1 For an account of this tour, see Missionary Herald, 1842, pp. 310-320.
The Jacobites are a branch of the venerable Church of Antioch, and were then painfully struggling to repel the inroads of the Papacy. As soon as they learned the adherence of the American missionaries to the Bible, and their opposition to Papal innovations, they began to welcome them as friends. Having been duped by the plausible pretenses of the Papists, they were at first cautious in their advances; but a priest from the Syrian Christians in India, named Joseph Matthew, on his way to be ordained metropolitan by the Syrian Patriarch at Mardin, did much to dispel their fears, and promote friendly relations with the missionaries. He was a graduate of the English college at Cotayam, was evangelical in his views, spoke English with propriety, and at once gave the right hand of fellowship to the missionaries, and bespoke for them the confidence of the people. Early in the following year, he returned from Mardin as Bishop Athanasius, and consented to remain and preach among the Jacobites during Dr. Grant's absence in the summer.
Nûrûllah Bey had now commenced making war on the mountain Nestorians, with the aid of the Turks; and the Nestorians, split into hostile parties, were incapable of combined resistance. Suleiman Bey, being opposed to an alliance with Turkey, had seized the reins of government in the absence of the Emir; and since the object of the Osmanlis was to subjugate the Nestorians, as well as the Koords, the Patriarch naturally, but as it proved unhappily, sided with Suleiman.1
1 Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians, p. 203.
Dr. Grant believed it would now be easier to enter the mountains from the east, than from the west. Accordingly he set out for Oroomiah, on the 6th of June, 1842, going the southern route by way of Ravandooz. Mr. Hinsdale and Bishop Athanasius accompanied him the first day. When about to return, the bishop offered prayer in the English language, and thus they parted, not all to meet again. Athanasius wrote a letter to Dr. Grant from Malabar, but with a date nearly a year subsequent to Dr. Grant's death, in which he stated, that his people had welcomed him with great joy, and gladly received the Word of God.1
1 Dr. Grant and the Mountain Nestorians, p. 219.
Dr. Grant crossed the plain of Arbela, where Alexander conquered Persia, and in ten days arrived at Oroomiah. Being impatient to get into the mountains, the mission assembled immediately, and delegated Mr. Stocking to accompany him. Dr. Wright said of him, at this time, that "his spirits were buoyant, his step elastic, and his energy untiring." Two Nestorians went with them, and they had letters from the governor and some Persian nobles to the Persian Khan and the Emir of the Hakary Koords. At Khosrawa, Mr. Stocking was constrained by sickness to return; and both the native assistants were so alarmed by the warlike aspect of things, that they declined going farther. The now solitary traveller succeeded, at the last moment, in getting the brave bishop Mar Yûsûf to be his companion.
The Emir had now broken his treaty with the Sultan, formed two years before in the hope of immediate aid to subdue the Nestorians; and had sworn perpetual allegiance to the Shah, who promised him support against the Sultan. Dr. Grant found Yahya Khan and the Emir at the castle of Charreh, on the summit of an isolated rock near the river of the same name. The tents of more than a dozen chiefs dotted the green banks of the stream. Nûrûllah Bey still professed to regard Dr. Grant as his physician and friend, and in the presence of the Khan promised to protect him and his associates, and permit them to erect buildings in Tiary for themselves and their schools.
The Khan, to whose friendly agency with the Emir Dr. Grant was specially indebted, had a good reputation for integrity. He was a Persian subject, then governor of Salmas, and also chief of a branch of the Hakary tribe. He had married a sister of the Emir, and given him one of his own in return, and another was in the harem of the Shah. He assured his missionary guest of the Emir's personal friendship, and interested himself for his future safety.
After sundry adventures among precipitous mountains and savage Koords, Dr. Grant was once more the guest of Mar Shimon, who kindly received the New Testament, the Psalms, and other books from the mission press. The Doctor was himself suffering from the effects of exposure in a wet dormitory the previous night; but the bracing air of that elevated region renewed his strength, and he was glad to resume his journey towards Asheta, which he had proposed as the site of his first mountain station. On this part of the way he had the company of Mar Shimon, who had then decided not to join the Koords and Persians against the Turks, having discovered that the strife between them was for the supremacy over his own people. Of the two he preferred the Turks. He was, however, advised by Dr. Grant to cultivate the friendship of the Emir. Further than this Dr. Grant would not interfere, being, fully resolved not to meddle with their political relations. A secret correspondence of the Patriarch with the Turkish Pasha, when discovered, cost him the favor of the Emir; and it soon became apparent that the Turks, whatever their pretensions, were resolved upon nothing short of the complete subjugation of his people. It was but too evident, also, to his missionary friend, that the Patriarch was himself more concerned for their political, than for their religious and moral condition.