proprietor no longer existed. I could not discover into whose hands these precions antiques passed; and thus, in all probability, the invaluable contents of the Bactrian scroll will be lost for ever to the scientific world! Besides the antiques which I sold in earlier years to different private persons at Cairo and Alexandria the various cabinets in St. Petersburgh, Vienna, Paris and London, possess a number of those which I collected.
At Cabul I opened a great many cupolas (tombs), under the protection of the Nawaub Djubber-Khan, and by so doing aroused the suspicion of Dost Mahomed, who thought that I was carrying immense riches out of the country. Although I was so prudent as to deliver all the articles I extracted to Dr. Gerard, who was then at Cabul, on his return from Bokhara to India, requesting him to hand them over to General Allard, at Lahore, that he might convey them to Bordeaux, yet Dost Mahomed gave orders to the Governor of Bamian to have me plundered at the frontiers; and thus I was robbed of all at the fortress of Akrabad; but I again received my property by the interference of the Nawaub Djubber-Khan and General Avitabile, the latter being then Governor of Peshawur. Fearing the cruelty of Mir Muradbeg, at Koondoos, I delivered at Cabul all my luggage to the caravan ready to set out for Balkh; and dressed in the costume of the Affghan people, I proceeded incognito, accompanied by ten men, some of them my own servants, and some belonging to the Nawaub. My guide was the old grey-beard, Kheiat, the same who conducted Alexander Burnes and Dr. Gerard to Bokhara.
We left Cabul in November; it was excessively cold, and we lost, during a heavy fall of snow and a strong wind, on the highest summits of Mount Caucasus, two of our people, but we happily met with them again at Bamian. The illrepute to which my opening the tombs had given origin, preceded me. The Affghans and Hozaras hunted after us, when they ascertained who I was. Arrived at Bamian, we got a room in the fortress, by presenting the letters of recommendation which Dost Mahomed and the Nawaub
