'Travels in Assyria, Media, and Persia, including a journey from Bagdad by Mount Zagros, to Hamadan, the ancient Ecbatana, researches in Ispahan and the ruins of Persepolis, and journey from thence by Shiraz and Shapoor to the sea-shore. Description of Bussorah, Bushire, Bahrein, Ormuz, and Muscat, narrative of an expedition against the pirates of the Persian Gulf, with illustrations of the voyage of Nearchus, and passage by the Arabian Sea to Bombay.' [‎209] (240/582)

ISPAHAN. 209
surrounding the image of the Saviour, on the altar of their
devotions.
This church, we were assured, was the work also of Shah
Abbas, who seems, among his other traits of high and noble cha
racter, to have been the most tolerant monarch towards those of
another religion that ever sat on the Persian throne. To this
sovereign the Armenians ascribed their enjoyment of several im
portant privileges, which had been taken from them at his death ;
and since that period, with the general decline of the empire, and
more particularly of its capital, they had been declining in wealth
and numbers, till there were now not more than three hundred
families left, and these, from constant oppression, were all of the
poorest class.*
In our reception at the Bishop's house, to which we retired
from the church, we were treated, after the Turkish manner, with
preserved fruits and sweetmeats, sherbet, caleoons, and coffee, and
perfumed with rose-water on our departure. The language of
the party was also Turkish, as none of them spoke Arabic, and
Persian was not yet so familiar to me as the former tongue.
A certain merchant, named Gulistan, who acts as the agent of
* In Murray's ' Historical Account of Discoveries and Travels in Asia,' the writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. says,
that the most curious picture he had seen of the character and policy of Shah Abbas was
given by Don Garcia de Sylva, in the narrative of an embassy from Goa, then subject to
Spain, under Philip III. This account had never been printed, but is still in manuscript in
the British Museum. The author gives in this a very entertaining account of his interview with
Shah Abbas, and his ineffectual attempt to negotiate with that monarch on the subject of
Ormuz, in the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. ; in which the Shah affected to be seized with religious fervour
and devotion; and as he put on the semblance of Christianity whenever it would answer any
purpose, so, on this occasion, he persuaded the whole of the Spanish retinue that he was one
of the most pious and best of kings. A note appended to this account says, it appeared even
that he was at one time formally baptized,—an event to which the Jesuits ascribed all the
victories with which his arms were crowned against the Turks and Tartars.—See ' Nouvel
Conversion du Roi de Perse, avec la Deffette de deux cens mil Turcs apres sa conversion.
Paris, 1606. Also, ' Histoire Veritable de tout ce qui s'est fait et pass6 en Perse, depuis
les ceremonies du Baptesme du Grand Sophy.' Paris, 1616, Hist. Acc. of Disc, in Asia,
vol. 3, p. 29 —45,
2 E