this mist which has existed since the visit of Captain John Wood a few years after Burnes. Of the Pamir, the adjoining khanates, Hissar, and other portions of Bokhara we possess no information whatever from English sources, save that which has become antiquated. This state of ignorance would have been simply intolerable — and it was found intolerable by several gallant adventurers of whose discoveries we shall have something to say presently—but for the band of native explorers who under the training of Colonel Montgomerie have penetrated far into the recesses of the Hindoo Koosh and beyond that range, as well as in another direction beyond the Himalaya into the mysterious land of the Lamas.
The information acquired by these intrepid explorers is only one degree less valuable than if it had been by Englishmen, but at present only meagre reports have been published of what they have accomplished. These must form the basis of this account of English enterprise in Central Asia, and, although insignificant when compared with the travels of the numerous Russian officers alluded to in the first chapter of the previous volume, it will be found that we have made some solid progress in geographical research from our side. The cause of our explorations has also been considered to be less urgent than that which has impelled Russian officers to vie with each other in overcoming the most formidable natural obstacles. In one respect, too, they have had the advantage of us, for the terror of their name has gone before them; and with the certainty of punishment for any hostile act
