Revs. W. Goodell and Bird were appointed by the board to join the Syrian Mission, which was established by Rev. Pliny Fisk and Rev. Levi Parsons, who had left America in 1819. On account of the Greek revolution then in progress, Christians everywhere, and especially in the seaports, were treated by the Turks with the greatest barbarity as they are now. Dr. Goodell wrote from Beirut, May 15, 1826: “Human beings, whose guilt is no greater than that of their proud oppressors, are condemned without a trial, their flesh trembling for fear, their religion blasphemed, their Saviour insulted, their comforts despoiled, their lives threatened, and their bodies filled with pain, and deeply marked with the blows inflicted by Turkish barbarity.” The condition of affairs compelled the American and English missionaries and their Armenian assistants to repair for protection under the British flag to the Island of Malta. Here Dr. Goodell and his co-workers completed the translation of the New Testament into the Armeno-Turkish in 1830.[84] The following year Dr. Goodell was instructed by the Board to go to Constantinople and commence a distinct mission there among the Armenians. He was followed in due time by the Revs. Dwight, Schauffer, Riggs, Bliss, Hamlin, Van Lennep, Wood and others. Their work largely consisted in opening schools, translating, publishing and printing religious tracts and portions of the Scriptures, and holding religious services. In the absence of much reading material in those days, these tracts, pamphlets and portions of the Bible were eagerly sought and read by the people, and not without good results. Indeed, a profound love for the reformation of the Armenian Church had taken possession of the minds of many leading men among the nation, who were trying to do all they could. But both their knowledge and their experience were limited; they needed a wise leader or leaders who could direct the movement in a way that would accomplish the desired end. Some of them, when they came in contact with the missionaries, thought Divine Providence had sent these men to take the lead of this noble movement. They implicitly confided in the wisdom and ability of the missionaries to do this.[85] The wisdom, magnanimity, and the piety of those missionaries were unquestionable. They showed their wisdom in the fact that they “steadily pursued the policy of disseminating the truth without making attacks upon the Armenian Church.”