chief Phyſician to a Georgian Prince, with conſiderable appointments, but his inclination to travelling being not yet abated led him farther into the Eaſt, and the advice of Father du Mans, with whom he had contracted a particular amity, during his ſtay at Iſpahan, with the recommendations he obtain’d of M. Fabritius, prevail’d upon him to enter into the ſervice of the Dutch Eaſt-India Company, in quality of chief Surgeon to the Fleet, which was then cruizing in the Perſian Gulph, a place, as he expreſſes himſelf in one of his letters, leſs honourable indeed, but more adapted to the deſign of his travels.
He left Iſpahan, on his journey to Gamron, or Benderabaſſi, a celebrated trading town on the Perſian Gulph, in November 1685, and was honourably attended a mile out of town by the Ambaſſador’s retinue. He made ſome ſtay at Sijras, both to make the neceſſary enquiries concerning the celebrated Perſian wines, which owe their name to that town, and to viſit the boaſted remains of the ancient Perſepolis, and the Royal Palace of Darius, that noble ſtructure, which fell a ſacrifice to wine and wantonneſs, and whole ſcattered ruins are a ſtill ſubſiſting undeniable monument of its former ſplendor and greatneſs.
The unhealthineſs of Gamron, for the ſultry heat of the air, and the want of water, is ſuch, that few Europeans can live there any conſiderable time, without great prejudice to their health; and even the natives are obliged, in the hot ſeaſon, to retire up into the mountains. Dr. Kæmpfer felt the effect of it ſoon after his arrival, falling into a malignant fever, of which he lay delirious for ſome days; however it pleaſed Providence to ſpare him: His fever abating, flung him into a dropſy, and that into a quartan ague, and ’twas by theſe dangerous and unuſual ſteps he recovered his health, but not his former ſtrength and vigour. As ſoon as he found himſelf in a condition to remove, he retired into the Country, for the change of air and the recovery of his his ſtrength, as well as in queſt of new diſcoveries and obſervations, chiefly on thoſe things which for the unhealthineſs of the Climate, and other difficulties, had not been before throughly and ſo accurately enquired into.
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