given us in his Amœnitates Exoticæ, of the origin and fountains of the Naphta in the Peninſula Okeſra, if he had not been at the pains to go and view them upon the ſpot. Few are ſenſible what a pleaſure a Natural Hiſtorian receives, when ſome new and ſingular Phænomenon in nature offers in places unfrequented. Dr. Kæmpfer had the ſatisfaction of finding in that Median Peninſula even more than he look’d for, and inſtead of one he went to ſee, to meet, as he ſaith, with no leſs than ſeven wonders: The town of Baku on the Caſpian Sea, the remaining monuments of Antiquity in the neighbourhood thereof, the fountains of Naphta, the burning field, boiling lake, a mountain which threw out a fine potters-earth, and ſome other ſingularities, truly many for ſo ſmall a compaſs of ground, made him abundant amends for the trouble, and even the hazard of his excurſion thither.
Upon the return of the expreſſes ſent to the Court of Perſia, M. Fabritius ſet out on his journey thither about the middle of January 1684, as did alſo the Poliſh and Ruſſian Ambaſſadors with their retinues: but being order’d to travel different ways, the Swediſh Embaſſy reach’d Iſpahan, the Capital of Perſia, ſome time before the others.
Schah Solyman, King of Perſia, a Prince of a tender and ſickly conſtitution, was then, by the advice of his Aſtrologers, under a ſort of a voluntary confinement to his Palace. Apprehenſive of the fatal conſequences of a malignant conſtellation, they would not permit him to go abroad, and to appear in publick, till the 30th of July, on which day he treated his whole Court with the utmoſt ſplendor and magnificence. There were at that time ſeveral foreign Ambaſſadors at Iſpahan, from the Kings of Sweden, Poland and Siam, the Czars of Muſcovy, ſeveral Arabian and Tartarian Princes, and ſome alſo with Letters Credentials from the Pope, the Emperor of Germany, and the King of France, who were ſeverally admitted to audience on the ſame day, it being the cuſtom of the Perſian Kings not to let the Ambaſſadors of foreign Powers appear in their Royal Preſence, but on ſome ſuch ſolemn occaſion as this was, in a full aſſembly of their numerous Court, and in the moſt pompous
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