258 Kokdn and other places in Central Asia. [No. 4. 



Supreme Government, and offered to proceed through Kashmir and 

 endeavour to effect the release of the officer in question. 



Quite by accident I met with a Jew at Bombay, who had accom- 

 panied Dr. Hoff on his journey to Bokhara, and who readily offered 

 to accompany me ; and two respectable natives of Kokan itself, 

 who were returning to their native land from the pilgrimage to 

 Mekkah, were ready to attach themselves to me, and answer for my 

 safety, if necessary. 



I was therefore sanguine of success, but, I am sorry to say, my 

 services were not accepted ; and it appears that a native was 

 despatched on the mission, who, as might naturally have been 

 expected, failed. He has lately returned, and from the exceedingly 

 meagre account of his journey, published in the Journal of the 

 Society, No. IY. of 1856, he appears to have gone to very little 

 trouble in the matter, and to have confined himself to asking ques- 

 tions in bazars, and in despatching natives of the country to the 

 adjacent districts for the same purpose. Whether he was duly 

 accredited to the Chief of Kokan or otherwise, does not appear. 



There is very little chance of the unfortunate officer, or European 

 whoever he may have been, being still in the land of the living ; 

 the unfulfilment of that hope, so long deferred, which maketh the 

 heart sick, must long since have brought to a termination the 

 earthly troubles of the wretched captive. 



For a number of years, I have made it a rule to collect every 

 item of information respecting the geography, inhabitants, and 

 resources of the little known parts of Central Asia. What I had 

 already gleaned, at the time I offered to proceed to Kokan, and 

 information furnished by the two Kokauies, I have referred to, I 

 now submit, as giving a better and more minute, although still 

 very meagre, account of this important and little known country, 

 than that furnished by the unsuccessful agent, Khwaja Ahmad, 

 Nakshbandf. 



* # m # # 



Kokan, originally called Kokand, Koran, and Khoka, the capital 

 of Audijan or Eerghanah, the native country of the Emperor Baber, 

 is a large, populous, and well built city, surrounded by numerous 



