MR. FRASER'S TRAVELS IN KOORDISTAN AND MESOPOTAMIA.

THESE volumes arc a continuation of the author's previous travels in Persia. The former work described Mr. FRASER'S overland jour- ney from London to Tehran, the residence of the Persian court, and his subsequent wanderings in the province of Khorassan, and on the Toorkoman frontiers, closing with his return to Tabrcez. The present volumes open with a sojourn at that city, and then narrate an expedition to Bagdad through Koordistan—an excursion thence in Mesopotamia, the country lying between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers, and celebrated for the sites of Babylon, Nineveh, and the Tower of Babel—a subsequent return to Tabrcez by another route, with a more rapid narrative of the overland journey back to England. The accounts of the traveller are in some cases interest- ingly varied, in others merely eked out, by accounts of the modern history of particular families, or of districts through which he passed. The defect of this continuation is as great as that of the original work—the art of the writer is obvious, and overdone. Even of a good thing he is apt to tell quite enough ; but this may be readily pardoned, for the novelty of his subjects and the ready style of the describer. We cannot, however, display the same forbearance to- wards all the commonplaces of his journey, and sometimes the re- petition of them, which he paints with as much minuteness as the most interesting traits of national or individual character, or the most striking incidents of Oriental life. Not content with this, he thrusts his personal feelings upon the reader, calling upon !din to sympathize with initial letters or blanks, and indulging besides in reverie. These faults, no doubt, infuse a tedium into the perusal of the work, and would have borne excision with an unsparing hand; but the importance of its better parts is so considerable, as to render it one of the most valuable books of travels which has emanated from the press for a considerable time. All the regions visited are curious and characteristic in their natural features, and the manners of the people. Great part of the country has been rarely traversed, some of it probably not at all ; and the spirit of change is at work, though not at present very favourably, even amongst the Arabs and the Koords. Travelling with authority, Mr. FRASER had facilities for observation which do not fall to the lot of every tourist ; and his habits of authorcraft enabled him to use them advantageously; and although his sojourn amongst the people he visited was not long, his thorough acquaintance with Oriental manners gave him as much opportunity as time would have done to a less experienced person. The picture which Mr. FRASER draws of Western Persia and the adjacent confines of Turkey, is quite as deplorable as that which he painted of the central and North-eastern part of the Persian empire in his former work. Every thing indicates a social system in the last stage of decrepitude,—the power of government displayed only in exaction and devastation.; whole districts ravaged, and then depopulated by the forcible abstraction of the inhabitants, by their emigration in search of a safer country, or by the natural consequences of violence, oppression, and famine. The spirit of the Koords themselves, the mountaineers which from the days of XE.NOPHON have retained a hardy if a mischievous independence, is yielding to the fate which seems to be impending over the nations of Asia. The Russian arms have penetrated into the nearer districts; Persia, though not powerful enough to subdue or with capacity to govern, has strength enough to " make a solitude and call it peace ; " internal feuds, and the ambition of a Koordish chieftain, divided and weakened (whilst the latter seemed for a while to strengthen and unite) the mountaineers, and prepared the way for Turkey, feeble as she is, to fix her yoke firmer upon them. The Arabs themselves appear to be degenerating. Turkish policy has incited the fiercer tribes against each other, injuring them though without much benefit to herself; and some of the more spiritless of the descendants of Ishmael are settling down into agriculturists. From what Mr. FRASER says, it would appear that a very curious transition is going on amongst the Arabs of Mesopotamia, from absolute freedom into the state of serfdom, or at least of castes. A population limited in its range by the encroachment of other tribes, and a falling-off in the profits of robbery from the monopoly getting into the possession of other and stronger hands, have compelled a resource to agriculture. But who amongst the free rovers of the desert was to exchange his spear for the ploughshare, and con- descend to till the earth ? No one who had power or means to avert the degradation. It fell as a matter of course upon the poor and needy ; and though the powerful states which threaten these countries, together with the growing influences, of commerce, may e change the working of the transition, yet it is easy enough to see how, if uninfluenced by foreign circumstances, an increased popula-

tion, a growing necessity for agricultural produce, and a growing demand for slaves, should at least terminate in regular serfdom and lordship, with the leading outlines of the feudal system.

It is curious in these volumes, to note how much more the effect of things depends upon contrast than intrinsic qualities. Other travellers going° to Bagdad, direct from Europe, have been disappointed at the dirt and narrowness of the streets, and the want of splendour in the city of the Caliphs. Coming from the dilapidated and ruined towns of Persia, Mr. FRASER was struck with its solidity and respectability of appearance.

BAGDAD. • To those who come from Persia, and especially who have been sickened with such a succession of ruin and desolation as that which had wearied our eyes, the first sight of Bagdad is certainly calculated to convey a favourable impres- sion; nor does it immediately wear off. The walls, in the first place, present a more imposing aspect—constructed as they arc of furnace-burned bricks, and strengthened with round towers, pierced for guns, at each angle, instead of the mean-looking, mud-built, crenelated; and almost' always ruinous enclosures which surround the cities of Persia. Not that the wall of Bagdad is perfect, far from it. I speak only of its external appearance; and the gates alas, though in a very dilapidated condition, are certainly superior to those of their neighbours.

On entering the town, the traveller from Persia is moreover gratified by the aspect of the houses, which, like the walls, are built of fire-burned bricks, and

rise to the height of several and though the number of windows they present to the street is far from great, yet the eye is not constantly offended by that abominable succession of mean, low, crumbling, irregular, zigzag masses of rand, divided by dirty dusty clefts, undeserving even the title of allies, that make up the aggregate of a Persian city. It is true that the streets, even here, are for the most part mere allies, and abundantly narrow, unpaved, and, I have no doubt, in wet weather, deep and dirty enough ; but in riding along them, particularly in dry weather, one is impressed with the idea that the substantial walls to the right and left aunt contain good, weather-tight, comfortable domiciles ; while the stout, comps. natively well-sized, iron-clenched doors with which the entrances are defended, adds to this notion of solidity and security. In Persia, on the contrary, the entrances to most houses, even those of persons of high rank, is more I& the hole a some den than of a dwelling for human beings, and the rickety, open. seamed, miserably-fitted valve with which it is closed, does assuredly ill merit the appellation of a door. Nor are the streets of Bagdad by any means totally unenlivened by aper. tures fbr admitting light and air. Olt the contrary, not only are windows to the streets frequent, but there is a sort of oriel or projecting window much in use, which overhangs the street and generally gives light to sonic sitting-room, in which may he seen seated a few grave Turks smoking away the time; or, if you be in luck, you may chance to find yourself illuminated by a beam from some bright pair of eyes shining through the half-closed. lattice. These sitting apartments arc sometimes seen thrown across the street, joining the houses on either side, and affording a pleasing variety to the architecture, par. ticularly when seen, as they often are, half-shaded by the leaves of a date-tree that overhangs them from the court within. There was something in the general air o the tort ensemble—the style of building—the foreign costume— the mingling of foliage, particularly the learn-leaves, with architecture, when seen through the vista of come of the straighter streets—which called itp a con- fused remembrance of other and better known countries, yet I could scarcely say which—a touch of 71i:16..1ra—of the West and East Indies, all commingled— something at all events more pleasing than the real scene before me. When would any thing in a Persian town have called forth such recollections ?

Such were the impressions received front what I saw in passing through the

town ; but the banks of the river exhibited a very different and far more at., tractive scene. The flow of a noble stream is at all times an interesting ob- ject ; but when its banks arc occupied by a long range of imposing, if' not absolutely handsome buildings, shaded by palm-groves and enlivened by hun- dreds of boats and the hum of thousands of men, and its stream spanned by a bridge of boats, across which there is a constant transit of men and horses and camels and caravans, and a great traffic of all sorts, the coup d'tril formed by such a combination can hardly fail of producing a very animated picture; and such, undoubtedly, is the view of the Tigris from any one of many points upon its banks, from whence you can command the whole reach occupied by the present city.

Notwithstanding these appearances, Bagdad partakes of the general decay. The plague devastated it ; an inundation added horror and intensity even to the plague ; its Paella, to species of MEHEMET Am on a smaller field, was so weakened by these na- tional inflictions and his own disease, that resistance was no longer possible ; and the Pachalic of Bagdad, ravaged by pestilence, flood, and war, is now abandoned to the rapacity and misgovernment of a weak ruler and his rapacious agents.

Of this plague, which before reaching Bagdad had depopulated

a considerable part of Persia, a very graphic account is given by Mr. FRASER, from the journal of 31r. (Moves, a missionary, whose sense of duty to his flock induced him to remain when the English Resident with his family left the city.

TOE PLAGUE OF BAGDAD.

Colonel Taylor left Bagdad on the 12th of April. On the previous day the number of deaths was understood to amount to twelve hundred ; and on that day it was ascertained that one thousand and forty deaths had actually taken place on the East side of the river alone. Next day, Mr. Groves had the pain of becoming aware that the dkelISC had entered the house of his next-door neighbour, where thirty persons had congregated, as if for the very purpose of supplying it with victims. That same day, the report of deaths varied from one thousand to fifteen hundred, and that exclusive of the multitudes who died beyond the walls. On the succeeding day the deaths increased to eighteen hundred; and so terrified were the survivors, that they scarcely could be pre- vailed on to stay, and bury their dead. Many prepared for the fate they anti- cipated, by providing winding-sheets for themselves and family before the in- creased demand should consume the whole supply. Water also became scarce; for every water-carrier when stopped replied, that he was taking his load to wash the body of some dead person. An Armenian girl told Mr. Groves that she had counted fifty bodies being carried for interment within the space of six hundred yards. Not a single effort was made by the inhabitants, who ap- peared utterly confounded. They sat at home waiting for death, as if stunned by what was passing ; and scarcely a soul was to be seen at this time in the streets except the bearers of the dead, or persons carrying grave-clothes, and water-carriers bearing water to wash the bodies. For several days together about this time—that is, from the 16th to the 20th or 21st of April—the mortality, so far as could be known, remained stationary at about two thousand a day; but many singularly distressing cases of indivi- dual distress occurred. In the family of one of Mr. Groves's little pupils, consisting of six persons, four were ill with the plague—the father and mother, a son and a daughter, leaving but one son and a daughter untouched. Of the Pashab's regiments of seven hundred men each, some had already lost five hundred; and the report from the neighbourhood was still worse than in town. The water, too, in the swollen river was fast increasing; and the danger of a total inundation became every day more imminent. On the 21st, the water burst into the cellars of the Residency, and reached to within a foot of the embankments around the city; and Mr. Groves, in hopes of being able to render assistance, went to the Residency. The scenes he witnessed on the way were most distressing, nor was help to be obtained fur the sufferers on any terms. One had a wife, another a mother, in the agonies of death ; a third was himself forced to carry water to wash a dead child, for now 110 regular water-carrier was to be found; or, if seen, he was accompanied by some servant, driving him to a place of death. The yard of the mosque teas already full of fresh graves, and they were burying in the public roads. ',Death," says Mr. Groves, "has now become so familiar, that people seem to bury their nearest relatives with as much indifference as if they were going

about sonic ordinary business." •

On this same day, a little girl of twelve years old was seen passing by with an infant in her arms; and on being asked whose it was, she said she did not know—she had tbund it in the road, and heard that its parents were dead. This was a very common effort of charity, especially on the part of the females, and not milli:y.1(1AV proved fatal to tlion. An Armen:an woman, who had come to beg for sonic sugar for an infant thus found, mentioned that a neighbour of hers lad, in the Stone manner, rescued two, which she discovered, thus abandoned, in the street. Both these intents died, and were followed by their charitable protectress. Of all the painful incidents that attended the benevo- lent expeditions which Me. Groves occasionally made from home, the sight of the number of infants thus exposed was the most distressing. When parents found themselves infected, they would take the future orphans and lay them at the deers of the houses in the neighbourhood, " exposing them," as Mr. Groves says, " to the tender mercies of straegers at a time when every feeling of nature was deadened by personal misery. Many," continues lie, .‘ of -the hundreds of intituts thus exposed were nut more than ten days old; and I have seen in my walks to the Residency as many as eight or ten in this condition. Nor was there any help or human hope fir them, save that those who laid them there might again return and pick them up when they saw no stranger would do so. All my efforts, and they were earnest and anxious, failed in pro- viding any effectual relief for these little innocents, wbid , my own family were not in a condition to afford, even had I dared to hazard the risk of bringing in- fection within my doors." By the '2.4th, almost all the cloth for winding-sheets was consumed; so that the survivors were forced to bury the dead in the clothes they had worn. Water was not to be had at any price, though the river was so close ; and the mortality was estimated at thirty thousand souls within the walls; vet still there was no diminution in the number of daily deaths. Not one in twenty of these attacked are thought to have recovered. On the 25th, the fall of a wall in the Residency, from the sopping of the water, induced Mr. Groves again to visit that place. Not a soul did he meet in the streets, except those who carried dead bodies and persons infected with the pestilence. lialaileS of clothes, the reliques of the dead, were thrust out at many doors. The yard of the great mosque was shut up—there was no more t'00111 to bury them, and they were dig;;Ioa graves in the way-sides, in the roads theinselves' and in any vacant spat. -While conversing with the only servant of Colonel Taylor remaining alive in the Residency, information was brought to the man that his aunt, the eighth of his near relatives Who had been seized by the contagion, had just died like the rest. One of the principal sellers of cotton for burying cloths (who had taken advantage of the times to raise his price exorbitantly) lids day died himself. There was then no more of the stain the city. The price of rope, too, had become quadruple. Instead of formal burial, the bodies, even oilier:Anis of considerable wealth, were HOW just laid across the back of a mule or axe, and taken to a hole, Mt-ended, perhaps, by asiue a servant. .Mr. Groves mentions thegesticulatious of the few Arab women whom he met in the way as particularly striking—they seemed to de- mand of Heaven why Franks: and Infidels like him, were suffered to live, while to nanny of the lizithinl died. The effect upon his mind was peculiarly startling and painful ; surrounded as he a as by the deed and the dying, the growling of dots that were Marling the laelles, (scarcely writing till life was fled to begin their horrid feast,) united with the cries of the exposed miserable infants, formed a scene of lice= which Inc avem—and no wonder—can never be erased from his memory.

The river continued to rise, undermining the wall, part of which at last ; and the whole of' the lower city was inundated, crowd- ing the survivors into a narrow space ; and ffimine made its appear- ance in addition to pestilence.

"The difficulty of obtaining proclaims bad now become extreme. Very respectable persons would now present themselves at the door to beg for sonic of the commonest necessaries. The number of the dead, too, left in the streets had increased to a frightful degree ; nor was there a possibility of removing them. This extremity of distress was shared to the full by the ruler of the smitten city. The Semi of the Pashali was by this time like the dwellings of most of his subjects—a heap of ruins, where he himself remained in the utmost terror and perplexity. Ile dechired to a servant of Mr. Groves that he knew not Where to sleep in sefety. Ile dreaded every night being buried in the ruins of the remainitg portion of his dwelling. Ile sent to request the Resident's remaining lust, that lie might fly from the place ; but of its crew only one man was to lie found alive, and even the Pashalt could not procure men to man her. Fear of him is passed,' says Mr. Groves, ' and love for hint there is none." Even in his own palace he was without power : death had been full as busy there as elsewhere; stud that authority which was absolute in tittles of mere !mum agency, had shrank into nothing before the effects of an Almighty mandate. (lint of one hundred Georgians that were about him' four only remained alive. All that could be done was to throw the dead out of the windows into the river, that they might not shuck or infect tio. living. The stables of the palace, like the palace itself; fell in pieces, and all the Pashall's beautiful horses were run- ning wild about the streets, where they were caught by any one who could,

and most of them were sold to the Arabs. Utile Vashah were thus destitute of help,' observes Mr. Groves, what must have been the misery of the great Mass who were left to die alone.'"

The time of Mr. FRASER did not permit him to do more than look at the ruins of Babylon, and the other cities of :Mesopotamia; nor does he appear to possess the requisite antiquarian knowledge to have explored them with any likelihood of elucidating obscure points : but his narrative strongly impresses upon the reader's mind the wealth, civilization, and extent of the ancient Assyrian capitals. Canals, which can still be traced, intersected in all directions the district between the Euphrates and the Tigris for the purposes of irrigation ; ruins of buildings are yet standing whose thoroughly burnt bricks and exquisite bricklaying have defied time and neglect for so ninny centuries. But perhaps the extent of the ruins and The Koords themselves are not exactly new, previous travellers having visited and described them ; but Mr. FRASER's is the most complete account. In addition to his previous knowledge of Asiatics, and his recognized character, travelling on diplomatic business, he had a national stimulus, as the Koords resemble the Scottish Highlanders in their clanship, their blood-feuds, and their marauding habits. They have no superstitions : nor is it clear whether they apprehended his questions in their extent, for in answer to whether they ever saw the dead, they replied, No—no, only in dreams. Amongst themselves they appear to be an amiable people, but towards strangers they are the most ruthless robbers on earth.

The trip through Mesopotamia and the sojourn at Bagdad made

Mr. FRASER acquainted with many of the Arab tribes; of whom he

draws a very indifferent picture, scattering all the romance attached to their character with an unsparing hand. Of these tribes it is difficult to say whether the half-settled or the roving Arabs are the worse ; but the latter are the more gentlemanlike in their bearing. It is interesting, however, to trace the mollifying effects of com- merce even upon them, and to see what powerful pioneers of civili- zation are the factories of Manchester and other places.

" It would have delighted a political economist to detect, as we did, even in this rude place, (Sook-u-Shiookh) the beneficial influence of commerce, and the glimmering of knowledge and civilization it was spreading amongst the wild inhabitants. We met a ith several of them who had traded to Bussora, Bushirc, mud even to Bombay, who had had their eyes in some degree opened by glimpses of these foreign parts—who had met with Englishmen, and now, when they heard of our arrival, came forward with offers of assistance, which were neither empty nor unacceptable. It was strange to heir English words enunciated by an Arab month ; yet more than one of these people addressed to us several English phrases, and understood still more of that tongue, while iiindostance was common ; and 1 own that I hailed with a sort of brotherly feeling the accents of that language which were once, and have ever continued so interest- Ma to me. It was pleasant, too, to listen to the high praises which these Arabs paid to our nation, from their own experience with individuals of it in

commercial dealings; and it was amusing to hear the magnificent and exagge- rated accounts they gave their staring countrymen of our power and wealth

and influence : in fact, it was a very, pretty specimen of Arab mmancing. Mr. Finlay was made out to be a general officer of artillery ; and as for me, I was sonic high functionary sent by the Sultan of Rooai (Turkey) with a

dress of honour and presents to their Sheikh. The display of our fire-arms and

pyrotechnics served to confirm the charm; and when they heard that our King possessed several vessels mounting one hundred and twenty guns and carrying

from twelve to fifteen thousand men, their wonder was at its height. I fear, however, that their avarice kept pace with their astonishment, and that the predominant feeling with the majority was regret that they could not appro- priate our goods and riches."

There are a number of sketches of Persia, similar to what we have tbrmerly quoted relative to that country, and some anecdotes of the present Shah. There is also an account of the outbreak on the death of his grandfather, and the manner in which he was seated on his throne through the energetic exertions of the British Ambassador. But for these and many other points of interest we have no space. Let it suffice to recommend the entire work to the reader, as, with all its drawbacks, one of the best accounts of the countries of which it treats. Besides the information and amuse- ment it will afford, no one can rise from its perusal without learning to prize the blessings of freedom and civilization. the vastness of the ground the cities covered is the most wonderful feature. The account of Mr. FRASER'S riding day after day over heaps of brick remains, suggests the idea of what London and its environs might be if ruined and abandoned for ages. The deso- lation of Babylon itself is not, however, quite so complete as the prophet denounced.

REINS OT BABYLON.

On examining the impression left on my mind by what we this day had seen of these ruins, or rather vestiges, of the celebrated Babylon, I find it to be just what I had anticipated. 1 could have made a drawing of the Maid- libels from the accounts 1 had heard of it, and what I had seen of other ruins

of a similar character. The Kasr disappointed me sadly in height and lack of imposing appearance—not in extent, fur it is more extensive than 1 imagined; and as for the rest, you might just as well have looked upon any similar ex- tent of rough, barren, irregular ground. The long mounds indicating canals, and branching off to a great distance, were interesting through the ideas they suggested; and there was something striking in the solitude and desert aspect of the coup ['veil which was obtained from the summit of the Mujellibeh, that undoubtedly recalled to the spectator's mind the remarkable fulfilment of the numerous prophetic denunciations of Divine wrath, which we find through- out the Scriptures ; but the manner of their being recalled was not so im- pressive as might be supposed. Babylon, though utterly ruined, and the haunt of loathsome creatures, is not altogether deprived of the vestiges of man's vicinity : you see villages and date-groves, and cultivation in various places around ; and the walls of Hillah remind one that something of a city exists within view; so that the image of utter desolation is disturbed, and the frame of mind with which the scene is viewed is apt to suffer a corresponding reac- tion. On the whole, I was certainly deeply interested by the view of these relies of what once was one of the wonders of the world; but as to all those indescribable emotions which travellers seem to bold it a duty to feel in such places, and particularly on this spot, I must plead guilty to a sin against feel- ing and propriety, if such it be; for truly I experienced little of them. The truth is, that those who are accustomed to scenes of wide-spread barren na- ture, and whose imaginations have been somewhat dulled by the hard and matter-of-fact realities of life, require something more intrinsically striking and tangible than any thing that appears at Babylon, to call forth their enthu- siasms; and such, 1 confess, was the case with me.