Enterprise and Adventure/Travels of Three Princes
THE TRAVELS OF THREE PRINCES.
In the year 1836, three Persian princes set out for their travels in western countries. Their names, somewhat difficult for Englishmen to pronounce, and still more difficult to remember, were Reeza Meerza, Najaf Meerza, and Taymour Meerza. On their return, a year or two later, they printed, for private circulation, a journal descriptive of their voyage and residence in England, and of their return to Bagdad; and this work was subsequently translated into English by an interpreter in their suite named Kayat. Curious in its observations of western life from an oriental point of view, this book affords an amusing instance of the errors and exaggerations into which travellers imperfectly acquainted with the language of the country are apt to fall, and which may be fairly assumed to be not altogether without parallel in the narratives written by European writers of their travels in the east.
The three princes gravely informed their Persian readers that from the time they left Falmouth until they arrived in London they did not see a span of earth uninhabited. Even the peasants who dwelt in English villages had, they remarked, lofty and beautiful houses. At Exeter they rested at an inn, which they described as a wonderful lofty building, and they added the piece of information that there are in that city above five thousand such public places, each gaining "about one thousand tomans per day indeed, say these travellers, "the money here is like dust;" but nothing less than the words of the gallant Najaf Meerza, the literary chief of the party, can do justice to the Persian princes' experiences of the effect of an introduction to a young unveiled English lady. "While we were sitting," he says, "behold! a sun appeared from our East shining and flashing. On seeing this incomparable beauty, and beholding this lovely face like the fall moon, I lost my senses, not to say that I lost my sight, in admiration. No, my eyes, by beholding her smiling, became a hundred times more powerful. The delightful odour of her hair fell into my heart, and I was obliged to rise up and invite her to sit by my side paying her all honourable respect. My heart died away, and unless my mind had gained strength to maintain conversation with this visitor, I should have appeared as if I was lost. I asked who she was. This full moon was a daughter of a captain in the East Indies."
Having thus expended their admiration upon English beauty, the veracious Persian travellers proceed to give their countrymen information of the customs, manners, and government of the country, from which it will probably amuse the reader to select a few passages. "Every person," says Najaf Meerza, "that has given ten tomans to the revenue, in case he should see anything wrong in its expense, has a right to rise up in the House of Commons and seize the vizier of the Treasury by the collar, saying, 'What have you done with my money?'" Having been presented at court, the princes received an invitation to Windsor, and they gravely record that this "superior palace" is "situated in a garden fifty-two miles in circumference, which is surrounded by a wall of iron bars about three yards and a half high. The park has forty gates, splendidly wrought, and through it runs several fine streams like rose water, and its trees are most noble, producing a beautiful shade. Gazelles, antelopes, and deer are here in thousands." Coming to the river Thames the journalist then breaks out in the following strain:—"The ships on this river are like forests. The large men of war are 1200 in number, some of which are of 120 guns; these, besides the packets and steamers. The least of their navy carries thirty guns. The British mercantile vessels are above 25,000, such is their extreme and extensive commerce. . . . In fine, all the ships of other nations on the globe could not equal the number of the English ships alone, nor ten foreign men-of-war stand in battle against one English; they have always been victorious over their enemies. One of the twelve viziers of government has the management of the navy; he is called the High Lord of the Admiralty; Lord Minto fills this high station at present. In his hand is the direction of the whole navy. Besides the above-mentioned ships, they have innumerable others in the West and East Indies, in America, and Australia, which are called out at the time of necessity. The water of the river Thames is very heavy, and not at all good for the digestion, nor could it ever produce an appetite. Yet the people of this country do not use water as a drink; when it is necessary they take a little, once in three or four days," With regard to our dogs, the travellers relate that the English people make them so serviceable that sometimes they are sent on business, and they add, "For instance, if a man wants something from a shop that is known to his dog, he will write a note to the shopkeeper, asking for what he may want; then he puts the note into a basket, and hangs it on the dog's neck, and gives him a sign, and the dog will carry the message immediately, and return to the satisfaction of his master." The "Opera of the Horse," as they term Astley's Theatre, was also visited by the princes, who declare that fifty thousand ladies were present, and gave splendour to the place. After this they went to a cutler's shop, and saw two millions of knives of different descriptions. We are told, too, by these travellers, that there are about two millions of stage-coaches in the United Kingdom; that many houses have gold knockers, of a hundred tomans value; and that there are more than five hundred thousand clocks fixed on the churches and other edifices in London. There is no doubt that much of this singular style of description is due to the oriental habit of exaggeration; but the book affords a curious example of the unauthentic character sometimes attaching to "travellers' tales."