ance,' was Lieutenant-Colonel Pevtzoff, who, at the
Governor s request, took great pains in equipping us
for our journey, provided a small tent, and lent us
a couple of water-barrels. We did not fully understand
at the time the value o f this arrangement, for
we must otherwise have taken water-skins, which are
not so desirable. A native, too, was presented to us,
one Tailly, who usually undertook the carriage of the
Governor’s monthly despatch to Krasnovodsk.
On the morning after our arrival we were anxiously
looking for Yakoob, but no news came of the tarantass
all that day, nor was it till Saturday, the day following,
about noon, that it arrived, whereupon I sent my
promised presents to the men, by the Centurion and
the Mirza, and gave them a letter to the Bek. I had
now to become salesman, as hitherto a buyer, and to
get rid of my tarantass and two of my horses. I was
not very canny in selling the animals, for when a man
came to look at them I asked only £ 6 for the two.
He took the better of them, and obligingly told me
that I had asked too little. I did better with the
tarantass, which had accompanied me for 5,000 miles,
for I now sold it for more than half as much again as
it cost me. It was cheap, however, even so, to the
purchaser at such a distance from the place of manu-.
facture. In fact, I had asked a higher price, and my
purchaser, knowing that I must sell, had quietly sent
something more than half the sum demanded, saying
that I might take the roubles if no one would give
more. Being in a corner I was obliged to accept the
offer, but it was satisfactory even then to be able to
score on the right side.
I had now to make arrangements for the transport
of ourselves and baggage across the desert. The
Governor kindly interested himself, and arranged with
the man Tailly that he should go forward and hire
camels for us. The next need was a native interpreter,
for Yakoob’s engagement extended only to
Petro-Alexandrovsk. Meanwhile he had improved
upon acquaintance, and I was anxious that he should
go on to Krasnovodsk. Like a wise man, he took time
to consider, and sleep upon it, with the result that on
the morrow he decided to go as far as Sary-Kamish.
For this he was to have at the rate of £ 4 per month,
with everything found, and I promised an additional
present. Yakoob bought the remaining horse I had
to sell— the vicious Arab, of whom everyone fought
shy, for ^3, so that our steeds were reduced to the
two I had bought at Samarkand for Sevier and myself,
and it only remained to pack four arbas, hired at 8.y.
each, to take our goods before us to Khiva.
On Sunday I asked the Governor’s acceptance of 22
New Testaments, and about 100 tracts, the remainder,
or thereabouts, of my stock of 5,064 Scriptures and
12,000 other publications, given and sold since leaving
Petersburg. I had now been privileged to accomplish
my heart’s desire in distributing enough copies of the
Bible and portions thereof, so that at least one might be
placed in every room of each prison and every hospital
in Russian Central Asia, the complement to what I
had done, three years before, for each prison and hospital
in Siberia. I had also left a large number to be distributed
to free exiles passing to their remote destinations
in the interior. These have been distributed as
I wished, and thankfully read on the way, as there is
written testimony to show.
I hear that several books have fallen into other,
but most suitable, hands. Many of the poorer class