ARSENAL. 
2S7 
merous body of carpenters and wheelwrights were at work with Euro¬ 
pean tools, superintended by an European mechanic. Farther on was 
the blacksmith’s forge, worked with charcoal for want of coal. Then 
in another yard, were piles of shot, with men filling cartridges and 
other lesser employments. We were led through a suite of apartments, 
in which were sadlers and workers of leather, store-rooms neatly ar¬ 
ranged, and conveniences of every sort. 
The Persians are delighted at this place. The prince frequently 
visits it, takes great pleasure in inspecting all the works, and in learning 
the uses and properties of every article. His principal delight is a 
machine for boring cannon, which is worked by a buffalo, enabling him 
to make guns of any description. 
These details will perhaps furnish some idea of the rapidity with 
which the Persians might be entirely civilized; and if it were ever the 
policy of any one of the European nations to give a further impulse to 
the eagerness with which they have already begun to acquire some of 
our arts, it is not to be doubted, but that the whole of Persia would 
soon exhibit a very different aspect from what it does at present; and 
that from this commencement, their darkness in religion would per¬ 
haps be gradually dispelled. 
However agreeable it may be to trace their first progress towards 
civilization, and to anticipate their further advances, we must not con¬ 
fine our views to the more pleasing side of the scene. 
Many of the prisoners taken from the Russians are confined in the 
ark. Twenty to thirty Armenian husbandmen, natives of Kara bagh, 
finding themselves reduced to a state of starvation by the constant in¬ 
roads made upon their fields by the Persian cavalry, resolved to 
migrate into the country of Abbas Mirza. On their way, they were 
met by a party of predatory Persian horsemen, who, without listening 
to their tale, seized them as prisoners, and sent them to Tabriz, where 
they were thrown, bound and fettered, into a dungeon. During the 
day-time they were let out and driven like cattle in a herd, to work 
upon buildings erecting without the town, and were beaten without 
remorse if they made remonstrances, or showed any reluctance to work. 
G G 2 
