CHAPTEE L 



ACROSS A CONTINENT. 



Object of the book — Length of journey and method of travel — The desert 

 — A site of ancient monaixhies — Discomfort of travel — The spell of 

 the East — To the heart of Asia by rail — Performance at a mosque — 

 Monuments of the past — Central Asian jiost-roads — Beyond the 

 bounds of Eussia — A great trans-continental railway — The political 

 aspect — The return of the West to the East — The remnants of 

 Portuguese supremacy— The awakening of Russia — The Powers in 

 Asia — The objects of Great Britain and of Russia — The policy of 

 Tsar Nicholas I. — Failure of the same — Ineptitude of British policy 

 in the past — Importance of British interests in the East — Lord 

 Curzon's views — The necessity of looking Asiatic problems in the face. 



Look how ivide also the East is from the West ! The 

 feverish throbbing centres of the West take small 

 stock of those things which lie not to their hand : 

 the call of the East comes for the most part un- 

 heeded across the waste. Yet to those who listen is 

 borne that hum which tells of mighty workings. 



The East, indeed, — the real East, that is, and by 

 the real East I mean more especially those kingdoms 

 of Asia which can still lay claim, theoretically at any 

 rate, to political independence of the West, — is known 

 by personal experience to comparatively speaking so 

 small a portion of the English public that I make 

 no apology, however humble be my credentials, for 

 trying to arouse an increased interest therein, or for 

 taking up my pen once again in an endeavour to lay 



