'A second journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, between the years 1810 and 1816. With a journal of the voyage by the Brazils and Bombay to the Persian Gulf. Together with an account of the proceedings of His Majesty's embassy under Sir Gore Ouseley, Bart. K.L.S. With two maps, and engravings from the designs of the author.' [‎322] (375/516)

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CURIOUS PREDATORY EXCURSION.
All payments are made in kind, except from those districts which are
farmed for money. The Serdar takes one-fifth of the produce of cotton,
rice and millet, and one-tenth of corn ; the remainder goes to the cul
tivator, who finds his own seed, cattle, implements, and water. The
seed he advances at sowing time, but takes it back at harvest. Rivers
are so abundant in the territory of Erivan, that irrigation is compara
tively a small expense. The Zengui, the Arpachai near Sherour, the
Gerni, the Ashtarek River, are all most convenient for irrigation, but
the depth of the bed in which the Araxes flows, renders its waters un
serviceable to the cultivator. A few water wheels would remedy this
defect, but that useful piece of machinery, though it goes by the name
of the Persian wheel, is scarcely known here.
The Serdar treats his Armenian peasantry with peculiar hardship,
for from them, he takes one-third of the produce, leaving them all the
expenses of cultivation. Those of the Eelauts, who cultivate the
ground, are treated like the other peasantry, but they whose property
consists only in cattle, are taxed upon each head of cattle. They pay
nothing for the right of pasturage, although their walks are regulated
by his orders. »
Besides these sources of revenue, he himself trades with his own
stock to a^very large amount. He monopolizes all the cotton of Erivan,
which he sends to Georgia; and in return he imports Yapunchehs,
the common cloak of Georgia, which is generally used throughout the
north of Persia.
Those who interfere with his trade are sure to suffer most severely;
yet his rapacity is not always successful, as a story related to us on the
spot may prove. During the cessation of arms with the Russians, he
prohibited by the orders of his court, but much against his own will,
all the chappows or predatory excursions, to which his troops were
accustomed. But having heard of a large caravan richly laden, that was
travelling from Teflis, he called some of his soldiers about him, and said,
" You know that we are strictly ordered to abstain from chappow on the
" Russian territory, and a caravan is now on its road from Teflisthe