exposed from Russian enmity, could not have been expected from a Persian Ambassador, unacquainted with, or unaccustomed to the sincerity of British official communications. We owe it to Akan Mahomed Nebee Khàn's education here, and to his consequent confidence in me; and it is, in my estimation, a proof that his conduct in India will afford your Excellency the highest pleasure and satisfaction.

At the request of Akan Mahomed Nebee Khàn, who will proceed to Bushire in the Viper, about the 15th inst., I enclose a letter to your Excellency's address, and respectfully express to you my ardent hopes that one of the Honourable Company's cruisers, calculated to afford him an eligible, convenient, and creditable conveyance from Bushire, may early import at that place, with the commands of Government on the subject.

The intervention of the Mahomedan Feast of Biram has yet prevented my having such intercourse with Akan Mahomed Nebee Khàn as would necessarily lead to more detailed communications on the subject of the political wishes of the Persian Monarch, and the exact political situation of Persia ; and I am consequently compelled to limit the bounds of my present official representation.

I must, however, respectfully inform your Excellency that, having received from Akan Mahomed Nebee Khàn, from whom I could not conceal the uneasiness which I have so long suffered, on account of my inability to perform the promises which I made to the Persian monarch on the plains of Sultania, to proceed from Bagdad to England, a most solemn assurance that he would take upon himself to reconcile his Majesty and Meerza Reza Kouli to the circumstance, I have finally determined to abide my resolution to await here the receipt of your Excellency's commands. I will respectfully explain the meaning of the assurance given me by Akan Mahomed Nebee Khàn, that he will take upon himself to reconcile the King of Persia and Meerza Reza Kouli to the circumstance of my declining to proceed to England.

Akan Mahomed Nebee Khàn comprehends that I made an official communication to the Right Honourable Lord Castlereagh, and to the Honourable the Chairman, from Bagdad, on the subject of the desire of his Persian Majesty to benefit by friendly British negociation at St. Petersburg, in the settlement of his differences with the Russian Emperor; and he is of opinion that such a negociation will consequently early take place, provided his Britannic Majesty and his Ministers deem it, in the first instance, to be an expedient one; and, as it is the particular wish of the Shah that your Excellency should interest yourself in effecting the accomplishment of his political views, that my immediate departure for England is not absolutely requisite, and that the delivery of the letters from his royal master and Mahomed Alee Meerza to our most gracious Sovereign and his Royal Highness the heir apparent, accompanied by a communication of your Excellency's sentiments, and under your Excellency's immediate direction, would be now a more advisable arrangement; and this opinion Akan Mahomed Nebee Khàn means to state in detail to Meerza Reza Kouli, for the information of the King.

SAMUEL MANESTY.

Translate of an Arzee from Samuel Manesty, Esq., to his Majesty the King of Persia, despatched from Bussora, the 11th of November, 1804.

After respectful Address

At a time when all my mental powers were concentrated, in the hopes of receiving intelligence concerning the movements of the Imperial Army, I was honoured by the receipt of your Majesty's royal firmaun, which was delivered to me by Mahomed Eusuf Khan and Khàn Morad Khàn, and filled me with inexpressible delight and satisfaction, by the particular account which it contained of the success of your victorious forces.

I return humble praises to the Almighty, by whose favour,

and the irresistible force of your Majesty's arms, the designs of your enemies have been frustrated, and their arrogant hopes destroyed.

The commands with which your Majesty has graciously been pleased to honour me have filled me with zealous devotion to your service. And I shall always consider it my duty to use my utmost exertions in the accomplishment of your royal wishes, &c.

SAMUEL MANESTY.

Translation of a Firmaun from his Majesty the King of Persia to Samuel Manesty, Esq.

Received at Bussora, November 30, 1804. Know that, after the march of the Imperial Army from the plains of Sultania towards Aderbijan, it was represented to those who stand in our royal presence that the Russian General, with about 40,000 men, 400 cannon, and other military equipments, had erected his standard in the country near Erivan, and was then stretching forth the hand of invasion and usurpation.

Upon the receipt of this news, the Imperial ensigns passed rapidly forward, like eagles adorned with victory, and immediately upon their arrival at their destination, our orders were issued for the extirpation of that deluded race; repeated engagements consequently took place, in all of which great numbers of the invaders fell beneath the conquering swords of our heroic troops, till they were compelled by despair to entrench themselves strongly in a large garden. For fortyfive days they there suffered a close blockade; but, at length, on Saturday, the 9th of Jemaudee ool Akir, our faithful servants advancing towards their fortifications, the enemy, vainly confident in the strength of their artillery, and presumptuously imagining that they could bend the bow of opposition against our victorious arms, rashly forsook their retreat, and commenced an engagement in the open plain; but the heroes of our

royal army, in obedience to the Imperial commands, quickly surrounding them, poured death and destruction from all quarters upon their devoted heads, rapidly charging them like a stroke of sudden fate or unexpected mortality, shivering the carriages of their guns to pieces by repeated blows from their ponderous maces, and rioting uncontrolled in carnage and devastation, till the blushing sand of the desert, by its sanguine hue, bore witness to the labours of the piercing steel, and the overflowing valleys indignantly discharged the impure burthen of the slain upon the groaning backs of the adjacent hills. 12,000 of their number in this engagement appeased the thirsty longings of the two-edged sword; and thirty-four guns, with all apparatus complete, enhanced the glory of the victory.

The contumacious invaders, now perceiving the star of their fortune to be shorn of its beams, and the victorious army anxiously following up the advantage it had obtained, quickly abased the proud standard of opposition, and sought security by a precipitate flight to their intrenchments. The very same evening, however, they collected lighter parts of their baggage, commenced their retreat towards Georgia, and left behind them all that was cumbrous, journeying with weary steps the valley of disgrace. Our august Majesty immediately despatched a large body of the conquerors to harass their flight, and complete their destruction. These, having followed them to the very gates of Tiflis, made great havoc, and took many prisoners.

As the Emperor of Russia has thus commenced hostilities against these realms, and his General has dared to lay waste and destroy a province immediately belonging to our dominions, doing infinite injury to its defenceless inhabitants, it is our royal intention, in retaliation for this provocation, upon the breaking up of the winter and the commencement of spring, to march in person with an innumerable army, in order to ravage and destroy the country of Kizler; and as you

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are at this time prosecuting your journey towards England, you must, on arrival in the presence of your august Sovereign, give him due information of our intentions as herein expressed; that he, in consideration of the friendly and amicable relations which so happily subsist between the two empires, may also be pleased to fit out an armament for attacking the Empire of Russia on the other side, so that the two armies may, by their united and strenuous efforts in desolating that country, obtain vengeance for this unprovoked aggression.

Always consider yourself to be peculiarly distinguished by our Imperial regard and protection.

Yusoof Khan and Khàn Morad Khàn Nanaculli are despatched with this firmaun.

The royal favour being ever extended towards you, let due attention be paid to its contents.

[Enclosure in Mr. Jones's, of January 15, 1805.]

Mr. H. Jones to the Honourable William Elphinstone, Chairman of the Court of Directors of the East India Company. Bagdad, January 15, 1805. Honourable Sir-With the duplicates of my last addresses, I have the honour to enclose a packet to the address of the Honourable the Court of Directors, received from Bussora.

Since the date of the above-mentioned despatches, that is to say, on the 10th instant, a Tatar arrived here from Constantinople, and, in a public note from the agent, dated the 10th of December, brought me the important intelligence of England having declared war against Spain; of our having, in consequence thereof, captured two Spanish galleons, richly laden; and of the French having attempted to seize the person of his Majesty's Resident at Hamburg. A copy of the agent's note was carefully transmitted to Bussora, on the 11th instant, and the Resident there advised of its contents.