'Seistan' [‎340r] (681/782)

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into a regular garden He described the climate as far from bad, and the
difficulties of access from Meshed as greater than those from Baluchistan. He
thought that a large field was open for the import of green tea into Persia by
the Nushki route ; and he strongly recommended the appointment of a native
agent and assistant apothecary in-Seistan.
8. A year later Khan Bahadur Maula Bakhsh, Native Attache to the
British Consulate at Meshed, and a very capable officer, was deputed to return
to India by the new route, in the company of a trial caravan of Meshed
merchants. Their journey lasted from April till July 1898—unfortunately the
hottest and least propitious season of the year. At its close Maula Bakhsh,
whose report is the best that I have yet read upon the country traversed, wrote
that—“ The Indian traders with my caravan, although disappointed by losses
of camels, difficulties of transport and want of water at certain places, have
not formed an unfavourable view of the new trade route, and they intend to
advise their firms to send goods by it in the future”. There were wanted,
however, better arrangement for water-supply, more godowns, and superior
provision for storing fodder. The road was pronounced not yet suitable for
merchants, travellers, or pilgrims, unaccustomed to rough travelling. Never
theless the journey from Meshed to Quetta—62 marches or 1,090 miles—was
performed by Maula Bakhsh and his caravan in 65 days. Including the average
number of halts, viz., 10, he pointed out that the normal duration of the journey—
i.e., 72 days, would yet be shorter than the 75—90 days usually occupied in
traversing the alternative route, 966 miles long, between Meshed and Bunder
Abbas.
9. In the same year, 1898, Lieutenant Webb Ware submitted his first
Annual Report, which, in spite of the obstructive measures adopted by the
Russian officers on the pretext of plague in Khorasan, recorded a gratifying
advance. In an appendix on Nushki trade, he pointed out that the route was
growing in favour, and that out of nothing had been created a trade, which
had risen from 1^ lakhs One lakh is equal to one hundred thousand rupees in 1896 to Rs. 5,90,000 in 1897. The main impediments
were the total lack of supplies, other than those specially imported, on the
road between Nushki and the Seistan frontier, and the illegal extortion of
the Persian toll-collectors (many of them in Russian pay) in Persian terri
tory. Notwithstanding, he thought that the Quetta-Seistan route would even
tually beat the Bunder Abbas route to Meshed, because merchandise carried
by the latter required to change hands several times in transit, because a longer
time was required for the journey thereby, and because the road was less secure
than one running uninterruptedly through British territory.
10. In the present year, the same officer’s second Annual Report testifies
to a continued improvement both in the amenities of the route, and in the
trade returns, which have increased by Its. 1,38,000 since 1897. A new bazar,
containing 126 shops, has been laid out at Nushki, which has developed from
a petty group of daub and wattle huts into a small town; and which, now
that the Nushki district has been (in the summer of 1899) permanently taken
over by the Government of India, is certain of a prosperous future. Through
out the past year a weekly dak System of postal communication used in Moghul India and later by the East India Company. has been maintained from Quetta to the Seistan
frontier, in correspondence with a bi-weekly Persian dak System of postal communication used in Moghul India and later by the East India Company. from thence via
Nasirabad and Birjand to Meshed. Alterations and short cuts in the route
have reduced the distance from Nushki to Meshed to 954 miles, as compared
with 966 miles from Bunder Abbas to the same destination.
11. An independent light has been thrown upon Seistan in the same
period by the visit of Captain Sykes, who was despatched thither as Consul at
the end of 1898 in consequence of the appointment of a Russian Consul to
Nasirabad. Captain Sykes, who has for some time been Her Majesty’s Consul
at Kerman, and who has been greatly interested in the rival Bunder Abbas-
Kerman-Meshed trade route, arrived in Seistan in January 1899, with pre
possessions already so strongly formed in favour of the older route, and against
the new competitor, that before he had been there a week, he pronounced
against the permanent appointment of a Political Officer to Seistan, and in