Among the acquaintances I formed at this second visit, there was none that interested me in any degree so much as Mahomed Hoosein Khan of Merv, from whom I heard a short but affecting account of the vicissitudes of his eventful life. The facts he narrated exhibit so much of Asiatic character in its best and worst lights, that they must be acceptable to the reader. Of their correctness there can be no doubt, being alike confirmed by the internal evidence of their truth, the corroborating statements of contemporaries, and the high character of the narrator of his own extraordinary adventures. The city of Merv,[150] during the reign of the Seffavean monarchs, was considered the most important frontier post of Persia; and in the reign of Tâmâsp the second, its defence was intrusted to the valour of a branch of the tribe of Kajir. As the strength of the nation decayed, the chiefs of this tribe were left, almost unsupported, to resist the attacks of the Tartar tribes on the Oxus, who made annual inroads upon them. They received for some years casual aid from the Afghâns of Cabool; but that government also fell into confusion; and Byrâm Ali Khan, the father of Mahomed Hoosein, had for several years to contend against that extraordinary bigot, Beggee Jân,[151] who had, by an union of fanaticism and wisdom, consolidated the divided tribes of this part of Tartary into one government, of which Bokhara was the capital. The actions of Byrâm Ali, though given on the most authentic records, appear more like a romance than a history. Suffice it here to say, he closed, on the banks of the Oxus, a life marked by the most gallant achievements, leaving his son the city and walls of Merv (for all its fields were desolate), and the name and example of a father almost worshipped by his soldiers, and as much praised when dead, as dreaded while living, by the enemies of his country. Mahomed Hoosein Khan, though quite a youth, defended what remained of his inheritance with an unsubdued spirit; which obtained from every one an acknowledgment, that the son was worthy of his renowned sire. But all his struggles were unavailing, against the overwhelming numbers of the Oosbegs, who at last reduced the city to such a state of famine and distress, that its inhabitants insisted upon their chief surrendering to a power which it was hopeless any longer to oppose. He was carried with all his family to Bokhara. I shall give the remainder of his story in his own words, as nearly as they can be recollected from his plain but minute relation. "Beggee Jân was anxious I should adopt his creed, that of a Soofee, and abandon what he deemed the errors of the Sheäh faith. Circumstances compelled me so far to conform, that he expected my conversion, and for some time treated me and my family with respect, and even kindness.