can be taken, as the Persians themselves brought a considerable train from Shiraz to the low country during this war. The country both above and below the passes is barren, not always from the want of natural fertility, but from the absence of population; for there are large districts which in former days were thickly inhabited, but now are almost perfect deserts. There has been a process of decay going on in these regions (including the valley of the Euphrates and Tigris, of which the Persian Gulf is a continuation), not altogether to be accounted for by the evils of misgovernment, for we have no proof that the Government has deteriorated, or at any rate deteriorated in the proportion in which the population has died out. Nineveh and Babylon have long been buried beneath the earth, save when some descendant of savage tribes, whom Nebuchadnezzar and Cyrus never heard of, has scraped away the dust from above their palaces. Persepolis, situated between Bushire and Shiraz, has never so entirely lost her ancient glory as to have required a foreign hand to bring her faded relics to the light of day; but total silence reigns amid the ruins of the city from which Alexander the Great took 25,000 mule-loads of plunder. Shuster, a small town at the confluence of the Kanon and Dizful, stands on the site of Shusan the palace, whence King Ahasuerus wrote orders to the rulers of a hundred and twenty-seven provinces, to every province according to the writing thereof, and laid a tribute upon the land and upon the isles of the sea. Within the present century the population of the town of Bassorah, situated about forty miles below the junction of the Tigris and Euphrates, has dwindled from 100,000 to 30,000 inhabitants. A small village called Koma, situated at the junction of these two rivers, occupies the site of the Garden of Eden; but the spot is now much more like the Eden of Martin Chuzzlewit than the Eden of the Bible. On the spot

where there flourished every tree that is pleasant to the eye and good for food, a few tall dates and yellow reeds alone remain; while of all the beasts which Adam named, pigs and mosquitos alone seem to linger in the cradle of their race. The staple article of food along the upper shores of the gulf and banks of the lower Tigris is dates. These are consumed in great quantities both by man and beast. Horses, dogs, and camels all enjoy this nutritious food; and the little foxes, as they wander of a morning among the date groves, instead of attempting to reach the clusters hanging high above their heads, or in their disappointment pronouncing them sour, wait patiently till a breeze of wind rustles among the fan-like branches and shakes the ripened fruit. The dates for general use are not preserved separately like those which usually find their way to this country, but they are thrust into bags made of mats, and soon adhere to one another, forming a sticky paste.

With the exception of a regiment of native infantry, the British force was not quartered in Bushire itself, but in an intrenched camp which they constructed about a mile and a-half from the walls. This was a more healthy locality, and more convenient for obtaining a good supply of water, as all the water used in the town has to be brought a distance of two miles. The watercarriers are usually women, who thus become capable of undergoing great bodily fatigue. This accomplishment was much prized by our Belooch soldiers, who are accustomed to leave all the hard work at home to be done by their better halves. Several matrimonial alliances were entered into by them, as they considered that any one who had the good fortune to obtain the hand of a Bushire beauty became possessed both of a wife to solace his cares and a donkey to carry his burdens.

The liberated garrison of Bushire took the road to Shiraz, which is situated above the passes, about 150 miles from Bushire. Being un

armed, they kept well together, for the Persian soldier is not on very good terms with his countrymen. The blame does not entirely rest with the poor soldier, for he must live, and his superiors do not always give him a sufficiency of the staff of life, so he occasionally helps himself to what should be provided in a regular way. The soldiers are also sometimes called in to assist in collecting taxes, which are not more willingly paid in Persia than elsewhere, especially if the governor of a district, in addition to the king's taxes, wishes to levy a small rate for his own private expenses. The liberated prisoners, therefore, did not altogether expect to be received by their countrymen as gallant but unfortunate defenders of their country. They had only got out of the fire into the frying-pan, and the unarmed party from Bushire kept together to Shiraz, where they were again reorganised, and furnished with arms sent from Teheran.

We have already stated that the Persian Government, although they heard of the capture of Bushire before receiving the absolute declaration of war, had still been not altogether ignorant that some such operation was contemplated by the British. They had been informed by the officials on the coast of the constant passing to and fro of our steamers, and straws of that kind gave an indication of the wind which was likely to blow. About five regiments (or 4000 men) had been collected at Shiraz under an officer called the Shooja-ool-Moolk, and the feudal chiefs, especially the Eel-Khanee, or chief of the "Eels," or wandering tribes, had been summoned to his standard. These Eels form a nomade population in the midst of the regular settled inhabitants. The term "Eel" denotes a nomade tribe; Eelyant" a man belonging to an "Eel." The Eelyants pass the summer in the high ranges of hills where there is plenty of food for their cattle; as winter and its snows approach they sow some patches of grain, and then descend to the low

country, where they remain until the spring is well advanced, and the pastures and corn are springing up luxuriantly from ground well moistened by the melting snow.

The Government had also collected some supplies of flour and ammunition at the villages of Borasjoon and Chahkota, in the low country the former forty-five, the latter twenty miles from Bushire. The amount of ammunition would not be considered as indicating a very provident spirit on the part of any other government than that of Persia, for there were not above one thousand rounds of cannon shot, and some fifteen or twenty tons of gun-powder; but as all this had to be brought on the back of mules by difficult roads for three hundred miles, it was of considerable value. General Stalker resolved to send out a party to destroy the stores at Chahkota, which were lodged in a small fort. The magazine at Borasjoon was in a larger fort, which a few men might hold out for two or three days against any force not provided with siege artillery; and as there was no transport with the British force, it was impossible to undertake anything where a large supply of ammunition, and a few days' provision, would require to be carried for some distance.

The General sent all the cavalry (three squadrons), and two Horse artillery guns, to Chahkota on the morning of the 24th December. As they approached the town, no hostile intentions on the part of its chief were discerned. The inhabitants of Chahkota and most villages near Bushire are Arabs by descent and language, and have little sympathy with their Persian sovereigns or fellow subjects. The chief or "Sheikh," Hossein by name, would no doubt have made us very welcome to the stores (supposing he had no chance of being able to appropriate them himself); but there was a Persian commissary in charge, before whom he considered it necessary to make some show of attempting to save the property committed

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to his care. Accordingly, when Colonel Topp, after the usual complimentary inquiries, proceeded to business, the sheikh listened with well-feigned astonishment to his questions regarding the whereabouts of the ammunition. "What could have put such an idea into the head of General Stalker as to suppose that there was any magazine in the wretched little fort of Chahkota? The Colonel might look round and see," &c. &c. When at last he was told we would look round, and burn the whole fort if we did not find a magazine, the sheikh gave the commissary a look, which implied, "I have done all I could, and you see it is no use," and slowly moved towards the magazine. Lieutenant Goodfellow of the Engineers made arrangements for destroying it; but to avoid injuring the fort, or rather the sheikh's apartments, which were in it, and the village generally, a quantity of the ammunition boxes were carried out to the open plain-the villagers being called on to assist in transporting them, which they did willingly enough, when the object was explained to them. They still more willingly availed themselves of permission to carry away as much grain and flour as they could, before it was burned, or attempted to be burned, for grain is not easily destroyed when collected in large quantities. The explosion which took place, on the ignition of several tons of gunpowder, was very fine. The troops returned to Bushire before nine o'clock that evening. The guide who accompanied them, a man of twelve or fourteen stone weight, rode all the distance, upwards of forty miles, on a small donkey; yet such is the endurance of these little beasts, that it seemed quite fresh to the last. They are the usual baggage animals attached to Persian regiments, and answer the purpose well, as one man can look after fifteen or twenty of them on a march.

In the beginning of January the Shooja-ool-Moolk descended the hills

from Shiraz and established himself at the small town of Borasjoon, some forty-five miles from Bushire. The inhabitants of this latter place used to be constantly predicting an attack on the English camp, as the Shooja was said to have orders to drive the infidels into the sea. The English would have been only too happy to have seen the Shah himself, with the whole army of Persia at his back, advancing on their intrenchments, and never indulged in too sanguine expectations of the force from Shiraz proving their mettle. Towards the end of January, however, great excitement was created in our camp by intelligence that her Majesty had appointed Sir James Outram to command the Persian expeditionary force, and that his arrival with large reinforcements, sufficient to admit of active operations being commenced, might be shortly looked for. General Stalker was also directed to collect all the land-transport he could from the surrounding country and Bagdad, Bussorah, or any of the posts of the Gulf where it was procurable.

Sir J. Outram arrived at Bushire without having any plan, or any data on which to form a plan of future operations one blow, indeed, was well-nigh decided on. The town of Mohummerah, situated at the junction of the rivers Karun and Shat-ul-Arab (as the united Tigris and Euphrates is called), was the only military position of the Persians, besides Bushire, accessible by water. It commands the channels of both the Shat-ulArab and Karun (which are navigable for the largest ships), and was occupied by a considerable number of infantry and artillery, under an uncle of the Shah's. The capture of Mohummerah was therefore desirable, as a blow from which some moral results might be expected, and which could be struck with comparative ease; the river affording facilities for taking the troops up to the field of action. It was further necessary to have our communications up the Shat-ul-Arab

clear, as we hoped to draw supplies of provisions and baggage animals from that quarter if the war continued; and commissariat - officers had already been despatched to form depots at Bagdad and Bussorah.

When Sir James, however, heard of the position which had been taken up by the Shooja-ool-Moolk, he resolved first to march out and drive him from it, with some hopes of catching him at the foot of the hills in such a position that defeat would entail the loss of his artillery and baggage. Our force assembled at six o'clock on the 3d of February, and comprised nearly all the Bushire garrison fit for active campaigning, about 3500 men, including 300 cavalry and 18 guns.

The night was pitch dark; the march lay over a tract of sand for eight miles. So noiseless was the tread of men and horses on this soft soil, that not a sound of any kind could be heard by a person at more than a couple of hundred yards from the column; not even the rumble of the artillery was distinguishable and stragglers could only recover their position by seeing the lights of a fusee or tinder as a soldier comforted himself with a pipe of cavendish, or an officer perfumed the midnight air with a full-flavoured havannah.

:

Soon after daylight the force reached'Chahkota, where they halted for some hours. The march was resumed in the afternoon, and continued till ten o'clock, when the troops bivouacked near some wells at a village called Khooshab. The night was stormy, and the troops without shelter, but the cold, fortunately, was not intense.

After about three hours marching next morning, the town of Borasjoon, embedded in date trees, was descried. On a gentle slope above the town some tents and appearances of encampment could be indistinctly seen, and a good many people moving amongst them. A careful search through our glasses enabled us to discover that this was

an abandoned camp, and the people inside were all villagers carrying away what plunder they could. As we approached, a large party of about 400 horse, who had been hidden by rising ground, were seen moving away to the right in a long straggling line. The badlymounted men, with a few camels and baggage-ponies, were making the best of it in the distance, along a road leading over the undulating country at the foot of the hills, which are only about three miles from Borasjoon. The well-mounted horsemen and some of them (including of course those of higher rank) were mounted on excellent Arab and Persian horses-moved very slowly, and indeed were for some time stationary, till our cavalry was summoned to the front, and trotted towards them. The Persians showed no alarm at our approach, and only accelerated their pace sufficiently to keep a distance of two or three hundred yards between us. Many of them dismounted in order to discharge their matchlocks with a better aim, and three men of the 3d Cavalry were wounded by their bullets. The ground was very stony, and interspersed with the korear or wild-plum tree, and our cavalry were ordered to desist following the enemy, whom they could hardly have caught under favourable circumstances over such an unsuitable country, which got worse as it approached the hills. Unfortunately the rear-guard of cavalry had been brought to the front also, and some of the more daring Persian horsemen got round unobserved to the rear of the column, and cut up the bearers of a doolee (or litter) who had loitered a little behind the rest of the baggage. From the information received at Borasjoon, it appeared that the Shooja-ool-Moolk and EelKhanee had passed the preceding night there with a force of about 6000 men, of whom 800 might be cavalry, and six guns. They had known of our advance the previous afternoon, and talked of

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meeting us in their camp, which was slightly, but very slightly intrenched. On the near approach of our force that morning the hearts of the Persian leaders failed them. They had received terrible accounts of the destructive powers of the English guns, and exaggerated rumours of the actual numerical force under the English banners. The Shooja with his regular troops and guns fled along the base of the hills to a place called Dalikeh, twelve miles from Borasjoon, while the Eel-Khanee with the cavalry retired into the hills, with every nook and corner of which his followers were personally well acquainted. British soldiers, who had confidently expected that the "old General meant to give them a treat" after their long marching, were terribly disappointed to gain so few trophies, and still more in gaining them so easily. The new-comers occupied the still warm lair of their opponents for two days without interference. Sir James considered it on the whole not judicious to follow the Persians to Dalikeh, where they occupied a strong position in a gorge of the hills, so a return march was commenced on the night of the 7th. Sir James always marched at night, a habit resulting from his Indian experience, but not so convenient or agreeable either to officers, men, or, above all, to the transport service, as marching in the day, when the climate is a temperate one like that of Persia in the winter months.

The Shooja-ool-Moolk got over his fears when he found himself not pursued on the day he left Borasjoon, and began to consider how his conduct would be viewed at Teheran. On being appointed to the command he sent some gasconading addresses to the Shah, yet on the first blush he ran away. He now wrote to the Eel-Khanee, proposing that a joint night-attack should be made, but without expecting the Eel-Khanee to take him at his word. This would have given him an excuse at Court, for

he could then have thrown the blame of not engaging on the EelKhanee. The latter, who was up to these tactics, did not fall into the trap, but at once wrote back to express his willingness to join in any attack on the English. The Shooja, thus obliged to fight, left Dalikeh with his men at about six o'clock on the 7th, or just a couple of hours before the British were leaving their camp. The latter, having scarcely any baggage, did not take long to move off their ground. A small party waited to destroy the ammunition which had been abandoned by the Persians at Borasjoon; it was not of a quality our artillerymen would condescend to use. The common shot were very rusty, and not very roundthe powder so coarse that it might have been calculated at the rate of twelve grains to an ounce. The soldiers during the two days of their stay at Borasjoon had been amusing themselves by exploding small trains and bags of powder in every direction, but several thousand pounds still remained. These were piled up all ready, and set on fire soon after the last soldier had marched out of the intrenchment. was at nine o'clock, long after the sun went down, and the lurid glare could be seen for many miles around. It startled the Persians on their march. Had they been discovered, and was it a signal fired from some enormous gun? As it was not repeated, a little reflection enabled them to guess the true

cause.

This

At Borasjoon the Shooja and the Eel-Khanee united their forces about ten o'clock at night. The British marched slowly in pitch darkness for three hours, and the infantry were beginning to drag their limbs heavily, and the troopers to nod, occasionally awakening with a sudden start as they nearly lost their balance, when a few musket-shots in the rear called all to the alert. Sir James Outram set off at a gallop to ascertain the cause of these hostile demonstrations, but was thrown