CHIEF OF ARTILLERY.

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was crowned with a small hat, which rested on

his left ear.

With the volubility which so strongly characterizes his nation, he dilated on every subject. Hearing my name mentioned, he inquired of me if I were related to "the unfortunate Keppel." Perceiving that he confounded the fate of the two admirals,* I attempted to convince him that it was Byng, and not Keppel, who had been unfortunate; but he interrupted me with a " pardonnez," and assured the company that an English friend of his threw up his commission in consequence of Keppel's execution.

* Admiral Byng was tried and executed in 1757. Admiral Keppel was tried and acquitted in 1779, and in 1782, was made First Lord of the Admiralty.

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THE PASHA'S GARDEN.

CHAPTER VIII.

The Pasha's Garden-Armenian Church-Our Host's Policy-Monastery of Calendars-Tomb of ZobeideVisit to the Catholic Bishop of Bagdad-AnecdoteJourney to Babylon-Our Establishment-Description of a Caravanserai-Our First Night's Lodging.

IN the afternoon we visited one of the Pasha's gardens-our heads full of the splendid descriptions in the Arabian Nights. Though not so sanguine as to expect a garden like that in which Ibrahim entertained the fair Persian, we hoped at least to see something like Eastern magnificence in the summer retreat of a threetailed Basha. We were doomed to be disappointed. The garden, comprising eight or ten acres, and enclosed within a mud wall, contained

ARMENIAN CHURCH.

149

a confused assemblage of shrubs and fruit trees. A summer-house on the banks of the Tigris,

well worthy of the garden, was a rickety little building, where dirt, damp, and neglect, had obliterated nearly every trace of the fresco, daubings of flowers, with which the walls had once been decorated.

To compensate in some degree for this destruction of our air-built castles, we had, from the windows of the summer-house, a fine view of Bagdad and its neighbourhood.

In our way home, we stopped in a small bystreet to visit the Armenian church, which looked, indeed, as if it belonged to a despised and persecuted religion; and gave us an idea of what our churches might have been in the early times of Christianity. The door by which we entered was not above five feet high, and the exterior of the building had nothing to distinguish it from the humble dwellings in its neighbourhood. An old grey-bearded priest admit ted us through an inner court into the church.

150

ARMENIAN CHURCH.

It was a small narrow apartment; at the east end stood an altar, decorated with faded silk and silver tinsel; a few wax tapers on the tables were lighted by the priest, who seemed anxious that his church should be seen to the best advantage. A few paltry daubs hung upon the walls, executed with the true Eastern contempt for perspective and chronology. One represented Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac, with the Crucifixion of our Saviour in the back-ground!

In the course of conversation, we mentioned to Aga Saikeis our wish to be acquainted with the Pasha of Bagdad. Perceiving his unwil lingness to introduce us, we pressed him for his reasons; and were not a little surprised to find, that our omitting to call upon the Pasha was to form part of a plan he had in view to frighten that potentate, and by so doing, to render him subservient to his own purposes.

To explain our host's policy, it may be mentioned, that some time before our arrival at

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Bussorah, Captain Taylor, the political agent, had, for some infraction of the treaty on the part of the Pasha, hauled down the British flag, and did not intend to hoist it again till he had received instructions from the Indian Government. Shortly after this, the Alligator had arrived at Bussorah, and the Pasha's brother had taken possession of his government.

A British man-of-war anchoring off Bussorah was an event so unusual, that it struck alarm into the mind of the new governor, who, soon after our visit, wrote to his brother at Bagdad, informing him that a king's ship had arrived for some especial purpose; that a large European force was on board (so he termed the marines); and that four Europeans (meaning our party) were about to proceed to Persia through Bagdad, as he surmised, on some political mission.

These concurring, though accidental circumstances, were such as would naturally alarm an Asiatic, ignorant of our customs. It was with