The Rev. Eli Smith reached Beirut early in 1827. At the monthly concert in March, kept as a day of fasting and prayer, and closed with the Lord's Supper, sixteen persons were present, who were all regarded as hopefully pious. They were from America, Europe, Asia, and Africa, and were members of nine churches,—Congregational, Episcopal, Lutheran, Reformed Lutheran, Moravian, Latin, Armenian, Greek Catholic, and Abyssinian. Dionysius Carabet, Gregory Wortabet, and their wives were then received into the mission church, as was also the wife of Mr. Abbott, the English Consul, a native of Italy. This admission of converts into a church, without regard to their previous ecclesiastical relations, was a practical ignoring of the old church organizations in that region. It was so understood, and the spirit of opposition and persecution was roused to the utmost. In the Maronite and Greek Catholic churches, severe denunciations were uttered against the missionaries, and all who should render them any service.

Messrs. Goodell and Bird gave more or less time, with the help of their native assistants, to preparing useful works in the native languages. These, with Mr. King's "Farewell Letter," were copied by the pen, and were eagerly sought and gladly transcribed, and the need of a printing-press on the ground began to be felt.

Beirut was visited by the plague in the spring of 1827, but the deaths were not numerous. In August Mr. Bird, finding it needful to take his family to the mountains, ascended to Ehden by way of Tripoli, from which Ehden was distant seven hours. He went by special permission of the Emir Beshir, and was received in the most friendly manner by the Sheikh Latoof, and his son Naanui. The "Patriarch of Antioch and all the East," who resided at Cannobeen, hearing of this, proceeded at once to excommunicate the sheikh and his family, who had dared to associate "with that deceived man, and deceiver of men, Bird, the Bible-man." An infernal spirit appears in the excommunications of the Romish Church. This of Latoof and family ran thus: "They are accursed, cut off from all the Christian communion; and let the curse envelope them as a robe, and spread through all their members like oil, and break them in pieces like a potter's vessel, and wither them like the fig tree cursed by the mouth of the Lord himself; and let the evil angel reign over them, to torment them by day and night, asleep and awake, and in whatever circumstances they may be found. We permit no one to visit them, or employ them, or do them a favor, or give them a salutation, or converse with them in any form; but let them be avoided as a putrid member, and as hellish dragons. Beware, yea, beware of the wrath of God." With regard to Mr. Bird and his family, the Patriarch said: "We grant no permission to any one to receive them; but, on the contrary, we, by the word of the Lord of almighty authority, require and command all, in the firmest manner, that not one visit them, nor do them any sort of service, or furnish them any sort of assistance whatever, to protract their stay in these parts or any other. Let no one receive them into his house, or into any place whatever that belongs to him, but let all avoid them, in every way, in all things temporal as well as spiritual. And whoever, in his stubbornness, shall dare to act in opposition to this our order with regard to Bird, and his children, and his whole family, shall fall, ipso facto, under the great excommunication, whose absolution is reserved to ourself alone."

A copy of this document was furnished to Mr. Bird, by the Bishop of Ehden; who, though feeble in health, was second to no prelate of his sect in knowledge, prudence, and evangelical sentiment. On hearing the Patriarch's proclamation read in church, he is said to have fainted, and did not recover his health for weeks afterwards. As a consequence of this proclamation of the Patriarch, a rival sheikh was encouraged to make a violent assault upon Latoof, in which the latter received a severe contusion on the head, and his wife's mother had her wrist broken. Being warned of a still more determined effort to drive the missionary away, Mr. Bird thought it due to his friend to leave the place; which he did, accompanied by Naanui, leaving his wife and children, and descending to the Greek convent of Hantura, and from thence to Tripoli. Thither the Patriarch followed him with his maledictions. He however obtained a quiet residence at Bawhyta, under Moslem protection, where he was rejoined by his family, and afterwards in the convent of Belmont. Naanui was his faithful companion through all his wanderings and sojourning on the mountains.

Mr. Bird returned to Beirut on the 22d of December, and was received by his Maronite acquaintances with unwonted cordiality.

The battle of Navarino was not the immediate cause of the suspension of the mission; but, in all the ensuing five months, there was constant apprehension of war between Turkey and the allies engaged in that battle, which was so destructive to the naval power of the Turks. The British Consulate was closed, and Mr. Abbott, their friend and protector, was obliged to withdraw privately. No reliance could be placed on the Pasha; and the Prince of the mountains had sent word, that no Frank refugees would be received in his dominions, in case of war. In the utter stagnation of trade, the missionaries could obtain no money for their bills, and no European or American vessels of war visited the port. Messrs. Goodell, Bird and Smith, in view of all these facts, thought it their duty to avail themselves of the opportunity afforded by an Austrian vessel to remove, for a season, to Malta.

They accordingly embarked on the 2d of May, 1828, taking with them Carabet, Wortabet, and their wives, and arrived at Malta on the 29th. No opposition was made. "The parting scene at our leaving, was more tender and affecting than we could have expected, and afforded a comforting evidence that, whatever may be the impression we have left on the general population, there are some hearts in Syria, which are sincerely attached to us. Many, as we passed them, prayed that God would protect us on our voyage. And others, notwithstanding the plague, came to our houses to bid us farewell. One thoughtful youth, who was with us daily, belonging to one of the first Greek families, was full of grief, and earnestly begged us to take him with us, though contrary to the will of his parents."



CHAPTER IV.

SYRIA.

THE MARTYR OF LEBANON.

1826-1830.

The conversion, life, and martyrdom of Asaad Shidiak,1 so very early in the history of this mission, is a significant and encouraging fact. He not only belonged to the Arab race, but to a portion of it that had long been held in slavish subjection to Rome. His fine mind and heart opened to the truths of the Gospel almost as soon as they were presented; and when once embraced, they were held through years of suffering, which terminated in a martyr's death. With freedom to act, he would have gone forth an apostle to his countrymen. The Arab-speaking race is estimated at sixty millions, and they must receive the gospel mainly from those to whom the language is vernacular. It will tend greatly to strengthen the faith of Christians as to this result, to contemplate the grace of God as seen in the case of this early convert. Space cannot be afforded to do full justice to the facts, which were chiefly recorded by the Rev. Isaac Bird, but the reader is referred in the margin to more ample sources of information.2

1 Written also Asaad el-Shidiak, and Asaad esh-Shidiak.

2 See Missionary Herald for 1827, pp. 68, 71-76, 97-101, 129-136, 169-177, 268-271, 369-372; for 1828, pp. 16-19, 115-119, 165, 373, 375; for 1829, pp. 15, 47, 111, 115; and The Martyr of Lebanon, by Rev. Isaac Bird, Boston, 1864, pp. 208.

Asaad Shidiak was the fourth son of a respectable Maronite, and was born about the year 1797, at Hadet, a small village a few miles from Beirut. His early training was among the Maronites. Such was his ability and fondness for learning, that his family aided him in preparing for the Maronite college at Ain Warka, the most noted seminary on the mountains. He entered the college at the age of sixteen, and remained nearly three years, applying himself diligently to rhetoric, and to natural and theological science, all of which were taught in the Arabic and Syriac languages.

Having completed his college course with the highest honor, he became a teacher, first of a common village school, and then of theology and general science in a convent. Occasionally he was permitted to deliver public lectures. His text-book in the instruction of the monks, was the theological treatise of St. Anthony of Padua, translated into Arabic; of which he made an abridgment, that is still used among the Maronites.

From about the year 1820 to 1824, Asaad was successively in the employ of the Maronite bishop of Beirut, and of several Arab chiefs. These frequent changes were apparently not for his advantage.

He next made application in person to his old college instructor, who had been elevated to the Patriarchal chair. His holiness gave him a cool reception, and reproached him for having preferred the service of sheikhs and princes to that of his bishop. Yet so valuable were his services, that he remained a while with the Patriarch, copying, illustrating, and arranging certain important documents of the Patriarchate, and making out from them a convenient code of church-laws for the Maronite nation, which has since been adopted for general use. But for some reason Asaad felt himself unwelcome, and returned home dissatisfied.

At this time the Maronite priesthood began to be alarmed by the distribution of the Scriptures, and the spread of Protestantism. The Patriarch issued a proclamation against the missionaries, and they replied. Asaad set himself to answer their reply. It was in this connection that his name first became known to the missionaries, to whom he was reported as a man of talent and high education. The dignitaries of the church did not see fit to allow his essay to be published.

In March, 1825, a well-dressed young man, of easy manners and sedate countenance, came to Beirut and asked to be employed by the mission as a teacher of Arabic. As soon as he gave his name, he was recognized as the man who was to have answered their reply to the Patriarch. He took no pains to conceal his agency in the matter, and even frankly begged the liberty of examining the original book, containing one of the most important quotations in the reply by the mission.

There was then no special need of another teacher; and though his very gentlemanly appearance and apparent frankness, and his good sense pleaded in his favor, it was thought prudent to decline his proposal. Little did those excellent brethren think, as this young man turned to go away, how soon they would welcome him to their hearts and homes, and how many thousands of Christian people, even across the ocean, would thrill in sympathy with his sufferings as a martyr for Christ.

Providence so ordered it, that Mr. King arrived from Jerusalem just in time to secure the services of Asaad before he went elsewhere. He was for several weeks Mr. King's instructor in Syriac. The two were well met, and in their frequent discussions, on the differences between the doctrines of the Gospel and those of the Papacy, Mr. King found him one of the most intelligent and skillful reasoners in all the mountains. He was shrewd, sensible, and inquisitive, candid and self-possessed, and was always as ready to hear as to speak. His age was then twenty-nine. There is no good reason to believe that Asaad was actuated, at this time, by higher than worldly motives.

At the close of his connection with Mr. King, he made another effort to secure employment from his Patriarch. Not succeeding, he became Arabic teacher to Mr. Fisk; at the same time assisting Mr. King, then about leaving the country, in preparing his celebrated "Farewell Letter" to his Arab friends. After having put this into neat Arabic style, he made a large number of copies, to be sent to different parts of the country.

On the day of Mr. King's departure from Beirut, Asaad, at the request of the mission, commenced an Arabic grammar-school for native boys. His leisure hours were devoted to composing a refutation of the doctrines contained in Mr. King's "Farewell Letter." This is his own account: "When I was copying the first rough draught of my reply, and had arrived at the last of the reasons, which, he said, prevented his becoming a member of the Roman Catholic Church; namely, their teaching it to be wrong for the commom people to possess or to read the Word of God, I observed that the writer brought a proof against the doctrine from the prophet Isaiah; namely, that if they spoke not according to the law and to the testimony, it was because there was no light in them.

"While I was endeavoring to explain this passage according to the views of the Roman Catholic Church, with no other object than the praise of men and other worldly motives, I chanced to read the twenty-ninth chapter of Isaiah from the fifteenth verse to the end. I read and was afraid. I meditated upon the chapter a long while, and feared that I was doing what I did with a motive far different from the only proper one,—the glory and pleasure of God. I therefore threw my paper by without finishing the copy, and applied myself to the reading of Isaiah.

"I had wished to find in the prophet some plain and incontrovertible proofs of the Messiahship of Christ, to use against Moslems and Jews. While thus searching, I found various passages that would bear an explanation according to my views, and read on till I came to the fifty-second chapter, and fourteenth verse, and onward to the end of the next chapter.

"On finding this testimony, my heart rejoiced and was exceeding glad, for it removed many dark doubts from my own mind. From that time, my desire to read the New Testament was greatly increased, that I might discover the best means of acting according to the doctrines of Jesus. I endeavored to divest myself of all selfish bias, and loved more and more to inquire into religious subjects. I saw, as I still see, many doctrines of the Roman Catholic Church, that I could not believe, and which I found opposed to the truths of the Gospel, and I wished much to find some of her best teachers to explain them to me, that I might see how they proved them from the Holy Scriptures. As I was reading an appendix to a Bible printed at Rome by the Propaganda, and searching out the passages referred to for proving the duty of worshipping saints, and the like, I found that these proofs failed altogether of establishing these doctrines, and that to infer them from such Scripture texts was even ridiculous. Among other things, I found in this appendix the very horrible Neronian doctrine, 'that it is our duty to destroy heretics.' Now every one knows, that whoever does not believe that the Pope is infallible, is, in the Pope's estimation, a heretic. And this doctrine is not merely that it is allowable to kill heretics, but that we are in duty bound to do it.

"From this I was the more established in my convictions against the doctrines of the Papacy, and saw that they were the doctrines of the ravenous beast, and not of the gentle lamb. After I had read this, I asked one of the priests in Beirut about this doctrine, and he assured me that it was even as I had read. I then wished to go even to some distant country, that I might find a Roman Catholic sufficiently learned to prove the doctrine above alluded to."

Receiving two letters from the Patriarch, requiring him to leave the missionaries on pain of the greater excommunication, and promising to provide him a situation, he went to his friends at Hadet. But his thoughts were drawn to the subject of religion, and finding nothing in which he could take delight, he returned to Beirut, and engaged himself to Mr. Bird for a year. This was in December, 1825. For greater security, a consular protection was now obtained for him from Mr. Abbott, which ensured him, while in the employ of the mission, all the liberty and safety of an English resident. There was no American Consul in the country at that time. He now applied himself to searching the Scriptures, and discussing religious doctrines. Discarding all unwritten traditions, the Apocryphal books, and all implied dependence on the fathers and councils, he found himself standing, in respect to his rule of faith, on Protestant ground.

With all his strong points of character, Asaad had the constitutional weakness of being artless and confiding. In January, 1826, the Patriarch sent his own brother, as a special messenger, inviting Asaad to an interview, and making him flattering promises. The consultation with the priest was private, but it soon appeared, that Asaad was disposed to comply with the patriarchal invitation. It was suggested to him, that the Patriarch was meditating evil against him; but his reply was that he had little fear of it, that the Maronites were not accustomed to take life, or to imprison men, on account of religion. So confident was he that good would result from the visit, that the brethren in the mission ceased to urge their objections. On reaching the Patriarch's convent, he thus wrote:—

"I am now at the convent of Alma, and God be thanked, I arrived in good health. As yet, however, I have not seen his blessedness.

"I pray God, the Father, and his only Son, Jesus Christ our Lord, that He will establish me in his love, and that I may never exchange it for any created thing; that neither death, nor life, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor riches, nor honor, nor dignity, nor office, nor anything in creation, shall separate me from this love. I beg you to pray to God for me, which request I make, also, to all the believers."

Several weeks brought no farther direct intelligence, and there were conflicting reports, which awakened apprehension as to his safety. In the latter part of February, a messenger was sent to obtain accurate knowledge of his situation. The man saw him at the convent of Alma, and had a short private interview. Asaad said, that three things were before him; either to be regarded as mad, or to commit sin, or to offer up his life; but he was ready, he said, to go to prison, or to death. He was engaged in daily controversy with the Patriarch, the Bishop, and others. The main topics on which he insisted, were the necessity of a spiritual religion in distinction from mere forms, the sufficiency of Scripture, and the absurdity of holding the Pope to be infallible. The Patriarch was highly displeased with these bold sentiments, and gave utterance to cruel threats, though at other times offering promotion and money.

Asaad objected to the plan of rescuing him by consular authority, as it might endanger his life. He thought it best to await some providential opening for his escape. One soon occurred. After a week, he left the convent at midnight. The mountain paths were narrow, stony, and crooked, and he often found himself astray, stumbling over rocks and hedges, wading in brooks, or miring in mud. Reaching the sea-shore, he found a shelter under which he rested for a while, and then walked on to Beirut, where he was received most joyfully. The Patriarch and his train were engaged in morning prayers when Asaad's escape was announced. There was great excitement. One man among them, who had sympathized with Asaad, ventured to speak out in his justification. "You had reason," he said, "to expect nothing else. Why should he stay with you here? What had he here to do? What had he to enjoy? Books he had none; friendly society none; conversation against religion abundant; insults upon his opinions and feelings abundant. Why should he not leave you?" Messengers were sent in quest of him in every direction, but in vain.

Asaad's written account of his experiences during his absence on the mountains, is very interesting, but there is not room for even an abridgment of it.1 A few of the incidents may be noted. The chief object of the Patriarch was to induce him to say, that his faith was like that of the Romish Church. This he declined doing, as it would be a falsehood. The Patriarch offered to absolve him from the sin of falsehood, to which Asaad replied, "What the law of nature condemns, no man can make lawful." Accompanied by a priest, he visited his own college of Ain Warka, but gained no light; and the same was true of his visit to the superior of the convent of Bzummar, who desired to see him. It is a suggestive fact, that the infallibility of the Pope, even then, was everywhere a controverted point between him and the priesthood. The weakness of the reasoning on the papal side was everywhere so apparent to him, as greatly to strengthen his evangelical faith. In one of his interviews with the Patriarch he said: "I would ask of you the favor to send from your priests two faithful men to preach the Gospel through the country; and I am ready, if necessary, to sell all I possess and give it towards their wages." He afterwards offered to go himself and preach the Gospel. But neither of these proposals was accepted.

1 See Missionary Herald for 1827, pp. 71-76, 97-101.

He was at length deprived of his books, and severely threatened by the Patriarch. "Fearing," he says, "that I should be found among the fearful (Rev. xxi. 8), I turned, and said to him, 'I will hold fast the religion of Jesus Christ, and I am ready, for the sake of it, to shed my blood; and though you should all become infidels, yet will not I;' and so left the room."

Asaad says, in his narrative: "A friend told me, that the Patriarch wondered how I should pretend that I held to the Christian religion, and still converse in such abusive terms against it. And I also wondered, after he saw this, that he should not be willing so much as to ask me, in mildness and forbearance, for what reasons I was unwilling to receive the doctrines of the Pope, or to say, that I believed as he did. But, so far from this, he laid every person, and even his own brother under excommunication, should they presume to dispute or converse with me on the subject of religion. Entirely bereft of books, and shut out from all persons who might instruct me, from what quarter could I get the evidence necessary to persuade me to accept the Patriarch's opinions?

"Another cause I had of wonder was, that not one of all with whom I conversed, when he thought me heretical, advised me to use the only means of becoming strong in the faith, namely, prayer to God Most High, and searching his Holy Word, which a child may understand. I wondered, too, that they should ridicule and report me abroad as insane, and after all this, be afraid to engage in a dispute with the madman, lest he should turn them away from the truth."

As the Patriarch, and the Bishop of Beirut, whose diocese included Hadet, were determined to shut him out from the people, and even threatened his life, Asaad resolved on escaping to Beirut, which he accomplished, as already stated, on the morning of Thursday, March 2, 1826.

Asaad's statement was forthwith copied and sent in various directions through the mountains, and afterwards it had a much wider circulation in a printed form.

The Patriarch's first effort to recapture the fugitive, was by means of a Turkish sheriff, and it failed. On the following Monday, an uncle and the two elder brothers of Asaad came to see what they could do; and they were followed by another brother, and then by the mother and her youngest son. The older brothers were loud and violent in their denunciations. All these the persecuted young Christian met with a calm firmness, but he was at one time almost overcome by the distress of his mother. She was at length pacified by the declarations, that he was not a follower of the English, that he derived not his creed from them, that he believed in the Trinity, that Jesus was God, and that Mary was his mother. Phares, the youngest brother, consented to receive a New Testament, and was evidently affected and softened by the interview.

On the 16th of March, Asaad received a kind and fatherly epistle from the Patriarch, begging him to return home, and relieve the anxieties of his mother and family, and giving him full assurance, that he need not fear being interfered with in his freedom. He was thus approached on his weak side. Too confiding, he really believed this insidious letter, and that he might now go home and live there with his religion unshackled. He wrote a favorable reply. The family was doubtless urged to make sure of the victim before anything occurred to change his mind, and the very next day four of his relations, including Phares, came to escort him to Hadet. The missionaries all believed it perilous, and so he thought himself, but he believed, also, that there was now a door opened for him prudently to preach the Gospel. At Beirut, he said, he could only use his pen, "but who is there in this country," he asked, "that reads?" One of the sisters of the mission said, as she took him by the hand, that she expected never to see him again in this world. He smiled at what he regarded her extravagant apprehension, returned some quiet answer, and proceeded on his way, never to return.

Asaad was treated harshly by his older brothers, and had reason to regard his life as imperiled: "I am in a sort of imprisonment," he said, "enemies within, and enemies without," Towards the last of March, twenty or more of his relations assembled, to take him to the Patriarch by force. He expostulated with Tannus, the eldest of the family except one, as the chief manager in the affair, and besought him to desist from a step so inconsistent with their fraternal relations. The unnatural brother turned from him in cold indifference, which so affected Asaad that he went aside, and prayed and wept.

In the evening, he at one time addressed the whole assembled company in this manner: "If I had not read the Gospel, I should have been astonished at this movement of yours; but now I see through it all. It is just what the Gospel has told me to expect; 'The brother shall deliver up the brother to death, and a man's foes shall be they of his own household.' Here you see it is just so. You have assembled together here to fulfill this prophecy of the Gospel. What have I done against you? What is my crime, that it should have called together such an assemblage? Be it that I take the blessed Bible as my only guide to heaven, does that injure you? Is it a crime that renders me worthy of being taken as a malefactor, and sent into confinement?"

Surrounded, as he was, by men insensible to pity, the mother's heart was deeply moved seeing him arrested and borne away as if he had been a murderer. She wept, and Asaad sympathized with her, and turned his back on the home of his childhood, weeping and praying aloud.

He was first taken to the convent of Alma, and then to Canobeen. That convent, where he was destined to wear out the miserable remainder of his life, was in one of the wildest and least accessible recesses of Lebanon.

More than a mouth passed without intelligence, when the Mission received reliable information, that Asaad was in prison, and in chains, and that he was beaten a certain number of stripes daily. A cousin was afterwards permitted to visit him, and reported that he found him sitting on the bare floor, his bed having been taken from him, with a heavy chain around his neck, the other end of which was fastened to the wall. He had also been deprived of all his books and writing utensils. Fruitless efforts were made to effect his deliverance, and his family at last relented, and joined in the efforts. The mother accompanied one of the older sons to Canobeen, and found him in chains, which she had not been willing to believe till she saw it for herself. So decided were the two younger brothers in their movements on his behalf, that they had to consult their own safety in flight. Once they almost succeeded. Asaad himself, under the pressure of his sufferings, made several attempts to flee, but not knowing the way, he was easily apprehended, and the only effect was an aggravation of his misery. A priest gives the following account of his treatment, after one of these failures. "On his arrival at the convent, the Patriarch gave immediate orders for his punishment; and they fell upon him with reproaches, caning him, and smiting him with their hands; yet as often as they struck him on one cheek, he turned to them the other. 'This,' said he, 'is a joyful day to me. My blessed Lord and Master has said, Bless them that curse you; and if they strike you on the right cheek, turn to them the other also. This I have been enabled to do; and I am ready to suffer even more than this for Him who was beaten, and spit upon, and led as a sheep to the slaughter on our account.' When they heard this, they fell to beating him anew, saying, 'Have we need of your preaching, you deceiver? Of what avail are such pretensions as yours, who are in the broad road to perdition?' He replied, 'He that believeth that Jesus Christ is the Son of God, hath eternal life.' 'Ah,' said they, 'this is the way you are blinded. Your salvation is by faith alone in Christ; thus you cast contempt on his mother, and on his saints. You believe not in the presence of his holy body on the earth.' And they threw him on the ground, and overwhelmed him with the multitude of their blows."

For three successive days he was subjected to the bastinado, by order of the Patriarch. Remaining firm to his belief, he was again put in chains, the door barred upon him, and his food given him in short allowance. Compassionate persons interceded, and his condition was alleviated for a time, but no one was allowed to converse with him. After some days, aided, it is supposed, by relatives, he again fled from the convent, but was arrested by soldiers sent out in search of him by the Emeer Abdallah, and delivered to the Patriarch. "On his arrival," says a priest who was with him at Canobeen, "he was loaded with chains, cast into a dark, filthy room, and bastinadoed every day for eight days, sometimes fainting under the operation, until he was near death. He was then left in his misery, his bed a thin flag mat, his covering his common clothes. The door of his prison was filled up with stones and mortar, and his food was six thin cakes of bread a day, and a cup of water."

To this dungeon there was no access or outlet whatever except a small loop-hole, through which they passed him his food. Here he lay several days, and its ever-increasing loathsomeness need not be described. No wonder he cried: "Love ye the Lord Jesus Christ according as He hath loved us, and given himself to die for us. Think of me, O ye that pass by; have pity upon me, and deliver me from these sufferings."

A certain priest, who had been a former friend of Asaad, was touched with compassion, and by perseverance succeeded in once more opening his prison doors, and taking off his chains. But he also became suspected in consequence of his kindness to Asaad, and it is not known how long the sufferer was allowed this partial freedom. One of his brothers visited him in 1828, and found him inclosed within four solid stone walls, as in a sepulchre "full of all uncleanness." In 1829, there appears not to have been any mitigation of his sufferings. For three years or more, the priestly despot had him under his heel, and inflicted upon him the greatest amount of suffering compatible with the continuance of life.

His death is supposed to have occurred in October, 1830. Public opinion was divided as to the cause and manner of it. The Patriarch said it was by fever. There is the same uncertainty as to the manner of his burial. But though thrown down into the ravine and covered with stones, as was alleged, his dust will ever be precious in the eyes of the Lord.

Asaad maintained his Christian profession to the last, and he must ever have an honorable place among the Christian martyrs of modern times.

Soon after the capture of Acre by Ibrahim Pasha, in 1832, Mr. Tod, an English merchant, accompanied by Wortabet, obtained an audience with him, and made known the case of Asaad. The Pasha directed the Emir Beshir to furnish ten soldiers to Mr. Tod, with authority to search the convent of Canobeen by force, if necessary. He was received by the Patriarch and priests of the convent with dismay. They asserted that Asaad had died two years before, pointed out his grave, and offered to open it. The convent was thoroughly searched, but he was not found, and Mr. Tod was convinced that he was really dead.1

1 Missionary Herald for 1833, pp. 51-57.

When it is considered how severely and in how many ways Asaad was tried, his faith and constancy appear admirable. His pride of intellect and authorship, and his reputation for consistency, were opposed, at the outset, to any change in his religious opinions. Then all his reverence for his ecclesiastical superiors and his former tutors, some of whom were naturally mild in their tempers, and his previous habits of thought, withstood his yielding to the convictions of conscience and the authority of Scripture. Next, the anathemas of the Church, the tears of a mother appalled by the infamy of having an apostate son, the furious menaces of brothers, and the bitter hatred of masses stirred up by an influential priesthood, combined to hold him back from the truth. All these things were preparatory to being seized by indignant relatives, chained to his prison walls, deprived of the New Testament and other books, and of every means of recreation, refused even those bodily comforts which nature renders indispensable; in such a forlorn condition, exposed to the insults of a bigoted populace and the revilings of a tyrannical priesthood, beaten till his body became a mass of disease, and held in this variety of grief for years, without one ray of hope, save through the portals of the tomb, who expected that he would endure steadfastly to the end?

On the other hand, if he would only recant, promotion awaited him, and wealth, indeed everything that could be offered to prevent a dreaded defection. How many are there, with all our knowledge and strength of religious principle, who, in his situation, would like him be faithful unto death?



CHAPTER V.

THE PRESS AT MALTA.

1822-1833.

The location of the press at Malta, was not the result of design, but because printing could not be done safely, if at all, either at Smyrna or at Beirut. Its operations were begun under the impression of a more extended taste for reading and reflection in the several communities of the Levant, than really existed; and it is doubtful whether the larger part of the earlier publications were well suited to the apprehension of the Oriental mind. However this may be, it was decided, in the year 1829, to make it a leading object, for a time, to furnish books for elementary schools; making them, as far as possible, the vehicles of moral and religious truth. The wisdom of this course was seen among the Greeks. A first book for schools of sixty pages, called the Alphabetarion, went into extensive use. Twenty-seven thousand copies were called for in Greece before the year 1831.

There had been more or less of printing since 1822; but it was not until the close of 1826, that the arrival of Mr. Homan Hallock furnished a regular and competent printer. In the year following, Mr. Temple was bereaved of his excellent wife and of two children, and at the invitation of the Prudential Committee he visited the United States. Meanwhile the presence of Messrs. Bird, Goodell, Smith, and Hallock kept the press in operation. Mr. Temple returned in 1830.

The establishment consisted of three presses, with fonts of type in English, Italian, Modern Greek, Greco-Turkish, Armenian, Armeno-Turkish, and Arabic, but the greater part of the printing was in the Italian, the Modern Greek, and Armeno-Turkish. The most important work was the translation of the New Testament in the Armeno-Turkish, which was printed at the expense of the British and Foreign Bible Society. It was prepared from two translations, one by Mr. Goodell, with the efficient aid of Bishop Carabet, the other by an Armenian priest at Constantinople, in the employ of Mr. Leeves, agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Mr. Goodell's version was made conformable to the original Greek, and the last sheet was printed in January, 1831. During that year, there were printed seventy-eight thousand copies of fourteen works, amounting to nearly five millions of pages, all in modern Greek. The whole amount of printing at Malta, from the establishment of the press in July, 1822, to December, 1833, the time of its removal to Smyrna, was about three hundred and fifty thousand volumes, containing twenty-one millions of pages. Nearly the whole were put in circulation, and additional supplies of some of the books were urgently demanded. The Roman Catholics opposed this work from the first, and anathematized the books issued.

The labor and expense were increased by the singular use of alphabets in the Levantine regions. The Maronites and Syrians spoke the Arabic language, but employed the Syriac alphabet in writing. The Armenians, to a large extent, spoke the Turkish language, but wrote it with the Armenian alphabet. The Greeks in Asia generally spoke the Turkish language, but used the Greek alphabet. The Grecian Jews spoke the Grecian language, the Spanish Jews the Spanish, the Barbary Jews the Arabic, but all three used the Hebrew alphabet. Then, too, the worship of the Syrians, Greeks, and Armenians was in the ancient languages of those nations, which were for the most part unintelligible to the common people.

Mr. Temple began preaching in Italian early in 1826, and during his whole residence on the island he preached every Sabbath, either in Italian or English. The rule he prescribed for himself, whether preaching to Gentiles or Jews, was to preach the great truths of the Bible plainly and faithfully, appealing as little as possible to Fathers, Councils, or Rabbins. Contemporary with him were Mr. Jowett, of the Church Missionary Society, Mr. Wilson, of the London Missionary Society, and Mr. Keeling, of the English Wesleyan Society, and all were on the best terms of Christian fellowship.

In December, 1833, Messrs. Temple and Hallock removed to Smyrna, with the printing establishment, and Dionysius Carabet accompanied them as a translator. Wortabet had previously returned to Syria.



CHAPTER VI.

PRELIMINARY EXPLORATIONS.

1828-1831.

Enough was known, in the year 1828, to encourage the belief, that Greece and Western Asia would soon demand a more extensive prosecution of the missionary work; but more specific information was indispensable to an intelligent enlargement. The temporary suspension of the Syrian mission had brought the whole of the missionary force of the Board in that part of the world to Malta (except that Mr. Temple was on a visit to the United States), thus making consultation easy. Other reasons called for a more free and extended official intercourse than could be held by letter. Accordingly the author, then Assistant Secretary of the Board, was sent to Malta at the close of 1828, with instructions to confer with the brethren, and afterwards to visit Greece and other parts of the Levant. The conferences at Malta occupied two months, and aided much in determining subsequent measures. When these were over, the author, in company with the Rev. Eli Smith, afterward so favorably and widely known in the Christian world, visited the Ionian Islands, the Morea, and the Grecian Archipelago. Count John A. Capodistrias was then President of Greece, and had his residence on the island of AEgina. Athens was still held by the Turks. It was made incumbent on the author to propose inquiries to the President on certain points, and this was rendered easy by his urbanity and his frank and explicit answers. The inquiries were mainly for gaining the needed information; and they elicited some facts which deterred the Committee from a class of expenditures, that would have been in accordance with the popular feeling at that time, but might have proved a fruitful source of disappointment. Mr. King was then in Greece as a philhellene, in charge of supplies sent by ladies in New York to be distributed among the impoverished people. Perhaps the most important result of this negotiation with the Greek government, besides facilitating Mr. King's protracted and useful connection with the Greek mission, was a written assurance by the chief ruler of the nation, that among the books to be used in the schools of Greece should be the Bible, the New Testament, and the Psalms, all translated and printed in modern Greek.

Among the results of the consultations at Malta, was Mr. Bird's visit to Tripoli and Tunis on the African coast, for which he was specially qualified by his free use of the Arabic language. He had opportunities at Tripoli for conversing with Jews, Moslems, Papists, and persons of no religion. His books and tracts were chiefly in the Hebrew and Arabic languages. At Tunis, he distributed copies of the Scriptures, but in neither place did there seem to be a sufficient opening for instituting a mission.

Another result of the Malta conferences was the distribution of the mission forces; Mr. Bird to Syria, Mr. Goodell to Constantinople, and Mr. Smith for an exploring tour among the Armenians of Turkey. Soon after the return of the Assistant Secretary, the Rev. H. G. O. Dwight was designated to accompany Mr. Smith in his proposed tour of exploration, and the Rev. George B. Whiting as the companion of Mr. Bird on his return to Syria. Mrs. Dwight was to remain at Malta during her husband's absence.

The two explorers sailed for Smyrna in March, 1830, in the same vessel which had brought Mr. Dwight from Boston. After some days at Smyrna, in the family of Mr. Brewer, who had returned to that place in connection with a society of ladies in New Haven, they went overland to Constantinople. This was a journey of eight days, and was made necessary by the long detention, to which sailing vessels were liable from north winds at the mouth of the Dardanelles. The time for steamers had not yet come in these regions.

The departure from Constantinople was near the close of May, in the most charming season of the year. As in the journey from Smyrna, they put themselves under a Tartar, who, for their greater security, had set his seal to a written contract in presence of the Tartar aghasy. The government became thus responsible for their persons and property. Instead of trunks, they had two large bags, two saddle-bags, and two valises, all of thick Russian leather, fastened with padlocks, and impermeable to water. Instead of mattresses, each had a carpet and coverlet rolled in painted canvas, that served as a floor at night, when it was their lot to lie on the ground. Each had an ample Turkish pelisse, lined with the fur of the Caucasian fox. Four copper pans, a mill for grinding coffee, a pot, cups, and a knife, fork, and spoon for each, were their utensils for cooking and eating. A circular piece of leather served for a table when spread upon the ground, and when drawn together like a lady's reticule, and suspended from the saddle, it formed a bag to carry their bread and cheese. The whole was so compact as to require, on ordinary occasions, but a single extra horse. As the Turkish post furnished only horses, they were obliged to add saddles and bridles to their other accoutrements; and to their saddles, as was usual, were attached holsters, to deter from hostile attacks upon them. To avoid unnecessary notice, expense, and trouble, if not insult, they wore loose Turkish robes, the Oriental turban, and the enormous Tartar stockings and boots. Of course they had also the needful firmans, passports, and letters of introduction.

Their route lay along what at that time might be called, for the most part, the high road to Tabriz, and passed through Tokat, Erzroom, Kars, Tiflis, Shoosha, Nakhchevan, Echmiadzin, and Khoy, a distance of more than fifteen hundred miles. At Tokat, the travellers visited the grave of Henry Martyn, who died there in 1812. On the 13th of June, they entered Erzroom, then in possession of an invading army of Russians; which soon retired, and was accompanied by a large portion of the Armenian population in that district. The Turks of Erzroom found it hard to comprehend from what country the travellers came. Kars, Tiflis, Shoosha, and Echmiadzin had been subjected to Russian rule. Tiflis was the capital of Georgia. Shoosha, where they arrived about the middle of August, worn down by fatigue in descending the insalubrious valley of the Koor, or Cyrus, was then the seat of a German mission, which gave a cordial reception to their American brethren. The cholera prevailed in all that region, and it was estimated that as many as seventy thousand people died of it, during the two months and a half our travellers spent in Shoosha. They gave an interesting account of the German colonies in Georgia, which had their origin in extravagant views concerning the millennium. "Previous to 1817, several popular and ardent ministers in the kingdom of Wuertemberg maintained, in commentaries on the Apocalypse and other publications, that the wished-for period would commence in 1836, and would be preceded by a dreadful apostasy and great persecutions. These views, in addition to the fascinating interest always connected with prophetical theories, being enforced with much pious feeling, acquired so great credit as to be adopted by nearly all the religious people in the kingdom, and by many others. At the same time, the advocates of the neological system, being the predominant party in the clergy, succeeded in effecting some alterations in the prayers and hymns of the Church in accommodation to their errors. This grieved exceedingly all who were attached to evangelical principles, and was taken to be the apostasy they expected. Their prophetical teachers had intimated that, as in the destruction of Jerusalem the Christians found a place of refuge, so would there be one now, and that, somewhere in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea. Many, therefore, of the common people determined to seek the wished-for asylum, that they and their children (for whom the better sort were particularly anxious) might escape the impending storm, and also be able to form an independent ecclesiastical establishment according to their own notions. To these were joined others desirous of change, or in straitened circumstances, who though not at heart pious, professed for the time to be influenced by the same principles and motives. In fact the latter became the most numerous. The company, when it left Wuertemberg, consisted of fifteen hundred families. But no adequate arrangement having been made for the journey, and the sinister motives of the majority contributing to create disorder, they suffered exceedingly on the way, and before they reached Odessa, two thirds had died."1 The number of the colonists, in 1832, was about two thousand, but their enterprise had not been successful.

1 Missionary Researches in Armenia, vol. i. p. 264.

On the way from Echmiadzin to Tabriz, a distance of nearly two hundred and fifty miles, Mr. Smith suffered greatly from illness. When seventy miles from that city, his strength gave out entirely, so that he could go no farther with the conveyances then at command. His life was probably saved by Mr. Dwight's sending a messenger to the gentlemen of the English embassy at Tabriz, requesting the aid of a takhtirewan, the only native carriage known to the Persians. It resembles a sedan-chair, except in being borne by two mules or horses, and closed from the external air, and in requiring a lying posture. The vehicle soon arrived; but was preceded by Dr. McNeill, the physician and first assistant of the embassy, who then commenced those acts of kindness which ever endeared him to the Nestorian mission. Colonel McDonald, the ambassador, had lately died, and Dr. McNeill was soon obliged to leave for Teheran. Dr. Cormick, who had healed Henry Martyn of a similar disease, then took the medical charge of Mr. Smith. After their long experience of filthy stables, the comfortable, well-furnished apartments provided for them at Tabriz, through the generous hospitality of Major Willock, former commander of the English forces in Persia, and Captain Campbell, the acting Envoy, were more grateful to the weary travellers than can well be conceived. Mr. Nisbit, an officer in the commissariat department, together with his wife, entered fully into their feelings as missionaries, and sympathized with them in their views of the spiritual wants of the country.

Messrs. Smith and Dwight were required by their instructions, to investigate and report on the condition of the Nestorians inhabiting the northwestern province of Persia. In former ages, this people had been distinguished beyond any other Christian people—except perhaps, their contemporaries in Ireland—for missionary zeal and enterprise. From the seventh to the thirteenth centuries, they had missions both in central and eastern Asia. Previous to the overthrow of the Califate, A. D. 1258, their churches were scattered over the region forming modern Persia, and were numerous in Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. They had churches in Syria; on the island of Cyprus; among the mountains of Malabar; and in the extended regions of Tartary, from the Caspian Sea to Mount Imaus, and beyond through the greater part of what is now known as Chinese Tartary, and even in China itself. The names of twenty-five metropolitan sees are on record, embracing of course a far greater number of bishoprics, and still more numerous congregations.

These facts, though known to learned historians, had fallen out of the popular mind. Indeed, they were not in the recollection of the executive officers of the American Board, when the author drew up the instructions to Messrs. Smith and Dwight. But while preparing them, his attention was incidentally drawn to a brief article in a Virginia publication, from the pen of Dr. Walsh, British chaplain at Constantinople, entitled "Chaldees in Persia;" and it was the impression made by that article, which led to a positive direction to visit that people, should it be found practicable, and see whether the churches in this western world had any duty to perform to them. The English at Tabriz confessed to an almost entire ignorance of the religious doctrines and character of the Nestorians. The only important fact our brethren could learn there was, that a considerable body of them were accessible in the provinces of Oroomiah and Salmas, at the distance of somewhat more than a hundred miles.

Our travellers remained at Tabriz from the 18th of December to March, 1831, when restored health and the opening season permitted them to resume their journey. In Salmas, they first came in contact with the Chaldeans, as those Nestorians were called who had been won over by Roman Catholic missionaries since the year 1681. The name means no more than papal Syrians, or papal Armenians. Some of their bishops and priests had been educated in the college of the Propaganda at Rome, and spoke Italian fluently. The Chaldeans were reported, at that time, as a neglected and declining sect.

Passing from Salmas into the province of Oroomiah, the travellers were received by the Nestorians in the most friendly and confidential manner, and the week passed among them was intensely interesting. While showing very clearly the need the people were in of religious instruction, they gave as additional considerations in favor of sending missionaries to them, their extreme liberality towards other sects, their ideas of open communion, and their entire rejection of auricular confession.

The return of Messrs. Smith and Dwight was by way of Erzroom and Trebizond, thence by sea to Constantinople and Malta, at which last place they arrived on the 2d of July, 1831, after an absence of fifteen months and a half. In this time, their land travel exceeded two thousand and five hundred miles.

The results of their inquiries were embodied by Mr. Smith, during a visit to his native land, under the title of "Researches in Armenia, including a Journey through Asia Minor and into Georgia and Persia, with a Visit to the Nestorian and Chaldean Christians," and were published in two volumes in Boston, and republished in London. Though nearly forty years have since elapsed, there is still a freshness of interest in the entire work, which makes it matter of regret that it is now out of print. The religious condition of the Armenians at that time, is comprehensively stated in the following paragraphs:—

"The slightest acquaintance with ecclesiastical history may convince one, that before the commencement of the fourth century, Christianity had extensively degenerated from its original purity as a religion of the heart, into a mere profession of theoretical dogmas, and the observance of external rites. Such, it is natural to suspect, was the form of it to which the Armenians were at that period converted; and the circumstances of the event, if national tradition has correctly preserved them, confirm the suspicion, that they have from the beginning known extremely little of true conversion. We are told that immediately upon King Durtad's embracing the faith, the nation followed his example in a body, and were baptized. To say nothing of the doubtfulness of all national conversions, the very hastiness of this proceeding, by allowing no time for competent instruction, shows that the Armenians could not have been enlightened converts; the fact that the Scriptures were not translated into their language until a century afterward, is an additional indication of the scantiness of their religious knowledge; and the confessed backsliding of many of the nobility into the most scandalous immoralities and the blackest crimes, even during the lifetime of Durtad, proves how superficial was their conversion.

"Thus the Armenian Church was a soil well adapted to the rapid growth of all the corruptions, which from that time sprang up, in such speedy succession, in different parts of the Christian world. Even those which then existed were, it would seem, not sparingly introduced by St. Gregory. For, by the immediate consecration of four hundred bishops, and a countless number of priests, he betrayed a disposition to multiply an idle and unqualified priesthood; and by the construction of convents and nunneries, and spending the last of his days in a solitary cave, he showed that he was ready to foster the monastic spirit of his age. So deeply, indeed, was the taste for monkhood implanted, that his fifth successor is said to have built two thousand convents.

"Of the rites and dogmas subsequently adopted by other bodies of Christians, there was a free importation for the two centuries that the Armenians formed a regular branch of the General Church. A special messenger was sent to Jerusalem for the ceremonies observed in that church, and brought thence eight canons regulating the sacraments and other rites. For a similar object, a correspondence was carried on with the Bishop of Nisibis. One Catholicos, who had been educated at Constantinople in the influence of all the secular ideas and regulations introduced into the Church under the patronage of Constantine and his successors, brought from thence 'various observances, which, like precious stones, he inlaid into the old.' And several who followed him distinguished themselves by their improvements in the services and laws of the Church. So that when, by rejecting the Council of Chalcedon, A. D. 491, the Armenians cut themselves off from the communion of the great body of Christians, they were doubtless in possession of all the legendary dogmas and observances which had then been adopted by the Christian world."1

1 Researches in Armenia, Amer. Edition, vol. ii. pp. 290-292.



CHAPTER VII.

THE ARMENIANS.

1827-1835.

Mr. King's "Farewell Letter to his Friends in Syria and Palestine" was translated into the Armenian language by Bishop Dionysius, and a manuscript copy was sent by him, in the year 1827, to some of the more influential Armenians in Constantinople. Its effect was extraordinary. A meeting was called in the Armenian patriarchal church, at which the letter was read, and the marginal references to Scripture were verified. It was then agreed, by common consent, that the Church needed reform. The famous school of Peshtimaljian grew out of this meeting, at which it was decided, that no person should be ordained in the capital to the priest's office, who had not completed a regular course of study at this school. In the year 1833, the missionaries were invited to be present at the ordination of fifteen Armenian priests in the patriarchal church; and they were then informed, that no one had received ordination in the metropolis since the adoption of the rule above stated, and that only such as had received a regular education at that school were regarded as eligible for ordination. As the result of this, nearly all the candidates were comparatively well-educated men, and one of them, hereafter to be more specially noted, had a high reputation for learning.

Peshtimaljian, the head of the school, was an uncommon man. His inquisitive mind was ever gaining knowledge, and what he acquired his memory retained. He was a critical and accurate scholar in the language and literature of his nation, and made himself familiar with the theology and history of the Eastern and Romish Churches, and with the general history of the Church from the earliest ages. He was able to quote from the Scriptures with wonderful facility and accuracy. His confidence in the Bible, as the true Word of God and the only standard of faith, had indeed been shaken for a while by his disgust with the superstitions of his Church, and by the low character of many of its clergy, but he had recovered from this. Though timid and cautious to a fault, like Erasmus, and sometimes open to the charge of time-serving, he gradually led his pupils into new paths of inquiry, until they came to believe that the Church not only may err, but that it had actually erred in many of its teachings.

Peshtimaljian became convinced at length, that his pupils were consistently carrying out the principles they had learned from him, and he strongly, though still privately, encouraged them in their labors for the spiritual good of their countrymen. Until his death, which occurred in 1837, he was the friend of the missionaries, and had much intercourse with them; though he never acquired the courage distinctly to avow himself an evangelical man. Up to that time, however, there had been no open persecution of the followers of Christ, and consequently no formal separation of the evangelical brethren from the Armenian community. All the first converts in Constantinople, and many of the later ones, were from his school.

There can be no doubt that, owing to these and other less apparent causes, there was a preparation in the Armenian mind of Turkey for the reception of divine truth, before the arrival of the American missionaries. Though more evident at the capital than in the provinces, there seems to have been some degree of this preparation wherever Armenians were found. In this respect, there was a marked difference among that people, as compared with Jews and Greeks. The common people, where not intimidated by the clergy, almost everywhere heard the Word with gladness; and it was so with many of the parochial priests, when not dreading the wrath of their superiors. In all this we should gratefully acknowledge an overruling Providence in the ordering of events, and the divine agency of the Holy Spirit, making it apparent that the "fullness of time" had come for the entering in of evangelical missionaries.

Messrs. Smith and Dwight, before leaving Constantinople on their eastern tour, earnestly recommended the forming of a station at the metropolis, with special reference to the Armenians. In April, 1831, Mr. Goodell, then at Malta, received instructions from the Prudential Committee to remove to that city. This he did, after having carried the Armeno-Turkish New Testament through the press.

The splendid scene which opened to Mr. Goodell as he drew near the city on the 9th of June, he thus describes: "As we approached Constantinople, the most enchanting prospect opened to view. In the country, on our left, were fields rich in cultivation and fruitfulness. On our right, were the little isles of the Sea of Marmora; and beyond, the high lands of Broosa, with Olympus rearing its head above the clouds and covered with eternal snow. In the city, mosques, domes, and hundreds of lofty minarets, were starting up amidst the more humble abodes of men, all embosomed in groves of dark cypresses, which in some instances seemed almost like a forest; while before, behind, and around us, were (besides many boats of the country) more than twenty square-rigged vessels, bearing the flags of different nations, all under full sail, with a light but favorable breeze,—all converging to one point, and that CONSTANTINOPLE. When we first caught a glimpse of Top-Hana, Galata, and Pera, stretching from the water's edge to the summit of the hill, and began to sweep round Seraglio Point, the view became most beautiful and sublime. It greatly surpassed all that I had ever conceived of it. We had been sailing along what I should call the south side of the city for four or five miles, and were now entering the Bosphorus, with the city on our left, and Scutari on our right. The mosque of St. Sophia, with the palaces and gardens of the Sultan Mahmoud, were before us in all their majesty and loveliness. Numerous boats were shooting rapidly by us in all directions, giving to the scene the appearance of life and business. The vessels before us had been retarded, and those behind had been speeded, and we were sweeping round the Golden Horn in almost as rapid succession as was possible,—every captain apparently using all his skill to prevent coming in contact with his neighbor, or being carried away by the current; and every passenger apparently, like ourselves, gazing with admiration on the numerous objects of wonder on every hand."

Mr. Goodell took a house in Pera, one of the suburbs of Constantinople, where the European ambassadors and most of the foreign Christians resided. Scarcely two months elapsed, before that populous section of the metropolis was almost wholly destroyed by fire. The missionary lost house, furniture, library, papers, and nearly all the clothing of himself and family; and was obliged to remove fifteen miles up the Bosphorus, to Buyuk-Dereh, and to remain there the rest of the year.

The fire had separated the missionary almost entirely from the Armenians, and being thrown into the midst of the Greeks, he established several Greek Lancasterian schools, with the New Testament for a class-book. In most instances the copies were purchased by the parents. To furnish himself with competent instructors, he made arrangements for a normal school among the Greeks of Galata, a central place in which many children were begging for instruction, and he was evidently encouraged by the smiles of heaven upon his labors.

Not long after, he called upon the Armenian Patriarch, a man of dignified manners and venerable appearance, and asked his cooeperation in establishing schools among his people on an improved plan. The Patriarch declared, with even more than Oriental politeness, that he loved Mr. Goodell and his country so much, that if Mr. G. had not come to visit him, he must needs have gone to America. After numerous inquiries, he assented to the introduction of the new system of instruction, and promised to furnish suitable persons to learn it; which promise, however, he failed to remember.

Mr. Dwight joined Mr. Goodell, with his family, on the 5th of June, 1832, intending to devote himself wholly to the Armenians, and to labor for them chiefly through the Armenian language, though he afterwards acquired also the Turkish. The Rev. William G. Schauffler arrived in the following month, as a missionary to the Jews.

The Armenians at Constantinople were estimated at one hundred thousand. As a body, they were intelligent, ingenuous, and frank; and many were found who regarded the ritual of their Church as encumbered with burdensome ceremonies, unsustained by the Scriptures, and of no practical advantage. The outset of the Armenian mission was in some respects unlike that to the Maronites of Syria, among whom the converts were at once excommunicated, and treated as outlaws. The object of the missionaries was not to break down the Armenian Church, but, if possible, by reviving the knowledge and spirit of the Gospel, to reform it. They were content that the ecclesiastical organization remain, provided the spirit of the Gospel could be revived under it. They regarded the ceremonies of the Church as mere outworks, not necessarily removed before reaching the citadel; and believed that assaults upon these would awaken more general opposition, than if made upon the citadel itself, and that, the citadel once taken, the outworks would fall of course. They felt, therefore, that as foreigners their main business was to set forth the fundamental doctrines and duties of the Gospel, derived directly from the Holy Scriptures.

This early position of the mission is stated merely as historical truth. When their converts were excommunicated, after some years, the case became changed, and of course their methods of proceeding were greatly modified, so far as the hierarchy was concerned.

Obstacles soon arose that had not been anticipated. First, the plague, with terrific violence, then, the cholera; and lastly, the Egyptian civil war, which shook the capital, and endangered the throne. There could be little intercourse with the people in these circumstances; and during the latter part of 1832, the missionaries were employed chiefly in their own houses, studying the languages, and preparing elementary cards and books for the schools.

It would seem from the Epistles of the Apostle Paul, that his affections were early drawn to certain favored individuals among those first awakened by the Holy Spirit. It was so with the brethren at Constantinople. Among the earliest students of Peshtimaljian, was Hohannes Sahakian, who had been fond of books from childhood, and for some time had longed to see his countrymen better furnished with the means of education. Before entering the school, which he did in 1829, he had commenced reading the New Testament, a cheap copy of which his father had purchased, and he was delighted to find his preceptor so ready to sympathize with his views, and to aid him in his investigations. In 1830, he began to converse on religious subjects with his friend Senekerim, the teacher of a school in the Patriarch's palace. Senekerim was startled on hearing sentiments avowed, that were not taught in their churches; but his mind became gradually enlightened, and they both painfully saw how much their nation needed to be brought to a knowledge of the Gospel. They had no funds for establishing schools and publishing tracts and books. As their zeal and fervor increased, they made a formal consecration of everything pertaining to them to the Lord Jesus Christ, declaring their purpose to execute his will. One day Senekerim made a discovery of the words, "If two of you shall agree on earth, as touching anything that they shall ask, it shall be done for them of my Father which is in heaven." Rejoicing over this, they both prayed: "O God, we agree to ask, that our nation may awake, may know the Gospel, and may understand that it is the blood of Jesus Christ alone which purgeth away sin." Yet neither of them was at this time fully aware of the great doctrine of salvation by grace, nor did they know of the existence of any nation having a knowledge of the pure Gospel. In this isolation they continued their prayerful study of God's Word, making gradual progress in knowledge of the Gospel.

At length it became noised abroad, that two Americans were residing in a village on the Bosphorus, ostensibly for a good purpose, but really to spread infidelity. The young men heard the report, and their curiosity was awakened. Hohannes visited them alone at first, and afterwards with his friend, to find out what kind of persons they were. They soon perceived, that the great object of their pursuit was attained, and earnestly requested to be taken under the care and instruction of the mission. As a means of support, Senekerim was to open an Armenian school at Pera, to which place the missionaries intended to remove, and Hohannes was to translate the Psalms from ancient into modern Armenian. These were labors for only part of each day, and the remainder was devoted to the study of the English language and of the Bible. As they gained an insight into the nature of true religion, they had fears lest they were building on a wrong foundation; but by the grace of God they were soon brought into the clear light of the Gospel, and led joyfully to trust in Jesus Christ as the all-sufficient Saviour.

An Armenian jeweler of wealth and influence was wrought up to a state of great alarm in reference to the course of these two young men, by the secret insinuations of a Romish priest. Having persuaded Peshtimaljian to summon the delinquents, he severely charged them with violating their obligations to the Church, and dishonoring God. They were about to vindicate themselves, when Peshtimaljian took the business wholly out of their hands, and poured a flood of light from Scripture and history upon the astonished jeweler; and when the young men afterwards spoke for themselves, Peshtimaljian aided them in their references to the Scriptures. The result was, that the jeweler became himself an open and strong advocate of the evangelical doctrines.

The conversion of Sarkis Vartabed, teacher of grammar in the school of Peshtimaljian, may be dated from this period. He was in high repute as a scholar in the ancient language of the Armenians, had many amiable and valuable qualities, and became highly useful as a translator in connection with the mission.

Among the fifteen alumni from the school of Peshtimaljian, who were ordained as priests in the autumn of 1833, was one highly respected for learning. His appearance was peculiarly devout, and when the missionary brethren called upon him, some days afterwards, in one of the cloisters of the patriarchate, he was deeply impressed by what they said to him as to the responsibilities of office-bearing in the Church of Christ. This was Der Kevork,1 whose subsequent influence in promoting the reformation was by no means unimportant.

1 Der means Priest.

The removal of the press from Malta to Smyrna, at the close of 1833, was eminently seasonable. The importance of the measure was well understood by the enemy, and a combination of Roman and Armenian influences induced the Pasha to order Mr. Temple's departure from Smyrna, with only ten days' notice. The Romanists opposed, because of their settled hostility to Protestantism, and a free Protestant press. The Armenians were specially scandalized by the presence of Bishop Dionysius as a Protestant, after he had broken the rules of the Church by taking a wife. The opposition was increased by an ex-patriarch of the Armenians then residing at Smyrna, who was a personal enemy of Dionysius, and took part in these proceedings. The Pasha had acted under misapprehension, and revoked his order, on hearing the explanations of the American consul; but it was thought best for the bishop to return to his former home at Beirut.

The Armenians were found to be well supplied with spelling-books, reading-books, arithmetics, and grammars in the modern language, also with works on geometry and trigonometry. There was, therefore, much less preparatory work to be done for them in the way of education, than was supposed. A geography was needed, and the part relating to ancient Armenia was prepared by Peshtimaljian. A high school for the Armenians was opened at Pera in October, 1834, under the superintendence of Mr. Paspati, a native of Scio, who had been educated in America, and was regarded as well fitted for the post. The next year, however, he went to Paris to study medicine, and Hohannes was appointed his successor. The school had its full number of scholars, which was thirty. There were classes in the English, French, Italian, Armenian, Turkish, Ancient Greek, and Hebrew languages, and lectures on various branches of natural science, illustrated by apparatus.

In 1834, the Rev. Messrs. John B. Adger, Benjamin Schneider, and Thomas P. Johnston, and their wives, joined the mission; the first taking up his abode at Smyrna, the second at Broosa, and the third at Trebizond. In the following year the Rev. Philander O. Powers joined Mr. Schneider, and the Rev. Henry A. Homes arrived at Constantinople. Such was the beginning of missionary efforts among the Armenians of Asia Minor. Broosa is situated in Bithynia, at the western base of Mount Olympus, and was the capital of the Turkish empire for one hundred and thirty years previous to the taking of Constantinople. Trebizond is situated on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea, and competes with Constantinople on the score of natural scenery. The author retains a vivid impression of it, as seen in the winter of 1844. The city, half surrounded by verdant trees, had cultivated fields rising gently behind it, and beyond were forest-clad hills, looking green as in midsummer. And back of all, far in the distance, rose a lofty range of snow-clad mountains, as if to guard this earthly paradise, stretching from sea to sea, and forming a magnificent amphitheatre.



CHAPTER VIII.

THE ARMENIANS.

1836-1840.

The first visit of Mr. Johnston to Trebizond was in 1834. Through priestly interference, he failed in three successive attempts to procure a house, and at last secured a contract for one only on condition of obtaining a firman from Constantinople. The United States Minister at the Porte procured a vizierial letter, directing that Mr. Johnston suffer no further molestation, and he removed his family thither in the spring of 1835. The breaking out of the plague prevented him for a time from having much intercourse with the people. In August of the next year, he had the pleasure of welcoming the Rev. William C. Jackson and wife as associates.

The Patriarch of the Armenian Church at this time was Stepan, who was averse to severe measures; and Boghos, his vicar, though inclined to oppose the spreading reformation, thought it prudent to do nothing openly. Several high ecclesiastics were on terms of intimacy with the missionaries, and some of them seemed on the point of yielding to the influence of the truth. But generally they were without fixed religious principles, and were ready to follow the lead of the men most able to favor their own advancement in office or emolument. Matteos, the newly appointed bishop of Broosa, was one of these. While residing on the Bosphorus, he was a professed friend of the mission; and after his removal to Broosa, he expressed by letter the most friendly sentiments, and assured Mr. Schneider of his approbation of the school then recently established in that city. But this school, after a few months, was entirely broken up through the agency of this same prelate, who also sought in other ways to weaken and destroy the influence of the missionaries. Somewhat later, having been elevated to the Patriarchate, he became a reckless persecutor of the Protestants of Turkey, as will appear in its proper place.

The beautiful type used by the Catholic-Armenians at Venice, made it necessary for the mission to procure new fonts of type adapted to the taste of the Armenians. The monks of Venice refusing to sell to the mission, Mr. Hallock, the printer, visited the United States, and superintended the cutting of the needful punches. The Prudential Committee, appreciating the new demands, authorized an expenditure of five thousand dollars for punches and types in the Armenian, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and for foundries of types and stereotype plates. After Mr. Hallock's departure, the mission succeeded in procuring two Armenian fonts of great beauty from Vienna.

Meanwhile the Turks were making some advance in civilization. Lancasterian schools were established by them in the barracks of Dolma Baktche and Scutari, which were carried on with remarkable success. The missionaries being present by invitation at a public examination, Azim Bey publicly declared, that the Turks were indebted to them for everything of the kind. Travellers were no longer obliged to depend on slow sailing vessels, since steamers ran every week from Constantinople to Smyrna and Trebizond, and every fortnight to Galatz on the Danube. A road for carriages was constructed from Scutari to Nicomedia, a distance of sixty miles; and as a means of arresting the ravages of the plague, the European style of quarantine was extensively introduced.

The most determined opposers of the mission at this time were the Papists, who spared no pains in exciting prejudice among the Armenians. The Papal Armenians were estimated at from fifteen to twenty thousand, and according to usage in Turkey they had a Patriarch of their own. This functionary came out with a public denunciation of all Protestant books, including the New Testament. He even forbade the receiving of copies of the Armenian Scriptures in the ancient language, which had been printed at their own press in Venice, and were purchased, several years before, by the British and Foreign Bible Society for sale at a reduced price or gratuitous circulation.

There was so much desire for religious instruction among the Armenians, that two weekly meetings, in the Turkish language, were established in Constantinople, one conducted by Mr. Goodell, the other by Mr. Schauffler. Their houses were frequented by ecclesiastics as well as by laymen, and some of the former seemed to be sincere inquirers after the truth. One of them, attached to the patriarchal church, proposed that they publish a revised edition of the modern Armenian New Testament; and offered to subscribe five hundred piastres, or somewhat more than twenty dollars, towards the object, and also to procure aid from others. It was a favorable sign, that bishops and vartabeds began now to give instructions from the sacred Scriptures, instead of the legends of the saints. It subsequently appeared, indeed, that most of them were influenced in this more by public opinion, than by personal interest in the subject. They probably had exaggerated notions as to the actual prevalence of evangelical sentiments.

Female education, which had been almost entirely neglected, began now to receive attention, both at Constantinople and at Smyrna. No regular school, indeed, had as yet been opened for females in the former place, but a few parents were providing means for the instruction of their daughters, and one of the evangelical brethren had a class of twelve Armenian girls. In Smyrna, a school for Armenian girls was opened by the mission in a commodious room, with desks, benches, and cards, and was commenced with the express approval of influential men in the community. More than forty girls attended it the first week. But an influential Armenian made such an appeal to the national pride of his countrymen, that the community assumed the charge of the school, and refunded what the mission had expended on it.

At Constantinople, Der Kevork, the most learned of the fifteen priests ordained in 1833, was at the head of a school of four hundred boys, supported by his countrymen and having no connection with the mission. Kevork boldly introduced the custom of daily reading and explaining the Scriptures. He also selected twenty of his most promising scholars for the critical study of the New Testament.

The learned and amiable Peshtimaljian died in the year 1837. In the same year, Mrs. Dwight and one of her children became victims of the plague. Her husband escaped the contagion, though of course greatly exposed. This terrible disease had been almost an annual visitation at Constantinople, and was believed to be imported from Egypt. As soon as it made its appearance, schools must be closed, public worship suspended, and the giving and receiving of visits in great measure interrupted. The quarantine appears to have been an effectual preventive.

In the course of this year, the missionaries had a meeting at Smyrna, at which Messrs. King, Temple, Goodell, Bird, Adger, and Houston were present. Its results were important and interesting. During the sessions, Mr. King preached two sermons to a Greek audience in the chapel of the Dutch Consulate. This was seven years after the commencement of his mission in Greece. Mr. Bird was there, on his way from Syria to his native land, and wrote, on hearing Mr. King preach and seeing the apparent effect, that he became quite reconciled to his laboring among the Greeks, rather than the Arabs.

In the same year Boghos, vicar of the Patriarch, encouraged by certain bankers, resolved to break up the mission High School for Armenians in Pera, of which Hohannes was the principal. In preparation for this, a College had been built at Scutari, some months before, on an extended scale; and the public school in Has Keuy, superintended by Kevork, had been committed to the general supervision of one of the great bankers residing there, that it might be remodeled according to his own wishes, and made a first-rate school. This was deemed a needful preliminary to shutting up the mission High School. Early in the year, the parents were summoned before the vicar, and ordered to withdraw their sons from that school. The plan of the opposing party was, in this case, after breaking up the school, to procure from the Turkish government the banishment of Hohannes. But they had misapprehended the banker, and great was their astonishment when they heard that Hohannes was no sooner released, by their own act, from his connection with the mission school, than he was engaged by the banker of Has Keuy to take the superintendence of the national school they had placed in his hands. In vain they remonstrated. To their assertion, that it was the American system he had adopted he replied, that he knew nothing of the Americans, but had adopted the system because it was good. To their objection, that the principal was evangelical, he responded, "So am I." He at length declared, that unless they permitted him to manage the school in his own way, he would withdraw from the Armenian community. They could not afford to lose one of the leading bankers; and one of the principal opposers, finding it necessary, in a business transaction, to throw himself on his clemency, opposition ceased for a time, and a school of six hundred scholars went into successful operation, with Hohannes for its superintendent, and Der Kevork, the active priest, for one of its principal teachers.

It is worthy of special note, that up to this time, the banker was wholly unknown to the missionaries, and to the evangelical brethren generally. He was evidently raised up by divine Providence for the occasion. Not only did the Has Keuy school greatly exceed the mission school at Pera in the number of its pupils, but it was formally adopted as the school of the nation, and Hohannes was appointed its principal by the Armenian Synod. Having liberty of action, he devoted an hour each day to giving special religious instruction to a select class of sixty of the more advanced pupils, besides his more general teaching, and the daily good influence exerted by Der Kevork and himself. The course of study was liberal, the philosophical apparatus of the mission was purchased by the directors, lectures were given on the natural sciences, and the school obtained a temporary popularity.

Yet there were secret opposing influences too powerful to allow this state of things long to continue. In the middle of the year 1838, the distinguished patron understood, not only that there was a growing dissatisfaction among the leading Armenians with the school, and especially with its principal, but that his munificence was attracting the attention of the Turks; and he deemed it prudent to withdraw his patronage. Before the close of the year, the teachers were dismissed, and the school was reduced to its former footing. The leading men of Has Keuy sent a delegation to the Patriarch deprecating the disaster, but obtained only fair promises. Hohannes now renewed his connection with the mission, and was placed in charge of the book distribution. Der Kevork spent much time in going from house to house, reading the Scriptures to the people, and exhorting them to obey the Gospel.

At Broosa, the number of visitors at the house of the missionaries was increasing, and among them were two young teachers in the Armenian public school, who were specially interested in the subject of personal religion. They were among the first to make the acquaintance of Mr. Powers, on his coming to take up his residence in their quarter of the city. One of these young men, named Serope, had the sole charge of about fifty of the most advanced scholars, whom he instructed daily in the Word of God. The principal men in the Armenian community at Broosa soon decided to place a select class of boys under his instruction, to be trained for the priest's office, and eight were thus set apart. Before the end of the year both of these teachers gave hopeful evidence of piety.

Very interesting cases of conversion occurred at Nicodemia, at the head of the gulf bearing that name. Mr. Goodell, when passing through this place in 1832, gave several tracts to some Armenian boys. One of these, a translation of the "Dairyman's Daughter," came into the hands of a priest, whom Mr. Goodell did not see. This led him to study the Word of God. A brother priest, on intimate terms with him, was induced to join in the study, and the result was the hopeful conversion of both. Their united efforts were now directed to the conversion of their flock, and a spirit of inquiry was awakened. In the spring of 1838, Mr. Dwight found sixteen at Nicomedia, who appeared to be truly converted men. He was surprised at the seriousness and intelligence with which they conversed on the great truths of the Gospel. The Holy Spirit had evidently been their teacher, and the doctrine of justification by grace through faith alone, was the foundation of their hopes. The joy with which they greeted the missionary of the cross for the first time, was most gratifying to him, as was the earnest attention they gave to his instructions. Compared with their countrymen in the same place, they might be called intelligent men, and some of them were in very easy circumstances. The two converted priests, Der Vertanes and Der Haritun, became afterwards well known in the mission. Of their own accord they removed to Constantinople, and were placed together in charge of a village church on the Bosphorus; and the Patriarch Stepan, being an old acquaintance, spent several weeks with them, and generally assented to the views advanced by them in their free conversations.

We now enter the year 1839, which was a year of severe persecution. Of this persecution, in which the Porte itself became a party, I am now to give a brief account.

The missionary force at Constantinople had become unusually small. Mr. Dwight was absent until September, on a visit to the United States. Mr. Schauffler left in May for Vienna, to superintend the printing of the Hebrew Spanish Old Testament. He went by way of Odessa, and both there, and among the German churches in that part of Russia, he did much to sustain a religious revival that had been long in progress. Mr. Homes left in the spring to join Dr. Grant in exploring Kurdistan. Mr. Hamlin arrived early in the year, but was occupied in the study of the language. Mr. Goodell was, therefore, almost alone in this trying season.

The extent and violence of the persecution were convincing proof of the progress of the reformation. A corrupt priesthood dreaded its tendency to deprive them of their sinful gains. Certain persons no longer enjoyed a monopoly of Armenian printing. Education ceased to be exclusively in the hands of a few bankers. And the popularity of Hohannes and Boghos Fizika was thought to operate against the great Armenian college at Scutari. Nor were the members of the Romish Church idle.

The patriarchs were elected by the primates, who were chiefly bankers, and were in an important sense their creatures. The bankers were divested of much of their power in 1839, by the rise of three men of the artisan class, who suddenly stood before the nation as its guides and dictators, and more especially as extirpators of heresy. These were the two chief architects of the Sultan, and the superintendent of the government powder works. The two first, being employed in erecting the most splendid of all the imperial palaces, were often in contact with the Sultan. The expulsion of Protestantism lay near their hearts, and they resolved to make use of the strong arm of Mahmood to effect it. What were the representations made to him is not known; but it is known that the three favorites were authorized to call on the civil power to aid them in extirpating the dangerous heresy.

The first thing was to get the tolerant Patriarch out of the way. For some reason they did not at once remove him from office, but procured from the interior a man named Hagopos, notorious for his bigotry and sternness, whom they appointed Assistant Patriarch. A month later, Stepan was deposed, and permitted to retire to his convent near Nicomedia, and Hagopos was installed in his place. Before this, Hohannes had been thrown into the patriarchal prison, without even the form of an accusation; but every one knew that his crime consisted in following the Bible, rather than the Church. Boghos Fizika was arrested, and cast into the same prison; and four days after, they were both banished by an imperial firman. Their place of exile was a convent near Cesarea, four hundred miles distant. Stepan took leave of them with tears, well knowing the deep injustice of the act. This was in the month of February, and the Turkish police-officer sent back word from Scutari, that Boghos, being an invalid, was too feeble to bear the fatigues and exposures of such a journey in that inclement season; but positive orders were returned to carry him to Cesarea, either dead or alive. Nicomedia lay on their route; and the brethren of that place hastened in a body to the post-house, and had a season of prayer with the exiles, which greatly comforted them. This intercourse was kept up during a delay of several days authorized by the Nicomedia primate. When the Armenians of Cesarea were told, on their arrival at that place, that their banishment was for receiving the Bible as the only infallible guide in religious matters, they said the Patriarch might as well banish them all, for they were all of that opinion.

It was reported in Constantinople, that the Patriarch had a list of five hundred persons suspected of heresy, and that among them were bishops, priests, and bankers, some of whom were to be banished immediately. Few dared to visit the missionaries, and those only under cover of the night. A proclamation was issued by Hagopos, forbidding the reading of books printed or circulated by the missionaries, and all who had such books were required to deliver them up without delay. On the 14th of March, Der Kevork was arrested and thrown into prison; and when respectable Armenians of Has Keuy made application for his release, they were rudely told to mind their own business. After lying in prison for more than a month, he and several others were banished into the interior. A rich banker, who had long been on friendly terms with the missionaries, was arrested and imprisoned in a hospital as an insane person,—a method of persecution not unfrequently resorted to in Turkey. He was released after a week's confinement, on paying a large sum for the college at Scutari.

Nor were the Greek ecclesiastics behind the Armenian in hostility to the reformation. The Greek Synod and Patriarch issued a decree, excommunicating all who should buy, sell, or read the books of the "Luthero-Calvinists;" and condemning in like manner the writings of Korai, the illustrious restorer of learning among the Greeks, and of the learned Bambas, the friend of Fisk and Parsons. An imperial firman was also published, authorizing, and even requiring, the several Patriarchs to look well to their several communions, and to guard them from infidelity and foreign influence; thus connecting the Porte itself with the persecution.

A strong effort was made to procure the expulsion of the missionaries. Multitudes were active, from diverse motives, to secure this end. One of the most conspicuous of these was a renegade Jew, once baptized by an English missionary, but now an infidel who seemed to have satanic aid in the invention of slanders against Protestants and Protestantism. Another was a disappointed infidel teacher, whose malice and bitterness made him a fit ally for the Jew. The enemy seemed to be having everything in his own way, and strong was his confidence of success.

At this crisis, Divine Providence interposed. The army of the Egyptians was on the march towards Constantinople, and the Sultan deemed it necessary to call upon all the Patriarchs and the chief Rabbi of the Jews, each to furnish several thousand men for his army. It was an unprecedented demand, and occasioned great consternation, but must be obeyed. The army was raised, and was estimated at eighty thousand. It encountered an Egyptian army of about the same number on the plains of Nezib near Aleppo, on the 24th of June, and the Turkish troops were scattered in all directions. The tidings of this disaster never reached Mahmood, as he died in his palace on the first day of July. A few days after, the Capudan Pasha surrendered the Turkish fleet to Mohammed Ali; and on the 11th of July, Abdul Medjid, a boy of seventeen, was placed upon the throne. The news of the entire loss of his army and navy arrived in a few days, and the empire seemed on the verge of dissolution. It was saved by the intervention of the great powers of Europe. The apostate Jew, to avoid punishment for various crimes, professed himself a Mohammedan; and for crimes subsequently committed, he was strangled by the Turks, and thrown into the Bosphorus. On the 12th of August, between three and four thousand houses in Pera were consumed by fire, with the loss of several lives and an immense amount of property.

The persecution had extended to Broosa and Trebizond; and at Erzroom, in ancient Armenia, where Mr. Jackson had commenced a new station, a letter was read from the patriarchate, warning the people against the Americans, and their schools and books.