History Of The Missions Of The American Board Of Commissioners For Foreign Missions Volume I Part 10

Hinsdale, whose life had been seriously endangered by a relapse of fever.

Messrs. Hinsdale and Mitch.e.l.l were forty-one days on their voyage to Smyrna, from whence an Austrian steamer took them to Beirt. Mr. and Mrs. Beadle accompanied them as far as Aleppo, to commence a new station. Mr. Mitch.e.l.l 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 gra.s.s 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. Mitch.e.l.l, 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. Mitch.e.l.l 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. Ra.s.sam had kindly sent to meet them. On the 7th of July, they entered Mosul, and were cordially welcomed by Mr. and Mrs. Ra.s.sam. Mrs. Mitch.e.l.l's disease then a.s.sumed 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. Mitch.e.l.l, and Mrs. Hinsdale was unable to render any a.s.sistance to her husband. It was in these trying circ.u.mstances, 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 a.s.sistance 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 G.o.d sees, the end from the beginning. To the devoted missionary, who dies at the outset of his career, all is satisfactory, however painful the circ.u.mstances, as soon as he pa.s.ses 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 fellows.h.i.+p 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.

Nrllah 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 G.o.d.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 a.s.sembled 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 n.o.bles 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 a.s.sistants 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 Ysf 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. Nrllah 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 a.s.sociates, 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 a.s.sured his missionary guest of the Emir's personal friends.h.i.+p, 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 s.h.i.+mon, 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 s.h.i.+mon, 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 friends.h.i.+p 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 Ysf 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 Ysf 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 Nrllah 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 G.o.d 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 pa.s.sion strong in death.' Desiring to have the will of G.o.d 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 hards.h.i.+ps. 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 s.h.i.+mon's alienation from his American friends. In 1840, after Dr.

Grant had pa.s.sed 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. Ra.s.sam, to Mar s.h.i.+mon, 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 pa.s.sed 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 pa.s.sage 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, ent.i.tled "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 a.s.sure 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 antic.i.p.ated the att.i.tude he would a.s.sume with regard to the American mission. The speedy close of his mission, may be a.s.sumed 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 s.h.i.+mon, he says, "The proceedings of the American Dissenters here necessarily formed a leading topic of our discourse. Through the influence of Nrllah 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 circ.u.mstances. 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 Nrllah 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 n.i.g.g.ardly 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 s.h.i.+mon, 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 oec.u.menical 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 s.h.i.+mon, 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 pa.s.sports 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 pa.s.s among the mountains. He found there his old friend, of Koordish sincerity, Nrllah 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 b.l.o.o.d.y" 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 ma.n.u.scripts 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 ma.s.sacre 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, Ba.s.s, 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 dest.i.tute circ.u.mstances 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 n.o.ble 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 a.s.sumed 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 G.o.d!"

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 G.o.d 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 Nrllah 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 Beirt 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.