Central Asia - 1893 Author:Bayard Taylor Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III. MODERN ATTEMPTS AT EXPLORATION TWO centuries after Marco Polo's journey, the discovery of Vasco cle Gama completely changed the course of the ... more »commerce between Europe and the Indies. The long, toilsome, and perilous routes of overland travel were relinquished, with all their opportunities for interior exploration; the knowledge of the civilized world commenced anew along the coasts of the great eastern continent and slowly forced its way inward. The English conquests in India gradually advanced the line of exploration, first to the base of the Himalayas, then westward along the range to the Indus, and finally to Cashmere and Afghanistan. From 1830 to 1840, when the East India Government concerned itself much more than was necessary in the affairs of the latter country, and with such disastrous results, the cities of Cabul, Glinznee, Kandahar, and Herat were reached by English officers, and even some of the passes traversed in the Hindoo Koosh, dividing Afghanistan from Tartary. One of these officers, Lieutenant John "Wood, in the autumn of 1837, reached Balkh on a mission to the ruler of that Tartar principality. The lateness ofthe season obliged him to remain all winter there, before returning to Oabnl, and he planned an expedition to the source of the Oxus, as daring in conception as it was successful in the result. Leaving Balkh with a very small party, and only the most necessary supplies, he made a winter journey on the track of Marco Polo, up the valley of the Oxus, visiting the celebrated ruby and turquoise mines of Fyzabad, on the way. In spite of the hardships of the road and the severity of the weather, in February, 1838, he reached the source of the Oxus, the lake Sir-i-kol, on the tableland of Pamir, at an elevation of 15,630 feet above the sea....« less