but should an opportunity present itself, it would be highly imprudent not to embrace it. We wrote to you, to brother Ryland, and to the Society, requesting you to place your money in the Company's funds in this country. I again recommend it very earnestly to your consideration, on the following accounts:

1. I fear dear brother Pearce is dead. You, brother Ryland, and a few of the most active to provide funds for the mission, may also soon die; and the work may fall through for want of active persons who will feel interested in it as you do.*

2. The public mind may tire soon, especially if success is much longer delayed. In that case the mission must be broken up for want of funds to support it, and then all that is done will be lost.f

'Now, if you can send out all your funds to this country, say £5000, it would pay all our debts and be a fund for our support. Nay, I cannot say that £4000 might not suffice; for the difference between drawing for £4000 at two shillings and eightpence per rupee, the present rate of exchange, and receiving that sum in dollars, will be at least £700 sterling; so that, now we have paid for the house, we should be nearly able to put out the £4000 after our debts were paid, which would be £480 per annum, without touching the principal; which, with our school and the profits of our printing-press, would, I trust, be sufficient for us. I think this would establish the mission, so far as pecuniary help would be requisite; and you might then turn your thoughts to a new mission, or to the enlargement of this, as it might appear eligible.

'I have written so much about our temporal concerns in all my letters, because I fear some of them may miscarry, and also because I much wish to see this mission settled on a permanent foundation. The situation we are in is eligible, and you may send missionaries here without fear; so that if what I have mentioned can be accomplished, this mission may be reckoned an established one. We can also itinerate

* Dr. Ryland has written here: 'This hardly corresponds with Carey's usual faith.'

† He also writes here: 'Quite as much room to say, if the Company's fund fails, who shall take up the mission again.'

from this place to any part of India without fear, the governor having promised to furnish us with passports at any time.

'Our brethren, who have written to many of the ministers, will furnish you with news respecting our labors, I suppose pretty copiously. They can do it with a better grace than I can; and every thing, being in a manner new to them, may be expected to strike them more forcibly than it does me. We have lately had frequent conversation with the Hindus; nay, we are seldom many days without something of this sort. I believe brother Ward has given accounts of several.

'You will, no doubt, wish to know my opinion of the missionaries, and I give it with great pleasure. Brother Brunsdon I have not yet seen; he went with brother Thomas to Beerbhoom some time ago, on account of Mrs. B's ill health, and they are not yet returned, though I hear her health is much restored: all concur in the highest encomiums on him and her. 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 mêre play to him; he has already acquired as much as I did in double the time. I believe all their hearts are entirely set on their work. Brother Brunsdon writes that brother Thomas preaches very frequently in the district of Beerbhoom, and is much followed; and, indeed, after all the very distressing disappointments which we have met with, I entertain a hope that the day is not far distant, when light will most powerfully break forth, and spread over this very dark part of the earth.

'I received another letter, in December, from Mr. Gericke, which I intended to transcribe for you; but this paper will not hold it, and I intend to write to dear brother Pearce in a day or two, when I shall send it to him. Lest he should be no more, I shall send my letter to the care of Mr. King. I however hope he still lives; his monthly correspondence has filled me with gratitude, love, and genuine delight. ́I

love him more and more. I hope he still lives to declare the works of the Lord.

'I am deeply in debt to you, and shall, I fear, prove insolvent. You have written me six or seven letters, which I received last year, and I have not written more than three to you in return, and those all about our temporal concerns. I am ashamed; but what can I do more now? I will endeavor to be more regular and more interesting, when we have gotten through all our hurry of settling, which I hope will not be long.

'Give my warmest Christian love to all your friends. Remember me to all the ministers. I have received many letters by the missionaries: I will try to reply to as many as I can. Brother Marshman has had a son born since he has been here. My Christian love to Mrs. F. Is your book published? Pray send a few copies of it.

'I am, indeed I am,

'Affectionately yours,

'I have no copy of this.'

'W. CAREY.'

CHAPTER VI.

SECTION I.

Letters from the Missionaries to the Society-Remarks on the progress of the English language-Letter from Mr. Carey to Mr. Fuller-Letters to Mr. SutcliffAffliction of Mr. Thomas-Letter to Dr. Ryland.

THE short period to which the ensuing chapter relates, is the only one in the labors of forty years in which we are permitted to view Mr. Carey in the simple character of a missionary. Hitherto he has prosecuted his spiritual designs in combination with unavoidable secular pursuits; and in a short time his advancing reputation as an oriental scholar, and his ardent desire to translate the holy Scriptures into the languages of India, with other concurring circumstances favorable to that great enterprise, will separate him to objects mainly literary and biblical. The compiler, therefore, has very slightly abridged the letters of Mr. Carey written at this juncture, as they present him to us in a light different from any in which we shall hereafter contemplate him. The two first documents bear the joint signatures of himself and his associated brethren; but, as he was the individual of principal interest in the circle, and as the circumstances detailed were important, not only to the establishment of the Serampore station, but to the introduction of Mr. Carey to his grand and final pursuits, it was felt that nothing could be withholden without incurring some prejudice to the integrity or interest of the narrative.

Trials also are related of peculiar severity, such as the demise of Mr. Fountain, and the mental affliction of Mrs. Carey and Mr. Thomas. The contents of the chapter need not to be anticipated, nor any reflections upon them premised, in this place. The documents themselves supply a complete history of the epoch to which they relate, whilst the providential occurrences 26*

they record are too obvious to escape the attention of the Christian reader, and their character too clearly marked not to awaken the right emotions.

CAREY, FOUNTAIN, MARSHMAN, AND WARD, TO THE SO

'We have already, by several private and one public letter, acquainted you with the reasons of our removal here; but, lest the last mentioned should miscarry, we will briefly recapitulate.

Our brethren, on their arrival at Serampore, thought of nothing but proceeding to Mudnabatty; but Providence very evidently forbade them, and, by a number of circumstances, quite unthought of before, determined this as the spot on which the seat of the mission was to be fixed, there being evidently no security for the press anywhere else, nor indeed for the missionaries themselves, with their increasing and, to some connected with government, alarming families.

'Brother Carey, who had taken Kidderpore with a considerable encumbrance on it, in full confidence of making it the seat of the mission, received this intimation of the divine will with surprise and astonishment. Much he weighed all circumstances, and tried all his interest to obtain the necessary permission for his brethren to join him; but in vain. Dire necessity overcame every consideration, and determined him to give up Kidderpore, with all the accumulated expense of it, and, as his brethren were completely prevented from removing to him, to go and join himself to them. Accordingly, Jan. 10th, he and his family removed to Serampore; and we now form one family, united, not more by necessity and obligation, than by mutual inclination.

'Being now become a pretty large number, we were involved in a degree of perplexity respecting a habitation. Ten grown people and nine children, were not likely to be comfortable in an ordinary house in this torrid clime. Besides, a printing-room, and a chapel for the reception of a small European congrega