t in his name we
shall boast ourselves. The Pasha, however, has not gone out as he
intended yesterday.

We have just heard that the reports of the plague has stopped for a
little the approach of the enemies of the Pasha, still every thing is
exceedingly unsettled. He is going to shut himself up in the citadel
till the answer comes from Constantinople to his overtures, but all
those about him are against him, and wishing for the arrival of his
enemies. About fifty went out the other day, and seized on Hillah,[22]
but they were driven out.

[22] Hillah is a small town on the river Euphrates, a little
below the ruins of Babylon. It was built in the year 495 of the
Hegira, or 1115 of the Christian era, in a district called by the
natives El Aredh Babel; its population does not exceed between 6 and
7000, consisting of Arabs and Jews, there being no Christians, and
only such Turks as are employed in the Government. The inhabitants
bear a very bad character. The air is salubrious, and the soil
extremely fertile, producing great quantities of rice, dates, and
grain of different kinds, though it is not cultivated to above half
the degree of which it is susceptible,--See Mr. Rich's Memoirs on the
Ruins of Babylon.--_Editor._

_April 10._--The Lord has in many respects this day altered our
position here. One of Major Taylor's seapoys has died of the plague,
and now four of the servants are attacked. This has so alarmed Major
T. and the family, that they are immediately going off to a country
house, built by order of the Government of Bombay, for the Resident in
the neighbourhood of Bussorah, and they may or may not return to this
place. They have kindly offered us an asylum with them, and a passage
in their boat. Having no immediate occupation here at present, I feel
quite free to accept it, but there are considerations that prevent
us.--Hitherto the Lord has kept us safe, and no symptom of plague has
appeared in our dwelling--though it is all around us. We cannot move
without coming in contact with numbers of people for many days, and
being shut up in a small boat with the Arab sailors,[23] and even the
very plague we may leave this city to avoid, may have reached Bussorah
before we arrived there, as thousands have already set off from hence
for that place; besides which, should it be the Lord's pleasure that
the plague terminate soon, and we then wish to return, it may be many
months before we may meet