THE ARMENIANS.
1836-1840.
The first visit of Mr. Johnston to Trebizond was in 1834. Through priestly interference, he failed in three successive attempts to procure a house, and at last secured a contract for one only on condition of obtaining a firman from Constantinople. The United States Minister at the Porte procured a vizierial letter, directing that Mr. Johnston suffer no further molestation, and he removed his family thither in the spring of 1835. The breaking out of the plague prevented him for a time from having much intercourse with the people. In August of the next year, he had the pleasure of welcoming the Rev. William C. Jackson and wife as associates.
The Patriarch of the Armenian Church at this time was Stepan, who was averse to severe measures; and Boghos, his vicar, though inclined to oppose the spreading reformation, thought it prudent to do nothing openly. Several high ecclesiastics were on terms of intimacy with the missionaries, and some of them seemed on the point of yielding to the influence of the truth. But generally they were without fixed religious principles, and were ready to follow the lead of the men most able to favor their own advancement in office or emolument. Matteos, the newly appointed bishop of Broosa, was one of these. While residing on the Bosphorus, he was a professed friend of the mission; and after his removal to Broosa, he expressed by letter the most friendly sentiments, and assured Mr. Schneider of his approbation of the school then recently established in that city. But this school, after a few months, was entirely broken up through the agency of this same prelate, who also sought in other ways to weaken and destroy the influence of the missionaries. Somewhat later, having been elevated to the Patriarchate, he became a reckless persecutor of the Protestants of Turkey, as will appear in its proper place.
The beautiful type used by the Catholic-Armenians at Venice, made it necessary for the mission to procure new fonts of type adapted to the taste of the Armenians. The monks of Venice refusing to sell to the mission, Mr. Hallock, the printer, visited the United States, and superintended the cutting of the needful punches. The Prudential Committee, appreciating the new demands, authorized an expenditure of five thousand dollars for punches and types in the Armenian, Greek, and Hebrew languages, and for foundries of types and stereotype plates. After Mr. Hallock's departure, the mission succeeded in procuring two Armenian fonts of great beauty from Vienna.
Meanwhile the Turks were making some advance in civilization. Lancasterian schools were established by them in the barracks of Dolma Baktche and Scutari, which were carried on with remarkable success. The missionaries being present by invitation at a public examination, Azim Bey publicly declared, that the Turks were indebted to them for everything of the kind. Travellers were no longer obliged to depend on slow sailing vessels, since steamers ran every week from Constantinople to Smyrna and Trebizond, and every fortnight to Galatz on the Danube. A road for carriages was constructed from Scutari to Nicomedia, a distance of sixty miles; and as a means of arresting the ravages of the plague, the European style of quarantine was extensively introduced.
The most determined opposers of the mission at this time were the Papists, who spared no pains in exciting prejudice among the Armenians. The Papal Armenians were estimated at from fifteen to twenty thousand, and according to usage in Turkey they had a Patriarch of their own. This functionary came out with a public denunciation of all Protestant books, including the New Testament. He even forbade the receiving of copies of the Armenian Scriptures in the ancient language, which had been printed at their own press in Venice, and were purchased, several years before, by the British and Foreign Bible Society for sale at a reduced price or gratuitous circulation.
There was so much desire for religious instruction among the Armenians, that two weekly meetings, in the Turkish language, were established in Constantinople, one conducted by Mr. Goodell, the other by Mr. Schauffler. Their houses were frequented by ecclesiastics as well as by laymen, and some of the former seemed to be sincere inquirers after the truth. One of them, attached to the patriarchal church, proposed that they publish a revised edition of the modern Armenian New Testament; and offered to subscribe five hundred piastres, or somewhat more than twenty dollars, towards the object, and also to procure aid from others. It was a favorable sign, that bishops and vartabeds began now to give instructions from the sacred Scriptures, instead of the legends of the saints. It subsequently appeared, indeed, that most of them were influenced in this more by public opinion, than by personal interest in the subject. They probably had exaggerated notions as to the actual prevalence of evangelical sentiments.
Female education, which had been almost entirely neglected, began now to receive attention, both at Constantinople and at Smyrna. No regular school, indeed, had as yet been opened for females in the former place, but a few parents were providing means for the instruction of their daughters, and one of the evangelical brethren had a class of twelve Armenian girls. In Smyrna, a school for Armenian girls was opened by the mission in a commodious room, with desks, benches, and cards, and was commenced with the express approval of influential men in the community. More than forty girls attended it the first week. But an influential Armenian made such an appeal to the national pride of his countrymen, that the community assumed the charge of the school, and refunded what the mission had expended on it.
At Constantinople, Der Kevork, the most learned of the fifteen priests ordained in 1833, was at the head of a school of four hundred boys, supported by his countrymen and having no connection with the mission. Kevork boldly introduced the custom of daily reading and explaining the Scriptures. He also selected twenty of his most promising scholars for the critical study of the New Testament.