and in an increased ratio the sufferings of the poor: if they leave
the city they are stripped and driven back; if they remain they are
starved; and even the dates are just come to an end, upon which for
near three weeks, both the people and the cattle have been feeding.
The Pasha has this day taken the jewels of his wives to sell, from
which and some other signs, I am led to think his course is nearly
run, and that ere long he will follow the fate of his predecessor. Ali
Pasha told the Suffian-Effendi, who went out to him to endeavour to
accommodate matters, that he had come for one head only, but that
after the way in which he had been treated, he would not be satisfied
with less than _ten_; and if, at that time, which was nearly a month
ago, he had determined to take ten, I fear a hundred would not now
satisfy him.
A poor Roman Catholic priest was with me to-day, telling me of his
distress, while one of his opulent flock was sitting by him. He said
the Jews would not allow their poor to beg from others; by which I
thought he meant to give a pretty intelligible hint that his flock
ought to be ashamed. But his rich hearer only said, "The Lord is
merciful, and he will provide." On this side the desert, the
professing Christians are not certainly priest-ridden as they are in
most Roman Catholic countries, or even on the other side of the
desert, in consequence of there being no powerful and wealthy
communities like the monasteries in Mount Lebanon, to bring down the
heavy arm of the Turks upon them; for without the Turks they can do
little, and these petty governments joyfully interfere in their
strifes to extort money from both parties, though in this respect,
Bagdad has been better off than most Pashalics for nearly sixty years
past, since the time of Suliman Pasha, whose slave the present Pasha
was, but liberated on his death. Since him there have been Ali Pasha,
Suliman Pasha the younger, Abdallah Pasha, and Seyd Pasha, all of whom
have been murdered after a longer or shorter period. Daoud Pasha has
now been fourteen years in possession of the power he obtained by the
murder of his predecessor, and seems now not far from sharing the
same fate.
_Sept. 10._ _Saturday._--The evening before last the thieves broke
into the house of one of the sons of the Pasha, and killed three of
the servants: if they serve the Pasha so what have others to expect?
Instead of being surprised that things are so bad, my surprise is that
they are not worse, seeing the city is entirely at the mercy of those
who are capable of every abomination and cruelty; and there is no
other restraint upon them than what God puts into their hearts by the
undefined fear of possible retribution. The most valuable articles
known to belong to the Pasha, from whom they had been stolen, were
sold openly in the streets, without the least notice being taken, and
thus also they shoot individuals when they please, in the open day and
in the public thoroughfares, and no one stops to see who it is or why
it is, but every one hastens off as fast as he can lest he should
share the same fate. And the passengers in the streets are not only
exposed to be shot at by those prompted by deliberate enmity, but this
armed rabble is continually drunk, and, without the least provocation,
fire at men or women. I seem to think, if it did please the Lord to
put an end to these scenes of sorrow and trial, my heart would be very
thankful; yet perhaps in this I deceive myself, and all my gratitude
would be as a morning cloud. However, this I know, the Lord will not
suffer me to be tried above what he will enable me to bear, and on
this assurance, in the darkest day, may the blessed Spirit enable my
heart to repose. This is my daily comfort.
_Sept. 12._ _Monday._--The poor are again permitted to leave the city,
and it is reported, that when Ali Pasha heard that those had been
robbed who came out before, he threw some of the supposed plunderers
into the river, and cut off the heads of others. However this may be,
5 or 600 now daily go out and suffer no molestation. This is a great
mercy, for within the city every article of food has disappeared
except buffaloes' and camels' flesh, and this at about twenty times
its usual price. Should this state of things continue, it seems to
me from present appearances, that a general plunder will be the
consequence. To-day they have pillaged the houses of some Jews.
Yesterday they broke open the house of Major Taylor's chaoush. They
are very slow to interfere with those under English protection; but
when their natural thievish propensities are stimulated by want and
opportunity, from what may they be expected to withhold themselves?
Things within the city are now come to that pass, that I heard from
the Meidan to-day (the place where the principal Turks reside) that
they have determined to wait five days more, and if Ajeel, the Sheikh
of the Montefeik Arabs, or some other efficient aid, does not arrive,
they will cut off the heads of Daoud Pasha and Saleh Beg, who is his
Kaimacam, or Lieutenant Governor, and send them to Ali Pasha, for the
city can bear no more.
When I consider all the misery in the city, and the privations not
only among the poor, but the rich, and consider how we have been
provided for, it does seem to me most marvellous, strangers as we
were, and without a friend. Before the plague, in our ignorance of the
probable time of its continuance, and with the certain knowledge that
in the midst of the greatest want, there was not a soul that could
help us, we took in enough of wheat, rice, soap, and candles, to last
till within a very few weeks. When dear Mr. Pfander left us, we made
him some sausages, called in this country _pastourma_: he, however,
took but a few, and the rest remained with us, and served us both
during the plague, and now in the famine to vary our food a little,
though somewhat dry and as hard as wood, and still of them one or two
remains. The dear boys also had some pigeons: these also served us for
many days. We then had two goats for my poor dear little baby, and to
give us milk; but provisions became so dear that we were obliged to
kill one; this we divided among the poor: the second at last we also
killed, and potted in its fat. This by little and little we are
consuming. We have also got four or five hens, which lay two or three
eggs a-day. Thus the Lord has provided for us till now; and if we have
not had abundance, we have never suffered from want. And now, when
wheat and rice is not to be bought, and if possessed in quantities
would expose the possessors to inevitable pillage, the Lord has so
graciously supplied us, that we avoid both want and the danger of
possessing provisions in the house, for before the kind Taylors left
this, they gave me permission to take from the Residency whatever I
might want, and this I now take by little and little as I need, and
the house of the Resident is so far respected in public opinion, that
openly disorganized as things are, I do not think they will commit any
violence upon it.
I am sure there are many who, in reading this, will bless God for his
goodness to us, so utterly unworthy as we are; but, oh! if they could
be witnesses of the misery that others suffer, and from which his
mercies have freed us, they would indeed praise him. For, even when
provisions were to be had, had we been obliged to purchase at the
price things then were and are now, we must inevitably have run in
debt; but as it is we have enough of money for more than a month to
come. Therefore, bereaved and incapable as I yet feel of all
enjoyment, I desire to bless the Lord for all his great goodness
and care over us, of the least of whose mercies I feel infinitely
unworthy. And though my faith does not enable me fully now to feel,
in unison with my _soul's judgment_, on my heavenly Father's dealings
toward me, when time has removed the bitter cup farther distant, it
may not possess all its present intensity of bitterness, to which also
so many circumstances have tended to add additional pungency--not a
friend near, not a communication from any of those far away. I have
ever felt one abiding source of comfort, in that I knew I enjoyed the
prayers of many whose prayers I truly value, and through these I
believe I shall yet stand complete in all the will of God, to remove
or to remain, to live or to die. The Lord will quickly come, and then
his power and great glory will be manifested to the joy of his chosen
and the confusion of his enemies.
_Sept. 14._ _Wednesday._--While I feel more convinced every day that a
missionary in these countries, who really would cast himself upon his
Lord, and share in its revolutions and national judgments, has more to
prepare his mind for them previously to his entering upon it than he
can well conceive: yet on the other hand, I feel more confirmed in the
opinion, that amidst this disjointed disorganized state of society,
there are more doors of irregular missionary service open than he can
possibly occupy. For though he can perhaps find few opportunities of
publicly preaching Christ; yet in conversation, and the preparation
and circulation of tracts, I think there are immense opportunities
afforded. Yet for conversation much time will be required in acquiring
a facility in the language by most, till the Lord is pleased to pour
down from on high, his gifts of the Spirit--and as to tracts, at
present we have none. The Turkish Armenian tracts, printed at Malta,
are not clearly understood here; neither do I think the Arabic or
Turkish spoken on the other side of the desert would be so either, if
I may judge from the translations into Turkish and Arabic. In fact, it
would appear desirable if the object of a missionary be to labour in
the east, that he should study on this side the desert if possible;
though the difficulties of a family are great here amidst the constant
succeeding commotion of this disturbed country. There is no retiring
place within at least some hundred miles, at all times by a dangerous
journey, but in such times as these almost impassable. And the
elements of disorder do not arise only from the state of the Ottoman
empire, but from the vicinity of Persia, daily encroaching on this
side, as I have mentioned before, both from religious and political
motives, and this spirit is encouraged by the constant weakening of
the pashalic. About fifty or sixty years ago, commenced the government
of Suliman Pasha the elder, who continued twenty-three years in his
situation and died in his bed. This Pasha raised Bagdad from a place
of little mercantile consideration to be one of the most important
places of traffic in the east, and he allured merchants from all
parts by the equity and firmness of his government. From that to the
present time, this pre-eminence has been enjoyed by Bagdad, and it has
been the central place of trade between the east and the west; and for
these purposes, if improved, a more desirable situation could not be
imagined under a firm and wise administration. This Suliman Pasha
strengthened the Georgian interest in this pashalic prodigiously by
the purchasing of an immense number of Georgian slaves whom he
manumitted at his death. One of these, Ali Pasha, who married his
daughter, succeeded him, and was murdered at prayers after about five
years reign. Suliman Pasha who succeeded him, also married a daughter
of the former Suliman, he governed about three years, and was then put
to death. He was succeeded by Abdallah Pasha, who was the treasurer of
Ali Pasha; he continued about three years, and was put to death. To
him succeeded Seyd Pasha, son of Suliman Pasha the elder, who, at the
end of about three years, was also put to death. To these last who had
thus succeeded and murdered one another, succeeded Daoud, the present
Pasha, who to avoid a like fate with his predecessors, cut off every
man about him who could possibly afford him any umbrage; but while on
the one hand he secured himself, on the other he so weakened the
Georgian interest, that when his affairs became involved in
difficulty, there was none to help but creatures who had ministered to
his avarice which he had gratified at the expence of every loyal
feeling (if such an expression can be used by a Turk.) But still,
though previous to the plague, the Georgians had been thus diminishing
in numbers, and more so in intellectual and moral character, still
they were a strong body; but the plague swept them nearly all away.
All this taking place at this peculiar juncture when there is no
recruiting their strength from Georgia, which is now in the hands of
the Russians, and when the heart of the Sultan is peculiarly set
against the whole mameluke rule seems to indicate the period of their
downfall to be near at hand. Should Ali Pasha now succeed in getting
possession of the city, the Georgian government of these renegade
slaves will be ended as that of their brethren in apostacy was in
Egypt. But, however things may terminate, there are no elements of
recovery, fall they must; for the curse of God is upon them from the
hands of one tyrant after another, till some powerful nominal
Christian government will accept the government of them, for which
they are daily ripening, which they are daily expecting, and which
will finally happen, unless they fully adopt a European policy and
plan, and this by another road, will lead to the same end, the
overthrow of Mohammedanism and the establishment of infidelity. I have
just thus cursorily made these remarks, that no missionary may
deceive himself by expecting any long period of peace and quietness.
If it comes, he may bless God; but if it be withheld, he must
calculate upon it. And I think those who are lightly armed for their
work--who can run, and fly, and hide, and at all events have only
their own lives to care about, will be happiest amidst all their
privations and trials between Bagdad and China. But for those who have
known the endearment of domestic life, or who are by nature peculiarly
susceptible of its happiness it may truly be said, this is a living
martyrdom. It is: but it is _for Christ_, who will soon come and wipe
away all tears from our eyes. I desire daily to feel it is a world in
which my gracious Lord was an outcast, and where it would be to my
loss if I made me a home. May the Lord make me willing to serve him on
these or any other terms he may manifest at his pleasure.
This morning some persons who were employed for the purpose, set at
liberty two of the principal Georgians who were imprisoned in the camp
of Ali Pasha.
The Armenian servant to whom I lent an Armenian Testament, with the
translation into the modern Constantinople dialect, came to me to say
how much better he understood it than he did before in the old
language, and his countenance seemed quite to brighten up at the sense
of his attainment. Among the Armenians I think there is an open door,
especially among the young, their ears are open and thirsting for
information on every subject.
The father of the Armenian schoolmaster was to-day speaking with me on
the difficulty of that passage, "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I
hated." He said he felt just in that state as though God had said to
him, I will not receive you. I longed to preach to him fully so far as
I am able, Him who saith, Whosoever cometh to me I will in no wise
cast out; but I have many difficulties: he is very deaf, and Armenian
and Turkish, not Arabic, are the languages he understands. The
languages greatly try me, for though I feel by the Lord's mercy making
daily progress, yet still I feel four or five years must pass before I
am fully prepared even in this department of my labour, and happy
shall I be if in that time it be accomplished.
_Sept. 15._ _Thursday._--After a night of anxious suspense, the day
has dawned in comparative peace; the cry that Ali Pasha's troops were
entering the city, began soon after we had retired to rest, and
continued till near morning. Now we hear that Daoud Pasha had fled
from the house of Saleh Beg during the night and endeavoured to enter
the citadel, but the soldiers would not admit him. He is now in the
hands of the people of the Meidan. The Chaoush Kiahya of Ali Pasha has
entered the city, and every one is in an awful state of suspense as to
the future fate of the inhabitants, at least of the higher classes. I
have just set up the English flag that they may know the inhabitant of
the house is a stranger here, who has nothing to do with the strife
of the city. If, after this, the Lord allows them to enter our
habitation, may his holy and blessed will be done. I think the Lord
has allowed my mind to be in perfect peace as to the result.
The poor wives of the Pasha are kissing the hands of passers by,
begging that they will give them an asylum. Poor sufferers! all are
afraid to interfere so as to afford them that which they want. At
present, words and appearances are peaceable. May the Lord of his
mercy grant that they may continue so.
To-day we killed two fowls to have a little fresh meat. Thus the Lord
has kept us through all this time of trial, and we have enough
remaining for five or six days, blessed be his holy name. This day has
ended in perfect peace, not a disturbance or an individual molested.
The principal thieves, who, at the head of various gangs, were robbing
the city in every direction, are now doing all they can to escape, for
they are perfectly known. Thus the gracious hand of the Lord has
removed in one day the siege and famine, and fear and terror, from the
lawless within, and the undefined terrors from those who are without,
so that all seems joy and gladness to the poor inhabitants. In the
conclusion of this affair Ali Pasha has conducted himself amidst
numberless provocations with a moderation and prudence that does him
the highest honour; bless the Lord for all his mercies. This will be
the first night for months that we shall retire to rest without the
hateful sounds of civil strife saluting our ears, or disturbing our
rest.
_Sept. 16._ _Friday._--Another peaceful day. Ali Pasha has collected
all the principal Georgians together in his camp. When the late Pasha
went out to his camp, he rose from his seat and embraced him, and told
him not to fear; that the Sultan had ordered his life to be spared; to
Saleh Beg also assurances of safety were given, and in fact up to this
time not one individual has been put to death. It remains yet to be
seen whether this be a cloak or real moderation. However, from the
great body of the citizens all fear is removed, and both animals and
inhabitants alike rejoice in returning abundance. The wheat that was
sold on Wednesday, for 250 piasters, was sold on Thursday for 40,
and other things in proportion, besides which, vegetables have
re-appeared, which, for five months, were not to be procured, at any
price.
I sent out to-day the chaoush of Major Taylor to Ali Pasha, to enquire
if there were any letters or packets for the Residency or for me; but
I found there were none to my great disappointment. However, Ali Pasha
was very civil; enquired after the Resident, hoped there would be
perpetual and increasing affection between them, &c. &c. We have now
to wait to see how these fair beginnings will end. I have just seen
the Hakeem Bashee or chief Physician of Ali Pasha, who is an Italian,
and to my great joy found he had locked up in his box for me many
letters and newspapers, which he from time to time collected in the
camp; whenever any messenger was brought in, and his packets examined,
all that were for Europeans he took out, and put in his box; to-morrow
he promises to let me have those that were addressed to me. He tells
me that Ali Pasha has two interpreters, natives of Cyprus, who speak
Turkish, Italian, and Romaic. It appears that a great change is
contemplated in the government of this Pashalic.
One of the two gentlemen whom Major Taylor sent to examine the
Euphrates from Beles to Anah, has arrived at Aleppo on his way to
Beles. From Anah to Bussorah there is no insurmountable impediment in
the way of steam navigation. The part that now remains to be examined
is from Beer to Anah.
_Sept. 18._ _Lord's day._--To-day I have received a long missing
letter from the dear Taylors, in which Major Taylor most kindly and
generously offers, should any thing happen to me, to consider my dear
boys as his own, till he has an opportunity of sending them safely to
the hands of their friends in England. Thus the Lord provides, thus he
orders for us. This kind offer of Major T. was quite unsolicited, for,
though when I felt attacked by the plague, I had written a letter
making this request, yet, on my recovery, I destroyed it.
I also received a letter from Dr. Morrison, in China, in which he
expresses his conviction of the importance of missionaries learning to
earn their subsistence by some occupation, however humble, rather than
be dependant as they now are, on societies. I confess my mind so far
entirely agrees with him, that, if I had to prepare for a missionary
course, I would not go to a college or an institution, but learn
medicine, or go to a blacksmith's, watchmaker's, or carpenter's shop,
and there pursue my preparatory studies. I do not mean to say, that
this should be to the exclusion of preparatory studies in language,
and the deepest preparatory Scripture studies, but, in conjunction
with them, for I am satisfied it is a much greater blessing to
missionaries to lead those down who either by birth or other
circumstances may have been a little removed from the lower orders of
society than to raise those of humble birth to the rank of gentlemen
in the world, who neither by education, habits, nor intercourse are
enabled happily or profitably to fill such a station--but it is that
yoke of mere human ordination, the necessity of a _title from man to
preach_ and _administer_ as it is called the sacraments, of which not
so much as a hint is contained in the New Testament, it is that awful
distinction between laity and clergy which are the things that tie up
all hands, and put bodies of men into situations of trial, who, but
for this delusion, would be without any comparative difficulties.
Without these we should learn to judge of men's fitness for their
work, not by their being ordained or unordained by this or that
denomination of men, but according to the rule of the apostles, by
their doctrine and walking as they had them for "ensamples;" if they
came otherwise, though apostles or angels, let them, says the apostle,
be accursed. Oh, if this principle of the apostles were set up in
proving all things and holding fast that which is good, we should not
hear so good a man, and one so much to be loved, as Mr. Bickersteth,
misleading his readers by telling them to adhere to an unsound
_authorised_[39] teacher, rather than go to a sound and unauthorised
one; to one who is authorised by the head of the church, though not by
the head of the state. So said not Paul, but, "if I or an angel come
preaching any other doctrine, let him be accursed." In all the Apostle
Paul's trials with the false teachers, and in all the directions given
respecting them to the various churches, he never once alludes to
their appointment by the apostles or any other human being, or bodies
of human beings, as even a collateral ground of consideration and
preference, but always to the truth, the truth, the truth; if they
preach that, well; if they do not, it matters not who they are, nor
whence they came, from heaven or earth, they are to be rejected. God
grant the day may quickly come when the church of God may care as
little about the opinions of bishops and presbyteries or any other
association of men, _apart from their piety and truth_, as the Lord
and his Apostles cared about the opinions of the Sanhedrim. So far as
their estate or authority is temporal, let us obey them, but let us
keep our souls free.
[39] By whom authorised, of God or of man?
It is said that all these provinces, from Bussorah to Bagdad,
Sulemania, Mosul, Diarbekr, Merdin, Orfa, and Aleppo, are to be under
the government of Ali Pasha; at all events there seems to be such a
change contemplated, that at present I do not see it right to remove,
especially as the Lord has provided an asylum in the event of any
thing happening to me, in the bosom of Mr. Taylor's family, for my
dear boys.