cks from a newspaper edited by one
Germanos. Pretended revelations and miracles at Naxos inflamed the
zeal of the ignorant and superstitious. Professed eye-witnesses
circulated absurd stories, of girls in the school at Syra being made
"Americans" by sealing them on the arm; that one of them refused to
be sealed, and two horns grew out of her head; and of a boy taken
into a dark room to catechize him, where he saw the devil, and was
frightened out of his senses. It was said, moreover, that the object
of the missionaries was to change the religion of the country, while
they hypocritically professed the contrary; though neither word nor
deed of any missionary of the Board was made the pretext for any of
these accusations. By such means mobs were raised, and the schools
of Syra were, for a time, broken up. Yet the local authorities were
generally prompt in putting down riots, and Germanos was arrested,
and sent to a distant monastery. Dr. King's congregation on the
Sabbath, gradually increased, and there was never a time when he
disposed of more New Testaments, school-books, and tracts.

In 1835, a station was commenced by the Rev. Samuel R. Houston on
the island of Scio. He found the people friendly, and the island
slowly recovering from its ruins. Professor Bambas subsequently
expressed the opinion to Dr. King, that Samos was a more desirable
place, since the better class of Sciotes would never return to Scio
to live under Turkish rule. The station was not continued. In 1837,
Mr. Houston, with the Rev. George W. Leyburn, who had been sent out
to join him, made a tour of observation in Mane, the ancient Sparta,
to see if a station ought not to be formed there, in compliance with
repeated solicitations from Petron Bey, the hereditary chief in that
region. Indeed, in view of causes beyond the control of missionary
societies, the Prudential Committee began to feel themselves
compelled to pass by the Grecian Islands in great measure, and
concentrate their efforts on the main lands.

The station at Argos was strengthened in 1836, by the arrival of
Rev. Nathan Benjamin and wife. The two girls' schools in that place
contained from seventy to one hundred pupils. In the following year,
as Argos was declining in population and intelligence in consequence
of the removal of the seat of government from Napoli, it was decided
that Mr. Benjamin should remove to Athens, and Mr. Riggs to Smyrna.

The district, which the brethren from Sc