ed enemies of the education
and elevation of their people. Some of the exceptions to this rule will
be mentioned in the subsequent pages of this volume.

In 1826, there were three hundred children in the Mission schools in the
vicinity of Beirut.

In 1827, there were 600 pupils in 13 schools, of whom _one hundred and
twenty were girls_! In view of the political, social and religious
condition of Syria at that time, that statement is more remarkable than
almost any fact in the history of the Syrian Mission. It shows that Mrs.
Bird and Mrs. Goodell must have labored to good purpose in persuading
their benighted Syrian sisters to send their daughters to school, and to
these two Christian women is due the credit of having commenced Woman's
Work for Women in modern times in Syria. In that same year, the wives of
Bishop Dionysius Carabet and Gregory Wortabet were received to the
communion of the Church in Beirut, being the first spiritual fruits of
Women's Work for Women in modern Syria.

During 1828 and 1829 the Missionaries temporarily withdrew to Malta. In
1833, Dr. Thomson and Dr. Dodge arrived in Beirut. The Mission now
consisted of Messrs. Bird, Whiting, Eli Smith, Drs. Thomson and Dodge.
In a letter written at that time by Messrs. Bird, Smith and Thomson, it
is said, "Of the females, none can either read or write, or the
exceptions are so very few as not to deserve consideration. Female
education is not merely neglected, but discouraged and opposed." They
also stated, that "the whole number of native children in the Mission
Schools from the beginning had been 650; 500 before the interruption in
1828, and 150 since." "Female education as such is yet nearly untried."

During that year Mrs. Thomson and Mrs. Dodge commenced a school for
girls in Beirut. Dr. Eli Smith speaks of this school as follows, in the
Memoir of Mrs. S.L. Smith: "A few girls were previously found in some of
the public schools supported by the Mission, and a few had lived in the
Mission families. But these ladies wished to bring them more directly
under missionary influence, and to confer upon them the benefit of a
system of instruction adapted to females. A commencement was accordingly
made, by giving lessons to such little girls as could be irregularly
assembled for an hour or two a day at the Mission-house; such an
informal beginning being not only all that the ladies had time to
attempt, but being also considered desirable as less likely to exci