p. 12 | A Trip Through East Bengal by J. C. Little

Review and Herald Publishing Association · Takoma Park Station, Washington, D. C. · Feb 10, 1910

A Trip Through East Bengal

By J. C. Little

J. C. LITTLE

For some time in the past our work in East Bengal has been carried on with Gopalgunje as our headquarters. From this point our Bengali brethren have been sent out in small rowboats with our literature into the country villages for a radius of fifty miles or more. Our plan of work has been to keep these brethren with us for some days while they are instructed in methods of work, and taught our truths for these times, and then send them on a two- or three-weeks' tour to put in practise and teach what they have learned. Then again they are brought in and spend a few days in study, and once more go out among the people. This they have been doing for several months past.

At our Bengali conference in January, 1909, it was thought best to ask Brother J. H. Watson and family to take up work at Gopalgunje, making a trial of the place to see if it was suitable for our work and favorable from a health standpoint for the workers. After a number

of months' experience, it was thought best not to continue work there, but to seek a healthier and better location for a center of work in East Bengal.

Accordingly on the first of November, 1909, Brother Watson, Brother L. G. Mookerjee, and the writer left Calcutta for a short tour through East Bengal, with a view to finding a place that would make a good center for our work, and at the same time be a healthful locality for our workers. East Bengal as a whole is low and damp, and therefore very malarious, and in most places the water is so bad that only distillation will render it fit for the human stomach. Even the people of the country are afflicted very commonly with enteric fever, dysentery, cholera, and other diseases common to low and swampy districts; and to find a place where foreigners can live in health is no small problem.

Our first stop was at Gopalgunje, where we met our Bengali workers who have been selling literature in the villages of East Bengal. We stopped here for two days, and then left on a small boat for Madaripur, about thirty-five miles away. This boat was not built after the latest designs, but was probably the same pattern as those used by the fishermen of Galilee two thousand years ago. Our progress was very slow. Leaving Gopalgunje about 9 A. M., we did not arrive at Madaripur until early the next morning. Our way lay through an old canal constructed no one knows when, but now being dredged at considerable expense by the government. The government officers in charge of the dredging operations, four in all, being in the district alone, miles away from any but the native villagers, were pleased indeed to see us, and invited us aboard the dredging steamer, offering us their hospitality and kindly showing us all about the machinery and work.

About the middle of October East Bengal suffered very severely from a cyclone which did much damage to property, and resulted in the loss of several hundred lives. Everywhere as we went through the country, we saw houses, and sometimes almost whole villages, lying leveled to the ground. Many river steamers were caught suddenly in the storm and capsized at once, with all their passengers. We saw at one place a large flatboat, one half submerged and the other half blown upon the river bank, thus lying at an angle of about forty-five degrees. We did not travel through the worst part of the storm area. Some of our own people have suffered considerable loss financially, but we are thankful that no lives were lost from among them. This disaster we intend to notice in our Bengali paper, Jug Lakhan, to call attention to the times in which we live.

On our way to Madaripur we passed thousands of villages swarming with Bengali people. Probably ninety-nine per cent of these villages have never had a messenger of truth, and the vast majority of them know nothing of Christ and the gospel. As we saw these countless villages, and realized that beyond the mile or two of our vision, on each side, lay hundreds of miles in the same condition, we had brought home to our hearts very forcibly the great work before us, and the need of more laborers for the Lord's harvest. When will these millions for whom Christ died receive the warning? Who will accept the burden, and come over and help us give the last message of mercy before it is too late? My dear brother or sister, as you read of these millions who sit in darkness, ask yourself the question, Have I done my duty by them, or is God calling me to bring to them the light of life?

Madaripur is a small station with not more than a dozen foreigners in it, some of these being jute dealers and some government officials. It is considered one of the most healthful places in East Bengal. The Baptists formerly had a mission station there, but at present have only an outpost. We spent a day there, but found no opening favorable for our work.

From Madaripur we came by steamboat to Barisal. This is one of the best towns in East Bengal. The roads are well laid out, and the drainage of the town is good. Beautiful palms and other tropical trees grow here in abundance. This place has been described to us as the “Sanitarium of East Bengal.” Missionaries of the Church of England, Roman Catholics, and Baptists, which are here, and work from Barisal as a center.

We spent several days looking about, and in earnest prayer that God would guide us in the matter of finding the right location if it were his will that the work should be planted in Barisal. A Bengali Christian gentleman, a member of the Church of England and honorary magistrate at Barisal, took a most kindly interest in us, and did all in his power, even putting himself to no little inconvenience, to help us find a suitable bungalow for our work. His efforts and ours were at last rewarded by finding a bungalow in a good part of the town, which, with a little repairing, seems well adapted to our purposes, at a reasonable rate of rent.

We expect to make Barisal the headquarters of our work in East Bengal. From this point a network of steamer lines runs out to different parts of East Bengal, a large part of which includes the delta of the Ganges. We, with Brother Watson and family, located at Barisal about the first of December. We are the only workers in the whole East Bengal country, which contains about twenty-five million Bengalis, and is one of the most densely populated tracts of country in the world. Dear reader, what are we among so many? Who will come over and help us give the message to these millions?

Barisal.