190 BOKHARA THE NOBLE. 



that " their dungeon was in a most filthy and un- 

 wholesome state and teemed with vermin,'' and from 

 Wolff's statement that " masses of their flesh had been 

 gnawn off their hones by vermin,'' one is led to the con- 

 clusion that it was in this loathsome hole that they 

 dragged out the terrible days of their confinement. 

 Whether it was in the one or the other, however, is 

 after all a matter of small importance — the glaring fact 

 remains that two British officers on official duty were 

 foully done to death without so much as a protest 

 being raised by the Government that had sent them 

 to their doom ; and no amount of explanation, had 

 explanation been given, could have wiped out the foul 

 blot which must for ever cast a stain upon the annals of 

 British government. 



I have written of Bokhara as I saw it, as any traveller 

 would see it who chanced to visit there to-day, and I 

 have recalled some of those stories which are insepar- 

 ably connected with its name. I have made no attempt 

 to give any comprehensive description of the town, or 

 to enumerate its mosques and madressahs, or its baths, 

 or its bazaars. All this has been done before, often 

 and well, and any one who is desirous of detailed in- 

 formation concerning them will find it in the works of 

 men so well qualified to give it as Burnes, Wolff, 

 Khanikoff, Vambery, Schuyler, or Lansdell, to mention 

 but a few of those who have written upon the subject. 

 Nor have I amassed statistics of its trade, for such 

 trade is of little interest to Englishmen to-day. Once 

 upon a time Bokhara enjoyed a trade to the amount 

 of 3000 tons a-year with India, importing indigo, tea, 

 and English manufactures along the trade-routes of 

 Afghanistan,^ but the Transcaspian railway and — to 

 make use of the most euphemistic appellation — a scien- 



^ AH the Eussias. Henry Norman. 



