Page:Historyofpersiaf00watsrich.djvu/463

 EXPEDITION TO MOHAMRA. 443 to show them their danger, took an Enfield rifle from a sergeant, and adjusting it to 900 yards, fired it at the group of horsemen. One of the four men fell from his horse to the ground, and the other three put spurs to their steeds and galloped off the field. The Persian gun- ammunition fell into the hands of the English troops, and seven hundred Iranis were found dead upon the field of battle. The proportion of wounded could not be ascertained, as the small number of General Outram's cavalry prevented a pursuit, and gave the Persians the opportunity of carrying off their disabled men. Many of the Shah's troops, in endea- vouring to provide as effectually as possible for their individual safety, left their arms upon the field. No British or Indian soldiers fell into the hands of the Per- sians, and the latter were prevented from decapitating the dead, as is their custom. After the termination of the action, the English troops bivouacked for the day close to the ground where the battle had been fought, and at night they accomplished a march of twenty miles towards Bushire ; over a country rendered nearly impassable by the continuous heavy rains. After a rest of six hours, the greater portion of the infantry continued their march to Bushire ; which place they reached before midnight on the 9th of February. The cavalry and artillery arrived at the camp on the following morning. The loss on the side of the British in the action at Khushab consisted of sixteen men killed and sixty-two wounded. It had been the intention of Sir James Outram to send a force against the Persian fort of Mohamra on the Karoon river, immediately after his return from Burazjan; but, owing to the non-arrival of reinforcements which had