'Persia and the Persian Question by the Hon. George Nathaniel Curzon, M.P.' [‎234] (269/714)

11 m
I, PI y
PERSIA
Chaghansur (called by Conolly Chuknasoor, and by Ferrier Sheikh
Nasoor), situated on the Khash or Khushk Jlud, the eastern con
fluent of the Helmund lagoon.
Before the despatch of the English Commission, the number of
European travellers who had penetrated to Seistan and had left
European an y record of their explorations was exceedingly small,
travellers j n 1309 Captains Grant (who was afterwards murdered
by robbers on the road between Baghdad and Kermanshah) and
Christie (who was killed while gallantly fighting with the Persian
army against the Russians at Aslanduz in 1812) and Lieutenant
(afterwards Sir Henry) Pottinger were deputed by Sir J. Malcolm,
then contemplating his third mission to the Persian Court, to explore
Mekran, Beluchistan, and Seistan. The journal of Captain Grant
was published twenty years later. Christie's and Pottinger's travels
into Beluchistan left the reading public the richer by the admir
able book of the elder writer The lowest of the four classes into which East India Company civil servants were divided. A Writer’s duties originally consisted mostly of copying documents and book-keeping. . 1 Leaving Pottinger at Nushki,
Christie marched northwards through Seistan to Herat; and an
abstract of his journal (which was never separately published) is
incorporated as an appendix in Pottinger's work. 2 In 1839 a young
English officer, Captain Edward Conolly, accompanied for surveying
purposes by Sergeant Cameron, made a tour through the country,
and added immensely to the existing store of knowledge. 3 He was fol
lowed a few years later by Lieutenant R. Leech, whose less exhaustive
but complementary information was published in the same journal. 4
In 1841 Seistan claimed its first European martyr. Dr. F. Forbes,
already well known for successful explorations on the north-western
frontier of Persia, marched to Meshed, and from there by Turbat-i-
Haideri, Birjand, and Tabbas to Seistan, where he was murdered by
one Ibrahim Khan, chief of Lash Juwain. A somewhat incoherent
account of the incident was given by his personal attendant, and
appeared in the 'Journal of the R.G.S.' for 1844. 5 Thirty years
later the members of the Boundary Commission, when travelling
in Seistan, came across the very murderer, who was then chief of
1 Travels in Balvochlstan and Sinde. By (Sir) H. Pottinger. 1816.
2 Appendix, pp. 406-411.
3 He published two papers in the Journal of the Asiatic Society of Bengal—
the first entitled ' Sketch of the Physical Geography of Seistan,' with a map, in
vol. ix. (1840), pp. 710-726 ; the second, entitled' Journal kept while Travelling in
Seistan,' in vol. x. (1841), pp. 319-340.
4 A Description of the Covntry of Seisthan, vol. xiii. (1844), pp. 115-121.
5 Vol. xiv.