360 RAWLINSON ON MOHAM'RAH. [May 11, 1857. 



and indigo, the latter of whicli products it had been stated not 

 long ago in that room, would only grow in India; he would not 

 say that the Shuster and Dizful indigo was of first-rate quality, 

 but it was sufficiently good for the ordinary uses of the country ; 

 and he might add that one-fourth of the opium used in Persia 

 was said to be grown at Shuster and Dizful. There were also 

 produced in Khuzistan and the adjacent districts, rice, cotton, 

 madder, cherry-sticks, gall-nuts, and especially mules and horses 

 and wool. So that it would be seen that the province of Khuzistan 

 was not only valuable in a military point of view, but also in a 

 commercial one, and although at the present time there was no idea, 

 he believed, of our retaining permanent occupation of the province, 

 still the Persian government must be equally aware with us, of its 

 value, as well as of its being entirely open to our arms, and these 

 combined considerations would, of course, act as an inducement for 

 them to get us out of the country as quickly as possible by agreeing 

 to our terms. 



He had only further to point out that the province in which 

 Moham'rah was situated was so oppressively hot in summer that 

 the governors never ventured to remain there during that season. 

 All the provinces of Persia were under the rule of Prince governors, 

 members of the Royal Family being sent from the court of Teheran 

 to administer the several divisions of the empire, but no special 

 governor was ever appointed to this province to remain there per- 

 manently. Khuzistan (or Arabistan, as it was now generally 

 called) was placed under the rule of the governor of some other 

 province. It was sometimes attached to Kermanshah, sometimes to 

 Ispahan, and occasionally to the subordinate governments of Khor- 

 remabad or Biiriijird. At present it formed a part of the govern- 

 ment presided over by Khanler Mirza, the Prince who had been 

 defeated by our troops at Moham'rah, but he merely came down to 

 collect the revenues, and inspect the government of the countiy 

 during the winter, and immediately the heats came on, which was 

 generally by the end of April, he ascended the mountains again to 

 his capital city of Biiriijird, where he enjoyed an agreeable climate 

 throughout the summer. Our troops would not be able, probably, 

 as he had before explained, to ascend the mountains, but they could 

 at any rate obtain healthy quarters at Ahwaz. There was a i-idge 

 of sandstone stretching across the desert for above 1000 miles, which 

 struck the river Karun at this point, making it impossible for a 

 steamer to ascend higher without very considerable difficulty. He 

 imagined that General Outram would canton his troops below this 

 bundj as it was called, in order to keep up an uninterrupted river. 



