In 1844, TISCHENDORF visited the monasteries already explored by CURZON and TATTAM. His account reproduces the old characteristics:—‘Manuscripts heaped indiscriminately together, lying on the ground, or thrown into large baskets, beneath masses of dust.... The excessive suspicion of these monks renders it extremely difficult to induce them to produce their MSS., in spite of the extreme penury which surrounds them.... But much might yet be found to reward the labour of the searcher.’ In truth, the monks, poor and simple as they sometimes seemed to be, had taken very sufficient care to keep enough of literary treasures in their hands to reward ‘further researches.’ Nearly half of their collection seems to have been withheld. [Sidenote: PACHO’S NEGOTIATION FOR THE RECOVERY OF THE MSS. WITHHELD BY THE MONKS OF ST. MARY DEIPARA.] A certain clever Mr. PACHO now entered on the scene as a negotiator for the obtainment or recovery of the missing ‘treasures of the tombs.’ They had been virtually purchased before, but the Lords of the Treasury very wisely re-opened the public purse, and at length secured for the Nation an inestimable possession. The new accession completed, or went far towards completing, many MSS. which before were tantalizingly imperfect. [Sidenote: See page 622, in this Chapter.] It supplied a second ancient copy of the famous Ignatian _Epistles_ (_to St. Polycarp_, _to the Ephesians_, and _to the Romans_); many fragments of palimpsest manuscripts of great antiquity, and among them the greater part of St. Luke’s _Gospel_ in Greek; and about four thousand lines of the _Iliad_, written in a fine square uncial letter, apparently not later than the sixth century. The total number of volumes thus added to the previous Nitrian Collections were calculated, roundly, to be from a hundred and forty to a hundred and fifty. That the rich accession to our sacred literature, thus made amidst many obstacles, should be turned speedily to public advantage, two conditions had to be fulfilled. [Sidenote: WILLIAM CURETON AND HIS LABOURS IN ORIENTAL LITERATURE.] Skilful labour had first to be employed in the arrangement of a mass of fragments. Scholars competently prepared, by previous studies in Oriental literature and more especially in Syriac, must then get to work on their transcription, their gloss, and their publication. It could scarcely have been expected, beforehand, that any one man would be able to undertake both tasks, and to keep them, for some years to come, well abreast. The fact, however, proved to be so. The right man was already in the right place for the work that was to be done.