, their utter ignorance of the nature of an
argument, their impudent assertions about the law and the gospel,
neither of which they had ever seen in their lives, moved my
indignation. The Vizier said, 'You had better say, God is God and
Mohammed is the prophet of God.' I said, 'God is God,' but added,
instead of 'Mohammed is the prophet of God,' 'Jesus is the Son of
God.' They had no sooner heard this, which I had avoided bringing
forward till then, than they all exclaimed in contempt and anger, 'He
is neither born nor begets,' and rose up as if they would have torn me
in pieces. One of them said, 'What will you say when your tongue is
burnt out for this blasphemy?'

"My book which I had brought, expecting to present it to the king, lay
before Mirza Shufi. As they all rose up after him to go, some to the
king, and some away, I was afraid they would trample upon the book; so
I went in among them to take it up, and wrapped it in a towel before
them, while they looked at it and me with supreme contempt. Thus I
walked away alone to my tent to pass the rest of the day in heat and
dirt. What have I done, thought I, to merit all this scorn? Nothing, I
trust, but bearing testimony to Jesus. I thought over these things in
prayer and found the peace which Christ hath promised. To complete the
trials of the day a messenger came from the Vizier in the evening to
say that it was the custom of the king not to see any Englishman
unless presented by the ambassador or accredited by a letter from him,
and that I must therefore wait till the king reached Sultania, where
the ambassador would be."

Traveling toward Tabriz he writes, June 22: "Met with the usual
insulting treatment at the caravansarai when the king's servant had
got possession of a good room built for the reception of the better
order of guests; they seemed to delight in the opportunity of humbling
a European--all along the road when the king is expected the people
are patiently waiting as for some dreadful disaster; plague,
pestilence or famine are nothing to the misery of being subject to the
violence and extortion of this rabble soldiery.

"June 26. Have eaten nothing now for two days. My mind much disordered
from headache and giddiness;--but my heart is with Christ and His
saints.

"June 27. Passed the third day in the same exhausted state, my head
tortured with shocking pains, such as, together with the horror I felt
at being exposed to the sun, showed me plainly t