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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.