Volume II Part 5 (1/2)
The Rev. Dwight W. Marsh arrived at Mosul on the 20th of March, 1850, going by way of Beirt, Aleppo, Aintab, Oorfa, and Diarbekir; from this last place he floated down the Tigris on a raft supported by inflated goat-skins, in less than four days to his new home. He describes the river as breaking through between bold precipices, and scenery delightfully and unexpectedly romantic. Mr. Schneider was his travelling companion from Aintab to Diarbekir, and Mr. Ford was at Mosul to greet him on his arrival. The Rev. William Frederic Williams removed from the Syria Mission to Mosul in the spring of 1851, going in company with Dr. Bacon and his son Mr. Leonard W.
Bacon, then travelling in the East. Salome Carabet, the eldest of the girls in Mr. Whiting's family at Abeih, went with Mr. Williams, to take charge of a school of thirty girls.
Dr. Bacon's visit to Mosul was in compliance with a request of the Prudential Committee, that he would make his tour of relaxation and improvement the occasion of visiting the several stations of the Board in Western Asia. The attempt to proceed from Mosul to Oroomiah through the mountains by the most direct route, was unsuccessful.
The two travellers, in company with Mr. Marsh, soon after crossing the Zab, were set upon by Koordish robbers, who had been requested by an Agha, near Akra, to kill them. So imminent was the peril, that they united together in prayer to G.o.d, led by Dr. Bacon. Some Moolahs seeing this, interceded for their lives, and though they could not hinder their being plundered, they succeeded in sending them safely to another Moolah, three hours distant, who was revered for his sanct.i.ty; and it was through his resolute protection, under G.o.d, that they effected a safe return to Mosul. Mr. Ra.s.sam gave information of the outrage to the English Amba.s.sador, and the Pasha, in the following year, having received orders from Constantinople, sent three hundred men, with three cannon, against the robber, who was compelled to pay the full value of the losses, and much more besides to the government.[1]
[1] _Missionary Herald_, for 1851, p. 295, and 1852, p. 388.
The a.s.syria Mission was so named for geographical reasons. Its most northern station at this time, was Diarbekir. Dr. Grant pa.s.sed through this city with Mr. Homes, in 1839, Messrs. Hinsdale and Mitch.e.l.l pa.s.sed through it in 1841, and Mr. Laurie in 1842. The city was visited by Mr. Peabody in 1849, when he found several persons awakened by reading the Scriptures and other books, brought there by colporters. It was visited again by Mr. Schneider in the following year, who reported that nearly fifty Armenians were accustomed to meet on the Sabbath for reading the Scriptures. These were then subjected to a severe persecution, and they sent to Constantinople for a vizierial letter, which was granted, but brought little relief. Dr. Azariah Smith organized a small church at Diarbekir in the spring of 1851. It included both Armenians and Jacobites; but only those were to be received who gave satisfactory evidence of piety. As soon as this restriction was announced, the most influential Syrians in the congregation resolutely set themselves to secure admission to the church for all Protestants of good moral character. For a time their efforts to unite the congregation in opposition prevented attention to their ordinary business; and but for the conservative spirit of the Armenian portion, perhaps the audience, as a whole, would have gone back to their churches. In the end all were persuaded to listen to a discourse on the subject, by Dr. Smith, and the character of the young ruler, in Luke xviii.
18-30, was unfolded in connection with Acts ii. 43-47. The exhibition of a church, as an a.s.sociation of men devoted, body and soul, time and wealth, to the extension of Christ's kingdom, was new to them. That repentance involved the ceasing to live for selfish and worldly ends, and that faith in Christ included the consecration of our energies to his service, was no part of their old creed. And though these truths had been previously preached by the missionaries, the practical connection in which they now came up made them more impressive.
Mr. and Mrs. Dunmore, after spending some months at Aintab, arrived at Diarbekir in November, 1851. They were accompanied by Stepan, a graduate of the seminary at Bebek. This man, not long after his arrival, was rudely arrested by a Turkish officer as a Protestant, and cast into a prison, where he spent the night with vagabonds and thieves. The Pasha refused Mr. Dunmore a hearing, but at once ordered Stepan's release.
Mr. Dunmore had not yet a free use of the Turkish, which was the language spoken by the Armenians; but an average of more than seventy persons came on the Sabbath to hear Stepan, and new faces were seen at every meeting.
Soon after the arrival of Mr. Dunmore, a young man of talents, named Tomas, who had long been vacillating, boldly declared himself a Protestant, and though his bishop offered him the monthly reward of two hundred piastres for two years, paid in advance, if he would leave the Protestants, his reply was: ”Go tell the bishop that I did not become a Protestant for money, and that I will not leave them for money, even should he give me my house full of gold.” Tomas was then nineteen years of age, and had an orphan brother and two sisters dependent on him. He had been a prosperous silk manufacturer, but after he became a Protestant, both nominal Christians and Moslems refused to trade with him, and he was impoverished. It was decided to send him to the Bebek Seminary, with his younger brother; and to send his older sister to the Female Seminary at the same place; while Mr. and Mrs. Dunmore took the youngest, a bright little girl of six years. In this young man we have the future native pastor of the church in that city.
The persecutions inflicted on the Protestants at Diarbekir were similar to those described elsewhere. But not only were the native converts, in this remote city, oppressed in every possible way, but the missionary reports himself as being grossly insulted, and even stoned in the streets whenever he went abroad.
About this time Mr. Marsh performed a missionary tour to Mardin, through Jebel Tour, a branch of the great Krdish range of mountains which crosses the Tigris above Jezirah, and goes westward toward the Euphrates. These rugged, though not lofty mountains, cover fourteen hundred square miles, and form the stronghold of the Jacobites.
Their ecclesiastical capital is Mardin. ”High up the mountain's side,” writes Mr. Marsh, ”with a steep descent of six or seven hundred feet to the plains, the city wall mounts up still higher, three hundred feet or more; and a large castle on the mountain top crowns the view.” Here he found several persons favorably inclined, and recommended the place for a missionary station.
The Rev. Henry Lobdell, M. D., and wife, reached Mosul in May 1852.
They came through Aintab, Oorfa, and Diarbekir. Such was the desire of the people of Aintab for a missionary physician to take the place of Dr. Smith, that four hundred and twenty of them signed a pet.i.tion in a single evening, requesting him to remain; but he felt constrained to give them a negative. He speaks with pleasure of his brief sojourn at Oorfa, which he describes as beautifully situated on the west side of a fertile plain, and retaining many marks of its ancient greatness.
In the ten days which Dr. Lobdell spent with Mr. Dunmore at Diarbekir, he was impressed by the hold the reformation was taking in that place. At the same time, he and his missionary brother had a startling ill.u.s.tration of its hostility to the Gospel. They were looking at the great mosque of the city, formerly a Christian church, and in the words of Mr. Dunmore, ”As we were standing in front of it, in the public highway, examining its architecture, several lads came up and began to insult us and to order us away. We did not notice them, but went further from the mosque, and stopped to examine some old marble pillars. Soon, however, we found a rabble about us, who began to jerk our garments. I then turned and spoke to them, and they instantly rushed upon us like tigers. They seized Dr.
Lobdell's hat, threw it into the air, and began to beat him. One ruffian seized me by the throat. By main strength I loosed his grasp, and was moving off, when two men tried to wrest my cane from me, but did not succeed. We retreated as last as possible, but when we got out of the reach of their hands, they resorted to throwing stones, some of them weighing two or three pounds. One hit Dr.
Lobdell in the side, and we saw no alternative but to run for our lives. We went immediately to the Pasha, taking one of the largest stones with us, and made a statement of the facts in the presence of the council. He refused to do anything more than to send a man to inquire who was in fault, the ruffians, or we! He said he knew nothing about us.”
In a tent supported by a raft of one hundred and twenty inflated goat-skins, Dr. and Mrs. Lobdell floated down the Tigris to Mosul.
”The Arabs, who swam out upon their goat-skins, and the Krds armed to the teeth upon the sh.o.r.e, were alike unable to touch us, as the river was unusually high and swift. I do not remember having enjoyed four successive days so much. The scenery is grand, equaling that of the far-famed Hudson. It might not wear as well, but it is unique and wonderful.” Mr. and Mrs. Williams were there to welcome them.
Mr. Marsh was absent on a visit to his native land, from whence he returned with his wife in May, 1853. He was accompanied as far as Aintab by Rev. Augustus Walker and wife, and from thence to Diarbekir, by Messrs. Schneider and Walker. Mr. Dunmore's congregation had then risen to nearly two hundred hearers.
Mr. Marsh was especially struck, on returning to Mosul, with the greatly improved singing of the congregation, which he thought was now better there than at Diarbekir, Aintab, Constantinople, or Beirt. This was due to the unwearied pains taken by Mr. Williams, though the people seemed to have a better ear for music than elsewhere in Western Asia.
Dr. Lobdell found his medical profession a great a.s.sistance to him as a preacher of the Gospel. Jacobites, Papists, and Moslems came in considerable numbers, and he preached the Gospel alike to all. He was overworked, and it was perhaps a favor to him that the judge was stirred up by Popish priests, as the Moslems affirmed, to forbid the Mohammedans coming to his preaching. The judge was willing that they should call upon him for medical aid, if he would not preach the Gospel to them; but the doctor declined administering to the body, unless he could, at the same time, explain to them ”the words of Jesus” (which all Moslems professed to receive) for the benefit of their souls.
Salome Carabet returned to Syria, very much in the manner of Rebecca of old, to become the wife of the young pastor at Hasbeiya; and the female school was thus deprived of its teacher.
A visit by Dr. Lobdell to the Yezidees in October, 1852, developed interesting and valuable information. Their doctrines he regarded as a strange fusion of Mohammedanism and Christianity with the philosophy of the older Persians.[1]
[1] See _Memoir of Dr. Lobdell_, pp. 213-227; also _Missionary Herald_ for 1853, pp. 109-111.
In June, 1853, Dr. Lobdell travelled through Koordistan to Oroomiah.
One of his objects was the improvement of his health; but he greatly desired, also, to confer with the brethren of the Nestorian Mission, and to preach the Gospel in the regions between. He took with him a native, who not only spoke the Syriac and Arabic, but the Turkish and Koordish.[1] ”He came to us,” wrote Dr. Perkins, ”for the benefit of his impaired health. Yet was he buoyant as a lark, being overjoyed to find himself in our happy circle, after his perilous journey across the mountains.” Two days after his arrival he was seized with a fever which proved severe and obstinate. But he recovered, and was able to give much thought to the somewhat peculiar method of proceeding in that mission; in which no separate Protestant community had been formed, and no church organized; though the missionaries had the communion by themselves, to which they invited only those whom they believed to be truly regenerated.
His preconceived opinions had been somewhat adverse to the plan, and he and his brethren at Mosul had adopted other methods. But he wrote to the Secretaries of the Board his approval of the main policy of his brethren in Persia, as justified by their peculiar circ.u.mstances, and ratified by the blessing of Heaven. He specified some things in which he thought more decided measures might be taken; but advised that the mission be left to follow the leadings of Providence, until a crisis should come in the Nestorian Church, and then to act as they should deem wise at the time.
[1] _Missionary Herald_, 1854, pp. 18-22.