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AGA PHARSEIGH.

acceptable to the Turks of Bussorah; but the truth of the matter was, that, finding the town defenceless owing to the plague-panic, and the inability of the Pacha of Bagdad to afford any succour, the Zobeirs imagined they could revel in the luxury of plunder with impunity. They had begun their "demonstrations" before my departure, and the excitement this produced furnished my friend Aga Pharseigh with a fine field for the display of his cupidity. British "protection" was his stock in trade, and a thriving business he drove. He had contrived to enter into a compact with the Zobeirs, that, in the worst of their excesses, they should hold sacred the British residency and the property it contained, promising on his part (on behalf of his constituency, the Indian governinent) to abstain from the exertion of any influence in the Turk's behalf. Intelligence of this compact was communicated to numbers of the merchants remaining in the town, and they accordingly lost no time in seeking the advantages which it offered to them. The Aga was assailed from morning till night with solicitations to afford room

A SECOND START.

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in the residency for divers bales, boxes, bags and baskets, and it is but justice to declare that in yielding his assent he did not evince a very great contempt for handsome douceurs. The consequence was, as I afterwards learnt, that the Zobeirs violated the treaty, and assailed the residency. Such a person as Aga Pharseigh is unworthy the confidence he enjoys. The Bombay government ought to afford the resident an English deputy; for as he is required to move up and down between Bagdad and Bussorah, and does not possess the faculty of omnipresence, it should be in his power to delegate the direction of affairs in his absence to some person of trust and discretion.

Having instituted inquiries as to the most agreeable and practicable route to Europe from the point where I now found myself, and learning that nothing more secure offered itself than a voyage up the Karoon to Shuster and thence to Shiraz, I determined at once to adopt it, the more readily that I should have an opportunity of visiting the ruins of Ahwaz, so famous in Mahomedan history. Accordingly a new en

gagement was entered into with the nacquodah of the boat in which I had recently travelled, and renewing my Arabic costume, I left Bussorah on the 7th of May. We had not proceeded ten miles when our boat was arrested by the Zobeirs, who having possessed themselves of one of the motesellim's eight-gun brigs, fired two shots at us, and sent a party on board to levy gomruck. We steadily refused to pay anything, but as they manifested a disposition to proceed to violence, and we were numerically inferior and badly armed, I tried the effect of a declaration that I was an Englishman. This they at first disbelieved, and certainly my appearance justified their incredulity. On expressing my willingness, however, to surrender, threatening them with the speedy vengeance of the British resident, they lowered their tone, and desisting from further hostility, returned on board the brig.

Reaching Mahummarah, I delivered letters to the sheikh of the Chabeans, and was furnished with a guard, or rather a guide, who was to guarantee me against the attacks of the people

who inhabit the villages on the bank of the Karoon. A few miles beyond the village of Herat on the Hafar, all trace of the date grove was lost, and the river's banks presented merely a narrow range of tamarisk and other wild shrubbery. I walked on shore, while the trackers slowly drew the vessel up the stream, and crossed, during two hours' stroll, not less than five dry beds of ancient canals between Herat and Derissee, on the left bank of the river. Little else attracted my attention during the voyage. The shores one would imagine to be totally deserted, but for the occasional appearance of the antelope, the hare, the jackall, wolf, and lion; scarcely a bird, excepting a stray plover, pelican, or wild duck, disturbed the tranquillity of the scene.

On the 11th of May we reached Ahwaz, and I lost no time, with the aid of a Cutch carpenter located here, who spoke Hindostanee remarkably well, in exploring the ruins of this once famous capital of Khuzistân. I have compared my memoranda made on the spot, and the data supplied me from the Arabic authors, with the

sketch of Ahwaz, appended to Captain Mignan's volume of Travels in Chaldea, and I must render to that officer the tribute of respect to which his accuracy and research entitle him. I believe I penetrated much farther eastward than Captain Mignan ventured to do, purposing to ascertain the termination of these ruins; but after a journey of thirty miles and upwards, I gave up the pursuit. It is worth mentioning, however, as in some degree confirmatory of the descriptions of Ahwaz by the Arabic authors, that on a subsequent visit to Bunder Mashoor (distant seventy miles S. E. of Ahwaz,) I found some considerable ruins of precisely the same character as those at Ahwaz, and abounding with pottery, flint glass, and Cufic gems.

May 13th. After the assr, or afternoon prayer, we prepared to leave Ahwaz. The sheikh came on board with a number of attendants, and paid me a visit. With him came my guide from Mahummarah, who now announced his intention of quitting, and to whom I gave a letter of approbation, and a small present. He rejected the latter with disdain, and