The reputation of Chardin, which even before his death extended throughout Europe and shed a lustre over his old age, is still on the increase, and must be as durable as literature and civilization; his merit not consisting in splendour of description or in erudite research, though in these he is by no means deficient, but in that singular sagacity which enabled him to penetrate into the heart and characters of men, and to descend with almost unerring precision to the roots of institutions and manners. No European seems to have comprehended the Persians so completely; and no one has hitherto described them so well. Religion, government, morals, manners, costume—every thing in which one nation can differ from another—Chardin had studied in that bold and original manner which characterizes the efforts of genius. His style, though careless, and sometimes quaint, is not destitute of that naïveté and ease which result from much experience and the consciousness of intellectual power; and if occasionally it appear heavy and cumbrous in its march, it more frequently quickens its movements, and hurries along with natural gracefulness and facility. Without appearing desirous of introducing himself to the reader further than the necessities of the case require, he allows us to take so many glimpses of his character and opinions, that by the time we arrive at the termination of his travels we seem to be perfectly acquainted with both; and unless all these indications be fallacious, so much talent, probity, and elegance of manners has seldom been possessed by any traveller. Marco Polo was gifted with a more exalted enthusiasm, and acquired a more extensive acquaintance with the material phenomena of nature; Pietro della Valle amuses the reader by wilder and more romantic adventures; Bernier is more concise and severe; Volney more rigidly philosophical; but for good sense, acuteness of observation, suavity of manner, and scrupulous adherence to truth, no traveller, whether ancient or modern, is superior to Chardin.
ENGELBERT KÆMPFER.
Born 1651.—Died 1716.
This distinguished traveller was born on the 16th of September, 1651, at Lemgow, a small town in the territories of the Count de Lippe, in the circle of Westphalia. His father, who was a clergyman, bestowed upon his son a liberal education suitable to the medical profession, for which he was designed. It is probable, however, that the numerous removals from one city to another which took place in the course of his education,—his studies, which commenced at Hameln, in the duchy of Brunswick, having been successively pursued at Lunebourg, Hamburgh, Lubeck, Dantzick, Thorn, Cracow, and Kœnigsberg,—communicated to his character a portion of that restless activity and passion for vicissitude which marked his riper years. But these changes of scene by no means impaired his ardour for study. Indeed, the idea of one day opening himself a path to fame as a traveller appears, on the contrary, to have imparted additional keenness to his thirst for knowledge; his comprehensive and sagacious mind very early discovering in how many ways a knowledge of antiquity, of literature, and the sciences might further the project he had formed of enlarging the boundaries of human experience.
Having during his stay at Kœnigsberg acquired a competent knowledge of natural history and the theory of medicine, he returned at the age of thirty to his own country; whence, after a brief visit, he again departed for Prussia and Sweden. Wherever he went, the number and variety of his acquirements, the urbanity of his manners, and the romance and enthusiasm of his character rendered him a welcome guest, and procured him the favour of warm and powerful friends. During his residence in this country, at the university of Upsal and at Stockholm, he became known to Rudbeck and Puffendorf, the father of the historian; and it was through the interest of the latter that, rejecting the many advantageous offers which were made for the purpose of tempting him to remain in Sweden, he obtained the office of secretary to the embassy then about to be sent into Persia. The object of this mission was partly commercial, partly political; and as the Czar of Russia was indirectly concerned in its contemplated arrangements, it was judged necessary that the ambassador should proceed to Ispahan by the way of Moscow.
Our traveller departed from Stockholm March 20, 1683, with the presents for the Shah of Persia, and, proceeding through Arland, Finland, and Ingermunland, joined Louis Fabricius at Narva. On their arrival at Moscow, where their reception was magnificent, the ambassador so skilfully conducted his negotiations that in less than two months they were enabled to pursue their journey. They accordingly descended the Volga, and, embarking at Astrakan in a ship with two rudders, and two pilots who belonged to different nations, and could not understand each other, traversed the Caspian Sea, where they encountered a violent tempest, and at length arrived at Nisabad. Here they found the ambassadors of Poland and Russia, who had arrived a short time previously, and were likewise on their way to Ispahan, and in their company proceeded to Shamaki, the capital of Shirwan.
In this city, which they reached about the middle of December, they remained a whole month, awaiting the reply of the shah to the governor of Shirwan, who immediately upon their arrival had despatched a courier to court for directions respecting the manner in which, the several ambassadors were to be treated and escorted to Ispahan. This delay was fortunate for Kæmpfer, as it enabled him to visit and examine the most remarkable objects of curiosity in the neighbourhood, more particularly the ancient city of Baku, renowned for its eternal fire; the naphtha springs of Okesra; the burning fountains and mephitic wells; and the other wonders of that extraordinary spot. Upon this excursion he set out from Shamakia on the 4th of January, 1684, accompanied by another member of the legation, two Armenians, and an Abyssinian interpreter. Their road, during the first part of this day’s journey, lay over a fine plain abounding in game; having passed which, they arrived about noon at the village of Pyru Resah. Here a storm, attended with a heavy fall of snow, preventing their continuing their journey any farther that day, they took possession of a kind of vaulted stable, which the inhabitants in their simplicity denominated a caravansary; and kindling a blazing fire with dried wormwood and other similar plants, which emitted a most pungent smoke, contrived to thaw their limbs and keep themselves warm until the morning.
Next morning they continued their route, at first through a mountainous and desert country buried in snow, and afterward through a plain of milder temperature, but both equally uninhabited, no living creature making its appearance, excepting a number of eagles perched upon the summits of the heights, and here and there a flock of antelopes browsing upon the plain. Lodging this night also in a caravansary in the desert, and proceeding next day through similar scenes, they arrived in the afternoon at Baku. The aspect of this city, the narrowness of the gate, the strange ornaments of the walls, the peculiarity of the site, the structure of the houses, the squalid countenances of the inhabitants, and the novelty of every object which presented itself, inspired our traveller with astonishment. It happening to be market-day, the streets were crowded with people, who, being little accustomed to strangers, and having never before seen a negro, crowded obstreperously around the travellers, and followed them with hooting, shouting, and clamour to their lodgings. An old man, who had officiously undertaken to provide them with an apartment, conducted them through the mob of his townsfolk, which was every moment becoming more dense, to a small mud hut, situated in a deserted part of the city, and from its dismal and miserable appearance, rather resembling the den of a wild beast than a human dwelling. Having entered this new cave of Trophonius, and shut the door behind them, the travellers, as Kæmpfer jocosely observes, began to offer up their thanks to the tutelary god of the place, for affording them an asylum from the insolence of the rabble. But their triumph was premature. The mob, whose curiosity was by no means to be satisfied with a passing glance, ascended the roof of the den in crowds, and before the travellers could spread out their carpets and lie down, the crashing roof, the lattices broken, and the door, which they had fastened with a beam, violently battered, warned them that it was necessary to escape before they should be overwhelmed by the ruins. It was now thought advisable that they should endeavour, by exhibiting themselves and their Ethiopian interpreter, whom the Bakuares unquestionably mistook for some near relation of the devil’s, to conciliate their persecutors, and purchase the privilege of sleeping in peace. They therefore removed the beam, and issuing forth, Abyssinian and all, into the midst of the crowd, allowed them time to gaze until they were tired. Presently after this the governor of the city arrived; but, instead of affording his protection to the strangers, as a man in his station should have done, he accused them of being spies, and having overwhelmed them with menaces, which he seems to have uttered for the purpose of enhancing his own dignity in the estimation of the multitude, departed, leaving them to enact the spies at their discretion.
Being now left in undisturbed possession of their hut, and there still remaining some hours of daylight, they prevailed upon their host, by dint of a small bribe, to show them the citadel, situated in the loftiest and most deserted part of the city. Returning from thence, they were met by the beadles of the town, who conducted them, with their beasts and baggage, to the public caravansary, though their host and guide had denied the existence of any such building; and while this ancient deceiver was hurried off before the magistrates, our travellers sat down to supper and some excellent wine. Next morning Kæmpfer issued forth, disguised as a groom, to examine the remainder of the city, while his companions loaded their beasts, and, the keeper of the caravansary being absent, slipped out of the city, and waited until he should join them at a little distance upon the road. Having escaped from this inhospitable place, they proceeded to examine the small peninsula of Okesra, a tongue of land about three leagues in length, and half a league in breadth, which projects itself into the Caspian to the south of Baku. This spot, like the Phlegræan fields, appears to be but a thin crust of earth superimposed upon an internal gulf of liquid fire, which, escaping into upper air through a thousand fissures, scorches the earth to dust in some places; in others, presents to the eye a portion of its surface, boiling, eddying, noisome, dark, wrapped in infernal clouds, and murmuring like the fabled waters of hell. Here and there sharp, lofty cones of naked rocks, composed, like the summits of the Caucasus, of conchylaceous petrifactions, shoot up from the level of the plain, and on the northern part of the peninsula are sometimes divided by cultivated valleys. On the summit of one of these eminences they perceived the ruins of a castle, in former times the residence of a celebrated imam, who had taken refuge in these wild scenes from the persecution of the race of Omar.