'Travels from India to England : comprehending a visit to the Burman Empire, and a journey through Persia, Asia Minor, European Turkey, &c., in the years 1825-26, by James Edward Alexander' [‎271] (366/412)

APPENDIX. ^71
listen to the representations of those of Persia; they declared what they con
sidered as the true boundary line, and positively refused to admit of any devia
tion from it. The Persian Commissioners, therefore, proceeded no farther
than Karabaugh, when they were recalled by the Prince Royal, who had the
charge of administering the affairs on the frontier.
The Russian Government, meanwhile, established posts upon a strip of
country which extends along the north and north-east shores of Lake Gokcha,
and upon a district situated on the borders of Karabaugh, between the Capan
and Mogree rivers. The former territory was uninhabited; but it belonged
indisputably to Persia. Her title to the other district was less clear and unem
barrassed. It is doubtful whether it was in the occupation of either power
antecedent to or during the war: the proprietors of the soil, indeed, considered
themselves under the protection of Persia; they were the peasants of Abul
Futteh Khan, a Persian subject, and probably reoccupied this district as soon
as tranquillity was retored.
It is impossible to disover the grounds upon which the Russians could lay
claim to the Gokcha territory. When, at a subsequent period, the Prince
Royal of Persia remonstrated with General Yermoloff on account of h,s sending
the tribes of Shumsheedeenloo and Kusakh, protected by a detachment of
Cossacks, into this district during the summer months, to seek pasture for their
flocks, which were withdrawn in winter, (characterizing it as a violation o t e
Persian territory,) the General acknowledged that it was an infringement of the
treaty, butexcnsed the proceeding, on accountof the district being uninhabited
alleging that it was equally to the advantage of both empires. What is still
more to the point, the Russian declaration of war states that the Emperor id
not dispute the right of Persia to the Gokcha territory, -drequiredonly ta
the district of Capan should be given up by Persia, which the do umen
alleges was expressly assigned to Russia by the treaty, ^e acknow edgment
of General Yermoloff was singularly at variance with the statemen o
Wilheminoff, the Lieutenant-Governor of Georgia, who at a atei perio
declared, in a letter to the Shah, that Russia had been in PO—ftH«