SHIRAZ TO BUSHIRE. 19 



month had been pretty well knocked up. As the 

 time for our departure drew nigh, we became anxious 

 to know how the authorities were going to act to- 

 wards us in the matter of furnishing us with an 

 escort. Some sort of escort, sent in the Prince's 

 name, was absolutely necessary ; for we knew that 

 without it, in the wild country we were about to 

 traverse, neither food for ourselves nor fodder for 

 the cattle would be supplied by the villagers. Not 

 a single European had travelled this road since the 

 war, nor, indeed, for many years previous to our 

 arrival. The route we proposed taking down the 

 passes was at all times considered unsafe for a small 

 party, and we remembered that it was somewhere off 

 this road that two officers of, I think, Sir John 

 Malcolm's suite were murdered by the Buktiarees. 

 So, taking these things into consideration, we had 

 come to the conclusion that half - a - dozen or so 

 additional horsemen to our small party would 

 be an advantage rather than otherwise. "When 

 we had fixed on a day for our leaving, the Par- 

 doner, who had the arrangement of all these mat- 

 ters in his own hands, intimated to the authorities 

 that we expected a certain number of gholaums, ser- 

 vants of the Prince, to be ready, as an escort for us, 

 at a certain hour in the morning. The gholaums 

 were promised at once. It now remained only a 

 question how many would be sent. The Pardoner 

 vowed that unless fifty men, armed to the teeth, and 



