"This plant," says Christie, "grows to a height of two or three feet, the stalk is two inches thick; it finishes off in an umbel which at maturity is yellow, and not unlike a cauliflower. It is much relished by Hindus and Belutchis. They prepare it for eating by cooking the stalks in ashes, and boiling the head like other vegetables; but it always retains its pungent smell and taste." Herat, like so many other Eastern towns, possesses beautiful public gardens, but they are only cultivated for the sake of the produce, which is sold in the bazaar. After a stay of a month at Herat, disguised as a horse-dealer, Christie, announcing that he would return after a pilgrimage to Meshid, which he contemplated, left the town. He directed his course to Yezd, across a country ravaged by the Osbeks, who had destroyed the tanks intended to receive the rain-water. Yezd is a large and populous town on the skirts of a desert of sand. It is called "Dar-oul-Ehabet" or "The Seat of Adoration." It is celebrated for the security to be enjoyed there, which contributes largely to the development of its trade with Hindustan, Khorassan, Persia, and Bagdad. Christie describes the bazaar as large and well stocked. The town contains 20,000 houses, apart from those belonging to the Ghebers, who are estimated at 4000. They are an active and laborious people, although cruelly oppressed. From Yezd to Ispahan, where he alighted at the palace of the Emir Oud-Daoule, Christie had travelled a distance of 170 miles upon a good road. At Yezd, as we have seen, he met his companion, Pottinger. The two friends could but exchange mutual congratulations at the accomplishment of their mission, and their escape from the dangers of a fanatical country. Pottinger's narrative, as may perhaps be gathered from the sketch we have given, was very curious. More exact than most of his predecessors, he had collected and offered to the public a mass of most interesting historical facts, anecdotes, and geographical descriptions. Cabulistan had been, from the middle of the eighteenth century, the scene of a succession of ruinous civil wars. Competitors, with more or less right to the throne, had carried fire and sword everywhere, and converted that rich and fertile province into a desert, where the remains of ruined cities alone bore witness to former prosperity. About the year 1808 the throne of Cabul was occupied by Soojah-Oul-Moulk. England, uneasy at the projects formed by Napoleon with a view of attacking her possessions in India, and at the offers of alliance made by him through General Gardane to the Shah of Persia, resolved to send an embassy to the court of Cabul, hoping to gain the king over to the interests of the East India Company.