'Collection of journals and reports received from Captain the Hon G C Napier, Bengal Staff Corps, on special duty in Persia, 1874. Includes revised index. London: HMSO, 1876' [‎8v] (20/409)

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Valley, which is comparatively near to the Turkoman obahs, they
have not been seen for seven or eight years, and the frontier
belooks or divisions of Subzwar have been entirely free from
danger for the last 20 years.
This improved state of affairs is evidenced by the ruins of many
towers of refuge dotted over the fertile plains, and by the decreased
attention paid to the repair of village walls and enclosures.
The Persian Government cannot, I think, lay claim to much
credit on this score; the improvement appears due rather to the
decreased means of offence of the Turkomans than to any better
system of border defence, or to any increased influence over the
tribes. Its relations with the Turkomans can never, owing to
difference of religion and traditional race prejudice, be really
friendly.
A small portion of them are unwilling subjects, a larger number,
when it suits them, profess a nominal allegiance, but the great
body are inveterate enemies, and could under no conceivable
circumstances be brought to ally themselves permanently with,
or to submit to, the Persian Government.
The Chief or Khalifa of the Sarraks tribe sent messengers
to the Governor-General of Khorassan last year proffering alle
giance, but they were at the time suspected to be spies, and
nothing has come of it.
The Tekkes of Merve, though living under an impending cloud
of Russian invasion, have made, so far as is known here, no
advances ; and the predatory incursions of this and other tribes
continue as frequent as their own circumstances admit.
The Tekkes, under a chief named Kousheed Khan, have, since
the submission of their suzerain to Russian authority, concentrated
at Merve, and are making vigorous preparations for the defence of
that place. They have constructed a large fortified camp for the
protection of their families and are said to be constantly employed
in strengthening the defences, the chief feature of which is a large
wet-ditch of great depth, backed by a thick rampart formed of
the deblai.
The capture of .such a work, if sufficient labour is expended on
it, must prove a far more serious undertaking than the reduction
of a town defended, as the towns of Central Asia usually are, by
a thin mud wall and bastions. For the defence of these works
they have 27 guns, taken from the Persian army under the
Hashmut-ul-Mulk in 1857.
They have also a body of 3,000 or 4,000 foot soldiers, well-
armed, a proportion of them with European rifles, and said by
the Persian officers of the Sarraks garrison, who have some
experience of them, to be excellent shots and very formidable
antagonists hand-to-hand.
The force of cavalry that might be collected at Merve to resist
an invasion can hardly be estimated, but there would certainly
be sufficient both to aid in the defence of Merve and to cover
the whole line of the enemies' communication with the Oxus or
Caspian.