247.
Previous to the year 1870, the missionaries to the Bulgarians had sustained a nominal relation to the Western Armenian Mission.

This connection was now dissolved, and the associated brethren took the name of the EUROPEAN TURKEY MISSION.

Its stations were Eski Zagra, Philippopolis, Samokov, and Adrianople; and Dr.Riggs was reckoned as a member of it, though he continued to reside in Constantinople, his labors being chiefly for the Bulgarians.

The Rev.Henry A.
Schauffler, then in the United States, was also transferred from the Western Turkey Mission, and was expected, on his return to the field, to go to Philippopolis, where he would use the Turkish and Greek for the benefit of those who spoke these languages; and with the expectation that the work among the Bulgarians would everywhere connect itself, as soon as possible, with that of the large Mohammedan and Greek population, with whom they were intermingled.
The Sultan, having confirmed the appointment of Bishop Anthimas, of Widdin, to be Exarch of Bulgaria, the Bulgarians thus virtually acquired their ecclesiastical independence, and so both their national spirit and their unwillingness to allow Protestantism to come in as an element of apprehended division, acquired strength.
Few were yet able to see how one could be both a Bulgarian and a Protestant, and no general movement on the part of rulers and ecclesiastics towards Protestantism, was to be expected.

But the Scriptures and evangelical publications were extensively circulated.
Thoughtful minds were reached, and examples of what the Gospel could do to regenerate character and give peace to troubled spirits were beginning to attract attention.