PERSIAN PUNISHMENT FOR DISASTER. 451 behind them their tents and baggage, their public 'and private stores, several magazines of ammunition, and sixteen guns. Only one troop of the Sindh Horse had by this time been enabled to land, and with it Captain Malcolm Green was ordered to follow the enemy for some distance. That officer came upon the rear-guard retreat- ing in good order, but his numerical weakness in horse- men prevented his making any impression upon it. The loss of the Persians was estimated at two hun- dred men ; and seventeen of their guns fell into the hands of the British, besides large stores of provisions. The Persian artillery and the troops in the batteries had acted as well as they could have been expected to behave : they had served their guns well, and had not shrunk from exposure and labour. But the disaster of this day demanded a public punishment to be inflicted upon some of those who had composed the army of Khuzistan. Accordingly, some months later, the Khelij regiment was brought to the Shah's camp near Tehran, to be publicly disgraced. Its colonel, however, had made such good use of the time he had been in command of it, that he was enabled to save his commission and his person, by paying a handsome bribe to the prime minister. The other officers, less fortunate, had rings passed through their noses, and were thus dragged along the ranks by cords ; they were then severely beaten, and thrown into prison. The major of another regiment, an Armenian called Asslan, received two thousand blows from the basti- nado ; though it is said that his men had fought well at Mohamra in defence of the batteries, where their colonel, Aga Jan Khan, was killed. But if the punishment now inflicted did not fall upon the right persons, the example 292
