History of the Missions of the American Board of Commissioners for Foreign Missions to the Oriental | Page 8

for minutes together, he would attempt to sing. It was a blessed privilege to be by his side." Mr. Dunmore was present at the funeral, and says: "The chapel was crowded, and the roofs of the surrounding buildings were covered. There was abundant proof of the presence of grief-stricken hearts in gushing tears, and sobs were heard throughout the assembly. There were six or seven hundred present, and nearly as many accompanied us to the grave. I scarcely ever saw in America a more quiet and solemn procession. In the Protestant burying ground, by the side of his only child, lie the remains of our dear departed brother."
The Rev. George W. Dunmore and wife had joined the mission early in 1851, and proceeded to Diarbekir by way of Aintab. Broosa was now left for a time, as Nicomedia and Adabazar had been, to the care of a native pastor, under the superintendence of the Constantinople station; and useful evangelical tours were performed by different brethren.[1]
[1] See Missionary Herald for 1851, pp. 24-32, 78-81, 160-162, 232-236.
The law forbidding the residence of foreigners in Constantinople proper having become a dead letter, two of the brethren took up their abode near the "Seven Towers," amid an Armenian population, and a third evangelical church was formed in February, 1852, in the suburb of Has-Keuy.
Among the miscellaneous labors of the brethren at the capitol, was the distribution of letters received at the mission post-office from the European mails. Not less than fifteen hundred letters were thus disposed of in the year 1851, as the Turks had no arrangements for distributing letters that came by steamers. There was also much other secular labor for the brethren at this central station.
Difficulties in the church at Trebizond occasioned the calling of an ecclesiastical council,--the first one convened in the Turkish empire. Pastor Simon was present from the first church in Constantinople, pastor Hohannes from Adabazar, and Mr. Dwight from the mission. Pastor Hohannes was chosen moderator, and pastor Simon scribe; and Mr. Dwight describes them as managing the case with admirable tact and prudence. The results were satisfactory.
Marsovan began now to claim special attention. It stands in one corner of a lovely plain hemmed in by mountains, and then contained eight hundred Armenian houses, with twice that number of Turkish families. The story of the entrance of the Gospel into this place is so interesting that it deserves to be recorded. Pastor Simon visited it in September, 1851, on his return from the council at Trebizond, and learned that, eighteen years before, a respectable inhabitant made a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and bought in Beir?t a few Armeno-Turkish tracts, not knowing what they were, only that they were written in his own native tongue. He read them carefully on his way home, and liked them so well that he retained them; but not until Protestants and Protestant books were anathematized in the churches did he learn their origin. They had been printed in Malta under the supervision of Mr. Goodell. Soon after this, Der Vartanes, on a missionary tour through Armenia, spent a night at the convent in Marsovan. This man was present in the evening, and recognized the similarity between the teachings of the stranger and his favorite tracts, but did not dare to speak out before the Vartabed. He managed, however, to see the good priest alone, and with great difficulty they contrived to unite in prayer under a tree in the garden. This was the only evangelical prayer he ever heard till Mr. Powers visited the place in March, 1851. We need not say how cordially he was received by the owner of the tracts; nor by him alone, for the missionary could scarcely get a moment to himself day or night. No wonder Mr. Powers felt that God had good things in store for this people. When he returned in July, he was disappointed in not being met by his friend, till he learned that six weeks before he had been dragged from his bed at midnight, and sent a prisoner with four others to Amasia, a town twenty-four miles distant. There for two weeks they were shut up with the vilest criminals, and one day they were chained together, two and two. The charge brought against them by the governor and council of Marsovan was, that they had made a violent assault upon the court. Nor would the Pasha of Amasia, who, according to Turkish custom, had "eaten" a large bribe, listen to any denial of the preposterous accusation.
The outrages which they suffered at length produced such an excitement at Marsovan, that the primates hastened to give an order for their release. The spirit of religious inquiry now greatly increased, and a large number signed a petition to be set off from the Armenian