In 1837, Mr.Houston, with the Rev.George W.Leyburn, who had been sent out to join him, made a tour of observation in Mane, the ancient Sparta, to see if a station ought not to be formed there, in compliance with repeated solicitations from Petron Bey, the hereditary chief in that region.

Indeed, in view of causes beyond the control of missionary societies, the Prudential Committee began to feel themselves compelled to pass by the Grecian Islands in great measure, and concentrate their efforts on the main lands.
The station at Argos was strengthened in 1836, by the arrival of Rev.Nathan Benjamin and wife.

The two girls' schools in that place contained from seventy to one hundred pupils.

In the following year, as Argos was declining in population and intelligence in consequence of the removal of the seat of government from Napoli, it was decided that Mr.Benjamin should remove to Athens, and Mr.Riggs to Smyrna.
The district, which the brethren from Scio had specially in view, was exceedingly uninviting to an observer from the sea; where it seemed to be only a mass of rocky cliffs and mountains, gradually rising from the sea to St.Elias, the highest peak of Taygetus.

Yet among these rocks were upwards of a hundred villages, containing from thirty to forty thousand souls.