The people ascribed their defeat to Frank innovations in military tactics; and when Mr.Homes arrived, the brethren not only heard curses against themselves in the streets, but an openly expressed purpose to kill every European in the place.

The thermometer was then 98 in the shade, and their danger from both climate and people induced them to leave for Mardin, which they did with an escort of thirty horsemen.

Such was their personal danger even at Mardin, only a few days after their arrival, that the governor offered them a guard.

This they declined, not thinking it best to manifest any alarm, and the excitement soon apparently died away.

But, two months later, a mob killed the governor in his palace in open day, and also several leading men, and then sought the lodgings of the missionaries, intending to kill them.