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 they should advance into Georgia, the Porte determined to declare war against Russia. From this design the Turks were, however, diverted by the advice of the ambassadors of Germany and of France. The emperor declared that if Russia were attacked Germany would defend her, and the French representative pointed out that it was not for the interests of Turkey to encourage a successful rebel such as Mahmoud.

In the meantime the Russian army in Daghestan received reinforcements and prepared to advance to the southward. At the extremity of the peninsula of Absharon, which juts out from the western shore of the Caspian Sea, stands the fortress of Badkooba, or Bakoo, a place celebrated chiefly on account of the everburning fires of naphtha in its vicinity, which attracted the adoration of the fire-worshippers of old, and which are to this day constantly tended by a succession of priests from India. Bakoo yielded to the Russian general Matufkin, and immediately after its capture a treaty was concluded at St. Peters-burg between the Czar Peter and the ambassador of Tahmasp (who acted for himself, as his father Hussein was a captive), by which the former engaged to take up arms for the restoration of the Sefaveeans, on condition of the cession to him in perpetuity by the latter not only of Derbend and Bakoo, which were already in his possession, but also of the three provinces of Gilan, Mazenderan, and Astrabad. This treaty met with the approval both of Tahmasp and the Ottoman Porte, and