When the hour of dancing arrived, the Mirza entered the ball-room, escorted by all his servants. There his people were more than ever in amaze, particularly when the whole assembly was in motion. Of all the dances the Waltz excited the most wonder and perhaps apprehension, for one of them quietly asked my servant in Turkish, “Pray does any thing ensue after all this?”
In the national character of the Persian, the most striking difference from that of the Turk is perhaps the facility with which he adopts foreign manners and customs. I remarked two instances during our stay at Constantinople: the first occurred one morning when I went to visit the Mirza, where one of his servants took off his cap and saluted me by a bow in our fashion: again, at a ball, several of his attendants took off their caps and sat bald-headed, from the supposition that it was disrespectful in European company to keep the head covered, whilst they saw every one uncovered. There were many other accommodations to our usages which would never have been yielded by a Turk; such as eating with knives and forks, sitting at table, drinking wine, &c. The Mirza himself told me that when he was in Calcutta, he wore leather-breeches and boots. I am sure then that if the Persians had possessed as much communication with Europeans, as the Turks have had, they would at this day not only have adopted many of our customs, but, with their natural quickness, would have rivalled us in our own arts and sciences. Unlike the Turks, they never scruple to acknowledge our superiority, always however reserving to themselves the second place after the English in the list of nations: whereas the Turk, too proud, too obstinate, and too ignorant to confess his own inferiority, spurns at the introduction of any improvement with equal disdain from any nation.
The great changes that are now making in the military system in Persia, particularly by the Prince Royal in Aderbigian, will in a very short time so much influence the general character and disposition of the people, that they will scarcely be recognizable. Ever since their late wars with Russia, and their political connections with Europe, the effect produced has been most striking: and a person of excellent authority, who was in Persia during the time of Kerim Khan, affirmed, in my hearing, that the nation could scarcely be considered the same.
From Constantinople we went to Smyrna, where we remained till we quitted Turkey. On the 7th September 1809, the Mirza and his servants went on board the Success, Captain Ayscough, to proceed to England. The people of Smyrna gathered in crowds to see him. The yards were manned; and he was honoured with a salute of fifteen guns, which (as soon at least as it was over) gave him no little satisfaction.
He soon accommodated himself to the manner of a ship, sleeping in a cot, and eating with a knife and fork. He did not miss a single opportunity of informing himself on every thing which he saw on board; and whatever he learned, he carefully noted in a book. His attendants seldom complained, except sometimes of the badness of the water, the hardness of the biscuit, and the want of fruit. I was struck with their natural ignorance of relative distance: they had been ever accustomed to calculate distance by menzils or day’s journies; and they were surprised to find it impossible to continue such reckoning. A world of water seemed to them incomprehensible; and one of them gravely said to me—“This is quite extraordinary: this country of your’s is nothing but water!”
The Persians were particularly astonished, that women and little boys went to sea. The Mirza seeing some women on board the Success, exclaimed, “Is it possible! if I were to tell our women in Persia that there were women in ships, they would never believe me. To go from one town to another is considered a great undertaking taking amongst them; but here your women go from one end of the world to the other, and think nothing of it. If it were even known in my family that I was now in a ship and on the great seas, there would be nothing but wailings and lamentations from morning to night.”
Among the many things which struck the Persians as extraordinary on board the ship, was the business of signals. They looked very much inclined to believe, that I was telling them untruths, when I said, that at two fursungs distance they might ask any questions from another ship, and receive an immediate answer: and that when we should reach England, our arrival would be known in London in ten minutes, and every necessary order returned before we could get out of the ship. All these things the Mirza carefully noted down in his book, ever exclaiming, “God grant that all such things may take place in my country too!”
When we arrived at Malta we were not permitted to land on account of the quarantine; a very mortifying prohibition to the Persians, who had no greater wish than to set foot once again on shore. I could make the Envoy indeed comprehend the nature of quarantine laws; but his people were not so tractable, and frequently suggested their fears to him, that he might not be allowed to land even in England. He spoke seriously to me:—“It is well that I have already seen your countrymen, and know many of their regulations; for, if any other Persian had been in my place he would have required instantly to return back to his own country.” They were much delighted with the exterior of Malta; and particularly with the quantity of shipping in the port. On the left of the harbour, there is a very fine building begun by Buonaparte, intended as a hospital. They seemed mightily astonished that so superb a building should be the habitation of the sick.
Those, indeed, who have been accustomed to live under an arbitrary government, and to see acts of despotism committed every day, look with contempt, rather than with admiration, upon the establishments of a free and liberal government; and ridicule objects by which the promoter apparently and directly gains nothing.
We talked of female dress. I asked the Envoy what effect the visit of an European woman dressed in her own way would produce in Persia. He replied, that “if the King were to see her, He would probably order all his Harem to adopt the costume, and that every other man would follow his example, and enforce a fashion, which is not only so much more beautiful, but so much less expensive than their own. Their women are clothed in brocade and gold cloth, which is soon spoilt; or at least which is always cast off, whenever they hear that a new cargo arrives from Russia.”