Page:The Nestorians and their rituals, volume 1.djvu/333

Rh at Mosul, the Nestorians of the mountains were still persecuted by the Coords, whilst the refuges in the city and surrounding villages were harassed by the Romish missionaries, who used the most questionable means to draw them over to their creed. A large sum of money, understood to have been sent by the French Ambassador at Constantinople, to relieve the wants of the fugitives, was placed in the hands of the priests, who distributed the alms at the church doors, in order to induce the Nestorians to frequent their services. Even Mar Shimoon was tempted in this way, and two agents were sent to him by Mar Zeyya, the Chaldean Patriarch, while he was at my house, and during my absence, who offered, on the part of their employer, that he would abdicate his dignity in favour of Mar Shimoon, and give him the jurisdiction over all the Chaldeans, and a sum of £800, if he consented to submit to the see of Rome. Moreover it was proposed by the papal party, that the government should be solicited to settle the Nestorians in the plains, and French agency strongly abetted a scheme which promised to bring this ancient community more within the reach of the political influence of the one and the ecclesiastical control of the other. Intrigues such as these were rife at this time; but so far as my information extends scarcely one proselyte was permanently added to the ranks of the Chaldeans during the sojourn of the Nestorians at Mosul.

In order not to break the thread of the narrative, I have brought down the above summary of the Nestorian affairs, consequent upon their invasion by the Coords, to the time of our departure from Mosul early in May, and shall now retrace my steps to resume the account of our missionary proceedings up to that period. As I consider it more satisfactory to do this by quotations from our reports to the Gospel Propagation Society, the reader must pardon any repetition which this plan may entail.

In the month of August, we received a letter from the Com-