work of his life. The government were in doubt as to the comparative merits of the routes to India by Egypt and Syria. Lieutenant Chesney proposed to personally examine and report on the subject, and, before he could receive an answer, started an exploring expedition at his own expense. His journey through Asiatic Turkey, Syria, Arabia, and Persia, which lasted from 1829 to 1832, was full of strange adventures and extraordinary perils, and the story is well told in his Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition. On his return to England he found many influential supporters of his views, among others the king, William IV., and a grant of £20,000 was voted by parliament to enable him to try the experiment of communicating with India by the Euphrates. The expedition set out from Liverpool on Feb. 10, 1835, and the commander did not return to England till the August of 1837. His intention was to publish a detailed account of his observations, but he had only completed the first volume of the work when he was ordered on active service to China, where, as brigadier-general of artillery, he took part in the expedition against Canton in 1847. On his return home he finished the work, but the MS. was stolen at Paddington station and was never recovered. This piece of ill-luck necessitated three years more of labour, and thus the book did not appear on the large scale originally contemplated, the government, who were to pay the expenses, having become parsimonious. The publication took place in 1850, under the title of The Expedition for the Survey of the Rivers Euphrates and Tigris, carried on by order of the British Government, &c.; and in 1868, the ministry having again expressed a desire for extensive information on the subject, General Chesney produced his Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition. In 1852 he had published Observations on the Past and Present State of Fire-arms. The closing years of his life General Chesney spent in his home in Ireland, and after the disestablishment of the Irish Church he took an active part in the work of reorganizing that body. He died on Jan. 31, 1872, at his residence in Kilkeel, county Down, in the 82d year of his age. The views in General Chesney's works as to our best means of communication are still matter of controversy, but he certainly deserves the honour of being the first to really explore the Euphrates, and the strangeness of the scenes, the adventures, and the experiences recorded in his books make them interesting reading.]

WITH THE ARABS.

(FROM "NARRATIVE OF EUPHRATES EXPEDITION.")

A great change had taken place in Beles and its neighbourhood since it had been visited by our surveying parties a short time previous to our arrival. It was at that time quite deserted: now we found more than a thousand tents of the redoubted Aniza tribe pitched in the centre of the rich pasture-lands by which it is surrounded, while another formidable tribe, the Beni Saïd, were encamped on the opposite side of the river. These circumstances did not cause us to make any change in our plans, and on April 20 we commenced clearing the vessels for painting. Thunder-storms and heavy rain prevented us from doing much before the 24th, when the proceedings of the Arabs attracted our anxious attention. Our confidence in them, which had hitherto been unshaken, was now somewhat staggered. Corporal Greenhill of the Sappers, while employed in planting a station-flag in the vicinity, was suddenly seized by three mounted Arabs, who jumped from their horses, put their lances to his throat, and proceeded to cut off his brass coat buttons, which they no doubt took for gold. Having obtained the coveted booty they released the corporal, and hastened away lest they should be seen from the steamer. Such conduct could not be left unchecked, and Captain Estcourt, Lieutenant Cleaveland, Mr. Fitzjames, and fourteen men moved up the adjoining ravine, where they encountered a strong party of the Anizas, apparently preparing to retreat, although this was evidently only a feint; for the Arabs, who were mounted on horses and dromedaries, endeavoured to intercept our party, and would probably have succeeded in doing so, had not Captain Estcourt at once perceived their purpose, and with admirable presence of mind made a rapid demonstration in light infantry order which checked them, and gave his own party time to reach some ground, rather difficult of access, and within range of the steamer's guns and rockets. This affair, which had threatened to be serious, ended without anything more than an accident to Mr. Fitzjames, who, in his extreme zeal, broke his ankle in leaping from a height. The Anizas, however, kept us all on the alert; for as they chose to remain at a short distance from us, we were obliged to keep a party on the elevated ground close by to watch their movements; . . but our great object was to avert any threatened hostilities

sired to hurt them, since they were quite ready to be submissive, and to give us wood or anything else they possessed; and thus a good understanding was re-established, and barter at once resumed with the greatest avidity by the Weldahs, and their example would have been eagerly followed by their enemies, the Effadees, had it been practicable. The facilities for laying in a store of wood induced us to remain another day at Anıram, and to send parties on shore to cut it; and our men, while so employed, found themselves in a singularly isolated position, for so dense and tangled was the undergrowth of the forest, that, although guided by the sounds of numerous hatchets and bill-hooks, some of the party were almost unable to find their way from one steamer to the other-a distance scarcely over a hundred yards.

Whilst all hands were busy cutting and stowing away on board as much wood as possible, Mr. Ainsworth and I made a walking excursion to some ruins in the neighbourhood. We had not proceeded far before eight Arabs, each armed with a long gun in addition to their spears, favoured us with their company. Thinking this suspicious, we took the precaution of separating from each other-Ainsworth, with his usual coolness, keeping at such a distance as would enable us to give each other mutual support. Moving on thus cautiously I suddenly saw an unexpected enemy close to us-a cobra-capella just rising on his tail, and ready to dart his fangs into my companion, in which, no doubt, he must have succeeded had not one of the Arabs, with admirable dexterity, struck the point of his spear through the creature's head. This feat effected a double purpose. It freed us from the cobra,1 and led to a friendly understanding with the Arab, who, pleased with himself, was ready to meet our advances; and mutual confidence being thus established, we went on to their tents, which were in the neighbourhood.

On recrossing the river to our steamer we heard that the day's work had been most satisfactory, and the descent was therefore resumed next day, the flat boats preceding the two steamers as usual, Tigris leading the way. The river was deep and favourable to us, its width varying from 250 to 300 yards. On the right bank we had a continuation of the elevated plain already mentioned, terminating in a range of hills, whilst on the left was the 1 The skin of this animal may be seen in the Zoological

Society's collection.

luxuriant forest, tenanted by innumerable nightingales. . . The village of El-Khudhr stands in the midst of an extensive grove of poplars, and as we required fuel to carry us to Basrah, the inhabitants were employed in cutting wood for us during the evening of our arrival and the following morning. But when called upon to resume their work during the day we found a decided unwillingness on their part to fulfil their engagement; and Lieutenant Murphy, who was employed in taking sights in the castle of El-Khudhr, sent us word to be prepared for an attack, of which Lieutenant Cleaveland had also perceived symptoms, for the people had not only refused to continue their work, but were seen preparing their muskets, swords, knives, and other arms. Ignorant of any possible cause for hostility, Seyd Ali went to the chief of the tribe (the Beni-Hakem) for an explanation; but the only reply that he could obtain was that we were cowards, and the assurance, coupled with the most opprobrious epithets possible, that if we did not depart instantly their allies, who had been summoned to their aid, would join them in attacking us. Seyd Ali, therefore, returned to us with the intelligence that the whole population of the place was in a state of violent excitement, which was evinced by their commencing their war-dance, moving round and round in a circle with joined hands.

Mr. Ainsworth was on shore at this time collecting botanical specimens in the adjoining wood, when we perceived that the Arabs were preparing to seize him. I and several of our party instantly landed, and throwing ourselves between him and the excited crowd we held them in check, and protected him, until he, and the rest of our party also, safely reached the steamer. Once on board we might easily have left the Arabs to themselves, had we not felt that our moral influence would have suffered from such a course. Instead of retreating, therefore, we steamed directly up to the wood on the northern side of the town, where the mass of the tribe had by this time assembled, in the hope of finding some opening for negotiation.

Instead of this we were received with a heavy fire. Fortunately, none of our party were struck, although Lieutenant Cleaveland, who occupied his usual position on the paddle-box, was much exposed. Our bulwarks, &c., were otherwise almost a complete protection. Our people burned to return this attack, and it was with difficulty that I restrained them for the moment in the hope of preserving

peace; but as a dropping fire was still kept up against us, notwithstanding our forbearance, we discharged a broadside of grape and canister into the wood with telling effect. Still the Arabs continued to fire at us, and we gave them a second discharge, which cleared the wood at once, after some consultation on their part. An attack had also been made upon us from a castellated building on the opposite side of the river, but the discharge of a Congreve rocket and two or three Cohorn shells caused its immediate evacuation; and some hundreds of an adjoining tribe of Arabs were seen scampering away, to the infinite delight of Madam Helfer, who, contrary to my orders, came up the companion steps to see what was going on.

This was the only affair attended with hostility on the part of the people which occurred throughout the whole expedition. We had to quit El-Khudhr without having any opportunity of obtaining an explanation of their conduct from the Beni-Hakem. We were afterwards told that their hostility had been aroused by our having (in ignorance of their superstition) cut down a part of the wood, which, owing to their Persian descent, they regarded as sacred.

ARRIVAL AT BAGDAD.

We quitted Kat el-Amrah on the morning of Sept. 21st, the British and Turkish ensigns flying, intending to reach Tauk-Kezra before night. More than half the distance to Bagdad had now been accomplished with very little difficulty, but the state of the river rendered the remainder of this day's navigation very intricate, in fact we had to proceed so cautiously that we barely accomplished ten miles in four hours. The river presented a wide-spread surface, but was evidently so shallow that we had very little expectation of our vessel being able to pass at all. Still, as we had observed that the large boats which navigate the Tigris river managed to pass up and down even at this season, we determined to make the attempt.

We made a most careful examination, not only by soundings but also by means of our two pilots, who went into the water, and by wading and swimming, as the case might be, ascertained where a passage was practicable; and we steamed ahead, with the expectation of reaching deeper water before long. To our

disappointment our steamer grounded again in what turned out to be a blind passage, and the hope of reaching Bagdad seemed to be almost at an end. The next morning, however, whilst we were employed in lightening and floating the vessel, the boats and pilots fortunately discovered a passage, which we succeeded in following under very novel circumstances.

Occasionally swimming, but more generally wading, the two pilots followed the winding which the water had made for itself along the bed of the river. They marked its course by means of a double row of sticks and willowbranches, and the vessel then followed along the passage thus carefully traced out into the opener part of the river, when she steamed onwards with comparative ease to Al-Hamarah jungle, which is 42 miles from El-Bune. The next day we experienced some delay when passing through the islands and shallow water near Debouny, which is about midway to Umel-Bul, or "Mother of Drummers," so named from the sound caused by the reverberation of the water against the rocks. We ascended 35 miles this day, but, owing to a succession of sandy islets and shallow water, we barely made 19 miles during the 24th to Zerviya.

Our progress had also of late been a good deal retarded in consequence of a failure in the supply of coal expected from Basrah; green wood was our only resource, and this, as a matter of course, was burned at the expense of time. But at this halting-place a tolerable supply of wood was obtained, and our ascent was prosperously continued until we anchored, after dark, eight miles short of Ctesiphon, having steamed rather more than 53 miles during the day.

Early on the following morning the resident's boat arrived from Bagdad, bringing Dr. Ross to renew the acquaintance which he had commenced with us at the moment of the Arab tumult at Hillah. During the afternoon of August 30th we steamed the remaining nine miles by water, and Colonel Taylor came on board and was saluted with eleven guns. As we approached the city the bridge was thrown open. Our salute was returned from the Residency, and we steamed through the bridge towards evening into the midst of the wondering population, which covered the roofs of every house, when one individual, placing his head between his knees, was heard to call out with great emphasis, "Has God been pleased to make only one such creation?"