Christ, to read the Word of God, and to be careful to keep all his commandments.

"It was truly an interesting scene; and I was surprised to see the feeling exhibited by the Arabs on my departure. As I left the house, they loaded me with blessings, and, as I passed through the street, many commended me to the care and protection of the Lord."1

1 Report for 1824, p. 121.

In October, Messrs. Fisk and King rode to Tripoli, supposed then to contain fifteen thousand inhabitants. From thence they proceeded to the Maronite Convent of Mâr Antonius Khoshiah, situated on the brow of an almost perpendicular mountain, where was a printing-press. Nearly all the inhabitants of that part of Lebanon are Maronites, acknowledging allegiance to the Pope. Thence they visited the Cedars of Lebanon; and then crossed the rich plain of Coelo-Syria to Baalbek, at the foot of Anti-Lebanon. Several of the places visited in this tour will come more properly into notice in the subsequent history.

Mr. Fisk returned to Jerusalem in the autumn with Mr. Jowett. Just before leaving Beirût, they had the joy of welcoming the Rev. Messrs. William Goodell and Isaac Bird, and their wives, who arrived on the 16th of October. In January, Messrs. King and Bird also went to Jerusalem.

The year 1824 was one of much activity. In February, Messrs. Fisk and Bird were the only missionaries at Jerusalem, Mr. King having gone to Jaffa. While successfully employed in selling the Scriptures to Armenian pilgrims in the city, they were apprehended, at the instigation of the Latins, and brought before Moslem judges on the strange charge of distributing books that were neither Mohammedan, Jewish, nor Christian. Holding up a copy of Genesis, the judge declared it to be among the unchristian books denounced by the Latins. Meanwhile their rooms were searched, and a crier was sent out into the city, forbidding all persons to receive their books, and ordering all that had been received to be delivered up. Their papers were examined, and some of them retained by the government. In a few days, however, through the prompt interference of the English Consul at Jaffa, their papers were all restored, and they were set at liberty. These proceedings becoming widely known, the result was, on the whole, favorable. Mr. Abbott, English Consul at Beirût, learning of the occurrence, wrote to the Pasha at Damascus, and the governor and judge at Jerusalem received an official order to restore to the missionaries whatever had been taken from them, and to secure for them protection and respectful treatment. The governor was shortly after superseded, for what cause was not certainly known; but many people, both Mussulmans and Christians, believed it was in consequence of his ill treatment of Messrs. Fisk and Bird.

Mr. Damiani, son of the English Consul at Jaffa, had come to Jerusalem on their behalf, with a letter from his father to the governor. In company with this young gentleman, the missionaries visited Hebron in February, going by way of Bethlehem. About three miles south of Bethlehem, they came to what are called the Cisterns of Solomon, three in number, of large dimensions, on the side of a hill. Mr. Fisk was informed, that Jerusalem was supplied in part by an aqueduct, which carried its waters from those fountains.1

1 Dr. Robinson says that the modern aqueduct was mostly laid with tubes of pottery; but, northeast of Rachel's tomb, he saw "the traces of an ancient aqueduct which was carried up the slope of the hill by means of tubes, or perforated blocks of stone, fitted together with sockets and tenons, and originally cemented." This was in 1842. Dr. Eli Smith drew my attention in 1845 to the same thing. Such stones are said to be seen nowhere else in that region.

The visit to Hebron had no important results. During the five months spent at Jerusalem, seven hundred copies of Scripture were sold. In the last six weeks, Mr. Fisk suffered from an attack of fever, with headache, restlessness, and tendency to delirium, and had no medical adviser. On the 22d of April, the two brethren went to Jaffa, from whence they proceeded, with Mr. King, to Beirût, where they arrived on the 4th of May. With Messrs. King, Bird, and Goodell around him, Mr. Fisk thus gives expression to his feelings: "These days of busy, friendly, joyous intercourse have greatly served to revive the spirits that drooped, to refresh the body that was weary, and to invigorate the mind that began to flag. I came here tired of study, and tired of journeying, but I begin to feel already desirous to reopen my books, or resume my journeys. We have united in praising God for bringing us to this land. I suppose we are as cheerful, contented, and happy, as any little circle of friends in our favored country. Dear brother Parsons! how would his affectionate heart have rejoiced to welcome such a company of fellow laborers to this land! But he is happier in union with the blessed above."

On the 22d of June, 1824, Messrs. Fisk and King set out for Damascus, where they expected to find peculiar facilities for Arabic studies. Aleppo being still more advantageous for them, they proceeded to that city in July, with a caravan, notwithstanding the intense heat of midsummer. On the 19th, they suffered much from exposure to the heated air, filled with sand and dust. On the 25th, they encamped at Sheikhoon, a dirty Mussulman village of a thousand inhabitants. There was neither tree nor rock to shade them. The strong wind was almost as hot as if it came from a furnace, and they had nothing to eat but curdled milk, called leben, and bread that had been dried and hardened by the heat of eight or ten days. Yet it was the Sabbath, and they declared themselves to be happy. In the last day of their journey, which was July 28, they were joined by a large caravan from Latakia, much to their satisfaction, as that day's journey was considered the most dangerous.

On the 25th of October the brethren started on their return to Beirût, going by way of Antioch, Latakia, and Tripoli, a journey of nineteen days. While traveling across the mountains, often in sight of the ruined old Roman road to Antioch, they were repeatedly drenched by the great rains of that season. No wonder the brethren of Mr. Fisk at Beirût were not a little anxious about him, amid such exposures, but his usual health seems to have returned with the cold season.