Mirza Abool Hassan, a Persian of much influence at court, arrived in the course of the day from Teheran, and was the bearer of a letter from the King to the Envoy. This letter was nearly to the same effect as the first, giving details of the victory over the Russians. We went forward to meet it as before, and adopted the former ceremony of giving it a solemn reading.
23d. Although the violence of the wind had fallen in the morning, very heavy clouds still covered the summits of the mountains, and threatened a renewal of bad weather. We proceeded, however, on a fine hard road (on the bearing of N. 40 W. during the whole march) and arrived in safety at Surmek in five hours and forty minutes after our departure from Khona Khorréh. The people of the country reckon this day’s journey at six long fursungs, though to us it appeared a smaller distance. The Persian fursung is indeed so indeterminate a measure, that no calculation can be safely formed from it, and no man can give a satisfactory account of its real length. On the whole, we found that the reputed distances in the line of our march are rather over-calculated than under-rated. The road leads on the right of a plain which widens at its northern termination. The mountains on both sides of it run N. and S. taking indeed a transverse E. and W. direction at both its extremities; and beyond the first range on the west of the route is another, and a parallel chain of much greater elevation, which binds an intermediate plain. The peasantry are ill clothed, and look miserably. They wear in general a little skull cap, slit on each side, called Dogoosheh. Their dress is a loose coat with hanging sleeves of a very rude cloth, tied about with a coarse sash. Surmek, where we encamped for the night, is situated on the E. side of the plain, near the foot of the mountains. It now consists of a square mud fort, which contains its whole population; around it are the ruins of its original extent. Between the town and the mountains the cultivation is very luxuriant, for the fields are irrigated by kanauts from a neighbouring stream. To the northward of the fort, and two hundred yards from the road, stand the remains of a castle, which the Persians assign to the age of King Bahram, but which, in construction, resembles so nearly the later buildings of the country, that its antiquity becomes suspicious. It is nevertheless in itself a most curious work. A ditch surrounds it, and there is a wall within it, composed, like the outward parts of the fabric, of large stones cemented together by mud. The great variety of vaulted chambers and subterraneous inlets, proves that it was destined for other purposes than those of military defence only.
On the 24th we resumed our march, on a road as hard and fine as that of the preceding day, and on the same bearing; and having travelled in four hours a distance probably of twelve miles, reached our encampment at Abadéh. We noticed many square forts, which are now generally not only the protection of the district, but the residence of the cultivators. The ruins indeed, which overspread the country, contrast its former prosperity too forcibly with the present depopulation. In this region, however, the more immediate causes of its devastation have ceased; for it owed its principal sufferings to the long wars, of which it was the scene, between the Zund and Cadjar families, and which are now terminated by the fortune of the latter. On our arrival at Abadéh, we were saluted as usual by the istakball, who went through all their noise and firing. The first appearance of Abadéh announces a large place; but on a nearer inspection the town exhibits only a great extent of ruined walls without inhabitants. The present population is all enclosed within a square fort, the walls, indeed, of which were crowded by women, whose white veils made them conspicuous objects even at a distance. The fort itself is defended by a turret at each angle, and three in each of the intervening sides. I walked into it to look at a bath, the most respectable building in the place; for the rest consists only of miserable walls of mud or brick. Yet in the rudest wall we found a well-formed arch, which the want of timber has taught the people to construct, and the same necessity has forced the same lesson on other parts of the country.
The property and jurisdiction of Abadéh, Surmek, and Shoolgistoon, with their intervening territories, belong by purchase to one man. Yet the scarcity of water in the district must render it an unprofitable estate. Abadéh, however, is surrounded by gardens, from which some very good fruit is sent to Shiraz; but the irrigation is all carried by artificial kanauts.
25th. The clouds which, on the preceding day, had sprinkled a few flakes of snow on our tract, and had threatened a heavy fall, rolled off before day-break, and opened to us one of the most brilliant mornings in nature. The mountains were no longer concealed from our view; the snow, indeed, covered their summits, and impregnated every blast of wind with a piercing but invigorating freshness. We proceeded along the same plain, on a bearing which averaged N. 29 W. The high lands on each side, now advancing, now receding from us, continued their N. and S. direction; and, where the snow had not covered their surfaces, presented that hard and forbidding aspect which indicated the minerals below.[35] The soil on the plain still was gravel lightly mixed with earth, producing nothing but thistles and soap-wort. Indeed, if it were a finer mould, the want of water would render it of little value even to the most skilful possessor. At the distance of three miles from a village called Baghwardar we halted; and I took a meridional observation of the sun, which gave us a latitude of thirty-one degrees twenty-five minutes. We reckoned eight miles from Abadéh to this spot, and nine more to Shoolgistoon, the termination of the day’s march. Whilst we were waiting until the sun should pass the meridian, one of our party picked up the stump of a thistle, and on examining its inside, we found two torpid wasps, which had formed their recess there, waiting the approach of spring once again to issue into life.
The little fort, mosque, and caravanserai at Shoolgistoon are seen at least six miles before they are reached. The plain to the northward of our route was bounded by a flat horizon, from which every successive mountain or building rose, as we advanced, like objects when first seen at sea.
26th. The night was boisterous, the wind blew strong from the southward and westward, and distant thunder rolled over the hills. The morning presented a dark and dismal array of clouds and snow-clad mountains all around us; and when the trumpet sounded for the Envoy’s departure, every thing announced a cold and cheerless ride. The sun made several efforts to break through the heavy atmosphere, and succeeded once or twice, only to cast faint shadows of our troops across the road as we paced along; and, when we were about four miles from our destined encampment at Yezdikhaust, the rain begun to fall. We travelled a distance of fifteen miles in five hours. The road was still carried over a gravel soil, till about two miles from Yezdikhaust, when we entered a softer ground. The mountains gradually dwindled into hills, and seemed to form a termination to this long plain by throwing themselves in lessening forms across it. They continued, like those of our latter route, barren, brown and inhospitable, without a shrub to enliven their rugged masses. On the left of the plain, all were covered with snow, while all to the right were as yet untouched.
We could perceive the town of Yezdikhaust a long time before we reached it, and supposed, therefore, that it was situated at the foot of the eastern hills, on the same plain as that on which we were travelling. Our surprise then was, of course, excited to find ourselves on a sudden stopt by a precipice in our route. From its brow we overlooked a small plain beautifully watered by a variety of streams, and parcelled out in every direction into cultivated fields and gardens. The country which we had crossed was unbroken by the labour of the ploughman; here his industry was displayed and richly rewarded: we had seen scarcely one scanty rill; here water meandered in profusion; and though this little spot was now stripped of its verdure and chilled by the gloom of winter, the contrast between cultivation and a desert was still striking and cheering. This valley is like a large trench excavated in the plain. It is five miles long in an E. and W. direction, and about three hundred yards broad in the line where we crossed; but the breadth is unequal. At the eastern extremity on the brink of the precipice, hangs the town of Yezdikhaust. Its situation is most fantastical, and its mean and ill-defined houses appear at first sight to belong to the rocks on which they rise, and which, in varied and extravagant masses, surround the valley. The substance of the rock is soft. Beneath it is a caravanserai, an elegant building erected near two hundred years ago by a pious Queen of the Seffi race. It is still in good repair, less by the care of the present generation than by the original solidity of its structure. On the verge of the precipice is a small mosque, built by the same Queen; and around it a burial place. Yezdikhaust is the frontier town of the provinces of Fars and Irak. Before the conquest of the Affghans it was a place of some consequence, but since their devastations it has never resumed its prosperity. It was taken by assault, and the inhabitants put to the sword. To the East, over a rude drawbridge, is the entrance to the town, which, without the use of cannon, seems almost impregnable. It is there an isolated rock, connected with the others around only by this bridge.
27th. It rained at intervals during the night with much fury. It cleared up, however, during the morning, and the sun shone bright; but it was then freezing so hard, that we were obliged to leave the tents behind us until they should have lost their stiffness in the warmth of the day. The feast of the Corban Bairam now commenced among the Mussulmans. The Persians performed the ceremonies of the day, and we again proceeded on our journey. The direction of our march averaged N. 10 W. After travelling nearly seven hours we reached its termination at Maxhood-Beggy, a distance of eighteen miles. The line of our route led us to the W. side of the plain, over a road still finer even than that on which we had journied on the preceding day. The mountains lost their regular bearing and outline, and were more varied in their projections and recesses. At about nine miles from Yezdikhaust we arrived at a caravanserai and a fort, the approaches to which were thickly spread with the vestiges of a town. The place was called Ameenabad. On the plain also, which succeeded, were scattered ruins. A North-east wind sprung up, and, passing down the snowy summits of the mountains, brought a sharpness so piercing, that, for the first time, we were incommoded by the cold, and were anxious to get to our encampment for the night.
Before our arrival, we were met by a person deputed by the Governor of Ispahan, to welcome us into his territory. Maxhood-Beggy is seen at a distance, and then looks a large place. But the appearances of its grandeur vanish on a nearer approach in ruins; some indeed are substantial walls, and the remains of bazars. Yet, instead of the dilapidated chamber of some miserable caravanserai, which alone we could have expected, we were lodged in a house of singular convenience and even elegance. It was built in fact, for her own accommodation, by the Queen at Shiraz, (the mother of the Prince Governor of Farsistan) who was accustomed every two years to take a journey to the King at Teheran, and who accordingly provided on both the winter and the summer route a similar resting place. She enjoys a great reputation, and the affections of the people; for she is charitable to the poor, and ready to do justice to the oppressed.