We cannot conclude without expressing the pleasure we have received from seeing the works of one of our early classics collected and presented to the world in a form so handsome and appropriate; and we are glad to see that we still have amongst us Publishers who have intelligence and spirit for such undertakings.

ART. II.-Narrative of a Residence in Koordistan, and on the site of Ancient Nineveh; with a Journal of a voyage down the Tigris to Bagdad, and an account of a Visit to Shirauz and Persepolis. By the late CLAUDIUS JAMES RICH, Esq., Resident at Bagdad. Edited by his Widow. 2 Vols. 8vo. London: 1836.

T is now a good many years since the Government of India

I first appointed a political agent to reside at Bagdad—a po

sition which always must be of deep importance to the ruling European power in India; and which, from the designs of the French in the East, was peculiarly so at the time when the appointment alluded to took place. In 1798, Sir Harford Jones Brydges was named Resident; and he remained till 1806, when the hostile conduct of the Pasha obliged him to retire. But the position was too important to be permitted long to remain unoccupied; and early in 1808, Claudius James Rich, a civil servant of the East India Company, was chosen his successor. The choice could not have fallen upon a fitter person. Eminently gifted with every necessary mental and physical endowment, he had, at a very early age, and in the face of such difficulties as would have discouraged most students, made such progress in Oriental literature as to elicit the surprise and favourable regard of that eminent Orientalist, Sir Charles Wilkins; and in consequence of that gentleman's report of his talents and proficiency, he was presented by Edward Parry, Esq., with a writership on the Bombay establishment-an act of liberality and kindness as honourable to the giver as valuable at the time to the receiver.

This was the turning point of Mr Rich's fortune; and he was enabled, through the liberality of his employers, to spend a considerable time in Egypt, and in those parts of Asia which were most favourable to his perfecting himself in all those accomplishments which qualified him so eminently for the duties he was soon called upon to perform.

It was during this period of his life that he visited Damascus as a Georgian Turk; entered its forbidden mosque in safety; and

so completely acted up to the character he had adopted, that a worthy Turk of that city, charmed with his manners and address," entreated him to settle there, and offered him his daughter in marriage.

An interesting incident is related as having occurred during the earlier part of his career, in the notice of his life prefixed to this work-a notice which we cannot refrain from commending, as uniting in its composition, a beauty and simplicity as delightful as it is rare.

At the time when Mr Rich, then not more than fifteen, was prosecuting his studies at Bristol, he happened, in one of his walks, to meet a Turk, whom, to the delight and surprise of the man, he accosted in his own tongue. The stranger turned out to be a merchant who had been shipwrecked, and was in distress; and Mr Rich, besides the pleasure which his acquirement of the Turkish language had thus been the means of affording, had the further and higher gratification of being useful to a foreigner in difficulty. Several years afterwards, while sailing up the Ar'chipelago, a suspicious-looking vessel was one day observed bearing towards that in which he was a passenger. It was 'believed to be a pirate, and every thing was made ready for a desperate defence. On her nearer approach, however, she was discovered to be a Turkish merchantman, when Mr Rich and 'several others went on board. He had not been long on the deck, when one of the Turks, who was richly dressed, eyed him so steadfastly for some time as to excite his particular attention. At length the Turk addressed him, saying, "Sir, I know you.' "And I," replied Mr Rich, "have seen you before." An expla'nation followed. It was the man whom he had assisted when in distress at Bristol.'

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In January, 1808, Mr Rich married the eldest daughter of the Jate Sir James Mackintosh, who in a letter to a friend, part of which is quoted in the notice just mentioned, has well described the character of his accomplished son-in-law. We can only make room for the concluding paragraph :-' On my return, I found that this pupil in philosophy was desirous to become my 'son-in-law. He has no fortune, nor had he then even an ap'pointment; but you will not doubt that I willingly consented to his marriage with my eldest daughter, in whom he had the sagacity to discover, and the virtue to value, the plain sense, modesty, purity, and good-nature, which will, I hope, make her a source of happiness to him during life.' To another correspondent, the celebrated Robert Hall, one of Mr Rich's earliest friends, who had introduced the young Orientalist to his future father-in-law, Sir James, writes thus :—' Rich, whom you recom

'mended to me, is become my son-in-law; and he is indeed a son'in-law to whom the fondest parent may gladly intrust his child.' These are high testimonials; but they were fully justified by the subsequent career and conduct of their object, both in his public and private capacity. Speaking of his residence at Bagdad, his biographer says—

His high spirit, his sound political views, his perfect knowledge of the native character, and his profuse generosity speedily gained him the highest reputation both with the local government and with the people. As is usual under the Turkish sway, there were many revolutions of the government, and changes of the Pasha, during the time of his residence there; and Mr Rich's high character enabled him, sometimes under very uncommon circumstances, to give shelter in his tents to many who were in danger of their lives from these political reverses; and even, occasionally, to the family of the unsuccessful party, whom nothing could have preserved but an asylum which was never attempted to be violated. He had the satisfaction of seeing the effects of his uniform justice and good faith on all around him. The promises and engagements of their Pashas and leading men often were of no weight, till strengthened by his guarantee. He spent about six years at Bagdad with no European society but that of his wife and of Mr Hine, the surgeon of the Residency, who was also his assistant. The leisure which he enjoyed from his public duties he spent in pursuing his favourite studies. He made collections for a history, and for a geographical and a statistical account, of the Pashalik of Bagdad. He curiously examined all the remains of antiquity within his reach; and commenced his collection of Oriental manuscripts, which he spared no labour or cost to render complete. A catalogue of it, as it stood at the close of this period, may be found in several numbers of the "Mines de l'Orient," published at Vienna, and proves how successful he had already been in his researches. He also formed a rich collection of medals and coins, and of the gems and engraved stones found at Babylon, Nineveh, Ctesiphon, and Bagdad. He made an excursion to Babylon for the purpose of examining the remains of that ancient city. The fruit of his observation was his "Memoir on the Ruins of Babylon," first printed at Vienna, in the "Mines de l'Orient," and since reprinted in England. The "Edinburgh Review" justly described it as "a modest and perspicuous account of what he saw during a short visit," -" creditably distinguished by abstinence from fruitless enquiry and rash conjectures, and in which the classical and Oriental learning of the author is as much proved by the careful exclusion of false pretensions and impertinent display, as by the natural fruits of solid knowledge.""

To Oriental literature and research, the loss of so ardent and highly gifted an enquirer is a serious calamity; for it is rare to find so much zeal and talent directed with such perseverance to objects of interest and utility upon the very field where they are to be found. Even the fruits of those services which he already had performed in the cause of science have, in great measure, been lost by his untimely death; for he lived not to arrange or give shape to the materials he had so industriously collected. Almost his only published works are his two well-known Me-

'moirs on Babylon;' and the MSS. he has left require the preparation of the mind which dictated them to give them full effect.

Of all his MSS., that which is the subject of the present article is perhaps the most interesting; as it describes a country not only new to Europeans, but the knowledge of which is a great desideratum in modern as well as ancient geography. Who can hear of Koordistan, the country of the Carduchi, without thinking of Xenophon and his brave ten thousand, who made their retreat through the heart of this savage country in circumstances of difficulty and danger almost unparalleled? And who can read of Erbile, the Arbela of Arrian and Quintus Curtius, without picturing to himself the battle and the route of Gaugamela, and the brilliant career of his unrivalled conqueror, who soon was himself to become a type of the vanity of human grandeur, so near the spot where that grandeur may be said to have first begun to flourish? As the scene of these travels is so very little known, we think it may be rendering a service to the public to preface our examination of the work by a short general description of the country to which it chiefly refers.

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Modern Koordistan embraces the whole of ancient Assyria, a considerable portion of Armenia, and part of the ancient Media. In length, it may extend between four and five hundred milesthat is, from Erzeroom, on the north, to near Kermanshah, on the south and its greatest breadth may be about two hundred and fifty miles-that is, from Mardeen and Diarbeker, on the south-west, to the Arras, on the north-east. These limits do not indeed express the widest range of the Koordish people; for tribes of Koords are found all over Upper Mesopotamia, even to the banks of the Euphrates at Beer; and they pasture over and scour the country of Anatolia, as far west as Tokat. But, such as we have stated them, are the boundaries usually assigned to Koordistan.

The face of this country is generally mountainous and rugged, but it is well-watered and fertile. The great chain of Zagros or Karaja-Dagh, as it is called by the Turks, intersects it, running from south-east to north-west-throwing out to the left the huge cluster of Jewar, said to be 15,000 feet high; in which are the springs of the greater Zab, and which runs nearly to the banks of the Oroomean Lake. Farther on, it becomes connected with the elevated tract that gives birth to the streams of the Euphrates, while, on the right, it is continuous with the high lands of Sert, and Betlis, and Erzun, where the Tigris has its rise, and stretches westward till it meets the eastern branches of Taurus, and Cappadocia.

These tracts of mighty mountains enclose multitudes of rich

and sheltered valleys, watered by the innumerable stream that form so many noble rivers, and are adorned by nature with all the romantic beauty which belongs to such alpine scenes; while the gigantic cliffs above them, when they are not covered with snow, as is the case with many for the greater part of the year, or with the oak forest, which clothes great part of all Koordistan, afford excellent pasture to the numerous flocks and herds of the inhabitants. The bottoms and slopes of these valleys are covered with corn-fields; the sides of the mountains are mantled with vineyards; and the villages peep out from nooks, or are seen by the traveller from below, hanging, like birds' nests, on ledges and points of rock, each among its own gardens and orchards. Nothing can be imagined affording a more perfect picture of rustic amenity and sweetness, combined or contrasted with savage grandeur, than many of the mountainous districts of Koordistan. Nor do they present less attractions for a pastoral people. In some places are found large elevated plains, the verdure of which is maintained by thousands of perennial springs; and which are surrounded by mountains covered with odoriferous and aromatic herbs, unencumbered by wood, except here and there a solitary oak, or a willow by the side of a stream. These mountains are intersected by glens or ravines, so sheltered and so lonely, that they look like retreats for the very genius of Arcadia; and here, accordingly, is the traveller, as he winds his way in solitude, often greeted by the bleat of a stray sheep, the far off bark of a shepherd's dog, or the sight of that shepherd himself, seated on the top of some rock or hillock, as motionless as the grey stones beside him. These plains and distant mountains are the resort of the migratory part of the population, of whom we shall shortly have to speak.

A country like this, so strong, and, to strangers, almost im-. pervious by nature, yet so fair and fruitful in reality, is formed we should say, to be the abode of a peculiar people; and, accordingly, we do find it inhabited by a nation most strongly marked with all the ruling characteristics which are found to belong to Highlanders in all parts of the world, together with many peculiar to themselves. They have the same love of country

of their native glens and hills-the same division into clans, and pride of birth and blood-the same high and haughty bearing, the same devotion to their chiefs, and affection for their kindred-the same love of hospitality-the same martial and predatory habits- the same simplicity of manners, hardihood, and contempt of effeminacy; and also the same aversion to labour and mechanical employments that distinguished the Scotch Highlander, and the Swiss of ancient times; and which distinguish