'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎46] (77/714)

46
PERSIA
who passed from the Indian territories of the Great Mogul via
Kandahar into Eastern Persia; and conversely, even in the first
half of the present century, and down to as late a date as 1873,
when Captain H. C. Marsh was the last to perform the through
iourney, there were several Englishmen, such as Captain Arthur
ConollyV 830 )' Mr - Mitford ( 1840 )' and Sir Lewis Pell y C 1860 ),
who left Persia on the Afghan side and rode from Meshed, via
Herat and Kandahar, into British Hindustan. But what these
could do with impunity, although not unattended with danger, is
forbidden to a later age, and the eastern Hank of Persia and the
countries bevond are accordingly a tevTct incognita^ except to the
privileged members of Boundary Commissions, or to those who
have laboriously made their way hither from othei and loss known
directions.
We thus come, in our circuit of the Persian border, to the
southern coast-line, and to the ports of the Persian Gulf The historical term used to describe the body of water between the Arabian Peninsula and Iran. . I shall
have occasion later on to describe the various trade .routes
sian Gulf, which lead therefrom into the interior of the country,
Abbas r and I will refer any traveller who contemplates landing
route at Bunder Abbas to that chapter. The main trade routes
starting from Bunder Abbas are those which proceed to Kerman
and Yezd; but for such as contemplate a westerly march from
Bunder Abbas to Shiraz I may say that, although that method
of entering or leaving the country seems now to have been entirely
abandoned, it was once—during the time when the Sefavi dynasty
held their capital at Isfahan, and when first Ormuz and afterwards
Gombrun were among the greatest marts in the East—the most
travelled route in Persia, and has been minutely described by a
succession of famous voyagers, culminating in Tavernier aud
Chardin.
It here concerns me rather to notice the main southern channel
of entry, which I have in an earlier portion of this chapter indi-
IX Bu- cated as second only in popular use to the Resht line
sj 11 . 16 ' viz. that which starts from the Gulf at the landing-place
Tcliertiii * ~i
route (again I am loth to use the word port) of Bushire. ims
is the route that is taken by all visitors coming from India, by all
English and Indian merchandise going as far north as Isfahan,
and by some of that which feeds Teheran itself; and it has been
more travelled in this century and is better known than any route
in Persia. As I traversed it in the opposite direction, and shall