THE MOUNTAIN NESTORIANS.
1840-1844.
We paused in the history of the Nestorian mission at the return of
Dr. Grant to Oroomiah, after a successful exploration of the
mountains of Koordistan. He remained there till the 7th of May,
1840. During this time, two brothers of the Patriarch visited the
mission, and urged its extension into the mountains. Mar Shimon also
wrote, renewing his request for a visit in the spring. Dr. Grant had
but little prospect of recovering his health on the plain; and the
welfare of his two sons in the United States, children of his first
marriage, and the three children then with him at Oroomiah, seemed
to require that he revisit his native land. Two of these last
mentioned sickened and died in January. Having then only one son to
take with him, four years of age, he decided to return through the
mountains, and revisit the Patriarch on his way. It was a perilous
journey so early in the season, especially with so tender a
companion; but the brave little fellow appears to have endured the
snows and precipices of Koordistan as well as the father. The boy
was everywhere a favorite, both with Koords and Nestorians. One
night the snow was so deep near the summit of a mountain that they
were obliged to sleep under the open sky, with the thermometer below
zero; but the Patriarch's brothers had carpets enough to keep them
warm until three in the morning, when the light of the moon enabled
them to resume their journey. Mar Shimon was then a guest of
Suleiman Bey, in the castle of Julamerk, and with him they spent ten
days. Nûrûllah Bey had gone to Erzroom to negotiate for the
subjugation of the Independent Nestorians to the Turkish rule,
having already relinquished his own personal independence, and
become a Pasha of the empire. Suleiman Bey was a relative of the
Emir, and had been the leader of the party that murdered Mr.
Schultz. He showed special kindness to Dr. Grant. His mother and
sister, as also the sister and mother of the Patriarch, with womanly
forethought, loaded the Doctor with supplies for the inhospitable
road before them. He found the Emir at Van on his return home, and
discovered what had been the object of his journey to Erzroom. When
Dr. Grant arrived there, with clothes worn and ragged from the
roughness of the journey, he had the happiness of meeting Dr.
Wright, then on his way to Oroomiah. The two brethren called on the
gentlemen of the Persian embassy, then at Erzroom, and one of them,
observing Dr. Grant's erect and commanding person, remarked that a
good soldier was spoiled when that man became a missionary. At
Trebizond he gladly exchanged the saddle for the quiet of the
steamer, which took him to Constantinople, and he arrived at Boston
on the 3d of October.
Having embraced the theory, that the Nestorians are descendants of
the lost Ten Tribes of Israel, Dr. Grant, with characteristic
industry, employed such time as he could command during his
missionary travels and his homeward voyage, in preparing a volume in
support of these views. It was published both in this country and in
England, and attracted considerable attention. The celebrated Dr.
Edward Robinson deemed it deserving of an elaborate discussion in
the "American Biblical Repository," in which he makes a strong
argument against the theory.1
1 See _American Biblical Repository_, 1841, vol. vi. of new series,
pp. 454-482, and vol. vii. pp. 26-68.
In January, 1841, Dr. Grant had the pleasure of witnessing the
departure of the Rev. Messrs. Abel K. Hinsdale and Colby C.
Mitchell, and their wives, for the Mountain Nestorians. They went by
way of Aleppo and Mosul, that being the more practicable route for
females; but the Doctor, thinking to reach the mountains before
them, and prepare for their arrival, went himself by way of
Constantinople, Erzroom, and Van. He was at Constantinople May 14th,
and at Van on the first day of July. The journey from Erzroom to
that place was wearisome and perilous, famine, the plague, and
predatory Koords harassing him nearly all the way.
Van, with fourteen thousand Armenian population, though at that time
difficult of access, was even then regarded as an important place
for a missionary station, and preferable for residence to most
others in the interior. Being five thousand feet above the level of
the sea, it was not subject to oppressive heats. There were fruitful
gardens on the one hand, stretching for miles over the plain, and on
the other, the placid lake, and snow-capped mountains; altogether
forming a very striking landscape. A small Nestorian community had
formed a settlement on the mountains within three or four hours of
Van.
Dr. Grant reached the summer residence of the Patriarch on the 9th
of July, and was cordially received as before; and the same may be
said of his intercourse with the mountaineers. He mentions several
places in Koordistan as having strong claims for a missionary
station, but gives the preference to Asheta in Tiary.
While at Asheta, he received painful tidings of the death of Mr. and
Mrs. Mitchell, and the sickness of Mr. and Mrs. Hinsdale, and
immediately started for Mosul, though at much risk from Koords on
the frontier, and from roving Arabs near the Tigris. He reached
Mosul on the 25th of August, in time to minister successfully to Mr.
Hinsdale, whose life had been seriously endangered by a relapse of
fever.
Messrs. Hinsdale and Mitchell were forty-one days on their voyage to
Smyrna, from whence an Austrian steamer took them to Beirût. Mr. and
Mrs. Beadle accompanied them as far as Aleppo, to commence a new
station. Mr. Mitchell had a slight attack of fever and ague at
Aleppo, which detained him till the 28th of May. That was rather
late in the season, still all might have gone well, had they been
able to press on with the usual speed. The abundant green grass on
the plain, however, caused the muleteers to loiter, and, once on the
road, the company was entirely at their mercy. Still the journey, as
far as Mardin, where they arrived June 19th, was both pleasant and
prosperous. On the plain below the city Mr. Mitchell, in efforts to
keep their tent from being blown down in a storm, became wet and
chilled. This brought on another fit of ague, which was repeated
after three days. On the 25th, with scarcely any apparent disease,
he lost his reason, and from that time drooped, like the withering
of a plant, till he died on the morning of June 27th, 1841. The
Koordish villagers refused the Christian a grave, nor would they aid
in carrying the body a few miles to the Jacobite village Telabel,
The survivors had not strength themselves to carry it, but secured
its conveyance thither as best they could. There they buried the
mortal remains in the village cemetery, and two rude stones mark the
grave.
Eight hours brought them in sight of the Tigris, at Beshabor. The
next day they crossed on rafts supported by inflated goat-skins,
and, on the 30th, rode six and a half hours to a Yezidee village.
Next morning, after riding an hour, Mrs. Mitchell became too ill to
proceed, and she lay four days in a mud hovel, among Arabs so rude
that they could not be kept from the sick room, where they laid
their hands on whatever they fancied. To remain there was out of the
question, so Mr. Hinsdale constructed a litter, and at exorbitant
prices obtained men from a distant village to carry it. She had to
be repeatedly laid upon the ground, while he rode far and near to
find four men willing to perform the degrading service of carrying a
woman. At length the sun became so hot, that they could travel only
by night. Their troubles were somewhat relieved by the services of a
man, whom Mr. Rassam had kindly sent to meet them. On the 7th of
July, they entered Mosul, and were cordially welcomed by Mr. and
Mrs. Rassam. Mrs. Mitchell's disease then assumed a new form, and
from that time till her death, on the 12th, her reason was
dethroned. Mr. Hinsdale was taken violently ill before the death of
Mrs. Mitchell, and Mrs. Hinsdale was unable to render any assistance
to her husband. It was in these trying circumstances, that Dr. Grant
so opportunely arrived.
There was ample evidence in the subsequent experience of the
mission, that these fatal results were not owing to any peculiar
hazard in the journey itself, though they may have resulted from the
lateness of the season. All the way from Aleppo to Mosul, they had
the assistance of Mr. Kotschy, who, in addition to his medical
knowledge, had travelled seven years in Western Asia and Africa. The
route, moreover, had been, and is still, one of the great highways
of nations.
No doubt Divine Providence is always consistent with itself, and
with the Saviour's promise; and so would it always appear to us,
could we see, as God sees, the end from the beginning. To the
devoted missionary, who dies at the outset of his career, all is
satisfactory, however painful the circumstances, as soon as he
passes the dark portal. Then, too, in contemplating the reverses
which were now beginning to thicken upon the mission, we should bear
in mind, that the divine plan for the Mountain Nestorian mission, as
afterwards appeared, was not that it be prosecuted from the western
side of the mountains, but from Oroomiah, the position first taken
by the mission; where, as we shall soon see, Gospel influences were
gathering a peculiar and most needful strength.
As soon as Mr. Hinsdale was able to travel, he accompanied Dr. Grant
on a tour among the Yezidee and Nestorian villages lying near to
Mosul.1
1 For an account of this tour, see _Missionary Herald_, 1842, pp.
310-320.
The Jacobites are a branch of the venerable Church of Antioch, and
were then painfully struggling to repel the inroads of the Papacy.
As soon as they learned the adherence of the American missionaries
to the Bible, and their opposition to Papal innovations, they began
to welcome them as friends. Having been duped by the plausible
pretenses of the Papists, they were at first cautious in their
advances; but a priest from the Syrian Christians in India, named
Joseph Matthew, on his way to be ordained metropolitan by the Syrian
Patriarch at Mardin, did much to dispel their fears, and promote
friendly relations with the missionaries. He was a graduate of the
English college at Cotayam, was evangelical in his views, spoke
English with propriety, and at once gave the right hand of
fellowship to the missionaries, and bespoke for them the confidence
of the people. Early in the following year, he returned from Mardin
as Bishop Athanasius, and consented to remain and preach among the
Jacobites during Dr. Grant's absence in the summer.
Nûrûllah Bey had now commenced making war on the mountain
Nestorians, with the aid of the Turks; and the Nestorians, split
into hostile parties, were incapable of combined resistance.
Suleiman Bey, being opposed to an alliance with Turkey, had seized
the reins of government in the absence of the Emir; and since the
object of the Osmanlis was to subjugate the Nestorians, as well as
the Koords, the Patriarch naturally, but as it proved unhappily,
sided with Suleiman.1
1 _Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians_, p. 203.
Dr. Grant believed it would now be easier to enter the mountains
from the east, than from the west. Accordingly he set out for
Oroomiah, on the 6th of June, 1842, going the southern route by way
of Ravandooz. Mr. Hinsdale and Bishop Athanasius accompanied him the
first day. When about to return, the bishop offered prayer in the
English language, and thus they parted, not all to meet again.
Athanasius wrote a letter to Dr. Grant from Malabar, but with a date
nearly a year subsequent to Dr. Grant's death, in which he stated,
that his people had welcomed him with great joy, and gladly received
the Word of God.1
1 _Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians_, p. 219.
Dr. Grant crossed the plain of Arbela, where Alexander conquered
Persia, and in ten days arrived at Oroomiah. Being impatient to get
into the mountains, the mission assembled immediately, and delegated
Mr. Stocking to accompany him. Dr. Wright said of him, at this time,
that "his spirits were buoyant, his step elastic, and his energy
untiring." Two Nestorians went with them, and they had letters from
the governor and some Persian nobles to the Persian Khan and the
Emir of the Hakary Koords. At Khosrawa, Mr. Stocking was constrained
by sickness to return; and both the native assistants were so
alarmed by the warlike aspect of things, that they declined going
farther. The now solitary traveller succeeded, at the last moment,
in getting the brave bishop Mar Yûsûf to be his companion.
The Emir had now broken his treaty with the Sultan, formed two years
before in the hope of immediate aid to subdue the Nestorians; and
had sworn perpetual allegiance to the Shah, who promised him support
against the Sultan. Dr. Grant found Yahya Khan and the Emir at the
castle of Charreh, on the summit of an isolated rock near the river
of the same name. The tents of more than a dozen chiefs dotted the
green banks of the stream. Nûrûllah Bey still professed to regard
Dr. Grant as his physician and friend, and in the presence of the
Khan promised to protect him and his associates, and permit them to
erect buildings in Tiary for themselves and their schools.
The Khan, to whose friendly agency with the Emir Dr. Grant was
specially indebted, had a good reputation for integrity. He was a
Persian subject, then governor of Salmas, and also chief of a branch
of the Hakary tribe. He had married a sister of the Emir, and given
him one of his own in return, and another was in the harem of the
Shah. He assured his missionary guest of the Emir's personal
friendship, and interested himself for his future safety.
After sundry adventures among precipitous mountains and savage
Koords, Dr. Grant was once more the guest of Mar Shimon, who kindly
received the New Testament, the Psalms, and other books from the
mission press. The Doctor was himself suffering from the effects of
exposure in a wet dormitory the previous night; but the bracing air
of that elevated region renewed his strength, and he was glad to
resume his journey towards Asheta, which he had proposed as the site
of his first mountain station. On this part of the way he had the
company of Mar Shimon, who had then decided not to join the Koords
and Persians against the Turks, having discovered that the strife
between them was for the supremacy over his own people. Of the two
he preferred the Turks. He was, however, advised by Dr. Grant to
cultivate the friendship of the Emir. Further than this Dr. Grant
would not interfere, being, fully resolved not to meddle with their
political relations. A secret correspondence of the Patriarch with
the Turkish Pasha, when discovered, cost him the favor of the Emir;
and it soon became apparent that the Turks, whatever their
pretensions, were resolved upon nothing short of the complete
subjugation of his people. It was but too evident, also, to his
missionary friend, that the Patriarch was himself more concerned for
their political, than for their religious and moral condition.
Amadia, on the western frontier of the Nestorians, had now
surrendered to the Turks; and the war on that side of the mountains
being ended, Mr. Hinsdale left Mosul on the last day of September,
and in eight days was at Asheta. The prospect from the summit on the
western side of the valley was of singular beauty. The village of
Asheta extended below him for a mile and a half, with numerous plats
of grain and vegetables interspersed, the whole diversified with
shade trees of various kinds. A short distance above the village was
a deep ravine, from which the snow never disappeared. The spot
selected for the mission house, was on the summit of a hill, near
the centre of the village.
Soon after the arrival of Mr. Hinsdale, the papal bishop of Elkosh
and an Italian priest found their way to Asheta. They stated to the
Patriarch, that many boxes of presents were on their way from
Diarbekir, and requested permission to remain till they arrived. The
following Sabbath the Patriarch, with Mar Yûsûf and several priests,
held a public discussion with them on the prominent errors of the
Papacy. The result was not favorable to their object, and the next
day their presents were returned, and they had permission to leave
the country. They left during the week, but not till they had taken
much pains, though apparently without success, to shake the
Patriarch's confidence in the American missionaries. Soon after,
early in November, Mr. Hinsdale returned to Mosul.
Up to this time, Mar Yûsûf had been fearless and tolerably patient,
but he had now become heartily tired of the mountains, and longed
for his peaceful home on the plain. It was the first time in a life
of fifty years, that he had been ill when far from home. Yet he had
been faithful in imparting religious instruction, and the missionary
regretted his departure. Near the close of November, Dr. Grant
received a letter from Nûrûllah Bey, requesting his professional
services at Julamerk. His Nestorian friends strongly objected to his
going, as they were apprehensive of treachery, and not without some
reason; but he went, committing his way unto the Lord. He found the
chief sick of fever, from which he recovered, through the blessing
of God on the remedies employed. There was now opportunity to
counteract reports intended to enlist the Emir in measures to
destroy the mission. He became convinced that Dr. Grant was neither
building a castle at Asheta, nor a bazaar to draw away the trade.
Elsewhere, as will appear in the sequel, these reports had a more
serious effect.
Dr. Grant had already heard of the arrival of the Rev. Thomas Laurie
and wife at Mosul; and two days after, returning from Julamerk, he
received the painful intelligence that Mr. Hinsdale was dangerously
sick. He at once hastened to his relief, but he was too late. The
devoted missionary rested from his labors on the 26th of December,
at the age of thirty-five, after a sickness of twenty-four days. His
disease was typhus fever. Mr. Hinsdale was a native of Torrington,
Connecticut, and received his education at Yale College, and the
Auburn Theological Seminary. "On the night of his decease," says Dr.
Grant, "while his deeply afflicted wife and Mr. Laurie were sitting
by him, he was heard to say, amid the wanderings of his disordered
intellect; 'I should love to have the will of my Heavenly Father
done!' It was his 'ruling passion strong in death.' Desiring to have
the will of God done in all the earth, he had toiled to fit himself
for the missionary work, and then, regardless of sacrifices, he had
come to a field rich in promise, but full of hardships. His daily
spirit, as evinced in all his actions, made me feel that he was just
the man for this portion of the Lord's vineyard."
The Papists were, to say the least, not the main cause of Mar
Shimon's alienation from his American friends. In 1840, after Dr.
Grant had passed through the mountains the second time, on his
return to America, the Patriarch was visited by Mr. Ainsworth,
travelling at the expense of the Society for Promoting Christian
Knowledge and the Royal Geographical Society. The statements of this
gentleman and of his companion, Mr. Rassam, to Mar Shimon, so
resembled those made by the Papists, that the Patriarch suspected
them of being Jesuits in disguise, and they actually left the
mountains without removing that suspicion. Nor was it creditable to
them, that they passed through Oroomiah without even calling on the
American missionaries there.1
1 See _Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians_, pp. 151-154. For Mr.
Ainsworth's account of this visit, see _Travels and Researches in
Asia Minor_, _etc_., vol. i. p. 1, and vol. ii. pp. 243-255. It is
not necessary here to correct the erroneous statements in the
passage referred to.
Had the interference gone no further, not much harm might have
ensued. But Mr. Ainsworth's report induced the Christian Knowledge
and Gospel Propagation Societies, in 1842, to send the Rev. George
Percy Badger as a missionary to the Mountain Nestorians, or rather
to the Patriarch and his clergy in the mountains. This was nine
years after the commencement of the mission to the Nestorians at
Oroomiah, eight years after the republication in England of the
Researches of Messrs. Smith and Dwight among the Nestorians, and a
year after the publication there of Dr. Grant's work, entitled "The
Nestorians, or the Lost Tribes." Nor was there ever a time when the
attention of the English nation was more directed to Western Asia.
How much the Archbishop of Canterbury and the Bishop of London
actually knew of the American mission, before officially and
strongly commending Mr. Badger to the confidence of the Nestorian
Patriarch, is not known. They make no reference whatever to that
mission, and write as if they looked upon the field as entirely
unoccupied, and open to a mission from the Church of England.
Mr. Badger spent the winter of 1842-43 in Mosul; and, early in the
spring, before the mountain roads were open, and while Dr. Grant and
Mr. Laurie were preparing at Mosul to visit Asheta, he hastened to
the Patriarch, with letters and presents from the dignitaries of the
Church of England. The civil relations of the Patriarch to the
Koords, the Persians, and the Turks were such at that time, as to
make him extremely anxious for the intervention of some foreign
power; and he had been frankly told, by the American missionaries,
that they could assure him of no such intervention. Coming with
letters commendatory from the Primate of all England, the Lord
Bishop of London, and the Anglican Bishop of Jerusalem, and with
offers of schools, his power for good or evil must have been great.
It cannot be that the patrons of Mr. Badger anticipated the attitude
he would assume with regard to the American mission. The speedy
close of his mission, may be assumed as proof that they did not. But
while this is cheerfully admitted, the disastrous consequences of
this interference should be distinctly stated. Mr. Badger gives the
following account of his proceedings, in his report to the Committee
of the Gospel Propagation Society, dated March 30, 1843. After
stating the pains he took to explain the character, teaching, and
discipline of his own Church, and how well his proposals to
establish schools were received by Mar Shimon, he says, "The
proceedings of the American Dissenters here necessarily formed a
leading topic of our discourse. Through the influence of Nûrûllah
Bey, they have been permitted to settle in the mountains, and two
large establishments, one at Asheta and the other at Leezan, a
village one day distant, are at present in course of being built.
They have also a school in actual existence at Asheta, the expenses
of which are defrayed by the Board, and, if I am rightly informed,
another at Leezan. .... I did not fail to acquaint the Patriarch how
far we are removed, in doctrine and discipline, from the American
Independent missionaries. I showed him, moreover, that it would be
injudicious, and would by no means satisfy us, to have schools among
his people by the side of theirs, and pressed upon him to decide
what plan he would pursue under existing circumstances. I think the
Patriarch expressed his real sentiments on the peculiar doctrines of
the Independents, when he said, 'I hold them as cheap as an onion;'
but there are other considerations, which have more influence in
inclining him to keep on friendly terms with the missionaries. In
the first place, Dr. Grant has gained the _apparent_ good will of
Nûrûllah Bey, and the Patriarch may fear that, if he manifests any
alteration in his conduct towards the American missionaries, the
Emir might revenge it. Secondly, although I am fully convinced, that
there is hardly a Nestorian in the mountains, who sympathizes with
the doctrine or discipline of the Dissenters, whenever these differ
from their own, yet I am persuaded, that, from the Patriarch to the
poorest peasant, all value the important services of a good
physician; and besides this, they highly prize the money which the
missionaries have already expended, and are still expending among
them with no niggardly hand, in presents, buildings, schools, etc."1
1 _Nestorians and their Rituals_, vol. i. pp. 248, 249.
The reader need not be told, that Congregationalists and
Presbyterians are neither Dissenters nor Independents; and these two
large bodies of Christians founded the mission.
The object of Mr. Badger was to alienate the Patriarch from the
American mission; and he appears to have succeeded. Mar Shimon, in a
letter addressed to the Archbishop and Bishops of the English
Church, in August, 1843, speaks thus of the missionaries, with whom
he was on confidential and somewhat intimate terms before the visit
of Mr. Badger.
"Such was our condition, remaining in our own country in perfect
peace and security, when, about three years since, persons came to
us from the new world called America, and represented themselves as
true Catholic Christians; but when we became acquainted with their
way, we found that they held several errors, since they deny the
order of the Priesthood committed to us by our Lord, nor do they
receive the oecumenical councils of the Church, nor the true
traditions of the holy Fathers, nor the efficacy of the sacraments
of salvation, which Christ hath bequeathed to his Church, namely,
Baptism, and the holy Eucharist; on which account we must beware of
their working among us. But when your messenger, the pious presbyter
George, came to us, and delivered into our hands your letters, we
were filled with joy when we read their contents, and learned
therefrom your spiritual and temporal prosperity. And we have now
given up all others, that we may be united with you, in brotherhood
and true Christian love."1
1 _Nestorians and their Rituals_, vol. i. p. 273.
Five months before the date of this letter, and after the return of
Mr. Badger to Mosul, Dr. Grant received a letter from Mar Shimon,
filled with Oriental protestations of undiminished attachment, and
with urgent invitations to revisit the mountains. He went,
accompanied by Mr. Laurie. They were kindly received as before, and
spent several weeks with him, but found the Nestorians in constant
dread of attacks from the Koords.
Meanwhile the reports, which had been put in circulation with regard
to Dr. Grant's operations at Asheta, in the way of building, were
communicated by the Pasha of Mosul to the Pasha of Erzroom, and by
him to Constantinople. It is not probable that the reports were
believed anywhere; but as the government was then intent upon
subjugating that portion of the empire, they were unwilling to have
the mountaineers enlightened and elevated. Accordingly they refused
firmans to Dr. Azariah Smith and Rev. Edwin E. Bliss, in case they
were going as missionaries to the Nestorians, for these would pledge
to them the protection of the government; though they would grant
them passports to go where they pleased. The Turkish minister even
declared to Mr. Brown, our Charge d'affaires at the Porte, that they
did not wish schools to be opened in the mountains.
In June, Dr. Grant, by special invitation, visited Bader Khan Bey,
the most powerful chief in Koordistan. The journey occupied him five
days, by way of Zakhu and Jezireh. The castle of the chief lay
sixteen or eighteen miles northeast of Jezireh, in a pass among the
mountains. He found there his old friend, of Koordish sincerity,
Nûrûllah Bey, who had come to engage the Buhtan chief in the
subjugation of the Nestorians. The fearless missionary spent ten
days with these "deceitful and bloody" men. They made no concealment
of their designs upon the Nestorians, but promised safety and
protection to the mission-house and property at Asheta.
The successful attack soon after made on the hitherto independent
Nestorians, appears to have had its origin in the Turkish
government. Only unity of action could now save the Nestorians, and
that unity was wanting. The Buhtan Koords came upon them from the
northwest, and the Hakary tribes from the northeast and east. On the
south was a Turkish army from the Pasha of Mosul, while the
Ravandooz Koords are said to have been ready for an onset from the
southeast. Diss, the district in which the Patriarch resided, and
Tiary were soon laid waste by the combined force of the Buhtan and
Hakary Koords. Many were slain, and among them the Patriarch's
mother, a brother, and a fine youth who was regarded as the probable
successor to the Patriarch. The valuable patriarchal library of
manuscripts was destroyed. When the work of destruction began, Dr.
Grant was in the southeast part of Tiary. From thence, without
returning to Asheta, where the Patriarch then was, he hastened, by
way of Lezan and Amadia, to Mosul, where great fears had been
entertained for his safety. He reached Mosul on the morning of July
14, 1843, much fatigued with his journey, but in tolerably good
health.
In the first invasion, Asheta and three other large villages in
Tiary were spared the general destruction. Previous to November,
however, the Nestorians of these villages rose upon the Koordish
governor, and wounded him; and this occasioned the destruction of
these villages, and the massacre of their inhabitants. Nothing was
spared except the house Dr. Grant had erected, and that was
converted into a fortress. Of the seventy-four priests in Tiary,
twenty-four were killed, whose names were known. The districts east
of Diss and Tiary were not destroyed. The tribes of Tehoma, Bass,
and Jelu suffered comparatively little in either of the invasions,
except in the loss of their property and their independence. After
the disasters of Tiary and Diss, each of the remaining tribes sent
in its submission. The Patriarch fled to Mosul. Several of his
brothers fled to Oroomiah, and there threw themselves on the
hospitality of the mission, which in their destitute circumstances
could not be refused. Many were sold into slavery. Of the fifty
thousand mountain Nestorians, the estimated number before the war,
one fifth part were numbered with the slain.
Mrs. Laurie was called on the 16th of December, to rest from her
labors. "In her last hours," writes Dr. Grant, "she was mercifully
delivered alike from bodily pain and from mental anxieties. A noble
testimony of Christian devotedness had been given in her
consecration to one of the most difficult and trying fields in
modern missions; and death to her was but the Saviour's welcome to
mansions of undisturbed repose."
It has been stated that the Turkish government had refused a firman
to Dr. Azariah Smith, in case he were a missionary to the Nestorians
of Koordistan. He accordingly remained in the Armenian mission,
where he found useful occupation till the arrival of the Foreign
Secretary; when it was arranged that he should proceed to Mosul by
way of Beirut and Aleppo, and either remain permanently connected
with the mission, or return to the Armenians as a missionary
physician. A firman was now given him, and he reached Mosul in
safety on the 29th of March. Little did any one think that his first
duty would be to smooth Dr. Grant's descent to the grave, yet an
all-wise Providence had so ordained. A typhoid fever, which had
carried off many of the refugee Nestorians in Mosul, seized their
beloved physician on the 5th of April. He was delirious from the
moment it assumed a threatening character, and died on the 24th of
April, 1844.
While the author was at Constantinople, he received a letter from
Dr. Grant, stating how much his presence was needed, for a time, by
his children at home. The case being urgent, he was encouraged to
return and was preparing for this, when his gracious Lord called him
into his presence above. The tidings of his dangerous sickness
awakened much interest in Mosul. People of every rank, men of all
sects and religions, watched the progress of his disease with the
most earnest anxiety. The French Consul visited him almost daily.
The Turkish authorities sent to inquire for him, and some came in
person. One, who arrived immediately after his decease, could not
refrain from tears when he heard of it. A leading Jacobite remarked,
that all Mosul was weeping. The poor Patriarch, roused to a sense of
his loss, exclaimed, "My country and my people are gone! Nothing
remains to me but God!"
Those who have attentively read the preceding history will need
nothing more to set forth the character of this eminent servant of
Christ. His courage, his calmness and yet firmness of purpose, his
skill in the healing art, his devotion to the cause of his Saviour,
his tact in winning the confidence even of those who never before
trusted their own friends, his fearlessness in the presence of
unscrupulous and cruel men and his ascendency over them, his lively
faith under appalling discouragements, and his unyielding
perseverance, form an array of excellence rarely combined in one
man. Like the holy Apostle, he was "in journeyings often, in perils
of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils in the city, in perils in
the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false
brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in
hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness." Yet
was he not cast down by these things. He regarded them as incidental
to his calling of God in Christ Jesus; and in the pursuit of this
heavenly calling, he was more happy in the savage wilds of
Koordistan, than he would have been in the most favored portions of
his native land.
Mr. Laurie and Dr. Smith, the surviving brethren at Mosul, entered
the mountains in the summer of 1844, explored the district of Tiary,
and visited Nûrûllah Bey at Birchullah above Julamerk. Wherever they
went among the Nestorians, they found a painful scene of desolation.
On their return to Mosul, they forwarded their journal and a summary
view of the facts, and asked the Committee to decide whether to
continue the effort to approach the Nestorians from the west, and
the Committee now forwarded definite instructions to discontinue
this branch of the mission.1 They proceeded to Beirût in Syria,
accompanied by Mrs. Hinsdale, who had been bereaved of her only
child. Mr. Laurie became a member of the Syrian mission, and Dr.
Smith of the Armenian; and Mrs. Hinsdale was for some time employed
in the instruction of missionary children at Constantinople.
1 _Missionary Herald_, 1845, pp. 116-125.