Daybreak in Turkey / Second Edition

by James L. Barton

While travelers had repeatedly penetrated the regions to which they were to go, none had made careful, scientific investigation of the people and of the religious and moral conditions. There was not even a map in existence upon which dependence could be placed.

After obtaining at Smyrna and Constantinople all the information possible regarding the Armenians and the country through which they were to pass, these two missionary explorers set out from the latter place on the twenty-first of May, 1830, under their Tartar guide, for the remote interior of the country. The carefully kept journal of this memorable tour is a classic of its kind. Later accounts and fuller knowledge of the region traversed by them and of the people they met give occasion for little change in the story they told to bring it up to date.

At Tocat they visited the grave of Henry Martyn who gave up his life there eighteen years before. On the thirteenth of June they entered the city of Erzerum and found it in the possession of the Russians and the headquarters of their army. The most of the Armenian population had fled. After remaining there for a few days, they pushed on eastward, creating astonishment wherever they went. Their knowledge of Turkish made it possible for them to converse freely with the people, while all were puzzled to explain the fact that their own language was known by foreigners from beyond the sea. None of the inhabitants could understand the purpose of their inquiries, for to all classes a mission solely for the sake of the people was incomprehensible. From here they faced still eastward, visiting Kars, where they met large numbers of Armenians. They continued on through Tiflis, Shoosha, Nakhchevan, Echmiadzin, and Khoy, a distance from Constantinople of more than fifteen hundred miles. When they arrived at Shoosha in the middle of August they were nearly worn out with the extreme fatigue of a journey, in itself most trying, while accommodations at night were often unfit even for a horse. They were also in the midst of cholera which had recently carried off over seventy thousand people.

They passed two and a half months in Shoosha with some German missionaries, which gave an opportunity to recuperate and study more closely the people, country, and languages. On the way to Tabriz, Persia, Mr. Smith was taken seriously ill when seventy miles from the city. Had it not been for the prompt and kindly response of the gentlemen of the English embassy at Tabriz it is doubtful whether he would have survived to reach the city.

Hitherto they had been studying the Armenian especially. At Tabriz they were in contact with the Nestorians, to investigate and report upon whom a special commission had been given them. They were here nearly two months, and then passed on to Salmas, Persia, where they came in contact with the Chaldeans, a class of Nestorians who became Roman Catholics two hundred and fifty years before. From Salmas they continued to Urumia, still in Persia, and were warmly received by the Nestorian leaders.

They returned by way of Erzerum and Trebizond, taking ship from there to Constantinople and Malta, arriving at the latter place July 2, 1831, after an absence of fifteen and a half months. In that time they had traveled over one thousand miles by water and twenty-five hundred miles by horse through a wild country beset with robbers and perils of every kind. Except when entertained by missionaries or representatives of foreign governments, a rare occurrence upon all this journey, they were compelled to occupy Oriental stables or even worse places as caravansaries and endure multifarious privations and hardships. They returned well, bringing a rich store of accurate knowledge regarding the country, people, and religions, which later proved to be of inestimable value in planting missions in all those regions. Their “Researches,” consisting almost entirely of the journals they kept, cover every phase of the life and customs of the people and the conditions of the country. These were printed in two volumes, aggregating nearly seven hundred pages, and for their scientific value to the student of races, religions, geography, and language were at once recognized to be a classic. By this tour and the publication of their “Researches in Armenia,” all that region was opened to the world as a proper field of operation for the Christian missionary.

As a direct result of the work of Messrs. Smith and Dwight, Mr. Perkins was sent to Tabriz in September, 1833, but owing to the unusual difficulties of the way, among which were various warring tribes of Koords, he did not arrive until nearly a year after leaving Boston. In November, 1835, he with Dr. Grant removed from Tabriz to Urumia, and both these places have been the seat of mission work since. In 1835 Trebizond was occupied as a mission station, and four years later missionaries were located in Erzerum. Trebizond is upon the Black Sea and was the port of entry for all that part of the country. It is at the terminus of the great caravan route from Persia to the West, and ever since Xenophon took ship there for Constantinople, with his retreating ten thousand, has held an important place among the ports upon the coast. Erzerum is a week’s journey inland upon the caravan route to Persia and is one of the most important cities in Eastern Turkey. It is situated upon a high plateau nearly six thousand feet above the sea and in the midst of a large population of Armenians, Turks, and Koords.

Dr. Asahel Grant was appointed a missionary in 1835 with the expectation that he would go to Persia. He proceeded to Urumia by way of Trebizond, Erzerum, and Tabriz. It was expected that Dr. Grant, the first missionary physician to enter that country, would investigate the conditions and needs of the mountain Nestorians who occupy the high lands of Eastern Turkey and western Persia. His allotted task demanded extensive journeys amid the wildest, least known, and most dangerous portions of the Ottoman empire. In addition to repeated tours up and down the country, his most important explorations were made in Koordistan and among the head waters of the Tigris and Euphrates rivers. From 1839 to 1845 Dr. Grant visited Van, Diarbekr, Harpoot, Mardin, Mosul, and many other towns of importance, living among the people, studying their life, winning them by the depth and sincerity of his love for them, and planning to reach them by permanently organized missionary operations. Upon a part of these journeys he was accompanied by Mr. Holmes, while much of the time, except for native servants, he was alone.

They reached Diarbekr in July, 1839, and found it in a state of anarchy. Robbery and murder were the order of the day, with a general hatred of all Europeans. They withdrew to Mardin, fifty miles south in Mesopotamia, accompanied by an escort of thirty horsemen sent for their protection by the Turkish pasha. In Mardin their lives were openly threatened. Almost by a miracle were they spared, for a mob suddenly formed and killed the governor in his palace and attacked the lodgings of the missionaries, who were providentially outside the city at the time. The city gate, closed to keep them inside for slaughter, barred them out and so saved their lives.

From here Dr. Grant went on alone to Mosul, upon the Tigris, two hundred miles below Mardin, while Mr. Holmes returned to Constantinople. It is an interesting fact that the house in which he found lodging in this important city of the far interior was but a few feet from the place that was yet to be his grave.