Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/184

 men with him, and to endeavour to penetrate to Tiflis. He had to content himself, however, with ravaging the country up to the Gokcheh Lake, whence he returned to Erivan. The crown-prince also advanced to the neighbourhood of Genja, which place the Armenians resident in it promised to deliver up to him. Of this plot the Russian commander obtained intelligence, and he put the Armenians in chains, on which the prince marched back in the direction of Tabreez. The Russian commander-in-chief afterwards advanced to a spot called Haji-Kara, where an engagement took place between his forces and those of the Persian prince. On another occasion a Russian battalion was, we are told, captured, and was sent with its colours to Tehran.

The year 1812 was marked in the annals of Persia by a signal disaster which occurred to the army of the crown-prince. Of the events of the short campaign waged in the autumn of this year, we possess a vivid account from the pen of one who took part in them. Sir Gore Ouseley, who was now the English ambassador at the court of Persia, had joined the prince's camp near the Araxes, in the hope of being able to act as mediator between his Royal Highness and the Russian commissioner. A Russian general-officer was sent to the Persian camp to propose the appointment of deputies on both sides, who should meet on the banks of the Araxes. This arrangement was agreed to, but it failed to produce any satisfactory results. The Russian deputies would cede nothing, and the Persians would not accept an arrangement based on the actual state of possession of