no proof. Such men as farmers, gardeners, potters, &c., would be the most useful men, if other qualifications are not wanting. It will be proper for them to have exercised their gifts before their being sent. It is also singular that no letter from the Society accompanied brother Fountain. My warmest Christian love to all the ministers. I intend to write to as many as I can.'

Yours of Jan. 5, reached me very lately, and I am sure was a messenger of good to my soul. I am, blessed be God, in good health. I have had a very painful abscess in the side of my throat, for which I was obliged to undergo a surgical operation; but it is now well. My family are well. I have another son, named Jonathan, instead of Peter, who died. Brother Fountain arrived about a month ago. He came into our house, and found me, with my Pundit, poring over old Sanscrit words, before I had any intelligence of his arrival in the country.

We have had great discouragements, especially through the fall of poor Ram Ram Boshu, who was guilty of adultery, and is gone far from us. Mohun Chund was with me; but I had supported him some months, and found that my income would not be sufficient to continue to do so.

My schoolmaster also went

with Moonshi, so that at once the Moonshi and Mohun

Chund went away, and the school was broken up. I, however, pursued preaching, expounding, and translating, and I trust a gleam of light again presents itself. A labouring man here, named Sookman, and three at Moypal, named Yardee, Doorgotteea, and another, whose name I have forgotten, appear to be in earnest about eternal things. Two others here began to inquire when Sookman did, but soon got cool. I am not without hope that some good may be found in others at Moypal. At this place, all appear dead and discouraging, except Sookman; but there is a great stir all over the neighbourhood, and many come to hear the word. This is, in some degree, owing to Yardee, who is a man of a sweet natural temper, good abilities, a readiness to discourse with others, and a zeal for Christ. I hope some of them will be soon baptized. The officer about whom I wrote, I fear, is different from what I and others thought him; his name is Capt. Mr. U. has been in his company since I wrote to you; thinks him a good man, but amazingly enthusiastic, and perhaps a little deranged.

'The translation of the New Testament is nearly finished, and once corrected. The eleventh chapter of Revelations is done, and the second epistle of Peter corrected. Only the other eleven chapters of the Revelation, and the Acts of the Apostles, remain now to be translated; which I hope to get through by the end of January. The Old Testament is translated, and corrected to Numbers, and some of that translated. It is well that Exodus and Leviticus are translated, as they are extremely difficult, and

perhaps no man was so well qualified to do it well as the Moonshi who is now gone.

I have received Parkhurst's Greek and Hebrew Lexicons, and the sermons of the Missionary Society; also M. Horne on Missions. I am very much obliged indeed by the receipt of them. I will also write to the society to pay you for them, as they propose to send us assistance.

6

23. Yesterday I went out to preach to the inhabitants of a neighbouring village. Found considerable pleasure in addressing them from 1 John iii. 8: For this purpose the Son of God was manifested, that he might destroy the works of the devil.' The people behave well, but constantly use this very disheartening observation, 'Sir, we hear and understand, but nothing stays in our minds;' and their common excuse is, 'We are poor ignorant creatures, what can we ever · understand?' Nay, they will often say, 'We are not men, we cannot possibly know any thing;' and Mr. Thomas was one day under the necessity of proving his auditors to be human; for they asserted that they were jackals, and not men. These very degrading assertions respecting themselves are very common; though certainly used with no other design than to excuse their indolence in not examining the difference between their own superstition and the gospel, or their total neglect of every thing religious. It is also very common for them to say, 'We have no God but our bellies.' Some dancing Brahmuns came one day to me, and I asked them why they pursued so vile an employment; they answered, 'For our bellies.'

I

said, 'A hog tears up your fields for his belly, a jackal destroys your kids and lambs for his belly, and thieves rob only for their belly; you are therefore only on an equality with them.' They assented; nor was any thing I could say sufficiently strong to prove to them that any thing else was necessary. Only God can break the carnal heart.

Mr. Fountain had read my letters about farmers in our neighbourhood, and had pleased himself with the hope of sitting in a farmer's chimney corner, and getting a basin of milk, and such hospitality as may be experienced in the house of an English farmer. But alas! he found that our farmers were not distinguishable from other people, and that houses in Bengal have no chimneys; that we are never asked to any one's house, and if we were, that there is nothing in them; that a farmer's whole stock is a cow or two, and three or four half-starved bullocks, and a few pigeons; for a Hindu will not touch a fowl, nor either Hindus or Mussulmans a hog, except the lowest class of all. A goat or two tied on a bare highway, may now and then be seen, but no sheep in a whole parish. Thus was he disappointed: he is, however, not shaken in mind, and I doubt not will be a blessing to us.

'Blessed, blessed be God, for all that is doing to promote the cause of Christ! Surely, much is to be expected. My christian love to all Olney friends. My christian love to Mrs. Sutcliff.'

'I am, very, very affectionately yours, 'W. CAREY.'

FROM MR. FOUNTAIN TO MR. FULLer.

'Mudnabatty, Nov. 8, 1796.

'After getting a boat at Calcutta, and other necessary things, I left it on the 24th of September, and arrived at Mudnabatty on the 10th of October. Brother Carey most kindly received me. When I entered, his Pundit stood by him, teaching him Sanscrit. He labours in the translation of the scriptures, and has nearly finished the New Testament, being somewhere about the middle of Revelations. He keeps the grand end in view, which first induced him to leave his country, and those christian friends he still dearly loves. He reads a chapter and expounds, every morning, to twelve or sixteen persons. On a Sabbath morning, he also expounds, and preaches twice in the day besides to forty or fifty persons; after which, he often goes into some village in the evening. In the intervals of preaching to the natives, we have worship in English. He indeed appears to be the character he describes in his publication, where he says, 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.'

'Brother Thomas is also lively in the work, and the Lord, we trust, is blessing his labours. Two or three of the natives there are under great concern about their souls. They meet together every day for