Yin 
PREFACE. 
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 arrange¬ 
ments 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 and the Persian Plenipoten¬ 
tiaries; and on the 7th May I quitted Teheran with Mirza Abul 
Hassan, the King of Persia’s Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of 
London, with whom I reached Smyrna on the 7th September, and em¬ 
barked there on board H. M. S. Success, Captain Ayscough. Having 
at Malta changed the Success for H. M. S. Formidable, we finally reached 
Plymouth on the 25th November, 1809- 
I should be wanting in gratitude, if I did not here express the 
obligations which I owe to my fellow traveller, Mirza Abul Hassan, 
the late Persian Envoy Extraordinary, for much information on sub¬ 
jects relating to his own country, and for all the facilities of acquiring 
his language, which his communicative and amiable disposition afforded 
me. As this personage was distinguished, during his stay in England, 
by attentions more marked and continued than, perhaps, were ever 
paid to any foreigner, I have conceived that I should not trespass too 
much on the patience of my readers by inserting a sketch of his life f' 
* See Chapter XII. p. 220-3. 
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