During All
This Time, I Abode In The House Of The English Merchants, My Dear
Countrymen, Not Expending Any Money At All For Lodging, Diet, Washing,
Or Any Other Thing.
I attained to a reasonable skill in the Persian tongue, by earnest study
in a few months, so that I made an oration to the king in that
language, before many of his nobles; and afterwards discoursed with him
very readily.
The copy of this speech I have sent you, as a novelty,
though the language may seem strange and uncouth to an Englishman; and I
have sent you herewith a translation, which you may shew along with the
Persian original to some of my learned friends of the clergy, and also
of the laity, who may take some pleasure in reading so rare and unusual
a tongue. The Persian is this that follows:
Hazaret Aallum-pennah, Salamet: fooker Darceish, ce jehaun-gesht
hastam; ke mia emadam az wellageti door, yanne as muik Ingliz-stan, ke
kessanion pesheen mushacar cardand, ke wellageti mazcoor der akeri
magrub bood, ke mader hamma jezzaereti dunia ast, &c.[250] - The English
of it is this:
"Lord protector of the world, all hail! I am a poor traveller and
world-seer, who am come here from a far country called England, which
ancient historians thought to have been situated in the farthest bounds
of the west, and which is the queen of all the islands in the world. The
causes of my coming hither are four.
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