,  he 
himself  wrote  the  vernacular  and  spent  money  in  gifts,  which 
"encouraged  the  people  to  study  Bengali  with  unusual 
diligence."  But  when,  forty  years  after  that,  Carey  visited 
Nuddea  he  could  not  discover  more  than  forty  separate  works, 
all  in  manuscript,  as  the  whole  literature  of  30,000,000  of 
people  up  to  that  time.  A  press  had  been  at  work  on  the 
opposite  side  of  the  river  for  fifteen  years,  but  Halhed's 
grammar  was  still  the  only  as  it  was  the  most  ancient  printed 
book.  One  Baboo  Earn,  from  Upper  India,  was  the  first 
native  who  established  a  press  in  Calcutta,  and  that  only 
under  the  influence  of  Colebrooke,  to  print  the  Sanskrit 
classics.  The  first  Bengali  who,  on  his  own  account, 
printed  works  in  the  vernacular  on  trade  principles,  was 
Gunga  Kishore,  whom  Carey  and  Ward  had  trained  at 
Serampore.  He  was  so  timid  at  first  that  he  had  the  print- 
ing done  at  the  press  of  a  European.  He  soon  made  so 
large  a  fortune  by  his  own  press  that  three  native  rivals 
had  sprung  up  by  1820,  when  twenty-seven  separate  books, 
or  15,000  copies,  had  been  sold  to  natives  within  ten  years. 

For  nearly  all  these  Serampore  supplied  the  type.  But  all 
were  in  another  sense  the  result  of  Carey's  action.  His  first 
edition  of  the  Bengali  New  Testament  appeared  in  1801, 

1  The  Chaitanya  Charita  Amrita,  by  Krishna  Das  in  1557,  was  the  first  of 
importance  2  Quarterly  Friend  of  India,  No.  I. 


1801  EARLY  BENGALI  LITERATURE.  275 

his  Grammar  in  the  same  year,  and  at  the  same  time  his 
Colloquies,  which  he  wrote  out  of  the  abundance  of  his  know- 
ledge of  native  thought,  idioms,  and  even  slang,  to  enable 
students  to  converse  with  all  classes  of  society,  as  Erasmus 
had  done  in  another  way.  His  Dictionary  of  80,000  words 
began  to  appear  in  1815.  Knowing,  however,  that  in  the 
long  run  the  literature  of  a  nation  must  be  of  indigenous 
growth,  he  at  once  pressed  the  natives  into  this  service. 
His  first  pundit,  Earn  Basu,  was  described  by  one  who  after- 
wards knew  him  well  as  a  most  accomplished  Bengali 
scholar.  This  able  man,  who  lacked  the  courage  to  profess 
Christ  in  the  end,  wrote  the  first  tract,  the  Gospel  Messenger, 
and  the  first  pamphlet  exposing  Hindooism,  both  of  which 
had  an  enormous  sale  and  caused  much  excitement.  On  the 
historical  side  Carey  induced  him  to  publish  in  1801  the 
Life  of  Raja  Pratapaditya,  the  last  king  of  Sagar  Island.  At 
first  the  new  professor  could  not  find  reading  books  for  his 
Bengali  class  in  the  College  of  Fort  William.  He,  his 
pundits,  especially  Mritunjaya  of  Orissa,  who  has  been  com- 
pared in  his  physique  and  knowledge  to  Dr.  Samuel  Johnson, 
and  even  the  young  civilian  students,  were  for  many  years 
compelled  to  write  Bengali  text  and  reading  books,  includ- 
ing translations  of  Virgil's  ^Jneid  and  Shakspere's  Tempest. 
The  School  Book  Society  took  up  the  work,  encouraging  such 
a  man  as  Ram  Komal  Sen,  the  printer  who  became  chief 
native  official  of  the  Bank  of  Bengal  and  father  of  the  late 
Keshab  Chunder  Sen,  to  prepare  his  Bengali  dictionary.  Self- 
interest  soon  enlisted  the  haughtiest  Brahmans  in  the  work 
of  producing  school  and  reading  books,  till  now  the  Bengali 
language  is  to  India  what  the  Italian  is  to  Europe,  and  its 
native  literature  is  comparatively  as  rich.  Nor  was  Carey 
without  his  European  successor  in  the  good  work  for  a  time. 
When  his  son  Felix  died  in  1823  he  was  bewailed  as  the 
coadjutor  of  Earn  Komal  Sen,  as  the  author  of  the  first 


276  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1818 

volume  of  a  Bengali  encyclopaedia  on  anatomy,  as  the  trans- 
lator of  Bunyan's  Pilgrim,  Goldsmith's  History  of  England, 
and  Mill's  History  of  India. 

Literature  cannot  be  said  to  exist  for  the  people  till 
the  newspaper  appears.  Bengal  was  the  first  non-Christian 
country  into  which  the  press  had  ever  been  introduced. 
Above  all  forms  of  truth  and  faith  Christianity  seeks  free 
discussion;  in  place  of  that  the  missionaries  lived  under  a 
shackled  press  law  tempered  by  the  higher  instincts  of 
rulers  like  Wellesley,  Hastings,  and  Bentinck,  till  Macaulay 
and  Metcalfe  gained  for  it  perfect  liberty,  only  to  be  tem- 
porarily checked  by  Lord  Canning  and  Lord  Lytton.  When 
Dr.  Marshman  in  1818  proposed  the  publication  of  a  Ben- 
gali periodical,  Dr.  Carey,  impressed  by  a  quarter  of  a  cen- 
tury's intolerance  and  trembling  for  the  safety  of  his  more 
special  missionary  work,  consented  only  on  the  condition  that 
it  should  be  a  monthly  magazine,  and  should  avoid  political 
discussion.  Accordingly  the  Dig-darshan  appeared,  anticipat- 
ing in  its  contents  and  style  the  later  Penny  and  Saturday 
Magazines,  and  continued  for  three  years.  Its  immediate 
success  led  to  the  issue  from  the  Serampore  press  on  the 
31st  May  1818,  of  "  the  first  newspaper  ever  printed  in  any 
Oriental  language  " — the  Samackar  Darpan,  or  News  Mirror. 

It  was  a  critical  hour  when  the  first  proof  of  the  first 
number  was  laid  before  the  assembled  brotherhood  at  the 
weekly  meeting  on  Friday  evening.  Dr.  Carey,  fearing  for  his 
spiritual  work,  but  eager  for  this  new  avenue  to  the  minds  of 
the  people  who  were  being  taught  to  read,  and  had  little  save 
their  own  mythology,  consented  to  its  publication  when  Dr. 
Marshman  promised  to  send  a  copy,  with  an  analysis  of  its 
contents  in  English,  to  the  Government,  and  to  stop  the  en- 
terprise if  it  should  be  officially  disapproved.  Lord  Hastings 
was  fighting  the  Pindarees,  and  nothing  was  .said  by  his 
Council.  On  his  return  he  declared  that  "  the  effect  of  such 


1818       FIRST  BENGALI  NEWSPAPER "  FRIEND  OF  INDIA."       277 

a  paper  must  be  extensively  and  importantly  useful."  He 
received  the  assurance  that  it  had  not  been  devised  as  an  engine 
for  undermining  their  religious  opinions  since  it  could  not  live 
without  the  patronage  of  the  natives,  and  induced  his  col- 
leagues to  agree  with  him  in  allowing  it  to  circulate  by  post 
at  one-fourth  the  then  heavy  rate.  The  natives  welcomed 
their  first  newspaper.  Dwarkanth  Tagore  became  the  first 
subscriber.  Although  it  avoided  religious  controversy,  in  a 
few  weeks  an  opposition  journal  was  issued  by  a  native,  who 
sought  to  defend  Hindooism  under  the  title  of  the  Destroyer 
of  Darkness.  To  the  Darpan  the  educated  natives  looked  as 
the  means  of  bringing  the  oppression  of  their  own  country- 
men to  the  knowledge  of  the  public  and  the  authorities. 
Government  found  it  most  useful  for  contradicting  silly 
rumours  and  promoting  contentment  if  not  loyalty.  The 
paper  gave  a  new  development  to  the  Bengali  language  as 
well  as  to  the  moral  and  political  education  of  the  people. 

The  same  period  of  liberty  to  the  press  and  to  native 
advancement,  with  which  the  names  of  the  Marquis  of 
Hastings  and  his  accomplished  wife  will  ever  be  associated, 
saw  the  birth  of  an  English  periodical  which,  for  the  next 
fifty -seven  years,  was  to  become  not  merely  famous  but 
powerfully  useful  as  the  Friend  of  India.  The  title  was  the 
selection  of  Dr.  Marshman,  and  the  editorial  management 
was  his  and  his  able  son's  down  to  1850,  when  it  passed  into 
the  hands  of  Mr.  Meredith  Townsend,  still  the  most  brilliant 
of  English  journalists,  and  finally  into  those  of  the  present 
writer.  For  two  years  a  monthly,  and  then  a  quarterly 
magazine  till  1835,  when  Mr.  John  Marshman  made  it  the 
well-known  weekly,  this  journal  became  the  means  through 
which  Carey  and  the  brotherhood  fought  the  good  fight  of 
humanity  and  enlightenment  on  behalf  of  our  native  fellow- 
subjects  and  gained  their  victories  nearly  all  along  the  line. 
In  the  monthly  and  quarterly  Friend,  moreover,  reprinted 


278  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1799 

as  much  of  it  was  in  London,1  the  three  philanthropists 
brought  their  ripe  experience  and  lofty  principles  to  bear 
on  the  conscience  of  England  and  of  educated  India  alike. 
As,  on  the  Oriental  side,  Carey  chose  for  his  weapon  the  ver- 
nacular, on  the  other  he  drew  from  Western  sources  the  prin- 
ciples and  the  thoughts  which  he  clothed  in  a  Bengali  dress. 
We  have  already  seen,  in  Chapter  III.,  how  Carey  at  the 
end  of  the  eighteenth  century  found  Hindooism  at  its  worst. 
Steadily  had  the  Puranic  corruption  and  the  Brahmanical 
oppression  gone  on  demoralising  the  whole  of  Hindoo  society. 
In  the  period  of  virtual  anarchy,  which  covered  the  seventy- 
five  years  from  the  death  of  Aurangzeb  to  the  supremacy  of 
Warren  Hastings  and  the  reforms  of  Lord  Cornwallis,  the 
healthy  zeal  of  Islam  against  the  idolatrous  abominations  of  the 
Hindoos  had  ceased.  In  its  place  there  was  not  only  a  wild 
license  amounting  to  an  undoubted  Hindoo  revival,  marked 
on  the  political  side  by  the  Maratha  ascendency,  but  there 
came  to  be  deliberate  encouragement  of  the  worst  forms  of 
Hindooism  by  the  East  India  Company  and  its  servants. 
Professor  Seeley,  in  the  greatest  of  his  books,  does  justice,  for 
the  first  time  in  history,  to  the  Eastern  side  of  the  mutual 
influence  of  India  and  England.2  That  what  he  calls  "  the 
mischievous  reaction"  from  India — its  idolatry,  its  women,  its 
nabobs,  its  wealth,  its  absolutism — on  England  was  prevented, 
and  European  civilisation  was  "  after  much  delay  and  hesita- 
tion "  brought  to  bear  on  India,  was  due  indeed  to  the  legis- 
lation of  Governor- Generals  from  Cornwallis  to  Bentinck, 
but  much  more,  through  these,  to  the  persistent  righteous 
agitation  of  Christian  missionaries,  notably  Carey  and  Duff. 
For  years  Carey  stood  alone  in  India  as  Grant  and  Wilber- 
force  did  in  England,  in  the  darkest  hour  of  England's  moral 

1  Under  the  title  of  Essays  Relative  to  the  Habits,  Character,  and  Moral 
Improvement  of  the  Hindoos  (1823). 

2  The  Expansion  of  England  (1883),  p.  235. 


1799  THE  MURDER  OF  WIDOWS.  279 

degradation  and  spiritual  death,  when  the  men  who  were 
shaping  the  destinies  of  India  were  the  Hindooising  Stewarts 
and  Youngs,  Prendergasts,  Twinings,  and  Warings,  some  of 
whom  hated  missions  from  the  dread  of  sedition,  others  be- 
cause their  hearts  "  seduced  by  fair  idolatresses  had  fallen  to 
idols  foul"1 

The  most  atrociously  cruel  and  inhuman  of  all  the  Brah- 
manical  customs,  and  yet  the  most  universal  from  the  land  of 
the  five  rivers  at  Lahore  to  the  far  spice  islands  at  Bali,  was 
the  murder  of  widows  by  burning  or  burying  them  alive  with 
the  husband's  corpse.  We  have  seen  (page  107)  how  the  first 
of  the  many  such  scenes  which  he  was  doomed  to  witness  for 
the  next  thirty  years  affected  Carey.  After  remonstrances, 
which  the  people  met  first  by  argument  and  then  by  surly 
threats,  Carey  wrote : — "  I  told  them  I  would  not  go,  that 
I  was  determined  to  stay  and  see  the  murder,  and  that  I 
should  certainly  bear  witness  of  it  at  the  tribunal  of  God." 
And  when  he  again  sought  to  interfere  because  the  two  stout 
bamboos  always  fixed  for  the  purpose  of  preventing  the 
victim's  escape  were  pressed  down  on  the  shrieking  woman 
like  levers,  and  they  persisted,  he  wrote  : — "  We  could  not 
bear  to  see  more,  but  left  them  exclaiming  loudly  against 
the  murder  and  full  of  horror  at  what  we  had  seen."  The 
remembrance  of  that  sight  never  left  Carey.  His  naturally 
cheerful  spirit  was  inflamed  to  indignation  all  his  life 
through,  till  his  influence,  more  than  that  of  any  other  one 
man,  at  last  prevailed  to  put  out  for  ever  the  murderous 
pyre.  Had  Lord  Wellesley  remained  Governor -General  a 
year  longer  Carey  would  have  succeeded  in  1808,  instead 
of  having  to  wait  till  1829,  and  to  know  as  he  waited 
and  prayed  that  literally  every  day  saw  the  devilish  smoke 
ascending  along  the  banks  of  the  Ganges,  and  the  rivers  and 
pools  considered  sacred  by  the  Hindoos.  Need  we  wonder 

1  Calcutta  Preview  for  January  1852,  vol.  xvii. 


280  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1808 

that  when  on  a  Sunday  the  regulation  of  Lord  William 
Bentinck's  Government  prohibiting  the  crime  reached  him 
as  he  was  meditating  his  morning  sermon,  he  sent  for  another 
to  do  the  preaching,  and  taking  his  pen  in  his  hand  at  once 
wrote  the  official  translation,  and  had  it  issued  in  the  Bengali 
Gazette  that  not  another  day  might  be  added  to  the  long  black 
catalogue  of  many  centuries  ? 

On  the  return  of  the  Marquis  Wellesley  to  Calcutta  from 
the  Tipoo  war,  and  his  own  appointment  to  the  College  of 
Fort  William,  Carey  felt  that  his  time  had  come  to  prevent 
the  murder  of  the  innocents  all  over  India  in  the  three  forms 
of  female  infanticide,  voluntary  drowning,  and  widow  burning 
or  burying  alive.  His  old  friend,  Udny,  having  become  a 
member  of  Council  or  colleague  of  the  Governor-General,  he 
prepared  three  memorials  to  Government  on  each  of  these 
crimes.  When  afterwards  he  had  enlisted  Claudius  Buchanan 
in  the  good  work,  and  had  employed  trustworthy  natives  to 
collect  statistics  proving  that  in  the  small  district  around 
Calcutta  275  widow  murders  thus  took  place  in  six  months  of 
1803,  and  when  he  was  asked  by  Dr.  Kyland  to  state  the  facts 
which,  with  his  usual  absence  of  self-regarding,  he  had  not 
reported  publicly,  or  even  in  letters  home,  he  thus  replied  : — 

"  2*7th  April  1808. — The  report  of  the  burning  of  women, 
and  some  others,  however,  were  made  by  me.  I,  at  his  ex- 
pense, however,  made  the  inquiries  and  furnished  the  reports, 
and  believe  they  are  rather  below  the  truth  than  above  it.  I 
have,  since  I  have  been  here,  through  a  different  medium, 
presented  three  petitions  or  representations  to  Government 
for  the  purpose  of  having  the  burning  of  women  and  other 
modes  of  murder  abolished,  and  have  succeeded  in  the  case  of 
infanticide  and  voluntary  drowning  in  the  river.  Laws  were 
made  to  prevent  these,  which  have  been  successful.  Lord 
Mornington  told  Brother  Marshman  and  me  that  a  district 
in  Goojarat  had  lately  agreed  to  abolish  infanticide." 


1808  THE  SACRIFICE  OF  CHILDREN.  281 

In  the  Cathedral  of  St.  Thomas  at  Bombay,  the  first 
Protestant  church  built  in  India,  may  be  seen  a  marble 
monument  surmounted  by  two  children,  who  support  a  scroll 
on  which  is  written,  "  Infanticide  abolished  in  Benares  and 
Kattywar."  That  monument  covers  the  grave  of  the  Forfar- 
shire  lad,  Jonathan  Duncan,  who  anticipated  Sir  William 
Jones  in  his  study  of  Hindooism  to  such  effect  that,  when 
ruling  the  4,000,000  of  Benares  division,  he  discovered  and 
for  a  time  put  down  the  murder  of  their  female  children 
by  the  Eajpoots,  who  dreaded  the  expense  of  marrying  them 
into  the  reserved  castes.  That  was  just  before  Carey  came 
to  India.  In  a  few  years  after  Duncan  had  been  made 
Governor  of  Bombay,  where  he  pursued  the  same  philanthropic 
course,  infanticide  prevailed  as  much  as  ever,  and  indeed  it 
continued  to  burst  forth  at  intervals  till,  at  a  recent  period, 
Sir  William  Muir's  Act  was  passed  to  make  its  return  almost 
impossible.  Twelve  years  after  the  Benares  movement  Carey 
urged  on  Government  a  renewal  of  the  Rajpoot  pledges,  and 
learned  what  Duncan  had  done  through  Colonel  Walker, 
afterwards  the  friend  of  John  Wilson,  in  the  Kathiawar 
districts  of  Goojarat. 

But  there  was  a  crime  nearer  home,  committed  in  the 
river  flowing  past  his  own  door,  and  especially  at  Sagar 
Island,  where  the  Ganges  loses  itself  in  the  ocean.  At  that 
tiger-haunted  spot,  shivering  in  the  cold  of  the  winter  solstice, 
every  year  multitudes  of  Hindoos,  chiefly  wives  with  children 
and  widows  with  heavy  hearts,  assembled  to  wash  away  their 
sins — to  sacrifice  the  fruit  of  their  body  for  the  sin  of  their 
soul.  Since  1794,  when  Thomas  and  he  had  found  in  a 
basket  hanging  on  a  tree  the  bones  of  an  infant  exposed,  to 
be  devoured  by  the  white  ants,  by  some  mother  too  poor  to 
go  on  pilgrimage  to  a  sacred  river -spot,  Carey  had  known 
this  unnatural  horror.  He  and  his  brethren  had  planned  a 
preaching  tour  to  Sagar,  where  not  only  mothers  drowned 


282  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1805 

their  first  born  in  payment  of  a  vow,  with  the  encourage- 
ment of  the  Brahmans,  but  widows  and  even  men  walked 
into  the  deep  sea  and  drowned  themselves  at  the  spot  where 
Ganga  and  Sagar  kiss  each  other,  "  as  the  highest  degree  of 
holiness,  and  as  securing  immediate  heaven."  The  result  of 
Carey's  memorial  was  the  publication  of  the  Eegulation  for 
preventing  the  sacrifice  of  children  at  Sagar  and  other  places 
on  the  Ganges  : — "  It  has  been  represented  to  the  Governor- 
General  in  Council  that  a  criminal  and  inhuman  practice  of 
sacrificing  children,  by  exposing  them  to  be  drowned  or  de- 
voured by  sharks,  prevails.  .  .  .  Children  thrown  into  the 
sea  at  Sagar  have  not  been  generally  rescued  .  .  .  but  the 
sacrifice  has  been  effected  with  circumstances  of  peculiar 
atrocity  in  some  instances.  This  practice  is  not  sanc- 
tioned by  the  Hindoo  law,  nor  countenanced  by  the  religious 
orders."  It  was  accordingly  declared  to  be  murder,  punishable 
with  death.  At  each  pilgrim  gathering  sepoys  were  stationed 
to  check  the  priests  and  the  police,  greedy  of  bribes,  and  to 
prevent  fanatical  suicides  as  well  as  superstitious  murders. 

Unhappily  at  that  early  time  the  legislators  invoked  not 
the  natural  and  universal  rights  of  humanity  and  justice  but 
the  vague  authority  called  "law,"  which  had  been  at  once  made 
and  expounded  in  their  own  interest  alone  by  these  Brahman- 
ical  priests  and  oppressors.  Well  did  Dr.  John  Wilson,  who 
more  than  any  authority  up  to  Dr.  John  Muir  had  mastered 
that  "  law "  and  knew  its  weakness,  remark  on  the  similar 
mistake  made  by  Jonathan  Duncan  in  his  Benares  reform  of 
1789  : — "The  greatest  caution  is  required  in  the  use  of  argu- 
ments ex  concessu  in  dealing  with  the  living  false  systems  of 
religious  faith."  Sir  Henry  Maine  and  the  recent  legislators 
of  India  have  been  alive  to  the  danger  of  perpetuating, 
by  seeming  to  give  them  Christian  and  British  sanction, 
the  very  criminal  customs  we  would  root  out  or  educate  the 
people  themselves  to  destroy.  The  practice  of  infanticide 


1805  HIS  MEMORIAL  AGAINST  SUTTEE.  283 

was  really  based  on  the  recommendation  of  Sati,  literally  the 
"  method  of  purity"  which  the  Hindoo  shastras  require  when 
they  recommend  the  bereaved  wife  to  burn  with  her  husband. 
Surely,  reasoned  the  Eajpoots,  we  may  destroy  a  daughter  by 
abortion,  starvation,  suffocation,  strangulation,  or  neglect,  of 
whose  marriage  in  the  line  of  caste  and  dignity  of  family  there 
is  little  prospect,  if  a  widow  may  be  burned  to  preserve  her 
chastity ! 

In  answer  to  Carey's  third  memorial  Lord  Wellesley  took 
the  first  step,  on  5th  February  1805,  in  the  history  of  British 
India,  two  centuries  after  Queen  Elizabeth  had  given  the 
Company  its  mercantile  charter,  and  half  a  century  after 
Plassey  had  given  it  political  power,  to  protect  from  murder 
the  widows  who  had  been  burned  alive,  at  least,  since  the  time 
of  Alexander  the  Great.  This  was  the  first  step  in  the  history 
of  British  but  not  of  Mohammedan  or  Portuguese  India,  for 
our  predecessors  had  by  decree  forbidden  and  in  practice  dis- 
couraged the  crime.  Lord  Wellesley's  colleagues  were  still  the 
good  Udny,  the  great  soldier  Lord  Lake  and  the  weak  tradi- 
tionist  Sir  George  Barlow.  The  magistrate  of  Bihar  had  on 
his  own  authority  prevented  a  child- widow  of  twelve,  when 
drugged  by  the  Brahmans,from  being  burned  alive,  after  which, 
he  wrote, "  the  girl  and  her  friends  were  extremely  grateful  for 
my  interposition."  Taking  advantage  of  this  case  the  Govern- 
ment asked  the  appellate  judges,  all  Company's  servants,  to 
"  ascertain  how  far  the  practice  is  founded  on  the  religious 
opinions  of  the  Hindoos.  If  not  founded  on  any  precept  of 
their  law,  the  Governor-General  in  Council  hopes  that  the 
custom  may  gradually,  if  not  immediately,  be  altogether  abol- 
ished. If,  however,  the  entire  abolition  should  appear  to  the 
Court  to  be  impracticable  in  itself,  or  inexpedient,  as  offend- 
ing any  established  religious  opinion  of  the  Hindoos,"  the 
Court  were  desired  to  consider  the  best  means  of  preventing 
the  abuses,  such  as  the  use  of  drugs  and  the  sacrifice  of  those 


284  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1805-1829 

of  immature  age.  But  the  preamble  of  this  reference  to  the 
judges  declared  it  to  be  one  of  the  fundamental  principles  of 
the  British  Government  to  consult  the  religious  opinions  of 
the  natives,  "consistently  with  the  principles  of  morality,  reason, 
and  humanity"  There  spoke  Carey  and  Udny,  and  Wellesley 
himself.  But  for  another  quarter  of  a  century  the  funeral  pyres 
were  to  blaze  with  the  living  also,  because  that  caveat  was 
set  aside,  that  fundamental  maxim  of  the  constitution  of 
much  more  than  the  British  Government — of  the  conscience 
of  humanity,  was  carefully  buried  up.  The  judges  asked  the 
pundits  whether  the  woman  is  "  enjoined  "  by  the  shaster 
voluntarily  to  burn  herself  with  the  body  of  her  husband. 
They  replied  "  every  woman  of  the  four  castes  is  permitted  to 
burn  herself,"  except  in  certain  cases  enumerated,  and  they 
quoted  Manoo,  who  is  against  the  custom  in  so  far  as  he 
says  that  a  virtuous  wife  ascends  to  heaven  if  she  devotes 
herself  to  pious  austerities  after  the  decease  of  her  lord. 

This  opinion,  even  apart  from  the  principles  of  morality, 
reason,  and  humanity,  would  have  been  sufficient  to  give  the 
requisite  native  excuse  to  Government  for  the  abolition,  but  the 
Nizamat  Adawlat  judges,  true  to  the  character  which  marked 
their  decisions  till  the  court  became  absorbed  in  that  of  the 
trained  barrister  judges,  urged  the  "  principle  "  of  "  manifest- 
ing every  possible  indulgence  to  the  religious  opinions  and 
prejudices  of  the  natives,"  ignoring  morality,  reason,  and 
humanity  alike.  Lord  Wellesley's  long  and  brilliant  adminis- 
tration of  eight  years  was  virtually  at  an  end :  in  seven  days 
he  was  to  embark  for  home.  The  man  who  had  preserved  the 
infants  from  the  sharks  of  Sagar  had  to  leave  the  widows 
and  their  children  to  be  saved  by  the  civilians  he  had  per- 
sonally trained,  Metcalfe  and  Bayley,  who  by  1829  rose  to 
Council  and  became  colleagues  of  Lord  W.  Bentinck.  But 
Lord  Wellesley  did  this  much,  he  declined  to  notice  the  so- 
called  "  prohibitory  regulations"  recommended  by  the  civilian 


1757-1829          SEVENTY  THOUSAND  WIDOWS  BURNED.  285 

judges.  These,  when  adopted  in  1812  by  Lord  Minto,  made 
the  British  Government  responsible  by  legislation  for  every 
murder  thereafter,  and  greatly  increased  the  number  of 
murders.  From  that  date  the  Government  of  India  decided 
"  to  allow  the  practice,"  as  recognised  and  encouraged  by  the 
Hindoo  religion,  except  in  cases  of  compulsion,  drugging, 
widows  under  sixteen,  and  proved  pregnancy.  The  police — 
natives — were  to  be  present,  and  to  report  every  case.  We  write 
the  fact  with  shame,  that  at  the  very  time  the  British  parliament 
were  again  refusing  in  the  new  charter  of  1813  for  another 
twenty  years  freely  to  tolerate  Christianity  in  its  Eastern 
dependency,  the  Indian  legislature  legalised  the  burning  and 
burying  alive  of  widows,  who  numbered  at  least  6000  in  nine 
only  of  the  next  sixteen  years,  from  1815  to  1823  inclusive. 

From  Plassey  in  1757  to  1829,  three-quarters  of  a  cen- 
tury, Christian  England  was  responsible,  at  first  indirectly 
and  then  most  directly,  for  the  known  immolation  of  at  least 
70,000  Hindoo  widows.  Carey  was  the  first  to  move  the 
authorities ;  Udny  and  Wellesley  were  the  first  to  begin 
action  against  an  atrocity  so  long  continued  and  so  atrocious.1 
While  the  Governor-Generals  and  their  colleagues  passed 
away,  Carey  and  his  associates  did  not  cease  to  agitate  in  India 
and  to  stir  up  Wilberforce  and  the  evangelicals  in  England, 
till  the  victory  was  gained.  The  very  first  number  of  the 
Friend  of  India  published  their  essay  on  the  burning  of 
widows,  which  was  thereafter  quoted  on  both  sides  of  the 
conflict,  as  "  a  powerful  and  convincing  statement  of  the  real 
facts  and  circumstances  of  the  case  "  in  Parliament  and  else- 
where. Nor  can  we  omit  to  record  the  opinion  of  Carey's 
chief  pundit,  with  whom  he  spent  hours  every  day  as  a  fellow- 

1  For  the  facts  see  Parliamentary  Returns,  well  condensed  in  the  Substance 
of  the  Speech  of  John  Poynder,  Esq. ,  at  the  Courts  of  Proprietors  of  East  India 
Stock,  held  on  the  21st  and  28th  days  of  March  1827,  which  led  to  the  orders 
of  1829.  See  also  A  Collection  of  Facts  and  Opinions  Relative  to  the  Burning  of 
Widows,  etc.,  by  William  Johns,  surgeon  (1816),  a  friend  of  Carey. 


286  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1829 

worker.  The  whole  body  of  law -pundits  wrote  of  Sati  as 
only  "  permitted."  Mritunjaya,  described  as  the  head  jurist 
of  the  College  of  Fort  William  and  the  Supreme  Court, 
decided  that,  according  to  Hindooism,  a  life  of  mortification 
is  the  law  for  a  widow.  At  best  burning  is  only  an  alterna- 
tive for  mortification,  and  no  alternative  can  have  the  force 
of  direct  law.  But  in  former  ages  nothing  was  ever  heard  of 
the  practice,  it  being  peculiar  to  a  later  and  more  corrupt  era. 
"  A  woman's  burning  herself  from  the  desire  of  connubial  bliss 
ought  to  be  rejected  with  abhorrence,"  wrote  this  colossus  of 
pundits.  Yet  before  he  was  believed,  or  the  higher  law  was 
enforced,  as  it  has  ever  since  been  even  in  our  tributary 
states,  mothers  had  burned  with  sons,  and  forty  wives,  many 
of  them  sisters,  at  a  time,  with  polygamous  husbands.  Lepers 
and  the  widows  of  the  devotee  class  had  been  legally  buried 
alive.  Magistrates,  who  were  men  like  Metcalfe,  never  ceased 
to  prevent  widow -murder  on  any  pretext  wherever  they 
they  might  be  placed,  in  defiance  of  their  own  misguided 
Government,  though  sometimes  handed  up  to  the  courts 
and  censured  by  the  executive. 

Though  from  4th  December  1829 — memorable  date  to  be 
classed  with  that  on  which  soon  after  800,000  slaves  were  set 
free — "  the  Ganges  flowed  unblooded  to  the  sea  "  for  the  first 
time,  the  fight  lasted  a  little  longer.  The  Calcutta  "orthodox" 
formed  a  society  to  restore  their  right  of  murdering  their 
widows,  and  found  English  lawyers  ready  to  help  them  in  an 
appeal  to  the  Privy  Council  under  an  Act  of  Parliament  of 
1797.  The  Darpan  weekly  did  good  service  in  keeping  the 
mass  of  the  educated  natives  right  on  the  subject.  The 
Privy  Council,  at  which  Lord  Wellesley  and  Charles  Grant, 
venerable  in  years  and  character,  were  present,  heard  the  case 
for  two  days,  and  on  24th  June  1832  dismissed  the  petition ! 

Though  the  greatest,  this  was  only  one  of  the  crimes  against 
humanity  and  morality  which  Carey  opposed  all  his  life  with 


1832  CRIMES  AGAINST  HUMANITY.  287 

persistent  energy  and  a  practical  reasonableness,  till  lie  saw 
the  public  opinion  lie  had  done  so  much  to  create  triumph 
over  the  apathy,  intolerance,  and  timidity  of  the  Court  of 
Directors,  the  Board  of  Control,  and  even  Parliament  itself 
up  till  1833.  He  knew  the  people  of  India,  their  religious, 
social,  and  economic  condition,  as  no  Englishman  before  him 
had  done.  He  stood  between  them  and  their  foreign  Govern- 
ment at  the  beginning  of  our  intimate  contact  with  all  classes 
as  detailed  administrators  and  rulers.  The  outcome  of  his 
peculiar  experience  is  to  be  found  not  only  in  the  writings 
published  under  his  own  name  but  in  the  great  book  of  his 
colleague  William  Ward,  every  page  of  which  passed  under 
his  careful  correction  as  well  as  under  the  more  general 
revision  of  Henry  Martyn.  Except  for  the  philosophy  of 
Hindooism,  the  second  edition  of  A  View  of  the  History, 
Literature,  and  Mythology  of  the  Hindoos,  including  a  Minute 
Description  of  their  Manners  and  Customs,  and  Translations 
from  their  Principal  Works,  published  in  1818  in  two  quarto 
volumes,  stands  unrivalled  as  the  best  authority  on  the  cha- 
racter, daily  life,  and  beliefs  of  the  200,000,000 x  to  whom  Great 
Britain  has  been  made  a  terrestrial  providence,  till  Christianity 
teaches  them  to  govern  themselves  and  to  become  to  the  rest 
of  Asia  missionaries  of  nobler  truth  than  that  wherewith  their 
Buddhist  fathers  covered  China  and  the  farther  East. 

All  the  crimes  against  humanity  with  which  the  history 
of  India  teems,  down  to  the  Mutiny  and  the  records  of  our 
courts  and  tributary  states  at  this  hour,  are  directly  traceable 
to  what,  writing  from  a  point  of  view  and  belief  the  very 
opposite  of  Carey's,  Sir  Alfred  Lyall  terms  the  lawless 
supernaturalism  of  the  civilised  world  before  the  triumph  of 
Christianity,  as  described  by  Eusebius  of  Caesarea  in  his 

1  With  this  work,  for  the  50,000,000  of  Mohammedans  also,  A  Manual  of 
Medical  Jurisprudence,  for  India,  by  Norman  Chevers,  M.D.  (3d  ed.  1870), 
should  be  consulted  as  a  "history  of  crime  against  the  person  in  India." 


288  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1813 

book  on  the  Theophaneia.1  In  nothing  does  England's 
administration  of  India  resemble  Eome's  government  of  its 
provinces  in  the  seven  centuries  from  the  reduction  of  Sicily, 
240  B.C.,  to  the  fall  of  the  Western  Empire,  476  A.D.,  so  much 
as  in  the  relation  of  nascent  Christianity  to  the  pagan  cults 
which  had  made  society  what  it  was.  Carey  and  the  brother- 
hood stood  alone  in  facing,  in  fighting  with  divine  weapons, 
in  winning  the  first  victories  over  the  secular  as  well  as 
spiritual  lawlessness  which  fell  before  Paul  and  his  successors 
down  to  Augustine  and  his  City  of  God.  The  gentle  and  reason- 
able but  none  the  less  divinely  indignant  father  of  modern 
missions  brings  against  Hindoo  and  Mohammedan  society 
accusations  no  more  railing  than  those  in  the  opening  pass- 
age of  the  Epistle  to  the  Eomans,  and  he  brings  these  only 
that,  following  Paul,  he  may  declare  the  more  excellent  way. 
As  Serampore,  or  its  suburbs,  is  the  most  popular  centre 
of  Jaganath  worship,  next  to  Pooree  in  Orissa,  the  cruelty 
and  oppression  which  marked  the  annual  festival  were  ever 
before  the  missionaries'  eyes.  In  1813  we  find  Dr.  Claudius 
Buchanan  establishing  his  veracity  as  an  eye-witness  of 
the  immolation  of  drugged  or  voluntary  victims  under  the 
idol  car,  by  this  quotation  from  Dr.  Carey,  when  he  had 
to  describe  at  that  time  to  his  English  readers,2  as  a 
man  of  unquestionable  integrity,  long  held  in  estimation  by 
the  most  respectable  characters  in  Bengal,  and  possessing 
very  superior  opportunities  of  knowing  what  is  passing  in 
India  generally  : — "  Idolatry  destroys  more  than  the  sword, 
yet  in  a  way  which  is  scarcely  perceived.  The  numbers  who 
die  in  their  long  pilgrimages,  either  through  want  or  fatigue, 
or  from  dysenteries  and  fevers  caught  by  lying  out,  and 
want  of  accommodation,  is  incredible.  I  only  mention  one 

1  Asiatic  Studies,  Religious  and  Social  (1882),  chapters  x.  and  xi. 

2  An  Apology  for  Promoting  Christianity  in  India  (1813).     See  also,  for 
cases  of  immolation  at  Serampore,  Poynder's  Speech,  pp.  226-9. 


1813     BRITISH  GOVERNMENT  IDENTIFIED  WITH  HINDOOISM.      289 

idol,  the  famous  Juggernaut  in  Orissa,  to  which  twelve  or 
thirteen  pilgrimages  are  made  every  year.  It  is  calculated 
that  the  number  who  go  thither  is,  on  some  occasions,  600,000 
persons,  and  scarcely  ever  less  than  100,000.  I  suppose,  at  the 
lowest  calculation,  that  in  the  year  1,200,000  persons  attend. 
Now,  if  only  one  in  ten  died,  the  morality  caused  by  this  one 
idol  would  be  120,000  in  a  year ;  but  some  are  of  opinion 
that  not  many  more  than  one  in  ten  survive  and  return 
home  again.  Besides  these,  I  calculate  that  10,000  women 
annually  burn  with  the  bodies  of  their  deceased  husbands,  and 
the  multitudes  destroyed  in  other  methods  would  swell  the 
catalogue  to  an  extent  almost  exceeding  credibility." 

Yet  it  was  with  the  priests  of  this  idol  that  the  British 
Government  deliberately  identified  itself  by  legislative 
regulations  which  made  Great  Britain  as  really  the  supporter 
of  Hindooism  and  Mohammedanism  as  it  is  of  the  established 
churches  of  England  and  Scotland,  the  Crown  alone  excepted. 
After  we  had  taken  Orissa  from  the  Marathas  the  priests  of 
Jaganath  declared  that  the  night  before  the  conquest  the 
god  had  made  known  its  desire  to  be  under  British  pro- 
tection. This  was  joyfully  reported  to  Lord  Wellesley's 
Government  by  the  first  British  commissioner.  At  once  a 
regulation  was  drafted  vesting  the  shrine  and  the  increased 
pilgrim -tax  in  the  Christian  officials.  This  Lord  Wellesley 
indignantly  refused  to  sanction,  and  it  was  passed  by  Sir 
George  Barlow  in  spite  of  the  protests  of  Carey's  friend, 
Udny.  In  Conjeveram  a  Brahmanised  civilian  named  Place 
had  so  early  as  1796  induced  Government  to  undertake 
the  payment  of  the  priests  and  prostitutes  of  the  temples, 
under  the  phraseology  of  "  churchwardens  "  and  "  the  manage- 
ment of  the  church  funds."  So  ashamed  or  afraid  were  the 
Court  of  Directors  to  publish  the  papers  on  the  subject,  that 
we  find  them  first  in  the  friend  of  India  for  1839.  Even 
before  the  Madras  iniquity,  the  pilgrims  to  Gay  a  from  1790, 

u 


290  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1814 

if  not  before,  paid  for  authority  to  offer  funeral  cakes  to  the 
manes  of  their  ancestors  and  to  worship  Yishnoo  under  the 
official  seal  and  signature  of  the  English  Collector.  Although 
Charles  Grant's  son,  Lord  Glenelg,  when  President  of  the 
Board  of  Control  in  1833,  ordered,  as  Theodosius  had  done  on 
the  fall  of  pagan  idolatry  in  A.D.  390,  that  "in  all  matters 
relating  to  their  temples,  their  worship,  their  festivals,  their 
religious  practices,  their  ceremonial  observances,  our  native 
subjects  be  left  entirely  to  themselves,"  the  identification  of 
Government  with  Hindooism  was  not  completely  severed  till 
a  recent  period.  When  Lord  Lytton  was  Governor-General 
and  Sir  A.  Eden  at  the  head  of  the  Bengal  province,  an 
attempt  to  revert  to  the  old  state  of  things  was  made,  and  it 
was  checked  by  Sir  Charles  Aitchison  in  a  minute  which 
ought  to  see  the  light. 

The  CharaJc,  or  swinging  festival,  has  been  frequently 
witnessed  by  the  present  writer  in  Calcutta  itself.  The 
orgie  has  only  of  late  been  suppressed  by  the  police  in 
great  cities,  although  it  has  not  ceased  in  the  rural  districts. 
In  1814  the  brotherhood  thus  wrote  home : — 

"  This  abominable  festival  was  held,  according  to  the  annual 
custom,  on  the  last  day  of  the  Hindoo  year.  There  were  fewer  gibbet 
posts  erected  at  Serampore,  but  we  hear  that  amongst  the  swingers  was 
one  female.  A  man  fell  from  a  stage  thirty  cubits  high  and  broke  his 
back  ;  and  another  fell  from  a  swinging  post,  but  was  not  much  hurt. 

"  Some  days  after  the  first  swinging,  certain  natives  revived  the 
ceremonies.  As  Mr.  Ward  was  passing  through  Calcutta  he  saw 
several  Hindoos  hanging  by  the  heels  over  a  slow  fire,  as  an  act  of 
devotion.  Several  Hindoos  employed  in  the  printing  -  office  applied 
this  year  to  Mr.  Ward  for  protection,  to  escape  being  dragged  into 
these  pretendedly  voluntary  practices.  This  brought  before  us  facts 
which  we  were  not  aware  of.  It  seems  that  the  landlords  of  the  poor 
and  other  men  of  property  insist  upon  certain  of  their  tenants  and 
dependants  engaging  in  these  practices,  and  that  they  expect  and  com- 
pel by  actual  force  multitudes  every  year  to  join  the  companies  of 
sunyassees  in  parading  the  streets,  piercing  their  sides,  tongues,  etc. 
To  avoid  this  compulsion,  many  poor  young  men  leave  their  houses 


1812  GHAT  MURDERS LEPER  BURNING.  291 

and  hide  themselves  ;  but  they  are  sure  of  being  beaten  if  caught,  or 
of  having  their  huts  pulled  down.  The  influence  and  power  of  the 
rich  have  a  great  effect  on  the  multitude  in  most  of  the  idolatrous 
festivals.  When  the  lands  and  riches  of  the  country  were  in  few 
hands,  this  influence  carried  all  before  it.  It  is  still  very  widely  felt, 
in  compelling  dependants  to  assist  at  public  shows,  and  to  contribute 
towards  the  expense  of  splendid  ceremonies. 

"  Through  divine  goodness,  however  (adds  the  narrator),  the  in- 
fluence of  commerce,  the  more  general  diffusion  of  wealth,  and  the 
intercourse  of  Europeans,  are  raising  the  Hindoos  from  this  statejjof 
abject  dependence  on  their  spiritual  tyrants  ;  and  thus  providential 
events  are  operating  with  the  Gospel  to  produce  a  happy  change*on 
the  great  mass  of  the  population,  especially  in  the  more  enlightened 
parts  of  Bengal." 

The  Ghat  murders,  caused  by  the  carrying  of  the  dying  to 
the  Ganges  or  a  sacred  river,  and  their  treatment  there,  con- 
tinue to  this  day,  although  Lord  Lawrence  attempted  to 
interfere.  Ward  estimated  the  number  of  sick  whose  death 
is  hastened  on  the  banks  of  the  Ganges  alone  at  five  hundred 
a  year,  in  his  anxiety  to  "  use  no  unfair  means  of  rendering 
even  idolatry  detestable,"  but  he  admits  that,  in  the  opinion 
of  others,  this  estimate  is  far  below  the  truth.  We  believe, 
from  our  own  recent  experience,  that  still  it  fails  to  give  any 
just  idea  of  the  destruction  of  parents  by  children  in  the 
name  of  religion. 

One  class  who  had  been  the  special  objects  of  Christ's 
healing  power  and  divine  sympathy  was  specially  interest- 
ing to  Carey  in  proportion  to  their  misery  and  abandon- 
ment by  their  own  people — lepers.  When  at  Cutwa  in 
1812,  where  his  son  was  stationed  as  missionary,  he  saw  the 
burning  of  a  leper,  which  he  thus  described  : — "  A  pit  about 
ten  cubits  in  depth  was  dug  and  a  fire  placed  at  the  bottom 
of  it.  The  poor  man  rolled  himself  into  it,  but  instantly  on 
feeling  the  fire,  begged  to  be  taken  out,  and  struggled  hard 
for  that  purpose.  His  mother  and  sister,  however,  thrust 
him  in  again,  and  thus  a  man,  who  to  all  appearance  might 


292  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1812 

have  survived  several  years,  was  cruelly  burned  to  death. 
I  find  that  the  practice  is  not  uncommon  in  these  parts. 
Taught  that  a  violent  end  purifies  the  body  and  ensures 
transmigration  into  a  healthy  new  existence,  while  natural 
death  by  disease  results  in  four  successive  births,  and  a  fifth 
as  a  leper  again,  the  leper,  like  the  even  more  wretched 
widow,  has  always  courted  suicide."  Carey  did  not  rest  until 
he  had  brought  about  the  establishment  of  a  leper  hospital 
in  Calcutta,  near  what  became  the  centre  of  the  Church 
Missionary  Society's  work,  and  there  to  this  day  benevolent 
physicians,  like  the  late  Dr.  Kenneth  Stuart,  and  Christian 
people,  have  made  it  possible  to  record,  as  in  Christ's  days, 
that  the  leper  is  cleansed  and  the  poor  have  the  Gospel 
preached  to  them. 

By  none  of  the  many  young  civilians  whom  he  trained 
or,  in  the  later  years  of  his  life,  examined,  was  Carey's  humane 
work  on  all  its  sides  more  persistently  carried  out  than  by 
John  Lawrence  in  the  Pan  jab.  When  their  new  ruler  first 
visited  their  district  the  Bedi  clan  amazed  him  by  petitioning 
for  leave  to  destroy  their  infant  daughters.  In  wrath  he 
briefly  told  them  that  he  would  hang  every  man  found  guilty 
of  such  murder.  When  settling  the  land-revenue  of  the  Cis- 
Sutlej  districts  he  caused  each  farmer,  as  he  touched  the  pen 
in  acceptance  of  the  assessment,  to  recite  this  formula — 

Bewa  mat  jalao. 
Beti  mat  maro. 
Korhi  mat  dabao. 

"  Thou  shalt  not  burn  thy  widows,  thou  shalt  not  kill  thy 
daughters,  thou  shalt  not  bury  thy  lepers." 

From  the  hour  of  Carey's  conversion  he  never  omitted  to 
remember  in  every  prayer  the  slave  as  well  as  the  heathen. 
The  same  period  which  saw  his  foundation  of  modern  mis- 
sions witnessed  the  earliest  efforts  of  his  contemporary, 
Thomas  Clarkson,  of  Wisbeach,  in  the  neighbouring  county 


1843  SLAVERY  IN  INDIA.  293 

of  Cambridge,  to  free  the  slave.  But  Clarkson,  Granville 
Sharp,  and  their  associates  were  so  occupied  with  Africa 
that  they  knew  not  that  Great  Britain  was  responsible  for 
the  existence  of  at  least  9,000,000  of  slaves  in  India,  many 
of  them  brought  by  Hindoo  merchants  as  well  as  Arabs  from 
Eastern  Africa  to  fill  the  hareems  of  Mohammedans,  and  do 
domestic  service  in  the  zananas  of  Hindoos.  The  startling 
fact  came  to  be  known  only  slowly  towards  the  end  of  Carey's 
career,  when  his  prayers,  continued  daily  from  1779,  were 
answered  in  the  freedom  of  all  our  West  India  slaves.  The 
East  India  answer  came  after  he  had  passed  away,  in  that 
Act  V.  of  1843  which  for  ever  abolished  the  legal  status  of 
slavery  in  India.  The  Penal  Code  has  since  placed  the 
prsedial  slave  in  such  a  position  that  if  he  is  not  free  it  is  his 
own  fault.  It  is  penal  in  India  to  hold  a  slave  "  against  his 
will,"  and  we  trust  the  time  is  not  far  distant  when  the  last 
three  words  may  be  struck  out. 

With  true  instinct  Christopher  Anderson,  in  his  Annals 
of  the  English  Bible,  associates  Carey,  Clarkson,  and  Cowper  as 
the  triumvirate  who,  unknown  to  each  other,  began  the  great 
moral  changes,  in  the  church,  in  society,  and  in  literature, 
which  mark  the  difference  between  the  eighteenth  and  the 
nineteenth  centuries.  Little  did  Carey  think,  as  he  dwelt 
within  sight  of  the  poet's  house,  that  Cowper  was  writing 
at  that  very  time  these  lines  in  The  Task  while  he  himself 
was  praying  for  the  highest  of  all  kinds  of  liberty  to  be 
given  to  the  heathen  and  the  slaves,  Christ's  freedom  which 
had  up  till  then  remained 

"...  unsung 

By  poets,  and  by  senators  unpraised, 
Which  monarchs  cannot  grant,  nor  all  the  powers 
Of  earth  and  hell  confederate  take  away  ; 
A  liberty  which  persecution,  fraud, 
Oppression,  prisons,  have  no  power  to  bind  : 
Which  whoso  tastes  can  be  enslaved  no  more." 


CHAPTEE  XII. 

WHAT  CAREY  DID  FOR  SCIENCE-FOUNDER  OF  THE 
AGRICULTURAL  AND  HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETY  OF  INDIA. 

Carey's  relation  to  science  and  economics — "What  the  Danish-Halle  missionaries 
had  done — State  of  the  peasantry — Carey  a  careful  scientific  observer — 
Specially  a  botanist — Becomes  the  friend  of  Dr.  Roxburgh  of  the  Com- 
pany's Botanic  Garden — Orders  seeds  and  instruments  of  husbandry — All 
his  researches  subordinate  to  his  spiritual  mission — His  eminence  as  a 
botanist  acknowledged  in  the  history  of  the  science — His  own  botanic 
garden  and  park  at  Serampore — The  poet  Montgomery  on  the  daisies  there 
— Borneo  —  Carey's  paper  in  the  Asiatic  Researches  on  the  state  of 
agriculture  in  Bengal — The  first  to  advocate  Forestry  in  India — Founds 
the  Agri- Horticultural  Society  of  India — Issues  queries  on  agriculture  and 
horticulture — Remarkable  results  of  his  action — On  the  manufacture  of 
paper — His  expanded  address  on  agricultural  reform — His  political  fore- 
sight on  the  importance  of  European  capital  and  the  future  of  India — An 
official  estimate  of  the  results  in  the  present  day — On  the  usury  of  the 
natives  and  savings  banks — His  academic  and  scientific  honours — De- 
struction of  his  house  and  garden  by  the  Damoodar  floods — Report  on  the 
Horticultural  Society's  garden — The  Society  honours  its  founder. 

NOT  only  was  the  first  Englishman,  who  in  modem  times 
became  a  missionary,  sent  to  India  when  he  desired  to  go  to 
Tahiti  or  West  Africa ;  and  sent  to  Bengal  from  which  all 
Northern  India  was  to  be  brought  under  British  rule ;  and 
to  Calcutta — with  a  safe  asylum  at  Danish  Serampore — then 
the  metropolis  and  centre  of  all  Southern  Asia;  but  he 
was  sent  at  the  very  time  when  the  life  of  the  people  could 
best  be  purified  and  elevated  on  its  many  sides,  and  he  was 
specially  fitted  to  influence  each  of  these  sides  save  one.  An 
ambassador  for  Christ  above  all  things  like  Paul,  but,  also 


1793  CAREY'S  RELATION  TO  SCIENCE.  295 

like  him,  becoming  all  things  to  all  men  that  he  might  win 
some  to  the  higher  life,  Carey  was  successively,  and  often  at 
the  same  time,  a  captain  of  labour,  a  schoolmaster,  a  printer, 
the  developer  of  the  vernacular  speech,  the  expounder  of  the 
classical  language,  the  translator  of  both  into  English  and  of 
the  English  Bible  into  both,  the  founder  of  a  pure  literature, 
the  purifier  of  society,  the  watchful  philanthropist,  the  saviour 
of  the  widow  and  the  fatherless,  of  the  despairing  and  the 
would-be  suicide,  of  the  downtrodden  and  oppressed.  We 
have  now  to  see  him  on  the  scientific  or  the  physical  and 
economic  side,  while  he  still  jealously  keeps  his  strength  for 
the  one  motive  power  of  all,  the  spiritual,  and  with  almost 
equal  care  avoids  the  political  or  administrative  as  his  Master 
did.  But  even  then  it  was  his  aim  to  proclaim  the  divine 
principles  which  would  use  science  and  politics  alike  to  bring 
nations  to  the  birth,  while,  like  the  apostles,  leaving  the  appli- 
cation of  these  principles  to  the  course  of  God's  providence  and 
the  consciences  of  men.  In  what  he  did  for  science,  for  litera- 
ture, and  for  humanity,  as  in  what  he  abstained  from  doing  in 
the  practical  region  of  public  life,  the  first  English  missionary 
was  an  example  to  all  of  every  race  who  have  followed  him 
in  the  past  century.  From  Carey  to  Livingstone,  alike  in 
Asia  and  Africa,  the  greatest  Christian  evangelists  have  been 
those  who  have  made  science  and  literature  the  handmaids 
of  missions.  An  authority  so  competent  as  Mr.  R  N.  Cust, 
who  was  long  himself  a  brilliant  member  of  the  civil  service, 
declares  with  truth  that  it  is  doubtful  whether  the  outturn  of 
the  combined  labours  of  the  civil  and  military  services  of 
British  India  would  surpass  that  of  an  equal  number  of 
missionaries  within  a  given  period.1  Certainly,  looked  at  on 
his  many  sides,  and  in  the  forty  years  of  his  continuous 

1  See  his  just  criticism  of  Laurie's  Ely  Volume  on  the  "  Contributions  of 
Foreign  Missions  to  Science  and  Human  Well-Being"  (Boston,  U.S.),  in  the 
Church  Missionary  Intelligencer  for  December  1884. 


296  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1813 

service  to  the  people  of  India,  in  the  midst  of  whom  he  lived, 
Carey  is  not  surpassed  by  his  predecessor,  Sir  William  Jones, 
or  by  his  contemporary  and  fellow-writer  Colebrooke,  while 
he  is  not  rivalled  by  any  others  who  may  be  named. 

Yet  Carey,  though  the  most  remarkable  of  all,  and  the 
first  Englishman,  was  not  the  first  of  the  missionaries  in 
India  to  yoke  science  to  the  chariot  of  Christian  truth. 
Mecamp's  compilation  from  the  accounts  of  the  Danish-Halle 
Mission  shows  how  much  Ziegenbalg,  Walter,  Widebrog,  and 
others  did  to  reveal  through  Latin  and  German  the  Hindoo 
literature,  geography,  and  mythology  of  Southern  India  in  the 
first  half  of  the  eighteenth  century.  Dr.  C.  S.  John,  who 
joined  that  mission  soon  after  the  close  of  that  period,  and 
toiled  with  remarkable  success  till  1813  when  he  published 
his  memorial  on  Indian  Civilization,  tells  us  that  when  he 
first  landed  at  Tranquebar  he  found  a  whole  collection  of 
MSS.  on  palm  leaves  by  his  predecessors,  and  among  these 
the  Medicus  Malabaricus  and  many  more  relics  of  botanical 
observations  and  researches  in  different  sciences.  Dr.  Koenig 
was  a  scholar  of  Linnaeus  himself,  and  became  an  official  of 
the  East  India  Company,  as  did  Dr.  Heyne  of  the  Moravian 
Mission.  Drs.  Martin,  Klein,  and  Eottler  were  diligent 
botanists  whose  communications  were  gratefully  acknow- 
ledged by  the  German  scholars  of  the  day.  Dr.  John  tells 
us  that,  assisted  by  many  an  able  youth  among  the  natives, 
he  had  sent  home  above  a  hundred  boxes  of  natural  history 
specimens  and  curiosities  collected  in  many  countries  and 
islands  in  the  Indian  Seas.  The  mission  garden  at  Tran- 
quebar had  a  nursery  of  useful  trees,  native  and  foreign,  and 
it  was  his  plan  to  make  each  of  the  free  schools,  with  which 
he  sought  to  cover  a  large  district,  a  centre  for  improved 
"  agriculture,  grafting,  and  other  particulars  of  gardening." 
When  Schwartz's  friend  Guericke  and  he  used  to  journey 
between  Madras  city  and  Chingleput,  their  dream  was  to 


1813  MISSIONARIES  AND  SCIENCE.  297 

clothe  the  barren  hills,  waste  tracts,  and  depopulated  villages 
with  palm  and  other  timber  and  fruit  trees,  which  their  mis- 
sionary inspectors  would  attend  to  when  visiting  the  free 
schools  and  preaching  everywhere,  and  would  teach  the  native 
schoolmasters  and  boys  to  care  for  in  their  leisure  hours. 
"  My  late  and  living  friends,  Dr.  Anderson,  Dr.  Eussel,  Dr. 
Eoxburgh,  and  Dr.  Benjamin  Heyne  would  undoubtedly  have 
had  much  greater  success  in  their  beneficial  researches  if  they 
had  found  such  assistants  as  these  in  their  pursuits."1  Some 
forty  years  after,  when  Duff  visited  the  famous  old  library  of 
the  mission  at  Tranquebar,  for  which  Bishop  Middleton  had 
meanwhile  offered  four  thousand  pagodas  in  vain,  he  found  a 
pile  of  MSS.  in  the  writing  of  the  old  missionaries,  all  that 
was  left  after  a  mass  had  been  sold  for  six  shillings,  to  be 
used  as  wadding  for  the  guns  of  the  fort. 

Apart  from  the  extreme  south  of  the  peninsula  of  India, 
where  these  Danish  missionaries  had  explored  with  hawk's 
eyes,  almost  nothing  was  known  of  its  plants  and  animals, 
its  men  as  well  as  its  beasts,  when  Carey  found  himself  in  a 
rural  district  of  North  Bengal  in  the  closing  decade  of  last 
century.  Nor  had  any  writer,  official  or  missionary,  anywhere 
realised  the  state  of  India  and  the  needs  of  the  Hindoo  and 
Mohammedan  cultivators  as  flowing  from  the  relation  of  the 
people  to  the  soil.  All  India  was  in  truth  a  land  of  millions 
of  peasant  proprietors  on  five -acre  farms,  rack-rented  or 
plundered  by  powerful  middlemen,  both  squeezed  or  literally 
tortured  by  the  Government  of  the  day,  and  driven  to  depend 
on  the  usurer  for  even  the  seed  for  each  crop.  War  and 
famine  had  alternated  in  keeping  down  the  population. 
Ignorance  and  fear  had  blunted  the  natural  shrewdness  of 
the  cultivator.  A  foul  mythology,  a  saddening  demon-worship, 

1  This  memorial  was  published  by  Rivingtons  about  1813,  and  extracts 
from  it  will  be  found  in  the  Apology  published  in  that  year,  in  which  Buchanan 
eulogises  Carey's  services  to  science,  p.  190. 


298  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1796 

and  an  exacting  social  system,  covered  the  land  as  with  a 
pall.  What  even  Christendom  was  fast  becoming  in  the 
tenth  century,  India  had  been  all  through  the  eighteen 
Christian  centuries. 

The  boy  who  from  eight  to  fourteen  "  chose  to  read  books 
of  science,  history,  voyages,  etc.,  more  than  others";  the 
youth  whose  gardener  uncle  would  have  had  him  follow  that 
calling,  but  whose  sensitive  skin  kept  him  within  doors,  where 
he  fitted  up  a  room  with  his  botanical  and  zoological  museum ; 
the  shoemaker-preacher  who  made  a  garden  around  every 
cottage-manse  in  which  he  lived,  and  was  familiar  with  every 
beast,  bird,  insect,  and  tree  in  the  Midlands  of  England, 
became  a  scientific  observer  from  the  day  he  landed  at 
Calcutta,  an  agricultural  reformer  from  the  year  he  first 
built  a  wooden  farmhouse  in  the  jungle  as  the  Manitoba 
emigrant  now  does  under  very  different  skies,  and  then 
began  to  grow  and  make  indigo  amid  the  peasantry  at  Dinaj- 
poor.  He  thus  unconsciously  reveals  himself  and  his  method 
of  working  in  a  letter  to  Morris,  the  preacher  of  Clipstone  : — 

"  MUDNABATI,  5th  December  1797. — To  talk  of  continuance 
of  friendship  and  warm  affection  to  you  would  be  folly.  I 
love  you  ;  and  next  to  seeing  your  face,  a  letter  from  you  is 
one  of  my  greatest  gratifications.  I  see  the  handwriting, 
and  read  the  heart  of  my  friend  ;  nor  can  the  distance  of  one- 
fourth  of  the  globe  prevent  a  union  of  hearts. 

"  Hitherto  I  have  refrained  from  writing  accounts  of  the 
country,  because  I  concluded  that  those  whose  souls  were 
panting  after  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  would  feel  but 
little  gratified  in  having  an  account  of  the  natural  pro- 
ductions of  the  country.  But  as  intelligence  of  this  kind  has 
been  frequently  solicited  by  several  of  my  friends,  I  have 
accordingly  opened  books  of  observation,  which  I  hope  to 
communicate  when  they  are  sufficiently  authenticated  and 
matured.  I  also  intend  to  assign  a  peculiar  share  to  each  of 


1797  HIS  EAELY  SCIENTIFIC  RESEARCHES.  299 

my  stated  correspondents.  To  you  I  shall  write  some 
accounts  of  the  arts,  utensils,  and  manufactures  of  the 
country;  to  Brother  Sutcliff  their  mythology  and  religion; 
to  Brother  Eyland  the  manners  and  customs  of  the  inhabit- 
ants ;  to  Brother  Fuller  the  productions  of  the  country ;  to 
Brother  Pearce  the  language,  etc. ;  and  to  the  Society  a  joint 
account  of  the  mission." 

He  had  "  separate  books  for  every  distinct  class,  as  birds, 
beasts,  fishes,  reptiles,  etc."  Long  before  this,  on  13th  March 
1795,  he  had  written  to  the  learned  Eyland,  his  special  corre- 
spondent on  subjects  of  science  and  on  Hebrew,  his  first 
impressions  of  the  physiography  of  Bengal,  adding : — "  The 
natural  history  of  Bengal  would  furnish  innumerable  novelties 
to  a  curious  inquirer.  I  am  making  collections  and  minute 
descriptions  of  whatever  I  can  obtain ;  and  intend  at  some 
future  time  to  transmit  them  to  Europe." 

"MuDNABATi,  26th  November  1796.  —  I  observed  in  a 
former  letter  that  the  beasts  have  been  in  general  described, 
but  that  the  undescribed  birds  were  suprisingly  numerous  ; 
and,  in  fact,  new  species  are  still  frequently  coming  under  my 
notice.  We  have  sparrows  and  water-wagtails,  one  species 
of  crow,  ducks,  geese,  and  common  fowls ;  pigeons,  teal, 
ortolans,  plovers,  snipes  like  those  in  Europe ;  but  others,  en- 
tirely unlike  European  birds,  would  fill  a  volume.  Insects 
are  very  numerous.  I  have  seen  about  twelve  sorts  of  grylli, 
or  grasshoppers  and  crickets.  Ants  are  the  most  omnivorous 
of  all  insects;  we  have  eight  or  ten  sorts  very  numerous. 
The  termes,  or  white  ants,  destroy  everything  on  which  they 
fasten ;  they  will  eat  through  an  oak  chest  in  a  day  or  two  and 
devour  all  its  contents.  Butterflies  are  not  so  numerous  as 
in  England,  but  I  think  all  different.  Common  flies  and 
mosquitoes  (or  gnats)  are  abundant,  and  the  latter  so  torment- 
ing as  to  make  one  conclude  that  if  the  flies  in  Egypt  were 
mosquitoes,  the  plague  must  be  almost  insupportable.  Here 


300  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1794 

are  beetles  of  many  species.  Scorpions  of  two  sorts,  the  sting 
of  the  smallest  not  mortal.  Land  crabs  in  abundance,  and 
an  amazing  number  of  other  kinds  of  insects.  Fish  is  very 
plentiful,  and  the  principal  animal  food  of  the  inhabitants. 
I  find  fewer  varieties  of  vegetables  than  I  could  have  con- 
ceived in  so  large  a  country.  Edible  vegetables  are  scarce, 
and  fruit  far  from  plentiful.  You  will  perhaps  wonder  at 
our  eating  many  things  here  which  no  one  eats  in  England : 
as  arum,1  three  or  four  sorts,  and  poppy  leaves  (Papaver 
somniferum).2  We  also  cut  up  mallows  by  the  bushes  for  our 
food.3  Amaranths,  of  three  sorts,  we  also  eat,  besides  cap- 
sicums, pumpkins,  gourds,  calabashes,  and  the  egg-plant  fruit ; 
yet  we  have  no  hardships  in  these  respects.  Kice  is  the  staple 
article  of  food  and  support  of  the  inhabitants.  .  .  . 

"  My  love  to  the  students.  God  raise  them  up  for  great 
blessings.  Great  things  are  certainly  at  hand." 

But  he  was  also  an  erudite  botanist.  Had  he  arrived 
in  Calcutta  a  few  days  earlier  than  he  did,  he  would  have 
been  appointed  to  the  place  for  which  sheer  poverty  led  him 
to  apply,  in  the  Company's  Botanic  Garden,  established  on 
the  right  bank  of  the  Hoogli  a  few  miles  below  Calcutta,  by 
Colonel  Alexander  Kyd,  for  the  collection  of  indigenous  and 
acclimatisation  of  foreign  plants.  There  he  at  once  made  the 
acquaintance,  and  till  1815  retained  the  loving  friendship,  of  its 
superintendent,  Dr.  Eoxburgh,  the  leader  of  a  series  of  eminent 
men,  Buchanan  and  Wallich,  Griffith,  Falconer,  T.  Thomson,  and 
Thomas  Anderson,  the  last  two  cut  off  in  the  ripe  promise  of 
their  manhood.  One  of  Carey's  first  requests  was  for  seeds 
and  instruments,  not  merely  from  scientific  reasons,  but  that 
he  might  carry  out  his  early  plan  of  working  with  his  hands  as 

1  Cuckoo-pint,  of  which  ten  species  are  used  for  food  in  hot  countries. 

2  Common  garden  poppy,  which  is  cultivated  in  the  East  Indies  for  the 
sake  of  the  milky  juice  contained  in  the  capsule,  which,  when  inspissated, 
forms  an  opiate.  3  Job  xxx.  4. 


1794       EESEARCHES  SUBORDINATE  TO  HIS  SPIRITUAL  AIM.        301 

a  farmer  while  he  evangelised  the  people.  On  5th  August 
1*794  he  wrote  to  the  Society  : — "  I  wish  you  also  to  send  me 
a  few  instruments  of  husbandry,  viz.  scythes,  sickles,  plough- 
wheels,  and  such  things;  and  a  yearly  assortment  of  all 
garden  and  flowering  seeds,  and  seeds  of  fruit  trees,  that  you 
can  possibly  procure ;  and  let  them  be  packed  in  papers,  or 
bottles  well  stopped,  which  is  the  best  method.  All  these 
things,  at  whatever  price  you  can  procure  them,  and  the 
seeds  of  all  sorts  of  field  and  forest  trees,  etc.,  I  will  regularly 
remit  you  the  money  for  every  year ;  and  I  hope  that  I  may 
depend  upon  the  exertions  of  my  numerous  friends  to  procure 
them.  Apply  to  London  seedsmen  and  others,  as  it  will  be 
a  lasting  advantage  to  this  country ;  and  I  shall  have  it  in 
my  power  to  do  this  for  what  I  now  call  my  own  country. 
Only  take  care  that  they  are  new  and  dry."  Again  he 
addressed  Fuller  on  22d  June  1797  :— 

"  MY  VERY  DEAR  BROTHER — I  have  yours  of  August  9, 16, 
which  informs  me  that  the  seeds,  etc.,  were  shipped.  I  have 
received  those  seeds  and  other  articles  in  tolerable  preser- 
vation, and  shall  find  them  a  very  useful  article.  An  ac- 
quaintance which  I  have  formed  with  Dr.  Eoxburgh,  Super- 
intendent of  the  Company's  Botanic  Garden,  and  whose  wife 
is  daughter  of  a  missionary  on  the  coast,  may  be  of  future 
use  to  the  mission,  and  make  that  investment  of  vegetables 
more  valuable." 

Thus  towards  the  close  of  his  six  years'  sacrifice  for  the 
people  of  Dinajpoor  does  he  estimate  himself  and  his  scientific 
pursuits  in  the  light  of  the  great  conflict  to  which  the  Captain 
of  Salvation  had  called  him.  He  is  opening  his  heart  to 
Fuller  again,  most  trusted  of  all : — 

"  MUDNABATI,  Vlih  July  1799. — Eespecting  myself  I  have 
nothing  interesting  to  say ;  and  if  I  had,  it  appears  foreign 
to  the  design  of  a  mission  for  the  missionaries  to  be  always 
speaking  of  their  own  experiences.  I  keep  several  journals, 


302  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1798 

it  is  true,  relating  to  things  private  and  public,  respecting  the 
mission,  articles  of  curiosity  and  science ;  but  they  are  some- 
times continued  and  sometimes  discontinued :  besides,  most 
things  contained  in  them  are  of  too  general  or  trivial  a  nature 
to  send  to  England,  and  I  imagine  could  have  no  effect, 
except  to  mock  the  expectations  of  our  numerous  friends, 
who  are  waiting  to  hear  of  the  conversion  of  the  heathen  and 
overthrow  of  Satan's  kingdom. 

"  I  therefore  only  observe,  respecting  myself,  that  I  have 
much  proof  of  the  vileness  of  my  heart,  much  more  than  I 
thought  of  till  lately  :  and,  indeed,  I  often  fear  that  instead  of 
being  instrumental  in  the  conversion  of  the  heathen,  I  may 
some  time  dishonour  the  cause  in  which  I  am  engaged. 
I  have  hitherto  had  much  experience  of  the  daily  sup- 
ports of  a  gracious  God ;  but  I  am  conscious  that  if  those 
supports  were  intermitted  but  for  a  little  time,  my  sinful 
dispositions  would  infallibly  predominate.  At  present  I 
am  kept,  but  am  not  one  of  those  who  are  strong,  and  do 
exploits. 

"I  have  often  thought  that  a  spirit  of  observation  is 
necessary  in  order  to  our  doing  or  communicating  much 
good ;  and  were  it  not  for  a  very  phlegmatic  habit,  I  think 
my  soul  would  be  richer.  I,  however,  appear  to  myself  to 
have  lost  much  of  my  capacity  for  making  observations, 
improvements,  etc.,  or  of  retaining  what  I  attend  to  closely. 
For  instance,  I  have  been  near  three  years  learning  the 
Sanskrit  language,  yet  know  very  little  of  it.  This  is  only  a 
specimen  of  what  I  feel  myself  to  be  in  every  respect.  I  try 
to  observe,  to  imprint  what  I  see  and  hear  on  my  memory, 
and  to  feel  my  heart  properly  affected  with  the  circumstances ; 
yet  my  soul  is  impoverished,  and  I  have  something  of  a 
lethargic  disease  cleaving  to  my  body.  .  .  . 

"  I  would  communicate  something  on  the  natural  history 
of  the  country,  in  addition  to  what  I  have  before  written ; 


1799  AS  A  BOTANIST.  303 

but  no  part  of  that  pleasing  study  is  so  familiar  to  me  as  the 
vegetable  world." 

His  letters  of  this  period  to  Fuller  on  the  fruits  of  India, 
and  to  Morris  on  the  husbandry  of  the  natives  might  be 
quoted  still  as  accurate  and  yet  popular  descriptions  of  the 
mango,  guava,  and  custard  apple;  plantain,  jack,  and  tamarind; 
pomegranate,  pine-apple,  and  rose-apple ;  papaya,  date,  and 
cocoa-nut ;  citron,  lime,  and  shaddock.  Of  many  of  these, 
and  of  foreign  fruits  which  he  introduced,  it  might  be  said 
he  found  them  poor,  and  he  cultivated  them  till  he  left  to 
succeeding  generations  a  rich  and  varied  orchard. 

While  still  in  Dinajpoor  he  wrote  on  1st  January  1798: — 
"  Seeds  of  sour  apples,  pears,  nectarines,  plums,  apricots, 
cherries,  gooseberries,  currants,  strawberries,  or  raspberries, 
put  loose  into  a  box  of  dry  sand,  and  sent  so  as  to  arrive 
in  September,  October,  November,  or  December,  would  be  a 
great  acquisition,  as  is  every  European  production.  Nuts, 
filberts,  acorns,  etc.,  would  be  the  same.  We  have  lately 
obtained  the  cinnamon  tree,  and  nutmeg  tree,  which  Dr. 
Eoxburgh  very  obligingly  sent  to  me.  Of  timber  trees  I 
mention  the  sissoo,  the  teak,  and  the  saul  tree,  which,  being 
an  unnamed  genus,  Dr.  Eoxburgh,  as  a  mark  of  respect  to 
me,  has  called  Careya  saulea" 

The  publication  of  the  last  name  caused  Carey's  sensitive 
modesty  extreme  annoyance.  "Do  not  print  the  names  of 
Europeans.  I  was  sorry  to  see  that  you  printed  that  Dr. 
Eoxburgh  had  named  the  saul  tree  by  my  name.  As  he  is 
in  the  habit  of  publishing  his  drawings  of  plants,  it  would 
have  looked  better  if  it  had  been  mentioned  first  by  him." 
Whether  he  prevailed  with  his  admiring  friend  in  the  Com- 
pany's Botanic  Garden  to  change  the  name  to  that  which  the 
useful  sal  tree  now  bears,  the  Shored  robusta,  we  know  not, 
for  contemporary  botanists  are  not  able  to  trace  the  history 
of  the  term.  But  Carey  will  go  down  to  posterity  in  the 


304  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1800 

history  of  botanical  research,  notwithstanding  his  own 
humility  and  the  accidents  of  time.  For  Dr.  Eoxburgh  gave 
the  name  of  Careya  to  an  interesting  genus  of  Myrtacece. 
This  genus  of  trees  or  small  shrubs  is  confined  to  India.1  Of 
the  three  species  of  Carey  a  the  C.  herbacea  was  found  by 
Carey  in  the  terai  or  jungles  at  the  foot  of  the  Himalaya. 
The  C.  arborea  is  a  large  tree  found  throughout  India,  where 
it  is  known  as  the  koomba.  In  Goojarat  it  reaches  a  majestic 
size.  The  bark  is  used  by  matchlock- men  to  serve  the 
purpose  of  tinder.  The  C.  sphcerica  is  found  on  the  hills 
of  Chittagong,  and  Sir  Joseph  Hooker  considers  that  it  is 
doubtfully  separable  from  the  preceding  species.  The  great 
French  botanist  M.  Benjamin  Delessert  duly  commemorates 
the  labours  of  Dr.  Carey  in  the  Muste  Botanique.  That 
promising  young  scientist,  John  Graham,  whom  Sir  John 
Malcolm  brought  from  Dumfries  to  Bombay  in  1826,  and 
who  died  at  Khandala  in  1839  at  the  early  age  of  thirty-four, 
gives  Carey  due  honour  in  his  rare  Catalogue  of  the  Plants 
Growing  in  Bombay  and  its  Vicinity,  which  all  botanists 
consider  a  most  useful  work. 

It  was  in  Serampore  that  the  gentle  botanist  found  full 
scope  for  the  one  recreation  which  he  allowed  himself,  in  the 
interest  of  his  body  as  well  as  of  his  otherwise  overtasked 
spirit.  There  he  had  five  acres  of  ground  laid  out  and,  in 
time,  planted  on  the  Linnsean  system.  The  park  around 
from  which  he  had  the  little  paradise  carefully  walled  in, 
that  Brahmanee  bull  and  villager's  cow,  nightly  jackal  and 
thoughtless  youth,  might  not  intrude,  he  planted  with  trees 
then  rare  or  unknown  in  lower  Bengal,  the  mahogany  and 
deodar,  the  teak  and  tamarind,  the  carob  and  eucalyptus. 
The  fine  American  Mahogany  has  so  thriven  that  the  pre- 
sent writer  was  able,  seventy  years  after  the  trees  had  been 

1  The  eucalyptus  is  the  Australian  genus,  and  has  been  successfully  intro- 
duced into  India.  The  leaves  of  the  common  myrtle  are  used  in  native 
medicine. 


1800  HIS  GARDEN  AT  SERAMPOEE.  305 

planted,  to  supply  Government  with  plentiful  seed,  and 
many  friends  with  healthy  saplings.  The  trees  of  the  park 
were  so  placed  as  to  form  a  noble  avenue,  which  long 
shaded  the  press  and  was  known  as  Carey's  Walk.  The 
umbrageous  tamarind  formed  a  dense  cover,  under  which 
more  than  one  generation  of  Carey's  successors  rejoiced  as 
they  welcomed  visitors  to  the  consecrated  spot  from  all  parts 
of  India,  America,  and  Great  Britain.  Foresters  like  Brandis 
and  Cleghorn  at  various  times  visited  this  arboretum,  and 
have  referred  to  the  trees,  whose  date  of  planting  is  known, 
for  the  purpose  of  recording  the  rate  of  growth. 

For  the  loved  garden  Carey  himself  trained  native  pea- 
sants who,  with  the  mimetic  instinct  of  the  Bengali,  followed 
his  instructions  like  those  of  their  own  Brahmans,  learned 
the  Latin  names,  and  pronounced  them  with  their  master's 
very  accent  up  till  a  recent  date,  when  Hullodhur,  the  last  of 
them,  passed  away.  The  garden  with  its  tropical  glories 
and  more  modest  exotics,  every  one  of  which  was  as  a 
personal  friend  and  to  him  had  an  individual  history,  was 
more  than  a  place  of  recreation.  It  was  his  oratory,  the 
scene  of  prayer  and  meditation,  the  place  where  he  began 
and  ended  the  day  of  light — with  God.  What  he  wrote  in 
his  earlier  journals  and  letters  of  the  sequestered  spot  at 
Mudnabati  was  true  in  a  deeper  and  wider  sense  of  the 
garden  of  Serampore  : — "  23d  September,  Lord's  Day. — Arose 
about  sunrise  and,  according  to  my  usual  practice,  walked 
into  my  garden  for  meditation  and  prayer  till  the  servants 
came  to  family  worship."  "  24th  September. — Arose  and 
retired  into  my  garden  for  prayer  and  meditation.  To-day  a 
great  number  of  persons  attended  on  family  worship." 

We  have  this  account  from  his  son  Jonathan,  written  in 
1836  :— 

"  In  objects  of  nature  my  father  was  exceedingly  curious.  His 
collection  of  mineral  ores,  and  other  subjects  of  natural  history,  was 

X 


306  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1800 

extensive,  and  obtained  his  particular  attention  in  seasons  of  leisure 
and  recreation.  The  science  of  botany  was  his  constant  delight  and 
study ;  and  his  fondness  for  his  garden  remained  to  the  last.  No  one 
was  allowed  to  interfere  in  the  arrangements  of  this  his  favourite 
retreat ;  and  it  is  here  he  enjoyed  his  most  pleasant  moments  of  secret 
devotion  and  meditation.  The  arrangements  made  by  him  were  on 
the  Linnsean  system ;  and  to  disturb  the  bed  or  border  of  the  garden 
was  to  touch  the  apple  of  his  eye.  The  garden  formed  the  best  and 
rarest  botanical  collection  of  plants  in  the  East ;  to  the  extension  of 
which,  by  his  correspondence  with  persons  of  eminence  in  Europe  and 
other  parts  of  the  world,  his  attention  was  constantly  directed  ;  and, 
in  return,  he  supplied  his  correspondents  with  rare  collections  from 
the  East.  It  was  painful  to  observe  with  what  distress  my  father 
quitted  this  scene  of  his  enjoyments,  when  extreme  weakness,  during 
his  last  illness,  prevented  his  going  to  his  favourite  retreat.  Often, 
when  he  was  unable  to  walk,  he  was  drawn  into  the  garden  in  a  chair 
placed  on  a  board  with  four  wheels. 

"  In  order  to  prevent  irregularity  in  the  attendance  of  the  gardeners 
he  was  latterly  particular  in  paying  their  wages  with  his  own  hands  ; 
and  on  the  last  occasion  of  doing  so,  he  was  much  affected  that  his 
weakness  had  increased  and  confined  him  to  the  house.  But,  not- 
withstanding he  had  closed  this  part  of  his  earthly  scene,  he  could  not 
refrain  from  sending  for  his  gardeners  into  the  room  where  he  lay,  and 
would  converse  with  them  about  the  plants  ;  and  near  his  couch, 
against  the  wall,  he  placed  the  picture  of  a  beautiful  shrub,  upon 
which  he  gazed  with  delight. 

"  On  this  science  he  frequently  gave  lectures,  which  were  well 
attended,  and  never  failed  to  prove  interesting.  His  publication  of 
Roxburgh's  Flora  Indica  is  a  standard  work  with  botanists.  Of  his 
botanical  friends  he  spoke  with  great  esteem ;  and  never  failed  to 
defend  them  when  erroneously  assailed.  He  encouraged  the  study  of 
the  science  wherever  a  desire  to  acquire  it  was  manifested.  In  this 
particular  he  would  sometimes  gently  reprove  those  who  had  no  taste 
for  it ;  but  he  would  not  spare  those  who  attempted  to  undervalue  it. 
His  remark  of  one  of  his  colleagues  was  keen  and  striking.  When 
the  latter  somewhat  reprehended  Dr.  Carey,  to  the  medical  gentleman 
attending  him,  for  exposing  himself  so  much  in  the  garden,  he  im- 
mediately replied,  that  his  colleague  was  conversant  with  the  plea- 
sures of  a  garden,  just  as  an  animal  was  with  the  grass  in  the  field." 

As  from  Dinajpoor,  so  from  Serampore  after  his  settle- 


1821  HIS  DAISY.  307 

ment  there,  an  early  order  was  this  on  27th  November 
1800  : — "We  are  sending  an  assortment  of  Hindoo  gods  to 
the  British  Museum,  and  some  other  curiosities  to  different 
friends.  Do  send  a  few  tulips,  daffodils,  snowdrops,  lilies, 
and  seeds  of  other  things,  by  Dolton  when  he  returns,  desir- 
ing him  not  to  put  them  into  the  hold.  Send  the  roots  in  a 
net  or  basket,  to  be  hung  up  anywhere  out  of  the  reach  of 
salt  water,  and  the  seeds  in  a  separate  small  box.  You  need 
not  be  at  any  expense,  any  friend  will  supply  these  things. 
The  cowslips  and  daisies  of  your  fields  would  be  great 
acquisitions  here.  Mr.  Eobert  Brewin,  of  Leicester,  would, 
with  the  utmost  pleasure,  send  you  an  assortment."  What 
the  daisies  of  the  English  fields  became  to  Carey,  and  how 
his  request  was  long  after  answered,  is  told  by  James  Mont- 
gomery, the  Moravian,  who  formed  after  Cowper  the  second 
poet  of  the  missionary  reformation  : — 

THE  DAISY  IN  INDIA. 

' '  The  simple  history  of  these  stanzas  is  the  following.  A  friend  of  mine,  a 
scientific  botanist,  residing  near  Sheffield,  had  sent  a  package  of  sundry  kinds 
of  British  seeds  to  the  learned  and  venerable  Doctor  WILLIAM  CAREY,  one  of 
the  first  Baptist  Missionaries  to  India,  where  they  had  established  themselves 
in  the  small  Danish  settlement  of  Serampore,  in  the  province  of  Bengal. 
Some  of  the  seeds  had  been  enclosed  in  a  bag,  containing  a  portion  of  their 
native  earth.  In  March  1821  a  letter  of  acknowledgment  was  received  by 
his  correspondent  from  the  Doctor,  who  was  himself  well  skilled  in  botany, 
and  had  a  garden  rich  in  plants,  both  tropical  and  European.  In  this 
enclosure  he  was  wont  to  spend  an  hour  every  morning,  before  he  entered 
upon  those  labours  and  studies  which  have  rendered  his  name  illustrious  both 
at  home  and  abroad,  as  one  of  the  most  accomplished  of  Oriental  scholars 
and  a  translator  of  the  Holy  Scriptures  into  many  of  the  Hindoo  languages. 
In  the  letter  aforementioned,  which  was  shown  to  me,  the  good  man  says  : — 
'  That  I  might  be  sure  not  to  lose  any  part  of  your  valuable  present,  I  shook 
the  bag  over  a  patch  of  earth  in  a  shady  place  :  on  visiting  which  a  few  days 
afterwards  I  found  springing  up,  to  my  inexpressible  delight,  a  Bdlis  perennis 
of  our  English  pastures.  I  know  not  that  I  ever  enjoyed,  since  leaving 
Europe,  a  simple  pleasure  so  exquisite  as  the  sight  of  this  English  Daisy 
afforded  me ;  not  having  seen  one  for  upwards  of  thirty  years,  and  never 
expecting  to  see  one  again. ' 


308  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1821 

"  On  the  perusal  of  this  passage,  the  following  stanzas  seemed  to  spring 
up  almost  spontaneously  in  my  mind,  as  the  '  little  English  flower '  in  the 
good  Doctor's  garden,  whom  I  imagined  to  be  thus  addressing  it  on  its  sudden 
appearance.  With  great  care  and  attention  he  was  able  to  perpetuate  '  the 
Daisy  in  India  '  as  an  annual  only,  raised  by  seed  from  season  to  season. 
It  may  be  observed  that,  amidst  the  luxuriance  of  tropical  vegetation,  there 
are  comparatively  few  small  plants,  like  the  multifarious  progeny  of  our 
native  flora. 

"There  is  a  beautiful  coincidence  between  a  fact  and  a  fiction  in  this  cir- 
cumstance. Among  the  many  natural  and  striking  expedients  by  which  the 
ingenious  author  of  RoUnson  Crusoe  contrives  to  supply  his  hero  on  the 
desolate  island  with  necessaries  and  comforts  of  life,  not  indigenous,  we  are 
informed,  that  Crusoe  one  day,  long  after  his  shipwreck  and  residence  there, 
perceived  some  delicate  blades  of  vegetation  peeping  forth,  after  the  rains, 
on  a  patch  of  ground  near  his  dwelling-place.  Not  knowing  what  they  were, 
he  watched  their  growth  from  day  to  day,  till  he  ascertained,  to  his  '  inex- 
pressible delight,'  that  they  were  plants  of  some  kind  of  English  corn. 
He  then  recollected  having  shaken  out  on  that  spot  the  dusty  refuse  of 
'a  bag'  which  had  been  used  to  hold  grain  for  the  fowls  on  shipboard. 
'With  great  care  and  attention'  he  was  enabled  to  preserve  the  precious 
stalks  till  the  full  corn  ripened  in  the  ear.  He  then  reaped  the  first-fruits  of 
this  spontaneous  harvest,  sowed  them  again,  and,  till  his  release  from  captivity 
there,  ate  bread  in  his  lonely  abode, 

'  Placed  far  amid  the  melancholy  main.' 

"  Thrice  welcome,  little  English  flower  ! 
My  mother-country's  white  and  red, 
In  rose  or  lily,  till  this  hour, 
Never  to  me  such  beauty  spread  : 
Transplanted  from  thine  island-bed, 
A  treasure  in  a  grain  of  earth, 
Strange  as  a  spirit  from  the  dead, 
Thine  embryo  sprang  to  birth. 

"  Thrice  welcome,  little  English  flower  ! 
Whose  tribes,  beneath  our  natal  skies, 
Shut  close  their  leaves  while  vapours  lower  ; 
But,  when  the  sun's  gay  beams  arise, 
With  unabash'd  but  modest  eyes, 
Follow  his  motion  to  the  west, 
Nor  cease  to  gaze  till  daylight  dies, 
Then  fold  themselves  to  rest. 


1821  JAMES  MONTGOMERY  ON  CAREY'S  DAISY.  309 

"  Thrice  welcome,  little  English  flower  ! 
To  this  resplendent  hemisphere, 
Where  Flora's  giant  offspring  tower 
In  gorgeous  liveries  all  the  year  : 
Thou,  only  thou,  art  little  here, 
Like  worth  unfriended  and  unknown, 
Yet  to  my  British  heart  more  dear 
Than  all  the  torrid  zone. 

"  Thrice  welcome,  little  English  flower  ! 
Of  early  scenes  beloved  by  me, 
While  happy  in  my  father's  bower, 
Thou  shalt  the  blithe  memorial  be  ; 
The  fairy  sports  of  infancy, 
Youth's  golden  age,  and  manhood's  prime, 
Home,  country,  kindred,  friends, — with  thee, 
I  find  in  this  far  clime. 

"  Thrice  welcome,  little  English  flower  ! 
I'll  rear  thee  with  a  trembling  hand  : 
Oh,  for  the  April  sun  and  shower, 
The  sweet  May  dews  of  that  fair  land, 
Where  Daisies,  thick  as  star-light,  stand 
In  every  walk  ! — that  here  may  shoot 
Thy  scions,  and  thy  buds  expand, 
A  hundred  from  one  root. 

"  Thrice  welcome,  little  English  flower  ! 
To  me  the  pledge  of  hope  unseen  : 
When  sorrow  would  my  soul  o'erpower, 
For  joys  that  were,  or  might  have  been, 
I'll  call  to  mind,  how,  fresh  and  green, 
I  saw  thee  waking  from  the  dust ; 
Then  turn  to  heaven  with  brow  serene, 
And  place  in  GOD  my  trust." 

From  every  distant  station,  from  Amboyna  to  Delhi,  he 
received  seeds  and  animals  and  specimens  of  natural  history. 
The  very  schoolboys  when  they  went  out  into  the  world,  and 
the  young  civilians  of  Fort  William  College,  enriched  his 
collections.  To  Jabez,  his  son  in  Amboyna,  we  find  him 


310  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1816 

thus  writing: — "Pray  do  you  know  anything  about  the 
Alfoors  ?  Does  their  language  differ  from  the  Malays  ?  Have 
they  any  writing  ?  Are  they  heathens  ?  And  what  gods  do 
they  worship?  ...  I  am  very  desirous  of  information  on 
this  subject.  ...  I  have  already  informed  you  of  the  luck- 
less fate  of  all  the  animals  you  have  sent.  I  know  of  no 
remedy  for  the  living  animals  dying,  but  by  a  little  attention 
to  packing  them,  you  may  send  skins  of  birds  and  animals 
of  every  kind,  and  also  seeds  and  roots.  I  lately  received  a 
parcel  of  seeds  from  Moore  (a  ]arge  boy  who,  you  may 
remember,  was  at  school  when  the  printing-office  was  burnt), 
every  one  of  which  bids  fair  to  grow.  He  is  in  some  of  the 
Malay  islands.  After  all  you  have  greatly  contributed  to 
the  enlargement  of  my  collection." 

"  Vlth  September  1816. — I  approve  much  of  Bencoolen 
as  a  place  for  your  future  labours,  unless  you  should  rather 
choose  the  island  of  Borneo.  .  .  .  The  English  may  send  a 
Eesident  thither  after  a  time.  I  mention  this  from  a  con- 
versation I  had  some  months  ago  on  the  subject  with  Lord 
Moira,  who  told  me  that  there  is  a  large  body  of  Chinese  on 
that  island."  They  "  applied  to  the  late  Lieut.-Governor  of 
Java,  requesting  that  an  English  Eesident  may  be  sent  to 
govern  them,  and  offering  to  be  at  the  whole  expense  of  his 
salary  and  government.  He  informed  me  that  a  gentleman 
had  it  in  charge  to  make  proper  inquiry  into  the  circumstance, 
and  proposed  that  J.  Marshman  should  accompany  him, 
saying  that  the  Eesident  would  have  it  in  his  power  to  do 
much  for  him.  He  also  mentioned  you  as  a  fit  person  to  go, 
if  I  choose  it  rather  than  for  John  to  go.  I  declined  it.  ... 
The  Borneo  business  may  come  to  nothing,  but  if  it  should 
succeed  it  would  be  a  glorious  opening  for  the  Gospel  in 
that  large  island.  Sumatra,  however,  is  larger  than  any  one 
man  could  occupy."  As  we  read  this  we  see  the  Serampore 
apostle's  hope  fulfilled  after  a  different  fashion,  in  Eajah 


1814  "  THE  HORTUS  BENGALENSIS."  311 

Brooke's  settlement  at  Sarawak,  and  in  the  charter  of  the 
North  Borneo  Company,  though  not  in  the  evangelical  suc- 
cess of  the  missionary  societies,  as  yet,  whether  Dutch  or 
English. 

To  Koxburgh  and  his  Danish  successor  Wallich,  to  Voigt 
who  succeeded  Wallich  in  Serampore,  and  hundreds  of  corre- 
spondents in  India  and  Germany,  Great  Britain  and  America, 
Carey  did  many  a  service  in  sending  plants  and — what  was  a 
greater  sacrifice  for  so  busy  a  man — writing  letters.  What 
he  did  for  the  Hortus  Bengalensis  may  stand  for  all. 

When,  in  1814,  Dr.  Eoxburgh  was  sent  to  sea  almost 
dying,  Dr.  Carey  edited  and  printed  at  his  own  press 
that  now  very  rare  volume,  the  Hortus  Bengalensis,  or  a 
Catalogue  of  the  Plants  of  the  Honourable  East  India  Com- 
pany's Botanic  Garden  in  Calcutta.  The  manuscript  had 
been  copied  out  by  a  native  writer,  who  had  shown  a  lofty 
indifference  to  gender  in  the  cases  in  which  specific  names 
had  been  removed  from  one  genus  to  another.  Carey's  intro- 
duction of  twelve  large  pages  is  perhaps  his  most  characteristic 
writing  on  a  scientific  subject.  His  genuine  friendliness  and 
humility  shine  forth  in  the  testimony  he  bears  to  the  abili- 
ties, zeal,  and  success  of  the  great  botanist  who,  in  twenty 
years,  had  created  a  collection  of  3200  species.  Of  these  3000 
at  least  had  been  given  by  the  European  residents  in  India, 
himself  most  largely  of  all,  a  fact  which  "  not  only  vindicates 
them  from  the  charge  of  indifference  to  this  object,  but  evinces 
a  degree  of  attention  to  it  scarcely  paralleled  in  an  equal 
population  in  any  other  country."  Having  shown  in  detail 
the  utility  of  botanical  gardens,  especially  in  all  the  foreign 
settlements  of  Great  Britain,  he  declared  that  only  a  beginning 
had  been  made  in  observing  and  cataloguing  the  stock  of 
Asiatic  productions.  He  urged  English  residents  all  over 
India  to  set  apart  a  small  plot  for  the  reception  of  the  plants 
of  their  neighbourhood,  and  when  riding  about  the  country  to 


312  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1820 

mark  plants,  which  their  servants  could  bring  on  to  the  nur- 
sery, getting  them  to  write  the  native  name  of  each.  He 
desiderated  gardens  at  Hurdwar,  Delhi,  Dacca,  and  Sylhet, 
where  plants  that  will  not  live  at  Calcutta  might  prosper,  a 
suggestion  which  was  afterwards  carried  out  by  the  Govern- 
ment in  establishing  a  garden  at  Saharanpoor,  in  the  North- 
west province,  in  a  Sub-Himalayan  region,  which  has  been 
successfully  directed  by  Eoyle,  Falconer,  and  Jameson. 

The  practical  enthusiast  thus  continues  : — "  Something  of 
the  same  nature  in  each  of  the  islands  would  be  desirable  to 
secure  collections  there,  and  to  preserve  the  plants  collected, 
that  duplicates  and  even  triplicates  might  be  sent  in  succes- 
sion to  the  Botanical  Garden  at  Calcutta,  without  which  they 
cannot  be  expected  in  general  to  succeed,  but  which  would 
secure  their  naturalisation  in  Bengal  if  either  so  useful  or 
so  beautiful  as  to  make  that  desirable,  and  would  greatly 
promote  botanical  knowledge  by  adding  to  our  present  cata- 
logues the  greatest  part  of  the  undiscovered  riches  of  the 
vegetable  kingdom  in  the  Eastern  part  of  the  world." 

On  Dr.  Eoxburgh's  death  in  1815  Dr.  Carey  waited  to  see 
whether  an  English  botanist  would  publish  the  fruit  of  thirty 
years'  labour  of  his  friend  in  the  description  of  more  than 
2000  plants,  natives  of  Eastern  Asia.  At  his  own  risk  he 
then,  in  1820,  undertook  this  publication,  or  the  Flora  Indica, 
placing  on  the  title-page,  "All  Thy  works  praise  Thee, 
0  Lord — David."  Dr.  Wallich's  absence  on  a  botanical 
mission  in  Nepal  for  eighteen  months,  and  the  anxiety  of 
Dr.  Carey,  whom  he  termed  my  "  inestimable  friend  the  Eev. 
Editor,"  to  include  the  new  descriptions  in  the  book,  led  to 
delay  in  the  appearance  of  the  second  volume  till  1824. 
Both  were  reprinted  in  1832  along  with  the  third  volume, 
when  at  Captain  Eoxburgh's  desire  Dr.  Wallich's  additions 
were  struck  out.  When  the  Eoxburgh  MSS.  were  made  over 
to  the  library  of  the  Botanic  Garden  at  Calcutta,  the  fourth 


1811  AN  AGKICULTUKAL  EEFOEMEE.  313 

and  final  volume  appeared  with  this  touching  note  regarding 
the  new  edition  : — "  The  work  was  printed  from  MSS.  in  the 
possession  of  Dr.  Carey,  and  it  was  carried  through  the  press 
when  he  was  labouring  under  the  debility  of  great  age.  .  .  . 
The  advanced  age  of  Dr.  Carey  did  not  admit  of  any  longer 
delay." 

His  first  public  attempt  at  agricultural  reform  was  made 
in  the  paper  which  he  contributed  to  the  Transactions  of 
the  Bengal  Asiatic  Society,  and  which  appeared  in  1811  in 
the  tenth  volume  of  the  Asiatic  Researches.  In  the  space  of 
an  ordinary  Quarterly  Eeview  article  he  describes  the  "  State 
of  Agriculture  in  the  District  of  Dinajpoor,"  and  urges  im- 
provements such  as  only  the  officials,  settlers,  and  Govern- 
ment could  begin.  The  soils,  the  "  extremely  poor  "  people, 
their  "  proportionally  simple  and  wretched  farming  utensils," 
the  cattle,  the  primitive  irrigation  alluded  to  in  Deuteronomy 
as  "  watering  with  the  foot,"  and  the  modes  of  ploughing  and 
reaping,  are  rapidly  sketched  and  illustrated  by  lithographed 
figures  drawn  to  scale.  In  greater  detail  the  principal  crops 
are  treated.  The  staple  crop  of  rice  in  its  many  varieties  and 
harvests  at  different  seasons  is  lucidly  brought  before  the 
Government,  in  language  which  it  would  have  been  well  to 
remember  or  reproduce  in  the  subsequent  avoidable  famines 
of  Orissa  and  North  Bihar.  Indigo  is  set  before  us  with  the 
skill  of  one  who  had  grown  and  manufactured  it  for  years ; 
the  many  inconveniences  and  objections  attending  its  cultiva- 
tion are  not  overlooked.  The  hemp  and  jute  plants  are 
enlarged  on  in  language  which  unconsciously  anticipates  the 
vast  and  enriching  development  given  to  the  latter  as  an 
export  and  a  local  manufacture  since  the  Crimean  War.  An 
account  of  the  oil-seeds  and  the  faulty  mode  of  expressing 
the  oil,  which  made  Indian  linseed  oil  unfit  for  painting,  is 
followed  by  remarks  on  the  cultivation  of  wheat,  to  which 
recent  events  have  given  great  importance.  Though  many 


314  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1811 

parts,  even  of  Dinajpoor,  were  fit  for  the  growth  of  wheat  and 
barley,  the  natives  produced  only  a  dark  variety  from  bad 
seed.  "For  the  purpose  of  making  a  trial  I  sowed  Patna 
wheat  on  a  large  quantity  of  land  in  the  year  1798,  the 
flour  produced  from  which  was  of  a  very  good  quality."  The 
pulses,  tobacco,  the  egg-plant,  the  capsicums,  the  cucumbers, 
the  arum  roots,  turmeric,  ginger,  and  sugar-cane,  all  pass  in 
review  in  a  style  which  the  non-scientific  reader  may  enjoy 
and  the  expert  must  appreciate.  Improvements  in  method 
and  the  introduction  of  the  best  kinds  of  plants  and  vege- 
tables are  suggested,  notwithstanding  "  the  poverty,  prejudices, 
and  indolence  of  the  natives." 

This  paper  is  most  remarkable,  however,  for  the  true  note 
which  its  writer  was  the  first  to  strike  on  the  subject  of 
forestry.  If  we  reflect  that  it  was  not  till  1846  that  the 
Government  made  the  first  attempt  at  forest  conservancy,  in 
order  to  preserve  the  timber  of  Malabar  for  the  Bombay  dock- 
yard ;  and  not  till  after  the  conquest  of  Pegu,  in  1855,  that 
the  Marquis  of  Dalhousie  was  led  by  the  Friend  of  India 
to  appoint  Professor  D.  Brandis  of  Bonn  to  care  for  the 
forests  of  Burma  and  Dr.  Cleghorn  for  those  of  South  India, 
we  shall  appreciate  the  wise  foresight  of  the  missionary- 
scholar,  who,  having  first  made  his  own  park  a  model  of  forest 
teaching,  wrote  such  words  as  these  early  in  the  century : — 
"The  cultivation  of  timber  has  hitherto,  I  believe,  been  wholly 
neglected.  Several  sorts  have  been  planted  ...  all  over 
Bengal  and  would  soon  furnish  a  very  large  share  of  the  timber 
used  in  the  country.  The  sissoo,  the  Andaman  redwood,  the 
teak,  the  mahogany,  the  satin-wood,  the  chikrasi,  the  toona, 
and  the  sirisha  should  be  principally  chosen.  The  planting 
of  these  trees  single,  at  the  distance  of  a  furlong  from  each 
other,  would  do  no  injury  to  the  crops  of  corn,  but  would,  by 
cooling  the  atmosphere,  rather  be  advantageous.  In  many 
places  spots  now  unproductive  would  be  improved  by  clumps 


1820  PROJECTS  THE  AGRI-HORTICULTURAL  SOCIETY.  315 

or  small  plantations  of  timber,  under  which  ginger  and 
turmeric  might  be  cultivated  to  great  advantage.  In  some 
situations  sal  ...  would  prosper.  Indeed  the  improve- 
ments that  might  be  made  in  this  country  by  the  planting 
of  timber  can  scarcely  be  calculated.  Teak  is  at  present 
brought  from  the  Bur  man  dominions.  .  .  .  The  French 
naturalists  have  already  begun  to  turn  their  attention  to 
the  culture  of  this  valuable  tree  as  an  object  of  national 
utility.  This  will  be  found  impracticable  in  France,  but 
may  perhaps  be  attempted  somewhere  else.  To  England,  the 
first  commercial  country  in  the  world,  its  importance  must 
be  obvious." 

Ten  years  passed,  Carey  continued  to  watch  and  to  extend 
his  agri-horticultural  experiments  in  his  own  garden,  and  to 
correspond  with  botanists  in  all  parts  of  the  world,  but  still 
nothing  was  done  publicly  in  India.  At  last,  on  15th  April 
1820,  when  "the  advantages  arising  from  a  number  of  persons 
uniting  themselves  as  a  Society  for  the  purpose  of  carrying 
forward  any  undertaking  "  were  generally  acknowledged,  the 
shoemaker  and  preacher  who  had  a  generation  before  tested 
these  advantages  in  the  formation  of  the  first  Foreign  Mission 
Society,  issued  a  Prospectus  of  an  Agricultural  and  Horticul- 
tural Society  in  India,  from  the  "  Mission  House,  Serampore." 
The  prospectus  thus  concluded  : — "  Both  in  forming  such  a 
Society  and  in  subsequently  promoting  its  objects,  important 
to  the  happiness  of  the  country  as  they  regard  them,  the 
writer  and  his  colleagues  will  be  happy  in  doing  all  their 
other  avocations  will  permit."  Native  as  well  as  European 
gentlemen  were  particularly  invited  to  co-operate.  "It  is 
peculiarly  desirable  that  native  gentlemen  should  be  eligible 
as  members  of  the  Society,  because  one  of  its  chief  objects 
will  be  the  improvement  of  their  estates  and  of  the  peasantry 
which  reside  thereon.  They  should  therefore  not  only  be 
eligible  as  members  but  also  as  officers  of  the  Society  in  pre- 


316  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1820 

cisely  the  same  manner  as  Europeans."  At  the  first  meeting 
in  the  Town  Hall  of  Calcutta,  Carey  and  Marshman  found 
only  three  Europeans  beside  themselves.  They  resolved  to 
proceed,  and  in  two  months  they  secured  more  than  fifty 
members,  several  of  whom  were  natives.  The  first  formal 
meeting  was  held  on  14th  September,  when  the  constitution 
was  drawn  up  on  the  lines  laid  down  in  the  prospectus,  it 
being  specially  provided  "  that  gentlemen  of  every  nation  be 
eligible  as  members." 

At  the  next  meeting  Dr.  Carey  was  requested  to  draw  up 
a  series  of  queries,  which  were  circulated  widely,  in  order  to 
obtain  "  correct  information  upon  every  circumstance  which 
is  connected  with  the  state  of  agriculture  and  horticulture  in 
the  various  provinces  of  India."  The  twenty  queries  show  a 
grasp  of  principles,  a  mastery  of  detail,  and  a  kindliness  of 
spirit  which  reveal  the  practical  farmer,  the  accomplished 
observer,  and  the  thoughtful  philanthropist  all  in  one.  One 
only  we  may  quote : — "  19.  In  what  manner  do  you  think 
the  comforts  of  the  peasantry  around  you  could  be  increased, 
their  health  better  secured,  and  their  general  happiness  pro- 
moted?" The  Marquis  of  Hastings  gladly  became  patron, 
and  ever  since  the  Government  has  made  a  grant  to  the 
Society,  which  is  now  Bs.2400  a  year.  His  wife  showed 
such  an  interest  in  its  progress  that  the  members  obtained 
her  consent  to  sit  to  Chinnery  for  her  portrait  to  fill  the 
largest  panel  in  the  house  at  Titigur.  The  Society  became 
speedily  popular,  for  Carey  watched  its  infancy  with  loving 
solicitude,  and  was  the  life  of  its  meetings.  In  the  sixty-five 
years  of  its  existence  some  five  thousand  of  the  best  men  in 
India  have  been  its  members,  of  whom  nearly  five  hundred 
are  Asiatics.  Agriculturists,  military  and  medical  officers, 
civilians,  clergy,  and  merchants  are  represented  on  its  roll  in 
nearly  equal  proportions.  The  whole  number  at  present  is 
about  six  hundred.  The  one  Society  has  grown  into  three  in 


1820  INDIAN  AGRICULTURAL  PROGRESS.  317 

India,  and  it  formed  the  model  for  the  Eoyal  Agricultural 
Society  of  England,  which  was  not  founded  till  1838. 

Italy  and  Scotland  alone  preceded  Carey  in  this  organ- 
isation, and  he  quotes  with  approbation  the  action  of  Sir 
John  Sinclair  in  1*790,  which  led  to  the  first  inquiry  into 
the  state  of  British  agriculture.  The  Transactions  which 
Carey  led  the  Society  to  promise  to  publish  in  English, 
Bengali,  and  Hindostani  have  proved  to  be  only  the  first  of 
a  series  of  special  periodicals  representing  Indian  agriculture 
generally,  tea,  and  forestry.  The  various  Governments  in 
India  have  economic  museums ;  and  the  Government  of  India, 
under  Lord  Mayo,  has  established  a  Eevenue  and  Agricul- 
tural Department.  Carey's  early  proposal  of  premiums,  each 
of  a  hundred  rupees,  or  the  Society's  gold  medal  for  the  most 
successful  cultivation  on  a  commercial  scale  of  coffee  and  im- 
proved cotton,  for  the  successful  introduction  of  European 
fruits,  for  the  improvement  of  indigenous  fruits,  for  the 
successful  introduction  from  the  Eastern  Islands  of  the  man- 
gosteen  or  doorian,  and  for  the  manufacture  of  cheese  equal 
to  Warwickshire,  had  the  best  results  in  some  cases.  In  1825 
Mr.  Lamb  of  Dacca  was  presented  by  "  Eev.  Dr.  Carey  in  the 
chair  "  with  the  gold  medal  for  a  maund  (80  Ibs.)  of  coffee 
grown  there.  Carey's  own  head  gardener  became  famous  for 
his  cabbages,  and  we  find  this  sentence  in  the  Society's  Eeport 
just  after  their  founder's  death  : — "  Who  would  have  credited 
fifteen  years  ago  that  we  could  have  exhibited  vegetables  in 
the  Town  Hall  of  Calcutta  equal  to  the  choicest  in  Covent 
Garden?"  The  berries  brought  from  Arabia  in  his  wallet  by 
the  pilgrim  Baba  Booden  to  the  hills  of  Mysore  which  bear 
his  name  two  centuries  ago  have,  since  that  Dacca  experi- 
ment, covered  the  uplands  of  South  India  and  Ceylon.  Before 
Carey  died  he  knew  of  the  discovery  of  the  indigenous  tea 
tree  in  its  original  home  on  the  Assam  border  of  Tibet,  by 
C.  A.  Bruce — a  discovery  which,  fostered  by  the  Society 


318  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1828 

and  Government  alike,  is  fast  putting  India  in  the  place  of 
China  as  a  producer. 

In  the  Society's  Proceedings  for  9th  January  1828  we 
find  this  significant  record  : — "  Eesolved  at  the  suggestion 
of  the  Eev.  Dr.  Carey  that  permission  be  given  to  Goluk 
Chundra,  a  blacksmith  of  Titigur,  to  exhibit  a  steam  engine 
made  by  himself  without  the  aid  of  any  European  artist."  At 
the  next  meeting,  when  109  malees  or  native  gardeners  com- 
peted at  the  annual  exhibition  of  vegetables,  the  steam  engine 
was  submitted  and  pronounced  "  useful  for  irrigating  lands, 
made  upon  the  mode  of  a  large  steam  engine  belonging 
to  the  missionaries  at  Serampore."  A  premium  of  Es.50 
was  presented  to  the  ingenious  blacksmith  as  an  encourage- 
ment to  further  exertions  of  his  industry.  When  in  1832 
the  afterwards  well-known  Lieutenant-Governor  Thorn ason 
was  deputy -secretary  to  Government,  he  applied  to  the 
Society  for  information  regarding  the  manufacture  of  paper. 
Dr.  Carey  and  Earn  Komal  Sen  were  referred  to,  and  the 
former  thus  replied  in  his  usual  concise  and  clear  manner  : — 

"  When  we  commenced  paper-making  several  years  ago,  having  then 
no  machinery,  we  employed  a  number  of  native  papermakers  to  make 
it  in  the  way  to  which  they  had  been  accustomed,  with  the  exception 
of  mixing  conjee  or  rice  gruel  with  the  pulp  and  using  it  as  sizing; 
our  object  being  that  of  making  paper  impervious  to  insects.  Our 
success  at  first  was  very  imperfect,  but  the  process  was  conducted  as 
follows  : — 

"A  quantity  of  sunn,  viz.  the  fibres  of  Crotolaria  juncea,  was 
steeped  repeatedly  in  limewater,  and  then  exposed  to  the  air  by  spread- 
ing it  on  the  grass  ;  it  was  also  repeatedly  pounded  by  the  dhentzee  or 
pedal,  and  when  sufficiently  reduced  by  this  process  to  make  a  pulp, 
it  was  mixed  in  a  gumla  with  water,  so  as  to  make  it  of  the  consist- 
ence of  thick  soup.  The  frames  with  which  the  sheets  were  taken  up 
were  made  of  mat  of  the  size  of  a  sheet  of  paper.  The  operator  sitting 
by  the  gumla  dipped  this  frame  in  the  pulp,  and  after  it  was  drained 
gave  it  to  an  assistant,  who  laid  it  on  the  grass  to  dry  :  this  finished 
the  process  with  us  ;  but  for  the  native  market  this  paper  is  afterwards 
sized  by  holding  a  number  of  sheets  by  the  edge  and  dipping  them 


1832  PAPER  MANUFACTURE.  319 

carefully  in  conjee,  so  as  to  keep  the  sheets  separate.  They  are  after- 
wards dried,  folded,  and  pressed  by  putting  them  between  two  boards, 
the  upper  board  of  which  is  loaded  with  one  or  more  large  stones. 

"  In  the  English  method  the  pulp  is  prepared  by  the  mill  and  put 
into  cisterns  ;  the  frames  are  made  of  fine  wire,  and  the  workman  stands 
by  the  cistern  and  takes  up  the  pulp  on  the  frames.  The  sheets  when 
sufficiently  dry  are  hung  on  lines  to  dry  completely,  after  which  they 
are  sized,  if  sizing  be  required. 

"  We  now  make  our  paper  by  machinery,  in  which  the  pulp  is  let 
to  run  on  a  web  of  wire,  and  passing  over  several  cylinders,  the  last  of 
which  is  heated  by  steam,  it  is  dried  and  fit  for  use  in  about  two 
minutes  from  its  having  been  in  a  liquid  state." 

In  the  half  century  since  that  reply  the  Government  of 
India,  under  the  pressure  of  the  home  authorities,  has  alter- 
nately discouraged  and  fostered  the  manufacture  of  paper  on 
the  spot.  At  present  it  is  in  the  wiser  position  of  preferring 
to  purchase  its  supplies  in  India,  at  once  as  being  cheaper, 
and  that  it  may  develop  the  use  of  the  many  papermaking 
fibres  there.  Hence  at  the  Calcutta  Exhibition  of  1881-82 
the  jurors  began  their  report  on  the  machine  and  hand-made 
paper  submitted  to  them,  with  a  reference  to  Carey  and  this 
report  of  his.  The  Serainpore  mills  were  gradually  crushed 
by  the  expensive  and  unsatisfactory  contracts  made  by  the 
India  Office.  The  neighbouring  Bally  mills  seem  to  flourish 
since  the  abandonment  of  that  virtual  monopoly,  and  Carey's 
anticipations  as  to  the  utilisation  of  the  plantain  and  other 
fibres  of  India  are  being  realised  l  nearly  a  century  after  he 
first  formed  them. 

Carey  expanded  and  published  his  "Address  respecting 
an  Agricultural  Society  in  India  "  in  the  quarterly  Friend  of 
India.  He  still  thinks  it  necessary  to  apologise  for  his  action 
by  quoting  his  hero,  Brainerd,  who  was  constrained  to  assist 
the  Indian  converts  with  his  counsels  in  sowing  their  maize 
and  arranging  their  secular  concerns.  "  Few,"  he  adds  with 

1  Journal  of  the  Agricultural  and  Horticultural  Society  of  India,  vol.  vii., 
part  i.,  new  series,  Calcutta,  1883,  p.  1. 


320  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1820 

the  true  breadth  of  genius  which  converted  the  Baptist  shoe- 
maker into  the  Christian  statesman  and  scholar,  "who  are 
extensively  acquainted  with  human  life,  will  esteem  these 
cares  either  unworthy  of  religion  or  incongruous  with  its 
highest  enjoyments."  When  Carey  wrote,  not  only  were  the 
millions  of  five-acre  farmers  in  India  only  beginning  to  recover 
from  the  oppression  and  neglect  of  former  rulers  and  visitation 
of  terrific  famines,  as  we  have  seen.  Trade  was  as  depressed  as 
agriculture.  Transit  duties,  not  less  offensive  than  those  of  the 
Chinese,  continued  to  weigh  down  agricultural  industry  till 
Lord  W.  Bentinck's  time  and  later.  The  English  Government 
levied  an  unequal  scale  of  duties  on  the  staples  of  the  East 
and  West  Indies,  against  which  the  former  petitioned  in  vain. 
The  East  India  Company  kept  the  people  in  ignorance,  and 
continued  to  exclude  or  persecute  the  European  capitalist 
and  captain  of  labour  as  an  "  interloper."  The  large  native 
landholders  were  as  uneducated  as  the  cultivators.  Before 
all  he  set  these  reforms  :  close  attention  to  the  improvement 
of  land,  the  best  method  of  cropping  land,  the  introduction  of 
new  and  useful  plants,  the  improvement  of  the  implements  of 
husbandry,  the  improvement  of  live  stock,  the  bringing  of 
waste  lands  under  cultivation,  the  improvement  of  horticul- 
ture. He  went  on  to  show  that,  in  addition  to  the  abundance 
which  an  improved  agriculture  would  diffuse  throughout  the 
country,  the  surplus  of  grain  exported,  besides  "  her  opium, 
her  indigo,  her  silk,  and  her  cotton,"  would  greatly  tend  to 
enrich  India  and  endear  Britain  to  her.  "Whatever  may 
be  thought  of  the  Government  of  Mr.  Hastings  and  those  who 
immediately  preceded  him,  for  these  last  forty  years  India 
has  certainly  enjoyed  such  a  Government  as  none  of  the 
provinces  of  the  Persian  or  the  Eoman  Empire  ever  enjoyed 
for  so  great  a  length  of  time  in  succession,  and,  indeed,  one 
almost  as  new  in  the  annals  of  modern  Europe  as  in  those  of 
India." 


1820  THE  IMPORTANCE  OF  EUROPEAN  CAPITAL.  321 

Carey  found  one  of  the  greatest  obstacles  to  agricultural 
progress  to  be  the  fact  that  not  one  European  owned  a  single 
foot  of  the  soil,  "  a  singular  fact  in  the  history  of  nations," 
removed  only  about  the  time  of  his  own  death.  His  remarks 
on  this  have  a  present  significance  : — 

"It  doubtless  originated  in  a  laudable  care  to  preserve  our  Indian 
fellow-subjects  from  insult  and  violence,  which  it  was  feared  could 
scarcely  be  done  if  natives  of  Britain,  wholly  unacquainted  with  the 
laws  and  customs  of  the  people,  were  permitted  to  settle  indiscrimi- 
nately in  India.  While  the  wisdom  of  this  regulation  at  that  time  is 
not  impugned,  however,  it  may  not  be  improper  to  inquire  whether 
at  the  present  time  a  permission  to  hold  landed  property,  to  be  granted 
by  Government  to  British  subjects  in  India,  according  to  their  own 
discretion,  might  not  be  of  the  highest  benefit  to  the  country,  and  in 
some  degree  advantageous  to  the  Government  itself. 

"  The  objections  which  have  been  urged  against  any  measure  of 
this  nature  are  chiefly  that  the  indiscriminate  admission  of  Europeans 
into  the  country  might  tend  to  alienate  the  minds  of  the  inhabitants 
from  Britain,  or  possibly  lead  to  its  disruption  from  Britain  in  a  way 
similar  to  that  of  America.  Respecting  this  latter  circumstance,  it  is 
certain  that,  in  the  common  course  of  events,  a  greater  evil  could 
scarcely  befall  India.  On  the  continuance  of  her  connection  with 
Britain  is  suspended  her  every  hope  relative  to  improvement,  security, 
and  happiness.  The  moment  India  falls  again  under  the  dominion  of 
any  one  or  any  number  of  native  princes,  all  hope  of  mental  improve- 
ment, or  even  of  security  for  person  or  property,  will  at  once  vanish. 
Nothing  could  be  then  expected  but  scenes  of  rapine,  plunder,  blood- 
shed, and  violence,  till  its  inhabitants  were  sealed  over  to  irremediable 
wretchedness,  without  the  most  distant  ray  of  hope  respecting  the 
future.  And  were  it  severed  from  Britain  in  any  other  way,  the 
reverse  felt  in  India  would  be  unspeakably  great.  At  present  all  the 
learning,  the  intelligence,  the  probity,  the  philanthropy,  the  weight  of 
character  existing  in  Britain,  are  brought  to  bear  on  India.  There  is 
scarcely  an  individual  sustaining  a  part  in  the  administration  of  affairs 
who  does  not  feel  the  weight  of  that  tribunal  formed  by  the  suffrages 
of  the  wise  and  the  good  in  Britain,  though  he  be  stationed  in  the 
remotest  parts  of  India.  Through  the  medium  of  a  free  press  the 
wisdom,  probity,  and  philanthropy  which  pervade  Britain  exercise  an 
almost  unbounded  sway  over  every  part  of  India,  to  the  incalculable 

Y 


322  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1820 

advantage  of  its  inhabitants  ;  constituting  a  triumph  of  virtue  and 
wisdom  this  unknown  to  the  ancients,  and  which  will  increase  in  its 
effects  in  exact  proportion  to  the  increase  in  Britain  of  justice,  gener- 
osity, and  love  to  mankind.  Let  India,  however,  be  severed  from 
Britain,  and  the  weight  of  these  is  felt  no  more.  .  .  . 

"  It  is  a  fact  that  in  case  of  outrage  or  injury  it  is  in  most  cases 
easier  for  a  native  to  obtain  justice  against  a  European,  than  for  a 
European  to  obtain  redress  if  insulted  or  wronged  by  a  native.  This 
circumstance,  attended  as  it  may  be  with  some  inconvenience,  reflects 
the  highest  honour  on  the  British  name  ;  it  is  a  fact  of  which  India 
affords  almost  the  first  instance  on  record  in  the  annals  of  history. 
Britain  is  nearly  the  first  nation  in  whose  foreign  Courts  of  Justice  a 
tenderness  for  the  native  inhabitants  habitually  prevails  over  all  the 
partialities  arising  from  country  and  education.  If  there  ever  existed 
a  period,  therefore,  in  which  a  European  could  oppress  a  native  of 
India  with  impunity,  that  time  is  passed  away — we  trust  for  ever. 
That  a  permission  of  this  nature  might  tend  to  sever  India  from 
Britain  after  the  example  of  America  is  of  all  things  the  most  improb- 
able. .  .  . 

Long  before  the  number  of  British  landholders  in  India  shall 
have  become  considerable,  Penang  and  the  Eastern  Isles,  Ceylon,  the 
Cape,  and  even  the  Isles  of  New  South  Wales,  may  in  European 
population  far  exceed  them  in  number  ;  and  unitedly,  if  not  singly, 
render  the  most  distant  step  of  this  nature  as  impracticable,  as  it  would 
be  ruinous  to  the  welfare  and  happiness  of  India.  .  .  . 

"  British  -born  landholders  would  naturally  maintain  all  their 
national  attachments,  for  what  Briton  can  lose  them  ?  and  derive  their 
happiness  from  corresponding  with  the  wise  and  good  at  home.  If 
sufficiently  wealthy,  they  would  no  doubt  occasionally  visit  Britain, 
where  indeed  it  might  be  expected  that  some  of  them  would  reside  for 
years  together,  as  do  the  owners  of  estates  in  the  West  Indies.  While 
Britain  shall  remain  what  she  now  is,  it  will  be  impossible  for  those 
who  have  once  felt  the  force  of  British  attachments,  ever  to  forego 
them.  Those  feelings  would  animate  their  minds,  occupy  their  con- 
versation, and  regulate  the  education  and  studies  of  their  children,  who 
would  be  in  general  sent  home  that  they  might  there  imbibe  all  those 
ideas  of  a  moral  and  intellectual  nature  for  which  our  beloved 
country  is  so  eminent.  Thus  a  new  intercourse  would  be  established 
between  Britain  and  the  proprietors  of  land  in  India,  highly  to  the 
advantage  of  both  countries.  While  they  derived  their  highest  happi- 
ness from  the  religion,  the  literature,  the  philanthropy  and  public 


1823  HIS  ECONOMIC  FORESIGHT.  323 

spirit  of  Britain,  they  would,  on  the  other  hand,  be  able  to  furnish 
Britain  with  the  most  accurate  and  ample  information  relative  to  the 
state  of  things  in  a  country  in  which  the  property  they  held  there 
constrained  them  to  feel  so  deep  an  interest.  The  fear  of  all  oppres- 
sion being  out  of  the  question,  while  it  would  be  so  evidently  the 
interest,  not  only  of  every  Briton  but  of  every  Christian,  whether 
British  or  native,  to  secure  the  protecting  aid  of  Britain,  at  least  as 
long  as  two-thirds  of  the  inhabitants  of  India  retained  the  Hindoo  or 
Mussulman  system  of  religion,  few  things  would  be  more  likely  to  cement 
and  preserve  the  connection  between  both  countries  than  the  existence 
of  such  a  class  of  British-born  landholders  in  India." 

It  is  profitable  to  read  this  in  the  light  of  the  events  of 
the  subsequent  half-century — of  the  Duff-Bentinck  reforms, 
the  Sepoy  mutiny,  the  government  of  the  Queen-Empress,  the 
existence  of  more  than  two  millions  of  Christians  in  India, 
the  social  and  commercial  development  due  to  the  non-official 
and  official  aliens  from  Great  Britain  and  America.  On  the 
materialistic  side  alone  the  first  of  the  reports,  showing  the 
industrial  and  agricultural  resources  of  the  Indian  Empire, 
prepared  for  the  London  Exhibition  of  1886,  will  form 
the  most  pregnant  commentary  on  Carey's  scientific  and 
economic  work.  "  Whatever  pictures  may  be  drawn  of  dis- 
tress in  any  part  of  India,"  we  find  the  Agricultural  Secretary 
of  the  Government  saying,  "  there  is  no  doubt  that  the  condi- 
tion of  the  cultivators  generally  is  materially  better  than  it 
was  fifty  years  ago."  And  as  if  he  were  quoting  Carey's 
language  of  urgency  sixty-five  years  before,  he  adds  : — "  The 
State  landlord-in-chief  is  promoting  railways,  canal  and  well 
irrigation,  the  improvement  of  the  rent  and  revenue  systems, 
the  reclamation  of  waste  lands,  with  the  establishment  of 
fuel  and  fodder  reserves,  the  introduction  of  agricultural  im- 
provements by  new  machines  and  new  methods." 1 

There  is  one  evil  which  Carey  never  ceased  to  point  out, 

1  Mr.  Buck's  address  on  the  "Agricultural  Resources  of  India,"  pub- 
lished in  the  Journal  of  the  London  Society  of  Arts,  30th  January  1885,  p. 
225. 


324  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1820 

but  which  the  very  perfection  of  our  judicial  procedure  and 
the  temporary  character  of  our  land  assessments  have  intensi- 
fied— "  the  borrowing  system  of  the  natives."  While  12 
per  cent  is  the  so-called  legal  rate  of  interest,  it  is  never 
below  36,  and  more  frequently  rises  to  72  per  cent. 
Native  marriage  customs,  the  commercial  custom  of  "ad- 
vances," agricultural  usage,  and  our  civil  procedure  combine 
to  sink  millions  of  the  peasantry  lower  than  they  were,  in 
this  respect,  in  Carey's  time.  For  this,  too,  he  had  a  remedy 
so  far  as  it  was  in  his  power  to  mitigate  an  evil  which  only 
practical  Christianity  will  cure.  He  was  the  first  to  apply 
in  India  that  system  of  savings  banks  which  the  Government 
of  India  has  of  late  sought  to  encourage. 

At  a  time  when  the  English  and  even  Scottish  Univer- 
sities denied  their  honorary  degrees  to  all  British  subjects  who 
were  not  of  the  established  Churches,  Brown  University,  in 
the  United  States — Judson's — spontaneously  sent  Carey  the 
diploma  of  Doctor  of  Divinity.  That  was  in  the  year  1807. 
In  1823  he  was  elected  a  corresponding  member  of  the  Horti- 
cultural Society  of  London,  a  member  of  the  Geological 
Society,  and  a  Fellow  of  the  Linnsean  Society.  To  him 
the  latter  year  was  ever  memorable,  not  for  such  honours 
which  he  had  not  sought,  but  for  a  flood  of  the  Damoodar 
river,  which,  overflowing  its  embankments  and  desolating  the 
whole  country  between  it  and  the  Hoogli,  submerged  his 
garden  and  the  mission  grounds  with  three  feet  of  water, 
swept  away  the  botanic  treasures  or  buried  them  under  sand, 
and  destroyed  his  own  house.  Carey  was  lying  in  bed  at 
the  time,  under  an  apparently  fatal  fever  following  disloca- 
tion of  the  hip -joint.  He  lost  his  footing  when  stepping 
from  a  boat  on  his  weekly  return  from  Calcutta,  and  had 
been  carried  to  his  room  by  the  boatmen.  Surgical  science 
was  then  less  equal  to  such  a  case  than  it  is  now,  and  for 
nine  days  he  suffered  agony,  which  on  the  tenth  resulted  in 


1823  DESTRUCTION  OF  HIS  GARDEN  BY  A  FLOOD.  325 

fever.  When  hurriedly  carried  out  of  his  tottering  house, 
which  in  a  few  hours  was  scoured  away  by  the  rest  of  the 
torrent  into  a  hole  fifty  feet  deep,  his  first  thought  was  of 
his  garden.  For  six  months  he  used  crutches,  but  long 
before  he  could  put  foot  to  the  ground  he  was  carefully 
borne  all  over  the  scene  of  desolation.  His  noble  collection 
of  exotic  plants,  unmatched  in  Asia  save  in  the  Company's 
Garden,  was  gone.  His  scientific  arrangement  of  orders  and 
families  was  obliterated.  It  seemed  as  if  the  fine  barren  sand 
of  the  mountain  torrent  would  make  the  paradise  a  desert 
for  ever.  The  venerable  botanist  was  wounded  in  his  keenest 
part,  but  he  lost  not  an  hour  in  issuing  orders  and  writing 
off  for  new  supplies  of  specimens  and  seeds,  which  years 
after  made  the  place  as  lovely,  if  not  so  precious,  as  before. 
He  thus  wrote  Dr.  Eyland  : — 

"  SERAMPORE,  Dec.  22,  1823. 

"  MY  DEAR  BROTHER — I  once  more  address  you  from  the 
land  of  the  living,  a  mercy  which  about  two  months  ago  I 
had  no  expectation  of,  nor  did  any  one  expect  it  more  than, 
nor  perhaps  so  much  as,  myself.  On  the  1st  of  October  I 
went  to  Calcutta  to  preach,  and  returned  with  another  friend 
about  midnight.  When  I  got  out  of  the  boat  close  to  our 
own  premises,  my  foot  slipped  and  I  fell ;  my  friend  also  fell 
in  the  same  place.  I  however  perceived  that  I  could  not 
rise,  nor  even  make  the  smallest  effort  to  rise.  The  boatmen 
carried  me  into  the  house,  and  laid  me  on  a  couch,  and  my 
friend,  who  was  a  medical  man,  examined  my  hurt. — From 
all  this  affliction  I  am,  through  mercy,  nearly  restored.  I  am 
still  very  weak,  and  the  injured  limb  is  very  painful.  I  am 
unable  to  walk  two  steps  without  crutches ;  yet  my  strength 
is  sensibly  increasing,  and  Dr.  Mellis,  who  attended  me  during 
the  illness,  says  he  has  no  doubts  of  my  perfect  recovery. 

"  During  my  confinement,  in  October,  such  a  quantity  of 
water  came  down  from  the  western  hills,  that  it  laid  the 


326  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1823 

whole  country  for  about  a  hundred  miles  in  length  and  the 
same  in  breadth,  under  water.  The  Ganges  was  filled  by  the 
flood,  so  as  to  spread  far  on  every  side.  Serampore  was  under 
water ;  we  had  three  feet  of  water  in  our  garden  for  seven  or 
eight  days.  Almost  all  the  houses  of  the  natives  in  that  vast 
extent  of  country  fell ;  their  cattle  were  swept  away,  and  the 
people,  men,  women,  and  children.  Some  gained  elevated  spots, 
where  the  water  still  rose  so  high  as  to  threaten  them  with 
death ;  others  climbed  trees,  and  some  floated  on  the  roofs  of 
their  ruined  houses.  One  of  the  Church  missionaries,  Mr. 
Jetter,  who  had  accompanied  Mr.  Thomason  and  some  other 
gentlemen  to  Burdwan  to  examine  the  schools  there,  called  on 
me  on  his  return  and  gave  me  a  most  distressing  account  of 
the  fall  of  houses,  the  loss  of  property,  the  violent  rushing  of 
waters,  so  that  none,  not  even  the  best  swimmers,  dared  to 
leave  the  place  where  they  were. 

"  This  inundation  was  very  destructive  to  the  Mission 
house,  or  rather  the  mission  premises.  A  slip  of  the  earth 
(somewhat  like  that  of  an  avalanche),  took  place  on  the  bank 
of  the  river  near  my  house,  and  gradually  approached  it  until 
only  about  ten  feet  of  space  were  left  between  that  and  the 
house ;  and  that  space  soon  split.  At  last  two  fissures 
appeared  in  the  foundation  and  wall  of  the  house  itself.  This 
was  a  signal  for  me  to  remove ;  and  a  house  built  for  a  pro- 
fessor in  the  College  being  empty,  I  removed  to  it,  and 
through  mercy  am  now  comfortably  settled  there. 

"  I  have  nearly  filled  my  letter  with  this  account,  but  I 
must  give  you  a  short  account  of  the  state  of  my  mind  when 
I  could  think,  and  that  was  generally  when  excited  by  an 
access  of  friends  ;  at  other  times  I  could  scarcely  speak  or 
think.  I  concluded  one  or  two  days  that  my  death  was  near.  I 
had  no  joys  ;  nor  any  fear  of  death,  or  reluctance  to  die  ;  but 
never  was  I  so  sensibly  convinced  of  the  value  of  an  ATONING 
Saviour  as  then.  I  could  only  say,  '  Hangs  my  helpless  soul 


1831  DESTEUCTION  OF  HIS  TREES  BY  A  CYCLONE.  327 

on  thee;'  and  adopt  the  language  of  the  first  and  second 
verses  of  the  fifty-first  Psalm,  which  I  desired  might  be  the 
text  for  my  funeral  sermon.  A  life  of  faith  in  Christ  as  the 
Lamb  of  God  who  taketh  away  the  sin  of  the  world,  appeared 
more  than  ordinarily  important  to  my  mind,  and  I  expressed 
these  feelings  to  those  about  me  with  freedom  and  pleasure. 

"  Now,  through  the  gracious  providence  of  God,  I  am 
again  restored  to  my  work,  and  daily  do  a  little  as  my 
strength  will  admit.  The  printing  of  the  translations  is 
now  going  forward  almost  as  usual,  but  I  have  not  yet  been 
able  to  attend  to  my  duties  in  College. — The  affairs  of  the 
Mission  are  more  extended,  and  I  trust  in  as  prosperous  a 
state  as  at  any  former  time.  There  are  now  many  of  other 
denominations  employed  in  Missions,  and  I  rejoice  to  say 
that  we  are  all  workers  together  in  the  work. — The  native 
churches  were  never  in  a  better  state,  and  the  face  of  the 
Mission  is  in  every  respect  encouraging.  Give  my  love  to 
all  who  know  me. — I  am  very  affectionately  yours. 

"  W.  CAREY." 

Still  more  severe  and  disastrous  in  its  effects  was  the 
cyclone  of  1831.  The  former  had  desolated  the  open  garden, 
but  this  laid  low  some  of  the  noblest  trees  which,  in  their 
fall,  crushed  his  splendid  conservatory.  One  of  his  brethren 
represents  the  old  man  as  weeping  over  the  ruin  of  the  col- 
lections of  twenty  years.  Again  the  Hoogli,  lashed  into  fury 
and  swollen  by  the  tidal  wave,  swept  away  the  lately-formed 
road,  and,  cutting  off  another  fourth  of  the  original  settle- 
ment of  the  Mission,  imperilled  the  old  house  of  Mr.  Ward. 
Its  ruins  were  levelled  to  form  another  road,  and  ever  since 
the  whole  face  of  the  right  bank  of  the  river  has  been  a 
source  of  apprehension  and  expense.  Just  before  this,  Dr. 
Staughton  had  written  from  America  that  the  interest  on  the 
funds  raised  there  by  Ward  for  the  College  would  not  be  sent 
until  the  trustees  were  assured  that  the  money  was  not  to  be 


328  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1830 

spent  on  the  teaching  of  science  in  the  College,  but  only 
on  the  theological  education  of  Hindoo  converts.  "  I  must 
confess,"  was  Carey's  reply,  "  I  never  heard  anything  more 
illiberal.  Pray  can  youth  be  trained  up  for  the  Christian 
ministry  without  science  ?  Do  you  in  America  train  up 
youths  for  it  without  any  knowledge  of  science  ?  " 

One  of  Dr.  Carey's  latest  visits  to  Calcutta  was  to  inspect 
the  Society's  Garden  then  at  Alipore,  and  to  write  the 
elaborate  report  of  the  Horticultural  Committee  which 
appeared  in  the  second  volume  of  the  Transactions  after  his 
death.  He  there  records  the  great  success  of  the  cultivation 
of  the  West  India  arrowroot.  This  he  introduced  into  his 
own  garden,  and  after  years  of  discontinued  culture  we  raised 
many  a  fine  crop  from  the  old  roots.  The  old  man  "  cannot 
but  advert,  with  feelings  of  the  highest  satisfaction,  to  the  dis- 
play of  vegetables  on  the  13th  January  1830,  a  display  which 
would  have  done  honour  to  any  climate,  or  to  any,  even  the 
most  improved  system  of  horticulture.  .  .  .  The  greater  part 
of  the  vegetables  then  produced  were,  till  within  these  last  few 
years,  of  species  wholly  unknown  to  the  native  gardeners." 

When,  in  1842,  the  Agri-Horticultural  Society  resolved 
to  honour  its  founder,  it  appropriately  fell  to  Dr.  Wallich, 
followed  by  the  president  Sir  J.  P.  Grant,  to  do  what  is 
thus  recorded  : — "  Dr.  Wallich  addressed  the  meeting  at 
some  length,  and  alluded  to  the  peculiar  claims  which 
their  late  venerable  founder  had  on  the  affection  of  all 
classes  for  his  untiring  exertions  in  advancing  the  pro- 
sperity of  India,  and  especially  so  on  the  members  of 
the  Society.  He  concluded  his  address  by  this  motion  : — 
'  That  the  Agricultural  and  Horticultural  Society  of  India, 
duly  estimating  the  great  and  important  services  rendered  to 
the  interests  of  British  India  by  the  founder  of  the  institu- 
tion, the  late  Eeverend  Dr.  William  Carey,  who  unceasingly 
applied  his  great  talents,  abilities,  and  influence  in  advancing 


1842  MAKBLE  BUST  OF  CAREY.  329 

the  happiness  of  India — more  especially  by  the  spread  of  an 
improved  system  of  husbandry  and  gardening — desire  to  mark, 
by  some  permanent  record,  their  sense  of  his  transcendent 
worth,  by  placing  a  marble  bust  to  his  memory  in  the  Society's 
new  apartments  at  the  Metcalfe  Hall,  there  to  remain  a  last- 
ing testimony  to  the  pure  and  disinterested  zeal  and  labours 
of  so  illustrious  a  character  :  that  a  subscription,  accord- 
ingly, from  among  the  members  of  the  Society,  be  urgently 
recommended  for  the  accomplishment  of  the  above  object.' " 

One  fact  in  the  history  of  the  marble  bust  of  Carey,  which 
since  1845  has  adorned  the  hall  of  the  Agricultural  Society 
of  India,  would  have  delighted  the  venerable  missionary. 
Following  the  engraving  from  Home's  portrait,  and  advised 
by  one  of  the  sons,  Nobo  Koomar  Pal,  a  self-educated  Bengali 
artist,  modelled  the  clay.  The  clay  bust  was  sent  to  England 
for  the  guidance  of  Mr.  J.  C.  Lough,  the  sculptor  selected 
by  Dr.  Eoyle  to  finish  the  work  in  marble.  Mr.  Lough  had 
executed  the  Queen's  statue  for  the  Eoyal  Exchange,  and  the 
monument  with  a  reclining  figure  of  Southey.  In  sending 
out  the  marble  bust  of  Carey  to  Calcutta  Dr.  Eoyle  wrote, — 
"  I  think  the  bust  an  admirable  one  ;  General  Macleod  imme- 
diately recognised  it  as  one  of  your  much  esteemed  Founder." 
The  Calcutta  photographer  has  not  succeeded  in  producing 
a  representation  of  it  free  enough  from  shadows  to  make  it 
possible  for  the  engraver  to  prepare  a  satisfactory  outline  of 
it  for  this  page. 


CHAPTER   XIII. 

CAREY'S  IMMEDIATE  INFLUENCE  IN  GREAT  BRITAIN 
AND  AMERICA. 

1813-1830. 

Carey's  relation  to  the  new  era — The  East  India  Company's  Charters  of  1793, 
1813,  and  1833  — His  double  influence  on  the  churches  and  public 
opinion — The  great  missionary  societies — Missionary  journals  and  their 
readers — Bengal  and  India  recognised  as  the  most  important  mission 
fields — Influence  on  Robert  Haldane— Reflex  effect  of  foreign  on  home 
missions — Carey's  power  over  individuals — Melville  Home  and  Douglas 
of  Cavers — Henry  Martyn — Charles  Simeon  and  Stewart  of  Moulin — 
Robert  Hall  and  John  Foster — Heber  and  Chalmers — William  Wilber- 
force  on  Carey — Mr.  Prendergast  and  the  tub  story — Last  persecution  by 
Lord  Minto's  Government — Carey  on  the  persecution  and  the  charter 
controversy — The  persecuting  clause  and  the  resolution  legalising  tolera- 
tion— The  Edinburgh  Review  and  Sydney  Smith's  fun — Sir  James  Mack- 
intosh's opinion — South ey's  defence  and  eulogy  of  Carey  and  the  Brother- 
hood in  the  Quarterly  Review  —  Political  value  of  Carey's  labours — 
Andrew  Fuller's  death — A  model  foreign  mission  secretary — His  friend- 
ship with  Carey —  The  sixteen  years'  Dyer  dispute — Dr.  Carey's  position 
— His  defence  of  Marshman  and  rebuke  of  Dyer — His  chivalrous  self- 
sacrifice  —  His  forgiveness  of  the  younger  brethren  in  Calcutta  —  His 
fidelity  to  righteousness  and  to  friendship. 

HIMSELF  the  outcome  of  the  social  and  political  forces 
which  began  a  century  ago  in  the  French  Eevolution,  and 
are  still  at  work,  William  Carey  was  made  a  living  personal 
force  to  the  new  era.  The  period  which  was  introduced  in 
1783  by  the  Peace  of  Versailles  in  Europe  following  the 
Independence  of  the  United  States  of  America,  was  new  on 
every  side, — in  politics,  in  philosophy,  in  literature,  in  scien- 
tific research,  in  a  just  and  benevolent  regard  for  the  peoples 


1783-1833        CAREY'S  RELATION  TO  THE  NEW  ERA.  331 

of  every  land,  and  in  the  awakening  of  the  churches  from 
the  sleep  of  formalism.  Carey  was  no  thinker,  but  with  the 
reality  and  the  vividness  of  practical  action  and  personal 
sacrifice  he  led  the  English-speaking  races,  to  whom  the 
future  of  the  world  was  then  given,  to  substitute  for  the 
dreams  of  Eousseau  and  all  other  theories  the  teaching  of 
Christ  as  to  His  kingdom  within  each  man,  and  in  the  pro- 
gress of  mankind. 

Set  free  from  the  impossible  task  of  administering  North 
America  on  the  absolutist  system  which  the  Georges  would 
fain  have  continued,  Great  Britain  found  herself  committed 
to  the  duty  of  doing  for  India  what  Eome  had  done  for 
Europe.  England  was  compelled  to  surrender  the  free  West  to 
her  own  children  only  that  she  might  raise  the  servile  and 
idolatrous  East  to  such  a  Christian  level  as  the  genius  of  its 
peoples  could  in  time  enable  them  to  work  out.  But  it  took 
the  thirty  years  from  1783  to  1813  to  convince  British 
statesmen,  from  Pitt  to  Castlereagh,  that  India  is  to  be 
civilised  not  according  to  its  own  false  systems,  but  by  truth 
in  all  forms,  spiritual  and  moral,  scientific  and  historical  It 
took  other  twenty  years,  to  the  Charter  of  1833,  to  complete 
the  conversion  of  the  British  Parliament  to  the  belief  that 
the  principles  of  truth  and  freedom  are  in  their  measure  as 
good  for  the  East  as  for  the  West.  At  the  beginning  of  this 
new  period  William  Pitt  based  his  motion  for  Parliamentary 
reform  on  this  fact,  that  "our  senators  are  no  longer  the 
representatives  of  British  virtue  but  of  the  vices  and  pollu- 
tions of  the  East."  At  the  close  of  it  Lord  William  Bentinck, 
Macaulay,  and  Duff,  co-operated  in  the  decree  which  made 
truth,  as  most  completely  revealed  through  the  English  lan- 
guage and  literature,  the  medium  of  India's  enlightenment. 
William  Carey's  career  of  fifty  years,  from  his  baptism  in 
1783  and  the  composition  of  his  Enquiry  to  his  death  in 
1834,  covered  and  influenced  more  than  any  other  one  man's 


332  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1796- 

the  whole  time ;  and  he  represented  in  it  an  element  of  per- 
manent healthy  nationalisation  which  these  successors  over- 
looked,— the  use  of  the  languages  of  the  peoples  of  India  as 
the  only  literary  channels  for  allowing  the  truth  revealed 
through  the  English  language  to  reach  the  millions  of  the 
natives. 

It  was  by  this  means  that  Carey  educated  Great  Britain 
and  America  to  rise  equal  to  the  terrible  trust  of  jointly 
creating  a  Christian  Empire  of  India,  and  ultimately  a  series 
of  self-governing  Christian  nations  in  Southern  and  Eastern 
Asia.  He  consciously  and  directly  roused  the  churches  of 
all  names  to  carry  out  the  commission  of  their  Master,  arid 
to  seek  the  promised  impulse  of  His  Spirit  or  Divine  Eepre- 
sentative  on  earth,  that  they  might  do  greater  things  than  even 
those  which  He  did.  And  he,  less  directly  but  not  less  con- 
sciously, brought  the  influence  of  public  opinion,  which  every 
year  was  purified  and  quickened,  to  bear  upon  Parliament 
and  upon  individual  statesmen,  aided  in  this  up  till  1815  by 
Andrew  Fuller.  Although,  unlike  Duff  afterwards,  he  never 
set  foot  in  England  again,  and  the  influence  of  his  brethren 
Ward  and  Marshman  during  their  visits  was  largely  neutral- 
ised by  the  calumny  of  some  leaders  of  their  own  sect,  Carey's 
character  and  career,  his  letters  and  writings,  his  work  and 
whole  personality,  stood  out  in  England,  Scotland,  and 
America  as  the  motive  power  which  stimulated  every  church 
and  society,  and  won  the  triumph  of  toleration  in  the  charter 
of  1813,  of  humanity,  education,  and  administrative  reform 
in  the  legislation  of  Lord  William  Bentinck. 

We  have  already  seen  how  the  immediate  result  of 
Carey's  early  letters  was  the  foundation  on  a  catholic  or  non- 
baptist  basis  of  the  London  Missionary  Society,  which  now 
represents  the  great  Nonconformist  half  of  England  ;  of  the 
Edinburgh  or  Scottish  and  Glasgow  Societies,  through  which 
the  Presbyterians  sent  forth  missionaries  to  West  an,d  South 


1836  INFLUENCE  ON  MISSIONARY  SOCIETIES.  333 

Africa  and  to  Western  India,  until  their  churches  acted  as 
such;  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society  which  the  evan- 
gelical members  of  the  Church  of  England  have  put  in  the 
front  of  all  the  societies ;  and  of  Eobert  Haldane's  splendid 
self-sacrifice  in  selling  all  that  he  had  to  lead  a  large  Pres- 
byterian mission  to  Hindostan.  Soon  (1797)  the  London 
Society  became  the  parent  of  that  of  the  Netherlands,  and  of 
that  which  has  since  become  one  of  the  most  extensive  in  all 
Christendom,  the  American  Board  of  Commissioners  for  Foreign 
Missions.  The  latter,  really  founded  (1810)  by  Judson  and 
some  of  his  fellow-students,  gave  birth  (1814)  to  the  almost 
equally  great  American  Baptist  Union  when  Judson  and  his 
colleague  became  Baptists,  and  the  former  was  sent  by  Carey 
to  Burma.  The  Eeligious  Tract  Society  (1799),  and  the 
British  and  Foreign  Bible  Society  (1804) — each  a  handmaid 
of  the  missionary  agencies — sprang  as  really  though  less 
directly  from  Carey's  action.  Such  organised  efforts  to  bring 
in  heathen  and  Mohammedan  peoples  led  in  1809  to  the 
at  first  catholic  work  begun  by  the  London  Society  for  pro- 
moting Christianity  among  the  Jews.  The  older  Wesleyaii 
Methodist  and  Gospel  Propagation  Societies,  catching  the 
enthusiasm  as  Carey  succeeded  in  opening  India  and  the  East, 
entered  on  a  new  development  under  which  the  former  in 
1813,  and  the  latter  in  1821,  no  longer  confined  their  opera- 
tions to  the  slaves  of  America  and  the  English  of  the  disper- 
sion in  the  colonies  and  dependencies  of  Great  Britain.  In 
1815  Lutheran  Germany  also,  which  had  cast  out  the  Pietists 
and  the  Moravian  brethren  as  the  Church  of  England  had 
rejected  the  Wesleyans,  founded  the  principal  representative 
of  its  evangelicalism  at  Basel.  The  succeeding  years  up 
to  Carey's  death  saw  similar  missionary  centres  formed,  or 
reorganised,  in  Leipzig  (1819),  Berlin  (1823),  and  Bremen 
(1836). 

The  Periodical  Accounts  sent  home  from  Mudnabati  and 


334  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1794 

Serampore,  beginning  at  the  close  of  1794,  gave  birth  not 
only  to  these  great  missionary  movements  but  to  the  new 
and  now  familiar  class  of  foreign  missionary  periodicals. 
The  few  magazines  then  existing,  like  the  Evangelical,  became 
filled  with  a  new  spirit  of  unselfishness,  catholicity,  and 
earnest  aggressiveness.  In  1796  there  appeared  in  Edin- 
burgh The  Missionary  Magazine,  "a  periodical  publication 
intended  as  a  repository  of  discussion  and  intelligence  re- 
specting the  progress  of  the  Gospel  throughout  the  world." 
The  editors,  when  beginning  their  second  annual  volume, 
declared  that  "  the  number  of  their  readers  has  already  far 
exceeded  their  most  sanguine  expectations,"  so  that  thus 
"  a  considerable  revenue  is  likely  to  be  raised  for  the  support 
of  missions  to  the  heathen."  They  close  their  preface  in 
January  1797  with  this  statement : — "  With  much  pleasure 
they  have  learned  that  there  was  never  a  greater  number 
of  religious  periodical  publications  carried  on  than  at 
present,  and  never  were  any  of  them  more  generally  read. 
The  aggregate  impression  of  those  alone  which  are  printed  in 
Britain  every  month  considerably  exceeds  thirty  thousand." 
The  first  article  utilises  the  facts  sent  home  by  Dr.  Carey 
as  the  fruit  of  his  first  two  years'  experience,  to  show  "  The 
Peculiar  Advantages  of  Bengal  as  a  Field  for  Missions  from 
Great  Britain."  After  describing,  in  the  style  of  an  English 
statesman,  the  immense  population,  the  highly  civilised  state 
of  society,  the  eagerness  of  the  natives  in  the  acquisition 
of  knowledge,  and  the  principles  which  the  Hindoos  and 
Mohammedans  hold  in  common  with  Christians,  the  writer 
(who  is  evidently  Robert  Haldane)  thus  continues : — 

"  The  attachment  of  loth  the  Mdhommedans  and  Hindoos  to  their 
ancient  systems  is  lessening  every  day.  We  have  this  information 
from  the  late  Sir  William  Jones,  one  of  the  Judges  of  that  country,  a 
name  dear  to  literature,  and  a  lover  of  the  religion  of  Jesus.  The 
Mussulmans  in  Hindostan  are  in  general  but  little  acquainted  with 
their  system,  and  by  no  means  so  zealous  for  it  as  their  brethren 


1797  INFLUENCE  ON  MISSIONARY  LITERATURE.  335 

in  the  Turkish  and  Persian  empires.  Besides,  they  have  not  the 
strong  arm  of  civil  authority  to  crush  those  who  would  convert  them. 
Mr.  Carey's  letters  seem  to  intimate  the  same  relaxation  among  the 
Hindoos.  This  decay  of  prejudice  and  bigotry  will  at  least  incline 
them  to  listen  with  more  patience,  and  a  milder  temper,  to  the  doc- 
trines and  evidences  of  the  Christian  religion.  The  degree  of  adhesion 
to  their  castes,  which  still  remains,  is  certainly  unfavourable,  and 
must  be  considered  as  one  of  Satan's  arts  to  render  men  unhappy ; 
but  it  is  not  insuperable.  The  Roman  Catholics  have  gained  myriads 
of  converts  from  among  them.  The  Danish  missionaries  record  their 
thousands  too  :  and  one  (Schwartz)  of  the  most  successful  missionaries  at 
present  in  the  world  is  labouring  in  the  southern  part  of  Hindostan. 
Besides  a  very  considerable  number  who  have  thrown  aside  their  old 
superstition,  and  make  a  profession  of  the  Christian  religion,  he  com- 
putes that,  in  the  course  of  his  ministry,  he  has  been  the  instrument 
of  savingly  converting  two  thousand  persons  to  the  faith  of  Christ. 
Of  these,  above  five  hundred  are  Mohammedans :  the  rest  are  from  among 
the  different  castes  of  the  Hindoos.  In  addition  to  these  instances,  it 
is  proper  to  notice  the  attention  which  the  Hindoos  are  paying  to  the 
two  Baptist  missionaries,  and  which  gives  a  favourable  specimen  of 
their  readiness  to  listen  to  the  preaching  of  the  Gospel.  .  .  . 

"  The  language  of  Bengal  is  spoken  over  a  vast  extent  of  country. 
The  preacher  on  the  coast  of  Africa,  in  America,  in  Greenland,  who  has 
learned  the  language  of  the  heathen,  finds  himself  confined  to  a  few 
hundreds  or  thousands  of  miserable  Pagans  ;  and  when  he  goes  beyond 
the  narrow  limits  of  his  tribe,  or  horde,  is  a  barbarian  to  the  neigh- 
bouring nations  ;  but  the  missionary  who  has  learned  the  language  of 
Bengal  will  have  more  millions  to  address  than  the  others  can  find 
hundreds  or  thousands.  Of  what  advantage  this  is,  need  not  be  said. 
Without  any  additional  trouble  of  learning  tongues,  to  how  wide  an 
extent  may  he  carry  the  glad  tidings  of  salvation.  And  a  translation 
of  the  sacred  Scriptures  into  this  tongue  will  give  millions  an  oppor- 
tunity of  perusing  a  book  which  is  able  to  make  them  wise  unto  salva- 
tion, through  faith  which  is  in  Christ  Jesus.  .  .  . 

"  But  Bengal  has  a  further  recommendation  as  a  field  of  missions 
than  its  populousness,  its  civilisation,  its  attainments  in  science,  many 
common  principles  of  religion,  the  decay  of  attachment  to  old  systems, 
and  the  safety  and  quiet  of  the  missionaries.  If  the  Gospel  were  once 
planted,  and  took  deep  root  in  that  province,  there  would  be  a 
pleasing  prospect  of  its  being  propagated  through  every  part  of  Hin- 
dostan. That  immense  region,  it  has  been  computed,  contains  a  hun- 


336  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1797 

dred  and  twenty  millions  of  inhabitants.  And  what  disciple  of  Jesus 
does  not  feel  his  heart  glow  with  all  the  ardour  of  holy  zeal  at  the 
glorious  prospect,  and  anxiously  desire  to  see  the  door  opened  to  every 
apartment  of  that  vast  habitation  of  souls,  and  to  have  every  inclosure 
of  that  ample  harvest  supplied  with  labourers.  Should  Bengal  ever 
be  converted  to  the  faith  of  Christ,  the  way  is  plain  and  easy  to  every 
other  province  of  the  empire  ;  and  if  European  missionaries  should  any- 
where find  difficulty  of  access,  Mohammedan  and  Hindoo  converts  will 
be  able  to  carry  the  Gospel  into  every  part  of  it  without  any  obstacle, 
and  with  every  prospect  of  success. 

"  Benefits  still  more  extensive  may  be  expected  from  planting  the 
Gospel  in  Bengal.  The  situation  of  that  province  in  respect  to  the 
most  famous,  civilised,  and  populous  countries  of  the  East,  merits  parti- 
cular attention.  By  casting  the  eye  of  Christian  benevolence  on  the 
map  of  the  world,  with  pleasing  surprise,  Bengal  will  be  seen  placed 
in  the  centre  of  the  southern  part  of  Asia,  and  presenting  on  every 
side  the  noblest  fields  for  missions  which  are  to  be  found  on  the  face  of 
the  earth.  China,  that  world  of  souls  in  itself,  is  at  no  great  distance 
to  the  east :  and  an  entrance  into  it  may  be  more  easily  obtained  by 
missionaries  from  that  quarter  than  by  the  usual  channels  of  com- 
merce. Thibet  and  Tartary,  on  the  north,  contain  their  millions. 
Beyond  the  ocean,  Persia,  to  the  west,  calls  for  the  consolations  of  the 
Gospel,  to  cheer  them  amidst  the  darkness  of  Mohammedan  delusion  : 
while  the  swarthy  sons  of  Pegu  and  Siam,  inhabiting  large  and  fertile 
countries  on  the  south,  invite  the  messengers  of  peace  to  come  and  pro- 
claim the  glad  tidings  of  life  and  immortality.  A  better  centre  of 
operations  than  Bengal  it  is  impossible  for  the  spiritual  warrior  to  fix 
on  for  extending  the  kingdom  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  for  crushing  the 
usurpations  of  Satan  and  of  sin. 

"  Keflect,  0  disciple  of  Jesus  !  on  what  has  been  presented  to  thy 
view.  The  cause  of  Christ  is  thy  own  cause.  Without  deep  crimina- 
lity thou  canst  not  be  indifferent  to  its  success.  Kejoice  that  so 
delightful  a  field  of  missions  has  been  discovered  and  exhibited. 
House  thyself  from  the  slumbers  of  spiritual  languor.  Exert  thyself 
to  the  utmost  of  thy  power  ;  and  let  conscience  be  able  to  testify, 
without  a  doubt,  even  at  the  tribunal  of  Jesus  Christ,  If  missionaries 
are  not  speedily  sent  to  preach  the  glorious  Gospel  in  Bengal,  it  shall  not 
be  owing  to  me." 

That  is  remarkable  writing  for  an  Edinburgh  magazine  in 
the  year  1797,  and  it  was  Carey  who  made  it  possible.  Its 


1800  FOREIGN  MISSIONS  CREATE  HOME  MISSIONS.  337 

author  followed  up  the  appeal  by  offering  himself  and  his  all, 
for  life  and  death,  in  a  "  Plan  of  the  Mission  to  Bengal,"  which 
appeared  in  the  April  number.  Eobert  Haldane,  whose 
journal  at  this  time  was  full  of  Carey's  doings,  and  his 
ordained  associates,  Bogue,  Innes,  and  Greville  Ewing,  accom- 
panied by  John  Eitchie  as  printer,  John  Campbell  as  cate- 
chist,  and  other  lay  workers,  determined  to  turn  the  very  centre 
of  Hindooism,  Benares,  into  a  second  Serampore.  Defeated 
by  one  set  of  Directors  of  the  East  India  Company,  he  waited 
for  the  election  of  their  successors,  only  to  find  the  East  India 
Company  as  hostile  to  the  Scottish  gentleman  as  they  had 
been  to  the  English  shoemaker  four  years  before.  Pitt  and 
Dundas,  at  that  time  dictators  of  England  and  Scotland,  were 
his  personal  friends,  but  they  refused  to  order  that  the  mis- 
sionaries should  be  "  lawfully  licensed  or  authorised  to  go, 
sail,  or  repair  to  the  East  Indies,"  under  the  statute  passed 
really  to  exclude  free  traders  and  secure  to  the  Company 
their  commercial  monopoly,  but  again  used  to  shut  out 
Christianity  alone  of  all  religions. 

The  formation  of  the  great  Missionary  and  Bible  Societies 
did  not,  as  in  the  case  of  the  Moravian  Brethren  and  the 
Wesleyans,  take  their  members  out  of  the  Churches  of  Eng- 
land and  Scotland,  of  the  Baptists  and  Independents.  It 
supplied  in  each  case  an  executive  through  which  these 
worked  aggressively  not  only  on  the  non-christian  world,  but 
still  more  directly  on  their  own  home  congregations  and 
parishes.  The  foreign  mission  spirit  directly  gave  birth  to 
the  home  mission  on  an  extensive  scale.  Not  merely  did  the 
Haldanes  and  their  agents,  following  Whitefield  and  the 
Secession  of  1733,  become  the  evangelists  of  the  north  when 
they  were  not  suffered  to  preach  the  Gospel  in  South  Asia  ; 
every  member  of  the  churches  of  Great  Britain  and  America, 
as  he  caught  the  enthusiasm  of  humanity,  in  the  Master's 
sense,  from  the  periodical  accounts  sent  home  from  Seram- 

z 


338  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1797 

pore,  and  soon  from  Africa  and  the  South  Seas,  as  well  as 
from  the  Red  Indians  and  Slaves  of  the  West,  began  to  work 
as  earnestly  among  the  neglected  classes  around  him,  as  to 
pray  and  give  for  the  conversion  of  the  peoples  abroad.  From 
first  to  last,  from  the  early  days  of  the  Moravian  influence  on 
Wesley  and  Whitefield,  and  the  letters  of  Carey  to  the  suc- 
cessive visits  of  missionaries  like  Duff  and  Judson,  Ellis  and 
Williams,  Moffat  and  Livingstone,  to  the  home  churches,  it 
is  the  enterprise  of  foreign  missions  which  has  been  the 
leaven  of  Christendom  no  less  really  than  of  the  rest  of  the 
world.  Does  the  fact  that  at  the  close  of  the  year  1796 
there  were  more  than  thirty  thousand  men  and  women  in 
Great  Britain  who  every  month  read  and  prayed  about  the 
then  little  known  world  of  heathenism,  and  spared  not  their 
best  to  bring  that  world  to  the  Christ  whom  they  had  found, 
seem  a  small  thing  ?  How  much  smaller,  even  to  con- 
temptible insignificance,  must  those  who  think  so  consider 
the  arrival  of  William  Carey  in  Calcutta  to  be  three  years 
before !  Yet  the  thirty  thousand  sprang  from  the  one,  and 
to-day,  not  a  century  after,  the  thirty  thousand  have  become 
a  vast  body  of  Christians  really  obedient  to  the  Master,  in  so 
far  as,  banded  together  in  a  hundred  churches  and  societies, 
they  have  sent  out  five  thousand  missionaries  instead  of 
one  or  two  ;  they  see  thirty  thousand  Asiatics,  Africans,  and 
Polynesians  proclaiming  the  Christ  to  their  countrymen,  and 
their  praying  is  tested  by  their  giving  annually  a  sum  of 
£2,300,000,  to  which  every  year  is  adding.  f 

The  influence  of  Carey  and  his  work  on  individual  men  and 
women  in  his  generation  was  even  more  marked,  inasmuch  as 
his  modesty  and  humility  kept  him  so  often  from  magnifying 
his  office  and  glorifying  God  as  the  example  of  Paul  should 
have  encouraged  him  to  do.  Most  important  of  all  for  the 
cause  he  personally  called  Ward  to  be  his  associate,  and  his 
writings  drew  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Marshman  to  his  side,  while  his 


1800  MELVILLE  HORNE  AND  DOUGLAS  OF  CAVERS.  339 

apostolic  charity  so  developed  and  used  all  that  was  good 
in  Thomas  and  Fountain,  that  not  even  in  the  churches  of 
John  and  James,  Peter  and  Paul,  Barnabas  and  Luke,  was  there 
such  a  brotherhood.  When  troubles  came  from  outside  he  won 
to  himself  the  younger  brethren,  Yates  and  Pearce,  and  healed 
half  the  schism  which  Andrew  Fuller's  unworthy  successors 
made.  His  Enquiry,  followed  "  by  actually  embarking  on  a 
mission  to  India,"  led  to  the  publication  of  the  Letters  on 
Missions  addressed  to  the  Protestant  Ministers  of  the  British 
Churches  by  Melville  Home,  who,  after  a  brief  experience  as 
Church  of  England  chaplain  in  Zachary  Macaulay's  settle- 
ment of  Sierra  Leone,  published  that  little  book  to  excite  in 
all  Christians  a  passion  for  missions  like  the  Master's.  Ee- 
ferring  to  the  English  churches,  Established  and  Noncon- 
formist, he  wrote  : — "  Except  the  Eeverend  Mr.  Carey  and  a 
friend  who  accompanies  him,  I  am  not  informed  of  any  .  .  . 
ministers  who  are  engaged  in  missions."  The  Serampore 
Mission,  at  an  early  period,  called  forth  the  admiration  of  the 
Scottish  philanthropist  and  essayist,  James  Douglas  of  Cavers, 
whose  Hints  on  Missions  (1822),  a  book  still  full  of  sug- 
gestiveness,  contains  this  passage  : — "  Education  and  the  press 
have  only  been  employed  to  purpose  of  very  late  years, 
especially  by  the  missionaries  of  Serampore  ;  every  year  they 
have  been  making  some  improvements  upon  their  former 
efforts,  and  ...  it  only  requires  to  increase  the  number  of 
printing  presses,  schools,  teachers,  translators,  and  professors, 
to  accelerate  to  any  pitch  the  rate  of  improvement.  ...  To 
attempt  to  convert  the  world  without  educating  it,  is  grasping 
at  the  end  and  neglecting  the  means."  Eeferring  to  what 
Carey  had  begun  and  the  Serampore  College  had  helped  to 
develop  in  Asia,  as  in  Africa  and  America,  Douglas  of 
Cavers  well  described  the  missionary  era,  the  new  crusade  : 
— "  The  Eeformation  itself  needed  anew  a  reform  in  the  spirit 
if  not  in  the  letter.  That  second  Eeformation  has  begun  ;  it 


340  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1800 

makes  less  noise  than  that  of  Luther,  but  it  spreads  wider 
and  deeper ;  as  it  is  more  intimate  it  will  be  more  enduring. 
Like  the  Temple  of  Solomon  it  is  rising  silently,  without  the 
din  of  pressure  or  the  note  of  previous  preparation,  but 
notwithstanding  it  will  be  not  less  complete  in  all  its  parts 
nor  less  able  to  resist  the  injuries  of  time  ! " 

Henry  Martyn  died,  perhaps  the  loftiest  and  most  loving 
spirit  of  the  men  whom  Carey  drew  to  India.  Son  of  a 
Cornish  miner,  after  passing  through  the  Truro  Grammar 
School,  he  was  sixteen — the  age  at  which  Carey  became  a 
shoemaker's  apprentice — when  he  was  entered  at  St.  John's, 
and  made  that  ever  since  the  most  missionary  of  all  the  col- 
leges of  Cambridge.  When  not  yet  twenty  he  came  out  Senior 
Wrangler.  His  father's  death  drove  him  to  the  Bible,  to  the 
Acts  of  the  Apostles,  which  he  began  to  study,  and  the  first 
whisper  of  the  call  of  Christ  came  to  him  in  the  joy  of  the 
Magnificat  as  its  strains  pealed  through  the  chapel.  Charles 
Simeon's  preaching  drew  him  to  Trinity  Church.  In  the 
vicarage,  when  he  had  come  to  be  tutor  of  his  college,  and 
was  preparing  for  the  law,  he  heard  much  talk  of  William 
Carey,  of  his  self-sacrifice  and  his  success  in  India.  It  was 
the  opening  year  of  the  nineteenth  century,  the  Church  Mis- 
sionary Society  had  just  been  born  as  the  fruit  partly  of  a 
paper  written  by  Simeon  four  years  previously,  and  he  offered 
himself  as  its  first  English  missionary.  He  was  not  twenty- 
one,  he  could  not  be  ordained  for  two  years.  Meanwhile  a 
calamity  made  him  and  his  unmarried  sister  penniless;  he 
loved  Lydia  Grenfell  with  a  hopeless  passion  which  enriched 
while  it  saddened  his  short  life,  and  a  chaplaincy  became  the 
best  mode  in  every  way  of  his  living  and  dying  for  India. 
What  a  meeting  must  that  have  been  between  him  and  Carey, 
when,  already  stricken  by  fever,  he  found  a  sanctuary  in 
Aldeen,  and  learned  at  Serampore  the  sweetness  of  telling  to 
the  natives  of  India  in  one  of  their  own  tongues  the  love 


1813  HENRY  MARTYN  AND  ALEXANDER  STEWART.  341 

of  God.  William  Carey  and  Henry  Martyn  were  one  in  origin, 
from  the  people  ;  in  industry,  as  scholars ;  in  genius,  as 
God-devoted ;  in  the  love  of  a  great  heart  not  always  re- 
turned. The  older  man  left  the  church  of  his  fathers  because 
there  was  no  Simeon  and  no  missionary  society,  and  he 
made  his  own  University  ;  he  laid  the  foundation  of  English 
missions  deep  and  broad  in  no  sect  or  sectional  church,  but 
in  Christ,  to  whom  he  and  Martyn  alike  gave  themselves. 

The  names  of  Carey  and  Simeon,  thus  linked  to  each 
other  by  Martyn,  find  another  pleasant  and  fruitful  tie  in  the 
Kev.  Alexander  Stewart,  D.D.,  Gaelic  scholar  and  Scottish 
preacher.  It  was  soon  after  Carey  went  out  to  India  that 
Simeon,  travelling  in  the  Highlands,  spent  a  Sunday  in  the 
manse  of  Moulin,  where  his  personal  intercourse  and  his  even- 
ing sermon  after  the  season  of  communion  were  blessed  to  the 
evangelical  conversion  of  Stewart.  Moulin  was  the  birthplace 
ten  years  after  of  Alexander  Duff,  whose  parents  previously 
came  under  the  power  of  the  minister's  new-found  light,1 
Like  Simeon,  Dr.  Stewart  thenceforth  became  a  warm  sup- 
porter of  foreign  missions.  Finding  in  the  Periodical  Ac- 
counts a  letter  in  which  Carey  asked  Fuller  to  send  him 
a  -  copy  of  Van  der  Hooght's  edition  of  the  Hebrew  Bible 
because  of  the  weakness  of  his  eyesight,  Dr.  Stewart  at  once 
wrote  offering  his  own  copy,  and  asking  how  it  could  best 
be  sent.  Fuller  gladly  accepted  the  kindness.  "I  with 
great  pleasure,"  writes  Dr.  Stewart,  "  followed  the  direction, 
wrote  a  letter  of  some  length  to  Carey,  and  sent  off  my 
parcel  to  London.  I  daresay  you  remember  my  favourite 
Hebrew  Bible  in  two  volumes.  I  parted  with  it  with  some- 
thing of  the  same  feelings  that  a  pious  parent  might  do  with  a 
favourite  son  going  on  a  mission  to  the  heathen — with  a  little 
regret  but  with  much  goodwill."  This  was  the  beginning 
of  an  interesting  correspondence  with  Carey  and  Fuller. 

1  Life  of  Alexander  Duff,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  chapter  i. 


342  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CATCEY.  1828 

Next  to  Andrew  Fuller,  and  in  the  region  of  literature, 
general  culture,  and  eloquence  far  before  him,  the  strongest 
men  among  the  Baptists  were  the  younger  Kobert  Hall  and 
John  Foster.  Both  were  devoted  to  Carey,  and  were  the 
most  fervid  and  powerful  of  the  English  advocates  of  his 
mission.  The  former,  for  a  time,  was  led  to  side  with  the 
Society  in  some  of  the  details  of  its  dispute  with  Dr.  Marsh- 
man,  but  his  loyalty  to  Carey  and  the  principles  of  the 
mission  fired  some  of  the  most  eloquent  orations  in  English 
literature.  John  Foster's  more  practical  intellect  and  shrewder 
common  sense  never  wavered,  but  inspired  his  pen  alike  in 
the  heat  of  controversy  and  in  his  powerful  essays  and  criti- 
cisms. Writing  in  1828,  he  declared  that  the  Serampore 
missionaries  "  have  laboured  with  the  most  earnest  assiduity 
for  a  quarter  of  a  century  (Dr.  Carey  much  longer)  in  all 
manner  of  undertakings  for  promoting  Christianity,  with  such 
a  renunciation  of  self-interest  as  will  never  be  surpassed ; 
that  they  have  conveyed  the  oracles  of  divine  truth  into  so 
many  languages ;  that  they  have  watched  over  diversified 
missionary  operations  with  unremitting  care  ;  that  they  have 
conducted  themselves  through  many  trying  and  some  perilous 
circumstances  with  prudence  and  fortitude  ;  and  that  they 
retain  to  this  hour  an  undiminished  zeal  to  do  all  that  pro- 
vidence shall  enable  them  in  the  same  good  cause."  The 
expenditure  of  the  Serampore  Brotherhood  up  to  that  time, 
leaving  out  of  account  the  miscellaneous  missionary  services, 
he  showed  to  have  been  upwards  of  £75,000.  Dr.  Chalmers 
in  Scotland  was  as  stoutly  with  Carey  and  his  brethren  as 
Foster  was  in  England,  so  that  Marshman  wrote  : — "Thus 
two  of  the  greatest  and  wisest  men  of  England  are  on  our 
side,  and,  what  is  more,  I  trust  the  Lord  God  is  with  us." 
What  Heber  thought,  alike  as  man  and  bishop,  his  own 
loving  letter  and  proposal  for  "  reunion  of  our  churches  "  in 
the  next  chapter,  will  show. 


1813  WILLIAM  WILBEKFORCE  ON  CAREY.  343 

Of  all  the  publicists  in  the  United  Kingdom  during 
Carey's  long  career  the  foremost  was  William  Wilberforce ; 
he  was  not  second  even  to  Charles  Grant  and  his  sons. 
Defeated  in  carrying  into  law  the  "  pious  clauses "  of  the 
charter  which  would  have  opened  India  to  the  Christ- 
ian missionary  and  schoolmaster  in  1793,  he  nevertheless 
succeeded  by  his  persuasive  eloquence  and  the  weight  of  his 
character  in  having  them  entered  as  Resolutions  of  the 
House  of  Commons.  He  then  gave  himself  successfully  to 
the  abolition  of  the  slave-trade.  But  he  always  declared  the 
toleration  of  Christianity  in  British  India  to  be  "that  greatest 
of  all  causes,  for  I  really  place  it  before  the  abolition,  in 
which,  blessed  be  God,  we  gained  the  victory."  His  defeat 
in  1793,  when  Dundas  and  the  Government  were  with  him, 
was  due  to  the  ignorance  and  apathy  of  public  opinion,  and 
especially  of  the  dumb  churches.  But  in  the  next  twenty 
years  Carey  changed  all  that.  Not  merely  was  Andrew 
Fuller  ever  on  the  watch  with  pen  and  voice,  but  all  the 
churches  were  aroused,  the  Established  to  send  out  bishops 
and  chaplains,  the  Nonconformist  and  Established  Evangeli- 
cals together  to  secure  freedom  for  missionaries  and  school- 
masters. In  1793  an  English  missionary  was  an  unknown 
and  therefore  a  much-dreaded  monster,  for  Carey  was  then 
on  the  sea.  In  1813  Carey  and  the  Serampore  Brother- 
hood were  still  the  only  English  missionaries  continuously  at 
work  in  India,  and  not  the  churches  only,  but  Governor- 
Generals  like  Teignmouth  and  Wellesley,  and  scholars  like 
Colebrooke  and  H.  H.  Wilson,  were  familiar  with  the 
grandeur  and  political  innocency  of  their  labours.  Hence 
this  outburst  of  Wilberforce  in  the  House  of  Commons  on 
the  16th  July  1813,  when  he  used  the  name  of  Carey  to 
defeat  an  attempt  of  the  Company  to  prevent  toleration  by 
omitting  the  declaratory  clauses  of  the  Eesolution  which 
would  have  made  it  imply  that  the  privilege  should  never 


344  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1813 

be  exerted  though  the  power  of  licensing  missionaries  was 
nominally  conceded.  The  passage  occurs  in  the  Life  of  Wil- 
liam Wilberforce 1  by  his  sons,  Eobert  Isaac  and  Samuel  : — 

"One  great  argument  of  his  opponents  was  grounded  on  the 
enthusiastic  character  which  they  imputed  to  the  missionary  body. 
India  hitherto  had  seen  no  missionary  who  was  a  member  of  the 
English  Church,  and  imputations  could  be  cast  more  readily  on  '  Ana- 
baptists and  fanatics.'  These  attacks  Mr.  Wilberforce  indignantly 
refuted,  and  well  had  the  noble  conduct  of  the  band  at  Serampore 
deserved  this  vindication.  '  I  do  not  know,'  he  often  said,  '  a  finer  in- 
stance of  the  moral  sublime,  than  that  a  poor  cobbler  working  in  his 
stall  should  conceive  the  idea  of  converting  the  Hindoos  to  Christ- 
ianity ;  yet  such  was  Dr.  Carey.  Why,  Milton's  planning  his  Para- 
dise Lost  in  his  old  age  and  blindness  was  nothing  to  it.  And  then 
when  he  had  gone  to  India,  and  was  appointed  by  Lord  Wellesley  to 
a  lucrative  and  honourable  station  in  the  college  of  Fort  William,  with 
equal  nobleness  of  mind  he  made  over  all  his  salary  (between  £1000 
and  £1500  per  annum)  to  the  general  objects  of  the  mission.  By  the 
way,  nothing  ever  gave  me  a  more  lively  sense  of  the  low  and  mer- 
cenary standard  of  your  men  of  honour,  than  the  manifest  effect 
produced  upon  the  House  of  Commons  by  my  stating  this  last  circum- 
stance. It  seemed  to  be  the  only  thing  which  moved  them.'  Dr. 
Carey  had  been  especially  attacked,  and  *  a  few  days  afterwards  the 
member  who  had  made  this  charge  came  to  me,  and  asked  me  in  a 
manner  which  in  a  noted  duellist  could  not  be  mistaken,  "  Pray,  Mr. 
Wilberforce,  do  you  know  a  Mr.  Andrew  Fuller,  who  has  written  to 
desire  me  to  retract  the  statement  which  I  made  with  reference  to  Dr. 
Carey  ? "  "  Yes,"  I  answered  with  a  smile,  "  I  know  him  perfectly,  but 
depend  upon  it  you  will  make  nothing  of  him  in  your  way  ;  he  is  a 
respectable  Baptist  minister  at  Kettering."  In  due  time  there  came 
from  India  an  authoritative  contradiction  of  the  slander.  It  was  sent 
to  me,  and  for  two  whole  years  did  I  take  it  in  my  pocket  to  the 
House  of  Commons  to  read  it  to  the  House  whenever  the  author  of  the 
accusation  should  be  present  ;  but  during  that  whole  time  he  never 
once  dared  show  himself  in  the  House.' " 

The  slanderer  was  a  Mr.  Prendergast,  who  affirmed  that 
Dr.  Carey's  conduct  had  changed  so  much  for  the  worse  since 
the  departure  of  Lord  Wellesley,  that  he  himself  had  seen  the 

1  Published  in  1838,  vol.  iv.  page  123. 


1813  MARQUIS  WELLESLEY  ON  SERAMPORE.  345 

missionary  on  a  tub  in  the  streets  of  Calcutta  haranguing  the 
mob  and  abusing  the  religion  of  the  people  in  such  a  way 
that  the  police  alone  saved  him  from  being  killed.  So,  and 
for  the  same  object  of  defeating  the  Eesolutions  on  Tolera- 
tion, Mr.  Montgomerie  Campbell  had  asserted  that  when 
Schwartz  was  in  the  heat  of  his  discourse  in  a  certain  village 
and  had  taken  off  his  stock,  "  that  and  his  gold  buckle  were 
stolen  by  one  of  his  virtuous  and  enlightened  congregation ; 
in  such  a  description  of  natives  did  the  doctrine  of  the  mis- 
sionaries operate."  Before  Dr.  Carey's  exposure  could  reach 
England  this  "  tub  "  story  became  the  stock  argument  of  the 
anti-christian  orators.  The  Madras  barrister,  Marsh,  who 
was  put  up  to  answer  Wilberforce,  was  driven  to  such  lan- 
guage as  this  : — 

"  Your  struggles  are  only  begun  when  you  have  converted  one 
caste ;  never  will  the  scheme  of  Hindoo  conversion  be  realised  till  you 
persuade  an  immense  population  to  suffer  by  whole  tribes  the  severest 
martyrdom  that  has  yet  been  sustained  for  the  sake  of  religion — and 
are  the  missionaries  whom  this  bill  will  let  loose  on  India  fit  engines 
for  the  accomplishment  of  this  great  revolution  ?  Will  these  people, 
crawling  from  the  holes  and  caverns  of  their  original  destinations,  apos- 
tates from  the  loom  and  the  anvil " — (he  should  have  said  the  awl) — 
"  and  renegades  from  the  lowest  handicraft  employments,  be  a  match 
for  the  cool  and  sedate  controversies  they  will  have  to  encounter 
should  the  Brahmans  condescend  to  enter  into  the  arena  against  the 
maimed  and  crippled  gladiators  that  presume  to  grapple  with  their 
faith  ?  What  can  be  apprehended  but  the  disgrace  and  discomfiture 
of  whole  hosts  of  tub  preachers  in  the  conflict?" 

Mr.  Prendergast  subsequently  "  felt  himself  called  upon  to  restate 
that  he  had  seen  Dr.  Carey  standing  on  a  hogshead,  and  heard  him  tell 
the  people  that  if  they  continued  in  their  paganism  and  idolatry,  hell 
fire  would  be  their  portion  ;  and  that  Dr.  Carey  was  preserved  only 
by  the  interposition  of  the  police.  The  attempt  to  convert  the  Hin- 
doos was  the  most  absurd  infatuation  that  ever  besotted  the  weakest 
mind." 

Lord  Wellesley's  eulogy  of  the  Serampore  mission  in  the 
House  of  Lords  was  much  more  pronounced  than  appears 


346  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1813 

from  the  imperfect  report.    But  even  in  that  he  answered  the 
Brahmanised  member  of  the  House  of  Commons  thus  : — 

"  With  regard  to  the  missionaries,  he  must  say  that  while  he  was 
in  India  he  never  knew  of  any  danger  arising  from  their  proceedings, 
neither  had  he  heard  of  any  impression  produced  by  them  in  the  way 
of  conversion.  The  greater  number  of  them  were  in  the  Danish 
settlement  of  Serampore  ;  but  he  never  heard  of  any  convulsions  or 
any  alarm  produced  by  them.  Some  of  them,  particularly  Mr.  Carey, 
were  very  learned  men,  and  had  been  employed  in  the  College  of  Fort 
William.  He  had  always  considered  the  missionaries  who  were  in 
India  in  his  time  a  quiet,  orderly,  discreet,  and  learned  body  ;  and  he 
had  employed  them  in  the  education  of  youth  and  the  translation  of 
the  Scriptures  into  the  eastern  languages.  He  had  thought  it  his 
duty  to  have  the  Sacred  Scriptures  translated  into  the  languages  of 
the  East,  and  to  give  the  learned  natives  employed  in  the  translation 
the  advantage  of  access  to  the  sacred  fountain  of  divine  truth.  He 
thought  a  Christian  governor  could  not  have  done  less  ;  and  he  knew 
that  a  British  governor  ought  not  to  do  more." 

Carey's  letters  to  Fuller  in  1810-12  are  filled  with  impor- 
tunate appeals  to  agitate,  so  that  the  new  charter  might 
legalise  Christian  mission  work  in  India.  Fuller  worked  out- 
side of  the  House  as  hard  as  Wilberforce.  In  eight  weeks  of 
the  session  no  fewer  than  nine  hundred  petitions  were  pre- 
sented, in  twenties  and  thirties,  night  after  night,  till  Lord 
Castlereagh  exclaimed,  "  This  is  enough,  Mr.  Fuller."  There 
was  more  reason  for  Carey's  urgency  than  he  knew  at  the 
time  he  was  pressing  Fuller.  The  persecution  of  the  mission- 
aries in  Bengal,  excused  by  the  Vellore  mutiny,  which  had 
driven  Judson  to  Burma  and  seven  other  missionaries  else- 
where, was  renewed  by  the  Indian  Government's  secre- 
taries and  police,  with  the  approval  of  Lord  Minto.  The 
Ministry  had  informed  the  Court  of  Directors  that  they  had 
resolved  to  permit  Europeans  to  settle  in  India,  yet  after  five 
weeks'  vacillation  that  Governor-General  yielded  to  his  sub- 
ordinates so  far  as  to  issue  an  order,  on  5th  March  1812,  for 
the  expulsion  of  three  missionaries,  an  order  which  was  so 


1813  INTOLERANCE  OF  LORD  MINTO'S  GOVERNMENT.  347 

executed  that  one  of  them  was  conducted  like  a  felon  through 
the  streets  and  lodged  with  natives  in  the  jail  for  two  hours. 
Carey  thus  wrote  to  Eyland  on  the  persecution  : — 

"  CALCUTTA,  14th  April  1813. 

"  MY  DEAR  BROTHER  EYLAND — Before  this  reaches  you  it 
is  probable  that  you  will  have  heard  of  the  resolution  of 
Government  respecting  our  brethren  Johns,  Lawson,  and 
Eobinson,  and  will  perhaps  have  even  seen  Brother  Johns, 
who  was  by  that  cruel  order  sent  home  on  the  Castlereagh. 
Government  have  agreed  that  Brother  Lawson  shall  stay  till 
the  pleasure  of  the  Court  of  Directors  is  known,  to  whom  a 
reference  will  be  made.  Brother  Eobinson  was  gone  down 
the  river,  and  was  on  board  a  ship  bound  to  Java  when  the 
order  was  issued ;  he  therefore  got  out  without  hearing  of  it, 
but  I  understand  it  will  be  sent  thither  after  him.  Jehovah 
reigneth ! 

"  Since  Brother  Johns's  departure  I  have  tried  to  ascer- 
tain the  cause  of  the  severity  in  Government.  I  had  a  long 
conversation  with  H.  T.  Colebrooke,  Esq.,  who  has  been  out 
of  Council  but  a  few  months,  upon  the  matter.  I  cannot 
learn  that  Government  has  any  specific  dislike  to  us,  but  find 
that  ever  since  the  year  1807  the  orders  of  the  Court  of 
Directors  to  send  home  all  Europeans  not  in  the  service  of 
Her  Majesty  or  the  Company,  and  who  come  out  without 
leave  of  the  Directors,  have  been  so  peremptory  and  express 
that  Government  cannot  now  overlook  any  circumstance 
which  brings  such  persons  to  notice.  Notwithstanding  the 
general  way  in  which  the  Court  of  Directors  have  worded 
their  orders,  I  cannot  help  putting  several  circumstances 
together,  which  make  me  fear  that  our  Mission  was  the  cause 
of  the  enforcement  of  that  general  law  which  forbids  Euro- 
peans to  remain  in  India  without  the  leave  of  the  Court  of 
Directors. 

"  Whether  Twining's  pamphlet  excited  the  alarm,  or  was 


348  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1813 

only  an  echo  of  the  minds  of  a  number  of  men  hostile  to 
religion,  I  cannot  say,  but  if  I  recollect  dates  aright  the 
orders  of  the  Court  of  Directors  came  as  soon  as  possible 
after  that  pamphlet  was  published ;  and  as  it  would  have  been 
too  barefaced  to  have  given  a  specific  order  to  send  home 
missionaries,  they  founded  their  orders  on  an  unjust  and 
wicked  clause  in  the  charter,  and  so  enforced  it  that  it  should 
effectually  operate  on  missionaries. 

"  I  hope  the  friends  of  religion  will  persevere  in  the  use 
of  all  peaceful  and  lawful  means  to  prevail  on  the  legislature 
to  expunge  that  clause,  or  so  to  modify  it  that  ministers  of 
the  Gospel  may  have  leave  to  preach,  form  and  visit 
churches,  and  perform  the  various  duties  of  their  office  with- 
out molestation,  and  that  they  may  have  a  right  to  settle  in 
and  travel  over  any  part  of  India  for  that  purpose.  Nothing 
can  be  more  just  than  this  wish,  and  nothing  would  be  more 
politic  than  for  it  to  be  granted;  for  every  one  converted 
from  among  the  heathen  is  from  that  time  a  staunch  friend 
of  the  English  Government.  Our  necks  have,  however,  been 
more  or  less  under  the  yoke  ever  since  that  year,  and  preach- 
ing the  Gospel  stands  in  much  the  same  political  light  as 
committing  an  act  of  felony.  Witness  what  has  been  done 
to  Mr.  Thompson,  the  five  American  brethren,  and  our  three 
brethren.  Mr.  Thomason,  the  clergyman,  has  likewise  hard 
work  to  stand  his  ground. 

"  I  trust,  however,  it  is  too  late  to  eradicate  the  Gospel 
from  Bengal.  The  number  of  those  born  in  the  country  who 
preach  the  Word  is  now  very  considerable.  Fifteen  of  this 
description  preach  constantly,  and  seven  or  eight  more 
occasionally  exhort  their  countrymen,  besides  our  European 
brethren.  The  Gospel  is  stationed  at  eighteen  or  twenty 
stations  belonging  to  our  Mission  alone,  and  at  several  of 
them  there  are  churches.  The  Bible  is  either  translated  or 
under  translation  into  twenty-four  of  the  languages  of  the 


1813  CAREY  ON  THE  INTOLERANCE  OF  GOVERNMENT.  349 

East,  eighteen  of  which  we  are  employed  about,  besides  print- 
ing most  of  the  others.  Thirteen  out  of  these  eighteen  are 
now  in  the  press,  including  a  third  edition  of  the  Bengali 
New  Testament.  Indeed,  so  great  is  the  demand  for  Bibles 
that  though  we  have  eight  presses  constantly  at  work  I  fear 
we  shall  not  have  a  Bengali  New  Testament  to  sell  or 
give  away  for  the  next  twelve  months,  the  old  edition  being 
entirely  out  of  print.  We  shall  be  in  almost  the  same  pre- 
dicament with  the  Hindostani.  We  are  going  to  set  up  two 
more  presses,  which  we  can  get  made  in  Calcutta,  and  are 
going  to  send  another  to  Eangoon.  In  short,  though  the  pub- 
lishing of  the  Word  of  God  is  a  political  crime,  there  never 
was  a  time  when  it  was  so  successful.  '  Not  by  might,  nor 
by  power,  but  by  my  Spirit,  saith  the  Lord.' 

"  Through  divine  mercy  we  are  all  well,  and  live  in  peace 
and  love.  A  small  cloud  which  threatened  at  the  time 
Brother  Johns  left  us  has  mercifully  blown  over,  and  we  are 
now  in  the  utmost  harmony.  I  will,  if  possible,  write  to  my 
nephew  Eustace  by  these  ships,  but  I  am  so  pressed  for  time 
that  I  can  never  promise  to  write  a  letter.  The  Lord  has  so 
blessed  us  that  we  are  now  printing  in  more  languages  than 
we  could  do  before  the  fire  took  place. 

"  Give  my  love  to  Eustace,  also  to  all  who  recollect  or 
think  of  me.  I  am  now  near  fifty-two  years  of  age  ;  yet 
through  mercy  I  am  well  and  am  enabled  to  keep  close  to 
work  twelve  or  fourteen  hours  a  day.  I  hope  to  see  the 
Bible  printed  in  most  of  the  languages  in  which  it  is  begun. 
— I  am,  very  affectionately  yours,  WM.  CAREY." 

Carey  had  previously  written  thus  to  Fuller  : — "  The 
fault  lies  in  the  clause  which  gives  the  Company  power  thus 
to  send  home  interlopers,  and  is  just  as  reasonable  as  one 
which  should  forbid  all  the  people  in  England — a  select  few 
excepted — to  look  at  the  moon.  I  hope  this  clause  will  be 
modified  or  expunged  in  the  new  charter.  The  prohibition 


350 


LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY. 


1813 


is  wrong,  and  nothing  that  is  morally  wrong  can  be  politically 
right."  We  give  the  words  of  the  clause,  and  of  the  13th 
Eesolution  of  1813  which  superseded  it  after  years  of  con- 
troversy and  persecution,  side  by  side,  as  a  measure  of  the 
enlightenment  of  Carey's  days  : — 

33,  Geo.  III.  c.  52,  §  131. 
Any  unlicensed  persons  going  to 
those  parts  (East  Indies),  or  found 
therein,  liable  to  fine  and  im- 
prisonment. 

§  132.  Such  persons  may  be 
arrested,  and  sent  to  England  for 
trial,  and  may  be  committed. 


WORDS  OF  THE  STATUTE. 

§  132.  Be  it  further  enacted, 
That  if  any  subject  or  subjects  of 
His  Majesty,  etc.,  not  being  law- 
fully licensed  or  authorised,  shall 
at  any  time  or  times,  etc.,  directly 
or  indirectly,  go,  sail,  or  repair 
to,  or  be  found  in  the  East  Indies, 
or  any  of  the  parts  foresaid,  all 
and  every  such  person  and  per- 
sons are  hereby  declared  to  be 
guilty  of  a  high  crime  and  mis- 
demeanour; and  being  convicted 
thereof,  shall  be  liable  to  such 
fine  or  imprisonment,  or  both  fine 
and  imprisonment,  as  the  Court 
in  which  such  person  or  persons 


The  13th  Eesolution  ran  thus  : 
"It  is  the  opinion  of  this  Com- 
mittee that  it  is  the  duty  of  this 
country  to  promote  the  interests 
and  happiness  of  the  native  in- 
habitants of  the  British  dominions 
in  India,  and  that  such  measures 
ought  to  be  adopted  as  may  tend 
to  the  introduction  among  them 
of  useful  knowledge,  and  of  reli- 
gious and  moral  improvement. 
That,  in  furtherance  of  the  above 
objects,  sufficient  facilities  shall 
be  afforded  by  law  to  persons 
desirous  of  going  to  and  remain- 
ing in  India  for  the  purpose  of 
accomplishing  these  benevolent 
designs :  Provided  always,  that 
the  authority  of  the  local  govern- 
ments respecting  the  intercourse 
of  Europeans  with  the  interior  of 
the  country  be  preserved,  and 
that  the  principles  of  the  British 
Government,  on  which  the  natives 
of  India  have  hitherto  relied  for 
the  free  exercise  of  their  religion, 
be  inviolably  maintained." 


shall  be  convicted,  shall  think  fit. 

The  East  India  Company  could  still,  however,  refuse  per- 
mission in  any  case,  and  did  refuse  it  to  the  first  missionary 
for  whom  Fuller  applied.  But  the  Board  of  Control  received 
the  power  to  overrule  such  a  refusal,  and  they  exercised  the 
power  in  that  instance.  Passports,  called  certificates  and 
licences,  were  regularly  applied  for  till  1833,  when  the  next 


1808  SYDNEY  SMITH'S  IDEA  OF  RATIONAL  RELIGION.  351 

charter  swept  away  the  last  relic  of  intolerance,  in  this  form 
at  least.  It  was  left  to  the  charter  of  1853  fully  to  liberalise 
the  Company,  but  each  step  was  taken  too  late  to  save  it 
from  the  nemesis  of  1857  and  extinction  in  1858.  "Let  no 
man  think,"  Wilberforce  had  said  to  the  House  of  Commons 
in  1813,  "  that  the  petitions  which  have  loaded  our  table 
have  been  produced  by  a  burst  of  momentary  enthusiasm. 
While  the  sun  and  moon  continue  to  shine  in  the  firmament 
so  long  will  this  object  be  pursued  with  unabated  ardour 
until  the  great  work  be  accomplished." 

The  opposition  of  Anglo -Indian  officials  and  lawyers, 
which  vainly  used  no  better  weapons  than  such  as  Mr. 
Prendergast  and  his  "  tub  "  fabrication,  had  been  anticipated 
and  encouraged  by  the  Edinburgh  Review.  That  periodical 
was  at  the  height  of  its  influence  in  1808,  the  year  before 
John  Murray's  Quarterly  was  first  published.  The  Eev. 
Sydney  Smith,  as  the  literary  and  professional  representative 
of  what  he  delighted  to  call  "  the  cause  of  rational  religion," 
was  the  sworn  foe  of  every  form  of  earnest  and  real  Christian- 
ity, which  he  joined  the  mob  in  stigmatising  as  "  Methodism." 
He  was  not  unacquainted  with  Indian  politics,  for  his  equally 
clever  brother,  known  as  Bobus  Smith,  was  long  Advocate- 
General  in  Calcutta,  and  left  a  very  considerable  fortune  made 
there  to  enrich  the  last  six  years  of  the  Canon's  life.  Casting 
about  for  a  subject  on  which  to  exercise  at  once  his  animosity 
and  his  fun,  he  found  it  in  the  Periodical  Accounts,  wherein 
Fuller  had  undoubtedly  too  often  published  letters  and  pass- 
ages of  journals  written  only  for  the  eye  of  the  private  friend. 
Carey  frequently  remonstrated  against  the  publicity  given  to 
some  of  his  communications,  and  the  fear  of  this  checked  his 
correspondence.  In  truth,  the  new-born  enthusiasm  was  such 
that,  at  first,  the  Committee  kept  nothing  back.  It  was  easy 
for  a  litterateur  like  Sydney  Smith  in  those  days  to  extract 
passages  and  to  give  them  such  headings  as  "  Brother  Carey's 


352  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1809 

Piety  at  Sea,"  "  Hatred  of  the  Natives  to  the  Gospel."  Smith 
produced  an  article  which,  as  republished  in  his  collected 
essays,  has  a  historical  value  as  a  test  of  the  bitterness  of 
the  hate  which  the  missionary  enterprise  had  to  meet  in 
secular  literature  till  the  death  of  Livingstone,  Wilson,  and 
Duff  opened  the  eyes  of  journalism  to  the  facts.  In  itself  it 
must  be  read  in  the  light  of  its  author's  own  criticism  of  his 
articles,  thus  expressed  in  a  letter  to  Francis  Jeffrey,  and  of 
the  regret  that  he  had  written  it  which,  Jeffrey  told  Dr. 
Marshman,  he  lived  to  utter: — "Never  mind;  let  them" 
(his  articles)  "go  away  with  their  absurdity  unadulterated 
and  pure.  If  I  please,  the  object  for  which  I  write  is  attained ; 
if  I  do  not,  the  laughter  which  follows  my  error  is  the  only 
thing  which  can  make  me  cautious  and  tremble."  But  for 
that  picture  by  himself  we  should  have  pronounced  Carlyle's 
drawing  of  him  to  be  almost  as  malicious  as  his  own  of  the 
Serampore  missionaries — "A  mass  of  fat  and  muscularity, 
with  massive  Eoman  nose,  piercing  hazel  eyes,  shrewdness 
and  fun — not  humour  or  even  wit — seemingly  without  soul 
altogether." 

The  attack  called  forth  a  reply  by  Mr.  Styles  so  severe 
that  Sydney  Smith  wrote  a  rejoinder  which  began  by  claim- 
ing credit  for  "rooting  out  a  nest  of  consecrated  cobblers." 
Sir  James  Mackintosh,  then  in  Bombay,  wrote  of  a  similar 
assault  by  Mr.  Thomas  Twining  on  the  Bible  Societies,  that  it 
"  must  excite  general  indignation.  The  only  measure  which 
he  could  consistently  propose  would  be  the  infliction  of 
capital  punishment  on  the  crime  of  preaching  or  embracing 
Christianity  in  India,  for  almost  every  inferior  degree  of  per- 
secution is  already  practised  by  European  or  native  anti- 
christians."  But  it  fell  to  Southey,  in  the  very  first  number 
of  the  Quarterly  Review,  in  April  1809,  to  deal  with  the  Eev. 
Sydney  Smith,  and  to  defend  Carey  and  the  Brotherhood  as 
both  deserved.  The  layman's  defence  was  the  more  effective 


1809  SOUTHEY  ON  CAREY.  353 

for  its  immediate  purpose  that  he  started  from  the  same  pre- 
judice as  that  of  the  reverend  Whig  rationalist — "  the  Wes- 
leyans,  the  Orthodox  dissenters  of  every  description,  and  the 
Evangelical  churchmen  may  all  be  comprehended  under  the 
generic  name  of  Methodists.  The  religion  which  they  preach 
is  not  the  religion  of  our  fathers,  and  what  they  have  altered 
they  have  made  worse."  But  Southey  had  himself  faith  as 
well  as  a  literary  canon  higher  than  that  of  his  opponent 
who  wrote  only  to  "  please  "  his  patrons.  He  saw  in  these 
Methodists  alone  that  which  he  appreciated  as  the  essence 
of  true  faith — "  that  spirit  of  enthusiasm  by  which  Europe 
was  converted  to  Christianity  they  have  in  some  measure 
revived,  and  they  have  removed  from  Protestantism  a  part  of 
its  reproach."  He  proceeded  to  tell  how  "this  Mission, 
which  is  represented  by  its  enemies  as  so  dangerous  to  the 
British  Empire  in  India,  and  thereby,  according  to  a  logic 
learnt  from  Buonaparte,  to  England  also,  originated  in  a  man 
by  name  William  Carey,  who  till  the  twenty-fourth  year  of 
his  age  was  a  working  shoemaker.  Sectarianism  has  this 
main  advantage  over  the  Established  Church,  that  its  men 
of  ability  certainly  find  their  station,  and  none  of  its  talents 
are  neglected  or  lost.  Carey  was  a  studious  and  pious  man, 
his  faith  wrong,  his  feelings  right.  He  made  himself  com- 
petently versed  in  Latin,  Greek,  and  Hebrew.  He  is  now 
probably  a  far  more  learned  orientalist  than  any  European 
has  ever  been  before  him,  and  has  been  appointed  Professor 
of  Sanskrit  and  Bengali  at  the  College  of  Fort  William." 
Then  follow  a  history  of  the  Mission  written  in  a  style 
worthy  of  the  author  of  the  Life  of  Nelson,  and  these  state- 
ments of  the  political  and  the  purely  missionary  questions, 
which  read  now  almost  as  predictions : — 

"  It  is  adherents  that  we  stand  in  need  of,  and  how  are  they  to  be 
obtained  ? — Not  by  colonisation ;  colonisation  is  forbidden  by  the  Com- 
pany, and  it  is  forbidden  also  by  the  higher  authority  of  Nature.  Of 

2  A 


354  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1809 

all  whom  we  send  out  to  India  not  one  in  ten  returns  :  and  the  mixed 
breed  is  bad  ;  wherever  colours  are  crossed  in  the  human  species  a 
sort  of  mulish  obliquity  of  disposition  is  produced,  which  seems  to 
show  that  the  order  of  Nature  has  been  violated.  It  is  only  by  christ- 
ianising the  natives  that  we  can  strengthen  and  secure  ourselves. 
The  path  of  duty  and  of  policy  is  always  the  same  ;  and  never  was  it 
more  palpably  so  than  in  this  instance.  The  interest  and  existence  of 
the  native  Christians  would  be  identified  with  those  of  the  British 
Government,  and  the  Church  in  India  be  truly  the  bulwark  of  the 
State.  It  is  not  pretended  that  this  would  render  our  empire  perma- 
nent,— what  foreign  empire  ever  was  or  can  be  so  ? — but  it  would 
render  it  as  permanent  as  it  ought  to  be.  India  would  be  trained  up 
in  civilisation  and  Christianity,  like  a  child  by  its  guardian,  till  such 
tutelage  was  no  longer  needed  :  our  protection  might  be  withdrawn 
when  it  ceased  to  be  necessary,  and  the  intercourse  between  the  two 
countries  would  continue  undiminished,  just  to  that  extent  which 
would  be  most  beneficial  to  both.  This  is  looking  far  before  us  ! — 
but  in  an  age  when  there  are  serious  apprehensions  entertained  of 
overstocking  the  world,  it  is  surely  allowable  to  look  on  for  some  half 
a  millennium.  .  .  . 

"  The  first  step  towards  winning  the  natives  to  our  religion  is  to 
show  them  that  we  have  one.  This  will  hardly  be  done  without  a 
visible  church.  There  would  be  no  difficulty  in  filling  up  the  estab- 
lishment, however  ample  ;  but  would  the  archbishop,  bishops,  deans, 
and  chapters  of  Mr.  Buchanan's  plan  do  the  work  of  missionaries  ? 
Could  the  Church  of  England  supply  missionaries  ? — where  are  they 
to  be  found  among  them  ?  In  what  school  for  the  promulgation  of 
sound  and  orthodox  learning  are  they  trained  up  1  There  is  ability 
and  there  is  learning  in  the  Church  of  England,  but  its  age  of  fer- 
mentation has  long  been  over  ;  and  that  zeal  which  for  this  work  is 
the  most  needful  is,  we  fear,  possessed  only  by  the  Methodists.  .  .  . 

"  Carey  and  his  son  have  been  in  Bengal  fourteen  years,  the  other 
brethren  only  nine ;  they  had  all  a  difficult  language  to  acquire  before 
they  could  speak  to  a  native,  and  to  preach  and  argue  in  it  required  a 
thorough  and  familiar  knowledge.  Under  these  circumstances  the 
wonder  is,  not  that  they  have  done  so  little,  but  that  they  have  done 
so  much  ;  for  it  will  be  found  that,  even  without  this  difficulty  to 
retard  them,  no  religious  opinions  have  spread  more  rapidly  in  the 
same  time,  unless  there  was  some  remarkable  folly  or  extravagance  to 
recommend  them,  or  some  powerful  worldly  inducement.  Their  pro- 
gress will  be  continually  accelerating  ;  the  difficulty  is  at  first,  as  in 


1809      SOUTHEY  ON  THE  SERAMPORE  BROTHERHOOD.      355 

introducing  vaccination  into  a  distant  land ;  when  the  matter  has  once 
taken  one  subject  supplies  infection  for  all  around  him,  and  the  dis- 
ease takes  root  in  the  country.  The  husband  converts  the  wife,  the 
son  converts  the  parent,  the  friend  his  friend,  and  every  fresh  proselyte 
becomes  a  missionary  in  his  own  neighbourhood.  Thus  their  sphere 
of  influence  and  of  action  widens,  and  the  eventual  issue  of  a  struggle 
between  truth  and  falsehood  is  not  to  be  doubted  by  those  who  believe 
in  the  former.  Other  missionaries  from  other  societies  have  now 
entered  India,  and  will  soon  become  efficient  labourers  in  their 
station.  From  Government  all  that  is  asked  is  toleration  for  them- 
selves and  protection  for  their  converts.  The  plan  which  they  have 
laid  for  their  own  proceedings  is  perfectly  prudent  and  unexception- 
able, and  there  is  as  little  fear  of  their  provoking  martyrdom  as  there 
would  be  of  their  shrinking  from  it,  if  the  cause  of  God  and  man 
require  the  sacrifice.  But  the  converts  ought  to  be  protected  from 
violence,  and  all  cramming  with  cow-dung  prohibited  on  pain  of 
retaliation  with  beef-tea. 

"  Nothing  can  be  more  unfair  than  the  manner  in  which  the 
scoffers  and  alarmists  have  represented  the  missionaries.  We,  who 
have  thus  vindicated  them,  are  neither  blind  to  what  is  erroneous  in 
their  doctrine  or  ludicrous  in  their  phraseology  :  but  the  anti-mission- 
aries cull  out  from  their  journals  and  letters  all  that  is  ridiculous, 
sectarian,  and  trifling  ;  call  them  fools,  madmen,  tinkers,  Calvinists, 
and  schismatics  ;  and  keep  out  of  sight  their  love  of  man,  and  their 
zeal  for  God,  their  self-devotement,  their  indefatigable  industry,  and 
their  unequalled  learning.  These  low-born  and  low-bred  mechanics 
have  translated  the  whole  Bible  into  Bengali,  and  have  by  this  time 
printed  it.  They  are  printing  the  New  Testament  in  the  Sanskrit, 
the  Orissa,  Mahratta,  Hindostan,  and  Guzarat,  and  translating  it  into 
Persic,  Telinga,  Karnata,  Chinese,  the  language  of  the  Sieks  and  of  the 
Burmans,  and  in  four  of  these  languages  they  are  going  on  with  the 
Bible.  Extraordinary  as  this  is,  it  will  appear  more  so  when  it  is 
remembered  that  of  these  men  one  was  originally  a  shoemaker,  another 
a  printer  at  Hull,  and  a  third  the  master  of  a  charity-school  at  Bristol. 
Only  fourteen  years  have  elapsed  since  Thomas  and  Carey  set  foot  in 
India,  and  in  that  time  have  these  missionaries  acquired  this  gift  of 
tongues  ;  in  fourteen  years  these  low-born,  low-bred  mechanics  have 
done  more  towards  spreading  the  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures  among 
the  heathen  than  has  been  accomplished,  or  even  attempted,  by  all  the 
princes  and  potentates  of  the  world — and  all  the  universities  and 
establishments  into  the  bargain. 


356  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1815 

"  Let  it  not  be  deemed  that  this  is  spoken  disrespectfully,  though 
the  university  preacher  and  the  unworthy  attempt  of  the  Society  for 
promoting  Christian  Knowledge  '  to  shift  the  odium  upon '  an  Ana- 
baptist society  merit  the  severest  censure.  Far  from  depreciating 
church  establishments,  our  earnest  wish  and  desire  is  that  they  may 
be  extended — let  there  be  one  in  India,  the  more  magnificent  the 
better — make  Dr.  Barrow  a  bishop  or  an  archbishop  there  if  it  be 
thought  fit — build  a  St.  Paul's  at  Calcutta,  and  raise  the  money  by 
evangelical  sermons  ;  but  do  not  think,  even  if  this  were  done,  to 
supersede  the  Baptist  missionaries  till  you  can  provide  from  your  own 
church  such  men  as  these,  and,  it  may  be  added,  such  women  also  as 
their  wives." 

Soon  after  the  Charter  victory  had  been  gained  "  that 
fierce  and  fiery  calvinist,"  whose  dictum  Southey  adopted, 
that  the  question  in  dispute  is  not  whether  the  natives  shall 
enjoy  toleration  but  whether  that  toleration  shall  be  extended 
to  the  teachers  of  Christianity,  Andrew  Fuller,  entered  into 
rest  on  the  7th  May  1815,  at  the  age  of  sixty- two.  Sut cliff 
of  Olney  had  been  the  first  of  the  three  to  be  taken  away l  a 
year  before,  at  the  same  age.  The  scholarly  Dr.  Eyland  of 
Bristol  was  left  alone,  and  the  home  management  of  the  Mis- 
sion passed  into  the  hands  of  another  generation.  Up  to 
Fuller's  death  that  management  had  been  almost  ideally 
perfect.  In  1812  the  Committee  had  been  increased  by  the 
addition  of  nineteen  members,  to  represent  the  growing  in- 
terest of  the  churches  in  Serampore,  and  to  meet  the  demand 
of  the  "  respectable  "  class  who  had  held  aloof  at  the  first, 
but  were  then  eager  that  the  headquarters  of  so  renowned 

1  Fuller  more  than  once  referred  to  the  dying  words  of  Sutcliff — I  wish 
I  had  prayed  more.  "  I  do  not  suppose  he  wished  he  had  prayed  more  fre- 
quently but  more  spiritually.  I  wish  I  had  prayed  more  for  the  influences  of 
the  Holy  Spirit ;  I  might  have  enjoyed  more  of  the  power  of  vital  godli- 
ness. I  wish  I  had  prayed  more  for  the  assistance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  in 
studying  and  preaching  my  sermons  ;  I  might  have  seen  more  of  the  blessing 
of  God  attending  my  ministry.  I  wish  I  had  prayed  more  for  the  outpouring 
of  the  Holy  Spirit  to  attend  the  labours  of  our  friends  in  India  ;  I  might 
have  witnessed  more  of  the  effects  of  their  efforts  in  the  conversion  of  the 
heathen." 


1815  A  MODEL  FOEEIGN  MISSION  SECEETAEY.  357 

an  enterprise  should  be  removed  to  London.  But  Fuller 
prevailed  to  keep  the  Society  a  little  longer  at  Kettering, 
although  he  failed  to  secure  as  his  assistant  and  successor 
the  one  man  whose  ability,  experience,  and  prudence  would 
have  been  equal  to  his  own,  and  have  prevented  the  troubles 
that  followed — Christopher  Anderson.  As  Fuller  lay  dying, 
he  dictated  a  letter  to  Eyland  in  which  he  thus  referred  to 
the  evangelical  doctrine  of  grace  which  he  had  been  the  one 
English  theologian  of  his  day  to  defend  from  the  hyper- 
calvinists  and  to  use  as  the  foundation  of  the  modern  mis- 
sionary enterprise  : — "  I  have  preached  and  written  much 
against  the  abuse  of  the  doctrine  of  grace,  but  that  doctrine 
is  all  my  salvation  and  all  my  desire.  I  have  no  other  hope 
than  from  salvation  by  mere  sovereign,  efficacious  grace 
through  the  atonement  of  my  Lord  and  Saviour  :  with  this 
hope  I  can  go  into  eternity  with  composure.  We  have  some 
who  have  been  giving  it  out  of  late  that  if  Sutcliff  and  some 
others  had  preached  more  of  Christ  and  less  of  Jonathan 
Edwards  they  would  have  been  more  useful.  If  those 
who  talk  thus  had  preached  Christ  half  as  much  as  Jonathan 
Edwards  did,  and  were  half  as  useful  as  he  was,  their  useful- 
ness would  be  double  what  it  is.  It  is  very  singular  that 
the  Mission  to  the  East  originated  with  one  of  these  prin- 
ciples, and  without  pretending  to  be  a  prophet  I  may  say  if 
it  ever  falls  into  the  hands  of  men  who  talk  in  this  strain 
(of  hyper-calvinism)  it  will  soon  come  to  nothing." 

Andrew  Fuller  was  not  only  the  first  of  Foreign  Mission 
Secretaries  ;  he  was  a  model  for  all.  To  him  his  work  was 
spiritual  life,  and  hence,  though  the  most  active  preacher  and 
writer  of  his  day,  he  was  like  Carey  in  this,  that  his  working 
day  was  twice  as  long  as  that  of  most  men,  and  he  could  spend 
half  of  his  time  in  the  frequent  journeys  all  over  the  kingdom 
to  raise  funds,  in  repeated  campaigns  in  London  to  secure 
toleration,  and  in  abundant  letters  to  the  missionaries.  His 


358  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1815 

relation  to  the  Committee,  up  to  the  last,  was  equally  exem- 
plary. In  the  very  earliest  missionary  organisation  in 
England  it  is  due  to  him  that  the  line  was  clearly  drawn 
between  the  deliberative  and  judicial  function  which  is  that 
of  the  members,  and  the  executive  which  is  that  of  the  secre- 
tary. Wisdom  and  efficiency,  clearness  of  perception  and 
promptitude  of  action,  were  thus  combined.  Fuller's,  too, 
was  the  special  merit  of  realising  that,  while  a  missionary 
committee  or  church  are  fellow-workers  only  with  the  men 
and  women  abroad,  the  Serampore  Brotherhood  was  a  self- 
supporting,  and  to  that  extent  a  self-governing  body  in  a 
sense  true  of  no  foreign  mission  ever  since.  The  two  trium- 
virates, too,  consisted  of  giants — Carey,  Marshman,  and  Ward 
abroad ;  Fuller,  Sutcliff,  and  Eyland  at  home.  To  Carey 
personally  the  death  of  Fuller  was  more  than  to  any  other. 
For  almost  the  quarter  of  a  century  he  had  kept  his  vow 
that  he  would  hold  the  rope.  When  Pearce  died  all  too 
soon  there  was  none  whom  Carey  loved  like  Fuller,  while 
Fuller's  devotion  to  Carey  was  all  the  greater  that  it  was 
tempered  by  a  wise  jealousy  for  his  perfectness.  So  early 
as  1797,  Fuller  wrote  thus  to  the  troublesome  Fountain — 
"  It  affords  us  good  hope  of  your  being  a  useful  missionary, 
that  you  seem  to  love  and  revere  the  counsels  of  Brother 
Carey.  A  humble,  peaceful,  circumspect,  disinterested, 
faithful,  peaceable,  and  zealous  conduct  like  his  will  render 
you  a  blessing  to  society.  Brother  Carey  is  greatly  re- 
spected and  beloved  by  all  denominations  here.  I  will  tell 
you  what  I  have  foreborne  to  tell  him  lest  it  should  hurt  his 
modesty.  Good  old  Mr.  Newton  says :  '  Mr.  Carey  has 
favoured  me  with  a  letter,  which,  indeed,  I  accept  as  a 
favour,  and  I  mean  to  thank  him  for  it.  I  trust  my  heart 
as  cordially  unites  with  him  as  though  I  were  a  brother 
Baptist  myself.  I  look  to  such  a  man  with  reverence.  He 
is  more  to  me  than  bishop  or  archbishop  ;  he  is  an  apostle. 


1815  SELF-SUPPORTING  MISSIONS.  359 

May  the  Lord  make  all  who  undertake  missions  like-minded 
with  Brother  Carey!'"  As  the  home  administrator,  no  less 
than  as  the  theological  controversialist,  Andrew  Fuller 
stands  only  second  to  William  Carey,  the  founder  of  Modern 
English  Missions. 

Fuller's  last  letter  to  Carey  forms  the  best  introduction  to 
the  little  which  it  is  here  necessary  to  record  of  the  action  of 
the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  when  under  the  secretaryship 
of  the  Eev.  John  Dyer.  Mr.  John  Marshman,  C.S.I.,  has 
written  the  detailed  history  of  that  controversy  not  only 
with  filial  duty,  but  with  a  forgiving  charity  which  excites 
our  admiration  for  one  who  suffered  more  from  it  than  all 
his  predecessors  in  the  Brotherhood,  of  which  he  was  the 
last  representative.  The  Society  has  long  since  ceased  to 
approve  of  the  Dyer  period.  Its  opinion  has  become  that  of 
Mr.  Marshman,  to  which  a  careful  perusal  of  all  the  docu- 
ments both  in  Serampore  and  England  has  led  us — "  Had  it 
been  possible  to  create  a  dozen  establishments  like  that  of 
Serampore,  each  raising  and  managing  its  own  funds,  and 
connected  with  the  Society  as  the  centre  of  unity  in  a  com- 
mon cause,  it  ought  to  have  been  a  subject  of  congratulation 
and  not  of  regret."  The  whole  policy  of  every  missionary 
church  and  society  is  now  and  has  long  been  directed  to 
creating  self-supporting  and  self-propagating  missions,  like 
Serampore,  that  the  region  beyond  may  be  evangelised — 
whether  these  be  colleges  of  catechumens  and  inquirers,  like 
those  of  Duff  and  Wilson,  Hislop  and  Dr.  Miller  in  India, 
and  of  Govan  and  Dr.  Stewart  in  Lovedale,  Kafraria;  or 
the  indigenous  churches  of  the  West  Indies,  West  Africa, 
the  Pacific  Ocean,  and  Burma.  The  worst  result  of  the 
Dyer  mistake  was  not  merely  that  it  outraged  justice  in  the 
case  of  the  men  of  Serampore,  but  that  it  arrested  nearly 
for  half  a  century  the  progress  of  a  healthy  because  indigen- 
ous Church  of  India.  To  us  the  long  and  bitter  dispute  is 


360  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1815 

now  of  value  only  in  so  far  as  it  brings  out  in  Christlike 
relief  the  personality  of  William  Carey. 

At  the  close  of  1814,  Dr.  Carey  had  asked  Fuller  to  pay 
£50  a  year  to  his  father,  then  in  his  eightieth  year,  and  £20 
to  his  (step)  mother  if  she  survived  the  old  man.  Protest- 
ing that  an  engraving  of  his  portrait  had  been  published  in 
violation  of  the  agreement  which  he  had  made  with  the 
artist,  he  agreed  to  the  wish  of  each  of  his  relatives  for  a 
copy.  To  these  requests  Fuller  had  replied  : — "  You  should 
not  insist  on  these  things  being  charged  to  you,  nor  yet  your 
father's  £50,  nor  the  books,  nor  anything  necessary  to  make 
you  comfortable,  unless  it  be  to  be  paid  out  of  what  you  would 
otherwise  give  to  the  mission.  To  insist  on  their  being  paid 
out  of  your  private  property  seems  to  be  dictated  by  resent- 
ment. It  is  thus  we  express  our  indignation  when  we  have 
an  avaricious  man  to  deal  with." 

The  first  act  of  the  Committee,  after  Fuller's  funeral,  led 
Dr.  Eyland  to  express  to  Carey  his  unbounded  fears  for  the 
future.  There  were  two  difficulties.  The  new  men  raised  the 
first  question,  in  what  sense  the  Serampore  property  belonged 
to  the  Society?  They  then  proceeded  to  show  how  they 
would  answer  it,  by  appointing  the  son  of  Samuel  Pearce  to 
Serampore  as  Mr.  Ward's  assistant.  On  both  sides  of  their 
independence,  as  trustees  of  the  property  which  they  had 
created  and  gifted  to  the  Society  on  this  condition,  and  as 
a  self-supporting,  self-elective  brotherhood,  it  became  neces- 
sary, for  the  unbroken  peace  of  the  mission  and  the  success 
of  their  work,  that  they  should  vindicate  their  moral  and 
legal  position.  The  correspondence  fell  chiefly  to  Dr. 
Marshman.  Ward  and  he  successively  visited  England,  to 
which  the  controversy  was  transferred,  with  occasional  refer- 
ences to  Dr.  Carey  in  Serampore.  All  Scotland,  led  by 
Christopher  Anderson,  Chalmers,  and  the  Haldanes — all 
England,  except  the  Dyer  faction,  and  Eobert  Hall  for  a  time, 


1815        THE  CONTROVERSY  FORCED  ON  THE  BROTHERHOOD.       361 

among  the  Baptists,  and  nearly  all  America,  held  with  the 
Serampore  men  ;  but  their  ever-extending  operations  were 
checked  by  the  uncertainty,  and  their  hearts  were  nearly 
broken.  The  junior  missionaries  in  India  formed  a  separate 
union  and  congregation  by  themselves  in  Calcutta,  paid  by 
the  Society,  though  professing  to  carry  out  the  organisation 
of  the  Serampore  Brotherhood  in  other  respects.  The  Com- 
mittee's controversy  lasted  sixteen  years,  and  was  closed  in 
1830,  after  Ward's  death,  by  Carey  and  Marshman  drawing 
up  a  new  trust-deed,  in  which,  having  vindicated  their  posi- 
tion, the  old  men  made  over  properties  which  had  cost  them 
£7800  to  eleven  trustees  in  England,  stipulating  only  that 
they  should  occupy  them  rent  free  till  death,  and  that  their 
colleagues — who  were  John  Marshman  and  John  Mack,  of 
Edinburgh  University — might  continue  in  them  for  three 
years  thereafter,  paying  rent  to  the  Society.  Such  self- 
sacrifice  would  be  pronounced  heroic,  but  it  was  only  the 
outcome  of  a  life  of  self-devotion,  marked  by  the  spirit  of 
Him  who  spake  the  Sermon  on  the  Mount,  and  said  to  the 
first  missionaries  He  sent  forth — "  Be  wise  as  serpents,  harm- 
less as  doves."  The  story  is  completed  by  the  fact  that  John 
Marshman,  on  his  father's  death,  again  paid  the  price  of  as 
much  of  the  property  as  the  Hoogli  had  not  swallowed  up 
when  the  Committee  were  about  to  put  it  in  the  market. 

Such  was  Dr.  Carey's  position  in  the  Christian  world 
that  the  Dyer  party  considered  it  important  for  their  interest 
to  separate  him  from  his  colleagues,  and  if  not  to  claim  his 
influence  for  their  side  at  least  to  neutralise  it.  By  trying 
to  hold  up  Dr.  Marshman  to  odium  by  misrepresentation  and 
suppression  of  facts,  they  roused  the  righteous  indignation 
of  Carey,  while  outraging  his  sense  of  justice  by  their  blows 
at  the  independence  of  the  Brotherhood.  Dr.  Marshman, 
when  in  England,  met  this  course  by  frankly  printing  the 
whole  private  correspondence  of  Carey  on  the  subject  of  the 


362  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1819 

property,  or  thirty-two  letters  ranging  from  the  year  1815  to 
1828.  One  of  the  earliest  of  these  is  to  Mr.  Dyer,  who  had 
so  far  forgotten  himself  as  to  ask  Dr.  Carey  to  write  home 
alone  his  opinion  of  his  "  elder  brethren,"  and  particularly  of 
Dr.  Marshman.  The  answer,  covering  eleven  octavo  pages 
of  small  type,  is  a  model  for  all  controversialists,  and  espe- 
cially for  any  whom  duty  compels  to  rebuke  the  man  who 
has  failed  to  learn  the  charity  which  envieth  not.  We  repro- 
duce the  principal  passages,  and  the  later  letters  to  Christopher 
Anderson  and  his  son  Jabez,  revealing  the  nobleness  of  Carey 
and  the  inner  life  of  the  Brotherhood  : — 

"SERAMPORE,  1.5th  July  1819. 

"MY  DEAR  BROTHER — I  am  sorry  you  addressed  your 
letter  of  January  the  9th  to  me  alone,  because  it  places  me  in 
a  most  awkward  situation,  as  it  respects  my  elder  brethren, 
with  whom  I  have  acted  in  concert  for  the  last  nineteen  years, 
with  as  great  a  share  of  satisfaction  and  pleasure  as  could 
reasonably  be  expected  from  a  connection  with  imperfect 
creatures,  and  whom  I  am  thereby  called  to  condemn  con- 
trary to  my  convictions,  or  to  justify  at  the  expense  of  their 
accusers.  It  also  places  me  in  a  disagreeable  situation  as  it 
respects  my  younger  brethren,  whom  I  highly  respect  as 
Christians ;  but  whose  whole  conduct,  as  it  respects  the  late 
unhappy  differences,  has  been  such  as  makes  it  impossible  for 
me  to  do  otherwise  than  condemn  it.  ... 

"  You  ask,  '  Is  there  no  ground  for  the  charges  of  pro- 
fusion, etc.,  preferred  against  Brother  Marshman  V  Brother 
Marshman  has  always  been  ardently  engaged  in  promoting 
the  cause  of  God  in  India,  and,  being  of  a  very  active  mind, 
has  generally  been  chosen  by  us  to  draw  up  our  Eeports,  to 
write  many  of  our  public  letters,  to  draw  up  plans  for  pro- 
moting the  objects  of  the  mission,  founding  and  managing 
schools,  raising  subscriptions,  and  other  things  of  a  like 
nature ;  so  that  he  has  taken  a  more  active  part  than  Brother 


1819  HIS  DEFENCE  OF  DE.  MAESHMAN.  363 

Ward  or  myself  in  these  public  acts  of  the  mission.  These 
things  placed  him  in  the  foreground,  and  it  has  been  no  un- 
common thing  for  him  to  bear  the  blame  of  those  acts  which 
equally  belong  to  Brother  Ward  and  myself,  merely  because 
he  was  the  instrument  employed  in  performing  them. 

"  You  know  that  Brother  Mar shman,  Brother  Ward,  and  my- 
self, were  some  years  ago  chosen  to  be  a  committee  to  manage 
the  affairs  of  the  Society,  to  dispose  of  its  funds,  to  regulate 
the  salaries  of  the  brethren,  and  to  choose  their  situations  for 
labour ;  in  short,  to  manage  all  the  details  of  the  mission  in 
India.  Several  of  these  were  unthankful  offices,  and  we 
always  found  it  difficult  to  give  satisfaction  ;  indeed,  I  have 
no  doubt  but  the  circumstance  of  our  being  thus  chosen 
excited  jealousies  among  our  other  brethren,  long  before  the 
present  seceders  arrived  in  India.  They  often  thought  us 
severe,  and  not  unfrequently  charged  us  with  being  lordly, 
unkind,  and  unjust.  This  induced  us  several  years  ago  to 
declare  that  we  considered  every  station  as  independent  of 
Serampore  and  of  each  other ;  and  only  dependent  on  the 
Society.  The  harsh  and  unkind  letters  we  often  received 
from  our  brethren,  induced  us  to  write  to  Brother  Fuller,  and 
afterwards  to  Brother  Eyland,  declining  to  manage  the  funds 
of  the  Society  any  longer  than  till  they  could  accommodate 
themselves ;  and  we  recommended  the  house  of  Alexander  & 
Co.,  in  Calcutta.  Much  obloquy  was  therefore  cast  on  Brother 
Marshman  merely  from  the  suspicion  that  he  was  the  mov- 
ing cause  in  most  of  these  transactions.  It  is  not  there- 
fore to  be  wondered  at  that  he  should  be  often  misjudged, 
and  should  become  an  object  of  dislike,  though  in  all  public 
measures  we  always  acted  with  him,  and  ought  therefore  to 
bear  an  equal  share  of  the  blame. 

"  The  charge  of  profusion  brought  against  Dr.  Marshman 
is  more  extensive  than  you  have  stated  in  your  letter.  He 
is  charged  with  having  his  house  superbly  furnished,  with 


364  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1819 

keeping  several  vehicles  for  the  use  of  his  family,  and  with 
labouring  to  aggrandise  and  bring  them  into  public  notice  to  a 
culpable  extent.  The  whole  business  of  furniture,  internal 
economy,  etc.,  of  the  Serampore  station,  must  exclusively 
belong  to  ourselves,  and  I  confess  I  think  the  question  about 
it  an  unlovely  one.  Some  person  we  know  not  who,  told  some 
one  we  know  not  whom, '  that  he  had  been  often  at  Lord  Hast- 
ings' table,  but  that  Brother  Marshman's  table  far  exceeded 
his.'  I  have  also  often  been  at  Lord  Hastings'  table  (I  mean  his 
private  table),  and  I  do  therefore  most  positively  deny  the  truth 
of  the  assertion ;  though  I  confess  there  is  much  domestic  plain- 
ness at  the  table  of  the  Governor- General  of  India  (though 
nothing  of  meanness ;  on  the  contrary,  everything  is  marked 
with  a  dignified  simplicity).  I  suspect  the  informant  never 
was  at  Lord  Hastings  table t  or  he  could  not  have  been  guilty 
of  such  misrepresentation.  Lord  Hastings'  table  costs  more 
in  one  day  than  Brother  Marshman's  in  ten. 

"  The  following  statement  may  explain  the  whole  business 
of  Brother  Marshman's  furniture,  etc.,  which  you  have  all 
been  so  puzzled  to  account  for,  and  have  certainly  accounted 
for  in  a  way  that  is  not  the  true  one.  We  have,  you  know,  a 
very  large  school,  perhaps  the  largest  in  India.  In  this  school 
are  children  of  persons  of  the  first  rank  in  the  country.  The 
parents  or  guardians  of  these  children  frequently  call  at  the 
Mission-house,  and  common  propriety  requires  that  they 
should  be  respectfully  received,  and  invited  to  take  a  break- 
fast or  dinner,  and  sometimes  to  continue  there  a  day  or  two. 
It  is  natural  that  persons  who  visit  the  Mission-house  upon 
business  superintended  by  Brother  Marshman  should  be  enter- 
tained at  his  house  rather  than  elsewhere.  Till  within  the 
last  four  or  five  years  we  had  no  particular  arrangement  for 
the  accommodation  of  visitors  who  came  to  see  us ;  but  as 
those  who  visited  us  on  business  were  entertained  at  Brother 
Marshman's,  it  appeared  to  be  the  most  eligible  method  to 


1819  HIS  REBUKE  OF  CALUMNIATORS.  365 

provide  for  the  entertainment  of  other  visitors  there  also  ; 
but  at  that  time  Brother  Marshman  had  not  a  decent  table 
for  persons  of  the  above  description  to  sit  down  to.  We, 
therefore,  voted  him  a  sum  to  enable  him  to  provide  such 
articles  as  were  necessary  to  entertain  them  with  decency ; 
and  I  am  not  aware  that  he  has  been  profuse,  or  that  he  has 
provided  anything  not  called  for  by  the  rules  of  propriety. 
I  have  no  doubt  but  Brother  Ward  can  enumerate  and 
describe  all  these  articles  of  furniture.  It  is,  however,  evident 
that  you  must  be  very  imperfect  judges  of  their  necessity, 
unless  you  could  at  the  same  time  form  a  just  estimate  of 
the  circumstances  in  which  we  stand.  It  ought  also  to  be 
considered  that  all  these  articles  are  public  property,  and 
always  convertible  into  their  full  value  in  cash.  I  hope, 
however,  that  things  are  not  yet  come  to  that  pass,  that  a 
man  who,  with  his  wife,  has  for  nineteen  or  twenty  years 
laboured  night  and  day  for  the  mission,  who  by  their  labour 
disinterestedly  contribute  between  2000  and  3000  rupees 
monthly  to  it,  and  who  have  made  sacrifices  which,  if  others 
have  not  seen,  Brother  Ward  and  I  have ; — sacrifices  which 
ought  to  put  to  the  blush  all  his  accusers,  who,  notwithstand- 
ing their  cries  against  him,  have  not  only  supported  them- 
selves, but  also  have  set  themselves  up  in  a  lucrative  business 
at  the  Society's  expense ;  and  who,  even  to  this  day,  though 
they  have  two  prosperous  schools,  and  a  profitable  printing- 
office,  continue  to  receive  their  monthly  allowance,  amounting 
(including  Miss  Chaffin's)  to  700  rupees  a  month  from  the 
Society  ; — I  feel  indignant  at  their  outcry  on  the  subject  of 
expense,  and  I  say,  merely  as  a  contrast  to  their  conduct,  So 
did  not  Brother  Marshman.  Surely  things  are  not  come  to 
that  pass,  that  Tie  or  any  other  brother  must  give  an  account 
to  the  Society  of  every  plate  he  uses,  and  every  loaf  he 
cuts. 

"  Till  a  very  few  years  ago,  we  had  no  vehicle  except  a 


366  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1819 

single  horse  chaise  for  me  to  go  backwards  and  forwards  to 
Calcutta.  That  was  necessarily  kept  on  the  opposite  side  of 
the  river  ;  and  if  the  strength  of  the  horse  would  have  borne 
it,  could  not  have  been  used  for  the  purposes  of  health.  Sister 
Marshman  was  seized  with  a  disease  of  the  liver,  a  disease 
which  proves  fatal  in  three  cases  out  of  four.  Sister  Ward 
was  ill  of  the  same  disorder,  and  both  of  them  underwent  a 
long  course  of  mercurial  treatment,  as  is  usual  in  that  dis- 
ease. Exercise  was  considered  by  the  physicians  as  of  the 
first  importance,  and  we  certainly  thought  no  expense  too 
great  to  save  the  valuable  lives  of  our  sisters.  A  single 
horse  chaise,  and  an  open  palanquin,  called  a  Tonjon,  were 
procured.  I  never  ride  out  for  health ;  but  usually  spend 
an  hour  or  two,  morning  and  evening,  in  the  garden.  Sister 
Ward  was  necessitated  to  visit  England  for  hers.  Brother 
Ward  had  a  saddle  horse  presented  to  him  by  a  friend.  My 
wife  has  a  small  carriage  drawn  by  a  man.  These  vehicles 
were  therefore  almost  exclusively  used  by  Brother  Marshman's 
family.  When  our  brethren  arrived  from  England,  they 
did  not  fail  to  put  this  equipage  into  the  account  against 
Brother  Marshman.  They  now  keep  three  single  horse 
chaises,  beside  palanquins  ;  but  we  do  not  think  they  keep 
more  than  are  necessary. 

"  Brother  Marshman  retains  for  the  school  a  French  master, 
a  music  master,  and  a  drawing  master.  The  expenses  of  these 
are  amply  repaid  by  the  school,  but  Brother  Marshman's 
children,  and  all  those  belonging  to  the  family,  have  the 
advantage  of  their  instructions.  Brother  Marshman's  children 
are,  however,  the  most  numerous,  and  envy  has  not  failed  to 
charge  him  with  having  retained  them  all  for  the  sake  of  his 
own  children.  Surely  a  man's  caring  for  his  family's  health 
and  his  children's  education  is,  if  a  crime,  a  venial  one,  and 
ought  not  to  be  held  up  to  blacken  his  reputation.  Brother 
Marshman  is  no  more  perfect  than  other  men,  partakers  like 


1819  SIMPLICITY  OF  HIS  DAILY  LIFE.  367 

him  of  the  grace  of  God.  His  natural  bias  and  habits  are  his 
own,  arid  differ  as  much  from  those  of  other  men,  as  theirs  differ 
from  one  another.  I  do  not  deny  that  he  has  an  inclination 
to  display  his  children  to  advantage.  This,  however,  is  a 
foible  which  most  fond  parents  will  be  inclined  to  pardon. 
I  wish  I  had  half  his  piety,  energy  of  mind,  and  zeal  for  the 
cause  of  God.  These  excellencies,  in  my  opinion,  so  far 
overbalance  all  his  defects  that  I  am  constrained  to  consider 
him  a  Christian  far  above  the  common  run.  I  must  now 
close  this  defence  of  Brother  Marshman  by  repeating  that  all 
matters  of  furniture,  convenience,  etc.,  are  things  belonging 
to  the  economy  of  the  station  at  Serampore,  and  that  no 
one  beside  ourselves  has  the  smallest  right  to  interfere 
therewith.  The  Calcutta  brethren  are  now  acting  on  the 
same  principle,  and  would  certainly  repel  with  indignation 
any  attempt  made  by  us  to  regulate  their  affairs. 

"  I  have  said  that  '  I  never  ride  out  for  the  sake  of 
health  ;'  and  it  may  therefore  be  inquired,  '  why  are  vehicles, 
etc.,  for  the  purpose  of  health  more  necessary  for  the  other 
members  of  the  family  than  for  you  V  I  reply,  that  my 
health  is  in  general  good,  and  probably  much  benefited  by  a 
journey  to  and  from  Calcutta  two  or  three  times  a  week.  I 
have  also  a  great  fondness  for  natural  science,  particularly 
botany  and  horticulture.  These,  therefore,  furnish  not  only 
exercise,  but  amusement  for  me.  These  amusements  of 
mine  are  not,  however,  enjoyed  without  expense,  any  more 
than  those  of  my  brethren,  and  were  it  not  convenient  for 
Brother  Marshman's  accusers  to  make  a  stepping  stone  of  me, 
I  have  no  doubt  but  my  collection  of  plants,  aviary,  and 
museum,  would  be  equally  impeached  as  articles  of  luxury 
and  lawless  expenses  ;  though,  except  the  garden,  the  whole 
of  these  expenses  are  borne  by  myself. 

"John  Marshman  is  admitted  a  member  of  the  union, 
but  he  had  for  some  time  previously  thereto  been  a  member 


368  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1819 

of  the  church.  I  perceive  plainly  that  all  your  objections 
to  him  have  been  excited  by  the  statements  of  the  Calcutta 
brethren,  which  you  certainly  ought  to  receive  with  much 
caution  in  all  things  which  regard  Brother  Marshman  and  his 
family.  You  observe  that  the  younger  brethren  especially 
look  up  to  me  with  respect  and  affection.  It  may  be  so  ; 
but  I  confess  I  have  frequently  thought  that,  had  it  been 
so,  they  would  have  consulted  me,  or  at  least  have  mentioned 
to  me  the  grounds  of  their  dissatisfaction  before  they  pro- 
ceeded to  the  extremity  of  dividing  the  mission.  When  I 
engaged  in  the  mission  it  was  a  determination  that,  what- 
ever I  suffered,  a  breach  therein  should  never  originate  with 
me.  To  this  resolution  I  have  hitherto  obstinately  adhered. 
I  think  everything  should  be  borne,  every  sacrifice  made, 
and  every  method  of  accommodation  or  reconciliation  tried, 
before  a  schism  is  suffered  to  take  place.  .  .  . 

"  I  disapprove  as  much  of  the  conduct  of  our  Calcutta 
brethren  as  it  is  possible  for  me  to  disapprove  of  any  human 
actions.  The  evil  they  have  done  is,  I  fear,  irreparable  ;  and 
certainly  the  whole  might  have  been  prevented  by  a  little 
frank  conversation  with  either  of  us ;  and  a  hundredth  part 
of  that  self-denial  which  I  found  it  necessary  to  exercise  for 
the  first  few  years  of  the  mission,  would  have  prevented  this 
awful  rupture.  I  trust  you  will  excuse  my  warmth  of  feel- 
ing upon  this  subject,  when  you  consider  that  by  this  rupture 
that  cause  is  weakened  and  disgraced,  in  the  establish- 
ment and  promotion  of  which  I  have  spent  the  best  part  of 
my  life.  A  church  is  attempted  to  be  torn  in  pieces,  for 
which  neither  I  nor  my  brethren  ever  thought  we  could  do 
enough.  We  laboured  to  raise  it ;  we  expended  much  money 
to  accomplish  that  object ;  and  in  a  good  measure  saw  the 
object  of  our  desire  accomplished.  But  now  we  are  traduced, 
and  the  church  rent  by  the  very  men  who  came  to  be  our 
helpers.  As  to  Brother  Marshman,  seriously,  what  do  they 


1819  HIS  REBUKE  OF  ENVY.  369 

want  ?  Would  they  attempt  to  deny  his  possessing  the 
grace  of  God  ?  He  was  known  to  and  esteemed  by  Brother 
Eyland  as  a  Christian  before  he  left  England.  I  have  lived 
with  him  ever  since  his  arrival  in  India,  and  can  witness  to 
his  piety  and  holy  conduct.  Would  they  exclude  him  from 
the  mission  ?  Judge  yourself  whether  it  is  comely  that  a 
man,  who  has  laboriously  and  disinterestedly  served  the 
mission  so  many  years, — who  has  by  his  diligence  and  hard 
labour  raised  the  most  respectable  school  in  India,  as  well 
as  given  a  tone  to  all  the  others, — who  has  unvaryingly 
consecrated  the  whole  of  that  income,  as  well  as  his  other 
labours,  to  the  cause  of  God  in  India, — should  be  arraigned 
and  condemned  without  a  hearing  by  a  few  young  men  just 
arrived,  and  one  of  whom  had  not  been  a  month  in  the 
country,  before  he  joined  the  senseless  outcry?  Or  would 
they  have  his  blood  ?  Judge,  my  dear  brother,  yourself,  for 
I  am  ashamed  to  say  more  on  this  subject. 

"  I  think  their  plans  anti-missionary,  and  forced  on  them 
by  the  necessity  of  their  circumstances ;  for  their  actions 
can  only  be  justified  by  a  condemnation  of  our  measures.  I 
certainly  think  it  a  monstrous  waste  of  money  and  strength 
for  four  missionary  brethren,  beside  Pearce  and  Penney,  to 
be  crowded  together  in  Calcutta,  when  there  are  besides 
them  four  Pgedobaptist  brethren,  and  four  Evangelical 
clergymen,  besides  four  native  brethren,  and  where  we  also 
preach. 

"  My  plan  relative  to  spreading  the  gospel  has,  for  several 
years  past,  been,  to  fix  European  brethren  at  the  distance  of 
100  or  150  miles  from  each  other,  so  that  each  one  should 
occupy  the  centre  of  a  circle  of  100  miles  diameter  more  or 
less;  and  that  native  brethren  should  be  stationed  within 
that  circle  as  preachers,  schoolmasters,  readers,  etc.,  at  proper 
distances,  as  circumstances  may  make  convenient ;  and  that 
he,  as  a  brother,  not  a  lord,  should  visit  and  superintend 

2  B 


370  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1819 

them,  so  as  to  stir  them  up  to  zeal,  correct  their  mistakes, 
explain  divine  things  to  them,  and  in  short,  be  as  the  soul 
of  that  circle.  By  following  this  plan  the  brethren  now 
crowded  together  in  Calcutta  would  occupy  a  space  of  400 
miles  in  length  by  100  in  breadth,  and  had  they  all  stayed 
in  Bengal,  could,  with  those  already  there,  have  completely 
occupied  the  province  of  Bengal.  The  proportion  of  ex- 
pense necessary  to  carrying  this  plan  into  execution  through- 
out India,  might  perhaps  be  borne  by  contributions  from 
England  and  America,  till  brethren  raised  up  in  the  country 
were  sufficiently  established  in  divine  things,  and  sufficiently 
informed  respecting  the  gospel  doctrines  and  the  nature  of 
the  Christian  life,  to  do  without  them.  But  what  possible 
funds  can  meet  the  enormous  expense  of  crowding  so  many 
into  one  place,  if  that  is  to  be  the  plan  adopted  for  the  whole 
country  ?  .  .  . 

"  I  will  just  mention  the  countries  to  which  it  is  desirable 
to  send  missions,  and  in  which  every  effort  should  be  made 
to  establish  them,  especially  as  the  Bible  is  in  a  good  degree 
of  forwardness  for  them  all — 1.  Afghanistan,  Peshawar  the 
capital.  2.  Kashmeer.  3.  Punjab.  4.  Mooltan.  5.  Sind, 
or  the  lower  provinces  on  the  Indus.  6.  Kutch,  or  Goozerat 
(now  relinquished  by  us).  8.  Marwar.  (My  son  Jabez  is 
now  at  Ajmere  in  Marwar.)  9.  Bikaneer.  10.  Jeypoor. 
11.  Oodeypoor.  12.  Kumaon.  13.  Palpa.  14.  Dogoora. 
15.  Buttaneer.  16.  Nepal.  17.  Bundel-khund.  18.  Baghul- 
khund.  19.  Oojjuyuna.  20.  Poona.  21.  Nagpore  in  the 
Mahratta  country.  22.  Orissa.  23.  Assam.  We  ought 
also  to  have  one  station  at  least  in  the  Telinga  and  Kurnatta 
countries.  Besides  these,  there  are  other  places  which  I 
have  not  mentioned,  as — 1.  Hurriana.  2.  Eohil-Khund.  3. 
Kooshala,  near  Lucknow.  4.  Kanooj,  or  the  Dooab.  5. 
South  Behar.  6.  Mithila,  or  Tirhoot.  The  countries  in- 
habited by  the  Garrows,  the  Khassees,  and  the  Koonkees. 


1819  LIFE  AND  INFLUENCE  OF  THE  BROTHERHOOD.  371 

"  I  need  not  say,  that  circumstances  must  in  a  great  mea- 
sure determine  where  missionaries  should  settle.  The  chief 
town  of  each  of  these  countries  would  be  preferable,  if  other 
circumstances  permit ;  but  sometimes  Government  would  not 
allow  this,  and  sometimes  other  things  may  close  the  door. 
Missionaries  however  must  knock  loud  and  push  hard  at  the 
door,  and  if  there  be  the  smallest  opening,  must  force  them- 
selves in  ;  and,  once  entered,  put  their  lives  in  their  hands 
and  exert  themselves  to  the  utmost  in  dependence  upon 
divine  support,  if  they  ever  hope  to  do  much  towards  evange- 
lising the  heathen  world.  My  situation  in  the  college,  and 
Brother  Marshman's  as  superintending  the  first  academy  in 
India,  which,  I  likewise  observe,  has  been  established  and 
brought  to  its  present  flourishing  state  wholly  by  his  care 
and  application,  have  made  our  present  situation  widely 
different  from  what  it  was  when  first  engaged  in  the  mission. 
As  a  missionary,  I  could  go  in  a  straw  hat  and  dine  with  the 
judge  of  the  district,  and  often  did  so ;  but  as  a  Professor  in 
the  College,  I  cannot  do  so.  Brother  Marshman  is  placed  in 
the  same  predicament.  These  circumstances  impose  upon  us 
a  necessity  of  making  a  different  appearance  to  what  we  for- 
merly did  as  simple  missionaries  ;  but  they  furnish  us  with 
opportunities  of  speaking  to  gentlemen  of  the  first  power  and 
influence  in  government,  upon  matters  of  the  highest  import- 
ance to  the  great  work  in  which  we  are  engaged  ;  and,  as  a 
proof  that  our  opportunities  of  this  nature  have  not  been  in 
vain,  I  need  only  say  that,  in  a  conversation  which  I  had 
some  time  ago  with  one  of  the  secretaries  to  Government, 
upon  the  present  favourable  bias  of  government  and  the 
public  in  general  to  favour  all  plans  for  doing  good,  he  told 
me  that  he  believed  the  whole  was  owing  to  the  prudent  and 
temperate  manner  in  which  we  had  acted ;  and  that  if  we 
had  acted  with  precipitancy  and  indiscretion,  he  had  every 
reason  to  believe  the  general  feeling  would  have  been  as 


372  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1828 

hostile  to  attempts  to  do  good  as  it  is  now  favourable  to 
them. 

"  I  would  not  wish  you  to  entertain  the  idea  that  we  and 
our  brethren  in  Calcutta  are  resolved  upon  interminable 
hatred.  On  the  contrary,  I  think  that  things  are  gone  as  far 
as  we  may  expect  them  to  go ;  and  I  now  expect  that  the 
fire  of  contention  will  gradually  go  out.  All  the  distressing 
and  disagreeable  circumstances  are,  I  trust,  past ;  and  I  ex- 
pect we  shall  be  in  a  little  time  on  a  more  friendly  footing. 
Much  of  what  has  taken  place  originated  in  England.  Mis- 
takes and  false  conclusions  were  followed  by  all  the  circum- 
stances I  have  detailed.  I  think  the  whole  virulence  of 
opposition  has  now  spent  itself.  Our  brethren  have  no 
control  over  us,  nor  we  over  them.  And,  if  I  am  not  mis- 
taken, each  side  will  soon  acknowledge  that  it  has  gone  too 
far  in  some  instances ;  and  ultimate  good  will  arise  from  the 
evil  I  so  much  deplore. 

"  Having  now  written  to  you  nay  whole  sentiments  upon 
the  business,  and  formerly  to  my  very  dear  Brother  Eyland, 
allow  me  to  declare  my  resolution  not  to  write  anything 
further  upon  the  subject,  however  much  I  may  be  pressed 
thereto.  The  future  prosperity  of  the  mission  does  not 
depend  upon  the  clearing  up  of  every  little  circumstance 
to  the  satisfaction  of  every  captious  inquirer ;  but  upon  the 
restoration  of  mutual  concord  among  us,  which  must  be  pre- 
ceded by  admitting  that  we  are  all  subject  to  mistake,  and  to 
be  misled  by  passion,  prejudice,  and  false  judgment.  Let  us 
therefore  strive  and  pray,  that  the  things  which  make  for  peace 
and  those  by  which  we  may  edify  one  another  may  abound 
among  us  more  and  more. — I  am,  my  dear  brother,  very  affec- 
tionately, yours  in  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ,  W.  CAREY." 

Uth  May  1828. 

"  MY  DEAR  BROTHER  ANDERSON — Yours  by  the  Louisa, 
of  October  last,  came  to  hand  a  few  days  ago  with  the  copies 


1828  HIS  CONTEMPT  FOR  MARSHMAN'S  ASSAILANTS.  373 

of  Brother  Marshman's  brief  memoir  of  the  Serampore  Mis- 
sion. I  am  glad  it  is  written  in  so  temperate  and  Christian 
a  spirit,  and  I  doubt  not  but  it  will  be  ultimately  productive 
of  good  effects.  There  certainly  is  a  great  contrast  between 
the  spirit  in  which  that  piece  is  written,  and  that  in  which 
observations  upon  it,  both  in  the  Baptist  and  Particular 
Baptist  Magazines  are  written.  The  unworthy  attempts  in 
those  and  other  such  like  pieces  to  separate  Brother  Marshman 
and  me  are  truly  contemptible.  In  plain  English,  they 
amount  to  thus  much — '  The  Serampore  Missionaries,  Carey, 
Marshman,  and  Ward,  have  acted  a  dishonest  part,  alias  are 
rogues.  But  we  do  not  include  Dr.  Carey  in  the  charge  of 
dishonesty ;  he  is  an  easy  sort  of  a  man,  who  will  agree  to 
anything  for  the  sake  of  peace,  or  in  other  words  he  is  a  fool. 
Mr.  "Ward,  it  is  well  known,'  say  they,  '  was  the  tool  of  Dr. 
Marshman,  but  he  is  gone  from  the  present  scene,  and  it  is 
unlovely  to  say  any  evil  of  the  dead.'  Now  I  certainly 
hold  these  persons'  exemption  of  me  from  the  blame  they 
attach  to  Brother  Marshman  in  the  greatest  possible  con- 
tempt. I  may  have  subscribed  my  name  thoughtlessly  to 
papers,  and  it  would  be  wonderful  if  there  had  been  no  in- 
stance of  this  in  so  long  a  course  of  years.  The  great 
esteem  I  had  for  the  Society  for  many  years,  undoubtedly 
on  more  occasions  than  one,  put  me  off  my  guard,  and  I 
believe  my  brethren  too  ;  so  that  we  have  signed  writings 
which  if  we  could  have  foreseen  the  events  of  a  few  years,  we 
should  not  have  done.  These,  however,  were  all  against  our 
own  private  interest,  and  I  believe  I  have  never  been  called 
an  easy  fool  for  signing  of  them.  It  has  only  been  since  we 
found  it  necessary  to  resist  the  claims  of  the  Committee  that 
I  have  risen  to  this  honour. 

"  It  has  also  been  hinted  that  I  intend  to  separate  from 
Brother  Marshman.  I  cannot  tell  upon  what  such  hints  or 
reports  are  founded,  but  I  assure  you,  in  the  most  explicit 


374  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1828 

manner,  that  I  intend  to  continue  connected  with  him  and 
Serampore  as  long  as  I  live  ;  unless  I  should  be  separated 
from  him  by  some  unforeseen  stroke  of  Providence.  There 
may  be  modifications  of  our  union,  arising  from  circum- 
stances ;  but  it  is  my  wish  that  it  should  remain  in  all 
things  essential  to  the  mission  as  long  as  I  live. 

"  I  rejoice  to  say  that  there  is  very  little  of  that  spirit 
of  hostility  which  prevails  in  England  in  India,  and  I  trust 
what  still  remains  will  gradually  decrease  till  scarcely  the 
remembrance  of  it  will  continue.  Our  stations,  I  mean 
those  connected  with  Serampore,  are  of  great  importance,  and 
some  of  them  in  a  flourishing  state.  We  will  do  all  we  can 
to  maintain  them,  and  I  hope  the  friends  to  the  cause  of  God 
in  Britain  will  not  suffer  them  to  sink  for  want  of  that  pecu- 
niary help  which  is  necessary.  Indeed  I  hope  we  shall  be 
assisted  in  attempting  other  stations  beside  those  already 
occupied ;  and  many  such  stations  present  themselves  to  my 
mind  which  nothing  prevents  being  immediately  occupied 
but  want  of  men  and  money.  The  college  will  also  require 
assistance,  and  I  hope  will  not  be  without  it ;  I  anticipate 
the  time  when  its  salutary  operation  in  the  cause  of  God  in 
India  will  be  felt  and  acknowledged  by  all. 

"  These  observations  respecting  my  own  conduct  you  are 
at  liberty  to  use  as  you  please.  I  hope  now  to  take  my  final 
leave  of  this  unpleasant  subject,  and  have  just  room  to  say, 
that  I  am  very  affectionately  yours,  W.  CAREY." 

Throughout  the  controversy  thus  forced  upon  him,  we 
find  Dr.  Carey's  references  to  the  brethren  in  Calcutta,  in 
his  unpublished  letters,  all  in  the  strain  of  the  following  to 
his  son  Jabez  : — 

"  15th  August  1820. — This  week  we  received  letters  from 
Mr.  Marshman,  who  had  safely  arrived  at  St.  Helena.  I  am 
sure  it  will  give  you  pleasure  to  learn  that  our  long-continued 


1828          HIS  INDIGNATION  AT  THE  FALSEHOOD  OF  ENVY.          375 

dispute  with  the  younger  brethren  in  Calcutta  is  now  settled. 
We  met  together  for  that  purpose  about  three  weeks  ago,  and 
after  each  side  giving  up  some  trifling  ideas  and  expressions, 
came  to  a  reconciliation,  which,  I  pray  God,  may  be  lasting. 
Nothing  I  ever  met  with  in  my  life — and  I  have  met  with 
many  distressing  things — ever  preyed  so  much  upon  my 
spirits  as  this  difference  has.  I  am  sure  that  in  all  disputes 
very  many  wrong  things  must  take  place  on  both  sides  for 
which  both  parties  ought  to  be  humbled  before  God  and  one 
another. 

"  I  wish  you  could  succeed  in  setting  up  a  few  more 
schools.  .  .  .  Consider  that  and  the  spread  of  the  gospel  as 
the  great  objects  of  your  life,  and  try  to  promote  them  by  all 
the  wise  and  prudent  methods  in  your  power.  Indeed  we 
must  always  venture  something  for  the  sake  of  doing  good. 
The  cause  of  our  Lord  Jesus  Christ  continues  to  prosper  with 
us.  I  have  several  persons  now  coming  in  who  are  inquirers; 
two  or  three  of  them,  I  hope,  will  be  this  evening  received 
into  the  Church.  Excuse  my  saying  more  as  my  room  is  full 
of  people." 

Eight  years  after,  on  the  17th  April  1828,  he  thus  cen- 
sured Jabez  in  the  matter  of  the  Society's  action  at  home  : — 
"  From  a  letter  of  yours  to  Jonathan,  in  which  you  express 
a  very  indecent  pleasure  at  the  opposition  which  Brother 
Marshman  has  received,  not  by  the  Society,  but  by  some 
anonymous  writer  in  a  magazine,  I  perceive  you  are  informed 
of  the  separation  which  has  taken  place  between  them  and 
us.  What  in  that  anonymous  piece  you  call  a  '  set-down '  I 
call  a  '  falsehood.'  You  ought  to  know  that  I  was  a  party  in 
all  public  acts  and  writings,  and  that  I  never  intend  to  with- 
draw from  all  the  responsibility  connected  therewith.  I  utterly 
despise  all  the  creeping,  mean  assertions  of  that  party  when 
they  say  they  do  not  include  me  in  their  censures,  nor  do  I  work 
for  their  praise  according  to  them  and  according  to  your  rejoic- 


376  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1828 

ing.  ...  I  am  either  a  knave  or  a  fool — a  knave  if  I  joined 
with  Brother  Marshman  ;  but  if,  as  those  gentlemen  say,  and 
as  you  seem  to  agree  with  them,  I  was  only  led  as  he  pleased, 
and  was  a  mere  cat's-paw,  then  of  course  I  am  a  fool.  In 
either  way  your  thoughts  are  not  very  high  as  it  respects  me. 
I  do  not  wonder  that  Jonathan  should  express  himself  un- 
guardedly ;  his  family  connection  with  Mr.  Pearce  sufficiently 
accounts  for  that.  We  have  long  been  attacked  in  this 
country — first  by  Mr.  Adam,1  and  afterwards  by  Dr.  Bryce.2 
Bryce  is  now  silenced  by  two  or  three  pieces  by  John  Marsh- 
man in  his  own  newspaper,  the  John  Bull ;  and  as  to  some  of 
the  tissues  of  falsehood  published  in  England,  I  shall  certainly 
never  reply  to  them,  and  I  hope  no  one  else  will.  That  cause 
must  be  bad  which  needs  such  means  to  support  it.  I  believe 
God  will  bring  forth  our  righteousness  as  the  noonday." 

On  the  12th  July  1828  the  father  again  writes  to  his  son 
Jabez  thus:  "  Your  apologies  about  Brother  Marshman  are  un- 
doubtedly the  best  you  can  offer.  I  should  be  sorry  to  harbour 
hostile  sentiments  against  any  man  on  the  earth  upon  grounds 
so  slight.  Indeed,  were  all  you  say  matter  of  fact  you  ought 
to  forgive  it  as  God  for  Christ's  sake  forgives  us.  We  are 
required  to  lay  aside  all  envy  and  strife  and  animosities,  to 
forgive  each  other  mutually  and  to  love  one  another  with  a 
pure  heart  fervently.  '  Thine  own  friend  and  thy  father's 
friend  forsake  not.' " 

1  The  Baptist  missionary,  who  became  an  Arian,  and  was  afterwards  em- 
ployed by  Lord  William  Bentinck  to  report  on  the  actual  state  of  education  in 
Bengal. 

2  The  first  Indian  chaplain  of  the  Church  of  Scotland,  superintendent  of 
stationery  and  editor  of  the  John  Bull.     See  Life  of  Alexander  Duff,  D.D. 


CHAPTEK  XIY. 

CAREY  AS  AN  EDUCATOR— THE  FIRST  CHRISTIAN  COLLEGE 

IN  THE  EAST. 

i 

1818-1834. 

A  college  the  fourth  and  perfecting  corner-stone  of  the  mission — Carey  on  the 
importance  of  English  in  1800 — Anticipates  Duff's  policy  of  undermining 
Brahmanism — New  educational  era  begun  by  the  charter  of  1813  and 
Lord  Hastings — Plan  of  the  Serampore  College  in  1818 — Anticipates  the 
Anglo -Orientalism  of  the  Punjab  University — The  building  described  by 
John  Marshman — Bishop  Middleton  follows— The  Scottish  Free  Church 
and  other  colleges — Action  of  the  Danish  Government — The  royal 
charter — Visit  of  Maharaja  Serfojee — Death  of  Ward,  Charles  Grant,  and 
Bentley — Bishop  Heber  and  his  catholic  letter — Dr.  Carey's  reply — 
Progress  of  the  college — Cause  of  its  foundation — Reasons  for  giving  its 
Council  control  of  the  mission  stations — The  college  directly  and  essen- 
tially a  missionary  undertaking — Action  of  the  Brotherhood  from  the 
first  vindicated — Carey  appeals  to  posterity — The  college  and  the  syste- 
matic study  of  English — Carey  author  of  the  Grant  in  Aid  system — 
Economy  in  administering  missions — The  Serampore  Mission'_has  eighteen 
stations  and  fifty  missionaries  of  all  kinds — Subsequent  history  of  the 
Serampore  College. 

THE  first  act  of  Carey  and  Marshman  when  their  Committee 
took  up  a  position  of  hostility  to  their  self-denying  independ- 
ence, was  to  complete  and  perpetuate  the  mission  by  a  college. 
As  planned  by  Carey  in  1793,  the  constitution  had  founded 
the  enterprise  on  these  three  corner-stones — preaching  the 
Gospel  in  the  mother  tongue  of  the  people,  translating  the 
Bible  into  all  the  languages  of  Southern  and  Eastern  Asia, 
teaching  the  young,  both  heathen  and  Christian,  both  boys 
and  girls,  in  vernacular  schools.  But  Carey  had  not  been 


378  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1818 

a  year  in  Serampore  when,  having  built  well  on  all  three, 
he  began  to  see  that  a  fourth  must  be  laid  some  day  in  the 
shape  of  a  college.  He  and  his  colleagues  had  founded  and 
supervised  by  the  year  1818  no  fewer  than  126  native  schools, 
containing  some  10,000  boys,  of  whom  more  than  7000 
were  in  and  around  Serampore.  His  work  among  the 
pundit  class,  both  in  Serampore  and  in  the  college  of  Fort 
William,  and  the  facilities  in  the  Mission-house  for  training 
natives,  Eurasians,  and  the  missionaries'  sons  to  be  preachers, 
translators,  and  teachers,  seemed  to  meet  the  immediate  want. 
But  as  the  mission  in  all  its  forms  grew  every  year  and  the 
experience  of  its  leaders  developed,  the  necessity  of  creating 
a  college  staff  in  a  building  adapted  to  the  purpose  became 
more  urgent.  Only  thus  could  the  otherwise  educated  natives 
be  reached,  and  the  Brahmanical  class  especially  be  perma- 
nently influenced.  Only  thus  could  a  theological  institute  be 
satisfactorily  conducted  to  feed  the  native  Church. 

On  10th  October  1800  the  missionaries  had  thus  written 
home : — "  There  appears  to  be  a  favourable  change  in  the 
general  temper  of  the  people.  Commerce  has  roused  new 
thoughts  and  awakened  new  energies;  so  that  hundreds,  if 
we  could  skilfully  teach  them  gratis,  would  crowd  to  learn 
the  English  language.  We  hope  this  may  be  in  our  power 
sometime,  and  may  be  a  happy  means  of  diffusing  the  gospel. 
At  present  our  hands  are  quite  full."  A  month  after  that 
Carey  wrote  to  Fuller  :  "  I  have  long  thought  whether  it 
would  not  be  desirable  for  us  to  set  up  a  school  to  teach  the 
natives  English.  I  doubt  not  but  a  thousand  scholars  would 
come.  I  do  not  say  this  because  I  think  it  an  object  to  teach 
them  the  English  tongue ;  but,  query,  is  not  the  universal  incli- 
nation of  the  Bengalis  to  learn  English  a  favourable  circum- 
stance which  maybe  improved  to  valuable  ends  ?  I  only  hesitate 
at  the  expense."  Thirty  years  after  Duff  reasoned  in  the  same 
way,  after  consulting  Carey,  and  acted  at  once  in  Calcutta. 


1816     EDUCATIONAL  EVANGELISING  OF  INDIA  FIRST  STATED.      379 

By  1816,  when,  on  25th  June,  Carey  wrote  a  letter,  for 
his  colleagues  and  himself,  to  the  Board  of  the  American 
Baptist  General  Convention,  the  great  idea,  destined  slowly 
to  revolutionise  not  only  India,  but  China,  Japan,  and  the 
farther  East,  had  taken  this  form — 

"We  know  not  what  your  immediate  expectations  are 
relative  to  the  Burman  empire,  but  we  hope  your  views  are 
not  confined  to  the  immediate  conversion  of  the  natives  by 
the  preaching  of  the  Word.  Could  a  church  of  converted 
natives  be  obtained  at  Rangoon,  it  might  exist  for  a  while, 
and  be  scattered,  or  perish  for  want  of  additions.  From  all 
we  have  seen  hitherto  we  are  ready  to  think  that  the  dis- 
pensations of  Providence  point  to  labours  that  may  operate, 
indeed,  more  slowly  on  the  population,  but  more  effectually 
in  the  end ;  as  knowledge,  once  put  into  fermentation,  will 
not  only  influence  the  part  where  it  is  first  deposited,  but 
leaven  the  whole  lump.  The  slow  progress  of  conversion  in 
such  a  mode  of  teaching  the  natives  may  not  be  so  encourag- 
ing, and  may  require,  in  all,  more  faith  and  patience ;  but  it 
appears  to  have  been  the  process  of  things,  in  the  progress 
of  the  Eeformation,  during  the  reigns  of  Henry,  Edward, 
Elizabeth,  James,  and  Charles.  And  should  the  work  of 
evangelising  India  be  thus  slow  and  silently  progressive, 
which,  however,  considering  the  age  of  the  world,  is  not 
perhaps  very  likely,  still  the  grand  result  will  amply  recom- 
pense us,  and  you,  for  all  our  toils.  We  are  sure  to  take  the 
fortress,  if  we  can  but  persuade  ourselves  to  sit  down  long 
enough  before  it.  '  We  shall  reap  if  we  faint  not.' 

"  And  then,  very  dear  brethren,  when  it  shall  be  said  of 
the  seat  of  our  labours,  the  infamous  swinging-post  is  no 
longer  erected ;  the  widow  burns  no  more  on  the  funeral 
pile;  the  obscene  dances  and  songs  are  seen  and  heard  no 
more;  the  gods  are  thrown  to  the  moles  and  to  the  bats, 
and  Jesus  is  known  as  the  God  of  the  whole  land  ;  the  poor 


380  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1818 

Hindoo  goes  no  more  to  the  Ganges  to  be  washed  from  his 
filthiness,  but  to  the  fountain  opened  for  sin  and  unclean- 
ness  ;  the  temples  are  forsaken ;  the  crowds  say,  '  Let  us  go 
up  to  the  house  of  the  Lord,  and  he  shall  teach  us  of  his 
ways,  and  we  will  walk  in  his  statutes ;'  the  anxious  Hindoos 
no  more  consume  their  property,  their  strength,  and  their 
lives,  in  vain  pilgrimages,  but  they  come  at  once  to  Him  who 
can  save  to  'the  uttermost;'  the  sick  and  the  dying  are  no 
more  dragged  to  the  Ganges,  but  look  to  the  Lamb  of  God, 
and  commit  their  souls  into  His  faithful  hands  ;  the  children, 
no  more  sacrificed  to  idols,  are  become  '  the  seed  of  the  Lord, 
that  he  may  be  glorified  ;'  the  public  morals  are  improved; 
the  language  of  Canaan  is  learnt ;  benevolent  societies  are 
formed ;  civilisation  and  salvation  walk  arm  in  arm  to- 
gether ;  the  desert  blossoms  ;  the  earth  yields  her  increase ; 
angels  and  glorified  spirits  hover  with  joy  over  India,  and 
carry  ten  thousand  messages  of  love  from  the  Lamb  in  the 
midst  of  the  throne ;  and  redeemed  souls  from  the  different 
villages,  towns,  and  cities  of  this  immense  country,  constantly 
add  to  the  number,  and  swell  the  chorus  of  the  redeemed, 
c  Unto  Him  that  loved  us,  and  washed  us  from  our  sins  in 
His  own  blood,  unto  HIM  be  the  glory ;' — when  this  grand 
result  of  the  labours  of  God's  servants  in  India  shall  be 
realised,  shall  we  then  think  that  we  have  laboured  in  vain, 
and  spent  our  strength  for  nought  ?  Surely  not.  Well,  the 
decree  is  gone  forth  !  '  My  word  shall  prosper  in  the  thing 
whereunto  I  sent  it.'" 

India  was  being  prepared  for  the  new  missionary  policy. 
On  what  we  may  call  its  literary  side  Carey  had  been  long 
busy.  On  its  more  strictly  educational  side,  the  charter  of 
1813  had  conceded  what  had  been  demanded  in  vain  by  a 
too  feeble  public  opinion  in  the  charter  of  1793.  A  clause 
was  inserted  at  the  last  moment  declaring  that  a  sum  of  not 
less  than  a  lakh  of  rupees  (or  ten  thousand  pounds)  a  year 


1818  SERAMPORE  COLLEGE  PROJECTED.  381 

was  to  be  set  apart  from  the  surplus  revenues,  and  applied 
to  the  revival  and  improvement  of  literature  and  the  en- 
couragement of  the  learned  natives  of  India,  and  for  the 
introduction  and  promotion  of  a  knowledge  of  the  sciences 
among  the  inhabitants  of  the  British  territories  there.  The 
clause  was  prompted  by  an  Anglo-Indian  of  oriental  tastes, 
who  hoped  that  the  Brahman  and  his  Veda  might  thus  be 
made  too  strong  for  the  Christian  missionary  and  the  Bible 
as  at  last  tolerated  under  the  13th  Eesolution.  For  this  rea- 
son, and  because  the  money  was  to  be  paid  only  out  of  any 
surplus,  the  directors  and  their  friends  offered  no  opposition. 
For  the  quarter  of  a  century  the  grant  was  given,  and  was 
applied  in  the  spirit  of  its  proposer.  But  the  scandals  of  its 
application  became  such  that  it  was  made  legally  by  Ben- 
tinck  and  Macaulay,  and  practically  by  Duff,  the  fountain 
of  a  river  of  knowledge  and  life  which  is  now  flooding 
the  East. 

The  first  result  of  the  liberalism  of  the  charter  of  1813 
and  of  the  generous  views  of  Lord  Hastings  was  the  estab- 
lishment in  Calcutta  by  the  Hindoos  themselves,  under  the 
influence  of  English  secularists,  of  the  Hindoo,  now  the 
Presidency  College.  Carey  and  Marshman  were  not  in  Cal- 
cutta, otherwise  they  must  have  realised  even  then  what  they 
left  to  Duff  to  act  on  fourteen  years  after — the  importance 
of  English  not  only  as  an  educating  but  as  a  Christianising 
instrument.  But  though  not  so  well  adapted  to  the  im- 
mediate need  of  the  reformation  which  they  had  begun,  and 
though  not  applied  to  the  very  heart  of  Bengal  in  Calcutta, 
the  prospectus  of  their  "  College  for  the  Instruction  of  Asiatic, 
Christian,  and  Other  Youth  in  Eastern  Literature  and  Euro- 
pean Science,"  which  they  published  on  the  15th  July  1818, 
sketched  a  more  perfect  and  complete  system  than  any 
since  attempted,  if  we  except  John  Wilson's  almost  unsup- 
ported effort  in  Bombay.  It  embraced  the  classical  or 


382  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1818 

learned  languages  of  the  Hindoos  and  Mohammedans,  Sans- 
krit and  Arabic ;  the  English  language  and  literature,  to 
enable  the  senior  students  "  to  dive  into  the  deepest  recesses 
of  European  science,  and  enrich  their  own  language  with  its 
choicest  treasures ; "  the  preparation  of  manuals  of  science, 
philosophy,  and  history  in  the  learned  and  vernacular  lan- 
guages of  the  East ;  a  normal  department  to  train  native 
teachers  and  professors ;  as  the  crown  of  all,  a  theological 
institute  to  equip  the  Eurasian  and  native  Christian  students, 
by  a  quite  unsectarian  course  of  study,  in  apologetics, 
exegetics,  and  the  Bible  languages,  to  be  missionaries  to  the 
Brahmanical  classes.  While  the  Government  and  the  Scottish 
missionaries  have  in  the  university  and  grant  in  aid  systems 
since  followed  too  exclusively  the  English  line,  happily  sup- 
planting the  extreme  Orientalists,  it  is  the  glory  of  the 
Serampore  Brotherhood  that  they  sought  to  apply  both  the 
Oriental  and  the  European,  the  one  as  the  form,  the  other  as 
the  substance,  to  evangelise  and  civilise  the  people  through 
their  mother  tongue.  They  were  the  Vernacularists  in  the 
famous  controversy  between  the  Orientalists  and  the 
Anglicists  raised  by  Duff.  In  1867  the  present  writer1  in 
vain  attempted  to  induce  the  University  of  Calcutta  to 
follow  them  in  this.  It  was  left  to  Sir  Charles  Aitchison, 
when  he  wielded  the  power  and  the  influence  of  the  Lieu- 
tenant-Go vernor,  by  founding  the  Punjab  University  to  do  in 
1882  what  the  Serampore  College  would  have  accomplished 
had  its  founders  been  young  instead  of  old  men. 

Lord  Hastings  and  even  Sir  John  Malcolm  took  a  per- 
sonal interest  in  the  Serampore  College.  The  latter,  who 
had  visited  the  missionaries  since  his  timid  evidence  before 
the  House  of  Lords  in  1813,  wrote  to  them :  "  I  wish  I 
could  be  certain  that  your  successors  in  the  serious  task  you 
propose  would  have  as  much  experience  as  you  and  your 

1  Appendix  III. 


1818         NOBLE  PROPORTIONS  OF  THE  COLLEGE  BUILDING.          383 

fellow-labourers  at  Serampore — that  they  would  walk,  not  run, 
in  the  same  path  —  I  would  not  then  have  to  state  one 
reserve."  His  Excellency  the  Governor  -  General  "  inter- 
rupted pressing  avocations  "  to  criticise  both  the  architectural 
plan  of  the  building  and  the  phraseology  of  the  draft  of  the 
first  report,  and  his  suggestions  were  followed.  Adopting 
one  of  the  Grecian  orders  as  most  suitable  to  a  tropical 
climate,  the  Danish  Governor's  colleague,  Major  Wickedie, 
planned  the  noble  Ionic  building  which  was  then,  and,  we 
do  not  hesitate  to  declare,  is  still  the  finest  edifice  of  the 
kind  in  British  India.  Mr.  John  Marshman's  architectural 
description  is  authoritative,  and  it  is  within  the  truth. 

u  The  centre  building,  intended  for  the  public  rooms,  was  a  hun- 
dred and  thirty  feet  in  length,  and  a  hundred  and  twenty  in  depth. 
The  hall  on  the  ground  floor,  supported  on  arches,  and  terminated  at 
the  south  by  a  bow,  was  ninety-five  feet  in  length,  sixty-six  in  breadth, 
and  twenty  in  height.  It  was  originally  intended  for  the  library,  but 
is  now  occupied  by  the  classes.  The  hall  above,  of  the  same  dimen- 
sions and  twenty-six  feet  in  height,  was  supported  by  two  rows  of 
Ionic  columns  ;  it  was  intended  for  the  annual  examinations.  Of  the 
twelve  side-rooms  above  and  below,  eight  were  of  spacious  dimensions, 
twenty-seven  feet  by  thirty-five.  The  portico  which  fronted  the  river 
was  composed  of  six  columns,  more  than  four  feet  in  diameter  at  the 
base.  The  staircase-room  was  ninety  feet  in  length,  twenty-seven  in 
width,  and  forty-seven  in  height,  with  two  staircases  of  cast-iron,  of 
large  size  and  elegant  form,  prepared  at  Birmingham.  The  spacious 
grounds  were  surrounded  with  iron  railing,  and  the  front  entrance  was 
adorned  with  a  noble  gate,  likewise  cast  at  Birmingham.  .  .  . 

"  The  scale  on  which  it  was  proposed  to  establish  the  college,  and  to 
which  the  size  of  the  building  was  necessarily  accommodated,  corre- 
sponded with  the  breadth  of  all  the  other  enterprises  of  the  Seram- 
pore missionaries,  —  the  mission,  the  translations,  and  the  schools. 
While  Mr.  Ward  was  engaged  in  making  collections  for  the  support 
of  the  institution  in  England,  he  wrote  to  his  brethren,  '  the  buildings 
you  must  raise  in  India  ;'  and  they  determined  to  respond  to  the 
call,  and,  if  possible,  to  augment  their  donation  from  .£2500  to 
£8000,  and  to  make  a  vigorous  effort  to  erect  the  buildings  from 
their  own  funds.  Neither  the  ungenerous  suspicions,  nor  the  charge 


384  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1821 

of  unfaithfulness,  with  which  their  character  was  assailed  in  England, 
was  allowed  to  slacken  the  prosecution  of  this  plan.  It  was  while 
their  reputation  was  under  an  eclipse  in  England,  and  the  benevolent 
hesitated  to  subscribe  to  the  society,  till  they  were  assured  that  their 
donations  would  not  be  mixed  up  with  the  funds  of  the  men  at 
Serampore,  that  those  men  were  engaged  in  erecting  a  noble  edifice 
for  the  promotion  of  religion  and  knowledge,  at  their  own  cost,  the 
expense  of  which  eventually  grew  under  their  hands  to  the  sum  of 
.£15,000.  To  the  charge  of  endeavouring  to  alienate  from  the 
society  premises  of  the  value  of  .£3000,  their  own  gift,  they  replied 
by  erecting  a  building  at  five  times  the  cost,  and  vesting  it  in  eleven 
trustees, — seven  besides  themselves.  It  was  thus  they  vindicated  the 
purity  of  their  motives  in  their  differences  with  the  society,  and  en- 
deavoured to  silence  the  voice  of  calumny.  They  were  the  first  who 
maintained  that  a  college  was  an  indispensable  appendage  to  an  Indian 
mission." 

The  first  to  follow  Carey  in  this  was  Bishop  Middleton, 
who  raised  funds  to  erect  the  chaste  Gothic  pile  next  to  the 
Botanic  Garden,  since  to  him  the  time  appeared  "to  have 
arrived  when  it  is  desirable  that  some  missionary  endeavours, 
at  least,  should  have  some  connection  with  the  Church  estab- 
lishment." That  college  no  longer  exists,  in  spite  of  the 
saintly  scholarship  of  such.  Principals  as  Mill  and  Kay  ;  the 
building  is  now  utilised  as  a  Government  engineering  college. 
But  in  Calcutta  the  Duff  College,  the  General  Assembly's 
Institution,  the  Cathedral  Mission  Divinity  School,  and  the 
Bhowanipore  Institution ;  in  Bombay  the  Wilson  College,  in 
Madras  the  Christian  College  and  Free  Church  Institution, 
in  Nagpoor  the  Hislop  College,  in  Agra  St.  John's  College, 
and  in  Lahore  the  Church  Mission  Divinity  School,  and 
others,  bear  witness  to  the  fruitfulness  of  the  Alma  Mater  of 
Serampore. 

The  Serampore  College  began  with  thirty-seven  students, 
of  whom  nineteen  were  native  Christians  and  the  rest 
Hindoos.  When  the  building  was  occupied  in  1821  Carey 
wrote  to  his  son  : — "  I  pray  that  the  blessing  of  God  may 
attend  it,  and  that  it  may  be  the  means  of  preparing  many 


1826      KING  OF  DENMARK  GRANTS  A  CHARTER  AND  GIFTS.       385 

for  an  important  situation  in  the  Church  of  God.  .  .  .  The 
King  of  Denmark  has  written  letters  signed  with  his  own 
hand  to  Brothers  Ward,  Marshman,  and  myself,  and  has  sent 
each  of  us  a  gold  medal  as  a  token  of  his  approbation.  He 
has  also  made  over  the  house  in  which  Major  Wickedie  re- 
sides, between  Sarkies's  house  and  ours,  to  us  three  in  per- 
petuity for  the  college.  Thus  Divine  generosity  appears  for 
us  and  supplies  our  expectations."  The  missionaries  had 
declined  the  Order  of  the  Dannebrog.  When,  in  1826,  Dr. 
Marshman  visited  Europe,  one  of  his  first  duties  was  to 
acknowledge  this  gift  to  Count  Moltke,  Danish  Minister  in 
London,  and  ancestor  of  the  great  strategist,  and  to  ask  for  a 
royal  charter.  The  Minister  and  Count  Schulin,  whose  wife 
had  been  a  warm  friend  of  Mrs.  Carey,  happened  to  be  on 
board  the  steamer  in  which  Dr.  Marshman,  accompanied  by 
Christopher  Anderson,  sailed  to  Copenhagen.  Easke,  the 
Orientalist,  who  had  visited  Serampore,  was  in  the  University 
there.  The  vellum  charter  was  prepared  among  them,  em- 
powering the  College  Council,  consisting  of  the  Governor  of 
Serampore  and  the  Brotherhood,  to  confer  degrees  like  those  of 
the  Universities  of  Copenhagen  and  Kiel,  but  not  carrying  the 
rank  in  the  State  implied  in  Danish  degrees  unless  with  the 
sanction  of  the  Crown.  The  King,  in  the  audience  which  he 
gave,  informed  Dr.  Marshman  that,  having  in  1801  promised 
the  mission  protection,  he  had  hitherto  refused  to  transfer 
Serampore  to  the  East  India  Company,  since  that  would  pre- 
vent him  from  keeping  his  word.  When,  in  1845,  the  Com- 
pany purchased  both  Tranquebar  and  Serampore,  it  could  be 
no  longer  dangerous  to  the  Christian  Mission,  but  the  Treaty 
expressly  provided  that  the  College  should  retain  all  its 
powers  under  the  Danish  charter,  which  it  does.  It  was 
thus  the  earliest  degree-conferring  college  in  Asia,  but  it  has 
never  exercised  the  power.  Christian  VIII.,  then  the  heir 
to  the  throne,  showed  particular  interest  in  the  Bible  trans- 

2  c 


386  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1824 

lation  work  of  Carey.  When,  in  1884,  the  Evangelical  Alli- 
ance held  its  session  in  Copenhagen  and  was  received  by 
Christian  IX.,  it  did  well,  by  special  resolution,  to  express 
the  gratitude  of  Protestant  Christendom  to  Denmark  for  such 
courageous  and  continued  services  to  the  first  Christian  mis- 
sion from  England  to  India. 

The  new  College  formed  an  additional  attraction  to 
visitors  to  the  mission.  One  of  these,  in  1821,  was  the 
Maharaja  Serfojee,  the  prince  of  Tanjore  whom  Schwartz 
had  tended,  but  who  was  on  pilgrimage  to  Benares.  Hand 
in  hand  with  Dr.  Carey  he  walked  through  the  missionary 
workshop,  noticed  specially  the  pundits  who  were  busy  with 
translation  to  which  Lord  Hastings  had  directed  his  atten- 
tion, and  dilated  with  affectionate  enthusiasm  on  the  deeds 
and  the  character  of  the  apostle  of  South  India.  In  1823 
cholera  suddenly  cut  off  Mr.  Ward  in  the  midst  of  his  labours. 
The  year  after  that  Charles  Grant  died,  leaving  a  legacy  to 
the  mission.  Almost  his  last  act  had  been  to  write  to  Carey 
urging  him  to  publish  a  reply  to  the  attack  of  the  Abbe  Dubois 
on  all  Christian  missions.  Another  friend  was  removed  in 
J.  Bentley,  the  scholar  who  put  Hindoo  astronomy  in  its  right 
place.  Bishop  Heber  began  his  too  brief  episcopate  in  1824, 
when  the  college,  strengthened  by  the  abilities  of  the  Edin- 
burgh professor,  John  Mack,  was  accomplishing  all  that  its 
founders  had  projected.  The  Bishop  of  all  good  Christian 
men  never  penned  a  grander  production — not  even  his  hymns 
— than  this  letter,  called  forth  by  a  copy  of  the  Eeport  on  the 
College  sent  to  him  by  Dr.  Marshman  : — 

"  I  have  seldom  felt  more  painfully  than  while  reading  your  appeal 
on  the  subject  of  Serampore  College,  the  unhappy  divisions  of  those 
who  are  the  servants  of  the  same  Great  Master  !  Would  to  God,  my 
honoured  brethren,  the  time  were  arrived  when  not  only  in  heart 
and  hope,  but  visibly,  we  shall  be  one  fold,  as  well  as  under  one 
shepherd  !  In  the  meantime  I  have  arrived,  after  some  serious  con- 
siderations, at  the  conclusion  that  I  shall  serve  our  great  cause  most 


1824  BISHOP  HEBER  AND  CAREY.  387 

effectually  by  doing  all  which  I  can  for  the  rising  institutions  of 
those  with  whom  my  sentiments  agree  in  all  things,  rather  than  by 
forwarding  the  labours  of  those  from  whom,  in  some  important  points, 
I  am  conscientiously  constrained  to  differ.  After  all,  why  do  we 
differ  ?  Surely  the  leading  points  which  keep  us  asunder  are  capable 
of  explanation  or  of  softening,  and  I  am  expressing  myself  in  much 
sincerity  of  heart — (though,  perhaps,  according  to  the  customs  of  the 
world,  I  am  taking  too  great  a  freedom  with  men  my  superiors  both 
in  age  and  in  talent),  that  I  should  think  myself  happy  to  be  per- 
mitted to  explain,  to  the  best  of  my  power,  those  objections  which  keep 
you  and  your  brethren  divided  from  that  form  of  church  government 
which  I  believe  to  have  been  instituted  by  the  apostles,  and  that 
admission  of  infants  to  the  Gospel  Covenants  which  seems  to  me  to  be 
founded  on  the  expressions  and  practice  of  Christ  himself.  If  I  were 
writing  thus  to  worldly  men  I  know  I  should  expose  myself  to  the 
imputation  of  excessive  vanity  or  impertinent  intrusion.  But  of  you 
and  Dr.  Carey  I  am  far  from  judging  as  of  worldly  men,  and  I  there- 
fore say  that,  if  we  are  spared  to  have  any  future  intercourse,  it  is  my 
desire,  if  you  permit,  to  discuss  with  both  of  you,  in  the  spirit  of 
meekness  and  conciliation,  the  points  which  now  divide  us,  convinced 
that,  if  a  reunion  of  our  churches  could  be  effected,  the  harvest  of 
the  heathen  would  ere  long  be  reaped,  and  the  work  of  the  Lord 
would  advance  among  them  with  a  celerity  of  which  we  have  now  no 
experience. 

"  I  trust,  at  all  events,  you  will  take  this  hasty  note  as  it  is  in- 
tended, and  believe  me,  with  much  sincerity,  your  friend  and  servant 
in  Christ,  REGINALD  CALCUTTA. 

"  June  3,  1824." 

This  is  how  Carey  reciprocated  these  sentiments,  when 
writing  to  Dr.  Eyland  : — 

"  SERAMPORE,  July  6,  1824. 

"  I  rejoice  to  say  that  there  is  the  utmost  harmony  be- 
tween all  the  ministers  of  all  denominations.  Bishop  Heber 
is  a  man  of  liberal  principles  and  catholic  spirit.  Soon  after 
his  arrival  in  the  country  he  wrote  me  a  very  friendly  letter, 
expressing  his  wish  to  maintain  all  the  friendship  with  us 
which  our  respective  circumstances  would  allow.  I  was  then 
confined,  but  Brother  Marshrnan  called  on  him.  As  soon  as 


388  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1824 

I  could  walk  without  crutches  I  did  the  same,  and  had  much 
free  conversation  with  him.  Some  time  after  this  he  wrote 
us  a  very  friendly  letter,  saying  that  it  would  highly  gratify 
him  to  meet  Brother  Marshman  and  myself,  and  discuss  in  a 
friendly  manner  all  the  points  of  difference  between  himself 
and  us,  adding  that  there  was  every  reason  to  expect  much 
good  from  a  calm  and  temperate  discussion  of  these  things, 
and  that,  if  we  could  at  any  rate  come  so  near  to  each  other 
as  to  act  together,  he  thought  it  would  have  a  greater  effect 
upon  the  spread  of  the  gospel  among  the  heathen  than  we 
could  calculate  upon.  He  was  then  just  setting  out  on  a 
visitation  which  will  in  all  probability  take  a  year.  "We 
however  wrote  him  a  reply  accepting  his  proposal,  and 
Brother  Marshman  expressed  a  wish  that  the  discussion 
might  be  carried  on  by  letter,  to  which  in  his  reply  he  partly 
consented.  I  have  such  a  disinclination  to  writing,  and  so 
little  leisure  for  it,  that  I  wished  the  discussion  to  be  viva 
voce  ;  it  will  however  make  little  difference,  and  all  I  should 
have  to  say  would  be  introduced  into  the  letter. 

"  Brother  Mack  is  an  excellent  man,  and  of  great  use  in 
the  mission,  Brother  Williamson  is  an  exceedingly  steady 
and  useful  man.  He  was  educated  at  Edinburgh  for  the 
medical  line,  and  went  several  voyages  to  Eussia  and  other 
parts,  and  at  last  came  to  this  country  as  the  surgeon  of  a 
ship.  Here  he  settled,  and  after  his  conversion  joined  in 
communion  with  us,  and  left  that  profession  for  the  purpose 
of  preaching  to  the  heathen.  He  now  speaks  Bengali  with 
fluency,  and  is  very  useful  among  our  native  brethren. 
Brother  Fernandez  baptized  five  persons  a  short  time  since, 
and  expects  to  baptize  six  more.  The  churches  among  the 
Arakanese  were  broken  up,  or  rather  all  the  people  driven 
from  their  habitations,  by  the  war  between  us  and  the  Bur- 
mans.  They  have  all,  with  their  families,  through  mercy, 
arrived  safely  at  Chittagong,  where  they  are  with  Brother 


1826  THE  SERAMPOKE  COLLEGE  AND  MISSION.  389 

Johannes.  Brother  Fink  is  here.  We  sent  them  100  rupees, 
and  our  Christian  friends  (here)  contributed  150  more,  which 
have  also  been  sent  to  help  them  under  their  present  distress, 
as  they  have  lost  their  all,  and  are  nearly  300  persons,  men, 
women,  and  children.  A  small  detachment  of  our  troops  was 
cut  off  by  a  large  body  of  Burmans  at  Bamoo,  which  place 
and  Coxe's  Bazar,  places  where  our  brethren  lived,  have  been 
taken  possession  of  by  them." 

On  the  death  of  Mr.  Ward  and  departure  of  Dr.  Marsh- 
man,  Mr.  John  Marshman  was  formally  taken  into  the 
Brotherhood.  He  united  with  Dr.  Carey  in  writing  these 
letters  to  the  Committee.  They  show  the  progress  of  the 
college  and  the  mission  from  the  first  as  one  independent 
agency,  and  they  close  with  Carey's  appeal  to  the  judgment 
of  posterity. 

"SERAMPORE,  Jan.  21,  1826. 

"  DEAR  BRETHREN — Our  colleague,  Dr.  Marshman,  being 
about  to  visit  his  native  land,  after  twenty-six  years  of  active 
missionary  service,  we  embrace  this  opportunity  of  soliciting 
your  attention  to  the  necessity  of  some  arrangement  respect- 
ing the  stations  connected  with  Serampore  College ;  and  as 
he  is  perfectly  acquainted  with  our  sentiments,  and  equally 
anxious  with  ourselves  for  the  continuance  of  mutual  har- 
mony, we  are  enabled  to  leave  the  conclusion  of  any  settle- 
ment in  his  hands  with  entire  confidence. 

"The  missionary  stations  connected  with  us,  and  now 
associated  with  the  college,  amount  to  ten.  It  will  be  in 
your  recollection  that  they  have  from  the  beginning  been 
supported  independently  of  subscriptions  from  Europe,  and 
almost  exclusively  from  the  proceeds  of  our  own  labour. 
These  stations,  however,  have  been  constantly  identified 
with  yours  in  all  your  applications  for  public  support,  and 
the  majority  of  the  subscribers  to  the  Baptist  Mission  have 
been  ignorant  of  the  fact  that  we  did  not  participate  in  the 


390  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1826 

funds  thus  raised.  We  might,  indeed,  with  strict  equity, 
have  claimed  a  share  of  support  for  them  out  of  those  dona- 
tions, for  they  have  in  general  out-numbered  the  other  Indian 
stations ;  but,  as  we  felt  a  particular  pleasure  in  supporting 
them  ourselves,  we  have  never,  till  lately,1  made  any  solicita- 
tion to  you  on  their  behalf,  which  has  left  one-half  of  the 
stations  in  India  in  the  entire  enjoyment  of  those  funds 
which  were  subscribed  towards  the  maintenance  of  all.  We 
have  not,  however,  the  most  distant  idea  of  censuring  this 
arrangement,  for  we  voluntarily  allowed  the  claim  of  our 
stations  to  lie  dormant ;  but,  as  we  are  now  constrained  to 
solicit  public  assistance  for  those  stations,  it  appears  requisite 
to  state  this  circumstance,  as  the  ground  on  which  we  make 
our  primary  application  to  you. 

"  About  seven  years  ago  we  felt  convinced  of  the  neces- 
sity of  erecting  a  college  for  native  Christian  youth,  in  order 
to  consolidate  our  plans  for  the  spread  of  gospel  truth  in 
India ;  and,  as  we  despaired  of  being  able  to  raise  from  public 
subscriptions  a  sum  equal  to  the  expense  of  the  buildings,  we 
determined  to  erect  them  from  our  own  private  funds.  Up 
to  the  present  date  they  have  cost  us  nearly  £14,000,  and  the 
completion  of  them  will  require  a  further  sum  of  about  £5000, 
which  if  we  are  not  enabled  to  advance  from  our  own  purse, 
the  undertaking  must  remain  incomplete.  With  this  burden 
upon  our  private  funds  we  find  it  impossible  any  longer  to 
meet,  to  the  same  extent  as  formerly,  the  demands  of  our 
out-stations.  The  time  is  now  arrived  when  they  must  cease 
to  be  wholly  dependent  on  the  private  donations  of  three 
individuals,  and  must  be  placed  on  the  strength  of  public 
contributions.  As  two  out  of  three  of  the  members  of  our 
body  are  now  beyond  the  age  of  fifty-seven,  it  becomes  our 
duty  to  place  them  on  a  more  permanent  footing,  as  it  re- 

1  "A  request  was  made  in  1819  to  the  Committee  for  £1500  annually 
during  three  years,  while  we  were  erecting  the  College  buildings  at  our  own 
expense  ;  which  request  was  declined  owing  to  want  of  funds. " 


1826  A  DIVINITY  FACULTY.  391 

gards  their  management,  their  support,  and  their  increase. 
We  have  therefore  associated  with  ourselves,  in  the  superin- 
tendence of  them,  the  Eev.  Messrs.  Mack  and  Swan,  the  two 
present  professors  of  the  college,  with  the  view  of  eventually 
leaving  them  entirely  in  the  hands  of  the  body  of  professors, 
of  whom  the  constitution  of  the  college  provides  that  there 
shall  be  an  unbroken  succession. 

"  To  secure  an  increase  of  missionaries  in  European  habits 
we  have  formed  a  class  of  theological  students  in  the  college, 
under  the  Divinity  Professor.  It  contains  at  present  six 
promising  youths,  of  whose  piety  we  have  in  some  cases 
undoubted  evidence,  in  others  considerable  ground  for  hope. 
The  class  will  shortly  be  increased  to  twelve,  but  none  will 
be  continued  in  it  who  do  not  manifest  undeniable  piety  and 
devotedness  to  the  cause  of  missions.  As  we  propose  to 
allow  each  student  to  remain  on  an  average  four  years,  we 
may  calculate  upon  the  acquisition  of  two,  and  perhaps  three, 
additional  labourers  annually,  who  will  be  eminently  fitted 
for  active  service  in  the  cause  of  missions  by  their  natural 
familiarity  with  the  language  and  their  acquisitions  at  col- 
lege. This  arrangement  will,  we  trust,  secure  the  speedy 
accomplishment  of  the  plan  we  have  long  cherished,  that  of 
placing  one  missionary  in  each  province  in  Bengal,  and 
eventually,  if  means  be  afforded,  in  Hindostan. 

"  It  will  strike  you  at  once  that  such  a  plan,  for  the  per- 
manence and  increased  efficiency  of  missionary  labours,  re- 
quires the  permanent  security  of  public  support.  "We  would 
therefore  apply  to  you  in  the  first  instance  for  assistance, 
partly  because  these  stations  have  hitherto  contributed  to  the 
improvement  of  your  funds,  and  partly  because  of  the  sincere 
pleasure  it  would  give  us  if  all  the  Baptist  stations  in  India 
could  appear  before  the  public  in  connection  with  you.  We 
would  therefore  propose  the  following  arrangement : — That 
you  should  bring  this  plan  of  operation  distinctly  before  the 


392  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1826 

public,  distinguishing  the  stations  connected  with  Serampore 
College  from  those  under  your  own  guidance  and  superintend- 
ence ;  that  all  the  intelligence  from  our  stations  be  published 
by  you  from  our  Periodical  Accounts,  of  which  we  should 
then  send  only  a  few  copies  to  our  friends ;  and  that  you 
should  appropriate  from  the  funds  raised  on  this  combined 
publication  £1000  annually  to  the  support  of  our  stations  at 
present,  and  £1500  eventually,  when  they  so  far  increase  as 
to  need  it.  It  scarcely  needs  to  be  remarked  that  this  plan 
would  leave  you  annually  £7000  for  the  support  of  somewhat 
more  than  one  moiety  of  the  stations  in  India  in  the  Baptist 
connection.  Our  reason  for  desiring  that  the  stations  should 
be  kept  distinct  in  the  same  publication  is,  that,  in  the  event 
of  the  funds  thus  raised  being  at  any  future  period  inadequate 
to  the  support  of  both  classes  of  stations,  these  funds  might 
be  left  entirely  for  the  support  of  your  stations,  and  we  might 
be  enabled  to  apply  to  the  public  in  a  separate  form  for  sup- 
plies, without  even  the  appearance  of  any  division. 

"  You  will  easily  perceive  that  unless  permanent  support 
be  obtained  we  must  sacrifice  our  stations,  the  fruit  of  so 
many  years'  labour,  and  dismiss  every  prospect  of  future  use- 
fulness— a  course  which  we  are  confident  would  distress  you 
as  much  as  ourselves.  We  can  therefore  leave  the  determi- 
nation of  the  question  to  your  own  judgment  with  perfect 
safety,  only  adding  that  nothing  would  give  us  more  sincere 
pleasure  than  for  our  efforts  to  remain  united  with  yours. 
But  should  you,  after  maturely  weighing  the  question,  dis- 
cover inconveniences  in  this  plan,  and  perceive  that  greater 
advantages  would  accrue  to  the  cause  from  our  stations  form- 
ing a  distinct  claim  before  the  public,  we  have  requested  Dr. 
Marshman  to  consult  with  the  friends  of  religion  on  the  best 
means  of  bringing  them  forward  and  raising  supplies ;  and, 
as  we  cannot  expect  any  member  of  the  College  to  visit 
England  till  three  years  after  Dr.  Marshman's  return  to  India, 


1827  THE  COLLEGE  TO  BE  PERMANENT.  393 

we  have  pointed  out  to  him  the  indispensable  necessity  of  his 
securing  some  permanent  arrangement,  either  with  you  or 
with  the  public,  for  the  support  and  increase  of  our  missionary 
stations  before  he  quit  England. 

"  It  may  not  be  intrusive  for  us  to  mention  the  arrange- 
ments respecting  the  college,  to  which  Dr.  Marshman  will 
direct  his  attention.  As  the  completion  of  the  buildings 
requires  no  public  contribution,  the  sole  expense  left  on  the 
generosity  of  its  friends  is  that  of  its  existing  establishment. 
Our  subscriptions  in  India,  with  what  we  receive  as  the 
interest  of  money  raised  in  Britain  and  America,  average 
£1000  annually;  about  £500  more  from  England  would 
cover  every  charge,  and  secure  the  efficiency  of  the  institu- 
tion. Nor  shall  we  require  this  aid  beyond  a  limited  period, 
as  we  are  endeavouring  to  form  a  fund  here,  with  a  view  of 
presenting  it  to  the  college  when  it  is  sufficiently  increased 
to  provide  permanently  for  two  professors,  which  we  calculate 
will  be  effected  in  twelve  or  fourteen  years ;  and  when  the 
professors  and  fellows  (or  tutors)  are  thus  permanently  pro- 
vided for,  we  trust  that  the  contributions  of  the  Indian  public 
will  be  sufficient  for  all  other  expenses  of  the  college.  We 
have  therefore  requested  Dr.  Marshman  to  aim  at  the  forma- 
tion of  about  five  corresponding  committees  in  as  many  of 
the  principal  towns  in  England,  with  the  hope  of  receiving 
£100  annually  from  each ;  and,  as  the  college  possesses  a 
literary  as  well  as  a  missionary  interest,  we  further  trust  that 
the  greater  part  of  this  sum  may  be  obtained  from  among 
those  who  are  not  in  the  habit  of  aiding  missionary  efforts." 

"  SERAMPOEE,  Nov.  15,  1827. 

"Dr.  Carey,  and  after  him,  Dr.  Marshman  and  Mr. 
Ward,  were,  as  you  know,  sent  out  soon  after  the  formation 
of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  by  the  Committee,  to 
plant  the  gospel  in  India,  with  this  express  stipulation,  that 
they  should  without  delay,  make  exertions  for  their  own 


394  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1827 

support,  and  should  receive  assistance  from  the  Society  only 
till  they  were  able  thus  to  support  themselves.  Within 
eighteen  months  respectively  of  their  arrival,  they  were 
enabled  to  fulfil  this  stipulation,  and  to  relinquish  all  sup- 
port from  England.  Thus  was  the  pecuniary  connection 
between  the  two  bodies  dissolved,  in  the  earliest  stage  of  the 
mission. 

"  Though  thus  disconnected  in  a  pecuniary  sense,  they 
were  still  bound  to  the  Committee,  more  especially  to  Mr. 
Fuller,  by  the  most  intimate  ties  which  can  unite  men  to- 
gether, by  a  common  co-operative  interest  in  one  of  the  most 
illustrious  objects  of  human  pursuit.  It  would  be  idle  to 
institute  any  comparison  between  the  strength  of  union  thus 
created,  and  any  other  in  which  pecuniary  dependence  must 
constitute  a  prominent  ingredient.  The  full  and  free  com- 
munion of  soul  which  characterised  the  first  association 
between  Fuller,  SutclifY,  and  Eyland,  the  three  chief  men 
who  presided  over  the  Society  at  home,  and  their  colleagues 
in  India,  was  the  offspring  of  those  peculiar  circumstances 
which  fall  but  once  within  the  history  of  a  society.  With 
the  death  of  Mr.  Fuller  this  bond  of  union,  which  had 
subsisted  for  nearly  a  quarter  of  a  century,  was  weakened. 
Subsequent  events  combined,  with  the  death  of  Dr.  Eyland, 
to  dissolve  it  altogether. 

"  It  is  a  fact  that  no  stipulation  was  made  with  the 
Serampore  missionaries  regarding  the  disposal  of  their 
private  funds.  But  the  principles  of  natural  equity,  which 
were  admitted  by  both  parties,  and  which  give  every  free- 
born  man  the  absolute  control  of  his  own  property,  supplied 
the  deficiency.  The  Society,  as  a  body  created  to  receive  and 
disburse  public  subscriptions,  could  not  interfere  with  funds 
not  thus  received,  without  departing  from  the  spirit  of  its 
institution.  Hence,  Mr.  Fuller  required  accounts  only  of 
the  public  subscriptions  with  which  he  entrusted  us  as  the 


1827  MISSIONAKIES  KAISED  UP  IN  THE  COUNTRY.  395 

corresponding  Committee  of  the  Society  ;  and  we  confined 
our  annual  returns  of  receipts  and  disbursements  to  these 
specific  sums.  As  our  private  income  gradually  increased  so 
as  to  exceed  the  necessities  of  the  three  families,  we  ex- 
pended the  surplus  in  the  formation  of  missionary  stations 
around  us.  We  superintended  them  ourselves,  but  sent  the 
missionary  intelligence  from  them  to  the  Committee,  to  be 
incorporated  with  the  annual  Eeport  of  the  Society. 

"  With  the  multiplication  of  the  stations,  the  efficiency  of 
missionaries  raised  up  in  the  country  became  more  apparent, 
and  we  determined  to  bend  our  attention  chiefly  to  this 
object.  The  native  Christian  population  had  also  increased, 
and  required  increasing  care.  We  therefore  determined  in 
1818  to  establish  a  college,  which  might  in  its  gradual  de- 
velopment provide  means  for  more  extensively  diffusing 
religion  and  knowledge  in  Hindostan.  Convinced  that  it 
would  be  difficult  to  raise  funds  for  the  college  buildings, 
we  determined  to  attempt  the  erection  of  them  ourselves, 
and  though  we  were  thereby  involved  in  debt  for  many  years, 
we  have  now  the  happiness  of  knowing  that  about  £3000 
more  will  complete  the  undertaking.  We  need  scarcely 
add,  that  for  this  sum  also  we  do  not  intend  to  apply  to  the 
public.  The  course  of  circumstances  has  thus  led  us  first 
to  the  establishment  of  means  for  our  own  support  —  then 
to  the  employment  of  a  portion  of  our  surplus  income  in 
the  extension  of  the  cause  by  missionaries  raised  up  in  the 
country — after  this,  to  provide  for  the  education  of  native 
Christian  youth  —  and  finally  to  concentrate  every  plan  in 
one  institution,  in  the  hope  that  it  might  survive  the  transient 
circumstances  of  our  private  union. 

"  Of  these  three  objects  connected  with  the  college,  the 
education  of  non-resident  heathen  students,  the  education 
of  resident  Christian  students,  and  the  preparation  of  mis- 
sionaries from  those  born  in  the  country,  the  first  is  not 


396  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1827 

strictly  a  missionary  object,  the  two  latter  are  intimately 
connected  with  the  progress  of  the  good  cause.  The  pre- 
paration of  missionaries  in  the  country  was  not  so  much 
recommended  as  enforced  by  the  great  expense  which  at- 
tends the  despatch  of  missionaries  from  Europe.  That  the 
number  of  labourers  in  this  country  must  be  greatly  aug- 
mented, before  the  work  of  evangelising  the  heathen  can  be 
said  to  have  effectively  commenced,  can  admit  of  no  doubt. 
But  the  prospect  of  adequately  supplying  the  missionary 
exigencies  of  the  country  from  Europe,  is  altogether  hopeless. 
Nearly  every  European  missionary  has,  on  an  average,  cost 
the  public  in  his  education,  outfit,  and  passage,  £700.  The 
first  eighteen  months  of  his  residence  are  necessarily  de- 
voted to  the  acquisition  of  the  language.  If  we  estimate 
the  expense  of  that  period  at  £300,  a  charge  of  £1000  is 
incurred  before  he  can  be  said  to  have  commenced  his  mis- 
sionary career.  After  such  an  expenditure,  it  will  not  be 
found  in  the  records  of  any  society,  that  more  than  half  the 
number  of  missionaries  sent  out  are  to  be  found  at  their 
post,  at  the  close  of  ten  years ;  so  hostile  is  this  climate  to 
European  constitutions. 

"  The  expense  of  Asiatic  missionaries  educated  at  Seram- 
pore  College,  during  the  four  years  of  study,  amounts  to 
nearly  £200  each,  including  their  clothes,  etc.,  and  their 
board  through  the  whole  year.  Their  intuitive  knowledge  of 
the  language  enables  them  to  enter  on  their  duty  without 
delay ;  their  widows  fall  back  into  the  society  of  their  re- 
latives, and  require  but  a  slender  support.  If  attacked 
with  disease,  no  long  sea  voyages  are  required  to  restore 
them  to  health ;  and  if  inefficient  as  missionaries,  they  may 
be  severed  from  the  body  with  little  expense.  Their  con- 
stitutions are  moreover  so  assimilated  to  the  climate,  that, 
of  ten  missionaries  thus  employed  by  us,  during  the  last 
fifteen  years  (some  of  course  for  a  shorter  period),  we  have 


1827  IDEAL  OF  NATIVE  CHRISTIAN  MINISTERS.  397 

lost  only  one  by  disease.  All  that  is  required  to  fit  them  for 
labour  is  the  grace  of  God,  and  an  adequate  education,  and 
we  were  therefore  led  to  think  that  we  could  not  render  a 
more  acceptable  service  to  the  cause  than  to  assemble  in  the 
college  every  facility  for  their  tuition. 

"  The  education  of  the  increasing  body  of  Native  Chris- 
tians likewise,  necessarily  became  a  matter  of  anxiety.  No- 
thing could  be  more  distressing  than  the  prospect  of  their 
being  more  backward  in  mental  pursuits  than  their  heathen 
neighbours.  The  planting  of  the  gospel  in  India  is  not 
likely  to  be  accomplished  by  the  exertions  of  a  few  mission- 
aries in  solitary  and  barren  spots  in  the  country,  without  the 
aid  of  some  well-digested  plan  which  may  consolidate  the 
missionary  enterprise,  and  provide  for  the  mental  and  reli- 
gious cultivation  of  the  converts.  If  the  body  of  native 
Christians  required  an  educational  system,  native  ministers, 
who  must  gradually  take  the  spiritual  conduct  of  that  body, 
demanded  pre  -  eminent  attention.  They  require  a  know- 
ledge of  the  ingenious  system  they  will  have  to  combat,  of 
the  scheme  of  Christian  theology  they  are  to  teach,  and 
a  familiarity  with  the  lights  of  modern  science.  We  cannot 
discharge  the  duty  we  owe  as  Christians  to  India,  without 
some  plan  for  combining  in  the  converts  of  the  new  religion, 
and  more  especially  in  its  ministers,  the  highest  moral  re- 
finement of  the  Christian  character,  and  the  highest  attain- 
able progress  in  the  pursuits  of  the  mind. 

"  Subsequently  to  the  adoption  of  this  plan,  it  appeared 
desirable  to  attach  the  superintendence  of  the  stations  to  the 
college;  the  reasons  which  recommended  this  arrangement 
were  two.  First,  pre-supposing  the  zeal  and  piety  of  the 
professors,  we  thought  that  no  individuals  could  be  better 
adapted  to  conduct  the  work  of  the  mission  than  those 
whose  daily  employment  was  so  intimately  associated  with 
it ;  and  that,  as  the  body  of  the  missionaries  in  our  connec- 


398  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1827 

tion  would  gradually  be  formed  out  of  those  who  had  pur- 
sued their  studies  at  the  college,  no  men  could  be  better 
fitted  to  direct  their  future  labours  than  their  former  tutors, 
who  must  necessarily  possess  a  more  distinct  knowledge  of 
their  several  capacities  and  deficiencies  than  any  other  men. 
The  second  reason  for  taking  this  step  was,  our  anxious  wish 
to  consolidate  and  perpetuate  the  missionary  undertaking 
we  had  begun.  The  peculiar  circumstances  under  which 
our  union,  partly  missionary,  partly  secular,  arose,  are  not 
likely  again  to  occur.  We  were  therefore  desirous  of  placing 
our  missionary  undertaking  during  our  own  lifetime,  on  a 
more  permanent  basis,  by  separating  it  from  the  risk  which 
must  inevitably  have  attended  its  being  entwined  with  the 
transactions  of  secular  business.  We  wished  that  the  mis- 
sionary undertaking,  which  was  the  great  object,  should  in 
no  respect  be  dependent  on  the  secular  undertakings,  the 
minor  object.  No  plan  seemed  more  likely  to  secure  this 
result,  than  to  associate  the  professors  of  the  college  with 
ourselves  in  our  missionary  exertions,  and  gradually  to  de- 
volve on  them,  with  the  lapse  of  our  lives,  the  responsibility 
and  management  of  the  stations.  By  the  charter  the  college 
has  acquired  that  perpetuity  which  could  never  be  given 
to  a  union  in  which  an  aptitude  for  secular  business  must 
be  an  essential  qualification.  By  this  arrangement  we 
hoped  to  secure  the  object  nearest  to  our  hearts,  the  per- 
petuity and  enlargement  of  the  missionary  plan,  which  has 
formed  the  chief  business  of  our  lives. 

"  The  plan  proposed  by  the  Committee,  of  severing  the 
stations  from  the  college,  by  bestowing  the  management  of 
them  on  the  body  of  resident  missionaries  in  Bengal,  or  by 
leaving  them  with  us  only  during  the  lifetime  of  the  two 
elder  missionaries,  would  completely  have  subverted  our 
design.  The  Committee  will  forgive  our  objecting  to  the 
proposal  partly  on  this  ground.  We  cannot  bring  ourselves 


1827  THE  COLLEGE  ESSENTIALLY  MISSIONARY.  399 

to  violate  the  paternal  feelings  with  which  we  cherish  the 
prospects  of  missionary  utility  likely  to  result  from  our 
plan.  We  cannot  contemplate  without  dismay  the  annihila- 
tion of  those  expectations  which  give  the  college  its  chief 
value,  nor  the  gloomy  prospect  that  on  the  death  of  two  of 
our  number  (the  one  sixty-seven,  the  other  sixty),  everything 
that  was  valuable  at  Serampore  should  be  transplanted  to 
another  soil.  These  fears  were  not  idle  and  unfounded.  Your 
proposal  would  immediately  have  excluded  the  professors  of 
the  college  and  the  youngest  member  of  our  body,  from  all 
share  in  the  management  of  the  stations,  since  they  are  not 
officially  Baptist  missionaries.  If  thus  excluded  during  the 
lifetime  of  their  elder  colleagues,  it  is  not  to  be  expected 
that  they  would  meet  with  more  favourable  treatment  after 
their  death. 

"There  appears  another  objection  to  this  proposal.  It 
has  been  objected  to  the  college  that  it  was  not  calculated 
to  promote  the  missionary  undertaking.  We  have  invari- 
ably maintained  that  it  was  eminently  adapted  to  promote 
that  great  work,  and  have  employed  every  effort  to  bring  it 
to  bear  directly  on  it.  Were  we  then  to  subscribe  to  a 
measure  which  would  remove  out  of  our  possession  the 
means  of  rendering  the  college  efficient  for  this  work,  we 
should  give  validity  to  the  taunts  of  our  adversaries,  and 
appear  weak,  inconsistent,  and  contemptible,  in  the  eyes  of 
the  Christian  world.  The  last,  but  not  the  least  objection 
to  this  proposal  is,  the  uncertainty  to  which  it  would 
expose  the  missionary  establishment.  For  the  welfare  of  the 
stations  in  connection  with  us  we  are  responsible.  We  are 
responsible  to  a  higher  tribunal  than  an  assembly  of  sub- 
scribers, and  if  we  were  to  place  their  welfare  in  any  degree 
of  risk,  we  should  be  guilty  of  a  dereliction  of  duty,  for 
which  the  highest  human  approbation  could  not  compensate. 
Our  experience  of  the  past  is  perhaps  superior  to  yours,  since 


400  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1827 

it  has  been  acquired  by  suffering.  That  experience  forbids 
us  to  hope  that  if  at  any  future  period  the  direction  of  the 
stations  be  left  open  as  a  prize  for  competition,  there  can  be 
any  prospect  of  harmony.  It  is  even  possible  that  discussions 
similar  to  those  which  have  embittered  the  last  ten  years 
may  be  renewed.  In  this  case  the  cause  would  be  the  first 
and  greatest  sufferer ;  and  we  cannot  reconcile  it  with  the 
tenor  of  our  responsibility  to  leave  our  missionary  under- 
taking on  so  dangerous  a  footing. 

"  On  these  grounds  we  are  constrained  to  withhold  our 
assent  from  your  last  proposal  to  Dr.  Marshman,  and  to  give 
our  cordial  concurrence  to  the  arrangements  he  has  made. 
Your  first  proposal  (to  allow  us  a  tenth  of  your  income)  did 
not  compromise  the  independence  of  our  missionary  stations, 
but  left  the  management  of  them  with  us,  we  therefore 
agreed  to  it.  When  Dr.  Marshman  requested  from  you  an 
addition  of  funds,  you  proposed  to  take  them  away  from 
Serampore  after  the  death  of  the  two  elder  missionaries.  We 
therefore  withhold  our  assent  from  this  plan.  We  are  fully 
aware  of  the  pecuniary  risk  which  we  incur.  In  fact,  the 
risk  is  entirely  on  our  side.  You  have  five  missionary 
stations  on  the  continent  of  India,  ani  twelve  European 
and  Asiatic  missionaries  on  your  funds ;  we  have  ten  mis- 
sionary stations,  and  from  twenty-five  to  twenty-eight  Euro- 
pean, Asiatic,  and  Native  missionaries  dependent  on  us  for 
support.  The  prospect  of  our  being  embarrassed  for  funds 
is  therefore  much  more  immediate  than  yours.  But  with 
every  pecuniary  disadvantage  against  us,  we  prefer  the  adop- 
tion of  a  plan  which  secures  a  certain  tangible  benefit,  with 
the  blessing  of  peace,  to  one  which  contains  within  itself  the 
seeds  of  discord  and  dissolution.  .  .  . 

"The  irreconcilable  difference  of  our  plans  of  action 
having  thus  rendered  a  separation  inevitable,  we  are  of 
course  anxious  to  part  on  friendly  terms,  and  to  secure  the 


1827  HIS  APPEAL  TO  POSTEEITY.  401 

esteem,  even  though  we  should  not  enjoy  the  co-operation,  of 
all  our  brethren.  We  entreat  only  for  that  measure  of  can- 
dour, in  forming  a  judgment  of  our  conduct,  which  every  man 
is  permitted  to  expect  from  his  neighbour.  If  we  were  to 
say  that  every  plan  sketched  out  and  every  document  penned 
here,  during  the  last  twenty-seven  years,  has  been  free  from 
imperfection,  we  should  justly  appear  ridiculous.  Like  every 
other  body  of  men  associated  in  a  new  undertaking  of  some 
difficulty,  we  have  been  constrained  to  follow  that  judgment 
which  appeared  most  correct.  When  the  lapse  of  time  or 
the  course  of  circumstances  has  discovered  the  error  of  that 
judgment  we  have  not  scrupled  to  adopt  a  different  line  of 
conduct.  Thus  in  1805  Mr.  Ward  drew  up  his  ideas  of  mis- 
sionary economy,  in  the  '  agreement '  respecting  the  way  in 
which  we  thought  missionaries  ought  to  act  in  money  matters, 
and  obtained  the  concurrence  and  signature  of  his  brethren 
to  it ;  in  less  than  a  year  it  was  found  impracticable,  and  was 
consigned  to  oblivion.  We  were  no  parties  to  its  publication, 
from  which  we  never  reaped  a  farthing  of  benefit ;  and  if  we 
could  have  foreseen  the  unfair  use  which  has  been  made  of 
it  to  our  disparagement,  we  should  certainly  have  sent  home 
for  publication  a  formal  abrogation  of  it  in  1806. 

"It  was  superseded  in  1808  by  another  arrangement, 
when  the  out-stations  were  formed.  We  then  wrote  to  our 
brethren  to  say  that,  in  reference  to  our  own  money,  we 
intended  to  make  several  appropriations  and  to  present  the 
surplus  to  the  Society.  Mr.  Fuller  never  acted  on  this  gift, 
nor  suffered  it  to  appear  in  the  Annual  Accounts  of  the 
Society,  convinced,  as  he  informed  us,  that  we  were  more 
competent  to  manage  our  own  affairs  than  the  Society  at 
home.  When,  upon  his  death,  there  arose  a  new  Committee, 
almost  entirely  ignorant  of  the  state  of  affairs,  they  appeared 
to  us  to  claim  as  a  right  what  we  had  intended  to  present,  and 
their  missionaries  appeared  ready  to  give  effect  to  this  claim. 

2  D 


402  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1827 

We  therefore  determined  to  pursue  a  new  line  of  conduct. 
Withdrawing  nothing  of  what  we  had  already  given,  we  re- 
solved to  give  no  more.  An  idea  has  been  propagated  that 
we  seized  on  the  property  of  the  Society  and  then  declared 
ourselves  independent.  It  is  unfounded.  The  balance  of 
money  belonging  to  the  Society  in  our  hands,  Rs.25,927,  2as. 
8p.  (£3249  : 17  : 6),  we  paid  over  to  Messrs.  Alexander  and 
Co.  on  the  15th  of  July  1817.  Eespecting  our  own  property, 
our  letter  of  1817  informed  you  that,  when  all  our  obligations 
should  be  discharged,  we  should  have  nothing  left,  except 
the  premises  the  right  of  property  in  which  is  still  vested  in 
the  Society.  Our  determination,  therefore,  had  reference  to 
the  future,  not  to  the  past.  But  when  we  resolved  that  our 
future  income  should  be  free  and  unfettered,  we  did  not  intend 
to  desert  the  cause.  During  the  last  ten  years  of  entire  inde- 
pendence the  missionary  cause  has  received  from  the  product 
of  our  labour,  in  the  erection  of  the  college  buildings,  in  the 
support  of  stations  and  schools,  and  in  the  printing  of  tracts, 
much  more  than  £23,000.  The  unceasing  calumny  with 
which  we  have  been  assailed,  for  what  has  been  called  '  our 
declaration  of  independence '  (which,  by  the  bye,  Mr.  Fuller 
approved  of  our  issuing  almost  with  his  dying  breath),  it  is 
beneath  us  to  notice,  but  it  has  fully  convinced  us  of  the 
propriety  of  the  step.  This  calumny  is  so  unreasonable  that 
we  confidently  appeal  from  the  decision  of  the  present  age  to 
the  judgment  of  posterity.  If  the  whole  amount  of  public 
money  ever  expended  in  any  shape  by  the  Society  on  the 
three  senior  missionaries  never  exceeded  £1500,  and  if  this 
sum  has  been  repaid  with  far  more  than  a  twenty-fold  addi- 
tion, is  not  that  judgment  harsh  which  condemns  us  ?  If, 
when  we  found  it  necessary  for  own  security  ten  years 
ago  to  dissolve  whatever  pecuniary  connection  was  supposed 
to  subsist  between  us  and  the  Society,  we  conscientiously 
respected  every  preceding  gift,  and  simply  determined  that 


1827  EDUCATION  OF  NATIVE  WOMEN.  403 

we  would  not  give  our  future  income  to  a  body  we  knew  not 
and  who  knew  us  not,  what  individual  would  not  have  acted 
in  the  same  manner  under  similar  circumstances  ? 

"  We  fervently  join  in  the  prayer  with  which  your  Eeport 
concludes,  that  it  may  please  God  to  overrule  this  event, 
however  undesirable  in  itself,  to  the  furtherance  of  the 
Gospel  of  his  Son." 

Under  Carey,  as  Professor  of  Divinity  and  Lecturer  on 
Botany  and  Zoology,  Mack  and  John  Marshman,  with 
pundits  and  moulavies,  the  college  grew  in  public  favour, 
even  during  Dr.  Marshman's  absence,  while  Mrs.  Marshman 
continued  to  conduct  the  girls'  school  and  superintend  native 
female  education  with  a  vigorous  enthusiasm  which  advanc- 
ing years  did  not  abate  and  misrepresentation  in  England 
only  fed.1  The  difficulties  in  which  Carey  found  himself  had 
the  happy  result  of  forcing  him  into  the  position  of  being  the 

1  "What  Hannah  Marshman,  and  for  a  time  Charlotte  Emilia  Carey,  had 
done  for  the  education  of  the  girls  and  women  of  Bengal  may  be  imagined 
from  this  paragraph  in  the  Brief  Memoir  of  the  Brotherhood,  published  in 
London  in  1827  :— 

"The  education  of  females,  till  within  these  few  years,  had  never  been 
attempted  ;  and  not  a  few  were  disposed  to  regard  the  experiment  as  one 
which  must  prove  altogether  vain.  This,  however,  like  various  other  prog- 
nostications respecting  India,  was  a  great  mistake.  In  Serampore  and  its 
vicinity  there  are  at  present  fourteen  schools  composed  entirely  of  Hindoo 
females,  among  which  are  the  Liverpool  and  Chatham,  the  Edinburgh  and 
Glasgow,  the  Stirling  and  Dunfermline  schools,  etc.  Besides  these,  one  is 
taught  at  Benares,  another  at  Allahabad,  a  third  in  Beerbhoom,  three  at 
Chittagong,  and  seven  at  Dacca ;  in  the  whole  twenty-seven  schools,  with 
554  pupils  on  the  lists.  One  of  these  in  the  vicinity  of  Serampore  may  be 
regarded  as  an  unprecedented  thing :  an  adult  female  school,  in  which  the 
women  who  have  entered  have  shown  themselves  quite  desirous  to  receive  in- 
struction. The  daughters  of  Mohammedans,  as  well  as  Hindoos,  indeed,  re- 
ceive instruction  with  evident  delight :  and  into  these  schools,  whether  for 
boys  or  girls,  the  sacred  Scriptures  are  freely  admitted." 

In  Calcutta,  when  the  separation  had  taken  place,  the  wives  of  the  two 
younger  missionaries  who  had  been  first  trained  at  Serampore,  Mrs.  Pearce 
and  Mrs.  Lawson,  conducted  a  school  on  the  plan  of  Mrs.  Marshman's,  and 
encouraged  the  young  ladies,  some  of  whom  became  the  wives  of  mission- 
aries, to  open  schools  for  native  girls. 


404  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1826 

first  to  establish  practically  the  principle  of  the  Grant  in  Aid 
system.  Had  his  Nonconformist  successors  followed  him  in 
this,  with  the  same  breadth  of  view  and  clear  distinction  be- 
tween the  duty  of  aiding  the  secular  education,  while  giving 
absolute  liberty  to  the  spiritual,  the  splendid  legacy  which  he 
left  to  India  would  have  been  both  perpetuated  and  extended. 
As  it  is,  it  was  left  to  his  young  colleague,  John  Marshman, 
and  to  Dr.  Duff,  to  induce  Parliament,  by  the  charter  of  1853, 
and  the  late  Lord  Halifax  in  the  Educational  Despatch  of 
1854,  to  sanction  the  system  of  national  education  for  the 
multifarious  classes  and  races  of  our  Indian  subjects,  under 
which  secular  instruction  is  aided  by  the  state  on  impartial 
terms  according  to  its  efficiency,  and  Christianity  delights  to 
take  its  place,  unfettered  and  certain  of  victory,  with  the 
Brahmanical  and  aboriginal  cults  of  every  kind. 

In  1826  Carey,  finding  that  his  favourite  Benevolent 
Institution  in  Calcutta  was  getting  into  debt,  and  required 
repair,  applied  to  Government  for  aid.  He  had  previously 
joined  the  Marchioness  of  Hastings  in  founding  the  Calcutta 
School  Book  and  School  Society,  and  had  thus  been  relieved 
of  some  of  the  schools.  Government  at  once  paid  the  debt, 
repaired  the  building,  and  has  ever  since  given  a  grant  of 
£240  a  year.  John  Marshman  did  not  think  it  necessary 
"  to  defend  Dr.  Carey  from  the  charge  of  treason  to  the  prin- 
ciples of  dissent  in  having  thus  solicited  and  accepted  aid 
from  the  state  for  an  educational  establishment ;  the  repudia- 
tion of  that  aid  is  a  modern  addition  to  those  principles." 
He  tells  us  that  "  when  conversation  happened  to  turn  upon 
this  subject  at  Serampore,  his  father  was  wont  to  excuse  any 
warmth  which  his  colleague  might  exhibit  by  the  humorous 
remark  that  renegades  always  fought  hardest.  There  was 
one  question  on  which  the  three  were  equally  strenuous — 
that  it  was  as  much  the  duty  of  Government  to  support 
education  as  to  abstain  from  patronising  missions." 


1818  ECONOMICS  OF  INDIA  MISSIONS.  405 

A  letter  written  in  1818  to  his  son  William,  then  one  of 
the  missionaries,  shows  with  what  jealous  economy  the 
founder  of  the  great  modern  enterprise  managed  the  early 
undertakings.  At  a  time  when  "  missionaryism  "  threatens, 
in  some  cases,  to  drag  down  to  a  lower  level  the  noblest  form 
of  disinterestedness  which  this  or  any  century  has  seen,  the 
letter  has  its  lessons: — 

"MY  DEAR  WILLIAM — Yours  of  the  3d  instant  I  have 
received,  and  must  say  that  it  has  filled  ine  with  distress.  I  do 
not  know  what  the  allowance  of  200  rupees  includes,  nor 
how  much  is  allotted  for  particular  things ;  but  it  appears 
that  Es.142  : 2  is  expended  upon  your  private  expenses,  viz. 
78  : 2  on  table  expenses,  and  64  on  servants.  Now  neither 
Lawson  nor  Eustace  have  more  than  140  rupees  for  their 
allowance,  separate  from  house  rent  for  which  80  rupees  each 
is  allowed,  and  I  believe  all  the  brethren  are  on  that,  or  a 
lower  allowance,  Brother  Yates  excepted,  who  chooses  for 
himself.  I  cannot  therefore  make  an  application  for  more 
with  any  face.  Indeed  we  have  no  power  to  add  or  diminish 
salaries,  though  the  Society  would  agree  to  our  doing  so  if 
we  showed  good  reasons  for  it.  I  believe  the  allowances  of 
the  missionaries  from  the  London  Society  are  about  the  same, 
or  rather  less — viz.  £200  sterling,  or  132  rupees  a  month, 
besides  extra  expenses ;  so  that  your  income,  taking  it  at  140 
rupees  a  month,  is  quite  equal  to  that  of  any  other  missionary. 
I  may  also  mention  that  neither  Eustace  nor  Lawson  can  do 
without  a  buggy,  which  is  not  a  small  expense. 

"  I  suppose  the  two  articles  you  have  mentioned  of  table 
expenses  and  servants  include  a  number  of  other  things ; 
otherwise  I  cannot  imagine  how  you  can  go  to  that  expense. 
When  I  was  at  Mudnabati  my  income  was  200  per  month, 
and  during  the  time  I  stayed  there  I  had  saved  near  2000 
rupees.  My  table  expenses  scarcely  ever  amounted  to  50 
rupees,  and  though  I  kept  a  moonshi  at  20  rupees  and  four 


406  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1825 

gardeners,  yet  my  servants'  wages  did  not  exceed  60  rupees 
monthly.  I  kept  a  horse  and  a  farmyard,  and  yet  my  ex- 
penses bore  no  proportion  to  yours.  I  merely  mention  this 
without  any  reflection  on  you,  or  even  a  wish  to  do  it  :  but 
I  sincerely  think  your  expenses  upon  these  two  articles  are 
very  great. 

"  I  expect  Felix  every  hour  at  Calcutta.  I  am  greatly 
distressed  to  know  what  is  to  be  done  with  him.  He  writes 
Jonathan  that  the  Eajah  of  Tippera  has  offered  him  300  rupees 
a  month,  but  that  he  has  refused  it,  and  requires  500.  This 
is  certainly  a  most  thoughtless  step,  for  places  of  300  rupees 
monthly  are  not  to  be  met  with  every  day.  In  England  it 
would  be  a  good  fortune.  If  he  comes  to  Calcutta  he  must 
expect  to  be  cast  into  prison  for  debt.  Jonathan  thinks  that 
if  his  creditors  will  have  patience  he  can  get  him  a  situation 
in  an  attorney's  office.  But  Felix  will  never  confine  himself 
from  eight  in  the  morning  till  four  in  the  evening  at  a  desk. 
If  he  be  but  truly  on  the  Lord's  side  I  have  no  doubt  but  he 
will  be  provided  for ;  but  I  am  full  of  anxiety. 

"  Of  Jabez  I  have  heard  nothing  for  a  long  time  past.  I 
have  been  disabled  from  writing  by  a  bad  hand,  which  is  now 
through  mercy  well ;  but  I  have  for  the  last  week  been  unable 
to  bend  on  account  of  a  violent  pain  at  the  bottom  of  my  back, 
which  is  still  very  bad.  The  cholera  morbus  still  awfully 
prevails.  May  we  all  be  found  ready  whenever  the  call  may 
come. — I  am  your  affectionate  father,  W.  CAREY." 

"  Wth  March  1818." 

In  1825  Carey  completed  his  great  Dictionary  of  Bengali 
and  English  in  three  quarto  volumes,  abridged  two  years 
afterwards.  No  language,  not  even  in  Europe,  could  show  a 
work  of  such  industry,  erudition,  and  philological  complete- 
ness at  that  time.  Professor  H.  H.  Wilson  declared  that  it 
must  ever  be  regarded  as  a  standard  authority,  especially 
because  of  its  etymological  references  to  the  Sanskrit,  which 


1825  HIS  BENGALI  DICTIONARY.  407 

supplies  more  than  three-fourths  of  the  words ;  its  full  and 
correct  vocabulary  of  local  terms,  with  which  the  author's 
"  long  domestication  amongst  the  natives  "  made  him  familiar, 
and  his  unique  knowledge  of  all  natural  history  terms.  The 
first  copy  which  issued  from  the  press  he  sent  to  Dr.  Eyland, 
who  had  passed  away  at  seventy-two,  a  month  before  the 
following  letter  was  written  : — 

"June  1th,  1825.— On  the  17th  of  August  next  I  shall  be 
sixty-four  years  of  age ;  and  though  I  feel  the  enervating 
influence  of  the  climate,  and  have  lost  something  of  my  bodily 
activity,  I  labour  as  closely,  and  perhaps  more  so  than  I 
have  ever  done  before.  My  Bengali  dictionary  is  finished 
at  press.  I  intend  to  send  you  a  copy  of  it  by  first  oppor- 
tunity, which  I  request  you  to  accept  as  a  token  of  my 
unshaken  friendship  to  you.  I  am  now  obliged,  in  my  own 
defence,  to  abridge  it,  and  to  do  it  as  quickly  as  possible,  to 
prevent  another  person  from  forestalling  me  and  running 
away  with  the  profits. 

"  On  Lord's  day  I  preached  a  funeral  sermon  at  Calcutta  for 
one  of  our  deacons,  who  died  very  happily  ;  administered  the 
Lord's  Supper,  and  preached  again  in  the  evening.  It  was  a 
dreadfully  hot  day,  and  I  was  much  exhausted.  Yesterday  the 
rain  set  in,  and  the  air  is  somewhat  cooled.  It  is  still  un- 
certain whether  Brothers  Judson  and  Price  are  living.  There 
was  a  report  in  the  newspaper  that  they  were  on  their  way 
to  meet  Sir  Archibald  Campbell  with  proposals  of  peace  from 
the  Burman  king ;  but  no  foundation  for  the  report  can  be 
traced  out.  Living  or  dead  they  are  secure." 

On  hearing  of  the  death  of  Dr.  Kyland,  he  wrote :  "  There 
are  now  in  England  very  few  ministers  with  whom  I  was 
acquainted.  Fuller,  Sutcliff,  Pearce,  Fawcett,  and  Eyland, 
besides  many  others  whom  I  knew,  are  gone  to  glory.  My 
family  connections  also,  those  excepted  who  were  children 


408  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1829 

when  I  left  England,  or  have  since  that  time  been  born,  are 
all  gone,  two  sisters  only  excepted.  Wherever  I  look  in 
England,  I  see  a  vast  blank  ;  and  were  I  ever  to  revisit  that 
dear  country,  I  should  have  an  entirely  new  set  of  friendships 
to  form.  I,  however,  never  intended  to  return  to  England 
when  I  left  it,  and  unless  something  very  unexpected  were  to 
take  place  I  certainly  shall  not  do  it.  I  am  fully  convinced 
I  should  meet  with  many  who  would  show  me  the  utmost  kind- 
ness in  their  power,  but  my  heart  is  wedded  to  India,  and 
though  I  am  of  little  use,  I  feel  a  pleasure  in  doing  the  little  I 
can,  and  a  very  high  interest  in  the  spiritual  good  of  this  vast 
country,  by  whose  instrumentality  soever  it  is  promoted." 

By  1829  the  divinity  faculty  of  the  College  had  become 
so  valuable  a  nursery  of  Eurasian  and  Native  missionaries,  and 
the  importance  of  attracting  more  of  the  new  generation  of 
educated  Hindoos  within  its  influence  had  become  so  appar- 
ent that  Oriental  gave  place  to  English  literature  in  the 
curriculum.  Mr.  Eowe,  as  English  tutor,  took  his  place  in  the 
staff  beside  Dr.  Carey,  Dr.  Marshman,  Mr.  Mack,  and  Mr. 
John  Marshman.  Hundreds  of  native  youths  flocked  to  the 
classes.  Such  was  the  faith,  such  the  zeal  of  Carey,  that 
he  continued  to  add  new  missions  to  the  ten  of  which  the 
college  was  the  life-giving  centre ;  so  that  when  he  was  taken 
away  he  left  eighteen,  under  eleven  European,  thirteen 
Eurasian,  seventeen  Bengali,  two  Hindostani,  one  Telugoo, 
and  six  Arakanese  missionaries.  When  Mr.  David  Scott, 
formerly  a  student  of  his  own  in  Eort  William  College,  and 
in  1828  Commissioner  of  Assam  (then  recently  annexed  to 
the  empire),  asked  for  a  missionary,  Carey's  importunity 
prevailed  with  his  colleagues  only  when  he  bound  himself 
to  pay  half  the  cost  by  stinting  his  personal  expenditure. 
Similarly  it  was  the  generous  action  of  Mr.  Garrett,  when 
judge  of  Burisal,  that  led  him1  to  send  the  best  of  his  Seram- 
pore  students  to  found  that  afterwards  famous  mission. 


1834          HIS  DEFENCE  OF  EVANGELISING  BY  EDUCATION.          409 

Having  translated  the  Gospels  into  the  language  of  the 
Khasias  in  the  Assam  hills,  he  determined  in  1832  to  open  a 
new  mission  at  the  village  of  Cherra,  which  the  Serampore 
Brotherhood  were  the  first  to  use  as  a  sanitarium  in  the  hot 
season.  For  this  he  gave  up  £60  of  his  Government  pension 
and  Mr.  Garrett  gave  a  similar  sum.  He  sent  another  of  his 
students,  Mr.  Lisk,  to  found  the  mission,  which  prospered 
until  it  was  transferred  to  the  Welsh  Calvinists,  who  have 
made  it  the  centre  of  extensive  and  successful  operations. 
Thus  the  influence  of  his  middle  age  and  old  age  in  the 
Colleges  of  Fort  William  and  of  Serampore  combined  to  make 
the  missionary  patriarch  the  father  of  two  bands — that  of  the 
Society  and  that  of  the  Brotherhood. 

Dr.  Carey's  last  report,  at  the  close  of  1832,  was  a  defence 
of  what  has  since  been  called,  and  outside  of  India  and  of 
Scotland  has  too  often  been  misunderstood  as,  educational 
missions  or  Christian  Colleges.  To  a  purely  divinity  college 
for  Asiatic  Christians  he  preferred  a  divinity  faculty  as 
part  of  an  Arts  and  Science  College,1  in  which  the  converts 
study  side  by  side  with  their  inquiring  countrymen,  the 
inquirers  are  influenced  by  them  as  well  as  by  the  Christian 
teaching  and  secular  teaching  in  a  Christian  spirit,  and  the 
Bible  consecrates  the  whole.  The  Free  Church  of  Scotland  has, 
alike  in  India  and  Africa,  proved  the  wisdom,  the  breadth,  and 
the  spiritual  advantage  of  Carey's  policy.  When  the  Society 
opposed  him,  scholars  like  Mack  from  Edinburgh  and  Leech- 
man  from  Glasgow  rejoiced  to  work  out  his  Paul-like  concep- 

1  In  1834,  the  year  Carey  died,  there  were  in  the  college  ten  European  and 
Eurasian  students  learning  Hebrew,  Greek,  Latin,  Bengali,  mathematics, 
chemistry,  mental  philosophy,  and  history  (ancient  and  ecclesiastical).  There 
were  forty-eight  resident  native  Christians  and  thirty-four  Hindoos,  sons  of 
Brahmans  chiefly,  learning  Sanskrit,  Bengali,  and  English.  "The  Bengal 
language  is  sedulously  cultivated.  .  .  .  The  Christian  natives  of  India  will 
most  effectually  combat  error  and  diffuse  sounder  information  with  a  knowledge 
of  Sanskrit.  The  communication,  therefore,  of  a  thoroughly  classic  Indian 
education  to  Christian  youth  is  deemed  an  important  but  not  always  an  indis- 
pensable object." 


410  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1834-1883 

tion.  When  not  only  he,  but  Dr.  Marshman,  had  passed 
away  Mack  bravely  held  aloft  the  banner  they  bequeathed, 
till  his  death  in  1846.  Then  John  Marshman,  who  in  1835 
had  begun  the  Friend  of  India  as  a  weekly  paper  to  aid  the 
College,  transferred  the  mission  to  the  Society  under  the  Eev. 
W.  H.  Denham.  When  in  1854  a  new  generation  of  the 
English  Baptists  accepted  the  College  also  as  their  own,  it 
received  a  Principal  worthy  to  succeed  the  giants  of  those 
days,  the  Eev.  John  Trafford,  M.A.,  a  student  of  Foster's  and 
of  Glasgow  University.  For  twenty-six  years  he  carried  out 
the  principles  of  Carey  in  all  things,  save  that,  when  Seram- 
pore  became  one  of  the  colleges  of  the  Calcutta  University, 
the  Society  would  not  apply  for  the  same  grant  in  aid  from 
Government  which  other  Nonconformist  colleges  enjoy. 

The  result  was  that  after  Mr.  Trafford's  retirement l  the 
college  of  Carey  and  Marshman  ceased  with  the  year  1883, 
and  in  the  same  building  a  purely  native  Christian  Training 
Institution  took  its  place.  There,  however,  the  many  visitors 
from  Christendom  still  find  the  library  and  museum;  the  bibles, 
grammars,  and  dictionaries ;  the  natural  history  collections, 
and  the  Oriental  MSS. ;  the  Danish  charter,  the  royal  portraits, 
and  the  British  treaty  ;  as  well  as  the  native  Christian  classes, 
— all  of  which  re-echo  William  Carey's  appeal  to  posterity. 

1  On  the  6th  March  1879  a  meeting  was  held  by  the  old  students  of  Ser- 
ampore  College  to  bid  farewell  to  their  Principal,  the  Rev.  J.  Trafford,  M.A. 
An  address  was  read  by  Babu  Narayan  Bhattacharjya  expressing  appreciation 
of  Mr.  Trafford's  motives  and  labours,  and  admiration  of  the  way  in  which  he 
had  performed  the  task  he  set  before  him.  One  last  kindness  they  asked  of 
him  was  to  send  his  picture  to  be  hung  up  in  the  college  hall.  Pundit  Jadhob 
Bhattarcharjya  then  read  a  poetical  address  in  Sanskrit.  An  address  was  also 
given  in  Sanskrit  by  the  second  pundit  of  the  college,  after  which  an  address 
in  English  was  given  by  the  entrance  class.  Mr.  Trafford  strove  in  his  reply 
to  make  clear  to  them  the  object  for  which  he  had  laboured  as  a  teacher.  He 
said  that  he  had  been  glad  to  introduce  them  to  much  that  was  useful  and 
elevating  in  English  literature,  and  both  he  and  they  had  therefrom  received 
benefit  and  enjoyment.  But  the  object  of  his  life  at  Serampore  had  been  to 
make  the  Bible  known  to  them  and  theirs. 


CHAPTER  XV. 

CAREY'S  LAST  DAYS. 
1830-1834. 

The  college  and  mission  stripped  of  all  their  funds — Failure  of  the  six  firms 
for  sixteen  millions  —  Carey's  official  income  reduced  from  £1560  to 
£600 — His  Thoughts  and  Appeal  published  in  England — His  vigour  at 
seventy — Last  revision  of  the  Bengali  Bible — Final  edition  of  the  Bengali 
New  Testament — Carey  rejoices  in  the  reforms  of  Lord  William  Bentinck's 
Government — In  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves — Carey  sketched  by  his 
younger  contemporaries — By  Leslie,  Tyerman,  Alexander  Duff,  Mrs.  J. 
T.  Jones  of  America,  Leechman,  Mack,  Gogerly — His  latest  letters  and 
last  message  to  Christendom — Visits  of  Lady  "William  Bentinck  and 
Bishop  Daniel  Wilson — Marshmaii's  affection  and  promise  as  to  the 
garden — The  English  mail  brings  glad  news  a  fortnight  before  his  death 
— His  last  Sabbath — He  dies — Is  buried — His  tomb  among  his  converts 
— His  will — The  Indian  press  on  his  poverty  and  disinterestedness — Dr. 
Marshman  and  Mack,  Christopher  Anderson  and  John  Wilson  of  Bombay 
on  his  character — His  influence  still  as  the  founder  of  missions — Dr.  Cox 
and  Robert  Hall  on  Carey  as  a  man — Scotland's  estimate  of  the  father  of 
the  Evangelical  Revival  and  its  foreign  missions. 

THE  last  days  of  William  Carey  were  the  best.  His  sun 
went  down  in  all  the  splendour  of  a  glowing  faith  and  a 
burning  self-sacrifice.  Not  in  the  penury  of  Hackleton  and 
Moulton,  not  in  the  hardships  of  Calcutta  and  the  Soondar- 
bans,  not  in  the  fevers  of  the  swamps  of  Dinajpoor,  not  in 
the  apprehensions  twice  excited  by  official  intolerance,  not 
in  the  most  bitter  sorrow  of  all — the  sixteen  years'  persecution 
by  English  brethren  after  Fuller's  death,  had  the  father  of 
modern  missions  been  so  tried  as  in  the  years  1830-33. 
Blow  succeeded  blow,  but  only  that  the  fine  gold  of  his 


412  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1830 

trust,  his  humility,  and  his  love  might  be  seen  to  be  the 
purer. 

The  Serampore  College  and  Mission  lost  all  the  funds  it 
had  in  India.  By  1830  the  financial  revolution  which  had 
laid  many  houses  low  in  Europe  five  years  before,  began  to 
tell  upon  the  merchant  princes  of  Calcutta.  The  six  firms, 
which  had  developed  the  trade  of  Northern  India  so  far  as 
the  Company's  monopolies  allowed,  had  been  the  bankers  of 
the  Government  itself,  of  states  like  Haidarabad,  and  of  all 
the  civil  and  military  officials,  and  had  enriched  a  succes- 
sion of  partners  for  half  a  century,  fell  one  by  one — fell  for 
sixteen  millions  sterling  among  them.  Palmer  and  Co.  was 
the  greatest ;  the  house  at  one  time  played  a  large  part  in 
the  history  of  India,  and  in  the  debates  and  papers  of  Parlia- 
ment. Mr.  John  Palmer,  a  personal  friend  of  the  Serampore 
men,  had  advanced  them  money  at  ten  per  cent  four  years 
previously,  when  the  Society's  misrepresentation  had  done  its 
worst.  The  children  in  the  Eurasian  schools,  which  Dr.  and 
Mrs.  Marshman  conducted  with  such  profit  to  the  mission, 
depended  chiefly  on  funds  deposited  with  this  firm.  It 
suddenly  failed  for  more  than  two  millions  sterling.  Although 
the  catastrophe  exposed  the  rottenness  of  the  system  of  credit 
on  which  commerce  and  banking  were  at  that  time  conducted, 
in  the  absence  of  a  free  press  and  an  intelligent  public  opinion, 
the  alarm  soon  subsided,  and  only  the  more  business  fell  to 
the  other  firms.  But  the  year  1833  had  hardly  opened 
when  first  the  house  of  Alexander  and  Co.,  then  that  of 
Mackintosh  and  Co.,  and  then  the  three  others,  collapsed 
without  warning.  The  English  in  India,  officials  and  mer- 
chants, were  reduced  to  universal  poverty.  Capital  dis- 
appeared and  credit  ceased  at  the  very  time  that  Parliament 
was  about  to  complete  the  partial  concession  of  freedom  of 
trade  made  by  the  charter  of  1813,  by  granting  all  Carey 
had  argued  for,  and  allowing  Europeans  to  hold  land. 


1833  FAILURE  OF  THE  SIX  CALCUTTA  FIRMS.  413 

The  funds  invested  for  Jessor  and  Delhi ;  the  legacy  of 
Fernandez,  Carey's  first  convert  and  missionary;  his  own 
tenths  with  which  he  supported  three  aged  relatives  in  Eng- 
land ;  the  property  of  the  partner  of  his  third  marriage,  on 
whom  the  money  was  settled,  and  who  survived  him  by  a 
year;  the  little  possessed  by  Dr.  Marshman,  who  had  paid 
all  his  expenses  in  England  even  while  working  for  the 
Society — all  was  swept  away.  Not  only  was  the  small  balance 
in  hand  towards  meeting  the  college  and  mission  expenditure 
gone,  but  it  was  impossible  to  borrow  even  for  a  short  time. 
Again  one  of  Dr.  Carey's  old  civilian  students  came  to  the 
rescue.  Mr.  Garrett,  nephew  of  Eobert  Eaikes  who  first 
began  Sunday  schools,  pledged  his  own  credit  with  the  Bank 
of  Bengal,  until  the  generous  and  devoted  Samuel  Hope  of 
Liverpool,  treasurer  of  the  Serampore  Mission  there,  could  be 
communicated  with.  Meanwhile  the  question  of  giving  up 
any  of  the  stations  or  shutting  the  college  was  not  once 
favoured.  "  I  have  seen  the  tears  run  down  the  face  of  the 
venerable  Dr.  Carey  at  the  thought  of  such  a  calamity,"  wrote 
Leechman ;  "  were  it  to  arrive  we  should  soon  have  to  lay 
him  in  his  grave."  When  the  interest  of  the  funds  raised  by 
Ward  in  America  ceased  for  a  time  because  of  the  malicious 
report  from  England  that  it  might  be  applied  by  Dr.  Marsh- 
man to  the  purposes  of  family  aggrandisement,  Carey  replied 
in  a  spirit  like  that  of  Paul  under  a  similar  charge:  'Dr. 
Marshman  is  as  poor  as  I  am,  and  I  can  scarcely  lay  by  a 
sum  monthly  to  relieve  three  or  four  indigent  relatives  in 
Europe.  I  might  have  had  large  possessions,  but  I  have 
given  my  all,  except  what  I  ate,  drank,  and  wore,  to  the  cause 
of  missions,  and  Dr.  Marshman  has  done  the  same,  and  so  did 
Mr.  Ward." 

Carey's  trust  in  God,  for  the  mission  and  for  himself, 
was  to  be  still  further  tried.  On  12th  July  1828  we  find 
him  thus  writing  from  Calcutta  to  Jabez :  "  I  came  down 


414  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1830 

this  morning  to  attend  Lord  W.  Bentinck's  first  levee.  It  was 
numerously  attended,  and  I  had  the  pleasure  of  seeing  there 
a  great  number  of  gentlemen  who  had  formerly  studied  under 
me,  and  for  whom  I  felt  a  very  sincere  regard.  I  hear  Lady 
Bentinck  is  a  pious  woman,  but  have  not  yet  seen  her.  I 
have  a  card  to  attend  at  her  drawing-room  this  evening,  but 
I  shall  not  go,  as  I  must  be  at  home  for  the  Sabbath,  which 
is  to-morrow."  It  soon  fell  to  Lord  William  Bentinck  to 
meet  the  financial  consequences  of  his  weak  predecessor's 
administration.  The  College  of  Fort  William  had  to  be 
sacrificed.  Metcalfe  and  Bay  ley,  Carey's  old  students  whom 
he  had  permanently  influenced  in  the  higher  life,  were  the 
members  of  council,  and  he  appealed  to  them.  They  sent 
him  to  the  good  Governor-General,  to  whose  sympathy  he 
laid  bare  all  the  past  and  present  of  the  mission's  finance. 
He  was  told  to  have  no  fear,  and  indeed  the  Council  held  a 
long  sitting  on  this  one  matter.  But  from  June  1830  the 
college  ceased  to  be  a  teaching,  and  became  an  examining 
body.  When  the  salary  was  reduced  one-half,  from  Es.1000 
a  month,  the  Brotherhood  met  to  pray  for  light  and  strength. 
Mr.  Eobinson,  the  Java  missionary  who  had  attached  him- 
self to  Serampore,  and  whose  son  long  did  good  service  as  a 
Bengali  scholar  and  preacher,  gives  us  this  glimpse  of  its 
inner  life  at  this  time  : — 

"  The  two  old  men  were  dissolved  in  tears  while  they 
were  engaged  in  prayer,  and  Dr.  Marshman  in  particular 
could  not  give  expression  to  his  feelings.  It  was  indeed 
affecting  to  see  these  good  old  men,  the  fathers  of  the  mission, 
entreating  with  tears  that  God  would  not  forsake  them  now 
gray  hairs  were  come  upon  them,  but  that  He  would  silence 
the  tongue  of  calumny,  and  furnish  them  with  the  means  of 
carrying  on  His  own  cause." 

They  sent  home  an  appeal  to  England,  and  Carey  him- 
self published  what  is  perhaps  the  most  chivalrous,  just,  and 


1830  HIS  FAITH  AND  VIGOUR  AT  SEVENTY.  415 

weighty  of  all  his  utterances  on  the  disagreeable  subject — 
Thoughts  upon  the  discussions  which  have  arisen  from  the 
Separation  between  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society  and  the 
Serampore  Missions.  "  From  our  age  and  other  circumstances 
our  contributions  may  soon  cease.  We  have  seen  a  great 
work  wrought  in  India,  and  much  of  it,  either  directly  or  in- 
directly, has  been  done  by  ourselves.  I  cannot,  I  ought  not 
to  be  indifferent  about  the  permanency  of  this  work,  and 
cannot  therefore  view  the  exultation  expressed  at  the  pros- 
pect of  our  resources  being  crippled  otherwise  than  being  of 
a  character  too  satanic  to  be  long  persisted  in  by  any  man 
who  has  the  love  of  God  in  his  heart." 

The  appeal  to  all  Christians  for  "  a  few  hundred  pounds 
per  annum  "  for  the  mission  stations  closed  thus  :  "  But  a  few 
years  have  passed  away  since  the  Protestant  world  was 
awakened  to  missionary  effort.  Since  that  time  the  annual 
revenues  collected  for  this  object  have  grown  to  the  then 
unthought  of  sum  of  £400,000.  And  is  it  unreasonable  to 
expect  that  some  unnoticeable  portion  of  this  should  be  in- 
trusted to  him  who  was  amongst  the  first  to  move  in  this 
enterprise  and  to  his  colleagues?"  The  Brotherhood  had 
hardly  despatched  this  appeal  to  England  with  the  sentence, 
"  Our  present  incomes  even  are  uncertain,"  when  the  shears 
of  financial  reduction  cut  off  Dr.  Carey's  office  of  Bengali 
translator  to  Government,  which  for  eight  years  had  yielded 
him  Es.300  a  month.  But  such  was  his  faith  this  final 
stroke  called  forth  only  an  expression  of  regret  that  he  must 
reduce  his  contributions  to  the  missionary  cause  by  so  much. 
He  was  a  wonder  to  his  colleagues,  who  wrote  of  him : 
"  Though  thus  reduced  in  his  circumstances  the  good  man, 
about  to  enter  on  his  seventieth  year,  is  as  cheerful  and  as 
happy  as  the  day  is  long.  He  rides  out  four  or  five  miles 
every  morning,  returning  home  by  sunrise  ;  goes  on  with  the 
work  of  translation  day  by  day ;  gives  two  lectures  on  divinity 


416  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1830 

and  one  on  natural  history  every  week  in  the  college,  and 
takes  his  turn  of  preaching  both  in  Bengali  and  in  English." 

When  the  Christian  public  responded  heartily  to  his 
appeal  Carey  was  loud  and  frequent  in  his  expressions  of 
gratitude  to  God,  who,  "in  the  time  of  our  great  extremity, 
appeared  and  stirred  up  His  people  thus  willingly  to  offer 
their  substance  for  His  cause."  "  With  respect  to  myself,  I 
consider  my  race  as  nearly  run.  The  days  of  our  years  are 
three  score  years  and  ten,  and  I  am  now  only  three  months 
short  of  that  age,  and  repeated  bilious  attacks  have  weakened 
my  constitution.  But  I  do  not  look  forward  to  death  with 
any  painful  anticipations.  I  cast  myself  on  and  plead  the 
efficacy  of  that  atonement,  which  will  not  fail  me  when  I 
need  it." 

Dr.  Marshman  gives  us  a  brighter  picture  of  him.  "I 
met  with  very  few  friends  in  England  in  their  seventieth  year 
so  lively,  so  free  from  the  infirmities  of  age,  so  interesting  in 
the  pulpit,  so  completely  conversible  as  he  is  now."  The 
reason  is  found  in  the  fact  that  he  was  still  useful,  still  busy 
at  the  work  he  loved  most  of  all.  He  completed  his  last 
revision  of  the  entire  Bible  in  Bengali — the  fifth  edition  of 
the  Old  Testament  and  the  eighth  edition  of  the  New — in 
June  1832.  Immediately  thereafter,  when  presiding  at  the 
ordination  of  Mr.  Mack  as  co-pastor  with  Dr.  Marshman  and 
himself  over  the  church  at  Serampore,  he  took  with  him  into 
the  pulpit  the  first  copy  of  the  sacred  volume  which  came 
from  the  binder's  hands,  and  addressed  the  converts  and  their 
children  from  the  words  of  Simeon — "  Lord  now  lettest  Thou 
Thy  servant  depart  in  peace,  for  mine  eyes  have  seen  Thy 
salvation."  As  the  months  went  on  he  carried  through  the 
press  still  another  and  improved  edition  of  the  New  Testa- 
ment, and  only  then  he  felt  and  often  said  that  the  work  of 
his  heart  was  done. 

He  had  other  sources  of  saintly  pleasure  as  he  lay  medi- 


1830  REJOICES  IN  THE  BENTINCK  REFORMS.  417 

tating  on  the  Word,  and  praising  God  for  His  goodness  to 
the  college  and  the  mission  stations  increased  to  nineteen  by 
young  Henry  Havelock,  who  founded  the  Church  at  Agra.  Lord 
William  Bentinck,  having  begun  his  reign  with  the  abolition 
of  the  crime  of  suttee,  was,  with  the  help  of  Carey's  old 
students,  steadily  carrying  out  the  other  reforms  for  which  in 
all  his  Indian  career  the  missionary  had  prayed  and  preached 
and  published.  The  judicial  service  was  reorganised  so  as 
to  include  native  judges.  The  uncovenanted  civil  service 
was  opened  to  all  British  subjects  of  every  creed.  The  first 
act  of  justice  to  native  Christians  was  thus  done  so  that  he 
wrote  of  the  college  —  "The  students  are  now  eligible  to 
every  legal  appointment  in  India  which  a  native  can  hold ; 
those  who  may  possess  no  love  for  the  Christian  ministry- 
have  the  prospect  of  a  profitable  profession  as  advocates  in 
the  judicial  courts,  and  the  hope  of  rising  to  posts  of  honour- 
able distinction  in  their  native  land."  The  Hindoo  law  of 
inheritance  which  the  Regulating  Act  of  Parliament  had  so 
covered  that  it  was  used  to  deprive  courts  and  Christianity 
of  all  civil  rights,  was  dealt  with  so  far  as  a  local  regulation 
could  do  so,  and  Carey,  advised  by  such  an  authority  as 
Harington,  laid  it  on  his  successor  in  the  apostolate,  the 
young  Alexander  Duff,  to  carry  the  act  of  justice  out  fully, 
which  was  done  under  the  Marquis  of  Dalhousie.  The 
orders  drawn  up  by  Charles  Grant's  sons  at  last,  in  February 
1833,  freed  Great  Britain  from  responsibility  for  the  connec- 
tion of  the  East  India  Company  with  temple  and  mosque 
endowments  and  the  pilgrim  tax.  His  son  Jonathan  wrote 
this  of  him  two  years  after  his  death : — 

"  In  principle  my  father  was  resolute  and  firm,  never  shrinking 
from  avowing  and  maintaining  his  sentiments.  He  had  conscientious 
scruples  against  taking  an  oath ;  and  condemned  severely  the  manner 
in  which  oaths  were  administered,  and  urged  vehemently  the  propriety 
of  altogether  dispensing  with  them.  I  remember  three  instances  in 
which  he  took  a  conspicuous  part  in  regard  to  oaths,  such  as  was 

2  E 


418  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1830 

characteristic  of  the  man.  On  one  occasion,  when  a  respectable 
Hindoo  servant  of  the  college  of  Fort  William,  attached  to  Dr. 
Carey's  department,  was  early  one  morning  proceeding  to  the  Ganges 
to  bathe,  he  perceived  a  dead  body  lying  near  the  road  ;  but  it  being 
dark,  and  no  person  being  present,  he  passed  on,  taking  no  further 
notice  of  the  circumstance.  As  he  returned  from  the  Ganges  after 
sunrise,  he  saw  a  crowd  near  the  body,  and  then  happened  to  say  to 
one  of  the  watchmen  present  that  in  the  morning  he  saw  the  body 
on  the  other  side  of  the  road.  The  watchman  took  him  in  custody, 
as  a  witness  before  the  coroner ;  but,  when  brought  before  the  coroner, 
he  refused  to  take  an  oath,  and  was,  consequently,  committed  to 
prison  for  contempt.  The  Hindoo,  being  a  respectable  person,  and 
never  having  taken  an  oath,  refused  to  take  any  nourishment  in 
the  prison.  In  this  state  he  continued  a  day  and  a  half,  my  father 
being  then  at  Serampore  ;  but  upon  his  coming  to  Calcutta,  the 
circumstances  were  mentioned  to  him.  The  fact  of  the  man  having 
refused  to  take  an  oath  was  enough  to  make  him  interest  himself  in 
his  behalf.  He  was  delighted  with  the  resolution  the  man  took — 
rather  to  go  to  prison  than  take  an  oath  ;  and  was  determined  to  do 
all  he  could  to  procure  his  liberation.  He  first  applied  to  the 
coroner,  but  was  directed  by  him  to  the  sheriff.  To  that  function- 
ary he  proceeded,  but  was  informed  by  him  that  he  could  make  no 
order  on  the  subject.  He  then  had  an  interview  with  the  then  chief 
judge,  by  whose  interference  the  man  was  set  at  liberty, 

"  Another  instance  relates  to  him  personally.  On  the  occasion  of 
his  last  marriage,  the  day  was  fixed  on  which  the  ceremony  was  to 
take  place  —  friends  were  invited  —  and  all  necessary  arrangements 
made  ;  but,  three  or  four  days  prior  to  the  day  fixed,  he  was  informed 
that  it  would  be  necessary  for  him  to  obtain  a  licence,  in  doing  which, 
he  must  either  take  an  oath,  or  have  banns  published.  To  taking  an 
oath  he  at  once  objected,  and  applied  to  the  then  senior  judge,  who 
informed  him  that,  as  he  was  not  a  quaker,  his  oath  was  indispens- 
able ;  but,  rather  than  take  an  oath,  he  applied  to  have  the  banns 
published,  and  postponed  the  arrangements  for  his  marriage  for  another 
three  weeks. 

"  The  third  instance  was  as  follows  : — It  was  necessary,  in  a  cer- 
tain case,  to  prove  a  will  in  court,  in  which  the  name  of  Dr.  Carey 
was  mentioned,  in  connection  with  the  Serampore  missionaries  as 
executors.  An  application  was  made  by  one  of  his  colleagues,  which 
was  refused  by  the  court,  on  account  of  the  vagueness  of  the  terms, 
4  Serampore  missionaries ;'  but  as  Dr.  Carey's  name  was  specifically 


1830  SKETCHED  BY  LESLIE.  419 

mentioned,  the  court  intimated  that  they  would  grant  the  application 
if  made  by  him.  The  communication  was  made  :  but  when  he  was 
informed  that  an  oath  was  necessary,  he  shrunk  with  abhorrence  from 
the  idea  ;  but  after  much  persuasion,  he  consented  to  make  the  ap- 
plication, if  taking  an  oath  would  be  dispensed  with.  He  did  attend, 
and  stated  his  objections  to  the  then  chief  judge,  which  being  allowed, 
his  affirmation  was  received  and  recorded  by  the  court. 

"The  duties  connected  with  the  College  of  Fort  William  afforded 
him  a  change  of  scene,  which  relieved  his  mind,  and  gave  him  oppor- 
tunities of  taking  exercise,  and  conduced  much  to  his  health.  During 
the  several  years  he  held  the  situation  of  professor  to  the  college,  no 
consideration  would  allow  him  to  neglect  his  attendance  ;  and  though 
he  had  to  encounter  boisterous  weather  in  crossing  the  river  at  un- 
seasonable hours,  he  was  punctual  in  his  attendance,  and  never  applied 
for  leave  of  absence.  And  when  he  was  qualified,  by  the  rules  of 
the  service,  to  retire  on  a  handsome  pension,  he  preferred  being 
actively  employed  in  promoting  the  interests  of  the  college,  and 
remained,  assiduously  discharging  his  duties,  till  his  department  was 
abolished  by  Government.  The  business  of  the  college  requiring  his 
attendance  in  Calcutta,  he  became  so  habituated  to  his  journeys  to  and 
fro,  that  at  his  age  he  painfully  felt  the  retirement  he  was  subjected 
to  when  his  office  ceased.  After  this  circumstance,  his  health 
rapidly  declined;  and  though  he  occasionally  visited  Calcutta,  he 
complained  of  extreme  debility.  This  increased  daily,  and  made 
him  a  constant  sufferer  ;  until  at  length  he  was  not  able  to  leave 
his  house." 

Nor  was  it  in  India  alone  that  the  venerable  saint  found 
such  causes  of  satisfaction.  He  lived  long  enough  to  thank 
God  for  the  emancipation  of  the  slaves  by  the  English 
people,  for  which  he  had  prayed  daily  for  fifty  years. 

We  have  many  sketches  of  the  Father  of  English  Missions 
in  his  later  years  by  young  contemporaries  who,  on  their  first 
arrival  in  Bengal,  sought  him  out.  In  1824  Mr.  Leslie,  an 
Edinburgh  student,  who  became  in  India  the  first  of  Baptist 
preachers,  and  was  the  means  of  the  conversion  of  Henry 
Havelock,  who  married  Dr.  Marshman's  youngest  daughter, 
wrote  thus  of  Carey  after  the  third  great  illness  of  his 
Indian  life : — 


420  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY.  1830 

"  Dr.  Carey,  who  has  been  very  ill,  is  quite  recovered,  and  bids 
fair  to  live  many  years  ;  and  as  for  Dr.  Marshman,  he  has  never 
known  what  ill  health  is,  during  the  whole  period  of  his  residence  in 
India.  They  are  both  active  to  a  degree  which  you  would  think  im- 
possible in  such  a  country.  Dr.  Carey  is  a  very  equable  and  cheerful 
old  man,  in  countenance  very  like  the  engraving  of  him  with  his 
pundit,  though  not  so  robust  as  he  appears  to  be  there.  Next  to  his 
translations  Botany  is  his  grand  study.  He  has  collected  every  plant 
and  tree  in  his  garden  that  will  possibly  grow  in  India,  and  is  so 
scientific  withal,  that  he  calls  everything  by  its  classical  name.  If, 
therefore,  I  should  at  any  time  blunder  out  the  word  Geranium,  he 
would  say  Pelargonium,  and  perhaps  accuse  me  of  ignorance,  or  blame 
me  for  vulgarity.  We  had  the  pleasure  of  hearing  him  preach  from 
Kom.  vii.  13,  when  he  gave  us  an  excellent  sermon.  In  manner  he 
is  very  animated,  and  in  style  very  methodical.  Indeed  he  carries 
method  into  everything  he  does  ;  classification  is  his  grand  hobby,  and 
wherever  anything  can  be  classified,  there  you  find  Dr.  Carey  ;  not 
only  does  he  classify  and  arrange  the  roots  of  plants  and  words,  but 
visit  his  dwelling,  and  you  find  he  has  fitted  up  and  classified  shelves 
full  of  minerals,  stones,  shells,  etc.,  and  cages  full  of  birds.  He  is  of 
very  easy  access,  and  great  familiarity.  His  attachments  are  strong, 
and  extend  not  merely  to  persons  but  places.  About  a  year  ago,  so 
much  of  the  house  in  which  he  had  lived  ever  since  he  had  been  at 
Serampore,  fell  down  so  that  he  had  to  leave  it,  at  which  he  wept 
bitterly.  One  morning  at  breakfast,  he  was  relating  to  us  an  anecdote 
of  the  generosity  of  the  late  excellent  John  Thornton,  at  the  remem- 
brance of  whom  the  big  tear  filled  his  eye.  Though  it  is  an  affecting 
sight  to  see  the  venerable  man  weep  ;  yet  it  is  a  sight  which  greatly 
interests  you,  as  there  is  a  manliness  in  his  tears — something  far 
removed  from  the  crying  of  a  child." 

The  house  in  which  for  the  last  ten  years  he  lived,  and 
where  he  died,  is  seen  to  the  right  of  the  picture,  partly 
shadowed  by  a  small  teak  tree.  It  was  the  only  one  of  two 
or  three,  planned  for  the  new  professors  of  the  college,  that 
was  completed.  Compared  with  the  adjoining  college  it  was 
erected  with  such  severe  simplicity  that  it  was  said  to  have 
been  designed  for  angels  rather  than  for  men.  Carey's  room 
and  library  looked  towards  the  river  with  the  breadth  of  the 
college  garden  between.  The  white  front  shows  the  upper 


1830  VISITED  BY  ALEXANDER  DUFF.  421 

verandah  where  in  the  morning  he  worked  at  his  desk  almost 
to  the  last,  and  in  the  evening  towards  sunset  he  talked  with 
his  visitors.  In  1826  the  London  Missionary  Society  sent 
out  to  Calcutta  the  first  of  its  deputations,  the  Eev.  D. 
Tyerman  and  Mr.  G.  Bennet.  Dr.  Carey  sent  his  boat  for 
them,  and  in  the  absence  of  her  husband  in  England  Mrs. 
Marshman  entertained  the  guests.  They  wrote — 

"  We  found  Dr.  Carey  in  his  study,  and  we  were  both  pleased  and 
struck  with  his  primitive,  and  we  may  say,  apostolical  appearance. 
He  is  short  of  stature,  his  hair  white,  his  countenance  equally  bland 
and  benevolent  in  feature  and  expression.  Two  Hindoo  men  were 
sitting  by,  engaged  in  painting  some  small  subjects  in  natural  history, 
of  which  the  doctor,  a  man  of  pure  taste  and  highly  intellectual  cast 
of  feeling,  irrespective  of  his  more  learned  pursuits,  has  a  choice 
collection,  both  in  specimens  and  pictorial  representations.  Botany 
is  a  favourite  study  with  him,  and  his  garden  is  curiously  enriched 
with  rarities.  In  the  evening  Mr.  Tyerman  was  invited  to  preach, 
which  he  did  from  Acts  viii.  5-8,  the  subject,  Philip  at  Samaria.  The 
congregation  consisted  chiefly  of  the  mission  family,  namely,  a  hundred 
and  twenty  children  of  both  sexes  at  Mrs.  Marshman's  school,  and 
about  thirty  other  persons." 

Of  all  the  visits  paid  to  Carey  none  are  now  so  inter- 
esting to  the  historian  of  the  Church  of  India,  as  those  of  the 
youth  who  succeeded  him  as  he  had  succeeded  Schwartz. 
Alexander  Duff  was  twenty-four  years  of  age  when,  in  1830, 
full  of  hesitation  as  to  carrying  out  his  own  plans  in  opposition 
to  the  experience  of  all  the  missionaries  he  had  consulted,  he 
received  from  Carey  alone  the  most  earnest  encouragement 
to  pursue  in  Calcutta  the  Christian  college  policy  so  well 
begun  in  the  less  central  settlement  of  Serampore.  We  have 
elsewhere l  told  the  story  : — 

11  Landing  at  the  college  ghaut  one  sweltering  July  day,  the  still 
ruddy  Highlander  strode  up  to  the  flight  of  steps  that  leads  to  the 
finest  modern  building  in  Asia.  Turning  to  the  left,  he  sought  the 

1  Life  of  Alexander  Duff,  D.D.  LL.D.,  1879, 


422  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1831 

study  of  Carey  in  the  house — '  built  for  angels/  said  one,  so  simple  is 
it — where  the  greatest  of  missionary  scholars  was  still  working  for 
India.  There  he  beheld  what  seemed  to  be  a  little  yellow  old  man  in 
a  white  jacket,  who  tottered  up  to  the  visitor  of  whom  he  had  already 
often  heard,  and  with  outstretched  hands  solemnly  blessed  him.  A 
contemporary  soon  after  wrote  thus  of  the  childlike  saint : 

*  Thou'rt  in  our  heart — with  tresses  thin  and  grey, 

And  eye  that  knew  the  Book  of  Life  so  well, 
And  brow  serene,  as  thou  wert  wont  to  stray 
Amidst  thy  flowers — like  Adam  ere  he  fell.' 

"  The  result  of  the  conference  was  a  double  blessing ;  for  Carey 
could  speak  with  the  influence  at  once  of  a  scholar  who  had  created 
the  best  college  at  that  time  in  the  country,  and  of  a  vernacularist 
who  had  preached  to  the  people  for  half  a  century.  The  young 
Scotsman  left  his  presence  with  the  approval  of  the  one  authority 
whose  opinion  was  best  worth  having.  .  .  . 

"  Among  those  who  visited  him  in  his  last  illness  was  Alexander 
Duff,  the  Scotch  missionary.  On  one  of  the  last  occasions  on  which 
he  saw  him — if  not  the  very  last — he  spent  some  time  talking  chiefly 
about  Carey's  missionary  life,  till  at  length  the  dying  man  whispered, 
Pray.  Dun0  knelt  down  and  prayed,  and  then  said  Good-bye.  As  he 
passed  from  the  room,  he  thought  he  heard  a  feeble  voice  pronouncing 
his  name,  and,  turning,  he  found  that  he  was  recalled.  He  stepped  back 
accordingly,  and  this  is  what  he  heard,  spoken  with  a  gracious  solem- 
nity :  '  Mr.  Duff,  you  have  been  speaking  about  Dr.  Carey,  Dr.  Carey  ; 
when  I  am  gone,  say  nothing  about  Dr.  Carey — speak  about  Dr. 
Carey's  Saviour.'  Duff  went  away  rebuked  and  awed,  with  a  lesson  in 
his  heart  that  he  never  forgot."1 

In  1831  the  American  missionaries  Mr.  and  Mrs.  J.  T. 
Jones  visited  Serampore  on  their  way  to  Burma,  for,  said 
Marshman,  "  We  think  all  the  missionaries  who  come  to  this 
country  belong  to  us."  Mrs.  Jones  wrote  : — 

"  "We  next  went  to  pay  a  visit  to  the  good  old  patriarch,  whose 
dwelling  is  very  near  the  college  and  mission  house.  He  gave  us  a 
hearty  welcome,  and  showed  us  his  extensive  library,  and  collection  of 
natural  curiosities.  After  dining  at  Brother  Marshman's,  we  took  an 
affectionate  farewell  of  our  kind  friends,  scarcely  conscious  that  our 

1  William  Carey,  by  James  Culross,  D.D.,  1881. 


1832  FAINT  YET  PURSUING.  423 

acquaintance  was  that  of  a  day.  On  my  part  it  really  was  not  so,  for 
the  names  of  Carey  and  Marshman  had  been  known,  loved,  and  asso- 
ciated with  all  my  ideas  of  India  and  missionary  operations  since  the 
days  of  early  childhood." 

When  with  his  old  friends  he  dwelt  much  on  the  past. 
Writing  of  May  1832,  Dr.  Marshman  mentioned  "I  spent  an 
hour  at  tea  with  dear  Brother  Carey  last  night,  now  seventy 
and  nine  months.  He  was  in  the  most  comfortable  state  of 
health,  talking  over  his  first  feelings  respecting  India  and  the 
heathen,  and  the  manner  in  which  God  kept  them  alive,  when 
even  Fuller  could  not  yet  enter  into  them,  and  good  old  John 
Eyland  (the  doctor's  father)  denounced  them  as  unscriptural. 
Had  these  feelings  died  away  in  what  a  different  state  might 
India  now  have  been!"  In  September  of  that  year,  when 
burying  Mrs.  Ward,  he  seemed,  in  his  address  at  the  grave,  to 
long  for  renewed  intercourse  with  the  friends  who  had  pre- 
ceded him  in  entering  into  the  joy  of  the  Lord. 

On  Mr.  Leechman's  arrival  from  Scotland  to  be  his 
colleague,  he  found  the  old  man  thus  vigorous  even  in  April 
1833,  or  if  "  faint,  yet  pursuing  "  : — 

"  Our  venerable  Dr.  Carey  is  in  excellent  health,  and  takes  his 
turn  in  all  our  public  exercises.  Just  forty  years  ago,  the  first  of  this 
month,  he  administered  the  Lord's  Supper  to  the  church  at  Leicester, 
and  started  on  the  morrow  to  embark  for  India.  Through  this  long 
period  of  honourable  toil  the  Lord  has  mercifully  preserved  him ;  and 
at  our  missionary  prayer  meeting,  held  on  the  first  of  this  month,  he 
delivered  an  interesting  address  to  encourage  us  to  persevere  in  the 
work  of  the  Lord.  We  have  also  a  private  monthly  prayer  meeting 
held  in  Dr.  Carey's  study,  which  is  to  me  a  meeting  of  uncommon 
interest.  On  these  occasions  we  particularly  spread  before  the  Lord 
our  public  and  private  trials,  both  those  which  come  upon  us  from  the 
cause  of  Christ,  with  which  it  is  our  honour  and  privilege  to  be  con- 
nected, and  those  also  which  we  as-  individuals  are  called  to  bear.  At 
our  last  meeting  Dr.  Carey  read  part  of  the  history  of  Gideon,  and 
commented  with  deep  feeling  on  the  encouragement  which  that  history 
affords,  that  the  cause  of  God  can  be  carried  on  to  victory  and  triumph, 
by  feeble  and  apparently  inefficient  means." 


424  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1834 

Carey's  successor,  Mack,  wrote  thus  to  Christopher 
Anderson  ten  months  later  : — 

"  SERAMPORE,  31st  January  1834. 

"  "We  are  still  enjoying  mercies  suited  to  our  day,  and  have  many 
causes  of  thankfulness.  Our  venerable  father,  Dr.  Carey,  is  yet  con- 
tinued to  us,  but  in  the  same  state  in  which  he  has  been  for  the  last 
three  months  or  so.  He  is  quite  incapable  of  work,  and  very  weak. 
He  can  walk  but  a  few  yards  at  a  time,  and  spends  the  day  in  reading 
for  profit  and  entertainment,  and  in  occasionally  nodding  and  sleeping. 
He  is  perfectly  tranquil  in  mind.  His  imagination  does  not  soar 
much  in  vivid  anticipations  of  glory  ;  and  it  never  disquiets  him  with 
restless  misgivings  respecting  his  inheritance  in  God.  To  him  it  is 
everything  that  the  gospel  is  true,  and  he  believes  it ;  and,  as  he  says, 
if  he  can  say  he  knows  anything,  he  knows  that  he  believes  it.  When 
his  attention  is  turned  to  his  dismissal  from  earth,  or  his  hope  of  glory, 
his  emotions  are  tender  and  sweet.  They  are  also  very  simple,  and 
express  themselves  in  a  few  brief  and  pithy  sentences.  His  interest  in 
all  the  affairs  of  the  mission  is  unabated,  and  although  he  can  no 
longer  join  us  either  in  deliberation  or  associated  prayer,  he  must  be 
informed  of  all  that  occurs,  and  his  heart  is  wholly  with  us  in  what- 
ever we  do.  I  do  not  conceive  it  possible  that  he  can  survive  the 
ensuing  hot  season,  but  he  may,  and  the  Lord  will  do  in  this  as  in  all 
other  things  what  is  best. 

"  Our  private  circumstances  are  not  such  as  to  make  a  boast 
of.  The  two  great  agency  houses  of  Fergusson,  Fairlie  and  Co.,  and 
Cruttenden,  Mackillop  and  Co.  have  both  failed  lately ;  but  their 
failure  created  no  sensation,  as  it  had  been  looked  for  for  months  past. 
The  last  remnant  of  the  property  of  Dr.  Marshman's  nephew  and  niece, 
except  a  small  portion  in  John's  hands,  and  a  house  or  perhaps  two  at 
Barrackpore,  has  gone  in  Cruttenden's.  And  as  six  or  seven  of  the 
children  in  Dr.  and  Mrs.  Marshman's  schools  were  paid  for  through 
one  or  other  of  these  two  houses,  the  schools  so  far  must  suffer  through 
their  failure.  About  Rs.1000  belonging  to  the  college,  which  sum 
was  intended  for  carrying  on  the  cultivation  of  the  estate  near  Bani- 
pore,  have  been  lost  in  Cruttenden's  ;  and  in  Fergusson's  was  nearly 
the  whole  of  what  we  had  received  of  the  Burisal  school  funds.  We 
are  not  much  concerned  about  the  loss,  however,  as  we  have  been 
obliged  to  withdraw  from  the  concern  altogether.  It  will  save  trouble 
if  you  will  apply  to  Mr.  Garrett  for  particulars  of  that  business. 

"  Dr.  Marshman's  school  is  sinking  lower  and  lower,  and  this  adds 


1834  "  WAITING  FOR  THE  GOOD  HOUR."  425 

greatly  to  his  depression.  Mrs.  Marshman  bears  it  much  better.  .  .  . 
John's  business  is  doing  well,  and  working  itself  out  of  debt.  Had  he 
a  new  steam  engine  he  would  have  nothing  to  fear.  Leechman  and  I 
are  living  from  hand  to  mouth.  A  month  ago  we  had  nothing,  nor 
the  prospect  of  anything.  But  I  advertised  for  private  pupils  to  make 
us  independent  of  salary  from  the  college  ;  and  I  am  thankful  to  say 
that  two  are  coming  immediately  at  Ks.64  each  per  mensem.  This 
will  provide  us  food  to  eat,  at  any  rate,  and  gives  us  hope  of  something 
more.  You  know  Leechman  lives  with  us  ;  and,  I  assure  you,  though 
we  are  as  poor  as  church  mice,  we  are  a  very  happy  family.  He 
desires  nothing  but  usefulness,  and  that  he  is  sure  to  have.  We  are  of 
one  heart  and  mind,  and  my  only  concern  is  that  we  may  have  grace 
to  labour  together  through  our  day,  and  that  the  Lord  may  continue 
us  until  He  has  provided  others  to  fill  up  our  places. 

"When  our  necessities  were  coming  to  their  climax  I  concluded 
that  I  must  leave  Serampore  in  order  to  find  food  to  eat,  and  I  fixed 
upon  Cherra-poonjee  as  my  future  residence.  I  proposed  establishing 
a  first-class  school  there,  and  then  with  some  warmth  of  imagination  I 
began  anticipating  a  sort  of  second  edition  of  Serampore  up  in  the 
Khasia  hills,  to  be  a  centre  of  diffusing  light  in  the  western  provinces. 
I  became  really  somewhat  enamoured  of  the  phantom  of  my  imagina- 
tion, but  it  was  not  to  be.  The  brethren  here  would  not  see  it  as  I 
did." 

This  last  sketch,  by  Mr.  G-ogerly  whom  the  London 
Missionary  Society  had  sent  out  in  1819,  brings  us  still 
nearer  the  end  : — 

"  At  this  time  I  paid  him  my  last  visit.  He  was  seated  near  his 
desk,  in  the  study,  dressed  in  his  usual  neat  attire  ;  his  eyes  were 
closed,  and  his  hands  clasped  together.  On  his  desk  was  the  proof 
sheet  of  the  last  chapter  of  the  New  Testament,  which  he  had  revised 
a  few  days  before.  His  appearance,  as  he  sat  there,  with  the  few 
white  locks  which  adorned  his  venerable  brow,  and  his  placid  colour- 
less face,  filled  me  with  a  kind  of  awe  ;  for  he  appeared  as  then 
listening  to  the  Master's  summons,  and  as  waiting  to  depart.  I  sat, 
in  his  presence,  for  about  half  an  hour,  and  not  one  word  was  uttered  ; 
for  I  feared  to  break  that  solemn  silence,  and  call  back  to  earth  the 
soul  that  seemed  almost  in  heaven.  At  last,  however,  I  spoke  ;  and 
well  do  I  remember  the  identical  words  that  passed  between  us,  though 
more  than  thirty-six  years  have  elapsed  since  then.  I  said,  '  My  dear 
friend,  you  evidently  are  standing  on  the  borders  of  the  eternal  world  : 


426  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1834 

do  not  think  it  wrong,  then,  if  I  ask  What  are  your  feelings  in  the 
immediate  prospect  of  death  ? '  The  question  roused  him  from  his 
apparent  stupor,  and  opening  his  languid  eyes,  he  earnestly  replied, 
'  As  far  as  my  personal  salvation  is  concerned,  I  have  not  the  shadow 
of  a  doubt ;  I  know  in  Whom  I  have  believed,  and  am  persuaded  that 
He  is  able  to  keep  that  which  I  have  committed  unto  Him  against  that 
day ;  but  when  I  think  that  I  am  about  to  appear  in  the  presence  of 
a  holy  God,  and  remember  all  my  sins  and  manifold  imperfections — I 
tremble.'  He  could  say  no  more.  The  tears  trickled  down  his  cheeks, 
and  after  a  while  he  relapsed  into  the  same  state  of  silence  from  which 
I  had  aroused  him. 

"  Deeply  solemn  was  that  interview,  and  important  the  lesson  I  then 
received.  Here  was  one  of  the  most  holy  and  harmless  men  whom  I 
ever  knew — who  had  lived  above  the  breath  of  calumny  for  upwards 
of  forty  years,  surrounded  by  and  in  close  intimacy  with  many,  both 
Europeans  and  natives,  who  would  have  rejoiced  to  have  witnessed  any 
inconsistency  in  his  conduct,  but  who  were  constrained  to  admire  his 
integrity  and  Christian  character — whilst  thus  convinced  of  the  cer- 
tainty of  his  salvation,  through  the  merits  of  that  Saviour  whom  he 
had  preached,  yet  so  impressed  with  the  exceeding  sinfulness  of  sin, 
that  he  trembled  at  the  thought  of  appearing  before  a  holy  God  !  A 
few  days  after  this  event,  Dr.  Carey  retired  to  his  bed,  from  which  he 
never  rose."  * 

So  long  before  this  as  17th  March  1802,  Carey  had  thus 
described  himself  to  Dr.  Eyland  : — "  A  year  or  more  ago  you, 
or  some  other  of  my  dear  friends,  mentioned  an  intention  of 
publishing  a  volume  of  sermons  as  a  testimony  of  mutual 
Christian  love,  and  wished  me  to  send  a  sermon  or  two  for 
that  purpose.  I  have  seriously  intended  it,  and  more  than 
once  sat  down  to  accomplish  it,  but  have  as  constantly  been 
broken  off  from  it.  Indolence  is  my  prevailing  sin,  and  to 
that  are  now  added  a  number  of  avocations  which  I  never 
thought  of ;  I  have  also  so  continual  a  fear  that  I  may  at  last 
fall  some  way  or  other  so  as  to  dishonour  the  Gospel  that  I 
have  often  desired  that  my  name  may  be  buried  in  oblivion  ; 
and  indeed  I  have  reason  for  those  fears,  for  I  am  so  prone  to 

1  The  Pioneers:  A  Narrative  of  Facts  connected  with  Early  Christian 
Missions  in  Bengal.     By  George  Gogerly.     London,  1871. 


1833  HIS  LAST  LETTERS.  427 

sin  that  I  wonder  every  night  that  I  have  been  preserved 
from  foul  crimes  through  the  day,  and  when  I  escape  a 
temptation  I  esteem  it  to  be  a  miracle  of  grace  which  has 
preserved  me.  I  never  was  so  fully  persuaded  as  I  am  now 
that  no  habit  of  religion  is  a  security  from  falling  into  the 
foulest  crimes,  and  I  need  the  immediate  help  of  God  every 
moment.  This  sense  of  my  continual  danger  has,  I  confess, 
operated  strongly  upon  me  to  induce  me  to  desire  that  no 
publication  of  a  religious  nature  should  be  published  as  mine 
whilst  I  am  alive.  Another  reason  is  my  sense  of  incapacity 
to  do  justice  to  any  subject,  or  even  to  write  good  sense.  I 
have,  it  is  true,  been  obliged  to  publish  several  things,  and  I 
can  say  that  nothing  but  necessity  could  have  induced  me  to 
do  it.  They  are,  however,  only  grammatical  works,  and  cer- 
tainly the  very  last  things  which  I  should  have  written  if  I 
could  have  chosen  for  myself." 

His  last  letters  were  brief  messages  of  love  and  hope  to 
his  two  sisters  in  England.  On  27th  July  1833  he  wrote  to 
them : — 

"  About  a  week  ago  so  great  a  change  took  place  in  me  that 
I  concluded  it  was  the  immediate  stroke  of  death,  and  all  my 
children  were  informed  of  it  and  have  been  here  to  see  me. 
I  have  since  that  revived  in  an  almost  miraculous  manner,  or 
I  could  not  have  written  this.  But  I  cannot  expect  it  to  con- 
tinue. The  will  of  the  Lord  be  done.  Adieu,  till  I  meet  you 
in  a  better  world.  Your  affectionate  brother,  W.  CAREY." 

Two  months  later  he  was  at  his  old  work,  able  "  now  and 
then  to  read  a  proof  sheet  of  the  Scriptures." 

"SERAMPORE,  25th  Sept.  1833. 

"  MY  DEAR  SISTERS — My  being  able  to  write  to  you  now 
is  quite  unexpected  by  me,  and,  I  believe,  by  every  one  else ; 
but  it  appears  to  be  the  will  of  God  that  I  should  continue  a 


428  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1833 

little  time  longer.  How  long  that  may  be  I  leave  entirely 
with  Him,  and  can  only  say,  '  All  the  days  of  my  appointed 
time  will  I  wait  till  my  change  come.'  I  was,  two  months  or 
more  ago,  reduced  to -such  a  state  of  weakness  that  it  appeared 
as  if  my  mind  was  extinguished  ;  and  my  weakness  of  body, 
and  sense  of  extreme  fatigue  and  exhaustion,  were  such  that  I 
could  scarcely  speak,  and  it  appeared  that  death  would  be  no 
more  felt  than  the  removing  from  one  chair  to  another.  I  am 
now  able  to  sit  and  to  lie  on  my  couch,  and  now  and  then 
to  read  a  proof  sheet  of  the  Scriptures.  I  am  too  weak  to 
walk  more  than  just  across  the  house,  nor  can  I  stand  even  a 
few  minutes  without  support.  I  have  every  comfort  that  kind 
friends  can  yield,  and  feel,  generally,  a  tranquil  mind.  I 
trust  the  great  point  is  settled,  and  I  am  ready  to  depart ; 
but  the  time  when,  I  leave  with  God. 

"  3d  Oct. — I  am  not  worse  than  when  I  began  this  letter. 
— I  am,  your  very  affectionate  brother,  WM.  CAREY." 

His  latest  message  to  Christendom  was  sent  on  the  30th 
September,  most  appropriately  to  Christopher  Anderson : — 
"  As  everything  connected  with  the  full  accomplishment  of 
the  divine  promises  depends  on  the  almighty  power  of  God, 
pray  that  I  and  all  the  ministers  of  the  Word  may  take  hold 
of  His  strength,  and  go  about  our  work  as  fully  expecting  the 
accomplishment  of  them  all,  which,  however  difficult  and 
improbable  it  may  appear,  is  certain,  as  all  the  promises  of 
God  are  in  Him,  yea,  and  in  Him,  Amen."  Had  he  not,  all 
his  career,  therefore  expected  and  attempted  great  things  ? 

He  had  had  a  chair  fixed  in  a  small  platform  on  four 
wheels,  constructed  after  his  own  direction,  that  he  might  be 
wheeled  through  his  garden.  At  other  times  the  chief  gar- 
dener, Hullodhur,  reported  to  him  the  state  of  the  collection  of 
plants,  numbering  about  2000.  Dr.  Marshman  saw  his  friend 
daily,  sometimes  twice  a  day,  and  found  him  always  what 
Lord  Hastings  had  described  him  to  be — "  the  cheerful  old 


1833      VISITED  BY  LADY  W.  BENTINCK  AND  BISHOP  WILSON.       429 

man."  On  the  only  occasion  on  which  he  seemed  sad,  Dr. 
Marshman  as  he  was  leaving  the  room  turned  and  asked  why. 
"With  deep  feeling  the  dying  scholar  looked  to  the  others  and 
said,  "  After  I  am  gone  Brother  Marshman  will  turn  the  cows 
into  my  garden."  The  reply  was  prompt,  "  Far  be  it  from 
me ;  though  I  have  not  your  botanical  tastes,  the  care  of  the 
garden  in  which  you  have  taken  so  much  delight,  shall  be 
to  me  a  sacred  duty."1 

Of  strangers  his  most  frequent  visitor  was  the  Governor- 
General's  wife,  Lady  "William  Bentinck.  Her  husband  was  in 
South  India,  and  she  spent  most  of  her  time  in  the  Barrack- 
pore  summer  house  opposite  to  Carey's  house.  During  her 
frequent  converse  with  him,  in  his  life  as  well  as  now,  she 
studied  the  art  of  dying.  Daniel  Wilson,  Bishop  of  Calcutta, 
learned  to  delight  in  Serampore  almost  from  the  beginning  of 
his  long  episcopate,  and  in  later  years  he  lived  there  more 
than  in  Calcutta.  On  the  14th  February  1833  he  first  visited 
Carey,  "  his  interview  with  whom,  confined  as  he  was  to  his 
room,  and  apparently  on  the  verge  of  the  celestial  world,  was 
peculiarly  affecting."  In  the  last  of  subsequent  visits  the 
young  Bishop  asked  the  dying  missionary's  benediction. 
With  all  the  talk  was  the  same,  a  humble  resignation  to  the 
will  of  God,  firm  trust  in  the  Eedeemer  of  sinners,  a  joyful 
gratitude  for  the  wonderful  progress  of  His  Kingdom.  WThat 
a  picture  is  this  that  his  brethren  sent  home2  six  weeks  before 
he  passed  away.  "  Our  aged  and  venerable  brother  feels  him- 
self growing  gradually  weaker.  He  can  scarcely  rise  from 
his  couch,  and  it  is  with  great  difficulty  that  he  is  carried  out 
daily  to  take  the  air.  Yet  he  is  free  from  all  pain  as  to 
disease,  and  his  mind  is  in  a  most  serene  and  happy  state. 
He  is  in  full  possession  of  his  faculties,  and,  although  with 

1  For  years,  and  till  the  land  was  sold  to  the  India  Jute  Company  in  1875, 
the  Garden  was  kept  up  at  the  expense  of  John  Marshman,  Esq.,  C.S.I. 

2  Periodical  Accounts  of  the  Serampore  Mission,  30th  April  1834,  No.  81 
of  the  3d  Series. 


430  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1834 

difficulty  on  account  of  his  weakness,  lie  still  converses  with 
his  friends  from  day  to  day." 

The  hottest  season  of  the  year  crept  wearily  on  during  the 
month  of  May  and  the  first  week  of  June.  Each  night  he 
slept  well,  and  each  day  he  was  moved  to  his  couch  in  the 
dining-room  for  air.  There  he  lay,  unable  to  articulate  more 
than  a  word  or  two,  but  expressing  by  his  joyful  features 
union  in  prayer  and  interest  in  conversation.  On  the  22d 
May  the  English  mail  arrived  with  gladdening  intelligence 
from  Mr.  Hope — God's  people  were  praying  and  giving  anew 
for  the  mission.  Especially  was  his  own  latest  station  of 
Cherra-poonjee  remembered.  As  he  was  told  that  a  lady, 
anonymously,  had  offered  £500  for  that  mission,  £500  for  the 
college,  £500  for  the  translations,  and  £100  for  the  mission 
generally,  he  raised  his  emaciated  hands  to  heaven  and  mur- 
mured his  praise  to  God.  When  the  delirium  of  departure 
came  he  strove  to  reach  his  desk  that  he  might  write  a  letter 
of  thanks,  particularly  for  Cherra.  Then  he  would  recall  the 
fact  that  the  little  church  he  at  first  formed  had  branched 
out  into  six-and-twenty  churches,  in  which  the  ordinances  of 
the  Gospel  were  regularly  administered,  and  he  would  whisper, 
"  What  has  God  wrought !" 

The  last  Sabbath  had  come — and  the  last  full  day.  The 
constant  Marshman  was  with  him.  "  He  was  scarcely  able 
to  articulate,  and  after  a  little  conversation  I  knelt  down  by 
the  side  of  his  couch  and  prayed  with  him.  Finding  my 
mind  unexpectedly  drawn  out  to  bless  God  for  His  goodness, 
in  having  preserved  him  and  blessed  him  in  India  for  above 
forty  years,  and  made  him  such  an  instrument  of  good  to  His 
church ;  and  to  entreat  that  on  his  being  taken  home,  a  double 
portion  of  his  spirit  might  rest  on  those  who  remained  behind ; 
though  unable  to  speak,  he  testified  sufficiently  by  his  coun- 
tenance how  cordially  he  joined  in  this  prayer.  I  then  asked 
Mrs.  Carey  whether  she  thought  he  could  now  see  me.  She 


1834  HE  DIES.  431 

said  yes,  and  to  convince  me,  said,  '  Mr.  Marshman  wishes  to 
know  whether  you  now  see  him  ?'  He  answered  so  loudly 
that  I  could  hear  him, '  yes,  I  do/  and  shook  me  most  cordially 
by  the  hand.  I  then  left  him,  and  my  other  duties  did  not 
permit  me  to  reach  him  again  that  day.  The  next  morning, 
as  I  was  returning  home  before  sunrise,  I  met  our  Brethren 
Mack  and  Leechman  out  on  their  morning  ride,  when  Mack 
told  me  that  our  beloved  brother  had  been  rather  worse  all 
the  night,  and  that  he  had  just  left  him  very  ill.  I  immedi- 
ately hastened  home,  through  the  college  in  which  he  has 
lived  these  ten  years,  and  when  I  reached  his  room,  found 
that  he  had  just  entered  into  the  joy  of  his  Lord — Mrs. 
Carey,  his  son  Jabez,  my  son  John,  and  Mrs.  Mack  being 
present." 

It  was  Monday  the  9th  June  1834,  at  half-past  five,  as  the 
morning  sun  was  ascending  the  heavens  towards  the  perfect 
day.  The  rain-clouds  burst  and  covered  the  land  with  gloom 
next  morning  when  they  carried  William  Carey  to  the  converts' 
burial  ground  and  made  great  lamentation.  The  notice  was  too 
short  for  many  to  come  up  from  Calcutta  in  those  days.  "  Mr. 
Duff,  of  the  Scottish  Church,  returned  a  most  kind  letter." 
Sir  Charles  Metcalfe  and  the  Bishop  wrote  very  feelingly  in 
reply.  Lady  Bentinck  sent  the  Eev.  Mr.  Fisher  to  represent 
the  Governor-General  and  herself,  and  "a  most  kind  and 
feeling  answer,  for  she  truly  loved  the  venerable  man,"  while 
she  sadly  gazed  at  the  mourners  as  they  followed  the  simple 
funeral  up  the  right  bank  of  the  Hoogli,  past  the  College  and 
the  Mission  chapel.  Mr.  Yates,  who  had  taken  a  loving  fare- 
well of  the  scholar  he  had  been  reluctant  to  succeed,  repre- 
sented the  younger  brethren;  Lacroix,  Micaiah  Hill,  and 
Gogerly,  the  London  Missionary  Society.  Corrie  and  Dealtry 
do  not  seem  to  have  reached  the  spot  in  time.  The  Danish 
Governor,  his  wife,  and  the  members  of  council  were  there, 
and  the  flag  drooped  half-mast  high  as  on  the  occasion 


432  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1834 

of  a  Governor's  death.  The  road  was  lined  by  the  poor, 
Hindoo  and  Mohammedan,  for  whom  he  had  done  so  much. 
When  all,  walking  in  the  rain,  had  reached  the  open  grave, 
the  sun  shone  out,  and  Leechman  led  them  in  the  joyous 
resurrection  hymn,  "  Why  do  we  mourn  departing  friends  ? " 
"I  then  addressed  the  audience,"  wrote  Marshrnan,  "and, 
contrary  to  Brother  Mack's  foretelling  that  I  should  never 
get  through  it  for  tears,  I  did  not  shed  one.  Brother  Mack  was 
then  asked  to  address  the  native  members,  but  he,  seeing  the 
time  so  far  gone,  publicly  said  he  would  do  so  at  the  village. 
Brother  Robinson  then  prayed,  and  weeping — then  neither 
myself  nor  few  besides  could  refrain."  In  Jannuggur  village 
chapel  in  the  evening  the  Bengali  burial  hymn  was  sung, 
Pceritran  CJirister  Moront,  "  Salvation  by  the  death  of  Christ," 
and  Pran  Krishna,  the  oldest  disciple,  led  his  countrymen  in 
prayer.  Then  Mack  spoke  to  the  weeping  converts  with  all 
the  pathos  of  their  own  sweet  vernacular  from  the  words, 
"  For  David,  after  he  had  served  his  own  generation  by  the 
will  of  God,  fell  on  sleep."  Had  not  Carey's  been  a  royal 
career,  even  that  of  a  king  and  a  priest  unto  God  ? 

"  We,  as  a  mission,"  wrote  Dr.  Marshman  to  Christopher 
Anderson,  "  took  the  expense  on  ourselves,  not  suffering  his 
family  to  do  so,  as  we  shall  that  of  erecting  a  monument  for 
him.  Long  before  his  death  we  had,  by  a  letter  signed  by  us 
all,  assured  him  that  the  dear  relatives,  in  England  and 
France,  should  have  their  pensions  continued  as  though  he 
were  living,  and  that  Mrs.  Carey,  as  a  widow,  should  have 
Ks.100  monthly,  whatever  Mackintosh's  house  might  yield 
her." 

Twenty-two  years  before,  when  Chamberlain  was  com- 
plaining because  of  the  absence  of  stone,  or  brick,  or  inscrip- 
tion in  the  mission  burial-ground,  Carey  had  said,  "Why 
should  we  be  remembered  ?  I  think  when  I  am  dead  the 
sooner  I  am  forgotten  the  better."  Dr.  Johns  observed  that 


1834  HIS  TOMB.  433 

it  is  not  the  desire  of  the  persons  themselves  but  of  their 
friends  for  them,  to  which  Carey  replied,  "  I  think  of  others 
in  that  respect  as  I  do  of  myself."  When  his  second  wife 
was  taken  from  him,  his  affection  so  far  prevailed  that  he 
raised  a  memorial  stone,  and  in  his  will  left  this  "  order  "  to 
Mack  and  William  Eobinson,  his  executors :  "  I  direct  that 
my  funeral  be  as  plain  as  possible  ;  that  I  be  buried  by  the 
side  of  my  second  wife,  Charlotte  Emilia  Carey ;  and  that  the 
following  inscription  and  nothing  more  may  be  cut  on  the 
stone  which  commemorates  her,  either  above  or  below,  as  there 
may  be  room,  viz. — 

WILLIAM  CAREY,  BORN  AUGUST  17,  1761  ;  DIED 

"A  wretched,  poor,  and  helpless  worm, 
On  Thy  kind  arms  I  fall." 

The  surviving  brethren  seem  to  have  taken  the  small 
oblong  stone,  with  the  inscription  added  as  directed,  and  to 
have  placed  it  in  the  south  side  of  the  domed  square  block  of 
brick  and  white  plaster — since  renewed  from  time  to  time — 
which  stands  in  the  left  corner  of  the  God's-acre,  now  con- 
secrated by  the  mingled  dust  of  three  generations  of  mis- 
sionaries, converts,  and  Christian  people.  Ward's  monument 
stands  in  the  centre,  and  that  of  the  Marshman  family  at  the 
right  hand.  Three  and  a  half  years  afterwards  Joshua  Marsh- 
man followed  Carey ;  not  till  1847  was  Hannah  Marshman  laid 
beside  her  husband,  after  a  noble  life  of  eighty  years.  Mack 
had  gone  the  year  before,  cut  off  by  cholera  like  Ward.  But 
the  brotherhood  cannot  be  said  to  have  ended  till  John  Marsh- 
man, C.S.I.,  died  in  London  in  1877.  From  first  to  last  the 
three  families  contributed  to  the  cause  of  God  from  their  own 
earnings,  ninety  thousand  pounds,  and  the  world  would  never 
have  known  it  but  for  the  lack  of  the  charity  that  envieth  not 
on  the  part  of  Andrew  Fuller's  successors. 

Carey's  last  will  and  testament  begins :  "  I  utterly  disclaim 

2  F 


434  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1834 

all  or  any  right  or  title  to  the  premises  at  Serampore,  called 
the  mission  premises,  and  every  part  and  parcel  thereof ;  and 
do  hereby  declare  that  I  never  had,  or  supposed  myself  to 
have,  any  such  right  or  title.  I  give  and  bequeath  to  the 
College  of  Serampore  the  whole  of  my  museum,  consisting  of 
minerals,  shells,  corals,  insects,  and  other  natural  curiosities, 
and  a  Hortus  Siccus ;  also  the  folio  edition  of  Hortus 
Woburnensis,  which  was  presented  to  me  by  Lord  Hastings  ; 
Taylor's  Hebrew  Concordance,  my  collection  of  Bibles  in 
foreign  languages,  and  all  my  books  in  the  Italian  and  Ger- 
man languages."  His  widow,  Grace,  who  survived  him  a 
short  time,  had  the  little  capital  that  was  hers  before  her 
marriage  to  him,  and  he  desired  that  she  would  choose  from 
his  library  whatever  English  books  she  valued.  His  youngest 
son,  Jonathan,  was  not  in  want  of  money.  He  had  paid  Felix 
and  William  Ks.1500  each  in  his  lifetime.  In  order  to  leave 
a  like  sum  to  Jabez,  he  thus  provided :  "  From  the  failure  of 
funds  to  carry  my  former  intentions  into  effect,  I  direct  that  my 
library  be  sold."  In  dying  as  in  living  he  is  the  same — just 
to  others  because  self- devoted  to  Him  to  whom  he  thus 
formally  willed  himself,  "  On  Thy  kind  arms  I  fall." 

The  Indian  journals  rang  with  the  praises  of  the  mis- 
sionary whose  childlike  humility  and  sincerity,  patriotism 
and  learning,  had  long  made  India  proud  of  him.  After 
giving  himself,  William  Carey  had  died  so  poor  that  his 
books  had  to  be  sold  to  provide  f  187 : 10s.  for  one  of  his 
sons.  One  writer  asserted  that  this  man  had  contributed 
"  sixteen  lakhs  of  rupees "  to  the  cause  of  Christ  while 
connected  with  the  Serampore  Mission,  and  the  statement 
was  everywhere  repeated.  Dr.  Marshman  thereupon  pub- 
lished the  actual  facts,  "  as  no  one  would  have  felt  greater 
abhorrence  of  such  an  attempt  to  impose  on  the  Christian 
public  than  Dr.  Carey  himself,  had  he  been  living."  At  a 
time  when  the  old  Sicca  Eupee  was  worth  half  a  crown, 


1834  MONEY  ESTIMATE  OF  HIS  LIFE.  435 

Carey  received,  in  the  thirty-four  and  a  half  years  of  his 
residence  at  Serampore,  from  the  date  of  his  appointment  to 
the  College  of  Fort  William,  £45,000.1  Of  this  he  spent 
£7500  on  his  Botanic  Garden  in  that  period.  If  accuracy  is 
of  any  value  in  such  a  question,  which  has  little  more  than 
a  curious  biographical  interest,  then  we  must  add  the  seven 
years  previous  to  1801,  and  we  shall  find  that  the  shoe- 
maker of  Hackleton  received  in  all  for  himself  and  his  family 
£600  from  the  Society  which  he  called  into  existence,  and 
which  sent  him  forth,  while  he  spent  on  the  Christianisation 
and  civilisation  of  India  £1625  received  as  a  manufacturer 
of  indigo ;  and  £45,000  as  Professor  of  Sanskrit,  Bengali, 

1  "  From  May  1801  to  June  1807,  inclusive,  as  Teacher  of  Ben-        8a' 

gali  and  Sanskrit,  74  months  at  500  rupees  monthly  .  37,000 
From  1st  July  1807,  to  31st  May  1830,  as  Professor  of  ditto, 

at  1000  rupees  monthly 275,000 

From  23d  Oct.  to  July  1830,  inclusive,  300  rupees  monthly,  as 

Translator  of  Government  Regulations  ....  24, 600 
From  1st  July  1830,  to  31st  May  1834,  a  pension  of  500 

rupees  monthly 23,500 

"  Sicca  Rupees     .       360,100 

"It  is  possible,"  wrote  Dr.  Marshman,  "  that  if,  instead  of  thus  living 
to  God  and  his  cause  with  his  brethren  at  Serampore,  Dr.  Carey  had,  like  the 
other  professors  in  the  college,  lived  in  Calcutta  wholly  for  himself  and  his 
family,  he  might  have  laid  by  for  them  a  lakh  of  rupees  in  the  thirty  years 
he  was  employed  by  Government,  and  had  he  been  very  parsimonious,  pos- 
sibly a  lakh  and  a  half.  But  who  that  contrasts  the  pleasures  of  such  a  life, 
with  those  Dr.  Carey  enjoyed  in  promoting  with  his  own  funds  every  plan 
likely  to  plant  Christianity  among  the  natives  around  him,  without  having 
to  consult  any  one  in  thus  doing,  but  his  two  brethren  of  one  heart  with  him, 
who  contributed  as  much  as  himself  to  the  Redeemer's  cause,  and  the  fruit 
of  which  he  saw  before  his  death,  in  Twenty-six  Gospel  Churches  planted  in 
India  within  a  surface  of  about  eight  hundred  miles,  and  above  Forty  labour- 
ing brethren  raised  up  on  the  spot  amidst  them, — would  not  prefer  the 
latter  ?  What  must  have  been  the  feelings  on  a  deathbed  of  a  man  who  had 
lived  wholly  to  himself,  compared  with  the  joyous  tranquillity  which  filled 
Carey's  soul  in  the  prospect  of  entering  into  the  joy  of  his  Lord,  and  above  all 
with  what  he  felt  when,  a  few  days  before  his  decease,  he  said  to  his  com- 
panion in  labour  for  thirty-four  years  :  '  I  have  no  fears  :  I  have  no  doubts  ; 
I  have  not  a  wish  left  unsatisfied.'  " 


436  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY.  1834 

and  Marathi,  and  Bengali  Translator  to  Government,  or 
£46,625  in  all. 

In  the  Danish  Church  of  Serampore,  and  in  the  Mission 
Chapel,  and  afterwards  in  the  Union  Chapel  of  Calcutta,  Dr. 
Marshman  and  Mr.  Mack  preached  sermons  on  William 
Carey.  These  and  the  discourse  delivered  in  Charlotte 
Chapel,  Edinburgh,  on  the  30th  of  November,  by  Christopher 
Anderson,  were  the  only  materials  from  which  a  just  esti- 
mate of  Carey  and  his  work  could  be  formed  for  the  next 
quarter  of  a  century.  All,  and  especially  the  last,  were  as 
worthy  of  their  theme  as  eloges  pronounced  in  such  cir- 
cumstances could  be.  Marshman  spoke  from  the  text  chosen 
by  Carey  himself  a  few  weeks  before  his  death  as  contain- 
ing the  foundation  of  his  hope  and  the  source  of  his  calm 
and  tranquil  assurance — "  For  by  grace  are  ye  saved."  Mack 
found  his  inspiration  again,  as  he  had  done  in  the  Bengali 
village,  in  Paul's  words — "David,  after  he  had  served  his 
own  generation,  by  the  will  of  God,  fell  on  sleep."  The 
Edinburgh  preacher  turned  to  the  message  of  Isaiah  where- 
with Carey  used  to  comfort  himself  in  his  early  loneliness,  and 
which  the  Ee vised  Version  renders — "  Look  unto  Abraham 
your  father;  for  when  he  was  but  one  I  called  him  and 
I  blessed  him  and  made  him  many."  And  in  Bombay  the 
young  contemporary  missionary  who  most  nearly  resembled 
Carey  in  personal  saintliness,  scholarship,  and  self-devotion, 
John  Wilson,  thus  wrote  : — 

"Dr.  Carey,  the  first  of  living  missionaries,  the  most 
honoured  and  the  most  successful  since  the  time  of  the 
Apostles,  has  closed  his  long  and  influential  career.  Indeed  his 
spirit,  his  life,  and  his  labours,  were  truly  apostolic.  .  .  .  The 
Spirit  of  God  which  was  in  him  led  him  forward  from  strength 
to  strength,  supported  him  under  privation,  enabled  him  to 
overcome  in  a  fight  that  seemed  without  hope.  Like  the 
beloved  disciple,  whom  he  resembled  in  simplicity  of  mind, 


1834  JOHN  WILSON  ON  WILLIAM  CAREY.  437 

and  in  seeking  to  draw  sinners  to  Christ  altogether  by  the 
cords  of  love,  he  outlived  his  trials  to  enjoy  a  peaceful  and 
honoured  old  age,  to  know  that  his  Master's  cause  was  pros- 
pering, and  that  his  own  name  was  named  with  reverence  and 
blessing  in  every  country  where  a  Christian  dwelt.  Perhaps 
no  man  ever  exerted  a  greater  influence  for  good  on  a  great 
cause.  Who  that  saw  him  poor,  and  in  seats  of  learning 
uneducated,  embark  on  such  an  enterprise,  could  ever  dream 
that,  in  little  more  than  forty  years,  Christendom  should  be 
animated  with  the  same  spirit,  thousands  forsake  all  to  follow 
his  example,  and  that  the  Word  of  Life  should  be  translated 
into  almost  every  language  and  preached  in  almost  every 
corner  of  the  earth  ?  " 

As  the  Founder  and  Father  of  Modern  Missions  the  char- 
acter and  career  of  William  Carey  are  being  revealed  every 
year  in  the  progress  and,  as  yet,  the  purity  of  the  expansion 
of  the  Church  and  of  the  English-speaking  races  in  the  two- 
thirds  of  the  world  which  are  still  outside  of  Christendom. 
The  £13  :  2  :  6  of  Kettering  became  £400,000  before  he  died, 
and  is  now  £2,330,000  a  year.  The  one  ordained  English  mis- 
sionary is  now  a  band  of  3000  sent  out  by  a  hundred  agencies 
of  the  Eeformed  Churches.  The  solitary  converts,  each  with 
no  influence  on  his  people,  or  country,  or  generation,  are  now 
about  two-thirds  of  a  million  in  India  alone,  and  in  all  the 
lands  outside  of  Christendom  two  and  a  half  millions,  of  whom 
thirty  thousand  are  missionaries  to  their  own  countrymen, 
and  many  are  leaders  of  the  native  communities.  Since  the 
first  edition  of  the  Bengali  New  Testament  appeared  at  the 
beginning  of  the  century  220  millions  of  copies  of  the 
Holy  Scriptures  have  been  printed,  of  which  one-half  are 
in  340  of  the  non-English  tongues  of  the  world.  The  Ben- 
gali school  of  Mudnabati,  the  Christian  College  of  Seram- 
pore,  have  set  in  motion  educational  forces  that  are  bringing 
nations  to  the  birth,  are  passing  under  Bible  instruction 


438  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY.  1825-1842 

every  day  more  than  four  hundred  thousand  boys  and  girls, 
young  men  and  maidens  of  the  dark  races  of  mankind. 

The  historian  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  and 
Eobert  Hall,  whom  Sir  James  Mackintosh  pronounced  the 
greatest  English  orator,  have  both  attempted  an  estimate  of 
Carey's  genius  and  influence.  Dr.  E.  A.  Cox x  remarks  : — 
"  Had  he  been  born  in  the  sixteenth  century  he  might  have 
been  a  Luther,  to  give  Protestantism  to  Europe ;  had  he  turned 
his  thought  and  observations  merely  to  natural  philosophy  he 
might  have  been  a  Newton ;  but  his  faculties,  consecrated 
by  religion  to  a  still  higher  end,  have  gained  for  him  the 
sublime  distinction  of  having  been  the  Translator  of  the 
Scriptures  and  the  Benefactor  of  Asia."  Eobert  Hall 2  spoke 
thus  of  Carey  in  his  lifetime  : — "  That  extraordinary  man  who 
from  the  lowest  obscurity  and  poverty,  without  assistance 
rose  by  dint  of  unrelenting  industry  to  the  highest  honours 
of  literature,  became  one  of  the  first  of  Orientalists,  the  first 
of  Missionaries,  and  the  instrument  of  diffusing  more  religious 
knowledge  among  his  contemporaries  than  has  fallen  to  the 
lot  of  any  individual  since  the  Eeformation;  a  man  who 
unites  with  the  most  profound  and  varied  attainments  the 
fervour  of  an  evangelist,  the  piety  of  a  saint,  and  the  simpli- 
city of  a  child."  Except  the  portrait  in  London  and  the 
bust  in  Calcutta,  no  memorial,  national,  catholic,  or  sectarian, 
marks  the  work  of  Carey.  That  work  is  meanwhile  most 
appropriately  embodied  in  the  College  for  natives  at  Seram- 
pore,  and  in  the  Lall  Bazaar  chapel  and  Benevolent  Insti- 
tution for  the  poor  of  Calcutta.  The  Church  of  England, 
which  he  left,  like  the  Wesleys,  has  recently  allowed  E.  S. 
Eobinson,  Esq.,  of  Bristol,  to  place  an  inscription,  on  brass, 
in  the  porch  of  the  church  of  his  native  village,  beside  the 
stone  which  he  erected  over  the  remains  of  his  father,  the 

1  History  of  the  Baptist  Missionary  Society,  from  1792  to  1842.     London, 
1842.  2  Sermon  on  the  Death  of  the  Rev.  Dr.  Ryland  in  1825. 


1884  FATHER  OF  THE  SECOND  REFORMATION.  439 

parish  clerk : — "  To  the  Glory  of  God  and  in  memory  of 
Dr.  Wm.  Carey,  Missionary  and  Orientalist." 

Neither  Baptist  nor  Anglican,  the  present  biographer 
would,  in  the  name  of  the  country  which  stood  firm  in  its 
support  of  Carey  and  Serampore  all  through  the  forty-one 
years  of  his  apostolate,  add  this  final  eulogy,  pronounced  in 
St.  George's  Free  Church,  Edinburgh,  on  the  man  who,  more 
than  any  other  and  before  all  others,  made  the  civilisation  of 
the  modern  world  by  the  English-speaking  races  a  Christian 
force. 1  Carey,  childlike  in  his  humility,  is  the  most  striking 
illustration  in  all  Hagiology,  Protestant  or  Eomanist,  of  the 
Lord's  declaration  to  the  Twelve  when  He  had  set  a  little 
child  in  the  midst  of  them,  "Whosoever  shall  humble  himself 
as  this  little  child,  the  same  is  greatest  in  the  kingdom  of 
heaven."  Yet  we,  ninety-three  years  after  he  went  forth  with 
the  Gospel  to  Hindostan,  may  venture  to  place  him  where  the 
Church  History  of  the  future  is  likely  to  keep  him — amid  the 
uncrowned  kings  of  men  who  have  made  Christian  England 
what  it  is,  under  God,  to  its  own  people  and  to  half  the 
human  race.  These  are  Chaucer,  the  Father  of  English  Verse ; 
Wiclif,  the  Father  of  the  Evangelical  Eeformation  in  all  lands ; 
Hooker,  the  Father  of  English  Prose  ;  Shakspere,  the  Father 
of  English  Literature ;  Milton,  the  Father  of  the  English 
Epic  ;  Bunyan,  the  Father  of  English  Allegory ;  Newton,  the 
Father  of  English  Science  ;  Carey,  the  Father  of  the  Second 
[Reformation  through  Foreign  Missions. 

1  The  Evangelical  Succession.     Third  Series.   Edinburgh,  Macniven  and 
Wallace,  1884. 


APPENDIX. 

i. 

THE  BOND  OF  THE  MISSIONAEY  BROTHERHOOD 
OF  SERAMPORE. 

The  following  is  the  FORM  of  AGREEMENT  described  at 
page  129.  It  was  printed  at  the  Brethren's  Press,  Serampore, 
in  1805,  and  reprinted  at  the  Baptist  Mission  Press,  Calcutta,  in 
1874,  with  this  title-page  : — 

FORM  of  AGREEMENT  respecting  the  Great  Principles  upon 
which  the  Brethren  of  the  Mission  at  Serampore  think  it 
their  duty  to  act  in  the  work  of  instructing  the  Heathen, 
agreed  upon  at  a  Meeting  of  the  Brethren  at  Serampore, 
on  Monday,  October  7,  1805. 

THE  REDEEMER,  in  planting  us  in  this  heathen  nation,  rather  than  in 
any  other,  has  imposed  upon  us  the  cultivation  of  peculiar  qualifica- 
tions. We  are  firmly  persuaded  that  Paul  might  plant  and  Apollos 
water,  in  vain,  in  any  part  of  the  world,  did  not  God  give  the  increase. 
We  are  sure  that  only  those  who  are  ordained  to  eternal  life  will 
believe,  and  that  God  alone  can  add  to  the  church  such  as  shall  be 
saved.  Nevertheless  we  cannot  but  observe  with  admiration  that  Paul, 
the  great  champion  for  the  glorious  doctrines  of  free  and  sovereign 
grace,  was  the  most  conspicuous  for  his  personal  zeal  in  the  work  of 
persuading  men  to  be  reconciled  to  God.  In  this  respect  he  is  a  noble 
example  for  our  imitation.  Our  Lord  intimated  to  those  of  His  Apostles 
who  were  fishermen,  that  He  would  make  them  fishers  of  men,  inti- 
mating that  in  all  weathers,  and  amidst  every  disappointment,  they 
were  to  aim  at  drawing  men  to  the  shores  of  eternal  life.  Solomon 
says,  "  He  that  winneth  souls  is  wise,"  implying,  no  doubt,  that  the 


442  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY. 

work  of  gaining  over  men  to  the  side  of  God,  was  to  be  done  by 
winning  methods,  and  that  it  required  the  greatest  wisdom  to  do  it 
with  success.  Upon  these  points,  we  think  it  right  to  fix  our  serious 
and  abiding  attention. 

First.  In  order  to  be  prepared  for  our  great  and  solemn  work, 
it  is  absolutely  necessary  that  we  set  an  infinite  value  upon  immortal 
souls  ;  that  we  often  endeavour  to  affect  our  minds  with  the  dread- 
ful loss  sustained  by  an  unconverted  soul  launched  into  eternity. 
It  becomes  us  to  fix  in  our  minds  the  awful  doctrine  of  eternal  punish- 
ment, and  to  realise  frequently  the  inconceivably  awful  condition  of 
this  vast  country,  lying  in  the  arms  of  the  wicked  one.  If  we  have 
not  this  awful  sense  of  the  value  of  souls,  it  is  impossible  that  we  can 
feel  aright  in  any  other  part  of  our  work,  and  in  this  case  it  had  been 
better  for  us  to  have  been  in  any  other  situation  rather  than  in  that 
of  a  Missionary.  Oh  !  may  our  hearts  bleed  over  these  poor  idolaters, 
and  may  their  case  lie  with  continued  weight  on  our  minds,  that  we 
may  resemble  that  eminent  Missionary,  who  compared  the  travail  of 
his  soul,  on  account  of  the  spiritual  state  of  those  committed  to  his 
charge,  to  the  pains  of  childbirth.  But  while  we  thus  mourn  over 
their  miserable  condition,  we  should  not  be  discouraged,  as  though 
their  recovery  were  impossible.  He  who  raised  the  sottish  and 
brutalised  Britons  to  sit  in  heavenly  places  in  Christ  Jesus,  can  raise 
these  slaves  of  superstition,  purify  their  hearts  by  faith,  and  make 
them  worshippers  of  the  one  God  in  spirit  and  in  truth.  The  promises 
are  fully  sufficient  to  remove  our  doubts,  and  to  make  us  anticipate 
that  not  very  distant  period  when  He  will  famish  all  the  gods  of  India, 
and  cause  these  very  idolaters  to  cast  their  idols  to  the  moles  and 
to  the  bats,  and  renounce  for  ever  the  work  of  their  own  hands. 

Secondly.  It  is  very  important  that  we  should  gain  all  the  infor- 
mation we  can  of  the  snares  and  delusions  in  which  these  heathens  are 
held.  By  this  means  we  shall  be  able  to  converse  with  them  in  an  intel- 
ligible manner.  To  know  their  modes  of  thinking,  their  habits,  their 
propensities,  their  antipathies,  the  way  in  which  they  reason  about  God, 
sin,  holiness,  the  way  of  salvation,  and  a  future  state,  to  be  aware  of 
the  bewitching  nature  of  their  idolatrous  worship,  feasts,  songs,  etc.,  is 
of  the  highest  consequence,  if  we  would  gain  their  attention  to  our  dis- 
course, and  would  avoid  being  barbarians  to  them.  This  knowledge 
may  be  easily  obtained  by  conversing  with  sensible  natives,  by  reading 
some  parts  of  their  works  and  by  attentively  observing  their  manners 
and  customs. 

Thirdly.     It  is  necessary,  in  our  intercourse  with  the  Hindoos, 


APPENDIX.  443 

that,  as  far  as  we  are  able,  we  abstain  from  those  things  which  would 
increase  their  prejudices  against  the  Gospel.  Those  parts  of  English 
manners  which  are  most  offensive  to  them  should  be  kept  out  of  sight 
as  much  as  possible.  We  should  also  avoid  every  degree  of  cruelty  to 
animals.  Nor  is  it  advisable  at  once  to  attack  their  prejudices  by 
exhibiting  with  acrimony  the  sins  of  their  gods ;  neither  should  we 
upon  any  account  do  violence  to  their  images,  nor  interrupt  their 
worship.  The  real  conquests  of  the  Gospel  are  those  of  love  :  "  And 
I,  if  I  be  lifted  up,  will  draw  all  men  unto  me."  In  this  respect,  let 
us  be  continually  fearful  lest  one  unguarded  word,  or  one  unnecessary 
display  of  the  difference  betwixt  us,  in  manners,  etc.,  should  set  the 
natives  at  a  greater  distance  from  us.  Paul's  readiness  to  become  all 
things  to  all  men,  that  he  might  by  any  means  save  some,  and  his  dis- 
position to  abstain  even  from  necessary  comforts  that  he  might  not 
offend  the  weak,  are  circumstances  worthy  our  particular  notice.  This 
line  of  conduct  we  may  be  sure  was  founded  on  the  wisest  principles. 
Placed  amidst  a  people  very  much  like  the  hearers  of  the  Apostle,  in 
many  respects,  we  may  now  perceive  the  solid  wisdom  which  guided 
him  as  a  Missionary.  The  mild  manners  of  the  Moravians,  and  also 
of  the  Quakers  towards  the  North  American  Indians,  have,  in  many 
instances,  gained  the  affections  and  confidence  of  heathens  in  a  wonder- 
ful manner.  He  who  is  too  proud  to  stoop  to  others,  in  order  to 
draw  them  to  him,  though  he  may  know  that  they  are  in  many 
respects  inferior  to  himself,  is  ill-qualified  to  become  a  Missionary. 
The  words  of  a  most  successful  preacher  of  the  Gospel  still  living, 
"  that  he  would  not  care  if  the  people  trampled  him  under  their  feet, 
if  he  might  become  useful  to  their  souls,"  are  expressive  of  the  very 
temper  we  should  always  cultivate. 

Fourthly.  It  becomes  us  to  watch  all  opportunities  of  doing  good. 
A  missionary  would  be  highly  culpable  if  he  contented  himself  with 
preaching  two  or  three  times  a  week  to  those  persons  whom  he  might 
be  able  to  get  together  into  a  place  of  worship.  To  carry  on  conversa- 
tions with  the  natives  almost  every  hour  in  the  day,  to  go  from  village 
to  village,  from  market  to  market,  from  one  assembly  to  another,  to 
talk  to  servants,  labourers,  etc.,  as  often  as  opportunity  offers,  and  to 
be  instant  in  season  and  out  of  season — this  is  the  life  to  which  we 
are  called  in  this  country.  We  are  apt  to  relax  in  these  active  exer- 
tions, especially  in  a  warm  climate  ;  but  we  shall  do  well  always  to  fix 
it  in  our  minds,  that  life  is  short,  that  all  around  us  are  perishing,  and 
that  we  incur  a  dreadful  woe  if  we  proclaim  not  the  glad  tidings  of 
salvation. 


444  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY. 

Fifthly.  In  preaching  to  the  heathen,  we  must  keep  to  the 
example  of  Paul,  and  make  the  great  subject  of  our  preaching,  Christ 
the  Crucified.  It  would  be  very  easy  for  a  missionary  to  preach 
nothing  but  truths,  and  that  for  many  years  together,  without  any 
well-grounded  hope  of  becoming  useful  to  one  soul.  The  doctrine  of 
Christ's  expiatory  death  and  all-sufficient  merits  has  been,  and  must 
ever  remain,  the  grand  mean  of  conversion.  This  doctrine,  and  others 
immediately  connected  with  it,  have  constantly  nourished  and  sancti- 
fied the  church.  Oh  that  these  glorious  truths  may  ever  be  the  joy 
and  strength  of  our  own  souls,  and  then  they  will  not  fail  to  become 
the  matter  of  our  conversation  to  others.  It  was  the  proclaiming  of 
these  doctrines  that  made  the  Reformation  from  Popery  in  the  time 
of  Luther  spread  with  such  rapidity.  It  was  these  truths  that  filled 
the  sermons  of  the  modern  Apostles,  Whitfield,  Wesley,  etc.,  when 
the  light  of  the  Gospel  which  had  been  held  up  with  such  glorious 
effects  by  the  Puritans  was  almost  extinguished  in  England.  It  is  a 
well-known  fact  that  the  most  successful  missionaries  in  the  world  at 
the  present  day  make  the  atonement  of  Christ  their  continued  theme. 
We  mean  the  Moravians.  They  attribute  all  their  success  to  the 
preaching  of  the  death  of  our  Saviour.  So  far  as  our  experience  goes 
in  this  work,  we  must  freely  acknowledge,  that  every  Hindoo  among 
us  who  has  been  gained  to  Christ,  has  been  won  by  the  astonishing 
and  all-constraining  love  exhibited  in  our  Redeemer's  propitiatory 
death.  Oh  then  may  we  resolve  to  know  nothing  among  Hindoos 
and  Mussulmans  but  Christ  and  Him  crucified. 

Sixthly.  It  is  absolutely  necessary  that  the  natives  should  have 
an  entire  confidence  in  us,  and  feel  quite  at  home  in  our  company. 
To  gain  this  confidence  we  must  on  all  occasions  be  willing  to  hear 
their  complaints  ;  we  must  give  them  the  kindest  advice,  and  we  must 
decide  upon  everything  brought  before  us  in  the  most  open,  upright, 
and  impartial  manner.  We  ought  to  be  easy  of  access,  to  condescend 
to  them  as  much  as  possible,  and  on  all  occasions  to  treat  them  as  our 
equals.  All  passionate  behaviour  will  sink  our  characters  exceed- 
ingly in  their  estimation.  All  force,  and  everything  haughty,  reserved, 
and  forbidding,  it  becomes  us  ever  to  shun  with  the  greatest  care.  We 
can  never  make  sacrifices  too  great,  when  the  eternal  salvation  of  souls 
is  the  object,  except,  indeed,  we  sacrifice  the  commands  of  Christ. 

Seventhly.  Another  important  part  of  our  work  is  to  build  up, 
and  watch  over,  the  souls  that  may  be  gathered.  In  this  work  we 
shall  do  well  to  simplify  our  first  instructions  as  much  as  possible,  and 
to  press  the  great  principles  of  the  Gospel  upon  the  minds  of  the  con- 


APPENDIX.  445 

verts  till  they  be  thoroughly  settled  and  grounded  in  the  foundation  of 
their  hope  towards  God.  We  must  be  willing  to  spend  some  time  with 
them  daily,  if  possible,  in  this  work.  We  must  have  much  patience 
with  them,  though  they  may  grow  very  slowly  in  divine  knowledge. 

We  ought  also  to  endeavour  as  much  as  possible  to  form  them  to 
habits  of  industry,  and  assist  them  in  procuring  such  employments  as 
may  be  pursued  with  the  least  danger  of  temptations  to  evil.  Here 
too  we  shall  have  occasion  to  exercise  much  tenderness  and  forbear- 
ance, knowing  that  industrious  habits  are  formed  with  difficulty  by  all 
heathen  nations.  We  ought  also  to  remember  that  these  persons 
have  made  no  common  sacrifices  in  renouncing  their  connections,  their 
homes,  their  former  situations  and  means  of  support,  and  that  it  will 
be  very  difficult  for  them  to  procure  employment  with  heathen  masters. 
In  these  circumstances,  if  we  do  not  sympathise  with  them  in  their 
temporal  losses  for  Christ,  we  shall  be  guilty  of  great  cruelty. 

As  we  consider  it  our  duty  to  honour  the  civil  magistrate,  and  in 
every  state  and  country  to  render  him  the  readiest  obedience,  whether 
we  be  persecuted  or  protected,  it  becomes  us  to  instruct  our  native 
brethren  in  the  same  principles.  A  sense  of  gratitude  too  presses  this 
obligation  upon  us  in  a  peculiar  manner  in  return  for  the  liberal  pro- 
tection we  have  experienced.  It  is  equally  our  wisdom  and  our  duty 
also  to  show  to  the  civil  power,  that  it  has  nothing  to  fear  from  the 
progress  of  Missions,  since  a  real  follower  of  Christ  must  resist  the 
example  of  his  Great  Master,  and  all  the  precepts  the  Bible  contains 
on  this  subject,  before  he  can  become  disloyal.  Converted  heathens, 
being  brought  over  to  the  religion  of  their  Christian  Governors,  if 
duly  instructed,  are  much  more  likely  to  love  them,  and  be  united 
to  them,  than  subjects  of  a  different  religion. 

To  bear  the  faults  of  our  native  brethren,  so  as  to  reprove  them 
with  tenderness,  and  set  them  right  in  the  necessity  of  a  holy  conver- 
sation, is  a  very  necessary  duty.  We  should  remember  the  gross 
darkness  in  which  they  were  so  lately  involved,  having  never  had  any 
just  and  adequate  ideas  of  the  evil  of  sin,  or  its  consequences.  We 
should  also  recollect  how  backward  human  nature  is  in  forming 
spiritual  ideas,  and  entering  upon  a  holy  self-denying  conversation. 
We  ought  not,  therefore,  even  after  many  falls,  to  give  up  and  cast 
away  a  relapsed  convert  while  he  manifests  the  least  inclination  to  be 
washed  from  his  filthiness. 

In  walking  before  native  converts,  much  care  and  circumspection 
are  absolutely  necessary.  The  falls  of  Christians  in  Europe  have  not 
such  a  fatal  tendency  as  they  must  have  in  this  country,  because  there 


446  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAKEY. 

the  word  of  God  always  commands  more  attention  than  the  conduct 
of  the  most  exalted  Christian.  But  here  those  around  us,  in  conse- 
quence of  their  little  knowledge  of  the  Scriptures,  must  necessarily 
take  our  conduct  as  a  specimen  of  what  Christ  looks  for  in  His  dis- 
ciples. They  know  only  the  Saviour  and  His  doctrine  as  they  shine 
forth  in  us. 

In  conversing  with  the  wives  of  native  converts,  and  leading  them 
on  in  the  ways  of  Christ,  so  that  they  may  be  an  ornament  to  the 
Christian  cause,  and  make  known  the  Gospel  to  the  native  women,  we 
hope  always  to  have  the  assistance  of  the  females  who  have  embarked 
with  us  in  the  mission.  We  see  that  in  primitive  times  the  Apostles 
were  very  much  assisted  in  their  great  work  by  several  pious  females. 
The  great  value  of  female  help  may  easily  be  appreciated  if  we  con- 
sider how  much  the  Asiatic  women  are  shut  up  from  the  men,  and 
especially  from  men  of  another  caste.  It  behoves  us,  therefore,  to 
afford  to  our  European  sisters  all  possible  assistance  in  acquiring  the 
language,  that  they  may,  in  every  way  which  Providence  may  open  to 
them,  become  instrumental  in  promoting  the  salvation  of  the  millions  of 
native  women  who  are  in  a  great  measure  excluded  from  all  opportuni- 
ties of  hearing  the  word  from  the  mouths  of  European  missionaries.  A 
European  sister  may  do  much  for  the  cause  in  this  respect,  by  promot- 
ing the  holiness,  and  stirring  up  the  zeal,  of  the  female  native  converts. 
A  real  missionary  becomes  in  a  sense  a  father  to  his  people.  If 
he  feel  all  the  anxiety  and  tender  solicitude  of  a  father,  all  that  delight 
in  their  welfare  and  company  that  a  father  does  in  the  midst  of  his 
children,  they  will  feel  all  that  freedom  with,  and  confidence  in  him 
which  he  can  desire.  He  will  be  wholly  unable  to  lead  them  on  in  a  regu- 
lar and  happy  manner,  unless  they  can  be  induced  to  open  their  minds 
to  him,  and  unless  a  sincere  and  mutual  esteem  subsist  on  both  sides. 

Eighthly.  Another  part  of  our  work  is  the  forming  our  native 
brethren  to  usefulness,  fostering  every  kind  of  genius,  and  cherishing 
every  gift  and  grace  in  them.  In  this  respect  we  can  scarcely  be  too 
lavish  of  our  attention  to  their  improvement.  It  is  only  by  means  of 
native  preachers  that  we  can  hope  for  the  universal  spread  of  the 
Gospel  throughout  this  immense  continent.  Europeans  are  too  few, 
and  their  subsistence  costs  too  much,  for  us  ever  to  hope  that  they  can 
possibly  be  the  instruments  of  the  universal  diffusion  of  the  word 
amongst  so  many  millions  of  souls,  spread  over  such  a  large  portion  of 
the  habitable  globe.  Their  incapability  of  bearing  the  intense  heat  of 
the  climate  in  perpetual  itineracies,  and  the  heavy  expenses  of  their 
journeys,  not  to  say  anything  of  the  prejudices  of  the  natives  against 


APPENDIX.  447 

the  very  presence  of  Europeans,  and  the  great  difficulty  of  becoming 
fluent  in  their  languages,  render  it  absolute  duty  to  cherish  native 
gifts,  and  to  send  forth  as  many  native  preachers  as  possible.  If  the 
practice  of  confining  the  ministry  of  the  word  to  a  single  individual 
in  a  church  be  once  established  amongst  us,  we  despair  of  the  Gospel's 
ever  making  much  progress  in  India  by  our  means.  Let  us  there- 
fore use  every  gift,  and  continually  urge  on  our  .native  brethren  to 
press  upon  their  countrymen  the  glorious  Gospel  of  the  blessed  God. 

Still  further  to  strengthen  the  cause  of  Christ  in  this  country,  and, 
as  far  as  in  our  power,  to  give  it  a  permanent  establishment,  even 
when  the  efforts  of  Europeans  may  fail,  we  think  it  our  duty,  as  soon 
as  possible,  to  advise  the  native  brethren  who  may  be  formed  into 
separate  churches,  to  choose  their  pastors  and  deacons  from  amongst 
their  own  countrymen,  that  the  word  may  be  statedly  preached,  and 
the  ordinances  of  Christ  administered,  in  each  church,  by  the  native 
minister,  as  much  as  possible,  without  the  interference  of  the  mis- 
sionary of  the  district,  who  will  constantly  superintend  their  affairs, 
give  them  advice  in  cases  of  order  and  discipline,  and  correct  any 
errors  into  which  they  may  fall,  and  who,  joying  and  beholding 
their  order,  and  the  steadfastness  of  their  faith  in  Christ,  may  direct 
his  efforts  continually  to  the  planting  of  new  churches  in  other  places, 
and  to  the  spread  of  the  Gospel  throughout  his  district  as  much  as  in 
his  power.  By  this  means,  the  unity  of  the  missionary  character  will 
be  preserved,  all  the  missionaries  will  still  form  one  body,  each  one 
movable  as  the  good  of  the  cause  may  require,  the  different  native 
churches  will  also  naturally  learn  to  care  and  provide  for  their 
ministers,  for  their  church  expenses,  the  raising  places  of  worship, 
etc.,  and  the  whole  administration  will  assume  a  native  aspect,  by 
which  means  the  inhabitants  will  more  readily  identify  the  cause  as 
belonging  to  their  own  nation,  and  their  prejudices  at  falling  into  the 
hands  of  Europeans  will  entirely  vanish.  It  may  be  hoped  too  that 
the  pastors  of  these  churches,  and  the  members  in  general,  will  feel  a 
new  energy  in  attempting  to  spread  the  Gospel,  when  they  shall  thus 
freely  enjoy  the  privileges  of  the  Gospel  amongst  themselves. 

Under  the  divine  blessing,  if,  in  the  course  of  a  few  years,  a 
number  of  native  churches  be  thus  established,  from  them  the  word  of 
God  may  sound  out  even  to  the  extremities  of  India,  and  numbers  of 
preachers  being  raised  up  and  sent  forth,  may  form  a  body  of  native 
missionaries,  inured  to  the  climate,  acquainted  with  the  customs,  lan- 
guage, modes  of  speech  and  reasoning  of  the  inhabitants  ;  able  to 
become  perfectly  familiar  with  them,  to  enter  their  houses,  to  live 


448  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY. 

upon  their  food,  to  sleep  with  them,  or  under  a  tree  ;  and  who  may 
travel  from  one  end  of  the  country  to  the  other  almost  without  any 
expense.  These  churches  will  be  in  no  immediate  danger  of  falling 
into  errors  or  disorders,  because  the  whole  of  their  affairs  will  be 
constantly  superintended  by  a  European  missionary.  The  advantages 
of  this  plan  are  so  evident,  that  to  carry  it  into  complete  effect  ought 
to  be  our  continued  concern.  That  we  may  discharge  the  important 
obligations  of  watching  over  these  infant  churches  when  formed,  and 
of  urging  them  to  maintain  a  steady  discipline,  to  hold  forth  the  clear 
and  cheering  light  of  evangelical  truth  in  this  region  and  shadow  of 
death,  and  to  walk  in  all  respects  as  those  who  have  been  called  out 
of  darkness  into  marvellous  light,  we  should  continually  go  to  the 
Source  of  all  grace  and  strength  ;  for  if,  to  become  the  shepherd  of 
one  church  be  a  most  solemn  and  weighty  charge,  what  must  it  be  to 
watch  over  a  number  of  churches  just  raised  from  a  state  of  heathenism, 
and  placed  at  a  distance  from  each  other  ? 

We  have  thought  it  our  duty  not  to  change  the  names  of  native 
converts,  observing  from  Scripture  that  the  Apostles  did  not  change 
those  of  the  first  Christians  turned  from  heathenism,  as  the  names 
Epaphroditus,  Phebe,  Fortunatus,  Sylvanus,  Apollos,  Hermes,  Junia, 
Narcissus,  etc.,  prove.  Almost  all  these  names  are  derived  from  those 
of  heathen  gods.  We  think  the  great  object  which  Divine  Providence 
has  in  view  in  causing  the  Gospel  to  be  promulgated  in  the  world,  is 
not  the  changing  of  the  names,  the  dress,  the  food,  and  the  innocent 
usages  of  mankind,  but  to  produce  a  moral  and  divine  change  in  the 
hearts  and  conduct  of  men.  It  would  not  be  right  to  perpetuate  the 
names  of  heathen  gods  amongst  Christians,  neither  is  it  necessary  or 
prudent  to  give  a  new  name  to  every  man  after  his  conversion,  as 
hereby  the  economy  of  families,  neighbourhoods,  etc.,  would  be  need- 
lessly disturbed.  In  other  respects,  we  think  it  our  duty  to  lead  our 
brethren  by  example,  by  mild  persuasion,  and  by  opening  and  illumi- 
nating their  minds  in  a  gradual  way,  rather  than  use  authoritative 
means.  By  this  they  learn  to  see  the  evil  of  a  custom,  and  then  to 
despise  and  forsake  it ;  whereas  in  cases  wherein  force  is  used,  though 
they  may  leave  off  that  which  is  wrong  while  in  our  presence,  yet  not 
having  seen  the  evil  of  it,  they  are  in  danger  of  using  hypocrisy,  and 
of  doing  that  out  of  our  presence  which  they  dare  not  do  in  it. 

Ninthly.  It  becomes  us  also  to  labour  with  all  our  might  in 
forwarding  translations  of  the  sacred  Scriptures  in  the  languages  of 
Hindoostan.  The  help  which  God  has  afforded  us  already  in  this 
work  is  a  loud  call  to  us  to  "  go  forward."  So  far,  therefore,  as  God 


APPENDIX.  449 

has  qualified  us  to  learn  those  languages  which  are  necessary,  we  con- 
sider it  our  bounden  duty  to  apply  with  unwearied  assiduity  in 
acquiring  them.  We  consider  the  publication  of  the  Divine  Word 
throughout  India  as  an  object  which  we  ought  never  to  give  up  till 
accomplished,  looking  to  the  Fountain  of  all  knowledge  and  strength 
to  qualify  us  for  this  great  work,  and  to  carry  us  through  it  to  the 
praise  of  His  Holy  Name. 

It  becomes  us  to  use  all  assiduity  in  explaining  and  distributing 
the  Divine  Word  on  all  occasions,  and  by  every  means  in  our  power  to 
excite  the  attention  and  the  reverence  of  the  natives  towards  it,  as  the 
fountain  of  eternal  truth,  and  the  Message  of  Salvation  to  men.  It  is 
our  duty  also  to  distribute,  as  extensively  as  possible,  the  different 
religious  tracts  which  are  published.  Considering  how  much  the 
general  diffusion  of  the  knowledge  of  Christ  depends  upon  a  liberal 
and  constant  distribution  of  the  Word,  and  of  these  tracts,  all  over  the 
country,  we  should  keep  this  continually  in  mind,  and  watch  all 
opportunities  of  putting  even  single  tracts  into  the  hands  of  those 
persons  with  whom  we  occasionally  meet.  We  should  endeavour  to 
ascertain  where  large  assemblies  of  the  natives  are  to  be  found,  that 
we  may  attend  upon  them,  and  gladden  whole  villages  at  once  with 
the  tidings  of  salvation. 

The  establishment  of  native  free  schools  is  also  an  object  highly 
important  to  the  future  conquests  of  the  Gospel.  Of  this  very  pleasing 
and  interesting  part  of  our  missionary  labours,  we  should  endeavour 
not  to  be  unmindful.  As  opportunities  are  afforded,  it  becomes  us  to 
establish,  visit,  and  encourage  these  institutions,  and  to  recommend 
the  establishment  of  them  to  other  Europeans.  The  progress  of  divine 
light  is  gradual,  both  as  it  respects  individuals  and  nations.  What- 
ever therefore  tends  to  increase  the  body  of  holy  light  in  these  dark 
regions  is  "as  bread  cast  upon  the  waters  to  be  seen  after  many  days." 
In  many  ways  the  progress  of  providential  events  in  preparing  the 
Hindoos  for  casting  their  idols  to  the  moles  and  the  bats,  and  for 
becoming  a  part  of  the  chosen  generation,  the  royal  priesthood,  the 
holy  nation.  Some  parts  of  missionary  labours  very  properly  tend  to 
the  present  conversion  of  the  heathen,  and  others  to  the  ushering  in 
tbe  glorious  period  when  "  a  nation  shall  be  born  in  a  day."  Of  the 
latter  kind  are  native  free  schools. 

Tenthly.  That  which,  as  a  means,  is  to  fit  us  for  the  discharge 
of  these  laborious  and  unutterably  important  labours,  is  the  being 
instant  in  prayer,  and  the  cultivation  of  personal  religion.  Let  us 
ever  have  in  remembrance  the  examples  of  those  who  have  been  most 

2  G 


450  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY. 

eminent  in  the  work  of  God.  Let  us  often  look  at  Brainerd,  in  the 
woods  of  America,  pouring  out  his  very  soul  before  God  for  the  perish- 
ing heathen,  without  whose  salvation  nothing  could  make  him  happy. 
Prayer,  secret,  fervent,  believing  prayer,  lies  at  the  root  of  all  personal 
godliness.  A  competent  knowledge  of  the  languages  current  where  a 
missionary  lives,  a  mild  and  winning  temper,  and  a  heart  given  up  to 
God  in  closet  religion,  these,  these  are  the  attainments  which,  more 
than  all  knowledge,  or  all  other  gifts,  will  fit  us  to  become  the  instru- 
ments of  God  in  the  great  work  of  Human  Redemption.  Let  us  then 
ever  be  united  in  prayer  at  stated  seasons,  whatever  distance  may  sepa- 
rate us,  and  let  each  one  of  us  lay  it  upon  his  heart  that  we  will  seek 
to  be  fervent  in  spirit,  wrestling  with  God,  till  He  famish  these  idols 
and  cause  the  heathen  to  experience  the  blessedness  that  is  in  Christ. 

Finally.  Let  us  give  ourselves  up  unreservedly  to  this  glorious 
cause.  Let  us  never  think  that  our  time,  our  gifts,  our  strength,  our 
families,  or  even  the  clothes  we  wear,  are  our  own.  Let  us  sanctify 
them  all  to  God  and  His  cause.  Oh  that  He  may  sanctify  us  for  His 
work  !  Let  us  for  ever  shut  out  the  idea  of  laying  up  a  cowry  for 
ourselves  or  our  children.  If  we  give  up  the  resolution  which  was 
formed  on  the  subject  of  private  trade,  when  we  first  united  at  Seram- 
pore,  the  Mission  is  from  that  hour  a  lost  cause.  A  worldly  spirit, 
quarrels,  and  every  evil  work,  will  succeed,  the  moment  it  is  admitted 
that  each  brother  may  do  something  on  his  own  account.  Woe  to 
that  man  who  shall  ever  make  the  smallest  movement  towards  such  a 
measure.  Let  us  continually  watch  against  a  worldly  spirit,  and  cul- 
tivate a  Christian  indifference  towards  every  indulgence.  Rather  let 
us  bear  hardness  as  good  soldiers  of  Jesus  Christ,  and  endeavour  to 
learn  in  every  state  to  be  content. 

If  in  this  way  we  are  enabled  to  glorify  God  with  our  bodies  and 
spirits  which  are  His — our  wants  will  be  His  care.  No  private  family 
ever  enjoyed  a  greater  portion  of  happiness,  even  in  the  most  prosper- 
ous gale  of  worldly  prosperity,  than  we  have  done  since  we  resolved  to 
have  all  things  in  common,  and  that  no  one  should  pursue  business 
for  his  own  exclusive  advantage.  If  we  are  enabled  to  persevere  in 
the  same  principles,  we  may  hope  that  multitudes  of  converted  souls 
will  have  reason  to  bless  God  to  all  eternity  for  sending  His  Gospel 
into  this  country. 

To  keep  these  ideas  alive  in  our  minds,  we  resolve  that  this 
Agreement  shall  be  read  publicly,  at  every  station,  at  our  three  annual 
meetings,  viz.,  on  the  first  Lord's  day  in  January,  in  May,  and 
October. 


APPENDIX.  451 


II 

LATEST  JUSTIFICATION  OF  CAREY'S 
PIONEER  WORK. 

In  the  eighty-first  Report  of  the  British  and  Foreign  Bible 
Society  (1885),  received  since  the  text  was  corrected  for  press, 
we  find  this  passage,  page  189  : — 

"Two  new  versions  (of  the  Bible)  are  in  progress,  'the  Tulu,  a  lan- 
guage spoken  by  half  a  million  of  people  inhabiting  the  central  part 
of  South  Canara,  and  the  Konkani,  a  dialect  of  Marathi,  spoken  by 
upwards  of  100,000  people  on  the  western  coast.3  In  both  these  lan- 
guages some  efforts  were  made  long  ago — in  the  case  of  the  Konkani, 
by  Dr.  Carey  ;  but  time  and  better  tools  have  imposed  the  duty  of 
advancing  upon  the  achievements  of  the  past,  not  so  much  displacing 
and  superseding  as  building  upon  them.  In  proceeding  with  this  work 
the  Konkani  Grammar  and  Dictionary,  compiled  during  the  past  few 
years  by  the  Jesuit  missionaries  at  Mangalore,  will  be  of  considerable 
use." 

The  Madras  Auxiliary  Bible  Society  in  1884  published  an  edition 
of  the  Gospel  of  John,  "  taken  from  Carey's  version,  printed  in  1818 
in  the  Devanagari  character,  but  somewhat  altered,  so  as  to  be  better 
understood  by  all  classes."  Renewed  revisions  of  the  versions  of  the 
Bible  in  Marathi,  Goojarati,  Pushtoo,  Persian,  Telugoo,  Santali,  Ooriya, 
Hindi,  and  Bengali  are  still  being  made  by  the  ablest  missionary 
scholars,  Native  and  European,  on  the  spot.  Among  the  native 
revisers  is  that  accomplished  minister  of  the  Free  Church  of  Scot- 
land and  Marathi  scholar,  the  Rev.  Baba  Padmanji.  The  Rev.  Dr. 
Imad-ud-din,  of  the  Church  Missionary  Society,  formerly  a  Moham- 
medan maulavi,  is  of  opinion  that  the  Oordoo  or  Hindostani  Bible 
also  needs  revision,  and  a  committee  of  experts  is  to  be  formed  for  the 
purpose.  In  the  Great  Exhibition  held  at  Calcutta  in  1883,  Carey's 
Translations,  lent  by  the  College  Library  at  Serampore,  were  exhibited 
side  by  side  with  the  revised  versions,  to  which  they  gave  birth  in 
most  instances.  No  Scriptures  were  sold  in  the  Exhibition,  but  28,675 
copies  of  the  Gospels  and  other  sacred  books  were  presented  to  native 
visitors. 


452  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAEEY. 


III. 


THE  ANGLO -ORIENTAL  AND  ANGLO -VERNACULAR 
versus  THE  EXCLUSIVELY  ENGLISH  SYSTEM  OF 
EDUCATION  IN  INDIA. 

The  following  is  taken  from  the  Minutes  of  the  University 
of  Calcutta : — 

From  GEORGE  SMITH,  Esquire,  to  J.  SUTCLIFFE,  Esquire,  Registrar  of 
the  University  of  Calcutta,  dated  Serampore,  the  29th  November 
1867. 

IT  seems  to  me  that  the  time  has  come  for  the  Indian  University 
system  to  assimilate  to  itself,  and  so  to  elevate  and  impregnate  with 
the  results  of  Western  thought,  the  purely  Oriental  learning  and  Ver- 
nacular Education  of  India.  That  system  is  based  exclusively  on  the 
constitution  and  practice  of  the  London  University,  and  ignores  almost 
all  that  is  not  English  in  form  and  substance. 

It  will  certainly  be  admitted,  at  least,  that  the  time  has  come  to 
ask  the  question,  whether  the  course  of  education  in  India  in  the  last 
third  of  a  century  has  not  been  too  exclusively  English  in  its  char- 
acter. 

The  people  themselves  feel  this  want,  and  in  the  past  few  years 
more  than  one  demand  has  been  made  upon  Government  for  its 
satisfaction.  The  movement  which  is  known  as  that  of  the  Lahore 
or  Punjab  University  is  well  known  to  the  Senate.  Of  its  earnestness 
and  importance  I  satisfied  myself  when  at  Lahore  at  the  end  of  last 
year,  and  Major  Lees  will  testify  to  both  with  an  authority  I  cannot 
presume  to  claim.  Solely  from  the  impossibility  or  unwillingness  of 
our  University  to  assist,  elevate  or  incorporate  that  movement,  it  has 
drifted  into  what  looks  very  like  ultimate  failure.  The  opinions  of 
His  Excellency  the  Chancellor  and  of  Sir  Donald  M'Leod  in  favour  of 
that  movement  have  been  widely  published.  Both  have  given  it  warm 
personal  and  official  support.  Then  there  has  been,  more  recently,  the 
similar  application  of  the  Institute  at  Allyghur  or  Bareilly,  represent- 
ing the  learned  natives  of  the  North-Western  Provinces.  The  reply  of 
the  Government  of  India  to  that  application  recognised  the  necessity 


APPENDIX.  453 

for  aiding  Oriental  learning  by  honours  and  rewards.  At  present  all 
that  our  University  does  is  to  insist  that  graduates  shall  add  to  a 
sound  and  extensive  knowledge  of  the  English  language  and  literature, 
and  of  European  history,  science  and  philosophy,  all  taught  and  acquired 
through  the  medium  of  English,  familiarity  with  one  learned  language, 
which  may  be  Latin  or  Greek  as  well  as  Sanskrit  or  Arabic. 

This  seems  to  me  not  enough.  It  fails,  and  will  always  fail,  to 
reach  the  learned  class  of  Pundits  and  Moulvies  whom,  for  political 
as  well  as  social  reasons,  it  is  so  desirable  to  influence,  and  it  has  not 
the  remotest  effect  on  the  progress  of  Vernacular  Education.  If  our 
University  is  to  be  true  to  its  name  and  functions,  and  to  develop  not 
after  a  London  pattern,  but  naturally  and  with  a  healthy  and  varied 
fulness,  it  must  recognise  •  the  wants,  absorb  the  intellectual  life,  and 
guide  the  literature  and  language  of  all  classes.  The  University  is  in 
a  new  position,  and  has  made  a  noble  beginning.  The  question  is, 
how  will  it  best  represent  and  elevate  the  full  and  varied  intellectual 
life  of  India  ? 

(«.)  That  the  University  of  Calcutta  be  empowered  to  affiliate 
Colleges  in  which  true  science,  true  history,  and  true  metaphysics  are 
taught  only  through  the  Oriental  languages,  and  in  which  such  lan- 
guages and  their  literature  are  scientifically  studied. 

(6.)  That  the  University  be  permitted  to  grant  degrees  for  purely 
Oriental  attainment  of  an  honorary  character  to  distinguished  Oriental 
Scholars,  and  after  examination  to  others.  If  the  University  of 
London  could  meet  the  growing  interest  of  Englishmen  in  physical 
science  by  creating  the  degree  of  Doctor  of  Science  ;  why  should  not 
that  of  Calcutta  adapt  itself  to  India  by  conferring  such  degrees  as 
Doctor  of  Sanskrit  or  Master  of  Arabic  1 


The  late  Sir  DONALD  M'LEOD,  when  Lieutenant-Governor  of 
the  Punjab,  thus  addressed  the  Hindoo  and  Mohammedan  nobles 
of  Lahore  on  this  subject : — 

The  great  bulk  of  our  scholars  never  attain  more  than  a  very 
superficial  knowledge,  either  of  English  or  of  the  subjects  they  study 
in  that  language,  while  the  mental  training  imparted  is,  as  a  general 
rule,  of  a  purely  imitative  character,  ill  calculated  to  raise  the  nation 
to  habits  of  vigorous  or  independent  thought. 

It  appears  indeed  evident  that,  to  impart  knowledge  in  a  foreign 
tongue  must  of  necessity  greatly  increase  the  difficulties  of  education. 


454  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY. 

In  England,  where  the  Latin  and  Greek  languages  are  considered  an 
essential  part  of  a  polite  education,  all  general  instruction  is  conveyed, 
not  in  those  languages,  but  in  the  vernacular  of  the  country  ;  and  it 
seems  difficult  to  assign  a  sufficient  reason  why  a  different  principle 
should  be  acted  upon  here. 

And  this  brings  me  to  the  defect  which  I  myself  more  especially 
deplore  in  the  system  of  instruction  at  present  almost  exclusively 
followed,  viz.  that  it  has  tended,  though  not  intentionally,  to  alienate 
from  us,  in  a  great  measure,  the  really  learned  men  of  your  race. 
Little  or  nothing  has  been  done  to  conciliate  these,  while  the  literature 
and  science  which  they  most  highly  value  have  been  virtually  ignored. 
The  consequence  has  been  that  the  men  of  most  cultivated  minds 
amongst  our  race  and  yours  have  remained  but  too  often  widely  apart, 
each  being  unable  either  to  understand  or  to  appreciate  the  other. 
And  thus  we  have  virtually  lost  the  aid  and  co-operation  of  those 
classes  who,  I  feel  assured,  afforded  by  far  the  best  instruments  for 
creating  the  literature  we  desire. 


By  Act  XXI.  of  1875  the  University  of  Calcutta  obtained 
power  to  grant  honorary  degrees,  and  at  once  exercised  the 
power  by  conferring  the  degree  of  Doctor  in  Law  (D.L.)  on 
H.E.H.  Albert  Edward,  Prince  of  Wales,  KG.  In  1876  the 
degree  of  D.L.  was  conferred  on  Professor  Monier  Williams, 
Rev.  K.  M.  Banerjea,  and  Rajendralala  Mitra,  all  Orientalists. 
But  this  University  declined  to  adapt  or  extend  its  system  so  as 
to  meet  the  views  of  the  Punjab,  or  those  of  the  learned  of  the 
North- Western  Province  who  shared  them. 

In  1869  the  movement  in  the  Punjab  was  so  generally  sup- 
ported by  the  chiefs  and  nobles  of  the  province  that  the  Govern- 
ment of  India  sanctioned  the  creation  of  the  Punjab  University 
College,  with  power  to  grant  certificates  only  and  not  degrees. 
In  1882  an  Act  of  the  Legislative  Council  of  India,  with  the 
consent  of  the  Crown,  erected  this  into  the  Punjab  University, 
with  a  Faculty  of  Arts,  and  a  separate  Oriental  Faculty  which 
grants  the  degrees,  after  examination,  of  Bachelor,  Master,  and 
Doctor  of  Oriental  Learning,  but  is  not  yet  empowered  to  grant 
degrees  in  Law,  Science,  Medicine,  or  Engineering. 

Mr.  B.   H.  BADEN-POWELL,   C.I.E.,  Vice-Chancellor  of   the 


APPENDIX.  455 

Punjab  University   in   1884,  thus    described   its   principles   in 
an  address  to  Convocation  : — 

The  aims  of  the  new  University  are  embodied  in  a  threefold 
function  of  the  Institution,  which  function  it  endeavours  to  perform 
in  addition  to  its  ordinary  duty  as  the  Chief  Public  Examining  body 
of  the  Province.  The  first  of  these  functions  is  to  watch  over  the 
Vernacular  literature  of  the  Punjab,  both  translated  and  original. 
With  this  object,  the  University  maintains  "  fellowships,"  or,  as  they 
are  now  called  (to  avoid  clashing  with  the  statutory  title  of  Fellow  as 
that  only  of  members  of  the  Senate)  "  Readerships."  These  reader- 
ships are  only  tenable  on  condition  of  the  holder  engaging  in  either 
translation,  original  authorship  and  research,  or  in  teaching.  Besides 
which  the  Senate  grants  aid  and  offers  rewards  to  authors  of  approved 
merit.  The  second  function  is  to  encourage  not  only  English  education, 
but  education  of  a  national  character  and  Oriental  tone,  of  course, 
through  the  medium  of  the  Vernaculars.  The  third,  is  to  act  as  a  sort 
of  public  council  to  give  advice  to  Government  on  all  educational 
matters  when  consulted — as  it  always  has  been — by  Government. 

...  It  is  in  connection  with  Higher  Oriental  Education  that 
questions  arise  and  difficulties  are  felt,  which  no  other  Indian  Uni- 
versity has  to  face.  As  is  well  known,  there  are  very  naturally 
two  much  opposed  schools  of  thought  on  the  subject.  Each  view 
is  supported  with  ability  and  energy,  but  it  is  sometimes  no  light  task 
to  hold  the  balance  evenly  between  the  two.  The  warmth  with 
which  opinions  are  espoused  is  in  itself  by  no  means  an  unmixed  evil. 
That  men  feel  warmly  on  a  subject  shows  that  the  matter  is  one  of 
real  interest  and  importance.  No  one  will  I  am  sure  be  disposed  to 
deny  that  English  scholarship  must  always  be  the  aim  of  those  who 
would  reach  the  highest  place.  And  this  is  quite  exceptionally  the 
case  in  law  studies.  No  success  in  translation  work  can  ever  avail  to 
give  the  purely  vernacular  student  all  that  a  man  can  take  for  him- 
self when  he  has  the  key  of  the  storehouse  in  the  shape  of  a  thorough 
knowledge  of  English.  On  the  other  hand,  this  University  would 
never  have  come  into  existence  if  it  was  not  the  feeling  that  there 
were  serious  drawbacks  to  the  education  given  in  English  schools  and 
colleges.  The  advocates  of  English  education  seem  to  have  considered 
that  the  vernaculars  never  could  be  sufficiently  improved  to  become 
the  vehicles  of  a  tolerably  complete  literary  or  scientific  teaching 
such  as  a  good  college  would  desire  ;  they  found  the  ancient  learn- 
ing absolutely  valueless,  and  the  ancient  literature  just  of  so  much 


456  LIFE  OF  WILLIAM  CAREY. 

practical  worth,  that  it  might  take  a  place  somewhat  inferior  to  that 
occupied  by  Greek  and  Latin  in  the  older  collegiate  course  in  Eng- 
land. But  while  this  view  necessarily  went  contrary  to  the  feelings  of 
many,  especially  of  the  older  men  in  the  country,  the  English  teaching 
had  the  effect  of  not  only  uprooting  all  religious  feeling,  but  also  the 
older  forms  of  courtesy,  and  the  traditions  of  parental  and  family  life 
and  subordination.  It  is,  of  course,  a  great  difficulty  that  State  edu- 
cation must  be  purely  secular.  Common  justice  demands  that  no 
active  attempt  to  teach  one  religion  to  the  exclusion  of  another  should 
be  made. 

On  the  other  hand,  the  great  principle  will  hardly  be  denied — 
certainly  if  it  is  denied  it  will  vindicate  itself  in  results — that  the 
moral  and  spiritual  side  of  man's  nature  needs  cultivation  as  well 
as  the  intellectual  and  the  physical  side  ;  and  it  has  been  felt  that 
English  State  Education  was — no  doubt  without  any  intention  that 
it  should  be  so,  but  was  in  effect — to  chill  and  even  to  destroy  the 
springs  of  reverence  and  devotion  and  the  religious  sentiment  in  the 
students.  It  is  my  earnest  conviction  that  no  education  can  be  of 
any  real  use  while  it  does  that — I  mean  any  use  in  the  wide  sense  of 
the  word — to  the  nation  as  well  as  to  the  individual.  "  The  root  of 
wisdom  is  to  fear  God  and  the  branches  of  it  are  Life."  So  wrote  a 
learned  Jew  nearly  2000  years  ago  in  Alexandria,  then  the  centre  of 
Eastern  learning  ;  and  it  is  as  true  now  as  then.  .  .  .  How  to  main- 
tain that  reverence  in  our  public  education  without  violating  religious 
neutrality  is  a  great  problem.  It  is  true  that  mere  secular  teaching 
will  impart  a  certain  sense  of  self-respect,  and  may  be  the  agent  of 
enlightenment  which  in  itself  produces  a  certain  improvement  in  the 
moral  nature.  It  may  incidentally  illustrate  and  even  formally  incul- 
cate, the  advantages  and  the  beauty  of  truth,  temperance  and  simplicity 
of  life  ;  but  at  best  it  can  only  give  a  cold  and  almost  selfishly  utili- 
tarian moralitv. 


INDEX. 


ABRAHAM,  86. 
Adam,  J.,  376. 
Afghans,  168. 

Bible,  261. 

Agra,  164. 

Agricultural  and  Horticultural  Society 

of  India,  315. 

Agriculture  of  India,  313,  323. 
Aitchison,  Sir  Charles,  170,  290,  382. 
Aldeen,  188. 
Alexander  and  Co.,  412. 

of  Com  ana,  11. 

Alfred,  King,  274. 

Alipore,  Calcutta,  328. 

Allahabad,  164. 

Amboyna,  165,  173,  310. 

America,  Missionary  Board,  173,  333. 

Baptist  Society,  173,  379. 

United  States,  65,  117,  173,  270, 

330. 

Anam,  170. 
Anderson,  Dr.,  297. 

Dr.  T.,  300. 

Christopher,  372,  424,  428,  436. 

Annianus,  10. 

Anstruther,  Sir  John,  228. 

Armenians,  150. 

Arrowroot  culture,  328. 

Asiatic  Society  of  Bengal,  228,  313. 

Assam,  165,  317,  408. 

languages,  258. 

Augustine,  288.. 
Aurangzeb,  278. 
Australia,  322. 

BABA  BOODEN,  317. 
Bacon  the  sculptor,  75. 
Baeda,  273. 
Baillie,  J.,  215. 
Balasore,  65. 
Bali,  279. 
Bally,  319. 
Baudel,  81. 
Baptist  Churches,  47. 
—  Missionary  Society,  40,  51,   111, 
173,  356,  361. 
Barlow,  Sir  G.,  164,  215,  283. 


Barrackpore,  122,  188. 

Basel  Missionary  Society,  333. 

Bathurst,  Lord,  4. 

Bayley,  W.  B.,  233,  284. 

Beddome,  B.,  53. 

Bellary,  261. 

Bell  of  Madras,  14.8. 

Benares,  69,  164,  169. 

Benedict,  273. 

Benevolent  Institution,  153,  438. 

Bengal,  67,  69,  334. 

Bengali,  99,  252,  274,  406. 

Bentinck,  Lord  W.,  280,  331,  417. 

—  Lady,  414,  429. 
Bentley,  386. 
Berhampore,  165. 
Berlin  Missionary  Society,  333. 
Bharut,  139. 
Bhootan,  100,  105. 
Bible  Society,  263,  451. 

translation,  99, 173, 185,  235^249. 

Bie,  Governor,  121. 
Bird,  R.  M.,  233. 

W.,  233. 

Black  Hole  of  Calcutta,  76,  83. 

Blundel,  Thomas,  52. 

Boehme,  11. 

Bogue,  Dr.,  114,  337. 

Bombay,  281. 

Bonar  of  Torphichen,  44. 

Borneo,  310. 

Botanic  Garden,  Calcutta,  82,  300. 

—  Serarnpore,  304,  324,  327,  435. 
Botany  of  Bengal,  300. 
Boyle,  R.,  43. 

Brahman,  first  Christian,  139. 
Brahmanism,  75,  155,  278. 
Brainerd,  40,  319,  450. 
Brandis,  Dr.  D.,  305,  314. 
Bremen  Missionary  Society,  333. 
British-born  landholders  in  India,  321. 
Brown,  Rev.  D.,  78,  118,  188,  215. 

Mr.,  planter,  196. 

University,  324. 

Browning,  26. 
Bruce,  C.  A.,  317. 
Brunsdon  of  Serampore,  117. 


458 


INDEX. 


Bryce,  Dr.,  195,  376. 
Buchanan,  Claudius,  163, 195,  215,  280, 
288. 
-  Hamilton,  228. 

—  Dr.,  300. 
Bunnoo,  261. 
Bunyan,  1,  276,  439. 
Burdwan,  326. 

Burial  of  native  Christians,  146. 

Burke,  E.,  71,  77. 

Burma,  169,  263,  314,  379. 

Burton,  Joshua,  52. 

Bust  of  Carey,  329. 

CALCUTTA,  65,  76,  158,  319. 

Exhibition,  319,  451. 

Calicut,  91. 

Campbell,  Eev.  J.,  337. 

Montgomerie,  345. 

Canning,  Captain,  200. 

Lord,  276. 

Cape  Colony,  322. 
Carey,   the  name,  2. 

the  peers,  2. 

Henry,  the  poet,  3. 

Felix,    61,    136,    150,    165,    171, 

263,  275,  406. 

Mrs.  and  the  Black  Hole,  83. 

William,  150,  165,  198,  405. 

Jabez,  166,  173,  310,  374. 

—  Charlotte  Emelia,  181. 
Grace,  434. 

—  Jonathan,  198,  305,  417. 
CAREY,  WILLIAM,  birth,  1  ;  parentage, 

3  ;  childhood,  5  ;  reading,  8  ;  appren- 
ticed, 9  ;  twelve  years  a  shoemaker, 
10,  13  ;  conversion,  15  ;  baptism, 
17  ;  a  preacher,  19  ;  his  "college," 
20  ;  linguistic  power,  23  ;  poverty, 
28  ;  fired  with  the  idea  of  Foreign 
Missions,  29  ;  his  Enquiry,  32  ;  at 
Leicester,  49  ;  his  great  sermon,  51  ; 
set  apart  as  missionary,  57  ;  Journal 
on  the  voyage,  63  ;  lauds  in  Bengal, 
65  ;  in  Calcutta,  82  ;  in  the  Soon- 
darbans,  85  ;  first  Bengali  sermon, 
89  ;  in  Dinajpoor,  90  ;  in  Serampore, 
121  ;  his  first  native  convert,  137  ; 
founds  Church  of  North  India,  143  ; 
opens  schools,  148  ;  Professor  of  Ben- 
gali, 158  ;  work  in  Calcutta,  159  ; 
missions  from  Delhi  to  Amboyna,  164  ; 
letter  to  Jabez,  174  ;  his  family,  180  ; 
his  portrait,  198  ;  on  the  College  of 
Fort  William,  217  ;  address  to  Lord 
Wellesley,  223  ;  influence  on  men, 
232  ;  Bible  translation  work,  237  ; 
destruction  of  the  press,  266  ;  gave 
literary  form  to  Bengali,  273  ;  first 


newspaper  in  the  East,  276  ;  Friend 
of  India,  277  ;  on  infanticide  and 
voluntary  drowning,  280  ;  action 
against  suttee,  283  ;  against  Jaga- 
nath  murders,  288  ;  against  the 
charak,  290 ;  for  lepers,  291  ;  for 
slaves,  292  ;  as  a  man  of  science, 
295  ;  zoologist,  299  ;  botanist,  300  ; 
forester,  304 ;  his  English  daisy, 
307  ;  founds  Agricultural  Society  of 
India,  315  ;  paper  manufacturer,  318  ; 
on  the  political  future  of  India,  321  ; 
his  garden  twice  destroyed,  324  ;  his 
bust,  329  ;  relation  to  the  new  era, 
330 ;  influence  on  contemporaries, 
333  ;  Wilberforce  on  Carey,  343  ;  on 
Government  intolerance,  347  ;  Edin- 
burgh and  Quarterly  Reviews,  351  ; 
Baptist  Missionary  Society  dispute, 
359  ;  plan  of  missions,  369  ;  as  an 
educator,  377 ;  Serampore  College, 
381  ;  correspondence  with  Heber, 
386  ;  on  native  Christian  ministers, 
397  ;  appeals  to  posterity,  402  ;  on 
missionary  economics,  485  ;  on  evan- 
gelising by  education,  409  ;  faith  and 
energy  under  loss  of  income,  413  ; 
sketched  by  his  contemporaries,  419  ; 
last  message  to  Christendom,  428  ; 
dies,  431  ;  his  will,  433  ;  estimates 
of  his  career,  436. 

Careya,  the,  304. 

Carlyle,  Thomas,  11. 

Carpenters,  133. 

Caste,  134. 

Castell,  W.,  43. 

Castlereagh,  331. 

Cawnpore,  165. 

Cecil,  Kev.  E.,  116. 

Ceylon,  165,  172. 

Chaitanya,  133,  273. 

Chalmers,  Thomas,  113,  342. 

Chamberlain,  145,  165,  261. 

Chambers,  Justice,  78. 

Chaplains,  76,  189. 

Charak  festival,  290,  379. 

Charters,  East  Indian  Company's,  350, 
380. 

Chater,  165. 

Chaucer,  439. 

Cherra-poonjee,  430. 

Chevers,  Dr.  N.,  287. 

China,  165,  170,  244,  336. 

Chingleput,  296. 

Chinnery,  316. 

Chittagong,  165. 

Church  of  India,  141,  167,  447. 

of  England,  15,  438. 

Missionary  Society,  292. 


INDEX. 


459 


Clarkson,  T.,  1,  293. 
Cleghorn,  Dr.,  305,  314. 
Clive,  65,  76. 
Coffee,  317. 
Colebrooke,  119,  163,  210. 

Colonel,  240,  260. 

Coleridge,  S.,  11, 12. 

College  of  Fort  William,  214,  371. 

Serampore,  377,  381,  386,  390. 

others  in  India,  384,  390,  409, 454. 

Colombo,  172. 

Combaconum,  148. 

Conjeveram,  289. 

Cook,  Captain,  7,  54. 

Cornwallis,  Lord,  65,  67,  70,  228. 

Corrie,  Bishop,  189,  431. 

Cotton,  Bishop,  190. 

Courtenhall,  43. 

Coverdale,  252. 

Cowper,  the  poet,  1,  8,  26,  63,  293. 

Cox,  Dr.  F.  A.,  438. 

Creighton  of  Malda,  149. 

Crispin,  11. 

Cromwell,  43. 

Cross,  the,  172. 

(Jrotalaria  Juncea,  318. 

Cuddalore,  76. 

Cunningham  of  Lainshaw,  104. 

Cust,  Mr.  R.  N.,  295. 

Cutwa,  165,  205,  291. 

Cyclone  of  1831,  327. 

DACCA,  165. 

Daisy,  Carey's,  307. 

Dalhousie,  Marquis  of,  314,  417. 

Dannebrog  Order,  385. 

Das  Guueshan,  78. 

Krishna,  166. 

Syam,  139. 

Dealtry,  Bishop,  431. 

Deegah,  164. 

Delessert,  M.,  304. 

Delhi,  164. 

Denham,  Rev.  W.  H.,  410. 

Denmark  and  Missions,  62,  122,  296, 

385. 

De  Quincey,  212. 
Des  Granges,  190. 
Devanagari,  243,  273. 
Dig-darshan,  magazine,  276. 
Dinajpoor,  94,  313. 

—  Mission,  97,  165. 
Doddridge,  1. 
Douglas  of  Cavers,  339. 
Draupadi,  139,  143. 
Dravidian  Race,  75. 

Languages,  261. 

Dubois  Abbe,  386. 

Duff,  Alexander,  66,  190,  297,  421. 


Duncan,  Jonathan,  281. 
Dundas,  69,  115,  337. 
Durand.  Sir  Henry,  170. 
Dutch  Missions,  178. 
Dyer,  Rev.  J.,  359. 

EARLS  BARTON,  19. 

Earyes,  John,  52. 

East  India  Company,  63,  67,  90,  213, 

278,  320,  347. 
Eden,  Sir  A.,  290. 
Edinburgh  Review,  351. 
Edmonstone,  H.  B.,  215. 
Educational  Missions,  379,  409,  449. 

Lakh  of  Rupees,  380. 

Edwardes,  261. 

Edward  III.,  273. 

Edwards,  Jonathan,  44,  357. 

Eliot,  John,  40. 

Ellerton,  Mrs.,  194. 

English  as  an  Educator,  154,  378,  409. 

Erasmus,  42,  236. 

Erskine,  Rev.  Dr.,  24,  53. 

Eucalyptus,  304. 

Eurasians,  150. 

Europeans  in  India,  321. 

Eusebius  of  Caesarea,  288. 

Evangelical  Alliance,  385. 

Succession,  439. 

Ewing  Greville,  115,  337. 

FAKEER,  132. 

Falconer,  Dr.,  300,  312. 

Falkland,  3. 

Famine  in  Bengal,  67. 

Female,  see  Woman. 

Fernandez  I.,  99,  202. 

Flora  Indica,  312. 

Forestry,  314. 

Forsyth,  Rev.  N.,  118. 

Fort  William  College,  214. 

Foster,  John,  342. 

Fountain,  J.,  109. 

Fox,  George,  1,  11. 

France  and  Forestry,  315. 

Francis,  P.,  76. 

Franke,  75,  113. 

Fredericksnagore,  121. 

Friend  of  India,  Magazine,  277,  285, 

319. 

—  Weekly  Newspaper,  277,  410. 
Fuller,  Andrew,  19,  30,  46,  48,  57, 113, 

197,  270,  344,  356. 
Fullerism,  47. 

GARRETT,  Mr.,  409,  413. 

Gaya,  165,  289. 

George  III.,  254,  331. 

German  Missionary  Societies,  333. 


460 


INDEX. 


Ghat  murders,  291. 

Ghazeepore,  165. 

Ghosal,  Jay  Narain,  169. 

Ghospara  Sect,  133. 

Gilchrist,  Dr.,  215,  222. 

Glasgow  Missionary  Society,  115. 

Goadesee,  259. 

Goamalty,  165. 

Gogerly,  Rev.  G.,  425,  431. 

Gokool,  136,  142. 

Golook,  143. 

Gordon  the  Jailer,  161. 

Government  House,  Calcutta,  220. 

Graham,  John,  304. 

Grant,  Charles,  21,  54,  77,  286,  386. 

his  sons,  290. 

of  Serampore,  117,  119. 

Sir  J.  P.,  328. 

Grant  in  Aid  System,  404. 
Greenwood,  A.,  52. 
Greig,  Peter,  117. 
Grenfell,  Lydia,  340. 
Griffith,  Ealph  T.  H.,  230. 

Dr.,  300. 

Guericke,  75,  296. 
Guthrie,  Thomas,  12. 

HACKLETON,  16. 

Haileybury  College,  226. 

Haldane,  Robert,  115,  333,  334. 

Halhed,  211. 

Halifax,  Lord,  404. 

Hall,  Robert,  senior,  16,  342. 

his  son,  438. 

Hashnabad,  85. 

Hastings,  Warren,  65,  76,  210,  320. 
-  Lord,  271,  276,  310,  316,  365, 
Havelock,  Sir  Henry,  417. 
Hawaii,  56. 
Haweis,  Rev.  T.,  114. 
Heber,  Bishop,  386. 
Heighten,  William,  52. 
Henderson,  Alexander,  43. 
Hey,  W.,  265. 
Heyne,  Dr.,  78,  296. 
Hill,  M.,  431. 
Himalaya,  107. 
Hindi,  252,  257,  451. 
Hindooism,  71,  278. 
Hindostani,  252. 
Hislop,  Stephen,  359. 
ffitopadesa,  230. 
Hodgson,  B.  H.,  233. 
Hogg,  Reynold,  52. 
Home's  Portrait  of  Carey,  198,  329. 
Hoogli,  122,  125. 
Hooker,  1,  439. 

Sir  Joseph,  304. 

Hope  S.,  413. 


Home,  Melville,  339. 

Hortus  Bengalensis,  311. 

Hough,  173. 

Howrah,  122. 

Hullodhur,  305,  428. 

Hurdwar,  262. 

Hymns,  112,  113,  133,  135. 

INDIGO  Culture  System,  92,  313. 

Manufacture,  93. 

Infanticide,  281. 

limes,  Rev.,  337. 

"  Interloper,"  the,  320,  349. 

Islam,  133,  278,  454. 

JAGANATH  worship,  257,  288. 

Jameson,  Dr.,  312. 

Jannuggur,  141,  436. 

Java,  165. 

Jeffrey,  Francis,  352. 

Jenkins,  Richard,  233. 

Jessor,  165. 

Jetter,  326. 

Jeymooni,  138,  143. 

Jochanan,  Rabbi,  11. 

John,  Dr.,  296. 

Johns,  Dr.,  285. 

Johnson,  Samuel,  11,  44,  275. 

Jones,  Sir  W.,  211,  334. 

Mr.  W.,  245. 

Mrs.  J.  T.,  422. 

Jubilee  hymn,  112. 

Judson,  Adoniram,  115,  170,  172,  324, 
333. 

Ann,  172. 

Jute,  313. 

KABEEE,  133. 
Kashmeer,  168. 
Kean,  Edmund,  3. 
Keshab  Chunder  Sen,  275. 
Kettering,  51,  57. 
Kharta-bhajas,  133. 
Khasias,  258. 
Kiernander,  76,  81. 
Kishore,  Gunga,  274. 
Klein,  Dr.,  296. 
Koenig,  Dr.,  296. 
Kols,  121. 
Koinal,  139,  143. 
Konkani,  259,  451. 
Krishna  C.  Pal,  133,  160. 
Kyd,  Col.  A.,  300. 

LACROIX,  431. 

Lahore,  168,  279. 

Lake,  Lord,  230,  283. 

Lamb,  Mr.,  317. 

Lancaster's  system,  148,  153. 


INDEX. 


461 


Land-tax  of  Bengal,  68,  297,  321. 

Language,  growth  of,  272. 

Lawrence,  Lord,  193,  234,  292,  452. 

Law,  William,  11. 

Leechman,  Mr.,  409,  423. 

Leibniz,  210. 

Leicester,  49,  57. 

Leipzig  Missionary  Society,  333. 

Leonard,  Mr.,  153. 

Lepers,  286,  291. 

Leslie,  Rev.  J.,  419. 

Lewis,  Rev.  C.  B.,  59. 

Leyden,  John,  197. 

Livingstone,  David,  81,  352. 

London  Missionary  Society,  114,  117. 

Society  of  Arts,  323. 

Exhibition  of  1886,  323. 

Lough,  sculptor,  329. 
Lushington,  C.,  153. 
Luther,  99,  236. 
Lyall,  Sir  A.,  287. 
Lytton,  Lord,  276,  290. 

MACAULAY,  Lord,  214. 

Mack,  388,  410. 

Mackintosh  and  Co.,  412. 

Mackintosh,  Sir  James,  226,  352. 

Macpherson,  65. 

Madagascar,  154. 

Madras,  75,  451. 

Magazines,  missionary,  334,  375. 

Maghadi,  257. 

MahaJbarata,  101,  220. 

Mahipal,  104. 

Maine,  Sir  H.  S.,  144,  282. 

Maithili,  257. 

Malabar,  314. 

Malay  language,  177,  310. 

Malcolm,  Sir  John,  382. 

Malda,  90. 

Manoo,  284. 

Marathi,  258,  451. 

Marathas,  278. 

Mardon,  165. 

Marriage,  144,  145,  193. 

Marsh,  Mr.,  345. 

Marshman,  Dr.  Joshua,  117,  127,  192, 

277,  362,  434. 
Hannah,  117,  127,  180,  365,  403 

435. 

John,  126,  262,  277,  310,367. 

Martin,  Dr.,  296. 

Martyn,  Henry,  191,  287,  340. 

Pagoda,  189. 

Mason,  John,  1. 
Massillon,  182. 
Mauritius,  154,  165. 
Max  Miiller,  Professor,  208. 
Mayo,  Lord,  317. 


Metcalfe,  Lord,  233,  284,  286,  414. 
Mezzofanti,  24. 

Middletou,  Bishop,  271,  297,  384. 
Miller,  Rev.  Dr.  W.,  75,  359. 
Milman,  Dean,  229. 
Milton,  439. 

Minto,  Lord,  174,  285,  346. 
Missions,  33,  79,  162,  171,   175,   328, 
332,  369,  379,  396,  405,  441. 

Medical,  59,  103. 

—  Moravian,  43,  78,  443. 
Mohammedanism,  133,  222,  334. 

first  convert  from,  139. 

Moltke,  Count,  385. 
Monghir,  165. 
Monohur,  243. 
Montgomery,  James,  307. 
Moore,  165. 
Moorshedabad,  165. 
Morris  of  Clipstone,  32,  298. 
Morrison,  Dr.  R.,  170. 
Moulton,  25,  27. 
Mudnabati,  90. 
Muir,  Sir  W.,  281. 
Dr.  John,  282. 


Murray,  John,  351. 
Music  and  missions,  115. 

NAGPOOR,  165. 

Names  of  converts,  141,  448. 

Nanak,  133. 

Natural  history,  201,  299. 

Negroes,  43. 

Newspapers  in  Bengal,  276. 

Newton,  John,  1,  62,  112,  358. 

Isaac,  439. 

Niecamp,  296. 

Nizamat  Adawlat  judges,  284. 
Nobo  Koomar  Pal,  329. 
Northamptonshire,  5. 
Nuddea,  81,  274. 

OLNEY,  25. 

Onunda  married,  145. 

Oorya  language,  243,  252,  257. 

Orissa,  289. 

PALI,  171. 

Palmer  and  Co.,  412. 

Pauchanan,  242. 

Paper  manufacture,  244,  318. 

Parell,  226. 

Parsons,  190. 

Patna,  164. 

Paulerspury,  3,  4. 

Paul  the  Apostle,  288. 

Pearce,  Samuel,  53,  55,  179. 

Peasant  proprietors,  297. 

Penal  Code,  293. 


462 


INDEX. 


Penaiig,  165. 

Periodical  Accounts,  113,  429. 

Permanent  settlement,  68. 

Peroo,  139. 

Phayre,  Sir  R.,  170. 

Piddington,  16. 

Pilgrimage  in  India,  257,  262,  282,  288, 

289,  380. 

-  Tax,  289. 
Pindarees,  276. 
Pitt,  W.,  69,  115,  331. 
Place,  Mr.,  289. 
Plassey,  285. 
Pliitschau,  78. 
Poita,  the,  140. 
Pooranas,  278. 
Pooree,  257. 

Portuguese  in  India,  77,  151. 
Pounds,  John,  12. 
Poynder,  J.,  285. 
Pratapaditya,  Raja,  275. 
Prayer  concert,  44,  45,  128. 
Prendergast,  279,  344. 
Printing  in  Bengal,  102,  246. 
Prosad  Krishna,  140,  142,  145,  166. 
Punjab  University,  382,  452. 

Quarterly  Review,  241,  351,  352. 

RAFFLES,  Sir  S.,  165. 
Rai,  Raja  Krishna,  274. 
Rajpoot  infanticide,  281. 
Ralston,  R.,  270. 
Ramayana,  229. 
Ram  Basu,  80,  275. 

Baboo,  274. 

Komal  Sen,  275,  318. 

Roteen,  142. 

Rameshwaram,  247. 

Rangoon,  172. 

Raske,  385. 

Rasoo,  138,  143. 

Rhumohr,  Chevalier  de,  181. 

Rice,  313. 

Rippon,  97. 

Robinson  Crusoe,  308. 

Robinson,  Thomas,  50. 

Missionary,  165. 

E.  S.,  439. 

Romaine,  46. 

Roman  Provinces,  288,  320. 

Romer,  221,  233.  ' 

Rottler,  Dr.,  296. 

Rousseau,  331. 

Rowe,  Mr.,  165,  408. 

Roxburgh,  Dr.,  119,  297,  301,  311. 

Royds,  Sir  John,  ]  96. 

Royle,  Dr.,  312,  329. 

Ruskin,  261. 


Russel,  Dr.,  297. 
Ryland,  senior,  31. 

-  Dr.,  of  Bristol,  17,  50,  114,  173, 

360,  407. 
Ryots,  68,  323. 

SABAT,  265. 
Sachs,  Hans,  11,  13. 
Sadamahal,  165,  198. 
Sagar  Island,  275,  281. 
Saharanpoor,  312. 
St.  George's  Free  Church,  439. 
Samachar  Darpan,  newspaper,  276. 
Sanskrit,  100,  219,  248. 
Santals,  120. 

Sati,  283,  see  also  Widows. 
Satya-gooroos,  255. 
Savings  Banks,  324. 
Schlegel,  A.  W.,  229. 
Schools,  102,  148. 
—  Sunday,  150. 
Schwartz,  75,  345,  386. 
Science  and  Missions,  327. 
Scotland  on  Carey,  439. 
Scottish  Kirk,  44. 

Missionary  Society,  115. 

Scott,  Thomas,  1,  21. 
David,  408. 


Serampore,  117, 122,  125,  219,  244,  288, 
304,  325.  381. 

Brotherhood,  123,  128,  360,  441. 

Press,  266. 

Serfojee,  Maharaja,  386. 

Shakspere,  1,  12,  439. 

Sharp,  Granville,  293,  337. 

Sherman,  E.,  52. 

Shillitoe,  12. 

Shoemaker  Missionaries,  10,  251. 

Shore,  Sir  John,  see  Teignmouth. 

Short,  C.,  85. 

Siam,  187. 

Sikhs,  168,  263. 

Simeon,  Charles,  189,  340. 

Sinclair,  Sir  John,  317. 

Singh,  Petumber,  139. 

Slavery,  31,  286,  292,  343. 

in  India,  151,  293. 

Smith,  Adam,  43. 

R.,  265. 

Sydney,  351. 

Sonnerat,  100. 
Sooudarbans,  84. 
Southey,  229,  352. 
Spencer,  Lord,  254. 
Staughton,  Dr.,  270,  327. 
Steam  Engine,  245. 
Stein,  68. 
Stennett,  Dr.,  54. 
Stewart,  Rev.  Dr.  A.,  341. 


INDEX. 


463 


Stewart  of  Lovedale,  359. 
Stuart,  Dr.  K. ,  292. 
Styles,  Rev.,  352. 
Surat,  165. 

Sutcliff  of  Olney,  45,  356. 
Suttee,  see  Widows. 

TAGORE,  D.,  277. 

Tahiti,  55. 

Tangaii  river,  94. 

Tanjore,  75. 

Taylor,  Dr.,  190. 

Teak,  315. 

Tea  in  India,  317. 

Teignmouth,  Lord,  65,  67,  91,  264. 

Theodosius,  290. 

Thomas,  medical  missionary,  56,  80. 

Thomason,  189,  267,  326,  348. 

his  sou,  318. 

Thompson,  Mr.,  263. 
Thomson,  Dr.  T.,  300. 
Timms,  Joseph,  52. 
Tinnevelli,  75. 
Tippera,  486. 
Titighur,  316. 
Towcester,  3. 
Townsend,  Meredith,  277. 
Trafford,  Rev.  J.,  410. 
Tranquebar,  75,  296. 
Trees,  314. 
Tulu,  451. 
Twining,  279,  352. 
Tyerman,  Rev.  D.,  421. 
Tyndale,  237. 
Type-cutting,  242. 

UDNY,  G.,  58,  86,  91,  95,  102, 164,  283. 

R.,  86,  91. 

Ulfila,  99. 

United  Presbyterian  Church,  337. 

University,  Edinburgh,  115. 

—  Glasgow",  409,  410: 

-  Punjab,  382,  453.  - 
Calcutta,  382,  452. 

VANDERKEMP,  115. 
Veda,  the,  209. 


Vernacular  education,  382,  449,  452. 

Languages,  273,  455. 

Society,  102 

Versailles,  peace  of,  330. 
Vidyalankar,  M.  227,  257,  275,  286. 
Voigt,  Dr.,  311. 

WALES,  Prince  of,  454. 

Walker,  Colonel,  281. 

Wallich,  Dr.,  205,  300,  328. 

Wallis,  Widow,  53. 

Walter,  296. 

Ward,  William,  57, 71, 116, 120, 127, 287. 

Waring  Scott,  197,  279. 

Watling  Street,  3. 

Wellesley,  Marquis,  66,  104,  211,  254, 

279,  345. 

Wellington,  Duke  of,  221. 
Wenger,  Dr.,  238,  252. 
Wesley,  11,  333,  338,  438. 
Wheat,  314. 

Whitefield,  11,  26,  195,  337. 
Whittier,  12. 
Wickedie,  Major,  383. 
Wickes,  Captain,  117,  141. 
Wiclif,  1,  99,  236,  273,  439. 
Widebrog,  296. 
Widows  in  India,  74,  139. 

Burning,  107,  279,  283. 

Wilberforce,  W.,  40,  343. 
Wilkins,  Sir  C.,  211,  242. 
Wilson,  Captain  H.,  55. 
—  Rev.  Dr.  John,  115,  281,  282,  437. 

Bishop  Daniel,  193,  231,  429. 

Horace  Hayman,  210,  230. 

Woman  in  India,  73,  139,  274. 

missionaries,  127,  403. 

converts,  138,  446. 

YATES,  Dr.,  238,  251,  431. 
Yoodi  Shtheera,  220. 

ZAMEENDARS,  68. 
Zananas,  77,  293. 
Ziegenbalg,  75,  296. 
Zinzendorf,  121. 
Zoology  of  Bengal,  299. 


THE    END. 


Printed  by  R.  &  R.  CLARK,  Edinburgh. 


BY  THE  SAME  AUTHOR. 


The  Life  of  John  Wilson,  D.D.,  F.RS.,  for  Fifty  Years 
Philanthropist  and  Scholar  in  the  East,  With  Portrait  and 
Illustrations.  Second  Edition.  Price  9s.  London  :  John 
Murray.  1879. 

"Dr.  Smith's  life  of  the  late  Dr.  John  Wilson,  of  Bom-bay,  is,  without 
exception,  one  of  the  most  valuable  records  of  missionary  work  in  India  ever 
submitted  to  the  English  public,  and  equally  worthy  of  its  subject  and  its 
author.  .  .  .  Dr.  George  Smith's  mature  knowledge  of  Indian  affairs  has 
enabled  him  to  give  an  admirable  presentation  of  Dr.  Wilson's  life  and  labours 
in  connection  with  the  great  public  improvements  and  progress  of  the  years, 
extending  over  two  generations  of  official  service,  during  which  he  resided  in 
Bombay.  Dr.  Smith  has  given  us  not  simply  a  biography  of  Dr.  Wilson,  but 
a  complete  history  of  missionary,  philanthropic,  and  educational  enterprise  in 
AVestern  India,  from  the  Governorship  of  Mountstuart  Elphinstone,  1819-27, 
to  that  of  Sir  Bartle  Frere,  1862-67.  He  has  arranged  the  many  subjects 
with  which  he  has  had  to  deal  and  the  materials  placed  at  his  disposal  with 
great  simplicity,  clearness,  and  effect." — The  Times. 

The  Life  of  Alexander  Duff,  D.D.,  LL.D.  With  Portraits 
by  Jeens.  (1)  LIBRARY  EDITION,  2  Vols.  Koyal  8vo,  Price 
18s.  (2)  POPULAR  EDITION,  1  Vol.,  Price  9s.  London : 
Hodder  &  Stoughton.  1879.  United  States  and  Canada 
Editions,  1879  and  1882. 

' '  Dr.  George  Smith's  life  of  Duff  is  characterised  by  the  same  mastery 
of  his  subject  and  skill  in  its  presentment  as  distinguished  his  '  Life  of  Dr. 
John  Wilson  of  Bombay.'  " — The  Athenceum. 

"The  two  missionaries  are  happy  in  their  biographer." — The  London 
Quarterly  Review. 

The  Student's  Geography  of  British  India,  Political  and 

Physical,  with  Maps  (detailing  the  principal  Mission  Stations  of 
Forty-six  Churches  and  Societies,  and  of  the  Latin  and  Greek 
Churches  there).      7s.  6d.     London:  John  Murray.      1882. 
"  It  is  a  marvel  of  labour  and  condensation." — The  Spectator. 
"The  difficult  and  usually  ungrateful  task  of  condensing  such  a  gigantic 
subject  into  a  given  number  of  pages  has  been  undertaken  and  accomplished 
so  ably  and  carefully  that  the  descriptions,  though  necessarily  brief,  are  full 
of  interest.     The  whole  book  is  carefully  and  thoroughly  planned.      The 
maps  are  clear  and  well  arranged." — The  Economist. 

Short  History  of  Christian  Missions,  from  Abraham  and 
Paul  to  Carey,  Livingstone,  and  Duff.  2s.  6d.  Edinburgh  : 
T.  &  T.  Clark.  1884.  (Handbooks  for  Bible  Classes  and 
Private  Students.) 

"  Here  we  have  not  only  the  history  of  all  missions,  but  also  the  philo- 
sophy, the  origin,  the  theory,  the  rationale  of  this  department  of  the  kingdom 
of  Christ.  The  details  of  the  story  of  the  various  missions,  and  the  life  and 
work  of  the  world's  most  noted  and  devoted  missionaries,  are  graphically 
recorded,  and  the  statistical  information  given  is  particularly  useful  and 
thorough.  The  possessor  of  this  little  volume  will  find  himself  as  well  fur- 
nished as  if  he  had  a  hundred  volumes  on  missions  at  his  hand." — The  British 
and  Foreign  Evangelical  Review. 

"  This  small  volume  of  226  pages  is  a  valuable  contribution  to  our  foreign 
missionary  literature.  Its  scope  is  world  wide  and  universal  as  the  race,  and 
its  grasp  of  facts  and  figures  altogether  remarkable."—  The  Missionary  Review, 
Princeton,  U.S. 


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