The departure from Constantinople was near the close of May, in the most charming season of the year. As in the journey from Smyrna, they put themselves under a Tartar, who, for their greater security, had set his seal to a written contract in presence of the Tartar aghasy. The government became thus responsible for their persons and property. Instead of trunks, they had two large bags, two saddle-bags, and two valises, all of thick Russian leather, fastened with padlocks, and impermeable to water. Instead of mattresses, each had a carpet and coverlet rolled in painted canvas, that served as a floor at night, when it was their lot to lie on the ground. Each had an ample Turkish pelisse, lined with the fur of the Caucasian fox. Four copper pans, a mill for grinding coffee, a pot, cups, and a knife, fork, and spoon for each, were their utensils for cooking and eating. A circular piece of leather served for a table when spread upon the ground, and when drawn together like a lady's reticule, and suspended from the saddle, it formed a bag to carry their bread and cheese. The whole was so compact as to require, on ordinary occasions, but a single extra horse. As the Turkish post furnished only horses, they were obliged to add saddles and bridles to their other accoutrements; and to their saddles, as was usual, were attached holsters, to deter from hostile attacks upon them. To avoid unnecessary notice, expense, and trouble, if not insult, they wore loose Turkish robes, the Oriental turban, and the enormous Tartar stockings and boots. Of course they had also the needful firmans, passports, and letters of introduction.
Their route lay along what at that time might be called, for the most part, the high road to Tabriz, and passed through Tokat, Erzroom, Kars, Tiflis, Shoosha, Nakhchevan, Echmiadzin, and Khoy, a distance of more than fifteen hundred miles. At Tokat, the travellers visited the grave of Henry Martyn, who died there in 1812. On the 13th of June, they entered Erzroom, then in possession of an invading army of Russians; which soon retired, and was accompanied by a large portion of the Armenian population in that district. The Turks of Erzroom found it hard to comprehend from what country the travellers came. Kars, Tiflis, Shoosha, and Echmiadzin had been subjected to Russian rule. Tiflis was the capital of Georgia. Shoosha, where they arrived about the middle of August, worn down by fatigue in descending the insalubrious valley of the Koor, or Cyrus, was then the seat of a German mission, which gave a cordial reception to their American brethren. The cholera prevailed in all that region, and it was estimated that as many as seventy thousand people died of it, during the two months and a half our travellers spent in Shoosha. They gave an interesting account of the German colonies in Georgia, which had their origin in extravagant views concerning the millennium. "Previous to 1817, several popular and ardent ministers in the kingdom of Würtemberg maintained, in commentaries on the Apocalypse and other publications, that the wished-for period would commence in 1836, and would be preceded by a dreadful apostasy and great persecutions. These views, in addition to the fascinating interest always connected with prophetical theories, being enforced with much pious feeling, acquired so great credit as to be adopted by nearly all the religious people in the kingdom, and by many others. At the same time, the advocates of the neological system, being the predominant party in the clergy, succeeded in effecting some alterations in the prayers and hymns of the Church in accommodation to their errors. This grieved exceedingly all who were attached to evangelical principles, and was taken to be the apostasy they expected. Their prophetical teachers had intimated that, as in the destruction of Jerusalem the Christians found a place of refuge, so would there be one now, and that, somewhere in the vicinity of the Caspian Sea. Many, therefore, of the common people determined to seek the wished-for asylum, that they and their children (for whom the better sort were particularly anxious) might escape the impending storm, and also be able to form an independent ecclesiastical establishment according to their own notions. To these were joined others desirous of change, or in straitened circumstances, who though not at heart pious, professed for the time to be influenced by the same principles and motives. In fact the latter became the most numerous. The company, when it left Würtemberg, consisted of fifteen hundred families. But no adequate arrangement having been made for the journey, and the sinister motives of the majority contributing to create disorder, they suffered exceedingly on the way, and before they reached Odessa, two thirds had died."1 The number of the colonists, in 1832, was about two thousand, but their enterprise had not been successful.
1 Missionary Researches in Armenia, vol. i. p. 264.
On the way from Echmiadzin to Tabriz, a distance of nearly two hundred and fifty miles, Mr. Smith suffered greatly from illness. When seventy miles from that city, his strength gave out entirely, so that he could go no farther with the conveyances then at command. His life was probably saved by Mr. Dwight's sending a messenger to the gentlemen of the English embassy at Tabriz, requesting the aid of a takhtirewán, the only native carriage known to the Persians. It resembles a sedan-chair, except in being borne by two mules or horses, and closed from the external air, and in requiring a lying posture. The vehicle soon arrived; but was preceded by Dr. McNeill, the physician and first assistant of the embassy, who then commenced those acts of kindness which ever endeared him to the Nestorian mission. Colonel McDonald, the ambassador, had lately died, and Dr. McNeill was soon obliged to leave for Teherán. Dr. Cormick, who had healed Henry Martyn of a similar disease, then took the medical charge of Mr. Smith. After their long experience of filthy stables, the comfortable, well-furnished apartments provided for them at Tabriz, through the generous hospitality of Major Willock, former commander of the English forces in Persia, and Captain Campbell, the acting Envoy, were more grateful to the weary travellers than can well be conceived. Mr. Nisbit, an officer in the commissariat department, together with his wife, entered fully into their feelings as missionaries, and sympathized with them in their views of the spiritual wants of the country.
Messrs. Smith and Dwight were required by their instructions, to investigate and report on the condition of the Nestorians inhabiting the northwestern province of Persia. In former ages, this people had been distinguished beyond any other Christian people—except perhaps, their contemporaries in Ireland—for missionary zeal and enterprise. From the seventh to the thirteenth centuries, they had missions both in central and eastern Asia. Previous to the overthrow of the Califate, A. D. 1258, their churches were scattered over the region forming modern Persia, and were numerous in Armenia, Mesopotamia, and Arabia. They had churches in Syria; on the island of Cyprus; among the mountains of Malabar; and in the extended regions of Tartary, from the Caspian Sea to Mount Imaus, and beyond through the greater part of what is now known as Chinese Tartary, and even in China itself. The names of twenty-five metropolitan sees are on record, embracing of course a far greater number of bishoprics, and still more numerous congregations.
These facts, though known to learned historians, had fallen out of the popular mind. Indeed, they were not in the recollection of the executive officers of the American Board, when the author drew up the instructions to Messrs. Smith and Dwight. But while preparing them, his attention was incidentally drawn to a brief article in a Virginia publication, from the pen of Dr. Walsh, British chaplain at Constantinople, entitled "Chaldees in Persia;" and it was the impression made by that article, which led to a positive direction to visit that people, should it be found practicable, and see whether the churches in this western world had any duty to perform to them. The English at Tabriz confessed to an almost entire ignorance of the religious doctrines and character of the Nestorians. The only important fact our brethren could learn there was, that a considerable body of them were accessible in the provinces of Oroomiah and Salmas, at the distance of somewhat more than a hundred miles.
Our travellers remained at Tabriz from the 18th of December to March, 1831, when restored health and the opening season permitted them to resume their journey. In Salmas, they first came in contact with the Chaldeans, as those Nestorians were called who had been won over by Roman Catholic missionaries since the year 1681. The name means no more than papal Syrians, or papal Armenians. Some of their bishops and priests had been educated in the college of the Propaganda at Rome, and spoke Italian fluently. The Chaldeans were reported, at that time, as a neglected and declining sect.
Passing from Salmas into the province of Oroomiah, the travellers were received by the Nestorians in the most friendly and confidential manner, and the week passed among them was intensely interesting. While showing very clearly the need the people were in of religious instruction, they gave as additional considerations in favor of sending missionaries to them, their extreme liberality towards other sects, their ideas of open communion, and their entire rejection of auricular confession.
The return of Messrs. Smith and Dwight was by way of Erzroom and Trebizond, thence by sea to Constantinople and Malta, at which last place they arrived on the 2d of July, 1831, after an absence of fifteen months and a half. In this time, their land travel exceeded two thousand and five hundred miles.
The results of their inquiries were embodied by Mr. Smith, during a visit to his native land, under the title of "Researches in Armenia, including a Journey through Asia Minor and into Georgia and Persia, with a Visit to the Nestorian and Chaldean Christians," and were published in two volumes in Boston, and republished in London. Though nearly forty years have since elapsed, there is still a freshness of interest in the entire work, which makes it matter of regret that it is now out of print. The religious condition of the Armenians at that time, is comprehensively stated in the following paragraphs:—