A Ride to Khiva and on Horseback Through Asia Minor (Classic Reprint)

The account of the prohibitory order which 1had seen published in the Pall Mail Gazette was, 1had every reason to believe, correct; and should 1not find, after crossing the Ural River, and entering A sia, that my long sleigh journey had been all to no purpose, and have to retrace my steps through European Russia? These were my first impressions on arriving in England; but on talking the matter over with some Russians of my acquaintance, they assured me thai 1was entirely mistaken; that, on the contrary, the authorities at St. Petersburg would readily permit English officers to travel in Central A sia; and it was observed that (lie order to whiah 1had alluded referred only to merchants or people who tried to smuggle contraband goods into the recently annexed Khanates. A few months later I had the honor of making the acquaintance of his Excellency Count Schouvaloff, the Russian embassador in London, and formerly the head of the secret police at St. Peters burg. He was excessively Ic nd, and promised to do what he could to further my plans, but in ui answer to a straightforward question, as to whether I should bp permitted in travel in Russian Asia or not, his reply was, My dear sir, that is a subject about which 1can not give you any answer; but on arriving in St. Petersburg the authorities there will be able to, afford you every possible information. It was a diplomatic answer one which bound the count to nothing, and 1went away charmed with the tact and affability or. the Rus sian embassador. Apparently thero was nothing fo be learned offlciiilly from Russian sources; but unofficially, and one by one, many little bits of information cret out. 1now first learned that General Milutin, the Minister of War :ii St. Petersburg, was per soually very much opposed to the idea of an English officer traveling in Central A sia, particularly in that pirt which lies betwe
(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don't occur in the book.)