'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎45] (76/714)

WAYS AND MEANS
45
Barfurush; 1 or whence an independent line can be pursued to
Astrabad (23 miles), and thence over terribly steep passes (65
miles), to Shahrud, where the main caravan and postal
Teheran route is struck between Teheran and Khorasan. I shall
route require to deal so fully with all these places later on,
that I will do no more at present than indicate this as a possible
variation in entering the country.
Further to the east, the Transcaspian Kail way, recently com
pleted by Russia in her newly conquered regions north of the
Persian border, and the road which she has constructed
bad- Asllka i n correspondence therewith from Ashkabad, her ad-
Meshed ministrative and military capital, to the boundary of
route . ' .
Khorasan, and which is being continued on the other
or Persian side to Kuchan and Meshed, has within the last two
years supplied a new means of access to North-eastern Persia,
which did not previously exist, or could not be pursued with safety.
The fact that no description of this new road into Khorasan had
yet been published, coupled with my own desire to see something
of the border regions of that important province, and to visit its
capital, Meshed, determined me to enter Persia, if possible, from
this novel quarter. English officers serving at Meshed had more
than once received permission to quit or to return to their posts
by this route; and, having already travelled on the Transcaspian
Railway in the preceding year, I indulged in hopes that the
Russian Government would not be averse to renew the permission,
which indeed there could be no valid ground for refusing. Hie
courtesy of the Russian Ambassador in London, assisted by the
kindly offices of the British Ambassador in St. Petersburg, happily
effected this object, and the ensuing pages will contain a de
scription of my journey, which I need not now anticipate.
Upon the eastern borders of Persia no English traveller is now
very likely to think of entering the country. The intervention of
VII Af Afghanistan between India and Persia in this quarter,
ghan ap- and the merciless policy of exclusion pursued by the
proaches AMur R a i iman Khan, render it absolutely impos
sible for any Englishman to dream ol approaching Persia from this
side. In bygone centuries we read of many European voyagers
1 This route has been described by (Sir) A. Burnes (1882), Travels into
Bokhara, vol. iii. pp. 105-111; E. B. Eastwick (1862), Journal of a Diplomate,
vol. ii. pp. 60-101 ; Col. Val. Baker (1873), Clouds in the East, pp. 70-77.