on of volunteering for the Church Missionary Society was
overthrown by a disaster in Cornwall which deprived himself and his
unmarried sister of all the provision that their father had made for
them, thus throwing her upon him for maintenance, and making it necessary
that he should obtain a salary that would support her. It was suggested
by some of his friends that one of the chaplaincies founded by the old
East India Company, before the jealousy of religious teaching had set in,
would both give him opportunities for missionary work and enable him to
provide for his sister at home. Application was accordingly made, and a
man of his talent and character could not fail of being accepted; he was
promised the next vacant post, and went down to spend the long vacation
in Cornwall, and bid farewell to all whom he loved there, for the journey
was long and expensive, and he had resolved not to trust himself among
them again.

He writes in his journal, "Parted with Lydia for ever in this life with a
sort of uncertain pain, which I knew would increase to violence." And so
it was, he suffered most acutely for many days, and, though calmness and
comfort came after a time, never were hopes and affections more
thoroughly sacrificed, or with more anguish, than by this most truly
devoted disciple of his Master.

He worked on at Cambridge till he received his appointment in the January
of 1805, and he then only waited to receive Priests' Orders before going
to London to prepare for his embarkation.

In those times of war, a voyage to India was a perilous and lengthy
undertaking. A whole fleet was collected, containing merchant, convict,
and transport vessels, all under the convoy of the ships of war belonging
to the Company; and, as no straggler might be left behind, the progress
of the whole was dependent on the rate of sailing of the slowest, and all
were impeded by the disaster of one. The _Union_, in which a passage was
given to the chaplain, contained, besides the crew, passengers, the 59th
Regiment, some other soldiers, and young cadets, all thrown closely
together for many months. She sailed from Portsmouth on the 17th of
July; but in two days' time one of the many casualties attendant on at
least sixty vessels made the fleet put into Falmouth, where it remained
for three weeks. This opportunity of intercourse with his family might
well seem an especial boon of Providence to the young missionary, who had
denied himself a