one and sometimes to the other; and, it is to be feared, was not unfrequently driven in his precarious position to side with that party, which for the time appeared to be the stronger, or from which he had the most to dread both for himself and for his people.
The sad result to the interests of the mountain Nestorians, brought about by the ambitious designs of these two rival Mohammedan rulers, who were all along the agents (unconsciously to themselves perhaps,) of the deep-laid policy of the Porte, will be detailed in the course of the following narrative; they are simply mentioned here in order to show by what instrumentality God was pleased to throw open to the pious efforts of His Church a new country, and a primitive Christian community having many claims upon her sympathy and regard.
The facilities for holding intercourse with the mountain Nestorians, which these political changes introduced, having become known in England through the reports of the Euphrates Expedition, and especially through the information collected by Messrs. Ainsworth and Rassam on their return to Europe through Mesopotamia and Asia Minor, it was agreed upon by the Royal Geographical and Christian Knowledge Societies, to send these gentlemen on a special mission to Coordistan. The general result of their journey Mr. Ainsworth has published in two interesting volumes entitled "Travels and Researches in Asia Minor, Mesopotamia, Chaldea, and Armenia;" besides which he drew up a separate report for the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge, wherein he gives a full account of his visit to the Patriarch, Mar Shimoon, and the mountain Nestorians.
Mr. Ainsworth's report, and other communications received respecting the Christian sects inhabiting that district, induced the Christian Knowledge and Gospel Propagation Societies, chiefly at the suggestion of the Lord Bishop of London, to send out another mission into Coordistan. The previous acquaintance with the East, which the author had acquired during two years* residence there, and especially his knowledge of the Syriac and Arabic languages, seeming in a measure to qualify him for the undertaking, he was deputed to be the bearer of letters commendatory to several of the Eastern Primates from His Grace
