{Note from the preparer of this etext: I have had to insert a viewcomments mainly in regards to adjustments to fonts to allow for some ofthe characters in the Indian names; you will find any of my own notesenclosed in these brackets—{}. I have also renumbered the footnotesand placed them at the end of this e-text, removing them from withinthe document where they fell at the end of each corresponding page.}

{Updater's note: footnote numbers have been enclosed with squarebrackets, e.g. [30]. The Greek in footnote 1 has been transliteratedaccording to the Project Gutenberg Greek How-to.}

The Life of William Carey,

Shoemaker & Missionary

by

George Smith

PREFACE

On the death of William Carey In 1834 Dr. Joshua Marshman promised towrite the Life of his great colleague, with whom he had held almostdaily converse since the beginning of the century, but he survived tooshort a time to begin the work. In 1836 the Rev. Eustace Careyanticipated him by issuing what is little better than a selection ofmutilated letters and journals made at the request of the Committee ofthe Baptist Missionary Society. It contains one passage of value,however. Dr. Carey once said to his nephew, whose design he seems tohave suspected, "Eustace, if after my removal any one should think itworth his while to write my Life, I will give you a criterion by whichyou may judge of its correctness. If he give me credit for being aplodder he will describe me justly. Anything beyond this will be toomuch. I can plod. I can persevere in any definite pursuit. To this Iowe everything."

In 1859 Mr. John Marshman, after his final return to England, publishedThe Life and Times of Carey, Marshman, and Ward, a valuable history anddefence of the Serampore Mission, but rather a biography of his fatherthan of Carey.

When I first went to Serampore the great missionary had not been twentyyears dead. During my long residence there as Editor of the Friend ofIndia, I came to know, in most of its details, the nature of the workdone by Carey for India and for Christendom in the first third of thecentury. I began to collect such materials for his Biography as wereto be found in the office, the press, and the college, and among theNative Christians and Brahman pundits whom he had influenced. Inaddition to such materials and experience I have been favoured with theuse of many unpublished letters written by Carey or referring to him;for which courtesy I here desire to thank Mrs. S. Carey, South Bank,Red Hill; Frederick George Carey, Esq., LL.B., of Lincoln's Inn; andthe Rev. Jonathan P. Carey of Tiverton.

My Biographies of Carey of Serampore, Henry Martyn, Duff of Calcutta,and Wilson of Bombay, cover a period of nearly a century and a quarter,from 1761 to 1878. They have been written as contributions to thathistory of the Christian Church of India which one of its native sonsmust some day attempt; and to the history of English-speaking peoples,whom the Foreign Missions begun by Carey have made the rulers andcivilisers of the non-Christian world.

CONTENTS