'Telegraph and travel. A narrative of the formation and development of telegraphic communication between England and India, under the orders of Her Majesty's Government, with incidental notices of the countries traversed by the lines.' [‎54] (87/782)

54
TELEGRAPH AND TRAVEL.
[chap.
I
m
make a brief excursion into the neighbourhood or to
chancre air and scene at Therapia, he remained in 1 era
until theday of his decease. On the ICth January 186.)
he expired at Misseri's Hotel.
It was the painful privilege of the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. of this memoir
to be present with Patrick Stewart during his last illness ;
and it became his duty to report its result as a matter
of public as well as private interest and sympathy, low-
ever feeble the language, the lapse of years has shown
no cause to revise the sentiments expressed. No apo ogy
will therefore be needed for re-publishing a letter w
appeared in the Times of the 27th January
" A sad event has just occurred at Constantinople. A young
and highly-accomplished officer of the scientific branch of the
army, whose name Is familiar as a household word in India and
promised to be equally celebrated in Europe, Lieutenant-Colonel
Patrick Stewart of the Royal Engineers, has breathed his las
after three weeks of almost continual suffering. He had left
England at the close of 1863 for the purpose of laying the Indo-
European sea cable along the coast of Baluchistan and lers.a,
had successfully escorted his important charge up to the head o
the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. at Fao, reaching the shores of Turkish Arabia A term used by the British officials to describe the territory roughly corresponding to, but not coextensive with, modern-day Iraq under the control of the Ottoman Empire.
in a few weeks after leaving Karachi, and then moved np to
Baghdad to see what was the prospect of ensuring an efhcient
communication to and from that city. Unfortunately, thoug
the Ottoman Government had agreed to bring their land me o
the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. , at the mouth of the Shatt-el-Arab, in time o
meet the Indian sea cable, it was found on the arrival of the
latter that a gap of 170 miles of the Turkish section still re
mained unfinished between Baghdad and Basrah. Nor was there
promise even of speedy completion. The Turks wished to pu
up the line; the Arabs would not let them. The matter wouli
have been trivial to a Power like England; it was a lon g'
standing obstacle in Turkish Asia. We should have subsidized
the rebellious Moutefiks into guardians of the line. The obs i-
A
I