Mar Shimon, acting under the evil advice of his father and uncle, issued an order for the expulsion of all the helpers of the mission from Tehoma, and threatened not to leave one in all the mountains. Events providentially occasioned delay, and meanwhile Mr. Rassam, the British Vice Consul at Mosul, hearing of Mar Shimon's proceedings, addressed him a very strong letter of remonstrance, assuring him that the American missionaries were the truest and most efficient friends of the Nestorians, and urging him to invite their preachers back with the same publicity with which he had ordered their expulsion. The letter, coming from one to whom the Nestorians were greatly indebted, had the desired effect, and they were quite abashed by receiving such an emphatic rebuke from such a quarter. In addition to this rebuff, another was received, soon after, quite as mortifying. The Patriarch had written to Mr. Taylor, British Consul at Erzroom, offering to make over his people to the English Church, if the English government would extend to them its protection from Turks and Koords. The reply of the Consul was a decided rejection of the proposal, couched in language not at all flattering to the Patriarch. Thus baffled and censured, he privately signified his willingness that our preachers should remain at their places without molestation. The mission commenced the year 1868 with the encouraging fact, that one hundred Nestorians had been received to the communion during the previous year, which was a larger number than had been admitted in any one year before. This number embraced the fruits of revivals in several villages on the plain of Oroomiah, and in the two seminaries, with individuals scattered through the Koordish mountains. Mar Yooseph, the helper in Bootan, on the Tigris, reported, that he had held his first reformed communion in that distant region, and that seven came to the table of the Lord. There had been no opposition. The native preaching force in the mission was then sixty-two, of whom eighteen were in Koordistan, under the care of Mr. Shedd; and there were seventy-eight regular preaching places. Connected with nearly all these congregations were Sabbath-schools and Bible-classes, and in not a few instances the entire congregation was connected with them. The habit of giving was very generally established, affording evidence that the people might be expected eventually to support their pastors. CHAPTER XXXVII. THE NESTORIANS. 1867-1870.