Those who have attentively read the preceding history will need nothing more to set forth the character of this eminent servant of Christ. His courage, his calmness and yet firmness of purpose, his skill in the healing art, his devotion to the cause of his Saviour, his tact in winning the confidence even of those who never before trusted their own friends, his fearlessness in the presence of unscrupulous and cruel men and his ascendency over them, his lively faith under appalling discouragements, and his unyielding perseverance, form an array of excellence rarely combined in one man. Like the holy Apostle, he was "in journeyings often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." Yet was he not cast down by these things. He regarded them as incidental to his calling of God in Christ Jesus; and in the pursuit of this heavenly calling, he was more happy in the savage wilds of Koordistan, than he would have been in the most favored portions of his native land.

Mr. Laurie and Dr. Smith, the surviving brethren at Mosul, entered the mountains in the summer of 1844, explored the district of Tiary, and visited Nûrûllah Bey at Birchullah above Julamerk. Wherever they went among the Nestorians, they found a painful scene of desolation. On their return to Mosul, they forwarded their journal and a summary view of the facts, and asked the Committee to decide whether to continue the effort to approach the Nestorians from the west, and the Committee now forwarded definite instructions to discontinue this branch of the mission.1 They proceeded to Beirût in Syria, accompanied by Mrs. Hinsdale, who had been bereaved of her only child. Mr. Laurie became a member of the Syrian mission, and Dr. Smith of the Armenian; and Mrs. Hinsdale was for some time employed in the instruction of missionary children at Constantinople.

1 Missionary Herald, 1845, pp. 116-125.

CHAPTER XIV.

SYRIA.

1830-1838.

Syria was not in a condition for a return of the missionaries until after two years. Messrs. Bird and Whiting left Malta for Beirût on the 1st of May, 1830. Mr. Abbott, the English Consul, had already returned, and gave them a cordial welcome. The members of the Greek Church greeted them in a friendly manner, and were ready to read the Scriptures with them; but the Maronite priests, faithful to the Church of Rome, forbad their people all intercourse with the "Bible men," whom they described as "followers of the devil." Among those who received them gladly were a few young men, over whom the missionaries had rejoiced in former years, and who had remained steadfast in the faith, and had honored the Gospel by their lives.

Gregory Wortabet, one of the two Armenian ecclesiastics who early became connected with the mission, is already somewhat known to the reader. He belonged to the monastic priesthood in the Armenian Church, and there is an interesting autobiography of him in the "Missionary Herald" for 1828. His career up to that time, as described by himself, shows him to have been an uncommon character; and his personal sufferings, both for good and evil doing, prepared him to receive benefit from his converse with the missionaries at Beirût, which began in 1826, when he was twenty-six years of age. He was then ignorant of the Gospel, with his mind in great darkness and confusion. His first ray of light was from the good example of his missionary friends. Comparing their lives with their preaching, he admired the consistency of the two. He then compared both with the Scriptures, reading through the entire New Testament. At length day dawned upon his darkness. He became fully satisfied, that the Scriptures were from God, and committed himself to their divine teaching. Renouncing his self-righteousness, and all dependence on the absolutions of the Church, he trusted for salvation only in the blood of the Lord Jesus. Having adopted the opinion, that his monastic vows were unscriptural and therefore void, he married a discreet woman, who not long after gave good evidence of piety.

Wortabet accompanied the missionaries to Malta, as did also Dionysius, the other ecclesiastic. This change in their circumstances was at their own earnest request, but it was a great change. The author saw them at Malta, and did not wonder at some dissatisfaction on the part of the younger of the two, which helped to bring a cloud, for a time, over his Christian character. But his morals were irreproachable in the view of the world, and on his return to Syria in 1830, which was mainly in consequence of the failure of his eyes, the sun shone forth again, and continued to do so till his death. He went back to Beirût with the intention of supporting himself by manual labor, but the return of ophthalmia interrupted his plans, and reduced him to poverty. Mr. Bird visited him in May, 1831, at his residence near Sidon, and found him and his wife destitute indeed of the good things of this life, but contented and cheerful, and Wortabet warning all around him, night and day. Much of his conversation was spiritual, and he was listened to with deference. He was respected by the principal inhabitants of the place, and his wife was regarded as a model of humility and piety. Two or three were thought to have received saving impressions from his conversation. He obtained his support, such as it was, by means of a small shop, and was rigidly conscientious in his dealings. Respectable men of all classes came frequently to converse with him on religious subjects, and so gave him an opportunity to circulate the Bible, and to recommend its religion to Druses, Armenians, Papists, and Jews. Even Moslems sometimes listened with attention.

Having been drawn into a written controversy by a zealous Maronite, Wortabet called in the aid of Taunûs el Haddad, not being himself at home in the Arabic, and with important aid from the written discussions of Messrs. King, Bird, Goodell, and the lamented Asaad, he came out with a full exposition of the points at issue between Protestants and the Church of Rome, which attracted much attention. An answer was repeatedly promised, but none ever appeared, and it was thought the Maronite was himself half convinced of his error. Wortabet's weight of character, and his perfect knowledge of the people, made his influence at Sidon exceedingly valuable, and it was increasing and extending. But on the 10th of September, 1832, a short illness, supposed to be the cholera, terminated his earthly labors. From the first attack, he regarded the disease as fatal, and met death with a calm reliance on the Saviour.

The operations of the mission in 1832, were disturbed by plague, cholera, and war. The ravages of the plague were not great, but cholera occasioned intense alarm. It swept over Armenia and along the western borders of Persia, cut off one third of the pilgrims from Beirût to Mecca, was exceedingly fatal at Cairo and Alexandria, and made approaches to the seat of the mission as near as Aleppo, Damascus, Tiberias, and Acre; but from this terrible judgment the inhabitants of Beirût were providentially shielded. They suffered much, however, from the rapacity of the Pasha of Acre, until his power was broken by the invading army of the Viceroy of Egypt, under Ibrahim Pasha. With the aid of ten or fifteen thousand men from Mount Lebanon, under the Emir Beshir, Ibrahim Pasha took Acre; then pushing his conquests to Damascus, established the dominion of Egypt over Palestine and all Syria.

The papal bishop of Beirût having published an answer to Mr. King's "Farewell Letter," Mr. Bird made a reply in thirteen letters, containing many extracts from the Fathers and Roman Catholic doctors against the bishop's opinions and expositions of Scripture. Preparatory to this, the mission library was furnished with the more important works of the ancient Fathers; and what was wanting to complete the polemic department of the library, was munificently supplied by Mr. Parnell, of the Bagdad mission; who also presented the mission with a lithographic press for printing in the Arabic and Syriac languages. About this time, Mr. Temple was instructed to send the Arabic portion of the Malta establishment to Beirût, where Mr. Smith, who returned from the United States in 1834, was to have the charge of it.

Mr. Smith had been instructed by the Prudential Committee, to explore the country eastward of the Jordan, and also that bordering on the eastern range of Lebanon. Accordingly, soon after his arrival, he and Dr. Dodge visited Damascus, and then went into the Hauran, which was never before explored by Protestant missionaries, and until the publication of Burckhard's travels, twelve years before, was almost unknown in modern times. The Bozrah of the Scriptures was the limit of their travels southeastward, and marks the limit of habitation towards the great desert. Thence they traversed the region of Bashan to the southwest, as far as the river Jabbok, now called Zerka, beyond which the country is surrendered to the wild Bedawîn. Turning to the north, they crossed the Jordan not far from the lake of Tiberias, ascended the western shore, visited the numerous Greek Christians on the west of Mount Hermon, and returned to Damascus. The health of the mission now called Dr. Dodge back to Beirût, and Mr. Smith completed the survey of Anti-Libanus alone; visited a village of Jacobite Syrians in the desert towards Palmyra; passed through Homs, and as far north as Hamah, or "Hamath the great;" then, bending his course homeward, he crossed Lebanon in the region of the Ansaireea, through Tripoli to Beirût. Of this whole deeply interesting tour Mr. Smith, as was his custom, kept an accurate journal, which he intended to elaborate for publication as soon as he should have opportunity. The learned world heard with deep regret, in the year 1836, of the loss of this valuable manuscript in the shipwreck of Mr. and Mrs. Smith on their voyage to Smyrna. The Arabic press arrived in 1834, and passed without objection through the customhouse. Indeed, there were at that time no less than six presses in Syria and the Holy Land, belonging to Jews and Papists, and no one of them was subjected to hindrance, censorship, or taxation.

It could not truly be said, that any material change had taken place in the character and condition of the people at large, as a consequence of Protestant missions. But this at least was true, that the impression given by the Jesuits, that Protestants had no religion, no priesthood, and no churches, had been extensively removed. The missionaries unite in their testimony, that the circulation of the Scriptures is not alone sufficient to regenerate a people. A very considerable number of copies had been put in circulation from Aleppo to Hebron and Gaza, and many of them had been in the hands of the people for more than ten years. It is not known indeed how much they had been used; but where there had been no personal intercourse with missionaries, not a single radical conversion of the soul unto God had come to the knowledge of the missionaries.

Commodore Patterson visited Beirût during the summer with the U. S. ship Delaware and schooner Shark; principally, as he said, to do honor to the mission, and to convince the people that it had powerful friends.

Ten interesting young men placed themselves under the tuition of Dr. Dodge to learn English, and Mr. Smith gave them lessons in geography and astronomy, of which they knew almost as little as of English. A school taught by Taunûs el Haddad was converted into a girls' school. A female school was also opened by the ladies of the mission, assisted by the widow of Wortabet, for which a house was erected by the subscriptions of foreign residents. The school contained twenty-nine pupils, of whom three were Moslem children, and one a Druse, and no opposition was made to it. Religious instruction was given, of course, and the scholars made good progress in reading, sewing, knitting, and behavior. The whole number in the schools exceeded a hundred. Mr. Abbott, the early and valued friend of the mission, died during this year.

In 1835, Mr. Bird was compelled, by the declining health of his wife, to visit Smyrna. After remaining there nearly a year, and not receiving the benefit they expected, they came to the United States, and were never able to return to Syria. Their removal was for a time an irreparable loss to the mission, and was a severe disappointment to themselves. In subsequent years, they gladly gave two of their children to the missionary work in Western Asia. Miss Rebecca W. Williams arrived this year as a teacher; and in the next year the Rev. Messrs. Story Hebard and John F. Lanneau, and Miss Betsey Tilden. In 1835, Mr. William M. Thomson was married to Mrs. Abbott, the widow of the late English Consul, who, from an early period in the mission, had given decisive evidence of attachment to the kingdom of Christ.

The high school, commenced in 1835, took a more substantial form in the following year. It was wisely decided, that the pupils should lodge, eat, and dress in the style of the country; and the annual expenses of each scholar for boarding, clothing, etc., was only from thirty-five to forty dollars. The course of study embraced the Arabic language for the whole period, the English language, geography and astronomy, civil and ecclesiastical history, with chronology, mathematics, rhetoric,—in the Arab sense, a popular study,—natural and moral philosophy, composition and translation, natural theology, and sacred music. The Bible was studied constantly. In all these departments there was a great deficiency of books; in some it was entire.

Mr. Hebard and Miss Williams were united in marriage in October, 1836. Mr. Hebard had then the care of the seminary, and the girls' school was taught by Mrs. Hebard and Mrs. Dodge. The latter was subsequently married to the Rev. J. D. Paxton, a clergyman from the United States, then on a visit to Syria.

The mission, as early as 1836, became sensible of a serious deficiency in their Arabic type. As it did not conform to the most approved standard of Arabic caligraphy, it did not meet the popular taste. Mr. Smith therefore took pains to collect models of the characters in the best manuscripts. These were lost in his shipwreck, but he afterwards replaced them at Constantinople, to the number of two hundred; so varied, that the punches formed for them would make not far from a thousand matrices. These he placed in the hands of Mr. Hallock, the missionary printer at Smyrna, who possessed great mechanical ingenuity, and was entirely successful in cutting the punches. The type was cast at Leipzig by Tauchnitz. Thus a really great and important work, without which the press could not have been domesticated among the many millions to whom the Arabic is vernacular, was brought to a successful issue.

The disastrous shipwreck of Mr. and Mrs. Smith on their way from Beirût to Smyrna, has been already mentioned. The voyage was undertaken chiefly for the benefit of Mrs. Smith's health; but the exposures consequent on the shipwreck, extending through twenty-eight days until their arrival at Smyrna, aggravated her consumptive tendencies, and hastened her passage to the grave. She died on the thirtieth of September, 1836, at the age of thirty-four. The closing scene is described by her husband. "Involuntary groans were occasionally muttered in her convulsions. These, as we were listening to them with painful sympathy, once, to our surprise, melted away into musical notes; and for a moment, our ears were charmed with the full, clear tones of the sweetest melody. No words were articulated, and she was evidentally unconscious of everything about her. It seemed as if her soul was already joining in the songs of heaven, while it was yet so connected with the body as to command its unconscious sympathy. Not long after, she again opened her eyes in a state of consciousness. A smile of perfect happiness lighted up her emaciated features. She looked deliberately around upon different objects in the room, and then fixed upon me a look of the tenderest affection. …. Her frequent prayers that the Saviour would meet her in the dark valley, have already been mentioned. By her smile, she undoubtedly intended to assure us that she had found him. Words she could not utter to express what she felt. Life continued to struggle with its last enemy until twenty minutes before eight o'clock; when her affectionate heart gradually ceased to beat, and her soul took its final departure to be forever with the Lord."1

1 A Memoir of Mrs. Sarah Lanman Smith was given to the public by her brother, Edward W. Hooker, D. D., in 1837, pp. 407.

In the winter and spring of 1838, an opportunity was afforded Mr. Smith to perform a very useful service as the associate of Dr. Edward Robinson, in his celebrated "Biblical Researches in Palestine and the Adjacent Regions."1 The aid was essential to the full success of the enterprise, from Mr. Smith's acquaintance with the Arabs and their language, and it was cheerfully rendered by the missionary, and assented to by the mission and by the officers of the Board at home. Mr. Smith had been hopeful of being able to visit the Hauran, and to recover the more important facts lost in the shipwreck, but the troubled state of the country prevented. Joining Dr. Robinson in Egypt, he travelled with him from Cairo to Suez; thence to Sinai and Jerusalem, by way of Akabah; then to Bethel, the Dead Sea, and the valley of the Jordan. At Jerusalem, they attended the annual meeting of the Syria mission.

1 Mr. Smith rendered a similar service, during a part of Dr. Robinson's second tour in 1852, in a portion of the same regions.

The Rev. Messrs. Elias R. Beadle and Charles S. Sherman, and their wives, joined the mission this year.

CHAPTER XV.

SYRIA.

THE DRUZES, AND THE WARS OF LEBANON.

1835-1842.

We now enter upon a period of some special difficulty in the prosecution of the missionary work. Turkey, Egypt, and several great European powers, conflicting for secular objects, brought the Druzes into very singular and as it proved unfortunate, relations to the mission.

The Druzes are found chiefly on the mountains of Lebanon, and in the country called the Hauran, south of Damascus, and number sixty or seventy thousand souls. The sect originated with Hakem, a Caliph of Egypt, but derived its name from El Drusi, a zealous disciple of the Caliph. They believe Hakem to be the tenth, last, and most important incarnation of God, and render him divine honors. They have ever taken great pains to conceal their tenets, which seem to be compounded from Mohammedanism and Paganism, and it is only a portion of themselves that know what the tenets are. Those are called the Akkâl, or initiated; the others are the Jebal, or uninitiated. Four centuries and a half after the death of the founder of the sect, it became powerful under a single chief. Inhabiting the rugged mountains of Lebanon, they maintained for many ages a free and independent spirit in the midst of despotism, and were a semi-independent people within the Turkish dominions down to the summer of 1835, when they were subdued by Ibrahim Pasha.

As early as 1831, a hope was awakened in the mission, that the Gospel might be successfully introduced among that people. A Druze woman was in the habit of coming daily to listen to the reading of the Scriptures and to religious conversation, and would often say, "That's the truth," with her face bathed in tears. Her visits were continued until she fell a victim to the plague. An old man, also, who was one of the "initiated," came, and, after much disputation, professed to receive the Gospel. In proof of his sincerity, he brought one of the secret books of his religion, and gave it to the missionaries. Mr. Smith, moreover, when on the mountains, was invited to attend one of their stated meetings, and, at its close, was requested to read and expound a portion of the word of God.

The prospects became more favorable in 1835. Mr. Bird and others spent the hot months of summer at Aaleih, a Druze village on Lebanon. Mrs. Dodge gathered a school of girls there, and Mr. Bird had ten or fifteen Druzes present at his Arabic preaching every Sabbath, and among them the young sheiks of the village, with their servants. Many of the people listened with attention, and received and read the New Testament and other religious books, with apparent eagerness. They readily acknowledged that neither repentance, alms-giving, prayers, nor any works of their own, were sufficient to insure the pardon of sin; and when pointed to the great atonement of the Lord Jesus, it seemed to commend itself to their understanding and conscience. Though nominally the disciples of the Koran, they did not cry out "blasphemy," as did the Moslems, when told that Jesus is the Son of God, thus partaking of the divine nature; but they seemed to feel that this character was necessary for one who should undertake to be a Saviour for a world of sinners.

Mr. Bird coming down from the mountains to accompany his sick wife to Smyrna, Mr. Smith took his place, and visited eight or nine villages, with every opportunity afforded him for preaching the Gospel; and he was everywhere listened to with respectful attention. Though aware of the deceitfulness of the people, he could not but see how open they then were to this species of missionary labor. Yet he could not find among them any real spirit of inquiry, and his only hope was in the influences of the Holy Spirit, giving efficacy to the truth. The Druzes, though wrapped up in hypocrisy, and apparently without one spiritual thought, were of the same race with all other men, and the preaching of the word might be expected, in the end, to have the same effect upon them.

There was reason to believe, that this movement among the Druzes grew mainly out of their recent subjugation by the Egyptians, and their apprehension of a military conscription. They had always professed Mohammedanism hypocritically, to escape the oppressions which Christians suffered under Moslem rule; but now the Christians fared better than the Moslems, in that they were not liable to be drafted into the army, to which as Moslems the Druzes were exposed. They had very painful apprehensions of such a levy, and the reason having ceased that had led them to profess Mohammedanism, they were disposed to renounce that religion; and some among the uninitiated seemed ready to renounce the Druze religion also. Their great object was to enjoy equal rights with the Christians, and especially to escape the military conscription.

A levy had been demanded of the Druzes before this visit of the brethren to the mountains, and had been refused, with an urgent request to Mohammed Ali that he would not impose upon them so odious a burden. Nothing was heard in reply until the fourth day after Mr. Smith's return to Beirût, when Ibrahim Pasha presented himself at Deir el-Kamr, at the head of eighteen thousand men. Taken by surprise, no opposition was made. Both Druzes and Christians were at once disarmed, and officers were left to collect recruits.

With the dreaded evil thus strongly upon them, there was a more general disposition to throw off the Druze religion. Applications came from individuals and from families in different and distant villages. Among them were some of the higher ranks. One whole family connection of eighty individuals declared their readiness to pledge their property as security that they would never apostatize from the Christian faith; and had it been in the power of the mission to secure to them the political standing of Christian sects, and had the brethren been disposed to favor a national conversion, after the example of the early and middle ages, it is probable that the whole body of the Jebal Druzes, at least, would have become nominal Protestants. Of course the missionaries explained to them how inconsistent with the spirituality of our religion would be such a mere profession of Christianity. For a few Sabbaths, the Arab congregation was composed chiefly of Druzes; and Mr. Smith threw open his doors to them at the time of family prayers, and had the opportunity of reading and explaining the Gospel to from ten to fifteen for two months; but without finding evidence, with perhaps a single exception, of a sincere desire to know the truth.

That exception was in the case of a Druze named Kasim. Mr. Smith saw him first in October, 1835. Residing in the mountains, Kasim had two of his sons already baptized by the Maronites, and had openly professed himself to be no longer a Druze, but a Christian. He had not himself received baptism, for fear of his relatives, who had once gone in a body and beaten him. He now removed into the immediate neighborhood of the missionary, where he hoped for protection, and he and his family became regular attendants upon Christian worship. He professed a strong attachment to the Saviour, as did also his wife, and they both made evident progress in religious knowledge. Both openly declared themselves Protestants, and were anxious for baptism. The officer of the Emir Beshir, finding in his hands a testimonial from Mr. Smith, that he was a Christian, respected him in this character, while he was seizing all his Druze neighbors for soldiers; but he had not then been admitted to the church, for want of sufficient evidence of true conversion.

Kasim was at length apprehended by the governor of Beirût, beaten to make him confess that he was a Moslem, and cast into prison. Mr. Smith visited him, and urged him to make the profession he intended to abide by, that the mission might know what to do. In the presence of a dozen Moslems, he professed himself a Christian, and declared that he would die a Christian, if they burned him at the stake. The governor, on hearing this, ordered him to be thrust into the inner prison, and loaded with chains. Here his persecutors renewed their promises and threats, but his firmness remained unshaken, and they left him in prison. Such a confession had never been made in Beirût before, and it attracted much attention. The poor man in his dungeon, aware of the danger of his situation, spent much of his time in prayer, and was often heard by his fellow-prisoners, in the watches of the night, calling upon Jesus Christ to help him. He even sent directions to a friend respecting the disposal of a few effects, in case he should be martyred, thereby showing his expectation of persevering unto death.

As the best thing that could be done, the American Consul at Beirût, who took a deep interest in the case, addressed a letter to Soleiman Pasha, next in power to Ibrahim, who was then at Sidon on his way to Beirût. This was favorably received, and the Pasha expressed his wish that the family would send a petition to him, that he might be ready to judge the case when he should arrive at Beirût. This was accordingly done, and the requisite evidence was made ready. The poor man received his food daily from his missionary friend, with messages of cheer, and he never wavered.

On the arrival of the Pasha, the prisoner's wife immediately sought access to him, and this she did day after day; but the governor of Beirût threw every obstacle in her way. The Pasha wished to set him free, without seeming to yield to Frank dictation, or stirring up Moslem fanaticism. At length the governor, threatened by the agent of the European consuls with deposition, presented himself in person at the door of the prison, and told Kasim to go free.

Thus terminated, after an imprisonment of seventeen days, the first case of a converted Druze called to confess Jesus Christ before a Moslem tribunal. This was in the early part of the year 1836.

Kasim was kept by the mission two years on probation, but on the first Sabbath in 1838 he and his wife were admitted to the church, and were baptized, with their six children, receiving Christian names at their own request. Mr. Thomson took occasion to preach on the subject of baptism, explaining the true meaning and intention of the ordinance. The congregation was larger than usual, and there was more solemn attention than had ever been witnessed in the chapel. Much anxiety was felt for Kasim, but he was not molested. His brother and his brother's wife also made a very importunate request for baptism, and the mission not long after complied with it.

As these converts were not molested after their baptism, the Druzes resorted more and more to the mission for instruction. Mr. Thomson was invited to visit their villages, and open among them schools and places of worship. They applied for the admission of their sons to the seminary, and a young sheik was received, his friends paying the expense. Some of them corresponded with Mr. Thomson by letter, and some came to reside at Beirût. The Papists assailed them with promises, flatteries, and threats of vengeance from the Emir Beshir; but the Druzes declared they would never join the Church of Rome. While the mission was aware that in all this the Druzes were greatly influenced by political changes, past and expected, they could not avoid the hope that an increasing number were really desirous of knowing and obeying the truth. Indeed it was impossible to avoid this conclusion with the facts before them, some of which Mr. Thomson embodied thus in his journal:—

"August 13, 1838. This morning Kasim brought a leading Druze to see me. He is from Shweifat, and desires to become an English Christian. His conversation was very satisfactory, so far as sensible and even pious remarks are concerned. He makes the most solemn appeals to the Searcher of Hearts to bear witness to his sincerity; asks neither for protection, employment, or money; but says, that his only object is to secure the salvation of his soul. He asks for nothing but Christian instruction, which I of course was most happy to afford to the extent of my abilities. Alas! that long experience with people here, and especially with the Druzes, compels me to receive with hesitation their most solemn protestations.

"Sept. 5. M., the ruling sheik of A., came down from the mountains to request Christian instruction and baptism for himself and family. He is very earnest and rational, for a Druze, and thinks that nearly all his villages will unite with him. In a conversation, protracted to more than half a day, I endeavored to place before him, with all possible plainness, our views of what true religion is. He is not so ignorant on this subject as most Druzes, having been acquainted with us for many years, and frequently present at our Arabic worship.

"Sept. 6. Sheik S., from the heart of Lebanon, came to-day with the same request for Christian instruction, not only for himself, but for his father and four brothers, leading sheiks of the mountains. He asks not for protection, money, or temporal advantage in any way, but solely for religious instruction; and declares, with apparent sincerity, that his only desire is to secure the salvation of his soul. He says concerning their own superstition, that he knows it is utterly false and pernicious; and that, having for three years read the Bible, and compared the various sects with it, he is persuaded that they have forsaken the word of God, and imposed upon men many human inventions, designed not for the good of the people, but to augment the power and wealth of the priesthood. He mentioned with special abhorrence auricular confession, and forgiveness of sin by the priest; also, their long fasts, their prayers to saints, and their worship of images and pictures; showing that he was well acquainted with the leading differences between us and them; and proving, by his pertinent quotations from the Bible, that he had read it with attention and understanding.

"Sheik S. intends to remain several days for the purpose of receiving more instruction. He appears to have no fears of persecution, but to be resolved to persevere whatever may happen.

"Sept. 12. Went to B.'T., and spent the day in conversing with the large family of sheiks there. These sheiks govern, under the Emir, all this part of Lebanon. The greater part of them appear resolved to become Christians at all hazards. Alas! how little do they know of that religion, which they profess to be so anxious to embrace. The mother of the sheiks in A. is married to the most powerful sheik in B.'T., and she sent word to her children, encouraging them to become Christians, and approving also of their plan to place the youngest boys in our seminary.

"I had no time to converse with the common people in B.'T., but one of our Christian Druzes who accompanied me, spent the day with them, and tells me, that a great many of the villagers wished to join us. Here also the Papists are busy as bees, both with arguments and terrors. What the end will be, is known only to God."

Two days later, several sheiks camp down from the mountains, with an apparent determination to take houses, and receive religious instruction; declaring their wish not to return to the mountains until they had been both instructed and baptized. The same day, two Druzes came as agents from a large clan of their people residing in Anti-Lebanon, three days from Beirût, professing to treat in behalf of their whole community. In the evening, several leading Druzes came from Andara, the highest habitable part of Lebanon, professing to act in the name of their whole village, and earnestly requesting the mission to open schools, build a church, and baptize them all forthwith. The missionary preached to them till a late hour, and they promised to come again after a few days. They kept their promise, and stated that they had made arrangements with the people of several villages to unite together, and all declare themselves Christians at the same time; hoping that the Emir, when he saw so many of them of one mind, would not venture to execute the plans of cruel persecution, with which they were threatened. Mr. Thomson now found it necessary to call in the aid of Mr. Hebard and Mr. Lanneau.

The Emir Beshir, urged on by the Papal priests, now sent for the young Druze sheiks, and threatened them with the full measure of his wrath. This occasioned a division among them, some through fear siding with the Emir. The father of several young sheiks,—a venerable old man, with rank and talents to give him extensive influence,—being at Beirût, declared in oriental style his attachment to the Gospel, and his intended adherence to it.

The excitement among the Druzes continued, and visitors from all parts of Lebanon thronged the house of the missionary, till winter rendered communication with the mountains difficult.

Near the close of November, a number of Druzes, who had become Greek Papists, were seized by order of the Pasha, and cast into prison, whence five of them were drafted into the army. The rest were allowed to return to their homes. It was understood that the Pasha would not disturb the Protestant converts; but he had shown that he was not disposed to tolerate the conversion of the Druzes to Christianity. Kasim and his associates appeared resolved to go not only to prison, but to death, rather than deny Christ.

At the close of the year, the severity of the Emir, in connection with the snows of winter, greatly diminished the attendance of Druzes at the meetings. The knowledge, also, that they could not be baptized till they had given evidence of being truly converted, helped to repress the movement. Still, some of the more hopeful persons continued to show their interest in the Gospel.

Syria was now within the jurisdiction of Egypt, and hence the mission was not affected by the persecutions, for which the year 1839 was so distinguished in Turkey. But the missionary force was much reduced, Messrs. Bird, Smith, and Whiting being in the United States. The Rev. Elias R. Beadle and Charles S. Sherman arrived as missionaries, with their wives, in the autumn of that year; and Messrs. Samuel Wolcott, Nathaniel A. Keyes, and Leander Thompson, with their wives, and Dr. C. V. A. Van Dyck, in April 1840. They had the language to learn, and the press lay idle during the year, for want of a printer and funds. Mrs. Hebard died in February.

Yet there was progress. A large and convenient chapel had been obtained, where were held two stated Arabic services on the Sabbath; and on the evening of the Sabbath, the natives had a prayer meeting by themselves. In the free schools there were eighty scholars; the seminary for boys had twenty boarders; and the distribution of books and tracts continued. In this work a blind old man of the Greek Church named Aboo Yusoof was an efficient helper. Though stooping with age, he went about the country with a donkey loaded with books, and a little boy to lead him, doing what he could. In a district northeast of Tripoli, he was encouraged in his work by the approbation of the Greek bishop Zacharias.

The political and religious events then occurring were intimately connected. The conquest of Syria by Mohammed Ali, was the apparent cause of the religious movement among the Druzes already described. The defeat of the Sultan's army at Nisib, in 1839, and the feelings of jealousy towards France and Egypt, then intimately allied, led to the determination of England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria to restore Syria and the Turkish fleet to the Porte. The consequent armed intervention made Beirût the seat of war. An English fleet bombarded the city, and the English officers, by a singular miscalculation, treated the Papal Maronites as their friends, and the Druzes as their enemies. Missionary operations were suspended. Mr. Lanneau, whose eyes had failed him, left on a visit to the United States. Messrs. Beadle, Keyes, and Leander Thompson spent the summer and autumn at Jerusalem, and Dr. Van Dyck joined them there. Messrs. W. M. Thomson and Wolcott remained at Beirût until the bombardment, when Captain Latimer, of the United States corvette Cyane, who had come to Beirût to look after their welfare, kindly took them and their families to Cyprus.

In the presence of such mighty forces, the mission could only wait the course of events. The brethren, before leaving Beirût, had done all they could for the protection of their houses, furniture, the Arabic press, and the library and philosophical apparatus. They did this by hoisting over their houses the American flag and placing guards in them, and by an understanding with the admiral. The pupils in the boarding-school were sent to their friends. Mr. Wolcott visited Beirût during the contest, and found the Egyptian forces evacuating the town, and the British troops taking possession. He met the American consul there surveying the ruins of his house, which had been battered by the great guns and plundered by the pasha's soldiers; but the magazine beneath it, which contained most of the property of Messrs. Beadle and Keyes, had not been opened. Making his way through the ruins of the city to the mission houses, he saw the American flags still floating over them, and the guards on the ground. Soldiers had encamped in his garden, but had abstained from pillage. A few bombs had burst in the yard, and several cannon balls had penetrated the walls. The furniture, the library, the philosophical apparatus were uninjured. The native chapel in Mr. Thomson's house had been filled with goods, brought thither for safety by the natives, and these had not been molested. The field around Mr. Smith's house had been plowed by cannon balls, and he expected to find the new Arabic types converted into bullets, but not a type had been touched. Even the orange and lemon trees, within his inclosure, were bending with their load of fruit. All this was remarkable; and the goodness of Providence was gratefully acknowledged at the time, by the missionaries and by their patrons at home.

The persecuting Emir Beshir surrendered, and was sent to Malta, and a relative of the same name, but with small capacity for governing, was appointed Prince of the Mountains. The mission families returned from Cyprus before the end of the year, and the seminary was resumed; but those students who had been taught enough of English to make themselves intelligible as interpreters, had all been drawn away by the high wages which British officers paid for such services. The place of Tannûs, Arabic teacher in the seminary, who was sick, was supplied by Butrus el-Bistany, from the Maronite College at Ain Warka. He had written a treatise against the corruptions of Popery and the supremacy of the Pope, and the enraged Patriarch had tried to get him into his power, but without success.

The brethren all reassembled at Beirût early in the year 1841, and Mr. Beadle, with a native assistant, commenced a station at Aleppo, but it was not long continued. The press resumed its operations with the new type, under the management of Mr. George Hurter, a printer just arrived from America. The declining health of Mr. Hebard compelled him to suspend missionary labors, and he died at Malta, June 30, on his way to the United States, greatly and deservedly lamented. About the same time, Mr. Smith arrived at Beirût, on his return to Syria, with his wife. Four months later, Mrs. Wolcott was called away, after a distressing illness of three days, but in sure and certain hope of a blessed immortality.

The allied powers had settled the affairs of the East in a manner not agreeable to France, and that government seems to have sought redress through the Jesuits. In the first month of 1841, three French Jesuits arrived at Beirût, with an ample supply of money; and, at the same time, the Maronite Patriarch received large sums from France and Austria, ostensibly for the relief of sufferers in the late war, but never expended for such a purpose. The Maronites had been the chief movers in favor of the Sultan and the English, and the English agent in negotiating with them was a Roman Catholic. On account of their services in that war, the Maronites stood high in favor with the English officers and with the Turkish government; and the Patriarch received important additions to his power, till he thought himself strong enough to expel the American missionaries and crush the Druzes. The local authorities having no power to drive the missionaries away, he petitioned the Sultan to do this. The Sultan laid the subject before Commodore Porter, then American Minister at the Porte, who said he was not authorized by his government to protect men thus employed. This fact coming in some way to the knowledge of the Patriarch, he made proclamation through the mountains, that the American missionaries were denounced by their own government as troublesome, mischief-making proselyters, and would not be protected.1

1 This mistaken opinion of the Minister was made the subject of correspondence with the United States Government, and the favorable response by Mr. Webster, Secretary of State, is quoted in chapter xviii.

Meanwhile, the English officers had obtained a more correct understanding of the relations of parties in Lebanon; and they saw at once that it was for the interest of England that the Druzes should be encouraged to become Protestants. They therefore held consultations with the Druze sheiks, and the results were communicated to the British government. As a natural consequence, the Druze sheiks expected support from England, and some at least of the British officers were in favor of such support, should the Druzes put themselves under the instruction of the American missionaries. It is certain, at any rate, that the Druze sheiks confidently expected this. With such expectations, they made a definite agreement with the mission, that a school for the sons of the ruling class should be established at Deir el-Kamr, and other schools as fast as practicable in their villages, and that the missionaries should be welcomed as religious teachers among all their people.

A school was at once opened at Deir el-Kamr by Messrs. Wolcott and Van Dyck, and Mr. Thomson removed to 'Ain Anab to superintend the schools for the common people, of which there were three opened in the vicinity. Mr. Smith, on arriving at Beirût, was so much interested that he did not stop to open his house, but went up at once to Deir el-Kamr.

In this same month, the Rev. Mr. Gobat, a German in the service of the Church Missionary Society, arrived from Malta. He had long been known as a missionary in Egypt and Abyssinia, and was a personal friend of the older members of the mission. His object was to see if he could make arrangements by which evangelical missionaries of the English Church could advantageously share in the labors for converting the Druzes.

In September, despatches arrived from Lord Palmerston, which were reported to contain an order for taking the Druzes under British protection; and with them came from England the Rev. Mr. Nicholayson,—originally a Baptist, and at this time an Episcopalian and zealous high-churchman—with instructions, it was said, to assist in carrying out that arrangement. He did not agree with Mr. Gobat in respect to the treatment due to the American missionaries; and when the Druzes inquired of him what support they might expect from England, the answers they received led them to the conclusion, that England would not protect them unless they renounced the American missionaries, and put themselves under the exclusive instruction of clergymen from the English Church. This they were not ready to do. Mr. Gobat retired, in a spirit of catholicity. Neither did Mr. Nicholayson prosecute his mission, being disheartened, it may be, by the civil war which shortly arose between the Maronites and Druzes. His intervention was unfortunate, and I find it referred to, thirty years afterwards, by a venerable member of the mission, as a warning against similar intrusions.

The Patriarch now deemed himself strong enough to enter upon his project of crushing the Druzes. His power in the mountains being in the ascendant, he ordered the Druze sheiks to assemble at Deir el-Kamr. They came armed, and, as they approached Deir el-Kamr, were required to send away their followers and lay aside their arms. They refused. A battle ensued, and the Maronites were defeated. The Patriarch then proclaimed a crusade against them, ordered his bishops to take arms, and marched his forces towards the Druze territory. But the Druzes seized the mountain passes, and defeated every attempt to enter. Though greatly inferior in numbers, they went desperately to work to exterminate or expel every Maronite from their part of the mountains. Not a convent, and scarce a village or hamlet belonging to the Maronites, was left standing. They then descended and dispersed the main army of the Maronites; and were ready to march northward into Kesrawan, and attack the Patriarch in his stronghold, but were persuaded by British officers to suspend their march. The Turkish army, which might have prevented the conflict, now took the field, and separated the combatants.1

1 Tracy's History, pp. 417, 440. Report for 1842, pp. 117-124. Missionary Herald, 1842, pp. 196, 229, 362.

This was very properly regarded as a providential deliverance for the mission, which had never been threatened with so formidable an opposition as at the beginning of the year. It now entered into a correspondence with nearly all the principal Druze sheiks, who felt that they had, by their swords, won the right to schools. The prospects were at that time very hopeful. The country never seemed more open to evangelical labors. For a year there had been no opposition to the schools, except two or three among the Druzes. The press was in operation without censorship, sending forth thousands of copies each year, and there was an increasing demand for books. The mission bookstore, in the centre of the town, was visited by all classes, including very many high officers of government, and even by the Seraskier himself, and there was no complaint against it. No one had been persecuted for a long time for professing the religion of the Bible, and Protestantism seemed to have gained a tacit toleration.

In reply to the objection, that the mission had been long established, and yet the conversions had been very few, Mr. Smith wrote thus: "I ask, what labor? Has it, after all, been so disproportioned to the results? The instrumentality highest on the scale of efficiency for the conversion of souls in every country, is oral instruction, especially formal preaching. Now how much of this has there been in Syria? Before Mr. Bird could engage in it, Mr. Fisk was called away by death. I had hardly been preaching in Arabic a year, when Mr. Bird left for America. Mr. Thomson had but just preached his first sermon when my family was broken up, and I became a wanderer. Since then, we have both been here together but a few months at a time, until the last year. And these are all the Arabic preachers we have had at our station. In the mean time we have all been away, once for nearly two years at Malta, and again for a while at Cyprus. And when here, so many other cares have we had, that a single sermon on the Sabbath has been, for most of the time, all the formal preaching that has been done. Add to this a weekly prayermeeting for six or seven months in the year."

Again he says: "The labor of years has been accomplished in gaining experience, forming favorable acquaintances, doing away with prejudice, disseminating evangelical truth, the successful commencement of printing operations, etc. All this labor is in the language of a vast nation of Mohammedans, the sacred language of the whole sect, the language of their prophet. And when their power falls, it will be so much done towards their conversion. Instead of being alarmed and discouraged by the revolutions that are occurring around me, I am interested in them as forerunners of that great event."

The political changes have generally been very sudden in Syria. In April, 1842, Omar Pasha imprisoned the leading Druze sheiks, and Albanian soldiers were arriving daily, as if to disarm the Druzes. And so it proved. The Turks decided to take the matter into their own hands. An army was marched into Lebanon, accompanied by Moslem sheiks and teachers, and the whole Druze nation was compelled to appear, outwardly at least, as Moslem.1 The motives of the government in this were chiefly political, but partly religious. They wished to be able to draw recruits from this brave people for the army, which could not be done should they become Protestant Christians; and also, to retain a strong party in Lebanon, to be used, as they afterwards were used, against the large nominally Christian majority of its inhabitants. They expected thus to control the mountains, and keep down the influence of foreign Christian powers.

1 These statements are made on the authority of a document received from the mission in the year 1869.

In this manner were the operations for educating and Christianizing the Druzes suddenly arrested. In working out their policy, the Turks necessarily resorted to measures intended to place the Druzes in bitter antagonism to all the native Christians. In the atrocious massacre of 1860, which, for the time, threw the Druzes far from all Christian sympathy, that unfortunate people were used as tools by the Turks to work out their own policy. Events such as these, are among the deep mysteries of Providence. Nor is this mystery yet solved; though, from facts that will appear in the sequel, we shall see enough to authorize the hope of a renewal at some time, of the former pleasing relations between the Druzes and Christian missionaries.