CHAP. Concluding Remarks. Brahminy woman, together with a Mission House adjoining, there was a substantial Church at Mothelloor. The remaining Places of Worship were composed of mud walls, thatched with the palmyra leaf. There were a few Schools, which, being without one regular teacher, were conducted by the Catechists, who had little time to attend to them. There were very few books, either for the Schools or the congregations. A Tamul Testament was preserved here and there in the Chapel; but very rarely was such a treasure found in possession of an individual. The scholars were taught to read out of such cadjan writings, or native compositions written on the palmyra leaf, as they were able to procure, the general subject of which was little calculated to improve their minds. While unacquainted with the native language, the author could do little for the improvement of this Mission; but no time was lost in establishing regular Schools in the principal villages, providing the Liturgy, Scriptures, and other books for the Schools and the community, and obtaining a second Country Priest. The result of these arrangements it were premature to detail in this place. 2. We cannot conclude this brief account of the primitive Missions in South India without one word more in their vindication. We have seen how unjustly they were aspersed, both by Protestants and Papists; but those who are candid enough to consider the unfavourable circumstances in which they were placed for the last few years, will know how to account for their decline without impugning their character, and cordially assent to the observations we have just quoted from the Bishop of Calcutta.1 (') The Bishop's further testimony in favour of the Missionaries and their establishments is reserved for the account of his first Visitation. The tide of hostility, on the part of Europeans in India, had for some time been swelling high and running strong against Missionary operations; and when we consider the difficulties, from this and other causes, with which the Missionaries had to contend, we shall think them entitled to our admiration for keeping the machinery at work, rather than reproach them for not accelerating its motion. In the Society's present inability to send out a sufficient supply of labourers it were unreasonable to expect more to be done. It was during this Decade that the contest described in a former Chapter2 was maintained in England between the friends and enemies of the Indian Missions; the one party seeking to have the door opened wider for the Missionaries' entrance into the country; the other desiring to see it shut more closely against them. question, we have seen, was not decided in their favour before the year 1813; and, while in suspense, little progress could be made in the work. In 1814 labourers from various Societies began to arrive in the country; but it is obvious that there had yet been no time for improvement in the Missions. They were in a state of preparation for future progress; and if it were premature in this place to state the result of the vigorous operations now commenced, it were equally unjust to draw any conclusion to their prejudice from their previous state of comparative inaction. (2) Book x. c. 1. The CHAPTER V. LONDON MISSIONARY SOCIETY IN SOUTH INDIA. 1804-1816. Three Missionaries sent to India. Two of them go to Vizagapatam. VIZAGAPATAM. 1. THE establishment of the London Missionary Society in 1795 has been mentioned above. In the month of February 1804 three Missionaries were sent to India, the Rev. George Cran, Augustus Des Granges, and William T. Ringletaube. Mr. Ringletaube was the Missionary who, in 1798, deserted the Calcutta Mission of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge in so extraordinary a manner. They arrived at Tranquebar early in December, where they were instructed to establish a Mission, if thought expedient; but the choice of their Station was left to themselves, under the intimations of Divine Providence, and the advice of some friends with whom they were directed to communicate on their arrival. 2. The Rev. Dr. Kerr and other friends invited them to Madras; but finding that they would not be allowed to remain there, and not wishing to seem to interfere with the Missions already established in the South, they were recommended to remove to Ganjam, four hundred and sixty miles (') Book x. c. 1. s. 2. north of Madras. This Station, however, being which 3. This place is situated on the coast, in one of Extent to the Northern Circars. It contained at that time Teloogoo above twenty thousand inhabitants, and in its vici- is spoken. nity were many large villages, inhabited by thousands of the Heathen, who were sunk in the grossest idolatry. The language of the country is Teloogoo, which is computed to be spoken by not less than ten millions of people, a number far exceeding those who speak Tamul.2. This station presented (2) This language is spoken by the inhabitants of the province of Telingana, and is thus described in the introduction to a Grammar of it published by A. D. Campbell, Esq. of the Honourable Company's Civil Service on the Madras Establishment. "It is the Andhra of Sanscrit authors; and, in the country where it is spoken, is known by the name of Trilinga, Telinga, Teloogoo, or Tenoogoo. This language is the vernacular dialect of the Hindoos inhabiting that part of the Indian Peninsula, which, extending from the Dutch settlement of Pulicat, on the coast of Coromandel, inland to the vicinity of Bangalore, stretches northwards along the coast as far as Chicacole; and in the interior, to the sources of the Tapti, bounded on the east by the Bay of Bengal ; and on the west by an irregular line passing through the western districts belonging to the Soubahdar of the Deccan, and cutting off the most eastern provinces of the new state of Mysore, a tract including CHAP. Missiona ries wel comed at their Station. an opening to the Cuttack and Mahratta countries, where the Teloogoo is generally understood. 4. On the 25th of July 1805, and the two following days, the Brethren wrote to Dr. Kerr, announcing their safe arrival, describing the cordial reception they had met with from the gentlemen of the place, especially the Collector, Mr. Robert Alexander, and expressing in warm terms the grateful emotions of their hearts for all his kindness to them at Madras. Though not of the Church of England, yet Dr. Kerr advised them, amongst other means of making themselves useful to the English residents, to conduct the Public Worship according to the ritual of the Church. Mr. Cran was brought up in the Church of Scotland, and his colleague in the Protestant Church of France; but they did not scruple to follow Dr. Kerr's advice, which made them the more acceptable to the gentlemen, and seems to have been attended with a blessing to their own souls. Early in August Mr. Cran wrote to Dr. Kerr: "We are well and happy. I read Prayers last Sunday for the first time in my life. I bless God who put it into your heart to advise us to come hither. The Europeans and the Natives including the five Northern Circars of Ganjam, Vizagapatam, An interesting account of the Teloogoo country, language, and inhabitants, is given in the Missionary Register, 1840, pp. 425-428. |