An attempt to establish a Protestant mission in Egypt was made l)y the Jloravians in 17G9. A mis- sionary, Hockcr, wlio previously had sought to open communication with the Abyssinian Church, but had been compelled to return to Europe in 1761, was in 1768 commissioned, together with a young man named Danke, a carpenter liy trade, to return to Egypt, and await any opening that might present itself to pene- trate into Abyssinia. " On Starch 5, 17G9, they reach- ed Cair(>, 1 locker earning a livelihood by practising as a physician and Danke by working at his trade. The latter soon learned to converse tolerably in Arabic, and when an assistant arrived for Ilocker in the per- ron of John Antes, a watchmaker, he set out on his first journey to the Copts, landing at Gizch, in Upper Egypt. The state of the country at this time was ex- ceedinglv disturbed, the Mameluke beys having re- volted against the Turkish government, and many of them being also at war with one another. Ilocker had been summoned to attend members of the household of Ali Bey (for a time the first chief in Eg;>-pt), and Uanke"s connection with the 'English phj'sician,' as Ilocker was called, brought liira into favor with the officers and soldiers at Gizeh, who treated' him with the greatest kindness. He met a number of Copts in
this city, with whom he formed a very intimate friend- ship. At first several of them invited him to visit their native citj', Behnesse, the population of which was exclusiveh' Coptic, but afterwards they endeav- ored to deter him by describing the danger to which he would expose himself. Danke, however, refused to listen to them, and, after bidding the Copts at Gir- zeh farewell, he set out Sept. i;ith. Danke made in all three visits to the Copts at Behnesse. His labors were by many eagerly accepted, by others they were viewed with suspicion or openly opposed. His testi- mony for Jesus was not without encouraging effect, and man}' of the priests even became his firm support- ers, and begged him to remain amongst them. On his third visit he caught a severe cold, upon which followed an attack of malignant fever. Kotwithstand- ing the most careful nursing on the part of the other brethren, the disease increased upon him, and on Oct. 6th, 1772, he died, aged only 38 years. By permission of the Greek patriarch, his bodj' was interred in a vault of St. George's church, in the Old City of Cairo. In May, 1775, George AViniger arrived as Danke's successor. He proceeded to Behnesse, and labored faithfully in preaching the Gospel and instructing the people privately. Michael Baschara (the magistrate referred to above) remained faithful to his profession, and was an active and influential assistant. In 1780, three other brethren were sent from HeiTuhut to re- inforce the mission, but it had become evident before their arrival that in the present state of the country it would be impossible to continue the work amongst the Copts, and that an effort to penetrate into Abyssinia would be useless. The brethren remained at their post until the Sj'nod of 1782 resolved to discontinue the mission. Hocker, who had laliored for its estab- lishment ever since the j-ear 1752, died at Cairo in Au- gust, 1781" (^Moranan [newspaper]. May 7, 1868).
In 1826, the "Church Blissionary Society" of Lon- don sent out some German missionaries to labor among the Copts. After spending some time in stud- ying the Arabic language, and distributing the Bible and religious tracts, the missionaries fixed the location of the mission at Cairo, where they had two schools, attended by Greek, Coptic, Armenian, Eoman Catho- lic, and even pure Mohammedan children. In 1833 a boarding-school was commenced, designed for train- ing teachers and catechists. In 1834 a chapel was con- structed by subscriptions obtained on the spot. In 1835 the mission was interrupted hy a terrible visita- tion of the plague. In 1840 it was reported by the missionaries that in the different quarters of the town no less than six religious meetings had been establish- ed by the native Copts for the purpose of reading the Scriptures; that the patriarch had sanctioned loth these meetings and a plan for the establishment of an institution in Egj'pt for the education of the Coptic clergy. In 1841, a pupil of the missionary school of Cairo was appointed by the patriarch Abuna, or head of the Abyssinian Church. Bishop Gobat, who visited Egypt in 1849, expressed in a letter dated Jan. 9, 1850, the ojiinion that the plan on which this mission had been established, to seek the friendship of the higher clergy of the Eastern churches, and to induce them to reform their churches, had failed. The mission was subsequently abandoned.
A mission established by the American Missionary Association lias also been again abandoned. The most successful of any of the Protestant missions has been that undertaken by the United Presbyterian Chu:ch. It organized a number of congregations and schools, and, through the liberality of the Maharajah Dhuloep Singh, who married a pupil of the mission school, it obtained a press, through which a large amount of useful reading has been scattered throurhont the land. The growth of the Church was sufficicnlh' encouraging to organize the churches into the Pres- bytery of Egypt, in connection with the General As-