THE PRESS AT MALTA.
1822-1833.
The location of the press at Malta, was not the result of design,
but because printing could not be done safely, if at all, either at
Smyrna or at Beirût. Its operations were begun under the impression
of a more extended taste for reading and reflection in the several
communities of the Levant, than really existed; and it is doubtful
whether the larger part of the earlier publications were well suited
to the apprehension of the Oriental mind. However this may be, it
was decided, in the year 1829, to make it a leading object, for a
time, to furnish books for elementary schools; making them, as far
as possible, the vehicles of moral and religious truth. The wisdom
of this course was seen among the Greeks. A first book for schools
of sixty pages, called the Alphabetarion, went into extensive use.
Twenty-seven thousand copies were called for in Greece before the
year 1831.
There had been more or less of printing since 1822; but it was not
until the close of 1826, that the arrival of Mr. Homan Hallock
furnished a regular and competent printer. In the year following,
Mr. Temple was bereaved of his excellent wife and of two children,
and at the invitation of the Prudential Committee he visited the
United States. Meanwhile the presence of Messrs. Bird, Goodell,
Smith, and Hallock kept the press in operation. Mr. Temple returned
in 1830.
The establishment consisted of three presses, with fonts of type in
English, Italian, Modern Greek, Greco-Turkish, Armenian,
Armeno-Turkish, and Arabic, but the greater part of the printing was
in the Italian, the Modern Greek, and Armeno-Turkish. The most
important work was the translation of the New Testament in the
Armeno-Turkish, which was printed at the expense of the British and
Foreign Bible Society. It was prepared from two translations, one by
Mr. Goodell, with the efficient aid of Bishop Carabet, the other by
an Armenian priest at Constantinople, in the employ of Mr. Leeves,
agent of the British and Foreign Bible Society. Mr. Goodell's
version was made conformable to the original Greek, and the last
sheet was printed in January, 1831. During that year, there were
printed seventy-eight thousand copies of fourteen works, amounting
to nearly five millions of pages, all in modern Greek. The whole
amount of printing at Malta, from the establishment of the press in
July, 1822, to December, 1833, the time of its removal to Smyrna,
was about three hundred and fifty thousand volumes, containing
twenty-one millions of pages. Nearly the whole were put in
circulation, and additional supplies of some of the books were
urgently demanded. The Roman Catholics opposed this work from the
first, and anathematized the books issued.
The labor and expense were increased by the singular use of
alphabets in the Levantine regions. The Maronites and Syrians spoke
the Arabic language, but employed the Syriac alphabet in writing.
The Armenians, to a large extent, spoke the Turkish language, but
wrote it with the Armenian alphabet. The Greeks in Asia generally
spoke the Turkish language, but used the Greek alphabet. The Grecian
Jews spoke the Grecian language, the Spanish Jews the Spanish, the
Barbary Jews the Arabic, but all three used the Hebrew alphabet.
Then, too, the worship of the Syrians, Greeks, and Armenians was in
the ancient languages of those nations, which were for the most part
unintelligible to the common people.
Mr. Temple began preaching in Italian early in 1826, and during his
whole residence on the island he preached every Sabbath, either in
Italian or English. The rule he prescribed for himself, whether
preaching to Gentiles or Jews, was to preach the great truths of the
Bible plainly and faithfully, appealing as little as possible to
Fathers, Councils, or Rabbins. Contemporary with him were Mr.
Jowett, of the Church Missionary Society, Mr. Wilson, of the London
Missionary Society, and Mr. Keeling, of the English Wesleyan
Society, and all were on the best terms of Christian fellowship.
In December, 1833, Messrs. Temple and Hallock removed to Smyrna,
with the printing establishment, and Dionysius Carabet accompanied
them as a translator. Wortabet had previously returned to Syria.