ready to do any work, however
humble and contrary to my nature, that I think the Lord appoints for
me. I hear also, that at Aleppo, the French intend only having an
Agent instead of a Consul; whereas, our government has just sent a
Consul out to Damascus with an English merchant, and one to Aleppo,
and last year we had a Consul established at Trebizond. I think Ali
Pasha will do all in his power to promote the steam navigation of
these rivers; and he is evidently a man of a very different character
from the Georgians who preceded him. They cherished most of all the
pride and pomp of Turkish power, with all its inveterate prejudices,
ignorance, and narrowness of mind, so that if you had any business of
the least difficulty, you could never get them to attend five minutes
to it. But not so Ali Pasha: he apprehends with facility; and you at
least have the satisfaction of knowing you are understood. He has been
at Trieste, and in Hungary, and seems acquainted, to a limited extent,
with several of the public journals of Europe. He dresses nearly as an
European, and his brother-in-law quite so, with the exception of the
hat; which is as yet very trying to the genuine Asiatics, who look on
their own dress as that which it would be a sin to change. The Pasha
also seems perfectly indifferent to hoarding money.

Things in the city are still very dear, arising from the harvest of
last year not having been reaped, and various other causes. We have to
pay three times the usual price for most things; but after such
tremendous visitations as we have suffered, we cannot expect that
things can return to their usual course in a day.

_Oct. 22._--I have had with me to-day a gentleman who was formerly
attached to Mr. Morier's mission in Persia. He fled from the plague
at Tabreez, and arrived at Kermanshah four days after dear brother
Pfander left it, who, by his conversations in the caravan, had left so
distinct an impression, that he thought Mohammed a liar, that when he
reached Kermanshah, he found his situation very difficult, nay
dangerous, and he was obliged hastily to quit it. He went to Hamadan,
and remained there three days in the house of a priest, from whence he
proceeded to Ispahan. All the villages between Hamadan and Ispahan are
Armenian. The journey takes about ten days. When he arrived at
Ispahan, Abbas Meerza being at Yezd, he went there, was treated with
great honour and respect, and a firman given him to go where he lik