circumstance impossible of construction any where but on the spot where they will be required. These are the chief obstacles which present themselves to the successful prosecution of the enterprise on the part of private individuals. A government may accomplish the undertaking at a much smaller cost, inasmuch as the arm of authority may successfully supersede the necessity for pecuniary bribes.

Jaba, and the neighbourhood of Hit on the Euphrates, abound in springs of bitumen, which, combined with oil, appears an excellent substitute for fuel, so that one ordinary impediment to the use of steam vessels in countries ill supplied with wood or coal, would be got rid of.

CHAPTER IV.

Bussorah beleaguered-Quit Bussorah for Shuster-The Karoon-Ahwaz Weiss - An attack-Another retreat-Mahummarah - A Greek friend - A Doctor without a diploma-A third start.

It was now time to make a second attempt to reach Europe by land. Bussorah, at no time an agreeable place of residence, had become intolerable from the daily preparations of the Zobeirs* to possess themselves of the town, and sack the dwellings of the wealthy.

Their Sheikh pretended he had a commission from Constantinople to depose the ruling motesellim, and to supply his place with one more

* Arabs inhabiting a town eight miles distant from Bussorah.

58

AGA PHARSEIGH.

acceptable to the Turks of Bussorah; but the truth of the matter was, that, finding the town defenceless owing to the plague-panic, and the inability of the Pacha of Bagdad to afford any succour, the Zobeirs imagined they could revel in the luxury of plunder with impunity. They had begun their "demonstrations" before my departure, and the excitement this produced furnished my friend Aga Pharseigh with a fine field for the display of his cupidity. British "protection" was his stock in trade, and a thriving business he drove. He had contrived to enter into a compact with the Zobeirs, that, in the worst of their excesses, they should hold sacred the British residency and the property it contained, promising on his part (on behalf of his constituency, the Indian governinent) to abstain from the exertion of any influence in the Turk's behalf. Intelligence of this compact was communicated to numbers of the merchants remaining in the town, and they accordingly lost no time in seeking the advantages which it offered to them. The Aga was assailed from morning till night with solicitations to afford room

A SECOND START.

59

in the residency for divers bales, boxes, bags and baskets, and it is but justice to declare that in yielding his assent he did not evince a very great contempt for handsome douceurs. The consequence was, as I afterwards learnt, that the Zobeirs violated the treaty, and assailed the residency. Such a person as Aga Pharseigh is unworthy the confidence he enjoys. The Bombay government ought to afford the resi dent an English deputy; for as he is required to move up and down between Bagdad and Bussorah, and does not possess the faculty of omnipresence, it should be in his power to delegate the direction of affairs in his absence to some person of trust and discretion.

Having instituted inquiries as to the most agreeable and practicable route to Europe from the point where I now found myself, and learning that nothing more secure offered itself than a voyage up the Karoon to Shuster and thence to Shiraz, I determined at once to adopt it, the more readily that I should have an opportunity of visiting the ruins of Ahwaz, so famous in Mahomedan history. Accordingly a new en

gagement was entered into with the nacquodah of the boat in which I had recently travelled, and renewing my Arabic costume, I left Bussorah on the 7th of May. We had not proceeded ten miles when our boat was arrested by the Zobeirs, who having possessed themselves of one of the motesellim's eight-gun brigs, fired two shots at us, and sent a party on board to levy gomruck. We steadily refused to pay anything, but as they manifested a disposition to proceed to violence, and we were numerically inferior and badly armed, I tried the effect of a declaration that I was an Englishman. This they at first disbelieved, and certainly my appearance justified their incredulity. On expressing my willingness, however, to surrender, threatening them with the speedy vengeance of the British resident, they lowered their tone, and desisting from further hostility, returned on board the brig.

Reaching Mahummarah, I delivered letters to the sheikh of the Chabeans, and was furnished with a guard, or rather a guide, who was to guarantee me against the attacks of the people