TEHERAN. 
£00 
wished, and instantly wrote out a corresponding form of Treaty, to 
which (rather than start a difficulty about indifferent words) he 
assented. They were then so anxious that he should immediately 
attend them to the King's Summer Palace to sign, that they would not 
give him time to translate it into English: he however refused to sign 
a Persian treaty, till the English copy was ready. They so little 
expected this refusal, that they had already, by the King's desire, 
sent thirty mule-loads of fruits, sherbets, and sweetmeats to celebrate 
the event at the new palace ; and were of course displeased and disap¬ 
pointed. At another time, in the middle of a very serious conversation, 
the Prime Minister stopped short, and asked the Envoy very coolly 
to tell him the history of the world from the creation. This was in¬ 
tended as a joke upon one of the Secretaries, who was then writing 
the annals of the reign of the present King. On another occasion, in 
which the same Minister was deeply and personally interested, and in 
which he invoked every thing sacred to attest his veracity, and con¬ 
vince the Envoy, (now, 44 by the head of the Kingthen, 44 by 
46 Mecca” then, 44 by the salt of Fath Ali Shah") he turned to 
me in a pause of his discourse, and asked if I were married, and begun 
some absurd story. 
These circumstances, however characteristic of the people, may 
appear trifling in themselves, or at least indicative of minds, over 
which an European Negociator might easily attain an ascend¬ 
ancy. It is necessary therefore to premise, that the real diffi¬ 
culties of our situation were never diminished by any deficiency of 
address and diplomatic finesse in the Persian Plenipotentiaries. 
Every fresh dispatch which the French received from Europe, while 
it contributed to raise the spirits and activity of our rivals them¬ 
selves, enabled the Persians also to assume a higher tone of decision 
between our contending interests, while the only communications from 
his own countrymen which Sir Harford Jones received in Persia, 
were those which would have baffled the hopes and discouraged the 
