394. 
ERIVAN FRONTIER. 
As we crossed the plain of Erivan, we met great numbers of Gourds, 
who had fled from the Turkish territory to that of Persia, and were 
travelling to take possession of villages which had been assigned 
to them for their habitation by the Serdar of Erivan. On the day 
of my arrival at Erivan, I visited him, and he informed me of the 
circumstances that had led to the migration of the Gourds. When 
Baba Pasha, the present Serasker of Arze Roum, first took possession 
of his government, the city and territory of Bayazid was in pos¬ 
session of Ibrahim Pasha, a man who was obnoxious to both the 
Turkish and Persian governments; for on his account the frontier be¬ 
tween the two countries was always in an unsettled state. Baba Pasha 
came to a friendly understanding with the Serdar of Erivan, Ibrahim 
Pasha was deposed, and Abdullah, a man who had been recommended 
by the Serdar ds a fit person to be entrusted with the government of 
the frontier, was appointed. Ibrahim Pasha, in the mean while, was 
detained at Arze Roum, dependent upon the will of Baba Pasha; but as 
he was well allied in the country with rich friends, he managed, by in¬ 
trigue and bribe, to get himself once more appointed to his Pashalik. 
This of course was a step in every way disagreeable to the Persian 
government, and they made some very strong remonstrances to Baba 
Pasha, who, it is said, answered them with arrogance. The Pasha, in 
writing to the Persian government, said, “ Don’t you know that the 
“ power of the Osmanlis has been established for many centuries ?’’ 
And he was answered, in return, “ You may talk of the antiquity of 
“ the Osmanlis, but recollect that the kingdom of Persia dates from 
“ Kaiumers, who was the first King of the world.” 
As Hassan Aga, head of the tribe of Gourds which had come over 
to the Serdar, was an enemy to Ibrahim Pasha, and related by marriage 
to the Serdar, he immediately brought over all his tribe from the Baya¬ 
zid territory to that of Erivan. 
On the 7th I reached Etchmiatzin, in a torrent of rain, and came 
quite unawares upon the venerable chief of the Armenian church, who 
received me in the most friendly manner, and gave me his own apart¬ 
ment to live in. He informed me that he had not long finished the 
