Chapter VI: Dinapore and Patna, 1807-1809 (1)

Until, in 1852 and the ten years following, Lord Dalhousie's railway up the Ganges valley was completed to Allahabad, the usual mode of proceeding up-country from Calcutta was by the house-boat known as the budgerow, which is still common on the many rivers of Bengal where English planters and officials are found. At the rate of twenty-five miles a day the traveller is towed up against stream by the boatmen. When time is no object, and opportunities are sought for reading, shooting, and intercourse with the natives, the voyage is delightful in the cool season. Henry Martyn rejoiced in six weeks of this solitary life--alone yet not alone, and ever about his Father's business. His studies were divided between Hindustani and Sanskrit; he was much occupied in prayer and in the reading of the Greek and Hebrew Scriptures. Morning and evening he spent himself among the people on the banks, and at the ghauts and bazaars of the mighty river, preaching Christ and spreading abroad the New Testament. The dense population and the spiritual darkness, as the panorama of native life moved hourly before his eyes, on river and on land, stirred up the busiest of Christians to be still busier, in spite of his fast-wasting body; 'What a wretched life shall I lead if I do not exert myself from morning till night, in a place where, through whole territories, I seem to be the only light!' His gun supplied him with small game, 'enough to make a change with the curry.'

At Cutwa, one of Carey's mission stations, he had fellowship with Chamberlain, receiving that 'refreshment of spirit which comes from the blessing of God on Christian communion.' 'Tell Marshman,' he wrote, 'with my affectionate remembrance, that I have seriously begun the Sanskrit Grammar.' To Ward he sends a list of errata which he found in a tract in the Persian character. He had his Serampore moonshi with him. At Berhampore, soon to be occupied by Mr. Parson as chaplain, and by the London Missionary Society, he spent some time, for it was the great military station of the old Nawab Nazim's capital, Moorshidabad, which Clive described as wealthier than London, and quite as populous. Henry Martyn at once walked into the hospital, where the surgeon immediately recognised him as an old schoolfellow and townsman. But even with such help he could not induce the men to rise and assemble for Divine service. 'I left three books with them and went away amidst the sneers and titters of the common soldiers. Certainly it is one of the greatest crosses I am called to bear, to take pains to make people hear me. It is such a struggle between a sense of propriety and modesty on the one hand, and a sense of duty on the other, that I find nothing equal to it.' At Rajmahal, like Carey six years before, he met some of the hill tribes--'wrote down from their mouth some of the names of things.'

At Maldah he was in the heart of the little Christian community which, under Charles Grant twenty years before, had proved the salt of Anglo-Indian society, and had made the first attempt with Carey's assistance to open vernacular Christian schools. With Mr. Ellerton, whose wife had witnessed the duel between Warren Hastings and Philip Francis, and who as a widow indeed lived to the Mutiny of 1857 as the friend of Bishop Daniel Wilson, he went to Gomalty, and visited one of the schools. 'The cheerful faces of the little boys, sitting cross-legged on their mats round the floor, much delighted me. While they displayed their power of reading, their fathers, mothers, etc., crowded in numbers round the door and windows.' Here we see the now vast educational system of Bengal in the birth. Not less striking is the contrast, due to the progress of that system on its missionary side, when we find Martyn, in 1806, recording his surprise at the extraordinary fear and unwillingness of the people to take tracts and books. One postmaster, when he found what the booklet was about, returned it with the remark that a person who had his legs in two boats went on his way uncomfortably. Passing Colgong and Monghyr, he 'reached Patna. Walked about the scene of my future ministry with a spirit almost overwhelmed at the sight of the immense multitudes.' On November 26 he arrived at Dinapore--'the multitudes at the water-side prodigious.'

Nowhere, in British India as it was in 1807, could Henry Martyn have found a better training field, at once as chaplain to the troops and missionary to the Mohammedans, than the Patna centre of the great province of Bihar. For fourteen miles, Patna, the Mohammedan city, Bankipore, the British civil station, and Dinapore, the British military station, line the right bank of the Ganges, which is there two miles broad. Patna itself--'the city,' as the word means--was the Buddhist capital to which the Greek ambassador Megasthenes came from Seleukos Nikator, 300 B.C., and the Chinese pilgrim, Hwen T'sang, 637 years A.D. But under the Mogul emperors and down to the present day, Patna has been the focus of the most fanatical sect of Islam. There Meer Kasim murdered sixty Englishmen in 1763; and so little did a century's civilisation affect the place, which Christian missionaries, except Martyn, neglected till recently, that in 1857 it was a centre of the Mutiny, and in 1872 it was the nucleus of Wahabi rebellion. The second city in Bengal next to Calcutta, and the fifth city in all India in inhabitants, Patna with Bankipore and Dinapore commanded an accessible native population of half a million. Such was Henry Martyn's first 'parish' in the East. For the mass of these he opened schools and translated the Word of God; with their learned men he 'disputed' continually, in the spirit of Paul seeking to commend to them the very Christ.

Besides the Company's civil servants in Bankipore whom he never ceased to influence, he was specially charged with the spiritual care of two European regiments, consisting at one time of 1,700 men and 80 officers in various positions. Then and up till 1860, when what was known as 'the White Mutiny' led the Queen's Government to disband the troops, the East India Company had a European force of its own, specially recruited and paid more highly than the royal regiments. The men were generally better educated than the ordinary private of those days, were, indeed, often runaway sons of good families and disreputable adventurers from many countries. As a fighting force they were splendid veterans; in all other respects their history and character as well as his own experience of them on board ship, justified Martyn's language in a letter to Mr. Brown. 'My disdainful and abandoned countrymen among the military; they are impudent children and stiff-hearted, and will receive, I fear, my ministrations, as all the others have done, with scorn. Yet Jesus wept over Jerusalem. Henceforward let me live with Christ alone.' How loving and faithful, if not always tender, his ministry was among them and their native women, and how it gained their respect till it formed a little Church in the army, we shall see.

Having settled down in barrack apartments at 50 rupees a month till he should get a house against the hot season, and having called on the general commanding and others, after the Anglo-Indian fashion, he reported to his longing friends in Aldeen: 'I stand alone;[26] not one voice is heard saying, "I wish you good luck in the name of the Lord." I offered to come over to Bankipore to officiate to them on the Sabbath. They are going to take this into consideration. I have found out two schools in Dinapore. I shall set on foot one or two schools without delay, and by the time the scholars are able to read we can get books ready for them.' In this spirit and by a renewed act of self-dedication he entered on the year 1807:

Seven years have passed away since I was first called of God.
Before the conclusion of another seven years, how probable is it
that these hands will have mouldered into dust! But be it so: my
soul through grace hath received the assurance of eternal life,
and I see the days of my pilgrimage shortening without a wish
to add to their number. But oh, may I be stirred up to a
faithful discharge of my high and awful work; and laying aside,
as much as may be, all carnal cares and studies, may I give
myself to this 'one thing.' The last has been a year to be
remembered by me, because the Lord has brought me safely to
India, and permitted me to begin, in one sense, my missionary
work. My trials in it have been very few; everything has turned
out better than I expected; loving-kindness and tender mercies
have attended me at every step: therefore here will I sing His
praise. I have been an unprofitable servant, but the Lord hath
not cut me off: I have been wayward and perverse, yet He has
brought me further on the way to Zion; here, then, with
sevenfold gratitude and affection, would I stop and devote
myself to the blissful service of my adorable Lord. May He
continue His patience, His grace, His direction, His spiritual
influences, and I shall at last surely come off conqueror. May
He speedily open my mouth, to make known the mysteries of the
Gospel, and in great mercy grant that the heathen may receive it
and live!

The hostility of the officers and civilians to his message sometimes became scorn, when they saw his efforts to teach and preach to the natives. These were days when the Patna massacre was still remembered. So few baptized Christians knew the power of the Faith which they practically dishonoured, that they had no desire to make it known to others; many even actually resented the preaching of Christ to the people, as both politically dangerous and socially an insult to the ruling race. This feeling has long since disappeared in India at least, though its expression is not unknown in some of the colonies where the land is held by the dark savages. Henry Martyn keenly felt such opposition, and none the less that the natives of the Patna district--especially the Mohammedans--were in their turn hostile to a government which had supplanted them so recently. A few weeks after his arrival we find him writing this in his _Journal_:

_1806, December 1._--Early this morning I set off in my
palanquin for Patna. Something brought the remembrance of my
dear Lydia so powerfully to my mind that I could not cease
thinking of her for a moment. I know not when my reflections
seemed to turn so fondly towards her; at the same time I
scarcely dare to wish her to come to this country. The whole
country is manifestly disaffected. I was struck at the anger and
contempt with which multitudes of the natives eyed me in my
palanquin.

_December 2._--On my way back called on Mr. D., the Judge, and
Mr. F., at Bankipore. Mr. F.'s conversation with me about the
natives was again a great trial to my spirit; but in the
multitude of my troubled thoughts I still saw that there is a
strong consolation in the hope set before us. Let men do their
worst, let me be torn to pieces, and my dear L. torn from me; or
let me labour for fifty years amidst scorn, and never seeing one
soul converted; still it shall not be worse for my soul in
eternity, nor worse for it in time. Though the heathen rage and
the English people imagine a vain thing, the Lord Jesus, who
controls all events, is my friend, my master, my God, my all. On
the Rock of Ages when I feel my foot rest my head is lifted up
above all mine enemies round about, and I sing, yea, I will sing
praises unto the Lord. If I am not much mistaken, sore trials
are awaiting me from without. Yet the time will come when they
will be over. Oh, what sweet refuge to the weary soul does the
grave appear! There the wicked cease from troubling, and there
the weary are at rest. Here every man I meet is an enemy; being
an enemy to God, he is an enemy to me also on that account; but
he is an enemy too to me because I am an Englishman. Oh, what a
place must heaven be, where there are none but friends! England
appears almost a heaven upon earth, because there one is not
viewed as an unjust intruder; but, oh, the heaven of my God! the
general assembly of the first-born, the spirits of the just made
perfect, and Jesus! Oh, let me for a little moment labour and
suffer reproach!

_1807, January 2._--They seem to hate to see me associating at
all with the natives, and one gave me a hint a few days ago
about taking my exercise on foot. But if our Lord had always
travelled about in His palanquin, the poor woman who was healed
by touching the hem of His garment might have perished. Happily
I am freed from the shackles of custom; and the fear of man,
though not extirpated, does not prevail.

_January 8._--Pundit was telling me to-day that there was a
prophecy in their books that the English should remain one
hundred years in India, and that forty years were now elapsed of
that period; that there should be a great change, and they
should be driven out by a king's son, who should then be born.
Telling this to moonshi, he said that about the same time the
Mussulmans expected some great events, such as the coming of
Dujjel, and the spread of Islam over the earth.

_January 29._--The expectation from prophecy is very prevalent
hereabouts that the time is coming when all the Hindus will
embrace the religion of the English; and the pundit says that in
many places they had already begun. About Agra, and Delhi, and
Narwa, in the Mahratta dominions, there are many native
Christian families.

Henry Martyn's occupation of the Aldeen Pagoda had resulted, after his departure, in the formation, by Brown, Corrie, Parson, and Marmaduke Thompson, the Madras chaplain, of what would now be called a clerical club, with these three objects--to aid the British and Foreign Bible Society, then recently established; to help forward the translation of the Scriptures into the languages of the East; and especially to meet the whole expense of the Sanskrit and Greek Testaments, and to send on to Mr. Brown, for circulation, a quarterly report of the prospects, plans, and actual situation of each member so far as the Church is concerned. Of this Evangelical Anglican Brotherhood Martyn seems to have been the most active member during his brief career. His translations were made for it, in the first instance. 'The Synod', or 'the Associated Clergy,' as he called it at different times, when as yet there was no Bishop of Calcutta, consciously linked him to the fellowship of the Saints, to the Church and the University from which he had come forth. We find him noting seven years after 'the day I left Cambridge: my thoughts frequently recurred with many tender recollections to that beloved seat of my brethren, and again I wandered in spirit amongst the trees on the banks of the Cam.'

The letters from these four chaplains cheered him at Dinapore when he was 'very much depressed in spirits,' and he hastens to write to each, giving this picture of his life:

From a solitary walk on the banks of the river I had just
returned to my dreary rooms, and with the reflection that just
at this time of the day I could be thankful for a companion, was
taking up the flute to remind myself of your social meetings in
worship, when your two packages of letters, which had arrived in
my absence, were brought to me. For the contents of them, all I
can say is, Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me
bless His holy name! The arrival of another dear brother, and
the joy you so largely partake of in fellowship with God and
with one another, act as a cordial to my soul. They show me what
I want to learn, that the Lord God Omnipotent reigneth, and
that they that keep the faith of Jesus are those only whom God
visits with His strong consolations. I want to keep in view that
our God is the God of the whole earth, and that the heathen are
given to His exalted Son, the uttermost parts of the earth for a
possession.

Continually his love of music breaks forth alike for the worship of God and the association of friendship and affection. His correspondence with Brown was regular, but as that of a son with a father. His letters to Corrie, his old Cambridge junior, are frank and free. His joy was great when Corrie was stationed at the rock-fortress of Chunar, not very far from Dinapore, so that they occasionally met and officiated for each other. But up to this time his chief, his almost fearful human, delight was to think of Lydia by night and by day.

_1806, December 10._--A dream last night was so like reality,
and the impression after it was so deep upon my spirits, that I
must record the date of it. It was about Lydia. I dreamt that
she had arrived, but that after some conversation I said to her,
'I know this is a dream; it is too soon after my letter for you
to have come.' Alas! it is only a dream; and with this I awoke,
and sighed to think that it was indeed only a dream. Perhaps all
my hope about her is but a dream! Yet be it so; whatever God
shall appoint must be good for us both, and with that I will
endeavour to be tranquil and happy, pursuing my way through the
wilderness with equal steadiness, whether with or without a
companion.

_December 14._ (Sunday.)--Service performed by an after order,
at ten o'clock. The general was present, about twenty officers,
and some of their ladies. I preached on the parable of the tares
of the field. Much of the rest of the day I was in great
distraction, owing to the incessant recurrence of thoughts about
Lydia. My impatience and fear respecting her sometimes rose to
such a height that I felt almost as at Falmouth, when I was
leaving Europe, as I thought to see her no more. But in the
evening it pleased the Lord to show me something of the awful
nearness of the world of spirits, and the unmeasurable
importance of my having my thoughts and cares devoted to my
missionary work. Thus I obtained peace. I prayed in sincerity
and fervour, that if there were any obstacle in the sight of
God, the Lord might never suffer us to meet.

_December 21._ (Sunday.)--In the evening, after a solemn season
of prayer, I received letters from Europe, one from Cousin T.,
Emma, Lydia, and others. The torrent of vivid affection which
passed through my heart at receiving such assurances of regard
continued almost without intermission for four hours. Yet, in
reflection afterwards, the few words my dearest Lydia wrote
turned my joy into tender sympathy with her. Who knows what her
heart has suffered! After all, our God is our best portion; and
it is true that if we are never permitted to meet, we shall
enjoy blissful intercourse for ever in glory.

_December 22._--Thinking far too much of dear Lydia all day.

_December 23._--Set apart the chief part of this day for prayer,
with fasting; but I do not know that my soul got much good. Oh,
what need have I to be stirred up by the Spirit of God, to exert
myself in prayer! Had no freedom or power in prayer, though some
appearance of tenderness. Lydia is a snare to me; I think of her
so incessantly, and with such foolish and extravagant fondness,
that my heart is drawn away from God. Thought at night, Can that
be true love which is other than God would have it? No; that
which is lawful is most genuine when regulated by the holy law
of God.

_December 25._--Preached on 1 Tim. i. 15 to a large
congregation. Those who remained at the Sacrament were chiefly
ladies, and none of them young men. My heart still entangled
with this idolatrous affection, and consequently unhappy.
Sometimes I gained deliverance from it for a short time, and was
happy in the love of God. How awful the thought, that while
perishing millions demand my every thought and care, my mind
should be distracted about such an extreme trifle as that of my
own comfort! Oh, let me at last have done with it, and the
merciful God save me from departing from Him, and committing
that horrible crime of forsaking the fountain of living waters,
and hewing out to myself broken cisterns.

As the delightful cold season of the Bihar uplands passed all too quickly, and the dry hot winds of Upper India began to scorch its plains, the solitary man began to think it 'impossible I could ever subsist long in such a climate.' From April 1807 his hereditary disease made rapid advances, while he reproached himself for lassitude and comparative idleness, and put additional constraint on himself to work and to pray unceasingly. From this time his _Journal_ has frequent records of sickness, of loss of appetite, and of 'pain' in his ministrations, ending in loss of voice altogether for a time. Corrie and Brown and his other correspondents remonstrated, but they were at a distance. He needed a watchful and authoritative nurse such as only a wife could be, and he found only lack of sympathy or active opposition. He lived, as we can now see, as no white man in the tropics in any rank of life should live, from sheer simplicity, unselfishness, and consuming zeal. When the hot winds drove him out of the barracks, the first rainy season flooded his house. At all times and amid the insanitary horrors of an Indian cemetery he had to bury the dead of a large cantonment in a sickly season. His daily visits to the hospital were prolonged, for there he came soul to soul with the sinner, the penitent, and the rejoicing. And all the time he is writing to Corrie and each of his friends, 'I feel anxious for your health.' To marry officers and baptize children he had to make long journeys by palanquin, and expose his wasting body alike to heat and rain. But amid it all his courage never fails, for it is rooted in God; his heart is joyful, for he has the peace that passeth all understanding.

_1807, May 18._--Through great mercy my health and strength are
supported as by a daily miracle. But oh, the heat! By every
device of darkness and tatties I cannot keep the thermometer
below 92°, and at night in bed I seem in danger of suffocation.
Let me know somewhat more particularly what the heat is, and how
you contrive to bear it. The worst bad effect I experience is
the utter loss of appetite. I dread the eating time.

_July 7._--Heat still so great as to oblige me to abandon my
quarters.

_July 8._--Went to Bankipore to baptize a child. One of the
ladies played some hymn-tunes on my account. If I were provided
with proper books much good might be done by these visits, for I
meet with general acceptance and deference. In the evening
buried a man who had died in the hospital after a short illness.
My conscience felt again a conviction of guilt at considering
how many precious hours I waste on trifles, and how cold and
lukewarm my spirit is when addressing souls.

_August 23._ (Sunday.)--Preached on Job xix. 25-27: 'I know that
my redeemer liveth.' There seemed little or no attention; only
one officer there besides Major Young. At Hindustani prayers,
the women few, but attentive; again blest with much freedom; at
the hospital was seized with such pain from over-exertion of my
voice, that I was obliged to leave off and go away.

To Brown he writes: 'The rains try my constitution. I am apt to be troubled with shortness of breath, as at the time I left you. Another rainy reason I must climb some hill and live there; but the Lord is our rock. While there is work which _we_ must do, we shall live.' Again in the early Sunday morning of August he dreamed--

That as I was attacked so violently in July, but recovered, at
the same time next year I should be attacked again, and carried
off by death. This, however, would only be awaking in a better
world. If I may but awake up satisfied with Thy likeness, why
shall I be afraid? I think I have but one wish to live, which
is, that I may do the Lord's work, particularly in the Persian
and Hindustani translations; for this I could almost feel
emboldened to supplicate, like Hezekiah, for prolongation of
life, even after receiving this, which may be a warning.

After six months' experience of his Dinapore-cum-Patna parish, Martyn sent in 'to the Associated Clergy' the first quarterly report of his own spiritual life, and of his work for others.

_April 6._--I begin my first communication to my dear and
honoured brethren, with thankfully accepting their proposal of
becoming a member of their society, and I bless the God and
Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for this new instance of His
mercy to His unworthy creature. May His grace and favour be
vouchsafed to us, and His Holy Spirit direct all our
proceedings, and sanctify our communications to the purposes for
which we are united.

On a review of the state of my mind since my arrival at
Dinapore, I observe that the graces of joy and love have been at
a low ebb. Faith has been chiefly called into exercise, and
without a simple dependence on the Divine promises I should
still every day sink into fatal despondency. Self-love and
unbelief have been suggesting many foolish fears respecting the
difficulties of my future work among the heathen. The thought of
interrupting a crowd of busy people like those at Patna, whose
every day is a market-day, with a message about eternity,
without command of language sufficient to explain and defend
myself, and so of becoming the scorn of the rabble without doing
them good, was offensive to my pride. The manifest disaffection
of the people, and the contempt with which they eyed me,
confirmed my dread. Added to this the unjust proceedings of many
of the principal magistrates hereabout led me to expect future
commotions in the country, and that consequently poverty and
murder would terminate my career.

'Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof'--'As thy days are
so shall thy strength be,' were passages continually brought to
my remembrance, and with these at last my mind grew quiet. Our
countrymen, when speaking of the natives, said, as they usually
do, that they cannot be converted, and if they could they would
be worse than they are. Though I have observed before now that
the English are not in the way of knowing much about the
natives, yet the number of difficulties they mentioned proved
another source of discouragement to me. It is surprising how
positively they are apt to speak on this subject, from their
never acknowledging God in anything: 'Thy judgments are far
above out of his sight.' If we labour to the end of our days
without seeing one convert, it shall not be worse for us in
time, and our reward is the same in eternity. The cause in which
we are engaged is the cause of mercy and truth, and therefore,
in spite of seeming impossibilities, it must eventually prevail.

I have been also occasionally troubled with infidel thoughts,
which originated perhaps from the cavillings of the Mohammedans
about the person of Christ; but these have been never suffered
to be more than momentary. At such times the awful holiness of
the Word of God, and the deep seriousness pervading it, were
more refreshing to my heart than the most encouraging promises
in it. How despicable must the Koran appear with its mock
majesty and paltry precepts to those who can read the Word of
God! It must presently sink into contempt when the Scriptures
are known.

Sometimes when those fiery darts penetrated more deeply, I found
safety only in cleaving to God, as a child clasps to his
mother's neck. These things teach me the melancholy truth that
the grace of a covenant God can alone keep me from apostasy and
ruin.

The European society here consists of the military at the
cantonment and the civil servants at Bankipore. The latter
neither come into church nor have accepted the offer of my
coming to officiate to them. There is, however, no contempt
shown, but rather respect. Of the military servants very few
officers attend, and of late scarcely any of the married
families, but the number of privates, and the families of the
merchants, always make up a respectable congregation. They have
as yet heard very little of the doctrines of the Gospel. I have
in general endeavoured to follow the directions contained in Mr.
Milner's letter on this subject, as given in Mr. Brown's paper,
No. 4.

At the hospital I have read Doddridge's _Rise and Progress_, and
_The Pilgrim's Progress_. As the people objected to extempore
preaching at church, I have in compliance with their desires
continued to use a book. But on this subject I should be glad of
some advice from my brethren.

I think it needless to communicate the plans or heads of any of
my sermons, as they have been chiefly on the Parables. It is of
more importance to observe that the Word has not gone forth in
vain, blessed be God! as it has hitherto seemed to do in most
places where I have been called to minister; and this I feel to
be an animating testimony of His presence and blessing. I think
the commanding officer of the native regiment here and his lady
are seeking their salvation in earnest; they now refuse all
invitations on the Lord's day, and pass most of that day at
least in reading the Word, and at all times discover an
inclination to religious conversation. Among the privates, one I
have little doubt is truly converted to God, and is a great
refreshment to me. He parted at once with his native woman, and
allows her a separate maintenance. His conversion has excited
much notice and conversation about religion among the rest, and
three join him in coming twice a week to my quarters for
exposition, singing and prayer.

I visit the English very little, and yet have had sufficient
experience of the difficulty of knowing how a minister should
converse with his people. I have myself fallen into the worst
extreme, and, from fear of making them connect religion with
gloom, have been led into such shameful levity and conformity to
them as ought to fill me with grief and deep self-abasement.

How repeatedly has guilt been brought upon my conscience in this
way! Oh, how will the lost souls with whom I have trifled the
hours away look at me in the day of judgment! I hope I am more
and more convinced of the wickedness and folly of assuming any
other character than that of a minister. I ought to consider
that my proper business with the flock over which the Holy Ghost
hath made me overseer is the business of another world, and if
they will not consider it in the same light, I do not think that
I am bound to visit them.

About the middle of last month, the Church service being ready
in Hindustani, I submitted to the commanding officer of the
European regiment a proposal to perform Divine service
regularly for the native women of his regiment, to which he
cordially assented. The whole number of women, about 200,
attended with great readiness, and have continued to do so.
Instead of a sermon, the Psalms, and the appointed lessons, I
read in two portions the Gospel of St. Matthew regularly
forward, and occasionally make some small attempts at
expounding. The conversion of any of such despised people is
never likely perhaps to be of any extensive use in regard to the
natives at large; but they are a people committed to me by God,
and as dear to Him as others; and next in order after the
English, they come within the expanding circle of action.

After much trouble and delay, three schools have been
established for the native children on Mr. Creighton's plan--one
at Dinapore, one at Bankipore, and one at Patna, at the last of
which the Persian character is taught as well as the Nagri. The
number of children already is about sixty. The other
schoolmasters, not liking the introduction of these free
schools, spread the report that my intention was to make them
Christians, and send them to Europe; in consequence of which the
zemindars retracted their promises of land, and the parents
refused to send their children; but my schoolmasters very
sensibly went to the people, and told them, 'We are men well
known among you, and when we are made Christians then do you
begin to fear.' So their apprehensions have subsided; but when
the book of Parables, which is just finished, is put into their
hands, I expect a revival of their fears. My hope is that I
shall be able to ingratiate myself a little with the people
before that time; but chiefly that a gracious God will not
suffer Satan to keep his ground any longer, now that the
appointed means are used to dislodge him. But, though these
plans should fail, I hope to be strengthened to fight against
him all my days. For, from what I feel within and see without, I
know enough of him to vow, with my brethren, eternal enmity
against him and his cause.

Respecting the state of the natives hereabouts, I believe that
the Hindus are lax, for the rich men being few or none, there
are few Brahmins and few _tumashas_ (_fêtes_), and without these
idolatry droops. The Mohammedans are numerous and ignorant, but
from the best of them I cannot learn that more than three
arguments can be offered for their religion, which are--the
miracles wrought by Mohammed, those still wrought by his
followers, and his challenge in the second chapter of the Koran,
about producing a chapter like it, all of which are immediately
answered.

If my brethren have any others brought forward to them they
will, I hope, mention them; and if they have observed any remark
or statement apparently affect a native's mind, they will notice
it.

Above all things, _seriousness_ in argument with them seems most
desirable, for without it they laugh away the clearest proofs.
Zeal for making proselytes they are used to, and generally
attribute to a false motive; but a tender concern manifested for
their souls is certainly new to them, and seemingly produces
corresponding seriousness in their minds.

From an officer who had been in the Mahratta service, I learned
some time ago that there were large bodies of Christians at
Narwa, in the Mahratta dominions, Sardhana, Delhi, Agra, Bettia,
Boglipore. To obtain more information respecting them, I sent a
circular letter to the missionaries residing at the three latter
places, and have received two letters in reply. The padre at
Boglipore is a young man just arrived, and his letter contains
no information. From the letter of the padre at Agra I subjoin
some extracts, premising that my questions were: 1. By whom were
you sent? 2. How long has a mission been established in the
place of your residence? 3. Do you itinerate, and to what
distance? 4. Have you any portion of the MSS. translated, or do
you distribute tracts? 5. Do you allow any remains of caste to
the baptized? 6. Have you schools? are the masters heathen or
Christians? 7. Is there any native preacher or catechist? 8.
Number of converts.

In concluding my report, I take the liberty of proposing two
questions on which I should be thankful for communications in
your next quarterly report.

1. On the manner in which a minister should observe the Sabbath;
whether he should make it a point of duty to leave no part of
his discourses to prepare on that day? Whether our particular
situation in this country, requiring redoubled exertion in those
of us at least who are called to the heathen, will justify the
introduction of a secular work into the Sabbath, such as
translating the Scriptures, etc.?

2. In the commencement of our labours among the heathen, to
which model should our preaching be conformed,--to that of John
the Baptist and our Saviour, or that of the Apostles? The first
mode seems more natural, and if necessary for the Jews,
comparatively so enlightened, how much more for the heathen, who
have scarcely any notions of morality! On the other hand, the
preaching of the cross has in all ages won the most ignorant
savages; and the Apostles preached it at once to heathens as
ignorant perhaps as these.

Like Marshman and the Serampore missionaries, Henry Martyn kept up a Latin correspondence with the missionaries sent from Rome by the Propaganda to the stations founded by Xavier, and those afterwards established by that saint's nephew in the days of the tolerant Akbar. At the beginning of this century, Anglican, Baptist, and Romanist missionaries all over the East co-operated with each other in translation work and social intercourse. More than once Martyn protected the priest at Patna from the persecution of the military authorities. He planned a visit to their station at Bettia, to the far north, at the foot of the Himalayas. In hospital his ministrations were always offered to the Irish soldiers in the absence of their own priest, and always without any controversial reference. In his _Journal_ he is often indignant at the Popish perversion of the doctrines of grace, and in preaching he occasionally set forth the truth, but in pastoral and social intercourse he never failed to show the charity of the Christian scholar and the gentleman.

Major Young, with his wife, was the first of the officers to welcome Martyn's preaching. Soon the men in hospital learned to appreciate his daily visits, and to attend to his earnest reading and talk. A few began to meet with him at his own house regularly, for prayer and the exposition of Holy Scripture. In January, he writes of one Sunday: 'Great attention. I think the Word is not going forth in vain. In the afternoon read at the hospital. The steward I found had been long stationed at Tanjore and knew Schwartz; that Schwartz baptized the natives not by immersion, but by sprinkling, and with godfathers, and read the services both in English and Tamil. Felt much delighted at hearing anything about him. The man told me that the men at the hospital were very attentive and thankful that I came amongst them. Passed the evening with great joy and peace in singing hymns.' In the heat of May he writes: 'Found fifty sick at the hospital, who heard _The Pilgrim's Progress_ with great delight. Some men came to-night, but my prayer with them was exceedingly poor and lifeless.'

In these days, thanks to Lord Lawrence and Sir Henry Norman, there is a prayer-hall in every cantonment, ever open for the soldier who seeks quiet communion with God. Then--'Six soldiers came to me to-night. To escape as much as possible the taunts of their wicked companions, they go out of their barracks in opposite directions to come to me. At night a young Scotsman of the European regiment came to me for a hymn-book. He expressed with tears his past wickedness and determination to lead a religious life.' On the other side we have such passages as these: 'What sort of men are these committed to my care? I had given them one more warning about their whoredom and drunkenness, and it's the truth grappling with their consciences that makes them furious.' Of the Company's European regiment he writes to Corrie: 'A more wicked set of men were, I suppose, never seen. The general, the colonel of the 67th, and their own colonel all acknowledge it. At the hospital when I visit their part, some go to a corner and invoke blasphemies upon me because, as they now believe, the man I speak to dies to a certainty.' A young lieutenant of fine abilities he recommended strenuously to go into the ministry.

Although, fifteen years before, Sir John Shore had given orders as to the building of churches at military stations, and Lord Wellesley had set an example of interest in the moral and spiritual welfare of the Company's servants, nothing had been done outside of the three Presidency cities. All that Henry Martyn found provided for him, as chaplain, on his first Sunday at Dinapore, was a long drum, on which he placed the Prayer-book. He was requested not to preach, because the men could not stand so long. He found the men playing at fives on Sunday. All that he soon changed, by an appeal to the general to put a stop to the games on Sunday, and by holding service at first in a barrack, and then in his own house. Before leaving Calcutta he had observed, in a conversation with the Governor-General, on the disgrace of there being no places of worship at the principal subordinate stations; upon which directions were given to prepare plans of building. He wrote to the equally troubled Corrie at Chunar. A year later nothing had been done, and he draws this picture to Corrie: 'From the scandalous disorder in which the Company have left the ecclesiastical part of their affairs, so that we have no place fit, our assemblies are little like worshipping assemblies. No kneeling because no room; no singing, no responses.' At last Sir George Barlow sent an order for an estimate for building a church, but Martyn had left for Cawnpore, only to see a worse state of things there. But the faithfulness of the 'black' chaplains was telling. He writes, on March 14, 1808:

The 67th are now all here. The number of their sick makes the
hospital congregation very considerable, so that if I had no
natives, translations, etc., to think of, there is call enough
for my labours and prayers among all these Europeans. The
general at my request has determined to make the whole body of
troops attend in three divisions; and yesterday morning the
Company's European, and two companies of the King's, came to
church in great pomp, with a fine band of music playing. The
King's officers, according to their custom, have declared their
intention not to call upon the Company's; therefore I mean to
call upon them. I believe I told you that 900 of the 67th are
Roman Catholics. It seemed an uncommonly splendid Mohurrum here
also. Mr. H., an assistant judge lately appointed to Patna,
joined the procession in a Hindustani dress, and went about
beating his breast, etc. This is a place remarkable for such
folly. The old judge, you know, has built a mosque here, and the
other judge issued an order that no marriage nor any feasting
should be held during the season of Mohammedan grief. A
remarkably sensible young man called on me yesterday with the
Colonel; they both seem well disposed to religion. I receive
many gratifying testimonies to the change apparently taking
place among the English in religious matters in India;
testimonies, I mean, from the mouths of the people, for I
confess I do not observe much myself.

Having translated the Church Service into Hindustani, Henry Martyn was ready publicly to minister to the native women belonging to the soldiers of the Company's European regiment. From such unions, rarely lawful, sprang the now great and important Eurasian community, many of whom have done good service to the Church and the Empire. 'The Colonel approved, but told me that it was my business to find them an order, and not his.'

_1807, March 23._--So I issued my command to the Sergeant-Major
to give public notice in the barracks that there would be Divine
service in the native language on the morrow. The morrow came,
and the Lord sent 200 women, to whom I read the whole of the
morning service. Instead of the lessons I began Matthew, and
ventured to expound a little, and but a little. Yesterday we had
a service again, but I think there were not more than 100. To
these I opened my mouth rather more boldly, and though there was
the appearance of lamentable apathy in the countenances of most
of them, there were two or three who understood and trembled at
the sermon of John the Baptist. This proceeding of mine is, I
believe, generally approved among the English, but the women
come, I fear, rather because it is the wish of their masters.
The day after attending service they went in flocks to the
Mohurrum, and even of those who are baptized, many, I am told,
are so addicted to their old heathenism, that they obtain money
from their husbands to give to the Brahmins. Our time of Divine
service in English is seven in the morning, and in Hindustani
two in the afternoon. May the Lord smile on this first attempt
at ministration in the native language!

_1807, March 23._--A few days ago I went to Bankipore to fulfil
my promise of visiting the families there; and amongst the rest
called on a poor creature whose black wife has made him
apostatise to Mohammedanism and build a mosque. Major Young went
with me, and the old man's son-in-law was there. He would not
address a single word to me, nor a salutation at parting,
because I found an occasion to remind him that the Son of God
had suffered in the stead of sinners. The same day I went on to
Patna to see how matters stood with respect to the school. Its
situation is highly favourable, near an old gate now in the
midst of the city, and where three ways meet; neither master nor
children were there. The people immediately gathered round me in
great numbers, and the crowd thickened so fast, that it was with
difficulty I could regain my palanquin. I told them that what
they understood by making people Christians was not my
intention; I wished the children to be taught to fear God and
become good men, and that if, after this declaration, they were
still afraid, I could do no more; the fault was not mine, but
theirs. My schools have been heard of among the English sooner
than I wished or expected. The General observed to me one
morning that that school of mine made a very good appearance
from the road; 'but,' said he, 'you will make no proselytes.' If
that be all the opposition he makes, I shall not much mind.

A week later he wrote:

_March 30._--Sick in body, but rather serious and humble in
spirit, and so happy; corrected the Parables for a fair copy.
Reading the Koran and Hindustani Ramayuna, and translating
Revelation; a German sergeant came with his native woman to have
her baptized; I talked with her a good while, in order to
instruct her, and found her extraordinarily quick in
comprehension.

_April 1._--The native woman came again, and I passed a great
deal of time in instructing her in the nature of the Gospel;
but, alas! till the Lord touch her heart, what can a man do? At
night the soldiers came, and we had again a very happy time; how
graciously the Lord fulfils His promise of being where two or
three are gathered together! The pious soldier grows in faith
and love, and spoke of another who wants to join us. They said
that the native women accounted it a great honour to be
permitted to come to a church and hear the Word of God, and
wondered why I should take such trouble for them.

'How shall it ever be possible to convince a Hindu or Brahmin of anything?' wrote Henry Martyn to Corrie after two years' experience in Bengal.

_1808, January 4._--Truly, if ever I see a Hindu a real believer
in Jesus, I shall see something more nearly approaching the
resurrection of a dead body than anything I have yet seen.
However, I well remember Mr. Ward's words, 'The common people
are angels compared with the Brahmins.' Perhaps the strong man
armed, that keeps the goods in peace, shall be dispossessed from
these, when the mighty Word of God comes to be ministered by us.

'We shall live to see better days.' For these he prepared his translations of the Word of God. He wished to itinerate among the people, but his military duties kept him to the station. When Mr. Brown made another attempt to get him fixed in the Mission-Church he replied, 'The evangelisation of India is a more important object than preaching to the European inhabitants of Calcutta.' To Corrie he wrote: 'Those sequestered valleys seen from Chunar present an inviting field for missionary labours. A Sikh, making a pilgrimage to Benares, came to me; he was very ignorant, and I do not know whether he understood what I endeavoured to show him about the folly of pilgrimages, the nature of true holiness, and the plan of the Gospel.'

_1808, February 12._--Sabat describes so well the character of a
missionary that I am ashamed of my great house, and mean to sell
it the first opportunity, and take the smallest quarters I can
find. Would that the day were come when I might throw off the
coat and substitute the jamer; I long for it more and more; and
am often very uneasy at being in the neighbourhood of so great a
Nineveh without being able to do anything immediately for the
salvation of so many perishing souls. What do you think of my
standing under a shed somewhere in Patna as the missionaries did
in the Lal Bazar? Will the Government interfere? What are your
sensations on the late news? I fear the judgments of God on our
proud nation, and that, as we have done nothing for the Gospel
in India, this vineyard will be let out to others who shall
bring the fruits of it in their season. I think the French would
not treat Juggernaut with quite so much ceremony as we do.

Above all men in India, at that time and during the next half-century, however, Henry Martyn was a missionary to the Mohammedans. For them he learned and he translated Hindustani, Persian, and Arabic. With their moulvies he conducted controversies; and for years he associated with himself that extraordinary Arab, Sabat, who made life a burden to him.

Sabat and Abdallah, two Arabs of notable pedigree, becoming friends, resolved to travel together. After a visit to Mecca they went to Cabul, where Abdallah entered the service of Zeman Shah, the famous Ameer. There an Armenian lent him the Arabic Bible, he became a Christian, and he fled for his life to Bokhara. Sabat had preceded him there, and at once recognised him on the street. 'I had no pity,' said Sabat afterwards. 'I delivered him up to Morad Shah, the king.' He was offered his life if he would abjure Christ. He refused. Then one of his hands was cut off, and again he was pressed to recant. 'He made no answer, but looked up steadfastly towards heaven, like Stephen, the first martyr, his eyes streaming with tears. He looked at me, but it was with the countenance of forgiveness. His other hand was then cut off. But he never changed, and when he bowed his head to receive the blow of death all Bokhara seemed to say, "What new thing is this?"'

Remorse drove Sabat to long wanderings, in which he came to Madras, where the Government gave him the office of mufti, or expounder of the law of Islam in the civil courts. At Vizagapatam he fell in with a copy of the Arabic New Testament as revised by Solomon Negri, and sent out to India by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in the middle of last century. He compared it with the Koran, the truth fell on him 'like a flood of light,' and he sought baptism in Madras at the hands of the Rev. Dr. Kerr. He was named Nathaniel. He was then twenty-seven years of age.