CHAPTER XIII.
The severe fever which attacked several of our party a few days after we had reached Mosul, confined me to my bed for three months, and it was the middle of January, 1843, before I was able to leave the house. Mrs. Badger suffered for some weeks longer, and I record with gratitude the kind professional services which Dr. Grant spontaneously offered us during our sickness. After I had recovered, much of my time was at first taken up with collecting the different items of information respecting the Nestorians and Chaldeans which have been given in the foregoing pages, and in holding constant intercourse with the Christians of Mosul and the surrounding villages. Difficulties soon began to spring up in our path; many of the Chaldean laity and several of the clergy expressed a desire to join our communion until a reformed Chaldean body could be organized independent of the See of Rome. Again and again were we urged to receive them by such appeals as these: "What are we to do? Do you advise us to submit to the papal innovations in doctrine and discipline? and, if not, and you are come hither with the design of assisting us, why do you not help us to restore our church to its original purity?" We now began to feel the want of competent authority to direct us as to what course we ought to pursue under these circumstances, and I accordingly wrote to the committee of the Gospel Propagation
