223
 

Baghdad, Hillah, Birs-i-NimrOd, and BAbil.

Having found, thanks to Captain Butterworth, most
comfortable quarters on his gunboat, the '' Comet," I
took my sheaf of letters of introduction from Lord
Salisbury, Sir Henry Rawlinson, Sir Edward Bradford,
the Principal Librarian of the British Museum, and others,
and went to the British Residency to wait upon the
Consul-General, Colonel (later Major-General) W. Tweedie.
I was " passed " after strict scrutiny by the Sikh Guard,
and one official after the other led me to the Resident's
private room, in which Rich, Taylor, Rawlinson, Plowden
and others had built up British influence in Baghdad.
There I found Colonel Tweedie^ seated at a large table
 

^ His career was distinguished, and the following brief notes of it
I have derived from a printed statement with which he was good
enough to furnish me on November 30th, 1906. He entered as an
Ensign of Infantry on the Bengal EstabUshment in January, 1857;
carried the Colours of the 78th Highlanders throughout the Mutiny,
and received the Mutiny Medal with two clasps, and the grant of one
year's service. He passed the Government Examinations in Hindustani
(Interpreter's test) and Persian (high proficiency standard). Was
appointed Second Assistant to the Resident at the Niz^'s Court in
Hydarabad in 1866. General Sir R. Napier made him his Political
Secretary, and he went through the Abyssinian Campaign, being
present at the battle of Ardgah, and at the assault on Magdala. He
served as Assistant Resident at Hydarabad, and as Agent at Mur-
shidabad in Bengal, and as Political Agent at the Court of H.H. the
Maharajah Scindia of Gualior. He was PoHtical Secretary to Sir F. S.
(later Lord) Roberts during the Afghan Campaign, and received the
Afghan Medal, and was made a C.S.I. In 1880 he passed the Higher
Standard Examination in Arabic, and he was Consul-General at
Baghdad and Political Resident for the Government of India in
Turkish Arabia from 1885 to 1891. He was promoted from Colonel
to Major-General on June loth, 1893, and on October loth his name
was placed on the Unemployed List. His last appointment, as I
learned from him, was little to his liking, for he regarded Baghdad
as a " backwater/' and a " place of banishment."    He  died  on