A History of Protestant missions in the near East

The Beginnings of Protestant Missionary Endeavour 93
ning to evangelization among the Kopts, where, on principle,
no attempt was made to induce converts to leave their
Church. Hooker and his assistants, most of whom were plain
workmen, laboured for fifteen years (1768-1783) in Cairo and
Behnesseh. But as no definite results appeared, and as the
disturbed state of the country rendered it unsafe for the
Brethren to remain there, they were recalled in 1783. Nor
did their work apparently leave any marked traces.
2.
Henri/
An eminent young English missionary, Henry Martyn, appeared
like a brilliant comet in Persia ;
but only for a short
time, for he was too quickly consumed by the very
fire of his
zeal. Born in 1780, he died in 1812 in Tokat in Asia Minor.
This young man by the intensity of his spiritual ardour made
so deep an impression on his fellow workers and upon missionary
circles in England in spite of the brevity of his career,
that he, like the missionary Bishop, Keginald Heber, in India,
who was also still a young man when he died, might be compared
in this respect with Francis Xavier. Sent as a chaplain
to India in 1806, he laboured until 1811 in the cantonments of
Dinajpur and Cawnpore, ever in close connection with his
friends Brown, Corrie and Buchanan, who, like himself, were
nicknamed the " pious chaplains." In addition to his official
duties, he strove unremittingly to bring the Gospel to Hindu
and Muhammadan. Indefatigable as he was, and aided by an
unusual proficiency in acquiring new languages, Martyn
translated the whole of the New Testament into Urdu and
Persian. But he was so deeply aware of the imperfection of
the latter work that he earnestly desired to go to Persia, in
order to improve his knowledge of that language on the
ground. He therefore went in 1811 to Shiraz, the celebrated
seat of Persian learning. The intense heat of India had
already thoroughly exhausted him, and on the five months'
voyage from Calcutta to Bushir he suffered terribly from seasickness.
Arrived in Persia, he soon discovered that his first
translation was almost worthless. In eight months, with