1844.] Itinerary from Yezd to Herat. 835 



been arrested by his people, stripped of his effects, and confined in the 

 citadel at Fourk, from whence he had contrived to escape. So different 

 was the treatment I received, that I appreciated the advantage of ac- 

 quaintances in a strange land. The Khan furnished me with an escort 

 of cavalry, which I sent to my friend and fellow-traveller Avitabile, and 

 who directed the march of the caravan upon Avaz, passing by the stages 

 of Dijisk, Gosk, and Nahkop ; as for myself, I followed the road by 

 Fourk, accompanied by a son of the governor, who did not separate 

 from me until we arrived at Avaz. In passing by Fourk he took me to 

 see the copper mine that his forefathers discovered, the metal from which 

 was used in casting some guns that are now in the castle of that place. 



On our arrival at Herat, we found the province exposed to civil war. 

 Prince Kamran having in the month of April 1826, driven out his father 

 Mahomed Shah, two parties declared themselves, and urged a furious 

 war ; the king with the assistance of Boonia Khan, at the head of the 

 Azeris besieged the fort of Herat during the month of June, but the 

 desertion of some of his troops obliged him to fall back upon Farrah, 

 from whence he was taking fresh measures to drive his son from this 

 province. These preparations obliged Kamran to seek an alliance with 

 Hoosain Ali Mirza, Prince of Khorassan, who nattered by this submis- 

 sion on the part of one, who, up to this time, refused to acknowledge 

 his authority, and foreseeing the advantages to be gained to himself, 

 sent to his support six thousand men and four guns, under his own son 

 Orghan Mirza. Their united forces were encamped on the banks of the 

 Morgab, with the intention of opposing the Khan of Meimaneh, who was 

 coming to the support of Mahomed Shah. 



The city of Herat, which is no other than Aria of the Greeks, was, it is 

 said, built by Alexander the Great. The inhabitants state, that the plain 

 upon which it now stands, was formerly a lake formed by the waters of 

 the Heri, and kept in by the range of hills called Senjer D'jun, through 

 which Alexander having cut a passage for the water to flow, the plain 

 was left dry, and the beauty of the country induced him to found this 

 city ; one thing is certain, that the castle situated about six pharsacs to 

 the East of Herat, was built by this conqueror. 



The city of Herat is small, and enclosed in a high wall built of mud, 

 flanked by towers falling in ruins, surrounded by a deep and broad ditch 

 always full of water. The city contains about six thousand houses, 



5t 



