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Journal of a Residence at Bagdad

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Title: Journal of a Residence at Bagdad

Author: Anthony Norris Groves

Editor: A. J. Scott


        
Release date: August 7, 2009 [eBook #29631]

Language: English

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 Transcriber's Notes:
 1) Mousul/Mosul, piastre/piaster, Shiraz/Sheeraz,
    Itch-Meeazin/Ech-Miazin/Etchmiazin,
    each used on numerous occasions;
 2) Arnaouts/Arnaoots, Dr. Beagrie/Dr. Beagry,
    Beirout/Bayrout/Beyraut(x2), Saltett/Sallett,
    Shanakirke/Shammakirke, Trebizond/Trebisand - once each.
 All left as in original text.

 3) M^R = a superscripted "R".


       *       *       *       *       *




 JOURNAL
 OF A
 RESIDENCE AT BAGDAD,
 &c, &c.




 LONDON:
 DENNETT, PRINTER, LEATHER LANE.




 JOURNAL
 OF A
 RESIDENCE AT BAGDAD,

 DURING THE YEARS 1830 AND 1831,

 BY
 M^R. ANTHONY N. GROVES,
 MISSIONARY.

 LONDON:
 JAMES NISBET, BERNERS STREET.
 M DCCC XXXII.


       *       *       *       *       *




INTRODUCTION.


This little work needs nothing from us to recommend it to attention.
In its incidents it presents more that is keenly interesting, both to
the natural and to the spiritual feelings, than it would have been
easy to combine in the boldest fiction. And then it is not fiction.
The manner in which the story is told leaves realities unencumbered,
to produce their own impression. It might gratify the imagination, and
even aid in enlarging our practical views, to consider such scenes as
possible, and to fancy in what spirit a Christian might meet them; but
it extends our experience, and invigorates our faith, to know that,
having actually taken place, it is thus that they have been met.

The first missionaries were wont, at intervals, to return from their
foreign labours, and relate to those churches whose prayers had sent
them forth, "all things that God had done with them" during their
absence. To the Christians at Antioch, there must have been important
edification, as well as satisfaction to their affectionate concern
about the individuals, and about the cause, in the narrative of Paul
and Barnabas. Nor would the states of mind experienced, and the spirit
manifested, by the narrators themselves be less instructive, than the
various reception of their message by various hearers. In these pages,
in like manner, Mr. Groves contributes to the good of the Church, an
important fruit of his mission, were it to yield no other. He had cast
himself upon the Lord. To Him he had left it to direct his path; to
give him what things He knew he had need of, and whether outward
prospects were bright or gloomy, to be the strength of his heart and
his portion for ever. The publication of his former little Journal was
the erection of his Eben Ezer. Hitherto, said he to us in England, the
Lord hath helped me. And now, after a prolonged residence among a
people with whom, in natural things, he can have no communion, and
who, towards his glad tidings of salvation, are as apathetic as is
compatible with the bitterest contempt; after having had, during many
weeks, his individual share of the suffering, and his mind worn with
the spectacle, of a city strangely visited at once with plague, and
siege, and inundation, and internal tumult; widowed, and not without
experience of "flesh and heart fainting and failing," he again
"blesses God for all the way he has led him,"[1] tells us that "the
Lord's great care over him in the abundant provision for all his
necessities, enables him yet further to sing of his goodness;"[2] and
while his situation makes him say, "what a place would this be to be
alone in now" if without God, he adds, "but with Him, this is better
than the garden of Eden."[3] "The Lord is my only stay, my only
support; and He is a support indeed."[4]

It is remarkable, that at a time when the fear of pestilence has
agitated the people of this country, and when the tottering fabric of
society threatens to hurl down upon us as dire a confusion as that
which has surrounded our brother, in a country hitherto regarded so
remote from all comparison with our own; at a time when the records of
the seasons at which the terrible voice of God has sounded loudest in
our capital, are republished as appropriate to the contemplation of
Christians at the existing crisis;[5]--this volume should have been
brought before the Public, by circumstances quite unconnected with
this train of God's dealings and threatenings to our land. The
Christians of Britain ought to consider, that there is a warning voice
of Providence, not only in the tumults of the people, and in the
terrors of the cholera around them, but even in the publication of
this Journal. It is not for nothing that God has moved Mr. Groves, as
it were, to an advanced post, where he might encounter the enemy
before them. The alarm may have, in a measure, subsided,[6] but if the
people of God are to be ever patiently waiting for the coming of their
conquering King, this implies a patient preparedness for those signs
of his coming, the clouds and darkness that are to go before him, in
the very midst of which they must be able to lift up their heads
because their redemption draweth nigh. To provide for the worst
contingencies is a virtue, not a weakness, in the soldier. That
Christian will not keep his garments who forgets, that in this life,
he is a soldier always. No army is so orderly in peace, or so
triumphant upon lesser assaults, as that which is ready always
for the extremest exigencies of war.

To those who are looking for the glorious appearing of our great God
and Saviour, Jesus Christ, this volume will exhibit indications of the
advancement of the world towards the state in which he shall find it
at his coming. The diffusion in the east of European notions and
practices; the desire on the part of the rulers to possess themselves
of the advantages of western intellect and skill; and on the side of
the governed, the conviction of the comparative security and comfort
of English domination; the vastly increased intercourse between those
nations and the west, and the proposals for still further accelerating
and facilitating that intercourse: all these things mark the rapid
tendency, of which we have so many other signs, towards the production
of one common mind throughout the human race, to issue in that
combination for a common resistance of God, which, as of old, when
the people were one, and had all one language, and it seemed that
nothing could be restrained from them which they had imagined to
do,--shall cause the Lord to come down and confound their purpose.
Already has this unity of views and aims, with marvellous rapidity,
prevailed in the European and American world; the press, the
steam-engine by land and water, the multiplication of societies
and unions, portend an advancement in it, to which nothing can
set limits but the intervention of God: and now it appears that
the mountain-fixedness of Asiatic prejudice and institution shall
suddenly be dissolved, and absorbed into the general vortex.

And to those who may have suspected, that the prospect of the return
of Jesus of Nazareth to our earth for vengeance and expurgation of
evil first, and then for occupation of rule, _under_ the face of the
whole heaven, is but a speculative subject for curious minds, this
little book presents matter of reflection. By circumstances of such
urgent personal concernment, as those in which Mr. Groves and his
departed wife have been placed, the merely speculative part of
religion is put to flight. But we shall find them in the midst of
confusion, and bereavement, and horror, clinging to this one hope for
themselves and for the world, that the Lord cometh to reign, wherefore
the earth shall be glad; deriving from this hope a delight in God, in
the midst of all that seems adverse to such a sentiment, which, if it
be not a proof of practical power in a doctrine, what is practical?

On some few points, Mr. Groves has given a somewhat detailed
expression of his own sentiments. One of the most important of these
is re-considered in the notes by the writer of this introduction.
Another, on which the interest of many has already been strongly
excited, is the recognition of those men as ministers of God, who do
not utter the word of his truth, and who are admitted to speak without
the Spirit of his truth. The question, encompassed as it has been with
difficulties foreign to itself, is but a narrow one. The preaching of
the Gospel _is_ an ordinance of God. The preaching of what is not the
Gospel is _no_ ordinance of God; and affords me no opportunity of
shewing my respect for divine ordinances by my attendance upon it.
That men possessing the Holy Ghost should confer spiritual gifts by
the laying on of hands on those who in faith receive it, _is_ an
ordinance of God: that men, not having the Holy Ghost, should lay
hands on others for spiritual gifts, is _no_ ordinance of God.

If the outward fact of what is named ordination, determines me to
regard as now made of God a teacher, a pastor, an evangelist, a
bishop, him who, to all intelligent and spiritual perception, is what
he was, in error, and ignorance, and carnality; this is not respect
for divine ordinances at all, but a faith in the _opus operatum_, a
faith in transubstantiation transferred to men, denying the truth of
my own perception, and clinging to the conclusion of my superstition,
just as in the mass the senses are denied, and bread and wine visibly
unaltered, are called flesh and blood. The arguments by which this
notion is supported, are too complicated, and too contemptuous of
unity or consistency, to be meddled with in our limited space. That
Christ bade men observe what the Scribes and Pharisees taught on the
authority of the law of Moses, is made a reason for reverencing what
is taught on _no_ divine authority: Scribes and Pharisees, who
pretended to no divine ordination, but rested their claims on their
knowledge, are made specimens of the respect due to ordination, in
the case of such whose ignorance and unsound teaching are allowed.
But were not the Scribes and Pharisees in many things ignorant and
unsound? Yes, truly; but were these the things of which the Lord
said expressly, these things observe and do? To tell us that we must
observe and do what is according to Scripture, however bad the men
who teach it, ordained or unordained alike; what has this to do with
ordination? True, this is no excuse for those who prostitute the form
and name of God's ordinance, and know that it is prostituted: who say,
"receive ye the Holy Ghost," and would laugh as being supposed to
confer the Holy Ghost: but there is no necessity for running from this
crime, to the error of which we have spoken. Let us acknowledge our
wretchedness, and misery, and poverty, and blindness, and nakedness.
When the laws were transgressed, and the everlasting covenant broken;
then the _ordinance_ was _changed_, as Isaiah foretold it should,[7]
among the causes why the earth is defiled under the inhabitants
thereof.

The Apostolic Epistles contain little, if any thing, to establish the
pastoral authority in a single person of each church or congregation:
and the omission of all allusion to such an office is often very
remarkable from the occasion seeming to assure us, that it would have
been mentioned had it existed. The Epistles of the Lord to the seven
churches are therefore resorted to for proof of the existence and
nature of the place of a single pastor with peculiar and exclusive
powers. But neither there nor elsewhere is the fact of ordination once
referred to, in relation to the receiving or rejection of those who
claimed to speak in the name of Christ. In these very Epistles there
is a commendation for disregarding for the truth's sake the highest
titles of ecclesiastical office. "Thou canst not bear them which are
evil: thou hast _tried_ them which say they are apostles, and are not,
and hast found them liars."[8] I believe, "not to bear them which are
evil" pastors, evangelists or apostles, is as commendable in England
as in Ephesus in the eye of the Head of the Churches. Is there a
syllable in the Bible to lead us to suppose that these liars were
detected by any other means than those which Paul had already taught
the Church? "Though _we_, or an angel from heaven, preach any other
gospel unto you than that which we have preached unto you, let him be
accursed." As for the ordinance, such passages as Titus i. 9, make
_selection_ a part of that ordinance: the bishop is to be one "holding
fast the word of truth as he hath been taught." Now, on what authority
shall this part of the ordinance, viz. selection, be omitted, and no
flaw follow: while the presence or omission of a manual act in certain
hands is to constitute the reality or absence of Divine ordination?

                                                A. J. SCOTT.
  _Woolwich, Aug. 16th, 1832._

  [1] Page 155.

  [2] Page 169.

  [3] Page 122.

  [4] Page 146.

  [5] See "Narratives of two Families exposed to the great
  Plague of London, 1665; with Conversations on a Religions Preparation
  for Pestilence," and "God's Terrible Voice in the City," by Vincent;
  both republished by Rev. J. Scott, of Hull.

  [6] And yet what security is afforded by a present abatement
  of the visitation? In Glasgow, cholera was regarded as departing, and
  all but departed. The number of cases has since risen, for some time,
  to above 300 at once, and the deaths not seldom to between one and two
  hundred a day, in a population small compared with that of London.

  [7] Chap. xxiv. ver. 5.

  [8] Rev. ii. 2.


       *       *       *       *       *




 JOURNAL
 OF A
 RESIDENCE AT BAGDAD.


                              _Bagdad, April 2, 1830._

We begin to find that our school-room is not large enough to contain
the children, and we have been obliged therefore to add to it another.
We have now fifty-eight boys and nine girls, and might have many more
girls had we the means for instructing them; but we have as yet no
other help than the schoolmaster's wife, who knows very little of any
thing, and therefore is very unfit to bring those into order who have
been educated without any order. But I have no doubt of the Lord's
sending us, in due time, sufficient help of all kinds.

_April 3._--An Armenian merchant from Egypt and Syria, was with us
to-day; a Roman Catholic by profession, but an infidel in fact. He
said it was all one to him, whether men were Armenian, Syrian,
Mohammedan, or Jew, so that they were good. He had left Beirout about
two months, and said there were none of the missionaries there then;
but that he knew there the Armenian Catholic bishop, and an Armenian
priest, who had left the Roman Catholic church, and who were in
Lebanon--he said they were friends of his, and very good men. We feel
interested in receiving some missionary intelligence, to know whether
or not Syria is still deserted.

We have received from Shushee a parcel of our Lord's Sermon on the
Mount, in the vulgar Armenian. We were very much rejoiced at this, as
it enabled us to supersede, in some little degree, the old language;
but in determining that every boy sufficiently advanced, should learn
a verse a day, we met with some opposition from two or three of the
elder boys, and I think two will leave the school in consequence; but
the Lord will easily enable us to triumph over all; of this I have no
doubt, at all events I see my way clear come what will. Captain Strong
has taken a letter for me to Archdeacon Parr, to ask for some school
materials, such as slates and slate pencils for the school. I feel
daily more established in the conviction, that our Lord has led us to
this place, and that he will make our way apparent, as we go on in
faithful waiting upon him.

I cannot sufficiently thank God for sending my dear brother Pfander
with me, for had it not been for him, I could not have attempted any
thing, so that all that has now been done, must rather be considered
his than mine, as I have only been able to look on and approve. But
if the Lord's work is advanced, I can praise him by whomsoever it may
be promoted.

_June 12._--The circumstances of our situation are now going on so
regularly, that there is little to write about, more than that the
Lord's mercies are new every morning. Since Captain Strong left us,
there has arrived here a Mr. and Mrs. Mignan, and another gentleman,
named Elliot, neither of whom seem to know, at present, whether they
will remain here or go on.

The capidji or officer, who came from Constantinople, bringing a
firman to the Pasha, is desired to take back with him a drawing of one
of the soldiers whom Major T. is organizing for the Pasha. Major T.'s
son is just arrived from India, and he also is going to organize a
body of horse; in fact, every thing is tending to the establishment
of an European influence, and it may be the Lord's pleasure thus to
prepare the way for his servants to publish the tidings which the
sheep will hear. This tendency to adopt European manners and
improvements, is not only manifested in the military department, but
in others more important. The Pasha has a great desire to introduce
steam navigation on these two beautiful rivers. A proposal has been
made from an agent of the Bristol Steam Company, to the Pasha, through
Major T., to have a steam vessel in the first place between Bussorah
and this place; and secondly, if possible, to extend the navigation,
either by the old canal or by a new one, into the Euphrates and up
to Beer. This navigation will bring one within three days of the
Mediterranean,[9] without the fatigue, danger, and loss of time to
which travellers are exposed in the present journey. It will be a most
important opening for missionaries; for should this mode of conveyance
once get established, the route by Constantinople would almost cease,
and some arrangement would soon be made for going from Scanderoon to
the different important stations in the Mediterranean.

  [9] Impossible--within three days of Aleppo must be meant.

There is a gentleman here on his return to England, a Mr. Bywater,
whom Mr. Taylor wishes to undertake a survey of the Euphrates, from
Beer to the canal, which connects it with this place. Till within
about twenty years, heavy artillery came to this place by that river,
so there can be but little doubt that a steam packet would be able to
go; though it might not be of the same size as the one between this
and Bussorah. The voyage between these places backwards and forwards,
it is proposed to do in eight days, which now takes about six or seven
weeks, and during the whole of the returning voyage, which is long,
being against the current, you are at present exposed to the attacks
of the Arabs every hour, whereas the steam packet would have nothing
to fear from them. In fact, I feel the Lord is preparing great changes
in the heart of this nation, or rather from one end of it to the
other; and the events which have taken place in that part of the
empire around Constantinople, have tended to the hastening on of these
changes.

Among the boys that come to me to learn English, I have one, the son
of a rich Roman Catholic jeweller of this place. So important is the
commercial relation between this place and India become, that the
number who wish to learn English of me, is much greater than I can
possibly take charge of, as this is not with me a primary object; but
it is a most important field of labour, and one that might have, I
think, very interesting results, for they will bear opposition to
their own views more easily in another language than in their own: it
does not come to them like a book written to oppose them, and thus
truth may slide gently in. My Moolah, who is teaching me Arabic, and
whose son I teach English, told me, that in two or three years he
would send his son to England to complete his knowledge of English.
Now to those who know nothing of the Turks, this may not appear
remarkable, but to those who do, it will exhibit a striking breaking
down of prejudice in this individual.

There is a famous man here, a Mohammedan by profession, but in reality
an infidel, who is the head of a pantheistic sect, who believe God to
be every thing and every thing to be God, so that he readily admits,
on this notion, the divinity of our blessed Lord. Infidelity is
extending on every side in these countries. My Moolah said, that now
a-days, if you asked a Christian whether he were a Christian, he
would say, Yes; but if you asked him who Christ was, or why he was
attached to him, he did not know. And in the same manner he said, if
you asked a Mohammedan a similar question, he would also say, he did
not know, but that he went as others went; but, he added, now all the
_Sultans_ were sending out men to teach, the Sultan of England--the
Sultan of Stamboul, &c. By this I imagine his impression is, that we
are sent out by the king of England.

Our school is, on the whole, going on very well. We have introduced
classes, and a general table of good and bad behaviour, of lessons, of
absence, and of attendance; and they all go on, learning a portion of
Scripture every day in the vulgar dialect. This is something.

I am beginning to feel my acquaintance with Arabic increase under the
plan which I am now pursuing with the boys who learn English. They
bring me Arabic phrases, and as far as my knowledge extends, I give
them the meaning in English; and when that fails, I write it down for
inquiry from the Moolah next day, and then by asking words in Arabic
every day for the boys to give me the English, I at last get the
expressions so impressed on my memory, that when I want them they
arise almost without thought. Another advantage from the boys bringing
phrases and words, is that they bring such as they use in the spoken
Arabic, which is very different from the written. This is a plan I
would recommend, whenever it can be adopted, to every missionary; for
there is a stimulus to the memory in having the questions to ask every
day, and having only the English written down, which nothing else
gives.

We have lately had a little proof of Turkish honesty. The man who
sells us wood, charged us seven tagar, and brought us somewhat less
than three.

Our souls are much refreshed by the contemplation of our Lord's coming
to complete the mystery of godliness. Oh, how long shall it be, ere he
be admired in all them that believe.

_June 26._--We have heard to-day from Mrs. G.'s brother J. from
Alexander Casan Beg, mentioned in a preceding part of my journal, and
from Mr. Glen. All our various accounts were welcome. Some of the
information contained in them enables us to rejoice in those we love
naturally, some in those we love spiritually.

In the letters of Alexander C. Beg, and Mr. Glen, I have received the
intelligence that the former would not now be able to join us, as he
had previously received an offer from the Scottish Missionary Society,
to become a missionary of theirs in India; for certain reasons,
however, he does not at present seem able to accept it. Concerning
this Mohammedan convert, it is impossible not to feel the deepest
interest.

We have just had some interesting conversation with a poor Jacobite,
who is come from Merdin, with a letter from his matran or bishop,
about two churches which the Roman Catholics have taken away from the
Jacobites. His description of their state is striking. He says, the
Pasha of Merdin cares neither for this Pasha, who is his immediate
superior, nor for the Sultan; and that he encourages these disputes
among the Christians, that he may get money from both parties, who
bribe him by turns. He says, that the Yezidees, when they see a Syrian
priest coming, will get off their horse and salute him, and kiss his
hand, and that the Kourds are a much worse people than they, but that
Roman Catholics are worse than either.--I was surprised to find that
the Roman Catholic bishop has a school of fifty girls learning to read
Arabic, and to work at their needle.

We have heard to-day that the Mohammedans, inhabitants of the town,
are much dissatisfied with the Sultan and with the Pasha, for
introducing European customs. They say, they are already Christians,
and one of them asked Mr. Swoboda, if it was true that the old missid
or mosque near us, was to become again a Christian church, and whether
the beating of the drums every evening after the European manner at
the seroy or palace, did not mean that the Pasha was becoming a
Christian. And they say, that the military uniforms now introducing,
are haram or unlawful. Major T. has induced the Pasha to have a
regiment dressed completely in the European fashion, and is now
forming some horse regiments on the same plan. All these things will
clearly tend to one of these two results--either to the overthrow
of Mohammedanism by the introduction of European manners and
intelligence, or to a tremendous crisis in endeavouring to throw off
the burden which the great mass of the lower and bigoted Mohammedans
abhor. But still the Lord knows, and has given his angels charge to
seal his elect before these things come to pass.

Our attention has again been directed to the subject of steam
navigation between Bombay and England, by the arrival of Mr. James
Taylor from Bombay. This gentleman has been engaged for some time in
undertaking to effect steam communication by the Red Sea: with the
view of making final arrangements on the subject he had just been to
Bombay, and wished to have returned by the Red Sea, but difficulties
arising, he determined to come by way of the Persian Gulf and this
city, and to cross the desert. On his arrival here, he was made
acquainted with the previous plans for steam navigation on these
rivers; and he quickly perceived that if the river were navigable, and
no other difficulties arose, the preference must be given to this
route, as being at least ten days shorter to Bombay, and of the thirty
or thirty-five days which remained, seven, or perhaps five, would be
spent on two beautiful rivers, with opportunities of obtaining from
its banks vegetables and fruits; and instead of the Red Sea, which is
rocky, stormy, and little known, there would be the Persian Gulf,
which has been surveyed in every part, and is peculiarly free from
storms. From the mouth of the Persian Gulf, the boat would go direct
to Bombay instead of going down to Columbo from the mouth of the Red
Sea, and then up the western side of the Peninsula of India. In Egypt
also they would have five days journey over the desert, whilst from
Aleppo they would only have two to a place on the Euphrates, called
Beer. Fuel also in abundance might be obtained here, either from wood
or bitumen; in fact, Mr. Taylor feels that if it can be accomplished,
it would save expense on the voyage. The only two difficulties that
oppose themselves to this route are, first, the Arabs, and secondly,
whether there be a sufficiency of water in the rivers. As to the
Arabs, a steamer has nothing to fear, for by keeping mid-stream at
the rate they go, no Arab would touch them or attempt to do it. The
present vessels they have no power over in going down, but when they
are dragged up by Arab trackers, then they are easily attacked.
As to the second objection, the want of water, there appears no
insurmountable difficulty here, as all the heavy ordnance from
Constantinople were brought down the Euphrates from Beer, on rafts,
or, as they are called, kelecks; these, independent of their width,
being greater than that of a steamer, actually draw more water when
heavily laden. There does not appear to be more than one place where
there is a doubt, and that is at El Dar, the ancient Thapsacus, where
we understand at one season, when the waters are at the lowest point,
a camel can hardly go over; but still, perhaps, further information
may be desirable. The Pasha has entered very heartily into this plan,
and offered either to clear out an old canal, or to cut a new one
between this river and the Euphrates. The mouth of the Euphrates is
one extended marsh, which forms the best rice-grounds of the country.
The distance between the two rivers at this place is about thirty
miles. Mr. James Taylor thinks that travellers may reach England from
this in twenty-three days, and Bombay in twelve: should this ever take
place, steam boats will be passing twice a month up and down this
river with passengers from India and England; the effects of such a
change, both moral, spiritual, and political, none can tell, but that
they must be great every one may see.

I have been this morning talking with my Moolah about the two rivers,
as to their capability of steam navigation. He decidedly gives the
preference to the Euphrates, and says, that the average depth is the
height of two men, or ten feet--even till considerably above Beer; but
that the Tigris, above Mousul, is very shallow.[10]

  [10] We have since discovered, by a survey of the Tigris,
  that in its present state it will be only navigable to Mosul during
  seven months in the year, from ledges of rock that pass across the
  river.

This possibility thus set before us of seeing those we love, and many
of the Lord's dear servants here, is most comforting and encouraging:
this place would become a frontier post of Christian labour, from
which we might daily hope to send forth labourers to China, India, and
elsewhere, and the work of publishing the testimony of Jesus be
accomplished before the Lord come. However, we are in the Lord's
hands, and he will bring to pass what concerns his own honour, and we
will wait and see: a much greater opening has taken place since we
came here than we could have hoped for, and much more will yet open
upon us than we can now foresee. Things cannot remain as they are,
whether they continue to advance as they are now doing, or whether
bigotry be allowed to make a last vain effort to regain her ancient
position; still some decided change must be the final result of the
present state of things.

From the Bible Society at Bombay, I have received accounts of their
having sent me two English Bibles, fifty Testaments, twenty Arabic
Bibles, fifty Syriac Gospels, fifty Syriac Testaments, fifty Armenian
Bibles, one hundred Persian Psalters, seventy-five Persian Genesis,
and six Hebrew Testaments. In this are omitted those which are most
important to us, the Chaldean, the Persian, and the Arabic Testament;
but perhaps when they receive a supply from the Parent Society, they
will then forward these likewise.

I have also received a letter from Severndroog, from the first tutor
of my little boys, Mr. N., a true and dear person in the Lord, and he
mentions that they had, since he last wrote, admitted to their
church, four Hindoos and two Roman Catholics, and that one Hindoo
still remains, whom they hope soon to admit.

The following is the estimate of the time which the voyages, by the
Red Sea, and by these rivers to India, would respectively occupy:

 BY RED SEA.
                      Miles.  Days.
 London to Gibraltar   1000     7
 Gibraltar to Malta    1000     8
 Malta to Diametta      900     5
 Diametta to Suez       150     5
 Suez to Mocha         1100     6
 Mocha to Columbo      1920    10
 Columbo to Bombay     1000     7
                              ---
                               48

 BY EUPHRATES.
                      Miles.  Days.
 London to Gibraltar   1000     7
 Gibraltar to Malta    1000     8
 Malta to Aleppo       1000     6
 Aleppo to Beles         60     2
 Beles to Bagdad    }           5
 Bagdad to Bussorah }
 Bussorah to Bombay             9
                              ---
                               37

I have recently had some conversation with Mr. J. Taylor, who is
waiting only to see the Pasha to make final arrangements.

Another very important feature of the above plan for steam
communication with India is, that those societies who have
missionaries there, may send out their secretaries to encourage and
counsel them, by which means they will be able not only to enter more
fully into the feelings and circumstances of those they send, but will
be able to make their own reports, which will be more agreeable to
those engaged in the work--to tell about which must always be a
difficult undertaking.

I found yesterday that one of the gentlemen who came hither lately
from India, was a Mr. Hull, the son of Mrs. Hull, of Marpool, near
Exmouth, who, however, is not going across the desert, but round by
Mosul and Merdin, to Stamboul. He hopes to be home in September.

Mr. Pfander learnt from some Armenians yesterday, that they were much
pleased with the children learning the Scriptures in the vulgar
dialect; that they were so far able to understand the ancient language
still read in their churches, and they expressed a wish that they
might have a complete translation in the vulgar tongue. Those
Bibles we now have from the Bible Society, are in the dialect of
Constantinople, which is by no means generally or well understood
here, where the Erivan dialect prevails, which they use in the
Karabagh, in the north of Persia, and in all these countries. The
missionaries at Shushee are going on with the New Testament: Mr.
Dittrich has finished the translation of the four Gospels, and we hope
it will be printed for the Bible Society this year, for we greatly
need Armenian books in the vulgar dialect, by which we may, step by
step, supersede the old altogether. We also greatly want Arabic
school-books; but these we shall hope to get from Malta, through the
labours of Mr. Jowett.

We find the general feeling here, not only among Christians, but even
among the Mohammedans, is a wish that the English power might prevail
here, for although the Pasha does not directly tax them high, yet from
a bunch of grapes to a barrel of gunpowder, he has the skimming of the
cream, and leaves the milk to his subjects to do with as they can.
Once a month at least the money is changed. When the Pasha has a great
deal of a certain base money that he issues, he fixes the price higher
by certain degrees, on pain of mutilation, and when he has paid it all
away, or has any great sums to receive, he lowers the value by as many
degrees as he has raised it before. And hearing, as they universally
do now, of our government in India, that it is mild and equitable,
most of them would gladly exchange their present condition, and be
subject to the British government. This conduct on the part of the
Pasha, begets an universal system of smuggling and fraud among all
classes, so that the state of these people is indeed very, very bad.
I never felt more powerfully than now, the joy of having nothing to do
with these things; so that let men govern as they will, I feel my path
is to live in subjection to the powers that be, and to exhort others
to the same, even though it be such oppressive despotism as this. We
have to shew them by this, that our kingdom is not of this world, and
that these are not things about which we contend. But our life being
hid where no storms can assail, "with Christ in God"--and our wealth
being where no moth or rust doth corrupt, we leave those who are of
this world to manage its concerns as they list, and we submit to them
in every thing as far as a good conscience will admit.

_July 12._--We have heard of two Jews, who have bought two Hebrew New
Testaments, and a very respectable Jewish banker has been here to see
Mr. Pfander, with the German Jew, whom I have mentioned before, and
who is still desirous of leaving the broad road, without heart to
trust in him who is in the heavenly path, the way, the truth, and the
life. He is now here, endeavouring to obtain a livelihood by teaching
a few boys Hebrew, and comes to read the book of Job in German with
Mr. Pfander, without any of their explanations, one of which, as it
regards Job, is as follows. They say that every individual of the
human race actually existed in Adam, some in his nails, some in his
toes, some in his eyes, mouth, &c. &c., and they think, in proportion
to the proximity of the position of any person to the parts concerned
in eating and digesting the forbidden fruit, will be their degree of
guilt and measure of punishment here; so they consider that Job had
his place near the mouth. Such are the follies which now occupy the
minds of this interesting people, instead of the Lord of life and
glory.

Colonization appears to have entered into the contemplation of those
engaged in steam-navigation, and the planting of indigo and sugar. To
this end, the Pasha has granted them thirty miles of land on the banks
of the river. Just before Mr. Taylor was to set off to go through the
desert, news came that the Arab tribes on the road were at war among
themselves, and that it would therefore not be safe for him to go that
way, so he changed his route, and went on the 13th, by the way of
Mousul and Merdin, nearly double the distance, and at the same time,
Mr. Bywater and Mr. Elliot set off to Beer, from whence they intend
going down the Euphrates and examining that river as far down as
Babylon.

The old Jew, who came with the German, heartily entered into some
conversation about the coming of Christ. A school of Jewish children
might, I think, easily be obtained here, if you would teach them
English and the Old Testament only.

Our Moolah has mentioned, that he has been reading the New Testament
with another Moolah, who wishes to have a copy of Sabat's translation,
thinking that that might stimulate them to answer it; but that the
Propaganda edition is so vulgar, it offends them, for like the
Greeks they seek after wisdom. Still, if they read, the testimony
of God is delivered, and the plucking a few brands from the general
conflagration, is the great work till the Lord come. They have a most
proud and obstinate hatred against the name of Jesus, before whom all
must bow.

We have been interested by some inquiries made by our schoolmaster and
his father, relative to our morning and evening prayers; he wanted to
know what they were, and Mr. Pfander had the greatest difficulty in
making him understand, that we prayed from a sense of our present
wants. They said, they had heard from their books, that in the time of
the apostles men were without form of prayer, and were enabled to pray
from their hearts; but that it was not so now. They also asked some
questions about the Lord's Supper, whether we used wine mixed with
water or unmixed; bread leavened or unleavened. They seem anxious to
know more, and may the Lord give an open door to them!

We cannot help feeling, that the difficulties among the Mohammedans,
and apostate Christian churches are great beyond any thing that
can be imagined previous to experience. The difficulties of absolute
falsehood are as nothing to those of perverted truth, as we see in the
confounding infant baptism with the renewing of the Holy Ghost. In
every thing it is the same, prayer, praise, love, all is perverted,
and yet the name retained. The communications we received from Mr.
G----l and others,[11] about the state of Christianity in these
countries, is but too true, and what he states about the monks at
Itch-Meeazin may be doubtless true; at least I suppose it is the seat
of the Armenian Patriarch he means, for I know of no other Armenian
church in these parts, where this service is kept up of reading the
whole Book of Psalms every day. The office of a missionary in these
countries is, to _live_ the Gospel before them in the power of the
Holy Ghost, and to drop like the dew, line upon line, and precept upon
precept, here a little and there a little, till God give the increase
of his labours; but it must be by patient continuance in well doing
against every discouraging circumstance, from the remembrance of what
we ourselves once were.

  [11] See Record, Oct. 1, 1829.

We have this day heard, that the cholera or the plague is at Tabreez,
and that they are dying 4 or 5,000 a day; but this, I have no doubt,
is a gross exaggeration. May the Lord watch over the seed that seems
sowing there, and make the judgments that are in the earth warnings to
men to return to God. We also have the cholera here; but I trust not
severely.

The last Tartar who took our letters with the head of the ex-Khiahya
was plundered, so that our letters were lost which we sent by him.

We have been to-day in hopes of obtaining another Moolah, for teaching
the children in the school to read and write Arabic. For two months we
have been trying, without success, to obtain one, so great is their
prejudice against teaching Christians at all, but especially
themselves to read the New Testament; but as our Lord does every
thing for us, we doubt not he will do this also if it be best.

I am much led to think on those of my dear missionary brethren, who
look for the kingdom of Christ to come in by a gradual extension of
the exertions now making. This view seems to me very discouraging; for
surely after labouring for years, and so little having been done, we
may all naturally be led to doubt if we are in our places; but to
those who feel their place to be to preach Jesus, and publish the
Testament in his blood, whether men will hear or whether they will
forbear, they have nothing to discourage them, knowing they are a
sweet savour of Christ. I daily feel more and more, that till the Lord
come our service will be chiefly to gather out the few grapes that
belong to the Lord's vine, and publish his testimony in all nations;
there may be here and there a fruitful field on some pleasant hill,
but as a whole, the cry will be, "Who hath believed our report, and to
whom is the arm of the Lord revealed."

It is the constant practice here among the Jews, when they hear our
blessed Lord's name mentioned, or mention it themselves, to curse him;
so awful is their present state of opposition, Mohammedans will not
hear, and Christians do not care for any of those things--such is the
present state here; but if the Lord prosper our labour, we shall see
what the end will be, when the Almighty word of God becomes
understood. The poor German Jew still holds on; he has too much
honesty to live by writing lying amulets, and too little faith to cast
himself on the Lord; but his constant cry is, What shall I do to live?
The insight he gives us into the state of the Jews here is most awful,
but notwithstanding, there appears to me a most abundant field of
labour among the 10,000 who are here. Yesterday he called me suddenly
while at breakfast, to see a poor young Jewess who had been married
but two months, and had fallen over the bridge with her little brother
in her arms. The scene was awfully interesting. Not less perhaps than
300 Jews, with their wives, were in the house, but tumultuous as the
waves of the sea, without hope and without God in the world. There was
no hope of recovering her. She had been in the water an hour and a
half, and had there been life, they were acting so as to extinguish
every spark. She was lying in a close room crowded to suffocation,
with the windows shut; and they were burning under her nose charcoal
and wool.

The Armenian boys, who are learning English, go on with great zeal,
and may in the course of time become very interesting.

We have at length received information, that all our things are
arrived at Bussorah, and among the rest, the lithographic press, which
we hope to find most useful to us in our present position; every thing
happens rightly and well; they have been delayed for some time in
coming up the river, in consequence of a quarrel between the Pasha and
the Arab tribe, the Beni-Laam, in consequence of the plunder of Dr.
Beaky's boat, but we expect it will be settled, as the Pasha has
acceded to the terms the Sheikh offered, and has sent him down a dress
of honour.

I am sometimes led, in contemplating the gentlemanly and imposing
aspect which our present missionary institutions bear, and contrasting
them with the early days of the church, when apostolic fishermen and
tent-makers published the testimony, to think that much will not be
done till we go back again to primitive principles, and let the
nameless poor, and their unrecorded and unsung labours be those on
which our hopes, under God, are fixed.

We have just heard an interesting case. The gardener of the Pasha is a
Greek, who was lately sent to him at his request from Constantinople,
and yesterday (August 6), he became a Mohammedan. He had two daughters
of thirteen and fourteen, whom he also wished to become Mohammedans;
but they would not consent, and ran away to the factory, where they
might have remained under English protection; but they would not stay,
unless their brother, and his wife, and their servants could remain
with them; so they left, as Major T---- had not room for them all,
having already the family of one of the servants of the Pasha, who is
imprisoned for some delinquency in connection with the revenue
accruing to the Pasha from the bazaar.

There has been with Mr. Pfander to-day one of the writers of the
Pasha, and he read some parts of the Turkish New Testament, which he
very well understood, and expressed much pleasure in the reading of;
but when, on his being about to leave, Mr. P. asked him to accept of a
Turkish Testament, he very politely declined it.

There is another person come from Merdin, with the view of settling
the affair between the Syrians and the Roman Catholics at Merdin. He
is a weaver of Diarbekr; and from him Mr. Pfander learns, that in the
last census taken by the Pasha, the Syrians were 700 families, and the
Armenians 6,700: this certainly opens a most interesting field for
Christian inquiry: he also said, that the Syrians in the mountains
were perfectly independent of the Mohammedans, and among themselves
are divided into little clans under their respective Bishops. He also
stated, that reading and writing were much more cultivated among the
independent Syrians than those in the plains.

He also said there would be no difficulty whatever in going among the
Yezidees with a Syrian guide. The language which the independent
Syrians speak is Syriac, which is near the ancient Syriac, and that
they understand fully the Syrian Scriptures when read in their
churches. We hope, therefore, should the Lord spare our lives,
to have an opportunity of circulating some of the many copies of the
Scriptures in Syriac, which Mr. Pfander has brought from Shushee, and
some that I expect will come from Bombay for me.

The Gerba tribe of Arabs are come almost close to Bagdad, to check
whom the Pasha intends sending out the troops that have been under the
discipline of the English.

We have also heard from the Syrian, that from Mousul to Mardin the
road by the mountains of Sinjar is safer than by the plains. Among the
Yezidees and Syrians, no Mohammedan lives. It is impossible to
consider such an immense Christian population as that in Diarbekr,
without feeling a wish to pour in upon it the fountains of living
waters, which we are so abundantly blessed with. Oh, that some one
would come out, and settle down in such a place as Diarbekr--what an
abundant field of labour!

_August 14._--A young Jew was here to-day, and bought three Arabic
Bibles of Mr. Pfander, at 25 piastres of this place each, _i.e._ about
5s. sterling. This is almost the beginning. Many might perhaps have
been given away; but as we find that those of Mr. Wolff were generally
burnt, we wish them to buy them, at least, at such a price that they
would not burn them. He took away a Hebrew New Testament, but returned
it again. I should feel deeply interested in some one coming to take
charge of a Jewish school, in which the Old Testament, Hebrew, and
Arabic, might be the basis of instruction. I make no doubt, that at
once a most interesting school might be established here on a very
large scale, for they have but one school of about 150 poor boys at
their synagogue, or rather synagogues, for they have six, but all in
one place, and forming one building; they have also three rabbies, and
besides the boys which are taught at the above school, many others are
educated at home by teachers. Now, nothing can be more distinct than
their wish for a school, and their promise of supporting it on the
basis of the Old Testament being taught as a school-book, which
certainly, as a primary step, is a most important one to cause them,
by the Lord's blessing, to see that the book which they now disfigure
by monstrous interpretations, has yet in itself, by the illumination
of God's Spirit, a clear, simple, and, in all essential points, an
intelligible meaning, without the aid of man's exposition. But should
they finally turn round and oppose the school, which as soon as the
power of it is felt, they most assuredly would do, still some might
remain, and if none should, there is still a most abundant field of
labour in circulating the Scriptures, and in conversation among them
in this city, and throughout Mesopotamia, where they abound in almost
every town.

We have heard from a Jew, that Sakies, the Armenian Agent of the East
India Company, had given the Jews directions to treat Mr. Wolff when
here with attention, and to invite him to their houses. The Jews here
are closely connected with the English, at least many of them, who are
under English protection.

_August 15._ _Sunday._--The thermometer this day has been the highest
hitherto for the year, 117 in the shade, and 155 in the sun.[12] This
is the time when the dates ripen, and the most oppressive in the year;
but by the Lord's great mercy, we are all in health and strength,
though sometimes we feel a little disposed to think it is so hot, that
we may be excused from doing any thing; but my English scholars keep
me employed six hours a day, which prevents me from thinking much
about the heat, though not from feeling it. I can truly say, it is far
more tolerable than I expected, and yet there are few places on the
face of the earth hotter. The temperature of India is not near so
high; and I question, if there is any place, that for the year through
would average so high.

  [12] It has _since_ been so high as 118 in the shade, and 158
  in the sun.

_August 17._--The Jew has been here, and bought another Arabic Bible.
I showed him one of the Hebrew Psalters of the Jews' Society. He
greatly desired to have it; but I could not spare that; but promised
him that when mine came up from Bussorah, I would let him know.

We have this day a new Moolah, the best we could get, but not
altogether such as we could have desired.

The Jews here cannot believe that Christians know any thing of Hebrew,
and are therefore surprised to see Hebrew books with us. Oh, should
the Lord allow us to be of any use to this holy people, terrible from
their beginning hitherto alike in the favour and indignation of
Jehovah, we should esteem it a very great blessing; yet surely they
ought to have here one missionary, whose whole soul might be drawn out
towards this especial work.

From some communications with a native of Merdin, we find that the
custom of avenging murder and requiring blood for blood, exists among
the independent Chaldeans and Syrians, and keeps them in continual
warfare, where one happens to be killed by the inhabitants of another
village. The inhabitants of the village of the person killed, feel it
a necessary point of honour to revenge it.

He also mentioned, that the Yezidees were no longer so numerous as
formerly, but were greatly diminished by the plague, which happened a
few years ago, by which Diarbekr lost 10,000 of its inhabitants.

We had a visit from an Armenian, who was formerly treasurer to Sir
Gore Ouseley; while speaking about Christianity, he said, it was no
use to speak to the Armenians about it, for they all say, "How can we
know any thing about such matters, and that, except as a sect, they
are too ignorant to know or care about Christianity." They are indeed
full of the pride of heart that appertains to sectarians, and
obstinately resist the Scriptures being translated into the modern
languages, because, say they, the ancient language was spoken in
Paradise, and will be the language of heaven, and that, therefore,
translating the sacred book into that which is modern, is a
desecration. How wonderfully does Satan blind men, and how by one
contrivance or another does he endeavour to keep God's word from them,
as a real intelligible book, which the Spirit of God makes plain, even
to the most unlettered; but the more we discover him endeavouring to
pervert God's word from becoming intelligible, the more we should
strive to let every soul have the testimony of God concerning his
life in Christ, in a language he understands. In this point of view I
look to the schools with comfort.

_August 19._--Things here seem most unsettled, and require us to live
in very simple faith as to what a day may bring forth. It is stated,
that between 20 and 30,000 Arabs are close to the gates of the city.
The Pasha has an army about 24 miles from hence; but unable to move,
except all together, and there is another regiment under an English
officer about 12 miles distant. The deposition of this Pasha seems to
be the principal object of these Arabs, in which it is not impossible
that they may be fully supported by the Porte. What will be the result
of all this we are not careful to know, for we are not to fear their
face, nor to be afraid, but the Lord will be to us a hiding place from
the storm, when the blast of the terrible ones is as a storm against a
wall.

A caravan has just come across the desert from Aleppo, with a guard of
500 men, consisting of 300 camels. Letters brought by a Tartar from
Constantinople have all been detained by the Pasha, except a few on
mercantile concerns which have been delivered. So many packets sent by
Constantinople have been in one way or another detained, that I have
no other hope of letters than what my most gracious Lord's approved
love gives me; all which he really desires me to have I shall receive,
and more I would desire not to wish for.

We have just heard, that Major T----'s brother, and the gentlemen who
left Mousul were pursued by 500 Arabs; but all escaped except a horse
of the Capidji,[13] an officer of the Sultan's, which was laden with
money, collected by his master for the government at Constantinople;
he could not go fast enough, so he fell into the hands of the Arabs.

  [13] A Capidji Bashi is a messenger of the Porte, to collect
  money, or bear especial messages of any sort.

The Roman Catholic bishop has received accounts that Algiers is taken
by the French, and also some forts in its neighbourhood. Aleppo is
quiet, though the Arabs are in the neighbourhood.

Our new Moolah has expressed his surprise at the contents of the New
Testament, and wonders how Mohammedans can speak against it as they
do. He intends coming to our Armenian schoolmaster on Sundays to read
it with him; may the Lord most graciously send down his Spirit upon
them, that the one who undertakes to teach what he does not know, may,
by discovering his ignorance, be led to the fountain of all wisdom;
and may the other learn to love him whose holy, heavenly, and divine
name he has blasphemed.

The cholera is much about, but the Lord preserves us all safe.

The Pasha has made up his differences with the Arab tribe, and all the
troops have returned, except those under Mr. Littlejohn, which still
remain out for fear of an attack before all the harvest is thrashed
and brought in.

There are symptoms of great fear on the part of the Pasha, that a
struggle is actually going on among those around him for superseding
him in his Pashalic, in which they have apparently much probability of
success, as the Porte has been greatly injured by his unwillingness to
meet her necessities and afford her pecuniary help. Our security,
however, is in this, that amidst all, the Lord knoweth them that are
his, and will defend them amidst all turmoils and in the most
troublous times--in this we find peace and quietness.

The poor men who came to endeavour to obtain from the Pasha here the
re-institution of the Syrian patriarch in those churches in Merdin,
from which he had been ejected by the Roman Catholic bishop, are now
returning without success, but carrying back with them two boxes of
Arabic and Syrian New Testaments to the Patriarch. May the Lord water
them by his most Holy Spirit, so that they may become the ground of
living churches, instead of those of stone which they have lost.

I have been much surprised to learn that all the Arab tribes on these
rivers, except the Montefeiks, are Sheahs or followers of Ali, whom I
had formerly thought followers of Omar.

I have already mentioned, that on leaving Mousul, Mr. Taylor's party
were attacked and obliged to return to Telaafer,[14] a village between
Mousul and Merdin, whence, after having waited for a stronger escort,
they proceeded towards Merdin, when the event related in the following
letter took place; but the supposed death of the three gentlemen was
unfounded. They were only made prisoners and carried to the mountains
of Sinjar, among the Yezidees. These people are declared enemies of
the Mohammedans, whom they hate; but, on the whole, except when their
cupidity is excited, they are not unfriendly towards Christians. They
seem, with the Sabeans and some others, such as the Druzes, to be
descendants of the believers in the two principles who have blown
their pestiferous breath at different times into every system of
religion that has prevailed in these countries, corrupting all.
However, these Yezidees, be they originally what they may, have now
these three gentlemen in custody, and require 7,500 piastres of this
place--about £75, for their liberation, and Major T. has sent a person
from hence to treat about it.

  [14] All this was wrong; they were treacherously robbed and
  murdered, Mr. Jas. Taylor, Mr. Aspinal, a merchant of Bombay, and Mr.
  Bawater, formerly, I think, in the marines.

     "My dear Sir,

     "It is, I can assure you, with a sincere and melancholy regret
     at the dreadful, I may say horrible and awful event that I have
     so lately witnessed, that I sit down now to address a few lines
     to you. I feel quite unable to give you an entire relation of
     our misfortunes, and shall content myself with saying, that out
     of seven as happy people as could well exist on our departure
     from Mousul, three only have returned. To one so well able to
     look for consolation, where, I may say, in such an event
     consolation is alone to be found, fortitude and patience in
     suffering might well be found. I myself have not attained this,
     and I may say this event has plunged me in the deepest
     melancholy. For a relation of facts, I must refer you to
     Captain Cockrell's letter to Major Taylor: we were attacked and
     compelled to fly, and in the confusion, Mr. Taylor, his
     servant, Mr. Bywater, and our companion, Mr. Aspinal, were
     murdered. We, that is Captain Cockrell, Mr. Elliot, and myself
     escaped, though I was, I believe, especially fired at, as on
     descending the hill four or five whistled close past me. That
     we were betrayed, and moreover, our companions assassinated by
     our own party, no doubt exists in my mind. All that were killed
     out of 500 people that were with us were these four. They
     again, out of all, happened to be the only ones among us who
     carried money. We have done every thing in our power to recover
     their bodies but without effect: on our return to Telaafer,
     after having been twenty-six hours on horseback in the desert,
     we wrote a note, in the hope that they might be prisoners at
     Sinjar, and offered 4,000 piastres for them if they were
     brought in safe. The Kapidgi Bashi left for Merdin before we
     could hear of our messenger; he returned after three days, and
     said he had seen their clothes and pistols, and that they were
     all murdered. Mr. Taylor he mentioned as having been run
     through the body with a spear. This was one out of many reports
     of a similar nature, and we were fain to give them up for dead.
     (They could not possibly have been alive had they escaped, as
     there was no water within twenty-four hours.) All our things
     were pillaged. I lost all my papers, including your letters,
     and all that was left were a few pairs of white trowsers. This
     was most assuredly done by our own party; even our own baggage
     man, before my eyes, almost laid hold of my turban and pistol,
     which I had laid upon the ground, and on my laying hold on him,
     actually drew his dagger. I never witnessed such villany in my
     life. All our guards were laughing, as if nothing had occurred;
     and, although I may be wrong, yet I do venture it as my
     opinion, that there were no thieves at all, but that it was
     treachery altogether. You will be surprised to hear that
     Captain Cockrell and myself start to-morrow on the same road
     as before. I trust in God alone for protection, as we have no
     guards at all. If I ever reach Exeter I shall not fail to call
     on Miss Groves; but after what has happened who can say, "He
     shall do this."

     "We take no baggage of any description, being fully aware of
     the danger and impracticability of so doing; so that if we are
     again attacked, we shall be able to gallop for our lives. Now,
     adieu, my dear Sir. I will write from Constantinople if I
     reach it; in the mean time excuse this hurried scrawl, and
     believe me, ever

                               "Yours very sincerely,
                                                  "W. HULL."
     "_Mr. A. N. Groves._"



In consequence of the receipt of this intelligence, Major T. sent off
Aga Menas to Mousul, to treat about the liberation of the captives,
and we are anxiously waiting the result.

My dear brother Pfander and myself having come to the conclusion, that
with so large a school, and so many objects of one kind and the other
as there are here requiring attention, it would be impossible for me
to leave this and go with him into the mountains; this led to the
further determination on his part to return to Shushee next year,
having first spent a few months at Ispahan, to complete his knowledge
of Persian; and I of course was prepared to be left quite alone, but
still my heart was fully sustained with the confident hope that the
Lord would not only do what was right, but exceedingly abundant above
all I could ask. On all sides nothing but silence prevailed:--three
packets of letters had been lost between Constantinople and this, and
one between Tabreez and this, and all the letters from India had been
detained, by the Arabs on the river being at war with the Pasha for
four or five months. Therefore I knew nothing of the movements of any
of my dear friends, and all was left to conjecture; sometimes, when
faith was in full exercise, I felt assured that the Lord was doing all
well; at others, I hardly knew what to think. I had written to my very
dear friends in Petersburgh, Dr. W. and Miss K. to come if possible
and as soon as possible; but their having left Petersburgh doubtless
prevented their receiving my letter. From my dear friends in England I
heard little; from Ireland not a word. Things were in this state, when
suddenly there came in three Tartars bringing us three packets, so
full of Christian love, sympathy, and such good tidings, that it
almost overcame our hearts, weak from long abstinence from similar
entertainment, and even on this day, the third from their arrival,
they fill my heart till it runs over. To hear and see that those one
most loves, are indeed joying and rejoicing in their holy, most holy
relation to God in Christ,--the relationship of sons and daughters, to
see them anxious to walk blameless in all the ordinances their Lord
has left them, while they glory in being free from the law of
condemnation, and desire to know no freedom from the law of loving
obedience: moreover, to see them becoming more and more sensible to
the great truth that inestimable as knowledge is, it is what devils
may share, but that the love of Jesus, and a tenderness of conscience
as to his will, is infinitely higher than that, and that therefore his
high command to the members of his church to love one another as he
loves them, can never be slighted by them:--oh, to see this it does
indeed rejoice my heart, and I pray among us all that it may abound
more and more, particularly among us who have been so graciously and
so kindly led into all the holy freedom of the Gospel. Let us see we
use it not as a cloak of maliciousness, but as the servants of Christ,
loving and serving one another, not returning evil for evil, or
reviling for reviling, but contrariwise blessing. The path God's
children have to take when they are determined in the name of the Lord
not to give the name of God's truth to any thing merely human, knowing
that it is a vain thing to teach for doctrines the commandments of
men, is so naturally offensive, that our zeal for the truth should
lead us to pray for such especial graces of the Spirit as may prevent
any unloveliness in our walk, preventing the Lord's dear children from
coming, and seeing, and drinking of that well-spring in Christ by
which we have been so refreshed and invigorated. Whilst we profess,
my very dear friends, absolute freedom from man's control in the
things relating to God, we only acknowledge in a tenfold degree the
absoluteness of our subjection to the whole mind and will of Christ in
all things. As he is our _life_ hid with him in God, so let him be our
_way_ and our _truth_, both in doctrine and conversation. How many,
from neglect of this lovely union, have almost forgotten to care about
adorning the doctrine of God their Saviour in all things. Let us, my
dear brethren and sisters, pray that we may be united in all the will
of Christ. This is a basis not for time only but for eternity, and for
that glorious day especially, when the Lord shall come to be glorified
in all his saints, and admired in all them that believe. But not only
did my packets bring me joyful tidings of the Lord's doings among
those whom I especially know and love, but they also brought me
intelligence that he had prepared for me help from among those who had
been known and approved, and whom I especially loved. How I felt
reproved for every doubt; and indeed the Lord so fully has let his
goodness pass before me, that I am overwhelmed, and feel I can only
lay my hand upon my mouth, and whilst overwhelmed with my own vileness
and unworthiness of the least of all my most gracious Lord's loving
kindnesses to me, yet glory in that dispensation of grace which
ministers to us, not according to our deserts, but the unbought,
unbounded love of God. My letters tell me that my very dear brethren
and friends, Mr. P., Mr. C., his sister, and mother, and little babe,
and Mr. N., are coming to join us, with possibly a fourth. Now this
does seem altogether wonderful, and whilst not at all more than I
ought to have expected, yet more than I had faith to expect. Yet while
I have nothing to say for myself, I desire to say all for God: it is
like him, all whose ways are wonderful, and, towards his church, full
of mercy, goodness, and truth. Oh, how happy shall we be to await the
Lord's coming on the banks of these rivers, which have been the scene
of all the sacred history of the old church of God, and destined
still, I believe, to be the scene of doings of yet future and deeper
interest at the coming of the Lord; and whilst I should not hesitate
to go to the furthest corner of the habitable earth, were my dear Lord
to send me, yet I feel much pleasure in having my post appointed here,
though the most unsettled and insecure country beneath the sun
perhaps. In every direction, without are lawless robbers, and within
unprincipled extortioners; but it is in the midst of these, that the
Almighty arm of our Father delights to display his preserving mercy,
and while the flesh would shrink, the spirit desires to wing its way
to the very foremost ranks of danger in the battles of the Lord. Oh
that we may more and more press on this sluggish, timid, earthly
constitution, that is always wanting its native ease among the
delights of an earthly happiness. Oh, may my very loving, zealous
brethren, stir up my timid, languid spirit to the mild yet
life-renouncing love of my dear Lord, which, whilst it was silent,
was as strong, yea, stronger than death.

My dear friend and brother P---- and his wife have been baptized too;
to see this conformity to Christ's mind, is very delightful; and how
wonderful, too;--so strong a current of prejudice is there against
this simple, intelligible, and blessed ordinance. I learn also, that
he and my dear friend the A----[15] are preaching the everlasting
Gospel themselves, and with some others of those we love, employing
others to preach it. This also is good news.

  [15] They have 3,362 congregations, whereas the most numerous
  body besides has but 1,946. See _Miss. Register._

_September 10._--No accounts have been received from Sinjar regarding
our travellers. I fear this is ominous, for if ransom is what the
Yezidees want, would they not have contrived to forward some notice to
Bagdad? however, a few days will most likely disclose the truth, as on
the 8th Meenas reached Mousul.

We have just heard that the Nabob of Lucknow's brother, on his return
from a pilgrimage to Mished, was taken prisoner with the whole caravan
by the Turcomans. This amiable Mohammedan came from India on a round
of pilgrimages. He has visited Mecca and Kerbala, and was now
returning again to this place on his way home to Lucknow, after which
he purposed returning again, and going through Persia, Russia,
Germany, &c. to England. He was robbed once before between this and
Aleppo.

The Pasha has just sent to the Factory to say, that the cholera has
extended its ravages to Kerkook, and to ask for advice, and what is to
be done should it reach this place with its epidemic violence. Mr.
M---- is going therefore to write directions, and Major T---- will get
them translated into Arabic, for the use of the people here. Blessed
be the Lord's holy name, our charter runs, that in the pestilence,
"though ten thousand fall at thy right hand, it shall not come nigh
thee;" on this, therefore, we repose our hearts. The Pasha seems
perplexed to know, in the event of its reaching Bagdad, where he shall
go with his family for safety. It is certainly an awful thing to look
at Tabreez, where they say, that 8,000 or 9,000 have died out of
60,000; and two years ago at Bussorah, 1,500 out of 6,000, so that the
houses were left desolate, and the boats were floating up and down the
creek without owners, and when persons died in a house, the rest went
away, and left the bodies there locked up. But we have in our
dwellings a light in these days that they know nothing of, who know
not our God either in his power or his love, so that the heart is
enabled to cast all, even the dearest to it, on the exceeding
abundance of his mercy.

_September 10._--I fear the intelligence we have just received of
poor Mr. J. Taylor, Mr. Bywater, and Mr. Aspinal, and the Maltese
servant, leaves us little room to hope but that they have all been
treacherously murdered. Our Moolah tells us, he received a letter from
a friend of his at Merdin, stating, that they were murdered--not by
the Yezidees at all, but by the party of Arabs sent by the Pasha of
Mousul to protect them, in conjunction with a party from Telaafer, an
Arab village, where they spent a night. It appears, that when the
attack was made, Mr. Elliot, Captain Cockrell, and Mr. Hull galloped
off after being stripped; but Mr. Taylor, Mr. Aspinal, and Mr. Bywater
got entangled among these robbers, and Mr. A. shot one of the Arabs
with his pistol; and afterwards Mr. B. shot another. It then became
with these lawless plunderers, no longer a matter of simple robbery,
but of revenge and death. They killed these two young men, and then
pulling Mr. Taylor from his horse, killed him. I confess, when I saw
them mounting their horses, strongly covered with offensive weapons of
warfare, I felt very little comfort about them, for, if they were
attacked, it would only be with an overwhelming force, or they would
be given up in treachery, in both which cases almost all the danger
arises from resistance. Those wretched plunderers seek not life, but
booty; this quietly yielded, you may go; but if you use the sword, you
perish by the sword. If you carry money, or any thing valuable, you
are exposed to be stripped, and if you go armed, to be killed. About
three years ago, the French interpreter was going the very same route,
and near Telaafer he was attacked, and stripped; but they let him go
free. The fate of these gentlemen has greatly affected us all. A delay
must now take place in the steamboat communication, for it is not
probable that this route can ever be so disregarded, but that some
effort, sooner or later, will be made. Let our impatient hearts hush
their murmurings; it is the work of a loving Father, who declares to
his children, that all things shall work together for their good; yea,
the disappointment of present hopes shall, by heavenly patience, yield
the peaceable fruits of righteousness to those who are exercised
thereby.

_September 14._--We have just heard, that an order has been given out
in one of the mosques, that the Mohammedans shall receive no printed
books. Whether this watchfulness is the result of Mr. Pfander having
employed a man, a Jew, to sell Bibles, Testaments, and Psalters, or
whether, at the suggestion from the R---- C---- B----, I know not. How
near the principles are of the beast and the false prophet--how easily
they harmonize and help each other!

We have lately heard some interesting details of the numbers of the
Jews in the places north-east of Persia. A Jew who has travelled in
these countries states, that there are,

 _In._          _Language spoken._        _Families._

 Samarcand       Turkish                      500
 Bokhaura        Turkish and Persian        5,000
 Mished          Turkish and Persian       10,000
 Heerat          Turkish and Persian        8,000
 Caubul         {Pashtoo, but Persian}        300
 Bulkh-(Caubul) {  generally understood}      300

There are also in the villages about some Jews, from 20 to 100
families. Their knowledge of the Hebrew is very confined; very few
understand it at all; they have also very little knowledge of the
Talmud. We hope from time to time to collect more particulars to
correct, confirm, or cancel these, and all other accounts of a similar
nature, for in these countries it is not one account that can stand,
and when confronted by 50 more, it can still be only considered as an
approximation to truth.

_September 16._--Our long expected packet by Shushee and Tabreez has
just arrived. The messenger, on reaching Kourdistan, found it in such
a state of danger and confusion, that he was afraid to proceed, but
went back again, and came by a longer but more quiet way. Another
cause of delay seems to have been their going to India, and back
again to Tabreez. The information contained in this packet is most
interesting. From Petersburgh we heard from several friends, all
encouraging, comforting, and rejoicing us. The Lord seems to give
them courage still to persevere; and dear sister ---- intends,
after recruiting a little in England, to return again to her work
there. I feel satisfied it is a most interesting field, and that ere
long in Russia some tremendous changes will take place. The poor are
anxious for the word of God, and the nobility despising the hierarchy,
and, therefore, that blind priestly domination under which it has
groaned, will finally fall to pieces; infidelity will take openly its
side, and the Lord's saints theirs.

Dear Mr. K---- tells us, that some dear American brother, by name
Lewis, has sent him money to procure for his family a house in the
country during the few months of a Russian summer. How loving and
bountiful a Lord ours is, supplying his most affectionate and waiting
servant with all he needs; it makes every little bounty so sweet when
it comes from a Father through one of his vessels of mercy. Oh, who
would not live a life of faith in preference to one of daily, hourly
satiety--I mean as to earthly things; how very many instances of
happiness should we have been deprived of, had we not trusted to, and
left it to his love to fill us with good things as he pleased, and to
spread our table as he has done, year after year, and will do, even
here in this wilderness.

From Shushee we have also heard, that our dear brother Z---- and an
Armenian had been travelling and selling Bibles and Testaments. They
went first to Teflis; from thence to Erzeroum, Erivan, Ech-Miazin, and
back again to Shushee. What success he had in selling Bibles and
Testaments we do not know, but at Erzeroum, he was accused by the
Mohammedans before the Russian authorities, but let go. He returned
home in safety under the hand of the Lord. There is also in the
letters of our brethren most pleasing accounts of a young Armenian,
the son-in-law of the richest Armenian merchant in Baku, supposed to
be worth half a million. This young man, at a visit of Z---- and
P----, was much interested by their conversation about the New
Testament, and they went away, leaving him an interesting inquirer.
He, however, still pursued his way alone, and attained a perfect
understanding of the Armenian Testament, which at first he was able to
read but indifferently. He then felt himself unable to proceed in
mercantile transactions as before; so that his father-in-law told him,
that much as he regretted separating from him, if he became so pious,
they must part. Well, he said, he could not give up his convictions,
and he was sure his Lord would not allow him to want; so he left his
father-in-law, and learnt the trade of a taylor. From the very first
he began to teach his wife, and she takes part with him; and he is now
selling Bibles and Testaments, and circulating tracts among the
Russian soldiers. This is a sight indeed! for centuries perhaps they
have not seen one of their own body rising up, and choosing to suffer
affliction with the people of God, rather than enjoy the pleasures of
sin for a season; and the sight is as strange to Mohammedans as to
Christians. May the Lord sustain, comfort, and bless him out of his
heavenly treasures.

From Tabreez our tidings are heavy, or rather would be, but that the
Lord of love directs and orders all, and sees the end from the
beginning, yet they have also good tidings too. I have already
mentioned, that the cholera had been raging at Tabreez; but we learn,
that not only this, but the plague is there also, to a most frightful
extent. I will just copy here the account our dear sister
Mrs. ---- has given us; and for whose safety we desire to bless
the Lord; she says,

     "Before this reaches you, you may have heard of the sorrow and
     desolation that have befallen this city within these last two
     months. Thousands around us have been cut off by the cholera
     and the plague. The former raged so furiously for the first
     month, that 2 or 300 died daily. Symptoms of the plague first
     were discovered in the ark among the Russian soldiers, which
     manifested itself by breaking out over the body in large boils;
     the person attacked, feeling himself overcome by stupor; many
     died before it was thought what it was; precautions were taken,
     and they were sent out to camp at some distance from the town.
     The disorder has not raged among them so much as it has in the
     town. I cannot tell you how great the fear was that was struck
     into the minds of the people. Many were taken ill through fear,
     of which they died. Previous to the city being quite deserted,
     men, women, children, of all denominations, collected
     themselves together in large bodies, crying and beseeching God
     to turn away his judgments from them: this they did bareheaded
     and without shoes, humbling themselves, they said, because they
     knew they were great sinners. The air resounded with their
     cries day and night, particularly the latter, and often during
     the whole of it. Oh, did they but know the truth as it is in
     Jesus. At length all classes fled to the mountains, leaving the
     town quite deserted. Alexander told me, on his return one day
     from the city, that he had not met a person. All the shops in
     the bazaar were forsaken, so that from this you may derive some
     idea of the terror that has possessed this people."

Mrs. ---- also tells us, that the establishment at Tabreez is
going to be much reduced, and that therefore Mr. N---- is ordered back
to India. This has tried them much, for they were just expecting two
American missionaries, a Mr. Dwight and a Mr. Smith, with whom they
were hoping to have acted happily for their common Lord. But the
Lord's ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our thoughts, so these
things happen otherwise than we expected. However, wherever they go,
may they be blessed, and a blessing. They purpose coming here on their
way, which affords us much pleasure at the prospect of seeing them
again. However, we are greatly rejoiced to think, that brethren from
America have designed Tabreez for their station. Now between Shushee,
Tabreez, and this place we have a little frontier line. Oh, may there
be daily new ambassadors of mercy publishing the testimony of Jesus in
all the world. Oh, that the end may quickly come.

Our Moolah is dreadfully depressed to-day, at the prospect of the
cholera and plague coming here, and he said to me, he thought the end
of the world must be near, because of these wars, pestilences, and
plagues.

We have also heard that we shall most likely be obliged to leave this
house after the year has expired; for the Sheahs have been complaining
to the Seyd,[16] the owner of it, for letting it to the infidels for
such a purpose. But we are not careful about these things; it will be
as the Lord wills.

  [16] Descendant of the Prophet.

Nothing can show the stupid carelessness of these people more, than
that, although they are frightened out of their reason almost at the
prospect of the plague and cholera, yet they have actually allowed a
whole caravan from Tabreez to come into the city without quarantine,
or any kind of precaution.

Oh, how joyful the promises in the Revelations are for "those written
in the Lamb's book of life," for "those who have not the mark of the
beast on them," for those who are to be sealed before the angels are
allowed to hurt the earth. Yea, he will for his great name's sake hide
us in the secret of his pavilion, so that he will put a song into our
mouths; yea, he will encompass us with songs of deliverance. We feel
that it now indeed especially becomes us neither to fear their fear
nor be afraid.

_Sept._--The weather is now become decidedly cooler. A fortnight
since the average height of the thermometer in the shade, during the
warmest part of the day, was 117; it is now lowered to 110. During the
hottest time of the year, which is now just over, the quicksilver was
rarely lower than 110, or higher than 118 in the shade, except in the
morning, when the general range was from 87 to 93.

The Seyd who has let us his house, and who we had heard intended to
turn us out after the year was expired, has got into trouble with the
Pasha, about some ground he rented, and for which he was to pay the
Pasha a certain quantity of corn; but he says, what from the locusts,
and the rain not coming at the usual time, and when it did come,
coming in such unusual quantities, he lost his crop. He has now come
begging us to take his case to Major T., to beg him to endeavour to
settle it with the Musruff. Thus the Lord has brought him into
difficulties, that if he were disposed to turn us out he would not be
able this year. But he denies altogether having said any thing about
turning us out, and it is not improbable that it is as he says; his
family which is a large one, and once were opulent, feel it a great
disgrace to let out the house of one of the descendants of the prophet
to a Christian, and more especially as one of the rooms is over the
street under which the Mohammedans have to walk, and this most
especially offends them; but that we might not give them any
unnecessary offence we have never occupied the room, though the
most airy one we have.

A Jew of Yezd has been with us, and told us that there are 300
families of Jews in that city, and the same number at Ispahan.

_Sept. 24._--A caravan has just arrived from Constantinople, by way of
Aleppo. We have also heard that one caravan from Damascus has been
plundered, and another from Kerkook: and a messenger likewise who came
from Captain Campbell, from Tabreez, was also stopped, but having
nothing besides letters, was suffered to pass. I note these events
down merely that they may afford a little criterion of the unsettled
state of the whole of the interior of this immense continent. In fact,
the Lord is, amidst these commotions, preparing a way for his
testimony to spread.

The cholera, by the Lord's blessing, is decreasing, but it is reported
that at Kerkook the mortality went as high as 100 a day; it has now,
however, ceased.

_Sept. 27._--The intelligence has been confirmed of the death of Mr.
Taylor, Mr. Aspinal, and Mr. Bywater, as well as of a Maltese servant,
and that the principal perpetrators were the Sheikh of Telaafer, in
conjunction with a Sheikh of the Yezidees, who were with the caravan
at the time.

The Nawaub mentioned before, has been delivered by the Prince of
Teheran sending an army into Khorassan, and with him all the caravan.

_Sept. 29._--Meenas has just been here, and the only particulars he
has given of the unfortunate travellers, in addition to that which we
knew before is, that Mr. Aspinal made his escape with the others, but
hearing a cry from Mr. Taylor and Mr. Bywater, he returned, and
finding them surrounded by about fifty men, he drew his pistol and
shot one man through the arm. This made them retire for a moment, but
they advanced again: he then drew another pistol, and shot the Sheikh
of the Yezidees, by name Bella. His son then rushed on them with the
rest, and killed them all, and with them six other Christians--two on
a pilgrimage to Jerusalem, and the others on mercantile business. The
booty they then divided, half to the people of Telaafer, who were the
guards of the murdered party, and the other half the Yezidees kept.
The Yezidees do not appear at all to have wished to kill them, knowing
their relation to the Resident here, from whom they hoped to get a
handsome ransom. Perhaps no two events could more powerfully manifest
the weakness of the Ottoman empire internally than this event which
has happened to Mr. Taylor, and the pillage of a caravan going to
Mousul, which was stripped of every thing but two boxes of books,
which Mr. Pfander had sent; these they left as being too heavy, and
they are now safe at Mousul. This caravan was stripped by persons
nominally the subjects of the Pasha within two days journey of Bagdad,
and the property divided with the most perfect impunity without any
attempt at recovery. These gentlemen were robbed and killed by persons
of a village subject to the Pasha of Mousul; and he has not the least
prospect of bringing them to punishment.

When Meenas gave the Syrians in Mousul an account of our school here,
they were so much interested, that all their principal persons have
written a letter to invite us to come there and establish schools
among them, and also to desire that we should send to them some Arabic
Testaments and Psalms. All this is most encouraging, and I plainly
see, that were there twenty servants of Christ, faithful men, who
would be content to work for the Lord in every way, there might soon
be found abundant work for them. Mousul seems especially open to
Christian influence. Many of those immediately connected with the
Pasha are Christians, and many even among the Mohammedans have still
Christian recollections. The letter from Mousul, Meenas tells us, will
come in about three days; if so, Mr. Pfander proposes sending back a
present of Arabic Testaments and Psalms, with the expression of our
hope that the Lord may strengthen our hands, as he has made willing
our hearts, to extend our labours unto them. Major T. often asks me if
I think any missionary mechanics may still come out. The Lord does so
much and so wonderfully, that I can almost hope this, notwithstanding
the host of prejudices to be first surmounted.

Marteroos, the schoolmaster, who we hear is on his way from Sheeraz,
will, I trust, be a great comfort to us, and a help to the school. He
taught two years in the school at Calcutta, and though solicited,
would receive no salary; and also at Bushire. This is a trait of
character so utterly unlike these countries, that we cannot but hope
he will enter into our plans with a heartiness that we can expect few
others would. From his understanding English, we hope he may be able
to take not only the higher Armenian classes, but also to have time to
translate such books as we need for the use of the school, and also
little tracts for circulation.

The Musruff, (or treasurer) of the Pasha told Major T. that they had
begun the canal between the Tigris and Euphrates. This shews the Pasha
is still anxious about the steam communication.

Our Mohammedan Moolah still continues to read the New Testament, with
the Armenian schoolmaster, who seems very sanguine that he will become
a Christian. At all events, I bless God that he sees the record of God
with his own eyes, so that if he now rejects the testimony, it will be
God's that he rejects, and not the solemn mockery of Christ's most
simple and most holy truth, which they have before seen.

We were much delighted to find that those of the little boys who had
been exercised in translating their own language into the vulgar, had
retained such a clear knowledge of it, that though they were called
upon quite unexpectedly, they understood it; whereas the bigger boys,
who come to me for English, and the Moolah for Arabic, and who are
considered to have finished the Armenian education, were not able to
translate one word, at which they were not a little ashamed, though
the fault was not theirs, but the plan of education. We are greatly
encouraged by this, and led to hope, with the Lord's blessing we shall
see, instead of a system of education, which after immense labour,
terminates in nothing but _sound_ without _sense_ or instruction, a
system that will at least bring God's word before them in a form
intelligible and clear; yea, the very truth that God's Spirit has
promised to bless, and which He has declared shall not return unto him
void. Our schoolmaster fully enters into these plans for improvement,
and really desires to do whatever we wish. Our Arabic Moolah also
enters much into our wishes, and the boys are making double the
progress they did under the old system. This is all of the Lord; and
in fact, when I think of the doubts expressed before we commenced of
our being allowed to work at all, and consider the quietness and peace
the Lord has allowed us to enjoy in the prosecution of our work, I
desire more entirely to cast my whole soul, with all its purposes and
plans on the Lord, not to move but as he guides.

The two great objects of the church in the latter days seem to me to
be, independent of growing herself up into the stature of fulness in
Christ, the publication of the testimony of Jesus in all lands, and
the calling out of the sheep of Christ that may be imprisoned in all
the Babylonish systems that are in the world. In both these may the
Lord of his infinite mercy grant success. Oh, how consoling it is,
under an overwhelming sense of powerless inefficiency, to one's work,
to know that God has chosen to put the most precious gift in earthen
vessels, that the excellency of the power may be of God and not of
man, so that we may glory in our very weakness and ignorance, and
natural insufficiency, knowing that the Lord's strength is made
perfect in this very weakness. Dear and blessed Lord, make us every
one willing to be nothing, that thou mayest in all things be
glorified.

_Oct. 2._--I have just seen a sight that interests me much; the
Mohammedan Moolah sitting at one window of the school reading the
Arabic New Testament, and the Armenian vartabiet (or schoolmaster)
sitting at a table explaining to the son of the priest of this place
the New Testament. This young man is just going to Ispahan to be
ordained. This certainly is something gained, that the word of eternal
truth is brought before them.

In speaking yesterday to my Moolah about the fortress which the Sultan
has ordered to be built between Damascus and Aleppo, to keep the road
safe for caravans, and which is nearly finished, he told me that the
Sultan had promised the European Sultans that he would govern and
regulate his country like theirs; thus the minds of these people seem
preparing step by step for changes.

I have heard, that after we left Petersburgh, some of those, from
whom we had experienced peculiar kindness, had become very active
in visiting the poor in the neighbourhood of that city, and in
circulating tracts and the Scriptures, till at last they attracted the
notice of the governors of one of these villages, who arrested and
examined them. Dr. W. was ordered to leave St. Petersburgh in
twenty-four hours, and the Russian dominions in three weeks. Dear
young Mr. ----, being an officer, was put into confinement,
and ----, whose mother has often visited Africa, has since left
her charge, and is returned to England for her health, but hopes with
increased prospects of usefulness, to return to her former sphere of
labour. They felt the cause of God had gained ground during their
trials, and that their own souls had greatly rejoiced in the Lord.

_Oct. 7._--We have just heard that a German watchmaker in this place
has turned Mohammedan. This unprincipled man had a wife and children
in Germany, yet wished to marry a Roman Catholic Armenian here; but
knowing that the Bishop here would not marry them, he then went to the
Musruff, (the chief officer of the Pasha,) and promised him that if he
would get him this woman he would become a Mohammedan, and this he
has now done, and he is using all his endeavours to compel the young
woman he has married to follow his steps. This, at present, she
resists, but she has little principle, as she knew before of his being
married. The more I see of this people, the more I am struck with the
necessity of our being made acquainted with the deep wickedness and
corruption of the human heart, that we may never be hopeless as to
these people, and think them some peculiarly iniquitous race; and on
the other hand, we need a deep sense of the omnipotence of God's Holy
Spirit, that we may never be discouraged; for the bones are indeed
very, very dry. We hear this wretched man has been beating the woman,
finding his entreaties failed.

_Oct. 10._--The Lord has blessed us with a little girl, and every
thing has been ordered by him most happily, so that we have wanted
nothing that the luxury or wealth of England could supply. Bless the
Lord, O my soul, and all that is within me bless his holy name; for
indeed he daily loadeth us with benefits.

_Oct. 14._--The news of the state of things in France, and of the
Revolution there, has led us to look up to our Lord to see what the
end will be of these movements. That they will help on the coming
kingdom of our Lord we know, but how we cannot yet see. We have
also heard not only that France has taken possession of Algiers,
but is marching towards Tunis. Thus, step by step, Turkey is being
dismembered; and although by infidel principles and by infidel hands,
yet perhaps preparing the way for the publication of the Lord's love
to man. We have also understood that an English force of 4,000 men, in
200 ships, are assembled at Malta with the view of attacking Egypt;
but this we do not believe, but regard it as French news, calculated
to bring us, in the eyes of the Turks, as guilty alike with them in
attacking the Turkish dominions. However, all these things render our
situation here very profitable, for we know not what a day may bring
forth, and are therefore obliged to look solely to our Lord. Not that
this Pasha cares much, perhaps, about the taking of Egypt by the
English, or the general reduction of the empire, for such is the state
of this country, that the security of every little despot depends on
the weakness of the supreme power. Yet notwithstanding this there may
break out paroxysms of popular fury, that however short are terrible.
But the Lord is our secure and sufficient refuge, and when he has a
people to save--his chosen ones--he will put a fear into the hearts
of their enemies. The Revolution in France seems to be the Infidel
against the Jesuit, or ultra-Papistical party, which may lead to the
removal of the Archbishop of Babylon from his consular authority,
though his ecclesiastical influence would not, perhaps, be lessened by
this.

_Oct. 17._--The value of the English protection is beginning here to
be so fully understood and felt, that the first merchant in Bagdad
came to Major T. begging to be taken under it, and when Major T.
declined, he requested that his son might; and the Seyd, our landlord,
in explaining the reason of his wish for the Resident to take up his
cause, stated, that it was not so much in order to obtain any present
benefit, as that the government might see that he interested himself
about him; as this, he said, would prevent him being subject to those
oppressions he had been exposed to before. In fact, I do not believe,
that during the late heavy exactions that have been made from all
degrees and kinds of people, one individual under English protection
has suffered, or that an attempt has been made to oppress one. I do
not now, or on any other occasion, mention these events as pieces of
political intelligence, but as necessary to give a view of the signs
of the times. This consideration for the English does not arise from
love, as the most intense hatred is manifested when it may with
safety, as well as the most unconquerable and haughty contempt of
Christianity and Christians; it seems with this people of God's curse,
as with the mystical whore, they are consuming away in preparation for
final destruction by the brightness of his coming.

Mr. Pfander's Persian Moolah has altogether refused to translate
Persian with him. He says he will read and converse with him, but not
translate; so great is their contempt of Christians, that though it
is only the Gulistan of Sadi, and therefore no religious book, they
will not teach it. In fact, the difficulty of getting teachers here is
very great. The Christians know nothing--the Mohammedans very little,
and what they do know they will not communicate to a Christian. But
all this is ceasing and must come down.

_Oct. 18._--Our hearts have been deeply affected by a conversation
which Mr. Pfander has had with the Mohammedan Moolah, who teaches our
boys Arabic. He was telling Mr. P. that he was greatly struck by our
Lord's precept, not when you make a feast, to invite the rich or those
who can invite you again, but the poor who cannot; and that from these
considerations he had been led to invite to an entertainment he had
provided, all the poor persons he knew, to the surprise of his
friends, to whom he explained his reasons. He also told Mr. Pfander he
had often wished he were an animal rather than a man. There appears
altogether a degree of uneasiness in his mind that may lead further.
Thus God is making his holy and blessed word a testimony to the hearts
of some; oh! may every success here be such as bears only the mark of
God's workmanship by his word and his Spirit. That there are many
souls here which will feel the power of God's omnipotent word, I can
never doubt, when it comes fully and clearly before them.

The German Jew, whom I have several times before mentioned, seems
determined to become a professing Christian. His mind is convinced,
but his heart I fear little, if at all, affected. He abhors the lying
abominations of Judaism, which he finds among his brethren. He has
certainly come thus far without being induced by any worldly motives,
for had he continued, or would he now return to live by begging for
Jerusalem and writing lying amulets, he might easily do it. He wishes
to go to Bombay, and there become a Christian.

We have just heard that one of the boys of the school and his mother,
who took him away from us, have both become Roman Catholics. The
inducement to these Armenians is, generally, the pecuniary relief they
obtain from the bishop here, who has the administration of some funds
entrusted to him for religious uses, which he exclusively gives to
Roman Catholics, and with this he bribes those who can have no other
attachment to their system beyond that which is hereditary, for in all
other things, and in practice, it would be difficult to say whether of
the two were most corrupt. But we trust, by the good hand of our God
upon us, one day to have different systems of judgment than that of
one corrupt system against another, even the holy, pure, unadulterated
word of God against the corruptions of all men and all nominal
churches.

We have heard, to our great sorrow, that the plague has returned again
to Tabreez, and that all have again left it; and also that the cholera
has again returned to Kerkook, and committed dreadful ravages. Thus
the Lord seems visiting the kingdoms of the false prophet with his
sore judgments and plagues.

_Oct. 21._--There has just been acting here a scene of duplicity,
falsehood, and bloodshed, which appears strange to us, but is not
uncommon in this land of misrule and cruelty. A Capidji (or
Ambassador) from the Porte to the Pasha has been long expected, and
with evident anxiety by him and those immediately about him, which was
increased to the highest pitch, when by a messenger from Aleppo, the
Pasha received the intelligence, that this man's intention was to
supersede him, and of course to destroy him. It then became the object
of the Pasha to endeavour to get him into his hands, which was the
more difficult, as it is usual for the Capidji to read publicly his
firman, and proclaim the successor at Mousul, or some place near, who,
collecting the Arabs, marches to lay siege to this place, till the
head of the Pasha is delivered to him. To prevent this, therefore, the
Pasha made the Imrahor, or Master of the Horse, who has the whole
arrangement of the military force, to write a letter to the Capidji,
begging him to come here at once, and that he would, without a
struggle, give the head of Daoud Pasha into his hand, whereas if he
remained at Mousul, there must be an open contention about it.

By this he was allured to approach the city, and the Pasha sent out
700 or 800 men under pretence of showing him honour, to meet him and
secure him in case any accounts of the true state of the case should
reach him, that he might have no possibility of flight. Thus he was
brought into the city, and his quarters appointed in the house of the
Musruff; when, after the Pasha had obtained from him the declaration
of his object, a Divan was called, and it was determined to put him to
death. This event has thrown the city into great consternation, and
every one who can, is buying corn in expectation of what is to follow.
For the tragedy will not end here, as a friend of the Capidji is left
behind at Mousul, and another Capidji is at Diarbekr, waiting the
result of this negociation. So it appears that the Sultan is
determined to act at once and decidedly against this Pasha. We are
now, therefore to expect a siege, and a state of anxiety and fear in
this city for some months; but the Lord, who sitteth in the heavens,
is ordering all for his own glory, and for our safety, and he will
provide for us.

_Oct. 22._--We have this day heard that the Syrian Patriarch of Merdin
has recovered one of his churches from the Roman Catholics, and is, on
the whole, making, in a certain sense, a more successful stand against
them; but not in the spirit of Christ, I fear. He has two of his
priests who had turned Roman Catholics in prison.

This day our new Armenian teacher has arrived from Sheeraz. He seems
an interesting man; but our final plans with him are not yet
arranged.

We have also heard that the school at Bushire, established by Mr.
Wolff, is going on badly. He promised to send out a teacher and money,
neither of which having arrived, the school has dwindled to seventeen,
and these are neglected.

It is the common conversation to-day in the Bazaar that the Capidji
was put to death last night. This man was the Accountant General of
the Porte, and formerly Kiahya. Our Arabic Moolah has been buying
corn, in the expectation of the present state of things here
terminating in an open contest, in which he thinks the Pasha, now
having no hope, will throw himself into the hands of Abbas Meerza, and
that thus Bagdad will again become subject to Persia. Amidst all these
wars and rumours of wars, our path is to sit still and wait the Lord's
pleasure, which he will assuredly manifest to our heart's content, for
they that wait upon the Lord, shall not make haste, nor be confounded,
world without end.

Our schoolmaster has come to a full understanding of the principles
on which we intend to conduct the school: to have nothing that is
_contrary to God's word admitted_, and I think he very fully and
heartily enters into this plan. But he informs us that the parents of
many of the children are dissatisfied with our superseding the church
prayers, called the Shanakirke, by the New Testament, and ask, "Who
are these people? Are they wiser than our Bishops and ancient fathers,
that we should reject what they introduced?" This is what we must
expect. But we can, with a quiet heart, leave all to the Lord, to
order as he will. That the schoolmaster is truly on our side I feel
very thankful, and, I hope, the hearts of many of the children.

_November 10._--After having waited now several weeks for an
opportunity to send letters and a parcel, and not having found any,
from the extreme vigilance there is here to prevent any communications
going to Constantinople, I have determined to avail myself of the
offer of an Austrian merchant here, to enclose them in a bale of goods
going to Aleppo, and to have them forwarded thence to Constantinople.
It is a great comfort to know that all the intelligence essential to
our cause, as being God's, will reach, and all that is separate from
that, though it may not be against it, is of little consequence.

We have had two Armenian priests to converse with Mr. Pfander, one
from Nisibin; and the other from Diarbekr. The one from Nisibin said
they had no printed books among them, and that they were very anxious
to go into the Russian provinces, but were afraid, since the death of
the Russian Ambassador, to make any attempt to go.

The Armenians seem going from all the Mohammedan states that they can
to Russia. From Erzeroum, great numbers have gone to the Karabagh, and
thus they may people the desolate provinces of Georgia. The other
Armenian Priest, from Diarbekr, confirmed the information we had
previously obtained, that the Armenian population of that city was
5,000 houses,[17] about 25,000 of all ages, and that they have two
schools there, containing about 300 children, but no one cared about
them.

  [17] This is the only mode in the East by which any estimate
  of the population can be attempted. They count the number of houses,
  and allow one with another, five souls to each house. Some contain
  many more, and few contain less, so that even thus, it can be but very
  imperfectly ascertained.

It is now an understood fact, that the Capidji, or messenger of the
Sultan, who was left behind at Diarbekr, when his companion came on to
arrange the affairs of this Pashalic, is collecting troops around
Diarbekr, to attack Bagdad. This, however, will most probably be now
deferred till the spring. So we may then expect a siege, unless things
are arranged before. The Capidji who has been put to death appears to
have been a man of great distinction, and to have rendered great
services to the Sultan, both during the war and subsequent to it.

The priest of Diarbekr said, they were too far off to be helped either
by the Russians or the English; but I cannot help thinking, for such a
purpose as schools, or getting through their means a large body of
persons acquainted with God's word, it would be a most important
position. It presents, however, many difficulties, and at all events
would require some time to be spent in some place preparatory to
settling among them, to obtain a knowledge of the Turkish and Armenian
languages, and for these preparatory studies, should there be no
determining principle, perhaps Shushee would be the best position,
as the brethren there all know English, and some Turkish, and some
Armenian.

We are now fast approaching the termination of our first year's
residence in Bagdad, and the Lord's mercies towards us have been
exceeding great. We have been surrounded by many things that would
have been dangerous, had not the Lord checked them by bringing them to
nothing, both from disease and enemies; but, as he promised, they have
not come nigh us. We have borne the heat without any diminution of
natural strength. We are altogether standing on a more advanced
position, that on entering Bagdad we could have hoped. Things are
in preparation for the knowledge of God's holy word being extended,
and thus one great object of missionary labour is in the way of
attainment. But still, while I feel assured of there being some choice
fruit from here and there a fruitful bough, I at the same time feel no
less assured, that the great harvest will be of wickedness, and that
the pestilence of infidelity is the great spreading evil, not the
spreading of Millennial blessedness. As it was in the days of Noah, so
do I believe it will be at the coming of the Son of Man; and as it was
in the days of Lot, the great mass of mankind will be taunting the
Church with, "Where is the sign of his coming?" which shews plainly
enough that this will be a doctrine of the Church in the latter days,
or how should it be reviled; so that our Lord, in contemplating the
general apostacy, said, "When the Son of Man cometh shall he find
faith in the earth?" Oh, then, how happy is it to be among those who
love his appearing, who long for the termination of that dispensation
which witnessed the humiliation of the Church under the world, and the
rise of that glorious kingdom which shall not be dissolved, and into
which no sorrow or sighing can enter. I feel the languages to be a
great barrier. Whether the Lord will pour down this among the other
gifts of the latter days, I do not know, but at present it is a great
exercise of a Missionary's patience, to ask even for the common
necessaries of life; but to speak out the fulness of a full heart, so
as to be understood and felt is very, very difficult. The difficulties
in the way of a literary acquaintance with these languages are by no
means so great, as the study may be pursued alone, but the colloquial
language can only be learned by intercourse with men, and this is far
more difficult to attain by an European, who may have a very good
knowledge of the language of books, and still be little understood in
speaking. But still the time spent in the learning of a language among
a people, every thought, and purpose, and habit of whose lives are
diverse from your own, has this advantage, that you become in some
measure acquainted with their peculiarities before you are in a
situation to offend against them.

We have heard that the Emperor of Russia has conferred some honours on
the family of this Pasha, who are Armenian Christians, in Teflis.
Things are beginning to look unsettled in Persia. Contentions have
already arisen between the Prince of Kermanshah and the Prince of
Hamadan, which seems to be but the precursor of a general state of
confusion on the death of the Shah; and doubtless amidst all these
commotions the Lord will move on his way, and the day of his coming
advance. Oh, may we all labouring abundantly in patience, wait for
that day, that when it does come we may be found watching.

We have some anxieties about our dear friends who are journeying
towards us. Whether the intelligence of the state of the Pashalic may
deter them, or whether they will come on, trusting in the Lord, it is
our daily prayer for them, that he would guide and preserve them.

Our communications with Tabreez seem almost closed. Since we received
the letter from Mrs. ----, relative to their leaving Tabreez,
and going by this to India, we have neither seen them, nor heard of
them. Whether, therefore, they are gone by Shiraz, or whether they are
detained, we cannot tell; but the roads will soon become impassable
from snow in the lofty range of mountains over which they will have to
come.

I shall now conclude this portion of our little history, with
assuring those we love, that the Lord has been better than all our
fears and all our hopes. The more we have proved him, the more we have
found him to be faithful and gracious, and that not one of the good
things he has promised to faith has been wanting; but his love has
abounded far beyond our faith, yea, and they will yet abound more and
more. Let us then encourage one another to prove him more, that we may
have deeper experience of his faithfulness. We find the prospect of
the approaching coming of our Lord a corrective of the allurements of
the world, and an encouragement to a simple surrender of all we have
as his stewards, to him and his service, as their only legitimate and
worthy object, who has redeemed us from death with his own precious
blood, making us a chosen generation, a royal priesthood, a holy
nation, a peculiar people, that we might shew forth his praises. Oh!
may the Holy Spirit dwell in us more powerfully, that we may be ever
fulfilling his great and glorious purpose.

Accounts have just come to us by letters from Tabreez, that the plague
has been ravaging that devoted city till 23,000 of its inhabitants
have fallen victims to it and the cholera, and that when this letter
came off (Oct. 28), they were still dying eighteen of a day, and this
is not confined to the city;--the villages of the surrounding country
have equally suffered; half the inhabitants have been swept away, the
corn has never been reaped, and the cattle were wandering about
without owners. The missionaries from America had not arrived then;
most probably they are deterred by the intelligence of the state of
Tabreez. Our dear friends the N----'s had never enjoyed better
health--thus preserved of the Lord in the midst of the general
devastation: they are also for the present, at the request of the
Prince, detained till an answer from the Indian government is again
received respecting them. A famine seems the inevitable consequence of
the plague and pestilence at Tabreez. Surely these are among the signs
of the times; but the Lord's command to us is, Let not your hearts be
troubled.

We have received no intelligence from Shushee, but we heard from
Tartars that the plague had been in the Karabagh, which makes us
additionally anxious to hear from thence: but doubtless since the
plague at Tabreez, all intercourse with Russia from that side has been
interdicted. Mr. Zaremba mentioned, that he had to pass through seven
quarantines between Erzeroum and Shushee.

I may also just add, that we have finally arranged with our new
schoolmaster from Shiraz. We had given particular directions to the
person who proposed sending for him, that if money were any object to
him, (which we heard it was not) he should write and let us know what
he would require. He however came, and when he came, he wanted a sum
equal to about £84. sterling a year. This I was both unable and
unwilling to give, and therefore fixed £30. as the utmost, and the
rest has been made up by the Armenians among themselves, excepting
£18. which has been given by Major T. He speaks English imperfectly,
but thoroughly understands Armenian, and will teach the elder boys
grammar and translating. He will also superintend the girl's school
for one or two hours in the morning, and teach Mrs. G. Armenian.
We also hope, as soon as may be, to get some tracts and little
school-books translated into vulgar Armenian, but all this must depend
on the blessing of the Lord on our undertaking. This brother has
joined the Church of England in Calcutta: but he is himself at present
a strict Armenian, yet I hope, not a bigoted man. But all our past
experience has led us to look to the Lord alone for all profitable
help. Those whom we think promise every thing, often occasion nothing
but anxiety, and those from whom we expect the least we have reason
abundantly to bless God for having sent us:--so wisely, so graciously,
and yet in so sovereign a way does the Lord bring to pass his
purposes, and bless his servants, that every thought of confidence
in any creature may be destroyed, and the soul, by a thousand
disappointments, when it has reposed elsewhere, at last be compelled
to learn only to repose on the bosom of its Father, where love and
faithfulness eternally dwell, and convince the soul of its past
expectations from any other source.


_February 14, 1831._

An offer has been made to us by one of the richest Armenian merchants
here, to send, at his own expense, two camel loads of books any where
we wish, which has of course been thankfully accepted; and we think of
sending at least one load to Diarbekr. He has also bought from our
Armenian teacher, those Bibles he had procured from the Bible Society
at Calcutta, who, with the many thus obtained, has determined to send
more Bibles from Bushire, where he has already 200, to Julfa and
Ispahan, and the villages round about, in which he says there are
above twenty churches.

I have this day settled all my accounts, and find, after every thing
is paid, including the expenses of my baggage from Bushire, and of the
house for ourselves, and school for another year, that our little
stock will last us, with the Lord's blessing, two months longer, and
then we know not whence we are to be supplied, but the Lord allows us
not to be anxious; he has so wonderfully provided for us hitherto,
that it would be most ungrateful to have an anxious thought. Even for
my baggage, Major T. only allowed me to pay half the charge, and he
has moreover told me, that should I at any time want money, only to
let him know and he will lend it me. Now, really, to find here such
kind and generous friends, is more than we could have hoped, but thus
the Lord deals with us, and takes away our fears. That we may many
times be in straits I have no doubt, but the time of our necessity
will be the time for the manifestation of our Lord's providential love
and munificence.

There is one peculiar feature that runs through all education in the
eastern churches, that it professes to be religious, which gives us an
opportunity of introducing such books as may be useful, without its
exciting any surprise or suspicion, or opposition.

_Feb. 16._--The Pasha has sent Major T. word of the ravages the plague
is making in Sulemania. The government and all who have it in their
power have quitted it. This account has spread much consternation, in
addition to which two men from Sulemania arrived here ill of the
plague, one of whom has recovered. Major and Mrs. T., with their usual
generous kindness to us, have offered us an asylum with them should
the plague come here, where we should enjoy this great advantage, that
as the house stands close to the river, a supply of water can be
obtained without communication with the city. But at present we do not
clearly see our way: should our school be broken up, I see not so much
difficulty; it would be a most valuable opportunity for Mrs. G. making
progress in the language; but we wait on the Lord and he will guide
us. These do indeed seem awful times for these lands. We cannot be
too thankful for the peace and joy the Lord allows us to feel in the
assurance of his loving care.

I was much struck by a remark of our Moolah yesterday, when speaking
of the horror he felt at the prospect of the plague coming here. He
said, the sword he did not fear, but the plague he did, for one was
the work of man, the other of God. I replied to him, that feeling this
God who directs the plague, to be my father, who loved me, I knew he
would not suffer it to come nigh me unless he had no longer occasion
for me, and then it would come as a summons from a scene of labour and
many trials to one of endless joy. He said, Yes, it is very well for
you not to fear death, who believe Christ to have atoned for you; but
I fear to die.

_Feb. 19._--To-day we have heard that the above report of the plague
being at Sulemania is false; that it has been there, but has now left
it; so we know not what to believe.

_Feb. 21._--The expenses attendant on our packages from Bombay to this
place, are as great as from England to Bombay. The boxes of books and
medicine, and the press, with three boxes of books from the Bible
Society, cost twenty-five pounds. Aleppo would certainly be the
cheapest way to send them by, and by far the most speedy. It would be
a great comfort to us, if this communication should ever be opened,
for then we might freely communicate with, and hear from those we
love. I sent a packet across the desert the other day, which we have
every reason to think was intercepted. In fact, it is now very
doubtful if any of the many letters we have sent, have gone safe, and
none have reached us for these six months.

Intelligence came to-day, that the Sultan has ordered the Pasha
of Mosul, and another Pasha who is dependant on this Pasha, to
discontinue all communication with him, as the enemy of the Sultan. A
few weeks will, most probably, conclude this long-continued struggle,
and, we hope, the insecurity and confusion attendant on it; yet, the
Lord knows his purposes, and we have only to execute his will.

_Feb. 24._--We have just heard, by a letter that came from Aleppo by
way of Merdin and Mosul, that the caravan which left this place more
than three months ago, entered Aleppo about thirty days ago. They
remained in the desert till the Pasha of Aleppo had quitted that place
on his expedition against the Pasha of Bagdad, from the fear, that if
they entered the town he would seize their camels for the use of his
army. Much alarm is entertained here by the inhabitants as to the
result of this attack. From past experience they are led to expect
great lawlessness, from both friends and foes. May the Lord keep our
hearts in perfect peace, stayed on him. We now begin to feel that it
is very doubtful when we shall see our dear friends: certainly no
caravan will pass the desert till all these disturbances are settled.
It may be also possible, that the journal and packet of letters I sent
packed in a bale of goods belonging to a merchant here, may yet reach
their destination.

_Feb. 28._--This day brought us news of the arrival of our very dear
and long expected friends and fellow-labourers safe at Aleppo, on the
11th of January, after many delays and many trials. We had never been
allowed to doubt our Lord's most gracious dealings with us, but yet
this overwhelmed us with joy and praise; and this welcome news reaches
us just as our dear brother Pfander is on the point of leaving us
alone. We received, at the same time, a packet of letters from most of
our dearest friends in England, at the very moment when our little all
was within a month of coming to a conclusion, telling us that the Lord
had provided us with supplies for at least four months to come, which
we might draw for. Surely the Lord has most graciously seen fit to dry
up those sources from whence we anticipated supply, that we might know
we depend on him alone, and see how he can supply even here; we were
ashamed of every little anxious feeling we had ever had, and were much
encouraged to trust him more and more. My soul is led to abhor, more
and more, that love of independence which still clings to it, when I
see how it would shut me out from these manifestations of my Father's
loving care. Oh! how hard it is to persuade the rebellious will and
proud heart, that to depend on your Father's love for your constant
support, is more for the soul's health, than to be clothed in purple
and fare sumptuously every day--or at least, as we would say, on bare
independence; and yet how plain it is to spiritual vision.

We met together in the evening to bless the Lord for the past, and
supplicate his continued blessing for the future--that he would
accomplish what he had begun, that our hearts may never cease to
praise and bless him. My soul was much comforted, especially with a
text to which one of our dear correspondents called my attention,
Zeph. iii. 17. "The Lord thy God in the midst of thee is mighty, he
will save, he will rejoice over thee with joy, he will rest in his
love; he will joy over thee with singing." All the letters amounted to
twenty-six, which, after so long an interruption of all intelligence,
was an especial source of joy. And now we can think of our dear
friends definitely as absolutely at Aleppo, only waiting for the
termination of disturbances to join us.

To-day, a Chaldean, from near Julimerk, came to see us, and we expect
him again, with his brother, who, he says, can read, when I hope to
obtain from him a fuller account of the state, numbers, and
disposition, of his wild countrymen.

A Mohammedan Effendi was with me to-day; a very amiable young man, who
sees many things in the customs of his people bad, arising out of the
Mohammedan laws. He came to borrow an Arabic bible for, he said, a
poor schoolmaster, which I gladly lent him. Whether it be really for a
schoolmaster, or for himself, I do not know.

_March 4._--Read this morning, with peculiar pleasure, Hawker's
Evening Portion: "How shall we sing the Lord's song in a strange
land:" heightened as it was by the localities of our situation; but
above all, by the unity of our experience with the sentiments of the
writer; for we have indeed found the love of our Father, the pastoral
care of our Elder Brother, and the consolation and visits of our
Comforter, that which has enabled us to sing the Lord's song in this
strange land, even the song of the redeemed.

_March 13._--The time is now fast approaching when we expect the
struggle for the Pashalic to commence, at the conclusion of the
Ramazan. Yet it may all pass over, for the government of Turkey is so
utterly without principle, that by a well timed application of money,
all difficulties may be surmounted with the Porte, and as the Pasha
seems now disposed to meet this desire, it may, especially in the
present difficulties of the Sultan with Russia, lead, after all, to an
amicable termination of one year's anxiety and suspense. We are now
especially anxious for the pacification of these countries, that our
dear friends may be able to pass over the desert, as our dear and kind
brother Pfander left us last evening for Ispahan. It was a great
rending to us all, and has left a vacuum we cannot easily hope to have
filled up in all its parts; and till our dear brothers and sisters
come, we shall be very solitary, and very much pressed; but our
strength will be as our day. Had he seen it right to remain I might
have crossed the desert to our dear friends; but this not being the
case, it is impossible for me to leave this, and perhaps in the
present state of things here, from apprehensions of plague and war, it
would have been impracticable even if he had remained.

Caravans pass much more frequently between this place and Damascus
than between this and Aleppo, and it appears to me the shorter and
better way of communication to Bayrout and Damascus to Bagdad than by
Aleppo. Three caravans have passed over the desert from hence to
Damascus within these few months. With one of these an Armenian with
his wife and children went, and with another several Mohammedan
families; thereby hoping to avoid the troubles they expected here. So
at least we may venture for our Lord what men venture for their own
various interests. In fact, it does not appear that any further danger
is incurred than that of being plundered, or perhaps only a heavy
exaction from the Arab tribes through whom the caravan passes, whose
interest it is not to press so hard upon caravans as that they shall
be stopped coming, but to levy a tax upon them sufficiently
considerable to help to support the tribe.

An English merchant and a Consul are about settling, if not
already settled, at Damascus, which will still further facilitate
communications; and besides the road from Beyraut to Damascus is much
better than that from Latakeea to Aleppo. This arrangement, as well as
that at Trebisand, shows that these countries are becoming the objects
of public, or rather mercantile, interest.

A Jew came to borrow an Arabic bible from me which I have let him
have. Another Jew was with me yesterday, who translated the Hebrew
into Arabic very tolerably; but, generally, they only learn to read,
without understanding what they read.

An Armenian Priest has just come to ask for four or five Armenian
Bibles, to send to some villages between Hamadan and Teheran. This is
a plan we like better than sending many to one place, not only as
spreading knowledge further, but also from the greater probability of
their being read.

We have just seen another of the Chaldeans, from the mountains. He
says that they understand the Syrian Scriptures; so that at least I
hope to send a letter to the Bishop, with a copy or two of the Syrian
Bible I have with me, that when they return next year they may bring
me an account whether they understand them or not; and also it will
serve as a means of opening a personal communication with their chief;
as, by that time it may be possible that one or two of us may be able
to return with these men to the mountains. As far as their personal
assurances go, they promise me a most welcome reception. One of these
people told me, if I would come to his village, he would kill a sheep
for me, and I should have plenty, and 200 walnuts for two-pence; they
said every thing was very abundant there and very cheap. Their pride
seems much gratified by their being the head and the Mohammedans the
tail in the mountains; so that they cannot open their mouths, or raise
their hands against them.

_March 15._--A packet of letters has just arrived from Shushee, after
more than six months interruption, three days after our dear brother
had left us. However, we got the messenger to set off immediately to
overtake him, and he having seen the caravan on the way, promised to
return in five days. In this packet I also received one letter from
our dear brother J. B. Dublin, a note from dear Mr. R. informing me of
his having forwarded the books to the brethren at Shushee. Surely they
are worthy for whom he has done this, and he will be happy in being
thus a fellow-helper in the truth. Mr. Knill also mentions their
arrival safe at Petersburgh, and his purpose of forwarding them to
Shushee. It has been a year of great trial at Shushee for the mission,
but of exactly what nature and to what extent we know not, nor how
things now stand in the communications to our dear fellow-helper who
has just left us, as they are in German; but should he not be able on
the road to write us a full account, he doubtless will when he has
reached Kermanshah or Hamadan.

We hear that the prince royal is marching against his brother the
Prince of Kerman, by way of Ispahan, the roads, therefore, are very
unsettled in Persia, but the Lord will encamp round about our brother
and bear him safely through.

_March 16._--The letters we yesterday received from Tabreez assured us
of the willingness of the Armenian Bishop to have a school as soon as
a fit person could be found; and on reading one of the tracts from
Shushee, he said he would read it in his church to his flock. Mrs. N.
also mentions the willingness among the Mohammedans to receive the
New Testament, and that in many instances, pleasing results have
manifested themselves; but of what kind she does not mention. She
mentions also one of the principal Mohammedan merchants asking for a
Testament to read on his road to Mecca. May the Lord stop him by it
before he gets there, at the gates of the heavenly Jerusalem. In fact,
there is room in these parts for much preparatory work, when the time
comes that the power of the Gospel shall have taken such root as to
show by the power and individuality it gives to the Christian
character that their craft is in danger. They will do as they have
done in Shushee; but by the Lord's blessing it may then be too late.
What appears to me to require the greatest patience and the most
unwavering perseverance, is the language; for, while on the one hand
there is every thing to encourage, if we only take the burthen of the
day on the day, there is such a natural tendency in the mind of man
to accumulate all the difficulties together, and make one great
impassable mountain, that it becomes more difficult than many would
imagine, to go on successfully and happily like a little child. That
measure of knowledge of a language which so enables one to move about
in the common transactions of life, does not seem difficult to attain;
but to be able to state clearly the power of moral distinctions, to
detect the fallacy of false systems, and put beside them the true
light of life, is another and a very difficult thing, but yet the Lord
doubtless sees in this reasons of immense weight, or he would again
bestow upon us the gifts of the Spirit as before.

God our Father has most marvellously eased our way, and so great has
been the kindness of our ---- here, that he would do any thing
he could for us. He even told me the other day, never to let our work
stand still for want of funds, for should I ever want any he would
gladly supply me, and lend me for my personal wants whatever I might
need. Now when we consider there is but one English family now
resident in Bagdad besides our own, how like the Lord's acting it is
to make them willing to supply to us the necessary help: not only does
the Lord supply us with means necessary for our expense, but does not
allow us when our little fund gets low, to know the anxiety of
expecting, or thinking what we should do. And, surrounded as we have
been these many months, by the alarm of war and the fear of plague or
cholera, even our dear native islands have not been without their
anxieties; but I have been much struck of late with the peculiar
dealings of God towards his chosen; as of old, the pillar that was all
darkness to the enemy, was light to the church in the wilderness, so
now all this dark cloud, the darkness of which may be felt, which is
spreading from one end of the Christian and Mohammedan world to the
other, has, towards the church in her pilgrimage, its full steady
bright light surmounted by "Behold he cometh!" Blessed assurance! But
a little day of toil, and then we shall come with him, or rise to join
his assembled saints, dressed all anew, with our house from heaven,
that spiritual clothing meet for the new creature in Christ Jesus. Oh,
what glorious liberty we are heirs to, as children of God, one day to
love our Eternal Father, Son, and Spirit, with unalloyed affections,
when our whole nature shall be again on the side of God, and not a
place left for the enemy to put his foot to harass the heir of glory.

_March 17._--A Chaldean Roman Catholic priest has been here to-day,
and read me the same passages of the Psalms in the Chaldean and Syrian
languages, and there appears to be no other difference than in
character, as far as he read. The Syrians, the Chaldeans, and the
Jews, might become most valuable objects of missionary labour, not
only as being in greater numbers here, but from the great similarity
of their languages, so that the mastering of the one would be to the
mastering of the three, with very little additional trouble. I
endeavoured to find out from him the difference between the spoken
and written languages, and as far as he produced illustrations, the
difference was only in pronunciation; the words seemed substantially
the same. But there is a very strong prejudice to contend with in all
those among these people who know any thing of these languages, in the
contempt in which they hold their vulgar, and the reverence and
sanctity they attach to their old language, so that I think tracts, in
the shape of paraphrases on particular parts of the Scriptures, would
be exceedingly valuable among them, as well as tracts generally. I
trust we shall be able to turn our attention to these when we are
able, from our knowledge of the languages, to judge sufficiently of
translations or compositions.

_March 18._--This evening the messenger I sent after Mr. Pfander with
the letters from Shushee, returned with a letter, which I shall here
insert, as it supplies a good deal of information concerning the dear
brethren in the Karabagh.

                   "_In the Desert near the Village Bakoobah_,
                              "_17th March, 1831._

     "My dear Brother,

     "I am very much obliged to you, that you sent this man after me
     with the letters from Shushee. He reached us a day's journey
     and a half from Bagdad. We advance very slowly, only from five
     to ten English miles a day, on account of the spring season,
     when the Dschervedars[18] feed their horses on grass, and
     because they waited for other parties which had yet been
     behind. The weather is very fine; we had rain twice, but only
     slightly. The remaining time of the day I spend in reading, and
     conversation with the Persians in the caravan. The first day I
     felt very solitary, but the second, and since, the Lord
     afforded me plenty of opportunity to give testimony of him who
     is our Saviour and Lord, and to distribute several tracts and
     books among my fellow travellers, and this rejoiced my heart
     greatly. According to the manner of our present travelling we
     shall not be in Kermanshah till after twenty days. They speak
     in the caravan from fear of the Arabs after this; but it will
     be easy for the Lord to bring me safely through. The caravan is
     increased to about 500 horses and 180 persons.

       [18] Muleteers.

     "Now something out of dear Zaremba's letters; but I had only
     time to read them once over, so that I am not able to give you
     any regular extracts out of them. Should I forget any thing I
     will write it from Kermanshah or Hamadan. The letter was of
     December last. All had been attacked with sickness more or
     less, and dear Brother Sallett, stationed at Teflis, was called
     home: he died of the cholera.

     "The circumstance with the Armenians is this: The two deacons
     did go on in their spiritual life prosperously, and continued
     to give testimony of the truth. This excited so much the hatred
     of the Armenian clergy against them, that soon after Zaremba's
     arrival in Shushee from Erzeroum, the Armenian Archbishop of
     the Karabagh desired to have them sent as prisoners to
     Etchmiazin, the seat of the Armenian Catholicos,[19] near
     Erivan. This the Russian Governor of Shushee, after he was
     informed of it from Zaremba, did not allow. So it got a little
     quiet: but these young Armenians thought it impossible, at
     present, to remain longer in Georgia, and so they prepared for
     their departure to Germany. But during this time the Armenian
     clergy got an order from the Russian Governor of Teflis, that
     the two deacons should appear before a council in Etchmiazin.
     The Governor in Shushee did again so much for them, that they
     should go to Teflis, and be allowed to lay their case before
     the governor. Zaremba went with them, though he was not quite
     well. The one of these deacons, he who assisted Dittrich in
     translation, died there, happy in his Lord. The other went
     at last, but in a very good state of mind and heart, to
     Etchmiazin, putting his confidence in his Lord, for whom he was
     going to suffer. The brethren had not yet heard more of him
     than his arrival there. During the time Zaremba was at Teflis,
     the cholera took daily many away, and some days before his
     departure, our beloved Saltett, as mentioned before. Zaremba
     got worse too, but reached Shushee again. After his arrival, he
     and Hohenaker, and Dittrich had been attacked from the cholera,
     but recovered again. During this time the person from
     Etchmiazin arrived in Shushee, and preached and spoke against
     our brethren, and condemned all the persons who sent their
     children to them. So the school was broken up. But now the
     children are beginning to collect again, and the school is
     again opened. Dittrich was with his family, yet at Teflis,
     where Zaremba wrote the letter. Hohenaker was gone to the
     German village, where you stopped, and Haas was kept in Moscow,
     in quarantine, because of the cholera. Two Armenian tracts had
     been printed in Moscow, and the copies of the first were
     already in Shushee. In Shushee they are printing the Armenian
     Dictionary.

       [19] Patriarch.

     "With our not going to the mountains, they are quite contented;
     but they think I should rather go to Tabreez than to Ispahan,
     where I might go at any other time. I do not yet know what I
     shall do. I shall see how the Lord will lead me. But this is
     clear now, that a long stay at Ispahan I must give up. Zaremba
     writes further, that he has now little hope to be able to go
     any more on a journey, and therefore they rather wish that I
     should travel and do the Lord's work in the neighbourhood of
     Shushee, as long as the door is yet open. I cannot reject this,
     and so I must for the present give up my plans for travelling
     in Persia. If the way to Ispahan should be quite open, I would
     go thither, distribute books, and see that I might be in
     Shushee in July; if not, I shall go direct to Shushee.

     "The case with the mission in Shushee, is now laid before the
     Emperor, and so they are waiting what decision they may receive
     from thence; but they are sure that the Lord will direct and
     order every thing as it will be best, and therefore are not
     discouraged. The Russian government does not yet in the least
     hinder them in their work.

     "My letters all arrived safely at Shushee, and the cause of
     their not writing, was their own sickness and the plague all
     round about them. It does not seem that one of our letters was
     lost. Boxes with Armenian and Persian books are in Tabreez.
     They speak good of the Americans. For the news in your letter I
     thank you: we live certainly in a most eventful time, and we
     have therefore the more to work so long as it is yet day. May
     the Lord mightily bless you, your family, and work. In him,
     under every circumstance, we have every reason to be glad and
     to rejoice that we have him on our side.

                               "Your affectionate brother,
                                                 "C. G. PFANDER."

     "P.S. From Alexander Kasembeg[20] they received a letter which
     rejoiced them much. It seems to be good with him.

       [20] This affords us unfeigned joy, as we had heard
       from one who was with him in Cazan, an account that made
       us a little anxious about him.

     "The other Armenian in Baku[21] came to Shushee to be employed
     in distributing tracts and Bibles. He has already made a
     journey into Georgia, and preaches to Armenians and Turks."

       [21] This is the Armenian whose history I gave a
       little account of before, as the son-in-law of the richest
       merchant in Baku, who has given up all the prospects of his
       connection with his father-in-law, which are very considerable,
       to endure afflictions with the people of God. This young
       Armenian is another proof of the immense importance of having
       those to bear testimony to the power of the Spirit's work in
       regenerating the soul in the image of him that created it, from
       among themselves. The people can see in him the contrast
       between the past and the present man. They have also a
       knowledge of the peculiar modes of thinking and feeling among
       those with whom they have been educated, and been in the
       closest terms of intimacy with from their infancy, that they
       cannot have with foreigners.

The two dear and most interesting deacons, of whom one is mentioned as
having died in the faith in his way to suffer for the truth, and the
other has gone to witness alone before his enemies and persecutors at
Etchmiazin, were both in the school at Shushee, and in the study of
and translating the word of God, had been led step by step, to see
through the errors of the system by which they were bound.

Another proof of the progress of the same spirit manifested itself in
our infant beginnings. The two little Armenian boys who live with us,
eat and live as we do; on being asked by the boys without, why they
did not fast as their nation did for fifty days? without any knowledge
or direction from me, they set about selecting from the New
Testament, in conjunction with my own little boys, those passages
which bear on the question, and which shew that if we eat not we are
none the better, and if we do eat, none the worse. Remarks of a
similar kind have many times occurred in the course of our
translations from the Testament. At all events, there is a growing
tendency in the minds of the children, to feel that God's word is the
one rule on which they must justify all they impose, and thence the
necessity of understanding it; and these principles upset at once the
whole system of ignorant mummery which is now called or thought to be
the religion of Jesus here. If it be the Lord's pleasure to spare our
lives, and grant us the ability and opportunity to publish his truth,
results will follow to rejoice our hearts, I have no doubt: God has
declared it shall not return to him void, nor shall it. And to the
Mohammedans also these converts from among the fallen churches become
invaluable preachers, from their vernacular facility in the language,
and from their being continually exposed to the question, why they do
not do so and so; they are called upon by the very necessity of their
position to defend with meekness and wisdom their new position;
whereas, with us, they are satisfied with just simply making up their
minds to this, that theirs is best for them, and yours best for you.

_March 20._--The Moolah yesterday, in speaking of the contest between
the Pasha and the Sultan, said, that if the English would guarantee
both sides, both might be satisfied and make peace; but that if not,
they would never believe one another, for says he, every Osmanli will
lie. This opinion of their own low moral condition, is universal among
Turks and Persians. This man has often said to me, No Osmanli cares
for more than his own bread, and if that is safe, the whole empire may
be destroyed.

Two tribes of Arabs, whom the Pasha has brought up to help him in the
approaching contest, in consequence of some feud between them, came to
blows, and all last night and this morning were firing at one another
in that quarter of the city which is on the other side of the river,
where they are stationed.--It caused much alarm, and may be but a
precursor to general confusion and greater trials; but the Lord
Jehovah who sitteth on the everlasting hills, is our shield and
defence. The firing has since ceased, and one of the tribes has been
driven out of Bagdad.

_March 21._--This day the packet of letters came by Bombay, which were
sent off about four months after we left, and therefore have been
about eighteen months on the road. The best way is to put all letters
into the post-office, paying the postage, and they will then come
generally in about eight months by Bombay, free of all expense but
that paid in England; and it would afford us peculiar pleasure if
our dear friends would write regularly by this route, for the
opportunities by Constantinople are either rare or expensive.

How strikingly do these letters prove the truth of our Lord's
declaration, that those who leave father or mother, &c. for his sake
and the gospel's, shall find a hundred fold, fathers, mothers,
brothers, sisters, houses, lands, with persecutions. Surely we are
rich indeed, in the love of the saints of our Lord, and in their
prayers for us. These letters prove that our weak childish faith has
not been without the Lord's blessing on his own work. Oh! then, what
might be expected if we had been strong in the Lord and in the power
of his might? Perhaps, however, he who has led us hitherto,
insignificant as we are, may lead us onward still to magnify his grace
in our weakness. Surely no missionaries, with so few pretensions to
the love and confidence of the church of God, ever received more solid
proofs of deep and hearty interest than we have during these ten
months; this is no small point gained, and I think we may go further,
and add, that many have been led by this weak effort of faith in us,
to take steps they might not otherwise have ventured upon. I do not
desire, for one moment, to set myself in opposition to those blessed
institutions whose labours roused us from our lethargy: but only this
I must say, that I do not think their plan is the best, or the only
good one. Notwithstanding, I desire to bless God for them, and to
co-operate with them, whenever I can. I do rejoice, with most
unfeigned joy, at any honour God bestows upon them, and I should
rejoice to see them multiplied a hundred fold; for whosoever brings a
stone to the temple of our Lord and king, by whatever different means
they may have laboured with from ourselves, shall be our father,
mother, sister, brother. The only end we know of existence is the
manifestation of that temple, and may the king's blessing and favour
rest on the head of every one who labours for it, at home or abroad,
under established institutions, or in any other way. By all, Christ is
preached, and God the Father glorified, and the power of the Holy
Ghost manifested. Unprofitable servants as we are, weak in faith, and
infirm in purpose, except as the Lord day by day lifted us up, as it
were, with one hand, and covered us with the other, and enabled us to
stagger on our way; still, we cannot but feel that the Lord's goodness
and care, which our weakness has elicited, may have moved in some
small degree the hearts of the little band of six, who are coming to
join us; and I hear that their simplicity and faith has yet further
stirred up the spiritual affections of others to go and do
likewise--but these are early days; if it be of the Lord, he will
bless it; if not, we desire to be the first to lay our hands on our
lips, and our faces in the dust, saying, We were deceived; the cause
is the Lord's, not ours; with him we will leave its prosperity and
defence.

_March 28._--The plague has now absolutely, we believe, entered this
unhappy city. Major T. and all those connected with the residency are
preparing to leave for the mountains of Kourdistan; they have most
kindly invited us to go with them and form part of their family; this
is most truly kind, and there are many things to recommend it--the
opportunities it would afford M. for learning Armenian, and me Arabic,
and for observation on the country and people, besides our being
delivered from all apparent danger either from the sword which
threatens us from without, or the pestilence within. The absence of
all these friends and so many of the principal Christian families who
are going with them, leaves us exposed to the bigotry of the people in
any tumults that may arise--all these things presented themselves to
our minds. But there are considerations that outweigh these in our
minds: in the first place, we feel that while we have the Lord's work
in our hands we ought not to fly and leave it; again, if we go, it is
likely that for many months we cannot return to our work, whereas the
plague may cease in a month; opportunities of usefulness may arise in
the plague that a more unembarrassed time may not present; and our
dear friends from Aleppo may come and find no asylum. The Lord gives
great peace and quietness of mind in resting under his most gracious
and loving care, and as the great object of our lives is to illustrate
his love to us, we believe that in the midst of these awful
circumstances, he will fill our tongues with praise as he does fill
our hearts with peace.

I have just heard, that some Englishmen have been circulating tracts
at Julfa, an Armenian town in the neighbourhood of Ispahan, and that
the bishop has prohibited their circulation; this shews what we have
to expect.

I believe I have many times mentioned the deeprooted opposition which
exists among the clergy and literary men in the East, to having any
thing translated into the vulgar dialects: they are worse than the
literati of Europe used to be with their Latin, many among whom, but
lately came to see that it was no disgrace to communicate their ideas
in a vernacular dress: as the common sense of mankind has triumphed
over the literary pride of the learned, so we shall find that babes
will one day overthrow the literary pride of these orientals. I
obtained, the other day, a translation of one of Carus Wilson's little
stories, into the vulgar Armenian of this place, for the little girls.
The contrast between the effect produced by reading this in an
intelligible language, and their usual lessons, was most striking: in
the one there is of necessity a perfect indifference; but on reading
the other, they begged and entreated they might have it to carry home,
which is promised them for next week. Of this I had no doubt before;
but the experiment has been most gratifying and encouraging.

_March 29._--Yesterday Dr. Beagrie and Mr. Montefiore went and saw
several patients they thought afflicted with the plague; but their
minds were not perfectly made up. To-day, there is no longer any
doubt. I accompanied Mr. Montefiore, in his visits, and now there are
about twenty, and the number is increasing. Thus, then, this long
expected scourge has visited this city, and our Father only knows when
the awful visitation may cease. We can only cast ourselves on his holy
and loving hands for safety or peace: into these hands we do cast
ourselves, with all that is dearest to us in this world. We have
proved our Jesus to be the Captain and Author of our hopes, and always
found that in the power of his name we have obtained the victory.
Nothing but the Lord's loving pity can prevent the most awful
extension of the disease; not only are the people crowded together,
two or three dying in one room, but the intercourse is perfectly
unrestricted in all parts of the city, so that I fear what is now
confined to one quarter, and might possibly, by a vigilant government
be kept there, is spreading in all directions. We have, therefore,
been forced to the most painful step of breaking up our school, for it
would have been quite impossible to collect together eighty children
from different parts of the city, without exposing all to danger. May
the Lord enable us profitably to avail ourselves of our retirement, to
cultivate a more extended communion with him who is our life. Dear M.
is much staid on her God, and feels that as he has been, so he will be
to us a hiding place in every storm.

_April 1._--The plague is still increasing, but apparently not
rapidly. We wait the Lord's pleasure in our own house. The only
inconvenience is want of water, which cannot be had from without; and
they say that when the plague becomes intense all the water carriers
cease to ply; but the Lord hath said, in the time of famine ye shall
be satisfied; on this promise we rest in peace.

Two English gentlemen set off to-morrow across the desert with a
single guide to Damascus, to examine the means of communication by
water between the Mediterranean and Aleppo. From thence, should they
be spared, they purpose going to Beer, and thence pass down the
Euphrates with the view of ascertaining its fitness for steam
navigation. Surveys have already been completed between this and
Bussorah, of both the Tigris and Euphrates, by Mr. Ormsby, in part
assisted by Mr. Elliot, and from Ana to Felugia by Captain Chesney
of the Royal Artillery, and there remains between Beer and Ana to
be examined. Through all that has yet been surveyed there is no
obstruction, but it is expected there will be a little labour required
in one or two points of what remains to be surveyed, before steam
communications could proceed on the rivers. If these gentlemen thus
labour for what perishes in the using, and run such risks, going as
they are across the desert with a guide, whose language they do not
understand, ought it to be called tempting God, in us going for such a
work as ours is, to run similar risks and encounter similar dangers.

The deaths at present from the plague are confined to the Mohammedans
and the Jews. To avoid it, many of the Jews have gone to Bussorah,
and the Kourds who brought it here have fled from the city; a large
caravan of Christians are now thinking of returning to Mosul, who were
driven from Mosul three or four years ago by plague and its attendant
famine.

The poor Jews have been robbed of every thing by the Arabs, and sent
naked back, and there seems little better prospect for those who are
going to Mosul: they have the Arabs on one side the road, and the
Kourds on the other.

It is striking how fully and simply the Mohammedans admit the expected
coming of our Lord and the end of the world. The end of our Lord's
coming they conceive to be to set his seal to Mohammed's mission, and
that all Christians will become Mohammedans. Still these fundamental
errors in their views do not prevent a clear and distinct expectation
similar to that of the heathen at the time of our Lord's coming.
Certainly no people can have a worse opinion of the state of the
professors of their religion than the Mohammedans have; still, with
the loss of zeal for their own, their heart seems full of a strong
delusion to believe a lie, and hate the way of life, and above all,
the Lord who is the true God and eternal life.

How blessed the 91st Psalm feels at such moments as these, in looking
round on one's little family, to know that every arrow that flies,
winged with death, is no random shot, but that the Lord who is your
life, and by whom your life is hid in God, directs them all. Call upon
me, says the Lord, in the day of trouble, and I will deliver _thee_,
and thou shalt _glorify me_. Blessed Lord, when thou hast (as thou
most assuredly wilt do) delivered us, may we never forget to glorify
and bless thee. Oh! what a blessed feeling it is to know that you are
not under the general but especial and particular government of
Jehovah--that he has redeemed you, and you are his--that he has
engraven you on the palms of his hands; and that day and night he is
watching to preserve you.

_April 3._--An immense crowd of poor Jews left the city this morning,
to escape the destruction of the plague. The Christians also are
leaving in every direction they can find open. I fear these poor
creatures in their flight can hardly fail to carry the plague with
them.

I have lately read several of Erskine's works, or little portions of
his writings, and never did I see the pernicious effects of system
displayed more legibly than in several of his most interesting, but as
a whole, most delusive publications. In his view of Gospel freeness,
and other places where similar views to those contained in that little
work are promulgated, there seems, to my mind, a radical defect, that
nothing in so good a man accounts for but the baneful effects of a
system, and a secret insurmountable repugnance to the sovereignty of
God's government, and the individuality of God's election in Christ
Jesus, from before the foundation of the world. I do not mean that
these doctrines are denounced; but they evidently are not entertained
as the comfort and consolation of the soul, nor as they are
represented by the Apostles, as the most overwhelming reasons for
unlimited devotion to his service, who has thus chosen us with our
bodies, souls, and spirits, which are his. He talks of spreading the
beauty of the Lord Jesus, and the excellency of God's love, not only
as the pasture of their souls, who are born again of the Spirit, of
which they undoubtedly are the legitimate, the only food and means of
their spiritual growth, but as the cause of spiritual life in the
unregenerate by being believed. Now, this appears to me a radical and
fundamental error. Food does not give life, though it sustains and
expands it. What he says of the effects of love, in moulding the soul
to the likeness of the object beloved, is most true; but in order to
the existence of this love, not merely faith in God's love seems to be
necessary, nor the reality of the things promised, but such a new
creation in the soul, as shall see a desirableness in it and them.
As we see in nature, when the heart is engaged by one object of
affection, any demonstration of affection from another, which involves
the relinquishment of it, not only does not give pleasure, but
positive pain, though you know its reality, purity, and intensity; the
fact is, the affections are occupied, and there is no place. So it is
by nature with every man, and while he remains in this state, no
knowledge of love, however real, intense, and devoted, when he sees
its tendency to disconnect him from the only source of known
enjoyment, by the substitution of that which he has no senses to
appreciate, will ever be found available. It appears to me, that the
spiritual immortal generation of the second Adam, the Lord from
heaven, is in Scripture represented to be as real and absolute as the
generation from our earthly head, and only invisible from being
spiritual. It has its proper food, its proper growth. Without being
thus begotten from above, though you could display all the beauties of
him who is the chief among ten thousand, the altogether lovely, though
you could display all the Father's love to the church from the day he
commanded his gathering it, till this day, it would be as powerless as
spreading the most sumptuous banquet before the dead.

With respect to the general design of vindicating the government of
God from the charge of partiality, which I feel to be at the bottom of
Mr. Erskine's views, I do not see that the Lord has committed it to
us, but, whenever in the Old Testament or in the New, he pleads with
his children against their ingratitude, it is from the specialty of
his love. He does not say to the Israelites, I have dealt with you
after a common dealing with all; but, with what nation has the Lord
dealt as with Israel. So, in the New, he says, "I have chosen you, not
you me." In the prayer of our Lord, in John xvii. in the Epistles of
Paul and Peter--in the Revelations, and so in all the called and
chosen, and faithful, who are written in the Lamb's book of life, and
have been from the foundation of the world, from the beginning to the
end, I see a constant reference made, and the warmest and most
enlarged attachment of the affections demanded, on the ground of
peculiar, especial, and personal choice on the part of God. That all
this is consistent with every perfection of God's character, and,
therefore, with his equal justice and mercy, I have the fullest
assurance, but that we are in possession of the means of shewing it,
or that the Lord requires it at our hands, I feel fully assured of the
contrary. And the danger Mr. E. seems to apprehend from stating the
doctrines of election as they are usually stated, are more imaginary
than real. For God, who by his Holy Spirit begets the soul again in
the likeness of the divine nature, gives to that nature thus begotten
the power of discriminating in its food between night-shade and sweet
pasture.--When he has created in the soul of any human being the love
of himself, he gives him, with this love, the privilege to rejoice
that his name is written in heaven, and the minister of Christ is by
no means embarrassed by all these apparent difficulties, for he has to
display all the beauty of Christ, all the love of the Father, all the
graces of the Spirit before the assembled world, knowing that all the
sheep will hear, and feed, and grow, and that the goats will cavil and
stamp down the pasture with their feet. But, ye believe not, because
ye are not of my sheep, as I said unto you, My sheep hear my voice and
I know them, and they follow me. Again, he that is of God hath God's
words, ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of God. How and
why this is we are not able nor willing to try to answer: all we can
say is, hath not the Lord right to do what he will with his own. Shall
the thing formed say to Him that formed it, "What makest thou?" And
"Shall not the Judge of all the earth do right." And many, many more
like it.

_April 4._--We were last night alarmed by the voices of apparently
thousands of persons on the other side of the river; by degrees the
discharges of guns were mingled with the cries, which gradually
extended also to this side the river. We concluded it must be from a
tribe of Arabs having broken into the city, the noise being exactly
similar, only much more violent, to that of the two tribes of Arabs
who were contending the other day. But after an hour's suspense, we
heard it was a concourse of Arabs to supplicate from God the removal
of the plague from them.

The deaths from the plague do not seem to increase with any rapidity,
these two or three days; 150 perhaps is the highest any day. On a
preceding occasion, about 60 years ago, it amounted to near 2000 a
day. There is with us the father of our schoolmaster, who had the
plague at that time, and says you might have walked from one gate of
the city to the other, and hardly have met a person or heard a sound.
We trust it may be the Lord's gracious purpose to take off the
heaviness of his judgment, and spare yet a little longer this sinful
city.

The news from Europe also--how strange--how anxious; surely the Lord
seems sifting the nations, and shewing their rulers that without the
Lord's blessing their confidences, plans, and speculations, can never
stand. That they should have discovered also that the spiritual and
temporal character of the Pope's government are incompatible--surely
these are signs in the times that may make the most sceptical enquire.
Oh! how joyful a thought it is that the Lord is at hand, and our
pilgrimage near ending.

_April 7._--We had thought the Lord had removed the sword from us, but
we hear it is now near at hand; and the plague seems extending, or
every one is running away. Sometimes, on looking round on our dear
little circle, the old heavy faithless flesh would seek its quiet,
sheltered retreat under the lofty elms, but the Lord never allows the
spirit for one moment to desire otherwise than to wait and see the
salvation of our God, who will for his name's sake do wonderfully for
us, that our hearts may rejoice in him. We hear the enemy is within
three days of the city, and the Pasha is going out with all his Haram,
whether to contend or fly we do not know, but we think from his
character, the latter; but where shall he fly? If he flies with gold,
there are those who will plunder him: if he flies without, he cannot
stir a step. In fact, the moment his affairs are actually sinking, all
the miserable elements of his present comparative strength turn
against him.

_April 9._--Stillness still prevails over the city, like the calm
which precedes a convulsion; our neighbours are preparing for defence,
by getting armed men into their houses, but we sit down under the
shadow of the Almighty's wings, fully assured that in his name we
shall boast ourselves. The Pasha, however, has not gone out as he
intended yesterday.

We have just heard that the reports of the plague has stopped for a
little the approach of the enemies of the Pasha, still every thing is
exceedingly unsettled. He is going to shut himself up in the citadel
till the answer comes from Constantinople to his overtures, but all
those about him are against him, and wishing for the arrival of his
enemies. About fifty went out the other day, and seized on Hillah,[22]
but they were driven out.

  [22] Hillah is a small town on the river Euphrates, a little
  below the ruins of Babylon. It was built in the year 495 of the
  Hegira, or 1115 of the Christian era, in a district called by the
  natives El Aredh Babel; its population does not exceed between 6 and
  7000, consisting of Arabs and Jews, there being no Christians, and
  only such Turks as are employed in the Government. The inhabitants
  bear a very bad character. The air is salubrious, and the soil
  extremely fertile, producing great quantities of rice, dates, and
  grain of different kinds, though it is not cultivated to above half
  the degree of which it is susceptible,--See Mr. Rich's Memoirs on the
  Ruins of Babylon.--_Editor._

_April 10._--The Lord has in many respects this day altered our
position here. One of Major Taylor's seapoys has died of the plague,
and now four of the servants are attacked. This has so alarmed Major
T. and the family, that they are immediately going off to a country
house, built by order of the Government of Bombay, for the Resident in
the neighbourhood of Bussorah, and they may or may not return to this
place. They have kindly offered us an asylum with them, and a passage
in their boat. Having no immediate occupation here at present, I feel
quite free to accept it, but there are considerations that prevent
us.--Hitherto the Lord has kept us safe, and no symptom of plague has
appeared in our dwelling--though it is all around us. We cannot move
without coming in contact with numbers of people for many days, and
being shut up in a small boat with the Arab sailors,[23] and even the
very plague we may leave this city to avoid, may have reached Bussorah
before we arrived there, as thousands have already set off from hence
for that place; besides which, should it be the Lord's pleasure that
the plague terminate soon, and we then wish to return, it may be many
months before we may meet with an opportunity. The only advantage
seems to be, that we should thus be apparently further removed from
those troubles which seem likely to arise in the threatened attempt to
depose this Pasha; yet, on the whole, we feel we may hold on with the
Lord's blessing; but if we were once to leave our present post, it
might be very difficult again to regain it.

  [23] The whole of those who took down the boats died.

The accounts brought us of the numbers of those who have died of the
plague, on this side of the river alone, in little more than one
fortnight, all agree in making it about 7000. The poor inhabitants
know not what to do: if they remain in the city, they die of the
plague; if they leave it, they fall into the hands of the Arabs, who
strip them, or they are exposed to the effects of an inundation of the
river Tigris, which has now overflown the whole country around Bagdad,
and destroyed, they say, 2000 houses on the other side of the river,
but I think this must be exaggerated; the misery of this place,
however, is now beyond expression, and may yet be expected to be much
greater. Dreadful as the outward circumstances of this people are,
their moral condition is infinitely worse; nor does there seem to be a
ray of light amidst it all. The Mohammedans look on those who die of
the plague as martyrs, and when they die there is no wailing made for
them; so that amidst all these desolations there is a stillness, that
when one knows the cause is very frightful. The Lord enables us to
feel the blessedness of the 91st Psalm, at least of the portion of
those to whom that Psalm pertains; and we have, amidst all these very
trying circumstances, a peace that passeth understanding. We feel
indeed that we owe it to our Lord's love to be careful for nothing,
neither to run or make haste as others, but to stand still and see the
salvation of our God.

There was a curious conversation going on last night, among some
Mohammedans, outside our window, relative to the plague, which they
said was an especial judgment on them and the Jews, but from which
Christ would deliver the Nazarenes, and in all these calamities, it is
remarkable how doubly heavy, they fall on these two classes. Feelings
like these, and others that we know exist, make us clear to stay where
we are in the midst of these judgments, trying as they are to natural
feeling. That which comes to the ungodly _as judgments_, comes to the
child of God, like the chariot of fire to Elijah. From these
visitations as judgments, we have an especial promise of protection,
and we trust in the midst of them some good may spring up; at all
events, we feel that we shall have quite met our dear Lord's mind in
giving this people a last opportunity of hearing, ere their house is
left unto them desolate.

_April 12._--I have just taken leave of the kind T.'s. The accounts of
the dead are truly terrific; they say the day before yesterday 1200
died, and yesterday Major T.'s man of business obtained a receipt to
the amount of 1040 on this side of the river. If this statement can
be relied on, the mortality, within and without the city, must be
truly appalling, and should it not please the Lord soon to stay the
destroying Angel's hand, the whole country must become one wide
waste. Some very kind Armenians[24] have offered to provide what is
necessary for our journey to Damascus, if we will go with them. The
possibility of meeting our dear Brethren is a great temptation, but
still we do not see clearly our permission to go, and the Lord has
given us all such perfect peace in staying, and such perfect health,
that we are even unwilling to go; we remain, therefore, and wait upon
our Lord's love, which we feel assured will be manifested towards us
amidst this scene of death; and afterwards we shall see why we
remained, more clearly perhaps than now.

  [24] The caravan they went by suffered the most complicated
  misery both from the flood and the plague, and never succeeded in
  prosecuting the journey.

_April 13._--The plague has just entered our neighbour's dwelling,
where they have collected together nearly thirty persons, not simply
their own family. It seems as if a spirit of infatuation had seized
them, for instead of making their number as small as possible, they
seem to congregate as many together as they can.

Oh! what a blessed portion is ours, to have the God of Israel and his
unchangeable promises for our sure and abiding place of rest--our
little sanctuary unto which we may always resort. Yea, in the secret
of his pavilion he will hide us.

_April 14._--This is a day of awful visitation. The accounts of deaths
yesterday vary from between 1000 and 1500; and to-day, they say, is
worse than any, and the increase in the numbers of deaths is exclusive
of the immense multitudes who are dying without the city. One of our
schoolmasters[25] is gone to Damascus, and has taken with him his
little nephew who was boarding with us, so we are indeed now quite
alone. In fact, nothing prevents the entire desertion of the city, but
the dangers of the way, and the poverty of the inhabitants.

  [25] He died afterwards--he was the one mentioned in my
  former Journal as having come from Shiraz.

_April 15._--The accounts of the mortality yesterday still more
alarming--1800 deaths in the city. There was great danger of the
bodies being left in the houses, and the inhabitants flying and
leaving them unburied, but by great exertions on the part of some
young men in one quarter of the town to bury the dead there, others
have been stimulated in other quarters to similar exertions, and last
night all were buried. Our Moolah has just been here; he says he has
bought winding sheets for himself, his brother, and his mother.[26] He
says that yesterday he was in the Jew's quarter, and only met one
person, and that was a woman, who, when she saw him, ran in and locked
the door. Meat, for some days, or any thing else from without, we have
been unable to get. Water alone we have obtained. But, to-day, even
that we cannot get at any price; every waterman you stop, answers he
is carrying it to wash the bodies of the dead.

  [26] Both he and his brother died.

_April 16._--The accounts of yesterday are worse than any day, and an
Armenian girl, who has been here this morning, said she saw, in a
distance of about 600 yards, fifty dead bodies carrying to burial. The
son of Gaspar Khan, our next neighbour, is dead. Two have been carried
out from a little passage opposite our house to-day, where two more
are ill. All you see passing have a little bunch of herbs, or a rose,
or an onion to smell to, and yet as to real measures of precaution
there has not been one step taken; not even contact avoided, and the
most unrestrained intercourse goes on in every direction, so that
nothing but the Lord's arm shortening it, can prevent the entire
desolation of the whole province. The population of Bagdad cannot
exceed 80,000, and of this number more than half have fled,[27] so
that the mortality of 2000 a-day is going on among considerably less
than 40,000 people. But the Lord tells us, when we hear or see these
things, not to have our hearts troubled, for our redemption draweth
nigh; and we believe it, and accept it as a sweet drop in the bitter
cup that is now drinking to the very dregs by so many about us; and
which, but for this expectation, would bow down the stoutest heart.

  [27] Most of them were driven back by the increase of the
  waters without.

One of Major T.'s servants has just been here, who says the city is a
perfect desert, only peopled by the dead, the bearers of the dead, and
the water carriers. Our household are all in perfect health, thanks be
to our loving Shepherd's care.

_April 17._--To-day, as yesterday, we have heard nothing as to
numbers. The accounts are very contradictory; some saying that there
is very little plague, others, that it is heavier than any day; so
that probably, in some parts of the city, it is very severe, and in
others lighter.

An Armenian told the schoolmaster that almost every one you meet is
carrying cotton and things for the interment of the dead. We are
left almost alone in our own neighbourhood, all having fled in one
direction or another; we have been, however, all preserved in health,
to the praise of the Keeper of Israel.

Surely every principle of dissolution is operating in the midst of the
Ottoman, and Persian empires. Plagues, earthquakes, and civil wars,
all mark that the days of the Lord's coming are at hand, and this is
our hope--on this our eyes and hearts rest as the time of repose, when
all these trials shall cease, and the saints shall possess the
kingdom.

_April 18._--To-day the accounts are truly distressing. In the family
of one of our little boys, consisting of six, four are laid down with
the plague, father, mother, one son, and one daughter--only one son
and a daughter remaining. Immense numbers of families will be
altogether swept away, and many thousand of fatherless and motherless
children left when this heavy judgment of God ceases. It is now become
useless to attempt obtaining accurate accounts about numbers.

_April 19._--Still heavy, heavy news. The Moolah has called to give us
an account of the city. He says it now stands stationary at between
1,500 and 2,000 a-day, and has been so for a fortnight. What a mass of
mortality! Among the Pasha's soldiers, he says they have lost, in some
of the regiments, above 500 out of 700.--And in the towns and villages
without, the report is, that it is as bad or worse than within the
city.

_April 20._--The plague much the same. Among the Armenians nine were
buried yesterday, and seven to-day. There are not left in the city
more than 400, and now there is the plague in every third or fourth
house. The water also is increasing, so that a little more will
inundate the whole city on this side the river, as it has on the
other, to the inexpressible additional misery of the poor people. The
caravan which left for Damascus can neither advance nor return on
account of the water. Yesterday four dead were carried out from the
little passage opposite our house, making in all 14 dead from eight
houses, and there are others now lying ill.

_April 21._--To-day the accounts of the plague are rather more
favourable, though another has been carried out from the passage
opposite us, and there are some ill in three houses adjoining ours.
The river has burst into the cellars of the Residency, and is within a
foot of inundating the whole city.

_April 22._--Having had occasion to-day to go out to the Residency, to
endeavour to save some things from the water, which has come into all
the cellars, in every way I was overwhelmed with the awful state of
the city, and at the difficulty of obtaining help of any kind at any
price. The servant of Major T----, who is left in charge of the house,
told me he had applied in every direction, but could get no one to
help him; one had a wife dead or dying, another a mother, another was
employed in carrying water for the dead, and on our way, we saw the
Court of the Meshid or Mosque full of graves; and no longer finding
room there, they were burying the dead in the public road. When in
want of water, I think we shall be obliged to go to the river and
fetch it for ourselves, as a water-carrier is hardly now to be seen,
except when followed by a man forcing him to carry water to some house
where there is death. Amidst all, the Lord lets not his destroying
angels enter our dwelling; though tens of thousands are falling around
us, we are all, by his grace and holy keeping, well. The business of
death is now come to that height, that people seem to take their
nearest relations, and bring them for interment with as much
indifference as they would transact the most ordinary business.

_April 23._--The plague not decreasing; two more were brought out
to-day from the passage opposite to us, making seventeen from eight
houses near us. The mother of the Seyd, who owns our house, has been
buried in her house, as no one could be found to bury her. Another
most affecting instance has just occurred. A little girl of about
twelve years old was seen carrying an infant in her arms, and being
asked whose it was, she said, she did not know, but had found it in
the road, having heard that both its parents were dead. Water now is
not to be had for money; yet even in these times Israel's pillar has
its bright side to Israel. These things must come to pass; but when we
see these signs, we must remember that our redemption draweth nigh;
and the Lord will be a little sanctuary for us, let him send however
sore judgments on the earth.

_April 24._--The plague still raging with most destructive violence;
the two servants in our next neighbour's house are both dead, and two
horses left, I fear, to starve. A poor Armenian woman has just been
here, to beg a little sugar for a little infant she picked up in the
street this morning; and she says, another neighbour of her's picked
up two more. They have just been digging graves beside our house.
Almost all the cotton is consumed, so that persons are wandering
all over the city to find some, for burying their dead. Water not
to be had at any price, nor a water-carrier to be seen. Oh, what
heart-rending scenes sin has introduced into the world! Oh, when will
the Lord come to put an end to these scenes of disorder, physical as
well as moral? In one short month, not less than 30,000 souls have
passed from time to eternity in this city, and yet, even now, no
diminution apparently of deaths. Surely the judgment of the Lord is
on this land? One more taken from the little passage opposite, making
nineteen from the eight houses.

_April 25._--To-day, three more from the same passage, making
twenty-one from these houses. Such a disease I never heard of or
witnessed; certainly not more than one in twenty recovers; every one
attacked seems to die.

This has been a heart-rending day. The accounts from the Residency,
and the falling of a wall, undermined by the water, obliged me to go
out, and I found nothing but signs of death and desolation; hardly
a soul in the streets, unless such as were carrying the dead, or
themselves affected with plague, and at a number of doors, and in the
lanes, bundles of clothes that had been taken from the dead, and put
out. The Court of the Mosque was shut, having no place left for
burying, and graves were digging in every direction in the roads, and
in the unoccupied stables about the city. The water also has increased
so much as to be within a few inches of inundating the city. Should
this further calamity come on this side, as it has on the other, the
height of human misery will be near its climax, for where they will
then bury their dead I know not. There seems no diminution in the
plague yet, that we can discern. Two of the men we had helping to take
Major T----'s things from the water are attacked; one of them is the
fourth from a house, consisting of six. The remaining servant of Mr.
T---- had intelligence brought while I was there, that his aunt was
dead, which, he says, is the eighth near relation he has lost.

Some of the Mohammedans, our neighbours, were sitting under our
windows last evening, and were observing, that while two or three had
been taken from every house, we only had remained free. And this is of
the Lord's marvellous love. We consist of thirteen, including the
schoolmaster's family, and the Lord has given his destroying angel
charge to pass over our door.

The Pasha has sent to desire, that he might have Major T----'s yacht
drawn up near the Seroy or Palace to go into, in case the water should
increase; and when the man was sent for, who had the charge of the
vessel, he with another had run away, three were dead, and only one
remained. These are surely the days of visitation for the pride of
Edom. The man who sold cotton for burying the dead, the price of which
he raised from 45 to 95 piastres, and who lived only two doors from
us, died yesterday. There is no more cotton left in the city, and they
now bury the dead in their clothes. The price of soap is raised four
times higher than usual. I have been enabled, by the Lord's goodness,
to get all our water-jars filled, though at twenty times the usual
price. The bodies of persons of considerable wealth are now just put
on the back of a donkey, or a mule, and carried away to be buried,
accompanied by one servant. We have also much anxiety about the people
of the Damascus-caravan, of which we can hear no tidings, whether or
not they have been swallowed up by the inundation. Whether they have
been able to retreat to some eminence, or what is become of them we
know not. The poor women who have taken charge of the two poor little
infants have sent to us for food for them, as in these countries they
have no idea of bringing up children by hand. It may be to be
instrumental in saving some of these poor little infants, and in
helping the orphans that remain, that the Lord has allowed us to stay
here. They are all Mohammedan children.

_April 26._--For many days we have been unable to obtain any account
of the number of deaths; but the _Chaoush_ of Major T---- has been
with the Pasha this morning, who is in the greatest possible state of
alarm, wishing to go, but not knowing how. One of his officers, whose
business it is to inquire about the number of deaths daily, reported
that it had reached 5,000, but yesterday was 3,000, and to-day less.
Enormous as the mortality has been, I cannot but think this beyond the
truth; yet it must be remembered, that the inundation kept immense
masses of poor thronged together in the city, who, but for this, would
have all fled in one direction or another.

The accounts are heart-rending of little children left in the
streets; five were left yesterday, a poor woman told us, near the
Residency, and others in different directions. If the wrath of God is
pouring out on the mystical Babylon, as it is on this province of the
literal Babylon; the two antichrists are beginning to draw near their
end. But for the presence of the Lord in our dwelling, as its light
and joy, what a place would this be to be alone in now; but with Him,
even this is better than the garden of Eden. These are invaluable
situations for the experience of God's loving distinguishing care, and
here we realize our pilgrim state much better than in the quiet of
England, with all its external apparent security.

The utmost number of daily deaths I heard of at Tabreez were 400, and
here it is said to be 4,000, and yet the population certainly is not
double. In going out to speak with a servant of Major T----, I saw a
very decently dressed female lying in a dying state of plague at our
door quite senseless; it is almost more than the heart can bear. Yet,
that the Lord will even from these scenes prepare ways for the
establishment of his truth, I feel fully assured, and this supports
us. A north wind has regularly blown for these four days past, so that
we hope the water will not again increase. Oh, may our Father of his
infinite mercy take away these heavy heavy judgments, and make their
present measure instrumental to the advancement of his kingdom. The
Soochee Bashee, an officer of police, has just been here, and tells
us, that the Pasha proposes removing to near Coote, a village on the
Tigris, half way between this and Bussorah. At any other time, this
would tend to most fearful convulsions within the city; but in the
present state of things, perhaps, all may remain quiet, without a
governor. When the plague, that now desolates the city ceases, we know
not what may happen; but this we do know, that the love of our Father,
and his gracious providence, will be magnified by all events, and that
we shall yet praise him more and more. It seems to me more than
probable that the Pasha does not intend to return. By the plague he
has lost half his soldiers, and a great number of his Georgian slaves,
who are his personal attached friends; he may now remove without
obstruction perhaps, from any one, or the possibility of any
communication being made to his enemies to intercept him; but time
only will show; however this may be, it is certain that should the
plague cease to-morrow, the city is in such a state, that no
resistance could be made for one moment to any enemy. How invaluable
the past proofs of the Lord's loving kindness and tender mercies are
at such times, the remembrance of him from the Hill Mizar of the
Hermonites. In going along the streets to-day, I saw several poor
sufferers labouring under the plague; and a number of places, where
clothes had been brought out and burnt.

Our anxieties have been greatly increased by the illness of our dear
little baby; but our unerring Physician has restored her to us to-day,
we trust in a measure which promises amendment.

_April 27._--To-day all thoughts are turned from the plague to the
inundation, which from the falling of a portion of the city wall on
the north-west side last night, let the water in full stream into the
city. The Jews' quarter is inundated, and 200 houses fell there last
night: we are hourly expecting to hear, that every part of the city is
overflowed. A part also of the wall of the citadel is fallen. And, in
fact, such is the structure of the houses, that if the water remains
near the foundations long, the city must become a mass of ruins. The
mortar they use in building is very like plaister of Paris, which sets
very hard, and does very well when all is dry; but as soon as ever
water is applied, it all crumbles to powder; and in building walls of
four or five feet thick, they have only an outside casing of brick
work thus cemented, and within it is filled up with dust and rubbish,
so that what seems strong enough in appearance to bear any thing, soon
moulders away, and by its own weight accelerates its ruin. It must be
many many years, if ever, before the city can recover. But it seems
to me, that this seat of Mohammedan glory, and of its proudest
recollections, has received its death-warrant from the hand of the
Lord. This inundation has not only ruined an immense number of houses
in the city, and been the cause of tens of thousands dying of the
plague, but the whole harvest is destroyed. The barley, which was just
ready to be reaped, is utterly gone, and every other kind of corn must
likewise be ruined, so that for 30 miles all round Bagdad, not a grain
of corn can be collected this year, and perhaps, if all was quiet this
might be of no consequence, for from Mosul and Kourdistan it might
easily come; but this will be prevented by the enemies of the Pasha
who surround us. The poor are beginning to feel immense difficulty in
the city, for all the shops are shut, and there is a great scarcity of
wood for firing; and should the water now cause a general inundation
of the whole city, the heart sickens at the contemplation of the
scenes that must follow; for the houses of the poor are nothing but
mud, scarcely one of which will be left standing.

For ourselves personally, the Lord has allowed us great peace, and
assured confidence in his loving care, and in the truth of his
promise, that our bread and our water shall be sure; but certainly
nothing but the service of such a Lord as he is would keep me in the
scenes which these countries do exhibit, and I feel assured will,
till the Lord has finished his judgments on them, for the contempt of
the name, nature, and offices of the Son of God; yet I linger in the
hope he has a remnant even among them, for whose return these
convulsions are preparing the way.

_April 28._--News more and more disastrous. The inundation has swept
away 7,000 houses from one end of the city to the other, burying the
sick, the dying, and the dead, with many of those in health, in one
common grave.[28] Those who have escaped, have brought their goods and
the relics of their families, to the houses the plague has desolated,
or desertion left unoccupied, and houses are yet falling in every
direction.

  [28] I have heard of eight thus buried in one house, or
  rather belonging to one family, the remains of which are come to
  reside next us in a house, where those who had the charge of it are
  dead.

The Lord has stopped the water just at the top of our street by a
little ledge of high ground, so that as yet we are dry; and all free
from the sword of the destroying angel. Scarcity of provision is
beginning to be sensibly felt, so that very respectable persons are
coming to the door to beg a little bread, or a little butter, or some
other simple necessary of life. To-day, the number dying in the road
was much greater than I have before seen, and the number unburied in
the streets daily and hourly increases. The Seroy of the Pasha is a
heap of ruins, and though he is most anxious to go, he cannot collect
forty men to man the yacht, for all fear of him is now past, and love
for him they have none; his distress beggars all description, for not
a single native vessel is left in Bagdad, every one having been
employed in taking down the crowds to Bussorah at the commencement of
this dreadful calamity. I have from day to day mentioned the dead
taken from the eight houses opposite to ours; that number has to-day
reached twenty-four; in one of these, out of nine, one only survives;
and I mention twenty-four not as all, but as those which have been
seen carried out by some of the schoolmaster's family, who were
however very little in that room which overlooks this passage. Of
another family near the Meidan, out of thirteen one only remains, and
I have no doubt there are hundreds of families similarly swept away;
yet amidst all these trials to the servants of God, my heart does not
despair for the work of the Lord, for no ordinary judgments seem
necessary to break the pride and hatred of this most proud and
contemptuous people; but the Lord will bring Edom down, and make a way
for the Kings of the East to his holy habitation. We have taken one
poor little Mohammedan baby, about three or four years old, from the
streets, and are supplying a poor Armenian woman with pap for another;
but what is this among so many? We know not what to do. It makes
passing the streets most painful and affecting, thus to see little
children from a month or six weeks, to two or four years, crying for a
home, hungry, and naked, and wretched, and knowing not what to do, nor
where to go. Thank God however, to-day the water is a little abated,
about a span lower. Oh, may the Lord's mercy spare yet a little longer
this wretched, wretched city. Oh, how does the glory of the Chalifat
lie in ashes; she seems within a step of falling like her elder sister
Babylon, the glory of the Chaldean's excellency, and in how many
things has her spirit towards the church of God been as bad, yea
worse, than hers. Missionaries in these countries have need of a very
simple faith, which can glory in God's will being done, though all
their plans come to nothing. It was but the other day we were
surrounded by as interesting a school of boys, and a commencing one of
thirteen girls, as the heart could desire; and now if the plague and
desolation were to terminate to-morrow, and our scattered numbers were
assembled, perhaps not more than half would remain to us. Yet dark as
all the labours of the Lord's servants in these countries appears, I
feel assured, that prophecy points them out as specially connected
with many of the great events of the latter days. Yet it requires
great confidence in God's love, and much experience of it, for the
soul to 

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