more faulty rendering of the Old Testament Scriptures. The Nestorian and Armenian colporteurs of the Bible Society are ready to spread these writings broad-cast through the land, and thus the great fortress of Satan will be sapped and mined, the leaven will spread silently, the seed will spring up secretly, one knows not how. Dr. Bruce is now-in 1895-in England, passing through the press this finished Bible, which has cost him three and twenty years of unremitting labour. This is one sign of happy augury. Another is that Persia has offered its first martyrs in the nineteenth century (in early days of Christianity it had its many martyrs) to the cause of Christ. One case deserves especial mention.

A convert of the American mission was recently cast into a loathsome dungeon at Tabriz, and kept in durance for eleven months. At any time he might have had his liberty by the denial of the faith of Christ, but he would not deny. At last some outlawed fellow-prisoners fell on him, and took it by turns to choke him, between each assault asking whether Christ or Ali (the great Shiah hero) were the true prophet of God. He always answered, 'Christ!' Next day the doctor found him in a dying state, and he told him, 'Yes, sir; I always knew when I embraced the Christian faith that I was putting a knife to my own throat; but I do not regret it.'

One other fact of interest must be recorded. Bishop Stuart, French's old colleague at Agra, has resigned his see at Waiapu to work in Persia as a simple missionary. His services, especially in all that concerns the organization of the infant church, and its relations with its elder neighbours, will be of greatest value. It is remarkable to see the man who sailed with French, who was married the same year with him, and consecrated bishop the same week with him, thus follow him again to this old field of labour, devoting his last years to these forlorn outposts of Eastern Christendom.

These words may introduce the bishop's journals. The fact that they concern the field of Martyn's labours must

IMPRESSIONS AT MUSCAT

43

be the one excuse if they appear to occupy a disproportioned space in the biography.

The whole distance from Bushire to the Caspian, with very small exceptions, had to be covered on horseback (or else on foot where riding was too difficult), and the fatigue to the bishop was much increased by the fact that, though he rode so much, he never had acquired the art of easy horsemanship'.'

From Karachi the bishop sailed across to Muscat, and in view of the approaching perils on his march he took the wise precaution of drawing up his will to forward it to England.

He reached Muscat upon March 20. It was his first view of the place where he was destined, after eight more. years of labour, to conclude his life of witnessing, and here he came upon the line of Henry Martyn's journey. Martyn had written to his Lydia :

'Muscat, April 22, 1811. I am now in Arabia Felix. To judge from the aspect of the country it has little pretensions to the name, unless burning barren rocks convey an idea of felicity; but perhaps there is a promise in reserve for the land of Joktan; their land may one day be blest indeed.'

And in his diary he added:

'In a small cove, surrounded by bare rocks heated through, out of reach of air as well as wind, lies the good ship Benares, in the great cabin of which lie I. Praise to His grace who fulfils to me a promise I have scarce a right to claim-"I am with thee, and will keep thee, in all places whither thou goest."'

How like the bishop's words about the Bethels and Peniels! But the resemblance in the experience of the

1 The whole of the country covered by the bishop in this expedition has been most carefully described by the Hon. G. N. Curzon, M.P., in his two portly volumes on Persia, which give not only the experience of a most practised and acute observer, but also the full fruits of a careful study of the works of every previous explorer. The book, which is admirably illustrated, is likely to prove the standard work upon its subject for many years to come.

two pioneers does not end there. Martyn describes the Imam as a man who had obtained the throne by murdering his uncle, and was then engaged in fighting with the Wahabees to keep it, whilst in his wazir or chief minister pride and stupidity seemed to contend for empire. We are all impatient,' he adds, to get away from this place. We saw nothing but what was Indian or worse.'

6

French's account of it was not much more cheerful. He wrote to Mrs. French :-

'I am seated here in the resident's house, having landed for the few hours the Burmah stops in harbour to see the place and its curiosities, and to inquire whether any congregation could be gathered, as it is the Tuesday in Holy Week. In both objects I am disappointed. There are no curiosities, and apparently no congregation, the few residents being Roman Catholic for the most part. The bazaars are all roofed in, and only about four feet across; positively insufferable, I should think, in hot weather. The people talk a medley of tongues, chiefly Arabic. Some also Persian, Hindustani, and Suahili from Africa, with Sardi... The harbour is a delightfully landlocked and enclosed one, like the Valetta harbour, only smaller, and surrounded with rocks of great boldness and sternness, many of them crowned with forts, especially two (Jalali and Mirani) of Portuguese engineering, on two opposite rocky crests, as old as the great Admiral Albuquerque's day, who was the famous captain of this part of the world, and performed many great engineering as well as military and statesmanlike achievements. . . A great multitude of African slaves, both men and women, are kept here, and Colonel Grant will have it they cling to their slavery with a very decided preference, and refuse freedom when offered it. I am thoroughly disappointed in this place, of which one had read so much. . . . The Arab tribes all around continually make raids, and bloodthirsty feuds seem incessantly renewed. Lately, forty of one hostile. tribe fought with sixty of another hard by the great mountaingate, which shuts in the hilly passes in rear of the town, and thirty-three were killed in hand-to-hand conflict. It is the old story, "His hand against every man." Dates are the chief export, rock salt also and donkeys!'

To Mr. Clark the bishop further described the city 'as an utter wreck of its past greatness and renown,' and the Sultan as a 'poor sunken and demoralized creature, afraid each day of being poisoned by his son.' In another letter from Muscat, written to his son Basil at Cambridge, the

A DAY AT JASK

45

bishop further spoke of his own feelings in starting on this journey:-

'My brain had almost reached the ne plus ultra of exertion and exhaustion, and just in time God has given me a temporary release from the tension of work and responsibility. Perhaps a little work may be given me to do in Persia, though by what open door I can enter does not yet clearly appear. Fatigue, weariness, sea-sickness, have retarded my progress in Persian sadly the last weeks, though I did a little en route for Quettah and Dera Ismail. I find the moollahs in Muscat understand me fairly. If I had only the more perfect love and holiness of a Martyn, words and thoughts would doubtless find vent somehow. I pray it may not be quite a wasted opportunity of speaking for my Master, if He has a people in these cities. To approach the heart of a new people for the first time is not an easy matter. But my privilege has more often been to report on work and to set others to work better than myself than to effect much personally. It is something even to be allowed to screen one's own ineffectiveness behind this shelter, and to rejoice at others successes may possibly be one of the greatest joys of heaven.'

On leaving Muscat he spent a singularly interesting day at Jask, a most desolate spot in sandy wastes, and almost seagirt, where a very few telegraph clerks and their families manage to live, never seeing a clergyman except on such strange occasions as this little visit.' He held a confirmation there for two married ladies, the whole congregation amounting to twelve, and afterwards consecrated the little cemetery at the extreme point of the promontory, and washed on three sides by the sea, containing six graves already, chiefly of by-passing sailors.

Remembering how his own bones were laid in just such a desolate spot, it is touching to read in his diary his special form of service, commencing with Psalms 139 and 23 and 90, and closing with the hymn, ‘Brief life is here our portion.' After the service three children of Mr. and Mrs. Thornton brought all their little stock of shells (with which the coast abounds) to give for his cathedral fund. I was so pleased,' said the bishop, and told them it was for Jesus, and hoped all their life they would work for Him and please Him.'

On Good Friday, March 23, he was at Lingah, a long low reach of town with pointed windows and chased fronts of merchants' houses, where were the offices of the Bahrein pearl fisheries: long lines of palm-groves, a curious scarped hill above the city 1, high bare sand-hills beyond it, and native craft to seaward, complete his little picture of the place. From hence he wrote to Basil:

'Was the merchantman Jesus seeking souls, or the soul seeking happiness and finding it in Jesus? Doddridge seems to think the former when he says, "Pearl of price by Jesus sought," speaking of the soul. Both are beautiful thoughts, perhaps this the more so. We passed over a coral reef this morning where pearls are found, and I could not help asking the native agent, who came on board, whether he could get me a few to sell at the bazaar in London for the cathedral, but he had none with him. If he had he would probably have tried to cheat me, for they are a sadly degraded people, though once so great under Cyrus and afterwards under Sapor II [alias Shahpor].

'I should think this king had one of the most lengthy reigns on record. It is not quite certain whether he reigned sixty-nine or seventy years. I fear our good queen will not beat that. Yesterday we were between the Persian and Arabian coasts in the Straits of Ormuzd. I think I shall have much clearer ideas of some points in geography than before. Poor Ormuzd, once so proverbial ("the wealth of Hormuzd or of Ind," says Milton), is so reduced that it only exports some rock salt, of which it is largely composed. Once it was the entrepôt of the vast commercial wealth which passed between Venice, Portugal, and India. Sic transit gloria mundi 2. Would it could be realized that these poor souls, dwelling along these rocky, craggy coasts, are more precious to Jesus than the pearls of price. Truly Jesus dived far deeper to find them than these poor fishermen do. The one pearl is toil-bought; the other blood-bought.'

Here too, at Lingah, the bishop held a service on board the vessel interrupted by the blowing away of a sail in a sudden squall. He must (to judge from the notes remaining

1 Named 'Grubb's Notch,' after some old Indian sea-captain.

2 In another letter the bishop quotes the old couplet :

Si terrarum orbis quaqua patet,

annulus esset

Illius Ormusium, gemma decusque foret.

Had the world's golden circuit an opening and joint,

Then Ormuzd, methinks, were

that fair jewel point.