ose of the year, the severity of the Emir, in connection
with the snows of winter, greatly diminished the attendance of
Druzes at the meetings. The knowledge, also, that they could not be
baptized till they had given evidence of being truly converted,
helped to repress the movement. Still, some of the more hopeful
persons continued to show their interest in the Gospel.

Syria was now within the jurisdiction of Egypt, and hence the
mission was not affected by the persecutions, for which the year
1839 was so distinguished in Turkey. But the missionary force was
much reduced, Messrs. Bird, Smith, and Whiting being in the United
States. The Rev. Elias R. Beadle and Charles S. Sherman arrived as
missionaries, with their wives, in the autumn of that year; and
Messrs. Samuel Wolcott, Nathaniel A. Keyes, and Leander Thompson,
with their wives, and Dr. C. V. A. Van Dyck, in April 1840. They had
the language to learn, and the press lay idle during the year, for
want of a printer and funds. Mrs. Hebard died in February.

Yet there was progress. A large and convenient chapel had been
obtained, where were held two stated Arabic services on the Sabbath;
and on the evening of the Sabbath, the natives had a prayer meeting
by themselves. In the free schools there were eighty scholars; the
seminary for boys had twenty boarders; and the distribution of books
and tracts continued. In this work a blind old man of the Greek
Church named Aboo Yusoof was an efficient helper. Though stooping
with age, he went about the country with a donkey loaded with books,
and a little boy to lead him, doing what he could. In a district
northeast of Tripoli, he was encouraged in his work by the
approbation of the Greek bishop Zacharias.

The political and religious events then occurring were intimately
connected. The conquest of Syria by Mohammed Ali, was the apparent
cause of the religious movement among the Druzes already described.
The defeat of the Sultan's army at Nisib, in 1839, and the feelings
of jealousy towards France and Egypt, then intimately allied, led to
the determination of England, Russia, Prussia, and Austria to
restore Syria and the Turkish fleet to the Porte. The consequent
armed intervention made Beirut the seat of war. An English fleet
bombarded the city, and the English officers, by a singular
miscalculation, treated the Papal Maronites as their friends, and
the Druzes as their enemies. Missionary operations were suspended.
Mr. Lan