The site for the men’s hospital was given to the Society shortly after Dr White’s arrival, by the late Mr Gudarz, a prominent Parsi merchant in the town. The medical mission in Yezd may be said to be quite as firmly established as the Government. I myself came to Yezd six months later than Dr White, without any previous experience of Persia. My successor, Mr Boyland, has now under his charge a school of about sixty boys, Mussulmans, Babis and Parsis, with a staff of native masters. The boys in spite of their religious differences play football together. The religious teaching in the school is given without the slightest concealment. There is also a school for Parsi girls more lately established by Miss Brighty. In this school religious instruction is also given. When I left Yezd the number of the pupils was about forty. I may also mention that in the chapel which we have built in the hospital we often have congregations of over a hundred Persians. The chapel cost something under a hundred pounds, and the funds were subscribed, all but twenty-five pounds, by the members of the European colony. It is a great mistake to regard such work as we have in Yezd as primarily of a preparatory nature in view of some future opportunity. Babiism, which is in some ways more opposed to Christianity than the religion of the average Persian Mussulman, is fast gaining ground, and the exceptional opportunity, which is occasioned by the preparation of the soil by Babi missionaries who have not yet been successful in planting their ideas, is fast passing away. It has been already pointed out that there is not much hope of real religious liberty under native rule. Some people think that there are shortly going to be changes in Persia which will entirely deprive the British missionary of his opportunity. If we take this view we ought to act quickly. Taking a second and more hopeful view of the future, other political developments which might make religious liberty in any sense a reality, would find us by no means in a position to make the best use of them, unless we had a native church gathered in time of stress and strain upon whose judgment to rely. Consequently mission work in Persia is a matter which demands most careful consideration, most unsparing effort, and most earnest prayer. We ought not to lack recruits. That there are difficulties to be solved is true, but when all has been said the overwhelming horror of modern Mohammedanism, the intense hopefulness of Persian character, and last but not least, the obvious preparation made by God in this country for human evangelistic labours, all together present a situation which cannot but appeal to the Christian Englishman. FOOTNOTES [1] The author has, with a few exceptions, accentuated native words _only_ where they first occur in the book.