190 
TEHERAN. 
44 May it please your Majesty, 
44 The King my Master, willing to renew and strengthen those 
44 ties of friendship and alliance which subsisted between the Kings 
44 of Persia and of England, has deputed me to the foot of your 
44 Majesty’s throne, with the expression of these His Royal wishes and 
44 intentions. 
44 To have been charged with such a commission, I shall always 
44 consider as the most distinguished and honourable event of my 
44 life; and, when I thus deliver to your Majesty the letter of my most 
44 gracious and Royal Master, I feel confident in being honoured with 
44 your Majesty’s protection and favour. 
44 May the Great Disposer of all events grant your Majesty an 
44 increase of honour and prosperity, and may the friendship and 
44 interests of England and Persia henceforward become inseparable.” 
The King then answered in return, that the states had been long 
allied, and he hoped that the friendship would increase daily ; this the 
Prime Minister explained. The King then said, 44 How does the King 
44 of England, my Brother ? Damaughist chauk est ? How is his 
44 health ?” He then asked, if this were the son of the former King, with 
whose subjects he had had communications, and when he was told 
that the same King was still reigning, he exclaimed, 44 the French 
44 have told lies in that also!” (For they had spread the report that 
the King of England was dead.) The Envoy was then conducted to a 
gilt and painted chair placed for him, an honour never paid before to 
any Mission. I stood on his right; Jaffer Ali Khan on his left; 
Mirza Sheffeea, the Prime Minister, next to me; Hajee Maho¬ 
med Hossein Khan, the Ameen-ed-Doulah, and Mirza Reza 
Kooli, another of the Ministers, succeeded; and the Master of the 
Ceremonies closed the line. The other gentlemen stood in a row 
behind. The King informed the Envoy that the choice which his 
Brother the King of England had made of him as a Minister in 
in Persia, was agreeable and acceptable to him; he then inquired 
