was the power of deceiving others a power which it would seem was in no way lessened by the circumstance that his falseness was widely known. He made it a principle never to refuse a request made of him, and by these easy means he contrived to send away petitioners contented, for the time being. The Kaim-Makam estimated others by what he knew of his own character. He would trust no one, and as he insisted on himself transacting all affairs of importance, the business confided to him remained always in arrears, and the people of Azerbaeejan were left to vent in grumbling the discontent engendered by the miserable system of government under which they were condemned to live.
The aged Shah had for some time past been in indifferent health, and his demise was thought to be not far distant. Under these circumstances his son, Hassan Ali Meerza, the Firman-Firma, or governor-general, of the province of Fars, who had made up his mind to be king after his father should die, thought it would be wasting money to pay in the arrears which he owed to the royal treasury. In order to compel him to do so, Fetteh Ali, whose ruling passion of avarice was as predominant as ever, determined upon undertaking another journey to the south of Persia. His march would also, he hoped, have the effect of putting down the rumours of his death which had been circulated for some time past, and which were the cause of much lawless disorder in the provinces at a distance from the capital. The Bakhtiari mountaineers had even gone to the length of inflicting a poignant blow on the Shah by seizing on a portion of the royal treasure which was being conveyed to Tehran from Ispahan. A large force, said to have amounted to thirty thousand horse
