398 A HISTORY OF PERSIA. It was in consequence* of his having had to make a concession to one foreign mission, that the Ameer-i- Nizam now thought proper to make another concession, which up to this time he had refused to grant, to the request of another mission. An engagement was entered into, by which the right of searching for slaves in native vessels in the Persian Gulf was granted to British vessels of war, and the permission was accorded of remov- ing any slaves who might be so found, to the British ships. This blow to the slave-traffic was one of the last notable measures of the Ameer's administration. The enemies of the Ameer had never abandoned their efforts to shake the Shah's confidence in his Minister, and I it is matter of surprise that a boy should have for so long a time been able to resist the oft-repeated solicitations of his mother and others for the dismissal of a plebeian Vizeer. Warnings against the clever and ambitious Minister were constantly poured into the royal ear ; the Ameer's virtues and successes were represented as crimes, / and it was insinuated that it was the Minister's intention to grasp the sceptre. The Ameer-i-Nizam had greatly j improved the condition of the Persian army, and the Shah was told that the soldiers were so devoted to their commander, that they would readily second him in
carrying out the ambitious designs imputed to him.
The king's fears were at length aroused, and as there were no means of checking the Ameer's power save by dismissing him from office, his dismissal was determined on. So persuaded had the Shah become of the evil intentions of the Minister, that he did not venture to
- Glimpses of Life and Manners in Persia, by Lady SHEIL.
