Page:A General Biography of Bengal Celebrities Vol 1.djvu/96

 THE MISSIONARIES &C IN THE INDIGO CRISIS. 87 THE MISSIONARIES, THE FEW CIVILIANS, AND NATIVE GENTLEMEN AS HIS CO-ADJUTORS IN THE INDIGO CRISIS. In this meagre sketch of the 'hero of the Indigo crisis, we should be wanting in our duty, were we not to allude to the valuable help rendered by these men to the cause of the emancipation of the Indigo slaves, as the ryots were called at the time, in conjunction and co- operation with the illustrious Hurish. The first and foremost among the friends of the ryots was that noble band of Christian missionaries to whose benevolent exertions as pioneers of English education in this country, and as chief nourishers of the growth and de- velopment of the vernacular Press in India we owe a debt immense of endless gratitude. It was these ange- lic human beings, notably among them the late lament- ed Reverend James Long, the Reverend C. Bomwetsch, then a missionary of the C. M. Society at Santipur, the late Rev. C. 1J. Blumhardt, of the same Society at Krishnaghur, the Rev. F. Schurr and others, casting aside all race prejudices, without fear or favor, unswayed by any consideration of friend- ship, kinsmanship, or racial relationship, united in a body, condemned in no uncertain sound and langu- age, the really reprehensible and ruthless course pur- sued by the Indigo Planters of Bengal. Every student of history must know, or at least is supposed to know, how that sincere friend of Bengal peasants — =we mean the late Rev. James Long, was incarcerated in the Presidency Jail of Calcutta for no other fault than that, he, as a follower of Jesus of Nazareth, thought it to be his prime duty to translate into English, the great Bengali drama entitled the. •* Neel Durpana" or the "Mirror of Indigo Scandals, " which the late Babu Dino Bondhu Miter wrote at the time. The other missionaries, particularly the Rev. Mr. Bom- wetsch wrote a series of scathing letters to the Hindoo '