The artificial banks of the
river, which had governed our progress upwards, were now overflowed, and
it was with the greatest difficulty we could discover the river's bed
and escape getting aground.
(At Bussorah.)
Intelligence of the approach of the plague had spread consternation
throughout the city, and had sent thousands of its inhabitants into
retreat. The shops were closed--trade at a stand--the streets
deserted--houses tenantless--the oft busy creek had scarcely a boat
moving on its surface--the mosques were filled with the dismayed
Moslems, whom poverty or self-interest had kept in the town--the
Christian churches held the few Armenians and Chaldeans whom fear had
driven to pray with sincerity. Here might be seen a cluster of Zobeir
Arabs, meditating rapine: and there a straggling Jew, ruminating on the
losses he had sustained by the flight of the panic-stricken slaves of
his usury.
Aga Pharseigh had lost all his confidence and self-sufficiency. He had
sent off his family to Bushire; he was himself to sink into the humble
office of clerk to the resident; and he was (which he esteemed the most
distressing event of the three) to encounter face to face those who had
just left the "city of the plague.
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