75° Ihe Remarks, &?c. of John Albert de Mandelfioe Book I. 
i , H E Accounts afforded Us in the foregoing Sec- 
|| tions are excellent in their kind, fo far as they 
JL go ; but as it is neceffary to our haying a tho- 
rough Comprehenfion of the Affairs and Commerce of 
India that we fhould proceed ftiil farther, and take a com- 
pleat View of the feveral Countries in which this Commerce 
is carried on, fo of confequence it becomes as neceffary on 
parting with our old Guides to look out for new. He, 
with whom we are next to travel, has been allowed to have 
all the Qualities requifite to fuch a Guide, that is to fay. 
Knowledge, Diligence, and Fidelity. He was born A.D. 1 6 1 5. 
of a good Family in the Dutchy of Mecklenberg, in the Lower 
Saxony , and received from the Care of his Parents a liberal 
Education, having before received from Nature an happy 
and inquifitive Genius. Thefe good Qualities recommended 
him to the Notice firft, and then to the Confidence of the 
Duke of Holfiein , in whofe Family he lived as a Domeftick. 
When that Prince formed a Defign of fending an Em- 
baffy into Perjia , in order to promote a Projedt he had 
formed of eftablifhing an Eaft-India Company in his Do- 
minions, our Author was chofen to accompany thofe Em- 
baffadors in a very honourable Quality : But before, his De- 
parture, he reprefented to his Mailer, that though the Rea- 
sons which determined him to fend his Minifters no farther 
than Perfia were in themfelves very juft, and well founded, 
yet it would be extreamly requifite to the Accomplifh- 
ment of his main Defign, that a Perfon of their Retinue 
fhould make the Tour of the Indies , which was what he 
was ftrongly inclined to do, and therefore begged his Per- 
miffion to gratify that Defire, by taking his Leave of the 
Embaffadors when arrived at the Perfian Court, and pur- 
fuing his Travels as Occafion offered. 
The Duke’s Leave thus obtained, he fat out with the 
Embaffadors, in the Year 1636, and accompanied them 
to Ifpahan , or, according to the Perfian Pronunciation,. 
Spahawn , the Hiftory of which Journey, and of their Ne- 
gociation, was written at large by their Secretary, and is 
efteemed one of the moft perfect Works in its kind ; for 
which Reafon it will claim a Place in the fecond Part of 
our Undertaking. At prefent we are concerned only with 
Mandelfioe ’ s Account of his Travels, after he left the Em- 
baffadors, and profecuted his intended Defign of viewing 
the Countries of India, which he executed very happily, 
and has no lefs faithfully recorded. 
There have been few Travellers who have fet out better 
furniftied than our Author •, for he had, previous to his 
Journey, taken great Pains to acquaint himfelf with all that 
had been written of thofe Countries he was to vifit, by the 
bell Authors ancient and modern, as manifeftly appears by 
his excellent Performance. But though he was a Scholar, 
and a Gentleman, yet as the Defign he went upon was the 
Improvement of Trade, he kept that Defign conftantly in 
View, and loft no Opportunity of making fuch Enquiries 
as might enable him to make a juft and fatisfadlory Report 
at his Return to the Prince, by whom he was employed. 
It was with this View that he kept a regular and exabt 
Journal of his Travels, and took Care, in every Place where 
he came, to make the niceft Enquiries in his Power ; and 
it is for this Reafon that his Writings have been fo much 
efteemed, and have been always confidered as the moft 
curious and correbt Accounts that had been publifhed to his 
Time. 
He began them, as the Reader will perceive, in the 
Month of January 1638, and having happily atchieved 
them, returned fafely to the Court of Gottorp y and made 
his Report of what he had obferved in them. At the Clofe 
of the next Seblion we Ihall fay fomewhat as to the Confe- 
quences of them, and of the Caufes which hindered the 
Projebls of the Duke of Holfiein his Mafter from taking Ef- 
fect, notwithftanding they were fo wifely laid, and fo far 
as our Author had any Concern in them, happily executed. 
Thus much, however, may fuffice by way of Introduction, 
the rather, becaufe the Author himfelf has been fo clear and 
fo methodical in his Relation, and has taken fuch Care to 
avoid Qbfourity on the one hand, and Prolixity on the 
other, that there is no need of detaining the Reader any 
longer from his Performance, which we Ihall deliver in his 
own W ords as near as may be. 
2. The Embaffadors of Holfiein having left Ifpahan , 
and being not long_ after followed by Imanculi Efichan - - 
gafi, a Native or Karabath , who was fent in Quality of 
Embaffador from the King of Perfia, to the Duke of 
Holfiein ; I, according to the Permiffion I had obtained from 
the Duke my Mafter, prepared for my Journey into the 
Indies , and being on the 12th of January 1638, intro- 
duced to >a particular Audience of the Shah, he permit- 
ted me, with much Kindnefs, to kifs the Hem of his 
Garment. I fet but from Ifpahan the 16th of the fame 
Month, with a Retinue of four Perfons, viz. a Chirur- 
geon, a Footman, a Groom, and one Perfian Servant, be- 
ing conduced out of Town by Mr. Honywood, the Englijh 
Agent, and feveral Englijh and French Merchants. I took 
my Leave of them a League from thence, and travelled 
eight more the fame Day, to the Village of Major, where 
I ftayed the next Day, and continued my Journey to Kam - 
fcha, the whole Road being one continued Walk of Trees 
made by the adjacent Gardens. The Caravanfera. I lodged 
in, had nothing but bare Walls, but that wherein I was 
lodged the next Night, at the Village of Machfud , fix 
Leagues from KamJ'cha , had convenient Lodging- Rooms 
and Stables. 
The 20th I came to the Village of Hannahath , feated 
upon the Defcent of a very pleafant Hill. The 21ft I 
travelled ten Leagues, in very fnowy and windy Weather, 
and lodged in a Caravanfera called Jurgifthan. Between 
this Place and Surma , there being neither Village nor Ca- 
ravanfera, I was forced to travel the 22d 12 Leagues, and 
the 23d was obliged to go 12 more, before I could reach the 
Village of Gufii , where we met with very indifferent Ac- 
commodation, fcarce meeting with, a Houfe we could 
put our Heads in, or preferve our Horfes againft the bad 
Weather., The next Day being the 24th proved rather 
worfe, for being forced to travel 1 2 Leagues through the 
Mountains covered with Snow, and that in very bad Wea- 
ther, we, with much a-do, very late at Night, reached 
the large and famous Village of Mefchid Maderre Sulei- 
man, fo called from a Sepulchje which is within half a 
League of it. 
This Sepulchre is to be feen within a little Chapel of, 
white Marble, the Tomb itfelf being erebled upon a high 
Square of Free-Stone, unto which you may go up by Steps 
on all Sides. The Air and Rain has penetrated through 
the Walls in feveral Places, and diverfe Pillars round the 
Strublure are almoft confumed by Time. Upon the Walls 
of the Chapel, I found in Arabian Characters, thefe Words, 
Mader Suleiman . The general Opinion of the Inhabi- 
tants is, that this is the Sepulchre of Solomon’s Mother, 
but the Carmelite Friars at Schiras informed me, with 
much more Probability, that the Mother of Shah Soli- 
man, the 14th King of the Pofterity of Aly , was interred 
here. Elmacinus gives her the Name of Wallada , and in- 
forms us, that Ihe was the Daughter of Abbas Abbaficeam » 
He tells us alfo, that this Soliman lived in the Year 715, 
and that being a very handfome Perfon, and viewing him- 
felf one Day in a Looking-Glafs, he was fo taken with 
his own Perfon, that he faid, he might with the fame 
Right pretend to the Title of the King of Youth, as of 
the Kingdom of Perfia ; which being over-heard by one 
of the Ladies of his Seraglio, Ihe anfwered, that provided 
it was in his Power to infure to himfelf any Continuance 
of what by the Laws of Nature he might not be able to enjoy 
long, he might juftly lay Claim to fuch a Title. This 
ftruck fuch a Damp upon his Spirits, that he died within 
a few Days after. We met here with an Armenian Ca- 
ravan. 
3. I travelled on the 26th five Leagues to Siwan, and 
the 2 7th as many more to Mardafch, one of the moft fa- 
mous Villages of thofe Parts, on account of the Antiqui- 
ties that are to be feen near it, which obliged me to take 
a full View of them. They are the Ruins of a very anci- 
ent Structure called Tchilminar , i. e. forty Pillars by the 
Perfians, who affirm, that this moft; magnificent Palace 
was built by Szamfaid Padfcha , Grandfather to Alexander 
the Great by the Mother-Side, tho* fome among them 
make Solomon, others Darius , the laft Perfian King, its 
Founder ; but the Carmalites of Schiras affure me* that 
it 
