188 BOMBAY. 
cookery, but they sent me from their own several dishes, which were 
very highly seasoned, and good. The wines were excellent ; but 
when I adjourned to their table, I was not a little astonished to 
find liqueurs placed opposite each Persee, which they drank in glasses 
as freely as wine, and which, though they sat late, seemed to have 
no effect on them. Their houses are furnished with a profusion of 
English looking-glasses, prints, and paintings. They always light 
them up remarkably well ; but on this occasion the whole gardens 
w^ere illuminated with torches and lamps, which had a most bril- 
liant effect. The band playing in the verandah, and the crowd of 
differently dressed people had the semblance of an English masque- 
rade. We had a very good set of nautch-girls, which much pleased 
Sir James Mackintosh, who had not before seen this Asiatic amuse- 
ment. Coffee and tea, pawn and attar, lavender water, and other 
perfumes, completed the melange of this Anglo- Asiatic entertain- 
ment, from which we departed about midnight. 
To the credit of the Persee humanity, they provide for all their 
poor ; and to the credit of their private morals, there is not a single 
prostitute, or mistress to a gentleman, of their cast, in the settle- 
ment. They are generous and splendid in the higher orders ; and 
in the lower, active and intelligent, far surpassing as servants the 
Mussulmauns or Hindoos. They mostly speak English with pro- 
priety. In their persons they are a handsome race, fairer than the 
natives, though not possessing the clear skin of the Europeans. In 
their manners they are uniformly conciliatory and mild. I confess 
that I infinitely prefer them to any race of people in the East sub- 
ject to the British control. They have numerous temples to Fire, 
but their priests seem to have no authority in temporal concerns, 
