pular 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