There were but two or three places in Turkey where missionaries, up to this time, had had such marked success as in Diarbekir. The church, at the close of 1859, numbered sixty-one, and after the April communion, seventy-three. Rarely did a communion pass without some additions. Protestants were a recognized power among the people, and their influence was extending. Books were eagerly sought after and paid for. Illegal taxes had nearly ceased in the city itself. After a weary struggle of nine years, the assessment of the tax-roll for the Protestants was made upon a satisfactory plan, which bid fair to be permanent. The commercial standing of the Protestants was above that of any other sect, though there were no wealthy men among them. But the increase of the congregation had been retarded by the want of sufficient accommodations for public worship. The lamented removal of Mr. Holmes, the English Consul, to a more desirable consulate in European Turkey, while it was a great loss to the mission, threw his house upon the market, and it was purchased for a place of worship at less than half its cost. It required only slight alterations, and could be indefinitely enlarged. The members of the church subscribed a thousand dollars towards its purchase, and a certain amount was granted by the Board. The school for boys, and the one for girls, were both eminently a success. At Cutterbul, half the village was Protestant and the rest more than half so, and the place of prayer would not hold the congregation. In 1860, the stations of the Assyria Mission were brought within the field of the Eastern Turkey Mission, and the Assyria Mission ceased to have a separate existence. CHAPTER XXVIII. THE NESTORIANS. 1851-1857.