24

NINEVEH AND ITS DISCOVERERS.

ever, had formerly extended further, and for some time they still followed the brick walls, but the coverings of sculptured slabs no longer existed; and various signs clearly proved that, even in the most ancient times, a part of the monument had been intentionally destroyed, and the solid materials carried off, to be employed somewhere else for other purposes. In anticipation of still meeting with the lost trace, trenches were opened at various points of the mound; but in vain, and they were at last obliged to renounce the hope of seeing a new store of riches added to those they had already found. At the end of the month of October, 1844, Botta therefore put a stop to the works.

Monsieur Flandin having finished his drawings, was enabled to quit Mósul on the 9th of November, and proceed to Paris to submit his work to the Academy. Arrived there, a commission was named by the Academy to draw up a report upon Monsieur Flandin's drawings. Through the medium of its reporter, Monsieur Raoul Rochette, the commission rendered a tribute of deserved praise to the labours of the artist, and suggested the propriety of issuing, in a special publication, Flandin's drawings, as well as the explanatory matter Botta might bring with him, for the study of scholars and artists. In a meeting of the 16th of May, 1845, the Academy adopted the conclusions of the commission, ordered the report to be printed, and thus gave both Botta and his artistic coadjutor the first reward of their labours, by publishing the results in a series of magnificent folio volumes, with the public approval, and at the public expense.

Although Flandin had been able, in the beginning of the month of November, 1844, to return to France, in order to enjoy that repose of which he stood so much in need, after six months of suffering and fatigue, Botta's own task was not so soon ended. In the first place he had to complete his copies of the inscriptions-a work that had been commenced a year before Monsieur Flandin's arrival at Mósul, that was continued during the whole period of his stay, and which occupied several months after his departure. Besides this, in conformity with the orders of the government, Botta and Flandin had chosen together the most remarkable and best-preserved pieces of sculpture to send to France; and after Flandin's departure,

Botta was left alone to prepare and pack these precious relics, to get them conveyed to Mósul, and thence to send them to Baghdad. The Porte had at first imposed certain restrictions on the removal of the sculptures, but had ended by yielding to the persevering efforts of the French Ambassador, Baron de Bourqueney, who had shown the most unceasing and lively interest in the exhumation of Nineveh. He obtained the necessary orders, and Botta was at liberty to remove to France all the objects he deemed most worthy.

Now a new species of difficulties arose. Neither the needful machinery nor workmen accustomed to the kind of operations were to be had. The object was to convey, for a distance of four leagues, a number of blocks, some of which weighed as much as two or three tons. Botta had to invent everything, to teach everything—and, above all, not to despair of success after many fruitless attempts. Much against his will, he was obliged to saw up into a number of pieces several blocks, the weight and size of which would have rendered the carriage, not only difficult, but too dear. As regards the packing, it was so impossible to procure cases sufficiently strong, that he was obliged to adopt the most simple plan, and contented himself with covering the sculptured surfaces of the bas-reliefs with beams, which were fastened by screws to corresponding pieces of wood placed upon the opposite side of the stone. These means of protection fortunately proved to be sufficient.

The most difficult part of the whole affair was the conveyance of the blocks. Great trouble had to be taken to get a car built of sufficient strength, and Botta was even under the necessity of erecting a forge in order to construct axle-trees strong enough to support so heavy a load. The reader may fancy the kind of workmen available for the task by one fact -the axle-trees took six weeks to make!

Patient perseverance secured at last the necessary car, but an almost equal amount of trouble had to be taken for finding the means of dragging it. The Pasha of Mósul had at first lent some buffaloes used to work of this description, but, from an inexplicable whim, he took them back again. Botta then endeavoured, but in vain, to employ oxen, and at last was forced to have recourse to the thews and sinews of the Nestorians themselves. In addition to all this, the road from

26

NINEVEH AND ITS DISCOVERERS.

Khorsabad to Mósul being soaked through with continual rain, had no firmness, so that the wheels of the car, although they were made very broad, sank into the mud up to their axles. In several places it was necessary to pave the road, or to cover it over with planks. Two hundred men were scarcely sufficient to draw along some of the blocks. "The difficulties were indeed so great, that more than once," says Botta, "I feared I should not be able to transport, that year, the most interesting blocks, because they happened to be also the heaviest. I had no time to lose: although a great amount of rain obstructed my operations at Mósul, by a most unfortunate contrast very little snow had fallen in the mountains during the winter of 1844-45, so that not only was the Tigris far from attaining its usual height, but it began to decrease much before the accustomed time. It was necessary, however, to avail myself of its rise, in order to send to Baghdad the objects which I had determined to transport to France, for the carriage of the sculptures required rafts of unusual dimensions, and a delay of a few days might oblige me to wait until the next year. By dint of great exertions, I succeeded in surmounting the obstacles and terminating these wearisome operations before the Tigris had finished falling. In the month of June, 1845, eight months after my researches were ended, all the sculptures had been removed to the side of the river, and, by means of an inclined plane formed in the bank, embarked on the rafts. This last part of my task was, unfortunately, attended by a sad accident. The men were employed in embarking the last block, and had already placed it upon the inclined plane: in order to move it, one of the Nestorians, in spite of my reiterated warnings, persisted in pulling it from the front; it was impossible to stop the course of the ponderous mass already in motion, and the miserable workman was crushed between it and the blocks previously on the raft. This was the only accident I had to regret during the whole duration of the works."

The Tigris is navigated by means of rafts constructed of pieces of wood, which are supported by inflated skins. These rafts (which are called by the natives kellek) are well adapted for descending the stream, which in summer is very shallow; but they are of no use for going up. When the rafts have

arrived at Baghdad, they are broken up, the wood sold, often at a profit, and the skins brought back to Mósul, to serve again for the same purpose. Such were the means that Botta successfully employed for transporting the sculptures down the river towards the sea-the rafts of the required solidity being secured by the use of timber of a large size cut in the mountains, and the number of skins proportioned to the dimensions of the raft.

Not content with giving to his countryman, Flandin, all the credit due for the assistance he rendered on the works of Khorsabad, we find in Botta's book a paragraph of grateful praise awarded to a more humble, yet scarcely less valuable assistant whom he found on the scene of operations. "As my principal object," says the savant, "in writing my introductory chapter, was to do justice to those who assisted me in my labours, the reader will, I hope, pardon me for naming the chief of the workmen, Naaman ebn Naouch (Naaman the son of Naouch), who, from the commencement of my researches in the mound of Kouyunjik up to the termination of the works, never failed to give me convincing proofs of two qualities which are very rare in his country-namely, intelligence and probity. It was he whom I charged to go and explore Khorsabad, and it was he who discovered its hidden treasures. Since that time his activity and his spirit of invention were of the greatest assistance to me when in a difficult position; and it is certainly to him that I owe the fact of my having been able to surmount the difficulties I met with during the removal of the sculptures."

Some time elapsed before all the sculptures obtained from the mound at Khorsabad had been successfully landed at Baghdad, and confided to the care and intelligence of the French Consul-General, who was charged to forward them to their ultimate destination. It was not till the month of March, 1846, that the wished-for vessel, the Cormorant, could reach Bassora. The consul then experienced as much difficulty in shipping the ponderous masses on board the boats of that part of the country, as had before been felt in sending them as far as Baghdad; but he eventually succeeded, and had them carried down the Tigris to the place where the vessel awaited them. In the beginning of June, Lieutenant Cabaret shipped them

28

NINEVEH AND ITS DISCOVERERS.

without accident, and setting sail from Bassora, arrived in December, 1846, after a favourable passage, at Havre; where at the close of the year was landed the first collection of Assyrian antiquities that had ever been brought to Europe. They now form one of the greatest attractions in the noble museum of the Louvre.