Having acquired this correct information about the shores of the gulf, I landed at Abusheher,[7] a Persian sea-port, celebrated as the mart of chintzes and long-ells, of dates and asafoetida. We were met on the beach by the whole population of the town. What appeared to excite most admiration was the light company of His Majesty's 84th Regiment, whose uniform appearance caused no slight wonder. Struck with their similarity of look, one man exclaimed, "These fellows must all have had the same father and mother!" "That cannot be," said another, "for they must all have been born on the same day." "They are proper devils, I'll warrant them," said an old woman, who had been looking at them very attentively. They had now received the order to march; and the regularity with which their feet moved was a new subject of surprise. An old merchant, called Hajee Ismael, whose life had been spent amongst his accounts, and who delighted in everything that was regular, stood at a corner as they passed in files, and kept saying, as he noted them with his fingers, "correct,[8] correct, correct." Take it all in all, our landing seemed to give great pleasure to the men, women, and children of the port of Abusheher. We had not been on shore a week before two events occurred, one of which showed what the Persians thought of us, and the other taught us what we should think of them. Before the year 1800 no political mission from an European nation had visited the court of Persia for a century; but the English, though only known in that kingdom as merchants, had fame as soldiers, from the report of their deeds in India. An officer of one of the frigates, who had gone ashore to visit the Envoy, when mounted on a spirited horse, afforded no small entertainment to the Persians by his bad horsemanship. The next day the man who supplied the ship with vegetables, and who spoke a little English, met him on board, and said, "Don't be ashamed, sir, nobody knows you: bad rider! I tell them, you, like all English, ride well, but that time they see you, very drunk!" We were much amused at this conception of our national character. The Persian thought it would have been a reproach for a man of a warlike nation not to ride well, but none for an European to get drunk.