DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15173#0303
CHAP, XI.
OUR DETENTION.
285
their profits ; and it ended in our paying the money.
It appeared to me a matter of surprise that any
answer should draw them to encounter people whom
they unanimously considered tyrannical and bar-
barous. After the messenger had been despatched,
the whole of the principal merchants of the caravan
returned to Bokhara, and we were left in an ob-
scure village of Tartary, to consider whether we
should continue in our present abode, or return to
the capital. We resolved to pursue the first course,
and made up our minds to our unlucky detention.
In our journey from Bokhara, we had had some
opportunities of adding to our knowledge of the
country. Four or five miles from the city, we en-
tered on a tract which was at once the extreme of
richness and desolation. To the right, the land
was irrigated by the aqueducts of the Kohik; and
to our left, the dust and sand blew over a region of
dreary solitude. After travelling for a distance of
twenty miles, in a W.S.W. direction, we found
ourselves on the banks of the river of Samarcand,
which the poets have styled " Zarufshan," or gold-
scattering ; but we must attribute its name to the
incomparable blessings bestowed upon its banks,
rather than the precious ores which it deposits.
This river did not exceed the breadth of fifty yards,
and was not fordable. It had much the appearance
of a canal; for, a little lower down, its waters are
hemmed in by a dam, and distributed with care
among the neighbouring fields. The stripe of cul-
tivated land on either bank did not exceed a mile
in breadth, and was often less; for the desert
OUR DETENTION.
285
their profits ; and it ended in our paying the money.
It appeared to me a matter of surprise that any
answer should draw them to encounter people whom
they unanimously considered tyrannical and bar-
barous. After the messenger had been despatched,
the whole of the principal merchants of the caravan
returned to Bokhara, and we were left in an ob-
scure village of Tartary, to consider whether we
should continue in our present abode, or return to
the capital. We resolved to pursue the first course,
and made up our minds to our unlucky detention.
In our journey from Bokhara, we had had some
opportunities of adding to our knowledge of the
country. Four or five miles from the city, we en-
tered on a tract which was at once the extreme of
richness and desolation. To the right, the land
was irrigated by the aqueducts of the Kohik; and
to our left, the dust and sand blew over a region of
dreary solitude. After travelling for a distance of
twenty miles, in a W.S.W. direction, we found
ourselves on the banks of the river of Samarcand,
which the poets have styled " Zarufshan," or gold-
scattering ; but we must attribute its name to the
incomparable blessings bestowed upon its banks,
rather than the precious ores which it deposits.
This river did not exceed the breadth of fifty yards,
and was not fordable. It had much the appearance
of a canal; for, a little lower down, its waters are
hemmed in by a dam, and distributed with care
among the neighbouring fields. The stripe of cul-
tivated land on either bank did not exceed a mile
in breadth, and was often less; for the desert