He found it 'was as impossible to be as quiet there as in India' and 'it is questionable whether... ...he did not suffer more from excitement in the West, than he would have done from climate in the East.' He didn't have the strength to address large congregations so 'he soon made himself heard through the medium of the press' calling for more missionary effort, resources and ten more missionaries to be sent to India. He managed to raise £7,000 towards the cost of fresh missionaries, the Calcutta Tract Society, and towards mission buildings in Entally. He also revised and enlarged Andrew Fuller's popular 'Memoirs' of his father.

William Yates reproduces one of the articles published in England:

'Missionary labour in India, though it has confessedly been trying to the faith of the church, has by no means been so discouraging as is frequently supposed. The apparent as well as real success has been increasing every year. Not to travel out of your own operations, and instance Tinevelly, Travencore, and Ceylon, encouraging stations of other denominations, I may refer, in illustration of this remark, to the experience of my Missionary associates in Calcutta. In the year 1817, you will recollect that two European brethren, formed a union for the effectual prosecution of their duties in that city and neighbourhood. They were afterwards joined by two others, and I united with them in 1818. From that time to the present, at different periods, other associates have joined us; but never more than sufficient to make up our previous losses by death or other causes. The number of European Missionaries has been equal, but has their success during the same period been always the same? Far from it. If we divide the number of years which elapsed from January, 1818, to December, 1836, into three equal periods, we find the following result:-- Up to the middle of the year 1824, when our beloved fellow-labourer, Mr. E. Carey, was compelled through illness to leave India, we were privileged to baptize only four natives, and including their families and enquirers, the total number of professing Christians in connection with us, was but ten. During the next period, the number baptized was increased to thirty-six, and of professing Christians to one hundred and eighty; while during the last period, from 18331 to Dec. 1836, when I left India, the number baptized was one hundred and twenty, and of those who had renounced idolatry, and regularly attended Christian worship, nearly five hundred; several of whom stood proposed for baptism. Adding all together, you will find that already the 'little one' has almost become 'a thousand.' The apparently unsuccessful labours of the first period produced fruit in the second, while they also continued to increase the amount of usefulness in the third. The increase each year is now equal to what it was during the first ten or twelve, and through the ripening influence of past labours, as well as present efforts, and above all, the increasing number and higher qualifications of the native preachers who are rising around us is every reason to hope that the progress of the Mission, with the same number of European labourers, will very soon be equal in one year to what it now is in ten or twelve. Let not then the Christian church allow itself for one moment to despond, as regards the conversion of India. In so large a country, extensive and lengthened labour will of course be necessary in laying the foundation of the Christian temple; but in due time it certainly will arise, and then the grandeur of its dimensions, and the number of its worshipers will amply repay every sacrifice which it may have required.

The above considerations would lead you, I hope to the solemn conviction, that it was the bounden duty of our Society greatly to enlarge its efforts for the Salvation of India. But I am constrained to mention two other considerations, which urge upon you the necessity of thus acting without delay. These are first, the present circumstances of the excellent brethren now labouring in India, especially in Calcutta and its neighbourhood; and the second, the interesting yet critical state in which, at the present moment, the people you wish to benefit are placed.

I mention, first, the peculiar circumstances of your Indian Missionaries, especially the 'Calcutta brethren.' The brethren designated by the latter term, you are well aware, do not all reside in Calcutta, nor are their exertions at all confined to that vast metropolis and its immediate neighbourhood. Messrs.Yates, Penney, and myself reside to the South East of the city; Mr. Carapiet one mile, and Mr. Ellis four miles distant to the North (1), all on the same side of the river Hugli; while Mr. G Pearce occupied a station at Sibpur, two miles to the West of us, and Mr. Thomas another (2) at Salkiya, further distant from us to the North West. Besides this, not merely by occasional itineracies, but by regular pastoral labours, the exertions of the brethren have been long extended to the stations of Lakhyantipur and Khari, thirty-five and fifty miles to the South of the city, where one of them would gladly reside, had not experience and medical advice lead to the conclusion that such a step would be fatal to European health. Now I mention the various duties devolving on the brethren I have left, you will readily perceive that they are far too numerous and important for their limited strength, even when increased by the invaluable aid of Mr. De Monte and several native assistants.

Not to dwell on the pastoral duties of the English Church in the Circular Road -- daily superintendence of the numerous pupils in the Benevolent Institution -- and other engagements which bear indirectly, though very sensibly, on the conversion of the natives, and are fully equal to the strength of two brethren, even the direct Missionary labours to which they are called are far beyond their ability.

At the end of last year they had under their pastoral care distinct churches of native brethren in Calcutta, Chitpur, and Haurah, as well as Lakhyantipur and Khari.

They were occupied in daily services to the heathen in the native languages, in Calcutta and its vicinity as well as at fairs, markets, and other assemblies, held at numerous villages near our distant country stations.

They also had under their care two most promising boarding schools, on the plan of the American brethren at Ceylon, containing respectively nearly fifty boys and forty girls, all children of native Christians, who are boarded and clothed, as well as educated at the Institution.

They also superintend a very flourishing seminary for Hindu youth, in which are no less than two hundred and fifty boys and young men, receiving an excellent education in English, as well as Bengali.

They had also under instruction two distinct classes of catechists, as students for the native ministry: some, converted in middle life, who are diligently instructed in their own language; and others, pious youths, who have been educated at the Boarding School in English, and are afterwards supplied with additional instruction on theological subjects in that language. The first classes are designed for usefulness in villages, and among the great mass of the population; while the latter will be prepared to labour, and defend the truth if necessary, in the city, among the better educated part of their countrymen. Both classes, of course, are instructed to preach fluently in Bengali.

The efforts of the brethren in translation of the Scriptures are important and responsible. Missionaries of all denominations having adopted the version of the Bengali Testament, which the brethren prepared, and having affectionately urged them to further exertions in this department, they have now to carry through the press a new version of the Old Testament, just translated, and are pledged to the execution; as soon as possible, of the whole Scriptures, with marginal references, in the same language. They are also preparing a version of the New Testament in Sanscrit, the learned language of the Hindus, and in Hindustani, the dialect most extensively spoken by the Muhammadans, throughout Hindustan.

Anxious to aid the usefulness of the Religious Tract Society, and the American Sunday School Union, they are engaged in translating and carrying through the press various Tracts and larger religious works, to be printed at the expense of those excellent associations.

And in addition to the above, the brethren have the management of a large Printing Office, in which upwards of a hundred persons are employed in casting types, and in printing and binding useful and religious works, in various languages. At this establishment thousands of Gospels, and above two hundred thousand tracts and School Books, have been lately printed every year; and by means of its labours considerable pecuniary aid is afforded to the benevolent operations of the Mission.

William Pearce concludes by saying:

'It is my duty to inform you, that each engagement hangs merely on the life and health of a single individual; so that, should it please God to remove any one of the brethren from his post by sickness or death, that department of labour for which he is chiefly responsible must, in all cases, be lamentably crippled in its efficiency and in most cases entirely abandoned. To carry on the exertions of your Calcutta Missionaries, several of whom, you are aware, have passed the meridian of life, or are considerably debilitated by the influence of the climate, additional labourers must therefore be sent without delay. But the support of present engagements only will not satisfy my brethren or myself. We long to have the scale of our exertions greatly enlarged.'

Pearce argued that more preaching and the education of Christian youth and native preachers is required. More biblical translations need to be prepared with constant revision. More branch stations. 'Mr. Leslie is very anxious to convert the people of the Bhagalpur Hills and requires an associate. A well-supported station is needed in the upper provinces of India.'

He raised £7,000 towards the cost of fresh missionaries, the Calcutta Tract Society, and Mission buildings in Entally. (3)

All text in bold type indicate William Yates's (and therefore possibly originally Pearce's) emphases.

(1) Rev. John D. Ellis was formerly a printer's apprentice and Sunday School teacher from Exeter, Devon, and lived just north of the city at Chitpore. He worked there and at Entally. John Ellis had replied to an advertisement by the Baptist Missionary Society for an 'acceptable' preacher in answer to a request by William Pearce for an assistant. He arrived in Calcutta, with his wife Maria, in October 1831. John had been ordained and quite quickly moved on to teaching. He had four children, all of whom were born in Calcutta, but two of them died in early childhood. The surviving sons were John (b. 15 Sept. 1833) and James (b.18 Oct. 1835).

Information kindly supplied by a descendant of Rev. John D. Ellis: Rev. Josephine Mewett, of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. A minister in the Church of Canada.

The interest in this account to the creator of this site is that his uncle Norman Ellis worked at Baptist Mission Press from 1931 (exactly a century later) and his father Bernard Ellis worked at Baptist Mission Press from 1947. Bernard Ellis had a son called John who was born in Calcutta. It is probable that the original John Ellis previously lived (for a time) in the same Press flat as either Norman or Bernard Ellis's family had their home.

(2) William Yates's (and therefore possibly originally Pearce's) footnote to the article:

'Other changes, in addition to the removal of Mr. Thomas to Calcutta, to superintend the Press during my absence, have probably taken place ere now; but as they were not completed when we left, I prefer describing the state of things before our departure.'

(3) Page 227, 'Samuel Pearce, M.A., The Baptist Brainerd', by S. Pearce Carey M.A.