all five hundred and ten
thousand pages. Under the superintendence of Mr. Perkins, Mr. Homan
Hallock cut and cast a new font of type, modeled on the best Syriac
manuscripts. This was in the year 1841. Three years later, Mr.
Breath, the printer at Oroomiah, with the help of a native
assistant, cut and prepared two sets of type after the most approved
forms of Syriac calligraphy. The natives pronounced these types
perfect. The two sets resembled each other, the only difference
being that in one the stroke was larger and the letter more open.
Mr. Breath afterwards prepared a third set, of a medium size
compared with the other two.

While the plain of Oroomiah is perhaps one of the most fertile and
beautiful in the world, its luxuriant vegetation occasions fevers at
certain seasons, and ophthalmia is prevalent. To escape fevers, the
missionaries built dormitories on the tops of their flat-roofed
houses. This preventive not being found sufficient, a health-station
was formed in the elevated village of Seir, about six miles from
Oroomiah, where dwellings were provided for two families, which were
surrounded by a strong stone wall, to serve as a defense against any
sudden incursion of the Koords.

Mr. and Mrs. Perkins and Mar Yohannan embarked at Boston on their
return in March, 1843. They were accompanied by the Rev. David T.
Stoddard and wife, and by Misses Catherine E. Myers and Fidelia
Fiske, who went to promote the education of their own sex among the
Nestorians. They reached Oroomiah on the 14th of June, and were
received by the Nestorians with great manifestations of joy. Mr.
Perkins, while at home, prepared for the press an octavo volume of
five hundred pages, entitled "A Residence of Eight Years among the
Nestorian Christians." It is in the form of a journal, is
illustrated by a map and plates, and is a history of the mission
during that time.

The ancient Syriac version of the Scriptures was held in such
veneration by the people, that there were strong reasons for making
it the basis of the proposed version in the modern language. The
case was referred to the Prudential Committee, who decided that the
only proper course was to translate from the original Hebrew and
Greek, and the translation was made accordingly.

The female seminary at Oroomiah now came under the efficient
superintendence of Miss Fiske, and soon assumed a very interesting
religious character. The whole number under instruction in the two
sem