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 po