ANALYSIS OF THE TRAVELS O 943 OF M. AMEDEE JAUBERT, THE author of this work is that intrepid traveller who has undertaken a journey to Kirgius for the purpose of importing the Cachemire goat into France. He was previously known for several excursions into Turkey and Persia, and for the part he took in the memorable expedition to Egypt. There has appeared during the last twenty years a multitude of accounts relative to Persia and the surrounding countries; and the authors are in general worthy of pub lic esteem and gratitude for the care they have taken in observing and describing these different countries. M. Jaubert had an advantage over most of them by which he has profited: the diplomatic office he held gave him access to every per son of consideration; and it is only by the help of powerful men, that a European can break through the restraints, which in the East must prevent him from studying, and ob serving deeply, places, men, and things. The ability to converse with the natives in their own language is also another very important advantage, which M. Jaubert possessed; and he was thereby enabled to collect a thousand anecdotes which must otherwise have escaped him. This advantage is not less precious to the traveller than the sextant and the compass. The principal object of M. Jaubert's travels was to ascertain at the court of Persia, if it were true that the king desired the assistance of the French government against his enemies. Several motives rendered secrecy and diligence necessary, and he went from Paris to Constantinople in thirty-five days. Selim, who at that time filled the Turkish throne, recollected the traveller, who had executed a commission for him; and, in spite of Russian influence, our author obtained firmans which enabled him to travel over the Turkish provinces. An Armenian who had brought the letter of the king of Persia joined him, as well as a Tartar of the Grand Signior, and a French servant. They embarked Eur. Mag. Vol. 82. 13 for Trebizond, whence they departed" Erze-Roum, the principal city of S of the journey, and was soon after strangled. Our traveller, obliged in his turn to make some confes sions, was reassured by the insinuato ing manners of Mahmoud; who des clared his zeal for the court of Per sia, promised him help and protec.The air of the prison was suffocat tion, and even gave him an escort to accompany him to the place of his destination." I hold thee," said he, "ind my hands as a flower that I wish to keep from every breath of wind," and he added some perfidious words, whose covert meaning M. Jaubert could not understand.. He refused the usual presents, and in order to procure a list of those persons whom our traveller intended to take with him, he carried his dissimulation so far, as to declare himself responsible for their safety. After all these demonstrations, human prudence could not foresee the Pacha's design. netrated to the pit. The jailor raised the trap-door, and by help of a cord let down some ounces of bread and sour milk for the use of the prison.1 ersed such was their only support during a captivity of four months. Our traveller then departed under an escort of Kourdes, accompanied by the Tartar and two servants, but deprived of the assistance of his Armenian guide. The escort soon encreased every moment fresh soldiers arrived. At length they cross the river which runs at the foot of Mount Ararat, and serves as a frontier to the Turkish possessions; they land, and while M. Jaubert was congratulating himself on his arrival in the Persian territory, he was suddenly surrounded by the Kourdes; one seized him in the middle of his body, another tied his arms, and a third disarmed him. They blind-folded him, turned his face towards the ground, and bound in the same manner his servants and the Tartar. They then carried them all into a solitary valley. Some hours after, M. Jaubert and his attendants were conducted to a lonely castle, where Mahmoud expected them--he pretended to have received from Constantinople an order to seize the person of the traveller, but protested that no attempt should be made on his life. He afterwards caused him to be thrown into a frightful cave, thirty feet under ground, with his three companions. This cavern, five feet wide, and sixteen long, had neither bed, table, nor chair; and upon the ground lay the dead body of a Bey, recently assassinated by order of the Pachacha maj 13 In the morning a feeble light pe 1 ing and infectious; and every day they expected would be their last. To all M. Jaubert's misfortunes were added the complaints and reproaches of his fellow sufferers, and while his time passed heavily in this cruel anxiety, several of the Kourdes, who had taken them, came to him from the Pacha; who, not understanding the papers which he had found in the boxes, and being ignorant of the use of the arms, the spectacles, and other objects of eu-> riosity, wished to have them explained. After having satisfied the en quiries of these wretches, M. Jau bert was sent back to his dungeon. A relation of the governor of the castle and the governor himself, who took pity on the prisoners, came sometimes to console them, and brought them news; but the Pacha had vowed their destruction. Three months expired in this manner, their clothes were all in rags, sleep had forsaken their eyes, and their situation was desperate. The Pacha, to avoid the reproaches of the Porte, or the vengeance of Persia, propagated false reports; but he still he sitated to make an end of his vic tims. Such was their horrible situ ation, when all at once the plague broke out at Bagazid. It had not appeared for twenty-four years. The Kourdes fell victims to it, and Mahmoud was attacked; in his delirium he condemned the strangers to death, but he himself died before his rage was satisfied. His son Ahmed succeeded him, and also condemned the prisoners to death, but as he knew the governor was averse to it, he found a pre text to get rid of him: all was over with these unfortunate men. In his turn Ahmed was struck with the con tagion. Terror and superstition in duced him to revoke his sanguinary orders; two hours after which he died, and his uncle Ibrahim was acknowledged by the Kourdest Through the care of the governor's relation a letter from M. Jaubert, written to the court of Persia, 2 1822.] Travels of M. Amedee Jaubert, in Armenia and Persia. 139 fopier policy suT ug sat of botanis arrived at its destination. The go vernor of Erivan had sent for him to Bayazid, and the Chah of Persia menaced the town with the whole weight of his vengeance if they did not restore him to liberty. Ibrahim being frightened consults the Porte, and in the mean time takes the prisoners from their cavern, and confines them in a stable. The answer of the Port soon arrives from Constantinople, and the Pacha, for once faithful to the orders of the Grand Signior, sent M. Jaubert to the camp of Youssuf Pacha, who was then advancing towards Armenia at the head of an army. Thus was M. Jaubert miraculously saved from an apparently inevitable death. The country inhabited by the Kourdes is one of the most interesting the author passed through; it belongs, unequally, to the Turkish and Persian empires. Its extent is, in length, from Mount Ararat at thirty-nine degrees and a half north latitude, to the Kamerin chain of mountains at thirty-four degrees; and in width from Mount Ormiah to the Tigris. On the north is the ancient Colchis, on the east Media, and on the south Chaldea. Kourdistan produces numerous herds of goats, sheep, and oxen, which constitute its chief wealth; and the management of bees is attended to. The Kourdes are remarkable for their tall stature, fair complexion, and fine features. Their bodies are covered by large cloaks of black goat-skin, and their heads with hats made of red cloth, ornamented with acorns. These wander ing people are good soldiers; from military exercises they go to pastoral occupations, and their leisure hours are beguiled with vocal music, for which they have a decided taste. It is true, that the singer they most admire is the one who sings loudest. In other respects, they are distinguished for the same virtues and vices as the Arabs of the desert; the custom of robbing, the love of independence, and great hospitality. In reading the account of the manners of these tribes, I fancied myself in the tent of a Bedouin. The Kourde cannot marry without the consent of his parents, whatever may be his rank or age: paternal authority is to him inviolable. The author adds, 1 ko sdr to (a reflection worthy of notice), that the traveller amongst the Kourdes ought to fear in proportion to the extent of their hospitality. “You are welcome," says the Kourde, whose hut the traveller passes; "the stran➡ ger is a present from God let him want nothing: misfortune is sacred.”: This very man, when traversing the mountains or deserts, is a ferocious robber, who strips his guest without mercy. The secret, which disting guishes the Kourde robber, is, to know how to flatter and deceive him whose wealth they covet. On the 19th of February, 1806, Mr. Jaubert left Bagazid to go to the Turkish army, and he met withs mountains at the defile of Kusseh-day that were covered with snow, whose brilliancy caused a painful opthalmia in all who did not wear a black veil, and neglected to stop up their nóstrils. The hurricanes were also very. dangerous. The ten thousand Greeks under Zenophon met with the same difficulties at this passage. YoussufTM: Pacha knew the author personally having seen him in Egypt after his fatal loss at the battle of Héliopolis. He gave M. Jaubert a very distin-" guished reception, in consequence of having just received news of the great victory gained by the French at Austerlitz. He promised to send him safe to his destination, and, at the same time, cautioned him against the politeness and agreeable manners of the Persians, who, although so much thought of in Europe, are de ficient in frankness and sincerity. The author, while he was waiting to hear from the Ottoman Porte, visited the Christian churches in this part of Armenia. At length his orders ar rived, and he quitted the camp of the Osmanlis on the first of April," with an escort of twenty men; on the third day he reached Erz-Ing hian, the ancient Satala, upon the Euphrates near one of the chains of Taurus. From thence he arrived five days after at Erze-Roum. Avoide ing the road to Bagazid, he directed his course north, towards Khenes, Melez-ghird and Van, which gives its name to a little inland sea. A little way from the second of these towns is the high mountain, called Seiban-dagh, from whose summit the eye commands a circumference of fifty leagues: the Yezidis, a Kourde 3: * tribe, terrible to travellers, inhabit the foot of the mountain; they worship, the evil spirit, and consider robbery and murder lawful. In a defile near the lake of Van, the caravan met a troop, who, in consideration of a present, suffered it to pass without molestation. The lake of Van is ninety leagues round; its trade is very brisk, and the fishing considerable: eminences covered with trees surround it on all sides; the climate is mild, and the land fertile, and the town is surrounded by delicious gardens. The Pacha received the author with great distinction; gave him an escort; and byone of those revolutions so very frequent among the Turks, he perished three days after, being assassinated by a rival. From Van, M. Jaubert directed his course towards Cotourah, the last village in Turkey: he soon came in sight of Khoi, where the aspect of the country suddenly changes: politeness of manner, health of the inhabitants, richness and variety of cultivation, elegance of language, every thing announces the Persian territory. Khoi is a fortified town containing twenty-five thousand inhabitants. The governor endeavoured by innumerable civilities, to make our traveller forget the horrid treatment he had met with from the Kourdes. At his first stage from Khoi, the author was not a little surprised to find lodgings and food prepared for him; but his astonishment was still greater to find himself received, at the entrance of a little village, with compliments in verse, rather flattering and high-flown it is true, but couched in great purity of language. After crossing a short desert, he arrived at Merend, the ancient Mo runda, where opinm and cochineal are found. The distance from this place to Tauris is reckoned eighteen leagues. The rivers he crossed in his route emptied themselves into the lake of Ormiah, another inland sea that derives its name from a town, celebrated as the birth-place of Zoroaster, Tauris has been shaken by earthquakes; and if Chardin were to s revisit it, he would no longer know it. The waters of the lake are bituminous, so that no fish can live in it. From time immemorial, the country has been torn by volcanic eruptions. The old name Atropatene, as well as the modern one, Aderbidjan, signifies land of fire; and the author thinks that the mountains already mentioned, Ararat, Seiban and Kusseh-Dag have formerly emitted fire. The whole country is full of sulphuric mineral waters, and sulphur is plentiful: naphtha or petroleum is found there, and the inhabitants make use of it for lights. According to our author, Tauris is not the ancient Ecbatana, but the Gaza of the Medes; it is now the second city of Persia, and is surrounded by towers; with a population amounting to fifty thousand. Aderbidjan was governed by the Prince Abbas-Mirza, son of the Chah: when the author arrived in this province, Feth-Aly-Kán, a well-informed and agreeable man, who had accompanied Mr. Malcolm in his first voyage to Persia, was then lieutenant of the Begler-beg: he lodged M. Jaubert in his magnificent palace, a delicious residence, breathing voluptuousness and effiminacy: his conversation constantly turned either on the discoveries of the Europeans in the sciences, the great success at that time of the French nation, or upon the wisdom and glory of the reigning King, Feth-Aly-Chah. From Tauris our traveller, instead of going on towards Tehéran, travelled eastward, through Seidabad, Serab and Ardebil, in order to visit the camp of Abbas Mirza, not far from the Caspian Sea: in this country the houses are built below the soil, like several parts of Armenia and Georgia, where the inhabitants lodge underground. Ardebil is the mart for all the caravans travelling from Tiflis to Teheran and Ispahan: at this place, M. Jaubert, who had resumed his European dress, became the object of general and disagreeable curiosity. On his arrival at the camp of the young Persian Prince, he was treated with the greatest distinction. Abbas-Mirza had recently gained some advantage over the Russians; but the renown of the victories of the French armies excited his admiration, and he wished to have a faithful account of them: he also wished to inform himself of every thing remarkable that had taken place amongst the ancients as well as moderns; the events of the French ! expedition to Egypt, the bravery of the Mamelukes, the life of the fero cious Djezzar, &c. On this occasion our traveller related his mission in 1804, to the Pacha of Acre, in the suite of General Sebastiani, and the singular conversations of this sanguinary man. Abbas Mirza depart ed in order to take the field, and our author left for Khalkhal, and afterwards for Zinghian and Sultânieh, in Persian Irac; this last town, lately flourishing and full of inhabitants, is now an immense mass of ruins, the effect of civil wars: beyond it is the fertile valley of Abber, which follows the desert of Cazbin: this country produces excellent wine and pistachios. Our author witnessed at Cazbin a brilliant fete, in honor of the birth of three princes of the blood-royal: music, poetry, illuminations, flowers, dancing, and the most delicious perfumes embellished a splendid repast, where the wine of Schiraz was profusely drank, in de fiance of the law of Mahomet. From Cazbin he travelled in three days to Teheran, the capital of Persia, escorted by a numerous and magni. ficent cavalry that Feth-Aly-Chah the king had sent him. The AdjutantGeneral Romieux, although he left France on the same mission after M. Jaubert, arrived before him at Teheran, by the way of Bagdad, but he died no one knew how, before the arrival of M. Jaubert. After the accustomed visits to the Vizier and the ministers, our traveller obtained his first audience of the Sovereign. We must refer our readers to the original for the curious account of his reception: when he made his first obeisance, he was kept so far off, that he could scarcely see the throne of Feth-Aly-Chah. The master of the ceremonies having announced him to the king, he replied "You are welcome;" after which a Visier conducted him to the hall of audience, the magnificence of which is beyond expression; millions of diamonds, rubies, emeralds and sapphires glittered on all sides: the King, covered with the finest diamonds, had three of his sons with him. After reading the credentials, the audience lasted an hour: Feth Aly-Chah felt pleasure in conversing with an European without the assistance of an interpreter. The pa lace-gardens are not like those of the Turks, planted without either order or taste, nor are they like those of Egypt, entirely deprived of turf; there are serpentine walks, with basins of marble jets d'eau, &c. carpets of rich verdure, and a great variety of flowers. Amongst the trees are the plan tain, willow, poplar, &c., which surround the mysterious pavillion, where the Chah goes every day. The account of this voluptuous place, where the most beautiful women in Asia aspire to the favor of their sovereign, must be read in the original: the miniatures of all those, who have succeeded in pleasing him, ornament one of the rooms, and their number is very considerable. The library contains some precious manuscripts, among which our author saw a poem of Feth-Aly-Chah's own composition. Teheran has been the capital of the empire since the year 1794, which was in the reign of Mahomet Kan. The fortifications are inferior-the population inconsiderable and the air unhealthy. This was the time of the annual military review, and the King was desirous of taking M. Jaubert with him; but a violent fever, caused by the unhealthiness of Teheran, detained him with Aly-Chah-Abbas. The King's chief physician, MirzaChefi, received orders to take every care of him; and his own life would be endangered if he did not restore his patient to health: this doctor ordered him, amongst other medicines, stewed rice, raw cucumbers, and green fruit: another physician of the royal harem advised him to pray to the prophet Ali. Happily he escaped both these orders, and got well in spite of cucumbers and rice. The King's physician was afraid at first that M. Jaubert would share the fate of M. Romieux, who, after having escaped assassination from the Arabs in the desert of Orfa, and received an excellent reception from the King, suddenly died, with his travelling companion; or that of M. Outrey, vice-consul of Bagdad, and brother-in-law to the author, who had also been attacked with violent and dangerous illness: the complaints of our traveller, however, had a different origin, and soon yielded to the care of his friends. 护 |