interval grazing their mules and horses in the sequestered pastures of the mountains and vallies of the neighbouring Saharâ, and did not make their appearance till Friday. Their excuse was that they had been detained by the other caravans which travelled but slowly, and that to show their readiness to implement their engagements, they had left their intended fellow-travellers behind them in the Saharâ, and had come forward with their own division to the city. The inference to be drawn from this representation was, that we must make up our minds to be detained a few days more at Khoy till the other divisions came up and were ready to go along with us. Meanwhile, the Dr and I went next day to the encampment of the governor, Najjib Koollee Khan, some eight or nine miles from the city, and presented to his Excellency the firman which had been granted by his Royal Highness Bahman Meerza, the governor of Azerbâyejan, for an escort to the frontiers, &c. &c. The governor of Khoy is married to a princess of the royal family, a sister of the king and of his brother Bahman Meerza of Tabreez, a circumstance that, among the Persians, adds not a little to the legitimate influence of his office. He received us courteously, and on finding that my travelling companion was a son of the late Dr Kormick, chief physician to his father-in-law, Abbas Meerza, then heir apparent to the crown of Persia, the stateliness of office instantly gave place to the kindness and familiarity of a family friend. He candidly admitted that depredations had recently been committed by the Coords in the district of country through which we had to pass, but anticipated no serious obstacle to our proceeding with the caravan in the course of a few days, as the escort he meant to order for our protection would secure us from their rapacity. This assurance had the effect of dissipating our fears at the time, but by the Tuesday following, when we repeated our visit, matters had assumed a more alarming appearance, and his excellency, without hesitation, gave it as his opinion that it would be imprudent for us to resume our journey till the real state of the roads were accurately ascertained, and the necessary precautions adopted. For this result we were in part prepared by the reports in circulation at Khoy, that an assault had been made on a village near Coreina (the second stage on our way to Bâyizzeed), in which Shareef Khan had been killed, and Khaleefa Koolee Khan severely wounded. Reports bore indeed that the assailants had been routed, some of their chiefs killed, and a considerable number of their men wounded; but the success of the villagers in this skirmish afforded no security for the safety of the roads till the arrival of regular troops from Tabreez to support them; and the only alternatives which then presented themselves were either to proceed by a bye-road under an escort through the Coordish mountains, or to cross the Aras, and proceed thence to England by way of Teflis and St Petersburg, or that of Erivan, Erzeroom, and Constantinople, as might then appear advisable. To be prepared for the former alternative we sent back one of our servants, with the governor's concurrence, to Tabreez, for passports from the Russian Consul, which, through his politeness, were immediately granted, and reached us on Monday the 15th; the servant having performed his journey (upwards of 200 miles), and done his work, in about five days. At that date, however, we were happy to find that matters had assumed a much more favourable appearance than at his departure. The roads were understood to be safe, and as a detachment of horsemen were on the point of proceeding to the frontiers, his excellency was of opinion that we might take the route originally intended, under an escort which he promised to give us. The English consul, Mr Abbott (who had himself been robbed by the Coords last year), also recommended our going by way of Erzeroom if practicable, in preference to the route by way of Teflis, and we therefore adopted the

arrangement proposed by the Governor; and on the morning of Thursday the 18th, after a detention of more than a fortnight, set off from his encampment, in which, by special invitation, we had spent a few days, to alleviate the tedium of passing the whole of that interval in the city. Had it not been for the tardiness of our muleteer, who did not reach the encampment till three hours after the time appointed him, we should have left it a day sooner, under an escort of sixty horsemen ; but eventually, no inconvenience resulted from our having only a single Mihmândar instead of an escort of cavalry, as the report of their advance towards the frontiers, and of others following, induced the Coords to keep at a respectable distance from the public roads.

About mid-day we reached Alee-Sheer, the first stage from Khoy, (eight farsachs),* and found the inhabitants encamped on a large meadow in front of their village, which they had abandoned from fear of a sudden assault of the Coords, and living in clusters of tents (black as those of Kedar), prepared to give them a warm reception in the open field if attacked by them. Next day (19th), the chief of the village in person, with six horsemen, accompanied us to Coreina (six farsachs), where, in pursuance of a notification from the governor of Khoy, we found ourselves placed under the protection of a powerful Coordish chief, Hyder Khan, who is understood to be in alliance with the king of Persia, as one of the Hyderlees, if not directly under his influence as a subject. As the Khan's residence was about two farsachs (eight or nine miles) from the village, in front of which we had pitched our tents, Dr Kormick sent one of his servants to him, with the notification from the governor of Khoy, as Khaleefa Koolee Khan, the chief to whom we had been entrusted by the Prince Bahman Meerza of Tabreez, was off duty from a wound he had received in the battle, and a musket ball that was still lodged in the fleshy part of his cheek; and in the evening the servant and Mihmândâr returned, with information that they had been graciously received by the Khan, and that an escort would be granted of six horsemen, to conduct us across the frontiers to Bâyizzeed; that number, though few, in the most dangerous part of the road, being considered sufficient; and, as will afterwards appear, it was found so.

Early in the morning of the 21st, we left our encampment at Coreina, and crossed the valley for the mountain pass on the west, and as we proceeded, had the localities of the battle or skirmish above adverted to, pointed out to us by our Coordish guards, with some of the more important incidents that occurred during the pursuit of the assailants. About mid-day we reached a large meadow ground, about half-way between Coreina and Bâyizzeed, and there pitched our tents, as the next stage, Avajick, with all the neighbouring villages, was understood to be abandoned, while the corn fields, then ripe for harvest, were inviting the labour of their proprietors, who durst not approach them for fear of the enemy, as the van-guard of the Persian army was still a day's march from them at Coreina.

22d. Left our encampment about three o'clock in the morning. On reaching the public road on our right, our guards discovered fresh traces of two horses-which, it was inferred, might be those of two men who had been observed by some of our servants during the night, reconnoitring our position by the light of the moon. The caravan consisted of nearly forty horses and mules, exclusive of ours, making in all about fifty. On reaching Avâjick, we found it abandoned as had been reported; a few half starved dogs being the only remains to be seen of the animated beings with which it had been lately replenished. Came to

* Four and a half miles.

an Armenian village, distinguished from others we had seen upon the road by a large stone built church; but like Avâjick, it was itself desolate, and its fields mourning the want of reapers. At this village fresh horse dung was observed; and at another a little in advance of it, a kind of expiring smoke issuing from one of its tenements, which strengthened our apprehensions that a party of Coords might be in ambush near us, and that they might have been apprised of our approach by the troopers, the traces of whose horses had been observed by our guards. About half a mile farther on we saw four or five men on the top of a small circular hill, on the opposite side of a ravine or bed of a rivulet on our right; but as they contented themselves with gazing upon us at a distance, we flattered ourselves that they had no hostile intentions, and proceeded up the declivity of the mountain on our left, with an occasional glance across the ravine to observe their motions; their number gradually increased-a circumstance that induced a suspicion that they had been lying in wait behind the hill, and had emerged from their lurking place, on being informed by their spies that a caravan was passing. Our guards fell back to the rear of our caravan, which was moving forward at its usual pace, when instantaneously a stentorian voice struck our ear from the Coords, which was answered alta voce by our guards. The vociferation continued for some minutes. On our part little was said, but every countenance indicated a sense of danger. One of the muleteers begged me to keep our servants and luggage behind, evidently as a kind of barrier between the caravan in advance and the Coords in the rear. He said they meant to attack the caravan, but would do us no harm, and seemed resolved on concentrating his cattle into a compact body and making a shew of resistance. Happily, the parley terminated in a few minutes, and the necessity of attempting resistance was superseded. The Coords on the top of the hill seemed to be melting away, and the escort in our rear came galloping up the mountain to our caravan, a circumstance which, apart from any verbal explanation, had a tendency to dissipate our fears. As they approached us, our first inquiry was, What is the result of your parley? On their part, the answer was, they are not going to molest us. "We told them that the gentlemen we had under our protection, as the servants of Hyder Khan, consisted of the English ambassador and suite, with his servants, and that he had been sent by the Shah of Persia to the Queen of England, to secure a peace with the Sultan of Constantinople." This was a story of their own making, contrived to serve a purpose, and it succeeded in securing an answer of peace: well then let them pass. But they had no instructions from us to disguise the simple truth that Mr Kormick was a physician, accompanied by another Englishman, on his way to Great Britain. The exhilarating effect produced on our mind by the announcement that we might go on, was soon damped, however, by an announcement afterwards made by one of the escort, who fell back to watch the motions of the intended assailants. The Coords, he said, had taken such a direction after quitting their position on the hill, as to induce a suspicion that they meant to fetch a compass behind a neighbouring hill and hem us in, by securing a narrow pass, a few miles in advance, but in this they had been mistaken. We reached Bayizzeed about mid-day, without molestation; thankful, I trust, to the Father of mercies, for this merciful deliverance in particular, and not forgetful of numberless other instances of His providential care, exercised towards us, during the whole of our journey from Tabreez to this place.

N.B. I meant to have filled my sheet by a brief sketch of our journey from Bâyizzeed to this city (Erzeroom), which we reached in safety on Thursday, and leave on Tuesday. But the English Consul called a little ago, and said the Courier for Trebizond was come in, and that

letters for it must be given in to night, so that I have not time to transcribe this scroll, and much less to do so, with additions.

Quarantine, Trebizond, 16th September 1842. In my letter from Erzeroom of 2d instant, I reported the leading incidents of my journey from Tabreez to Bayizzeed; but, as you would see, was prevented from continuing my narrative down to that date by the necessity I was under of closing my communication abruptly, or missing the opportunity of the English courier, then about to start with his despatches for London. Very little was lost, however, by this prevention, as the incidents in our progress from Bâyizzeed to Erzeroom had scarcely anything out of the ordinary routine of caravan adventures to recommend them. The same may be said of my journey from Erzeroom to this place, which we reached in health and safety on the 13th instant, after having spent about eight days upon the road. We expect to be liberated from the inconvenience of a quarantine seclusion about the middle of next week, and intend to avail ourselves of a steamer which starts for Constantinople on Thursday the 22d, and should reach it on the 26th instant.

Of all the incidents adverted to in my last, our escape from the Coords will, it is presumed, appear the most interesting to the Synod's committee, and our missionary friends in general. The deliverance itself was matter of unfeigned gratitude both to me and to my travelling companions, and in this feeling I know that friends at home will participate, while they will no less naturally regret that, like the escape of the spies from Jericho, a downright falsehood should have occupied a prominent place in the means employed to secure it. This stratagem, though I had no hand in contriving or in carrying it into effect, gave me much uneasiness at the time, and detracted materially from the joy which I could not but feel, and did attempt to smother, on finding myself in Bayizzeed, a frontier town in Turkey, from which, it was understood, that, with a Mihmândâr to be given us by the Pasha, we might resume our journey to this port without the fear of being molested by robbers. I know that, in the opinion of some, there is little if any harm in telling a lie to save life, or secure one's self from captivity; and on hearing our story, a countryman of our own remarked, that few would have hesitated to act as our guards had done, in similar circumstances. It may be so; still, however, the scripture question, Shall we do evil that good may come would be answered by an apostle by the well-known exclamation, "God forbid." But, leaving the abstract question to philosophers, moralists, and scripture casuists, I shall content myself with reporting a collateral result of the falsehood told by our guides, which serves to show that honesty, in telling the plain truth, might have been the best policy both for them and us, not to speak of future travellers. (At Bâyizzeed we were informed, that the Coords had been warned by the Pasha not to meddle with the English, &c.) The result I refer to was a suspicion that arose in the mind of the Coords that our guides, to serve a purpose, might have imposed upon them in the statement that had been made. Under this impression, they dogged the caravan in bye-paths unperceived by us, and made up to the muleteers and their caravan at a resting-place near Bâyizzeed, while we proceeded with our guards into the fortress. On reaching the caravan, which they durst not then attempt to plunder, and perceiving that it consisted of merchant's packages, and not of an ambassador's baggage, they exclaimed to the muleteers, "Your guides have deceived us, and we shall take vengeance on them for doing so. We are resolved to pursue them on their way back to their master (Hyder Khan), and if we overtake them we shall kill them for the imposition they have practised on us. Had it not been for this, we should have taken posession of your caravan, as our intention in the morn

ing was to seize it." How the matter ended, I have not the means of ascertaining; but, judging from the apprehensions of our guards, who meant to take a private road to avoid the Coords, and from the savage habits of these barbarians, there is every reason to fear that, if they overtook them, they would make them pay for having deceived them, with interest; and that, should another set of guards have recourse to a similar stratagem, the caravan entrusted to them will be examined before it be allowed to proceed.

In my former letter I adverted to the Armenian villages which we found deserted, between Coreina and the frontiers. The Armenians, you know, are professed Christians, and, so far as I know, the only ones in that neighbourhood. On our way from Bayizzeed to Erzeroom, we entered or passed a number of their villages, but had little intercourse with them. They adhere to the religion of their remote ancestors, so far as they know it; but, being extremely ignorant, and withal as rude, and rough, and barbarous, as their Mohammedan neighbours, they do little if any thing to recommend the holy name by which they are called to the votaries of Islamism. An attempt is now being made, however, to instruct and improve them on the same general plan which is now acted upon with so much success by their brethren at Ooroomiah, among the Nestorians. Messrs Jackson and Peabody are sationed at Erzeroom; and from them, as well as from Mr Johnstone, who is stationed here, I have received many kind brotherly attentions, and been much refreshed in this (spiritually) dry and parched land, where there is no water, and my prayer is, that their labours may be crowned with success.

Before closing, I may mention my having once more seen Ararat,* the mountain on which, it is supposed, the ark rested; and that, in our progress, we crossed one of the feeders of the Tigris (the Hiddekel of Moses) on this side of Bâyizzeed, and also a feeder of the great river Euphrates, near Erzeroom. The sight of these gave rise to a variety of reflections, by recalling to my recollection the references made to them in the sacred writings. But on these I must not at present expatiate. In viewing them, however, and thinking of them, one is naturally led to put the question, When will the time come, during which the knowledge of the Lord shall cover the earth-these barbarous districts not excepted-as the waters cover the sea? To us the time may seem long; but let us cheer ourselves by the consideration that the Lord is not slack concerning his promise, as some men count slackness, but that he that shall come will come, and will not tarry. Amen.

27th September.-I reached Constantinople in health and safety on the 25th instant, and expect to leave it on the 2d of October in the Iberia steamer, and to be at Southampton about the 20th of that month.

Constantinople, 27th September 1842. I am lodged here with the Rev. Mr Dwight, from whom, and from all the American missionaries, I experience great kindness. Constantinople is indeed a splendid city, but having been taken up yesterday and to-day in getting my baggage out of the Trebizond steamer into the Iberia, through the custom-house, I have hitherto had no time to view its curiosities in detail; nor can I anticipate being able to do this in the course of the few days that intervene before our departure. It is not unworthy of remark, as a providential circumstance, that I reached this just in time to avail myself of the Iberia in her first experiment-trip, and thus get direct to England, with my baggage, at a cheaper rate (L.35) than I could have counted upon, in going up the Danube and down the Rhine,~~

* About twenty or thirty miles north-east of Bayizzeed.