A Journey through Persia, Armenia, and Asia Minor, to Constantinople, in the Years 1808 and 1809
James Justinian MorierImperfect as my journal may be, it will, I hope, be found sufficiently comprehensive to serve as a link in the chain of information on Persia, until something more satisfactory shall be produced; and it claims no other merit than that of having been written on the very spots, and under the immediate circumstances, which I have attempted to describe. Having confined myself, with very few exceptions, to the relation of what I saw and heard, it will be found unadulterated by partiality to any particular system, and unbiassed by the writings and dissertations of other men. Written in the midst of a thousand cares, it claims every species of indulgence.
The time of my absence from England comprehends a space of little more than two years.—On the 27th of Oct. 1807, I sailed from Portsmouth with Sir Harford Jones, Bart. K. C. His Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Persia, in H. M. S. Sapphire, Captain George Davies: after having touched at Madeira and at the Cape of Good Hope, we reached Bombay on the 26th of April, 1808: owing to some political arrangements we did not quit Bombay till the 12th September. We arrived at Bushire on the 13th October, and proceeded towards the Persian capital on the 13th December. H. M. Mission reached Teheran on the 14th February, 1809: on the 12th March the preliminary treaty was signed between Sir Harford Jones
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