ABSTRACT
A few years before Rassam's arrival in Mosul Prince de Talleyrand, the veteran French diplomat, had outlined the characteristics of an ideal consul assigned to a post in the Ottoman empire: call for a mass of practical knowledge for which specialized training is normally required. The British government had recognized all these qualities in Rassam, some of them native to a product of the Mosul trading community, others acquired in the hard school of the Euphrates expedition. The Prudential Committee of the American Board, impressed by Grant's achievements and prospects, assigned two missionaries to proceed with their wives from the United States to Mosul, which would serve as the year-round base for mission work in the mountains. The complete journal of the missionaries, written by Hinsdale and preserved in the archives of the American Board, fills out a scenario that would have been familiar to the Capuchins of Louis XIV.
