Imperfect as my journal may be, it will, I hope, be found sufficiently comprehensive to serve as a link in the chain of information on Persia, until something more satisfactory shall be produced; and it claims no other merit than that of having been written on the very spots, and under the immediate circumstances, which I have attempted to describe. Having confined myself, with very few exceptions, to the relation of what I saw and heard, it will be found unadulterated by partiality to any particular system, and unbiassed by the writings and dissertations of other men. Written in the midst of a thousand cares, it claims every species of indulgence. The time of my absence from England comprehends a space of little more than two years.--On the 27th of Oct. 1807, I sailed from Portsmouth with Sir HARFORD JONES, Bart. K. C. His Majesty’s Envoy Extraordinary and Minister Plenipotentiary to the Court of Persia, in H. M. S. _Sapphire_, Captain GEORGE DAVIES: after having touched at Madeira and at the Cape of Good Hope, we reached Bombay on the 26th of April, 1808: owing to some political arrangements we did not quit Bombay till the 12th September. We arrived at _Bushire_ on the 13th October, and proceeded towards the Persian capital on the 13th December. H. M. Mission reached _Teheran_ on the 14th February, 1809: on the 12th March the preliminary treaty was signed between Sir HARFORD JONES and the Persian Plenipotentiaries; and on the 7th May I quitted _Teheran_ with MIRZA ABUL HASSAN, the King of Persia’s Envoy Extraordinary to the Court of London, with whom I reached _Smyrna_ on the 7th September, and embarked there on board H. M. S. _Success_, Captain AYSCOUGH. Having at Malta changed the _Success_ for H. M. S. _Formidable_, we finally reached Plymouth on the 25th November, 1809. I should be wanting in gratitude, if I did not here express the obligations which I owe to my fellow traveller, MIRZA ABUL HASSAN, the late Persian Envoy Extraordinary, for much information on subjects relating to his own country, and for all the facilities of acquiring his language, which his communicative and amiable disposition afforded me. As this personage was distinguished, during his stay in England, by attentions more marked and continued than, perhaps, were ever paid to any foreigner, I have conceived that I should not trespass too much on the patience of my readers by inserting a sketch of his life;[1] I feel at least that it will prove very acceptable to those who have shown him, as a stranger, so much friendship and hospitality. In my narrative I have confined myself to relate our proceedings from the time we left Bombay to my arrival at Constantinople. The sea voyages, from England to India, and from Constantinople to England, are too well known to require any thing more to be written about them.