The missionaries at Cesarea were much encouraged by the progress of the work there. Mr. Leonard thus writes: "The church, though constantly dismissing members to other churches, still maintains its numbers by fresh accessions from without, and is at the same time evidently advancing in consistent, intelligent Christian character. Here are some noble exemplars of faith and piety, who search the Scriptures daily, and adorn their doctrines by a godly life. I have often wished I might introduce some of our American friends into our teachers' meetings on a Sabbath afternoon, or to the Sabbath-school at the intermission of public worship, where nearly the whole congregation remains, exhibiting a zeal and aptness in the discussion of religious truths scarcely surpassed in the most favored churches in New England. The weekly woman's prayer-meeting is sometimes left entirely in the hands of the native sisters, and any one of half a dozen is always ready without embarrassment to take the lead, discoursing very appropriately from her Turkish Testament. This, I am told, is a rare thing in Turkey, where woman has been so long held in ignorance and degradation." The reader will remember the Patriarch Matteos, and his degradation in 1849. After ten years passed in retirement, he was elected Catholikos of all the Armenians, and removed to Echmiadzin. His election to such a post at this time was significant, but the probability of his being able then to hinder the reformation did not create serious apprehension. Mrs. Beebee died peacefully at Marash, on the 28th of October, 1858, after protracted sufferings, and her husband returned some months after to the United States with broken health, and was released from his connection with the Board. CHAPTER XXVI. THE ARMENIANS. 1860-1861.