but extraordinary portion of its prefent inhabitants. Human nature takes a portion of its prominent features from national prejudices, from education, and from government; nor must we exclude climate from its fhare of the formation. This remark arose from a view of the Atashghah at Baku, where a Hindoo is found fo deeply tinctured with the enthusiasm of religion, that though his nerves be conftitutionally of a tender texture, and his frame relaxed by age,* he will journey through hostile regions, from the Ganges to the Volga, to offer up a prayer at the fhrine of his God.

WHEN the ambitious ftrides of the Ruffian empire, on the fide of Turkey, by the late acquifitions of the Crim, are attentively confidered, and its rapid progrefs into the most valuable provinces of Perfia, we are compelled to bestow applause on the policy of a government which has fo dextroufly ordered its meafures, that these valuable additions of power and wealth are daily accumulated without attracting the notice of Europe; nay almost without its knowledge. Waving any investigation of the political effects which may fpring from the rife or fall, or the encreasing grandeur of nations, I will here only observe, that the influence acquired by Ruffia, in the north-west quarter of Perfia, has been accompanied with reciprocal benefits, and that were it

Among the Hindoos at the Atafhghah, was an old man, a native of Dehli, who had vifited all the celebrated temples of northern and fouthern India, and whom I afterwards faw at Aftracan.

VOL. II.

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wholly

wholly annexed to the Ruffian dominion, the body of people would reap essential advantages; their perfons and property would derive a fecurity, of which they have been long deprived, and by a fubjection to the orders of a civilized, active government, they would neceffarily become ufeful fubjects and profitable members of fociety.

**

THE kingdom of Perfia, fince the period of the Afghan Invafion, has prefented an unvaried fcene of warfare and diftraction; where every fpecies of a favage rapine has been exercised with boundless fway; and at this day, Perfia may be faid to exhibit a vast tomb, piled up with the victims of ambition, avarice, and revenge; It were difficult to fay whether more of its people in the last fixty years, have fallen in the field, or by the hand of the executioner and affaffin. For they have had a full occupation, especially in the latter part of the government of Nadir Shah, whose revenues were at length drained from the blood of his fubject.

THE cruelties committed by this prince have been diffufely treated; all claffes of men, even our boys at fchool, are converfant in the barbarous exploits of Khuli Khan; it may not however be fuperfluous to notice fome facts, which seem to have largely contributed to fully the memory of Nadir, who at one period of his life, maintained no ill founded claims to heroic fame. At

Which happened about the year 1720.

the

the close of this prince's reign, his body and his mind indicated equal figns of diforder, which was fuppofed to have been caufed or augmented by domeftic treachery, and the effects of exceffive fatigue.

CONSPIRACY and rebellion arofe all around him, and he had no fooner quelled the infurrections of a province, than his departure was marked by the murder of the officers and fucceffive revolts. Seeing his authority endlessly trampled on, and that partial punishment was inefficient to give it strength, he gave loose to a perhaps conftitutional ferocity, which had been tempered by his understanding, but which thefe events inflamed to madness, and often inftigated to the indifcriminate extirpation of a district. But what feemed most to embitter and difturb his mind, was the perfidy of his family; the defection of those from whom he had vainly expected aid and attachment. His favorite son and apparent fucceffor, had been entrusted with the regency of Perfia, during the expedition to Hindoftan, and prefuming on the diftant occupations of his father, he had prepared measures, it is alledged, to afcend the throne.

THE increafing malady,* of Nadir, fharpened by public and domeftic calamity, ultimately rendered him a monfter of cruelty; and his rage extending ufually to thofe, whofe offices required

an attendance on his perfon,* he was approached with a conftant dread. Wearied out at length by the undeviating courfe of his tyranny and cruelties, which like a peftilence had thinned the land, fome of the principal officers of the court, stimulated alfo, it is faid, by one of his nephews, affaffinated him in the month of April, 1747, while he was encamped in the northern quarter of Khorafan, not far diftant from the place of his birth.

HAVING held out that fide of Nadir's character which excites only disgust and horror, it were but fimple justice to his memory, to notice thofe paffages of his life which will place him in a light, where princes ever appear in the most grateful colours. On the event of his fucceffes in India, he exempted his Perfian dominion from all taxes, for the space of three years; and after discharging the military arrears, which amounted to four millions fterling, he gave the army a gratuity of fix months pay, with a like fum to the civil fervants of the camp.

AFTER the battle of Karnat, when Nadir had overthrown the empire of India, and poffeffed the perfon of the king, one of the Moghul omrah's reprefented to him, that among the Dehli troops were an hundred thousand horfes fit for field fervice,

It is faid that the officers in waiting, instead of entering on the ordinary topies of a court, were used to make anxious and unfeigned enquiries into the ftate of the fhah's body, and ever expreffed much joy, at an imperial evacuation, which they imagined would fecure an exiftence for the day.

and

and which his order would immediatly produce. Nadir Shah, in the language of a prince, obferved that he granted to the Moghul army, an unreferved quarter, which fhould not be infringed; that the bread of an Afiatic foldier depends on his horfe, which were he deprived of, himself and his family would be reduced to beggary; that it is repugnant to humanity to treat those with rigor, whom fortune has thrown into our power, and it was his determined will, that the Indian foldiers fhould not be in any degree infulted or molested.*

NADIR SHAH, in the profperous periods of his life, held out an ample protection to merchants of every fect and nation, and zealously fought to establish a liberal commerce throughout Perfia, which he faw poffeffed of various valuable commodities. When the mercantile property of Mr. Hanway, was plundered at Afterabad, that gentleman prefered his complaint in person to the shah, who directing an investigation into the account, iffued an effectual order on the governor of the province for a full reftitution of the effects or the amount.

a

In the vigorous attempts, which this prince made to introduce the European art of navigation and fhip-building into his country; he evinced a genius rarely found in the mind of an Afiatic. It was his intention, by the affiftance of John Elton, to erect fortified stations on the east side of the Cafpian fea, that a stability

* Frazer's history of Nadir Shah.