Liable as I am to such accusations, I must cautiously limit myself to facts, which I know from observation, or have heard from persons worthy of credit; but should my reader detect me in the sin of taking a more favourable view of human nature than its merits, I shall hope to be forgiven; while I pray that the stranger, who visits the land of my nativity, may come to it with a mind disposed rather to dwell on its green and fertile valleys, than upon its rugged rocks and bleak mountains. May he find enough of sound and good feeling among its inhabitants to make him look with indulgence on their failings and excesses. If he quarrels with that luxury and refinement, which, by supplying, multiply the wants of men; if he doubts the good of many of the laws and institutions which belong to an artificial society, the frame and workings of which the labour of a life would not enable him to comprehend, may he contemplate it in a spirit of humility, which rather leads him to question the correctness of his own judgment, than to pronounce, on a superficial glance, that every thing is wrong, which does not accord with his own habits and feelings. When the second mission reached his court, the King of Persia was encamped at his summer-quarters of Sooltâneah, an extensive plain, whose elevation gives it a pleasant temperature during the hot season. The Elchee was welcomed, on his approach to the camp, by his old friend Nou Rôz Khan, whose personal appearance was unchanged by the ten years which had intervened since our last meeting. His manner, as usual, was cordial and frank; and he seemed particularly delighted to inform the Elchee of the king's continued favour. "His majesty," said Nou Rôz Khan, "desires me to say that he will be delighted to see you, and bids me assure you, that if you have met with any obstacles or difficulties on this mission,[137] they have not been occasioned by him."