B U C H A R I A. 



39 



Bueharia. the city, and a small territory around it. The Bu- 



v~.iy-^'J chars have no government of their own, but are 



subject to the khau in whose dominions they reside, 



and to whom they pay an annual tribute for his pro- 



tection. 



The inhabitants of this country have been highly 

 extolled for their hospitality and generosity ; and 

 Buch is their disposition in these respects, that no 

 oppv>rtunity is omitted of performing kind offices to 

 strangers, and every peasant keeps a portion of his 

 cottage, however small, for the reception of a guest. 

 4 * I happened once to be in Sogd," says Ebn Hau- 

 kal, an Arabian traveller, " and there I saw a cer- 

 tain palace, or great building, the doors of which 

 were fastened back with nails against the walls. I 

 asked the reason of this, and they informed me that 

 it was a hundred years and more since these doors 

 were shut ; all that time they had continued open 

 day and night ; strangers might arrive there at the 

 most unseasonable hours, and in any numbers, for 

 the master of the house had provided every thing 

 necessary, both for the men and for their beasts ; 

 and he appeared with a delighted and joyful counte- 

 nance when the guests tarried awhile ; and you can- 

 not see any town or stage, or even desert, in Mawer- 

 alnahr, without a convenient inn or stage-house for 

 the accommodation of t ravellers, with everything ne- 

 cessary." This flattering description, however, does 

 not at all correspond with the accounts which we 

 have of its present state ; and we are afraid that it 

 must be confined -to an early part of its history, 

 while one sovereign possessed the sole dominion of 

 the country, and before the liberality of its inhabi- 

 tants was extinguished, and their industry paralised 

 by the oppression of their conquerors. The Maho- 

 metan Tartars who possess Bucharia, have little to 

 distinguish them from the most savage tribes. War 

 and plunder are their chief employments, and sla- 

 very is practised among them in all its horrors. Ex- 

 peditions are often undertaken for the sole purpose 

 of procuring slaves, which they either keep in their 

 service, or sell to their neighbours ; and this com- 

 merce is carried to such a length, that they will 

 frequently rob one another of their children to sell 

 them, or even dispose of their own. If they are 

 weary of their wives, they sell them, without cere- 

 mony, to the highest bidder, and do the same with 

 their daughters, particularly if they are beautiful. 

 In short, they are indolent, perfidious, and cruel. 



The climate of Great Bucharia is excellent, and 

 Climate. preferable to any in the same latitude ; the heats of 

 summer being tempered by the breezes from the 

 mountains with which it is surrounded, and whose 

 lofty tops are continually covered with snow. The 

 soil is equally favourable, and capable of producing 

 every species of grain and fruits in the richest abun- 

 dance. According to Ebn Haukal, the districts of 

 Bucharia and Sogd constitute the most delightful 

 country in the world ; and from the Kohendiz, or 

 ancient castle of the city of Buchara, such a scene 

 of luxuriant and beautiful verdure presents itself on 

 every side, that the spectator would imagine that the 

 green of the earth was united to the azure of the hea- 

 ven*. The walls and buildings and cultivated plains 



of Bucharia," says the same Arabian, " extending Bucharia- 

 above thirteen farsang bv twelve, and the Sogd for ' , - r 

 eight days journey, is all delightful country, afford- 

 ing fine prospects, and full of gardens, and orchards, 

 and villages, corn fields, and villas, and running 

 streams, reservoirs and fountains, both on the right 

 hand and on the left. You pass from corn-fields into 

 rich meadows and pasture-lands, and the fruits of Sogd 

 are the finest in the world." 



Nature has refused nothing to this fine country ^^ ^ 

 that can render it a most agreeable place of residence. fro &mc. 

 The vallies are exceedingly fertile in all kinds ot t i on i. 

 fruits and herbs ; the rivers are abundantly stocked 

 with excellent fish ; and wood, which is in general 

 such a scarce article throughout Great Tartary, it 

 here as common as in nto.-t other countries. '* IB 

 one word," says Bentick, " it is the richest soil in 

 all Northern Asia ; but few of its advantages ca 

 be appreciated by its Tartarian inhabitants, whose 

 idleness is so excessive, that they would rather un- 

 dertake a pillaging excursion into the territorieb of 

 their neighbours, than bestow a moderate portion of 

 their labour on the cultivation of those gifts which 

 nature has so liberally conferred upon their own. la 

 some parts, however, rice and other grains are cul- 

 tivated to a considerable extent, but agriculture in 

 general is here very imperfectly understood. From 

 this circumstance, very little corn is produced in 

 Bucharia. The most fertile parts of the country 

 being always in pasture, upon which they rear an 

 immense quantity of sheep and horses ; and, accord- 

 ing to Pallas, 10,000 horses, and 60,000 sheep, from 

 this country, are annually sold at Orenburg, in Rus- 

 sia. Most of the mountains of Bucharia abound with 

 the richest mines. Those of Badakshan, in the pro- 

 vince of Balk, produce balay rubies, lapis lazuli, 

 amianthis, and the precious metals ; those of Fer- 

 gana, vitriol, iron, copper, quick-silver, gold, and 

 turkois. The inhabitants, however, have neither 

 perseverance nor industry sufficient to profit by them, 

 but content themselves with gathering the grains of 

 gold and the precious stones which have been wash- 

 ed down by the torrents from the mountains when 

 the snow melts in the beginning of summer. 



Commerce is chiefly confined to the Buchars, who Conuner* 

 have always been considered as a trading people. 

 They carry on a considerable traffic with China, 

 Russia, Tibet, the Caknucks, and Mongales ; and 

 their caravans travel through the whole conti- 

 nent of Asia. Commerce, however, is very much- 

 shackled by the tyranny of the khans and their of- 

 ficers ; and what is still more detrimental to it, their 

 caravans are continually exposed to the attacks of 

 the wandering Tartars. But notwithstanding these 

 impediments, they find their way to most of the 

 capitals of the neighbouring kingdoms. They have 

 several establishments in the southern provinces of 

 Russia, with which they maintain a constant com- 

 munication, and not only furnish them with their 

 own products, but also with the merchandize of 

 the eastern countries with which they trade. They 

 send thither gold and silver, chiefly in Persian coins 

 and Indian rupees ; gold dust, precious stones, lapit 

 lazuli, cotton stuffs, half silks, nitre, sal-ammoniac. 



