. The boy travellers in the Russian empire: adventures of two youths in a journey in European and Asiatic Russia, with accounts of a tour across rsed the Kirghese and Tur-coman country, and wherever they went they found a material differencein the matter of safety, whether the territory was under Russian rule orremained independent. If the latter, the caravans were constantly liableto attack and plunder; if the former, they were invariably free frommolestation. The capture of Bokhara, Samarcand, and Khiva reduced the slave-markets of the Turcoman raiders, but by no means put an end
. The boy travellers in the Russian empire: adventures of two youths in a journey in European and Asiatic Russia, with accounts of a tour across rsed the Kirghese and Tur-coman country, and wherever they went they found a material differencein the matter of safety, whether the territory was under Russian rule orremained independent. If the latter, the caravans were constantly liableto attack and plunder; if the former, they were invariably free frommolestation. The capture of Bokhara, Samarcand, and Khiva reduced the slave-markets of the Turcoman raiders, but by no means put an end to theirplundering expeditions. The independent Turcomans were estimated tobe about a million in number, divided into several tribes, who sometimeswarred upon each other, but constantly upon the Persians and other peace-al)le people. In the wars between Khiva and Bokhara, Samarcand and 436 THE BOY TRAVELLEKS IN THE EUSSIAN EMPIRE. Kokan, tliey took sides witli tliose who would pay the most for their serv- ices. Down to very recently the whole of Northern Persia was subject toTurcoman raids, and agriculture was carried on under great difficulties.* ^. kii;giiese haid un a hostile tkihe. The raids were sometimes carried up to within a hundred miles of Teheran,or about iive hundred miles inside the Persian boundary. They were or-ganized months beforehand, and sometimes as many as five or six thou- * la an article in Harpers Magazine for March, 1886, Mr. William Simpson, anEnglish artist and journalist, who went to the Afghan frontier with the boundary Com-mission, says it is onlj within a couple of jears that the raiding was hrought to an frankly credits Russia with the suppression of the raiding system, and says she de-serves the thanks of the civilized world. TURCOMAN RAIDS. 437 sand men were engaged in a single enterprise. A raid was called a cLa-pow by the Persians ; in the Turcoman language it was an alaman. A Turcoman leader would announce his intention of making an a
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