“The month of April, in the upper provinces of Hindoostan, is one of the most dreadful months for travelling throughout the year; indeed, no European, at that time, can remove from place to place, but at the hazard of his life. But Mr. Martyn had that anxiety to be in the work which his heavenly father had given him to do, that, notwithstanding the violent heat, he travelled from Chunar to Cawnpore, the space of about four hundred miles. At that time, as I well remember, the air was as hot and dry as that which I have sometimes felt near the mouth of a large oven;—no friendly cloud, or verdant carpet of grass, to relieve the eye from the strong glare of the rays of the sun, pouring on the sandy plains of the Ganges. Thus Mr. Martyn travelled, journeying night and day, and arrived at Cawnpore in such a state, that he fainted away as soon as he entered the house. When we charged him with the rashness of hazarding his life in this manner, he always pleaded his anxiety to get to the great work. He remained with us ten days, suffering considerably at times from fever and pain in the chest.” At Cawnpore there was no church, or regular worship. Soon after his arrival, Martyn preached to the soldiers in the open air, when, such was the heat, although before sunrise, that many dropped down as they stood around him in ranks. He adopted the same course of public services as at Dinapore, and continued to superintend the Arabic and a new Persian translation of the New Testament, as the first one was found too imperfect for publication. These duties occupied his whole time, excepting when his duties occasionally required him to take journeys to distant towns. Having received intelligence of the fatal illness of his only sister, the last tie to earthly objects seems to have been broken. “What is there now,” he exclaimed, “that I should wish to live for? O what a barren desert, what a howling wilderness, does this world appear! But for the service of God and his church, and the preparation of my own soul, I do not know that I would wish to live another day.” It was this sister who first attempted to draw his attention to religion: and how must he now have looked back upon the day, when, as he confessed, the sound of the gospel from her lips was grating to his ear! FOOTNOTES: [6] Or Nabob, the name of an office. CHAPTER IX. Mr. Martyn had been accustomed to give alms to a number of the poor natives; and to avoid the frequent interruption of his studies, which their calls occasioned, he fixed a time for them to come to his door. As a great number of wretched beings was thus collected, he determined to embrace the opportunity of attempting to preach to them. Of his first address to them he has left this account: