Enough was known, in the year 1828, to encourage the belief, that Greece and Western Asia would soon demand a more extensive prosecution of the missionary work; but more specific information was indispensable to an intelligent enlargement. The temporary suspension of the Syrian mission had brought the whole of the missionary force of the Board in that part of the world to Malta (except that Mr. Temple was on a visit to the United States), thus making consultation easy. Other reasons called for a more free and extended official intercourse than could be held by letter. Accordingly the author, then Assistant Secretary of the Board, was sent to Malta at the close of 1828, with instructions to confer with the brethren, and afterwards to visit Greece and other parts of the Levant. The conferences at Malta occupied two months, and aided much in determining subsequent measures. When these were over, the author, in company with the Rev. Eli Smith, afterward so favorably and widely known in the Christian world, visited the Ionian Islands, the Morea, and the Grecian Archipelago. Count John A. Capodistrias was then President of Greece, and had his residence on the island of AEgina. Athens was still held by the Turks. It was made incumbent on the author to propose inquiries to the President on certain points, and this was rendered easy by his urbanity and his frank and explicit answers. The inquiries were mainly for gaining the needed information; and they elicited some facts which deterred the Committee from a class of expenditures, that would have been in accordance with the popular feeling at that time, but might have proved a fruitful source of disappointment. Mr. King was then in Greece as a philhellene, in charge of supplies sent by ladies in New York to be distributed among the impoverished people. Perhaps the most important result of this negotiation with the Greek government, besides facilitating Mr. King's protracted and useful connection with the Greek mission, was a written assurance by the chief ruler of the nation, that among the books to be used in the schools of Greece should be the Bible, the New Testament, and the Psalms, all translated and printed in modern Greek. Among the results of the consultations at Malta, was Mr. Bird's visit to Tripoli and Tunis on the African coast, for which he was specially qualified by his free use of the Arabic language. He had opportunities at Tripoli for conversing with Jews, Moslems, Papists, and persons of no religion. His books and tracts were chiefly in the Hebrew and Arabic languages. At Tunis, he distributed copies of the Scriptures, but in neither place did there seem to be a sufficient opening for instituting a mission.