any of the higher offices of the
college, but the teachership was offered to him, with a salary of 500
rupees a month--absolute affluence compared with his original condition.
Yet he would not accept the post unless he were allowed still to be
regarded as a missionary. No objection was made, and thus by his talent
and usefulness had Carey forced from the Government which had forbidden
him to set foot on their territories his recognition in the character he
had always claimed. Even his private secular earnings he never regarded
as his own: this income, and that arising from Marshman's school, these
good men viewed as rendering their mission from henceforth independent,
and setting free the Society at home to support fresh ones. Already the
accounts they sent home were stirring up many more subscribers, and the
commendations bestowed on them in the periodical accounts pained their
humility. Ward wrote that it was like a public show: "Very fine
missionaries to be seen here! Walk in, brethren and sisters, walk in!"

It was happy for the missionaries that their ground had thus been won,
for the war with Denmark occasioned Serampore to be occupied by British
troops early in 1801, and this would, earlier in their career, infallibly
have led to their expulsion: but, as it was, they were allowed to proceed
exactly as they had done before.

Their most serious difficulties were at an end before poor Thomas, though
he had recovered from his brain fever, died of an attack of fever and
ague, after having done almost an equal amount of good and harm to his
cause by his excitable nature and entire want of balance. Converts
continued from time to time to be gathered in: Goluk took courage after
waiting about two years, and a Brahmin named Krishnu-prisad trampled on
his brahminical cord or poita, and was baptized. He was allowed to wear
it as a mark of distinction, but he gave it up voluntarily after three
years. Moreover he broke through Indian prejudice by marrying the
daughter of Krishnu, the first convert, though of a caste far inferior to
his own. This was the occasion of a happy little wedding feast, given
under a tree in front of the house of the bride's father, when a hymn
composed by Krishnu was sung, and native dishes served up in Eastern
style, after which the entertainment concluded with prayer. Only the
next week, in contrast to the devotion that blessed these family ties,
three Hindoo widows were burnt on a pile