rived at the town of Nassirpoor, which was laid waste by the Rajas, that is to say by the Reys of the Raspoots. Here we understood that Meer Issa followed with ten thousand men the Sultaun Mahmood, and that his son Meer Saleh came with eighty ships.. We took now a fàl, which advised us to return; I read eleven thousand times the Soora Ikhlass, and then returned towards Tata; but the third day we met Meer Saleh, to whom I paid a visit on board, carrying him some presents. He asked where we were going; and I told him, To join his father Meer Issa. "Well," said he, "Meer Issa is astern, turn then your ships." I excused myself by saying that I had no boatmen ; so he gave me fifteen sailors, and obliged me to turn back. We made a voyage of ten days, and met at last with Meer Issa in a town of Sind. The beys of the late Mirza were with him, and attested that we were far from fomenting the war, and had on the contrary negotiated the peace. So he forgave us for having joined the late Mirza, and then said, "Remain here for some days, and then accompany my son, whom I intend to send to the emperor Hoomayoon, because Sultaun Mahmood will not allow you to leave Bekr. I could not agree to this offer; but begged permission to go with the captured ships, and to be attended by a Djoloodaur. As I insisted, he gave to me the seven ships he had, and a Djoloodaur to accompany me, with orders that nobody should stop my passage. On the way we met great crocodiles, and kept always along shore. We had every day a fight with the Semidje and Madji, and arrived after some days, with a thousand troubles, at Seyawaun, and at last, by the way of Tatri and Dirbele, at the castle of Bekr, where we met with Sultaun Mahmood and with Monla Yari the vizir of the late Mirza. I offered some presents to the Sultaun, who had also proclaimed the Khotbe in the name of the emperor Hoomayoon, and made peace with Meer Issa. I made a chronograph on the death of Hassan Mirza, which the Sultaun was delighted with, as well as with two ghazels of my composition, which I took the liberty of presenting him. I then asked leave to depart; when the Sultaun wrote a letter to the emperor, and told us that the son of Hyder Sultaun, one of the Oozbeg sul tauns, Behadir Sultaun, infested with some thousand men the road of Khandahar, and let nobody pass; that it was, besides, the season of the samoom; that we should therefore wait for some days; after which he would give us some men to escort us, and would send us by the way of Lahoor, which however was also infested. So we waited a month, till I saw one night my mother in a dream, who told me that Fatima the Prophet's daughter had appeared to her when asleep, and had given her the good news of my safe arrival. The next day I communicated my dream to my companions and to Sultaun Mahmood, who told us to set out, presented me with a fine horse, a set of camels, a great tent, and the necessary expense for the road. He gave us a hundred and fifty men of cavalry to escort us: and so we departed in the middle of Shaabaun. By the way of Sultaunpoor we came in five days to the castle of Maw; and chose then the road of the Desert, because we were told that on the common road Djidds were lurking. Next day we came to the Wells; but having found them dry, some of our men were near dying from thirst and from the effects of the samoom. I gave them teriac; and seeing the impossibility of going on by this road, I left next day the Desert, and returned to the castle of Maw. In this desert I saw ants of the size of a sparrow. I encouraged my companions and escort, who were afraid to go through the forest, and arrived with a thousand pains on the tenth day at Oolshie, where I met Sheikh Ibrahim, and visited the monuments of Sheikhs Djemauli and Djelauli. Having arrived at the river Matshware I dismissed the Sindians, and then passed it in boats; but found on the opposite side about five hundred Djadds, (who however being afraid of muskets, were unable to attempt any thing,) and arrived the 15th day at the town of Multaun. Contents of the Chapters of the Mirror of Countries. 1. Introduction to the Mirror of Countries. 2. Events that happened at Bassra. 3. Events that happened in the gulf of Hormooz. 4. Events that happened in the Indian Sea. 5. Events that happened at Guzurat. 6. Events that happened in Sind. 7. Events that happened in Indostaun. 8. Events that happened in Zabalestaun. 9. Events that happened in Bedakhshaun and Khotlaun. 13. Events that happened in Irakadjem. 14. The rest of the journey to Constantinople. He arrived at Cole in the month of Rejeb 964 (1556), after a journey of four years; where having presented himself with his companions to Solimaun and to the great vizir Rostern, he received a pension of eighty aspers a day, as mottefarrika of the Sublime Porte. Of his companions, the kayas (lieutenants) and captains received an increase of pay of eight aspers a day as gonelligeduk, with the assignation of their pay for the four years of their travels on the treasury of Egypt. Our traveller was then made Deftadar of Diarbek, in which situation he wrote his Travels. The year of his death is not mentioned by Hadji Calfa; who, however, makes most honourable mention of him in his History of the Ottoman maritime Wars, printed at Constantinople. There are two other works on which is founded his literary renown: the Mireti Kainat (Mirror of Beings), a mathematical treatise on the use of the astrolabe, quadrant, &c. and The Moohit*, A Description of the Indian Seas. No doubt that the last must contain some materials interesting to the literary Societies in India: I have given therefore a commission at Constantinople to get it if possible. 15 II. A SMALL BUT TRUE ACCOUNT OF THE WAYS AND MANNERS OF THE ABYSSINIANS. PRFEACE. THE following account of the manners of the Abyssinians is written by Nathaniel Pearce, an English sailor, who was left in Abyssinia, at his own desire, by Lord Valentia (now Earl Mount-Norris) during his visit to Massowa in 1805. He is a man of an active and vigorous mind, as will sufficiently appear from his own observations. His subsequent history down to 1810 is well known to the public, being given in detail by Mr. Salt in his valuable Voyage to Abyssinia (Lond. 1814), especially in the seventh chapter. It is continued down to 1814 in his own paper. Mr. Salt's first meeting with him after his return to Abyssinia is interesting. "I found Mr. Pearce," says he, " to my great surprise, very little altered in complexion, and he spoke English almost as perfectly as when I left him. It was truly gratifying to witness his raptures at finding himself once more among Englishmen, and in an English ship. In the fullness of his heart, he seemed to consider every countryman on board as a brother; and it was interesting to observe with, what respect and astonishment our sailors looked up to him in return, from the various accounts they had previously heard of the intrepidity with which he had surmounted so many dangers. He subsequently gave proofs of extraordinary activity; and his knowledge of a ship, consider ing how long he had been absent from every thing of the kind, was very remarkable; for though we had several excellent sailors on board, there was not a single person that could follow him aloft, owing to the rapidity with which he darted from one point of the ship to another. I was also glad to find that the cultivation of his mind had kept pace with the improvement of his bodily powers. To a complete knowledge of the language of Figre, reckoned by the natives extremely difficult to acquire, he had added a tolerable share of the Amharic, and possessed so perfect an insight into the manners and feelings of the Abyssinians, that his assistance to me as an interpreter became invaluable." (Salt's Voyage, p. 203.) By the latest accounts (10th of May 1818) he is still in Abyssinia, the Ras not allowing him to leave the country; but for the last five years he has suffered much from disease and oppression. In a letter of the 20th October 1814, to Theodore Forbes, esq. the British resident at Mocha, he complains that the Ras behaved in a very niggardly manner in spite of all his services, scarce giving him and his family enough to live on ; though," continues he, "the Ras, on account of his religion, sends at this present time ten thousand dollars, fifteen slaves (at twenty dollars each), twenty-four pieces of first quality of Abyssinian cloth (at ten dollars each), besides two fine horses and two mules, to Muhammed Ali, to bring the Copti Bishop or Aboon from Cairo." The arrival of the Aboon or patriarch from Egypt was peculiarly unpropitious to poor Pearce, who was now worn down with sickness and suffering. “As soon as he arrived at Massow," says Pearce (letter 20th March 1816), "the Ras sent me word to quit my house, and that the Aboon was to take it on his arrival at Chalicut; which I strictly denied, and swore that I would die in my own house which I had been at the expense of building; which at first enraged him very much: but finding that I was determined to die sooner than quit my house by force, the wretched old savage, I can call him no better, coaxed me over with promises, even swore to give me the price of my house, garden, &c. ; which after great |