Able to return to his family on the 11th of July, Mr. Thomson found his wife suffering from ophthalmia, with high inflammatory fever. Two days afterwards, Mr. Nicholayson was attacked with a fever, and the children were all sick. The case of Mrs. Thomson baffled all their skill. Convinced herself that she would not recover, the thought did not alarm her. For many weeks, she had been in the clearer regions of faith, enjoying greater nearness to God in prayer than ever before, with greater assurance of her interest in the covenant of grace through the Redeemer. She had indeed cherished the hope of laboring longer to bring some of the degraded daughters of Jerusalem to the Saviour; but the Lord knew best, and to His will she cheerfully submitted. She died peacefully on the 22d of July, 1834. The bereaved husband was apprehensive of difficulty in obtaining a suitable place for her burial; but the Greek bishop gave permission, and took the whole charge of preparing the grave.
Mr. Thomson now visited Beirût to confer with his brethren, and was advised to remove to that place. The Rev. George B. Whiting and wife and Dr. and Mrs. Dodge, were to occupy the station thus vacated, aided by Miss Betsey Tilden. Dr. Dodge accompanied Mr. Thomson on his return, and assisted him in removing his babe and his effects to Beirût; and on the 22d of October he and Mr. Whiting were on their way with their families to Jerusalem.
Early in the winter, Dr. Dodge was called to Beirût to prescribe for Mrs. Bird, who was dangerously sick. Mr. Nicholayson returned with him to Jerusalem, arriving there on the 3d of January, 1835, cold, wet, and exhausted with fatigue, having traveled on horseback nearly seventeen hours the last day. The peril of such an exposure in that climate was not realized at the time. Both were soon taken sick, and Dr. Dodge rapidly sunk, though a physician from one of the western States of America arrived at the critical moment, and remained with him to the last. He died on the 28th of January, and Mrs. Dodge removed to Beirût. The arrival of Rev. John F. Lanneau in the spring of 1836, furnished an associate for Mr. Whiting. A school was opened, and numerous books were sold to the pilgrims. Early in the next year, Tannûs Kerem of Safet was engaged as a native assistant. He was born and educated in the Latin Church, but in thought and feeling was with the mission, and enlarged their personal acquaintance and influence. In the summer the cholera appeared, and swept off four hundred victims in a month. Mr. Homes, of the mission to Turkey, was there at the time, and all devoted themselves to the gratuitous service of the sick, a thing unknown before in that region. They gave medical aid to many, nearly all of whom recovered, and thus gained many friends. Preaching was commenced in September to a small but attentive congregation. Mrs. Whiting and Miss Tilden had an interesting school, composed chiefly of Mohammedan girls. There was also a school for boys under a Greek teacher, with twenty-four pupils. In 1838, Mr. Whiting was obliged, by the protracted sickness of his wife, to visit the United States, and Mr. Lanneau was alone at Jerusalem, with Tannûs Kerem, and suffering from extreme weakness of the eyes; but was encouraged by the arrival of Rev. Charles S. Sherman and wife in the autumn of 1839. The new missionary expressed his surprise at finding the different classes so little affected by the prejudices of sect in their intercourse with members of the mission. The illness of Mr. Lanneau became at length so distressing, as to require his absence from the field for nearly two years. Before his return to the East, which was early in 1843, the Committee had expressed an opinion, that it was expedient to suspend further efforts at Jerusalem. Mr. Lanneau, however, resumed his abode there until the visit of the writer, with Dr. Hawes, in the spring of 1844, This was after there had been a protracted conference with the mission at Beirût, at which nothing appeared to affect the decision of the Prudential Committee, and Mr. Lanneau removed with his family to Beirût. Writing of Jerusalem to the Committee, Dr. Hawes says: "In regard to this city, viewed as a field for missionary labor, I saw nothing which should give it a special claim on our attention. It has indeed a considerable population, amounting perhaps to seventeen or eighteen thousand. But it is such a population as seemed to me to bear a near resemblance to the contents of the sheet which Peter saw let down from heaven by the four corners. It is composed of well-nigh all nations and of all religions, who are distinguished for nothing so much as for jealousy and hatred of each other. As to the crowds of pilgrims who annually visit the Holy City,—a gross misnomer, by the way, as it now is,—they are certainly no very hopeful subjects of missionary effort; drawn thither, as they are, chiefly by the spirit of superstition; and during the brief time they remain there, kept continually under the excitement of lying vanities, which without number are addressed to their eyes, and poured in at their ears."
The burying-ground belonging to the Board, on a central part of Mount Zion, near the so-called "Tomb of David," and not far from the city, inclosed by a stone wall, was reserved for a Protestant burying-place, to be for the use of all sects of Protestant Christians.
CHAPTER III.
SYRIA.
1823-1828.
The civil and social condition of Jerusalem and Palestine was such, on the arrival of Messrs. Bird and Goodell in 1823, that their brethren advised them to make Beirût the centre of their operations. The advice was followed; and this was the commencement of what took the name of the Syria Mission.
The ancient name of Beirût was Berytus. The city is pleasantly situated on the western side of a large bay, and has a fertile soil, with a supply of good water, sufficient in ordinary seasons, from springs flowing out of the adjacent hills. Its population and wealth have greatly increased of late. The anchorage for ships is at the eastern extremity of the bay, two miles from the city. Lebanon rises at no great distance on the east, stretches far toward the north and the south, and is a healthful and pleasant resort for Franks in summer. There is a large and beautiful plain on the south, abounding in olive, palm, orange, lemon, pine, and mulberry trees. Damascus was then distant three days, but less time is required now, by reason of the new macadamized road. Sidon might be reached in one day, Tyre in two, and Tripoli in three. An additional motive, in those troublous times, for making Beirût a central station, was the protection afforded by Mr. Abbott, a friendly English Consul.
The two brethren landed, with their wives, October 16th. During the nine mouths of their sojourn at Malta, they had made considerable progress in the Italian language, which was spoken extensively in the Levant; and now, without wholly neglecting the Italian, they applied themselves to the languages of Syria.