'From Captain the Honourable G. C. Napier, on Special Duty in Persia, to the Political Secretary, India Office, Westminster, dated London, 30th July 1879' [‎131r] (11/12)

Touu in Kelat Atak. —From that date till the 26th of the same
month I remained at Mashad, and then left for Kelat-i-Nadiri, where I
hoped to obtain from the Khan a sufficient guard to enable me to visit
the Kelat and Deregez Ataks, which prolong the line of the Akhal Atak
to the banks of the Tejjen. I knew little of these tracts except that
they had formerly supported a considerable population, and would very
soon acquire some political importance in connection with the new line
of frontier that Russia appeared determined to occupy.
From the 1st to the 12th October I remained in the Kelat Atak, and
was then forced to return within the line of settled frontier by a serious
outbreak at Deregez, which compelled the Khan to collect all his force
for the protection of his villages from the Turkomans, who had been
brought in by the rival claimant to the Deregez Chiefship.
I found the Atak of Kelat comparatively a very fertile and well
watered country, showing abundant evidence of former prosperity.
Judging from the extent of the ruins still visible, its population cannot
have been less than a quarter of a million, and it is not many years since
it supported, together with the Tejjen tract, the whole tribe of Tekeh
Turkomans now encamped in the Merve oasis. The tribe was then
estimated at 30,000 tents, which would give a population of not less than
150,000.
At present a few of the best watered parts only are cultivated by
Alieli and Tekkeh settlers, who pay a share of the produce to the Khan,
but have still a position so strong and independent that in the event of
a Russian occupation of Merve it might easily be constructed into a
territorial claim.
The Deregez Atak I only reached the verge of at the ruined town of
Abiverd, but I obtained sufficient information to know that it is far
inferior in value to the Kelat Atak. All its available water is occupied
by Persians securely settled in villages, which must eventually be
ceded to Russia if she is to connect her Caspian line with Turkestan
through Merve.
The Khan accompanied me throughout my tour, and I found him,
as I have found every intelligent Persian at all free from Court or
official influences, thoroughly well disposed, and keenly alive to the
dangers that threaten the country from Russian supremacy.
Return Journey by Gurgan Pass. —On my return from the Atak
I received instructions to proceed to the capital. Sending my baggage
by the caravan road, I marched myself, on the 30th October, in the
direction of Bujnurd, wishing to utilize my return journey by surveying
a road leading from Mashad by the Gurgan valley to the Caspian, which
information acquired on previous journeys had led me to suppose would
prove a direct and easy line of communication.
I proposed also to obtain more accurate information than was possible
at Mashad of the real results of the Russian expedition into the Atak,
and of the extent to which they had been supplied from Persia.
Regarding the question of supplies, I found, and have already reported,
that stringent orders were given to the Khan of Bujnurd to send no
supplies to the Russian camps, but that he was told, at the same time,
that they had permission to purchase from him ; that this permission was
not taken advantage of by the Persian villagers was due only to the
fact that the advance was not projected far enough forward from its
base of supply on the lower Atrak, or sufficiently near to the supplying
districts of the Persian border.
The main result of the expedition, apart from its wider political effects,
was the entire severance of the bonds that had in some degree held the
Akhal tribe to Persia, and to leave them confronted with the alternatives
of submission to Russia or the relinquishment of tWir corn lands and
pastures in the Atak.