Page:Discovery and Decipherment of the Trilingual Cuneiform Inscriptions.djvu/138

as any person with ordinary nerves may successfully encounter.'^[1] Towards the close of the year 1835, he paid a short visit to Bagdad, to place himself under the care of Dr. Ross; and he there became acquainted with Colonel Taylor, whom he was afterwards destined to succeed as British Resident. In the early spring, he led a native force of three thousand men through the mountains of Luristan, and took the opportunity of visiting Dizful, Suza, and Shuster. By that time his interest was fully aroused in cuneiform studies, and he no doubt heard from Colonel Taylor of the efforts that had been made in Europe to interpret the inscriptions. The vagueness of his information upon the subject is evident from the prominence he accords to the abortive speculations of St. Martin. We find him, in March 1836, lamenting over the destruction of the famous black stone of Susa, for he had hoped by its means to 'verify or disprove the attempts which have been made by St. Martin and others to decipher the arrow-head characters.' - His mind was also occupied with geographical subjects, in which he afterwards attained to great distinction. He wrote to his brother for particulars of the expedition of Heraclius, and thought he had solved the mystery of the two rivers at Susa, which was probably the same as that afterwards announced by Mr. Loftus. He began to look forward to his three years' leave of absence, which he hoped to spend in 'a nice cheap lodging' at Oxford or Cambridge' for the sake of consulting the classical and Oriental works which are there alone procurable.'^[2] Meanwhile he had ordered out books from England, and for the

1. J. JR. A. S. x. 15. Layard, however, says he sometimes at least availed himself of a powerful telescope. Nineveh and Babylon (1882), p. xliii.
2. Memoir, p. 63.