But not only were the native converts, in this remote city, oppressed in every possible way, but the missionary reports himself as being grossly insulted, and even stoned in the streets whenever he went abroad.
About this time Mr.Marsh performed a missionary tour to Mardin, through Jebel Tour, a branch of the great Kurdish range of mountains which crosses the Tigris above Jezirah, and goes westward toward the Euphrates.

These rugged, though not lofty mountains, cover fourteen hundred square miles, and form the stronghold of the Jacobites.
Their ecclesiastical capital is Mardin.

"High up the mountain's side," writes Mr.Marsh, "with a steep descent of six or seven hundred feet to the plains, the city wall mounts up still higher, three hundred feet or more; and a large castle on the mountain top crowns the view." Here he found several persons favorably inclined, and recommended the place for a missionary station.
The Rev.Henry Lobdell, M.D., and wife, reached Mosul in May 1852.
They came through Aintab, Oorfa, and Diarbekir.

Such was the desire of the people of Aintab for a missionary physician to take the place of Dr.Smith, that four hundred and twenty of them signed a petition in a single evening, requesting him to remain; but he felt constrained to give them a negative.

He speaks with pleasure of his brief sojourn at Oorfa, which he describes as beautifully situated on the west side of a fertile plain, and retaining many marks of its ancient greatness.
In the ten days which Dr.Lobdell spent with Mr.Dunmore at Diarbekir, he was impressed by the hold the reformation was taking in that place.