ay. With Messrs. King, Bird, and Goodell around him,
Mr. Fisk thus gives expression to his feelings: "These days of busy,
friendly, joyous intercourse have greatly served to revive the
spirits that drooped, to refresh the body that was weary, and to
invigorate the mind that began to flag. I came here tired of study,
and tired of journeying, but I begin to feel already desirous to
reopen my books, or resume my journeys. We have united in praising
God for bringing us to this land. I suppose we are as cheerful,
contented, and happy, as any little circle of friends in our favored
country. Dear brother Parsons! how would his affectionate heart have
rejoiced to welcome such a company of fellow laborers to this land!
But he is happier in union with the blessed above."

On the 22d of June, 1824, Messrs. Fisk and King set out for
Damascus, where they expected to find peculiar facilities for Arabic
studies. Aleppo being still more advantageous for them, they
proceeded to that city in July, with a caravan, notwithstanding the
intense heat of midsummer. On the 19th, they suffered much from
exposure to the heated air, filled with sand and dust. On the 25th,
they encamped at Sheikhoon, a dirty Mussulman village of a thousand
inhabitants. There was neither tree nor rock to shade them. The
strong wind was almost as hot as if it came from a furnace, and they
had nothing to eat but curdled milk, called _leben_, and bread that
had been dried and hardened by the heat of eight or ten days. Yet it
was the Sabbath, and they declared themselves to be happy. In the
last day of their journey, which was July 28, they were joined by a
large caravan from Latakia, much to their satisfaction, as that
day's journey was considered the most dangerous.

On the 25th of October the brethren started on their return to
Beirut, going by way of Antioch, Latakia, and Tripoli, a journey of
nineteen days. While traveling across the mountains, often in sight
of the ruined old Roman road to Antioch, they were repeatedly
drenched by the great rains of that season. No wonder the brethren
of Mr. Fisk at Beirut were not a little anxious about him, amid such
exposures, but his usual health seems to have returned with the cold
season.

CHAPTER II.

PALESTINE.

1824-1843.

In February, 1824, the Grand Seignior, influenced, as it would
appear, by Rome, issued a proclamation to the Pashas throughout
Western Asia, forbidding the distribution of the Chris