THE EUPHRATES AGAIN.* WE thought we knew all that was
to be told, or at any rate, all that we should care to hear, about an expedition the out- come of which, though so much was expected in the far-off days when it took place, has as yet, if we except the opening of the River Kamm, explored and reported navigable up to Shuster by General Chesney, been practically nil ; yet we find we were mistaken. Although the Commander himself published its history, although Countess Nostitz (Madame Helfer) threw upon it many striking side-lights, and although the Life of General Chesney, brought out so late in the day, deals pretty extensively with the subject, as it could not fail to do, Dr. Ainsworth, one of the two veteran survivors, justifies the publication of his "Personal Narrative" on the grounds that "no fully detailed account of the Expedition has yet been given to the public," although "it stands really without a parallel in the history of similar undertakings, alike for the novelty and magnitude of the enterprise, for the scale upon which it was got up, for the difficulties it had to encounter, and for the importance of the results obtained," and adds that it would be a loss to all future times if some attempt were not made to chronicle these facts. Dr. Ains- worth is quite right in saying that General Chesney, in his anxiety to do justice to the subject, attempted too much. Instead of rapidly bringing before the public the arduous labours and stirring incidents of the undertaking, he expended years on a ponderous historical and geographical work, of great value and interest, indeed, to the student, but most un- likely to be perused by the general reader, and did not bring out what Dr. Ainsworth fairly calls his " official " account of the Expedition until the whole thing had faded out of most memories. It was the nature of the man to abhor the super- ficial, and endeavour to dive to the bottom of whatever he was engaged in,—a good quality in itself, but one which, with the latitude allowed to it by Chesney, was fatal to the prompt seizing of literary opportunity; and this is the more singular inasmuch as promptness in action was one of his distinguishing charac- teristics. When he did at last tell the story of the Expedition, it was but curtly in connection with much other matter.
The author of the present volumes shows very clearly that the extent of the surveys and geological and antiquarian researches carried out by the Expedition, has never been made known, and as he himself bore a very large part in them, as well as in the determination of the positions of a number of ancient sites, and had also collected during his travels much interesting and amusing matter, he decided to give his in- formation to the public. If we find a few dry pages here and there, the book is, in the main, readable as well as instructive. The writer, on his guard against repeating a twice-told tale, touches lightly upon what we already know, and devotes him- self more especially to explorations carried out or assisted in by himself, some of them having taken place on the return • A Personal Narrative of the Euphrates Expedition. By William Francis Ainsworth, Ph.D., F.E.G.S., Surgeon and Geologist to the Expedition. 2 vols. London : Kogan Paul, Trench, and Co.
journey, and after the Commander had left for India. In doing this, Dr. Ainsworth has contrived to give a clearer general idea than any we at present recollect of the appearance of the River Euphrates and the country lying about its banks, its picturesque and sometimes grand scenery, its towns, its ruins, its vast tracts of rich soil now lying desert, the multitudinous ancient canals and comparatively modern aqueducts that once rendered them fertile, and the birds, beasts, trees, and flowers to be met with, now and then reconstructing for us in a few eloquent words the former glories of some desolate but striking remnant of former days, his loyal, kindly, sympathetic spirit showing itself all through the narrative, not only in speaking of his chief, his comrades, "the dear old steamer," and all belonging to it, but even of the poor pig and her little ones that made such a gallant chase after the uncanny black monster which met their vision for the first time. His work was that of surgeon and geologist; but being also an ardent naturalist and antiquarian, he devoted himself, as far as time permitted, to researches in those sciences, and as a good classical scholar, had also an especial interest in places the identity of which had been concealed by change of nomen- clature. In some instances, he was the first to discover such identity ; where others had been before him in the field, he is always careful to mention their researches and refer to their works, not confining himself to the time of his own travels, but bringing things down as nearly as may be to the present state of our information. When speaking of the ancient stronghold Arsace, now Azaz, called by Ptolemy Ariseria, and in crusading times Artasia and Arthusia (from ar or arm, a citadel), Dr. Ainsworth takes occasion to insist on the paucity of anything like correct geographical detail in con- nection with the exploits of the Crusaders, truly saying that "in countries like Syria, Palestine, and Mesopotamia, where the natural beauties are so great, and the archasological and scenic features are generally of the most picturesque character, they would gain by such details to an unimagined extent." This remark holds equally good with regard to many por- tions of history, sacred and profane, for which reason special interest attaches to the writer's chapter on the fatherland of Abraham, and to that on the Principality of the captive Jews. His impressions of Babylon he describes as in some measure disappointing, so vast a space being covered with in- numerable mounds and shapeless heaps. He claims, however, to have been the first to recognise in the Mujelibe the site of Babel, which previous explorers had placed at the larger mound, the Ittujaliba, or "house of the captives." He was also so happy as to identify the Birs Niturild with Borsippa, which identification has since been confirmed by means of the cylinders found by Sir Henry Rawlinson.
Of the vast Babylonian marshes Dr. Ainsworth gives a striking account, of which we can only transcribe a portion. The steamer had been enticed by the long-limbed, long-haired, half-amphibious, and all but naked Khazail Arabs who live at Lemlun into an unnavigable branch of the river, and the writer says :—
"Beyond the channel we were in, calm, glassy, and diversified by flowering plants, we could distinguish from the deck that all around us was water, out of which grew plants of the reed, rush, and flag kind, and tall grasses, which in these latitudes assume the port and bearing of reeds, while the reeds themselves become bamboos. Amid this dense vegetation were meres or lakelets, interspersed with great white lilies and other large and beautiful flowering plants, amid which stately pelicans sailed about, as if proud of the undisputed possession of such safe and tranquil retreats. In the distance were some grassy spots on which an occasional buffalo was seen feeding, or on the extreme limits of which some dusky encampment of the Arabs was just perceptible, while on the very verge of the horizon, and rising out of the sea of reeds and grasses, the lofty mounds of sun-dried bricks of Khaldtea proper could be faintly discerned, lighted up by the dying
rays of the sun Islanded amidst this wilderness of waters were also occasionally to be seen the reed tombs of sheikhs or holy men, whilst a few of the living members of the dwellers in the marsh stole stealthily along in their light canoes, from mere to mere, by narrow, invisible channels known only to themselves,
till they got into the neighbourhood of the steamer Sun- set cast a red glare of splendour over this extraordinary scone. Birds began to wing their heavy flights with prolonged screeches, and the far-off villages were obscurely illuminated by the early night-fires, becoming so many beacons to the Khazailees, who now paddled away in their canoes along the golden flood, rising up giant-like out of the surrounding reeds and rushes, and cheering their way home with songs and choruses responding to one another, till the savage sounds were lost in the distance and everything was enveloped in the stillness of night."
Dr. Ainsworth is a great lover of Nature, and has an eye
for all her beauties—he is rapturous over the palm forests, "one of the most glorious visions of the East "—bat we must not quote him any more. We will leave the reader to discover for himself how much of interest his volumes contain, and can only just allude to the excursion to the Persian Apennines and the Cave of Shapur, on which occasion a buffalo makes off with a water-melon which the traveller had utilised as a pillow ; and to the journey homewards through Kurdistan, where the copper-mines of Arghana were visited and some beautiful mountain scenery traversed. Many curious and amusing anecdotes are given,—for instance, that of Dervish Ali, alias Mr. Elliott, who exchanged his wife for a donkey as being the more useful animal; and that of the fish that so opportunely jumped in at the window of the cabin in the 'Euphrates,' when poor Caldon, who was dying, had just ex- pressed a wish for some, and been told there was no means of getting any, as the vessel was going too fast.
The least satisfactory part of Dr. Ainsworth's book is the map, which might have been much more detailed. However, he has done his best to make up for omissions by giving a carefully prepared list of sites, with the distances between them. On the whole, we think he has brought out a useful book of reference with regard to the countries traversed. We may close this notice with the author's own appropriate plea- tion :—" How long are these lands, with their great centres of population, power, and prosperity, to remain dormant under an utterly supine and incapable government, and when are they to be restored by railway communication or otherwise to the great families which constitute the present nations of the earth, when toiling in common in the arts of peace and industry, and of a united brotherhood?"
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