ting a small school of
girls, of which she was the first teacher. When too sick to leave
her chamber, she had the pupils assemble there. This was the
beginning of the Female Seminary, which afterwards became so noted
under Miss Fiske. It was commenced March 12, 1838, with four pupils,
but the number soon increased, and Mrs. Perkins rendered valuable
aid. Mrs. Grant readily learned to speak the Turkish, and to read
the ancient Syriac. The modern Syriac she was able both to read and
write, and the French she could speak before leaving home. But,
cultured and refined as she was, she declared the time spent in the
mission field among that rude people, to have been the happiest part
of her life. The aid she rendered her husband in his medical
practice, added not a little to her usefulness. She had great
aptness and skill in the sick chamber, and like her divine Master
went about doing good; yet without neglecting her household affairs.
Her death occurred on the 14th of January, 1839, at the age of
twenty-five. She was greatly lamented by the Nestorians. The bishops
said to the afflicted husband, "We will bury her in the church,
where none but holy men are buried;" and her death produced a
subdued and tender spirit throughout the large circle of her
acquaintance. This better state of feeling continued through the
year, especially in the seminary.

Priest Dunka, from one of the independent tribes, gave indications
of piety. He had learned the alphabet in his childhood, while
tending his father's flocks on the mountains, and became a reader
without farther instruction. At Oroomiah he was now both a learner
and helper. Three months of the summer he spent among his native
mountains, preaching the Gospel in the villages around his home.
Little of the truth had been heard there for ages, except in the
unknown language of the liturgy, but the people were eager to
listen.

In September, Robert Glen, son of the Rev. William Glen of Tabriz, was
hopefully converted while at Oroomiah on a visit. He was born at
Astrakhan, where his father labored seventeen years as a missionary,
and was now employed as a teacher in a small school of Moslem young
men. The mission at this time had twelve schools in as many villages,
containing two hundred and seventy-two males, with twenty-two females;
and seventeen pupils in the female boarding-school, and fifty-five in
the seminary, which was taught by a priest and deacon, under the
supervision of Mr.