Celebrated Travels and Travellers / Part III. The Great Explorers of the Nineteenth Century by Jules Verne
Authors: Jules Verne
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every detail of Persian manners, and on his return to England published several Oriental romances, which obtained a signal success, owing to the variety and novelty of the scenes described, and the fidelity to nature of every feature, however minute.
The second of the two volumes alluded to above was the large quarto work by John Macdonald Kinneir, on the geography of Persia. This book, which made its mark, and left far behind it everything previously published on the subject, not only gives, as its title implies, very valuable information on the boundaries of the country, its mountains, rivers, and climate, but also contains interesting and trustworthy details respecting its government, constitution, army, commerce, animal, vegetable, and mineral productions, population, and revenue.
After giving an exhaustive and brilliant picture of the material and moral resources of the Persian Empire, Kinneir goes on to describe its different provinces, quoting from the mass of valuable documents accumulated by himself, thus making his work the most complete and impartial yet issued.
Kinneir passed the years 1808 to 1814 in travelling about Asia Minor, Armenia, and Kurdistan; and the different posts held by him during that period were such as to give him exceptional opportunities for making observations and comparing their results. In his several capacities as captain in the service of the Company, political agent to the Nawab of the Carnatic, or private traveller, his critical acumen was never at fault; and his wide knowledge of Oriental character and Oriental manners, enabled him to recognize the true significance of many an event and many a revolution which would have escaped the notice of less experienced observers.
At the same time, William Price, also a captain in the East India Company's service, who had been attached as interpreter and secretary to Sir William Gore Ouseley's embassy to Persia in 1810, devoted himself to the study of the cuneiform character. Many had previously attempted to decipher it, with results as various as they were ridiculous; and, like those of his predecessors and contemporaries, Price's opinions were mere guess-work; but he succeeded in interesting a certain class of students in this obscure branch of research, and may be said to have perpetuated the theories of Niebuhr and other Orientalists.
To Price we owe an account of the journey of the English embassy to the Persian court, after which he published two essays on the antiquities of Persepolis and Babylon.
Mr. Ouseley, who had accompanied his brother Sir William as secretary, availed himself of his sojourn at the Court of Teheran to study Persian. His works do not, however, bear upon geography or political economy, but treat only of inscriptions, coins, manuscripts, and literature—in a word, of everything connected with the intellectual and material history of the country. To him we owe an edition of Firdusi, and many other volumes, which came out at just the right time to supplement the knowledge already acquired of the country of the Shah.
Another semi-Asiatic semi-European country was also now becoming known. This was the mountainous district of the Caucasus. As early as the second half of the eighteenth century, John Anthony Guldenstædt, a Russian doctor, had visited Astrakhan, and Kisliar on the Terek, at the most remote boundary of the Russian possessions, entered Georgia, where the Czar Heraclius received him with great respect, and penetrated to Tiflis and the country of the Truchmenes, finally arriving at Imeritia. The next year, 1773, he visited the great Kabardia, the Oriental Kumania, examined the ruins of Madjary, visited Tscherkask and Asov, discovered the mouth of the Don, and was about to extend his researches to the Crimea when he was recalled to St. Petersburg.
Guldenstædt's travels have not been translated into French. Their author's career was cut short by death before he had completed their revision for the press, and
The second of the two volumes alluded to above was the large quarto work by John Macdonald Kinneir, on the geography of Persia. This book, which made its mark, and left far behind it everything previously published on the subject, not only gives, as its title implies, very valuable information on the boundaries of the country, its mountains, rivers, and climate, but also contains interesting and trustworthy details respecting its government, constitution, army, commerce, animal, vegetable, and mineral productions, population, and revenue.
After giving an exhaustive and brilliant picture of the material and moral resources of the Persian Empire, Kinneir goes on to describe its different provinces, quoting from the mass of valuable documents accumulated by himself, thus making his work the most complete and impartial yet issued.
Kinneir passed the years 1808 to 1814 in travelling about Asia Minor, Armenia, and Kurdistan; and the different posts held by him during that period were such as to give him exceptional opportunities for making observations and comparing their results. In his several capacities as captain in the service of the Company, political agent to the Nawab of the Carnatic, or private traveller, his critical acumen was never at fault; and his wide knowledge of Oriental character and Oriental manners, enabled him to recognize the true significance of many an event and many a revolution which would have escaped the notice of less experienced observers.
At the same time, William Price, also a captain in the East India Company's service, who had been attached as interpreter and secretary to Sir William Gore Ouseley's embassy to Persia in 1810, devoted himself to the study of the cuneiform character. Many had previously attempted to decipher it, with results as various as they were ridiculous; and, like those of his predecessors and contemporaries, Price's opinions were mere guess-work; but he succeeded in interesting a certain class of students in this obscure branch of research, and may be said to have perpetuated the theories of Niebuhr and other Orientalists.
To Price we owe an account of the journey of the English embassy to the Persian court, after which he published two essays on the antiquities of Persepolis and Babylon.
Mr. Ouseley, who had accompanied his brother Sir William as secretary, availed himself of his sojourn at the Court of Teheran to study Persian. His works do not, however, bear upon geography or political economy, but treat only of inscriptions, coins, manuscripts, and literature—in a word, of everything connected with the intellectual and material history of the country. To him we owe an edition of Firdusi, and many other volumes, which came out at just the right time to supplement the knowledge already acquired of the country of the Shah.
Another semi-Asiatic semi-European country was also now becoming known. This was the mountainous district of the Caucasus. As early as the second half of the eighteenth century, John Anthony Guldenstædt, a Russian doctor, had visited Astrakhan, and Kisliar on the Terek, at the most remote boundary of the Russian possessions, entered Georgia, where the Czar Heraclius received him with great respect, and penetrated to Tiflis and the country of the Truchmenes, finally arriving at Imeritia. The next year, 1773, he visited the great Kabardia, the Oriental Kumania, examined the ruins of Madjary, visited Tscherkask and Asov, discovered the mouth of the Don, and was about to extend his researches to the Crimea when he was recalled to St. Petersburg.
Guldenstædt's travels have not been translated into French. Their author's career was cut short by death before he had completed their revision for the press, and
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