The archives of the Board are rich with the early reports of those first missionaries, who explored with fearlessness and zeal, and observed with discriminating care and precision. They were conscious of the fact that much in the future depended upon the thoroughness of their work and the accuracy and fulness of their reports. Messrs. Fisk and Parsons landed at Smyrna early in 1820 and at once began the study of modern Greek. They explored the sites of the seven churches of the Apocalypse and noted their conditions and needs. Careful and minute journals were kept of all their labors and observations. In order to facilitate the work of exploration, Mr. Parsons went on alone to Palestine, where he arrived in February, 1821. One of his chief objects there was to get into touch with the Christian pilgrims who flock to the holy city in great numbers. The Greek revolution drove him back to Smyrna after several tours in Palestine, and from there he went to Alexandria, Egypt, where he died Feb. 10, 1822. Mr. Fisk was joined by Jonas King, who left his studies in Oriental literature at Paris for that purpose, and early in January, 1823, the two set out for Jerusalem by way of Alexandria and Cairo. They ascended the Nile as far as Thebes, distributing everywhere Bibles and tracts in Arabic. With a caravan made up of Turks, Arabs, Greeks, and Armenians, they made the overland journey to Jerusalem and from there went down to Beirut upon the coast. Here they separated, Mr. King taking up his residence in the Lebanon mountains among the Druses, where he was most hospitably received, in order that he might the better study the Arabic language and the people. By this time, these men were using with much freedom Arabic, modern Greek, and Italian. The tours of these first missionaries covered Tripoli, the Lebanon, Baalbec, Jaffa, Hebron, Damascus, Antioch, and Latakia, thus bringing them into close personal touch with the desert tribes as well as with the Druses, Maronites, Turks, Greeks, and other races. Mr. King returned to Smyrna overland from Tarsus, and Mr. Fisk died at Beirut Oct. 23, 1825, two years after the arrival there of Mr. and Mrs. William Goodell. These pioneer operations were accompanied with great hardship and even peril. The difficulties were increased at this early period by the efforts of the Roman Catholics to drive all Protestants from Syria. In 1824 the missionaries in Jerusalem were apprehended, at the instigation of the Catholics, and brought before a Moslem judge, charged with distributing books which they declared to be neither Jewish, Moslem, nor Christian. Attacks by robbers were of no infrequent occurrence and fanatical uprisings were constantly to be expected. The Greco-Turkish war brought many personal perils and hardships, but did not result in the loss of missionary lives.