Finding, on my arrival in England, that curiosity was quite alive to every thing connected with Persia, I was induced to publish the Memoranda which I had already made on that country; more immediately as I found that I had been fortunate enough to ascertain some facts, which had escaped the research of other travellers. In this, I allude more particularly to the sculptures and ruins of Shapour; for although my account of them is on a very reduced scale, yet I hope that I have said enough to direct the attention of abler persons than myself to the investigation of a new and curious subject.

Imperfect as my journal may be, it will, I hope, be found sufficiently comprehensive to serve as a link in the chain of information on Persia, until something more satisfactory shall be produced; and it claims no other merit than that of having been written on the very spots, and under the immediate circumstances, which I have attempted to describe. Having confined myself, with very few exceptions, to the relation of what I saw and heard, it will be found unadulterated by partiality to any particular system, and unbiassed by the writings and dissertations of other men. Written in the midst of a thousand cares, it claims every species of indulgence.

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 arrangements 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 Plenipotentiaries; 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 embarked 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 subjects 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;1 I feel at least that it will prove very acceptable to those who have shown him, as a stranger, so much friendship and hospitality.

In my narrative I have confined myself to relate our proceedings from the time we left Bombay to my arrival at Constantinople. The sea voyages, from England to India, and from Constantinople to England, are too well known to require any thing more to be written about them.

The engravings that are inserted are made from drawings which I took on the spot; they are done in a slight manner, and therefore are more intended to give general ideas, than to enter into any nicety of detail.

For the map from Bushire to Teheran I am indebted to my friend Captain James Sutherland, of the Bombay army; and for the general one of the countries, through which my route carried me, I must here return my thanks to Major Rennell, who has furnished me with this valuable document, and who has kindly assisted me in this, as well as on other occasions when I found myself deficient, with his advice and information. The map from Teheran to Amasia is the result of my own observation, corrected by the same masterly hand. It terminates at Amasia, because my journey from that place to Constantinople was performed as much by night as it was by day, and prosecuted with too great speed to permit me to observe with accuracy. Besides which, in Turkey, where the people are much more jealous and watchful of travellers than in Persia, I found that I could not make my remarks so much at my ease as I wished, although assisted by the disguise of a Persian dress. The courses and distances, noted in the journal, are only to be regarded as a kind of dead reckoning, subject to correction by the application of latitudes in certain places, and of approximated positions in others; and, in all, by allowances for the inflexions and inequalities of the roads.

I am indebted to Messrs. Jukes and Bruce, of the Bombay service, for the information which they furnished me whilst I was in Persia, and I have not failed to make my acknowledgments, wherever such information has been inserted.

But I must, in particular, express my gratitude to Mr. Robert Harry Inglis, for the kindness with which he offered to correct and arrange my memoranda, and prepare my journals for the press.2

I beg leave to repeat that this volume is meant merely as provisional, and that I am far from entertaining the presumption that it will class with the valuable pages of Chardin, Le Brun, Hanway, Niebuhr, or Olivier. It is to be expected, that the extensive communication that will be opened with Persia, in consequence of our late political transactions with its court, will throw the whole extent of that very interesting part of the globe under our cognizance; and that, among other subjects of inquiry, its numerous antiquities, which have as yet been but imperfectly explored, will throw new lights upon its ancient history, manners, religion, and language.