Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/122

 98 BENGALI LITERATURE he thenceforth lived, meeting young Carey subsequently at Bandel at the great ave of eighty-four. But Kiernander could not wield any influence on the masses! and had no literary pretensions whatever; for although he started a native school and built a Church at his own cost, he was, in the first place, rather a missionary to the Portuguese and their descendants who were nominal Christians of the lowest Romanist type: and, in the next place, Kiernander could never converse in Bengali or Hindusthani and never cared to mix freely with the people of the country. Practi- eally his work had made only the slightest impression and it was no wonder therefore that Carey could find no trace of his work among the people even six years after his death. Fhe condition of the clergy at this time, however, and their public and private morals did not in any way make them attractive to or influential with The character of the the people of thiscountry. It is well- clergy and the oppo- 3 ; sition of the East known that the East India Company India Company to ভার া58 not only adopted a policy of perfect neutrality towards the religions of India and never attempted to preach their religion themselves but they also threw every possible obstacle in the way of the missionaries: who wanted to settle in their territories. The ostensible ground for this ageressive spirit of discouragement was political but the real reasons are thus given by a writer in the Ca/eutta Parochial Annals of Bengal: The Monumental Register by M. DeRozario (1815) p. 109-113; Busteed, Echoes from Old Calcutta, 1908; Cotton, Calcutta Past and Present; John Zachariah Kiernander (a pamphlet), Cal. Bap. Miss. Press, 1877, ete. 1 Of Kiernander’s clerical convert, Bento de Silvestre alias de Souza and his contribution to Bengali, mention has already been made at p. 77-78.