Andrew Fuller, Kettering, to John Rippon, Southwark, London, 6 August 1794.       

Kettg   6 Aug. 94

Dear Bro.r

  On 29.th July for the first time I recd a Letter from each of our Brethren in India they are all well and as happy as can be expected—They met with great civility from the Captain, who is an Englishman tho’ Commander of a Danish Ship—He has promised to make Interest for them with the Danish Governor, who resides but about 16 miles from Calcutta, where they now are and which is a matter of great importance if the English Company should frown upon their undertaking.[1]

  After escaping one most imminent danger in which they were on the point of giving up all for lost, they arrived in the Bay of Bengal and were safely landed Novr 7. 1793 not five months after their departure—During the Voyage they had translated the Book of Genesis into Bengallie—Carey is got very forward in that language, and Thomas in the Sancrit, which is the learned language of Indostan in wh are written all their sacred writings—The voyage or its dangers does not appear in the least to have damped their spirits, but rather to have produced a contrary effect—Thus writes Mr Thomas while they were tossing about in the Bay of Bengal—almost in sight of the place of destination “We have been burthened with many sorrows but at present I rejoice—I rejoice because God is with us, the throne of grace is open and the precious word of God is unsealed to us—I rejoice to be so near my family, and so near a flock of black sheep—I rejoice to run and roll away the storm from the wells mouth that they may drink!”

  On their arrival they met with Ram Ram Bashoo who to their great grief they found had been again bowing down to Idols!  They still however think well of him—Carey gives the following account of his temptations and fall as expressed by himself— “Forsaken by European Christians, and discarded by the Hindoos, very ill of a flux, nothing to support me or my family—all said Mr Thomas would never return—I knew that Roman Catholics worshiped Idols—I thought I had seen but a small part of the Bible—Perhaps the worship of images might be commanded in some parts of it which I had not seen—I hesitated—and complied, but it was for a piece of bread—and I still love Xnity much the best.”  Carey speaks after wards of his having engaged him to teach him the language and as being “much pleased with his conversation.” Parbotee, they found stood well, and he and Mohun Chund were coming from a distant part of the country to see them and unite with them. Only three days passed after their arrival ere they began to work—Their first entrance on it is thus described by Carey— “On the 10th of Novr MrThomas and I began our labours—We came in a Pansowah (a boat ) from the ship, and at slack water we lay to at a Bozar (or market) where Mr T preaches to the people—They left their merchandise immediately and listened for three hours with great attention—One of them prepared us a dinner which we ate—A plantain loaf was our dish, and plates, and instead of knives and forks we used our fingers—when we left them they desired us to come again!” In his concluding paragraph dated Decr 16th he says, “We have frequent opportunities of addressing the Hindoos, and their attention is astonishing—Last Lords day we went and Mr Thomas preached to near 200 of them at La Gange, a village near us   they listened with great seriousness; and several followed us to make further enquiries about what is the way to heaven?  and how they should do to walk therein?  Every place presents a pleasing prospect to us of success, and we are of one mind, & of one soul!— Pray for us   we daily remember you, & the prosperity of the Society lies very near our hearts.”

  “I hope, adds he, the Society will go on and increase—and that the multitudes of heathens in ye world may hear the glorious words of truth—Africa is but a little way fm England—Madagascar but a little farther—South America and all the numerous and large Islands in the Indian & Chinese Seas I hope will not be passed over—A large field opens on every side, and millions of perishing heathens tormented in this life by means of Idolatry Superstition and Ignorance and subject to eternal misery in the next, are pleading!  Yes all their miseries plead as soon as they are known with every heart that loves God, and with all the churches of the living God!  O that many labourers may be thrust into the vineyard of our L. J. C. and that ye gentiles may come to the knowledge of the truth as it is in him!” By this if you knew not before you may know the man & his communication.

  Both Thomas & Carey speak highly of each other—at their outset when they were Sea-sick T speaks of Car[ey] “leaning over the sides of the Ship to relieve his stomach, and expressing what Joy he felt in contemplating the goodness of God!” C. on the other hand speaks of T as, “A holy-man—that the more he knows him the better he loves him, tho, adds he, his faithfulness is apt to degenerate into personality—It is thus I account for his former differences with Mr C—I speak not this of myself for we live in the greatest love.”

  Their expences are more than they expected—Carey has to pay a Mumshee, or interpreter, for teaching him the language—-and Thomas a Pundit for teaching him the Sancrit—These are absolutely necessary for translating the scriptures, on which their hearts are set—they request a Polyglot Bible which will cost 8 or 10 guineas to be sent them—and some other books—and when they have translated enough into manuscript to think of printing, we must either have it printed in London or send them types which will cost 3 or 400£—but if God be with them & prosper them we shall not want for money—I have collected this spring in London and the Country near 300£—

  While they were tossed about in the Bay of Bengal Carey writes thus “Many private seasons I have enjoyed (on board) of great pleasure and have a growing satisfaction in having undertaken this work and a growing desire for its success, tho I feel so much barrenness and so little of that lively continual sense of divine things upon my mind that I almost despair of ever being of any more, but in general I feel a pleasure in the thought that Christ has promised to be with his Ministers to the end of the world and that as our day is so shall Our strength be   have often felt much pleasure in recollecting the times of Publick worship in the Churches in England and reflecting that now perhaps Hundreds if not Thousands are praying for me   you will also easily believe that my friends have not been forgotten by me on those occasions your 10 oclock in the Morning will be 4 in the afternoon there being 6 hours difference of time between you and us  Mr Thomas has laboured indefatigably in translating the Book of Genesis which he has now accomplished   in short we are now expecting to join Ramboshee and Parbotee in a few days

  Dear Bror —We have had a Committee meetg last Monday when it was Resolved amongst other things to print an Account of the Origin and Progress of the Society—and wh will contain extracts of the letters lately Recd as are proper to be made publick—This will be printed with all convenient Expedition—and fm this you may take what you please for yr Register—You will have no objection I presume to our printing in this acct the Narrative of Mr Thomas wh appeared in yr Register—Yr affece

                                                                        A. Fuller

 My Respects to Mrs R. &c

Text: Timothy Whelan, Baptist Autographs in the John Rylands University Library of Manchester, 1741-1845 (Macon: Mercer University Press, 2009), pp. 68-71 (annotated version); also MAM. PLP. 42.47.3, John Rylands University Library of Manchester. The letter from Carey that Fuller has just received resides now in the Isaac Mann collection at the National Library of Wales, dated 17 October 1793 with additions on 14 and 25 November, and 16 December. A note on this letter in Fuller’s hand reads: “Mr. Carey’s 1st letter dated Oct. and Nov. 93. Arrived beginning of Aug. 94,” which was actually, as the above letter reveals, 29 July 1794. Carey’s letter was reprinted in the The Periodical Accounts, Relative to the Baptist Missionary Society, a monthly periodical that commenced about two years after the founding of the BMS, publishing letters from the mission fields and keeping supporters at home aware of the mission’s activities and progress. Fuller met with the Committee at Guilsborough on 4 August 1794, replying to Carey and Thomas on behalf of the Committee in a letter written that day and published by Rippon in the Baptist Annual Register, 2: 174-75. See also Periodical Accounts, 1: 61-70. Others mentioned above include John Thomas (1757-1800), who joined Carey as a BMS missionary to India in 1793; Ram Ram Bashoo, one of Carey's early interpreters in India; Parbotee, an early convert in India and translator for Carey; and Mohun Chund, a Brahmin who supposedly had been converted to Christianity by Thomas but returned to his former religion.  Fuller makes reference here as well to the origin of the Periodical Accounts of the Baptist Missionary Society, which were published serially between 1794 and 1817.

[1]At the bottom of the page Fuller writes, “I learn by other Letters he has made application, & succeeded. You must not publish this however,” for that would “offend the Company.” He advises Rippon that they must be silent about Carey’s “application to the Danish governor.”