volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

122 Changes in Baghddd.
my stay in Baghdad in 1889 he did everything he could
to help me.
During the year which had elapsed since my first
visit to Baghdad many changes had taken place among
the British residents in the town. My friend Captain
Butterworth, I.M., had been promoted and his successor
on the " Comet " was Captain Dogherty, who cordially
offered to help me in any way possible. Mr. Somerset,
who had visited Babylon with me the previous year, had
become captain of Lynch Bros.' " Khalifah," and we each
enjoyed the renewal of our acquaintance. Mr. Alfred
Holland had been selected to open up a new branch
house for Lynch Bros, at Shushtar, and had gone to
Basrah to prepare for his new duties. Mr. George
Clarke, Lynch Bros.' manager, and his wife welcomed
me with characteristic kindness, and Mr, Clarke assisted
me in business matters as before. All the men who
had helped me in 1888 seemed glad to meet me again,
especially Mr. Dorabji, the chief engineer of the
" Comet," and old master-gunner Nelson, a delightful
old Scotsman, who always wore a Tam o' Shanter, had
porridge for breakfast, drank whisky with every meal,
kept the Sabbath with great strictness and solemnity,
and prayed to live long enough to see British guns
bombarding Baghdad. Under the genial and tactful
influence of the Talbots the social atmosphere of the
British colony was easier, and the relations with the
merchants and the Turkish authorities in the Sareiyah
were more friendly. As a proof of this I mention the
fact that the new Wali PashS. of Baghdad paid me a
visit at the Residency and had a long conversation
with me about the excavations and Babylonian and
Assyrian antiquities. The Chaldean Patriarch called
upon me also, and highly approved of my action in
having copies made of ancient Syriac manuscripts, and
he offered to lend me any of his manuscripts for this
purpose.
But I was not in favour with the native dealers in
Babylonian tablets, and they told me so openly. They
had hoped that the collections of tablets which I had