went to satisfy the curiosity of leading political men, who were anxious
to hear details about the threatening collision between England and
Russia in the distant East, of which I threw out only a few hints in the
concluding chapter of my book, but which nevertheless had aroused the
greatest attention. It was in this way that I came into connection with
politics and with the political men of that time, such as Members of
Parliament, political writers, retired civilians and military officers
of India, and, consequently, got the opportunity of an interview with
Lord Palmerston, to whom I had already been cursorily introduced at a
dinner-party in the house of Sir Roderick Murchison. His Lordship
received me at his home in Piccadilly, and my visit was therefore of a
strictly private character. He did not address me exactly as he did the
late Dr. Livingstone, to whom he said, "You had a nice walk across
Africa!" But his first remark was, "You must have gone through nice
adventures on your way to Bokhara and Samarkand!" And he really listened
with greatest attention to all that I said about Dost Mohammed Khan,
about the haughtiness of the Emir of Bokhara and about the dangers I ran
in the last-named town. On touching the question of the Russian advance
towards Tashkend, I took the map out of my book which was on the table,
and pointed to Chimkent as the place where the Russians stood at that
time; but his Lordship showed, or at least feigned, great incuriosity,
trying always to turn the thread of conversation to other insignificant
topics. Whenever I thought I had caught his attention he immediately
came forward with the question, "And did you not betray your European
character?" or "How could you stand that long trial and those
privations?" or with similar remarks. It was only after renewed attacks
upon his taciturnity that he dropped, in a careless manner, a few
allusions either to the barbarous state of affairs in Central Asia or to
my over-sanguine opinions of the Russian strength in that quarter of the
world. He succeeded in showing outward indifference, but he was far from
convincing me of its existence. In my interview with Lord Clarendon I
fared much better. It took place late in the Autumn of 1864, when the
famous note of Prince Gortschakoff, after the Russian capture of
Tashkend, had been made known, and when the public opinion of England
seemed to have been roused suddenly from its stupor. His Lordship was
frank enough to admit the truth of what I said in the last chapter of my
book; but he added at the same time what has since become the standing
principle of optimists in England: "Russia's policy in Central Asia is
framed in the same way as ours in India; she is compelled to move
gradually from the North to the South, just as we were obliged to do in
our march from the South to the North. She is doing services to
civilization, and we do not care much even if she takes Bokhara."
XXXII.
IN PARIS.
After being wearied by the endless series of dinner-parties in
London--or, as a friend of mine jestingly remarked, after having been
properly hunted down as the lion of the season--I felt the great
necessity of extricating myself from the splendid, but to me the already
tiresome, English hospitality; and I went over to Paris to have a look
about in French society. This became the much easier for me--Count
Rechberg, the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, having provided me
with a letter of introduction to Prince Metternich, who was then
accredited to the court of the Emperor Napoleon, and Count Rochechouart,
the French Envoy at Teheran, having given me a similar letter to the
Count Drouyn de L'huys, the French Minister of Foreign Affairs. I had,
moreover, the good fortune to be introduced by my English friends to
many other literary men of distinction, such as M. Guizot, M. de Thiers,
M. Jules Mohl, and others, all of whom received me very
politely--although their first reception impressed me with the feeling
that the ground upon which I stood in Paris was quite different to that
of London. The French have never indulged a particular foible of
geographical discovery; a traveller holds with them an interesting
individuality, but is not the great man, as in England, where the
successful explorer is somewhat like what the German means when he
speaks of "_grosser Gelehrte_," or the Frenchman when he speaks of "_un
grand savant_." Whereas the English have a particular consideration for
the man who has made himself a name on the field of practical
observations, or who has enriched any branch of science with new data
collected on the spot, the French, and more particularly the Germans,
have always a predilection for the theoretical investigator, for the man
who, absorbed in his library, is able to write big books with numerous
notes; in one word, in England the spirit of Raleigh, Drake, and Cook is
still alive, whilst in France and Germany travellers and explorers have
only very recently come into fashion.
Paris society was more impressed with the novelty of my _manner_ of
travelling--namely, my having assumed the disguise of a dervish--than
with the travels themselves; it viewed me in the light of a rather
curious adventurer. I was spoken of as a man of restless spirit and of
romantic proclivities, and I was gazed upon as some modern Robinson
Crusoe. What heightened my reputation most was my happy gift of speaking
many European and Asiatic languages. Happening one evening to meet in
the _salon_ of M. Guizot the representatives of ten different
nationalities, and having conversed with them fluently in their mother
languages, I was regarded by many as a real miracle. As to the intrinsic
value of my reception in France, I noticed in the very beginning that I
should remain a stranger there, for Bokhara and Samarkand, Uzbegs and
Turkomans are totally unknown, except among a few learned men, in the
best French society. Nevertheless, my book, which came out in a French
translation under the title "Voyage d'un Faux Derviche," had a pretty
good sale.
After having been introduced to some of the best circles, I was told by
Prince Metternich that the Emperor would like to give me an audience;
having read the English edition of my book, he would like to ask me a
few questions. One afternoon the Prince took me to the Tuileries, and we
had just entered the gate of the Pavillon d'Horloge, when I saw Napoleon
III. on the staircase as he took leave of the Queen of Spain, who had
called upon him. On noticing Prince Metternich, with whom the imperial
family was on very good terms, the Emperor seized his arm, and beckoning
in a friendly manner to me, walked to the interior apartments. The
Prince remained behind with the Empress, whom I found surrounded by a
stately group of court ladies, in the midst of whom she was decidedly
the tallest and the finest. I was led by the Emperor to a room which
seemed to be his study; he sat upon an arm-chair, and bade me also to
sit before a writing-desk filled with a large quantity of books, papers,
maps, &c., not in any particular order. After having fixed me for a
while with his whitish-grey eyes, he addressed me in a very slow voice,
saying that he congratulated me on the courage I had shown in my
perilous undertaking, and that having read my book he was the more
astonished on finding that my slight and seemingly weak frame was not at
all in proportion to the great hardships I had endured. I remarked upon
this, that I was never ill in my life, and that I did not walk in
Central Asia upon my legs, but upon my tongue, for it was only my
linguistic study which had rescued me out of the clutches of the
Central Asian tyrants. "I supposed that that must have been the case,"
said the Emperor; "but I believe there is also a good deal of dramatic
skill in you, for otherwise you would not have played successfully the
part of a mendicant dervish." The conversation turned to the ethnical
conditions of Central Asia; and the Emperor, who had finished at that
time his "Life of Cæsar," said that he was anxious to know whether the
Parthians were really the ancestors of the present Turkomans; he was
inclined to believe so, but he had been unable hitherto to establish
their identity. From the Turkomans we passed over to the ruins of Balkh.
I noticed that the imperial author was tolerably versed in the writings
of Arrian as well as in Roman antiquities in general; but his knowledge
of the modern geography of Asia was sadly deficient. He had only very
dim notions about the principal names of towns and rivers, and he had
palpably to take particular care not to betray his ignorance. On
speaking of the Yaxartes I alluded to the serious political complication
which might arise in the near future from the advance of Russia towards
India, and although he tried in the beginning to conceal his interest in
that question, he nevertheless listened with great attention, and
afterwards remarked that he could hardly believe in a collision between
England and Russia in that quarter of the world; at least not very
soon,--for whereas the English had already got a firm standing in India,
as proved by the Sepoy revolution of 1857, Russia was only on the eve of
her conquests. Diverting our conversation from the Anglo-Russian
rivalry, he continued to ask me sundry questions about Persia and Herat,
and seemed to be much pleased when I assured him that the Persian people
knew a good deal about _Napliun_, as they called Napoleon I., and that
they look upon his great-uncle as a national hero, descended from
Rustem, and that they laugh at the French, who vindicate him as their
countrymen. I remained nearly half an hour with the Emperor. I am sorry
to say he did not make upon me at all the impression of such a great man
as he was then throughout the world supposed to be.
A few days later I called upon M. Drouyn de L'huys, who showed a more
eager interest in the Central Asian question than his master. He started
by asking me whether it was true that I had given a memorandum to Lord
Palmerston on the Central Asian question, and whether I really believed
in the imminent danger of collision between the two great European
Powers in the distant East. I answered that I had not given, nor was I
asked to write any communication to the British Government, and as far
as I noticed from my conversation with the Prime Minister of the Queen
of England, they had got on the other side of the Channel quite
different views from those I held on the question.
Besides these two official receptions, I have to mention my interview
with the Prince Napoleon, who received me in the Palais Royal, and who,
whilst seated under the life-size portrait of his great-uncle, seemed to
be watching to discover whether I noticed the likeness said to exist
between him and his uncle. Well, I was really struck with the striking
similitude existing between the prominent features of both. The two
heads resembled each other, however, only in a very external form; and
there was a difference in which the Emperor's cousin would never
believe, and from this unbelief derived so many disagreeable adventures
in his life. I need scarcely say that these official visits did not
answer much to my taste. But still less did I like the intruding call of
reporters, who interviewed me and published the next day totally false
reports of my conversation with them, which I had afterwards to I
contradict, particularly as some of them announced that I was entrusted
by Lord Palmerston with a secret mission to the Tartars, and other
similar nonsense. One writer--if I remember well, a Polish prince--went
even so far as to write a novel about my travels, in which I was
represented as a champion of romantic propensities, with whom a Tartar
princess fell in love, and who, having obtained in this way some throne
in Asia, was now on a political errand in Europe to secure the
friendship of England and France in the contest against Russia. I
laughed heartily at these exalted reports; but in the end I got tired of
a dubious sort of reputation, and I left France to proceed through
Germany to my native country, where I should have to decide whether I
should settle down quietly or whether I should plunge again in new
adventures and revisit the interior of Asia.
XXXIII.
IN HUNGARY.
I have often been asked how it came about that, after my long and varied
career in Asia as well as in Europe, I made up my mind to settle quietly
down in Hungary and to look upon the Chair of Oriental Languages at the
University of Pesth as a fit reward for my extraordinary struggles in
life. It was during my first audience with the Emperor-King of
Austro-Hungary that the kind-hearted monarch asked me whether I intended
to remain in the country, and what he could do in my favour. On having
alluded to my desire for a professorship at the Hungarian University,
his Majesty suggested that such out-of-the-way studies were not much
cultivated even at Vienna, how then could I hope to find an audience at
Budapest? I remarked upon that, if nobody else would learn, I should
learn myself. The Emperor fully understood, and he kindly remarked,
"Your sufferings deserve a remuneration, and I shall look into your
case." Two or three months had scarcely elapsed, when I got my
appointment with the modest salary of one hundred pounds a year, which
sum the Hungarian Minister for Public Instruction very soon doubled; and
this, together with the income derived from the small sum I got for the
English, French and German editions of my book, fully sufficed to cover
my expenses--nay to enable me to found a family. When it became public
that I intended to marry, people generally said, "What an unhappy idea;
and what a pity for that poor girl!" People took it for sure that I must
get tired of matrimony in a very short time, and that I should leave
home, family, wife and everything, to run again after adventures in the
interior of Asia. Well, people were grossly mistaken, for neither was I
an adventurer by natural impulse, nor were all the praises bestowed upon
me strong enough to drive me again into the wilderness, or to instigate
me to renew my wanderings. It is true I was but thirty-two years old
when I returned to Europe, and although temporarily worn out by fatigue,
I regained my former strength in one year; but already I had spent
twenty years in wanderings of all sorts, and the idea of possessing my
own room, my own furniture, and my own library, made me exceedingly
happy. I revelled in the thought of being able to write down and to
publish those of my explorations which interest but a small community,
but are of so much more value.
I may conclude with the saying, "Dixi et salvavi animam." I hope I shall
never have to repent the extraordinary fatigues and troubles with which
I had to proceed on the thorny path; and if the last rays of the parting
sun of my life approach, I still shall say, "It was a hot, but a fine
day, sir!"
THE END.
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Transcriber's Note: The Table of Contents lists several sub-topics for
each chapter. In the original edition, these appeared as headers on
odd-numbered pages. In the HTML version of this electronic edition,
these have been placed as sidenotes adjacent to the relevant passages.
The following typographical errors present in the original edition have
been corrected.
In the Table of Contents, "Tragedy appreciated" was changed to "Tragedy
Appreciated", and a missing period was added after "XXVI".
In Chapter II, a period was changed to a comma after "from the mouths of
the Sulina, I gazed".
In Chapter IV, "I ememployed this short time" was changed to "I employed
this short time".
In Chapter X, a comma was changed to a period after "continually wagging
with an air of great importance".
In Chapter XI, "only such persons are called rowzekhans" was changed to
"only such persons are called rawzekhans".
In Chapter XIV, a missing quotation mark was added after "from Kuhi
Kaff."
In Chapter XV, "living entirely in Persion fashion" was changed to
"living entirely in Persian fashion", and a comma was changed to a
period after "their extreme excitability and irritability".
In Chapter XX, "for which are hearts had been longing" was changed to
"for which our hearts had been longing".
In Chapter XXI, "four days in the high plateau of Kaflandir" was changed
to "four days in the high plateau of Kaflankir".
In Chapter XXII, "altered appear ance" was changed to "altered
appearance".
In Chapter XXIV, a quotation mark was added after "the men we have
selected for your travelling companions", "with what heavy hearts we
looked foward to" was changed to "with what heavy hearts we looked
forward to", and "Thy glorious ancester Timur" was changed to "Thy
glorious ancestor Timur".
In Chapter XXV, "to tread with these articles amongst the nomadic
people" was changed to "to trade with these articles amongst the nomadic
people".
In Chapter XXVIII, "comtemplating the unnecessary danger" was changed to
"contemplating the unnecessary danger".
In Chapter XXIX, "the aspects of the city seems entirely changed" was
changed to "the aspect of the city seems entirely changed".
In Chapter XXXIII, "the last rays of the parting sun of my life
approaches" was changed to "the last rays of the parting sun of my life
approach".
In the advertisement for The Story of Nations, a comma was changed to a
period after "Head Master of Marlborough", a quotation mark was added
after "the charm of romance", and a misplaced period was corrected after
"as pleasurable as it is profitable".