On the
way he fell ill with great fever; he was so weak and giddy that he
could not stand. One night his head ached so that it almost drove him
mad; he shook all over with fever; then a great sweat broke out. He
was almost unconscious with weakness, but at midnight when the call
came to start he mounted his horse and, as he says, "set out, rather
dead than alive." So he pressed on in great weakness till he reached
Tabriz, and there met the British Ambassador.
Martyn was rejoiced, and felt that all his pains were repaid when Sir
Gore Ouseley said that he himself would present the Sacred Book to
the Shah and the Prince. When the day came to give the book to Prince
Abbas, poor Henry Martyn was so weak that he could not rise from his
bed. Before the other copy could be presented to the Shah, Martyn had
died. This is how it came about.
_The Last Trail_
His great work was done. The New Testament was finished. He sent a
copy to the printers in India. He could now go home to England and
try to get well again. He started out on horseback with two Armenian
servants and a Turkish guide. He was making along the old track that
has been the road from Asia to Europe for thousands of years. His plan
was to travel across Persia, through Armenia and over the Black Sea to
Constantinople, and so back to England.
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