My dear Brother,
      Yours of April fifth by the Agawam, I have received this morning, with the Magazines, Catechisms, &c, for which receive my warmest thanks.

      Nothing, my, dear brother in Christ, would prevent my writing more frequently to you but the great and constant pressure of my various engagements, which will not allow of being put off till another time. I feel strongly united with you in spirit, and all the various motions in the church of God in America are too interesting to be long out of my mind. But I am in the same situation with respect to all my dear American brethren, viz. that of an insolvent debtor.

      What an eventful period is this in which we live! The gospel has entered nearly every country in the East. The West is full of religious motion - Europe all engaged - the North resuscitated, so that we and our coadjutors in Russia can nearly shake hands in the work of God, over the vast mountains of Himaluya, the Imaus of the ancients. The leaven is sensibly fermenting, and I trust, its action will be accelerated and strengthened as its progress continues, The success of the work is impossible to human power, but the ZEAL, of the Lord of Hosts will perform this,

      You wish for my opinion upon the practicability of a mission to the Burman dominions. To this I reply, that I do not think a mission impracticable in any country. The difficulties are certainly greater in some situations than in others, but will assuredly give way to persevering labours. There is, perhaps, no country in the world where there is less for the gratification of the flesh, than there. But the government is not intolerant in religious things. On the contrary, the present King is rather more friendly to other modes of religion than to the doctrines of Boodha. I have reason to believe that the heir apparent is more enlightened and liberal than his father, - Success, however, does not depend on might nor on power, but on the Spirit. - If I had doubted of the practicability of establishing a mission there, I should not have encouraged my own son to go on it. And if we as a body had doubted, we should not have persisted in it so long. My son has withdrawn from the mission, but I still believe the cause of the Lord will triumph there. Brother Judson is a man of God, one of the right stamp for missionary, under-takings, and I trust brother Hough will be found to be equally devoted to the work.

      All your communications with them must be through us, or someone else at Calcutta. The trade with the Burman empire is but trifling, and ships go but seldom. Yet a sufficient communication may be maintained to answer every valuable purpose. The expenses of the mission there will be somewhat greater than here, but brother Judson is remarkably self-denying and prudent.

      Brother Hough embarked long ago in a ship to Rangoon; but the perpetual drunkenness of the captain, and the unfitness of the ship for sea, induced him to leave her before she got out of the river. He expects to sail in a day or two in another ship, and at this season; they expect a short passage thither.

      Accept the assurance that I am very affectionately
Yours, W.[illiam] Carey

========== [From the American Baptist Magazine and Missionary Intelligencer, Volume 1, Boston, 1817, p. 100. Scanned and formatted by Jim Duvall.]

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