mbers of the mission. The illness of Mr. Lanneau became at
length so distressing, as to require his absence from the field for
nearly two years. Before his return to the East, which was early in
1843, the Committee had expressed an opinion, that it was expedient
to suspend further efforts at Jerusalem. Mr. Lanneau, however,
resumed his abode there until the visit of the writer, with Dr.
Hawes, in the spring of 1844, This was after there had been a
protracted conference with the mission at Beirut, at which nothing
appeared to affect the decision of the Prudential Committee, and Mr.
Lanneau removed with his family to Beirut. Writing of Jerusalem to
the Committee, Dr. Hawes says: "In regard to this city, viewed as a
field for missionary labor, I saw nothing which should give it a
special claim on our attention. It has indeed a considerable
population, amounting perhaps to seventeen or eighteen thousand. But
it is such a population as seemed to me to bear a near resemblance
to the contents of the sheet which Peter saw let down from heaven by
the four corners. It is composed of well-nigh all nations and of all
religions, who are distinguished for nothing so much as for jealousy
and hatred of each other. As to the crowds of pilgrims who annually
visit the Holy City,--a gross misnomer, by the way, as it now
is,--they are certainly no very hopeful subjects of missionary
effort; drawn thither, as they are, chiefly by the spirit of
superstition; and during the brief time they remain there, kept
continually under the excitement of lying vanities, which without
number are addressed to their eyes, and poured in at their ears."

The burying-ground belonging to the Board, on a central part of
Mount Zion, near the so-called "Tomb of David," and not far from the
city, inclosed by a stone wall, was reserved for a Protestant
burying-place, to be for the use of all sects of Protestant
Christians.

CHAPTER III.

SYRIA.

1823-1828.

The civil and social condition of Jerusalem and Palestine was such,
on the arrival of Messrs. Bird and Goodell in 1823, that their
brethren advised them to make Beirut the centre of their operations.
The advice was followed; and this was the commencement of what took
the name of the Syria Mission.

The ancient name of Beirut was Berytus. The city is pleasantly
situated on the western side of a large bay, and has a fertile soil,
with a supply of good water, sufficient in ordinary seasons, from