lord’s discovery of the banians and persees.

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whofe long employment in the Company’s fervice, had brought him to a mediocrity in-the Engiilh tongue, and whofe familiarity with me, inclined him to further my inquiry :

I gained the knowledge of what hereafter I fhall deliver, as it was compiled in a bookwrit in the Perfian character, containing their fcripture, and in their own language,,called their Zundavaftaw. But becaufe we Ihould be better informed concerning thepeople fpoken of before we lay down their religion, we will firft declare who thefePerfees are, and then proceed to their worlhip.

Chap, I. — Declaring who thefe Perfees are ; their ancient Place of Abode ; the Caufe of

rclinqidfhing their own Country ; their Arrival in Eafl India , and their Abode there .

THESE Perfians, or Perfees, of whofe religion we are now to fpeak, are a peopledefcended from the ancient Perfians in times not long after the flood, who then hadtheir native kings and governors ; but war, that caufeth an alteration in Hates and em-pires, brought upon them a foreign fceptre.

About nine hundred and ninety-fix years ago, one Yefdegerd was native king ofPerfia, who had his refidence in the city of Yefd, near unto the old city of Spahaun,which is fomewhat remote from the new city known by that name ; this city of Yefdwas a goodly city in thofe times, (as thofe ufe to be where kings keep their courts,)fpacious for circuit, fumptuous in buildings, and populous for inhabitants, where thispeople lived in flourifhing profperity.

What time the Arabian captains of the feet of Mahomet made invafion into his-country, about the nineteenth year of his reign, who having before been newly aflaultedby a great multitude of Turks, that came from Turqueftan, he was forced to fly to.Karafon, where he died fuddenly, in the twentieth year of his reign ; being the five-and-fortieth king that defcended from the race of Guiomaras, and the laft in whom the:ancient Perfian monarchy concluded.

The” Mahometans, upon the death of Yefdegerd, carried all in conquefl: before them,,and fubjefted the natives of the country as vaflals unto them ; and as new lords bring in;new laws, they contented not themfelves to bring them to their form of government infcate fubjection, but alfo in matters of religion, to live according to Mahomet’s confti-tutions, compelling them to be circumcifed according to the Mahometan cuftom, con-trary to the form of their own religion and worlhip.

Thefe Perfees, not enduring to live contrary to the prefeript of their own law, andlefs able to reject their yoke, many of them by privy efcape, and as clofe conveyance as-they might of their goods and fubftance, determined on a voyage for the Indies, pur-posing to prove the mildnefs of the Banian Rajahs, if there; though they lived in fub-jection for matter of government, they might obtain liberty of confcienee in regardto religion.

So repairing to Jafques, a place in the Perfian Gulph, they obtained a fleet of fevenjuncks, to convey them and theirs, as merchantmen bound for the lhores of India , incourfe of trade and merchandife. It happened that in fafety they made to the land ofSt. John’s, on the lhores of India , and arrived together, at or near the port of Swaley,the ufual receptacle qf fuch Ihips as arrive there. Treaty was made by feme of themwith a Rajah living at Nuncery, publilhing their aggrievances, and the caufe of theircoming thither, as alfo their fuit to be admitted as fojourners with them, ufing theirown law and religion, but yielding themfelves in fubjeftion to their government; uponpayment of homage and tribute, they were admitted to land the paflengers containedin five of their juncks.

The