Part 1 (1/2)
Arminius Vambery, his life and adventures
by arminius Vambery
PREFATORY NOTE TO FIRST EDITION
The following pages contain a strictly personal narrative of my Travels and Adventures in Asia and in Europe They ical description of the actual Central Asia Upon these points recent works have greatly added to the knowledge we possessed twenty years ago, when I perfore from Budapest to Samarkand A _resulish, French and Gerion would have for to do with the variegated adventures of ive the first colish reader
ARMINIUS VAMBeRY
BUDAPEST
INTRODUCTORY CHAPTER
TO THE BOYS OF ENGLAND
In presenting this narrative of my adventures in Europe and in Asia to the juvenile reader in England, I must add a few reraphical reminiscences of this book I n countries awoke in er coe, I tried, with a crutch under my left arm--for I was la usually far behindjeered at byto my dear mother and bitterly complain of the shame which had befallen me She used with all , ”Never er, you will beat them all by force of perseverance I am sure you will yet be far in advance of theoodof reat impatience to the time when I should be _in advance of thee that by dint of exertion I became one of the most industrious of students, I was fully prepared for the same success in physical competitions But, alas! here I was to a certain extent disappointed, for enerally hindered by the crutch, which I still used at the age of ten, not sobecome too accustomed to it to ithout it, but which I intended to lay aside as soon as possible It was one day, whilst visiting the tomb of my father in the cemetery, that I made up my mind to ithout that troubleso throay the crutch, I walked, or I should rather say, I ju a few paces, in order to try locomotion without a wooden support It was a hard, nay, an exhaustive work; and, as the village was nearly a quarter of an hour's journey froan to despair, and ju taken it in hand and being ready to start again for ho infiercely with deterood advice of ot the upper hand In order to avoid any future te one half of it as a walking stick, I returned houe and nearly bathed in perspiration
I relate this incident in order to prove to the young reader that a resolute will is able to accoh persisting in our decisions, we nearly always reach the goal of our desires With the motto, ”Forwards and never backwards!”
I, a lame man, destitute of all name, was able to see distant countries in Asia, and to visit such places and peoples as I was anxious to know froarians are, as you must know, Asiatics by descent; our ancestors cao from the East to the banks of the Danube, and it is very natural that with us a voyage to Asia is connected with a good deal of national piety
To Englishmen travels in Asia have another kind of attraction To one, that continent is the cradle of our holy religion, the ancient seat of civilization; to another, it is a region for adventure, or the far country where hehabits and custolishmen Asia is a field for corateful task awaits the European, and where a holy dutyfriends in England that Asia is worth seeing and studying There are many, many features in the character and the social life of the Asiatic which deserve our adh there are also others which will rouse our coreatly to love our own country and to cling the ion and institutions What will strike us most is the difference of opinion and of viee meet at every step in the interior life of the Asiatic It is not only his physical appearance, his dress and language, his food and habitation, but also his , which will seee to our eyes, and offer to us a spectacle such as we are unaccusto towns, of wonderful buildings and old monuments I will not speak at all, but I will repeat what I said before: ”A journey to Asia is quite worth the trouble involved in it”
It would be indeed unfair should I conceal fro in the interior of Asia does not at all belong to the class of enterprises called pleasure trips or vacation tours; for it involves a good deal of trouble and fatigue, of privation and suffering A ht up under better circumstances and accustomed to lead a comfortable life must be prepared to nourish his body on the most incredible food, to front all inclemencies of weather, and, what is most difficult, to renounce his notions of cleanliness Of course a European is only gradually trained for such an extraordinary life of hardshi+ps; it is only by getting gradually fro situations; and if, reading the following pages, you should be astonished at what I went through and what I had to suffer, please to note that in spite of the great poverty in which I spent my childhood ress froradually and after a temporary sojourn in the countries I had to pass on thy and wearisome, but in spite of that preparatory school the whole undertaking was extres were really such as could hardly be described The account, which you will read in the following pages and all that I have written, contains scarcely the half of the adventures I went through in Europe and in Asia, and ought to be taken only for the outlines of a career I intend to sketch, but will not publish in my lifetime
I do not need to add that I do not repent at all of having spent the best portion ofbeen an eye-witness ofcustoms and habits of men The joy and inon the scenes for which ed, that saone adventures, and I feel really happy in unfolding the delightful and variegated picture of land find an enjoy to thee of the distant Asiatic world, I shall feel certainly theto the Oriental, to receive is only a single pleasure, but to give is a twofold one
ARMINIUS VAMBeRY
BUDAPEST
I