for the task of throwing out the line and hook in the dark waters of Turkoman affairs than the aforesaid German officer, who, in spite of his long services to the Czar, must have retained too much of European honesty to work successfully in the Asiatic gangway of plots and intrigues.

To us, the lookers on from a distance, the relations between Ashkabad and Merv were utterly unknown, and we were prepared for a solid resistance on the part of the Mervians. The Russian authorities at Ashkabad, however, had a better insight into that matter. They saw the continually increasing number of Mervians coming to Ashkabad for shopping, and the idea naturally cccurred to them to persuade these people that, if they liked, the Russian merchants themselves would come to Merv, and bring with them the goods they had a hankering after. Whether the Turkomans of Merv agreed to that act of politeness we do not decidedly know; but it is a fact that a caravan was soon got ready, and started in February, 1882, for Merv, not, however, before Fazil Beg, an Uzbeg of Khiva, Russianised in consequence of his repeated journeys to Russia, had been sent to explore the place, and to secure protection for the caravan.

Alikhanoff, known by his family name Avarski, which means an Avar, a tribe of the Daghestan, was at the head of this caravan. He belonged to that

class of Russian officers who, without forsaking their religion, become thoroughly Russianised, partly through the education they get and partly through long intercourse with their fellow-officers. By placing an "off," which corresponds with the English "son," at the end of their names, they adopt the Russian nationality officially; and combining, as they do, a smattering of European education with Asiatic astuteness, they generally turn out very clever men, and have often rendered essential services to the Russian State. Such Russianised Tartars were, amongst others, Velikhanoff, the famous traveller in Kashgar, the Naziroffs, Tahiroffs, Muratoffs, etc., and such is the Russianised Kalmukian Dondukoff Korsakoff, who, in spite of parading his French eloquence, had a Kalmukian grandfather, Donduk Korsak.

As to the biography of Alikhanoff, whose fame has recently spread all over the western world, I would refer the reader to Charles Marvin's "The Russians at the Gates of Herat," a cleverly written book, full of information gathered from Russian sources. Suffice it to say that Alikhanoff went in the disguise of a trader, and, acting as the interpreter and clerk to the Russian merchant Kosikh, he succeeded in entering Merv, and was, together with his Russian colleagues, pretty well received by Makhdum-Kuli Khan, the very Turkoman chieftain who led the defence of

Geok-Tepe, and escaping, together with Tekme Serdar, has since, by dint of Russian gifts, entirely changed his mind by becoming a secret friend of his former deadly enemy. As to the wares the so-called Russian traders brought with them, they must have been disposed of in a way not dissimilar to that used nearly forty years ago by Conolly on his journey across the country of the Yomuts; with this only difference, that whilst the British officer tried to buy his way through plundering nomads, the Russian traders in disguise aimed at, and succeeded, in purchasing a place of strategical and commercial importance, with the sole object of hoodwinking Europe and more particularly England.

After having remained a fortnight in Merv, the pseudo-merchants returned safely to Ashkabad, taking with them the conviction that Merv would not have to be bought with torrents of blood like Geok-Tepe, and that it wanted only some time and patience to make the half-ripe apple drop into the lap of the Russian Emperor. Among the acquisitions made by Alikhanoff, belongs the promise of Makhdum-Kuli Khan to be present at the coronation of the Emperor Alexander II. at Moscow, where his presence greatly raised the splendour of Oriental pageantry, affording besides ample opportunity to the wild nomad to relate wonders on his return among his countrymen

of the pomp and the greatness of the White Padishah on the Neva. The splendour of the festivities he saw dazzled his eyes and I can imagine how his accounts, assisted by his Oriental fancy, must have roused his listeners to wonder and amazement

Whilst these incidents were going on, General Komaroff also stretched out a feeler towards the south-east of the Turkoman country, by sending Col. Muratoff from Ashkabad to the Tedjend oasis, a distance of about 130 miles, partly in order to prepare the march around the north-eastern frontiers of Persia, partly, too, to serve as an outpost against Merv, ninety miles distant, with the view that, should the amicable transactions fail, the Cossacks might hurry to put an emphasis upon the Russian declaration of love. As matters turned out afterwards, this precaution was justified. In the beginning of 1884 events in Merv were ripe for the swoop. Alikhanoff appeared, accompanied only by a few horsemen and the hero of Geok-Tepe, at Merv, and read before a public meeting the letter of General Komaroff he had brought with him, in which the people of Merv were summoned to submit to the rule of Russia. On his alluding to his being able to emphasise his summons with the Cossacks at the Tedjend oasis, the principal Aksakals, or "Greybeards," instantaneously set their seal to that ominous

document.

Alikhanoff turned to Ashkabad, bringing with him four chiefs and twenty-four notables, who took the oath of allegiance on the 6th of February, 1884, in General Komaroff's drawingroom. M. Henri Moser, a Swiss traveller, who happened to be present at that time at Ashkabad, gave me some interesting details about the hurry and secrecy with which this act was accomplished.

The Turkoman elders, in order to please their new masters, had brought amongst sundry presents a few Persian slaves of both sexes, presents in exchange for which they got sums of money, robes of honour, and arms of European construction. As to these elders, the comedy of voluntary submission was at an end; but not as to those other Turkomans remaining at Merv, whose allegiance had not yet been bought over, and who would have shown strong resistance to the so-called "voluntary submission" if they had been forewarned and in time prepared for an effective resistance. As things stood, the sufficiently numerous anti-Russian party was taken as it were by surprise; they succeeded only in firing a few shots in the form of a protest, and, although several thousands of them attacked the Russians under the lead of Kadjar Khan, they were at once repulsed and routed. Kadjar Khan took refuge in Afghan territory; his adherents tacitly submitted; and the Russian army