Heading: (Palestine)
Author: Fisk, Pliny
Title: Two manuscript diaries kept by Pliny Fisk, an American missionary in Palestine, both before and during his travels
Place Published: Various places
Publisher:
Date Published: 1814-1820
Description:

Includes:

• 
  Diary covering Dec. 1, 1814 to March 1,. 1816. 16 pp. 15.7x10 cm.


• 
  Diary covering July 4, 1816 to May 6, 1820. 46 pp. 20x17 cm.

Both unbound.

Handwritten diaries kept by Pliny Fisk, who graduated from Middlebury College and Andover Theological Seminary (1818). With Levi Parsons he embarked on November 3, 1819, on the first American mission to Palestine and the Near East, with the primary aim of converting the Jews of Palestine, widely believed to be a necessary preliminary to the millennial age of Christ's reign on earth. First based at Smyrna, they soon moved to Scio. After returning to Smyrna they toured Asia Minor. When Parsons went on to Jerusalem in December 1820, Fisk remained in Smyrna. After Parson's death at Alexandria in February 1822, Fisk went to Malta and was joined by Jonas King. In the spring of 1825 Fisk returned to Beirut where he died in October.

Fisk's first diary was written while he was still at Middlebury College, has 16 pages, and is the smaller of the two. The second one includes the time while he was at Andover Theological Seminary, in Andover, Massachusetts; continues as they sailed on their voyage to Palestine. These diaries describe his anguish and his struggles; his desire to get back to America (which he never did); his own unworthiness, his feverish obsession with the Bible and Christianity; his preparation for death at the hands of the heathens: "all missionaries in this land must be prepared to die"; his time at Andover Theological Seminary; his craving to preach sermons again as opposed to handing out Bibles, etc.

Normal wear; very good.