ion, and preferable for residence to most
others in the interior. Being five thousand feet above the level of
the sea, it was not subject to oppressive heats. There were fruitful
gardens on the one hand, stretching for miles over the plain, and on
the other, the placid lake, and snow-capped mountains; altogether
forming a very striking landscape. A small Nestorian community had
formed a settlement on the mountains within three or four hours of
Van.

Dr. Grant reached the summer residence of the Patriarch on the 9th
of July, and was cordially received as before; and the same may be
said of his intercourse with the mountaineers. He mentions several
places in Koordistan as having strong claims for a missionary
station, but gives the preference to Asheta in Tiary.

While at Asheta, he received painful tidings of the death of Mr. and
Mrs. Mitchell, and the sickness of Mr. and Mrs. Hinsdale, and
immediately started for Mosul, though at much risk from Koords on
the frontier, and from roving Arabs near the Tigris. He reached
Mosul on the 25th of August, in time to minister successfully to Mr.
Hinsdale, whose life had been seriously endangered by a relapse of
fever.

Messrs. Hinsdale and Mitchell were forty-one days on their voyage to
Smyrna, from whence an Austrian steamer took them to Beirut. Mr. and
Mrs. Beadle accompanied them as far as Aleppo, to commence a new
station. Mr. Mitchell had a slight attack of fever and ague at
Aleppo, which detained him till the 28th of May. That was rather
late in the season, still all might have gone well, had they been
able to press on with the usual speed. The abundant green grass on
the plain, however, caused the muleteers to loiter, and, once on the
road, the company was entirely at their mercy. Still the journey, as
far as Mardin, where they arrived June 19th, was both pleasant and
prosperous. On the plain below the city Mr. Mitchell, in efforts to
keep their tent from being blown down in a storm, became wet and
chilled. This brought on another fit of ague, which was repeated
after three days. On the 25th, with scarcely any apparent disease,
he lost his reason, and from that time drooped, like the withering
of a plant, till he died on the morning of June 27th, 1841. The
Koordish villagers refused the Christian a grave, nor would they aid
in carrying the body a few miles to the Jacobite village Telabel,
The survivors had not strength themselves to carry it, but secured
its conveyance