CHRISTIAN HERO ES: THEN & Now

WILLIAM CARBY

. .

Obliged to Go

JANET & GEOFF BENGE

• I '

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YWAM Publishing is the publishing ministry of Youth With A Mission. Youth With A Mission (YWAM) is an international mission­ary organization of Christians from many denominations dedicated to presenting Jesus Christ to this generation. To this end, YWAM has focused its efforts in three main areas: (1) training and equipping believers. for their part in fulfilling the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19), (2) personal evangelism, and (3) mercy ministry (medical and relief work).

For a free catalog of books and materials, contact:

YWAM Publishing P.O. Box 55787, Seattle, WA 98155 (425) 771-1153 or (800) 922-2143 www.ywarnpublishing.com

William Carey: Obliged to Go Copyright© 1998 by YWAM Publishing, a ministry

of Youth With A Mission

10 09 08 07 06 10 9 8 7 6 5

Published by YWAM Publishing P.O. Box 55787 Seattle, WA 98155

ISBN 1-57658-147-0

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the

· case of brief quotations in critical articles or reviews.

Printed in the United States of America.

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---------~----Contenrr

1. Sailing Away Without Him ................ 13

2. The Flitting ............................. 17

3. The Apprentice .......................... 29

4. Among the Dissenters .................... 43

5. A Miserable Enthusiast ................... 55

6. I Will Go ............................... 65

7. Bad News, Good News ........ , .......... 81

8. A Course to India ........................ 95

9. On Indian Soil ......................... 107

10. Into the Sunderbans .................... 119

11. Mudnabatti ............................ 131

12. Spies! ................................. 145

13. Sitting Together with the Missionaries ..... 157

14. Professor .............................. 169

15. Rebuild and Replace .................... 181

. 16. Growing Pains ......... : ............... 191

17. Say Nothing about William Carey ........ 205

Bibliography ..... · ....................... 213

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------------ Chapter 1

Sailing Away Without Him

William Carey stared at the pile of wooden crates and leather trunks that had been dumped

onto the Portsmouth dock beside the Earl of Oxford. He recalled the excitement he had felt as his belong­ings were loaded onto the ship in London a month earlier. An adventure had laid ahead for him and his oldest son, Felix. Now the dream was shattered. The two of them stood side by .side on the. dock, watching the ship being made ready to sail, only this time it was going to sail without them.

As sailors scurried up and down the rigging, William begged Captain White to reconsider. The

. captain would not. It simply wasn't worth his career to take unlicens~d passengers to India. ,

An hour later, the Earl of Oxford cast off and drifted away from the dock. As she did so, the crew

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14 William Carey: Obliged to Go

hoisted her sails into position. William squeezed Felix tightly beside him, knowing that his son wouldn't understand what was happening. How could he? William could hardly make sense of it himself. The Earl of Oxford had set sail for India without them.

William watched as the vessel joined the other six ships that would form the convoy. Despite his disap­pointment, William was captivated by the magnifi­cent sight of white sails flapping in the afternoon's soft, spring sunlight. The ships headed down Ports­mouth Harbor toward the English Channel. A tear slid down his cheek as William watched them go.

A thousand questions and doubts flooded William's mind as the ships sailed toward the hori­zon. Had the British and French not been at war, William and his son wouldn't have had to stop in Portsmouth in the first place. Instead, they would be halfway to India by now. Or if they had sailed a day earlier from London, they would have been able to sail with the earlier convoy and not wait for a month while a new one was assembled. And what was going to happen now? William had been com­missioned and sent out as a missionary to India, but instead he was stuck in Portsmouth. What would he tell the missionary society now? Would he ever get to . India?

As the ships slid over the horizon, William turned his back on the sea. He hired a small cart to take their belongings to the boardinghouse where he and Felix were staying. As he walked alongside

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Sailing Away Without Him 15

the cart, he thought about how far he1 d come from the small boy growing up in Paulerspury. But he still had a long way to go. He had to get to India, and he had to get there soon. He knew there was much work for him to do in that far-off place.

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------------ Chapter 2

The Flitting

William. William. It's time for the flitting," a woman's voice called across the open field,

"Coming, Mother," called back six-year-old William Carey as he swung himself down from the oak tree he had been <;limbing, being very careful not to rip his pants like he had done the week before. Once safely on the ground, William ran eagerly across the field in the direction of the gray stone cottage, where he'd lived all his young life. Before entering the cottage, he brushed some twigs from his shoulder-length brown hair and straight­ened his collar. Even during a flitting, his mother expected him to look tidy. When he was satisfied that he would pass inspection, he stepped excitedly inside. He'd dreamed of this moment for weeks, and now it was finally about to happen.

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18 William Carey: Obliged to Go

Paulerspury, in the heart of the midlands of England, was not a particularly exciting place for a six-year-old boy, or anyone else for that matter, in

· 1767. About eight hundred people lived in the town. They were mostly humble folk, like William's par­ents, Edmund and Elizabeth Carey, who ran a small business in their tiny cottage from which they barely made enough money to feed their growing family. ·William's parents were both weavers and spent their days, and a good part of their nights, weaving a woolen cloth called "tammy," which was then sold to middlemen who traded it in London. At least, that's how things had been up until today. But today, things were going to change. Today was the day of the flitting. Everything in William's life was about to change, and William knew it.

Flitting was the eighteenth-century name for moving house, and as he stepped inside the cottage, William found his father and the church rector car­rying the family's sturdy table and chairs outside into the bright summer sun. As they did so, William thought about all the changes his father's being appointed the clerk of the Church of St. James the Great would bring. (The Church of St. James the Great was part of the Church of England, the only religion officially recognized by King George ill.)

William was most excited about the opportunity he would have to go to school. Up until this point, it had been out of the question for him to think of attending a private school. There wasn't enough money in the house to buy new shoes for everyone,

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