Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/155

 they left Teheran (April 24), and proceeded by Tabriz and Urmia to Bagdad, which they reached in July. M. Flandin bade farewell to Persian territory after a free interchange of blows with the people of the frontier village. From Bagdad he paid hurried visits to Hillah and Mosul; and left early in September for Aleppo and Beyrout, where he embarked for France on December 1, 1841.

He revisited the East in 1843, in order to sketch the monuments discovered by M. Botta at Khorsabad. In consequence of this employment, the publication of the results of the Persian journey was greatly delayed. The 'Voyage en Perse' was not even written till 1850, and it did not appear till the following year. The folio edition with plates bears no date. A portion of the plates was used by Mr. Fergusson in 1800, for his book on the Palaces of Nineveh and Persepolis, but they were not available the year before. They brought home two hundred and fifty-four drawings and thirty-five copies of inscriptions, most of which they profess to have executed on the spot; and the collection forms an extremely valuable addition to our knowledge of the antiquities of Persia. M. Flandin was strongly of opinion that no individual enterprise could hope to complete with the minuteness of research and the untiring industry of an official like himself, who was charged with a Government mission, and invested with the confidence of two academical bodies. A Government can indeed afford to publish a book no one can