Journal of the Royal United
Service Institution
VOL. XIX. 1875. No. LXXX.
LECTURE.
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beyond the limits of the Hindu
Kush, to find themselves on Russian soil. It is not our
business in this place to inquire into the advantages or
disadvantages of a state of things not by any means
abnormal, nor contrary to the precedents of Time and
natural development. We have to congratulate ourselves on
at least one mission during the past year, which has
broken ground in a most interesting quarter, and brought
home information on the political and physical geography
of Eastern Turkistan and the Pamir Steppe or valleys, as
well as other scientific results of well-conducted
research. And if we have no recent similar missions to
credit to England over the regions lying between the
Tian-Shan mountains and the Caspian, we may find
consolation in the fact that a British Officer has been
permitted to accompany the Russian Expedition, which in
the past summer commenced exploring the mouths of the
Oxus with a view of perfecting as much as possible the
water communication so essential to the security of
Russian interests in Turkistan. Major Herbert Wood is
working under different conditions from those which
influenced his eminent namesake, Lieutenant John Wood of
the Indian Navy; but there is no reason why good
utilitarian service should not be rendered at the outlet
as at the source of the ancient river.
Missions of Abbott and Shakespeare,
1840. — Before entering upon the practical business
of the present paper, I will say a few words on the
Officers whose routes we are about to retrace. Missions
to Persia and the neighboring tracts are not sufficiently
popular to be well known and understood in England on
their merits alone. They require the newspaper paragraph,
the publisher's advertisement, and last not least the
temper and character of the times to support them; for
without such significant aid they are weighed and judged
within the official world which is their birth place; and
beyond the circle of that world they have no real
existence. In the case referred to, the publisher has not
been wanting, but interest in the theme treated, has
flickered and failed, and its revival has been at an hour
when later journeys and incidents are in demand. If I
endeavor to deal with the matter briefly, it is simply
because my explanation must be of the nature of a
preface.
Major-General James Allott, C.B.
— Captain James Abbott of the Bengal Artillery was
at Herat in 1839, when Major D'Arcy Todd, of the same
corps, had entered upon the duties of Envoy at that
important place, in the face of difficulties compared to
which the settlement of an Alabama question would be
clover and child's play. Among other proceedings due to
the circumstances of the day, the latter Officer managed
to open communications with the Khan of Khiva, who
responded to the friendly messages of the British by
dispatching an Ambassador from himself to the Indian
Government. As might have been anticipated, the demands
of the Khariznrians were more than could be complied
with; but in place of a disappointing letter, Captain
Abbott was deputed to visit their capital in person. At
Khiva there was considerable commotion, for it was the
period when
| JBOC Notes: The missions of Abbott
and Shakespeare were in the same time frame as
the attempt of the British to seize and hold Afghanistan.
This resulted in the First Afghan War 1840 -
1842. The war was a disaster for the
British. They ruled through their puppet Shah
Shuja but that rule extended no further than the
town walls that they garrisoned and even then not
completely. In 1842 the Afghans rose up and
slaughtered nearly to a man the Army of the Indus.
Had Englandbeen able to hold Afghanistan then
Khiva and Bukhara might have fallen to the
British rather than the Russians. The parallels
between the First Afghan War and the current
American occupation of Afghanistan are
chilling. |
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