three men
thenceforth best known as the Serampore Missionaries. Ward, too, the
literary member of the mission, composed the hymn which thus
concluded:--

"Yes, we are safe beneath Thy shade,
And shall be so 'midst India's heat:
What should a missionary dread,
For devils crouch at Jesus' feet.

"There, sweetest Saviour! let Thy cross
Win many Hindoo hearts to Thee;
This shall make up for every loss,
While Thou art ours eternally."

In his first letter to a friend in Hull Ward used language which
unconsciously predicted the future of the mission:--"With a Bible and a
press posterity will see that a missionary will not labour in vain,
even in India." But one of their number, Grant, was meanwhile removed
by death, and, while they waited for a month, Carey failed to obtain
leave for them to settle as his assistants in British territory. He
had appealed to Mr. Brown, and to Dr. Roxburgh, his friend in charge of
the Botanic Garden, to use his influence with the Government through
Colebrooke, the Oriental scholar, then high in the service. But it was
in vain. The police had seen with annoyance the missionaries slip from
their grasp because of the liberality of the Governor-General of whom
Carey had written to Ryland a year before: "At Calcutta, I saw much
dissipation; but yet I think less than formerly. Lord Mornington has
set his face against sports, gaming, horse-racing, and working on the
Lord's-day; in consequence of which these infamous practices are less
common than formerly." The missionaries, too, had at first been
reported not as Baptist but as "Papist," and the emissaries of France,
believed to be everywhere, must be watched against. The brave little
Governor let it be understood that he would protect to the last the men
who had been committed to his care by the Danish consul in London. So
Ward obtained a Danish passport to enable him to visit Dinapoor and
consult with Carey.

It was Sunday morning when he approached the Mudnabati factory,
"feeling very unusual sensations," greatly excited. "At length I saw
Carey! He is less altered than I expected: has rather more flesh than
when in England, and, blessed be God! he is a young man still." It was
a wrench to sacrifice his own pioneer mission, property worth L500, the
school, the church, the inquirers, but he did not hesitate. He thus
stated the case on the other side:--"At Serampore we may settle as
missionaries, which is not allow he