A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the Years 1808 and 1809. James Justinian Morier
attended by eighteen men, himself alone mounted on a horse; on his arrival he seated himself on a couch next to Sir Harford Jones, and his men extended themselves in two rows to the right and left before him. The conversation consisted of mutual compliments about health, the hopes of continued amity between Persia and England, and the never failing topic the weather. The whole party wore the black sheep-skin cap (the dress of every rank of Persians), and almost all had pistols in their girdles; some had muskets, and all, except the Khan’s own body servants, had swords. Most of them also wore the green and high-heeled slippers of ceremony, and every man had a full black beard. On the day of this visit, the Sheik, as a douceur perhaps to engage the Envoy’s interference in his cause, sent him a present of two horses.
On the 20th. I went on the part of the Envoy to return the visit of the Nasakchee Bashee. He was encamped among some date trees; and living in the remains of a house which was all in ruins, but which he had screened up with mats to keep off the sun and wind. A clean mat was spread on the floor, carpets were arranged all around, and his bed and cushions were rolled up in one corner: over the carpet, on which he sate himself, was a covering of light blue chintz. When we were within a hundred yards, we saw him walking about; but as soon as he perceived our approach, he seated himself in the place of honour, and did not pay us the compliment of rising when we entered. I made him a civil speech in Turkish, and he in return asked after the Envoy’s health. He seemed, indeed, much pleased with the epithet of Effendi, which I used frequently in addressing him, but which, as I afterwards learned, is never applied in Persia to any but very great men. His vanity was accordingly much flattered; and he exclaimed to his attendants, that I was “Khoob Jouani,” a fine fellow. When we had exhausted all our compliments, we took our leave.
The mission on which he was dispatched to Bushire originated in the following circumstances. Some years ago, the Sheik had been required by the Governor of Farsistan to furnish a certain sum of money. He pleaded poverty: he was ordered to borrow; and to obviate every difficulty, he was told that a particular person would advance the money, at an interest indeed prescribed by the same authority which dictated the amount of the capital. The Nasakchee Bashee was now sent to enforce the immediate repayment of the capital and interest, which together had swelled to twenty-eight thousand tomauns, a sum nearly equal to the same number of pounds sterling. To save his authority, and perhaps his head, the Sheik endeavoured to accommodate the present difficulty by offering to pay down five thousand tomauns, and to secure the rest by instalments. This, however, was refused; and the unfortunate Sheik accordingly gave immediate and public notice of the sale of his effects, his horses, mules, and asses; and in the course of a few days raised fifty thousand piastres.
Still the hope of a less rigorous arrangement was not entirely excluded: the Sheik, attended by the principal men of the town, and with a strong guard (so stationed that the signal of a moment could bring them to his assistance) visited the Khan. The Khan indeed had sworn that he would not molest the Sheik “at present;” though, when asked to extend the oath to every visit or opportunity, he replied that he would not answer for the directions which he might receive from his government. Two days after the visit, we observed a party of forty horsemen arrive at the Khan’s encampment, who probably bore the last orders of the Court.
On the 25th of Oct. the Envoy received an intimation of a visit, jointly from the Sheik and the Nasackchee Bashee; but he was so much occupied, that at the time he could not accept it. In a few minutes after we heard a great commotion among the servants, and an outcry that the Sheik was seized. By the assistance, indeed, of our glasses we perceived the unfortunate man, with his arms pinioned, surrounded by about twenty horsemen, and dragged away at full speed towards the Shiraz road. It appeared, that trusting in this conditional oath of the Khan, the Sheik had accepted his invitation to visit with him the Envoy, and had gone forth from the town escorted by five men only. On his way to the Envoy, he called for the Khan; and when they were both mounted, the Khan cried out to his men to seize, disarm, and carry off their prisoner.
The consternation of the town was immediate and general. Mr. Bruce, the Assistant Resident, was sent by the Envoy to learn the particulars of its situation: he found the gates shut, and the towers manned, but he gained admittance through the wicket, and saw all the misery and confusion of the crisis. The Sheik’s wives and servants were embarking in great haste on board one of his ships; his Vizir also, Hajee Suliman, was hastening his own preparations to escape. The shops were shut, the streets were crowded with men transporting their households to the sea shore, and their wives and daughters were beating their breasts and crying in loud lamentation. Nor was there a shew of resistance, except on the walls; or a thought of defence: the only hope and the only thought of every man was the preservation of his little fortunes and the honour of his women. The same alarm prevailed in the country; all the poor date-hut villagers flocked for protection into the Factory, and trusted to its walls the security of their families and their scanty wealth. Women and children, their asses and their poultry, were all indiscriminately hurried into the enclosure; and before the evening we saw around us no common scenes of misery and terror.
The Assistant Resident, who had examined this state of things in the town, was sent, on his return, by the Envoy to the Khan, to represent the alarm of the place; and to add, that the Envoy expected that no molestation should be offered to any of the persons belonging to his mission. The Khan was extremely civil, and treated him as usual with coffee and three kaleouns. He informed him on the subject of his commission; that he had orders from his court to seize the Sheik, his cousin, and his Vizir: and then read to him the firman. The firman, in the first place, ordained the act of seizure; and then ordained, that not the smallest molestation should be given to the English, that every possible respect and attention should be shewn to them, and strongly denounced vengeance on any offender; and lastly ordained, that no inhabitant, either of the town or of the villages, should receive the least harm. In his own name, he assured the Assistant Resident, that he was determined to put the firman in its full force; and turning to his followers and guards, cried out, “Woe be to that man who shall be found guilty of giving the smallest offence to any Englishman, or to any of his servants, or to any thing that belongs to him.” He added, indeed, that the present fate of the Sheik was the punishment of his ungracious behaviour to the English;18 and swore, that, for his own part, nothing was so strongly the object of his mind, as the good will of our nation. The Khan further stated, that he had intended, in the proposed visit of the morning in conjunction with the Sheik, first to have read the firman to the Elchee, (the Embassador), and then to have executed it on the Sheik; but the Sheik had tempted him by an opportunity so resistless, that he could not pay the full compliment to the Envoy of delaying the seizure till the communication had been made.
Mahomed Nebee Khan, who is known to the English as the Persian Embassador at Calcutta, had procured the succession to the Government of Bushire, at the price, it was said, of forty thousand tomauns19.
At this moment the Vizir Hajee Suliman was seized on the point of embarkation. The Khan had declared that he would not spare Bushire unless the Vizir was delivered to him. The people, therefore, of his own town intercepted his flight, and surrendered him to the Khan. But the cousin of the Sheik, whose fate was threatened in the same proscription, escaped. There, as in Turkey, and probably in all despotic countries, the guilt, or rather the disgrace, of an individual, entails equal punishment on all his family and adherents.
On the following morning, Mahomed Khan, the Nasakchee Bashee, whose mission had produced these changes, entered Bushire, and assumed the administration of the government. The town was so far tranquillized, indeed, that the Bazars were re-opened. The proclamations which the Khan had issued, pledging security and peace to the inhabitants, had recalled them to their houses; and the example of severe punishment, which he inflicted on one of his own men for stealing the turban of a Jew, operated still more powerfully than his assurances. In the course of the morning we rode to the gates of the town: there was here a large assembly of armed men, for little other purpose indeed than to hear the news and the lies of the day: for a picture, however, the mob was excellent; nothing can be marked