An astute plantation cook deemed “a mere brute” soon changed into a stylish man “in European dress with a countenance beaming with intelligence and hope,” as the young Rajput who was “most enthusiastic” to become the first East Indian Christian missionary in British Guiana managed to avoid further estate work as an indentured immigrant.
Jowhyhur Singh, 22 from Plantation Bellevue was permitted by the pleased authorities to take indefinite official leave for long term study under various Christian instructors in Essequibo and Georgetown, having switched religions in one of the colony’s much hailed earliest conversions from Hinduism about a year after the May 5, 1838 arrival of the two introductory shipments of labourers.
Governor Henry Light would applaud proof of the “disposition in the ‘Coolies’ to Christianity.” He reported to the British authorities that the “young man who attended the sick Coolies, at the colonial hospital has been baptized” making “considerable progress in reading and writing under the Reverend Mr. Fox; and has been sent to Essequibo to be under the care and superintendence of the Church Missionary Reverend Mr. Bernard, to enable him to become a missionary amongst his countrymen here – on which point this Coolie is most enthusiastic. I saw this man on my first visit to the colonial hospital – a mere brute – he is now in European dress, with a countenance beaming with intelligence and hope.”
