The first Protestant missionary to Syria since the days of the Apostles, was the Rev. Levi Parsons, who reached Jerusalem January 16, 1821, and died in Alexandria February 10, 1822. In 1823, Rev. Pliny Fisk, and Dr. Jonas King reached Jerusalem to take his place, and on the 10th of July came to Beirut. Dr. King spent the summer in Deir el Kamr, and Mr. Fisk in a building now occupied by the Jesuit College in Aintura. On the 16th of November, 1823, Messrs. Goodell and Bird reached Beirut, and on the 6th of December, 1824, they wrote as follows: "Mr. King's Arabic instructor laughs heartily that the ladies of our company are served first at table. He said that if any person should come to his house and speak to his wife _first_, he should be offended. He said the English ladies have some understanding, the Arab women have none. It is the custom of this country that a woman must never be seen eating or walking, or in company with her husband. When she walks abroad, she must wrap herself in a large white sheet, and look like a ghost, and at home she must be treated more like a slave than a partner. Indeed, women are considered of so little consequence that to ask a man after the health of his wife, is a question which is said never to find a place in the social intercourse of this country." Jan. 24, 1825, Dr. Goodell wrote, "Some adult females come occasionally to be taught by Mrs. Bird or Mrs. Goodell, and although their attendance is very irregular, and their _disadvantages very great_, being _without Arabic books_, and their friends deriding their efforts, yet they make some improvement. One of them, who a fortnight ago did not know a single letter of the alphabet, can now read one verse in the Bible." July 1, 1825, Messrs. Goodell and Bird speak of the first girls taught to read in Syria in mission schools. "Our school contains between eighty and ninety scholars, who are all boys _except two_. One is the teacher's wife, who is perhaps fifteen years of age, and the other a little girl about ten." That teacher was Tannus el Haddad, who died a few years ago, venerated and beloved by all sects and classes of the people, having been for many years deacon of the Beirut Church, and his wife, Im Beshara, still lives, with an interesting family.