which I had brought, expecting to present it to the King, lay before Mirza Shufi. As they all rose up, after him, to go, some to the King, and some away, I was afraid they would trample upon the book, so I went in among them to take it up, and wrapped it in a towel before them; while they looked at it and me with supreme contempt.

"Thus I walked away alone to my tent, to pass the rest of the day in heat and dirt. What have I done, thought I, to merit all this scorn? Nothing, I trust, but bearing testimony to Jesus. I thought over these things in prayer, and my troubled heart found that peace which Christ hath promised to his disciples:

Ifon my face, for thy dear name,' &c.

"To complete the trials of the day, a message came from the Vizier, in the evening, to say, that it was the custom of the King not to see any Englishman, unless presented by the Ambassador, or accredited by a letter from him; and that I must wait, therefore, till the King reached Sultania, where the Ambassador would be."

After this day "of rebuke and blasphemy," when that divine promise was eminently fulfilled towards Mr. Martyn, "thou shalt hide them in the secret of thy presence, from the pride of man, thou shalt keep them secretly in a pavilion from the strife of tongues," when having heard the "slander of many," and being made a "reproach amongst all his ene

mies," he could nevertheless exclaim with the Psalmist, "O how great is thy goodness which thou hast laid up for them that fear thee, which thou hast wrought for them that trust in thee before the sons of men"-being joined by his companion from Tehran, he turned his back upon the King's camp, and prosecuted his journey towards Tebriz.

"June 13.-Disappointed of my object," he writes, "in coming to the camp, I lost no time in leaving it, but proceeded, in company with Mr. C. who had just joined me from Tehran, towards Casbin, intending to wait there the result of an application to the Ambassador. Started at eleven, and travelled till eleven next morning, having gone ten parasangs, or forty miles, to Quishlag. The country all along was well watered and cultivated. The mules being too much tired to proceed, we passed the day at the village; indeed, we all wanted rest. As I sat down in the dust, on a shady side of a walled village we passed, and surveyed the plains over which our road lay, I sighed at the thought of my dear friends in India and England: what vast regions I must traverse before I can get to either, and what various and unexpected hindrances present themselves to my going forward! I comfort myself with the hope that my God has something for me to do, by thus delaying my exit.

"16.-Continued at the village, in consequence of an illness with which Mr. C. was attacked; but at

night we moved forward, and after travelling seven parasangs, in the same fine plain, reached Casbin.

"17.-In the caravansara there, they were collecting straw, &c. for the King, whom they expected in ten days. On this plea, they refused to allow us to unload there.

"18.-Endeavored to get a muleteer to go to the Ambassador, but could agree with none, so I determined to stay at Casbin. I had at first intended to go on to Sultania, there to wait for the King.

"20.-Left this place, not a little disgusted at the reception we had met with there. One parasang off, we stopped at a village to get something for breakfast. One of the people there asked a good many questions about our religion. It was such an unusual thing, travelling coolly, in the middle of the day, in the East, that it produced a new train of ideas: indeed, I thought of nothing but of my dear friends in England, and the days when, in weather like this, I walked with them, 'taking sweet counsel.' While passing over the plain, mostly on foot, I had them all in my mind, and bore them upon my heart in prayer. The North wind, from the Caspian, I suppose, blowing through some clouds that rested on the mountains on our right, made the air excessively cold.

Arrived, between twelve and one o'clock, at Scah Dulir, where a villager gave us his house; though the room we were in was so constructed as scarcely

to admit the light, we had need of all our skins to keep us warm.

"21.-On account of the coldness of the weather, we did not think it necessary to start till seven o'clock, after breakfast. Arrived at the village of Aber at four in the afternoon, having taken the shortest route. Till we reached the high and frequented road, all was barrenness; but from thence, a good deal of cultivation, as also all the way from Casbin, near which city the vineyards were all open to the road: there was not so much as a fence.

"22.-Left Sangia, at a quarter past five in the morning, and at a quarter past ten reached Sultania. The weather was perfectly cool and agreeable, and all round were the pastures of the wilderness. We met with the usual insulting treatment at the caravansara, where the King's servants had got possession of a good room, built for the reception of better sort of guests-they seemed to delight in the opportunity of humbling an European. Sultania is still but a village; yet the Zengan Prince quartered himself, and all his attendants, with their horses, on this poor little village. All along the road where the King is expected, the people are patiently waiting, as for some dreadful disaster. Plague, pestilence, famine, are nothing to the misery of being subject to the violence and extortion of this rabble soldiery. One of our servants, who had himself been formerly a soldier in the King's camp, said, that the troops were raised from the wander

ing tribes and the cities.-Those from the tribes were paid by the King, the others by the cities. Sons of the Chiefs of the tribes, and, indeed, of all in important governments, are detained at Court as hostages.

"24.-Left Sultania, at half-past three. Saw some water tortoises on the edge of the little stream that watered the vale. Continued our course to Zengan, distant from Sultania six parasangs, a walled city. Here we found, in the caravansara, large bales of cotton, brought by merchants from Tehran, intended for Turkey. There were also two Tarfar merchants, natives of Astrachan, who had brought iron and tea for sale. They wished to know whether we wanted tea of Cathay. I was curious to know something about the countries they had visited; but they spoke nothing but Turkish, without which language, a person may travel to very little purpose in these parts: Persian is quite a foreign language.

"25.-After a restless night, rose so ill with a fever that I could not go on. My companion Mr. C. was nearly in the same state.

all the day.

We touched nothing

"26.-After such another night, I had determined to go on, but Mr. C. declared himself unable to stir; so here we dragged through another miserable day. What added to our distress was, that we were in danger, if detained here another day or two, of being absolutely in want of the necessaries of life,