where they say, that 8,000 or 9,000 have died out of
60,000; and two years ago at Bussorah, 1,500 out of 6,000, so that the
houses were left desolate, and the boats were floating up and down the
creek without owners, and when persons died in a house, the rest went
away, and left the bodies there locked up. But we have in our
dwellings a light in these days that they know nothing of, who know
not our God either in his power or his love, so that the heart is
enabled to cast all, even the dearest to it, on the exceeding
abundance of his mercy.

_September 10._--I fear the intelligence we have just received of
poor Mr. J. Taylor, Mr. Bywater, and Mr. Aspinal, and the Maltese
servant, leaves us little room to hope but that they have all been
treacherously murdered. Our Moolah tells us, he received a letter from
a friend of his at Merdin, stating, that they were murdered--not by
the Yezidees at all, but by the party of Arabs sent by the Pasha of
Mousul to protect them, in conjunction with a party from Telaafer, an
Arab village, where they spent a night. It appears, that when the
attack was made, Mr. Elliot, Captain Cockrell, and Mr. Hull galloped
off after being stripped; but Mr. Taylor, Mr. Aspinal, and Mr. Bywater
got entangled among these robbers, and Mr. A. shot one of the Arabs
with his pistol; and afterwards Mr. B. shot another. It then became
with these lawless plunderers, no longer a matter of simple robbery,
but of revenge and death. They killed these two young men, and then
pulling Mr. Taylor from his horse, killed him. I confess, when I saw
them mounting their horses, strongly covered with offensive weapons of
warfare, I felt very little comfort about them, for, if they were
attacked, it would only be with an overwhelming force, or they would
be given up in treachery, in both which cases almost all the danger
arises from resistance. Those wretched plunderers seek not life, but
booty; this quietly yielded, you may go; but if you use the sword, you
perish by the sword. If you carry money, or any thing valuable, you
are exposed to be stripped, and if you go armed, to be killed. About
three years ago, the French interpreter was going the very same route,
and near Telaafer he was attacked, and stripped; but they let him go
free. The fate of these gentlemen has greatly affected us all. A delay
must now take place in the steamboat communication, for it is not
probable that this route can ever be so disregarded, but that s