'Lord Curzon's Notes on Persia' [‎382r] (764/1386)

Lieutenant II. B. Vaughan's recent Journey in Eastern Persia.*
By Major-General Sir Frederic GOLDSMID, C.B., k.c.s.i.
(Bead at the Evening Meeting, March 10th, 1890.)
An interesting journey through Persia—or from Lingah, a port on its
southern or sea boundary, to Semnan, a town near its northern frontier,
and again from Semnan to Bajistan in the east—has recently been
accomplished by Lieut. Vaughan, an officer in the 7th Bengal Infantry.
His narrative has been forwarded to the Royal Geographical Society;
but as it is in the itinerary form, and of considerable length, it has
been, under the Society’s instructions, and in the author’s absence,
entrusted to me to be prepared for reading. In now putting the sub
stance of the paper before you—though I may venture an occasional
remark of my own—it will be my endeavour to make very constant use
of the young traveller’s own words.
It will simplify the matter to consider the exploration accomplished
in three divisions:—Lingah to Yezd, a distance of 418 miles, occupying,
inclusive of halts, about 21 months, or from the 17th December to the
3rd March—Yezd to Semnan, 370 miles, occupying 24 days, or from the
30th March to the 23rd April—and Semnan to Bajistan, 376 miles,
performed in one month and 12 days.
Arriving from Karachi at Lingah, south-west of Bandar Abbas, on the
13th December, 1887, Lieut. Vaughan started on foot for the interior of
Persia on the 17 th of that month. The outfit he had organised con
sisted of one forty-pound tent (Kabul pattern), one camp table, bed and
chair, a lantern, a box of clothes, and box of surveying instruments,
medicines and drawing materials, a saddle, rifle, and two revolvers, and
a roll of bedding strapped up in a waterproof sheet with an air pillow.
His baggage and other essentials were loaded on six donkeys, and his
followers consisted of one “ Arab servant who acted as interpreter, cook,
and everything else,” and four musketeers sent by the Governor, to show
him the road, and, as he quaintly attests from after experience, to
“ consume the greater part of my provisions.”
The first day’s march, a short one of 81 miles over a gravelly soil
with scant vegetation, brought him to a hut amid date trees. Thence,
on the second day, passing the village of Meirakum, the surroundings
of which (though itself possessing 200 inhabitants, a little wheat cultiva
tion, and large date plantations) are described as “ very desolate,” he
pushed on to Champeh, a village of about 20 houses, “small square
buildings with roofs formed of small domes, and constructed almost of
sun-dried bricks.” On the third march he ascended, over gently sloping
ground, towards a high and barren range of hills skirted the previous
day. His progress was somewhat impeded by the many and large
boulders strewn across his path ; but moving up a narrow raviue, down
which flowed a stream with salt-encrusted banks, and climbing a steep
ascent, he reached a watershed The boundary between adjacent drainage basins. at an elevation of some 1960 feet,
putting up for the night at a Hauz, or large brick rain-supplied cistern
by the road side. From this spot, described as the summit of the hill
range, Lingah Peak, its highest point, was seen to rear “ its yellow mass
against the blue sky.” On the day following, descending into a valley
between “ precipitous barren peaks,” and moving down the bed of a dry
stream amid wild and desolate surroundings, he reached a salt-water
river flowing south-west. Crossing this, and traversing broken ground
between high hills, he alighted at the Caravanserai A roadside inn providing accommodation for caravans (groups of travellers). of Din, situated at
an elevation of some 1400 feet, “ a small and filthy stone building,
crammed with fleas.” The fifth march took him up a valley “inter
sected by walls of rock 20 to 60 feet high, and 3 or 4 feet thick running
north and south, some blue, and others reddish brown, while between
them often intervene gravelly hills whose sides they support.” Then,
ascending a rocky ravine amongst tufts of Indian grass, he halted on a
low watershed The boundary between adjacent drainage basins. elevation of about 1850 feet. Of this stage of his journey
Lieut. Vaughan remarks: “ east, south, and west the country behind us
is simply one mass of hills as far as we can see, and their general
direction east and west. The road now descends gently by a winding
stony track for one mile, when it enters amongst hills and broken
* Adapted from the original MS. narrative.