t at the back of his hand; and one very tall man had all
his bones marked on his dark skin with white chalk, like the figure of
grim Death himself." The assemblage, in contrast with the pure,
innocent, pale face and white dress of the preacher who addressed them,
must have been like some of Gustave Dore's illustrations.

These addresses were jealously watched by the British authorities, and
were often interrupted by the howls and threatenings of his loathsome
congregation; while, moreover, pulmonary complaint, the enemy of his
family, began to manifest itself, so that the physicians insisted on his
trying the effect of cessation from work, a sea-voyage, and a visit to
England. On this plan he had at first fixed. He enters in his journal a
happy dream of a walk with Lydia, and, waking, the recollection of the
16,000 miles between them; but in the meantime he heard from the critics
at Calcutta, that his translation of the Gospels into Persian, done with
the assistance of Sabat, was too full of Arabic idioms, and in language
not simple enough for its purpose; and he therefore made up his mind to
spend his leave of absence in making his way through Persia and part of
Arabia, so as to improve himself in the languages, and submit his
translation to more trustworthy scholars. Mr. Brown, on hearing of his
plan, consented in these remarkable terms: "Can I then bring myself to
cut the string and let you go? I confess I could not if your bodily
frame were strong, and promised to last for half a century. But as you
burn with the intenseness and rapid blaze of phosphorus, why should we
not make the most of you? Your flame may last as long, and perhaps
longer, in Arabia than in India. Where should the phoenix build her
odoriferous nest but in the land prophetically called the 'blessed'? And
where shall we ever expect but from that country the true Comforter to
come to the nations of the East?"

In September, therefore, Henry Martyn made ready to set forth, and to
take leave of his congregation of beggars. He had baptized one poor old
Hindoo woman, and she seemed to him to be the only fruit of his toils;
but though the exhortation, at the end of all his labours of the Sunday,
cost him severe pain and exhaustion, he had constantly persisted, often
beginning in a low feeble tone, but gradually rising in fervour to the
full power of his musical voice; then himself going among the disgusting
throng to distribute their petty brib