Whether because Rev. Long courted imprisonment for the sake of this book or because the book had a special quality of its own, Nil Darpan was translated into many of the European languages and came to be widely read.
No other work of Bengali literature could achieve this rare distinction. Yet howsoever great might be the distinction, all those who were connected with this work had to face some danger or other. It was by giving publicity to this book that Rev. Long courted imprisonment, and Seton-Karr faced insult. It was by translating this book that Michael Madhushudan Dutt was privately reprimanded and humiliated, and had to, it is learnt, give up his means of livelihood—his job in the Supreme Court. The author of the book, however, faced the greatest danger, even though he was neither imprisoned nor dismissed from his job. One night Dinabandhu was crossing the river Meghna by boat, engaged in writing the manuscript of Nil Darpan. When he had gone only a few miles away from the shore, the boat started sinking. The oarsmen, the boatmen—all started swimming, but Dinabandhu did not know how to swim. He sat quietly in the sinking boat with the manuscript of Nil Darpan in hand. Suddenly then one of the swimmers touched ground and called out to the rest: "Oh! there's no more fear now. Water is shallow here. There must be a char nearby." In fact, there was one at hand, and when the boat was pulled in there Dinabandhu went to the top of the boat and sat there quietly. In his hand was the manuscript of Nil Darpan wet all over. The Meghna was at ebb then. Soon the flowtide would come, flooding the char and carrying the wrecked boat nobody knew where. How would they escape with their lives, then? This was what everybody was thinking—the oarsmen, the boatmen and even Dinabandhu himself. It was the dead of night, a pitch darkness hung all around, and the roar of the river was in the ears, interrupted by the cries of night-birds. Failing to find out a means of escape, Dinabandhu was quickly coming to the end of his hopes, when suddenly the beating of oars in water was heard in the distance. Their repeated cries for help found a response from the men on that boat, and they soon came to the rescue of Dinabandhu and his companions.
From Dacca division Dinabandhu again came to Nadia. As a matter of fact it was in Nadia that Dinabandhu was
220
