50 WORCESTER COUNTY HORTICULTURAL SOCIETY. [1895. 



villages until we cast anchor in Tripoli. The bay is nearly seven 

 miles long and bends in circularly. The town is situated at its 

 southern end, at the foot of some high lands at a little distance from 

 the sea. 



Before we were allowed to laud, the pilot whom wc took from 

 Beirut, held oui- bill of health for the health officer to read ; finding 

 it all right, he shook hands with us and welcomed us on shore. The 

 streets were very narrow. The houses were built of stone, with flat 

 roofs, the same as those of Beirut. We went into the merchant's 

 office who was to furnish us with a cargo of wool. He hunted round 

 and found one old chair, which was kept as a curiosity, and passed it 

 to me to sit upon. 



The American consul was a native of the place who had been 

 converted to Christianity, thereby suffering much persecution from 

 his family. We walked outside of the gates of the city, where we 

 found donkeys and their guides waiting for customers. My husband 

 was trying to persuade me to take a ride ; but being unused to riding 

 as the Turkish ladies do, I was rather loath to accept of his invitation. 

 Just then a gentleman rode up to the gate and, seeing that we were 

 foreigners, introduced himself as Mr. Lowery, an American mis- 

 sionary, and said he should be glad to be of any assistance to us. 

 I dislike very much to hear our missionaries spoken slightingly of, 

 as they sometimes are by travellers. I have very pleasant recollec- 

 tions of missionaries and their families whom I have met in foreign 

 lands, and when I see a convert to Christianity like Antonio Tunis, 

 the American Consul at Tripoli, I feel that we cannot give them too 

 much credit for the noble work they are doing in lighting up these 

 dark places in the remote parts of the earth. Women, in particular, 

 should be interested in missionary work. If they could travel in 

 these countries and s.ee how little their sex is regarded, they would 

 think America a paradise for women, as a celebrated traveller has 

 called it. What makes America the paradise for women? I need 

 not tell you that it is Christianity. Everywhere in the East we are 

 followed by beggars. Many of them have children which they carry 

 upon their shoulder, with the child's arm around their neck. In 

 Beirut, while waiting at one of the stores where my husband trans- 

 acted business, an old beggar woman Came along soliciting alms. 

 One of the clerks, to amuse us, knocked over the old woman and 

 held her down l)y the neck, all in a playful manner ; but it spoke 

 louder than any lecturer could speak of how the Turks " reverence 

 and respect women." 



