290 TRAVEL, ADVENTURE, AND SPORT. 



The plain was so open that the camels crowded 

 together and marched over en masse; the children 

 and women riding on panniers, singing and laughing, 

 and the men trudging along sturdily all counting the 

 few days which remained ere they should rejoin their 

 countrymen, and escape from what they must have 

 long considered a life of hopeless slavery. 



The release of these poor wretches has surprised the 

 Turkomans amazingly, and, to crown all, the Khan 

 has granted orders, prohibiting, under the penalty of 

 death, the seizure of Eussian subjects, or the purchase 

 of natives of Herat. This prohibition of the slave- 

 trade is quite novel in Turkistan, and I humbly hope 

 that it is the dawn of a new era in the history of 

 this nation, and that ultimately the British name will 

 be blessed with the proud distinction of having put 

 an end to this inhuman traffic, and of having civilised 

 the Turkoman race, which has been for centuries the 

 scourge of Central Asia. About eight marches from 

 Nova Alexandroff, I sent one of the Eussian prisoners 

 with a Cossack to give information of our approach, 

 sending by them an English letter to the governor of 

 the fort. On their arrival at iXova Alexandroff they 

 were looked upon as spies. My letter could not be 

 read, and the intelligence of the release and approach 

 of so many fellow-subjects was too astounding to be 

 credited ! a whole night was necessary to convince 

 the Eussians in the fort of the truth of the good 

 tidings. It was pleasing to see the rush of the 



