Mrs. Meriam retained her presence of mind, and placing her infant upon the ground, carefully collected the papers and other articles which the robbers had scattered about, and then sat down to watch the lifeless remains of her husband. The Turkish authorities of the next village sent a conveyance to take her and her precious treasure to a khan. When the moodir saw her in her little room, with her babe and the corpse of her husband, he was much moved, and did what he could for her comfort. He sent a telegram to the governor of Philippopolis, designed for Mr. Clarke, but Mr. Clarke received no notice, and consequently no friend came to meet her. She conveyed the body in her own carriage; and spent the whole of the next night, with her babe, watching the talacca in the open air, vainly listening for the coming of the messenger whom she had so much reason to expect. On the next and last day, she prevailed on a Bulgarian boy to hasten on with a message, which brought Mr. Clarke to her relief, but only just before she entered the city. An immediate burial was necessary. The Austrian, Greek, and French Consuls were very kind, and the Bulgarian church was offered for the funeral.
Mrs. Meriam possessed an excellent constitution, but the strain had been too much for her. A premature confinement followed, and fever, which assumed a typhoid form, closed her earthly career, July 25, about three weeks after her husband's murder.[1]
[1] A statement, made at the time, that Mr. Meriam fired on the assassins was afterwards found to be untrue. Nor did Mrs. Meriam receive any injury at the time of the murder. Nothing was taken from her personally, and no violence was offered her. Missionary Herald, 1863, p. 143.
It was necessary that an example should be made of the murderers. Mr. Seward, Secretary of State at Washington, took Mr. Webster's view as to the rights of missionaries, and removed the doubts of Mr. Morris, the American Minister at the Porte, which had occasioned an unfortunate delay; so that he, with Mr. Goddard the Consul General, put matters in train at Adrianople, which led the Pasha of that province to offer four hundred dollars, and soon after as much more, for information that would insure the detection of the assassins, and to distribute bands of soldiers over the country. Mr. Blunt, the English Consul at Adrianople, offered a reward of ninety dollars on his own responsibility; and with him the Austrian Consul, Mr. Camerlobe, actively coöperated.
These efforts resulted in the arrest, conviction, and execution of three of the five engaged in the murder. The remaining two met with an ignominious and violent death; one having been assassinated, and the other shot down while committing highway robbery in an adjacent province.
A very effectual check was thus put to the brigandage so prevalent before, and the attention of all classes was drawn to the character, position, and aims of the missionaries.
Scarcely a year had elapsed, since Mr. Coffing had fallen by the hands of assassins in Central Turkey; and who can tell how much the punishment inflicted on the murderers of these missionaries, has contributed to the safety of their brethren, or how much it will be instrumental in preventing future massacres of native Christians, as well as missionaries, by fanatical Mohammedans.
The Rev. Henry C. Haskell and wife joined the mission in the autumn of 1862, and assisted Mr. Morse in forming a new station at Sophia, about four days' journey northwest of Philippopolis. In the following year, Miss Mary E. Reynolds took charge of a school for girls at Eski Zagra, which had been successfully commenced by a young woman from Catholic Bohemia, who spoke the Bulgarian like a native, and gave good evidence of piety. The school was designed for the education of female teachers. The health of Mrs. Crane obliged her and her husband to return home, and ask for a release from their connection with the Board. Adrianople was thus left, for a time, without a missionary. The death of Mr. and Mrs. Meriam stirred up several young men in the school at Philippopolis who became active and successful colporters in the surrounding villages. Many of the people in Sophia were found to possess the Scriptures, and a considerable number were known to read them with interest; but as soon as the fact became known to their acquaintance, they were subjected to persecution.
At Samokov, a pleasant town nine hours to the southeast of Sophia, with a Bulgarian population of ten thousand, there were encouraging indications, and that place proving to be more healthful and a better centre than Sophia, the station was removed thither in 1869.
In 1863, the missionaries of the American Board and the Methodists working in this field held a meeting at Eski Zagra, for cultivating the friendly relations already existing between them. Dr. Wood and Mr. Isaac G. Bliss were present from the Armenian Mission. They found themselves in substantial agreement as to the methods of missionary labor, and also as to the nature of the field. "While some facts of a more or less hopeful nature," writes Mr. Byington, "were reported, the general feeling seemed to be, that the Bulgarians were a very different people from what they were supposed to be, six or eight years ago, and that in our efforts for their good, patience must have her perfect work. They cannot be said to be a particularly depraved people; they are not probably addicted to the grosser sins in any unusual degree; but there seems to be among them a great want of impressibility. When the truth is presented, they at once assent to it, but without any apparent impression on the heart. The brethren generally spoke of the pleasant social intercourse which they enjoyed with the people, but upon religious matters a very painful indifference was manifested."