'Report on the preliminary survey of the route for the Central Persia Telegraph Line. By W King Wood, Assistant Superintendent, Indo-European Telegraph Department.' [‎36r] (76/300)

Yezd— continued.
People —continued
Remarks
loth October 1898.
Governor
P opulation
Crops
Supplies
Water
Houses
Transport
Climate
.. Persia, in his many dealings with the influential resi
dents in the town. I traversed the length of Yezd,
through the crowded bazaars included, with the cyclo
meter, and although, as must naturally be expected,
the people exhibited a certain amount of curiosity,
hustling and jostling, which might have hsen legiti
mately looked for, were remarkable only by their absence.
On my arrival in the Bank street, I found a crowd
of some 800 to 1,000 people who had come to ask
Mr. S. Ferguson to intercede for them by sending
a telegram to Teheran, in the hopes that an order might
be sent to the Governor to reduce the abnormally high
price of bread. The hard work of Dr. White, of the
C. M. S., whose doors are ever open to all sorts and
conditions of patients, and the splendid reputation he
has established as a Physician have also greatly tended
to bring about the desired change.
Yezd is the head-quarters of the Parsees or Gabrs in
Persia, of whom there are some 6,000 in and near the
town. These live in a separate quarter of the city, the
south-east, where the Europeans are also located. In
former times, the Parsees, as well as the Jews, were
much persecuted by the Musalman population, but I
think this is dying out, and they appear to carry on
their avocations without molestation. They are ^ princi
pally agriculturists and gardeners. Certain privileges
are restricted, such as wearing the Persian kolah or hat,
riding on a donkey, which, however, cannot materially
effect their welfare.
Yezd possesses a Telegraph Office, a Post Office and a
Chappar Khaneh. With the institution of an English
Telegraph Office, which would give a reliable means of
communication with India on the one side and England
on the other, Yezd would become a very important
commercial centre and a good market for British and
Indian export.
Maibut. (Chappar.) Height 3,630 feet.
Adl-ed-Dowleh.
1 , 000 .
Wheat, barley, straw, cotton, maize, tobacco, opium and
fruit—all in great quantities.
Supplies of every description, and in abundance.
3 Kanats, sweet water, slightly muddy.
Sun-dried bricks ; some two-storied. Splendid caravanse
rai. Walls of town now dilapidated. Ground on west
much cut up by Kanats and earth mounds.
About 150 animals in all. Could not get particulars.
Climate much the same as Ardakan and about same
altitude.
Saw little of them, but they struck me as being very polite,
4 each one met salaaming. They are all gardeners and
cultivators, Maibut being a very rich spot.
People