HERAT AND BADGHIS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XIII, Issue 4, 15 May 1885, Page 23

HERAT AND BADGHIS.

(Correspondence of the London Timet.) IF Russia had no designs on Herat, she would not care whether her frontier were at Sarakhs or Pul-i-Khatnm, or at Yolat&n or Pendjeb. Bat of coarse she cares. Russia has statesmen, and each naturally aspires to be the Joshua who will terminate these weary wanderings through the wildernesss of Central Asia and lead her armies into the Promised Land. Once there, their troubles are at an end. Everything is there to be found, for the valley of Herat flows with milk and honey. As Colonel Malleson in " Herat " writes :— " Place an army there, and nothing need be brought to it from Europe. Within the limits of the Herati territory all the great roads leading on India converge. The mines of the Herati district ■supply lead, iron, and sulphur ; the surface of many parts of the [country is laden with saltpetre ; the willow and the poplar, which [make the best charcoal, abound, the fields produce in abundance corn, f and wines, and oil. From the population, attracted to its new rulers by pood government, splendid soldiers might be obtain, d." 1 fear I have digressed. Let me return to the sketch of Badghis. The reality presents one material point of difference which, as it has already been noticed by M. Lessar, I need not hesitate to mention. You will see in the Bketch that two branches of the Paropamisus run from Herat across Badghis to the Heri Bud— one north-west and the other west. Id reality ouly the former ex sts— the southern branch of the Paropamisus is a shadow, unless, indeed, it is represented by the gentle undulations of gravelly soil, covered with camel-thorn and assafoetida, which intervene between the right bank of the Heri Bud and the Sich Bubak range. Thus melts away one of those stupendous natural obstacles to the invasion of Herat, among which optimist imaginations have hitherto gambolled so gaily. Of course " Paropamisus," the name given by the ancients to the range in question, is not known locally. It is the Sufed Kob, one of the spurs thrown off by the Koh-i-Baba, the range which gives birth to the Helmund, Heri Rud, and Murghab, but it has particular names in particular localities. Thus, the portion of it north of Herat pierced by the Ardewan and other passes, is known as the Kaito mountains, and the portion running from the Kaito mountains, to the Heri Bud, containing the Khom-bou and other passes, as the Sich Bubak. The bulk of our party crossed the Sich Bubak at the Sar-i- Chashma pass, but nearly all the other passes have been examined by other members of our parry. M. Lessar has given his opinion regarding the practicability of the Khom-bou Pass, but he has published very little other information of strategical value. I propose to imitate his patriotic reserve, and, therefore, will only say that when we stood on the summit; of the Sar-i- Ohashma, 5,C00f t. above the sea, a striking panorama unfolded itself before us. A vast sea of grassy billowy downs swept to the foot of the Jam mountains in the far west, and to the north rolled away as far as the eye could see, its undulating surface being only broken by the island hilla which enclose the valley of Pend-jeh. This, then, was the bleak, sterile, mountainous country which we bad thought of with a shiver, when our eyes, tired of stariug glaring deseit*, were enjoying the rich fertility of the Herat valley. Mountainous — as mountainous as the Brignton Downs 1 Bleak— tne climate of the Engadine in August 1 Sterile— groves of pistachio and mulberry trees, wild rose trees, real English blackberry bushes, wild carrots, testified to the richness of the soil, irrigated in many places by mountain streams of the purest water, alive with fish 1 And this was autumn, the eve of winter ; what then must Badghis be in spring 1 Why it should be named Badghis (" windy ") I know not, for since we have crossed the Sich Bubak we have been sheltered io its kindly bosom from the fierce biting blasts which never ceased to assail us from Seistan to Kuhsan. How it has obtained its reputation for 6terility is not difficult to say. Scarcely an acre of this rich soil ia cultivated ; scarcely, I say, for a few acres to the north of the Chashma Sabz Pass are rudely tilled by a Turcoman, who acquainted us with his existence by rushing into our camp and throwing himself on the ground with loud cries. It transpired that he was a servant of one Aziz Sirdar, an ex-Tekke chief of Merv, with whom he had fled from Merv when the Russian occupation was imminent. He hai left his wife and children behind him. and was anxious that when we turned the Russians oat of Merv we should restore them to hLr>. As for Aziz Sirdar, he befriended the Ameer when he fled from Afghanistan and passed' through Merv on his way. to Khiva. When trouble bifel Az : z Sirdar, and he had to leave Merv he appealed to the gratitude of Abdurrahman Khan, who had become Ameer of Afghanistan, and not in vain, for he was presented with a village in the Herat valley and— a gift of more doubtful value — with some land in Badghis. But why is it that the rich soil of Badghis lies waste, for except on the banks of the Kushk and Murghab there is no cultivation, and [.until quite lately not even nomads to graze their flocks on its ricb herbage? We know that Badghis was once a well populated, prosperous country. There are remains of canals, aqueducts, forts villages, and even cities — for instance, Ktla-i-Mam turns out to be the city of Baghshur captured by Chengiz Khan— which testify to this ; indeed the many graveyards with beautifully carved marble slabs prove it beyond dispute. Yet now large herds of antelope, wild asses, and partcula ly fierce wild boars, which have given us some exciting boear hums, monopolize its fair surface. Wolves and tigers are also said to be found, and two snow leopards are now on their way to the Zoological Gardens to acquaint the British public with the existence of Lheir fatherland. Tue chief sport of the Turcomans is the wild ass, and when we crossed the Chashma Sabz Pass a party of Turcomans were roaming over the plains below in search of it. According to local tradition Badghis was once peopled with Jagatai Tartars, whose gravestones are still to be found in considerable numbers. In the reign of AbbaßS the Great the country was at its zenith of prosperity, and when Abbass 11. invaded the Herat valley the powerful Jagatai ruler of Badghis, Shah Khatil, was selected io oppose his progress to Kuhsan. This he did very successfully, but his victory was cruelly revenged ; for Shah Abbasa having at last

succeeded against Herat, made his way through the Bund-i-Bab* Pass into Badghis, and put to the sword, not only Shan Khplil, bat the entire population of the district. It is said that Badghis remained desolate until Nadir Shah induced the Char Aimak tribes, the Janmidis in particular, to populate it, but in 1838 it was again devastated by the scourge of war. In that year the Persian army invaded Herat and commenced the celebrated siege which the genias and heroism of Pottinger so signally defeated. The Herat valley and Badghis suffered cruelly ; the latter less at the hands of the Persians than from the Kbivan army which marched across from Merv to the help of Kamran Shah. A year or two after, Abott, Shakespeare, and Conolly travelled through Badghis, and found it absolutely deserted, excepting the banks of the Kushk and Pend-jeh at its northern extremity. Since then it has remained desolate, and no wonder, for it became the highway of the Turcoman robbers of Merv when out on their manatealing expeditions, and their huntingground when they hai leisure to hunt animals iastead of men. A cultivator would soon have found himself thrown on a Turcoman horse— his feet fastened together under its belly, his head anywhere—' on his way to the slave market of Khiva. My guide, a Jamsnidi, indeed had suffered this fate, and had been sold for about £20 in the slave market of Khiva. He was employed as a household servant until his old father having at last scraped up a ransom, obtained* safe conduct from the Turcomans— for it would be bad policy to stand in the way of a ransom — and trudged the 700 miles from Kuhsan to Khiva to buy back his only son. It is extraordinary that patriotism is not overwhelmed and swept away by the gratitude which these people should feel to Russia for emancipating them from the hateful Turcoman. But it is not so. If Badghis is to be transformed, as it might easily be into a second Cashmere, the work must be done by English not Russian hands.