The district, which the brethren from Scio had specially in view, was exceedingly uninviting to an observer from the sea; where it seemed to be only a mass of rocky cliffs and mountains, gradually rising from the sea to St. Elias, the highest peak of Taygetus. Yet among these rocks were upwards of a hundred villages, containing from thirty to forty thousand souls. Many of these were probably of true Spartan descent, and they had always maintained a degree of independence. The old Bey of Máne had prepared the way for the two brethren by letters from Athens, where he then resided, and they were gladly received, and soon decided on removing their families to Ariopolis; situated on the western slope of the mountain ridge, and the chief town of the province of Laconia. The two families arrived in May, 1837, and were soon joined by Dr. Gallatti, who had been a faithful friend and helper at Scio. A large house was immediately erected for a Lancasterian school; but no teacher for such a school could be found, since no one was allowed to teach in Greece, except in Ancient Greek, without a diploma from the government; and all was under the superintendent of public schools, who would allow no one to serve the mission. Yet there were hundreds of boys playing about in the streets, who at a moment's notice would have rushed in for instruction, and whose parents would have rejoiced to see them there. A teacher was not obtained until October, 1839, and then only with the aid of Mr. Perdicaris, the American consul; but before the end of the year, the pupils numbered one hundred and seventy, filling the house. Among them was a youth named Kalopothakes, a native of the place, who afterwards became the bold friend and efficient helper of Dr. King. A school for teaching ancient Greek with thirty scholars, had been in operation a year or more. King Otho visited the place early in 1838, and commended the school. The descendants of the ancient Spartans boasted that he was the first monarch they had ever permitted to tread their soil.
Mrs. Houston being threatened with consumption, her husband took her to Alexandria, and afterwards to Cairo, where she died peacefully, on the 24th of November, 1839. After depositing her remains in the Protestant burying-ground at Alexandria, the bereaved husband and father returned, with his child, to his station in Greece, and in the following year visited his native land.
The Greek mission was always affected more or less by the changes of political parties. The missionaries carefully refrained from intermeddling with politics, but every political party had more or less of a religious basis, having something to do with the question, whether a religious reform should be permitted. Early in 1840 the government discovered the existence of a secret association, called the "Philorthodox," one object of which was to preserve unchanged all the formality and superstition which had crept into the Greek Church. It had both a civil and a military head, and was believed to be hostile to the existing government, and on the eve of attempting a religious revolution, by which all reform should be excluded. Several of the leaders were arrested; and the Russian Ambassador and Russian Secretary of Legation were both recalled, because of their connection with it. The leaders were brought to trial, but the society had influence enough to procure their acquittal. Its civil head was banished, and its military head was sent to Ægina for a military trial. The king then changed most of the members of the Synod, and more liberal ideas seemed to be gaining the ascendency.1
1 Tracy's History, p. 414.
This reform was only partial and temporary. An order was issued by the government in the next year, requiring the Catechism of the Greek Church to be taught in all the Hellenic schools, and Mr. Leyburn was informed that this order applied to his school. The catechism inculcates the worship of pictures and similar practices, and the missionary decided, that he could not teach it himself, nor allow others to teach it in his school. A long negotiation followed, principally conducted by Dr. King. It was proposed that the government employ catechists to teach the catechism to the pupils in the church. The government assented on condition, that no religious instruction should be given in the school, meaning thereby to exclude even the reading of the New Testament; but the missionaries would neither consent to teach what they did not believe, nor to maintain a school from which religious instruction must be excluded. The school was therefore closed, and the station abandoned. It should be noted, that the school was not supported by the government, but by the friends of Greece in the United States, and that no impropriety was alleged on the part of the resident missionary.
As Mr. Leyburn must now leave Greece, and had not health to learn one of the languages of Western Asia, he returned home, with the consent of the Prudential Committee. His former associate, Mr. Houston, was then preparing to join the mission to the Nestorians in Persia, but the sudden failure of his wife's health prevented, and the two brethren afterwards became successful ministers of the Gospel in the Southern States, from which they had gone forth.
A station was commenced among the Greeks on the island of Cyprus in 1834, a year earlier than that on Scio. The Greek population of the island was reckoned at sixty thousand, and the pioneer missionary was the Rev. Lorenzo W. Pease, who arrived, with his wife, in the last month of the year. As it was proposed to make this a branch of the Syrian mission, Mr. Thomson came over from Beirût, and with Mr. Pease explored the island. They found no serious obstacles in the way of distributing the Scriptures and diffusing a knowledge of the Gospel, except in the unhealthiness of the climate. The most healthful location seemed to be Lapithos, a large village on the northwestern shore, two days' journey from Larnica. The village had a charming location, rising from the base of the mountain, and ascending the steep declivity a thousand feet. From thence perpendicular precipices arose, which sheltered it from the hot south winds. The coast of Caramania was in full view on the north, and refreshing breezes crossed the narrow channel which separated Cyprus from the main land. A magnificent fountain burst from the precipices above, the stream from which foamed through the village, and found its way across the narrow but fertile plain to the sea. This stream turned a number of mills in its descent, and a portion of it was distributed through the gardens, and there, tumbling from terrace to terrace, formed numerous beautiful and refreshing cascades.1
1 For the extended journal of Messrs. Thomson and Pease, see Missionary Herald for 1835, pp. 398-408, 446-452.
The Archbishop of Cyprus being independent of the Patriarch of Constantinople, the encyclical letter against Protestant missions known to have been received from the metropolis, produced no decided hostility. The mission was reinforced in 1836 by the arrival of Rev. Daniel Ladd and wife, and Rev. James L. Thompson. A Lancasterian school had been opened at Larnica with seventy pupils, and a school for educating teachers with fourteen. There was very great need of schools, it being ascertained that, in thirty-six villages between Larnica and Limasol, containing more than a thousand families and a population of more than five thousand, only sixty-seven, besides the priests, could read at all, and the priests not fluently. Among the reasons assigned for this were the burdensome taxes imposed upon the people, and especially on boys at the early age of twelve years, and the general poverty of the parents, constraining them to employ their sons on their farms, or in their oil-mills or wine-presses. Considering that not a place had yet been found, which was salubrious all the year round, and that the people were scattered in eight or nine villages, the missionaries began to despair of a vigorous concentration of their labors, and came to the conclusion, in the year 1837, that it was expedient to go to some more manageable field. The opposition from Constantinople made it expedient to disconnect the schools from the mission. There was, however, from the beginning, a friendly intercourse between the people, including the ecclesiastics, and the missionaries and books and tracts were received without hesitation. This with other considerations induced the missionaries to delay their departure. The funeral of a child of Mr. Pease was attended in one of the Greek churches, and the Greek priests led the way in the procession, chanting the funeral dirge, in which there was nothing exceptionable; leaving at home, out of deference to the father, the cross, the cherubim, and the incense.
In August, 1839, in consequence of remaining too long at Larnica, Mr. Pease was suddenly prostrated by fever, and soon closed his earthly career, at the early age of twenty-nine. He had made great proficiency in the modern Greek language, and looked forward with delight to its use in proclaiming the Gospel to the Greek people. Every month had raised him in the estimation of his brethren, and given new promise of his usefulness. Mrs. Pease returned to the United States, with her two children, in the spring of 1841. Mr. Thompson also returned at the close of the same year. Mr. and Mrs. Ladd were transferred to Broosa, in Turkey, where a large number of people spoke the Greek language.