722 
THROUGH ASIA 
caught us up in his blue cart, it can be imagined what 
a gay, though mixed, procession it was which filed along 
the broad highway to Yanghi-shahr, enveloped in clouds of 
dust. At Yanghi-shahr farewells were said. When 1 cried 
with a loud voice, “ Good-bye, Cossacks”; they all answered 
in unison, “ God grant you a .safe journey, sir ! ” 
After that I was alone amongst pure Asiatics, my right- 
hand man being Islam Bai. And yet, as soon as the 
Cossacks’ songs had died away in the distance, and the 
battlemented wmlls of Kashgar had disappeared below the 
horizon, 1 drew a sigh of relief at the thought that now 1 
was on my way home. Nor was my jubilation greatly 
damped by the recollection that I still had to cross one- 
half the continent of Asia, and travel nine or ten thousand 
miles, before I could hope to set foot upon the quays of 
Stockholm. 
1 caught up my caravan in Kizil. Instead of keeping 
to the principal highway which led to that place, a road I 
already knew, I chose the desert road, so as to get a 
glimpse of the saints’ tombs — Ordan- Padshah and 
Hazrett-Begim. 
1 allowed twenty-three days for the journey of 320 miles 
to Khotan. That gave me both time and opportunity to 
pick up an intimate knowledge of the road, which is not 
only a highly important highway, but in many respects one 
of the most interesting roads in Central Asia. But the 
length to which this book has already run prevents me 
from describing it in detail. Still the many fresh observa- 
tions and discoveries 1 made, and the detailed diary I kept, 
will not have been w'asted, for 1 hope to deal with the 
subject again on some subsequent occasion. My journeys 
in Central Asia have proved so rich in experiences, that a 
single book cannot suffice to record them all. Moreover, 
a large portion of my material is of such a character that 
it must be sifted and arranged, before being published, and 
some of it will involve a considerable amount of historical 
research ; and all that is work which takes time. 
The route to Khotan has been travelled over either 
wholly or in part by several Pluropean travellers, amongst 
