While the sultan represents one sect of Mohammedanism, namely, the Sunni, and the Persians another, the Shiah, between whom there has existed great and often bloody hostility, yet the Persian Mohammedans make their pilgrimages to Mecca, pray towards that holy of holies, and reverence the sacred relics in the keeping of the sultan. However much the shah may bluster, he listens when the sultan speaks. His country can find outlet in the West only across Turkey, and much that comes from the outside world comes through some part of the Turkish empire. As the Nestorians and Armenians are found upon both sides of the line, and constitute the chief non-Moslem populations of Persia, it was most natural to connect the mission work of Persia directly with that in Turkey. Such a connection holds to the present time. In many respects Turkey was the key to Persia and is to-day. At the beginning of mission operations, Russia was especially open to the circulation of the Scriptures in the vernacular. It was hoped and expected that soon the entire country would be accessible for direct Christian and educational operations among the millions of that empire. The whole Caucasus region can be easily approached by no other route than the Black Sea. The Armenians dwell in large numbers in that section of the country and are constantly passing back and forth in trade and commerce. Constantinople lies at the crossing of all roads from the Black Sea regions and beyond to the outer world and the West. The Balkan peninsula and Macedonia, lying to the north and west, also center in the capital of the Ottoman empire. As the seat of government for Macedonia and the province of Adrianople, all political influence and movement are that way. For generations it was the capital of the Balkan provinces and even yet it is the great metropolis to which merchants, students, and workmen go for a longer or a shorter period of residence abroad. There is no other center so well calculated to be the base of operations upon all that region. The American Board was organized in 1810 and its first missionaries were sent out in 1812. These went to the farther East, to India and Ceylon. It was not the intention of the Board to confine its foreign operations to these two countries. Christian leaders in America were surveying the world for the purpose of finding other countries in which to establish Christian missions. Explorations into the western parts of our own country resulted in beginning work among the Indians as early as 1816. It is not surprising that in their survey of the wide world, its special needs and promising openings, attention should have been early called to Turkey. IX. A STRATEGIC MISSIONARY CENTER