LIFE IX CENTRAL ASIA. 279 



travellers have very little chance of ever returning. 

 Xo doubt a caffilali of Afghans may promise to pro- 

 tect him, but who is to vouch for the Afghans, and 

 how is he to return when he leaves them ? Xo certain 

 information could be obtained in regard to the safety, 

 or even possibility, of travelling in Beluchistan, for 

 though its frontier was within twenty miles' distance, 

 that country was eschewed and ignored. The only 

 satisfactory account of it was to be found in the 

 travels of Lieutenant (afterwards Sir Henry) Pot- 

 tinger, who in 1809, when the country was utterly un- 

 known to Europeans, disguised himself as an Eastern 

 horse - dealer, and, partly in company with Captain 

 Christie, partly alone, penetrated from Sonmeanee 

 on the coast to Khelat, and from thence passed into 

 Persia by way of Noosky and Bunpoor, travelling for 

 some time in only his shirt and drawers, enduring 

 other almost incredible hardships, and making many 

 narrow escapes. At a later period, Sir "\Yilliam Harris, 

 the noted African traveller, failed even in an attempt 

 to reach Hinglaj on the coast of Mekran, and had 

 to make a very hasty retreat on a swift horse. Our 

 interference with Khelat was supposed to have irri- 

 tated the Beluches against us, while their unavenged 

 success in massacring our soldiers there might reason- 

 ably be supposed to have made them presumptuous. 

 One Englishman, we were informed, had recently con- 

 trived to travel a long way on the coast of Mekran, 

 and another had passed through the Bolan ; but both 



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