d to us. Many, as we passed them, prayed
that God would protect us on our voyage. And others, notwithstanding
the plague, came to our houses to bid us farewell. One thoughtful
youth, who was with us daily, belonging to one of the first Greek
families, was full of grief, and earnestly begged us to take him
with us, though contrary to the will of his parents."

CHAPTER IV.

SYRIA.

THE MARTYR OF LEBANON.

1826-1830.

The conversion, life, and martyrdom of Asaad Shidiak,1 so very early
in the history of this mission, is a significant and encouraging
fact. He not only belonged to the Arab race, but to a portion of it
that had long been held in slavish subjection to Rome. His fine mind
and heart opened to the truths of the Gospel almost as soon as they
were presented; and when once embraced, they were held through years
of suffering, which terminated in a martyr's death. With freedom to
act, he would have gone forth an apostle to his countrymen. The
Arab-speaking race is estimated at sixty millions, and they must
receive the gospel mainly from those to whom the language is
vernacular. It will tend greatly to strengthen the faith of
Christians as to this result, to contemplate the grace of God as
seen in the case of this early convert. Space cannot be afforded to
do full justice to the facts, which were chiefly recorded by the
Rev. Isaac Bird, but the reader is referred in the margin to more
ample sources of information.2

1 Written also Asaad el-Shidiak, and Asaad esh-Shidiak.

2 See _Missionary Herald_ for 1827, pp. 68, 71-76, 97-101, 129-136,
169-177, 268-271, 369-372; for 1828, pp. 16-19, 115-119, 165, 373,
375; for 1829, pp. 15, 47, 111, 115; and _The Martyr of Lebanon_, by
Rev. Isaac Bird, Boston, 1864, pp. 208.

Asaad Shidiak was the fourth son of a respectable Maronite, and was
born about the year 1797, at Hadet, a small village a few miles from
Beirut. His early training was among the Maronites. Such was his
ability and fondness for learning, that his family aided him in
preparing for the Maronite college at Ain Warka, the most noted
seminary on the mountains. He entered the college at the age of
sixteen, and remained nearly three years, applying himself
diligently to rhetoric, and to natural and theological science, all
of which were taught in the Arabic and Syriac languages.

Having completed his college course with the highest honor, he
became a teacher, first of a common village school, a