Part 14 (1/1)

The account ofbecoht it necessary to bring er public, and the first foruraphical Society There was, however, a rather curious hindrance to the final settlement, an incident which I cannot leave untold A few days after an to have a shy look, and that they treatedjust finished the career of a dangerous disguise, and being accustomed to the suspicious looks of men, I did not at first feel disconcerted; but the fact nevertheless excitedjust then with General Kmethy, my countryman of Kars renown and a popular e attitude of people, I was told by the gooder in which I found myself in London I heard then that so enuine Persian and Turkish conversation, got rather suspicious about lish in India, and who, after having succeeded in getting letters of introduction, was now playing a colish scholars and diplomatists It was only the formal assurance of General Karian Academy, which dissipated the doubts that had arisen ”Is it not strange?” said I to myself ”In Asia they suspected es have really an i been rean to work out a short account of raphical Society--a paper which Mr Laurence Oliphant, as acting at that tih to revise I ood deal of i of lish audience such as the raphical Society have been always, and are even now My anxiety was thea political question of a far-reaching interest, nale with Germany, was to be discussed in the House of Parliament, and my friends as well as myself apprehended the presence of a very ss The usual dinner at Willis's Roo went off tolerably well My health was proposed by Sir Roderick Murchison in very kind ter; and, when I returned thanks, I concludedupon the dinner party--reciting the first Surah of the Koran with all the eccentricity of the Arabic guttural accent, and with all the queerness of genuine Mosleesticulation I need scarcely say that ood deal of ton House

Here I found a er than I expected, an attendance which I ascribe to the novelty of the whole case Before all, it was the sight of a European who had wandered about in the interior of Asia in the disguise of a holy beggar without a penny in his pocket, and who had succeeded in penetrating countries hitherto little or not at all known

Secondly, it was the curiosity to hear a foreigner, only a few days in England, address an English e of the country; and last, if not least, it was the interest the British public felt at that time in Bokhara, the place of the martyrdom of two heroic sons of Great Britain--I mean of Conolly and Stoddart--and the town from which the Rev Dr Joseph Wolff had only returned a few years previously, after his most extraordinary adventures Suffice it to say that thewas most respectable from a quantitative point of view Sir Roderick opened it with a good humour quite in accord with his jolly and radiant after-dinner face; and whilst Mr Clenificent stentorian voice, I had plenty of leisure to observe the assembly and to prepare for the speech which had to follow On being asked by the President to coive an oral account of what had just been read, I confess that I experienced so of the position in which I stood before the Emir of Bokhara--with the essential difference of course, that in case of a failure the bloody tyrant would have handed lish public would have expressed its displeasure by benignant laughter I collected, therefore, all uistic powers, and, after the utterance of the first ten or fifteen words, the flood of oration went off uninterruptedly For more than half an hour I spoke with animation of the salient incidents of e of Shakespeare and Milton! I am sure nobody has ever tormented thee so much as I did in those thirty-five lish in such a cruel way as the ex-dervish in Burlington House! And yet the English audience showed itself exceedingly kind towards the reckless foreigner I wasthe su with the genuine Arabic text, the whole society burst into a fit of laughter, whichbusiness of handshaking and congratulations; and though all the futilities of this world ford's ”Well done, dervish!+” will never cease to resound in my ear like the sweetest music I ever heard inof land What folloas only the effect of this first successful step In the report of the next n accent; as to the account of my travels there was a unanimous approval and admiration No wonder, therefore, that a feeeks sufficed to dom London society vied in the ment

Invitations to dinner-parties and to visit in the country literally poured in upon me, even from persons whom I never saw or met in my life; and it happened frequently that I had to write thirty letters of refusal and acceptance in one day I got calls fro names, who, provided with a card of one ofin Great Portland Street or to the Athenaeuuest, to shake hands and to have a conversation with me Infinite was the number of those letters in which I was asked for raph

Surprised by these various kinds of distinction, at the outset I endured the burdens of ood aan to be a little too wearisome--particularly as I had to write the account of re notes written on small paper scraps with lead pencil, which loose sheets, by having been worn concealed under the wadding of ar-dress, were soible assisted by a happy gift ofdown my adventures; and in three months I had revised the proof-sheets of my first book, entitled ”Travels in Central Asia” The task, I frankly own, costparts of my travels Only those who for months and years have moved about freely in the open air, and who have learned to appreciate the char adventures--only those will knohat unspeakable pangs and sufferings a former traveller can shut himself up in a room, from which he sees only a small bit of the sky, and sit down to write consecutively for hours every day for weeks and months! I need scarcely say that I breathedfinished my book, and handed it over to Mr John Murray, who becaford, and who behaved towards me in a satisfactory way The honorariuot, and of which I spent nearly the half in London, did not make me rich at all

The truth is, ed: a dervish in Asia, I re lish public, and fame and reputation over the whole European and American Continents

Upon the invitation of the friends I had in thepoliticalcollision between England and Russia in the distant East, of which I threw out only a few hints in the concluding chapter of reatest 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 ot the opportunity of an intervieith Lord Palmerston, to whom I had already been cursorily introduced at a dinner-party in the house of Sir Roderick Murchison His Lordshi+p received me at his home in Piccadilly, and my visit was therefore of a strictly private character He did not address stone, to whom he said, ”You had a nice walk across Africa!” But his first reh nice adventures on your way to Bokhara and Sareatest attention to all that I said about Dost Mohahtiness of the Eers I ran in the last-na 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 tireat incuriosity, trying always to turn the thread of conversation to other insignificant topics Whenever I thought I had caught his attention he immediately came forith 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 th in that quarter of the world He succeeded in showing outward indifference, but he was far fro me of its existence In my intervieith 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 land seemed to have been roused suddenly froh to admit the truth of what I said in the last chapter of my book; but he added at the sa principle of optiland: ”Russia's policy in Central Asia is framed in the saradually froed to do in ourservices 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 ofbeen properly hunted down as the lion of the season--I felt the great necessity of extricating lish hospitality; and I went over to Paris to have a look about in French society This beca, the Austrian Minister of Foreign Affairs, having provided me with a letter of introduction to Prince Metternich, as 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, lish friends to many other literary men of distinction, such as M Guizot, M de Thiers, M Jules Mohl, and others, all of whoh their first reception iround 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 thereat land, where the successful explorer is sorosser Gelehrte_,” or the Frenchlish 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 Gerator, for thebooks with nuh, Drake, and Cook is still alive, whilst in France and Germany travellers and explorers have only very recently come into fashi+on

Paris society was --nauise of a dervish--than with the travels theht of a rather curious adventurer I was spoken of as a man of restless spirit and of roazed upon as sohtenedto meet in the _salon_ of M Guizot the representatives of ten different nationalities, and having conversed with thearded by many as a real miracle As to the intrinsic value ofthat I should res and Turko a few learned men, in the best French society Nevertheless, my book, which cae 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 Elish edition of my book, he would like to ask me a few questions One afternoon the Prince took ate 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 hi Prince Metternich, hoood ter in a friendly manner to me, walked to the interior apartments The Prince remained behind with the Eroup 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 ar-desk filled with a large quantity of books, papers,fixed rey eyes, he addressed ratulated , and that having read ht and seereat hardshi+ps I had endured I remarked upon this, that I was never ill in s, but upon uistic 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 Eood 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 Caesar,” said that he was anxious to knohether 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 is of Arrian as well as in Roeography 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 coht arise in the near future froh he tried in the beginning to conceal his interest in that question, he nevertheless listened with great attention, and afterwards reland and Russia in that quarter of the world; at least not very soon,--for whereas the English had already got a fir in India, as proved by the Sepoy revolution of 1857, Russia was only on the eve of her conquests Diverting our conversation frolo-Russian rivalry, he continued to ask me sundry questions about Persia and Herat, and seemed to be much pleased when I assured hiood deal about _Napliun_, as they called Napoleon I, and that they look upon his great-uncle as a national hero, descended froh 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 reat hout the world supposed to be

A few days later I called upon M Drouyn de L'huys, who showed a er interest in the Central Asian question than hisiven a memorandum to Lord Palmerston on the Central Asian question, and whether I really believed in the ireat 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 froland, 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 intervieith the Prince Napoleon, who received me in the Palais Royal, and hilst seated under the life-size portrait of his great-uncle, see to discover whether I noticed the likeness said to exist between hi si 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 froreeable adventures in his life I need scarcely say that these official visits did not answercall 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, ho obtained in this way some throne in Asia, was now on a political errand in Europe to secure the friendshi+p 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 ca and varied career in Asia as well as in Europe, I ary and to look upon the Chair of Oriental Languages at the University of Pesth as a fit reward forary that the kind-hearted monarch asked me whether I intended to remain in the country, and what he could do inalluded to arian 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 res deserve a remuneration, and I shall look into your case” Two or three ot my appointment with the arian Minister for Public Instruction very soon doubled; and this, together with the incolish, French and German editions of my book, fully sufficed to cover my expenses--nay to enable me to found a faenerally said, ”What an unhappy idea; and what a pity for that poor girl!” People took it for sure that I et tired of matrimony in a very short ti, to run again after adventures in the interior of Asia Well, people were grossly mistaken, for neither was I an adventurer by natural ih to drive ate s It is true I was but thirty-two years old when I returned to Europe, and although teth in one year; but already I had spent twenty years in wanderings of all sorts, and the idea of possessing my own rooly 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 , ”Dixi et salvavi animam” I hope I shall never have to repent the extraordinary fatigues and troubles hich 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