inundation has not only ruined an immense number of houses
in the city, and been the cause of tens of thousands dying of the
plague, but the whole harvest is destroyed. The barley, which was just
ready to be reaped, is utterly gone, and every other kind of corn must
likewise be ruined, so that for 30 miles all round Bagdad, not a grain
of corn can be collected this year, and perhaps, if all was quiet this
might be of no consequence, for from Mosul and Kourdistan it might
easily come; but this will be prevented by the enemies of the Pasha
who surround us. The poor are beginning to feel immense difficulty in
the city, for all the shops are shut, and there is a great scarcity of
wood for firing; and should the water now cause a general inundation
of the whole city, the heart sickens at the contemplation of the
scenes that must follow; for the houses of the poor are nothing but
mud, scarcely one of which will be left standing.

For ourselves personally, the Lord has allowed us great peace, and
assured confidence in his loving care, and in the truth of his
promise, that our bread and our water shall be sure; but certainly
nothing but the service of such a Lord as he is would keep me in the
scenes which these countries do exhibit, and I feel assured will,
till the Lord has finished his judgments on them, for the contempt of
the name, nature, and offices of the Son of God; yet I linger in the
hope he has a remnant even among them, for whose return these
convulsions are preparing the way.

_April 28._--News more and more disastrous. The inundation has swept
away 7,000 houses from one end of the city to the other, burying the
sick, the dying, and the dead, with many of those in health, in one
common grave.[28] Those who have escaped, have brought their goods and
the relics of their families, to the houses the plague has desolated,
or desertion left unoccupied, and houses are yet falling in every
direction.

[28] I have heard of eight thus buried in one house, or
rather belonging to one family, the remains of which are come to
reside next us in a house, where those who had the charge of it are
dead.

The Lord has stopped the water just at the top of our street by a
little ledge of high ground, so that as yet we are dry; and all free
from the sword of the destroying angel. Scarcity of provision is
beginning to be sensibly felt, so that very respectable persons are
coming to the door to beg a little bread, or a little