SECOND VISIT TO SHAPOUR,
APRIL, 1811.
“We proceeded over the plain to the Southward and Westward, to see what a peasant called the Kaleh or Castle, and the Mesjed or Mosque, which are large conspicuous buildings seen from almost all parts of the plain. These we found to be Mohammedan structures, excepting part of an ancient wall or buttress, and a column, with a square fallen capital, that are to be seen in the former, and of the same age as the edifices at Shapour. In the square of this ruined castle we found some little black tents of the wandering tribes; from the good folks of which we got some dong or butter-milk, of which they drink large quantities at this season. We surprised them by asking them if they had any Poul Kadeim or ancient money; to which they answered, very ingenuously, that they had neither new nor old. The fact is, that old coins are more frequently found amongst these sort of people than amongst any other; for if they find any, the favourite wife generally has them suspended with her other trinkets, in a necklace around her neck. When old coins or money out of use fall into the hands of town’s people, traders, shopkeepers, or such like, they generally melt it down immediately, and get it recoined. In all our researches for old coins, we have been unsuccessful, and it has only been by the greatest chance that we have now and then got a Sassanian or an Arsacian medal. A man brought what he called a collection of old coins to the Embassador: they consisted of a Reaal of the age of Shah Abbas, a Cuffic piece of money, a gold coin of the worst time of the middle ages, and an English halfpenny.”
NOTES.
Chatters, p. 37.—The Shotters of Fryer; the Shatirs of Hanway. Chardin gives a long and curious account of a display, which he calls “la fête du Chater, on valet du pied au Roi.” Voyages, tom. ii. 46, edit. 1711. The King’s Chaters dressed richly but differently, (car en Perse on ne sait ce que c’est de Livrée,) were the masters of the feast. Those who are superior in their profession can dance well; an occupation indeed which, in the East, is considered so little suitable to persons of a higher rank and character, that a Persian who was in Paris in the minority of Louis XIV. and saw the young King dancing, exclaimed, “c’est un excellent Chater.” The prize of the exploit recorded by Chardin, was the honour of being admitted the chief of the Chaters of the royal household; and the effort was, between the rising and the setting of the sun, to take up twelve arrows singly from a tower at the distance of a league and a half (French), and return with each to the place of starting: in this manner the Chater run thirty-six leagues in fourteen hours. Nevertheless, says Chardin, this was not equal to a feat still remembered, in which the twelve arrows were taken up in twelve hours. Tavernier was present at the greater performance to which Chardin alludes. See his voyages, tom. i. p. 438-40.
Geography of Persia, p. 48.—Olivier (tom. v. c. vii.) describes Persia as a great table-land, supported on every side by high mountains. The space thus enclosed is a depressed level, as the courses of the rivers prove; which, according to a former remark of of D’Anville, never penetrate through the mountains to the sea, but stagnate or evaporate in deserts of sand. (Vincent’s Nearchus.) Still its absolute elevation is very great: at Shiraz, in 29° 36´, there is much snow in January and February, though it is half a degree more to the south than Cairo; and Ispahan is too cold for the orange tree, though it grows well at Mossul, four degrees more to the north, and twice as far from the sea: and in Mazanderan, which is in a much higher latitude, but on a level considerably below the table land of Persia, the sugar cane, which will not grow at Shiraz, comes to maturity four months sooner than in the West Indies, Olivier, tom. v. p. 218, 233. On the capability of Persia to supply Russia with sugar and cotton, see Olivier, p. 336.
Grampus, possibly the whale of Arrian, p. 50.]—The whales in the Indian ocean have been celebrated from the time of Pliny; and Sir Harford Jones, in a note to Vincent’s Nearchus, mentions them high up in the Persian Gulph: it is probable therefore that the bones, of which the houses on the coast were constructed, were those of real whales.
Kharrack, p. 52.—The island of Kharrack at one time excited considerable interest; when it was seized and fortified by the Baron Kniphausen. The motives of his enterprise are very unimportant, although it may be added, that the heroical character in which he appears in Ives, as the founder of a new settlement, is somewhat reduced in the “Free Merchants’ Letters,” of Joseph Price, p. 172. It is sufficient that even in its first days this colony was dependant on a neighbouring island (Corgo), and the main land of Persia for its provisions. Niebuhr indeed relates the singular and fatal stratagem connected with this supply. The Sheik of Bushire, who furnished these necessaries to Kharrack, was at war with the Sheik of Bunder-righ, and as the Dutch were alike involved in the hostilities, the communications between the island and Bushire were often carried on by night. The Sheik of Bushire profited by this circumstance; and putting poultry into two armed ships, sent them against two galvettes, laid up under the walls of the citadel: “A l’approche de l’isle on secuoit les cages pour faire crier les poules, et la sentinelle Hollandoise entandant ces cris de la volaille crut que c’etoit les vaisseaux d’Abu schähr (Bushire), and qu’il etoit inutile d’eveiller les autres matelots.” Descr. del Arabia, p. 280. This success was soon followed up, and the Dutch were expelled from the island. Ives recommended to our government the possession of Kharrack. Voyage, p. 226: but independently of the precariousness of its supplies, Niebuhr mentions the mortality among the Europeans there, though he adds indeed, that they died “moins pas l’air mal sain de l’isle, que pas leur maniere de vivre,” p. 281. It was an early object of the French government. By a treaty signed at Paris, and negociated by M. Pyrault at Bassora, Kerim Khan, the Regent of Persia, engaged to cede Kharrack; but, the suppression of the French East India Company intervened, and the object was neglected. It was again surrendered by the treaty of 1808, and in the intermediate time, when he was himself sent by the Directory as a secret agent, Olivier observes, that the Persian government would have repeated the cession. His conclusion is remarkable; the object would have been advantageous to us, says he, “si nous avions voulu serieusement nous etablir en Egypte; si de la nous avions voulu porter nos vues de commerce sur le golfe Persique, sur Bassora, sur Bagdad; si nous avions voulu reprendre un commerce actif avec l’Inde; si nous avions voulu ouvrir des communications entre l’isle de France, Mascate, and Bassora.” Tom. v. p. 157.