Afghanistan

Copyright 1906 by William Heinemann




All rights reserved

Since 1871, when Sir Charles MacGregor drew up a very exhaustive précis of information on Afghanistan for the use of the Government of India, no book dealing with our buffer state in a general manner has been issued. The thirty-five years which have intervened have not been without important contributions to our knowledge of Afghanistan, but those works which have appeared cannot altogether be described as presenting a single comprehensive study of contemporary conditions in the country. In 1886 Lieutenant A. C. Yate, and in 1888 Major C. E. Yate, C.S.I., C.M.G., described in two very interesting volumes the proceedings of the Afghan Boundary Commission. Ten years elapsed before anything of importance appeared, when, by a rare coincidence, two books dealing with Afghanistan saw the light in 1895: Mr. Stephen Wheeler’s admirable account of The Amir Abdur Rahman, and that most entertaining and graphic volume, My Residence at the Court of the Amir, by the late Amir’s private physician, Dr. A. J. Gray. In 1900 Sultan Mahomed Khan, Mir Munshi to Abdur Rahman, presented to the public his remarkable production, The Life of Abdur Rahman, as well as a treatise on The Constitution and Laws of Afghanistan. In the following year, 1901, Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich embodied in The Indian Borderland many graceful descriptions of scenery and various centres in Afghanistan while, in 1905, in a series of articles in the Wide World Magazine, Mrs. Kate Daly, physician to Habib Ullah’s harem and the Government of Afghanistan, illustrated with many delightful touches a sojourn of Eight Years Among the Afghans. These few works practically exhaust contemporary literature on Afghanistan, and it is in an endeavour to provide a more complete record of the subject than has hitherto existed that the author of Korea has compiled this little book. Mistakes are those of his own making; reflections and criticisms arise from his own opinions; but, in hoping that his critics may find something of value in the results of two years’ toil, the author wishes to say that if good qualities exist in it, they are attributable to the encouragement and gracious assistance which he has received and here wishes to acknowledge.

With a view to the careful preparation of this volume the author, after returning to London from the war in Manchuria, visited Central Asia, his travels terminating abruptly in an attack of small-pox contracted from the natives, while he was wandering in the region of the Pamirs. Descending viâ Gilgit to India from the Taghdumbash, twelve months have been spent in the labour of writing, in the examination of a number of works, and in reference to those authorities who are so justly distinguished for their knowledge of the heart of Mid-Asia. In this direction it is perhaps of interest to point out that in order to establish a standard of accuracy, certain chapters have been submitted in page proof to the criticism of this little group of Central Asian experts, and their corrections embodied in its final form. The author very warmly appreciates the help which has in this way been given him, and to Colonel de la Poer Beresford and Captain Charles Bancroft in connection with chaps. i., ii., iii.; to Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich, K.C.I.E., K.C.M.G., C.B., in chap. iv.; to Colonel C. E. Yate, C.S.I., C.M.G., in chaps. v. and vi.; to Colonel Sir Henry McMahon, K.C.I.E., C.S.I., in chap. ix.; to Dr. A. J. Gray, Mrs. Kate Daly, and Major Cleveland, I.M.S., in chaps. xiv. and xv. he is very much indebted, as the indulgent manner in which his inquiries have been received has materially assisted the conclusion of his task.

In other quarters similar help has been given, and the author desires to express his deep obligation to the Secretary of State for India, Mr. Morley, to Mr. John E. Ellis, Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for India, to Sir William Lee-Warner, and to Mr. Thomas, of the Political Department, India Office, for the considerate way in which services have been rendered him. The very pleasant hospitality bestowed upon the author by Mr. George Macartney, C.S.I., the representative of the Government of India in Kashgar, Chinese Turkestan; by Mr. L. G. Fraser, the editor of The Times of India; by Mr. C. F. Meyer, Standard Oil Company’s Agent in Bombay; by Major Cleveland, in Poona; and by Mr. Ivor Heron-Maxwell, late of Baku in that centre, has provided him with many haunting memories which, in a later volume, will be more suitably described. To Dr. Chalmers Mitchell, Secretary of the Zoological Society of London, and to Mr. J. Bryant Sowerby, Secretary of the Royal Botanic Society, the author is indebted for assistance in compiling the tables of species which illustrate chap. xii.; while to the Librarian of the India Office, and to the Librarian of the Royal Geographical Society, he would express his grateful thanks.

As correspondent to The Pall Mall Gazette, and to The Times of India from Central Asia, it is the pleasant duty of the author to acknowledge the permission of Sir Douglas Straight and Mr. L. G. Fraser to make use of certain articles which, although entirely altered and greatly amplified since their original appearance, were first presented in the respective columns of these organs. These extracts, a few brief paragraphs on various pages, are confined solely to the first six chapters of the book. Acknowledgments are also due to the proprietors of that esteemed Indian journal The Pioneer, whose London staff permitted the files of their well-known paper to be inspected; to the proprietors of The Daily Graphic for permission to reproduce the block of the Amir’s proclamation, and accompanying translation, appearing on pages 370, 371; to Messrs. Macmillan for the right to reproduce their copper engraving of Dr. A. J. Gray’s painting of the Amir Abdur Rahman; to Baron Herbert de Reuter, Managing Director of Reuter’s Telegram Company, for courteous assistance; to Mr. J. D. Holmes, an Indian photographer of renown, whose unique photographs of the Khyber Pass illustrate chaps. xvi. and xvii.; to Lieutenant Stewart, whose photographs appear in chap. ix.; to Lieutenant Olufsen for the right to reproduce certain interesting photographs from that informative work Through the Unknown Pamirs; to Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich for authority to base upon his original sketches enlarged drawings of Herat and Kandahar, by Mr. Percy Home; to Major Cleveland, I.M.S., to whose great credit very many of the illustrations in this volume must be placed; to Major Molesworth Sykes, H.B.M. Consul at Meshed, for photographs appearing in chap. vii.; to Professor Victor Marsden, of Moscow University, for general courtesies; to Captain Charles Bancroft for assistance in translating extracts from papers placed at the author’s disposal by his Excellency Prince Khilkoff, Russian Minister of Railways; to that well-known military novelist, Mr. Horace Wyndham, who has been good enough to assist the author in the revision of his proofs; and to Mr. Thomas Bumpus, of Messrs. J. and E. Bumpus, Limited.

The final, but by no means the least gratifying, duty now remains to be fulfilled. It is concerned with the dedication of this volume which, by special permission, is inscribed:

TO HIM
WHO,
BY THE SPLENDOUR OF HIS GIFTS
AND
THE WISDOM OF HIS RULE,
HAS LEFT
AN INDELIBLE AND MEMORABLE
IMPRESSION
UPON INDIA:
LORD CURZON OF KEDLESTON,

G.C.S.I., G.C.I.E., P.C.
ETC. ETC. ETC.

The works consulted in the preparation of this volume, including references to the Encyclopædia Britannica, embrace most of the well-known writers on Asiatic Russia, Persia, Afghanistan, and the Indian Frontier. Among those of less recent date are the books of Bellew, Connelly, Elphinstone, Ferrier, Lansdell, MacGregor, Marvin, Pottinger, Rawlinson, Vambéry, Wood and Yule.

Contemporary authorities, to which the author is more especially indebted, are as follows:

Bruce, R. I.	The Forward Policy and its Results.
Chirol, Valentine	The Middle Eastern Question.
Curzon, Lord	Russia in Central Asia.
”     ”	Persia and the Persian Question.
”     ”	The Pamirs and the Source of the Oxus.
Daly, Mrs. Kate	Eight Years among the Afghans.
Gray, Dr. A. J.	My Residence at the Court of the Amir.
Holdich, Colonel Sir T. H.	The Indian Borderland.
Keane, A. H.	Asia.
Lansdell, H.	Russia in Central Asia.
Olufsen, O.	Through the Unknown Pamirs.
Roberts, Field Marshal Lord	Forty-one Years in India.
Ronaldshay, Earl of	Sport and Politics under an Eastern Sky.
”     ”   ”	On the Outskirts of Empire in Asia.
Shoemaker, M. M.	The Heart of the Orient.
Skrine, F. H., and Ross, E. D.	The Heart of Asia.
Sultan Mahomed Khan	Laws and Constitution of Afghanistan.
”     ”     ”	The Life of Abdur Rahman, Amir of Afghanistan.
Thorburn, S. S.	The Punjab in Peace and War.
Yate, A. C.	England and Russia Face to Face.
Yate, C. E.	Kurasan and Seistan.
”   ”	Northern Afghanistan.

Together with scientific papers, lectures and articles by:

• Colonel de la Poer Beresford.
• Major Cleveland.
• Major-General Sir Edwin Collen.
• Mrs. Kate Daly.
• Major-General Sir Edmond Elles.
• Sir Lepel Griffin.
• Miss Lillias Hamilton.
• Colonel Sir Thomas Holdich.
• Colonel Sir Henry MacMahon.

And including all Parliamentary, Consular, and other official publications, the files of The Times, Morning Post, Standard, Daily Chronicle in England; and The Pioneer, Times of India, and Indian Daily News in India; besides the more prominent Continental organs.

Royal Societies Club, St. James’s
June 1, 1906.

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CHAP.	PAGE
I.	The Orenburg-Tashkent Railway	1
II.	The Khanate of Bokhara, the Province of Samarkand, the Districts of Tashkent and Merv	25
III.	From Tashkent to Merv	58
IV.	The Northern Border and the Oxus River: its Character, Tributaries and Fords	81
V.	The Murghab Valley Railway	110
VI.	The Murghab Valley	131
VII.	Herat and the Western Border	147
VIII.	Kandahar	178
IX.	Seistan and the McMahon Mission	211
X.	Provinces and District Centres, Ethnographical and Orological Distribution	242
XI.	Administration, Laws and Revenue	269
XII.	Trade: Industries and Products	288
XIII.	Army, Forts and Communications	308
XIV.	Kabul: its Palaces and Court Life	342
XV.	Kabul and its Bazaars	376
XVI.	Anglo-Afghan Relations	400
XVII.	Anglo-Afghan Relations (continued)	427
APPENDICES
I.	Names of Stations on the Orenburg-Tashkent Railway	461
II.	(A) List of Stations from Tashkent to Merv, with Distances from Krasnovodsk and Tashkent	463
II.	(B) Murghab Valley Railway: List of Stations from Merv to Kushkinski Post, with Distances from Krasnovodsk and Merv	464
III.	Table of Measurements	465
IV.	The Treaty of Gandamak, etc. etc.	466
V.	Time Tables of the Oxus Flotilla	519
VI.	Return of Articles Exported from Russia to Khorassan during the Period March 21, 1903, to March 20, 1904, compared with 1900-03	522
VII.	Return of Articles Exported from Khorassan to Russia during the Period March 21, 1903, to March 20, 1904, compared with 1900-03	526
VIII.	Return of Articles Exported from Afghanistan to Khorassan and Seistan during the Period March 21, 1903, to March 20, 1904, compared with 1900-03	529
IX.	Return of Articles Exported from Khorassan and Seistan to Afghanistan during the Period March 21, 1903, to March 20, 1904, compared with 1900-03	531
X.	Return of Articles Exported from India to Khorassan viâ the Seistan Route during the Period March 21, 1903, to March 20, 1904	534
XI.	Return of Articles Exported from Khorassan to India viâ the Seistan Route during the Period March 21, 1903, to March 20, 1904	535
XII.	Trade Value of the Seistan Route compared with Competing Routes	536
XIII.	Agreement between the United Kingdom and Japan	537
XIV.	Chronological Sketch of Afghan History	540
	Index	547

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ILLUSTRATIONS

The Khanate of Bokhara, across which lies the direct line of any advance upon Afghanistan, is the most important of the Russian protected states in Central Asia. It is situated in the basin of the Amu Daria between the provinces of Trans-Caspia on the west, of Samarkand and Ferghana on the north and east; while, in the south, the course of the Oxus separates, along 500 versts of the frontier, the dominions of Bokhara from those of Afghanistan.

The area occupied by Bokhara, including the sub-territories Darwaz, Roshan and Shignan situated upon the western slopes of the Pamirs, amounts to 80,000 square miles, over which in the western part certain salt marshes and desolate stretches of sandy desert extend. The eastern area is confined by the rugged chains of the Alai and Trans-Alai systems, the Hissar mountains, the immediate prolongation of the Alai range and crowned with perpetual snow, attaining considerable altitude. This group divides the basins of the Zerafshan and Kashka Daria from the basin of the Amu Daria. The rivers of Bokhara belong to the Amu Daria system, the Oxus flowing for 490 versts through the Khanate itself. Constant demands for purposes of irrigation are made upon its waters as well as upon the waters of its many tributaries, a fact which rapidly exhausts the lesser streams. In the western portion of the Khanate the Zerafshan river is the great artery; and although it possesses a direct stream only 214 versts in length it supplies a system of canals, the aggregate length of which amounts to more than 1000 versts. These again are divided to supply a further thousand channels, from which the water actually used for irrigating the various settlements and fields is finally drawn. The second most important river in the western part of the Khanate is the Kashka Daria, which waters the vast oases of Shakhri, Syabz and Karshine. In the eastern areas numerous streams are fed by the snows and glaciers of the Alai mountain system.

The western region of Bokhara possesses an extremely dry climate which, while hot in summer, tends to emphasise the severe cold of the winter months. Occasionally at that time the Amu Daria freezes, when the ice remains about the river for two or three weeks. The break-up of winter is manifested by heavy rains which, falling in February, continue until the middle of March when, after a short month of spring, a hot sun burns up the vegetation. At this period the nomadic tribes abandon the plains for the mountains, large areas of the Khanate now presenting the appearance of a sparsely populated desert in which the sole vegetation is found along the banks of the rivers or in oases watered by the canals. With the advent of autumn, the steppe once more reflects the movements of these people.

In its eastern part the altitude varies between 2500 and 8500 feet above sea-level. The climate, warm and mild in summer, is of undue severity in winter, the period of extreme cold lasting some four months. Snow, commencing to fall in October, remains upon the ground until April, the frosts always being severe. At such a season the winds, blowing from the north-east, possess an unusual keenness in contradistinction to the strong south-south-westerly winds which, prevailing in summer, are the precursor to burning sand-storms.

The total population of the Khanate amounts approximately to 2,500,000; the well-watered, flourishing oases bear in some places as many as 4000 people to the square mile. The steppe and mountainous regions are sparsely populated. The most important inhabited centres of the Khanate are as follows:

Distribution of Population.

Town.	Population.
Bokhara	100,000
Karshi	60,000
Shaar	10,000
Guzar	25,000
Kara Kul	5,000
Ziadin	8,000
Hissar	15,000
Shir Abad	20,000
Karki	10,000
Charjui	15,000
Kermine	12,000
Kelif	7,000

According to ethnographic distribution the population falls into two divisions. To the first belong those of Turki extraction and to the second the Iranian group. Amongst those of Turki descent the Uzbegs take the most prominent place, constituting not only a racial preponderance but the ruling power in the Khanate. Among the remaining constituents of the Turki division are the Turcomans (chiefly Ersaris) and the Kirghiz. To the Iranian category belong the Tajiks—the original inhabitants of the country, even now constituting the principal section of the population throughout its eastern and southern portions; the Sarts, a conglomeration of Turki and Iranian nationalities, comprise a considerable proportion of the urban and rural population. In smaller numbers are the various colonies of Jews, Afghans, Persians, Arabs, Armenians, Hindus and others. With the exception of the Jews and the Hindus the entire population is Mahommedan.

It will be seen that the population is represented by sedentary, semi-nomadic and nomadic classes. The first, constituting about 65 per cent. of the whole population, is distributed principally in the plains, a considerable proportion comprising Tajiks, Sarts, Jews, Persians, Afghans and Hindus. The semi-nomadic population forms about 15 per cent., consisting partly of Uzbegs, Turcomans and Tajiks dwelling in the hills. The nomads, who make up 20 per cent. of the population, live in the steppes of the western portion of the Khanate, in Darwaz and along the slopes of the Hissar mountains. They comprise Uzbegs, Turcomans and Kirghiz.

The soil, in general adapted to agriculture, yields with irrigation excellent harvests. The amount of cultivated land in the Khanate is little in excess of 8000 square miles; but, in order to make full use of the waters of the Amu Daria, Surkan, Kafirnigan and Waksh rivers, a large expenditure would be required, the present system of irrigation being very inadequate. Apart from cotton which is exported in the raw state to the value of several million poods annually and the silk industry which, owing to disease among the worms, has deteriorated, the chief agricultural interest lies in the production of fruit, the produce of the orchards forming a staple food during the summer months. As a consequence, many different varieties of grapes, peaches, apricots, melons, water-melons, plums, apples, and pears are cultivated in the several gardens and orchards. Cattle-farming is conducted extensively in the valleys of the Hissar and Alai ranges and in Darwaz; in Kara Kul, situated in the vast Urta Chul steppe between the towns of Bokhara and Karsi, is the home of the famous caracal sheep. Other industries are the manufacture of leathern goods: shoes, saddles, saddle-cloths, metal and pottery ware; while a staple product, employed in the manufacture of felts, carpets and the clothes of the people, is cotton wool.

The yearly budget of the Khanate amounts to 8,000,000 roubles, 1,005,000 roubles of which are spent upon the army. The standing army, comprising Guards, battalions of the line, cavalry regiments, a brigade of mounted rifles and a small corps of artillerists, possesses a strength of 15,000 men with twenty guns. In addition there is a militia liable for duty in case of necessity but, equally with its more imposing sister service, of little practical utility.

The city of Bokhara is surrounded by massive walls which were built in the ninth century, 28 feet in height, 14 feet in thickness at the base, with 131 towers and pierced at irregular intervals by eleven gates. These ramparts contain, within a circuit of 7½ miles, an area of 1760 acres. The population numbers some hundred thousand and the variety of types included in this estimate is immense. The Tajiks, who predominate, are well favoured in their appearance; they have clear, olive complexions with black eyes and hair. Polite, hard-working and intelligent, they possess considerable aptitude for business. Against these excellent traits, however, must be noted the fact that they are inclined to cowardice and dishonesty. On this account they are regarded with contempt by the Uzbegs, a race whose physical characteristics cause them to resemble the rude warriors of the Osmanlis who supplanted the Cross by the Crescent in the fifteenth century. Independent in their bearing, the Uzbegs possess high courage together with something of the inborn dignity of the Turk; but they are distinguished from that nation by a greater grossness of manner and less individuality. Equally with the Kirghiz and the Turcomans, the Uzbegs are divided in their classes between sedentary people and nomads. Then, also, in this dædalus there is the Jewish community, which is traditionally believed to have migrated hither from Baghdad. The Jews in Bokhara are forbidden to ride in the streets; while they must wear a distinctive costume, the main features of which include a small black cap, a dressing-gown of camel’s hair and a rope girdle. They are relegated to a filthy ghetto; and, although they may not be killed with impunity by a good believer, they are subjected to such grinding persecution that their numbers have been reduced in the course of half a century to something less than 75 per cent. of the 10,000 who originally composed the colony. The Jew in Bokhara shares with the Hindu settler there the profits of money-lending and the two classes are keen hands at a bargain. In addition to the Hindus there are a few Mahommedan merchants from Peshawar who are concerned in the tea trade. Other races among the moving mass comprise Afghans, Persians and Arabs, the variety of features shown by a Bokharan crowd suggesting so many different quarters as their place of origin that one would need to recite the map of High Asia to describe them.

The town of Bokhara is supplied with water from the Shari Rud canal, which, in turn, is fed by the Zerafshan river. A considerable amount is stored locally in special reservoirs, of which there are eighty-five. As their contents are seldom changed the supply soon assumes a thick, greenish consistency, the use of which is extremely detrimental to the health of the inhabitants. The deficiency of fresh water for drinking purposes, the oppressiveness of the summer heat and the propinquity of numerous cemeteries, together with the dust and dirt of the crowded streets, make life in Bokhara almost intolerable. The city, too, is a hot-bed of disease, malaria being specially prominent at certain seasons. The filaria medinesis, a worm of burrowing propensity, is endemic.

In Bokhara, as in most Eastern cities, the feminine element is entirely excluded from the street. The emancipation of women has not begun in the Middle East; should any have to venture forth they are muffled up so carefully that not even a suggestion of their personal appearance can be gathered. Yet there is a certain charm and mystery in the flitting of the veiled Beauty and one would fain linger to speculate further, if such dallying with fortune were not eminently injudicious. If there is no revelation of the female form divine in the bazaar there is, at least, a wonderful wealth of gorgeous colouring. In time of festival the scene, welling up to break away in endless ripples, suggests the myriad beauties of a rainbow splintered into a million fragments.

There is relief, too, from the burning sunshine in the cool, lofty passages: shady, thronged and tortuous they extend in endless succession for mile after mile. The roof of the bazaar is a rude contrivance of undressed beams upon which there is a covering of beaten clay. Behind each stall is an alcove in the wall serving as home and office to the keen-visaged merchant who presides. In this little recess, piled upon innumerable shelves, rammed into little niches or strewn upon the floor, are the different articles which his trade requires. Carpets and rugs of harmonious hues, a wealth of parti-coloured shawls, innumerable lengths of dress pieces, cutlery, trinkets, snuff-boxes, gorgeous velvets and brilliant silks, the shimmer of satin and the coarse tracing of gold-wire embroidery, are here all displayed in prodigal confusion. As to the sources of supply, a good deal of the merchandise is the produce of Russian markets. For the rest, a certain proportion comes from Germany and a small amount is imported from France. England, it may be noted, is not represented at all.

The money-changers have a quarter to themselves, as have also the metal-workers and the vendors of silks and velvets. At every corner and odd twist of the passages there are the sweet-sellers, the tea merchants and the booths for food. China is the principal source of the tea supply, but of late a certain amount has found its way into Bokhara from the gardens of India and Ceylon. It is before the steaming samovars that the crowd of prospective purchasers is apt to be thickest. Beyond the bazaar boundaries are the wonderful relics of a bygone grandeur—imposing buildings and mosques, touched with the glory of the sunlight and capacious enough to contain within their courtyards 10,000 people at one time.

Although the chief interest of Bokhara centres in the portion just described, its public buildings well repay leisurely examination. The Registan, the market-place of the north-west quarter, acts as a central zone. On one side standing upon a vast artificial mound is the citadel or Ark, its mighty walls forming a square of 450 yards, its parapet crenellated and its corners set with towers. The building dates from the era of the Samanides. In addition to the Amir’s palace the walls of the Ark enclose the houses of the chief ministers, the treasury, the State prison and various offices. The entrance to the citadel, which is defended by two imposing towers, is closed by massive gates above which there is a clock. None save the highest officials are permitted to enter the Ark; visitors, irrespective of rank, are compelled to dismount at its doors and to proceed on foot to the Amir’s quarters. Opposite the Ark stands the largest mosque in Bokhara, the Medjidi Kalan or Kok Gumbaz—the Mosque of the Green Cupola—which the Amir attends every Friday when he is in residence.

A smaller market-place, where transactions in cotton are carried out, is surrounded by several imposing edifices that rise with infinite grace to the sky, besides countless minarets of prayer acting as landmarks to the faithful. Here is the Great Mosque, the Masjid-i-Jama, while facing it is the Medresse Mir-i-Arab. This latter building ranks first among the many stately colleges of Bokhara. Near at hand is the Minar Kalan, 36 feet at the base and tapering to a height of over 200 feet. From a small platform just below the lofty pinnacle, miscreants were hurled to destruction in bygone days. With the exception of these buildings the city contains little of antiquity.

For its size the native quarter is a centre of the greatest importance; and its streets, although mean and sinuous, are filled by a crowd most typical of Asia. Ten thousand students receive instruction in its schools. It contains:

Streets	360
Caravansaries	50
Covered bazaars	50
Mosques	364
Native schools	138
Russian school	1
Russian hospital and dispensary	1

The houses, which are set in small compounds approached by narrow alleys, are composed of clay with low roofs and without windows. A hole in the roof suffices for a chimney, and the open door affords light.

Samarkand, the administrative centre of the province of the same name and founded in 1871, is a close reproduction of a large Indian cantonment. The streets are wide, well paved, fringed with tall poplars and set with shops which are kept by Europeans. For the Russians, as the centre of the province and the location of army headquarters, it has special importance. Although without any architectural pretensions—the buildings are all one-storey structures on account of frequent visitations from earthquakes—its comparatively lofty position makes it an agreeable station and one of the most attractive gathering-places for Europeans in Asiatic Russia. The city is situated upon the south-western slopes of the Chupan Ata range, 7 versts from the Zerafshan river. The close proximity of the hills naturally influences its rainfall, which is greatest in March and April. The period from June to September is dry; and by February or March the trees are in bloom. By a happy choice in construction it has been planned upon exceptionally generous lines which, although imparting to the outskirts a desolate aspect, have been the cause of securing to the community a number of spacious squares, around which are placed the barracks and certain parks. The principal square, named after General Ivanoff, a former Governor of the province, is Ivanovski Square. Another interesting memento of the Russian conquest of Turkestan is situated between the military quarter and the green avenues of the Russian town, in a spot where the heroes who fell in the defence of the citadel in 1868 were buried. At the same place, too, a memorial has been erected to Colonel Sokovnin and Staff-Captain Konevski, who were killed in 1869.

The population of Samarkand at the census of 1897 was 54,900:

Males.	Females.
31,706	23,194

According to the statistics of 1901, which are the most recently available, these figures had increased by a few thousands; they were then 58,194:

Males.	Females.
36,621	21,573

Russians	10,621
Poles	315
Germans	378
Armenians	335
Jews	4,949
Sarts	40,184
Kirghiz	36
Afghans	186
Persians	237
Hindus	10

In the town itself there are:

Orthodox churches	4
Private houses	1,100
Clubs	2
Library	1
Schools	9
Hospital	1
Theatre	1
Museum	1

and various medical, charitable and other institutions.

The native quarter, which is separated from the Russian town by the Abramovski Boulevard—so named in honour of General Abramoff, another military Governor of the province—covers an area of 4629 dessiatines. It was built by Timur the Lame. The streets with few exceptions are narrow, winding and unpaved; the houses are of baked mud, mean and cramped, with flat earthen roofs and no windows. In this division there are:

Shops	1,169
Caravansaries	28
Market-places	4
Squares	2
Medresses	14
Mosques	105
Jewish synagogue	1
Jewish prayer-houses	6
Mektebs	91

The value of Government property in the Russian and native areas of the city is estimated at 4,077,681 roubles. The city revenue approximates 147,616 roubles. The native quarter is the great commercial centre of the province and the trade returns for the city and its surrounding district amount to 17,858,900 roubles out of 24,951,320 roubles for the entire province. Of the squares the most celebrated is the Registan, with a length of 35 sagenes and width of 30 sagenes. It is bounded by three large mosques: the Tillah Kori—the Gold Covered; Ulug Beg; and Shir Dar—the Lion Bearing.

The Registan is the heart of ancient Samarkand. Prior to the advent of the Russians pardon and punishment were dealt from it to the people by their rulers, executions performed and wars declared, as the authorities pleased. Even up to the present day the Registan has preserved in some degree its importance as a popular tribune. From it self-constituted orators, holy men and politicians, expound their doctrines before a people gathered together from the most distant corners of the Continent of Asia. The Registan is only one feature of this delightful city; for here, too, are the stately ruins of the Bibi Khanum, tomb of the wife of Timur, and the Gur Amir where Timur’s remains lie amid a scene eloquent in its simple grandeur. Although, unfortunately, this building has been spoilt by attempts at restoration, its encrusted tiles are as beautiful as when they were made, 400 years ago. Here, too, is the resting-place of the Shah Zindeh; and in its Urda or ancient citadel, now a weak, bastioned fort, is the Kok Tash—the coronation-stone of the descendants of Timur. The charm of the Gur Amir is supreme. Within its dome, before the horse-hair standard, the sheer force of association and the infinite suggestion of the spot make one feel the great presence of this renowned soldier. Beneath the cupola there is a nephrite cenotaph; perhaps, as Colonel C. E. de la Poer Beresford has said, the largest block of green jade in the world.[5] Close to it other tombs, lighter in colour, are erected to the memory of Ulug Beg and Mir Sayid, Timur’s grandson and tutor. Around these is a carved gypsum balustrade and in the crypt below, under a simple brick-tomb, lies the vanquisher of Toktamish Khan, of Sultan Bayazid, of Persia, the Caucasus and India—Timur himself.

In its economic aspect Samarkand occupies a very important position. Although scarcely serving as a mart to the produce of British India and Afghanistan, it is nevertheless a great emporium of trade. The roads, leading to the town or from it, as the case may be, are an index of its wide-reaching commercial influence. They run from Samarkand to Karki on the Amu Daria; and to Tashkent viâ Jizak; while Khojand, Khokand, Namangan, Andijan, Margelan and Osh are all in direct communication with it. Caravans from the east and north, from Persia and from China, carts perched on two gigantic wheels or transport bullocks laden with skins, even sheep carrying small packages—all are impressed into service and seem to be revolving in a constant stream round Samarkand. There is a steady traffic and the numerous bazaars are the centre of a brisk trade in skins and pelts. Unlike the bazaars of Bokhara, along the sides of which the merchants have their stalls, the passage-ways are open to the heavens. After the wonderful picture of Asiatic life presented by Bokhara, there are those who complain of a feeling of disappointment at the more subdued current which flows through Samarkand. Nevertheless the town has a charming setting. The snow-peaks of the Hissar chain and the curtain of enchanting fields and spreading vineyards, which hides the hideous aspect of the Kara Kum, add to the pleasure which is derived from the delicate mingling of the colours of the street life. There is, indeed, a very special type found in the bazaars of Bokhara and Samarkand. Dressed in the choicest of silks, so soft that it suggests the rustle of the wind through the peach-trees and dyed in tones of yellow, green and brown, in shades of magenta and purple, in a note of blue reflecting the sky or touched with the blush of a red rose, are men of fine stature. They move with their long-skirted gowns clasped at the waist and their silken trousers tucked into brown, untanned boots, the seams of which are delicately embroidered. Every individual reserves to himself a most exclusive manner, representing the embodiment of dignity. There is such an air of contentment about the gaily-clad crowd as it passes from stall to stall; such perfect self-possession, suggested humility and independence that the difference in size between Bokhara and Samarkand goes unnoticed; the atmosphere being no less pleasing, the picture no less acceptable, in the smaller city than in the capital.

As the administrative focus of the Syr Daria province Tashkent is the principal city of Russian Turkestan and the seat of the Governor-General. The Russian quarter at once recalls memories of other spheres of Central Asia. The streets are wide and long. Dusty but much frequented, they are bordered by high, white poplars set in double rows, while upon each side there run the gurgling waters of the irrigation canals. The city is laid out in a sector of a circle, three great boulevards radiating from the cathedral, a handsome, octagonal building in freestone. Surmounted by the dome and golden cross, which mark in Russia all Orthodox places of worship, it occupies the centre of Konstantinovski Square. It contains the remains of General von Kauffman, Governor-General of Russian Turkestan between 1867 and 1882 and, incidentally, conqueror of Khiva in 1873 and of Samarkand in 1868. He died May 4, 1882.

Tashkent, situated upon the slopes of the Tian Shan 172 sagenes above sea-level, lies in the midst of an extensive oasis whose fertile acres are watered by the river Chirchik and its tributaries. January is the coldest month, while July is the hottest. The prevailing breezes are north and north-east; but the characteristic peculiarity of the climate is the absence of wind, which makes the high temperature in the summer particularly oppressive. Spring weather begins in March; the hot season, commencing in May, continues until the middle of August. Speaking generally the place possesses the attributes of the climate in the plains of Central Asia while distinguished by its greater yearly rain-fall—384 millimètres—in consequence of the proximity of the mountains. The drinking water question, an ever-attendant difficulty in Central Asia, is no less acute in Tashkent, constituting a serious drawback to conditions of life there. An ample supply of water is available for irrigation, the Chirchik river, as well as numerous wells and springs, being diverted for this purpose.

The Russian quarter, founded in 1865 after the capture of the native town from the Khan of Khokand upon June 15 by the Russian forces under General Chernaieff, is separated from the native by the Angar canal. It is divided into official and residential areas, and contains many large streets. The Sobornaya, in which are situated the best shops, is perhaps more animated than any other thoroughfare in the town, while the Romanovski Street, which crosses the official quarter, is devoted principally to the Government offices. Three wide streets—the Gospitalnaya, Dukhovskaya, and the Kailuski Prospekt—along which it is proposed to erect business premises, also run from this quarter to the station. The residential part is of much later construction; its population is more scattered, the houses are surrounded with dense gardens and the streets are wider. The houses in each section are, for the most part, single storeyed. The chief public works are the Alexandrovski Park, Konstantinovski Square, Gorodskoi Garden and the gardens surrounding the residence of the Governor-General. The Turkestan Public Library, founded by General von Kauffman with the object of furthering the education of the country, now contains more than 40,000 volumes.

The following table shows the existing statistics of the Russian quarter:

Military club	1
General club	1
Houses	3776
Schools	22
Orthodox churches	10
Protestant church	1
Synagogues	3
Sunnite mosques	17

The town revenues for 1902 were as follows:

Revenue.
427,572 roubles.
Expenditure.
Police	90,599
Local administration	67,867
General expenditure	269,106
Roubles	427,572

The permanent garrison is never less than 10,000 men. Barracks and store-house accommodation for military supplies abound in the place. Between the spacious station and the Russian city, a distance of one verst, there are very commodious infantry quarters. A long row of buildings, somewhat more remote and erected upon slightly rising ground, contains the lines of the Cossack establishment. The climate of Tashkent is too unhealthy to be endured in the hot weather. In summer the garrison moves to Chigman, a defile 671 sagenes above sea-level, situated 80 or 90 versts beyond the town on the river Chirchik, where there is a sanatorium for the troops. The families of the officers usually pass the season at the village of Troitzki, 25 versts from Tashkent. Five versts from the city is Nikolski, the first Russian settlement founded in the Syr Daria province. Lying between it and the Russian town is the native quarter. Recalling Andijan, Margelan, Khokand and Osh, it lacks the animation of the streets of Bokhara and is destitute of the architectural beauties of Samarkand. Surrounded on three sides by gardens, the fourth side touches the Russian town with which it is connected, as also with the station, by means of a horse tramway. It is divided into four parts called respectively Kukchinski, Sibzyarski, Shaikhantaurski and Bish Agatchski. Each is separated into districts, these sub-divisions totalling 206 in all.

The two quarters of Tashkent occupy to-day an area of 20 square versts. Forty years ago the site of the Russian settlement covered no more ground than that required by the village which contained the garrison. This original section has now disappeared, becoming merged as time passed and the colony expanded with the Fortress Esplanade, while the population has similarly increased. In May 1871 the combined figures of the native and Russian colony gave only 2701 inhabitants. In 1897 the census returns showed the population to be:

Natives.		Russians.
131,414		25,000
	Total
	156,414

These figures, particularly in connection with the Russian colony, exhibit a gradual increase throughout the period intervening between the census of 1897 and that in 1901, when the returns were as follows:

1901.
Russians.		Natives.
Men	16,416	Men	70,903
Women	16,926	Women	59,019
Total	33,342	Total	129,922

In greater detail the population of the native quarter was composed as follows:

Russians	109
Persians	18
British Indian subjects	38
Jews	543
Tartars	420
Kirghiz	378
Sarts	128,406
Afghans	10

In the native area there were:

Houses (private)	17,164
Shops	45,000
Mosques	328
Mektebs	242
Medresses	24
Russian native schools	6

Although the importance of Merv, as a military district, has increased since the Orenburg-Tashkent railway was opened the numbers of the resident population continue to decline. This proceeds from the unhealthy conditions that obtain locally. Malaria, the most prevalent complaint, runs a very level course throughout the year. Between July and November it becomes exceptionally virulent; and a recent Medical Commission returned the causes of the sickness in Merv as due solely to the presence of a specific organism which, passing from the soil into the water, was absorbed by the inhabitants. So rife is the disease that it is estimated that not one person escapes its attacks in the course of the year. The highest sick-rate occurs between the months of July and November, when it is responsible for 80 per cent. of the “Daily State” in the garrison and district hospitals. Merv malaria generally attacks the liver and kidneys, rapidly affecting the spleen. Every effort has been made to cope with its ravages. Among the attempts was a scheme for the introduction of a new system of irrigation and the purification of the water system, to which the Minister of War assigned 63,000 roubles. Hitherto the drinking-water, derived from the Murghab, has been altogether unfit for consumption. Apart from possible contamination in the sources of the water-supply, there is no doubt that much of the malaria in Merv arises from constant displacement of soil in the oasis; similar conditions prevail, usually for three or four years, in all tropical and semi-tropical countries whenever agricultural or other development requires the breaking of ground.

Certain features encountered in Merv—such as groups of chaffering natives, clusters of small, open shops, dusty trees, open drains and sweltering heat—are strangely reminiscent of India, but the absence of punkahs and the high price of ice prove that the Russians in Central Asia are indifferent to comfort. Even the hotels make no attempt to relieve the effect of the temperature; while, in general, the houses are built without verandahs and the windows are unfitted with jalousies. Within the houses, too, conditions are most trying, the policy of every one being to admit the flies and exclude the air. Trade manages to thrive; and a weekly market is held on Mondays upon a plain to the east of the town. Thither all roads converge; thronged with two-wheeled Persian carts, ill-fed baggage horses burdened with goods, and gurgling camels. Standing solitary and forlorn is the patient ass whose lament is so eloquently described by Mr. Shoemaker, where that author says:

Fair days in the town bazaars are held upon Sundays and Thursdays, when the Hebrew, Persian and Armenian merchants are surrounded by crowds of Tekkes from neighbouring villages. Disposed for sale are the innumerable commodities of the Middle East—rice from Meshed; fruits from Samarkand; silk, sweetmeats and velvet from Bokhara; cheap cutlery, trinkets, leather goods and samovars from Russia; beautiful embroidery and shawls from the stores of the wealthier merchants; carpets from Herat; sheepskins from the country-side; plough-shares and knives from local forges; and relics of Old Merv. Prices are high; but the Turcomans make their purchases very willingly, unconscious of the contrast between their present peaceful demeanour and the attitude which distinguished them when they were robbers of the countryside.

Apart from the garrison the population numbers less than 5000, including:

Races.	Total.
Russians	2297
Armenians	609
Sarts	167
Tartars	85
Khivans	36
Afghans	33
Germans	38
Persians	838
Jews	225
Gruzenes	63
Tekkes	33
Bokharans	56
Ersaris	41
Poles	30

The revenues derived from the native town amount to 42,000 roubles a year and the volume of business annually turned over is a little short of 100,000 roubles. The prosperity of the place is attested by the individual wealth of merchants attending the bazaars. Many of these men live in spacious houses, the majority of the natives frequenting the bazaar being well-to-do and apparently contented. Trade is brisk and, as the Russians have imposed but a few taxes and the Turcomans are exempt from military service, no particular difficulty attends the earning of the daily wage.

It is said occasionally that the disasters which attended Russia in Manchuria have stimulated the ambitions and desires of the Mahommedan population of Asiatic Russia to throw off the yoke of Muscovite rule. Hence it is possible that the reading of the existing situation in Central Asia, which is here presented, may not be accepted. In point of fact, the Mahommedan attitude towards Russian rule in Mid-Asia has no relation whatever to the outcome of the late war in Manchuria; nor was it influenced in any way by the developments of that unfortunate struggle. Contrary belief is based upon the impression that the animus entertained against the Russians by the races of British India, where it is now assumed by the ignorant and very foolish that Russian arms would be at once defeated in any Indo-Russian conflict, exists equally among the Mahommedan population of Asiatic Russia. The comfortable acceptance of this doctrine of Indian superiority—one of the most amusing and dangerous fallacies of public opinion—shows the need of more discriminating criticism, upon the character of Russian administration of native races in Central Asia, to distinguish all shades of public and Indian opinion. The Russians are no less careful of the several peoples that find refuge under their rule than our own authorities, a fact which, unfortunately, we are inclined to ignore in our estimate of their present position through a conceit which inspires Anglo-Indians to regard British administration of native races as heaven-born. The opinion in reference to the Russo-Japanese War is equally erroneous; because, while it is known that our Indian subjects had recourse to all reports upon it and thus were at liberty to arrive at their preposterous conclusions, native opinion in Central Asia knew almost nothing of its course, character and result. Even if suspicions of the actual results were entertained, the constant display of troops, which was made in all Central Asiatic centres of importance during the progress of the campaign, would have dispelled the belief that the Russian military resources were straitened. Apart from this fact, the public in Central Asia were supplied only with those versions of the truth which were most acceptable—and useful—to the Russian amour propre. It will be seen, therefore, that wherever Mahommedan feeling may be opposed in the Tsar’s Asiatic dominions to Russian domination, such sentiment is spontaneous and as deeply rooted or easily appeased as the circumstances, which may have excited it, dictate. It is well to understand this phase of the situation in Central Asia since, in itself, it is very significant.

Merv, perhaps, is a case in point. On the surface the aspect of affairs there is placid enough; but the Russians in Central Asia have read so many effective lessons to their subject races that at best opinion upon the possible chances of an outbreak is a blind hazard. Doubtless religious and racial prejudices are smouldering; yet, if there is any feeling of discontent, it must arise from an animosity born of pure fanaticism. Certainly the Russian rule in Mid-Asia is tolerant—now that the lesson has been taught—and there is neither religious nor educational interference. Moreover trade, fostered by very careful protection, prospers; and at least one secret of success in any Central Asian system of government is to let well alone and appeal to the vulgar through their pocket. This principle the Russians support with admirable patience, taking precautions at the same time that their benevolent administration shall not be endangered by too much licence in the matter of importing or possessing arms. A native rising would be difficult upon this account alone; while it should be remembered, too, that many years of leisured ease have brought about considerable deterioration in the instinctive passion for rape, bloodshed and plunder, which distinguished, only a few years ago, the inhabitants of these Central Asian Khanates.

Again, always pre-supposing the steady loyalty of the great bulk of the European troops, Russia has not enrolled any large number of native recruits in regions beyond the Caspian Sea; although her policy in the Caucasus has not been quite so exclusive. The success of any native insurrectionary movement in Trans-Caspia would depend, therefore, upon the precise amount of support that it received from any disaffected sections of the Caucasian establishment that might be incorporated with the Russo-European army on service in the Khanates. No doubt the wide area covered by the rebellion in the Caucasus will encourage the Caucasian element in the Trans-Caspian army to be troublesome; and, since the Caucasian races in a measure are akin with the Central Asian peoples, mutual sympathy may give rise to positive revolt in Central Asia. Between the European soldiers and the native races, however, there is little in common; and unless revolutionary agents from St. Petersburg, Moscow or the larger centres of disturbance contaminate the adherence of the men, there is really nothing to cause them to listen to any seditious overtures which might emanate from native sources. It is very easy in Central Asia to remove the rails of the permanent way or to interrupt telegraphic communication, since the railway and the wires run for hundreds of miles unguarded and at the mercy of any wandering, discontented miscreant. Such instances of disaffection would be sporadic. Difficulties of combination—if the great distances separating Khiva, Merv, Bokhara and Tashkent were ignored, which they cannot be if the position of affairs is to be appraised properly—would alone prevent any simultaneous co-operation; while whatever unanimity might be disclosed by actively hostile parties of native or European revolutionaries, the forces at the disposal of the military authorities must enable them to suppress the movement rapidly and at once.

Of course the agitation in European Russia cannot leave Russians in Central Asia unaffected; continuation of the widespread irruptions of disorder in European Russia obviously imparts a new and most serious complexion to affairs in Asiatic Russia. Moreover signs of unrest, in consequence of interference by revolutionary agents from St. Petersburg, have already been displayed. At Askhabad the officers were locked in their quarters; at Kushkinski Post 200 soldiers joined in a strike of railway and telegraph officials. Further, at the instigation of Sokoloff an engineer and Simonoff an engine-fitter, a variety of farcical intentions were proclaimed, the main outcome of this signal act of rebellion culminating in a little temporary dislocation of the railway and telegraph services and the arrest of the ringleaders. None the less, the activity of these revolutionary agents does constitute a possible menace to the peace of Mid-Asia; for, while the native population recks little of the wiles of European agitators and can be overawed by the authorities, the situation, where it concerns the ultimate effect of the revolutionary propaganda upon the Russo-European army, rests upon the knees of the gods. There, unfortunately, it must remain; emphasising the fact that, on account of the means of checking the dissemination of revolutionary heresies and the growth of the operations of the agitators in Central Asia which the Russian authorities have at hand, the chances are much against any violent or widespread upheaval of the peace in these territories.

[5] Lecture before the Central Asian Society, December 1905.

---

The Russian Government has shown remarkable energy during the past few years in improving its railway communications in Central Asian regions. After the Trans-Caspian line had been finished from the Caspian Sea to Samarkand there was a lull in construction, but presently an extension was carried on to Tashkent and thence to Andijan. By creating railway communication with Merv, Russia met half-way the difficulties of her station in Trans-Caspia. In the event of any military crisis arising with Afghanistan 300 versts of difficult country yet remained to be crossed before concentration upon that frontier could be effected. At a later date, a branch was run from Merv to Pendjeh, by which this hiatus was at once repaired and Russia secured to herself a position of commanding importance across the road to Herat.

Surveys, carried out in the year 1894 in two directions, from the station of Tejend and from Merv, demonstrated that the Merv-Murghab route did not present any technical difficulties. Shorter than the Tejend line by 65 versts and more level, it traversed the well-populated Merv, Yulatan and Pendjeh oases. Water was also plentiful. On the other hand the line from Tejend crossed very difficult country; while it doubled the distance, necessitating 700,000 cubic sagenes’ additional excavation. Perhaps a more emphatic objection arose from the inadequacy of water between Tejend and Sarakhs, supplies in the Tejend district drying up between September and January. As a consequence the line was constructed from Merv to Kushkinski Post, on the Afghan frontier, through the valleys of the Murghab and Kushk rivers, just over 293 versts or 192 miles in length, with a terminal depôt only 80 miles distant from Herat. From motives of economy one station was allowed to every 50 versts, with sidings half-way between them; only two engine sheds and workshops were provided, while all other buildings were limited and none but the cheapest materials employed. Bridges were made of wood instead of stone, the rolling-stock sufficing for four trains in the twenty-four hours. Railway and military telegraph wires were fixed to the same posts and it was not intended to ballast the permanent way. Construction was reduced by these precautions to 8,408,000 roubles. After revision by a commission of the General Staff this sum was increased by the cost of ballasting the permanent way, 329,000 roubles; the total expenditure upon the work finally amounting to 9,669,000 roubles or 33,000 roubles per verst.

Imperial ukase authorised construction on August 26, 1896, actual work beginning on April 27, 1897.

Colonel Ulyanin, of the Corps of Engineers, was appointed Chief Constructor and the overseers were also engineer officers, the majority of whom had already taken part in the laying of the Krasnovodsk-Merv section of the Trans-Caspian railway. The workmen consisted of Russians, Persians, Bokharans, Sarts from the province of Samarkand, Ersaris and Afghans from Maimana, the daily roll averaging between 3500 and 5000. Of this number from 27 per cent. to 45 per cent. were Russians, who were paid from eighty-nine kopecks to one rouble eighty kopecks per day. Native workmen received no more than eighty kopecks daily; several hundred of them worked for a monthly salary of between fifteen and seventeen roubles. The prevalence of malaria in the Kushk and Murghab valleys interrupted the building and hundreds of instances of labourers breaking their contracts occurred, the authorities being obliged to repair the shortage by enlisting inexperienced men. In spite of this difficulty work upon the permanent way was completed in November 1898, and the task of laying the rails, which began on November 15, 1897, was finished on December 4, 1898. Rails were laid at a rate varying between 1 and 2½ versts per day, the job being carried out by the newly formed companies of the Railway Battalion. The cost per verst fluctuated from 350 to 450 roubles. The difference existing between the gauge of this railway and the standard of the Russian railways has since been altered. At first the line was of narrow gauge with rails weighing 18 lbs. to the cubic foot, metals of a heavier type only being laid for a distance of forty versts. The service of trains from Merv to Kushkinski was opened on December 4, 1898. At the present time, it comprises four daily local trains and two bi-weekly expresses, “through” trains, which complete the journey in eighteen hours at a speed of 11 miles an hour.

Upon completion and after inspection by a commission, control of the Murghab valley line reverted to the Minister of Ways and Communications by whom the original narrow gauge was adapted to the broad gauge of the Russian system. Various other alterations and improvements in the siding and hutting accommodation were also carried out. In 1901-02 branch lines to Chahil Dukteran and Tanur Sangi, skirting the left bank of the Murghab and passing Maruchak on the Afghan bank, were constructed. It is now proposed to double the entire track between Merv and Kushkinski Post, these highly significant changes making the railway available for any service the military authorities might impose upon it. The line itself is veiled in such close secrecy by the Russian authorities that peculiar interest attaches to any particulars upon it, and these notes, presented for the first time to the public, convey an accurate and not unimportant description of its character, from the junction at Merv to the terminus at Chahil Dukteran.

From Merv station, 118.01 sagenes above sea-level, the railway runs at first in a south-easterly direction, passing due south and south-west along the valleys of the Murghab and Kushk rivers. The first station beyond Merv is Talkhatan Baba, some 37 versts distant at an elevation of 127.06 sagenes. This place is situated in country which is both sandy and flat, while barely 6 versts away is the Murghab river, upon which the station is dependent for its water-supply. Twenty versts further the line meets the spreading prosperity of the Yulatan oasis, from which the point derives its name. Yulatan station stands at a height of 134.16 sagenes; and, although a pleasant freshness is imparted by the oasis to its environment, the general spectacle is very dreary, being broken only by the contours of low dunes and undulating sand ridges. A small village has been founded by the Russians on the banks of the stream, the first colonists to establish themselves in Yulatan appearing in 1885. An open square, surrounded by little brick and stone buildings distinguishes the centre of the settlement. Four wide streets, along the gutters of which are planted tall trees, radiate from it; while the population consists principally of Persians, Khivans, Sarts, Armenians and Bokharan Jews. The percentage of Russians is inconsiderable.

Yulatan contains the headquarters of the District Commissioner, the Sixth Company of the 1st Trans-Caspian Railway Battalion and two companies of the 1st Caucasian Rifle Battalion. There are also a post and telegraph office, a mixed primary school, an hospital with six beds, a synagogue and a large public garden. The trade is in the hands of Bokharan Jews and the market assembles upon Mondays and Thursdays. In the district around the station there is a Tekke population of 15,000, occupied, for the most part, in the cotton industry. By reason of its trade this station is the most important commercial centre on the line. In 1901, for which statistics have only just become available, there were:

Passengers.
Arrivals.	Departures.
2108	2084

Imports.			Exports.
Merchandise	10,569	poods	Merchandise	30,161	poods.
Sugar	413	”	Wheat	2,109	”
Kerosene	602	”	Barley	3,581	”
Flour	856	”	Cotton	16,763	”

These figures have increased greatly in more recent years, the bulk of the trade from the Yulatan oasis line now converging upon this point.

The third station from Merv is Sultan-i-band, some 76 versts distant and at an altitude of 139.55 sagenes. A slight change in the character of the country is here noticeable; the flat, sandy, barren expanse which begins wherever the Yulatan oasis leaves off giving place to dense reeds and marshes. Water is not drawn from the Murghab river at this station, the supply coming from the Khani Yab canal. Originally the region was fertilised by the Sultan-i-band; but that once magnificent work has fallen into decay, and, although the surrounding country contains a large Tekke population, there is very little industry. The ruins of the Sultan-i-band lie in the immediate vicinity,—the word “band” means “dam,”—this famous canal once being connected very closely with the history of Old Merv when the waters of the Murghab irrigated that oasis. But to-day the commercial importance of the district is insignificant and in the year under review only 3689 poods of cotton were forwarded to Merv.

The environment of the next station, Imam Baba, which is 44 versts distant, reveals on account of the prevalence of malaria a very desolate appearance. It is situated where the sand-hills approach the banks of the Murghab river, but the spot is desert and marshy. It rests 148.60 sagenes above the sea, drawing its water from the Murghab river. There is little local industry and the district owing to the fever, is very scantily populated.

The fifth station from Merv is Sari Yazi, where a small buffet denotes its importance. The mean gradient of the line between Merv and this point is 0.0005 and the distance is 157 versts. The depôt is situated in the Murghab valley, bounded on the east by the Karabyl hills, a low-lying ridge of sandy clay. It lies 155.57 sagenes high and depends for its water upon the Murghab river. Sari Yazi occupies an interesting region and is itself the site of an important Turcoman fortress, now in ruins. Among the valleys on the northern slopes of the Karabyl hills there are the traces of numerous Tekke villages, whose men held the region in subjection while the women cultivated the ground. At the station there are railway yards and workshops; attached to it is an hospital with fifteen beds and barracks for one company of the Railway Battalion. In 1901 there arrived:

Imports.	Exports.
Merchandise, 9188 poods.	Cotton and Merchandise, 2139 poods.

Tash Kepri, the sixth station from Merv and 197 versts from that place, is situated in the broad valley of the Murghab river at its confluence with the Kushk river. It is at a height of 164.0 sagenes and the water-supply is from the Murghab river. The place derives its name from a handsome old brick bridge of nine arches, which spans the Kushk river at a distance of three-quarters of a mile to the south-west of Ak Tepe and connects the station with the village. It is also described as Pul-i-Khisti. The Karabyl hills, which bound the valley of the Murghab on the east, here recede somewhat from the river and there is a vestige of cultivation, the green plots imparting a welcome note of relief to the general aspect of the scene. Close to the station is a monument to the soldiers who fell during the expedition of 1885, which was commanded by Lieut.-General Komaroff. Among the trophies of the fight were eight guns and the whole of the Afghan camp. The monument was erected at the instance of the late Commander of the Forces in the Trans-Caspian province, Lieut.-General Kuropatkin, by those who took part in the fight together with the troops in garrison in the district. The commercial development of the Tash Kepri district is growing and, conformably with the increase of trade with Afghanistan, the station itself is becoming of greater importance. In 1901 there were:

Arrivals.	Departures.
1631	1710
Imports.	Exports.
33,632 poods	41,913 poods

Almost upon the frontier and connected with it by a carriage-road 22 versts in length, is Takhta Bazar, the headquarters of the Harzagi section of the Pendjeh Sariks who control the Kashan valley cultivation. It is situated on the Murghab river and is the only settlement of importance in the Pendjeh district. The population comprises Jews, Persians, Bokharans, Armenians, Khivans, Russians, Afghans and Tartars. There are, including a native school under Russian supervision, fifty-seven buildings, in the village of which at least one-half belongs to the Jews. The Pendjeh Custom House, a frontier establishment of the third class through which passes the trade with Afghanistan, is situated near it. The trade statistics of the year under notice are:

Exports.
Merchandise, 28,226 poods	Roubles, 128,124.
Imports.
Sheep, 86,630	⎬ Roubles, 297,836.
Cattle, 2,863

From Pendjeh the main line, taking a south-westerly direction, runs through the narrow valley of the Kushk river to Kushkinski Post. Since the completion of this work a branch line has been carried through from Tash Kepri a distance of 22 versts along the Murghab to Tanur Sangi, affording a supplementary avenue of approach for the purposes of concentration and the transport of stores to points on the actual Russo-Afghan frontier. From this extension a further line, 25 versts in length, has been projected towards Torashekh from a little south-east of Pendjeh up the Kashan valley. Ten miles south-east of Tanur Sangi, at Bala Murghab and 30 miles south of Torashekh, at Kala Nao the Afghans possess strong frontier posts. Herat already lay so snugly in the grasp of Russia that it might have been spared this little further attention.

Kala-i-Mor, the station before Kushkinski Post, is situated almost mid-way between Pendjeh and the terminus at Kushk. It is 244 versts from Merv and 202 sagenes above sea-level. The position of the station, bounded by hills where wild boars are plentiful and snipe and pheasants offer attractive sport, occupies a dreary and desolate scene. There is little vegetation and considerable malaria; the local springs are quite brackish as the result of extensive deposits of salt in the sand. Fresh water is brought by train to the station where a drinking-water reservoir has been established. No trade exists at Kala-i-Mor, which fails to attract a population.

Beyond Kala-i-Mor, at a distance of 259 versts from Merv, the line crosses the Kushk river by a bridge with stone abutments supported upon iron piles. Half-way to Kushkinski Post station, near the railway siding, are the ruins of the small fortress of Chemen-i-Bed. While approaching it the line passes the Alexeieffski village, established by Russian colonists in 1892 and containing forty-one families. This village and the neighbouring one of Poltavski, founded in 1896 and where there are thirty-five families, are the most southern settlements within the Russian Empire. The inhabitants exist almost entirely by the exportation of inconsiderable quantities of wheat, hay and straw to Kushkinski Post for the purposes of the garrison.

Kushkinski Post station, 306.4 sagenes above sea-level, is 293 versts from Merv. It possesses a fine buffet. The military post, situated near the frontier in the broad valley of the Kushk river, is bounded by the undulating slopes of the Bend Chengurek chain, an off-shoot of the Paropamisus. With the completion of the Murghab railway, Kushkinski Post immediately attained special importance and, in 1900, it was declared a fortress of the fourth rank. The hoisting of the Imperial standard over the walls was carried out in the presence of the late Minister of War, General Kuropatkin. In the early days, before the lines of the fortress had been planned, Kushkinski Post comprised a number of detached works within which the various arms were quartered. At that time, too, the officers’ accommodation, consisting of one-storey buildings roughly constructed out of mud, was in the railway settlement where, pending the completion of the main works, long narrow sheds for the use of the troops had been erected. Now improvement has followed upon preliminary chaos and the men are comfortably housed in cool barracks upon the upper slopes of the adjacent heights. The officers are disposed with equal care and convenience elsewhere. Public buildings likewise have improved upon their original sites. The military hospital, the post and telegraph bureau and the Custom House have taken up locations upon high ground, their positions crowned, if not protected by forts upon the crest of these very useful eminences. Kushkinski Post, therefore, may be said to be a thriving settlement where, if the hours are wearisome and the days charged with ennui, there is always the prospect of a “dust up.”

Attempts have been made from time to time, by officers stationed at Kushkinski Post, to become familiar with the officers in command of the Afghan posts across the frontier. More often these attempts at friendliness have been rebuffed, the Afghan soldiery neither accepting advances from the Russians nor making any overtures themselves. Strained relations exist, as a rule, between military posts on either side of any frontier, although, in regard to the Russo-Afghan frontier, there was an occasion when friendly conditions prevailed between the Russians and the Afghans.[10] At that time the staff of the frontier regiment on guard along the Afghan side of the border had accepted an invitation to the mess at the Russian post. They arrived in due course—appearing in all the full-dress grandeur of second-hand railway uniforms! The officer commanding the detachment exhibited on the collar of his tunic the mystic words “Ticket Collector”; his subordinate, a subaltern, was content with the less exalted label of “Guard.” Out of courtesy to their guests the Russians suppressed their merriment, receiving nevertheless the impression that a portion of the subsidy, granted by the Government of India to the Amir of Afghanistan, was taken out in the castoff uniforms of British public companies. The facts were that the Amir, through his Agent in India, had acquired a large parcel of discarded clothing at one of the annual sales of condemned stores in Northern India.

This exchange of courtesies on the frontier illustrates only the pleasant side of service in this region. More serious incidents occur. Occasionally in the heat of the chase, when parties of Russian officers have crossed the frontier in pursuit of their quarry they have been fired upon by the Afghan patrols or ridden down by Afghan sowars. Sporting trips around Kushkinski Post or in the valleys of the Murghab are infrequent among the Russians, although wild boar abound in the thick patches of reeds which hem in the banks of the rivers; the tufts of grass, the hardy scrub and the patches of bush also afford excellent cover for partridges and pheasants. The scarcity of good water at any distance from the railway is the great drawback to such excursions, since the transport of water is both costly and cumbersome. In cantonments goat-skins of the precious fluid are brought for sale by water-sellers who come round, earning a precarious livelihood by their industry.

This custom, which prevails throughout the East, was once turned to account by an Afghan who was afterwards discovered to be an Hazara sapper from the Kabul garrison. Disguised as a water-seller he spent three weeks at Kushkinski Post, conducting an exhaustive inspection of the works and coming every night and morning to the fort with his supplies of water. Chance, which in Asia plays no less a part in the affairs of man than in Europe, threw across his path a native who had visited Kabul some weeks before with letters from the Governor-General of Turkestan. The Afghan had been deputed by the Amir to attend to the Turkestani. He had met and escorted him to the capital and back again to the western boundary. As the Russian had entered Afghanistan from the Kushkinski Post, along the Hari Rud valley, he was conducted from the capital to the frontier by the route he had first followed. At the frontier he had dismissed his Afghan attendant, who promptly proceeded to disguise himself as a water-carrier and to obtain admission to the station. Here he busied himself daily until, meeting of a sudden his late charge, recognition upon the part of the Russian subject was immediate and the spy was arrested in the act of escaping from the precincts of the fort. Suspicion as to the man’s identity became assured when a packet of notes was found, wrapped in a rubber sheath, at the bottom of the goat-skin water-bag.

Until the advent of the railway the colony at Kushkinski Post apart from the garrison, comprised a few Armenian and Persian traders. With the prolongation of the line from Merv the civilian population began to increase rapidly. There is, of course, no hotel in the station; although the officers of the garrison have established a small military club wherein they mess together and where, when the bi-weekly trains bring the supply of ice, there is usually an animated gathering of desolated humanity. At the present time there are in Kushkinski Post 123 buildings, of which some thirty odd belong to private persons. Apart from the garrison the civil population numbers fifty people.

Kushkinski Post station consists of a handsome, spacious structure in the white stone which is brought from quarries in the basin of the Kushk. The railway buildings include a depôt with workshops, eight bungalows for the heads of the staff and special quarters for the employés. There are also large barracks for the 6th Company of the 1st Trans-Caspian Railway Battalion, who are not included in the field state of the post. All buildings are lighted by electricity and the workshops are furnished with electric motors, while the water is drawn from springs on Gumesli mountain.

Kushk region is malarial in consequence of the marshy nature of the surrounding country. For some years past measures have been undertaken with a view to draining the swamps and regulating the running of the streams. By these means it has been hoped to render more healthy the general environment of the station, including the fortress works, Kushkinski village and the district lying between the Afghan frontier post of Kara Teppe and the Russian Alexeieffski and Poltavski villages.

The specific disease which makes duty in the Murghab and Kushk valleys peculiarly obnoxious is a low fever of an endemic nature. Its pathological history is still undetermined and, although investigations have been made into its character and numerous experiments essayed, the malady is usually fatal. In general, the patient is stricken suddenly when the liver would appear immediately to be affected, the skin becoming yellow and the sufferer lapsing into unconsciousness within a few hours of the attack. Systematic study of the disease has enabled the medical authorities to trace it indirectly to the soil from which, just as in Africa and any of the countries lying within the fever belt, germs are released whenever it is disturbed. In this way the most infectious points in the Kushk and Murghab valleys are those lying within the cultivated areas, more especially around those places where digging operations are of frequent occurrence. As the order of life becomes more settled and the necessity for any interference with the soil disappears, it is anticipated that the extreme virulence of the disease may diminish. At one time the soldiers of the Railway Battalions were so susceptible to its ravages that its course assumed the appearance of an epidemic.

No commercial importance belongs to Kushkinski Post and it is solely the strategic considerations which attach to it that give it so much value. In the hands of Russia and commanding the trade routes into Afghanistan, as well as the road to Herat, Kushkinski Post well might play a leading part in the settlement of questions still outstanding between Russia and Great Britain in respect of Afghanistan. Whether the existence of the post will promote the development of trade relations, which are now restricted by the Amir’s Government and directed by the Afghan frontier authorities through Khorassan, remains to be seen. Nothing can underestimate its significance. The post, together with the whole of this branch line, is a deliberate military measure against Afghanistan, the boundaries of which kingdom can almost be seen from the ramparts of the forts which crown the crest of the hills.

Eighteen versts to the south of the fortress, at Chahil Dukteran, there is the post of the Russian Frontier Guard and the present terminus of the Murghab Valley railway. Beyond may be noted the solitary figures of the Russian sentinels keeping their beat along the extensive line of their position; while southward and serving at the moment for a caravan route lies the road to Herat. As an interesting link in the chain of evidence which points to the future use of this road in another way, there is the existence of a large store of light railway plant prepared for the purposes of extending it into Afghanistan itself, whenever the troops of Russia may require to be carried forward to the walls of Herat through the passes of the Paropamisus, a little less than 80 miles.

To Englishmen another, perhaps less direct and more ficticious, interest attaches to this railway. A glance at the map of the Eastern hemisphere will show that the shortest practicable line of communication between London and India lies through Russia and across Central Asia. The direction would be viâ Calais, Berlin, Warsaw, Rostov-on-Don, Petrovski, Baku, Krasnovodsk, Merv, Kushkinski, Girishk and Kandahar. The whole of this distance has now been covered by railway, with the exception of the span of 195 miles across the Caspian Sea, between Baku and Krasnovodsk and the gap of 500 miles which still separates Kushkinski Post from New Chaman. If these sections were bridged the journey from London to India might be very considerably shortened, assuming that the present rate of speed—32 miles an hour on the European and 25 on the Asiatic lines—were maintained. The net saving in time, if the railway were completed, would be seven days; while the horrors of the Red Sea and the monsoon would be but bad dreams to the Anglo-Indian traveller. The country between Kushkinski Post and New Chaman presents no obstacle to the engineer; the Paropamisus range could be crossed by the Ardewan or the Chashma Sabz pass, neither of which is more than 3400 feet above sea-level or 1000 feet higher than that of the tableland on either side. From this point Herat, the garden city of Afghanistan and the key of India, is distant only 30 miles; thence the line would be carried by way of Sabzawar, Farah, Girishk and Kandahar to New Chaman.

However if further railway construction in this region is to take place, it will be in connection with the development of plans which concern the requirements of potential strategy rather than the humours of experimental fantasies. For some time past there have been abundant signs that Russia is proposing to find compensation in the Middle East for the downfall of her prestige in Further Asia. Certainly there is a field for her energies lying fallow in Central Asia. The precise quarter where the furrows are waiting to be ploughed is between the Central Asian railway and the frontiers of Northern Persia and Northern Afghanistan. It is to-day evident that sooner or later Russia will improve her communications in this direction by adding to the Orenburg-Tashkent system its natural complement—an extension to Termes on the Oxus, where there is a Russian fortress—or by imparting to her position on the Perso-Afghan border that little requisite attention which it merits—a railway to Meshed in Khorassan. Long since is it that these schemes entered the domain of practical politics, the Russian military position on the Middle Oxus requiring an alternative line of communications to that offered by the Amu Daria, which, when frozen in winter with the post-roads across the mountains blocked by snow, wraps in dangerous isolation the Russian garrisons at Termes, Kelif and elsewhere along this section of the frontier. Preliminary surveys for a railway were conducted in 1902, when the routes selected followed from Samarkand the Shar-i-Sabz, Huzar, Shirabad caravan highway to Termes; and, from Farab to Termes, the trade route along the Oxus through Burdalik and Kelif. Further extensions in this direction would provide railway communication between Huzar and Karki by a bridge across the river, by which Huzar would become as important a railway junction as it is a caravan and trading centre. Still more in the future is the strong probability that Karki will be joined with the Afghan frontier at Imam Nasar, by following the caravan route from the river, or with Pendjeh across the fringe of the Kara Kum.

Equally determined has been the intention to open up railway communication with the north, north-eastern frontier of Persia, the original surveys taking place simultaneously with the parties working towards the Oxus. For purposes of the Persian railway two routes were also inspected in this quarter, the Askhabad-Meshed line receiving the earliest attention and warmest support. This scheme, after passing through the defiles between Firuza, the summer resort of Askhabad society, and Badjira, entered Persian territory at Kettechinar; running up the Deregez valley and leaving the Atrek waters near their source at Kuchan, it then broke into the Keshef Rud valley, striking the caravan road to Meshed between Durbadam and Imam Kuli. Great initial outlay was made in connection with this railway. Its course had been pegged out under the supervision of M. Stroieff, dragoman of the Russian Consulate at Meshed, with the help of the Ikram-ul-Mul late Karguzar of Kuchan, to whom 12,000 roubles were presented. Further, it was arranged to open a branch of the Imperial Russian Bank at Meshed to assist the financing of the work, the staff comprising an official from St. Petersburg as manager-in-chief, an assistant manager from Teheran, with Ali Askar Khan, the interpreter of the State Bank at Askhabad. The outbreak of hostilities in Manchuria imposed a temporary check upon the labours of the construction parties, the reflection thus obtained giving rise to the advantage of dropping a branch line from Tejend station on the Central Asian railway viâ Sarakhs, Daulatabad, Pul-i-Khatun to between Zulfikar and Kala Kafir, wherever some future extension of the Askhabad-Meshed line, following the Keshef Rud to its meeting with the Hari Rud on the actual Perso-Afghan frontier, may terminate. The Tejend Rud is the name given to the lower waters of the Hari Rud which, flowing by Herat, receives midway in its course the Keshef Rud and thence runs close to Sarakhs, presenting to any line running along the Had Rud valley an alternative approach to the Afghan city.

That Herat and Meshed are the objectives of Russian railway policy is obvious from a pamphlet issued in 1902 by the Topographical Bureau in St. Petersburg and entitled Railways Across Persia. In its pages a railway was projected from Kara Kliss, a station midway between Tiflis and Erivan, viâ Tabriz, Teheran, Shahrud to Meshed. The mileage, cost, the number of sidings and names of stations were all laid down. The principal stations in the first section—Kara Kliss to Tabriz—were Erivan and Julfa. At this moment the span from Kara Kliss to Julfa a distance of 135 miles is completed, the first hundred miles—Kara Kliss to Erivan—being open to traffic and the remaining thirty-five miles—Erivan to Julfa—in working order. From Julfa a carriageway, constructed under Russian auspices and in all essentials a Russian military road, runs to Tabriz, so that Russian schemes for broad gauge railways to Herat and Meshed are at least removed from their incipient obscurity.

[10] “All the Russias.” H. V. Norman.

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The river Murghab, which, with the Kashan and the Kushk streams, waters the Merv oasis and then disappears in the sands of the Kara Kum desert, rises in the mass of mountains connecting the eastern extremities of the Safed Koh and Tir Band-i Turkestan ranges. It flows in a westerly direction through the great valley separating these mountain chains and, after receiving the waters of numerous tributaries, turns towards the north-west to pass the Afghan fortress of Bala Murghab and the post of Karawal Khana. At this latter point it receives the waters of the Kaisar affluent. Continuing in a north-westerly direction it flows past Maruchak, lying on the right bank, where a short distance below it is joined by the Kashan stream. Pendjeh and Ak Tepe are both situated upon the left bank. At Ak Tepe the Kushk river, which rises in the Paropamisus range, unites with it and from this point the Murghab runs in a due northerly direction past Yulatan to Merv, thence running dry in the desert.

Within Russian territory the Murghab river irrigates exclusively the Merv district, and its length within the Trans-Caspian province is about 400 versts. If its numerous bends were taken into account the length of the stream would be 850 versts. The Kushk river waters Russian territory for a distance of 100 versts, from the Russo-Afghan frontier to its confluence with the Murghab; the Kashan for 60 versts. The width of the Murghab at the Kaushut-Khan-Band, 28 versts above the town of Merv, is about 23 sagenes; but at Merv itself it narrows to 12 sagenes. Its mean depth is 7 feet. The rise of the water begins in the middle of March and the fall finishes three months later. Between June and the middle of October the level of the river is determined by the rain-fall and snow in the neighbouring mountains. About June, when the river has fallen, the population experiences the want of the water which is necessary for the autumn crop of cotton. In years of drought, when the dearth of water is felt much earlier—during the period of the ripening of the crops, in fact—the population are obliged to abandon the greater portion of their harvest.

The country through which these rivers flow is, in the main, a mixture of desert waste and cultivated strip, with rising uplands carpeted in spring by bright flowers and hidden in winter by heavy snows. Roads meander along the valleys, sometimes by means of rocks and boulders crossing and recrossing the stream many times in short stretches or, at others, wandering far away from the waterside to traverse the broken spurs of hills. Where signs of cultivation exist, there are indications that the population has regained confidence in the Russian domination of the district. Fields and irrigation canals have been cleaned and restored; the sparkle of the little rills is reflected in the brilliant sunshine.

From the broad uplands of the watershed, from where to the river bed below there is in general a tedious scramble across a confusion of stones and brushwood, the tumbled masses of the rounded slopes are seen to sink into long undulating sweeps. Where the Kushk and Murghab valleys become entangled, a line of sand cliffs disappears in one direction into the haze of the Kara Kum and merges in another with the Karabyl plateau. In the distance the river, spreading itself over a labyrinth of canals, passes through a rapid succession of changing scenes, until, in the broad arid wastes of the Kara Kum, its waters are finally and completely lost. South-west of Bala Murghab the valley narrows to the dimensions and rugged outlines of a defile. Through this the river rolls, tumbling with thunderous clamour, towards Pendjeh oasis, where it acquires a breadth of 1 to 3 miles. At Pul-i-Khisti, identical with Tash Kepri and a little above the Russian settlement of Takhta Bazaar, the stream is joined by the waters of the Kushk rivulet, when it is not consumed in irrigation. From this point the united rivers flow onward to the oases of Yulatan and Merv, passing through a broad flat valley, 2 miles in width, bounded on either side by sandstone heights. In this stage the river is slow running, deep and difficult to cross, and possessing but few fords. Its average breadth varies between 40 and 70 yards and the most prominent feature is its extreme sinuosity. Beyond Bala Murghab the river valley is contained on the left bank by an undulating chain of low hills, high rocky gorges enclosing the right. At this point the sides are steep, with a possible height of 24 feet and a surface growth of shrubs and willows. A narrow, level strip, tufted with scattered grasses, lies between the water’s edge and the hills on the left bank. The river itself flows in a single channel, clinging rather closely to the left of the valley. It possesses a mean breadth of 70 yards and a maximum current of 5 miles. The depth of the ford is between 3 to 4 feet.

The valleys which debouch upon the river are quite spacious and contain small plots of cultivated ground, with here and there a village. Unfortunately, while the banks of the river are fertile the valleys themselves are exceedingly unhealthy—a low fever, pathologically identical in the two districts of Murghab and Kushk, permeating them. Although the great majority of the inhabitants avow themselves immune from the disease, they are averse to settling in the valleys. A feature of the river is the abruptness with which the broad open spaces are changed to narrow gorges of no remarkable height. This trait in the character of an otherwise respectable inland river compresses so great a volume of water into so small a channel that its passage is attended with risk. It is not until the spreading expanses of the Pendjeh, Yulatan and Merv oases have exhausted it that the stream is crossed with convenience. At Bala Murghab, where the current is very strong and the depth uncertain, deep holes in the bottom and masses of protruding rocks, added to the hidden dangers from quicksands, make the task of fording an intricate proceeding. There are two fords at this point, and a similar number are in use at Maruchak, Karawal Khana and Pendjeh, while the Russians have restored many stone bridges which formerly existed in the Kushk valley near the junction of the Murghab and Kushk rivers, at Maruchak and Bala Murghab. The liability of the two rivers to sudden floods renders all fords uncertain and insecure, particularly in the lower stretches between Pendjeh and Merv. More often than not necessity dictates the prudence of stripping to the skin, when the native, a prayer to Allah on his lips and his possessions strapped in a bundle on his head, flounders through the water to arrive damp, disconsolate and very scared on the opposite side. Nevertheless, the best fords are found usually where the stream flows swiftly through a narrow bed. At such a crossing there is a firm bottom and foothold is readily secured.

Many contrivances are used to cross the rivers of High Asia. Where the current is sluggish an inflated goatskin is employed. This system is in vogue on the Oxus and, in lesser degree, on the Helmund, where rafts of bushes are preferred. Along the Murghab the indifferent nature of the fords and the swiftness of the current in the narrow channels of the river make the use of a boat, drawn along a hawser, more suited to the needs of the occasion. Fords on the Murghab are not so frequent as on the Oxus.

The Kushk Valley extends in Russian and Afghan territory some 14 miles. It possesses an average breadth of three-quarters of a mile. Its hills, low and rounded, are a conglomerate of clay and red sand, but bare of trees and with their faces dotted with mud-cabins. An extensive system of irrigation is fed by the river and there is much cultivation on the tops and sides of the hills. The produce of the fields is only sufficient for the immediate wants of the native settlers, although the Russians hope, now a garrison has been established at Kushkinski Post, that the demands of the troops will spur the villagers to greater agricultural activity. In Afghan territory the valley is the habitat of the Jamshidis, who, quiet and tractable, reveal few wants and even fewer interests. Excessive irrigation has done so much to spread the fever that the population throughout the valley has been dwindling gradually. There are now less than 4000 families in the entire valley, years of peace and prosperity seeming to accentuate the restlessness which underlies the nature of all nomadic people. A weekly bazaar is held at Kushkinski Post; similar gatherings taking place at Afghan Kushk, Bala Murghab, Maruchak and in the Pendjeh oasis at Takhta Bazaar. Salt, rice, soap, carpets and horses are all brought to the markets, while the Russians encourage the native merchants under their protection to display stocks of Russian sugar, matches and cotton prints. Silks from Meshed and Bokhara are also in evidence, but nothing of any English or Indian origin. French, American and German products are barred no less rigorously, although German matches and French sugar occasionally escape the specific ostracism which applies to British manufactures.

In the Kushk valley the fertility of the land is dependent upon the flooding of the river by the spring rains. As a consequence an ever-present feeling of irritation exists in the lower parts of the Kushk valley against the Afghan villagers, who control the head waters of the river and divert it to their own fields. This difficulty prevails along the entire line of the frontier in this region, the demarcation of the boundary between the two races leaving the heads of the canals in Afghan territory. There are many exceptions to the misfortune, and, so far as possible, the division is arranged in a spirit of mutual ownership, although the natives, on the Russian side of the frontier, have no claim to compensation if there should be an insufficient quantity. With a river like the Kushk, which possesses an irregular volume, the difficulty is much greater than in the case of the Murghab or even the Hari Rud. Water means to these primitive peoples life and existence; and, as cultivation is only rendered possible by most assiduous irrigation, the task of conserving the supply involves incessant labour. Although agricultural activity prevails principally in the Murghab and Kushk district there are a few cultivated places in the Kashan valley. It would be useless to make any comparison between the former valleys and the Kashan. The Kashan valley contains a small strip, level, well watered and about half a mile in width, through which percolates a narrow stream. In spite of its culturable soil the Kashan district is not frequently inhabited, as in the extreme hot weather the Kashan river is exhausted by the claims made upon it for purposes of irrigation; below Robat-i-Kashan, except during the spring floods, there is no trace of water. A similar condition of affairs characterises its companion stream the Kushk; at the point of union with the Murghab it is frequently reduced to a mere trickle. None the less during the spring rains each of these rivers is liable to sudden floods. Prior to the advent of the railway at Tanur Sangi there were but few settlements in the valley. There was one at Karawal Khana on the right bank of the Murghab and 12 miles south of Maruchak, while the next of any consequence was at Bala Murghab, upon the same bank and more than 20 miles away from Maruchak. At the time when the Anglo-Russian Commission was adjusting the line of the Russo-Afghan frontier in this region, the absence of habitation and human settlement of any kind was most marked. Time has brought a change.

Tanur Sangi is now one of the termini of the Murghab valley railway. Barracks for the troops who are occupying the post have been built on the heights of the valley, the dense vegetation has been burnt off and a system of drainage applied to the neighbouring swamps. For the moment the Maruchak district, extending equally within Russian and Afghan territory, is pregnant with prospects and the advent of the Russians there has been followed by an influx of native settlers. Upon the Afghan side of the river there are similar indications, by reason of the arrival of the levies who garrison the Afghan forts at Bala Murghab, Maruchak, Kala Nao and elsewhere.

The river is the dividing-point between Russian and Afghan possessions at Maruchak for 15 miles. Still it is interesting to note that the natural frontier between Maruchak and Pendjeh is at the northern end of the Maruchak valley, where the hills, closing in upon the river on both sides, separate the Maruchak acres from those of the Pendjeh oasis. Formerly, too, the Murghab flowed down the northern end of the Maruchak valley, washing the western face. It has now changed its course and, sweeping from west to east, washes the eastern aspect. This deviation had an important bearing upon the findings of the Anglo-Russian Commission. Under their correct and literal interpretation of the protocol the Russians were debarred from exercising any claim over the waters of canals employed for irrigation, provided their heads were in Afghan territory. By the change in the direction of the Murghab the head of the waters supplying the Pendjeh oasis, which proceed from the Band-i-Nadir canal on the left bank of the Murghab, was placed within Afghan territory. A modification of the situation was urged; finally the boundary was made to pass from Zulfikar on the Hari Rud to the Kushk and from the head of the canal in the Kashan valley to the head of the Band-i-Nadir on the Murghab, due west of Maruchak instead of to a point north of it. This re-adjustment permitted control of the head waters of the Band-i-Nadir to revert to Russia.

The Afghan fortress of Maruchak has experienced a varying fortune, the vicissitudes of which once brought it to ruin and caused its defences to be abandoned. Since then the advance of the Russians has thrown it into prominence again. Its walls have been restored, although it can never serve any other purpose than that of a frontier post of observation. The fortress is in the shape of a square of which the outer walls, measuring some 600 yards, rise 20 feet from the side of a moat. The main entrance faces the river on the west. Other entrances of less importance are placed at the north-east and south-east angles. In the centre, rising from a circular mound some 40 feet in height with a diameter of 250 yards, is an inner fortress. Quarters for the troops have been constructed along the eastern wall where there is now accommodation for 1000 men. Gun towers stand at the four corners of the main wall and an infantry platform runs round the inner face of the square, a few feet below the parapet. At an angle of the inner fortress and slightly higher than the fortress itself is the citadel, some 80 yards square, where a last stand would be made. The walls and bastions of this are about 15 feet high and gun platforms have been constructed at the corners.

Bala Murghab, a sister fortress, is smaller than Maruchak and lies about 46 miles south-east of Pendjeh. The principal work consists of a fort 120 yards square, situated on a mound itself 30 feet in height; the walls of the fort rise a further 15 feet. An underground passage from it leads to the river and there are quarters for 200 cavalry, 300 infantry and one battery of artillery, besides storehouses and a magazine. The interior of the fort in its present size does not afford accommodation for the existing garrison, all of whom are Irregulars with the exception of the officers. The larger proportion of the mounted men have their lines outside the walls. On a mound, which hitherto has marked the ruins of an ancient citadel, a more commodious fort has been constructed. It stands at the bend of the river, covering Robat-i-Ishmail and protecting the entrance to the Mangan defile. Its dimensions provide for a square of 200 yards, with walls 25 feet in height and an inner defence work standing some 50 feet higher.

Independent of the regular garrison at Herat, there is a levy roll for the Bala Murghab district of 1000 mounted and dismounted men. Two hundred of the former are supposed always to be mustered as Bala Murghab finds details for a number of outlying fatigues, including pickets at the fords and certain mounted patrols. In the immediate vicinity of the fort there is a settlement containing several thousand families. It should be remembered that the garrison at this point is comprised of Afghan Irregulars, who still retain their old titles and organisation. Their company strength is 100 and each company is quite independent of the remaining ones. Five companies form the command of a Sarhang, whose superior officer is a Sartip. Each company commander is known as a Sad Bashi; and for every ten men there is a Dah Bashi. In the regular Afghan army the commissioned ranks are known by the English equivalent; but in general the military organisation, whether regular or irregular in men as in matériel, is hopeless.

No point in the Murghab region is more important than the Pendjeh oasis as an agricultural colony. It is principally confined to the limits of a single valley, some 25 miles in length and 2 miles in breadth. Dotted about its spreading expanse there are a number of tiny settlements, containing in all some eight to nine thousand households. The areas under cultivation do not return sufficient grain to support so large a population; there is, therefore, a constant migration of Pendjeh Sariks to the adjacent valleys of Kushk and Maruchak as well as to the more distant oases of Yulatan and Tejend, where they have become ardent agriculturists.

The settlers in the Pendjeh valley are divided into five sections. Although united by tribal ties intercommunal jealousies are responsible for continuous discord. The richest and most influential section is that of the Soktis, who occupy the land on the western bank of the Murghab between Pendjeh, Kuhnah and Sari Yazi, a distance of some 35 miles. The Harzagis settlement, lying on the same bank, extends between Takhta Bazar and Maruchak; between these two large settlements are the areas occupied by the Khorassanlis. The two remaining sections, the Bairach and the Alishah, share the opposite bank.

The occupation of the Pendjeh valley by the Sariks took place about thirty years ago, when they were turned out of Merv by certain of the Tekke tribes. At first the Soktis were the sole possessors of the district; but, as other parties came in detachments from Merv, the different sections, increasing in numbers and in strength, were able to enforce upon the earlier arrivals a general division of the valley. Under existing arrangements the Pendjeh oasis has developed, the advent of the railway having attracted the attention of the Russians to its agricultural capacity. There must be now some 75,000 acres under cultivation, the entire area owing its fertility to the Murghab river, whose waters are confined by the Band-i-Nadir.

The Yulatan oasis, which is inhabited by those Sarik Turcomans who moved from the Pendjeh valley, similarly possesses an unfailing supply of water from the huge dam, Band-i-Kazakli. This is drawn from the Murghab river by a canal and affords water to 125,000 acres, at a velocity of 1500 feet per second. The depth of the canal is sufficient to carry a camel off its legs. Near the site of the dam are the ruins of the Sultan-i-band, a work far vaster than any of the present day. It gave 28 feet head of water and made the fields and gardens of Old Merv the most fertile region upon the globe’s surface. The Sultan-i-band was destroyed in 1784 by the Amir Murad of Bokhara, an act which completely ruined the prosperity of Merv. Just a century later the Tsar, to whose private estates the site of Old Merv belongs, ordered the construction of an anicut 13 miles up stream. The work was carried out by Colonel Kashtalinski, superintendent of the State domains at Bairam Ali. It includes a dam which gives 14 feet head of water and it is connected with a series of storage basins, feeding a central canal 20 miles long. This in its turn supplies 35 miles of secondary canals and 105 miles of distributaries. The cost of these splendid operations was about £105,000; an expenditure which was declared by an eminent English authority on irrigation to be one-fifth of what a similar work would entail in India. It is in contemplation to restore the Sultan-i-band at an estimated cost of £210,000, by which a further measure of prosperity will be assured to the locality. The area thus irrigated amounts to 15,000 acres; 5000 of which are under cotton, while 3675 grow wheat and barley. The whole is let out to Turcomans and Bokharans. The mountains of cotton waiting for transport by rail in the season are a standing proof of the excellence of crops, which are said to return but little short of one hundredfold. The demand for farms within this fertile area is so great that the natives compete for the privilege of holding one at a rent in kind amounting to a quarter of the gross produce. In spite of prohibitions subletting is very rife and one plot frequently supports several families.

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The inception of the policy by which our relations with Afghanistan are controlled at the present time is due to the reflective intuition of Alexander Burnes[11] who, in 1831, when attached to the Teheran Mission under Sir John Macdonald, felt the necessity of combating the growing influence of Russia in Afghanistan. Circumstances, emanating from the presence of the Russian Mission under Prince Menzikoff at Teheran in 1826, disclosed the policy of Russia towards Persia and Afghanistan to be following two channels: the one, real, immediate and acquisitive; the other, remote, artificial and aiming at intimidation. The influence of these two methods of approach was inimical alike to Persia and Afghanistan, as also to the interests of India; to their existence may be traced the causes of the Russo-Persian War. The results of this campaign with Russia, in which the Shah was engaged from 1826 to 1828, left Persia smarting under its loss of prestige, broken up into a number of petty principalities and ready to attempt armed incursions across the frontier by way of restoring its good name. Khiva and then Herat in turn were considered, selection finally falling upon Herat as the object of attack. The expedition was begun; but owing to the death of Abbas Mirza, the father of the Prince Royal Mahomed Mirza who conducted the expedition, it was withdrawn and for the time being further action was deferred. In the meantime, affairs in Persia had attracted the attention of India; and, as the weakness of the Persian state increased, Russian diplomacy became more active. Distinguished by a marked hostility to England, the policy of Russia aimed at stirring up the tribes of Afghanistan. With this end in view Russian advice counselled Mahomed Mirza Shah to resume the operations against Herat at the same time that a Russian Mission was despatched to Kabul. The intimate association with the affairs of Persia and Afghanistan, which distinguished the position of Russia at this date, is interesting since it reveals how closely our Afghan and our Persian policies were interwoven, the one re-acting on the other with sympathetic consequence. There is, also, equal evidence of the influence exercised over India by the machinations of Russian diplomacy.

The existence of Russian influence at Kabul and behind the Herat expedition of 1837-38 synchronised with the formal enunciation of the policy by which, since 1838 down to 1906, our relations with Afghanistan have been governed. Indeed, no sooner was the Persian expedition of 1837-38 launched against Herat than the Government of India awoke to the urgency of the situation. Lord Auckland, embodying in more concrete shape the spirit of the idea put forward by Alexander Burnes in 1831, proclaimed upon November 8, 1838, the necessity of establishing a permanent barrier against schemes of aggression upon our north-west frontier. A treaty of alliance was made with Ranjit Singh and Shah Shujah and an expedition, ostensibly prepared for the relief of Herat but not without the intention of checking the growing influence of Russia in Persia and Afghanistan, crossed the Indus under the leadership of General Keane. Kandahar was occupied and Kabul entered in 1839, when Shah Shujah was proclaimed. Unfortunately, owing to one of those singular mistakes of judgment which, by their very frequency, confirm the impression that our success in Asia is more by good fortune than good management, Kabul was evacuated in the winter of 1841-42 and the beneficial possibilities of the occupation of Kabul dissipated in a disgraceful and signally disastrous retirement.

In respect of Herat, Persian designs upon the fortress were by no means crushed by the effect of the campaign—the first Afghan War of 1838-1842. Within ten years—in 1851—disturbances, arising out of the death of the Khan of Herat, caused the new ruler to throw himself once more upon the support of Persia. This situation gave rise to the Anglo-Persian Convention January 1853, by which the independence of Herat and its continuation in Afghan hands was assured. This step, although indicating the importance which the Government of India attached to Herat and giving direct confirmation to the pronouncement of Lord Auckland in 1838, was not sufficient to secure immunity to the Herat Khanate from Persian interference. Three years later—March 1856—the Government of Persia, taking advantage of a rupture of relations with Great Britain which had occurred in the previous December, despatched a force to Herat. The occupation of the city which followed was short-lived, an émeute occurring in which the Persian flag was replaced by that of the British. Within a few months the espousers of the English cause, receiving no encouragement from the Imperial Government, hauled down their flag and Herat passed once more into Persian hands. Surrendered to Persia on October 25, 1856, it was evacuated finally and restored to Afghanistan July 27, 1857, under pressure of the expeditionary column which disembarked at Karachi in the Persian Gulf on December 4, 1856.

This war, concluded by a treaty of peace signed in Paris March 4, 1857, marks an important epoch in our history with Afghanistan. It denoted the resumption of relations which had been in abeyance since 1842, preparing the way for that treaty of alliance which was signed at Peshawar with Dost Mahommed on January 27, 1857. By this engagement the assistance of the Afghans, in return for a monthly subsidy during the continuation of the war of 1856, was secured against the Persians. As events proved no such help was required. Although hostilities ceased within six weeks of the date of the agreement the monthly subsidy, beginning in the autumn of 1856, was continued until September 30, 1858, the accidence of the Indian mutiny dictating the prudence of preserving friendly relations with Kabul until the very disquieting influences, which were then at work, had been allayed. Relations with Afghanistan continued until 1863 to follow a course more or less overshadowed by the growing importance of Russian intrigue in Central Asia.

While our activities in Persia and Afghanistan demonstrated merely political expansion, a change of quite another order was beginning to define the position of Russia in Central Asia. From this it became evident that a severe test would be imposed upon our trans-border policy. By successive stages, Russian aggrandisement had subjugated the several States which were lying between her territories and the frontiers of Afghanistan when the principles of our policy in regard to that country were announced in 1838. One by one the Turcoman tribes were conquered until, by the capture of Samarkand in 1868 and the submission of the Amir of Bokhara, Russia gained direct approach to the waters of the Oxus, with the right to furnish its bank with armed posts. The moment was rapidly arriving against which all the energies of Indo-Afghan policy in the past should have been directed. In the interval, before the Russian domination of Central Asia was complete, the aim of British policy to bring about a strong Afghanistan had seemed upon the point of realisation when, in 1863, Dost Mahommed died.

None could foresee the developments of the future. The activity of the Russians in Central Asia boded no good; and with the death of Dost Mahommed it was recognised that the resulting situation contained a challenge to the principles of the policy by which, in years gone by, we had proposed to guarantee the inviolability of Afghan territory. Indeed, an attitude of non-intervention was no longer politic; but, instead of seizing the opportunity presented by the death of Dost Mahommed and occupying the territories of Afghanistan for ourselves, we hesitated. Yet, if the passing visit of a Russian mission to Kabul in 1838 had been accounted sufficient warranty for the invasion of Afghanistan, how much more the massing of Russian forces upon its northern and north-western frontiers should have propelled us to a renewed display of energy in 1863. Unfortunately for ourselves, the logic of our position was destroyed irretrievably by the train of hostile circumstance which our supineness had set in motion. Whilst our politicians debated Russia had acted; and Shir Ali, Khan of Herat and son of Dost Mahommed, spurred by Russian promises and intrigues, began a movement against Azim, Khan of Kabul. Varying fortunes distinguished the efforts of the rival factions between 1863-1868; but at length, in 1868, Shir Ali prevailed and he became recognised as de facto ruler of Afghanistan. For the moment the situation showed improvement, as Shir Ali veered from Russia to India. Practical assistance, in the shape of money and materials of war, was at once accorded him by the Government of India, between whose supreme chief, Lord Mayo, and himself as the ruler of Afghanistan a conference was arranged at Umballa in March of 1869. The outcome of this meeting, not by any means so definite as the interests of a trans-border policy demanded, was held to be sufficient to dispel the feelings of alarm which the prolonged military activities of Russia in the Trans-Caspian region had aroused. None the less, while the Russians were occupied with the conquest of Khiva and Shir Ali had been disappointed at the aloofness of the Indian Government, four momentous years 1869-1873 were passing. Their close revealed only the further and more complete estrangement of the Amir of Kabul through the amazing ineptitude with which the advisers of the Indian Government dealt with his difficulties. Bitter, indifferent, and relying upon the Russian promises of assistance of 1872, Shir Ali became openly defiant, repudiating all suggestions for any formal treaty of alliance, 1876-1877. At the same time, 1877, he flatly declined to admit to Kabul any British officers as the accredited representatives of the Government of India, although in 1878 he himself received a Russian mission there. With the failure of our own attempt (1878) to force a mission upon him, the Second Afghan War, 1878-1880, began.

Kandahar was occupied by Sir Donald Stewart, January 8, 1879; and, while a second force moved into position against the capital, a third under Sir Frederick Roberts marched against Paiwar Kotal. Shir Ali, flying before these operations, died at Mazar-i-Sharif in February 1879, the first chapter of the second war closing with the installation of his son Yakub Khan on the Kabul throne and the despatch of the Cavagnari mission to Kabul. The treaty of Gandamak, May 26, 1879, had barely put the seal upon certain rights, which might have led ultimately to the definite establishment of British authority in Afghanistan, when, in the following September, the sudden massacre of the entire mission occurred. The second phase of the Afghan War of 1878-1880 opened with the operations of Sir Frederick Roberts. Defeating the Afghans at Charasia, he entered Kabul in October causing the overthrow of Yakub Khan and paving the way for the eventual recognition of the late Amir Abdur Rahman as Amir of Kabul. Throughout this occupation of Kabul the temper of the surrounding tribes became slowly inflamed until, in December 1879, a rebellion against the British was proclaimed. The tribes rising, the forces in Kabul were placed in jeopardy by the interruption of communications with India. Action by Sir Donald Stewart, who had come up with forces from Kandahar, stemmed the torrent, the situation growing more complex when Abdur Rahman, who had retired across the Oxus on his defeat by Shir Ali in the war for succession, 1863-1868, reappeared in March of 1880 to establish himself in north-western Afghanistan. Both the Government of India and the bulk of the population welcomed his return, and withdrawing the territories of the Kandahar province from his rule he was recognised as Amir of Afghanistan with certain reservations in respect of foreign policy and dealings with Russia. Unfortunately the disasters which hitherto had followed British intervention in Afghanistan were to continue; in July 1880, but a few months after the proclamation of Abdur Rahman as the new Amir, the news of the defeat at Maiwand of General Burrows was received. Ayub Khan, Khan of Herat and youngest son of Shir Ali, marching upon Kandahar and defeating the British force sent to check his advance, had succeeded in investing the city. Sir Frederick Roberts was now once more to come upon the scene. Taking 10,000 men from Sir Donald Stewart’s garrison at Kabul he set out to the relief of Kandahar, accomplishing by a series of forced efforts an extraordinarily rapid march of 313 miles and, on September 1, 1880, routing Ayub Khan’s army. A little later, in 1881, British troops once again retired to India from Afghanistan; but a sudden attack by Ayub Khan’s adherents in July, 1881, secured the re-capture of Kandahar, Ayub Khan remaining there until, on September 22, he was totally vanquished by Abdur Rahman, losing all his possessions and retreating to Persia, from where subsequently he surrendered to the Government of India.

During this long pre-occupation with Afghan affairs Russia had made considerable improvement in her own position in Central Asia, where but little more than the final touches remained to be given. These appeared with the seizure of Merv in 1884 and the completion of the Central Asian railway between Krasnovodsk and Samarkand 1800-1888. The slow, yet faltering, steps with which Russia had maintained her advance towards Afghanistan, in contradiction of all treaties, in abuse of all frontiers and in contempt of our own inaction, at last forced home upon the British Government the fruits of its own miscalculations. In 1884 along the Afghan north-western frontier as also in 1896 on the Pamirs, Boundary Commissions were assembled to meet the exigencies of the situation. The former of these took the field under the leadership of Sir Peter Lumsden, with whom were associated Colonel Sir West Ridgeway and numerous officers attached for political, survey, military, geological and medical duties, including Major E. L. Durand, Major C. E. Yate, Major T. H. Holdich, Captain St. George Gore, Captain Peacocke, Captain the Honourable M. C. Talbot, Captain Maitland, and Lieutenant A. C. Yate. The Pamirs Mission was under the presidency of Major-General M. G. Gerard, with whom were Colonel T. H. Holdich, Lieut.-Colonel R. A. Wahab, Captain E. F. H. McSwiney, and Surgeon-Captain A. W. Alcock. Russia was represented by Major-General Povalo Shveikovski, Colonel Galkin, Captain Krutorogin, Lieutenant Orakolow, Monsieur Panafidine, and Doctor Welman.[12]

The province of Herat extends from near the sources of the Hari Rud on the east to the Persian frontier on the west, and from the Russian southern boundary to the northern limits of Seistan. The area is 300 miles from east to west and 200 miles from north to south. North, south and west there are tracts of unproductive country, presenting facilities for development only over restricted surfaces. In the east the upper reaches of the Hari Rud valley stretch away to the mountain regions of the Koh-i-Baba. It has been estimated that the valley of the Hari Rud is capable of furnishing supplies for an army of occupation which should not exceed 150,000 men. It is this fact, coupled with the value of its position as the converging point of roads from the Caspian, Merv, Meshed, Bokhara, and from India through Kandahar, which has invested Herat with the title of The Key of India. The Hari Rud oasis presents a wonderful appearance of fertility; near the city groves of pistachia and mulberry trees, blackberry bushes, wild roses and innumerable settlements abound. The Hari Rud, flowing in a single channel 100 to 140 feet in width which diminishes as the summer wanes, has been the means of converting into a smiling paradise the surrounding wilderness. Flood-water in this river lasts from the close of January until the end of March, when fords are dangerous to cross. The subsidence of flood-water in April makes it more readily passable, the average depth of the fords then measuring 4 feet. Later, when the warmer weather appears, the permanent channel breaks up into long lakes, fed by springs and underground continuations of supplementary streams. The northern extremity of the river, which waters the Tejend oasis and the Sarakhs region, preserves in the main the characteristics of the upper stream. The undulating country between the Hari Rud and the Murghab, extending from the northern slopes of the Paropamisus to the edge of the Kara Kum, is called Badghis. At one time this district included the oasis of Yulatan and, even now, it embraces Pendjeh. Across it, along the banks of the Murghab and through the valley of the Kushk, runs the direct road from Merv to Herat. From the levels of valleys within Russian jurisdiction, which are about 2000 feet above sea-level, the road rises throughout a distance of 35 miles until it pierces the Paropamisus range by the Ardewan pass, 4700 feet above sea-level. From these mountains, it descends across the broken slopes of the Koh-i-Mulla Khwaja until it meets at last the alluvial flats of the Hari Rud plain, wherein the city of Herat stands, 2600 feet above sea-level.

The city of Herat, built entirely of mud with certain outworks lying beyond its walls, stands in a hollow. It forms a quadrangle 1600 yards by 1500 yards. On the western, southern and eastern faces the wall is a straight line, the only projecting points being the gateways and the bastions. On the northern face, the line is broken by the old Ark or citadel, which stands back about 200 yards from the main wall and is situated upon a high, artificial mound, which is 250 feet in width and between 50 and 60 feet in height. Above this the walls of the city rise an additional 30 feet. There are five gates—the Kutabchak near the north-east angle of the wall and the Malik gate at the re-entering angle formed by the wall of the Ark and the continuation of the north wall. The other gates are on the western, southern and eastern faces, the names respectively being the Irak, Kandahar and Kushk. Four streets, running from the centre of each face, meet at the Charsu, a domed square covered with beams and matting in the heart of the city. A wide, road encircles the walls on the inside, although its upkeep has been sadly neglected. The defences of the city are contained by the wall which stands above the mound. On its outer slope there were at one time two parallel trenches, covered by low parapets; but the trenches, like the moat at the foot of the mound, are now choked up. There are 25 bastions on each wall. The gates, defended by works differing from one another in shape, are of irregular design. They resemble redans, with sides of unequal length and project about 200 feet beyond the main wall. The defences of the gateways are of a lower profile than those of the main works. At the apex of the projection a small rectangular traverse screens the postern.

The northern wall is irregular. Near its centre, thrown back about 200 yards from the main wall and standing on a mound of its own, is the position of the old citadel. A “return” in the wall, leading down on this work from the eastern portion of the north face, terminates on the counterscarp of its ditch. The western face, retired about 100 yards behind the eastern face, connects with the north-west angle of the citadel by a slight bend. There are two gateways on this front, the one about 200 yards to the westward of the north-east angle and the other in the main wall. This latter is unprovided with the irregular projecting work attached to the others.

The wall of the fort is about 14 feet thick at the base, 9 feet thick at the top and 18 feet high, exclusive of the parapet. The parapet is 2½ feet thick at the base, 9 inches at the crest and 7½ feet in height. It is loop-holed and crowned with the ruins of small battlements which, like so much attaching to Herat, have been permitted to crumble away. In several places the walls have broken down, the repairs subsequently effected adding to the general insecurity of what has remained rather than improving the original breaches. The width of the pathway behind the parapet is 6 feet; but there are many gaps, and continuity of communication is preserved only by the severe physical exertion of flying leaps. Their condition renders them ill-adapted to the employment of artillery, while the ramps leading up to this pathway are barely broad enough to admit the passage of a single man.

At one time this wall was flanked by small exterior towers, placed at intervals of 100 feet. They varied in size and are now so generally in ruin that it is difficult to estimate their dimensions. In their original state they were probably from 40 to 60 feet in diameter, the larger towers being 30 feet in width and projecting 25 feet. In contrast with the containing wall of the city the wall of the fort possesses an outward inclination, equal perhaps to one-seventh of its height. The slope of the towers is generally greater; many of them are splayed at the base to accommodate their foundations to the sloping surface upon which they rest. The whole work appears originally to have been constructed of sun-dried brick, backed with layers of moist earth. Some of the towers have foundations and facings of rough stone or burnt brick, laid in mud. The wall itself is a very old one; stone, brick and earth have been used indiscriminately, so that it now presents a patchwork appearance.

The interior slope of the mound, upon which the walls stand, is steep and from the base of the wall drops perpendicularly into the town. No attention whatever appears to have been paid to this part of the fortifications. The inhabitants of the city have been for several generations in the habit of removing earth from it for the construction or repair of their dwellings. At one time, too, houses were erected close to the foot of the rampart and also upon it, the slope being excavated to admit of the walls being erected against it. A partial collapse of the mound has followed, the fallen masses of earth serving as a convenient resting-place for the dead.

The old citadel is a brick structure 150 yards long from east to west and 50 yards wide. It occupies an elevation of its own, and, when erected, stood nearly in the centre of the north face of the city. It was flanked by several towers, differing greatly in size; those at the angles were the largest, while those on the north-east angle were the most imposing. The interior, in part occupied by Feramorz Khan, the Commander-in-Chief, is divided into three courts. The inhabited portion is a lofty building, supported by four bastions along its face, with the entrance gate facing the main street to the Charsu. It fills a space 110 yards in length by 60 yards in breadth. The Ark, from its massive appearance, is very dignified, but it is not calculated to withstand protracted defence if the town itself were captured. Its walls, thickly built but of inferior masonry, are exposed from base to parapet, and a few shells dropped behind them would create great havoc.

The Ark-i-nao, or new citadel, serves as a parade-ground for the garrison. Weak both in plan and profile, it is constructed in advance of the mound, but 80 feet below it and upon a level with the country. It consists of 4 straight walls 300 yards in length. The face is flanked by 5 semi-circular towers, each possessing a diameter of 30 feet. The walls are 13 feet thick at the base and 8 feet at the top, crowned on their outer edge by a parapet 6 feet high and 1½ feet thick. There was once a ditch 30 feet in width and 15 feet in depth at a distance of 60 feet from its base, but it is now a general receptacle for the refuse of the city.

Within recent years the fortifications of Herat have undergone radical alteration. At one time, prior to the Pendjeh crisis, the city could not be said to possess an esplanade nor any free field of fire. Detached buildings, even small villages, surrounded it, while cultivation extended close to the walls; and where agriculture ended the cemeteries of the city began. Mosques, tombs and reservoirs stood opposite the gateways, some of them lying within 100 yards of the walls. Vast mounds of earth were also close at hand. Many of these defects were removed[13] under the guidance of the British officers who were assisting in the demarcation of the Russo-Afghan boundary in 1884-87; in 1903-04, under the supervision of Feramorz Khan, additional improvements were made and a number of mountain and field batteries installed.

In general the Herati is not a fighting man and cares little for military appearances. Indeed, if choice were left to the Heratis they would sooner surrender at once to the Russians than run the risk of future disturbances. The garrison is not generally drawn from the locality and seldom includes many Herati, Hazara or Taimani recruits. Commanded by Feramorz Khan, it is composed mainly of regiments from Kandahar and Kabul, whose men lounge through the streets in unkempt undress or clad in dirty linen and to whom belongs such little martial spirit as may be detected in the city. In this direction nothing can be more marked than the difference between the Herati and the Afghan soldier. The former, a peasant pure and simple, is unversed in military science, while it is a rare sight to see the soldiers without an extraordinary number and variety of weapons attached to their persons. Each carries, as a rule, two pistols, a sword, rifle and many knives, their swagger and overbearing disposition causing them to be hated by the wretched population. The position of the city to-day as between Russia and India is rather that of a woman whose wares are put up to the highest bidder. It is not particularly partial to the rule of the Amir, to the overtures of Russia or to the influence of India. One might say that it were indifferent alike to each of these three interested parties and that it is merely a question of price which will determine its surrender. It must be confessed that the fortress occupies an unfortunate position. Whatever the garrison might attempt in support of the huge earthworks which the place boasts, there is no doubt that the sympathies of the population—if the history of the past goes for anything—would be given to any who contrived to evict the Afghans; and, as all reports concur in alluding to the lavish manner in which Russian roubles have circulated in the province, the statement may be hazarded that, under certain contingencies, the tribes on the north-western border of Afghanistan would declare for the Russians. Upon this aspect of the situation various changes introduced by the Amir into the administration of Herat province, and concerning equally all posts along the banks of the Oxus and the western border, have direct bearing. Although there is practically no intercourse between the Afghan and Russian posts on either bank of the Amu Daria, indeed the ferry station at Chushka Guzar is constantly sniped from the Afghan bank by Pathan pickets, there has been an insidious growth of association between the Herat officials and the Russians. Quite lately the Kazi Saad-ud-Din, Governor of Herat, was recalled, the Shahgassi Mahomed Sarwar Khan taking his place, while a warning was administered to the commander-in-chief. There is no doubt that these officials accepted complimentary gifts from the Russian officials at Merv, and the transference of the one and the rebuke of the other may check the propensity of the native to find in the efficacious application of the Russian rouble a panacea for all evils. In respect of the soldiers themselves, orders have been issued from Kabul that all detachments on frontier duty are to be relieved monthly. Obviously Herat is too close to the Russian border not to have been intimidated by the spectacle of Russia’s strength in Central Asia. A similar state of things might not be expected to prevail in Kabul and Kandahar. Kabul is too much under the personal sway of the Amir to express any active interest in Russia or India, while Kandahar has been associated too closely with the reverses which British arms have experienced in Afghanistan to have over much respect for the greatness of Hindustan. Russia is really the supreme and dominating factor in Afghanistan, not only along the northern, eastern and western frontiers, but throughout the kingdom.

Herat is a dirty town. The small lanes, crooked and narrow which branch from the main thoroughfares, are roofed and their gloom offers safe harbourage for the perpetration of every possible offence. The breadth of the streets is only 12 feet, but in their narrowest parts even this space is reduced. Pools of stagnant water left by the rains, piles of refuse thrown from the houses, together with dead cats, dogs and the excrement of human beings, mingle their effluvia in these low tunnels. Much of the city has been abandoned and various travellers, in reporting their experiences, agree that the bazaars are of a very inferior order. On either side of the streets there are spacious serais where the merchants have their depôts. The western face of the city is the least populated, the buildings in this quarter being a mass of ruins. The houses are constructed usually in the form of hollow squares. They are commonly of one storey, built of brick and mud, with very thick walls. The roofs are vaulted and composed, equally with the walls, of mud; the entrances are low and winding. These houses are quite incombustible. The larger establishments have stable and servants’ courts attached to them, and every courtyard has, in its centre, a well or small reservoir for the reception of water. All the houses are more or less capable of resisting men armed with rifles, and a determined garrison might, by barricading the streets leading to the ramparts and loopholing the adjacent houses, protract the defence of the place for some time after the walls had been gained by the enemy. There are several spacious caravansaries in the town, all of which open upon the street leading from the Kandahar Gate to the citadel and would serve, in emergency, for the accommodation of troops. At the time of Connolly there were:

Houses	4000
Shops	1200
Baths	20
Colleges	6
Caravansaries	17

Although the city has been almost entirely destroyed since his day, his estimate is of some value for purposes of comparison.

The principal building in Herat is the Masjid-i-Jama, which comprises an area of 800 yards square. It was built at the end of the fifteenth century, in the reign of Shah Husein by his relative Prince Shibali. When perfect it was 465 feet long and 275 feet wide; it had 408 cupolas, 130 windows, 444 pillars, 6 entrances and was adorned in the most magnificent manner with gilding, carving, precious mosaic and other elaborate and costly embellishments. It stands in the north-east quarter of the city, about 300 yards from the east walls.

The palace of Chahar Bagh is situated to the west of the Masjid-i-Jama and was originally the winter residence of the chiefs of Herat. It is now the residence of the Governor of the city, but has been considerably enlarged and improved. A fine garden has been laid out with flower-beds and a fountain. It is enclosed on either side.

The inhabitants of Herat, who are mostly Shiah Mahommedans, comprise Afghans, Hazaras, Jamshidis and Tiamanis, with 700 Hindus and some 400 families of Jews. Its population has always been subject to constant fluctuation. When Christie visited it in 1809 the population stood at 100,000 souls. Connolly considers these figures too high, reducing them himself to 45,000. According to Ferrier, again, prior to the siege of 1838 the number of inhabitants was, at least, 70,000; when the siege was raised these numbers had dwindled to between 6000 to 7000, a total which, he considered, had increased in 1845 to 22,000. As under the severe but secure rule of Jan Mahommed life was safe, it is probable that before the investment of 1857 it again approached Connolly’s total. Its siege and capture by Dost Mahommed in 1863 must have once more reduced its numbers; when Vambéry visited it two months afterwards he was met by a scene of utter desolation and devastation, from which, according to the estimate of A. C. Yate[14] in 1885, the city had never recovered. Citing the previous census, which gave the population at 1700 families, the latter returned it at 10,000. The existing number is now a little less than 18,000 people, exclusive of the garrison, which in peace numbers five regiments of regular infantry, twenty squadrons of cavalry, one battalion of sappers and eight batteries.

The city has declined considerably from its quondam opulence. There is scarcely any trade and the houses are deserted. It is, nevertheless, famous for its fruit and its breed of horses; but the Heratis have endured too many of “the slings and arrows of outrageous fortune” to be able to withstand adversity and bad seasons. Wars and sieges, pestilence and famine have had their effect; and the scene, which Vambéry described so brightly, is now sombre and melancholy. No longer is Herat the great central market between India and Persia. It still receives a certain amount of merchandise from Kabul, such as shawls, indigo, sugar, chintz, muslin, bafta, kincob, hides and leather. These are exported to Meshed, Yezd, Teheran, Baghdad and Kirman, and exchanged for tea, sugar-candy, china-ware, broadcloth, chintz, silk, copper, pepper, dates, shawls, numnahs, carpets and all kinds of spices. Silk is obtainable in the vicinity of Herat, and lambs’ fleeces and sheep-skins are made up locally into caps and cloaks. There are, too, a number of native craftsmen who work in silk and metals, leather, iron and wood; but there are few opportunities for their skill and no money with which to pay for it. The carpets of Herat, once so famed for softness and for the brilliance and permanence of their colours, are no longer in demand. At one time they were made in all sizes, ranging in price from 10 to 1000 rupees; but their day is gone. Indeed, in its present impoverished state, the city is eloquent only of a bygone grandeur. Everything is decayed and decrepit.

In relation to future developments in the military position along the western frontier Herat, the immediate objective of Russia, has been for many years the pivot of our trans-border policy. Lying within 80 miles of Kushkinski Post, itself only eighteen hours by train from Merv, it would not be long after the outbreak of hostilities that a Russian force would be before its walls. The passage of reinforcements from Merv, in support of such detached or independent flying column, would be divided between Kushkinski Post and Tanur Sangi, which, when considered from Merv, the main depôt of supplies in Trans-Caspia, rank practically as ultimate bases, with an immediate base at Pendjeh. The position of Herat would be no worse than Maimana, Balkh, Kunduz and Andkhui, upon which an equally rapid concentration would be made. At such a time the forts established at Kala Khum, Chushka Guzar, Kelif and Termes—where, by order of Kuropatkin, a strong work has been placed to cover the debouchure opposite Patta Hissar of the road from Takht-a-pul, the central cantonment of Northern Afghanistan—would be sufficient to repel attack if the Afghans were rash enough to cross. Again, between the Oxus and the chain of main bases established along the Central Asian railway—Askhabad, Merv, Samarkand, Khokand and Margelan, with Tashkent as the great centre of arterial distribution—there would be a line of auxiliary depôts, such as Sharisabz and Hissar and no doubt possessing by the time war occurred railway communication with the Central Asian system on the one hand and the Oxus on the other, to serve as intermediate bases of supply to the ultimate frontier and fighting zone.

In the situation along the extreme eastern frontier, the Badakshan-Wakhan region, the same preponderating strength and advantage of position would be detected in the Russian dispositions. The existence of the several elevated areas composing the Pamirs and acting as a containing rampart to the Russian left flank renders the Russian sphere between Kala Khum and Langar Kisht sufficiently impervious to serious attack. As a precaution against sporadic forays from the Afghan posts on the opposite bank a number of permanent forts, usually included within the Pamir military district, would be available.

On the right bank, between the upper waters of the Oxus and Charog, there is the post of Langar Kisht where the Russians maintain one company of thirty men with a maxim gun. Charog itself, which is opposite Kala Bar Panja, is the principal post of the Russians in the region of the Pamirs. Here the strength of the garrison varies according to the season of the year. During the winter months the muster is fifty Cossacks with four officers and a maxim detachment. Two maxims and a single mountain gun have been mounted on the ramparts covering the river. Charog is connected with Fort Murghabi by a road along the Alichur Pamir and the banks of the Ghund Daria; built of clay, wood and stone, it possesses earthworks of an enduring character. Additional accommodation is in course of construction, as it is intended to establish quarters there for one battalion of troops. The winter strength of the Russian force in the Pamirs is 500 men; this will be raised to 1000 men so soon as the requisite barracks have been erected at Charog and Fort Murghabi. The probable disposition of the force will put 300 men into each of the three forts at Tashkurgan, Charog and Murghabi, the remaining 100 being detailed by companies to the smaller posts of Langar Kisht, Aktash and Kizil Rabat. At Kala Wanj there was an establishment of 300 levies from the native army of the Amir of Bokhara, a further detachment from the same establishment and similar in strength, being in garrison at Kala Wamar. At Kala-Khum, occupied by 1000 men, there was one native regiment. Along the reach of the Middle Oxus the same arrangement held good, native troops being distributed among all ferry and customs posts, constituting a useful supplement to the Russian troops in the riverine areas. Hitherto the employment of the Bokharan levies for garrison and frontier duty in Darwaz, Shignan and Roshan has been quite a feature of the Russian disposition along the Oxus. Drilled by Russian instructors and armed with modern weapons these territorial troops are regarded by the Russians as the equal of the Afghan soldiery. In war, they would be expected to relieve the regular forces of a multitude of fatigues and thus leave the energies and numbers of the Russian command unimpaired by that slow process of attrition by which, in the main, the fighting strength of an army becomes so quickly exhausted. Quite lately these posts have been taken over by the regular forces, the native troops being withdrawn for service in the Khanate. It has been always unlikely that, in the event of hostilities, the Russians would permit levies to take the field against the Afghan forces.

On the left bank of the stream the Afghan authorities maintain posts at Kala Panja, which is opposite Langar Kisht, Kala Bar Panja, which confronts Charog, and Ishkashim. No works of special importance have been constructed to observe Kala Wamar and Kala Wanj, the work at Kala Bar Panja being the central Afghan position on the Upper Oxus. As a fort it compares not unfavourably with the Russian one at Charog; in point of size it is larger than the original Russian structure there. It is in the form of a square; the walls, constructed of clay and stone, are 200 yards in length, about 12 inches thick and 15 to 20 feet in height. It has capacity for about 1000 men and, along one wall, provision for a small force of cavalry.

Possession of these works did not quite equalise the situation and within the last few months many changes have taken place in the Eastern, Northern and Western commands, the raising of 20,000 recruits having been sanctioned by the Amir for the Eastern and Western divisions at the request of the commanding officers. Leading chiefs bringing 1000 men to the colours were to receive the rank of regimental commanders; those who raised 100 men would become company officers. It was further promised that the pay of these new regiments would be issued monthly. The strengthening process has been also applied to the Home or Central command, 10,000 men having been raised in the Shinwari district and sworn in by the Governor of Jelalabad; while enlistment among the Sufi tribal levies has been started for the Kabul garrison. Further, the Governors of Maimana and Faizabad were instructed to entrench their cities, to throw up the necessary watch towers and to place all approaches in a condition of defence. Two new forts were located on the Oxus at Kala Panja and Ishkashim in Wakhan, a third at Boharac and a fourth at Faizabad.

These fresh works possess nominal accommodation for 1000 men, although there is ample space for double or even treble this number. Built in the form of a square, the walls are 6 feet thick at the top and 18 feet at the base. Artillery emplacements have been prepared in the watch towers at each corner and a shooting-gallery runs round the defences a few feet below their parapet. Quarters have been placed along three walls, each wall taking twenty houses, the fourth wall holding the stable, transport and commissariat arrangements. Pathan regiments from Faizabad were detailed to these positions and also to the support of the Badakshan-Wakhan border; new regiments, fashioned from the reinforcements which had been despatched to Faizabad, taking their place. The normal strength of the Eastern command is represented by seven regiments of Pathan infantry, four squadrons of cavalry and five batteries.

Similarly there has been much activity in the Northern command, the Governor of Afghan Turkestan, Sirdar Ghulam Ali Khan a son of Abdur Rahman, having completed his development of the scheme of defences at Dehdadi which the late Amir created. That stronghold has now been incorporated with Takht-a-Pul, which lies between Mazar-i-Sharif and Balkh and where an important fortified cantonment has been established, possessing a permanent strength of several thousand men. Habib Ullah has full confidence in his brother Ghulam Ali Khan and, in view of the delays which occur in the passage of supplies from the Kabul arsenals to the Herat and Turkestan garrisons, the Amir has sanctioned a proposal to construct in Herat and Takht-a-Pul, small-arms ordnance works, tanning-yards and boot factories, so that these two important commands may be independent of Kabul for these elemental accessories to their efficiency. Powers of control over these projects have been invested in Ghulam Ali Khan, who has appointed an assistant to the Herat branch of the undertaking.

[11] “England and Russia in the East.” Rawlinson.

[12] This study of Anglo-Afghan relations is continued in Chapters xvi. and xvii.

[13] “The Indian Borderland.” Colonel Sir T. H. Holdich.

[14] “England and Russia.” A. C. Yate, 1886.

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The road from Herat to Kandahar lies through districts rich in supplies. From Herat there are two great roads, a northern and southern, the latter passing through Sabzawar, Farah and Girishk to Kandahar, in which district it crosses the Zamindawar country, peopled in the main by the Duranis as far as the fords on the Helmund.

Sabzawar, which is 280 miles from Kandahar, is situated almost midway between Herat and Farah—90 miles from Herat and 71 miles from Farah. It stands 3550 feet above sea-level on the left bank of the Harud river, in an elbow of the stream and at the foot of the outlying spurs of the main ranges. Beyond and partly surrounding it there is a wide open plain, some 4 miles in circumference, well irrigated from the waters of the Harud river and, as a consequence, highly productive. The Sabzawar district contains the most fertile areas in the Herat province, a benevolent attention upon the part of Nature that renders the region of service as an intermediate base of supplies. No force, indeed, could resist the temptation of staying at such a point to refresh both man and beast, and to re-assemble its transport. The position is readily protected and the defensive value of the heights, which lie 2 miles distant to the south of the town, could be supplemented by the flooding of the lowlands from numerous water-courses which intersect the plain. The town draws its water from the Harud river, but certain of the villages are dependent upon canals. Several ruins impart an air of desolation to the plain, yet a pleasing sense of cultivation exists around the town itself, arising from the sparkle of running water and the freshness of green trees.

In recent years Sabzawar has outgrown its original dimensions, and the fort, a square structure with walls 200 yards to 250 yards in length, seven circular bastions on each front and one gate in the south face, has been abandoned. Its walls are in ruins and the interior is uninhabited, save for a small colony of Shikarpuri Hindus. Outside the wall is a ditch, now dry and partially filled with refuse. In the centre of this forlorn scene there is the Governor’s residence, permitting a pleasant view of green trees and fresh-looking grass, cool and even healthy. The town proper, although such a dignified description is inaccurate as the great majority of the population live in villages beyond the walls, is well-to-do, thriving and the centre of a busy trade. Between Nasratabad and itself trade is peculiarly active, the hides, wool, goatskins and dried fruits forwarded from Seistan to Turkestan making it a point of call. Piece goods, sugar and iron-ware are imported in return. The export trade of the town has an annual value of 1,500,000 rupees Indian, and the revenue of the district is 33,000 tomans in cash, and 4000 kharwars in grain. The trade is controlled by Russian Armenian merchants who, resident in its vicinity, travel between Seistan and the surrounding region, pushing articles of Russian manufacture. Their activity in this respect has created an important demand for such goods, which quite oust the few signs of Indian trade that the place at one time revealed.

Sabzawar, the town, is enclosed within a high wall, pierced by four gates—the Irak gate on the west, the Nishapur gate on the east, the Herat gate on the north and the Farah gate on the south. The bazaar, in which are nearly 800 shops, stretches between the eastern and western gates across the town. Its breadth is possibly half a mile and the circumference of the town is a little under 2½ miles. The town is only a gathering place for the district which supports a number of villages and, together with the enveloping pasturage and a wide belt of cultivation, is inhabited by Nurzai Duranis. Each village is a small fort in itself and is surrounded by a high mud wall erected for purposes of security. In size these forts are about 60 yards square; in all there may be some 5000 households in the district, which may be apportioned into 4500 in the villages, 400 in the town, 100 in the fort, with a combined population of 12,000 souls.

Before reaching Farah it is necessary to cross the Farah Rud. This river, rising in the Taimani country, flows past Farah and Lash into the Hamun at its north-west angle, after a southerly course 200 miles in length. Its volume varies with the seasons. The water is usually clear and not quite drinkable for, after the main stream has been exhausted by the fields, the pools which remain in its deeper parts quickly become stagnant. In the spring it is a wide, deep river, always with sufficient water for irrigation in its course: even when nearly dry water is to be found by digging a foot into the river-bed. In the summer it is crossed on inflated skins or rafts of wood and reeds. The banks of the Farah Rud are covered with a jungle growth of tamarisk and mimosa. At the point where it is crossed by the north road from Herat to Kandahar it is fordable, although the bed is very irregular, with alternate rapids and deep pools. The ford is 1000 feet in breadth, but the channel in the dry season contracts to 50 yards, with a depth of 2½ feet. During the flood season caravans are apt to be detained for many weeks. At Farah the banks are 400 yards apart, with a stream in the dry season of 150 yards in breadth and 2 feet of water. At this point it is both clear and rapid.

Farah, 2460 feet above sea-level, lies 170 miles south of Herat, 71 miles from Sabzawar on the south Kandahar road, 150 miles from Girishk and 225 miles from Kandahar. It is a square, walled town; lying north and south and standing well out in the plain it has a diameter of one mile and is in ruins. The wall by which it is surrounded is strongly reminiscent of Herat and comprises an enormous embankment of earth, mixed with chopped straw. A covered way entirely surrounds it on the outside, and its original height was between 35 and 40 feet. Towers rested on the ramparts at one time but, deserted by its inhabitants and neglected by the garrison which is its sole population, it has fallen altogether from its high estate. The town has two gates, that of Herat in the centre of the north face and that of Kandahar exactly opposite on the south side, the citadel occupying the north angle of the wall. Farah is no longer a city. Desolate, ruined and abandoned, its position still is of extreme importance, as it commands the Herat and Kandahar road and the northern entrance into Seistan. But the water in the fort is bad and the place is unhealthy. A general bonfire of the remains should complete the wreck which time has so nearly accomplished. Nowadays it does not contain more than fifty houses, yet it could easily hold several thousand. Those still standing are concealed by the ruins; and scattered jets of smoke, rising from heaps of débris, are the only indications of actual life. Formerly a bazaar crossed the town from the Kandahar Gate to the Herat Gate; but the few shops which remain are now congregated near the Herat Gate, the sole industry of the people being the manufacture of gunpowder from saltpetre. This is collected from the numerous water-pits which go to make up the general character of the scene within the walls.

Between Farah and Kandahar there is the Bakwa plain, which is associated in the minds of the Afghans with a tradition that identifies it with the scene of some future battle between the Russian and British forces. The plain is a dead level stretch without trees or growth of any kind to vary its monotony and it is to its western end that the scene of the prophecy refers. The usual version of the story mentions as a concluding detail that, after the fight, no less than 12,000 riderless horses will be found wandering over it.[15] The Afghans attach considerable belief to this prophecy which, according to Colonel Yate who went to the pains of unearthing its origin, may be attributed to a native of Kuchan, Shah Ni’-Amat Ulla Wani of Kirman, who died in the year 1400 at the age of ninety-seven, having attained considerable reputation as an author, philosopher and sage.

From Farah to Girishk, situated on the Helmund river, is a distance of 150 miles. This river, which rises at Fazindaz in the western slopes of the Paghman mountains, flows with a course generally south-west for over 600 miles, ultimately falling into the Seistan lake. The first point about which any reliable information exists is at Gardan Diwar, about 40 miles from its source. It here runs along the north side of the Urt plateau at an elevation of 11,500 feet, about 12 yards wide, less than a foot in depth in winter and with a brisk current; it is joined by a tributary the Ab-i-Siah, coming from the southern slopes of the Haji Khak pass. In the summer this upper portion of the Helmund is a favourite resort of the pastoral tribes of the Eastern area. Thence it passes through a deep valley, hugging the south side of the Koh-i-Baba for 35 miles to Ghaoch Khol, its banks fringed with rose bushes and osiers. At this point it is crossed by a bridge, unites with a rivulet from the north and with the Ab-Dilawar from the south-west. From this to Diwal Khol, about 25 miles further, it pursues the same westerly direction which it has had from its source. A few miles beyond this point the stream gives a bold sweep to the south for 80 miles, as far as Chakmakchak. Here it is crossed by the road going west towards Herat and receives a considerable feeder from the north. The river then turns slightly to the south-west and keeps this direction for about 120 miles as far as Sakhir, where roads from Bamian, Maidan and Girishk meet. From Sakhir to Girishk, a distance of perhaps 150 miles, its course is more south and 25 miles below Sakhir it is joined from the east by the Tezin stream. At Garmab, 50 miles below this again, it is met by the Khudrud, where it is crossed 60 miles above Girishk. At this point the banks of the Helmund are 1000 yards apart; the right bank low and sandy and the left bank high and rocky. Sometimes when the volume of the river has diminished the breadth of the Helmund at Girishk itself is reduced to 300 yards; the stream flowing smoothly with a mean depth at the ford of 3 feet. In mid-June, again, it is barely passable by infantry; but 3 miles up stream, where the river divides into three branches and the southern Herat-Kandahar road crosses, there is a ferry, in addition to several good fords. Here the depth is less than 4 feet and the breadth across each arm varies between 70 and 150 yards. About 45 miles below Girishk and just below Kala-i-Bist, is an island formed by the river. It is joined on the left by its great tributary the Argand-ab, from which point its width varies between 300 and 400 yards, with an average depth of 1½ to 2 fathoms. Thence to Benadar Kalan, a distance of 70 miles, its direction is south and from this it turns west for 120 miles. At Pul-alak, 100 miles distant, it is usually 400 yards wide, very deep and flowing in a broad stretch of water as far as Traku. Here, its progress arrested by some sand hills, it takes a sudden turn to the north-west and runs for 45 miles in that direction; finally it divides into the three branches, Rod-i-Seistan, Rod-i-Purian, and the Nad Ali. Since 1895 the Rod-i-Purian has been the main channel, displacing the Nad Ali course. The river, even in the dry season, is never without a plentiful supply of water.

Its volume is:

2,000	cubic feet per second at low water.
50,000-60,000	”   ”   ”  ordinary flood.
600,000-700,000	”   ”   ”  abnormal flood.

The fords are:

Gardan Diwar (ford)	40	miles from source.
Ghaoch Khol (bridge)	75	”
Diwal Khol	100	”
Chakmakchak	180	”
Garmab	390	”
Three miles above Girishk (ford)	450	”
Girishk (ford and ferry)	450	”
Shamalan (ford)	500	”
Karnashin	550	”
Kal-i-Sabz (ford)	570	”
Deshu (ford)	590	”
Pul-alak (ford)	650	”
Traku (ferry)	680	”
Deshtak (ferry)	740	”

The fort of Girishk stands on the right bank of the Helmund about 1½ miles from the stream, upon the high road between Kandahar and Herat. Its position seems to have been determined by the neighbourhood of the fords across the Helmund; also by the vicinity of the ferry, which, when the river is not fordable, is usually established at a narrow part of the stream below the fort. From the far side of the river Girishk appears to have more strength and to be in better order than inspection proves to be the case. Upon two sides and part of the third there is a ditch, which contains water but is formidable neither in width nor in depth. On the north and north-eastern aspects, where the wall is situated upon the high bank of the river, it is not continued.

Girishk, as also Farah, comes within the jurisdiction of the officials of Kandahar province and a small garrison is detailed from Kandahar itself. Two squadrons of cavalry and one battery of field guns usually comprise the regular establishment, to which is added a certain militia strength. The soldiers camp outside the walls; the fort itself, which is only 700 feet in length and 250 feet in breadth, being the residence of the Governor of Pusht-i-Rud, the name by which the district goes. In no sense can the building be regarded as possessing any military value. The walls are weak and exposed from their parapet to their foundations. Moreover, there is cover close up to them on all sides except the northern where a ravine, which would afford an enemy protection, is enfiladed from the north-west tower. The setting of the fort is quite picturesque. In the low-river lands on the south side there are charming gardens, but their walls and trees are too likely to afford cover to troops to be other than a danger. In the fort itself are two gateways; one of which, a small one, has been blocked up. The main one is at the southern extremity. There are four corner towers and the water-supply is reliable and drawn from the river. But, equally with Farah and Sabzawar, the fortifications of Girishk need not be the subject of any detailed consideration here. Standing on the main route from Herat to Kandahar, controlling the fords across the Helmund and commanding the road to Seistan from which it is only 190 miles distant, the richness of the surrounding region makes its early possession essential to any force operating from the Indo-Afghan border. Villages are numerous and every one is a thriving centre. The pasturage is both fattening and abundant, while the agricultural capacity of the Zamindawar lands is well known. During the last operations in Afghanistan 4,000,000 lbs. weight of grain were collected from the Girishk district by the British force that was then in occupation, a return which makes it the most important of any of the bases which might be established on the Perso-Afghan border.

Girishk is 75 miles from Kandahar; mid-way between there is Maiwand, mournfully signalised by one of those inglorious reverses which British arms have experienced in Afghanistan—in this instance the defeat of General Burrows at the hands of Ayub Khan in 1880. Their incidence, unfortunately, has given rise to very exaggerated ideas upon the practical utility of the Afghan rabble and its powers of resistance at the present day. Kandahar, the scene of one brilliant episode when the victorious Roberts relieved an ominous situation, has been the centre of many ill-fated risings and mis-shapen schemes, yet of all none more so than that injudicious and most pretentious plan of uniting Quetta with Kushkinski Post by a trans-Afghan railway viâ Kandahar and Herat. No practical end can be served by such a line and, indeed upon the broadest grounds, there is absolutely nothing which can justify its construction. The policy of this country should be mistrustful of Russia always and our attitude should be actively suspicious. In Asia, High or Near, she is our inveterate opponent and the one element of danger which never can be removed from our path. We can neither believe in nor rely upon her bond, while her diplomatic morality no less than her most solemnly pledged word is instinctive with treachery. Whatever may be desirable for purposes of State at this moment, at least we should be mindful of our experiences at her hands and we should allow those lessons of past history to serve to-day as an active spur to our hostility. That she would stoop to any pretext, however infamous, to secure her ends is proven by the unctuous assurances which she tendered the Cabinet of the day in this country in respect of her campaigns in Central Asia. If this reminder be insufficient, let us reflect upon the manner in which she has excused to us, through long years, her nefarious designs against our interests in Persia and Manchuria. Therefore, remembering these things, it is necessary to repeat the warning to keep Russia at a distance.

If Kandahar were to be concerned with any railway at all it should be through an extension from New Chaman. Without such provision our defensive strategy in Southern Afghanistan must needs recoil upon itself. Indeed, no practical value whatever attaches to our power of offence on the Afghan-Baluch border unless it contains the means of counteracting Russia’s schemes of aggression on the Afghan-Perso border. At present our position in Southern Afghanistan is en l’air; but our interests demand that it should be brought to earth and linked up with the steel rails of the military system of strategic lines on the Indian frontier. Just now the position of Russia in Persia is in the making, yet the challenge to our situation in Southern Afghanistan is none the less apparent. It will become quite definite when she occupies Seistan. Russia has the advantage of us in the Middle East in the matter of railway construction and she will build first where she is in no manner liable to be disturbed. If, in the interval, we do not measure our activity by her own, we shall find that we have delayed the extension of the rails to Kandahar until she herself is prepared to abide by the result of a single issue—the projection of the metals to Herat.

It would seem that the present moment were sufficiently propitious for the Government of India to press such an undertaking upon the Amir. At the time of the Dane Mission great attention was paid by the Afghans of Kandahar to the subject of railways between India and Afghanistan. The late Governor, Sirdar Ahmed Khan, now retired in disgrace, receiving orders to ascertain public feeling on a proposal to extend the Indian railway system to Kandahar and to inquire whether the people would object if the request of the British Government were conceded, read out the Amir’s instructions at a special Durbar where all shades of local opinion were represented. The question was debated by the nobles and the people at great length. In the end the view was returned that, while the railway itself would be beneficial, it would facilitate pretexts for dangerous aggressions and the conquest of the country. At a later occasion the Amir sought the opinions of the principal officers of the army who, not only unanimously in favour of the introduction of such a system of communication, warmly advocated its further projection to Herat. The provision of a railway between India and Kandahar, quite a different affair to a trans-Afghan system, would indubitably facilitate commerce, since the scheme would have to go hand in hand with a radical revision of the prohibitory tariffs now imposed along the Afghan border. The moral effect throughout the Kandahar region, too, would be no less significant than that originally caused upon the frontier by the railway to New Chaman, for without that extension from Quetta the proceeds of the Kandahar fruit-gardens would never reach the Indian markets.

Kandahar, which is 125 miles from Quetta and only 65 miles from the railhead at New Chaman, is the last place where an army advancing from Herat towards the Indus would halt. It also affords access to the Ghazni and Kabul roads through the Tarnak valley, and its proximity to the deserts of Baluchistan on the south renders at least one of its flanks safe from being turned. It is very accessible from Persia in the west and from India in the east, while it has changed hands so frequently during the period of its history—Persians, Uzbegs, Afghans and in recent times the English—that a further change is certainly to be anticipated. Kandahar is situated between the Argand and Tarnak rivers on a level plain covered with cultivation and well populated to the south and west; on the north-west a low ridge rises to the height of 1000 feet. The shape of the city is an irregular parallelogram, the length being from north to south with a circuit of 3 miles, 1006 yards. It is surrounded by a ditch, 24 feet wide and 10 feet deep, and by a wall which is 20½ feet thick at the bottom, 14½ feet thick at the top and 27 feet in height. This wall is made of mud hardened by exposure to the sun and without revetment of stone or brick. The length of the western face is 1967 yards, of the eastern 1810 yards, of the southern 1345 yards and of the northern 1164 yards. There are four main gates, through which run the principal streets and two minor gates. The Bar Durani and Kabul are on the eastern face, the Shikarpur on the southern face, the Herat and the Top Khana on the western face and the Idgah on the northern face. The Bar Durani and the Top Khana are the minor gates.

The gateways are defended by six double bastions and the angles are protected by four large circular towers. The curtains between the bastions have fifty-four small bastions distributed along the faces. From the Herat gate a street runs to the Kabul gate through the city; commencing from the Shikarpur gate and crossing it at right angles near the centre, another leads to the citadel, which is square-built with walls 260 yards in length.

The citadel is situated to the north of the city and south of it is the Top Khana. West of this is the tomb of Ahmed Shah Durani, an octagonal structure, overlaid with coloured porcelain bricks and surmounted by a gilded dome, surrounded by small minarets. It towers above all the adjacent buildings and its dome attracts attention to the city from a distance. The pavement of the tomb is carpeted and an embroidered cloak is thrown over the sarcophagus. The sepulchre itself, composed of a coarse stone from the mountains near Kandahar, is inlaid with wreaths of flowers in coloured marble. Twelve lesser tombs, which are those of the children of Ahmed Shah, are ranged near the resting-place of the father. The interior walls are painted in designs similar to those which adorn the exterior, but the execution is more regular and the colours, having been less exposed, are fresher and more brilliant. The lofty dome above the centre imparts an air of grandeur to the little temple, while its windows of stone trellis work admit a subdued and pleasant light. The tomb is engraved with passages from the Koran and a copy of the sacred volume, from which the Mullahs recite passages, is kept in the sanctuary.

At the point where the streets from the Herat gate and the Shikarpur gate meet, is the Charsu, a large dome 50 yards in diameter. Here, as in other parts of the city, are public “humams” or warm baths, where a course of Asiatic massage, including bathing, peeling, kneading and drying, costs one rupee. The Afghan mode of treatment differs but little from that prevailing in India. The houses generally are built of sun-dried bricks, with flat roofs. A few only possess upper storeys. The houses of the rich are enclosed by high walls and contain three or four courts with gardens and fountains. Each of these divisions holds a single building, separated into small compartments and provided with three or four large and lofty halls. The roofs are supported upon wooden pillars, carved and painted. The various suites open upon the several halls, which are embellished with mural paintings and numerous looking-glasses. The walls of the rooms are usually furnished with panels of glittering stucco, a compound of mica and talc, decorated with patterns of flowers. Their surfaces are broken by many recesses, sometimes the refuge of very tawdry ornaments. The ceilings are formed of small pieces of wood, carved, fitted into each other and varnished. The houses of the poorer classes are represented by single rooms 20 feet by 12 feet.

The four principal streets are each 40 yards wide, bordered with trees, flanked by shops and houses with open fronts and shady verandahs. Each street is named after the gate to which it leads from the Charsu, except in the case of the one which runs into the Top Khana. This street, which is very narrow both at its north and south entrances and has the Nikara Khana on its west, is called the Shahi Bazar. Smaller and narrower streets, each crossing the other at right angles, run from the principal thoroughfares towards the city walls, between which and the houses there is a road about 25 yards wide encircling the city. A second road, similar in design, exists on the outside of the wall along the western and southern faces as a relic of the British occupation. It has been planted with trees by the Afghan authorities, a similar adornment having been applied to the main Kokeran road.

Kandahar is divided into districts which are in the occupation of the different tribes. The south-western quarter of the city has four great divisions—the Barakzai Duranis, extending down the Shikarpur and Herat Bazars, having south of them the Hindustani quarter and west that of the Halakozai Duranis, while in the extreme south-west corner of the city, between the two last, there are the Nurzai Duranis. The south-eastern quarter appears to be occupied principally by Populzai Duranis. In the north-eastern quarter, the portion stretching on the north of the Kabul Bazar, is occupied by the Ghilzais; north of them and to the north-east angle of the city is the Bar Durani quarter; while between them and the citadel is the Achakzai Durani quarter. In the south-western portion of the north-western quarter are the houses of the Alizais. These divisions, relating to the principal tribes who frequent the city, concern the Duranis, Ghilzais, Parsiwans, and Kakuris. Greater detail of the population is represented by the following table of houses occupied in the several sections:

Barakzai	940
Nurzai	600
Alikozai	650
Populzai	600
Makuzai	100
Bar Durani	150
Saddozai	100
Kalezai	350
Kharoti	200
Ghilzai	100
Bamezai	400
Sarkani	200
Ismailzai	100
Pathans	200
Turks	50
Baburs and Babis	200
Achakzai	150
Ishakzai	600
Kakuri	550
Alizai	200
Khagwani	150
Bisakzai	100
Madozai	150
Parsiwan	1240
Pirian	100
Doalat Shahi	50
Arabs	50
Aakyakhel	50
Kashmiri	100
Hindus	300
Total	8730

In addition to these a large number of households is unreturned, the official approximate estimate showing no less than 20,000 houses, with a combined population of 50,000 souls. The numerical strength of the larger Afghan cities has always fluctuated, the element of movement, as the population increases and diminishes, depending upon whether the local government were protective or oppressive. When Kandahar was visited by Elphinstone, he calculated its population at 100,000. Hough reported it at 80,000; Masson from 25,000 to 30,000, Ferrier 30,000, Court 25,000 and Bellew 15,500. Holdich, writing in 1880, put the strength of the Duranis, Ghilzais, Parsiwans and Kakuris alone at 30,000. In recent years Kandahar has prospered. As there has been but little to disturb the development of its trade and the general settlement of the immediate vicinity, it is possible that it may have reached the present high figure.

As in most Asiatic cities the different trades occupy special parts of the Kandahar bazaars. In all there are 3700 shops in addition to the stalls of the wayside pedlars. These, their goods spread upon the ground or displayed upon small tables, not infrequently act as agents of the more important merchants.

In the city there are:

Barbers	85
Silk merchants	201
Potters	135
Milk vendors	170
Butchers	231
General merchants	300

There are, too, certain street musicians and strolling players. The premises of the cloth merchants extend down the east side of the Shikarpur Bazar; and facing them are the saddlers and the smiths. From the Charsu towards the Kabul gate, to the north of the Kabul Bazar, are the Hindu bankers. In the opposite direction, on the north of the Herat Bazar, are the coppersmiths; and confronting them are the tailors and the shoemakers. At the north end of the Shahi Bazar is the grass market, and next to it, on the north-east, the cattle market. The Shikarpur Bazar is the popular and central meeting-place; but each of the four principal streets of Kandahar is thronged between sunrise and sunset. Almost without cessation is the movement of the mass of people: some riding, many walking, others proceeding to and from the markets leading camels, driving ponies or themselves carrying loads. Women are rarely seen; but from beyond the Indian border or from out of the heart of Afghanistan there are traders, travellers and fakirs. Arrayed in various colours, though all assume the Afghan dress, they are only distinguished from each other by the forms of their head-dress. Their beards are black and bushy; but where age has made its appearance the white hairs are dyed red with the juice of the henna. A few are shaven and habited in jackets and trousers of blue linen or tunics of drab cloth with pendant sleeves, their heads being protected by cotton skull-caps. This latter type belongs usually to some trans-border region. Others wear cloaks made up in chintz or in the woollen cloth of the country, with turbans of very ample fold. The constant bustle of the streets produces considerable confusion around the stalls, while the shouts of the caravan leaders and the sickly whining of the street beggars add to the uproar. Mendicity is to be seen in its most loathsome and repulsive forms. The blind, the maimed and deformed, ragged and unspeakably squalid men, women and children not only stand and sit, but lie grovelling in the dust or mire under the feet of the crowd.

The Hindus are the most numerous as well as the wealthiest merchants in the city. They carry on a very profitable trade with Bombay, viâ Shikarpur and Karachi. They import silks, calicoes, muslins, chintzes, merinoes, woollen and broad cloths, leather, iron, copper, knives, scissors, needles, thread and paper from England; indigo, spices, sugar, medicines, salt from India; shawls, postins, shoes, opium, silks and carpets from Meshed. Kandahar exports to India and the Persian Gulf madder, assafœtida, goat’s-hair, camel’s-wool, preserved fruits, quince seeds, pomegranate rinds, tobacco, felts, raw silk, rosaries; horses, baggage ponies, Biran carpets, copper utensils and silk are contributed by Persia. The trade between Kandahar, Herat and Meshed is conducted principally by Persians, who bring down silk, raw and manufactured, copper utensils, guns, daggers, swords, precious stones (turquoise), brocade, gold and silver braiding, horses and carpets; they take back wool, felts, postins and skins.

Kandahar city is by far the most important trade centre in Afghanistan, the customs and town dues together equalling the land revenues of the province. These several sources of income, of course, go some way towards meeting the expenses of the Central Government. There are few manufactures or industries of importance that are peculiar to the city; the principal trade of a local description is the production of silk, felt and rosaries of soft crystallised silicate of magnesia, which is found near the city. The description of these trades will be found in a further chapter.

The following table shows the prices obtained in the Kandahar market for the under-mentioned imported articles:

Imports From India.
Bombay.
Names of Articles.		Prices.
		From.		To.
		R.	A.	R.	A.
Long cloths	per piece	7	8	6	8
”   (unbleached)	”	4	8	3	0
Madapollams (white)	”	9	0	6	0
Alwan (shawl) stuff (red)	”	10	0	8	0
”   ”   (orange)	”	9	0	5	0
”   ”   (green)	”	9	0	5	0
”   ”   (white)	”	8	0	5	8
Jaconet (grey)	”	3	0	1	8
”  (white)	”	3	8	2	8
Dimity (white)	”	4	0	3	0
”  (rose)	”	9	0	7	12
Flowered muslins (all colours)	”	3	8	1	8
Coloured muslins	”	3	8	1	9
Net	per yard	1	0	0	7
Drill (white)	per piece	10	0	0	7
Flowered muslins (golden)	”	6	0	3	0
Velvet (black)	per yard	0	12	8	0
”  (red)	”	1	12	1	0
Majut, imported	”	7	8	5	0
Broadcloth	”	7	8	5	0
Chintz (scarlet)	per piece	12	0	8	8
”  (black)	”	8	0	6	2
”  (scarlet and rose coloured)	”	5	0	3	0
”  (white)	”	8	0	5	0
”  (black and other colours)	”	5	8	5	0
”  (shakar kouz, a colour)	”	9	0	6	0
Khasa (scarlet)	”	5	0	3	8
”  (white)	”	3	0	2	0
Shawls	each	6	0	4	8
Merino	per yard	2	0	0	12
Molasses	per seer	0	8	—
Sugar	per 3½ seers	3	0	2	8
Black pepper	”	2	0	—
Sal ammoniac	”	2	0	—
Cloves	”	2	8	—
Green and black teas	”	20	0	12	0
Turmeric	per 3½ seers	2	0	—
Dry ginger	”	2	0	—
Preserved ginger	per jar	4	8	—
Orpiment (yellow)	per 3½ seers	2	0	—
”   (black)	”	2	0	—
Cinnamon	”	4	0	—
Cardamoms (small)	”	3	0	—
”   (large)	”	3	8	—
Thread	per bundle	6	0	—
Cocoa-nuts	per 3½ seers	3	0	—
Satin	per yard	2	8	—
Flannel	”	1	0	—
Russian satin	”	1	8	—
Cambric	per piece	5	0	3	0

Penknives, two-bladed, Rs. 1-8; one blade, Rs. 1; large sailors’ knives, 4 annas. Quantities of pottery-ware of all descriptions are imported, as also needles, thread and a few Anglo-Indian medicines. Foreign drugs kill many more than they cure; since they are administered by a hakim who knows nothing of their properties, but tries the effect of the first which may be at hand, regulating the quantity given by the price.

Amritsar.
Names of Articles.		Prices.
		From.		To.
		R. A.		R. A.
Molasses	per Kandahari maund	2	4	—
Turmeric	”    ”    ”	1	8	—
Saffron	”    ”    ”	16	0	—

Punjabi shoes, penholders, lungis, cloth; Kashmiri shawls, puttu, zinc, saffron and Peshawar lungis.

Multan.
Names of Articles.			Prices.
			From.		To.
			R. A.		R. A.
Rough cloth		per 100 yards	9	0	—
Coloured sheets for women		”   20   ”	17	0	—
Chintz, Nasrkhani	per 20 pieces	or  160  ”	20	0	—
”   Lulgurie	”   ”	”     ”	8	0	—
Alacha		per   4  ”	1	0	—
Buffalo-hides (cured)		per  20  ”	60	0	—
Goats			17	0	—
Shoes			according to quality

Imports from Russia.
Names of Articles.	Bokhara.	Prices.
		From.		To.
		R. A.		R. A.
Russian gold lace	per tola	2	0	—
Bokhara silk	per Kandahari maund	35	0	—
Labani silk	”    ”   ”	25	0	—
Konkani silk	”    ”   ”	25	0	—
Gardauzi silk	”    ”   ”	33	0	—
Bokhara Tomujabin.	”    ”   ”	2	8	—
Gold lace (imitation)	per yard	4	0	—
Gulbadan (a silk cloth)	”	1	0	—
Kanawez (a silk cloth)	”	3	0	2	0
Postins (fox skin)	each	20	0	—
”   (rat skin)	”	25	0	—
Sinjaf postins	”	40	0	—
Sinabands and postins samuri	”	600	0	100	0
Chogas (Alghani)	”	50	0	—
Russian boxes of all sorts and prices.

Imports from Persia.
Meshed and Khorassan.
Names of Articles.		Prices.
		From.		To.
		R. A.		R. A.
Nishapur firozes (Turquoises), at all prices
Opium (Gunabad)	per Kandahari maund	35	0	—
” (Yezd)	”   ”   ”	45	0	—
Kanawez	per yard	1	8	—
Silk lungis	each	9	0	—
” ”  (Yezd)		5	0	—
Rasais (Yezd)		3	0	—
Silk handkerchiefs (black)		4	0	—
Bulghar skins		15	0	—
Bala-zins.		20	0	10	0
Black boots	per pair	8	0	7	0
Abrak (Rahdar)	each	280	0	—
” (Meshedi)	”	50	0	15	0
” (Kirmani)	”	9	0	—
Puttu		12	0	—

Double-barrelled guns, pistols and swords, chogas, white and grey drills, and chintzes of all sorts.

Local Imports.
Kabul.
Names of Articles.		Prices.
		From.		To.
		R. A.		R. A.
Postins	each	25	0	3	0
Sinabands	”	10	0	6	0
Puttu	”	30	0	15	0
Rice	per Kandahari maund	1	0	12	0
Walnuts	”   ”   ”	0	8	—
Kabul molasses	”   ”   ”	1	0	—

Anardara.

From this district are brought the famous pomegranates, which are, perhaps, the finest in the world, as also assafœtida. This trade is chiefly in the hands of Tajiks and Kakuris.

The following are the market prices of articles exported from Kandahar:

Exports.
Names of Articles.		Prices.
		From.		To.
		R. A.		R. A.
Meshed and Herat silk	per Kandahari maund	40	0	—
”     ”	”   ”   ”	35	0	—
”     ”	”   ”   ”	30	0	—
Anab (jujube fruit)	”   ”   ”	1	0	—
Zerisk (a berry from Herat)	”   ”   ”	1	8	—
Saffron from Birjan	”   ”   ”	90	0	16	0
And dried fruits of all sorts in large quantities.

Certain articles[16] have been withdrawn from exportation by order of the Governor of Kandahar, but before this occurred the following taxes were levied: on wheat, barley, atta and rice eight annas per donkey-load or one rupee per camel-load; ghee, five rupees per maund; oil was mulcted in a sixth part. The kidney-fat of every sheep or goat slaughtered is a Government perquisite and is sent to the Amir’s soap manufactory, where it is made after the most economical principles into a coarse description of soap. Each shop pays a tax of one and a half Kandahari rupees per mensem. Saids, mullahs and a few others are exempted.

The returns from taxes assessed on the various crafts give:

Rs. per Annum.
Dyers	1500
Silk-weavers	3500
Tanners	4000
Gram-dealers	1250
Cap and postin-makers	600
Capitation tax	3000
Butchers	700
Cattle markets	2500
Gaming houses	2500

while bakers have to present annually to the Governor thirty Kandahari maunds of bread.

The Saids of Peshin, Kakuris, Bakhtiaris and the Baluchis are the tribes principally engaged in horse dealing. This trade flourishes for six months in the year; but it is stagnant during the hot weather and in the winter, when the roads are closed by snow. About 2000 or 3000 horses are said to pass through the city annually. The chief breeding districts drawn on by these traders are Sarakhs, Maimana, Nur and Kala Nau in the Hazara country; Daria Gaz and Kelati-i-Nadiri in Persia; Gulza and Firozkoh in Herat province. Of these the horses from Sarakhs, Nur and Gulza are most prized, realising locally between 60 and 120 rupees. An export duty between fifteen to thirty rupees was originally levied against each animal. To escape this tax traders frequently took the desert routes, but the trade is now prohibited. The cows of Kandahar and Seistan are in general request; they are said to give twenty seers of milk each per diem, being milked three times in twenty-four hours. They fetch about forty rupees each. Camels are anything but plentiful in the Kandahar district; and the supply is scarcely adequate to meet the demands of the trading population. Many are imported from Baluchistan, the prices varying from twenty to one hundred rupees.

The Saids of Peshin and others formerly conducted a more or less profitable traffic in slaves in Western Afghanistan, some four or five hundred being sold annually in Kandahar. A few of these unfortunates were purchased in Seistan, but most of them were kidnapped from elsewhere. Slavery in Afghanistan, however, was abolished by Abdur Rahman in 1895, the Russian and Indian Governments mutually co-operating in its prevention. Very few slaves were Persian born, the several regions of Afghanistan supplying their own superfluous human beings. Hazara furnished a large quota, frequently in lieu of arrears of revenue or when there was difficulty in realising Government assignments against the different villages. The value of slaves fluctuated according to the price of food; during seasons of abundance high prices were obtained, but in any period of scarcity slaves were a drug in the market.

The climate of Kandahar is charming in the winter, but the spring is considered the most pleasant time. Barren parched hills lie close to the city on the north and west; the heat radiating from them is such that the winds are hot and parching. The temperature of the thermometer varies greatly between morning and the middle of the day—sometimes as much as 40 or 50 degrees.

In winter, composed of the months of December, January and February, the weather is cloudy, with storms, snow, sleet and rain. The wind varies between all the points of the compass, seldom for long blowing from one direction. Frosts are severe.

WINTER TEMPERATURE OF THE AIR.
Maximum.
6 A.M.	1 P.M.	8 P.M.
Open air 52	Sun 115, shade 59	Open air 61.30
Medium.
6 A.M.	1 P.M.	8 P.M.
Open air 36.8	Sun 78.45, shade 49.15	Open air 44.44
Minimum.
6 A.M.	1 P.M.	8 P.M.
Open air 15	Sun 36.30, shade 42	Open air 31.00

In spring, made up of the months of March, April and May, the weather is fair but cloudy. Occasional rain falls; and there are thunder-storms during the first half of the season, in which also the nights are cold and very frosty. In the latter half of this quarter the weather becomes warmer, dews fall at night and dust-storms occur infrequently. The wind is westerly and south-westerly, but high easterly winds prevail in March.

SPRING TEMPERATURE OF THE AIR.
Maximum.
4 A.M.	1 P.M.	8 P.M.
Open air 78	Sun 139, shade 85	Open air 85
Medium.
4 A.M.	1 P.M.	8 P.M.
Open air 56.23	Sun 114.50, shade 70.8	Open air 69.35
Minimum.
4 A.M.	1 P.M.	8 P.M.
Open air 31	Sun 78, shade 53	Open air 44.45

During the months of June, July, August and part of September, the hot season obtains, commencing about June 20 and continuing until September 20. It comprises two periods of forty days each, separated by an intervening fortnight of cloudy and cooler weather, during which thunder-storms occur in the mountains, though rain rarely falls on the plain. The most prevalent wind during the summer blows from the west during the day, but during the night and until the sun has been “up” a couple of hours it emanates from the opposite direction. Dust-storms are frequent and severe.

SUMMER TEMPERATURE OF THE AIR.
Maximum.
4 A.M.	1 P.M.	8 P.M.
Open air 86	Sun 150, shade 96	Open air 94
Medium.
4 A.M.	1 P.M.	8 P.M.
Open air 74	Sun 136.20, shade 87.10	Open air 86.15
Minimum.
4 A.M.	1 P.M.	8 P.M.
Open air 63	Sun 105, shade 82	Open air 77

The wind, during the autumn in the evening and in the early morning, blows in warm unrefreshing gusts, heated by passing over the many bare rocky ranges which serve simply to reflect the sun. During these months, part of September, October and November, the sun is still powerful. Occasional dust-storms occur, and there is cloudy weather towards the close of the season. The dews are heavy; little rain falls and high north-easterly and north-westerly winds prevail at the close of the season.

AUTUMN TEMPERATURE OF THE AIR.
Maximum.
5 A.M.	1 P.M.	8 P.M.
Open air 65	Sun 148, shade 82	Open air 85
Medium.
5 A.M.	1 P.M.	8 P.M.
Open air 50.57	Sun 123.50, shade 70.44	Open air 69.15
Minimum.
5 A.M.	1 P.M.	8 P.M.
Open air 32	Sun 70, shade 58	Open air 51

Of diseases that may be attributed to the Kandahar climate, the most prominent are intermittent and remittent fevers, whilst continued fevers and small-pox, although met with only in a sporadic form, are epidemic in certain seasons. The first-named maladies are prevalent throughout the year; although more active in the spring and autumn when they are remarkable for the frequency of the tertian form.

Ophthalmic complaints are numerous, although not altogether attributable to the climate. Rheumatism, neuralgic affections, scrofula, syphilis and certain cerebral disturbances are common.

[15] “Northern Afghanistan.” Major C. E. Yate.

[16] See pages 205, 206.

[17] 1 camel load = 8 maunds and 16 sers.

[18] Persons visiting British territory for trade purposes, etc., are required to pay Rs. 2-8 as passport tax per head, provided they furnish personal security to return within 6 months.

[19] Persons visiting British territory for trade purposes, etc., are required to pay Rs. 4-2-8 as passport tax per head, provided they furnish personal security to return within 1 year.

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Westwards of the Kandahar district is the region of Seistan, to which unusual political interest attaches. Roughly speaking, it is divided between Persia and Afghanistan, the Helmund river demarcating the mutual spheres of interest and occupation. Geographically, it belongs to the watershed of Afghanistan. Its extensive areas, situated along the borders of Afghanistan, Persia and Baluchistan, are drained by the Hamun lake, which also receives the waters of the Helmund, Farah, Khash and Harud rivers. The area of this depression, which is broken up into three subsidiary basins—those of the Farah, the Helmund and the Zirreh,—is 125,000 square miles. The first of these consists of the two-fold lagoon formed by the Harud and Farah rivers flowing from the north, and by the Helmund and the Khash or Kushk Rud flowing from the south and east respectively. These are connected by a thick reed-bed called the Naizar, which, according to the amount of water that the lakes contain, is either a marsh or a cane-brake. In flood-time these waters, ordinarily distinct, unite to pour over the Naizar into the second great depression, known by the generic title of Hamun Lake. In times of abnormal flood the Hamun will itself overflow. On such occasions the water, draining southwards through the Sarshela ravine, inundates the third depression, which is known as the Gaud-i-Zirreh. The Hamun Lake, like the Gaud-i-Zirreh, is one of those seasonable phenomena which are invariably met in regions where the water system is irregular. At certain periods quite dry, at others it possesses a measurement of 100 miles in length, 15 miles in breadth, with a mean depth of 4 feet and a maximum of 10 feet. The waters of the Hamun are sweet. Fish are very plentiful, providing food for an aboriginal colony which frequents the lake. It is, also, the haunt of many varieties of wild geese, duck and other water-fowl.

It is better, before proceeding to study further the value of Seistan, to describe exactly of what Seistan consists. Sir Frederic Goldsmid, for purposes of more accurate definition of the region, divided its areas into two parts: Seistan Proper and Outer Seistan. In this he may be said to have given Seistan Proper[20] to Persia and Outer Seistan[21] to Afghanistan. The former lies between the Naizar on the north and the main lateral canal, which waters the lands around Sekuha and the neighbouring villages on the south. It extends along the old bed of the Helmund, from a mile above the dam at Kohak, to its mouth on the east, and to the fringe of the Hamun and the Kuh-i-Khwajah on the west. The population numbers 45,000, of whom 10,000 were nomads of mixed descent. Of the larger total, 20,000 are returned as Seistanis and 15,000 as Persian-speaking settlers, the average number of persons to the square mile being roughly 15—figures which are eight times in excess of the proportional result found elsewhere in Persia. Outer Seistan comprises the country stretching along the right bank of the Helmund, from its lake mouth on the north to Rudbar in the south. The inhabitants are Seistanis, Baluchi nomads and Afghans, together with a certain proportion of Sanjuranis and Joktis—the term Seistani applying particularly to that portion of the inhabitants possessing permanent settlements, irrespective of descent and nationality. The combined areas of the Seistan basin aggregate some 7006 square miles and the joint population is returned at 205,000, or 34 to the square mile.

It is the Helmund river, the chief tributary to the Hamun, that has been the greatest obstacle to the successful demarcation of the Seistan region. Hitherto the boundary defining the respective limits of the two States has been the one arranged in 1872 by the Goldsmid Award. Under that instrument a line was drawn from Siah-koh to where the then main bed of the Helmund river entered the Naizar swamp. The frontier then proceeded to Kohak. From this point it followed a south-westerly direction to Koh-i-Malik-i-Siah, thus leaving the two banks of the Helmund below Kohak to Afghanistan. Since then the Helmund has changed its course, and in that portion of the frontier which was affected by the vagaries of the stream, considerable confusion arose, while local Perso-Afghan relations became very much inflamed. The question as between the two races depended upon the future division of the new bed of the Helmund, the point of dispute dealing specifically with the divergence of the main stream from the channel which was selected as the frontier line by the Mission of 1872. The Afghans, who were the principal gainers by the alteration of the course of the river, claimed that the new bed formed the frontier: the Persians, on the other hand, endeavoured to maintain the strict interpretation of the old agreement.

Unfortunately Seistan possessed interest for others than those who were dependent upon the course of the Helmund, and Russia had already secured the Shah’s assent to the appointment of a Russian consul at Nasratabad. As soon as the dispute promised local unpleasantness between Persia and Afghanistan, and political difficulties for Great Britain with Teheran, this individual, M. Miller, interfered. Exclaiming against the presumption of the Afghans, he offered to provide a force to resist their so-called aggression. Happily, before matters had reached the crisis which would have made Russian interference possible, the Shah, in accordance with the terms of the Treaty of Paris, requested the British Government to arbitrate on the question of the Helmund waters and, at the same time, to establish a permanent boundary line in place of the vague provisions made by the Goldsmid Mission.

In agreeable accord with this request, the Imperial Government at the end of 1902 appointed as British Commissioner, Major McMahon, who had already demarcated the whole of the southern boundary of Afghanistan—a distance of 800 miles. It so happened that his new duties commenced at Koh-i-Malik-i-Siah, the point at which his former work finished. The mission consisted of eleven British officers, numerous survey and irrigation experts, an escort of 200 native infantry, 60 cavalry, with a large supply of transport, including the 58th Camel Corps—in all a total of 1500 men, 200 horses and 2200 camels. As the base was at Quetta, 500 miles across an almost waterless desert, whence all stores except grain and fodder and a few local commodities had to be imported, the task of feeding the mission can be well appreciated. Starting from Quetta, the mission proceeded through Afghan territory to Khwaja-ali on the Helmund and then followed the river, with the object of commencing work in the middle of the boundary.[22] This march of 500 miles over uninhabited waterless country occupied five weeks. The temperature was very low, with the thermometer at 4 degrees above zero; and frightful blizzards were encountered. During this period three men were frozen to death and a number of animals lost. On reaching Seistan, Colonel McMahon was met by the Afghan Commissioner and by two Persian Commissioners, each with a large escort. The Amir, who was known personally to the British Commissioner, kindly despatched from Kandahar for his private protection a force of 100 cavalry and 200 infantry.

Political difficulties for the Mission commenced at the very outset. Attempting to cross into Persian Seistan it was refused admission by the Persians, who had been thoroughly frightened by Russian misrepresentation as to its object. The cool assertion was made that no boundary was in dispute, and that any attempt to pass into Persian territory would be met by force. For a whole month the Mission contented itself with travelling along the Afghan side of the Helmund, collecting information in regard to the frontier line. Throughout this time there was no meeting with the Persian officials. Further work at last necessitated an entry into Persian territory. Notwithstanding Persia’s protests and her objection to the erection of a bridge for the purpose of crossing the Helmund, the Mission crossed, receiving the customary compliments and being welcomed with bands and guards of honour.

The actual work of demarcation was very difficult. South of the Helmund for 90 miles the line lay through an arid desert where water was brought from long distances. North of this section the boundary traversed country liable to inundation in which pillars of a massive permanent nature had to be erected, while the last 20 miles of the frontier ran up the waterless, glacial slopes of the Siah-koh. By the decision agreed upon the old bed of the Helmund was retained as the new frontier, the present boundary being so fixed that it continues irrespective of further changes in the course of the river. This arrangement reconstitutes the 1872 line. Considerable delay marked its acceptance both in Kabul and Teheran, the findings being delivered in April 1904. Demarcation work, proceeding in accordance with McMahon’s report, was not completed until the close of 1904, by which time Persian objections to the decision upon the boundary had been overcome, the first part of the work of the Mission being settled absolutely when the final adhesion of the two Governments to the verdict of the Mission was notified in September 1904. The appropriation of the Helmund waters between Persia and Afghanistan was the second part of the business of the Mission. The difficulties of the question were increased by Russian exertions to thwart a satisfactory solution. Nevertheless, after most scrupulous pains and exhaustive inquiries into existing rights and practice, the Commissioners’ award upon partition of the waters was handed, in May 1905, to the Persian and Afghan representatives for communication to their respective Governments. The Amir of Afghanistan at once accepted the judgment of Colonel McMahon, while the people on the spot also warmly espoused the settlement. But Persia, inspired by the laboured concoctions of the Russian officials in Teheran, refused to ratify the protocol and, after great delay, confirmed her dissatisfaction at the distribution of the waters by direct representations to the British Minister at Teheran. Unhappily on February 26, 1906, in spite of previous official intimations from the Foreign Office that Persia had acquiesced in the results of the Mission, the Shah’s Government formally notified Sir Edward Grey of its inability to accept and consequent rejection of the decision in respect of the McMahon division of the waters of the Helmund. In a similar manner, it may be remembered, Persia appealed against the decision of the Goldsmid Mission with the result that its original terms were confirmed. No genuine objection exists in this instance.

It is perhaps to be regretted that the most prominent result revealed by the McMahon Mission was the pronounced antagonism of the Germans and Russians to British interests in Persia. From the very beginning and with deliberate intent, M. Miller wrongly described the intentions and aims of the Mission, his ingenious fabrications ultimately finding sympathetic shelter in the columns of the German Press. Germany’s share in the persecution with which the Mission was followed has passed unnoticed in this country. But at a moment when stupid people are encouraging others of greater foolishness to commit the British Government to very undesirable rapprochements with Berlin, it is as well to reflect upon the real character of the niceties which underlie German policy where Anglo-German interests are concerned. Unfortunately, it is not always realised in Great Britain how much weight a venal Press can give to the indefatigable inventions of scurrilous, political gossipers. It may be, therefore, necessary to say that not a particle of truth attaches to the many statements about the McMahon Mission which appeared abroad in print. Ingenuous as the mendacity and duplicity of M. Miller may be, it is incomprehensible that any diplomatic official would circulate, without specific orders, such lies and travesties of fact as were current in Seistan during the sojourn of the Mission there. Whatever may appear to have been the gist of M. Miller’s instructions from the Russian Minister in Teheran, it is to be admitted that he acted up to the fullest limit of his opportunities. Happily the malicious untruths and slanders, which became so prominent a feature of the Russo-German press campaign, have recoiled upon the Russian policy; and, while the arch purveyor of the trash has been removed, Russian prestige itself has temporarily fallen very low.

With the disappearance of M. Miller from the scene in Seistan, the emissaries of the Russian authorities went further afield. Articles, breathing the engaging candour of a regular crusade, appeared in the Press of St. Petersburg and Berlin, lengthy extracts being received in Teheran itself through the kindly offices of the Official Telegraph Agency in St. Petersburg. The organ of the Russian authorities in Central Asia—The Russian Trans-Caspian Gazette, published at Askhabad—was perhaps the most industrious agent in circulating grotesque details of the wrongs inflicted upon the poor Seistanis by the brutal decisions of the British Mission. In respect of these statements it happens that the share in the Hamun lake, allotted originally by the Goldsmid Convention, remains absolutely unaltered. The remark that Persian Seistan was in danger of becoming a desert because Persia had been mulcted in two-thirds of its water supply is a lying absurdity, divulged by M. Miller or the Russian Minister in Teheran for no other purpose than to sow distrust of Great Britain in the Persian mind and throughout Europe. Again, the touching descriptions of the homeless Seistanis dispossessed of their lands through the heartless insistence of the British Commissioner, which only needed to appear in the Russian Trans-Caspian Gazette to be commented upon by German newsmongers with characteristic insolence, are conspicuously false insomuch that neither Persian nor Afghan villages were removed, nor any single individual evicted. The statement, too, that the McMahon Mission had laid out upon Persian soil an extensive fortified camp, within battlemented mud walls is equally untrue. This “extensive fortified camp” consisted of the mud-huts used by the Mission; the walls were the mud-walls of the tennis-court, while “the armed guard,” left in charge of these “fortifications,” resolved itself into one of three watchmen, who had been given the custody of certain property pending orders as to its removal. In this direction it is of interest to know that upon the day following the departure of the Mission an attempt by the Russians to occupy the camp was prevented only by the presence of these men.

Full inquiries into the pernicious activity which distinguished the Russian officials of course should be made by the British Government. There is no doubt that M. Miller abused the privileges attaching to his diplomatic position in proclaiming that the British Mission would not be permitted by the Russians to enter Persia; and when, as the representative of Russia in Seistan, he went the length of arranging riots against the British Consul on his Majesty’s birthday, he committed a serious offence against a friendly country. At such an affront Sir Arthur Hardinge, our Minister in Teheran, might well have intervened; but, in spite of the mob demonstrating before the British Consulate and demanding the expulsion of the Consul and the withdrawal of the Mission, it was left to the Mission itself to secure its own protection. This was not impossible; eventually the ringleaders of the movement, which included the majority of the Russian agents in Seistan, were apprehended and summarily flogged. There could have been no objection if the stronger action, which the circumstances warranted, had been more directly applied.

While the course of the Imperial Government in respect of Afghanistan cannot be defined with certainty, there is an equal lack of decision in respect of our policy towards Persia. The condition of our affairs in Mid-Asia, Persia and Afghanistan, which our lamentable lack of foresight has precipitated, is altogether disastrous; our difficulties increasing precisely as the integrity of Persia and the dependence of Afghanistan disappear. In consequence of the serious defects in our policy, coupled with most inadequate representation at Teheran, Great Britain has been almost completely ousted from north-east Persia. The success of the Boundary Mission in Seistan cannot be regarded as introducing any permanent factor in nor effecting any radical alteration of the situation. In view of the significant hold over Persia which Russia possesses and since Russian movement in Khorassan in the future cannot but affect Seistan, the present occasion is one where a firm stand against Russian pretensions undoubtedly should be made.

The trials of the mission in Seistan were of a distinctly unpleasant order. During the winter 1904-05 the jackals with which the district abounds, for some unknown cause went mad, attacking men and animals. Four members of the Mission were bitten, one of whom died of hydrophobia. The disease also spread to the wolves, who played great havoc. One wild night, March 25, 1905, during a blizzard blowing at a velocity of 88 miles an hour, two mad wolves raided the lines of the Camel Corps and worried seventy-eight camels and one horse. Forty-eight of the camels and the horse died of hydrophobia. On another occasion a horde of these creatures tried unsuccessfully to rush the main camp. The Seistanis themselves were so overcome by terror that they actually killed off all but a few of their dogs on whom they depend for safety and security at night.

One of the most tragic experiences was the death of an Indian surveyor while on duty in the waterless Dasht-i-Margo. He ventured too far from water and, owing to the intense heat, was unable either to move forward or to retrace his steps. He and seven of his followers paid the penalty with their lives. This incident was marked by the heroism of one of his men who, seeing the surveyor die, determined to rescue the map, to secure which so many lives had been given. He cut it off from the board of the plane table and, knowing that he could not long retain consciousness, wound it under his waistcloth round his body. Then he blindly started northward in the hope of reaching water. The four men who commenced this journey with him collapsed, he himself remembers no more than regaining consciousness at night-time lying by a pool in the Krash river. Here he was found by a wandering Afghan, who carried him on his back to a native village where, after receiving careful attention, his life was saved. The bodies of his unfortunate companions were subsequently discovered in a completely mummified condition.

Seistan resembles other parts of Central Asia and almost every centre of importance in Afghanistan, insomuch that its existence depends upon irrigation. The canals which branch off from the Helmund, bearing the waters of that river throughout the heart of the country, date back to a period which itself is long prior to either Persian or Afghan conquest. The systems in vogue to-day are hardly an improvement upon those earlier waterworks; there is no doubt that the region might be made the centre of an exceptionally fertile oasis if there were any enduring qualities in the local government, security for trade or opening for agricultural activity. Life in Seistan does not entail elaborate preparations. Provisions are cheap; and sheep and oxen are abundant. Rice comes from Herat, vegetables are scarce, while wheat and barley may be purchased in large quantities.

The feature of Seistan is the Helmund. Indeed, this region is as dependent upon the Helmund as Egypt is upon the Nile, and in recent years agricultural conditions have much improved. The gross revenue is now 100,000 kharwars of grain, with an additional 7100 tomans as the value of other products. Of this latter return the Amir of Seistan takes one-fifth, 1420 tomans; with levies upon forage and firewood from each village and the proceeds from the sales of permits to collect taxes on cows and sheep, the cash revenue amounts to 14,095 tomans. The tax on cows is 2½ krans per 100 cows, and the impost on sheep 1 kran for 20 sheep. There is no levy on ploughing bullocks. Of the 100,000 kharwars of grain the Amir receives 30,000 kharwars at the value of 5 tomans per kharwar. The net receipts are, therefore, 164,095, of which the Persian Government require 2600 tomans in cash and 24,012 kharwars in grain, of which 9812 kharwars are remitted in allowances to officials, priests and troops.[23] In place of the payment in grain, too, the Persian Government usually accepts a cash equivalent at the rate of 7 krans per kharwar, 9940 tomans, the aggregate cash payment contributed by Seistan to Teheran amounting to 12,540 tomans, or £2500.

The prices ruling in the Nasratabad Bazar are:[24]

• Wheat, 25 krans, or about 10s., per kharwar of 649 lbs.
• Barley, 20 krans, or about 8s., per kharwar of 649 lbs.
• Bhusa, 4 krans per kharwar of 649 lbs.
• Firewood (tamarisk), 4 krans per kharwar of 649 lbs.
• Bread, 1 kran per 2 mans or 13 lbs.
• Ghee, 4 krans per 1 man or 6½ lbs.
• Milk, 1 kran per 2 mans or 13 lbs.
• Sugar, 6½ krans per 1 man or 6½ lbs.
• Fowls, 2 or 3 for a kran.
• Eggs, 40 for a kran.

The capital of Seistan is divided into two sections—northern and southern; although so long the centre of local government, it reflects at first a somewhat cheerless and dilapidated appearance. The absence of roads about the city and the generally neglected condition of Husseinabad, the southern town, set up a feeling of disappointment in those who see the place for the first time. Beyond these two towns have sprung up in the last few years the neat buildings of the British Consulate, which may be said to constitute a third part of the capital, with Captain Macpherson in charge of Anglo-Indian interests. Separated from the rest of the city by a broad stretch of level ground, some acres in extent, it occupies an admirable site and has the advantage of room for extension, should it, at any time, be thought advisable to embark upon enlargement. Between two rows of buildings is a wide space, more nearly a square than a street, at the end of which the Union Jack flies. Behind the main block on the south side of the square is a mosque. The principal premises cover a space of about 150 yards by 70 yards, the whole site consisting roughly of about 13 acres. Alongside the consulate stand the imposing premises of the British bank, a branch of the Imperial Bank of Persia, comprising several excellent houses and a well-kept garden.

Husseinabad is little more than a collection of small-domed mud-houses, built, irrespective of ground plan, wheresoever fancy dictated and placed in the middle of a vast plain. Here and there a windmill of curious shape—usually stationary in the winter months, but wanting only the fierce blasts of the Bad-i-sad-o-bist roz or wind of 120 days, which blows unceasingly in the summer months, to rouse it to a state of wild activity—stands conspicuously among the surrounding houses. Beyond this the residences of the Russian Consul and the Chief Mullah are the only other objects likely to attract attention. The former, no longer the largest house in the town, is also badly situated, being enclosed on three sides by houses and on the fourth by a graveyard, which stretches from the Consulate to the walls of Nasratabad. The Russian Consulate itself, a rectangular building enclosing two courtyards opening into one another, has been, in reality, converted from native houses. It rejoices in an upper storey; a cluster of domes—each room possessing a separate dome—forms the roof, above which stands a sorry-looking flagstaff.

Nasratabad, the northern town, though in itself insignificant, is by far the more imposing half. It is surrounded by walls 30 feet in height, about 350 yards in length from north to south and 400 yards from east to west, with buttresses at intervals of about 40 yards. An additional rectangular enclosure projecting from the north-east corner contains the arc or citadel, in which is situated the palace of the Amir. In the centre of the southern wall, supported on either side by buttresses, stands one of the two gateways of the city. From here the central street traverses the length of the city, terminating in a similar gateway in the centre of the north wall. Running all round is a protected way which is loopholed; there is also a deep ditch, sometimes filled with water. The place possesses from fifty to one hundred shops; with one exception they are insignificant and mainly occupied by soldiers who, during their term of service in Seistan, devote themselves to trade and are scarcely ever taken away from the fort. The open spaces in the city have been cultivated, and little patches of grain may occasionally be seen. As is always the case with Persian towns donkeys are everywhere to the fore.

Nasratabad is garrisoned by two Kain regiments,[25] one of which is disbanded at home, while the other supplies shopkeepers to the capital in the intervals of military duties. The nominal strength is 1000, but less than 800 men are mobilised. They are armed with the useless jezail, although at Birjand there is a store of Werndl rifles; they are supposed to receive a new uniform every second year. Service is for life and is hereditary in the families supplying the soldiers. Their pay is twenty krans—twelve shillings—and 7½ mans of wheat yearly; on service in Seistan they are given rations. As may be supposed, they do not constitute a formidable body of fighting men. In addition to the infantry there are 20 gunners hailing from Tabriz, who hold a position of which they take the fullest advantage. They carry on the business of moneylenders, charging 500 per cent. as a minimum!

It has long been recognised in Seistan that, while Indian commerce can achieve no compensating return in the markets of Khorassan against the trade of Russia and a dam of prohibitory tariffs blocks any little trickle from India entering Central Asia, something might be gained by concentrating attention upon Seistan itself. Accordingly, when in 1896 the laying-out of a route between Nushki and Nasratabad was begun and the construction of a railway between Quetta and Nushki was mooted, two important steps in the right direction were indicated. The distance from Quetta to Nasratabad along the route which was adopted is 565 miles. The five stages out of Quetta down to Nushki, a distance of 93 miles, pass through mountainous country. The road descends 2564 feet from the Quetta plateau to the great tableland which stretches away to Seistan at a height of 3000 feet. Across it lies the track, fairly level and admirably adapted for the passage of caravans. The hills tower in rough fantastic forms along the road to Nushki, and in crossing from valley to valley vistas of the mountain scenery of Baluchistan open out in constant succession. The altitude of the country above the sea and the dry bracing atmosphere create, in winter, a pleasant feeling of exhilaration. The heat in summer is intense, but the temperature varies between the extremes of heat and cold.

The hills are the great feature of Quetta. To the east, within a mile or two of the bazaar, the Mardar range rises to a height of 11,000 feet, forming a splendid background to the cantonment. To the north, west and south the plain stretches out to the foot of the Zarghim, Tuckatoo and Chiltan hills. Bare and rugged are their slopes, for the juniper groves are tucked away in clefts on the hill-sides. Chill and forbidding are their summits, save at sunset when they flush scarlet as sin; then deepening gradually to purple pale to amethyst as twilight falls. As the night darkens, too, the fires of the charcoal-burners in the juniper valleys flash out, and the lowing of cattle from a distant bazaar reverberates in the still air. The atmosphere is very clear and distances are most deceptive. Dust-storms are frequent and the tiny dust-devil may be seen across the plain twirling rapidly in the radiant sunlight. Near Quetta there are a few mud-walled villages. They contain mostly a mixed population, the Baluchis proper being nomads and living in black blanket-tents. Even of these there are very few except at harvest time, when beside every threshing-floor, dotted amongst the golden mounds of bhusa, are ragged shelters. Each tent is composed simply of a couple of coarse goats’-hair blankets stretched, one to the windward and one overhead, across some forked sticks. Inside swarm a mass of men, women and children. The women wear long-sleeved, red cotton shirts reaching to the ankles, full cotton trousers and chaddas of indigo blue cotton. They do not appear to veil themselves among their own people; upon the approach of the white man a corner of the chadda is caught quickly across the mouth. The chadda falls straight down from the crown of the head to the heels and the frayed, soil-worn tail is left to drag among the dust heaps. The long black tresses of the women are thickly plaited and ornamented with blue beads and white cowries. Sometimes a mass of coins is worn like a fringe over the forehead. Their shirts are finely worked in green and gold on the hems, at the sleeves, neck, skirt and down the opening at the throat with the Russian cross stitch.

The Baluchi is a wild-looking man with long, black, well-oiled locks, which he keeps hanging in heavy curls round his neck and shoulders. He wears flowing cotton trousers, a cotton shirt, a waistcoat and a variety of coats according to his means. His apparel is of the dirtiest and his bare feet are thrust into heavy ammunition boots with never a lace in them. In spite of certain defects in his attire, he is a very dignified-looking man and a born leader—of camels! Moreover, he does not set too high value upon his womenfolk; labour is divided, and in ploughing his wife and a camel are usually harnessed together. The price of a spouse is calculated in so many goats, sheep, donkeys or camels.

From Quetta a good driving road runs as far as Samungli, 8 miles distant, where there is a small caravansary. From this point a kutcha road bears off south-west circling round the northern foot of Chiltan in the valley of Girdi Tallao, near the middle of which is the next halting-place. Here there is a caravansary built in the Persian fashion—a square courtyard with leans-to for cattle and camel-men and in one corner quarters, consisting of a mud rez-de-chaussée and a wooden chappar khaneh, for travellers of a better class.

From Girdi Tallao the road proceeds to Tilleri through a cultivated valley, always bordered by the bare hills. At Tilleri there is another rest-house built on the same pattern, but possessing the luxury of windows in the lower storey. After leaving Tilleri the road is level for the first few miles as far as the Sherinab stream. It then rises gradually for the ascent of the Barak pass, where there is a litter of rubble and stones and the ground is very much broken. Beyond the pass, in the vicinity of Murad Khan Killah, the valley spreads out to a level plain with sandy, well-cultivated soil—for Baluchistan. Up to this point in this stage there is not a vestige of a tree nor yet a camel-thorn bush; even the water is brackish. Moreover signs of agricultural activity do not continue. Soon after leaving Murad Khan the route lies across stony, uneven ground until the Kishingi valley is reached. Here the soil is once more sandy; camel-thorn abounds, and in spring there is the glow of crimson tulips. Beyond Kishingi, the road descends into the Nushki plain by a long, steep pass.

It has not been possible for Nushki to avoid the prosperity which follows in the train of the caravan. At the present moment it is an active but unfortunate settlement. Built at the foot of the hills which bound it on the north and only 2 or 3 miles from the range separating it from Kishingi, the winds from the west, sweeping along the plain to the hills and then eddying back again carrying clouds of dust, catch Nushki both ways. Although very seriously exposed and lying on the edge of the desert which stretches away westwards to the Helmund, there are evidences in the country around of attempts at agriculture. Irrigation is practised and the trickle of water from the Kaisar stream has been augmented by the careful sinking of wells, until the present state of Nushki is in near relation with that which seems to have existed many generations ago. On the top of a low spur of hills which runs south across the valley, where was once a Baluchi fort, now stands an ugly mud-coloured, flat-roofed bungalow, the traveller’s rest-house. The hill on which it is built is very stony and absolutely bare of vegetation. On its southern aspect is a pebbly water-course into which the water, after running close to the bazaar and supplying two cattle-fords, dribbles scantily. The water-course is a favourite place for the disposal of dead camels and donkeys; while the unwholesome little river, the germ-bearer of many maladies, serves to turn three rather primitive waterwheels for the grinding of wheat and barley. In the clay soil along the edges of the stream myriads of tiny mauve irises grow during spring, with here and there scarlet and yellow tulips.

The bazaar is somewhat uninteresting, for it has been built by a British officer in uncompromisingly straight lines. Of course it is all made of mud; the roofs are flat and there are no balconies or verandahs because wood is scarce. So also there are no white Hindu temples and shady peepul trees, no domed mosques and stately-arched gateways, no strings of chillies strung across the shop fronts crimsoning in the sun. There is no touch of colour anywhere; even the people seem to be clad in dirty white or dusty indigo-blue.

A wide street leads through the centre of the bazaar, and upon it are set two rows of one-storey mud-shops. Nearly all belong to Hindu bunnias from Shikarpur. Their effects are chiefly sacks of grain and Manchester cotton goods, a few native-made long overcoats, waistcoats broidered with gold or silver thread and the peaked Afghan kullah or semi-conical cap, worn in the centre of the puggaree. At the end of this thoroughfare are the police lines, post office and some attempts at a military cantonment in which the local levy is quartered. The population is liable to fluctuation. Three years ago there were 250 people and rather more than 200 houses, of which 120 were shops; but any estimate to-day would need to be much greater, as the numbers of the population have doubled. This increase is due primarily to the growing popularity of the Nushki-Seistan route and an influx of people who were concerned in the construction of the Quetta-Nushki railway. The completion of this work, which was opened to traffic on November 15, 1905, when a tri-weekly service was initiated, will probably cause the abandonment of the present position which Nushki occupies. The soil there has been infected by epidemics of cholera, and enteric is endemic among the villagers.

The actual terminus of the line has been placed 10 miles further on in the open valley, where there is both water and a better situation. There is little doubt that ultimately the preference of the caravans and the merchants will be given to the spot where the station premises are already located.

Work upon the railway began in the summer of 1902, when the difficulties which it presented were not formidable. The cost of construction has been but little more than half a million sterling. The line, which is 83 miles in length, branches off from the North-Western railway to Quetta above the Bolan pass, 3 miles from Shezand station and 12 miles short of Quetta itself, at a height of 5864 feet. The stations constructed on the line are very well appointed, far better than those upon the Bolan or Humai systems. They reflect the greatest credit on the engineers. They are as follows:

•  1. Nishpa East.
•  2. Nishpa West.
•  3. Tiri Walikhan.
•  4. Dhinger.
•  5. Sheikh Wazil.
•  6. Khurd Barak.
•  7. Kardagap.
•  8. Galangur Kotal.
•  9. Kishingi.
• 10. Nushki.

In general, Mr. Woodside may be congratulated upon the successful termination of his labours. Certain features in the construction are novel and create a somewhat daring precedent, as bridges have been built only over the large streams. Across the smaller streams the line runs, so that in heavy storms it may be washed away and the service dislocated. The experiment may prove troublesome, and it will be interesting to see how the system answers; with small traffic it may be a success. For a long time there will be little traffic beyond the Mastang district, although there is likely to be a large trade from there during the hot weather. The investigations of the engineers have proved that in all the valleys water is everywhere within practicable distance, under 150 feet generally. Where there was desolation before, and where it was not believed possible to find water, plentiful springs have been tapped.

Splendid work has been done by two young engineers, fresh from Scotland, Mr. Slee and Mr. Young. In two years or less these young men have learned the languages generally spoken by the workmen, and in dealing with the tribesmen, who numbered some thousands, they have had neither difficulty nor opposition. Their lives cannot be said to have been lonely. Day and night they were busy, orders or instructions being incessantly solicited, while their words were law in settling the disputes that so frequently arose between the tribesmen.

With the advent of the railway to Nushki, that place now becomes the starting-point of the great Indo-Perso overland caravan route. Prior to 1896, the existence of certain questions of a political nature prevented any definite steps being taken towards the construction of a trade-way between Seistan and Nushki. The Amir of Afghanistan, Abdur Rahman, whose fiscal policy was well calculated to stifle trade, was in occupation of the Chageh district, through which lay the direct route from Nushki to Seistan. It was eminently desirable that a change should be effected in the ownership of this district. In accordance with the Agreement of 1893, drawn up between Sir Mortimer Durand and Abdur Rahman, the Chageh district was assigned to the British sphere. In the following years, 1894-6, a Boundary Commission under Captain McMahon occupied itself in demarcating the frontier of Afghanistan south of the Helmund and up to Koh-i-Malik-i-Siah; in 1895, by agreement with the Shah, a second Commission under Colonel Holdich proceeded to define the Perso-Baluch frontier between Kohak and Koh-i-Malik-i-Siah—a distance of 300 miles. So soon as these two missions had completed their labours, Captain Webb Ware was appointed the Assistant Political Officer and was placed in charge of the stretch of country which had accrued to the Government of India as the result of the demarcation, Major Trench proceeding to Seistan. Captain Webb Ware at once set himself to work upon plans for the creation of a trade route between Seistan and Nushki, the good fortune which had attended his earlier efforts being carried a stage further in 1900, when the interests of the Khan of Kelat in the Nushki district were bought out at a perpetual quit-rent of 9000 rupees per annum. Success has been pronounced; and both the character and complexion of this barren region have been transformed. No more difficult country could have been found for development. In the days before the road was started the region was the home of roving parties of Baluchi and Afghan ruffians who periodically sallied forth to plunder passing caravans. Further, heat, the absence of water and the dangers of the journey to India over long desert stretches, militated against its adoption. Only at rare intervals did a caravan attempt the venture.

These defects are now, in the main, surmounted, and an excellent trade route is established between Nushki and Nasratabad, the marches being divided into twenty-one stages. Between Nushki and Robat a kutcha road, varying in breadth between 10 feet and 20 feet, is laid out. Dâk bungalows have also been established at regularly appointed stations and[26] telegraphic communication exists. Around the several bungalows there are now tiny settlements where itinerant traders exist on the proceeds of their business with the caravans. Marauding bands have ceased to worry, as their leaders have been made responsible for the safe custody of travellers between the different stages. At each post there is a small levy-guard and quarters for the camel-dâk, which carries the mail between India and Seistan in nine and a half days. Although it is impossible to avoid the heat, the water difficulty is no longer insuperable. Wells have been sunk and, since the abolition of all tolls and duties on the route—which wise precaution was made an essential preliminary to the inauguration of the service—an increasing stream of camels passes to and fro, between India and Khorassan.

Value of Imports and Exports by the Nushki-Seistan route for the years 1896-1905.
Year.				Rupees.
March 1,	1896,	to March 1,	1897	1½	lakhs.
”	1897	”	1898	5	”
”	1898	”	1899	7	”
”	1899	”	1900	12	”
”	1900	”	1901	15	”
”	1901	”	1902	20	”
”	1902	”	1903	18	”
”	1903	”	1904	18	”
”	1904	”	1905	24	”

List of Marches between Nushki rail head and Nasratabad.
1. [27]Nushki to Mull	25
2. [27]Mull to Padag	30
3. Padag to Yadgar Chah	24
4. Yadgar Chah to Dalbandin	31
5. [27]Dalbandin to Jujaki	30
6. Jujaki to Meroi	21
7. [27]Meroi to Chah Sandan	21
8. Chah Sandan to Tratoh	24
9. Tratoh to Kundi	22
10. Kundi to Mashki Chah	22
11. [27]Mashki Chah to Ware Chah	26
12. Ware Chah to Makak Karez	23
13. Makak Karez to Sainduk	11
14. [27]Sainduk to Kirtaka	17
15. Kirtaka to Chah Mohammed Reza	17
16. Chah Mohammed Reza to Killa Robat	28
17. [27]Killa Robat to Hormak	17
18. Hormak to Nowad Chah	24
19. Nowad Chah to Girdi Thana	7
20. Girdi Thana to Asak Chah	22
21. Asak Chah to Sayed Khan’s khel	10
22. Sayed Khan’s khel to Nasratabad	20
22. Quetta to Nushki	93
Total	565

The road follows two sides of a triangle, skirting the whole of Southern Afghanistan before entering Persia at Koh-i-Malik-i-Siah. The distance from Nushki to Koh-i-Malik-i-Siah and thence direct to Meshed is just 1000 miles. To aid traders using this route a rebate of seven-eighths of the Indian Customs duty is allowed. As the sea is free to Bunder Abbas, this concession should be increased so that the starting-points of the caravans—i.e., Nushki and Bunder Abbas—might be on a footing of equality. “Drawbacks” of 33 per cent. are granted by the North-Western railway on all goods sent by it and destined for Persia. Additional facilities have also been arranged for the trade using this new route; in order to avoid the difficulty of having to go 150 miles out of their way to Nasratabad for Customs examination, hitherto experienced by merchants proceeding by the Nushki route to Khorassan, a first-class Customs Bureau has been established at Koh-i-Malik-i-Siah. This enables kafilas to proceed direct to Kain and Khorassan viâ the Palankoh route and to avoid the detour through Seistan. Furthermore, a British Consular Agent has been deputed to Koh-i-Malik-i-Siah, one of whose principal duties it will be to watch the interests of British traders using the route and to assist them in their dealings with the Customs authorities. As regards traffic, since the opening of the Quetta-Nushki railway a considerable flow of trade has set in from the Helmund direction viâ Chageh, as caravans for Herat and Afghan traders naturally prefer to follow the Helmund to a point north-west of Chageh and then to turn southwards. A stretch of desert still has to be crossed; but it is less in extent than that between Nushki and the Persian frontier at Robat.

In order to encourage traders a revised schedule of rates for the hire of camels along the Nushki-Seistan-Meshed route has been issued by the Government of India. By these changes the hire for single camels carrying 400 pounds has been reduced from 57 rs. 8 a. for the single journey to 55 rs.; for the double journey from 100 to 95 rs., the time having been decreased from 105 to 85 days: this latter is a distinct advance. The charge per kharwar has been reduced from 370 krans to 359 krans 11 shahis, or 89 rs. 6 a. This concession does not yet equal the average rate of hire from Bunder Abbas to Meshed, which is 300 krans per kharwar. Goods must be packed in gunny bags, boxes or leather cases, no package weighing more than 2½ maunds. Special rates are quoted for wood-work and iron materials. The periods allowed for the journey are:

Quetta to Seistan	45 days.
Seistan to Meshed	40  ”
Nushki to Seistan	38  ”

Contractors will be held responsible for all loss and damage to goods in transit obviously due to the neglect of the camel-men. They will be at liberty to refuse goods for delivery if they are not properly packed and secured. Loss through raids will be considered beyond the contractors’ responsibility. Ten days’ notice must be given for any number of camels required up to 40, 25 days for over 50 and up to 300, 50 days above 300 but not exceeding 1000. Express camels can be hired at higher rates, the journey from Quetta to Seistan being then made in 30 days.

The evident success of the new route has been the more remarkable because M. Naus, the head of the Belgian administration that conducts the Persian Customs, has devised special means to check the expansion of Indian trade, two Customs officers being appointed to Nasratabad to deal with it. To give zest to their existence these men imposed many novel regulations upon caravans.[28] The camel-men are fined for the non-observance of arbitrary rules which are purposely varied so that confusion may be created; the men are thrown into prison, the animals seized and the goods confiscated. In addition, the Customs barrier in Seistan is reinforced by a plague cordon between Seistan and Khorassan against caravans from India, in spite of the fact that the period of any possible incubation has expired long before a caravan from Quetta can reach Seistan, and that the limits of time, within which quarantine is permissible, have been laid down by the decision of the Venice Sanitary Congress. The headquarters of this latest pest are at Turbat-i-Haidari and Karez. Meanwhile the Russian and Belgian authorities encourage the circulation of alarmist rumours about the mortality from Indian plague in Seistan, the doctor at the Russian legation in Teheran recently having spread a statement that 99 per cent. of deaths from plague had occurred in the Naizar district of Seistan. While these reports are very greatly exaggerated in respect of Indian plague, an epidemic of this disease nevertheless ravaged Seistan during the spring of 1906. At Nasratabad the population was reduced through it from 2500 to rather more than 300. The efforts of Dr. Kelly, the medical officer attached to the British Consulate in Nasratabad, however, did much to arrest it, over 500 inoculations having been made and an excellent impression created by the recovery of a man who had been seized after being inoculated by him. None-the-less, its existence prepares the way for more vigorous precautions against Indian caravans, the measures of the plague officials being directed against the development of Indian commercial relations with Northern Persia and Northern Afghanistan in the hope that Persian and Afghan merchants may frequent the Meshed emporium. At the present moment these preventive measures have achieved conspicuous success, and Russian commercial activity has entirely subjugated Khorassan province. No headway appears to be possible for British trade; while the rapid growth of Russian commercial influence, under this system of pernicious assistance, threatens to reduce Seistan to the position of a commercial base from which the markets of India can be attacked by articles of Russian manufacture. A precisely similar state of things prevails at Meshed in respect of Afghanistan.

It is of value to compare the Nushki-Seistan route to Meshed with others, viz., the Bunder Abbas-Narmashir-Neh-Turbat route; the Bunder Abbas-Yezd-Turbat route; the Bushire-Yezd-Turbat route; the Basra-Baghdad-Kermanshah-Teheran route; and the Trebizond-Tabriz-Teheran route.

2. The Bunder Abbas-Narmashir-Neh-Turbat route.—The distance is about 900 miles and the time taken to traverse it is from 80 to 120 days. The cost of transport is about £5 per 650 lbs. It is needless to say that owing to Bunder Abbas being in direct communication with London, goods reach it at a cheaper rate and more quickly than viâ Nushki, which is not as yet a commercial centre of any great importance. At Bunder Abbas, too, there is a large and old-established colony of British Indian merchants, in addition to the agents of more than one British firm. This route, moreover, possesses certain inherent attractions. The Customs examination takes place at the point of landing, before the caravan journey commences; while goods destined for export are only examined at Bunder Abbas. Further, there are alternative markets at Bam and Kerman, and alternative routes viâ those centres. Supplies also are cheaper and not so scanty; and the grazing is better. At the same time, the Nushki route is quite secure as far as the British frontier and comparatively safe in Persian territory. No route in Southern Persia is ever permanently safe.

3. The Bunder Abbas-Yezd-Turbat route.—An alternative route from Bunder Abbas of less importance, but still the second largest artery of trade from the south as regards Khorassan, runs viâ Yezd, to which centre much trade is attracted by the presence of a large number of merchants and the prospect of choice of markets. Several Khorassan merchants, indeed, make their purchases in Yezd; although every year the tendency is to go further afield and establish direct relations elsewhere. The smaller merchants from lack of capital continue to depend upon the credit afforded them by the wealthier members of the fraternity and are thus tied to the home mart.

4. The Bushire-Yezd-Turbat route.—Bushire is 932 miles distant from Meshed and a certain quantity of goods reaches Khorassan from that port, perhaps to the extent of 4 per cent. of its total imports. As a rule, the trade is not direct, but applies to that class of traffic which is done by merchants who do business solely with Yezd.

5. The Basra-Baghdad-Kermanshah-Teheran route.—The distance from Baghdad is over 1000 miles. The time taken is about four to five months, the cost being about £8 10s. per 650 lbs. Goods in transit by this route pay a penalty of 1 per cent. to the Turkish Customs. Owing to the lack of water-carriage on the Tigris there is frequently much delay at Basra before goods are forwarded; and, as everything breaks bulk at Basra and again at Baghdad, the route is bound to be expensive. It is preferred for heavy articles such as pianos and machinery.

This route, as far as Khorassan is concerned, is chiefly used for the importation of British, Austro-Hungarian and German manufactures, such as cloth, gold and silver thread and lace. These goods, as a rule, are destined primarily for Teheran; but, when conditions are more promising at Meshed, they are forwarded for sale to that market. Yet another aspect of this route is that Baghdad, owing to its proximity to Kerbela, is a great pilgrim centre. Consequently, merchants not infrequently combine a little profit with a pilgrimage. The figures for 1904-1905 on this route are £14,491 as against £20,800 in 1903-1904.

6. The Trebizond-Tabriz-Teheran route.—Trebizond is the most westerly port of entry with which the trade of Khorassan and the commercial centres of Meshed and Seistan is concerned. The distance to Meshed is some 1400 miles and the time taken is seldom less than five months. The cost is about £12 per 650 lbs. This route exists owing to the fact that goods using it pay no Customs in Turkey; but it is a terribly long and expensive journey to Khorassan, while the strict application of the new Persian Customs rules is reacting unfavourably on its prosperity. The advent of the Russian rail-head within a few miles of Tabriz will also press it very hard. At the same time certain classes of goods, not affected by Russian competition, will continue to use this route. The total for the year 1904-1905 was returned at £17,770, as against £21,780 for 1903-1904.

To summarise: Route No. 1 is an artificial route called into being on account of the fiscal barriers erected around Afghanistan, otherwise the Kandahar-Herat route is shorter and cheaper. Routes 2 and 3 are the most natural, but receive little assistance from the Persian Government in the suppression of brigandage or in other ways. Their desert nature also constitutes a grave disadvantage. These routes are the main arteries of commerce from the south. Routes 5 and 6 are not primarily intended to serve Khorassan, but occasionally the market is more promising at Meshed than Teheran.

It is, however, a question of politics more than of trade, and the Nushki-Nasratabad route is of less significance beside the political considerations which attach to the future state of Seistan. In this way the importance of the latter is as great as the value which attaches to Herat, because the occupation of Khorassan by Russia would imply a dominating control of Seistan. Moreover, any movement across Khorassan upon Seistan places the road to Kandahar from Herat, together with the strategical points of Sabzawar and Farah, at the mercy of Russia, a contingency which is certainly to be avoided in the present disordered condition of our own house in Asia. Seistan is equally related to the strategic positions of Russia in Central Asia and India, insomuch that if Russia were to become installed there the obstacle to an advance upon India, which is presented by Afghanistan, would have been surmounted and the road to the Gulf opened. Although she might not make any actual forward movement from Seistan towards India, countless opportunities would occur to her to foment disturbances among the Baluchi peoples and to spread an actively hostile propaganda throughout the trans-frontier region. Such a forward movement, too, an actual advance of 300 miles, would impose upon the Government of India many additional outlays of money, besides keeping India in a continuously unsettled and anxious state. It will be seen that the interests of Russia and India in Seistan proceed on identical lines. If India were able to control Outer Seistan an important position would be established from which she could frustrate Russia’s designs along the Perso-Afghan border and in the direction of the Persian Gulf. To do this it is not so much the interests of Seistan as our position in Afghanistan and Persia which require to be considered. The advantage with respect to Persia rests just now with the Russians, whose activity can only be countered with effect by a permanent understanding with the Amir and the strengthening of Persia in some enduring fashion. With Kandahar linked up by railway with India, Afghanistan definitely united in arms with us, and Persia, freed from the wiles of Russia, once more dependant upon us, our position along the Perso-Afghan border would be endowed with such strength that the combination well might serve to check any further Russian activities in the Middle East.

Note.—The names of the officers on the Seistan Mission were as follows:

Political.—Colonel A. H. (now Sir Henry) McMahon, K.C.I.E., C.S.I.; Capt. Ramsay (Personal Assistant).

Irrigation Officer.—Mr. Ward, C.I.E.

Survey Officer.—Mr. Tate.

Infantry Escort.—Major H. F. Walters, 124th Baluchistan Infantry; Lieut. A. E. Stewart, 124th Baluchistan Infantry; Lieut. Brett, 124th Baluchistan Infantry.

Cavalry Escort.—Lieut. C. P. Landon.

Commanding Camel Corps.—Capt. R. C. Bell, Central India Horse.

Doctor.—Major W. Irvine, I.M.S.

[20] The area of Seistan Proper is 3847 square miles.

[21] The area of Outer Seistan is 3159 square miles.

[22] Sir H. McMahon before the Royal Geographical Society. April 1906.

[23] “Sport and Politics under an Eastern Sky.” Earl of Ronaldshay.

[24] “On the Outskirts of Empire in Asia.” Earl of Ronaldshay.

[25] “Khurasan and Sistan.” Lieut.-Colonel C. E. Yate.

[26] The telegraph stations are Nushki, Mull, Dalbandin, Meroi, Mashki Chah, Sainduk, Killa Robat.

[27] Telegraph stations.

[28] “The Middle Eastern Question.” Valentine Chirol.

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