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onward, and the last piece of boiler, weighing seven tons, and drawn by 104 bullocks, 
entered Port William under a triumphal arch, and thus the extraordinary energy 
and perseverance of the officers and men of the Expedition accomplished, what a 
French writer termed “the gigantic operation”’ of transporting this and the other heavy 
weights a distance of 147 miles, frequently over difficult country, from the Orontés to 
Port William on the Euphrates. 
This operation consumed all the funds of the Expedition, and having been told by 
Government that no more would be given, I was forced either to stop, or to find the 
funds myself. I felt that if I decided on the former course, it would lead to the belief 
that we had failed, and I therefore ventured to draw on my friends at home for up- 
wards of £2000, and as a compensation for this unpleasant alternative, we had the 
pleasure of seeing two steamers floated, one 108 feet long, atid both completely 
arnied and equipped for the intended service, with ample supplies of provision and 
fuel. The latter is found abuidantly of two kinds, viz. mineral pitch, and plenty 
of Tamarisk wood, which gave nearly a knot an hour more speed than coal. 
The descent and survey of the river now commenced. For the latter purpose two 
boats preceded the vessels day by day, sounding and taking bearings, and the officer 
in Charge of this party became the pilot of the steamers next day for so much of the 
river as he had thus explored. 
In this way our operations were peaceably and successfully carried on, till on one 
portentous morning, we discovered a cloud, like 4 man’s hand, coming towards us 
with fatal speed. All efforts were made to secure the vessels in time, and the lesser 
one, the Tigris, even reached the bank, but the whirlwind of the desert had reached 
her at the same instant, and though still in its infancy, such was its violence, that 
that unfortunate vessel recoiled from the bank, and was held as if in a vice, heeling 
over. The storm soon attained its greatest power. The Euphrates was backed at 
this moment to avoid a collision with the unfortunate Tigris, and at 1 p.m. we 
floated past as a mere log, in the midst of darkness deeper than that of night, im- 
tense waves breaking over and into the ill-fated vessel, till she was carried to the 
bottom in seven fathoms water, the helmsman and all others remaining firmly at 
their posts. So fearful and so violent had been the effects of this whirlwind from 
the désett, which would have blown a frigate out of the water, that portions of the 
paddle-boxes were in the fields before I and seven others reached the shore. 
Tweiity of my brave companions had scarcely found a watery grave when a calm 
succeeded the huiricane, Which had run its whole course in fifléen minutes. Had it 
lasted eight or ten minutes more, the Euphrates, though secuted to the bank with 
chain cables and large jumpers driven into the earth, must have gone to the bottom 
also. The Arabs, however, showed the greatest kindness ; for instead of taking ad- 
vantage of our condition, as is unhappily frequently the case in our more civilized 
couhtry, they gave us every possible assistance by collecting the remains of the 
goods, &c. Our loss however was very, very great; 1100 drawings, and all the 
accounts of the Expedition; all the money, with a large quantity of stores, &c., went 
to the bottom. 
This catastrophe happened at Werdi, about half-way between the Mediterranean 
and Persian Gulf, or nearly 500 miles from either; at the very spot where I first 
came upon the river, and also riear the place where the apostate Julian lost the 
greater part of his fleet from a similar storm. The Arabs told us they had often 
witnessed storms, but never one such as this had been. 
I had been saved, and therefore I could not despair, though half the river still 
réfmained to be navigated. I had now the painful task of communicating what I 
had hitherto concealed from the officers and men, the orders to break up the Expe- 
dition a8 soon as it should reach the Persian Gulf. I announced that I considered — 
the late calamity would justify a departure from these orders, and being nobly 
seconded by the officers, who gave up their pay to lessen the expenses, we happily 
continued our stirvey and descent by Babylon to Bassorah, where we fired seventy- 
two fuis, one for every year of our warm-hearted monarch King William. 
The expected supplies had not yet reached the Persian Gulf from India, but they 
were received at a later period, and we renewed our operations by ascending more 
_ than 300 miles of the river Tigris, to the city of the Kaliphs, Baghdad. The 
steamer everywhere created surprise if not amazement. On one occasion, an Arab, 
