1895.] H. G. Raverfcy —Tibbat three hundred and sixty-five years ago. 115 
up with such; and besides all these, there is the impossibility of obtain¬ 
ing a sufficient quantity of food and clothing, and other necessaries, 
and particularly horse-shoes, which on such routes cannot be dispensed 
with. Consequently, what with the failing strength of the horses, and 
want of food for them, and other matters, it was found impossible to 
continue any longer in Tibbat. We could neither go to Kash-mlr, nor 
Kashghar, nor Turfan, nor Hindustan: all were impossible of attain¬ 
ment as being unsafe. The only part in which there was a hope of 
security, and a chance of being well received, was Badakhshan. Ho 
one [among us] had seen any practicable route leading from Tibbat into 
Bada kh shan which did not enter Kash gh ar [territory ?] ; but among 
those men who had deserted with the intention of going off to Yar¬ 
kand, and had come back to us again, one, named Jahan Shah, had, on 
a previous occasion, related, that he had heard from the people dwelling 
in the Kohistan of Yar-kand, who were talking together on the subject, 
that from a place called Tagha-nak there was a route in this way and 
that way, which came out into the Pa-mir of Badakhshan. 1 I had at 
this juncture made inquiry of Jalian Shah about this route, and we 
now set out to follow this road which as yet we had not seen. Of the 
fifty men remaining with me, as I have before mentioned, several of 
them, on account of want of strength to accompany us, remained in 
Tibbat, and with twenty-seven in all I set out. What with the lack 
of the necessary equipment for such a journey, and want of strength in 
the cattle, the difficulties of the route, and the intense cold, although 
the sun was in the constellation of Virgo [month of August], the dan¬ 
ger was considerable; for when we reached a place called Qara Quram 
[‘ Place of the Fallen Black Rocks ’] 2 at the time of the setting of 
the sun, the river there, which is of considerable size, became com¬ 
pletely frozen over, and everywhere, where the ice was broken to obtain 
1 I hope it will be noted here that, even three hundred and sixty-five years 
ago, the Pa-mir, or a large portion of it, belonged to, and formed part of, the 
territory dependent on Badakhshan. Russians will probably have the assurance to 
state that the Pa-mir, or any portion of it, never belonged to Badakhshan. Another 
portion of it was subject to the rulers of Kashghar. 
2 This does not seem to be the Pass of that name incorrectly written and 
“ popularly ” called, the “Karakoram ” Pass, but a place much more to the west, 
and so called for the same reason as the other — “The Place of Fallen Black 
Rocks.” To go from Mar-y51 to the “ Qara-Quram ” Pass would have taken the 
Mirza and his party some 200 miles farther eastwards than there was any necessity 
for, and the retracing of his steps westwards would have added a similar distance. 
Besides, it is mentioned, that on the third day after Iskandar Sultan separated from 
them at the point [Tagha-naq], where this unexplored route into Badakhshan 
branohed off from the Yar-kand road, they in three days reached the Ras-katn 
darah. See my Notes , page 307. 
