Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/59

Rh par la perte de la Grece, rendue à la liberté, et par ses dernières guerres avec la Russie, n'avait craint de's'opposer aux vives réclamations de la France."

The bulk of the population of Tocât is Moslem; the Papal Armenians number 150, and the Armenians 2,000 families, with seven churches and two monasteries in the vicinity of the town. The Greeks are estimated at 1,000 souls, with one church and three priests included within the diocese of the Bishop of Neo-Cesarea.

Oct. 9th.—This being the Lord's day, we went in the afternoon to the Greek church, which was opened for us by one of the three nuns who occupy an adjoining house. Having brought our Bibles and Prayer Books, we read together the Evening Service for the Twentieth Sunday after Trinity, No sooner did the old clerk perceive that we were performing our devotions, than he lighted two candles and placed them before the altar screen. The service ended, we had an opportunity of explaining to a number of persons who had assembled as spectators, whence we were, and the order of the prayers which we had been offering.

On leaving the church, we engaged the services of an Armenian priest to show us the grave of Henry Martyn, who closed his pious labours at Tocât in the year 1812. It was a singular coincidence that we should have lighted upon the very individual who had performed over his remains the rites of Christian burial. After straying for some time among the tombs of a large cemetery, he pointed out to us a small marble slab, which covers the resting-place of this devoted missionary. I recalled to mind upon the spot the fervent zeal and ardent piety of the departed, and lifted up a secret prayer that God in His mercy would raise up many of a like spirit to labour among the benighted Mohammedans of the east. Amidst all the invidious detractions of the Jesuit, Mons. Boré is reluctantly obliged to record this testimony of our departed brother: "Il était ami du bien, et du ceux qui l'aiment. Il désirait redresser les vices deshommesdes hommes [sic] et les rendre heureux."

The following is a transcript of the stone and epitaph raised, as the concluding initials inform us, by the piety of Mr. Rich, the then British resident at Baghdad. By some inadvertence