DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.15174#0062
PRECARIOUS SITUATION. chap. xiii.
the communication equally excited the uneasiness
of the merchants, and again found that these people
were really concerned for our safety. They poured
forth their wrath against the informer, and expressed
in unequivocal language the fears which they en-
tertained from the Vizier of Bokhara on one side,
and the Prince Royal of Persia on the other. One
of the merchants advised that I should immediately
produce the firman of the King of Bokhara; but in
this I differed, and the opinion of the other was
more in consonance with my own judgment. Abdool
undertook to negotiate the feeding of the dog of a
Toorkmun ; but it may be imagined that there was
little to cheer us under such circumstances. A
cheerful countenance was, however, indispensable,
that we might the better meet the difficulties, and,
if possible, frustrate the hopes of the villain who
had betrayed us.
The first piece of intelligence which assailed us,
on the following morning, was the loss of a beau-
tiful little black pony, which had been stolen from
his pickets during night. It is customary in this
country to chain the horse's leg to an iron pin, and
then padlock it ; but we had not adopted this pre-
caution. I regretted this loss more than I might
have done a more serious misfortune. The sturdy
little creature had followed me from Poona, in the
centre of India, had borne me in many a weary
journey; and I cannot tell how much it vexed me to
leave him in such a country, and in such hands.
The whole caravan assembled to express their re-
gret at the theft, and assured me that I should either
the communication equally excited the uneasiness
of the merchants, and again found that these people
were really concerned for our safety. They poured
forth their wrath against the informer, and expressed
in unequivocal language the fears which they en-
tertained from the Vizier of Bokhara on one side,
and the Prince Royal of Persia on the other. One
of the merchants advised that I should immediately
produce the firman of the King of Bokhara; but in
this I differed, and the opinion of the other was
more in consonance with my own judgment. Abdool
undertook to negotiate the feeding of the dog of a
Toorkmun ; but it may be imagined that there was
little to cheer us under such circumstances. A
cheerful countenance was, however, indispensable,
that we might the better meet the difficulties, and,
if possible, frustrate the hopes of the villain who
had betrayed us.
The first piece of intelligence which assailed us,
on the following morning, was the loss of a beau-
tiful little black pony, which had been stolen from
his pickets during night. It is customary in this
country to chain the horse's leg to an iron pin, and
then padlock it ; but we had not adopted this pre-
caution. I regretted this loss more than I might
have done a more serious misfortune. The sturdy
little creature had followed me from Poona, in the
centre of India, had borne me in many a weary
journey; and I cannot tell how much it vexed me to
leave him in such a country, and in such hands.
The whole caravan assembled to express their re-
gret at the theft, and assured me that I should either