A Peep into Toorkisthhan

A Peep into Toorkisthhan

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Title: A Peep into Toorkisthhan
Author: Rollo Burslem
Release Date: April 4, 2004 [EBook #11902]
Language: English
Character set encoding: ISO-8859-1
*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A PEEP
INTO TOORKISTHHAN ***

Produced by Lesley Halamek and PG Distributed Proofreaders

A
PEEP INTO TOORKISTHAN.

BY CAPTAIN ROLLO BURSLEM,
THIRTEENTH PRINCE ALBERT'S LIGHT INFANTRY.
1846.
* * * * *
[Transcriber's Note: [=a] is representing a-macron, unicode character
U0101, and [=A] is representing A-macron, unicode character U0100.
This is usually pronounced as a long a. There are around 240 instances
of vowels accented with macrons (straight line above), mostly

A-macron or a-macron, with one instance of e-macron, and five
instances of u-macron, and one u that should be u-macron(Dao[=u]b)
and isn't (Daoub).
Use of the macron is not consistent throughout the text...
...and the spelling of some place names is not consistent either: e.g.
Toorkisth[=an]; Toorkisthan; Toorkistan.
(There are also a number of words with 'unusual' spellings.
These spellings I have corrected:
territories for territorities; retrograde for retrogade; amongst for amonst.
These 'period' spellings I have left intact:
befel, chace, surprized, loth, gallopped, gallopping, secresy, shew,
shewed, shewing, preeminence, handfull, negociation, threshhold,
trellice, picketted, barricadoed, compaign.
I have also retained M'Naghten for the modern McNaghten.)]
* * * * *

[Illustration: Drawn by Mr Gompertz Pelham Richardson Litho. View
of the Outer Cave of Yeermallik, shewing the Entrance Hole to the
larger Cavern]
* * * * *
[Illustration: MAP OF CABUL AND THE KOHISTAN WITH THE
ROUTE FOR KOOLLUM]
* * * * *
A PEEP INTO TOORKISTHAN.
BY CAPTAIN ROLLO BURSLEM, THIRTEENTH PRINCE
ALBERT'S LIGHT INFANTRY.
1846.

TO THE
RIGHT HON. THE EARL OF CARNARVON, HIGHCLERE
CASTLE.
MY LORD,
Having received your Lordship's permission to dedicate to you this my
first essay as an Author, I beg to tender my best acknowledgements for
the honour, and for the interest you have so kindly expressed in the
success of the following pages. Under such favourable auspices a

successful result may be confidently anticipated by
Your Lordship's Obliged and obedient servant,
ROLLO BURSLEM.
HAREWOOD LODGE, HAMPSHIRE.

TO THE READER.
The following pages are literally what they profess to be, a record of a
few weeks snatched from a soldier's life in Affghanist[=a]n, and spent
in travels through a region which few Europeans have ever visited
before. The notes from which it is compiled were written on the desert
mountains of Central Asia, with very little opportunity, as will be easily
supposed, for study or polish. Under these circumstances, it can hardly
be necessary to deprecate the criticism of the reader. Composition is
not one of the acquirements usually expected of a soldier. What is
looked for in his narrative is not elegance, but plainness. He sees more
than other people, but he studies less, and the strangeness of his story
must make up for the want of ornament. I can hardly expect but that the
reader may consider the style of my chapters inferior to many of those
which are supplied to the public by those who are fortunate enough to
enjoy good libraries and plenty of leisure; two advantages which a
soldier on service seldom experiences. But this I cannot help. Such as
they are, I offer him my unadorned notes; and perhaps he will be good
enough to let one thing compensate another, and to recollect that if the
style of the book is different from what he sometimes sees, yet the
scenery is so too. If instead of a poetical composition he gets a
straightforward story, yet instead of the Rhine or the Lakes he gets a
mountain chain between Independent Tartary and China.
WALMAR BARRACKS, March, 1846.

A PEEP INTO TOORKISTH[=A]N.[*]
[* Note: A portion of the following pages in their original form has
appeared in the Asiatic Journal.]

CHAPTER I.
During the summer of 1840, the aspect of the political horizon in

Affghanist[=a]n afforded but slight grounds for prognosticating the
awful catastrophe which two short years after befel the British arms.
Dost Mahommed had not yet given himself up, but was a fugitive, and
detained by the King of Bokhara, while many of the principal Sirdars
had already tendered their allegiance to Shah Sooja: and there was in
truth some foundation for the boast that an Englishman might travel in
safety from one end of Affghanist[=a]n to the other. An efficient force
of tried soldiers occupied Ghuzni, Cabul, Candahar,