Disgusted with Russia, and disheartened by the loss of his brother, Gardner was about to return to America when he met one day a German named Sturzky, who was accompanied, to Gardner's surprise and satisfaction, by his old travelling companion Dallerwitz. These two gentlemen had left the Russian service, and were about to proceed to the Court of Persia in quest of fortune, and Gardner was easily induced to accompany them. He left the bulk of his fortune in safe hands at Astrakhan, and taking with him a small sum for travelling expenses, started again on his travels. The party left Astrakhan early in October 1818 in a small merchant craft, in which they crossed to the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea, and then, turning south, gradually worked their way to Astrabad.

This was a slow and tedious voyage, and, on landing, the company broke up, Dallerwitz returning to Russia, while Sturzky and Gardner started for Herat. Gardner now proposed travelling through Persia and Afghanistan to the Panjab, having heard while at Astrabad that his friend M. Rossaix was receiving large pay at Lahore.

INVITED TO KHOKAND.

25

In the course of the journey to Herat, Gardner and Sturzky fell in with a respectable-looking and intelligent man, with some twenty mounted attendants. He represented himself to be a naib or vakil (ambassador) from the khan of Khokand, sent from that territory on a political mission to the Courts of Persia and Herat, and now returning to his master. He held out alluring prospects to the travellers if they would accompany him to Khokand. M. Sturzky was at once persuaded to adopt the proposal, and was fully convinced of the truth of the man's assertions. He endeavoured to persuade Gardner to go with him and the vakil, and Gardner would have done so but that he fortunately fell ill. Sturzky therefore took a friendly leave of him, and departed with his new ally. This took place within a few miles of Herat, and Gardner entered that city on the following day, and remained there a short time until cured of his fever. He then proposed to visit Khiva, and possibly to rejoin M. Sturzky.

On the 20th January 1819 Gardner was fit to travel, and started off to Ghorian, hearing that a small caravan of petty merchants and Mecca

pilgrims, bound for different parts of Turkestan, was collecting there. Losing no time, Gardner covered the thirty-five miles to Ghorian by sunset, but, to his intense vexation, found that he had been misinformed, and that the caravan was really ending, not beginning, its journey. It was bound for Herat, there to rest some time before proceeding eastward. The kafila (caravan) was a very small one, and had been no less than eighteen months on the march from Mecca.

Nevertheless, some of its devoted members had still to toil as far as the north-eastern boundaries of Khokand, Kashgar, and Yarkand, and even to .the more distant regions of Mongolia.

Gardner returned with the kafila to Herat, and having made acquaintances among the pilgrims, determined to remain with them during their stay at Herat, and to travel towards Kunduz in their company. He was now, at the age of thirty-four, about to enter on a career of apparently aimless wandering, which he pursued until his arrival in the Panjab in August 1831, a period of twelve years. Occasionally he settled down for a time, but soon the force of circum

A ROLLING STONE.

27

stances, or a roving and lawless disposition, compelled him to move on.

We can now leave Gardner to tell in his own language the tale of his first journey in the wilds of Central Asia, on which he started on January 19, 1819.

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CHAPTER III.

ADVENTURES AMONG THE HAZARAS, 1819.

SAVAGE HOSPITALITY—THE KHALZAIS (DAI KUNDI HAZARAS) — THE THERBAHS - THE ANCIENT KAFIRS GARDNER ACQUIRES A FAITHFUL FOLLOWER-THE SLAVE-DEALERS-GARDNER'S "NOM DE VOYAGE"-A GENEROUS HOST-GARDNER'S DANGEROUS ILLNESS-THE KHAN OF KHIVA-A GEOGRAPHICAL PROBLEM-ADVENTURES OF M. STURZKY-GARDNER RETURNS TO ASTRAKHAN.

WE left Herat at daybreak, and as the melting of the snow might soon be confidently expected, the kafila took a direct, but little-frequented, road over the snowy ranges of the Western Hindu Kush. We were, in all about 100 persons, bound for various parts of Turkestan, and by general agreement amongst us the city of Kunduz, the capital of the kingdom of that name, then under the sway of Mir Murad Ali Beg, was to be our first destination. Arrived there, or near there, we intended to break off into small parties which could make their own arrangements for reaching their homes. Most of us were provided with