thanasius wrote a letter to Dr. Grant from Malabar, but with a date
nearly a year subsequent to Dr. Grant's death, in which he stated,
that his people had welcomed him with great joy, and gladly received
the Word of God.1

1 _Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians_, p. 219.

Dr. Grant crossed the plain of Arbela, where Alexander conquered
Persia, and in ten days arrived at Oroomiah. Being impatient to get
into the mountains, the mission assembled immediately, and delegated
Mr. Stocking to accompany him. Dr. Wright said of him, at this time,
that "his spirits were buoyant, his step elastic, and his energy
untiring." Two Nestorians went with them, and they had letters from
the governor and some Persian nobles to the Persian Khan and the
Emir of the Hakary Koords. At Khosrawa, Mr. Stocking was constrained
by sickness to return; and both the native assistants were so
alarmed by the warlike aspect of things, that they declined going
farther. The now solitary traveller succeeded, at the last moment,
in getting the brave bishop Mar Yusuf to be his companion.

The Emir had now broken his treaty with the Sultan, formed two years
before in the hope of immediate aid to subdue the Nestorians; and
had sworn perpetual allegiance to the Shah, who promised him support
against the Sultan. Dr. Grant found Yahya Khan and the Emir at the
castle of Charreh, on the summit of an isolated rock near the river
of the same name. The tents of more than a dozen chiefs dotted the
green banks of the stream. Nurullah Bey still professed to regard
Dr. Grant as his physician and friend, and in the presence of the
Khan promised to protect him and his associates, and permit them to
erect buildings in Tiary for themselves and their schools.

The Khan, to whose friendly agency with the Emir Dr. Grant was
specially indebted, had a good reputation for integrity. He was a
Persian subject, then governor of Salmas, and also chief of a branch
of the Hakary tribe. He had married a sister of the Emir, and given
him one of his own in return, and another was in the harem of the
Shah. He assured his missionary guest of the Emir's personal
friendship, and interested himself for his future safety.

After sundry adventures among precipitous mountains and savage
Koords, Dr. Grant was once more the guest of Mar Shimon, who kindly
received the New Testament, the Psalms, and other books from the
mission press. The Doctor was himself suffering from the effects of
exposur