The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & MissionarySmith, George
Religion
The Life of William Carey, Shoemaker & Missionary
Smith, George
Carey, William, 1761-1834; Missions -- India
"25th December 1805.--It has long been a favourite object with me to
fix European brethren in different parts of the country at about two
hundred miles apart, so that each shall be able to visit a circle of a
hundred miles' radius, and within each of the circuits to place native
brethren at proper distances, who will, till they are more established,
be under the superintendence of the European brethren situated in the
centre. Our brethren concur with me in this plan. In consequence of
this, I thought it would be desirable to have leave of Government for
them to settle, and preach, without control, in any part of the
country. The Government look on us with a favourable eye; and owing to
Sir G. Barlow, the Governor-General, being up the country, Mr. Udny is
Vice-President and Deputy-Governor. I therefore went one morning, took
a breakfast with him, and told him what we were doing and what we
wished to do. He, in a very friendly manner, desired me to state to him
in a private letter all that we wished, and offered to communicate
privately with Sir G. Barlow upon the subject, and inform me of the
result. I called on him again last week, when he informed me that he
had written upon the subject and was promised a speedy reply. God grant
that it may be favourable. I know that Government will allow it if
their powers are large enough."
Not till 1810 could Carey report that "permission was obtained of
Government for the forming of a new station at Agra, a large city in
upper Hindostan, not far from Delhi and the country of the Sikhs," to
which Chamberlain and an assistant were sent. From that year the
Bengal became only the first of "The United Missions in India." These
were five in number, each under its own separate brotherhood, on the
same principles of self-denial as the original, each a Lindisfarne
sprung from the parent Iona. These five were the Bengal, the Burman,
the Orissa, the Bhootan, and the Hindostan Missions. The Bengal mission
was fourfold--Serampore and Calcutta reckoned as one station; the old
Dinapoor and Sadamahal which had taken the place of Mudnabati;
Goamalty, near Malda; Cutwa, an old town on the upper waters of the
Hoogli; Jessor, the agricultural capital of its lower delta; and
afterwards Monghyr, Berhampore, Moorshedabad, Dacca, Chittagong, and
Assam. The Bhootan missionaries were plundered and driven out. The
Hindostan mission soon included Gaya, Patna, Deegah, Ghazeepore,
Benares, Allahabad, Cawnpore, Ajmer, and Delhi itself. From Nagpoor,
in the very centre of India, and Surat to the north of Bombay, Carey
sought to bring Marathas and Goojaratees under the yoke of Christ.
China, where the East India Company was still master, was cared for by
the press, as we shall see. Not content with the continent of Asia,
Carey's mission, at once forced by the intolerance which refused to
allow new missionaries to land in India proper, and led by the
invitations of Sir Stamford Raffles, extended to Java and Amboyna,
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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