Towards the conclusion of the year 1686, M. Fabricius, having
successfully terminated his negotiations with the Persian court, prepared
to leave Ispahan; but Germany being still, says Kæmpfer, engaged in
war with France and the Ottoman Porte, he preferred relinquishing his
office of secretary to the embassy, and pushing his fortunes in the
remoter countries of the East, to the idea of beholding, and perhaps
involving himself in the calamities of his native land, which, however
he might deplore, he had no power to remedy or alleviate. He therefore
took his leave of the ambassador, who did him the honour to accompany
him with all his retinue a mile out of Ispahan, and proceeded towards
Gombroon, or Bander-Abassi, having, by the friendship of Father du Mons,
and the recommendations of M. Fabricius, obtained the office of chief
surgeon to the fleet of the Dutch East India Company, then cruising in
the Persian Gulf. He long hesitated, he says, whether he should select
Egypt or the “Farther East” for the field of his researches; and had
not circumstances, which frequently stand in the place of destiny,
interposed, it is probable that the charms of the Nile would have proved
the more powerful. To a man like Kæmpfer, the offer of becoming _chief
physician_ to a Georgian Prince, “with considerable appointments,” which
was made him about this time, could have held out but small temptation,
as he must have been thoroughly acquainted, not only with the general
poverty of both prince and people, but likewise with the utter insecurity
of person and property in that wretched country.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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