'Collection of journals and reports received from Captain the Hon G C Napier, Bengal Staff Corps, on special duty in Persia, 1874' [‎69] (82/396)

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t along!
of his inability to comply with my request for guards on the Gurgan
route. This produced some hesitation, and he desired me to wait till
the next day when he would have reports as to the state of the roads.
This I of course agreed to. With reference to the rumour that
the Persian Government had made over the Attrek Yemoots to
Russia, I learnt that there was a certain amount of foundation for
it. The Russian Governor, Lamakyn, had visited Asterabad and Lamakyn's
conferred with the Governor, Suleyman Khan, and had suggested ^g 1 t t e ^ bad
the transfer of the Yamoots, but being met by refusal had referred
to his own Government and there the matter rested. The Ye
moots live for the most part on the Russian side, and cultivate
lands on the Persian, paying tribute to neither party. With Eelkham's
regard to Tekkah politics I found the chief of opinion that it
was necessary for the Persian Government at once to take some q Ues tion.
measures to secure them, and also believed that conciliation was
the most advisable policy, and he himself the best man to carry it
out.
17 th November. Bujnoord. — Further news regarding the
security of the roads being, as the Khan pretends, unsatisfactory,
he has sent me the required acknowledgment of his inability to
give me guards by the Gurgan route ; sending me also the cus
tomary present of a horse which I declined to receive. Not that
I had any great cause to complain of his conduct, for he had acted
throughout, with slight exception, with the greatest frankness, and
could hardly be expected under the circumstances to comply with
my requests.
It would have been, I believe quite possible without the chiefs Objections to
assistance to obtain safe conduct either with or without payment amongsuhe
from some of the Turkomans at Bujnoord, and I might have Turkomans,
visited both the Akhal and the Yamoot, but the difficulties increased an< i accepting
on a nearer approach, and having been left a clear discretion by ^Uty^Tth'is
Mr. Thomson, I deemed it advisable not to make the attempt, time.
By accepting their hospitality or even travelling amongst them, I
should have confirmed the Turkomans in the belief, which I found
they already had, that I had come charged with some mission to
them, or that my Government was prepared to sympathise with
and assist them against their European enemy. Every man of
them held the commonly entertained idea of the rivalry between
the two Governments, and the appearance among them of a
British officer would have been almost equivalent to the holding
out a distinct pledge of assistance. It seemed to me to be quite
beyond my instructions and the object of my journey to appear
in the character of an envoy or accredited agent among the tribes,
and as their guest I could only have appeared as such. The gain
too seemed to me comparatively trifling. I was already well in
formed as to the position and foreign relations of the tribes
from intercourse with the people themselves, and had acquired
a fair knowledge of the geography of the upper Attrek and
Akhal.
The language of the Turkomans themselves and their anxiety
for recognition, if not assistance, from the British Government