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

140 EXPLORATIONS IN BIBLE LANDS
of Meshhed 'Ali and Kerbela, — all hut the first situated on
the western side ot the Kuphrates, — Loftus decided to examine
the geologv of the Chaldean marshes and to explore
the ruins of Warka, which, previous to
the discovery of the
Muqavvar cvlinders, on the basis ot native tradition, Sir
Henry Rawlinson was inclined to identify with Ur of the
Chaldees, the birthplace of the patriarch Abraham. An
opportunity presented itself towards the end of December,
1849, when the representatives of the four powers, for
nearly eight months detained at Baghdad, were at last
ordered to proceed to the southern point of the disputed
boundarv line. While the other members of the party were
conveyed to Mohammera by the armed steamer Nitocris,
under the command of Captain Felix Jones, mentioned
above in connection with his excellent maps of Nineveh,
Loftus, accompanied by his friend and comrade, H. A.
Churchill, and a number of irregular Turkish horsemen,
took the land route between the Euphrates and Tigris,
hitherto but once trodden by European foot.
Notwithstanding the great difficulties and dangers then
attending a journev into Babylonia proper, the two explorers,
" determined on being pleased with anything," overcame
all obstacles with courage and patience, reaching the camp
of the frontier commission on the eastern bank of the
Shatt el- c Arab safely after an absence of several weeks.
They had crossed the unsafe districts of the Zobaid Arabs
and their tributaries, regarded as perfectly wild and uncontrolled
in those days ; they had visited the filthy reed huts
of the fickle and unreliable c Afej tribes, inhabiting the verge
and numerous islands of the immense swamps named after
them ; and riding parallel with the course of the ancient
bed of the Shatt el-Kar, thev had established friendly relations
with the wildest and poorest but good-natured
Ma'dan tribes in Southern Babylonia. Everywhere, like
Fraser, thev had found traces of an earlv civilization and a