CHAPTER IX.
THE ARMENIANS.
1840-1844.
The young Sultan, soon after coming to the throne, pledged himself; in the presence of all the foreign ambassadors, to guard the liberty, property, and honor of his subjects equally, whatever their religious creed.

No one was to be condemned without trial, and none were to suffer the penalty of death without the sanction of the Sultan himself.

No person at all conversant with Turkey, would expect such a change in the administration of the government to be effected at once, nor indeed for a long course of years.

Yet this was the beginning of changes, which were momentous in their influence on the Christian and Jewish population of Turkey.
There was now such a number of Armenian boys and young men around the mission thirsting for knowledge, both religious and secular, that a boarding-school for such could no longer be properly delayed.
Mr.Hamlin accordingly opened such a school at Bebek, on the European side of the Bosphorus, six miles above Constantinople.
Mr.Jackson commenced a station at Erzroom in 1840.

At first he was almost disheartened when he saw how confidently the people rested their hopes of heaven on saint-worship, and the rigor of their fasts; but he soon saw reason to expect a better state of things.
Messrs.