CHAPTER XII
ZENANA MISSIONS
About the year 1807, William Carey, a native of Northampton, started a small society for the conversion of India to Christianity. He was assisted by the zealous Henry Martyn and two other clergymen. A few years later an English school was opened in Calcutta, in which Hindu children were instructed in the Bible.
Wilberforce, approved of this mission, and lent it his fervent advocacy. Schools began to be erected in all parts of India, though the innovation was opposed by the natives.
"It is difficult to fix the exact date of the beginning of Zenana missions in Calcutta, as the necessity for them was felt simultaneously by all the Missionary Societies working in and around that city. Some say that the Baptist missionaries were the first to begin the work; and it is well known that Mrs. Mullens, of the L.M.S., and her daughters visited Zenanas in connection with their own mission at this time.
"In 1855 the Rev. J. Fordyce, who was then in charge of the Free Kirk Orphanage in Calcutta, employed one of his teachers, Miss Toogood, to visit in some Zenanas, to which135
