Narrow Escape from Suffocation.--Death of Noori Effendi.--A good
Shot.--History of Mirza Tekee.--Persian Ideas of the Principles of
Government.--The "Blood-drinker."--Massacre at Kerbela.--Sanctity
of the Place.--History of Hossein.--Attack on Kerbela, and Defeat
of the Persians.--Good Effects of Commissioners' Exertions.
The first aspect of affairs at Erzeroom was not very satisfactory
in any way. The cold and dismal weather was enough to prevent
all enjoyment out of doors, and in-doors we had little cause of
rejoicing. On first taking possession of our house, my companions had
the narrowest possible escape of death from suffocation. The grooms in
the stable below the drawing-room had lit an immense fire of charcoal,
not for any particular object beyond that common to all servants of
all countries, that of wasting their master's goods, which they had
not to pay for themselves. The fumes from the charcoal penetrated
the ceiling, when, most fortunately, the Russian commissioner came
in, and, finding his two English friends in a half-stupefied state,
helped them out of the room on to the terrace, where they both fell
down fainting on the snow, and were only recovered after some time and
difficulty. If the Russian commissioner had not arrived so opportunely,
they would soon have perished. I did not participate in this risk,
because I was laid up at the Consulate with an attack of fever,
which effectually prevented my moving to my own house.
Another misfortune occurred almost at the same period. Noori Effendi,
the Turkish plenipotentiary, died suddenly of apoplexy in his
bath; he had been embassador in London and at Vienna. All prospect
of getting on with our affairs was put off by this unfortunate
circumstance. Subsequently, Enveri Effendi, formerly secretary to
Noori, was appointed in his place, but he did not arrive for some
time after the death of his former chief.
Mirza Jaffer, an old acquaintance of mine when he was embassador
from Persia to the Porte, was too unwell to leave Tabriz, and Mirza
Tekee was appointed Persian plenipotentiary instead. On his arrival
within sight of Erzeroom from Persia, all the great people, except the
Pasha and the commissioners, went out on horseback to meet him, and
accompany him on his entry into the town. There was a great concourse
and a prodigious firing of guns at full gallop, which, as the guns are
generally loaded with ball cartridge, bought ready made in the bazaar,
though intended as an honor, is a somewhat dangerous display. Unable to
resist so picturesque a sight, I had ridden out on the Persian road,
though I did not join the escort, and, having returned, I was walking
up and down on the roof of the house, watching the crowds passing
in the valley below, and looking at the great guns of the citadel,
which the soldiers were firing as a salute. They fired very well,
in very good time, but I observed several petty officers and a number
of men busily employed at one gun, the last to the left hand near the
corner of the battery. At length this gun was loaded. A prodigious
deal of peeping and pointing took place out of the embrasure, and,
just as I was turning in my walk, bang went the cannon, and I was
covered with dust from something which struck the ground in the yard
in a line below my feet. On looking down to see what this could be,
I saw a ball stuck in the earth: the soldiers had all disappeared from
the ramparts of the citadel, and I found they had been taking a shot at
the British commissioner. A very good shot it was too, exactly in the
line, but the ball, not being heavy enough, had fallen a little short,
so I was missed. They had manufactured a ball with a large stone,
wound round with rope to make it fit the gun, to shoot at the Frank,
and that was the occasion of all the peeping and crowding of the men
round the gun which I had observed.
As Mirza Tekee is now no more, and he was beyond all comparison the
most interesting of those assembled at the congress of Erzeroom,
I will give a short account of his history. Mirza Tekee was the son
of the cook of Bahman Meerza, brother of Mohammed Shah, and governor
of the province of Tabriz. The cook's little boy was brought up with
the children of his master and educated with them; being a clever boy,
as soon as he was old enough he was put into the office of accounts,
under the commander-in-chief, the famous Emir Nizam, who was employed
in drilling the Persian army in the European style. Tekee became Vizir
ul Nizam, or adjutant general, in course of time, under the old Emir
Nizam, and also amassed great wealth; and as the Shah did not like
the idea of paying the expenses of his plenipotentiary--"base is the
slave that pays"--he sent Mirza Tekee to Erzeroom with many flattering
speeches and promises, none of which he intended to fulfill. The
cunning old prime minister, Hadji Meerza Agassi, who was sedulously
employed in feathering his own nest, was jealous of Mirza Tekee,
and very glad to get him safe out of the way. The Turks and Persians,
as every body knows, hate each other religiously, which seems always
to be the worst sort of hatred. The Soonis and the Shiahs are, as it
were, Protestants and Papists in the Mohammedan faith; and if these
two countries are ever reconciled for a time, the smouldering flame
is sure to break out again at the first convenient opportunity, and it
will do so to the end of time. In 1845, the Turks, who disliked Mirza
Tekee with more than common aversion, from his dignified bearing and
stately manners, gave out various accusations against him and some
members of his household. A fanatical mob of many thousand indignant
Soonis surrounded all that quarter of the town, attacked the Persian
plenipotentiary's house, which was besieged for some hours, and
volleys after volleys of rifle-shots were fired at the windows,
while from within Mirza Tekee only permitted his party to fire
blank cartridges. Izzet Pasha, a drunken old gentleman of eighty,
who had succeeded Kiamili Pasha as governor of Erzeroom through
the intrigues of Enveri Effendi, sat on horseback and looked on,
and took no part in the disturbance, though he had all his troops,
amounting to several thousand men, under arms. For this conduct he
was turned out of his government, and was succeeded by Bahri Pasha,
who in 1847 was shot dead by one of his own servants, of the name of
Delhi Ibrahim--accidentally or not, does not appear.
Colonel Williams did every thing in his power to assist Mirza Tekee,
and risked his life in the affray; but he received no assistance from
the Pasha or any of the authorities, who made no attempt to quell
the riot.
The Turks swore they would have blood, and that one of the Persians
must be given up to them as a sacrifice. A poor man, who had called
that morning to say that he was going to Tabriz, and would be happy to
carry any letters or messages there, was thrown out of the window and
torn to pieces by the mob. Another Persian, a gentleman, secretary to
Mirza Tekee, was killed by a butcher the same day, in another part of
the town, where he was walking in ignorance of the disturbance that was
going on. The Mirza's house was pillaged, the roof and doors broken in,
and every thing destroyed that the mob could get hold of. He himself
was only saved by barricading a strong room in a back part of the
house, where he and his servants defended themselves for many hours,
till the Turks dispersed of their own accord. The Sultan afterward
sent him £8000 in repayment of his losses in this disgraceful outrage.
In June, 1847, after he had signed the treaty of peace and commerce
between Turkey and Persia with Enveri Effendi and the British and
Russian Commissioners, he returned to Tabriz. On the death of the Emir
Nizam, he succeeded to his office of commander-in-chief. During the
last illness of Mohammed Shah, Bahman Meerza had been intriguing in
hopes of succeeding to the throne; but being unsuccessful, and being
also found out, he escaped to Teflis, where he still resides, and is
protected by the Czar, who keeps him in terrorem over the present
Shah, who may be dethroned any day, in which case Bahman Meerza is
all ready to reign in his stead.
When Mohammed Shah, who had done nothing all his life but shoot
sparrows with a pistol, departed from this world, Mirza Tekee marched
the Persian army to Teheran, and seated the young Prince Noor Eddin
upon the throne. Noor Eddin Shah gave him his sister in marriage: she
is said to have been much attached to her husband, who also succeeded
to the immense territorial possessions of Hadji Meerza Agassi, the late
prime minister of Persia. The Hadji had been tutor to Mohammed Shah,
and became one of the most famous of the Grand Vizirs of that most
blundering of dynasties. As a matter of course, when he became rich
enough he was robbed by his master, having been himself the greatest
extortioner on record for many years. The Shah had allowed him to
keep an enormous treasure in gold, silver, and jewels, with which he
retired to Kerbela, where he died in the odor of sanctity in 1850.
Mirza Tekee was now seated on the highest pinnacle of the temple
of prosperity. The extent of the possessions which the Shah had
handed over to him from the plunder of the Hadji was so great as
to be hardly credible, and, by a judicious squeezing, the towns,
villages, and domains would have yielded the revenue of a petty
king. However, all prime ministers are detested--that is, in human
nature; first, there is the opposite party in politics, some of whom
think differently as to the form and manner in which the taxes should
be levied in Europe, the villages racked in Persia. All--whatever
they may think on political subjects--feel sure they ought to be in
place, rather than the party then in power; if to these are added all
thieves, rogues, revolutionists, and those sorts of people, who have
a natural antipathy to all government, law, or possession of wealth in
the hands of any man except the one individual himself, he being more
jealous of his friend than of any other person, a great mass of the
population are not only opposed to the minister for the time being,
but are in constant readiness to pull down whatever is above them,
good, indifferent, or bad.
It is said that the great enemy of Mirza Tekee at court was the Shah's
mother, a lady who in Persia and Turkey enjoys an extraordinary degree
of power, wealth, and dignity. In Turkey, the Sultana Validé has the
right to build a royal mosque, and to use a caique like that of her
son; she is above the law, and can do any thing she likes. If she likes
to do good, she can do much good; if she likes to do evil, she can do
much evil. Between those who were jealous of the power and who hated
the strong government of Mirza Tekee, a powerful party was created,
who got hold of the weak mind of the young Shah, who owed every thing
in this world to his minister; his destruction was agreed upon, and
he was given leave to go to Koom, where he had an estate. So secretly
were affairs managed that his suspicions do not seem to have been
aroused; his young wife followed him, with all her train, looking
forward to the pleasure of living with her husband for a while in
the quiet and retirement of a beautiful country; but when she arrived
within sight of the town of Koom, a messenger came out to meet her,
and the news that he brought was that Mirza Tekee had been killed by
the order of her brother the Shah, whose emissaries had seized him
unexpectedly in the bath. He made a desperate resistance, but he was
overpowered; they opened his veins and held him down till the Grand
Vizir had bled to death. No crime whatever was alleged against him:
he was murdered foully by the Shah, who thus destroyed one of his
best and most honest subjects at the instigation of some of the most
infamous and worst. This happened in the year 1851.
There is nothing, however, very unusual in this termination of the
life and fortunes of the prime minister of Persia, only it is usually
done under more extenuating circumstances. The singular ideas which
they entertain of the principles of government are summed up in the
notion that it is better to be in the hands of one furious ogre than
at the mercy of a hundred tyrants. For this reason the tribes of
the Kuzzulbash admire a truculent Shah, such as Aga Mohammed Shah,
and they like a Grand Vizir who lets nobody rob and plunder except
himself. When he is fat and fit for killing, the blood-drinker on
the throne cuts off his head, or strangles him, as the case may be,
and then takes possession of his property, throwing a sop to the mob
occasionally by allowing them to sack the great man's house. I do not
use the above-mentioned epithet as a term of reprehension or abuse,
for Hunkiar is one of the recognized titles of the Sultan of Turkey
and of other Eastern sovereigns. The treaty of Hunkiar Skellessi,
which made so great a sensation in its day, was so called from the name
of a place on the Asiatic shores of the Bosporus. The name means the
"Blood-drinker's Stairs"--an appellation at this time equally suited
to either of the "high contracting powers."
The plenipotentiaries and commissioners being assembled, every thing
was in the greatest danger of falling to pieces on the outset, by
the very first dispatches which we received, as these related to a
frightful massacre which had just taken place at Kerbela, where 22,000
Persians were reported to have been killed by the Turks. Kerbela,
in the pashalik of Bagdad, is a Turkish fortified place, containing
the tomb of Hossein, the brother of Hassan, and son of Ali, the great
saint of the Shiah, or Persian form of the Mohammedan religion. Not
only do an immense number of Persians habitually reside there, but
every one who has the power strives to retire there in his latter
days, that he may lay his bones in the neighborhood of the golden dome
which covers the ashes of Hossein. Those who die at a distance are
so anxious at least to be buried at Kerbela, that the great article
of commerce in that direction consists of the dead bodies of Persian
men and women, which are brought by thousands every year, from all
parts of the dominions of the Shah, by endless caravans of horses,
mules, and camels, many hundreds of which unlucky animals pass their
whole lives from year to year in carrying these horrid burdens,
which infect the air in all the villages through which they pass.
So great is the sanctity of Kerbela, that, in the estimation of
the sect of Ali, it even may be said to surpass that of Mecca, for
they, among Mohammedans, are those who "by their traditions have
made the law of none effect." The history of the death of Hossein
is so interesting an episode in the history of this country, that I
am tempted to give a short account of it, for the benefit of those
who may not be well acquainted with the history of the successors of
Mohammed, and upon whose fortunes so much of the welfare and also the
policy of the various nations of the East, from the seventh century to
the present time, depends--premising that the principal cause of the
rancorous hatred which always has existed, and still exists in full
force, between the Sooni Turks and the Shiah Persians, is principally
founded upon events connected with the death of the Imaum Hossein,
and the feeling is kept up in full vigor in Persia by a sort of drama,
representing the following history, which is enacted before the Shah,
and in every town in Persia, every year, at the annual feast of Noo
Rooz, which continues for ten days. In one of the acts of this most
curious ceremony, a Frank embassador is brought before the audience,
who intercedes for the life of Hossein and his followers with the
general of the army of Yezid. Who he can have been there is no means
of knowing, but he may possibly represent an embassador from the Greek
Emperor of Constantinople, who may have been passing on his way to
the court of the Caliph. However this may be, his presence produces
a kindly feeling toward Europeans in the minds of the Persian populace.
On the death of Ali (A.D. 661), his eldest son, Hassan, was proclaimed
Caliph and Imaum in Irák; the former title he was forced to resign
to Moawiyah; the latter, or spiritual dignity, his followers regarded
as inalienable. His rival granted him a pension, and permitted him to
retire into private life. After nine years, passed for the most part in
devotional exercise, he was poisoned by his wife Jaadah, who was bribed
to perpetrate this execrable crime by Yezid, the son of Moawiyah.
On the death of Moawiyah (A.D. 679), his son Yezid, who succeeded,
having provoked public indignation by his luxury, debauchery, and
impiety, Hossein was persuaded by the discontented people of Irák
to make an attempt for the recovery of his hereditary rights. The
inhabitants of Cufa and Bassorah were foremost in their professions of
zeal for the house of Ali, and sent Hossein a list of more than 124,000
persons, who, they said, were ready to take up arms in his cause.
Hossein did not take warning from the inconstancy and treachery
which these very persons had shown in their conduct toward his father
and brother. Assembling a small troop of his personal friends, and
accompanied by a part of his family, he departed from Medina, the place
of his residence, and was soon engaged in crossing the desert. But
while he was on his journey, Yezid's governor in Irák discovered the
meditated revolt, capitally punished the leaders of the conspiracy,
and so terrified the rest that they were afraid to move. When Hossein
arrived near the banks of the Euphrates, instead of finding an army
of his devoted adherents, he discovered that his further progress was
checked by the overwhelming forces of the enemy. Determined, however,
to persevere, he gave permission to all who pleased to retreat while
there was yet time; to their disgrace, many of his followers left him
to his fate, and he continued his route to Cufa, accompanied only
by seventy-two persons. But every step increased his difficulties,
and he attempted to return when it was too late. At length he was
surrounded by the troops of the Caliph in the arid plains of Kerbela,
his followers were cut off from their supply of water, and, when
he offered to negotiate, he was told that no terms would be made,
but that he should surrender at discretion. Twenty-four hours were
granted him for deliberation.
Hossein's choice was soon made: he deemed death preferable to
submission, but he counseled his friends to provide for their safety
either by surrender or escape. All replied that they preferred dying
with their beloved leader. The only matter now to be considered was
how they could sell their lives most dearly; they fortified their
little encampment with a trench, and then tranquilly awaited the event.
That night Hossein slept soundly, using for a pillow the pommel of
his sword. During his sleep he dreamed that Mohammed appeared to him,
and predicted that they should meet the next day in Paradise. When
morning dawned he related his dream to his sister Zeinab, who had
accompanied him on his fatal expedition. She burst into a passion
of tears, and exclaimed, "Alas! alas! my brother! What a destiny
is ours! My father is dead! my mother is dead! my brother Hassan is
dead! and the measure of our calamities is not yet full!"
Hossein tried to console her. "Why should you weep?" he said; "did we
not come on earth to die? My father was more worthy than I; my mother
was more worthy than I; my brother was more worthy than I. They are
all dead; why should not we be ready to follow their example?" He
then strictly enjoined his family to make no lamentation for his
approaching martyrdom, telling them that a patient submission to the
divine decrees was the conduct most pleasing to God and his Prophet.
When morning appeared, Hossein, having washed and perfumed himself,
as if preparing for a banquet, mounted his steed, and addressed his
followers in terms of endearing affection that drew tears from the
eyes of the gallant warriors. Then, opening the Koran, he read the
following verse: "O God, be thou my refuge in suffering, and my hope
in affliction." But the soldiers of Yezid were reluctant to assail the
favorite grandson of the Prophet; they demanded of their generals to
allow him to draw water from the Euphrates, a permission which would
not have been refused to beasts and infidels. "Let us be cautious,"
they exclaimed, "of raising our hands against him who was carried
in the arms of God's apostle. It would be, in fact, to fight against
himself." So strong were their feelings, that thirty cavaliers deserted
to Hossein, resolved to share with him the glories of martyrdom.
But Yezid's generals shared not in these sentiments. They affected
to regard Hossein as an enemy of Islám. They forced their soldiers
forward with blows, and exclaimed, "War to those who abandon the
true religion, and separate themselves from the council of the
faithful!" Hossein replied, "It is you who have abandoned the true
religion; it is you who have severed yourselves from the assembly
of the faithful. Ah! when your souls shall be separated from your
bodies, you will learn too late which party has incurred the penalty
of eternal condemnation." Notwithstanding their vast superiority,
the Caliph's forces hesitated to engage men determined on death;
they poured in their arrows from a distance, and soon dismounted the
little troop of Hossein's cavalry.
When the hour of noon arrived, Hossein solicited a suspension of arms
during the time appointed for the meridian prayers. This boon was
conceded with difficulty, the generals of Yezid asking "how a wretch
like him could venture to address the Deity;" and adding the vilest
reproaches, to which Hossein made no reply. The Persian traditions
relate a fabulous circumstance, designed to exalt the character of
Hossein, though fiction itself can not increase the deep interest
of his history. They tell us that while he was upon his knees, the
King of the Genii appeared to him, and offered, for the sake of his
father Ali, to disperse his enemies in a moment. "No," replied the
generous Hossein, "what use is there in fighting any longer? I am
but a guest of one breath in this transitory world; my relatives
and companions are all gone, and what will it profit me to remain
behind? I long for nothing now save my martyrdom; therefore depart
thou, and may the Lord recompense and bless thee!" The genius was so
deeply affected by the reply that his soul exhibited human weakness,
and he departed weeping and lamenting.
When the hour of prayer was past, the combat was renewed. One
of Hossein's sons, and several of his nephews, lay dead around
him; the rest of his followers were either killed or grievously
wounded. Hitherto he had escaped unhurt, for every one dreaded to
raise a hand against the grandson of Mohammed; at length a soldier,
more daring than the rest, gave him a severe wound in the head. Faint
with the loss of blood, he staggered to the door of his tent, and
with a burst of parental affection, which at such a moment must have
been mingled with unspeakable bitterness, took up his infant son,
and began to caress him. While the little child was lisping out
an inquiry as to the cause of his father's emotion, it was struck
dead by an arrow in Hossein's arms. When the blood of the innocent,
bubbling over his bosom, disclosed this new calamity, Hossein held
up the body toward heaven, exclaiming, "O Lord! if thou refusest us
thy succor, at least spare those who have not yet sinned, and turn
thy wrath upon the heads of the guilty." Parched by a burning thirst,
Hossein made a desperate effort to reach the banks of the Euphrates,
but, when he stooped to drink, he was struck by an arrow in the mouth,
and at the same moment one of his nephews, who came to embrace him for
the last time, had his hand cut off by the blow of a sabre. Hossein,
now the sole survivor of his party, threw himself into the midst of
the enemy, and fell beneath a thousand weapons. The officers of Yezid
barbarously mangled the corpse of the unfortunate prince; they cut
off his head, and sent it to the Caliph.
The escort who guarded it on its way to the court of Yezid, halting
for the night in the city of Mosul, placed the box which contained it
in a mosque; one of the sentinels, in the middle of the night hearing
a noise within, looked through a chink in the door, and saw a gigantic
figure, with a venerable white beard, take the head of Hossein out of
its box, kiss it with reverence, and weep over it, a crowd of venerable
personages following his example, and weeping bitterly at the same
time. Fearing that some of his partisans had gained admittance, and
that they would carry away the head which he was guarding, he unlocked
the door and entered the mosque, upon which one of the figures he had
seen approached, and, giving him a blow upon the cheek, exclaimed,
"The prophets have come to pay obeisance to the head of the martyr:
whither dost thou venture with such disrespect?" In the morning he
related what had happened to his commander, the impression of the hand
and fingers of the ancient prophet being still visible on his cheek.
The head of Hossein, and that of his brother Hassan, repose under a
mosque of the highest sanctity at Cairo: it is called the mosque of
Hassanen. Another mosque in the same city covers with its dome the
remains of Sitté, or the lady Zeinab, their sister, who was famous
for her beauty: her shrine is now visited with great devotion by
the ladies and women of her faith. The headless body of Hossein was
buried upon the spot where he fell, while above it afterward arose
the present place of pilgrimage, so much resorted to by the Shiah sect.
The Persian fanatics of Kerbela had long declined paying the accustomed
taxes to the Turkish government. Their insolent behavior had been
a constant source of anger and difficulty to successive Pashas of
Bagdad. At last the present Pasha was determined to enforce the law:
after sending various letters to the town requesting payment of taxes
and arrears, which were treated with ridicule and contempt, he gave
orders to a general called Aboullabout Pasha, who appears to have
been a Sooni of the most orthodox kind, to march an army of several
thousand men to compel the people of Kerbela to acknowledge the rule
of the Sultan. Aboullabout Pasha arrived accordingly, and pitched
his camp in a grove of palms not far from the walls of the city. He
brought four guns with him, and a number of topgis, or gunners, to
work these instruments of destruction, if the Persians in the town did
not choose to obey his commands. These impertinent fanatics treated
the Turkish Pasha and his army with derision; rode out in the cool
of the evening to look at the encampment, called the Turks grandsons
and great grandsons of dogs, whom they would soon pack off to their
kennels at Bagdad and Constantinople.
It seems that, trusting in the sanctity of the golden dome, they
did not imagine that the Turks would dare to advance to extremities,
particularly as several royal princesses and members of the family of
the Shah had taken up their abode in the vicinity of the tomb of the
Imaum. However, the four guns and the topgis advanced to a position
near the walls, and the Pasha sent a civil note to the insurgents
within, to say that he would trouble them to pay his little bill;
at the very notion of which the Persians were seized with fits of
laughter, they were so much amused at the idea of paying away their
money to the Turks. After several demands for their surrender, the
town was blockaded, and the Persians made various sallies on the
Turkish lines, in which they were always repulsed, and, all warnings
being disregarded, the four guns at last proceeded to business. The
walls tumbled down immediately, the Turks walked in, the Persians ran
away, making very little effectual resistance, and fire and the sword,
plunder and outrage of all kinds, took place in every quarter of the
devoted city. When the Turkish troops entered the town, Aboullabout
Pasha, who took it all in a religious point of view, had his carpet
spread upon a bastion close above the breach, and having cursed
Hassan and Hossein, Sitti Zeinab and Ali, offered ten shillings a
piece for the heads of any of their followers; and then went quietly
to prayers for the rest of the morning, without making any effort
to stop the horrors and excesses which occur when a city has been
taken by storm. The accounts of the shocking outrages and barbarities
committed by the brutal soldiery are not fit to be repeated. When the
town was pillaged, and every thing had been seized that they could lay
their hands upon, those who had not been fortunate in lighting upon
any treasure, or any thing worth taking away, bethought themselves
of the manner in which profit and amusement might be combined, by
cutting off every one's head that they could meet with, and taking
it up to the pious old Pasha, who continued praying on his carpet on
the bastion. When Persian heads became difficult to find, not being
particular, a great many Turks were shot and decapitated by their
fellow-soldiers, for the sake of their heads, the fraternal feeling
of nationality and Sooniism not being calculated to resist the offer
of one ducat per head. If this had been suffered to continue, it is
probable that the state of affairs would have resembled that of the
celebrated battle between the two Kilkenny cats, who ate each other
up entirely with the exception of a small piece of fluff. When the
massacre was stopped, 22,000 persons were reported to have been
slain. This was very much exaggerated, no doubt, and it does not
appear that a very correct account could be made out. A most curious
and interesting report was afterward drawn up on this subject by
Colonel Farrant, who was deputed by the British government to proceed
to Kerbela for the purpose of pacifying the contending parties,
and inquiring into the truth and extent of this terrible disaster.
This was the first subject which the congress assembled to discuss
measures of amity and mutual confidence between Turkey and Persia
had brought before them--one not precisely calculated to insure that
calmness of debate and general good-will which all wanted to establish.
In course of time matters calmed down; things were what is called
explained. We were all wonderfully civil to each other, and the Turkish
and Persian followers of their respective plenipotentiaries did not
express their private opinions of each other's merits till they got
home and shut the door.
Gradually they became more used to one another's ways, and the
commissioners worked like special constables to keep the peace--and
very hard work they had; and it is wholly and entirely owing to their
exertions that the Koordish tribes upon the frontiers, and the wild
spirits on both sides who were ready to back them up, were kept down
for more than ten years, during which time commerce has been enlarged,
the roads have been safe, and the Christian and agricultural population
from Bussora to Mount Ararat have enjoyed a tranquillity and prosperity
unknown in the memory of man.