volume 2 - Robert Bedrosian's Armenian History Workshop

The Dealers Deceive the Authorities. 259
the tablets for you. You will buy them, and they shall
go out of the country quickly, and you will be able to
live with your English friends in Baghd3.d and not be
obliged to sit in the desert with the jackals and the
vultures, and burn by day and freeze by night. You
will have plenty of nice food to eat and clean water to
drink, and there are now many oranges in Baghdad."
Meanwhile we had been drifting towards BaghdM, and
at five o'clock we reached a place on the left bank of
the river, where we could hire a carriage, and drove to
Baghdad, leaving the raftsmen to take the raft through
the bridge of boats, and moor it at the steps of the
British Residency. My friend, Mr. George Clarke, was
waiting for me, and once again I found myself under
his hospitable roof. We had spent rather more than
eight days and nights in coming from M6sul, for the
river was very low, and the south-easterly winds were
very strong, and more than once we had to tie up in
order to prevent the raft from being driven up the river.
A journey by raft from Mosul to Baghdid in December
is not one to be recommended.
S 2