Frank
matters:--"When we came to the guns," says the eximious Hajji Baba, "by
my beard, existence fled from our heads! We saw cannons of all sizes and
denominations, enough to have paved the way, if placed side by side,
from Tehran to Tabriz--if placed lengthways, Allah only knows where they
would have reached--into the very grave of the father of all the
Russians, perhaps!" "The cannon distributed over the whole place," says
the graver narrative of the Khan, "are said to amount to 40,000! all
ready for use in the army, navy, or fortresses; and, as if these were
not sufficient for the destruction of the human race, other pieces are
constantly casting by a process the reverse of that in India, where the
guns are cast in moulds--whereas here a solid cylinder is cast, and
afterwards bored, shaped, and finished by steam power.... There are,
moreover, a considerable number taken from enemies in battle, two of
which, taken from Tippoo Sultan at Seringapatam, have their muzzles in
the form of a lion's mouth, and are very well cast and elaborately
ornamented; having their date, with the weight of powder and ball they
carry, expressed in Persian characters about the mouth. There are also
three from Bhurtpore, and three others from Aden, the inscriptions on
which denote that they were cast by order of the Turkish emperor,
_Mahmood_[17] Ibn Soliman." After leaving the arsenal, the Khan
proceeded to the dockyard, of which he merely enumerates the various
departments; but the proving of the anchors and chain-cables by means of
the hydraulic press, impressed him, as it must do every one who has
witnessed that astonishing process, with the idea of almost illimitable
power. "On the ground lay a huge anchor which had been broken a few days
before in the presence of Prince Albert, and when I was there four men
were trying the strength of a chain by turning a wheel, the force
produced by which was more than sufficient to break it; for just as I
arrived it began to give way, when they desisted. The force here
produced by means of this single wheel must have been equal to that of
some 200,000 elephants, which might perhaps have pulled till doomsday
without effecting it. Such is the wonderful effect of this agent
(steam,) the results of which I meet with in so many different places,
and under so many different circumstances!" After visiting the
convict-hulk, and seeing the anchor-founderies in operation, the Khan
crossed to Blackwall, and ret