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of the seminary often awakens the hope that the Holy Spirit is near them. They have already acquired much knowledge of the Scriptures. Priest Dunka, one of the native helpers of the mission, is especially conversant with the holy oracles, if he be not even experimentally acquainted with them. He shews a commendable zeal in enlightening his people, who reside among the Koords in the neighboring mountains. He spent three months with them in the summer of last year, and says that he was much of the time employed in preaching the gospel, and that the people, to use his own words, were as eager in listening as people dying for thirst are for cold water.' Two priests of his acquaintance, who were unable to understand the ancient Syriac, in which their church service is connected, had resolved to accompany him to Ooroomiah and enter the seminary; but their Koordish chief demanded so large a present before he would consent to their going, that they were hindered. The native assistants of the mission are four bishops, that is, all the bishops in the province of Ooroomiah,— and three priests. They are all of course preachers, and have considerable knowledge of the word of God.

Small as is the amount of education yet introduced among the Nestorians, it is encouraging to compare it with what existed among them a few years since. Mr. Perkins says,—

"Mar Joseph, a bishop who resides with us, remarked that thirty years ago, when he was learning to read, there were only two persons in this whole province who could teach their ancient language; and that their acquisitions were inferior to those of most of the boys in our schools. Of his own accord he contrasted their religious privileges of that period with those of the present, and said that the times had greatly changed for the better. He stated that an aged priest, a mountaineer, came down upon the plain several years ago, and excited some desire to learn to read, and taught a few individuals. 'And for what you (our mission) have done and are now doing,' continued the bishop, 'may God give you the kingdom of heaven.'"

The mission has established and supported twelve free schools, in as many Nestorian villages, in which are 271 male and 22 female pupils; besides a Sabbath-school of fifty scholars at Geog Tapa. It has also opened a school at Ooroomiah for Mussulman boys, which was commenced under very good auspices, and contained six very fine boys. "We have felt constrained," say the mission, "to commence this school, to requite, in some measure, the Mussulmans, particularly the Persian authorities, for their protection and kindness, to keep them from becoming uneasy and jealous on account of our instructing their Nestorian subjects, and because we regard the undertaking itself as very promising missionary work. To give English instruction to this Mussulman school, and to assist in teaching English in the higher classes in our seminary, the mission now employs Robert Glen, a son of the

Rev. William Glen, of Tabreez. He is about eighteen years of age, a hopefully pious young man, and very well qualified for giving instruction."

There are seventeen pupils in the female boarding-school, and fifty-five in the seminary for males; so that the whole number of Nestorians under instruction in the boarding and free schools, is 365, at a cost of somewhat more than a thousand dollars. The seminary is taught by a priest and a deacon, under the supervision of Mr. Stocking. The principal vacation is in summer, that the teachers and pupils may escape the effects of too much confinement in hot weather.

Sometime last year, the missionaries to the Nestorians, in common with their brethren elsewhere, were informed that the receipts of the Board were falling far short of the expenditures, and that they must not be surprised should they soon receive instructions to diminish the expenses of the mission, whatever restrictions it might require in the several departments of labor. The following remarks show how disastrous the missionaries would deem such a measure to be.

"We sincerely regret the pecuniary embarrassments in America, and the consequent distress which they bring upon you, and other benevolent societies. A diminution of our resources would at this time prove far more disastrous to our mission, than at any former period. Papal emissaries are coming in like a flood to make havoc of the Nestorians; and every school we might be compelled to disband, and (we had almost said) every village we should be obliged to leave without such a safe-guard, would be in imminent danger of becoming the prey of these agents of evil, who are going about here seeking whom they may devour. We pray you, entreat the churches not to allow our hands to be weakened, and our hearts discouraged, by a failure of pecuniary means at such a juncture as this."

The last letters received from Ooroomiah represent Mrs. Perkins's health as in a precarious state.

INDEPENDENT NESTORIANS.

It has from the first been the expectation and intention of the Committee to extend the mission among the independent tribes of the Koordish mountains, as soon as Providence should please to render this practicable. So far as the Nestorians are concerned, no difficulty was apprehended. The patriarch near Julamerk had repeatedly, and with apparent sincerity, invited our brethren to come among his people. The difficulty lay among the Koords, inhabiting the mountain ridges between the plain of Ooroomiah and the villages of the independent tribes of Nestorians. It was these Koords who murdered the German traveller, Mr. Shultz,

the only European who had ventured into these mountains; and the exposure of life was deemed by the mission and by the Committee to be too great to warrant the members of the mission in entering them from the Persian or eastern side. Accordingly no entrance was made or attempted from that quarter. Various circumstances at length conspired to raise the inquiry in the minds of the Committee whether a station should not be formed among the Nestorians of Mesopotamia, (for it was erroneously supposed that there were Nestorians on the western side of the mountains,) and whether an entrance into the mountains might not be formed in that quarter. Until the failure of Doct. Grant's health, however, at Ooroomiah, on account of the want of adaptation in his constition to the climate, it did not seem as if any one residing at Ooroomiah and acquainted with the Nestorian language could leave that station for the purpose of commencing a new station elsewhere. It being the opinion of the mission that he could not reside there, the providential indications were clear. The Committee at once instructed him to proceed to Mesopotamia, and request Mr. Homes, of the mission in Turkey, to become his temporary associate, until some one could be sent from the United States; intending also to procure a physician as soon as possible, to take Doct. Grant's place at Ooroomiah. Mr. Jones was originally appointed with a view to Mesopotamia, but the death of Mrs. Grant, and some farther information rendering it doubtful whether Nestorians were to be found west of the mountains, with other considerations, led to his being sent direct to Ooroomiah, as has been related.

The last Report left Doct. Grant at Constantinople, preparing to commence his tour into Mesopotamia, with the expectation that Mr. Homes would join him at Diarbekir, as soon as the circumstances of the mission at Constantinople would permit. He left the metropolis May 2d, for Trebizond and Erzeroom, and reached Diarbekir on the 30th of the same month. Taking the most direct route from Erzeroom he passed through a country of the independent Koords, and over some lofty, snow-clad and difficult mountain ridges. Mr. Homes's departure from Constantinople was on the day Doct. Grant entered Diarbekir, and he went also by way of Trebizond and Erzeroom; but, owing to the disturbed state of the Koords in consequence of the commencement of war between the sultan and the pasha of Egypt, he took a more circuitous route from Erzeroom to Diarbekir,-following the course of the Euphrates downwards as far as Malatieh. This, besides being at that time more safe, took him through a very interesting portion of the country, over which no missionaries and but few modern travellers had gone before him. He was twenty-one days on the road, reaching Diarbekir on the 3d of July, where he had the happiness to meet his associate in the enterprise, that had now become one of considerable perplexity and danger.

The country was in a state of anarchy, in consequence of the defeat of the Turkish army near Aleppo. On the 10th of July, the two brethren proceeded, with an escort, to Mardin, where the patriarch of the Jacobite Syrians resides. Here, during a popular tumult, their lives were in the greatest danger, and in fact were saved only by one of those remarkable providential interpositions which they are most likely to experience, who, from love to Christ, count not their lives dear that they may advance his cause. The attempts at reform by the sultan, and especially his introduction of European tactics into his army, are attributed by his subjects to European influence, and have given rise to prejudice and hatred towards the whole Frank race. It seems too that the ignorant people suppose the christian nations of the west to be desirous of obtaining possession of their country, and that travellers from those nations take note of old christian churches that have been converted into mosques, etc. etc., with reference to such a conquest. On the 6th of September, the Koords of the city, after murdering the ex-governor and several other chief men, who had aided the Turks in bringing the new tactics and the conscription upon them, rushed with their bloody weapons to the lodgings of the two missionaries, and demanded those who had been "writing their mosques." Providentially, they were not there. That morning they had gone out of the city, and farther than usual, in a vain. search for a caravan; and before their return, the Koords had shut the gates, to prevent the introduction of soldiers by the government. This saved the lives of our brethren. Finding that all was not right, they fled to the Syrian convent, a few miles distant, which their enemies did not dare to attack. In view of all circumstances, it was thought best for the brethren to separate. Mr. Homes escaped to Diarbekir in disguise, and from thence he returned to Constantinople by way of Samsoon, and reached that city on the 20th of October. Doct. Grant proceeded to Mosul, about two hundred miles distant, on the Tigris, about seventy of which is across an uninhabited desert. He arrived September 20th. Here he found the country under a more rigorous government, and therefore more quiet and safe. He now resolved to accomplish, if possible, his long-desired visit to the independent Nestorians. On the 7th of October, he crossed the ruins of Nineveh, and next day entered the mountains of central Koordistan. He went by way of Amadieh. So exceedingly broken with steep mountains did he find the grand asylum of the Nestorian christians, whom he compares with the Waldenses of the Alps, that he was obliged to travel for three days on foot, the roads being impracticable even for the hardy mules trained among the mountains. Doct. Grant received every where a cordial welcome, and for more than a month was the guest of Mar Shimon, the patriarch of the Nestorians, residing near Jula

merk. He estimates the christian population of the mountains at a hundred thousand; but it is obvious he could have no certain means of making the estimate. Some of their villages are large. How inviting and important he regards the field, will appear by extracting some portion of a letter he wrote on his safe return to Ooroomiah, through the savage Koords inhabiting the eastern ridges of the mountains.

"There is a great preparatory work to be done, and it must be done without delay. We must not shrink back in view of difficulties and dangers. If the Nestorian missionaries 'pursued without fear the footsteps of the roving Tartar,' we must without fear enter their mountain fastnesses, pour the light of life around their pathway, arouse and direct their dormant or perverted energies, and under the Captain of our Salvation lead them forth to conquest and to victory.

"No effort must be spared, no time should be lost. Men of giant-like faith and energy must give themselves to the work. Every thing combines to render this field one of the most important and interesting that we can possibly conceive of. The early history of the people, their relative geographical position, their present character and eagerness for instruction, their adherence to the word of God as the rule of their faith and practice, and the portentous signs of the times in these lands indicate some momentous crisis, in which a host of faithful soldiers of the cross should bind on their armor and prepare for the approaching conflict. Motives the most weighty and encouragements the most cheering urge us onward.

"The way, I have said, is already open. The distance from Mosul to Tearey is about the same as from this place to the residence of the patriarch. Both roads are travelled by caravans in five or six days. In entering from the other side the protection of the Turkish government is now available. From Salmas is a regular weekly caravan to Julamerk; and with the friendly acquaintance I have formed with the Koordish chiefs, I should have no fear in entering from this side, when the country is quiet.

“I will not ask others to meet privations or dangers of which I would not cheerfully partake. Admit that in such a field privations must necessarily be very great; and that life cannot with absolute certainty be insured—are there no blood-bought disciples of the Savior who will count it a privilege to suffer for his sake? I trust there are many such; certainly no others should come to such a field as this. We want the choicest sons of the church for this work. The patriarch and the clergy are to be guided and instructed. Ministers and teachers in great numbers must be raised up. A hundred thousand Nestorians must be fed with the bread of life. Five or six district stations could be at once advantageously formed among the different mountain tribes; while an outpost is very desirable if not indispensable at Mosul. Two stations, at the least, are imperiously demanded as an incipient effort in the mountains, and I repeat, the work must not be deferred.

"I cannot now give you all the reasons for my urgency in this matter. Some of them are found in the motives I have presented. I will add one or two more, and then leave the subject till a future opportunity.

"You are aware that the patriarch, on our first arrival in this country, repeatedly invited us to visit him and his people in the mountains, offering his co-operation in the journey. In our long delay to accept his invitation he had begun to feel himself neglected and would have become alienated from us, had he not been conciliated by my timely visit and the interest I manifested in him and his people. As the head of the Nestorian church, he justly feels that attention is due him; and now that the way is open, he will be satisfied with nothing less than an efficient system of operations in that region, corres