SHIRAZ TO BUSHIRE. 15 



this is the town residence of the Prince-Governor of 

 the district, the uncle of the reigning King of Persia. 

 The walls and bastions surrounding the town are for 

 the most part in ruins, and the ditch is nearly filled 

 up with the iltbri*. A mule with its load can be 

 driven across the ditch, and then over the wall into 

 the town in many places with ease. The rest of 

 the town presents the usual appearance of towns 

 in Persia : an expanse of flat-roofed, fragile-looking 

 buildings of a light dust colour, half of which seem 

 to be in ruins, or partially so. The very ruinous 

 state of the walls and bastions around the town, and 

 of the bazaars, is to be accounted for by the great 

 earthquake which occurred here some years ago, 

 and destroyed some five thousand of the inhabitants. 

 The Shirazees say that since then many of the in- 

 habitants have fled the city, and that the town has 

 never regained its wonted thriving appearance. 



Owing to some question of etiquette that had not 

 been amicably arranged between the people of the 

 Prince-Governor and our master of the ceremonies, 

 who was nothing more or less than our head ser- 

 vant, no visits had been interchanged between the 

 authorities of the place and -ourselves. We had also 

 good grounds for supposing that the Prince-Governor 

 had received instructions from the capital previous to 

 our arrival, ordering him to treat our party with as 

 little civility as possible. The then Prime Minister 

 at Teheran had always looked upon our party with 



