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December 1797, Mr. Carey renewed his application for more Missionaries. "We are learning," said he, "Bengalee; we want others to learn Hindostanee, others Portuguese, others Persian, others Bootanee, &c." In consequence of these representations the Society, in the autumn of the next year, solved to send out a new supply of Missionaries. Mr. Carey, in the meantime still pursued the study of Shanscrit, and it soon became apparent that he was reaching forward to great proficiency in that language. By the middle of the year 1797 he had got a Shanscrit, Bengalee, and English Dictionary far advanced. The Bengalee translation however continued to occupy his chief attention, and by the end of November he had finished the Pentateuch and almost all the Psalms.*

Towards the close of the year, an event took place which highly gratified the Missionaries, and promised extensive good to India. ALetter Foundery for the languages of that country was established at Calcutta, not by the friends of the Missionaries, but by men who had no view to their accommodation. The hand of God was visible in making this provision for the dissemination of His word through the East, just at the time when types were wanted for the purpose. Till then Mr. Carey had never relinquish

ed the idea of getting types from England, a hope which probably never could have been realized; but it was now apparent that they could be obtained on better terms in India. He at once proposed to establish a press at Mudnabatty, the press itself to be made in the country; and had some idea, at the recommendation of Mr. U- of printing, for the benefit of the higher ranks, the Persian Pentateuch and Gos

pels contained in the Polyglott. He still continued to cherish the hope that by means of future Missionaries the Gospel would be introduced into Bootan and all the neighboring nations.*

In the spring of 1798 the Society came to the resolution to begin to print. They had already appointed Mr. Carey their treasurer in India; and in the autumn of that year they authorized him to draw on a bankinghouse in London for the Translation and other general objects of the Mission.t

Mr. Fountain was able that spring to pray in public, and on the 10th of June, preached his first sermon to the natives. The latter part of that month a very calamitous flood, which swept away all the prospects of the year, obliged Mr. Thomas to relinquish his factory and remove from Moypaul. That circumstance, added to ill health and the death of a sister of which he had lately heard, threw him into great dejection, and in letters written about that time he complained that every prospect of usefulness and comfort had been removed, that he no more hoped

B. P. A. vol. i, p. 397, 437. Vol.

† B. P. A. vol. i, p. 4.6, 419, 451,

for a home on earth, nor expected to continue long. In July he was in the neighborhood of Nuddeea, in August at Chandernagore a few miles above Calcutta, in September at Calcutta, preaching very frequently. Mr. Carey lamented his removal as a great loss to that part of the country, particularly to the sick for whom he had done more, in the opinion of his colleague, than any other person that had ever been in India. Mr. Carey concluded his lamention with this testimony: "He has many qualifications which render him the fittest person for a Missionary that could any where be found."*

About that time Mr. Carey had the satisfaction to obtain a printing press, a blessing which for several years he had scarcely dared to hope for. One had lately been brought from England and advertised for sale at Calcutta. He eagerly secured it, and on the 23d of September it arrived safe at Mudnabatty. He had just receivedfrom the new Foundery proposals for casting a fount of types. About the same time he was informed that a Captain in the army at Calcutta, (probably the same that Dr. Buchanan in 1810 calls Lieut. Colonel Colebrooke,) was engaged in translating the Scriptures into Persian.

The manner in which Mr. Carey at that time was employed may be seen in the following extract from one of his letters written in September. "I constantly employ the forenoon in temporal affairs; the afternoon in reading, writing, learning the Shanscrit, &c; and the evening,

B.P.A. vol. i, p. 422,410,419,451, 452 457-463,470,477,480.

by candle-light, in translating the Scriptures, and correcting the translation: and except I go out to preach, (which is often the case,) I never deviate from this rule." He had said in January that he frequently devoted the afternoon, as well as the evening, to the transiation. In September he was translating Jeremiah and correcting Isaiah. By the end of October the Pentateuch, Psalms, Isaiah, Jeremiah, part of Ezekiel, and the whole of the New Testament, were finished. By the end of November he had translated Lamentations and more than half of Ezekiel, and hoped to complete the whole Bible in another year. The Historical Books, (viz. from Joshua to Esther inclusive) were left to the last, and Mr. Fountain had just commenced a rough version of that part. Job, the Writings of Solomon, and the Minor Prophets still remained untouched. All these proved too much labor for a single year, but the whole was nearly finished in the spring of 1800.*

The Missionaries had all along been urging on the Society the importance of increasing their number. That wish was at length gratified by the arrival of four new ministers. Messrs. Marshman, Brunsdon, and Grant, with their wives, Mr. Ward, and Miss Tidd, (who was engaged to Mr. Fountain,) sailed from London, with Captain Wickes, May 25th, 1799, (at the time when Mr. Pearce was languishing with his last sickness,) and

* M.B.M.M. vol. ii, p. 130 ВР.А. vol. i, p. 372,403,439,468,469,471,472, 486 487,429. Ch. Res.p 90. Nar. p. 18.

† B. P. A. vol. i, p. 304,319,320,324, 328, 329, 334, 347, 370, 372, 389, 428, 437,333.

on the 13th of October arrived at Serampore, a Danish Settlement fifteen miles above Calcutta. After an illness of four days Mr. Grant was removed on the last of October. The factory at Mudnabatty was then about to be relinquished on account of the failure of crops, and Mr. Carey's engagement was within a few weeks of expiring. He had taken a small place at Kidderpore, twelve miles distant, where he intended to carry on a little business, and erect houses for his newly arrived friends. But the English Government refused to let the Missionaries go up the country, and Mr. Carey was obliged to abandon his place at Kidderpore, with the loss of property to the amount of 500/.* and remove with Mr. Fountain to Serampore, where he arrived with his family on the 10th of January, 1800. The rent of lodgings being high, the Missionaries purchased a house with a considerable quantity of land on the bank of the river, the rent of which in four years would have amounted to the price.

This change proved very favorable to the Mission. They could scarcely have worked their press to advantage, or obtained an Englishschool, at Kidderpore, They were then hardly known at Calcutta; but their vicinity to the capital of British India soon introduced them to public attention, and obtained for Mr. Carey an important office. What they regarded as a trying necessity proved a merciful dispensation. The same may be said of that long course of embarrassments and disappointments which had

$2222.

delayed the printing till the ar rival of Mr. Ward, who having been regularly trained to the business, was able to execute it with accuracy and neatness.

Every preparation was now made for printing. The translation was nearly finished,a press was obtained, types were agreed for, and a printer was on the ground. A sufficient fund to bea gin with was also furnished. They had received from the Edinburgh Missionary Society $1111; from friends in India $5968, and in the course of that year collected 891 more. They accordingly set up the press at Serampore, and issued proposals for the Bengalee Bible, advertising at the same time for employment in the general line of printing, and for an English school. About fifty copies were subscribed for by the middle of August. The school was established under the care of Mr. and Mrs. Marshman, and has proved the principal means of support to the whole missionary family.t

The College of Fort William, destined to exert a prodigious influence on the civil and religious interests of Asia, and on the Baptist Mission in particular, was founded at Calcutta, by the Marquis Wellesley, on the 4th of May, 1800. Mr. Carey took an impression of the first page of Matthew on the 18th of the same month. About the middle of June they began to print the New Testament. Besides 2,000 copies of the whole, theystruck off five hundred copies of Matthew

† B. P. A. vol. i, p. 517, 522, 536, 527. Vol. iii, Pref p. 3-6, р. 26. Nar. p. 16-18- N. Y. M. M. vol. ii, p 235,479. Pan. vol. vi, p. 39.