164 REAR-ADMIRAL F. W. BEECHEY'S ADDRESS. [May 26, 1856. 



The return of peace will, it is hoped, admit of the production of 

 the invaluable geographical material resulting from the international 

 researches of the Commission. 



The Vestiges of Assyria, surveyed by order of the Government 

 of India, by Commander Jones of the Indian Navy, and published 

 in three sheets, exhibit the topographical features of the country, in 

 which are situated, the ancient cities of Nineveh, Mosul, and Nim- 

 rud, over which the labours and writings of Layard and Eawlinson 

 have thrown such a charm. 



The return to this country of that distinguished and learned scholar 

 in Eastern languages, Colonel, now Sir Henry Eawlinson, has been 

 announced ; and we learn that he has brought to a close, for the 

 present, the excavations in Assyria and Babylonia. A notice of some 

 of his labours has appeared in the Transactions of the Asiatic Society ; 

 but they are far beyond any attempt of mine to do justice to them, 

 either in point of value or description. It is with pleasure we learn, 

 that he intends devoting his time to describing his labours and to 

 decyphering the numerous inscriptions he has collected, &c. &c. ; a 

 work which, if he succeed in accomplishing, must entitle him to the 

 gratitude of the world : for, hidden under those mysterious mounds 

 and written in those dark inscriptions, may we not hope to find the 

 history of a great nation, whose existence was collateral with that of 

 Israel, and which at many points touched that of the sacred people ? 

 May we not hope to read in the records of Assyria, additional proof 

 of those wars and slaveries which are spoken of in the Bible, and to 

 discover traces of those captives, who sat down and wept by the 

 waters of Babylon, and hung their harps upon the willow-trees of 

 a foreign land ? 



Persia. — Abbott's 'Itineraries in Persia' contain descriptions of 

 such parts of the route from Tehran through Save, Kiim, Kashan, and 

 Ispahan, and thence to Yezd, Kerman, Shiraz, and Bunder Bushir, on 

 the Persian Gulf, as have been but seldom or never visited by Euro- 

 pean travellers. From Bunder Bushir he crossed the Persian Gulf "to 

 the mouth of the Shat-el-Arab, as the joint stream of the Tigris and 

 Euphrates is called, and thence by Mohammerah to Bagdad, and by 

 Kermanshah and Hamadan to Tehran. The route is carefully kept 

 by compass-bearings and estimated distances, and the descriptions 

 of the country, towns, and inhabitants, are carefully given. 



Siam. — I mention next in order ' Notes on Siam,' with a new map 

 of the lower part, of the Menam River, by our Associate, Mr. Henry 

 Parkes ; also an interesting paper, which affords extensive informa- 



