Manuscript of Persia and the Persian Question (Continued) [‎50v] (100/690)

XW - Sf
cups, which also I declined, having no equivalent present to make in
return. When I left the town, which w r as very late at night, in
order that the boat might start at sunrise, he was most anxious that
I should not ride out to the place of anchorage till the next morning,
in order that he might send a large mounted escort with me.
The starting-point and terminus of navigation on the Ab-i-Gargar
is at a spot called Shelailieh, between six and seven miles below the
town, the course of the canal above that point being obstructed by
more than one semi-natural, semi-artificial bund, although the
’ c Assyria*’ in 1842, succeeded in threading a passage to within two
miles of the city. At Shelailieh, where is a miserable village on the
right bank, boats are in the habit of lading or unlading their cargo,
which must be conveyed to or from Shuster on donkeys or mules.
I fancy that by a little blasting a channel could be opened to a point
nearer the town, and that the nuisance of this rather lengthy Jand
portage might accordingly be abridged. My descent of the G^rg^r
Canal as far as Bund-i-Kir occupied .seven -and a half hours, the
same time being consumed between Bund-i-Kir and Ahwaz. The
canal follows a very tortuous course, and has worn in time a bed
deeply sunk between banks of clay, the old banks on the higher level
looking strangely forlorn in the absence of the big stream which
they once confined.^ There is far more and thicker jungle on the
banks of the G^g*r than on those of the Karnn; and throughout
our voyage winged game, starting up from the water’s edge, whirred
over our heads from one bank to the other. The average width of
the canal is from-fifty to aeventy 1 fivo yards ; and a boat of over-arbrm-
| 0 0 dted-ftfet would find it almost impossible to make some of the turns.
As a special compliment the Nizam had sent two of his suite to
accompany me as far as Ahwaz. They were also bearers of letters to
the Mirza, whom, however, I had now so entirely forgotten in my
satisfaction at having successfully accomplished the journey, and at
having further caught the Shushan, which was to wait for me up to
a certain date at Ahwaz, that I went on board Messrs. Lynch’s
steamer without -turning a thought to my obstructionist professor of
a few days before. I was just turning in at 1 a.m., when a knock
at my cabin-door revealed the figure of the Mirza, slightly the worse
for liquor, and in a pitiable condition of mingled humiliation and
fright. He explained that the Nizam had written him a severe
reprimand, and had threatened to cancel a whole year’s salary for
his behaviour on my outward journey ; and he submissively implored
me to write a parting letter to his chief, saying that my vengeance
■was satisfied, and requesting that no further punishment should be
imposed. I had no wish to inflict an injury upon the poor wretch,
who had already suffered so serious a fright that he would be most
unlikely to repeat the same tactics when the next English visitor
should ascend the river; so I wrote the desired epistle, and we
parted good friends. But whenever I hear mentioned the name of
the Karun River, or of the rapids of Ahwaz, amid the din and whirl
of the waters humming over the ledges, there intrudes upon my
memory the vision of that inimitable Mirza, seated in his mat-hut
between the two melancholy fratricides, wuth the silent seyids, the
imperilled sheikh, and the stalwart robber-son looking chilly and
imnerturbablv on. •
/V
1
yo