32

GENERAL ANARCHY.-FANATICISM.

taken possession of the roads. From that time the reign of violence and anarchy commenced, and robberies and murders were the order of the day. Scarcely a man dared leave the walls of the city without a large party to accompany him. Each man robbed the man he met, and the arm of the strongest was the only law. The governor, it is true, made an attempt to preserve the peace, and had the heads of five Koords and about forty ears hung up in the bazars, to deter others from committing violence upon the persons and property of the citizens. But these same bazars, two days after, were the theatre of most open and daring robberies. The defeat of the army having been ascribed by the mass of the people to the European uniform and tactics or the Nezâm, great opposition was raised against it, and against all Europeans as the reputed cause of it. This spirit, under the influence of Moslem bigotry, and a jealousy lest, in the weak state of the country, Christianity would rise upon the ruins of Islâm, was carried to such an extent, that we not only heard ourselves cursed in the streets as infidel dogs, but, as it is said, there was a determination expressed to kill all the Europeans in the place. What this threat might have resulted in, had we remained in the city, it is impossible to say; but I now learn that some Mussulmans came to our house after we left it with evil intentions concerning us.

Having been joined by Mr. Homes, we proceeded to Mardîn on the 10th of July, accompanied by an escort of thirty horse, half of which were furnished by the governor and half were returning to Mardîn. We had two objects in proceeding thus far during the disturbed state of the country to avoid the hot and unhealthy climate of Diarbékir, where the temperature was then at 98° in the shade, and daily increasing; and to extend our inquiries among the Syrian Christians. We had been but a few days at Mardîn, when our lives were openly threatened, and the governor, who declared himself without authority, advised us to remain in our house for some days, and also offered us a guard for defence. We did not think it best to manifest any particular apprehensions, and declined the guard, only keeping quiet in our intercourse with the people. After a while this spirit of hatred to us as Christians seemed to die away, and we appeared to have the confidence and friendship of most or all of the chief men of the place, among whom were the governor, the mufti, and the câdi, whom we visited on friendly terms. But at length a catastrophe arrived, in which we should in all probability have fallen the victims of a bigoted and infuriated populace, had not that kind hand, which had carried us safely through so many dangers, interposed to save us.

On the sixth of September, the Koords of Mar

were.

dîn rose in insurrection, and in open day, in the court of the public palace, killed their late governor and several more of the chief men of the place, and then came with their bloody weapons to the house where Mr. Homes and myself were residing, with the avowed intention of adding us to the number of the slain! calling out to know where we Most providentially, we had just left the city, and, when we returned, we found the gates closed to prevent the rescue or escape of any of the intended victims. It seemed as though some guardian angel had led us out of the danger, and then shut us out. Seeing a great commotion within, we retired to a convent of Syrian Christians a few miles distant, where we met with a kind reception, and remained some days, until the commotion subsided.

A few days before, these sanguinary men had murdered an influential native Christian in his bed, and then openly declared that it was an act of religious charity, for which God would reward them, to put Christians to death!

Such is a very faint sketch of the difficulties and dangers which beset my path after entering upon this enterprise. Moreover, after long and patient inquiry, we found that there are no Nestorians remaining on the western side of the Koordish mountains; all those who formerly resided this side the mountains having become papists, or removed to other parts. In view of these considerations,

which left so little hope of doing good, while so much peril was involved, my associate resolved to leave this field, and return to his station at Constantinople. In this he was supported by the advice of brethren both at Constantinople and Smyrna; and, in our peculiar circumstances, I could not withhold my approbation; but, with a full view of the trials which might lie before me in my solitary journey onward, I yielded a cordial and cheerful acquiescence.

I was forty days in Diarbékir, and Mr. Homes and myself spent two months in Mardîn. They were days of mingled solicitude and pleasure, and not to be forgotten while memory remains. I had but just arisen from a sick-bed, on which the tide of life seemed for a time fast ebbing to its close, when the catastrophe I have described took place. The events of that day, and the Divine interposition by which we were preserved, tended not a little to strengthen my faith, and arm me for whatever perils might still beset my path.

CHAPTER III.

Departure from Mardîn.-Plain of Mesopotamia.-Môsul.-Ruins of Nineveh.-Yezidees, or Worshippers of the Devil.

WITHIN the dilapidated walls of an ancient Christian church, which stands alone in a mountain ravine on the verge of the great plain of Mesopotamia, and is overlooked by the impregnable fortress of Mardîn, I exchanged the parting embrace with my "brother and companion in tribulation," the Rev. Mr. Homes, with whom I had spent more than two months of anxious repose, and shared the most imminent peril of life. On account of the general anarchy which reigned around us, we had travelled together scarcely two days; but I had learned, when prostrated on a bed of sickness, and surrounded by men of violence and blood, how to prize the company of a Christian friend; and it was not without a mutual struggle that we yielded to the convictions of duty, and tore away from each other's society to pursue, in opposite directions, the long and arduous journeys that lay before us. But, while the voice of Providence called him to return to his station in the metropolis of Turkey, to me it seemed to cry, Onward.

The hope of obtaining access to the mountain