the languages allied to the Bengali, and derived from the Sanskrit
through the Pali, because that was the vernacular of Buddhism in its
original seat; an edition of 1000 copies appeared in 1824. It was
intended to publish a version in the Maithili language of Bihar,
which has a literature stretching back to the fourteenth century,
that every class might have the Word of God in their own dialect.
But Carey's literary enthusiasm and scholarship had by this time
done so much to develop and extend the power of Bengali proper, that
it had begun to supersede all such dialects, except Ooriya and the
northern vernaculars of the valley of the Brahmapootra. In 1810 the
Serampore press added the Assamese New Testament to its
achievements. In 1819 the first edition appeared, in 1826 the
province became British, and in 1832 Carey had the satisfaction of
issuing the Old Testament, and setting apart Mr. Rae, a Scottish
soldier, who had settled there, as the first missionary at Gowhatti.
To these must be added, as in the Bengali character though
non-Aryan languages, versions in Khasi and Manipoori, the former for
the democratic tribes of the Khasia hills among whom the Welsh
Calvinists have since worked, and the latter for the curious Hindoo
snake-people on the border of Burma, who have taught Europe the game
of polo.

Another immediate successor of the Bengali translation was the
Marathi, of which also Carey was professor in the College of Fort
William. By 1804 he was himself hard at work on this version, by
1811 the first edition of the New Testament appeared, and by 1820
the Old Testament left the press. It was in a dialect peculiar to
Nagpoor, and was at first largely circulated by Lieutenant Moxon in
the army there. In 1812 Carey sent the missionary Aratoon to Bombay
and Surat just after Henry Martyn had written that the only