ACROSS A CONTINENT. 



before the public mind some idea of those countries 

 of which I speak, and to call attention to some of 

 those problems to which their existence has given rise. 

 And I do so with all the more willingness because of 

 my firm belief in the truth of those lines which I 

 have caused to be inscribed on the title-page of this 

 book, that it is in Asia once again that will be 

 decided the destinies of the world ; that that nation 

 which succeeds in making its voice heeded in the 

 East will be able also to speak in dominating accents 

 to Europe. If a further excuse for these pages is 

 demanded, it may be found in the fact that it is 

 comparatively few to whom is given either the time 

 or the opportunity, or perhaps even the inclination, 

 to put away for a prolonged period the ties which 

 bind them to their own country and, leaving the 

 highroad of convention, to strike deep along the 

 devious pathways of alien and not always hospitable 

 lands. 



I have never attempted to deny that the countries 

 of Asia have for me an extreme fascination, but at 

 the same time it would be absurd to suggest that 

 a journey such as that which forms the thread upon 

 which the following chapters are strung — a journey, 

 that is, of upwards of 10,000 miles by railway, steam- 

 boat, raft, wheeled conveyance of many kinds, and 

 pack-pony, through such countries as Asiatic Turkey, 

 Persia, Transcaspia, Turkestan, Siberia, and Manchuria 

 — is by any means one which is productive of unal- 

 loyed pleasure and amusement. There is nothing even 

 remotely amusing in long hours in the saddle at 

 caravan pace across the desert steppe of Mesopotamia. 

 On the contrary, there is a grim reality about the 

 limitless and forbidding expanse of an Asian desert 

 which inspires feelings of anything but merriment. 



