excellent Arabic, and afterwards
multiplied copies for distribution. It was a tract destined to exert
an important influence.

Mr. King's term of service had now expired; and on the 26th of
August, 1825, after three years of active and very useful missionary
labors, he left Syria homeward bound. He went first to Tarsus by
ship, and thence, by what proved a tedious land journey, to Smyrna.
His clothes, books, papers, and several valuable manuscripts were
sent by a vessel, that was taken by a Greek cruiser, and only a part
of them were returned. On his arrival at Smyrna, December 4, he
received the painful intelligence of the death of his beloved
associate at Beirut.

Mr. King remained several months at Smyrna, waiting the recovery of
his effects, making good progress, meanwhile, in the modern Greek
language, and doing much service for the Greeks. He then visited
Constantinople with the Rev. Mr. Hartley, of the Church Missionary
Society, where he was received by several high Greek ecclesiastics
with a kindness similar to that he had received from the Greeks of
Egypt, Palestine, Syria, and Asia Minor. It was after his departure,
that a copy of his Farewell Letter found its way into the hands of
Armenians, who brought it before a council convened for the purpose,
as will be related hereafter. He returned to France just four years
from the time of his departure to enter upon his mission. Pious
people were everywhere exceedingly eager to hear his statements.
Enough was contributed by friends in Paris, to purchase a font of
Armenian type for the press at Malta, which he ordered before
leaving the metropolis. When in England he obtained funds for Arabic
types, and left orders for a font in London. Mrs. Hannah More, then
at an advanced age, was among the contributors. He returned home at
the close of the summer of 1827, and soon after the annual meeting
of the Board made a tour as agent through the Southern and Middle
States, which occupied him till April of the following year. The
Rev. Edward N. Kirk (now Dr. Kirk of Boston) was associated with him
in this agency.

Mr. Fisk had a good constitution, and would probably have endured
the climate of Syria for many years, with no more strain upon it in
the way of travel, than subsequent experience warranted. The reader
of the preceding pages will be prepared to apprehend special danger
from his return to Beirut in a season, that was sickly beyond the
recollection of the oldest o