Collections by Mr. S. D. Campbell, additional. Falling Spring, Va., Mr. T. Paxton, $4.00; Mrs. J. G. by Rev. James Paine, 5.00; Jacksonville, Ala., 8.25; Mardisville cong. for Liberia Mission, 21.25; Fairview church, 69.00; Greenville, subscription, 15.00; Sewing Society of do. to constitute Rev. E. O. Martin a life member, 30.00; Newbern, T. Borden, Esq. to constitute Mrs. Borden a life member, 20.00; donation of S. D. C. to constitute Rev. B. H. Rice, a life member, 30.00; from do. to constitute Miss Mary R. Rice, of Princeton, N. J., a life member 20.00. Collections by Rev. Henry R. Wilson, jun., Agent. Batesville, Ark. from Miss Mary Agnew, A. W. Lyon, Belleview cong. Mo. collection 30.00; Rev. T. Donnell, 5.00; Martin Ruggles, 5.00; Mr. Bird, 3.00; Mrs. Bird, 1.50, $10.00 10.00 44.50 Of which 30.00 is applied to constitute Rev. Thomas Donnell a life member of the Society. Potosi Mo. cong. coll. 17.373; H. Pease, 6.00; Mrs. Mary M'Gready, 6.00; J. P. 49.374 Of which 30.00 are to constitute Rev. J. F. Cowan a life member, 40.50 50.00 42.25 Jackson, Mo. cong. coll. 4.87; Ch. Willing, 5.00, 9.87 Apple Creek, Mo. cong. coll. 27.13; Mrs. Harris, 1.37, 28.56 Brassau, Mo. cong. A. M. M'Pherson, 1.00; D. Lucky, 1.00; S. A. Campbell, 1.00, 3.00 201.25 A. Coughran, Mo. 5.00 Dardan church, Mo. E. Bates, Esq. 5.00; F. Parker, 1.00, 6.00 Palmyra, Mo. Pres. church coll. 48.18 Of which 30.00 is applied to constitute Rev. Mr. Cochran, the pastor, a life member. Duncan and Angus Wilkinson, $5.00; Alexander Wilson, 2.00; Samuel Davidson, 1.50; John Curry; 1.50; Mrs. Mary Ann Beeson, John Barnet, Rev. N. Harned, Arch. Henderson, John Prentiss, Miss Catharine Walker, Rev. A. Williams, $1.00 each; Francis G. Bailey, Rev. J. Burtt, T. Conder, Otis Childs, Dr. J. Cochran, Wm. Davidson, Miss M. Davis, Samuel R. Dunlap, Robert Giffin, Miss E. Hatch, Charles Henderson, Mrs. E. Howel, John Irland, Thomas Kiddoo, Thomas Lindsay, John M'Cormack, Joseph M'Anully, John Marquis, Mrs. N. Moore, John Naylor, sen., Mrs. E. Scott, John P. Sanderson, James Strawbridge, S. S. Watson, S. Y. Wylie, 50 cents each. ADDITIONAL AGENTS FOR THE CHRONICLE. St. Louis, Mo.-Mr. John Torode. St Charles, Mo.-Mr. Thomas Lindsay. Jackson, Mo.-Dr. Harris. Apple Creek, Mo.-A. M. M'Pherson. Naylor's Store, Mo.-Mr. John Naylor, sen. Potosi, Mo.-Mr. H. Pease. Belleview, Mo.-Mr. Martin Ruggles. Batesville, Ark.-Mr. A. W. Lyon. Farmington, Mo.-J. D. Peers. FOREIGN MISSIONARY CHRONICLE. VOL. IV....No. 10. PITTSBURGH, OCTOBER, 1836. WHOLE NO. 42. MISSIONARY TOUR OF REV. JOSIAH BREWER. volume before us will not be unacceptable to the readers of the Chronicle. DESCRIPTION OF GIBRALTAR. I desire, before I leave this place, where I can readily look out on Jewish dwellings, and Mohammedan and Catholic lands, to stop and hold another conversation with you. I wish much I could reach you some of those rich grapes, almost equal to the clusters of Eshcol, which lie piled up in the market-place. I wish more, I could show you the interior of the Jewish Synagogue, into which I have twice been. You might have seen me there seated in the midst of venerable men, whose flowing robes, and long descending beards, silvery as the locks now thinly scattered over your own brow, brought to my mind the patriarchs of old. Alas! for the unbelief of these elders of Israel. Yet I felt it in my heart to pity, rather than condemn, when they rose up and turned their faces toward Jerusalem; then covered them with their hands, and, bowed down to the earth, exclaimed in the Hebrew tongue, "Blessed art thou, Jehovah, the Lord of hosts." WE have before us a work entitled "A Residence at Constantinople, in the year 1827. With Notes to the Present Time. By Josiah Brewer, Missionary to the Mediterranean. Second Edition. New Haven: Published by Durrie and Peck. 1830." It is a volume of 384 pages 12mo. with a neat frontispiece, representing the south side of Constantinople, and a well engraved map of part of Turkey and Greece. This volume is dedicated to "the Members of the Boston Female Society, for the Promotion of Christianity among the Jews," and is the result of observations during a missionary tour performed under their patronage. He went to the Mediterranean particularly with the view of investigating the condition of the Jews. When he reached Malta, he expected to proceed shortly thence, by way of Alexandria and Beyroot, to Jerusalem. But being informed that Jerusalem and its vicinity were, at that time, in a state anarchy, the Governor having revolted against the Pacha of Acre, he changed his purpose of going to Jerusalem, visited Smyrna, and sat down at Constantinople; where the Jews are more numerous than in other city on the globe. This volume You will expect me to say something of any contains an account of Mr. Brewer's voyage Gibraltar. Pass up then the Straits, until just from Boston across the Atlantic, and his pas-where they open into the Mediterranean, and sage up the Mediterranean; with a description of the principal places on the coasts of the latter which he visited-Gibraltar, Malta, Smyrna, and especially Constantinople; also notices of the soil, productions, climate, diseases, government, and population, of the countries that border on that great sea; with the character of the inhabitants, their customs and manners, their occupations, diversified religions, mental acquirements, language, and mode of imparting instruction to the young. The author of this work, Rev. Josiah Brewer, is now a missionary at Smyrna, under the care of the Western Foreign Missionary Society. It is hoped, that the Committee will receive from him frequent communications, advising them of the state and progress of our mission at Smyrna, and giving particular information of that region as a field of missionary labor; and that many devoted servants of the Lord will be found ready to go at his call, to strengthen the hands of those who have gone before, and aid them in disseminating the good seed of the word of God. But, in the meantime, it is believed that a few extracts from the the Spanish coast bends abruptly to the northeast. Loosen next, from its foundations, one of your hills of secondary magnitude, say 1400 fect in height, two or three miles in length and from three-fourths to a mile and a half in breadth at its base. Place this nearly at right angles to the Straits, with its perpendicular sides to the north and east, and frightful precipices to the south; join it also on the the north by a low and sandy isthmus, to the European shore. That hill, with its "camel-formed summit, often concealed in the clouds, is the "Rock of Gibraltar." The sandy isthmus is the "neutral ground," at the extremities of which are stations of British and Spanish guards. The portion of water, four miles in depth, and about the same in breadth, embosomed by the rock and the Spanish coast, is Gibraltar Bay. At the head of the bay, is the pleasant Spanish village of St. Roque, and on the western side the town of Algeziras. The high mountains of Spain rise one above the other, far in the distant horizon. From the narrow ridge of the rock, in which you may observe three eminences higher than DESCRIPTION OF MALTA. the west, the descent towards the west is more] Spain on the other, it seems greatly to be gradual. Upon this side also there are some desired, that it should also become one of the acres of a tolerable level, between the foot of "strong holds of Zion." Some few have been the mountain and the sea. Here then you will stationed here already, who, we trust,are among look for the town of Gibraltar, with its crowd- the true soldiers of the cross. ed population of 20 or 30 thousand, English, Spanish, Jewish, Moorish, &c. (It is supposed the population has since diminished.) On entering the bay from the south, you first pass the naval and military stations, and next the public gardens, in which are a few trees, a bust of the Duke of Wellington, and a statue of Gen. Elliot. The latter is holding in his hand the key of the city which he so successfully defended against the grand attack of the Spaniards. Still farther up the harbor is the town. This is surrounded by separate walls; and when the sun-down gun is fired, its gates are closed; and, if lingering within, you are a prisoner till the morning, a prisoner in safekeeping; for the soilders who are posted in the street every stone's cast, constitute a most vigilant police. Many of the houses have a small open court in the centre, round which are galleries, with flights of winding stairs. Water, in ordinary times, is brought into the town, on the backs of mules and asses, from the neutral ground. Each one carries three kegs on a pack-saddle, resembling a sawyer's horse inverted. Fresh milk is obtained from the goats which feed on the steep sides of the rock. In. one of my walks, I met a goat-herd, driving a flock of two or three hundred to pasture. A little land has been redeemed for vegetables, from the side of a mountain. Most of the provisions are brought from Tangiers, 30 miles distant on the African side. Fowls were sold at $9 a dozen. Fruit comes in abundance from the coast of Spain. As this is a free port, English, West India, and American produce is comparatively cheap. The principal article of import from America is staves. They are for the wine, which the mountains of Spain pour down in copious streams. In attempting a hasty description of this place, there is no want of materials, from which to make a selection. Indeed, Malta, like almost every other island or city in the Mediterrancan, could, of itself, furnish a traveller with sufficient to fill a volume. It is low and rocky, and exclusive of the smaller islands of Gozo and Cumino, is sixty miles in circumference. The population is about 80,000 in Malta, and 15,000 in Gozo. These are distributed in the towns of Valletta and Cetta Vecchia, and twenMost of the natives ty or thirty villages. still speak a corrupt dialect of the Arabic, though numbers in the towns likewise use the Italian. M. Vassali, one of their very few men of learning, has been principally instrumental in rendering the Maltese a written language. His grammar, which was published in 1791, fixed its before unsettled alphabet. The vowels are seven, the consonants twentysix. To express these, the Roman letters are employed, with several additional characters for the Arabic sounds. M. Vassali thinks that the Maltese language resembles the old Arabic of the sixth century of the Mohammedan era. Unquestionably it has much affinity with the modern dialects of the Arabic, which are spoken on the coast of Barbary. The natives of this coast and the Maltese, who have much intercourse with each other, readily converse together. Hence, Malta may be even more important than Gibraltar, as a place of preparation for missionaries destined to the Barbary States. It has been in the possession of the English since 1800, and was confirmed to them in 1814. Valletta, on the eastern side of the island, the principal city and the exclusive seat of its Military roads wind round, at different ele- commerce, contains about 25,000 inhabitants. vations, upon the western and southern sides It derives its name from one of the most disof the rock. I walked, this morning, several tinguished grand-masters, by whom it was miles in the Mediterranean pass, which has founded in 1566. It is built on a small elevated been cut under the solid rock in one place 35, peninsula, enclosed by two excellent harbors, and in another, 50 steps. It is of sufficient which are themselves almost entirely surrounddimensions for a loaded wagon to pass through. ed by land. Numerous fortifications guard I have visited, also, the cave of St. Michael, the entrance to these harbors. Fort St. Elmo, which is a little higher up the mountain. You at the extremity of the peninsula, answers also may form some idea of it from the interior of the purpose of a light-house. Valletta is dea darkened church without galleries. Several fended on the land side by a triple wall and large stalactites of carbonate of lime still re- ditch. Similar works extend around the submain suspended. Beautiful crystallizations of urbs, on the opposite side of the great harbor. the same are found in different places, and are The ditch has been cut in the soft rock of the wrought by the Catholics into trinkets of a island, of sufficient dimensions to receive a vilgreat variety of forms. Brown compact lime-lage church. The materials, which were taken stone constitutes the basis of the rock. Situat- from it, form a coresponding line of walls ed so easy of access, as is Gibraltar, to Moham- within. The wall is carried along on the medan Africa, on the one hand; and Catholic water side, except where precipices render it unnecessary. By art, therefore, Malta has become, what Gibraltar is by nature, one of the strongest fortresses in the world. Water is brought in an aqueduct seven or eight miles; but an inexhaustible supply of rain water can be secured in case of a siege. The streets of the city cross each other at right angles, and, though they would be called narrow in America, are wide for the Mediterranean. They are also well paved, and kept remarkably clean, being swept every day by convicts. The houses are built entirely of the light-colored limestone of the island. Even the flooring, stairs, and roof, are made of this, or of a cement which becomes as hard as the stone itself. Hence, you have that which is equally novel and agreeable, a fire-proof city. The roofs of the houses are invariably flat, and, being surrounded by a strong wall, two or three feet in height, afford a safe promenade, and a delightful prospect. On such a house-top Peter might conveniently have gone up to pray. Most of the buildings are two or three stories. The lower floors are often appropriated to mechanics and shop-keepers; while the upper, which are entirely separate, forms a very agree able residence for private families. The height of the apartments increases as you ascend, the upper being from twelve to twenty feet. From this, also, balconies project over the street, furnishing a convenient look-out in unfavorable weather. on the most delightful succession of fields of cotton, wheat, vegetables, and clover. The clouds, at some seasons, will afford you a pro per supply of water; at others, you must dig cisterns, securing them with cement, from which you can draw water for your orange and lemon groves and vegetables. The figtree and the mulberry grow by the way side with less attention. I purposed next, to give you a glimpse of the superstitions of this people-the splendid churches, with their thousand idle priests, some of whom are boys sporting in the streets, dressed precisely in the style of these venerable clergymen whom we knew in our childhood, with the three-cornered hat, long-skirted coat, small-clothes, knce-buckles, &c. Or I might point you to the images of the saints, at every corner, or the gorgeous processions of the dif ferent orders of priests, parading the streets, and, by way of contrast to their silks and gold, surround you with hundreds of beggars, from whose importunity neither giving nor an hour's withholding will afford you any escape. As a more grateful spectacle, I might conduct you to the Governor's palace, formerly the residence of the grand-master of the knights. Here you would see their library of 6000 volumes, open to the examination of all. I would conduct you to the church of St. John, where those "kings of the nations, all of them, lie in glory, every one in his own house." But a day would But leaving the city, with the clamor of its not suffice for examining the magnificence of beggars, and the Babel speech of its inhabitants its interior, nor that of St. Paul, at Citta Vec--Maltese, Italian, English, French, and chia, the ancient capital, in the centre of the Greek, let me take you to visit the surround-island. Thence, we might descend into the ing country. You should first go back with me three hundred years in its history. It was then little more than a barren rock for fisherTo change the wilderness into a fruitful field, has not been the labor of a day. The surface of the rock must first be removed to the depth of a foot or more; since it is so hardened by the weather as not to imbibe the least moisture from dews or rains. This process is not so difficult as you might imagine; the stone, when fresh, being cut as easily as wood. In the city you often see workmen with their axes, fashioning it for the purposes of utility or ornament. The fragments of the rock, obtained from thus paring the field, are then broken up, and, with the aid of a little compost, brought from the city, invest it with a fine soil. But the task of the husbandman is not yet accomplished. If simply spread over his field, the first great rain would soon wash the earth to a "returnless distance" from its rocky foundation. Hence, the necessity of walls at frequent intervals, from four to ten feet high, by which the hill is divided into terraces of a quarter to several acres in extent. At the foot, looking up, you see nothing but a series of these brown walls. But ascend the hill and look down, and your eye rests, only men. catacombs, which are near by; and after groping with those perhaps spacious dwellings of the dead, come forth, to view two most pleas ant resorts of the living-the palace and gardens of St. Antonio, and the Boschetto, or orange garden, most charmingly situated, and abundantly watered from its own unfailing fountain. DESCRIPTION OF SMYRNA. Those who desire some particular information of a city which, in the apostolic age, was the site of one of the seven churches of Asia, and in which is now located our Mission to the Mediterranean, consisting of Rev. Josiah Brewer and three assistants, having a printing press probably in operation, are invited to pertise the following description abstracted from the volume already noticed. We left Malta, December 17, in the British brig Packet, Captain M'Dougal, 'under convoy of an English man-of-war. On the 27th, we set foot in Smyrna, "the lovely, the crown of Ionia, and the ornament of Asia." There are associations more sacred than classic antiquity.. We are standing on a continent in which is the first and second birth-place of our race, and near the cradle land of Christianity. Here, in these very streets, apostles labored 1 and martyrs bled, and "to the angel of the church in Smyrna" was sent the message of him who had been dead, but is alive for ever more. A Frank is one who wears a hat, a privilege in this country of no small consequence, since, at times, it is equivalent to that of wearing one's head. Besides Frenchmen, Englishmen, Americans, &c., to whom this term is properly applied, numbers of Greeks, Armenians, and Jews, by purchasing the protection of the fo This grand emporium of the trade of Asia Minor has become the border-ground between the oriental and western nations. On the one hand is present the Asiatic, with his turban,reign consuls, with the distinguished badge, his flowing robe, his bearded face, his divan, derive also the advantage of Frankship. All his coffee, his pipe, his camels, his drugs, and subjects, who are not Mohammedans, whether his silks. On the other, has come to meet they be Greeks, Armenians, or Jews, are namhim, the European, with his hat, short coat, ed Rayahs-are required to pay the capitation smooth shorn chin, his chair, his tea, his walk-tax, and are subject to various disabilities. ing-stick, his vessel, his sugar, and his broad. Their dress, and even the color of their shoes, cloths. Having entered the Gulf of Smyrna, is prescribed by law. thirty or forty miles, you discover the city as- From the Frank quarter extend back irregucending the slope of an extensive hill. A ru-lar, narrow, and filthy lanes, inhabited first by ined castle, of Italian origin, crowns the sum- Greeks, next by Armenians and Jews, and mit of the hill, and overlooks the town. The last by the Turks. Turktown is built partly prospect is limited by an amphitheatre of on the declivity of the hill; and, in popular mountains which surrounds this hill and the usage, includes all but the Frank quarter. adjacent plain and bay. The circumference The houses are built of wood, wood and earth, of the town is about four miles, and its extent or unburnt bricks. Nearly all, whether bealong the water, a little more than one. It longing to Turks or Rayahs, are two stories has no walls; and its only defence is the lower high. The lower is devoted to culinary purcastle on the south side of the bay, five or six poses; the upper is the sitting-room, and conmiles from the town; but the fort is not in a tains little furniture besides the divan, or low situation to resist a serious attack. The fo- fixed sofa, spread with matresses and bolsters reign shipping are relied on for the protection-which serves for a seat by day, and, with a of this half-neutral city against the hostile visits of the Greeks. blanket added, for a bed by night. Hence, a visitor is liable to have his garments covered As you approach the town, you pass on your with vermin of different kinds. The Turkish left the vessels of war, from twenty to fifty-houses have windows of fine wooden latticeAustrian, French, English, Dutch, and Ame- work; those of the Rayahs have usually a close rican. Turkish ships of war are rarely seen; movable shutter. Connected with many houses for when the summer's excursion is completed, are gardens, fruit-trees, and vegetables. Where they retire within the Dardanelles. Still nearer fuel is very expensive, you need not look for lie hundreds of merchant-men, of every variety chimneys or fire-places. Though snow someof banner and tonnage; with innumerable times falls, and there are many days both wet and boats, for the transportation of passengers and chilly, very few, besides the Franks, ever kinmerchandise. The Turkish custom-house and dle a fire for comfort. Small sticks of wood, the pacha's palace, occupy a short extent of sold by weight, and coal, prepared from roots the southern shore; also the agents of the dif- dug on the mountains, are used in cooking. ferent Barbary powers. From this Mohamme. You see their portable grates burning before dan corner, in front of the harbor and ship- the doors of their houses. The ovens, which, ping, there is usually a narrow open space, in every city and village of Turkey, belong which may be called Water street. Parallel only to public bakeries, are heated by faggots. with this, and behind the first range of build-In many places, the smaller herbs are collectings, is Frank street. Narrow and partly-ed for this purpose, and "the grass, which tocovered avenues extend from Frank to Water day is, and to-morrow is cast into the oven." street, which, through the courtesy of the Of public buildings, there are two Catholic owners, are usually thorough-fares during the churches, French and Austrian, whose interiday. In time of the plague, or any popular or only exhibits any marks of splendor. The commotion, they are kept closed by strong houses of worship generally, whether they be folding-doors. Each of the foreign consuls the mosque, synagogue, or Christian churches, and principal Frank merchants owns, or have little that is striking in their appearance. leases, for ninety years, one of these short The bazars would interest you more. These streets. Their dwelling-houses and offices are are long, low ranges of buildings, resembling built on both sides, and sometimes over the a rope-walk; each of which is devoted to a sin avenues. They are usually but two stories gle article of merchandise; as yellow shoes, high. On the lower are their kitchens and ex- cloths, or fruits. The owners sit cross-legged tensive warehouses; on the upper, their own on a raised floor, surrounded by their goods, residence. All the Franks reside on these indulging in the luxury of the pipe, or busied streets, and on Bond street, which is wider.-in some trifling employment. |