GENERAL HISTORY. 



[199 



lion of the Persians, headed by the 

 presumptive heir to the Georgian 

 principahty, in which many of the 

 Russian garrisons were cut off. 



A report from the Russian 

 commander-in-chief in Georgia, 

 dated in January, relates that a 

 detachraentof 1,500 Russian troops 

 took by assault, on December 31st, 

 the Persian fortress of Sincoran, 

 on the Caspian sea, garrisoned 

 by ^jSOO of their best troops, who 

 were all destroyed, with the com- 

 mandant and ten principal chiefs. 

 In the place were taken two 

 standards, eight pieces of cannon, 

 and considerable stores of ammu- 

 nition ; and the province of Ta- 

 lycheusk in consequence came into 

 the possession of Russia. 



We have no account of mili- 

 tary transactions on these fron- 

 tiers during the present year, but 

 it appears from the terms of a 

 treaty of peace between the two 

 crowns, published at Petersburgh 

 in January 1814, that the Per- 

 sian arms must have remained 

 inferior. By that instrument, 

 Persia cedes to Russia a number 

 of governments on the Caspian 

 sea, and the whole of Daghestan. 

 It renounces all claims to Georgia, 

 Imeretta, Guria, and Mingrelia, 

 and cedes them in full sovereign- 

 ty to Russia, the flag of which 

 power alone is to be allowed in 

 armed vessels on the Caspian sea. 

 Certain favourable stipulations are 

 also made for the Russian com- 

 merce in Persia. 



Intelligence from Turkey at the 

 close of the last year, mentions 



that the Grand Seignior was daily 

 taking measures to repossess him- 

 self of his authority, consisting in 

 the usual acts of oriental despo- 

 tism, by cutting off those of whom 

 he was jealous, as in the instance 

 of the family of Morousi. In the 

 French papers accounts have been 

 given of sanguinary hostilities be- 

 tween the Turks and Servians, pro- 

 bably owing to the unwillingness 

 of the former to grant that indem- 

 nity to the latter which was sti- 

 pulated in the treaty with Russia. 

 The pestilence which afBicted 

 Constantinople continued its ra- 

 vages into the present year ; and 

 an estimate of the total loss of 

 lives in that capital has stated them 

 at the almost incredible number of 

 300,000. 



Advices from Cairo, in October 

 1812, gave information of the cap- 

 ture of Safra and Dehediede from 

 the Wahabees by the troops of the 

 pashaw of Egypt. An Arab chief 

 was also mentioned to have gained 

 over a number of his countrymen 

 from that party, with whom, and 

 some Egyptian cavalry, he had ob- 

 tained possession of a defile on the 

 road to Medina. Upon this suc- 

 cess, the pashaw had advanced 

 with his army near the place ; and 

 it was believed that the reduction 

 of the holy cities of Mecca and 

 Medina would certainly follow. 

 Later accounts from Egypt say, 

 that since the pashaw's troops had 

 taken Mocha and Gedda, he had 

 been making arrangements for 

 opening a direct trade from Suez 

 to India. 



CHAPTER 



