The Progress and Prospects of Oriental Discovery [pp. 476-493]

1875.] ORIENTAL DISCOVERY. 485
inquire carefully after the remains of Assyrian grandeur that
could not be far distant, though long buried in oblivion, and
never calling for notice by Xenephon, when, on his famous
Retreat of the Ten Thousand, he passed over their buried
ruins.
But the French Government, which had already resolved to
establish a consulate at Mosul, instructed M. Botta, to whom
the appointment was given, to search out such traces as yet
remained of the Nineveh of the Bible. His first essays were
not altogether fruitless; but a fortunate accident brought to
his knowledge the existence of sculptured monuments in the
mound of Khorsabad, fourteen miles to the northeast. To
this, therefore, M. Botta directed his attention, and was amply
rewarded by the discovery of the royal palace of Sargon, the
admirable spoils of which were subsequently to enrich the
galleries of the Louvre. The work thus initiated in 1843, was
energetically pushed forward, and in 1846 M. Botta, who had
been efficiently aided by M. Haudin, an eminent artist, returned to France with his splendid collection of original
monuments and designs.
While Botta was engaged in his explorations, Layard returned
to Mosul. Here he learned that the Frenchman was carrying
on excavations at the expense of his government, and that he
had found a great number of curious marbles. The Englishman
was ambitious to rival the discoveries of the Frenchman. Returning to Constantinople, he conferred with Sir Stratford
Canning, and the English Ambassador generously offered to
share with him the cost of excavations at Nimroud. Returning
to Mosul, Layard energetically set himself to his task, and succeeded ultimately in exhuming many wonderful specimens of
Assyrian art, most of which now enrich the British Museum.
It was not till 1848, that his first account, nor till then, or four
years later, that his second account of his explorations was
given to the world. But their fame had gone abroad, and
other laborers had followed him into the Eastern field. Mesopotamia was extensively, though far from exhaustively, explored. To Botta, M. Victor Place had succeeded; and Messrs.
Fresnel and Oppert went to study, on the soil where Babylon
and Assyria had flourished, the remains of their ancient greatness. Messrs. Taylor and Loftus, at the expense of the English
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