18 Continuation of the Route of Lieut. Burnes (Jan. 
I could believe of such an occurrence, and which I saw, was the currents 
of loose sand raised from the surface by the wind, or blown from one 
place to another, the heaps themselves being immovable en masse. At 
Karshi, which the map places full half way, we were seized with fever, no 
doubt from the swamps of Balkh or the miasms of the Oxus. Burnes 
was first taken ill (some days previous), and here I and two of our party 
with a tea merchant followed, and as I delayed treating myself as 
doctors usually do, it was not until I had been a week in Bokhara, and 
after quantities of quinine, that I recovered, but the poor merchant died. 
He was an intelligent and agreeable companion, and the few days we 
‘were together in the desert left the impression of along period of friend- 
ship. In oursituation we become acquainted with individuals who, wiser 
in local experience than ourselves, entertain us by their adventures, and 
from whom we separate with regret. The fate of this man, out of so 
small a party and in so short a time, was a matter of some reflection to 
us, who were even more liable to the effects of climate and the fatigues 
of travelling ; it shewed us that without any dangers from robbers, 
tyrants, or intolerant bigots, our health was sufficiently precarious, to 
make such a journey of doubtful success ; and though the chances of ad- 
venture did not allow us to consider any thing a real hardship, yet on 
looking back, we saw ample reason to consider ourselves fortunate in 
having so well overcome the trials we were exposed to. 
I had almost forgotten to mention that we paid a visit to the de- 
solate grave of poor Moorcroft at Balkh. It was a bright moon-light 
night, and our Haji, who attended his remains to the earth, showed 
us the way to the spot, which lay amidst marshes, and I could not help 
thinking that these very marshes had caused the melancholy event. We 
were surprised to hear that the severities of fortune, which accompanied 
Moorcroft’s career from the beginning, had pursued him even beyond the 
grave, and that a burial place was barely permitted to his remains, upon 
the skirts of the city and on the outside of a garden wall. The spot is 
retired, and had we not been guided to it, by one who had witnessed 
the interment, we might have searched or inquired in vain for the site. 
We were unprepared for such a spirit of odious prejudice as seems to 
have prevailed against this lamented individual, for the same feelings 
didnot exist in regard to Mr. Trebeck. Mr. Guthrie’s body is contiguous. 
Those solitary receptacles have for the first time been seen by an Euro- 
pean eye, and remote as they are from friends or countrymen, they are 
nevertheless unmolested, where they themselves, while living, had gained 
by their praise-worthy conduct, a respect and remembrance that will 
long be cherished in Turkistan ; and if they encountered some tyrants 
and wretches in their long travels, they met with many friends and well- 
