C H A P T E R II.
F R O M L O N D O N TO TH E URA LS.
1
Five routes to Central A sia .— Departure for Petersburg.— Favourable
reception.— Official letters and favours.— Scientific acquaintances
and introductions.— Departure for Moscow.— National Exhibition
and St. Saviour’ s. Cathedral.—-Mr. Alfred Sevier as interpreter.—
Our arrival at Perm.— Purchase of tarantass and medicinesiR-De-
parture for the Urals.— Tract distribution.— Arrested and brought
b a ck to Perm.— Examined and released with apologies.— My own
fault.— Exaggerated reports in newspapers.— A fresh start.
' I 'H E R E are at least five routes between London
1 and Russian Central Asia. The most southerly
of these would be by the Mediterranean to the Tigris
valley, through Persia to Meshed, and then across the
desert by Merv and Charjui to Bokhara, and Samarkand.
By this route I thought perhaps to have returned, but
was assured, by Russians and natives alike, that it would
be next to impossible for me to escape the Turkomans
between the Oxus and Merv. The second route is
that by which I came b a ck ; namely, Odessa and the
Crimea, across the Caucasus and Caspian to Krasno- E
vodsk, then by camels to Khiva, whence there is a
caravan road to Bokhara, or another on Russian
territory through Petro-Alexandrovsk and Jizak to P
Tashkend. He should be a sturdy traveller, however, I
who would attempt this route. A third way would be
by rail to Orenburg, and then following the post-road
along the Syr-daria to Tashkend. This is the best
route in autumn, but a difficult one in spring, by reason
of floods and lack of horses. T he fourth route, which
I thought at first to follow, is from Orenburg to Omsk
and Semipolatinsk, and so past Lake Balkhash and
Vierny to Tashkend. My plans for the exiles, however,
rendered it necessary that I should go to Tiumen, and
I therefore followed the fifth route, which, though
longest, is, in spring, decidedly the easiest, namely, by
rail to Nijni Novgorod, by steamer to Perm, by rail
and post to Tiumen, whence steamers ply on the Irtish
to Semipolatinsk, and so onwards by posting as in the
previous route.
I left London on the evening of the 26th June 1882,
and, three evenings later, reached Petersburg, to find
at the terminus the English tutor of the Grand Duke
Michael, uncle of the Emperor, whose wife, the Grand
Duchess Olga, had thus honoured me by sending to
inquire when I could come out to the Michailovsky
dacha, or summer palace, to lunch. I named the
morrow, and was then privileged to renew an acquaintanceship
formed two years previously at Borjom, when
I asked permission of the Grand Duke Michael to
place copies of the Scriptures in the prisons and
hospitals of the Caucasus. His Imperial Highness
heard with interest of my projected journey, warned
me that I should be unable to pass from Charjui to
Merv (though I might reach the latter, he thought,
from the Russian side), and kindly gave me a letter
of introduction to Count Tolstoy, the Minister of the
Interior.
I had sent to this statesman, as head of the prison
department, a few days previously, a copy of my
Through Siberia,” so that with him the tongue of