As a branch of this station, medical work has been established in Diarbekr, nearly one hundred miles to the south, with funds left in a legacy by an Armenian formerly connected with the mission school in that place and afterward a prosperous merchant in the United States. He was so much interested in missionary work, especially in his native city, that he gave $10,000 for the construction of a hospital and $20,000 as an endowment for its continuous support.
Hospitals and dispensaries in Turkey are far more nearly self-supporting than similar institutions in Europe and America. The people are always ready to pay for medical attendance and for medicines. Some of the mission hospitals are wholly self-supporting; many are partly so. Men of wealth who have received substantial help from Christian hospitals often give liberally for the up-keep of those institutions in order that those who cannot pay for what they receive may be treated free.
In Harpoot are two large Protestant churches, with smaller churches in all of the centres of population, and in the vilages of the field. Protestant principles have become widely disseminated and the relations between Christians and Mohammedans are cordial and friendly. Conditions are very different now from what they were a few years ago in this respect.
CHAPTER
NOWHERE in all the world, not even in China or Japan, are the results of the labours and influence of American missionaries more conspicuous or more generally recognized than in the Ottoman Empire. They have not confined themselves to making converts to Christianity, but their intelligence and enterprise have been felt even more extensively and effectively in the material than in the spiritual improvement of the people. The first electric telegraph instrument in Turkey was set up by missionaries. They introduced the first sewing machine, the first printing press, and the first modern agricultural implements. They brought the tomato and the potato and the other valuable vegetables and fruits that are now staples; they built the first hospitals; they started the first dispensary and the first modern schools. Before they came, not one of the several races in Turkey had the Bible in its own language. To-day, thanks to the American missionaries, every subject of the Turkish sultan can read the Bible in his own language, if he can read at all. But a large volume would be necessary to tell what I would like to say on this subject. Mr. Bryce, the British ambassador to Washington, in one of his books, says: "I cannot mention the American missionaries without a tribute to the admirable work they have done. They have been the only good influence that has worked from abroad upon the Turkish Empire." Sir William Ramsey, the famous British scientist, who has spent much time in Turkey, is quite as enthusiastic, and I could quote a dozen other equally competent authorities as to the character of the men and the results they have accomplished.
In the division of territory the Presbyterians have Syria, the United Presbyterians Egypt, while European Turkey and Asia Minor are occupied by the American Board of Commissioners of Foreign Missions, affiliated with the Congregational Church, with headquarters at Boston. There are several Church of England missions, but no central organization. The Swedish, German, and Swiss Lutherans have schools, churches, and orphanages. The French Roman Catholics have schools and hospitals in Asia Minor in charge of Capuchin and Franciscan monks, but the chief missionary work in Turkey — educational, benevolent, and evangelical — has been done by agents of the American Board since 1820, when two pioneers, Pliny Fisk and Levi Parsons, landed at Smyrna and began to prepare themselves for preaching and teaching, by learning the native languages.
The actual number of central stations of the American Board of Foreign Missions in Turkey in 1910 is seventeen, at which 159 American born missionaries are engaged. There are 263 out-stations, with 1,032 native Protestant pastors and labourers, and 46,131 adherents; and 444 schools and colleges with an average attendance of 23,846 students. This is the summary of returns for the year 1910.