Manuscript of Persia and the Persian Question (Continued) [‎50r] (99/690)

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o be three or four acres, and the walls of the barracks are loop-holed
towards the city, from which they are separated by an open plot—a
very necessary precaution in a place of such unstable quietude as
Shuler, where Governor and people have often been engaged in
bloody conflict. The kaleh is entered by a gateway glittering with
the showy tiles that represent the debauched taste of modem Persian
art, and its interior contains some pretty garden-terraces and points
of outlook Nothing, indeed, could be fairer than the landscape
irom the large open window at which I sat with the Nizam. The
river emerging from the rugged mountain range, sunned itself
placidly in the broad sweep below the cliff, while on its further bank
stretched a park-like expanse of ground, dotted with venerable trees
One of the rooms in the castle contained a large tank of running
water in the centre, above which was placed a wooden platform or
lounge for purposes of slumber or repose. It breathed a coolness
beyond expression. j
The .prefe Governor of Arabistan, whose official title ^ the
JNizam-es-Sultaneh, ha4.only within the last two years been ap
pointed to that office, but during this time he seem^to have acquired
a fair reputation for justice as well as energy of administration,
i hough neither of good family nor distinguished antecedents, I
tound him to possess the inimitable manners of a Persian gentleman,
which ^Iso are- shared by his younger brother, the Saad-ul-Mulk,
Governor of Bushire. His conversation contained the usual
flattery and assurance of friendly sentiments towards the English
people, pitched in a more than ordinarily persuasive key. Accept
ing his protestations, I asked him point-blank why he did not testify
their sincerity by endeavouring to remove the obstacles that had
been so gratuitously placed in the way of the English firm who in
response to an invitation from his sovereign, had commenced mer
cantile operations upon the river. He answered that he had done,
and would continue to do, everything in his power—a statement that
did not precisely tally with what I knew both of his previous attitude
and of his personal interests, which were believed to be directly con
cerned in excluding the British from the upper Kanin, some sort
of concession for its navigation having been granted to his brother.
Intimating courteously that it was open to him to give much more
practical evidence of sympathy in the future, I next related the
tale of his subordinate, the Mirza, upon whom he undertook to
bestow a suitable rebuke.
After I had left him, and during the remainder of my stay in
Shuster, he continued to pay me every possible attention, placing the
>SV.sy 7 absolutely at my disposal for the return journey to Ahwaz,
ollering me a horse, which, as I proposed leaving by river, I could
not accept, and subsequently a set of elegantly-chased silver coffec-
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