Journal of a Residence at Bagdad Part 5

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. .h.i.therto, 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 G.o.d, 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 inst.i.tutions 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 G.o.d for them, and to co-operate with them, whenever I can. I do rejoice, with most unfeigned joy, at any honour G.o.d 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 inst.i.tutions, or in any other way. By all, Christ is preached, and G.o.d 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 princ.i.p.al 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 unembarra.s.sed 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 ill.u.s.trate his love to us, we believe that in the midst of these awful circ.u.mstances, 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 G.o.d, 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 pa.s.s 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 a.s.sisted 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 G.o.d, 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 a.s.suredly 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 G.o.d's government, and the individuality of G.o.d'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 G.o.d'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 G.o.d'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 subst.i.tution 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 G.o.d 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 ingrat.i.tude, 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 G.o.d. That all this is consistent with every perfection of G.o.d's character, and, therefore, with his equal justice and mercy, I have the fullest a.s.surance, but that we are in possession of the means of shewing it, or that the Lord requires it at our hands, I feel fully a.s.sured 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 G.o.d, 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 embarra.s.sed 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 a.s.sembled 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 G.o.d hath G.o.d's words, ye therefore hear them not, because ye are not of G.o.d. 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 G.o.d 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 G.o.d, 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 a.s.sured 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 wis.h.i.+ng 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 quant.i.ties 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 pa.s.sage 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 circ.u.mstances 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 circ.u.mstances, a peace that pa.s.seth 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 G.o.d.

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 cla.s.ses. 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 unG.o.dly _as judgments_, comes to the child of G.o.d, 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 a.s.sured 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 G.o.d 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 mult.i.tudes 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 s.h.i.+raz.

_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 pa.s.sage opposite our house to-day, where two more are ill. All you see pa.s.sing 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 G.o.d 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 ma.s.s 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.sage 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 Mes.h.i.+d 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 pa.s.sage 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 pa.s.s; 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.