SANGUINARY CONFLICT WITH BELOOCHES. 335 fury of the excitable tribesmen was aroused, and after having put their wives and daughters to that death which, like Virginius, they thought was better than dishonour, they fell upon the troops of Habeebullah Khan, to whom they had formerly surrendered. A sanguinary conflict now ensued ; the Belooches having nothing left for which they cared to live, and the Per- sians being encouraged by their chief to kill and not to spare. After a time the carnage ceased, and so great was the effect which the account of it produced upon the Shah, that he sent orders for the immediate liberation of the surviving captives of Bunpoor. About the beginning of the month of June of the year 1842, an occurrence took place on the western frontier of Persia, which was nearly being the cause of a war between that Power and Turkey. In the preceding year Mahmoud Pasha, the governor of Suleimanieh, had been obliged to take refuge in Persia. He had repaired to Tehran, and there succeeded in obtaining a recom- mendation from the Shah's government to the Porte that his successor, Ahmed, should be dismissed, and that he should be reinstated in his former post. Ahmed was accordingly removed, but Mahmoud was not restored to power. A second request was, however, made in his favour, and he proceeded to the frontier government of Senna, there to await its result. He was not restored to his former position, in which a relative of Ahmed Pasha was placed. Upon this the Yali and the Vizeer of Ardelan advanced with Mahmoud towards the Turkish frontier at the head of a considerable force, and Abdullah, the brother of Ahmed Pasha, assembled a force to oppose them. An officer of the Vali's army was detached by a
