The affairs of Persia are conducted with a publicity which would ill accord with the diplomacy of Europe. As that stipulation, which was the surest evidence of the permanent dispositions of the Court, remained unfulfilled; the Envoy on the 9th of April dispatched, by Jaffer Ali Khan and myself, an official note on the subject to the Ministers, which he desired them to lay before the King. We carried it to the Der a Khonéh Shah, or gate of the King’s palace, where there are offices for the Ministers and Secretaries to transact the business of the state; and where they assemble every day to be ready whenever the King may call them. Here we seated ourselves in the public room among all the officers of the court, waiting for Mirza Sheffeea, and the Ameen-ed-Doulah, who were then before the King. In a back room were men counting money; in that, in which we sat, were the Chief Secretary, Mirza Reza, and Ismael Beg Damgaunee, (the King’s favourite, and commander of the body-guard) and several others all occupied in writing, talking, or smoking. When the Ministers arrived, I delivered the public letter accompanied by a private note from the Envoy. Mirza Sheffeea then unfolded the official note. There were perhaps twenty people in the court near the window where the Mirza sat, who looked over the paper, and knew its contents as soon and as well as the Minister himself; and all my expostulations could not procure their removal. When the Minister had read it, he told us he would lay it before the King, and then desired us to retire to another room, where we might eat, drink, and put ourselves at our ease, until the King should send for us.
We went to a room in another part of the palace, and sat there full five hours, during which time we had a visit from a son of the Ameen-ed-Doulah, a young man who has the great post of Comptroller of the Household to the King. His business is to provide for the King’s kitchen, to see every thing before it goes to the King, and to superintend every part of the eating and drinking concerns of the establishment. Whilst we were seated with him, four round trays of lettuces, in the centre of which was a gold vase of vinegar and syrup, Were brought before him. He inspected them, tasted the syrup, and approved them fit for his Majesty’s eating. After that, two young Georgian slaves were brought in for sale, for one of whom the master asked one hundred and fifty tomauns. The five hours, which we passed here, were long and melancholy: the only amusements which were provided to cheer us, were a dish of lettuces, the chief carver, and some specimens of writing: on the latter indeed every one in the company, except myself, could comment at full length. The Persians are great admirers of fine writing, or, more strictly, of penmanship, to excel in which requires, according to their estimate, a practice of twenty years.
At length we were summoned before the King. Preceded by the two Ministers, we passed through the same dirty door, into the same garden in which we had been at the last audience: we made as many bows as before, and took off our slippers at the same place; but water had been thrown on the ground, and this last ceremony was therefore very disagreeably contrasted with our former introduction; for instead of the fine gold-wrought carpet in the King’s room, we were now reduced to stand on a wet brick pavement by the side of a basin of water. His Majesty having first inquired after the Envoy’s health, and made some preliminary compliments, reverted to the official note which had been communicated to him that morning by his Ministers. After a short explanation, the King proceeded; and seating himself erect on his throne, in a convenient talking position, talked without intermission for a considerable time with much animation and action. We then returned to the room which we had first entered in the morning.
The Prime Minister sat down close to the window to return an answer to the Envoy’s official communication. Several servants, who were at the window, read this note, word by word as it was written; so that the original and the answer were equally well known to the public. The Mirza repeated to us his letter, and then sending the attendants away, desired to have some conversation with us. The discussion was unsatisfactory, and we returned.
In these circumstances the decision of the Envoy’s character secured the object of his mission. The point was gained, and it was settled accordingly that he should see the King on the morrow. On the morrow accordingly, Mr. Bruce and I, dressed in our kalaats, attended him to the King.
His Majesty was seated in the Koola built by Aga Mahomed Khan, in the Gulistan. He was on a chair, and dressed in a shawl coat. He was very gracious, told the Envoy that he had determined upon our alliance, promised that the French should be dismissed, and hoped that after the decision which he had thus made, His Brother of England would not dissent.
The room was covered on all its sides with looking-glass; of this also, the dome which surmounted the whole, was composed. A handsome chandelier was suspended from the centre, and three fountains of water played beneath it.
On the 15th Mr. Bruce was sent to Bushire to proceed to India. The French, in consequence of the Envoy’s successful representations, were preparing to leave Teheran immediately. Their Embassador, General Gardanne, wanted to go to Russia through Georgia; but the court of Persia justly fearing in such a quarter the influence of that resentment, (which, since the signing of our Preliminary Treaty the French had not scrupled to express) refused the permission; and the King ordered his son, the Prince Governor of Aderbigian, to give the French mission an escort of one hundred men, by the way of Arz-roum, and on no account to permit any deviation from that route.
We went before the King; His Majesty’s conversation was quite enlivening. He swore that it was by Him that Buonaparte was made the man that he is, and that in the course of the next year he would be destroyed. We received His Majesty’s letter to the King of England. It was richly gilt and ornamented with flowers. The seal was on a separate piece of paper, and placed at the foot of the letter; according to an old Persian etiquette, when the King addresses an equal: when He writes to an inferior, the seal is affixed to the top. In composition, Persian critics pronounced this letter perfect; the Chief Secretary had been employed in it several days; and that to the Minister for Foreign Affairs was intended to be equally fine, and indeed to comprehend all the politics of the world within its pages.
Under these circumstances, on the night of the 23d, a letter arrived from the Governor-General in India, of which it might be improper to disclose the contents, further than to remark, that they placed His Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary in a situation of peculiar embarrassment, from which nothing but the most friendly disposition in the Persian court could have relieved him. It is due to the King of Persia himself to add, that He condescended to treat Sir Harford Jones on this occasion with the most gratifying evidences of his protection and individual favour: and His Ministers united in displaying the greatest personal kindness towards us. Throughout the whole management of a new and very delicate situation, their proceedings were so plain, so upright, and so cheering; so eager to shew respect and confidence to the Envoy, that we regarded them with the liveliest gratitude; and felt relieved by finding among strangers all the heart and principle of countrymen and brothers.