4 



Henry Augustus Homes. 



all this additional labor without interrupting the work of preaching 

 and teaching and learning which had first engaged him. 



Though stationed at Constantinople he traveled extensively over the 

 Turkish Empire. In 1837, he traveled in Syria, visited Beirut and 

 Jerusalem, and spent several months in Damascus studying Arabic. 

 In 1839, he went on an exploring expedition with Dr. Grant among 

 the Koords and in Mesopotamia. Wherever he went he was a careful 

 observer and faithful student of the institutions, character and condi- 

 tion of the people. His letters and journals, of which copious extracts 

 were published in the Missionary Herald during all the years of his 

 missionary life, are full of valuable and interesting information 

 regarding the geography, history, manners, morals and religion of 

 those countries which are so rich in classical and sacred associations, 

 while at the same time they illustrate his varied and unwearied labors 

 in his missionary work. A letter from the Armenian Christians, as 

 his friend Prof. Tyler informs me, " bears strong and cordial testi- 

 mony to the wisdom, zeal and enthusiasm with which he discharged 

 his duties in various departments, and particularly in the preparation 

 and circulation of religious books and in the instruction of youth." 



At length, after some fifteen years of faithful labor, interrupted by 

 only one visit to his native land in 1842, he passed by a natural transi- 

 tion from the service of the Missionary Board in Constantinople to 

 the service of the United States Legation in the same city, for which 

 by all the experiences of those fifteen years he was peculiarly qualified. 

 He served the legation with fidelity and success as charge d'affaires 

 during the three ensuing years, until, in 1853, he returned to America 

 to take up the thread of his life again in his native land. 



He was now forty-one years of age, at the height of his powers, 

 ripened by travel and experience, enriched by self-denying labor and 

 sacrifice in the greatest of causes, and an honorable career rounded 

 out with noble achievement behind him. But it was not until he had 

 finally turned his back upon the first period of his native career, dis- 

 tinguished as that had been, that his true vocation disclosed itself. 

 In 1854, the year after his return from Turkey, he received the ap- 

 pointment of assistant in the New York State library, becoming in 

 1862 the librarian of the general library, a position which he held to 

 the time of his death. What fortunate inspiration guided the trustees 

 of our State library to this faithful but unwearied servant of the Most 

 High, this quiet scholar in his retirement in Boston, we do not know ; 

 but certain it is that never was wiser choice made. It is no disparage- 

 ment to his learned and able associates to say, that from the day of 



