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 remain in peace, stayed on him, in a land of such changes,
without even one of our own nation near us, without means of escape
in any direction; surrounded with the most desolating plague and
destructive flood, with scenes of misery forced upon the attention
which harrow up the feelings, and to which you can administer no
relief. Even in this scene however, the Lord has kept us of his
infinite mercy, in personal quiet and peace, trusting under the shadow
of his Almighty wing, and has enabled us daily to offer up to his holy
name praise, for suffering us to assemble in undiminished numbers,
when tens of thousands have been falling around us. Neither is this
all, for he has made us know why we staid in this place, and why we
were never allowed to feel it to be our path of duty to leave the post
we were in.
_April 29._--Our situation is becoming daily still more extraordinary,
and in many respects more trying, except that our Lord is our hiding
place, who will preserve us from trouble, and will compass us about
with songs of deliverance. The Pasha has fled, accompanied by his
master of the horse, and his immediate family. His palace is left
open, without a soul to take care of any thing. His stud of beautiful
Arab horses are running about the streets, and are caught by those who
care to take the trouble, and offered for sale for from L10. to L100.
each; his stores also of corn are left open, and every one takes what
he wants, or what he can carry away, which is a great relief to the
poor, for the quantities are enormous, in expectation of a siege.
The plague is working its destructive way, apparently with no other
mitigation than that arising from decreasing numbers in the city; the
inundation however, has prevented this having its full weight, for it
has thronged the remaining population into a compass unnaturally
disproportionate. The house next us, which belongs to a Seyd, who left
it at the beginning of the plague, in charge of two servants who are
dead, is now filled by twenty persons from different directions. The
unburied dead, and the dying, are fearfully accumulating in the
streets. So difficult it is now to find persons to bury, that even the
priest of the Armenian church here, who died two days since, remains
yet unburied.
The water, thank God, is a little lower, but there seems now every
prospect that the moment the waters decrease, the surrounding Arabs
will come in, and plunder the city; yet even this is in the Lord's
hands--our wisdom has ever been to sit still, and see the salvation
of our God, and until we see his cloudy pillar arise from off our
tabernacle, where we feel it has hitherto rested, and move forward,
we shall yet judge our safety to be to sit still. We have in several
instances seen, that there was reason to bless God for remaining
quiet. We once thought of removing to the Residency, as a change to
the dear children, and as being nearer to the water; but still on the
whole we felt it best to remain here; and had we gone, we should have
been in the midst of the plague; or had we gone, when the T----s went
to Bussorah, what a state should we now be in, without the possibility
of removing, and in danger of our lives from the inundation and
falling of the walls, if we stayed.
We had again considered, whether it would be right to leave this with
the caravan for Damascus and Aleppo, which seemed the only opening
there might possibly be for us, so that if we let that pass by, we
must stay whether we would or not; still the Lord made us feel it was
our path to stay looking to him. And had we gone, what a state should
we have been in? For nearly three weeks they have been surrounded with
water, continually increasing around them, so that now we know not
what their situation may be, whether they are swept away, or remain;
but at all events we bless God for having inclined our minds to stay.
Why we did not join our dear and kind friends the T----s, in going to
Bussorah, we do not yet so clearly see the reason of, because we have
received no accounts thence, but it would have cut up alike our
connection with our work here, and with our dear friends at Aleppo,
with whom we feel it daily of more and more importance to have as
speedy a meeting as possible for advice and counsel.
We have just heard of the caravan already mentioned, as going to
Damascus and Aleppo. The plague has taken off eight of the Armenians,
and four have been drowned. The head of the caravan is dead of the
plague also, besides many others; they must therefore return to
Bagdad, instead of advancing on their journey; so in this instance at
least we see great reason to bless God for keeping us back. Yea, the
Lord will instruct us and teach us the way in which we should go, and
will guide us with his eye; this is our confidence and comfort; and in
such a time as this of unheard of perplexity, what a source of abiding
peace is this. We feel it well to know our God in such circumstances
as ours. Among the Armenians, thirteen died to-day, the largest number
yet in one day.
_April 30._--The report of the flight of the Pasha, it appears was not
true, and arose from the two circumstances I have mentioned, of his
horses having been seen running about the streets, and his supplies
being open to the people. He has been for several days endeavouring to
get away, and had drawn up for that purpose some boats under the
Seroy. All his stables were levelled to the ground, and the place
flooded with water. When the distress of the people was mentioned to
him, he ordered one of his corn stores to be opened to them. However,
to-day, blessed be God's Holy Name, _the waters have sunk more than a
yard_, so we trust the great danger is over.
To-day, one more was brought out dead from the eight opposite houses,
making twenty-five, and we know there are four more lying ill there.
Our poor schoolmaster, who went in the caravan, is dead, and was
buried in his tent.
_May 1._--The Lord has brought us all in safety to the beginning of
another month, through the most trying period of my life; yet the Lord
has every day filled our mouth with praise, and enabled us to see his
preserving hand.
To-day, as I passed along the street, I saw numbers of dead bodies
lying unburied, and the dogs eating with avidity the loathsome food.
Oh! it made my very heart sink. The numbers of the dead can now be no
longer ascertained, for most of the bodies are buried either in the
houses or in the roads; yet amidst all this, the Lord suffers not the
destroying angel to enter our dwelling; but we feel the Lord has
commanded the man with the ink-horn to write us down to be spared, as
this is one of the vials of God's wrath on his enemies.
_May 2._--We have heard nothing to-day to vary the general scene
of our calamities; the intensity of this most desolating disease
surpasses all thought. Numbers of families are altogether swept away;
in numerous others, out of ten or twelve, only one, two, or three
remain; but I hear of none, save our own, where death has not entered.
Yet, while I bless and praise the Holy Name of our Lord, under whose
wing alone we came here, and under whose wing alone we have trusted,
the things my eyes have seen, and my ears heard, press upon my heart,
and make me at times very sad; neither can I chase them from my mind.
I can only look forward for comfort to that day, when the Lord himself
will come to put an end to this dispensation of desolation, and
introduce his own peace. Yea, come Lord Jesus, come quickly.
We have just heard melancholy tidings of another caravan, which
endeavoured to escape into Persia from the plague, but has been forced
back again by the Arabs, the floods, and the scarcity of provisions,
and besides numbers among them have died daily of the plague, so still
we can bless God we did not leave our present position by this last
opportunity. Let us then again bless him for not allowing us to make
haste.
_May 3._--To-day we trust the Lord has a little alleviated the
virulence of the plague; many attacked yesterday, and the day before,
have been rapidly recovering, and fewer deaths have taken place
to-day--a great deal so far as we can ascertain. May God's holy name
be praised, who is a hiding place from every storm. We had our water
jars filled again to-day, when many, even of the rich, who have
connections in every direction, find the greatest difficulty. "Your
water shall be sure." We who are alone, and without a friend within
hundreds of miles in any direction, have been supplied by our Lord's
gracious ordering; thus he puts a new song into our mouths, even a
song of thanksgiving. To-day all are well, even our dear little baby
is quite recovered.
_May 4._--The weather has for these two or three days past been
beautifully fine, and clear, and hot, by which our God seems to have
mitigated the symptoms of the plague. All accounts to-day are
encouraging; the number of new cases few, and the number of those
recovering many. Our eyes have also been rejoiced by the sight of
three or four water-carriers passing again, after an interval of ten
days; many more people have also been passing and repassing than
before; so we trust the Lord is now taking away this desolating
judgment, which, in less than two months, has carried away more than
half the population of this city; for, allowing that it had been
silently making its deadly course three weeks before it was
discovered, it does not exceed eight weeks, and by far the greatest
portion of deaths have been within the last four weeks.
_May 5._--In my journal yesterday, I mention more than half the
population as having been swept away in the inconceivably short space
of two months, but every account I have received, convinces me that
this is within the number; certainly not less than two thirds have
been swept away, and this seems to have arisen from a complication of
causes. At the time when the great mass of the population would have
fled, and thus have thinned the city, the waters rose so high, that
they could move only with great difficulty; they waited in the hopes
of the water subsiding, instead of which, it so increased, that those
who had left the town and could get back, were compelled to return;
those who could not, were driven to seek some high ground where they
might remain safe from the water, but in all cases they were crowded
together without the power of moving their position.--Again, in the
city, when by the death of immense multitudes the population became
greatly thinned, the inundation of the water laid more than half the
town level with the ground, and drove the remaining people to
congregate together wherever they could find a dry place or an open
house, so that often twenty or thirty came to reside together in the
same house, as was the case next door to us; thus again the deaths
became awfully great. Inquire where you will, the answer is, The city
is desolate: around the Pasha four Georgians alone remain alive out of
more than one hundred. The son of our Moolah, who is dead, told me
to-day, that in the quarter where he lives, not one human being is
left--they are all dead. Out of about eighteen servants and seapoys
that Major T. left, fourteen are dead, two have now the plague,[29]
and two remain well. Among the Armenians, more than half are dead. An
Armenian who was with us to-day, tells us, there are not more than
twenty-seven men left in one hundred and thirty houses. I, however,
think that this is exaggerated.
[29] Those two died.
At Hillah, the modern Babylon, (population 10,000), there is, Seyd
Ibrahim told me to-day, scarce a soul left, and the dogs and the wild
beasts alone are there feeding on the dead bodies. This Seyd Ibrahim
is one of the surviving servants of Major T.; and is the only one of a
family of fourteen who remains alive.--His four brothers, their wives,
his own wife, their children, and his own, are all dead. If mystical
Babylon is suffering, as the seat of this Archbishopric of the literal
Babylon, the times are not far off when the river Euphrates shall be
dried up for the kings of the east to pass over.
For digging a grave they ask a sum that equals in England three
pounds, in consequence of which numbers have remained unburied about
the streets, so that the Pasha has been obliged to engage men, paying
them at the same rate for each body they will throw into the river.
In all the villages the desolation seems as complete as it is here.
When day by day I rise and see our numbers complete, and all in
health, my soul is indeed made to feel what cannot the Lord do? though
ten thousand shall fall at thy right hand it shall not come nigh
thee.--I do not yet see what effect all this is likely to have on our
labours here--whether it will break down or build up barriers; yet we
expect it will break down, for the Lord seems thus breaking to pieces
the power if not the pride of this haughty people. I have been struck
two or three times lately, in going out, with the intense hatred that
lurks at the bottom of the hearts of this people against Christians;
my dress manifested me to be one, and some Arabs I met, particularly
the women, cursed me with the most savage ferocity as I passed, two
or three calling out at me as though I were the cause of all their
calamities; and the people who are come to live next door to us, are
bitter against us, especially one man among them, who seems to have
his heart quite corroded, because they are dying and we are preserved
by our Lord's love; he sits and talks under our window, saying, "These
Christians and Jews alone remain, but in the whole of Bagdad you will
hardly find one hundred Mohammedans." This is altogether false, for
though in proportion as many Christians may not have died as
Mohammedans and Jews, yet the deaths among them have been enormous,
as the preceding accounts will have shewn.
Medicine I have found of no use. If you attack the fever, they die of
prostration of strength; if you endeavour to support the constitution,
they die of oppression on the brain. Those cases which first affected
the head with delirium, have been the most fatal; next those with
carbuncles, which did not appear, however, for a fortnight after the
commencement of the disease. Among those who have recovered, almost
the whole have had large glandular swellings, speedily separating and
thus relieving the constitution.
This night, the first time for three weeks, I have heard again the
Muezzin's call to prayers, from the minarets of the Mosques.
_May 6._--The water to-day is much decreased. I saw a man also with
fresh meat in his hand. I likewise saw many recovering from the plague
walking about, leaning on sticks, and sitting by the way-side. The
number of deaths, among the Armenians, to-day, amounted to 11, which,
considering that their whole remaining numbers cannot exceed 300 at
present, is an enormous mortality, and has a little damped our hopes
of a speedy conclusion to this awful visitation.
_May 7._--Of the plague nothing satisfactory to-day. Thieves are
multiplying in every direction; and news has come from Mosul that a
new Pasha has arrived there, who only waited for the cessation of
the plague to advance against Bagdad. Great part of his work of
destruction is already done for him, as hardly a Georgian is left,
and he will find money enough left without owners, to supply his own
utmost rapacity, or the demands of the Sultan. The Lord is our only
secure resting place, and we know that he who delivers us out of six
troubles, can and will deliver us out of seven.
The water is decreasing most rapidly, so that rice is beginning to
be brought from the other side of the river; and as all those who
monopolized the sale of wood, and not only asked enormous prices, but
cheated in the weight, are all dead, every one now that needs wood
takes it, so that the situation of the poor seems in this respect a
little improved.
There has not been among all the circumstances of this scene of
complicated suffering, any one that has more painfully affected my own
mind than the increasing number of infants and little children that
have been left exposed in the streets, and the absolute impossibility
of meeting such a state of things. We greatly desired to take one or
two; but our own little baby was ill, so that by night Mary had hardly
any rest, and at best, not being strong in such a climate, we came
reluctantly to the decision that we were not able to undertake such an
additional charge.
This is an anxious evening. Dear Mary is taken ill--nothing that would
at any other time alarm me, but now very little creates anxiety; yet
her heart is reposing on her Lord with perfect peace, and waiting his
will. A few hours, perhaps, may show us that it is but a little trial
of our faith to draw us nearer the fountain of our life. To nature it
seems fearful to think of the plague entering our dwelling; in our
present situation, nothing but the Lord's especial love could sustain
the soul in the contemplation of a young family, left in such a land,
at such a time, and in such circumstances; but we feel we came out
under the shadow of the Almighty's wing, and we know that his pavilion
will be our sanctuary, let his gracious providence prescribe what it
may. On his love, therefore, we cast ourselves with all our personal
interests.
_May 8._--The Lord has this day manifested that the attack of my dear
dear wife, is the plague, and of a very dangerous and malignant kind,
so that our hearts are prostrate in the Lord's hand. As I think the
infection can have only come through me, I have little hope of
escaping, unless by the Lord's special intervention. It is indeed an
awful moment, the prospect of having a little family in such a country
at such a time. Yet, my dearest wife's faith triumphs over these
circumstances, and as she sweetly said to me to day, "The difference
between a child of God and the worldling is not in death, but in the
hope the one has in Jesus, while the other is without hope and without
God in the world." She says, "I marvel at the Lord's dealings, but
not more than at my own peace in such circumstances." She is now
continually sleeping, and when roused feels it difficult to keep her
dear mind fixed on any subject for a minute. These are indeed the
floods of deep waters, but in the midst of them the Lord is working
his mysterious way, yet that way, however bitter to nature, is for the
everlasting consolation of his chosen ones. She said to me, a few
minutes since, "What does the Lord say concerning me." I said, that
you are a dear child of his. "Yes," she said, "of that I have no
doubt." May the Lord of his infinite mercy sustain my poor weak soul
amidst these heavy visitations, that at least we may magnify him,
whether by life or by death; what a relief it is now to my mind to
think that her's was so much set against moving, whenever I proposed
it, and she often said in reply, "The Lord has given me no desire nor
sense of the desirableness of moving, which I feel assured he would
have done had he seen it best."
_May 9._--My dearest, dearest wife still alive, and not apparently
worse than yesterday. Oh! if it were the Lord's holy blessed will to
spare her, it would indeed rejoice my poor foolish heart, but the Lord
has enabled me to cast my wife, myself, and my dear dear children on
his holy love, and to await the issue. Oh! what wrath there must be
against these lands, if not only the inhabitants are swept away, but
the Lord transplants also his own, who would teach them, to his own
garden of peace. My soul has just been refreshed by these two verses
of Psalm 116. "Return unto thy rest, O my soul, for the Lord hath
dealt bountifully with thee. He has taken one of thy olive branches to
glory, and is now perhaps about to take another, for precious in the
sight of the Lord is the death of his saints, for he only takes them
from the evil to come." Oh, but for Jesus, the never setting star of
our heavenly way, amidst the wilderness what would our situation now
be. Jesus is the same yesterday, to-day, and for ever, and our
heavenly Father's love we have too often proved to doubt it now. But,
poor nature is bowed very very low, when I look at my dear boys and
little babe, and see only poor little Kitto to be left for their care
for hundreds of miles around; it needs all those consolations of God's
spirit to keep the soul from sinking also with the body; but the Lord
has said, "Leave your fatherless children unto me," and to him we
desire to leave them.
We did feel assured that the Lord would spare our dear little united
happy family; but his ways are not our ways, nor his thoughts our
thoughts. Dear little Kitto, I feel for his situation also from my
heart.
All the conversation of my dear dying wife, for these twelve months
past, but especially as our difficulties and trials increased, was on
the peace she enjoyed in the Lord. Often and often she has said to me,
notwithstanding the disparity of every thing external, I never in
England enjoyed that sweet sense of my Lord's loving care that I have
enjoyed in Bagdad. And her assurance of her Lord's love never forsook
her, even after she felt herself attacked by the plague. While
contemplating the mysteriousness of the Providence, her mind was
overwhelmed; but when she thought on her Lord's love, she was
confident in his graciousness. From almost the first, her brain has
been so oppressed, that with difficulty she opens her eyes, and though
she can answer a question of two or three words, Yes, or No; yet, if
it involves the slightest exercise of thought, she always replies, "I
do not know what you say." When I consider all I and the dear children
lose, should we survive her, it is almost more than my heart can
contemplate. On any essential point, for some years, we have never had
divided judgment on any material point; in every work of faith, or
labour of love, her desire was to animate, not to hinder. Such simple
truth of purpose, and unaffected love, and confidence in her Lord, as
dwelt in her dear departing spirit, I have seldom seen, and those who
knew her intimately will not think I say too much. She has been to me
in the relation of Christian wife, and Missionary wife, just what I
felt I so much, so very much needed. And yet the Lord sees fit to take
her to himself, and add one more from my little family to the chosen,
faithful, and true company that surrounds his throne. Lord, then,
though it cuts nature to the quick, makes me feel its deepest
suffering, and meets me under the most complicated forms of trial, yet
if it be for thy glory, and her glory, do, dear Lord, thine Almighty
will, and we know thou wilt to thy chosen, make light spring up out of
darkness.