[21] The season was, it is true, rather exceptional. But it is a noteworthy fact that all these great plains—Mush, Khinis, Pasin—were without snow at this advanced date. Already in March the snow begins to melt. [↑]
[22] Brant estimates the distance between Hasan Kala and Erzerum at only eighteen miles (op. cit. p. 341). If he is speaking of the distance by road he makes, I think, a considerable error. My own estimate is twenty-three miles. [↑]
CHAPTER IX
ERZERUM
We rode through empty spaces, littered with ruin and refuse, haunted by miserable and filthy dogs, to a street of some width, bordered by substantial stone houses, down the incline of which we checked the pace of our mounts. It leads to the north-eastern quarter of the city—a quarter which is numerously inhabited by Christians, and where are situated the Consulates of the European Powers, notably those of Great Britain, France and Russia. The British Consulate is housed in a small but comfortable residence at the northerly extremity of the street. There we were received with emotion by the principal dragoman—an Armenian with a handsome, frank and engaging face, whose curly black hair had become tinged with grey. I had not seen the excellent Yusuf for many a long year, not since the time when he used to delight the fancy of childhood with dainty boxes, or the figures of various animals, which he would fashion with exquisite skill in a kind of silver wire—an art practised by the silversmiths of the East. What tales he would tell us in England of this distant Erzerum! We used, as children, to try and realise the features of the scenes of which he spoke—the great Mesopotamian deserts, the encampments of the Arabs, the khans on the roads to the highlands in which the traveller rested, the mountains and the snow-clad plains. Alas! for the powers of description; how different it all looked, when after many years these various landscapes were successively unfolded before the eyes! Yet they spoke to the very soul of the child grown to manhood, perhaps reviving hidden germs in the lengthy process of heredity, or recalling those early efforts to make pictures of them, or appealing in virtue of none of these causes, but by the magnetic power inherent in themselves. And here at last was Erzerum, with Yusuf standing before the door and running forward with open arms! My reader will, I feel, pardon this little personal digression, embodying, as it does, one of my most permanent memories of the northern capital.
Another link of a not less personal nature must be mentioned in order to explain the length of the sojourn which the present writer made in Erzerum. It extended from the commencement of the really cold weather to the approach of spring. Wesson and Rudolph were committed to the kind offices of the Russian Consul, M. Maximoff, who furnished them with the necessary facilities for returning home through Russian territory by way of Sarikamish and Batum. The Swiss had been experiencing the discomforts of home-sickness; and the resourceful Wesson, who would make a most excellent campaigner, was obliged for private reasons to abandon a nomad life and resume his habits as a Londoner. It was my intention to work up my material in Erzerum, and to devote a fortnight or more to this end. Our Consul, Mr. R. W. Graves, most kindly placed two rooms at my disposal, and insisted upon my being his guest. A friendship sprang up between us, born of similar age and many common tastes; and, speaking for myself, I may say that our solitude à deux in this corner of Asia formed one of the most agreeable experiences of my life. I do not remember having spent a single dull hour. His conversation, charm of manner and kindliness of disposition were a resource which was never wanting to revive one’s intelligence after long hours devoted to writing and to books. I was so happy and he so hospitable that the weeks had become months before all the excuses which waved away the round of duties in England had one by one become exhausted, and I tore myself from his side.
This lengthy stay, followed as it was by two subsequent visits, has made me feel quite at home with the subject of this chapter. And the fact that I have approached Erzerum from the three directions in which it is most accessible, from the east, from the west and from the south, enables me to speak, in so far as a civilian traveller may judge such a question, of the strategical importance of a city which is probably destined to play a leading part in any future struggle between the Russian and the Ottoman Empires. For an Englishman this side of the subject has a special interest; since the possession by Russia of this strong place would mean her control of the head waters of the Euphrates, which issues in the Persian Gulf. It is a maxim of peculiar appropriateness to such a country as Asia that he who is master of the sources of a river is master of the lands through which it flows. On the other hand, such an event would closely affect all Europe; for there would then exist no important barrier between the Asiatic provinces of Russia and the shores of the Bosphorus. Indeed Erzerum resumes in herself the importance of Turkish Armenia as a factor in the world movements of the near future. Mistress of this spot of ground, Russia is mistress of these vast provinces. It is plainly the duty of a writer who has enjoyed the advantages which I have mentioned, not indeed to pander to the feeling of blind animosity against Russia, but to place his readers in possession of the essential facts, in the hope that at least they may not be taken unawares by any advance of the northern empire in this direction.
Our large map will, I hope, make clear and preclude the necessity of minutely describing the topography of the site with its surroundings far and near. What the basin of Lake Van and the plain of Mush are to the southern districts of Turkish Armenia, that are the plains of Pasin and Erzerum to those on the north. They represent depressions of the surface of the tableland and constitute arteries of communication between east and west. The northerly is separated from the southern string of depressions by a block of elevated plateau country, which is most compact and continuous on a line between Mush and Erzerum, and more broken into irregular lines of heights with intervening plains between the northern shore of Lake Van and Pasin. An invader coming from the east and desirous of forcing his way westwards will find all his roads converging on either one or other of the two strings of depressions. The block of lofty tableland, seared by the action of ice and water, and covered for the greater part of the year with snow, causes them to be deflected as by an impassable obstacle, though it is in fact by no means impervious to an army during summer, when the principal difficulty would be the absence of supplies. The geographical position of Russia is decisively in favour of an advance by the most northerly of the two main avenues. She might detach a column to move upon Bitlis; but the objective of this force would be the lowlands of Mesopotamia rather than Asia Minor west of the Euphrates. There can be little doubt that the weight of her onset would be thrown into the northerly channel; and Pasin would fall without a blow being struck. At that moment she would be confronted by the defences of the Deveh Boyun—an impregnable barrier if only held by a sufficient force.
We have seen at the close of the last chapter that the Deveh Boyun consists of a composite ridge, thrown across a narrow portion of the northerly depression, and dividing it into two. It is due to an outbreak of lava—a hard trachyte—which has pursued a direction almost at right angles to the general structure of the country, its elevation being nearly meridional. Similar outbreaks are readily recognisable in the northern border heights of the plain of Pasin; but those ridges are of little geographical importance, losing themselves on the confines of the plain. On the other hand the Deveh Boyun, the most westerly of the series, determines the drainage of the great basin. From its eastern slopes the waters flow to the Araxes, and from those on the west to the Euphrates. On the one hand lies Pasin, and on the other the plain of Erzerum. The height of the pass over the parapet is not more than some 500 to 800 feet above the level of the adjacent plains. But the ridge is defended by a line of modern forts; and, if these were captured, the invading army would find itself enclosed within a space which, while it can scarcely exceed a width of about four miles, can be swept by the fire from heights on the north and heights on the south. These positions, which have all been fortified since the last Russo-Turkish war, rest against the slopes of the parallel walls of mountain, confining the depression on either side.