17 
CHAPTER IL 
The Ambassadors were received with great distinction by Mr. Duncan, 
the late governor of Bombay. Previous to landing, a considerable 
number of Persian merchants came on board to compliment their 
Ambassador upon his arrival, and according to the custom of their 
country, brought with them presents of all sorts of fruit. But that 
which gave most pleasure to the Persian Ambassador was the notifi¬ 
cation of his Sovereign’s entire approval of his conduct in England, 
to confirm which he received a special firman that invested him with 
the title of Khan. The uncertainty in which he had so long lived upon 
this head had so much agitated his mind, that when he received his 
letters, his countenance evinced all the strongest emotions of hope and 
fear, which soon were succeeded by those of confirmed joy. 
A house was prepared for his reception, a mehmandar appointed to 
attend upon him, and he and all his suite were treated at the public 
expense. The great attentions that he had received in England had pro¬ 
bably influenced the line of conduct which he adopted towards the Go¬ 
vernor of Bombay, from whom he demanded the tribute of the first visit. 
In vain was urged the precedent that former Persian Ambassadors had 
paid the first visit; in vain he was told that such a respect was due to 
the representative character of a Governor: nothing could overthrow 
the inference which he drew from the fact, that he had been visited 
not only by what he called the father and grandfather of the East 
India Company, (meaning the Chairman and Deputy Chairman,) but 
that he had also received the first visits from all the King of England’s 
viziers, not excepting the Prime vizier*, who all came to see him, 
clothed in the same dresses with which they went before their own 
Sovereign. How could he then pay the first visit to a man who was only 
a servant of the Company which Company was subject to the King ? 
* The late Right Hon. Spencer Perceval. 
D 
