On the breaking of the morning we had discovered an immense plain, so thickly strewed with villages, that no one could repeat to me all their names. The whole, in number about one hundred, compose the bolouk or district of Souj-bolouk, and are mostly under the Ameen-ed-Doulah.
At Koran we saw the Hakim or Governor, as he was setting out on an expedition to collect the tribute from the peasantry. The village and the surrounding territory are delightfully watered by a river, which, issuing from between an Eastern and a Western chain of mountains, flows through a very steep channel, (in a N. and S. direction, after meandering some time from E. to W.) A great number of dikes, are cut from it, and extend the fertility beyond the course of the river, through the whole plain; which, particularly near the villages, is admirably cultivated.
From Koran we returned to the line, and met the road at a point where stood a caravanserai and a tomb, both in ruins, and a clump of trees. We were four hours in reaching Gauzir-seng, our Menzil, a total distance from Karatch of twenty-eight miles.
In the plain through which we passed, we saw at a distance about five tumuli. They are such as are seen on the plains of Troy, and here also are called Tapé. We may account for them by the battles between the Persians and Turks, who buried their dead under similar mounds. There are numbers all over the plain: the people of the country say, that borges or towers were built on these mounds; and our host at Gauzir-seng told us that a large tapé called Murad-tapé, or the Hill of Charity near the village, received its name from a man who had made it his residence. His story (if it be worth telling) continued however, that a stranger, who had asked charity in vain even on this hill, found at the door the master’s horse, and rode off with it, exclaiming, “this is your charity.”
At Gauzir-seng, we were lodged in one of the towers that flank the walls of the village. It was open on all sides by windows; we could thus enjoy the Westerly breeze, which allayed the great heat of the day. We were very well treated by the Ket Khoda of the village, who seemed to me a well-bred and well-meaning man. We had good moss, (curdled milk, the same as the yaourt, in Turkey) and a sort of drink made of moss and water, of which the common people all drink very plentifully at this season.
10th. We left Gauzir-seng at midnight, and came to Kish-lauk, bearing West of our last station, on a distance of about fifteen miles.
The Prince of Aderbigian has a pleasure-house here, which is extolled by Persians as a wonder and a paradise. I could discover the extent of the grounds, and the house, which is built on one of the artificial tapés or mounds.
A most beautiful morning opened the day to us; the twilight commenced at four o’clock, and the sun rose at five. The mountains, still bearing East and West, declined in their height to the Westward, terminating towards the plain by small hills. After passing Kish-lauk we came on a common, on which large herds of cattle were feeding. To the left of the road were many villages spread all over a plain, the extent of which was concealed by a haze: the whole district is divided into many bolouks, and is under the jurisdiction of Casvin. The principal villages on the left are Hossein-abad, Hassan-abad, Shahinerlou, Shahin-tape. Some on the right, are Angouri mahalé, and compose part of a bolouk called Kou-payéh, belonging to Mirza Reza Kouli, who was Embassador to France, and signed the treaty of Finkenstein.
At about seven miles from Casvin, we turned from the road at a small mud-walled village, to eat something ourselves, and to give our horses some grass. On entering a room, the master talked Turkish to me, and said that he had seen me before at Constantinople. In fact I recognised him as one of those whom I had seen at Constantinople, with the Persian Embassy to France. He talked to me with much pleasure of Frangistoon or Europe: and this man, who boasts of having sat in the same room, and of having been taken by the hand by Buonaparte himself, now lives in misery and solitude in an unknown village. It is not uninteresting to know the extreme attention which Buonaparte paid to his Persian guests. He lodged the Embassador and his suite in an house adjacent to his own at Finkenstein, and every day used to walk in amongst them, take them by the hand, and use every little art to conciliate their affections.
We reached Casvin at half past twelve. The day was hot and suffocating, and there was an appearance of storm in the Westward. For about two miles before we entered the gates, we passed by fields and gardens, mostly producing vines, which, as I am told, yield the best grape in Persia. This place labours under great inconvenience from the want of water; indeed, through the whole extent of the immense plain, that we traversed during the day, there was not one natural stream; but many kanauts were making, and wherever there is irrigation, there is fertility, and the cultivation is rich. Upon the whole therefore, our route from Teheran displayed a country of much more promising appearance, than (if we had trusted only to the experience of our own journey from Bushire to the capital) we might have expected in Persia. The brother of the Minister of Sheik Ali Khan, one of the King’s sons, and Governor of the city, came out to meet us as an istakball, and accompanied us to an house, which had been once a good one, but was then abandoned and in ruins. Our Mehmandar had great difficulty to procure the refreshment that was due to us; but when at length it arrived, there was a supply of cooks, pots, and provisions, which would have satisfied an army. Casvin is almost one mass of ruins. A Zibzileh (an earthquake), within no distant period, threw down the buildings which were in the Tottie, and made cracks in almost every wall. A large mosque, built by the Abbasses, has been rent in many places in its thick walls, and totally ruined.