Page:History of Bengali Literature in the Nineteenth Century.djvu/123

 CAREY AND SRIRAMPUR MISSION 99 Review (1859): “The Missionary was the interloper par excellence, and the hate of a camel for a horse, of a snake for a mongoose, was feeble when compared with the hate of the Anglo-Indian for the Interloper. Partly from his training, partly from the first cireumstances of the con- quest, the Anglo-Indian official “regarded India as his property, his peculium. An interloper was therefore in his eyes little better than a thief, a man who undersold him, interrupted his profits, and impaired his exclusive autho- rity over the population. With the instinct which comes of self-defence he saw that the Missionary was the most dangerous of interlopers.”” Neither the character of the early founders of the British Empire as a body nor that of the clergy before the Srirampur mission was such as to inspire respect for their religion ; and of the clergy as a class, the Governor-General officially wrote to the Court of Directors as late as 1795: “Our clergy in Bengal, with some exceptions, are not respectable characters.” Although Carey and his fellow-missionary were allowed to enter Caleutta (November 11, 1793) without opposition, indeed without notice (so obseure they were), yet under the existing conditions of things he had to preach his religion for several years almost like 5 at settle. 4 thief in constant fear of being as deported to England. Quite destitute in Caleutta, he had no definite plan for the future. The congregration at home were too poor to give him any assistance, nor could they influence the autho- rities in England to allow him’ to settle down pereefully as a missionary, for the latter would instantly refuse to listen to a handful of country no-bodies the chief among whom was a_ shoe-maker. After several fruitless attempts to settle down, Carey at last succeeded in obtaining the situation of an assistant in charge of some