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HENRY MARTYN 
 
 SAINT AND SCHOLAR 
 
 FIRST MODERN MISSIONARY TO THE MOHAMMEDANS 
 1781-1812 
 
 BY 
 
 GEORGE SMITH, C.I.E., LL.D. 
 
 u 
 
 AUTHOR OF 'LIFE OF WILLIAM CAREY' 'LIFE OF ALEXANDER DUFF' ETC. 
 
 Iftow let me burn out for (3ot> 
 
 WITH PORTRAIT AND ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 LONDON 
 THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 
 
 56 PATERNOSTER Row, 65 ST PAUL'S CHURCHYARD 
 AND 164 PICCADILLY 
 
 1892 
 
MORSE STEPHEN* 
 
PREFACE 
 
 IN the year 1819, John Sargent, Rector of Lavington, 
 published A Memoir of the Rev. Henry Martyn. The 
 book at once became a spiritual classic. The saint, the 
 scholar, and the missionary, alike found in it a new 
 inspiration. It ran through ten editions during the writer's 
 life, and he died when projecting an additional volume of 
 the Journals and Letters. His son-in-law, S. Wilberforce, 
 afterwards Bishop of Oxford and of Winchester, accordingly, 
 in 1837 published, in two volumes, Journals and Letters 
 of the Rev. Henry Martyn, B.D., with' an introduction 
 on Sargent's life. Sargent had suppressed what Bishop 
 Wilberforce describes as 'a great variety of interesting 
 ' materials.' Especially in the lifetime of Lydia Grenfell 
 it was thought necessary to omit the facts which give to 
 Henry Martyn's personality its human interest and in- 
 tensify our appreciation of his heroism. On the lady's 
 death, in 1829, Martyn's letters to her became available, 
 and Bishop Wilberforce incorporated these in what he de- 
 scribed as ' further and often more continuous selections from 
 the journals and letters of Mr. Martyn.' But, unhappily, 
 his work does not fully supplement that of Sargent. The 
 Journal is still mutilated ; the Letters are still imperfect. 
 
 Some years ago, on completing the Life of William 
 Carey, who had written that wherever his friend Henry 
 Martyn might go as chaplain the Church need not send a 
 
 512793 
 
vi HENRY MARTYN 
 
 missionary, I began to prepare a new work on the first 
 modern apostle to the Mohammedans. I was encouraged 
 by his grand-nephew, a distinguished mathematician, the 
 late Henry Martyn Jeffery, F.R.S., who had in 1883 printed 
 Two Sets of Unpublished Letters of the Rev. Henry Martyn, 
 B.D., of Truro. For a time I stopped the work on learning 
 that he had come into possession of Lydia Grenfell's papers, 
 and was preparing the book which appeared in 1890, 
 Extracts from the Religious Diary of Miss L. Grenfell, of 
 Marazion, Cornwall. Except her letters to Henry Martyn, 
 which are not in existence now, all the desirable materials 
 seemed to be ready. Meanwhile, the missionary bishop 
 who most resembled Martyn in character and service, 
 Thomas Valpy French, of Lahore and Muscat, had written 
 to Canon Edmonds of S. Wilberforce's book as ' a work for 
 whose reprint I have often pleaded in vain, and for which 
 all that there is of mission life in our Church would plead, 
 had it not been so long out of print and out of sight.' 
 
 My aim is to set the two autobiographies, unconsciously 
 written in the Journals and Letters of Henry Martyn and in 
 the Diary of Lydia Grenfell, in the light of recent know- 
 ledge of South Africa and India, Persia and Turkey, and 
 of Bible work and missionary history in the lands of 
 which, by his life and by his death, Henry Martyn took 
 possession for the Master. Bengal chaplain of the East 
 India Company, he was, above all, a missionary to the 
 two divisions of Islam, in India and Persia, and in Arabia 
 and Turkey. May this book, written after years of ex- 
 perience in Bengal, lead many to enter on the inheritance 
 he has left to the Catholic Church ! 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 CHAPTER PAGE 
 
 I. CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 i 
 
 II. LYDIA GRENFELL 43 
 
 III. THE NINE MONTHS' VOYAGE SOUTH AMERICA SOUTH 
 
 AFRICA, 1805-1806 101 
 
 IV. INDIA AND THE EAST IN THE YEAR 1806 . . . .132 
 V. CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 150 
 
 VI. DlNAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 IQ9 
 
 VII. CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 257 
 
 VIII. FROM CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY, AND ARABIA . .315 
 IX. IN PERSIA BUSHIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 . . . . 340 
 
 X. IN PERSIA CONTROVERSIES WITH MOHAMMEDANS, SOOFIS, 
 
 AND JEWS . 370 
 
 XI. IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES . . . . 417 
 XII. SHIRAZ TO TABREEZ THE PERSIAN NEW TESTAMENT . 461 
 
 XIII. IN PERSIA AND TURKEY TABREEZ TO TOKAT AND THE 
 
 TOMB 492 
 
 XIV. THE Two RESTING-PLACES TOKAT AND BREAGE . .515 
 XV. BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD 552 
 
 INDEX 573 
 
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 PAGE 
 
 PORTRAIT HENRY MARTYN ..... Frontispiece 
 
 ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, IN 1797 13 
 
 SECOND COURT, ST. JOHN'S COLLEGE, IN 1803 32 
 
 TRINITY CHURCH, CAMBRIDGE, IN 1803 ...... 37 
 
 ST. MICHAEL'S MOUNT, AT FULL TIDE 45 
 
 PAGODA, ALDEEN HOUSE 159 
 
 A BRICK FROM HENRY MARTYN'S PAGODA . . . * . . 161 
 
 SHIRAZ 357 
 
 TOKAT IN 1812 . 518 
 
 TOMB OF HENRY MARTYN 531 
 
Then came another of priestly garb and mien, 
 A young man still wanting the years of Christ, 
 But long since with the saints. . . . 
 A poet with the contemplative gaze 
 And listening ear, but quick of force and eye, 
 Who fought the wrong without, the wrong within, 
 And, being a pure saint, like those of old, 
 Abased himself and all the precious gifts 
 God gave him, flinging all before the feet 
 Of Him whose name he bore a fragile form 
 Upon whose hectic cheek there burned a flush 
 That was not health ; who lived as Xavier lived, 
 And died like him upon the burning sands, 
 Untended, yet whose creed was far from his 
 As pole from pole ; whom grateful England still 
 Loves. 
 
 The awakened gaze 
 
 Turned wholly from the earth, on things of heaven 
 He dwelt both day and night. The thought of God 
 Filled him with infinite joy ; his craving soul 
 Dwelt on Him as a feast ; as did the soul 
 Of rapt Francesco in his holy cell 
 In blest Assisi ; and he knew the pain, 
 The deep despondence of the saint, the doubt, 
 The consciousness of dark offence, the joy 
 Of full assurance last, when heaven itself 
 Stands open to the ecstasy of faith. 
 
 The relentless lie 
 
 Of Islam ... he chose to bear, who knew 
 How swift the night should fall on him, and burned 
 To save one soul alive while yet 'twas day. 
 
xii HENRY MARTYN 
 
 This filled his thoughts, this only, and for this 
 
 On the pure altar of his soul he heaped 
 
 A costlier sacrifice, this youth in years, 
 
 For whom Love called, and loving hands, and hope 
 
 Of childish lives around him, offering these, 
 
 Like all the rest, to God. 
 
 Yet when his hour 
 
 Was come to leave his- England, was it strange 
 His weakling life pined for the parting kiss 
 Of love and kindred, whom his prescient soul 
 Knew he should see no more ? 
 
 The woman of his love 
 Feared to leave all and give her life to his, 
 And both to God ; his sisters passed away 
 To heaven, nor saw him more. There seemed on earth 
 Nothing for which to live, except the Faith, 
 Only the Faith, the Faith ! until his soul 
 Wore thin her prison bars, and he was fain 
 To rest awhile, or work no more the work 
 For which alone he lived. 
 
 A Vision of Saints. By LEWIS MORRIS. 
 
HENRY MARTYN 
 
 CHAPTER I 
 
 CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 
 
 WRITING half a century ago, as one who gratefully 
 accepted the guidance of the Church of England, from 
 the evangelical and philanthropic side of which he sprang, 
 Sir James Stephen declared the name of Henry Martyn 
 to be 'in fact the one heroic name which adorns her 
 annals from the days of Elizabeth to our own.' The 
 past fifty years have seen her annals, in common with those 
 of other Churches, adorned by many heroic names. These 
 are as many and as illustrious on the side which has 
 enshrined Henry Martyn in the new Cathedral of Truro, 
 as amongst the Evangelicals, to whom in life he belonged. 
 But the influence which streams forth from his short life 
 and his obscure death is the perpetual heritage of all English- 
 speaking Christendom, and of the native churches of India, 
 Arabia, Persia, and Anatolia in all time to come. His 
 Journal, even in the mutilated form published first by his 
 friend Sargent, is one of the great spiritual autobiographies 
 of Catholic literature. It is placed beside the Confessions 
 
2 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 of Augustine and the Grace Abounding of Bunyan. The 
 Letters are read along with those of Samuel Rutherford and 
 William Cowper by the most saintly workers, persuasive 
 preachers, and learned scholars, who, even in these days 
 of searching criticism, attribute to the young chaplain- 
 missionary their early inspiration and renewed consecration, 
 even as he traced his to Brainerd, Carey, and Charles Simeon. 
 
 Born in Truro on February 18, 1781, Henry Martyn 
 came from a land the oldest and most isolated in Great 
 Britain ; a Celtic people but recently transformed from the 
 rudest to the most courteous and upright ; a family created 
 and partly enriched by the great mining industry ; and 
 a church which had been the first, in these far-western 
 islands, to receive the teaching of the Apostles of Jesus 
 Christ 
 
 The tin found in the lodes and streams of the 
 Devonian Slates of West Cornwall was the only large 
 source of supply to the world down to Henry Martyn's 
 time. The granite porphyries which form the Land's End 
 had come to be worked only a century before that for the 
 ' bunches ' of copper which fill the lines of fault and fissure. 
 It was chiefly from the deeper lodes of Gwennap, near 
 Truro, that his family had drawn a competence. The 
 statement of Richard Carew, in his Survey of Cornwall > 
 was true of the dim centuries before Herodotus wrote, that 
 the 'tynne of the little angle (Cornwall) overfloweth 
 England, watereth Christendom, and is derived to a great 
 part of the world besides.' ! Tyrian and Jew, Greek and 
 Roman, as navigators, travellers, and capitalists, had in the 
 
 1 See the Statistical Society's Journal, September, 1888, for invaluable 
 notes on the ' System of Work and Wages in the Cornish Mines,' by L. L. 
 Price, M.A., of Oriel College, Oxford. 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 3 
 
 darkness of prehistoric days dealings with the land de- 
 scribed in an Elizabethan treatise on Geography as a foreign 
 country on that side of England next to Spain. London 
 itself is modern compared with the Cornish trade, which in 
 its latest stage assumed the Latin name Stannum, and the 
 almost perfect economic laws administered by the Lord 
 Warden of the Stannaries since King John leased the mines 
 to the Jews, and Edward I., as Earl of Cornwall, established 
 the now vexed ' royalties ' by charter. Even in the century 
 since Henry Martyn's early days fourteen of the Cornish 
 mines have yielded a gross return of more than thirteen 
 millions sterling, of which above one-fifth was clear profit. 
 
 Whether the Romans used the Britons in the mines as 
 slaves or not, the just and democratic system of working 
 them which was probably due to the Norman kings, and 
 extorted the admiration of M. Jars, a French traveller of 
 the generation to which Henry Martyn's father belonged- 
 did not humanise the population. So rude were their manners 
 that their heath-covered rocks bore the name of ' West 
 Barbary.' Writing two centuries before Martyn, Norden 
 described the city of his birth as remarkable for its neatness, 
 which it still is, but he added, there is not a town ' more 
 discommendable for the pride of the people.' The Cornish 
 miner's life is still as short as it is hard and daring, in spite 
 of his splendid physique and the remarkable health of the 
 women and children. But the perils of a rock-bound 
 coast, the pursuits of wrecking and smuggling, added to 
 the dangers of the mines, and all isolated from the growing 
 civilisation of England, had combined, century after century, 
 to make Cornwall a byword till John Wesley and George 
 Whitfield visited it. Then the miner became so changed, 
 not less really because rapidly, that the feature of the 
 
 B 2 
 
4 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 whole people which first and most continuously strikes a 
 stranger is their grave and yet hearty politeness. Thomas 
 Carlyle has, in his Life of Sterling, pictured the moral 
 heroism which Methodism, with its * faith of assurance,' 
 developes in the ignorant Cornish miner, a faith which, 
 as illustrated by William Carey and taught by the Church 
 of England, did much to make Henry Martyn what he 
 became. John Wesley's own description in the year of 
 Henry Martyn's birth is this : ' It pleased God the seed 
 there sown has produced an abundant harvest. Indeed, I 
 hardly know any part of the three kingdoms where there 
 has been a more general change.' The Cornishman still 
 beguiles the weary hours of his descent of the ladder to 
 his toil by crooning the hymns of Charles Wesley. 
 The local preacher whose eloquent earnestness and 
 knowledge of his Bible have delighted the stranger on 
 Sunday, is found next day two hundred fathoms below 
 the sea, doing his eight hours' work all wet and grimy and 
 red from the iron-sand, picking out the tin of Bottallack or 
 the copper of Gwennap. Long before Henry Martyn knew 
 Simeon he had become unconsciously in some sense the 
 fruit of the teaching of the Wesleys. 
 
 During fifty-five years again and again John Wesley 
 visited Cornwall, preaching in the open air all over the 
 mining county and in the fishing hamlets, till two genera- 
 tions were permanently changed. His favourite centre 
 was Gwennap, which had long been the home of the 
 Martyn family, a few miles from Truro. There he found 
 his open-air pulpit and church in the great hollow, ever 
 since known as ' Wesley's Pit,' where, to this day, thousands 
 crowd every Whit-Monday to commemorative services. 
 Wesley's published journal, which closes with October 1790, 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 5 
 
 when Henry Martyn was nearly ten years of age, has 
 more frequent and always more appreciative references to 
 Gwennap than to any other town. On July 6, 1745, we 
 find him writing : 
 
 At Gwennap also we found the people in the utmost 
 consternation. Word was brought that a great company 
 of tinners, made drunk on purpose, were coming to do 
 terrible things so that abundance of people went away. 
 I preached to the rest on ' Love your enemies.' 
 
 By 1774 we read * the glorious congregation was 
 assembled at five in the amphitheatre at Gwennap.' Next 
 year we find this : 
 
 ' At five in the evening in the amphitheatre at Gwennap. 
 I think this is the most magnificent spectacle which is to 
 be seen on this side heaven. And no music is to be 
 heard upon earth comparable to the sound of many thou- 
 sand voices when they are all harmoniously joined together 
 singing " praises to God and the Lamb." Four-and-twenty 
 thousand were present, frequently, at that spot. And 
 yet all, I was informed, could hear distinctly in the fair, 
 calm evening.' Again : ( I think this is my ne plus ultra. 
 I shall scarce see a larger congregation till we meet in the 
 air.' 
 
 We are thus introduced to the very spot where Henry 
 Martyn was born : ' About noon I preached in the piazza 
 adjoining to the Coinage Hall in Truro. I was enabled to 
 speak exceeding plain on " Ye are saved through faith." ' 
 In the evening of the same day Wesley preached in the 
 fishing village of Megavissey, * where I saw a very rare 
 thing men swiftly increasing in substance, and yet not 
 decreasing in holiness.' 
 
 From such a land and such influences sprang the first 
 missionary hero of the Church of England in modern 
 
6 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 times. The Martyn family had for more than a century 
 been known locally as one of skilled miners, described by 
 their ablest representative in recent times l as * mine agents 
 or mine captains who filled positions of trust 1 Martin 
 Luther had a similar origin. There is no evidence that 
 any of them went underground, although that, if true, 
 would justify the romance for which Martyn's first bio- 
 grapher is responsible. His great-grandfather was Thomas 
 Martyn, his grandfather was John Martyn of Gwennap 
 Churchtown, and his grand-uncle was the surveyor, Thomas 
 Martyn (1695-1751), who published the map of Cornwall 
 described as a marvel of minute and accurate topography, 
 due to a survey on foot for fifteen years. Mr. Jeffery 
 quotes from some manuscript notes written by his father : 
 
 John, an elder brother of Thomas Martyn, was the 
 father of John Martyn, who was born at Gwennap Church- 
 town, and, when young, was put as an accountant at \\Tieal 
 Virgin Mine. He was soon made cashier to Ralph Allen 
 Daniell, Esq., of Trelissick. Mr. Martyn held one-twenty- 
 fourth of Wheal Unity Mine, where upwards of 3OO,ooo/. 
 was divided. He then resided in a house opposite the 
 Coinage Hall (now the Cornish Bank), Truro, a little below 
 the present Market House. Here Henry Martyn was born 
 February 18, 1781, and was sent thence to Dr. Cardew's 
 School in 1788. 
 
 The new Town Hall stands pn the site of the house. 
 
 The boy bore a family name which is common in South- 
 west England, and which was doubtless derived, in the first 
 instance, from the great missionary monk of Celtic France, 
 the founder of the Gallic Church, St Martin, Bishop of 
 Tours. Born in what is now Lower Hungary, the son of 
 
 The late Houy Marty* Jefioy, M.A., F.R.S., in 1883. 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 7 
 
 a pagan soldier of Rome, St Martin, during his long life 
 which nearly covered the fourth century, made an im- 
 pression, especially on Western or Celtic Christendom, even 
 greater than that of the Devonshire Winfrith or Boniface 
 on Germany long after him. It was in the generation 
 after his death, when St. Martin's glory was at its height, 
 that the Saxon invasion of Britain led to the migration of 
 British Christians from West and South England to 
 Armorica, which was thence called Brittany. The inter- 
 course between Cornwall and Britannia Minor became as 
 close as is now the case between the Celtic districts of the 
 United Kingdom and North America. Missionaries con- 
 tinually passed and repassed between them. St. Corentin, 
 consecrated Bishop of Quimper in Brittany or French 
 Cornwall, by the hands of St Martin himself, was sent to 
 Cornwall long before Pope Gregory despatched St Augustin 
 to Canterbury, and became a popular Cornish saint after 
 whom St Cury's parish is still named. On the other side, 
 the Early British Church of Cornwall, where we still find 
 Roman Christian inscriptions, kept up a dose fellowship 
 with the Church in Ireland. The earliest martyrs and 
 hermits of the Church of Cornu-Gallia were companions of 
 St Patrick. 
 
 Certainly there is no missionary saint in all the history 
 of the Church of Christ whom, in his character, Henry 
 Martyn so closely resembled as his namesake, the apostle 
 of the Gallic peoples. In the pages of the bishop's bio- 
 grapher, Sulpicius Severus, we see the same self-consecra- 
 tion which has made the Journal of Henry Martyn a 
 stimulus to the noblest spirits of modern Christendom ; 
 the same fiery zeal, often so excessive as to defeat the 
 Divine mission ; the same soldier-like obedience and 
 
8 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 humility ; the same prayerfulness without ceasing, and 
 faith in the power of prayer; the same fearlessness in 
 preaching truth, however disagreeable to the luxurious and 
 vicious of the time ; and, above all on the practical side, 
 the same winning loveableness and self-sacrifice for others 
 which have made the story of St. Martin dividing his cloak 
 with the beggar second only, in Mediaeval art, to the Gospel 
 records of the Lord's own acts of tender grace and Divine 
 self-emptying. As we trace, step by step, the unceasing 
 service of Henry Martyn to men for love of his Master, 
 we shall find a succession of modern parallels to the act of 
 St. Martin, who, when a lad of eighteen with his regiment 
 at Amiens, himself moneyless, answered the appeal of a 
 beggar, shivering at the city gates in a cruel winter, by 
 drawing his dagger, dividing his military cloak, and giving 
 half of it to the naked man. If the legend continues to 
 run, that the boy saw in a dream Christ Himself in the 
 half-cloak saying to the attendant angels, ' Martin, still a 
 catechumen, has clothed Me with this garment,' and forth- 
 with sought baptism that is only a form of the same spirit 
 which, from the days of Paul to our own, finds inspiration 
 in the thought that we are compassed about by a great 
 cloud of witnesses. 
 
 Henry Martyn was baptised in the old church of St. 
 Mary, now part of the unfinished cathedral. He was the 
 third of four children. The eldest, a half-brother, John, 
 was born fifteen years before him. The second and fourth 
 were his own sisters, Laura and Sally ; the former married 
 Mr. Curgenven, nephew of the Vicar of Lamorran of that 
 name ; the latter married a Mr. Pearson. Short-lived as 
 Henry himself proved to be, all three died before him- 
 To both the sisters and especially to the younger, 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 9 
 
 who proved to be to him at once sister, mother, and 
 spiritual guide to Christ there are frequent allusions in his 
 Journals and Letters. His mother, named Fleming, and 
 from Ilfracombe, died in the year after his birth, having 
 transmitted her delicate constitution to her children. It 
 was through his father, as well as younger sister, that the 
 higher influences were rained on Henry Martyn. In the 
 wayward and often wilful years before the boy yielded to 
 the power of Christ's resurrection, the father's gentleness 
 kept him in the right way, from which any violent oppo- 
 sition would have driven one of proud spirit. A skilled 
 accountant and practical self-trained mathematician, the 
 father encouraged in the boy the study of science, and 
 early introduced -him to the great work of Newton. Valu- 
 ing the higher education as few in England did at that 
 time, John Martyn ever kept before the lad the prospect 
 of a University course. Looking back on these days, and 
 especially on his last visit home before his father's un- 
 expected death, Henry Martyn wrote when he was eighteen 
 years of age : 
 
 The consummate selfishness and exquisite irritability 
 of my mind were displayed in rage, malice, and envy, in 
 pride and vain-glory and contempt of all ; in the harshest 
 language to my sister, and even . to my father, if he hap- 
 pened to differ from my mind and will. Oh, what an 
 example of patience and mildness was he ! I love to 
 think of his excellent qualities, and it is frequently the 
 anguish of my heart that I ever could be so base and 
 wicked as to pain him by the slightest neglect. 
 
 Truro was fortunate in its grammar school ' the Eton 
 of Cornwall ' and in the headmaster of that time, the Rev. 
 Cornelius Cardew, D.D., whose portrait now adorns the city's 
 
io HENRY MARTYN 
 
 council chamber. The visitor who seeks out the old school 
 in Boscawen Street now finds it converted into the ware- 
 room of an ironmonger. All around may still be seen the 
 oak panels on which successive generations of schoolboys cut 
 their names. A pane of glass on which Henry Martyn 
 scratched his name, with a Greek quotation and a Hebrew 
 word, probably on his last visit to the spot before he left 
 England for ever, is reverently preserved in the muniment 
 room of the corporation buildings. There also are the 
 musty folios of the dull history and duller divinity which 
 formed the school library of that uncritical century, but 
 there is no means of tracing the reading of the boys. Into 
 this once lightsome room, adorned only by a wood-carving 
 of the galleon which formed the city arms, was the child 
 Henry Martyn introduced at the age of seven. Dr. Clement 
 Carlyon, who was one of his fellow-pupils, writes of him as 
 ' a good-humoured plain little fellow, with red eyelids devoid 
 of eyelashes.' But we know from Mrs. Sherwood, when she 
 first met him in India where his hair, a light brown, was 
 raised from his forehead, which was a remarkably fine one 
 that although his features were not regular, 'the expression 
 was so luminous, so intellectual, so affectionate, so beaming 
 with Divine charityj as to absorb the attention of every 
 observer.' His sensitive nature and violent passionateness 
 when roused, at once marked him out as the victim of the 
 older boys. In a happy moment Dr. Cardew put * little 
 Henry Martyn ' under the care of one cf them, who became 
 his protector, tutor, and friend, not only at school but at 
 college, and had an influence on his spiritual as well as in- 
 tellectual life next only to that of his father, sister, and 
 Charles Simeon. That ' upper boy 'named Kempthorne, 
 son of Admiral Kempthorne, of Helston delighted to recall 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 11 
 
 to his first biographer, Sargent, 'the position in which he used 
 to sit, the thankful expression of his affectionate countenance, 
 when he happened to be helped out of some difficulty, and 
 a thousand other little incidents of his boyish days.' This 
 boy-friend ' had often the happiness of rescuing him from 
 the grasp of oppressors, and has never seen more feeling 
 of gratitude evinced than was shown by him on those 
 occasions.' 
 
 Even at seven Henry's natural cleverness was so 
 apparent that high expectations of his future were formed. 
 Dr. Cardew wrote of his proficiency in the classics as ex- 
 ceeding that of most of his school-fellows, but he was too 
 lively and too careless to apply himself as some did who 
 distanced him. ' He was of a lively, cheerful temper, and, 
 as I have been told by those who sat near him, appeared to 
 be the idlest among them, being frequently known to go 
 up to his lesson with little or no preparation, as if he had 
 learnt it by intuition.' The delicacy of his constitution 
 naturally kept him from joining in the rougher games of 
 his fellows. Such was the impression made by his progress 
 at school that, when he was fifteen years of age, not only 
 Dr. Cardew and his father, but many of his father's friends, 
 urged him to compete for a vacant scholarship of Corpus 
 Christi College, Oxford. With only a letter to the sub- 
 rector of Exeter College, the usual Cornish College, the 
 boy found himself in the great University city. The ex- 
 aminers were divided in opinion as to the result, but a 
 majority gave it in favour of one with whom Henry Martyn 
 was almost equal. Had he become a member of that 
 University at fifteen, with character unformed and know- 
 ledge immature or superficial, it is not likely that Oxford 
 would have gained what, at a riper stage, Cambridge fell 
 
12 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 heir to. His own comment, written afterwards like Augus- 
 tine's in the Confessions, was this : ' The profligate acquain- 
 tances I had in Oxford would have introduced me to 
 scenes of debauchery, in which I must, in all probability, 
 from my extreme youth, have sunk for ever.' He returned 
 to school for two years, to extend his knowledge of the 
 classics. He spent his leisure in shooting, and in reading 
 travels and Lord Chesterfield's Letters. His early private 
 Journal reflects severely on that time as spent in ' attributing 
 to a want of taste for mathematics what ought to have 
 been ascribed to idleness ; and having his mind in a roving, 
 dissatisfied, restless condition, seeking his chief pleasure in 
 reading and human praise.' 
 
 In this spirit he began residence in St. John's College, 
 Cambridge, in the month of October 1797, as a pen- 
 sioner or unassisted student. To that University he was 
 attracted by Kempthorne, who had been his protector 
 at school, and had just distinguished himself at St. 
 John's, coming out Senior Wrangler. Alike from the 
 idleness to which he was tempted by other fellow-students 
 who were new to him, and from the variety of study 
 with no other motive than to win glory of men, his 
 friend gradually weaned his fickle and impulsive genius. 
 But for two years he halted between two opinions. He 
 was ever restless because ever dissatisfied with himself, 
 and his want of inward peace only increased the natural 
 irritability of his temper. He indulged in bursts of passion 
 on slight provocation, and sometimes on none at all, save 
 that of an uneasy conscience. Like Clive about the same 
 age, Henry Martyn on one occasion hurled a knife at his 
 friend, Cotterill, who just escaped, leaving it quivering in the 
 panel of the dining-hall. The father and younger sister at 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 15 
 
 home prayerfully watched over him, and by letter sought to 
 guide him. On his periodical visits to Truro he was able 
 at least to report success in his examinations, and at the 
 close of 1799 he came out first, to his father's delight. 
 The providence of God had made all things ready for the 
 completion of His eighteen years' work in the convictions 
 and character of Henry Martyn, on his return to college. 
 To him, at the opening of the new century, all things 
 became new. 
 
 Cambridge, first of all, had received unconsciously to 
 its leading men for a time that new spirit which has ever 
 since identified its University with the aggressive missionary 
 philanthropy of the nineteenth century. For nearly the 
 whole period of Martyn's life, up to that time, Charles 
 Simeon, the Eton boy, Fellow of King's College, and 
 Christian gentleman, who had sought the position only 
 that he might preach Christ after the manner of St. Paul, 
 had, from the pulpit of Trinity Church, been silently trans- 
 forming academic life. He had become the trusted agent 
 of Charles Grant and George Udny, the Bengal civilians 
 who were ready to establish an eight-fold mission in 
 Bengal as soon as he could send out the men. Failing to 
 find these, he had brought about the foundation of the 
 Church Missionary Society on April 12, 1799. Some 
 years before that, Charles Grant exchanged his seat in the 
 Bengal council for one of the ' chairs ' of the Court of 
 Directors. He became their chairman, and it was to Simeon 
 that he turned for East India chaplains. Cambridge, even 
 more than London itself, had become the centre of the 
 spiritual life of the Church of England. 
 
 First among the fellow-students of Henry Martyn, 
 though soon to leave for India when he entered it, was his 
 
16 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 future friend, Claudius Buchanan, B.A. of 1796 and Fellow 
 of Queen's Collegej of which Isaac Milner was president. 
 Magdalene College which had sent David Brown to Cal- 
 cutta in 1786, to prepare the way for the other four, who 
 are for ever memorable as ( the Five Chaplains' had among 
 its students of the same standing as Martyn, Charles 
 Grant's two distinguished sons, of whom one became Lord 
 Glenelg and a cabinet minister, and the younger, Robert, 
 was afterwards Governor of Bombay, the still valued 
 hymnologist, and the warm friend of Dr. John Wilson. 
 Thomason seven years older than Martyn, and induced 
 afterwards, by his example, to become a Bengal chaplain 
 was Simeon's curate and substitute in the closing years of 
 the last century, when to Mr. Thornton of Clapham, who 
 had warned him against preaching five sermons a week, as 
 casting the net too often to allow time to mend it, he drew 
 this picture of college life : * There are reasons for fearing 
 the mathematical religion which so prevails here. Here, 
 also, is everything that can contribute to the ease and 
 comfort of life. Whatever pampers the appetite and 
 administers fuel to sloth and indolence is to be found in 
 abundance. Nothing is left to want or desire. Here is 
 the danger ; this is the horrible precipice.' Corrie and 
 Dealtry, also of the Five Chaplains, and afterwards first 
 and second Bishops of Madras, were of Martyn's Cam- 
 bridge time, the latter graduating before, and the former 
 just after, him. 
 
 Hardly had Henry Martyn returned to college in 
 January 1800 when he received from his half-brother news 
 of the death of their father, whom he had just before left 
 1 in great health and spirits.' The first result was * conster- 
 nation,' and then, as he told his sister, 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 17 
 
 I was extremely low-spirited, and, like most people, 
 began to consider seriously, without any particular de- 
 termination, that invisible world to which he had gone and 
 to which I must one day go. As I had no taste at this time 
 for my usual studies, I took up my Bible. Nevertheless I 
 often took up other books to engage my attention, and 
 should have continued to do so had not Kempthorne 
 advised me to make this time an occasion of serious 
 reflection. I began with the Acts, as being the most 
 amusing, and when I was entertained with the narrative I 
 found myself insensibly led to inquire more attentively into 
 the doctrines of the Apostles. ... On the first night after, 
 I began to pray from a precomposed form, in which I 
 thanked God in general for having sent Christ into the 
 world. But though I prayed for pardon I had little sense 
 of my own sinfulness ; nevertheless, I began to consider 
 myself a religious man. 
 
 The college chapel service at once had a new meaning 
 for the student whom death had shaken and the Book of 
 the Acts of the Apostles had awakened. * The first time 
 after this that I went to chapel I saw, with some degree of 
 surprise at my former inattention, that in the Magnificat 
 there was a great degree of joy expressed at the coming of 
 Christ, which I thought but reasonable.' His friend then 
 lent him Doddridge's Rise and Progress of Religion in the 
 Soul, but, because the first part of that book ' appeared to 
 make religion consist too much in humiliation, and my 
 proud and wicked heart would not bear to be brought down 
 into the dust,' he could not bear to read it. ' Soon, however,' 
 as he afterwards told his sister, who had prayed for this 
 very thing all her life, as Monica had agonised for Augustine, 
 ' I began to attend more diligently to the words of our 
 Saviour in the New Testament, and to devour them with 
 
!g HENRY MARTYN 
 
 delight. When the offers of mercy and forgiveness were 
 made so freely, I supplicated to be made partaker of the 
 covenant of grace with eagerness and hope, and thanks be 
 to the ever-blessed Trinity for not leaving me without 
 comfort.' The doctrines of the Apostles, based on the 
 narrative of the Acts, and confirming the teaching of the 
 family in early youth, were seen to be in accord with the 
 words of the Master, and thus Henry Martyn started on 
 the Christian life an evangelical of the Evangelicals. In 
 the preaching and the personal friendship of the minister 
 of Trinity Church he found sympathetic guidance, and so 
 1 gradually acquired more knowledge in divine things.' All 
 the hitherto irregular impulses of his fervent Celtic nature 
 received the baptism of the Holy Spirit, and became 
 centred in the living, reigning, personal Christ. All the 
 restless longings of his soul and his senses found their 
 satisfaction for ever in the service of Him who had said 
 ' He that loveth his life shall lose it. If any man serve Me, 
 let him follow Me, and where I am there shall also My 
 servant be.' All the pride of his genius, his intellectual am- 
 bition, and his love of praise became purged by the determi- 
 nation thenceforth to know nothing save the Crucified One. 
 His first temptation and test of honest fitness for such 
 service was found in the examination for degrees, and 
 especially for the greatest honour of all, that of Senior 
 Wrangler. If we place his conversion to Christ at the 
 close of his nineteenth year, we find that the whole of his 
 twentieth was spent in the necessary preparation for the 
 competition, and in the accompanying spiritual struggles. 
 It is not surprising that, when looking back on that year 
 from higher experiences, he should be severe in his self- 
 examination. But the path of duty clearly lay in hard 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 19 
 
 and constant study, and not alone in religious meditation. 
 It was not surprising that the experienced convert should 
 afterwards pronounce the former worldly, and lament that 
 'the intenseness with which I pursued my studies ' prevented 
 his growth in contrition, and in a knowledge of the excel- 
 lency of Christ. But so severe a judge as his friend and 
 fellow-student John Sargent, who knew all the facts, and 
 became not less saintly than himself, declares that there 
 was no reason, save his own humility, for his suspecting 
 a want of vitality at least in his spiritual life in this 
 critical year. His new-found life in Christ, and delight in 
 the Bible, reacted on his whole nature, elevating it to that 
 degree of spontaneous energy free from all self-consciousness 
 which is the surest condition, divine and human, of success. 
 He himself used to tell how, when he entered the Senate 
 House, the text of a sermon he had recently heard quieted 
 his spirit : ' Seekest thou great things for thyself ? Seek 
 them not, saith the Lord.' 
 
 Henry Martyn was not fully twenty years of age when, 
 in January 1801, he came out Senior Wrangler and first 
 Smith's (mathematical) Prizeman. His year was one of 
 the most brilliant in the recent history of the University. 
 Woodall of Pembroke was second. Robert Grant was 
 third, and Charles Grant (Lord Glenelg) fourth Wrangler. 
 They distanced him in classics, once his strongest point. 
 But the boy who entered college believing that geometry 
 was to be learned by committing Euclid l to memory had 
 
 1 Rev. Henry Bailey, D.D., Canon of Canterbury, supplies us with this 
 story from the lips of the late Rev. T. H. Shepherd, who was the last 
 surviving Canon of the Collegiate Church in Southwell : 
 
 'Henry Martyn had just entered the College as a Freshman under the 
 Rev. Mr. Catton. I was the year above him, i.e. second year man ; and Mr. 
 Catton sent for me to his rooms, telling me of Martyn, as a quiet youth, with 
 
 C 3 
 
2 o HENRY MARTYN 
 
 given the whole strength of his powers during three 
 years to the college examinations, so as to please his 
 father and win the applause of his fellows. Until recently 
 it was possible for a student to enter the University igno- 
 rant of mathematics, and to come out Senior Wrangler, 
 as the late Professor Kelland used to tell his Edinburgh 
 class. Such was the reverence for Newton that the 
 Leibnizian methods were not recognised in the University 
 studies till the reform of the Cambridge course was intro- 
 duced by Dean Peacock and his contemporaries. In 
 those earlier days, Dr. Carlyon, 1 who had been one of his 
 school-fellows, tells us high Wranglers won their places by 
 correct book-work rapidly produced in oral examination 
 from four set treatises by Wood and Vince, on optics, 
 mechanics, hydrostatics, and astronomy ; problem papers 
 were answered by the best men. Martyn's grand-nephew, 
 himself a distinguished mathematician, remarks that he 
 sprang from a family of calculators, and so had the patience 
 and taste necessary for mathematical attainments. There 
 is no evidence that he pursued science even at Cambridge 
 except as a tutor ; he does not appear to have been a 
 mathematical examiner even in his own college. 
 
 some knowledge of classics, but utterly unable as it seemed to make anything 
 of even the First Proposition of Euclid, and desiring me to have him into my 
 rooms, and see what I could do for him in this matter. Accordingly, we spent 
 some time together, but all my efforts appeared to be in vain ; and Martyn, in 
 sheer despair, was about to make his way to the coach office, and take his 
 place the following day back to Truro, his native town. I urged him not to 
 be so precipitate, but to come to me the next day, and have another trial 
 with Euclid. After some time light seemed suddenly to flash upon his mind, 
 with clear comprehension of the hitherto dark problem, and he threw up his 
 cap for joy at his Eureka. The Second Proposition was soon taken, and with 
 perfect success; but in truth his progress was such and so rapid, that he 
 distanced every one in his year, and, as everyone knows, became Senior 
 Wrangler.' ' Early Years and Late Reflections, vol. iii. p. 5. 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 21 
 
 The truth is seen in his own comment on a success 
 which at once won for him admiration and deference in 
 circles that could not appreciate the lofty Christian aims of 
 his life : ' I obtained my highest wishes, but was surprised to 
 find that I had grasped a shadow.' He was called to other 
 service, and for that he brought his University triumph 
 with him to the feet of Christ. He was too cultured, 
 however, to despise learning or academic reputation, 
 for they might be made weapons for the Master's use, 
 and we shall find him wielding both alike in home 
 and foreign missions. His genius and learning found 
 expression in the study, the translation, and the unceasing 
 application to the consciences of men, of the Word of God. 
 His early love of the classics of Greece and Rome prevailed 
 over his later mathematical studies to make him an ardent 
 philologist, with the promise, had he lived, of becoming an 
 Orientalist of the type of Sir William Jones. If he was 
 known in his college as ' the man who had not lost an 
 hour ' when University honours alone were his object, how 
 much would not his unresting perseverance have accom- 
 plished, when directed by the highest of all motives, had 
 he been spared to the age of William Carey or John 
 Wilson ? 
 
 The time had come for the brilliant student to decide 
 on his profession. The same ambition which had stimu- 
 ated him to his college successes, had led him to resolve on 
 studying the law, as the most lucrative. ' I could not con- 
 sent to be poor for Christ's sake,' was his own language at 
 a later period. But Christ Himself had changed all that, as 
 effectually as when the young lawyer Saul was stricken 
 down after the martyr testimony of Stephen. The year 
 1 80 1 was to him one of comparative solitude, both in 
 
22 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Cornwall and at the University, where he cultivated the 
 fruitful grace of meditation, learning to know and to master 
 himself, as he came to know more and more intimately, 
 and to submit himself to, Christ Jesus. He was admitted 
 to the inner circle of Simeon's friends, and to unreserved 
 intercourse with men of his own age who had come to 
 Christ before him. Especially was he drawn to John 
 Sargent, one year his senior, who was about to leave the 
 University for the Temple, that he might by the study of 
 law prepare himself to administer worthily the family estate 
 to which he was to succeed. His son-in-law, the late 
 Bishop S. Wilberforce, has left us a charming picture 1 of 
 this saintly man, of whom Martyn wrote, even at college, 
 ' Sargent seems to be outstripping us all.' While Simeon 
 ever, by his counsels and his example, impressed on the 
 choice youth whom he gathered around him the attractive- 
 ness of the Christian ministry, 2 Sargent bewailed that only a 
 painful sense of duty to others kept him from it, and in a 
 few years he succeeded in entering its consecrated ranks. 
 Among such friends, and with his own heart growing in 
 the experience of the power of the Holy Spirit, Henry 
 Martyn was constrained, notwithstanding his new humble- 
 ness of mind, to hear and obey the divine call. He 
 who had received such mercy must tell it abroad ; he who 
 had known such love must bring others to share the 
 sweetness. Hence he writes to his sister : 
 
 When we consider the misery and darkness of the 
 unregenerate world, oh ! with how much reason shall we 
 burst out into thanksgiving to God, who has called us in 
 His mercy through Christ Jesus ! What are we, that we 
 
 1 Introduction to Journals and Letters of Henry Martyn, 1837. 
 
 2 See the delightful Charles Simeon, by H. C. G. Moule, M.A. (1892), 
 published since this was written. 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 23 
 
 should thus be made objects of distinguishing grace ! 
 Who, then, that reflects upon the rock from which he was 
 hewn, but must rejoice to give himself entirely and with- 
 out reserve to God, to be sanctified by His Spirit. The 
 soul that has truly experienced the love of God, will not stay 
 meanly inquiring how much he shall do, and thus limit his 
 service, but will be earnestly seeking more and more to 
 know the will of our Heavenly Father, and that he may be 
 enabled to do it. Oh, may we both be thus minded ! may 
 we experience Christ to be our all in all, not only as our 
 Redeemer, but also as the fountain of grace. Those 
 passages of the Word of God which you have quoted on 
 this head, are indeed awakening ; may they teach us to 
 breathe after holiness, to be more and more dead to the 
 world, and alive unto God, through Jesus Christ. We are 
 as lights in the world ; how needful then that our tempers 
 and lives should manifest our high and heavenly calling ! 
 Let us, as we do, provoke one another to good works, not 
 doubting that God will bless our feeble endeavours to His 
 glory. 
 
 The next year, 1802, saw Martyn Fellow of his College 
 and the winner of the first University prize for a Latin 
 essay, open to those who had just taken the Bachelor of 
 Arts degree. It ended in his determination to offer himself 
 to the Church Missionary Society. He had no sooner 
 resolved to be a minister of Christ than he began such 
 home mission work as lay to his hands among his fellow 
 members of the University, and in the city where, at a 
 recent period, one who closely resembled him in some 
 points, Ion Keith-Falconer, laboured. When ministering 
 to a dying man he found that the daughters had removed 
 to another house, where they were cheerful, and one of the 
 students was reading a play to them. ' A play ! when their 
 father was lying in the agonies of death ! What a species 
 
24 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 of consolation ! I rebuked him so sharply, and, I am 
 afraid, so intemperately, that a quarrel will perhaps ensue.' 
 This is the first of those cases in which the impulsively 
 faithful Christian, testifying for his Master, often roused 
 hatred to himself. But the student afterwards thanked him 
 for his words, became a new man, and went out to India, 
 where he laboured for a time by his side. After a summer 
 tour during which he walked to Liverpool, and then 
 through Wales, ascending Snowdon Henry Martyn found 
 himself in the old home in Truro, then occupied by his 
 brother. From the noise of a large family he moved to 
 Woodbury : ' With my brother-in-law l I passed some of 
 the sweetest moments in my life. The deep solitude of 
 the place favoured meditation ; and the romantic scenery 
 around supplied great external sources of pleasure.' 
 
 Along the beautiful coast of Cornwall and Devon there 
 is no spot more beautiful than Woodbury. It is henceforth 
 sacred as Moulton in Carey's life, and St. Andrews in 
 Alexander Duff's, for there Henry Martyn wrestled out 
 his deliberate dedication to the service of Christ in India 
 and Persia. The Fal river is there just beginning to open 
 out into the lovely estuary which, down almost to Falmouth 
 town and Carrick Road, between Pendennis and St. Mawes, 
 is clothed on either side with umbrageous woods. On the 
 left shore, after leaving the point from which is the best 
 view of Truro and its cathedral, now known as the Queen's 
 View, there is Malpas, and further on are the sylvan glories 
 of Tregothnan. On the right shore, sloping down to the 
 ever-moving tide, are the oaks, ilexes, and firs which inclose 
 Woodbury, recently rebuilt. There the Cambridge scholar 
 of twenty-one roamed and read his Bible (especially Isaiah) ; 
 
 1 Rev. Mr. Curgenven, curate of Kenwyn and Kea. 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 25 
 
 ' and from this I derived great spirituality of mind com- 
 pared with what I had known before.' He returned to 
 Cambridge and its tutorial duties, ready to become Simeon's 
 curate, and ultimately to go abroad when the definite call 
 should come. In the first conversation which he had with 
 him, Simeon, who had been reading the last number of 
 the Periodical Accounts from Serampore, drew attention to 
 the results of William Carey's work, in the first nine years 
 of his pioneering, as showing what a single missionary 
 could accomplish. From this time, in his letters and 
 journals, we find all his thoughts and reading, when alone, 
 revolving around the call to the East. 
 
 , January 12 to 19. Reading Lowth on Isaiah- 
 Acts and abridged Bishop Hopkins' first sermon on 
 Regeneration. On the iQth called on Simeon, from whom 
 I found that I was to go to the East Indies, not as a 
 missionary, but in some superior capacity ; to be stationed 
 at Calcutta, or possibly at Ceylon. This prospect of this 
 world's happiness gave me rather pain than pleasure, which 
 convinced me that I had before been running away from 
 the world, rather than overcoming it. During the whole 
 course of the day, I was more worldly than for some time 
 past, unsettled and dissatisfied. In conversation, therefore, 
 I found great levity, pride, and bitterness. What a sink 
 of corruption is this heart, and yet I can go on from day 
 to day in self-seeking and self-pleasing ! Lord, shew me 
 myself; nothing but ' wounds and bruises, and putrefying 
 sores,' and teach me to live by faith on Christ my all. 
 
 St. John's, January 17, 1803. 
 
 My dear Sargent, G. and H. seem to disapprove 
 of my project much ; and on this account I have been 
 rather discouraged of late, though not in any degree con- 
 vinced. It would be more satisfactory to go out with the 
 
26 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 full approbation of my friends, but it is in vain to attempt 
 to please man. In doubtful cases, we are to use the 
 opinions of others no further than as means of directing 
 our own judgment. My sister has also objected to it, on 
 the score of my deficiency in that deep and solid experience 
 necessary in a missionary. 
 
 February 4. Read Lowth in the afternoon, till I was 
 quite tired. Endeavoured to think of Job xiv. 14, and to 
 have solemn thoughts of death, but could not find them 
 before my pupil came, to whom I explained justification by 
 faith, as he had ridiculed Methodism. But talk upon what 
 I will, or with whom I will, conversation leaves me ruffled 
 and discomposed. From what does this arise ? From a 
 want of the sense of God's presence when I am with others. 
 
 February 6. Read the Scriptures, between breakfast 
 and church, in a very wandering and unsettled manner, 
 and in my walk was very weak in desires after God. As 
 I found myself about the middle of the day full of pride 
 and formality, I found some relief in prayer. Sat with 
 H. and D. after dinner, till three, but though silent, was 
 destitute of humility. Read some of S. Pearce's l life, and 
 was much interested by his account of the workings of his 
 mind on the subject of his mission. Saw reason to be 
 thankful that I had no such tender ties to confine me at 
 home, as he seemed to have ; and to be amazed at myself, 
 in not making it a more frequent object of reflection, and 
 yet to praise God for calling me to minister in the glorious 
 work of the conversion of the Gentiles. 
 
 March 27. The lectures in chemistry and anatomy I 
 was much engaged with, without receiving much instruction. 
 A violent cold and cough led me to prepare myself for an 
 inquiry into my views of death. I was enabled to rest 
 composed on the Rock of Ages. Oh, what mercy shewn 
 to the chief of sinners. 
 
 1 William Carey's most intimate friend. See p. 46 of Life of William 
 Carey, D.D.^ 2nd ed. (John Murray). 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 27 
 
 April 22. Was ashamed to confess to that I was 
 
 to be Mr. Simeon's curate, a despicable fear of man from 
 which I vainly thought myself free. He, however, asked 
 me if I was not to be, and so I was obliged to tell him. 
 Jer. i. 17. 
 
 May 8. Expressed myself contemptuously of- , who 
 preached at St. Mary's. Such manifestations of arrogance 
 which embody, as it were, my inward pride, wound my 
 spirit inexpressibly, not to contrition, but to a sullen sense 
 of guilt. Read Second Epistle to Timothy. I prayed with 
 some earnestness. 
 
 June 13 to 24. Passed in tolerable comfort upon the 
 whole ; though I could on no day say my walk had been 
 close with God. Read Sir G. Staunton's Embassy to 
 China, and was convinced of the propriety of being sent 
 thither. But I have still the spirit of worldly men when I 
 read worldly books. I felt more curiosity about the man- 
 ners of this people than love and pity towards their souls. 
 
 St. John's, June 30, 1803. 
 
 Dear Sargent, May you, as long as you shall give me 
 your acquaintance, direct me to the casting down of all 
 high imaginations. Possibly it may be a cross to you to 
 tell me or any one of his faults. But should I be at last 
 a castaway, or at least dishonour Christ through some sin, 
 which for want of faithful admonition remained unmorti- 
 fied, how bitter would be your reflections ! I conjure you, 
 therefore, my dear friend, as you value the good of the 
 souls to whom I am to preach, and my own eternal 
 interests, that you tell me what you think to be, in my life, 
 spirit, or temper, not according to the will of God my 
 Saviour. D. has heard about a religious young man 
 of seventeen, who wants to come to College, but has only 
 2O/. a year. He is very clever, and from the perusal of 
 some poems which he has published, I am much interested 
 about him. His name is H. K. White. 
 
28 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 July 17. Rose at half-past five, and walked a little 
 before chapel in happy frame of mind ; but the sunshine 
 was presently overcast by my carelessly neglecting to 
 speak for the good of two men, when I had an opportunity. 
 The pain was, moreover, increased by the prospect of the 
 incessant watchfulness for opportunities I should use ; never- 
 theless, resolved that I would do so through grace. The 
 dreadful act of disobeying God, and the baseness of being 
 unwilling to incur the contempt of men, for the sake of 
 the Lord Jesus, who had done so much for me, and the 
 cruelty of not longing to save souls, were the considerations 
 that pressed on my mind. 
 
 July 1 8 to 30. Gained no ground in all this time; 
 stayed a few days at Shelford, but was much distracted 
 and unsettled for want of solitude. Felt the passion of 
 envy rankle in my bosom on a certain occasion. Seldom 
 enjoyed peace, but was much under the power of corruption. 
 Read Bu tier's Analogy ; Jon. Edwards On the Affections ; in 
 great hopes that this book will be of essential use to me. 
 
 September 10. Was most deeply affected with reading 
 the account of the apostasy of Lewis and Broomhall, in the 
 transactions of the Missionary Society. When I first 
 came to the account of the awful death of the former, I 
 cannot describe the sense I had of the reality of religion, 
 that there is a God who testifies His hatred of sin ; ' my 
 flesh trembled for fear of His judgments.' Afterwards, 
 coming to the account of Broomhall's sudden turn to 
 Deism, I could not help even bursting into tears of anxiety 
 and terror at my own extreme danger ; because I have 
 often thought, that if I ever should make shipwreck, it 
 would be on the rocks of sensuality or infidelity. The 
 hollowness of Broomhall's arguments was so apparent, that 
 I could only attribute his fall to the neglect of inquiring 
 after the rational foundation of his faith. 
 
 September 12. Read some of the minor prophets, and 
 Greek Testament, a,nd the number of the Missionary 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 29 
 
 Transactions. H. drank tea with me in the evening. I 
 read some of the missionary accounts. The account of 
 their sufferings and diligence could not but tend to lower 
 my notions of myself. I was almost ashamed at my having 
 such comforts about me, and at my own unprofitableness. 
 
 September 13. Received a letter from my sister, in 
 which she expressed her opinion of my unfitness for the 
 work of a missionary. My want of Christian experience 
 filled me with many disquieting doubts, and this thought 
 troubled me among many others, as it has often done : ' I 
 am not only not so holy as I ought, but I do not strive to 
 have my soul wrought up to the highest pitch of devotion 
 every moment.' 
 
 September 17. Read Dr. Vanderkemp's mission to Kaf- 
 raria. What a man ! In heaven I shall think myself well 
 off, if I obtain but the lowest seat among such, though now 
 I am fond of giving myself a high one. 
 
 St. John's, September 29, 1803. 
 
 How long it seems since I heard from you, my dear 
 Sargent. My studies during the last three months have 
 been Hebrew, Greek Testament, Jon. Edwards On Original 
 Sin, and On the Affections, and Bishop Hopkins, your 
 favourite and mine. Never did I read such energetic lan- 
 guage, such powerful appeals to the conscience. Somehow 
 or other he is able to excite most constant interest, say 
 what he will. I have been lately reading the first volume 
 of the Reports of the Missionary Society, who sent out so 
 many to Otaheite and the southern parts of Africa. You 
 would find the account of Dr. Vanderkemp's mission into 
 Kafraria infinitely entertaining. It appeared so much so to 
 me, that I could read nothing else while it lasted. Respect- 
 ing my own concerns in this way, no material change has 
 taken place, either externally or internally, except that my 
 sister thinks me unqualified, through want of religious 
 experience, and that I find greater pleasure at the pros pect 
 
3 o HENRY MARTYN 
 
 of it. I am conscious, however, of viewing things too much 
 on the bright side, and think more readily of the happiness 
 of seeing the desert rejoice and blossom as the rose, than of 
 pain, and fatigue, and crosses, and disappointments. How- 
 ever it shall be determined for me, it is my duty to crush 
 the risings of self-will, so as to be cheerfully prepared to go 
 or stay. 
 
 October I. In the afternoon read in Law's Serious Call, 
 the chapter on ' Resignation,' and prayed for it, according 
 to his direction. I rather think a regular distribution of 
 the day for prayer, to obtain the three great graces of 
 humility, love, and resignation, would be far the best way 
 to grow in them. The music at chapel led my thoughts to 
 heaven, and I went cheerfully to Mrs. S. H. drank tea with 
 me afterwards. As there was in the Christian Observe? 
 something of my own, the first which ever appeared in 
 print, I felt myself going off to vanity and levity. 
 
 October 9. Rose at six, which is earlier than of late, and 
 passed the whole morning in great tranquillity. I prayed 
 to be sent out to China, and rejoiced in the prospect of the 
 glorious day when Christ shall be glorified on earth. At 
 chapel the music of the chant and anthem seemed to be in 
 my ears as the sounds of heaven, particularly the anthem, 
 i Chron. xxix. 10. But these joys, alas ! partake much of 
 the flesh in their transitory nature. At chapel I wished to 
 return to my rooms to read the song of Moses the servant 
 of God, &c. in the Revelation, but when I came to it 
 I found little pleasure. The sound of the music had ceased, 
 and with it my joy, and nothing remained but evil temper, 
 darkness, and unbelief. All this time I had forgotten what 
 it is to be a poor humble soul. I had floated off the Rock 
 of Ages into the deep, where I was beginning to sink, had 
 not the Saviour stretched out His hand, and said to me, 'It 
 is I ! ' Let me never be cheated out of my dependence on 
 Him, nor ever forget my need of Him. 
 
 October 12. Reading Paley's Evidences. Had my pride 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 33 
 
 deeply wounded to-day, and perceived that I was far from 
 humility. Great bitterness and dislike arose in my mind 
 against the man who had been the unconscious cause of it. 
 Oh, may I learn daily my hidden evils, and loathe myself 
 for my secret abominations ! Prayed for the man, and 
 found my affections return. 
 
 October 19. I wished to have made my approaching 
 ordination to the ministry a more leading object of my 
 prayers. For two or three days I have been reading some 
 of St. Augustine's Meditations, and was delighted with the 
 hope of enjoying such communion with God as this holy 
 man. Blessed be God ! nothing prevents, no earthly busi- 
 ness, no earthly love can rightfully intrude to claim my 
 thoughts, for I have professedly resigned them all. My 
 mind still continues in a joyous and happy state, though at 
 intervals, through want of humility, my confidence seems 
 vain. 
 
 October 20. This morning was almost all lost, by friends 
 coming in. At noon I read the fortieth chapter of Isaiah. 
 Amidst the bustle of common life, how frequently has my 
 heart been refreshed by the descriptions of the future glory 
 of the Church, and the happiness of man hereafter ! 
 
 November 13. I longed to draw very near to God, to 
 pray Him that He would give me the Spirit of wisdom and 
 revelation. I thought of David Brainerd, and ardently 
 desired his devotedness to God and holy breathings of soul. 
 
 When a Fellow of St. John's, Henry Martyn occupied 
 the three rooms in the highest storey of E block, entered 
 from the right-hand corner of the Second Court before 
 passing through the gateway into the Third Court. The 
 Court is that pronounced by Ruskin the finest in the 
 University, because of the beautiful plum-red hue of the 
 old brick, going back to 1595, and the perfect architecture. 
 From the same stair the fine College Library is entered. 
 
 D 
 
34 
 
 HENR\ MARTYA 
 
 The low roof was formed of reed, instead of lath, and 
 plaster, down to a very recent date. On one occasion, 
 while the outer roof was being repaired, the foot of a 
 workman suddenly pushed through the frail inner ceiling 
 above the study table, an incident which has enabled their 
 present occupant 1 to identify the rooms. Here Martyn 
 studied, and taught, and* prayed, while hour after hour and 
 quarter after quarter, from the spire of St. Clement's on the 
 one side, and the tower of Trinity College on the other, the 
 flight of time was chimed forth. When, a generation after, 
 Alexander Duff visited Charles Simeon and his successor, 
 Carus, and expressed surprise that so few Cambridge men 
 had, by 1836, given themselves to foreign missions, Carus 
 pointed to the exquisite beauty of the Cam, as it winds 
 between Trinity and St. John's, as one explanation of the 
 fact. Both forgot Henry Martyn, whose Cornish tempera- 
 ment was most susceptible to the seductive influence, and 
 whose academic triumphs might have made the ideal life 
 of a Fellow of St. John's an overpowering temptation. 
 As we stand in these hallowed rooms, or wander through 
 the four courts, and in the perfect gardens, or recall the 
 low chapel which has given place to Sir Gilbert Scott's, 
 with a frescoed figure of Henry Martyn on its roof we 
 can realise the power of the motive that sent him forth to 
 Dinapore and Cawnpore, Shiraz and Tokat. 
 
 Samuel Pearce the ' seraphic ' preacher of Birmingham, 
 whom a weak body, like Martyn's, alone prevented from 
 joining his beloved Carey at Serampore ; Vanderkemp, the 
 Dutch physician, who had given up all for the good of the 
 Kafirs, and whom he was soon to see in the midst of his 
 converts ; David Brainerd, also like himself in the shortness 
 
 1 Rev. A. Caldecott, M.A., Fellow and Dean of St. John's College. 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 35 
 
 and saintliness of his career ; the transactions of the 
 London Missionary Society ; the latest works on the East ; 
 and the experimental divinity of Augustine, Jonathan 
 Edwards, and Law, with the writings of Bishops Butler 
 and Hopkins, and Dr. Paley these were the men and 
 the books he used to train his spirit for the work of the 
 ministry abroad, when he had fed it with the words -of 
 Jesus Christ, Isaiah, and Paul. He thus describes his 
 examination for Deacon's orders, and his ordination by the 
 Bishop of Ely on the title of his Fellowship, after which 
 he became Mr. Simeon's curate, and took charge of the 
 neighbouring small parish of Lolworth. 
 
 1803, October 22. Went in a gig to Ely with B. Having 
 had no time for morning prayer, my conversation was poor. 
 At chapel, I felt great shame at having come so confidently 
 to offer myself for the ministry of the Lord Jesus Christ, with 
 so much ignorance and unholiness, and I thought it would 
 be but just if I were sent off with ignominy. Dr. M., 
 the examining chaplain, set me to construe the eleventh 
 chapter of Matthew : Grotius : To turn the first article 
 into Latin : To prove the being of a God, His infinite 
 power and goodness : To give the evidence of Christianity 
 to Jews and heathens : To shew the importance of the 
 miracle of the resurrection of Christ. He asked an account, 
 also, of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Scribes, the places of 
 the worship amongst the Jews, &c. After leaving the palace 
 I was in very low spirits. I had now nothing to think of 
 but the weight and difficulty of the work which lay before me, 
 which never appeared so great at a distance. At dinner the 
 conversation was frivolous. After tea I was left alone with 
 one of the deacons, to whom I talked seriously, and desired 
 him to read the Ordination Service, at which he was much 
 affected. Retired to my room early, and besought God to 
 give me a right and affecting sense of things. I seemed to 
 
 D 2 
 
36 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 pray a long time in vain, so dark and distracted was my 
 mind. At length I began to feel the shameful and cruel 
 neglect and unconcern for the honour of God, and the souls 
 of my brethren, in having trifled with men whom I feared 
 were about to ' lie to the Holy Ghost.' So I went to them 
 again, resolving to lay hold on any opportunity, but found 
 none to do anything effectually. Went to bed with a 
 painful sense of my hardness of heart and unsuitable 
 preparation for the ministry. 
 
 October '23. Rose early, and prayed, not without distrac- 
 tion. I then walked, but could not acquire a right and 
 happy sense of God's mercy in calling me to the ministry ; 
 but was melancholy at the labours that awaited me. On 
 returning, I met one of the deacons, to whom I spoke on 
 the solemn occasion, but he seemed incapable of entertain- 
 ing a serious thought. At half-past ten we went to the 
 cathedral. During the ordination and sacramental services 
 I sought in vain for a humble heavenly mind. The out- 
 ward show which tended to inspire solemnity, affected me 
 more than the faith of Christ's presence, giving me the 
 commission to preach the gospel. May I have grace to 
 fulfil those promises I made before God and the people! 
 After dinner, walked with great rapidity to Cambridge. 
 I went straight to Trinity Church, where my old vanities 
 assailed my soul. How monstrous and horrible did they 
 appear in me, now that I was a minister of holy things ! I 
 could scarcely believe that so sacred an office should be 
 held by one who had such a heart within. B. sat with 
 me in the evening, but I was not humbled ; for I had not 
 been near to God to obtain the grace of contrition. 
 On going to prayer at night, I was seized with a most 
 violent sickness. In the pain and disorder of my body, 
 I could but commend myself faintly to God's mercy in Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 October 24 to 29. Busily employed in writing a sermon, 
 and from the slow advances I made in it, was in general 
 
TRINITY CHURCH IN 1803. 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 39 
 
 very melancholy. I read on the Thursday night for the 
 first time in Trinity Church. 
 
 October 30. Rose with a heavy heart, and my head 
 empty, from having read so little of the Scriptures this last 
 
 week. After church, sat with two hours con versing about 
 
 the missionary plan. He considered my ideas on the subject 
 to be enthusiastic, and told me that I had neither strength 
 of body nor mind for the work. This latter defect I did not 
 at all like ; it was galling to the pride of my heart, and I 
 went to bed hurt ; yet thankful to God for sending me one 
 who would tell me the truth. 
 
 December 3. Employed all day in writing sermon. 
 The incessant employment of my thoughts about the 
 necessary business of my life, parishes, pupils, sermons, sick, 
 &c., leave far too little time for my private meditations ; so 
 that I know little of God and my soul. Resolved I would 
 gain some hours from my usual sleep, if there were no 
 other way ; but failed this morning in consequence of sitting 
 up so late. 
 
 December 4. Called at two or three of the parishioners' 
 houses, and found them universally in the most profound 
 state of ignorance and stupidity. On my road home could 
 not perceive that men who have any little knowledge should 
 have anything to do but instruct their wretched fellow- 
 creatures. The pursuits of science, and all the vain and 
 glittering employments of men, seemed a cruel withholding 
 from their perishing brethren of that time and exertion 
 which might save their souls. 
 
 December 22. Married . How satisfactory is it 
 
 to administer the ordinance of matrimony, where the 
 couple are pious ! I felt thankful that I was delivered 
 from all desires of the comforts of the married life. With 
 the most desirable partner, and every prospect of 
 happiness, I would prefer a single life, in which there 
 are so much greater opportunities for heavenly-minded 
 ness. 
 
40 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 When appointed classical examiner of his college at 
 this time, he jealously examined himself : 
 
 Did I delight in reading of the retreat of the ten 
 thousand Greeks ; and shall not my soul glory in the 
 knowledge of God, who created the Greeks, and the vast 
 countries over which they passed ! I examined in Butler's 
 Analogy and in Xenophon : how much pride and ostenta- 
 tious display of learning was visible in my conduct how 
 that detestable spirit follows me, whatever I do ! 
 
 He opened the year 1804, after preaching in Trinity 
 Church, and visiting two men whom he exhorted to think 
 on their ways, with a review of his new-found life. 
 
 Nevertheless, I judge that I have grown in grace in the 
 course of the last year ; for the bent of my desires is towards 
 God more than when I thought I was going out as a 
 missionary, though vastly less than I expected it would 
 have been by this time. 
 
 This year he received into his fellowship the young 
 poet, Henry Kirke White, whom Wilberforce had, at 
 Simeon's request, sent to St. John's. Southey declares 
 that Chatterton is the only youthful poet whom Kirke 
 White does not leave far behind him. ' The Star of 
 Bethlehem ' is certainly a hymn that will live. The sickly 
 youth followed close in Martyn's steps, becoming the first 
 man of his year, but the effort carried him off almost 
 before his friend reached India. 
 
 Had Martyn been of canonical age for ordination at the 
 close of 1803, there can be little doubt that he would at 
 once have been sent out by the Church Missionary Society, 
 which could find only German Lutherans as its agents 
 abroad, until 1813, when another Fellow of St. John's, and 
 a Wrangler, the Rev. William Jowett, offered his services, 
 
CORNWALL AND CAMBRIDGE, 1781-1803 41 
 
 and was stationed at Malta. But when ordained he lost 
 the little that he had inherited from his father, and saw 
 his younger sister also without resources. There was a 
 tradition in the family of his half-brother John, that Henry 
 and his sisters litigated with him, and farther lessened the 
 patrimon}'. However that may have been, while in India 
 Henry set apart the proceeds of his Fellowship at St. John's 
 for the maintenance of his brother's family, and bequeathed 
 all he had to his children. Mr. H. Thornton, of Clapham, 
 was executor, and duly carried out his instructions, starting 
 the nephews in life. Another incident at this time fore- 
 shadows the self-denial of his Indian career. By opening 
 the door of his room suddenly he had disfigured the face 
 of his Cambridge landlady, whose husband was a clergy- 
 man. He left to her the interest of i,ooo/. as an amend, 
 and she enjoyed this annuity through a very long life. 
 
 The Senior Wrangler was not allowed to preach in the 
 church where he had been baptised, nor in any church of 
 his native county, save in his brother-in-law's. On August 8, 
 1 804, he thus wrote to his friend ' R. Boys, Esq., Bene't Coll, 
 Cambridge,' after preaching at Plymouth for his cousin : 
 
 The following Sunday it was not permitted me to occupy 
 the pulpit of my native town, but in a neighbouring church 
 I was allowed to testify the Gospel of the grace of God. 
 But that one sermon was enough. The clergy seem to 
 have united to exclude me from their churches, so that I 
 must now be contented with my brother-in-law's two little 
 churches about five miles from Truro. The objection is that 
 ' Mr. Martyn is a Calvinist preacher in the dissenting way, &c.' 
 My old schoolmaster, who has always hitherto been proud 
 of his pupil, has offered his services for any time to a curate 
 near this place, rather than, as he said, he should apply to 
 me for assistance. 
 
42 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 It is interesting to remember, remarks Mr. Moule, who 
 has published this letter for the first time, that ' always 
 now, as the anniversary of Martyn's death recurs, a sermon 
 is preached in the cathedral of Truro, in which the great 
 work of Missions is set forth, and his illustrious share in it 
 commemorated.' 
 
 As confidential adviser of Charles Grant in the Court 
 of Directors, in the appointment of chaplains, Simeon 
 always sought to attract the best of his curates to that 
 career, and it would appear from the Journal that so early 
 as the beginning of 1803 he had hinted at this to Martyn. 
 Now the way was plain. Martyn could no longer support 
 himself as one of those volunteer missionaries whose services 
 the two great missionary societies of the Church of England 
 have always been happy to enjoy, nor could he relieve his 
 sister out of the subsistence allowance of a missionary. Mr. 
 Grant's offer of a Bengal chaplaincy seemed to come to 
 him as the solution. But a new element had entered into 
 his life, second only to his spiritual loyalty. He had learned 
 to love Lydia Grenfell. 
 
43 
 
 CHAPTER II 
 
 LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 TWENTY-SIX miles south-west of Truro ,and now the last 
 railway station before Penzance is reached for the Land's 
 End, is Marazion, the oldest, the warmest, and long the 
 dullest, of English towns. This was the home of Lydia 
 Grenfell ; this was the scene of Henry Martyn's wooing. 
 Running out from the town is a natural causeway, un- 
 covered at low tide, and leading to the most romantic spot 
 on a romantic coast the granite rock known to the Greek 
 geographers as Ictis, and to English legend and history as 
 St. Michael's Mount. Here it was that Jack slew the giant, 
 Cormoran ; here that the Phoenician, and possibly Israelite, 
 traffickers found the harbour, and in the town the market, 
 where they bought their copper and their tin ; here that 
 St. Michael appeared, as on the larger rock off Normandy, 
 to the earliest Christian hermits, followed by the Benedic- 
 tines ; and here that King John made a fortress which both 
 sides in the Great Rebellion held and took alternately. 
 Since that time, possessed by the St. Aubyn family, and 
 open to all the world, St. Michael's Mount has been a 
 unique retreat in which castle and chapel, cemetery and 
 garden, unite peacefully, to link the restlessness of the 
 nineteenth century with the hermit saintliness and angel- 
 ophanies of the fifth. It was the last spot of English, of 
 
44 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Cornish, ground seen by Henry Martyn, and he knew that 
 the windows of his beloved looked upon its grassy castel- 
 lated height. 
 
 In the one ascending street of Marazion on the shore, 
 there still stands the plain substantial Grenfell House, now 
 boarded up and falling to ruin for want of the freehold 
 tenure. Opposite it is the parish church, now on the site 
 of the old chapel of ease of the neighbouring St. Hilary, 
 which Lydia Grenfell deserted for the then warmer evan- 
 gelical service of the little Wesleyan chapel. That is 
 hidden in a lane, and is still the same as when she wor- 
 shipped there, or only a little enlarged. The Grenvilles, 
 Grenviles, or Grenfells, were long a leading family connected 
 with Cornwall as copper-buyers and smelters. One, Pascoe 
 Grenfell, was a Governor of the Bank of England. Mr. 
 Pascoe Grenfell, of Marazion (1729-1810), Commissary to 
 the States of Holland, was father (i) of Emma, who became 
 wife of Martyn's cousin, Rev. T. Martyn Hitchins ; (2) of 
 Lydia Grenfell ; and (3) of Pascoe Grenfell, D.C.L., M.P. 
 for Marlow and Penryn. This Pascoe's four daughters 
 Lydia Grenfell's nieces each became the wife of a remark- 
 able man. The eldest, in 1825, married Mr. Carr Glyn, M.P. 
 for Kendal, and the first Lord Wolverton ; the second, Lord 
 Sidney Godolphin Osborne ; the third, Mr. James Anthony 
 Froude ; and the fourth, Charles Kingsley. 
 
 Lydia Grenfell, born in 1775, died in her sister's house, 
 the old Vicarage of Breage, in 1829. She was thus six 
 years older than Henry Martyn. As the sister of his 
 cousin by marriage he must have known of her early. He 
 evidently did not know, till it was too late, that she had 
 been engaged to a Mr. Samuel John, solicitor, of Pen- 
 zance, who was unworthy of her and married someone else. 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 47 
 
 This engagement and its issue seem to have weighed on 
 her very sensitive conscience ; it became to her very much 
 what Henry Martyn's hopeless love for her proved to be to 
 himself. In the years from October 19, 1801, to 1826, she 
 kept a diary not less devout, but far more morbid than 
 his own. The two journals form, where they meet, a 
 pathetic, even tragic, tale of affection, human and divine. 
 Her bulky memoranda ! contain few incidents of interest, 
 rather severe introspections, incessant communings and 
 heart-searchings, abstracts of sermons, records of visits to 
 the sick and poor, but also a valuable residuum by which 
 her relations with Martyn can be established beyond con- 
 troversy. They show that she was as saintly as himself. 
 She weighed every thought, every action, as in the imme- 
 diate presence of God. 
 
 When Henry Martyn, at nineteen, entered on the 
 higher life, he must have known Lydia Grenfell as the 
 sister of Mrs. T. M. Hitchins, the cousin with whom his 
 correspondence shows him to have been on most intimate, 
 and even affectionate, terms. At that time the difference 
 of age would seem slight ; her it would affect little, if at all, 
 while common experience suggests that it would be even 
 attractive to him. With the ardour of a young disciple 
 which in his case grew, year by year, till he passed away 
 he sought spiritual counsel and communion. On his visits 
 to Cornwall he found both in his younger sister, but it is 
 evident that, from the first, the riper spiritual life of Lydia 
 Grenfell attracted him to her. His triumph, at twenty, as 
 Senior Wrangler put him quite in a position to dream of 
 winning her. His unexpected poverty was relieved by his 
 
 1 Deposited by Henry Martyn Jeffery, Esq., in the Truro Museum of the 
 Royal Institution, where the MS, may be consulted. 
 
48 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Fellowship of St. John's. In those days, however, that 
 would have ceased with marriage. When it became 
 more than probable that he would receive an appointment 
 to Bengal, through Mr. Charles Grant either as minister 
 of the Mission Church founded by Kiernander, or as a 
 chaplain of the East India Company he was face to 
 face with the question of marrying. 
 
 In these days the course followed by missionary 
 societies as the result of experience is certainly the best. 
 A missionary and a chaplain in India should, in ordinary 
 circumstances, be married, but it is not desirable that the 
 marriage take place for a year or longer, until the young 
 minister has proved the climate, and has learned the native 
 language, when the lady can be sent out to be united to 
 him. At the beginning of the modern missionary enter- 
 prise, a century ago, it was difficult to find spiritual men 
 willing to go to India on any terms, and they did well in 
 every case to go out married. All the conditions of time, 
 distance, society, and Christian influence were then different. 
 If the missionary's or chaplain's wife is worthy of his call- 
 ing, she doubles his usefulness, notwithstanding the cares 
 and the expense of children in many cases, alike by keep- 
 ing her husband in a state of efficiency on every side, by 
 her own works of charity and self-sacrifice especially 
 among the women, who can be reached in no other way 
 and by helping to present to the idolatrous or Mussulman 
 community the powerful example of a Christian home. 
 Henry Martyn's principles and instincts were right in this 
 matter. As a chaplain, at any rate, he was in a position 
 to marry at once. As India or Bengal then was, Lydia, 
 had she gone out with him, or soon after him, would have 
 proved to be a much needed force in Anglo-Indian society, 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 49 
 
 an influence on the native communities whom he sought 
 to bring to Christ. Above all, as a man born with a 
 weak body, with habits of incessant and intense application 
 to study and to duty, Henry Martyn required one with the 
 influence of a wife to keep him in life and to prolong his 
 Indian service. It was the greatest calamity of his whole 
 career that Lydia did not accompany him. But, since he 
 learned to love her with all the rich devotion of his passion- 
 ate nature, we cannot consider it ' a bitter misfortune,' as 
 some do, that he ever knew her. His love for Lydia, in 
 the fluctuations of its hope, in the ebb and flow of its 
 tenderness, and in the transmutation of its despair into 
 faith and resignation to the will of God, worked out a 
 higher elevation for himself, and gives to his Journals and 
 Letters a pure human interest which places them above the 
 Confessions of St. Augustine. 
 
 The first allusion to the possibility of marriage we find 
 in his Journal of January 23, 1803, an d again in June 12 
 of the same year : 
 
 I was grieved to find that all the exertions of prayer 
 were necessary against worldly-mindedness, so soon had 
 the prospect of the means of competent support in India 
 filled my heart with concern about earthly happiness, 
 marriage, &c. ; but I strove earnestly against them, and 
 prayed for grace that, if it should please God to try my 
 faith by calling me to a post of opulence, I might not dare 
 to use for myself what is truly His ; as also, that I might 
 be enabled to keep myself single, for serving Him more 
 effectually. Nevertheless, this change in my circumstances 
 so troubled me, that I could have been infinitely better 
 pleased to have gone out as a missionary, poor as the Lord 
 and His Apostles. 
 
 E 
 
50 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 His friend Sargent's ' approaching marriage with a lady 
 of uncommon excellence rather excited in me a desire 
 after a similar state ; but I strove against it/ he wrote on 
 July 10. Next day, on the top of the coach from London 
 to Bath, in the cold of a high wind, he was ' most dread- 
 fully assailed by evil thoughts, but at the very height 
 prayer prevailed, and I was delivered, and during the rest 
 of the journey enjoyed great peace and a strong desire to 
 live for Christ alone, forsaking the pleasures of the world, 
 marriage, &c.' At Plymouth he spent two days * with my 
 dear cousin T. H./ Lydia's sister. After Truro, Kenwyn, 
 and Lamorran, near Truro, of which his sister Sarah's hus- 
 band was vicar, he rode to St. Hilary. 
 
 1804, July 29. (Sunday.) Read and prayed in the 
 morning before service with seriousness, striving against 
 those thoughts which oppressed me all the rest of the day. 
 At St. Hilary Church in the morning my thoughts wan^ 
 dered from the service, and I suffered the keenest dis- 
 appointment. Miss L. G. did not come. Yet, in great 
 pain, I blessed God for having kept her away, as she might 
 have been a snare to me. These things would be almost 
 incredible to another, and almost to myself, were I not 
 taught by daily experience that, whatever the world may 
 say, or I may think of myself, I am a poor, wretched, 
 sinful, contemptible worm. 
 
 Called after tea on Miss L. G., and walked with her 
 and - , conversing on spiritual subjects. All the rest of 
 the evening, and at night, I could not keep her out of my 
 mind. I felt too plainly that I loved her passionately. 
 The direct opposition of this to my devotedness to God in 
 the missionary way, excited no small tumult in my mind. 
 In conversation, having no divine sweetness in peace, my 
 cheerfulness was affected, and, consequently, very hurtful 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 51 
 
 to my conscience. At night I continued an hour and a 
 half in prayer, striving against this attachment. I en- 
 deavoured to analyse it, that I might see how base, and 
 mean, and worthless such a love -to a speck of earth was, 
 compared with divine love. Then I read the most solemn 
 parts of Scripture, to realise to myself death and eternity ; 
 and these attempts were sometimes blest. One while I 
 was about to triumph, but in a moment my heart had 
 wandered to the beloved idol. I went to bed in great 
 pain, yet still rather superior to the evening ; but in dreams 
 her image returned, and I awoke in the night with my 
 mind full of her. No one can say how deeply this unhappy 
 affection has fixed itself; since it has nothing selfish in it, 
 that I can perceive, but is founded on the highest admira- 
 tion of her piety and manners. 
 
 July 30. Rose in great peace. God, by secret influence, 
 seemed to have caused the tempest of self-will to subside. 
 Rode away from St. Hilary to Gwennap in peace of mind, 
 and meditated most of the way on Romans viii. I again 
 devoted myself to the Lord, and with more of my will 
 than last night. I was much disposed to think of subjects 
 entirely placed beyond the world, and had strong desires, 
 though with heavy opposition from my corrupt nature, 
 after that entire deadness to the world which David 
 Brainerd manifested. At night I found myself to have 
 backslidden a long way from the life of godliness, to have 
 declined very much since my coming into Cornwall, but 
 especially since I went to St. Hilary. Sat up late, and read 
 the last chapter and other parts of Revelation, and was 
 deeply affected. Prayed with more success than lately. 
 
 July 31. Read and prayed this morning with increasing 
 victory over my self-will. Romans vii. was particularly 
 suitable ; it was agreeable to me to speak to God of my 
 own corruption and helplessness Walked in the afternoon 
 to Redruth, after having prayed over the Epistle to the 
 
 E 2 
 
5 2 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Ephesians with much seriousness. On the road I was 
 enabled to triumph at last, and found my heart as pleased 
 with the prospect of a single life in missionary labours as 
 ever. 'What is the exceeding greatness of His power to 
 usward who believe ! ' 
 
 After preaching to crowds in his brother-in-law's church 
 at Kenwyn and Lamorran, on the two subsequent Sundays, 
 he walked to St. Hilary : 
 
 1804, August 26. Rose early, and walked out, invited 
 by the beauty of the morning. Many different pleasing 
 thoughts crowded on my mind, as I viewed the sea and 
 rocks, Mount and bay, and thought of the person who 
 lived near it ; but, for want of checking my natural spirits, 
 and fixing oh one subject of thought, I was not much 
 benefited by my meditations. Walked in the evening 
 with Mrs. G. and Lydia up the hill, with the most beautiful 
 prospect of the sea, &c. ; but I was unhappy, from feeling 
 the attachment to Lydia, for I was unwilling to leave her. 
 
 August 27. Walked to Marazion, with my heart more 
 
 delivered from its idolatry, and enabled to look steadily 
 
 and peacefully to God. Reading in the afternoon to Lydia 
 
 alone, from Dr. Watts, there happened to be, among other 
 
 things, a prayer on entire preference of God to the creature. 
 
 Now, thought I, here am I in the presence of God, and my 
 
 idol. So I used the prayer for myself, and addressed it to 
 
 God, who answered it, I think, for my love was kindled 
 
 to God and divine things, and I felt cheerfully resigned to 
 
 the will of God, to forego the earthly joy which I had just 
 
 been desiring with my whole heart. I continued conversing 
 
 with her, generally with my heart in heaven, but every now 
 
 and then resting on her. Parted with Lydia, perhaps for 
 
 ever in this life, with a sort of uncertain pain, which I knew 
 
 would increase to greater violence afterwards, on reflection. 
 
 Walked to St. Hilary, determining, in great tumult and 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 53 
 
 inward pain, to be the servant of God. All the rest of the 
 evening, in company or alone, I could think of nothing 
 but her excellences. My efforts were, however, through 
 mercy, not in vain, to feel the vanity of this attachment to 
 the creature. Read in Thomas a Kempis many chapters 
 directly to the purpose ; the shortness of time, the awful- 
 ness of death and its consequences, rather settled my mind 
 to prayer. I devoted myself unreservedly to the service 
 of the Lord, to Him, as to one who knew the great conflict 
 within, and my firm resolve, through His grace, of being 
 His, though it should be with much tribulation. 
 
 August 28. Rose with a heavy heart, and took leave 
 of St. Hilary, where all the happier hours of my early life 
 
 were passed. and accompanied me in the chaise 
 
 a few miles ; but the moment they left me I walked on, 
 dwelling at large on the excellence of Lydia. I had a few 
 faint struggles to forget her, and delight in God, but they 
 were ineffectual. Among the many motives to the subjec- 
 tion of self-will, I found the thought of the entire un- 
 worthiness of a soul escaped from hell to choose its own 
 will before God's, most bring my soul to a right frame. 
 So that, while I saw the necessity of resigning, for the 
 service of God, all those joys, for the loss of which I could 
 not perceive how anything in heaven or earth could be a 
 compensation, I said, Amen ! 
 
 August 29. I walked to Truro, with my mind almost 
 all the way taken up with Lydia. But once reasoning in 
 this way If God made me, and wills my happiness, as I do 
 not doubt, then He is providing for my good by separating 
 me from her ; this reasoning convinced my mind. I felt 
 very solemnly and sweetly the excellence of serving God 
 faithfully, of following Christ and His Apostles, and medi- 
 tated with great joy on the approach of the end of this 
 world. Yet still I enjoyed, every now and then, the 
 thought of walking hereafter with her, in the realms of 
 glory, conversing on the things of God. My mind the 
 
54 
 
 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 res"t of the evening was much depressed. I had no desire 
 to live in this world ; scarcely could I say where I would 
 be, or what I would do, now that my self-will was so 
 strongly counteracted. Thus God waits patiently my re- 
 turn from my backsliding, which I would do immediately. 
 If He were to offer me the utmost of my wishes, I would 
 say, ' Not so, Lord ! Nqt my will, but Thine be done.' 
 
 August 30. Passed the morning rather idly, in reading 
 lives of pious women. I felt an indescribable mixture of 
 opposing emotions. At one time, about to ascend with 
 delight to God, who had permitted me to aspire after the 
 same glory, but oftener called down to earth by my earthly 
 good. Major Sandys calling, continued till dinner con- 
 versing about India. I consented to stay a day with him 
 at Helston, but the thought of being so near Marazion 
 renewed my pain, especially taken in connection with my 
 going thither on the subject of my departure. After dinner, 
 walked in the garden for two hours, reasoning with my 
 perverse heart, and, through God's mercy, not without 
 success. You preach up deadness to the world, and yet 
 not an example of it ! Now is the time, my soul, if you 
 cannot feel that it is best to bear the cross, to trust God 
 for it. This will be true faith. If I were put in possession 
 of my idol, I should immediately say and feel that God 
 alone was, notwithstanding, the only good, and to Him I 
 should seek immediately. Again I weighed the probable 
 temporal consequence of having my own will gratified ; 
 the dreadful pain of separation by death, after being united, 
 together with the distress I might bring upon her whom I 
 loved. All these things were of small influence till I read 
 the Epistle to the Hebrews, by which my mind, made to 
 consider divine things attentively, was much more freed 
 from earthly things. * Let us come boldly to the throne 
 of grace, that we may obtain mercy, and find grace to help 
 in time of need/ was very precious and comforting to me. 
 I have found grace to help in this time of need ; I still 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 55 
 
 want a humble spirit to wait upon the Lord. I almost 
 called God to witness that I duly resigned my pleasure to 
 His, as if I wished it to be remembered. In the evening 
 had a serious and solemn time in prayer, chiefly for the 
 influences of the Spirit, and rose with my thoughts fixed 
 on eternity ; I longed for death, and called on the glorious 
 day to hasten ; but it was in order to be free from the 
 troubles of this world. 
 
 August 31. Passed the morning partly in reading and 
 writing, but chiefly in business. Rode to Rosemundy, 
 with my mind at first very unhappy, at the necessity of 
 mortifying my self-will, in the same particulars as for some 
 days. In conversing on the subject of India with Major 
 Sandys, I could not help communicating the pain I felt at 
 parting with the person to whom I was attached ; but by 
 thus dwelling on the subject my heart was far more dis- 
 tressed than ever. Found my mind more easy and sub- 
 missive to God at night in prayer. 
 
 St. Hilary Church, in which Henry Martyn preached, 
 is one of the oldest in England, containing, in the tower 
 of Edward III.'s reign, two stones with inscriptions of the 
 time of the Emperor Flavius Constantinus, who was killed 
 by Honorius in 411. What Lydia Grenfell thought of 
 Martyn's sermon on that day, August 26, thenceforth 
 memorable to both, we find in her Diary of that date : 
 
 1804, August 26. Heard H. M. on 'Now then we are 
 ambassadors for Christ, as though God did beseech you 
 by us : we pray you, in Christ's stead, be ye reconciled to 
 God. For He hath made Him to be sin (i.e. sin-offering) 
 for us, Who knew no sin ; that we might be made the 
 righteousness of God in Him.' Exordium on the honour- 
 able employment of a minister of the Gospel. In the text 
 two things were implied. First, we were at enmity with 
 God. Second, we were unable to restore ourselves to His 
 
56 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 favour. There were two things expressed in the text 
 the means of reconciliation, and God's invitation to be 
 reconciled ; a threefold address to saints, backsliders, and 
 sinners ; and a farewell address. A precious sermon. 
 Lord, bless the preacher, and those that heard him ! 
 
 At that time, in 1 804, the lady was still preoccupied, 
 in conscience or heart, or both, by her imaginary ties to 
 Mr. S. John. But six months before that she had heard of 
 his approaching marriage, though, in fact, that did not take 
 place till 1810. All that time, if she did not feel, to one 
 to whom her heart had been more closely united than to 
 any ' earthly object,' as she had written in her Diary, what 
 Mr. H. M. Jeffery describes as the attachment of a widow 
 with the responsibility of a wife, her scrupulous introspec- 
 tive habit was an obstacle to a healthy attachment. The 
 preacher, younger than herself, was in 1 804 evidently to 
 her only an interesting and gracious second cousin, or 
 perhaps a little more. 
 
 On his way back to London Henry Martyn again 
 visited Plymouth, where he learned from his cousin ' that 
 my attachment to her sister was not altogether unreturned, 
 and the discovery gave me both pleasure and pain.' He 
 left them, his thoughts * almost wholly occupied with 
 Lydia.' London, Cambridge, his reading and his walking, 
 his work and even his sleep, bring him no rest from the 
 absorbing passion. His Journal is full of it, almost every 
 day. Fortescue's poems recall the happy mornings at St. 
 Hilary, but his pensive meditation subsided into a more 
 profitable one on the vanity of the world : ' they marry and 
 are given in marriage,' and at the end of a few years what 
 are they more than myself ? looking forward to the same 
 dissolution, and expecting their real happiness in another 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 57 
 
 life. ( The fashion of this world passeth away.' Amen. 
 1 Let me do the will of God while I am in it.' 
 
 The first day of the year 1805 led him to review the 
 past five years, and to renew his self-dedication to God the 
 Father, Son, and Holy Ghost, to be His servant for ever. 
 The time for his departure to India was at hand, and his 
 last act, on leaving London for Cambridge, to complete his 
 arrangements for sailing, was deliberately to engage him- 
 self to Lydia Grenfell in the following letter to her sister. 1 
 It is thus referred to in his, Journal: 
 
 I was in some doubt whether I should send the letter 
 to Emma, as it was taking a very important step, and I 
 could scarcely foresee all the consequences. However, I 
 did send it, and may now be said to have engaged myself 
 to Lydia. 
 
 18 Brunswick Square (London), January n, 180$. 
 
 My dear Mrs. Hitchins, How unaccountable must my 
 long silence appear to you after the conversation that 
 passed between us in the carriage ! You may well wonder 
 that I could forbear, for three whole months, to inquire 
 about the ' beloved Persis.' Indeed, I am surprised at my 
 own patience, but, in truth, I found it impossible to dis- 
 cover what it is which I wish or ought to say on the sub- 
 ject, and therefore determined to defer writing till I could 
 inform you with certainty of my future destination. But 
 I have it not yet in my power to do this, for no actual 
 appointment has been made for me yet. I came to town 
 the beginning of this week to inquire into the present 
 state of the business, and learned from Mr. Grant that 
 the situation he intended to procure, and to which he had 
 
 1 Hitherto unpublished. We owe the copy of this significant letter to the 
 courtesy of H. M. Jeffery, Esq. , F. R. S., for whom Canon Moor, of St. Clement's, 
 near Truro, procured it from the friend to whom Mrs. T. M, Hitchins had 
 given it. 
 
5 8 HENRY MARTYR 
 
 no doubt of getting me nominated, was not in the Army, 
 but at Fort William, near Calcutta. Thus it pleases God 
 to suspend the declaration of His mind, and I can believe 
 that He acts wisely. These apparent delays serve to check 
 my youthful impetuosity, and teach me to look up to God, 
 and wait for Him. If the chaplaincy at Fort William 
 should be given me, it w,ould seem to be His design not to 
 call me to the peculiar work of a missionary, but to fix my 
 station among the English. At present my own inclination 
 remains almost unbiassed, as to the particular employment 
 or place God shall assign me, whether to pass my days 
 among the natives, or the more polished inhabitants of 
 Calcutta, or even to remain at home. 
 
 But you will easily conceive that the increasing pro- 
 bability of my being settled in a town rather tends to 
 revive the thoughts of marriage, for I feel very little doubt 
 in my own mind, that in such a situation it would be ex- 
 pedient for me on the whole to marry, if other circumstances 
 permitted it. It is also as clear that I ought not to make 
 an engagement with any one in England, till I have ascer- 
 tained by actual observation in India, what state of life 
 and mode of proceeding would be most conducive to the 
 ends of my mission. But why do I mention these diffi- 
 culties ? If they were removed, others would remain still 
 more insurmountable. The affections of the beloved object 
 in question must still be engaged in my favour, or even 
 then she would not agree to leave the kingdom, nor would 
 any of you agree to it, nor would such a change of climate, 
 it may be thought, suit the delicacy of her constitution. 
 
 Must I, then, yield to the force of these arguments, and 
 resolve to think of her no more ? It shall certainly be my 
 endeavour, by the help of my God, to do it, if need be ; but 
 I confess I am very unwilling to go away and hear of her 
 only accidentally through the medium of others. It is 
 this painful reflection that has prompted a wish, which I 
 do not mention withput some hesitation, and that is my 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 59 
 
 wish of corresponding with her. It is possible you may 
 instantly perceive some impropriety in it which escapes 
 my notice, and indeed there are some objections which I 
 foresee might be made, but instead of anticipating them, I 
 will leave you to form your own opinion. In religion we 
 have a subject to write upon of equal interest to us both, 
 and though I cannot expect she would derive any advan- 
 tage from my letters, it is certain I should receive no small 
 benefit from hers. But I leave it with yourself; if you 
 disapprove of the measure, let the request be forgotten. It 
 will be best for her never to know I had made it, or if she 
 does, she will, I hope, pardon a liberty to which I have 
 been drawn only by the love of her excellence. 
 
 N.B. I remember Leighton ; take care not to forget it 
 nor the desired MS. 
 
 On June I he wrote in his Journal-. 
 
 My departure from my friends, and my deprivation of 
 the sweetest delight in society, for ever in this life, have 
 rather dejected me to-day. Ah ! Nature, thou hast still 
 tears to shed for thyself! ... I seem to be hankering after 
 something or other in this world, though I am sure I could 
 not say there is anything which I believed could give me 
 happiness. No ! it is in God above. Yet to-night I have 
 been thinking much of Lydia. Memory has been at work 
 to unnerve my soul, but reason, and honour, and love to 
 Christ and to souls, shall prevail. Amen. God help me ! 
 
 Two days after, at the Eclectic Society, after a discussion 
 on the symptoms of ' the state of the nation/ the subject of 
 marriage, somehow or other, came to be mentioned. 
 
 Mr. Cecil spoke very freely and strongly on the subject. 
 He said I should be acting like a madman if I went out 
 unmarried. A wife would supply by her comfort and 
 counsel the entire want of society, and also be a preservative 
 
60 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 both to character and passions amidst such scenes. I felt 
 as cold as an anchorite on the subject as to my own feelings, 
 but I was much perplexed all the rest of the evening about 
 it. I clearly perceived that my own inclination upon the 
 whole was not to marriage. The fear of being involved in 
 worldly cares and numberless troubles, which I do not now 
 foresee, makes me tremblp and dislike the thoughts of such 
 connection. When I think of Brainerd, how he lived 
 among the Indians, travelling freely from place to place, 
 can I conceive he would have been so useful had he been 
 married ? I remember also that Owens, who had been so 
 many years in the West Indies as a missionary, gave his 
 advice against marriage. Schwartz was never married, nor 
 St. Paul. On the other hand, when I suppose another in 
 my circumstances, fixed at a settlement without company, 
 without society, in a scene and climate of such temptation, 
 I say without hesitation, he ought to be married. I have 
 recollected this evening very much my feelings when I 
 walked through Wales ; how I longed there to have some 
 friend to speak to ; and the three weeks seemed an age 
 without one. And I have often thought how valuable 
 would be the counsel and comfort of a Christian brother in 
 India. These advantages would be obtained by marrying. 
 I feel anxious also that as many Christians as possible 
 should go to India, and anyone willing to go would be a 
 valuable addition. But yet voluntary celibacy seems so 
 much more noble and glorious, and so much more bene- 
 ficial in the way of example, that I am loth to relinquish 
 the idea of it. In short, I am utterly at a loss to know 
 what is best for the interests of the Gospel. But, happily, 
 my own peace is not much concerned in it If this opinion 
 of so many pious clergymen had come across me when I 
 was in Cornwall, and so strongly attached to my beloved 
 Lydia, it would have been a conflict indeed in my heart to 
 oppose so many arguments. But now I feel, through grace, 
 an astonishing difference. I hope I am not seeking an 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 6 1 
 
 excuse for marriage, nor persuading myself I am indifferent 
 about it, in order that what is really my inclination may 
 appear to be the will of God. But I feel my affections 
 kindling to their wonted fondness while I dwell on the 
 circumstances of a union with Lydia. May the Lord 
 teach His weak creature to live peacefully and soberly in 
 His love, drawing all my joys from Him, the fountain of 
 living waters. 
 
 June 4. The subject of marriage made me thoughtful 
 and serious. Mr. Atkinson, whose opinion I revere, was 
 against my marrying. Found near access to my God in 
 prayer. Oh, what a comfort it is to have God to go to. 
 I breathed freely to Him my sorrows and cares, and set 
 about my work with diligence. The Lord assisted me 
 very much, and I wrote more freely than ever I did. Slept 
 very little in the night. 
 
 June 5. Corrie breakfasted with me, and went to 
 prayer ; I rejoiced to find he was not unwilling to go to 
 India. He will probably be my fellow-labourer. Most of 
 this morning was employed in writing all my sentiments 
 on the subject of marriage to Mr. Simeon. May the Lord 
 suggest something to him which may be of use to guide 
 me, and keep my eye single. In my walk out, and after- 
 wards, the subject was constantly on my mind. But, alas ! 
 I did not guard against that distraction from heavenly 
 things which I was aware it would occasion. On reflection 
 at home, I found I had been talking in a very inconsistent 
 manner, but was again restored to peace by an application 
 to Christ's blood through the Spirit. My mind has all this 
 day been very strongly inclined to marriage, and has been 
 consequently uncomfortable, for in proportion to its want 
 of simplicity it is unhappy. But Mr. Cecil said to-day, he 
 thought Lydia's decision would fully declare the will of 
 God. With this I am again comforted, for now hath the 
 Lord taken the matter into His own hands. Whatever 
 He decides upon, I shall rejoice ; and though I confess I 
 
62 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 think she will not consent to go, I shall then have the 
 question finally settled. 
 
 Discussion in the evening was about my marriage 
 again ; they were all strenuous advocates for it. Wrote 
 at night with great freedom, but my body is very weak 
 from the fatigue I have already undergone. My mind 
 seems very active this week ; manifestly, indeed, strength- 
 ened by God to be enabled to write on religious subjects 
 with such unusual ease, while it is also full of this important 
 business of the marriage. My inclination continues, I 
 think, far more unbiassed than when I wrote to Mr. 
 Simeon. 
 
 June 7. Oh, the subtlety of the devil, and the deceit- 
 fulness of this corrupted heart ! How has an idol been 
 imperceptibly raised up in it. Something fell from Dr. F. 
 this evening against my marriage which struck me so 
 forcibly, though there was nothing particular in it, that 
 I began to see I should finally give up all thoughts about 
 it. But how great the conflict! I could not have believed 
 it had such hold on my affections. Before this I had been 
 writing in tolerable tranquillity, and walked out in the 
 enjoyment of a resigned mind, even rejoicing for the most 
 part in God, and dined at Mr. Cecil's, where the arguments 
 I heard were all in favour of the flesh, and so I was pleased ; 
 but Dr. F.'s words gave a new turn to my thoughts, and 
 the tumult showed me the true state of my heart. How 
 miserable did life appear without the hope of Lydia ! Oh, 
 how has the discussion of the subject opened all my wounds 
 afresh ! I have not felt such heartrending pain since I 
 parted with her in Cornwall. But the Lord brought me 
 to consider the folly and wickedness of all this. Shall I 
 hesitate to keep my days in constant solitude, who am but 
 a brand plucked from the burning ? I could not help 
 saying, ' Go, Hindus, go on in your misery ; let Satan still 
 rule over you ; for he that was appointed to labour among 
 you is consulting his ease.' No, thought I ; hell and 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 63 
 
 earth shall never keep me back from my work. I am cast 
 down, but not destroyed ; I began to consider, why am I 
 so uneasy ? ' Cast thy care upon Him, for He careth for 
 you.' ' In everything, by prayer/ &c. These promises 
 were graciously fulfilled before long to me. 
 
 June 8. My mind continued in much the same state 
 this morning, waiting with no small anxiety for a letter 
 from Mr. Simeon, hoping, of course, that the will of God 
 would coincide with my will, yet thinking the determination 
 of the question would be indifferent to me. When the 
 letter arrived I was immediately convinced, beyond all 
 doubt, of the expediency of celibacy. But my wish did 
 not follow my judgment quite so readily. Mr. Pratt 
 coming in, argued strongly on the other' side, but there 
 was nothing of any weight. The subject so occupied my 
 thoughts that I could attend to nothing else. I saw my- 
 self called to be less than ever a man of this world, and 
 walked out with a heavy heart. Met Dr. R, who alone of 
 all men could best sympathise, and his few words were 
 encouraging. Yet I cannot cordially acquiesce in all the 
 Lord's dealings, though my reason and judgment approve 
 them, and my inclination would desire to do it. Dined at 
 Mr. Cecil's, where it providentially happened that Mr. Foster 
 came in. To them I read Mr. Simeon's letter, and they 
 were both convinced by it. So I went away home, with 
 nothing to do but to get my heart easy again under this 
 sacrifice. I devoted myself once more to the entire and 
 everlasting service of God, and found myself more weaned 
 from this world, and desiring the next, though not from a 
 right principle. Continued all the evening writing sermon, 
 and reading Pilgrim's Progress, with successions of vivid 
 emotions of pain and pleasure. My heart was sometimes 
 ready to break with agony at being torn from its dearest 
 idol, and at other times I was visited by a few moments of 
 sublime and enraptured joy. Such is the conflict ; why 
 have my friends mentioned this subject ? It has torn open 
 
64 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 old wounds, and I am again bleeding. With all my 
 honours and knowledge, the smiles and approbation of 
 men, the health and prosperity that have fallen to my lot, 
 together with that freedom from doubts and fears with 
 which I was formerly visited, how much have I gone 
 through in the last two or three years to bring my mind to 
 be willing to do the will of God when it should be revealed ! 
 My heart is pained within me, and my bodily frame suffers 
 from it. 
 
 June 9. (Sunday.) My heart is still pained. It is still 
 as a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke ; the Lord help 
 me to maintain the conflict. Preached this morning at 
 Long Acre Chapel on Matt, xxviii., the three last verses. 
 There was the utmost attention. In the interval between 
 morning and afternoon, passed most of the time in reading 
 and prayer. Read Matthew iii., and considered the cha- 
 racter of John the Baptist. Holy emulation seemed to 
 spring up in my mind. Then read John xvii. and last chapter, 
 and Rev. i., all of which were blessed to my soul. I went 
 into the church persuaded in my feelings which is dif- 
 ferent from being persuaded in the understanding that it 
 was nobler and wiser to be as John the Baptist, Peter, John, 
 and all the Apostles, than to have my own will gratified. 
 Preached on Eph. ii. 18. Walked a little with Mr. Grant 
 this evening. He told me I should have great trials and 
 temptations in India ; but I know where to apply for grace 
 to help. 
 
 Cecil's final opinion, that Lydia Grenfell's decision 
 would fully declare the will of God, was not borne out by 
 the result, as we shall see. Meanwhile, let us trace the 
 steps which led to the final appointment to India, and 
 the farewell. 
 
 On his first visit to London at the beginning of the year 
 1804, by the Telegraph coach, the Cambridge recluse was 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 65 
 
 distracted by the bustle of the great city, as he walked 
 about the streets and called at the booksellers'. Dr. 
 Wollaston, the British Museum, and the Gresham Lecture 
 on Music, of which he was passionately fond, occupied his 
 first two days. At the old India House, since swept away 
 from Leadenhall Street, he met Mr. Charles Grant, who, 
 as he took him to Clapham, the evangelical centre which 
 Sir James Stephen has made so famous, 1 gave him much 
 information on the state of India, such as this : 
 
 It would be absolutely necessary to keep three servants, 
 for three can do no more than the work of one English ; 
 that no European constitution can endure being exposed 
 to mid-day heat ; that Mr. Schwartz, who was settled at 
 Tanjore, did do it for a time, walking among the natives. 
 Mr. Grant had never seen Mr. Schwartz, but corresponded 
 with him. He was the son of a Saxon gentleman (the 
 Saxon gentlemen never enter the ministry of the Church), 
 and had early devoted himself to the work of a missionary 
 amongst the Indians. Besides the knowledge of the 
 Malabar tongue, in which he was profoundly skilled and 
 eloquent, he was a good classic, and learnt the English, 
 Portuguese, and Dutch. He was a man of dignified and 
 polished manners, and cheerful. 
 
 This was the first opportunity that ' the Clapham sect ' 
 had to satisfy themselves that the Senior Wrangler was 
 worthy of the commendation of Charles Simeon. Accord- 
 ingly they dined with William Wilberforce at Broomfield. 
 
 We conversed about my business. They wished me to 
 fill the church in Calcutta very much ; but advised me to 
 wait some time, and to cherish the same views. To Mr. 
 Wilberforce I went into a detail of my views, and the 
 reasons that had operated on my mind. The conversation 
 
 1 Essays in Ecclesiastical Biography. 
 
 F 
 
66 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 of Mr. Wilberforce and Mr. Grant during the whole of the 
 day, before the rest of the company, which consisted of Mr. 
 Johnston, of New South Wales, a French Abbe, Mrs. 
 Unwin, Mr. H., and other ladies, was edifying ; agreeable 
 to what I should think right for two godly senators, plan- 
 ning some means of bringing before Parliament propositions 
 for bettering the moral st,ate of the colony of Botany Bay. 
 At evening worship Mr. W. expounded Sacred Scripture 
 with serious plainness, and prayed in the midst of his large 
 household. 
 
 In The Life of William Wilberforce^ by his sons, we 
 find this passage introduced by the remark, ' It is delightful 
 to contrast with his own language the observation of one 
 who, with as holy and as humble a soul, was just entering 
 on his brief but glorious course:' Martyn 'drank tea at Mr. 
 Newton's ; the old man was very civil to me, and striking 
 in his remarks in general.' Next day : 
 
 Read Isaiah. At one, we went to hear the charge 
 delivered to the missionaries at the New London Tavern, 
 in Cheapside. There was nothing remarkable in it, but 
 the conclusion was affecting. I shook hands with the two 
 missionaries, Melchior Rayner and Peter Hartwig, and 
 almost wished to go with them, but certainly to go to 
 India. Returned, and read Isaiah. 
 
 From the ever recurring distractions of his soul, caused 
 now by ' a despicable indulgence in lying in bed,' and again 
 by the interruptions of visitors, he sought refuge frequently 
 in fasting and ascetic self-denial, and occasionally in writing 
 verse : 
 
 Composed some poetry during my walk, which often 
 has a tendency to divert my thoughts from the base dis- 
 tractions of this life, and to purify and elevate it to higher 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 67 
 
 subjects. . . . On my way to Mr. Simeon's, heard part of 
 the service in King's Chapel. The sanctity of the place, 
 and the music, brought heaven and eternal things, and the 
 presence of God, very near to me. 
 
 He seems to have competed for the Seatonian Prize. 
 He was an ardent lover of Nature. 
 
 Walked out before breakfast, and the beauties of the 
 opening spring constrained me to adoration and praise. 
 But no earthly object or operation can produce true 
 spirituality of heart. My present failing is in this, that I 
 do not feel the power of motives. 
 
 Of another walk he writes : 
 
 I was led to think a good while on my deficiency in 
 human learning, and on my having neglected those branches 
 which would have been pleasing and honourable in the 
 acquisition. Yet I said, though with somewhat of melan- 
 choly, ' What things were gain to me, those I counted loss 
 for Christ.' Though I become less esteemed by man, I 
 cannot but think (though it is not easy to do so) that it 
 must be more acceptable to God to labour for souls, though 
 the mind remains uninformed ; and, consequently, that it 
 must be more truly great and noble, than to be great and 
 notable among men for learning. In the garden afterwards 
 I rejoiced exceedingly at the prospect of a death fast ap- 
 proaching, when my powers of understanding would be 
 enlarged inconceivably. They all talked to me in praise 
 of my sermon on Sunday night ; but praise is exceedingly 
 unpleasant to me, because I am slow to render back to 
 God that glory which belongs to Him alone. Sometimes 
 it may be useful in encouraging me, when I want en- 
 couragement ; but that at present is not the case ; and in 
 truth, praise generally produces pride, and pride presently 
 sets me far from God. 
 
 F2 
 
68 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Oh, what a snare are public ministrations to me ! Not 
 that I wish for the praise of men, but there is some fear 
 and anxiety abbut not getting through. How happy could 
 I be in meeting the people of my God more frequently 
 were it not for this fear of being unprofitable ! But since 
 God has given me natural gifts, let this teach me that all 
 I want is a spiritual frame to improve and employ them 
 in the things of God ! 
 
 Mr. K. White, of Nottingham, breakfasted with me. 
 In my walk was greatly cast down, except for a short 
 time on my return, when, as I was singing, or rather 
 chanting, some petitions in a low, plaintive voice, I insen- 
 sibly found myself sweetly engaged in prayer. 
 
 Such outpourings of his heart must be read in the light 
 of a time when even the Churches had not awoke to their 
 duty, and the most theologically orthodox were too often 
 the most indifferent, or opposed, to the Lord's command. 
 
 1804, January 13. Walked out in the evening in great 
 tranquillity, and on my return met with Mr. C, with whom 
 I was obliged to walk an hour longer. He thought it a 
 most improper step for me to leave the University to preach 
 to the ignorant heathen, which any person could do, and 
 that I ought rather to improve the opportunity of acquiring 
 human learning. All our conversation on the subject of 
 learning, religion, &c., ended in nothing ; he was convinced 
 he was right, and all the texts of Scripture I produced were 
 applicable, according to him, only to the times of the 
 Apostles. How is my soul constrained to adore the sove- 
 reign mercy of God, who began His work in my proud 
 heart, and carried it on through snares which have ruined 
 thousands namely, human learning and honours : and now 
 my soul, dost thou not esteem all things but dung and 
 dross, compared with the excellency of the knowledge of 
 Christ Jesus my Lord ? Yea, did not gratitude constrain me, 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 69 
 
 did not duty and fear of destruction, yet surely the excel- 
 lency of the service of Christ would constrain me to lay 
 down ten- thousand lives in the prosecution of it. My 
 heart was a little discomposed this evening at the account 
 of the late magnificent prizes proposed by Mr. Buchanan 
 and others in the University, for which Mr. C. has been 
 calling me to write ; but I was soon at rest again. But 
 how easily do I forget that God is no respecter of persons ; 
 that in the midst of the notice I attract as an enthusiast 
 He judges of me according to my inward state. Oh, my 
 soul, take no pleasure in outward religion, nor in exciting 
 wonder, but in the true circumcision of the heart. 
 
 January 16. told me of many contemptuous in- 
 sulting things that had been said of me, reflecting, some on 
 my understanding, some on my condition, sincerity, incon- 
 sistent conduct. It was a great trial of my patience, and I 
 was frequently tempted, in the course of the evening, to let 
 my natural spirit rage forth in indignation and revenge ; 
 but I remembered Him of whom it was said, * Who, when 
 He was reviled, reviled not again ; but committed Himself 
 to Him that judgeth righteously.' As I was conscious I 
 did not deserve the censures which were passed upon me, 
 I committed myself to God ; and in Him may I abide until 
 the indignation be overpast ! 
 
 In July 1804 ne again visited London on his way to 
 Cornwall, and to see Mr. Charles Grant 
 
 Dined with Mr. Wilberforce at Palace Yard. It was 
 very agreeable, as there was no one else. Speaking of the 
 slave trade, I mentioned the words, ' Shall I not visit for 
 these things ? ' and found my heart so affected that I could 
 with difficulty refrain from tears. Went with Mr. W. to 
 the House of Commons, where I was surprised and charmed 
 with Mr. Pitt's eloquence. Ah, thought I, if these powers of 
 oratory were now employed in recommending the Gospel ! 
 
70 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 On his way back to Cambridge, through London, he 
 
 Went to St. Paul's, to see Sir W. Jones's monument ; the 
 sight of the interior of the dome filled my soul with inex- 
 pressible ideas of the grandeur of God, and the glory of 
 heaven, much the same as I had at the sight of a painted 
 vaulted roof in the British Museum. I could scarcely 
 believe that I might be 'in the immediate enjoyments of 
 such glory in another hour. In the evening the sound of 
 sacred music, with the sight of a rural landscape, imparted 
 some indescribable emotions after the glory of God, by 
 diligence in His work. To preach the Gospel for the 
 salvation of my poor fellow-creatures, that they might 
 obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus, with eternal 
 glory, seemed a very sweet and precious employment. 
 Lydia then, again, seemed a small hindrance. 
 
 His duties as examiner, tutor, and in charge of Lol worth, 
 and home mission work in Wall's Lane, the hospital and 
 almshouse, left him little leisure, and that he gave to the 
 Bengali grammars of Halhed and Carey, to Carey's Bengali 
 New Testament, to Arabic grammars, and to the missionary 
 accounts in the Christian Observer, for which, also, he wrote 
 Referring, evidently, to Carey's convert, he wrote : 
 
 The account of a Brahmin preaching the Gospel 
 delighted me most exceedingly. I could not help blessing 
 God for thus glorifying Himself. ... I was much pained 
 and humbled at reflecting that it has never yet, to my 
 knowledge, pleased God to awaken one soul by my means, 
 either in public or private, shame be to myself. 
 
 Simeon gave me a letter from Mr. Brown of Calcutta, 
 which gave me great delight on many accounts. Speaking 
 of me, he says, ' Let him marry, and come out at once.' I 
 thought of Lydia with great tenderness, but without pain 
 at my determination to go out single. I found great 
 
LYDIA G REN f ELL 71 
 
 affection in prayer for my dear brethren at Calcutta, for the 
 establishing of Christ's Kingdom among the poor Gentiles, 
 and for my being sent among them, if it were His will. 
 
 Thinking my mind was in need of recreation, I took up 
 Lord Teignmouth's Life of Sir William Jones, and read 
 till tea. 
 
 Low spirits at church, through being about to preach 
 old sermons, which I feel so ashamed of offering to God, 
 that I believe I shall rather leave everything undone, than 
 not write one new one at least every week. 
 
 Mr. Thomason preached on Heb. xii. to my edification. 
 
 Dr. Milner and Lord C. called. I was introduced as 
 having been Senior Wrangler ; but how contemptible did 
 these paltry honours appear to me ! Ah, thought I, you 
 know not how little I am flattered by these intended com- 
 pliments. 
 
 In the hall was much affected by the sight of Lord B., 
 whose look of meekness and humility riveted my attention, 
 and almost melted me to tears. If there is one disposition 
 in the world I wish for more than another, it is this ; 
 but the bias of my corrupted nature hurries me violently 
 against it. 
 
 Mr. Grant's summons to him * to sail for St. Helena in 
 eight or ten days,' reached him a month before his twenty- 
 fourth birthday, before which he could not legally receive 
 full ordination, in the Chapel Royal at St. James's. 
 
 Felt more persuaded of my call than ever ; indeed, 
 there was scarcely a shadow of a doubt left. Rejoice, O 
 my soul, thou shalt be the servant of thy God in this life, 
 and then in the next for all the boundless ages of eternity. 
 
 Not till August 31 was it possible for the fleet which 
 convoyed the East Indiamen, in that year of war with 
 France and Napoleon's Continental allies, to see the last of 
 
72 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Ireland. The seven months were spent by Henry Martyn 
 in elaborate preparations for what proved to be nearly a 
 year's voyage, and in repeated farewells the anguish of 
 which is reflected in his Journal and correspondence. 
 Having previously taken his M.A. degree, he received that 
 of Bachelor of Divinity by mandate, which required the 
 assent of all the heads of colleges, and then a grace to pass 
 the senate, and the presenting of a petition to the King. 
 Dr. Gilchrist, the Orientalist who had just returned from his 
 long career in Calcutta, where he had been a colleague of 
 Carey in the College of Fort William, gave him lessons 
 in Hindustani pronunciation. 
 
 On my mentioning my desire of translating some of the 
 Scriptures with him, he advised me by all means to desist 
 till I knew much more of the language, by having resided 
 some years in the country. He said it was the rock on 
 which missions had split, that they had attempted to 
 write and preach before they knew the language. The 
 Lord's Prayer, he said, was now a common subject of 
 ridicule with the people, on account of the manner in which 
 it had been translated. All these are useful hints to me. 
 
 The mode of appointing to Indian chaplaincies has 
 varied so much since the time of Charles Grant and 
 Simeon, that it is interesting to see what was done in 
 Henry Martyn's case. 
 
 1805, April i. Went to Lord Hawkesbury's office, but, 
 being too early, I went into St. James's Park, and sat down 
 on a bench to read my Bible. After a little time a person 
 came and sat down on the same bench ; on entering into 
 conversation with him I found he had known better days. 
 He was about seventy years of age, and of a very passion- 
 ate and disappointed spirit. He spoke sensibly on several 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 73 
 
 subjects, and was acquainted with- the Gospel ; but 
 was offended at my reminding him of several things 
 concerning it. On my offering him some money, which I 
 saw he needed, he confessed his poverty ; he was thankful 
 for my little donation, and I repeated my advice of seeking 
 divine consolation. 
 
 April 2. Breakfasted with . Our conversation 
 
 was on the most delightful subject to me, the spread of the 
 Gospel in future ages. I went away animated and happy. 
 Went with Mr. Grant towards the India House. He 
 said that he was that day about to take the necessary steps 
 for bringing forward the business of the chaplains, and 
 that by to-morrow night I should know whether I could 
 go or not. In prayer at night my soul panted after 
 God, and longed to be entirely conformed to His image. 
 
 April 3. After dinner, passed some time in prayer, and 
 rejoiced to think that God would finally glorify Himself, 
 whatever hindrance may arise for a time. Going to 
 Mr. Grant's, I found that the chaplaincies had been agreed 
 to, after two hours' debate, and some obloquy thrown upon 
 Mr. Grant by the chairman, for his connection with Mr. 
 Wilberforce and those people. Mr. G. said that though my 
 nomination had not taken place, the case was now beyond 
 danger, and that I should appear before the court in a 
 couple of days in my canonicals. I felt very indignant at 
 this, not so much, I think, from personal pride, as on 
 account of the degradation of my office. Mr. G. pleasantly 
 said, I must attend to my appearance, as I should be much 
 remarked, on account of the person who had nominated 
 me. I feel this will be a trial to me, which I would never 
 submit to for gain ; but I rejoice that it will be for my 
 dear and blessed Lord. 
 
 April 4. Went down to Cambridge. 
 
 April 6. Passed most of the morning in the Fellows' 
 garden. It was the last time I visited this favourite retreat, 
 where I have often enjoyed the presence of God. 
 
74 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 April 7. (Sunday.) Preached at Lolworth on Prov. xxii. 
 17 ; very few seemed affected at my leaving them, and those 
 chiefly women. An old farmer of a neighbouring parish, 
 as he was taking leave of me, turned aside to shed tears ; 
 this affected me more than anything. Rode away with my 
 heart heavy, partly at my own corruption, partly at the 
 thoughts of leaving this, place in such general hardness of 
 heart. Yet so it hath pleased God, I hope, to reserve them 
 for a more faithful minister. Prayed over the whole of my 
 sermon for the evening, and when I came to preach it, God 
 assisted me beyond my hopes. Most of the younger 
 people seemed to be in tears. The text was 2 Sam. vii. 
 28, 29. Took leave of Dr. Milner ; he was much affected, 
 and said himself his heart was full. Mr. Simeon commended 
 me to God in prayer, in which he pleaded, amongst other 
 things, for a richer blessing on my soul. He perceives that 
 I want it, and so do I. Professor Farish walked home with 
 me to the college gate, and there I parted from him, with 
 no small sorrow. 
 
 April 8. My young friends in the University, who have 
 scarcely left me a moment to myself, were with me this 
 morning as soon as I was moving, leaving me no time for 
 prayer. My mind was very solemn, and I wished much to 
 be left alone. A great many accompanied me to the coach, 
 which took me up at the end of the town. It was a thick, 
 misty morning, so the University, with its towers and 
 spires, was out of sight in an instant. 
 
 April 24. Keenly disappointed at rinding no letter 
 from Lydia ; thus it pleased God, in the riches of His grace, 
 to quash at once all my beginnings of entanglement. Oh, 
 may it be to make me more entirely His own. ' The Lord 
 shall be the portion of mine inheritance, and of my cup. 
 Oh, may I live indeed a more spiritual life of faith ! Prayed 
 that I might obtain a more deep acquaintance with the 
 mysteries of the Gospel, and the offices of Christ ; my soul 
 was solemnised. Went to Russell Square, and found from 
 
LVDIA GRENFELL 75 
 
 Mr. Grant that I was that day appointed a chaplain to the 
 East India Company, but that my particular destination 
 would depend on the government in India. Rather may I 
 say that it depends on the will of my God, who in His 
 own time thus brings things to pass. Oh, now let my 
 heart be spiritualised ; that the glorious and arduous work 
 before me may fill all my soul, and stir me up to prayer. 
 
 April 25. Breakfasted with the venerable Mr. Newton, 
 who made several striking remarks in reference to my 
 work. He said he had heard of a clever gardener, who 
 would sow the seeds when the meat was put down to 
 roast, and engage to produce a salad by the time it was 
 ready ; but the Lord did not sow oaks in this way. On 
 my saying that perhaps I should never live to see much 
 fruit, he answered, I should have a bird's eye view of it, 
 which would be better. When I spoke of the opposition 
 that I should be likely to meet with, he said, he supposed 
 Satan would not love me for what I was about to do. The 
 old man prayed afterwards, with sweet simplicity. Drank 
 tea at C. Our hearts seemed full of the joy which comes 
 from the communion of saints. 
 
 April 26. Met D. at Mr. Grant's, and was much 
 affected at some marks of love expressed by the people 
 at Cambridge, at the time of my leaving them. He said 
 that as I was going down the aisle they all rose up to take 
 their last view. 
 
 May 4. Waiting this morning on the Archbishop of 
 Canterbury at Lambeth Palace. He had learnt from 
 somebody my circumstances, the degree I had taken, and 
 my object in going to India. He spoke much on the im- 
 portance of the work, the small ecclesiastical establishment 
 for so great a body of people, and the state of those 
 English there, who, he said, ' called themselves Christians.' 
 He was throughout very civil, and wished me all the 
 success I desired. I then proceeded to the India House, 
 and received directions to attend on Wednesday to be 
 
76 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 sworn in. Afterwards walked to Mr. Wilberforce's at 
 Broomfield. 
 
 May 8. Reading Mr. Grant's, book. 1 The state of the 
 natives, and the prospects of doing good there, the character 
 of Schwartz, &c., set forth in it, much impressed my mind, 
 and I found great satisfaction in pleading for the fulfil- 
 ment of God's promises tp the heathen. It seemed painful 
 to think of myself at all, except in reference to the Church 
 of Christ. Being somewhat in danger of distraction this 
 evening, from many concurrent circumstances, I found a 
 very short prayer answered by my being kept steady. 
 Heard from Mr. Parry this evening, that in consequence of 
 an embargo laid on all the ships by government, who had 
 taken the best seamen from the Company's ships, on account 
 of the sailing of the French and Spanish fleets, I should 
 not be able to go before the middle of June, if so soon. 
 
 May 1 5. Read prayers at Mr. Newton's, and preached 
 on Eph. ii. 19-21. The clerk threw out very disrespectful 
 and even uncivil things respecting my going to India ; 
 though I thought the asperity and contemptuousness he 
 manifested unsuitable to his profession, I felt happy in the 
 comfortable assurance of being upright in my intentions. 
 The sermon was much praised by some people coming in, 
 but happily this gives me little satisfaction. Went home and 
 read a sermon of Flavel's, on knowing nothing but Christ. 
 May 17. Walked out, and continued in earnest striving 
 with my corruption. I made a covenant with my eyes, 
 which I kept strictly ; though I was astonished to find the 
 difficulty I had in doing even this. 
 
 May 22. Endeavoured to guard my thoughts this 
 morning in a more particular manner, as expecting to pass 
 it, with Sargent, in prayer for assistance in the ministry. 
 Called at Mr. Wilberforce's, when I met Mr. Babington. 
 The extreme kindness and cordiality of these two was very 
 
 1 The Observations on the State of Society among the Asiatic Subjects of 
 Great Britain, written in 1792. 
 
LYDIA G REN FELL 77 
 
 pleasing to me, though rather elating. By a letter from 
 B. to-day, learnt that two young men of Chesterton had 
 come forward, who professed to have been awakened by a 
 sermon of mine on Psalm ix. 17. I was not so affected 
 with gratitude and joy as I expected to be ; could not 
 easily ascribe the glory to God ; yet I will bless Him 
 through all my ignorance that He has thus owned the 
 ministry of one so weak. Oh, may I have faith to go on- 
 ward, expecting to see miracles wrought by the foolishness 
 of preaching. H., to whom I had made application for the 
 loan which Major Sandys found it inconvenient to advance, 
 dined with me, and surprised me by the difficulty he 
 started. After dinner went to the India House to take 
 
 leave. Mr. , the other chaplain, sat with me before 
 
 we were called in, and I found that I knew a little of him, 
 having been at his house. As he knew my character, I 
 spoke very freely to him on the subject of religion. Was 
 called in to take the oaths. All the directors were present, 
 I think. Mr. Grant, in the chair, addressed a charge to us, 
 extempore. One thing struck my attention, which was, that 
 he warned us of the enervating effects of the climate. 
 
 I felt more acutely than ever I did in my life the 
 shame attending poverty. Nothing but the remembrance 
 that I was not to blame supported me. Whatever comes 
 to me in the way of Providence is, and must be, for my 
 good. 
 
 May 30. Went to the India House. Kept the cove- 
 nant with my eyes pretty well. Oh, what bitter experience 
 have I had to teach me carefulness against temptation ! I 
 have found this method, which I have sometimes had 
 recourse to, useful to-day namely, that of praying in 
 ejaculations for any particular person whose appearance 
 might prove an occasion of sinful thoughts. After asking 
 of God that she might be as pure and beautiful in her 
 mind and heart as in body, and be a temple of the Holy 
 Ghost, consecrated to the service of God, for whose glory 
 
78 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 she was made, I dare not harbour a thought of an opposite 
 tendency. 
 
 June 6. How many temptations are there in the streets 
 of London ! 
 
 June 14. Sent off all my luggage, as preparatory to its 
 going on board. Dined at Mr. Cecil's ; he endeavoured to 
 correct my reading, but in vain. ' Brother M./ says he, 
 ' you are a humble man, and would gain regard in private 
 life ; but to gain public attention you must force yourself 
 into a more marked and expressive manner.' Generally, 
 to-night, have I been above the world ; Lydia, and other 
 comforts, I would resign. 
 
 June 1 6. I thought it probable, from illness, that death 
 might be at hand, and this was before me all the day ; 
 sometimes I was exceedingly refreshed and comforted at 
 the thought, at other times I felt unwilling and afraid to 
 die. Shed tears at night, at the thought of my departure, 
 and the roaring sea, that would soon be rolling between 
 me and all that is dear to me upon earth. 
 
 Mrs. T. M. Hitchins, his cousin's wife, having asked 
 him for some of his sermons, he replied : 
 
 London : June 24, 1805. 
 
 The arguments you offer to induce me seem not to 
 possess that force which I look for in your reasoning. 
 Sermons cannot be good memorials, because once read 
 they are done with especially a young man's sermons, 
 unless they possess a peculiar simplicity and spirituality ; 
 which I need not say are qualities not belonging to mine. 
 I hope, however, that I am improving and I trust that 
 now I am removed from the contagion of academic air 
 I am in the way of acquiring a greater knowledge of men 
 and of my own heart I shall exchange my jejune scholastic 
 style for a simple spiritual exhibition of profitable truth 
 Mr. Cecil has been taking a great deal of pains with me 
 
LYDIA G REN FELL 79 
 
 My insipid, inanimate manner in the pulpit, he says, is 
 intolerable. Sir, said he, it is cupola-painting, not minia- 
 ture, that must be the character of a man that harangues 
 a multitude. Lieut. Wynter called on me last Saturday, 
 and last night drank tea with me. I cannot but admire 
 his great seriousness. I feel greatly attached to him. He 
 is just the sort of person, of a sober thoughtful cast, that 
 I love to associate with. He mentioned Lydia, I do not 
 know why, but he could not tell me half enough about 
 her, while she was at Plymouth, to satisfy my curiosity. 
 Whitsun-week was a time of the utmost distress to me on 
 her account On the Monday at the Eclectic, Mr. Cecil, 
 speaking of celibacy, said, I was acting like a madman in 
 going out without a wife. So thought all the other ten or 
 eleven ministers present, and Mr. Foster among the rest, 
 who is unmarried. This opinion, coming deliberately from 
 so many experienced ministers, threw me into great 
 perplexity, which increased, as my affections began to be 
 set more afloat, for then I was less able than before to 
 discern the path of duty. At last I wrote to Simeon, 
 stating to him the strongest arguments I heard in favour 
 of marriage in my case. His answer decided my mind. 
 He put it in this way. Is it necessary ? To this I could 
 answer, No. Then is it expedient ? He here produced so 
 many weighty reasons against its expediency, that I was 
 soon satisfied in my mind. My turbulent will was, however, 
 not so easily pacified. I was again obliged to undergo the 
 severest pain in making that sacrifice which had cost me 
 so dear before. Better had it been if those wounds had 
 never been torn open. But now again, through the mercy 
 of God, I am once more at peace. What cannot His power 
 effect ? The present wish of my heart is that there may 
 be never a necessity of marriage, so that I may henceforth 
 have no one thing upon earth for which I would wish to 
 stay another hour, except it be to serve the Lord my 
 Saviour in the work of the ministry. Once more, therefore, 
 
8o HENRY MARTYN 
 
 I say to Lydia, and with her to all earthly schemes of 
 happiness, Farewell. Let her live happy and useful in her 
 present situation, since that is the will of God. How long 
 these thoughts may continue, I cannot say. At times of 
 indolence, or distress, or prevalent corruption, the former 
 wishes, I suppose, will occur and renew my pain : but pray, 
 my dear sister, that the Lprd may keep in the imaginations 
 of the thoughts of my heart all that may be for the glory 
 of His great name. The only objection which presented 
 itself to my advisers to marriage was the difficulty of 
 finding a proper person to be the wife of a missionary. I 
 told them that perhaps I should not have occasion to search 
 a long time for one. Simeon knows all about Lydia. I 
 think it very likely that he will endeavour to see her when 
 she comes to town next winter. 
 
 (Addendum at the commencement > before the Address^) 
 
 I never returned my acknowledgment for the little 
 hymn book, which is a memento of both. It is just the 
 sort of thing. Instead of sending the books I intended, I 
 shall inclose in the tea-caddy a little Pilgrim's Progress 
 for you, and another for Lydia. 
 
 July 2 was spent with Corrie in prayer, and converse 
 ' about the great work among the heathen.' Martyn gave 
 a final sitting for his miniature for his sister, to 'the 
 painter lady, who still repeated her infidel cavils ; having 
 nothing more to say in the way of argument, I thought it 
 right to declare the threatenings of God to those who 
 reject the Gospel.' On the 8th he sat for his picture, for 
 his friend Bates, to Russel. After his farewell to Sargent, 
 and riding back, 
 
 Though I was in good health a moment before, yet as 
 I was undressing I fainted and fell into a convulsive fit ; I 
 lost my senses for some time, and on recovering a little 
 
LYDIA GRZNFELL 8i 
 
 found myself in intense pain. Death appeared near at 
 hand, and seemed somewhat different and more terrible 
 than I could have conceived before, not in its conclusion, 
 but in itself. I felt assured of my safety in Christ. Slept 
 very little that night, from extreme debility. Tenth, I 
 went to Portsmouth, where we arrived to breakfast, and 
 find friends from Cambridge. Went with my things on 
 board the Union at the Motherbank. Mr. Simeon read 
 and prayed in the afternoon, thinking I was to go on board 
 for the last time. Mr. Simeon first prayed, and then my- 
 self. On our way to the ship we sung hymns. The time 
 was exceedingly solemn, and our hearts seemed filled with 
 solemn joy. 
 
 As tidings from Lord Nelson were waited for, the fleet 
 consisting of fifteen sail under convoy of the Belliqueuse, 
 Captain Byng went no farther than Plymouth, and then 
 anchored off Falmouth. 
 
 The coast of Devonshire and Cornwall was passing 
 before me. The memory of beloved friends, then, was very 
 strong and affecting. ... I was rather flurried at the sin- 
 gularity of this providence of God, in thus leading me once 
 more to the bosom of all my friends. ... I have thought with 
 exceeding tenderness of Lydia to-day ; how I long to see 
 her ; but if it be the Lord's will, He will open a way. I 
 shall not take any steps to produce a meeting. 
 
 So he wrote on July 20. On the same day, the Rev. 
 T. M. Hitchins wrote to him, thus : ' Lydia, from whom we 
 heard about ten days ago, is quite well. She is much 
 interested in your welfare.' Mrs. Hitchins wrote : ' Lydia, 
 whom I heard lately from, is well, and never omits 
 mentioning you in her letters and, I may venture to say, 
 what you will value still more, in her prayers also.' Martyn 
 wrote to Mr. Hitchins on the 23rd: 'A great work lies 
 
 G 
 
82 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 before me, and I must submit to many privations if I 
 would see it accomplished. I should say, however, that 
 poverty is not one of the evils I shall have to encounter ; 
 the salary of a chaplain, even at the lowest, is 600 rupees 
 a month. Give my kind love to mama as also to Miss 
 L. Grenfell.' A postscript to the letter stated that the 
 writer had taken his plaice in the coach for Marazion : 
 1 Trust to pass some part of the morning at Miss Grenfell's.' 
 He thus records in his Journal the interviews which 
 resulted in what amounted to a brief engagement : 
 
 I arrived at Marazion in time for breakfast, and met 
 my beloved Lydia. In the course of the morning I walked 
 with her, though not uninterruptedly; with much con- 
 fusion I declared my affection for her, with the intention 
 of learning whether, if ever I saw it right in India to be 
 married, she would come out ; but she would not declare 
 her sentiments, she said that the shortness of arrangement 
 was an obstacle, even if all others were removed. In great 
 tumult I walked up to St. Hilary, whence, after dining, I 
 returned to Mr. Grenfell's, but, on account of the number 
 of persons there, I had not an opportunity of being alone 
 with Lydia. Went back to Falmouth with G. I was 
 more disposed to talk of Lydia all the way, but roused 
 myself to a sense of my duty, and addressed him on the sub- 
 ject of religion. The next day I was exceedingly melan- 
 choly at what had taken place between Lydia and myself, 
 and at the thought of being separated from her. I could 
 not bring myself to believe that God had settled the whole 
 matter, because I was not willing to believe it. 
 
 To Miss LYDIA GRENFELL, MARAZION 
 
 Union, Falmouth Harbour : July 27, 1805. 
 
 ... As I was coming on board this morning, and 
 reading Mr. Serle's hymn you wrote out for me, a sudden 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 83 
 
 gust of wind blew it into the sea. I made the boatmen 
 immediately heave to, and recovered it, happily without 
 any injury except what it had received from the sea. 
 I should have told you that the Morning Hymn, which I 
 always kept carefully in my pocket-book, was one day 
 stolen with it, and other valuable letters, from my rooms 
 in college. It would be extremely gratifying to me to 
 possess another copy of it, as it always reminded me most 
 forcibly of the happy day on which we visited the aged 
 saint. The fleet, it is said, will not sail for three weeks, 
 but if you are willing to employ any of your time in pro- 
 viding me with this or any other manuscript hymns, the 
 sooner you write them, the more certain I shall be of 
 receiving them. Pardon me for thus intruding on your 
 time ; you will in no wise lose your reward. The 
 encouragement conveyed in little compositions of this sort 
 is more refreshing than a cup of cold water. The Lord of 
 the harvest, who is sending forth me, who am most truly 
 less than the least of all saints, will reward you for being 
 willing to help forward even the meanest of His servants. 
 The love which you bear to the cause of Christ, as well as 
 motives of private friendship, will, I trust, induce you to 
 commend me to God, and to the word of His grace, at 
 those sacred moments when you approach the throne of 
 our covenant God. To His gracious care I commend you. 
 May you long live happy and holy, daily growing more 
 meet for the inheritance of the saints in light. I remain, 
 with affectionate regard, yours most truly, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 July 28. (Sunday.) Preached in the morning, on 
 board, on John iii. 3. In the afternoon, at Falmouth Church, 
 on i Cor. i. 20 to 26. 
 
 July 29. My gloom returned. Walked to Lamorran ; 
 alternately repining at my dispensation, and giving it up 
 to the Lord. Sometimes after thinking of Lydia for a 
 
 G 2 
 
84 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 long time together, so as to feel almost outrageous at being 
 deprived of her my soul would feel its guilt, and flee again 
 to God. I was much relieved at intervals by learning the 
 hymn, ' The God of Abraham praise.' 
 
 The lady's Diary has these passages, which show that 
 her sister, Mrs. Hitchins, had rightly represented the state 
 of her heart as not altogether refusing to return Martyn's 
 affection : 
 
 1805, July 2$.' I was surprised this morning by a visit 
 from H. M., and have passed the day chiefly with him. 
 The distance he is going, and the errand he is going on, 
 rendered his society particularly interesting. I felt as if 
 bidding a final adieu to him in this world, and all he said 
 was as the words of one on the borders of eternity. May 
 I improve the opportunity I have enjoyed of Christian 
 converse, and may the Lord moderate the sorrow I feel at 
 parting with so valuable and excellent friend some pains 
 have attended it, known only to God and myself. Thou 
 God, that knowest them, canst alone give comfort. . . . 
 Oh, may we each pursue our different paths, and meet at 
 last around our Father's throne ; may we often meet now 
 in spirit, praying and obtaining blessings for each other. 
 Now, my soul, return to God, the author of them. 
 
 July 26. Oh, how this day has passed away ! Nothing 
 done to any good purpose. Lord, help me ! I feel Thy 
 loved presence withdrawn ; I feel departing from Thee. 
 Oh, let Thy mercy pardon, let Thy love succour, me. 
 Deliver me from this temptation, set my soul at liberty, 
 and I will praise Thee. I . know the cause of all this 
 darkness, this depression ; dare I desire what Thou dost 
 plainly, by the voice of Thy providence, condemn ? O 
 Lord, help me to conquer my natural feelings, help me to 
 be watchful as Thy child. Oh, leave me not, or I fall a 
 prey to this corroding care. Let me cast every care on Thee. 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 85 
 
 Gurlyn, July 30. Blessed Lord, I thank Thee for 
 affording me the retirement I so much delight in ; here I 
 enjoy freedom from all the noise and interruption of a 
 town. Oh, may the Lord sanctify this pleasure. Oh, may it 
 prove the means of benefiting my soul. Oh, may I watch 
 against the intrusions of vain thoughts ; else, instead of an 
 advantage, I shall find solitude ruinous to my soul. 
 
 August 4. This evening my soul has been pained with 
 many fears concerning an absent friend, yet the Lord 
 sweetly supports me, and is truly a refuge to me. It is a 
 stormy and tempestuous night ; the stillness and retirement 
 of this place add to the solemnity of the hour. I hear 
 the voice of God in every blast it seems to say, < Sin has 
 brought storm and tempest on a guilty world.' O my 
 Father and my God, Thou art righteous in all Thy 
 judgments, merciful in all Thy ways. I would humbly 
 trust in Thee, and confide all who are dear to me into 
 Thy hands. The anxieties of nature, the apprehensions 
 of affection, do Thou regulate, and make me acquiesce in 
 whatever is Thy will. 
 
 August 5. My mind is relieved to-day by hearing the 
 fleet, in which I thought my friend had sailed, has not left 
 the port. Oh, how frequently do unnecessary pains destroy 
 our peace. Lord, look on me to-night, pardon my sins 
 and make me more watchful and fight against my inward 
 corruption. Oh, it is a state of conflict indeed ! 
 
 He thus wrote to Mrs. Hitchins : 
 
 Falmouth : July 30, 1805. 
 
 ' My dearest Cousin, I am exceedingly rejoiced at 
 being permitted to send you one more letter, as the former, 
 if it had been the last, would have left, I fear, a painful 
 impression on your mind. It pleased God to restore peace 
 to my mind soon after I came on board as I thought 
 finally. I was left more alone with God, and found blessed 
 seasons of intercourse with Him. But when your letter came, 
 
86 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 I found it so sympathising, so affectionate, that my heart was 
 filled with joy and thankfulness to God for such a dear 
 friend, and I could not refrain from bowing my knees im- 
 mediately to pray that God might bless all your words to 
 the good of my soul, and bless you for having written them. 
 My views of the respective importance of things continue, 
 I hope, to rectify. The shortness of time, the precious 
 value of immortal souls, and the plain command of Christ, 
 all conspire to teach me that Lydia must be resigned 
 and for ever for though you suggest the possibility of my 
 hereafter returning and being united to her, I rather wish 
 to beware of looking forward to anything in this life as the 
 end or reward of my labours. It would be a temptation to 
 me to return before being necessitated. The rest which 
 remaineth for the people of God is in another world, where 
 they neither marry nor are given in marriage. But while 
 I thus reason, still a sigh will ever and anon escape me at 
 the thought of a final separation from her. In the morning 
 when I rise, before prayer puts grace into exercise, there is 
 generally a very heavy gloom on my spirits and a distaste 
 for everything in earth or heaven. You do not seem to 
 suppose that any objection would remain in her mind, if I 
 should return and other obstacles were removed which 
 opinion of yours is, no doubt, very pleasing to me but if 
 there were anything more than friendship, do you think it 
 at all likely she could have spoken and written to me as she 
 has ? However, do not suppose from this that I wish to 
 hear from you anything more on this subject in the hope 
 of being gratified with an assurance to the contrary. I 
 cannot tell what induced me to take my leave of the people 
 in the west when I was last there, as it was so probable we 
 should be detained ; were it not for having bid them adieu, 
 I believe I should pay them another visit only that I 
 could not do it without being with Lydia again, which 
 might not perhaps answer any good purpose, and more 
 probably would renew the pain. 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 87 
 
 If, in India, I should be persuaded of the expediency of 
 marriage, you perceive that I can do nothing less than 
 make her the offer, or rather propose the sacrifice. It 
 would be almost cruel and presumptuous in me to make 
 such an application to her, especially as she would be 
 induced by a sense of duty rather than personal attach- 
 ment. But what else can be done ? Should she not, then, 
 be warned of my intention before I go ? If you advance 
 no objection, I shall write a letter to her, notwithstanding 
 her prohibition. When this is done no further step remains 
 to be taken, that I know of. The shortness of our ac- 
 quaintance, which she made a ground of objection, cannot 
 now be remedied. 
 
 The matter, as it stands, must be left with God and I 
 do leave it with Him very cheerfully. I pray that hereafter 
 I may not be tempted to follow my will, and mistake it for 
 God's to fancy I am called to marriage, when I ought to 
 remain single and you will likewise pray, my dear cousin, 
 that my mind may be always under a right direction. 
 
 His Journal thus continues : 
 
 July 31. Went on board this morning in extreme 
 anguish. I could not help saying, ' Lord, it is not a sinful 
 attachment in itself, and therefore I may commune more 
 freely with Thee about it.' I sought for hymns suitable 
 to my case, but none did sufficiently ; most complained of 
 spiritual distress, but mine was not from any doubt of God's 
 favour, for I felt no doubt of that. 
 
 August I. Rose in great anguish of mind, but prayer 
 relieved me a little. The wind continuing foul, I went 
 ashore after breakfast ; but before this, sat down to write 
 to Lydia, hoping to relieve the burden of my mind. I 
 wrote in great turbulence, but in a little time my tumult 
 unaccountably subsided, and I enjoyed a peace to which I 
 have been for some time a stranger. I felt exceedingly 
 willing to leave her, and to go on my way rejoicing. I 
 
88 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 could not account for this, except by ascribing it to the 
 gracious influence of God. The first few Psalms were 
 exceedingly comfortable to me. Received a letter this 
 evening from Emma, and received it as from God ; I was 
 animated before, but this added tenfold encouragement. 
 She warned me, from experience, of the carefulness it 
 would bring upon me ; bu^t spoke with such sympathy and 
 tenderness, that my heart was quite refreshed. I bowed my 
 knees to bless and adore God for it, and devoted myself anew 
 to His beloved service. Went on board at night ; the sea 
 ran high, but I felt a sweet tranquillity in Him who stilleth 
 the raging of the sea. I was delighted to find that the 
 Lascars understood me perfectly when I spoke to them 
 a sentence or two in Hindustani. 
 
 August 5. Went ashore. Walked to Pendennis garri- 
 son ; enjoyed some happy reflections as I sat on one of 
 the ramparts, looking at the ships and sea. 
 
 August 7. Preached at Falmouth Church, on Psalm 
 iii. I, with much comfort; after church, set off to walk to 
 St. Hilary. Reached Helston in three hours in extraordi- 
 nary spirits. The joy of my soul was very great. Every 
 object around me called forth praise and gratitude to God. 
 Perhaps it might have been joy at the prospect of seeing 
 Lydia, but I asked myself at the time, whether out of love 
 to God I was willing to turn back and see her no more. 
 I persuaded myself that I could. But perhaps had I been 
 put to the trial, it would have been otherwise. I arrived 
 safe at St. Hilary, and passed the evening agreeably 
 with R. 8th. Enjoyed much of the presence of God in 
 morning prayer. The morning passed profitably in writing 
 on Heb. ii. 3. My soul seemed to breathe seriously 
 after God. Walked down with R. to Gurlyn to call on 
 Lydia. She was not at home when we called, so I walked 
 out to meet her. When I met her coming up the hill, I 
 was almost induced to believe her more interested about 
 me than I had conceived. Went away in the expectation 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 89 
 
 of visiting her frequently. Called on my way (from Fal- 
 mouth) at Gurlyn. My mind not in peace ; at night in 
 prayer, my soul was much overwhelmed with fear, which 
 caused me to approach God in fervent petition, that He 
 would make me perfectly upright, and my walk consistent 
 with the high character I am called to assume. 
 
 August 10. Rose very early, with uneasiness increased 
 by seeing the wind northerly ; walked away at seven to 
 Gurlyn, feeling little or no pleasure at the thought of 
 seeing Lydia ; apprehension about the sailing of the fleet 
 made me dreadfully uneasy ; was with Lydia a short time 
 before breakfast ; afterwards I read the loth Psalm, with 
 Home's Commentary, to her and her mother ; she was 
 then just putting into my hand the lothof Genesis to read 
 when a servant came in, and said a horse was come for me 
 from St. Hilary, where a carriage was waiting to convey 
 me to Falmouth. All my painful presentiments were thus 
 realised, and it came upon me like a thunderbolt. Lydia 
 was evidently painfully affected by it ; she came out, that 
 we might be alone at taking leave, and I then told her, 
 that if it should appear to be God's will that I should be 
 married, she must not be offended at receiving a letter from 
 me. In the great hurry she discovered more of her mind 
 than she intended ; she made no objection whatever to 
 coming out. Thinking, perhaps, I wished to make an 
 engagement with her, she said we had better go quite free ; 
 with this I left her, not knowing yet for what purpose I 
 have been permitted, by an unexpected providence, to enjoy 
 these interviews. I galloped back to St. Hilary, and 
 instantly got into a chaise with Mr. R., who had been awaked 
 by the signal gun at five in the morning, and had come for 
 me. At Hildon I got a horse, with which I rode to Fal- 
 mouth, meeting on the road another express sent after me 
 by R. I arrived about twelve, and instantly went on 
 board ; almost all the other ships were under weigh, but the 
 Union had got entangled in the chains. The commodore 
 
90 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 expressed his anger as he passed, at this delay, but I 
 blessed the Lord, who had thus saved His poor creature 
 from shame and trouble. How delusive are schemes of 
 pleasure ; at nine in the morning I was sitting at ease, with 
 the person dearest to me on earth, intending to go out with 
 her afterwards to see the different views, to visit some 
 persons with her, and to preach on the morrow ; four hours 
 only elapsed, and I was under sail from England ! The 
 anxiety to get on board, and the joy I felt at not being left 
 behind, absorbed other sorrowful considerations for a time ; 
 wrote several letters as soon as I was on board. When I 
 was left a little at leisure, my spirits began to sink ; yet 
 how backward was I to draw near to my God. I found 
 relief occasionally, yet still was slow to fly to this refuge 
 of my weary soul. Was meditating on a subject for 
 to-morrow. As more of the land gradually appeared behind 
 the Lizard, I watched with my spy-glass for the Mount 
 (St. Michael's), but in consequence of lying to for the purser, 
 and thus dropping astern of the fleet, night came on before 
 we weathered the point. Oh, let not my soul be deceived 
 and distracted by these foolish vanities, but now that I am 
 actually embarked in Christ's cause, let a peculiar unction 
 rest upon my soul, to wean me from the world, and to 
 inspire me with ardent zeal for the good of souls. 
 
 To Miss LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 Union, Falmouth : August 10, 1805. 
 
 My dear Miss Lydia, It will perhaps be some satis- 
 faction to yourself and your mother, to know that I was in 
 time. Our ship was entangled in the chain, and was by 
 that means the only one not under weigh when I arrived 
 It seems that most of the people on board had given me up, 
 and did not mean to wait for me. I cannot but feel sensibly 
 this instance of Divine mercy in thus preserving me from 
 the great trouble that would have attended the loss of my 
 
LVDIA GRENFELL 91 
 
 passage. Mount's Bay will soon be in sight, and recall 
 you all once more to my affectionate remembrance. ... I 
 bid you a long Farewell. God ever bless you, and help 
 you sometimes to intercede for me. 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 The lady alludes thus, in her Diary > to these events, in 
 language which confesses her love, as she did not again 
 confess it till after his death : l 
 
 August 8. I was surprised again to-day by a visit from 
 my friend, Mr. Martyn, who, contrary to every expectation, 
 is detained, perhaps weeks longer. I feel myself called on 
 to act decisively oh how difficult and painful a part Lord, 
 assist me. I desire to be directed by Thy wisdom, and to 
 follow implicitly what appears Thy will. May we each 
 consider Thy honour as entrusted to us, and resolve, what- 
 ever it may cost us, to seek Thy glory and do Thy will. 
 O Lord, I feel myself so weak that I would fain fly from 
 the trial. My hope is in Thee do Thou strengthen me, 
 help me to seek, to know, and resolutely to do, Thy will, 
 and that we may be each divinely influenced, and may 
 principle be victorious over feeling. Thou, blessed Spirit, 
 aid, support, and guide us. Now may we be in the armour 
 of God, -now may we flee from temptation. O blessed Jesus, 
 leave me not, forsake me not. 
 
 A ugust 9. What a day of conflict has this been ! I 
 was much blessed, as if to prepare me for it, in the morning, 
 and expected to see my friend, and hoped to have acted 
 
 1 The parallel between Henry Martyn and David Brainerd, so close as to 
 spiritual experience and missionary service, hereditary consumption and early 
 death, is even more remarkable in their hopeless but purifying love. Brainerd 
 was engaged to Jerusha, younger daughter of the great Jonathan Edwards 
 * Dear Jerusha, are you willing to part with me ? ' said the dying missionary 
 on October 4, 1747. . . . ' If I thought I should not see you and be happy 
 with you in another world, I could not bear to part with you. But we shall 
 spend a happy eternity together ! ' See J. M. Sherwood's edition (1885) f 
 the Memoirs of Rev. David Brainerd, prefaced by Jonathan Edwards, D. D. , 
 p. 340. 
 
92 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 with Christian resolution. At Tregembo I learnt he had 
 been called off by express last night. The effect this 
 intelligence had on me shows how much my affections are 
 engaged. O Lord, I lament it, I wonder at myself, I 
 tremble at what may be before me but do not, O Lord, 
 forsake me. The idea of his going, when at parting I 
 behaved with greater coolness and reserve than I ever did 
 before, was a distress I could hardly bear, and I prayed 
 the Lord to afford me an opportunity of doing away the 
 impression from his mind. I saw no possibility of this 
 imagining the fleet must have sailed when, to my 
 astonishment, I learnt from our servant that he had called 
 again this evening, and left a message that he would be 
 here to-morrow. Oh, I feel less able than ever to conceal 
 my real sentiments, and the necessity of doing it does not 
 so much weigh with me. O my soul, pause, reflect thy 
 future happiness, and his too, the glory of God, the peace 
 of my dear mother all are concerned in what may pass 
 to-morrow ; I can only look and pray to be directed 
 aright. 
 
 August 10. Much have I to testify of supporting grace 
 this day, and of what I must consider Divine interference 
 in my favour, and that of my dear friend, who is now gone 
 to return no more. My affections are engaged past re- 
 calling, and the anguish I endured yesterday, from an 
 apprehension that I had treated him with coolness, exceeds 
 my power to express ; but God saw it, and kindly ordered 
 it that he should come and do away the idea from my 
 mind. It contributed likewise to my peace, and I hope to 
 his, that it is clearly now understood between us that he 
 is free to marry where he is going, and I have felt quite 
 resigned to the will of God in this, and shall often pray the 
 Lord to find him a suitable partner. 
 
 Went to meeting in a comfortable frame, but the 
 intelligence brought me there that the fleet had probably 
 sailed without my friend so distressed and distracted my 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL $ 3 
 
 mind, that I would gladly have exchanged my feelings of 
 yesterday for those I was now exercised with ; yet in 
 prayer I found relief, and in appealing to God. How 
 unsought by me was his coming here. I still felt anxiety 
 beyond all expression to hear if he arrived in time or not. 
 Oh, not for all the world could offer me would I he should 
 lose his passage ! yet stay, my soul, recollect thyself, are 
 not all events at the Lord's disposal ? Are not the steps 
 of a good man ordered by the Lord ? Cast then this 
 burden on Him who carest for thee, my soul. Oh, let not 
 Thy name, great God, be blasphemed through us surely 
 we desire to glorify it above all things, and would sacrifice 
 everything to do so ; enter then my mind this night, and 
 let me in every dark providence trust in the Lord. 
 
 August ii. A day of singular mercies. O my soul, 
 how should the increasing goodness of God engage thee to 
 serve Him with more zeal and ardour. I had a comfortable 
 season in prayer before breakfast, enjoying sweet liberty of 
 spirit before God my Saviour, God, the sinner's friend and 
 helper. Went to church, but could get no comfort from 
 the sermon ; the service I found in some parts quickening. 
 On my return I found a letter from my excellent friend, 
 dated on board the Union. Oh, what a relief to my 
 mind ! By a singular providence this ship was prevented 
 sailing by getting entangled in the chain ; every other 
 belonging to the fleet was under weigh when he reached 
 Falmouth, and his friends there had given over the hope of 
 his arriving in time. Doth not God care for His people, 
 and order everything, even the most trifling, that concerns 
 them ? The fleet must not sail till the man of God joined 
 it ; praised be the name of the Lord for this instance of 
 His watchful care. And now, my soul, turn to God, thy 
 rest. Oh, may the remembrance of my dear friend, whilst 
 it is cherished as it ought, be no hindrance to my progress 
 in grace and holiness. May God alone fill my thoughts, 
 and may my regard for my friend be sanctified, and be a 
 
94 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 means of stimulating me to press forward, and animate me 
 in devoting myself entirely to God. Lord, I would un- 
 feignedly adore Thee for all the instances of Thy loving 
 kindness to me this week. I have had many remarkable 
 answers to prayer, many proofs that the Lord watches 
 over me, unworthy as I am. O Divine Saviour, how shall 
 I praise Thee ? Walked tjiis evening to a little meeting at 
 Thirton Wood. I was greatly refreshed and comforted. Oh, 
 what a support in time of trouble is the Lord God of 
 Israel ! I am about retiring to rest oh, may my thoughts 
 upon my bed be solemn and spiritual. The remembrance 
 of my dear friend is at times attended with feelings most 
 painful, and yet, when I consider why he is gone, and 
 Whom he is serving, every burden is removed, and I rejoice 
 on his account, and rejoice that the Lord has such a faithful 
 servant employed in the work. Oh, may I find grace 
 triumphant over every feeling of my heart. Come, Lord 
 Jesus, and dwell with me. 
 
 August 12. Passed a sweet, peaceful day, enjoying much 
 of His presence whose favour giveth life, and joy, and peace. 
 Visited several of the poor near me, and found ability to 
 speak freely and feelingly to them of the state of their souls. 
 My dear absent friend is constantly remembered by me, 
 but I find not his remembrance a hindrance to my soul in 
 following after God no, rather does it stimulate me in my 
 course. Thus hath the Lord answered my prayers, as it 
 respects myself, that our regard might be a sanctified one. 
 Oh, bless the Lord, my soul, for ever ! praise Him in cheerful 
 lays from day to day, and hope eternally to do so. 
 
 August 13. Awoke early and had a happy season. 
 Visited a poor old man in great poverty, whose mind 
 seemed disposed to receive instruction, and in some measure 
 enlightened to know his sinful state and need of Christ ; I 
 found it a good time whilst with him. This evening my 
 spirits are depressed ; my absent friend is present to my 
 remembrance, possessing more than common sensibility and 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 95 
 
 affection. What must his sufferings be ? but God is sufficient 
 for him. He that careth for the falling sparrow will not 
 forget him this is my never-failing source of consolation. 
 
 August 15. My soul has been cold in duties to-day. 
 Oh, for the spirit of devotion ! Great are the things God 
 has wrought for me ; oh, let these great things suitably im- 
 press my soul. I have had many painful reflections to-day 
 respecting my absent friend, fearing whether I may not be 
 the occasion of much sorrow to him and possibly of 
 hindering him in the work. I could not do such violence 
 to my feelings as to treat him with reserve and distance, 
 yet, in his circumstances, I think I ought to. O Lord, if 
 in this I have offended, forgive me, and oh, do away 
 from his mind every improper remembrance of me. Help 
 me to cast my cares on Thee to-night, and help me with 
 peace. 
 
 Marazion, September 2. My mind has been exercised 
 with many painful anxieties about my dear friend, but I 
 have poured out my soul to God, and am relieved ; I have 
 left my sorrows with Him. Isaiah (4ist chapter) has 
 comforted me. Oh, what pleasure did that permission give 
 me when my heart was overburdened to-day. ( Produce 
 your cause ' what a privilege to come to God as a friend. 
 I disclose those feelings to Him I have no power to to any 
 earthly friend. Those I could say most to seem to avoid 
 the subject that occupies my mind ; I have been wounded 
 by their silence, yet I do not imagine them indifferent or 
 unconcerned. It is well for me they have seemed to be so, 
 for it has made me more frequent at a throne of grace, and 
 brought me more acquainted with God as a friend who 
 will hear all my complaints. Oh, how sweet to approach 
 Him, through Christ, as my God. ' Fear not/ He says, ' for 
 I am with you : be not dismayed, I am thy God, I will 
 strengthen thee, yea (O blessed assurance ! ) I will help 
 thee, yea, I will uphold thee with the right hand of My 
 righteousness ; ' and so I find it glory be to God ! Lord, 
 
96 HENRY MARTYtf 
 
 hear the frequent prayers I offer for Thy dear servant, 
 sanctify our mutual regard ; may it continue through eternity, 
 flowing from our love to Thee. 
 
 September 3. Still no letters from Stoke, and no 
 intelligence whether the fleet has sailed this is no small 
 exercise of my patience, but at times I feel a sweet 
 complacency in saying, * Thou art my portion, O Lord.' I 
 have often felt happy in saying this, but it is in a season 
 such as this, when creature comforts fail, that we may know 
 whether we are sincere in saying so. Ah ! how do we 
 imperceptibly cleave to earth, and how soon withdraw 
 our affections from God. I am sensible mine would never 
 fix on Him but by His own power effecting it. I rest on 
 Thy power, O God most high, retired from human obser- 
 vation. 
 
 When the commodore opened his sealed despatches off 
 the Lizard, it was found that the fleet was to linger still 
 longer at Cork, whence Henry Martyn wrote again to 
 Lydia's sister, Mrs. Hitchins. On Sunday, when becalmed 
 in Mount's Bay, and he would have given anything to have 
 been ashore preaching at Marazion or St. Hilary, he had 
 taken for his text Hebrews xi. 16 : ' But now they desire 
 a better country, that is, an heavenly.' 
 
 Cork Harbour : August 19, 1805. 
 
 The beloved objects were still in sight, and Lydia I 
 knew was about that time at St. Hilary, but every wave 
 bore me farther and farther from them. I introduced what 
 I had to say by observing that we had now bid adieu to 
 England, and its shores were dying away from the view. 
 The female part of my audience were much affected, but I 
 do not know that any were induced to seek the better 
 country. The Mount continued in sight till five o'clock, 
 when it disappeared behind the western boundary of the 
 
LYDTA G REN FELL 97 
 
 bay. Amidst the extreme gloom of my mind this day I 
 found great comfort in interceding earnestly for my beloved 
 friends all over England. If you have heard from Marazion 
 since Sunday, I should be curious to know whether the fleet 
 was observed passing. . . . 
 
 We are now in the midst ot a vast number of transports 
 filled with troops. It is now certain from our coming here 
 that we are to join in some expedition, probably the Cape 
 of Good Hope, or the Brazils ; anywhere for me so long as 
 the Lord goes with me. If it should please God to send 
 me another letter from you, which I scarcely dare hope, do 
 not forget to tell me as much as you can about Lydia. I 
 cannot write to her, or I should find the greatest relief and 
 pleasure even in transmitting upon paper the assurances of 
 my tenderest love. 
 
 Cove of Cork : August 28, 1805. 
 
 My dearest Cousin, I have but a few minutes to 
 say that we are again going to sea under convoy of five 
 men of war. Very anxiously have I been expecting to 
 receive an answer to the letter I sent you on my arrival 
 at this port, bearing date August 16 ; from the manner in 
 which I had it conveyed to the post-office, I begin to fear 
 it has never reached you. I have this instant received the 
 letter you wrote me the day on which we sailed from 
 Falmouth. Everything from you gives me the greatest 
 pleasure, but this letter has rather tended to excite 
 sentiments of pain as well as pleasure. I fear my pro- 
 ceedings have met with your disapprobation, and have 
 therefore been wrong since it is more probable you should 
 judge impartially than myself. 
 
 I am now fully of opinion that, were I convinced of 
 the expediency of marriage, I ought not in conscience to 
 propose it, while the obstacle of S. J. remains. Whatever 
 others have said, I think that Lydia acts no more than 
 consistently by persevering in her present determination. 
 
I confess, therefore, that till this obstacle is removed my 
 path is perfectly clear, and, blessed be God ! I (eel very, 
 very happy in all that my God shall order concerning me. 
 Let me suffer privation, and sorrow and death, if I may by 
 these tribulations enter into the kingdom of God. Since we 
 have been lying here I have been enjoying a peace almost 
 uninterrupted The Spirit of adoption has been drawing 
 me near to God, and giving me the full assurance of His 
 love. My prayer is continually that I may be more deeply 
 and habitually convinced of His unchanging, everlasting 
 love, and that my whole soul may be altogether in Christ, 
 The Lord teaches me to desire Christ for my all in all 
 to long to be encircled in His everlasting arms, to be 
 swallowed up in the fulness of His love. Surely the soul 
 is happy that thus bathes in a medium of love, I wish no 
 created good, but to be one with Him and to be living for my 
 Saviour and Lord Oh, may it be my constant care to live 
 free from the spirit of bondage, and at all times have access 
 to the Father, This I now fed, my beloved cousin, should 
 be our state perfect reconciliation with God, perfect 
 appropriation of Him in all His endearing attributes, 
 according to all that He has promised This shall bear us 
 safely through the storm. Oh, how happy are we in being 
 introduced to such high privileges! You and my dear 
 brother, and Lydia, I rejoice to think, are often praying 
 for me and interested about me, I have, of course, much 
 more time and leisure to intercede for you than you for 
 me and you may be assured I do not foil to employ 
 my superior opportunities in your behalf. Especially is it 
 my prayer that the mind of my dear cousin, formed as 
 it is by nature and by grace for higher occupations, may 
 not be rendered uneasy by the employments and cares 
 of this. 
 
 Hearing nothing accurately of the India fleet after 
 its departure from Mount's Bay, Lyxlia Grenfell thus 
 
LYDIA GRENFELL 
 betrayed to herself and laid before God her loving 
 
 1805, September 24. Have I not reason ever, and in 
 all things, to trust and Mess God? O my soot why dost 
 thoa yield to despondency? why art thou disquieted? O 
 my soul, put thy trust in God, assured that thou shalt yet 
 praise Him, who is the help of thy countenance and thy 
 God in Christ Jesus, My mind is under considerable 
 anxiety, arising from the uncertainty of my dear friend's 
 situation, and an apprehension of his being ilL Oh, how 
 soon is my soul filled with confusion ! yet I find repose for 
 it in the love of Jesus oh, let me then raise my eyes to 
 Him, and may His love be shed abroad in my heart ; make 
 me in all things resigned to Thy will, to trust and hope 
 and rejoice in Thee, 
 
 November i. My dear absent friend has too much 
 occupied my thoughts and affections, and broken my peace 
 but Jesus reigns in providence and grace, and He does 
 all things welL Yes, in my best moments I can rejoice in 
 believing this, but too often I yield to unbelieving fears and 
 discouragements. The thought that we shall meet no 
 more sinks at times my spirits, yet I would say and feel 
 submissive Thy will be done. Choose for my motto, on 
 entering my thirty-first year, this Scripture : ' Our days on 
 the earth are as a shadow, and there is none abiding/ 
 
 November 4. I think of my friend, but blessed be God 
 for not suffering my regard to lead me from Himself 
 
 November 16. I have been employed to-day in a 
 painful manner, writing l (perhaps for the last time) to too 
 dear a friend. I have to bless God for keeping me com- 
 posed whilst doing so, and for peace of mind since, arising 
 from a conviction that I have done right ; and oh, that I 
 may now be enabled to turn my thought from all below to 
 
 ' This letter never readied its destination, bat was captured in the BeO 
 
 Packet. 
 
 H2 
 
ioo HENRY MARTYN 
 
 that better world where my soul hopes eternally to dwell. 
 Blessed Lord Jesus, be my strength and shield. Oh, let 
 not the enemy harass me, nor draw my affections from 
 Thee. 
 
 November 17. Felt great depression of spirits to-day, 
 from the improbability of ever seeing H. M. return. I feel 
 it necessary to fly to God, praying for submission to His 
 will, and to rest assured of the wisdom and love of this 
 painful event. O my soul, rise from these cares, look 
 beyond the boundary of time. Oh, cheering prospect, in 
 that blest world where my Redeemer lives I shall regain 
 every friend I love with Christian love again. Be 
 resigned then, my soul, Jesus is thine, and He does all 
 things well. 
 
101 
 
 CHAPTER III 
 
 THE NINE MONTHS' VOYAGE SOUTH AMERICA- 
 SOUTH AFRICA, 1805-1806 
 
 THE East India fleet had been detained off Ireland 'for 
 fear of immediate invasion, in which case the ships might 
 be of use.' The young chaplain was kept busy enough in 
 his own and the other vessels. In one of these, the Ann> 
 there was a mutiny. Another, the Pitt, was a Botany Bay 
 ship, carrying out 1 20 female convicts. Thanks to Charles 
 Simeon, he was able to supply all with Bibles and religious 
 books. But even on board his own transport, the Union, 
 the captain would allow only one service on the Sabbath, 
 and denied permission to preach to the convicts. The 
 chaplain's ministrations between decks were continued 
 daily, amid the indifference and even opposition of all 
 save a few. 
 
 At last, on August 31, 1805, the Indiamen of the season 
 and fifty transports sailed out of the Cove of Cork under 
 convoy of the Diadem, 64 guns, the Belliqueuse, 64 guns, 
 the Leda and Narcissus frigates, on a voyage which, after 
 two months since lifting the anchor at Portsmouth, lasted 
 eight and a half months to Calcutta. The Union had 
 H.M. 59th Regiment on board. Of its officers and men, 
 and of the East India Company's cadets and the officers 
 commanding them, he succeeded in inducing only five to 
 
1 io2 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 join him in daily worship. His own presence and this 
 little gathering caused the vessel to be known in the fleet 
 as ' the praying ship.' The captain died during the voyage 
 to the Cape. One of the ships was wrecked, the Union 
 narrowly escaping the same fate. Martyn's Journal reveals 
 an amount of hostility to himself and of open scoffing at 
 his message which would be impossible now. He fed his 
 spirit with the Word of God, which he loved to expound 
 to others. Leighton, especially the too little known Rules 
 for Holy Living, was ever in his hands. Augustine and 
 Ambrose delighted him, also Hooker, Baxter, Jonathan 
 Edwards, and Flavel, which he read to any who would 
 listen, while he spoke much to the Mohammedan Lascars. 
 He worked hard at Hindustani, Bengali, and Portuguese. 
 Not more faithfully reflected in his Journal than the tedium 
 of the voyage and the often blasphemous opposition of his 
 fellows are, all unconsciously, his own splendid courage, 
 his untiring faithfulness even when down with dysentery and 
 cough, his watchful prayerfulness, his longing for the spread 
 of Christ's kingdom. As the solitary young saint paced 
 the deck his thoughts, too, were with the past with Lydia, 
 in a way which, even he felt, did not leave him indisposed 
 for communion with God. From Funchal, Madeira, he 
 wrote to Lydia's sister : ' God knows how dearly I love you, 
 and Lydia and Sally (his younger sister), and all His saints 
 in England, yet I bid you all an everlasting farewell almost 
 without a sigh.' His motto throughout the voyage was the 
 sentence in which Milner characterises the first Christians : 
 
 'To BELIEVE, TO SUFFER, AND TO LOVE.' 
 
 Meanwhile Lydia Grenfell was thus committing to her 
 Diary these melancholy longings : 
 
THE NINE MONTHS' VOYAGE, 1805-1806 103 
 
 November 22. Yesterday brought me most pleasing 
 intelligence from my dear friend, for which I have and do 
 thank Thee, O Lord my God. He assures us of his being 
 well, and exceedingly happy oh, may he continue so. I 
 have discovered that insensibly I have indulged the hope 
 of his return, which this letter has seemed to lessen. I see 
 it is my duty to familiarise my mind to the idea of our 
 separation being for ever, with what feelings the thought is 
 admitted, the Lord whose will I desire therein to be done 
 only knows, and I find it a blessed relief to look to Him 
 for comfort. I can bear testimony to this, that the Lord 
 does afford me the needful support. I have been favoured 
 much within this day or two, and seem, if I may trust to 
 present feelings, to be inspired to ask the Lord's sovereign 
 will and pleasure concerning me and him. I look forward 
 to our meeting only in another state of existence, and oh, 
 how pure, how exalted will be our affection then ! here it 
 is mixed with much evil, many pains, and great anxieties. 
 Hasten, O Lord, Thy coming, and fit me for it and for the 
 society of Thy saints in light. I desire more holiness, 
 more of Christ in my soul, more of His likeness. Oh, to be 
 filled with all Thy fulness, to be swallowed up in Thee ! 
 
 November 23. Too much has my mind been occupied 
 to-day with a subject which must for ever interest me. 
 O Lord, have mercy on me ! help can only come from 
 Thee. Let Thy blessed Word afford me relief ; let the aids 
 of Thy Spirit be vouchsafed. Restore to me the joys of 
 Thy salvation. 
 
 November 24. Passed a night of little sleep, my mind 
 restless, confused, and unhappy. In vain did I endeavour 
 to fix my thoughts on spiritual things, and to drive away 
 those distressing fears of what may befall my dear friend. 
 Blessed for ever be the Lord that on approaching His 
 mercy-seat, through the blood of Jesus, I found peace, rest, 
 and an ability to rely on God for all things. I have through 
 the day enjoyed a sense of the Divine presence, and a 
 
io4 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 blessed nearness to the Lord. To-night I am favoured 
 with a sweet calmness ; I seem to have no desire to exert 
 myself. O Lord, animate, refresh my fainting soul. I see 
 how dangerous it is to admit any worldly object into the 
 heart, and how prone mine is to idolatry, for whatever has 
 the preference, that to God is an idol. Alas ! my thoughts, 
 my first and last thoughts, t are now such as prove that God 
 cannot be said to have the supreme place in my affections ; 
 yet, blessed be His name, I can resign myself and all my 
 concerns to His disposal, and this is my heart's desire. Thy 
 will be done. 
 
 December n. I seem reconciled to all before me, and 
 consider the Lord must have some great and wise purposes 
 to answer by suffering my affections to be engaged in the 
 degree they are. If it is only to exercise my submission 
 to His will, and to make me more acquainted with His 
 power to support and comfort me, it will be a great end 
 answered, and oh, may I welcome all He appoints for this 
 purpose. The mysteries of Providence are unfathomable. 
 The event must disclose them, and in this I desire to make 
 up my mind from henceforth no more to encourage the 
 least expectation of meeting my dear friend in this world. 
 O Lord, when the desire is so strong, how impossible is it 
 for me to do this ; but Thou art able to strengthen me for 
 it. Oh, vouchsafe the needful help. 
 
 December 16. I have had many distressing feelings 
 to-day, and struggled with my heart, which is at times 
 rent, I may say, by the reflection that I have bidden adieu 
 for ever in this life to so dear a friend ; but the blessed 
 employment the Lord has assisted me in, and the thought 
 that he is serving my blessed Lord Jesus, is most conso- 
 latory. Oh, may I never more seek to draw him back from 
 the work. Lord, Thou knowest all things, Thou knowest 
 that I would not do this. 
 
 December 26. Went early to St. Hilary, where I had 
 an opportunity of reading the excellent prayers of our 
 
THE NINE MONTHS 1 VOYAGE, 1805-1806 105 
 
 Church. I have been blest with sweet peace to-day a 
 solemn expectation of entering eternity. I feel a sadness 
 of spirit at times (attended with a calm resignation of mind, 
 not unpleasing) at the remembrance of my friend, whom 
 I expect no more to see till we meet in heaven. Oh, blessed 
 hope that there we shall meet ! Lord, keep us each in the 
 narrow way that leads to Thee. 
 
 December 31. The last in 1805 oh, may it prove the 
 most holy to my soul. I am shut out from the communion 
 of Thy saints in a measure ; oh, let me enjoy more 
 communion with my God. Thou knowest my secret 
 sorrows, yea, Thou dost calm them by causing me to have 
 regard to a future life of bliss with Thee, when I shall see 
 and adore the wisdom of Thy dealings with me. Oh, my 
 idolatrous heart ! 
 
 These passages occur in Henry Martyn's Journal : 
 
 December 4. Dearest Lydia ! never wilt thou cease to 
 be dear to me ; still, the glory of God, and the salvation of 
 immortal souls, is an object for which I can part with thee. 
 Let us live then for God, separate from one another, since 
 such is His holy will. Hereafter we shall meet in a happier 
 region, and if we shall have lived and died, denying ourselves 
 for God, triumphant and glorious will our meeting be. ... 
 
 December 5. My mind has been running on Lydia, 
 and the happy scenes in England, very much ; particularly 
 on that day when I walked with her on the sea-shore, 
 and with a wistful eye looked over the blue waves that 
 were to bear me from her. While walking the deck I 
 longed to be left alone, that my thoughts might run at 
 random. Tender feelings on distant scenes do not leave 
 me indisposed for communion with God ; that which is 
 present to the outward senses is the greatest plague to me. 
 Went among the soldiers in the afternoon, distributing 
 oranges to those who are scorbutic. My heart was for some 
 hours expanding with joy and love ; but I have reason to 
 
io6 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 think that the state of the body has great influence on the 
 frames and feelings of the mind. Let the rock of my con- 
 solations be not a variable feeling, but Jesus Christ and 
 His righteousness. 
 
 The fleet next touched at San Salvador, or Bahia, from 
 which Henry Martyn wrote to Mrs. Hitchins, his cousin, 
 asking her to send him by Corrie, who was coming out as 
 chaplain, 'your profile and Cousin Tom's and Lydia's. If 
 she should consent to it, I should much wish for her minia- 
 ture.' The request, when it reached her, must have led to 
 such passages in her Diary as these : 
 
 1806, February 8. I have passed some days of pain 
 and weakness, but now am blessed again with health. 
 During the whole of this sickness I was afflicted with much 
 deadness of soul, and have had very few thoughts of God. 
 I felt, as strength returned, the necessity of more earnest 
 supplications for grace and spiritual life. I have ascertained 
 this sad truth, that my soul has declined in spiritual fervour 
 and liveliness since I have admitted an earthly object so 
 much into my heart. Ah ! I know I have not power to 
 recall my affections, but God can, and I believe He will, 
 enable me to regulate them better. This thought has been 
 of great injury to me, as I felt no murmuring at the will of 
 God, nor disposed to act therein contrary to His will. I 
 thought I might indulge secretly my affection, but it has 
 been of vast disadvantage to me. I am now convinced, 
 and I do humbly (relying on strength from on high) resolve 
 no more to yield to it. Oh, may my conversation be in 
 heaven, and the glories of Immanuel be all my theme. 
 
 February 15. I have been much exercised yesterday 
 and to-day walking in darkness, without light and I 
 feel the truth of this Scripture : ' Your sins have separated 
 between you and your God.' I have betrayed a most 
 unbecoming impatience and warmth of temper. My dear 
 
THE NINE MONTHS* VOYAGE, 1805-1806 107 
 
 absent friend, too, has been much in my mind. How many 
 times have I endured the pain of bidding him farewell ! 
 I would not dare repine. I doubt not for a moment the 
 necessity of its being as it is, but the feelings of my mind 
 at particular seasons overwhelm me. My refuge is to 
 consider it is the will of God. Thy will, my God, be done. 
 
 Henry Martyn did not lose a day in discharging his 
 mission to the residents and slaves of that part of the coast 
 of Brazil, in the great commercial city and seat of the 
 metropolitan. His was the first voice to proclaim the pure 
 Gospel in South America since, three hundred years before, 
 Coligny's and Calvin's missionaries had been there silenced 
 by Villegagnon, and put to death. Martyn was frequently 
 ashore, almost fascinated by the tropical glories of the coast 
 and the interior, and keenly interested in the Portuguese 
 dons, the Franciscan friars, and the negro slaves. After his 
 first walk through the town to the suburbs, he was looking for 
 a wood in which he might rest, when he found himself at a 
 magnificent porch leading to a noble avenue and house. 
 There he was received with exuberant hospitality by the 
 Corre family, especially by the young Senor Antonio, who 
 had received a University training in Portugal, and soon 
 learned to enjoy the society of the Cambridge clergyman. 
 In his visits of days to this family, his exploration of the 
 immediate interior and the plantations of tapioca and 
 pepper, introduced from Batavia, and his discussions with 
 its members and the priests on Roman Catholicism, all 
 conducted in French and Latin, a fortnight passed rapidly. 
 He was ever about his Master's business, able in speaking 
 His message to men and in prayer and meditation. ' In a cool 
 and shady part of the garden, near some water, I sat and sang 
 O'er the gloomy hills of darkness. 
 
io8 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 I could read and pray aloud, as there was no fear of anyone 
 understanding me. Reading the eighty-fourth Psalm, 
 
 O how amiable are Thy tabernacles, 
 
 this morning in the shade, the day when I read it last under 
 the trees with Lydia was, brought forcibly to my remem- 
 brance, and produced some degree of melancholy.' Refreshed 
 by the hospitality of San Salvador, he resumed the voyage 
 with new zeal for his Lord and for his study of such 
 authorities as Orme's Indostan and Scott's Dekkan, and 
 thus taking himself to task : ' I wish I had a deeper con- 
 viction of the sinfulness of sloth.' 
 
 Thus had he taken possession of Brazil, of South 
 America, for Christ. As he walked through the streets, 
 where for a long time he ' saw no one but negro slaves 
 male and female ' ; as he passed churches in which ' they 
 were performing Mass,' and priests of all colours innu- 
 merable, and ascended the battery which commanded a view 
 of the whole bay of All Saints, he exclaimed, * What happy 
 missionary. shall be sent to bear the name of Christ to these 
 western regions? When shall this beautiful country be 
 delivered from idolatry and spurious Christianity ? Crosses 
 there are in abundance, but when shall the doctrine of the 
 Cross be held up ? ' In the nearly ninety years that have 
 gone since that time, Brazil has ceased to belong to the 
 house of Braganza, slavery has been abolished, the agents 
 of the Evangelical churches and societies of the United 
 States of America and the Bible societies have been sent 
 in answer to his prayer ; while down in the far south Captain 
 Allen Gardiner, R.N., by his death for the savage people, 
 has brought about results that extorted the admiration of 
 Dr. Darwin. As Martyn went back to the ship for the last 
 
THE NINE MONTHS' VOYAGE, 1805-1806 109 
 
 time, after a final discussion on Mariolatry with the Fran- 
 ciscans, rowed by Lascars who kept the feast of the 
 Hijra with hymns to Mohammed, and in converse with a 
 fellow-voyager who declared mankind needed to be 
 told nothing but to be sober and honest, he cried to God 
 with a deep sigh ' to interfere in behalf of His Gospel ; for 
 in the course of one hour I had seen three shocking 
 examples of the reign and power of the devil in the form of 
 Popish and Mohammedan delusion and that of the natural 
 man. I felt, however, in no way discouraged, but only saw 
 the necessity of dependence on God.' 
 
 Why did Henry Martyn's preaching and daily pastoral 
 influence excite so much opposition ? Undoubtedly, as we 
 shall see, both in Calcutta and Dinapore, his Cornish-Celtic 
 temperament, possibly the irritability due to the disease 
 under which he was even then suffering, disabled him from 
 disarming opposition, as his friend Corrie, for instance, after- 
 wards always did. But we must remember to whom he 
 preached and what he preached, and the time at which he 
 preached, in the history not only of the Church of England, 
 but of Evangelical religion. He had himself been brought 
 out of spiritual darkness under the influence of Kempthorne 
 and Charles Simeon, by the teaching of Paul in his letters 
 to the Roman and the Galatian converts. To him sin was 
 exceeding sinful. The Pauline doctrine of sin and its one 
 remedy was the basis not only of his theology, but of his 
 personal experience and daily life. After a brief ministry 
 to the villagers of Lolworth and occasional sermons to his 
 fellow students in Cambridge, this Senior Wrangler and 
 Classic, yet young convert, was put in spiritual charge of a 
 British regiment and Indiaman's crew, and was the only 
 chaplain in a force of eight thousand soldiers, some with 
 
i io HENRY MARTYN 
 
 families, and many female convicts. At a time when the 
 dead churches were only beginning to wake up, after 
 the missions of the Wesleys and Whitfield, of William 
 Carey and Simeon, this youthful prophet was called to 
 reason of temperance, righteousness, and judgment to 
 come, with men who were practically as pagan or as 
 sceptical as Felix. 
 
 His second address at sea, on September 15, was from 
 Paul's sermon in the synagogue of Antioch in Pisidia 
 (Acts xiii. 38-39) : Through this man is preached unto you 
 the forgiveness of sins, &c. 1 It was a full and free declaration 
 of God's love in Jesus Christ to sinful man, which he thus 
 describes in his Journal : ' In the latter part I was led 
 to speak without preparation on the all-sufficiency of 
 Christ to save sinners who came to Him with all their sins 
 without delay. I was carried away with a Divine aid to 
 speak with freedom and energy. My soul was refreshed, 
 and I retired seeing reason to be thankful ! ' But the next 
 week's experience resulted in this : ' I was more tried by 
 the fear of man than I have ever been since God called me 
 to the ministry. The threats and opposition of those men 
 made me unwilling to set before them the truths which they 
 hated ; yet I had no species of hesitation about doing it. 
 They had let me know that if I would preach a sermon 
 like one of Blair's they should be glad to hear it ; but they 
 would not attend if so much of hell was preached.' 
 Strengthened by our Lord's promise of the Comforter 
 (John xiv. 1 6), he next Sunday took for his text Psalm ix. 
 1 7 : The wicked shall be turned into hell, and all the nations 
 that forget God. He thus concluded : 
 
 1 Twenty Sermons, by the late Rev. Henry Martyn, B.D. Fourth edition 
 (from first edition printed at Calcutta), London, 1822, 
 
THE NINE MONTHS* VOYAGE, 1805-1806 in 
 
 Pause awhile, and reflect ! Some of you, perhaps, by 
 this time, instead of making a wise resolve, have begun to 
 wonder that so heavy a judgment should be denounced 
 merely against forgetfulness. But look at the affairs of 
 common life, and be taught by them. Do not neglect, and 
 want of attention, and not looking about us to see what we 
 have to do do not any of these bring upon us conse- 
 quences as ruinous to our worldly business as any ACTIVE 
 misbehaviour ? It is an event of every day, that a man, 
 by mere laziness and inattention to his business, does as 
 certainly bring himself and family to poverty, and end his 
 days in a gaol, as if he were, in wanton mischief, to set fire 
 to his own house. So it is also with the affairs of the soul : 
 neglect of that forgetfulness of God, who only can save 
 it will work his ruin, as surely as a long and daring course 
 of profligate wickedness. 
 
 When any one has been recollecting the proper proofs 
 of a future state of rewards and punishments, nothing, 
 methinks, can give him so sensible an apprehension of 
 punishment or such a representation of it to the mind, as 
 observing that, after the many disregarded checks, admo- 
 nitions, and warnings which people meet with in the ways 
 of vice, folly, and extravagance warnings from their very 
 nature, from the examples of others, from the lesser incon- 
 veniences which they bring upon themselves, from the 
 instructions of wise and good men after these have been 
 long despised, scorned, ridiculed after the chief bad con- 
 sequences (temporal consequences) of their follies have 
 been delayed for a great while, at length they break in 
 irresistibly like an armed force : repentance is too late to 
 relieve, and can serve only to aggravate their distress : the 
 case is become desperate ; and poverty and sickness, re- 
 morse and anguish, infamy and death, the effects of their 
 own doings, overwhelm them beyond possibility of remedy 
 or escape. This is an account of what is, in fact, the 
 general constitution of Nature. 
 
U2 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 But is the forgetfulness of God so light a matter ? 
 Think what ingratitude, rebellion, and atheism there is at 
 the bottom of it ! Sirs, you have * a carnal mind, which is 
 enmity against God.' (Rom. viii. 7.) Do not suppose 
 that you have but to make a slight effort, and you will 
 cease to forget Him : it is your nature to forget Him : it 
 is your nature to hate Him : so that nothing less than an 
 entire change of heart and nature will ever deliver you 
 from this state of enmity. Our nature ' is not subject to 
 the law of God, neither indeed can be. They that are in 
 the flesh cannot please God.' (Rom. viii. 7, 8.) From this 
 state let the fearful menace in the text persuade you to 
 arise ! Need we remind you again of the dreadfulness of 
 hell of the certainty that it shall overtake the impenitent 
 sinner ? Enough has been said ; and can any of you be 
 still so hardened, and such enemies to your souls, as still 
 to cleave to sin ? Will you still venture to continue any 
 more in the hazard of falling into the hands of God ? 
 Alas ! ' Who among us shall dwell with the devouring fire ? 
 Who among us shall dwell with everlasting burnings ? ' 
 (Isa. xxxiii. 14.) ' Can thine heart endure, or can thine 
 hands be strong, in the days that I shall deal with thee ? 
 I the Lord have spoken it, and will do it ! ' (Ezek. xxii. 
 14.) Observe, that men have dealt with sinners ministers 
 have dealt with them apostles, prophets, and angels have 
 dealt with them : at last, God will take them in hand, and 
 deal with them ! Though not so daring as to defy God, 
 yet, brethren, in all probability you put off repentance. 
 Will you securely walk a little longer along the brink of 
 the burning furnace of the Almighty's fury ? * As the 
 Lord liveth, and as thy soul liveth, there is but a step 
 between thee and death!' (i Sam. xx. 3.) When you 
 lie down you know not but you may be in it before the 
 morning ; and when you rise you know not but God may 
 say, * Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of 
 thee ! ' When once the word is given to cut you down, 
 
THE NINE MONTHS VOYAGE, 1805-1806 113 
 
 the business is over. You are cut off from your lying 
 refuges and beloved sins from the world from your 
 friends from the light from happiness from hope, for 
 ever ! Be wise, then, my friends, and reasonable : give 
 neither sleep to your eyes, nor slumber to your eyelids, till 
 you have resolved, on your knees before God, to forget 
 Him no more. Go home and pray. Do not dare to fly, 
 as it were, in the face of your Maker, by seeking your 
 pleasure on His holy day ; but if you are alarmed at this 
 subject, as well you may be, go and pray to God that you 
 may forget Him no more. It is high time to awake out of 
 sleep. It is high time to have done with hesitation : time 
 does not wait for you ; nor will God wait till you are 
 pleased to turn. He hath bent His bow, and made it 
 ready : halt no more between two opinions : hasten tarry 
 not in all the plain, but flee from the wrath to come. Pray 
 for grace, without which you can do nothing. Pray for 
 the knowledge of Christ, and of your own danger and 
 helplessness, without which you cannot know what it is to 
 find refuge in Him. It is not our design to terrify, without 
 pointing out the means of safety. Let us then observe, 
 that if it should have pleased God to awaken any of you 
 to a sense of your danger, you should beware of betaking 
 yourselves to a refuge of lies. 
 
 But, through the mercy of God, many among us have 
 found repentance unto life have fled for refuge to the 
 hope set before them have seen their danger, and fled to 
 Christ. Think with yourselves what it is now to have 
 escaped destruction ; what it will be to hear at the last day 
 our acquittal, when it shall be said to others, ' Depart from 
 Me, ye cursed, into everlasting fire.' Let the sense of the 
 mercy of God gild all the path of life. On the other hand, 
 since it is they who forget God that are to bear the weight 
 of His wrath, let us beware, brethren, how we forget Him, 
 through concern about this world, or through unbelief, or 
 through sloth. Let us be punctual in all our engagements 
 
 I 
 
ii 4 . HENRY MARTYN 
 
 with Him. With earnest attention and holy awe ought we 
 to hear His voice, cherish the sense of His presence, and 
 perform the duties of His worship. No covenant relation 
 or Gospel grace can render Him less holy, less jealous, or 
 less majestic. ' Wherefore let us have grace, whereby we 
 may serve God acceptably, with reverence and godly fear ; 
 for our God is a consuming fire. 5 
 
 The officers had seated themselves behind the preacher, 
 that they might retire in case of dislike, and one of them 
 employed himself in feeding the geese ; so it had happened 
 in the case of the missionary Paul, and Martyn wrote : * God, 
 I trust, blessed the sermon to the good of many. Some of 
 the cadets and soldiers were in tears.' The complement 1 
 of this truth he soon after displayed to them in his sermon 
 on the message through Ezekiel xxxiii. n. As I live, 
 saith the Lord, I have no pleasure in the death of the 
 wicked. 
 
 Men have been found in all ages who have vented 
 their murmurs against God for the severity of His final 
 punishment, as well as for the painful continuance of His 
 judgments upon them in this life, saying, * If our state be 
 so full of guilt and misery as is represented, and God is 
 determined to avenge Himself upon us, be it so ; then 
 we must take the consequences.' If God were to reply to 
 this impious complaint only by silence ; if He were to 
 suffer the gloom of their hearts to thicken into tenfold 
 darkness, and give them up to their own malignity, till they 
 died victims to their own impiety and despair, the Lord 
 would still be righteous, they would then only eat of the 
 fruit of their doings. But, behold, the Lord gives a very 
 unexpected message, with which He bids us to follow men, 
 
 1 Five Sermons (never before published), by the late Rev. Henry 
 Martyn, B.D., with a prefatory letter on missionary enterprise, by the Rev, 
 G. T. Fox, M.A., London, 1862. 
 
THE NINE MONTHS' VOYAGE, 1805-1806 115 
 
 to interrupt their sad soliloquies, to stop their murmurs. 
 ' Say unto them/ saith He, ' As I live, saith the Lord God, 
 I have no pleasure in the death of the wicked, but that the 
 wicked turn from his way and live. Turn ye, turn ye, from 
 your evil ways ; for why will ye die ? ' 
 
 Behold the inseparable connexion we must turn, or 
 die. Here there is a question put by God to sinners. Let 
 sinners then answer the question which God puts to them, 
 ' Why will ye die ? ' Is death a motive not strong 
 enough to induce you to forego a momentary pleasure ? 
 Is it a light thing to fall into the hands of the living God ? 
 Is a life of godliness so very intolerable as not to be repaid 
 by heavenly glory ? Turn ye at His reproof ' Why will 
 ye die ? ' Is it because there is no hope ? God has this 
 very hour testified with an oath that it is His desire to save 
 you. Yea, He at this moment expostulates with you and 
 beseeches you to seek Him. * Why will ye die ? ' You 
 know not why. If, then, you are constrained now accus- 
 tomed as you are to self-vindication to acknowledge your 
 unreasonableness, how much more will you be speechless 
 in the last day when madness will admit of no palliation, 
 and folly will appear without disguise ! 
 
 Are any returned to God ? Do any believe they are 
 really returned ? then here they have consolation. It is 
 a long time before we lose our slavish dread of God, for 
 our natural prejudices and mistakes become inveterate by 
 habit, and Satan opposes the removal of them. But come 
 now, and let us reason together. Will ye also dishonour 
 your God by accounting Him more willing to destroy than 
 to save you ? Willys think hardly of God ? Oh, that I had 
 been able to describe as it deserves, His willingness to save! 
 Oh, that I could have borrowed the pen of a seraph, and 
 dipped it in a fount of light ! Could plainer words be needed 
 to describe the wonders of His love ? Hearken, my be- 
 loved brethren ! Hath He no pleasure in the death of the 
 wicked, and will He take pleasure in yours ? Hath He 
 
 I 2 
 
ii6 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 promised His love, His tenderness to those who turn from 
 their wicked ways, and yet, when they are turned, 
 straightway forgot His promise? Harbour no more fearful, 
 unbelieving thoughts. But the reply is often that the fear 
 is not of God, but of myself, lest I have not turned away 
 from my evil ways. But this point may surely be ascer- 
 tained, brethren ; and if it may, any further refinements 
 on this subject are derogatory to God's honour. Let these 
 words convince you that, if you are willing to be saved in 
 His way, He is willing to save you. It may be you will 
 still be kept in darkness, but darkness is not always the 
 frown of God ; it is only Himself thy shade on thy right 
 hand. Then tremble not at the hand that wipes away thy 
 tears ; judge Him not by feeble sense, but follow Him, 
 though He lead thee by a way that thou knewest not. 
 
 There are some of you who have reason to hope that 
 you have turned from the error of your ways. Ye have 
 tasted that the Lord is gracious. It is but a taste, a fore- 
 taste, an antepast of the feast of heaven. It was His 
 pleasure that you should turn from your ways ; it is also 
 His good pleasure to give you the kingdom. Then what 
 shall we recommend to you, but gratitude, admiration, and 
 praise ? ' Praise the Lord, O Jerusalem ; praise thy God, 
 O Zion.' Let each of us abundantly utter the memory of 
 His great goodness, and sing aloud of His righteousness. 
 Let each say, ' Awake, lute and harp ; I myself will awake 
 right early.' Let us join the chorus of angels, and all the 
 redeemed, in praising the riches of His love in His kindness 
 towards us through Christ Jesus. 
 
 As the fleet sailed from San Salvador, the captains were 
 summoned to the commodore, to learn that Cape Town 
 and the Dutch settlement formed the object of the expedi- 
 tion, and that stout resistance was expected. This gave 
 new zeal to the chaplain, were that possible, in his dealings 
 
THE NINE MONTHS' VOYAGE, 1805-1806 117 
 
 with the officers and men of his Majesty's 59th, and with 
 the cadets, to whom he taught mathematics in his un- 
 rewarded friendliness. Many were down with dysentery, 
 then and long a peculiarly fatal disease till the use of 
 ipecacuanha. His constant service made him also for some 
 time a sufferer. 
 
 1805, December 29. (Sunday.) My beloved spake and 
 said unto me, Rise up, &c. (Cant. ii. 10, n). Ah! why can- 
 not I rise and go forth and meet my Lord ? Every hind- 
 rance is removed : the wrath of God, the guilt of sin, and 
 severity of affliction ; there is nothing now in the world 
 that has any strong hold of my affections. Separated 
 from my friends and country for ever in this life, I have 
 nothing to distract me from hearing the voice of my 
 beloved, and coming away from this world and walking 
 with Him in love, amidst the flowers that perfume the 
 air of Paradise, and the harmony of the happy spirits 
 who are singing His praise. But alas ! my heart is cold 
 and slothful. Preached on 2 Peter iii. 1 1, taking notice at 
 the end of these remarkable circumstances, that made the 
 text particularly applicable to us. It was the last Sabbath 
 of a year, which had been memorable to us from our 
 having left our country, and passed through many dangers. 
 Secondly, within a few days they were to meet an enemy 
 on the field of battle. Thirdly, the death of the captain. 
 I was enabled to be self-collected, and in some degree 
 tender. There was a great impression ; many were in 
 tears. Visited and conversed with Mr. M. twice to-day, 
 and marked some passages for him to read. His heart 
 seems tender. There was a considerable number on 
 the orlop in the afternoon. Expounded Matt. xix. and 
 prayed. In the evening Major Davidson and M'Kenzie 
 came to my cabin, and stayed nearly three hours. I read 
 Romans vi. and vii., and explained those difficult chapters 
 
u8 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 as well as I could, so that the Major, I hope, received a 
 greater insight into them ; afterwards I prayed with them. 
 But my own soul after these ministrations seemed to have 
 received harm rather than good. It was an awful reflection 
 that Judas was a preacher, perhaps a successful one. Oh, 
 let my soul tremble, lest, after preaching to others, I myself 
 should be a castaway. 
 
 1806. January 4. Continued to approach the land; 
 about sunset the fleet came to an anchor between Robben 
 Island and the land on that side, farthest from Cape Town, 
 and a signal was immediately given for the 59th Regiment 
 to prepare to land. Our men were soon ready, and 
 received thirty-six rounds of ball cartridge ; before the 
 three boats were lowered down and fitted, it was two in 
 the morning. I stayed up to see them off; it was a melan- 
 choly scene ; the privates were keeping up their spirits by 
 affecting to joke about the approach of danger, and the 
 ladies sitting in the cold night upon the grating of the 
 after-hatchway overwhelmed with grief; the cadets, with 
 M'Kenzie, who is one of their officers, all went on board 
 the Duchess of Gordon, the general rendezvous of the 
 company's troops. I could get to speak to none of my 
 people, but Corporals B. and B. I said to Sergeant G., 
 ' It is now high time to be decided in religion,' he replied 
 with a sigh ; to Captain S. and the cadets I endeavoured 
 to speak in a general way. I this day signed my name 
 as a witness to Captain O.'s and Major Davidson's wills ; 
 Captain O. left his with me ; I passed my time at intervals 
 in writing for to-morrow. The interest I felt in the 
 outward scene distracted me very much from the things 
 which are not seen, and all I could do in prayer was 
 to strive against this spirit. But with what horror should 
 I reflect on the motions of sins within me, which tempted 
 me to wish for bloodshed, as something gratifying by 
 its sublimity. My spirit would be overwhelmed by such 
 a consciousness of depravity, but that I can pray still 
 
THE NINE MONTHS* VOYAGE, 1805-1806 119 
 
 deliberately against sin ; and often the Lord manifested His 
 power by making the same sinful soul to feel a longing 
 desire that the blessed gospel of peace might soothe 
 the spirits of men, and make them all live together in 
 harmony and love Yet the principle within me may well 
 fill me with shame and sorrow. 
 
 Since, on April 9, 1652, Johan Anthonie van Riebeck 
 by proclamation took formal possession of the Cape for 
 the Netherlands East India Company, ' providing that the 
 natives should be kindly treated,' l the Dutch had governed 
 South Africa for nearly a century and a half. The natives 
 had been outraged by the Boers, the Moravian missionaries 
 had departed, the colony had been starved, and yet denied 
 the rudiments of autonomy. The French Revolution 
 changed all that, and very much else. The Stadtholder of 
 the United Provinces having allied himself with Great 
 Britain, Dumouriez entered Holland, and Pichegru marched 
 the armies of France over its frozen waters in the terrible 
 winter of 1794-5. To protect the trade with India from 
 the French, Admiral Elphinstone thereupon took posses- 
 sion of the Cape, which was administered successively by 
 General J. H. Craig, the Earl of Macartney, Sir George 
 Young, and Sir Francis Dundas, for seven prosperous 
 years, until the Treaty of Amiens restored it to the Batavian 
 Republic in February 1803. It was then a territory of 
 1 20,000 square miles, reaching from the Cape to a curved 
 line which extended from the mouth of the Buffalo River 
 in Little Namaqualand to the present village of Colesberg. 
 The Great Fish River was the eastern boundary. Now 
 the Christian colonies and settlements of South Africa, 
 
 1 George M. Theal's South African History, Lovedale Institution Press, 
 1873. 
 
120 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 enjoying British sovereignty and largely under self-governing 
 institutions, stretch north from the sea, and east and west 
 from ocean to ocean, to the great river Zambesi the base 
 from which Christian civilisation, by missions and chartered 
 companies, is slowly penetrating the explored wilds of 
 Central Africa up the lake region to the Soudan and 
 Ethiopia. 
 
 This less than a century's progress has been made 
 possible by the expedition of 1806, in which Henry 
 Martyn, almost alone, represented Christianity. After the 
 three years' respite given by the virtual armistice of Amiens, 
 Napoleon Bonaparte again plunged Europe and the world 
 into war. William Pitt's last government sent out this 
 naval armament under Sir Home Popham. The 5,000 
 troops were commanded by Sir David Baird, who had 
 fought and suffered in India when the senior of the future 
 Duke of Wellington. Henry Martyn has told us how the 
 squadron of the sixty-three sail had anchored between 
 Robben Island and the coast. The Dutch Governor, 
 General Jan Willen Janssens, was more worthy of his trust 
 than his predecessor ten years before. He had been com- 
 pelled to send on a large portion of his force for the defence 
 of Java, soon to fall to Lord Minto, the Governor-General, 
 and had only 2,000 troops left. He had received only a 
 fortnight's notice of the approach of the British fleet, 
 which was reported by an American vessel. He drilled 
 the colonists, he called French marines to his aid, he 
 organised Malay artillery, he embodied even Hottentot 
 sepoys, and made a reserve and refuge of Hottentot's 
 Holland, from which he hoped to starve Cape Town, should 
 Baird capture it Both armies were equal in numbers at 
 least 
 
THE NINE MONTHS^ VOYAGE, 1805-1806 121 
 
 All was in vain. On January 8 was fought the battle 
 of Blaauwberg (on the side of Table Bay opposite Cape 
 Town), from the plateau of which the Dutch, having stood 
 the musketry and field pieces, fled at the charge of the 
 bayonet with a loss of 700 men. The British, having 
 dropped 212, marched on Cape Town, halted at Papendorp, 
 and there, on January 10, 1806, were signed the articles of 
 capitulation which have ever since given the Roman-Dutch 
 law to the colony. Sir David Baird and Sir Home Popham 
 soon after received the surrender of Janssens, whose troops 
 were granted all the honours of war in consideration of 
 their gallant conduct. At the Congress of Vienna in 1815 
 Lord Castlereagh sacrificed Java to the Dutch, but kept 
 South Africa for Great Britain. The surrender of the 
 former, in the midst of the splendid successes of Sir 
 Stamford Raffles, is ascribed to that minister's ignorance of 
 geography. He knew equally little of the Cape, which he 
 kept, beyond its importance to India, but God has overruled 
 all that for the good of Equatorial, as well as South, Africa, 
 as, thanks to David Livingstone, vacillating statesmen have 
 begun to see. 
 
 Henry Martyn's Journal thus describes the battle and 
 the battlefield. 
 
 1806, January. Ten o'clock. When I got up, the 
 army had left the shore, except the Company's troops, 
 who remained to guard the landing-place ; but soon after 
 seven a most tremendous fire of artillery began behind a 
 mountain abreast of the ship ; it seemed as if the mountain 
 itself were torn by intestine convulsions. The smoke rose 
 from a lesser eminence on the right of the hill, and on the 
 top of it troops were seen rushing down the farther declivity ; 
 then came such a long drawn fire of musketry, that I 
 
122 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 could not have conceived anything like it. We all shud- 
 dered at considering what a multitude of souls must be 
 passing into eternity. The poor ladies were in a dreadful 
 condition, every peal seemed to go through their hearts ; I 
 have just been endeavouring to do what I can to keep up 
 their spirits. The sound is now retiring, and the enemy 
 are seen retreating along the low ground on the right 
 towards the town. Soon after writing this I went ashore 
 and saw M'K., &c., and Cecil, with whom I had an agreeable 
 conversation on Divine things. The cadets of our ship 
 had erected a little shed made of bushes and straw, and 
 here, at their desire, I partook of their cheer. Three High- 
 landers came to the lines just as I arrived, all wounded in 
 the hand. In consequence of their report of the number 
 of the wounded, a party of East India troops, with slings 
 and barrows, attended by a body of cadets with arms, 
 under Major Lumsden, were ordered to march to the field 
 of battle. 
 
 I attached myself to these, and marched six miles through 
 the soft burning sand with them. The first we came to was 
 a Highlander, who had been shot through the thigh, and 
 had walked some way from the field and lay spent under 
 some bushes. He was taken care of and we went on, and 
 passed the whole of the larger hill without seeing anything. 
 The ground then opened into a most extensive plain, which 
 extended from the sea to the blue mountains at a great 
 distance on the east. On the right was the little hill, to 
 which we were attracted by seeing some English soldiers ; 
 we found that they were some wounded men of the 24th. 
 They had all been taken care of by the surgeons of the 
 Staff. Three were mortally wounded. One, who was 
 shot through the lungs, was spitting blood, and yet very 
 sensible. The surgeon desired me to spread a great-coat 
 over him as they left him ; as I did this, I talked to him a 
 little of the blessed Gospel, and begged him to cry for 
 mercy through Jesus Christ. The poor man feebly turned 
 
THE NINE MONTHS* VOYAGE, 1805-1806 123 
 
 his head in some surprise, but took no further notice. I 
 was sorry to be obliged to leave him and go on after the 
 troops, from whom I was not allowed to be absent, out of 
 a regard to my safety. On the top of the little hill lay 
 Captain F., of the grenadiers of the same regiment, dead, 
 shot by a ball entering his neck and passing into his 
 head. I shuddered with horror at the sight ; his face and 
 bosom were covered with thick blood, and his limbs rigid 
 and contracted as if he had died in great agony. Near 
 him were several others dead, picked off by the riflemen of 
 the enemy. We then descended into the plain where the 
 two armies had been drawn up. 
 
 A marine of the Belliqueuse gave me a full account of 
 the position of the armies and particulars of the battle. We 
 soon met with some of the 59th, one a corporal, who often 
 joins us in singing, and who gave the pleasing intelligence 
 that the regiment had escaped unhurt, except Captain 
 McPherson. In the rear of the enemy's army there were 
 some farm-houses, which we had converted into a receptacle 
 for the sick, and in which there were already two hundred, 
 chiefly English, with a few of the enemy. Here I entered, 
 and found that six officers were wounded ; but as the 
 surgeon said they should not be disturbed, I did not go in, 
 especially as they were not dangerously wounded. In one 
 room I found a Dutch captain wounded, with whom I had 
 a good deal of conversation in French. After a few 
 questions about the army and the Cape, I could not help 
 inquiring about Dr. Vanderkemp ; he said he had seen 
 him, but believed he was not at the Cape, nor knew how 
 I might hear of him. The spectacle at these houses was 
 horrid. The wounded soldiers lay ranged within and 
 without covered with blood and gore. While the India 
 troops remained here, I walked out into the field of battle 
 with the surgeon. On the right wing, where they had been 
 attacked by the Highland regiment, the dead and wounded 
 seemed to have been strewed in great numbers, from the 
 
124 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 knapsacks, &c. Some of them were still remaining ; with 
 a Frenchman whom I found amongst them I had some 
 conversation. All whom we approached cried out in- 
 stantly for water. One poor Hottentot I asked about Dr. 
 Vanderkemp, I saw by his manner that he knew him ; he lay 
 with extraordinary patience under his wound on the burning 
 sand ; I did what I coulcj to make his position comfortable, 
 and laid near him some bread, which I found on the 
 ground. Another Hottentot lay struggling with his mouth 
 in the dust, and the blood flowing out of it, cursing the 
 Dutch in English, in the most horrid language ; I told 
 him he should rather forgive them, and asked him about 
 God, and after telling him of the Gospel, begged he would 
 pray to Jesus Christ ; but he did not attend. While the 
 surgeon went back to get his instrument in hopes of saving 
 the man's life, a Highland soldier came up, and asked me 
 in a rough tone, c Who are you ? ' I told him, ' An English- 
 man ; ' he said, ' No, no, you are French/ and was going to 
 present his musket. As I saw he was rather intoxicated, 
 and might in mere wantonness fire, I went up to him and 
 told him that if he liked he might take me prisoner to the 
 English army, but that I was certainly an English clergy- 
 man. The man was pacified at last. The surgeon on his 
 return found the thigh bone of the poor Hottentot broken, 
 and therefore left him to die. After this I found an 
 opportunity of retiring, and lay down among the bushes, 
 and lifted up my soul to God. I cast my eyes over the 
 plain which a few hours before had been the scene of 
 bloodshed and death, and mourned over the dreadful effects 
 of sin. How reviving to my thoughts were the blue 
 mountains on the east, where I conceived the missionaries 
 labouring to spread the Gospel of peace and love. 
 
 At sunrise on the loth, a gun from the commodore's 
 ship was instantly answered by all the men-of-war, as the 
 British flag was seen flying on the Dutch fort. The future 
 
THE NINE MONTHS' VOYAGE, 1805-1806 125 
 
 historian of the Christianisation of Africa will not fail to 
 put in the forefront, at the same time, the scene of Henry 
 Martyn, on his knees, taking possession of the land, and of 
 all lands, for Christ. 
 
 I could find it more agreeable to my own feelings to 
 go and weep with the relatives of the men whom the 
 English have killed, than to rejoice at the laurels they 
 have won. I had a happy season in prayer. No outward 
 scene seemed to have power to distract my thoughts. I 
 prayed that the capture of the Cape might be ordered to 
 the advancement of Christ's kingdom ; and that England, 
 while she sent the thunder of her arms to the distant 
 regions of the globe, might not remain proud and ungodly 
 at home ; but might show herself great indeed, by sending 
 forth the ministers of her Church to diffuse the gospel of 
 peace. 
 
 Thus on Africa, as on South America, North India, 
 Persia and Turkey, is written the name of Henry Martyn. 
 
 The previous government of the Cape by the British, 
 under Sir Francis Dundas, had been marked by the arrival, 
 in 1799, of the London Missionary Society's agents, Dr. 
 Vanderkemp and Kicherer. With the great chief Ngqika, 
 afterwards at Graaff Reinet and then near Algoa Bay, the 
 quondam Dutch officer, Edinburgh medical student, and 
 aged landed proprietor, giving his all to Christ, had 
 gathered in many converts. Martyn, who had learned 
 to admire Vanderkemp from his books, was even more 
 delighted with the venerable man. Driven by the Boers 
 into Cape Town, the old missionary, and Mr. Reid, his 
 colleague, were found in the midst of their daily services 
 with the Hottentots and Kafirs. In such society, wor- 
 shipping through the Dutch language, the India chaplain 
 
126 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 spent the greater part of the five weeks' detention of the 
 Union. ' Dear Dr. Vanderkemp gave me a Syriac Testa- 
 ment as a remembrance of him.' When Martyn and Reid 
 parted, the latter for Algoa Bay, ' we spoke again of the 
 excellency of the missionary work. The last time I had 
 stood on the shore with a friend speaking on the same 
 subject, was with Lydia, at Marazion.' In Isaiah, and 
 Leighton, especially his Rules for a Holy Life, the mis- 
 sionary chaplain found comfort and stimulus. 
 
 February 5, 1806. I am born for God only. Christ is 
 nearer to me than father, or mother, or sister, a nearer 
 relation, a more affectionate friend ; and I rejoice to follow 
 Him, and to love Him. Blessed Jesus ! Thou art all I want 
 a forerunner to me in all I ever shall go through, as a 
 Christian, a minister, or a missionary. 
 
 February 13. After breakfast had a solemn season in 
 prayer, with the same impressions as yesterday, from 
 Leighton, and tried to give up myself wholly to God, not 
 only to be resigned solely to His will, but to seek my only 
 pleasure from it, to depart altogether from the world, and 
 be exactly the same in happiness, whether painful or 
 pleasing dispensations were appointed me : I endeavoured 
 to realise again the truth, that suffering was my appointed 
 portion, and that it became me to expect it as my daily 
 lot. Yet after all, I was ready to cry out, what an unfor- 
 tunate creature I am, the child of sorrow and care ; from 
 my infancy I have met with nothing but contradiction, but 
 I always solaced myself that one day it would be better, 
 and I should find myself comfortably settled in the enjoy- 
 ment of domestic pleasures, whereas, after all the wearying 
 labours of school and college, I am at last cut off from all 
 my friends, and comforts, and dearest hopes, without being 
 permitted even to hope for them any more. As I walked 
 the deck, I found that the conversation of others, and my 
 
THE NINE MONTHS* VOYAGE, 1805-1806 127 
 
 own gloomy surmises of my future trials, affected me far 
 less with vexation, than they formerly did, merely from 
 this, that I took it as my portion from God, all whose 
 dispensations I am bound to consider and receive as the 
 fruits of infinite wisdom and love towards me. I felt, 
 therefore, very quiet, and was manifestly strengthened from 
 above with might in my inner man ; therefore, without any 
 joy, without any pleasant considerations to balance my 
 present sickness and gloom, I was contented from the 
 reflection, that it was God who did it. I pray that this 
 may be my state neither to be anxious to escape from 
 this stormy sea that was round the Cape, nor to change 
 the tedious scene of the ship for Madras, nor to leave this 
 world merely to get rid of the troubles of it, but to glorify 
 God where I am, and where He puts me, and to take each 
 day as an important trust for Him, in which I have much 
 to do both in suffering and acting. Employed in collecting 
 from the New Testament all the passages that refer to our 
 walking in Christ. 
 
 February 18. Completed my twenty-fifth year. Let 
 me recollect it to my own shame, and be warned by it, to 
 spend my future years to a better purpose ; unless this be 
 the case, it is of very little consequence to notice when 
 such a person came into the world. Passed much of the 
 morning in prayer, but could not succeed at all in getting 
 an humble and contrite spirit ; my pride and self-esteem 
 seemed unconquerable. Wrote sermon with my mind 
 impressed with the necessity of diligence : had the usual 
 service, and talked much to a sick man. Read Hindu- 
 stani. 
 
 February 27. Rose once more after a sleepless night, 
 and had in consequence a peevish temper to contend with. 
 Had a comfortable and fervent season of prayer, in the 
 morning, while interceding for the heathen from some of 
 the chapters in Isaiah. How striking did those words 
 Isaiah xlii. 8 appear to me, ' I am the Lord, that is My 
 
128 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 name ; and My glory will I not give to another, neither My 
 praise to graven images.' Lord, is not Thy praise given to 
 graven images in India ? Here, then, is Thine own express 
 word that it shall not continue to be so. And how easy is 
 it for the mighty God that created the heavens and stretched 
 them out, that spread forth the earth, and that which cometh 
 out of it ; that giveth breath unto the people upon it, and 
 spirit to them that walk therein ; to effect His purposes in 
 a moment. What is caste ? What are inveterate preju- 
 dices, and civil power, and priestly bigotry, when once the 
 Lord shall set to His hand ? Who knows whether even the 
 present generation may not see Satan's throne shaken to 
 its base in India? Learning Hindustani words in the 
 morning ; in the afternoon below, and much hurt at the 
 cold reception the men gave me. 
 
 March 7. Endeavoured this morning to consider Christ 
 as the High Priest of my profession. Never do I set 
 myself to understand the nature of my walk in Christ 
 without getting good to my soul. Employed as usual 
 through the day. Heard from M'Kenzie that they are not 
 yet tired with inveighing against my doctrines. They took 
 occasion also to say, from my salary, that ' Martyn, as well 
 as the rest, can share the plunder of the natives in India ; 
 whether it is just or not he does not care.' This brought 
 back the doubts I formerly had about the lawfulness of 
 receiving anything from the Company. My mind is not 
 yet comfortable about it. I see it, however, my duty to 
 wait in faith and patience, till the Lord shall satisfy my 
 doubts one way or other. I would wish for no species of 
 connection with the East India Company, and notwith- 
 standing the large sums I have borrowed on the credit of 
 my salary, which I shall never be able to repay from any 
 other means, I would wish to become a missionary, 
 dependent on a society ; but I know not how to decide. 
 The Lord in mercy keep my soul in peace. Other thoughts 
 have occurred to me since. A man who has unjustly 
 
THE NINE MONTHS^ VOYAGE, 1805-1806 129 
 
 got possession of an estate hires me as a minister to 
 preach to his servants, and pays me a salary: the money 
 wherewith he pays me comes unjustly to him, but justly to 
 me. The Company are the acknowledged proprietors of 
 the country, the ruling power. If I were to refuse to go 
 there, I might, on the same account, refuse to go to France, 
 and preach to the French people or bodyguard of the 
 emperor, because the present monarch who pays me is 
 not the lawful one. If there were a company of 
 Mohammedan merchants or Mohammedan princes in 
 possession of the country, should I hesitate to accept an 
 offer of officiating as chaplain among them, and receiving a 
 salary ? 
 
 March 14. Suavissima vita est indies sentire se fieri 
 meliorem. So I can say from former experience more 
 than from present But oh, it is the ardent desire of my 
 soul to regard all earthly things with indifference, as one 
 who dwells above with God. May I grow in grace ; may 
 the grace of God, which bringeth salvation, teach me to 
 become daily more spiritual, more humble, more steadfast 
 in Christ, more meek, more wise, and in all things to live 
 soberly, righteously, and godly in this present world. How 
 shall I attain to greater heavenly-mindedness ? Rose 
 refreshed after a good night's sleep, and wrote on a subject ; 
 had much conversation with Mr. B. upon deck ; he seemed 
 much surprised when I corrected his notions on religion, 
 but received what I said with great candour. He said 
 there was a minister at Madras, a Dane, with whom Sir D. 
 Baird was well acquainted, who used to speak in the same 
 manner of religion, whose name was Schwartz. My 
 attention was instantly roused at the venerable name, and 
 I eagerly inquired of him all the particulars with which he 
 was acquainted. He had often heard him preach, and Mr. 
 Jaenicke had often breakfasted with him ; Schwartz, he 
 said, had a very commanding manner, and used to preach 
 extempore in English at Madras ; he died very poor. In 
 
 K 
 
I 3 o HENRY MARTYN 
 
 the afternoon had a service below ; much of the evening 
 M'Kenzie passed with me, and prayed. 
 
 March 26. Passed much time before breakfast in 
 sitting on the poop, through utter disinclination to all 
 exertion. Such is the enervating effect of the climate ; 
 but after staying some hours learning Hindustani words, 
 2 Timothy ii. roused me to a bodily exertion. I felt 
 strong in spirit, resolving, if I died under it, to make the 
 body submit to robust exercise ; so I walked the deck 
 with great rapidity for an hour and a half. My animal 
 spirits were altered instantly ; I felt a happy and joyful 
 desire to brave the enervating effects of India in the 
 service of the blessed Lord Jesus. B. still delirious and 
 dying fast : the first thing he said to me when I visited 
 him this afternoon, was, ' Mr. Martyn, what will you choose 
 for a kingdom ? ' I made no answer to this, but thought 
 of it a good deal afterwards. What would I choose ? 
 Why, I do not know that anything would be a heaven to 
 me, but the service of Christ, and the enjoyment of His 
 presence. 
 
 In this spirit, coasting Ceylon, and getting his first 
 sight of India at the Danish mission station of Tranquebar, 
 on April 22, 1806, Henry Martyn landed at Madras. To 
 Mr. Hitchins he afterwards wrote : 
 
 There was nothing remarkable in this first part of 
 India which I visited ; it was by no means so romantic as 
 America. Vast numbers of black people were walking 
 about with no dress but a little about their middle, but no 
 European was to be seen except here and there one in a 
 palanquin. Once I preached at Fort St. George, though 
 the chaplains hardly knew what to make of such sort of 
 preaching ; they were, however, not offended. Finding that 
 the people would bear to be addressed plainly, and not 
 really think the worse of a minister for dealing closely with 
 
THE NINE MONTHS' VOYAGE, 1805-1806 131 
 
 their consciences, they determined, they said, to preach the 
 Gospel as I did ; but I fear that one, if not both, has yet to 
 learn what the Gospel is. I breakfasted one day with Sir 
 E. Pellew, the Port Admiral at Madras, and met S. Cole, 
 his captain. I was perfectly delighted to find one with 
 whom I could speak about St. Hilary and Marazion ; we 
 spoke of every person, place, and thing we could think of 
 in your neighbourhood. 
 
 
1 32 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 CHAPTER IV 
 
 INDIA AND THE EAST IN THE YEAR 1806 
 
 HENRY MARTYN reached India, and entered on his official 
 duties as chaplain and the work of his heart as missionary 
 to North India, at a time when the Anglo-Indian com- 
 munity had begun to follow society in England, in a 
 reformation of life and manners, and in a corresponding 
 desire to do good to the natives. The evangelical reaction 
 set in motion by the Pietists, Moravians, and Marrow-men, 
 John Wesley and Whitfield, Andrew Fuller and Simeon, 
 John Erskine and the Haldanes, had first affected South 
 India and Madras, where Protestant Christian Missions 
 were just a century old. The Danish-Halle men, led by 
 Ziegenbalg and Schwartz, had found support in the Society 
 for Promoting Christian Knowledge from the year 1709. 
 So early as 1716 an East India Company's chaplain, the 
 Rev. William Stevenson, wrote a remarkable letter to that 
 society, 1 ' concerning the most effectual way of propagating 
 the Gospel in this (South India) part of the world.' He 
 urged a union of the several agencies in England, Denmark, 
 and Germany into one common Society for Promoting the 
 Protestant Missions, the formation of colleges in Europe 
 to train missionaries, the raising of an annual income of 
 
 1 An Abstract of the Annual Reports and Correspondence of the Society for 
 Promoting Christian Knowledge from 1709/0 1814. London, 1814, pp. 4-24. 
 
INDIA AND THE EAST IN THE YEAR 1806 133 
 
 3,ooo/., and the maintenance therewith of a staff of at 
 least eight well-qualified missionaries. By a century and 
 a half he anticipated the proposal of that union which 
 gives strength and charity ; the erection of colleges, at 
 Tranquebar and Madras, to train native ministers, cate- 
 chists, and schoolmasters, and the opening of free schools 
 in every considerable place superintended by the Euro- 
 pean missionaries on the circle system. Another Madras 
 chaplain, the Rev. George Lewis, was no less friendly 
 and helpful to Ziegenbalg ; he was Mr. Stevenson's pre- 
 decessor, and wrote in 1712. 
 
 In North India where the casteless races of the hills, 
 corresponding to the Shanars around Cape Comorin, were 
 not discovered till far on in the present century almost 
 everything was different. By the time that the Evangelical 
 Church directed its attention to Calcutta, the East India 
 Company had become a political, and consequently an 
 intolerant, power. It feared Christian proselytism, and it 
 encouraged Hindu and Mohammedan beliefs and institu- 
 tions. Whereas, in Madras, it gladly used Schwartz, 
 subsidised the mission with 500 pagodas or 22 5/. a year, 
 and had always conveyed the missionaries' freight in its 
 ships free of charge, in Bengal it kept out missionaries, or 
 so treated them with all the rigour of the law against 
 ( interlopers,' that William Carey had to begin his career 
 as an indigo planter, and seek protection in Danish 
 Serampore, where he became openly and only a preacher 
 and teacher of Christ. North India, too, with Calcutta 
 and Benares as its two Hindu centres, and Lucknow and 
 Delhi as its two Mohammedan centres, Shiah and Soonni, 
 was, and is, the very citadel of all the non-Christian world. 
 The same Gospel which had proved the power of God to 
 
I 3 4 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 the simple demonolators of the Dravidian south, must be 
 shown to be the wisdom of God to the Koolin of Bengal, 
 the Brahman of Kasi, the fanatical Muslim from Dacca, and 
 ultimately to Peshawur and Cabul, Persia and Arabia. The 
 Himalayan and Gangetic land from which Buddhism 
 overran Eastern and Southern Asia must again send 
 forth a missionary messagb to call Cathay to Christ. 
 
 The Christianising of North India began in 1758, the 
 year after the battle of Plassey, when, as Governor, the 
 conqueror, Clive, welcomed his old acquaintance, of the 
 Cuddalore Mission, the Swede Kiernander, to Calcutta, and 
 gave him a rent-free house for eight years. Even Burke 
 was friendly with Clive, writing of him : ' Lord Clive once 
 thought himself obliged to me for having done what I 
 thought an act of justice towards him ;' l and it is pleasant 
 thus to be able in any way to link that name with the 
 purely spiritual force which used the Plassey and the 
 Mutiny wars, as it will direct all events, for making 
 India Christ's. The first church, built in 1715 by the 
 merchants and captains, had been destroyed by a hurri- 
 cane ; the second had been demolished by Suraj-ood- 
 Dowlah, in the siege of Calcutta, two years before, and 
 one of the two chaplains had perished in the Black Hole, 
 while the other was driven away. For the next thirty 
 years the few who went to the chaplains' church worshipped 
 in a small bungalow in the old fort, where Kiernander 
 opened his first school. By 1771-4 he had formed such 
 a congregation of poor Christians Portuguese, Roman 
 Catholics, and Bengali converts that he built and extended 
 the famous Mission Church and School-house, at a cost of 
 
 1 See a remarkable letter from Mr. Burke to Yuseph Emin, an Armenian 
 of Calcutta, in Simeon's Memorial Sketches of David Brown, p. 334. 
 
INDIA AND THE EAST IN THE YEAR 1806 135 
 
 I2,ooo/., received from both his marriages. When, by 
 becoming surety for another, the old man lost his all, and 
 blindness added to his sorrows, he left an English congre- 
 gation of 147 members, and a Native congregation of 119, 
 half Portuguese or Eurasians, and half Bengali. 
 
 Kiernander's Mission Church was the centre of the 
 religious life of Calcutta and Bengal. Six years after its 
 foundation there came to Calcutta, from Madras, Mr. 
 William Chambers who had been converted by Schwartz 
 and John Christian Obeck, who had been one of the 
 catechists of the Apostle of South India. Chambers had 
 not been a year in the capital when he found out Charles 
 Grant, at that time overwhelmed by a domestic sorrow, 
 and brought him to Christ. Grant soon after went to 
 Maldah as Commercial Resident, where he had as his 
 subordinates, George Udny, Ellerton, W. Brown, W. Grant, 
 J. Henry, and Creighton. These men, with their families, 
 Sir Robert Chambers, of the Supreme Court, Mrs. Anne 
 Chambers who was with her sons, Mrs. Chapman, and 
 others less known, formed the nucleus of a Christian 
 community which first supported Thomas as a medical 
 missionary, then welcomed Carey, and, with the assistance 
 of two Governor-Generals, Sir John Shore and Lord 
 Wellcsley, changed the tone of Anglo- Indian society. 
 Sir William Jones, too, in his brief career of six years, set 
 an example of all the virtues. Henry Martyn had two 
 predecessors as Evangelical chaplains and missionary 
 philanthropists, the Yorkshire David Brown, and the 
 Scottish Claudius Buchanan. 
 
 David Brown, an early friend of Simeon and Fellow oi 
 Magdalen College, was recovering from a long illness in 
 1785, when a letter reached him from London, proposing 
 
1 36 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 that he should seek ordination, and in ten days he accom- 
 panied Captain Kirkpatrick to Calcutta to superintend the 
 Military Orphan School. The officers of the Bengal Army 
 had unanimously resolved to tax themselves for the removal 
 and prevention of the scandal caused by the number of 
 boys and girls left destitute no fewer than 500 at that 
 time. This noble school, the blessings of which were soon 
 extended to the white and coloured offspring of non- 
 commissioned officers and soldiers also, was organised at 
 Howrah by Brown, who then was made chaplain to a 
 brigade, and afterwards one ot the Fort William or 
 Presidency chaplains. He found the Mission practically 
 non-existent, owing to Kiernander's losses and old age. To 
 save the buildings from sale by the sheriff, Charles Grant 
 bought them for 10,000 rupees and vested them in himself, 
 Mr. A. Chambers, and Mr. Brown, by a deed providing that 
 they remain appropriated to the sole purposes of religion. 
 Until the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge 
 could send out a minister, David Brown greatly extended 
 the work of Kiernander. At one time it was likely that 
 Henry Martyn would be sent out by Mr. Grant. Under the 
 Church Missionary Society the Mission Church of Calcutta 
 has ever since been identified with all that is best in pure 
 religion and missionary enterprise in the city of Calcutta. 
 
 When sending out the Rev. A. T. Clarke, B. A. of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, who soon after became a chaplain, the 
 Christian Knowledge Society, referring to Schwartz and 
 Germany, fertile in missionaries, declared, ' It has been the 
 surprise of many, and the lamentation of more, that fortitude 
 thus exemplified should not have inspired some of our own 
 clergy with an emulation to follow and to imitate these 
 champions of the Cross, thus seeking and thus contending 
 
INDIA AND THE EAST IN THE YEAR 1806 137 
 
 to save them who are lost.' That was in 1789, when the 
 Society and Dr. Watson, Bishop of Llandafif, along with 
 Simeon, Wilberforce, and the other Clapham men, had 
 before it, officially, the request of Charles Grant, Chambers 
 and Brown to send out eight English missionaries on 35<D/. 
 a year each, to study at Benares and attack Hinduism 
 in its very centre. Not till 1817 was the first Church of 
 England missionary, as such, the Rev. William Greenwood, 
 to settle in Ceylon and then in Bengal. Even he became 
 rather an additional chaplain to the invalid soldiers at 
 Chunar. 
 
 After a career not unlike that of John Newton, who 
 first directed his attention to India, Claudius Buchanan, 
 whom his father had intended to educate for the ministry 
 of the Church of Scotland, wandered to London, was sent to 
 Queen's College, Cambridge, by Mr. Thornton of Clapham ; 
 there came under Simeon's influence, and was appointed to 
 Bengal as a chaplain by Mr. Grant. That was in 1796. 
 For the next ten years in Barrackpore and Calcutta as 
 the trusted chaplain of Lord Wellesley, by his researches 
 in South India, by his promotion of Bible translation, and 
 by the interest in the Christianising of India which his 
 generous prizes excited in the Universities and Churches of 
 England and Scotland, Ur. Claudius Buchanan was the 
 foremost ecclesiastic in the East. He at once gave an 
 impulse to the silent revolution which David Brown began 
 and the Serampore missionaries carried on. His Christian 
 statesmanship commended him to all the authorities, and 
 soon the new Cathedral of St. John, which Warren 
 Hastings had erected to supersede the old Bungalow 
 Church, became filled with an attentive and devout con- 
 gregation, as well as the mission church. These two men 
 
138 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 and William Carey formed the pillars of the College of Fort 
 William, by which Lord Wellesley not only educated the 
 young civilians and military officers in the Oriental 
 languages, and in their duties to the natives, but developed 
 a high ideal of public life and personal morality. Such 
 was the growth of Christian feeling alike in the army and 
 the civil service, and such the sense of duty to the rapidly in- 
 creasing Eurasian community, as well as to the natives, 
 that by 1803 Claudius Buchanan submitted to the Governor- 
 General, the Archbishop of Canterbury, and Bishop 
 Porteus, his Thoughts on the Expediency of an Ecclesiastical 
 Establishment for British India. It took ten years, covering 
 the whole period of Henry Martyn's activities and life, from 
 this time for the proposal to be legislatively carried out in 
 the East India Company's Charter of 1813. 
 
 Practically except in Maldah residency during the 
 influence of Grant, Udny, and Carey at the end of last 
 century the reformation was confined to Calcutta, as we 
 shall see. It was a young lieutenant of the Company's 
 army who was the first to draw the attention of the 
 Governor-General, Sir John Shore, in 1794, to the total 
 neglect of religion in Bengal Lieutenant White wrote 
 that he had been eleven years in the country without 
 having had it in his power to hear the public prayers of 
 the Church above five times. He urged the regular 
 worship of God, the public performance of Divine service, 
 and preaching at all the stations. He proposed 'additional 
 chaplains to the Company's complement for considerable 
 places which now have none to officiate. Unless places 
 were erected at the different stations for assembling to 
 Divine service, it must be impossible for chaplains even to 
 be able to do their duty, and to assemble the people together.' 
 
INDIA AND THE EAST IN THE YEAR 1806 139 
 
 The letter delighted the Governor-General, who said of it 
 to David Brown, ' I shall certainly recommend places to 
 be made at the stations, and shall desire the General who 
 is going up the country to take this matter in charge, and 
 to fix on spots where chapels shall be erected.' Nothing 
 was done in consequence of this, however. It was left to 
 Martyn, and the other chaplains who were in earnest, to 
 find or create covered places for worship at the great mili- 
 tary stations. Claudius Buchanan himself could not hold 
 regular services at Barrackpore, close to Calcutta, for want 
 of a church, and that was supplied long after by adapting 
 and consecrating the station theatre ! 
 
 The figures in Buchanan's published Memoir on the 
 Expediency of an Ecclesiastical Establishment, enable us 
 to estimate exactly the spiritual destitution of the Protes- 
 tant subjects of the British Government in Asia. Twelve 
 years after Lieutenant White, Sir John Shore, David 
 Brown, and Claudius Buchanan first raised the question, 
 and when Henry Martyn began his ministrations to all 
 classes, there were 676,557 Protestant subjects in India, 
 Ceylon, Java, Sumatra, and Canton, Roman Catholics and 
 Syrian Christians not included. In the three Presidencies 
 of India alone there were 156,057, of whom 7,257 were 
 civil and military officers and inhabitants, 6,000 were the 
 Company's European troops, 19,800 were the King's troops, 
 1 1 0,000 were Eurasians, and 13,000 were 'native Protes- 
 tant Christians at Tanjore.' In Bengal alone that is, 
 North India there were fifty stations, thirty-one civil and 
 nineteen military, many of which had been 'without the 
 offices of religion for twenty years past, though at each 
 there reside generally a judge, a collector, a commercial 
 resident, with families, together with their assistants and 
 
140 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 families, and a surgeon ; ' also indigo planters, tradesmen, 
 and other European inhabitants and the alarmingly large 
 number of Eurasians. In Bengal alone there were 13,299 
 European Protestants, of whom 2,467 were civil servants 
 and military officers ; of the whole 13,299, ' a tenth part do 
 not return to England,' and desire Christian education and 
 confirmation for their children. Yet ' at present there are 
 but three churches in India, the chief of which was aided in 
 construction by Hindu contribution.' The India Journals 
 and Letters of Martyn must be read in the light of all 
 this. 
 
 It was thus that the successive generations of soldiers 
 and civilians who won for Christian England its Indian 
 Empire in the century from Clive to Wellesley, Hast- 
 ings, and Dalhousie, were de-Christianised. Not till the 
 close of the Mutiny war in 1858 did John Lawrence, 
 first as Lieutenant-Governor of the Punjab and then as 
 Viceroy, and Sir Robert Montgomery as Lieutenant- 
 Governor, lead the Queen's Government to do its duty, by 
 erecting, or helping Christians to erect, a chapel in every 
 station up to Peshawur and Burma that, to use Buchanan's 
 language in 1806, ' the English soldiers and our countrymen 
 of all descriptions, after long absence from a Christian 
 country, may recognise a church.' Including Ceylon, 
 Buchanan's scheme proposed an annual expenditure of 
 I44,ooo/. for four dioceses, with 50 English chaplains and 
 100 native curates, 200 schoolmasters and 4 colleges to 
 train both Europeans and natives for the ministry ; of 
 this, Parliament to give ioo,ooo/. The ecclesiastical 
 establishment of India without Ceylon, but including 
 Church of Scotland chaplains, and grants to Wesleyans 
 and Roman Catholics now costs India itself i6o,ooo/. a 
 
INDIA AND THE EAST IN THE YEAR 1806 141 
 
 year, while the annual value of the lands devoted to the non- 
 Christian cults is many millions sterling. With all this, 
 and the aid of the Additional Clergy and Anglo-Indian 
 Evangelisation Societies, and of the missionaries to the 
 natives, Great Britain does not meet the spiritual wants of 
 the now enormous number and scattered communities of 
 Christian soldiers and residents in its Indian Empire. 
 
 Henry Martyn went out to India at a time when the 
 government of India had been temporarily entrusted to 
 one of the only three or four incompetent and unworthy 
 men who have held the high office of Govern or- General. 
 Sir George Barlow was a Bengal civilian of the old type, 
 whom Lord Wellesley had found so zealous and useful 
 in matters of routine that he had recommended him 
 as provisional Governor-General. But the moment that 
 that proconsul had seated the East India Company on the 
 throne of the Great Mogul, as has been said, and Lord 
 Cornwallis, who had been hurried out a second time to 
 undo his magnificent and just policy, had died at Ghazipore, 
 Sir George Barlow showed the most disastrous zeal in 
 opposition to all his former convictions. By withholding 
 from Sindia the lamentable despatch of September 19, 1805, 
 which Lord Cornwallis had signed when the unconsciousness 
 of death had already weakened his efficiency, Lord Lake 
 gave the civil authorities a final opportunity to consider 
 their ways. But Barlow's stupidity now clothed with the 
 almost dictator's power of the highest office under the 
 British Crown, as it was in those days deliberately de- 
 clared it to be his desire, not only to fix the limit of our 
 empire at the Jumna, a river fordable by an enemy at all 
 times, but to promote general anarchy beyond that frontier 
 as the best security for British peace within it. The peace 
 
142 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 of Southern Asia and the good of its peoples were postponed 
 for years, till, with difficulty, the Marquis of Hastings 
 restored the empire to the position in which Lord Wellesley 
 had left it. Sir George Barlow is responsible for the twelve 
 years' anarchy of British India, from 1805 to 1817. His 
 administration, which bqcame such a failure that he was re- 
 moved to Madras, and was from even that province recalled, 
 must rank as a blot on the otherwise unbroken splendour 
 and benevolence to the subject races of the government of 
 South Asia in the century and a half from Clive to Lord 
 Lansdowne. 
 
 The man who, from dull stolidity more than from 
 Macchiavellian craft, thus again plunged half India into 
 a series of wars by chief upon chief and creed upon creed, 
 was no less guilty of intolerance to Christianity within the 
 Company's territories. On the one hand, in opposition 
 to the views of Lord Wellesley, and even of the Court of 
 Directors led by Charles Grant, he made the Company's 
 government the direct manager of the Poori temple of 
 Jaganath and its dancing girls ; on the other, he would have 
 banished the Serampore and all Christian missionaries 
 from the country, but for the courageous opposition of 
 the little Governor of that Danish settlement. All too late 
 he was relieved by Lord Minto, whom the Brahmanised 
 officials of 1807 to 1810 used for a final and futile effort 
 to crush Christianity out of India, to the indignation 
 of Henry Martyn, whose language in his Journal is not 
 more unmeasured than the intolerance deserves. But 
 in his purely foreign policy Lord Minto proved that 
 he had not held the office of President of the Board 
 of Control in vain. He once more asserted the only 
 reason for the existence of a foreign power in India, ' the 
 
INDIA AND THE EAST IN THE YEAR 1806 143 
 
 suppression of intestine disorder/ clearing Bundelkhund 
 of robber chiefs and military strongholds. Surrounded and 
 assisted by the brilliant civilians and military officers whom 
 Wellesley and Carey had trained men like Mountstuart 
 Elphinstone, Metcalfe and Malcolm Lord Minto proved 
 equal to the strain which the designs of Napoleon Bonaparte 
 in the Treaty of Tilsit put upon our infant empire in the 
 East. He sent Metcalfe to Lahore, and confined the dan- 
 gerous power of Ranjeet Singh to the north of the Sutlej. 
 He despatched Elphinstone to Cabul, introducing the wise 
 policy which has converted Afghanistan into a friendly 
 subsidised State ; and through Malcolm he opened Persia 
 to English influence, paving the way for the embassy of 
 Wellesley 's friend, Sir Gore Ouseley, and unconsciously 
 for the kindly reception of Henry Martyn. 
 
 It was on April 22, 1806, at sunrise, that the young 
 chaplain landed from the surf-boat on the sands of Madras. 
 His experience at San Salvador had prepared him for 
 the scene, and even for the crowds of dark natives, though 
 not for ' the elegance of their manners.' ' I felt a solemn 
 sort of melancholy at the sight of such multitudes of 
 idolaters. While the turbaned Asiatics waited upon us at 
 dinner, about a dozen of them, I could not help feeling 
 as if we had got into their places.' He visited the native 
 suburb in which his Hindustani-speaking servants dwelt, 
 and was depressed by its ' appearance of wretchedness.' 
 His soul was filled with the zeal of the Old Testament 
 prophets against idolatry, the first sight of which of men, 
 women, and children, mad upon their idols produces an 
 impression which he does not exaggerate : ' I fancy the 
 frown of &od to be visible.' He lost not a day in 
 commending his Master to the people. ' Had a good deal of 
 
144 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 conversation with a Rajpoot about religion, and told him 
 of the Gospel.' The young natives pressed upon the 
 new-comer as usual. ' Rose early, but could not enjoy 
 morning meditations in my walk, as the young men would 
 attach themselves to me.' 
 
 He was much in the ( society of the Rev. Dr. Kerr l and 
 the other Madras chaplains; one of these was about to 
 proceed to Seringapatam, where Martyn urged him to 
 ' devote himself to the work of preaching to the natives.' 
 This was ever foremost in his thoughts. He spent days in 
 obtaining from Dr. Kerr ' a vast deal of information about 
 all the chaplains and missionaries in the country, which he 
 promised to put in writing for me.' Schwartz was not then 
 dead ten years, and Dr. Kerr, who had known him and 
 Guericke well, gave his eager listener many details of the 
 great missionary. 
 
 Felt excessively delighted with accounts of a very 
 late date from Bengal, describing the labours of the mis- 
 sionaries, and was rather agitated at the confusion of 
 interesting thoughts that crowded upon me ; but I reasoned, 
 Why thus ? God may never honour you with a missionary 
 commission ; you must expect to leave the field, and bid 
 adieu to the world and all its concerns. 
 
 On his first Sunday in India, April 27, 1806, Henry 
 Martyn assisted in the service in the church at Fort St. 
 George, and preached from Luke x. 41, 42, ' One thing is 
 needful.' 
 
 1 Simeon thus introduced him to Dr. Kerr, in a private letter quoted by 
 a later Madras chaplain, Rev. James Hough, in his valuable five volumes on 
 The History of Christianity in India : ' Our excellent friend, Mr. Martyn, 
 lived five months with me, and a more heavenly-minded young man I never 
 saw.' In the same year, the Rev. Marmaduke Thompson, an evangelical 
 chaplain, arrived in Madras vid Calcutta. 
 
INDIA AND THE EAST IN THE YEAR 1806 145 
 
 There was much attention, and Lord William sent 
 to Dr. Kerr afterwards to request a copy of the sermon ; 
 but I believe it was generally thought too severe. After 
 dinner, went to Black Town to Mr. Loveless's chapel. I 
 sat in the air at the door enjoying the blessed sound of 
 the Gospel on an Indian shore, and joining with much 
 comfort in the song of divine praise. With young 
 Torriano I had some conversation respecting his entering 
 the ministry, as he spoke the Malabar tongue fluently. 
 Walked home at night enjoying the presence of God. 
 
 April 28. This morning, at breakfast, Sir E. Pellew came 
 in and said : ' Upon my word, Mr. Martyn, you gave us a 
 good trimming yesterday.' As this was before a large 
 company, and I was taken by surprise, I knew not what to 
 say. Passed most of the day in transcribing the sermon. 
 There was nothing very awakening in it. About five in 
 the evening I walked to Dr. Kerr's, and found my way 
 across the fields, which much resembled those near 
 Cambridge ; I stopped some time to take a view of the 
 men drawing ' toddy ' from the tree, and their manner of 
 ploughing. 
 
 April 30. Breakfasted at Sir E. Pellew's with Captain 
 S. Cole of the Culloden. I had a good deal of con- 
 versation about our friends at St. Hilary and Marazion. 
 Continued at home the rest of the day transcribing sermon, 
 and reading Zechariah. In the evening drove with Dr. 
 Kerr to Mr. Faulkner's, the Persian translator, five or six 
 miles in the country. We had some useful conversation 
 about the languages. On my return walked by moonlight 
 in the grounds reflecting on the mission. My soul was at 
 first sore tried by desponding thoughts : but God wonderfully 
 assisted me to trust Him for the wisdom of His dispen- 
 sations. Truly, therefore, will I say again, ' Who art thou, 
 O great mountain ? before Zerubbabel thou shalt become a 
 plain/ How easy for God to do it ! and it shall be done 
 in good time : aud even if I never should see a native 
 
 L 
 
I 4 6 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 converted, God may design by my patience and con- 
 tinuance in the work to encourage future missionaries. 
 But what surprises me is the change of views I have here 
 from what I had in England. There, my heart expanded 
 with hope and joy at the prospect of the speedy conversion 
 of the heathen ! but here, the sight of the apparent impos- 
 sibility requires a strong 'faith to support the spirits. 
 
 The ' Lord William ' of the Journal is the Governor of 
 Madras, Lord William Bentinck, whom, at the beginning 
 of his Indian career, it is interesting to find thus pleasantly 
 brought into contact with Henry Martyn just as he 
 became the fast friend of Alexander Duff, at the close of 
 his long and beneficent services to his country and to 
 humanity. In two months thereafter the Vellore Mutiny 
 was to break out, through no fault of his, and he was to be 
 recalled by an act of injustice for which George Canning 
 and the Court of Directors atoned twenty years after by 
 appointing him Governor-General. 
 
 After a fortnight off Madras, the Union once more 
 set sail under the convoy of the Victor sloop-of-war 
 Every moment the young scholar had sought to add to 
 his knowledge of Hindustani and Persian. He changed 
 his first native servant for one who could speak Hindustani. 
 He drove with Dr. Kerr to Mr. Faulkner's, the Persian 
 translator to Government. * We had some useful conver- 
 sation about the languages.' On the voyage to Calcutta, 
 he was ' employed in learning Bengali. Passed the after- 
 noon on the poop reading Sale's A I Coran? Only 
 missionary thoughts and aspirations filled his mind, now 
 despairing of his own fitness ; now refreshed as he turned 
 from the Church Missionary Society's reports to the 
 evangelical prophecies of Malachi ; again praying for the 
 
INDIA AND THE EAST IN THE YEAR 1806 147 
 
 young missionaries of the London Society as he passed 
 Vizagapatam, and for 'poor India' as he came in sight of 
 the Jaganath pagoda, < much resembling in appearance 
 Roche Rock in Cornwall . . . the scene presented another 
 specimen of that tremendous gloom with which the devil 
 has overspread the land.' After taking a pilot on board 
 in Balasore Roads, where Carey had first landed, the ship 
 was driven out to sea by a north-wester, and Henry 
 Martyn suffered from his first sunstroke. In three days 
 she anchored in the Hoogli, above Culpee, and on May 13 
 bumped on that dreaded shoal, the James and Mary. 
 ' The captain considered the vessel as lost. Retired as 
 soon as possible for prayer, and found my soul in peace at 
 the prospect of death.' She floated off, exchanging most 
 of the treasure into a tender which lay becalmed off 
 the Garden Reach suburb, then ' very beautiful.' 
 
 Henry Martyn landed at Calcutta in the height of 
 the hot season, on May 16, 1806. Claudius Buchanan 
 had passed him at the mouth of the Hoogli, setting out 
 on the tour of the coasts of India, which resulted in the 
 Christian Researches. David Brown was in his country 
 retreat at Aldeen, near Serampore. 
 
 The man whom, next to his own colleagues, he first 
 sought out was the quondam shoemaker of Hackleton, and 
 poor Baptist preacher of Moulton, the Bengali missionary to 
 whose success Charles Simeon had pointed him when fresh 
 from the triumph of Senior Wrangler ; the apostle then forty- 
 five years of age, who was busy with the duties of Professor 
 of Sanskrit, Bengali, and Marathi, in the College of Fort 
 William, that he might have the Bible translated into all 
 the languages of Asia, and preached in all the villages of 
 North India, 
 
148 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 1806, May 1 6. Went ashore at daylight this morning, 
 and with some difficulty found Carey : Messrs. Brown and 
 Buchanan being both absent from Calcutta. With him I 
 breakfasted, joined with him in worship, which was in 
 Bengali for the advantage of a few servants, who sat, 
 however, perfectly unmoved. I could not help contrasting 
 them with the slaves and Hottentots at Cape Town, whose 
 hearts seemed to burn within them. After breakfast Carey 
 began to translate, with a Pandit, from a Sanskrit manuscript. 
 Presently after, Dr. Taylor came in. I had engaged a boat 
 to go to Serampore, when a letter from Mr. Brown found 
 me out, and directed me to his house in the town, where 
 I spent the rest of the day in solitude, and more com- 
 fortably and profitably than any time past. I enjoyed 
 several solemn seasons in prayer, and more lively impres- 
 sions from God's Word. I felt elevated above those dis- 
 tressing fears and distractions which pride and worldliness 
 engender in the mind. Employed at times in writing to 
 Mr. Simeon, Mr. Brown's moonshi ; a Brahmin of the name 
 of B. Roy came in and disputed with me two hours about 
 the Gospel. I was really surprised at him ; he spoke Eng- 
 lish very well and possessed more acuteness, good sense, 
 moderation, and acquaintance with the Scriptures than I 
 could conceive to be found in an Indian. He spoke with 
 uncommon energy and eloquence, intending to show that 
 Christianity and Hinduism did not materially differ. He 
 asked me to explain my system, and adduce the proofs of 
 it from the Bible, which he said he believed was the Word 
 of God. When I asked him about his idolatry, he asked 
 in turn what I had to say to our worshipping Christ. This 
 led to inquiries about the Trinity, which, after hearing what 
 I had to say, he observed was actually the Hindu notion. 
 I explained several things about the Jews and the Old 
 Testament, about which he wanted information, with all 
 which he was amazingly pleased. I feel much encouraged 
 by this to go to instruct them. I see that they are a 
 
INDIA AND THE EAST IN THE YEAR 1806 149 
 
 religious people, as St. Paul called the Athenians, and my 
 heart almost springs at the thought that the time is 
 ripening for the fulness of the Gentiles to come in. 
 
 May 17. A day more unprofitable than the foregoing ; 
 the depravity of my heart, as it is in its natural frame, 
 appeared to me to-day almost unconquerable. I could not, 
 however long in prayer, keep the presence of God, or the 
 power of the world to come, in my mind at all. It sunk 
 down to its most lukewarm state, and continued in general 
 so, in spite of my endeavours. Oh, how I need a deep 
 heartrending work of the Spirit upon myself, before I shall 
 save myself, or them that hear me ! What I hear about my 
 future destination has proved a trial to me to-day. My 
 dear brethren, Brown and Buchanan, wish to keep me here, 
 as I expected, and the Governor accedes to their wishes. 
 I have a great many reasons for not liking this ; I almost 
 think that to be prevented going among the heathen as a 
 missionary would break my heart. Whether it be self-will 
 or aught else, I cannot yet rightly ascertain. At all events 
 I must learn submission to everything. In the multitude 
 of my thoughts Thy comforts delight my soul. I have been 
 running the hurried round of thought without God. I have 
 forgotten that He ordereth everything. I have been bearing 
 the burden of my cares myself, instead of casting them all 
 upon Him. Mr. Brown came in to-day from Serampore, 
 and gave me directions how to proceed ; continued at home 
 writing to E. In the afternoon went on board, but without 
 being able to get my things away. Much of the rest of 
 the day passed in conversation with Mr. Brown. I feel 
 pressed in spirit to do something for God. Everybody is 
 diligent, but I am idle ; all employed in their proper work, 
 but I tossed in uncertainty ; I want nothing but grace ; I 
 want to be perfectly holy, and to save myself and those that 
 hear me. I have hitherto lived to little purpose, more like 
 a clod than a servant of God ; now let me burn out for 
 God. 
 
150 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 CHAPTER V 
 
 CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 
 
 ' Now let me burn out for God ! ' Such were the words with 
 which Henry Martyn began his ministry to natives and 
 Europeans in North India, as in the secrecy of prayer he 
 reviewed his first two days in Calcutta. Chaplain though 
 he was, officially, at the most intolerant time of the East 
 India Company's administration, he was above all things a 
 missionary. Charles Simeon had chosen him, and Charles 
 Grant had sent him out, for this as well as his purely 
 professional duty, and it never occurred to him that he could 
 be anything else. He burned to bring all men to the same 
 peace with God and service to Him which he himself 
 had for seven years enjoyed. We find him recording his 
 great delight, now at an extract sent to him from the East 
 India Company's Charter, doubtless the old one from 
 William III., 'authorising and even requiring me to teach 
 the natives,' and again on receiving a letter from Corrie, 
 ' exulting with thankfulness and joy that Dr. Kerr was 
 preaching the Gospel. Eight such chaplains in India ! this 
 is precious news indeed.' Even up to the present time no 
 Christian in India has ever recognised so fully, or carried 
 out in a brief time so unrestingly, his duty to natives and 
 Europeans alike as sinners to be saved by Jesus Christ alone. 
 Henry Martyn's first Sunday in Calcutta was spent in 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 151 
 
 worship in St. John's, the ' new church/ when Mr. Jefferies 
 read one part and Mr. Limerick another of the service, and 
 Mr. Brown preached. Midday was spent with 'a pious 
 family where we had some agreeable and religious con- 
 versation, but their wish to keep me from the work of the 
 mission and retain me at Calcutta was carried farther than 
 mere civility, and showed an extraordinary unconcern for 
 the souls of the poor heathens.' In the evening, though 
 unwell with a cold and sore throat, he ventured to read the 
 service in the mission or old church of Kiernander. He 
 was there * agreeably surprised at the number, attention, 
 and apparent liveliness of the audience. Most of the 
 young ministers that I know would rejoice to come from 
 England if they knew how attractive every circumstance is 
 respecting the church.' Next day he was presented at the 
 levee of Sir George Barlow, acting Governor-General, 'who, 
 after one or two trifling questions, passed on.' He then spent 
 some time in the College of Fort William, where he was 
 shown Tipoo's library, and one of the Mohammedan 
 professors a colleague of Carey chanted the Koran. 
 Thence he was rowed with the tide, in an hour and a half, 
 sixteen miles up the Hoogli to Aldeen, the house of 
 Rev. David Brown in the suburb of Serampore, which be- 
 came his home in Lower Bengal. On the next two Sundays 
 he preached in the old church of Calcutta, and in the new 
 church 'officiated at the Sacrament with Mr. Limerick.' 
 It was on June 8 that he preached in the new church, for 
 the first time, his famous sermon from I Cor. i. 23, 24, 
 on ' Christ crucified, unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and 
 unto the Greeks foolishness ; but unto them which are 
 called, both Jews and Greeks, Christ the power of God, and 
 the wisdom of God? 
 
152 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 This is his own account of the immediate result : 
 
 1806, June 8. The sermon excited no small ferment ; 
 however, after some looks of surprise and whispering, the 
 congregation became attentive and serious. I knew what I 
 was to be on my guard against, and therefore, that I might 
 not have my mind full of idle thoughts about the opinions of 
 men, I prayed both before* and after, that the Word might be 
 for the conversion of souls, and that I might feel indifferent, 
 except on this score. 
 
 We cannot describe the sermon, as it was published 
 after his death, and again in 1 862, more correctly than by 
 comparing it to one of Mr. Spurgeon's, save that, in style, 
 it is a little more academic and a little less Saxon or 
 homely. But never before had the high officials and 
 prosperous residents of Calcutta, who attended the church 
 which had become ' fashionable ' since the Marquess 
 Wellesley set the example of regular attendance, heard 
 the evangel preached. The chaplains had been and were 
 of the Arian and Pelagian type common in the Church 
 till a later period. They at once commenced an as- 
 sault on their young colleague and on the doctrines by 
 which Luther and Calvin had reformed the Churches of 
 Christendom. This was the conclusion of the hated 
 sermon : 
 
 There is, in every congregation, a large proportion of 
 Jews and Greeks. There are persons who resemble the 
 Jews in self-righteousness ; who, after hearing the doctrines 
 of grace insisted on for years, yet see no occasion at all for 
 changing the ground of their hopes. They seek righteous- 
 ness ' not by faith, but as it were by the works of the law : 
 for they stumble at that stumbling-stone ' (Rom. ix. 32) ; 
 or, perhaps, after going a little way in the profession of the 
 Gospel, they take offence at the rigour of the practice 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 153 
 
 which we require, as if the Gospel did not enjoin it. ' This 
 is a hard saying,' they complain ; ' who can hear it ? ' (John 
 vi. 60), and thus resemble those who first made the 
 complaint, who 'went back and walked no more with Him.' 
 Others come to carp and to criticise. While heretics 
 who deny the Lord that bought them, open infidels, 
 professed atheists, grossly wicked men, are considered as 
 entitled to candour, liberality, and respect, they are pleased 
 to make serious professors of the Gospel exclusively 
 objects of contempt, and set down their discourses on the 
 mysteries of faith as idle and senseless jargon. Alas ! 
 how miserably dark and perverse must they be who think 
 thus of that Gospel which unites all the power and wisdom 
 of God in it. After God has arranged all the parts of His 
 plan, so as to make it the best which in His wisdom could 
 be devised for the restoration of man, how pitiable their 
 stupidity and ignorance to whom it is foolishness ! And, 
 let us add, how miserable will be their end ! because they 
 not only are condemned already, and the wrath of God 
 abideth on them, but they incur tenfold danger : they not 
 only remain without a remedy to their maladies, but have 
 the guilt of rejecting it when offered to them. This is 
 their danger, that there is always a stumbling-block in the 
 way : the further they go, the nearer are they to their fall. 
 They are always exposed to sudden, unexpected de- 
 struction. They cannot foresee one moment whether 
 they shall stand or fall the next ; and when they do fall 
 they fall at once without warning. Their feet shall slide 
 in due time. Just shame is it to the sons of men, that He 
 whose delight it was to do them good, and who so loved 
 them as to shed His blood for them, should have so many 
 in the world to despise and reject His offers ; but thus is 
 the ancient Scripture fulfilled ' The natural man receiveth 
 not the things of the Spirit of God ' (i Cor. ii. 14). 
 
 Tremble at your state, all ye that from self-righteous- 
 ness, or pride, or unwillingness to follow Him in the 
 
154 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 regeneration, disregard Christ ! Nothing keeps you one 
 moment from perdition but the mere sovereign pleasure 
 of God. Yet suppose not that we take pleasure in con- 
 tradicting your natural sentiments on religion, or in giving 
 pain by forcing offensive truths upon your attention no ! as 
 the ministers of joy and peace we rise up at the command 
 of God, to preach Christ crucified to you all. He died for 
 His bitterest enemies : therefore, though ye have been 
 Jews or Greeks, self-righteous, ignorant, or profane though 
 ye have presumed to call His truths in question, treated 
 the Bible with contempt, or even chosen to prefer an idol 
 to the Saviour yet return, at length, before you die, and 
 God is willing to forgive you. 
 
 How happy is the condition of those who obey the 
 call of the Gospel. Their hope being placed on that way 
 of salvation which is the power and wisdom of God, on 
 what a broad, firm basis doth it rest ! Heaven and earth 
 may pass away, though much of the power and wisdom 
 of God was employed in erecting that fabric ; but the 
 power and wisdom themselves of God must be cut off 
 from His immutable essence, and pass away, before one 
 tittle of your hope can fail. Then rejoice, ye children of 
 Wisdom, by whom she is justified. Happy are your eyes, 
 for they see ; and your ears, for they hear ; and the things 
 which God hath hidden from the wise and prudent, He 
 hath revealed unto you. Ye were righteous in your own 
 esteem ; but ye ' count all things but loss for the excellency 
 of the knowledge of Christ Jesus our Lord.' Then be not 
 ashamed of the Gospel of Christ, ' which is the power of 
 God unto salvation unto every one that believeth ' ; but 
 continue to display its efficacy by the holiness of your 
 lives, and live rejoicing in hope of the glory of God. 
 
 The opposition of the officers and many of the troops 
 on board the transport had made the preacher familiar with 
 attack and misrepresentation, but not less faithful in ex- 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 155 
 
 pounding the Gospel of the grace of God as he himself had 
 received it to his joy, and for his service to the death. But 
 the ministrations of David Brown for some years might 
 have been expected to have made the civilians and mer- 
 chants of Calcutta more tolerant, if not more intelligent. 
 They were, however, incited or led by the two other chap- 
 lains thus : 
 
 1806, June 1 6. Heard that Dr. Ward had made an 
 intemperate attack upon me yesterday at the new church, 
 and upon all the doctrines of the Gospel. I felt like the 
 rest, disposed to be entertained at it ; but I knew it to be 
 wrong, and therefore found it far sweeter to retire and pray, 
 with my mind fixed upon the more awful things of another 
 world. 
 
 June 22. Attended at the new church, and heard Mr. 
 Jefferies on the evidences of Christianity. I had laboured 
 much in prayer in the morning that God would be pleased 
 to keep my heart during the service from thinking about 
 men, and I could say as I was going, ' I will go up to Thy 
 house in the multitude of Thy mercies, and in Thy fear will 
 I worship toward Thy holy temple.' In public worship 
 
 1 was rather more heavenly-minded than on former 
 occasions, yet still vain and wandering. At night preached 
 on John x. 1 1 : ' I am the good shepherd ; ' there was great 
 attention. Yet felt a little dejected afterwards, as if I 
 always preached without doing good. 
 
 July 6. Laboured to have my mind impressed with 
 holy things, particularly because 1 expected to have a per- 
 sonal attack from the pulpit. Mr. Limerick preached from 
 
 2 Pet. i. 1 3, and spoke with sufficient plainness against me 
 and my doctrines. Called them inconsistent, extravagant, 
 and absurd. He drew a vast variety of false inferences 
 from the doctrines, and thence argued against the doctrines 
 themselves. To say that repentance is the gift of God 
 
156 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 was to induce men to sit still and wait for God. To teach 
 that Nature was wholly corrupt was to lead men to despair ; 
 that men thinking the righteousness of Christ sufficient to 
 justify, will account it unnecessary to have any of their 
 own : this last assertion moved me considerably, and I 
 started at hearing such downright heresy. He spoke of 
 me as one of those who understand neither what they say 
 nor whereof they affirm, and as speaking only to gratify 
 self-sufficiency, pride, and uncharitableness. I rejoiced at 
 having the sacrament of the Lord's Supper afterwards, as 
 the solemnities of that blessed ordinance sweetly tended to 
 soothe the asperities and dissipate the contempt which was 
 
 rising ; and I think I administered the cup to and 
 
 with sincere good-will. At night I preached on John 
 
 iv. 10, at the mission church, and, blessed be God ! with an 
 
 enlarged heart. I saw in tears, and that encouraged 
 
 me to hope that perhaps some were savingly affected, but 
 I feel no desire except that my God should be glorified. 
 If any are awakened at hearing me, let me not hear of it 
 if I should glory. 
 
 August 24. At the new church, Mr. Jefferies preached. 
 I preached in the evening on Matt. xi. 28, without much 
 heart, yet the people as attentive as possible. 
 
 August 25. Called on Mr. Limerick and Mr. Birch; 
 with the latter I had a good deal of conversation on the 
 practicability of establishing schools, and uniting in a 
 society. An officer who was there took upon him to call 
 in question the lawfulness of interfering with the religion 
 of the natives, and said that at Delhi the Christians were 
 some of the worst people there. I was glad at the prospect 
 of meeting with these Christians. The Lord enabled me 
 to speak boldly to the man, and to silence him. From 
 thence I went to the Governor-General's levee, and re- 
 ceived great attention from him, as, indeed, from most 
 others here. Perhaps it is a snare of Satan to stop my 
 mouth, and make me unwilling to preach faithfully to 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 157 
 
 them. The Lord have mercy, and -quicken me to dili- 
 gence. 
 
 August 26. At night Marshman came, and our con- 
 versation was very refreshing and profitable. Truly the 
 love of God is the happiness of the soul ! My soul felt 
 much sweetness at this thought, and breathed after God. 
 At midnight Marshman came to the pagoda, and awakened 
 me with the information that Sir G. Barlow had sent word 
 to Carey not to disperse any more tracts nor send out 
 more native brethren, or in any way interfere with the 
 prejudices of the natives. We did not know what to make 
 of this ; the subject so excited me that I was again deprived 
 of necessary sleep. 
 
 August 28. Enjoyed much comfort in my soul this 
 morning, and ardour for my work, but afterwards conscious- 
 ness of indolence and unprofitableness made me uneasy. 
 In the evening Mr. Marshman, Ward, Moore, and Rowe 
 came up and talked with us on the Governor's prohibition 
 of preaching the Gospel, &c. Mr. Brown's advice was full 
 of wisdom, and weighed with them all. I was exceedingly 
 excited, and spoke with vehemence against the measures 
 of government, which afterwards filled me justly with 
 shame. 
 
 The earnestness of the young chaplain was such that 
 4 the people of Calcutta,' or all the Evangelicals, joined 
 even by the Baptist missionaries at Serampore, gave him 
 no rest that he might consent to become minister of the 
 mission or old church, with a chaplain's salary and house. 
 Dr. Marshman urged that thus he might create a missionary 
 spirit and organise missionary undertakings of more value 
 to the natives than the preaching of any one man. But 
 he remained deaf to the temptation, while he passed on the 
 call to Cousin T. Hitchins and Emma, at Plymouth. His 
 call was not to preach even in the metropolis of British 
 
158 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 India, the centre of Southern Asia ; but, through their own 
 languages, to set in motion a force which must win North 
 India, Arabia, and Persia to Christ, while by his death he 
 should stir up the great Church of England to do its duty. 
 
 Serampore was the scene of his praying, his com- 
 muning, and his studying, while every Sunday was given 
 to his duties in Calcutta, as he waited five months for his 
 first appointment to a military station. David Brown had 
 not long before acquired Aldeen House, with its tropical 
 garden and English-like lawn sloping down to the river, 
 nearly opposite the Governor-General's summer-house and 
 park of Barrackpore. Connected with the garden was the 
 old and architecturally picturesque temple of the idol 
 Radha-bullub, which had been removed farther inland 
 because the safety of the shrine was imperilled by the river. 
 But the temple still stands, in spite of the rapid Hoogli 
 at its base, and the more destructive peepul tree which has 
 spread over its massive dome. In 1854, when the present 
 writer first visited the now historic spot, even the platform 
 above the river was secure, but that has since disappeared, 
 with much of the fine brick moulding and tracery work. 
 Here was the young saint's home ; ever since it has been 
 known as Henry Marty n's Pagoda, and has been an object 
 of interest to hundreds of visitors from Europe and America. 
 
 Henry Martyn became one of David Brown's family, 
 with whom he kept up the most loving correspondence 
 almost to his death. But he spent even more time with 
 the already experienced missionaries who formed the 
 famous brotherhood a little farther up the right bank of 
 the Hoogli. Carey thus wrote of him, knowing nothing 
 of the fact that it was his own earlier reports which, 
 in Simeon's hands, had first led Martyn to desire the 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 
 
 161 
 
 missionary career : ' A young clergyman, Mr. Martyn, is 
 lately arrived, who is possessed of a truly missionary spirit. 
 He lives at present with Mr. Brown, and as the image or 
 shadow of bigotry is not known among us here, we take 
 sweet counsel together and go to the house of God as 
 
 A BRICK FROM HENRY MARTYN'S PAGODA 
 
 friends.' Later on, the founder of the Modern Missionary 
 enterprise, who desired to send a missionary to every great 
 centre in North India, declared of the Anglican chaplain 
 that, wherever he went no other missionary would be 
 needed. The late Mr. John Clark Marshman, C.S.I., who 
 
 M 
 
1 62 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 as a lad saw them daily, wrote : * A strong feeling of 
 sympathy drew him into a close intimacy with Dr. Marsh- 
 man, and they might be often seen walking arm in arm, for 
 hours together, on the banks of the river between Aldeen 
 House and the Mission House.' To the last he addressed 
 Dr. Marshman, in frequent letters, as his 'dear brother,' 
 anticipating the catholic tenderness of Bishop Heber. 1 
 Martyn attended those family lectures of Ward on the 
 Hindus which resulted in his great book on the subject. 
 In the Pagoda, ' Carey, Marshman, and Ward joined in the 
 same chorus of praise with Brown, Martyn, and Corrie.' 
 Martyn himself gives us these exquisite unconscious 
 pictures of Christian life in Serampore, in which all true 
 missionaries face to face with the common enemy have 
 followed the giants of those days. 
 
 1806, May 19. In the cool of the evening we walked 
 to the mission-house, a few hundred yards off, and I at last 
 saw the place about which I have so long read with pleasure. 
 I was introduced to all the missionaries. We sat down 
 about one hundred and fifty to tea, at several long tables 
 in an immense room. After this there was evening service 
 in another room adjoining, by Mr. Ward. Mr. Marshman 
 then delivered his lecture on grammar. As his observations 
 were chiefly confined to the Greek, and seemed intended 
 for the young missionaries, I was rather disappointed, 
 having expected to hear something about the Oriental 
 languages. With Mr. M. alone I had much conversation, 
 and received the first encouragement to be a missionary 
 that I have met with since I came to this country. I 
 blessed God in my heart for this seasonable supply of 
 refreshment. Finding my sore throat and cough much 
 
 1 The Life and Times of Carey, Marshman^ and Ward, London, 1859. 
 The Life of William Carey (John Murray), 2nd edition, 1887. 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 163 
 
 increased, I thought there might be some danger, and felt 
 rather low at the prospect of death. I could scarcely tell 
 why. The constant uneasiness I am in from the bites of 
 the mosquitoes made me rather fretful also. My habitation 
 assigned me by Mr. Brown is a pagoda in his grounds, on 
 the edge of the river. Thither I retired at night, and really 
 felt something like superstitious dread at being in a place 
 once inhabited, as it were, by devils, but yet felt disposed 
 to be triumphantly joyful that the temple where they were 
 worshipped was become Christ's oratory. I prayed out 
 aloud to my God, and the echoes returned from the vaulted 
 roof. Oh, may I so pray that the dome of heaven may 
 resound ! I like my dwelling much, it is so retired and 
 free from noise ; it has so many recesses and cells that I 
 can hardly find my way in and out. 
 
 May 20. Employed in preparing a sermon for to- 
 morrow, and while walking about for this purpose, my 
 body and mind active, my melancholy was a little relieved 
 by the hope that I should not be entirely useless as a 
 missionary. In the evening I walked with Mr. Brown, to see 
 the evening worship at a pagoda whither they say the god 
 who inhabited my pagoda retired some years ago. As we 
 walked through the dark wood which everywhere covers 
 the country, the cymbals and drums struck up, and never 
 did sounds go through my heart with such horror in my 
 life. The pagoda was in a court, surrounded by a wall, 
 and the way up to it was by a flight of steps on each side. 
 The people to the number of about fifty were standing on 
 the outside, and playing the instruments. In the centre of 
 the building was the idol, a little ugly black image, about 
 two feet high, with a few lights burning round him. At 
 intervals they prostrated themselves with their foreheads to 
 the earth. I shivered at being in the neighbourhood of 
 hell ; my heart was ready to burst at the dreadful state to 
 which the Devil had brought my poor fellow-creatures. I 
 would have given the world to have known the language, 
 
 M 2 
 
164 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 to have preached to them. At this moment Mr. Marshman 
 arrived, and my soul exulted that the truth would now be 
 made known. He addressed the Brahmins with a few 
 questions about the god ; they seemed to be all agreed 
 with Mr. Marshman, and quite ashamed at being interro- 
 gated, when they knew they could give no answer. They 
 were at least mute, and would not reply ; and when he 
 continued speaking they struck up again with their de- 
 testable music, and so silenced him. We walked away in 
 sorrow, but the scene we had witnessed gave rise to a very 
 profitable conversation, which lasted some hours. Marsh- 
 man in conversation with me alone sketched out what he 
 thought would be the most useful plan for me to pursue in 
 India ; which would be to stay in Calcutta a year to learn 
 the language, and when I went up the country to take one 
 or two native brethren with me, to send them forth, and 
 preach occasionally only to confirm their word, to establish 
 schools, and visit them. He said I should do far more 
 good in the way of influence than merely by actual 
 preaching. After all, whatever God may appoint, prayer 
 is the great thing. Oh, that I may be a man of prayer ; 
 my spirit still struggles for deliverance from all my 
 corruptions. 
 
 May 22. In our walk at sunset, met Mr. Marshman, 
 with whom I continued talking about the languages. 
 Telling Mr. Brown about my Cambridge honours, I found 
 my pride stirred, and bitterly repented having said any- 
 thing about it. Surely the increase of humility need not 
 be neglected when silence may do it. 
 
 May 23. Was in general in a spiritual, happy frame 
 the whole day, which I cannot but ascribe to my being 
 more diligent and frequent in prayer over the Scriptures, 
 so that it is the neglect of this duty that keeps my soul so 
 low. Began the Bengali grammar, and got on consider- 
 ably. Continued my letters to Mr. Simeon and Emma. 
 At night we attended- a conference of the missionaries on 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 165 
 
 this subject : ' Whether God could save sinners without 
 the death of Christ.' Messrs. Carey, Marshman, and Ward 
 spoke, Mr. Brown and myself. I offered what might be 
 said on the opposite side of the question to that which the 
 rest took, to show that He might have saved them without 
 Christ. About fourteen of the Bengali brethren were 
 present and spoke on the subject. Ram Roteen prayed. 
 
 Monday, May 26. Went up to Serampore with Mr. 
 Brown, with whom I had much enlivening conversation. 
 Why cannot I be like Fletcher and Brainerd, and those 
 men of modern times ? Is anything too hard for the 
 Lord ? Cannot my stupid stony heart be made to flame 
 with love and zeal ? What is it that bewitches me, that I 
 live such a dying life ? My soul groans under its bondage. 
 In the evening Marshman called ; I walked back with him, 
 and was not a little offended at his speaking against the 
 use of a liturgy. I returned full of grief at the offences 
 which arise amongst men, and determined to be more alone 
 with the blessed God. 
 
 May 29. Had some conversation with Marshman 
 alone on the prospects of the Gospel in this country, and 
 the state of religion in our hearts, for which I felt more 
 anxious. Notwithstanding, I endeavoured to guard against 
 prating only to display my experience ; I found myself 
 somewhat ruffled by the conversation, and derived no 
 benefit from it, but felt desirous only to get away from the 
 world, and to cease from men ; my pride was a little hurt 
 by Marshman's questioning me as the merest novice. He 
 probably sees farther into me than I see into myself. 
 
 June 12. Still exceedingly feeble ; endeavoured to 
 think on a subject, and was much irritated at being unable 
 to write a word. Mrs. Brown, and afterwards Mr. Brown, 
 paid me a visit. I came into the house to dinner, but while 
 there I felt as if fainting or dying, and indeed really thought 
 I was departing this life. I was brought back again to the 
 pagoda, and then on my bed I began to pray as on the 
 
166 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 verge of eternity. The Lord was pleased to break my 
 hard heart, and deliver me from that satanic spirit of light 
 and arrogant unconcern about which I groaned out my 
 complaint to God. From this time I lay in tears, inter- 
 ceding for the unfortunate natives of this country ; thinking 
 with myself, that the most despised Soodra of India was 
 of as much value, in the sight of God, as the King of Great 
 Britain : through the rest of the day my soul remained in 
 a spirit of contrition. 
 
 June 14. A pundit came to me this morning, but after 
 having my patience tried with him, I was obliged to send 
 him away, as he knew nothing about Hindustani. I was 
 exceedingly puzzled to know how I should ever be able to 
 acquire any assistance in learning these languages. Alas ! 
 what trials are awaiting me. Sickness and the climate 
 have increased the irritability of my temper, and occasions 
 of trying it occur constantly. In the afternoon, while 
 pleading for a contrite tender spirit, but in vain, I was 
 obliged to cease praying for that tenderness of spirit, and 
 to go on to other petitions, and by this means was brought 
 to a more submissive state. Officiated at evening worship. 
 
 June 15. Found my mouth salivated this morning 
 from calomel. Attended the morning service at the mission- 
 house ; Mr. Marsdon preached. After service Marshman 
 and Carey talked with me in the usual cheering way about 
 missionary things, but my mind was dark. In the after- 
 noon was rather more comfortable in prayer, and at evening 
 worship was assisted to go through the duties of it with 
 cheerfulness. Read some of Whitfield's Sermons. 
 
 June 19. Rose in gloom, but that was soon dissipated 
 by consideration and prayer. Began after breakfast for 
 the first time with a moonshi, a Cashmerian Brahmin, 
 with whom I was much pleased. In the boat, back to 
 Serampore, learning roots. Officiated at evening worship. 
 Walked at night with Marshman and Mr. Brown to the 
 bazaar held at this time of the year, for the use of the 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 167 
 
 people assembling at Juggernaut The booth or carriage 
 was fifty feet high, in appearance a wooden temple, with 
 rows of wheels through the centre of it. By the side of 
 this a native brother who attended Marshman gave away 
 papers, and this gave occasion to disputes, which continued 
 a considerable time between Marshman and the Brahmins. 
 
 Felt somewhat hurt at night at 's insinuating that my 
 
 low spirits, as he called it, was owing to want of diligence. 
 God help me to be free from this charge, and yet not 
 desirous to make a show before men. May I walk in 
 sweet and inward communion with Him, labouring with 
 never-ceasing diligence and care, and assured that I shall 
 not live or labour in vain. 
 
 June 24. At daylight left Calcutta, and had my temper 
 greatly exercised by the neglects and improper behaviour 
 of the servants and boatmen. Arrived at Serampore at 
 eight, and retired to my pagoda, intending to spend the 
 day in fasting and prayer ; but after a prayer in which the 
 Lord helped me to review with sorrow the wickedness of 
 my past life, I was so overcome with fatigue that I fell 
 asleep, and thus lost the whole morning ; so I gave up my 
 original intention. Passed the afternoon in translating the 
 second chapter of St. Matthew into Hindustani. Had a 
 ong conversation at night with Marshman, whose desire 
 now is that I should stay at Serampore, give myself to the 
 study of Hindustani for the sake of the Scriptures, and 
 be ready to supply the place of Carey and Marshman in 
 the work, should they be taken off ; and for another reason 
 that I might awaken the attention of the people of God 
 in Calcutta more to missionary subjects. I was struck 
 with the importance of having proper persons here to 
 supply the place of these two men ; but could not see that 
 it was the path God designed for me. I felt, however, a 
 most impatient desire that some of my friends should come 
 out and give themselves to the work ; for which they are 
 so much more fit in point of learning than any of the 
 
168 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Dissenters are, and could not bear that a work of such 
 stupendous magnitude should be endangered by their neg- 
 lect and love of the world. Marshman recommended that 
 the serious people in Calcutta should unite in a society for 
 the support of missions, and each subscribe fifty rupees a 
 month for their maintenance. Ten members with this 
 subscription could support sixty or seventy native brethren. 
 He wished me also to see the duty of their all remaining 
 in the country, learning the language, and instructing their 
 servants. My mind was so filled and excited by the first 
 part of our conversation, that I could not sleep for many 
 hours after going to bed. He told me that the people were 
 surfeited with the Gospel, and that they needed to be 
 exhorted to duty. 
 
 June 26. Employed in translating St. Matthew into 
 Hindustani, and reading Mirza's translation ; afterwards 
 had moonshi a little. In the afternoon walked with Mr. 
 Brown to see Juggernaut's car drawn back to its pagoda. 
 Many thousands of people were present, rending the air 
 with acclamations. The car with the tower was decorated 
 with a vast number of flags, and the Brahmins were pass- 
 ing to and fro through the different compartments of it, 
 catching the offerings of fruit, cowries, &c., that were 
 thrown up to the god, for which they threw down in return 
 small wreaths of flowers, which the people wore round 
 their necks and in their hair. When the car stopped at 
 the pagoda, the god and two attending deities were let 
 down by ropes, muffled up in red cloths, a band of singers 
 with drums and cymbals going round the car while this 
 was performed. Before the stumps of images, for they 
 were not better, some of the people prostrated themselves, 
 striking the ground twice with their foreheads ; this ex- 
 cited more horror in me than I can well express, and I 
 was about to stammer out in Hindustani, * Why do ye 
 these things ? ' and to preach the Gospel. The words were 
 on my lips though if I had spoken thousands would have 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 169 
 
 crowded round me, and I should not have been understood. 
 However, I felt my spirit more inflamed with zeal than I 
 ever conceived it would be ; and I thought that if I had 
 words I would preach to the multitudes all the day, if I 
 lost my life for it. It was curious how the women clasped 
 their hands, and lifted them up as if in the ecstasy of devo- 
 tion, while Juggernaut was tumbled about in the most 
 clumsy manner before their eyes. I thought with some 
 sorrow that Satan may exert the same influence in exciting 
 apparently religious affections in professors of the Gospel, 
 in order to deceive souls to their eternal ruin. Dr. Taylor 
 and Mr. Moore joined us, and distributed tracts. Mr. 
 Ward, we heard, was at a distance preaching. On our 
 return we met Marshman going upon the same errand. 
 In evening worship my heart was rather drawn out for the 
 heathen, and my soul in general through the day enjoyed 
 a cheering sense of God's love. Marshman joined us 
 again, and our conversation was about supporting some 
 native missions. 
 
 June 30. Went up to Serampore in the boat, learning 
 roots. Spent the afternoon chiefly in prayer, of which my 
 soul stood greatly in need through the snares into which 
 my heart had been falling. Called at the mission-house, 
 and saw Mr. Marsdon previous to the commencement of 
 his missionary career. Now the plans of God are, I trust, 
 taking another step forward. 
 
 July 2. Mr. Brown proposed a prayer meeting between 
 ourselves and the missionaries previous to the departure 
 of Dr. Taylor for Surat. It was a season of grace to 
 my soul, for some sense of the vast importance of the 
 occasion dwelt upon my mind in prayer, and I desired 
 earnestly to live zealously, labouring for souls in every 
 possible way, with more honesty and openness. In the 
 evening went to Marshman, and proposed it. There were 
 at his house many agreeable sights ; one pundit was 
 translating Scripture into Sanskrit, another into Guzerati, 
 
i7o HENRY MARTYN 
 
 and a table was covered with materials for a Chinese 
 dictionary. Employed with moonshi in Hindu Story- 
 teller, and in learning to write the Persian characters. 
 
 July 3. Rose with some happiness in my soul, and 
 delight in the thought of an increase of labour in the 
 Church of God. Employed morning as usual, and in 
 thinking of subject for . sermon. Was detained in the 
 house at a time when I wanted prayer. In the evening 
 walked with the family through Serampore, the natives . 
 part At night we had a delightful spiritual conversation. 
 Thus my time passes most agreeably in this dear family. 
 Lord, let me be willing to leave it and the world with joy. 
 
 July 8. Reading with moonshi all the morning. 
 Spent the afternoon in reading and prayer, as preparatory 
 to a meeting of the missionaries at night. At eight, ten 
 of us met in my pagoda. It was, throughout, a soul- 
 refreshing ordinance to me. I felt as I wished, as if having 
 done with the world, and standing on the very verge of 
 heaven, rejoicing at the glorious work which God will 
 accomplish on the earth. The Lord will, I hope, hear our 
 prayers for our dear brother, on whose account we met, 
 previous to his departure for Surat. An idea thrown out 
 by Carey pleased me very much, not on account of its 
 practicability, but its grandeur, i.e. that there should be an 
 annual meeting, at the Cape of Good Hope, of all the 
 missionaries in the world. 
 
 July 9. Dull and languid from the exertions and late 
 hours of yesterday. Reading the Sermon on the Mount, 
 in the Hindustani Testament, with moonshi. In the 
 evening went to the mission-house, drank tea, and attended 
 their worship. These affectionate souls never fail to 
 mention me particularly in their prayers, but I am grieved 
 that they so mistake my occasional warmth for zeal. It 
 is one of the things in which I am most low and backward, 
 as the Lord, who seeth in secret, knows too well. Oh, 
 then, may any who think it worth while to take up my 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 171 
 
 name into their lips, pray for the beginning rather than the 
 continuance of zeal ! Marshman, in my walk with him, 
 kindly assured me of his great regard and union of heart 
 with me. I would that I had more gratitude to God, for 
 so putting it into the hearts of His people to show regard 
 to one so undeserving of it. At night had much nearness 
 to God in prayer. I found it sweet to my spirit to reflect 
 on my being a pilgrim on earth, with Christ for my near 
 and dear friend, and found myself unwilling to leave off 
 my prayer. 
 
 July 10. Employed during the morning with moonshi. 
 At morning and evening worship enjoyed freedom of access 
 to God in prayer. Mr. Brown's return in the evening, with 
 another Christian friend, added greatly to my pleasure. 
 Marshman joined us at night, but these enjoyments, from 
 being too eagerly entered into, often leave my soul carnally 
 delighted only, instead of bringing me nearer to God. 
 Wrote sermon at night. 
 
 July 12. Most of this morning employed about sermon. 
 In the afternoon went down to Calcutta with Mr. Brown 
 and all his family ; we passed the time very agreeably in 
 singing hymns. Found Europe letters on our arrival, but 
 were disappointed in not finding Corrie or Parson in the 
 list of passengers. My letters were from Lydia, T. H. and 
 Emma, Mr. Simeon, and Sargent. All their first letters 
 had been taken in the Bell Packet. I longed to see 
 Lydia's, but the Lord saw it good, no doubt, not to suffer 
 it to arrive. The one I did receive from her was very 
 animating, and showed the extraordinary zeal and activity 
 of her mind. Mr. Simeon's letter contained her praises, 
 and even he seemed to regret that I had gone without her. 
 My thoughts were so occupied with these letters that I 
 could get little or no sleep. 
 
 July 13. (Sunday.) Talked to Mr. Brown about 
 Lydia, and read her letter to him. He strongly recom- 
 mended the measure of endeavouring to bring her here, 
 
i;2 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 and was clear that my future situation in the country would 
 be such as to make it necessary to be married. A letter 
 from Colonel Sandys, which he opened afterwards, spoke 
 in the highest terms of her. The subject of marriage was 
 revived in my mind, but I feel rather a reluctance to it. 
 I enjoy in general such sweet peace of mind, from con- 
 sidering myself a stranger upon earth, unconnected with 
 any persons, unknown, forgotten, that were I never thrown 
 into any more trying circumstances than I am in at present, 
 no change could add to my happiness. At the new church 
 this morning, had the happiness of hearing Mr. JerTeries 
 preach. I trust God will graciously keep him, and instruct 
 him, and make him another witness of Jesus in this place. 
 My heart was greatly refreshed, and rejoiced at it all the 
 day. At night preached at the missionary church, on 
 Eph. ii. 1-3, to a small congregation. Sat up late with 
 Mr. Brown, considering the same subject as we had been 
 conversing on before, and it dwelt so much on my mind 
 that I got hardly any sleep the whole night. 
 
 July 14. The same subject engrosses my whole thoughts. 
 Mr. Brown's arguments appear so strong that my mind is 
 almost made up to send for Lydia. I could scarcely have 
 any reasonable doubts remaining, that her presence would 
 most abundantly promote the ends of the mission. 
 
 July 15. Most of the day with moonshi ; at intervals, 
 thinking on subject for sermon. My affections seemed to 
 be growing more strong towards Lydia than I could wish, 
 as I fear my judgment will no longer remain unbiassed. 
 The subject is constantly on my mind, and imagination 
 heightens the advantages to be obtained from her presence. 
 And yet, on the other hand, there is such a sweet happiness 
 in living unconnected with any creature, and hastening 
 through this life with not one single attraction to detain 
 my desires here, that I am often very unwilling to exchange 
 a life of celibacy for one of which I know nothing, except 
 that it is in general a life of care. 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 173 
 
 July 1 6. Morning with moonshi ; afterwards prepar- 
 ing myself for church. Preached at night, at missionary 
 church, on Isa. Ixiii. I. Both in prayers and sermon I 
 felt my heart much more affected than I expected, and there 
 seemed to be some impression on a few of the people. I feel 
 to be thankful to God, and grateful to the people, that they 
 continue to hear me with such attention. My thoughts this 
 day have been rather averse to marriage. Anxiety about 
 the education and conversion of children rather terrifies me. 
 
 July 20. (Sunday.) Preached at the new church on 
 2 Cor. v. 17. Mr. Marshman dined with us, and at four 
 I went to the bazaar, to hear him preach to the natives. 
 I arrived at the shed before him, and found the native 
 brethren singing, after which one of them got up, and ad- 
 dressed the people with such firmness and mild energy, 
 notwithstanding their occasional contradictions and ridicule, 
 that I was quite delighted and refreshed. To see a native 
 Indian an earnest advocate for Jesus, how precious ! 
 Marshman afterwards came, and prayed, sung, and preached. 
 If I were to be very severe with him, I should say that 
 there is a want of seriousness, tenderness, and dignity in 
 his address, and I felt pained that he should so frequently 
 speak with contempt of the Brahmins, many of whom 
 were listening with great respect and attention. The group 
 presented all that variety of countenance which the Word 
 is represented as producing in a heathen audience some 
 inattentive, others scornful, and others seemingly melting 
 under it. Another native brother, I believe, then addressed 
 them. An Indian sermon about Jesus Christ was like 
 music on my ear, and I felt inflamed to begin my work : 
 these poor people possess more intelligence and feeling 
 than I thought. At the end of the service there was a 
 sort of uproar when the papers were given away, and the 
 attention of the populace and of some Europeans was 
 excited. Read prayers at night at the missionary church ; 
 Mr. Brown preached on the unspeakable gift. 
 
J74 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 July 21. Returned to Serampore rather in a low state 
 of mind, arising from deprivation of a society of which I 
 had been too fond. 
 
 July 22. Read Hindustani without moonshi. Not 
 being able to get to the pagoda from the incessant rain, I 
 passed the latter part of the day in the house, reading the 
 life of Francis Xavier. I was exceedingly roused at the 
 astonishing example of that great saint, and began to 
 consider whether it was not my duty to live, as he did, in 
 voluntary poverty and celibacy. I was not easy till I had 
 determined to follow the same course, when I should per- 
 ceive that the kingdom of God would be more advanced 
 by it. At night I saw the awful necessity of being no 
 longer slothful, nor wasting my thoughts about such trifles 
 as whether I should be married or not, and felt a great 
 degree of fear, lest the blood of the five thousand Mo- 
 hammedans, who, Mr. Brown said, were to be found in 
 Calcutta capable of understanding a Hindustani sermon, 
 should be required at my hand. 
 
 July 25. The thought of the Mohammedans and 
 heathens lies very heavy upon my mind. The former, who 
 are in Calcutta, I seem to think are consigned to me by God, 
 because nobody preaches in Hindustani. Employed the 
 morning in sermon and Hindustani. In the afternoon 
 went down to Calcutta. In the boat read Wrangham's 
 Essay and some of Mr. Lloyd's letters, when young. What 
 knowledge have some believers of the deep things of God ! 
 I felt myself peculiarly deficient in that experimental 
 knowledge of Christ with which Mr. Lloyd was particularly 
 favoured. Walked from the landing-place, a mile and a 
 half, through the native part of Calcutta, amidst crowds of 
 Orientals of all nations. How would the spirit of St. Paul 
 have been moved ! The thought of summoning the at- 
 tention of such multitudes appeared very formidable, and 
 during the course of the evening was the occasion of many 
 solemn thoughts and prayer, that God would deliver me 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 175 
 
 from all softness of mind, fear, and self-indulgence, and 
 make me ready to suffer shame and death for the name 
 of the Lord Jesus. 
 
 July 26. My soul in general impressed with the 
 awfulness of my missionary work, and often shrinking 
 from its difficulties. 
 
 July 28. In the boat to Serampore we read Mitchell's 
 Essay on Evangelizing India, and were much pleased and 
 profited. Whatever plans and speculations may be agitated, 
 I felt it my duty to think only of putting my hand .to the 
 work without delay. Felt very unhappy at having other 
 work put upon me, which will keep me from making 
 progress in the language. Nothing but waiting upon God 
 constantly for direction, and an assurance that His never- 
 ceasing love will direct my way, would keep me from 
 constant vexation. I scarcely do anything in the language, 
 from having my time so constantly taken up with writing 
 sermons. 
 
 July 29. Much of this morning taken up in writing to 
 Lydia. As far as my own views extend, I feel no doubt 
 at all about the propriety of the measure of at least pro- 
 posing it. May the Lord, in continuance of His loving- 
 kindness to her and me, direct her mind, that if she comes 
 I may consider it as a special gift from God, and not 
 merely permitted by Him. Marshman sat with us in the 
 evening, and as usual was teeming with plans for the 
 propagation of the Gospel. Stayed up till midnight in 
 finishing the letter to Lydia. 
 
 To LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 Serampore : July 30, 1806. 
 
 My dearest Lydia, On a subject so intimately con- 
 nected with my happiness and future ministry, as that on 
 which I am now about to address you, I wish to assure you 
 ( that I am not acting with precipitancy, or without much 
 
1 76 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 consideration and prayer, while I at last sit down to request 
 you to come out to me to India. 
 
 May the Lord graciously direct His blind and erring 
 creature, and not suffer the natural bias of his mind to 
 lead him astray. You are acquainted with much of the 
 conflict I have undergone on your account. It has been 
 greater than you or Emma have imagined, and yet not so 
 painful as I deserve to have found it for having suffered 
 my affections to fasten so inordinately on an earthly 
 object. 
 
 Soon, however, after my final departure from Europe, 
 God in great mercy gave me deliverance, and favoured 
 me throughout the voyage with peace of mind, indifference 
 about all worldly connections, and devotedness to no 
 object upon earth but the work of Christ. I gave you up 
 entirely not the smallest expectation remained in my 
 mind of ever seeing you again till we should meet in 
 heaven : and the thought of this separation was the less 
 painful from the consolatory persuasion that our own 
 Father had so ordered it for our mutual good. I continued 
 from that time to remember you in my prayers only as a 
 Christian sister, though one very dear to me. On my arrival 
 in this country I saw no reason at first for supposing that 
 marriage was advisable for a missionary or rather the 
 subject did not offer itself to my mind. The Baptist 
 missionaries indeed recommended it, and Mr. Brown ; but 
 not knowing any proper person in this country, they were 
 not very pressing upon the subject, and I accordingly 
 gave no attention to it. After a very short experience and 
 inquiry afterwards, my own opinions began to change, and 
 when a few weeks ago we received your welcome letter, 
 and others from Mr. Simeon and Colonel Sandys, both of 
 whom spoke of you in reference to me, I considered it even 
 as a call from God to satisfy myself fully concerning His 
 will. From the account which Mr. Simeon received of 
 you from Mr. Thomason, he seemed in his letter to me to 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 177 
 
 regret that he had so strongly dissuaded me from thinking 
 about you at the time of my leaving England. Colonel 
 Sandys spoke in such terms of you, and of the advantages 
 to result from your presence in this country, that Mr. 
 Brown became very earnest for me to endeavour to prevail 
 upon you. Your letter to me perfectly delighted him, and 
 induced him to say that you would be the greatest aid to 
 the mission I could possibly meet with. I knew my own 
 heart too well not to be distrustful of it, especially as my 
 affections were again awakened, and accordingly all my 
 labour and prayer have been to check their influence, that 
 I might see clearly the path of duty. 
 
 Though I dare not say that I am under no bias, yet 
 from every view of the subject I have been able to take, 
 after balancing the advantages and disadvantages that 
 may ensue to the cause in which I am engaged, always in 
 prayer for God's direction, my reason is fully convinced of 
 the expediency, I had almost said the necessity, of having 
 you with me. It is possible that my reason may still be 
 obscured by passion ; let it suffice, however, to say that 
 now with a safe conscience and the enjoyment of the 
 Divine presence, I calmly and deliberately make the pro- 
 posal to you and blessed be God if it be not His will to 
 permit it ; still this step is not advancing beyond the limits 
 of duty, because there is a variety of ways by which God 
 can prevent it, without suffering any dishonour to His 
 cause. If He shall forbid it, I think that, by His grace, I 
 shall even then be contented and rejoice in the pleasure 
 of corresponding with you. Your letter, dated December 
 1805, was the first I received (your former having been 
 taken in the Bell Packet), and I found it so animating 
 that I could not but reflect on the blessedness of having so 
 dear a counsellor always near me. I can truly say, and 
 God is my witness, that my principal desire in this affair 
 is that you may promote the kingdom of God in my own 
 heart, and be the means of extending it to the heathen. 
 
 N 
 
iy8 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 My own earthly comfort and happiness are not worth a 
 moment's notice. I would not, my dearest Lydia, influence 
 you by any artifices or false representations. I can only 
 say that if you have a desire of being instrumental in 
 establishing the blessed Redeemer's kingdom among these 
 poor people, and will condescend to do it by supporting 
 the spirits and animating the zeal of a weak messenger of 
 the Lord, who is apt to grow very dispirited and languid, 
 1 Come, and the Lord be with you ! ' It can be nothing 
 but a sacrifice on your part, to leave your valuable friends 
 to come to one who is utterly unworthy of you or any 
 other of God's precious gifts : but you will have your 
 reward, and I ask it not of you or of God for the sake of 
 my own happiness, but only on account of the Gospel. If 
 it be not calculated to promote it, may God in His mercy 
 withhold it. For the satisfaction of your friends, I should 
 say that you will meet with no hardships. The voyage is 
 very agreeable, and with the people and country of India 
 I think you will be much pleased. The climate is very 
 fine the so much dreaded heat is really nothing to those 
 who will employ their minds in useful pursuits. Idleness 
 will make people complain of everything. The natives 
 are the most harmless and timid creatures I ever met with. 
 The whole country is the land of plenty and peace. Were 
 I a missionary among the Esquimaux or Boschemen, I 
 should never dream of introducing a female into such a 
 scene of danger or hardship, especially one whose happi- 
 ness is dearer to me than my own : but here there is 
 universal tranquillity, though the multitudes are so great 
 that a missionary needs not go three miles from his house 
 without having a congregation of many thousands. You 
 would not be left in solitude if I were to make any distant 
 excursion, because no chaplain is stationed where there is 
 not a large English Society. My salary is abundantly 
 sufficient for the support of a married man, the house and 
 number of people kept by each Company's servant being 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 179 
 
 such as to need no increase for a family establishment. 
 As I must make the supposition of your coming, though 
 it may be perhaps a premature liberty, I should give you 
 some directions. This letter will reach you about the 
 latter end of the year ; it would be very desirable if you 
 could be ready for the February fleet, because the voyage 
 will be performed in far less time than at any other season. 
 George will find out the best ship one in which there is 
 a lady of high rank in the service would be preferable. 
 You are to be considered as coming as a visitor to Mr. 
 Brown, who will write to you or to Colonel Sandys, who 
 is best qualified to give you directions about the voyage. 
 Should I be up the country on your arrival in Bengal, Mr. 
 Brown will be at hand to receive you, and you will find 
 yourself immediately at home. As it will highly expedite 
 some of the plans which we have in agitation that you 
 should know the language as soon as possible, take 
 Gilchrist's Indian Stranger's Guide, and occasionally on 
 the voyage learn some of the words. 
 
 If I had room I might enlarge on much that would be 
 interesting to you. In my conversations with Marshman, 
 the Baptist missionary, our hearts sometimes expand with 
 delight and joy at the prospect of seeing all these nations 
 of the East receive the doctrine of the Cross. He is a 
 happy labourer; and I only wait, I trust, to know the 
 language to open my mouth boldly and make known the 
 mystery of the Gospel. My romantic notions are for 
 the first time almost realised ; for in addition to the 
 beauties of sylvan scenery may be seen the more delightful 
 object of multitudes of simple people sitting in the shade 
 listening to the words of eternal life. Much as yet is not 
 done ; but I have seen many discover by their looks while 
 Marshman was preaching that their hearts were tenderly 
 affected. My post is not yet determined ; we expect, how- 
 ever, it will be Patna, a civil station, where I shall not be 
 under military command. As you are so kindly anxious 
 
 N 2 
 
180 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 about my health, I am happy to say, that through mercy 
 my health is far better than it ever was in England. 
 
 The people of Calcutta are very desirous of keeping 
 me at the mission-church, and offer to any Evangelical 
 clergyman a chaplain's salary and a house besides. I am 
 of course deaf to such a proposal ; but it is strange that 
 no one in England is tempted by such an inviting situation. 
 I am actually going to mention it to Cousin T. H. and 
 Emma not, as you may suppose, with much hope of 
 success ; but I think that possibly the chapel at Dock may 
 be too much for him, and he will have here a sphere of 
 still greater importance. As this will be sent by the 
 overland despatch, there is some danger of its not reaching 
 you. You will therefore receive a duplicate, and perhaps 
 a triplicate by the ships that will arrive in England a 
 month or two after. I cannot write now to any of my 
 friends. I will therefore trouble you, if you have oppor- 
 tunity, to say that I have received no letters since I left 
 England, but one from each of these Cousin Tom and 
 Emma, Simeon, Sargent, Bates : of my own family I have 
 heard nothing. Assure any of them whom you may see 
 of the continuance of my affectionate regard, especially 
 dear Emma. I did not know that it was permitted me to 
 write to you, or I fear she would not have found me so 
 faithful a correspondent on the voyage. As I have here- 
 tofore addressed you through her, it is probable that I may 
 be now disposed to address her through you or, what will 
 be best of all, that we both of us address her in one letter 
 from India. However, you shall decide, my dearest Lydia. 
 I must approve your determination, because with that spirit 
 of simple-looking to the Lord which we both endeavour 
 to maintain, we must not doubt that you will be divinely 
 directed. Till I receive an answer to this, my prayers you 
 may be assured will be constantly put up for you that in 
 this affair you may be under an especial guidance, and that 
 in all your ways God may be abundantly glorified by you 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 i8t 
 
 through Jesus Christ. You say in your letter that frequently 
 every day you remember my worthless name before the 
 throne of grace. This instance of extraordinary and 
 undeserved kindness draws my heart toward you with a 
 tenderness which I cannot describe. Dearest Lydia, in 
 the sweet and fond expectation of your being given to me 
 by God, and of the happiness which I humbly hope you 
 yourself might enjoy here, I find a pleasure in breathing 
 out my assurance of ardent love. I have now long loved 
 you most affectionately, and my attachment is more strong, 
 more pure, more heavenly, because I see in you the image 
 of Jesus Christ. I unwillingly conclude, by bidding my 
 beloved Lydia adieu. 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 Serampore : September I, 1806. 
 
 My dearest Lydia, With this you will receive the dupli- 
 cate of the letter I sent you a month ago, by the overland 
 despatch. May it find you prepared to come ! All the 
 thoughts and views which I have had of the subject since 
 first addressing you, add tenfold confirmation to my first 
 opinion ; and I trust that the blessed God will graciously 
 make it appear that I have been acting under a right 
 direction, by giving the precious gift to me and to the 
 Church in India. I sometimes regret that I had not 
 obtained a promise from you of following me at the time 
 of our last parting at Gurlyn, as I am occasionally apt to 
 be excessively impatient at the long delay. Many, many 
 months must elapse before I can see you or even hear how 
 you shall determine. The instant your mind is made up 
 you will send a letter by the overland despatch. George 
 will let you know how it is to be prepared, as the Company 
 have given some printed directions. It is a consolation to 
 me during this long suspense, that had I engaged with 
 you before my departure I should not have had such a 
 satisfactory conviction of it being the will of God. The 
 
i82 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Commander-in-chief is in doubt to which of the thre 
 following stations he shall appoint me Benares, Patna, 
 or Moorshedabad ; it will be the last, most probably. This 
 is only two days' journey from Calcutta. I shall take my 
 departure in about six weeks. In the hour that remains, I 
 must endeavour to write to my dear sister Emma, and to 
 Sally. By the fleet which will sail hence in about two 
 months, they will receive longer letters. You will then, I 
 hope, have left England. I am very happy here in 
 preparing for my delightful work, but I should be happier 
 still if I were sufficiently fluent in the language to be 
 actually employed ; and happiest of all if my beloved 
 Lydia were at my right hand, counselling and animating 
 me. I am not very willing to end my letter to you ; it is 
 difficult not to prolong the enjoyment of speaking, as it 
 were, to one who occupies so much of my sleeping and 
 waking hours ; but here, alas ! I am aware of danger ; and 
 my dear Lydia will, I hope, pray that her unworthy friend 
 may love no creature inordinately. 
 
 It will be base in me to depart in heart from a God of 
 such love as I find Him to be. Oh, that I could make 
 some returns for the riches of His love ! Swiftly fly the 
 hours of life away, and then we shall be admitted to 
 behold His glory. The ages of darkness are rolling fast 
 away, and shall soon usher in the Gospel period when the 
 whole world shall be filled with His glory. Oh, my beloved 
 sister and friend, dear to me on every account, but dearest 
 of all for having one heart and one soul with me in the 
 cause of Jesus and the love of God, let us pray and rejoice, 
 and rejoice and pray, that God may be glorified, and the 
 dying Saviour see of the travail of His soul. May the God 
 of hope fill us with all joy and peace in believing, that we 
 may both of us abound in hope through the power of the 
 Holy Ghost. Now, my dearest Lydia, I cannot say what 
 I feel I cannot pour out my soul I could not if you 
 were here ; but I pray- that you may love me, if it be the 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 183 
 
 will of God ; and I pray that God may make you more and 
 more His child, and give me more and more love for all 
 that is God-like and holy. I remain, with fervent affection, 
 
 Yours, in eternal bonds, 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 To CHARLES SIMEON l 
 
 Calcutta : September I, 1806. 
 
 My dearest Brother, I feel no hesitation about inviting 
 Miss L. G. on her own account, except it be that she should 
 come so far for one who is so utterly unworthy of her. I 
 would rather die than bring one whom I honour so much 
 into a situation of difficulty ; but indeed there is no hard- 
 ship to be encountered. In my absence she might, if she 
 pleased, visit the English ladies who are always to be found 
 at the different stations. The plan about to be adopted 
 by the Baptists is to establish missionary stations in the 
 country ; while one missionary makes the circuit of the 
 surrounding country, another shall always be in the way 
 to receive enquiries and to explain. I should think that a 
 zealous woman, acquainted with the language, and espe- 
 cially if assisted by native brethren, might be of use in this 
 way without moving from her house. . . . Three such men 
 as Carey, Marshman, and Ward, so suited to one ano'ther 
 and to their work, are not to be found, I should think, in 
 the whole world. 
 
 September 13. Heard of the arrival of Corrie and 
 Parson at Madras, and of my appointment to Dinapore. 
 
 September 15. Called with Mr. Brown on Mr. Udny, 
 then went up with him to Serampore, and passed much of 
 the afternoon in reading with him a series of newspapers 
 
 1 First published (1892) by Rev. II. C. G. Moule from the autograph 
 collection made by Canon Carus, the successor and biographer of Charles 
 Simeon, 
 
184 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 from England. How affecting to think how the fashion 
 of this world passeth away ! What should I do without 
 Christ as an everlasting portion ! How vain is life, how 
 mournful is death, and what is eternity without Christ ! 
 In the evening Marshman and Ward came to us. By 
 endeavouring to recollect myself as before God, I found 
 more comfort, and was enabled to show more propriety in 
 conversation. 
 
 September 16. Passed the day with moonshi in 
 Hindustani and writing sermon. In the evening wrote to 
 Lydia. 
 
 September 17. The blaze of a funeral pile this morning 
 near the pagoda drew my attention. I ran out, but the 
 unfortunate woman had committed herself to the flames 
 before I arrived. The remains of the two bodies were 
 visible. At night, while I was at the missionaries', Mr. 
 Chamberlain arrived from up the country. Just as we re- 
 joiced at the thought of seeing him and his wife, we found 
 she had died in the boat ! I do not know when I was so 
 shocked ; my soul revolted at everything in this world, 
 which God has so marked with misery the effect of sin. 
 I felt reluctance to engage in every worldly connection. 
 Marriage seemed terrible, by exposing one to the agonising 
 sight of a wife dying in such circumstances. 
 
 September 24. Went down to Calcutta with Mr. Brown 
 and Corrie, and found letters. My affections of love and 
 joy were so excited by them that it was almost too much 
 for my poor frame. My dearest Lydia's assurances of her 
 love were grateful enough to my heart, but they left 
 somewhat of a sorrowful effect, occasioned I believe chiefly 
 from a fear of her suffering in any degree, and partly from 
 the long time and distance that separate us, and uncertainty 
 if ever we shall be permitted to meet one another in this 
 world. In the evening the Lord gave me near and close 
 and sweet communion with Him on this subject, and 
 enabled me to commit the affair with comfort into His 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 185 
 
 hands. Why did I ever doubt His love ? Does He not 
 love us far better than we love one another ? 
 
 September 25. Went to Serampore with Mr. Brown 
 and Parson ; in the afternoon read with moonshi; enjoyed 
 much of the solemn presence of God the whole day, had 
 many happy seasons in prayer, and felt strengthened for 
 the work of a missionary, which is speedily to begin ; 
 blessed be God ! My friends are alarmed about the soli- 
 tariness of my future life, and my tendency to melancholy ; 
 but, O my dearest Lord ! Thou art with me, Thy rod and 
 Thy staff they comfort me. I go on Thine errand, and I 
 know that Thou art and wilt be with me. How easily canst 
 Thou support and refresh my heart ! 
 
 To LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 Serampore : September 1806. 
 
 How earnestly do I long for the arrival of my dearest 
 Lydia ! Though it may prove at last no more than a 
 waking dream that I ever expected to receive you, in India, 
 the hope is too pleasing not to be cherished till I am 
 forbidden any longer to hope. Till I am assured of the 
 contrary, I shall find a pleasure in addressing you as my 
 own. If you are not to be mine you will pardon me ; but 
 my expectations are greatly encouraged by the words you 
 used when we parted at Gurlyn, that I had better go out 
 free, implying, as I thought, that you would not be unwilling 
 to follow me if I should see it to be the will of God to make 
 the request. I was rejoiced also to see in your letter that 
 you unite your name with mine when you pray that God 
 would keep us both in the path of duty : from this I infer 
 that you are by no means determined to remain separate 
 from me. You will not suppose, my dear Lydia, that I 
 mention these little things to influence your conduct, or to 
 implicate you in an engagement. No, I acknowledge that 
 you are perfectly free, and I -have no doubt that you will 
 act as the love and wisdom of our God shall direct. Your 
 
186 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 heart is far less interested in this business than mine, in all 
 probability ; and this on one account I do not regret, as 
 you will be able to see more clearly the directions of God's 
 providence. About a fortnight ago I sent you a letter 
 accompanying the duplicate of the one sent overland in 
 August. If these shall have arrived safe you will perhaps 
 have left England before this reaches it. But if not, let me 
 entreat you to delay not a moment. Yet how will my dear 
 sister Emma be able to part with you, and George but 
 above all your mother ? I feel very much for you and for 
 them, but I have no doubt at all about your health and 
 happiness in this country. 
 
 The Commander-in-chief has at last appointed me to 
 the station of Dinapore, near Patna, and I shall accordingly 
 take my departure for that place as soon as I can make 
 the necessary preparations. It is not exactly the situation 
 I wished for, though in a temporal point of view it is 
 desirable enough. The air is good, the living cheap, the 
 salary i,ooo/. a year, and there is a large body of English 
 troops there. But I should have preferred being near 
 Benares, the heart of Hinduism. We rejoice to hear that 
 two other brethren are arrived at Madras on their way to 
 Bengal, sent, I trust, by the Lord to co-operate in over- 
 turning the kingdom of Satan in these regions. They are 
 Corrie and Parson, both Bengal chaplains. Their stations 
 will be Benares and Moorshedabad one on one side of 
 me and the other on the other. There are also now ten 
 Baptist missionaries at Serampore. Surely good is intended 
 for this country. 
 
 Captain Wickes, the good old Captain Wickes, who has 
 brought out so many missionaries to India, is now here. 
 He reminds me of Uncle S. I have been just interrupted 
 by the blaze of a funeral pile, within a hundred yards of 
 my pagoda. I ran out, but the wretched woman had con- 
 signed herself to the flames before I reached the spot, and 
 I saw only the remains, of her and her husband. O Lord, 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806, 187 
 
 how long shall it be ? Oh, I shall have no rest in my 
 spirit till my tongue is loosed to testify against the Devil, 
 and deliver the message of God to these His unhappy bond- 
 slaves. I stammered out something to the wicked Brah- 
 mins about the judgments of God upon them for the murder 
 they had just committed, but they said it was an act of her 
 own free-will. Some of the missionaries would have been 
 there, but they are forbidden by the Governor-General to 
 preach to the natives in the British territory. Unless .. this 
 prohibition is revoked by an order from home it will 
 amount to a total suppression of the mission. 
 
 I know of nothing else that will give you a further idea 
 of the state of things here. The two ministers continue to 
 oppose my doctrines with unabated virulence ; but they 
 think not that they fight against God. My own heart is at 
 present cold and slothful. Oh, that my soul did burn with 
 love and zeal ! Surely were you here I should act with 
 more cheerfulness and activity with so bright a pattern 
 before me. If Corrie brings me a letter from you, and the 
 fleet is not sailed, which, however, is not likely, I shall write 
 to you again. Colonel Sandys will receive a letter from 
 me and Mr. Brown by this fleet. Continue to remember 
 me in your prayers, as a weak brother. I shall always 
 think of you as one to be loved and honoured. 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 September 26. Employed as usual in Hindustani ; 
 visited Marshman at night. He and Mr. Carey sat with us 
 in the evening. My heart still continuing some degree of 
 watchfulness, but enjoying less sweetness. 
 
 October i. Reading with moonshi and preparing ser- 
 mon ; found great cause to pray for brotherly love. 
 Preached at night at the mission-church on Eph. ii. 4. 
 Had a very refreshing conversation with Corrie afterwards ; 
 we wished it to be for the benefit of two cadets, who supped 
 with us, and I hope it will not be in vain. May the Lord 
 
188 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 be pleased to make me act with a single eye to His glory. 
 How easy it is to preach about Christ Jesus the Lord, and 
 yet to preach oneself. 
 
 None of six letters from Lydia Grenfell have been 
 preserved, but we find in her Diary more self-revealing of 
 her heart than could be made to Henry Martyn, and also 
 more severity in judging of herself as in the presence of 
 God. 
 
 1806, May 23. Wrote dear H. I have felt to-day a 
 return of spirits, but have spent them too much in worldly 
 things. I found it a blessed season in prayer, yet I fear 
 whether my satisfaction did not rather arise from being 
 enabled to pray than from any extraordinary communi- 
 cations from above. O Lord, search and try my heart, let 
 not its deceitfulness impose on me. 
 
 July 19. Thought much this week of my dear absent 
 friend. 
 
 August 2. My family's unhappiness preys on my 
 mind sister burning with anger and resentment against 
 sister, brother against brother, a father against his children. 
 Oh, what a picture ! Let me not add to the weight of family 
 sin. 
 
 August 4. Passed a happy day. Read Baxter, and 
 found in doing so my soul raised above. Oh, let me have, 
 blessed Lord, anticipations of this blessedness and foretaste 
 of glory. In Thy presence above I shall be reunited to 
 Thy dear saint, now labouring in Thy vineyard in a distant 
 land. One year is nearly passed since we parted, but 
 scarcely a waking hour, I believe, has he been absent from 
 my mind. In general my remembrance of him is pro- 
 ductive of pleasure that I should possess so large a share 
 of his affection, and be remembered in his prayers, and 
 have an eternity to spend with him, yielding me in turn 
 delightful pleasing meditations ; but just now nature 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 189 
 
 grieves that we are no more to meet below ; yet, O my 
 blessed Father, I cry, * Thy will be done, not as I will, but 
 as Thou wilt.' 
 
 August 10. Went to church. My soul was very dull 
 and inanimate throughout the service the sermon had 
 nothing in it to enliven or instruct. Barren as this place 
 is for other means of grace, I have the Word and leisure to 
 search ; I cannot then complain, but of myself there is 
 cause enough. Oh, how is my soul so earthly ? why cannot 
 I rise and dwell above ? Tied and bound with the chain 
 of sin, fettered and confined, I can only cast a look above. 
 One year is gone since my dear friend left England. The 
 number of our years of separation is so much lessened, and 
 our salvation draws near. 
 
 October 19. My birthday. One-and-thirty years have 
 I existed on this earth, for twenty-five of which all the 
 amount was sin, vanity, and rebellion against God ; the 
 last six, though spent differently, yet for every day in 
 them I am persuaded I have sinned in heart, so as 
 justly to merit condemnation of that God in whose mercy 
 I trust. 
 
 November 5. To-day I was reading of David's harp 
 driving away the evil spirit from Saul, and resolved again 
 (the Lord helping me) to try the sweet harp of Jesse's son 
 in my first and last waking thoughts, for sad and dis- 
 ordered are my thoughts upon my friend. The expectation 
 of letters from my dear friend in India by this fleet is 
 almost over, and my mind is rendered anxious about him. 
 November 25. My very soul has been cheered by 
 accounts from my dear friend in India, for whom my 
 mind has been greatly anxious. ' Cast thy cares on Me ' 
 is a command badly attended to by me. 
 
 The formal and first request from Henry Martyn to 
 join him in India reached Lydia Grenfell on March 2, 1807. 
 We learn from his reply in October 1807, from Dinapore, 
 
190 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 that she had sent a refusal in her mother's name. But, on 
 April 25, the Rev. Charles Simeon called on her with the 
 result which he thus records : 
 
 With her mother's leave Miss G. accompanied us to 
 Col. Sandys', when I had much conversation with her 
 about Mr. Martyn's affair. She stated to me all the 
 obstacles to his proposals : first, her health ; second, the 
 indelicacy of her going out to India alone on such an 
 errand ; third, her former engagement with another person, 
 which had indeed been broken off, and he had actually 
 gone up to London two years ago to be married to another 
 woman, but, as he was unmarried, it seemed an obstacle 
 in her mind ; fourth, the certainty that her mother would 
 never consent to it. On these points I observed that I 
 thought the last was the only one that was insurmountable ; 
 for that, first, India often agreed best with persons of a deli- 
 cate constitution e.g. Mr. Martyn himself and Mr. Brown. 
 Second, it is common for ladies to go thither without any 
 previous connection ; how much more, therefore, might one 
 go with a connection already formed ! Were this the only 
 difficulty, I engaged, with the help of Mr. Grant and Mr. Parry, 
 that she should go under such protection as should obviate 
 all difficulties upon this head. Third, the step taken by the 
 other person had set her at perfect liberty. Fourth, the 
 consent of her mother was indispensable, and as that 
 appeared impossible, the matter might be committed to 
 God in this way. If her mother, of her own accord, should 
 express regret that the connection had been prevented, 
 from an idea of her being irreconcilably averse to it, and 
 that she would not stand in the way of her daughter's 
 wishes, this would be considered as a direction from God 
 in answer to her prayers, and I should instantly be 
 apprised of it by her, in order to communicate to Mr. M. 
 In this she perfectly agreed. I told her, however, that I 
 would mention nothing of this to Mr. M., because it would 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 191 
 
 only tend to keep him in painful suspense. Thus the 
 matter is entirely set aside, unless God, by a special inter- 
 position of His providence (i.e. by taking away her mother, 
 or overruling her mind, contrary to all reasonable expecta- 
 tion, to approve of it), mark His own will concerning it. 
 
 We find this account of the crisis in her Dtary : 
 
 1807, March 2. Passed some peaceful happy days at 
 Tregembo. My return was marked by two events, long to be 
 remembered seeing John and hearing from H. M. Great 
 has been my distress, but peace is returned, and could I cease 
 from anticipating future evils I should enjoy more. The 
 Lord has been gracious in affording me help, but He made 
 me first feel my weakness, and suffered Satan to harass 
 me. I am called upon now to act a decisive part. 
 
 Marazion, March 8. With David let me say, In the 
 multitude of thoughts within me Thy comforts have 
 refreshed my soul. O Thou ! my refuge, my rest, my 
 hiding-place, in every time of sorrow to Thee I fly, and 
 trust in the covert of Thy wings. Thou hast been a 
 shelter for me and a strong tower. I have liberty to pour 
 out my griefs into the bosom of my God, and doing so I am 
 lightened of their burden. The Lord's dealings are singular 
 with me, yet not severe, yea, they are merciful. Twice 
 have I been called on to act l ... in a way few are 
 tried in, but the Lord's goodness towards me is so manifest 
 in the first, that I have come to wait in silence and hope 
 the event of this. I am satisfied I have done now what is 
 right, and peace has returned to me ; yet there is need of 
 great watchfulness to resist the enemy of souls, who would 
 weaken and depress my soul, bringing to remembrance the 
 affection of my dear friend, and representing my conduct 
 as ungrateful towards him. To-day I have had many 
 distressing feelings on his account, yet in the general I 
 
 1 A line has been erased by a subsequent writer. 
 
192 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 have been looking to things invisible and eternal, and 
 therefore enjoyed peace. I must live more in the con- 
 templation of Christ and heavenly things. Oh, come, fill 
 and satisfy my soul, be my leader and guide, dispose of 
 me as Thou wilt. The pain of writing to him is over, and 
 I feel satisfied I wrote what duty required of me. 1 Now 
 then, return, O my soul, to thy rest. 
 
 March 22. A week of conflict and of mercies is over. 
 May the remembrance of Thy goodness never be forgotten. 
 I bless Thee, O my God, that Thou hast brought me 
 hitherto, and with more reason than David, inquire what 
 am I that Thou shouldest do so ? 
 
 April 23. To-day my mind has been painfully affected 
 by the receipt of letters from . I found in the pre- 
 sence of my mother I dared not indulge the inclination I 
 feel to mourn ; and believing my Heavenly Parent's will 
 to be that I should be careful for nothing, I ought to be 
 equally exerting myself in secret to resist the temptation. 
 How true it is we suffer more in the person of another dear 
 to us than in our own ! Lord, I know Thou canst perfectly 
 satisfy him by the consolation of Thy Spirit and com- 
 munications of Thy grace ; Thou canst display the glories 
 of Thy beloved Son to his view, and put gladness into his 
 heart. Oh, support, cheer, and bless him ; let Thy left hand 
 be under his head, and Thy right hand embrace him, that 
 he may feel less than my fears suggest. Oh, do Thou 
 powerfully impress our minds with a persuasion of Thy 
 overruling hand in this trial. Let us see it to be Thy will, 
 and be now and ever disposed to bow to it. Uphold me, 
 Jesus, or I fall a prey to distracting thoughts and imagina- 
 tion. 
 
 April 24. The arrival of dear Mr. Simeon has been 
 a cordial to my fainting heart. Lord, do Thou comfort me 
 by him ; none but Thyself can give me lasting comfort 
 
 1 'Her letter was to bid me a last farewell.' Martyn's Journal. This 
 was received November 23. 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 193 
 
 instruments are nothing without Thee. Oh, may I now be 
 watchful, for often, through my depraved nature, when 
 unlooked-for deliverance comes, I get careless and light 
 in my frame ; then the Lord hides His face, and trouble 
 comes, which no outward circumstances can relieve. I 
 need especial direction from on high. Oh, may my depend- 
 ence be on the Lord, and I shall not go astray. 
 
 April 28. Went on Saturday with Mr. Simeon and 
 Mr. E. to Helston. Lord, I bless Thy holy name, I 
 adore Thy wonderful unmerited goodness towards such a 
 base, vile creature, that Thou shouldest at this particular 
 season send me counsel and support through the medium 
 of Thy dear servant. I am brought home again in safety, 
 and enjoyed, during my absence, an opportunity of seeing 
 how a Christian lives. 
 
 April 29. The state of my mind lately has led me to 
 fill too much of my Diary with expressions of regard for 
 an earthly object, and now I am convinced of the evil of 
 indulging this affection. Oh, may the Lord enable me to 
 mortify it ; may this mirror of my heart show me more of 
 love to God and less to anything earthly. This morning 
 was a sad one, and to the present I have to mourn over 
 the barrenness of my soul, its indisposedness to any spiritual 
 exertion. Almost constantly do I remember my dear 
 absent friend ; may I do so with less pain. 
 
 May i. I begin this month in circumstances peculiarly 
 trying, such as I can support only by aid vouchsafed from 
 above, and sought in constant prayer. The Lord is a 
 stronghold in this time of trouble. 
 
 May 2. To-day and yesterday I have found more 
 composure of mind than of late ; once indeed the enemy 
 (whose devices I am too ignorant of to meet them as I 
 ought) succeeded in distracting my mind, and excited 
 many sinful passions from the probability that Miss Corrie, 
 who is going to her brother, may be the partner appointed 
 for my dear friend. This continued for a short time only, 
 
 O 
 
194 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 and I found relief at a throne of grace. It is a subject I 
 must not dwell on when the trial comes, grace will be 
 given ; but at present I have none to meet it ; yet have 
 I prayed the Lord to provide him a suitable helpmate. 
 Deceitful is my heart ; how little do I know it ! O Thou 
 bleeding Saviour, let me hide myself in Thee from deserved 
 wrath, and oh, speak pdace once more to my soul. 
 
 May 3. A day of much sinful inquietude. Oh, that I 
 could withdraw my affections ! Oh, that I could once more 
 feel I have no desire but after heavenly things ! What a 
 chaos has my mind been to-day, even in the house of 
 God and at the throne of grace. I have been, in imagin- 
 ation, conversing with a fellow-creature. Where is thy 
 heart ? is a question not now to be answered satisfactorily. 
 Tied and bound with this chain, if for a little time I rise 
 to God, soon I turn from the glories of His face, grieving 
 His Spirit by preferring the ideal presence of my friend 
 sometimes drawing the scene of his distress, at others the 
 pleasure of his return. Oh, let me not continue thus to walk 
 in the vanity of my mind. Oh, may I find sufficient hap- 
 piness in the presence of my God here, and live looking to 
 the things not seen, looking to that heavenly country 
 where I shall enjoy in perfection the blessed society and 
 (of?) all I loved below. 
 
 May 4. Passed a day of less conflict, though I have 
 very imperfectly kept my resolution not to indulge vain 
 improbable expectations of the future ; yet I have been 
 favoured with a greater freedom from them than yesterday. 
 
 May 5. I have been suddenly to-day seized with a 
 violent depression of spirits and a sadness of heart, hard 
 to be concealed. I have not, as before, fallen into a long 
 train of vain imaginations, drawing scenes improbable and 
 vain, but my soul has lost its spiritual appetite. I am 
 looking forward to distant and uncertain events with 
 anticipations of sorrow and trial impending. O my Lord 
 and my God, come to my relief! 
 

 CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 195 
 
 May 9. Oh, what great troubles and adversities hast 
 Thou showed me, and yet Thou didst turn again and 
 refresh me ! The whole of this day has been a dark and 
 exceedingly gloomy season, my mind tossed to and fro 
 like the tempestuous sea. I think the chief cause of my 
 distress arises from a dread of dishonouring the name of 
 the Lord, by appearing to have acted deceitfully in the 
 eyes of my family, and some pride is at the bottom of 
 this (I like not to be thought ill of), and also pain for the 
 disappointment my dear friend will soon know. His 
 situation grieves me infinitely more than my own. I 
 think, for myself, I want nothing more than I find in Thy 
 presence. 
 
 May 20. My chief concern now is lest I should have 
 given too much reason for my dear friend's hoping I might 
 yet be prevailed on to attend to his request, and I feel the 
 restraint stronger than ever, that, having before promised, 
 I am not free to marry. I paint the scene of his return, 
 and, whichever way I take, nothing but misery and guilt 
 seems to await me. Yet oh, I will continue to pray, ' Heal 
 me, and I shall be healed ; save me, and I shall be saved.' 
 Thou art my strength and hope, O Lord ; though shame 
 is my portion among men. Thou who knowest my heart, 
 Thou wilt not in this condemn me, for oh, Thou knowest 
 these consequences of my regard for Thy dear saint were 
 not intended by me, and that first, when I regarded him 
 otherwise than as a Christian brother, I believed myself 
 free to do so, imagining him I first loved united to another. 
 When I consider this circumstance my mind is relieved of 
 a heavy burden, and yet I must lament the evils that have 
 flown from this mistake. My thoughts have been called 
 since Sunday into the eternal world by the sudden death 
 of a very kind friend, H. C. I have found this event, 
 though the cause of pain, very useful to me at this time. 
 
 May 22. The way Satan takes is made plain to me, 
 and I must resist him in the first pleasing ideas arising 
 
 02 
 
196 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 from the remembrance of true affection in my deaf and 
 ever-esteemed friend. When I yield to these, I am 
 presently lost to all sober thoughts, and plunged soon in 
 the deepest sorrow for the distress it has brought on him ; 
 then my conduct towards him and every part of my family 
 is painted in the most horrid colours, till I am nearly 
 distracted. Thus has Satan over and over oppressed me, 
 and relief been afforded my fainting soul through the help 
 of a superior power even than Satan. I must watch and 
 pray, for thus the Lord will bruise Satan under my feet. 
 
 August 6. This season recalls a dear friend to my 
 remembrance. Oh, may he occupy no more of my thoughts 
 and affections than is consistent with the will of God, and 
 pleasing in His sight. May these resignations be mani- 
 fested by us both. 
 
 August 9. Just two years since I parted from a dear 
 friend and brother, whose memory will ever be cherished 
 by me. Blessed be God ! I feel now as if he was the 
 inhabitant of another world, rather than of another part, 
 of this earth. 
 
 On October 10, 1806, on the close of his preparations for 
 departure to Dinapore, ' at night the missionaries, etc., met 
 us at the pagoda for the purpose of commending me to the 
 grace of God.' ( My soul never yet had such Divine enjoy- 
 ment. I felt a desire to break from the body, and join the 
 high praises of the saints above.' Next day, in Calcutta, at 
 evening worship at Mr. Myers', ' I found my heaven begun 
 on earth. No work so sweet as that of praying and living 
 wholly to the service of God.' On Sunday, the I2th, 'at 
 night I took my leave of the saints in Calcutta in a sermon 
 on Acts xx. 32. But how very far from being in spirit 
 like the great apostle.' On Monday he went up by land 
 to Barrackpore with, Mr. Brown, ' happy in general.' On 
 
CALCUTTA AND SERAMPORE, 1806 197 
 
 Tuesday ' Corrie came to me at the pagoda and prayed 
 with me.' 
 
 1806, October 15. Took my leave of the family at 
 Aldeen in morning worship ; but I have always found my 
 heart most unable to be tender and solemn when occasions 
 most require it. At eleven I set off in a budgerow with 
 Mr. Brown, Corrie, and Parson. Marshman saw us as we 
 passed the mission-house, and could not help coming aboard. 
 He dined with us, and after going on a little way left us 
 with a prayer. About sunset we landed at the house of the 
 former French governor, and walked five miles through 
 villages to Chandernagore, where we waited at an hotel till 
 the boats came up. With the French host I found a liberty 
 I could not have hoped for in his language, and was so 
 enabled to preach the Gospel to him. There are two Italian 
 monks in this place, who say Mass every day. I wished 
 much to visit the fathers, if there had been time. A person 
 of Calcutta, here for his health, troubled us with his 
 profaneness, but we did not let him go unwarned, nor kept 
 back the counsel of God. At night in the budgerow I 
 prayed with my dear brethren. 
 
 October 16. Rose somewhat dejected, and walked on 
 to Chinsurah, the Dutch settlement, about three miles. 
 There we breakfasted, and dined with Mr. Forsyth, the 
 missionary. We all enjoyed great happiness in the presence 
 and blessing of our God. Mr. Forsyth came on with us 
 from Chinsurah, till we stopped at sunset opposite Bandel, 
 a Portuguese settlement, and then we had Divine service. 
 I prayed and found my heart greatly enlarged. After his 
 departure our conversation was suitable and spiritual. 
 How sweet is prayer to my soul at this time ! I seem as if 
 I never could be tired, not only of spiritual joys, but of 
 spiritual employments, since they are now the same. 
 
 October 17. My dear brethren, on account of the bad 
 weather, were obliged to leave me to-day. So we spent 
 
198 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 the whole morning in a Divine ordinance in which each 
 read a portion of Scripture and all sang and prayed. Mr. 
 Brown's passage, chosen from Joshua i., was very suitable, 
 ' Have I not commanded thee?' Let this be an answer to 
 my fears, O my Lord, and an assurance that I am in Thy 
 work. It was a very affecting season to me. In prayer 
 I was very far from a state of seriousness and affection. 
 Indeed, I have often remarked that I have never yet 
 prayed comfortably with friends when it has been pre- 
 ceded by a chapter of the Revelation. Perhaps because 
 I depend too much on the feelings which the imagery 
 of that book excites, instead of putting myself into the 
 hands of the Spirit, the only author of the prayer of faith. 
 They went away in their boat, and I was left alone for 
 the first time, with none but natives. 
 
 
199 
 
 CHAPTER VI 
 
 DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1 807-1809 
 
 UNTIL, in 1852 and the ten years following, Lord Dal- 
 housie's railway up the Ganges valley was completed to 
 Allahabad, the usual mode of proceeding up-country from 
 Calcutta was by the house-boat known as the budgerow, 
 which is still common on the many rivers of Bengal where 
 English planters and officials are found. At the rate of 
 twenty-five miles a day the traveller is towed up against 
 stream by the boatmen. When time is no object, and 
 opportunities are sought for reading, shooting, and inter- 
 course with the natives, the voyage is delightful in the cool 
 season. Henry Martyn rejoiced in six weeks of this 
 solitary life alone yet not alone, and ever about his 
 Father's business. His studies were divided between 
 Hindustani and Sanskrit ; he was much occupied in prayer 
 and in the reading of the Greek and Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures. Morning and evening he spent himself among the 
 people on the banks, and at the ghauts and bazaars of 
 the mighty river, preaching Christ and spreading abroad 
 the New Testament. The dense population and the 
 spiritual darkness, as the panorama of native life moved 
 hourly before his eyes, on river and on land, stirred up the 
 busiest of Christians to be still busier, in spite of his fast- 
 wasting body ; ' What a wretched life shall I lead if I do 
 
200 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 not exert myself from morning till night, in a place where, 
 through whole territories, I seem to be the only light ! ' 
 His gun supplied him with small game, ' enough to make a 
 change with the curry.' 
 
 At Cutwa, one of Carey's mission stations, he had 
 fellowship with Chamberlain, receiving that * refreshment of 
 spirit which comes from the blessing of God on Christian 
 communion.' 'Tell Marshman,' he wrote, 'with my 
 affectionate remembrance, that I have seriously begun the 
 Sanskrit Grammar.' To Ward he sends a list of errata 
 which he found in a tract in the Persian character. He 
 had his Serampore moonshi with him. At Berhampore, 
 soon to be occupied by Mr. Parson as chaplain, and by the 
 London Missionary Society, he spent some time, for it was 
 the great military station of the old Nawab Nazim's 
 capital, Moorshidabad, which Clive described as wealthier 
 than London, and quite as populous. Henry Martyn at 
 once walked into the hospital, where the surgeon im- 
 mediately recognised him as an old schoolfellow and 
 townsman. But even with such help he could not induce 
 the men to rise and assemble for Divine service. ' I left 
 three books with them and went away amidst the sneers 
 and titters of the common soldiers. Certainly it is one of 
 the greatest crosses I am called to bear, to take pains to 
 make people hear me. It is such a struggle between a sense 
 of propriety and modesty on the one hand, and a sense of 
 duty on the other, that I find nothing equal to it' At 
 Rajmahal, like Carey six years before, he met some of the 
 hill tribes 'wrote down from their mouth some of the 
 names of things.' 
 
 At Maldah he was in the heart of the little Christian 
 community which, under Charles Grant twenty years 
 
D1NAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 201 
 
 before, had proved the salt of Anglo-Indian society, and 
 had made the first attempt with Carey's assistance to 
 open vernacular Christian schools. With Mr. Ellerton, 
 whose wife had witnessed the duel between Warren 
 Hastings and Philip Francis, and who as a widow indeed 
 lived to the Mutiny of 1857 as the friend of Bishop Daniel 
 Wilson, he went to Gomalty, and visited one of the schools. 
 ' The cheerful faces of the little boys, sitting cross-legged 
 on their mats round the floor, much delighted me. While 
 they displayed their power of reading, their fathers, 
 mothers, etc., crowded in numbers round the door and 
 windows.' Here we see the now vast educational system 
 of Bengal in the birth. Not less striking is the contrast, due 
 to the progress of that system on its missionary side, when 
 we find Martyn, in 1806, recording his surprise at the 
 extraordinary fear and unwillingness of the people to take 
 tracts and books. One postmaster, when he found 
 what the booklet was about, returned it with the remark 
 that a person who had his legs in two boats went on his 
 way uncomfortably. Passing Colgong and Monghyr, he 
 ' reached Patna. Walked about the scene of my future 
 ministry with a spirit almost overwhelmed at the sight of 
 the immense multitudes.' On November 26 he arrived at 
 Dinapore ' the multitudes at the water-side prodigious.' 
 
 Nowhere, in British India as it was in 1807, could 
 Henry Martyn have found a better training field, at once 
 as chaplain to the troops and missionary to the Moham- 
 medans, than the Patna centre of the great province 
 of Bihar. For fourteen miles, Patna, the Mohammedan 
 city, Bankipore, the British civil station, and Dinapore, the 
 British military station, line the right bank of the Ganges, 
 which is there two miles broad. Patna itself ' the city,' 
 
202 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 as the word means was the Buddhist capital to which 
 the Greek ambassador Megasthenes came from Seleukos 
 Nikator, 300 B.C., and the Chinese pilgrim, Hwen T'sang j 
 637 years A.D. But under the Mogul emperors and down 
 to the present day, Patna has been the focus of the most 
 fanatical sect of Islam. There Meer Kasim murdered 
 sixty Englishmen in 1763 ; and so little did a century's 
 civilisation affect the place, which Christian missionaries, 
 except Martyn, neglected till recently, that in 1857 it was 
 a centre of the Mutiny, and in 1872 it was the nucleus ot 
 Wahabi rebellion. The second city in Bengal next to 
 Calcutta, and the fifth city in all India in inhabitants, 
 Patna with Bankipore and Dinapore commanded an 
 accessible native population of half a million. Such 
 was Henry Martyn 's first ' parish ' in the East. For the 
 mass of these he opened schools and translated the Word of 
 God ; with their learned men he ' disputed ' continually, in 
 the spirit of Paul seeking to commend to them the very 
 Christ. 
 
 Besides the Company's civil servants in Bankipore 
 whom he never ceased to influence, he was specially 
 charged with the spiritual care of two European regiments' 
 consisting at one time of 1,700 men and 80 officers in various 
 positions. Then and up till 1860, when what was known 
 as ' the White Mutiny ' led the Queen's Government to 
 disband the troops, the East India Company had a European 
 force of its own, specially recruited and paid more highly 
 than the royal regiments. The men were generally better 
 educated than the ordinary private of those days, were ? 
 indeed, often runaway sons of good families and dis- 
 reputable adventurers from many countries. As a fighting 
 force they were splendid veterans ; in all other respects 
 
DI NAP ORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 203 
 
 their history and character as well as his own experi- 
 ence of them on board ship, justified Martyn's language in 
 a letter to Mr. Brown. ' My disdainful and abandoned 
 countrymen among the military ; they are impudent chil- 
 dren and stiff-hearted, and will receive, I fear, my ministra- 
 tions, as all the others have done, with scorn. Yet Jesus 
 wept over Jerusalem. Henceforward let me live with 
 Christ alone.' How loving and faithful, if not always 
 tender, his ministry was among them and their native 
 women, and how it gained their respect till it formed a 
 little Church in the army, we shall see. 
 
 Having settled down in barrack apartments at 50 rupees 
 a month till he should get a house against the hot season, 
 and having called on the general commanding and others, 
 after the Anglo- Indian fashion, he reported to his longing 
 friends in Aldeen : * I stand alone ; l not one voice is 
 heard saying, " I wish you good luck in the name 
 of the Lord." I offered to come over to Bankipore to 
 officiate to them on the Sabbath. They are going to take 
 this into consideration. I have found out two schools in 
 Dinapore. I shall set on foot one or two schools without 
 delay, and by the time the scholars are able to read we can 
 get books ready for them.' In this spirit and by a renewed 
 act of self-dedication he entered on the year 1807 : 
 
 Seven years have passed away since I was first called 
 of God. Before the conclusion of another seven years, how 
 probable is it that these hands will have mouldered into 
 dust ! But be it so : my soul through grace hath received 
 the assurance of eternal life, and I see the days of my 
 
 1 Even in 1889 we find a Patna missionary writing of his work from 
 Bankipore as a centre : ' The people in every village, except those on the 
 Dinapore road, said that no Sahib had ever been in their village before. 
 Sometimes my approach was the cause of considerable alarm.' 
 
204 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 pilgrimage shortening without a wish to add to their 
 number. But oh, may I be stirred up to a faithful discharge 
 of my high and awful work ; and laying aside, as much 
 as may be, all carnal cares and studies, may I give myself 
 to this ' one thing.' The last has been a year to be 
 remembered by me, because the Lord has brought me 
 safely to India, and permitted me to begin, in one sense, 
 my missionary work. My trials in it have been very few ; 
 everything has turned out better than I expected ; loving- 
 kindness and tender mercies have attended me at every 
 step : therefore here will I sing His praise. I have been an 
 unprofitable servant, but the Lord hath not cut me off: I 
 have been wayward and perverse, yet He has brought me 
 further on the way to Zion ; here, then, with sevenfold 
 gratitude and affection, would I stop and devote myself to 
 the blissful service of my adorable Lord. May He continue 
 His patience, His grace, His direction, His spiritual influ- 
 ences, and I shall at last surely come off conqueror. May 
 He speedily open my mouth, to make known the mysteries 
 of the Gospel, and in great mercy grant that the heathen 
 may receive it and live ! 
 
 The hostility of the officers and civilians to his message 
 sometimes became scorn, when they saw his efforts to 
 teach and preach to the natives. These were days when 
 the Patna massacre was still remembered. So few baptized 
 Christians knew the power of the Faith which they 
 practically dishonoured, that they had no desire to make it 
 known to others ; many even actually resented the preaching 
 of Christ to the people, as both politically dangerous and 
 socially an insult to the ruling race. This feeling has long 
 since disappeared in India at least, though its expression is 
 not unknown in some of the colonies where the land is held 
 by the dark savages. Henry Martyn keenly felt such 
 opposition, and none the less that the natives of the Patna 
 
DIN AP ORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 205 
 
 district especially the Mohammedans were in their turn 
 hostile to a government which had supplanted them so 
 recently. A few weeks after his arrival we find him writing 
 this in his Journal : 
 
 1806, December I. Early this morning I set off in my 
 palanquin for Patna. Something brought the remembrance 
 of my dear Lydia so powerfully to my mind that I could 
 not cease thinking of her for a moment. I know not when 
 my reflections seemed to turn so fondly towards her ; at 
 the same time I scarcely dare to wish her to come to this 
 country. The whole country is manifestly disaffected. I 
 was struck at the anger and contempt with which multi- 
 tudes of the natives eyed me in my palanquin. 
 
 December 2. On my way back called on Mr. D., the 
 Judge, and Mr. R, at Bankipore. Mr. R's conversation 
 with me about the natives was again a great trial to my 
 spirit ; but in the multitude of my troubled thoughts I still 
 saw that there is a strong consolation in the hope set before 
 us. Let men do their worst, let me be torn to pieces, and 
 my dear L. torn from me ; or let me labour for fifty years 
 amidst scorn, and never seeing one soul converted ; still it 
 shall not be worse for my soul in eternity, nor worse for it 
 in time. Though the heathen rage and the English people 
 imagine a vain thing, the Lord Jesus, who controls all events, 
 is my friend, my master, my God, my all. On the Rock 
 of Ages when I feel my foot rest my head is lifted up 
 above all mine enemies round about, and I sing, yea, I will 
 sing praises unto the Lord. If I am not much mistaken, 
 sore trials are awaiting me from without. Yet the time 
 will come when they will be over. Oh, what sweet refuge 
 to the weary soul does the grave appear ! There the 
 wicked cease from troubling, and there the weary are at 
 rest. Here every man I meet is an enemy ; being an 
 enemy to God, he is an enemy to me also on that account ; 
 but he is an enemy too to me because I am an Englishman. 
 
206 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Oh, what a place must heaven be, where there are none but 
 friends ! England appears almost a heaven upon earth, 
 because there one is not viewed as an unjust intruder ; 
 but, oh, the heaven of my God ! the general assembly of 
 the first-born, the spirits of the just made perfect, and 
 Jesus ! Oh, let me for a little moment labour and suffer 
 reproach ! , 
 
 1 807, January 2. They seem to hate to see me asso- 
 ciating at all with the natives, and one gave me a hint a 
 few days ago about taking my exercise on foot. But if 
 our Lord had always travelled about in His palanquin, the 
 poor woman who was healed by touching the hem of His 
 garment might have perished. Happily I am freed from 
 the shackles of custom ; and the fear of man, though not 
 extirpated, does not prevail. 
 
 January 8. Pundit was telling me to-day that there 
 was a prophecy in their books that the English should 
 remain one hundred years in India, and that forty years 
 were now elapsed of that period ; that there should be a 
 great change, and they should be driven out by a king's 
 son, who should then be born. Telling this to moonshi, 
 he said that about the same time the Mussulmans expected 
 some great events, such as the coming of Dujjel, and the 
 spread of Islam over the earth. 
 
 January 29. The expectation from prophecy is very 
 prevalent hereabouts that the time is coming when all the 
 Hindus will embrace the religion of the English ; and the 
 pundit says that in many places they had already begun. 
 About Agra, and Delhi, and Narwa, in the Mahratta 
 dominions, there are many native Christian families. 
 
 Henry Martyn's occupation of the Aldeen Pagoda had 
 resulted, after his departure, in the formation, by Brown, 
 Corrie, Parson, and Marmaduke Thompson, the Madras 
 chaplain, of what would now be called a clerical club, with 
 these three objects to aid the British and Foreign Bible 
 
; DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 207 
 
 Society, then recently established ; to help forward the 
 translation of the Scriptures into the languages of the 
 East ; and especially to meet the whole expense of the 
 Sanskrit and Greek Testaments, and to send on to Mr. 
 Brown, for circulation, a quarterly report of the prospects, 
 plans, and actual situation of each member so far as the 
 Church is concerned. Of this Evangelical Anglican 
 Brotherhood Martyn seems to have been the most active 
 member during his brief career. His translations were 
 made for it, in the first instance. ' The Synod,' or ' the 
 Associated Clergy/ as he called it at different times, when 
 as yet there was no Bishop of Calcutta, consciously linked 
 him to the fellowship of the Saints, to the Church and the 
 University from which he had come forth. We find him 
 noting seven years after ' the day I left Cambridge : my 
 thoughts frequently recurred with many tender recollections 
 to that beloved seat of my brethren, and again I wandered 
 in spirit amongst the trees on the banks of the Cam.' 
 
 The letters from these four chaplains cheered him at 
 Dinapore when he was ' very much depressed in spirits,' and 
 he hastens to write to each, giving this picture of his life : 
 
 From a solitary walk on the banks of the river I had 
 just returned to my dreary rooms, and with the reflection 
 that just at this time of the day I could be thankful for a 
 companion, was taking up the flute to remind myself 
 of your social meetings in worship, when your two 
 packages of letters, which' had arrived in my absence, were 
 brought to me. For the contents of them, all I can say is, 
 Bless the Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless 
 His holy name ! The arrival of another dear brother, and 
 the joy you so largely partake of in fellowship with God 
 and with one another, act as a cordial to my soul. They 
 show me what I want to learn, that the Lord God 
 
2o8 HENRY MARTYti 
 
 Omnipotent reigneth, and that they that keep the faith of 
 Jesus [are those only whom God visits with His strong 
 consolations. I want to keep in view that our God is the 
 God of the whole earth, and that the heathen are given to 
 His exalted Son, the uttermost parts of the earth for a 
 possession. 
 
 Continually his love of music breaks forth alike for 
 the worship of God and the association of friendship and 
 affection. His correspondence with Brown was regular, 
 but as that of a son with a father. His letters to Corrie, 
 his old Cambridge junior, are frank and free. His joy was 
 great when Corrie was stationed at the rock-fortress of 
 Chunar, not very far from Dinapore, so that they occasion- 
 ally met and officiated for each other. But up to this time 
 his chief, his almost fearful human, delight was to think of 
 Lydia by night and by day. 
 
 1806, December 10. A dream last night was so like 
 reality, and the impression after it was so deep upon my 
 spirits, that I must record the date of it. It was about 
 Lydia. I dreamt that she had arrived, but that after some 
 conversation I said to her, ' I know this is a dream ; it is too 
 soon after my letter for you to have come.' Alas ! it is 
 only a dream ; and with this I awoke, and sighed to think 
 that it was indeed only a dream. Perhaps all my hope 
 about her is but a dream ! Yet be it so ; whatever God 
 shall appoint must be good for us both, and with that I will 
 endeavour to be tranquil and -happy, pursuing my way 
 through the wilderness with equal steadiness, whether with 
 or without a companion. 
 
 December 14. (Sunday.) Service performed by an 
 after order, at ten o'clock. The general was present, about 
 twenty officers, and some of their ladies. I preached on the 
 parable of the tares of the field. Much of the rest of the 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 209 
 
 day I was in great distraction, owing to the incessant re- 
 currence of thoughts about Lydia. My impatience and 
 fear respecting her sometimes rose to such a height that I 
 felt almost as at Falmouth, when I was leaving Europe, as 
 I thought to see her no more. But in the evening it pleased 
 the Lord to show me something of the awful nearness of 
 the world of spirits, and the unmeasurable importance of 
 my having my thoughts and cares devoted to my missionary 
 work. Thus I obtained peace. I prayed in sincerity and 
 fervour, that if there were any obstacle in the sight of God, 
 the Lord might never suffer us to meet. 
 
 December 21. (Sunday.) In the evening, after a solemn 
 season of prayer, I received letters from Europe, one from 
 Cousin T., Emma, Lydia, and others. The torrent of 
 vivid affection which passed through my heart at receiving 
 such assurances of regard continued almost without inter- 
 mission for four hours. Yet, in reflection afterwards, the 
 few words my dearest Lydia wrote turned my joy into 
 tender sympathy with her. Who knows what her heart 
 has suffered ! After all, our God is our best portion ; and 
 it is true that if we are never permitted to meet, we shall 
 enjoy blissful intercourse for ever in glory. 
 
 December 22. Thinking far too much of dear Lydia all 
 day. 
 
 December 23. Set apart the chief part of this day for 
 prayer, with fasting ; but I do not know that my soul got 
 much good. Oh, what need have I to be stirred up by the 
 Spirit of God, to exert myself in prayer ! Had no freedom 
 or power in prayer, though some appearance of tenderness. 
 Lydia is a snare to me ; I think of her so incessantly, and 
 with such foolish and extravagant fondness, that my heart 
 is drawn away from God. Thought at night, Can that be 
 true love which is other than God would have it ? No ; 
 that which is lawful is most genuine when regulated by 
 the holy law of God. 
 
 December 25. Preached on I Tim. i. 15 to a large 
 
 P 
 
zio HENRY MARTYN 
 
 congregation. Those who remained at the Sacrament 
 were chiefly ladies, and none of them young men. My 
 heart still entangled with this idolatrous affection, and 
 consequently unhappy. Sometimes I gained deliverance 
 from it for a short time, and was happy in the love of God. 
 How awful the thought, that while perishing millions 
 demand my every thought and care, my mind should be 
 distracted about such an extreme trifle as that of my own 
 comfort ! Oh, let me at last have done with it, and the 
 merciful God save me from departing from Him, and 
 committing that horrible crime of forsaking the foun- 
 tain of living waters, and hewing out to myself broken 
 cisterns. 
 
 As the delightful cold season of the Bihar uplands 
 passed all too quickly, and the dry hot winds of Upper 
 India began to scorch its plains, the solitary man began 
 to think it ' impossible I could ever subsist long in such a 
 climate.' From April 1807 his hereditary disease made 
 rapid advances, while he reproached himself for lassitude 
 and comparative idleness, and put additional constraint 
 on himself to work and to pray unceasingly. From this 
 time his Journal has frequent records of sickness, of loss 
 of appetite, and of 'pain' in his ministrations, ending in 
 loss of voice altogether for a time. Corrie and Brown and 
 his other correspondents remonstrated, but they were at a 
 distance. He needed a watchful and authoritative nurse 
 such as only a wife could be, and he found only lack of 
 sympathy or active opposition. He lived, as we can now see, 
 as no white man in the tropics in any rank of life should live, 
 from sheer simplicity, unselfishness, and consuming zeal. 
 When the hot winds drove him out of the barracks, the first 
 rainy season flooded his house. At all times and amid the 
 insanitary horrors of an Indian cemetery he had to bury 
 
DIN AP ORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 211 
 
 the dead of a large cantonment in a sickly season. His 
 daily visits to the hospital were prolonged, for there he 
 came soul to soul with the sinner, the penitent, and the 
 rejoicing. And all the time he is writing to Corrie and 
 each of his friends, ' I feel anxious for your health.' To 
 marry officers and baptize children he had to make long 
 journeys by palanquin, and expose his wasting body alike 
 to heat and rain. But amid it all his courage never fails, 
 for it is rooted in God ; his heart is joyful, for he has the 
 peace that passeth all understanding. 
 
 1807, May 1 8. Through great mercy my health and 
 strength are supported as by a daily miracle. But oh, the 
 heat ! By every device of darkness and tatties I cannot 
 keep the thermometer below 92, and at night in bed I 
 seem in danger of suffocation. Let me know somewhat 
 more particularly what the heat is, and how you contrive 
 to bear it. The worst bad effect I experience is the utter 
 loss of appetite. I dread the eating time. 
 
 July 7. Heat still so great as to oblige me to abandon 
 my quarters. 
 
 July 8. Went to Bankipore to baptize a child. One 
 of the ladies played some hymn-tunes on my account. If 
 I were provided with proper books much good might 
 be done by these visits, for I meet with general acceptance 
 and deference. In the evening buried a man who had 
 died in the hospital after a short illness. My conscience 
 felt again a conviction of guilt at considering how 
 many precious hours I waste on trifles, and how cold and 
 lukewarm my spirit is when addressing souls. 
 
 August 23. (Sunday.) Preached on Job xix. 25-27 : 
 ' I know that my redeemer liveth.' There seemed little 
 or no attention ; only one officer there besides Major Young. 
 At Hindustani prayers, the women few, but attentive ; 
 again blest with much freedom ; at the hospital was seized 
 
 P 2 
 
212 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 with such pain from over-exertion of my voice, that I was 
 obliged to leave off and go away. 
 
 To Brown he writes : ' The rains try my constitution. 
 I am apt to be troubled with shortness of breath, as at 
 the time I left you. Another rainy reason I must climb 
 some hill and live there*; but the Lord is our rock. While 
 there is work which we must do, we shall live.' Again in 
 the early Sunday morning of August he dreamed 
 
 That as I was attacked so violently in July, but re- 
 covered, at the same time next year I should be attacked 
 again, and carried off by death. This, however, would only 
 be awaking in a better world. If I may but awake up 
 satisfied with Thy likeness, why shall I be afraid ? I think 
 I have but one wish to live, which is, that I may do the 
 Lord's work, particularly in the Persian and Hindustani 
 translations ; for this I could almost feel emboldened to 
 supplicate, like Hezekiah, for prolongation of life, even after 
 receiving this, which may be a warning. 
 
 After six months' experience of his Dinapore-cum-Patna 
 parish, Martyn sent in ' to the Associated Clergy ' the 
 first quarterly report of his own spiritual life, and of his 
 work for others. 
 
 April 6. I begin my first communication to my dear 
 and honoured brethren, with thankfully accepting their 
 proposal of becoming a member of their society, and I 
 bless the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ for this 
 new instance of His mercy to His unworthy creature. May 
 His grace and favour be vouchsafed to us, and His Holy 
 Spirit direct all our proceedings, and sanctify our com- 
 munications to the purposes for which we are united. 
 
 On a review of the state of my mind since my arrival 
 at Dinapore, I observe that the graces of joy and love 
 have been at a low ebb. Faith has been chiefly called into 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 213 
 
 exercise, and without a simple dependence on the Divine 
 promises I should still every day sink into fatal despon- 
 dency. Self-love and unbelief have been suggesting many 
 foolish fears respecting the difficulties of my future work 
 among the heathen. The thought of interrupting a crowd 
 of busy people like those at Patna, whose every day is a 
 market-day, with a message about eternity, without com- 
 mand of language sufficient to explain and defend myself, 
 and so of becoming the scorn of the rabble without doing 
 them good, was offensive to my pride. The manifest dis- 
 affection of the people, and the contempt with which they 
 eyed me, confirmed my dread. Added to this the unjust 
 proceedings of many of the principal magistrates hereabout 
 led me to expect future commotions in the country, and 
 that consequently poverty and murder would terminate my 
 career. 
 
 ' Sufficient for the day is the evil thereof ' ' As 
 thy days are so shall thy strength be,' were passages 
 continually brought to my remembrance, and with 
 these at last my mind grew quiet. Our countrymen, when 
 speaking of the natives, said, as they usually do, that they 
 cannot be converted, and if they could they would be worse 
 than they are. Though I have observed before now that 
 the English are not in the way of knowing much about the 
 natives, yet the number of difficulties they mentioned 
 proved another source of discouragement to me. It is sur- 
 prising how positively they are apt to speak on this subject, 
 from their never acknowledging God in anything : ' Thy 
 judgments are far above out of his sight' If we labour to the 
 end of our days without seeing one convert, it shall not be 
 worse for us in time, and our reward is the same in eternity. 
 The cause in which we are engaged is the cause of mercy 
 and truth, and therefore, in spite of seeming impossibilities, 
 it must eventually prevail. 
 
 I have been also occasionally troubled with infidel 
 thoughts, which originated perhaps from the cavillings of 
 
214 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 the Mohammedans about the person of Christ ; but these 
 have been never suffered to be more than momentary. At 
 such times the awful holiness of the Word of God, and the 
 deep seriousness pervading it, were more refreshing to my 
 heart than the most encouraging promises in it How des- 
 picable must the Koran appear with its mock majesty and 
 paltry precepts to those, who can read the Word of God ! 
 It must presently sink into contempt when the Scriptures 
 are known. 
 
 Sometimes when those fiery darts penetrated more 
 deeply, I found safety only in cleaving to God, as a child 
 clasps to his mother's neck. These things teach me the 
 melancholy truth that the grace of a covenant God can 
 alone keep me from apostasy and ruin. 
 
 The European society here consists of the military at 
 the cantonment and the civil servants at Bankipore. The 
 latter neither come into church nor have accepted the 
 offer of my coming to officiate to them. There is, how- 
 ever, no contempt shown, but rather respect. Of the 
 military servants very few officers attend, and of late 
 scarcely any of the married families, but the number of 
 privates, and the families of the merchants, always make 
 up a respectable congregation. They have as yet heard 
 very little of the doctrines of the Gospel. I have in general 
 endeavoured to follow the directions contained in Mr. 
 Milner's letter on this subject, as given in Mr. Brown's 
 paper, No. 4. 
 
 At the hospital I have read Doddridge's Rise and 
 Progress^ and The Pilgrim's Progress. As the people ob- 
 jected to extempore preaching at church, I have in com- 
 pliance with their desires continued to use a book. But 
 on this subject I should be glad of some advice from my 
 brethren. 
 
 I think it needless to communicate the plans or heads 
 of any of my sermons, as they have been chiefly on the 
 Parables. It is of more importance to observe that the 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA 1807-1809 215 
 
 Word has not gone forth in vain, blessed be God ! as it has 
 hitherto seemed to do in most places where I have been 
 called to minister ; and this I feel to be an animating testi- 
 mony of His presence and blessing. I think the command- 
 ing officer of the native regiment here and his lady are 
 seeking their salvation in earnest ; they now refuse all 
 invitations on the Lord's day, and pass most of that day 
 at least in reading the Word, and at all times discover an 
 inclination to religious conversation. Among the privates, 
 one I have little doubt is truly converted to God, and is a 
 great refreshment to me. He parted at once with his 
 native woman, and allows her a separate maintenance. 
 His conversion has excited much notice and conversation 
 about religion among the rest, and three join him in coming 
 twice a week to my quarters for exposition, singing and 
 prayer. 
 
 I visit the English very little, and yet have had sufficient 
 experience of the difficulty of knowing how a minister 
 should converse with his people. I have myself fallen into 
 the worst extreme, and, from fear of making them connect 
 religion with gloom, have been led into such shameful levity 
 and conformity to them as ought to fill me with grief and 
 deep self-abasement. 
 
 How repeatedly has guilt been brought upon my con- 
 science in this way ! Oh, how will the lost souls with 
 whom I have trifled the hours away look at me in the day 
 of judgment ! I hope I am more and more convinced of 
 the wickedness and folly of assuming any other character 
 than that of a minister. I ought to consider that my 
 proper business with the flock over which the Holy Ghost 
 hath made me overseer is the business of another world, 
 and if they will not consider it in the same light, I do not 
 think that I am bound to visit them. 
 
 About the middle of last month, the Church service 
 being ready in Hindustani, I submitted to the command- 
 ing officer of the European regiment a proposal to perform 
 
216 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Divine service regularly for the native women of his 
 regiment, to which he cordially assented. The whole 
 number of women, about 200, attended with great readi- 
 ness, and have continued to do so. Instead of a sermon, 
 the Psalms, and the appointed lessons, I read in two 
 portions the Gospel of St. Matthew regularly forward, 
 and occasionally make some small attempts at expound- 
 ing. The conversion of any of such despised people is 
 never likely perhaps to be of any extensive use in regard 
 to the natives at large ; but they are a people committed 
 to me by God, and as dear to Him as others ; and next in 
 order after the English, they come within the expanding 
 circle of action. 
 
 After much trouble and delay, three schools have been 
 established for the native children on Mr. Creighton's 
 plan one at Dinapore, one at Bankipore, and one at 
 Patna, at the last of which the Persian character is taught 
 as well as the Nagri. The number of children already is 
 about sixty. The other schoolmasters, not liking the 
 introduction of these free schools, spread the report that 
 my intention was to make them Christians, and send them 
 to Europe ; in consequence of which the zemindars re- 
 tracted their promises of land, and the parents refused to 
 send their children ; but my schoolmasters very sensibly 
 went to the people, and told them, * We are men well known 
 among you, and when we are made Christians then do you 
 begin to fear.' So their apprehensions have subsided ; but 
 when the book of Parables, which is just finished, is put 
 into their hands, I expect a revival of their fears. My 
 hope is that I shall be able to ingratiate myself a little 
 with the people before that time ; but chiefly that a 
 gracious God will not suffer Satan to keep his ground any 
 longer, now that the appointed means are used to dislodge 
 him. But, though these plans should fail, I hope to be 
 strengthened to fight against him all my days. For, from 
 what I feel within and see without, I know enough of him 
 
DI NAP ORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 217 
 
 to vow, with my brethren, eternal enmity against him and 
 his cause. 
 
 Respecting the state of the natives hereabouts, I believe 
 that the Hindus are lax, for the rich men being few or 
 none, there are few Brahmins and few tumashas (fetes\ 
 and without these idolatry droops. The Mohammedans are 
 numerous and ignorant, but from the best of them I can- 
 not learn that more than three arguments can be offered 
 for their religion, which are the miracles wrought by 
 Mohammed, those still wrought by his followers, and his 
 challenge in the second chapter of the Koran, about pro- 
 ducing a chapter like it, all of which are immediately 
 answered. 
 
 If my brethren have any others brought forward to 
 them they will, I hope, mention them ; and if they have 
 observed any remark or statement apparently affect a 
 native's mind, they will notice it. 
 
 Above all things, seriousness in argument with them 
 seems most desirable, for without it they laugh away the 
 clearest proofs. Zeal for making proselytes they are used 
 to, and generally attribute to a false motive ; but a tender 
 concern manifested for their souls is certainly new to them, 
 and seemingly produces corresponding seriousness in their 
 minds. 
 
 From an officer who had been in the Mahratta service, 
 I learned some time ago that there were large bodies of 
 Christians at Narwa, in the Mahratta dominions, Sardhana, 
 Delhi, Agra, Bettia, Boglipore. To obtain more informa- 
 tion respecting them, I sent a circular letter to the mis- 
 sionaries residing at the three latter places, and have 
 received two letters in reply. The padre at Boglipore is a 
 young man just arrived, and his letter contains no informa- 
 tion. From the letter of the padre at Agra I subjoin 
 some extracts, premising that my questions were : I. By 
 whom were you sent ? 2. How long has a mission been 
 established in the place of your residence ? 3. Do you 
 
2i8 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 itinerate, and to what distance ? 4. Have you any portion 
 of the MSS. translated, or do you distribute tracts ? 5. Do 
 you allow any remains of caste to the baptized ? 6. Have 
 you schools? are the masters heathen or Christians? 7. Is 
 there any native preacher or catechist ? 8. Number of 
 converts. 
 
 In concluding my report, I take the liberty of propos- 
 ing two questions on which I should be thankful for com- 
 munications in your next quarterly report. 
 
 1. On the manner in which a minister should observe 
 the Sabbath ; whether he should make it a point of duty 
 to leave no part of his discourses to prepare on that day ? 
 Whether our particular situation in this country, requiring 
 redoubled exertion in those of us at least who are called 
 to the heathen, will justify the introduction of a secular 
 work into the Sabbath, such as translating the Scrip- 
 tures, etc. ? 
 
 2. In the commencement of our labours among the 
 heathen, to which model should our preaching be con- 
 formed, to that of John the Baptist and our Saviour, or 
 that of the Apostles ? The first mode seems more natural, 
 and if necessary for the Jews, comparatively so enlightened, 
 how much more for the heathen, who have scarcely any 
 notions of morality ! On the other hand, the preaching of 
 the cross has in all ages won the most ignorant savages ; 
 and the Apostles preached it at once to heathens as 
 ignorant perhaps as these. 
 
 Like Marshman and the Serampore missionaries, 
 Henry Martyn kept up a Latin correspondence with the 
 missionaries sent from Rome by the Propaganda to the 
 stations founded by Xavier, and those afterwards established 
 by that saint's nephew in the days of the tolerant Akbar. 
 At the beginning of this century, Anglican, Baptist, and 
 Romanist missionaries all over the East co-operated with 
 

 DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 219 
 
 each other in translation work and social intercourse. 
 More than once Martyn protected the priest at Patna from 
 the persecution of the military authorities. He planned a 
 visit to their station at Bettia, to the far north, at the 
 foot of the Himalayas. In hospital his ministrations 
 were always offered to the Irish soldiers in the absence 
 of their own priest, and always without any controversial 
 reference. In his Journal he is often indignant at the 
 Popish perversion of the doctrines of grace, and in preach- 
 ing he occasionally set forth the truth, but in pastoral and 
 social intercourse he never failed to show the charity of the 
 Christian scholar and the gentleman. 
 
 Major Young, with his wife, was the first of the officers 
 to welcome Martyn's preaching. Soon the men in hospital 
 learned to appreciate his daily visits, and to attend to his 
 earnest reading and talk. A few began to meet with him 
 at his own house regularly, for prayer and the exposition 
 of Holy Scripture. In January, he writes of one Sunday : 
 * Great attention. I think the Word is not going forth in 
 vain. In the afternoon read at the hospital. The steward 
 I found had been long stationed at Tan j ore and knew 
 Schwartz ; that Schwartz baptized the natives not by im- 
 mersion, but by sprinkling, and with godfathers, and read the 
 services both in English and Tamul. Felt much delighted 
 at hearing anything about him. The man told me that 
 the men at the hospital were very attentive and thankful 
 that I came amongst them. Passed the evening with great 
 joy and peace in singing hymns.' In the heat of May he 
 writes : ( Found fifty sick at the hospital, who heard The 
 Pilgrim's Progress with great delight. Some men came 
 to-night, but my prayer with them was exceedingly poor 
 and lifeless.' 
 
 
220 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 In these days, thanks to Lord Lawrence and Sir Henry 
 Norman, there is a prayer-hall in every cantonment, ever 
 open for the soldier who seeks quiet communion with God. 
 Then * Six soldiers came to me to-night To escape as 
 much as possible the taunts of their wicked companions, 
 they go out of their barracks in opposite directions to come 
 to me. At night a young Scotsman of the European 
 regiment came to me for a hymn-book. He expressed 
 with tears his past wickedness and determination to lead 
 a religious life/ On the other side we have such passages 
 as these : * What sort of men are these committed to my 
 care? I had given them one more warning about their 
 whoredom and drunkenness, and it's the truth grappling 
 with their consciences that makes them furious.' Of the 
 Company's European regiment he writes to Corrie : ' A 
 more wicked set of men were, I suppose, never seen. 
 The general, the colonel of the 6/th, and their own 
 colonel all acknowledge it. At the hospital when I visit 
 their part, some go to a corner and invoke blasphemies upon 
 me because, as they now believe, the man I speak to dies 
 to a certainty.' A young lieutenant of fine abilities he 
 recommended strenuously to go into the ministry. 
 
 Although, fifteen years before, Sir John Shore had 
 given orders as to the building of churches at military 
 stations, and Lord Wellesley had set an example of interest 
 in the moral and spiritual welfare of the Company's servants, 
 nothing had been done outside of the three Presidency 
 cities. All that Henry Martyn found provided for him, 
 as chaplain, on his first Sunday at Dinapore, was a long 
 drum, on which he placed the Prayer-book. He was 
 requested not to preach, because the men could not stand 
 so long. He found the men playing at fives on Sunday. 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 221 
 
 All that he soon changed, by an appeal to the general to 
 put a stop to the games on Sunday, and by holding service 
 at first in a barrack, and then in his own house. Before 
 leaving Calcutta he had observed, in a conversation with 
 the Governor-General, on the disgrace of there being no 
 places of worship at the principal subordinate stations ; upon 
 which directions were given to prepare plans of building. 
 He wrote to the equally troubled Corrie at Chunar. A 
 year later nothing had been done, and he draws this picture 
 to Corrie : ' From the scandalous disorder in which the 
 Company have left the ecclesiastical part of their affairs, so 
 that we have no place fit, our assemblies are little like 
 worshipping assemblies. No kneeling because no room ; 
 no singing, no responses.' At last Sir George Barlow sent 
 an order for an estimate for building a church, but Martyn 
 had left for Cawnpore, only to see a worse state of things 
 there. But the faithfulness of the ' black ' chaplains was 
 telling. He writes, on March 14, 1808 : 
 
 The 67th are now all here. The number of their sick 
 makes the hospital congregation very considerable, so that 
 if I had no natives, translations, etc., to think of, there is 
 call enough for my labours and prayers among all these 
 Europeans. The general at my request has determined to 
 make the whole body of troops attend in three divisions ; 
 and yesterday morning the Company's European, and two 
 companies of the King's, came to church in great pomp, 
 with a fine band of music playing. The King's officers, 
 according to their custom, have declared their intention 
 not to call upon the Company's ; therefore I mean to 
 call upon them. I believe I told you that 900 of the 
 6/th are Roman Catholics. It seemed an uncommonly 
 splendid Mohurrum here also. Mr. H., an assistant judge 
 lately appointed to Patna, joined the procession in a 
 
222 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Hindustani dress, and . went about beating his breast, etc. 
 This is a place remarkable for such folly. The old judge, 
 you know, has built a mosque here, and the other judge 
 issued an order that no marriage nor any feasting should 
 be held during the season of Mohammedan grief. A 
 remarkably sensible young man called on me yesterday 
 with the Colonel ; they botri seem well disposed to religion. 
 I receive many gratifying testimonies to the change 
 apparently taking place among the English in religious 
 matters in India ; testimonies, I mean, from the mouths 
 of the people, for I confess I do not observe much 
 myself. 
 
 Having translated the Church Service into Hindu- 
 stani, Henry Martyn was ready publicly to minister to the 
 native women belonging to the soldiers of the Company's 
 European regiment. From such unions, rarely lawful, 
 sprang the now great and important Eurasian community, 
 many of whom have done good service to the Church and 
 the Empire. ' The Colonel approved, but told me that it 
 was my business to find them an order, and not his.' 
 
 1807, March 23. So I issued my command to the 
 Sergeant-Major to give public notice in the barracks that 
 there would be Divine service in the native language on the 
 morrow. The morrow came, and the Lord sent 200 women, 
 to whom I read the whole of the morning service. Instead 
 of the lessons I began Matthew, and ventured to expound 
 a little, and but a little. Yesterday we had a service 
 again, but I think there were not more than 100. To 
 these I opened my mouth rather more boldly, and though 
 there was the appearance of lamentable apathy in the 
 countenances of most of them, there were two or three 
 who understood and trembled at the sermon of John the 
 Baptist. This proceeding of mine is, I believe, generally 
 approved among the English, but the women come, I fear, 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 223 
 
 rather because it is the wish of their masters. The day 
 after attending service they went in flocks to the Mohur- 
 rum, and even of those who are baptized, many, I am told, 
 are so addicted to their old heathenism, that they obtain 
 money from their husbands to give to the Brahmins. Our 
 time of Divine service in English is seven in the morning, 
 and in Hindustani two in the afternoon. May the Lord 
 smile on this first attempt at ministration in the native 
 language ! 
 
 1807, March 23. A few days ago I went to Bankipore 
 to fulfil my promise of visiting the families there ; and 
 amongst the rest called on a poor creature whose black 
 wife has made him apostatise to Mohammedanism and 
 build a mosque. Major Young went with me, and the old 
 man's son-in-law was there. He would not address a 
 single word to me, nor a salutation at parting, because I 
 found an occasion to remind him that the Son of God had 
 suffered in the stead of sinners. The same day I went on 
 to Patna to see how matters stood with respect to the 
 school. Its situation is highly favourable, near an old gate 
 now in the midst of the city, and where three ways meet ; 
 neither master nor children were there. The people 
 imm t'.ately gathered round me in great numbers, and the 
 crowd thickened so fast, that it was with difficulty I could 
 regain my palanquin. I told them that what they under- 
 stood by making people Christians was not my intention ; 
 I wished the children to be taught to fear God and become 
 good men, and that if, after this declaration, they were still 
 afraid, I could do no more ; the fault was not mine, but 
 theirs. My schools have been heard of among the English 
 sooner than I wished or expected. The General observed 
 to me one morning that that school of mine made a very 
 good appearance from the road ; ' but,' said he, ' you will 
 make no proselytes.' If that be all the opposition he 
 makes, I shall not much mind. 
 
224 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 A week later he wrote : 
 
 March 30. Sick in body, but rather serious and humble 
 in spirit, and so happy ; corrected the Parables for a fair 
 copy. Reading the Koran and Hindustani Ramayuna, 
 and translating Revelation ; a German sergeant came with 
 his native woman to have .her baptized ; I talked with her 
 a good while, in order to instruct her, and found her extra- 
 ordinarily quick in comprehension. 
 
 April i. The native woman came again, and I passed 
 a great deal of time in instructing her in the nature of the 
 Gospel ; but, alas ! till the Lord touch her heart, what can 
 a man do ? At night the soldiers came, and we had again 
 a very happy time ; how graciously the Lord fulfils His 
 promise of being where two or three are gathered together ! 
 The pious soldier grows in faith and love, and spoke of 
 another who wants to join us. They said that the native 
 women accounted it a great honour to be permitted to 
 come to a church and hear the Word of God, and wondered 
 why I should take such trouble for them. 
 
 ' How shall it ever be possible to convince a Hindu or 
 Brahmin of anything ? ' wrote Henry Martyn to Corrie 
 after two years' experience in Bengal. 
 
 1 808, January 4. Truly, if ever I see a Hindu a real 
 believer in Jesus, I shall see something more nearly 
 approaching the resurrection of a dead body than any- 
 thing I have yet seen. However, I well remember Mr. 
 Ward's words, ' The common people are angels compared 
 with the Brahmins.' Perhaps the strong man armed, that 
 keeps the goods in peace, shall be dispossessed from these, 
 when the mighty Word of God comes to be ministered 
 by us. 
 
 * We shall live to see better days.' For these he pre- 
 pared his translations of -the Word of God. He wished to 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 225 
 
 itinerate among the people, but his military duties kept 
 him to the station. When Mr. Brown made another 
 attempt to get him fixed in the Mission-Church he replied, 
 ' The evangelisation of India is a more important object 
 than preaching to the European inhabitants of Calcutta.' 
 To Corrie he wrote : * Those sequestered valleys seen from 
 Chunar present an inviting field for missionary labours. 
 A Sikh, making a pilgrimage to Benares, came to me ; he 
 was very ignorant, and I do not know whether he under- 
 stood what I endeavoured to show him about the folly of 
 pilgrimages, the nature of true holiness, and the plan of 
 the Gospel.' 
 
 1 808, February 1 2. Sabat describes so well the charac- 
 ter of a missionary that I am ashamed of my great house, 
 and mean to sell it the first opportunity, and take the 
 smallest quarters I can find. Would that the day were 
 come when I might throw off the coat and substitute the 
 jamer ; I long for it more and more ; and am often very 
 uneasy at being in the neighbourhood of so great a Nineveh 
 without being able to do anything immediately for the 
 salvation of so many perishing souls. What do you think 
 of my standing under a shed somewhere in Patna as the 
 missionaries did in the Lai Bazar ? Will the Government 
 interfere ? What are your sensations on the late news ? 
 I fear the judgments of God on our proud nation, and that, 
 as we have done nothing for the Gospel in India, this vine- 
 yard will be let out to others who shall bring the fruits of 
 it in their season. I think the French would not treat 
 Juggernaut with quite so much ceremony as we do. 
 
 Above all men in India, at that time and during the 
 next half-century, however, Henry Martyn was a mission- 
 ary to the Mohammedans. For them he learned and he 
 translated Hindustani, Persian, and Arabic. With their 
 
 Q 
 
225 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 moulvies he conducted controversies ; and for years he 
 associated with himself that extraordinary Arab, Sabat, 
 who made life a burden to him. 
 
 Sabat and Abdallah, two Arabs of notable pedigree, 
 becoming friends, resolved to travel together. After a 
 visit to Mecca they went to Cabul, where Abdallah entered 
 the service of Zeman Shah, the famous Ameer. There an 
 Armenian lent him the Arabic Bible, he became a Christian, 
 and he fled for his life to Bokhara. Sabat had preceded him 
 there, and at once recognised him on the street. ' I had 
 no pity/ said Sabat afterwards. ' I delivered him up to 
 Morad Shah, the king.' He was offered his life if he would 
 abjure Christ. He refused. Then one of his hands was 
 cut off, and again he was pressed to recant. ' He made no 
 answer, but looked up steadfastly towards heaven, like 
 Stephen, the first martyr, his eyes streaming with tears. 
 He looked at me, but it was with the countenance of for- 
 giveness. His other hand was then cut off. But he never 
 changed, and when he bowed his head to receive the blow 
 of death all Bokhara seemed to say, " What new thing is 
 this ? " ' 
 
 Remorse drove Sabat to long wanderings, in which he 
 came to Madras, where the Government gave him the 
 office of mufti, or expounder of the law of Islam in the 
 civil courts. At Vizagapatam he fell in with a copy of the 
 Arabic New Testament as revised by Solomon Negri, and 
 sent out to India by the Society for Promoting Christian 
 Knowledge in the middle of last century. He compared 
 it with the Koran, the truth fell on him ' like a flood of 
 light,' and he sought baptism in Madras at the hands of 
 the Rev. Dr. Kerr. He was named Nathaniel. He was 
 then twenty-seven years of age. 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 227 
 
 When the news reached his family in Arabia his 
 brother set out to destroy him, and, disguised as an 
 Asiatic, wounded him with a dagger as he sat in his house 
 at Vizagapatam. He sent him home with letters and gifts 
 to his mother, and then gave himself up to propagate the 
 truth he had once, in his friend Abdallah's person, perse- 
 cuted to the death. He became one of the translating 
 staff of the Serampore brotherhood, and did good service 
 on the Arabic and Persian Scriptures. Mr. John Marshman, 
 who knew him well, used to describe him as a man of lofty 
 station, of haughty carriage, and with a flowing black 
 beard. Delighted with the simple life and devotion of 
 the missionaries, he dismissed his two Arab servants, and 
 won the affection of all. When Serampore arranged to 
 leave to Henry Martyn the Persian translation of the 
 New Testament, Sabat left them with tears in his eyes 
 for Dinapore. In almost nothing does the saintliness of 
 Martyn appear so complete as in the references in his 
 Journal to the pride, the vanity, the malice, the rage of this 
 * artless child of the desert/ when it became apparent that 
 his knowledge of Persian and Arabic had been over-esti- 
 mated. The passages are pathetic, and are equalled only 
 by those which, in the closing days of his life, describe the 
 dying missionary's treatment by his Tartar escort. But to 
 the last, Sabat, according to Colonel Maclnnes of Penang, 1 
 ' never spoke of Mr. Martyn without the most profound 
 respect, and shed tears of grief whenever he recalled how 
 severely he had tried the patience of this faithful servant 
 of God. He mentioned several anecdotes to show with 
 what extraordinary sweetness Martyn had borne his 
 
 1 Memoir of the Rev. Thomas T/wmason, M.A., by Rev. J. Sargent, M.A., 
 2nd edition, 1834, London, 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 numerous provocations. " He was less a man," he said, 
 " than an angel from heaven." ' 
 
 The rest of Sabat's story may at once be told. Moved 
 by rage at the exposure, by the Calcutta moonshis, of the 
 incorrectness of his Arabic, and at the suspicions that his 
 translations were copies 'from some old version, Sabat 
 apostatised by publishing a virulent attack on Christianity. 
 ' As when Judas acted the traitor, Ananias the liar, and 
 Simon Magus the refined hypocrite, so it was when Sabat 
 daringly departed from the nominal profession of the truth. 
 The righteous sorrowed, the unrighteous triumphed ; yet 
 wisdom was justified of her children,' wrote Mr. Sargent. 
 He left Calcutta as a trader for Penang, where he wrote to 
 the local newspaper declaring that he professed Christianity 
 anew, and he entered the service of the fugitive Sultan of 
 Acheen, on the north of Sumatra. Thence, when he was 
 imprisoned by the insurgents, he wrote letters with his own 
 blood to the Penang authorities, declaring that he was in 
 some sense a martyr for Christ. All the private efforts of 
 Colonel Maclnnes to obtain his freedom were in vain ; he 
 was tied up in a sack and thrown into the sea. In the 
 light of these events we must now read Henry Martyn's 
 Journal : 
 
 1807, August 24. To live without sin is what I cannot 
 expect in this world, but to desire to live without it may 
 be the experience of every hour. Thinking to-night of 
 the qualifications of Sabat, I felt the conviction, both in 
 reflection and prayer, of the power of God to make him 
 another St. Paul. 
 
 November 10. The very first day we began to spar. 
 He would come into none of my plans, nor did I approve 
 of his ; but I gave way, and by yielding prevailed, for he 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 229 
 
 now does everything I tell him. . . . Sabat lives and eats 
 with me, and goes to his bungalow at night, so that I hope 
 he has no care on his mind. On Sunday morning he went 
 to church with me. While I was in the vestry a bearer 
 took away his chair from him, saying it was another 
 gentleman's. The Arab took fire and left the church, and 
 when I sent the clerk after him he would not return. He 
 anticipated my expostulations after church, and began to 
 lament that he had two dispositions, one old, the other 
 new. 
 
 1808, January 1 1. Sabat sometimes awakes some of the 
 evil parts of my nature. Finding I have no book of Logic, 
 he wishes to translate one of his compositions, to instruct me 
 in that science. He is much given to contradict, and set 
 people right, and that he does with an air so dogmatical, 
 that I have not seen the like of it since I left Cambridge. 
 He looks on the missionaries at Serampore as so many 
 degrees below him in intellect, that he says he could write 
 so deeply on a text, that not one of them would be able to 
 follow him. So I have challenged him in their name, and 
 to-day he has brought me the first half of his essay or 
 sermon on a text : with some ingenuity, it has the most 
 idle display of school-boy pedantic logic you ever saw. I 
 shall translate it from the Persian, in order to assist him to 
 rectify his errors. He is certainly learned in the learning 
 of the Arabs, and how he has acquired so much in a life so 
 active is strange, but I wish it could be made to sit a little 
 easier on him. I look forward to St. Paul's Epistles, in 
 hopes some good will come to him from them. It is a 
 very happy circumstance that he did not go to preach at 
 his first conversion ; he would have entangled himself in 
 metaphysical subjects out of his depth, and probably made 
 shipwreck of his own faith. I have, I think, led him to 
 see that it is dangerous and foolish to attempt to prove the 
 doctrine of the Trinity by reason, as he said at first he was 
 perfectly able to do. 
 
230 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 January 30. Sabat to-day finishes St. Matthew, and 
 will write to you on the occasion. Your letter to him was 
 very kind and suitable, but I think you must not mention 
 his logic to him, except with contempt ; for he takes what 
 you say on that head as homage due to his acquirements, 
 and praise to him is brandy to a man in a high fever. He 
 loves as a Christian brothe'r ; but as a logician he holds us 
 all in supreme contempt. He assumes all the province of 
 reasoning as his own by right, and decides every question 
 magisterially. He allows Europeans to know a little 
 about Arithmetic and Navigation, but nothing more. 
 Dear man ! I smile to observe his pedantry. Never have 
 I seen such an instance of dogmatical pride since I heard 
 Dr. Parr preach his Greek Sermon at St. Mary's, about 
 the TO ov. 
 
 March 7. Mirza is gone to the Mohurrum to-day : he 
 discovers no signs of approach to the truth. Sabat creates 
 himself enemies in every quarter by his jealous and 
 passionate spirit, particularly among the servants. At his 
 request I have sent away my tailor and bearers, and he 
 is endeavouring to get my other servants turned away ; 
 because without any proof he suspects them of having 
 persuaded the bearers not to come into his service. He 
 can now get no bearers nor tailor to serve him. One day 
 this week he came to me, and said that he meant to write 
 to Mr. Brown to remove him from this place, for every- 
 thing went wrong the people were all wicked, etc. The 
 immediate cause of this vexation was that some boxes, 
 which he had been making at the expense of 150 rupees, 
 all cracked at the coming on of the hot weather. I con- 
 cealed my displeasure at his childish fickleness of temper, 
 and discovered no anxiety to retain him, but quietly told 
 him of some of the consequences of removing, so it is gone 
 out of his mind. But Mirza happened to hear all Sabat's 
 querulous harangue, and, in order to vex and disgust him 
 effectually, rode almost into his house, and came in with 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 231 
 
 his shoes. This irritated the Arab ; but Mirza's purpose 
 was not answered. Mirza began next day to tell a parcel 
 of lies about Sabat, and to bring proofs of his own learning. 
 The manifest tendency of all this was to make a division 
 between Sabat and me, and to obtain his salary and work 
 for himself. Oh, the hypocrisy and wickedness of an 
 Indian ! I never saw a more remarkable contrast in two 
 men than in Mirza and Sabat. One is all exterior the 
 other has no outside at all ; one a most consummate man 
 of the world the other an artless child of the desert. 
 
 March 28. Sabat has been tolerably quiet this week ; 
 but think of the keeper of a lunatic, and you see me. A 
 war of words broke out the beginning of last week, but it 
 ended in an honourable peace. After he got home at night 
 he sent a letter, complaining of a high crime and mis- 
 demeanour in some servant ; I sent him a soothing letter, 
 and the wild beast fell asleep. In all these altercations we 
 take occasion to consider the extent of Christian forbear- 
 ance, as necessary to be exercised in all the smaller 
 occasions of life, as well as when persecution comes for 
 religion. This he has not been hitherto aware of. One 
 night in prayer I forgot to mention Mr. Brown : so, after I 
 had done, he continued on his knees and went on and 
 prayed in Persian for him. I was much pleased at this. 
 
 Did you read Lord Minto's speech, and his commenda- 
 tion of those learned and pious men, the missionaries ? I 
 have looked upon him ever since as a nursing-father to the 
 Church. 
 
 April 1 1. It is surprising that a man can be so blinded 
 by vanity as to suppose, as Sabat does, that he is superior to 
 Mirza in Hindustani ; yet this he does, and maintains it 
 stoutly. I am tired of combating this opinion, as nothing 
 comes of our arguments but strifes. Another of his odd 
 opinions is, that he is so under the immediate influence 
 and direction of the Spirit, that there will not be one single 
 error in his whole Persian translation. You perceive a little 
 
232 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 enthusiasm in the character of our brother. As often as 
 he finds himself in any difficulty, he expects a dream to set 
 him right. 
 
 April 26. These Orientals with whom I translate re- 
 quire me to point out the connection between every two 
 sentences, which is often more than I can do. It is 
 curious how accurately they observe all the rules of writing, 
 and yet generally write badly. I can only account for it 
 by supposing that they have been writing too long. From 
 time immemorial they have been authors, without pro- 
 gressive knowledge ; and so to produce variety they supply 
 their lack of knowledge by overstraining their imagination ; 
 hence their extravagant metaphors and affected way of 
 expressing the commonest things. Sabat, though a real 
 Christian, has not lost a jot of his Arabian pride. He looks 
 upon the Europeans as mushrooms, and seems to regard 
 my pretensions to any learning as we do those of a savage 
 or an ape. 
 
 May 31. Some days Sabat overworked himself and 
 was laid up. He does his utmost. He is increasingly 
 dear to me, as I see more of the meekness and gentleness 
 of Christ in him. Our conflicts I hope are over, and we 
 shall draw very quietly together side by side. 
 
 In all this, and much more that followed, or is un- 
 recorded, Henry Martyn was being prepared unconsciously 
 for his formal and unanswered controversies with the 
 learned Mussulmans of Persia. His letters to Corrie tell 
 of his farther experience with his' moonshis and the 
 moulvies of Patna, and describe the true spirit of such 
 ' disputings ' for the truth. 
 
 1807, April 28. Of what importance is our walk in 
 reference to our ministry, and particularly among the 
 natives. For myself, I never enter into a dispute with 
 them without having reason to reflect that I mar the work 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 233 
 
 for which I contend by the spirit in which I do it. During 
 my absence at Monghyr moonshi went to a learned 
 native for assistance against an answer I had given him to 
 their main argument for the Koran, and he not being able 
 to render it, they mean to have down their leading man 
 from Benares to convince me of the truth of their religion. 
 I wish a 'spirit of inquiry may be excited, but I lay not 
 much stress upon clear arguments ; the work of God is 
 seldom wrought in this way. To preach the Gospel, with 
 the Holy Ghost sent down from heaven, is a better way to 
 win souls. 
 
 May 4. I am preparing for the assault of this great 
 Mohammedan Imaum. I have read the Koran and notes 
 twice for this purpose, and even filled whole sheets with 
 objections, remarks, questions, etc. ; but, alas ! what little 
 hopes have I of doing him or any of them good in this way ! 
 Moonshi is in general mute. 
 
 October 28. At night, in a conversation with Mirza 
 accidentally begun, I spoke to him for more than three 
 hours on Christianity and Mohammedanism. He said 
 there was no passage in the Gospel that said no prophet 
 shall come after Christ I showed him the last verse in 
 Matthew, the passages in Isaiah and Daniel, on the eternity 
 of Christ's kingdom, and proved it from the nature of the 
 way of salvation in the Gospel. I then told him my objec- 
 tions against Mohammedanism, its laws, its defects, its 
 unnecessariness, the unsuitableness of its rewards, and its 
 utter want of support by proof. When he began to 
 mention Mahomet's miracles, I showed him the passages 
 in the 6th and I3th chapters of the Koran, where he 
 disavows the power. Nothing surprised him so much as 
 these passages ; he is, poor man, totally indifferent about 
 all religion ; he told me that I had produced great doubt 
 in his mind, and that he had no answer to give. 
 
 November 21. My mind violently occupied with 
 thoughts respecting the approaching spread of the Gospel, 
 
234 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 and my own going to Persia. Sabat's conversation stirs 
 up a great desire in me to go ; as by his account all the 
 Mahometan countries are ripe for throwing off the delusion. 
 The gracious Lord will teach me, and make my way plain 
 before my face. Oh, may He keep my soul in peace, and 
 make it indifferent to me whether I die or live, so Christ 
 be magnified by me. I *have need to receive this spirit 
 from Him, for I feel at present unwilling to die, as if my 
 own life and labours were necessary for this work, or as if 
 I should be deprived of the bliss of seeing the conversion 
 of the nations. Vain thought ! God, who keeps me here 
 awhile, arranges every part of His plans in unerring wis- 
 dom, and if I should be cut off in the midst of my plans, I 
 shall still, I trust, through mercy, behold His works in 
 heaven, and be everlastingly happy in the never-ceasing 
 admiration of His works and nature. Every day the dis- 
 putes with Mirza and Moorad Ali become more interesting. 
 Their doubts of Mahometanism seem to have amounted 
 almost to disbelief. Moorad Ali confessed that they all 
 received their religion, not on conviction, but because it 
 was the way of their fathers ; and he said with great 
 earnestness, that if some great Sheikh-ool-Islam, whom he 
 mentioned, could not give an answer, and a satisfactory, 
 rational evidence, of the truth of Islamism, he would 
 renounce it and be baptized. Mirza seemed still more 
 anxious and interested, and speaks of it to me and Sabat 
 continually. In translating I Timothy i. 15, I said to 
 them, * You have in that verse heard the Gospel ; your blood 
 will not be required at my hands ; you will certainly 
 remember these words at the last day.' This led to a long 
 discussion, at the close of which, when I said that, notwith- 
 standing their endeavours to identify the two religions, there 
 is still so much difference ' that if our word is true you are 
 lost/ they looked at each other almost with consternation, and 
 said ' It is true.' Still the Trinity and the incarnation of 
 Crhist afford a plea to the one, and a difficulty to the other. 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 235 
 
 At another time, when I had, from some passage, 
 hinted to Mirza his danger, he said with great earnestness, 
 ' Sir, why won't you try to save me ? ' ' Save you ? ' said I, 
 ' I would lay down my life to save your soul : what can I 
 do ? ' He wished me to go to Phoolwari, the Mussulman 
 college, and there examine the subject with the most 
 learned of their doctors. I told him I had no objection 
 to go to Phoolwari, but why could not he as well in- 
 quire for himself whether there were any evidence for 
 Mohammedanism ? 
 
 1808, June 14. Called on Bahir Ali Khan, Dare, and 
 the Italian padre ; with Bahir Ali I stayed two hours, con- 
 versing in Persian. He began our theological discussion 
 with a question to me, * How do you reconcile God's absolute 
 power and man's free will ? ' I pleaded ignorance and in- 
 ability, but he replied to his own question very fully, and 
 his conclusion seemed to be that God had created evil 
 things for the trial of His creatures. His whole manner, 
 look, authority, and copiousness constantly reminded me 
 of the Dean of Carlisle. 1 I asked him for the proofs of 
 the religion of Mahomet. The first he urged was the 
 eloquence of the Koran. After a long time he conceded 
 that it was, of itself, an insufficient argument I then 
 brought forward a passage of the Koran containing a sen- 
 timent manifestly false ; on which he floundered a good 
 deal ; but concluded with saying that I must wait till I 
 knew more of logic and Persian before he could explain 
 it to me satisfactorily. On the whole, I was exceedingly 
 pleased with his candour, politeness, and good sense. He 
 said he had nothing to lose by becoming a Christian, and 
 that, if he were once persuaded of the truth, he would 
 change without hesitation. He showed me an Arabic 
 translation of Euclid. 
 
 June 15. Read an account of Turkey. The bad 
 
 1 Rev. Dr. Milner. 
 
236 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 effects of the book were so great that I found instant need 
 of prayer, and I do not know when I have had such divine 
 and animating feelings. Oh, it is Thy Spirit that makes 
 me pant for the skies. It is He that shall make me trample 
 the world and my lusts beneath my feet, and urge my on- 
 ward course towards the crown of life. 
 
 December 5. Went tb Patna to Sabat, and saw several 
 Persians and Arabians. I found that the intended dispute 
 had come to nothing, for that Ali had told Sabat he had 
 been advised by his father not to dispute with him. They 
 behaved with the utmost incivility to him, not giving him 
 a place to sit down, and desiring him at last to go. Sabat 
 rose, and shook his garment against them, and said, ' If you 
 know Mohammedanism to be right, and will not try to con- 
 vince me, you will have to answer for it at the day of judg- 
 ment. I have explained to you the Gospel ; I am therefore 
 pure from your blood.' He came home and wrote some 
 poetry on the Trinity, and the Apostles, which he recited 
 to me. We called on Mizra Mehdi, a jeweller, who showed 
 us some diamonds, emeralds, and rubies. With an old 
 Arabian there I tried to converse in Arabic. He under- 
 stood my Arabic, but I could not understand his. They 
 were all full of my praise, but then the pity was that I was 
 a Christian. I challenged them to show what there was 
 wrong in being a Nazarene, but they declined. After- 
 wards we called on the nabob Moozuffur Ali Khan. The 
 house Sabat lived in was properly an Oriental one ; and, as 
 he said, like those in Syria. It reminded me often of the 
 Apostles, and the recollection was often solemnising. 
 
 December 6 to 8. Betrayed more than once into evil 
 temper, which left dreadful remorse of conscience ; I cried 
 unto God in secret, but the sense of my sinfulness was over- 
 whelming. It had a humbling effect, however. In prayer 
 with my men I was led more unfeignedly to humble 
 myself even to the dust, and after that I enjoyed, through 
 the sovereign mercy of God, much peace, and a sense of His 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 237 
 
 presence. Languid in my studies ; indisposition causing 
 sleepiness. Reading chiefly Persian and a little Greek : 
 Hanway, Waring, and Franklin's Travels into Persia. 
 Haji Khan, a sensible old man from Patna, called two 
 days following, and sat a long time conversing upon 
 religion. 
 
 To MRS. DARE, GAYA 
 
 Dinapore : May 19, 1808. 
 
 Dear Mrs. Dare, 1 Your letter arrived just in time to save 
 you from some severe animadversions that were preparing 
 for you. I intended to have sent by your young friend 
 some remarks, direct and oblique, on the variableness of 
 the sex, the facility with which promises are made and 
 broken, the pleasures of indolence, and other topics of the 
 like nature, but your kind epistle disarms me. Soon after 
 you left us, the heat increased to a degree I had never 
 before felt, and made me often think of you with concern. 
 I used to say to Colonel Bradshaw, ' I wonder how Mrs. 
 Dare likes Gya, and its burning hills I dare say she 
 would be glad to be back again.' Well, I should be 
 glad if we had you here again. I want female society, 
 and among the ladies of Dinapore there is none with whom 
 I have a chance of obtaining a patient hearing when 
 speaking to them on the subject of their most important 
 interest. This, you know, is the state of all but Mrs. 
 Stuart, and it is a state of danger and death. Follow them 
 no more, my dear friend : but now, in the solitude of Gya, 
 learn those lessons of heavenly wisdom, that, when you are 
 brought again into a larger society, you may not yield to 
 the impulse of doing as others do, but, by a life of true 
 seriousness, put them to shame. 
 
 I go on much as usual, occupied all day, and laying a 
 
 1 The names of Capt. Dare and Mrs. Dare occur in the Journals and 
 Letters between February 17 and March 24, 1808, wherein Martyn's relations 
 with them are described just as in this set of letters, 
 
238 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 weary head on the pillow at night. My health, which 
 you inquire after so kindly, is on the whole good ; but 
 I am daily reminded that it is a fragile frame I carry 
 about. 
 
 August 23. I rejoice to find by your letter that you 
 are contented with your lot. Before the time of Horace, 
 and since too, contentment has been observed to be a very 
 rare thing on earth, and I know not how it is to be obtained 
 but by learning in the school of the Gospel. ' I have learned] 
 said even St. Paul, ' in whatsoever state I am, therewith to 
 be content.' To be a little slanderous for once, I suspect 
 Colonel Bradshaw, our common friend, who will send you 
 a letter by the same sepoy, must have a lecture or two 
 more read to him in this science, as he is far from being 
 perfect in it. He has, you know, all that heart can wish 
 of this world's goods, and yet he is restless ; sometimes the 
 society is dull ; at other times the blame is laid on the 
 quarters, and he must go out of cantonments. To-day he 
 is going to Gya, to-morrow on the river. Now, I tell him 
 that he need not change his place, but his heart. Let him 
 seek his happiness in God, and he will carry about a para- 
 dise in his own bosom. The wilderness and the solitary 
 place shall be glad for him, and tJie desert shall rejoice and 
 blossom as the rose. 
 
 September 23. My dear Mrs. Dare, attend to the call 
 of God ; He never speaks more to the heart than by 
 affliction. Such a season as this, so favourable to the 
 commencement of true piety, may never again occur. 
 Hereafter time may have riveted worldly habits on you, 
 and age rendered the heart insensible. Begin now to be 
 melancholy ? No to be seriously happy, to be purely 
 happy, everlastingly happy. 
 
 Ever, through the solitude, the suffering, and the toiling 
 of the first twelve months at Dinapore, the thought of 
 Lydia Grenfell, the hope "of her union to him, and her help 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 239 
 
 in his agonising for India, runs like a chord of sad music. 
 He thus writes to his cousin, her sister : 
 
 Indeed, all my Europe letters this season have 
 brought me such painful news that I almost dread receiving 
 another. Such is the vanity of our expectations. I had 
 been looking out with more than ordinary anxiety for 
 these letters, thinking they would give me some account 
 of Lydia's coming whereas yours and hers have only 
 wounded me, and my sister's, 1 giving me the distressing 
 tidings of her ill-health, makes my heart bleed. Oh, it is 
 now that I feel the agony of having half the globe inter- 
 vening between us. Could I but be with her : yet God 
 who heareth prayer will surely supply my place. From 
 Sally I expect neither promptness nor the ability to console 
 her sister. This is the first time Sally has taken up her 
 pen to write to me, and thought an apology necessary for 
 her neglect. Perhaps she has been wrapt up in her dear 
 husband, or her dearer self. I feel very angry with her. 
 But my dear faithful Lydia has more than compen- 
 sated for all the neglect of my own relations. I believe 
 she has sent me more than all the rest in England put 
 together. If I had not loved her before, her affectionate 
 and constant remembrance of me would win my heart. 
 
 You mention the name of your last little one (may she 
 be a follower of her namesake !). It reminds me of what 
 Mr. Brown has lately written to me. He says that Mrs. 
 B. had determined her expected one should be called after 
 me : but, as it proved to be a girl, it was called Lydia 
 Martyn Brown, a combination that suggests many re- 
 flections to my mind. 
 
 And now I ought to begin to write about myself and 
 India : but I fear you are not so interested about me as 
 you used to be : yet the Church of God, I know, is dear to 
 you always ! Let me speak of the ministers. The Gospel 
 
 1 Mrs. Laura Curgenven : born January 1779, died in the year 1807. 
 
240 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 was preached before the Governor-General by seven different 
 evangelical chaplains in the course of six months. Of 
 these five have associated, agreeing to communicate with 
 each other quarterly reports of their proceedings. They 
 are Mr. Brown at Calcutta, Thompson at Cuddalore, 
 Parson at Berhampore, Corrie at Chunar, and myself here. 
 Corrie and myself, as ' being most similarly employed, 
 correspond every week. He gives all his attention to the 
 languages, and has his heart wholly towards the heathen. 
 He has set on foot four schools in his neighbourhood, and 
 I four here along the banks of the Ganges, containing 120 
 boys : he has nearly the same number. The masters are 
 heathens but they have consented with some reluctance 
 to admit the Christian books. The little book on the 
 Parables in the dialect of Bihar, which I had prepared for 
 them, is now in the press at Serampore ; for the present, 
 they read with their own books the Sermon on the 
 Mount. We hope by the help of God to enlarge the plan 
 of the schools very considerably, as soon as we have felt 
 the ground, and can advance boldly. 
 
 Respecting my own immediate plans, I am rather in 
 the dark. They wish to engage me as a translator of the 
 Scriptures into Hindustani and Persian, by the help of 
 some learned natives ; and if this plan is settled at Calcutta, 
 I shall engage in it without hesitation, as conceiving it to 
 be the most useful way in which I can be employed at 
 present in the Church of God. If not, I hope to begin to 
 itinerate as soon as the rains are over ; not that I can hope 
 to be easily understood yet, but by mixing familiarly with 
 the natives I should soon learn. Little permanent good, 
 however, can be done till some of the Scriptures can be put 
 into their hands. On this account I wish to help forward 
 this work as quick as possible, because a chapter will speak 
 plainly in a thousand places at once, while I can speak, 
 and not very plainly, but in one. One advantage attending 
 the delay of public preaching will be that the schools will 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 241 
 
 have a fair run, for the commencement of preaching will be 
 the downfall of the schools. I have my tent ready, and 
 would set out with pleasure to-morrow if the time for this 
 work were come. As there is public service here every 
 Lord's Day, three days' journey is the longest I can take. 
 This may hereafter prove an inconvenience : but the ad- 
 vantages of being a Company's servant are incalculable. 
 A missionary not in the service is liable to be stopped by 
 every subaltern ; but there is no man that can touch me. 
 Amongst the Europeans at this station I am not without 
 encouragement. Eight or ten, chiefly corporals or sergeants, 
 come to my quarters Sunday and Wednesday nights for 
 social worship : but it does not appear that more than one 
 are truly converted. The commanding officer of the native 
 battalion and his lady, whom I mentioned in my last, are, 
 I think; increasingly serious but the fear of man is their 
 snare. Mrs. Young says that, with Lydia to support her, 
 she could face the frown of the world. I had been looking 
 forward with pleasure to the time when she would 'have such 
 support, and rejoiced that Lydia would have so sensible 
 and hopeful a companion. 
 
 Dinapore : December, 1807. 
 
 My dear Cousin, Your letter, after so long a silence, 
 was a great relief to me, as it assured me of your un- 
 diminished affection ; but I regretted you had been so 
 sparing in your consolations on the subject of my late 
 disappointment. Remember, it was to you I used to 
 unbosom all my anxieties, and I still look to you for that 
 sympathising tenderness which no other person perhaps 
 feels for me, or at least can venture to express. How 
 every particular of our conversation in the journey from 
 Redruth to Plymouth Dock returns to my mind ! I have 
 reason indeed to remember it from that time I date my 
 sorrows we talked too much about Lydia. Her last 
 letter was to bid me a final farewell, so I must not write 
 
 R 
 
242 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 to her without her permission ; she wished she might hear 
 by you that I was happy. I am therefore obliged to say 
 that God has, according to her prayer, kept me in peace, 
 and indeed strengthened me unto all patience and long- 
 suffering with joyfulness. At first, like Jonah, I was more 
 grieved at the loss of my gourd than at the sight of the 
 many perishing Ninevens all round me ; but now my 
 earthly woes and earthly attachments seem to be absorbing 
 in the vast concern of communicating the Gospel to these 
 nations. After this last lesson from God on the vanity of 
 creature love, I feel desirous to be nothing, to have nothing, 
 to ask for nothing, but what He gives. So remarkably and 
 so repeatedly has He baffled my schemes of earthly 
 comfort that I am forced at last to believe His de- 
 termination to be, that I should live in every sense a 
 stranger and pilgrim on the earth. Lydia allows me not 
 the most distant prospect of ever seeing her ; and if indeed 
 the supposed indelicacy of her coming out to me is an 
 obstacle that cannot be got over, it is likely indeed to be a 
 lasting separation : for when shall I ever see it lawful to 
 leave my work here for three years, when every hour is 
 unspeakably precious ? I am beginning therefore to form 
 my plans as a person in a state of celibacy, and mean to 
 trouble you no more on what I have been lately writing 
 about so much. However, let me be allowed to make one 
 request ; it is that Lydia would at least consider me as she 
 did before, and write as at that time. Perhaps there may 
 be some objection to this request, and therefore I dare not 
 urge it. I say only that by experience I know it will 
 prove an inestimable blessing and comfort to me. If you 
 really wish to have a detailed account of my proceedings, 
 exert your influence in effecting this measure ; for you 
 may be sure that I shall be disposed to write to her letters 
 long enough, longer than to any other, for this reason 
 among others, that of the three in the world who have 
 most love for me, i.e Sally, Lydia, and yourself, I believe 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 243 
 
 that, notwithstanding all that has happened, the middle 
 one loves most truly. If this conjecture of mine is well- 
 founded, she will be most interested in what befalls me, 
 and I shall write in less fear of tiring. My bodily health, 
 which you require me always to mention, is prodigious, my 
 strength and spirits are in general greater than ever they 
 were, and this under God I ascribe to the susceptibility of 
 my frame, giving me instant warning of anything that may 
 disorder it. Half-an-hour's exposure to the sun produces 
 an immediate overflow of bile : therefore I take care never 
 to let the sun's rays fall upon my body. Vexation or 
 anxiety has the same effect. For this, faith and prayer 
 for the peace of God are the best remedy. 
 
 Since my last letter, written a few months ago in reply 
 to Cousin T., I do not recollect that anything has happened. 
 Dr. Buchanan's last publication on the Christian Institution 
 will give you the most full and interesting accounts of the 
 affairs of our Lord's kingdom in India. The press seems 
 to us all to be the great instrument at present. Preaching 
 by the European Mission here has in no instance that I 
 know of been successful. Everything in our manner, 
 pronunciation, and doctrine is so new and strange, that to 
 instruct them properly vtvd voce seems to be giving more 
 time to a small body of them than can be conveniently 
 spared from the great mass. Yet, on the other hand, I feel 
 reason to be guarded against the love of carnal ease, which 
 would make me prefer the literary work of translating to 
 that of an itinerant : upon the whole, however, I acquiesce 
 in the work that Dr. B. has assigned me, from conviction. 
 Through the blessing of God I have finished the New 
 Testament in the Perso-Arabic-Hindustani, but it must 
 undergo strict revisal before it can be sent to the press. 
 My assistants in this work were Mirza Mahommed Ali 
 and Moorad Ali, two Mahometans, and I sometimes hope 
 there are convictions in their minds which they will not 
 be able to shake off. They have not much doubt of the 
 
 R2 
 
244 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 falsehood of Mahometanism, and the truth of the Gospel, 
 but they cannot take up the cross. 
 
 The arrival of Jawad Sabat, our Arabian brother, at 
 Dinapore, had a great effect upon them. . . . He is now 
 employed in translating the New Testament into Persian 
 and Arabic, and great will be the benefit to his own soul, 
 that he is called to stucly the Word of God : the Bible 
 Society at home will, I hope, bear the expense of printing 
 it. This work, whenever it is done properly, .will be the 
 downfall of Mahometanism. What do I not owe to the 
 Lord for giving me to take part in a translation ? Never 
 did I see such wonders of wisdom and love in the blessed 
 book, as since I have been obliged to study every ex- 
 pression ; and it is often a delightful reflection, that even 
 death cannot deprive us of the privilege of studying its 
 mysteries. ... I forgot to mention Lydia's profile, which 
 I received. I have now to request her miniature picture, 
 and you must draw on Mr. Simeon, my banker, for the 
 expense. ... I need not assure you and Cousin T. of my 
 unceasing regard, nor Lydia of my unalterable attachment. 
 God bless you all, my beloved friends. Pray for me, as I 
 do also for you. Our separation will soon be over. 
 
 July 3. Received two Europe letters one from 
 Lydia, and the other from Colonel Sandys. The tender 
 emotions of love, and gratitude, and veneration for her, 
 were again powerfully awakened in my mind, so that I 
 could with difficulty think of anything else ; yet I found 
 myself drawn nearer to God by the pious remarks of her 
 letter. Nature would have desired more testimonies of 
 her love to me, but grace approved her ardent love to her 
 
 Lord. 
 
 To CHARLES SIMEON L 
 
 Danapore (sic] : January, 1808. 
 
 My dearest Friend and Brother, I must begin my letter 
 with assurances of eternal regard ; eternal will it be if I 
 
 1 See Moule's Charles Simeon, p. 201, 
 
DIN AP ORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 245 
 
 find grace to be faithful. . . . My expectation of seeing 
 Lydia here is now at an end. I cannot doubt any longer 
 what is the Divine will, and I bow to it. Since I have 
 been led to consider myself as perfectly disengaged from 
 the affairs of this life, my soul has been filled with more 
 ardent desires to spend and be spent in the service of God ; 
 and though in truth the world has now little to charm me, 
 I think these desires do not arise from a misanthropic 
 disgust to it. ... I never loved, nor ever shall love, human 
 creature as I love her. 
 
 Soon after David Brown of Calcutta wrote to Charles 
 Simeon, whom a rumour of Henry Martyn's engagement to 
 Miss Corrie, his friend's sister, had reached : ' How could you 
 imagine that Miss C. would do as well as Miss L. G. for 
 Mr. Martyn ? Dear Martyn is married already to three 
 wives, whom, I believe, he would not forsake for all the 
 princesses in the earth I mean his three translations of 
 the Holy Scriptures.' 
 
 To Mrs. Brown at Aldeen, who was his confidante in 
 India, Martyn wrote on July 21 : 
 
 It appears that the letter by the overland despatch did 
 not reach Lydia. Again, the Sarah Christiana packet, 
 which carried the duplicate, ought to have arrived long 
 before the sailing of these last ships from England, but I 
 see no account of her. It is probable, therefore, that I 
 shall have to wait a considerable time longer in uncer- 
 tainty; all which is good, because so hath the Lord ap- 
 pointed it. 
 
 July 25. Hard at Arabic grammar all day, after 
 finishing sermon. Sat in the evening a long time at my 
 door, after the great fatigue of the day, to let my mind 
 relax itself, and found a melancholy pleasure in looking 
 back upon the time spent at St. Hilary and Marazion. 
 
246 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 How the days and years are gone by, as a tale that is 
 told! 
 
 At last the blow had fallen. 
 
 October 24. An unhappy day : received at last a letter 
 from Lydia, in which she refuses to come because her 
 mother will not consent 'to it. Grief and disappointment 
 threw my soul into confusion at first, but gradually as my 
 disorder subsided my eyes were opened, and reason 
 resumed its office. I could not but agree with her that it 
 would not be for the glory of God, nor could we expect 
 His blessing, if she acted in disobedience to her mother. 
 As she has said, ' They that walk in crooked paths shall 
 not find peace ; ' and if she were to come with an uneasy 
 conscience, what happiness could we either of us expect ? 
 
 To LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 Dinapore : October 24, 1807. 
 
 My dear Lydia, Though my heart is bursting with 
 grief and disappointment, I write not to blame you. The 
 rectitude of all your conduct secures you from censure. 
 Permit me calmly to reply to your letter of March 5, which 
 I have this day received. 
 
 You condemn yourself for having given me, though 
 unintentionally, encouragement to believe that my attach- 
 ment was returned. Perhaps you have. I have read your 
 former letters with feelings less sanguine since the receipt 
 of the last, and I am still not surprised at the interpretation 
 I put upon them. But why accuse yourself for having 
 written in this strain ? It has not increased my expec- 
 tations nor consequently embittered my disappointment. 
 When I addressed you in my first letter on the subject, I 
 was not induced to it by any appearances of regard you 
 had expressed, neither at any subsequent period have my 
 hopes of your consent been founded on a belief of your 
 attachment to me. I "knew that your conduct would be 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 247 
 
 regulated, not by personal feelings, but by a sense of duty. 
 And therefore you have nothing to blame yourself for on 
 this head. 
 
 In your last letter you do not assign among your 
 reasons for refusal a want of regard to me. In that case 
 I could not in decency give you any further trouble. On 
 the contrary, you say that * present circumstances seem to 
 you to forbid my indulging expectations.' As this leaves 
 an opening, I presume to address you again ; and till the 
 answer arrives must undergo another eighteen months of 
 torturing suspense. 
 
 Alas ! my rebellious heart what a tempest agitates 
 me ! I knew not that I had made so little progress in a 
 spirit of resignation to the Divine will. I am in my 
 chastisement like a bullock unaccustomed to the yoke, 
 like a wild bull in a net, full of the fury of the Lord, the 
 rebuke of my God. The death of my late most beloved 
 sister almost broke my heart ; but I hoped it had softened 
 me and made me willing to suffer. But now my heart is 
 as though destitute of the grace of God, full of misanthropic 
 disgust with the world, and sometimes feeling resentment 
 against yourself and Emma, and Mr. Simeon, and, in short, 
 all whom I love and honour most ; sometimes, in pride 
 and anger, resolving to write neither to you nor to any one 
 else again. These are the motions of sin. My love and 
 my better reason draw me to you again. . . . But now 
 with respect to your mother, I confess that the chief and 
 indeed only difficulty lies here. Considering that she is 
 your mother, as I hoped she would be mine, and that her 
 happiness so much depends on you ; considering also that 
 I am God's minister, which amidst all the tumults of my 
 soul I dare not forget, I falter in beginning to give 
 advice which may prove contrary to the law of God. God 
 forbid, therefore, that I should say, disobey your parents, 
 where the Divine law does not command you to disobey 
 them ; neither do I positively take upon myself to say 
 
248 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 that this is a case in which the aw of God requires you to 
 act in contradiction to them. I would rather suggest to 
 your mother some considerations which justify me in at- 
 tempting to deprive her of the company of a beloved child. 
 October 26. A Sabbath having intervened since the 
 above was written, I find myself more tranquillised by the 
 sacred exercises of the day. One passage of Scripture 
 which you quote has been much on my mind, and I find it 
 very appropriate and decisive, that we are not to ' make to 
 ourselves crooked paths, which whoso walketh in shall not 
 know peace.' Let me say I must be therefore contented to 
 wait till you feel that the way is clear. But I intended to 
 justify myself to Mrs. Grenfell. Let her not suppose that I 
 would make her or any other of my fellow-creatures miser- 
 able, that I might be happy. If there were no reason for 
 your coming here, and the contest were only between Mrs. 
 Grenfell and me, that is, between her happiness and mine, 
 I would urge nothing further, but resign you to her. But 
 I have considered that there are many things that might 
 reconcile her to a separation from you (if indeed a separa- 
 tion is necessary, for if she would come along with you, I 
 should rejoice the more). First, she does not depend on 
 you alone for the comfort of her declining years. She is 
 surrounded by friends. She has a greater number of sons 
 and daughters honourably established in the world than falls 
 to the lot of most parents all of whom would be happy 
 in having her amongst them. Again, if a person worthy 
 of your hand, and settled in England, were to offer him- 
 self, Mrs. Grenfell would not have insuperable objections, 
 though it did deprive her of her daughter. Nay, I some- 
 times think, perhaps arrogantly, that had I myself remained 
 in England, and in possession of a competency, she would 
 not have withheld her consent. Why, then, should my 
 banishment from my native country, in the service of man- 
 kind, be a reason with any for inflicting an additional wound, 
 far more painful than a separation from my dearest relatives ? 
 
DIN AP ORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 249 
 
 I have no claim upon Mrs. Grenfell in any way, but let 
 her only conceive a son of her own in my circumstances. 
 If she feels it a sacrifice, let her remember that it is a 
 sacrifice made to duty ; that your presence here would be 
 of essential service to the Church of God it is superfluous 
 to attempt to prove. If you really believe of yourself as 
 you speak, it is because you were never out of England. 
 
 Your mother cannot be so misinformed respecting 
 India and the voyage to it as to be apprehensive on account 
 of the climate or passage, in these days when multitudes 
 of ladies every year, with constitutions as delicate as yours, 
 go to and fro in perfect safety, and a vastly greater majority 
 enjoy their health here than in England. With respect to 
 my means I need add nothing to what was said in my first 
 letter. But, alas ! what is my affluence good for now? It 
 never gave me pleasure but when I thought you were to 
 share it with me. Two days ago I was hastening on the 
 alterations in my house and garden, supposing you were at 
 hand ; but now every object excites disgust. My wish, 
 upon the whole, is that if you perceive it would be your 
 duty to come to India, were it not for your mother and 
 of that you cannot doubt supposing, I mean, that your 
 inclinations are indifferent, then you should make her 
 acquainted with your thoughts, and let us leave it to God 
 how He will determine her mind. 
 
 In the meantime, since I am forbidden to hope for the 
 immediate pleasure of seeing you, my next request is for a 
 mutual engagement. My own heart is engaged, I believe, 
 indissolubly. 
 
 My reason for making a request which you will account 
 bold is that there can then be no possible objection to our 
 correspondence, especially as I promise not to persuade 
 you to leave your mother. 
 
 In the midst of my present sorrow I am constrained 
 to remember yours. Your compassionate heart is pained 
 from having been the cause of suffering to me. But 
 
250 
 
 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 care not for me, dearest Lydia. Next to the bliss of 
 having you with me, my happiness is to know that you 
 are happy. I shall have to groan long, perhaps, with a 
 heavy heart ; but if I am not hindered materially by it 
 in the work of God, it will be for the benefit of my soul. 
 You, sister beloved in the Lord, know much of the benefit 
 of affliction. Oh, may F have grace to follow you, though 
 at a humble distance, in the path of patient suffering, in 
 which you have walked so long ! Day and night I cease 
 not to pray for you, though I fear my prayers are of little 
 value. 
 
 But, as an encouragement to you to pray, I cannot help 
 transcribing a few words from my journal, written at the 
 time you wrote your letter to me (March 7) : * As on the 
 two last days' (you wrote your letter on the 5th), 'felt no 
 desire for a comfortable settlement in the world, scarcely 
 pleasure at the thought of Lydia's coming, except so far as 
 her being sent might be for the good of my soul and 
 assistance in my work. How manifestly is there an omni- 
 present, all-seeing God, and how sure we may be that 
 prayers for spiritual blessings are heard by our God and 
 Father! Oh, let that endearing name quell every murmur! 
 When I am sent for to different parts of the country to 
 officiate at marriages, I sometimes think, amidst the 
 festivity of the company, Why does all go so easily with 
 them, and so hardly with me ? They come together with- 
 out difficulty, and I am baulked and disconcerted almost 
 every step I take, and condemned to wear away the time 
 in uncertainty. Then I call to mind that to live without 
 chastening is allowed to the spurious offspring, while to 
 suffer is the privilege of the children of God.' 
 
 Dearest Lydia, must I conclude ? I could prolong my 
 communion with you through many sheets ; how many 
 things have I to say to you, which I hoped to have com- 
 municated in person. But the more I write and the more 
 I think of you, the more my affection warms, and I should 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 251 
 
 feel it difficult to keep my pen from expressions that might 
 not be acceptable to you. 
 
 Farewell ! dearest, most beloved Lydia, remember your 
 faithful and ever affectionate, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 October 25. (Sunday.) Preached on Isaiah lii. 13 to a 
 large congregation, my mind continually in heaviness, and 
 my health disturbed in consequence. The women still 
 fewer than ever at 'Hindustani prayer, and, at night, some 
 of the men who were not on duty did not come ; all these 
 things are deeply afflicting, and yet my heart is so full of 
 its own griefs, that I mourn not as I ought for the Church 
 of God. I have not a moment's relief from my burdens 
 but after being some time in prayer ; afterwards my uneasi- 
 ness and misery return again. 
 
 October 26. Mirza from Benares arrived to-day ; I 
 employed all the day in writing letters to Mr. Brown, 
 Corrie, and Lydia. The last was a sweet and tranquillising 
 employment to me. I felt more submission to the Divine 
 will, and began to be more solicitous about Lydia's peace 
 and happiness than my own. How much has she been 
 called to surfer ! These are they that come out of great 
 tribulation. 
 
 To REV. DAVID BROWN 
 
 Dinapore : October 26, 1807. 
 
 My dear Sir, I have received your two letters of the 
 1 4th and I7th ; the last contained a letter from Lydia. It 
 is as I feared. She refuses to come because her mother 
 will not give her consent. Sir, you must not wonder at 
 my pale looks when I receive so many hard blows on my 
 heart. Yet a Father's love appoints the trial, and I pray 
 that it may have its intended effect. Yet, if you wish to 
 prolong my existence in this world, make a representation 
 to some persons at home who may influence her friends. 
 
252 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Your word will be believed sooner than mine. The ex- 
 traordinary effect of mental disorder on my bodily frame is 
 unfortunate ; trouble brings on disease and disorders the 
 sleep. In this way I am labouring a little now, but not 
 much ; in a few days it will pass away again. He that 
 hath delivered and doth deliver, is He in whom we trust 
 that He will yet deliver. 
 
 The queen's ware on its way to me can be sold at an 
 outcry or sent to Corrie. I do not want queen's ware 
 or anything else now. My new house and garden, 
 without the person I expected to share it with me, excite 
 disgust. 
 
 November 25. Letters came from Mr. Simeon and 
 Lydia, both of which depressed my spirits exceedingly ; 
 though I have been writing for some days past, that I 
 might have it in my power to consider myself free, so as to 
 be able to go to Persia or elsewhere ; yet, now that the 
 wished-for permission is come, I am rilled with grief ; I 
 cannot bear to part with Lydia, and she seems more 
 necessary to me than my life ; yet her letter was to bid 
 me a last farewell. Oh, how have I been crossed from 
 childhood, and yet how little benefit have I received from 
 these chastisements of my God ! The Lord now sanctify 
 this, that since the last desire of my heart also is withheld, 
 I may with resignation turn away for ever from the world, 
 and henceforth live forgetful of all but God. With Thee, 
 O my God, there is no disappointment ; I shall never 
 have to regret that I loved Thee too well. Thou hast said, 
 ' Delight thyself in the Lord, and He shall give thee the 
 desires of thine heart.' 
 
 November 26. Received a letter from Emma, which 
 again had a tendency to depress my spirits ; all the day I 
 could not attain to sweet resignation to God. I seemed to 
 be cut off for ever from happiness in not having Lydia with 
 me. 
 
D1NAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 253 
 
 The receipt of his letter of October 24, 1807, was thus 
 acknowledged, before God, by Lydia Grenfell in her 
 Diary : 
 
 1808, May 9. A letter from my dear friend in India 
 (requesting me to come out) reached me. These words 
 form my comfort : * Be still, and know that I am God.' I 
 see my duty pointed out, and am persuaded, dark as the 
 prospect is, God will appear God in this matter ; whether 
 we meet again or not, His great power and goodness will 
 be displayed it has been in quieting my heart, for oh, 
 the trial is not small of seeing the state of his mind. But 
 I am to be still, and now, O Lord, let Thy love fill my soul, 
 let it be supreme in his breast and mine ; there is no void 
 where Thou dwellest, whatever else is wanting. 
 
 May ii. My mind distressed, perplexed, and troubled 
 for my dear friend ; much self-reflection for having suffered 
 him to see my regard for him (and what it is), yet the 
 comforts of God's Word return * Why take ye thought ? ' 
 said our Lord. Yet to-morrow burdens the present day. 
 Oh, pity and support me to bear the thought of injuring his 
 peace inquire if the cause is of God. 
 
 May 15. Lord, Thou seest my wanderings oh, how 
 many, how great ! Put my tears into Thy bottle. Yes, 
 my Lord, I can forsake Thee and be content ; I turn and 
 turn, restless and miserable, till I am turned to Thee. 
 What a week have I passed ! never may such another pass 
 over my head ! my thoughts wholly occupied about my 
 absent friend distressed for his distress, and full of self- 
 reproaches for all that's past writing bitter things against 
 myself my heart alienated dreadfully from God and the 
 duties I am in the habit of performing all neglected. Oh, 
 should the Lord not awake for me and draw me back, 
 whither should I go ? His Word has been my comfort at 
 times, but Satan or conscience (I doubt which) tells me I 
 am in a delusion to take the comfort of God's Word, for I 
 
254 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 ought to suffer. But am I justified in putting comfort from 
 me ? since I no way excuse myself, but am, I trust, hum- 
 bled for my imprudence in letting my friend know the 
 state of mind towards him, and this is all I have injured 
 him in. I accuse myself, too, for want of candour with my 
 family, and oh, let me not forget the greatest offence of all 
 not consulting the will and glory of God in indulging and 
 encouraging a regard He seems to frown on. I have 
 to-day found deliverance, and felt some measure of calm 
 reliance. I know there is a particular providence over him 
 and me, but this belief does not lessen my fears of acting 
 wrong I am as responsible as if all were left to me. 
 What shall I do but say, Because Thou hast been my help, 
 therefore in the shadow of Thy wings will I trust ? I fly 
 to Thy power and take shelter in Thy love to sinners. Oh, 
 for a continually bleeding heart, mourning for sin ! 
 
 June 12. I have peace in my soul to-day. My re- 
 membrance of God's dear saint in India is frequent, but 
 I am still in this affair, and expect to know more of the 
 infinite power, wisdom, and goodness of our God in it and 
 by it than I have heretofore. My prayer for him constantly 
 is that he may be supported, guided, and made in all things 
 obedient and submissive to the will of his God. 
 
 Henry Martyn seems to have written again to Marazion, 
 at this time, a letter which has not been preserved, for 
 Lydia Grenfell thus refers to it : 
 
 August 29. Heard of my absent dear friend by this 
 day's post, and was strangely affected, though the intelli- 
 gence was satisfactory in every respect. I sought deliver- 
 ance in prayer, and the Lord spoke peace to my agitated 
 mind, and gave me what I desired liberty of soul to 
 return to Himself, and the contemplation of heavenly 
 things, though a sadness remained on my spirit. Heard 
 three sermons, for I thought it best to be less alone than 
 
DINAPORE AND PATNA, 1807-1809 255 
 
 usual, lest my thoughts should wander. Found great hard- 
 ness of heart in the services of the day, but I doubt 
 whether my affections were spiritual or not, though they 
 arose from a longing to be in heaven, and a joyful sense 
 of the certainty that God would bring me there. 
 
 September n. After some days of darkness and dis- 
 tress, sweet peace and light return, and my soul rests on 
 God as my all-sufficient help. Oh, the idolatrous state of 
 my heart ! what painful discoveries are made to me ! I 
 see the stream of my affections has been turned from God 
 
 and on An exertion must be made, like cutting 
 
 off a right hand, in order to give Thee, O Lord, my heart. 
 I must hear neither of nor from the person God has called 
 in His providence to serve Him in a distant country. Oh, 
 to be resolute, knowing by woeful experience the necessity 
 of guarding my thoughts against the remembrance of one, 
 though dear. As I value the presence of my God, I must 
 avoid everything that leads my thoughts to this subject 
 O Lord, keep me dependent on Thee for grace to do so ; 
 Thou hast plainly informed me of Thy will by withholding 
 Thy presence at this time, and Thy Word directed me to 
 lay aside this weight. 
 
 October 30. Thought of my dear friend to-night with 
 tenderness, but entire resignation to Thy will, O our God, 
 in never seeing or hearing from him again ; to meet him 
 above is my desire. 
 
 December 30. I reckon among my mercies the Lord's 
 having enabled me to choose a single life, and that my 
 friend in India has been so well reconciled to my determi- 
 nation. That trial was a sore one, and I believe the effects 
 of it will be felt as long as I live. My weak frame could 
 not support the perturbed state of my mind, and the 
 various painful apprehensions that assailed me on his 
 arrival nearly wore me down. But the Lord removed 
 them all by showing me He approved of my choice, and 
 in granting me the tidings of his enjoying peace and 
 
256 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 happiness in our separation. Every burden now respecting 
 him is removed, and my soul has only to praise the wise 
 and gracious hand which brought me through that thorny 
 path. It was one I made to myself, by ever entering into 
 a correspondence with him, and by expressing too freely 
 my regard. 
 
 On March 28, 1809, Martyn wrote to Mr. Brown : 
 
 Your letter is just come. . The Europe letter is from 
 Lydia. I trembled at the handwriting. ... It was only 
 more last words, sent by the advice of Colonel Sandys, lest 
 the non-arrival of the former might keep me in suspense. 
 . . I trust that I have done with the entanglements of 
 this world ; seldom a day passes but I thank God for the 
 freedom from earthly care which I enjoy. 
 
 And so end Henry Martyn's love-letters, marked by a 
 delicacy as well as tenderness of feeling in such contrast to 
 the action of Lydia Grenfell throughout, as to explain the 
 mingled resentment and resignation in which they close. 
 The request for a mutual engagement which would justify 
 correspondence at least seems to have been unheeded for 
 some months, till the news of his serious illness in July 
 1808 led her again to write to him, as taking the place 
 of his sister who had been removed by death. He was 
 ordered to Cawnpore, and set off in the hot season by Chunar 
 and Ghazipore, writing these last words on April n, 1809, 
 from Dinapore: 
 
 My men seem to be in a more flourishing state than 
 they have yet been. About thirty attend every night. I 
 had a delightful party this week, or six young men, who 
 will, I hope, prove to be true soldiers of Christ. Seldom, 
 even at Cambridge, have I been so much pleased. 
 
CHAPTER VII 
 
 CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 
 
 MRS. SHERWOOD, known in the first decade of this century 
 as a writer of such Anglo- Indian tales as Little Henry 
 and his Bearer, and as a philanthropist who did much for 
 the white and the dark orphans of British soldiers in India, 
 was one of the many who came under the influence of 
 Henry Martyn. This Lichfield girl, whose father had been 
 the playmate of Samuel Johnson, and who had known 
 Garrick and Dr. Darwin, Hannah More and Maria 
 Edgeworth, had married her cousin, the paymaster of the 
 King's 53rd Regiment of Foot. The regiment was sent 
 to Bengal. On its way up the Hoogli from Calcutta 
 in boats, Mr. Sherwood and his wife were walking after 
 sunset, when they stumbled on ' a small society ' of their 
 own men, who met regularly to read their Bibles and to pray, 
 often in old stores, ravines, woods, and other retired places. 
 ' The very existence of any person in the barracks who 
 had the smallest notion of the importance of religion was 
 quite unsuspected by me/ writes Mrs. Sherwood in her 
 Autobiography. 1 'I am not severe when I assert that at 
 that time there really was not one in the higher ranks in 
 the regiment who had courage enough to come forward and 
 
 1 The Life of Mrs. Sherwood (chiefly autobiographical), edited by her 
 Daughter. London, 1854. 
 
 S 
 
258 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 say, "I think it right, in this distant land, to do, as it regards 
 religion, what I have been accustomed to do at home." ' 
 At Berhampore, the chaplain, Mr. Parson, began that good 
 work in the 53rd which Martyn and Corrie afterwards 
 carried on. When it continued the voyage up the Ganges, 
 after a season, by Dinapore to Cawnpore, Mr. Parson gave 
 the Sherwoods a letter of introduction to Martyn, then 
 about to leave Dinapore. To this fact we owe the fullest 
 and the brightest glimpses that we get of Henry Martyn, 
 from the outside, all through his career. We are enabled to 
 supplement the abasing self-revelation of his nature before 
 God, as recorded in his Journal, by the picture of his daily 
 life, drawn by a woman of keen sympathy and some 
 shrewdness. 
 
 The moment the boat anchored at Dinapore Mr. 
 Sherwood set out on foot to present his letter. He found 
 the chaplain in the smaller square, at some distance, in a 
 * sort of church-like abode with little furniture, the rooms 
 wide and high, with many vast doorways, having their green 
 jalousied doors, and long verandahs encompassing two 
 sides of the quarters.' 
 
 Mr. Martyn received Mr. Sherwood not as a stranger, 
 but as a brother, the child of the same father. As the 
 sun was already low, he must needs walk back with him to 
 see me. I perfectly remember the figure of that simple- 
 hearted and holy young man, when he entered our 
 budgerow. He was dressed in white, and looked very pale, 
 which, however, was nothing singular in India ; his hair, a 
 light brown, was raised from his forehead, which was a 
 remarkably fine one. His features were not regular, but 
 the expression was so luminous, so intellectual, so 
 affectionate, so beaming with Divine charity, that no one 
 could have looked at his features, and thought of their 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 259 
 
 shape or form, the out- beaming of his soul would absorb the 
 attention of every observer. There was a very decided air, 
 too, of the gentleman about Mr. Martyn, and a perfection 
 of manners which, from his extreme attention to all minute 
 civilities, might seem almost inconsistent with the general 
 bent of his thoughts to the most serious subjects. He was 
 as remarkable for ease as for cheerfulness, and in these 
 particulars his Journal does not give a graphic account of 
 this blessed child of God. I was much pleased at the first 
 sight of Mr. Martyn. I had heard much of him from Mr. 
 Parson ; but I had no anticipation of his hereafter 
 becoming so distinguished as he subsequently did. And 
 if I anticipated it little, he, I am sure, anticipated it less ; 
 for he was one of the humblest of men. 
 
 Mr. Martyn invited us to visit him at his quarters at 
 Dinapore, and we agreed to accept his invitation the next 
 day. Mr. Martyn's house was destitute of every comfort, 
 though he had multitudes of people about him. I had 
 been troubled with a pain in my face, and there was not 
 such a thing as a pillow in the house. I could not find 
 anything to lay my head on at night but a bolster stuffed 
 as hard as a pin-cushion. We had not, as is usual in India, 
 brought our own bedding from the boats. Our kind friend 
 had given us his own room ; but I could get no rest during 
 the two nights of my remaining there, from the pain in my 
 face, which was irritated by the bolster ; but during each 
 day, however, there was much for the mind to feed upon 
 with delight. After breakfast Mr. Martyn had family 
 prayers, which he commenced by singing a hymn. He had 
 a rich, deep voice, and a fine taste for vocal music. After 
 singing, he read a chapter, explained parts of it, and prayed 
 extempore. Afterwards he withdrew to his studies and trans- 
 lations. The evening. was finished with another hymn, Scrip- 
 ture reading, and prayers. The conversion of the natives 
 and the building up of the kingdom of Christ were the great 
 objects for which alone that child of God seemed to exist. 
 
 S 2 
 
260 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 He believed that he saw the glimmering of this day in 
 the exertions then making in Europe for the diffusion of 
 the Scriptures and the sending forth of missionaries. 
 Influenced by the belief that man's ministry was the 
 instrumentality which, by the Holy Spirit, would be made 
 effectual to the work, we found him labouring beyond his 
 strength, and doing all in his power to excite other persons 
 to use the same exertions. 
 
 Henry Martyn was one of the very few persons whom I 
 have ever met who appeared never to be drawn away from 
 one leading and prevailing object of interest, and that 
 object was the promotion of religion. He did not appear 
 like one who felt the necessity of contending with the 
 world, and denying himself its delights, but rather as one 
 who was unconscious of the existence of any attractions 
 in the world, or of any delights which were worthy of his 
 notice. When he relaxed from his labours in the presence 
 of his friends, it was to play and laugh like an innocent, 
 happy child, more especially if children were present to 
 play and laugh with him. In my Indian Journal I find 
 this remark : ' Mr. Martyn is one of the most pleasing, mild, 
 and heavenly-minded men, walking in this turbulent world 
 with peace in his mind, and charity in his heart.' 
 
 As the regiment was passing Chunar, after a night in 
 ' the polluted air ' of Benares, the Sherwoods were met by 
 a boat with fresh bread and vegetables from Corrie. On 
 their arrival at Cawnpore, Mrs. Sherwood at once opened two 
 classes for the ' great boys ' and ' elder girls.' Many of the 
 former died in a few years, and not a few of the latter married 
 officers above their own birth. Such were the conditions of 
 military life in India at that time, notwithstanding the 
 Calcutta Orphan Schools which David Brown had first gone 
 out to India to organise ; for Henry Lawrence and his noble 
 wife, Honoria, with their Military Orphan Asylums in the 
 hills, belonged to a later generation. 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 261 
 
 When first ordered to Cawnpore, in the hottest months 
 of 1809, Henry Martyn resolved to apply to the Military 
 Board for permission to delay his departure till the rainy 
 season. But, though even then wasted by consumption 
 and ceaseless toil, and tempted to spend the dreary months 
 with the beloved Corrie at Chunar, as he might well have 
 done under the customary rules, he could not linger when 
 duty called. Had he not resolved to ' burn out ' his life ? 
 So, deluding himself by the intention to ' stay a little longer 
 to recruit ' at Chunar, should he suffer from the heat, he 
 set off in the middle of April in a palanquin by Arrah, after- 
 wards the scene of a heroic defence in the great Mutiny ; 
 Buxar, where a battle had been fought not long before, 
 and Ghazipore, seat of the opium manufacture, like Patna. 
 Sabat was sent on in a budgerow, with his wife Ameena 
 and the baggage. This is Martyn's account, to Brown, of 
 the voyage above Chunar : 
 
 Cawnpore : May 3, 1809. 
 
 I transported myself with such rapidity to this place 
 that I had nearly transported myself out of the world. 
 From Dinapore to Chunar all was well, but from Allahabad 
 to that place I was obliged to travel two days and nights 
 without intermission, the hot winds blowing like fire 
 from a furnace. Two days after my arrival the fever 
 which had been kindling in my blood broke out, and last 
 night I fainted repeatedly. But a gracious God has again 
 interposed to save my life ; to-day I feel well again. Where 
 Sabat is I do not know. I have heard nothing of him 
 since leaving Dinapore. Corrie is well, but it is grievous 
 to see him chained to a rock with a few half-dead invalids, 
 when so many stations amongst others, the one I have 
 left are destitute. ... 
 
 I do not like this place at all. There is no church, 
 not so much as the fly of a tent ; what to do I know not 
 
262 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 except to address Lord Minto in a private letter. Mr. 
 (Charles) Grant, who is anxious that we should labour 
 principally for the present among the Europeans, ought, 
 I think, to help us with a house. I mean to write to 
 Mr. Simeon about this. 
 
 I feel a little uncomfortable at being so much farther 
 removed from Calcutta. At Dinapore I had friends on 
 both sides of me, and correspondence with you was quick : 
 here I seem cut off from the world. Alas ! how dependent 
 is my heart upon the creature still. I am ordered to seal 
 up. Yours affectionately ever, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 This is Mrs. Sherwood's description of his arrival : 
 
 On May 30 the Rev. Henry Martyn arrived at our bunga- 
 low. The former chaplain had proceeded to the presidency, 
 and we were so highly favoured as to have Mr. Martyn 
 appointed in his place. I am not aware whether we expected 
 him, but certainly not at the time when he did appear. It 
 was in the morning, and we were situated as above described, 
 the desert winds blowing like fire without, when we suddenly 
 heard the quick steps of many bearers. Mr. Sherwood 
 ran out to the leeward of the house, and exclaimed, ' Mr. 
 Martyn ! ' The next moment I saw him leading in that 
 excellent man, and saw our visitor, a moment afterwards, 
 fall down in a fainting fit. He had travelled in a palanquin 
 from Dinapore, and the first part of the way he moved only 
 by night. But between Cawnpore and Allahabad, being a 
 hundred and thirty miles, there is no resting-place, and he 
 was compelled for two days and two nights to journey on 
 in his palanquin, exposed to the raging heat of a fiery wind. 
 He arrived, therefore, quite exhausted, and actually under 
 the influence of fever. There was not another family in 
 Cawnpore except ours to which he could have gone with 
 pleasure ; not because any family would have denied 
 shelter to a countryman in such a condition, but, alas ! they 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 263 
 
 were only Christians in name. In his fainting state Mr. 
 Martyn could not have retired to the sleeping-room which 
 we caused to be prepared immediately for him, because we 
 had no means of cooling any sleeping-room so thoroughly 
 as we could the hall. We, therefore, had a couch set for 
 him in the hall. There he was laid, and very ill he was for 
 a day or two. The hot winds left us, and we had a close, 
 suffocating calm. Mr. Martyn could not lift his head from 
 the couch. In our bungalow, when shut up as close as 
 it could be, we could not get the thermometer under 96, 
 though the punkah was constantly going. When Mr. 
 Martyn got a little better he became very cheerful, and 
 seemed quite happy with us all about him. He commonly 
 lay on his couch in the hall during the morning, with many 
 books near to his hand, and amongst these always a Hebrew 
 Bible and a Greek Testament. Soon, very soon, he began 
 to talk to me of what was passing in his mind, calling to 
 me at my table to tell me his thoughts. He was studying 
 the Hebrew characters, having an idea, which I believe is 
 not a new one, that these characters contain the elements 
 of all things, though I have reason to suppose he could not 
 make them out at all to his satisfaction ; but whenever 
 anything occurred to him he must needs make it known 
 to me. 
 
 He was much engaged also with another subject, into 
 which I was more capable of entering. It was his opinion 
 that, if the Hindus could be persuaded that all nations are 
 made of one blood, to dwell upon the face of the earth, and 
 if they could be shown how each nation is connected by its 
 descent from the sons and grandsons of Noah with other 
 nations existing upon the globe, it would be a means 
 of breaking down, or at least of loosening, that wall of 
 separation which they have set up between themselves and 
 all other people. With this view Mr. Martyn was endea- 
 vouring to trace up the various leading families of the earth 
 to their great progenitors ; and so much pleased was I 
 
264 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 with what he said on this subject, that I immediately com- 
 mitted all I could remember to paper, and founded there- 
 upon a system of historical instruction which I ever after- 
 wards used with my children. Mr. Martyn, like myself at 
 this time, was often perplexed and dismayed at the workings 
 of his own heart, yet, perhaps, not discerning a hundredth 
 part of the depth of the depravity of his own nature, the 
 character of which is summed up in Holy Writ in these two 
 words < utterly unclean.' He felt this the more strongly 
 because he partook also of that new nature ' which sinneth 
 not.' It was in the workings and actings of that nature 
 that his character shone so pre-eminently as it did amid a 
 dark and unbelieving society, such as was ours then at 
 Cawnpore. 
 
 In a very few days he had discerned the sweet qualities 
 of the orphan Annie, and had so encouraged her to come 
 about him that she drew her chair, and her table, and her 
 green box to the vicinity of his couch. She showed him 
 her verses, and consulted him about the adoption of more 
 passages into the number of her favourites. Annie had a 
 particular delight in all the pastoral views given in Scripture 
 of our Saviour and of His Church ; and when Mr. Martyn 
 showed her this beautiful passage, ' Feed Thy people with 
 Thy rod, the flock of Thine heritage, which dwell solitarily 
 in the wood, in the midst of Carmel ' (Micah vii. 14), she 
 was as pleased with this passage as if she had made some 
 wonderful acquisition. What could have been more 
 beautiful than to see the Senior Wrangler and the almost 
 infant Annie thus conversing together, whilst the elder 
 seemed to be in no ways conscious of any condescension in 
 bringing down his mind to the level of the child's ? Such 
 are the beautiful influences of the Divine Spirit, which, 
 whilst they depress the high places of human pride, exalt 
 the lowly valleys. 
 
 When Mr. Martyn lost the worst symptoms of his ill- 
 ness he used to sing a great deal. He had an uncommonly 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 265 
 
 fine voice and fine ear ; he could sing many fine chants, 
 and a vast variety of hymns and psalms. He would insist 
 upon it that I should sing with him, and he taught me 
 many tunes, all of which were afterwards brought into 
 requisition ; and when fatigued himself, he made me sit by 
 his couch and practise these hymns. He would listen to 
 my singing, which was altogether very unscientific, for 
 hours together, and he was constantly requiring me to go 
 on, even when I was tired. The tunes he taught me, no 
 doubt, reminded him of England, and of scenes and friends 
 no longer seen. The more simple the style of singing, the 
 more it probably answered his purpose. 
 
 As soon as Mr. Martyn could in any way exert himself, 
 he made acquaintance with some of the pious men of the 
 regiment (the same poor men whom I have mentioned 
 before, who used to meet in ravines, in huts, in woods, and 
 in every wild and secret place they could find, to read, and 
 pray, and sing) ; and he invited them to come to him in 
 our house, Mr. Sherwood making no objection. The time 
 first fixed was an evening after parade, and in consequence 
 they all appeared at the appointed hour, each carrying 
 their mora (a low seat), and their books tied up in pocket- 
 handkerchiefs. In this very unmilitary fashion they were 
 all met in a body by some officers. It was with some 
 difficulty that Mr. Sherwood could divert the storm of 
 displeasure which had well-nigh burst upon them on the 
 occasion. Had they been all found intoxicated and 
 fighting, they would have created less anger from those 
 who loved not religion. How truly is it said that ' the 
 children of this world are wiser in their generation than 
 the children of light.' Notwithstanding this unfortunate 
 contretemps, these poor good men were received by Mr. 
 Martyn in his own apartment ; and a most joyful meeting 
 he had with them. We did not join the party, but we 
 heard them singing and praying, and the sound was very 
 sweet. Mr. Martyn then promised them that wKen he had 
 
266 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 got a house he would set aside a room for them, where 
 they might come every evening, adding he would meet 
 them himself twice in the week. When these assemblies 
 were sanctioned by our ever kind Colonel Mawby, and all 
 difficulties, in short, overcome, many who had been the 
 most zealous under persecution fell quite away, and never 
 returned. How can we account for these things ? Many, 
 however, remained steadfast under evil report as well as 
 good report, and died, as they had lived, in simple and 
 pure faith. 
 
 I must not omit another anecdote of Mr. Martyn, 
 which amused us much at the time, after we had recovered 
 the alarm attending it. The salary of a chaplain is large, 
 and Mr. Martyn had not drawn his for so long a time, that 
 the sum amounted perhaps to some hundreds. He was to 
 receive it from the collector at Cawnpore. Accordingly 
 he one morning sent a note for the amount, confiding the 
 note to the care of a common coolie, a porter of low caste, 
 generally a very poor man. This man went off, unknown 
 to Mr. Sherwood and myself, early in the morning. The 
 day passed, the evening came, and no coolie arrived. At 
 length Mr. Martyn said in a quiet voice to us, ' The coolie 
 does not come with my money. I was thinking this 
 morning how rich I should be ; and, now, I should not 
 wonder in the least if he has not run off, and taken my 
 treasure with him.' ' What ! ' we exclaimed, ' surely you 
 have not sent a common coolie for your pay ? ' ' I have/ 
 he replied. Of course we could not expect that it would 
 ever arrive safe ; for it would be paid in silver, and delivered 
 to the man in cotton bags. Soon afterwards, however, it did 
 arrive a circumstance at which we all greatly marvelled. 
 
 Cawnpore, of which Henry Martyn was chaplain for 
 the next two years, till disease drove him from it, was the 
 worst station to which he could have been sent. The 
 district, consisting of clay uplands on the Doab between 
 
CAWNPORE 1809-1810 267 
 
 the Ganges and the Jumna rivers, which unite below at 
 Allahabad, was at that time a comparatively desolate 
 tract, swept by the hot winds, and always the first to suffer 
 from drought. The great famine of 1837 afterwards so 
 destroyed its unhappy peasantry and labourers, that the 
 British Government made its county town one of the two 
 terminals of the great Ganges canal, which the Marquis of 
 Dalhousie opened, and irrigated the district by four 
 branches with their distributing channels. Even then, 
 and to this day, Cawnpore has not ceased to be a repulsive 
 station. Its leather factories and cotton mills do not 
 render it less so, nor the memory of the five massacres of 
 British officers, their wives and children, by the infamous 
 Nana Dhoondoo Panth, which still seems to cover it as 
 with a pall, notwithstanding the gardens and the marble 
 screen inclosing the figure of the Angel of the Resurrection 
 with the palm of victory above the Massacre Well. The 
 people of the town at least have always been disagreeable, 
 from Hindu discontent and Mohammedan sulkiness. 
 The British cantonment used to be at Bilgram, on the 
 opposite bank, in the territory of Oudh. Well might 
 Martyn write of such a station as Cawnpore : ' I do not 
 like this place at all,' although he then enjoyed the social 
 ministrations of the Sherwoods, and was constant in his 
 own service to the Master among British and natives alike> 
 and at his desk in translation work. 
 
 The first use which the chaplain made of his pay was 
 this, according to Mrs. Sherwood : ' Being persuaded by 
 some black man, he bought one of the most undesirable 
 houses, to all appearance, which he could have chosen.' 
 But he had chosen wisely for his daily duties of translation 
 and preaching to the natives. 
 
268 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Mr. Martyn's house was a bungalow situated between 
 the Sepoy Parade and the Artillery Barracks, but behind 
 that range of principal bungalows which face the Parade. 
 The approach to the dwelling was called the Compound, 
 along an avenue of palm trees and aloes. A more stiff, 
 funereal avenue can hardly be imagined, unless it might be 
 that one of noted sphyrixes which I have read of as the 
 approach to a ruined Egyptian temple. At the end of this 
 avenue were two bungalows, connected by a long passage. 
 These bungalows were low, and the rooms small. The 
 garden was prettily laid out with flowering shrubs and 
 tall trees ; in the centre was a wide space, which at some 
 seasons was green, and a chabootra, or raised platform of 
 chunam (lime), of great extent, was placed in the middle 
 of this space. A vast number and variety of huts and 
 sheds formed one boundary of the compound ; these were 
 concealed by the shrubs. But who would venture to give 
 any account of the heterogeneous population which occupied 
 these buildings ? For, besides the usual complement of 
 servants found in and about the houses of persons of a 
 certain rank in India, we must add to Mr. Martyn's house- 
 hold a multitude of pundits, moonshis, schoolmasters, 
 and poor nominal Christians, who hung about him because 
 there was no other to give them a handful of rice for their 
 daily maintenance ; and most strange was the murmur 
 which proceeded at times from this ill-assorted and dis- 
 cordant multitude. Mr. Martyn occupied the largest of 
 the two bungalows. He had given up the least to the 
 wife of Sabat, that wild man of the desert whose extra- 
 ordinary history has made so much noise in the Christian 
 world. 
 
 It was a burning evening in June, when after sunset I 
 accompanied Mr. Sherwood to Mr. Martyn's bungalow, and 
 saw for the first time its avenue of palms and aloes. We 
 were conducted to the chabootra, where the company was 
 already assembled ; there was no lady but myself. This 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 269 
 
 chabootra was many feet square, and chairs were set for the 
 guests. A more heterogeneous assembly surely had not often 
 met, and seldom, I believe, were more languages in requisi- 
 tion in so small a party. Besides Mr. Martyn and ourselves, 
 there was no one present who could speak English. But 
 let me introduce each individual separately. Every feature 
 in the large disk of Sabat's face was what we should call 
 exaggerated. His eyebrows were arched, black, and strongly 
 pencilled ; his eyes dark and round, and from time to time 
 flashing with unsubdued emotion, and ready to kindle into 
 flame on the most trifling occasion. His nose was high, 
 his mouth wide, his teeth large, and looked white in 
 contrast with his bronzed complexion and fierce black 
 mustachios. He was a large and powerful man, and 
 generally wore a skull-cap of rich shawling, or embroidered 
 silk, with circular flaps of the same hanging over each 
 ear. His large, tawny throat and neck had no other 
 covering than that afforded by his beard, which was black. 
 His attire was a kind of jacket of silk, with long sleeves, 
 fastened by a girelle, or girdle, about his loins, to which 
 was appended a jewelled dirk. He wore loose trousers, 
 and embroidered shoes turned up at the toes. In the cold 
 season he threw over this a wrapper lined with fur, and 
 when it was warmer the fur was changed for silk. When 
 to this costume is added ear-rings, and sometimes a golden 
 chain, the Arab stands before you in his complete state of 
 Oriental dandyism. This son of the desert never sat in a 
 chair without contriving to tuck up his legs under him on 
 the seat, in attitude very like a tailor on his board. The 
 only languages which he was able to speak were Persian, 
 Arabic, and a very little bad Hindustani ; but what was 
 wanting in the words of this man was more than made up 
 by the loudness with which he uttered them, for he had a 
 voice like rolling thunder. When it is understood that loud 
 utterance is considered as an ingredient of respect in the 
 East, we cannot suppose that one who had been much in 
 
270 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 native courts should think it necessary to modulate his 
 voice in the presence of the English Sahib-log. 1 
 
 1 ' He was at that time married to his seventh wife ; that is, according to 
 his own account. Ameena was a pretty young woman, though particularly 
 dark for a purdah-walla, or one, according to the Eastern custom, who is 
 supposed always to sit behind a purdah, or curtain. She occupied the smaller 
 bungalow, which adjoined the larger by a long, covered passage. Our 
 children often went to see her whilst they were at Mr. Martyn's, and I paid 
 her one formal visit. I found her seated on the ground, encircled by cushions 
 within gauze mosquito-curtains, stretched by ropes from the four corners of 
 the hall. In the daytime these curtains were twisted and knotted over her 
 head, and towards the night they were let down around her, and thus she 
 slept where she had sat all day. She had one or two women in constant 
 attendance upon her, though her husband was a mere subordinate. These 
 Eastern women have little idea of using the needle, and very few are taught 
 any other feminine accomplishment. Music and literature, dancing and 
 singing, are known only to the Nautch or dancing-girls by profession. 
 Hence, nothing on earth can be imagined to be more monotonous than the 
 lives of women in the East ; such, I mean, as are not compelled to servile 
 labour. They sit on their cushions behind their curtains from day to day, 
 from month to month, with no other occupation than that of having their 
 hair dressed, and their nails and eyelids stained, and no other amusement than 
 hearing the gup, or gossip of the place where they may happen to be ; nor is 
 any gossip too low or too frivolous to be unacceptable. The visits of our 
 children and nurses were very acceptable to Ameena, and she took much and 
 tender notice of the baby. She lived on miserable terms with her husband, 
 and hated him most cordially. She was a Mussulman, and he was very 
 anxious to make her a Christian, to which she constantly showed strong 
 opposition. At length, however, she terminated the controversy in the 
 following extraordinary manner : "Pray, will you have the goodness to in- 
 form me where Christians go after death?" "To heaven and to their 
 Saviour," replied Sabat. "And where do Mahometans go?" she asked. 
 " To hell and the devil," answered the fierce Arab. " You," said the meek 
 wife, "will go to heaven, of course, as being a Christian." "Certainly," 
 replied Sabat. " Well, then," she said, " I will continue to be a Mussulman, 
 because I should prefer hell and the devil without you, to heaven itself in 
 your presence." This anecdote was told to Mr. Martyn by Sabat himself, as 
 a proof of the hardened spirit of his wife. 
 
 ' Ameena was, by the Arab's own account, his seventh wife. He had some 
 wonderful story to tell of each of his former marriages ; but that which he 
 related of his sixth wife exceeded all the rest in the marvellous and the romantic. 
 He told this tale at Mr. Martyn's table one evening, whilst we were at supper, 
 during the week we lived in the house. He spoke in Persian, and Mr. Martyn 
 interpreted what he said, and it was this he narrated : It was on some occasion, 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 271 
 
 The second of Mr. Martyn's guests, whom I must 
 introduce as being not a whit behind Sabat in his own 
 opinion of himself, was the Padre Julius Caesar, an 
 Italian monk of the order of the Jesuits, a worthy disciple 
 of Ignatius Loyola. Mr. Martyn had become acquainted 
 with him at Patna, where the Italian priest was not less 
 zealous and active in making proselytes than the Company's 
 chaplain, and probably much more wise and subtle in his 
 movements than the latter. The Jesuit was a handsome 
 young man, and dressed in the complete costume of the 
 monk, with his little skull-cap, his flowing robes, and his 
 cord. The materials, however, of his dress were very rich ; 
 his robe was of the finest purple satin, and his cord of 
 twisted silk, and his rosary of costly stones, whilst his air 
 and manner were extremely elegant. He spoke French 
 fluently, and there Mr. Sherwood was at home with him, 
 but his native language was Italian. His conversation 
 with Mr. Martyn was carried on partly in Latin and partly 
 in Italian. A third guest was a learned native of India, in 
 his full and handsome Hindustani costume ; and a fourth 
 
 he said, in which Fortune had played him one of her worst tricks, and reduced 
 him to a state of the most abject poverty, that he happened to arrive one night 
 at a certain city, which was the capital of some rajah, or petty king Sabat 
 called this person a king. It seemed he arrived at a crisis in which the king's 
 only daughter had given her father some terrible offence, and in order to be 
 revenged upon her, the father issued his commands that she should be com- 
 pelled to take for her husband the first stranger who arrived in the town after 
 sunset. This man happened to be our Arab ; he was accordingly seized and 
 subjected to the processes of bathing and anointing with precious oil. He 
 was then magnificently dressed, introduced into the royal hall, and duly 
 married to the princess, who proved not only to be fair as the houris, but to 
 be quite prepared to love the husband whom Fortune had sent her. He lived 
 with her, he pretended, I know not how many years, and they were perfectly 
 happy until the princess died, and he lost the favour of his majesty. I think 
 that Sabat laid the scene of this adventure in or near Agra. But this could 
 hardly be. That such things have been in the East that is, that royal parents 
 have taken such means of avenging themselves on offending daughters is 
 quite certain ; but I cannot venture to assert that Sabat was telling the truth 
 when he made himself the hero of the tale.' 
 
272 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 a little, thin, copper-coloured, half-caste Bengali gentle- 
 man, in white nankeen, who spoke only Bengali. Mr. 
 Sherwood made a fifth, in his scarlet and gold uniform ; 
 myself, the only lady, was the sixth ; and add our host, Mr. 
 Martyn, in his clerical black silk coat, and there is our 
 party. Most assuredly I never listened to such a confusion 
 of tongues before or since. Such a noisy, perplexing Babel 
 can scarcely be imagined. Everyone who had acquired 
 his views of politeness in Eastern society was shouting at 
 the top of his voice, as if he had lost his fellow in a wood ; 
 and no less than eight languages were in constant request, 
 viz. English, French, Italian, Arabic, Persian, Hindustani, 
 Bengali, and Latin. 
 
 In order to lengthen out the pleasures of the evening, 
 we were scarcely seated before good Mr. Martyn recollected 
 that he had heard me say that I liked a certain sort of 
 little mutton pattie, which the natives made particularly 
 well ; so, without thinking how long it might take to make 
 these same patties, he called to a servant to give orders 
 that mutton patties should be added to the supper. I 
 heard the order, but never dreamed that perhaps the 
 mutton might not be in the house. The consequence of 
 this order was that we sat on the chabootra till it was quite 
 dark, and till I was utterly weary with the confusion. 
 No one who has not been in or near the tropics can have 
 an idea of the glorious appearance of the heavens in these 
 regions, and the brilliancy of the star-lit nights, at Cawn- 
 pore. Mr. Martyn used often to show me the pole-star, 
 just above the line of the horizon ; and I have seen the 
 moon, when almost new, looking like a ball of ebony in 
 a silver cup. Who can, therefore, be surprised that the 
 science of astronomy should first have been pursued by 
 the shepherds who watched their flocks by night in the 
 plains of the South ? When the mutton patties were 
 ready, I was handed by Mr. Martyn into the hall of the 
 bungalow. Mr. Martyn took the top of the table, and 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 273 
 
 Sabat perched himself on a chair at the bottom. I think 
 it was on this day, when at table, Sabat was telling some 
 of his own adventures to Mr. Martyn, in Persian, which 
 the latter interpreted to Mr. Sherwood and myself, that the 
 wild Arab asserted that there were in Tartary and Arabia 
 many persons converted to Christianity, and that many 
 had given up their lives for the faith. He professed to be 
 himself acquainted with two of these, besides Abdallah. 
 ' One,' he said, ' was a relation of his own.' But he gave 
 but small proof of this man's sincerity. This convert, if 
 such he was, drew the attention of the priests by a total 
 neglect of all forms ; and this was the more remarkable 
 on account of the multiplied forms of Islam ; for at the 
 wonted hour of prayer a true Mussulman must kneel 
 down and pray in the middle of a street, or between the 
 courses of a feast, nay, even at the moment when perhaps 
 his hands might be reeking with a brother's blood. This 
 relative of Sabat's, however, was, as he remarked, observed 
 to neglect all forms, and he was called before the heads of 
 his tribe, and required to say wherefore he was guilty of 
 this offence. His answer was, * It is nothing.' He pro- 
 ceeded to express himself as if he doubted the very 
 existence of a God. The seniors of the tribe told him 
 that it would be better for him to be a Christian than an 
 atheist ; adding, therefore, ' If you do not believe in our 
 prophet you must be a Christian ; ' for they wisely ac- 
 counted that no man but a fool could.be without some 
 religion. The man's reply was, that he thought the 
 Christian's a better religion than that of Mahomet ; the 
 consequence of which declaration was that they stoned 
 him until he died. The other example which Sabat gave 
 us was of a boy in Baghdad, who was converted by an Arme- 
 nian, and endeavoured to escape, but was pursued, seized, 
 and offered pardon if he would recant ; but he was preserved 
 in steadfastness to the truth, and preferred death to returning 
 to Mahometanism. His life was required of him. 
 
 T 
 
274 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 From the time Mr. Martyn left our house he was 
 in the constant habit of supping with us two or three 
 times a week, and he used to come on horseback, with the 
 sais running by his side. He sat his horse as if he were 
 not quite aware that he was on horseback, and he 
 generally wore his coat^ as if it were falling from his 
 shoulders. When he dismounted, his favourite place was 
 in the verandah, with a book, till we came in from our 
 airing. And when we returned many a sweet and long 
 discourse we had, whilst waiting for our dinner or supper. 
 Mr. Martyn often looked up to the starry heavens, and 
 spoke of those glorious worlds of which we know so little 
 now, but of which we hope to know so much hereafter. 
 Often we turned from the contemplation of these to the 
 consideration of the smallness, and apparent diminutive- 
 ness in creation, of our own little globe, and of the 
 exceeding love of the Father, who so cared for its 
 inhabitants that He sent His Son to redeem them. 
 
 On the occasion of the baptism of my second Lucy, 
 never can I forget the solemn manner with which Mr. 
 Martyn went through the service, or the beautiful and 
 earnest blessing he implored for my baby, when he took 
 her into his arms after the service was concluded. I still 
 fancy I see that child of God as he looked down tenderly 
 on the gentle babe, and then looked upwards, asking of 
 his God that grace and mercy for the infant which he truly 
 accounted as the only gift which parents ought to desire. 
 This babe, in infancy, had so peculiar a gentleness of 
 aspect, that Mr. Martyn always called her Serena. 
 
 Little was spoken of at Mr. Martyn's table but of 
 various plans for advancing the triumphs of Christianity. 
 Among the plans adopted, Mr. Martyn had, first at 
 Dinapore and then at Cawnpore, established one or two 
 schools for children of the natives of the lower caste. His 
 plan was to hire a native schoolmaster, generally a Mussul- 
 man, to appoint him 'a place, and to pay him an anna 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 275 
 
 a head for each boy whom he could induce to 
 attend school. These boys the master was to teach to 
 write and read. It was Mr. Martyn's great aim, and, 
 indeed, the sole end of his exertions, to get Christian 
 books into the school. As no mention was ever made 
 of proselytism, there was never any difficulty found in 
 introducing even portions of the Scripture itself, more 
 especially portions of the Old Testament, to the attention 
 of the children. The books of Moses are always very 
 acceptable to a Mussulman, and Genesis is particularly 
 interesting to the Hindus. Mr. Martyn's first school at 
 Cawnpore was located in a long shed, which was on the 
 side of the cavalry lines. It was the first school of the 
 kind I ever saw. The master sat at one end, like a tailor, 
 on the dusty floor; and along under the shed sat the 
 scholars, a pack of little urchins, with no other clothes on 
 than a skull-cap and a piece of cloth round the loins. 
 These little ones squatted, like their master, in the sand. 
 They had wooden imitations of slates in their hands, on 
 which, having first written their lessons with chalk, they 
 recited them, a pleine gorge, as the French would say, being 
 sure to raise their voices on the approach of any European 
 or native of note. Now, Cawnpore is about one of the 
 most dusty places in the world. The Sepoy lines are the 
 most dusty part of Cawnpore ; and as the little urchins 
 are always well greased, either with cocoanut oil or, in 
 failure thereof, with rancid mustard oil, whenever there 
 was the slightest breath of air they always looked as if 
 they had been powdered all over with brown powder. But 
 what did this signify ? They would have been equally dusty 
 in their own huts. In these schools they were in the way 
 of getting a few ideas ; at all events, they often got so far 
 as to be able to copy a verse on their wooden slates. 
 Afterwards they committed to memory what they had 
 written. Who that has ever heard it can forget the sounds 
 of the various notes with which these little people intonated 
 
 T 2 
 
276 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 their 'Aleph Zubbur ah Zair a Paiche oh/ as they 
 waved backwards and forwards in their recitations ? Or 
 who can forget the vacant self-importance of the school- 
 master, who was generally a long-bearded, dry old man, 
 who had no other means of proving his superiority over 
 the scholars but making more noise than even they could 
 do ? Such a scene, indeed, could not be forgotten ; but 
 would it not require great faith to expect anything green 
 to spring from a soil so dry ? But this faith was not 
 wanting to the Christians then in India. 
 
 Besides the 53rd Regiment, the Cavalry Corps called in 
 those days the 8th Light Dragoons, and six companies of 
 Artillery, were stationed at Cawnpore. At the first parade 
 service, on May 15, 1809, 'two officers dropped down and 
 some of the men. They wondered how I could go through 
 the fatigue,' wrote their new chaplain, not many days after 
 his nearly fatal palanquin journey from Chunar. His 
 voice even reached the men at the other end of the square 
 which they had formed. Above a hundred men were in 
 hospital, a daily congregation. Every night about a dozen 
 of the soldiers met with him in the house. Not only the 
 men but the officers were privately rebuked by him for 
 swearing. Of the General he writes : ' He has never been 
 very cordial, and now he is likely to be less so ; though it 
 was done in the gentlest way, he did not seem to like it. 
 Were it not to become all things to all men in order to save 
 some, I should never trouble them with my company. But 
 how then should I be like Christ ? I have been almost the 
 whole morning engaged in a good-humoured dispute with 
 Mrs. P., who, in an instant after my introduction to 
 her, opened all her guns of wit and eloquence against me 
 for attempting to convert the Brahmans.' A little later he 
 writes of a dinner at the brigade-major's with the chief 
 
CAWNPOR, 1809-1810 27? 
 
 persons of the station : ' I could gain no attention while 
 saying grace ; and the moment the ladies withdrew the 
 conversation took such a turn that I was obliged to make 
 a hasty retreat. Oh ! the mercy to have escaped their 
 evil ways.' 
 
 The year was one of alarms of war, from which the 
 history of our Indian Empire can rarely be free, surrounded 
 as it is by a ring-fence of frontier tribes and often aggressive 
 States. But in those days the great internal conflicts for 
 the consolidation of our power, and the peace and prosperity 
 of peoples exposed to anarchy for centuries, were still being 
 waged. Marathas, Sikhs, and Goorkhas had all to be 
 pacified in 1809. Now the infantry were being sent to the 
 conquest of Bundlekhund and difficult siege of the fortress 
 of Kalinjar, as old as the Mahabharat Epic in which it is 
 mentioned. Now the artillery were under orders to march 
 to Lodiana to check Ranjeet Singh. Now the cavalry were 
 sent off to the, at first, fatal chase of the Goorkhas by 
 Gillespie. Thus it was that their ever-careful chaplain 
 sought to prepare them for the issue : 
 
 October 20. Spoke to my men on preparation for the 
 Lord's Supper, and endeavoured to prepare myself for the 
 ordinance, by considering my former life of sin, and all my 
 unfaithfulness since my call to the Gospel. My heart was, 
 as usual, insensible for a long time, but at last a gracious 
 God made me feel some compunction, and then my feelings 
 were such as I would wish they always were. I resolved 
 at the time that it should be my special labour every day 
 to obtain, and hold fast, this humbling view of my own 
 depravity. 
 
 October 22. (Sunday.) Preached at sunrise to the 
 53rd, on Acts xxviii. 29. At ten, about sixteen of the 
 regiment, with Mr. and Mrs. Sherwood and Sabat, met in my 
 
278 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 bungalow, where, after a short discourse on ' Behold the 
 Lamb of God/ we commemorated the death of the Lord. 
 It was the happiest season I have yet had at the Lord's 
 Table, though my peace and pleasure were not unalloyed ; 
 the rest of the day I felt weak in body, but calm in mind, 
 and rather spiritual ; at night I spoke to the men on Rev. 
 xxii. 2 ; the number was (double ; afterwards had some con- 
 versation on eternal things, but had reason to groan at the 
 hollow-heartedness and coldness with which I do my best 
 works. 
 
 November 18. At night I took leave of my beloved 
 Church previous to their departure for Bundlekhund with 
 their regiment. I spoke to them from Gen. xxviii : ' I will 
 be with thee in all places whithersoever thou goest,' etc. 
 The poor men were much affected ; they gave me their wills 
 and watches. 
 
 November 19. (Sunday.) Preached at sunrise to the 
 dragoons, on John i. 17 : ' The law was given by Moses.' At 
 eleven at head-quarters, on Rom, iii. 19. 
 
 Nowhere are eucharistic seasons of communion so 
 precious as in exile, and especially in the isolation of a 
 tropical station. Not unfrequently in India, Christian people, 
 far separated from any ordained minister, and about to 
 part from each other, are compelled, by loving obedience 
 to the Lord, to meet thus together. But what joy it 
 must have been to have been ministered to at such times 
 by one of Henry Martyn's consecrated saintliness ! Mrs. 
 Sherwood lingers over her description of that Cawnpore 
 service of October 22, 1809 the long inner verandah of 
 the house, where daily prayer was wont to be made, shut in 
 by lofty doors of green lattice-work ; the table, with the 
 white cloth and all things requisite, at one end ; hassocks 
 on which to kneel, and- a high form in front of the table ; 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 279 
 
 all ' decent and in good order, according to the forms of 
 the Church of England.' Still there was no church 
 building. His first parade service in the hot winds 
 brought on fever, so that he proposed to ask for the billiard- 
 room, 'which is better than the ball-room,' but in vain. 
 His next service was in the riding-school, but * the efflu- 
 vium was such as would please only the knights of the turf. 
 What must the Mohammedans think of us? Well may 
 they call us " dogs," when even in Divine worship we choose 
 to kennel ourselves in such places.' The General delayed 
 to forward to Government the proposal for a church. 
 
 Henry Martyn's missionary work among the natives 
 became greatly extended at Cawnpore, as his scrupulous 
 conscience and delicate scholarship allowed him to use in 
 public the colloquial Hindustani, and in conversation the 
 more classical Persian. To Corrie he wrote, five months 
 after his arrival there : 
 
 What will friends at home think of Martyn and 
 Corrie? They went out full of zeal, but, behold ! what are 
 they doing ? Where are their converts ? They talked of 
 the banyan-tree before they went out ; but now they seem 
 to prefer a snug bungalow to field-preaching. I fear I 
 should look a little silly if I were to go home just at this 
 time ; but more because I should not be able to make 
 them understand the state of things than because my 
 conscience condemns me. Brother, what can you do ? If 
 you itinerate like a European, you will only frighten the 
 people ; if as a native, you will be dead in one year. Yet 
 the latter mode pleases me, and nothing would give me 
 greater pleasure than so to live, with the prospect of being 
 able to hold out a few years. 
 
 Again, to an old Cambridge friend : 
 
 November, 1809. Respecting *ny heart, about which 
 
28o HENRY MARTYN 
 
 you ask, I must acknowledge that H. Martyn's heart at 
 Dinapore is the same as H. Martyn's heart at Cambridge. 
 The tenor of my prayer is nearly the same, except on one 
 subject, the conversion of the heathen. At a distance from 
 the scene of action, and trusting too much to the highly- 
 coloured description of missionaries, my heart used to 
 expand with rapture at the hope of seeing thousands of the 
 natives melting under the Word as soon as it should be 
 preached to them. Here I am called to exercise faith 
 that so it shall one day be. My former feelings on this 
 subject were more agreeable, and at the same time more 
 according with the truth ; for if we believe the prophets, 
 the scenes that time shall unfold, ' though surpassing fable, 
 are yet true.' While I write, hope and joy spring up in 
 my mind. Yes, it shall be ; yonder stream of Ganges 
 shall one day roll through tracts adorned with Christian 
 churches, and cultivated by Christian husbandmen, and the 
 holy hymn be heard beneath the shade of the tamarind. 
 All things are working together to bring on the day, and 
 my part in the blessed plan, though not at first exactly 
 consonant to my wishes, is, I believe, appointed me by 
 God. To translate the Word of God is a work of more 
 lasting benefit than my preaching would be. But, besides 
 that, I am sorry to say that my strength for public 
 preaching is almost gone. My ministrations among the 
 Europeans at this station have injured my lungs, and I am 
 now obliged to lie by except on the Sabbath days, and 
 once or twice in the week. . . . However, I am sufficiently 
 aware of my important relations to the natives, and am 
 determined not to strain myself any more for the 
 Europeans. This rainy season has tried my constitution 
 severely. The first attack was with spasms, under which I 
 fainted. The second was a fever, from which a change of 
 air, under God, recovered me. There is something in the 
 air at the close of the rains so unfavourable, that public 
 speaking at that time is a violent strain upon the whole 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 281 
 
 body. Corrie passed down a few weeks ago to receive his 
 sister. We enjoyed much refreshing communion in prayer 
 and conversation on our dear friends at and near Cambridge, 
 and found peculiar pleasure in the minutest circumstances 
 we could recollect about you all. 
 
 At Cawnpore, in front of his house, he began his 
 wonderful preaching to the native beggars and ascetics of all 
 kinds, Hindoo jogees and Mohammedan fakeers, the blind 
 and the deaf, the maimed and the halt, the diseased and 
 the dying, the impostor and the truly needy. These classes 
 had soon found out the sympathetic padre-sahib, and to 
 secure peace he seems to have organised a weekly dole of 
 an anna each or of rice. 
 
 He wrote to Corrie : 
 
 I feel unhappy, not because I do nothing, but because 
 I am not willing to do my duty. The flesh must be 
 mortified, and I am reluctant to take up the cross. Sabat 
 said to me yesterday, ' Your beggars are come : why do not 
 you preach to them ? It is your duty.' I made excuses ; 
 but why do not I preach to them ? My carnal spirit says 
 that I have been preaching a long time without success to 
 my servants, who are used to my tongue ; what can I 
 expect from them the very dregs of the people ? But the 
 true cause is shame : I am afraid of exposing myself to 
 the contempt of Sabat, my servants, and the mob, by 
 attempting to speak in a language which I do not speak 
 well. To-day in prayer, one consideration has been made 
 of some power in overcoming this shameful backward- 
 ness : these people, if I neglect to speak to them, will 
 give me a look at the last day which may fill me with 
 horror. Alas ! brother, where is my zeal ? 
 
 December 17. (Sunday.) Preached to H.M. Light 
 Dragoons on Rev. iii. 20 : ' Behold, I stand at the door and 
 
282 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 knock,' etc. There was great attention. In the afternoon 
 the beggars came, to the number of above four hundred, 
 and, by the help of God, I determined to preach to them, 
 though I felt as if I were leading to execution. I stood 
 upon the chabootra in front of which they were collected. 
 
 To Corrie he thus described his talks with his 'con- 
 gregation of the poor ' : 
 
 I went without fear, trusting to myself, and not to the 
 Lord, and accordingly I was put to shame that is, I did 
 not read half as well as the preceding days. I shuffled 
 and stammered, and indeed I am persuaded that there 
 were many sentences the poor things did not understand 
 at all. I spoke of the dry land, rivers, etc. ; here I 
 mentioned Gunga, ' a good river/ but there were others as 
 good. God loves Hindus, but does He not love others 
 also ? He gave them a good river, but to others as good. 
 All are alike before God. This was received with applause. 
 On the work of the fourth day, ' Thus sun and moon are 
 lamps. Shall I worship a candle in my hand ? As a 
 candle in the house, so is the sun in the sky.' Applause 
 from the Mohammedans. There were also hisses, but 
 whether these betokened displeasure against me or the 
 worship of the sun I do not know. I then charged them 
 to worship Gunga and sun and moon no more, but the 
 honour they used to give to them, henceforward to give to 
 God their Maker. Who knows but even this was a blow 
 struck, at least a branch lopped from the tree of heathenism ? 
 The number was about 550. You need not be deterred, 
 dear brother, if this simple way of teaching do any good. 
 
 Again : 
 
 I spoke on the corruption of human nature, ' The Lord 
 saw that every imagination/ etc. In the application I 
 said, ' Hence all outward works are useless while the heart 
 remains in this state. You may wash in Gunga, but the 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 283 
 
 heart is not washed.' Some old men shook their heads, in 
 much the same way as we do when seriously affected with 
 any truth. The number was about seven hundred. The 
 servants told me it was nonsense to give them all rice, as 
 they were not all poor ; hundreds of them are working 
 people ; among them was a whole row of Brahmins. I 
 spoke to them about the Flood ; this was interesting, as 
 they were very attentive, and at the end said, ' Shabash 
 wa wa ' (Well said). 
 
 Mrs. Sherwood pictures the scene after an almost 
 pathetic fashion : 
 
 We went often on the Sunday evenings to hear the 
 addresses of Mr. Martyn to the assembly of mendicants, 
 and we generally stood behind him. On these occasions 
 we had to make our way through a dense crowd, with a 
 temperature often rising above 92, whilst the sun poured 
 its burning rays upon us through a lurid haze of dust. 
 Frightful were the objects which usually met our eyes in 
 this crowd : so many monstrous and diseased limbs, and 
 hideous faces, were displayed before us, and pushed forward 
 for our inspection, that I have often made my way to the 
 chabootra with my eyes shut, whilst Mr. Sherwood led 
 me. On reaching the platform I was surrounded by our 
 own people, and yet even there I scarcely dared to look 
 about me. I still imagine that I hear the calm, distinct, 
 and musical tones of Henry Martyn, as he stood raised 
 above the people, endeavouring, by showing the purity of 
 the Divine law, to convince the unbelievers that by their 
 works they were all condemned ; and that this was the 
 case of every man of the offspring of Adam, and they 
 therefore needed a Saviour who was both willing and able 
 to redeem them. From time to time low murmurs and 
 curses would arise in the distance, and then roll forward, 
 till they became so loud as to drown the voice of this pious 
 one, generally concluding with hissings and fierce cries. 
 
284 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 But when the storm passed away, again might he be heard 
 going on where he had left off, in the same calm, steadfast 
 tone, as if he were incapable of irritation from the inter- 
 ruption. Mr. Martyn himself assisted in giving each person 
 his pice (copper) after the address was concluded ; and when 
 he withdrew to his bungalow I have seen him drop, almost 
 fainting, on a sofa, for He had, as he often said, even at 
 that time, a slow inflammation burning in his chest, and one 
 which he knew must eventually terminate his existence. 
 In consequence of this he was usually in much pain after 
 any exertion of speaking. 
 
 No dreams nor visions excited in the delirium of a 
 raging fever can surpass these realities. These devotees 
 vary in age and appearance : they are young and old, male 
 and female, bloated and wizened, tall and short, athletic 
 and feeble ; some clothed with abominable rags ; some 
 nearly without clothes ; some plastered with mud and cow- 
 dung ; others with matted, uncombed locks streaming 
 down to their heels ; others with heads bald or scabby, 
 every countenance being hard and fixed, as it were, by the 
 continual indulgence of bad passions, the features having 
 become exaggerated, and the lips blackened with tobacco, 
 or blood-red with the juice of the henna. But these and 
 such as these form only the general mass of the people ; 
 there are among them still more distinguished monsters. 
 One little man generally comes in a small cart drawn by a 
 bullock ; his body and limbs are so shrivelled as to give, 
 with his black skin and large head, the appearance of a 
 gigantic frog. Another has his arm fixed above his head, 
 the nail of the thumb piercing through the palm of the 
 hand ; another, and a very large man, has his ribs and the 
 bones of his face externally traced with white chalk, which, 
 striking the eye in relief above the dark skin, makes him 
 appear, as he approaches, like a moving skeleton. When 
 Mr. Martyn collected these people he was most carefully 
 watched by the British authorities. 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 285 
 
 Shall anyone say that the missionary chaplain's eighteen 
 months' work among this mixed multitude of the poor 
 and the dishonest was as vain as he himself, in his humility, 
 feared that it was ? ' Greater works ' than His own were 
 what the Lord of Glory, who did like service to man in 
 the Syria of that day, promised to His believing followers. 
 
 On the wall which enclosed his compound was a kiosk, 
 from which some young Mussulman idlers used to look down 
 on the preacher, as they smoked their hookahs and sipped 
 their sherbet. One Sunday, determined to hear as well as see, 
 that they might the more evidently scoff, they made their 
 way through the crowd, and with the deepest scorn took 
 their place in the very front. They listened in a critical 
 temper, made remarks on what they heard, and returned 
 to the kiosk. But there was one who no longer joined in 
 their jeering. Sheikh Saleh, born at Delhi, Persian and 
 Arabic moonshi of Lucknow, then keeper of the King of 
 Oudh's jewels, was a Mussulman so zealous that he had 
 persuaded his Hindu servant to be circumcised. But he 
 was afterwards horrified by the treachery and the atrocities 
 of his co-religionists in the Rajpoot State of Joudhpore, 
 whither he had gone. He was on his way back to his 
 father at Lucknow when, on a heart thus prepared, there 
 fell the teaching of the English man of God as to the 
 purity of the Divine law and salvation from sin by Jesus 
 Christ. 
 
 Eager to learn more of Christianity from its au- 
 thoritative records, he sought employment on the trans- 
 lating staff of the preacher, through a friend who knew 
 Sabat. He was engaged to copy Persian manuscripts by 
 that not too scrupulous tyrant, without the knowledge 
 of Martyn or any of the English. On receiving the 
 
286 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 completed Persian New Testament, to have it bound, he read 
 it all, and his conversion by the Spirit of God, its Author, 
 was complete. He determined to attach himself to Martyn, 
 who as yet knew him not personally. He followed him to 
 Calcutta, and applied to him for baptism. After due trial 
 during the next year he was admitted to the Church under 
 the new name of ' Bondman of Christ/ Abdool Massee'h. 
 This was almost the last act of the Rev. David Brown, who 
 since 1775 had spent his life in diffusing Christian knowledge 
 in Bengal. Abdool's conversion caused great excitement in 
 Lucknow. Nor was this all. The new convert was sent 
 to Meerut, when Mr. Parson was chaplain in that great 
 military station, and there he won over the chief physician 
 of the Rajah of Bhurtpore, naming him Taleb Massee'h. 
 After preaching and disputing in Meerut, Abdool visited 
 the Begum Sumroo's principality of Sardhana, where he 
 left Taleb to care for the native Christians. They and 
 the Sherwoods together were the means of calling and 
 preparing several native converts for baptism, all the fruit, 
 direct and indirect, of Henry Martyn's combined translating 
 and preaching of the New Testament at Cawnpore. 
 Mrs. Sherwood writes : 
 
 We were told that Mr. Corrie might perhaps be unable 
 to come as far as Delhi, and the candidates for baptism 
 became so anxious that they set off to meet him on the 
 Delhi road. We soon heard of their meeting from Mr. 
 Corrie himself, and that he was pleased with them. Shortly 
 afterwards our beloved friend appeared, with tents, camels, 
 and elephants, and we had the pleasure of having his 
 largest tent pitched in our compound, for we had not room 
 for all his suite within the house. Then for the next week 
 our house and grounds brought to my mind what I had 
 often fancied of a scene in some high festival in Jerusalem ; 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 287 
 
 but ours was an assembly under a fairer, brighter dispensa- 
 tion. ' Here we are/ said Mr. Corrie, ' poor weary pilgrims ; ' 
 and he applied the names of * Christian ' and ( Mercy ' to his 
 wife and an orphan girl who was with them. Dear Mr. 
 Corrie ! perhaps there never was a man so universally 
 beloved as he was. Wherever he was known, from the 
 lisping babe who climbed upon his knee to the hoary- 
 headed native, he was regarded as a bright example of 
 Christian charity and humility. On Sunday, January 31, 
 the baptism of all the converts but one took place. Num- 
 bers of Europeans from different quarters of the station 
 attended. The little chapel was crowded to overflowing, 
 and most affecting indeed was the sight. Few persons 
 could restrain their tears when Mr. Corrie extended his 
 hand to raise the silver curls which clustered upon the brow 
 of Monghul Das, one of the most sincere of the converts. 
 The ceremony was very affecting, and the convert, who 
 stood by and saw the others baptized, became so uneasy 
 that, when Mr. Corrie set off to return, he followed him. 
 For family reasons this man's baptism had been deferred, 
 as he hoped by so doing to bring others of his family into 
 the Church of God. 
 
 How delightfully passed that Sunday ! how sweet was 
 our private intercourse with Mr. Corrie ! He brought our 
 children many Hindustani hymns, set to ancient Oriental 
 melodies, which they were to sing at the Hindu services, 
 and we all together sang a hymn, which I find in my Journal 
 designated by this title : 
 
 *WE HAVE SEEN His STAR IN THE EAST' 
 
 In Britain's land of light my mind 
 
 To Jesus and His love was blind, 
 
 Till, wandering midst the heathen far, 
 
 Lo in the East I saw His star. 
 
 Oh, should my steps, which distant roam, 
 
 Attain once more my native shore, 
 
 Better than India's wealth by far, 
 
 I'll speak the worth of Bethlehem's star. 
 
288 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 There is little merit in the composition of this hymn ; 
 but it had a peculiar interest for us at that time, and the 
 sentiment which it professes must ever retain its interest. 
 
 Long after this the good seed of the Kingdom, as sown 
 by Henry Martyn, continued to bear fruit, which in its 
 turn propagated itself. In 1816 there came to Corrie in 
 Calcutta, for further instruction, from Bareilly, a young 
 Mohammedan ascetic and teacher who, at seventeen, had 
 abandoned Hinduism, seeking peace of mind. He fell 
 in with Martyn's Hindustani New Testament, and was 
 baptized under the new name of Fuez Massee'h. Under 
 somewhat similar circumstances Noor Massee'h was bap- 
 tized at Agra. The missionary labours of Martyn at 
 Cawnpore, followed up by Corrie there and at Agra soon 
 after, farther resulted in the baptism there of seventy-one 
 Hindus and Mohammedans, of whom fifty were adults. 
 All of these, save seven, remained steadfast, and many 
 became missionaries in their turn. The career of Abdool 
 Massee'h closed in 1827, after he had been ordained in 
 the Calcutta cathedral by Bishop Heber, who loved him. 
 His last breath was spent in singing the Persian hymn, 
 translated thus : 
 
 Beloved Saviour, let not me 
 
 In Thy kind heart forgotten be ! 
 
 Of all that deck the field or bower, 
 
 Thou art the sweetest, fairest flower ! 
 
 Youth's morn has fled, old age comes on, 
 But sin distracts my soul alone ; 
 Beloved Saviour, let not me 
 In Thy kind heart forgotten be. 
 
 As from Dinapore Martyn sought out the moulvies of 
 Patna, so from Cawnpore he found his way to Lucknow 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 289 
 
 There, after he had baptized a child of the Governor- 
 General's Resident, he met the Nawab Saadut AH, and 
 his eyes for the first time beheld one who had full power 
 of life and death over his subjects. He visited the 
 moulvies, at the tomb of Asaf-ood-Dowla, who were 
 employed to read the Koran constantly. 'With them I 
 tried my strength, of course, and disputed for an hour ; it 
 ended in their referring me for an answer to another.' 
 
 Toil such as Martyn's, physical and mental, in successive 
 hot seasons, in such hospitals and barracks as then killed 
 off the British troops and their families, and without a decent 
 church building, would have sacrificed the healthiest in a 
 few years. Corrie had to flee from it, or he would never 
 have lived to be the first and model Bishop of Madras. But 
 such labours, such incessant straining of the voice through 
 throat and lungs, acting on his highly neurotic constitution, 
 and the phthisical frame which he inherited from his 
 mother, became possible to Henry Martyn only because 
 he willed, he agonised, to live till he should give at least 
 the New Testament to the peoples of Arabia and Persia, 
 and to the Mohammedans of India, in their own tongues. 
 We see him in his Journal, before God, spiritually spurring 
 the sides of his intent day by day, and running like the 
 noble Arab horse till it drops its object gained. He had 
 many warnings, and if he had had a wife to see that he 
 obeyed the voice of Providence he might have outlived his 
 hereditary tendency in such a tropical climate as that of 
 India a fact since proved by experience. He had narrowly 
 escaped death at Dinapore a few months before, and he 
 knew it. But it is well that, far more frequently than the 
 world knows, such cases occur in the missionary fields of 
 the world. The Brainerds and the Martyns, the Pattesons 
 
 U 
 
290 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 and the Hanningtons, the Keith-Falconers and the 
 Mackays to mention some of the dead only have their 
 reward in calling hundreds to fill their places, not less than 
 the Careys and the Livingstones, the Duffs and the 
 Wilsons, the Frenches and the Caldwells. To all who 
 know the tropics, and especially the seasons of India, the 
 dates that follow are eloquent. 
 
 1 809, May 29. The East has been long forsaken of God, 
 and depravity in consequence more thoroughly wrought 
 into them. I have been very ill all this week, the disorder 
 appearing in the form of an intermittent In the night 
 cold sweats, and for about five hours in the day headache 
 and vertigo. Last night I took some medicine, and 
 think that I am better, though the time when the fever has 
 generally come on is not yet arrived. But I hardly know 
 how to be thankful enough for this interval of ease. 
 
 September 25. Set out at three in the morning for 
 Currah, and reached it on the 26th in the morning, and 
 married a Miss K. to Mr. R. ; the company was very 
 unpleasant, so after passing the night there, I set out and 
 travelled all day and night, and through Divine mercy 
 arrived at home again on the 28th, but excessively fatigued, 
 indeed almost exhausted. At night with the men, my 
 whole desire was to lie low in the dust. * Thou hast left 
 thy first love,' on which I spoke, was an awful call to me, 
 and I trust in God I shall ever feel it so. 
 
 November 19. Received a letter from Mr. Simeon, 
 mentioning Sarah's illness ; consumption has seized her, as 
 it did my mother and sister, and will carry her off as it did 
 them, and now I am the only one left. Oh, my dear Corrie, 
 though I know you are well prepared, how does nature 
 bleed at the thought of a beloved sister's drooping and 
 dying ! Yet still to see those whom I love go before me, 
 without so much as a doubt of their going to glory, will, 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 291 
 
 I hope, soothe my sorrow. How soon shall I follow ? I 
 know it must be soon. The paleness and fatigue I exhibit 
 after every season of preaching show plainly that death is 
 settled in my lungs. 
 
 1810, April 9. From the labours of yesterday, added 
 to constant conversation and disagreement with visitors 
 to-day, I was quite exhausted, and my chest in pain. 
 
 April 10. My lungs still so disordered that I could 
 not meet my men at night. 
 
 April 1 5. (Sunday.) Preached to the Dragoons on the 
 parable of the pounds. At the General's on Luke xxii 22. 
 With the native congregation I strained myself greatly 
 in order to be heard, and to this I attribute the injury I 
 did myself to-day. Attempted the usual service with my 
 men at night, but after speaking to them from a passage in 
 Scripture, was obliged to leave them before prayer. 
 
 April 1 6. Imprudently joined in conversation with 
 some dear Christian friends to-night, and talked a great 
 deal ; the pain in the chest in consequence returned 
 
 May 12. This evening thrown with great violence 
 from my horse : while he was in full gallop, the saddle 
 came off, but I received no other injury but contusion. 
 Thus a gracious Providence preserves me in life. But 
 for His kindness I had been now dragging out a wretched 
 existence in pain, and my blessed work interrupted for 
 years perhaps. 
 
 Henry Martyn was too absorbed in the higher life at 
 all times to be trusted in riding or driving. Mrs. Sherwood 
 writes : 
 
 I often went out with him in his gig, when he used to 
 call either for me or Miss Corrie, and whoever went with 
 him went at the peril of their lives. He never looked 
 where he was driving, but went dashing through thick and 
 thin, being always occupied in reading Hindustani by word 
 of mouth, or discussing some text of Scripture. I certainly 
 
 U 2 
 
292 HENR Y MARTYN 
 
 never expected to have survived a lesson he gave me in 
 his gig, in the midst of the plain at Cawnpore, on the 
 pronunciation of one of the Persian letters. 
 
 All through his Cawnpore life, also, the wail of dis- 
 appointed love breaks from time to time. On Christmas 
 day, 1809, he received, through David Brown as usual, a 
 letter ' from Lydia, containing a second refusal ; so now I 
 have done.' On March 23,1810, Mr. Steven's letter reached 
 him, reporting the death of his last sister. ' She was my 
 dear counsellor and guide for a long time in the Christian 
 way. I have not a relation left to whom I feel bound by 
 ties of Christian fellowship, and I am resolved to form no 
 new connection of a worldly nature, so that I may hence- 
 forward hope to live entirely, as a man of another world.' 
 Meanwhile he has received Lydia Grenfell's sisterly offer, 
 to which he thus replies in the first of eleven letters, to one 
 who had sunk the lover in the Christian friend, as was 
 possible to two hearts so far separated and never to meet 
 again in this world. But she was still his ' dearest.' 
 
 To LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 Cawnpore : March 30, 1810. 
 
 Since you kindly bid me, my beloved friend, consider 
 you in the place of that dear sister whom it has pleased 
 God in His wisdom to take from me, I gratefully accept 
 the offer of a correspondence, which it has ever been the 
 anxious wish of my heart to establish. Your kindness is 
 the more acceptable, because it is shown in the day of 
 affliction. Though I had heard of my dearest sister's 
 illness some months before I received the account of her 
 death, and though the nature of her disorder was such as 
 left me not a ray of hope, so that I was mercifully pre- 
 pared for the event, still the certainty of it fills me with 
 anguish. It is not that she has left me, for I never ex- 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 293 
 
 pected to see her more on earth. I have no doubt of 
 meeting her in heaven, but I cannot bear to think of the 
 pangs of dissolution she underwent, which have been 
 unfortunately detailed to me with too much particularity. 
 Would that I had never heard them, or could efface them 
 from my remembrance. But oh, may I learn what the Lord 
 is teaching me by these repeated strokes ! May I learn 
 meekness and resignation. May the world always appear 
 as vain as it does now, and my own continuance in it as 
 short and uncertain. How frightful is the desolation which 
 Death makes, and how appalling his visits when he enters 
 one's family. I would rather never have been born than be 
 born and die, were it not for Jesus, the Prince of life, the 
 Resurrection and the Life. How inexpressibly precious is 
 this Saviour when eternity seems near ! I hope often to 
 communicate with you on these subjects, and in return for 
 your kind and consolatory letters to send you, from time 
 to time, accounts of myself and my proceedings. Through 
 you I can hear of all my friends in the West. When I 
 first heard of the loss I was likely to suffer, and began to 
 reflect on my own friendless situation, you were much in 
 my thoughts, whether you would be silent on this occasion 
 or no ? whether you would persist in your resolution ? 
 Friends indeed I have, and brethren, blessed be God ! but 
 two brothers l cannot supply the place of one sister. When 
 month after month passed away, and no letter came from 
 you, I almost abandoned the hope of ever hearing from 
 you again. It only remained to wait the result of my last 
 application through Emma. You have kindly anticipated 
 my request, and, I need scarcely add, are more endeared to 
 me than ever. 
 
 Of your illness, my dearest Lydia, I had heard nothing, 
 and it was well for me that I did not. Yours most 
 affectionately, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 1 Corrie and Brown. 
 
294 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 To David Brown he wrote, ' My long-lost Lydia con- 
 sents to write to me again ; ' and in three weeks he thus 
 addresses to Lydia herself again a letter of exquisite 
 tenderness : 
 
 To LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 Cawnpore : April 19, 1810. 
 
 I begin my correspondence with my beloved Lydia, 
 not without a fear of its being soon to end. Shall I venture 
 to tell you that our family complaint has again made its 
 appearance in me, with more unpleasant symptoms than it 
 has ever yet done ? However, God, who two years ago 
 redeemed my life from destruction, may again, for His 
 Church's sake, interpose for my deliverance. Though, alas ! 
 what am I that my place should not instantly be supplied 
 with far more efficient instruments ? The symptoms I 
 mentioned are chiefly a pain in the chest, occasioned, I 
 suppose, by over-exertion the two last Sundays, and in- 
 capacitating me at present from all public duty, and even 
 from conversation. You were mistaken in supposing that 
 my former illness originated from study. Study never 
 makes me ill scarcely ever fatigues me but my lungs ! 
 death is seated there ; it is speaking that kills me. May 
 it give others life ! ' Death worketh in us, but life in you.' 
 Nature intended me, as I should judge from the structure 
 of .my frame, for chamber-council, not for a pleader at the 
 Bar. But the call of Jesus Christ bids me cry aloud and 
 spare not. As His minister, I am a debtor both to the 
 Greek and the barbarian. How can I be silent when I 
 have both ever before me, and my debt not paid ? You 
 would suggest that energies more restrained will eventually 
 be more efficient. I am aware of this, and mean to act 
 upon this principle in future, if the resolution is not formed 
 too late. But you know how apt we are to outstep the 
 bounds of prudence when there is no kind of monitor at 
 hand to warn us of the consequences. 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 295 
 
 Had I been favoured with the one I wanted, I might 
 not now have had occasion to mourn. You smile at my 
 allusion, at least I hope so, for I am hardly in earnest. I 
 have long since ceased to repine at the decree that keeps 
 us as far asunder as the east is from the west, and yet am 
 far from regretting that I ever knew you. The re- 
 membrance of you calls forth the exercise of delightful 
 affections, and has kept me from many a snare. How wise 
 and good is our God in all His dealings with His children ! 
 Had I yielded to the suggestions of flesh and blood, and 
 remained in England, as I should have done, without the 
 effectual working of His power, I should without doubt 
 have sunk with my sisters into an early grave. Whereas 
 here, to say the least, I may live a few years, so as to 
 accomplish a very important work. His keeping you from 
 me appears also, at this season of bodily infirmity, to be 
 occasion of thankfulness. Death, I think, would be a less 
 welcome visitor to me, if he came to take me from a wife, 
 and that wife were you, Now, if I die, I die unnoticed, 
 involving none in calamity. Oh, that I could trust Him for 
 all that is to come, and love Him with that perfect love 
 which casteth out fear ; for, to say the truth, my confidence 
 is sometimes shaken. To appear before the Judge of quick 
 and dead is a much more awful thought in sickness than in 
 health. Yet I dare not doubt the all-sufficiency of Jesus 
 Christ, nor can I, with the utmost ingenuity of unbelief, 
 resist the reasonings of St. Paul, all whose reasons seem to 
 be drawn up on purpose to work into the mind the 
 persuasion that God will glorify Himself by the salvation 
 of sinners through Jesus Christ. I wish I could more 
 enter into the meaning of this ' chosen vessel.' He seems 
 to move in a world by himself, and sometimes to utter the 
 unspeakable words such as my natural understanding 
 discerneth not ; and when I turn to commentators I find 
 that I have passed out of the spiritual to the material 
 world, and have got amongst men like myself. But soon, 
 
296 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 as he says, we shall no longer see as in a glass, by 
 reflected rays, but see as we are seen, and know as we are 
 known. 
 
 April 25. After another interval I resume my pen. 
 Through the mercy of God I am again quite well, but my 
 mind is a good deal distressed at Sabat's conduct. I forbear 
 writing what I think, in the hope that my fears may prove 
 groundless ; but indeed the children of the East are adepts 
 in deceit. Their duplicity appears to me so disgusting at 
 this moment, that I can only find relief from my growing 
 misanthropy by remembering Him who is the faithful and 
 true Witness ; in whom all the promises of God are ' yea 
 and amen ' ; and by turning to the faithful in Europe 
 children that will not lie. Where shall we find sincerity 
 in a native of the East ? Yesterday I dined in a private 
 
 way with . After one year's inspection of me they 
 
 begin to lose their dread and venture to invite me. Our 
 conversation was occasionally religious, but topics of this 
 nature are so new to fashionable people, and those upon 
 which they have thought so much less than on any other, 
 that often from the shame of having nothing to say they 
 pass to other subjects where they can be more at home. I 
 was asked after dinner if I liked music. On my professing to 
 be an admirer of harmony, cantos were performed and songs 
 sung. After a time I inquired if they had no sacred music. 
 It was now recollected that they had some of Handel's, but it 
 could not be found. A promise, however, was made that 
 next time I came it should be produced. Instead of it the 
 1 45th Psalm-tune was played, but none of the ladies could 
 recollect enough of the tune to sing it. I observed that all 
 our talents and powers should be consecrated to the service 
 of Him who gave them. To this no reply was made, but 
 the reproof was felt. I asked the lady of the house if she 
 read poetry, and then proceeded to mention Cowper, whose 
 poems, it seems, were in the library ; but the lady had 
 never heard of the book. This was produced, and I read 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 297 
 
 some passages. Poor people ! here a little and there a 
 little is a rule to be observed in speaking to them. 
 
 April 26. From speaking to my men last night, and 
 again to-day conversing long with some natives, my chest 
 is again in pain, so much so that I can hardly speak. 
 Well, now I am taught, and will take more care in future. 
 My sheet being full, I must bid you adieu. The Lord 
 ever bless and keep you. Believe me to be with the 
 truest affection, Yours ever, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 To REV. T. M. HITCHINS, PLYMOUTH DOCK 
 
 Cawnpore : October 10, 1809. 
 
 My dearest Brother, I am again disappointed in 
 receiving no letter from you. The last intelligence from 
 the West of England is Lydia's letter of July 8, 1808. 
 Colonel Sandys has long since ceased to write to me, and I 
 have no other correspondent. It is very affecting to me to 
 be thus considered as dead by almost all my natural rela- 
 tions and early connections ; and at this time, when I am 
 led to think of you and the family to which you are united, 
 and have been reading all your letters over, I feel that I 
 could dip my pen deep in melancholy ; for, strange as it 
 may seem to you, I love so true, that though it is now the 
 fifth year since I parted from the object of my affection, she 
 is as dear to me as ever ; yet, on the other hand, I find my 
 present freedom such a privilege that I would not lose 
 it for hardly any consideration. It is the impossibility of 
 compassing every wish, that I suppose is the cause of any 
 uneasiness that I feel. I know not how to express my 
 thoughts respecting Lydia better than in Martial's words 
 Nee tecum possum vivere nee sine te. However, these are 
 not my general sentiments ; it pleases God to cause me to 
 eat my meat with gladness, praising God. Almost always 
 I am without carefulness, as indeed it would be to my shame 
 if I were not. 
 
298 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 My kindest remembrances attend my dearest sisters, 
 Emma and Lydia, as they well know. You two are such 
 bad correspondents that on this ground I prefer another 
 petition for the renewal of Lydia's correspondence, she 
 need not suspect anything now, nor her friends. I have 
 no idea that I should trouble her upon the old subject, even 
 if I were settled in England for oh, this vain world ! quid 
 habet commodi ? quid non potius laboris ? 
 
 But I never expect to see England more, nor do I ex- 
 pect that though all obstacles should be removed, she would 
 ever become mine unless I came for her, and I now do not 
 wonder at it, though I did before. If any one of my sisters 
 had had such a proposal made to them, I would never have 
 consented to their going, so you may see the affair is 
 ended between us. My wish is that she would be scribe 
 for you all, and I promise on my part to send you through 
 her an ample detail of all tny proceedings ; also she need 
 not imagine that I may form another attachment in which 
 case she might suppose a correspondence with an un- 
 married lady might be productive of difficulties, for after 
 one disappointment I am not likely to try my chance 
 again, and if I do I will give her the earliest intelligence 
 of it, with the same frankness with which I have always 
 dealt (with her). 
 
 Meanwhile, on the silent shores of South Cornwall, 
 Lydia Grenfell was thus remembering him before God : 
 
 1809, March 30. My dear friend in India much upon 
 my heart lately, chiefly in desires that the work of God 
 may prosper in his hands, and that he may become more 
 and more devoted to the Lord. I seem, as to the future, 
 to have attained what a year or two since I prayed much 
 for to regard him absent as in another state of existence, 
 and my affection is holy, pure, and spiritual for this dear 
 saint of God ; when it is otherwise, it is owing to my look- 
 ing back. Recollections -sometimes intrude, and I welcome 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 299 
 
 them, alas, and act over again the past but Lord, Thy 
 holy, blessed will be done cheerfully, thankfully I say 
 this. 
 
 Tregembo, July II. I have suffered from levity of 
 spirit, and lost thereby the enjoyment of God. How good 
 then is it in the Lord to employ means in His providence 
 to recall His wanderer to Himself and happiness ! Such 
 mercy belongeth unto God and this His care over me I 
 will record as a testimony against myself, if I forsake Him 
 again and lose that sweet seriousness of mind, so essential 
 to my peace and safety. Though I have never (perhaps 
 for many hours in a day) ceased to remember my dear 
 friend in India, it has not of late been in a way but as I 
 might love and think of him in heaven. Why is it then 
 that the intelligence of his probable nearness to that 
 blessed abode should distress me? yet it did, and does so 
 still. It is this intelligence which has, I hope, taught that 
 my late excessive cheerfulness was dangerous to my soul, 
 in weakening my hold of better and calmer joys. I was 
 directed, I think, to the thirty-sixth Psalm for what I 
 wanted on this occasion, as I was once before to the sixty- 
 first, and I have found it most wonderfully cheering to my 
 heart. The Lord, as * the preserver of man and beast/ 
 caused me to exercise dependence on Him respecting the 
 result of my friend's illness. Then the description of the 
 Divine perfections drew back my wandering heart, I hope 
 to God. The declaration of those who trust in God being 
 abundantly satisfied with the fatness of His house, taught 
 me where real enjoyment alone will be found ; but the 
 concluding part opened in a peculiarly sweet way to my 
 mind : ' Thou shalt make them drink of the river of Thy 
 pleasures.' 
 
 October 23. I am under some painful forebodings 
 respecting my dear absent friend, and know not how to 
 act. I am strongly impelled to write to him, now that he 
 is in affliction and perhaps sickness himself yet I dread 
 
300 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 departing from the . plain path of duty. ' O Lord, direct 
 me/ is my cry. I hope my desire is to do Thy will, and 
 only Thy will. I have given him up to Thee oh, let me 
 do so sincerely, and trust in Thy fatherly care. 
 
 1810, January i. Felt the necessity of beginning this 
 year with prayer for preserving grace. Prayed with some 
 sense of my own weakness and dependence on God with 
 a conviction of much sin and hope in His mercy through 
 Jesus Christ. Oh, to be Thine, Lord, in heart and life this 
 year ! Had a remembrance of those most dear to me in 
 prayer, and found it very sweet to commend them to God, 
 especially my friend in India perhaps not now in India, 
 but in heaven. Oh, to join him at last in Thy blissful 
 presence ! 
 
 January 24. Heard yesterday of the marriage of Mr. 
 John what a mercy to me do I feel it ! a load gone off 
 my mind, for every evil I heard of his committing I feared 
 I might have been the cause of, by my conduct ten years 
 since I rejoice in this event for his sake and my own. 
 
 February 6. Heard at last of the safety of my friend 
 in India, and wrote to him many fears on my mind as to 
 its propriety, and great deadness of soul in doing it yet 
 ere I concluded I felt comforted from the thought of the 
 nearness of eternity, and the certainty that then, without 
 any fear of doing wrong, I should again enjoy communion 
 with him. 
 
 February 24. Many sad presages of evil concerning 
 my absent friend, yet I am enabled to leave all to God 
 only now I pray, if consistent with His will, his life may 
 be spared, and as a means of it, that God may incline him 
 to return again to this land. I never did before dare to 
 ask this, believing the cause of God would be more advanced 
 by his remaining in India ; but now I pray, without fear of 
 doing wrong or opposing the will of God, for his return. 
 
 March 5. I am sensible of a very remarkable change 
 in the desires of my soul' before God, respecting my absent 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 301 
 
 friend. I with freedom and peace now pray continually 
 that he maybe restored to his friends and country ; before, 
 I never dared to ask anything but that the Lord would 
 order this as His wisdom saw fit, and thought it not a 
 subject for prayer. His injured health causes me to believe 
 that India is not the place for his labours and, oh, that his 
 mind may be rightly influenced and the Lord's will done, 
 whether it be his remaining there or returning. 
 
 April 23. Wrote to India. 
 
 November 30. Heard yesterday, and again to-day, 
 from India. 1 The illness of my friend fills me with appre- 
 hensions on his account, and I seemed called on to prepare 
 for hearing of his removal. I wish to place before my 
 eyes the blessedness of the change to him, and, though 
 agitated and sad, I can bear to think of our never more 
 beholding each other in this world. This indeed has long 
 been my expectation, and that he should have left the 
 toils of mortality for the joys of heaven should, on his 
 account, fill me with praise yet my heart cannot rise 
 with thankfulness. I seem stupefied, insensible to any 
 feeling but that of anxiety to hear again and know the 
 truth, and that my heart could joy in God at all times ; 
 but alas ! all is cold there ! Oh, return, blessed Spirit of life 
 and peace. 
 
 1811, March 28. Heard from my dearest friend in 
 India. 2 Rose early. Found my spirit engaged in prayer, 
 
 but was far otherwise in reading. Such dulness 
 
 and inattention as ought deeply to abase me, vanity and a 
 desire to appear of importance in the school, beset me. 
 
 Corrie had been ordered from his narrow parish of 
 Chunar to the wider field of Agra, and on his way up was 
 directed to remain at Cawnpore to help his friend, whose 
 physical exhaustion was too apparent even to the most 
 
 1 By letters written March 30 and April 19, 1810, from Cawnpore. 
 
 2 By letter written August 14, 1810. 
 
302 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 careless officer. Among those influenced by both was 
 one of the surgeons, Dr. Govan, 1 who was spared, at St. 
 Andrews, till after the Mutiny of 1857, when in an un- 
 published lecture to its Literary and Philosophical Society, 
 he thus alluded to these workers in Cawnpore : 
 
 The Hukeem and the missionary hear native opinion 
 spoken out with much greater freedom than the political 
 agent, the judge, or commandant. ' Were there many 
 more of the Sahibean Ungez (the English gentlemen) in 
 character like the Padre Sahibs (Corrie and Martyn), 
 Christianity would make more progress here/ was the un- 
 varied testimony of the natives in their favour. ... I 
 cannot help mentioning the results of various conversations 
 I had with two natives of Eastern rank and family employed 
 by the Venerable Mr. Corrie, afterwards Bishop of Madras, 
 and the Rev. Henry Martyn, in Scripture translation, and 
 whose assistance I had used in the study of the languages, 
 as they quite coincide with much which I had the oppor- 
 tunity of hearing among men of still higher position in the 
 native educated community, when attached to the staff of 
 the Governor-General : ' By the decrees of God/ said the 
 Mohammedan noble, ' and the ubiquity of their fleets, 
 armaments, and commerce, it appears plainly that the 
 European nations have become the arbiters of the destinies 
 of the nations of Asia. Yet this seems to us strange in 
 the followers of Him who taught that His true disciples 
 must be ready to give their cloaks also to him who took 
 from them their coats.' To which I had no better reply 
 than this, that the progress of events in the world's history 
 seems to us to give evidence that undoubtedly a Divine 
 message had been sent, both to governments and their 
 subjects, to which, at their peril, both must give attention. 
 
 1 On leaving the station Henry Martyn presented his French New Testa- 
 ment to Dr. Govan, a little morocco-bound volume which his son prizes as an 
 heirloom. 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 303 
 
 But that, as a question of public national policy, it seemed 
 generally admitted and understood that the civil rulers of 
 no nation, Christian, Mohammedan, or Heathen, were laid 
 under an obligation, by their individual beliefs, to allow a 
 country, unable to govern itself by reason of its intermin- 
 able divisions and subjects of deadly internal strife, to be 
 occupied and made use of by their European or other 
 enemies, as a means for their own injury or destruction, for 
 any criminal or sinful acts, done in the building up of a 
 nation or government. I may add that I never heard a 
 native of India attempt directly to impugn the perfect 
 justice of the British possession of India on this ground. 
 ' The Padre Sahib has put the subject in its true light ' 
 (said the same Mohammedan authority) 'when he said 
 that Christianity had higher objects in view, in its influence 
 on human character, than to enforce absolute rules about 
 meats and drinks ; for should he even induce me (which is 
 unlikely) to become more of a Christian than I am, believing, 
 as I do, in the authority of the Old Testament prophets, 
 and in Jesus Christ as a prophet sent by God, he will 
 never persuade me to look upon many articles of diet used 
 by Christians with anything but the most intense disgust 
 and abhorrence, and he will assuredly find it the same with 
 most of these idolatrous Hindus. 
 
 We return to Martyn's Journal and Correspondence : 
 
 July 8. (Sunday.) Corrie preached to the 53rd a 
 funeral sermon on the death of one of their captains. In 
 the afternoon I spoke to the natives on the first command- 
 ment, with greater fluency than I have yet found. My 
 thoughts to-day very much towards Lydia ; I began even 
 to be reconciled to the idea of going to England for her. 
 ' Many are the thoughts of a man's heart, but the counsel 
 of the Lord, that shall stand.' 
 
304 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 To LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 Cawnpore : August 14, 1810. 
 
 With what delight do I sit down to begin a letter 
 to my beloved Lydia ! Yours of February 5, which I 
 received a few days ago, was written, I conceive, in con- 
 siderable embarrassment. You thought it possible it might 
 find me married, or about to be so. Let me begin, 
 therefore, with assuring you, with more truth than Gehazi 
 did his master, * Thy servant went no whither : ' my heart 
 has not strayed from Marazion, or Gurlyn, or wherever you 
 are. Five long years have passed, and I am still faithful. 
 Happy would it be if I could say that I had been equally 
 true to my profession of love for Him who is fairer than ten 
 thousand, and altogether lovely. Yet to the praise of His 
 grace let me recollect that twice five years have passed away 
 since I began to know Him, and I am still not gone from 
 Him. On the contrary, time and experience have en- 
 deared the Lord to me more and more, so that I feel less 
 inclination, and see less reason for leaving Him. What is 
 there, alas ! in the world, were it even everlasting ? 
 
 I rejoice at the accounts you give me of your continued 
 good health and labours of love. Though you are not so 
 usefully employed as you might be in India, yet as that 
 must not be, I contemplate with delight your exertions at 
 the other end of the world. May you be instrumental in 
 bringing many sons and daughters to glory. What is 
 become of St. Hilary and its fairy scenes ? When I think 
 of Malachy, and the old man, and your sister, and Josepha, 
 etc., how some are dead, and the rest dispersed, and their 
 place occupied by strangers, it seems all like a dream. 
 
 August 15. It is only little intervals of time that I can 
 find for writing ; my visitors, about whom I shall write 
 presently, taking up much of my leisure from necessary duty. 
 Here follow some extracts from my Journal. . . . 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 305 
 
 Here my Journal must close. I do not know whether 
 you understand from it how we go on. I must endeavour 
 to give you a clearer idea of it. 
 
 We all live here in bungalows, or thatched houses, on a 
 piece of ground enclosed. Next to mine is the church, not 
 yet opened for public worship, but which we make use of 
 at night with the men of the 53rd. Corrie lives with me, 
 and Miss Corrie with the Sherwoods. We usually rise 
 at daybreak, and breakfast at six. Immediately after 
 breakfast we pray together, after which I translate into 
 Arabic with Sabat, who lives in a small bungalow on my 
 ground. We dine at twelve, and sit recreating ourselves 
 with talking a little about dear friends in England. In the 
 afternoon, I translate with Mirza Fitrut into Hindustani, 
 and Corrie employs himself in teaching some native 
 Christian boys whom he is educating with great care, in 
 hopes of their being fit for the office of catechist. I have 
 also a school on my premises, for natives ; but it is not 
 well attended. There are not above sixteen Hindu boys 
 in it at present : half of them read the Book of Genesis. 
 At sunset we ride or drive, and then meet at the church, 
 where we often raise the song of praise, with as much joy, 
 through the grace and presence of our Lord, as you do in 
 England. At ten we are all asleep. Thus we go on. To the 
 hardships of missionaries we are strangers, yet not averse, 
 I trust, to encounter them when we are called. My work 
 at present is evidently to translate ; hereafter I may 
 itinerate. Dear Corrie, I fear, never will, he always suffers 
 from moving about in the daytime. But I should have 
 said something about my health, as I find my death was 
 reported at Cambridge. I thank God I am perfectly well, 
 though not very strong in my lungs ; they do not seem 
 affected yet, but I cannot speak long without uneasiness. 
 From the nature of my complaint, if it deserves the name, 
 it is evident that England is the last place I should go to. 
 I should go home only to find a grave. How shall I 
 
 X 
 
3 o6 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 therefore ever see you more on this side of eternity ? 
 Well ! be it so, since such is the will of God : we shall 
 meet, through grace, in the realms of bliss. 
 
 I am truly sorry to see my paper fail. Write as often as 
 possible, every three months at least. Tell me where you 
 go, and whom you see and what you read. 
 
 August 17. I am sdrry to conclude with saying that 
 my yesterday's boasted health proved a mistake ; I was 
 seized with violent sickness in the night, but to-day am 
 better. Continue to pray for me, and believe me to be, 
 your ever affectionate 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 September 22. Was walking with Lydia ; both much 
 affected, and speaking on the things dearest to us both. 
 I awoke, and behold it was a dream. My mind remained 
 very solemn and pensive ; shed some tears ; the clock 
 struck three, and the moon was riding near her highest 
 noon ; all was silence and solemnity, and I thought with 
 some pain of the sixteen thousand miles between us. But 
 good is the will of the Lord, if I see her no more. 
 
 To LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 From the Ganges : October 6, 1810. 
 
 My dearest Lydia, Though I have had no letter 
 from you very lately, nor have anything particular to say, 
 yet having been days on the water without a person to 
 speak to, tired also with reading and thinking, I mean to 
 indulge myself with a little of what is always agreeable to 
 me, and sometimes good for me ; for as my affection for 
 you has something sacred in it, being founded on, or at 
 least cemented by, an union of spirit in the Lord Jesus ; so 
 my separation also from you produced a deadness to the 
 world, at least for a time, which leaves a solemn impression 
 as often as I think of it. Add to this, that as I must not 
 indulge the hope of ever seeing you again in this world, I 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 307 
 
 cannot think of you without thinking also of that world 
 where we shall meet. You mention in one of your letters 
 my coming to England, as that which may eventually 
 prove a duty. You ought to have added, that in case I do 
 come, you will consider it a duty not to let me come away 
 again without you. But I am not likely to put you to the 
 trial. Useless as I am here, I often think I should be still 
 more so at home. Though my voice fails me, I can 
 translate and converse. At home I should be nothing 
 without being able to lift my voice on high. I have just 
 left my station, Cawnpore, in order to be silent six months. 
 I have no cough, or any kind of consumption, except that 
 reading prayers, or preaching, or a slight cold, brings on 
 pain in the chest. I am advised therefore to recruit my 
 strength by rest. So I am come forth, with my face 
 towards Calcutta, with an ulterior view to the sea. Nothing 
 happened at Cawnpore, after I wrote to you in September 
 but I must look to my Journal. 
 
 I think of having my portrait taken in Calcutta, as 
 I promised Mr. Simeon five years ago. Sabat's picture 
 would also be a curiosity. Yesterday I carried Col. Wood 
 to dine with me, at the Nabob Bahir Ali's. Sabat was 
 there. The Colonel, who had been reading by the way 
 the account of his conversion, in the Asiatic and East 
 Society Report, which I had given him, eyed him with no 
 great complacency, and observed in French, that Sabat 
 might not understand him, * II a 1'air d'un sauvage.' Sabat's 
 countenance is indeed terrible ; noble when he is pleased, 
 but with the look of an assassin when he is out of humour. 
 I have had more opportunities of knowing Sabat than any 
 man has had, and I cannot regard him with that interest 
 which the ' Star in the East ' is calculated to excite in most 
 people. Buchanan says, I wrote (to whom I do not know) 
 in terms of admiration and affection about him. Affection 
 I do feel for him, but admiration, if I did once feel it, I am 
 not conscious of it at present. I tremble for everything 
 
 x 2 
 
3 o8 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 our dear friends publish about our doings in India, lest 
 shame come to us and them. 
 
 Calcutta, November 5. A sheet full, like the preceding, 
 I had written, but the moment it is necessary to send off 
 my letter I cannot find it. That it does not go on to you 
 is of little consequence, but into whose hands may it have 
 fallen ? It is this that grieves me. It was the continuance 
 of my Journal to Calcutta, where I arrived the last day in 
 October. Constant conversation with dear friends here 
 has brought on the pain in the chest again, so that I do not 
 attempt to preach. In two or three weeks I shall embark 
 for the Gulf of Persia, where, if I live, I shall solace myself 
 in my hours of solitude with writing to you. 
 
 Farewell, beloved friend ; pray for me, as you do, I am 
 sure, and doubt not of an unceasing interest in the heart 
 and prayers of your ever affectionate 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 Ordered away on six months' sick leave, Henry Martyn 
 had the joy of once at least ministering to his soldier 
 flock in the ' new church/ which he had induced the autho- 
 rities to form out of an ordinary bungalow. Daily and 
 fondly had he watched the preparations, reporting to 
 Brown : * My church is almost ready for the organ and the 
 bell.' On Sunday, September 16, he had written : 
 
 ' Rain prevented me from having any service in public ; 
 the natives not being able to sit upon the grass, I could not 
 preach to them.' 
 
 On Sunday, September 30, he thus took farewell of his 
 different congregations : 
 
 Corrie preached to the Dragoons, at nine the new 
 church was opened. There was a considerable congregation, 
 and I preached on, ' In all places where I record my name, 
 I will come unto thee and bless thee.' ' I felt something of 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 309 
 
 thankfulness and joy, and our dear friends the same. The 
 Sherwoods and Miss Corrie stayed with us the rest of the 
 day. In the afternoon I preached the Gospel to the 
 natives for the first time, giving them a short account of 
 the life, death, miracles, manner of teaching, death and 
 resurrection of Jesus, then the doctrines of His religion, and 
 concluded with exhorting them to believe in Him, and 
 taking them to record that I had declared to them the glad 
 tidings that had come to us, and that if they rejected it I 
 was clear from their blood, and thus I bid them farewell. 
 
 Mrs. Sherwood thus describes the scene : 
 
 On the Sunday before Mr. Martyn left the church was 
 opened, and the bell sounded for the first time over this 
 land of darkness. The church was crowded, and there was 
 the band of our regiment to lead the singing and the 
 chanting. Sergeant Clarke our Sergeant Clarke had 
 been appointed as clerk ; and there he sat under the desk 
 in due form, in his red coat, and went through his duty 
 with all due correctness. The Rev. Daniel Corrie read 
 prayers, and Mr. Martyn preached. That was a day never 
 to be forgotten. Those only who have been for some years 
 in a place where there never has been public worship can 
 have any idea of the fearful effect of its absence, especially 
 among the mass of the people, who, of course, are unre- 
 generate. Every prescribed form of public worship certainly 
 has a tendency to become nothing more than a form, yet 
 even a form may awaken reflection, and any state is better 
 than that of perfect deadness. From his first arrival at the 
 station Mr. Martyn had been labouring to effect the pur- 
 pose which he then saw completed ; namely, the opening 
 of a place of worship. He was permitted to see it, to ad- 
 dress the congregation once, and then he was summoned 
 to depart. How often, how very often, are human beings 
 called away, perhaps from this world, at the moment they 
 have been enabled to bring to bear some favourite object. 
 
3 io HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Blessed are those whose object has been such a one as that 
 of Henry Martyn. Alas ! he was known to be, even then, 
 in a most dangerous state of health, either burnt within by 
 slow inflammation, which gave a flush to his cheek, or pale 
 as death from weakness and lassitude. 
 
 On this occasion the bright glow prevailed a brilliant 
 light shone from his eyes- he was filled with hope and joy ; 
 he saw the dawn of better things, he thought, at Cawnpore, 
 and most eloquent, earnest, and affectionate was his address 
 to the congregation. Our usual party accompanied him 
 back to his bungalow, where, being arrived, he sank, as was 
 often his way, nearly fainting, on a sofa in the hall. Soon, 
 however, he revived a little, and called us all about him to 
 sing. It was then that we sang to him that sweet hymn 
 which thus begins : 
 
 O God, our help in ages past, 
 
 Our hope for years to come, 
 Our shelter from the stormy blast, 
 
 And our eternal home. 
 
 We all dined early together, and then returned with our 
 little ones to enjoy some rest and quiet ; but when the sun 
 began to descend to the horizon we again went over to 
 Mr. Martyn's bungalow, to hear his last address to the 
 fakeers. It was one of those sickly, hazy, burning even- 
 ings, which I have before described, and the scene was 
 precisely such a one as I have recounted above. Mr. 
 Martyn nearly fainted again after this effort, and when he 
 got to his house, with his friends about him, he told us that 
 he was afraid he had not been the means of doing the 
 smallest good to any one of the strange people whom he 
 had thus so often addressed. He did not even then know 
 of the impression he had been enabled to make, on one of 
 these occasions, on Sheikh Saleh. On the Monday our 
 beloved friend went to his boats, which lay at the Ghaut, 
 nearest the bungalow ; but in the cool of the evening, how- 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 311 
 
 ever, whilst Miss Corrie and myself were taking the air in 
 our tonjons, he came after us on horseback. There was a 
 gentle sadness in his aspect as he accompanied me home ; 
 and Miss Corrie came also. Once again we all supped to- 
 gether, and united in one last hymn. We were all low, 
 very, very low ; we could never expect to behold again 
 that face which we then saw to hear again that voice, or 
 to be again elevated and instructed by that conversation. 
 It was impossible to hope that he would survive the fatigue 
 of such a journey as he meditated. Often and often, when 
 thinking of him, have these verses, so frequently sung by 
 him, come to my mind : 
 
 E'er since by faith I saw the stream 
 
 Thy flowing wounds supply, 
 Redeeming love has been my theme, 
 
 And shall be till I die. 
 
 Then, in a nobler, sweeter song, 
 
 I'll sing Thy power to save, 
 When this poor lisping, stammering tongue 
 
 Is silent in the grave. 
 
 Henry Martyn's continued to be the military church of 
 Cawnpore till 1857, when it was destroyed in the Mutiny. 
 Its place has been taken by a Memorial Church which 
 visibly proclaims forgiveness and peace on the never-to- 
 be forgotten site of Wheeler's entrenchment consecrated 
 ground indeed ! 
 
 On October I he left Cawnpore, ' after a parting prayer 
 with my dearest brother Corrie,' l to whom he wrote from 
 Allahabad : 
 
 Thus far we are come in safety ; but my spirits tell me 
 
 1 We have these reminiscences of Henry Martyn's Cawnpore from Bishop 
 Corrie, when, as Archdeacon of Calcutta, he again visited it. In 1824 he 
 writes : ' I arrived at this station on the day fourteen years after sainted 
 Martyn had dedicated the church. The house he occupied stands close by. 
 
312 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 that I have parted . with friends. Your pale face as it 
 appeared on Monday morning is still before my eyes, and 
 will not let me be easy till you tell me you are strong and 
 prudent. The first night there blew a wind so bleak and 
 cold, through and through my boat and bed, that I rose, 
 as I expected, with a pain in the breast, which has not 
 quite left me, but will, I hope, to-night, when I shall take 
 measures for expelling it. There is a gate not paid for yet 
 belonging to the church-yard, may you always go through 
 it in faith and return through it with praise. You are now 
 in prayer with our men. The Lord be with you, and be 
 always with you, dearest brother. 
 
 Ministering to all who needed his services, in preach- 
 ing, baptizing, and marrying, on his way down the great 
 Ganges, at Benares, at Ghazipore, where he met with { the 
 remains ' of his old 6/th regiment, at Bhagulpore, and at 
 Bandel, where he called on the Roman Catholics, on 
 November 12 he at last came to Aldeen. 
 
 The view of the place and the remembrance of what had passed greatly 
 affected me. ... I had to assist in administering the sacrament, and well it 
 was, on the whole, that none present could enter into my feelings, or I should 
 have been overcome.' Again : 'How would it have rejoiced the heart of 
 Martyn could he have had the chief authorities associated, by order of Govern- 
 ment, to assist him in the work of education ; and how gladly would he have 
 made himself their servant in the work for Jesus' sake ! One poor blind man 
 who lives in an outhouse of Martyn's, and received a small monthly sum from 
 him, often comes to our house, and affords a mournful pleasure in reminding 
 me of some little occurrence of those times. A wealthy native too, who lived 
 next door to us, sent his nephew to express to me the pleasure he derived from 
 his acquaintance with Martyn. These are all the traces I have found of that 
 4 ' excellent one of the earth " at the station. ' 
 
 In 1833 Corrie was again at Cawnpore, which had two chaplains then, and 
 thus wrote : ' October 6. I attended Divine service at the church bungalow, 
 and stood up once more in Martyn's pulpit. The place is a little enlarged. 
 The remembrance of Martyn and the Sherwoods, and Mary (his sister), with 
 the occupations of that period, came powerfully to my recollection, and I 
 could not prevent the tears from flowing. A sense of the forgiving love of 
 God, with the prospect of all joining in thankful adoration in the realms of 
 bliss, greatly preponderates. 
 
CAWNPORE, 1809-1810 313 
 
 Children jumping, shouting, and convoying me in 
 troops to the house. They are a lovely family indeed, and 
 I do not know when I have felt so delighted as at family 
 worship last night To-day Mr. Brown and myself have 
 been consulting at the Pagoda. 
 
 After four years' absence he seemed a dying man to his 
 Serampore and Calcutta friends, Brown, Thomason, Udny, 
 and Colonel Young of Dinapore memory. But he was ever 
 cheerful, and he preached every Sunday for five weeks, 
 though in his Journal we find this on November 2 1 : 
 
 Caught a cold, and kept awake much of the night by a 
 cough. From this day perhaps I may date my decay. 
 Nature shrinks from dissolution, and conscience trembles 
 at the thought of a judgment to come. But I try to 
 rejoice in God through our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 November 25. (Sunday.) Preached at the old church, 
 on * While Paul reasoned of righteousness,' etc. The 
 Governor-General, Lord Minto, was present, desiring, as 
 was supposed, to abolish the distinction which had been 
 made between the two churches. One passage in my ser- 
 mon appeared to some personal, and on reconsideration 
 I thought it so myself, and was excessively distressed 
 at having given causeless offence, and perhaps preventing 
 much good. Lord ! pardon a blind creature. How much 
 mischief may I do through mere thoughtlessness ! 
 
 December 2. Preached at eight, on ' Grace reigns/ and 
 was favoured with strength of body and joy of heart in 
 proclaiming the glorious truth. 
 
 December 25. Preached, with much comfort to myself, 
 on 'God so loved the world that He gave His only begotten 
 Son,' etc. Mr. Brown on ' Let your light so shine before 
 men,' etc. The whole sum collected about seven thousand 
 rupees. At night Mr. Thomason on ' Through the tender 
 mercy of our God, whereby the dayspring from on high 
 
314 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 hath visited us.' This day how many of those who love 
 the Lord Jesus Christ in sincerity are rejoicing in His birth. 
 My dear Lydia remembers me. 
 
 December 31. Had a long dispute with Marshman, 
 which brought on pain in the chest. 
 
 He opened the year, 1811 by preaching for the new 
 Calcutta Auxiliary of the British and Foreign Bible Society 
 his published sermon on Christian India and the Bible, to 
 be read in the light of his own translation work hereafter. 
 He thus on the same day committed himself to the future 
 in the spirit of St. Paul : 
 
 1811. The weakness which has come upon me in the 
 course of the last year, if it should not give an entire new 
 turn to my life, is likely to be productive of events in the 
 course of the present year which I little expected, or at 
 least did not expect so soon. I now pass from India to 
 Arabia, not knowing what things shall befall me there ; but 
 assured that an ever-faithful God and Saviour will be with 
 me in all places whithersoever I go. May He guide and 
 protect me, and after prospering me in the thing 
 whereunto I go, bring me back again to my delightful 
 work in India. It would be a painful thought indeed, 
 to suppose myself about to return no more. Having 
 succeeded, apparently, through His blessing, in the Hin- 
 dustani New Testament, I feel much encouraged, and could 
 wish to be spared in order to finish the Bible. 
 
315 
 
 CHAPTER VIII 
 
 FROM CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY, AND ARABIA 
 
 Two motives made Henry Martyn eager to leave India for 
 a time, and to cease the strain on his fast-ebbing strength, 
 caused by incessant preaching and speaking : he desired 
 to prolong his life, but to prolong it only till he should give 
 the Mohammedans of Arabia and Persia the Word of God 
 in their own tongues. After his first, almost fatal, attack 
 at Dinapore, Corrie, who had gone to help him in his duties, 
 wrote to * the Patriarch/ as they called Mr. Brown, at 
 Aldeen : ' He wishes to be spared on account of the trans- 
 lations, but with great earnestness said, " I wish to have 
 my whole soul swallowed up in the will of God." ' Two 
 years after, Corrie wrote to England from Cawnpore : ' He 
 is going to try sea air. May God render it effectual to his 
 restoration. His life is beyond all price to us. You know 
 what a profound scholar he is, and all his acquirements are 
 dedicated to the service of Christ. If ever man, since St. 
 Paul, could use these words, he may, One thing I do. But 
 the length of his life will depend on his desisting from 
 public duties.' To Martyn himself, when at last he had 
 left Cawnpore, Corrie wrote : ' If you will not take rest, 
 dear brother, come away back ; ' informing him, at the 
 same time, that he had returned to a Colonel, whom he had 
 married, 1,600 rupees, he and Martyn having resolved to 
 decline all fees for marrying and burying in India, where 
 
3i6 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 such were a stumbling-block in the way of morality and 
 religion, constituted as Anglo-Indian society was at that 
 time. 
 
 When he was leaving Cawnpore, Henry Martyn was 
 about to destroy what he called ' a number of memoran- 
 dums.' These afterwards* proved to be his Journals from 
 January 1803 to 1811, some of which were written in Latin, 
 and some in Greek, for greater secrecy. Corrie remonstrated 
 with him, and persuaded him to seal them up and leave 
 them in his hands. Lord Minto, the Governor-General, and 
 General Hewett, the Commander-in-chief, after receiving a 
 statement of Martyn's object, gave their sanction to his 
 spending his sick-leave in Persia and Syria. At first the 
 only ship he could find bound for Bombay, en route to the 
 Persian Gulf, was one of the native buggalows which carried 
 the coasting trade in the days before the British India 
 Steam Navigation Company had begun to develop the 
 commerce of the Indian Ocean all along East Africa, 
 Southern Asia, the Spice Islands, and Australasia. But 
 he wrote to Corrie : 
 
 The captain of the ship after many excuses has at last 
 refused to take me, on the ground that I might try to 
 convert the Arab sailors, and so cause a mutiny in the 
 ship. So I am quite out of heart, and more than half 
 disposed to go to the right about, and come back to 
 Cawnpore. 
 
 His uncompromising earnestness as a witness for Christ 
 was well known. Fortunately, a month after, the Honour- 
 able Mountstuart Elphinstone * was proceeding to take the 
 residency of Poona,' and Martyn secured a passage in the 
 same ship, the Hummoody, an Arab coaster belonging to 
 
CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY,- AND ARABIA 317 
 
 a Muscat merchant, and manned by his Abyssinian slave 
 as Nakhoda. 
 
 His last message to Calcutta, on the evening of 
 the first Sunday of the year 1811, was on The one thing 
 needful. Next morning he quietly went on board Mr. 
 Elphinstone's pinnace ' without taking leave of my two dear 
 friends in Calcutta.' As they dropped down the Hoogli, 
 anchoring for two nights in its treacherous waters, his 
 henceforth brief entries in his Journal are these : ' 8th. Con- 
 versation with Mr. Elphinstone, and disputes with his 
 Persian moulvi, left me weak and in pain. 9th. Reached the 
 ship at Saugur, and began to try my strength with the 
 Arab sailors.' He found that the country-born captain, 
 Kinsay, had been brought up by Schwartz, and he obtained 
 from him much information regarding the habits and the 
 rule of the Lutheran apostle of Southern India. This is 
 new : 
 
 It was said that Schwartz had a warning given him of 
 his death. One clear moonlight night he saw a light, and 
 heard a voice which said to him, ' Follow me/ He got up 
 and went to the door ; here the vision vanished. The next 
 day he sent for Dr. Anderson and said, * An old tree must 
 fall.' On the doctor's perceiving there was nothing the 
 matter with him, Schwartz asked him whether he observed 
 any disorder in his intellect ; to which the doctor replied, 
 * No.' He and General Floyd (now in Ireland), another 
 friend of Schwartz, came and stayed with him. The next 
 fifteen days he was continually engaged in devotion, and 
 attended no more to the school : on the last day he died 
 in his chair. 
 
 Henry Martyn was well fitted by culture and training 
 to appreciate the society of such statesmen and thinkers as 
 
318 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Mountstuart Elphinstone, Sir John Malcolm, Sir James 
 Mackintosh, and Jonathan Duncan, who in their turn de- 
 lighted in his society during the next five weeks. Of the 
 first he wrote to Corrie : ' His agreeable manners and classical 
 acquirements made me think myself fortunate indeed 
 in having such a companion, and I found his company the 
 most agreeable circumstance in my voyage.' They walked 
 together in the cinnamon groves of Ceylon, when the ship 
 touched at Colombo ; together they talked of the work of 
 Xavier as they skirted Cape Comorin, and observed Portu- 
 guese churches every two or three miles, with a row of 
 huts on each side. ' Perhaps,' he wrote in his Journal, 
 ( many of these poor people, with all the incumbrances 
 of Popery, are moving towards the kingdom of heaven.' 
 Together the two visited old Goa, the ecclesiastical capital, 
 its convents and churches. The year after their visit the 
 Goa Inquisition, one of the cruellest of its branches since 
 its foundation, was suppressed. Henry Martyn's letters 
 to Lydia Grenfell best describe his experiences and 
 impressions : 
 
 To LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 At Sea, Coast of Malabar : February 4, 1811. 
 
 The last letter I wrote to you, my dearest Lydia, was 
 dated November 1810. I continued in Calcutta to the 
 end of the year, preaching once a week, and reading the 
 Word in some happy little companies, with whom I enjoyed 
 that sweet communion which all in this vale of tears have 
 reason to be thankful for, but especially those whose lot is 
 cast in a heathen land. On New-year's day, at Mr. Brown's 
 urgent request, I preached a sermon for the Bible Society, 
 recommending an immediate attention to the state of the 
 native Christians. At the time I left Calcutta they talked 
 
CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY, AND ARABIA 319 
 
 of forming an auxiliary society. Leaving Calcutta was so 
 much like leaving England, that I went on board my boat 
 without giving them notice, and so escaped the pain of 
 bidding them farewell. In two days I met my ship at the 
 mouth of the river, and we put to sea immediately. Our 
 ship is commanded by a pupil of Schwartz, and manned 
 by Arabians, Abyssinians, and others. One of my fellow- 
 passengers is Mr. Elphinstone, who was lately ambassador 
 at the court of the King of Cabul, and is now going to be 
 resident at Poona, the capital of the Mahratta empire. So 
 the group is rather interesting, and I am happy to say not 
 averse to religious instruction ; I mean the Europeans. 
 As for the Asiatics, they are in language, customs, and 
 religion, as far removed from us as if they were inhabitants 
 of another planet. I speak a little Arabic sometimes to 
 the sailors, but their contempt of the Gospel, and attach- 
 ment to their own superstition, make their conversion 
 appear impossible. How stupendous that power which 
 can make these people the followers of the Lamb, when 
 they so nearly resemble Satan in pride and wickedness ! 
 The first part of the voyage I was without employment, 
 and almost without thought, suffering as usual so much 
 from sea sickness, that I had not spirits to do anything but 
 sit upon the poop, surveying the wide waste of waters blue. 
 This continued all down the Bay of Bengal. At length in 
 the neighbourhood of Ceylon we found smooth water, and 
 came to an anchor off Colombo, the principal station in 
 the island. The captain having proposed to his passengers 
 that they should go ashore and refresh themselves with a 
 walk in the cinnamon gardens, Mr. Elphinstone and myself 
 availed ourselves of the offer, and went off to inhale the 
 cinnamon breeze. The walk was delightful. The huts of 
 the natives, who are (in that neighbourhood at least) most 
 of them Protestants, are built in thick groves of cocoa- 
 nut-tree, with openings here and there, discovering the 
 sea. Everything bore the appearance of contentment. I 
 
320 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 contemplated them with delight, and was almost g ad that I 
 could not speak with them, lest further acquaintance should 
 have dissipated the pleasing ideas their appearance gave 
 birth to. In the gardens I cut off a piece of the bark for 
 you. It will not be so fragrant as that which is properly 
 prepared ; but it will not have lost its fine smell, I hope, 
 when it reaches you. 
 
 At Captain Rodney's, the Chief Secretary to Govern- 
 ment, we met a good part of the European society of 
 Colombo. The party was like most mixed parties in 
 England, where much is said that need not be remembered. 
 The next day we stretched across the Gulf of Manaar, and 
 soon came in sight of Cape Comorin, the great promontory 
 of India. At a distance the green waves seemed to wash 
 the foot of the mountain, but on a nearer approach little 
 churches were seen, apparently on the beach, with a row of 
 little huts on each side. Was it these maritime situations 
 that recalled to my mind Perran church and town in the 
 way to Gurlyn ; or that my thoughts wander too often on 
 the beach to the east of Lamorran ? You do not tell me 
 whether you ever walk there, and imagine the billows that 
 break at your feet to have made their way from India. 
 But. why should I wish to know ? Had I observed silence 
 on that day and thenceforward, I should have spared you 
 much trouble, and myself much pain. Yet I am far from 
 regretting that I spoke, since I am persuaded that all 
 things will work together for good. I sometimes try to 
 put such a number of things together as shall produce the 
 greatest happiness possible, and I find that even in imagina- 
 tion I cannot satisfy myself. I set myself to see what is 
 that 'good for the sons of men, which they should do 
 under heaven all the days of their life,' and I find that 
 paradise is not here. Many things are delightful, some 
 things are almost all one could wish ; but yet in all beauty 
 there is deformity, in the most perfect something wanting, 
 and there is no hope of its ever being otherwise. * That 
 
CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY, AND ARABIA 321 
 
 which is crooked cannot be made straight, and that which 
 is wanting cannot be numbered.' So that the expectation 
 of happiness on earth seems chimerical to the last degree. 
 In my schemes of happiness I place myself of course with 
 you, blessed with great success in the ministry, and seeing 
 all India turning to the Lord. Yet it is evident that with 
 these joys there would be mingled many sorrows. The 
 care of all the churches was a burden to the mighty mind 
 of St. Paul. As for what we should be together, I judge 
 of it from our friends. Are they quite beyond the vexa- 
 tions of common life ? I think not still I do not say that 
 it is a question whether they gained or lost by marrying. 
 Their affections will live when ours (I should rather say 
 mine) are dead. Perhaps it may not be the effect of celi- 
 bacy ; but I certainly begin to feel a wonderful indifference 
 to all but myself. From so seldom seeing a creature that 
 cares for me, and never one that depends at all upon me, 
 I begin to look round upon men with reciprocal apathy. 
 It sometimes calls itself deadness to the world, but I much 
 fear that it is deadness of heart. I am exempt from worldly 
 cares myself, and therefore do not feel for others. Having 
 got out of the stream into still water, I go round and round 
 in my own little circle. This supposed deterioration you 
 will ascribe to my humility ; therefore I add that Mr. 
 Brown could not help remarking the difference between 
 what I am and what I was, and observed on seeing my 
 picture, which was taken at Calcutta for Mr. Simeon, and 
 is thought a striking likeness, that it was not Martyn that 
 arrived in India, but Martyn the recluse. 
 
 February 10. To-day my affections seem to have re- 
 vived a little. I have been often deceived in times past, 
 and erroneously called animal spirits joy in the Holy 
 Ghost. Yet I trust that I can say with truth, * To them 
 who believe, He is precious ! ' Yes, Thou art precious to 
 my soul, my transport and my trust. No thought now is 
 so sweet as that which those words suggest ' Jn Christ* 
 
 Y 
 
322 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Our destinies thus .inseparably united with those of the 
 Son of God, what is too great to be expected ? All things 
 are yours, for ye are Christ's ! We may ask what we will, 
 and it shall be given to us. Now, why do I ever lose sight 
 of Him, or fancy myself without Him, or try to do anything 
 without Him ? Break off a branch from a tree, and how 
 long will it be before i't withers? To-day, my beloved 
 sister, I rejoice in you before the Lord, I rejoice in you as 
 a member of the mystic body, I pray that your prayers for 
 one who is unworthy of your remembrance may be heard, 
 and bring down tenfold blessings on yourself. How good 
 is the Lord in giving me grace to rejoice with His chosen 
 all over the earth ; even with those who are at this moment 
 going up with the voice of joy and praise, to tread His courts 
 and sing His praise. There is not an object about me but 
 is depressing. Yet my heart expands with delight at the 
 presence of a gracious God, and the assurance that my 
 separation from His people is only temporary. 
 
 On the 7th we landed at Goa, the capital of the Portu- 
 guese possessions in the East. I reckoned much on my 
 visit to Goa, expecting, from its being the residence of the 
 archbishop and many ecclesiastics, that I should obtain such 
 information about the Christians in India as would render 
 it superfluous to make inquiries elsewhere, but I was much 
 disappointed. Perhaps it was owing to our being accom- 
 panied by several officers, English and Portuguese, that 
 the archbishop and his principal agents would not be seen ; 
 but so it was, that I scarcely met with a man who could 
 make himself intelligible. We are shown what strangers 
 are usually shown, the churches and monasteries, but I 
 wanted to contemplate man, the only thing on earth almost 
 that possesses any interest for me. I beheld the stupendous 
 magnificence of their noble churches without emotion, ex- 
 cept to regret that the Gospel was not preached in them. 
 In one of the monasteries we saw the tomb of Francis 
 Xavier, the Apostle of -India, most richly ornamented, as 
 
CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY, AND ARABIA 323 
 
 well as the room in which it stands, with paintings and 
 figures in bronze, done in Italy. The friar who showed us 
 the tomb, happening to speak of the grace of God in the 
 heart, without which, said he, as he held the sacramental 
 wafer, the body of Christ profits nothing, I began a con- 
 versation with him, which, however, came to nothing. 
 
 We visited among many other places the convent of 
 nuns. After a long altercation with the lady porter we 
 were admitted to the antechamber, in which was the grate, 
 a window with iron bars, behind which the poor prisoners 
 make their appearance. While my companions were pur- 
 chasing their trinkets I was employed in examining their 
 countenances, which I did with great attention. In what 
 possible way, thought I, can you support existence, if you 
 do not find your happiness in God ? They all looked ill 
 and discontented, those at least whose countenances ex- 
 pressed anything. One sat by reading, as if nothing were 
 going on. I asked to see the book, and it was handed 
 through the grate. Finding that it was a Latin prayer- 
 book, I wrote in Latin something about the love of the 
 world, which seclusion from it would not remove. The 
 Inquisition is still existing at Goa. We were not admitted 
 as far as Dr. Buchanan was, to the Hall of Examination, 
 and that because he printed something against the inquisi- 
 tors which came to their knowledge. The priest in waiting 
 acknowledged that they had some prisoners within the 
 walls, and defended the practice of imprisoning and chas- 
 tising offenders, on the ground of its being conformed to 
 the custom of the Primitive Church. We were told that 
 when the officers of the Inquisition touch an individual, 
 and beckon him away, he dares not resist ; if he does not 
 come out again, no one must ask about him ; if he does, he 
 must not tell what was done to him. 
 
 February 18. (Bombay.) Thus far I am brought in 
 safety. On this day I complete my thirtieth year. ' Here 
 I raise my Ebenezer ; Hither by Thy help I'm come.' 
 
324 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 2/th. It is sweet to reflect that we shall at last reach our 
 home. I am here amongst men who are indeed aliens to 
 the commonwealth of Israel and without God in the world. 
 I hear many of those amongst whom I live bring idle 
 objections against religion, such as I have answered a 
 hundred times. How insensible are men of the world to 
 all that God is doing ! tiow unconscious of His purposes 
 concerning His Church! How incapable, seemingly, of com- 
 prehending the existence of it ! I feel the meaning of St. 
 Paul's words ' Hath abounded toward us in all wisdom 
 and prudence, having made known unto us the mystery of 
 His will, that He would gather in one all things in Christ.' 
 Well ! let us bless the Lord. ' All thy children shall be 
 taught of the Lord, and great shall be the peace of thy 
 children.' In a few days I expect to sail for the Gulf of 
 Persia in one of the Company's sloops of war. 
 
 Farewell, my beloved Lydia, and believe me to be ever 
 yours most affectionately, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 All through the voyage, in the Bay of Bengal and the 
 Indian Ocean, the scholar was busy with his books, the 
 Hebrew Old Testament, ( reading Turkish grammar, Nie- 
 buhr's Arabia, making extracts from Maracci's Refutation of 
 the Koran, in general reading the Word of God with pleasure.' 
 
 February 10. (Sunday.) Somewhat of a happy 
 Sabbath ; I enjoyed communion with the saints, though far 
 removed from them ; service morning and night in the cabin. 
 
 January 14 to 17. When sitting on the poop Mr. 
 Elphinstone kindly entertained me with information about 
 India, the politics of which he has had such opportunities 
 of making himself acquainted with. The Afghans, to 
 whom he went as ambassador, to negotiate a treaty of 
 alliance in case of invasion by the French, possess a tract 
 of country considerably larger than Great Britain, using 
 
CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY, AND ARABIA 325 
 
 the Persian and Pushtu languages. Their chief tribe is the 
 Doorani, from which the king is elected. Shah Zeman 
 was dethroned by his half-brother Mahmood, governor of 
 Herat, who put out his eyes. Shah Zeman's younger 
 brother Shoujjah took up arms, and after several defeats 
 established himself for a time. He was on the throne 
 when Mr. Elphinstone visited him, but since that 
 Mahmood has begun to dispute the sovereignty with him. 
 Mr. Elphinstone has been with Holkar and Sindia a 
 good deal. Holkar he described as a little spitfire, his 
 general, Meer Khan, possessed abilities ; Sindia none ; 
 the Rajah of Berar the most politic of the native powers, 
 though the Nizam the most powerful ; the influence of 
 residents at Nagpoor and Hyderabad -very small. 
 
 February 17. Mostly employed in writing the Arabic 
 tract, also in reading the Koran ; a book of geography 
 in Arabic, and Jami Abbari in Persian. 
 
 I would that all should adore, but especially that I 
 myself should lie prostrate. As for self, contemptible self, 
 I feel myself saying, let it be forgotten for ever ; henceforth 
 let Christ live, let Christ reign, let Him be glorified for ever. 
 
 February 18. Came to anchor at Bombay. This day 
 I finish the 3<Dth year of my unprofitable life, an age in 
 which Brainerd had finished his course. He gained about 
 a hundred savages to the Gospel ; I can scarcely number the 
 twentieth part. If I cannot act, and rejoice, and love with 
 the ardour some did, oh, let me at least be holy, and sober, 
 and wise. I am now at the age at which the Saviour of 
 men began His ministry, and at which John the Baptist 
 called a nation to repentance. Let me now think for myself 
 and act with energy. Hitherto I have made my youth 
 and insignificance an excuse for sloth and imbecility : now 
 let me have a character, and act boldly for God. 
 
 February 19. Went on shore. Waited on the Governor, 
 and was kindly accommodated with a room at the Govern- 
 ment House. 
 
326 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 The Governor was the good Jonathan Duncan, in the 
 last year of his long administration and of his benevolent 
 life. In the first decade of the nineteenth century Bombay 
 was a comparatively little place, but the leaders of its 
 English society were all remarkable men. In the short 
 time, even then, Bombay had become the political and 
 social centre of all the Asiatics and Africans, from Higher 
 Asia, the Persian Gulf, and Arabia, to Abyssinia, Zanzibar, 
 and the Comoro Isles ; especially had it then begun to be 
 what every generation since has made it more and more, 
 the best centre from which to direct a Christian mission to 
 the Mohammedans. With Poona, it is the capital of the 
 most subtle and unimpressionable class, the Marathi 
 Brahmans, and it is the point from which most widely to 
 influence the Parsees. But as a base of operations against 
 Islam it has never yet been fully used or appreciated. The 
 late Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer preferred Aden, or the neigh- 
 bouring village of Sheikh Othman, the British door into 
 Arabia, of which he took possession for the Master by there 
 laying down his life in the ripeness of his years, his scholar- 
 ship, and his prosperity. But even in Arabia such work 
 may be directed from Bombay. The city, like its harbour 
 for commerce, stands without a rival as a missionary and 
 civilising focus. Henry Martyn spent his weeks there 
 in mastering the needs of its varied races and religionists, 
 Jewish and Arabic, Persian and Brahman, talking with re- 
 presentative men of all the cults, and striving to influence 
 them. He kept steadily in view his duty to the Moham- 
 medans, writing his Arabic tract, and consulting as to his 
 Persian translation of the Scriptures. It was not given to 
 him to remain there. Dr. Taylor, whom he had joined with 
 Brown and the Serampore Brotherhood at Aldeen in com- 
 
CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY, AND ARABIA 327 
 
 mending to God, was hard at work on the Malayalim New 
 Testament, and he often visited the press to see the sacred 
 work in progress. It was to be the life task of the Scottish 
 Dr. John Wilson, twenty years after, to use Bombay as 
 the missionary key of the peoples who border the Indian 
 Ocean. 
 
 The friend of Mountstuart Elphinstone and guest of 
 the Governor, Henry Martyn was welcomed by the literary 
 society of the city, which at that time was unrivalled in 
 the East. It is fortunate that we thus obtain an im- 
 partial estimate of his personal character and scholarship 
 from such men as Elphinstone, Mackintosh, and Malcolm. 
 In their journals and letters, written with all the frankness 
 of private friendship, we see the consistent and ever- watch- 
 ful saint, but at the same time the lively talker, the 
 brilliant scholar, and, above all, the genial companion and 
 even merry comrade. Since he had left Cambridge Henry 
 Martyn had not enjoyed society like this, able to appreciate 
 his many-sided gifts, and to call forth his natural joyfulness. 
 In Bombay we see him at his best all round as man, 
 scholar, saint, and missionary. 
 
 In Sir T. E. Colebrooke's Life of that most eminent 
 Indian statesman who twice refused the crown of the 
 Governor-General, 1 we find Mountstuart Elphinstone 
 writing thus to his friend Strachey : ' We have in Mr. 
 Martyn an excellent scholar, and one of the mildest, 
 cheerfullest, and pleasantest men I ever saw. He is ex- 
 tremely religious, and disputes about the faith with the 
 Nakhoda, but talks on all subjects, sacred and profane, 
 and makes others laugh as heartily as he could do if he 
 were an infidel. We have people who speak twenty-five 
 
 1 In two volumes (John Murray), 1884, see p. 231, vol. i. 
 
328 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 languages (not apiece) in the ship.' Again, in his Journal 
 of July 10, 1811, Elphinstone has this entry: 'Mr. Martyn 
 has proved a far better companion than I reckoned on, 
 though my expectations were high. His zeal is unabated, 
 but it is not troublesome, and he does not press disputes 
 and investigate creeds. He is familiar with Greek and 
 Latin, understands French and Italian, speaks Persian and 
 Arabic, has translated the Scriptures into Hindustani, and 
 is translating the Old Testament from Hebrew. He was 
 an eminent mathematician even at Cambridge, and, what 
 is of more consequence, he is a man of good sense and 
 taste, and simple in his manners and character, and cheer- 
 ful in his conversation.' He who, in the close intimacy 
 of shipboard life in the tropics, could win that eulogy 
 from a critic so lofty and so experienced, must have 
 been at once more human and more perfect than his 
 secret Journal, taken alone, has led its readers to believe 
 possible. 
 
 Sir John Malcolm, fresh from his second mission to 
 Persia, was writing his great History of Persia in the quiet 
 of Parell and Malabar Hill, with the help of the invaluable 
 criticism of Sir James Mackintosh, whom he described to his 
 brother Gilbert as ' a very extraordinary man.' Malcolm 
 introduced Mackintosh and Elphinstone to each other, and 
 Elphinstone lost not a day in taking Martyn to call on 
 the Recorder. Although the distinguished Scots High- 
 lander, who had become the admiring friend of Robert 
 Hall when they were fellow students at Aberdeen Univer- 
 sity, was in full sympathy with missionary enthusiasm, and 
 condemned the intolerance of the East India Company, 1 
 
 1 Memoirs, edited by his son, second edition, London (Moxon), 1836. See 
 vol. ii. pp. 86, 268, 
 
CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY, AND ARABIA 329 
 
 Martyn and he did not at first ' cotton 5 to each other. 
 The former wrote thus of him : 
 
 1811, February 22. Talked a good deal with the 
 Governor about my intended journey. 
 
 February 23. Went with him to his residence in the 
 country, and at night met a large party, amongst whom 
 were Sir J. Mackintosh and General Malcolm : with Sir 
 James I had some conversation on different subjects ; he 
 was by no means equal to my expectations. 
 
 Mackintosh's account of their first interview was this : 
 
 February 24. (Sunday.) Elphinstone introduced me 
 to a young clergyman called Martyn, come round from 
 Bengal on his way to Bussora, partly for health and partly 
 to improve his Arabic, as he is translating the Scriptures 
 into that language. He seems to be a mild and benevolent 
 enthusiast a sort of character with which I am always 
 half in love. We had the novelty of grace before and 
 after dinner, all the company standing. 
 
 Again, a week after : 
 
 March i. Mr. Martyn, the saint from Calcutta, called 
 here. He is a man of acuteness and learning ; his meek- 
 ness is excessive, and gives a disagreeable impression of 
 effort to conceal the passions of human nature. 
 
 Both had the Celtic fire, but Sir James Mackintosh had 
 not lived with Sabat. Another month passed, and the 
 two were learning to appreciate each other. 
 
 Padre Martyn, the saint, dined here in the evening ; it 
 was a very considerably more pleasant evening than usual ; 
 he is a mild and ingenious man. We had two or three 
 hours' good discussion on grammar and metaphysics. 
 
330 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Henry Martyn's growing appreciation of Mackintosh Is 
 seen in this later passage in his Journal : 
 
 1811, Match i. Called on Sir J. Mackintosh, and 
 found his conversation, as it is generally said to be, very 
 instructive and entertaining. He thought that the world 
 would be soon Europeaiaised, in order that the Gospel 
 might spread over the world. He observed that caste was 
 broken down in Egypt, and the Oriental world made Greek 
 by the successors of Alexander, in order to make way for 
 the religion of Christ. He thought that little was to be 
 apprehended, and little hoped for, from the exertions of 
 missionaries. Called at General Malcolm's, and though I 
 did not find him at home, was very well rewarded for my 
 
 trouble in getting to his house, by the company of Mr. , 
 
 lately from R. Dined at Parish's with a party of 
 some very amiable and well-behaved young men. What 
 a remarkable difference between the old inhabitants of 
 India and the new-comers. This is owing to the number 
 of religious families in England. 
 
 March 4. Dined at General Malcolm's, who gave me 
 a Chaldee missal. Captain Stewart, who had accompanied 
 him as his secretary into Persia, gave me much information 
 about the learned men of Ispahan. 
 
 March 8. Spent the first part of the day at General 
 Malcolm's, who gave me letters of introduction and some 
 queries respecting the wandering tribes of Persia. 
 
 The reference to young Mr. Parish, is to one who 
 afterwards became interim Governor of Bombay, and the 
 friend of John Wilson, and who, because he taught a class 
 in the Sunday School that used to meet in the Town Hall, 
 was for the time an object of suspicion and attack by 
 the Parsees and Hindus, on the baptism of Dhanjibhai 
 Naoroji, the first Parsee to put on Christ. 1 
 1 The Life of John Wilson, D.D..F.R.S. (John Murray), 2nd edit., p. 137. 
 
CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY, AND ARABIA 331 
 
 On Malcolm, according to Sir John Kaye, his biogra- 
 pher, 1 the young Christian hero appears to have made a 
 more favourable impression than on Mackintosh. Per- 
 haps the habitual cheerfulness of his manner communicated 
 itself to the ' saint from Calcutta,' of whom he wrote to Sir 
 Gore Ouseley, the British ambassador, that he was likely 
 to add to the hilarity of his party. 
 
 He requested me to give him a line to the Governor of 
 Bushire, which I did, as well as one to Mahomed Nebbee 
 Khan, But I warned him not to move from Bushire with- 
 out your previous sanction. His intention is, I believe, 
 to go by Shiraz, Ispahan, and Kermanshah to Baghdad, 
 and to endeavour on that route to discover some ancient 
 copies of the Gospel, which he and many other saints are 
 persuaded lie hid in the mountains of Persia. Mr. Martyn 
 also expects to improve himself as an Oriental scholar ; he 
 is already an excellent one. His knowledge of Arabic is 
 superior to that of any Englishman in India. He is alto- 
 gether a very learned and cheerful man, but a great enthu- 
 siast in his holy calling. He has, however, assured me, 
 and begged I would mention it to you, that he has no 
 thought of preaching to the Persians, or of entering into 
 any theological controversies, but means to confine himself 
 to two objects a research after old Gospels, and the en- 
 deavour to qualify himself for giving a correct version of 
 the Scriptures into Arabic and Persian, on the plan pro- 
 posed by the Bible Society. 
 
 I have not hesitated to tell him that I thought you 
 would require that he should act with great caution, and 
 not allow his zeal to run away with him. He declares he 
 will not, and he is a man of that character that I must 
 believe. I am satisfied that if you ever see him, you will 
 be pleased with him. He will give you grace before and 
 
 1 Life and Correspondence, vol. ii. p. 65 (Smith, Elder & Co.), 1856. 
 
332 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 after dinner, and admonish such of your party as take the 
 Lord's name in vain ; but his good sense and great learn- 
 ing will delight you, whilst his constant cheerfulness will 
 add to the hilarity of your party. 
 
 In such social intercourse in the evening, in constant 
 interviews and discussions with Jews and Mohammedans, 
 Parsees and Hindus, during the day, and in frequent 
 preaching for the chaplains, the weeks passed all too 
 rapidly. A ropemaker who had just arrived from London 
 called on him. ( He understood from my preaching that 
 he might open his heart to me. We conversed and prayed 
 together. '* Against this and the communion with young 
 Parish and his fellows, we must set the action of those 
 whom he thus describes in a letter to Corrie : 
 
 1811, February 26. Peacefully preaching the Word of 
 life to a people daily edified is the nearest approach to 
 heaven below. But to move from place to place, hurried 
 away without having time to do good, is vexatious to the 
 spirit as well as harassing to the body. Hearing last 
 Saturday that some sons of Belial, members of the Bapre 
 Hunt, 1 intended to have a great race the following day, I 
 informed Mr. Duncan, at whose house I was staying, and 
 recommended the interference of the secular arm. He 
 accordingly sent to forbid it. The messengers of the Bapre 
 Hunt were exceedingly exasperated ; some came to church 
 expecting to hear a sermon against hunting, but I merely 
 preached to them on 'the one thing needful.' Finding 
 nothing to lay hold of, they had the race on Monday, and 
 ran Hypocrite against Martha and Mary. 
 
 1 Bap-re =' O Father ! ' the exclamation of Hindus when in surprise or 
 grief; hence a noise or row; hence a Bobbery-pack or hunt is the Anglo- 
 Indian for a pack of hounds of different breeds, or no breed, wherewith young 
 officers hunt jackals or the like. See the late Colonel Sir Henry Yule's Hobson- 
 fobson> or Anglo-Indian Glossary (John Murray), 1886. 
 
CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY, AND ARABIA 333 
 
 His last message to India, from the ' faithful saying' of 
 I Timothy i. 15, was misunderstood and resented, as his 
 first sermon in Calcutta had been in similar circumstances. 
 
 March 24. (Sunday). Speaking on the evidence of 
 its truth, I mentioned its constant efficacy in collecting the 
 multitude, and commanding their attention, which moral 
 discourses never did. This was considered as a reflection 
 on the ministers of Bombay, which distressed me not a 
 little. 
 
 Henry Martyn was granted a passage to Arabia and 
 Persia in the Benares, Captain Sealey, one of the ships of 
 the old Indian Navy, ordered to cruise along with the 
 Prince of Wales in the Persian Gulf. At that time the 
 danger was considerable. For a century the Joasmi Arabs, 
 of * the pirate coast ' of Oman, had been the terror of the 
 Persian Gulf and the Indian Ocean, driving off even the 
 early Portuguese, and confining the Persians, then invulner- 
 able by land, to their own shores. The Wahabee puritans 
 of Islam having mastered them, they added to their own 
 bloodthirsty love of plunder and the slave-trade the fana- 
 ticism of Mohammed-ibn- Abdul-Wahab, the ' bestower of 
 blessings,' as the name signifies. The East India Company 
 tolerated them, retaining two or three ships of war in the 
 Gulf for the protection of the factories at Gombroon, 
 Bushire, and Busrah. But, in an evil moment, in the 
 year 1797, the Joasmi pirates dared to seize a British 
 vessel. From that hour their fate was sealed, though the 
 process of clearing the southern coast of Asia of pirates 
 and slavers ended only with the accession of Queen 
 Victoria, in the year when Aden was added to the empire. 
 In 1809-10 the Bombay Government expedition, under 
 
334 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Commodore John Wainwright, captured their stronghold 
 of Ras-ul-Khymah, delivered our feudatory of Muscat 
 from their terrorism, and gave the Gulf peace for ten 
 years. The two ships of war which conveyed the chaplain 
 missionary with his message of peace to Eastern Arabia 
 and Persia were sent to complete the work of the Wain- 
 wright expedition, 1 which had been summoned by Lord 
 Minto to the conquest of Java. Henry Martyn acted as 
 chaplain to the forty-five sailors and twelve artillerymen 
 who formed the European part of the crew of the Benares. 
 After two days at Muscat he tells the story of his voyage : 
 
 To LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 Muscat: April 22, 1811. 
 
 My dearest Lydia, I am now in Arabia Felix : to judge 
 from the aspect of the country it has little pretensions to 
 the name, unless burning barren rocks convey an idea of 
 felicity ; but perhaps as there is a promise in reserve for 
 the sons of Joktan, their land may one day be blest 
 indeed. 
 
 We sailed from Bombay on Lady-day ; and on the 
 morning of Easter saw the land of Mekran in Persia. After 
 another week's sail across the mouth of the Gulf, we arrived 
 here, and expect to proceed up the Gulf to Bushire, as soon 
 as we have taken in our water. You will be happy to learn 
 that the murderous pirates against whom we were sent, 
 having received notice of our approach, are all got out of 
 the way, so that I am no longer liable to be shot in a battle, 
 or to decapitation after it, if it be lawful to judge from 
 appearances. These pestilent Ishmaelites indeed, whose 
 hand is against every man's, will escape, and the commu- 
 nity suffer, but that selfish friendship of which you once 
 
 1 C. R. Low's History of the Indian Navy, chapter x. vol. i. (Richard 
 Bentley), 1877. 
 
CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY, AND ARABIA 335 
 
 confessed yourself guilty, will think only of the preservation 
 of a friend. This last marine excursion has been the 
 pleasantest I ever made, as I have been able to pursue my 
 studies with less interruption than when ashore. My little 
 congregation of forty or fifty Europeans does not try my 
 strength on Sundays ; and my two companions are men 
 who read their Bible every day. In addition to all these 
 comforts, I have to bless God for having kept me more 
 than usually free from the sorrowful mind. We must not 
 always say with Watts, ' The sorrows of the mind be 
 banished from the place ; ' but if freedom from trouble 
 be offered us, we may choose it rather. I do not know 
 anything more delightful than to meet with a Christian 
 brother, where only strangers and foreigners were expected. 
 This pleasure I enjoyed just before leaving Bombay ; a 
 ropemaker who had just come from England, understood 
 from my sermon that I was one he might speak to, so he 
 came and opened his heart, and we rejoiced together. In 
 this ship I find another of the household of faith. In an- 
 other ship which accompanies us there are two Armenians 
 who do nothing but read the Testament. One of them will 
 I hope accompany me to Shiraz in Persia, which is his 
 native country. 
 
 We are likely to be detained here some days, but the 
 ship that will carry our letters to India sails immediately, 
 so that I can send but one letter to England, and one to 
 Calcutta. When will our correspondence be established ? 
 I have been trying to effect it these six years, and it is only 
 yet in train. Why there was no letter from you in those 
 dated June and July 1810, I cannot conjecture, except 
 that you had not received any of mine, and would write 
 no more. But I am not yet without hopes that a letter 
 in the beloved hand will yet overtake me somewhere. My 
 kindest and most affectionate remembrances to all the 
 Western circle. Is it because he is your brother that I love 
 George so much ? or because he is the last come into the 
 
336 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 number? The angels love and wait upon the righteous 
 who need no repentance ; but there is joy whenever another 
 heir of salvation is born into the family. Read Eph. i. 
 I cannot wish you all these spiritual blessings, since they 
 already are all yours ; but I pray that we may have the 
 spirit of wisdom and knowledge to know that they are ours. 
 It is a chapter I keep in' mind every day in prayer. We 
 cannot believe too much or hope too much. Happy our 
 eyes that they see, and our ears that they hear. 
 
 As it may be a year or more before I shall be back, you 
 may direct one letter after receiving this, if it be not of a 
 very old date, to Bombay, all after to Bengal, as usual. 
 Believe me to be ever, my dearest Lydia, your most 
 affectionate 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 April 22. Landed at Muscat with Lockett and walked 
 through the bazaar ; we wished to ascend one of the hills 
 in the neighbourhood, but on the native guards expressing 
 disapprobation, we desisted. 
 
 We turn to her Diary for the corresponding passage. 
 
 1812, February I. Heard yesterday from, 1 and wrote 
 to-day to, India. My conviction of being declining in 
 spiritual life is deeper and deeper. I would stop and 
 pause at what is before me. It is no particular outward 
 sin, but an inward loss I mourn. 
 
 Every v/ord of Henry Martyn's Journal regarding 
 Arabia is precious, alike in the light of his attempt to give 
 its people the Word of God in their own tongue, and of the 
 long delayed and too brief efforts of his successors, Ion 
 Keith-Falconer in Yemen in 1887, and Bishop French in 
 
 1 By letter written April 22 or June 23, 1811. 
 
CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY, AND ARABIA 337 
 
 Muscat in 1891. To David Brown, all unknowing of his 
 death, he wrote on April 23 : 
 
 I left India on Lady-day, looked at Persia on Easter 
 Sunday, and seven days after found myself in Arabia Felix. 
 In a small cove, surrounded by bare rocks, heated through, 
 out of the reach of air as well as wind, lies the good ship 
 Benares, in the great cabin of which, stretched on a couch, 
 lie I. But though weak I am well relaxed but not 
 disordered. Praise to His grace who fulfils to me a promise 
 which I have scarcely a right to claim * I am with thee, 
 and will keep thee in all places whither thou goest.' 
 
 Last night I went ashore for the first time with Captain 
 Lockett ; we walked through the bazaar and up the hill, 
 but saw nothing but what was Indian or worse. The Imam 
 or Sultan is about thirty miles off, fighting, it is said, for his 
 kingdom, with the Wahabees. 
 
 You will be happy to learn that the pirates whom we 
 were to scourge are got out of our way, so that I may now 
 hope to get safe through the Gulf without being made to 
 witness the bloody scenes of war. 
 
 April 24. Went with one English party and two 
 Armenians and an Arab who served as guard and guide, 
 to see a remarkable pass about a mile from the town, and 
 a garden planted by a Hindu in a little valley beyond. 
 There was nothing to see, only the little bit of green in 
 this wilderness seemed to the Arab a great curiosity. I 
 conversed a good deal with him, but particularly with his 
 African slave, who was very intelligent about religion. The 
 latter knew as much about his religion as most moun- 
 taineers, and withal was so interested, that he would not 
 cease from his argument till I left the shore. 
 
 To Corrie he wrote on the same day : 
 
 The Imam of Muscat murdered his uncle, and sits on 
 the throne in the place of his elder brother, who is here a 
 
 z 
 
338 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 cipher. Last night . the Captain went ashore to a council 
 of state, to consider the relations subsisting between the 
 Government of Bombay and these mighty chieftains. I 
 attended as interpreter. The Company's agent is an old 
 Hindu who could not get off his bed. An old man in 
 whom pride and stupidity seemed to contend for empire 
 sat opposite to him. This was the Wazeer. Between 
 them sat I, opposite to me the Captain. The Wazeer 
 uttered something in Arabic, not one word of which could 
 I understand. The old Hindu explained in Persian, for 
 he has almost forgot his Hindi, and I to the Captain in 
 English. We are all impatient to get away from this place. 
 
 To the last he was busy with his Arabic translation of 
 Scripture. The ships of war crossed and recrossed the 
 Gulf from shore to shore, surveying its coasts and islands 
 in the heat of May, tempered by a north-wester which 
 tossed them about. On May 6 he wrote in }\\s Journal: 
 
 Much cast down through a sinful propensity, which I 
 little thought was in me at all, till occasion manifested its 
 existence. 
 
 On the 1 9th: 
 
 Preached to the ship's company on John iii. 3. My 
 thoughts so much on Lydia, whose old letter I had been 
 reading the day before, that I had a sense of guilt for having 
 neglected the proper duties of the day. 
 
 May 20. We have now a fair wind, carrying us gently 
 to Bushire. 
 
 May 22. Finished the syllabus of Ecclesiastical His- 
 tory which I have been making all the voyage, and extracts 
 from Mosheim concerning the Eastern Church. 
 
 On May 21, 1811, Henry Martyn at last reached 
 Persian soil. 
 
CALCUTTA TO CEYLON, BOMBAY, AND ARABIA 339 
 
 Landed at Bushire this morning in good health; how 
 unceasing are the mercies of the Lord ; blessed be His 
 goodness ; may He still preserve me from danger, and, above 
 all, make my journey a source of future good to this 
 kingdom of Persia, into which I am now come. We were 
 hospitably received by the acting Resident. In the evening 
 I walked out by the sea-side to recollect myself, to review 
 the past, and look forward to the future. 
 
 Suffering the will of God is as necessary a part of 
 spiritual discipline as doing, and much more trying. 
 
 But he landed still with the desire ' to go to Arabia 
 circuitously by way of Persia,' a course which he declared 
 to be rendered necessary by the advanced state of the 
 season. The people of Arabia were first in his heart. 
 
 Z2 
 
340 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 CHAPTER IX 
 IN PERSIA BUSHIRE AND SHIRAZ, l8ll 
 
 THE Persia to whose seven millions of people Henry 
 Martyn was the first in modern times to carry the good- 
 news of God, was just the size of the India of his day. 
 The Mohammedan majority of its scattered inhabitants, 
 in cities, in villages, and wandering over its plains and 
 deserts, had never been, and are not yet, as Shi'ahs, rigid 
 members of Islam, fanatically aggressive against all others, 
 like the orthodox Soonnis. After the apparent extinction 
 of the cult of Zoroaster and the flight of the surviving 
 remnant of Parsees to India, the successive ruling dynasties 
 were liberal and tolerant in their treatment of Christians 
 compared with other Moslem powers ; more liberal than 
 Christian Russia is to the Jews and the non-' orthodox ' 
 sects. When those cultured and enterprising brothers, Sir 
 Anthony and Sir Thomas Sherley, 1 went from Oxford to 
 the court of Persia, then in all its magnificence under 
 Shah Abbas the Great, two centuries before Henry 
 Martyn, that Shah sent one back as Persian envoy to the 
 Christian powers of Europe, to establish an alliance for the 
 destruction of the Turks. Shah Abbas made over Gom- 
 broon to them, calling it by his own name, Bunder Abbas, 
 
 1 The Three Brothers, or the Travels and Adventures of Sir Anthony, Sir 
 Robert, and Sir Thomas Sherley in Persia, Russia, Turkey, Spain, &c., 
 London, 1825. 
 
IN PERSIA BUSHIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 341 
 
 which it still retains, and his Majesty's grant used such 
 language as this : ' Our absolute commandment, will, and 
 pleasure is that our countries and dominions shall be from 
 this day open to all Christian people and to their religion. . . . 
 Because of the amitie now ioyned with the princes that 
 professe Christ, I do give this pattent for all Christian 
 merchants,' etc. Only the intolerance of the Portuguese, 
 who, under Albuquerque, took the island of Ormuz, and so 
 dominated the Persian Gulf till driven out by the English, 
 led this great Asiatic monarch to except the power which 
 Prince Henry the Navigator alone redeems from historical 
 contempt to the present day. 
 
 The Suffavian dynasty gave place to the Afghan, and 
 that to the short-lived but wide-spreading empire of Nadir 
 Kooli Khan, from Delhi to the Oxus River and the Caspian 
 Sea. Out of half a century's bloody revolutions, such as 
 formed the normal course of the annals of Asia till Great 
 Britain pushed its ' Peace ' up from the Southern Ocean, 
 Aga Mohammed Khan, of the Kajar clan, founded the 
 present dynasty in 1795. His still greater nephew suc- 
 ceeded on his death three years after. Futteh AH Shah 
 became for the next thirty-eight years the close friend of 
 the British Crown and the East India Company. Shah-in- 
 Shah, or king of the four kings of Afghanistan, Georgia, 
 Koordistan, and Arabistan, the ruler of Persia had now 
 incorporated Arabistan in his own dominion, and had lost 
 Afghanistan. But he still claimed the allegiance of the 
 two subject-sovereigns of Georgia and Koordistan. His 
 uncle had avenged on the people, and especially the beau- 
 tiful women of Georgia, the transfer of the country by 
 its Wali to the Russian Catherine II. Placed in the 
 commanding centre of Western Asia, Futteh AH almost 
 
342 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 immediately found himself the object of eager competition 
 by the representatives of the Christian powers at Teheran. 
 His revenue was estimated by so competent an authority 
 as Sir John Malcolm at nearly six millions sterling. The 
 crown jewels, chief of them the Sea of Light, or Derya-i- 
 Noor, a diamond weighing 178 carats, were then the most 
 valuable collection in the world ; for though the Koh-i-Noor 
 had remained with the Afghans, whence through the Sikhs 
 it came to a greater Shah-in-Shah, the Queen-Empress of 
 Great Britain, he still possessed not a little of Nadir's 
 plunder of Delhi. 
 
 Sir Robert Ker Porter describes him about the time 
 when Martyn reached his capital, as ' one blaze of jewels/ at 
 the New Year festival of Norooz. On his head was a lofty 
 tiara of three elevations, 'entirely composed of thickly-set 
 diamonds, pearls, rubies, and emeralds, so exquisitely dis- 
 posed as to form a mixture of the most beautiful colours 
 in the brilliant light reflected from its surface. Several 
 black feathers, like the heron plume, were intermixed 
 with the resplendent aigrettes of this truly imperial diadem, 
 whose bending points were furnished with pear-formed 
 pearls of an immense size. The vesture was of gold tissue 
 nearly covered with a similar disposition of jewelry ; and 
 crossing the shoulders were two strings of pearls, probably 
 the largest in the world. But for splendour nothing could 
 exceed the broad bracelets round his arms and the belt 
 which encircled his waist ; they actually blazed like fire 
 when the rays of the sun met them. The throne was of 
 pure white marble raised a few steps from the ground, and 
 carpeted with shawls and cloth of gold. While the Great 
 King was approaching his throne, the whole assembly 
 continued bowing their heads to the ground till he had 
 
IN PERSIA BUSHIRE AND. SHIRAZ, 1811 343 
 
 taken his place. In the midst of solemn stillness, while all 
 eyes were fixed on the bright object before them, which 
 sat indeed as radiant and immovable as the image of 
 Mithras itself, a sort of volley of words bursting at one 
 impulse from the mouths of the mollahs and astrologers, 
 made me start, and interrupted my gaze. This strange 
 oratory was a kind of heraldic enumeration of the Great 
 King's titles, dominions, and glorious acts. There was a 
 pause, and then his Majesty spoke. The effect was even 
 more startling than the sudden bursting forth of the 
 mollahs ; for this was like a voice from the tombs so 
 deep, so hollow, and, at the same time, so penetratingly 
 loud.' l 
 
 That was the man to whose feet the French Emperor 
 Napoleon and the Tsar Alexander, King George III. and 
 the greatest Governor-General of the East India Company, 
 the Marquess Wellesley, sent special embassies ; the man 
 from whom they sought secret treaties, lavishing on his 
 courtiers more than royal gifts. To arrest the march of the 
 Afghan invader, who a few years before had reached Lahore 
 on his way to set up again at Delhi the house of Timour, 
 and in order to foil the secret embassy sent by Napoleon, 
 who had resolved to give England its death-blow through 
 India, a young Scotsman, Captain Malcolm, was deputed 
 to Teheran in 1801, following up a native envoy who had 
 been most successful just before. This soldier diplomatist, 
 who was afterwards to help Henry Martyn to a very 
 different success, ' bribed like a king/ and returned with 
 two treaties, political and commercial, but still more with 
 the knowledge which fitted him to write his classic history, 
 
 1 Travels in Georgia, Persia, Armenia, Ancient Babylonia, dr'r., by Sir 
 Robert Ker Porter, 2 vols., London, 1821. 
 
344 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 and make his second ambassage. For England failed to 
 carry out the first so far as to help the Shah against Russia, 
 and from that hour Persia has seen province after province 
 overwhelmed by the wave from the north. 
 
 Taking alarm a second time, just before and after the 
 Peace of Tilsit, both the Crown and the Company appointed 
 plenipotentiaries to Teheran. It was Lord Minto's wise 
 policy to protect our Indian empire ' by binding the 
 Western Frontier States in a chain of friendly alliance.' 
 Hence the Governor-General's four missions, to Sindh, to 
 Lahore, to Cabul, and again to Persia under Sir John 
 Malcolm. Sir Harford Jones appeared as ambassador from 
 the Crown after Malcolm had left Teheran, and took ad- 
 vantage of a change in the political situation to secure 
 the preliminary treaty of 1809, which renewed the pledge 
 of its predecessor to assist the Shah with troops or a 
 subsidy if any European forces should invade his territories. 
 In a modified form this became the definitive treaty of 
 March 14, 1812 (further altered in that of 1814), to arrange 
 which Sir Gore Ouseley was sent out, superseding both 
 Malcolm and Jones. 1 Sir Gore Ouseley became Henry 
 
 1 Mr. J. C. Marshman, C.S.I., who lived through the history of India, 
 from Wellesley to Lord Lawrence, and personally knew almost all its distin- 
 guished men, writes in his invaluable History : * The good sense of Sir 
 Harford and Colonel Malcolm gradually smoothed down all asperities, and it 
 was not long before they agreed to unite their efforts to baffle the intrigues 
 and the cupidity of the court. Colonel Malcolm was received with open 
 arms by the king, who considered him the first of Englishmen. ' ' What 
 induced you," said he at the first interview, " to hasten away from Shiraz 
 without seeing my son ? " " How could I," replied the Colonel with his ever 
 ready tact, "after having been warmed by the sunshine of your Majesty's 
 favour, be satisfied with the mere reflection of that refulgence in the person of 
 your son ?" "Mashalla !" exclaimed the monarch, " Malcolm Sahib is himself 
 again." . . . Sir Gore Ouseley had acquired the confidence of Lord 
 Wellesley by the great talents he exhibited when in a private station at the 
 
IN PERSIA BUSHIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 3 4 5 
 
 Martyn's friend. Commended by Sir John Malcolm to 
 his personal friends among the Persians, and officially 
 encouraged by the British plenipotentiary, the Bengal 
 chaplain seeking health had all the facilities secured to him 
 that were possible to pursue the God-given mission of the 
 apostle of Christ to the peoples of Persia and Arabia. 
 
 The strong and wise rule of Futteh Ali Shah kept 
 Persia itself at peace, but he could not get the better of 
 Russian intrigue and attack, even with the friendly offices 
 of the British Government. Up till Martyn's arrival these 
 vast regions had been wrested from the Shah-in-Shah : 
 Georgia, Mingrelia, Daghistan, Sherwan, Karabagh, and 
 Talish. During his presence in the country the negotiations 
 with Russia were going on, which ended in 1813 in the 
 Treaty of Gulistan, surrendering to the Tsar all he had taken, 
 and apparently stopping his advance by a line of demar- 
 cation. But as its exact direction had to be settled by 
 commissioners Russia has ever since continued steadily to 
 strip Persia of its northern lands, and only the presence of 
 the British Navy has kept it as yet out of the Persian Gulf. 1 
 
 Such were the historical and political conditions amid 
 which the missionary chaplain of India became a resident in 
 the cities, and a traveller through the villages of Persia and 
 Turkey at the age of thirty. He went there as the friend 
 of Malcolm Sahib, whose gracious dignity and lavish gifts 
 had made him a hero among the officials and many of the 
 people of Persia. He went with letters of introduction 
 
 court of Lucknow, and upon his recommendation was appointed to Teheran 
 as the representative of the King of England.' The two embassies cost the 
 East India Company 380,0007. 
 
 1 Sir C. U. Aitchison's Collection of Treaties, Engagements, and Sunnuds 
 relating to India and Neighbouring Countries, 2nd edition, vol. vi. Calcutta, 
 1876. 
 
346 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 from the Governor-General of India and the Governor of 
 Bombay to the new British ambassador, who had lived at 
 Lucknow, and must have known well of his work in the 
 neighbouring station of Cawnpore. He went with the 
 reputation of a man of God in the Oriental sense, and of a 
 scholar who knew the sacred books of Mohammedans and 
 Christians alike, and who sought the good of the people. 
 The Armenian colonies at Calcutta and Bombay had com- 
 mended him to the many members of their Church in Persia. 
 Bushire, or Abu Shahr, at which he began his mission to 
 Persia, is the port of that province of Fars from which the 
 whole empire takes its name. Its mixed Persian and Arab 
 population, now numbering some fifteen thousand, its insani- 
 tary position on a spit of sand almost surrounded by the sea, 
 and the filthy narrow streets hardly redeemed by the Char 
 Burj or citadel, and the British Residency, do not attract the 
 visitor, and he soon learns that the humid heat of its 
 climate in summer is more insupportable than that even of 
 the Red Sea. From Reshire, close by, in the Anglo-Persian 
 War of 1856-7, General Havelock shelled the town when 
 he pitched the camp of the force to the south of its gate. 
 Henry Martyn was there in the worst season of May and 
 June, when the thermometer rises to 100 in the shade, and 
 sometimes 106. He became the guest of an English 
 merchant and his Armenian wife, and was received by the 
 Armenians as a priest of great sanctity. His Journal 
 describes his receptions and daily occupations. 
 
 1811, May 23. Rode out with a party in the evening, 
 or rather in the afternoon, for the heat of the sun made 
 me ill. 
 
 May 24. The Governor called on us ; also the 
 Armenian priest. Received an answer from the ambas- 
 
IN PERSIA BUS HIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 347 
 
 sador, Sir Gore Ouseley, to a letter I sent him from 
 Muscat. 
 
 May 25. In the evening called with the two Captains, 
 the Resident, and the Captain of his guard, on the Governor. 
 In consequence of a letter I brought for him from General 
 Malcolm, he was very particular in his attentions, seated 
 me on his own seat, and then sat by my side apart from 
 the rest. I observed that a Christian was not allowed to 
 enter a mosque ; he said, ' No, do you wish to hear the 
 prayers ? ' I said, ' No, but the preaching, if there is any ; ' 
 he said there were no preachers except at Yezd. 
 
 May 26. (Sunday.) The Europeans assembled for 
 Divine service, which was performed at the Resident's. I 
 preached on i Cor. xv. : ' For He must reign till He hath 
 put all enemies under His feet,' etc. In the evening I went, 
 at the padre's request, to the Armenian church. There 
 was the same disagreeable succession of unmeaning cere- 
 monies and noisy chants as at Bombay. I was introduced 
 within the rails, and at the time of incense I was censed, 
 as the padre afterwards desired me to observe, four times, 
 whereas the laity have the honour done them but once. 
 I asked the old man what was meant by burning incense. 
 He said it was in imitation of the Wise Men of the East, 
 who offered incense to Christ. I told him, Why then do 
 you not offer myrrh and gold ? To this he made no reply. 
 Walking afterwards with him by the sea-side, I tried to 
 get into a conversation suitable to our profession as 
 ministers, speaking particularly of the importance of the 
 charge entrusted to us. Nothing could be more vapid and 
 mean than his remarks. 
 
 May 27. Very ill, from head-ache and overpowering 
 sleepiness, arising, as I suppose, from a stroke of the sun. 
 As often as I attempted to read, I fell asleep, and awoke 
 in weakness and pain. How easily may existence be 
 embittered ; still I will say, ' Not my will, but Thine be done.' 
 In the evening a Jewish goldsmith called with a fine boy, 
 
348 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 who read the Hebrew fluently. Grief has marked the 
 countenance of the Eastern Jews in a way that makes 
 them indescribably interesting. I could have wept while 
 looking at them. O Lord, how long ? Will Thine anger 
 burn for ever ? is not justice yet satisfied ? This afflicted 
 people are as much oppressed in Persia as ever. Their 
 women are not allowed to Veil, as all others are required to 
 do ; hence, if there be one more than ordinarily beautiful, 
 she is soon known, and a khan or the king sends for her, 
 makes her a Mahometan, and puts her into the harem. 
 As soon as he is tired, she is given to another, and then to 
 another, till she becomes the property of the most menial 
 servant ; such is the degradation to which the daughters of 
 Israel are subjected. 
 
 May 28. Through the infinite and unmerited goodness 
 of God I am again restored, and able to do something in 
 the way of reading. The Resident gave us some account 
 this evening of the moral state of Persia. It is enough to 
 make one shudder. If God rained down fire upon Sodom 
 and Gomorrah, how is it that this nation is not blotted out 
 from under heaven ? I do not remember to have heard 
 such things of the Hindus, except the Sikhs ; they seem 
 to rival the Mahometans. 
 
 For personal comfort and freedom from insult or attack, 
 Henry Martyn, when in Bushire, ordered the usual ward- 
 robe of a Persian gentleman. He had suffered his beard 
 and moustachios to vegetate undisturbed since leaving 
 India, as he wrote to Corrie. In conical Astrakhan cap, 
 baggy blue trousers, red boots, and light chintz tunic and 
 chogha or flowing coat, mounted on a riding pony, and 
 followed by his Armenian servant on a mule, with another 
 mule for his baggage, he set out on May 30, 1811, for 
 Shiraz. His companion was a British officer. The party 
 formed a large caravan with some thirty horses and mules, 
 
IN PERSIA BUS HIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 349 
 
 carrying goods to the ambassador. They marched by 
 night, in the comparative coolness of 100, to which the 
 thermometer fell from the noonday heat of 126, when they 
 lay panting in their tents protected from the scorching dry 
 wind by heavy clothing. The journey of some 170 miles 
 occupied the first nine days of June. After ninety miles 
 over a hot sandy plain the traveller rises, by four rocky 
 kotuls or inclines, so steep as to be called ladders, over the 
 spurs of the Zagros range into a cooler region at Kaziroon, 
 on the central plateau of Iran, and then passes through the 
 most delightful valleys, wooded or clad with verdure, to the 
 capital, Shiraz, surrounded by gardens and by cemeteries. 
 
 May 30. Our Persian dresses being ready, we set off 
 this evening for Shiraz. Our kafila consisted of about 
 thirty horses and mules ; some carrying things to the 
 ambassador, the rest for our servants and luggage ; the 
 animal for my use was a yaboo or riding pony, a mule 
 for my trunks, and one for my servant Zechariah, an 
 Armenian of Ispahan. It was a fine moonlight night, 
 about ten o'clock, when we marched out of the gate of 
 Bushire, and began to make our way over the plain. 
 Mr. B., who accompanied me a little way, soon returned. 
 Captain T. went on, intending to accompany us to Shiraz. 
 This was the first time we had any of us put off the 
 European, and the novelty of our situation supplied us 
 with many subjects for conversation for about two hours. 
 When we began to flag and grow sleepy, and the kafila was 
 pretty quiet, one of the muleteers on foot began to sing : he 
 sang with a voice so plaintive that it was impossible not to 
 have one's attention arrested. At the end of the first tune he 
 paused, and nothing was heard but the tinkling of the bells 
 attached to the necks of the mules ; every voice was hushed. 
 The first line was enough for me, and I dare say it set 
 many others thinking of their absent friends. * Without 
 
350 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 thee my heart can attach itself to none. 5 It is what I have 
 often felt on setting out on a journey. The friends left 
 behind so absorb the thoughts, that the things by the way- 
 side are seen without interest, and the conversation of 
 strangers is insipid. But perhaps the first line, as well as 
 the rest, is only a promise of fidelity, though I did not take 
 it in that sense when I first heard it. The following is 
 perhaps the true translation : 
 
 Think not that e'er my heart can dwell 
 
 Contented far from thee ; 
 How can the fresh-caught nightingale 
 
 Enjoy tranquillity ? 
 
 Forsake not then thy friend for aught 
 
 That slanderous tongues can say ; 
 The heart that fixes where it ought, 
 
 No power can rend away. 
 
 Thus we went on, and as often as the kafila by their 
 dulness and sleepiness seemed to require it, or perhaps to 
 keep himself awake, he entertained the company and him- 
 self with a song. We met two or three other kafilas taking 
 advantage of the night to get on. My loquacious servant 
 Zachary took care to ask every one whence they came, and 
 by that means sometimes got an answer which raised a 
 laugh against him. 
 
 June i. At sunrise we came to our ground at Ahmeda, 
 six parasangs, and pitched our little tent under a tree : it 
 was the only shelter we could get. At first the heat was 
 not greater than we had felt it in India, but it soon became 
 so intense as to be quite alarming. When the thermometer 
 was above 112, fever heat, I began to lose my strength 
 fast ; at last it became quite intolerable. I wrapped my- 
 self up in a blanket and all the warm covering I could get, 
 to defend myself from the external air ; by which means 
 the moisture was kept a little longer upon the body, and 
 not so speedily evaporated as when the skin was exposed ; 
 
IN PERSIA BUSHIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 351 
 
 one of my companions followed my example, and found 
 the benefit of it. But the thermometer still rising, and the 
 moisture of the body being quite exhausted, I grew rest- 
 less, and thought I should have lost my senses. The 
 thermometer at last stood at 1 26 : in this state I composed 
 myself, and concluded that though I might hold out a day 
 or two, death was inevitable. Captain T., who sat it out, 
 continued to tell the hour, and height of the thermometer ; 
 and with what pleasure did we hear of its sinking to 120, 
 1 1 8, etc. At last the fierce sun retired, and I crept out, 
 more dead than alive. It was then a difficulty how I could 
 proceed on my journey : for besides the immediate effects 
 of the heat, I had no opportunity of making up for the 
 last night's want of sleep, and had eaten nothing. How- 
 ever, while they were loading the mules, I got an hour's 
 sleep, and set out, the muleteers leading my horse, and 
 Zechariah, my servant, an Armenian, of Ispahan, doing all 
 in his power to encourage me. The cool air of the night 
 restored me wonderfully, so that I arrived at our next 
 munzil with no other derangement than that occasioned 
 by want of sleep. Expecting another such day as the 
 former, we began to make preparation the instant we 
 arrived on the ground. I got a tattie made of the branches 
 of the date-tree, and a Persian peasant to water it ; by 
 this means the thermometer did not rise higher than 1 14. 
 But what completely secured me from the heat was a large 
 wet towel, which I wrapped round my head and body, 
 muffling up the lower part in clothes. How could I but 
 be grateful to a gracious Providence, for giving me so 
 simple a defence against what I am persuaded would have 
 destroyed my life that day ! We took care not to go with- 
 out nourishment, as we had done : the neighbouring village 
 supplied us with curds and milk. At sunset, rising up to 
 go out, a scorpion fell upon my clothes ; not seeing where 
 it fell, I did not know what it was ; but Captain T., 
 pointing it out, gave the alarm, and I struck it off, and he 
 
352 
 
 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 killed it. The night before we found a black scorpion in 
 our tent ; this made us rather uneasy ; so that though the 
 kafila did not start till midnight, we got no sleep, fearing 
 we might be visited by another scorpion. 
 
 June 2. We arrived at the foot of the mountains, at a 
 place where we seemed to have discovered one of Nature's 
 ulcers. A strong suffocating smell of naphtha announced 
 something more than ordinarily foul in the neighbourhood. 
 We saw a river : what flowed in it, it seemed difficult to 
 say, whether it were water or green oil ; it scarcely moved, 
 and the stones which it laved it left of a greyish colour, as 
 if its foul touch had given them the leprosy. Our place of 
 encampment this day was a grove of date-trees, where the 
 atmosphere, at sunrise, was ten times hotter than the 
 ambient air. I threw myself down on the burning ground, 
 and slept ; when the tent came up I awoke, as usual, in a 
 burning fever. All this day I had recourse to the wet 
 towel, which kept me alive, but would allow of no sleep. 
 It was a sorrowful Sabbath ; but Captain T. read a few 
 hymns, in which I found great consolation. At nine in 
 the evening we decamped. The ground and air were so 
 insufferably hot, that I could not travel without a wet towel 
 round my face and neck. This night, for the first time, we 
 began to ascend the mountains. The road often passed so 
 close to the edge of the tremendous precipices, that one 
 false step of the horse would have plunged his rider into 
 inevitable destruction. In such circumstances I found it 
 useless to attempt guiding the animal, and therefore gave 
 him the rein. These poor animals are so used to journeys 
 of this sort, that they generally step sure. There was 
 nothing to mark the road but the rocks being a little more 
 worn in one place than in another. Sometimes my horse, 
 which led the way, as being the muleteer's, stopped, as if 
 to consider about the way : for myself, I could not guess, 
 at such times, where the road lay, but he always found it. 
 The sublime scenery would have impressed me much, in 
 
IN PERSIA BUSHIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 353 
 
 other circumstances ; but my sleepiness and fatigue rendered 
 
 me insensible to everything around me. At last we emerged 
 
 superas ad auras, not on the top of a mountain to go down 
 
 again, but to a plain, or upper world. At the pass, where 
 
 a cleft in the mountain admitted us into the plain, was a 
 
 station of Rahdars. While they were examining the 
 
 muleteer's passports, etc., time was given for the rest of the 
 
 kafila to come up, and I got a little sleep for a few minutes. 
 
 June 4. We rode briskly over the plain, breathing a 
 
 purer air, and soon came in sight of a fair edifice, built by 
 
 the king of the country for the refreshment of pilgrims. 
 
 In this caravanserai we took our abode for the day. It 
 
 was more calculated for Eastern than European travellers, 
 
 having no means of keeping out the air and light. We 
 
 found the thermometer at 1 10. At the passes we met a 
 
 man travelling down to Bushire with a load of ice, which 
 
 he willingly disposed of to us. The next night we ascended 
 
 another range of mountains, and passed over a plain, where 
 
 the cold was so piercing that with all the clothes we could 
 
 muster we were shivering. At the end of this plain we 
 
 entered a dark valley, contained by two ranges of hills 
 
 converging one to another. The muleteer gave notice 
 
 that he saw robbers. It proved to be a false alarm ; but 
 
 the place was fitted to be a retreat for robbers ; there being 
 
 on each side caves and fastnesses from which they might 
 
 have killed every man of us. After ascending another 
 
 mountain, we descended by a very long and circuitous 
 
 route into an extensive valley, where we were exposed to 
 
 the sun till eight o'clock. Whether from the sun or from 
 
 continued want of sleep, I could not, on my arrival at 
 
 Kaziroon, compose myself to sleep ; there seemed to be a 
 
 fire within my head, my skin like a cinder, and the pulse 
 
 violent. Through the day it was again too hot to sleep ; 
 
 though the place we occupied was a sort of summer-house 
 
 in a garden of cypress-trees, exceedingly well fitted up 
 
 with mats and coloured glass. Had the kafila gone on 
 
 A A 
 
354 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 that night, I could not have accompanied it ; but it halted 
 there a day, by which means I got a sort of night's rest, 
 though I awoke twenty times to dip my burning hand in 
 water. Though Kaziroon is the second greatest town in 
 Fars, we could get nothing but bread, milk, and eggs, and 
 those with difficulty. The Governor, who is under great 
 obligations to the English, heard of our arrival, but sent 
 no message. 
 
 June 5. At ten we left Kaziroon and ascended a 
 mountain : we then descended from it on the other side 
 into a beautiful valley, where the opening dawn discovered 
 to us ripe fields of wheat and barley, with the green oak 
 here and there in the midst of it. We were reminded of 
 an autumnal morning in England. Thermometer 62. 
 
 June 6. Half-way up the Peergan Mountain we found 
 a caravanserai. There being no village in the neighbour- 
 hood, we had brought supplies from Kaziroon. My servant 
 Zachary got a fall from his mule this morning, which much 
 bruised him ; he looked very sorrowful, and had lost much 
 of his garrulity. 
 
 June 7. Left the caravanserai at one this morning, 
 and continued to ascend. The hours we were permitted 
 to rest, the mosquitoes had effectually prevented me from 
 using, so that I never felt more miserable and disordered ; 
 the cold was very severe ; for fear of falling off, from sleep 
 and numbness, I walked a good part of the way. We 
 pitched our tent in the vale of Dustarjan, near a crystal 
 stream, on the banks of which we observed the clover and 
 golden cup : the whole valley was one green field, in which 
 large herds of cattle were browsing. The temperature 
 was about that of spring in England. Here a few hours' 
 sleep recovered me in some degree from the stupidity in 
 which I had been for some days. I awoke with a light 
 heart, and said : ' He knoweth our frame, and remembereth 
 that we are but dust. He redeemeth our life from destruc- 
 tion, and crowneth us' with loving kindness and tender 
 
IN PERSIA &USHIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 355 
 
 mercies. He maketh us to lie down in the green pastures, 
 and leadeth us beside the still waters.' And when we leave 
 this vale of tears, there is ' no more sorrow, nor sighing, 
 nor any more pain.' ' The sun shall not light upon thee, 
 nor any heat ; but the Lamb shall lead thee to living 
 fountains of waters.' 
 
 June 8. Went on to a caravanserai, three parasangs, 
 where we passed the day. At night set out upon our last 
 march for Shiraz. Sleepiness, my old companion and 
 enemy, again overtook me. I was in perpetual danger of 
 falling off my horse, till at last I pushed on to a consider- 
 able distance beyond the kafila, planted my back against a 
 wall, and slept I know not how long, till the good muleteer 
 came up and gently waked me. 
 
 June 9. (Sunday.) By daylight we found ourselves in 
 the plain of Shiraz. We went to the halting-place outside 
 the walls of the city, but found it occupied ; however, after 
 some further delay, we were admitted with our servants 
 into another ; as for the kafila, we saw no more of it. The 
 ambassador, Sir Gore Ouseley, was encamped near us ; 
 Sir William and Major D'Arcy, and Dr. Sharp, called on 
 us, but I did not see the two first, being asleep at the time. 
 In the evening we dined with his excellency, who gave us 
 a general invitation to his table. Returned to our garden, 
 where we slept. 
 
 June 10. Went this morning to Jaffir AH Khan's, to 
 whom we had letters from General Malcolm, and with whom 
 we are to take up our abode. After the long and tedious 
 ceremony of coffee and kaleans (pipes), breakfast made 
 its appearance on two large trays : curry, pilaws, various 
 sweets cooled with snow and perfumed with rose-water, 
 were served in great profusion in china plates and basins, 
 a few wooden spoons beautifully carved ; but being in a 
 Persian dress, and on the ground, I thought it high time 
 to throw off the European, and so ate with my hands. 
 After breakfast Jaffir took me to a summer-house in his 
 
 A A2 
 
356 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 garden, where his brother-in-law met us, for the purpose of 
 a conversazione. From something I had thrown out at 
 breakfast about Sabat, and accident, he was curious to 
 know what were our opinions on these subjects. He then 
 began to explain his own sentiments on Soofi-ism, of which 
 it appeared he was a passionate admirer. 
 
 June ii. Breakfasted at Anius with some of the Em- 
 bassy, and went with them afterwards to a glass-house and 
 pottery. Afterwards called on Mr. Morier, secretary to 
 the Embassy, Major D'Arcy, and Sir W. Ouseley. Our 
 host, Jaffir AH Khan, gave us a good deal of information 
 this evening, about this country and government. He 
 used to sit for hours with the king at Teheran telling him 
 about India and the English. 
 
 June 12. Employed about Journal, writing letters, 
 reading Gulistan, but excessively indolent. In the morning 
 I enjoyed much comfort in prayer. What a privilege to 
 have a God to go to, in such a place, and in such company. 
 To read and pray at leisure seemed like coming home after 
 being long abroad. Psalm Ixxxix. was a rich repast to 
 me. Why is it not always thus with me ? 
 
 At Shiraz Henry Martyn was in the very heart of old 
 Persia, to which the eldest son of Shem had given his 
 name, Elam. One of the greatest of the Shahs, Kareem 
 Khan, made Shiraz his capital, instead of the not distant 
 Persepolis, which also Martyn visited. The founder of the 
 present dynasty levelled its walls and desolated its gardens, 
 but the city of the six gates still dominates the fine valley 
 which no tyrant could destroy, and has still a pleasing 
 appearance, though its Dewan Khana has been stripped of 
 the royal pillars to adorn the palace of the new capital of 
 Teheran. Even Timour respected Shiraz ; when red with 
 the blood of Ispahan, he sent for Hafiz, and asked how the 
 poet dared to dispose of the Tartar's richest cities, Bokhara 
 
IN PERSIA BUSHIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 357 
 
 and Samarcand, for the mole on his lady's cheek. * Can 
 the gifts of Hafiz ever impoverish Timour ? ' was the 
 answer ; and Shiraz was spared. Kareem Khan long after 
 built mausoleums over the dust of the Anacreon of Persia, 
 and over that of Sadi, its Socrates in verse, as Sir Robert 
 Ker Porter well describes the author of the Gultstan, which 
 was Martyn's daily companion at this time. 
 
 SHIRAZ 
 
 We have an account of Shiraz * and the people of Persia, 
 written six years before Martyn's visit, by Edward Scott 
 Waring, Esq., of the Bengal Civil Establishment, who, 
 led by ill-health and curiosity, followed the same route 
 by Bushire and Kaziroon to the city. He is sceptical as to 
 those splendours which formed the theme of Hafiz, and de- 
 scribes the city as ' worth seeing, but not worth going to see.' 
 
 1 A Tour to Sheeraz by the route of Karroon and Feerozabad, London, 
 1807. 
 
358 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 The tomb of the poet l in the Hafizieh garden he found to 
 be of white marble, on which two of his odes were very 
 beautifully cut ; a few durweshes daily visited the spot 
 and chanted his verses. Mr. George N. Curzon, M.P., 2 the 
 latest visitor, contrasts the grave of Hafiz with that of his 
 contemporary Dante, at Ravenna. Sadi's grave was then 
 quite neglected ; no one had carved on it the beautiful 
 epitaph (paraphrased by Dryden) which he wrote for himself 
 on the Bostan : ( O passenger ! who walkest over my grave, 
 think of the virtuous persons who have gone before me. 
 What has Sadi to apprehend from being turned into dust ? he 
 was but earth when alive. He will not continue dust long, 
 for the winds will scatter him over the whole universe.' Yet 
 as long as the garden of knowledge has blossomed not a 
 nightingale has warbled so sweetly in it. It would be 
 strange if such a nightingale should die, and not a rose 
 grow upon its grave. Sir Robert Ker Porter, twelve years 
 later, found both spots alike neglected. One poet had 
 written of the ^garden where Hafiz was buried, ( Paradise 
 
 1 In two splendid volumes, printed by native hands under the sanction of 
 the Government at Calcutta, in 1891, Lieutenant-Colonel H. Wilberforce 
 Clarke published an English prose translation of The Divan, written in the 
 Fourteenth Century^ by Khwaja Shamshu-d-Din Muhammad-i-Hafiz. The 
 work is described in the Quarterly Review of January 1892, by a writer who 
 thus begins : * About two miles north-west of Shiraz, in the garden called 
 Mosella which is, being interpreted, "the place of prayer," lies, beneath 
 the shadow of cypress-trees, one of which he is said to have planted with his 
 own hand, Shems-Edden Mohammed, surnamed Hafiz, or " the steadfast in 
 Scripture," poet, recluse, and mystic. . . . No other Persian has equalled 
 him in fame not Sadi, whose monument, now in ruins, may be visited near 
 his own ; nor Firdusi, nor Jami. Near the garden tomb is laid open the book 
 of well nigh seven hundred poems which he wrote. According to Sir Gore 
 Ouseley, who turned over its pages in 1811, it is a volume abounding in bright 
 and delicate colour, with illuminated miniatures, and the lovely tints of the 
 Persian caligraphy. ' 
 
 8 Persia an,d tfye Persian Question^ 2 vols. (Longmans), 1892, 
 
IN PERSIA BUSHIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 359 
 
 does not boast such lovely banks as those of Rocknabeel, 
 nor such groves as the high-scented fragrance of the bowers 
 of Mosella.' Another now sadly writes, 'Though the 
 bowers of love grew on its banks, and the sweet song 
 of Hafiz kept time with the nightingale and the rose, the 
 summer is past and all things are changed/ 
 
 Six years after Henry Martyn's residence in Shiraz, 
 Sir Robert Ker Porter entered the city, which to him, 
 as to every Christian or even English-speaking man, 
 became thenceforth more identified with this century's 
 apostle to the Persians than with even Hafiz and Sadi. 
 1 Faint with sickness and fatigue,' he writes, 1 ' I felt a 
 momentary reviving pleasure in the sight of a hospitable 
 city, and the cheerful beauty of the view. As I drew near, 
 the image of my exemplary countryman, Henry Martyn, 
 rose in my thoughts, seeming to sanctify the shelter to which 
 I was hastening. He had approached Shiraz much about 
 the same season of the year, A.D. 181 1, and like myself was 
 gasping for life under the double pressure of an inward 
 fire and outward burning sun. He dwelt there nearly a 
 year, and on leaving its walls the apostle of Christianity 
 found no cause for shaking off the dust of his feet against 
 the Mohammedan city. The inhabitants had received, 
 cherished and listened to him ; and he departed thence 
 amidst the blessings and tears of many a Persian friend. 
 Through his means the Gospel had then found its way into 
 Persia, and, as it appears to have been sown in kindly hearts, 
 the gradual effect hereafter may be like the harvest to the 
 seedling. But, whatever be the issue, the liberality with 
 which his doctrines were permitted to have been discussed, 
 and the hospitality with which their promulgation was 
 1 Travels, vol. i. pp. 687-8. 
 
360 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 received by the learned, the nobles, and persons of all ranks, 
 cannot but reflect lasting honour on the Government, and 
 command our respect for the people at large. Besides, 
 to a person who thinks at all on these subjects, the circum- 
 stances of the first correct Persian translation of the Holy 
 Scriptures being made at, Shiraz, and thence put into the 
 royal hands and disseminated through the empire, cannot 
 but give an almost prophetic emphasis to the transaction, 
 as arising from the very native country, Persia Proper, of 
 the founder of the empire who first bade the temple of 
 Jerusalem be rebuilt, who returned her sons from captivity, 
 and who was called by name to the Divine commission.' 
 
 As the guest of Jaffir Ali Khan, now in his house in 
 Shiraz, and now in his orange summer garden, Henry 
 Marty n gave himself up to the two absorbing duties of 
 making a new translation of the New Testament into 
 Persian, assisted by his host's brother-in-law, Mirza Seyd 
 Ali Khan, and of receiving and, in the Pauline sense, 
 disputing with the learned Mohammedans of the city and 
 neighbourhood. But all through his inner life, sanctified 
 by his spiritual experience and intensifying that, there 
 continued to run the love of Lydia Grenfell. 
 
 To LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 Shiraz: June 23, 1811. 
 
 How continually I think of you, and indeed converse 
 with you, it is impossible to say. But on the Lord's day 
 in particular, I find you much in my thoughts, because it 
 is on that day that I look abroad, and take a view of the 
 universal church, of which I observe that the saints in 
 England form the most conspicuous part. On that day, 
 too, I indulge myself with a view of the past, and look 
 over again those happy days, when, in company with those 
 
IN PERSIA BUSHIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 361 
 
 I loved, I went up to the house of God with a voice of 
 praise. How then should I fail to remember her who, of 
 all that are dear to me, is the dearest ? It is true that I 
 cannot look back upon many days, nor even many hours 
 passed with you would they had been more but we 
 have insensibly become more acquainted with each other, 
 so that, on my part at least, it may be said that separation 
 has brought us nearer to one another. It was a momentary 
 interview, but the love is lasting, everlasting. Whether 
 we ever meet again or not, I am sure that you will continue 
 to feel an interest in all that befalls me. 
 
 After the death of my dear sister, you bid me consider 
 that I had one sister left while you remained ; and you 
 cannot imagine how consolatory to my mind this assurance 
 is. To know that there is one who is willing to think of 
 me, and has leisure to do so, is soothing to a degree that 
 none can know but those who have, like me, lost all their 
 relations. 
 
 I sent you a letter from Muscat, in Arabia, which I 
 hope you received ; for if not, report will again erase my 
 name from the catalogue of the living, as I sent no other 
 to Europe. Let me here say with praise to our ever- 
 gracious Heavenly Father, that I am in perfect health ; of 
 my spirits I cannot say much ; I fancy they would be 
 better were * the beloved Persis ' by my side. This name, 
 which I once gave you, occurs to me at this moment, I 
 suppose, because I am in Persia, entrenched in one of its 
 valleys, separated from Indian friends by chains of moun- 
 tains and a roaring sea, among a people depraved beyond 
 all belief, in the power of a tyrant guilty of every species 
 of atrocity. Imagine a pale person seated on a Persian 
 carpet, in a room without table or chair, with a pair of 
 formidable moustachios, and habited as a Persian, and you 
 see me. 
 
 June 26. Here I expect to remain six months. The 
 reason is this : I found on my arrival here, that our attempts 
 
362 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 at Persian translation in India were good for nothing ; at 
 the same time they proposed, with my assistance, to make 
 a new translation. It was an offer I could not refuse, as 
 they speak the purest dialect of the Persian. My host is 
 a man of rank, his name Jaffir Ali Khan, who tries to 
 make the period of my captivity as agreeable as possible. 
 His wife for he has but one never appears ; parties of 
 young ladies come to see her, but though they stay days 
 in the house, he dare not go into the room where they are. 
 Without intending a compliment to your sex, I must say 
 that the society here, from the exclusion of females, is as 
 dull as it can well be. Perhaps, however, to a stranger 
 like myself, the most social circles would be insipid. I am 
 visited by all the great and the learned ; the former come 
 out of respect to my country, the latter to my profession. 
 The conversation with the latter is always upon religion, 
 and it would be strange indeed, if with the armour of 
 truth on the right hand and on the left, I were not able 
 to combat with success the upholders of such a system 
 of absurdity and sin. As the Persians are a far more 
 unprejudiced and inquisitive people than the Indians, and 
 do not stand quite so much in awe of an Englishman as 
 the timid natives of Hindustan, I hope they will learn 
 something from me ; the hope of this reconciles me to 
 the necessity imposed on me of staying here ; about the 
 translation I dare not be sanguine. The prevailing opinion 
 concerning me is, that I have repaired to Shiraz in order 
 to become a Mussulman. Others, more sagacious, say 
 that I shall bring from India some more, under pretence 
 of making them Mussulmans, but in reality to seize the 
 place. They do not seem to have thought of my wish to 
 have them converted to my religion ; they have been so 
 long accustomed to remain without proselytes to their own. 
 I shall probably have very little to write about for some 
 months to come, and therefore I reserve the extracts of 
 my Journal since I last .wrote to you for some other oppor- 
 
IN PERSIA BUSHIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 363 
 
 tunity ; besides that, the ambassador, with whose despatches 
 this will go, is just leaving Shiraz. 
 
 July 2. The Mohammedans now come in such numbers 
 to visit me, that I am obliged, for the sake of my translation- 
 work, to decline seeing them. To-day one of the apostate 
 sons of Israel was brought by a party of them, to prove 
 the Divine mission of Mohammed from the Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures, but with all his sophistry he proved nothing. I can 
 almost say with St. Paul, I feel continual pity in my heart 
 for them, and love them for their fathers' sake, and find a 
 pleasure in praying for them. While speaking of the 
 return of the Jews to Jerusalem, I observed that the 
 1 Gospel of the kingdom must first be preached in all the 
 world, and then shall the end come.' He replied with a 
 sneer, ' And this event, I suppose you mean to say, is 
 beginning to take place by your bringing the Gospel to 
 Persia.' 
 
 July 5. I am so incessantly occupied with visitors and 
 my work, that I have hardly a moment for myself. I have 
 more and more reason to rejoice at my being sent here ; 
 there is such an extraordinary stir about religion through- 
 out the city, that some good must come of it. I sometimes 
 sigh for a little Christian communion, yet even from these 
 Mohammedans I hear remarks that do me good. To-day, 
 for instance, my assistant observed, * How He loved those 
 twelve persons ! ' ' Yes,' said I, ' and not those twelve only, 
 but all those who shall believe in Him, as He said, " I pray 
 not for them alone, but for all them who shall believe on 
 me through their word." ' Even the enemy is constrained 
 to wonder at the love of Christ. Shall not the object of 
 it say, What manner of love is this ? I have learned that 
 I may get letters from England much sooner than 
 by way of India. Be so good as to direct to me, to the 
 care of Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart, Ambassador at Teheran, 
 care of J. Morier, Esq., Constantinople, care of G. Moon, 
 Esq., Malta. I have, seen Europe newspapers of 
 
364 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 only four months' date, so that I am delightfully near 
 you. May we live near one another in the unity of the 
 Spirit, having one Lord, one hope, one God and Father. 
 In your prayers for me pray that utterance may be given 
 me that I may open my mouth boldly, to make known 
 the mysteries of the Gospel. I often envy my Persian 
 hearers the freedom and eloquence with which they speak 
 to me. Were I but possessed of their powers, I some- 
 times think that I should win them all ; but the work is 
 God's, and the faith of His people does not stand in the 
 wisdom of men, but in the power of God. Remember me 
 as usual with the most unfeigned affection to all my dear 
 friends. This is now the seventh letter I send you 
 without having received an answer. Farewell ! 
 
 Yours ever most affectionately, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 Shiraz : Septembers, 1811. 
 
 A courier on his way to the capital affords me the 
 unexpected pleasure of addressing my most beloved friend. 
 It is now six months since I left India, and in all that time 
 I have not heard from thence. The dear friends there, 
 happy in each other's society, do not enough call to mind 
 my forlorn condition. Here I am still, beset by cavilling 
 infidels, and making very little progress in my translation, 
 and half disposed to give it up and come away. My kind 
 host, to relieve the tedium of being always within a walled 
 town, pitched a tent for me in a garden a little distance, 
 and there I lived amidst clusters of grapes, by the side of 
 a clear stream ; but nothing compensates for the loss of the 
 excellent of the earth. It is my business, however, as you 
 will say, and ought to be my effort, to make saints, where 
 I cannot find them. I do use the means in a certain way, 
 but frigid reasoning with men of perverse minds seldom 
 brings men to Christ. However, as they require it, I 
 reason, and accordingly challenged them to prove the 
 
IN PERSIA BUSHIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 365 
 
 Divine mission of their prophet In consequence of this, a 
 learned Arabic treatise was written by one who was con- 
 sidered as the most able man, and put into my hands ; 
 copies of it were also given to the college and the learned. 
 The writer of it said that if I could give a satisfactory 
 answer to it he would become a Christian, and at all 
 events would make my reply as public as I pleased. I did 
 answer it, and after some faint efforts on his part to defend 
 himself, he acknowledged the force of my arguments, but 
 was afraid to let them be generally known. He then 
 began to inquire about the Gospel, but was not satisfied 
 with my statement. He required me to prove from the 
 very beginning the Divine mission of Moses, as well as of 
 Christ ; the truth of the Scriptures, etc. With very little 
 hope that any good will come of it, I am now employed 
 in drawing out the evidences of the truth ; but oh ! that I 
 could converse and reason, and plead with power from on 
 high. How powerless are the best-directed arguments till 
 the Holy Ghost renders them effectual. 
 
 A few days ago I was just on the eve of my departure 
 for Ispahan, as I thought, and my translator had consented 
 to accompany me as far as Baghdad, but just as we were 
 setting out, news came that the Persians and Turks were 
 fighting thereabouts, and that the road was in consequence 
 impassable. I do not know what the Lord's purpose may 
 be in keeping me here, but I trust it will be for the 
 furtherance of the Gospel of Christ, and in that belief I 
 abide contentedly. 
 
 My last letter to you was dated July. I desired you 
 to direct to me at Teheran. As it is uncertain whether I 
 shall pass anywhere near there, you had better direct to 
 the care of S. Morier, Esq., Constantinople, and I can easily 
 get your letters from thence. 
 
 I am happy to say that I am quite well, indeed, never 
 better ; no returns of pain in the chest since I left India. 
 May I soon receive the welcome news that you also are 
 
366 HENRY MARTY& 
 
 well, and prospering even as your soul prospers. I read 
 your letters incessantly, and try to find out something new, 
 as I generally do, but I begin to look with pain at the 
 distant date of the last. I cannot tell what to think, but I 
 cast all my care upon Him who hath already done wonders 
 for me, and am sure that, .come what will, it shall be good, 
 it shall be best. How sweet the privilege that we may lie 
 as little children before Him ! I find that my wisdom is 
 folly and my care useless, so that I try to live on from 
 day to day, happy in His love and care. May that God 
 who hath loved us, and given us everlasting consolation 
 and good hope through grace, bless, love, and keep my 
 ever-dearest friend ; and dwelling in the secret place of 
 the Most High, and abiding under the shadow of the 
 Almighty, may she enjoy that sweet tranquillity which the 
 world cannot disturb. Dearest Lydia ! pray for me, and 
 believe me to be ever most faithfully and affectionately 
 yours, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 Shiraz: October 21, 1811. 
 
 It is, I think, about a month since I wrote to you, and so 
 little has occurred since that I find scarcely anything in my 
 Journal^ and nothing worth transcribing. This state of in- 
 activity is becoming very irksome to me. I cannot get these 
 Persians to work, and while they are idle I am sitting 
 here to no purpose. Sabat's laziness used to provoke me 
 excessively, but Persians I find are as torpid as Arabs when 
 their salary does not depend on their exertions, and both 
 very inferior to the feeble Indian, whom they affect to 
 despise. My translator comes about sunrise, corrects a 
 little, and is off, and I see no more of him for the day. 
 Meanwhile I sit fretting, or should do so, as I did at first, 
 were it not for a blessed employment which so beguiles the 
 tediousness of the day that I hardly perceive it passing. 
 It is the study of the Psalms in the Hebrew. I have long 
 
M PERSIA &USHIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 367 
 
 had it in contemplation, in the assurance, from the number 
 of flat and obscure passages that occur in the translations, 
 that the original has not been hitherto perfectly understood. 
 I am delighted to find that many of the most unmeaning 
 verses in the version turn out, on close examination, to 
 contain a direct reference to the Lord our Saviour. The 
 testimony of Jesus is indeed the spirit of prophecy. He is 
 never lost sight of. Let them touch what subject they 
 will, they must always let fall something about Him. Such 
 should we be, looking always to Him. I have often at- 
 tempted the 84th Psalm, endeared to me on many accounts 
 as you know, but have not yet succeeded. The glorious 
 1 6th Psalm I hope I have mastered. I write with the 
 ardour of a student communicating his discoveries and 
 describing his difficulties to a fellow student. 
 
 I think of you incessantly, too much, I fear, sometimes ; 
 yet the recollection of you is generally attended with an 
 exercise of resignation to His will. In prayer I often feel 
 what you described five years ago as having felt a par- 
 ticular pleasure in viewing you as with me before the Lord, 
 and entreating our common Father to bless both His chil- 
 dren. When I sit and muse my spirit flies away to, you, 
 and attends you at Gurlyn, Penzance, Plymouth Dock, and 
 sometimes with your brother in London. If you acknow- 
 ledge a kindred feeling still, we are not separated ; our 
 spirits have met and blended. I still continue without 
 intelligence from India ; since last January I have heard 
 nothing of any one person whom I love. My consolation 
 is that the Lord has you all under His care, and is carrying 
 on His work in the world by your means, and that when I 
 emerge I shall find that some progress is made in India 
 especially, the country [ now regard as my own. Persia 
 is in many respects a ripe field for the harvest. Vast 
 numbers secretly hate and despise the superstition imposed 
 on them, and as many of them as have heard the Gospel 
 approve it, but they dare not hazard their lives for the 
 
368 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 name of the Lord Jesus. I am sometimes asked whether 
 the external appearance of Mohammedanism might not be 
 retained with Christianity, and whether I could not baptize 
 them without their believing in the Divinity of Christ. I tell 
 them, No. 
 
 Though I have complained above of the inactivity of 
 my translation, I have reason to bless the Lord that He 
 thus supplies Gibeonites for the help of His true Israel. 
 They are employed in a work of the importance of which 
 they are unconscious, and are making provision for future 
 Persian saints, whose time is, I suppose, now near. Roll 
 back, ye crowded years, your thick array ! Let the long, 
 long period of darkness and sin at last give way to the 
 brighter hours of light and liberty, which wait on the wings 
 of the Sun of Righteousness. Perhaps we witness the dawn 
 of the day of glory, and if not, the desire that we feel, that 
 Jesus may be glorified, and the nations acknowledge His 
 sway, is the earnest of the Spirit, that when He shall appear 
 we shall also appear with Him in glory. Kind love to all 
 the saints who are waiting His coming. 
 
 Yours, with true affection, my ever dearest Lydia, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 It is now determined that we leave Shiraz in a week, 
 and as the road through Persia is impassable through the 
 commotions which are always disturbing some part or other 
 of this unhappy country, I must go back to Bushire. 
 
 My scribe finished the New Testament ; in correcting 
 we are no further than the I3th of Acts. 
 
 October 24 to 26. Resumed my Hebrew studies ; on 
 the two first days translated the eight first Psalms into 
 Persian, the last all day long thinking about the word 
 Higgaion in the 9th Psalm. 
 
 October 27 to 29. Finished Psalm xii. Reading the 
 5th of St. Matthew to Zachariah my servant. Felt awfully 
 convinced of guilt ; how fearlessly do I give way to cause- 
 
IN PERSIA BUSHIRE AND SHIRAZ, 1811 369 
 
 less anger, speaking contemptuously of men, as if I had 
 never read this chapter. The Lord deliver me from all 
 my wickedness, and write His holy law upon my heart, that 
 I may walk circumspectly before Him all the remaining 
 days of my life. 
 
 November i. Everything was prepared for our journey 
 to Baghdad by the Persian Gulf, and a large party of Shiraz 
 ladies, chiefly of Mirza Seid Ali's family, had determined 
 to accompany us, partly from a wish to visit the tombs, 
 and partly to have the company of their relations a little 
 longer. But a letter arriving with the intelligence that 
 Bagdhad was all in confusion, our kafila separated, and I 
 resolved to go on through Persia to Armenia, and so to 
 Syria. But the season was too far advanced for me to 
 think of traversing the regions of Caucasus just then, so I 
 made up my mind to winter at Shiraz. 
 
 B B 
 
370 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 CHAPTER X 
 
 IN PERSIA CONTROVERSIES WITH MOHAMMEDANS, 
 SOOFIS, AND JEWS 
 
 HENRY MARTYN'S first week in Persia was enough to lead 
 him to use such language as this : * If God rained down 
 fire upon Sodom and Gomorrah, how is it that this nation 
 is not blotted out from under heaven ? I do not remember 
 to have heard such things of the Hindus, except the 
 Sikhs ; they seem to rival the Mohammedans.' The 
 experienced Bengal civilian, Mr. E. Scott Waring, had 
 thus summed up his impressions : ' The generality of 
 Persians are sunk in the lowest state of profligacy and 
 infamy, and they seldom hesitate alluding to crimes which 
 are abhorred and detested in every civilised country in the 
 universe. Their virtues consist in being most excellent 
 companions, and in saying this we say everything which 
 can be advanced in their favour. The same argument 
 cannot be advanced for them which has been urged in 
 favour of the Greeks, for they have laws which stigmatise 
 the crimes they commit/ Every generation seems to have 
 departed farther and farther from the character of the hero- 
 king, Cyrus. At the present time, after two visits to 
 Europe by their Shah, the governing class, the priestly 
 
IN PERSIA 371 
 
 order of Moojtahids, and the people seem to be more 
 hopelessly corrupt than ever. 1 
 
 So early as the twelfth century the astronomer-poet of 
 Persia, Omar Khayyam, of Naishapur, in his few hundred 
 tetrastichs of exquisite verse which have ever since won 
 the admiration of the world, struck the note of dreary 
 scepticism and epicurean sensuality, as the Roman Lucre- 
 tius had done. His age was one of spiritual darkness, 
 when men felt their misery, and all the more that they saw 
 no means of relieving it. The purer creed of Zoroaster had 
 been stamped down but not rooted out by the illiterate 
 Arab hordes of Mohammed. A cultured Aryan race 
 could not accept submissively the ignorant fanaticism of 
 the Semitic sons of the desert. The Arabs destroyed or 
 drove out ultimately to India the fire-worshippers who 
 had courage to prefer their faith to the Koran ; the mass 
 of the people and their leaders worked out the superficial 
 Mohammedanism identified with the nameand the sufferings 
 of Ali. The new national religion became more and more 
 a falsehood, alike misrepresenting the moral facts and the 
 character and claims of God, and not really believed in by the 
 general conscience. The few who from time to time arose 
 endowed with spiritual fervour or poetic fire, found no vent 
 through the popular religion, and no satisfaction for the 
 aching void of the heart. The loftier natures ran by an 
 inevitable law of the human mind either into such self- 
 indulgent despairing scepticism as Omar Khayyam's, or 
 into the sensual mysticism of Sadi, Jami, and Hafiz, of the 
 whole tribe of ascetic enthusiasts and impostors, the Soofis, 
 fakeers, and durweshes, who fill the world of Islam, from 
 
 1 See article in the Spectator for August 17, 1889, by a writer who" had 
 recently returned from Persia. 
 
372 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 the mosques on the Bosporus to the secret chambers of 
 Persia and Oudh. To all such we may use one of the few 
 rare tetrastichs which Omar Khayyam was compelled by 
 his higher nature to write : l 
 
 O heart ! wert thou pure from the body's dust, 
 Thou shouldest soar naked spirit above the sky ; 
 Highest heaven is thy native seat for shame, for shame, 
 That thou shouldest stoop to dwell in a city of clay ! 
 
 We must remember all this when we come to the dis- 
 putations of Henry Martyn with the doctors of Shiraz and 
 Persia. They, and some fifteen millions out of the hundred 
 and eighty millions of Islam in the world, are Shi'ahs, or 
 ' followers ' of Ali, whom, as Mohammed's first cousin and 
 son-in-law, they accept as his first legitimate imam, kaliph, 
 or successor; while they treat the de facto kaliphs of the 
 Soonni Muslims Abu Bakr, Omar, and Othman as 
 usurpers. The Persians are in reality more tolerant of 
 the Christians, the Jews, and even the Majusi (Magi), or 
 fire-worshippers, all of whom are people of the Book who 
 have received an inspired revelation, than of their Soonni 
 co-religionists. The people though not of course their 
 ruler, who is of Turkish origin are more tolerant of new 
 sects, such as that of Babism, and even their spiritual 
 guides or the more respectable among these are in ex- 
 pectation of a new leader, the twelfth, the Imam-al-Mahdi, 
 who has once before been manifested, and has long been 
 waiting secretly for the final consummation. 
 
 We must also realise the extent to which Soofi-ism 
 had saturated the upper classes and the Moojtahid order, 
 who sought out Henry Martyn, and even recognised in 
 
 1 See article on the poet in the Calcutta Review for March 1858 (by Pro- 
 fessor E. B. Cowell, LL.D.s Cambridge). 
 
IN PERSIA 373 
 
 him the Divine drunkenness, so that they always treated 
 him and spoke of him as a merdi khodai, a man of God. 
 The first Soofi a name taken either from the word for 
 the woollen dress of the Asiatic or from that for purity 
 was Ali, according to the Shi'ahs ; but this form of 
 philosophical mysticism, often attended by carnal excesses 
 through which its devotees express themselves, is rather 
 Hindu in its origin. The deepest thought of the Asiatic, 
 without the revelation of Jesus Christ, is for Brahman and 
 Buddhist, Sikh and Soofi, Hindu and Mohammedan, this 
 absorption into the Divine Essence, so as to lose all per- 
 sonality and individual consciousness. That Essence may 
 be the sum total of all things the materialistic side ; or 
 the spirit underlying matter, the idealistic side, but the loss 
 of individuality is the ultimate aim. But such absorp- 
 tion can be finally reached only by works asceticism, 
 pilgrimage, almsgiving, meditation and by cycles of trans- 
 migrations to sublimate the soul for unconsciousness of all 
 that is objective, and of self itself. Hafiz is as full of wine 
 and women in his poems as Anacreon or the worst of the 
 Latin erotic poets ; but the Soofis, who revel in his verses, 
 maintain that they ' profess eager desire with no carnal 
 affection, and circulate the cup, but no material goblet, 
 since all things are spiritual in their sect ; all is mystery 
 within mystery.' 
 
 What Henry Martyn learned to find, in even his brief 
 experience of the Aryan Shi'ahs, to whom he offered the 
 love of Christ and through the Son a personal union with 
 the Father, is best expressed in this description by the 
 most recent skilled writer on the people, before referred to : 
 
 Persia is the one purely Mohammedan country which, 
 in the process of a national revolt against the rigid hide- 
 
374 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 bound orthodoxy of Islam, has only succeeded in wrapping 
 more closely round its national and political life the 
 encircling folds of that ' manteau commode, sous lequel 
 s'abrite, en se cachant a peine, tout le passe.' Under the 
 extravagances and fanaticism of the Shi'ah heresy, the old 
 Zoroastrian faith lives on, transformed into an outward con- 
 formity to the forms of the Moslem creed, and the product is 
 that grotesque confusion of faith and fanaticism, mysticism 
 and immorality, rationalism and superstition, which is the 
 despair and astonishment of all who have looked beneath 
 the surface of ordinary everyday life in Persia. Soofi-ism, 
 with its profound mysticism and godless doctrine, has 
 found a congenial home in Persia, often, indeed, blossom- 
 ing into beautiful literary form such as is found in the 
 Rubaiyat of Omar Khayyam, or in the delightful pages of 
 the Gulistan of Sheikh Sadi, or in the poems of Hafiz. 
 
 Soofi-ism is the illegitimate offspring of scepticism and 
 fanaticism. It is tersely described by one Persian writer 
 as ' a sensual plunging into the abyss of darkness ' ; by 
 another as ' a deadly abomination ' ; and by a third as ' the 
 part of one who goes raving mad with unlawful lusts.' 
 Nevertheless, as Professor Kuenen has well observed, the 
 true Soofi is a Moslem no more. 
 
 All Martyn's experience among the Wahabees of 
 Patna and the Shi'ahs of Lucknow had fitted him for the 
 discussions which were almost forced upon him in Persia, 
 for he went there to translate the New Testament afresh. 
 But he had, in his reading, sought to prepare himself for 
 the Mohammedan controversy. When coasting round 
 India, he made this entry in \\isjournal : ' 181 1, January 28. 
 Making extracts from Maracci's Refutation of Koran. 
 Felt much false shame at being obliged to confess my 
 ignorance of many things which I ought to have known.' 
 
IN PERSIA 375 
 
 Soofi-ism met him the day after he reached Shiraz, on the 
 first visit of Seyd Ali, brother-in-law of his host, Jaffir AH 
 Khan. Thus : 
 
 June 10. He spoke so indistinctly, and with such 
 volubility, that I did not well comprehend him, but gathered 
 from his discourse that we are all parts of the Deity. I 
 observed that we had not these opinions in Europe, but 
 understood that they were parts of the Brahmanic system. 
 On my asking him for the foundation of his opinions, he 
 said the first argument he was prepared to bring forward 
 was this : God exists, man also exists, but existence is not 
 twofold, therefore God and man are of the same nature. 
 The minor I disputed : he defended it with many words. 
 I replied by objecting the consequences, Is there no 
 difference between right and wrong ? There appeared a 
 difference, he said, to us, but before God it was nothing. 
 The waves of the sea are so many aspects and forms, but 
 it is still but one and the same water. In the outset he 
 spoke with great contempt of all revelation. ' You know/ 
 said he, ' that in the law and Koran, etc., it is said, God 
 created heaven and the earth] etc. Reverting to this, I 
 asked whether these opinions were agreeable to what the 
 prophets had spoken. Perceiving me to be not quite philo- 
 sophical enough for him, he pretended some little reverence 
 for them, spoke of them as good men, etc., but added that 
 there was no evidence for their truth but what was 
 traditionary. I asked whether there was anything un- 
 reasonable in God's making a revelation of His will. He 
 said, No. Whether a miracle for that purpose was not 
 necessary, at least useful, and therefore credible ? He granted 
 it. Was not evidence from testimony rational evidence ? 
 Yes. Have you then rational evidence for the religion of 
 Mohammed ? He said the division of the moon was 
 generally brought forward, but he saw no sufficient 
 evidence for believing it ; he mentioned the Koran with 
 
376 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 some hesitation, as if conscious that it would not stand as 
 a miracle. I said eloquence depended upon opinion ; it 
 was no miracle for any but Arabs, and that some one 
 may yet rise up and write better. He allowed the force of 
 the objection, and said the Persians were very far from 
 thinking the eloquence of the Koran miraculous, however 
 the Arabs might think so.' The last observation he made 
 was, that it was impossible not to think well of one by 
 whose example and instructions others had become great 
 and good ; though therefore little was known of Mohammed, 
 he must have been something to have formed such men as 
 Ali. Here the conversation ceased. I told them in the 
 course of our conversation that, according to our histories, 
 the law and Gospel had been translated into Persian before 
 the time of Mohammed. He said they were not to be 
 found, because Omar in his ignorant zeal had probably 
 destroyed them. He spoke with great contempt of the 
 * Arab asses.' 
 
 June 13. Seyd Ali breakfasted with us. Looking 
 at one of the plates in Hutton's Mathematical Dictionary, 
 where there was a figure of a fountain produced by the 
 rarefaction of the air, he inquired into the principle of it, 
 which I explained ; he disputed the principle, and argued 
 for the exploded idea that nature abhors a vacuum. We 
 soon got upon religion again. I showed him some verses 
 in the Koran in which Mohammed disclaims the power of 
 working miracles. He could not reply. We talked again 
 on the evidence of testimony. The oldest book written by 
 a Mohammedan was the sermons of Ali. Allowing these 
 sermons to be really his, I objected to his testimony for 
 Mohammed, because he was interested in the support of that 
 religion. I asked him the meaning of a contested passage ; 
 he gave the usual explanation ; but as soon as the servants 
 were gone he turned round and said, ' It is only to make a 
 rhyme.' This conversation seemed to be attended with 
 good. Our amiable host, Jaffir Ali, Mirza Jan, and Seyd 
 
IN PERSIA 377 
 
 AH seemed to be delighted with my arguments against 
 Mohammedanism, and did not at last evince a wish to defend 
 it. In the evening Jaffir Ali came and talked most 
 agreeably on religious subjects, respecting the obvious 
 tendency of piety and impiety, and the end to which they 
 would lead in a future world. One of his remarks was, * If 
 I am in love with any one, I shall dream of her at night ; 
 her image will meet me in my sleep. Now death is but a 
 sleep ; if therefore I love God, or Christ, when I fall asleep 
 in death I shall meet Him, so also if I love Satan or his 
 works.' He could wish, he said, if he had not a wife and 
 children, to go and live on the top of a mountain, so 
 disgusted was he with the world and its concerns. I 
 told him this was the first suggestion in the minds of 
 devotees in all religions, but that in reality it was not the 
 way to escape the pollution of the world, because a man's 
 wicked heart will go with him to the top of a mountain. It 
 is the grace of God changing the heart which will alone raise 
 us above the world. Christ commands His people to ' abide 
 in Him ' ; this is the secret source of fruitfulness, without 
 which they are as branches cut off from the tree. He asked 
 whether there was no mention of a prophet's coming after 
 Christ. I said, No. ' Why then,' said he, ' was any mention 
 made of Ahmed in the Koran ? ' He said, * One day an 
 English gentleman said to me, " I believe that Christ was 
 no better than myself." " Why then," said I, " you are 
 worse than a Mohammedan." ' 
 
 June 24. Went early this morning to the Jewish 
 synagogue with Jaffir Ali Khan. At the sight of a Moham- 
 medan of such rank, the chief person stopped the service 
 and came to the door to bring us in. He then showed us 
 the little room where the copies of the law were kept. He 
 said there were no old ones but at Baghdad and Jerusalem ; 
 he had a printed copy with the Targum, printed at Leg- 
 horn. The only European letters in it were the words 
 'con approbazione,' of which he was anxious to know the 
 
378 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 meaning. The congregation consisted chiefly of little 
 boys, most of whom had the Psalter. I felt much dis- 
 tressed that the worship of the God of Israel' was not 
 there, and therefore I did not ask many questions. When 
 he found I could read Hebrew, he was very curious to 
 know who I might be, anjd asked my name. I told him 
 Abdool Museeh, in hopes that he would ask more, but he 
 did not, setting me down, I suppose, as a Mohammedan. 
 
 June 25. Every day I hear stories of these bloody 
 Tartars. They allow no Christian, not even a Soonni, to 
 enter their country, except in very particular cases, such 
 as merchants with a pass ; but never allow one to return 
 to Persia if they catch him. They argue, * If we suffer this 
 creature to go back, he will become the father of other 
 infidels, and thus infidelity will spread : so, for the sake of 
 God and His prophet, let us kill him.' About 150 years 
 ago the men of Bokhara made an insidious attempt to 
 obtain a confession from the people of Mushed that they 
 were Shi'ahs. Their moulvies begged to know what evi- 
 dence they had for the Khaliphat of AH. But the men of 
 Mushed, aware of their purpose, said, ' We Shi'ahs ! no, we 
 acknowledge thee for friends.' But the moollahs of Bokhara 
 were not satisfied with this confession, and three of them 
 deliberated together on what ought to be done. One said : 
 ' It is all hypocrisy ; they must be killed.' The other said : 
 1 No, if all be killed we shall kill some Soonnis.' The third 
 said : ' If any can prove that their ancestors have ever been 
 Soonnis they shall be saved, but not else.' Another 
 rejoined that, from being so long with Shi'ahs, their faith 
 could not be pure, and so it was better to kill them. To 
 this another agreed, observing that though it was no sin 
 before men to let them live, he who spared them must be 
 answerable for it to God. When the three bloody inquisi- 
 tors had determined on the destruction of the Shi'ah city, 
 they gave the signal, and 1 50,000 Tartars marched down 
 and put all to the sword". 
 
IN PERSIA 379 
 
 June 26. We were to-day, according to our expecta- 
 tion, just about setting off for Ispahan, when, Mirza 
 Ibrahim returning, gave us information that the Tartars 
 and Koords had made an irruption into Persia, and that 
 the whole Persian army was on its march to Kermanshah 
 to meet them. Thus our road is impassable. I wrote 
 instantly to the ambassador, to know what he would 
 advise, and the minister sent off an express with it. Mirza 
 Ibrahim, after reading my answer, had nothing to reply, 
 but made such a remark as I did not expect from a man of 
 his character, namely, that he was sufficiently satisfied the 
 Koran was a miracle, though he had failed to convince me. 
 Thus my labour is lost, except it be with the Lord. I 
 have now lost all hope of ever convincing Mohammedans by 
 argument. The most rational, learned, unprejudiced, chari- 
 table men confessedly in the whole town cannot escape 
 from the delusion. I know not what to do but to pray for 
 them. I had some warm conversation with Seyd Ali on 
 his infidelity. I asked him what he wanted. Was there 
 any one thing on earth, of the same antiquity, as well 
 attested as the miracles, etc., of Christianity ? He confessed 
 not, but he did not know the reason he could not believe : 
 perhaps it was levity and the love of the world, or the 
 power of Satan, but he had no faith at all. He could not 
 believe even in a future state. He asked at the end, ' Why 
 all this earnestness ? ' I said, * For fear you should remain 
 in hell for ever.' He was affected, and said no more. 
 
 June 27. The Prime Minister sent me, as a present, 
 four mules-load of melons from Kaziroon. Seyd Ali reading 
 the 2nd chapter of St. Matthew, where the star is said 
 to go before the wise men, asked : ' Then what do you say 
 to that, after what you were proving yesterday about the 
 stars ? ' I said : ' It was not necessary to suppose it was one 
 of those heavenly bodies ; any meteor that had the appear- 
 ance of a star was sufficient for the purpose, and equally 
 miraculous.' ' Then why call it a star ? ' ' Because the magi 
 
380 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 called it so, for this account was undoubtedly received 
 from them. Philosophers still talk of a falling star, though 
 every one knows that it is not a star.' 
 
 September 2 to 6. At Mirza Ibrahim's request we are 
 employed in making out a proof of the Divine mission of 
 Moses and Jesus. He fancies that my arguments against 
 Mohammedanism are equally" applicable against these two, 
 and that as I triumphed when acting on the offensive, I 
 shall be as weak as he when I act on the defensive. 
 
 September 7 to n. Employed much the same; daily 
 disputes with Jaffir Ali Khan about the Trinity ; if they 
 may be called disputes in which I bring forward no argu- 
 ments, but calmly refer them to the Holy Scriptures. They 
 distress and perplex themselves without measure, and I 
 enjoy a peace, as respects these matters, which passeth 
 understanding. There is no passage that so frequently 
 occurs to me now as this : ' They shall be all taught of 
 God, and great shall be the peace of thy children.' I have 
 this testimony that I have been taught of God. 
 
 1 8 i 2, January 19. Aga Baba coming in while we were 
 translating, Mirza Seyd Ali told him he had been all the day 
 decrying the law. It is a favourite tenet of the Soofis, 
 that we should be subject to no law. Aga Baba said that 
 if Christ, while He removed the old law, had also forborne 
 to bring in His new way, He would have done still better. 
 I was surprised as well as shocked at such a remark from 
 him, but said nothing. The poor man, not knowing how to 
 exist without amusement, then turned to a game at chess. 
 How pitiable is the state of fallen man ! Wretched, and 
 yet he will not listen to any proposals of relief: stupidly 
 ignorant, yet too wise to submit to learn anything from 
 God. I have often wondered to see how the merest dunce 
 thinks himself qualified to condemn and ridicule revealed 
 religion. These Soofis pretend too to be latitudinarians, 
 assigning idolaters the same rank as others in nearness to 
 God, yet they have all in their turn spoken contemptuously 
 
IN PERSIA 381 
 
 of the Gospel. Perhaps because it is so decisively exclu- 
 sive. I begin now to have some notion of Soofi-ism. The 
 principle is this : Notwithstanding the good and evil, 
 pleasure and pain that is in the world, God is not affected 
 by it. He is perfectly happy with it all ; if therefore we 
 can become like God we shall also be perfectly happy in 
 every possible condition. This, therefore, is salvation. 
 
 January 21. Aga Boozong, the most magisterial of 
 the Soofis, stayed most of the day with Mirza Seyd Ali 
 and Jaffir Ali Khan in my room. His speech as usual 
 all things are only so many forms of God ; paint as many 
 figures as you will on a wall, it is still but the same wall. 
 Tired of constantly hearing this same vapid truism, I asked 
 him, ' What then ? With the reality of things we have 
 nothing to do, as we know nothing about them.' These 
 forms, if he will have it that they are but forms, affect us 
 with pleasure and pain, just as if they were more real. He 
 said we were at present in a dream ; in a dream we think 
 visionary things real when we wake we discover the 
 delusion. I asked him how did he know but that this 
 dream might continue for ever. But he was not at all 
 disposed to answer objections, and was rather vexed at my 
 proposing them. So I let him alone to dissent as he 
 pleased. Mirza Seyd Ali read him some verses of St. Paul, 
 which he condescended to praise, but in such a way as to 
 be more offensive to me than if he had treated it with 
 contempt. He repeated again how much he was pleased 
 with the sentiments of Paul, as if his being pleased with 
 them would be a matter of exultation to me. He said they 
 were excellent precepts for the people of the world. The 
 parts Mirza Seyd Ali read were Titus iii. and Hebrews viii. 
 On the latter Mirza Seyd Ali observed that he (Paul) had 
 not written ill, but something like a good reasoner. Thus 
 they sit in judgment on God's Word, never dreaming that 
 they are to be judged by it. On the contrary, they regard 
 the best parts, as they call them, as approaching only 
 
382 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 towards the heights of Soofi-ism. Aga Boozong finally 
 observed that as for the Gospels he had not seen much in 
 them, but the Epistles he was persuaded would make the 
 book soon well known. There is another circumstance that 
 gained Paul importance in the eyes of Mirza Seyd Ali, 
 which is, that he speaks of Mark and Luke as his servants. 
 
 January 24. Found Seyd Ali rather serious this even- 
 ing. He said he did not know what to do to have his mind 
 made up about religion. Of all the religions Christ's was 
 the best, but whether to prefer this to Soofi-ism he could not 
 tell. In these doubts he was tossed to and fro, and is often 
 kept awake the whole night in tears. He and his brother 
 talk together on these things till they are almost crazed. 
 Before he was engaged in this work of translation, he says, 
 he used to read about two or three hours a day ; now he 
 can do nothing else ; has no inclination for anything else, 
 and feels unhappy if he does not correct his daily portion. 
 His late employment has given a new turn to his thoughts 
 as well as to those of his friends ; they had not the most 
 distant conception of the contents of the New Testament. 
 He says his Soofi friends are exceedingly anxious to see the 
 Epistles, from the accounts he gives of them, and also he is 
 sure that almost the whole of Shiraz are so sensible of the 
 load of unmeaning ceremonies in which their religion con- 
 sists, that they will rejoice to see or hear of anything like 
 freedom, and that they would be more willing to embrace 
 Christ than the Soofis, who, after taking so much pains to be 
 independent of all law, would think it degrading to submit 
 themselves to any law again, however light. 
 
 February 4. Mirza Seyd Ali, who has been enjoying 
 himself in idleness and dissipation these two days instead 
 of translating, returned full of evil and opposition to the 
 Gospel. While translating 2 Peter iii., ' Scoffers . . . saying, 
 Where is the promise of his coming ? ' he began to ask 
 ' Well, they are in the right ; where are any of His promises 
 fulfilled ? ' I said the heathen nations have been given to 
 
IN PERSIA 383 
 
 Christ for an inheritance. He said No ; it might be more 
 truly said that they are given to Mohammed, for what are 
 the Christian nations compared with Arabia, Persia, India, 
 Tartary, etc. ? I set in opposition all Europe, Russia, 
 Armenia, and the Christians in the Mohammedan countries. 
 He added, at one time when the Abbasides carried their 
 arms to Spain, the Christian name was almost extinct. I 
 rejoined, however, that he was not yet come to the end of 
 things, that Mohammedanism was in itself rather a species of 
 heretical Christianity, for many professing Christians denied 
 the Divinity of our Lord, and treated the Atonement as a 
 fable. ' They do right,' said he ; ' it is contrary to reason that 
 one person should be an atonement for all the rest. How 
 do you prove it ? it is nowhere said in the Gospels. Christ 
 said He was sent only to the lost sheep of the house of 
 Israel.' I urged the authority of the Apostles, founded 
 upon His word, ' Whatsoever ye shall bind on earth shall 
 be bound in heaven, and whatsoever ye shall loose on 
 earth,' etc. ' Why, what are we to think of them,' said he, 
 ' when we see Paul and Barnabas quarrelling ; Peter acting 
 the hypocrite, sometimes eating with the Gentiles, and 
 then withdrawing from fear ; and again, all the Apostles, 
 not knowing what to do about the circumcision of the 
 Gentiles, and disputing among themselves about it ? ' I 
 answered, ' The infirmities of the Apostles have nothing to 
 do with their authority. It is not everything they do that 
 we are commanded to imitate, nor everything they might 
 say in private, if we knew it, that we are obliged to attend 
 to, but the commands they leave for the Church ; and here 
 there is no difference among them. As for the discussions 
 about circumcision, it does not at all appear that the 
 Apostles themselves were divided in their opinions about it ; 
 the difficulty seems to have been started by those believers 
 who had been Pharisees.' * Can you give me a proof/ said 
 he, ' of Christianity, that I may either believe, or be left 
 without excuse if I do net believe a proof like that of one 
 
384 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 of the theorems of Euclid ? ' I said it is not to be 
 expected, but enough may be shown to leave every 
 man inexcusable. ' Well,' said he, ' though this is only 
 probability, I shall be glad of that. 5 ' As soon as our Testa- 
 ment is finished, 5 I replied, ' we will, if you please, set about 
 our third treatise, in which, if I fail to convince you, I can 
 at least state the reasons why I believed. 5 ' You had better, 5 
 said he, ' begin with Soofi-ism, and show that that is absurd 5 
 meaning, I suppose, that I should premise something 
 about the necessity of revelation. After a little pause, ' I 
 suppose, 5 said he, ' you think it sinful to sport with the 
 characters of those holy men ? 5 I said I had no objection 
 to hear all their objections and sentiments, but I could 
 not bear anything spoken disrespectfully of the Lord 
 Jesus ; * and yet there is not one of your Soofis, 5 I added, 
 * but has said something against Him. Even your master, 
 Mirza Abul Kasim, though he knows nothing of the Gospel 
 or law, and has not even seen them, presumed to say that 
 Moses, Christ, Mohammed, etc., were all alike. I did not 
 act in this way. In India I made every inquiry, 
 both about Hinduism and Mohammedanism. I read 
 the Koran through twice. On my first arrival here I 
 made it my business to ask for your proofs, so that if I 
 condemned and rejected it, it was not without consideration. 
 Your master, therefore, spoke rather precipitately. 5 He did 
 not attempt to defend him, but said, ' You never heard me 
 speak lightly of Jesus. 5 ' No ; there is something so awfully 
 pure about Him that nothing is to be said. 5 
 
 March 18. Sat a good part of the day with Abul Kasim, 
 the Soofi sage, Mirza Seyd Ali, and Aga Mohammed 
 Hasan, who begins to be a disciple of the old man's. On 
 my expressing a wish to see the Indian book, it was pro- 
 posed to send for it, which they did, and then read it aloud. 
 The stoicism of it I controverted, and said that the entire 
 annihilation of the passions, which the stupid Brahman 
 described as perfection,' was absurd. On my continuing to 
 
IN PERSIA 385 
 
 treat other parts of the book with contempt, the old man 
 was a little roused, and said that this was the way that 
 pleased them, and my way pleased me. That thus God 
 provided something for the tastes of all, and as the master 
 of a feast provides a great variety, some eat pilao, others 
 prefer kubab, etc. On my again remarking afterwards 
 how useless all these descriptions of perfection were, since 
 no rules were given for attaining it, the old man asked what 
 in my opinion was the way. I said we all agreed in one 
 point, namely, that union with God was perfection ; that 
 in order to that we must receive the Spirit of God, which 
 Spirit was promised on condition of believing in Jesus. 
 There was a good deal of disputing about Jesus, His being 
 exclusively the visible God. Nothing came of it appa- 
 rently, but that Mirza Seyd Ali afterwards said, * There is 
 no getting at anything like truth or certainty. We know 
 nothing at all ; you are in the right, who simply believe 
 because Jesus had said so.' 
 
 March 22. These two days I have been thinking from 
 morning to night about the Incarnation ; considering if I 
 could represent it in such a way as to obviate in any degree 
 the prejudices of the Mohammedans ; not that I wished to 
 make it appear altogether agreeable to reason, but I wanted 
 to give a consistent account of the nature and uses of this 
 doctrine, as they are found in the different parts of the 
 Holy Scriptures. One thing implied another to such an 
 extent that I thought necessarily of the nature of life, death, 
 spirit, soul, animal nature, state of separate spirits, person- 
 ality, the person of Christ, etc., that I was quite worn out 
 with fruitless thought. Towards evening Carapiet with 
 another Armenian came and conversed on several points 
 of theology, such as whether the fire of hell were literally 
 fire or only remorse, whether the Spirit proceeded from the 
 Father and the Son, or from the Father only, and how we 
 are to reconcile those two texts, that ' for every idle word 
 that men shall speak/ etc., with the promises of salvation 
 
 C C 
 
386 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 through faith ? Happening to speak in praise of some 
 person who practised needless austerities, I tried to make 
 him understand that this was not the way of the Gospel. 
 He urged these texts ' Blessed are they that mourn,' 
 ' Blessed are ye that weep now,' etc. While we were dis- 
 cussing this point, Mohammed Jaffir, who on a former 
 occasion had conversed with me a good deal about the 
 Gospel, came in. I told him the question before us was an 
 important one, namely, how the love of sin was to be got 
 out of the heart. The Armenian proceeded, ' If I wish to 
 go to a dancing or drinking, I must deny myself.' Whether 
 he meant to say that this was sufficient I do not know, 
 but the Mohammedan understanding him so, replied that he 
 had read yesterday in the Gospel, ' that whosoever looketh 
 upon a woman,' etc., from which he inferred that obedience 
 of the heart was requisite. This he expressed with such 
 propriety and gracefulness, that, added to the circumstance 
 of his having been reading the Gospel, I was quite delighted, 
 and thought with pleasure of the day when the Gospel 
 should be preached by Persians. After the Armenians 
 were gone we considered the doctrines of the Soofis a 
 little. Finding me not much averse to what he thought 
 some of their most exceptionable tenets, such as union with 
 God, he brought this argument : ' You will allow that God 
 cannot bind, compel, command Himself.' ' No, He cannot/ 
 * Well, if we are one with God, we cannot be subject to any 
 of His laws.' I replied : ' Our union with God is such an 
 union as exists between the members of a body. Notwith- 
 standing the union of the hand with the heart and head, it 
 is still subject to the influence and control of the ruling 
 power in the person.' We had a great deal of conversation 
 afterwards on the Incarnation. All his Mohammedan pre- 
 judices revolted. ' Sir, what do you talk of? the self- 
 existent become contained in space, and suffer need ! ' I 
 told him that it was the manhood of Christ that suffered 
 need, and as for the essence of the Deity, if he would tell 
 
IN PERSIA 387 
 
 me anything about it, where or how it was, I would tell 
 him how the Godhead was in Christ. After an effort or 
 two he found that every term he used implied our frightful 
 doctrine, namely, personality, locality, etc. This is a 
 thought that is now much in my mind that it is so ordered 
 that, since men never can speak of God but through the 
 medium of language, which is all material, nor think of God 
 but through the medium of material objects, they do un- 
 willingly come to God through the Word, and think of God 
 by means of an Incarnation. 
 
 March 28. The same person came again, and we talked 
 incessantly for four hours upon the evidences of the two 
 religions, the Trinity, Incarnation, etc., until I was quite 
 exhausted, and felt the pain in my breast which I used to 
 have in India. 
 
 April 7. Observing a party of ten or a dozen poor 
 Jews with their priest in the garden, I attacked them, and 
 disputed a little with the Levite on Psalms ii., xvi. and xxiv. 
 They were utterly unacquainted with Jesus, and were sur- 
 prised at what I told them of His Resurrection and Ascen- 
 sion. The priest abruptly broke off the conversation, told 
 me he would call and talk with me in my room, and carried 
 away his flock. Reading afterwards the story of Joseph 
 and his brethren, I was much struck with the exact corre- 
 spondence between the type and antitype. Jesus will at 
 last make Himself known to His brethren, and then they 
 will find that they have been unknowingly worshipping Him 
 while worshipping the Lord of Hosts, the God of Israel. 
 
 April 8. The Prince dining to-day at a house on the 
 side of a hill, which commands a view of the town, issued 
 an order for all the inhabitants to exhibit fireworks for his 
 amusement, or at least to make bonfires on the roofs of 
 their houses, under penalty of five tomans in case of neglect. 
 Accordingly fire was flaming in all directions, enough to 
 have laid any city in Europe in ashes. One man fell off a 
 roof and was killed, and two others in the same way were 
 
 CC2 
 
388 H&NRY MARTYN 
 
 so hurt that their lives were despaired of, and a wo ma ft 
 lost an eye by the stick of a sky-rocket. 
 
 July 9. Made an extraordinary effort, and as a Tartar 
 was going off instantly to Constantinople, wrote letters 
 to Mr. Grant for permission to come to England, and to Mr. 
 Simeon and Lydia, inf9rming them of it ; but I have 
 scarcely the remotest expectation of seeing it, except by 
 looking at the Almighty power of God. 
 
 Dined at night at the ambassador's, who said he was 
 determined to give every possible eclat to my book, by 
 presenting it himself to the King. My fever never ceased 
 to rage till the 2 1st, during all which time every effort was 
 made to subdue it, till I had lost all my strength and 
 almost all my reason. They now administer bark, and it 
 may please God to bless the tonics ; but I seem too far 
 gone, and can only say, ' Having a desire to depart and be 
 with Christ, which is far better.' 
 
 To REV. D. CORRIE 
 
 Shiraz: September 12, 1811. 
 
 Dearest Brother, I can hardly conceive, or at least am 
 not willing to believe, that you would forget me six suc- 
 cessive months ; I conclude, therefore, that you must have 
 written, though I have not seen your handwriting since I 
 left Calcutta. 
 
 The Persian translation goes on but slowly. I and my 
 translator have been engaged in a controversy with his 
 uncle, which has left us little leisure for anything else. As 
 there is nothing at all in this dull place to take the attention 
 of the people, no trade, manufactures, or news, every event 
 at all novel is interesting to them. You may conceive, 
 therefore, what a strong sensation was produced by the 
 stab I aimed at the vitals of Mohammed. Before five 
 people had seen what I wrote, defences of Islam swarmed 
 into ephemeral being from all the moulvi maggots of the 
 
IN PERSIA 389 
 
 place, but the more judicious men were ashamed to let 
 me see them. One moollah, called Aga Akbar, was deter- 
 mined to distinguish himself. He wrote with great acri- 
 mony on the margin of my pamphlet, but passion had 
 blinded his reason, so that he smote the wind. One day 
 I was on a visit of ceremony to the Prime Minister, and 
 sitting in great state by his side, fifty visitors in the same 
 hall, and five hundred clients without, when who should 
 make his appearance but my tetric adversary, the said 
 Aga Akbar, who came for the express purpose of presenting 
 the Minister with a piece he had composed in defence of 
 the prophet, and then sitting down told me he should 
 present me with a copy that day. ' There are four answers,' 
 said he, 'to your objection against his using the sword. 1 
 ' Very well,' said I, ' I shall be glad to see them, though I 
 made no such objection.' Eager to display his attainments 
 in all branches of science, he proceeded to call in question 
 the truth of our European philosophy, and commanded 
 me to show that the earth moved, and not the sun. I told 
 him that in matters of religion, where the salvation of men 
 was concerned, I would give up nothing to them, but as 
 for points in philosophy they might have it all their own 
 way. This was not what he wanted ; so after looking at 
 the Minister, to know if it was not a breach of good manners 
 to dispute at such a time, and finding that there was 
 nothing contrary to custom, but that, on the contrary, he 
 rather expected an answer, I began, but soon found that 
 he could comprehend nothing without diagrams. A 
 moonshi in waiting was ordered to produce his imple- 
 ments, so there was I, drawing figures, while hundreds of 
 men were looking on in silence. 
 
 But all my trouble was in vain the moollah knew 
 nothing whatever of mathematics, and therefore could not 
 understand my proofs. The Persians are far more curious 
 and clever than the Indians. Wherever I go they ask me 
 questions in philosophy, and are astonished that I do not 
 
390 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 know everything. One asked me the reason of the proper- 
 ties of the magnet. I told him I knew nothing about it. 
 ' But what do your learned men say ? ' ' They know nothing 
 about it' This he did not at all credit. 
 
 I do not find myself improving in Persian ; indeed, I 
 take no pains to speak \\ well, not perceiving it to be of 
 much consequence. India is the land where we can act 
 at present with most effect. It is true that the Persians 
 are more susceptible, but the terrors of an inquisition are 
 always hanging over them. I can now conceive no greater 
 happiness than to be settled for life in India, superintending 
 native schools, as we did at Patna and Chunar. To preach 
 so as to be readily understood by the poor is a difficulty 
 that appears to me almost insuperable, besides that grown- 
 up people are seldom converted. However, why should 
 we despair? If I live to see India again, I shall set to 
 and learn Hindi in order to preach. The day may come 
 when even our word may be with the Holy Ghost and 
 with power. It is now almost a year since I left Cawnpore, 
 and my journey is but beginning : when shall I ever get 
 back again ? I am often tempted to get away from this 
 prison, but again I recollect that some years hence I shall 
 say : ' When I was at Shiraz why did not I get the New 
 Testament done ? What difference would a few months 
 have made ? ' In August I passed some days at a vineyard, 
 about a parasang from the city, where my host pitched a 
 tent for me, but it was so cold at night that I was glad to 
 get back to the city again. Though I occupy a room in 
 his house, I provide for myself. Victuals are cheap enough, 
 especially fruit ; the grapes, pears, and water-melons are 
 delicious ; indeed, such a country for fruit I had no con- 
 ception of. I have a fine horse which I bought for less 
 than a hundred rupees, on which I ride every morning 
 round the walls. My vain servant, Zechariah, anxious 
 that his master should appear like an ameer, furnished 
 him (i.e. the horse) with a saddle, or rather a pillion, which 
 
IN PERSIA 391 
 
 fairly covers his whole back ; it has all the colours of the 
 rainbow, but yellow is predominant, and from it hang down 
 four large tassels, also yellow. But all my finery does not 
 defend me from the boys. Some cry out, * Ho, Russ ! * 
 others cry out, ' Feringhi ! ' One day a brickbat was flung 
 at me, and hit me in the hip with such force that I felt it 
 quite a providential escape. Most of the day I am about 
 the translation, sometimes, at a leisure hour, trying at 
 Isaiah, in order to get help from the Persian Jews. My 
 Hebrew reveries have quite disappeared, merely for want 
 of leisure. I forgot to say that I have been to visit the 
 ruins of Persepolis, but this, with many other things, must 
 be reserved for a hot afternoon at Cawnpore. 
 
 What would I give for a few lines from you, to say 
 how the men come on, and whether their numbers are in- 
 creasing, whether you meet the Sherwoods at the evening 
 repast, as when I was there ! My kindest love to them, 
 your sister, and all that love us in the truth. May the 
 grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your spirit, and 
 with your faithful and affectionate brother, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 The Secretary to the British Embassy to Persia, and 
 afterwards himself Minister Plenipotentiary to its Court, 
 Mr. James Morier, has given us a notable sketch of Henry 
 Martyn as a controversialist for Christ, and of the impres- 
 sion that he made on the officials, priests, and people of all 
 classes. As the author of the Adventures of Hajji Baba 
 of Ispahan and other life-like tales of the East, and as an 
 accomplished traveller, the father of the present Ambassa- 
 dor to St. Petersburg is the first authority on such a subject. 
 In his Second Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia 
 Minor to Constantinople * he thus writes : 
 
 The Persians, who were struck with his humility, his 
 1 London, 1818, pp. 223-4. 
 
392 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 patience and resignation, called him a merdi khodai, a 
 man of God, and indeed every action of his life seemed to 
 be bent towards the one object of advancing the interest 
 of the Christian religion. When he was living at Shiraz, 
 employed in his translation, he neither sought nor shunned 
 the society of the natives, many of whom constantly drew 
 him into arguments about religion, with the intention of 
 persuading him of the 'truth and excellence of theirs. His 
 answers were such as to stimulate them to further argu- 
 ments, and in spite of their pride the principal moollahs, 
 who had heard of his reputation, paid him the first visit, 
 and endeavoured in every way to entangle him in his talk. 
 At length he thought that the best mode of silencing them 
 was by writing a reply to the arguments which they 
 brought against our belief and in favour of their own. His 
 tract was circulated through different parts of Persia, and 
 was sent from hand to hand to be answered. At length it 
 made its way to the King's court, and a moollah of high 
 consideration, who resided at Hamadan, and who was 
 esteemed one of the best controversialists in the country, 
 was ordered to answer it, After the lapse of more than a 
 year he did answer it, but such were the strong positions 
 taken by Mr. Martyn that the Persians themselves were 
 ashamed of the futility of their own attempts to break 
 them down : for, after they had sent their answer to the 
 ambassador, they requested that it might be returned to 
 them again, as another answer was preparing to be given. 
 Such answer has never yet been given ; and we may infer 
 from this circumstance that if, in addition to the Scriptures, 
 some plain treatises of the evidences of Christianity, ac- 
 companied by strictures upon the falseness of the doctrines 
 of Mohammed, were translated into Persian and dis- 
 seminated throughout that country, very favourable effects 
 would be produced. Mr. Martyn caused a copy of his 
 translation to be beautifully written, and to be presented 
 by the ambassador to the-King, who was pleased to receive 
 
IN PERSIA 393 
 
 it very graciously. A copy of it was made by Mirza 
 Baba, a Persian who gave us lessons in the Persian 
 language, and he said that many of his countrymen asked 
 his permission to take Mr. Martyn's translation to their 
 homes, where they kept it for several days, and expressed 
 themselves much edified by its contents. But whilst he was 
 employed in copying it, moollahs (the Persian scribes) used 
 frequently to sit with him and revile him for undertaking 
 such a work. On reading the passage where our Saviour 
 is called * the Lamb of God/ they scorned and ridiculed 
 the simile, as if exulting in the superior designation of 
 Ali, who is called Sheer Khodai, the Lion of God. Mirza 
 Baba observed to them : ' The lion is an unclean beast ; it 
 preys upon carcases, and you are not allowed to wear its 
 skin because it is impure ; it is destructive, fierce, and 
 man's enemy. The lamb, on the contrary, is in every way 
 Ratal, or lawful. You eat its flesh, you wear its skin on 
 your head, it does no harm, and is an animal beloved. 
 Whether is it best, then, to say the Lamb of God, or the 
 Lion of God ? ' 
 
 Henry Martyn had not been two months in Shiraz 
 when, as his attendant expressed it, he became the town- 
 talk. The populace believed that he had come to declare 
 himself a Mussulman, and would then bring five thousand 
 men to the city and take possession of it. Dissatisfied 
 with their own government, many Mohammedans began 
 to desire English rule, such as was making India peaceful 
 and prosperous, and as was supposed to enrich all who 
 enjoyed it. Jewish perverts to Islam crowded to the garden, 
 where at all times, even on Sunday, the saintly visitor was 
 accessible. Armenians spoke to him with a freedom they 
 dared not show in conversation with others. From Baghdad 
 to Busrah, and from Bushire to Ispahan and even 
 
394 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Etchmiatzin, visitors crowded to talk with the wonderful 
 scholar and holy man. Thus on July 6 he was presented 
 by Sir Gore Ouseley to the Governor, Prince Abbas Mirza. 
 
 Early this morning I went with the ambassador and 
 his suite to court, wearing, agreeably to custom, a pair of 
 red cloth stockings, with green high-heeled shoes. When 
 we entered the great court of the palace a hundred 
 fountains began to play. The prince appeared at the 
 opposite side, in his talar, or hall of audience, seated on 
 the ground. Here our first bow was made. When we 
 came in sight of him we bowed a second time, and entered 
 the room. He did not rise, nor take notice of any but the 
 ambassador, with whom he conversed at the distance of 
 the breadth of the room. Two of his ministers stood in 
 front of the hall outside ; the ambassador's mihmander, 
 and the master of the ceremonies, within at the door. 
 We sat down in order, in a line with the ambassador, 
 with our hats on. I never saw a more sweet and engaging 
 countenance than the prince's ; there was such an appear- 
 ance of good nature and humility in all his demeanour, 
 that I could scarcely bring myself to believe that he would 
 be guilty of anything cruel or tyrannical. 
 
 Mahommed Shareef Khan, one of the most renowned 
 of the Persian generals, having served the present royal 
 family for four generations, called to see me, out of respect 
 to General Malcolm. An Armenian priest also, on his 
 way from Busrah to Ispahan ; he was as ignorant as the 
 rest of his brethren. To my surprise I found that he was 
 of the Latin Church, and read the service in Latin, though 
 he confessed he knew nothing about the language. 
 
 The first of Henry Martyn's public controversies with 
 the Shi'ah doctors, as distinguished from the almost daily 
 discussions already described in his Journal, took place 
 in the house of the Moojtahid of Shiraz on July 15, 1811. 
 
TN PERSIA 395 
 
 The doctrine of Jesus, represented by such a follower, was 
 beginning so to tell on Shi'ahs and Soofis, ever eager for 
 something new, that the interference of the first authority 
 of Islam in all Persia became necessary. Higher than all 
 other Mohammedan divines, especially among the Shi'ahs, 
 are the three or four Moojtahids. 1 They must be saintly, 
 learned, and aloof from worldly ambition. In Persia each 
 acts as an informal and final court of appeal ; he alone dares 
 to temper the tyranny of the Shah by his influence ; his 
 house is a sanctuary for the oppressed ; the city of his 
 habitation is often saved from violence by his presence. 
 This was the position and the pretension of the man who, 
 having first ascertained that the English man of God did 
 not want demonstration, but admitted that the prophets 
 had been sent, invited him to dinner, preliminary to a con- 
 flict. Martyn has left this description of the scene : 
 
 About eight o'clock at night we went, and after passing 
 along many an avenue we entered a fine court, where was 
 a pond, and, by the side of it, a platform eight feet high, 
 covered with carpets. Here sat the Moojtahid in state, 
 with a considerable number of his learned friends among 
 the rest, I perceived the Jew. One was at his prayers. I 
 was never more disgusted at the mockery of this kind of 
 prayer. He went through the evolutions with great ex- 
 actness, and pretended to be unmoved at the noise and 
 chit-chat of persons on each side of him. The Professor 
 seated Seyd AH on his right hand, and me on his left. 
 Everything around bore the appearance of opulence and 
 ease, and the swarthy obesity of the little personage 
 himself led me to suppose that he had paid more attention 
 to cooking than to science. But when he began to speak, 
 I saw reason enough for his being so much admired. The 
 
 1 Literally, ' one who strives ' to attain the highest degree of Mussulman 
 learning. 
 
396 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 substance of his speech was flimsy enough ; but he spoke 
 with uncommon fluency and clearness, and with a manner 
 confident and imposing. He talked for a full hour about 
 the soul ; its being distinct from the body ; superior to the 
 brutes, etc. ; about God ; His unity, invisibility, and other 
 obvious and acknowledged truths. After this followed 
 another discourse. At length, after clearing his way for 
 miles around, he said that philosophers had proved that a 
 single being could produce but a single being ; that the 
 first thing God had created was Wisdom, a being perfectly 
 one with Him ; after that, the souls of men, and the seventh 
 heaven ; and so on till He produced matter, which is 
 merely passive. He illustrated the theory by comparing 
 all being to a circle ; at one extremity of the diameter is 
 God, at the opposite extremity of the diameter is matter, 
 than which nothing in the world is meaner. Rising from 
 thence, the highest stage of matter is connected with the 
 lowest stage of vegetation ; the highest of the vegetable 
 world with the lowest of the animal ; and so on, till we 
 approach the point from which all proceeded. 'But/ 
 said he, * you will observe that, next to God, something 
 ought to be which is equal to God ; for since it is equally 
 near, it possesses equal dignity. What this is philosophers 
 are not agreed upon. You,' said he, ' say it is Christ ; but 
 we, that it is the Spirit of the Prophets. All this is what 
 the philosophers have proved, independently of any par- 
 ticular religion.' I rather imagined that it was the inven- 
 tion of some ancient Oriental Christian, to make the doc- 
 trine of the Trinity appear more reasonable. There were a 
 hundred things in the Professor's harangue that might have 
 been excepted against, as mere dreams, supported by no 
 evidence ; but I had no inclination to call in question 
 dogmas on the truth or falsehood of which nothing in 
 religion depended. 
 
 He was speaking at bne time about the angels, and 
 asserted that man was- superior to them, and that no 
 
IN PERSIA 397 
 
 being greater* than man could be created. Here the Jew 
 reminded me of a passage in the Bible, quoting something 
 in Hebrew. I was a little surprised, and was just about to 
 ask where he found anything in the Bible to support such 
 a doctrine, when the Moojtahid, not thinking it worth 
 while to pay any attention to what the Jew said, continued 
 his discourse. At last the Jew grew impatient, and finding 
 an opportunity of speaking, said to me, ' Why do not you 
 speak ? Why do not you bring forward your objections ? ' 
 The Professor, at the close of one of his long speeches, said 
 to me, ' You see how much there is to be said on these 
 subjects ; several visits will be necessary ; we must come 
 to the point by degrees.' Perceiving how much he dreaded 
 a close discussion, I did not mean to hurry him, but let 
 him talk on, not expecting we should have anything about 
 Muhammadanism the first night. But, at the instigation 
 of the Jew, I said, 'Sir, you see that Abdoolghunee is 
 anxious that you should say something about Islam.' He 
 was much displeased at being brought so prematurely to 
 the weak point, but could not decline accepting so direct a 
 challenge. ' Well,' said he to me, ' I must ask you a few 
 questions. Why do you believe in Christ ? ' I replied, 
 ' That is not the question. I am at liberty to say that I 
 do not believe in any religion ; that I am a plain man 
 seeking the way of salvation ; that it was, moreover, quite 
 unnecessary to prove the truth of Christ to Muhammadans, 
 because they allowed it.' f No such thing,' said he ; ' the 
 Jesus we acknowledge is He who was a prophet, a mere 
 servant of God, and one who bore testimony to Muhammad ; 
 not your Jesus, whom you call God,' said he, with a con- 
 temptuous smile. He then enumerated the persons who 
 had spoken of the miracles of Muhammad, and told a long 
 story about Salmon the Persian, who had come to 
 Muhammad. I asked whether this Salmon had written 
 an account of the miracles he had seen. He confessed 
 that he had not. ( Nor/ said I, ' have you a single witness 
 
398 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 to the miracles of Muhammad.' He then tried to show 
 that, though they had not, there was still sufficient evidence. 
 ' For/ said he, ' suppose five hundred persons should say 
 that they heard some particular thing of a hundred persons 
 who were with Muhammad, would that be sufficient evi- 
 dence or not ? ' ' Whether it be or not,' said I, ' you have 
 no such evidence as that, nor anything like it ; but if you 
 have, as they are something like witnesses, we must proceed 
 to examine them and see whether their testimony deserves 
 credit. 1 
 
 After this the Koran was mentioned ; but as the com- 
 pany began to thin, and the great man had not a sufficient 
 audience before whom to display his eloquence, the dispute 
 was not so brisk. He did not indeed seem to think it 
 worth while to notice my objections. He mentioned a 
 well-known sentence in the Koran as being inimitable. I 
 produced another sentence, and begged to know why it 
 was inferior to the Koranic one. He declined saying why, 
 under pretence that it required such a knowledge of rhetoric 
 in order to understand his proofs as I probably did not 
 possess. A scholar afterwards came to Seyd Ali, with 
 twenty reasons for preferring Muhammad's sentence to 
 mine. 
 
 It was midnight when dinner, or rather supper, was 
 brought in : it was a sullen meal. The great man was 
 silent, and I was sleepy. Seyd Ali, however, had not had 
 enough. While burying his hand in the dish of the Pro- 
 fessor, he softly mentioned some more of my objections. 
 He was so vexed that he scarcely answered anything ; but 
 after supper told a very long story, all reflecting upon me. 
 He described a grand assembly of Christians, Jews, Guebres, 
 and Sabeans (for they generally do us the honour of 
 stringing us with the other three), before Imam Ruza. The 
 Christians were of course defeated and silenced. It was a 
 remark of the Imam's, in which the Professor acquiesced, 
 that ' it is quite useless for Muhammadans and Christians 
 
IN PERSIA 399 
 
 to argue together, as they had different languages and 
 different histories.' To the last I said nothing ; but to the 
 former replied by relating the fable of the lion and man, 
 which amused Seyd Ali so much that he laughed out 
 before the great man, and all the way home. 
 
 The intervention of the Moojtahid only added to the sen- 
 sation excited among all classes by the saintly Feringhi. 
 The Shi'ah doctors had their second corrective almost 
 ready. They resolved to check the spirit of inquiry by 
 issuing, eleven days after the Moojtahid's attempt, a defence 
 of Muhammadanism by Mirza Ibrahim, described as * the 
 preceptor of all the moollas.' l The event has an interest of 
 its own, apart from Henry Martyn, in the light of a famous 
 controversy which preceded it, and of spiritually fruitful 
 discussions which followed it, all in India. Before Henry 
 Martyn in this field of Christian apologetic was the Por- 
 tuguese Jesuit, Hieronymo Xavier, and after him were the 
 Scots missionary, John Wilson of Bombay, and the German 
 agent of the Church Missionary Society, C. G. Pfander. 
 
 Among the representatives of all religions whom the 
 tolerant Akbar invited to his court at Agra, that out of 
 their teaching he might form an eclectic cult of his own, 
 was Jerome, the nephew of the famous Francis Xavier, then 
 at Goa. For Akbar P. Hieronymo Xavier wrote in Persian 
 two histories, Christi and .S. Petri. To his successor, the 
 Emperor Jahangir, in whose suite he was the first European 
 who visited Kashmir, H. Xavier in the year 1609 dedicated 
 his third Persian book, entitled A Mirror showing the Truth, 
 in which the doctrines of the Christian religion are discussed, 
 the mysteries of the Gospel explained, and the vanity of 
 
 1 Persian form of maulvi, the Arabic for a learned man. The word is 
 said to mean filled ' with knowledge, from mala, to fill. 
 
400 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 (all) other religions is to be seen. He has been pronounced 
 by a good authority l a man of considerable ability and 
 energy, but one who trusted more to his own ingenuity 
 than to the plain and unsophisticated declarations of the 
 Holy Scriptures. Ludovicus de Dieu, the Dutch scholar, 
 who translated his two tfirst works into Latin, most fairly 
 describes each on the title-page as ' multis modis con- 
 taminata.' Twelve years after, to the third or controversial 
 treatise of P. H. Xavier an answer was published by * the 
 most mean of those who stand in need of the mercy of a 
 bounteous God, Ahmed ibn Zai'n Elabidm Elalooi,' under 
 a title thus translated, The Divine Rays in refutation of 
 Christian Error. To this a rejoinder in Latin appeared at 
 Rome in 1631, from the pen of Philip Guadagnoli, Arabic 
 Professor in the Propaganda College there. He calls it 
 Apologia pro Christiana Religione. If we except Raimund 
 Lull's two spiritual treatises and Ars Major, and Pocock's 
 Arabic translation of the De Veritate Religionis Christiana, 
 which Grotius wrote as a text-book for the Dutch 
 missionaries in the East Indies, Henry Martyn's was the 
 first attempt of Reformed Christendom to carry the 
 pure doctrine of Jesus Christ to the Asiatic races whom the 
 corruptions of Judaism and the Eastern Churches had 
 blinded into accepting the Koran and all its consequences. 
 Mirza Ibrahim's Arabic challenge to the Christian 
 scholar is pronounced by so competent and fair an 
 authority as Sir William Muir 2 as made by a man of talent 
 
 1 The Rev. S. Lee, D.D., Professor of Arabic in the University of 
 Cambridge for many years, in his Controversial Tracts on Christianity and 
 Mohammedanism by the late Rev. Henry Martyn, B.D., and some of the 
 most eminent writers of Persia (1824). 
 
 2 The Calcutta Review, No. VIII. vol. iv. Art. VI. * The Mahommedan 
 Controversy,' pp. 418-76, Calcutta, 1845. 
 
IN PERSIA 401 
 
 and acuteness, and remarkable for its freedom from violent 
 and virulent remarks. 
 
 This argument chiefly concerns the subject of miracles, 
 which he accommodates to the Koran. He defines a 
 miracle as an effect exceeding common experience, accom- 
 panied by a prophetic claim and a challenge to produce 
 the like ; and he holds that it may be produced by par- 
 ticular experience that is, it may be confined to any single 
 art, but must be attested by the evidence and confession of 
 those best skilled in that art. Thus he assumes the miracles 
 of Moses and Jesus to belong respectively to the arts of 
 magic and physic, which had severally reached perfection 
 in the times of these prophets ; the evidence of the 
 magicians is hence deemed sufficient for the miracles of 
 Moses, and that of the physicians for those of Jesus ; but 
 had these miracles occurred in any other age than that in 
 which those arts flourished, their proof would have been 
 imperfect, and the miracles consequently not binding. 
 This extraordinary doctrine which Henry Martyn shows 
 to be founded upon an inadequate knowledge of history he 
 proceeds to apply to the Koran, and proves entirely to his 
 own satisfaction that it fulfils all the required conditions. 
 This miracle belonged to the science of eloquence, and in 
 that science the Arabs were perfect adepts. The Koran 
 was accompanied by a challenge, and when they accordingly 
 professed their inability to produce an equal, their evidence, 
 like that of the magicians' and physicians', became univer- 
 sally binding. He likewise dilates upon the superior and 
 perpetual nature of the Koran as an intellectual and a 
 lasting miracle, which will remain unaltered when all others 
 are forgotten. He touches slightly on Mohammed's other 
 miracles, and asserts the insufficiency of proof (except 
 through the Koran) for those of all former prophets. 
 
 To this, which was accompanied by a treatise on the 
 
 D D 
 
402 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 miracles of Mohammed by Aga Akbar, Henry Martyn 
 wrote a reply in three parts. In what spirit he conducted 
 the controversy, and what influence through him the Spirit 
 of Christ had on some of the Shi'ahs and Soofis, this 
 extract from his Journal unconsciously testifies : 
 
 1811, September 12 to' 15. (Sunday.) Finished what I 
 had to say on the evidences of religion, and translated it 
 into Persian. Aga Akbar sent me his treatise by one of 
 his disciples. Aga Baba, his brother, but a very different 
 person from him, called ; he spoke without disguise of his 
 dislike to Mohammedanism and good-will to Christianity. 
 For his attachment to Mirza Abel, Kasim, his brother, 
 sets him down as an infidel. Mirza Ibrahim is still in 
 doubt, and thinks that he may be a Christian, and be 
 saved without renouncing Mohammedanism ; asks his 
 nephew what is requisite to observe ; he said, Baptism 
 and the Lord's Supper. ' Well,' said he, ' what harm is there 
 in doing that? ' At another time Seyd Ali asked me, after 
 a dispute, whether I would baptize any one who did not 
 believe in the Divinity of Christ? I said, No. While 
 translating Acts ii. and iii., especially where it is said all 
 who believed had one heart and one mind, and had all 
 things in common, he was much affected, and contrasted 
 the beginning of Christianity with that of Mohammedanism, 
 where they began their career with murdering men and 
 robbing caravans ; and oh, said he, ' that I were sure the 
 Holy Spirit would be given to me] I would become a 
 Christian at once.' Alas ! both his faith and mine are very 
 weak. Even if he were to desire baptism I should tremble 
 to give it. He spake in a very pleasing way on other 
 parts of the Gospel, and seems to have been particularly 
 taken with the idea of a new birth. The state of a 
 new-born child gives him the most striking view of that 
 simplicity which he considers as the height of wisdom. 
 Simplicity is that to which he aspires, he says, above all 
 
IN PERSIA 403 
 
 things. He was once proud of his knowledge, and vain 
 of his superiority to others, but he found that fancied 
 knowledge set him at a greater distance from happiness than 
 anything else. 
 
 Martyn's first reply in Persian to Mirza Ibrahim thus 
 begins: 'The Christian Minister thanks the celebrated Pro- 
 fessor of Islamism for the favour he has done him in writing 
 an answer to his inquiries, but confesses that, after reading it, 
 a few doubts occurred to him, on account of which, and not 
 for the mere purpose of dispute, he has taken upon himself 
 to write the following pages. The reply is signed, ' The 
 Christian Minister, Henry Martyn.' One Mirza Mahommed 
 Ruza published in 1813, the year after Martyn's death, a 
 very prolix rejoinder. It is unworthy of lengthened notice, 
 according to Sir William Muir, who thus summarises and 
 comments on the defence made by the Christian scholar : 
 
 Henry Martyn's first tract refers chiefly to the subject 
 of miracles : he asserts that, to be conclusive, a miracle 
 must exceed universal experience ; that the testimony and 
 opinion of the Arabs is therefore insufficient, besides being 
 that of a party concerned ; that, were the Koran allowed 
 to be inimitable, that would not prove it to be a miracle ; 
 and that its being an intellectual miracle is not a virtue, 
 but, by making it generally inappreciable, a defect. He 
 concludes by denying the proof of Mohammed's other 
 miracles, in which two requisites are wanting : viz., their 
 being recorded at or near the time of their occurrence, and 
 the narrators being under no constraint. 
 
 The second tract directly attacks Mohammed's mission, 
 by alleging the debasing nature of some of the contents 
 and precepts of the Koran, holds good works and repent- 
 ance to be insufficient for salvation, and opens the subject 
 of the true atonement as prefigured in types', fulfilled in 
 
 D D 2 
 
404 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Christ, and made public by the spread of Christianity 
 which is mentioned as itself a convincing miracle. 
 
 The last tract commences with an attack on the 
 absurdities of Soofi-ism, and proceeds to show that the 
 love of God and union with Him cannot be obtained by 
 contemplation, but only, by a practical manifestation of 
 His goodness towards us, accompanied by an assurance 
 of our safety ; and that this is fulfilled in Christianity not 
 by the amalgamation of the soul with the Deity, but by 
 the pouring out of God's Spirit upon His children, and by 
 the obedience and atonement of Christ. Vicarious suffer- 
 ing is then defended by analogy, the truth of the Mosaic 
 and Christian miracles is upheld, and the whole argument 
 closes with proving the authenticity of the Christian annals 
 by their coincidence with profane history. 
 
 Sir William Muir agrees in the opinion of Professor 
 Lee that, situated as Mr. Martyn was in Persia, with a 
 short tract on the Mohammedan religion before him, and his 
 health precarious, the course which he took was perhaps 
 the only one practicable. Sir William adds : ' In pursuing 
 his argument Henry Martyn has displayed great wisdom 
 and skill, and his reasoning appears to be in general 
 perfectly conclusive ; in a few instances, however, he has 
 perhaps not taken up the most advantageous ground.' 
 
 The appeal of the Christian defender of the faith, at 
 the close of his second part, on the incarnation and atone- 
 ment, is marked by a loving courtesy : l 
 
 It is now the prayer of the humble Henry Martyn that 
 these things may be considered with impartiality. If they 
 become the means of procuring conviction, let not the fear 
 of death or punishment operate for a moment to the 
 contrary, but let this conviction have its legitimate effect ; 
 1 As translated from the Persian by Professor Lee. 
 
IN PERSIA 405 
 
 for the world, we know, passes away like the wind of the 
 desert. But if what has here been stated do not produce 
 conviction, my prayer is that God Himself may instruct 
 you ; that as hitherto ye have held what you believed to 
 be the truth, ye may now become teachers of that which is 
 really so ; and that He may grant you to be the means of 
 bringing others to the knowledge of the same, through 
 Jesus Christ, who has loved us and washed us in His own 
 blood, to whom be the power and the glory for ever and 
 ever. Amen. 
 
 iSn,Ju/y 26. Mirza Ibrahim declared publicly before 
 all his disciples, ' that if I really confuted his arguments, 
 he should be bound in conscience to become a Christian,' 
 Alas ! from such a declaration I have little hope. His 
 general good character for uprightness and unbounded 
 kindness to the poor would be a much stronger reason 
 with me for believing that he may perhaps be a Cornelius. 
 
 August 2. Much against his will Mirza Ibrahim was 
 obliged to go to his brother, who is governor of some town 
 thirty-eight parasangs off. To the last moment he con- 
 tinued talking with his nephew on the subject of his book, 
 and begged that, in case of his detention, my reply might 
 be sent to him. 
 
 August 7. My friends talked, as usual, much about 
 what they call Divine love ; but I do not very well com- 
 prehend what they mean. They love not the holy God, 
 but the god of their own imagination a god who will let 
 them do as they please. I often remind Seyd Ali of one 
 defect in his system, which is, that there is no one to stand 
 between his sins and God. Knowing what I allude to, he 
 says, ' Well, if the death of Christ intervene, no harm ; 
 Soofi-ism can admit this too.' 
 
 August 14. Returned to the city in a fever, which 
 continued all the next day until the evening ! 
 
 August 15. Jani Khan, in rank corresponding to one 
 of our Scottish dukes, as he is the head of all the military 
 
406 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 tribes of Persia, and chief of his own tribe, which consists 
 of twenty thousand families, called on Jaffir AH Khan with 
 a message from the king. He asked me a great number 
 of questions, and disputed a little. ' I suppose,' said he, 
 * you consider us all as infidels ! ' ' Yes,' replied I, ' the 
 whole of you.' He was mightily pleased with my frank- 
 ness, and mentioned it when he was going away. 
 
 August 22. The copyist having shown my answer to 
 Moodurris, called Moolla Akbar, he wrote on the margin 
 with great acrimony but little sense. Seyd Ali having 
 shown his remarks in some companies, they begged him 
 not to show them to me, for fear I should disgrace them all 
 through the folly of one man. 
 
 August 23. Ruza Kooli Mirza, the great-grandson of 
 Nadir Shah and Aga Mahommed Hasan, called. The 
 prince's nephew, hearing of my attack on Muhammad, 
 observed that the proper answer to it was the sword ; but 
 the prince confessed that he began to have his doubts. On 
 his inquiring what were the laws of Christianity meaning 
 the number of times of prayer, the different washings, &c. 
 I said that we had two commandments : ' Thou shalt 
 love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and all thy soul, 
 and all thy strength ; and thy neighbour as thyself.' He 
 asked, ' What could be better ? ' and continued praising 
 them. 
 
 The Moolla Aga Mahommed Hasan, himself a 
 Moodurris, and a very sensible, candid man, asked a good 
 deal about the European philosophy, particularly what we 
 did in metaphysics ; for instance, ' how, or in what sense, 
 the body of Christ ascended into heaven ? ' He talked of 
 free-will and fate, and reasoned high, and at last reconciled 
 them according to the doctrines of the Soofis by saying, 
 that ' as all being is an emanation of the Deity, the will of 
 every being is only the will of the Deity, so that therefore, 
 in fact, free-will and fate are the same.' He has nothing 
 to find fault with in Christianity, except the Divinity of 
 
IN PERSIA 407 
 
 Christ. It is this doctrine that exposes me to the contempt 
 of the learned Mahometans, in whom it is difficult to say 
 whether pride or ignorance predominates. Their sneers 
 are more difficult to bear than the brick-bats which the 
 boys sometimes throw at me ; however, both are an honour 
 of which I am not worthy. How many times in the day 
 have I occasion to repeat the words : 
 
 If on my face, for Thy dear name, 
 
 Shame and reproaches be, 
 All hail, reproach, and welcome, shame, 
 
 If Thou remember me. 
 
 The more they wish me to give up this one point the 
 Divinity of Christ the more I seem to feel the necessity 
 of it, and rejoice and glory in it. Indeed, I trust I would 
 sooner give up my life than surrender it. 
 
 In the evening we went to pay a long-promised visit to 
 Mirza Abulkasim, one of the most renowned Soofis in all 
 Persia. We found several persons sitting in an open court, 
 in which a few greens and flowers were placed ; the master 
 was in a corner. He was a very fresh-looking old man 
 with a silver beard. I was surprised to observe the downcast 
 and sorrowful looks of the assembly, and still more at the 
 silence which reigned. After sitting some time in ex- 
 pectation, and being not at all disposed to waste my time 
 in sitting there, I said softly to Seyd Ali, ' What is this ? ' 
 He said, ' It is the custom here to think much and speak 
 little.' ' May I ask the master a question ? ' said I. With 
 some hesitation he consented to let me ; so I begged Jaffir 
 Ali to inquire, ' Which is the way to be happy ? ' 
 
 This he did in his own manner ; he began by observing 
 that ' there was a great deal of misery in the world, and 
 that the learned shared as largely in it as the rest ; that I 
 wished therefore to know what we must do to escape it.' 
 The master replied that ' for his part he did not know, but 
 that it was usually said that the subjugation of the passions 
 
4o8 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 was the shortest way to happiness.' After a considerable 
 pause I ventured to ask, * What were his feelings at the 
 prospect of death hope, or fear, or neither ? ' ' Neither/ 
 said he, and that ' pleasure and pain were both alike.' I 
 then perceived that the Stoics were Greek Soofis. I asked 
 ' whether he had attained this apathy.' He said, ' No.' 
 * Why do you think it attainable ? ' He could not tell. 
 'Why do you think that pleasure and pain are not the 
 same ? ' said Seyd Ali, taking his master's part. ' Because,' 
 said I, ' I have the evidence of my senses for it. And you 
 also act as if there was a difference. Why do you eat, but 
 that you fear pain ? ' These silent sages sat unmoved. 
 
 One of the disciples is the son of the Moojtahid who, 
 greatly to the vexation of his father, is entirely devoted to 
 the Soofi doctor. He attended his kalean (pipe) with the 
 utmost humility. On observing the pensive countenance 
 of the young man, and knowing something of his history 
 from Seyd Ali, how he had left all to find happiness in the 
 contemplation of God, I longed to make known the glad 
 tidings of a Saviour, and thanked God on coming away, 
 that I was not left ignorant of the Gospel. I could not 
 help being a little pleasant on Seyd Ali afterwards, for his 
 admiration of this silent instructor. ' There you sit,' said 
 I, ' immersed in thought, full of anxiety and care, and will 
 not take the trouble to ask whether God has said anything 
 or not. No : that is too easy and direct a way of coming 
 at the truth. I compare you to spiders, who weave their 
 house of defence out of their own bowels ; or to a set of 
 people who are groping for a light in broad day.' 
 
 August 26. Waited this morning on Mahommed 
 Nubbee Khan, late ambassador at Calcutta, and now prime 
 minister of Fars. There were a vast number of clients in 
 his court, with whom he transacted business while chatting 
 with us. Amongst the others who came and sat with us, 
 was my tetric adversary Aga Akbar, who came for the 
 very purpose of presenting the minister with a little book 
 
IN PERSIA 409 
 
 he had written in answer to mine. After presenting it in 
 due form, he sat down, and told me he meant to bring me 
 a copy that day a promise which he did not perform, 
 through Seyd Ali's persuasion, who told him it was a per- 
 formance that would do him no credit. 
 
 August 29. Mirza Ibrahim begins to inquire about 
 the Gospel. The objections he made were such as these : 
 How sins could be atoned for before they were com- 
 mitted ? Whether, as Jesus died for all men, all would 
 necessarily be saved ? If faith be the condition of salva- 
 tion, would wicked Christians be saved, provided they 
 believe? I was pleased to see from the nature of the 
 objections that he was considering the subject. To this 
 last objection, I remarked that to those who felt themselves 
 sinners, and came to God for mercy, through Christ, God 
 would give His Holy Spirit, which would progressively 
 sanctify them in heart and life. 
 
 August 30. Mirza Ibrahim praises my answer, espe- 
 cially the first part. 
 
 It was on the sacred rock of Behistun, on the western 
 frontiers of Media, on the high road eastward from 
 Babylonia, that Darius Hystaspes, founder of the civil 
 policy of ancient Persia, carved the wonderful cuneiform 
 inscriptions which made that rock the charter of Achae- 
 menian royalty. At Persepolis only the platform, the pillared 
 colonnade, and the palace seem to have been built by him ; 
 the other buildings, with commemorative legends, were 
 erected by Xerxes and Artaxerxes Ochus. Lassen, Wes- 
 tergaard, and our own Sir Henry Rawlinson, 1 did not 
 decipher these inscriptions for some twenty years after 
 Martyn's visit How deaf had Ormuzd proved all through 
 
 1 Sir Henry, then Major, H. C. Rawlinson, C.B., visited Persepolis in 
 1835. The Journals of the Royal Asiatic Society for 1846-9 publish his 
 copies of the inscription of Behistun and Persepolis and his translations. 
 
4 io HENRY MARTYN 
 
 the centuries to the .prayer which Darius the king cut on a 
 huge slab, twenty-six feet in length and six in height, in 
 the southern wall of the great platform at Persepolis : * Let 
 not war, nor slavery, nor decrepitude, nor lies obtain power 
 over this province.' Henry Martyn thus wrote of his visit : 
 
 After traversing these celebrated ruins, I must say 
 that I felt a little disappointed : they did not at all answer 
 my expectation. The architecture of the ancient Persians 
 seems to me much more akin to that of their clumsy neigh- 
 bours the Indians, than to that of the Greeks. I saw no 
 appearance of grand design anywhere. The chapiters of 
 the columns were almost as long as the shafts : though 
 they are not so represented in Niebuhr's plate ; and the 
 mean little passages into the square court, or room, or 
 whatever it was, make it very evident that the taste of the 
 Orientals was the same three thousand years ago as it is 
 now. But it was impossible not to recollect that here Alex- 
 ander and his Greeks passed and repassed ; here they sat 
 and sung, and revelled ; now all is in silence, generation 
 on generation lie mingled with the dust of their mouldering 
 edifices : 
 
 Alike the busy and the gay, 
 
 But flutter in life's busy day, 
 
 In fortune's varying colours drest. 
 
 As soon as we recrossed the Araxes, the escort begged 
 me to point out the Keblah to them, as they wanted to pray. 
 After setting their faces towards Mecca, as nearly as I 
 could, I went and sat down on the margin near the bridge, 
 where the water, falling over some fragments of the bridge 
 under the arches, produced a roar, which, contrasted with 
 the stillness all around, had a grand effect. Here I thought 
 again of the multitudes who had once pursued their 
 labours and pleasures on its banks. Twenty-one centuries 
 have passed away since- they lived ; how short, in compari- 
 
IN PERSIA 4" 
 
 son, must be the remainder of my days. What a momentary 
 duration is the life of man ! Labitur et labetur in omne 
 volubilis cevum> may be affirmed of the river ; but men 
 pass away as soon as they begin to exist. Well, let the 
 moments pass : 
 
 They'll waft us sooner o'er 
 
 This life's tempestuous sea, 
 And land us on the peaceful shore 
 Of blest eternity. 
 
 The true character of Marty n's Mohammedan and 
 Soofi controversialists comes out in the fast of Ramazan, 
 the ninth month of the lunar year, when from dawn to 
 sunset of each day a strict fast is observed, most trying to 
 the temper, and from sunset to dawn excess is too naturally 
 the rule, especially, as in this case, when Ramazan falls on 
 the long hot days of summer. Of this month the traditions 
 declare that the doors of heaven are opened and the doors 
 of hell shut, while the devils are chained. At this time the 
 miracle play of Hasan and Husain : is acted in the native 
 theatres from night to night. In scene xxxi. are enacted 
 the conversion and murder of an English ambassador. 
 Dean Stanley used to tell that Henry Martyn, horrified at 
 the English oaths put into the mouth of the Persian who 
 represented the ambassador in the tragedy, took him and 
 taught him to repeat the Lord's Prayer instead. 
 
 September 20. First day of the fast of Ramazan. 
 All the family had been up in the night, to take an unsea- 
 sonable meal, in order to fortify themselves for the absti- 
 nence of the day. It was curious to observe the effects of 
 the fast in the house. The master was scolding and beating 
 his servants ; they equally peevish and insolent, and the 
 
 1 See the Play as collected from oral tradition by the late Sir Lewis Felly, 
 in two volumes, 1879. 
 
412 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 beggars more than ordinarily importunate and clamorous. 
 At noon, all the city went to the grand mosque. My host 
 came back with an account of new vexations there. He 
 was chatting with a friend, near the door, when a great 
 preacher, Hajji Mirza, arrived, with hundreds of followers. 
 * Why do you not say your prayers ? ' said the new-comers 
 to the two friends. ' We have finished/ said they. * Well/ 
 said the other, ' if you cannot pray a second time with us, 
 you had better move out of the way.' Rather than join 
 such turbulent zealots they retired. The reason of this 
 unceremonious address was, that these loving disciples had 
 a desire to pray all in a row with their master, which, it 
 seems, is the custom. There is no public service in the 
 mosque ; every man here prays for himself. 
 
 Coming out of the mosque some servants of the prince, 
 for their amusement, pushed a person against a poor man's 
 stall, on which were some things for sale, a few European 
 and Indian articles, also some valuable Warsaw plates, 
 which were thrown down and broken. The servants went 
 off without making compensation. No kazi will hear a 
 complaint against the prince's servants. 
 
 Hajji Mahommed Hasan preaches every day during 
 the Ramazan. He takes a verse from the Koran, or more 
 frequently tells stories about the Imams. If the ritual of 
 the Christian Churches, their good forms and everything 
 they have, is a mere shadow without a Divine influence 
 attend on them, what must all this Mahometan stuff be ? 
 and yet how impossible is it to convince the people of the 
 world, whether Christian or Mahometan, that what they 
 call religion is merely an invention of their own, having 
 no connection with God and His kingdom ! This subject 
 has been much on my mind of late. How senseless the 
 zeal of Churchmen against dissenters, and of dissenters 
 against the Church ! The kingdom of God is neither meat 
 nor drink, nor anything perishable ; but righteousness, and 
 peace, and joy in the Holy Ghost. 
 
IN PERSIA 413 
 
 Mirza Ibrahim never goes to the mosque, but he is 
 so much respected that nothing is said : they conclude 
 that he is employed in devotion at home. Some of his 
 disciples said to Seyd Ali, before him : ' Now the Ramazan 
 is come, you should read the Koran and leave the Gospel.' 
 ' No,' said his uncle, ' he is employed in a good work : let 
 him go on with it.' The old man continues to inquire 
 with interest about the Gospel, and is impatient for his 
 nephew to explain the evidences of Christianity, which I 
 have drawn up. 
 
 September 22. (Sunday.) My friends returned from 
 the mosque, full of indignation at what they had witnessed 
 there. The former governor of Bushire complained to the 
 vizier, in the mosque, that some of his servants had treated 
 him brutally. The vizier, instead of attending to his 
 complaint, ordered them to do their work a second time ; 
 which they did, kicking and beating him with their slippers, 
 in the most ignominious way, before all the mosque. This 
 unhappy people groan under the tyranny of their governors ; 
 yet nothing subdues or tames them. Happy Europe ! how 
 has God favoured the sons of Japheth, by causing them to 
 embrace the Gospel. How dignified are all the nations of 
 Europe compared with this nation ! Yet the people are 
 clever and intelligent, and more calculated to become great 
 and powerful than any of the nations of the East, had they 
 a good government and the Christian religion. 
 
 September 29. The Soofi, son of the Moojtahid, with 
 some others, came to see me. For fifteen years he was a 
 devout Mahometan ; visited the sacred places, and said 
 many prayers. Finding no benefit from austerities he 
 threw up Mahommedanism altogether, and attached him- 
 self to the Soofi master. I asked him what his object was, 
 all that time ? He said, he did not know, but he was un- 
 happy. I began to explain to him the Gospel ; but he 
 cavilled at it as much as any bigoted Mahommedan 
 could do, and would not hear of there being any distinction 
 
4 I4 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 between Creator and creature. In the midst of our con- 
 versation, the sun went down, and the company vanished 
 for the purpose of taking an immediate repast. 
 
 Mirza Seyd Ali seems sometimes coming round to 
 Christianity against Soofi-ism. The Soofis believe in no 
 prophet, and do not consider Moses to be equal to Mirza 
 Abulkasim. * Could they be brought/ Seyd Ali says, * to 
 believe that there has been a prophet, they would embrace 
 Christianity.' And what would be gained by such con- 
 verts ? ' Thy people shall be willing in the day of Thy 
 power.' It will be ' an afflicted and poor people ' that shall 
 call upon the name of the Lord, and such the Soofis are 
 not : professing themselves to be wise, they have become 
 fools. 
 
 October 7. I was surprised by a visit from the great 
 Soofi doctor, who, while most of the people were asleep, 
 came to me for some wine. I plied him with questions 
 innumerable ; but he returned nothing but incoherent 
 answers, and sometimes no answer at all. Having laid 
 aside his turban, he put on his night-cap, and soon fell 
 asleep upon the carpet Whilst he lay there his disciples 
 came, but would not believe, when I told them who was 
 there, till they came and saw the sage asleep. When he 
 awoke, they came in, and seated themselves at the greatest 
 possible distance, and were all as still as if in a church. 
 The real state of this man seems to be despair, and it will 
 be well if it do not end in madness. I preached to him 
 the kingdom of God : mentioning particularly how I had 
 found peace from the Son of God and the Spirit of God ; 
 through the first, forgiveness ; through the second, sancti- 
 fication. He said it was good, but said it with the same 
 unconcern with which he admits all manner of things, how- 
 ever contradictory. Poor soul ! he is sadly bewildered. 
 
 As a Persian scholar and controversialist Henry Martyn 
 found a worthy successor in the German, and afterwards 
 
IN PERSIA 415 
 
 Church Missionary Society's missionary, C. G. Pfander, D.D. 
 When for some twelve years stationed at Shushy Fort, on 
 the Russian border of Georgia, he frequently visited Baghdad 
 and travelled through Persia by Ispahan and Teheran. In 
 1836 the intolerant Russian Government expelled all 
 foreign missionaries from its territories, and Dr. Pfander 
 joined the Church Mission at Agra. In 1835 he first 
 published at Shushy, in Persian, his famous Mizan ul Haqq> 
 or Balance of Truth. A Hindustani translation was litho- 
 graphed at Mirzapore in 1843, an d Mr. R. H. Weakley, 
 missionary at Constantinople, made an English translation, 
 which was published by the Church Missionary Society in 
 1867. This, as yet, greatest of works which state the 
 general argument for Christianity and against Islam, was 
 followed by the Miftah ul Asrar, in proof of the Divinity of 
 Christ and the doctrine of the Trinity, and by the Tarik ul 
 Hyat, or the nature of sin and the way of salvation, of both 
 of which Hindustani translations appeared. In his little 
 English Remarks on the Nature of Muhammadanism^ as 
 shown in the Traditions, Dr. Pfander quotes from Martyn's 
 Controversy. By these writings and the personal contro- 
 versy in India, Dr. Pfander, following Henry Martyn, was 
 the means of winning to Christ, in tolerant British India, 
 many Mohammedan moulvies like him who is now the 
 Rev. Imad-ud-din, D.D. 2 
 
 Henry Martyn's description of the Persian is no less 
 
 1 Second edition published by the Church Missionary Society in 1858. 
 
 2 * Some of our most eminent Native Christians are converts from Moham- 
 medanism. We may particularly mention the Rev. Jani Ali, B.A. ; the 
 Rev. Imad-ud-din, D.D. ; the Rev. Imam Shah ; the Rev. Mian Sadiq ; the 
 Rev. Yakub Ali ; Maulavi Safdar Ali, a high Government official ; Abdullah 
 Athim, also a high official, now retired, and an honorary lay evangelist.' 
 Church Missionary Society's Intelligencer in 1888. 
 
416 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 applicable to the Indian Mohammedan, in the opinion of Sir 
 William Muir ; ' he is a compound of ignorance and bigotry, 
 and all access to the one is hedged up by the other/ The 
 Koran and the whole system of Islam are based on partial 
 truths, plagiarised from Scripture to an extent sufficient to 
 feed the pride of those Who hold them. But beyond these 
 corruptions of Judaism and Christianity, for which the 
 dead Eastern Churches of Mohammed's time and since are 
 responsible, Persians, Turks, Arabs, Afghans, and Hindu- 
 stan Muhammadans know nothing either of history or 
 Christian Divinity. All controversy, from P. H. Xavier's 
 time to Martyn's, Wilson's, and Pfander's, shows that the key 
 of the position is not the doctrine of the Trinity, as the 
 Shi'ah Moojtahids of Shiraz and Lucknow and the Soonnis 
 everywhere make it, but the genuineness and integrity of 
 the Scriptures, by which the truth of the whole Christian 
 faith will follow, the Trinity included. The Bible, in 
 Hindustani, Persian, and Arabic, with its self-evidencing 
 power, is the weapon which Henry Martyn was busied in 
 forging. 
 
417 
 
 CHAPTER XI 
 
 IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 
 
 GREAT as saint and notable as scholar, in the twelve years 
 of his young life from Senior Wrangler to martyr at 
 thirty-one years of age, the highest title of Henry Martyn 
 to everlasting remembrance is that he gave the Persians in 
 their own tongue the Testament of the one Lord and 
 Saviour Jesus Christ, and the Hebrew Psalms. By that 
 work, the fruit of which every successive century will 
 reveal till the consummation of the ages, he unconsciously 
 wrote his name beside those of the greatest missionaries in 
 the history of the Church of Christ, the sacred scholars 
 who were the first to give the master races of Asia and 
 Africa, of Europe and America, the Word of God in 
 their vernaculars. Let us write the golden list, which for 
 modern Africa and Oceania also we might inscribe in 
 letters of silver, 1 were not most of the translators still living 
 and perfecting their at first tentative efforts, which time 
 must try : 
 
 1 * That list, in which Martyn holds a conspicuous place, has grown long 
 of late years, till we are half tempted to forget that the share our age has 
 taken and is taking in the work of translating and distributing the Scriptures, 
 links on to that of those who could remember men who had seen the Lord.' 
 Canon Edmonds' Sermon, preached in the Cathedral Church of Truro, Octo- 
 ber 1 6, 1890 (Exeter). 
 
 E E 
 
418 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 A.D. 
 
 350 ULFILAS Gothic (Teutonic) 
 
 368 FRUMENTIUS and EDESIUS (Brothers). . Ethiopic 
 
 385 HIERONYMUS (Jerome) . . . . Latin 
 
 410 MESROBES (Miesrob) ..... Armenian 
 
 861 C. CYRILLUS and METHODIUS (Brothers) . Slavonic (Bulgarian) 
 
 1380 WICLIF (Bede in 735) English 
 
 1516 ERASMUS (new translation") .... Latin 
 
 1534 LUTHER (translation from Latin of Erasmus) German 
 
 1661 JOHN ELIOT (first Bible printed in America) Moheecan 
 
 1777 FABRICIUS (Ziegenbalg & Schultze first 1714) Tamul 
 
 1801 WILLIAM CAREY (O. T. in 1802-9) Bengali, &c. 
 
 1815 HENRY MARTYN Persian 
 
 1816 ,, (Sabat's N. T. version) Arabic 
 1822 JOSHUA MARSHMAN (Morrison & Milne 1823) Chinese 
 1832 ADONIRAM JUDSON (O. T. 1834) . . Burmese 
 1865 VAN DYCK Arabic 
 
 It was David Brown who was wont to call the Bible ' The 
 Great Missionary which would speak in all tongues the 
 wonderful works of God.' 
 
 From first to last and above all Henry Martyn was a 
 philologist. His school and college honours sprang from 
 the root of all linguistic studies, Greek and Latin, in which 
 he was twice appointed public examiner in his college and 
 the University of Cambridge. For the uncritical time in 
 which he lived, and the generations which followed his to 
 the present, he was an enthusiastic and accomplished 
 Hebraist. No young scholar in the first quarter of the 
 nineteenth century was so well equipped for translating the 
 Bible by a knowledge of its two original languages. True, 
 he was the Senior Wrangler of the year 1801, but to him 
 the honour was a ' shadow/ because the mathematical 
 sciences could do nothing for him as a translator and 
 preacher of the words of righteousness, compared with the 
 linguistic. Only once, when the rapture of his holy work 
 had carried him away to the borderland of a dark 
 

 IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 419 
 
 metaphysical theology, did he record the passing regret 
 that he had abandoned the rationalistic ground of mathe- 
 matical certainty. His devotion to the study of the 
 languages which interpret and apply to the races of India, 
 Arabia, and Persia, the books of the Christian Revelation, 
 was so absorbing as to shorten his career. Like Carey, he 
 never knew an idle moment, even when on shipboard, and 
 he jealously guarded his time from correspondence, other 
 than that with Lydia Grenfell, Brown and Corrie, that he 
 might live to finish the Hindustani, Persian, and Arabic 
 New Testaments at least. The spiritual motive it was, the 
 desire to win every man to Christ, that urged his unresting 
 course, and in the sacred toil he had the reflex joy of being 
 himself won nearer and nearer by the Spirit 
 
 What do I not owe to the Lord for permitting me 
 to take part in a translation of His Word ? Never did I 
 see such wonder, and wisdom, and love in that blessed 
 book as since I have been obliged to study every expres- 
 sion. All day on the translation, employed a good while 
 at night in considering a difficult passage, and being much 
 enlightened respecting it, I went to bed full of astonishment 
 at the wonders of God's Word. Never before did I see 
 anything of the beauty of the language and the importance 
 of the thoughts as I do now. I felt happy that I should 
 never be finally separated from the contemplation of them, 
 or of the things concerning which they are written. 
 Knowledge shall vanish away, but it shall be because 
 perfection has come. 
 
 On the other hand, he was ever on the watch against the 
 deadening influence of routine or one-sided study. ' So 
 constantly engaged with outward works of translation of 
 languages that I fear my inward man has declined in 
 spirituality.' 
 
 EE2 
 
420 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Canon Edmonds expresses the experience of the 
 present writer in the remark, 1 that to read Martyn's 
 Journal with the single object of noticing this point is to 
 discover another Martyn, not a saint only, but a gram- 
 marian. ' He read grammars as other men read novels, 
 and to him they were more entertaining than novels.' So 
 early as September 28, 1804, in Cambridge we find him at 
 prayer after dinner, before visiting Wall's Lane, and then 
 on his return finishing the Bengali Grammar which he had 
 begun the day before. ' I am anxious to get Carey's 
 Bengali New Testament,' which could not long have 
 reached London. Five days after, Thomas a Kempis, 
 followed by hymns and the writing of a sermon, seemed 
 but the preliminary to his Hindustani as well as Bengali 
 studies. ' Engaged all the rest of the morning by Gil- 
 christ's Hindustani Dictionary. After dinner began 
 Halhed's Bengali Grammar, for I found that the other 
 grammar I had been reading was only for the corrupted 
 Hindustani.' The first traces of his Persian and Arabic 
 studies have an interest all their own : 
 
 1804,7^ 27. A funeral and calls of friends took up 
 my time till eleven ; afterwards read Persian, and made 
 some calculations in trigonometry, in order to be familiar 
 with the use of logarithms. 
 
 November 23. Through shortness of time I was about 
 to omit my morning portion of Scripture, yet after some 
 deliberation conscience prevailed, and I enjoyed a solemn 
 seriousness in learning 'mem' in the H9th Psalm. Wasted 
 much time afterwards in looking over an Arabic grammar. 
 
 When fairly at work in Dinapore he wrote almost daily 
 such passages in his Journal as these : 
 
 1 The Churchman for September 1889, p. 635. 
 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 421 
 
 1807, August 2$. Translating the Epistles; reading 
 Arabic grammar and Persian. 27 to 29. Studies in 
 Persian and Arabic the same. Delight in them, particu- 
 larly the latter, so great, that I have been obliged to pray 
 continually that they may not be a snare to me. . . . 
 3 1 st. Resumed the Arabic with an eagerness which I 
 found it necessary to check. Began some extracts from 
 Cashefi which Mn Gladwin sent me, and thus the day 
 passed rapidly away. Alas ! how much more readily does 
 the understanding do its work than the heart. 
 
 On reaching Calcutta in 1806 Martyn found this to be 
 the position of the Bible translation work. Carey's early 
 labours had led to the formation of the other English and 
 Scottish Missionary Societies at the close of the last 
 century. By 1803 his experience and that of his colleagues 
 had enabled them, with the encouragement of Brown and 
 Buchanan, to formulate a magnificent plan for trans- 
 lating the Bible into all the languages of the far East. 
 The Marquis Wellesley, though Governor-General, approved, 
 and his College at Fort William, with its staff of learned 
 men, including Carey himself and many Asiatics, had 
 become a school of interpreters. In 1804, after all this, 
 the British and Foreign Bible Society was founded, under 
 the ex-Governor-General, Lord Teignmouth, as its first 
 president. That Society, leaving India to the Serampore 
 Brotherhood, at once directed its attention to the three 
 hundred millions of Chinese, who also could be reached 
 only through the East India Company. But, until six 
 years after, when Dr. Marshman made the first reliable 
 translation of the Bible into the language, in its Mandarin 
 dialect, there was no Chinese translation save an anonymous 
 MS. of a large portion of the New Testament in the British 
 
422 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Museum, probably of Roman Catholic origin. At that 
 time the infant Society did not see its way to spend two 
 thousand guineas in producing an edition of a thousand 
 copies of a work about which the few experts differed. 
 So, while giving grants to the Serampore translators, it in- 
 vited the opinions, as to the formation of a corresponding 
 committee in Calcutta, of George Udny, who had by that 
 time become Member of Council, and the Rev. Messrs. 
 Brown, Buchanan, Carey, Ward, and Marshman. The 
 Serampore plan and its rapid execution had been commu- 
 nicated to all the principal civil and military officials, who, 
 after Lord Wellesley's tolerant and reverent action, sub- 
 scribed liberally to carry it out, and the Society continued 
 its grants. But when in 1807, under Lord Minto, the 
 anti-Christian reaction set in, caused by a groundless panic 
 as to the Vellore Mutiny, and the Fort William College was 
 reduced, Dr. Buchanan proposed to found ' The Christian 
 Institution,' the Society preferred its original plan of a corre- 
 sponding committee, which was formed in August 1809. 
 
 Martyn had not waited one hour for this. Almost from 
 the day of landing at the capital he was engaged in 
 Hindustani translation, and in studious preparation for his 
 projected Persian and Arabic Bibles. In the brotherly 
 intercourse at Aldeen with the Serampore missionaries it 
 was arranged to leave these three languages entirely to 
 him, under the direction of Mr. Brown. Part of the 
 Society's annual grant to India and Ceylon of a thousand 
 pounds a year was assigned to pay his assistants, Mirza 
 Fitrut, the Persian, and Nathanael Sabat, the Arabian, and 
 to print the results. The Corresponding Committee caused 
 an annual sermon to be preached in Calcutta, to rouse 
 public intelligence and -help. On the first day of 1810 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 423 
 
 Mr. Brown preached it in the old church, in the interest chiefly 
 of the thousands of native Christians who had been baptized 
 in Tanjor and Tinnevelli, both Reformed and Romanist, 
 and needed copies of the Tamul Bible. Such was the result 
 of this appeal, headed by the Commander-in-chief, General 
 Hewett, with the sum of 2,000 Sicca-rupees (25o/.), that the 
 committee resolved on establishing a ' Bibliotheca Biblica,' 
 combining a Bible Repository and a Translation Library. 
 The Scottish poet and friend of Sir Walter Scott, Dr. 
 Leyden, was foremost in the enterprise, and took charge 
 of work in the languages of Siam and the Spice Islands, as 
 well as in the Pushtu of Afghanistan. 
 
 On the first day of 1811 it fell to the Rev. Henry 
 Martyn to preach the second annual sermon. 1 His appeal 
 was for not only the growing native Church of India, 
 but more particularly for the whole number of nominal 
 Christians, of all sects, in India and Ceylon, whom he 
 estimated at poopoo. 2 In 1881 the Government census 
 returned these, in the Greater India of our day but with- 
 out Ceylon, as upwards of 2,000,000, and in 1891 as 
 2,280,549. Martyn's figures included 342,000 of the 
 Singhalese, whom the Dutch had compelled by secular 
 considerations outwardly to conform. The sermon, on 
 Galatians vi. 10, was published at the time, and it appears 
 as the last in the volume of Twenty Sermons by the late 
 Rev. Henry Martyn, B.D.f first printed at Calcutta with 
 this passage in the preface : ' The desire to know how such 
 a man preached is natural and unavoidable. . . . His 
 manner in the pulpit was distinguished by a holy solemnity, 
 
 1 See p. 314. 
 
 2 Evidently taken in detail from Adam's Religious World Displayed. 
 
 3 Fourth edition, London, 1822. 
 
424 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 always suited to the high message which he was delivering, 
 and accompanied by an unction which made its way to the 
 hearts of his audience. With- this was combined a fidelity 
 at once forcible by its justice and intrepidity, and pene- 
 trating by its affection. There was, in short, a power of 
 holy love and disinterested earnestness in his addresses 
 which commended itself to every man's conscience in the 
 sight of God.' 
 
 Addressing the well-paid servants of the East India 
 Company in Calcutta, and its prosperous merchants and 
 shopkeepers, the preacher said : ' Do we not blush at the 
 offers of assistance from home . . . where all that is raised 
 may be employed with such effect in benefiting the other 
 three quarters of the globe ? Asia must be our care ; or, if 
 not Asia, India at least must look to none but us. Honour 
 calls as well as duty.' He then continued : 
 
 Prove to our friends and the world that the Mother 
 Country need never be ashamed of her sons in India. What 
 a splendid spectacle does she present ! Standing firm 
 amidst the overthrow of the nations, and spreading wide 
 the shadow of her wings for the protection of all, she finds 
 herself at leisure, amidst the tumult of war, to form bene- 
 volent projects for the best interests of mankind. Her 
 generals and admirals have caused the thunder of her 
 power to be heard throughout the south ; now her ministers 
 of religion perform their part, and endeavour to fulfil the 
 high destinies of Heaven in favour of their country. They 
 called on their fellow-citizens to cheer the desponding nations 
 with the Book of the promises of Eternal Life, and thus 
 afford them that consolation from the prospect of a happier 
 world, which they have little expectation of finding amidst 
 the disasters and calamities of this. The summons was 
 obeyed. As fast as the nature of the undertaking became 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 425 
 
 understood, and was perceived to be clearly distinct from 
 all party business and visionary project, great numbers of 
 all ranks in society, and of all persuasions in religion, joined 
 with one heart and one soul, and began to impart freely to 
 all men that which, next to the Saviour, is God's best gift 
 to man. . . . 
 
 Shall every town and hamlet in England engage in the 
 glorious cause, and the mighty Empire of India do nothing ? 
 Will not our wealth and dignity be our disgrace if we do 
 not employ it for God and our fellow-creatures? What 
 plan could be proposed, so little open to objections, and so 
 becoming our national character and religion, so simple and 
 practicable, yet so extensively beneficial, as that of giving 
 the Word of God to the Christian part of our native 
 subjects ? . . . Despise not their inferiority, nor reproach 
 them for their errors ; they cannot get a BIBLE to read ; 
 had they been blessed with your advantages, they would 
 have been perhaps more worthy of your respect. 
 
 The brief decade of Henry Martyn's working life fell 
 at a time when the science of Comparative Philology was 
 as yet unborn, but the materials were almost ready for 
 generalisation. Sir William Jones, and still more his 
 successor as a scholar Henry Thomas Colebrooke had 
 used their opportunities in India well. The Bengal Asiatic 
 Society, in its Asiatic Researches, was laboriously piling up 
 facts and speculations. These awaited only the flash of 
 hardworking genius to evolve the order and the laws which 
 have made Comparative Grammar the most fruitful of the 
 historical and psychological sciences. It might have been 
 Martyn's, had he lived to reach England, to manifest that 
 genius. His Asiatic career was contemporary with the 
 most fruitful part of Colebrooke's. He toiled and he 
 speculated, as he mastered the grammar and much of the 
 
426 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 vocabulary of the great classical and vernacular languages 
 which made him a seven-tongued man. But his divine 
 motive led him to grope for the philological solvent through 
 the imperfect Semitic. The Germans, Schlegel and Bopp, 
 found it rather, and later, in the richer Aryan or Indo- 
 European family, in Sanskrit and old Persian. 
 
 His longing to give the Arabs the Scriptures in their 
 purity intensified his devotion to the study of Hebrew ; 
 had he lived to give himself to the Persian, he might have 
 anticipated the German critics who used, at second-hand, 
 the materials that he and Colebrooke, and other servants 
 of the East India Company, were annually accumulating. 
 Nor did his Hebraism lead him, at the beginning of the 
 century, to that fertile criticism of the text and the literary 
 origin of the books of the Old Testament which, at the end 
 of the century, is beginning to make the inspired historians 
 and the prophets, the psalmists and the moralists of the old 
 Jews live anew for the modern Church. But how true has 
 proved his prediction to Corrie in the year 1 809 : 
 
 I think that when the construction of Hebrew is fully 
 understood, all the scholars in the world will turn to it with 
 avidity, in order to understand other languages, and then 
 the Word of God will be studied universally. 
 
 Again in 1810: 
 
 I sit for hours alone contemplating this mysterious 
 language. If light does not break upon me at last it will 
 be a great loss of time, as I never read Arabic or Persian. 
 I have no heart to do it ; I cannot condescend any longer 
 to tread in the paths of ignorant and lying grammarians. 
 I sometimes say in my vain heart I will make a deep cut 
 in the mine of philology, or I will do nothing ; but you 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 427 
 
 shall hear no more of Scriptural philology till I make some 
 notable discoveries. 
 
 Again in 1811, when at Bombay : 
 
 Chiefly employed on the Arabic tract, writing letters to 
 Europe, and my Hebrew speculations. The last encroached 
 so much on my time and thoughts that I lost two nights' 
 sleep, and consequently the most of two days, without 
 learning more than I did the first hour. 
 
 Happening to think this evening on the nature of lan- 
 guage more curiously and deeply than I have yet done, I got 
 bewildered, and fancied I saw some grounds for the opinions 
 of those who deny the existence of matter. . . . Oh, what 
 folly to be wise where ignorance is bliss ! . . . The 
 further I push my inquiries the more I am distressed. 
 It must be now my prayer, not * Lord, let me obtain the 
 knowledge which I think would be so useful/ but 'Oh, 
 teach me just as much as Thou seest good for me. Com- 
 pared with metaphysics, physics and mathematics appear 
 with a kind and friendly aspect, because they seem to be 
 within the limits in which man can move without danger, 
 but on the other I find myself adrift. Synthesis is the 
 work of God alone. 
 
 Henry Martyn's first practical work was in Hindustani. 
 His position in Dinapore and Patna, the capital of Bihar 
 with its Hindi dialects, his duties to the native wives and 
 families of the soldiers whom he taught and exhorted, 
 his preaching to the Hindus and discussions with the 
 Mohammedans, all led him to prepare three works (i) 
 portions of the Book of Common Prayer, which Corrie 
 finished and published seventeen years after his death ; 
 (2) a Commentary on the Parables, in 1807 > (3) the Four 
 Gospels in 1809, an d in 1810 the whole New Testament. 
 Let us look at him in his spiritual and scholarly workshop. 
 
428 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 1807, January 18. (Sunday.) Preached on Numbers 
 xxiii. 19 : a serious attention from all. Most of the 
 European tradesmen were present with their families ; my 
 soul enjoyed sweet peace and heavenly-mindedness for 
 some time afterwards. The thought suddenly struck me 
 to-day, how easy it would be to translate the chief part 
 of the Church Service for the use of the soldiers' wives, 
 and women and children, and so have the service in 
 Hindustani, by which a door would be opened to the 
 heathen. This thought took such hold of me, that after 
 in vain endeavouring to fix my thoughts on anything else, 
 I sat down in the evening, and translated to the end of 
 the Te Deum. But my conscience was not satisfied that 
 this was a Sabbath employment, and I lost the sensible 
 sweetness of the Divine presence. However, by leaving it 
 off, and passing the rest of the evening in reading and 
 singing hymns, I found comfort and joy. Oh, how shall I 
 praise my Lord, that here in this solitude, with people 
 enough indeed, but without any like-minded, I yet enjoy 
 fellowship with all those who in every place call upon the 
 name of our Lord Jesus Christ. I see myself travelling on 
 with them, and I hope I shall worship with them in His 
 courts above. 
 
 January 19. Passed the morning with the moonshiand 
 pundit, dictating to the former a few ideas for the explana- 
 tion of the Parable of the Rich Fool. When I came to say 
 that there was no eating and drinking, etc., in heaven, but 
 only the pleasures of God's presence and holiness ; and 
 that, therefore, we must acquire a taste for such pleasures, 
 the Mussulman was unwilling to write, but the Brahman 
 was pleased, and said that all this was in the Puranas. 
 Afterwards went on with the translation of the Liturgy. 
 
 March 23. (To Brown.) It is with no small delight that 
 I find the day arrived for my writing to my very dear brother. 
 Many thanks for your two letters, and for all the consola- 
 tion contained in them, and many thanks to our Lord and 
 
M PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 429 
 
 Saviour, who has given me such a help where I once 
 expected to struggle on alone all my days. Concerning 
 the character in the Nagri papers you have sent me I have 
 to say, it is perfectly the same as the one used here, and I 
 can read it easily ; and the difference in both the dialects 
 from the one here is so trifling, that I have not the smallest 
 doubt of the Parables being understood at Benares and 
 Bettia (a Roman Catholic village), and consequently 
 through a vast tract of country. A more important 
 inference is, that in whatever dialect of the Hindustani 
 the translation of the Scriptures shall be made, it will be 
 generally understood. The little book of Parables is at 
 last finished, through the blessing of God. I cannot say 
 I am very well pleased with it on the reperusal ; but yet 
 containing, as it does, such large portions of the Word of God, 
 I ought not to doubt of its accomplishing that which He 
 pleaseth. 
 
 July 13. Mr. Ward has also sent me a long and learned 
 letter. He is going to print the Parables without delay 
 for me, and the modern Hindustani version of them for 
 themselves. He says, * The enmity of the natives to the 
 Gospel is indeed very great, but on this point the lower 
 orders are angels compared with the moonshis and 
 pundits. I believe the man you took from Serampore 
 has his heart as full of this poison as most. The fear 
 of loss of caste among the poor is a greater obstacle 
 than their enmity. Our strait waistcoat makes our arms 
 ache. 1 
 
 December 29. Translating from Hebrew into Hindu- 
 stani in the morning. Wrote to Mr. Udny. Read Arabic 
 and Persian as usual with Sabat. We had some conversa- 
 tion on this subject, whether we might not expect the Holy 
 Spirit would endue us with extraordinary powers in the 
 acquisition of languages, if we could pray for it only with 
 a desire to be useful to the Church of God, and not with 
 a wish for our own glory. There seemed to be no reason 
 
430 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 against such an expectation. I sometimes pray for the 
 gifts of the Spirit, but infinitely greater is the necessity to 
 pray for grace, as I know by the sorrowful experience of 
 my deceitfully corrupt heart. 
 
 1808, January 7. As much of my time as was not 
 employed for the Europeans has been devoted chiefly to 
 translating the Epistles into Hindustani. This work is 
 finished after a certain manner. But Sabat does not allow 
 me to form a very high idea of the style in which it is 
 executed. But if the work should fail which, however, 
 I am far from expecting my labour will have been richly 
 repaid by the profit and pleasure derived from considering 
 the Word of God in the original with more attention than 
 I had ever done. 
 
 March 31. I am at present employed in the toilsome 
 work of going through the Syriac Gospels, and writing out 
 the names, in order to ascertain their orthography if pos- 
 sible, and correcting with Mirza the Epistles. This last 
 work is incredibly difficult in Hindustani, and will be 
 nearly as much so in Persian, but very easy and elegant 
 in Arabic. 
 
 June i to 4. Employed incessantly in reading the 
 Persian of St. Matthew to Sabat. Met with the Italian 
 padre, Julius, with whom I conversed in French. 
 
 June 6. Going on with the Persian Gospel, visiting the 
 hospital, and with the men at night. My spirit refreshed 
 and revived by every night's ministration to them. Sent 
 the Persian of Matthew to Mr. Brown for the press, and 
 went on with the remainder of the Hindustani of St. 
 Matthew. I have not felt such trials of my temper for 
 many months as to-day. The General declared he was 
 an enemy to my design in translating the Scriptures. My 
 poor harassed soul looked at last to God, and cast its 
 burden of sin at the foot of the cross. Towards evening 
 I found rest and peace. A son-in-law of the Qasi ool 
 Qoorrat, of Patna, a very learned man, called on me. I 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 431 
 
 put to him several questions about Mohammedanism, which 
 confused him ; and as he seemed a grave, honest man, they 
 may produce lasting doubts. 
 
 1809, September 24. Began with Mirza Fitrut the 
 correction of the Hindustani Gospels : Quod felix faus- 
 tumque sit. Began with my men a course of lectures from 
 the beginning of the Bible. 
 
 September 25 to 28. Revising Arabic version of 
 Romans ; going on in correction of Hindustani ; preparing 
 report of progress in translating for Bible Society. Reading 
 occasionally Menishi's Turkish Grammar. 
 
 Completed in 1810, Martyn's Hindustani New Testa- 
 ment for Mohammedans was passing through the Seram- 
 pore press when the great fire of March n, 1812, destroyed 
 all the sheets save the first thirteen chapters of Matthew's 
 Gospel, and melted the fount of Persian type. The Cor- 
 responding Committee of the British and Foreign Bible 
 Society, for which it had been prepared, put it to press the 
 second time at Serampore, from finer type, and it appeared 
 in 1 8 14 in an edition of 2,000 copies, on English paper. 
 The demand for portions for immediate use was such that 
 3,000 copies of the Gospels and Acts, on Patna paper, had 
 been previously struck off. The longing translator who 
 had once written, * Oh, may I have the bliss of soon seeing 
 the New Testament in Hindustani and Persian ! ' had then 
 been two years dead, but verily his works followed him. 
 Such was the reputation of the version that it was read in 
 the native schools at Agra and elsewhere ; while an edition 
 of 2,000 copies in the Deva-Nagri character, for Hindus, 
 appeared in 1817, and was used up till a Hindi version 
 was prepared from it by Mr. Bowley, the zealous agent of 
 the Church Missionary Society at Chunar, by divesting it 
 
432 HENRY MARTYtf 
 
 of the Persian and Arabic terms. Bishop Corrie's revision 
 of this work and portions of the Old Testament were cir- 
 culated in many editions and extending numbers, in the 
 Kaithi character also, among the millions of Hindus who 
 speak the most widespread of Indian languages with many 
 dialects. The Bible Society in London welcomed Martyn's 
 work, of which Professor Lee prepared a large edition. 
 Learning that the lamented scholar had done some work 
 on the Old Testament in Hindustani, and had taught 
 Mirza Fitrut Hebrew, to enable that able moonshi to carry 
 on the translation from the original, the Society first pub- 
 lished Genesis in Hindustani, under Professor Lee's care, in 
 1817, and then issued a revision of the rough draft of the 
 entire version of the Old Testament, by Bishop Corrie and 
 Mr. Thomason. In 1843 Mr. Schiirmann, of the London 
 Missionary Society, and Mr. Justice Hawkins, an elder of 
 the Free Church of Scotland and an accomplished Bengal 
 civilian, issued a uniform revision of the Old and New 
 Testaments in the Arabic and Roman characters, in the 
 course of which Mr. Schurmann ( saw reason to revert in a 
 great measure to the translation of Henry Martyn, especi- 
 ally in the latter half of the version.' l Of the different 
 translations of the Bible into Hindustani, the Oordoo or 
 ' camp ' language understood by the sixty millions of 
 Mussulmans in India, this criticism is just : * the idiomatic 
 and faithful version of Henry Martyn still maintains its 
 ground, although, from the lofty elegance of its style, it is 
 better understood by educated than by illiterate Moham- 
 medans.' 2 
 
 In the first generation, from 1814 to 1847, after the 
 
 1 Fortieth Report of the British and Foreign Bible Society, p. 97. 
 8 The Bible of Every Land (Bagster), 1848. 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 433 
 
 appearance of Henry Martyn's work, sixteen editions l of 
 the Hindustani New Testament were published and sent 
 into circulation among the then fifty millions of Mussul- 
 mans in India. Before Martyn's work was printed, he and 
 Corrie used to dictate to inquirers translations of Bible 
 passages suited to their needs. When Corrie was at 
 Chunar, he tells us, because ' there was not at that time 
 any translation of the Scriptures to put into his hands, a 
 native Roman Catholic took down the translated texts on 
 loose pieces of paper.' Years after, Mr. Wilkinson, of 
 Gorakpore, was called to visit the man on his death-bed, 
 and found him so well acquainted with Scripture that 
 he asked an explanation. * The poor man produced the 
 loose slips of paper on which he had written my transla- 
 tions,' says Corrie. ' On these, it appeared, his soul had 
 fed through life, and through them he died such a death 
 that Mr. Wilkinson entertained no doubt of his having 
 passed into glory.' In the forty years since the sixteen 
 editions made the Word of God known to thousands of 
 India Mussulmans, the Oordoo Bible has caused the Word 
 to grow mightily, and in many cases to prevail. 
 
 The entire Bible in Hindustani was again revised, by 
 Dr. R, C. Mather, after many years' experience in Benares 
 and Mirzapore, and was published, in both the Arabic and 
 Roman characters, in 1 869, after continuous labour for more 
 than six years. He stumbled, in the library of the British 
 and Foreign Bible Society, on sixteen manuscript volumes 
 of a Hindustani translation of nearly the whole Old Testa- 
 ment, beginning with Martyn's Genesis. The folios were 
 interleaved, and on the blank pages were thousands of 
 
 1 See Contributions Towards a History of Biblical Translations in India. 
 Calcutta and London (Dalton), 1854. 
 
 F F 
 
434 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 notes in English. At the end of the Pentateuch the copyist 
 records that ' the above has been completed, by order of 
 Paymaster Sherwood, for the Rev. Daniel Corrie, by me, 
 Makhdum Buksh.' The copy seems to have been the 
 accomplished Thomason's, and to have been deposited in 
 the library by his widow after his death at Port Louis, 
 Mauritius. This practically complete translation of the 
 Old Testament had been lost for forty years. The eulogy 
 passed by Thomason on Martyn's Hindustani New Testa- 
 ment, that it 'will last as a model of elegant writing as well 
 as of faithful translation,' is pronounced by Dr. Mather, 1 
 after all that time, as, 'in the main, just ; the work has lasted 
 and continued to be acceptable, and will perhaps always 
 continue to be useful. All subsequent translators have, as 
 a matter of course, proceeded upon it as a work of excellent 
 skill and learning, and rigid fidelity.' 
 
 The modern Arabic translation of the New Testament, 
 by Martyn and Sabat, was not printed (in Calcutta) till 
 1816, and the translation of the Old Testament was con- 
 tinued under the supervision of Mr. Thomason, who became 
 virtually Martyn's literary executor, and whose labours as 
 Oriental translator and editor hurried him, like his friend, 
 to a premature death. Both had the same biographer 
 the good Sargent, Rector of Lavington. As Thomason 
 toiled at the Arabic, Persian, and Hindustani editions, he 
 wrote : ' I am filled with astonishment at the opening 
 scenes of usefulness. Send us labourers send us faithful 
 laborious labourers ! ' 2 Martyn's Arabic New Testament, 
 
 1 Monograph on Hindustani Versions of the Old and New Testaments^ by 
 the Rev. R. C. Mather, LL.D. (without date). 
 
 2 The Life of Rev. T. T. Thomason, M.A.,by the late Rev. J. Sargent, M. A. , 
 second edition, Seeley's, 1834. 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 435 
 
 produced with the assistance of an undoubtedly learned 
 Arab, as conceited and of temper as intolerable as Sabat, 
 did its work among the ' learned and fastidious ' Moham- 
 medans for whom chiefly it was prepared. Professor Lee 
 issued a second edition in London, and Mr. Thomason 
 a third in Calcutta. In common with the old translations, 
 made for the land in which St. Paul began the first missionary 
 work, and reproduced in various Polyglot Bibles, it has 
 been superseded by the wonderfully perfect and altogether 
 beautiful Arabic Bible (Beirut) of Dr. Eli Smith and Dr. 
 Van Dyck, on which these American scholars, assisted by 
 learned natives of Syria and Cairo, were occupied for nearly 
 thirty years. In the Beirut Arabic Scriptures, Henry 
 Martyn's troubled life with Sabat found early and luxu- 
 riant fruit. How wisely and humbly the missionary chap- 
 lain of the East India Company estimated his own, and 
 especially his Arabic, translations, and how at the same 
 time he longed to live that he might do in 1812-20 what 
 Eli Smith and Van Dyck did in 1837-65, may be seen 
 from these early letters and journals : 
 
 To THE REV. DAVID BROWN, CALCUTTA 
 
 Cawnpore: June II, 1810. 
 
 Dearest Sir, The excessive heat, by depriving me of 
 my rest at night, keeps me between sleeping and waking 
 all day. This is one reason why I have been remiss in 
 answering your letters. It must not, however, be concealed 
 that the man Daniel Corrie has kept me so long talking that 
 I have had no time for writing since his arrival. 
 
 Your idea about presenting splendid copies of the 
 Scriptures to native great men has often struck me, but my 
 counsel is, not to do it with the first edition. I have too 
 little faith in the instruments to believe that the first editions 
 
 F F 2 
 
436 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 will be excellent ; and if they should be found defective, 
 we cannot after once presenting the great men with one 
 book, repeat the thing. 
 
 Before the second edition of the Arabic, what say you 
 to my carrying the first with me to Arabia, having under 
 the other arm the Persian, to be examined at Shiraz 
 or Teheran ? By the time they are both ready I shall have 
 nearly finished my seven years, and may go on furlough. 
 
 I am glad to find you promising to give yourself wholly 
 to your plans. I always tremble lest Mrs. Brown should 
 order you home ; but I must not suspect her, she has the 
 soul of a missionary. If you go soon we shall all droop 
 and die. Your Polyglot speculations are fine, but Polyglots 
 are Biblical luxuries, intended for the gratification of men 
 of two tongues or more. We must first feed those that 
 have but one, especially as single tongues are growing upon 
 us so fast. 
 
 June 12. To-day I have requested the Commander of 
 the forces to detain D. Corrie here to assist me ; he said he 
 did not like to make innovations, but would keep him 
 here for two or three months. This will be a great relief 
 to my labouring chest, for I am still far from being out of 
 the fear of consumption. Tell me that you have prayed 
 for me. Yours, etc. H. M. 
 
 August 22. I want silence and diversion, a little dog to 
 play with ; or what would be best of all, a dear little child, 
 such as Fanny was when I left her. Perhaps you could 
 learn when the ships usually sail for Mocha. I have set 
 my heart upon going there ; I could be there and back in 
 six months. 
 
 September 8. Your tide rolls on with terrifying rapidity, 
 at least I tremble while committing myself to it. You look 
 to me, and I to Sabat ; and Sabat I look upon as the staff 
 of Egypt. May I prove mistaken ! All, however, does 
 not depend upon him. If my life is spared, there is no 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 437 
 
 reason why the Arabic should not be done in Arabia, and 
 the Persian in Persia, as well as the Indian in India. I hope 
 your Shalome has not left you. I promise myself great 
 advantage in reading Hebrew and Syriac with him. 
 
 September 9. Yours of the 2/th ult. is a heart-breaking 
 business. Though I share so deeply in Sabat's disgrace, I 
 feel more for you than myself, but I can give you no comfort 
 except by saying, ' It is well that it was in thine heart.' 
 Your letter will give a new turn to my life. Henceforward 
 I have done with India. Arabia shall hide me till I come 
 forth with an approved New Testament in Arabic. I do 
 not ask your advice, because I have made up my mind, but 
 shall just wait your answer to this, and come down to you 
 instantly. I have been calculating upon the means of 
 support, and find that I shall have wherewithal to live. 
 Besides, the Lord will provide. Before Him I have spread 
 this affair, and do not feel that I shall be acting contrary 
 to His will. . . . Will Government let me go away for three 
 years before the time of my furlough arrives ? If not, I 
 must quit the service, and I cannot devote my life to a more 
 important work than that of preparing the Arabic Bible. 
 
 Herewith you will receive the first seven chapters in 
 Persian and Hindustani, though I suppose you have ceased 
 to wish for them. The Persian will only prove that Sabat 
 is not the man for it. I have protested against many things 
 in it, but instead of sending you my objections I inclose a 
 critique by Mirza, who must remain unknown. I am some- 
 what inclined to think the Arabic not quite so hopeless. 
 Sabat is confident, and eager to meet his opponents. His 
 version of the Romans was certainly not from the old one, 
 because he translated it all before my face from the 
 English ; but then, as I hinted long ago, he is inaccurate 
 and not to be depended upon. He entirely approves of my 
 going to Busrah with his translations, and the old one, 
 confident that the decision there will be in his favour. 
 Dear Sir, take measures for transmitting me with the least 
 
438 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 possible delay; detain me not, for the King's business 
 requires haste. 
 
 The King sent His eager servant to Persia, and did not 
 give him the desire of his heart to enter Arabia. Truly he 
 hastened so unrestingly t;hat the Spirit of God led him to 
 complete the Persian New Testament, and then carried him 
 away from the many tongues of mortal men, which as they 
 sprang from disunion, so they are to ' cease ' in the one 
 speech of the multitudes of every nation and kindred and 
 tribe and tongue who sing the new song. 
 
 The following letter to Charles Simeon, the original of 
 which was presented by his biographer, Canon Carus, to 
 Canon Moor, who permits it to be published here for the 
 first time, fitly introduces Henry Martyn's translation used 
 in Persia. Simeon received it on January 21, 1812, and 
 thus wrote of it to Thomason : 
 
 From whom, think you, did I receive a letter yesterday ? 
 From our beloved Martyn in Persia. He begins to find his 
 strength improve, and he is ' disputing daily ' with the 
 learned, who, he says, are extremely subtile. They are not 
 a little afraid of him, and are going to write a book on the 
 evidences of their religion. The evidences of Mohamme- 
 danism ! A fine comparison they will make with those of 
 Christianity. Oh, that God may endue our brother with 
 wisdom and strength to execute all that is in his heart. He 
 is desirous of spending two years in Persia, and is willing to 
 sacrifice his salary if the East India Company will not give 
 him leave. I am going in an hour to Mr. Grant to consult 
 him, and shall call on Mr. Astell if Mr. Grant thinks it 
 expedient. 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 439 
 
 To REV. C. SIMEON 
 
 Shiraz: July 8, 1811. 
 
 My dearest Friend and Brother, My last letter to 
 you was from Bombay. I sailed thence on March 25, in 
 the Company's corvette, the Benares. As the ship was 
 manned principally by Europeans, I had a good deal 
 to do during the voyage, but through the mercy of our 
 Heavenly Father I was so far from suffering that I rather 
 gained strength, and am now apparently as well as ever I 
 was. On Easter day we made the coast of Mekran, in 
 Persia, and on the Sunday following landed at Muscat, in 
 Arabia. Here I met with an African slave, who tried hard 
 to persuade me that I was in the wrong and he in the 
 right. The dispute ended in his asking for an Arabic 
 Testament, which I gave him. We were about a month in 
 the Persian Gulf, generally in sight of land. At last, on 
 May 22, I was set down at Bushire, in Persia, and was 
 kindly received by the English Resident. One day I went 
 to the Armenian church, at the request of the priest, not 
 expecting to see anything like Christian worship, and 
 accordingly I did not. The Word of God was read, indeed, 
 but in such a way that no man could have understood it 
 After church he desired me to notice that he had censed 
 me four times because I was a priest. This will give you 
 an idea of their excessive childishness. I took occasion 
 from his remark to speak about the priest's office, and the 
 awful importance of it. Nothing can be conceived more 
 vapid and inane than his observations. 
 
 As soon as my Persian dress was ready, I set off for 
 the interior in a kafila, or small caravan, consisting chiefly of 
 mules, and after a very fatiguing journey of ten days over 
 the mountains, during which time the difference in the 
 thermometer by day and night was often sixty degrees, I 
 arrived at this place about a month ago. 
 
440 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 I had no intention of making any stay here, but I found, 
 on my producing Sabat's Persian translation, that I must 
 sit down with native Persians to begin the work once more. 
 The fault found with Sabat's work is that he uses words 
 not only so difficult as to be unintelligible to the generality, 
 but such as never were in use in the Persian. 
 
 When it is considered that the issue of all disputes with 
 the Mohammedans is a reference to the Scriptures, and 
 that the Persian and Arabic are known all over the 
 Mohammedan world, it will be evident that we ought to 
 spare no pains in obtaining good versions in these lan- 
 guages. Hence I look upon my staying here for a time as 
 a duty paramount to every other, and I trust that the 
 Government in India will look upon it in the same light. 
 If they should stop my pay, it would not alter my purpose 
 in the least, but it would be an inconvenience. I should 
 be happy, therefore, if the Court of Directors would sanc- 
 tion my residence in these parts for a year or two. No one 
 who has been in Persia will imagine that I am here for my 
 own pleasure. India is a paradise to it. All is poverty 
 and desolation without, and within I have no comfort but 
 in my God. I am in the midst of enemies, who argue 
 against the truth, sometimes with uncommon subtlety. 
 But I pray for the fulfilment of the Lord's promise, and I 
 am assured that He will be with me and give me a mouth 
 and a wisdom, which all my adversaries shall not be able 
 to gainsay or resist. I am sometimes asked whether I am 
 not afraid to speak so boldly against the Mohammedan reli- 
 gion. I tell them if I say or do anything against the laws 
 I am not unwilling to suffer, but if I say nothing but what 
 naturally comes in the course of argument it is an argu- 
 ment too which you yourselves began why should I fear ? 
 You know the power of the English too well to suppose 
 that they would let any violence be offered to me with 
 impunity. 
 
 The English ambassador, Sir Gore Ouseley, whom I 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 441 
 
 met here on his way to Tabreez, carried me with him to the 
 court of the prince, who, though tributary to his father, is a 
 sovereign prince in Elam, as the S. Scriptures call the pro- 
 vince of Fars. He has also recommended me to the prince's 
 favourite minister, so that I am in no danger. But there 
 is certainly a great stir among the learned, and every effort 
 is made to support their cause. They have now persuaded 
 the father of all the moollas to write a book in Arabic on 
 the evidences of the Mohammedan religion, a book which 
 is to silence me for ever. I rather suppose that the more 
 their cause is examined the worse it will appear. 
 
 I have had no news from India these four months, so 
 I can say nothing of our friends there. Let your next 
 letters be sent not to India, but direct to Persia, in this 
 way : Rev. H. M., care of Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart, Ambas- 
 sador Extraordinary, etc., Teheran ; care of S. Morier, Esq., 
 Constantinople ; care of George Moore, Esq., Malta. My 
 kindest love to all your dear people, Messrs. Bowman 
 and Goodall, Parish, Port, Phillips, etc. I hope they 
 continue to remember me once a week in their prayers ; 
 to the four godly professors ; 1 to your young men though 
 to me unknown, and especially to your 'brother. Believe 
 me to be yours ever most affectionately, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 1812, January I to 8. Spared by mercy to see the 
 beginning of another year. The last has been in some 
 respects a memorable year ; transported in safety to Shiraz, 
 I have been led, by the particular providence of God, to 
 undertake a work the idea of which never entered my 
 mind till my arrival here, but which has gone on without 
 material interruption and is now nearly finished. To all 
 appearance the present year will be more perilous than any 
 I have seen, but if I live to complete the Persian New 
 Testament, my life after that will be of less importance. 
 
 1 Dr. Milner, Dr. Rumsden, Dr. Jowett, Mr. Farish (Charles Simeon's 
 writing). 
 
442 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 But whether life or death be mine, may Christ be magnified 
 in me. If He has work for me to do, I cannot die. 
 
 He had just before written this pathetic letter, of 
 exquisite friendliness : 
 
 To THE REV. D. CORRIE 
 
 Shiraz: December 12, 1811. 
 
 Dearest Brother, Your letters of January 28 and 
 April 22 have just reached me. After being a whole year 
 without any tidings of you, you may conceive how much 
 they have tended to revive my spirits. Indeed, I know not 
 how to be sufficiently thankful to our God and Father for 
 giving me a brother who is indeed a brother to my soul, 
 and thus follows me with affectionate prayers wherever I 
 go, and more than supplies my place to the precious flock 
 over whom the Holy Ghost hath made us overseers. There 
 is only one thing in your letters that makes me uneasy, and 
 that is, the oppression you complain of in the hot weather. 
 As you will have to pass another hot season at Cawnpore, 
 and I do not know how many more, I must again urge you 
 to spare yourself. I am endeavouring to learn the true use 
 of time in a new way, by placing myself in idea twenty or 
 thirty years in advance, and then considering how I ought 
 to have managed twenty or thirty years ago. In racing 
 violently for a year or two, and then breaking down ? In 
 this way I have reasoned myself into contentment about 
 staying so long at Shiraz. I thought at first, what will the 
 Government in India think of my being away so long, or 
 what will my friends think ? Shall I not appear to all a 
 wandering shepherd, leaving the flock and running about 
 for my own pleasure ! But placing myself twenty years on 
 in time, I say, Why could not I stay at Shiraz long enough 
 to get a New Testament done there, even if I had been 
 detained there on that account three or six years ? What 
 work of equal importance can ever come from me? So 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 443 
 
 that now I am resolved to wait here till the New Testament 
 is finished, though I incur the displeasure of Government, or 
 even be dismissed the service. I have been many times 
 on the eve of my departure, as my translator promised to 
 accompany me to Baghdad, but that city being in great 
 confusion he is afraid to trust himself there ; so I resolved 
 to go westward through the north of Persia, but found it 
 impossible, on account of the snow which blocks up the 
 roads in winter, to proceed till spring. Here I am 
 therefore, for three months more ; our Testament will be 
 finished, please God, in six weeks. I go on as usual, riding 
 round the walls in the morning, and singing hymns at night 
 over my milk and water, for tea I have none, though I much 
 want it. I am with you in spirit almost every evening, and 
 feel a bliss I cannot describe in being one with the dear 
 saints of God all over the earth, through one Lord and one 
 Spirit. 
 
 They continued throwing stones at me every day, till 
 happening one day to tell Jafrlr AH Khan, my host, how 
 one as big as my fist had hit me in the back, he wrote to 
 the Governor, who sent an order to all the gates, that if any 
 one insulted me he should be bastinadoed, and the next 
 day came himself in state to pay me a visit. These 
 measures have had the desired effect ; they now call me the 
 Feringhi Nabob, and very civilly offer me the kalean ; but 
 indeed the Persian commonalty are very brutes ; the 
 Soofis declare themselves unable to account for the fierce- 
 ness of their countrymen, except it be from the influence of 
 Islam. After speaking in my praise one of them added 
 'and there are the Hindus too (who have brought the 
 guns), when I saw their gentleness I was quite charmed 
 with them ; but as for our Iranees, they delight in nothing 
 but tormenting their fellow creatures.' These Soofis are 
 quite the Methodists of the East. They delight in every- 
 thing Christian, except in being exclusive. They consider 
 that all will finally return to God, from whom they 
 
444 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 emanated, or rather of whom they are only different forms. 
 The doctrine of the Trinity they admired, but not the 
 atonement, because the Mohammedans, they say, consider 
 Imam Husain as also crucified for the sins of men ; and to 
 everything Mohammedan they have a particular aversion. 
 Yet withal they conform 'externally. From these, however, 
 you will perceive the first Persian Church will be formed, 
 judging after the manner of men. The employment of my 
 leisure hours is translating the Psalms into Persian. What 
 will poor Fitrut do when he gets to the poetical books ? 
 Job, I hope, you have let him pass over. The Books of 
 Solomon are also in a very sorry condition in the English. 
 The Prophets are all much easier, and consequently better 
 done. I hear there is a man at Yezd that has fallen into 
 the same way of thinking as myself about the letters, and 
 professes to have found out all the arts and sciences from 
 them. I should be glad to compare notes with him. It is 
 now time for me to bid you good night. We have had ice 
 on the pools some time, but no snow yet. They build their 
 houses without chimneys, so if we want a fire we must 
 take the smoke along with it. I prefer wrapping myself 
 in my sheepskin. 
 
 Your accounts of the progress of the kingdom of God 
 among you are truly refreshing. Tell dear H. and the 
 men of both regiments that I salute them much in the Lord, 
 and make mention of them in my prayers. May I continue 
 to hear thus of their state, and if I am spared to see them 
 again, may we make it evident that we have grown in grace. 
 Affectionate remembrances to your sister and Sherwoods ; 
 I hope they continue to prosecute their labours of love. 
 Remember me to the people of Cawnpore who inquire, 
 etc. Why have not I mentioned Col. P. ? It is not 
 because he is not in my heart, for there is hardly a man 
 in the world whom I love and honour more. My most 
 Christian salutations to -him. 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 445 
 
 May the grace of the Lord Jesus Christ be with your 
 spirit, dearest brother. Yours affectionately, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 Martyn's Cambridge Persian studies were continued 
 for practical Hindustani purposes at Dinapore, in 1809, 
 and the following incident unconsciously lights up his 
 Persian scholarship at that date. Writing to the impatient 
 David Brown at Aldeen, from Patna, on March 28, he says : 
 
 You chide me for not trusting my Hindustani to the 
 press. Last week we began the correction of it ; present, 
 a Sayyid of Delhi, a poet of Lucknow, three or four 
 literates of Patna, and Baba AH in the chair ; Sabat and 
 myself assessors. 
 
 I was amazed and mortified at observing that reference 
 was had to the Persian for every verse, in order to under- 
 stand the Hindustani. It was, however, a consolation to 
 find that from the Persian they caught the meaning of it 
 instantly, always expressing their admiration of the plain- 
 ness of their translation. 
 
 But when the Persian translation of the four Gospels 
 was printed at Serampore, nearly two years after, Martyn 
 himself was dissatisfied with it. His Cawnpore and 
 especially Lucknow experience had developed him in 
 Persian style, and led him to see that in Persia itself only 
 could the great work be done of translating the Word of 
 God into a language spoken and read from Calcutta and 
 Patna to Damascus and Tabreez. 
 
 When Henry Martyn did the noblest achievement of 
 his life, the production of the Persian New Testament, he 
 unknowingly linked himself with the greatest of the Greek 
 Fathers, near whose dust his own was about to be laid. 
 Until the Eastern Church ceased to be aggressive that is, 
 missionary Persia, like Central Asia up to China itself, 
 
446 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 promised to be all Christian. Islam, a corrupted mixture 
 of Judaism and Christianity, took its place. Persia sent 
 a bishop to the Council of Nicaea in 325, and the great 
 Constantine wrote a letter to King Sapor, recommending 
 to his protection the Christian Churches in his empire. 1 
 Chrysostom (347-407), in his second homily on John, 
 incidentally tells us that ' the Persians, having translated 
 the doctrines of the Gospel into their own tongue, had 
 learned, though barbarians, the true philosophy.' In his 
 homily on the memorial of Mary he puts the Persians first, 
 and our British forefathers last, in this remarkable passage : 
 ' The Persians, the Indians, Scythians, Thracians, Sarma- 
 tians, the race of the Moors, and the inhabitants of the 
 British Isles, celebrate a deed performed in a private family 
 in Judea by a woman that had been a sinner.' The isles 
 of Britain, Claudius Buchanan well remarks, then last, are 
 now the first to restore this memorial to the Persians as 
 well as to other Mohammedan nations. Even so late as 
 1740 the tyrant Nadir Shah, inquiring as to Jesus Christ, 
 asked for a Persian copy of the Gospels, and had presented 
 to him the combined work of an ignorant Romish priest 
 and some Mohammedan moollas, which excited his ridicule. 
 The traveller, Jonas Hanway, tells us that when Henry 
 Martyn saw this production he exclaimed that he did not 
 wonder at Nadir's contempt of it. 
 
 Martyn arrived in Shiraz on June n, 1811; in a week 
 he began his Persian translation of the New Testament, 
 and in February 1812 he completed the happy toil, carried 
 on amidst disputations with Soofis and Shi'ahs, Jews and 
 
 1 Christian Researches in Asia, with Notices of the Translation of the 
 Scriptures into the Oriental Languages, by the Rev. Claudius Buchanan, D.D., 
 loth edition, London, 1814. 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 447 
 
 Christians of the Oriental rites, while consumption wasted 
 his body. His ' leisure ' he spent in translating the Hebrew 
 Psalter. Let us look at him, in that South Persian summer 
 and winter and summer again, now in the city of Shiraz, 
 now driven by the sultry heat to the garden of roses and 
 orange-trees outside the walls near the tomb of Hafiz. The 
 Christian poet has pictured the scene Alford, when Dean 
 of Canterbury in 1851. Twenty years after, he himself was 
 laid in the churchyard of the mother church of England, 
 St. Martin's, under this inscription ' Diversorium Viatoris 
 . Hierosolymam Proficiscentis ' : 
 
 HENRY MARTYN AT SHIRAZ 
 
 I 
 
 A vision of the bright Shiraz, of Persian bards the theme : 
 The vine with bunches laden hangs o'er the crystal stream ; 
 The nightingale all day her notes in rosy thickets trills, 
 And the brooding heat-mist faintly lies along the distant hills. 
 
 ii 
 
 About the plain are scattered wide, in many a crumbling heap, 
 The fanes of other days, and tombs where Iran's poets sleep : 
 And in the midst, like burnished gems, in noonday light repose 
 The minarets of bright Shiraz the City of the Rose. 
 
 in 
 
 One group beside the river bank in rapt discourse are seen, 
 Where hangs the golden orange on its boughs of purest green ; 
 Their words are sweet and low, and their looks are lit with joy, 
 Some holy blessing seems to rest on them and their employ. 
 
 IV 
 
 The pale-faced Frank among them sits : what brought him from 
 
 afar? 
 
 Nor bears he bales of merchandise, nor teaches skill in war ; 
 One pearl alone he brings with him, the Book of life and death; 
 One warfare only teaches he to fight the fight of faith. 
 
448 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 And Iran's sons are round him, and one with solemn tone 
 Tells how the Lord of Glory was rejected by His own ; 
 Tells, from the wondrous Gospel, of the Trial and the Doom, 
 The words Divine of Love and Might the Scourge, the Cross, 
 the Tomb. 
 
 VI 
 
 Far sweeter to the stranger's ear those Eastern accents sound 
 Than music of the nightingale that fills the air around : 
 Lovelier than balmiest odours sent from gardens of the rose, 
 The fragrance from the contrite soul and chastened lip that flows. 
 
 VII 
 
 The nightingales have ceased to sing, the roses' leaves are shed, 
 The Frank's pale face in Tokat's field hath mouldered with the 
 
 dead : 
 
 Alone and all unfriended, midst his Master's work he fell, 
 With none to bathe his fevered brow, with none his tale to tell. 
 
 vin 
 
 But still those sweet and solemn tones about him sound in bliss, 
 And fragrance from those flowers of God for evermore is his : 
 For his the meed, by grace, of those who, rich in zeal and love, 
 Turn many unto righteousness, and shine as stars above. 
 
 This was the beginning of the Persian New Testament : 
 To REV. DAVID BROWN 
 
 Shiraz : June 24, 1811. 
 
 Dearest Sir, I believe I told you that the advanced 
 state of the season rendered it necessary to go to Arabia 
 circuitously by way of Persia. Behold me therefore in the 
 Athens of Fars, the haunt of the Persian man. Beneath 
 are the ashes of Hafiz and Sadi ; above, green gardens 
 and running waters, roses and nightingales. Does Mr. Bird 
 envy my lot ? Let him solace himself with Aldeen. How 
 gladly would I give him Shiraz for Aldeen ; how often 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 449 
 
 while toiling through this miserable country have I sighed 
 for Aldeen ! If I am ever permitted to see India again 
 nothing but dire necessity, or the imperious call of duty, 
 will ever induce me to travel again. One thing is good 
 here, the fruit ; we have apples and apricots, plums, 
 nectarines, greengages and cherries, all of which are served 
 up with ice and snow. When I have said this for Shiraz 
 I have said all. 
 
 But to have done with what grows out of the soil, let 
 us come to the men. The Persians are, like ourselves, 
 immortal ; their language had passed a long way beyond 
 the limits of Iran. The men of Shiraz propose to translate 
 the New Testament with me. Can I refuse to stay ? 
 After much deliberation I have determined to remain here 
 six months. It is sorely against my will, but I feel it to 
 be a duty. From all that I can collect there appears no 
 probability of our ever having a good translation made out 
 of Persia. At Bombay I showed Moolla Firoz, the most 
 learned man there, the three Persian translations, viz. the 
 Polyglot, and Sabat's two. He disapproved of them all. 
 At Bushire, which is in Persia, the man of the greatest 
 name was Sayyid Hosein. Of the three he liked Sabat's 
 Persian best, but said it seemed written by an Indian. On 
 my arrival at this place I produced my specimens once 
 more. Sabat's Persian was much ridiculed ; sarcastic re- 
 marks were made on the fondness for fine words so 
 remarkable in the Indians, who seemed to think that hard 
 words made fine writing. His Persic also was presently 
 thrown aside, and to my no small surprise the old despised 
 Polyglot was not only spoken of as superior to the rest, 
 but it was asked, What fault is found in this ? this is the 
 language we speak. The king has also signified that it is 
 his wish that as little Arabic as possible may be employed 
 in the papers presented to him. So that simple Persian is 
 likely to become more and more fashionable. This is a 
 change favourable certainly to our glorious cause. To the 
 
 G G 
 
450 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 poor the Gospel will be preached. We began our work 
 with the Gospel of St. John, and five chapters are put out 
 of hand. It is likely to be the simplest thing imaginable ; 
 and I dare say the pedantic Arab will turn up his nose at 
 it ; but what the men of Shiraz approve who can gainsay ? 
 Let Sabat confine himself to the Arabic, and he will 
 accomplish a great work. The forementioned Sayyid 
 Hosein of Bushire is an Arab. I showed him Erpenius's 
 Arabic Testament, the Christian Knowledge Society, Sabat's, 
 and the Polyglot. After rejecting all but Sabat's, he said 
 this is good, very good, and then read off the 5th of 
 Matthew in a fine style, giving it unqualified commendation 
 as he went along. On my proposing to him to give a 
 specimen of what he thought the best Persian style, he 
 consented ; but, said he, give me this to translate from, 
 laying his hand on Sabat's Arabic. At Muscat an Arab 
 officer who had attended us as guard and guide one day 
 when we walked into the country, came on board with his 
 slave to take leave of us. The slave, who had argued with 
 me very strenuously in favour of his religion, reminded me 
 of a promise I had made him of giving him the Gospel. 
 On my producing an Arabic New Testament, he seized it 
 and began to read away upon deck, but presently stopped, 
 and said it was not fine Arabic. However, he carried off 
 the book. 
 
 In eight months the Persian translation of the New 
 Testament was done. The Journal, during that period, 
 from July 1811 to February 1812, as the sacred task went 
 on, reveals the Holy Spirit moving the hearts of the 
 translator's Mohammedan assistant and Soofi disputants by 
 ' the things of Christ,' while it shows His servant bearing 
 witness, by the account of his own conversion, to His power 
 to save and to make holy. 
 
 December 12. Letters at last from India. Mirza Sayyid 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 451 
 
 Ali was curious to know in what way we corresponded, 
 and made me read Mr. Brown's letter to me, and mine to 
 Corrie. He took care to let his friends know that we 
 wrote nothing about our own affairs : it was all about 
 translations and the cause of Christ. With this he was 
 delighted. 
 
 December 16. In translating 2 Cor. i. 22, 'Who hath 
 given the earnest of the Spirit in our hearts,' he was much 
 struck when it was explained to him. ' Oh, that I had it/ 
 said he ; * have you received it ? ' I told him that, as I had 
 no doubt of my acceptance through Christ, I concluded that 
 I had. Once before, on the words, ' Who are saved ? ' he 
 expressed his surprise at the confidence with which Chris- 
 tians spoke of salvation. On I Cor. xv. he observed, 
 that the doctrine of the resurrection of the body was un- 
 reasonable ; but that as the Mohammedans understood 
 it, it was impossible ; on which account the Soofis rejected 
 it. 
 
 Christmas Day. I made a great feast for the Russians 
 and Armenians ; and, at Jaffir Ali Khan's request, invited 
 the Soofi master, with his disciples. I hoped there would 
 be some conversation on the occasion of our meeting, and, 
 indeed, Mirza Sayyid Ali did make some attempts, and ex- 
 plained to the old man the meaning of the Lord's Supper ; 
 but the sage maintaining his usual silence, the subject was 
 dropped. I expressed my satisfaction at seeing them as- 
 sembled on such an occasion, and my hope that they would 
 remember the day in succeeding years, and that though 
 they would never see me again in the succeeding years, 
 they would not forget that I had brought them the Gospel. 
 The old man coldly replied that ' God would guide those 
 whom He chose.' Most of the time they continued was 
 before dinner ; the moment that was despatched, they rose 
 and went away. The custom is, to sit five or six hours 
 before dinner, and at great men's houses singers attend. 
 
 December 31. The accounts of the desolations of war 
 
 G G 2 
 
452 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 during the last year, which I have been reading in some 
 Indian newspapers, make the world appear more gloomy 
 than ever. How many souls hurried into eternity unpre- 
 pared ! How many thousands of widows and orphans left 
 to mourn ! But admire, my soul, the matchless power of 
 God, that out of this ruiri He has prepared for Himself an 
 inheritance. At last the scene shall change, and I shall 
 find myself in a world where all is love. 
 
 1812. The last has been in some respects a memorable 
 year. I have been led, by what I have reason to consider 
 as the particular providence of God, to this place ; and have 
 undertaken an important work, which has gone on without 
 material interruption, and is now nearly finished. I like to 
 find myself employed usefully, in a way I did not expect 
 or foresee, especially if my own will is in any degree 
 crossed by the work unexpectedly assigned me, as 
 there is then reason to believe that God is acting. The 
 present year will probably be a perilous one, but my life is 
 of little consequence, whether I live to finish the Persian 
 New Testament or do not. I look back with pity and 
 shame upon my former self, and on the importance I then 
 attached to my life and labours. The more I see of my 
 own works the more I am ashamed of them. Coarseness 
 and clumsiness mar all the works of man. I am sick when 
 I look at man and his wisdom and his doings, and am 
 relieved only by reflecting that we have a city whose 
 builder and maker is God. The least of His works it is 
 refreshing to look at. A dried leaf or a straw makes me 
 feel myself in good company : complacency and admiration 
 take place of disgust. 
 
 I compared with pain our Persian translation with the 
 original ; to say nothing of the precision and elegance of 
 the sacred text, its perspicuity is that which sets at defiance 
 all attempts to equal it. 
 
 January 1 6. Mirza Sayyid Ali told me accidentally 
 to-day of a distich made by his friend Mirza Koochut, 
 
JN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 453 
 
 at Teheran, in honour of a victory gained by Prince Abbas 
 Mirza over the Russians. The sentiment was, that he had 
 killed so many of the Christians, that Christ, from the 
 fourth heaven, took hold of Mahomet's skirt to entreat 
 him to desist. I was cut to the soul at this blasphemy. 
 In prayer I could think of nothing else but that great day 
 when the Son of God shall come in the clouds of heaven, 
 taking vengeance on them that know not God, and con- 
 vincing men of all their hard speeches which they have 
 spoken against Him. 
 
 Mirza Sayyid Ali perceived that I was considerably 
 disordered, and was sorry for having repeated the verse, 
 but asked what it was that was so offensive. I told him 
 that ' I could not endure existence if Jesus was not 
 glorified ; it would be hell to me if He were to be always 
 thus dishonoured.' He was astonished, and again asked 
 why. ' If anyone pluck out your eyes,' I replied, ' there is 
 no saying why you feel pain ; it is feeling. It is because I 
 am one with Christ that I am thus dreadfully wounded.' 
 On his again apologising, I told him that ' I rejoiced at what 
 had happened, inasmuch as it made me feel nearer the Lord 
 than ever. It is when the head or heart is struck, that 
 every member feels its membership.' This conversation 
 took place while we were translating. In the evening he 
 mentioned the circumstance of a young man's being mur- 
 dereda fine athletic youth, whom I had often seen in the 
 garden. Some acquaintance of his in a slight quarrel had 
 plunged a dagger in his breast. Observing me look 
 sorrowful, he asked why. ' Because,' said I, ' he was cut off 
 in his sins, and had no time to repent.' ' It was just in that 
 way,' said he, ' that I should like to die ; not dragging out 
 a miserable existence on a sick-bed, but transported at once 
 into another state.' I observed that * it was not desirable 
 to be hurried into the immediate presence of God.' ' Do 
 you think,' said he, ' that there is any difference in the 
 presence of God here or there ? ' ' Indeed I do,' said I. 
 
454 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 ' Here we see through a glass darkly ; but there, face to 
 face.' He then entered into some metaphysical Soofi dis- 
 putation about the identity of sin and holiness, heaven and 
 hell : to all which I made no reply. 
 
 January 1 8. Aga Ali of Media came: and with him 
 and Mirza Ali I had a long and warm discussion about the 
 essentials of Christianity. The Mede, seeing us at work 
 upon the Epistles, said, 'he should be glad to read them ; as 
 for the Gospels they were nothing but tales, which were of 
 no use to him ; for instance/ said he, ' if Christ raised four 
 hundred dead to life, what is that to me ? ' I said, ' it 
 certainly was of importance, for His work furnished a reason 
 for our depending upon His words.' * What did He say,' 
 asked he, * that was not known before ? the love of God, 
 humility who does not know these things ? ' * Were these 
 things,' said I, ' known before Christ, either among Greeks 
 or Romans, with all their philosophy ? ' They avowed that 
 the Hindu book Ju/i contained precepts of this kind. I 
 questioned its antiquity ; ' but however that may be,' I 
 added, ' Christ came not to teach so much as to die ; the 
 truths I spoke of as confirmed by His miracles were those 
 relating to His person, such as, " Come unto Me, all ye that 
 labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." Here 
 Mirza Sayyid Ali told him that I had professed to have no 
 doubt of my salvation. He asked what I meant. I told 
 him, ' that though sin still remained, I was assured that it 
 should not regain dominion ; and that I should never come 
 into condemnation, but was accepted in the Beloved.' Not 
 a little surprised, he asked Mirza Sayyid Ali whether he com- 
 prehended this. ' No,' said he, ' nor Mirza Ibrahim, to 
 whom I mentioned it.' The Mede again turning to me 
 asked, ' How do you know this ? how do you know you 
 have experienced the second birth ? ' ' Because,' said I, 
 ' we have the Spirit of the Father ; what He wishes we 
 wish ; what He hates - we hate.' Here he began to be 
 a little more calm and less contentious, and mildly asked 
 
IN PERSIATRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 455 
 
 how I had obtained this peace of mind : t Was it merely 
 these books ? ' said he, taking up some of our sheets. I told 
 him, ' These books, with prayer.' ' What was the beginning 
 of it,' said he, 'the society of some friends ?' I related to him 
 my religious history, the substance of which was, that I took 
 my Bible before God in prayer, and prayed for forgiveness 
 through Christ, assurance of it through His Spirit, and grace 
 to obey His commandments. They then both asked whether 
 the same benefit would be conferred on them. ' Yes,' said 
 I, ' for so the Apostles preached, that all who were baptized 
 in His name should receive the gift of the Holy Ghost.' 
 ' Can you assure me,' said Mirza Sayyid Ali, ' that the Spirit 
 will be given to me ? if so, I will be baptized immediately.' 
 ' Who am I that I should be surety ? ' I replied ; ' I bring 
 you this message from God, that he who, despairing of 
 himself, rests for righteousness on the Son of God, shall 
 receive the gift of the Holy Ghost ; and to this I can add 
 my testimony, if that be worth anything, that I have found 
 the promise fulfilled in myself. But if after baptism you 
 should not find it so in you, accuse not the Gospel of false- 
 hood. It is possible that your faith might not be sincere ; 
 indeed, so fully am I persuaded that you do not believe on 
 the Son of God, that if you were to entreat ever so earnestly 
 for baptism I should not dare to administer it at this 
 time, when you have shown so many signs of an unhumbled 
 heart.' * What ! would you have me believe,' said he, ' as 
 a child ? ' ' Yes,' said I. ' True,' said he, ' I think that is 
 the only way.' Aga Ali said no more, except, ' Certainly 
 he is a good man ! ' 
 
 January 23. Put on my English dress, and went to 
 the Vizier's, to see part of the tragedy of Husain's death, 1 
 which they contrive to spin out so as to make it last the 
 first ten days of the Mohurrum. All the apparatus con- 
 sisted of a few boards for a stage, two tables and 
 
 1 See The Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain, collected from Oral 
 Tradition, by Sir Lewis Pelly, two vols. 1879. 
 
4$6 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 a pulpit, under an immense awning, in the court where 
 the company were assembled. The dramatis persona 
 were two ; the daughter of Husain, whose part was per- 
 formed by a boy, and a messenger ; they both read their 
 parts. Every now and then loud sobs were heard all over 
 the court. After this several feats of activity were 
 exhibited ; the Vizier sat with the moollas. I was ap- 
 pointed to a seat where indeed I saw as much as I wanted, 
 but which, I afterwards perceived, was not the place of 
 honour. As I trust I am far enough from desiring the 
 chief seats in the synagogues, there was nothing in this 
 that could offend me ; but I do not think it right to let 
 him have another opportunity of showing a slight to my 
 country in my person. 
 
 January 24. Found Sayyid AH rather serious this even- 
 ing. He said he did not know what to do to have his 
 mind made up about religion. Of all the religions Christ's 
 was the best ; but whether to prefer this to Soofi-ism he 
 could not tell. In these doubts he is tossed to and fro, and 
 is often kept awake the whole night in tears. He and his 
 brother talk together on these things till they are almost 
 crazed. Before he was engaged in this work of translation, 
 he says he used to read about two or three hours a day, 
 now he can do nothing else ; has no inclination for any- 
 thing else, and feels unhappy if he does not correct his daily 
 portion. His late employment has given a new turn to his 
 thoughts as well as to those of his friends ; they had not 
 the most distant conception of the contents of the New 
 Testament. He says his Soofi friends are exceedingly 
 anxious to see the Epistles, from the accounts he gives of 
 them, and also he is sure that almost the whole of Shiraz 
 are so sensible of the load of unmeaning ceremonies in 
 which their religion consists, that they will rejoice to see 
 or hear of anything like freedom, and that they would be 
 more willing to embrace .Christ than the Soofis, who, after 
 taking so much pains to be independent of all law, would 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 457 
 
 think it degrading to submit themselves to any law again, 
 however light. 
 
 February 2. From what I suffer in this city, I can 
 understand the feelings of Lot. The face of the poor 
 Russian appears to me like the face of an angel, because 
 he does not tell lies. Heaven will be heaven because 
 there will not be one liar there. The Word of God is more 
 precious to me at this time than I ever remember it to have 
 been ; and of all the promises in it, none is more sweet to 
 me than this ' He shall reign till He hath put all enemies 
 under His feet.' 
 
 February 3. A packet arrived from India without a 
 single letter for me. It was some disappointment to me : 
 but let me be satisfied with my God, and if I cannot have 
 the comfort of hearing from my friends, let me return with 
 thankfulness to His Word, which is a treasure of which 
 none envy me the possession, and where I can find what 
 will more than compensate for the loss of earthly enjoy- 
 ments. Resignation to the will of God is a lesson which I 
 must learn, and which I trust He is teaching me. 
 
 February g. Aga Boozong came. After much con- 
 versation, he said, ' Prove to me, from the beginning, that 
 Christianity is the way : how will you proceed ? what do 
 you say must be done ? ' ' If you would not believe a 
 person who wrought a miracle before you,' said I, * I have 
 nothing to say ; I cannot proceed a step.' ' I will grant 
 you,' said Sayyid Ali, * that Christ was the Son of God, and 
 more than that.' * That you despair of yourself, and are 
 willing to trust in Him alone for salvation?' ' Yes.' 'And 
 are ready to confess Christ before men, and act conformably 
 to His Word? ' 'Yes : what else must I do? ' 'Be baptized 
 in the name of Christ.' ' And what shall I gain ? ' ' The 
 gift of the Holy Ghost. The end of faith is salvation in 
 the world to come ; but even here you shall have the 
 Spirit to purify your heart, and to give you the assurance 
 of everlasting happiness.' Thus Aga Boozong had an 
 
458 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 opportunity of hearing those strange things from my own 
 mouth, of which he had been told by his disciple the Mede. 
 'You can say too,' said he, 'that you have received the 
 Spirit ?' I told them I believed I had; 'for, notwithstanding 
 all my sins, the bent of my heart was to God in a way it 
 never was before ; and that, according to my present feeling, 
 I could not be happy if God was not glorified, and if I had 
 not the enjoyment of His presence, for which I felt that I 
 was now educating.' Aga Boozong shed tears. 
 
 After this came Aga Ali, the Mede, to hear, as he said, 
 some of the sentences of Paul. Mirza Sayyid Ali had 
 told them, ' that if they had read nothing but the Gospels, 
 they knew nothing of the religion of Christ' The sheet I 
 happened to have by me was the one containing the fourth, 
 fifth, and sixth chapters of the Second Epistle to the 
 Corinthians, which Aga Ali read out. 
 
 At this time the company had increased considerably. 
 I desired Aga Ali to notice particularly the latter part of 
 the fifth chapter, ' God was in Christ, reconciling the world 
 unto Himself.' He then read it a second time, but they 
 saw not its glory ; however, they spoke in high terms of 
 the pith and solidity of Paul's sentences. They were evi- 
 dently on the watch for anything that tallied with their 
 own sentiments. Upon the passage, 'Always bearing 
 about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus,' the Mede 
 observed, ' Do you not see that Jesus was in Paul, and that 
 Paul was only another name for Jesus ? ' And the text, 
 ' Whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God ; and whether 
 we be sober, it is for your sakes,' they interpreted thus : 
 ' We are absorbed in the contemplation of God, and when 
 we recover, it is to instruct you.' 
 
 Walking afterwards with Mirza Sayyid Ali, he told me 
 how much one of my remarks had affected him, namely, 
 that he had no humility. He had been talking about 
 simplicity and humility as characteristic of the Soofis. 
 ' Humility ! ' I said to him, ' if you were humble, you would 
 
IN PERSIA TRANSLATING THE SCRIPTURES 459 
 
 not dispute in this manner ; you would be like a child.' 
 He did not open his mouth afterwards, but to say, * True ; 
 I have no humility.' In evident distress, he observed. 
 ' The truth is, we are in a state of compound ignorance 
 ignorant, yet ignorant of our ignorance.' 
 
 February 18. While walking in the garden, in some 
 disorder from vexation, two Mussulman Jews came up and 
 asked me what would become of them in another world. 
 The Mahometans were right in their way, they supposed, 
 and we in ours, but what must they expect? After 
 rectifying their mistake as to the Mahometans, I mentioned 
 two or three reasons for believing that we are right : such 
 as their dispersion, and the cessation of sacrifices imme- 
 diately on the appearance of Jesus. ' True, true,' they said, 
 with great feeling and seriousness ; indeed, they seemed 
 disposed to yield assent to anything I said. They confessed 
 they had become Mahometans only on compulsion, and 
 that Abdoolghuni wished to go to Baghdad, thinking he 
 might throw off the mask there with safety, but they 
 asked what I thought. I said that the Governor was a 
 Mahometan. 'Did I think Syria safer?' 'The safest 
 place in the East/ I said, 'was India.' Feelings of pity for 
 God's ancient people, and having the awful importance of 
 eternal things impressed on my mind by the seriousness 
 of their inquiries as to what would become of them, relieved 
 me from the pressure of my comparatively insignificant 
 distresses. I, a poor Gentile, blest, honoured, and loved ; 
 secured for ever by the everlasting covenant, whilst the 
 children of the kingdom are still lying in outer darkness ! 
 Well does it become me to be thankful ! 
 
 This is my birthday, on which I complete my thirty- 
 first year. The Persian New Testament has been begun, 
 and I may say finished in it, as only the last eight chapters 
 of the Revelation remain. Such a painful year I never 
 passed, owing to the privations I have been called to on 
 the one hand, and the spectacle before me of human 
 
460 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 depravity on the other. But I hope that I have not come 
 to this seat of Satan in vain. The Word of God has found 
 its way into Persia, and it is not in Satan's power to oppose 
 its progress if the Lord hath sent it. 
 
 A week after, on February 24, 1812, Henry Martyn 
 corrected the last page of the New Testament in Persian. 
 As we read his words of thanksgiving to the Lord and his 
 invocation of the Holy Spirit, in the already darkening 
 light of his approaching end, before the beatific vision pro- 
 mised by the Master to the pure in heart, and the blessed 
 companionship with Himself guaranteed to every true 
 servant, we recall the Scottish Columba, whose last act 
 was to transcribe the eleventh verse of the thirty-fourth 
 Psalm, and the English Bede, who died when translating 
 the ninth verse of the sixth chapter of St. John's Gospel. 
 
 I have many mercies for which to thank the Lord, and 
 this is not the least. Now may that Spirit who gave the 
 Word, and called me, I trust, to be an interpreter of it, 
 graciously and powerfully apply it to the hearts of sinners, 
 even to the gathering an elect people from amongst the 
 long-estranged Persians ! 
 
4 6i 
 
 CHAPTER XII 
 
 SIIIRAZ TO TABREEZ THE PERSIAN NEW TESTAMENT 
 
 THE next three months were spent, still in Shiraz, in the 
 preparation of copies of the precious Persian MS. of the 
 New Testament, and in very close spiritual intercourse 
 with the company of inquirers whom neither fanaticism, 
 conceit, nor, in some cases, a previously immoral life, had 
 prevented from reverencing the teaching of the man of 
 God. Jaffir AH Khan's garden became to such a holy place, 
 as the Persian spring passed into the heat of summer. 
 There the privileged translator, Mirza Sayyid Ali ; Aga Baba, 
 the Mede ; Aga Boozong, vizier of Prince Abbas Mirza, and 
 ' most magisterial of the Soofis ; ' Mirza Ibrahim, the 
 controversialist leader ; Sheikh Abulhassan, and many a 
 moolla to whom he testified that Christ was the Creator 
 and Saviour, gathered round him as he read, 'at their 
 request/ the Old Testament histories. ' Their attention 
 to the Word, and their love and attention to me, seemed 
 to increase as the time of my departure approached. 
 Aga Baba, who had been reading St. Matthew, related 
 very circumstantially to the company the particulars of 
 the death of Christ. The bed of roses on which we sat, 
 and the notes of the nightingales warbling around us, were 
 not so sweet to me as this discourse from the Persian.' 
 
 Telling Mirza Sayyid Ali one day that I wished to return 
 
462 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 to the city in the evening, to be alone and at leisure for 
 prayer, he said with seriousness, ' Though a man had no 
 other religious society I suppose he might, with the aid of 
 the Bible, live alone with God ? ' This solitude will, in one 
 respect, be his own state soon ; may he find it the medium 
 of God's gracious communications to his soul ! He asked 
 in what way God ought to be addressed : I told him as a 
 Father, with respectful love ; and added some other exhor- 
 tations on the subject of prayer. 
 
 May ii. Aga Baba came to bid me farewell, which 
 he did in the best and most solemn way, by asking, as a 
 final question, 'whether, independently of external evi- 
 dences, I had any internal proofs of the doctrine of Christ ? ' 
 I answered, ' Yes, undoubtedly : the change from what I 
 once was is a sufficient evidence to me.' At last he took 
 his leave, in great sorrow, and what is better, apparently in 
 great solicitude about his soul. 
 
 The rest of the day I continued with Mirza Sayyid Ali, 
 giving him instructions what to do with the New Testament 
 in case of my decease, and exhorting him, as far as his 
 confession allowed me, to stand fast. He had made many 
 a good resolution respecting his besetting sins. I hope, 
 as well as pray, that some lasting effects may be seen at 
 Shiraz from the Word of God left among them. 
 
 For the Shah and for the heir-apparent, Prince Abbas 
 Mirza, two copies of the Persian New Testament were 
 specially written out in the perfect caligraphy which the 
 Persians love, and carefully corrected with the translator's 
 own hand. That he might himself present them, especially 
 the former, he left Shiraz on May n, 1812, after a year's 
 residence in the country. The whole length of the great 
 Persian plateau had to be traversed, by Ispahan to Teheran, 
 thence to the royal camp at Sultania, and finally to Tabreez, 
 where was Sir Gore Ouseley, the British ambassador, through 
 
SHIRAZ TO TABREEZ 463 
 
 whom alone the English man of God could be introduced to 
 the royal presence. He was accompanied by Mr. Canning, 
 an English clergyman. 
 
 The journey occupied eight weeks, and proved to be 
 one of extreme hardship, which rapidly developed Henry 
 Martyn's disease. At one time his life was in danger, in 
 spite of the letters which he carried from General Malcolm's 
 friend, and now his own, Jaffir Ali Khan, to the Persian 
 prime minister at Teheran. Mrs. Bishop's experience of 
 travel by the same road l at a more favourable season, over 
 the ' great mud land ' to which centuries of misrule have 
 changed the populous paradise of Darius, enables us to 
 imagine what the brief record of the Journal only half 
 reveals seventy years ago. The old village which 
 the founder of the Kajar dynasty enlarged into Teheran, 
 straggles within eleven miles of walls in the most de- 
 pressed part of an uninteresting waste. Save for the 
 exterior of the Shah's palace, and those of some of his 
 ministers, the suburb with the European legations, and 
 now the large and handsome buildings of the American 
 Presbyterian Mission, it is unworthy of being a capital 
 city. Eager to present the sacred volume while life was 
 left to him, Henry Martyn hurried away to find Mirza 
 Shufi, the premier, and the Shah, who were in camp a 
 night's journey off at Karach. 
 
 May 13. Remained all day at the caravanserai, cor- 
 recting the Prince's copy. 
 
 May 14. Continued our journey through two ridges 
 of mountains to Imanzadu : no cultivation to be seen any- 
 where, nor scarcely any natural vegetable production, except 
 
 1 Journeys in Persia and Kurdistan, rY., by Mrs. Bishop (Isabella C. 
 Bird), two vols., John Murray, 1891. 
 
464 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 the broom and hawthorn. The weather was rather tem- 
 pestuous, with cold gusts of wind and rain. We were 
 visited by people who came to be cured of their dis- 
 tempers. 
 
 May 1 6. We found a hoar frost, and ice on the 
 pools. The excessive cold at this place is accounted for 
 by its being the highest land between the Persian Gulf and 
 the Caspian Sea. The baggage not having come up, we 
 were obliged to pass another day in this uncomfortable 
 neighbourhood, where nothing was to be procured for our- 
 selves or our horses, the scarcity of rain this year having 
 left the ground destitute of verdure, and the poor people of 
 the village near us having nothing to sell. 
 
 May 21. Finished the revision of the Prince's copy. 
 At eleven at night we started for Ispahan, where we 
 arrived soon after sunrise on the 22nd, and were accom- 
 modated in one of the king's palaces. Found my old 
 Shiraz scribe here, and corrected with him the Prince's 
 copy. 
 
 May 23. Called on the Armenian bishops at Julfa, 
 and met Matteus. He is certainly vastly superior to any 
 Armenian I have yet seen. We next went to the Italian 
 missionary, Joseph Carabiciate, a native of Aleppo, but 
 educated at Rome. He spoke Latin very sprightly, con- 
 sidering his age, which was sixty-six, but discovered no 
 sort of inclination to talk about religion. Until lately he 
 had been supported by the Propaganda ; but weary at last 
 of exercising his functions without remuneration, and even 
 without the necessary provision, he talked of returning to 
 Aleppo. 
 
 May 24. (Sunday.) Went early this morning to the 
 Armenian church attached to the episcopal residence. 
 Within the rails were two out of the four bishops, and 
 other ecclesiastics, but in the body of the church only 
 three people. Most of the Armenians at Julfa, which, is 
 now reduced to five hundred houses, attended at their re- 
 
TO TABR&EZ 465 
 
 spective parish churches, of which there are twelve, served 
 by twenty priests. After their pageantry was over, and we 
 were satisfied with processions, ringing of bells, waving of 
 colours, and other ceremonies, which were so numerous as 
 entirely to remove all semblance of spiritual worship, we 
 were condemned to witness a repetition of the same 
 mockery at the Italian's church, at his request. I could 
 not stand it out, but those who did observed that -the 
 priest ate and drank all the consecrated elements himself, 
 and gave none to the few poor women who composed his 
 congregation, and who, the Armenian said, had been hired 
 for the occasion. 
 
 Before returning to Ispahan we sat a short time in 
 the garden with the bishops. They, poor things, had 
 nothing to say, and could scarcely speak Persian ; so that 
 all the conversation was between me and Matteus. At 
 my request he brought what he had of the Holy Scrip- 
 tures in Persian and Arabic. They were Wheloi's Persian 
 Gospels, and an Arabic version of the Gospels printed at 
 Rome. I tried in vain to bring him to any profitable 
 discussion ; with more sense than his brethren, he is not 
 more advanced in spiritual knowledge. Returned much 
 disappointed. Julfa had formerly twenty bishops and 
 about one hundred clergy, with twenty-four churches. 
 
 June 2. Soon after midnight we mounted our horses. 
 It was a mild moonlight night and a nightingale filled the 
 whole valley with his notes. Our way was along lanes, 
 over which the wood on each side formed a canopy, and 
 a murmuring rivulet accompanied us till it was lost in a 
 lake. At daylight we emerged into the plain of Kashan, 
 which seems to be a part of the great Salt Desert. On 
 our arrival at the king's garden, where we intended to 
 put up, we were at first refused admittance, but an appli- 
 cation to the Governor was soon attended to. We saw 
 here huge snowy mountains on the north-east beyond 
 Teheran. 
 
 H H 
 
466 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 June 5. Reached Kum ; l the country uniformly deso- 
 late. The chief Moojtahid in all Persia being a resident 
 of this city, I sent to know if a visit would be agreeable 
 to him. His reply was, that if I had any business with 
 him I might come ; but if otherwise, his age and infirmities 
 must be his excuse. Intending to travel a double stage, 
 started soon after sunset. 
 
 June 8. Arrived, two hours before daybreak, at the 
 walls of Teheran. I spread my bed upon the high road, and 
 slept till the gates were open ; then entered the city, and 
 took up my abode at the ambassador's house. 
 
 I lost no time in forwarding Jaffir Ali Khan's letter to 
 the premier, who sent to desire that I would come to him. 
 I found him lying ill in the verandah of the king's tent of 
 audience. Near him were sitting two persons, who, I was 
 afterwards informed, were Mirza Khantar and Mirza 
 Abdoolwahab ; the latter being a secretary of state and 
 a great admirer of the Soofi sage. They took very little 
 notice, not rising when I sat down, as is their custom to 
 all who sit with them ; nor offering me kalean. The two 
 secretaries, on learning my object in coming, began a 
 conversation with me on religion and metaphysics, which 
 lasted two hours. As they were both well-educated, 
 gentlemanly men, the discussion was temperate, and, I 
 hope, useful. 
 
 June 12. I attended the Vizier's levee, where there 
 was a most intemperate and clamorous controversy kept 
 up for an hour or two ; eight or ten on one side, and I on 
 the other. Amongst them were two moollas, the most 
 ignorant of any I have yet met with in either Persia or 
 India. It would be impossible to enumerate all the absurd 
 things they said. Their vulgarity in interrupting me in 
 the middle of a speech ; their utter ignorance of the nature 
 of an argument ; their impudent assertions about the law 
 
 1 The fanatical shrine of "Fatima. See Mrs. Bishop's first volume and 
 Mr. Curzon's second. 
 
SHIRAZ TO TABREEZ 467 
 
 and the Gospel, neither of which they had ever seen in 
 their lives, moved my indignation a little. I wished, and I 
 said it would have been well, if Mirza Abdoolwahab had 
 been there ; I should then have had a man of sense to 
 argue with. The Vizier, who set us going at first, joined 
 in it latterly, and said, ' You had better say God is God, 
 and Muhammad is the prophet of God.' I said, ' God is 
 God/ but added, instead of * Muhammad is the prophet of 
 God,' ' and Jesus is the Son of God.' They had no sooner 
 heard this, which I had avoided bringing forward till then, 
 than they all exclaimed, in contempt and anger, ' He is 
 neither born nor begets,' and rose up, as if they would 
 have torn me in pieces. One of them said, ' What will 
 you say when your tongue is burnt out for this blas- 
 phemy ? ' 
 
 One of them felt for me a little, and tried to soften the 
 seventy of this speech. My book, which I had brought 
 expecting to present it to the king, lay before Mirza Shufi. 
 As they all rose up after him to go, some to the king and 
 some away, I was afraid they would trample on the book ; 
 so I went in among them to take it up, and wrapped it in 
 a towel before them, while they looked at it and me with 
 supreme contempt. Thus I walked away alone in my tent, 
 to pass the rest of the day in heat and dirt. What have 
 I done, thought I, to merit all this scorn? Nothing, I trust, 
 but bearing testimony to Jesus. I thought over these 
 things in prayer, and my troubled heart found that peace 
 which Christ hath promised to His disciples. 
 
 To complete the trials of the day, a message came from 
 the Vizier in the evening, to say that it was the custom of 
 the king not to see any Englishman, unless presented 
 by the ambassador, or accredited by a letter from him, 
 and that I must, therefore, wait till the king reached 
 Sultania, where the ambassador would be. 
 
 June 13. Disappointed of my object in coming to 
 the camp, I lost no time in leaving it, and proceeded in 
 
 H H 2 
 
468 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 company with Mr. Canning, who had just joined me from 
 Teheran, towards Kasbin, intending there to wait the result 
 of an application to the ambassador. Started at eleven, 
 and travelled till eleven next morning, having gone ten 
 parasangs or forty miles, to Quishlang. The country all 
 along was well watered and cultivated. The mules being 
 too much tired to proceed, we passed the day at the 
 village ; indeed, we all wanted rest. As I sat down in the 
 dust, on the shady side of a walled village by which we 
 passed, and surveyed the plains over which our road lay, 
 I sighed at the thought of my dear friends in India and 
 England, of the vast regions I must traverse before I can 
 get to either, and of the various and unexpected hindrances 
 which present themselves to my going forward. I comfort 
 myself with the hope that my God has something for me 
 to do, by thus delaying my exit. 
 
 June 22. We met with the usual insulting treatment 
 at the caravanserai, where the king's servants had got 
 possession of a good room, built for the reception of the 
 better order of guests ; they seemed to delight in the 
 opportunity of humbling an European. Sultania is still 
 but a village, yet the Zengan prince has quartered himself 
 and all his attendants, with their horses, on this poor little 
 village. All along the road, where the king is expected, 
 the people are patiently waiting, as for some dreadful 
 disaster; plague, pestilence, or famine is nothing to the 
 misery of being subject to the violence and extortion of 
 this rabble soldiery. 
 
 June 25. (Zengan.) After a restless night, rose so ill 
 with the fever that I could not go on. My companion, 
 Mr. Canning, was nearly in the same state. We touched 
 nothing all day. 
 
 June 26. After such another night I had determined 
 to go on, but Mr. Canning declared himself unable to stir, 
 so here we dragged through another miserable day. What 
 added to our distress was that we were in danger, if 
 
SHIRAZ TO TABREEZ 469 
 
 detained here another day or two, of being absolutely in 
 want of the necessaries of life before reaching Tabreez. 
 We made repeated applications to the moneyed people, but 
 none would advance a piastre. Where are the people who 
 flew forth to meet General Malcolm with their purses and 
 their lives ? Another generation is risen up, ' who know 
 not Joseph.' Providentially a poor muleteer, arriving from 
 Tabreez, became security for us, and thus we obtained five 
 tomans. This was a heaven-send ; and we lay down 
 quietly, free from apprehensions of being obliged to go a 
 fatiguing journey of eight or ten hours, without a house or 
 village in the way, in our present weak and reduced state. 
 We had now eaten nothing for two days. My mind was 
 much disordered from head-ache and giddiness, from 
 which I was seldom free ; but my heart, I trust, was with 
 Christ and His saints. To live much longer in this world 
 of sickness and pain seemed no way desirable ; the most 
 favourite prospects of my heart seemed very poor and 
 childish ; and cheerfully would I have exchanged them all 
 for the unfading inheritance. 
 
 June 27. My Armenian servant was attacked in the 
 same way. The rest did not get me the things that I 
 wanted, so that I passed the third day in the same 
 exhausted state ; my head, too, was tortured with shocking 
 pains, such as, together with the horror I felt at being 
 exposed to the sun, showed me plainly to what to ascribe 
 my sickness. Towards evening, two more of our servants 
 were attacked in the same way, and lay groaning from 
 pains in the head. 
 
 June 28. All were much recovered, but in the after- 
 noon I again relapsed. During a high fever Mr. Canning 
 read to me in bed the Epistle to the Ephesians, and I 
 never felt the consolations of that Divine revelation of 
 mysteries more sensibly and solemnly. Rain in the night 
 prevented our setting off. 
 
 June 29. My ague and fever returned, with such a 
 
470 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 head-ache that I was almost frantic. Again and again I 
 said to myself, * Let patience have her perfect work,' and 
 kept pleading the promises, 'When thou passest through 
 the waters I will be with thee,' etc. ; and the Lord did not 
 withhold His presence. I endeavoured to repel all the 
 disordered thoughts that the fever occasioned, and to keep 
 in mind that all was friendly ; a friendly Lord presiding ; 
 and nothing exercising me but what would show itself 
 at last friendly. A violent perspiration at last relieved 
 the acute pain in my head, and my heart rejoiced ; 
 but as soon as that was over, the exhaustion it occa- 
 sioned, added to the fatigue from the pain, left me in 
 as low a state of depression as ever I was in. I seemed 
 about to sink into a long fainting fit, and I almost wished 
 it ; but at this moment, a little after midnight, I was 
 summoned to mount my horse, and set out, rather dead 
 than alive. We moved on six parasangs. We had a 
 thunder-storm with hail. 
 
 July I. A long and tiresome march to Sarehund ; in 
 seven parasangs there was no village. They had nothing 
 to sell but buttermilk and bread ; but a servant of Abbas 
 Mirza, happening to be at the same caravanserai, sent us 
 some flesh of a mountain cow which he had shot the day 
 before. All day I had scarcely the right recollection of 
 myself from the violence of the ague. We have now 
 reached the end of the level ground which we have had all 
 the way from Teheran, and are approaching the boundaries 
 of Parthia and Media ; a most natural boundary it is, as 
 the two ridges of mountains we have had on the left and 
 right come round and form a barrier. 
 
 July 2. At two in the morning we set out. I hardly 
 know when I have been so disordered. I had little or no 
 recollection of things, and what I did remember at times 
 of happy scenes in India or England, served only to 
 embitter my present situation. Soon after removing into 
 the air I was seized with a violent ague, and in this state I 
 
SHIRAZ TO TABREEZ 471 
 
 went on till sunrise. At three parasangs and a half we 
 found a fine caravanserai, apparently very little used, as the 
 grass was growing in the court There was nothing all 
 round but the barren rocks, which generally roughen the 
 country before the mountain rears its height Such an 
 edifice in such a situation was cheering. Soon after we 
 came to a river, over which was a high bridge ; I sat down 
 in the shade under it, with two camel drivers. The kafila, 
 as it happened, forded the river, and passed on without my 
 perceiving it Mr. Canning seeing no signs of me, returned, 
 and after looking about for some time, espied my horse 
 grazing ; he concluded immediately that the horse had 
 flung me from the bridge into the river, and was almost 
 ready to give me up for lost My speedy appearance from 
 under the bridge relieved his terror and anxiety. Half the 
 people still continue ill ; for myself, I am, through God's 
 infinite mercy, recovering. 
 
 July 4. I so far prevailed as to get the kafila into 
 motion at midnight Lost our way in the night, but 
 arriving at a village we were set right again. At eight 
 came to Kilk caravanserai, but not stopping there, went 
 on to a village, where we arrived at half-past nine. The 
 baggage not coming up till long after, we got no breakfast 
 till one o'clock. In consequence of all these things, want 
 of sleep, want of refreshment, and exposure to the sun, I 
 was presently in a high fever, which raged so furiously all 
 the day that I was nearly delirious, and it was some time 
 before I could get the right recollection of myself. I 
 almost despaired, and do now, of getting alive through this 
 unfortunate journey. Last night I felt remarkably well, 
 calm and composed, and sat reflecting on my heavenly 
 rest, with more sweetness of soul, abstraction from the 
 world, and solemn views of God, than I have had for a 
 long time. Oh, for such sacred hours ! This short and 
 painful life would scarcely be felt could I live thus at 
 heaven's gate. It being impossible to continue my 
 
472 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 journey in my present state, and one of the servants also 
 being so ill that he could not move with safety, we deter- 
 mined to halt one day at the village, and sent on a 
 messenger to Sir Gore, at Tabreez, informing him of our 
 approach. 
 
 July 5. As soon as it was day we found our way to 
 the village where the Doctor was waiting for us. Not being 
 able to stay for us, he went on to Tabreez, and we as far 
 as Wasrmich, where he promised to procure for us a fine 
 upper room furnished ; but when we arrived, they denied 
 that there was any such a place. At last, after an hour's 
 threatening, we got admittance to it. An hour before 
 break of day I left it, in hopes of reaching Tabreez before 
 sunrise. Some of the people seemed to feel compassion for 
 me, and asked me if I was not very ill. At last I reached 
 the gate, and feebly asked for a man to show me the way 
 to the ambassador's. 
 
 July 9. Made an extraordinary effort, and as a Tartar 
 was going off instantly to Constantinople, wrote letters to 
 Mr. Grant for permission to come to England, and to Mr. 
 Simeon and Lydia, informing them of it ; but I have 
 scarcely the remotest expectation of seeing it, except 
 by looking at the almighty power of God. 
 
 Dined at night at the ambassador's, who said he was 
 determined to give every possible eclat to my book, by 
 presenting it himself to the king. My fever never ceased 
 to rage till the 2ist, during all which time every effort was 
 made to subdue it, till I had lost all my strength and 
 almost all my reason. They now administer bark, and it 
 may please God to bless the tonics ; but I seem too far 
 gone, and can only say, ' having a desire to depart and be 
 with Christ, which is far better.' 
 
SHIRAZ TO TABREEZ 473 
 
 To LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 Tabreez : July 12, 1812. 
 
 My dearest Lydia, I have only time to say that I 
 have received your letter of February 14. Shall I pain 
 your heart by adding, that I am in such a state of sickness 
 and pain, that I can hardly write to you ? Let me rather 
 observe, to obviate the gloomy apprehension my letters to 
 Mr. Grant and Mr. Simeon may excite, that I am likely 
 soon to be delivered from my fever. Whether I shall gain 
 strength enough to go on, rests on our Heavenly Father, in 
 whose hands are all my times. Oh, His precious grace ! 
 His eternal unchanging love in Christ to my soul never 
 appeared more clear, more sweet, more strong. I ought to 
 inform you that in consequence of the state to which I am 
 reduced by travelling so far overland, without having half 
 accomplished my journey, and the consequent impossibility 
 of returning to India the same way, I have applied for 
 leave to come on furlough to England. Perhaps you will 
 be gratified by this intelligence ; but oh, my dear Lydia, 
 I must faithfully tell you that the probability of my 
 reaching England alive is but small ; and this I say, that 
 your expectations of seeing me again may be moderate, as 
 mine are of seeing you. Why have you not written more 
 about yourself? However, I am thankful for knowing 
 that you are alive and well. I scarcely know how to 
 desire you to direct. Perhaps Alexandria in Egypt will 
 be the best place ; another may be sent to Constantinople, 
 for though I shall not go there, I hope Mr. Morier will be 
 kept informed of my movements. Kindest love to all the 
 saints you usually mention. Yours ever most faithfully 
 and affectionately, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
474 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 To REV. C. SIMEON 
 
 Tabreez : July 12, 1812. 
 
 My dearest Friend and Brother, The Tartar courier 
 for Constantinople, who has been delayed some days on 
 our account, being to be despatched instantly, my little 
 strength also being nearly exhausted by writing to Mr. 
 Grant a letter to be laid before the court : I have only to 
 notice some of the particulars of your letter of February of 
 this year. It is not now before me, neither have I strength 
 to search for it among my papers ; but from the frequent 
 attentive perusals I gave it during my intervals of ease, I 
 do not imagine that any of it has escaped my memory. 
 At present I am in a high fever, and cannot properly 
 recollect myself. I shall ever love and be grateful to Mr. 
 Thornton for his kind attention to my family. 
 
 The increase of godly young men is precious news. 
 If I sink into the grave in India, my place will be supplied 
 an hundredfold. You will learn from Mr. Grant that I 
 have applied for leave to come to England on furlough ; a 
 measure you will disapprove ; but you would not, were 
 you to see the pitiable condition to which I am reduced, 
 and knew what it is to traverse the continent of Asia in 
 the destitute state in which I am. If you wish not to 
 see me, I can say that I think it most probable that you 
 will not ; the way before me being not better than that 
 passed over, which has nearly killed me. 
 
 I would not pain your heart, my dear brother, but we 
 who are in Jesus have the privilege of viewing life and 
 death as nearly the same, since both are one ; and I thank 
 a gracious Lord that sickness never came at a time when 
 I was more free from apparent reasons for living. Nothing 
 seemingly remains for me to do but to follow the rest of 
 my family to the tomb. Let not the book written against 
 Muhammadanism be published till approved in India. A 
 
SHIRAZ TO TABREEZ 475 
 
 European who has not lived amongst them cannot imagine 
 how differently they see, imagine, reason, object, from 
 what we do. This I had full opportunity of observing 
 during my eleven months' residence at Shiraz. During 
 that time I was engaged in a written controversy with one 
 of the most learned and temperate doctors there. He 
 began. I replied what was unanswerable, then I subjoined 
 a second more direct attack on the glaring absurdities of 
 Muhammadanism, with a statement of the nature and 
 evidences of Christianity. The Soofis then as well as 
 himself desired a demonstration, from the very beginning, 
 of the truth of any revelation. As this third treatise 
 contained an examination of the doctrine of the Soofis, and 
 pointed out that their object was attainable by the Gospel, 
 and by that only, it was read with interest and convinced 
 many. There is not a single Europeanism in the whole 
 that I know of, as my friend and interpreter would not 
 write anything that he could not perfectly comprehend. 
 But I am exhausted ; pray for me, beloved brother, and 
 believe that I am, as long as life and recollection lasts, 
 yours affectionately, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 Tabreez : August 8. 
 
 My dearest Brother and Friend, Ever since I wrote, 
 about a month, I believe, I have been lying upon the bed 
 of sickness ; for twenty days or more the fever raged with 
 great violence, and for a long time every species of medicine 
 was tried in vain. After I had given up every hope of 
 recovery, it pleased God to abate the fever, but incessant 
 head-aches succeeded, which allowed me no rest day or 
 night. I was reduced still lower, and am now a mere 
 skeleton ; but as they are now less frequent, I suppose it to 
 be the will of God that I should be raised up to life again. 
 I am now sitting in my chair, and wrote the will with a 
 strong hand ; but as you see I cannot write so now. 
 
476 HENR Y MARTYN 
 
 Kindest love to Mr. John Thornton, for whose temporal 
 and spiritual prosperity I daily pray. Your ever affec- 
 tionate friend and brother, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 Lydia Grenfell's letter, to which Martyn's of July 12, 
 written in such circumstances, is a reply, was really dated 
 February I, 1812, and was the last received from her by 
 him. Her Diary notes that she ' wrote to India, August 30, 
 September 30, 1812' ; and on December 1 2 of that year, 
 thus remarks on his letter of July 1 2 : 
 
 Heard from Tabreez from Mr. Martyn with an account 
 of his dangerous state of health and intention of returning 
 to England if his life was spared. This intelligence affected 
 me variously. The probability of his death, the certainty 
 of his extreme sufferings, and distance from every friend, 
 pressed heavily on my spirits ; I was enabled to pray, and 
 felt relieved. Of his return no very sanguine expectations 
 can be entertained. Darkness and distress of mind have 
 followed this information. I cannot collect my thoughts 
 to write, or apply as I ought to anything. Oh, let me 
 consider this as a call to prayer and watchfulness and self- 
 examination. Lord, assist me ! 
 
 December 1 6. A season of great temptation, darkness, 
 and distress. At no period of my life have I stood more 
 in need of Divine help, and oh ! may I earnestly seek it. 
 Lord, I would pray, give me a right understanding, and 
 enable me seriously to consider and weigh in the balance of 
 the sanctuary all I do yea, let my thoughts be watched. 
 Sleep has fled from mine eyes, and a fearful looking for of 
 trial and affliction, however this affair ends, possesses my 
 mind. Oh ! let me cast my burden on the Lord it is too 
 heavy for me. Lord, let me begin afresh to call upon Thy 
 name, and, taking hold of Thee, I shall be borne up above 
 
SHIRAZ TO TABREEZ 477 
 
 my trials, carried through the difficulties I see before me, 
 and he delivered. 
 
 December 17. I desire, O Thou blessed God, to seek 
 Thy face, to call on Thy name. Thou hast been my 
 refuge ; I have been happy in the sense of Thy love. With 
 all my sins, my weaknesses and miseries, I come to Thee, 
 and most seriously would I seek Thy guidance in the per- 
 plexing and difficult circumstances I am in. O Lord, suffer 
 me not to run counter to Thy will nor to dishonour Thee. 
 
 December 25. Bless the Lord, O my soul ; bless His 
 holy name for ever and ever. I sought the Lord in my 
 distress, and He gave ear unto me. Gracious and merciful 
 art Thou, O Lord, for Thou didst bend Thine ear to the 
 most worthless of all creatures. This is for the glory of 
 Thy name alone, to show how great Thy mercy is, how 
 sure Thy truth. After a night of clouds and darkness, 
 behold the clear sky. 
 
 December 26. This joyful, holy season calls upon me 
 for fresh praises, and a renewed dedication of myself to 
 God. I rejoice in believing Christ was born ; I rejoice in 
 the end proposed of His appearance in the flesh, the 
 recovery of mankind to holiness and to God. I welcome 
 this salvation as that I most desire. My happiness, I know, 
 consists in holiness and in the favour of God. Thought 
 much to-day of my dear friend. I cannot think of him as 
 having gained the heavenly crown, but as struggling with 
 dangers and difficulties. Secure in them all of Thy favour, 
 and defended by Thy power, he is safe, and pass but a few 
 years or days, and he will enter into the rest of God. Let 
 me, too, follow after him as he follows Christ. 
 
 1813, January 4. After anight and day spent in great 
 conflict and agony of mind, I, this evening, enjoy a respite 
 from distressing apprehensions. I was reduced to the 
 lowest, as to animal spirits and spiritual life, when it 
 occurred to me I would go to the meeting, where I found 
 a sweet oh, may it be a lasting ! relief from my cares. 
 
478 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Having better things proposed for my consideration, my 
 burden has chiefly been from a sense of inward weakness 
 and a conviction of having lost the presence of God. The 
 state of my beloved friend less occupies my mind than I 
 sometimes think is reconcilable with a true affection for 
 him ; but the truth is, the concerns of my soul are the more 
 pressing. Oh ! may this trial truly answer this purpose of 
 driving me to God, my refuge and rest. 
 
 January 6. Still harassed and without strength to 
 resist. I seem divested of the Spirit, yet, oh, let me not 
 give way to this ! I will try, as a helpless sinner, to seek 
 Divine aid. Thou canst command peace within and increase 
 my faith. I am amazed at the state of my mind instead 
 of having my thoughts exercised about my dear friend, I 
 am filled with distressing fears for my soul, and left so to 
 myself that all I can do is to pray for the Lord to return 
 and lift upon me the light of His countenance. O Thou 
 blessed Redeemer ! hear my sighs and put my tears into 
 Thy bottle. My wanderings are noted down in Thy book. 
 Oh, have pity on my wretched state and revive Thy work, 
 increase my faith. Thou art the resurrection and the life 
 let me rest on this Scripture. 
 
 February I. My beloved friend remembered every hour, 
 but to-day with less distressing fears and perplexity of mind. 
 I do from my inmost soul, O Lord, desire Thy will to be 
 done, and that Thou mayest be glorified in this concern. 
 Oh, direct us ! 
 
 February* 7. I have been convinced to-day how by 
 admitting into my heart, and suffering my first, my last, 
 and every thought to be engrossed by an earthly object, I 
 have grieved the Holy Spirit, and hindered God from 
 dwelling in me. Oh ! let me have done with idols and 
 worship God. 
 
 More than six weeks after his letter of July 12, the 
 fever-stricken missionary recovered strength to write to 
 Lydia once again : 
 
SHIRAZ TO TABREEZ 479 
 
 To LYDIA GRENFELL 
 
 Tabreez : August 28, 1812. 
 
 I wrote to you last, my dear Lydia, in great disorder. 
 My fever had approached nearly to delirium, and my 
 debility was so great that it seemed impossible I could 
 withstand the power of disease many days. Yet it has 
 pleased God to restore me to life and health again ; not 
 that I have recovered my former strength yet, but consider 
 myself sufficiently restored to prosecute my journey. My 
 daily prayer is, that my late chastisement may have its 
 intended effect, and make me all the rest of my days more 
 humble, and less self-confident. Self-confidence has often 
 let me down fearful lengths, and would, without God's 
 gracious interference, prove my endless perdition. I seem 
 to be made to feel this evil of my heart more than any 
 other at this time. In prayer, or when I write or converse 
 on the subject, Christ appears to me my life and strength, 
 but at other times I am as thoughtless and bold as if I had 
 all life and strength in myself. Such neglect on our part 
 works a diminution of our joys ; but the covenant, the 
 covenant ! stands fast with Him, for His people evermore. 
 
 I mentioned my conversing sometimes on Divine sub- 
 jects, for though it is long enough since I have seen a child 
 of God, I am sometimes led on by the Persians to tell them 
 all I know of the very recesses of the sanctuary, and these 
 are the things that interest them. But to give an account 
 of all my discussions with these mystic philosophers must 
 be reserved to the time of our meeting. Do I dream, that 
 I venture to think and write of such an event as that ? Is 
 it possible that we shall ever meet again below ? Though 
 it is possible, I dare not indulge such a pleasing hope yet. 
 I am still at a tremendous distance ; and the countries I 
 have to pass through are many of them dangerous to the 
 traveller, from the hordes of banditti, whom a feeble govern- 
 
4 8a HENRY MARTYN 
 
 ment cannot chastise. In consequence of the bad state of 
 the road between this and Aleppo, Sir Gore advises me to 
 go first to Constantinople, and from thence to pass into 
 Syria. In favour of this route, he urges that, by writing 
 to two or three Turkish Governors on the frontiers, he can 
 secure me a safe passage, at least half-way, and the latter 
 half is probably not much infested. In three days, there- 
 fore, I intend setting my horse's head towards Constanti- 
 nople, distant above thirteen hundred miles. Nothing, I 
 think, will occasion any further detention here, if I can 
 procure servants who know both Persian and Turkish ; 
 but should I be taken ill on the road, my case would be 
 pitiable indeed. The ambassador and his suite are still 
 here : his and Lady Ouseley's attentions to me, during my 
 illness, have been unremitted. The Prince Abbas Mirza, 
 the wisest of the king's sons, and heir to the throne, was 
 here some time after my arrival ; I much wished to present 
 a copy of the Persian New Testament to him, but I could 
 not rise from my bed. The book will, however, be given 
 to him by the ambassador. Public curiosity about the 
 Gospel, now for the first time, in the memory of the modern 
 Persians, introduced into the country, is a good deal excited 
 here, at Shiraz, and other places ; so that, upon the whole, 
 I am thankful for having been led hither and. detained, 
 though my residence in this country has been attended 
 with many unpleasant circumstances. The way of the 
 kings of the East is preparing. This much may be said 
 with safety, but little more. The Persians also will 
 probably take the lead in the march to Zion, as they are 
 ripe for a revolution in religion as well as politics. 
 
 Sabat, about whom you inquire so regularly, I have 
 heard nothing of this long time. My friends in India have 
 long since given me up as lost or gone out of reach, and if 
 they wrote they would probably not mention him, as he is 
 
 far from being a favourite with any of them. , who is 
 
 himself of an impatient temper, cannot tolerate him ; 
 
SHIRAZ TO TABREEZ 481 
 
 indeed, I am pronounced to be the only man in Bengal 
 who could have lived with him so long. He is, to be sure, 
 the most tormenting creature I ever yet chanced to deal 
 with peevish, proud, suspicious, greedy ; he used to give 
 daily more and more distressing proofs of his never having 
 received the saving grace of God. But of this you will say 
 nothing ; while his interesting story is yet fresh in the 
 memory of people, his failings had better not be mentioned. 
 The poor Arab wrote me a querulous epistle from Calcutta, 
 complaining that no one took notice of him now that I 
 was gone ; and then he proceeds to abuse his best friends. 
 I have not yet written to reprove him for his unchristian 
 sentiments, and when I do I know it will be to no purpose 
 after all the private lectures I have given him. My course 
 from Constantinople is so uncertain that I hardly know 
 where to desire you to direct to me ; I believe Malta is the 
 only place, for there I must stop in my way home. Soon 
 we shall have occasion for pen and ink no more ; but I 
 trust I shall shortly see thee face to face. Love to all the 
 saints. 
 
 Believe me to be yours ever, most faithfully and 
 affectionately, 
 
 H. MARTYN. 
 
 These were Henry Martyn's last words to Lydia Gren- 
 fell. Hasting home to be with her, in a few weeks his 
 yearning spirit was with the Lord 
 
 Love divine, all love excelling. 
 
 Tabreez was at this time the centre of diplomatic 
 activity. While the Shah and his camp were not far off, 
 the Turkish Ambassador was in the city, and Sir Gore 
 Ouseley was busily mediating between the Turkish and 
 Persian Governments after their hostilities on the Baghdad 
 frontier. Turkey, moreover, had just before concluded a 
 
 II 
 
482 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 treaty with Russia, with consequences most offensive to 
 the Shah. Only the personal influence and active inter- 
 ference of the British Ambassador prevented the renewal 
 of hostilities. Mr. Morier, the Secretary of Embassy, gives 
 us this contemporary picture of Martyn's arrival : 1 ' We 
 had not long been at Tabreez before our party was joined 
 by the Rev. William Canning and the Rev. Henry Martyn. 
 The former was attached to our Embassy as chaplain ; the 
 latter, whom we had left at Shiraz employed in the trans- 
 lation of the New Testament into the Persian language, 
 having completed that object, was on his way to Constan- 
 tinople. Both these gentlemen had suffered greatly in 
 health during their journey from Shiraz. Mr. Martyn had 
 scarcely time to recover his strength before he departed 
 again.' 
 
 Had Henry Martyn been induced by his hospitable 
 friends to rest here for a time, had the physician con- 
 strained him to wait for a better season and more strength, 
 he might have himself presented his sacred work to the 
 Shah might have repeated in the north what he had been 
 permitted to do in one brief year in the south of Persia, 
 and might have again seen the beloved Lydia and his 
 Cambridge friends. For Tabreez, 'the fever-dispel ler,' is 
 said to have been so named by Zobeidah, the wife of the 
 Kaliph Haroon'r Rashheed, who, at the close of the eighth 
 century, beautified the ancient Tauris, capital of Tiri- 
 dates III., King of Armenia in 297, because of its healthy 
 climate. In spite of repeated earthquakes the city has 
 been always rebuilt, low and mean, covering an area like 
 that of Vienna, but the principal emporium from which 
 
 1 A Second Journey through Persia, &>c., between the years 1810 and 1816, 
 p. 223. 
 
SHIRAZ TO TABREEZ 483 
 
 Persia used to receive its European goods till the coasting 
 steamers of India opened up the Persian Gulf and, of late, 
 the Euphrates, Tigris, and Karoon rivers. Only the ark, or 
 citadel of Ali Shah, a noble building of burnt brick, and 
 the fine ruin of the Kabood Masjeed, or mosque of beauti- 
 fully arabesqued blue tiles, redeemed the city in Martyn's 
 time from meanness. The Ambassador, his host, was then 
 lodged in the house of its wealthiest citizen, Hajji Khan 
 Muhammed, whom the Prince had turned out to make 
 room for Sir Gore Ouseley. Now the British Consulate of 
 Tabreez is a spacious residence, with a fine garden, and 
 the city has become flourishing again. Henry Martyn left 
 Tabreez on his fatal journey at the very time when the 
 climate began to be at its best. All around, too, and 
 especially in the hills of Sahand to the south, with the air 
 of Scotland and of Wales, or on the natural pastures of 
 Chaman, where the finest brood mares are kept, sloping 
 down to the waters of Lake Ooroomia, he would have 
 found in the hot season the loveliest land in Asia. 1 
 
 Before we hasten on with the modern apostle of the 
 Persians to the bitter but bright end, we must trace the 
 history of the influence of his translation of the New 
 Testament. The 2Oth August, 1812, he joyfully entered 
 in his Journal as a day much to be remembered for the 
 remarkable recovery of strength. He learned from Mirza 
 Aga Meer that his 'work,' that is, his reply to Mirza 
 Ibrahim, had been read to the Shah by Mirza Abdool- 
 wahab, and that the king had observed to Mirza Boozong, 
 
 1 ' Were I,' writes Mr. Baillie Fraser, ' to select a spot the best calculated 
 for the recovery of health, and for its preservation, I know not that I could 
 hit upon any more suited to the purpose than Tabreez, at any season. A 
 brighter sky and purer air can scarcely be found. To me it seems as if there 
 was truly health in the breeze that blows around me.' 
 
 I I 2 
 
484 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 his son's vizier, that the Feringhis' (Franks') Government 
 and army, and now one of their moollas, was come into the 
 East The Shah then directed Mirza Boozong to prepare 
 an answer. In consequence of this information Sir Gore 
 Ouseley, who doubtless desired to spare the little strength 
 of his guest, directed that a certain moolla, who greatly 
 wished to be introduced to the man of God, should not 
 be brought to him. Nevertheless, ' one day a moolla came 
 and disputed a while for Muhammedan, but finished with 
 professing Soofi sentiments.' 
 
 The great Shah, Fateh AH Khan himself, and his son, 
 were thus prepared for the Divine gift of Henry Martyn in 
 due form through the British Ambassador. How it reached 
 His Persian Majesty from Sir Gore Ouseley, and how the 
 Shah-in-Shah received it, these letters tell, so honourable to 
 the writers, even after all allowance is made for the diplo- 
 matic courtliness of the correspondence. 1 The Soofi con- 
 troversialists and friends of the translator, who by that time 
 had entered on his rest, must have, moreover, predisposed 
 the eclectic mind of the always liberal Shah to treat with 
 reverence the Injil, or Gospel. 
 
 From His Excellency Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart., Ambassador 
 Extraordinary from His Britannic Majesty to the Court of 
 Persia. Addressed to the Right Hon. Lord Teignmouth, 
 President of the British and Foreign Bible Society. 
 
 St. Petersburg : September 20, 1814. 
 
 My dear Lord, Finding that I am likely to be detained 
 here some six or seven weeks, and apprehensive that my 
 letters from Persia may not have reached your Lordship, I 
 conceive it my duty to acquaint you, for the information of 
 
 1 See the Eleventh Report of the British and Foreign. Bible Society, 1815, 
 Appendix, No. 51- 
 
SH1RAZ TO TABREEZ 485 
 
 the society of Christians formed for the purpose of propa- 
 gating the Sacred Writings, that, agreeably to the wishes 
 of our poor friend, the late Rev. Henry Martyn, I presented 
 in the name of the Society (as he particularly desired) a 
 copy of his translation of the ''New Testament into the 
 Persian language to His Persian Majesty, Fateh AH Shah 
 Kajar, having first made conditions that His Majesty was 
 to peruse the whole, and favour me with his opinion of the 
 style, etc. 
 
 Previous to delivering the book to the Shah, I employed 
 transcribers to make some copies of it, which I distributed 
 to Hajji Mahomed Hussein Khan, Prince of Maru, Mirza 
 Abdulwahab, and other men of learning and rank im- 
 mediately about the person of the king, who, being chiefly 
 converts to the Soofi philosophy, would, I felt certain, give 
 it a fair judgment, and, if called upon by the Shah for 
 their opinion, report of it according to its intrinsic merits. 
 
 The enclosed translation of a letter from His Persian 
 Majesty to me will show your Lordship that he thinks the 
 complete work a great acquisition, and that he approves of 
 the simple style adopted by my lamented friend Martyn 
 and his able coadjutor, Mirza Sayyed Ali, so appropriate to 
 the just and ready conception of the sublime morality of 
 the Sacred Writings. Should the Society express a wish 
 to possess the original letter from the Shah, or a copy of it 
 in Persian, I shall be most happy to present either through 
 your Lordship. 
 
 I beg leave to add that, if a correct copy of Mr. 
 Martyn's translation has not yet been presented to the 
 Society, I shall have great pleasure in offering one that has 
 been copied from and collated with the original left with 
 me by Mr. Martyn, on which he had bestowed the greatest 
 pains to render it perfect. 
 
 I also promise to devote my leisure to the correction of 
 the press, in the event of your thinking proper to have 
 it printed in England, should my Sovereign not have 
 
486 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 immediate occasion for my services out of England. I 
 am, etc. 
 
 GORE OUSELEY. 
 
 Translation of His Persian Majesty's Letter, 
 referred to in the preceding. 
 
 In the Name of the Almighty God, whose glory is most 
 
 excellent. 
 
 It is our august command that the dignified and excellent 
 our trusty, faithful, and loyal well-wisher, Sir Gore Ouseley, 
 Baronet, His Britannic Majesty's Ambassador Extra- 
 ordinary (after being honoured and exalted with the ex- 
 pressions of our highest regard and consideration), should 
 know that the copy of the Gospel, which was trans- 
 lated into Persian by the learned exertions of the late 
 Rev. Henry Martyn, and which has been presented to 
 us by your Excellency on the part of the high, dignified, 
 learned, and enlightened Society of Christians, united for 
 the purpose of spreading abroad the Holy Books of the 
 religion of Jesus (upon whom, and upon all prophets, be 
 peace and blessings !), has reached us, and has proved highly 
 acceptable to our august mind. 
 
 In truth, through the learned and unremitted exertions 
 of the Rev. Henry Martyn, it has been translated in a 
 style most befitting sacred books, that is, in an easy and 
 simple diction. Formerly, the four Evangelists, Matthew, 
 Mark, Luke, and John, were known in Persia ; but now 
 the whole of the New Testament is completed in a most 
 excellent manner: and this circumstance has been an 
 additional source of pleasure to our enlightened and 
 august mind. Even the four Evangelists which were 
 known in this country had never been before explained in 
 so clear and luminous a manner. We, therefore, have been 
 particularly delighted with this copious and complete 
 translation. If it please the most merciful God, we shall 
 
SHIRAZ TO TABREEZ 487 
 
 command the Select Servants, who are admitted to our 
 presence, to read 1 to us the above-mentioned book from the 
 beginning to the end, that we may, in the most minute 
 manner, hear and comprehend its contents. 
 
 Your Excellency will be pleased to rejoice the hearts 
 of the above-mentioned dignified, learned, and enlightened 
 Society with assurances of our highest regard and appro- 
 bation ; and to inform those excellent individuals who are 
 so virtuously engaged in disseminating and making known 
 the true meaning and intent of the Holy Gospel, and other 
 points in sacred books, that they are deservedly honoured 
 with our royal favour. Your Excellency must consider 
 yourself as bound to fulfil this royal request. 
 
 Given in Rebialavil, 1229. 
 
 (Sealed) FATEH ALI SHAH KAJAR. 
 
 Even here we see Martyn and Carey once more linked 
 together. The same volume from which we have taken 
 these letters contains, a few pages before them, these 
 words written by Dr. Carey from Serampore : * Religion is 
 the only thing in the world worth living for. And no work 
 is so important as serving God in the Gospel of His Son ; 
 if, like the Apostle, we do this with one spirit, great will be 
 our enjoyment and abundant our reward.' 
 
 Sir Gore Ouseley carried the original MS. to St. Peters- 
 burg, where, happening to mention the fact to the President 
 of the Russian Bible Society, Prince Galitzin at once 
 begged that his Society, always an honourable exception 
 to the intolerance of the Tsar's Greek Church, might be 
 
 1 I beg leave to remark that the word * Tilawat,' which the translator 
 has rendered * read,' is an honourable signification of that act, almost ex- 
 clusively applied to the perusing or reciting the Koran. The making use, 
 therefore, of this term or expression shows the degree of respect and 
 estimation in which the Shah holds the New Testament. Note by Sir Gore 
 Ouseley. 
 
488 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 allowed to publish it. A set of Persian types was specially 
 procured. Sir Gore Ouseley, assisted by the Persian Jaffir 
 Khan, corrected the proofs, and the Rev. R. Pinkerton, one 
 of the Scottish Mission to Karass, carefully superintended 
 the printing. Several Persians, resident in that city, bespoke 
 copies for their friends. The British and Foreign Bible 
 Society granted 3<DO/. towards the expenses of an edition 
 of 5,000 copies. The first edition appeared there in 
 September, 1815, on which Prince Galitzin wrote to Mr. 
 Pinkerton, as representing the Bible Society in London : 
 
 Praise be given to the incomprehensible counsels of 
 God, who, for the salvation of man, gave His Word, and 
 causeth it to increase among all nations : who useth as 
 His instruments the inhabitants of countries of different 
 languages and tribes, not unfrequently the most distant 
 from each other and altogether unacquainted with those 
 for whom they labour ! This is a true sign of the holy 
 will of God respecting this work, who worketh all and in 
 all. This is the case with the finished edition of the 
 Persian New Testament, which was translated into that 
 language in a far distant part of Asia, and prepared to be 
 printed in another, but brought into Russia (where nothing 
 of the kind was ever thought of) and printed off much 
 sooner than was at first intended. Here men were found 
 endowed with good-will and the requisite qualifications for 
 the completion of this work, which at first seemed to be so 
 difficult. 
 
 Meanwhile, Martyn himself having directed that a copy 
 of the manuscript translation should be sent to Calcutta 
 from Shiraz, when he left that city, four copies were made, 
 lest any accident should befall it on the way to Bengal. 
 It reached the Calcutta Corresponding Committee in 1814, 
 and they invited Mirza Sayyid Ali to join them and pass 
 
SH1RAZ TO TABRZEZ 489 
 
 it through the press. This second edition accordingly 
 appeared at Calcutta in 1 8 1 6. Professor Lee, of Cambridge, 
 published a third edition of it in London in 1827, and a 
 fourth in 1837. The most beautiful and valuable of all is 
 the fifth, now before the writer, which Thomas Constable 
 printed in Edinburgh in 1846 (corresponding to 1262 of 
 the Hijrah) in three royal octavo volumes. This was also 
 the most important because it accompanied a Persian 
 translation of the Old Testament. Mirza Sayyid AH had 
 early informed the Calcutta Committee that he had his 
 master's original translation of the Psalter, and this also 
 appeared at Calcutta in 1816. This formed the nucleus 
 of the Persian Old Testament prepared by Dr. W. Glen, 
 of the Scottish Missionary Society's Mission, at Karass, 
 Astrakhan, and printed along with Henry Martyn's New 
 Testament in the memorable and beautiful Edinburgh 
 edition. That edition of the whole Bible was presented 
 by Dr. Glen to the present Shah of Persia, Nassr-ed-Deen, 
 on his accession to the throne in 1848. With Martyn's 
 New Testament His Majesty seemed to be well acquainted. 
 Of the volume containing the Old Testament we read that 
 * on handing the book to the servant in waiting he just 
 kissed and then put it to his forehead, with the same in- 
 dication of reverence which he would have shown had 
 it been their own sacred book, the Koran.' Archdeacon 
 Robinson, of Poona, published another Persian translation 
 of the Old Testament. The Church Missionary Society's 
 distinguished missionary at Julfa, Dr. Robert Bruce, has 
 been for years engaged on a revision, or rather new 
 translation of the Old Testament into Persian, the two 
 versions of which are far inferior, in the opinion of one 
 who is at the head of all living experts, to Henry Martyn's 
 
490 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 translation of the New. Dr. Bruce's work has now been 
 completed. 
 
 I know no parallel to these achievements of Henry 
 Martyn's, writes Canon W. J. Edmonds, closing a survey 
 of his powers and services as a translator of the Scriptures. 
 There are in him the things that mark the born translator. 
 He masters grammar, observes idioms, accumulates vocabu- 
 lary, reads and listens, corrects and even reconstructs. 
 Above all, he prays. He lives 'in the Spirit/ and rises 
 from his knees full of the mind of the Spirit. Pedantry is 
 not in him, nor vulgarity. He longs and struggles to catch 
 the dialect in which men may speak worthily of the things 
 of God. And so his work lives. In his own Hindustani 
 New Testament, and in the recovered parts of the Old 
 Testament in which he watched over the labours of Fitrut, 
 his work is still a living influence ; men find ' reasons for 
 reverting ' to it. His earlier Persian, and what is demon- 
 strably distinct from it, his Persic translation, or rather 
 Sabat's, done under his superintendence, these indeed have 
 gone. They did not survive his visit to Persia. Nor did 
 the Arabic, which was the chief acknowledged motive of 
 his journey. But what a gifted man is here, and what a 
 splendid sum total of work, that can afford these deductions 
 from the results of a five or six years' struggle with illness, 
 and still leave behind translations of the New Testament 
 in Hindustani and in Persian ; the Hindustani version 
 living a double life, its own and that which William Bowley 
 gave it in the humbler vocabulary of the Hindi villages ! 
 We live in hurrying times ; our days are swifter than a 
 shuttle. New names, new saints, new heroes ever rise and 
 dazzle the eyes of common men. So it should be, for God 
 lives, and through Him men live and manifest His unex- 
 hausted power. But Martyn is a perennial. He springs 
 up fresh to every generation. It is time, though, to take 
 care that he does not become simply the shadow of an 
 
SHIRAZ TO TABREEZ 491 
 
 angel passing by. His pinnacle is that lofty one which is 
 only assigned to eminent goodness, but it rests upon, and 
 is only the finial of, a broad-based tower of sound and 
 solid intellectual endowment. 
 
 Henry Martyn's Persian Testament called forth, in 
 1816, two Bulls from Pope Pius VIII., addressed to the 
 Archbishops of Gnesne and Moghilev, within the Russian 
 dominions, and letters from the Propaganda College at Rome 
 to the Vicars Apostolic and Missionaries in Persia, Armenia, 
 and other parts of the East. Wherever the Persian lan- 
 guage was known the people were warned ' against a version 
 recently made into the Persian idiom. J The Archbishops 
 were told ' that Bibles printed by heretics are numbered 
 among the prohibited books by the rules of the Index 
 (Nos. II. and III.), for it is evident, from experience, that 
 from the Holy Scriptures which are published in the vulgar 
 tongue, more injury than good has arisen through the 
 temerity of men.' Bible Societies in Russia and Great 
 Britain are denounced as a * most crafty device, by which 
 the very foundations of religion are undermined/ So the 
 Latin Church has ever put from it ' The Great Missionary 
 which the Reformation was the first to restore to Chris- 
 tendom and the world, and Henry Martyn gave to the 
 Mohammedans in their own tongue. 
 
492 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 CHAPTER XIII 
 
 IN PERSIA AND TURKEY TABREEZ TO TOKAT AND 
 THE TOMB 
 
 ON the evening of September 2, 1812, Henry Martyn left 
 Tabreez for Constantinople, on what he describes as ' my 
 long journey of thirteen hundred miles.' The route marked 
 out for him by Sir Gore Ouseley, who gave him letters to 
 the Turkish governors of Erivan, Kars, and Erzroom, and 
 to the British Minister at Constantinople, as well as to the 
 Armenian Patriarch and Bishop Nestus at Etchmiatzin, was 
 the old Roman road into Central Asia. Professor W. M. 
 Ramsay describes it as clearly marked by Nature, 1 and still 
 one of the most important trade routes. It was the safest 
 and speediest, as well as the least forbidding. ' Sir Gore, 
 wishing me not to travel in the same unprotected way I 
 had done, procured from the Prince a mehmandar for 
 me, together with an order for the use of chappar horses 
 all the way to Erivan/ Thence he was passed on to 
 Kars similarly attended, and thence to Erzroom. He took 
 with him ' near three hundred tomans in money,' or about 
 1 3<D/. On the eve of his departure he wrote : ' The 
 delightful thought of being brought to the borders of 
 Europe, without sustaining any injury, contributed more 
 
 1 The Historical Geography of Asia Minor, vol. iv. of the Royal 
 Geographical Society's Supplementary Papers t John Murray, 1890. 
 
IN PERSIA AND TURKEY 493 
 
 than anything else, I believe, to restore my health and 
 spirits.' 
 
 But travelling in Persia and Asiatic Turkey, even at 
 the best and for the strongest, is necessarily a work of 
 hardship. The chappar, or post-stations, occur at a distance 
 of from twenty to twenty-five miles, measured by the 
 farsakh, the old parasang in Greek phrase, of four miles 
 each. What Mrs. Bishop has recently described has always 
 been true : ' The custom is to ride through all the hours 
 of daylight, whenever horses are to be got, doing from 
 sixty to ninety miles a day.' Henry Martyn rode his own 
 horses, and his party of two Armenian servants (a groom 
 and Turkish interpreter), with the mehmandar, had the 
 post-horses. Out of the cities he had to trust, for rest and 
 accommodation, to the post-stations, which at the best were 
 enclosures of mud walls on three sides, deep in manure, with 
 stabling on two sides, and two dark rooms at the entrance 
 for the servants. Occasionally an erection (balakhana) 
 above the gateway is available for the master, but how 
 seldom Martyn was lodged in any way better than the 
 animals, will be seen from his Journal. He had travelled 
 in this way, in the heats of two summers, from Bushire to 
 Shiraz, and from Shiraz to Tabreez, the whole extent of the 
 Persian plateau from south to north. He had nearly died 
 at Tabreez. 
 
 Yet now, with his Persian New Testament ready for the 
 press and his longing for Lydia, he again set forth, sustained 
 by ' the delightful thought.' With intensest interest we 
 follow him in every step of his march north-west through 
 the Persian province of Azerbaijan, Armenia, and Eastern 
 Asia Minor, the unconquerable spirit sustaining the feeble 
 body for forty-five days, as Chrysostom's was fed in his 
 
494 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 southern journey to the same place of departure almost 
 within sight of the Euxine Sea. 
 
 1812, September 2. At sunset we left the western gate 
 of Tabreez behind us. The horses proved to be sorry 
 animals. It was midriight before we arrived at Sangla, 
 a village in the middle of the plain of Tabreez. There 
 they procured me a place in the Zabit's house. I slept 
 till after sunrise of the 3rd, and did not choose to pro- 
 ceed at such an hour ; so I passed most of the day in 
 my room. At three in the afternoon proceeded towards 
 Sofian. My health being again restored, through in- 
 finite and unbounded mercy, I was able to look round 
 the creation with calm delight. The plain of Tabreez, 
 towards the west and south-west, stretches away to an 
 immense distance, and is bounded in these directions by 
 mountains so remote as to appear, from their soft blue, to 
 blend with the skies. The baggage having been sent on 
 before, I ambled on with my inehmandar^ looking all 
 around me, and especially towards the distant hills, with 
 gratitude and joy. Oh ! it is necessary to have been con- 
 fined to a bed of sickness to know the delight of moving 
 freely through the works of God, with the senses left at 
 liberty to enjoy their proper object. My attendant not 
 being very conversant with Persian, we rode silently along ; 
 for my part, I could not have enjoyed any companion so 
 much as I did my own feelings. At sunset we reached 
 Sofian, a village with gardens, at the north-west end of the 
 plain, which is usually the first stage from Tabreez. The 
 Zabit was in his corn-field, under a little tent, inspecting 
 his labourers, who were cutting the straw fine, so as to be 
 fit to be eaten by cattle ; this was done by drawing over 
 it a cylinder, armed with blades of a triangular form, 
 placed in different planes, so that their vertices should 
 coincide in the cylinder. 
 
 The Zabit paid me no attention, but sent a man to 
 
IN PERSIA AND TURKEY 495 
 
 show me a place to sleep in, who took me to one with 
 only three walls. I demanded another with four, and was 
 accordingly conducted to a weaver's, where, notwithstand- 
 ing the mosquitoes and other vermin, I passed the night 
 comfortably enough. On my offering money, the meh- 
 mandar interfered, and said that if it were known that I 
 had given money he should be ruined, and added : ' They, 
 indeed, dare not take it ; ' but this I did not find to be the 
 case. 
 
 September 4. At sunrise mounted my horse, and pro- 
 ceeded north-west, through a pass in the mountains, 
 towards Murun. By the way I sat down by the brook, 
 and there ate my bread and raisins, and drank of the 
 crystal stream ; but either the coldness of this unusual 
 breakfast, or the riding after it, did not at all agree with 
 me. The heat oppressed me much, and the road seemed 
 intolerably tedious. At last we got out from among the 
 mountains, and saw the village of Murun, in a fine valley 
 on the right. It was about eleven o'clock when we reached 
 it. As the mehmandar could not immediately find a place 
 to put me in, we had a complete view of this village. They 
 stared at my European dress, but no disrespect was shown. 
 I was deposited at last with a Khan, who was seated 
 in a place with three walls. Not at all disposed to pass 
 the day in company, as well as exposed, I asked for 
 another room, on which I was shown to the stable, where 
 there was a little place partitioned off, but so as to admit 
 a view of the horses. The smell of the stable, though not 
 in general disagreeable to me, was so strong that I was 
 quite unwell, and strangely dispirited and melancholy. 
 Immediately after dinner I fell fast asleep and slept four 
 hours, after which I rose and ordered them to prepare for 
 the next journey. The horses being changed here, it was 
 some time before they were brought, but, by exerting 
 myself, we moved off by midnight. It was a most mild 
 and delightful night, and the pure air, after the smell of 
 
496 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 the stable, was quite reviving. For once, also, I travelled 
 all the way without being sleepy ; and beguiled the hours 
 of the way by thinking of the I4th Psalm, especially the 
 connection of the last three verses with the preceding. 
 
 September 5. In five hours we were just on the hills 
 which face the pass out of the valley of Murun (Marand), 
 and in four hours and a half more emerged from between 
 the two ridges of mountains into the valley of Gurjur. 
 Gurjur is eight parasangs "from Murun, and our course to 
 it was nearly due north. This long march was far from 
 being a fatiguing one. The air, the road, and my spirits 
 were good. Here I was well accommodated, but had to 
 mourn over my impatient temper towards my servants ; there 
 is nothing that disturbs my peace so much. How much 
 more noble and godlike to bear with calmness, and observe 
 with pity, rather than with anger, the failings and offences 
 of others ! Oh, that I may, through grace, be enabled to 
 recollect myself in the time of temptation ! Oh, that the 
 Spirit of God may check my folly, and at such times bring 
 the lowly Saviour to my view ! 
 
 September 6. Soon after twelve we started with fresh 
 horses, and came to the Aras, or Araxes, distant two 
 parasangs, and about as broad as the I sis, and a current 
 as strong as that of the Ganges. The ferry-boat being on 
 the north side, I lay down to sleep till it came ; but ob- 
 serving my servants do the same, I was obliged to get up 
 and exert myself. It dawned, however, before we got over. 
 The boat was a huge fabric in the form of a rhombus. The 
 ferryman had only a stick to push with ; an oar, I dare 
 say, he had never seen or heard of, and many of my train 
 had probably never floated before ; so alien is a Persian 
 from everything that belongs to shipping. We landed 
 safely on the other side in about two minutes. We were 
 four hours in reaching Nakshan, and for half an hour more 
 I was led from street to street, till at last I was lodged in 
 a wash-house belonging to a great man, a corner of which 
 
IN PERSIA AND TURKEY 497 
 
 was cleaned out for me. It was near noon and my baggage 
 was not arrived, so that I was obliged to go without my 
 breakfast, which was hard after a ride of four hours in the 
 sun. The baggage was delayed so long that I began to 
 fear ; at last, however, it arrived. All the afternoon I 
 slept, and at sunset arose, and continued wakeful till mid- 
 night, when I aroused my people, and with fresh horses 
 set out again. We travelled till sunrise. I scarcely 
 perceived that we had been moving, a Hebrew word in the 
 1 6th Psalm having led me gradually into speculations on 
 the eighth conjugation of the Arabic verb. I am glad my 
 philological curiosity is revived, as my mind will be less 
 liable to idleness. 
 
 September 7. Arrived at Khok, a poor village, distant 
 five and a half parasangs from Nakshan, nearly west. I 
 should have mentioned that, on descending into the plain 
 of Nakshan, my attention was arrested by the appearance 
 of a hoary mountain opposite to us at the other end, rising 
 so high above the rest that they sank into insignificance. 
 It was truly sublime, and the interest it excited was not 
 lessened when, on inquiring its name, I was told it was 
 Agri, or Ararat. Thus I saw two remarkable objects in 
 one day, the Araxes and Ararat. At four in the afternoon 
 we set out for Shurour. The evening was pleasant ; the 
 ground over which we passed was full of rich cultivation 
 and verdure, watered by many a stream, and containing 
 forty villages, most of them with the usual appendage of 
 gardens. To add to the scene, the great Ararat was on 
 our left. On the peak of that hill the whole Church was 
 once contained ; it was now spread far and wide, even to 
 the ends of the earth, but the ancient vicinity of it knows 
 it no more. I fancied many a spot where Noah perhaps 
 offered his sacrifices ; and the promise of God, that seed- 
 time and harvest should not cease, appeared to me to be 
 more exactly fulfilled in the agreeable plain in which it 
 was spoken than elsewhere, as I had not seen such fertility 
 
498 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 in any part of the Shah's dominions. Here the blessed 
 saint landed in a new world ; so may I, safe in Christ, out- 
 ride the storm of life, and land at last on one of the ever- 
 lasting hills ! 
 
 Night coming on we lost our way, and got intercepted 
 by some deep ravines,, into one of which the horse that 
 carried my trunks sunk so deep that the water got into 
 one of them, wetted the linen and spoiled some books. 
 Finding it in vain to attempt gaining our munzil, we went 
 to another village, where, after a long delay, two aged men 
 with silver beards opened their house to us. Though it 
 was near midnight I had a fire lighted to dry my books, 
 took some coffee and sunk into deep sleep ; from which 
 awaking at the earliest dawn of 
 
 September 8, I roused the people, and had a delightful 
 ride of one parasang to Shurour, distant four parasangs 
 from Khok. Here I was accommodated by the great man 
 with a stable, or winter room, for they built it in suchfa 
 strange vicinity in order to have it warm in winter. At 
 present, while the weather is still hot, the smell is at times 
 overpowering. At eleven at night we moved off, with fresh 
 horses, for Duwala ; but though we had guides in abun- 
 dance, we were not able to extricate ourselves from the 
 ravines with which this village is surrounded. Procuring 
 another man from a village we happened to wander into, 
 we at last made our way, through grass and mire, to the 
 pass, which led us to a country as dry as the one we had 
 left was wet. Ararat was now quite near ; at the foot of it 
 is Duwala, six parasangs from Nakshan, where we arrived 
 at seven in the morning of 
 
 September 9. As I had been thinking all night of a 
 Hebrew letter, I perceived little of the tediousness of the 
 way. I tried also some difficulties in the i6th Psalm 
 without being able to master them. All day on the 1 5th 
 and 1 6th Psalms, and gained some light into the difficulties. 
 The villagers not bringing the horses in time, we were not 
 
IN PERSIA AND TURKEY 499 
 
 able to go on at night, but I was not much concerned, as 
 I thereby gained some rest. 
 
 September 10. All day at the village writing down 
 notes on the I5th and i6th Psalms. Moved at midnight, 
 and arrived early in the morning at Erivan. 
 
 September 1 1. I alighted at Hosein Khan, the governor's 
 palace, as it may be called, for he seems to live in a style 
 equal to that of a prince. Indeed, commanding a fortress 
 on the frontier, within six hours of the Russians, he is en- 
 trusted with a considerable force, and is nearly independent 
 of the Shah. After sleeping two hours I was summoned 
 to his presence. He at first took no notice of me, but 
 continued reading his Koran, it being the Mohurrum. 
 After a compliment or two he resumed his devotions. 
 The next ceremony was to exchange a rich shawl dress for 
 a still richer pelisse, on pretence of its being cold. The 
 next display was to call for his physician, who, after re- 
 spectfully feeling his pulse, stood on one side : this was to 
 show that he had a domestic physician. His servants 
 were most richly clad. My letter from the ambassador, 
 which till now had lain neglected on the ground, was 
 opened and read by a moonshi. He heard with great 
 interest what Sir Gore had written about the translation of 
 the Gospels. After this he was very kind and attentive, 
 and sent for Lieutenant M., of the Engineers, who was 
 stationed, with two sergeants, at the fort. He ordered for 
 me a mehmandar, a guard, and four horses with which a 
 Turk had just come from Kars. 
 
 September 12. The horses not being ready, I rode 
 alone and found my way to Etchmiatzin (or Three 
 Churches *), two and a half parasangs distant. Directing 
 my course to the largest church, I found it enclosed by 
 some other buildings and a wall. Within the entrance 
 I found a large court, with monks cowled and gowned 
 
 1 In his valuable book Transcaucasia and Ararat (1877), Mr. James 
 Bryce, M.P., gives the meaning as ' The Only-Begotten descended.' 
 
 K K2 
 
SOQ HENRY MARTYN 
 
 moving about. On seeing my Armenian letters they 
 brought me to the Patriarch's lodge, where I found two 
 bishops, one of whom was Nestus, at breakfast on pilaos, 
 kuwabs, wine, arrak, etc., and Serst (Serope) with them. 
 As he spoke English, French, and Italian, I had no diffi- 
 culty in communicating with my hosts. 
 
 Serope, considering the danger to which the cathedral- 
 seat is exposed from its situation between Russia, Persia, 
 and Turkey, is for building a college at Tiflis. The errors 
 and superstitions of his people were the subject of Serope's 
 conversation the whole morning, and seemed to be the 
 occasion of real grief to him. He intended, he said, after 
 a few more months' trial of what he could do here, to 
 retire to India, and there write and print some works in 
 Armenian, tending to enlighten the people with regard to 
 religion, in order to introduce a reform. I said all I could 
 to encourage him in such a blessed work : promising him 
 every aid from the English, and proving to him, from the 
 example of Luther and the other European reformers, 
 that, however arduous the work might seem, God would 
 surely be with him to help him. I mentioned the awful 
 neglect of the Armenian clergy in never preaching ; as 
 thereby the glad tidings of a Saviour were never proclaimed. 
 He made no reply to this, but that ' it was to be lamented, 
 as the people were never called away from vice.' 
 
 September 13. I asked Serope about the i6th Psalm 
 "in the Armenian version ; he translated it into correct 
 Latin. In the afternoon I waited on the Patriarch ; it was 
 a visit of great ceremony. He was reclining on a sort of 
 throne, placed in the middle of the room. All stood ex- 
 cept the two senior bishops ; a chair was set for me on the 
 other side, close to the Patriarch ; at my right hand stood 
 Serope, to interpret. The Patriarch had a dignified 
 rather than a venerable appearance. His conversation 
 ' consisted in protestations of sincere attachment, in expres- 
 sions of his hopes of delivreance from the Mohammedan 
 
IN PERSIA AND TURKEY 501 
 
 yoke, and inquiries about my translations of the Scrip- 
 tures ; and he begged me to consider myself as at home 
 in the monastery. Indeed, their attention and kindness 
 are unbounded : Nestus and Serope anticipate my every 
 wish. I told the Patriarch that I was so happy in being 
 here that, did duty permit, I could almost be willing 
 to become a monk with them. He smiled, and fearing, 
 perhaps, that I was in earnest, said that they had quite 
 enough. Their number is a hundred, I think. The church 
 was immensely rich till about ten years ago, when, by 
 quarrels between two contending patriarchs, one of whom 
 is still in the monastery in disgrace, most of their money 
 was expended in referring their disputes to the Moham- 
 medans as arbitrators. There is no difficulty, however, in 
 replenishing their coffers : their merchants in India are 
 entirely at their command. 
 
 September 1 5. Spent the day in preparing, with Serope, 
 for the mode of travelling in Turkey. All my heavy and 
 expensive preparations at Tabreez prove to be incumbrances 
 which must be left behind : my trunks were exchanged 
 for bags ; and my portable table and chair, several books, 
 large supplies of sugar, etc., were condemned to be left 
 behind. My humble equipments were considered as too 
 mean for an English gentleman ; so Serope gave me an 
 English bridle and saddle. The roads in Turkey being 
 much more infested with robbers than those of Persia, a 
 sword was brought for me. 
 
 September 16. Upon the whole I hardly know what 
 hopes to entertain from the projects of Serope. He is 
 bold, authoritative, and very able ; still only thirty-one 
 years of age ; but then he is not spiritual : perhaps this was 
 the state of Luther himself at first. It is an interesting 
 time in the world ; all things proclaim the approach of the 
 kingdom of God, and Armenia is not forgotten. There is 
 a monastery of Armenian Catholics at Venice, which they 
 employ merely in printing the Psalter, book of prayers, etc. 
 
502 
 
 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Serope intends addressing his first work to them, as they 
 are the most able divines of the Armenians, to argue them 
 back from the Roman Catholic communion, in which case 
 he thinks they would co-operate with him cordially ; being 
 as much concerned as himself at the gross ignorance of 
 their countrymen. Trie Archbishop of Astrakhan has a 
 press, also an agent at Madras and one at Constantinople, 
 printing the Scriptures and books of prayers : there is none 
 at Etchmiatzin. At Constantinople are three or four 
 fellow-collegians of Serope, educated as well as he by the 
 Propaganda, who used to entertain the same sentiments as 
 he, and would, he thinks, declare them if he would begin. 
 
 September 17. At six in the morning, accompanied by 
 Serope, one bishop, the secretary, and several servants of 
 the monastery, I left Etchmiatzin. My party now consisted 
 of two men from the governor of Erivan, a mehmandar, 
 and a guard ; my servant Sergius, for whom the monks 
 interceded, as he had some business at Constantinople ; 
 one trusty servant from the monastery, Melcom, who carried 
 my money ; and two baggage-horses with their owners. 
 The monks soon returned, and we pursued our way over 
 the plain of Ararat. At twelve o'clock reached Quila Gazki, 
 about six parasangs from Etchmiatzin. The mehmandar 
 rode on, and got a good place for me. 
 
 September 18. Rose with the dawn, in hopes of going 
 this stage before breakfast, but the horses were not ready. 
 I set off at eight, fearing no sun, though I found it at times 
 very oppressive when there was no wind. At the end of 
 three hours we left the plain of Ararat, the last of the 
 plains of modern Persia in this quarter. Meeting here 
 with the Araxes again, I undressed and plunged into the 
 stream. 1 While hastening forward with the trusty Melcom 
 
 1 A few years after, when Sir R. Ker Porter was on the same route, he 
 wrote : This was the spot where our apostolic countryman, Henry Martyn, 
 faint with fever and fatigue; alighted to bathe on his way to Tokat. ' There, 
 too, Sir Robert was of opinion, Xenophon and the Ten Thousand Greeks 
 crossed the Araxes 2,300 years ago. 
 
IN PERSIA AND TURKEY 503 
 
 to rejoin my party, we were overtaken by a spearman with 
 a lance of formidable length. I did not think it likely that 
 one man would venture to attack two, both armed ; but 
 the spot was a noted one for robbers, and very well calcu- 
 lated, by its solitariness, for deeds of privacy ; however, he 
 was friendly enough. He had, however, nearly done me a 
 mischief. On the bank of the river we sprang a covey of 
 partridges ; instantly he laid his lance under him across 
 the horse's back, and fired a horse-pistol at them. His 
 horse, starting at the report, came upon mine, with the 
 point of the spear directly towards me, so that I thought a 
 wound for myself or horse was inevitable ; but the spear 
 passed under my horse. We were to have gone to Haji- 
 Buhirem, but finding the head-man of it at a village a few 
 furlongs nearer, we stopped there. We found him in a 
 shed outside the walls, reading his Koran, with his sword, 
 gun, and pistol by his side. He was a good-natured farmer- 
 looking man, and spoke in Persian. He chanted the Arabic 
 with great readiness, and asked me whether I knew what 
 that book was : ' Nothing less than the great Koran ! ' 
 
 September 19. Left the village at seven in the morning, 
 and as the stage was reputed to be very dangerous, owing 
 to the vicinity of the famous Kara Beg, my mehmandar 
 took three armed men from the village in addition to the 
 one we brought from Erivan. We continued going along 
 through the pass two or three parasangs, and crossed the 
 Araxes three times. We then ascended the mountains on 
 the north by a road, if not so steep, yet as long and diffi- 
 cult as any of the kotuls of Bushire. On the top we found 
 a table-land, along which we moved many a tedious mile, 
 expecting every minute that we should have a view of a 
 fine champaign country below ; but dale followed dale, 
 apparently in endless succession, and though at such a 
 height there was very little air to relieve the heat, and 
 nothing to be seen but barren rocks. One part, however, 
 must be excepted, where the prospect opened to the north, 
 
504 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 and we had a view of the Russian territory, so that we 
 saw at once, Persia, Russia, and Turkey. At length we 
 came to an Armenian village, situated in a hollow of these 
 mountains, on a declivity. The village presented a singular 
 appearance, being filled with conical piles of peat, for they 
 have no fire-wood. Around there was a great deal of 
 cultivation, chiefly corn. Most of the low land from 
 Tabreez to this place is planted with cotton, Palma Christi, 
 and rice. This is the first village in Turkey ; not a Persian 
 cap was to be seen, the respectable people wore a red 
 Turkish cap. The great man of the village paid me a visit ; 
 he was a young Mussulman, and took care of all my 
 Mussulman attendants ; but he left me and my Armenians, 
 where he found us, at the house of an Armenian, without 
 offering his services. I was rather uncomfortably lodged, 
 my room being a thoroughfare for horses, cows, buffaloes, 
 and sheep. Almost all the village came to look at me. 
 The name of this village is Fiwik, it is distant six parasangs 
 from the last ; but we were eight hours accomplishing it, 
 and a kafila would have been twelve. We arrived at three 
 o'clock ; both horses and men much fatigued. 
 
 September 20. From daybreak to sunrise I walked, 
 then breakfasted and set out. Our course lay north, over 
 a mountain, and here danger was apprehended. It was, 
 indeed, dismally solitary all around. The appearance of 
 an old castle on the top of a crag was the first occasion on 
 which our guard got their pieces ready, and one rode 
 forward to reconnoitre : but all there was as silent as the 
 grave. At last, after travelling five hours, we saw some 
 men : our guard again took their places in front. Our fears 
 were soon removed by seeing carts and oxen. Not so the 
 opposite party : for my baggage was so small as not to be 
 easily perceived. They halted therefore at the bottom, 
 towards which we were both descending, and those of them 
 who had guns advanced in front and hailed us. We 
 answered peaceably; but they, still distrusting us as we 
 
IN PERSIA AND TURKEY 505 
 
 advanced nearer, cocked their pieces. Soon, however, we 
 came to a parley. They were Armenians, bringing wood 
 from Kars to their village in the mountain : they were 
 hardy, fine young men, and some old men who were with 
 them were particularly venerable. The dangerous spots 
 being passed through, my party began to sport with their 
 horses : galloping across the path, brandishing their spears 
 or sticks, they darted them just at that moment of wheeling 
 round their horses, as if that motion gave them an advan- 
 tage. It struck me that this, probably, was the mode of 
 fighting of the ancient Parthian s which made them so 
 terrible in flight. Presently after these gambols the ap- 
 pearance of some poor countrymen with their carts put 
 into their heads another kind of sport ; for knowing, from 
 the ill-fame of the spot, that we should be easily taken for 
 robbers, four of them galloped forward, and by the time 
 we reached them one of the carters was opening a bag to 
 give them something. I was, of course, very much dis- 
 pleased, and made signs to him not to do it. I then told 
 them all, as we quickly pursued our course, that such kind 
 of sport was not allowed in England ; they said it was the 
 Persian custom. We arrived at length at Ghanikew, having 
 ridden six hours and a half without intermission. The 
 mehmandar was for changing his route continually, either 
 from real or pretended fear. One of the Kara Beg's men 
 saw me at the village last night, and as he would probably 
 get intelligence of my pretended route, it was desirable to 
 elude him. But after all we went the shortest way, through 
 the midst of danger, if there was any, and a gracious 
 Providence kept all mischief at a distance. Ghanikew is 
 only two parasangs from Kars, but I stopped there, as I 
 saw it was more agreeable to the people ; besides which I 
 wished to have a ride before breakfast. I was lodged in a 
 stable-room ; but very much at my ease, as none of the 
 people of the village could come at me without passing 
 through the house. 
 
So6 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 September 21. Rode into Kars. Its appearance is 
 quite European, not only at a distance but within. The 
 houses all of stone ; streets with carts passing ; some of 
 the houses open to the street ; the fort on an uncommonly 
 high rock ; such a burying-ground I never saw, there must 
 be thousands of gravestones. The mehmandar carried me 
 directly to the governor, who, having just finished his 
 breakfast, was of course asleep, and could not be disturbed ; 
 but his head-man carried me to an Armenian's house, with 
 orders to live at free quarter there. The room at the 
 Armenian's was an excellent one, upstairs, facing the street, 
 fort, and river, with a bow containing five windows under 
 which were cushions. As soon as the Pacha was visible, 
 the chief Armenian of Kars, to whom I had a letter from 
 Bishop Nestus, his relation, waited upon him on my busi- 
 ness. On looking over my letters of recommendation from 
 Sir Gore Ouseley, I found there was none for Abdallah, the 
 Pacha of Kars ; however, the letter to the Governor of 
 Erivan secured all I wanted. He sent to say I was 
 welcome ; that if I liked to stay a few days he should be 
 happy, but that if I was determined to go on to-morrow, 
 the necessary horses and ten men for a guard were all 
 ready. As no wish was expressed of seeing me, I was of 
 course silent upon that subject. 
 
 September 22. Promises were made that everything 
 should be ready at sunrise, but it was half-past nine before 
 we started, and no guard present but the Tartar. He 
 presently began to show his nature by flogging the bag- 
 gage-horse with his long whip, as one who was not disposed 
 to allow loitering ; but one of the poor beasts presently fell 
 with his load at full length over a piece of timber lying 
 in the road. While this was setting to rights, the people 
 gathered about me, and seemed more engaged with my 
 Russian boots than with any other part of my dress. We 
 moved south-west, and after five hours and a half reached 
 Joula. The Tartar rode forward and got the coffee-room 
 
IN PERSIA AND TURKEY 507 
 
 at the post-house ready. The coffee-room has one side 
 railed and covered with cushions, and on the opposite side 
 cushions on the ground ; the rest of the room was left with 
 bare stones and timbers. As the wind blew very cold 
 yesterday, and I had caught cold, the Tartar ordered a 
 great fire to be made. In this room I should have been 
 very much to my satisfaction, had not the Tartar taken 
 part of the same bench, and many other people made use 
 of it as a public room. They were continually consulting 
 my watch to know how near the hour of eating approached 
 It was evident that the Tartar was the great man here ; he 
 took the best place for himself; a dinner of four or five 
 dishes was laid before him. When I asked for eggs they 
 brought me rotten ones ; for butter they brought me ghee. 
 The idle people of the village came all night and smoked 
 till morning. It was very cold, there being a hoar frost. 
 
 September 23. Our way to-day lay through a forest 
 of firs, and the variety of prospect it afforded, of hill and 
 dale, wood and lawn, was beautiful and romantic. No 
 mark of human workmanship was anywhere visible for 
 miles, except where some trees had fallen by the stroke of 
 the woodman. We saw at last a few huts in the thickest 
 clumps, which was all we saw of the Koords, for fear 
 of whom I was attended by ten armed horsemen. We 
 frightened a company of villagers again to-day. They 
 were bringing wood and grass from the forest, and on 
 seeing us drew up. One of our party advanced and fired ; 
 such a rash piece of sport I thought must have been 
 followed by serious mischief, but all passed off very well. 
 With the forest I was delighted ; the clear streams in the 
 valleys, the lofty trees crowning the summit of the hills, 
 the smooth paths winding away and losing themselves in 
 the dark woods, and, above all, the solitude that reigned 
 throughout, composed a scene which tended to harmonise 
 and solemnise the mind. What displays of taste and 
 magnificence are found occasionally on this ruined earth ! 
 
5o8 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Nothing was wanting to-day but the absence of the Turks, 
 to avoid the sight and sound of whom I rode on. After a 
 ride of nine hours and a half, we reached Mijingui, in the 
 territory of Erzroom, and having resolved not to be 
 annoyed in the same way as last night, I left the Tartar in 
 the undisturbed possession of the post-house, and took up 
 my quarters at an Armenian's, where, in the stable-room, 
 I expected to be left alone ; but a Georgian young man, 
 on his way from Etchmiatzin, going on pilgrimage to 
 Moosk, where John the Baptist is supposed to be buried, 
 presumed on his assiduous attentions to me, and contrived 
 to get a place for himself in the same room. 
 
 September 24. A long and sultry march over many a 
 hill and vale. In the way, two hours from the last stage, 
 is a hot spring ; the water fills a pool, having four porches. 
 The porches instantly reminded me of Bethesda's pool : 
 they were semicircular arches about six feet deep, intended 
 seemingly for shelter from the sun. In them all the party 
 undressed and bathed. The Tartar, to enjoy himself more 
 perfectly, had his kalean to smoke while up to his chin in 
 water. We saw nothing else on the road to-day but a large 
 and opulent family of Armenians men, women, and 
 children in carts and carriages returning from a pilgrimage 
 to Moosk. After eleven hours and a half, including the 
 hour spent at the warm spring, we were overtaken by the 
 dusk ; so the Tartar brought us to Oghoomra, where I was 
 placed in an Armenian's stable-room. 
 
 September 25. Went round to Husar-Quile, where we 
 changed horses. I was surprised to find so strong a fort 
 and so large a town. From thence we were five hours and 
 a half reaching the entrance of Erzroom. All was busy and 
 moving in the streets and shops crowds passing along. 
 Those who caught a sight of us were at a loss to define me. 
 My Persian attendants and the lower part of the dress 
 made me appear Persian ; but the rest of my dress was 
 new, for those only who had travelled knew it to be 
 
IN PERSIA AND TURKEY 50$ 
 
 European. They were rather disposed, I thought, to be 
 uncivil, but the two persons who preceded us kept all in 
 order. I felt myself in a Turkish town ; the red cap, and 
 stateliness, and rich dress, and variety of turbans was 
 realised as I had seen it in pictures. There are here four 
 thousand Armenian families and but one church ; there 
 are scarcely any Catholics, and they have no church. 
 
 September 29. Left Erzroom with a Tartar and his 
 son at two in the afternoon. We moved to a village, where 
 I was attacked with fever and ague ; the Tartar's son was 
 also taken ill and obliged to return. 
 
 September 30. Travelled first to Ashgula, where we 
 changed horses, and from thence to Purnugaban, where we 
 halted for the night. I took nothing all day but tea, and 
 was rather better, but head-ache and loss of appetite 
 depressed my spirits ; yet my soul rests in Him who is ' an 
 anchor to the soul, sure and steadfast,' which, though not 
 seen, keeps me fast. 
 
 October i. Marched over a mountainous tract ; we 
 were out from seven in the morning till eight at night. 
 After sitting a little by the fire, I was near fainting from 
 sickness. My depression of spirits led me to the throne ot 
 grace as a sinful abject worm. When I thought of myself 
 and my transgressions, I could find no text so cheering as 
 ' My ways are not as your ways.' From the men who 
 accompanied Sir Gore Ouseley to Constantinople I learned 
 that the plague was raging at that place, and thousands 
 dying every day. One of the Persians had died of it. 
 They added that the inhabitants of Tokat were flying from 
 their town from the same cause. Thus I am passing 
 inevitably into imminent danger. O Lord, Thy will be 
 done ! Living or dying, remember me ! 
 
 October 2. Some hours before day I sent to tell the 
 Tartar I was ready, but Hassan Aga was for once riveted 
 to his bed. However, at eight, having got strong horses, 
 he set off at a great rate ; and over the level ground he 
 
5io HENRY MARTYN 
 
 made us gallop as fast as the horses would go to Chifflik, 
 where we arrived at sunset. I was lodged, at my request, 
 in the stables of the post-house, not liking the scrutinising 
 impudence of the fellows who frequent the coffee-room. 
 As soon as it began to grow a little cold the ague came on, 
 and then the fever ; after which I had a sleep, which let 
 me know too plainly the disorder of my frame. In the 
 night Hassan sent to summon me away, but I was quite 
 unable to move. Finding me still in bed at the dawn, he 
 began to storm furiously at my detaining him so long, but 
 I quietly let him spend his ire, ate my breakfast composedly, 
 and set out at eight. He seemed determined to make up 
 for the delay, for we flew over hill and dale to Sherean, 
 where he changed horses. From thence we travelled all 
 the rest of the day and all night ; it rained most of the 
 time. Soon after sunset the ague came on again, which, 
 in my wet state, was very trying ; I hardly knew how to 
 keep my life in me. About that time there was a village 
 at hand, but Hassan had no mercy. At one in the morn- 
 ing we found two men under a wain, with a good fire ; they 
 could not keep the rain out, but their fire was acceptable. 
 I dried my lower extremities, allayed the fever by drinking 
 a good deal of water, and went on. We had little rain, but 
 the night was pitchy dark so that I could not see the road 
 under my horse's feet. However, God being mercifully 
 pleased to alleviate my bodily suffering, I went on con- 
 tentedly to the munzil, where we arrived at break of day. 
 After sleeping three or four hours, I was visited by an Arme- 
 nian merchant for whom I had a letter. Hassan was in 
 great fear of being arrested here ; the Governor of the city 
 had vowed to make an example of him for riding to death 
 a horse belonging to a man of this place. He begged that 
 I would shelter him in case of danger ; his being claimed 
 by an Englishman, he said, would be a sufficient security. 
 I found, however, that I had no occasion to interfere. He 
 hurried me away from this place without delay, and 
 
IN PERSIA AND TURKEY 5H 
 
 galloped furiously towards a village, which, he said, was 
 four hours distant, which was all I could undertake in my 
 present weak state ; but village after village did he pass till, 
 night coming on, and no signs of another, I suspected that 
 he was carrying me on to the munzil\ so I got off my 
 horse and sat upon the ground, and told him * I neither 
 could nor would go any farther.' He stormed, but I was 
 immovable, till, a light appearing at a distance, I mounted 
 my horse and made towards it, leaving him to follow or 
 not, as he pleased. He brought in the party, but would 
 not exert himself to get a place for me. They brought 
 me to an open verandah, but Sergius told them I wanted 
 a place in which to be alone. This seemed very offensive 
 to them. ' And why must he be alone ? ' they asked, 
 ascribing this desire of mine to pride, I suppose. Tempted 
 at last by money, they brought me to a stable-room, and 
 Hassan and a number of others planted themselves there 
 with me. My fever here increased to a violent degree ; the 
 heat in my eyes and forehead was so great that the fire 
 almost made me frantic. I entreated that it might be put 
 out, or that I might be carried out of doors. Neither was 
 attended to ; my servant, who, from my sitting in that 
 strange way on the ground, believed me delirious, was deaf 
 to all I said. At last I pushed my head among the luggage, 
 and lodged it on the damp ground, and slept. 
 
 From Sherean, or Sheheran, out of which, after a night 
 of burning fever in the stable of the Chifflik post-station, 
 Hassan furiously compelled the dying man to ride, is a 
 mountain track of a hundred and seventy miles to Tokat. 
 ' How wearisome and painful must have been his journey 
 over the mountains and valleys ! ' wrote the American 
 missionaries, Eli Smith and H. O. Dwight, eighteen years 
 after, when, in the vigour of health and at a better season, 
 they made the same journey, called by his example and 
 
si2 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 memory, to found the Mission to Eastern Anatolia. Think 
 of him, wasting away from consumption, racked with ague, 
 burning with fever, as, pressed by the merciless Turk, he 
 ' flew over hill and dale ' all the third day of October, from 
 eight in the morning, then changed horses at Sheheran, 
 then ' travelled all the rest of the day and all night ' of the 
 3rd~4th, while the rain fell amid darkness that could 
 be felt ; then, after three or four hours' sleep, on break 
 of day again hurried on, lest his guide should be arrested 
 for a former offence of ' riding to death a horse belonging 
 to a man of this place,' all the fourth day, till almost 
 expiring he sat on the ground and found refuge in a 
 stable, refusing to go farther. ' At last I pushed my head 
 among the luggage, and lodged it on the damp ground, and 
 slept.' Since Chrysostom's ride in the same region, the 
 Church of Christ has seen no torture of a saint like 
 that. 
 
 October 5. Preserving mercy made me see the light of 
 another morning. The sleep had refreshed me, but I was 
 feeble and shaken ; yet the merciless Hassan hurried me 
 off. The munzil, however, not being distant, I reached it 
 without much difficulty. I expected to have found it 
 another strong fort at the end of the pass, but it is a poor 
 little village within the jaws of the mountain. I was 
 pretty well lodged, and felt tolerably well till a little after 
 sunset, when the ague came on with a violence I had never 
 before experienced ; I felt as if in a palsy, my teeth 
 chattering and my whole frame violently shaken. Aga 
 Hosein and another Persian, on their way here from 
 Constantinople, going to Abbas Mirza whom I had just 
 before been visiting, came hastily to render me assistance 
 if they could. These Persians appear quite brotherly 
 after the Turks. While they pitied me, Hassan sat in 
 
IN ^PERSIA AND TURKEY 513 
 
 perfect indifference, ruminating on the further delay this 
 was likely to occasion. The cold fit, after continuing two 
 or three hours, was followed by a fever, which lasted the 
 whole night and prevented sleep. 
 
 October 6. No horses being to be had, I had an 
 unexpected repose. I sat in the orchard and thought 
 with sweet comfort and peace of my God, in solitude 
 my Company, my Friend, and Comforter. Oh ! when shall 
 time give place to eternity ! When shall appear that new 
 heaven and new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness ! 
 There, there shall in no wise enter in anything that 
 defileth : none of that wickedness which has made men 
 worse than wild beasts, none of those corruptions which 
 add still more to the miseries of mortality, shall be seen or 
 heard of any more. 
 
 Sitting in the orchard, thinking with sweet comfort and 
 peace of his God, and longing for that new heaven and 
 new earth wherein dwelleth righteousness such is the 
 last sight we have of Henry Martyn, on October 6, 1812. 
 Two brotherly Persians, on their way from Constantinople, 
 had sought to minister to him the day before. The Turkish 
 Hassan, himself afraid of justice, ' sat in perfect indifference, 
 ruminating on the further delay' caused by his illness. 
 What happened when the dying apostle could write no 
 more in the ten days till God took him on October 16 
 who shall now tell ? Did the Turk hurry him, as he was 
 expiring, into Tokat, from 'that poor little village within 
 the jaws of the mountain, in which he was 'pretty well 
 lodged,' or did his indomitable spirit give the poor body 
 strength to ride into the town ; and did the plague, then 
 raging, complete what hereditary disease and fever had 
 done ? He had at least his Armenian servants, the ' trusty ' 
 Melcom and Sergius, with him to minister to his wants. 
 
 L L 
 
5 i 4 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 He had written to Lydia of his journey to her by 
 Constantinople, Syria, and Malta, saying: ' Do I dream, 
 that I venture to think and write of such an event as 
 that ! . . . Soon we shall have occasion for pen and ink 
 no more, but I trust 1 1 shall shortly see thee face to face.' 
 He dreamed indeed ; for He who is the only Love which 
 is no dream, but the one transforming, abiding, absorbing 
 reality, called him, while yet a youth of thirty-one, home 
 to Himself. 
 
515 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE TWO RESTING-PLACES TOKAT AND BREAGE 
 
 THE Armenians were a comparatively strong community 
 in Tokat, where they formed a third of the population, for 
 whom there were seven churches and thirty priests. Henry 
 Martyn was known as a friend of this, the oldest church in 
 Asia. He had sought out their priests and families all 
 over Persia and the Araxes valley, and ministered to 
 many of this oppressed people. The two servants with 
 whom he had journeyed as far as Tokat were Armenians, 
 and he especially trusted Sergius, whom he had engaged 
 at Etchmiatzin, as one about to visit Constantinople, and 
 not unfamiliar with the route. The body of the wearied 
 traveller to the city of the Great King was laid to rest in 
 the extensive cemetery of the church of Karasoon Manoog. 
 Later research revealed the fact that the body was buried 
 in simple and reverent Oriental fashion not in a coffin, 
 but in such a white winding-sheet as that which for forty 
 hours enwrapped the Crucified. The story afterwards went 
 that the chaplain-missionary of the East India Company 
 was carried to the tomb with all the honours of an 
 Armenian archbishop. That is most probable, for the 
 Armenian clergy of Calcutta, Bushire, and Shiraz always 
 gave him priestly honours during life. The other tradi- 
 tionthat his burial was hardly decent has arisen from 
 
 L L 2 
 
5 i6 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 the circumstances that attended the search for his grave 
 and the removal of his dust to the American Mission 
 Cemetery forty years afterwards. 
 
 Far away, in the most distant corner of Asiatic 
 Turkey, or Turkish Arabia, at Baghdad, there was one l 
 Anglo-Indian scholar and Christian, who hastened to 
 discharge the pious duty of carving on a limestone slab 
 above the precious remains a Latin inscription. That was 
 the East India Company's civil servant, James Claudius 
 Rich. Born near Dijon in 1787 six years after Martyn 
 and taken in his infancy to Bristol, he there manifested 
 such extraordinary linguistic powers, even in boyhood, that 
 Joshua Marshman, before he went out to Serampore, 
 helped him with books and introduced him to Dr. Ryland. 
 Robert Hall formed such an opinion of his powers, which 
 the earliest Orientalist, Sir Charles Wilkins, tested, that 
 he received an appointment to the Bombay Civil Service, 
 and was introduced to Sir James Mackintosh. He went 
 to India overland through Turkish Asia, disguised as a 
 
 1 We must not forget the boyish * Epitaph on Henry Martyn, 5 written by 
 Thomas Babington Macaulay in his thirteenth year (Life, by his nephew, 
 vol. i. p. 38) : 
 
 ' Here Martyn lies. In manhood's early bloom 
 The Christian hero finds a Pagan tomb. 
 Religion sorrowing o'er her favourite son 
 Points to the glorious trophies that he won, 
 Eternal trophies ! not with carnage red ; 
 Not stained with tears by hapless captives shed, 
 But trophies of the Cross. For that dear Name, 
 Through every form of danger, death, and shame, 
 Onward he journeyed to a happier shore, 
 Where danger, death, and shame assault no more.' 
 
 These lines reflect the impression made on Charles Grant and the other 
 Clapham friends by Henry Martyn's death at a time when they used his career 
 as an argument for Great Britain doing its duty to India during the discussions 
 in Parliament on the East India Company's Charter of 1813. 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 519 
 
 Georgian Turk, so that the Mecca pilgrims at Damascus 
 did not discover him. He married Sir James's eldest 
 daughter, 1 and had set out as the Company's Resident at 
 Baghdad and Busrah, not long before Martyn arrived at 
 Bombay. The two men never met, for Martyn's attempt 
 to enter Arabia from Persia through Baghdad was stopped. 
 But the young Orientalist watched Martyn's career with 
 admiration, and seems to have followed his footsteps. In 
 1821 he himself was cut off by cholera, while ministering 
 to the plague-stricken in Shiraz, leaving a name im- 
 perishably associated with that of Sir James Mackintosh, 
 and dear to all Oriental scholars and travellers, but "hence- 
 forth to be remembered above all as that of the man who 
 was the first to perpetuate the memory of Henry Martyn. 2 
 
 The sacred spot was immediately at the foot of slaty 
 rocks down which the winter snows and summer rains 
 washed enough of stony soil every year to cover up the 
 horizontal slab. The first to visit it with reverent steps 
 after the pious commission of Claudius James Rich had 
 been executed, was Sir Robert Ker Porter. Although 
 only a few years had elapsed, he seems to have failed to 
 see the inscription which fitly commemorated the 'Sacerdos 
 ac Missionarius Anglorum,' so that he thus beautifully 
 wrote : c His remains sleep in a grave as humble as his own 
 meekness ; but while that high pyramidal hill, marked 
 with its mouldering ruins of heathen ages, points to the 
 sky, every European traveller must see in it their honoured 
 countryman's monument' 
 
 In 1830, when the American Board's missionaries, Eli 
 
 1 Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and an Account of a Visit to 
 Skcrauz and Persepolis, by the late Claudius James Rich, Esq., edited (with 
 memoir) by his widow, two vols., London, 1836. 
 
 2 See p. 528 for the earlier, and p. 530 for the later inscription. 
 
520 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Smith and H. G. O. Dwight, visited Tokat, they had little 
 difficulty in finding the spot, from which they wrote : ' An 
 appropriate Latin inscription is all that distinguishes his 
 tomb from the tombs of the Armenians who sleep by his 
 side.' l They urged their, Board to make Tokat its centre of 
 operations for the people of Second Armenia, as Caesarea 
 for those of the First and Third Armenia, and Tarsus for 
 those of Cilicia. As they, reversing his northward 
 journey, reached Tabreez sick, they were cared for, first by 
 Dr., afterwards Sir John McNeill, and then by Dr. Cormick, 
 the same physician who healed Martyn of a similar disease 
 when he was at this city. ' He seemed to have retained the 
 highest opinion of him as a Christian, a companion, and a 
 scholar.' 
 
 In 1841 Mr. George Fowler published his Three Years 
 in Persia, in which a chapter is filled with reminiscences of 
 Henry Martyn. 
 
 Of this distinguished missionary and champion of the 
 Cross, who fearlessly unfolded his banner and proclaimed 
 Christ amongst the bigoted Mahometans, I have heard 
 much in these countries, having made acquaintance with 
 some persons who knew him, and saw (if I may so say) 
 the last of him. At the General's table at Erzroom 
 (Paskevitch), I had the honour to meet grafifs and princes, 
 consisting of Russians, Georgians, Circassians, Germans, 
 Spaniards, and Persians, all glittering in their stars and 
 orders, such a melange as is scarcely to be found again under 
 one banner ; looking more like a monarch's levy than any- 
 thing else. My neighbour was an Armenian bishop, who, 
 with his long flowing hair and beard, and austere habits, 
 the cross being suspended to his girdle, presented a great 
 
 1 Missionary Researches in Armenia^ London, 1834. 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 521 
 
 contrast to the military chiefs. There were many other 
 priests at the table, of whom he was the principal. He 
 addressed me in my native tongue very tolerably, asking 
 if I had known anything of the missionary, Martyn. The 
 name was magic to my ear, and immediately our colloquy 
 became to me of great interest 
 
 The bishop was the Serrafino of whom Martyn speaks 
 in his Journal, I happening at the time to have it with 
 me. He was very superior to the general caste of the 
 Armenian clergy, having been educated at Rome, and had 
 attained many European languages. He made Martyn's 
 acquaintance at Etchmiatzin, the Armenian monastery at 
 Erivan, where he had gone to pay a visit to the Patriarch 
 or chief of that people, and remained three days to recruit 
 his exhausted strength. He described him to me as being 
 of a very delicate frame, thin, and not quite of the middle 
 stature, a beardless youth, with a countenance beaming 
 with so much benignity as to bespeak an errand of Divine 
 love. Of the affairs of the world he seemed to be so 
 ignorant, that Serrafino was obliged to manage for him 
 respecting his travelling arrangements, money matters, etc. 
 Of the latter he had a good deal with him when he left the 
 monastery, and seemed to be careless, and even profuse, in 
 his expenditure. He was strongly recommended to post- 
 pone his journey, but from his extreme impatience to 
 return to England these remonstrances were unavailing. 
 A Tartar was employed to conduct him to Tokat. Serra- 
 fino accompanied him for an hour or two on the way 
 with considerable apprehensions, as he told me, of his ever 
 arriving in his native country. 1 He was greatly surprised, 
 he said, not only to find in him all the ornaments of a 
 refined education, but that he was so eminent a Christian ; 
 
 1 It is a custom in the East to accompany travellers out of the city to bid 
 them God speed, with the ' khoda hafiz shuma,' ' may God take you into His 
 holy keeping.' If an Armenian, he is accompanied by the priest, who prays 
 over him and for him with much fervour. 
 
522 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 1 since (said he) all the English I have hitherto met with, 
 not only make no profession of religion, but live seemingly 
 in contempt of it.' 
 
 I endeavoured to convince him that his impression of 
 the English character was in this respect erroneous ; that 
 although a Martyn on the Asiatic soil might be deemed a 
 phcenix, yet many such existed in that country which gave 
 him birth ; and I instanced to him the Christian philan- 
 thropy of my countrymen, which induced them to search 
 the earth's boundaries to extend their faith. I told him of 
 our immense voluntary taxation to aid the missionaries in 
 that object, and of the numerous Christian associations, 
 for which the world was scarcely large enough to expend 
 themselves upon. 
 
 He listened with great attention, and then threw in the 
 compliment, 'You English are very difficult to become 
 acquainted with, but when once we know you we can 
 depend on you.' He complained of some part of Martyn's 
 Journal referring to himself, respecting his then idea of 
 retiring to India, to write and print some works in the 
 Armenian language, tending to enlighten that people with 
 regard to religion. He said that what followed of the 
 errors and superstitions of the Armenian Church should 
 not have been inserted in the book, nor did he think it 
 would be found in Martyn's Journal. His complaint rested 
 much on the compilers of the work in this respect ; he said, 
 ' these opinions were not exactly so expressed, and certainly 
 they were not intended to come before the public, whereby 
 they might ultimately be turned against me.' 
 
 At Erzroom, on my way to Persia, I had met with an 
 Italian doctor, then in the Pasha's employ, from whom I 
 heard many interesting particulars respecting Martyn. He 
 was at Tokat at the time of our countryman's arrival and 
 death, which occurred on October 16, 1812 ; but whether 
 occasioned by the plague, or from excessive fatigue by 
 the brutal treatment of the Tartar, he could not determine. 
 His remains were decently interred in the Armenian 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 523 
 
 burying-ground, and for a time the circumstance was 
 forgotten. Some years afterwards, a gentleman, at the 
 request of the British ambassador in Constantinople, had a 
 commemorative stone erected to his memory, and applica- 
 tion was made to the Armenian bishop to seek the grave 
 for that purpose. He seemed to have forgotten altogether 
 such an occurrence, but referring to some memoranda which 
 he had made of so remarkable a case as that of interring a 
 Feringhi stranger, he was enabled to trace the humble 
 tablet with which he had distinguished it. It is now 
 ornamented with a white slab, stating merely the name, 
 age, and time of death of the deceased. 
 
 I had many reminiscences of Martyn, at Marand par- 
 ticularly. I quitted this place at midnight, just at the time 
 and under the circumstances which he describes. ' It was 
 a most mild and delightful night, and the pure air, after 
 the smell of the stable, was reviving.' I was equally soli- 
 tary with himself. I had attached great interest to my 
 resting-place, believing it to have been the same on which 
 Martyn had reposed, from his own description, as it was 
 the usual reception for travellers, the munzil, or post-house. 
 Here I found myself almost alone, as with Aliverdy, my 
 guide, not three words of understanding existed between 
 us. Martyn says, ' They stared at my European dress, 
 but no disrespect was shown.' Exactly so with me : the 
 villagers stood around questioning my attendant, who was 
 showing me off, I know not why. 
 
 Martyn's description of the stable was precisely what I 
 found it ; thus 4 1 was shown into the stable, where there 
 was a little place partitioned off, but so as to admit a view 
 of the horses.' He was 'dispirited and melancholy.' I 
 was not a little touched with this in my solitariness, and 
 sensibly felt with the poet : 
 
 Thou dost not know how sad it is to stray 
 Amid a foreign land, thyself unknown, 
 
 And, when o'erwearied with the toilsome day, 
 To rest at eve and feel thyself alone. 
 
S 24 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 At Khoi, on my return, I witnessed the Persian 
 ceremony related by Martyn in his Journal of the death 
 of Imam Hussein the anniversary of which is so religiously 
 observed in that country. At Tabreez I heard much of 
 him who was 
 
 Faithful found 
 
 Among the faithless faithful only he. 
 Unshaken, unseduced, unterrified, 
 His loyalty he kept his zeal his love. 
 
 I scarcely remember so bright an ornament to the 
 Christian profession, on heathen land, as this hero of the 
 Cross, who was ' patient in tribulation, rejoicing in hope ; ' 
 and I heard him thus spoken of by those who could 
 estimate the man, and perhaps not appreciate the missionary 
 ' If ever there was a saint on earth, it was Martyn ; and 
 if there be now an angel in heaven, it is Martyn.' Amidst 
 the contumely of the bigoted Mussulmans, he had much 
 to bear, as to the natural man, amongst whom he was 
 called an ' Isauvi ' (the term given to Christians). 
 
 I know of no people where, to all human calculation, 
 so little prospect opens of planting the Cross. The moollas 
 are by no means averse to religious discussion, and still 
 remember the * enlightened infidel,' as Martyn was called ; 
 but so bigoted are these benighted Moslems, and show so 
 much zeal, as I noticed at their Ramazan, that they scorn 
 us, and, I may say, they shame us. It is interesting, when 
 looking at those dark regions, to inquire when shall the 
 Cross triumph over the Crescent ? when shall the riches 
 and power of the Gospel spread over their soil, root up 
 the weeds of error, and produce the fruits of righteousness ? 
 
 Since the days of Martyn but little effort has been 
 made by the Missionary Society to turn the tide 01 
 Christian. philanthropy towards this country ; but I would 
 say, spite of the discouragements, Send your missionaries 
 to this stronghold of Mahomet ; here plant your standard 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 525 
 
 of redeeming love to the wretched devotee of the impostor ; 
 to the sometime worshipper of the sun hang out the banner 
 of the Sun of Righteousness ; kindle in his bosom the flame 
 of Divine truth, that the Holy Spirit, of which his former 
 god was the emblem, may enlighten and guide him into 
 the fold of Christ. 
 
 It is gratifying to find from a paper in the Asiatic 
 Register, the writer of which spent a few weeks at Shiraz, 
 that the love and work of this distinguished missionary, 
 although he saw no fruits from them, have in one instance 
 proved that his labour has not been in vain in the Lord. 
 He relates that in that city he met with an interesting 
 character, Mahomed Rahim, who had been educated for a 
 moolla ; a man of considerable learning, and much attached 
 to the English. He found him reading a volume of 
 Cowper's Poems, and was astonished at the precision with 
 which he expressed himself in English ; this led to the 
 subject of religion, when he acknowledged himself to be a 
 Christian, and related the following circumstance. 
 
 In the year of the Hegira 1223 there came to this city 
 an Englishman, who taught the religion of Christ with a 
 boldness hitherto unparalleled in Persia, in the midst of much 
 scorn and ill-treatment from the moollas as well as the 
 rabble. He was a beardless youth, and evidently enfeebled 
 by disease ; he dwelt among us for more than a year. I 
 was then a decided enemy to infidels, as the Christians 
 are termed by the followers of Mahomet, and I visited this 
 teacher of the despised sect, for the purpose of treating 
 him with scorn, and exposing his doctrines to contempt. 
 Although I persevered in this conduct for some time, I 
 found that every interview not only increased my respect 
 for the individual, but diminished my confidence in the 
 faith in which I was educated. His extreme forbearance 
 towards the violence of his opponents, the calm and yet 
 convincing manner in which he exposed the fallacies and 
 sophistries by which he was assailed (for he spoke Persian 
 
526 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 excellently), gradually inclined me to listen to his argu- 
 ments, to inquire dispassionately into the subject of them, 
 and finally to read a tract which he had written in reply 
 to A Defence of Islam, by our chief moollas. The result of 
 my examination was a conviction that the young disputant 
 was right. Shame, or rather fear, withheld me from this 
 opinion ; I even avoided the society of the Christian 
 teacher, though he remained in the city so long. Just 
 before he quitted Shiraz I could not refrain from paying 
 him a farewell visit. Our conversation, the memory of 
 which will never fade from the tablet of my mind, sealed 
 my conversion. He gave me a book ; it has been my 
 constant companion ; the study of it has formed my most 
 delightful occupation ; its contents have often consoled 
 me. Upon this he put into my hand a copy of the New 
 Testament in Persian ; on one of the blank leaves was 
 written, 'There is joy in heaven over one sinner that 
 repenteth. HENRY MARTYN.' 
 
 The memory of Henry Martyn was borne by Mussul- 
 mans to Northern Africa, and south to India again. The 
 late Rev. Mr. Oakley, of St. Paul's, Onslow Square, London, 
 when travelling south of Algiers, met Mohammedans who 
 asked him if he were of the same tribe as Henry Martyn, 
 the man of God whose controversy at Shiraz and books 
 they knew. A Persian of gentle manners, who had a surpris- 
 ing knowledge of the Mesnevi, that inexhaustible fountain 
 of Soofi philosophy, received a copy of Martyn's Persian 
 New Testament. After fourteen years' study of it, in 
 silence, he applied to the nearest Christian, an Armenian 
 bishop, for baptism unto Christ. Fearing the consequences, 
 the bishop sent on the catechumen to the Armenian priests 
 at Calcutta, who, equally afraid that the news would reach 
 the Persian authorities, handed him over to the Rev. E. C 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 527 
 
 Stuart, then the Church Missionary Society's secretary 
 there, and a Persian scholar, now Bishop of Waiapu. Mr. 
 Stuart took him as his guest, found that he delighted in 
 instruction in the New Testament, and baptized him. Ulti- 
 mately the convert went back to Persia as one who ' had 
 gained a sincere faith in Christ from the simple reading 
 of H. Martyn's Persian Testament.' 
 
 In 1842 the learned Bombay chaplain, George Percy 
 Badger, visited Tokat on a mission from the Archbishop 
 of Canterbury and the Bishop of London to the Nestorian 
 tribes of Koordistan. He was guided to Henry Martyn's 
 first tomb by the Armenian priest who had performed the 
 rites of Christian burial. While Mrs. Badger sought out 
 and planted wild flowers around the stone, her husband, 
 recalling the fervent zeal and ardent piety of the departed, 
 ' lifted up a secret prayer that God in His mercy would 
 raise up many of a like spirit to labour among the be- 
 nighted Mohammedans of the East.' * 
 
 Adopting the report of their missionaries in 1830, the 
 American Board at Boston sent out Dr. Henry J. van 
 Lennep, who first visited Tokat fourteen years after them, 
 and thirty-two years after Henry Martyn's death. The first 
 object of his attention was the grave, which then he had 
 great difficulty in discovering and identifying. It was this 
 experience, and not any earlier facts, that must have led to 
 the publication of these lines : 
 
 No stone marks the spot where these ashes are resting, 
 No tear has e'er hallowed thy cold, lonely grave, 
 
 But the wild warring winds whistle round thy bleak dwelling, 
 And the fierce wintry torrent sweeps o'er it with its wave. 
 
 1 The Nestorians and their Ritiials in 1842-1844, 2 vols. London ; 
 Joseph Masters, 1852. 
 
528 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 In his Travels in Little Known Parts of Asia Minor, 1 
 Dr. van Lennep writes : 
 
 The Armenian bury ing-ground, where he was laid, is 
 situated just outside of the town, and hard by the wretched 
 gipsy quarter which forms its eastern extremity. It is a 
 most barren and desolate spot, overhung by lofty cliffs of 
 clay slate. Its only verdure, besides the rank weeds that 
 spring up between the thickly set graves, consists of two 
 scraggy wild pear-trees nearly dead for lack of moisture. 
 The sexton of the church near by could give no informa- 
 tion, and I was left to search for it alone. Beginning at 
 the graves lying at the outer edge of the ground nearest 
 the road, I advanced towards the hill, examining each in 
 its turn, until just at the foot of the overhanging cliffs I 
 came upon a slab of coarse limestone, some forty inches by 
 twenty, bearing the following inscription : 
 
 REV . VIR . 
 
 GUG 2 . MARTINO . 
 
 SACER . Ac . Miss . ANGLO . 
 
 QUEM . IN . PATR . REDI . 
 
 DOMINUS 
 
 Hie . BERISAE . AD . SB . Voc . 
 PIUM . D . FIDEL . Q . SER . 
 
 A.D. MDCCCXII. 
 HUNC . LAP . CONSAC . 
 
 C. I. R. 
 A.D. MDCCCXIII. 
 
 It was just ten years after this first visit that I was 
 again in Tokat, not on a transient visit, but with. the 
 purpose of making that city my permanent abode. A 
 little party of us soon repaired to the hallowed spot. 
 Guided by my recollections and a drawing made at my 
 previous visit, we were soon at the place ; but in the last 
 
 1 New York, 1870, 2 vols. I2mo. Also published by John Murray, 
 London, 1870. 
 
 2 Mr. Rich, British Resident at Baghdad, who had laid this monumental 
 slab, was evidently ignorant of Martyn's Christian name. 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 529 
 
 few years it had undergone a remarkable change. Instead 
 of the slab of stone with its inscription, which we expected 
 to see, we only found a smooth surface of pebbly and sandy 
 soil overgrown with weeds, without vestige of stone or 
 mound to indicate the presence of a grave ; but the iden- 
 tical surroundings were there, too well remembered to be 
 mistaken. Could it be that, as happens in these lawless 
 regions, the stone had been removed by some ruthless 
 hand and incorporated in the wall of a neighbouring 
 building ? We could not accept that unpleasant conclusion, 
 and, calling the sexton, we directed him to dig where we 
 pointed. It was at a depth of two feet from the surface 
 that the stone came into view : the soil and rubbish accu- 
 mulated upon the grave were then removed, and we hoped 
 the place would hereafter need little attention. But, to our 
 surprise, we found it again, the ensuing spring, covered to 
 the same depth as before. The soil was washed upon it by 
 the rains from the whole mountain side, and we found that 
 were a wall built for its protection, the gipsy boys, who 
 made this their playground, would soon have it down. 
 
 Some time after this, a correspondence took place with 
 friends in London, which resulted in a grant being made by 
 the late Hon. East India Company's Board of Directors, 
 for the purpose of erecting a more suitable monument to 
 the memory of Henry Martyn, to be placed with his re- 
 mains in the Mission Burying-ground. The monument 
 was cut out of native marble, and made by native workmen 
 at Tokat. The remains were removed under the inspection 
 of the missionary physician, and though it was difficult 
 positively to identify them, there can be no doubt that what 
 was found once formed a portion of the earthly tenement 
 of the devoted and lamented missionary. There were no 
 remains of a coffin ; Orientals never use them, and he was 
 doubtless laid in immediate contact with the soil, literally 
 ' dust to dust.' The monument under which we laid these 
 remains was the first grave in our little cemetery, and well 
 
 M M 
 
530 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 might it be said that it became sacred ground. The 
 obelisk has four faces, on each of which the name, encircled 
 with a wreath, is cut, severally in English, Armenian, 
 Persian, and Turkish. The four sides of the base contain 
 the following inscription in the same languages : 
 
 REV. HENRY MARTYN, M.A. 
 
 CHAPLAIN OF THE HON. EAST INDIA COMPANY, 
 BORN AT TRURO, ENGLAND, FEBRUARY 18, 1781, 
 
 DIED AT TOKAT, OCTOBER 16, 1812. 
 
 HE LABOURED FOR MANY YEARS IN THE EAST, STRIVING TO 
 
 BENEFIT MANKIND BOTH IN THIS WORLD AND THAT TO COME. 
 
 HE TRANSLATED THE HOLY SCRIPTURES INTO HlNDOSTANEE 
 
 AND PERSIAN, 
 
 AND PREACHED THE GOD AND SAVIOUR OF WHOM THEY TESTIFY. 
 
 HE WILL LONG BE REMEMBERED IN THE EAST, WHERE HE WAS 
 
 KNOWN AS A MAN OF GOD. 
 
 The grave now lies in a spot every way adapted to 
 foster the holy memories which it recalls. It stands upon 
 a broad and high terrace, overlooking the whole city for 
 whose salvation we cannot doubt that he offered some of 
 the last petitions ' of the righteous man, which avail much.' 
 It is a solitude, immediately surrounded by the thick 
 foliage of fruit trees, among which tall walnuts are con- 
 spicuous. We ourselves planted by its side the only weep- 
 ing willows which exist in the whole region. The place is 
 visited by many, who read the concise inscription and 
 further inquire into the good man's history. It has always 
 been a favourite place of resort of our students and native 
 Christians, and they have many a time sat under its shade 
 and expounded to wondering strangers the very doctrines 
 to propagate which that model of a missionary had sacri- 
 ficed his life. 
 
 Tokat is now for ever memorable as the centre which 
 links the names of Basiliscus, the martyr, Basil the Great, 
 John Chrysostom, and Henry Martyn. The cloud-crested 
 fortress points almost straight up from the Jeshil-Irmak 
 
TOMB OF HENRY MARTYN 
 
 MM? 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 533 
 
 river, the ancient Iris, which, rising in the Anti-Taurus 
 range of Pontus, finds its way to the Black Sea with a 
 breadth and volume of water second only to the Halys. 
 Still, as of old, the town crowds about the foot of the two 
 spiral crags and straggles out with towered church, mosque 
 and minaret, into the valley. The ruins of the embattled 
 walls crowning every pinnacle of the insulated rocks of 
 which they seem to form a part, tell of the days when 
 Greek and Roman passed along the ' royal road ' from 
 Amisos or Samsoon on the Euxine to Sebaste, Caesareia, 
 and Central Asia ; and when the Saracens beat off the 
 Emperor Michael (860) from what was then called 
 Daximon. 1 The time is coming when there shall once 
 more be here a highway of civilisation after the barren 
 centuries of the Moslem. 
 
 Tokat represents Komana Pontica, six miles off, the 
 oracle and emporium of the royal road, described by Strabo 
 as a little Corinth for vice and traffic. Another step, 
 and the Apostle Paul himself might have visited it from 
 Galatia. In 312, in the persecution under Maximin, Basi- 
 liscus, the bishop of Komana, was martyred, being shod 
 with red-hot iron shoes, beheaded, and thrown into the 
 Iris. The Acta picture the saint as led on foot by soldiers 
 along the road without food for four days, till he reached 
 Komana ; ' and the road was much the same as the 
 modern way, Tokat to Amaseia,' along which Henry 
 Martyn was violently hurried by his Tartar. In the 
 martyrium, built a few miles out of Komana, in memory 
 of Basiliscus, Chrysostom found rest in death, and a 
 grave. 
 
 Basilius, the bishop of Caesareia, belonged to the 
 
 1 Professor W. M. Ramsay's Historical Geography of Asia Minor ; 1890. 
 
534 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 neighbouring province of Cappadocia, but his missionary 
 influence, and that of his bishop brother, Gregory Nyssen, 
 and his sister, Macrina, spread all over Pontus, while 
 Gregory Nazianzen was his fellow- student at Athens, and his 
 admiring friend, as Julian also, the future Emperor, was for 
 a time. Like Martyn, Basil owed to his sister his conversion, 
 his call to the ministry, and his self-sacrifice all through 
 life. It was on the banks of the Iris above Tokat that, 
 secluded for five years, the great Father laid the founda- 
 tion of the monastic communities of the Greek Church, 
 and learned to be the future defender of orthodoxy against 
 the Arians, and of the unity of the Oriental Church. 
 
 But it is the exile and death of John Chrysostom, just 
 fourteen centuries before, that form the most touching 
 parallel to the sufferings of Henry Martyn. Never has 
 there been a greater missionary bishop than the ' golden- 
 mouthed ' preacher of Antioch and Constantinople. The 
 victim first of a cabal of bishops, and then of the Empress 
 Eudoxia, whose vices and sacrilege he rebuked, he was 
 driven from Constantinople to the scorching plains of 
 Cappadocia in the midsummer heat. His guard drove on 
 the venerable man day and night, giving him no rest. 
 When a halt was made, it was always in some filthy village 
 where good water was not. Fever and ague were pro- 
 voked, but still he was forced on to Basil's city of Caesareia, 
 to find Basil's successor his bitter enemy. Taking a 
 physician with him he reached his destination at Kokussos, 
 where the Empress had hoped that the barbarians would 
 make an end of him. As it seemed likely to prove his 
 Tabreez, he was once more driven forth on foot, under two 
 guards selected for -their brutality. It took him three 
 months to reach Komana one long, slow martyrdom to 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 535 
 
 the fever-stricken old man. * It was evident that Chryso- 
 stom's strength was entirely worn out,' writes Canon 
 Venables, in words which exactly describe the experience 
 of the young Henry Martyn. ' But his pitiless guard 
 hurried him through the town " as if its streets were no 
 more than a bridge," without a moment's halt.' Five miles 
 farther on they halted at the chapel of the martyr 
 Basiliscus, of whom Chrysostom dreamed that he saw him 
 and heard him say : * Be of good cheer ; on the morrow 
 we shall be together.' Canon Venables continues, uncon- 
 sciously, the parallel with the experience of the nineteenth- 
 century saint of the Evangel : 
 
 In the morning Chrysostom earnestly begged for a 
 brief respite, but in vain. He was hurried off, but scarcely 
 had he gone three or four miles when a violent attack of 
 fever compelled them to retrace their steps. 
 
 On reaching the martyrium, Chrysostom, led within, 
 stripped off his soiled garments, clothed himself in white 
 baptismal vestments, joined in the communion of the 
 body and blood of the Lord Jesus Christ, offered his last 
 prayer ' for present needs,' uttered his accustomed doxology : 
 ' Glory be to God for all things,' and, having said ' Amen,' 
 breathed his last on September 14, 407, in his sixtieth 
 year. His body was laid beside that of Basiliscus. A 
 generation after, the children of the Empress and Emperor 
 who had thus slaughtered the saint brought back his body 
 and gave it imperial sepulture in Constantinople, while 
 they publicly asked Heaven to forgive the wrong of the 
 past. 
 
 From Basiliscus, Basil, and Chrysostom to Henry 
 Martyn, the fourteen centuries tell of the corruption of the 
 
536 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Church of Christ in the East, and the rise upon its ruins 
 of Mohammedanism, which covered the northern half of 
 Africa, and Spain, and reached as far as Tours and Vienna 
 in Europe. It is to the glory of Henry Martyn that he 
 was the first missionary of the Reformed Church of the 
 West to the Mohammedans, giving those of India and 
 Central Asia the Gospel and the Psalms in two of their 
 own vernaculars, and dying for them before he could com- 
 plete his work at the Arabic Bible. 
 
 We shall see whom his example inspired to follow him. 
 His death became a summons, first to his own evangelical 
 circle in England and India, and then to the whole Church 
 of Christ, to follow in the path that he marked out alike 
 by his toiling and his writing. 
 
 Sergius, the Armenian, must at once have pursued the 
 journey from Tokat to Constantinople, which is distant 
 from Tabreez 1,542 miles, and not 1,300 as roundly esti- 
 mated by Henry Martyn. He presented the letters of his 
 master to Mr. Isaac Morier, in the Sultan's capital, father 
 of Sir Gore Ouseley's secretary and successor. On 
 February 12, 1813, Charles Simeon wrote thus to Mr. 
 Thomason in Calcutta : 
 
 The day before yesterday a letter arrived from 
 Mr. Isaac Morier, of Constantinople, announcing that on 
 October 16 (or thereabouts) our beloved brother entered 
 into the realms of glory, and rested for ever in the bosom 
 of his God. . . But what an event it is ! How calamitous 
 to his friends, to India, and to the world ! Methinks I 
 hear God say : * Be still and know that I am God.' . . . 
 I had been forming plans in my mind with a view to the 
 restoration of his health in England, and should now have 
 been able to carry into execution whatever might have 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 537 
 
 been judged expedient ; but I am denied the joy of 
 ministering to him ! 
 
 Again on April 2 : 
 
 We are making collections for Mr. Martyn's brother's 
 family, who in him have lost their main support. We have 
 got about 4OO/., and Mr. Thornton has sent you a paper 
 for the purpose of getting them some aid in India. 
 
 The news reached Lydia Grenfell on February 14, 1813. 
 She was then for a fortnight at Marazion, where every spot 
 recalled the past. She thus communed with herself and 
 God in her Diary : 
 
 Marazion : February 20, 1813. 
 
 I am fearful to retrace the last week on two accounts, 
 lest the infirmity of nature prevail, and I give way to 
 sorrow, and lest, in recollecting the wondrous kindness 
 and love of God my Saviour, I increase my pride and not 
 my gratitude. Oh, shall I then remain silent ? Shall Thy 
 mercies be forgotten ? Teach me, O Lord, to write and 
 speak for Thy glory, and to my own deeper humiliation. 
 Heard on the I4th of the removal of my most tender, 
 faithful, and beloved friend to the joys of heaven. Oh, I 
 could not wish his absence from them prolonged. What I 
 only wished was, and now I am reconciled to that too, I 
 wished to have been honoured of God so far as to have 
 been near him, or that some friend had been. 1 Lord, if 
 this was wrong, forgive me. I will endeavour, yea, I am 
 enabled to say of this too, ' Thy will be done.' Great has 
 been the peace and tranquillity of my soul, such nearness 
 to God, such a hold of Christ, such hope in the promises, 
 such assurance of bliss and immortality, as I cannot 
 express, and may have to forget. Oh, that I may never 
 
 1 ' Paucioribus lacrymis compositus es.' Tac. quoted on this occasion by 
 Sargent, Memoir of Marlyn, p. 493. 
 
538 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 lose, rather would I lose everything I most prize, every 
 earthly friend, every earthly enjoyment, than this. Oh, 
 the fear of doing so, or of the abatement of spiritual per- 
 ceptions and affections, is the thing I most dread, and 
 makes me long to die. It is not for the sake of rejoining 
 that blessed spirit of my friend, though I have, and do, 
 feel that too, but to be again shut out from Thy possession 
 is what I fear. 
 
 February 28. A silent Sabbath, at least to me, to my 
 ears, I should say, for I trust God speaks to my heart. 
 ' Comfort ye, comfort ye, My people/ enables me to take 
 comfort. I feel a submission to the will of God which is 
 more blessed than when I had my own in the ministry of 
 the Word, yet this is a time which calls for prayer. Lord, 
 pour out the spirit of prayer on me and many, and grant 
 us grace to ask, fervently yet resignedly, the restoration of 
 Thy preached gospel. Suddenly are we deprived of it, 
 may it be as quickly restored. Very weak in health, so 
 powerless this morning, I could not but think my earthly 
 bed was preparing for me too, and that my soul would 
 soon return to God, but I am better, and willing to stay my 
 appointed time. True, to perform my work in a little 
 time might be what I should rejoice in, but I am willing 
 to live, so I may have the presence of God with me, and 
 be engaged in His service. I have a pleasure in supposing 
 it possible the blessed spirit of my friend may be, on some 
 occasions, sent to protect, to console, and counsel me, 
 but this is a weakness, and perhaps should not be indulged. 
 I felt this afternoon as if he was present, as I sat alone in 
 the garden, the thought only disposed me to solemnity 
 and pensiveness of mind. I am afraid of my dependence 
 on the creature, whether embodied or not, and I will rather 
 trust to the sure support of God's Word. 
 
 March 2. Some sorrowful thoughts will enter my 
 mind respecting my late dear friend, and call forth some 
 sighs and tears from my heart, yet is that heart resigned 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 539 
 
 to the will of God, and confident of His having done all 
 things well for His beloved servant. Oh, how shall I, with 
 wonder and praise, listen in eternity to the relation of his 
 last days ! The excess of affection now, and the unwilling- 
 ness I feel that he should have suffered, make it amongst 
 my mercies that a veil is drawn over that period of his 
 life. It is mercy all, and God is good to me in everything. 
 I see His hand, I love and I adore. I submit and resign 
 myself to His blessed disposal and to all His dispensations. 
 I have been thinking how necessary for me it was that we 
 are thus separated ; for during his life I felt such a desire 
 to please and to be worthy of the regard he entertained 
 for me, that it was my bane, and caused me to forget God 
 as the first object I was to think of and please. I accept 
 the punishment sent for this offence, may it prove an 
 effectual cure of this evil in my heart ! 
 
 March 8. During the last few days I have experienced 
 much of the Divine support and consolation of the Gospel. 
 It has been a time of conflict, not inward, blessed be the 
 name of the Lord. I have enjoyed a constant, uninterrupted 
 peace, a peace past all understanding, unless experienced. 
 I never was more sensible of, or rejoiced more in the 
 presence of God, and my heart rises to my Maker with 
 delight and joy, as easily as I breathe. God, ( as soon as 
 sought, is found/ through Jesus Christ, but I have been 
 put into the hands of a bitter enemy, and that enemy. . . . 
 She has left me, and I pray that every uneasy feeling 
 excited in my breast by her unkind and injurious treatment 
 may depart with her. Oh, how I rejoice that no storms 
 can molest the dead who die in the Lord, they rest from 
 their labours of every kind. Since the account reached 
 me of the departure of my dear friend to be with Christ, 
 which is far better than to be here, every evil I suffer, or 
 fear, is blessed in its purpose, from knowing he can never 
 feel the same ; and all I enjoy or behold that is delightful, 
 is the more enjoyed from thinking ' he has all this, and 
 
540 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 more, in perfection, and without interruption.' May I 
 accomplish my work of suffering, or ending, or labouring, 
 and then enter into rest. 
 
 March 13. Nature has its turn in my feelings. To- 
 day I have been given to feel more of sorrow for the 
 removal of my beloved friend, and, without desiring it to 
 be otherwise, to mourn my own loss. The recollection of 
 his unmerited kindness softens my heart, and I can hardly 
 forbear indulging a tenderness which may weaken but 
 cannot strengthen my mind. O Lord, I beseech Thee 
 preserve me from whatever may injure my soul and unfit 
 me for Thy service. I have the hope of heaven too, and 
 that is enough. In heaven we shall meet and unite for 
 ever in the work of praise. Life, with its trials and cares, 
 will be but short. May I only desire to live to Thee, my 
 God, and finish the work Thou hast given me to do. 
 Lord, make me faithful, self-denying, and submissive to 
 Thy will. 
 
 April 3. My thoughts revert to the possible circum- 
 stances of my late dear friend's sufferings and death, and 
 I am sunk low by doing so. It was the last step he had 
 to travel below, and one necessary to be taken, in order to 
 reach the heights of glory. There let me view him 
 triumphing with his Saviour, and through His meritorious 
 sufferings and death made more than conqueror over all 
 his enemies. I must think more of his glorious Lord, and 
 less of the servant, either as suffering and labouring or 
 glorified and resting. Lord, be graciously present, and in 
 the contemplation of Thy perfections, and the review of 
 Thy mercies, let me forget everything beside. 
 
 April 21. A letter from Tabreez, dated August 28, 
 reached me. O Thou who readest my heart, direct and 
 sanctify every feeling. May the anguish of my soul be 
 moderated, and let me endeavour to exercise faith in Thy 
 Divine goodness, mercy, and power, and to believe it was 
 well with him in all respects. 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 541 
 
 April 24. I am tormented with fears that even in 
 eternity I shall never be capable of enjoying the same 
 happiness my departed friend does, and it seems as if no 
 other would satisfy me. O Lord Jesus, weary and heavy 
 laden I come to Thee ; let me behold the light of Thy 
 countenance, and praise Thee, and lose in the contemplation 
 of Thy glories, and in the sense of Thy love to my soul, 
 let me lose the remembrance of every other excellence. 
 When the sun shines the light of the stars is eclipsed ; 
 thus may it be with me ! Unless the genius which shone 
 in his character make me admire and love God more, let 
 me turn from viewing them. Oh, teach me to love Thy 
 saints, whether living or dead, and for Thy sake and Thy- 
 self above them all. I have never felt I was not resigned 
 to the will of God in our separation on earth, but my 
 anxious mind dwells on another, which I cannot bear to 
 think possible. 
 
 June 3. For several days my mind has been occupied 
 with recollections that weaken its hold of spiritual things. 
 I think more of a departed saint than of the King of 
 Saints. It is strange that now I should be more in danger 
 of loving too well a creature passed into the skies than 
 when he lived on earth. But so it is, continually my 
 thoughts revert to him. I pray God this may not be a 
 snare unto me to divide me from Himself. Let me behold 
 Jesus. 
 
 June 13. Passed a very blessed Sabbath. My soul 
 quickened, Oh, let it live, and it shall praise Thee ! A 
 letter from my dearest Emma containing wholesome, 
 though at first unwelcome, counsel, has been of singular 
 use to me. The snare is seen, if not broken. Yes, I have 
 lost my hold of everything that used, and ought, to support 
 me by allowing, without restraint, the remembrance of my 
 late dear friend to fill my mind. My almost constant 
 thoughts were of him, and pride at the preference he 
 showed me was fed, as well as affection. Now I have a 
 
542 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 painful, difficult part to act. A sacrifice I must offer of 
 what has become so much my happiness as to interfere 
 with my enjoyment of God. I must fly from the recollec- 
 tion of an earthly object, loved too well, viewed too much. 
 Let me follow his faith, *and consider the end of his con- 
 versation, Jesus Christ, the same for ever. I have had 
 the greatest peace to-day in only trying to resolve on this, 
 how merciful is God ! 
 
 1814, January 28. Found great sweetness yesterday 
 and to-day in reading and sweet prayer in the garden ; 
 was sensibly refreshed in the exercise, and had a taste that 
 the Lord was gracious. This evening my heart is sad, not 
 from the withdrawing of those consolations, or darkness of 
 soul, as is often the case, but from having the circumstances 
 of my revered friend's death brought to my recollection. 
 I strive not to dwell on them, for oh, what a scope do they 
 give to my busy fancy ! I would fly from this subject as 
 too high for me, and take refuge in this : the Lord did not 
 forsake His servant, and precious was his death in His 
 sight. Nature is weak, but faith can strengthen me. 
 
 February 12. A twelvemonth, this day, since I heard of 
 the death of my dear friend. My thoughts revert to this event, 
 but more to the mercies of God to me at that season. 
 
 October 16. My thoughts engaged often to-day by the 
 event of this day in 1812. Twice has the earth performed 
 its annual round since the honoured servant of God received 
 the welcome mandate to cease from his labours, and join 
 those who ' see His face ' and * serve Him,' unencumbered 
 with flesh and blood. He no longer measures time by days 
 and years, and there is no tedious six days between 
 Sabbath and Sabbath, as it is here. ' How blessed are 
 those who die in the Lord.' This expresses my feelings 
 most at the remembrance of this departed saint. May I 
 abide in Christ, and te with Him and His saints for ever. 
 O blessed hope of everlasting life, I will cherish it, exult 
 in it, and may I pursue till I attain it 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 543 
 
 It was April 18, 1813, when Corrie and Thomason in 
 India learned what they had always feared since the dearest 
 of all friends to them had passed through Calcutta on his 
 way to Arabia. Corrie was at Agra, and he wrote to his 
 brother-in-law, Mr. C. Shaw, in reply to a letter 'containing 
 the affecting intelligence of Martyn's death, to us afflictive, 
 to him happy beyond expression. I could find nothing 
 but lamentations to express lamentations for us, not for 
 him. He was meet for " the inheritance of the saints in light." 
 My master is taken from me ; oh, for a double portion of 
 his spirit ! The work of printing and distributing the 
 Scriptures will henceforth go on more slowly.' Again, to 
 Simeon : ' Could he look from heaven and see the Abdool 
 Massee'h, with the translated New Testament in his hand, 
 preaching to the listening throng, ... it would add fresh 
 delight to his holy soul.' Thomason, at once his disciple 
 and his friend, wrote : ' He was in our hearts ; we honoured 
 him ; we loved him ; we thanked God for him ; we prayed 
 for his longer continuance amongst us ; we rejoiced in the 
 good he was doing. We a/e sadly bereaved. Where such 
 fervent piety, and extensive knowledge, and vigorous under- 
 standing, and classical taste, and unwearied application 
 were all united, what might not have been expected ? ' 
 When, soon after, Thomason, as chaplain, accompanied the 
 Governor-General, Lord Moira, through North India, and 
 arrived at Cawnpore, he had eyes and thoughts only for 
 his friend. ' In these sandy plains I have been tracing 
 again and again the days of Marty n. Close by me is the 
 house that dear minister occupied, leading to which is the 
 gloomy line of aloes spoken of by Mrs. Sherwood. . . . Oh, 
 for Martyn's humility and love! . . . His standard of every 
 duty was the highest, and his feelings of joy, sorrow, love, 
 
544 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 most intense ; whilst his conversation was always in heaven, 
 the savour of his holy disposition was as ointment poured 
 forth. . . . Woe unto us if we do not pray more, live more 
 above the world and deny ourselves more, and love Christ 
 more ! ' , 
 
 John Sargent, Rector of Lavington, the earliest of Henry 
 Martyn's intimate friends, at once undertook to write a 
 memoir of his life, for which Simeon charged himself with 
 collecting ' all possible materials from India and Persia.' 
 Bishop Corrie accordingly addressed Sargent thus : 
 
 Agra: November I, 1813. 
 
 It will be of use for you to know that when he left 
 Cawnpore in 1810 to seek change of air I was with him, 
 and persuaded him to leave in my hands a number of 
 memorandums he was about to destroy. They were sealed 
 up, but on his death, being opened, they proved to be 
 journals of the exercises of his mind from January 1803 to 
 1807 inclusive. They seem to me no less worthy of 
 publication than the journal of Mr. Brainerd, if more books 
 of that kind should be judged necessary. Since the 
 beginning of 1807 Mr. Martyn favoured me with almost 
 a weekly letter, in which his various employments and 
 engagements for the furtherance of the Gospel in this 
 country are detailed, with occasional very interesting 
 remarks. This correspondence ceased on my being 
 ordered by our Commander-in-chief to assist Mr. Martyn 
 in the duties of the station of Cawnpore, when I took up 
 my abode with him from June till his departure, October I. 
 Other letters passed between us after that time, and it is 
 my intention to send you copies of all the above corre- 
 spondence, together with his private memorandums. The 
 latter, with copies of Martyn's letters from February to 
 July 1807, were sent, off this day to Mr. Thomason in 
 Calcutta, to be forwarded to England by the first oppor- 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 545 
 
 tunity, and the copies of the remaining letters shall follow 
 as soon as may be. Of course I have omitted to copy 
 what seems purely personal : yet much remains which you 
 will perhaps judge unnecessary for publication, and will 
 exercise your own judgment on that head. All the 
 extracts seem to me, however, to cast light on the progress 
 of missionary work in this land, and may perhaps be 
 thought interesting to those who take a concern in Indian 
 affairs. These extracts give so full a view of Mr. Martyn's 
 character that nothing remains for me to add. Only I may 
 say a more perfect character I never met with, nor expect 
 to see again on earth. During the four years we were 
 fellow-labourers in this country, I had no less than six 
 opportunities of enjoying his company ; the last time for 
 four months together, and under the same roof all the time ; 
 and each opportunity only increased my love and veneration 
 for him. 
 
 I conclude the above intelligence will plead my excuse 
 for writing to you without previous introduction, and I was 
 anxious it should reach you through the nearest channel. 
 Your brother in Calcutta has told me several times of your 
 welfare, and during beloved Martyn's life I used to hear of 
 you sometimes. Your person, whilst a student at King's 
 College, was well known to me, and your character admired, 
 though I had not steadiness of principle sufficient at that 
 time to imitate you, and consequently had no pretensions to 
 an acquaintance with you, though I often greatly desired it. 
 To that ' Father in Israel,' Mr. Simeon, I owe all my 
 comfort on earth and all my hopes respecting eternity : for 
 through his instrumentality the seeds of grace, I trust, were, 
 during my residence at Cambridge, especially during the 
 latter part of my residence, implanted in my heart, and have 
 influenced, though alas ! unsteadily, my after days. 
 
 Lydia Grenfell was of course consulted as the work made 
 progress, but none of her letters to Marty n have seen the light. 
 
 N N 
 
546 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 1815, December 26. Wrote this day to Mr. Simeon. I 
 have reason to search into my heart and watch the risings 
 of pride there, both respecting the notice of this blessed 
 saint, and the avowal to be expected of my being the 
 object of so much regard from another still more eminent 
 in the Church of Christ. I have ever stood amazed at 
 this, and now that in the providence of God it seems 
 certain that my being so favoured is likely to be made 
 known, vanity besets me. Oh, how poor a creature am I ! 
 Lord, I pray, let me be enabled to trace some evidence of 
 Thine eternal love to me, and let this greater wonder call 
 off my thoughts from every other distinction. But how 
 do I learn that in the whole of this notice my thoughts 
 have not indeed been Thine, O Lord, nor my ways Thy 
 ways ? How much above all I could have conceived of 
 have been the designs of God ! I sought concealment, and 
 lo ! all is made known to many, and much will be even 
 known to the world. It is strange for me to credit this, 
 and strange that, with my natural reserve and the peculiar 
 reasons that exist for my wishing to have this buried in 
 silence, I am nevertheless composed about it. But, Lord, 
 I would resign myself, and all things that concern me, to 
 Thy sovereign will and pleasure. Preserve me blameless 
 to Thine eternal kingdom, and grant me an everlasting 
 union with thy servant above. 
 
 1816, January 28. I feel an increased thankfulness 
 that God has called me to live free from the many cares 
 which fall on all in the married state, and for the peculiarly 
 favourable circumstances He has placed me in here. The 
 privilege of watching over my mother in the decline of life, 
 the charge of a sweet child, the occupation of the schools, 
 and a portion of this world's goods for the use of the poor, 
 all, all call for more thankfulness and diligence. Lord, 
 help me to abound in both, and with and above all I have 
 peace and hope in God through Jesus Christ, in a measure 
 though unbelief often robs my soul of both. Oh, let me 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 547 
 
 seek the grace of steadfast faith, and I have all I want or 
 desire. 
 
 April 21. Thought with delight of my loved friends, 
 Mrs. Hoare and H. M., both before the Throne, led by the 
 Lamb to living fountains of waters, and all tears wiped 
 away from their eyes. Oh, I long to be there ; yet I could 
 willingly forego the joys of heaven if I might, by suffering 
 or labours here, glorify my Lord and Saviour. 
 
 June 30. Often have I thought, when desirous of pur- 
 suing a more consistent deportment, and of introducing 
 spiritual subjects : ' How can I appear so different before 
 those I have been so trifling and merely worldly in all my 
 intercourse with ? ' The death of my esteemed and beloved 
 brother in Christ, H. M., I thought would have been the 
 period for my maintaining that serious watchfulness so 
 essential to my enjoyment of God ; but no, I have been 
 worse since, I think, as a judgment for failing in my keep- 
 ing my resolution. 
 
 In 1817 Lydia Grenfell's Diary records the visits of such 
 men as Mr. Fenn, ' who came to preach in the great cause 
 of the Church Missionary Society,' and of Mr. Bickersteth, 
 who at Penzance ' stated what he had met with in Africa.' 
 The author of many immortal hymns, Francis Thomas 
 Lyte, ' opened his ministry ' of two years in Marazion at 
 this time, to her joy and spiritual growth. She notes on 
 August 31, 1817, that his hymn 'Penitence' was sung for 
 the first time. 
 
 Marazion : March 6, 1819. 
 
 Received, a few days since, Mr. Sargent's Memoir, 
 and reading only a few pages has convinced me that, 
 without a greater resemblance in the spirit to our friend, 
 I never can partake of that blessedness now enjoyed by the 
 happy subject of it in the presence of his Saviour. It is 
 chiefly in humility, meekness, and love I see the sad, the 
 
 N N 3 
 
548 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 total difference. This may be traced to a departure from 
 the fountain of grace, Christ Jesus, to whom, oh, may I 
 return, and I shall be replenished. 
 
 October 14. Indulged a wandering imagination, and am 
 sad in consequence. This season I ought to deem a sacred 
 one. Oh, that, in my remembrance of Thy blessed . . . 
 and servant, I could entirely forget what feeds rny vanity. 
 Lord, help me to check all earthly sorrow at the recollec- 
 tion of his many sorrows, for were they not the appointed 
 means of fitting him for his present felicity, and of mani- 
 festing Thy grace, by which Thou art glorified ? I would 
 make this season one of serious preparation for my own 
 departure, and what does that preparation consist in ? 
 faith in Jesus. Oh, strengthen it in me, and by following 
 Thy blessed saint in all virtuous and godly living I may 
 come to those eternal joys prepared for those that love 
 Thee. 
 
 1 820, June 25. Oh, what a heaven for a creature, who has 
 no strength, or wisdom, or righteousness, like myself, to be 
 fixed in, beholding the glories of Jehovah manifested in Him 
 who is my Saviour and my Lord. Gladly would I part from 
 this dull clod of earth and come to Thee, and reach the 
 pure pleasures of a spiritual state. There, there dwells the 
 blessed Martyn, who bows before the throne, of a glorious 
 company of saints, washed with him, and clothed in spot- 
 less robes. Oh, (that) I may be brought to them. 
 
 December 5. Thought of the holy martyr, so humble, 
 so self-denying, so devoted, and of his early-accomplished 
 prayer for the heavenly country, where he dwells perfect in 
 purity and love. Oh, to be a follower of him as he followed 
 Christ, and to walk in the same paths, influenced by the 
 same holy, humble, heavenly principles, upheld by the 
 same arm of omnipotent grace, till I too reach the rest 
 above. 
 
 1821, January 23. Elevated rather than refreshed and 
 humbled in worship to-day. Imagination has been too 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 549 
 
 active and unrestrained. The remembrance of past events, 
 in which that blessed saint now with God, H. M. (? figured), 
 has been filling my mind. This should not be. This is 
 not communion with him, now a glorified spirit, but merely 
 the indulgence of a vain, sinful imagination. I would turn 
 from all, from the most holy creatures, to the Holy One, 
 and the just ; spiritual, and moral, yea, Divine glory and 
 beauty I may behold in Him, who is the chief among ten 
 thousand, and altogether lovely. 
 
 October 18. I have now survived my beloved friend 
 eight years. Eight years have been given me to be pre- 
 pared for that world of blessedness he has so long entered 
 upon. Alas ! I seem less so now than at any period. 
 
 1822, October 16. The remembrance of the event of 
 the day has been rendered useless by my absence from 
 home great part of it. It should be the occasion for 
 renewed self-dedication, of more earnest prayer, and of 
 humiliation ; for the recollection of being the cause of 
 increased sufferings to Thy saint, O Lord, is cause for con- 
 stant humiliation. I would realise death, and look to 
 eternity, and to that glorious Saviour, for whom the blessed 
 subject of my thoughts lived only to serve and honour. Oh, 
 never more shall I have intercourse with the beloved friend 
 now with Christ, but by faith in Christ. Lord, help me to 
 use the recollection of our earthly regard to promote this 
 end. 
 
 October 19. My birthday (forty-seventh) follows that 
 of the anniversary of the death of Martyn. 
 
 December 31. Read dear Martyn's sermon on the 
 Christian's walk with greater enjoyment and unction than 
 has been vouchsafed unto me for a long season. The 
 holy simplicity of the directions, and persuasive motives 
 to walk in, as well as receive, Christ, had influence in my 
 heart. 
 
 182 3, January n. Placed in my room yesterday the 
 print of dear M. Felt affected greatly in doing so, and 
 
550 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 my tears, which seldom flow in the presence of anyone, 
 I could not restrain before the person who was fixing it. 1 
 With the Saviour now, and the Saviour, doubtless, was 
 with him in his greatest agony, even the agony of death 
 this thought will be the more familiar to me by viewing 
 the representation of Christ's Crucifixion, now placed over 
 the picture of His servant. I trust, by a prudent and not too 
 frequent sight of both, I may derive some advantage from 
 possessing what is so affecting and so admonitory to me, 
 who am declining in religious fervour and spirituality. 
 Thus may I use both, not to exercise feelings, but faith. 
 I cannot behold the resemblance of M. but I am reminded 
 that God wrought powerfully on his soul, meeting him for 
 a state of purity, and love, and spiritual enjoyment, and 
 that he has entered upon it. His faithfulness, and dili- 
 gence, and self-denial, and devotedness ; his love to God, 
 and love for souls ; his meekness, and patience, and faith, 
 should stimulate me to earnestness in prayer for a portion 
 of that grace, through which alone he attained them, and 
 was what he was. 
 
 January 19. Read dear Martyn's sermon on 'Tribula- 
 tion the Way to Heaven, 5 with, I trust, a blessing attend- 
 ing it. 
 
 1825, October 16. The anniversary of dear H. M. 
 gaining the haven of rest after his labours. Oh, how little 
 do I labour to enter into that rest he enjoyed upon earth. 
 
 1826, April 2. God, the ever gracious and merciful 
 God, Thee would I bless and everlastingly praise for 
 granting me the favour of hearing ' the joyful sound ' of 
 
 1 Her niece writes of her when she received the news of Henry Martyn's 
 death : ' The circumstances of his affecting death, and my aunt's intense sorrow, 
 produced an ineffaceable remembrance on my own mind. I can never forget 
 the "upper chamber" in which she took refuge from daily cares and inter- 
 ruptions its view of lovely Mount's Bay across fruit-trees and whispering 
 white coelibes its perfect neatness, though with few ornaments. On the 
 principal wall hung a large print of the Crucifixion of our Lord, usually 
 shaded by a curtain, and at its foot (where he would have chosen to be) a 
 portrait of Henry Martyn.' The Church Quarterly Review for October 1881. 
 
THE TWO RESTING-PLACES 551 
 
 His rich love, and abounding grace by Jesus Christ, this 
 day, and by a messenger unexpected, and beloved as a 
 friend and brother. The text was that I once heard 
 preached from by the blessed Martyn, whose spirit I pined 
 to join in offering praises to God after sermon : * Now then 
 we are ambassadors for Christ.' 
 
 June 1 8. My friends gone to heaven seem to re- 
 proach me, that I aim not to follow them, as they followed 
 Christ. The beloved Martyn, the seraphic Louisa Hoare, 
 and my dear l Georgina's spirits are employed in per- 
 petually beholding that God whom I neglect, and remain 
 unconcerned when I do not delight in or serve (Him). Oh, 
 let me be joined to them in the sweet work of adoration 
 and praise to Him who hath loved us, to Jesus, our one 
 Lord and Saviour. Amen. 
 
 So ends the Diary of Lydia Grenfell, the eight last 
 years of her life afflicted by cancerous disease, and one 
 year by a clouded mind. 2 To the manuscript ' E. H.' that 
 is, her sister, Emma Hitchins added these words \ 'This 
 prayer was answered September 21, 1829 ; 
 
 And now they range the heavenly plains, 
 And sing in sweet, heart-melting strains.' 
 
 The motto on her memorial stone in the churchyard 
 of Breage, where she lies near another holy woman, 
 Margaret Godolphin, first wife of Queen Anne's prime 
 minister, is * For a small moment have I forsaken thee, but 
 with great mercies will I gather thee.' 
 
 1 An authoress, and member of the Gurney family, who died in April, 
 1816. 
 
 2 Her Title of Honour, by Holme Lee, in which an attempt is made to 
 tell the story of Lydia Grenfell's life under a fictitious name, is unworthy of the 
 subject and of the writer. 
 
552 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 CHAPTER XV 
 
 BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD 
 
 HENRY MARTYN is, first of all, a spiritual force. Person- 
 ally he was that to all who came in contact with him from 
 the hour in which he gave himself to Jesus Christ To 
 Cambridge student and peasant alike ; to Charles Simeon, 
 his master, as to Kirke White and Sargent, Corrie and 
 Thomason, his admiring friends ; to women like Lydia 
 Grenfell, his senior in years and experience, as to children 
 like his cousin's at Plymouth, and David Brown's at Aldeen ; 
 to the rude soldiery of the Cape campaign and the East 
 India Company's raw recruits as to the cultured statesmen 
 and scholars who were broadening the foundations of our 
 Indian empire ; to the caste-bound Hindu, but far more 
 to the fanatical Arab and the Mohammedan mystic of 
 Persia to all he carried the witness of his saintly life and 
 his Divine message with a simple power that always com- 
 pelled attention, and often drew forth obedience and 
 imitation. His meteor-like spirit burned and flamed as 
 it passed across the first twelve years of the nineteenth 
 century, from the Cam to the Fal, by Brazil and South 
 Africa, by Calcutta and Serampore, by Patna and Cawnpore, 
 by Bombay and Muscat, by Bushire and Shiraz and 
 Tabreez, to the loneliness of the Armenian highlands, and 
 the exile grave of the Turkish Tokat. 
 
BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD 553 
 
 From the year in which Sargent published fragments 
 of his Journal, and half revealed to the whole Church 
 of Christ the personality known in its deep calling unto 
 deep only to the few, Henry Martyn has been the com- 
 panion of good men * and women of all the Churches, and 
 the stimulus of the greatest workers and scholars of the 
 century. The latest writer, the Hon. George N. Curzon, 
 M.P., in his exhaustive work on Persia (1892), describes 
 him as 'this remarkable man, who impressed everyone 
 by his simplicity and godliness of character/ though he 
 ascribes the ' effect in the short space of a year ' as much to 
 the charm of his personality as to the character of his mission. 
 
 Perhaps the most representative of the many whom 
 Martyn is known to have influenced was Daniel Wilson, 
 of Islington and Calcutta. When visiting his vast diocese 
 in 1838 and crossing the Bay of Bengal, Bishop Wilson 2 
 thus carefully compared the Journal with corresponding 
 passages in his own life : 
 
 It is consoling to a poor sinner like myself, who has 
 been placed in the full bustle of public business, to see 
 how the soul even of a saint like H. Martyn faints and 
 is discouraged, laments over defects of love, and finds an 
 evil nature still struggling against the law of his mind. 
 I remember there are similar confessions in J. Milner. It is 
 
 1 In 1816 Charles Simeon thus wrote from King's College to Thomason, of the 
 Journal: 'Truly it has humbled us all in the dust. Since the Apostolic age 
 
 I think that nothing has ever exceeded the wisdom and piety of our departed 
 brother ; and I conceive that no book, except the Bible, will be found to 
 excel this. . . . David Brainerd is great, but the degree of his melancholy and 
 the extreme impropriety of his exertions, so much beyond his strength, put 
 him on a different footing from our beloved Martyn.' 
 
 2 Bishop Wilson's Journal Letters, addressed to his family during the first 
 nine years of his Indian Episcopate, edited by his son Daniel Wilson, M.A., 
 Vicar of Islington, London, 1864. 
 
554 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 this which explains the seventh of Romans. Henry 
 Martyn has now been in heaven twenty-six years, having 
 died in his thirty-second year. Dearest Corrie was born 
 like myself in 1778, and died in 1837, aged fifty-nine, and 
 after having been thirty-one years in India. He has been 
 at home now a year and five months. When, where, how, 
 I may be called hence I know not. The Lord make 
 me a follower of them who through faith and patience 
 have inherited the promises. In H. Martyn's Journals the 
 spirit of prayer, the time he devoted to the duty, and his 
 fervour in it, are the first things which strike me. In the 
 next place, his delight in Holy Scripture, his meditations 
 in it, the large portions he committed to memory, the 
 nourishment he thence derived to his soul, are full of 
 instruction. Then his humility is quite undoubted, un- 
 feigned, profound, sincere. There seems, however, to have 
 been a touch of natural melancholy and depression, which 
 was increased by one of his greatest mistakes, the leaving 
 England with his affections tied to Lydia Grenfell, whom 
 he ought either not to have loved or else to have married 
 and taken her with him. Such an ecstatic, warm creature 
 as Henry Martyn could do nothing by halves. Separation 
 was martyrdom to such a tender heart. But, oh, to imitate 
 his excellences, his elevation of piety, his diligence, his 
 spirituality, his superiority to the world, his love for souls, 
 his anxiety to improve all occasions to do them good, his 
 delight in the mystery of Christ, his heavenly temper ! 
 These, these are the secrets of the wonderful impression he 
 made in India, joined as they were with first-rate talents, 
 fine scholarship, habit of acquiring languages, quickness 
 and promptitude of perception, and loftiness of imaginative 
 powers. 
 
 Henry Martyn's Journal holds a place of its own in the 
 literature of mysticism. It stamps him as the mystic 
 writer and worker of the first quarter of the century of 
 
BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD 555 
 
 modern missions (1792-1814), as his master, Robert 
 Leighton, was of the more barren period that ended in 
 1688. The too little known Rules and Instructions for 
 Devout Exercises, found among Leighton's papers, written 
 with his own hand and for his own use, was Martyn's 
 ' usual ' companion, with results which made that work 1 
 as supplemented by the Journal, what the De Imitatione 
 Christi and the Theologia Germanica were to the more 
 passive dark ages of Christendom. At the close of the 
 eighteenth century the young and impulsive Cornish student 
 found himself in an age not less, to him, godless and anti- 
 evangelical than that which had wrung from the heart of 
 at least one good man the hopeless longing of the Theologia 
 Germanica. He had seen his Divine Master crucified 
 afresh in the person of Charles Simeon, whom he possibly, 
 as Sargent certainly, had at first attended only to scoff and 
 brawl. He had been denied a church in which to preach the 
 goodness of God, in his own county, other than that of a 
 kinsman. In the troopship and the Bengal barrack 
 even his official authority could hardly win a hearing from 
 officer or soldier. The young prophet waxed sore in heart, 
 as the fire burned within him, at the unbelief and iniquity 
 of his day, till his naturally sunny spirit scorched the souls 
 he sought to warm with the Divine persuasiveness. He 
 stood really at the opening of the Evangelical revival of 
 Christendom, and like William Carey, who loved the youth, 
 he was working out his own side of that movement, but, 
 equally like Carey, he knew it not. He was to do as much 
 by his death as by his life, but all he knew in his humility 
 was that he must make haste while he lived to give the 
 millions of Mohammedans the Word, and to reveal to 
 
 1 See Journal, passim, especially in February, 1806. 
 
556 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 them the Person of Jesus Christ The multitude of his 
 thoughts within him he committed to a Journal, written 
 for himself alone, and rescued from burning only by the 
 interference of his friend Corrie. 
 
 The mysticism of Martyn has been pronounced morbid. 
 All the more that his searching introspection and severe 
 judgment on himself are a contrast to the genial and merry 
 conversation of the man who loved music and children's 
 play, the converse of friends and the conflict of controversy 
 for the Lord, does every reader who knows his own heart 
 value the vivisection. Martyn writes of sin and human 
 nature as they are, and therefore he is clear and comforting 
 in the answer he gives as to the remedy for the one and 
 the permanent elevation of the other. Even more than 
 Leighton he is the Evangelical saint, for where Leighton's 
 times paralysed him for service, Martyn's called him to 
 energise and die in the conflict with the greatest apostacy 
 of the world. Both had a passion to win souls to the en- 
 trancing, transforming love they had found, but unless on the 
 side against the Stewarts, how could that passion bear fruit 
 in action ? Both, like the author of the De Imitatione, wrote 
 steeped in the spirit of sadness ; but the joy of the dawn of 
 the modern era of benevolence, as it was even then called, 
 working unconsciously on the sunny Cornubian spirit, 
 kept Martyn free alike from the selfish absorption which 
 marked the monk of the Middle Ages, and the peace-loving 
 compromise which neutralised Leighton. The one adored 
 in his cell, the other wrestled in his study at Newbattle or 
 Dunblane, and we love their writings. But Henry Martyn 
 worked for his generation and all future ages as well as 
 wrote, so that they who delight in his mystic communings 
 are constrained to follow him in his self-sacrificing service. 
 
BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD 557 
 
 Beginning at March 1807, let us add some passages from 
 the Journal to those which have been already extracted for 
 autobiographical purposes. 
 
 I am thus taught to see what would become of me if 
 God should let go His strong hand. Is there any depth 
 into which Satan would not plunge me ? Already I know 
 enough of the nature of Satan's cause to vow before God 
 eternal enmity to it. Yes ! in the name of Christ I say, 
 ' Get thee behind me, Satan ! ' 
 
 Employed a great deal about one Hebrew text to little 
 purpose. Much tried with temptation to vanity, but the 
 Lord giveth me the victory through His mercy from day 
 to day, or else I know not how I should keep out of hell. 
 
 May the Lord, in mercy to my soul, save me from 
 setting up an idol of any sort in His room, as I do by 
 preferring a work professedly for Him to communion with 
 Him. How obstinate the reluctance of the natural heart 
 to God. But, O my soul, be not deceived, the chief work 
 on earth is to obtain sanctification, and to walk with God. 
 
 great and gracious God, what should I do without 
 Thee ? but now Thou art manifesting Thyself as the God 
 of all consolation to my soul. Never was I so near Thee ; 
 I stand on the brink, and I long to take my flight ! Oh, 
 there is not a thing in the world for which I would wish to 
 live, except because it may please God to appoint me 
 some work. And how shall my soul ever be thankful 
 enough to Thee, O Thou most incomprehensibly glorious 
 Saviour Jesus ! 
 
 1 walk according to my carnal wisdom, striving to 
 excite seriousness by natural considerations, such as the 
 thoughts of death and judgment, instead of bringing my 
 soul to Christ to be sanctified by His Spirit. 
 
 Preached on Luke xii. 20 ' This night thy soul,' etc. 
 The congregation was large, and more attentive than they 
 have ever yet been. Some of the young officers and 
 
558 .HENRY MARTYN 
 
 soldiers seemed to be in deep concern. I was willing to 
 believe that the power of God was present, if a wretch so 
 poor and miserable can be the instrument of good to souls. 
 Four years have I been in the ministry, and I am not sure 
 that I have been the means of converting four souls from 
 the error of their ways. Why is this ? The fault must be 
 in myself. Prayer and secret duties seem to be where I 
 fail ; had I more power in intercession, more self-denial in 
 persevering in prayer, it would be no doubt better for my 
 hearers. 
 
 My heart sometimes shrinks from spiritual work, and 
 especially at an increase of ministerial business ; but now 
 I hope, through grace, just at this time, that I can say I 
 desire no carnal pleasure, no ease to the flesh, but that the 
 whole of life should be filled up with holy employments 
 and holy thoughts. 
 
 My heart at various times filled with a sense of Divine 
 love, frequently in prayer was blessed in the bringing of 
 my soul near to God. After dinner in my walk found 
 sweet devotion ; and the ruling thoughts were, that true 
 happiness does not consist in the gratifying of self in ease 
 or individual pleasure, but in conformity to God, in obeying 
 and pleasing Him, in having no will of my own, in not 
 being pleased with personal advantages, though I might 
 be without guilt, nor in being displeased that the flesh is 
 mortified. Oh, how short-lived will this triumph be ! It 
 is stretching out the arm at full length, which soon grows 
 tired with its own weight. 
 
 I travel up hill, but I must learn, as I trust I am learn- 
 ing, to do the will of God without any expectation of any 
 present pleasure attending it, but because it is the will of 
 God. Oh, that my days of vanity were at an end, and 
 that all my thoughts and conversation might have that 
 deep tinge of seriousness which becomes a soldier of the 
 cross. 
 
 To the women preached on the parable of the ten 
 
BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD 559 
 
 pieces of silver, and at night to the soldiers on Rev. i. 18. 
 Afterwards in secret prayer drew near to the Lord. Alas ! 
 how my soul contracts a strangeness with Him ; but this 
 was a restoring season. I felt an indignation against all 
 impure and sinful thoughts, and a solemn serenity of frame. 
 Interceded for dear friends in England ; this brought my 
 late dear sister with pain to my recollection, but I felt 
 relieved by resolving every event, with all its circumstances, 
 into the will of God. 
 
 Read an account of Turkey. The bad effects of the 
 book were so great that I found instant need of prayer, 
 and I do not know when I have had such divine and ani- 
 mating feelings. Oh, it is Thy Spirit that makes me pant 
 for the skies. It is He that shall make me trample the 
 world and my lusts beneath my feet, and urge my onward 
 course towards the crown of life. 
 
 Spent the day in reading and prayer, and found comfort 
 particularly in intercession for friends, but my heart was 
 pained with many a fear about my own soul. I felt the 
 duty of praying for the conversion of these poor heathens, 
 and yet no encouragement to it. How much was there of 
 imagination before, or rather, how much of unbelief now ; 
 seeing no means ready now, no Word of God to put into 
 their hands, no preachers, it sometimes seems to me idle to 
 pray. Alas ! wicked heart of unbelief, cannot God create 
 means, or work without them ? But I am weary of myself 
 and my own sinfulness, and appear exceedingly odious 
 even to myself, how much more to a holy God. Lord, 
 pity and save ; vile and contemptible is Thy sinful creature, 
 even as a beast before Thee ; help me to awake. 
 
 Some letters I received from Calcutta agitated my 
 silly mind, because my magnificent self seemed likely to 
 become more conspicuous. O wretched creature, where is 
 thy place but the dust ? it is good for men to trample upon 
 thee. Various were my reveries on the events apparently 
 approaching, and self was the prominent character in every 
 
560 .HENRY MARTYN 
 
 transaction. I am yet a long way from real humility ; oh, 
 when shall I be dead to the world, and desire to be nothing 
 and nobody, as I now do to be somebody ? 
 
 Throughout the i8th enjoyed a solemn sense of Divine 
 things. The promise was fulfilled, ' Sin shall not have 
 dominion over you.' No enemy seemed permitted to 
 approach. I sometimes saw naught in the creation but 
 the works of God, and wondered that mean earthly con- 
 cerns had ever drawn away my mind from contemplating 
 their glorious Author. Oh, that I could be always so, see- 
 ing none but Thee, taught the secrets of Thy covenant, 
 advancing in knowledge of Thee, growing in likeness to 
 Thee. How much should I learn of God's glory, were I 
 an attentive observer of His Word and Providence. How 
 much should I be taught of His purposes concerning His 
 Church, did I keep my heart more pure for Him. And 
 what gifts might I not expect to receive for her benefit, 
 were I duly earnest to improve His grace for my own ! Oh, 
 how is a life wasted that is not spent with God and em- 
 ployed for God. What am I doing the greater part of my 
 time ; where is my heart ? 
 
 Sabat lives almost without prayer, and this is sufficient 
 to account for all evils that appear in saint or sinner. 
 
 I feel disposed to partake of the melancholy with which 
 such persons (Lady Mary Wortley Montagu) close their 
 lives. Oh, what hath grace done for us ! The thought 
 sometimes bursts upon me in a way which I cannot de- 
 scribe. It is not future bliss, but present peace, which we 
 have actually obtained, and which we cannot be mistaken 
 in ; the very thing which the world seeks for in vain ; and 
 yet how have we found it ? By the grace of God we are 
 what we are. 
 
 Truly love is better than knowledge. Much as I long 
 to know what I seek after, I would rather have the smallest 
 portion of humility and love than the knowledge of an 
 archangel. 
 
BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD 561 
 
 At night I spoke to them on ' Enoch walked with God.' 
 My soul breathed after the same holy, happy state. Oh that 
 the influence were more abiding ; but I am the man that 
 seeth his natural face in a glass. 
 
 This last short sickness has, I trust, been blessed much 
 to me. I sought not immediately for consolations, but for 
 grace patiently to endure and to glory in tribulation ; in 
 this way I found peace. Oh, this surely is bliss, to have 
 our will absorbed in the Divine Will. In this state are the 
 spirits of just men made perfect in heaven. The spread of 
 the Gospel in these parts is now become an interesting 
 subject to you such is the universal change. 
 
 Perpetually assaulted with temptations, my hope and 
 trust is that I shall yet be sanctified in the name of the 
 Lord Jesus, and by the Spirit of my God. 'Purge me with 
 hyssop, and I shall be clean ; wash me, and I shall be 
 whiter than snow.' When I really strive after purity of 
 heart for my endeavours are too often little more than 
 pretence I find no consideration so effectual as that of the 
 exalted dignity and infinitely precious privileges of the 
 saints. Thus a few verses of I Eph. are more influential, 
 purifying, and transforming than the most laboured reason- 
 ing. Indeed, there is no reasoning with such temptations, 
 and no safety but in flight. 
 
 I would that all should adore, but especially that I 
 myself should lie prostrate. As for self, contemptible self, 
 I feel myself saying, Let it be forgotten for ever ; henceforth 
 let Christ live, let Christ reign, let Him be glorified for 
 ever. 
 
 Henry Martyn, by service, escaped the weakness and 
 the danger of the mystic who seeks absorption into God, 
 in the mental sense, as the remedy for sin, instead of a free 
 and purified individuality in Christ. He felt that the will 
 sins ; he saw the cure to lie not in the destruction of the will, 
 but in its rectification and personal co-working with God. 
 
 O O 
 
562 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 Absorption is spiritual suicide, not service. Martyn realised 
 and taught that a free individuality is the best offering we 
 can make to God after Christ has given it to us to offer to 
 Him. With Martyn moral service helped spiritual con- 
 templation to rise heavenward, and to raise men with it. The 
 saint was also the sacred scholar and translator ; the mystic 
 was the prophet preacher, the Persian controversialist, the 
 unresting missionary. His Christian life was guided by 
 the motto, * To believe, to suffer, and to hope.' His pray- 
 ing realised his own ideal of ' a visit to the invisible world.' 
 His working was ever quickened like St. Paul's by the 
 summons, alike of the Old dispensation and the New, 
 which he cut with a diamond on the window of his 
 college rooms "E^ystpat, o /caOsvScov, KOI avdo-ra, ' Awake 
 thou that sleepest and arise.' When the fierce flame of 
 his love and his service had burned out his frail body, his 
 picture, painted at Calcutta the year before he died, spoke 
 thus to Charles Simeon, and ever since it has whispered to 
 every new generation of Cambridge men, ' Be serious, be 
 in earnest ; don't trifle don't trifle.' 
 
 The men whom Henry Martyn's pioneering and early 
 death have led to live and to die that Christ may be re- 
 vealed to the Mohammedans, are not so many as the 
 thousands who have been spiritually stimulated by his 
 Journal. Such work is still ' the forlorn hope ' of the 
 Church which he was the first to lead. But in Persia and 
 Arabia he has had such followers as Anthony Groves, 
 John Wilson, George Maxwell Gordon, Ion Keith-Falconer, 
 and Bishop French. Where he pointed the way the great 
 missionary societies of the United States of America and 
 of England and the Free Church of Scotland have sent 
 their noblest men and women. 
 
BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD 563 
 
 The death of Henry Martyn, followed not many years 
 after by that of her husband, who had been the first to 
 mark his grave with a memorial stone, led Mrs. James 
 Claudius Rich, eldest daughter of Sir James Mackintosh, 
 to appeal in 1831 for ' contributions in aid of the school at 
 Baghdad, and those hoped to be established in Persia and 
 other parts of the territory of Baghdad.' In the same year, 
 1829, that Alexander Duff sailed for Calcutta, there had 
 gone forth by the Scots Mission at Astrakhan to Baghdad, 
 that Catholic founder of the sect since known as 'The 
 Brethren,' Anthony N. Groves, dentist, of Exeter. Taking 
 the commands of Christ literally, in the spirit of Henry 
 Martyn, he sold all he had, and became the first of Martyn's 
 successors in Persia. The record of his two attempts forms 
 a romantic chapter in the history of Christian missions. 1 
 All theories apart, he lived and he worked for the Moham- 
 medans of Persia in the spirit of Henry Martyn. When the 
 plague first, and persecution the second time, extinguished 
 this Mission to Baghdad, Dr. John Wilson, 2 from his central 
 and commanding position in Bombay, flashed into Arabia 
 and Persia such rays of Gospel light as were possible at 
 that time. He sent Bible colporteurs by Aden and up the 
 Persian Gulf; he summoned the old Church of Scotland 
 to despatch a mission to the Jews of Arabia, Busrah, and 
 Bombay. A missionary was ready in the person of 
 William Burns who afterwards went to China, the support 
 of a missionary at Aden was guaranteed by a friend, and 
 Wilson had found a volunteer ' for the purpose of exploring 
 Arabia,' when the disruption of the Church of Scotland 
 
 1 Journal of Air. Anthony N. Groves, Missionary to and at Baghdad, 
 London, 1831. 
 
 - The Life of John Wilson, D.D., F.X.S., London, 1878, 
 
 O O 2 
 
564 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 arrested the movement, only, however, vastly to increase 
 the missionary development in India and Africa, as well 
 as church extension in Scotland. What John Wilson tried 
 in vain to do during his life was effected by his death. It 
 was his career that summoned the Hon. Ion Keith-Falconer 
 and his wife to open their Mission in Yemen, at Sheikh 
 Othman and Aden. Like Martyn at Tokat, in the far 
 north, and just at Martyn's age, by his dust in the Aden 
 cemetery Ion Keith -Falconer has taken possession of 
 Arabia for Christ * The Memoirs of David Brainerd and 
 Henry Martyn gave me particular pleasure,' wrote young 
 John Wilson in 1824. ' Mind to get hold of the Life of 
 JoJin Wilson^ the great Scotch missionary of India/ wrote 
 the young Ion Keith-Falconer in iS^S. 1 So the apostolic 
 succession goes on. 
 
 Gordon of Kandahar, ' the pilgrim missionary of the 
 Punjab/ was not the least remarkable of Henry Martyn's 
 deliberate followers, alike in a life of toil and in a death of 
 heroism for the Master. Born in 1839, he was of Trinity 
 College, Cambridge, and had as his fellow-curate Thomas 
 Valpy French, when the future bishop came back from 
 his first missionary campaign in India. Dedicating himself, 
 his culture, and his considerable property to the Lord, he 
 placed his unpaid services at the disposal of the Church 
 Missionary Society, as Martyn once did. Refusing a 
 bishopric after his first furlough, and seeking to prepare 
 himself for the work of French's Divinity School of St. 
 John at Lahore, he returned to India by Persia, to learn 
 the language and to help Dr. Bruce for a little in 1871. 
 
 1 Memorials of the Hon. Keith- Falconer, M.A., late Lord Almoner's 
 Professor of Arabic in the University of Cambridge, and Missionary to the 
 Muhammadans of South Arabia, by Rev. Robert Sinker, D.D., p. 146 of ist 
 edition, 1888. 
 
BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD 565 
 
 The famine was sore in that land, and he lived for its 
 people as 'relieving officer, doctor, purveyor, poorhouse 
 guardian, outfitter and undertaker. There is a cry like the 
 cry of Egypt in the night of the Exodus not a house in 
 which there was not one dead.' So he wrote. 1 From 
 Julfa he carried relief to Shiraz, where he found himself in 
 the midst of the associations made sacred by Henry 
 Martyn's residence there. ' I have taken up my quarters 
 in a Persian's house, and have a large garden all to myself. 
 I am in the very same house which Henry Martyn was in. 
 I heard to-day that my host is the grandson of his host 
 Jaffir AH Khan, and that the house has come down from 
 father to son.' 
 
 Eight years after Gordon was in Kandahar, sole 
 (honorary) chaplain to the twenty regiments who were 
 fighting the Ameer of Afghanistan. There he found the 
 assistant to the political officer attached to the force to be 
 the same Persian gentleman who had been his host at 
 Shiraz, and with whom when a child Martyn must have 
 played. Gordon learned from him that the roads and 
 sanitary improvements made as relief works, as well as the 
 orphanage started on the interest of the famine relief fund 
 sent from London, were still blessing the people. When, 
 after the black day of Maiwand, the British troops were 
 besieged in Kandahar, till relieved by the march and the 
 triumph of Lord Roberts, Gordon as chaplain attended a 
 sortie to dislodge the enemy. Hearing that wounded men 
 were lying in a shrine outside the Kabul gate, he led out 
 some bearers with a litter, and found that the dying men 
 were in another shrine still more distant. In spite of all 
 
 1 George Maxwell Gordon, M.A., F.R.G.S., a History of his Life and 
 Work, 1839-1880, by the Rev. Arthur Lewis, M.A., London, 1889. 
 
566 . HENRY MARTYN 
 
 remonstrance he dashed through the murderous fire of the 
 enemy, was struck down, and was himself carried back 
 on the litter he had provided for others. He did not live 
 to wear the Victoria Cross, but was on the same day, 
 August 1 6, laid in a soldier's grave. 
 
 It would seem difficult to name a follower more worthy 
 of Henry Martyn than that, but Bishop French was such 
 a disciple. More than any man, as saint and scholar, as 
 missionary and chaplain, as the friend of the Mohammedan 
 and the second apostle of Central Asia, he was baptized 
 for the dead. Born on the first day of 1825, son of an 
 Evangelical clergyman in Burton-on-Trent, a Rugby boy, 
 and Fellow and Tutor of University College, Oxford, 
 Thomas Valpy French was early inspired by Marty n's life 
 and writings. These and his mother's holiness sent him 
 forth to Agra in 1850, along with Edward Stuart of 
 Edinburgh, now Bishop of Waiapu, New Zealand, to found 
 the Church Missionary College there. In the next forty 
 years, till he resigned the bishopric of Lahore that he 
 might give the rest of his life to work out the aspirations 
 of Martyn in Persia and Arabia, he consecrated himself and 
 his all to Christ. It will be a wonderful story if it is well 
 told. He then went home for rest, first of all, but took the 
 way north through Persia and Turkey on Martyn's track, 
 so that in April 1888 he wrote from Armenia: 'Were I 
 ignorant both of Arabic and French, I should subside into 
 the perfect rest, perhaps, which I require.' So abundant 
 were his labours to groups of Mohammedans and among 
 the Syrian Christians, that he had nearly found a grave in 
 the Tokat region. 
 
 After counselling the Archbishop of Canterbury as to 
 the project of so reforming the Oriental Churches as to 
 
BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD 567 
 
 convert them themselves into the true apostles of the 
 Mohammedan race, Bishop French returned to Asia and 
 settled near Muscat, whence he wrote thus on March 10, 
 1891, his last letter to the Church Missionary Society : 
 
 Those three years of Arab study will not, I trust, be 
 thrown away and proved futile. In memory of H. Marty n's 
 pleadings for Arabia, Arabs, and the Arabic, I seem almost 
 trying at least to follow more directly in his footsteps and 
 under his guidance, than even in Persia or India, however 
 incalculable the distance at which the guided one follows 
 the leader ! . . . . 
 
 I have scarcely expressed in the least degree the view 
 I have of the extremely serious character of the work here 
 to be entered upon ; and the possible nay probable- 
 severity of the conflict to be expected and faithfully 
 hazarded by the Church of Christ between two such strong 
 and ancient forces, pledged to such hereditary and deep- 
 grounded hostility. Yet The Lamb shall overcome them; 
 for He is Lord of Lords , and King of Kings ; and they 
 also shall overcome that are with Him, called and chosen and 
 faithful. 
 
 Two months after, on May 14, 1891, at the age of 
 sixty-six, after exposure and toils like Martyn's, he was 
 laid to rest in the cemetery of Muscat by the sailors of 
 H.M.S. Sphinx, to whom he had preached. 
 
 Henry Martyn at Tokat, John Wilson at Bombay, 
 George Maxwell Gordon at Kandahar, Ion Keith-Falconer 
 at Aden, and Thomas Valpy French at Muscat, have by 
 their bodies taken possession of Mohammedan Asia for 
 Christ t>ll the resurrection. Of each we say to ourselves 
 and to our generation : 
 
 Is it for nothing he is dead ? 
 
 Send forth your children in his stead 1 
 
568 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 O Eastern lover from the West ! 
 
 Thou hast out-soared these prisoning bars ; 
 Thy memory, on thy Master's breast, 
 
 Uplifts us like the beckoning stars. 
 We follow now as thou hast led, 
 Baptize us, Saviour, for the dead. 1 
 
 Each, like not a few American missionaries, men and 
 women, like Dr. Bruce and his colleagues of the Church 
 Missionary Society, like Mr. W. W. Gardner and Dr. J. C. 
 Young of the Scottish Keith-Falconer Mission, is a repre- 
 sentative of the two great principles, as expressed by 
 Dr. Bruce : (i) That the lands under the rule of Islam belong 
 to Christ, and that it is the bounden duty of the Church to 
 claim them for our Lord. (2) That duty can be performed 
 only by men who are willing to die in carrying it out. 
 
 Henry Martyn's words, almost his last, on his thirty- 
 first birthday were these : ' The Word of God has found 
 its way into this land of Satan (Persia), and the devil will 
 never be able to resist it if the Lord hath sent it.' We 
 have seen what sort of men the Lord raised up to follow 
 him. This is what the Societies have done. In 1829 the 
 American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions 
 began, and in 1871 the Presbyterian Board shared, the 
 mission to Persia and Asiatic Turkey. The former has 
 missionaries at Aintab, Marash, Antioch, Aleppo, and Oorfa, 
 to the south of the Taurus range, being its mission to Central 
 Turkey ; at Constantinople, Adrianople, Smyrna, Broosa, 
 Nicomedia, Trebizond, Marsovan, Sivas, including Tokat, 
 and Caesarea, being its mission to Western Turkey ; at 
 Erzroom, Harpoot, and Arabkir, uniting with the Assyrian 
 stations of Mardin and Diarbekir, its mission to Eastern 
 
 1 Archdeacon Moule in the Church Missionary Intelligencer. 
 
BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD 569 
 
 Turkey. Taking up the evangelisation at Oroomiah, the 
 American Presbyterians unite with that Tabreez, Mosul, 
 and Salmas as their Western, and Teheran and Hamadan 
 as their Eastern Persia Mission. In 1876 a letter of Henry 
 Venn's and the urgency of its principal missionary, Dr. 
 Bruce, led the Church Missionary Society to charge itself 
 with the evangelisation, by a revised version of the Persian 
 Bible and medical missions, of the whole southern half of 
 the ancient kingdom of Persia, the whole of Nimrod's 
 Babylonia, and the eastern coast of Arabia, from Julfa 
 (Ispahan) and Baghdad as centres. Very recently the 
 independent Arabian Mission of America has made Busrah 
 its headquarters for Turkish Arabia. The Latin Church 
 since 1838 has worked for the Papacy alone. The Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury's mission since 1886 has sought to 
 influence the Nestorian or Syrian Church, which in the 
 seventh century sent forth missionaries to India from 
 Seleucia, Nisibis, and Edessa, and now desires protection 
 from Romish usurpation. All these represent a vast and 
 geographically linked organisation claiming, at long inter- 
 vals, the whole of Turkey, Persia, and Arabia for Christ 
 since Henry Martyn pointed the way. Dr. Robert Bruce, 
 writing to us from Julfa, thus sums up the results and the 
 prospect : 
 
 I believe there is a great work going on at present in 
 Persia, and Henry Martyn and his translations prepared 
 the way for it, to say nothing of his life sacrifice and prayers 
 for this dark land. The Babi movement is a very remark- 
 able one, and is spreading far and wide, and doing much 
 to break the power of the priesthood. Many of the Babis 
 are finding their system unsatisfactory, and beginning to 
 see that it is only a half-way house (in which there is no 
 
570 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 rest or salvation) to Christianity. Ispahan has been kept 
 this year in a constant state of turmoil by the ineffectual 
 efforts of two moollas to persecute both Babis and Jews. 1 
 They have caused very great suffering to some of both these 
 faiths, but they have been really defeated, and all these 
 persecutions have tended towards religious liberty. Our 
 mission-house is the refuge of all such persecuted ones, and 
 the light is beginning to dawn upon them. 
 
 While the whole Church, and every meditative soul 
 seeking deliverance from self in Jesus Christ, claims Henry 
 Martyn, he is specially the hero of the Church of England. 
 An Evangelical, he is canonised, so far as ecclesiastical art 
 can legitimately do that, in the baptistry of the new 
 cathedral of his native city. A Catholic, his memory is 
 enshrined in the heart of his own University of Cambridge. 
 There, in the New Chapel of St. John's College, in the 
 nineteenth bay of its interior roof, his figure is painted first 
 of the illustriores of the eighteenth Christian century, before 
 those of Wilberforce, Wordsworth, and Thomas Whytehead, 
 missionary to New Zealand. In the market place, beside 
 Charles Simeon's church, there was dedicated on October 18, 
 1887, ' The Henry Martyn Memorial Hall.' There, under 
 the shadow of his name, gather daily the students who 
 
 1 Even of the Soofis the ablest authority writes : ' The remarkable develop- 
 ment, in our own century, which has been given to the story of the death of 
 Hosein should encourage us to hope that the Divine pathos of the New Testa- 
 ment will one day soften these hearts still more, and teach them the secret of 
 which their poets have sung in such ardent strains. A Sufi has already learnt 
 that Islam cannot satisfy the longing soul. He is, by profession, tolerant or 
 even sympathetic in the presence of the Cross. And he believes, like all 
 Moslim, that Isa, the Messiah of Israel, has the breath of life, and can raise 
 the dead from the tomb. . . . To the reflecting mind, however, the lyric 
 effusions of Hafiz prove that Eastern philosophy is either childlike or retro- 
 grade, and its principles at the mercy of those seas of passion upon which it 
 has so long been drifting.' Quarterly Review, January 1892, 
 
BAPTIZED FOR THE DEAD 571 
 
 join in the University Prayer Meeting, and from time to 
 time the members of the Church Missionary and Gospel 
 Propagation Societies. ' This was the hero-life of my 
 boyhood,' said Dr. Vaughan, the Master of the Temple 
 and Dean of Llandaff, when he preached the opening 
 sermon before the University. In Trinity Church, where 
 Martyn had been curate, the new Master of Trinity 
 preached so that men said : ' What a power of saintliness 
 must have been in Henry Martyn to have affected with 
 such appreciative love one whose own life and character 
 are so honoured as Dr. Butler's ! ' In the Memorial Hall 
 itself, its founder, Mr. Barton, now Vicar of Trinity Church ; 
 Dr., now Bishop, Westcott, for the faculty of Divinity ; 
 Dr. Bailey, for St. John's College and the Society for the 
 Propagation of the Gospel ; Mr. Barlow, Vicar of Islington, 
 for the Church Missionary Society ; and the Christian 
 scholar, Professor Cowell, for all Orientalists and Anglo- 
 Indians, spake worthily. 
 
 We would continue his work. The hopes, the faith, 
 the truths which once animated him are still ours. Still, 
 as on the day when he preached his first sermon from this 
 pulpit, is it true that if each soul, if each society, if each 
 heathen nation knew the gift of God, and Who the 
 promised Saviour is, they would for very thirst's sake ask 
 of Him, and He would indeed give them His living water. 
 And still it is the task of each true witness of Christ, and 
 most of all of each ordained minister of His Word and 
 Sacraments, first to arouse that thirst where it has not yet 
 been felt, and then to allay it at once and perpetuate it 
 from the one pure and undefiled spring. And still each 
 true minister will feel, as Martyn felt, as St. Paul himself 
 felt, * Who is sufficient for these things ? ' The riper he is 
 in his ministry, the more delicate his touch of human souls, 
 
572 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 alike in their strivings and in their inertness ; the closer 
 his walk with God and his wonder at the vastness and the 
 silent secrecy of God's ways, the more he will say in his 
 heart what Martyn said but a few days after his feet had 
 ceased to tread our CambHdge streets. ' Alas ! do I think 
 that a schoolboy or a raw academic should be likely to 
 lead the hearts of men ! What a knowledge of men and 
 acquaintance with Scriptures, what communion with God 
 and study of my own heart, ought to prepare me for the 
 awful work of a messenger from God on the business of the 
 soul ! ' 
 
 To these lessons of Martyn's life Dr. Butler added 
 that which the eighty years since have suggested the con- 
 fidence of the soldier who has heard his Captain's voice, 
 and knows that it was never deceived or deceiving : Be 
 of good cheer ; I have overcome the world. 
 
 In that confidence let the Church Catholic preach 
 Christ to the hundred and eighty millions of the Moham- 
 medan peoples, more than half of whom are already the 
 subjects of Christian rulers. Thus shall every true Chris- 
 tian best honour Henry Martyn. 
 
INDEX 
 
 - ABB 
 
 ABBAS MIRZA, 394 
 Abdallah, 226 
 Abdool Massee'h, 286, 543 
 Aberdeen University, 328 
 Acheen, 228 
 Aden, 326, 333 
 Afghanistan, 324, 565 
 Africa, South, 119, 125 
 Aga Boozong, 381, 457 
 
 the Mede, 454 
 Agra, 217 
 
 Aitchison, Sir C., 345 
 Akbar, 218 
 Albuquerque, 341 
 Aldeen, 158, 196, 313 
 Alexander the Great, 330 
 Alford, Dean, on Martyn, 447 
 Algoa Bay, 125 
 Allahabad, 262 
 
 Ambrose, 102 
 
 Ameena, Sabat's wife, 270 
 
 America, South, 107 
 
 American Missions, 463, 568, 569 
 
 Amiens, Treaty of, 119 
 
 Annie, the orphan, 264 
 
 Arabic, 225, 325 
 
 - Bible, 226, 418 
 Arabs, 333, 336 
 Ararat, 497 
 
 Araxes River, 496, 502 
 
 Armenians, 134, 346, 385, 464, 499, 
 
 $1$ 
 
 - Bible, 418 
 Arrah, 261 
 
 Artaxerxes Ochus, 409 
 Asaf-ood-Dowla's tomb, 289 
 Asiatics, 232 
 
 Asiatic Researches, 425 
 
 Society of Bengal, 425 
 
 BOB 
 
 Associated Clergy, 206 
 Augustin of Canterbury, 7 
 Augustine, 2, 33, 49 
 Azerbaijan, 493 
 
 BABINGTON, Mr., 76 
 
 Babism, 372, 569 
 
 Badger, Rev. G. P., 527 
 
 Bahia, 106 
 
 Bailey, Canon, 19, 571 
 
 Baird, Sir David, 120 
 
 Band el, 197 
 
 Bankipore, 201 
 
 Bap-re, 332 
 
 Baptized for the dead, 552, 567 
 
 Barlow, Rev., 571 
 
 Barlow, Sir George, 141 
 
 Basil the Great, 530 
 
 Basiliscus, 530 
 
 Battle of Blaauwberg, 121 
 
 Baxter, 102 
 
 Bede, 418, 460 
 
 Behistun Rock, 409 
 
 Bengal Army, 136 
 
 Bengali Bible, 418 
 
 Bengalis, the, 148 
 
 Bentinck, Lord W., 146 
 
 Berhampore, 250, 258 
 
 Bettia, 219 
 
 Bible Translation, 72, 418 
 
 Society, British and Foreign, 314, 
 421, 484 
 
 Russian, 487 
 Bihar, 201 
 
 Bishop, Mrs., 463, 493 
 Blaauwberg, Battle, 121 
 Black Hole, 134 
 Blair's Sermons, no 
 Bobbery Hunt, 332 
 
574 
 
 HENRY MARTY N 
 
 BOM 
 
 Bombay, 325 
 
 Botany Bay convicts, 101 
 
 Bowley, missionary, 431 
 
 Brainerd, David, 2, 33, 60, 91, 564 
 
 Brazil, 108, 552 
 
 Breage, 44, 551 
 
 British India Steam Navigation Com- 
 pany, 316 
 
 Brown, David s 16, 135, 148, 196, 313, 
 418 
 
 Bruce, Dr. R., 489, 569 
 
 Buchanan, Claudius, 16, 69, 135, 243 
 
 Buddhism, 134 
 
 Bundelkhund, 277 
 
 Bunder Abbas, 340 
 
 Bunyan, 2 
 
 Burke, Edmund, 134 
 
 Burmese Bible, 418 
 
 Burns, William, 563 
 
 Bushire, 339, 348 
 
 Busrah, 519 
 
 Butler, Dr., 571 
 
 Butler's Analogy, 28 
 
 Buxar, 261 
 
 CAESAREIA, 534 
 
 Calcutta, 134, 147, 196 
 
 Caldecott, Rev. A., 34 
 
 Caldwell, Bishop, 290 
 
 Cambridge, 12, 15, 207 
 
 Canal, Ganges, 267 
 
 Canning, Chaplain, 468, 482 
 
 Canterbury, Archbishop of, 75, 566 
 
 Cape Colony, 1 1 9 
 
 Cape Town, 118 
 
 Cardew, Dr., 9, 41 
 
 Carey, William, 4, 25, 133, 147, 418, 
 
 487 
 
 Carlyle, Thomas, 4 
 Carlyon, Dr., 20 
 Carus, 34 
 
 Cawnpore, 261, 266, 308 
 Cecil, R., 59, 78 
 Cemeteries, Indian, 210 
 Chaman, 483 
 
 Chamberlain, missionary, 200 
 Chambers, Sir R., 135 
 -W., 135 
 Chandernagore, 197 
 Chaplaincies, India, 72 
 Chaplains, the Five, 16, 150 
 Chatterton, 40 
 Chesterfield's Letters, 12 
 
 DIS 
 
 China, 27 
 
 Chinese Bible, 418 
 
 Chinsurah, 197 
 
 Christian Knowledge Society, 136, 226 
 
 Christians in India a century ago, 139, 
 
 423 
 
 Chrysostom, 512, 534 
 Chunar, 208, 260 
 Church Missionary Society, 40, 136, 
 
 399, 489 
 Clapham, 65 
 Clarke, Rev. A. T., 136 
 Clive, Lord, 12, 134 
 Cole, Captain S., 131, 145 
 Colebrooke, H. T., 425 
 - T. E., 327 
 Colgong, 20 1 
 
 College of Fort William, 138, 151, 421 
 Columba, 460 
 
 Confessions of Augustine, I, 12, 49 
 Constable's edition of Persian New 
 
 Testament, 489 
 Constantinople, 492 
 Corentin, St., 7 
 Cork, 96 
 Cornwall tin, 2 
 Cornwallis, Lord, 141 
 Corre, Senor, 107 
 Corrie, Bishop, 16, 61, 208, 286, 311, 
 
 543 
 
 Miss, 245 
 
 Covenant with the eyes, 76 
 Cowell, Professor, 372, 571 
 Cowper, the poet, 2 
 Craig, Governor, 119 
 Creighton, 135, 216 
 Curgenven, Laura, 239 
 Cury's, St., 7 
 Curzon, G. N., 358, 553 
 Cutwa, 200 
 Cyrillus, 418 
 Cyrus, 370 
 
 DALHOUSIE, MARQUIS OF, 199 
 Dante, 358 
 Dare, Mrs., 237 
 Darius, Hystaspes, 409 
 Darwin, 108 
 Dealtry, Bishop, 1 6 
 Demonolators, 134 
 Diamonds, 342 
 Dinapore, 201, 258 
 Dissenters, 168 
 
INDEX 
 
 575 
 
 DOD 
 
 Doddridge, 17, 214 
 
 Dravidian, 134 
 
 Dryden, 358 
 
 Duff, Alexander, 24, 34, 146, 563 
 
 Duncan, Jonathan, 318, 326 
 
 Dundas, Sir F., 119 
 
 Dwight, H. G. O., missionary, 520 
 
 EAST INDIA COMPANY, 202, 529 
 
 East India Company's Charters, 138, 150 
 
 Eclectic Society, 59, 79 
 
 Edesius, 418 
 
 Edmonds, Canon, 417, 420, 490 
 
 Educational missions, 201, 216, 274 
 
 Edwards, Jerusha, 91 
 
 Jonathan, 28, 91 
 Elam, 356, 441 
 Eliot, J., 418 
 
 Ellerton, Mr. and Mrs., 135, 201 
 Elphinstone, Admiral, 119 
 
 Mountstuart, 316, 327 
 Ely Cathedral, 35 
 English Bible, 418 
 Erasmus, 418 
 
 Erivan, 499 
 Erskine, Dr. J., 132 
 Erzroom, 508 
 Etchmiatzin, 499 
 Ethiopia, 120 
 Ethiopic Bible, 418 
 Eudoxia, 534 
 Eurasians, 222 
 
 FABRICIUS, 418 
 Fal Estuary, 24 
 Falmouth, 83, 88 
 Farish, Prof., 74, 441 
 
 of Bombay, 330 
 Farsakh, 493 
 Flavel, 76 
 
 Fletcher of Madeley, 165 
 Forsyth, missionary, 197 
 Fowler, George, 520 
 Francis, Philip, 201 
 Franklin's travels, 237 
 Fraser, Baillie, 483 
 French, Bishop, 290, 566 
 Froude, J. A., 44 
 Frumentius, 418 
 Fuller, A., 132 
 
 GALITZIN, PRINCE, 487 
 Ganges, the, 199 
 
 HEL 
 
 Ganges Canal, 267 
 
 Gardiner, Capt. A., 108 
 
 Gaya, 237 
 
 George III., 343 
 
 German Bible, 418 
 
 Ghazipore, 261 
 
 Gilchrist, Dr., 72 
 
 Gillespie, Gen., 277 
 
 Glen, Dr., 489 
 
 Glenelg, Lord, 16, 19 
 
 Goa, 318, 322 
 
 Godolphin, Margaret, 551 
 
 Gombroon, 340 
 
 Goorkha war, 277 
 
 Gordon, G. M., 562, 564 
 
 Gothic Bible, 418 
 
 Govan, Dr., 302 
 
 Graaff Reinet, 125 
 
 Grace Abounding, Bunyan's, 2 
 
 Grant, Charles, 15, 65, 76, 136, 472 
 
 Sir Robert, 16, 19 
 Greek, 330 
 
 Church, 487 
 Greenwood, Rev. W., 137 
 Gregory Nazianzen, 534 
 
 - Nyssen, 534 
 
 Grenfell, Lydia, 44, 50, 81, 105, 171, 
 208, 239, 241, 304, 338, 472, 545, 550 
 
 - Diary, 84, 91, 98, 102, 106, 188, 
 191, 298, 476, 537, 546 
 
 family, 44 
 Grotius, 400 
 Groves, A., 562 
 Guadagnoli, P., 400 
 Gulistan Treaty, 345 
 Gurlyn, 85 
 Gwennap, 4, 51 
 
 HAFIZ, 357 
 
 Haldane, R. and J., 132 
 
 Hall, Robert, 328, 516 
 
 Hannington, Bishop, 290 
 
 Hanway, Jonas, 237 
 
 Hartwig, P. , 66 
 
 Hasan and Husain, 411, 455 
 
 Hastings, Warren, 137, 201 
 
 Marquis of, 142 
 Havelock, Sir H., 346 
 Hawkins, Judge, 432 
 Heat in India, 261 
 Heber, Bishop, 288 
 Hebrew, 426 
 Helston, 88 
 
576 
 
 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 HEN 
 
 Henry, the navigator, 341 
 
 Henry Martyn Memorial Hall, 570 
 
 Hewett, Gen., 316 
 
 Hindus, 224 
 
 Hindustani translation, 157, 199, 243, 
 
 422, 431 
 
 Hitchins, Mrs. T. Martyn, 44, 47, 57 
 Hooker, 102 
 Hopkins, Bishop, 25, 29 
 Home's Commentary, 89 
 Hospitals, military, 211 
 Hottentot sepoys, 120 
 Hough's Christianity in India, 144 
 Hweng T'sang, 202 
 Hymns referred to, 17, 27, 40, 83, 84, 
 
 107, 287, 310, 547, 567 
 
 IDOL-WORSHIP, 163 
 Imad-ud-din, 415 
 India, North, 134 
 
 South, 132 
 
 Christians in, 139, 423 
 
 evangelisation, 225 
 Inquisition, The, 323 
 Iran plateau, 353 
 Ireland and invasion, 101 
 Isaiah, 24, 95 
 
 Islam, 133, 174, 202, 326, 536 
 Ispahan, 465 
 
 JAFFIR ALI KHAN, 355 
 Jaganath-worship, 142, 168 
 Jami, 371 
 
 Janssens, Governor, 120 
 Java, 120, 334 
 
 efferies, Chaplain, 151 
 
 effery, H. M., 6, 47, 56 
 
 erome, 418 
 
 erusha Edwards, 91 
 
 ews, 363, 377, 387, 459 
 Joasmi pirates, 333 
 John, St., 44 
 Jones, Sir Harford, 344 
 
 -SirW., 70 
 Jowett, Prof., 441 
 
 - Rev. W. , 40 
 Judson, 418 
 Julfa, 464 
 
 KAJAR DYNASTY, 341 
 Kalinjar, 277 
 Kandahar, 564 
 Karass, 488 
 
 MAL 
 
 Kars, 506 
 
 Kaye, Sir John, 330 
 
 Kaziroon, 353 
 
 Keith-Falconer, Ion, 22, 326, 564 
 
 Kelland, Prof., 20 
 
 Kempthorne, 10, 12, 17 
 
 Kerr, Dr., chaplain, 144, 226 
 
 Kichener, missionary, 125 
 
 Kiernander, 48, 134 
 
 King's Chapel, Cambridge, 67 
 
 Kingsley, Charles, 44 
 
 Kirke White, H., 27, 40 
 
 Kirkpatrick, Capt., 136 
 
 Komana Pontica, 533 
 
 Koran, 324, 398, 487 
 
 Kum, 466 
 
 LAND'S END, 2 
 Lassen, 409 
 Latin Bible, 418 
 
 Church on the Bible, 491 
 Law, William, 30 
 Lawrence, Honoria, 260 
 
 Lord, 140, 220 
 
 Sir Henry, 260 
 Lee, Prof., 400, 404 
 Leighton, R., 59, 102, 555 
 
 Letters to Lydia Grenfell, 82, 90, 175, 
 181, 185, 246, 256, 292, 304, 318, 
 334, 360, 473, 479 
 
 Lewis, G., 133 
 
 Leyden, Dr., 423 
 
 Limerick, Chaplain, 151 
 
 Livingstone, David, 121 
 
 Lolworth, 35, 74 
 
 London Missionary Society, 28, 200 
 
 Ludovicus de Dieu, 400 
 
 Lull, Raimund, 400 
 
 Luther, 418 
 
 Lyte, F. T., 547 
 
 MACARTNEY, EARL OF, 119 
 
 Macaulay, Lord, 516 
 
 Maclnnes, Col., 227 
 
 Mackay of Uganda, 290 
 
 Mackintosh, Sir J., 318, 328, 516 
 
 Macrina, 534 
 
 Madras, 130, 143 
 
 Maiwand, 565 
 
 Malayalim, 327 
 
 Malcolm, Sir John, 143, 318, 328, 344 
 
 Maldah, 135, 200 
 
 Malpas, 24 
 
INDEX 
 
 577 
 
 MAR 
 
 Maracci, 324 
 Marand, 496, 523 
 Marazion, 43, 53, 82 
 Marriage, 39, 49, 79, 86 
 
 of missionaries, 48 
 Marrow men, 132 
 
 Marshman, Dr., 157, 197, 314, 418 
 
 JohnC., 161, 344 
 Martin, St., 7 
 
 Church, 447 
 
 MARTYN, HENRY, birth, 2 ; family, 
 6; parents, 9 ; as a boy, 10 ; at 
 Cambridge, 12; father's death, 17; 
 conversion, 18 ; Senior Wrangler, 20 ; 
 at Wood bury, 24 ; reading, 26 ; 
 his rooms, 33 ; ordained deacon, 
 36 ; loves Lydia Grenfell, 42 ; con- 
 siders himself engaged to her, 51 ; 
 discussions on marriage, 59 ; love of 
 music, 65 ; appointed East India 
 Company's chaplain, 73 ; farewell to 
 England, 101 ; his motto, 102 ; at 
 Bahia, 107 ; opposition to his preach- 
 ing, 109; at the Cape, 118; describes 
 the Battle of Blaauwberg, 121 ; with 
 Vanderkemp, 125 ; lands at Madras, 
 130 ; first sermon there, 144 ; lands 
 at Calcutta, 147 ; 'Let me burn out 
 for God,' 150 ; opposition of chap- 
 lains to his preaching, 151 ; at 
 Serampore, 158 ; Carey's opinion of 
 Martyn, 161 ; at work on his Hin- 
 dustani Testament, 168 ; a mission- 
 ary to the Mohammedans, 174 ; 
 renews his suit to Lydia Grenfell, 
 175 ; appointed to Dinapore, 183 ; 
 a Suttee, 184 ; prayer in the pagoda, 
 196 ; up the Ganges, 199 ; hos- 
 tility of Europeans at first, 204 ; in 
 Patna, 205 ; native disaffection, 
 206 ; dreams and sickness, 208 ; 
 first letter to the associated clergy, 
 212; correspondence with Romanist 
 missionaries, 218 ; evangelisation of 
 India, 225 ; life with Sabat, 226 ; 
 controversy with moulvies, 234 ; 
 refused by Lydia, 246 ; ordered to 
 Cawnpore, 256 ; described by Mrs. 
 Sherwood, 258 ; anecdotes of Mar- 
 tyn, 264 ; his conversation, 274 ; 
 preaching to fakeers, 281 ; his con- 
 vert Abdool Massee'h and others, 
 285 ; overwork, 289 ; correspond- 
 
 MIL 
 
 ence with Lydia, 292 ; in the new 
 church, Cawnpore, 309 ; return to 
 Calcutta, 313; voyage to Arabia 
 and Persia, 317 ; in Bombay, 325 ; 
 in the Persian Gulf, 333 ; lands in 
 Persia, 339 ; in Bushire, 346 ; to 
 Shiraz, 349 ; in Shiraz, 360 ; con- 
 troversies with Shiahs, Soofis, and 
 Jews, 375 ; with the Moojtahid, 
 394 ; at Persepolis, 410 ; the Rama- 
 zan, 411 ; his place as a Bible 
 translator, 418 ; as a philologist, 
 425 ; as a Hebraist, 426 ; his Hin- 
 dustani Bible, 431 ; Arabic New 
 Testament, 434 ; Persian studies, 
 445 ; Alford on Martyn, 447 ; Per- 
 sian New Testament, 450; Persian 
 New Testament completed, 460 ; to 
 Ispahan, Teheran, and Tabreez, 463 ; 
 illness at Tabreez, 474 ; last words 
 to Lydia Grenfell, 481 ; New Tes- 
 tament presented to the Shah, 484 ; 
 as a translator, 490 ; the Pope's con- 
 demnation, 491 ; towards Constan- 
 tinople, 494 ; with the Armenians 
 at Etchmiatzin, 499 ; at Erzroom, 
 508 ; furiously hurried towards Tokat, 
 571 ; last words in his Journal, 573 ; 
 burial, 515 ; Remembrances of Mar- 
 tyn, 520 ; the first grave, 529 ; the 
 second grave, 530 ; effect of the 
 news of his death, 543 ; first memoir 
 by Sargent, 547 ; last words of 
 Lydia GrenfelPs Diary, 551 ; Henry 
 Martyn's followers, 553 ; memorials 
 of Henry Martyn, 570 ; the lessons 
 of his life, 571 
 
 Massacre Well, 267 
 
 Mathematics in Cambridge, 20 
 
 Mather, Dr. R. C., 433 
 
 Mawby, Col., 266 
 
 McNeill, Sir John, 520 
 
 Meer Kasim, 202 
 
 Megasthenes, 202 
 
 Mekran, 334 
 
 Mesnevi, The, 526 
 
 Metcalfe, Lord, 143 
 
 Methodism, 26 
 
 Methodius, 418 
 
 Miesrob, 418 
 
 Military Asylums, 260 
 
 Orphan School, Calcutta, 136 
 
 Milner, Dean, 235 
 
 P P 
 
578 
 
 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 MIL 
 
 Milner, Isaac, 16, 74, 441 
 
 Minto, Lord, 120, 142, 231, 313, 316, 
 
 334, 344 
 Miracle Play of Hasan and Husain, 
 
 411 
 Mirza Fitrut, 230 
 
 Ibrahim, 399, 403 
 
 M. Ruza, 403 
 
 Sayyid Ali Khan, 360, 488 
 Missionary call, 26, 572 
 
 societies, 28, 43, 136, 141 
 
 council at the Cape proposed, 170 
 
 preaching, 173, 213 
 
 and the East India Company, 241 
 
 life, 279 
 
 martyrdom, 290, 513 
 Mohammedan controversy (see ' Islam '), 
 
 214, 233, 363, 375, 475 
 Mohammedans, missions to, 225, 524, 
 
 572 
 
 Moheecan Bible, 418 
 Monghyr, 201 
 Montgomery, Sir R., 140 
 Moojtahids, 395 
 Moor, Canon, 438 
 Moorshidabad, 200 
 Moravian mission, 119 
 Morier, James, 356, 391, 482 
 Moule, Archdeacon, 567 
 - Rev. H. C. G. , 22, 42 
 Muir, Sir W., 400 
 Muscat, 337, 567 
 Music, Martyn's love of, 65, 207, 265, 
 
 296 
 Mutiny, Indian, 202 
 
 the White, 202 
 Mysticism, literature of, 554 
 
 NADIR SHAH, 341 
 
 Nana Dhoondoo Panth, 267 
 
 Naoroji, D., 330 
 
 Napoleon Bonaparte, 120, 143, 343 
 
 Nelson, Lord, 81 
 
 Nestorians, 569 
 
 Netherlands East India Company, 119 
 
 Newton, John, 66, 75, 137 
 
 Norman, Sir H., 220 
 
 OBECK, 135 
 Oman, 333 
 Omar Khayyam, 371 
 Ooroomia, 483 
 Orme's Indostan, 108 
 
 REG 
 
 Ormuz Island, 341 
 Osborne, Lord S. G., 44 
 Oudh, Nawab of, 289 
 Ouseley, Sir Gore, 143, 344, 484 
 Oxford, II 
 
 PAGODA, HENRY MARTYN'S, 158, 313 
 
 Paley, Dr., 30 
 
 Papendorp Articles, 121 
 
 Parasang, 493 
 
 Parsees, 330, 340, 371 
 
 Parson, Chaplain, 183, 200, 258 
 
 Patna, 201 
 
 Paul, the Apostle, 60, 381 
 
 Peacock, Dean, 20 
 
 Pearce, S., 26, 34 
 
 Pellew, Sir E., 131, 145 
 
 Pelly, Sir Lewis, 411, 455 
 
 Penang, 228 
 
 Pendennis, 88 
 
 Persepolis, 356, 409 
 
 Persia, 234, 237, 328, 340, 348, 370, 446 
 
 Persian Bible, 418, 445, 462, 484, 489 
 
 - Gulf, 333 
 
 - travelling, 493 
 Pfander, Dr., 399, 415 
 Philology, 425 
 Pietists, 132 
 
 Pilgrim'' s Progress, 63, 80, 214 
 
 Pinkerton, Rev. R., 488 
 
 Pitt, W., 69, 120 
 
 Plassey, 134 
 
 Poona, 326 
 
 Pope Pius VIII. , 491 
 
 Popham, Sir H., 120 
 
 Porter, Sir R. K., 342, 519 
 
 Portraits of Henry Martyn, 80, 307 
 
 of Lydia Grenfell, 244 
 Portugal in the East, 322, 341 
 Preaching and missions, 243, 281 
 
 QUEEN-EMPRESS VICTORIA, 333, 342 
 Quishlang, 468 
 
 RAFFLES, SIR S., 121 
 Rajmahal, 200 
 Ramazan Fast, 411 
 Ranjeet Singh, 143, 277 
 Rawlinson, Sir H., 409 
 Rayner, M., 66 
 Redruth, 51 
 Regiment, the 59th, 101 
 
 the 67th, 220, 312 
 
INDEX 
 
 579 
 
 REG 
 
 Regiment, the 53rd, 257 
 
 the 8th Light Dragoons, 276 
 Keid, missionary, 125 
 Reshire, 346 
 
 Rich, C. J., 517, 563 
 
 Riebeck, Governor, 119 
 
 Robber Island, 118 
 
 Roberts, Lord, 565 
 
 Robinson, Archdeacon, 489 
 
 Rodney, Capt., 320 
 
 Romanist Christians, 217, 318, 569 
 
 Rumsden, Prof., 441 
 
 Ruskin, 33 
 
 Russia, 415, 345, 482 
 
 Rutherford, Samuel, 2 
 
 Ryland, Dr., 516 
 
 SABAT, 225, 269, 422 
 
 Sadi, 371 
 
 St. Andrews, 24 
 
 St. Hilary church, 55 
 
 St. John's College, Cambridge, 13, 33, 
 
 570 
 
 St. Michael's Mount, 43, 90, 96 
 Sandys, Major, 54 
 vSan Salvador, 106 
 Sanskrit, 199 
 Sardhana, 286 
 
 Sargent, John, 22, 50, 227, 544 
 Sad, 184 
 
 Schurmann, missionary, 432 
 Schwartz, 60, 65, 139, 144, 317 
 Scott, Sir Walter, 423 
 Scott's Dekkan, 108 
 Scottish Missions, 488, 564 
 Seatonian Prize, 67 
 Seleukos Nikator, 202 
 Serampore, 34, 158, 162, 422 
 Sermons by Martyn, 55, 67, 78, 109, 
 
 IS 1 * 549 
 
 Serope or Serafino, 500, 521 
 Shah Abbas, 340 
 - Futteh AH, 341, 484 
 
 Nasr-ed-Deen, 489 
 
 Zeman, 325 
 Sheheran, 511 
 Sheikh Othman, 326 
 
 Saleh, see Abdool Massee'h 
 Sherley Brothers, 340 
 Sherwood, Mrs., 257, 283 
 Shiahs, 373 
 Shiraz, 355, 448, 565 
 Shore, see Teignmouth 
 
 UNW 
 
 Simeon, Charles, 13, 27, 34, 42, 109, 
 
 190, 544, 553 
 
 Sin, Pauline doctrine of, 109 
 Smith, Dr. Eli, 435, 519 
 Societies, Missionary, 28, 43, 136, 141 
 Soldiers in India, 200, 203, 219, 256, 265 
 Solitude, 462 
 Soofis, 371, 413, 443, 570 
 Soonnis, 373 
 Soudan, 120 
 Southey, 40 
 Spiritual Exercises, 51, 92, 117, 126, 
 
 209, 557 
 
 Stanley, Dean, 411 
 Stannaries, 3 
 Staunton, Sir G., 27 
 Stephen, Sir James, I, 65 
 Stevenson, W., 132 
 Stuart, Bishop K, 566 
 Suffavian dynasty, 341 
 Sultania, 468 
 Sunstroke, 347 
 
 TABREEZ, 472, 482 
 Taleb Massee'h, 286 
 Tauris, 482 
 Taylor, Dr., 169, 326 
 Teheran, 356, 466 
 Teignmouth, Lord, 135, 138, 421 
 Teutonic Bible, 418 
 Theologia Germanica, 555 
 Thomas a Kempis, 53, 420, 555 
 Thomas, Dr., 135 
 Thomason, 434, 543 
 Thompson, M., Chaplain, 144 
 Thornton, H., 16, 41, 476 
 Tilsit, Treaty of, 143, 344 
 Timour, 356 
 Tin of Cornwall, 2 
 Tipoo's Library, 151 
 Tokat, 518 
 Tranquebar, 130 
 
 Translation of Bible, 72, 280, 382, 417 
 Tregothnan, 24 
 
 Trinity Church, Cambridge, 36, 571 
 College, Cambridge, 34, 571 
 Truro, 3, 5, 24, 41 
 Tsar Alexander, 343 
 Turks, 512 
 
 UDNY, GEORGE, 15, 135 
 Ulfilas, 418 
 Unwin, Mrs., 66 
 
5 8o 
 
 HENRY MARTYN 
 
 . VAN 
 
 VANDERKEMP, DR., 29, 123 
 VanDyck, Dr., 418, 435 
 Van Lennep, Dr., 527 
 Vaughan, Dean, 571 
 Vellore Mutiny, 422 
 Venables, Canon, 535 
 Venn, Henry, 569 
 Vienna Congress, 121 
 
 WAHABEES, 202, 333 
 Wainwright, Commodore, 334 
 Wall's Lane, Cambridge, 70 
 Ward, Chaplain, 155 
 
 missionary, 157, 429 
 Waring, Scott, 237, 357 
 Watson, Bishop, 137 
 Wellesley, Marquess, 135, 343 
 Wesley, Charles, 4 
 
 - John, 3, 132 
 Westcott, Bishop, 571 
 Westergaard, 409 
 Wilkins, Sir C., 516 
 White, Kirke, 27, 40, 68 
 
 Lieut., 138 
 Whitfield, George, 3, 132 
 
 ZOR 
 
 Whytehead, missionary, 570 
 Wickes, Capt., 186 
 Wiclif, 418 
 Wilberforce, Bishop S., 22 
 
 - W., 40, 65, 69, 570 
 Wilkinson, missionary, 433 
 Wilson, Bishop D., 201, 553 
 
 - Dr. John, 290, 327, 399, 563 
 Wolverton, Lord, 46 
 
 Wood, Col., 307 
 Woodbury, 24 
 Wordsworth. 570 
 Wrangler, Senior, 19, 71, 264 
 
 XAVIER, FRANCIS, 174, 218, 318 
 -P. H., 399, 416 
 
 Xenophon and the Ten Thousand, 502 
 Xerxes, 409 
 
 YOUNG, COL. AND MRS., 241, 313 
 Governor, 119 
 Yule, Sir Henry, 332 
 
 ZAMBESI, 120 
 Ziegenbalg, 132 
 Zoroaster, 371 
 
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