city to surrender, threatening, if it should refuse to do so, to take the place by storm. Having become possessed of Derbend, the Russian troops marched to Bakoo, while a flotilla, with four thousand men on board, established itself on the small island of Sari, near Lenkoran, from which position it threatened the province of Gilan. An attempt, however, which it made to get possession of Enzelli, the port of Resht, was successfully withstood. After the surrender of Bakoo, the Russian army retired for the summer to the highlands in the vicinity of Shumakhi. In the month of October, Count Valerian Souboff took possession of that city, from which he despatched a force up the valley of the Kur, with orders to occupy Genja, and to advance from there upon Tiflis. But sufficient time had not elapsed to admit of these commands being carried into execution, when the army received the news of the death of the Empress, which was followed by an order to retire. The Russian general accordingly recalled the advanced division of his army, and gave up all his conquests, with the exception of the important fortresses of Bakoo and Derbend.
Aga Mahomed Khan had re-asserted the right of Persia to claim tribute from the Czar of Georgia, and there now remained but one portion of the ancient kingdom of the Sefaveeans, with the exception of Affghanistan, which did not belong to his dominions. Shahrukh Meerza, the blind grandson of Shah Hussein and of Nadir, since he had been placed by Ahmed Shah the Sedozye on the throne of the principality of Khorassan, had been allowed by the various pretenders to the government of Persia to remain in the quiet possession of this one small portion of the dominions of his
