Life of William Carey by George Smith - The Jesus Army

for one family, say also what will be sufficient for two small families, so that if Brother Rice, or
any other should soon join me, it may not be necessary to bring the subject again under consideration.
This sum I will receive under the same regulations as other stations are subject to, and
which I heartily approve. And if, on experiment, it be found much too large, I shall be as glad to
diminish it, as to have you increase it, if it be found much too small.
“Sept. 7.--Since writing the above, we have received the distressing intelligence, that a few days
after Mr. Carey left us, and soon after he had reached the brig (which had previously gone into
the great river) on the 31st of August, about noon, she was overtaken by a squall of wind, upset,
and instantly sunk. Those who could swim, escaped with their lives merely, and those who could
not, perished. Among the saved, were Mr. Carey and most of the Bengalees. Mrs. Carey, the two
children, her women and girls, and several men--in all, ten persons, perished. Every article of
property had been transferred from the boats to the vessel, and she had just left the place,
where she had been long waiting the arrival of Mr. Carey, and had been under sail about three
hours. Several boats were not far distant; the gold-boat was within sight, but so instantaneous
was the disaster, that not a single thing was saved. Some attempts were made by the lascars to
save Mrs. Carey and William, but they were unsuccessful. Mr. Carey staid on the shore through
the following night; a neighbouring governor sent him clothes and money; and the next morning
he took the gold-boat, and proceeded up the river. A large boat, on which were several servants,
men and women, beside those that were in the vessel, followed the gold-boat. The jolly
boat has returned here, bringing the surviving lascars.
“The dreadful situation to which our poor brother was thus reduced in a moment, from the
height of prosperity, fills our minds continually with the greatest distress. We are utterly unable
to afford him the least relief, and can only pray that this awful dispensation may prove a paternal
chastisement from his Heavenly Father, and be sanctified to his soul.”
While Judson wrote to Serampore, which he once again visited, leaving the dust of a child in the mission burial-ground,
“I am glad to hear you say that you will not abandon this mission,” Carey pressed on to the “regions
beyond.” Judson lived till 1850 to found a church and to prepare a Burmese dictionary, grammar, and
translation of the Bible so perfect that revision has hardly been necessary up to the present day. He and
Hough, a printer who joined him, formed themselves into a brotherhood on the same self-denying principles
as that of Serampore, whom they besought to send them frequent communications to counsel, strengthen,
and encourage them. On 28th September 1814 Judson again wrote to Carey from Rangoon:
“DEAR BROTHER CAREY--If copies of Colebrooke’s Sungskrita Dictionary, and your Sungskrita
Grammar are not too scarce, I earnestly request a copy of each. I find it will be absolutely
necessary for me to pick up a little of the Pali, chiefly on account of many theological terms,
which have been incorporated from that language into the Burman. I have found a dictionary,
which I suppose is the same as that which Mr. Colebrooke translated, adapted to the Burman
system. This I intend to read. I want also Leyden’s Vocabulary, and a copy or two of your son’s
grammar, when it is completed. I gave your son on his going up to Ava, my copy of Campbell’s
Gospels, together with several other books, all of which are now lost. The former I chiefly regret,
and know not whence I can procure another copy.
“There is a vessel now lying here, which is destined to take round an Ambassador from this Government
to Bengal. He expects to go in about a month, as he told me. He is now waiting for final
instructions from Ava. If Felix be really to be sent to Bengal again, I think it most probable that
he will be ordered to accompany this ambassador.
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