information was about to be laid
against him at the India House for taking out people without permission.
Not only missionaries, but Europeans of any kind, not in the public
service, were forbidden to set foot on the Company's territories without
special licence, and the danger was so great that the captain set them
ashore at once; and poor Carey beheld with tears the Indian fleet sailing
from Portsmouth without him.

However, by vigorous exertion, Thomas found that a Danish ship would be
lying in the Downs, on her way to the East Indies, and that a passage in
her would cost 100_l._ for a full-grown person and 50_l._ for a child.
Posting down to Northamptonshire, Carey made a desperate effort to
persuade his wife to come with him, and succeeded at last, on condition
that her sister, Miss Old, should come too. There were now five
children, and the passage-money for the whole party amounted to 600_l._,
of which their utmost efforts, including the sale of all the little
property the Careys possessed, could only raise half.

Thomas, who really had a generous spirit, then arranged that the whole
party should be squeezed into two cabins, and that Mr. and Mrs. Carey
alone should be treated as first-class passengers. They were taken on
these terms; but the captain, an Englishman, naturalized in Denmark, gave
Mr. Thomas and Miss Old each a cabin, made them dine at his own table,
and treated them all most kindly.

Thus they safely arrived at Calcutta; but this was only the beginning of
troubles. The goods, the sale of which was intended to maintain the
mission, were entrusted to Thomas, and realized next to nothing; and
Carey was indebted to the goodwill of a rich Hindoo for a miserable house
in an unhealthy suburb of Calcutta, where he lodged his unfortunate
family. They had a great deal of illness, and he was able to do little
but study the language and endeavour to translate the Bible into
Bengalee. Several moves made their state rather worse than better,
until, in 1795, a gentleman in the Civil Service, Mr. George Udney,
offered Carey the superintendence of an indigo factory of his own at
Mudnabutty, where he hoped both to obtain a maintenance, and to have
great opportunities of teaching the natives in his employment.

Disaster as usual followed him: the spot was unhealthy, the family had
fevers, one of the children died, and the mother lost her reason from
grief, so that she had to be kept under restraint for the re