Explorations in Bible lands during the 19th century - H. V. Hilprecht

DURING 19 CENTURY: ASSYRIA AND BABYLONIA 91
stopping there for a little while on his way from Baghdad
to Constantinople. Botta had meanwhile been appointed
French consular agent, and tentatively cut a trench or two
in the mound of Qoyunjuk. The two famous explorers
met then and there — June, 1842 — for the first time, the
one on the fair road to a great discovery, the other so far
disappointed in his efforts to raise the necessary funds for
similar excavations. Brief as this first meeting was, it formed
the beginning of a friendly intercourse between the two
great men, Layard, free from envy and jealousy, always
encouraging Botta in his labors, and particularly calling his
attention to Nimrud, the one place above others which he
himself so eagerly desired to explore, when the paucity of
results at Ooyunjuk threatened to dishearten his lonely
friend.
Robbed as he frequently was, and exposed to hardships
and dangers of every kind, repeatedly even at the point of
losing his life, Layard never ceased to " look back with
feelings of grateful delight to those happy days when, free
and unheeded, we left at dawn the humble cottage or
cheerful tent, and lingering as we listed, unconscious of distance
and of the hour, found ourselves as the sun went
down under some hoarv ruin tenanted by the wandering
Arab, or in some crumbling village still bearing a wellknown
name. No experienced dragoman measured our
distances and appointed our stations. We were honored
with no conversations by pashas, nor did we seek any civilities
from governors. We neither drew tears nor curses
from villagers by seizing their horses, or searching their
houses for provisions: their welcome was sincere; their
scanty fare was placed before us ; we ate and came and went
in peace."
At a time when every moment the chronic dispute as to
the actual boundary line between Turkey and Persia threatened
to lead to a serious war which might prove detrimental