s of the river. With sure instinct Carey
soon fixed on Nuddea, as the centre of Brahmanical superstition and
Sanskrit learning, where "to build me a hut and live like the natives,"
language recalled to us by the words of the dying Livingstone in the
swamps of Central Africa. There, in the capital of the last of the
Hindoo kings, beside the leafy tols or colleges of a river port which
rivals Benares, Poona, and Conjeeveram in sanctity, where Chaitanya the
Vaishnaiva reformer was born, Carey might have attacked Brahmanism in
its stronghold. A passage in his journal shows how he realised the
position. Thomas, the pundit, and he "sought the Lord by prayer for
direction," and this much was the result--"Several of the most learned
Pundits and Brahmans wished us to settle there; and, as that is the
great place for Eastern learning, we seemed inclined, especially as it
is the bulwark of heathenism, which, if once carried, all the rest of
the country must be laid open to us." But there was no available land
there for an Englishman's cultivation. From Bandel he wrote home these
impressions of Anglo-Indian life and missionary duty:--

"26th Dec. 1793.--A missionary must be one of the companions and equals
of the people to whom he is sent, and many dangers and temptations will
be in his way. One or two pieces of advice I may venture to give. The
first is to be exceedingly cautious lest the voyage prove a great
snare. All the discourse is about high life, and every circumstance
will contribute to unfit the mind for the work and prejudice the soul
against the people to whom he goes; and in a country like this, settled
by Europeans, the grandeur, the customs, and prejudices of the
Europeans are exceeding dangerous. They are very kind and hospitable,
but even to visit them, if a man keeps no table of his own, would more
than ten times exceed the allowance of a mission; and all their
discourse is about the vices of the natives, so that a missionary must
see thousands of people treating him with the greatest kindness, but
whom he must be entirely different from in his life, his appearance in
everything, or it is impossible for him to stand their profuse way of
living, being so contrary to his character and so much above his
ability. This is a snare to dear Mr. Thomas, which will be felt by us
both in some measure. It will be very important to missionaries to be
men of calmness and evenness of temper, and rather inclined to suffe