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diff --git a/2056-8.txt b/2056-8.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..48ef3e3 --- /dev/null +++ b/2056-8.txt @@ -0,0 +1,14014 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of The Life of William Carey, by George Smith + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: The Life of William Carey + +Author: George Smith + +Posting Date: January 29, 2009 [EBook #2056] +Release Date: February, 2000 + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1 + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF WILLIAM CAREY *** + + + + +Produced by John Bechard. HTML version by Al Haines. + + + + + + + + + +{Note from the preparer of this etext: I have had to insert a few +comments mainly in regards to adjustments to fonts to allow for some of +the characters in the Indian names; you will find any of my own notes +enclosed in these brackets--{}. I have also renumbered the footnotes +and placed them at the end of this e-text, removing them from within +the document where they fell at the end of each corresponding page.} + +{Updater's note: footnote numbers have been enclosed with square +brackets, e.g. [30]. The Greek in footnote 1 has been transliterated +according to the Project Gutenberg Greek How-to. The oe-ligature +character has been replaced with "[oe]", in the text version.} + + + + + +The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & Missionary + + +by + +George Smith + + + + +PREFACE + + +On the death of William Carey In 1834 Dr. Joshua Marshman 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. 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 Missionary Society. It contains one passage of value, +however. 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 give you a criterion by which +you may judge of its correctness. 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." + +In 1859 Mr. John Marshman, after his final return to England, published +The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward, a valuable history and +defence of the Serampore Mission, but rather a biography of his father +than of Carey. + +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 Mrs. S. Carey, South Bank, +Red Hill; Frederick George Carey, Esq., LL.B., of Lincoln's Inn; and +the Rev. Jonathan P. Carey of Tiverton. + +My Biographies of Carey of Serampore, Henry Martyn, 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 Christian Church of India which one of its native sons +must some day attempt; 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. + + +CONTENTS + + I. CAREY'S COLLEGE + II. THE BIRTH OF ENGLAND'S FOREIGN MISSIONS + III. INDIA AS CAREY FOUND IT + IV. SIX YEARS IN NORTH BENGAL--MISSIONARY AND INDIGO PLANTER + V. THE NEW CRUSADE--SERAMPORE AND THE BROTHERHOOD + VI. THE FIRST NATIVE CONVERTS AND CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS + VII. CALCUTTA AND THE MISSION CENTRES FROM DELHI TO AMBOYNA + VIII. CAREY'S FAMILY AND FRIENDS + IX. PROFESSOR OF SANSKRIT, BENGALI, AND MARATHI + X. THE WYCLIF OF THE EAST--BIBLE TRANSLATION + XI. WHAT CAREY DID FOR LITERATURE AND FOR HUMANITY + XII. WHAT CAREY DID FOR SCIENCE--FOUNDER OF THE AGRICULTURAL AND + HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF INDIA + XIII. CAREY'S IMMEDIATE INFLUENCE IN GREAT BRITAIN AND AMERICA + XIV. CAREY AS AN EDUCATOR--THE FIRST CHRISTIAN COLLEGE IN THE EAST + XV. CAREY'S CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY FOR THE PEOPLE OF INDIA + XVI. CAREY'S LAST DAYS + APPENDIX + + + + + +LIFE OF WILLIAM CAREY, 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 +Paulerspury--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 Reformation whom +England sent forth as a missionary to India, where he became the most +extensive translator of the Bible and civiliser, 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 Wyclif and Hooker, had bred Fox and Bunyan, and 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, born a year before +Carey, was beginning his assaults on the slave-trade by translating +into English his Latin essay on the day-star of African liberty when +the shoemaker, whom no university knew, was writing his Enquiry into +the Obligations of Christians to use means for the Conversion of the +Heathens. + +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, CAER or CARE, which became a place-name as CAR-EY. +Among scores of neighbours called William, William of Car-ey would soon +sink into Carey, and this would again become the family name. In +Denmark the name Caròe is common. The oldest English instance is the +Cariet who coined money in London for Æthelred 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 +Yelvertoft, 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 alone made his career possible. + +The Careys who became famous in English history sprang from Devon. For +two and a half centuries, from the second Richard 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 common 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 patriotic counsels and +self-sacrificing fate of Viscount Falkland, whose 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 that time when the weaver became the lord the grandfather of the +missionary was parish clerk and first schoolmaster of the village of +Paulerspury, eleven miles south of Northampton, and near the ancient +posting town of Towcester, 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 demolished 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 schoolhouse, in which William Carey spent the eight most +important years of his childhood till he was fourteen, and the school +made way for the present pretty buildings. + +The village surroundings and the country 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 to Robert +de Paveli, whence its present name, but in Carey's time it was held by +the second Earl 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 Rockingham, 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 +nearly double the eight hundred inhabitants of a century ago. But its +oolitic hills, gently swelling to above 700 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, with 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 Romans, there is but one +manufacture--that of shoes. It is now centred by modern machinery and +labour arrangements 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, however, 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 Ryland, 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 grandmother, a woman of a delicate nature and devout habits, who +closed her sad widowhood in the weaver-son's cottage. Encompassed 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 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 pleasure 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 a certain tree was the object of their ambition; he fell often in +the attempt, but did not rest till he had succeeded. 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 tradition of the +impression made on the dull rustics by the dawning genius of the youth +whom they but dimly comprehended. He went amongst them under the +nickname of Columbus, and they would say, "Well, if you won't play, +preach us a sermon," which he would do. Mounting on an old dwarf +witch-elm about seven feet high, where several could sit, he would hold +forth. This seems to have been a resort of his for reading, his +favourite occupation. 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 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. +Recalling the eight years of his intellectual apprenticeship till he +was fourteen, 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 discovered 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 grandmother 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 presented a still more venerable +appearance a century ago than it does now, with its noble tower in the +Perpendicular, and chancel in the Decorated style, dominating all the +county. 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 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, though not evangelical. "I had many stirrings of mind +occasioned by being often obliged to read books of a religious +character; and, having been accustomed from my infancy to read the +Scriptures, I had a considerable acquaintance therewith, especially +with the historical parts." The first result was to make him despise +dissenters. But, undoubtedly, this eldest son of the schoolmaster and +the clerk of the parish had at fourteen received an education from +parents, nature, and books which, with his habits of observation, love +of reading, and perseverance, made him better instructed than most boys +of fourteen far above the peasant class to which he belonged. + +Buried in this obscure village 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. When twelve years of age, with +his uncle there, he might have formed one of the crowd which listened +to John Wesley, who, in 1773 and then aged seventy, visited the +prosperous posting town. 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 school-fellows, he seemed born to the English +labourer's fate of five shillings a week, and the poorhouse 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 seven years he had failed to find +relief. His attempt at work in the field were for two years followed +by distressing 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 morning; 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 the 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 +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 Leicester. 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 goatskin in the +days when infant Christianity 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 providence +which made and kept young Carey so long a shoemaker, put him in the +very position in which he could most fruitfully receive and nurse the +sacred fire that made him 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 Alexandria, 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.[1] 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 +cobbler's stall. The Talmud commemorates the courage and the wisdom of +"Rabbi Jochanan, the shoemaker," whose learning soon after found a +parallel in Carey's. Like Annianus, "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 a 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 Nürnberg, the friend of Luther, the meistersinger of the +Reformation. 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 Drayton, +Leicestershire, not far from Carey's county, he heard the voice from +heaven which sent him forth in 1643 to preach 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 Resartus. 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 +nameless 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 +instrument 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. + +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 thinking, 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 handicraft. 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 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 Gifford'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 visit 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 Augustine, Bunyan and +Carey, from the antinomianism of the Pharisee:-- + +"A circumstance which I always reflect on with a mixture of horror and +gratitude occurred about this time, which, 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 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] of Olney preached, +but from what text I have forgotten. He insisted much on following +Christ entirely, and enforced his exhortation 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 dissenters; 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, who had not long before passed away in a +village in the neighbourhood, and select passages from whose writings +the Moravian minister, Francis Okely, of Northampton, had versified. +These 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 hypocritical 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 congregational 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 Northamptonshire, +against the pluralities and other such scandals, 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 Northampton, of a Baptist minister at Road, and of Scott +the commentator, 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." + +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-Blocks 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 is described as an "attempt to relieve discouraged +Christians" in a day of gloominess and perplexity, that they might +devote themselves to Christ through life as well as be found in Him in +death. Carey made a careful synopsis of it in an exquisitely neat hand +on the margin of each page. The worm-eaten copy, which he treasured +even in India, is now deposited 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. +Ryland, senior, to baptise 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 +baptised 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 at the foot of the hill, where the Nen +fed the moat of the old castle, in which many a Parliament sat from the +days of King John. 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 see him in India the centre of the Episcopal and +Presbyterian chaplains and missionaries from Martyn 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 was jealous for +the Lord of 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 exercise 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 my +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 opportunity 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 mission, +Andrew Fuller, the young minister of Soham, who preached on being men +in understanding, and there it was arranged that he should preach +regularly to a small congregation at Earls Barton, six miles from +Hackleton. His 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 devotions, 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 apprenticeship 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 journeyman, who had been more influenced by his preaching +at Ravenstone than by that of any other man. Forty years after, just +before Scott's death, Dr. Ryland 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, and Mr. Old came +in, with a sensible-looking lad in his working-dress. I at first +rather wondered to see him enter, as he seemed young, being, I believe, +little of his age. We, however, 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 considered as a +self-righteous Pharisee. I believe I endeavoured to show that the term +was often improperly applied to conscientious 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 riveted in +attention with every mark and symptom of intelligence 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., +to procure them licence 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 +disapprobation of Mr. T., on what ground I knew not, induced his +negative. I believe Mr. Old died soon after I left Olney, if 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, charging 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 neighbouring church of +Piddington, a village to which he afterwards 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 Regent's Park +College, "Second Hand Shoes Bought and--,"[2] 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 information, 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 Latine Vocabulary, and committed nearly the whole book to +memory. When urging him to take the preaching at Barton, Mr. Sutcliff +of Olney gave him Ruddiman'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 +commentary he found Greek words, which he carefully transcribed 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 "pertinently," as he +did Scott.[3] 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. Ryland'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 language that in +1789 he translated for Ryland a discourse on the Gospel Offer sent to +him by the evangelical Dr. Erskine of Edinburgh. 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 the +French version of Ditton on the Resurrection, 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 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 congregations that the teaching to him, like +writing to others, stereotyped or lighted 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 throughout a working +life of more than half a century, was the missionary 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 God in His providence might call him:" + +"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 baptised by the Rev. Mr. +Ryland, 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 preaching at those places +where he has been for some time employed, and that he should engage +again on suitable occasions for some time before us, in order that +farther trial may be made of 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 Orde. our Brother William Carey was +dismissed to the Church of Christ at Moulton in Northamptonshire 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 missionary enterprise. He must have hailed what Mrs. +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 Whitefield, 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--Antinomian 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 Northampton 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 gatehouse 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 birthplace of the modern +missionary idea; Kettering, of evangelical missionary action. + +No 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 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 schoolmaster 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 Contributions of the +Charitable; as we are able to raise him but 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 learning 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 +shoemaking 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 indispensable garden behind, and +the glad sunshine pouring in through the open window embowered in roses +and honeysuckle. + +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 Wyclif and Hus, 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 school-fellows 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 intensified, 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 month each for their own poor, +formally called the preacher to become their ordained pastor, and +Ryland, 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 himself 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 whatever 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 of 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 year 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 +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 impression upon us." + +The picture is completed by his sister:-- + +"He was always, from his first being thoughtful, remarkably 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. Ryland always failed to recall the story, but we have it on the +testimony of Carey's personal friend, Morris of Clipstone, who was +present at the meeting of ministers held in 1786 at Northampton, at +which the incident occurred. Ryland 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 +excitement, "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 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 another Pentecost, when +an effusion of miraculous gifts, including the gift of tongues, will +give effect to the commission of Christ as at first." Carey had never +before mentioned the subject openly, and he was for the moment greatly +mortified. 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 Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens, in which +the Religious 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 Romans (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, "price one shilling and sixpence," +the profits to go to the proposed mission. The pamphlet form doubtless +accounts for its disappearance now; only four copies of the original +edition[4] are known to be in existence. + +This Enquiry has a literary interest of its own, as a contribution 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 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 following them up with a logical +power of generalisation which would extort the admiration of the +learned even of the present day. + +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 state of the world in 1786, he removes the five impediments 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 unintelligibleness 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 +compass, 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 concur 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. lx. 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 +navigation, 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 without 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 surmounted. + +"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 +Christians? Would not the spread of the gospel be the most effectual +mean of their civilisation? Would not that make them useful members 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 consult +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 therefore, more +properly, acts of self-defence, than proofs of ferocious dispositions. +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 Christianity 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 entering 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 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 virtually 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, nakedness, +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 providing 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, fishing, 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 uncomfortable +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 provided for +them; and when arrived at the place of their destination, their first +business must be to gain some acquaintance with the language 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 comforts of their +native country. They must be very careful not to resent injuries which +may be offered to them, nor to think highly of themselves, 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 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 rejoicing 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 Carey 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 should take a part to the extent of fervent and united +prayer, and of an average subscription of a penny a week. He came as +near to 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. 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, more than 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 more than five 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 +five millions would be fifty, 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 unconscious 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 +preparation. 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 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; with a humility that is +pathetic he acknowledges their toll, while ever ignorant to the last of +his own merit. 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-speaking man could be--of the most thorough, permanent, and +everlasting of all Reformers, 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 Renascence of Europe, the +discovery of America, and the opening 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, Ecclesiasties, in +1535 anticipated, theoretically at least, Carey's Enquiry by two +centuries and a half. The missionary dream of this escaped monk of +Rotterdam and Basel, who taught women and weavers and cobblers to read +the Scriptures, and prayed that the Book 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 ineffectually strove to do a work meant for +the whole Christian community. The Church of England thrust forth the +Puritans first to Holland and then to New England, where Eliot, the +Brainerds, and the Mayhews sought to evangelise tribes which did not +long survive themselves. + +It was from Courteenhall, 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 Courteenhall," +sent a petition which, with the "Eliot Tracts," resulted in an +ordinance creating the Corporation for the Promoting and Propagating +the Gospel of Jesus Christ in New England. Seventy English ministers +had backed the petition, and six of the Church of Scotland, first of +whom was Alexander Henderson. The corporation, which, in a restored +form, Robert Boyle governed for thirty years, 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. It still exists, as well +as Boyle's Society for advancing the Faith in the West Indies. The +Friends also, and then the Moravians, taught the Wesleys and Whitefield +to care for the negroes. The English and Scottish Propagation +Societies sought also 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 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.[5] +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." + +The early movement which is connected most directly with Carey's and +the Northamptonshire Baptists' began in Scotland. Its Kirk, +emasculated by the Revolution settlement and statute 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. 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 Attempt to +promote Explicit Agreement and Visible Union of God's People in +Extraordinary Prayer for the Revival of Religion and the Advancement of +Christ's Kingdom on Earth. + +This work of Edwards, republished at Olney, came into the hands of +Carey, and powerfully influenced the Northamptonshire Association of +Baptist ministers and messengers. At their meeting in Nottingham in +1784 Sutcliff of Olney suggested and Ryland 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 Redeemer be affectionately remembered," +wrote these catholic men, and to give emphasis to their [oe]cumenical +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 prominently referred in his Enquiry, tracing +to even the unimportunate 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 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 +at a time when the biographer of Romaine 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 Robert Hall and +Ryland, whose spiritual fervour made them marked men. + +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 Revolution +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 Socinianism. +The more earnest and educated among them clung to Calvinism, but, by +adopting the unhappy term of "particular" Baptists, gradually 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 professed +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 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. It now 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." + +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 a famous sermon, in which he +applied the dealing 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 nevertheless 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, 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 Ryland who had +silenced him in a former ministers' 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 Concerns 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 promise 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. + +Meanwhile, in 1789, Carey had left Moulton[6] 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 Robert 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. "I have seen him at work," writes Gardiner in +his Music and Friends, "his books beside him, and his beautiful flowers +in the windows." 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 Revelation;" +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 congregation. He was secretary to the local +committee of dissenters. "Add to this occasional journeys, ministers' +meetings, etc., and you will rather wonder that I have 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 1791 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, after +which he proposed the usual questions to the church, and required my +Confession of Faith; which being delivered, Brother Ryland 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--'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 Robinson, evangelical +rector of St. Mary's, to whom he said on one occasion when indirectly +charged in humorous fashion with "sheep-stealing:" "Mr. Robinson, 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 Mr. R. Brewin, a botanist, 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 1792 came round, and on 31st May Carey seized +his opportunity. The place was Nottingham, 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? Ryland had been always loyal to the journeyman +shoemaker he had baptised in the river, and he gives us this +record:--"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 proportionate 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 desolate 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 Ryland 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, exclaimed: "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 knowledge 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 +propagating 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 +further on the matter, and to lay a foundation at least for a society, +when the following resolutions were proposed, and unanimously agreed +to:-- + +"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 Rev. John Ryland, 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 ministers' +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 £13:2:6." + +The procedure suggested in "brother Carey's late publication" 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 +Ryland 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 Ryland, who was soon to train +missionaries for the work at Bristol College. The treasurer was the +only rich 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, when commemorative medals were struck. There in 1892 the +centenary witnessed a still vaster assemblage. + +Can any good come out of Kettering? was the conclusion of the Baptist +ministers of London 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 Robert 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 suitable +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 Presbyterians, with a +few noble exceptions like Dr. Erskine, whose Dutch volume Carey had +translated, denounced such movements 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. "Those who in that day sneered that England had sent a +cobbler to convert the world were the direct lineal descendants of +those who sneered in Palestine 2000 years ago, 'Is not this the +carpenter?'" said Archdeacon Farrar in Westminster Abbey on 6th March +1887. Hence Fuller's reference to this time:--"When we began in 1792 +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. Stennett 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 Robert Grant, he wrote:--"I had formed the design of a mission to +Bengal: Providence reserved 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. + + + + +CHAPTER 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. 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 leather globe which +also he is said to have made, he had been teaching the children of +Piddington, Moulton, and Leicester the great outlines and 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 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 +above four hundred millions of our fellowmen, among whom it was an +object "worthy of the most ardent and persevering pursuit to +disseminate the humane and saving principles of the Christian +Religion." 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, having previously +preached from the words--"Behold I come quickly, 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 Ryland) 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 January 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 support 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 justification 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 the passage 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." Ward did so 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 shall be multiplied that hasten after another God;" +an evening 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 forthsending 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 his 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 Rev. C. B. Lewis. 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 licence; clouded the early years of the enterprise with their +shadow, and formed the heaviest of the many burdens Carey had to bear +at starting. 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. 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 Carey view his +God-given mission? The very different nature of his wife, who had +announced to him the birth of a child, clung anew to the hope that this +might cause him to turn back. Writing from Ryde on the 6th May he thus +replied with sweet delicacy of human affection, but with true loyalty +to his Master's call:-- + +"Received yours, giving me an account of your safe delivery. This is +pleasant news indeed to me; surely goodness 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 considerations; 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 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 CAREY. + +"My health never was so well. I believe the sea makes Felix and me +both as hungry as hunters. I can eat a monstrous 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 missionary 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 +sacrifice, 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 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, honourable, 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 licence 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 permission 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. + +"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. O 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. O +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 the heathen? Yet I have of late felt +some very lively desires after the success of our undertaking. If there +is anything that engages my heart in prayer to God, it is that the +heathen may be converted, and that the society which has so generously +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 farther; 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 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 11th 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 condenses:--"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 inhabitants; +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 of York Town, which had resulted in the +independence of the United States. Sir John Shore, afterwards 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 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 successor +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 Republic 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 convert 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 Duff's covered the second of +thirty years to the close of Lord Canning's administration, which +introduced the new era of full toleration and partial but increasing +self-government directed by the Viceroy and 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 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 possessed, 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 population. 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 administrative 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, +there was the relation of the Government to the ryots ("protected +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 Ireland. From a +mere trader it had been, more or less consciously, 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 Stein did in Prussia, with the result seen in 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 cultivators +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 zameendars. And now, more than 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 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 prevent famine by allowing relief for failure of crops. +As pioneering, the work of Carey and his colleagues all through was +distinctly hindered by the treatment of the land question, which 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 missionaries 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 administration 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 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 depth of +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 defeat in the +Charter of 1813. We shall reproduce some outlines of the picture which +Ward drew:--[7] + +"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 personifications +of sin; and they found this animal, this reptile, and the lecher +Krishnu {u-caron} and his concubine Radha, among the favourite +deities of the Hindoos... + +"Respecting the real nature of the present state, the missionaries +perceived that the Hindoos laboured under the most fatal +misapprehensions; 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 complexion 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 "seventy-five +millions of minds," and whom the census shows to be now above +144,000,000, is thus described after an account of female infanticide:-- + +"To the Hindoo female all education is denied by the positive +injunction of the shastru {u-caron}, 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 {u-caron}, 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 bramhuns +{u-caron}; 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 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 husband, she +is buried alive with the dead body. In this kind of immolation 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!" + +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 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 Ziegenbalg to Schwartz, Francke 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 nearly +a million. But, when Carey landed, rationalism in Germany and Denmark, +and the Carnatic wars between the English and French, had reduced the +Coast Mission to a state 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. W. 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 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 encouraging 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. + +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 Romanist +type. The French had closed the Danish mission at Cuddalore, and in +1758 Calcutta was without a Protestant clergyman to bury the dead or +baptise 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. 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 +destruction of the church was applied to the foundation of the useful +charity still known as the Free School. The fathers not infrequently +adopted the Hindoo pantheon along with the zanana. The pollution, +springing from England 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' +impeachment of Hastings. The literature of the close of the eighteenth +century is full of alarm lest the English character should be +corrupted, and lest the balance of the constitution should be upset. + +Kiernander is said to have been the means of converting 209 heathens +and 380 Romanists, 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 +Bishop 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 +information 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 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.[8] The +only converted Hindoo known of in Northern India up to that time was +Guneshan Dass, of Delhi, who when a boy joined Clive's army, who was +the first man of caste to visit England, and who, on his return with +the Calcutta Supreme Court Judges in 1774 as Persian interpreter and +translator, was baptised 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. + + + + +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 +Calcutta--Secures a grant of waste land at Hasnabad--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 +sickness--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 Mudnabati--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 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 schoolmaster yet a +preacher and pastor to whom the great Robert 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 +Ram 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 civilisation, to the 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. 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, Poona, and Conjeeveram in sanctity, where Chaitanya the +Vaishnaiva reformer was born, Carey might have attacked Brahmanism in +its stronghold. A passage 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 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 +hardships 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 enough, in a Bengali +money-lender.[9] Nelu Dutt, 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 Rev. 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 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 have added to my knowledge of the +language, and had opportunity 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." + +Ram 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 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 Hasnabad, 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, +natives 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 language 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 +undertaking; 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 inconveniences, 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 preachers are wanted a thousand times more than people to +preach to. Within India are the Maratha country and the northern parts +to Cashmere, 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 containing 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. R. Udny and his +young wife perished. His aged mother had been one of the godly circle +in the Residency at Malda to whom Thomas had ministered; and Mr. G. +Udny, her other son, was still the Company's commercial Resident there. +A letter of sympathy 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 factories +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, 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 tolerable, 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 Mudnabati. + +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.--O how glorious are the ways of God! '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 conversion 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 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 +preaching; 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. O what a disparity betwixt me and him, he +always constant, I as inconstant as the wind! + +"22nd 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. + +"23rd.--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 I have made for the Gospel, but find +that consolation of mind which can come from God alone. + +"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 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 Residency of the Company, +which excluded all Christian missionaries by Act of Parliament. As an +indigo planter 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, 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 +missionary. "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 were termed Residents, 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" Residents were often at war. The Residents 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 departure that even judges and chaplains 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, calling 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 once more raising its head, from the combination of +machinery and cheap labour. For the old abuses of the Company the +Government by Parliament has to some extent atoned by fostering the new +cultures of tea, coffee, and cinchona, jute and wheat. The system of +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. It still exists in the upper districts of Bihar, especially +in Tirhoot, on a system comparatively free from economic objections. + +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 qualifications 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 +experience he spared no effort to gain at once. + +"1st, 2nd, and 3rd 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; 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. O how desirable is the spread of +the Gospel! + +"4th July.--Rather more flat, perhaps owing to the excessive 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 factories 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:-- + +"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 +hereabouts 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. O 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 intermission, "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 I feel a sweet resignation to his +will." + +A still harder fate befell him. The monomania of his wife became +chronic. 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 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 Ryland. 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 +awkwardness 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 walk. I thought my +soul a little drawn out to-day, but soon gross darkness returned. +Spoke a word or two to a Mohammedan upon the things of God, 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 Hindus, 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 Rippon, 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 23rd...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 11th March, of the church, which was +duly formed of Europeans and Eurasians. No native convert was made in +this Dinapoor mission till 1806, after Carey had removed to Serampore. +"We have in the neighbourhood 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 +round cultivate indigo for us, and the labouring people working 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 cooking 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 Fernandez, a +Portuguese descendant who had prospered as a trader in Dinapoor +station. The first Protestant 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, 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 bungalow of one story, 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 portion 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 forefathers, 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 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 +sometimes 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, 'He who reapeth' (in the harvest) 'receiveth wages, +and gathereth fruit unto eternal life.' If I, like David, only am an +instrument 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, +perhaps 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 +Sonnerat'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, 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 Ryland, with more +than a mere scholar's enthusiasm, of one of the two great Vedic +epics:--"I have read a considerable part of the Mahabarata, an epic +poem written in most beautiful language, and much upon a par with +Homer; and it was, 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 Bengali 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 syntax 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 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 +ordered it. On its arrival in 1798, "after worship" he "retired and +thanked God for furnishing us with a press." 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 Serampore College of 1818 on the one +hand, and the primary school circles under native Christian inspectors +on the other, a system carried out since the Mutiny of 1857 by the +Christian Literature Society, and adopted by the state departments of +public instruction. + +"MUDNABATI, 27th 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 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 become 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 whatever 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 promote curiosity and inquisitiveness among the rising +generation; 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 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 +hundredweight 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 inquirers. Besides the planters, civil officials, and +military officers, to whom he ministered in Malda and Dinapoor +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 Mornington, I should not hesitate +to declare myself a missionary to the 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 as +Christian Lamas by the Soobah or lieutenant-governor of the country +below the hills, which in 1865 we were compelled to annex and now +administer 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. + +"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 presented 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 spent his life +with them. We ate his food, though I confess the thoughts of the +Jinkof's bacon made me eat rather sparingly. We had much talk about +Bhootan, and about the Gospel. + +"We found that he had determined to give all the country 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 servants, both Bhooteas and +Hindus. Being seated, we exchanged each five rupees and five pieces of +betel, in the sight of the whole town; and having chewed betel for the +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 friendship, 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 he 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. Subsequent communications from the Soobah 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. Ryland he thus describes the +horrid rite:-- + +"MUDNABATI, 1st April 1799.--As I was returning from Calcutta I saw the +Sahamaranam, 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 Rennell 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 two and a half feet high, four feet long, and +two wide, on the top of which lay the 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 farther 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 sweetmeat +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 +immediately blazed very fiercely, owing to the dry and combustible +materials of which it was composed. No sooner was the fire kindled +than all the people set up a great shout--Hurree-Bol, Hurree-Bol, which +is a common shout of joy, and an invocation of Hurree, 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, exclaiming loudly against +the murder, and full of horror at what we had seen." In the same +letter Carey communicates the 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. 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 East +India Company. The authorities would not license Fountain as his +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. + + + + +CHAPTER V + +THE NEW CRUSADE--SERAMPORE AND THE BROTHERHOOD + +1800 + +Effects of the news in England on the Baptists--On the home +churches--In the foundation of the London and other Missionary +Societies--In Scotland--In Holland and America--The missionary +home--Joshua Marshman, William Ward, and two others sent out--Landing +at the Iona 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 Brotherhood--His relations to Marshman and Ward--Hannah Marshman, +the first woman missionary--Daily life of the Brethren--Form of +Agreement--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 fourteen months, in those +days of slow Indiamen and French privateers, no tidings of their +welfare reached the poor praying 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; Ryland in Bristol; and the congregation at Leicester, +received the journals of the voyage and letters which told of the first +six weeks' experience at Balasore, in Calcutta, Bandel, and Nuddea, +just before Carey knew 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 something 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, however, 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, estimating Carey by themselves, +sent out a mild warning against secular temptations, to which he +returned 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 Duff's success afterwards led 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 inactivity, which continued till +Carey compelled 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 undertaking, 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 Francke, 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 Clipstone, 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. +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 Christ the Hindoo love of musical recitative, which +was recently re-discovered--as it were--and now forms an important 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." + +Such was the immediate action of the infant Baptist Society. The +moment Dr. Ryland 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 minister, took the first step towards the foundation +of a similar organisation of non-Baptists, since known as the London +Missionary Society. Immediately Bogue, the able Presbyterian, 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 +Æra of Christian Benevolence." + +On the same day the Rev. 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, to every nation and tribe and tongue and people." In Hindostan +"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[10] 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. Robert 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. Evangelical 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 translations 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, 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 encouragement 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 was 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 African missionaries, with the exception of the first +Scotsman, Peter Greig. Of the thirty sent out by the London Missionary +Society in the Duff 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 assistants to Carey, in +the hope that the Company would give them a covenant to +reside--Brunsdon and Grant, two of Ryland'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 1795 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 +simply tells the story of the landing of the missionaries at this Iona, +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 +invited him to his house, offered him the assistance of his Moonshi, +etc. + +"Oct. 16--The Captain having been at Calcutta came and informed 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 condition 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 Rev. Mr. +Brown, who very kindly offered to do anything 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 informing +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 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 missionary 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. Roxburgh, 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 with annoyance the missionaries slip from +their grasp because of the liberality of the Governor-General of whom +Carey had written to Ryland 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 formerly." The missionaries, too, had at first been +reported not as 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 Dinapoor and +consult with Carey. + +It was Sunday morning when he approached the Mudnabati 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 allow 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, during a visit to the Rajmahal Hills, +round which the great Ganges sweeps, 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. The Paharis +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 converse 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 +colleagues, "to stay here and tell these social and untutored heathen +the good news from heaven. I have a strong persuasion that the +doctrine of a dying Saviour would, under the Holy Spirit's influence, +melt their hearts." From Taljheri and Pokhuria, near that place, to +Parisnath, Ranchi, 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 11th he was presented to the Governor, and "he went out and +preached to the natives." His apprenticeship 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 shoemaker 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 Dinapoor that he +might preach Christ without interference, had been forced to think of +seeking the protection of a Buddhist in the Himalaya 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 kingdom; encouraged +by a Governor, Colonel Bie, who was himself 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, under Lord Minto's son, took possession of +Fredericksnagore, as Serampore was officially called, and of the Danish +East India Company's ship there, without opposition. + +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 Danish 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 inhabitants, under only British administration since +1845, now number 45,000. Then they were much 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. Not far off, and now +connected with the port by railway, is the foul shrine of Tarakeswar, +which attracts thousands of pilgrims, many of them widows, who measure +the road with their prostrate bodies dripping from the bath. +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. When the missionaries landed there +was nothing but a Portuguese Catholic church in the settlement, and the +Governor was raising subscriptions 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. 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 correspondence with the rapid +growth of the mission. At first the community consisted of ten adults +and nine children. Grant had been carried off in a fever caused by the +dampness of their first quarters. The promising Brunsdon was soon +after removed by liver complaint caught from standing on an unmatted +floor in the printing-office. Fountain, who at first continued the +mission at Dinapoor, 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 consequence purchased of +the Governor's nephew a large house in the middle of the town for +Rs.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. Rather more to the front are two other +rooms separate, and on one side is a storehouse, 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 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, +fronting 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 girl's school, now removed, the residence of Dr. +Joshua Marshman before his death, and the boys' school presented to the +mission 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 Rumohr +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 at least five acres, with almost palatial buildings, +on the right bank of the Hoogli, which, with a breadth of half a mile +when in flood, rolls between it and the Governor-General's summer house +and English-like park of Barrackpore. The original two acres became +Carey's Botanic Garden; the houses he surrounded and connected by +mahogany trees, which grew to be of umbrageous beauty. His favourite +promenade between 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. The two +were worthy to be associated with him, and 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 +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 language 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 Marshman, the first woman +missionary to India. Granddaughter 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 +congregation, 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 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 Protestant, Romanist, 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 +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 Marshman 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 bràmmhàn. 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 Rs.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 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 extension. 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 is in Christlike 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 propagation, sets the church at home free to enter +incessantly 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 brotherhood. This +Agreement worked for seventeen years, with a success in England and +India which we shall trace, or as long as Fuller, Ryland, and Sutcliff +lived "to hold the ropes," while Carey, Marshman, and Ward excavated +the mine of Hindooism. + +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. 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 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 you 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 instruments of +God in the great work of human redemption. Finally, let us give +ourselves 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 cowrie (mite) 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. Rather +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 multitudes 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 convert--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 community +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--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 Institution 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. + +For 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. 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 +disappointment 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, probably "detained by +force." But on the last Sunday of that year Krishna Pal was baptised +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 Pal, born in the neighbouring +French settlement of Chandernagore, 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-bhojas, 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 Ghospara sect, of +which from Carey's to Duff's earlier days the missionaries had a hope +which proved vain. He recovered 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 +immediately 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 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 inquiring 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 confession 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, reflected also in the hymn[11] which he wrote +for family worship:-- + +"SERAMPORE, 12th 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.[12] 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 will save the world! +In Christ not taking refuge, there is no other way of life. I was +indeed a sinner, praise not knowing.--This is the representation of +Christ's servant, + +"KRISTNO." + +Such is the first epistle of the Church of India. Thus the first +medical missionary had his reward; but the joy proved to be too much +for him. When Carey led Krishna and his own son Felix down into the +water of baptism the ravings 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 representatives of a race whom, +thirty years after, Macaulay described 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... + +"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 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, +to 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 bràmmhàn 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 baptising +the first Hindoo, viz. Krishna, and my son Felix: some circumstances +turned up to delay the 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 baptised at nine in the morning; but, +on account of the tide, were obliged to defer it till nearly one +o'clock, and it was administered 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 addressed 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 myself. 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 +baptised, and Rasoo, 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 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 +Brahmanical 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 country-women, not only in Serampore but in Chandernagore +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 scripture. 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 Dass, Petumber Mitter, 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 Dass. From the spot on 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 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 baptised. The word of Christ's death seems to have gone to his +heart, and he continues to receive the Word with meekness." The poita +or sevenfold thread which, as worn over the naked body, 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 1804, by the close of which year the +number of baptised converts was forty-eight, of 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 consecrated the convert's name as well as soul and body to +Christ. Beside the "Hermes" of Rome to whom Paul sent his salutation, +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. In +time the church in the chapel on the Hoogli became chiefly European and +Eurasian, but 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 solemnities 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 +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 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. + +"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 Ghospara, 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 myself, 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 baptised, 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 +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, +however, 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 baptised, +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. 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 conscience 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 Dass presented a +contrast to the prolonged, expensive, and obscene rites of the Hindoos, +which attracted the people. 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 wedding 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 meeting 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 introduction, 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, Ram Roteen, 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, plantains, 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 prevented by +the heat and want of leisure. We began this wedding supper with +singing, and concluded with prayer: between ten and 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? 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 illness 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, 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 expense, 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 expense; 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 brahmàn, 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, we 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 "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 +literature 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 Raja +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 instruction" 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. +Carey had all the native schools of the mission "conducted upon +Lancaster's plan." + +In Serampore, and in every new station as it was formed, a 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 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 principles 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 promising 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. Only by the year 1806 was such a scheme +practicable, because Carey 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. + +Referring 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 Raikes 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 above 200,000 boys and +girls at such schools in India, 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 the natives of India, he +and Mr. and Mrs. Marshman especially 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, Serampore.--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 add +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 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 whom 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 of the "Benevolent Institution for the Instruction +of Indigent 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 Portuguese, +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 usefulness to society, in a degree of opulence and +respectability. The origin of this noble charity is thus told to Dr. +Ryland by Carey himself in a letter which unconsciously reveals his own +busy life, records the missionary influence of the higher schools, and +reports the existence 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 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 Chamberlain 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 missionary 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 +direction; we shall have occasion to trace the English influence of the +press and the college hereafter. But meanwhile the vernacular schools, +which soon numbered a hundred altogether, 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. 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 Dinapoor and Malda he met with no opposition, for he +had no direct success. But when, 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 apprehend +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 commotion 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 Redeemer expressed his strong +desire," wrote Carey to Ryland in March 1801. A year later he used +this language to his old friend Morris at Clipstone village:--"I think +there is such a fermentation 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 +circumstances respecting this world; and we trust that nothing but the +salvation 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--Meeting of 1802 grows into the Lall Bazaar +mission--Christ-like work among the poor, the sick, the prisoners, the +soldiers and sailors and the natives--Krishna Pal first native +missionary in Calcutta--Organisation of subordinate 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 missionary 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 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 political usefulness of the missionaries' character and work +came to be recognised by the local authorities, they were let alone 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 +Bengal 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 fears the Company 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 was +generally rowed down the eighteen miles of the winding river to +Calcutta at sunset on Monday 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. Rolt, and another for a more ignorant +class in the house of a Portuguese 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." He took all the work +during the week and the Sunday service 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 Calcutta +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. +The site alone cost so much--a thousand pounds--that only a mat chapel +could be built. Marshman raised another £1100 in ten days, and after +delays caused by the police Government sanctioned the building which +Carey opened on Sunday, 1st January 1809. But he and his colleagues +"not episcopally ordained" were forbidden to preach to British soldiers +and to the Armenians and Portuguese. "Carey's Baptist Chapel" is now +its name. Here was for nearly a whole generation a sublime +spectacle--the Northamptonshire shoemaker training the governing class +of India in Sanskrit, Bengali, and Marathi all day, and translating the +Ramayana and the Veda, and then, when the sun went down, returning to +the society 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 and Eurasian converts. We +find the missionaries writing to the Society at the beginning of 1807, +after the mutiny at Vellore, occasioned as certainly by the hatlike +turban then ordered, as the mutiny of Bengal half a century after was +by the greased cartridges:-- + +"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 Pal became the first native missionary to Calcutta, where he in +1810 had preached at fourteen different places every week, and visited +forty-one families, to evangelise the servants of the richer and bring +in the members of the poorer. Sebuk Ram was added to the staff. Carey +himself thus sums up the labours of the year 1811, when he was still +the only pastor of the Christian poor, and the only resident missionary +to half a million of natives:-- + +"Calcutta is three miles long and one broad, very populous; the +environs are crowded with people settled in large villages, resembling +(for population, not elegance) the environs 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 Ram, 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 different parts of the city itself. In several instances Roman +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 come; and the simple confessions of their sinful state, the +unvarnished declaration of their former ignorance, 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 are held every night in the week; and some nights, for +convenience, 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 contemplated 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 Ryland:-- + +"14th 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 +even 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; 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 ever farther. 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 generously 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 spreading 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 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 distances, 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 consequence of +this, I thought it would be desirable to have leave of Government for +them to settle, and preach, without control, 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 informed me that he +had written upon the subject and was promised a speedy reply. God grant +that it may be favourable. 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. From that year the +Bengal became 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 original, each a Lindisfarne +sprung from the parent Iona. 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 +Dinapoor 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 agricultural capital of its lower delta; and +afterwards Monghyr, Berhampore, 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, Ajmer, 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, as we shall see. 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 Raffles, 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, and the heroism of the +toil which supplied the means. + +At the time of the organisation into the Five United Missions the staff +of workers had grown to be thirty strong. From England there were nine +surviving:--Carey, Marshman, Ward, Chamberlain, Mardon, Moore, Chater, +Rowe, and Robinson. Raised up in India itself there were seven--the +two sons of Carey, Felix and William; Fernandez, his first convert at +Dinapoor; Peacock and Cornish, and two Armenians, Aratoon and Peters; +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 Dass, Ram Mohun, Seeta Ram, and Seeta Dass. Carey's +third son Jabez was soon to become the most advanced of the three +brothers away in far Amboyna. 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 Sooksagar, 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 Dinapoor:--"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 commemorated the Lord's +death till He come. Krishna Dass 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 after he was ordained, Carey charged +him as Paul had written to 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 Petumber'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 in 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 sending 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 darkness +into marvellous light, was that they should labour to the uttermost in +advancing his cause among their countrymen. + +"2. That it was therefore their indispensable duty, both collectively +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 Ranjeet 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 introducing 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 most +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 Peters," 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 Raja 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 "exceedingly +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 had unconsciously +supplied the means. Since 1795 the port of Rangoon had been opened to +the British, although Colonel Symes had been insulted eight years +after, during his second embassy to Ava. Rangoon, 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 China, and Tongking, and may afford us the opportunity +ultimately 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 themselves. About twenty +chapters of Matthew are translated into that language, and three of our +family have made considerable progress in it." + +This was the beginning of Reformed 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 about +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 Burma, +of which Carey laid the foundation. Judson, and the Governors Durand, +Phayre, Aitchison, and Bernard, Henry Lawrence's nephew, 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 recommended to the grace of God, which they fulfilled." +Carey's eldest son Felix soon took the place of Mardon. The +instructions, 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 attentivly 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 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 tract, 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 language, +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 especially 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 unnecessary +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 goodwill of the Rangoon Viceroy, and was +of great use to Captain Canning in the successful mission from the +Governor-General in 1809. At his intercession the Viceroy gave him the +life of a malefactor who had hung for six hours on the cross. +Reporting the incident to Ryland, Dr. Carey wrote that "crucifixion is +not performed on separate crosses, elevated to a considerable height, +after the manner of the Romans; but several posts are erected which are +connected 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 dictionary of Burmese 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 commended 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 and 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 +Ryland:--"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 at Rangoon. Judson was one of a band of divinity students of the +Congregational Church of New England, whose zeal had almost compelled +the institution of the American Board of Foreign Missions. He, his +wife, and colleague Rice 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 foundation at Boston of the American +Baptist Missionary Society, which was to win such triumphs in Burma and +among the Karens. For a time, however, Judson was a missionary from +Serampore, and supported by the brotherhood. As such he wrote thus:-- + +"RANGOON, Sept. 1, 1814.--Brother Ward wishes to have an idea of the +probable expense of each station; on which I take occasion to say that +it would be more gratifying to me, as presenting a less temptation, and +as less dangerous to my habits of economy and my spiritual welfare, to +have a limited monthly allowance. I fear that, if I am allowed as much +as I want, my wants will enlarge with their gratification, and finally +embrace many things, which at first I should have thought incompatible +with economical management, as well as with that character among the +heathen which it becomes the professed followers of Him who for our +sakes became poor, even to sustain. It is better for a missionary, +especially a young man, to have rather too little than rather too much. +Your case, on coming out from England, was quite different from mine. +You had all that there was, and were obliged to make the most of it. + +"If these things meet the ideas of the brethren, I will be obliged to +them to say, what sum, in Sicca Rupees, payable in Bengal, they think +sufficient for a small family in Rangoon--sufficient to meet all common +expenses, and indeed all that will be incurred at present, except that +of passages by sea. You have all the accounts before you, especially +of things purchased in Bengal, which I have not; and from having seen +the mission pass through various changes, will be more competent to +make an estimate of expense than I am. And while you are making this +estimate for one family, say also what will be sufficient for two small +families, so that if Brother Rice, or any other should soon join me, it +may not be necessary to bring the subject again under consideration. +This sum I will receive under the same regulations as other stations +are subject to, and which I heartily approve. And if, on experiment, +it be found much too large, I shall be as glad to diminish it, as to +have you increase it, if it be found much too small. + +"Sept. 7.--Since writing the above, we have received the distressing +intelligence, that a few days after Mr. Carey left us, and soon after +he had reached the brig (which had previously gone into the great +river) on the 31st of August, about noon, she was overtaken by a squall +of wind, upset, and instantly sunk. Those who could swim, escaped with +their lives merely, and those who could not, perished. Among the saved, +were Mr. Carey and most of the Bengalees. Mrs. Carey, the two +children, her women and girls, and several men--in all, ten persons, +perished. Every article of property had been transferred from the +boats to the vessel, and she had just left the place, where she had +been long waiting the arrival of Mr. Carey, and had been under sail +about three hours. Several boats were not far distant; the gold-boat +was within sight, but so instantaneous was the disaster, that not a +single thing was saved. Some attempts were made by the lascars to save +Mrs. Carey and William, but they were unsuccessful. Mr. Carey staid on +the shore through the following night; a neighbouring governor sent him +clothes and money; and the next morning he took the gold-boat, and +proceeded up the river. A large boat, on which were several servants, +men and women, beside those that were in the vessel, followed the +gold-boat. The jolly boat has returned here, bringing the surviving +lascars. + +"The dreadful situation to which our poor brother was thus reduced in a +moment, from the height of prosperity, fills our minds continually with +the greatest distress. We are utterly unable to afford him the least +relief, and can only pray that this awful dispensation may prove a +paternal chastisement from his Heavenly Father, and be sanctified to +his soul." + +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. On 28th September 1814 Judson again +wrote to Carey from Rangoon:-- + +"DEAR BROTHER CAREY--If copies of Colebrooke's Sungskrita Dictionary, +and your Sungskrita Grammar are not too scarce, I earnestly request a +copy of each. I find it will be absolutely necessary for me to pick up +a little of the Pali, chiefly on account of many theological terms, +which have been incorporated from that language into the Burman. I +have found a dictionary, which I suppose is the same as that which Mr. +Colebrooke translated, adapted to the Burman system. This I intend to +read. I want also Leyden's Vocabulary, and a copy or two of your son's +grammar, when it is completed. I gave your son on his going up to Ava, +my copy of Campbell's Gospels, together with several other books, all +of which are now lost. The former I chiefly regret, and know not +whence I can procure another copy. + +"There is a vessel now lying here, which is destined to take round an +Ambassador from this Government to Bengal. He expects to go in about a +month, as he told me. He is now waiting for final instructions from +Ava. If Felix be really to be sent to Bengal again, I think it most +probable that he will be ordered to accompany this ambassador. + +"Mrs. J. was on the point of taking passage with Captain Hitchins, to +obtain some medical advice in Bengal; but she has been a little better +for a few days, and has given up the plan for the present. This is a +delightful climate. We have now seen all the seasons, and can +therefore judge. The hot weather in March and April is the chief +exception. Nature has done everything for this country; and the +Government is very indulgent to all foreigners. When we see how we are +distinguished above all around, even in point of worldly comforts, we +feel that we want gratitude. O that we may be faithful in the +improvement of every mercy, and patient under every trial which God may +have in store for us. We know not how the Gospel can ever be +introduced here: everything, in this respect, appears as dark as +midnight." + +By 1816 Judson had prepared the Gospel of Matthew in Burmese, following +up short tracts "accommodated to the optics of a Burman." + +Carey's third son Jabez was clerk to a Calcutta attorney at the time, +in 1812, when Dr. Ryland preached in the Dutch Church, Austin Friars, +the anniversary sermon on the occasion of the removal of the +headquarters of the Society to London. Pausing in the midst of his +discourse, after a reference to Carey, the preacher called on the vast +congregation 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 Madagascar to +Java, and there was soon an end of the active hostility of the +authorities to Christianity. Sir Stamford Raffles governed Java in the +spirit of a Christian statesman. 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 circumstances, 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 repeated the request officially. Jabez Carey was +baptised, 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:-- + +"24th 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. + +"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. + +"2nd. 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. + +"3rd. Behave affably and genteelly to all, but not cringingly towards +any. Feel 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 +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 understanding joined to engaging manners. + +"4th. 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. Revise 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 respecting baptism. They all think infant +sprinkling right, and will apply to you to baptise their children; you +must say little till you know something of the language, and then prove +to them from Scripture what is the right mode of baptism and who are +the proper persons to be baptised. 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 baptise and administer the Lord's Supper according +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. + +"7th. 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 confidence 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. + +"9th. 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 +regularly 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 administer the ordinances of the Gospel depend on any such +thing, but only on the Divine call expressed in the Word of God. The +Church has, 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 opportunity, 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 member 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 influence of a divine +philanthropy extending among Mohammedans, 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 Rumohr--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 +establishment--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 +reconciliation--Carey's descendants. + +"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 missionary 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 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 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 Ryland, in all their mistaken 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 gentlemanliness 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 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 December 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 Serampore there +arrived the Lady Rumohr. She built a house on the Hoogli bank +immediately below that of the missionaries, whose society she sought, +and by whom she was baptised. 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 Emilia, born in the same year as Carey in the then Danish +duchy of Schleswick, was the only child of the Chevalier de Rumohr, who +married the Countess of Alfeldt, only representative of a historic +family. 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 +Serampore, 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 Pensées 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, in May 1808, 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 Du 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 carriage drawn by one +bearer; and again in the evening, as 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 threescore years (twenty-one of them spent in +India), notwithstanding the weakness of her constitution." + +It is 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 at Monghyr, she wrote +to him the tenderest yet most courtly love-letters. + +"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, I 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 +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 insensible) 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 conversed 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 consciousness 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 translation 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 conspicuous 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 Rowe. 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 +Ryland on the 17th August, and sent him the following letters, 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 consulted 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 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.[13] 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 +Rome to the Pope, and soon afterwards all the territory about Rome, 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 occupied 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 proportion 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 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 introduction 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 Robinson is going to Bhootan. 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 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 missionaries. 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 here 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. Aldeen is five minutes' walk south of the +Serampore Mission House, and a century 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 Bullubpoor 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 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 Nonconformist 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 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 +Memorials 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 Mahabharata 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." + +We find this allusion to the place in Carey's correspondence with Dr. +Ryland:--"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 +successively 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 Burhampore, Mr. Des Granges to his at Vizagapatam, and our +two brethren to theirs at Rangoon, and from thence we soon expect to +commend Mr. Thomason 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; the Rangoon brethren +were Baptists; the others were Church of England chaplains. +Sacramentarianism and sacerdotalism had not then begun to afflict the +Church of India. 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. It is now +a picturesque ruin, which the peepul tree that is entwined among its +fine brick masonry, and the crumbling river-bank, may soon cause to +disappear for ever. The exquisite 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 John Lawrence, and have rarely seen one unmoved. This pagoda had +been abandoned long before by the priests of Radhabullub, because the +river had encroached 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 temple after it had paid a visit to Clive's +moonshi, the wealthy Raja Nobokissen in Calcutta, who sought to +purchase 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." +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 +Radhabullub had been removed. There he often tried to turn his +fellow-creatures to the worship of the one God, from their prostrations +"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 the deserted pagoda that Brown, +Corrie, and Parsons met with him to commend him to God before he set +out for his new duties at Dinapoor. "My soul," he writes of this +occasion, "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 marking the rum manufactured there. The +visits of so many Christian pilgrims to the spot, and above all, the +desire expressed by Lord Lawrence when Governor-General to see it, led +the Hindoo family who own the pagoda to leave it at least as a simple +ruin. + +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 Serampore 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!' 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, sanguine 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 prejudices, 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. O may the time +be hastened when every tongue shall confess Jesus Christ, to the glory +of God the Father! + +"On Friday evening [Oct. 10th], 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 without encouragement or support, +in the evening it might be light,' seemed much to affect his own mind, +and greatly impressed us all. Afterwards 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 perceived 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 husband (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 grandson of a Presbyterian elder of the +Church of Scotland, converted 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 instruction of its officers and soldiers, who +were all their lives without religion, not a tenth of them ever +returning home. Carey thus wrote, at Ryland'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 allowance." 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." We may all 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. A few 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 anything 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 Boyd, 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 Christian and +ecclesiastical questions. As we shall soon see, his literary and +scientific pursuits led him to constant and familiar converse with +scholars like Colebrooke and Leyden, with savants like Roxburgh, the +astronomer Bentley, and Dr. Hare, with publicists like Sir James +Mackintosh and Robert Hall, with such travellers and administrators as +Manning, the friend of Charles Lamb, and Raffles. + +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 hereafter 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 likeness...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!" + +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 Regent's Park College. 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, the 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 1807 to Dinapoor to begin his independent career as a +missionary by the side of Fernandez. + +"2nd April 1807.--We have the greatest encouragement to go forward in +the work of our Lord Jesus, because we have every reason to conclude +that it will be successful at last. It is the cause which God has had +in His mind from eternity, the cause for which Christ shed His blood, +that for which the Spirit and word of God were given, that which is the +subject of many great promises, that for which the saints have been +always praying, and which God Himself bears an infinite regard to in +His dispensations of Providence and Grace. The success thereof is +therefore certain. Be encouraged, therefore, my dear son, to devote +yourself entirely to it, and to pursue it as a matter of the very first +importance even to your dying day. + +"Give my love to Mr. and Mrs. Creighton and to Mr. Ellerton, Mr. Grant, +or any other who knows me about Malda, also to our native Brethren." + +"CALCUTTA, 29th September 1808.--A ship is just arrived which brings +the account that Buonaparte has taken possession of the whole kingdom +of Spain, and that the Royal 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." + +"22nd December 1808.--DEAR WILLIAM--Be steadfast...Walk worthy of your +high calling, and so as to be a pattern to others who may engage in +similar undertakings. Much depends upon us who go first to the work of +the Lord in this country; and we have reason to believe that succeeding +Ministers of the Gospel in this country will be more or less influenced +by our example...All, even the best of men, are more likely to be +influenced by evil example than benefited by good: let it, therefore, +be your business and mine to live and act for God in all things and at +all times. + +"I am very glad you wrote to Jabez and Jonathan. O that I could see +them converted!" + +"30th 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 its 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." + +"26th April 1809.--You, my dear William, are situated in a post which +is very dear to my remembrance because the first years of my residence +in India were spent in that neighbourhood. I therefore greatly rejoice +in any exertions which you are enabled to make for the cause of our +Redeemer...Should you, after many years' labour, be instrumental in the +conversion of only one soul, it would be worth the work of a whole +life...I am not sure that I have been of real use to any one person +since I have been in this country, yet I dare not give up the work in +which I am engaged. Indeed, notwithstanding all the discouragements +which I feel from my own unfitness for any part of it, I prefer it to +everything else, and consider that in the work of my Redeemer I have a +rich reward. If you are enabled to persevere you will feel the same, +and will say with the great Apostle--'I count not my life dear to me +that I may fulfil the ministry which I have received of the Lord.' +'Unto me is this grace (favour) given that I should preach among the +Gentiles the unsearchable riches of Christ.' Hold on, therefore, be +steady in your work, and leave the result with God. + +"I have been thinking of a mission to the Ten Tribes of Israel, I mean +the Afghans, who inhabit Cabul...I leave the other side for your mother +to write a few lines to Mary, to whom give my love." + +"CALCUTTA, 1st November 1809.--Yesterday was the day for the Chinese +examination, at which Jabez acquitted himself 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 Redeemer 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 desirable end, our lives will not be in vain. Let +this, therefore, 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 converted 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 Ram +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 Rangoon 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 Rangoon, where he stayed only one +night, and returned 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 undertaking, perhaps +through fear for his safety. I feel as much for that as any one can +do, yet I, and indeed Brethren Marshman, Ward, and Rowe, 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 +literature, 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 +waterfowls 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 +Robinson to procure what he can from Bhootan or other parts. + +"Remember me affectionately to Sebuk Ram 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 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 Redeemer 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 +conversation might have put everything to rights. Of that, however, 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 dissatisfaction, 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 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 feeling 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 Fernandez, and to spare no pains or +concession (consistent with truth) to effect it." + +William had applied to be transferred to Serampore. + +"3rd 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. + +"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 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 providence 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 employment 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. + +"1st December 1813.--I have now an assistant at College, +notwithstanding which my duties are quite as heavy as they ever were, +for we are to receive a number of military students--I suppose thirty +at least. The translation, and printing also, is now so much enlarged +that I am scarcely able to get through the necessary labour of +correcting proofs and learning the necessary languages. All these +things are causes of rejoicing more than of regret, for they are the +very things for which I came into the country, and to which I wish to +devote my latest breath...Jabez has offered himself to the Mission, a +circumstance which gives me more pleasure than if he had been appointed +Chief Judge of the Supreme Court...Your mother has long been confined +to her couch, I believe about six months." + +The following was written evidently in reply to loving letters on the +death of his wife, Charlotte Emilia:-- + +"4th June 1821.--MY DEAR JONATHAN--I feel your affectionate care for me +very tenderly. I have just received very affectionate letters from +William and Brother Sutton (Orissa). Lord and Lady Hastings wrote to +Brother Marshman, thinking it would oppress my feelings to write to me +directly, to offer their kind condolence to me through him. Will you +have the goodness to send five rupees to William for the Cutwa school, +which your dear mother supported. I will repay you soon, but am now +very short of money.--I am your very affectionate father, W. CAREY." + +Of the many descendants of Dr. Carey, one great grandson is now an +ordained missionary in Bengal, another a medical missionary in Delhi, +and a third is a member of the Civil Service, who has distinguished +himself by travels in Northern Tibet and Chinese Turkestan, which +promise to unveil much of the unexplored regions of Asia to the scholar +and the missionary. + +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 founder of a University. + + + + +CHAPTER 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 +Mohammedan codes and colleges of Warren Hastings--The Marquis +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--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 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 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 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. Reporting to Ryland, in 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 +Müller'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 Müller calls attention to the "real +mischief 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 accustomed 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 practical fruit of +all this. + +"CALCUTTA, 17th 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 +inconsistent; 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 obtain 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 Sanskrit +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 bono publico." + +It was not surprising that the Governor-General, even if he had been +less 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 also +translator of the laws and regulations of the Government. + +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 of the twin sciences of comparative philology and +ethnology, to which we owe the 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 +developing 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 prepare the way for more successful civilisers +and scholars. But his pioneering was acknowledged by contemporary[14] +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 Regulating Act of Parliament of 1773, Warren +Hastings had at once carried out the provision he himself had suggested +for using the moulavies and pundits in the administration of Mussulman +and Hindoo 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 compiled 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 Royal 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 contemporary +poetaster:-- + + "But he performed a yet more noble part, + He gave to Asia typographic art." + +In Bengali Halhed had printed at Hoogli in 1783, with types cut by +Wilkins, 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 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 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 Midlands and was aspiring to convert the world, +young Wellesley was at Eton and Christ Church, Oxford, acquiring the +classical scholarship which, as we find its fruits in his Primiti[oe] et +Reliqui[oe], extorted the praise of De Quincey. 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 France in the style of +Burke. The friend of Pitt, he served his apprenticeship 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 uncongenial bonds of +war than he became even more illustrious by his devotion to the +progress which peace makes possible. He created the College of Fort +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 of 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, stretching to the clouds, and which in the hour of death must +have given him consolation." + +When Wellesley arrived at Calcutta he had been shocked by the 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 collectors, 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 India with large incomes, +flattered by native subordinates, encouraged by their superiors to lead +lives of dissipation, and without the moral control even of 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 addressed in a public letter, dated 25th May 1798, "an +objurgation on the character and conduct" of their servants. 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, preceding 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. + +Called upon 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 anticipated 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 invited 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 +Reach, where every East Indiaman first 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 (Hindi), Telugoo, Tamil, and Kanarese; +English, the Company's, Mohammedan 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 colleagues, and the appellate judges. The senior +chaplain, the Rev. 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 or +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 Rev. William Carey, teacher +of the Bengali and Sanskrit languages." + +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 Rev. +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 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, +and of the Persian language of their foreign Mohammedan conquerors. +That the peoples of India, "every man in his own language," might hear +and 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 of the offspring of the speech of Caesar and Cicero. +Now, following the missionary pioneer, as educational, scientific, 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 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 scientifically +elaborated till long after, was provided for under the mixed dialect or +lingua franca known as Hindostani. + +When Carey and his colleagues were congratulating themselves on a +reform which has already proved as fruitful of results as the first +century of the Renascence 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, Brown and +Buchanan urged Carey to take charge of the Bengali and Sanskrit classes +as "teacher" on Rs. 500 a month or £700 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 aggressively 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 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 appointment he thus told the story to Dr. +Ryland 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 Bengali...Mr. Lang is studying Bengali, under +me, in the college. 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 institution, but never +entertained a thought that I should be called to fill a station in it. +To my great surprise 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 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 missionary 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 Ram 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 collegiate +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, 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 Rev. 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 Dinapoor 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 +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, learning Sanskrit, etc.; and the evening +by candle light in translating 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 Rig 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 myself by reading the original Shasters." +In 1799 we find him reading the Mahabharata 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 Bombay 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. + +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 disputations 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," +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 representing a wider extent of territory, from Yarkand to Bangkok, +than even the Sultanised Englishman as Sir James Mackintosh 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 of from two to three hundred millions of our fellow-subjects. +There, too, we have stood with Duff and Cotton, Ritchie and Outram, +representing the later University of Calcutta which Wellesley would +have anticipated. But we question if, ever since, the marble hall of +the Governor-General's palace has witnessed a sight more profoundly +significant than that of William Carey addressing the Marquis Wellesley +in Sanskrit, and in the presence of the future Duke of Wellington, in +such words as follow. + +The seventy students, their governors, officers, and professors, 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 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 Romer had defended, in Hindostani, the thesis that the Sanskrit +is the parent language in India, and Swinton, in Persian, that the +poems of Hafiz are to be understood in a figurative or mystical sense, +there came a Bengali declamation by Tod senior on the position that the +translations 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; then Carey, as moderator, 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 expressed 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. 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 he should openly confess his +great calling, for he had told Fuller on Lord Wellesley's arrival he +would do so if it were possible. 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. 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 convened, +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 primæval 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 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 immediately 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 capacities 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 intercourse 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 government, 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. + +"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 constantly +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, religious, and +political, resulting from this institution;--benefits which will +consolidate the happiness of millions of 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, keenly wounded them by proposing a free trade +movement against their monopoly. They ordered 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 Mackintosh, an Aberdeen +student who had leaped into the front rank of publicists and scholars +by his answer to Burke, in the Vindici[oe] Gallic[oe], 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 Mackintosh became +the centre of scholarly society in Western India, as Sir William Jones +had been in Bengal. He was the friend of Robert Hall, the younger, who +was filling Carey's pulpit in Leicester, and he soon became the +admiring correspondent of Carey himself. His first act during his +seven years' residence in Bombay was to establish the "Literary +Society." 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 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 inquirers 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 incessant literary +work, as his Serampore study was of Bible translation. 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 +contributions the most laborious and valuable was this project of the +Bibliotheca Asiatica. + +"24th July, 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 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 conversation 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 +raisonnè 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 Ramayana 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 Ramayana 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. In the ninth volume of the Asiatic Researches for that year, +scholars were invited to communicate translations and descriptive +accounts of Asiatic books. Carey's edition of The Ramayana of +Valmeeki, in the original Sanskrit, with a prose translation and +explanatory notes, appeared from the Serampore press in three +successive quartos from 1806 to 1810. The translation was done by "Dr. +Carey and Joshua Marshman." Until Gorresio published his edition and +Italian translation of the whole poem this was the first and only +attempt to open the seal of the second great Sankrit epic to the +European world. In 1802 Carey had encouraged the publication at his +own press of translations of both the Mahabharata and the Ramayana into +Bengali. Carey's Ramayana 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." Dean Milman, when professor of poetry in +Oxford, drew from the same storehouse many of the notes with which he +enriched his verse translations from both epics. A. W. von Schlegel, +the death of whose eldest brother at Madras early led him to Oriental +studies, published two books with a Latin translation. Mr. Ralph T. H. +Griffith most pleasantly opened the treasures of this epic to English +readers in his verse translations published 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 prepared 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 +connection 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 Hitopadesa, 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.[15] H. H. +Wilson remarks that the errors are not more than might have been +expected from the variations 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 Apophthegms. Colebrooke records his +debt to Carey for carrying through the Serampore press the Sanskrit +dictionary of Amara Sinha, the oldest native lexicographer, 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 groundwork. 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." + +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 history 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, the first +Minto, and Dalhousie, from the time of Canning to Lawrence and the +second Minto, the provincial administration of imperial Rome, 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 learning and the modesty, the efficiency and the +geniality, which won the affectionate admiration of his students in +Calcutta. + +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 Resident +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. Charles, +afterwards Lord Metcalfe, 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 Nagpoor Resident and author of the Report +of 1826; and Romer, who rose to be Governor of Bombay for a time. In +those early years the two Birds passed through the classes--Robert +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, Hamilton and Martin, the Shakespeares and +Plowdens, the Moneys, the Rosses and Keenes, crowd the honour lists. +One of the last to enjoy the advantages of the college before its +abolition was John Lawrence, who used to confess that he was never good +at languages, but whose vigorous Hindostani made many an ill-doing Raja +tremble, while his homely conversation, interspersed with jokes, +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 +four days' work in Calcutta was over, the early 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 WYCLIF 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-engines in the +East--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--Reception 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--Marathi, 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--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 ph[oe]nix and its feathers. + +Every great reform in the world has been, in the first instance, the +work of one man, who, however much he may have been the product of his +time, has conceived and begun to execute the movement which transforms +society. This is true alike of the moral and the physical forces of +history, of contemporaries 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 determination 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 success 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 acquired 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 +importance, 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. Wyclif had first done this for the +English-reading races of all time, translating from the Latin, and so +had begun the Reformation, 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 Testament and in his Paraphrase of +the Word for "women and 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. +Emphatically, 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 honoured 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 writting letters is stolen from the work of +transcribing the Scriptures into the Bengali language." + +From no mere humility, but with an accurate judgment in the state of +scholarship and criticism at the opening of last century, Carey always +insisted that he was a forerunner, breaking up the way for successors +like Yates, Wenger, and Rouse, who, in their turn, must be superseded +by purely native Tyndales and Luthers in the Church of India. He more +than once deprecated the talk of his having translated the Bible into +forty languages and dialects.[16] As we proceed that will be a 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 the +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, 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 +versions of the whole or portions of the Scriptures. He ceased not, +night and day, if by any means, with a loving catholicity, the Word of +God might be given to the millions. + +Writing in 1904 on the centenary of the British and Foreign Bible +Society, Mr. George A. Grierson, C.I.E., Ph.D., D.Litt., the head of +the Linguistic Survey of India, sums up authoritatively the work of +Carey and his assistants. "The great-hearted band of Serampore +missionaries issued translations of the Bible or of the New Testament +in more than forty languages. Before them the number of Protestant +versions of the Bible in the speeches of India could be counted on the +fingers of one hand. The Dutch of Ceylon undertook a Tamil New +Testament in 1688, which was followed in 1715 by another version from +the pen of Ziegenbalg. The famous missionary, Schultze, between 1727 +and 1732 made a Telugu version which was never printed, and later, +between 1745 and 1758, he published at Halle a Hindostani translation +of the New Testament and of a portion of Genesis. A manuscript version +of portions of the Bible in Bengali was made by Thomas in 1791; and +then the great Serampore series began with Carey's Bengali New +Testament published in 1801. Most of these Serampore versions were, it +is true, first attempts and have been superseded by more accurate +versions, but the first step is always the most important one, and this +was taken by Carey and his brethren." + +Carey's correspondent in this and purely scholarly subjects was Dr. +Ryland, 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 historical +interest. But this communication to Ryland shows how he worked from +the first:-- + +"CALCUTTA, 14th Dec. 1803.--We some time ago engaged 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 +Hindostani 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 upon a translation into these languages. We +accordingly 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 Maharastra, 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 Revelation; 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 necessary +for me to say what we had been about; and had it not been for this +circumstance we should not have said anything till we had got the New +Testament at least pretty forward in printing. I am very glad that +Major Colebrooke has done it. We will gladly do what others do not do, +and wish all speed to those who do anything in this way. We have it 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), +Maharastra, Ooriya, Telinga, Bhotan, Burman, Chinese, Cochin Chinese, +Tongkinese, and Malay. On this great work we have fixed our eyes. +Whether God will enable us to accomplish 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 approbation, 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, 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 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 foresight as the intellectual +and the spiritual. We have seen how, when he was far enough advanced +in his translation, Carey amid the swamps of Dinapoor 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 Testament 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 types from which Halhed's Bengali grammar was +printed at Hoogli in 1778. He taught the art to a native blacksmith, +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 Sanskirt +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 disadvantages 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 imbibed his ideas. By his +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 +Testament 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 considerably 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 went to India as a young missionary, the Rev. James Kennedy[17] +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 typefoundry of the East.[18] + +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 the first sheets of a work which lingered in the +press were sometimes 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 his polyglot +dictionary prepared for the Bible translation work. Many and long were +the experiments of the missionaries to solve the paper difficulty, +ending in the erection of a tread-mill on which relays of forty natives +reduced the raw material in the paper-engine, until one was +accidentally killed. + +The enterprise of Mr. William Jones, who first worked the Raneegunj +coal-field, suggested the remedy in the employment of a steam-engine. +One of twelve-horse power was ordered from Messrs. Thwaites and +Rothwell 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. + +Dr. Carey thus took stock of the translating enterprise in a letter to +Dr. Ryland:-- + +"22nd 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 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, second edition, to the end of +Matthew; Hindostani (new version) to Mark v., and Matthew is begun in +Goojarati. The translation 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 Rameshwaram +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." + +Four years later, in another letter to Ryland, he takes us into his +confidence more fully, showing us not only his sacred workshop, but +ingenuously revealing his own humility and self-sacrifice:--"10th +December 1811.--I have of late been much impressed with the vast +importance of laying a foundation for Biblical criticism in the East, +by preparing 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, elementary books are provided, the labour will be greatly +contracted; 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 grammars 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, +Goojarati, 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 translate 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 course, as the groundwork, +and to give the different acceptations 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 thou 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. + +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 important. 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 Robert 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, Ryland, 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 myself 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 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." "Dr. Carey has treated me with the greatest +affection and kindness, and told me he will give me every information +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 Wyclif and Tyndale, Yates was the +Coverdale of the Bengali and Sanskrit Bible. Wenger, their successor, +was worthy of both. Bengal still waits for the first native revision +of the great work which these successive pioneers have gradually +improved. When shall Bengal see its own Luther? + +The Bengali Bible was the first as it was the most important of the +translations. The province, or lieutenant-governorship then had the +same area as France, and contained more than double its population, or +eighty millions. Of the three principal vernaculars, Bengali is spoken +by forty-five millions of Hindoos and Mohammedans. It was for all the +natives of Bengal and of India north of the Dekhan ("south") tableland, +but especially for the Bengali-speaking people, that William Carey +created a literary language a century ago. + +The first Bengali version of the whole New Testament Carey translated +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 Ram Basu by his side, the most accomplished 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 Rs. 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 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[19] records: "Brother Carey took an impression at the +press of the first page in Matthew." The translator was himself the +pressman. 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 complete life of the Redeemer." Four days +after an advertisement in the official Calcutta Gazette, announcing +that the 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 instruction 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 Communion-table of the chapel, and the mission families and the +new-made converts gathered around it with solemn thanksgiving to God +led by Krishna Pal. Carey preached from the words (Col. iii. 11) "Let +the Word of Christ dwell in you richly in all wisdom." The centenary +was celebrated in Calcutta in 1901, under Dr. Rouse, whose fine +scholarship had just revised the translation. + +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 +Testament 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. 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 waiting 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 fanatical Mussulmans beyond the +frontier, the Bible, dimly understood 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 in 1816, and the eighth in +1832. The venerable scholar, like Columba at Iona over the +thirty-fourth 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 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." The Bengali Bible was the result of +fifteen years' sweet toil, in which Marshman read the Greek and Carey +the Bengali; every one of their colleagues examined the proof sheets, +and Carey finally wrote with his own pen the whole of the five octavo +volumes. In the forty years of his missionary career Carey prepared +and saw through the press five editions of the Old Testament and eight +editions of the New in Bengali. + +The Sanskrit version was translated from the original, and written out +by the toiling scholar himself. Sir William Jones is said to have been +able to secure his first pundit's help only by paying him Rs. 500 a +month, or £700 a year. Carey engaged and trained his many pundits at a +twentieth of that sum. He well knew that the Brahmans would scorn a +book in the language of the common people. "What," said one who was +offered the Hindi version, "even if the books should contain divine +knowledge, they are nothing to us. The knowledge of God contained in +them is to us as milk in a vessel of dog's skin, utterly polluted." +But, writes the annalist of Biblical Translations in India, Carey's +Sanskrit version was cordially received by the Brahmans. Destroyed in +the fire in 1812, the Old Testament historical books were again +translated, and appeared in 1815. In 1827 the aged saint had strength +to bring out the first volume of a thorough revision, and to leave the +manuscript of the second volume, on his death, as a legacy to his +successors, Yates and Wenger. Against Vedas and Upanishads, Brahmanas +and Epics, he set the Sanskrit Bible. + +The whole number of completely translated and published versions of the +sacred Scriptures which Carey sent forth was twenty-eight. Of these +seven included the whole Bible, and twenty-one contained the books of +the New Testament. Each translation 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 +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 relation 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 1809, and the Old Testament in 1815, the whole +in four volumes. Large editions were quickly bought up and circulated. +These led to the establishment of the General Baptist Society's +missionaries at Cuttak, the capital. + +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 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 1810 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, and setting apart Mr. Rae, a +Scottish soldier, who had settled there, as the first missionary at +Gowhatti. 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. It was in a dialect peculiar to Nagpoor, and was at +first largely circulated by Lieutenant Moxon in the army there. In +1812 Carey sent the missionary Aratoon to Bombay and Surat just after +Henry Martyn had written that the only Christian in the city who +understood his evangelical sermon was a ropemaker just arrived from +England. 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 as Assye. Meanwhile new missionaries had been +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 Missionaries to land there, and +for the local Bible Society to spring into existence. Dr. John Wilson +and his Scottish colleagues followed them. Carey and his brethren +welcomed these and retired from that field, confining themselves to +providing, during the next seven years, a 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. + +Mr. Christopher Anderson justly remarks, in his Annals of the English +Bible, published half a century ago:--"Time will show, and in a very +singular manner, that every version, without exception, 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 the character of this extraordinary and +humble man will be more correctly appreciated." + +In none of the classes of languages derived from the Sanskrit was the +zeal of Carey and his associates so remarkable as in the Hindi. So +early as 1796 he wrote of this 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 Rajmahal to Delhi, and perhaps 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. In their +eagerness for a copy of the Old Testament, which appeared in 1818, many +Sepoys brought testimonials from their commanding officers, and in one +year it led eighteen converts to Christ. The other Hindi dialects, in +which the whole New Testament or the Gospels appeared, will be found at +page 177 {see footnote number 16}. 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[20] +New Testament and Pentateuch, and the Kanarese. Nor need we do more +than refer to the Singhalese, "derived from the previous labours of Dr. +Carey" by Tolfrey, the 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 illustrated by a man who, +next to the Lawrences, was the greatest Englishman who has governed the +Punjab frontier, the hero of Mr. Ruskin's book, A Knight's Faith. In +that portion of his career which 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 Kan, 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, +Gooldâd 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 Hurdwâr, 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 Hurdwâr by an English gentleman, who told him to +'take care of it, and 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 produced 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 Muhommudan 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 accomplishment 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,[21] 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.'" + +Hurdwâr, 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. Then three millions of people used to assemble, and too +often carried, all over Asia, cholera which extended to Europe. The +missionaries made this, like most pilgrim resorts, a centre of +preaching and Bible circulation, and doubtless it was from Thompson, +Carey's Missionary at Delhi, that this copy of the Pushtoo Bible was +received. It was begun by Dr. Leyden, and continued for seven years by +the same Afghan maulavee under Carey, in the Arabic character. The +Punjabi 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." A Thug, asked how he could have committed so +many murders, pointed to it and said, "If I had had this book I could +not have done it." A fakeer, forty miles from Lodiana, read the book, +founded the community of worshippers of the Sachi Pitè Isa, and +suffered much persecution in a native State. + +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 missionaries despatched with it a letter to the king of Ava, +commending to his care "their beloved brethren, who from love to his +majesty's subjects had voluntarily gone to place themselves 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 +Rangoon, 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 the sons and daughters of America, following Judson +first of all, are still splendidly developing, from Rangoon to +Kareng-nee, Siam, and China. The ship containing 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 the Welsh for the Bible in their own tongue. But the +ex-Governor-General, Lord Teignmouth, became its first president, 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 principal +tributary sovereigns of India Dr. Buchanan sent copies of the +vernacular Scriptures already published. + +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 Auxiliary Bible Society in order to supersede its +corresponding 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, Malayalam, and +Tamil. The press issued also the Persian New Testament, first of the +Romanist 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 an 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 £1475 had been raised by Mr. William Hey, F.R.S., a surgeon at +Leeds, who had been so moved by the translation memoir of 1816 as to +offer £500 for the publication of a thousand 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 +Punjabi versions were produced. + +The cold season of 1811-12 was one ever to be remembered. Death +entered the home of each of the staff of seven missionaries and carried +off wife or children. An earthquake 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 +11th March 1812, and the native typefounders, compositors, 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 dictionaries, 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. Rushing through it to observe the source of +the fire, he was arrested at the southern rooms by the paper store. +Returning 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, 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. + +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 Sikh and Telugoo grammars and ten Bible versions +in the press were gone. Second editions of Confucius. A Dissertation +on the Chinese Language, and of Ward on the Hindoos, and smaller works +were destroyed. The translation of the Ramayana, on which he and +Marshman had been busy for a year, was stopped for ever; fifty years +after the present writer came upon some charred sheets of the fourth +volume, which had been on the press and rescued. The Circular Letter +for April 1812 is printed on paper scorched at the edge. 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. Marshman 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. The five presses too were untouched. 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 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. 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. Ryland:--"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 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 the MSS. consumed. 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 languages, 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 +Kashmeerian 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 Punjabi 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 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 and their +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 campaign, 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. Robert Ralston, 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 translation work, and now that Judson was on his +way out they redoubled their exertions. In India Thomason's own +congregation sent the missionaries £800, and Brown wrote from his dying +bed a message of loving help. The newspapers of Calcutta caught the +enthusiasm; one leading article concluded 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 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 Ramayana 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 advantages in going +over the same ground a second time were so great that they fully +counter-balanced 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. + + + + +CHAPTER XI + +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 +Government on female infanticide, voluntary drowning, and +widow-burning--What Jonathan Duncan and Col. Walker had +done--Wellesley's regulation 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 civilisation 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 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 oppresses, he takes the 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 Boniface had become to the Germans, or the +Northumbrian Baeda and Wyclif 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 literary +standard, 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 Wyclif's English Bible. Carey's one +Indian life of forty years marks the similar transition stage of +Bengali, including 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 Dinapoor 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 composition of the +first Bengali prose.[22] 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." In the generation before Carey there flourished at +the same Oxford of India, as Nuddea has been called, Raja Krishna Rai, +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 Ram, 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 +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, his Grammar in the same year, +and at the same time his Colloquies, or "dialogues intended to +facilitate the acquiring of the Bengali language," which he wrote out +of the abundance of his knowledge 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, Ram Basu, was 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 who has been compared in his physique +and knowledge to Dr. Samuel Johnson, and even the young civilian +students, were for many years compelled to write Bengali text-books, +including translations of Virgil's Æneid 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 Ram Komal Sen, as the +author of the first volume of a Bengali encyclopædia on anatomy, as the +translator 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 liberty. When Dr. Marshman in 1818 proposed the +publication of a Bengali periodical, Dr. Carey, impressed by a quarter +of a century's intolerance, consented only on the condition that it +should be a monthly magazine, and should avoid political discussion. +Accordingly the Dig-darshan appeared, anticipating 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 Samachar 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 enterprise 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 a paper must be extensively and +importantly useful." He allowed it to circulate by post at one-fourth +the then heavy rate. The natives welcomed their first newspaper. +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 +countrymen 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 1852, when it passed into the hands of Mr. Meredith +Townsend, long the most brilliant of English journalists, and finally +into those of the present writer. For some years a monthly and for a +time 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. In the monthly +and quarterly Friend, moreover, reprinted as much of it was in London, +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 +vernacular, on the other he drew from Western sources the principles +and the thoughts which he clothed in a Bengali dress. + +We have already seen how Carey at the end of the eighteenth century +found Hindooism at its worst. Steadily had the Pooranic 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 licence 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. That +"the mischievous reaction" on England from India--its idolatry, its +women, its nabobs, its wealth, its absolutism--was prevented, and +European civilisation was "after much delay and hesitation" brought to +bear on India, was due indeed to the legislation of Governor-Generals +from Cornwallis to Bentinck, but much more, to the persistent agitation +of Christian missionaries, notably Carey and Duff. For years Carey +stood alone in India, as Grant and Wilberforce did in England, in the +darkest hour of England's moral 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 because their hearts +"seduced by fair idolatresses had fallen to idols foul." + +The most atrociously inhuman of all the Brahmanical 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 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 that when on a Sunday morning the +regulation of Lord William Bentinck prohibiting the crime reached him +as he was meditating his 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. Ryland 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:-- + +"27th April 1808.--The report of the burning of women, and some others, +however, were made by me. I, at his expense, 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." + +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 +their first born in payment of a vow, with the encouragement 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 Regulation 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 devoured 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 sanctioned 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. + +The practice of infanticide 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 Rajpoots, 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 India, for our predecessors had by decree +forbidden and in practice discouraged the crime. Lord Wellesley's +colleagues were still the good Udny, the great soldier Lord Lake and +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 Government 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 abolished. If, however, +the entire abolition should appear to the Court to be impracticable in +itself, or inexpedient, as offending 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 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 would have been sufficient to give the requisite native +excuse to Government for the abolition, but the Nizamat Adawlat judges +urged the "principle" of "manifesting every possible indulgence to the +religious opinions and prejudices of the natives," ignoring morality, +reason, and humanity alike. Lord Wellesley's long and brilliant +administration 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 Carey and he had personally trained, Metcalfe and +Bayley, who by 1829 had risen to Council and become colleagues of Lord +W. Bentinck. But Lord Wellesley did this much, he declined to notice +the so-called "prohibitory regulations" recommended by the civilian +judges. These, when adopted in the year 1812, 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. At the very time the British +Parliament were again refusing in the charter discussions of 1813 for +another twenty years 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 century, 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. +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 elsewhere. +Nor can we omit to record the opinion of Carey's chief pundit, with +whom he spent hours every day as a fellow-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 alternative 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 might be placed, in defiance +of their own misguided Government. + +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 a practical +reasonableness till he saw the public opinion he had done so much to +create triumph. 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 Government 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 +character and daily life and beliefs of the 200,000,000 to whom Great +Britain had 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 lawless supernaturalism like +that of the civilised world before the triumph of Christianity. In +nothing does England's administration of India resemble Rome'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 brotherhood 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 reasonable 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 passage of the +Epistle to the Romans, 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, whom he had to describe at +that time to his English readers, 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 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 mortality 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." + +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 protection. 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 Conjeeveram 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 +management of the church funds." Even before the Madras iniquity, the +pilgrims to Gaya from 1790, if not before, paid for authority to offer +funeral cakes to the manes of their ancestors and to worship Vishnoo +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. + +The Charak, or swinging festival, has been frequently witnessed by the +present writer in Calcutta itself. The orgie has 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 compel 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 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." + +The Ghat murders, caused by the carrying of the dying to the Ganges or +a sacred river, and their treatment there, continue 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 interesting to Carey in proportion to +their misery and abandonment 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 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 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 Punjab. +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 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 jaláo, + Beti mat máro, + Korhi mat dabao" + +("Thou shalt not burn thy widow, 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 +prayer the slave as well as the heathen. The same period which saw his +foundation of modern missions witnessed the earliest efforts of his +contemporary, Thomas Clarkson of Wisbeach, in the neighbouring county +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 nine +millions 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 Act V. of 1843, which for ever abolished +the legal status of slavery in India. The Penal Code has since placed +the prædial 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 +studied under Sutcliff 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." + + + + +CHAPTER XII + +WHAT CAREY DID FOR SCIENCE--FOUNDER OF THE AGRICULTURAL AND +HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY OF INDIA + +Carey's relation to science and economics--State of the +peasantry--Carey a careful scientific observer--Specially a +botanist--Becomes the friend of Dr. Roxburgh of the Company'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 +foresight 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--Destruction of his house and garden by the Damoodar flood of +1823--Report on the Horticultural Society's garden--The Society honours +its founder. + +Not only was the first Englishman, who in modern 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 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 application of these principles to the course of God's providence +and the consciences of men. In what he did for science, for +literature, 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. + +Apart from the extreme south of the peninsula of India, where the +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 the eighteenth 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. 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, 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 Dinapoor. He thus +unconsciously reveals himself and his method of working in a letter to +Morris 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 productions 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 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 Ryland the manners and customs of +the inhabitants; 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 Ryland, his special correspondent 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 surprisingly 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, entirely 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 tormenting as to make one conclude that if the flies in +Egypt were mosquitoes, the plague must be almost insupportable. Here +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 conceived 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, +three or four sorts, and poppy leaves (Papaver somniferum). We also +cut up mallows by the bushes for our food (Job xxx. 4). Amaranths, of +three sorts, we also eat, besides capsicums, pumpkins, gourds, +calabashes, and the egg-plant fruit; yet we have no hardships in these +respects. Rice is the staple article of food... + +"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 Botanical +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. Roxburgh, 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 a farmer while he evangelised the people. On +5th August 1794 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 22nd 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 preservation, and shall find them a very +useful article. An acquaintance which I have formed with Dr. Roxburgh, +Superintendent 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 +Dinapoor 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, 17th July 1799.--Respecting 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, it is true, relating to things +private and public, respecting the mission, articles of curiosity and +science; but they are sometimes 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 +supports 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, 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 Dinapoor, 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. Roxburgh +very obligingly sent to me. Of timber trees I mention the sissoo, the +teak, and the saul tree, which, being an unnamed genus, Dr. Roxburgh, +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. Roxburgh 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 Company's Botanic +Garden to change the name to that which the useful sal tree now bears, +the Shorea robusta, we know not, but the term is derived from Lord +Teignmouth's name. Carey will go down to posterity in the history of +botanical research, notwithstanding his own humility and the accidents +of time. For Dr. Roxburgh gave the name of Careya to an interesting +genus of Myrtace[oe]. The great French botanist M. Benjamin Delessert +duly commemorates the labours of Dr. Carey in the Musée Botanique. + +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 Linnæan system. The park +around, from which he had the little paradise carefully walled in, that +Brahmani 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 present +writer was able, seventy years after the trees had been planted, to +supply Government with plentiful seed. 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 Sir D. Brandis and Dr. +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 peasants 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 late 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:--"23rd 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." We have this +account from his son Jonathan:-- + +"In objects of nature my father was exceedingly curious. His +collection of mineral ores, and other subjects of natural history, was +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 +Linnæan 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, +notwithstanding 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 immediately replied, that +his colleague was conversant with the pleasures of a garden, just as an +animal was with the grass in the field." + +As from Dinapoor, so from Serampore after his settlement 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, desiring 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." What the daisies of the +English fields became to Carey, and how his request was long after +answered, is told by James Montgomery, the Moravian, who formed after +Cowper the second poet of the missionary reformation:-- + +THE DAISY IN INDIA + +"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. 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 Bellis 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.' + +"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:-- + + "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 unabashed but modest eyes, + Follow his motion to the west, + Nor cease to gaze till daylight dies, + Then fold themselves to rest. + + "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 blythe 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 starlight, 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 thus writing:--"I have already informed you of the luckless +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 large 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." + +"17th 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 Resident thither after a time. I +mention this from a conversation 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 Resident may be sent to govern them, and +offering to be at the whole expense of his salary and government. 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 Rajah Brooke's settlement at Sarawak, in the charter of the North +Borneo Company, in the opening up of New Guinea and in the civilisation +of the Philippines by the United States of America. + +To Roxburgh and his Danish successor Wallich, to Voigt who succeeded +Wallich in Serampore, and hundreds of correspondents 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. Roxburgh 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 Company's Botanic Garden in Calcutta. Carey's introduction 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 abilities, 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. 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 mark plants, which their servants +could bring on to the nursery, 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 Government in establishing a +garden at Saharanpoor, in a Sub-Himalayan region, which has been +successfully directed by Royle, Falconer, and Jameson. + +On Dr. Roxburgh'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, O Lord--David." When the Roxburgh MSS. were made over to the +library of the Botanic Garden at Calcutta, the fourth and final volume +appeared with this 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 Review article he +describes the "State of Agriculture in the District of Dinapoor," and +urges improvements such as only the officials, settlers, and Government +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 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 +subsequent events have given great importance. Though many parts, even +of Dinapoor, 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 vegetables 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 dockyard; and not till the conquest of Pegu, in +1855, that the Marquis of Dalhousie was led by the Friend of India to +appoint Dietrich 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 or +small plantations of timber, under which ginger and turmeric might be +cultivated to great advantage. In some situations saul...would +prosper. Indeed the improvements that might be made in this country by +the planting of timber can scarcely be calculated. Teak is at present +brought from the Burman 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 Horticultural +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 precisely 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 promoted?" The Marquis of Hastings +gladly became patron, and ever since the Government has made a grant to +the Society. 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. Lord Hastings added +the experimental farm, formed near Barrackpore, to the Botanic Garden, +with an immediate view to its assisting the Agricultural Society in +their experiments and pursuits. The Society became speedily popular, +for Carey watched its infancy with loving solicitude, and was the life +of its meetings. In the first eighty-seven years of its existence +seven thousand of the best men in India have been its members, of whom +seven hundred are Asiatics. Agriculturists, military and medical +officers, civilians, clergy, and merchants, are represented on its roll +in nearly equal proportions. The one Society has grown into three in +India, and formed the model for the Royal Agricultural Society of +England, which was not founded till 1838. + +Italy and Scotland alone preceded Carey in this organisation, and he +quotes with approbation the action of Sir John Sinclair in 1790, 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, +established a Revenue and Agricultural Department expanded by Lord +Curzon. 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 improved cotton, for the successful +introduction of European fruits, for the improvement of indigenous +fruits, for the successful introduction from the Eastern Islands of the +mangosteen 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 "Rev. Dr. Carey in the chair" with the gold +medal for 80 lbs. of coffee grown there. Carey's own head gardener +became famous for his cabbages; and we find this sentence in the +Society's Report just after the 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 two centuries ago brought from Arabia in his wallet by the +pilgrim Baba Booden to the hills of Mysore, which bear his name, have, +since that Dacca experiment, 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--a discovery +which has put India in the place of China as a producer. + +In the Society's Proceedings for 9th January 1828 we find this +significant record:--"Resolved, at the suggestion of the Rev. 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 competed at the annual exhibition of vegetables, the steam +engine was submitted and pronounced "useful for irrigating lands made +upon the model of a large steam engine belonging to the missionaries at +Serampore." A premium of Rs. 50 was presented to the ingenious +blacksmith as an encouragement to further exertions of his industry. +When in 1832 the afterwards well-known Lieutenant-Governor Thomason was +deputy-secretary to Government, he applied to the Society for +information regarding the manufacture of paper. Dr. Carey and Ram +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 spreading it on +the grass; it was also repeatedly pounded by the dhenki 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 consistence 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 carefully in +conjee, so as to keep the sheets separate. They are afterwards 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." + +Since that reply the Government of India, under the pressure of the +home authorities, has alternately 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 paper-making +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 Serampore +mills were gradually crushed by the expensive and unsatisfactory +contracts made at home 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 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 his Indian converts with his counsels in +sowing their maize and arranging their secular concerns. "Few," he adds +with the true breadth of genius which converted the Baptist shoemaker +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, the millions of five-acre farmers in India were only beginning +to recover from the oppression and neglect of former rulers and the +visitation of terrific famines. 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 the European capitalist and captain +of labour. The large native landholders were as uneducated as the +cultivators. Before all Carey 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 horticulture. 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 Roman 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." + +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 +indiscriminately 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 improvement, or +even of security for person or property, will at once vanish. Nothing +could be then expected but scenes of rapine, plunder, bloodshed, 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 +advantage of its inhabitants; constituting a triumph of virtue and +wisdom thus unknown to the ancients, and which will increase in its +effects in exact proportion to the increase in Britain of justice, +generosity, 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 improbable... + +"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 conversation, 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 happiness from the +religion, the literature, the philanthropy and public 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 oppression 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 subsequent events--of the +Duff-Bentinck reforms, the Sepoy mutiny, the government of the +Queen-Empress, the existence of more than three millions of Christians +in India, the social and commercial development due to the +non-officials from Great Britain and America, and the administrative +progress under Lord Curzon and Lord Minto. + +There is one evil which Carey never ceased to point out, but which the +very perfection of our judicial procedure and the temporary character +of our land assessments have intensified--"the borrowing system of the +natives." While 12 per cent. is the so-called legal rate of interest; +it is never below 36, and frequently rises to 72 per cent. Native +marriage customs, the commercial custom of "advances," 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 has of +late sought to encourage. + +At a time when the English and even Scottish universities 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 Horticultural Society of London, a member +of the Geological Society, and a Fellow of the Linnæan 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 dislocation of the hip-joint. He had +lost his footing when stepping from his boat. 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 fever. When hurriedly +carried out of his tottering house, which in a few hours was scoured +away by the rush 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 to Dr. +Ryland:-- + +"SERAMPORE, 22nd December 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 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 professor 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 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 collections 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 +settlement 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 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 display 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 prosperity 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 +institution, the late Reverend Dr. William Carey, who unceasingly +applied his great talents, abilities, and influence in advancing 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 lasting testimony to the pure and disinterested zeal and +labours of so illustrious a character: that a subscription, +accordingly, 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. Royle to finish the work in marble. Mr. Lough had +executed the Queen's statue for the Royal Exchange, and the monument +with a reclining figure of Southey. In sending out the marble bust of +Carey to Calcutta Dr. Royle wrote,--"I think the bust an admirable one; +General Macleod immediately recognised it as one of your much esteemed +Founder." + +The Bengal Asiatic Society, on the motion of the Lord Bishop and +Colonel Sir Jer. Bryant, entered these words on their Journal:--"The +Asiatic Society cannot note upon their proceedings the death of the +Rev. W. 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 stores 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 on every hand 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." + + + + +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 Horne and Douglas of +Cavers--Henry Martyn--Charles Simeon and Stewart of Moulin--Robert Hall +and John Foster--Heber and Chalmers--William Wilberforce on Carey--Mr. +Prendergast and the tub story--Last persecution by the Company's +Government--Carey on the persecution and the charter controversy--The +persecuting clause and the resolution legalising toleration--The +Edinburgh Review and Sydney Smith's fun--Sir James Mackintosh's +opinion--Southey's defence and eulogy of Carey and the brotherhood in +the Quarterly Review--Political value of Carey's labours--Andrew +Fuller's death--A model foreign mission secretary--His friendship with +Carey--The sixteen years' dispute--Dr. Carey's position--His defence of +Marshman--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 in +the French Revolution, 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 scientific research, in a just and +benevolent regard for the peoples 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 Rousseau and all +other theories the teaching of Christ as to His kingdom within each +man, and in the progress 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 +Rome 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 pollutions 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 language +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 the whole time; and he represented in it an element of +permanent healthy nationalisation which these successors +overlooked,--the use of the languages of the peoples of India as the +only literary channels for allowing the truth revealed through English +to reach the millions of the people. + +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, and +to seek the promised impulse of His Spirit or Divine Representative on +earth, that they might do greater things than even those which He did. +And he, less directly but not less consciously, brought the influence +of public opinion, which every year purified and quickened, to bear +upon Parliament and upon individual statesmen, aided in this up till +1815 by Andrew Fuller. He never set foot in England again, and the +influence of his brethren Ward and Marshman during their visits was +largely neutralised by some leaders of their own church. But 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 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 and South Africa and to +Western India, until their churches acted as such; of the Church +Missionary Society which the evangelical members of the Church of +England have put in the front of all the societies; and of Robert +Haldane's splendid self-sacrifice in selling all that he had to lead a +large Presbyterian mission to Hindostan. Soon (1797) the London +Society became the parent of that of the Netherlands, and of that which +is one of the most extensive in 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 Religious 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 promoting +Christianity among the Jews. The older Wesleyan 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 +operations to the slaves of America and the English of the dispersion +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).[23] + +The Periodical Accounts sent home from Mudnabati and Serampore, +beginning at the close of 1794, and the Monthly Circular Letters after +1807, 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 earnest aggressiveness. In 1796 there appeared in +Edinburgh The Missionary Magazine, "a periodical publication intended +as a repository of discussion and intelligence respecting the progress +of the Gospel throughout the world." The editors 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 thus +continues:-- + +"The attachment of both the Mohammedans 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 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 doctrines 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 computes 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... + +"Reflect, O disciple of Jesus! on what has been presented to thy view. +The cause of Christ is thy own cause. Without deep criminality thou +canst not be indifferent to its success. Rejoice that so delightful a +field of missions has been discovered and exhibited. Rouse 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 she 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 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. Robert +Haldane, whose journal at this time was full of Carey's doings, and his +ordained associates, Bogue, Innes, and Greville Ewing, accompanied by +John Ritchie as printer, John Campbell as catechist, 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. + +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 England and Scotland, of the Baptists +and Independents. It supplied in each case an executive through which +they 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 Scottish 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 Serampore, 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 successive visits to the home churches of missionaries like Duff +and Judson, Ellis and Williams, Moffat and Livingstone, 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 contemptible 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 the +thirty thousand have a vast body of Christians really obedient to the +Master, in so far as, banded together in five hundred churches and +societies, they have sent out eighteen thousand missionaries instead of +one or two; they see eighty thousand Asiatics, Africans, and +Polynesians proclaiming the Christ to their countrymen, and their +praying is tested by their giving annually a sum of £5,000,000, to +which every year is adding. + +The influence of Carey and his work on individual men and women in his +generation was even more marked, inasmuch as his 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 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 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 Horne, who, after a brief +experience as Church of England chaplain in Zachary Macaulay's +settlement of Sierra Leone, published that little book to excite in all +Christians a passion for missions like the Master's. Referring to the +English churches, Established and Nonconformist, he wrote:--"Except the +Reverend Mr. Carey and a friend who accompanies him, I am not informed +of any...ministers who are engaged in missions." Such was the +impression made by Carey on John Newton that, in 1802, he rebuked his +old curate, Claudius Buchanan, for depreciating the Serampore +missionaries, adding, "I do not look for miracles, but if God were to +work one in our day, I should not wonder if it were in favour of Dr. +Carey." + +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 suggestiveness, +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." Referring 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 Reformation itself needed anew a reform in the spirit if +not in the letter. That second Reformation has begun; it 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-captain, 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 +colleges 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 Missionary 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 pure 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 +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 returned. 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 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 Rev. 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 +evening sermon after a season of Communion were blessed to the +evangelical enlightenment 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.[24] Like Simeon, Dr. Stewart +thenceforth became a warm supporter of foreign missions. Finding in +the Periodical Accounts 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. 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 something 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. + +Next to Andrew Fuller, and in the region of literature, general culture +and eloquence before him, the strongest men among the Baptists were the +younger Robert Hall and John Foster. Both were devoted to Carey, and +were the most 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. Marshman, but his loyalty to Carey and +the principles of the mission fired some of the most eloquent orations +in English literature. John Foster's shrewder common sense never +wavered, but inspired his pen alike in the heat of controversy and in +his powerful essays and criticisms. 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 +providence 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. + +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 Christian +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 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 roused, the +Established to send out bishops and chaplains, the Nonconformist and +Established Evangelicals together to secure freedom for missionaries +and schoolmasters. 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 Brotherhood 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 Resolution, which +would have made it imply that the privilege should never be exerted +though the power of licensing missionaries was nominally conceded. + +"One great argument of his opponents was grounded on the enthusiastic +character which they imputed to the missionary body. India hitherto has +seen no missionary who was a member of the English Church, and +imputations could be cast more readily on 'Anabaptists 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 instance of the moral sublime, than +that a poor cobbler working in his stall should conceive the idea of +converting the Hindoos to Christianity; yet such was Dr. Carey. Why +Milton's planning his Paradise 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 mercenary standard of your men of honour, than the manifest +effect produced upon the House of Commons by my stating this last +circumstance. 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 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 Resolutions on Toleration, +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 missionaries 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 language 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, apostates +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?" + +Lord Wellesley's eulogy of the Serampore mission in the House of Lords +was much more pronounced than appears 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 importunate +appeals to agitate, so that the new charter might legalise Christian +mission work in India. Fuller worked outside of the House as hard as +Wilberforce. In eight weeks of the session no fewer than nine hundred +petitions were presented, 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 missionaries in Bengal, +excused by the Vellore mutiny, which had driven Judson to Burma and +several other missionaries elsewhere, was renewed by the Indian +Government's secretaries and police. The Ministry had informed the +Court of Directors that they had resolved to permit Europeans to settle +in India, yet after five weeks' vacillation the Governor-General +yielded to his subordinates so far as to issue an order on 5th March +1812, for the expulsion of three missionaries, an order which was so +executed that one of them was conducted like a felon through the +streets and lodged in the native jail for two hours. Carey thus wrote +to Ryland on the persecution:-- + +"CALCUTTA, 14th April 1813.--Before this reaches you it is probable +that you will have heard of the resolution of Government respecting our +brethren Johns, Lawson, and Robinson, 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 Robinson 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 ascertain 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 Europeans to remain in India without the leave of the +Court of Directors. + +"Whether Twining's pamphlet excited the alarm, or was 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 without 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 preaching 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 East, eighteen of which we are +employed about, besides printing 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 predicament 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 Rangoon. In short, though the publishing 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 is wrong, and nothing that is morally wrong can be +politically right." + +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 Rev. +Sydney Smith, as the literary and professional representative of what +he delighted to call "the cause of rational religion," was the foe of +every form of earnest Christianity, 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 passages 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 +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 +Roman 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 claiming 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 persecution 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 Rev. Sydney Smith, and to defend Carey and the +Brotherhood as both deserved. The layman's defence was the more +effective for its immediate purpose that he started from the same +prejudice as that of the reverend Whig rationalist--"the Wesleyans, 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 competently 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 statements of the +political and the purely missionary questions, which read now almost as +predictions:-- + +"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 establishment, +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? There is ability and there is learning in the Church +of England, but its age of fermentation 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 progress will be continually +accelerating; the difficulty is at first, as in introducing vaccination +into a distant land; when the matter has once taken one subject +supplies infection for all around him, and the disease 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 themselves and +protection for their converts. The plan which they have laid for their +own proceedings is perfectly prudent and unexceptionable, 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-missionaries +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. + +"Do not think 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. +Sutcliff of Olney had been the first of the three to be taken away[25] +a year before, at the same age. The scholarly Dr. Ryland of Bristol +was left alone, and the home management of the Mission 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 interest +of the churches in Serampore, and to meet the demand of the +"respectable" class who had held aloof at the first, who were eager +that the headquarters of so renowned 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 Ryland wherein 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 missionary 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 usefulness would be double what it is. It is very +singular that the Mission to the East originated with one of these +principles, 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 +relation to the Committee, up to the last, was equally exemplary. 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 secretary. 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 +triumvirates, moreover, consisted of giants--Carey, Marshman, and Ward +abroad; Fuller, Sutcliff, and Ryland 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 respected 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. 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 Rev. 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 that +period. Its opinion has become that of Mr. Marshman, to which a +careful perusal of all the documents 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 common 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 regions 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. To us +the long and bitter dispute is now of value only in so far as it brings +out in Christ-like 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. Protesting 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 +resentment. 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. Ryland +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 necessary, 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 references to +Dr. Carey in Serampore. All Scotland, led by Christopher Anderson, +Chalmers, and the Haldanes--all England, except the Dyer faction and +Robert Hall for a time, 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 Committee'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 position, 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, harmless 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, +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 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 especially for any whom duty compels to rebuke +the minister who has failed to learn the charity which envieth not. We +reproduce 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, 15th 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 contrary +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 profusion, etc., +preferred against Brother Marshman?' 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 +Reports, to write many of our public letters, to draw up plans for +promoting 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 Ward or myself in these +public acts of the mission. These things placed him in the foreground, +and it has been no uncommon 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. + +"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 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 whom, told some one, we know not whom, 'that +he had been often at Lord Hastings's table, but that Brother Marshman's +table far exceeded his.' I have also often been at Lord Hastings's +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 plainness 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's table, or he could have not been guilty of such +misrepresentation. Lord Hastings's 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 breakfast 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 entertained 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 +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, notwithstanding their cries +against him, have not only supported themselves, 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 he 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 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 disease. 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, besides +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 him of the grace of God. His natural +bias and habits are his own, and 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?' 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 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 Bother 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 proceeded to the extremity of dividing the +mission. When I engaged in the mission, it was a determination that, +whatever 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 feeling upon +this subject, when you consider that by this rupture that cause is +weakened and disgraced, in the establishment 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 want? Would they attempt to deny his possessing the grace +of God? He was known to and esteemed by Brother Ryland 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 need not say that circumstances must in a great measure 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 +themselves 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 evangelising 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 formerly 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 importance 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 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 +expect we shall be in a little time on a more friendly footing. Much +of what has taken place originated in England. Mistakes and false +conclusions were followed by all the circumstances 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 +mistaken, 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 my whole sentiments upon the business, and +formerly to my very dear Brother Ryland, 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 preceded 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 affectionately, +yours in our Lord Jesus Christ, W. CAREY." + +"14th May 1828. + +"MY DEAR BROTHER ANDERSON--Yours by the Louisa, of October last, came +to hand a few days ago with the copies of Brother Marshman's brief +Memoir of the Serampore Mission. 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 those persons' exemption of me from the +blame they attach to Brother Marshman in the greatest possible +contempt. I may have subscribed my name thoughtlessly to papers, and +it would be wonderful if there had been no instance 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 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 circumstances; +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 pecuniary 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, in his unpublished letters to the brethren in Calcutta, 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 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 censured 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 withdraw 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 their and according to your +rejoicing...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 unguardedly; his family connection with Mr. Pearce +sufficiently accounts for that. We have long been attacked in this +country--first by Mr. Adam,[26] and afterwards by Dr. Bryce.[27] Bryce +is now silenced by two or three pieces by John Marshman 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 undoubtedly 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.'" + + + + +CHAPTER XIV + +CAREY AS AN EDUCATOR--THE FIRST CHRISTIAN COLLEGE IN THE EAST + +1818-1830 + +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 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--The college +directly and essentially a missionary undertaking--Action of the +Brotherhood from the first vindicated--Carey appeals to posterity--The +college and the systematic 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 to 1883. + +The first act of Carey and Marshman when their Committee took up a +position of hostility to their self-denying independence, 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 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 every year the mission in all its forms grew +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 permanently 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 some time, 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 inclination of the +Bengalees to learn English a favourable circumstance which may be +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. + +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 dispensations 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 encouraging, and +may require, in all, more faith and patience; but it appears to have +been the process of things, in the progress of the Reformation, 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 recompense 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 Hindoo +goes no more to the Ganges to be washed from his filthiness, but to the +fountain opened for sin and uncleanness; 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 together; 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, +'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 was to be +set apart from the surplus revenues, and applied to the revival and +improvement of literature and the encouragement 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 +resolution. For this reason, 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 Bentinck and +Macaulay, and practically by Duff, the fountain of a river of knowledge +and life which is flooding the East. + +The first result of the liberalism of the charter of 1813 and the +generous views of Lord Hastings was the establishment 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 +Calcutta, 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 immediate 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 European 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 unsupported effort in Bombay. It embraced the classical or +learned languages of the Hindoos and Mohammedans, Sanskrit 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 +languages 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 supplanting +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, so as 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 writer 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 Lieutenant-Governor, to do in 1882 what the Serampore +College would have accomplished had its founders been young instead of +old men, by establishing the Punjab University. + +Lord Hastings and even Sir John Malcolm took a personal 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 +fellow-labourers at Serampore--that they would walk, not run, in the +same path--I would not then have to state one reserve." Lord Hastings +in Council passed an order encouraging the establishment of a European +Medical Professorship in Serampore College, and engaged to assist in +meeting the permanent expense of the chair when established. His +Excellency "interrupted 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 is still, the finest edifice of the kind in British +India. + +"The centre building, intended for the public rooms, was a hundred 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 dimensions 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, +corresponded with the breadth of all the other enterprises of the +Serampore 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 suspicion, nor the charge 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 endeavoured to silence the +voice of calumny. They were the first who maintained that a college +was an indispensable appendage to an Indian mission." + +The next to follow Carey in this was Bishop Middleton, who raised funds +to erect a chaste Gothic pile beside 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 establishment." 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, with the General Assembly's Institution (now united as +the Scottish Churches College), the Cathedral Mission Divinity School, +and the Bhowanipore Institution; in Bombay the Wilson College, in +Madras the Christian College, in Nagpoor the Hislop College, in Agra +St. John's College, in Lahore the Church Mission Divinity School, in +Lucknow the Reid College, 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 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 resides, between Sarkies's house and ours, to +us three in perpetuity 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. Raske, the Orientalist, who had visited +Serampore, was a Professor in the University there. The vellum charter +was prepared among them, empowering 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 prevent him from keeping his word. When, in 1845, the +Company 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, and its Christian +character, 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 translation work of Carey. When, in +1884, the Evangelical Alliance held its session in Copenhagen, and was +received by Christian IX.,[28] 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 mission from +England to India. + +How Dr. Carey valued the gift of the King is seen in this writing, on +the lining of the case of the gold medal, dated 6th November 1823:-- + +"It is my desire that this medal, and the letter of the King of +Denmark, which accompanied it, be given at my death to my dear son +Jonathan, that he may keep it for my sake." + +The letter of King Frederic VI. is as follows:-- + +"MONSIEUR LE DOCTEUR ET PROFESSEUR WILLIAM CAREY-- + +C'est avec beaucoup d'intérêt que nous avons appris le mérite qu'en +qualité de membre dirigeant de la Société de la Mission, vous avez +acquis, ainsi que vos co-directeurs, et les effèts salutaires que vos +louables travaux ont produits et partout où votre influence a pu +atteindre. Particulierement informés qu'en votre dite qualité vous +avez contribué a effectuer bien des choses utiles, dont l'établissement +à Frédéricsnagore a à se louer, et voulant vous certifier que nous vous +en avons gré, nous avons chargé le chef du dit établissement,--notre +Lieutenant-Colonel Kraefting, de vous remettre cette lettre; et en même +temps une medaille d'or, comme une marque de notre bienveillance et de +notre protection, que vous assurera toujours une conduite meritoire. + +"Sur ce nous prions Dieu de vous avoir dans Sa sainte et digne +garde.--Votre affectionné FREDERIC. + +"Copenhague, ce 7 Juin 1820. + +"Au Docteur et Professeur WILLIAM CAREY, + +Membre dirigeant de la Société de la Mission à Frédéricsnagore." + +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 attention, 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 Abbé Dubois on all +Christian missions. Another friend was removed in 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 Edinburgh professor, John Mack, was accomplishing all +that its founders had projected. The Bishop of all good Christian men +never penned a finer production--not even his hymns--than this letter, +called forth by a copy of the Report 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 considerations, at the +conclusion that I shall serve our great cause most 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 permitted 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 seem 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 therefore 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 +intended, and believe me, with much sincerity, your friend and servant +in Christ, REGINALD CALCUTTA. + +"3rd June 1824." + +This is how Carey reciprocated these sentiments, when writing to Dr. +Ryland:-- + +"SERAMPORE, 6th July 1824. + +"I rejoice to say that there is the utmost harmony between 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 Marshman called on him. As soon as 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." + +On the death of Mr. Ward and departure of Dr. Marshman for Great +Britain on furlough, after twenty-six years' active labours, his son, +Mr. John Marshman, was formally taken into the Brotherhood. He united +with Dr. Carey in writing to the Committee two letters, dated 21st +January 1826 and 15th November 1827, which show the progress of the +college and the mission from the first as one independent agency, and +closed with Carey's appeal to the judgment of posterity. + +"About seven years ago we felt convinced of the necessity 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 regards their management, their support, +and their increase. We have therefore associated with ourselves, in +the superintendence of them, the Rev. 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 college. 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. + +"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 institution. Nor shall we require +this aid beyond a limited period. + +"Of the three objects connected with the College, the education of +non-resident heathen students, the education of resident Christian +students, and the preparation of missionaries from those born in the +country, the first is not strictly a missionary object, the two latter +are intimately connected with the progress of the good cause. The +preparation of missionaries in the country was not so much recommended +as enforced by the great expense which attends the despatch of +missionaries from Europe. That the number of labourers in this country +must be greatly augmented, before the work of evangelising the heathen +can be said to have effectively commenced, can admit of no doubt. + +"The education of the increasing body of Native Christians likewise, +necessarily became a matter of anxiety. Nothing 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 +missionaries 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 religious 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 knowledge +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 +refinement of the Christian character, and the highest attainable +progress in the pursuits of the mind. + +"During the last ten years of entire independence 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." + +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 +advancing years did not abate and misrepresentation in England only +fed. The difficulties in which Carey found himself had the happy +result of forcing him into the position of being the 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 between 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 +first 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 continued to give an annual grant +of £240 for many years. John Marshman did not think it necessary, "to +defend Dr. Carey from the charge of treason to the principles of +dissent in having thus solicited and accepted aid from the state for an +educational establishment; the repudiation 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." + +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. + +"MY DEAR WILLIAM--Yours of the 3rd instant I have received, and must +say that it has filled me 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 Rs. 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 gardeners, yet my +servants' wages did not exceed 60 rupees monthly. I kept a horse and a +farmyard, and yet my expenses 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 +greater.--I am your affectionate father, W. CAREY." + +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 completeness 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 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. Ryland, who had passed away at +seventy-two, a month before the following letter was written:-- + +"June 7th, 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 opportunity, 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 Lords' 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 uncertain 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. Ryland, he wrote:--"There are now in +England very few ministers with whom I was acquainted. Fuller, +Sutcliff, Pearce, Fawcett, and Ryland, besides many others whom I knew, +are gone to glory. My family connections also, those excepted who were +children 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 kindness +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 apparent that Oriental gave place to English +literature in the curriculum. Mr. Rowe, 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 Fort 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 Barisal, that led +him to send the best of his Serampore students to found that afterwards +famous mission. + +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,[29] 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 United Free Church of +Scotland has, alike in India, China 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 Leechman +from Glasgow rejoiced to work out his Paul-like conception. 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 learned 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 Rev. John Trafford, M.A., a +student of Foster's and of Glasgow University. For twenty-six years he +carried out the principles of Carey. On his retirement the College as +such was suspended in 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 found the library and museum; +the Bibles, grammars, and dictionaries; the natural history +collections, and the Oriental MSS.; the Danish Charter, the historic +portraits, and the British Treaty; as well as the native Christian +classes--all of which re-echo William Carey's appeal to posterity. + + + + +CHAPTER XV + +CAREY'S CHRISTIAN UNIVERSITY FOR THE PEOPLE OF INDIA + +The Danish charter--The British treaty--Growth of native Christian +community--Lord Minto's concession of self-governing privileges--Madras +Decennial Conference and Serampore degrees--Proposed reorganisation of +College so as to teach and examine for B.D. and other degrees--Appeal +for endowments of Carey's Christian University + +Attention has already been directed to the far-seeing plans which Carey +laid down for Serampore College. It is a pleasure to record that while +this volume is in the press (1909), a scheme is being promoted by the +College Council for the reorganisation of the College on the lines of +Carey's ideal, with a view to making it a centre of higher ministerial +training for all branches of the Indian Church. + +It will be remembered that in 1827 the College received from Friedrich +VI. a Royal Charter, empowering it to confer degrees, and giving to it +all the rights which are possessed by Western Universities. Under +Treaty dated the 6th October, 1845, the King of Denmark agreed to +transfer to the Governor-General of India, Lord Hardinge, G.C.B., for +the sum of £125,000, the towns of Tranquebar, Frederiksnagore or +Serampore,[30] and the old factory site at Balasore. Article 6 of this +treaty provides that "the rights and immunities granted to the +Serampore College by Royal Charter, of date 23rd of February, 1827, +shall not be interfered with, but continue in force in the same manner +as if they had been obtained by a Charter from the British Government, +subject to the General Law of British India."[31] + +For lack of an endowment sufficient to maintain the teaching staff +required, and to establish the necessary scholarships, the College has +never been fully developed on University lines. Since 1883 it has been +used as a training Institution for preachers and teachers for the +Bengal field of the Baptist Missionary Society. Meanwhile in the +century since Carey's statesman-like ideal was sketched, under the +providence of God there have been two notable developments in the +conditions of Indian life--(1) the educated Christian natives of India, +from Cape Comorin to Peshawar, have grown, and continue to grow, in +numbers, in character, and in influence, with a rapidity pronounced +marvellous by the official report of the Census of 1901; (2) the three +hundred millions of the peoples of India have, by the frank concession +of the Earl of Minto and his advisers, and the sanction of Viscount +Morley and Parliament, received a virtual constitution, which +recognises their fitness for self-governing rights under the benevolent +rule of King Edward VII. and his Viceroy in Council. Christianity, and +the leaven of the more really educated Christian natives, will alone +moralise and loyalise the peoples of India, and prepare future +generations for a healthy independence, material and political. + +As they have watched the lines along which these developments have +proceeded, the leaders of the missionary enterprise have become more +and more convinced that the realisation of Carey's ideal has been too +long delayed, and that the influence of the Christian community on the +great movements of Indian thought has suffered in consequence. In +particular, while the need for highly-equipped Indian preachers, +evangelists and leaders, is far more urgent now even than it was in +Carey's day, the most experienced missionaries of all societies are far +from satisfied with the present level of theological education in the +Indian Church. They are convinced that the time has come to reorganise +the whole system of ministerial training, and to secure for the study +of Christian Theology in India that academic recognition which it has +enjoyed for centuries in Western lands. Since the British Government +is pledged to neutrality in religious matters, it is unable to sanction +the establishment of Divinity faculties, in any of the State +Universities, Hence the Decennial Missionary Conference, representing +all the Protestant Missionary Societies working in India, meeting in +Madras in December 1902, appointed a Committee "to confer with the +Council of the Serampore College, through the Committee of the London +Baptist Missionary Society, to ascertain whether they are prepared to +delegate the degree-conferring powers of the Charter of that College to +a Senate or Faculty, representative of the various Protestant Christian +Churches and Societies working in India." + +The College Council (of which Meredith Townsend, Esq., is Master, and +Alfred Henry Baynes, Esq., F.R.G.S., is Secretary), has taken this +request into careful consideration, and after being assured by the +highest legal opinion that the Charter is still valid, has resolved to +do everything in its power to carry out the suggestions of the +Decennial Conference. They realise, however, that if the +degree-conferring powers of the Charter are to be used, the College +itself must be raised to the highest standard of efficiency as a +Teaching Institution, and its permanence must be guaranteed by an +adequate endowment. + +The Council has felt that the attainment of these two objects is +possible only through a union of the forces of the various Protestant +Christian Churches working in India. The result has been the adoption +of a wise and catholic project of reorganisation, under which it is +hoped that Serampore will become a great interdenominational College of +University rank, giving a theological training up to the standard of +the London B.D., conferring its own divinity degrees, and maintaining +an Arts and Science department, for the present at least affiliated to +the Calcutta University. It is justly claimed that such a Christian +University at Serampore will both unify and raise the standard of +theological education in the Indian Church, helping to build the +Eastern structure of Christian thought and life on the one Foundation +of Jesus Christ, the Word of God. + +The scheme which the Council has sanctioned contemplates the permanent +endowment of the requisite professorships and scholarships. The +College building will provide sufficient class-room accommodation, but +it will be necessary to secure additional land, and to erect houses for +the staff and hostels for the students. An immediate endowment of +£250,000 is aimed at with a view of establishing a well-equipped +theological faculty, with a preliminary department in Arts and +Sciences. The Council, however, is not without hope that in due time +Carey's noble vision of a great Christian University at Serampore +conferring its own degrees, not only in theology but in all branches of +useful learning, may powerfully appeal to some of the merchant princes +of the West. It is estimated that the sum of £2,000,000 would be +required for this equipment and endowment of the University on this +larger scale. The great missionary Churches and Societies look +favourably on the proposal, initiated by their own missionaries, to +co-operate with Carey's more immediate representatives in realising and +applying his ideal which is bound to expand and grow as India becomes +Christianised. + +The members of the College Council maintain that, in view of the +world-wide influence of the modern missionary movement, inaugurated by +William Carey, a movement that has been so beneficial both to the +Church at home and to non-Christian nations, there is no institution +that has greater historical and spiritual claims upon modern +philanthropy than Serampore, and they believe that there are large +numbers of men and women in Great Britain, America, India and other +lands who will consider it a sacred privilege to have their names +inscribed with those of Carey, Marshman and Ward on the walls of +Serampore College as its second founders. + +The Council is doing all within its power to reorganise the College on +the broadest possible basis, believing that an institution with such +inspiring traditions and associations should be utilised in the +interests, not merely of one denomination, but of the whole Church in +India and the nation. Up to the present, the Council, though legally +an entirely independent body, has worked in the closest association +with the Baptist Missionary Society's Committee. But now with the +fullest sympathy both of the Baptist Missionaries on the field and the +Committee in England, it is also inviting the co-operation of all +evangelical Christian bodies in the work of Serampore College. It is +prepared to welcome as full professors of the College, in Arts and +Theology, representatives of other evangelical missions, who shall have +special superintendence of the students belonging to their respective +denominations, and be free to give them such supplementary instruction +as may be thought necessary. All professors without distinction of +denomination will share equally in the local management of the affairs +of the College. The final authority must, in accordance with the +Charter, remain in the hands of the College Council, but in order to +admit of the due representation upon the Council of the various +evangelical bodies which may co-operate, the present members of Council +have, with the hearty concurrence of the Baptist Missionary Society's +Committee, approved the suggestion that application should be made to +the Indian Legislature for powers to enlarge its membership. + +The Honorary Secretary of the College Council, A. H. Baynes, Esq., 19 +Furnival Street, London, E.C., will be glad to supply further +information, or to receive contributions towards the Fund for the +endowment and equipment of the College. + +In view of the conditions at present existing in India, this appeal +should be of interest not only to friends of Christian missions, but to +philanthropists generally, for a Christian University, conducted on the +broad and catholic principles laid down by Carey, supplementary but in +no way antagonistic to the existing Universities, will be a most +effective instrument for permeating the political and social ideals of +the youth of India with the spirit of Christ. This is a matter that +deeply concerns, not only the Missionary, but also the statesman, the +merchant, and all true friends of India of whatever race or creed. + +In all the romance of Christian Missions, from Iona to Canterbury, +there is no more evident example of the working of the Spirit of God +with the Church, than the call of Carey and the foundation of Serampore +College under Danish Charter and British treaty, making it the only +University with full powers to enable the whole Reformed Church in +India to work out its own theological system and Christian life. + + + + +CHAPTER XVI + +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--His latest letters and last +message to Christendom--Visits of Lady William Bentinck and Bishop +Daniel Wilson--Marshman'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 Soondarbans, not in the fevers of the swamps of Dinapoor, 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 1830-1833. Blow succeeded blow, but only that +the fine gold of his 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 succession 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 Parliament. 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 merchants, were reduced to universal poverty. Capital +disappeared 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. + +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 England; 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, grandson of Robert Raikes who first +began Sunday schools, pledged his own credit with the Bank of Bengal, +until 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. Marshman +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 this morning to attend Lord W. +Bentinck's first levée. 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 Bayley, 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 Rs. 1000 a month, the Brotherhood met to +pray for light and strength. Mr. Robinson, the Java missionary who had +attached himself 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 expressions 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 grey 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 himself published what +is perhaps the most chivalrous, just, and 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 indirectly, 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 prospect 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 station 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 intrusted 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 +Rs. 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 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, as 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 Testament, 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 meditating on the +Word, and praising God for His goodness to the college and the mission +stations increased to nineteen by young Sir 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 honourable 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 converts to 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 +connection 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 +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 functionary 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 indispensable; 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 certain +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, 'Serampore +missionaries;' but as Dr. Carey's name was specifically 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 application, 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 opportunities 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 +unseasonable 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:-- + +"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 ill-health +is, during the whole period of his residence in India. They are both +active to a degree which you would think impossible 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 Rom. 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 remembrance 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, +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. On the other side, in the upper verandah, 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. 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." + +Of all the visits paid to Carey none are now so interesting 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[32] told the +story:-- + +"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 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 Scots 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. +Duff 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 solemnity: '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."[33] + +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 +Ryland (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 preceded 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 connected, 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." + +Carey's successor, Mack, wrote thus to Christopher Anderson ten months +later:-- + +"SERAMPORE, 31st January 1834.--Our venerable father, Dr. Carey, is yet +continued 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 +whatever 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. + +"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 +imagination, but it was not to be. The brethren here would not see it +as I did." + +This last sketch, by Mr. Gogerly, 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 colourless 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; 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 +certainty 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. Ryland:--"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 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. The 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 certainly the very last things which I should have written if I +could have chosen for myself." + +On 15th June 1833 the old man was still able to rejoice with others. He +addressed to his son Jonathan the only brief letter which the present +writer possesses from his pen, in a hand as clear as that of a quarter +of a century before:-- + +"MY DEAR JONATHAN--I congratulate you upon the good news you have +received. But am sorry Lucy continues so ill. I am too weak to write +more than to say your mother is as well as the weather will permit us +to expect. I could scarcely have been worse to live than I have been +the last fortnight.--Your affectionate father, W. CAREY." + +The hot season had then reached its worst. + +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 continue. 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 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. + +"3rd 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 on a small platform, constructed after his own +direction, that he might be wheeled through his garden. At other times +the chief gardener Hullodhur, reported to him the state of the +collection of plants, then 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 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."[34] + +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 Barrackpore Park retreat opposite to Carey's house. +From 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 Redeemer of sinners, a joyful +gratitude for the wonderful progress of His Kingdom. What a picture is +this that his brethren sent home six weeks before he passed away. "Our +aged and venerable brother feels himself 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 difficulty, on +account of his weakness, he 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 +22nd 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 +murmured 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 countenance how cordially he joined in +this prayer. I then asked Mrs. Carey whether she thought he could now +see me. She 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 immediately 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 Rev. 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 farewell of the scholar he had been +reluctant to succeed, represented 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 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 Marshman, "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, P[oe]ritran Christer Morone, +"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 Rs. 100 +monthly, whatever Mackintosh's house might yield her." + +Twenty-two years before, when Chamberlain was complaining because of +the absence of stone, or brick, or inscription 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 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 Robinson, 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 on 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 consecrated by the mingled dust of four generations of +missionaries, 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 Marshman followed Carey; not till +1847 was Hannah Marshman laid beside him, 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 Marshman, +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 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 German 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 Rs. +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 missionary 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 £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 published 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 Rupee was worth half a crown, 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.[35] 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 shoemaker 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, +and Marathi, and Bengali Translator to Government, or £46,625 in all. + +"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, possibly 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 labouring 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 companion in labour for thirty-four years: 'I have no fears; I have +no doubts; I have not a wish left unsatisfied.'" + +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 estimate 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 éloges +pronounced in such circumstances could be. Marshman spoke from the +text chosen by Carey himself a few weeks before his death as containing +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 +wherewith Carey used to comfort himself in his early loneliness, and +which the Revised 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, 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 prospering, 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 character 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 £5,000,000 a year. The one ordained English +missionary is now a band of 20,000 men and women sent out by 558 +agencies of the Reformed Churches. The solitary converts, each with no +influence on his people, or country, or generation, are now a community +of 3,000,000 in India alone, and in all the lands outside of +Christendom 5,000,000, of whom 80,000 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 250,000,000 of copies of the Holy Scriptures have been +printed, of which one half are in 370 of the non-English tongues of the +world. The Bengali School of Mudnabati, the Christian College of +Serampore, have set in motion educational forces that are bringing +nations to the birth, are passing under Bible instruction every day +more than a million boys and girls, young men and maidens of the dark +races of mankind. + +The seventh Earl of Shaftesbury, the greatest and most practical +Evangelical of the nineteenth century after William Wilberforce, wrote +thus in his Journal of the class whom Carey headed in the eighteenth, +and whom Wordsworth commemorated as + + "Not sedentary all, there are who roam + To scatter seeds of Life on barbarous shores." + +1847. "Aug. 30th--RYDE.--Reading Missionary Enterprises by +Williams...Zeal, devotion, joy, simplicity of heart, faith, love; and +we here have barely affection enough to thank God that such deeds have +been done. Talk of 'doing good' and being 'useful in one's +generation,' why, these admirable men performed more in one month than +I or many others shall perform in a whole life!" + +The eloquent Dr. Richard Winter Hamilton, reflecting that sacrifice to +heroes is reserved until after sunset, recalled William Carey, eight +years after his death, as "wielding a power to which all difficulties +yielded, but that power noiseless as a law of nature; great in +conception as well as in performance; profound as those deep +combinations of language in which the Indian philosophy and polytheism +hide themselves, but gentle as the flower which in his brief recreation +he loved to train; awful as the sage, simple as the child; speaking +through the Eastern world in as many languages, perhaps, as 'the cloven +tongues of fire' represented; to be remembered and blessed as long as +Ganges rolls!" + +The historian of the Baptist Missionary Society, and Robert Hall, whom +Sir James Mackintosh pronounced the greatest English orator, have both +attempted an estimate of Carey's genius and influence. Dr. F. A. Cox +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." Robert Hall +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 +Reformation; a man who unites with the most profound and varied +attainments the fervour of an evangelist, the piety of a saint, and the +simplicity 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 +Serampore, in the Lall Bazaar chapel and Benevolent Institution for the +poor of Calcutta. The Church of England, which he left, like John +Wesley, has allowed E. S. Robinson, 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, Edmund, the 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.[36] Carey, childlike in his humility, is the most striking +illustration in all Hagiology, Protestant or Romanist, 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, nigh a century 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; Wyclif the Father of the +Evangelical Reformation 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. + + + + +APPENDIX + +I.--CHARTER OF INCORPORATION OF SERAMPORE COLLEGE + +WE, Frederick the Sixth, by the Grace of God King of Denmark, the +Venders and Gothers, Duke of Slesvig Holsten, Stormarn, Ditmarsken, +Limessborg and Oldenborg, by writings these make known and publicly +declare, that whereas William Carey and Joshua Marshman, Doctors of +Divinity, and John Clark Marshman, Esq., inhabitants of our town of +Fredericksnagore (or Serampore) in Bengal, being desirous of founding a +College to promote piety and learning particularly among the native +Christian population of India, have to secure this object erected +suitable buildings and purchased and collected suitable books, maps, +etc., and have humbly besought us to grant unto them and such persons +as shall be elected by them and their successors to form the Council of +the College in the manner to be hereafter named, our Royal Charter of +Incorporation that they may the more effectually carry into execution +the purposes above-mentioned:--We, being desirous to encourage so +laudable an undertaking, have of our special grace and free motion +ordained, constituted, granted and declared, and by the presents We do +for ourselves, our heirs and successors ordain, constitute, grant and +declare: + +1. That the said William Carey, Joshua Marshman and John Clark +Marshman, and such other person or persons as shall successively be +elected and appointed the Council of the said College, in the manner +hereafter mentioned, shall by virtue of the presents be for ever +hereafter one body politic and incorporate by the name of the Serampore +College for the purposes aforesaid to have perpetual succession and to +have a common seal, and by the said name to sue and be sued, to implead +and be impleaded, and to answer and be answered unto in every court and +place belonging to us, our heirs and successors. + +2. And We do hereby ordain, constitute and declare that the persons +hereby incorporated and their successors shall for ever be competent in +law to purchase, hold and enjoy for them and their successors any goods +and chattels whatsoever and to receive, purchase, hold and enjoy, they +and their successors, any lands, tenements or hereditaments whatever, +and that they shall have full power and authority to sell, exchange or +otherwise dispose of any real or personal property to be by them +acquired as aforesaid, unless the sale or alienation of such property +be specially prohibited by the donor or donors thereof, and to do all +things relating to the said College or Corporation in as ample a manner +or form as any of our liege subjects, or any other body politic or +corporate in our said kingdom or its dependencies may or can do. + +3. And We do hereby ordain, grant and declare that the number of +Professors, Fellows or Student Tutors and Students, shall be indefinite +and that the said William Carey, Joshua Marshman and John Clark +Marshman, shall be the first Council of the said College, and that in +the event of its appearing to them necessary during their life-time, or +in the case of the death of any one of the three members of the said +first Council, the survivors or survivor shall and may under their +respective hands and seals appoint such other person or persons to be +members of the Council of the College, and to succeed each other so as +to become Members of the said Council in the order in which they shall +be appointed, to the intent that the Council of the said College shall +for ever consist of at least three persons. + +4. And We do hereby further ordain, grant and declare, that for the +better government of the said College, and the better management of its +concerns, the said William Carey, Joshua Marshman and John Clark +Marshman, the members of the first Council, shall have full power and +authority for the space of ten years from the date of these presents, +to make and establish such statutes as shall appear to them useful and +necessary for the government of the said College, in which statutes +they shall define the powers to be entrusted to their successors, to +the Professors, the Fellows or Student Tutors and the other Officers +thereof, and the duties to be performed by these respectively for the +management of the estates, lands, revenues and goods--and of the +business of the said College, and the manner of proposing, electing, +admitting and removing all and every one of the Council, the +Professors, the Fellows or Tutors, the officers, the students and the +servants thereof, and shall make and establish generally all such other +statutes as may appear to them necessary for the future good government +and prosperity of the said College, provided that these statutes be not +contrary to the laws and statutes of our realm. + +5. And we do hereby further ordain, grant and declare, that the +statutes thus made and established by the said three members of the +first Council, and given or left in writing under their respective +hands, shall be valid and in full force at the expiration of ten years +from the date of these presents, so that no future Council of the +College shall have power to alter, change or vary them in any manner +whatever and that the statutes shall for ever be considered the +constitution of the said College. And we do hereby appoint and declare +that these statutes shall be made and established by the said William +Carey, Joshua Marshman and John Clark Marshman alone, so that in case +either of them should die before the expiration of ten years, the power +of completing or perfecting these statutes shall devolve wholly on the +survivors or survivor; and that in case all three of them should die +before the expiration of ten years, the statutes which they have left +in writing under their hands, or under the hand of the last survivor +among them shall be considered "The Fundamental Statutes and +Constitution of Serampore College," incapable of receiving either +addition or alteration, and shall and may be registered in our Royal +Court of Chancery as "The Statutes and Constitution of Serampore +College." + +6. And We do hereby further appoint, grant and declare that from and +after the completion of the statutes of the said College in the above +said time of ten years, the said Council of the College shall be deemed +to consist of a Master or President and two or four members who may be +Professors or otherwise as the Statutes may direct so that the said +Council shall not contain less than three, nor more than five persons, +as shall be defined in the Statutes. The Council shall ever be elected +as the Statutes of the College may direct, yet the said Master or +President shall always previously have been a Member of the said +College; and upon the decease of the said Master or President, the +Council of the said College shall be unable to do any act or deed until +the appointment of a new Master or President, save and except the +appointment of such a Master. + +7. And We further appoint, grant and declare, that the said William +Carey, Joshua Marshman and John Clark Marshman, the members of the +first Council, and their successors for ever, shall have the power of +conferring upon the students of the said College, Native Christians as +well as others, degrees of rank and honour according to their +proficiency in as ample a manner as any other such College, yet the +said Serampore College shall only have the power of conferring such +degrees on the students that testify their proficiency in Science and +no rank or other special right shall be connected therewith in our +dominions. And We do hereby further appoint, grant and declare, that +after the expiration of the said ten years, the said Council of the +College and their successors for ever shall have power to make and +establish such orders and bye-laws as shall appear to them useful and +necessary for the government of the said College, and to alter, suspend +or repeal those already made, and from time to time make such new ones +in their room as shall appear to them most proper and expedient +provided the same be not repugnant to the Statutes of the College, or +to the laws of our realm, and that after the expiration of these ten +years any member of the Council shall have power to move the enactment +of any new bye-law, or the alteration, suspension or repeal of any +existing one provided notice of such motion shall have been delivered +in writing to the Master and read from the Chair at one previous +meeting of the Council of the said College, but that no such motion +shall be deemed to have passed in the affirmative, until the same shall +have been discussed and decided by ballot at another meeting summoned +especially for that purpose, a majority of the members then present +having voted in the affirmative; and in this, as in all other cases, if +the votes be equal, the Master or President shall have the casting vote. + +Given at our Royal Palace in Copenhagen on the twenty-third day of +February, in the year of our Lord one thousand, eight hundred and +twenty-seven, in the nineteenth year of our reign. + +Under our Royal Hand and Seal. + +FREDERICK R. + + + +II.--STATUTES AND REGULATIONS OF SERAMPORE COLLEGE + +June 12th, 1833. + +1. Article the Third of the Charter granted by his Danish Majesty, +having authorised the first Council of Serampore College in their +lifetime to nominate under their hand and seal such other person or +persons for colleagues or successors as may to them appear most proper, +so that the Council shall always consist of at least three persons, +their successors in the Council shall be competent in like manner to +nominate in their lifetime, under their separate hand and seal, such +person or persons as they may deem most proper to fill vacancies then +existing or which may occur on their demise; members thus nominated and +chosen shall succeed to the Council in order of their nomination. + +2. It being fixed in the Charter that the Council must consist of the +Master or President and at least two, but no more than four Members, +and that on the demise of the Master no act shall be done until another +be elected, the Master and Council for the time being shall appoint the +next Master under their separate hand and seal. If on the demise of a +Master no one be found thus appointed under the hand and seal of a +majority of the Council, the Senior Member of the Council shall succeed +as Master. + +3. The Charter having given the casting vote to the Master, in all +cases when the votes are equal the casting vote shall lie with the +Master, and if there be no Master, it shall lie with the Senior Member +of the Council. + +4. Learning and piety being peculiar to no denomination of Christians, +one member of the Council may at all times be of any other denomination +besides the Baptist, to preserve the original design of the +Institution; however, if on the election of a Master a number of the +Council be equally divided, that part which is entirely of the Baptist +denomination shall have the casting vote, whether it includes the +Master or not. + +5. The management of the College, including its revenues and property, +the choice of Professor and Tutors, the admission of Students, the +appointment of all functionaries and servants, and the general order +and government of the College, shall ever be vested in the Master and +the Council. The Master shall see that the Statutes and Regulations of +the Council be duly carried into effect, and take order for the good +government of the College in all things. His signature is necessary to +the validity of all deeds, instruments, documents and proceedings. + +6. "The first Council and their successor for ever" being authorised by +the Charter "to confer such degrees of rank and honour as shall +encourage learning" in the same manner as other Colleges and +Universities, they shall from time to time confer degrees in such +branches of Knowledge and Science as may be studied there, in the same +manner as the Universities in Denmark, Germany and Great Britain. In +doing this the Master and Council shall ad libitum call in the aid of +any or all the Professors of Serampore College. All such degrees shall +be perfectly free of expense to the person on whom they may be +conferred, whether he be in India, Europe or America. + +7. No oaths shall be administered in Serampore College, either to the +Members of Council, the Professors and Tutors, or the Students. In all +cases a solemn promise, duly recorded and signed by the party, shall be +accepted instead of an oath. + +8. Marriage shall be no bar to any office or situation in Serampore +College, from that of the Master to that of the lowest student. + +9. The salaries of the Professors and Tutors in Serampore College shall +be appointed, and the means of support for all functionaries, students +and servants be regulated by the Council in such manner as shall best +promote the objects of the Institution. + +10. It is intended that neither the Master nor any Member of the +Council in general shall receive any salary. But any Master who may +not previously reside in the College shall have a residence there free +of rent for himself and his family. And if the Council shall elect any +one in Europe or in America, whom they deem eminent for learning and +piety, a Member of the Council, with a view to choosing him Master, +should they on trial deem him worthy, the Council shall be competent to +appoint him such salary as they may deem necessary, not exceeding, +however, the highest given to a Professor. + +11. As the founders of the College deem the belief of Christ's Divinity +and Atonement essential to vital Christianity, the promotion of which +is the grand object of this Institution, no one shall be eligible to +the College Council or to any Professorship who is known to oppose +these doctrines, and should any one of the Professors or any member of +the Council unhappily so change his views after his election as to +oppose these fundamental doctrines of Christianity, on this being +clearly and decidedly proved from his teaching or his writings, he +shall vacate the office he previously held. But every proceeding of +this nature on the part of the College Council shall be published to +the Christian world, with the proofs on which it may rest, as an +Appendix to the succeeding Report. + +12. Members of the Council are eligible from among the Professors of +the College, or from among any in India, Europe, or America whom the +College Council may deem suitable in point of learning, piety, and +talent. + +13. Students are admissible at the discretion of the Council from any +body of Christians, whether Protestant, Roman Catholic, the Greek, or +the Armenian Church; and for the purpose of study, from the Mussulman +and Hindu youth, whose habits forbid their living in the College. No +caste, colour, or country shall bar any man from admission into +Serampore College. + +14. Expulsion shall be awarded in cases of open immorality, +incorrigible idleness, neglect of the College Statutes and regulations, +or repeated disobedience to the officers of the College. + +15. Any person in India, Europe, or America shall be at liberty to +found any Professorship, or to attach to Serampore College any annual +exhibition or prize for the encouragement of learning in the same +manner as in the Universities of Great Britain, regulating such +endowment according to their own will; and it shall be duty of the +College Council to carry such benefactions into effect in strict +consonance with the will of the donors as far as shall be consistent +with the Statutes of the College. + +16. It shall be lawful for the first Council of the College or their +successors to make and rescind any bye-laws whatever, provided they be +not contrary to these Statutes. + +17. The Charter having declared that the number of the Professors and +students in Serampore College remains unlimited, they shall be left +thus unlimited, the number to be regulated only by the gracious +providence of God and the generosity of the public in India, Europe and +America. + + + +III.--ARTICLE VI., CLAUSE 2, OF THE TREATY OF PURCHASE, TRANSFERRING +SERAMPORE TO THE BRITISH GOVERNMENT + +"The rights and immunities granted to the Serampore College by Royal +Charter of date, 23rd February, 1827, shall not be interfered with, but +continue in force in the same manner as if they had been obtained by a +Charter from the British Government, subject to the general law of +British India." + + + + +FOOTNOTES + +[1] Iphicrates, great Athenian general, who was the son of a shoemaker, +used this saying, fit motto for Carey, _ex oiôn eis oia_. + +[2] 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. + +[3] In the library of the late Rev. T. Toller of Kettering was a +manuscript (now in the library of Bristol Baptist College) of nine +small octavo pages, evidently in the exquisitely small and legible +handwriting of Carey, on the Psalter. The short treatise discusses the +literary character and authorship of the Psalms in the style of +Michaelis and Bishop Lowth, whose writings are referred to. The Hebrew +words used are written even more beautifully than the English. If this +little work was written before Carey went to India--and the caligraphy +seems to point to that--the author shows a very early familiarity with +the writings of one who was his predecessor as a Christian Orientalist, +Sir William Jones. The closing paragraph has this sentence:--"A +frequent perusal of the book of Psalms is recommended to all. We +should permit few days to pass without reading in Hebrew one of those +sacred poems; the more they are read and studied, the more will they +delight, edify, and instruct." + +[4] Twice reprinted, in Leicester, and in London (1892) in facsimile. + +[5] Wealth of Nations, Book IV., Chap. VII. + +[6] Mr. Thomas Haddon of Clipstone writes: "I recollect when I was +about ten years old, at my father's house; it was on a Saturday, Carey +was on his way to Arnsby (which is twenty miles from Moulton) to supply +there the following Sabbath; he had then walked from Moulton to +Clipstone, a distance of ten miles, and had ten miles further to walk +to Arnsby. My honoured father had been intimately acquainted with him +for some years before, and he pressed him to stay and take an early cup +of tea before he went further. I well recollect my father saying to +him, 'I suppose you still work at your trade?' (which was that of an +army and navy shoemaker). Mr. Carey replied: 'No, indeed, I do not; +for yesterday week I took in my work to Kettering, and Mr. Gotch came +into the warehouse just as I had emptied my bag. He took up one of the +shoes and said, "Let me see, Carey, how much do you earn a week?" I +said, "About 9s., sir." Mr. Gotch then said: "I have a secret to tell +you, which is this: I do not intend you should spoil any more of my +leather, but you may proceed as fast as you can with your Latin, Greek, +and Hebrew, and I will allow you from my own private purse 10s. a +week!" With that sum and about 5s. a week which I get from my people +at Moulton, I can make a comfortable living' (although at that time he +had a wife and three children to provide for)." + +[7] Farewell Letters on Returning to Bengal in 1821. + +[8] Rev. A. T. Clarke succeeded Kiernander in 1789 in the Old or +Mission Church, according to Miss Blechynden's Calcutta Past and +Present (1905), p. 84. + +[9] 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 Taylors' 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, C.I.E. + +[10] But not its Church. In October 1796 Mr. A. Johnstone, thirty +years elder in Lady Yester's congregation, beside the University of +Edinburgh, began a prayer meeting for Carey's work and for foreign +missions. He was summoned to the Presbytery, and there questioned as +if he had been a "Black-neb" or revolutionary. This meeting led to the +foundation of the Sabbath School and Destitute Sick Societies in +Edinburgh. See Lives of the Haldanes. + +[11] Dr. Marshman's English translation is still used, beginning-- + + "Oh! thou my soul forget no more + The Friend who all thy misery bore." + +[12] 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. + +[13] 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." + +[14] 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 "everywhere useful, laborious, and practical. Mr. +Wilkins has also discussed these subjects, though not always so amply +as the worthy and unwearied missionary. We have been much pleased with +Dr. Carey's very sensible preface." + +[15] It was reserved for a young Orientalist, whom the career of Carey +and Wilson of Bombay attracted to the life of a Christian missionary, +to do full justice to this book and its literature. In 1885 the Hon. +Ion Keith-Falconer, M.A., published, at the Cambridge University Press, +his Kalilah and Dimnah, or The Fables of Bidpai: Being an Account of +their Literary History, with an English Translation of the later Syriac +Version of the Same, and Notes. The heroic scholar and humble follower +of Christ, having given himself and his all to found a Mission to the +Mohammedans of South Arabia, at Sheikh Othman, near Aden, died there, +on 11th May 1887, a death which will bring life to Yemen, through his +memory, and the Mission which he founded, his family support, and the +United Free Church of Scotland carry on in his name. + +[16] THIRTY-SIX BIBLE TRANSLATIONS, + + 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 1811-18. + 1809-11. HINDI " " in 1813-18. + 1822-32. Bruj-bhasa " only. + 1815-22. Kanouji " " + 1820. Khosali--Gospel of Matthew only. + 1822. Oodeypoori--New Testament only. + 1815. Jeypoori " + 1821. Bhugeli " + 1821. Marwari " + 1822. Haraoti " + 1823. Bikaneri " + 1823. Oojeini " + 1824. Bhatti " + 1832. Palpa " + 1826. Kumaoni " + 1832. Gurhwali " + 1821. Nepalese " + 1811. MARATHI-- " Old Testament in 1820. + 1820. Goojarati " only. + 1819. Konkan " Pentateuch in 1821. + 1815. PANJABI " " and Historical Books + in 1822. + 1819. Mooltani--New Testament. + 1825. Sindhi--Gospel of Matthew only. + 1820. Kashmeeri--New Testament; and Old Testament to 2nd Book + of Kings. + 1820-26. Dogri--New Testament only. + 1819. PUSHTOO--New Test. and Old Test. Historical Books. + 1815. BALOOCHI " Three Gospels. + 1818. TELUGOO " and Pentateuch in 1820. + 1822. KANARESE " only. + MALDIVIAN--Four Gospels. + + EDITED AND PRINTED ONLY BY CAREY + + Persian. Singhalese. + Hindostani. Chinese (Dr. Marshman's). + Malayalam. Javanese. + Burmese--Matthew's Gospel. Malay. + +[17] Life and Work in Benares and Kumaon, 1839-77. London, 1884. + +[18] Mr. John Marshman, in his Life and Times of the three, states that +Fry and 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. + +[19] The fervent printer thus wrote to his Hull friends:--"To give to a +man a New Testament who never saw it, who has been reading lies as the +Word of God; to give him these everlasting lines which angels would be +glad to read--this, this is my blessed work." + +[20] In 1795 Captain Dodds, a Madras officer front Scotland, translated +part of the Bible into Telugoo, and, lingering on in the country to +complete the work, died seven days after the date of his letter on the +subject in the Missionary Magazines of 1796. + +[21] Then Editor of the Friend of India. + +[22] The Chaitanya Charita Amrita, by Krishna Dass in 1557, was the +first of importance. + +[23] Nor was his influence confined to the Protestant division of +Christendom. When, on the Restoration of 1815, France became once more +aggressively Romanist for a time, the Association for the Propagation +of the Faith was founded at Lyons and Paris, avowedly on the model of +the Baptist Missionary Society, and it now raises a quarter of a +million sterling a year for its missions. The expression in an early +number of its Annales is:--"C'est l'Angleterre qui a fourni l'idée +modèle," etc. "La Société des Anabaptistes a formé pour ses Missions +des Sociétés," etc. + +[24] Life of Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D., chapter I. + +[25] 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 +frequently, 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 godliness. 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." + +[26] The Baptist missionary, who became an Arian, and was afterwards +employed by Lord William Bentinck to report on the actual state of +primary education in Bengal. + +[27] The first India chaplain of the Church of Scotland, superintendent +of stationery and editor of the John Bull.--See Life of Alexander Duff, +D.D. + +[28] His Majesty's Lord Chamberlain formally expressed to the British +Minister at Copenhagen, H.E. the Hon. Edmund Monson, C.B., the King's +high pleasure at "the author's noble expressions of the good his +pre-possessors of the throne and the government of Denmark tried to do +for their Indian subjects," when the first edition of this Life of +William Carey, D.D., was presented to His Majesty.--See Taylor and +Son's Biographical and Literary Notices of William Carey, D.D., +Northampton, 1886. + +[29] 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 +indispensable object." + +[30] Serampore--Srirampur or place of the worshipful Ram. + +[31] Aitchison's Collection, vol. i., edition 1892, pp. 81-86 + +[32] Life of Alexander Duff, D.D., LL.D., 1879. + +[33] William Carey, by James Culross, D.D., 1881. + +[34] 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. + + +[35] Sa. Rs. + "From May 1801 to June 1807, inclusive, as Teacher of + Bengali 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 2,75,000 + + From 23rd 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 3,60,100" + +[36] The Evangelical Succession. Third Series. Edinburgh, Macniven and +Wallace, 1884. + + + + + + + + + +End of Project Gutenberg's The Life of William Carey, by George Smith + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK THE LIFE OF WILLIAM CAREY *** + +***** This file should be named 2056-8.txt or 2056-8.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/2/0/5/2056/ + +Produced by John Bechard. 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