state of the river Euphrates generally; and, on the Author’s
subsequent arrival in Alexandria, he received from Mr. Barker,
our Consul-General in Egypt, a list of queries which had been
sent to him by the Earl of Aberdeen, regarding the comparative
advantages of the proposed lines to India, by the Euphrates,
and by the Bed Sea. Circumstances being then favourable, the
Author determined to extend his travels so far as to enable
him to answer these queries, as well as to gain the ends before
proposed; accordingly he commenced with the Isthmus of
Suez, and passed down the Bed Sea to Kosseir. Thence he
crossed the desert to the Nile, which he afterwards descended
to its mouths.1
The Author now embarked for Jaffa, and proceeded through
Palestine, Syria, &c., to the Euphrates, which river he descended,
principally on a raft made of hurdles, from El Kaye'm
to its estuary; and prepared a map on a scale of two inches to
a mile, showing the depth, current, &c., throughout a distance
of 701 miles thus surveyed.
An examination of the rivers of Susiana followed; but as one
very important object, the state of the higher Euphrates, still
remained to be ascertained, the Author continued his retrograde
journey through Persia and Asia Minor, and carefully examined
the upper part of the river, as well as the country lying between
its banks and the ports of the Mediterranean. A statement of
the relative advantages of the routes to India by the Bed Sea
and the Euphrates was afterwards laid before the British
Government through the late and present Ambassadors at the
Porte, Sir Bobert Gordon and Sir Stratford Canning.2
A matter of such great national importance, when recom-
1 See Letter, p. 88-91, in Appendix to the Report from the Select Committee
on Steam Navigation to India, 14th July, 1834.
mended by those distinguished statesmen, could not fail to
attract notice; and the Author had the pleasure of finding, on
his return to England, that the subject of steam navigation to
India was under consideration, more particularly by Lord
Goderich, the President of the Board of Control, the Bight
Honourable Charles Grant, and the late Bight Honourable
John Sullivan.
Not long afterwards, the presence of the Author was commanded
at St. James’s, when the late king, William the Fourth,
was pleased to express a desire that the route by the Euphrates
to India should be put practically to the test; more particularly,
as His Majesty observed, on account of the manifest advantage
which it presented of involving little more than one-
half of the length of sea voyage, compared with that of the
route by the Bed Sea.
The further consideration of the question was confided to the
Marquis of Lansdowne, Lord Goderich, and Mr. Grant, now
Lord Glenelg; and in 1834 a Committee of the House of
Commons, with the latter Minister as Chairman, having taken
evidence at great length on the routes by the Bed Sea, and by
the Euphrates, a vote of Parliament was passed for surveying
the latter by means of a steam expedition.
Two iron steam-vessels were ordered to be constructed by
Messrs. John Laird and Co. of Liverpool; which, when finished,
were the sixth and seventh of that kind then built, and the first
of the flat armed steamers, whose services have been so important
in the rivers of Asia. The command of the Expedition
was intrusted to the Author; and the autumn was employed in
selecting naval and military officers, and in making other preparations
for the equipment. In these the King took a warm
interest, and every step of the progress being made known by
private letters to Sir Herbert Taylor, His Majesty was pleased