Fortunately the hole was found at last and plugged.
Another week passed and even the missionaries were enjoying the voyage.
The sickness was gone and, after all, the two young couples were on their honeymoon.

The only lasting difficulty was the food.
In spite of Pickering Dodge's explicit instructions regarding variation of meals, the food did not seem the same as at home.
"Everything tasted differently from what it does on land and those things I was most fond of at home, I loathed the most here", Ann noted.
At last they concluded that the heavy, full feeling in their stomachs was due to lack of exercise.
Walking was the remedy, they decided, but a deck full of chicken coops and pigpens was hardly suitable.
Skipping was the alternative.
A rope was found and, like children in school, the missionaries skipped for hours at a time.
Finally, tiring of so monotonous a form of exercise, they decided to dance instead.
It was much more fun, reminding the girls of their old carefree days in the Hasseltine frolics room at Bradford.
The weather turned warmer and with it came better appetites, although Harriet was still a little off-color.
She could not face coffee or tea without milk, and was always craving types of food that were not available aboard a sailing ship.
By now she was sure she was going to have a baby, deciding it would be born in India or Burma that November.
She was more excited than frightened at the prospect of having her first child in a foreign land.

The crew of the Caravan never failed to amaze Ann, who during her stay in Salem must frequently have overheard strong sailorly language.
She wrote in her journal, "I have not heard the least profane language since I have been on board the vessel.
This is very uncommon".

She was now enjoying the voyage very much.
Even the first wave of homesickness had passed, although there were moments when Captain Heard pointed out on his compass the direction of Bradford that she felt a little twinge at her heart.
As for Adoniram, she found him to be "the kindest" of husbands.

On Sundays, with the permission of Captain Heard, who usually attended with two of his officers, services were held in the double cabin.
Sometimes a ship would be sighted and the Caravan pass so close that people could easily be seen on the distant deck.
Captain Heard did not communicate with any strange vessels because of the possibility of war between the United States and Britain.
As warmer temperatures were encountered Ann and Harriet were introduced to the pleasures of bathing daily in salt water.

When May came the Caravan had already crossed the Equator.
They were sailing round the Cape of Good Hope;
the weather had turned wet and cold.
At this time Harriet wrote in a letter which after their finally landing in India was sent to her mother:

"I care not how soon we reach Calcutta, and are placed in a still room, with a bowl of milk and a loaf of Indian bread.
I can hardly think of this simple fare without exclaiming, oh, what a luxury.
I have been so weary of the excessive rocking of the vessel, and the almost intolerable smell after the rain, that I have done little more than lounge on the bed for several days.
But I have been blest with excellent spirits, and to-day have been running about the deck, and dancing in our room for exercise, as well as ever".

While studying at the seminary in Andover, Adoniram had been working on a New Testament translation from the original Greek.
He had brought it along to continue during the voyage.
There was one particular word that troubled his conscience.
This was the Greek word most often translated as "baptism".

Born a Congregationalist, he had been baptized as a tiny baby in the usual manner by having a few drops of water sprinkled on his head, yet nowhere in the whole of the New Testament could he find a description of anybody being baptized by sprinkling.
John the Baptist used total immersion in the River Jordan for believers;
even Christ was baptized by this method.
The more Adoniram looked at the Greek word for baptism, the more unhappy he became over its true meaning.

As was only natural he confided his searchings to Ann, conceding ruefully that it certainly looked as if their own Congregationalists were wrong and the Baptists right.

Ann was very troubled.
By this time she had learned that it was futile to argue with her young husband, yet the uncomfortable fact remained: the American Congregationalists were sending them as missionaries to the Far East and paying their salaries.
What would happen if Adoniram "changed horses in midstream"?
Baptists and Congregationalists in New England were on friendly terms.
How embarrassing it would be if the newly appointed Congregationalist missionaries should suddenly switch their own beliefs in order to embrace Baptist teachings!

"If you become a Baptist, I will not", Ann informed her husband, but sweeping her threat aside Adoniram continued to search for an answer to the personal dilemma in which he found himself.

By early June they were a hundred miles off the coast of Ceylon, by which time all four missionaries were hardened seafarers.
Even Harriet could boldly write, "I know not how it is;
but I hear the thunder roll;
see the lightning flash;
and the waves threatening to swallow up the vessel;
and yet remain unmoved".

Ann thrilled to the sight of a delicate butterfly and two strange tropical birds.
Land was near, and on June 12, one hundred and fourteen days after leaving America, they actually saw, twenty miles away, the coast of Orissa.

Captain Heard gave orders for the ship to be anchored in the Bay of Bengal until he could obtain the services of a reputable pilot to steer her through the shallow waters.

Sometimes ships waited for days for such a man, but Captain Heard was lucky.
Next day a ship arrived with an English pilot, his leadsman, an English youth, and the first Hindu the Judsons and Newells had ever seen.
A little man with a "a dark copper color" skin, he was wearing "calico trousers and a white cotton short gown".
Ann was plainly disappointed in his appearance.
"He looks as feminine as you can imagine", she decided.

The pilot possessed excellent skill at his calling;
all day long the Caravan slowly made her way through the difficult passages.
Alas, to Ann's consternation, his language while thus employed left much to be desired.
He swore so loudly at the top of his voice, that she didn't get any sleep all the next night.

Next morning the Caravan was out of the treacherous Bay.
Relieved of the major part of his responsibility for the safety of the ship, the pilot's oaths became fewer.
Slowly she moved up the Hooghli River, a mouth of the mighty Ganges, toward Calcutta.

Ann was entranced with the view, as were her husband and friends.
Running across the deck, which was empty now that the livestock had been killed and eaten, they sniffed the spice-laden breezes that came from the shore, each pointing out new and exciting wonders to the other.

Out came the journal and in it went Ann's own description of the scene:

"On each side of the Hoogli, where we are now sailing, are the Hindoo cottages, as thick together as the houses in our seaports.
They are very small, and in the form of haystacks, without either chimney or windows.
They are situated in the midst of trees, which hang over them, and appear truly romantick.
The grass and fields of rice are perfectly green, and herds of cattle are everywhere feeding on the banks of the river, and the natives are scattered about differently employed.
Some are fishing, some driving the team, and many are sitting indolently on the banks of the river.
The pagodas we have passed are much larger than the houses".

Harriet was just as delighted.
Where were the hardships she had expected?
She was certain now that it would be no harder to bear her child here in such pleasant surroundings than at home in the big white house in Haverhill.
With childlike innocence she wrote of the Indians as "walking with fruit and umbrellas in their hands, with the tawny children around them.
This is the most delightful trial I have ever had", she decided.

The Indians who came aboard ship to collect the mail also interested her greatly, even if she was suitably shocked, according to the customs of the society in which she had been reared, to find them "naked, except a piece of cotton cloth wrapped around their middle".

At last they saw Calcutta, largest city of Bengal and the Caravan's destination.
Founded August 24, 1690 by Job Charnock of the East India Company, and commonly called "The City of Palaces", it seemed a vast and elegant place to Ann Hasseltine Judson.
Solid brick buildings painted dazzling white, large domes and tall, picturesque palms stretched as far as the eye could see, while the wharves and harbor were filled with tall-masted sailing ships.
The noise stunned her.
Crowds flocked through the waterfront streets chattering loudly in their strange-sounding Bengali tongue.

Harriet's mouth watered with anticipation when after months of dreaming she sat down at last to her much-craved milk and fresh bread.
Ann, pleased to see her friend happy, was intrigued by the new fruits a friend of Captain Heard had sent on board for their enjoyment.
Cautiously she sampled her first pineapple and another fruit whose taste she likened to that of "a rich pear".
Though she did not then know its name, this strange new fruit was a banana.

Six
The first act of Adoniram and Samuel on reaching Calcutta was to report at the police station, a necessity when landing in East India Company territory.
On the way they tried to discover all they could about Burma, and they were disturbed to find that Michael Symes's book had not presented an altogether true picture.
He had failed to realize that the Burmese were not really treating him as the important visitor he considered himself.
They were in fact quietly laughing at him, for their King wished to have nothing to do with the Western world.
When Captain John Gibault of Salem had visited Burma in 1793 his ship, the Astra, had been promptly commandeered and taken by her captors up the Irrawaddy River.
Although after much trouble he did manage to get it back, he discovered there was no trade to be had.
All Captain Gibault took back to Salem were a few items for the town's East India Museum.
A year later another Salem ship returned from Burma with a cargo of gum lacquer which nobody wanted to buy.
After that Salem ships decided to bypass unfriendly Burma.

The Burmese appeared to have little knowledge of British power or any idea of trade.
They despised foreigners.
Cruel Burmese governors could, on the slightest whim, take a man's life.
As for missionaries, even if they succeeded in getting into the country they probably would not be allowed to preach the Christian faith to the Burmans.
Unspeakable tortures or even execution might well be their fate.

"Go back to America or any other place", well-meaning friends of Captain Heard advised them, "but put thoughts of going to Burma out of your heads".

Somewhat daunted, the two American missionaries reached the police station where they were questioned by a most unfriendly clerk.
When he discovered they had received from the Company's Court of Directors no permission to live in India, coupled with the fact that they were Americans who had been sent to Asia to convert "the heathen", he became more belligerent than ever.

They explained that they desired only to stop in India until a ship traveling on to Burma could be found.