He was the friend of Robert Hall, the younger, who
was filling Carey's pulpit in Leicester, and he soon became the
admiring correspondent of Carey himself. His first act during his
seven years' residence in Bombay was to establish the "Literary
Society." He drew up a "Plan of a comparative vocabulary of Indian
languages," to be filled up by the officials of every district, like
that which Carey had long been elaborating for his own use as a
philologist and Bible translator. In his first address to the Literary
Society he thus eulogised the College of Fort William, though fresh
from a chair in its English rival, Haileybury:--"The original plan was
the most magnificent attempt ever made for the promotion of learning in
the East...Even in its present mutilated state we have seen, at the
last public exhibition, Sanskrit declamation by English youth, a
circumstance so extraordinary, that if it be followed by suitable
advances it will mark an epoch in the history of learning."

Carey continued till 1831 to be the most notable figure in the College
of Fort William. He was the centre of the learned natives whom it
attracted, as pundits and moonshees, as inquirers and visitors. His
own special pundit was the chief one, Mrityunjaya Vidyalankar, whom
Home has immortalised in Carey's portrait. In the college for more
than half the week, as in his study at Serampore, Carey exhausted three
pundits daily. His college-room was the centre of incessant literary
work, as his Serampore study was of Bible translation. When he
declared that the college staff had sent forth one hundred original
volumes in the Oriental languages and literature, he referred to the
grammars and dictionaries, the reading-books, compilations, and
editions prepared for the students by the professors and their native
assistants. But he contributed the largest share, and of all his
contributions the most laborious and valuable was this project of the
Bibliotheca Asiatica.

"24th July, 1805.--By the enclosed Gazette you will see that the
Asiatic Society and the College have agreed to allow us a yearly
stipend for translating Sanskrit works: this will maintain three
missionary stations, and we intend to apply it to that purpose. An
augmentation of my salary has been warmly recommended by the College
Council, but has not yet taken place, and as Lord Cornwallis is now
arrived and Lord Wellesley going away, it may not take place. If it
should, it will be a fu