The Sun.
London, England, 1857-05-14 00:00:00

.PERSIA.

At a meeting of the Royal Geographical Society,
held on Monday evening at their rooms in White-
hall-place, Sir Roderick Murchison presiding,
Lieutenant-Colonel Sir Henry C. Rawlinson,
K.C. 8., F. R. G. S., delivered to a large assembly
of the members a lecture on Mohammerah and
Shat el Arab, with reference to. the late operations
on the mouth of the Euphrates.
After some preliminary business, in the course
of which the CHAIRMAN proposed that Captain
Allen Young, who had iis'inguished himself in the
merchant service, and afterwards commanded the
transport steam-ship Adelaide in the Black Sea,
and who had since volunteered to join the expedi-
tion and serve under Captain M'Clintock to search
after the relics of the Franklin expedition, should
be elected a member of the society;
Sir. H. RAWLINSON addressed the meeting 1)y
observing that he held in his hand a report on
Mohammerah and Shat el Arab which he had pre-
pared for the information of the Government about
15 years ago, when the dominion of those places
was contested between the Persians and the Turks,
and when those two Myers had requested the ar-
bitration of the English and Russian Governments
for a settlement of the matters in dispute. But, as
the document to which he alluded treated almost
exclusively of dry geographical details, he thought
the meeting would prefer hearing a statement of
the history and actual position of Mohammerah to
having inflicted on them a dry list of geographical
names. He proposed, therefore, to divide his ad-
dress into three parts. He would first trace upon
the map and explain the geography of Mohamme-
rah ; secondly, he would give a sketch of its ancient
history ; and he would then offer a few observations
in reference to the military operations that were
now going on there, and especially in regard to the
Persian war, as at present conducted by Sir James
0 utram. Mohammerah was the scene of the latest,
and he trusted the last, military exploit of the Brit-
ish forces against Persia. Although it was a place
of considerable interest, he believed that at the pre-
sent hour it was but little known. Its position was
set forth in a very few maps, and there were not
many persons, even among the best informed,
who were acquainted with the actual position
of the place which had been recently cap-
tured by the British troops. The first expe-
dition landed at Bus'iire, and the second expe-
dition moved on to Mohammerah, across the
mouth of the Persian Gulf to the Euphrates. The
only navigable mouth of the Euphrates was at Mo-
hammerah. It was not practicable in the ordinary
acceptation of the term ; it was not like the Thames;
it never had more than three fathoms of water, and
was generally only from 12 to 14 feet. But very
few vessels could cross the bar of the Euphrates
without grounding. The expedition having left
Bushire on the 19th of March was not able to at-
tack Mohammerah till the 26th—being upwards of
a week. The question was constantly asked
"Where is Mohammerah ; is it in Persia or is it in
Turkey ?" The whole country from Ararat to the
Persian Gulf had been scientifically surveyed by
English and Russian Commissioners for a distance
of 1,000 miles, and the physical or geographical
question at issue between Persia and Turkey was
whether Mohammerah was on the Euphrates or on
the Karoon. It was agreed that the country
watered by the Karoon belonged to Persia ; but
the question was, as he had just stated, whether
!Mohammerah was on the one river or on the other.
It was fully decided that Mohammerah should
be considered as belonging to Persia, but there
was reason to believe that that was contrary
to geographical accuracy. He himself was of
opinion that the place was situated on the
Euphrates, and, if so, it belonged to Turkey.
Sir H. Rawlinson then read some notes on the
history of Mohammerah. It had, as he had
already stated, been ruled that Mohammerah was
Persian, and the Persians had occupied the place
for a certain period, but the Turkish Government
was never satisfied with that adjudication, and
within the last six weeks, when it was known that
an expedition had gone forth with the intention of
attacking Mohammerah, the Turkish Government
entered a protest against it. They did not con-
sider that they had lost their territorial claim to
that place. Sir Henry then referred to the history
of Mohammerah from the earliest times. It was
not generally known that Mohammerah was for-
merly a city of a very famous Greek kingdom, and
although it might not have been the capital, it
formed part of the kingdom of Karaknia and
Messinm. It was a city of great importance, and
there were extant coins which issued from its mint.
L The ground upon which the city stood was formed
from alluvial deposits. The present fort was a
quadrangle enclosure of about 350 yards by 300
yards, and was entirely destitute of artillery. The
town had no natural advantages over Bussorab,
but had thriven solely from the uncertainty of its
dependence, whether on Persia or on Turkey, and
its consequent freedom from a tariff. The object
of General Sir James Outran' in removing from
Bushire to Mohammerah was to obtain, a position
for carrying on the war. It was absolutely neces-
sary that he should secure a strategical basis from
which be might advance into the country. Had he
remained at Bushire it would have been a mere idle

demonstration. He had no reason to suppose that a
treaty of peace would be concluded at Paris; his object
therefore was to carry on the war with activity and
vigour, and the basisforhis operations could only be
obta'ned at Mohammerah. No doubt he believed
that by gaining a position upon the Karoon he
would have made an impression upon the Persians
which would have brought them to reason, and had
the war continued he would have gone further into
the country. This was, however, now a matter of
speculation which he would not investigate. His
own opinion was that the undertaking would have
been one of difficulty, but in Oriental countries the