Year: 1873




night aud dispatched in the Sprightly At the
Shah left Brussels by special train as, owing TO the
state Of the tide il was impossible for the Viglant
to cross the bar at the mouth of Ostend harbor
rucb after s. Within few minutes of that honr
the Shah embarked on the Vigilant, which immedl-
atelv heisted the royal flag of Persia-a gilt hon
holding n sword in his paws on a scarlet


orornd-at the manmast The Shah is a
stout. short thick-set. sallOw-faced man of abOut
40 smooth shaved with the exception OF
heavy black mustache. lie wears spectacles, and
has a sort of brown complexion common to men OF
rank in the East. Altogether, he is not impressive
in appearance and should be sorry to affirm that
he looked intelligent. The only thing could say
with certainty is that he has the impassive, weary
look so common to Orientals and which. far my
limited experience goes is equally compatible with
profundity or vacuity of mind. He was dressed in
sable fur coat and had his head one of the wooen
sugar-loaf caps which, in every version of the
Arabian Nights, used to be described as Caftans"


The Shah was met at Ostend by Sir Henry Raw
hnson. who was formerly Minister at Teheran and
has been deputed to act as official interpreter to
His Majesty by Capt. Grey the Equerry of the
Prince of Wales, and by Admiral McClntock, the
commander of the squadron. The Lively, with the
Ministers of the Shah's household, who from his
Vizier to his cook have all accompanied him on his
Western travel, led the way with the Persian
national hag-a red ground with crescent EN-
brOidered in the cOrner-hoisted at the fore. Then
came the Vigilant with the Shah and his escort,
and the Vivid followed with the servants
of the Ministers and most of the newspaper cor
respondents. In about half an hour after quitting
Ostend the Royal yachts sighted the iron-clads,
who forthwith saluted us with salute of 2l guns
the number reserved for royalty. Meanwhile the
fo1Ia foot and
there was every prospect of a wretched day. AS
soon as the yachts had reached the iron-clads the
procession formed The Devastation took the lead,
the Vanguard and the Audacious following about
quarter of mile astern, about half that distance 10
starboard and port respectively and in the center
of the triangle thus formed the three steam yachts
steered in straight line drawn from the Devasta-
tOn and bisecting the line connecting the Vanguard
and Audacious In this way we sailed sOuthwId at
full speed.


About TO- however the weather cleared, and the
Admiral signalled that the Shah would wish TO see
the Devastation at work For some reason which
cannot divine the Admiralty had telegrapbed TO the
Captain not to take part in saluting, so that the
order to FIRE was quite unexpected Without mo-
ment's delay the crew were ordered to prepare for
action and all the mimic performance of clearing
the decks, drawing up the boarding party and so
on was gone through for the edihcaton of the Shah
who had drawn close alongside in the Vigilant The
Shah sailed twice round the Devastation examining
her through his Opera-glass apparently with great


interest, and then, when the Nigilant had
dropped just aStern 70 as 10 have the
full benefit of the shock, the fore turret
gun fred q brOadside to starboard had heard so
much of the terrible conclusion caused by this
enormous gun that standing close TO it, was re-
End flaag hrI
BILE could not trace the slightest vibration TO the
vessel and the gunners assured me that cork,
placed accidentally ledge aside the turret, had
not been movedl by the conclusion. We had
not the sound Of the first gun out of
our ears or the smoke out of our eyes
before the turret had Tevoved round and
fired a second broadside to port. As the Vigilant
lay 10 port the second shock felt more than the
first and / am told the jar was terrific The Shah
seemed to think be had had enough, and declined
any further experiments. But he forthwith asked
questions about the charge of powder required and
the cost Of each shot. Somehow where devices for
killing mankind are concerned we always find the
one touch of nature" which makes the
world akin The Vigilant then dropped astern and
we resumed our old order.


Att we saw the masts Of the lrOn-clad feet lying
in the Channel about half way between Deal and



time il was fred too far of to produce much effect
As soon as we had come up to the Channel feet the
whole convoy appeared TO break mp in confusion,
and for a minute we were all mixed mp together
with number of pleasure steamers which had
come ont TO sec the entry. Very rapidly, however,
irOn-clad after irOn-clad dropped into position,
80 as to form o double line of vessels,
sailing parallel to each other about quar-
ter of a mile apart. In the center of
this passage the Vigilant and her cOnsOrts sailed
at ease and in tins order we approached close to
Dover The haze was very dense il inter
spersed with notes of golden light, and was of the
kind to be found only in England, and reproduced
only in Turner's pictures The strange shifting
yagaries of the mist, which 6eeted to and fro,
a sort of enhanced beauty to the numerous gather
ing Of iron-clads, steamers, yachts, and sailing
boats, with which the sea was covered, and made
the whole scene singularly beautiful The shabby,
town OF Dover almost hidden
from view while the grand old Castle lowered alOft
in mid-ar, and Shakespeare's Cliff was covered at
the summit with a cap of cloud like an Alpine
mountain.


At 2 o'clock the Yiglant was mOOred alongside
the gigantic Admiralty pier, which was crowded !
with ladies' attired English fashion III all the colors
of the rainbow. Then the Persian Embassador in
London Earl Granville, Prince Arthur and the |
Duke Of Edinburgh went ON board TO meet him
The sun completely overpowered the fog for an in
terval, and the spectacle at this its eliminating
point was sngularly gay and brilliant After about
an hour had been passed in the exchange of com
pliments the Shah landed at the pier. The moment
he set foot British soil the guns of Dover Castle
began to fire, and on this signal the whole feet |
opened fire. The noise was deafening that it was
impossible to count the number of guns but have
no doubt the official 81 salutes fred. Then as
soon as the smoke had cleared away enough TO let
the signals from the Admiras ship be visible, the
iron-clads steamed away into the ofing on their |


o,, +o,yar guifbead where they are In take Dart in