On the 22d of October, she wrote again, “Yesterday I went up to Mr. Bird’s to consult about the plan of a school-house now commenced for females.  I can hardly believe that such a project is actually in progress, and I hail it as the dawn of a happy change in Syria.  Two hundred dollars have been subscribed by friends in this vicinity, and I told Mr. B. that if necessary he might expend fifty more upon the building, as our Sabbath School in Norwich had pledged one hundred a year for female education in Syria.”

The principal contributor to this fund was Mrs. Alexander Tod, formerly Miss Gliddon, daughter of the U.S.  Consul in Alexandria.

The building stood near where the present Church in Beirut stands, and was removed, and the stones used in the extension of the old Chapel.  In the year 1866 Mr. Tod revisited Beirut and contributed L100 towards the erection of the new Female Seminary, saying that as Mrs. Tod aided in the first Female Seminary building in Beirut, he wished to aid in the second.  The school-house was a plain structure, and was afterwards used as a boy’s school, and the artist who photographed the designs printed in this volume received his education there under the instruction of the late Shahin Sarkis, husband of Azizy.

In the latter part of October, 1834, Mrs. Smith writes, “Yesterday I commenced the female school with four scholars, which were increased to ten to-day, and the number will probably continue to augment as before from week to week.  As I walked home about sunset this evening, I thought, ’Can it be that I am a schoolmistress, and the only one in all Syria?’ and I tripped along with a quick step amid Egyptians, Turks and Arabs, Moslems and Jews, to my quiet and pleasant home.”

November 9.  “I sometimes indulge the thought that God has sent me to the females of Syria—­to the little girls, of whom I have a favorite school—­for their good.”

January 5, 1835.  “On Friday I distributed rewards to twenty-three little girls belonging to my school, which, as they are all poor, consisted of clothing.  Our Sabbath School also increases.  Eighteen were present last Sabbath.”

On the 11th of January Dr. Thomson wrote, “Mrs. Smith’s female school prospers wonderfully, but it is the altar of her own health; and I fear that in the flame that goeth up toward heaven from off that altar, she will soon ascend as did Manoah’s angel.  We can hardly spare her; she is our only hope for a female school in Beirut at present.”

The state of society in Syria at that time is well pictured in the following language, used by Mrs. Smith in a letter dated February 12, 1835:  “Excepting the three or four native converts, we know not one pious religious teacher, one judicious parent, one family circle regulated by the fear of God; no, not even one!”