miles. A native Bengalee scholar will find it a year's labor to acquire any dialect of the vulgar tongue, and in speaking his own language will be understood by none except those who are able to read. In the northern part of the province that number is small; in the neighborhood of Calcutta it appears from Dr. Bu chanan that they can generally read. The Missionaries, after learning only Bengalee, could not make their preaching intelligible to the common people; and they found the Bengalee translation of no service to the multitude. It was necessary to make two other translations, (the Persian and Hindostanee,) for the single province of Bengal. As the different languages of the East are written with a different character, it was necessary to cast distinct types for each. In most of them nothing had ever been printed before, and the translators were obliged not only to construct for themselves grammars and vocabularies, not only to settle the orthography of the languages, but to initiate their native workmen into the whole business of founding and printing. There were indeed some Bengalee books, and there were types and native printers for that language; but the types were not used, and the bonks appear to have been few, as Mr. Thomas had seen none after being in the country five years.* The Rev. David Brown, who has had great influence in pro * B. P. A. vol. i, p. 32, 79. 92, 93, 123, 178, 182, 183, 203, 204, 216, 217, 222, 223, 320, 318, 389, 446. M. B. M. M. vol. ii, p 130. Mem. p. 10, 69. Ch. Res. p. 134 note, 157, 209 211, 255 note, R's Cyc. under Bengal. moting the translation and dispersion of the Scriptures in Asia, went to India in the year 1786. Dr. Buchanan, it is understood, was there before. In the year 1793 a bill was brought into the Parliament of Great Britain for communicating Christian in. struction to the British subjects in Asia, in which was a clause for an "Establishment of Missionaries and schoolmasters." The resolutions which recognized the general principle of "civilizing the natives of India," were carried; but it was considered an inauspicious moment, (at the com mencement of a perilous war,, to organize the necessary establishment for India, and the bill was referred to future consideration. About the year 1795 the Earl of Mornington, (now Marquis Wellesley,) went out to In dia in the character of Governor General. The very year that the bill was before Parliament, Mr. Thomas returned to India with Mr. Carey, and both united in carrying forward the Bengalee Translation which had been begun by Mr. Thomas in 1789. At that time, and for several years, the Missionaries were so far from extending their views to other versions, that they scarcely cherished the hope of living to see the Scriptures published in one language. They did form a plan in January, 1795, to make and publish a Hindostanee version; but their poverty, and the unexpected protraction of their labors upon the Bengalee translation, obliged them to abandon that design until it was executed by another. They never ceased to look forward to future Missions among people of various. tongues, and did all in their power to rouse a spirit in England to send out laborers sufficient for that purpose. They early learnt the Shanscrit and Hindostanee languages. The former Mr. Carey began as early as April 1796, and in the latter, by the end of that year, he could preach with tolerable ease. He resolved from the first to devote his eldest three sons to the study of Persian, Chinese, and Shanscrit, to qualify them for future Missions. He urged upon the Baptist Society to form a school or college in Bengal, where Missionaries might be formed, and the languages of the different countries acquired. But the want of men and money, together with the slender attainments he had made in Asiatic Jiterature, limited his views for the present, to a single translation. For several years he scarcely dared to hope for a press and types to print any part of the Bengalee version. One anxiety was removed by the establishment of a Letter Foundery at Calcutta towards the end of 1797, another by the acquisition of a printing press in the month of September, 1798. By that time a Persian translation had been commenced at Calcutta by a Captain of the army, who appears afterwards to be mentioned under the name and distinction of Lieut. Colonel Colebrooke. In October, 1799, four new Missionaries, one of whom had been regularly trained to the business of printing, arrived; and by January following, the whole company, except Mr. Thomas, were established at Serampore, in a situation highly favorable to their future operations. Till that time the Missionaries had lived in ob scurity, in a remote part of the province, without funds, without patronage, their names scarcely known at Calcutta. Having labored almost seven years without success, they were greatly disheartened, and instead of extending their views to translations for other provinces, they doubted whether they should ever preach with any effect in Bengal The year 1800 was the season of the greatest depression of their hopes. Oppressed with poverty, and having no means or influence to collect learned natives from remote provinces and kingdoms to instruct them in the different languages, they were incapable of seeing or imagining those splendid prospects which were about to open to their view. single Translation was begun, and that was not put to press.* A This was the state of things when an event took place, which was designed to have incalculable influence on the civil and religious interests of Asia. On the 4th of May, 1800, the College of Fort-William was established at Calcutta by the Marquis Wellesley, with a leading view to initiate the English youth, who were to be employed in the different departments of the Government, in the languages of the country, and thus break down the partition wall between the governos and the governed, which had been found injurious to both. There was a department also for translating the Scriptures into B. P. A. vol. i, p. 79, 472. Vol. ii, p. 9. M. B. M. M. vol. it, p. 130, 356 357. Vol. iii, p. 97, 98. Nar. P2. 73. Ch. Res. p. 89, 90. Mem. p. 29, 55, 57. Pan. vol. vi, p. 44; and the References in No. II and 111. the various Oriental tongues. of Fort-William "a flood of light Mr. Brown was appointed Provost, and Dr. Buchanan ViceProvost of the College. How far the counsels of these gentlemen, and of other friends of Christianity in India, influenced the measures of the Governor General, we are not told; we have a right to conjecture; but in less than five years that distinguished nobleman had assembled from different parts of India, Persia, and Arabia, and attached to the college, more than one hundred learned natives; and in the presence of that venerable body of Asiatics the Christian Scriptures were exhibited for translation into the languages of the East. The design was to combine the different exertions which were making into one effort, and to render the College the centre of all the translations for Eastern Asia. For this purpose the two Protestant Missions were drawn into co-operation by selecting Mr. Carey and one of the Danish Missionaries, (apparently Mr. Pæzold,) for Teachers, the former of the Bengalee and Shanscrit languages, the latter of the Tamul. Mr. Carey received his appointment in the spring of 1801, just at the time when the Bengalee New Testament was published. Col. Colebrooke also (if he was indeed the person before mentioned as having commenced a Persian translation, and his is called by Dr. Buchanan "THE FIRST,") was with his labors swallowed up in the unity of the plan, and became identified with the College. It was a noble and stupendous design, sufficient to distinguish an age No wonder that the transported Hindoo poet proclaimed the College shooting through a dark cloud on a benighted land." The strong eulogium pronounced on that Institution and its noble Founder by Mr. Carey, in a Speech delivered at one of the public Disputations, shows that all parties are united in these sentiments.* Before the end of the year 1802 a commencement was made in a translation into the other language spoken in Bengal, viz. the Hindostanee. Mr. Carey in announcing this event, after the first volume of the Bengalee Old Testament was published, says, "A gentleman who is our cordial friend has begun to translate the New Testament into Hindos tanee. I have much desired to see the Bible printed in Begalce and Hindostanee before I die." As yet he had not extended his views to Translations for other provinces, but was still occupied with thoughts about the two Hindoo languages of Bengal which he and his colleague had planned to print in 1795. This "cordial friend" to the Baptist Mission appears to have been William Hunter, Esq. of the College, Dr. Hunter superintended the first version of the Gospels that was made into this language, and printed a part of it for the College; and this was the first Hindostanee translation that was published in India. It was in the press in September, 1804, and by the next February Matthew and a part of Mark were printed. What prevented the publi Ch. Res. p. 89-91 240, Mem. p. 10, 11, 66, 69-72. Nar. p. 24. N. Y. M. M, vol. iii, p. 275, and References in No. III. cation of the whole translation, we are not told.*. Thus the three languages spoken in Bengal were actually undertaken, one by Mr. Carey, and two by the College, and vast preparations were making in that Seminary for a more general work of translation. It becomes then an interesting inquiry by what means the business was transferred from the College to the Mission-house. The truth seems to be, that the College and the Missionaries were harmoniously united in these operations. The great Baptist Translator was himself one of the officers of that Institution. It is on all hands as serted,particularly by Dr. Buchanan and Dr. Carey, that in relation to this work,(and indeed every other,) there is no party spirit in India among evangelical men of different denominations; that they all put their hands to it as a common cause, and help each other as much as they can; that forgetful of those points which divide their brethren in Europe and America, they consider the only strife on that ground to be between God and an idol. None cared so much where the work was done, as to have it done. While the College was suffered to remain the centre of the Translations, all seemed willing, (certainly at first,) to support them there; but when it became morally certain that the Court of Directors in England would expel them by reducing that establishment, all agreed to carry a very considerable portion of them to the Mission-house, and Ch. Res. p. 89, 90, 1.4 note. Mem. p. 12. Pan. vol. ii. p. 138. B. P. A. vol. iii. p. 23, 24, N. Y. M. M. vol. vi. p. 217. help support them there. As early as the latter part of 1804, when the Chinese translation was begun, (and how much earlier does not appear,) the super. intendents of the College were daily expecting the order for reducing the establishment. The letter of the court of Di rectors on the subject, and the answer of Marquis Wellesley, (who left India in the following spring,) are preserved in the State papers of "The Asiatick Annual Register for 1805." But whether any prospect of this event appeared in 1803, when the Missionaries formed the plan for executing various Translations,-whether it was a joint plan of all concerned to provide in season a safe retreat for the Translations, or whether the Missionaries, availing themselves of the facilities furnished by the collection of so many learned natives, and the public spirit excited in favor of such an undertaking, started independently and alone, is left to conjecture. The compiler has laboriously searched for some ray to illumine this point, with a conscientious desire to do jus tice to all parties; but has found none but what appears in the antecedent and following narrative. When a number of men unite their strength to lift a weight, how large a part is raised by cach is difficult for any, especially for those who look on at a distance, to determine. It is certain from Dr. Buchanan's Memoir, written in the beninning of 1805, that the College claimed the seven Translations then begun, including the labors of Mr. Carey; and it is equally certain that before as well as after the reduc tion of the establishment in 1807, the Superintendents of the College encouraged and assisted the Missionaries to the utmost of their power. It is certain, on the other hand, that in their communications to their friends, the Missionaries have from the first spoken of the undertaking as exclusively their own. It ought to be remembered that they possessed at the time a respectable establishment at Serampore with a printing office, wholly distinct from the College, which drew its support from their own exertions, and from their Society in England. Five Missionaries, four of whom were unconnected with the College, were already on the ground, and more were expected. Three of these had been long enough in the country to acquire perfectly the popular dialects of Bengal, and two of them were now ready to turn their attention to other languages, while the third could superintend the press. The Bengalee Translation was nearly off their hands. The version was complete, the first volume of the Old Testament, together with the Psalms and part of Isaiah, was printed; and a new edition of the New Testament was brought to the press. The profits arising from their printing office and English school, together with Mr. Carey's salary of $3,330, (which went into common stock,) and the income derived from the sale of the Bengalee Scriptures, and from England, gave them a sort of pecuniary independence. From the success which had immediately followed the distribution of one Translation, in 1800, sompared with the dishearten ing experience of the seven preceding years, they saw the immense importance of a printed Bible, and the fruitlessness of sending missionaries to other provinces without it. Under these circumstances the Missionaries, in 1803, formed a plan for translating the Scriptures into various tongucs, and as early as March, as would seem by the bill of expenses which they have exhibited, had in their employ Hindostanee, Persian, Orissa, and Mahratta Pundits. About the same time a new fount of Nagree types, containing more than 800 letters and combinations was finished for them. The accounts of receipts and expenditures for these languages, are exhibited to the public as kept by no other than the Missionaries themselves.* Mr. Ward's journal under date of Jan 21, 1804, contains this clause; "Brother Carey has taken a moonshee this week, to begin translating the Scriptures into the Orissa language. Another is translating them into the Mahratta." And in the account of expenses which the Missionaries have exhibited to the world, they implicitly claim to have borne all the charges of these two Translations from the first. But Dr. Buchanan expressly declares in his Memoir, and in his Christian Researches, that the Gospels were translated into these two languages in the College, into one by Pooroosh Ram, *Ch. Res. p. 91, 92, 96 Mem. p. 10-12, 14, 66, 92. Star in E. p. 17, 18. Q. R. No. 1. p. 52. Pan. vol. vi. p. 39, 40 B. P. A. vol. ii. p. 24. M. B. M. M. vol. 1. p. 97. vol. 2. p. 131. Nar. p. 32, 37. and References in No. IH. |