In the summer of 1805, at the height of the struggle for naval supremacy between Britain and France that was to culminate in the Battle of Trafalgar, a young man, newly ordained to the ministry of the Church of England and already showing symptoms of the tuberculosis which had claimed the life of his mother, set sail on the long and hazardous voyage to India. Leaving behind friends, family and the woman he loved, he turned his back on the prospects of a brilliant academic career in England, in order to bring the gospel of the Lord Jesus Christ and the Word of God in their own language to the peoples of India and Persia. His name was Henry Martyn. Struggling against the rigours of a climate which was seriously undermining his health, and facing scorn and hostility from many quarters, within the space of a few short years he completed the translation of the New Testament into Hindustani, Persian and Arabic, opened several schools and brought the message of the gospel, by either the spoken or the written word, to people from all levels of society, from the beggars who came to his gate to the court of the Shah of Persia.