The fires of persecution soon began to burn with fury. The Greek bishop bribed the Turkish government, and the people were driven from their homes; everything was broken that could be broken, everything eaten that could be eaten, and women were left to the brutal lusts of the Turkish soldiers. It was surprising with what tenacity the people held out against all this. A few had become earnest inquirers; but without a more general acquaintance with the truth they could not be expected long to stand such an onset. Some relief came after a few weeks, through the death by cholera of the Greek bishop. Failing to find relief from English intervention, the newly made Protestants went _en masse_ to the governor of Tripoli; and failing to meet him, they then crossed the mountains to the Governor-general at Damascus, taking with them their wives, that the sight of their distress might move the heart of the Moslem ruler. At last they secured a hearing from him, and he promptly removed the oppressive tax-gatherer at Safeeta, and gave the poor people some money in token of his sympathy. But returning to their homes, they were still oppressed by their local governor. Mr. Samuel Jessup writes in October, that poverty and want had come upon them beyond anything seen elsewhere in Syria, excepting at Hasbeiya. Some had no means of buying their daily bread. They were promised a restoration of all that had been taken from them, if they would return to their old faith, but they stood firm. They desired a school for their girls, and a married teacher was sent them for a boys' school, so as to accommodate a female teacher in his family.