'The travels of Sir John Chardin into Persia and the East Indies, through the Black Sea, and the country of Colchis. Containing the author's voyage from Paris to Ispahan. To which is added, the coronation of the present King of Persia, Solyman the III.' [‎153] (576/594)

S o l y m a n III. Periia.
f ^ P u 7 Ma^enderaan. They landed in the difguife
i^ S ' We - U P a " cI down th e Market places, and mto
the Shops like People that had no great skill inTraffick and vet
had fomethmg both to buy and tofell. They let go thek Ducats
o Gold for five 5%;^ which make not fo much as two Shil
lings, fold Enghlh Gloth for four or five {billings fe
pence the Ell. On the other fide the while this Trade
lafted carefs d the Cofa^es at a high rate, finding 'em fuch admi^
ra le Cuftomers, and Chapmen both together, and look'd
upon em as Cullies and Novices which their kind Stars had
brought among em: But the fixth day, continuing their Game,
at the houi prefix d among themfelves, at what time they had
Icatter d themlelves in feveral parts of the City to avoid fufpi-
cion they drew their Swords, Hew all they met, plunder'dthe
Houles, and laden with Booty, after they had kill'd above five
hundred perfons, they return'd to their Veflels, lying ftill out
of ken at Sea. '
The moft confiderable, and a lofs not to berepair'd, was
the mine of the King's Palace, a moft ftately Pile, feated in
the midlt of the City, wherein was kept a vaft Treafure of
Diflies and Bafins of Porcellane, or China, Cornaline, Agate,
Coral, Amber, Cups of Cryftalof the Rock, and other Rari
ties without number, which thole Barbarians either broke or
carry d away. They alfo brake the great Tiw;,being
a Jalper Fountain cover'd with Plates of Gold and erected with
in the Palace Every time I think of the Magnificence and
Deiigntrulnels of that place, where I was in the year \ 666. I
cannot but lament its hard Fate; and had the Reader feen the De-
fcription which I have made of it, he Would acknowledge that
luch a wonder of Art deferv'd a kind of perpetuity.
In and the parts adjoyning there are lomc few Chfi-
ftians ftill remaining of that vaft number which Habas the Great
formerly brought in to people that Country lome fixty years
ago, which has fo much leffen d their Number, that there is not
the fixtieth part of what there was before: and the moft part
of thefe for worldly Interefts have embrac'd the Mahumetan
Superftition. Thole few Chriftians that remain'd knowing that
the Cofaques were likewife Chriftians, to fave themlelves ^from
their fury, and their Houfes from being plunder'd, when they
jaw em coming, cri d out Chrtftous,Chrtftous, and the better to
et em underftand they were Chriftians fign'd themlelves with
the fign of the Crols from head to foot, fo that the Cofaques
U u u u u hearing