[October, 1615.]"

The chief commodities of Persia are raw silks, of which it yields, according to the king's books, 7700 batmans yearly.

Rhubarb grows in Chorassan, where also worm-seed grows.

[Footnote 159: Frank is a name given in the East to all western Christians, ever since the expedition to the Holy Land, because the French were the chief nation on that occasion, and because the French council at Clermont was the cause of that event. - Purch.]

Carpets of all sorts, some of silk and gold, silk and silver, half silk, half cotton, &c. The silver monies of Persia are the abacee, mahamoody, shakee, and biftee, the rest being of copper, like the tangas and pisos of India. The abacee weighs two meticals, the mahmoody is half an abacee, and the shahee is half a mahamoody. In the dollar or rial of eight there are thirteen shahees.[160] In a shahee there are two biftees and a half, or ten cashbegs, one biftee being four cashbegs, or two tangs. The weights differ in different places; two mahans of Tauris being only one of Ispahan, and so of the batman. The measure of length, for silks and other stuffs, is the same with the pike of Aleppo, which we judge to be twenty-seven English inches.

[Footnote 160: Assuming the Spanish dollar at 4s. 6d. sterling, the shahee ought therefore to be worth about 4d. 1-6, the mahamoody,8d. 1-3, and the abecee, 1s. 4d. 2-3. - E.]

John Crowther returned into India, and Richard Steel went to England by way of Turkey, by the following route. Leaving Ispahan on the 2d December, 1615, he went five p. to a serail. The 3d, eight p. to another serail. The 4th, six p. to a village. The 5th, seven p. to Dreag. The 6th, seven p. to a serail. The 7th, eight p. to Golpigan, [Chulpaigan.] The 8th, seven p. to Curouan. The 9th, seven p. to Showgot. The 10th, six p. to Saro, [Sari.] The 11th, eight p. to Dissabad. The 12th, twelve p. to a fair town called Tossarkhan, where he rested some days, because the country was covered deep with snow. The 15th, six p. to Kindaner. The 16th, eight p. to Sano. The 17th to Shar nuovo, where I was stopped by the daiga; but on shewing him letters from the vizier, he bade me depart in the name of God and of Ali. The 18th we passed a bridge where all travellers have to give an account of themselves, and to pay a tax of two shakees for each camel. The 19th we came to Kassam-Khan, the last place under the Persian government, and made a present to the governor, that he might give me a guard to protect me from the Turkomans, which he not only did, but gave me a licence to procure provisions free at his villages without payment, which yet I did not avail myself of.

The 21st of December I began to pass over a range of high mountains which separate the two empires of Persia and Turkey, which are very dangerous; and, on the 22d, at the end of eight p. I arrived at a village.

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