198 SAMARKAND. 



Of quite another kind is the interest which attaches 

 to Samarkand as the home of Ishak Khan, pretender 

 to the Afghan throne, and compulsory guest of his 

 Russian hosts. The feeHngs of the small party of 

 Russian officers who were inspecting land on the Oxus 

 banks at the time of the death of the late Amir Abdur 

 Rahman Khan, himself a former refugee at the same 

 city, must have been of a mixed description when the 

 rumour reached them that Ishak had escaped. Happily 

 the rumour proved untrue, and Ishak still lingers at 

 Samarkand. 



Beyond here the railway penetrates to Andijan, in 

 the heart of the cotton country, passing by Tcher- 

 nayevo, Khokand, and Marghilan, and from Tcher- 

 nayevo a branch runs north to Tashkent, the capital 

 of Turkestan, and for the time being terminus of a 

 railway which has played a part in the pacification of 

 the wild peoples of Central Asia, the development of 

 their country, and the consolidating of the Russian 

 power, which may well surpass even the sanguine 

 hopes of its enterprising promoter. 



