ission to proselyte in the sense contemplated by the
law. The French envoy then demanded an investigation, and to this
the Ambassador and the Persian government readily assented. Two
Mohammedan meerzas were sent from Tabriz to Oroomiah to make the
investigation. These fell under the papal influence at Oroomiah, and
made a report so strongly prejudiced against the mission, that it
was thought necessary to send a committee to the capital to
counteract their misrepresentations. Messrs. Perkins and Stocking
were sent accordingly. Riding rapidly on horseback, many hundred
miles, over cold regions just as winter was setting in, and sleeping
on the ground at night without beds, with other similar discomforts,
seemed to them not the least trial of this undertaking. On their
arrival at Teheran, the importance of their errand was very obvious.
They found the report of the meerzas bearing manifest traces of
Jesuit influence. It made but few tangible charges, yet contained
many serious and unjust insinuations. They were able to meet it with
satisfactory explanations, and thus the storm passed by, without
inflicting the injury which the mission feared. I am not aware that
the "permanent order" against proselyting ever proved any serious
embarrassment to the mission. The banishment of the Jesuits had not
been requested by the Nestorians, nor by the missionaries. The
Russian Ambassador assumed the whole responsibility, saying that the
business was his own, that he was authorized to protect the
Christians in Persia, which could not be done while these papal
disturbers remained in the country. An attempt by the Jesuits to
wrest from the Nestorians one of their ancient and favorite
churches, appears to have been the immediate cause of the decisive
measures last mentioned. Of course these papal emissaries returned
again, but with a somewhat diminished arrogance.1

1 Manuscript letter from Rev. Justin Perkins, D. D., dated Oroomiah,
Persia, March 28, 1844.

There were also embarrassments of a serious nature within the
Nestorian community. In the subjugation of the mountain Nestorians,
while the Patriarch fled to Mosul, several of his brothers escaped
to Oroomiah, and threw themselves on the hospitality of the mission,
which of necessity fell short of their wishes. They demanded money
of the mission, on the ground that they were the ecclesiastical
heads of the people. In this they were unhappily countenanced by the
Patriarch, upon whom a