The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker and Missionary Part 10

"On Friday evening [Oct. 10th], we had a meeting in the paG.o.da, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d's promises for the enlargement of Zion; with many pet.i.tions for Mr. Brown and his family. The service was concluded by Mr. Carey, who was earnest in prayer for Mr. Brown: the pet.i.tion 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 pa.s.sed 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 paG.o.da, 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 paG.o.da 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 paG.o.da. 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 paG.o.da 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 G.o.dlessness 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 a.s.sociates 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 pa.s.s 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 acc.u.mulate riches but devote all to G.o.d for the salvation of the heathen.' G.o.d has given you what you desired and what you desired not. Blessed men, G.o.d will bless you and make you a blessing. I and others of us may die, but G.o.d 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 pa.s.sive. 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 G.o.d has had in His mind from eternity, the cause for which Christ shed His blood, that for which the Spirit and word of G.o.d were given, that which is the subject of many great promises, that for which the saints have been always praying, and which G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 gra.s.shopper 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 G.o.d.

"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 G.o.d. 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 G.o.d 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 amba.s.sador 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 a.s.sist 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 b.u.t.terflies, which you may dry between two papers, and the serpents and lizards the same. I will send you a small quant.i.ty 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 circ.u.mstance, 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, gra.s.shoppers, 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 G.o.d.

"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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d 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 a.s.sistant 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 circ.u.mstance 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.