fulness of his obligations to the Shah, sent troops to attack Ghorian, where a battle was fought, which ended in the signal defeat of the Affghans, whose commander was slain in the golden howdah from which he viewed the battle. The governor of Khorassan now advanced to the gates of Herat, and Prince Feerooz was forced to pay a sum of money for tribute of the last two years, and to agree to pay such tribute in future with regularity. He further gave his son as a hostage for his faith, and delivered up to the Persians the deputy-governor of Ghorian.
About this time the Governor-General of the Caucasus who had been appointed to succeed the ill-fated Seeseeanoff, sent an envoy to the Persian court, to propose that peace should be concluded on the basis that Karabagh, Sheervan, and Sheki, should be made over to the Czar. He received a reply[1] to the effect that no peace could be concluded which should not provide for the restoration to the Shah of all the provinces that had formerly been the property of Persia.
The Shah of Persia had demanded the assistance of the British Government of India in the war which he was prosecuting with his Northern neighbour; but in the earlier stage of that war, England was in alliance with Russia, and therefore did not afford the aid which Persia required. In the meantime the geographical position of Persia made the alliance of the king of that country an object of importance to the enemies of England. From two very different Powers the Shah nearly at the same time received an ostentatious embassy. The first was from the Talpoors of Sindh, who already had become
- ↑ Persian History.
