re
surrounded by as interesting a school of boys, and a commencing one of
thirteen girls, as the heart could desire; and now if the plague and
desolation were to terminate to-morrow, and our scattered numbers were
assembled, perhaps not more than half would remain to us. Yet dark as
all the labours of the Lord's servants in these countries appears, I
feel assured, that prophecy points them out as specially connected
with many of the great events of the latter days. Yet it requires
great confidence in God's love, and much experience of it, for the
soul to remain in peace, stayed on him, in a land of such changes,
without even one of our own nation near us, without means of escape
in any direction; surrounded with the most desolating plague and
destructive flood, with scenes of misery forced upon the attention
which harrow up the feelings, and to which you can administer no
relief. Even in this scene however, the Lord has kept us of his
infinite mercy, in personal quiet and peace, trusting under the shadow
of his Almighty wing, and has enabled us daily to offer up to his holy
name praise, for suffering us to assemble in undiminished numbers,
when tens of thousands have been falling around us. Neither is this
all, for he has made us know why we staid in this place, and why we
were never allowed to feel it to be our path of duty to leave the post
we were in.

_April 29._--Our situation is becoming daily still more extraordinary,
and in many respects more trying, except that our Lord is our hiding
place, who will preserve us from trouble, and will compass us about
with songs of deliverance. The Pasha has fled, accompanied by his
master of the horse, and his immediate family. His palace is left
open, without a soul to take care of any thing. His stud of beautiful
Arab horses are running about the streets, and are caught by those who
care to take the trouble, and offered for sale for from L10. to L100.
each; his stores also of corn are left open, and every one takes what
he wants, or what he can carry away, which is a great relief to the
poor, for the quantities are enormous, in expectation of a siege.

The plague is working its destructive way, apparently with no other
mitigation than that arising from decreasing numbers in the city; the
inundation however, has prevented this having its full weight, for it
has thronged the remaining population into a compass unnaturally
disproportionate. The house next us, which belongs to