Kolobeng. Musquitoes swarm in summer, and the Banyan and Palmyra give in some parts an Indian cast to the scenery. Who will go in to possess this goodly land in the name of him whose right it is to reign ?-Miss. Mag. A PERSECUTED PROTESTANT GREEK. Rev. Mr. Holmes, at Constantinople, missionary of the American Board, under date of January 28th, 1850, gives in interesting detail, facts connected with this case of per secution. The arrest. You have already learned that there are three or four Greeks, who have lately been led to a knowledge of the truth in this city. One of these is Yanco, a tradesman, who has been intimate with evangelical Armenian brethren for more than nine months past. He is a man of about fifty years of age, with a wife and five children, some of them grown up. As soon as he became acquainted with the living way of salvation, he began to preach it to his neighbors in his own house. As he showed himself obdurate to the solicitations of the priests, he was about six months ago excommunicated by the Patriarch; and all his means of livelihood were cut off by his countrymen. After the anathema, he was received as a member of the Protestant civil community. He had been registered for five months as a Protestant, when suddenly, on the 17th of January, while he was selling merchandise with his son at one of the daily fairs of the city, two beadles from the Greek patriarchate summoned him to rise and go with them to the Patriarch, who wished to see him. He replied that he had nothing to do with the Greek Patriarch, for he was registered as a protestant. Upon this the beadles fell upon him, and dragged him along by force through the streets; while he cried out, in the hearing of the multitude, “I am a protestant; I do not belong to the Greek Patriarch." But so much the more did they use violence, beating the poor lame man, and tumbling him along upon the pavement, with such severity that he was all bruises. So ferocious were they, that after they had succeeded in drawing him into a retired street, the Mussulman women called out from their windows, as they witnessed the scene, "Will you murder the poor man ?" Justice triumphant. At last the beadles came to a station of police officers, when Yanco appealed for protection, and providentially was able to persuade the chief officer that he was suffering injustice, and induced him to take them all to the central police. Thus he was delivered from the Patriarch for the moment; but both he and the beadles with him were detained in prison. As soon as the civil agent of the Protestants was informed by Yanco's son of the occurrence, he drew up and presented a petition to the Minister of Foreign Affairs, claiming the man as unjustly detained, and more unjustly seized. The Pasha's heart was also led most promptly to order the police pasha to examine the case, and, if he should find it to be as stated in the petition, to set Yanco free. The police pasha, after examination, became convinced that Yanco had been for a long time a Protestant, and that he had not claimed to be one to save himself from punishment; and he ordered him to be set free. Yanco now became plaintiff in claiming redress for an assault and battery. The beadles attempted to exculpate themselves as being under the orders of the Patriarch. The pasha replied that "not even a pasha of three tails could strike a man without being liable to be called to an account for it; " and he sent the beadles to be tried before the grand council of the police. Here they denied the accusation of Yanco; but men were immediately sent to the quarter whence Yanco had been brought, and returned with the testimony of Greeks, Jews and Mussulmans, that the man had been violently treated. Then the council condemned the beadles to imprisonment and to pay damages. Thus, for the first time since persecution has been oppressing our brethren here, have we seen some little punishment awarded to the evil doers. A new plot. As soon as the Patriarch heard that his prey had escaped his hands, he commenced the second act of the drama. Although it was already sunset, he made his grand vicar mount his horse, and go to the chief secretary of the minister of foreign affairs. He represented to him that a month since the Patriarch had obtained a firman from the Turkish government, to exile Yanco to Mount Sinai on account of his "bad conduct;" that they had been a whole month hunting for him; and that the very day when they had safely got him into their hands, lo! the man declared himself a Protestant, to save himself from punishment, and on that pretence was set free from confinement by the police. To understand this plea, you must know that the Greeks for months back, seeing that the anathema had not affected Yanco, were determined to take vengeance upon him and all other Greek Protestants. They contrived, therefore, to examine the Protestant civil register; but they found that Yanco's name was fairly recorded. Nevertheless, disregarding this fact, the Patriarch and his council put their seals to a petition to the Sublime Porte, requesting that the Sultan would exile Yanco to Mount Sinai for "bad conduct." The government, not suspecting the falsehood and deception, naturally issued the firman; and if it had been carried into execu tion, in all human probability, Yanco would never have returned home from his wanderings in the desert, though he might have reached the heavenly Ca naan. A second seizure. The chief secretary, when he learned from the grand vicar what had occurred in regard to Yanco's being set free, having been originally the instrument in procuring the firman, became most furiously angry, until he learned from one of his commissaries that his own pasha, the minister of foreign affairs, had brought about the man's liberation, through the police. The case was so important in the secretary's estimation, that he sent the commissary to the police pasha's house the same night, and from thence to the police, for the documents upon which Yanco had been liberated. Satisfied that it had been by the action of the Pasha himself, he went in the evening to him, and persuaded him that the Protestants had deceived him by claiming a Greek as a Protestant, after there was even a royal firman for his exile. To make everything sure, the Pasha orders a commissary to seize Yanco that night in his house, and bring him a prisoner to the police. At ten o'clock at night the constables of the quarter, accompanied by the Greek head of the quarter and a gang of grog-shop Greeks surround his house. Yanco delivers himself up without fear; but none the less do the revengeful Greeks rush into the house, and shamelessly insult the women, and carry off Yanco's son for endeavoring to defend his father; and before midnight of the day in which he was first seized, he is a second time in prison. What zeal to 66 bring about the punishment, for this new heresy," of one in a flock of millions of Greeks, when all the violations of the decalogue are left unpunished! Friday morning an agent of the Patriarch applied at an early hour, to the chief jailer, to give up Yanco, whom he deceived by showing the original firman for our friend's banishment; and with the same laxness and irregularity with which things are managed in Turkey, this official not only delivered over Yanco to be the Patriarch's prisoner, and even perhaps to be sent off that very day as an exile, but as a special favor, gave up also the imprisoned beadles. Conduct of the Pasha. Again, therefore, we were obliged to make efforts to get the poor persecu ted man out of the hands of his enemies; and though the details are interesting to us, I must condense them. It was Friday, the Mohammedan Sabbath, when no business is done at the Porte, and when the pashas receive no petitions. But a favorite servant of the Pasha had his heart touched with compassion, and offered to present the petition. The Pasha, however, did not leave his harem till afternoon; and then he did not come out of his bath till towards evening. All this time we were anxious lest the prisoner should have been shipped for Egypt. Just as the Pasha came out of his bath, his chief secretary called also on busi ness. The petition was adventurously brought in, and the secretary read aloud its detail of accusations against the Greeks. They were charged with having wilfully and repeatedly deceived the Porte in the matter, down to the very last point of their having carried him off to their own patriarchate. The suspicions of the Pasha, in regard to the impositions practised upon the Porte, were now seriously aroused; for the representations of the Protestants in their petitions had never turned out to be false. He ordered his most experienced commissary, therefore, to take with him kavasses, and bring Yanco back from the patriarchate to the police prison. Events at the Patriarchate. At the patriarchate, during the day, Yanco had been called up by the grand vicar; and efforts were made to elicit words from his own mouth to justify the course his enemies were taking with him. To all the insidious questions addressed to him the sum of his answers was: "I am a Greek. I am a Cristianos; but I am a diamarturoumenos, a protester, against all additions to the word of God and what is found in the creed of the Apostles." "So then you are a Greek and a Christian. You must go into prison and exile, till you abandon your errors," was the reply. Various preparations were made for the departure of Yanco, with guards, for the land of exile; and late in the afternoon the Patriarch, in his sympathizing kindness, sent him a pound of snuff and a priest to confess him. But his exhortations again awakened the holy indignation of Yanco; and he abjured all fellowship with a base catalogue of priestly crimes, which he repeated in plain Greek to the priest. But it was not the will of God that he should go into exile, any more than that he should make a hypocritical and fatal confession. The wily commissary, sent | by the Pasha, first stationed his constables at a distance from the patriarchate, so as to take away from the priests all pretence for a sham complaint that their premises had been violently invaded. He then went in alone, and with some ingeniously contrived story, à la Turque, disarmed the jealousy of the clergy of the patriarchate; and, instead of demurring, or requesting a delay till the morrow, they immediately gave up their prisoner. In the street, to keep up the deception, and to prevent the Greeks from forcibly falling upon Yanco to injure him, he calls out aloud that he is about to be carried into exile for being a Protestant. Thus, with only a few huzzas of contempt, Yanco was safely transported for the third time, in thirty hours, to his prison at the police. An appeal for justice. Saturday morning Yanco's wife and three of her children, one of them having remained at home sick from fright occasioned by the invasion of their house, went with a petition to the Minister of Foreign Affairs for her husband and their father. She was joined also by her eldest son, just let out of prison for want of an accuser, and by the civil agent of the Protestants. As the Pasha approached, they fell on their knees, and cried out, "Mercy, my Lord, I want my husband;" and "Mercy, my Lord, we want our father." The Pasha took the petition which they gave him, and passed on with it, calling after him the agent of the Protestants. He asked, with a vexation half true and half forced, "How long shall we suffer so much trouble from you Protestants? You purchase proselytes at eight dollars a month, and then defend their petty causes.' "God forbid," was the reply. "If we obtained men by money, should we not have had more than the case of this single Greek to defend? For many months this man has been an enrolled Protestant; and the Patriarch had excommunicated him, and knew that he was thus enrolled. He is the cause of all the difficulty." Finally the Pasha said, “Come on Monday, and you shall have a final answer. But do not let the woman and those children come again." Final release. Next day an official agent of the Patriarch came to see Yanco in prison, and tried to elicit from him a promise that when he should be brought before the Pasha, he would call himself a Greek, promising him that in that case it should all go well with him, and he would not be obliged to go into banishment. But the insidiousness of this request he well understood, the plan being to give the Patriarch the power to assert his claims over the heretic. He refused, therefore, saying, "I am a Greek, but a protesting Greek; and if you cut me in pieces, I shall die protesting that there is no salvation, but in Christ, and the commandments of the gospel. So he left, also disappointed. On Tuesday, the first time the Pasha was to be found, the civil agent of the Protestants called in behalf of Yanco. First of all the Pasha sent a commissary to see if the police had found all the representations in the petitions, about the deceptions of the Greek Patriarch, and the real Protestantism of the man, to be true. Satisfied on this point, he agreed to order his being set free, provided Yanco would give good securities not to preach. "But that is impossible," said the agent, "it is the duty of every one of us to preach." "No," said the Pasha, "that is only the business of the missionaries." "But we are all of us bound to make known what we believe." Still, do not let Yanco insult the Greeks by saying that they are idolaters, and that their church is an idol temple." The agent answered that he hoped he did not use such language, unless excited by bitter words; that he was a discreet man. Finally, the Pasha wrote a model of the document of suretyship, by which he promised not to treat the Greek worship with contempt, and even an Armenian of the old church was found who became surety for him; and Yanco was at last set at liberty. I have seen Yanco since he came out of prison. He thanks God, not only for the opportunity of preaching the gospel in prison, but that in this strange way the gospel has been preached in his own house, and that his whole family are now avowedly declaring themselves to be on the Lord's side.-Miss. Her. AMERICAN BAPTIST MISSIONARY UNION. LATEST INTELLIGENCE. ARRACAN. Letter of Rev. H. E. Knapp. The following letter from Rev. Mr. Knapp contains intelligence from the missionaries who sailed in autumn last, that will be of interest. 66 Madras, Feb. 7, '50.-Early Sabbath morning we came in sight of this town, and cast anchor at about 10; where we remained and enjoyed the usual services of the Sabbath, yet not without considerable molestation from the natives who came around in great numbers in their boats. "If we except the customary healthful sea-sickness, we have all been well, and have had a very pleasant and for the most part prosperous voyage. "We passed the coast of South America after being about one month out, and from thence made a direct course to the Cape of Good Hope, which was passed when fifty days from Boston. Some ten days later we fell in with quite a severe gale, which continued for two days. Near the equator we were considerably delayed by calms, which disappointed the fair prospect we had of reaching Calcutta in less than one hundred days from Boston. In lat. 6 deg. N., long. 87 deg. E., we encountered one of those terrible hurricanes not uncommon in the tropics. It was so cloudy and rainy for a week that we hardly saw the sun. The wind raged two days. The storm was most violent on Wednesday, 23d January, when the rain and spray were driven like snow in fierce winter, and every spar trembled as if ready to let go and fly away. Yet the ship hove too with every sail furled, rode| safely through all, and not a rope was broken. "When the storm was passed we all enjoyed the privilege of ascribing praise to God for his merciful preservation, while, as we have since learned, many others were cast away and perished. Some Capt. Thurston has been uniformly kind and obliging. Much has been done by him and our fellow-passengers to render our meetings on Sabbath pleasant. The latter part of the voyage they have appeared thoughtful and ready to converse on the subject of religion. of the men have been quite attentive. The ship-carpenter is a praying man and a member of a Baptist church. Another, who once made a profession but who since has been profane and intemperate, gives evidence of conversion. Two others have manifested some concern for their salvation. We think there is reason to hope they may yet be led to the Saviour. So God has blessed us and made our hearts glad. "Yesterday, at the kind invitation of our brethren here, we all went on shore and have enjoyed a very interesting interview with them. We are all now at Dr. Scudder's house, who gladly entertained us the last night. Since commencing this letter our hearts have been made sad by the intelligence of the death of sister Moore. O how sad must be the heart of the surviving husband, who so recently left his. native land so joyously. But it is God that hath bereft us." Since the above was in type, letters have been received from Calcutta, announcing the arrival of the missionaries at that port Feb. 25, after a passage from Madras, protracted by head winds and calms, of 17 days. The missionaries were to re-embark in the Maulmain steamer for Akyab, &c., March 10, and were meanwhile enjoying the most kind hospitalities` of Mr. Thomas, of the English Baptist Mission, and other Christian friends. Mr. Ingalls had sailed for the U. States a few days before their arrival. MAULMAIN. Sickness of Dr. Judson. We are deeply pained to learn, by a letter from Mr. Ranney of Feb. 20, that the health of Dr. Judson was not essentially improved by his sojourn at Amherst; and measures were in preparation to secure as speedily as possible the benefit of a voyage to the Mauritius or Singapore. A note from Dr. Judson of the same date has also been received; and under the existing circumstances, we cannot hesitate to lay it before our readers. Dr. Judson writes: "Feb. 21, '50. I cannot manage a pen, so please excuse pencil. I have been prostrated with fever ever since the latter part of last November,-and have suffered so much that I have frequently remarked, that I was never ill in India before. Through the mercy of God I think I am convalescent for the last ten days; but the Doctor and all my friends are very urgent that I should take a sea voyage of a month or two, and be absent from the place a long time. May God direct in the path of duty. My hand is failing, so I will beg to remain, &c." SANDOWAY. In a letter of Mr. Beecher, dated Feb. 11, a few brief notices are given of a visit recently made by him to Ongkyoung and the neighborhood of Baumee river, from which we make the following extracts. Fuller accounts of the school are expected from Mr. Abbott in a future communication. School for native Preachers. "On arriving at Ongkyoung I found br. Abbott, though convalescent, still suffering severely from a debilitating cough, and well nigh worn out from the excessive labors of the season. Br. Van Meter was also there, having just returned from a visit to the Pwo villages farther down the coast. It was thought best, after a few hours' consultation, that I should remain and aid br. Abbott in instructing the native preachers, instead of proceeding to visit the churches as I had expected when leaving home. The great majority of the churches in Burmah have never been visited by any missionary, but so far as we can learn, are quite as prosperous as those on the coast, who have enjoyed annual visits from their teachers. "Besides, there were several native preachers present whom I had never seen, and with whom it was highly desirable that I should form an acquaintance. "The two weeks spent with br. Abbott and these native preachers, was to me a very pleasant and profitable season. Such seasons as these afford the best opportunity for acquiring the language so as to be able to use it with effect, for the discussions which naturally arise in a course of familiar lectures disclose their habits and modes of thought, without a knowledge of which it is impossible to interpret the language and doctrines of Scripture in a clear and forcible manner. "These native preachers have enjoyed a better opportunity for becoming acquainted with the great doctrines of the gospel this season than they ever have had before, and we have reason to believe that great good will result from br. Abbott's well directed and faithful labors with this chosen band of men, whose labors have been blessed to the conversion of so many in Arracan and Burmah. "The native preacher who stood as the more prominent candidate for ordination, was taken ill with fever a few days before the time appointed for the laying on of hands. Some of the other candidates, in whom we and their brethren had entire confidence, were so deeply impressed with a sense of the great responsibility of the office, that they shrunk from it, and manifested such a settled unwillingness to be ordained this year, that it was finally concluded to defer the subject altogether till next year. |