driven to the Kourdish Mountains. When Mr. Wood's telegram came, calling
for a thousand oxen for the hundreds of villages, I thought of our not
rapidly swelling bank account, and all that was needed everywhere else,
and replied accordingly.

When in return came the telegram from the Rev. Dr. Gates, president of
Harpoot College, the live, active, practical man of affairs, whose
judgment no one could question, saying that the need of oxen was
imperative, that unless the ground could be plowed before it dried and
hardened it could not be done at all, and the next harvest would be
lost, also that "Mr. Wood's estimate was moderate," the financial
secretary was directed to send a draft for five thousand liras
(twenty-two thousand dollars) to the care of the Rev. Dr. Gates, to be
divided among the three expeditions for the purchase of cattle and the
progress of the harvest of 1897.

As the sum sent would be immediately applied, the active services of the
men would be no longer required, and directions went with the remittance
to report in person at Constantinople.

Unheard-of toil, care, hard riding day and night, with risk of life,
were all involved in the carrying out of that order. Among the
uncivilized and robber bands of Kourds, the cattle that had been stolen
and driven off must be picked up, purchased, and brought back to the
waiting farmer's field. There were routes so dangerous that a brigand
chief was selected by those understanding the situation as the safest
escort for our men. Perhaps the greatest danger encountered was in the
region of Farkin, beyond Diarbekir, where the official escort had not
been waited for, and the leveled musket of the faithless guide told the
difference.

At length the task was accomplished. One by one the expeditions closed
and withdrew, returning by Sivas and Samsoun, and coming out by the
Black Sea. With the return of the expeditions we closed the field. But
contributors would be glad to know that subsequent to this, before
leaving Constantinople, funds from both the New York and Boston
committees came to us amounting to about fifteen thousand dollars. This
was happily placed with Mr. W. W. Pect, treasurer of the Board of
Foreign Missions at Stamboul, to be used subject to our order; and with
our concurrence it was employed in the building of little houses in the
interior, as a winter shelter and protection, where all had been
destroyed.

The appearance of our men on their arriva