I visited a missionary house at Malta, belonging to the English [Church?] Missionary Society, but under the care of some gentlemen from Switzerland. I found them striking off maps for an atlas in modern Greek, and making Arabic globes to be sent to Egypt, where, if I mistake not, it will astonish the natives when they are told that the world is round, and that they have been such prodigious travellers on its surface, when they were thinking themselves all the while sitting still. The shelves of this house were also filled with a great variety of books, translations of the most approved modern works for schools; and these they were scattering around the Mediterranean as fast as they were able. And when I went to the dwelling house of one of them, (the only one married,) I found his lady in a school with a room full of children, many of whom had been common beggars in the streets, and had been taken in here and clothed; she was teaching them to read and sew, and had a small cabinet filled with their work, each article with the maker’s name--the money for which, when sold, was to be delivered to the child itself. Though their garments were often “of many colors,” owing to the strange mixture of patches, yet there was not one ragged child, and all were clean, and they looked cheerful and happy. And all this is only an example of the Protestant missionary operations at Syra, and Athens, and Constantinople, and Smyrna, and since they have got the press, at Beirout, and in the islands of the Pacific, and in India, and every where, wherever our missionaries are to be found. FOOTNOTES: [73] 1 Kings, chap. xviii. [74] [The Earl of Chatham.--AUTHOR.] CHAPTER XXII. Party to Damascus. Ascent of Mount Lebanon. The roads. English carriage. Scenery of the mountain. Its inhabitants. Maronites. The Druses. Aaleih. Horns worn by the women. Princesses of the mountain. Beautiful night scene. Bhamdoon. Plain of Coelo-Syria. Anti-Lebanon. Characteristic of Americans. A dilemma. First view of Damascus. The great plain. Gardens. The city. “Street that is called Straight.” St. Paul. About noon on the first of September, a party of us might have been seen winding along the streets of Beirout, and then starting off in high spirits for Damascus. That city is the present capital, and residence of the Governor of Syria, and the Commodore had determined, while the ship was taking in water, to make it a visit.