850 Itinerary from Herat to Cabool via Candahar. [No. 154. 



Before arriving at Guzni, the conductor of our caravan receiving very 

 discouraging accounts of the state of affairs of the country before us, 

 judged it prudent not to halt there, but turned aside and took the 

 caravan to his own village, which is about six miles from this city. 

 My friend Avitabile and a few merchants, who preceded the main 

 body, not being aware of this alteration in our movements, pushed on 

 and slept that night at Guzni. The next morning at day dawn, we 

 were surprised to see several horsemen enter the village, whose sinister 

 appearance boded us no good, and shortly after, they were followed 

 by another party that possessed themselves of all the outlets of the 

 place. By order of their chief, we were seized, our arms and pro- 

 perty taken from us, and the caravan and every person belonging 

 to it conducted to Guzni, On our arrival there we were made to 

 enter a caravanserai, a strong guard put over us, and our effects re- 

 moved to another place, and had to undergo a rigorous search to 

 ascertain if we had anything secreted on our persons. What surpris- 

 ed me most, was to find that they took no notice of my papers, which 

 I carried about my person in the way Asiatics usually do, and which 

 gave me reason to believe, the vagabonds were only anxious to secure 

 our money. The few sequins found upon me, were seized with great 

 delight. Fortunately, before quitting Candahar, we had exchanged 

 our money for bills upon Cabool, given to us by a merchant, to whom 

 I had been particularly recommended by some acquaintance at Herat, 

 without which, my friend and myself, would have been put to great 

 distress. The next day I was taken before the governor of Guzni, 

 who strictly questioned me as to who I was, from whence I came, and 

 to what place I was going. I answered him readily, and with confidence, 

 that I was a Georgian on my way to India, in search of one of my 

 relatives. On this he commenced bantering me, wishing me to 

 understand, that he was aware of my being an European; he then 

 made me open out all my papers, and shewed me some mathematical 

 instruments and my watch, that had been found with my effects, 

 asking me to tell him the use of them. I pleaded ignorance, and said, 

 that they had been given to my care by an Englishman at Tehran, to 

 be delivered to a friend of his in India. On this he became very serious, 

 desiring^me under pain of the severest punishment to tell him where I 

 had secreted my money. I answered him, that having been made a 



