Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/417

 ATTACK ON ASHORADEH. 397 Ashoradeh steam-vessels ply along the Persian coast, conveying the produce of the three fertile provinces of Astrabad, Mazenderan, and Gilan, to the markets of Georgia, and in return bringing Kussian wares to supply the requirements of the merchants of Persia. The fact, too, of a Eussian force being always present at the south-eastern corner of the Caspian sea, gives to that power great political influence throughout the neigh- bouring provinces of the states of Central Asia. In the year 1851 the island of Ashoradeh was pro- tected by five Kussian vessels of war, each carrying from four to eight guns ; but notwithstanding the presence of this force, the island was surprised by the Turkomans, who killed or carried off all the Russians they found upon it. The officers in the ships escaped the fate that overtook the men on shore, but it is said that one or two ladies were carried off to the desert of the Attreck. The time that had been chosen for delivering this humiliating blow was Easter- eve, when the Turkomans believed they should find the Kussian sailors in a state of intoxication. It was thought necessary for the re -establishment of Russian prestige on the shores of the Caspian, to give out that the Turkomans alone had not been able to over-run Ashoradeh, but that they had been abetted by the Persians ; and on this account the Russian represen- tative at Tehran demanded the dismissal from office of the Shah's brother, the governor of Mazenderan. The Ameer-i-Nizam at first refused to agree to the disgrace of a man whom he knew to have had nothing whatever to do with the affair at Ashoradeh ; but rather than risk the consequences of a rupture of peaceful relations with Russia, he bowed his pride, and yielded to the demand.