CHAPTER XVII.
I shall now proceed to lay before my readers some account of the political condition of the Coordish and Nestorian tribes inhabiting central Coordistan, and shall endeavour to trace the origin and progress of those internal dissensions among them which in 1843 led to the massacre of the unfortunate Christians. I beg to premise, however, that such notices in the following narrative as tend to attach any blame to the Nestorians were unknown to me previous to my second visit to the Tyari in 1850, when I learned from authentic sources how far their own intestine quarrels had contributed to their slaughter and downfall.
It is difficult at this distance of time, and deprived as we are of any authentic records of that period, to decide with absolute certainty when the Nestorians first took up their abode in that part of ancient Assyria which we now call Central Coordistan. The present descendants of the early settlers know nothing on the subject, and would as readily, I believe, answer a leading question to that effect, and say that their forefathers came from China, as they told Dr. Grant that they had originally been driven from Palestine. Mr. Layard's account agrees with the common tradition preserved among the more intelligent people
