heir savings home. When the missionaries landed there
was nothing but a Portuguese Catholic church in the settlement, and the
Governor was raising subscriptions for that pretty building in which
Carey preached till he died, and the spire of which the
Governor-General is said to have erected to improve the view of the
town from the windows of his summer palace at Barrackpore opposite.

Removed from the rural obscurity of a Bengali village, where the cost
of housing, clothing, and living was small, to a town in the
neighbourhood of the capital much frequented by Europeans, Carey at
once adapted the practical details of his communistic brotherhood to
the new circumstances. With such wisdom was he aided in this by the
business experience of Marshman and Ward, that a settlement was formed
which admitted of easy development in correspondence with the rapid
growth of the mission. At first the community consisted of ten adults
and nine children. Grant had been carried off in a fever caused by the
dampness of their first quarters. The promising Brunsdon was soon
after removed by liver complaint caught from standing on an unmatted
floor in the printing-office. Fountain, who at first continued the
mission at Dinapoor, soon died there a happy death. Thomas had settled
at Beerbhoom, but joined the Serampore brethren in time to do good
though brief service before he too was cut off. But, fortunately as it
proved for the future, Carey had to arrange for five families at the
first, and this is how it was done as described by Ward:--

"The renting of a house, or houses, would ruin us. We hoped therefore
to have been able to purchase land, and build mat houses upon it; but
we can get none properly situated. We have in consequence purchased of
the Governor's nephew a large house in the middle of the town for
Rs.6000, or about L800; the rent in four years would have amounted to
the purchase. It consists of a spacious verandah (portico) and hall,
with two rooms on each side. Rather more to the front are two other
rooms separate, and on one side is a storehouse, separate also, which
will make a printing-office. It stands by the river-side upon a pretty
large piece of ground, walled round, with a garden at the bottom, and
in the middle a fine tank or pool of water. The price alarmed us, but
we had no alternative; and we hope this will form a comfortable
missionary settlement. Being near to Calcutta, it is of the utmost
importan