The journey to Constantinople lasted between three and four months, the party consisting of Bahá’u’lláh with members of His family and twenty-six disciples. Arrived in Constantinople they found themselves prisoners in a small house in which they were very much overcrowded. Later they got somewhat better quarters, but after four months they were again moved on, this time to Adrianople. The journey to Adrianople, although it lasted but a few days, was the most terrible they had yet undertaken. Snow fell heavily most of the time, and as they were destitute of proper clothing and food, their sufferings were extreme. For the first winter in Adrianople, Bahá’u’lláh and His family, numbering twelve persons, were accommodated in a small house of three rooms, comfortless and vermin infested. In the spring they were given a more comfortable abode. They remained in Adrianople over four and a half years. Here Bahá’u’lláh resumed His teaching and gathered about Him a large following. He publicly announced His mission and was enthusiastically accepted by the majority of the Bábís, who were known thereafter as Bahá’ís. A minority, however, under the leadership of Bahá’u’lláh’s half brother, Mírzá Yaḥyá, become violently opposed to Him and joined with their former enemies, the _Sh_í’ihs, in plotting for His overthrow. Great troubles ensued, and at last the Turkish Government banished both Bábís and Bahá’ís from Adrianople, exiling Bahá’u’lláh and His followers to Akká, in Palestine, where they arrived (according to Nabíl)(15) on August 31, 1868, while Mírzá Yaḥyá and his party were sent to Cyprus. Letters to Kings About this time Bahá’u’lláh wrote His famous letter to the Sulṭán of Turkey, many of the crowned heads of Europe, the Pope, and the _Sh_áh of Persia. Later, in His Kitáb-i-Aqdas(16) He addressed other sovereigns, the rulers and Presidents of America, the leaders of religion in general and the generality of mankind. To all, He announced His mission and called upon them to bend their energies to the establishment of true religion, just government and international peace. In His letter to the _Sh_áh He powerfully pleaded the cause of the oppressed Bábs and asked to be brought face to face with those who had instigated their persecution. Needless to say, this request was not complied with; Badí, the young and devoted Bahá’í who delivered the letter of Bahá’u’lláh, was seized and martyred with fearful tortures, hot bricks being pressed on his flesh! In the same letter Bahá’u’lláh gives a most moving account of His own sufferings and longings:—