Missionary, Visitor, The (1907) . ings. It is be-lieved that the city was founded aboutthe year 764 A. D. by the Caliph Ala-mansar. The city was once surroundedwith a brick wall some five miles in cir-cumference, but now in many places 537 broken down. A bridge of boats con-nects the two sections of the city, whichunfortunately was out of commission atthe time of our visit on account of thehigh water and swift current. From adistance the city is quite picturesque be-ing interspersed with groves of datepalms, from which gleam domes andminarets, but things do not improve ona closer acquaintance.
Missionary, Visitor, The (1907) . ings. It is be-lieved that the city was founded aboutthe year 764 A. D. by the Caliph Ala-mansar. The city was once surroundedwith a brick wall some five miles in cir-cumference, but now in many places 537 broken down. A bridge of boats con-nects the two sections of the city, whichunfortunately was out of commission atthe time of our visit on account of thehigh water and swift current. From adistance the city is quite picturesque be-ing interspersed with groves of datepalms, from which gleam domes andminarets, but things do not improve ona closer acquaintance. Much could be written of this historic and who knows but that the disaster of1830 might have been repeated. As above stated we cast about forsome one who would be willing todrive us to our destination, and lateSaturday evening we succeeded in per-fecting arrangements whereby we wereto start at 5 oclock Sunday price agreed upon was just twicethe regular rate, and it was left to usto get ourselves in the country to the. Section of Ruins of Nebuchadnezzar Palace, Babylon. place, which was at one time the seatof Arabic learning, and the capitol ofthe Caliphs for five hundred years. Inthe year 1830 a great plague prevailedhere, and at its height carried off notless than two thousand people was immediately followed by aninundation, and in one night seven thou-sand houses fell and fifteen thousandpeople perished. At the time of our ar-rival the water had completely sur-rounded the city and a very slight fur-ther rise would have flooded the place, graded road, which was as near as thecarriage could come to the city on ac-count of the water. So we engaged aGuffa man to call us at 3:30 A. take us across the Tigris for wewere lodged on the east side. Sopromptly at the given time we wereloaded in a Guffa, which is a circularboat made of basket work and coveredwith pitch. They do not look to be avery safe thing to ride a raging torrent,yet I counted twenty-five
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