AFGHANISTAN. 



standing, who had acted as a member of the 

 Military Commission to Afghanistan in 1857- 

 1858, and performed other important services 

 in the East, was made chief commissioner. 

 The principal topographical experts were Col. 

 Patrick Stewart, who explored the Turkoman 

 country in 1880 in the disguise of an Arme- 

 nian horse-trader, and had since been employed 

 as a political agent in the Persian town of 

 Khaf, near the Herat frontier; Condie Ste- 

 phen, second secretary to the legation at Te- 

 heran, a versatile linguist ; and Major Napier, 

 author of a report on the northern frontier of 

 Persia. Not content with a formidable array 

 of technical experts, the British authorities 

 sent with the commission a large military 

 guard, in order to counteract the effect of the 

 Russian troops in Turkomania and to prepare 

 the Afghans for a possible conflict. The In- 

 dian contingent with the military force, con- 

 sisting of 200 picked men from the Bengal 

 Lancers, 200 infantry, and several hundred 

 armed camp-followers, under the command of 

 Lieut.-Col. Ridgway, was to proceed through 

 Afghanistan from Quetta, while Gen. Lums- 

 den and the principal officers of his staff 

 journeyed through Europe, the Caucasus, and 

 Persia. The entire commission numbered 35 

 Europeans and 1,300 natives. There arose a 

 perplexing and ignominious contretemps in re- 

 gard to the march of the Indian section. The 

 Ameer could not guarantee the safe passage 

 of the red- coats, so lately arrayed in a deadly 

 struggle with the Afghans, over the regular 

 Candahar route, and refused to furnish them 

 with an escort. They were therefore obliged 

 finally to take the Nushkhi route through the 

 desert along the Persian border, passing through 

 the remotest straggling settlements of Afghans. 



The Russian Government appointed a sub- 

 ordinate officer as its representative on the 

 Boundary Commission ; but, influenced by ex- 

 pressions of dissatisfaction in England, recalled 

 the appointtnent, and made Gen. Zelenoy chief 

 commissioner in September, 1884, with M. 

 Lessar, Major Alikhanoff, and other officers 

 familiar with the frontier, as expert assist- 

 ants. 



The Indian section of the Afghan Frontier 

 Commission, with their Sikh guard and follow- 

 ers, and over 2,000 animals, reached Kushan 

 in the Herat valley in the middle of Novem- 

 ber, 1884, having been nearly two months on 

 the march over the desert route of 800 miles 

 along the western frontier of Afghanistan. 

 The Ameer had proclaimed terrible penalties 

 against any of his subjects who should inter- 

 fere with their peaceful passage, and his of- 

 ficials were solicitous in their attentions and 

 protection ; yet the Afghans showed their ani- 

 mosity in every way short of attacking the 

 party. The inhabitants of the Herat valley, on 

 the contrary, having a grateful remembrance 

 of English money freely expended among them, 

 gave them everywhere a hearty welcome. By 

 the population of the valley, which has received 



a strong infusion of Turkoman blood, but is 

 Persian in language and customs, their Afghan 

 rulers are hated as much as they are feared. 

 Sir Peter Lumsden arrived at Kushan Nov. 19. 



The English commissioners, on arriving at 

 the Afghan frontier, found no trace of their 

 Russian colleagues; but they found Cossacks 

 picketed at Pul-i-Khatum on the Heri Rud, forty 

 miles south of Sarakhs, and confronting the 

 Afghan outposts at Penjdeh. Sir Peter Lums- 

 den assumed that the plan of a peaceful de- 

 markation was defeated, and that a state of 

 hostilities existed. In visiting Sarakhs he held 

 no communication with Gen. Komaroff, the 

 Russian commander, who came to Sarakhs ex- 

 pressly to meet him. He went into winter- 

 quarters at Bala Murghab, south of Penjdeh, 

 whence he incited the Afghan garrison to hold 

 their ground, while his military subordinates 

 directed the defensive operations. He show- 

 ered gifts on the Sarik inhabitants of the dis- 

 trict in order to induce them to renounce 

 their allegiance to the Czar. 



The Russian Advance. Sarakhs was occupied 

 early in 1884, prior to the negotiations in re- 

 lation to the Delimitation Commission. Soon 

 after, the Czar's representative received the 

 submission of the elders of the Salor Turko- 

 mans settled along the Heri Rud, between 

 Sarakhs and the Borkhut mountains, and of 

 the Sariks, dwelling in and around Penjdeh,, 

 Sarakhs was a Persian outpost, separated by 

 100 miles of desert country from the next 

 Persian garrison, but maintained as a pro- 

 tection against Turkoman raids. It is also the 

 point where the caravan routes to Meshed 

 from Merv and Bokhara, from Maimene and 

 Afghan Turkistan, and from Herat, all con- 

 verge, and therefore admirably adapted for a 

 trading center. The Russian Government ob- 

 tained possession of this point by the voluntary 

 cession of the Shah of Persia, who needed no 

 longer to keep up a garrison since the conquest 

 of the Turkoman marauders by Russia. The 

 Cossacks first occupied the deserted site of the 

 ancient town on the opposite side of the river, 

 which is the better military position. Stress 

 was then laid on the fact that it was not the 

 Persian Sarakhs, but Old Sarakhs, outside of 

 Persian territory, that was occupied ; yet, after 

 the withdrawal of the Persian garrison, they 

 moved into the barracks in the new town, 

 through which the road to Herat passes. Major 

 Alikhanoff, an astute Circassian, thoroughly 

 versed in Oriental ways, the officer whose diplo- 

 macy had brought about the submission of the 

 Merv Tekkes, proceeded to Penjdeh in June, 

 1884, and found the seat of the Sariks occupied 

 by a strong Afghan garrison. Simultaneously 

 with Alikhanoff's march to Penjdeh the St. Pe- 

 tersburg Government announced officially, on 

 June 23, that the Sariks of Penjdeh had become 

 subjects of the Czar. The English Cabinet re- 

 plied, June 29, that Penjdeh belonged to Af- 

 ghanistan. Perceiving that their intention to 

 round off the Russian dominions by the inclu- 



