CAPTAIN MIGNAN'S WINTER JOURNEY' TO KOORDISTAU N.

Tau titlepage of these volumes is not explicit. The work consists of an overland journey front England to India, made nearly ten years ago (in 1829) ; with the narrative of which are intermingled vari- ous episodes, touching the ambition of Russia, the modes in which she can invade India, the proper methods to be taken to prevent her, the unfair treatment of the author in reference to the survey of the Euphrates, the pirates of' the Persian Gulf, and the attack by a detachment from the Indian army upon the Arab tribe of Beni- boo-Ali in 18i.

The route of Captain MiesiAN from St. Petcssburg to Tabriz,

the capital of the North-western provinces of Persia, was precisely the same as that of Lieutenant CONOLLY : in thet there is but one road. The Captain' however" had this advantage over the Lieu- tenant, that he travelled in the suite of the Persian Ambassador, and thus became a witness to the splendid manner in which Russia imposes upon the senses of a foreign diplomatist as well as a par- taker of the entertainments got up for him. From Tabriz he struck Win a Southerly direction ; and, entering Koordistaun below Lake Ouroomia, a sort of Dead Sea, reached its capital, Soolimaniah, by a pass of Mount Zagros ; which he argues was the route of Xeso- rims in his retreat with the Ten Thousand. Thence he traversed the Desert to Bagdad ; and descending the Tigris and Euphrates to the Persian Gulf, reached Bombay by sea. Although not a very just or penetrating observer, Captain MG- sax is an agreeable describer of what he does see ; tells a story pleasautly ;°hits off a party, a person, or an obvious national cha- racteristic ; and sketches scenery well, though his fine touches occasionally mar the effect. And had the narrative been published soon after the journey was perfbrmed, it would have formed one volume of agreeable and instructive reading. But although the lapse of time has not made any change in the manners of the Koords, in the behaviour of the Persian Ambassador and his suite, (which got drunk every night,) in the scenery of the countries, in the difficulties of a winter journey through the Steppes of Russia and the Caucasus, or in the personal characteristics Captain MIG^ NAN has pictured in his pages, yet it seems to have been thought that one volume would not suffice, and that something must be said about the present "position of affhirs in the East." Hence the work has a disjointed and double character—a mingling of matter gathered from reality and belonging to the subject, with that which has been taken 'from books, pumped up from memory, or forced out by thinking. Captain MioNAN, whenever he reaches a city of' note, enters a new region, or notes a strange custom, calls Ill) his reading, quoting Scripture_, the Classics, GIBBON, or old travellers, to mark coincidences; but with no other effect than to overlay his own descriptions. The accounts of the Arab pirates, and of the campaigns against them, though not devoid of interest, are incomplete in themselves, and are felt to be out of place. The disquisitions on Russia have these further disadvantages—they man to have been written upon the materials of 1 829, but the cir- cumstances of 1838 ; and, one would fancy, before the news arrived of the repulse from Herat and the late movements in India. The mixed passion, therefore, of fear and admiration with which he re- gards the diplomacy of Russia, seems almost ludicrous after late events. Her agents, he will have it, have been moiling and un- dermining in all directions for many years past ; and lo ! their labours are rendered vain by a single stroke, in the right place, at the right time. The Russians are further from the invasion of India, and not nearer the conquest of Persia, than when FASKE- WITCH boasted at Tiflis, in our author's "hearing," that he waited but for "the Emperor's orders to take possession of Persia :" a brag made with a purpose, which it seems to have answered.

Travelling with his wife, two children, and it would appear some native traders for the benefit of his escort, Captain MIGNAN was not in a condition to court adventure or to deviate from the

beaten track ; and his sketches of the le m Koords are not much fuller than those of Mr. FRAZER in his Winter Journey ; though he fell in with a better class, and gives them a better character. We shall not therefore 'confine ourselves to Koordistan ; but take our ex- tracts indifferently from any part.

RUSSIAN HUMANITY.

At the defile of Annanour, which is another quarantine station in the re- cesses of this stupendous chain, we met a poor peasant overwhelmed with grief prostrated before the commandant, and exclaiming, " My wife and parents are lying dead of the plague in the next village; I ant afraid to bury them." The flussian instantly despatched a party of soldiers to set tire to all the neighbour- ing hamlets ; and turning to me, said, smilingly., " 'Tis my vocation I " I gave the unfortunate sufferer a few roubles, which the commandant noticing, he laughed, and ridiculed the concern I expressed for this miserable Ossatinian. I subsequently mentioned the circumstance to Field-Marshal Count Paskewitch at Tiflis, who also laughed and said, " You Englishmen are always inclined to regard with seriousness the veriest trifles."

PASKEWITC11.

The Marshal's inanner was repulsive, or rather, I should say, he spoke with that quick and decided tone which is not agreeable in society. His eagle and restless eye never looked in the countenance of the individual whom he was addressing, but still seemed to know what was passing in his mind. Mrs. Mig- nan always felt a kind of fear at his immediate presence, and was somewhat puzzled to answer all his rapid and inquisitive questions. It was a relief when he turned to addross another object. Ile is the only Field Marshal in the Russian army.

According to Captain MiusAN, immuring the women has very little effects in securing their fidelity. This is from his account at Tabriz.

In speakin of the women, I shall briefly remark that they have intrigue to their fingers' ends, d in Francaise. The women of the higher orders are ex- tremely profligate, and when engaged in an a,simmation, quit their home wrapt the impenetrable &lacier of one of their female slaves. They frequently run great risks, and many a paramour has lost his life on account Of these women.

There is no country on earth where the women have greater opportunities for immoral conduct than Persia. Major Hart assured me that when the Rus- sians were in possession of Tabriz, many of the nobles fled to Khoi, Aroomia, and other adjacent towns, leaving their wives and slaves in possession of their houses and of their liberty. These women actually blocked at nightfall to the citadel, where minty of the Russian officers were quartered, and in such num- bers, that the Sentries were compelled to repel them with the but-end of their fireloeks, or they would have been completely overpowered. On admission to the officers, it was at first supposed, that fear had driven them there for protec- tion; but it S0011 appeared that other motives induced their flight. I could add many other flit, but the foregoing will, I tidal:, be sufficient to show that the Persians have some cause for secluding their women. Indeed, the feeling which they entertain towards the sex is admirably expressed in one of thew own words, vlmimh we should translate into "frailty,' or "weakness," Shah- spere's celebrated words in Hamlet,

" Frailty, thy name is woman! "

is hi,glily characteristic of the Persian ladies.

THE CAMEL'S THORN.

Another plant, eminently deserving of notice, grows in thick round tufts covered with long spines. It covers the lowest tracts of country, sometimes to such an extent as to obstruct a traveller's progress through it. This lowly shrub affords a most beautiful exemplification of the merciful care of Pro- vidence and the fitness of the Creator's designs. It abounds also in Arabia, India, Africa, Tartary, and Persia. In the vast deserts of those countries it is the only food of the camel, that valuable inhabitant of such unfriendly wastes. These noble animals browse upon it in preference to any other herb. Their mastication of it produces a frothy salivation at the mouth, which appears to impart to them a very pleasurable sensation. Its lasting verdure refreshes the eve of a traveller, and, from the property possessed by its deep-searching, tough, fibrous roots, of collecting the scanty moisture of an arid plain, well known to the Bedouin, it is converted to the essential purposes of aiding in the production of a grateful and healthy nourishment for man. The stem of the plant is, in spring, divided near to the root ; a single seed of the water- melon is then inserted in the fissure, and the earth replaced about the thorn. The seed becomes a parasite, and the nutritive matter, winch the brittle sneculent roots of the melon are ill-adapted to collect, is abundantly supplied by the deeper searching and tougher fibres of the root of this thorn. *An abun- dance of good water-melons is thus periodically forced from saline soils in- capable of other culture.

rintosorinem, ESTIMATE OF THE VALUE or LIVE.

The mehmaundar told me a man of a certain tribe had the day before mur- dered his father. "lie will, of course, be put to death," I observed. " I do not think he will," said the melimaundar ; " he is himself heir, and there is no one to demand the blood." "Will not the prince of the country take care that this parricide does not escape?" "Time waly," lie coolly replied, cannot inter- fere in a case like this, unless appealed to; and, after mill, if the affair be agi- tated, the murder will be compounded. Aiming Koords, who are always at war, the life of an active young man is much too valuable to be taken away on account of a dead old one!"

KOORDISTAUN TOLERATION.

Without the town an infinite number of tombs extended across the road. On asking our Koordish ,guide why the dead reposed in so public a spot ? he replied nearly thus: " MMillommedaus always like to select the roadside for a hurial-place, in the hope that the departed spirit may obtain pardon at the bends of the Prophet, from the prayers that you and I offer up in its behalf." " But," I rejoined, "how can my prayers avail, since you hold me to be a Glom ?" To this he said, "AlUllali! God is great, Mahommed is his prophet ! There is no objection ; it is a matter that rests between you and your God ; it' your mother taught you an infidel creed, you are quite as safe as time Osmanlees themselves."

In explanation of this, it may be added, that the more orthodox neighbours of the Koords say they " fear neither God nor Devil." Taking the account of Captain .Alsoissss respecting the survey of the Euphrates, as it stands, his treatment seems not only unfair, but inexplicable : and we suspect this has somewhat biassed him in his remarks upon the choice of Residents at the courts of the Company's allies, and his censure of their inefficient and inattentive diplomacy. That interest in India, as in other places, will have an effect, we can readily believe : but systematic favouritism, and a sacrifice of their large interests to private influence, is not a charge that can fairly be made against the Indian Governments, when we look at the results of their diplomacy, and whilst the names of MALCOLM, ELPHINSTONE, BURNES, CRAWFURH, and various others, exist to refute the unsupported and general assertion of a disappointed and injured applicant.