Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/458

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438 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. the interior under the personal command of Sir James Outram, were her Majesty's 64th and 78th regiments, and the 2nd European regiment of the Bombay army, numbering between them, two thousand and two hundred Englishmen ; the 4th, 30th, and 26th regiments of the Bombay army, and a Belooch battalion, numbering two thousand men, including one hundred and eighteen sappers ; the 3rd regiment Bombay Light Cavalry, and the regiment of Poona Horse, consisting together of four hundred and nineteen men ; and the third troop of Bombay Horse Artillery, and the 3rd and 5th light field-batteries. The number of guns in all was eighteen. After performing in forty-one hours a march of forty-six miles, being all the time exposed to great cold and to deluging rain, the force reached the enemy's intrenched position on the afternoon of the 5th of February. The intrenchments were found to have been abandoned ; the Persians having on the preceding night evacuated their camp with so great precipitation, that there was no time to remove the tents, the camp equipage, and the ordnance . stores. The spoils of the camp were being carried off by the people of the neighbouring villages when the JBritish force arrived. Some of the horsemen of the Eelkhani of Fars were still in sight, and between them and the British cavalry a little skirmishing took place ; but the Persians eventually made off. The Persian commander having withdrawn his men, General Outram did not think it prudent to follow him up the very strong passes that lie beyond Burazjan. Accordingly, after having occupied that place for two days and destroyed the magazines of the Persians, which were found to contain 40,000 pounds of powder, with small-