From the Indus to the Tigris

FROM THE INDUS TO THE TIGRIS
A NARRATIVE OF A JOURNEY THROUGH THE COUNTRIES OF BALOCHISTAN, AFGHANISTAN, KHORASSAN AND IRAN, IN 1872
TOGETHER WITH A SYNOPTICAL GRAMMAR AND VOCABULARY OF THE BRAHOE LANGUAGE
AND A RECORD OF THE METEOROLOGICAL OBSERVATIONS AND ALTITUDES ON THE MARCH FROM THE INDUS TO THE TIGRIS
BY HENRY WALTER BELLEW, C.S.I. SURGEON BENGAL STAFF CORPS Author of a “Journal of a Mission to Afghanistan in 1867-58,” and a “Grammar and Dictionary of the Pukkhto Language.”
LONDON TRÜBNER & CO., 57 & 59 LUDGATE HILL 1874


The steady progress of Russian conquest in Turkistan during the past half-century, and, during late years, the rapid advance of her frontiers in the direction of India, have raised the States of Central Asia to a position of importance in the eyes of European politicians higher than they ever before occupied.
The accounts published from time to time by venturesome travellers in those regions have informed us of the barbarism and bigotry of their peoples—of the anarchy and weakness of their Governments—and of the growing decay and approaching dissolution of the polity that holds them together by the bonds of a common religion and common interest. And now the military operations against Khiva at present in course of prosecution by Russia, whilst opening up that country to the influences of European civilisation, promise to unfold to that power a field of enterprise that must, I believe, culminate in her paramount ascendancy over all the region draining to the valley of the Oxus. This is a prospect full of the weightiest moment to ourselves in India, and one that furnishes matter for the gravest consideration of our statesmen. Much has been already written on this subject from different points of view, and much remains to be written; and doubtless the public journals will keep alive the discussion of the question. But let us be careful lest, while straining at the gnat of Yárkand, we swallow the camel of Herat.