From the Black Sea

Excerpt from From the Black Sea: Through Persia and India

These preliminary lines of explanation are only to show why this journey was undertaken at such an unfortunate moment, and that there was some underlying method in its apparent madness. When the route was first mapped out, it was our intention to follow the line of the Trans-Caspian Railway to Samarcand, and thence to Herat, and through Afghanistan to India. But the political situation and the civil war in Afghanistan rendering such a trip hazardous, we decided to take the trans-Persian direction, and to enter Persia near Meshed.

As Mr. Theodore Child's well-known work on Russia had made him favorably known in official circles, the Russian government had kindly offered us every facility in passing through its territory. With the permission from the War Department to visit Central Asia came an urgent telegram from the American legation at St. Petersburg, advising us not to go on account of the cholera, which, after devastating Meshed, had left Persia and invaded the Russian provinces. We were then leaving for Constantinople by the Camboge, and finding that she would not proceed to Batoum, by reason of quarantine, we were again forced to change our route.

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