"I am too old," he said, "to
think for a moment of learning a new language, and no opening
invites me here in any language I can command." After a farewell
visit to his brethren in Constantinople, he set his face homeward,
and arrived in Boston in the summer of 1844. He was usefully
employed as an agent of the Board, or in the pastoral relation,
until his health broke down. In January, 1851, through the kindness
of a friend, he made a voyage to Chagres, and another to Liverpool.
But he returned from the last of these voyages enfeebled by the
roughness of the passage; and his strength gradually declined, until
the 9th of August, 1851, seven years after his return to America,
when he died at Reading, Massachusetts, his native place, in the
sixty-second year of his age. It may be truly said, that few men
have borne more distinctively than he, the impress of the Saviour's
image.1

1 See _Life and Letters of Rev. Daniel Temple_, for twenty-three
years a Missionary in Western Asia. By his son, Rev. Daniel H.
Temple, Boston, 1855.

A daughter of Dr. Hawes accompanied him on his voyage to Smyrna as
the wife of Mr. Van Lennep, but was permitted only to enter upon the
work to which she had devoted herself in Asia. She died at
Constantinople of fever, within less than a year from the time of
her embarkation. The health of Mrs. Benjamin was such as to oblige
her and her husband to return home. A similar cause occasioned also
the return of Mr. and Mrs. Jackson.

CHAPTER X.

GREECE AND THE GREEKS.

1824-1844.

When the missions to the Oriental Churches were commenced, Greece
was suffering under the oppression of the Turks, and the people were
glad of sympathy from any quarter. In the department of education,
they seemed even to welcome Protestant missionaries. They compared
favorably with the Roman Catholics, in their reception of the
Scriptures, and in the matter of religious toleration. But an
unfavorable change came over them after they had achieved their
national independence.

Mr. Gridley was the first missionary to labor among the Greeks of
Turkey, though he was not sent with special reference to them. He
arrived at Smyrna in December, 1826. After acquiring the modern
Greek, he visited Cesarea, four hundred miles to the eastward,
hoping for better advantages in acquiring the Greco-Turkish
language, and also to learn the condition of the Greeks in the
interior. He was accompanied by Abraham, his teacher,