'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia' [‎8r] (16/1386)

NOTES ON A JOURNEY THROUGH PERSIA.
By Mr. F. H. Cook (of Thos. Cook & Son.)
For several years Thomas Cook & Son have been urged to send a
representative through Persia to ascertain exactly the facilities for
travelling in that country, the time occupied, the approximate expense,
and other information so necessary to induce travellers to visit any far
distant or comparatively unknown country.
The recent visit to England of H.I.M. the Shah caused us to receive
a number of enquiries, which we could not answer satisfactorily, and as
we were authorised by Her Majesty’s Government to make the whole of
the arrangements for the journey of His Imperial Majesty through
Great Britain—which arrangements were made by Mr. F. H. Cook and
carried out by Mr. T. A. Cook—it was suggested that the time had
arrived when Thomas Cook and Son should send their representative on
a tour of inspection through Persia.
Acting upon the advice of Sir Henry Drummond Wolff, who kindly
offered to render all the assistance he could, Messrs. F. H. and E. E.
Cook left London on October 10th, 1889, and the following notes,
written by Mr. F. H. Cook, will give a pretty clear idea as to the mode
of travelling, time occupied, and expense necessary, of a journey through
Persia.
The route described represents about 1,000 miles on horseback ; and,
to show what can be accomplished in a reasonably short time, we may
add that from Bushire Messrs. Cook travelled through India, Australia,
New Zealand, and thence via Vancouver through America, and are
expected back in London about May 20th.
I will preface these notes by statin g that it is not my intention to give a
description of the country or inhabitan s, this having already been frequently
done. My object is simply to furnish such information as I think would be
useful to travellers.
chief sources of petroleum supply of t le world. Two days may very well be
trading steamers run, but cannot be r ‘commended. The passage takes usually
eukoran and Astara. The steamers are
thirty-six hours, stops being made at
Baku, about thirty-two hours straigh
should be made at Kutais and Tiflis.
i ; through; but if time permits a stay
Baku, as everyone knows, is one of the
spent here in seeing the wells and refir eries. The best hotel is the " Europe,”
From Baku Russian steamer is taken to
The routes from London to Persia are numerous, but I may say that the two
most usual are viA V ienna, Budapest Constantinople, thence by Austrian
Lloyd’s, Messageries or Russian steame • to Batoum ; or via Berlin and Cracow
to Odessa, thence by Russian steamer to Batoum ; from Batoum by rail to
small, so places should be secured as 1 mg in advance as possible.
At Enzelli there is a lagoon wh ich might, without difficulty, be made
into a good harbour, but the bar is s > shallow that only very small steamers
can cross, and if the sea is rough the launch in which passengers are landed
cannot get out, and when this unfortunately happens passengers must return
to Baku and wait there six days for tl le next steamer. Enzelli is a small place
lying very low on the shore of a lagoon, and consequently very feverish. There
but is capable of much improvement.
Enzelli. The steamers of the Karkaz -Mercur Company run weekly from May
to beginning of November and then s omewhat irregularly. Frequent Persian
Pr. 34/90.