[Sidenote: No Longer a Young Man.] When he accepted the call to India, he was almost fifty years old. A younger man might well have hesitated to meet the dangers of the sea, the menace of a foreign climate, the loneliness of exile. But Heyer knew neither fear nor hesitation. That he realized that dangers existed is shown by his own words: “I feel calm and cheerful, having taken this step after serious and prayerful consideration, and the approbation of the churches has encouraged me thus far. But I am aware that ere long, amidst a tribe of men whose language will be strange to me, I shall behold those smiles only in remembrance, and hear the voice of encouragement only in dying whispers across the ocean, and then nothing but the grace of God, nothing but a thorough conviction of being in the path of duty, nothing but the approving smile of Heaven can keep me from despondency.” [Sidenote: Eager to Begin.] It was thought best that Mr. Heyer should begin his work in the Telugu country north of Madras. It was the beginning of the hot season when he arrived and he was advised to remain in Madras and commence the study of the language. But his impatient spirit would not let him rest. In spite of the intense heat, he travelled to Nellore and thence to Guntur, where, invited and welcomed by a godly Englishman, Henry Stokes, who was collector of the district and who had earnestly wished for a missionary, he made an end of his long journey. On the first Sunday of August 1842, he held a service with the aid of an interpreter. [Sidenote: Reinforcements.] At once, according to the sound method of the Lutheran missionary, he set about the establishing of schools. He began a school for beggars and another for a scarcely less despised class--Hindu girls. This was the first Hindu girls’ school. Within the first year he was able to report three adult baptisms. In two years two missionaries came to his aid, a German, the _Rev. L. P. Valett_ who came to start a mission of the North German Society at Rajahmundry and the _Rev. Walter Gunn_, who was sent out by the General Synod. [Sidenote: A Visit Home.] In 1846 failing health compelled Father Heyer, as he is affectionately called, to return to America. Two years later he returned to Guntur, the visitation among the churches of the home land having been denied him. During the two years, however, he had studied medicine, in Baltimore, receiving his degree at the age of fifty-four.