f three Armenians and two Russian soldiers, after
two unsuccessful attempts. His ascent, however, was doubted, not only by
the people in the neighborhood, but by many men of science and position in
the Russian empire, notwithstanding his clear account, which has been
confirmed by subsequent observers, and in spite of the testimony of the
two Russian soldiers who had gone with him.(1) Two of the Armenians who
reached the summit with him declared that they had gone to a great height,
but at the point where they had left off had seen much higher tops rising
around them. This, thereupon, became the opinion of the whole country.
After Antonomoff, in 1834, Herr Abich, the geologist, made his valuable
ascent in 1845. He reached the eastern summit, which is only a few feet
lower than the western, and only a few minutes' walk from it, but was
obliged to return at once on account of the threatening weather. When he
produced his companions as witnesses before the authorities at Erivan,
they turned against him, and solemnly swore that at the point which they
had reached a higher peak stood between them and the western horizon. This
strengthened the Armenian belief in the inaccessibility of Ararat, which
was not dissipated when the Russian military engineer, General Chodzko,
and an English party made the ascent in 1856. Nor were their prejudiced
minds convinced by the ascent of Mr. Bryce twenty years later, in 1876.
Two days after his ascent, that gentleman paid a visit to the Armenian
monastery at Echmiadzin, and was presented to the archimandrite as the
Englishman who had just ascended to the top of "Masis." "No," said the
ecclesiastical dignitary; "that cannot be. No one has ever been there. It
is impossible." Mr. Bryce himself says: "I am persuaded that there is not
a person living within sight of Ararat, unless it be some exceptionally
educated Russian official at Erivan, who believes that any human foot,
since Father Noah's, has trodden that sacred summit. So much stronger is
faith than sight; or rather so much stronger is prejudice than evidence."

We had expected, on our arrival in Bayazid, to find in waiting for us a
Mr. Richardson, an American missionary from Erzerum. Two years later, on
our arrival home, we received a letter explaining that on his way from Van
he had been captured by Kurdish brigands, and held a prisoner until
released through the intervention of the British consul at Erzerum. It was
some such fate as this