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1833–1836.

The facts brought to light by Messrs. Smith and Dwight respecting the Nestorians, made it the duty of the American Board to commence a mission among them. Accordingly in January, 1833, the Rev. Justin Perkins, then a tutor in Amherst College, was appointed the first missionary to that people; and Mr. Smith, being ready to return to the Mediterranean, having published his "Researches in Armenia and Persia," it was decided that Mr. Perkins should accompany him as far as Malta. They received their official instructions together, in the chapel of the Theological Seminary at Andover, on a Sabbath evening in September, and the two brethren embarked, with their wives, on the 21st of that month. Mr. Perkins, in the interval, had been prostrated by a fever, but it was deemed safe for him to proceed, and his recovery was so rapid that he was soon able to administer to the comfort of his associates at sea.

"Your first duty among the Nestorians," said the Prudential Committee in their instructions to Mr. Perkins, "will be to cultivate an intimate acquaintance with the religious opinions and sentiments of the Nestorians. You are aware that, excepting the information collected by Messrs. Smith and Dwight, during the few days they were at Oroomiah, almost all we know concerning that sect in modern times, is derived from papal writers. The learned investigations of some of these entitle them to high honor, and may be of great use to you, in the way of furnishing topics for inquiry, but the Committee wish the information which you communicate concerning the present state of the Nestorian Church, to be the result of your own personal investigations; at least to be thus corroborated. The churches of this country ought to be accurately informed as to the number of the Nestorians, their places of residence, their doctrines, rites, morals, education, etc. Whether you will be able at present, with a due regard for personal safety, to penetrate the Koordish mountains, and visit the Nestorian Patriarch, is very doubtful. But the journey should be performed as soon as may be, lest interested and perverse men should prejudice his mind against you."

After stating that they should take pains to show the Nestorians, that they had no intention of subjecting them to any foreign ecclesiastial power; and showing that the acknowledgment of the New Testament, as the only authoritative standard of religious truth, made them stand on common ground with the people to whom they were sent; it was stated, that their main object would be to enable the Nestorian Church, through the grace of God, to exert a commanding influence in the regeneration of Asia.

"Concentrated effort," it was added, "is effective effort. There is such a thing as attempting too much. Many a missionary has attempted such great things, and so many, in a new field, that he has accomplished little, and perhaps nothing as he ought. Your surveys may extend over a great surface; but a richer and speedier harvest will crown your labors, if your cultivation is applied to a single field."

The Nestorians are a branch of the ancient Christian Church, and derive their name from Nestorius, a native of Syria and Bishop of Constantinople, who was excommunicated by the third General Council at Ephesus, in the year 431. The cause of his condemnation was probably the desire to humble the occupant of the see of Constantinople, which had begun to eclipse its sister patriarchates, rather than any real doctrinal errors. He was banished to Arabia Petræa, then to Libya, and finally died in Upper Egypt. But his cause was the cause of his countrymen, and he had influential friends in the patriarchate of Antioch, who denied the fairness of his trial and the justice of his condemnation. His case was ardently espoused by many young men from Persia in the famous school of Edessa (now Oorfa), and though these were expelled, and the school itself was destroyed in the year 489, by order of the Emperor Zeno, the banished youths carried home with them a warm sympathy for Nestorius, and various causes combined to extend it among the Persian ecclesiastics. In the year 498, the sect had so multiplied, as to have the appointment of the Archbishop of Seleucia and Ctesiphon, who then declared himself Patriarch of the East.

"This sect continued to flourish, though occasionally persecuted, under the Persians, the Saracens, and the Tartars. They had celebrated schools for theology and general education. For centuries they maintained missions in Tartary, China, and other eastern regions. Their churches were scattered from Syria and Cyprus to Pekin, and from the coast of Malabar and Ceylon to the borders of Siberia. Early in the eleventh century, Unkh Khan, a Tartar prince on the northern borders of China, invited Nestorian missionaries among his people, and himself became the famous Prester John. Gengis Khan and several of his sons and grandsons, who conquered China and almost all Asia and a part of Europe, were connected with Prester John by marriage. Several of them had Christian wives, and one of them at least professed himself a Christian. Under some of this dynasty, Central Asia was comparatively a civilized country; and Christian travellers passed with safety from the banks of the Euphrates to Samarcand and Pekin. Some of the Chinese emperors favored Christianity, and ordered the erection of numerous churches. Meanwhile the sword of Moslem fanaticism was advancing eastward. Bagdad fell before it, and all the country on the Euphrates; then Persia, then Cabul, and the regions of the north. The Nestorian Church being thus crushed at home, its missions languished. And finally, about the year 1400, Tamerlane, who has been called 'the greatest of conquerors,' swept like a whirlwind over the remains of Nestorian Christianity, prostrating everything in his course."¹

From Malta, Mr. and Mrs. Perkins proceeded to Constantinople, where they were cordially welcomed by Messrs. Goodell and Dwight, near the close of the year. After a sojourn of five months, awaiting the proper season for travelling, they took passage, in an English vessel, for Trebizond; and there they commenced their long land travel of seven hundred miles to Oroomiah.

Mrs. Perkins was the first American lady to visit Trebizond, and the inhabitants thronged the streets to gaze upon her as she passed through the city. On the day of their entrance into Erzroom, they crossed the Euphrates, which is there only a few rods wide, and easily forded on horseback. The city is on an elevated plain, cultivated through almost its whole extent, with numerous villages everywhere in sight.

They were now in one of the oldest cities in the world, founded, as tradition says, by a grandson of Noah, and had gone over a third of the distance to Tabriz, and the most difficult part of the journey. Here they were detained nearly a month by the incursions of Koordish robbers along the direct road to Tabriz. The Pasha having gone with his troops to drive back the marauders, Mr. Perkins resumed his journey on the 15th of July. Next day he overtook the Pasha, who assured him that he could not safely go in advance of his army. The only alternative was to return to Erzroom for several weeks, or take a circuitous route through the Russian provinces. He thought it best to choose the latter course, and the Pasha kindly furnished him with a guard of horsemen as far as the frontier. On the 22d they crossed into Georgia, and soon found themselves subjected to a most annoying quarantine of fourteen days. The laws of the empire in that province were very oppressive, particularly in their operation upon travellers. The ukase of the Emperor Alexander, favoring the introduction of foreign goods for ten years subsequent to 1822, had expired. Consequently Mr. Perkins was not allowed to take any of his baggage with him, except wearing apparel, not even medicines; he was required to send all back into Turkey. Resuming his journey on the 7th of August, Mr. Perkins passed on rapidly to the Arras, which divides Georgia from Persia. Here he was needlessly and wantonly detained six days, for his passports. The hardships resulting from such treatment, with other causes, had now brought Mrs. Perkins into a very critical state of health. As a last resort, Mr. Perkins addressed a letter to Sir John Campbell, British ambassador at Tabriz, describing their situation, and enclosing his letters of introduction to that gentleman. Scarcely had he crossed into Persia, three days after, although his distance from Tabriz was not less than a hundred miles, when he was met by a courier from the ambassador, with a letter written in the kindest terms, and the duplicate of another which he had procured from the Russian ambassador to the officials on the frontier, with a view to put an immediate stop to Mr. Perkins' detention. The kindness of the same gentleman led him to send a takhtrawan for Mrs. Perkins, together with delicacies for her comfort on the way.

A providential escape occurred during the first night after crossing the Arras. Their road led up a high mountain. As they were ascending it, the forward mule of the takhtrawan became obstinate, and suddenly ran back, forcing the one behind upon the very brink of the precipice, along which the road ran; and had not divine mercy stayed them just there, takhtrawan, bearers, and occupant would have been dashed down the precipice together.

The following day, they had the pleasure of meeting Dr. Riach, physician of the embassy, whom they had seen at Constantinople, and who had come, with a Russian travelling passport, determined to cross the frontier, if necessary, and remain with them until their liberation. The medical skill of Dr. Riach did much to aid Mrs. Perkins in completing the journey to Tabriz, where they arrived on the 23d of August, seventy-four days after their departure from Trebizond. Three days after, Mrs. Perkins became the mother of a daughter, of whose existence she was unconscious for several days. Her life was probably saved, under God, through the combined skill and kind attentions of three English physicians, who were then providentially at Tabriz. The Ambassador was exceedingly kind; so were Mr. and Mrs. Nesbit, who have been already introduced to the reader. Dr. Riach, afterwards at the head of the embassy, stayed five days and nights with Mrs. Perkins, not retiring from the house till he saw some hope of her recovery. "The treatment we received from them on our first arrival," writes the missionary nine years after, "is but a specimen of their kindness to us from that period to the present."

The field about to be occupied was of limited extent. The Nestorians numbered not more than one hundred and fifty thousand souls. Their territory extended from Lake Oroomiah three hundred miles westward to the Tigris, and two hundred miles from north to south, embracing some most rugged mountain ranges, and several very beautiful and fertile plains, the largest of which formed the district of Oroomiah. Education was then at the lowest ebb among the people, hardly a score of men being intelligent readers, while only one woman, the sister of Mar. Shimon, was able to read at all. They had no printed books, and but very few manuscripts of even portions of the Bible, and these were in the ancient Syriac, which was an unknown tongue to almost all of them. Their spoken language was an unwritten dialect of the Syriac. Still deeper was their moral degradation, almost every command of the decalogue being transgressed without compunction, or even shame when detected. Yet they were entirely accessible to the Protestant missionary, and were more Scriptural in their doctrines and ritual, with far less of bigotry, than any other Oriental sect; so much so, indeed, that the Nestorians were sometimes called the "Protestants of Asia."

Mr. Perkins wisely determined upon acquiring a knowledge of the Syriac before going to reside among them. To obtain a teacher, he visited Oroomiah in October, accompanied by the Rev. Mr. Haas, of the Basle Missionary Society, then residing at Tabriz. The manner in which he was everywhere received by the Nestorians was exceedingly encouraging, and he obtained the services of Mar Yohannan, one of their most intelligent bishops, as a teacher, who brought with him a young priest, scarcely less promising than the bishop himself.

Asahel Grant, M. D., and wife, left Trebizond for Persia September 17, 1835, accompanied by Rev. James L. Merrick, who was to commence a mission to the Mohammedans of Persia. Mr. Perkins met them at Erzroom, to assist on their journey through the inhospitable region of the Koords.

The province called Oroomiah is situated in the northwestern part of modern Persia. It is the northwestern part of ancient Media. A beautiful lake, eighty miles long and thirty broad, and four thousand feet above the level of the sea, is its boundary on the east, and a chain of snow-covered mountains bounds it on the west. The water of the lake is so salt and bituminous that fish cannot live in it, while its shores are enlivened by numerous water-fowl, of which the beautiful flamingo is most conspicuous.² The plain contains about three hundred villages and hamlets, and is covered with fields, gardens, and vineyards, which are irrigated by streams from the mountains. The landscape is one of the most lovely in the East, and its effect is heightened by its contrast with the adjacent heights, on which not a solitary tree is to be seen. Along the water-courses are willows, poplars, and sycamores; and the peach, apricot, pear, plum, and other fruits impart to large sections the appearance of a forest. Near the centre of the plain, four hundred feet above the lake, stands the city of Oroomiah. It dates from a remote antiquity, and claims to be the birthplace of Zoroaster. It is built chiefly of unburnt brick, is surrounded by a high mud wall and a ditch, and has a population of twenty-five thousand, of whom the larger part are Mohammedans. The Nestorians of the plain were estimated at twenty thousand.

Dr. Grant left Tabriz six days in advance of his associates, to prepare for their coming. But so tardy had been the carpenters, that Mr. Perkins and the ladies found things in a very sorry condition. It was late in November, and after facing a driving rain all day, they had to content themselves with unfinished and unfurnished rooms; and as the muleteers did not arrive with their baggage, they had neither bedding, nor a change of clothing. But they had a blazing fire, and provisions from the market, with a sharpened appetite, and slept comfortably on piles of shavings, covered with the clothes they had dried by the fire.

Dr. Grant awakened great interest as a physician. He was continually thronged with patients sick with all manner of diseases, real and imaginary. Moslems and Nestorians came together. Children brought their aged parents, and mothers their little ones. Those blinded by ophthalmia were led by the hand. Those relieved from suffering were ready to kiss his feet, or even his shoes at the door. But it was a laborious and trying position. A thousand silly questions must be answered. Nor was there any certainty that the prescriptions would be followed, even if understood; and every Nestorian, though suffering under the most alarming disease, would sooner die than touch a spoonful of chicken-broth during a fast. Dr. Grant gained great repute by the removal of cataracts, and the consequent restoration of sight. There were patients from great distances. Nestorians came from the mountains, Koordish chiefs from the regions beyond, and some from the distant borders of Georgia. Among the multitudes, were the governor of the province, two princes of the royal family, and many of the Persian nobles. His services were gratuitous, he made no show to attract customers, and being ready to aid the native physicians with both medicine and instruction he gave them no offense.

Dr. Grant possessed a rare fitness for the position. I have a vivid recollection of him at the time of the annual meeting of the Board at Utica in 1834, when he presented himself, one stormy evening, to offer his services as a physician for the mission to the Nestorians. What specially impressed me was his commanding form and mien, joined with calm decision and courage, qualities eminently fitting him for a life in Koordistan. The impressions made by that brief personal interview, were sustained and strengthened through a most intimate correspondence till his death.

It is in the early stage of a mission, that the value of a pious physician is most apparent. With the exaggerated conceptions usually entertained of the temporal blessings he is able to confer, he is welcomed by all classes from the first. Every door is opened, every man and woman is accessible. The good-will thus awakened is more or less shared by his fellow missionaries, and is thus likely to be all the sooner confirmed by a spiritual appreciation of the Gospel.

Soon after their arrival, the missionaries were invited to attend a wedding at Geog-tapa, a large Nestorian village five miles distant. As they approached, a multitude came out to meet them, with trumpets and drums, and shouts of "welcome, welcome." The pupils of an English school, which priest Abraham had opened, saluted them with "good morning." They found a fat buffalo just knocked down before the bridegroom's house, and the bride was standing, like a veiled statue, in the farther corner of a large room, which was soon filled by the rushing multitude. It was customary to have the marriage ceremony in the church, commencing at least an hour before day because of its length, and because all parties, even the officiating priests, were obliged to fast till it was over; but out of regard to the strangers, it was deferred till their arrival, and was in the dwelling of the bridegroom's family. Priest Abraham officiated, assisted by two other priests and by several deacons, in reading the prayers and Scripture selections, all in the ancient Syriac. After an hour's reading, the time came for joining hands. Several women caught hold of the veiled bride, and pulled her by main force half across the room toward her intended husband. Several men at the same time seized the bridegroom, who, after a modest resistance, yielded and advanced towards the bride. He was not able to secure her hand, however, without a struggle, but at length succeeded; and then both took a submissive stand near the officiating clergy. After reading another hour or more, the bishops, priests, and missionaries, with the multitude, advanced and kissed the married pair.

Mr. Perkins engaged Mar Gabriel, a bishop, fair in form, but of a restless spirit, to reside with him as his teacher in Syriac; and the year did not close before this indefatigable missionary commenced reducing the modern Syriac to writing, with the aid of priest Abraham, who wrote a beautiful hand. His first translation was the Lord's Prayer. The Nestorians were much interested, having never heard reading in their spoken language. Even the sober priest could not refrain from immoderate laughter, as he repeated line after line of his own writing.

What soon became a seminary for males was commenced on the 18th of January, 1836, with seven boys from the city, and the number was soon increased to fifty by accessions from the surrounding region, among whom were three deacons and one priest. Manuscript cards prepared by Mr. Perkins supplied the place of books. They read in the ancient Syriac, and the cards in the modern dialect, and in English, and also wrote with their fingers in sand-boxes, and made some progress in arithmetic. There were several free schools, but only a very small proportion of the hundred pupils were females. Several of the clergy resided with the mission, and conducted worship once on each Sabbath in their own language. At this service a portion of Scripture was read, which they had previously studied with Mr. Perkins, and its meaning was explained and enforced. It is a singular fact, that Dr. Grant was obliged to teach a Mohammedan school during a small part of each day, to quiet the Mussulmans, who were jealous of these favors to their despised Christian subjects, and resentfully inquired, "Are we to be passed by?"

Experience showed that the families had been removed to Oroomiah too soon; for it took place during cold weather, and the new mud used in repairing the walls of their chambers had not been sufficiently dried. This predisposed them to disease during the hot, malarious summer, when all were more or less affected with illness. A bilious fever brought Mr. Perkins to the borders of the grave; and while he lay thus sick, and at one time insensible, Dr. and Mrs. Grant were seized with fever and ague. Missionary labors were of course suspended. The Nestorians sympathized deeply, and rendered all the aid in their power, and Mohammedans also manifested much concern.

¹ Tracey's History, p. 312. See also Missionary Herald for 1838, pp. 289–298. Narses on being expelled from Edessa, opened a school at Nisibis, AD 490, which became celebrated. About the same time, Acacius, also from Edessa, established a school at Seleucia. It was revived in 530, and was in existence as late as 605. A school was established at Dorkena, AD 585. At Bagdad were two schools in 832, and two others were in its neighborhood. Schools existed at Terhana, Mahuza, Maraga, and Adiabene, in Assyria, and at Maraga, in Aderbijan. There were also schools in Elam, Persia, Korassan, and Arabia. The school at Nisibis had a three years' course of study. The studies to a great extent were theological; but to the study of the Bible, they added, in the schools generally, the study of grammar, rhetoric, poetry, dialetics, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy, medicine, etc.

² An analysis of the water of the lake is said to have proved it to be highly charged with sulphureted hydrogen.