Dr. Grant crossed the plain of Arbela, where Alexander conquered Persia, and in ten days arrived at Oroomiah. Being impatient to get into the mountains, the mission assembled immediately, and delegated Mr. Stocking to accompany him. Dr. Wright said of him, at this time, that "his spirits were buoyant, his step elastic, and his energy untiring." Two Nestorians went with them, and they had letters from the governor and some Persian nobles to the Persian Khan and the Emir of the Hakary Koords. At Khosrawa, Mr. Stocking was constrained by sickness to return; and both the native assistants were so alarmed by the warlike aspect of things, that they declined going farther. The now solitary traveller succeeded, at the last moment, in getting the brave bishop Mar Yusuf to be his companion. The Emir had now broken his treaty with the Sultan, formed two years before in the hope of immediate aid to subdue the Nestorians; and had sworn perpetual allegiance to the Shah, who promised him support against the Sultan. Dr. Grant found Yahya Khan and the Emir at the castle of Charreh, on the summit of an isolated rock near the river of the same name. The tents of more than a dozen chiefs dotted the green banks of the stream. Nurullah Bey still professed to regard Dr. Grant as his physician and friend, and in the presence of the Khan promised to protect him and his associates, and permit them to erect buildings in Tiary for themselves and their schools. The Khan, to whose friendly agency with the Emir Dr. Grant was specially indebted, had a good reputation for integrity. He was a Persian subject, then governor of Salmas, and also chief of a branch of the Hakary tribe. He had married a sister of the Emir, and given him one of his own in return, and another was in the harem of the Shah. He assured his missionary guest of the Emir's personal friendship, and interested himself for his future safety.