to subvert his authority. His brother, Zeki Khan, presented the complement of his own character, being as resolute and unsparing as Kereem was wanting in that quality. The rule of the great Zend chief was just and mild, and he is on the whole, considering his education and the circumstances under which he was placed, one of the most faultless characters to be met with in Persian history. He died at Sheeraz, in the year 1779, at a very advanced age. It is probable that Kereem thought that from the great services which he had rendered to the country, and from his unceasing endeavours to administer justice and to encourage commerce and industry, the succession to his authority would without question be secured to his eldset son a youth who is said to have shared the amiable qualities possessed by Kereem himself. But it was to be regretted that the regent should have made no more definitive settlement for carrying on the administration of the country in case of his demise an event which, from his advanced age, could not have been expected to be very long deferred. Kereem left behind him two brothers. The younger of these, Zeki Khan, while governor of Ispahan, had been guilty of the folly and ingratitude of revolting against his eldest brother. The revolt was soon quelled, and Kereem, not contented with saving his brother from the fate which his crime deserved, had carried clemency to the mistaken length of raising him to as high a position as the one he had forfeited. The result was that that ungrateful man, on the death of his benefactor, seized his two sons, and usurped the government. He next massacred many of the chief inhabitants of Sheeraz, including a number of officers who had taken possession
