'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎114] (149/714)

114
PERSIA
pull instruments out of their pockets, that no successful exploiation
would ever be undertaken if they were to be forewarned ot the
traveller's intention. I determined, therefore, to take no one into
my counsels, but to announce that I was going to Meshed and
might possibly diverge on the way to hunt in the mountains ; my
secret resolve being to strike across country by whatevei loute I
could find, 1 and ascertain for myself whether it was possible for a
single individual, unexpected and unannounced, to penetiate into
Kelat.
I had the greatest difficulty in eluding the vigilance of the
Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. , who was not only full of curiosity as to my movements,
but also insisted upon my travelling in his brand-new
victoria of Russian victoria as far as Meshed, threatening to return
the Ilkhani The paramount chief of certain tribes in south west Iran. me ^ s {\y er wa tch if I would not accept the loan of his
vehicle. It was in vain that I said that I preferred to ride.
' You will have plenty of riding later on,' was the reply. Or that
I wanted to stop at the villages en route. ' So can the carriage,'
was the rejoinder. Finally I compromised by accepting the
victoria, with the intention of sending it back at the end of the
first stage; and concluded by a most ceremonious departure from
Kuchan. The Khan walked with me through the streets, holding
me by the hand, and deposited me in the vehicle, which was of
Moscow build and of the newest and most elegant description (I
fell to wondering from whom the present had come), and to which
were harnessed four grey horses with postilions. With mounted
gholams clearing a way in front and attendants walking by the
side, the victoria, with myself inside it, rolled slowly out of the
town.
The first part of my route lay along the highway to Meshed ;
as, in order to avoid suspicion, I had decided upon pursuing it as
Kuchan to far as Radkan, on the outskirts of the Shuja's government,
Chamgir ai i ( l forty miles from his city. The road runs across an
almost dead level, although at about twenty miles from Kuchan it
crosses the watershed The boundary between adjacent drainage basins. between the Atrek and Keshef Rud drainage.
It was immetalled, in bad repair, and reflected no credit on the
engineer who had constructed it. My postilions, as a rule,
preferred to drive over the open plain, for the road was frequently
intersected by irrigation trenches of a foot or more in depth, which
1 I had no information as to the existence of any such route, the few English
travellers who had previously been to Kelat having gone from Meshed.