|
INTRODUCTION
To those who have studied the politics and geographical position of the countries between Persia and Northern India countries, a knowledge of which is of the highest importance to Englishmen at the present day the subject of "unexplored Baluchistan" can scarcely fail to be attractive. To others the very title may require explanation; for "Baluchistan", known or unknown, is not restricted within, universally accepted limits. Roughly stated, we may describe it as the region situated between the longitudinal lines 57 and 67, bounded on the south by the sea, and on the north by a line sufficiently above latitude 28 to take in the Kuh-i-Basmān and Kuh-i-Nushādir. This delineation accords with the Persian way of regarding the Shah's possessions east of Karman and Bandar Abbas; and British India adopts the same general nomenclature for the Brahui territory west of the Hala Mountains. The point of junction •or line
,of demarcation-between Western or Persian, and Eastern or the Khan of Kalat's Baluchistan, is north at the Mashkid river, and south at the fishing village of Gwettar.
A glance at the most recent map of Persia will show how large a portion of territory comprised within the outlines here indicated needs specific definition, nor can the several blanks which have long characterized tracts such as Bashakard, Rudbar, and Irafshan be disposed of by the term "desert" or "barren rock." So designated, or by the less definite if more significant word "unexplored," they cannot but be an eyesore to the geographer; while to the student of Oriental politics they convey the impression that if it be not culpable neglect, it must be questionable prudence, which keeps British India so ignorant of the habitat of her immediate neighbours and allies. More than forty years ago we styled our officers" Political Agents in Sind and Baluchistan"; and the former of these provinces has been actually in our own hands for little less than that period, while our relations with the latter have been continuous. I t is, moreover, just twenty years since we established a line of telegraph for 400 miles along the Makran coast, west of Karachi; and this was prolonged some six years later to Cape Jask, with a submarine extension to the island of Henjam a station overlapping the extreme limit of the Baluch country to the westward.
More recently still, the advance to Kwatta and war with Afghanistan, by strengthening the intimacy of our relations with the country divided between the Shah and the Khan, have afforded us new opportunities of examining its geographical features. But our troops have moved out of Kandahar as they may move out of Kwatta, and the blanks in the map of Baluchistan remain unfilled.
Some years ago, I ventured to make a suggestion with regard to the employes in the Government Indo-European Telegraph, of whom it could hardly be said, while exercising their professional duties at Fāo, Bushahr, Jask, Chahbār, Gwāda, and Pasni-telegraph stations on the coast extending from the mouth of the Shattu-l-Arab to Karachi-that their lines were cast in pleasant places. I t was to the effect that they should be encouraged and assisted in carrying out volunteer expeditions into the interior. Only capable and trustworthy men, it "vas understood, were contemplated for such occasions; and this not simply in the sense of scientific acquirement or fitness for geographical exploration, but men who would avoid wounding national susceptibilities and treading upon local prejudices, as carefully as they would observe the sun or the stars, register botanical specimens, or take account of fauna. My ideas were put into shape and submitted in an official letter; but the practical object aimed at was not favourably considered, and it was ruled unadvisable to give official encouragement to the movement of employes out of their respective spheres of work, even when a holiday had been earned or failing health demanded temporary change of scene.
Mr. Ernest Floyer was at this time one of the Government lndo-European Telegraph Staff in the Persian Gulf, and one of those whose tastes, attainments, and spirit of enterprise would have naturally singled him out as a competent explorer. Had my suggestion been acted on, and the presence of. English telegraph clerks at points along the Perso-Baluch coast line, extending from the Shattu-l-Arab to Karachi, been utilized under Government approval, I have no doubt that he would have been one of the first explorers selected; but he would then have had certain general instructions which haply he might rather have been without, or which he might have been tempted to consider more formal than serious. As it happened Mr. Floyer moved away from his dreary residence at Jask into the interior, without any authority from his superiors, but at the same time under no veto to keep within the limits of a telegraph station: and he went unhampered by official directions. How he fulfilled his self-imposed mission, it is left to the reader to judge. I t would be impertinent in this place to pass an opinion on the literary merits of his book in fact, I have not had the leisure to read it with a critic's attention but I have great pleasure in bearing testimony to its usefulness in giving life and reality to extensive tracts which, if little known, are full of interest, and should have an exceptional charm for Englishmen, owing to their proximity to British India. To myself, the unknown province of Bashakard has always presented attraction. Twice I have crossed the Bampur plains on its northern side: once I skirted it on the westward, passing up from Bandar Abbas to Sistan; and two journeys from Bampur to seaports of Makran have made me acquainted with the lands bordering upon its eastern frontier. Yet I have had neither time nor opportunity to do more than communicate with its chief by letter. It was reserved for Mr. Floyer to visit the capital of Saif Oollah. That fierce old Baluch was, at this period, in difficulties, and another functionary had been installed in his seat; but we are told some stories about him which illustrate his determined character.
Bashakard, however, is not the only part of Western Baluchistan that has been visited by our enterprising traveller. He is to be found camping at places to east, west, and north of that Perso-Balilch province always accompanied by one or .two faithful natives, to whose adventures he pays as much regard as to his own, and whose individuality he brings out by frequent anecdote and example. Later on, he takes a more direct course to the west, enters Persia proper, and traverses the whole breadth of the Shah's kingdom, through Karman, Yazd, and Ispahan to the Turkish frontier at Khanikin. Thence to Baghdad and Basra, there was little more land-travel to be accomplished, and from Basra to Marseille and London we need feel no surprise that the author has not attempted any narrative of his journey.
Mr. Floyer's removal from the inhospitable shores of the Persian Gulf to the direction of the Egyptian telegraph, and my own official residence in Cairo, have enabled us to renew the associations of bygone years. They explain, moreover, how I have been asked, and have consented, to write these few lines of preface to a book which might otherwise have been introduced under more brilliant auspices. It is not so easy to decline a spoken as a written request, although it be demonstrated that non-compliance is to the clear advantage of the applicant.
F. J. Goldsmid
Cairo, 30th March, 1882
UNEXPLORED BALUCHISTAN
Chapter I.
Illness.-Hiring camels.-On march.-Old JellaL-Jellāl.-Jemohad and his family.-We reach Jagīn.-The river impassable.-Tājoo.-Balūch salutations.-The impassability of the river is exploded.-An anxious crossing.-Abdulla.-Male camels in the breeding season.-A day's ibex-shooting.-A night march.-Cross the•Sadaich river.-We turn north.-Shūr hills.-Chamœrops Ritchiana.-We change guides.-Men in buckram.-Camp in the Sārtāpi.
In January 1876, having suffered severely during some years' hard service in the Persian Gulf, I was granted my long deferred privilege leave by Her Majesty's Government, and cast about for the best way of making the most of it.
I was at that till1e stationed at Jask, opposite Maskat, and I at first sought for some means of joining my friend the Political Agent there, but was compelled to abandon the idea, as the only bagla or native craft available had recently suffered shipwreck, and a steamer could not be expected in less than a fortnight.
The alternative then was a journey up country, and the Bashakard country seemed to promise best for such a trip as I proposed to make, but I was met at ...
|
