Notes Prepared for Reference during Curzon’s Tour of the Persian Gulf, and Other Papers on Persia and the Persian Gulf [‎181r] (361/678)

23
Geo.— Sj kes—Second Revise.
organize a service which bridged over the gap between the British
frontier and Birjand. To keep this service efficient and to make it of
use, two Indian hospital assistants, who are eminently personse gratae
in Persia, were stationed at Birjand and in Sistan, where Major Benn
of the Indian Political Department now occupies a fine consulate,
efficiently protecting British interests, without which trade would
have languished. A letter now reaches Birjand from India in less
than a month, and Mi. shed in five weeks,* whereas by Persian post
via Tehran and Bushire, two months is nothing extraordinary. It
remains for the tea-planters to take advantage of a route by which
the sea is avoided, which they are beginning to do, and, as the indigo
used in Persia is grown in Sind, both of these staple exports should
profit by the new route, while in a lesser degree there will be a demand
for many sorts of British goods.f
, When it is considered that Sistan has a population of less than a
hundred thousand, all at a low le\el of civilization, it is obvious that
the local trade will be small, and yet the district tapped is extensive,
and a gradual development is certain, not only in Eastern Persia,
but in the Garmsil of Afghanistan and in both British and Persian
Baluchistan. As to the through trade with Central Asia via Meshed,
the Government of India has aided merchants by the remission of all
customs and dues, and by granting a rebate on the terribly expensive
Quetta railway for all goods intended for export.
To resume, between Sistan and Narmashir there lies a corner of the
Lut, about 200 miles in width, conveniently bisected by the village
of Nasratabad. Retracing our steps to Yarmal and Hauzdar, we struck
south-west across the Palang Kuh, reaching the hills at 21 miles
from the stage of Chah Bashkaran. However, there was no water
until, after ascending a wide nala for a considerable distance, and
accomplishing a march of 37 miles, we found our camp pitched near the
bitter spring of Turshab. The advance camels having taken twenty
hours over the march, a halt was imperative, alter which we rose across
the .high range and descended on to the plain of Garagha—the Kilagh
Ab of the Sistan mission—where there is very rich grazing and a hanat
of fair water. Were there security, a village would speedily spring up
once again. This plain is famous as having been Rustam’s lavourite
hunting-ground, and it was here that Bahman, the Darius Longimanus
of the Greeks, when sent on an embassy, tried to murder the hero by
starting an avalanche. This, however, failed, Rustam diverting the
stones with his foot, as recounted in the “Shah Nama.”
The next stage to Nasratabad lay across the Malusan range, where
there are the shafts of disused copper-mines known as Chehel Kura, or
“ Forty Furnaces,” and also a shrine termed Subz-i-Pushan. Nasra
tabad is the name of a fort built by the Yakil-ul-Mulk, Governor-
General of Kerman, shortly before the passage of the Sistan mission,
on the site of Isfe, which is still called Ispi or Sipi by the Baluchis.
It is a veritable oasis in the desert, and capable of great development
but as the garrison is irregularly paid, the fort is at the mercy of the
surrounding Baluchis, who render the road unsafe. Its population
consists of an entirely nominal force of forty camelry and some thirty
families of cultivators. There are, also, some Baluch nomads dotted
about the valley.
Barring access to the south, a high range runs across the road for
perhaps 30 or 40 miles, with only one pass. In my opinion, this con
formation of the mountains proves that it was the route by which
Krateros joined Alexander the Great after his arrival in Kerman,
travelling down the Helmand to Sistan, and thence making for Fahraj
in Narmashir, which has been—erroneously, I would maintain—identi
fied with the Pura of Arrian. From Narmashir there is a low easy pass,
the Dahana-i-Abbas Ali, leading to Rudbar, where Nearchos also rejoined
his master, as mentioned above.J
Continuing our journey, we had to march in one body, as there was
* This rate has since been improved upon.
t A Quetta firm has cleared Rs.10,000 in the year 1899-1900, which for a pioneer
venture is excellent.
X It is impossible to deal with the question without unduly lengthening this
paper.