The operations of the mission in 1832, were disturbed by plague, cholera, and war. The ravages of the plague were not great, but cholera occasioned intense alarm. It swept over Armenia and along the western borders of Persia, cut off one third of the pilgrims from Beirut to Mecca, was exceedingly fatal at Cairo and Alexandria, and made approaches to the seat of the mission as near as Aleppo, Damascus, Tiberias, and Acre; but from this terrible judgment the inhabitants of Beirut were providentially shielded. They suffered much, however, from the rapacity of the Pasha of Acre, until his power was broken by the invading army of the Viceroy of Egypt, under Ibrahim Pasha. With the aid of ten or fifteen thousand men from Mount Lebanon, under the Emir Beshir, Ibrahim Pasha took Acre; then pushing his conquests to Damascus, established the dominion of Egypt over Palestine and all Syria. The papal bishop of Beirut having published an answer to Mr. King's "Farewell Letter," Mr. Bird made a reply in thirteen letters, containing many extracts from the Fathers and Roman Catholic doctors against the bishop's opinions and expositions of Scripture. Preparatory to this, the mission library was furnished with the more important works of the ancient Fathers; and what was wanting to complete the polemic department of the library, was munificently supplied by Mr. Parnell, of the Bagdad mission; who also presented the mission with a lithographic press for printing in the Arabic and Syriac languages. About this time, Mr. Temple was instructed to send the Arabic portion of the Malta establishment to Beirut, where Mr. Smith, who returned from the United States in 1834, was to have the charge of it.