Part 2 - Across the Pamirs
In all, Hayward made
four attempts to enter the lands of his destination. His
first thought was to follow the track north from the Khyber
garrison town of Peshawar through the states of Dir and Chitral
and the Wakhan corridor. He correctly believed it was the
shortest and most direct route from India to Sinkiang. However, when the Lieutenant Governor of the Punjab province
heard of the plan, he forbid Hayward to move in that
direction, calling it "absolute madness". The
route was closed, had been closed for over 30 years, and would
remain closed for another quarter century. Not because of
the height of the passes, or the lack of supplies available.
Because of the inhabitants along the way. Not only did the early
route take the traveler through the lands of some of the most
warlike of the warlike Pathan, but later stages went smack dab
through the middle of the country of the fanatically Islamic and
anti-British Akhund of Swat. |
According to the native troops, the
Chitralis, next in line, were quite the most bloodthirsty and
treacherous of all tribes, and even once past them, crossing
over the Hindu Kush, Hayward would have to contend with the
Wakhis and the Kirghiz. The latter, owing allegiance to the
Russians making inroads at Khokand, would be needed to be
placated for all travel across the Pamir plateau. Hayward, no
doubt learning from and leaning on the advice of the aging
Scottish-American
mercenary Alexander Gardiner, whom he'd met in Srinigar, planned
to make the trip disguised as a Pathan trader. Tall and gaunt,
and with a smattering of Pushtu picked up during his Army years,
Hayward might have looked the part for a brief moment, but with
his breech-loading rifles, surveying gear and drawing material,
he would have had a tough time convincing a European, let along
another Pathan. Luckily, he was talked out of this scheme. Gardiner, talked
of here, had claimed to have made a similar trip in the
1840s but there was no proof for this amazing claim, and he was known to have been a
bit of a tall-tale teller anyway...
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Hayward
had written back to Rawlinson and the RGS in November of
1869:
"I am leaving here for Gilgit
tomorrow in the hope of being able to penetrate the Pamir
steppe and the sources of the Oxus from that frontier. . . The
officials here maintain the risk to be great and give a very
bad character to the tribes inhabiting the head of the Gilgit
and Yasin valleys. Although not so fanatical as the
Mohammedans further west they are sufficiently untrustworthy
to render success very doubtful and it is quite possible that
I may be a second time foiled in my attempt to penetrate to
the Pamir. The danger is certainly great. . . . Whether I
shall be able to cross the passes at the head of Gilgit before
the spring of next year is doubtful"
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Coming
from Hayward, who appeared to have been pathologically unable to
recognize danger when he saw it, this was an alarming letter. In
a postcript, he warned the the person most opposed to his
travels was the ruling Maharajah of Kashmir. This
potentate was being courted royally by the British, who
desperately needed his cooperation to make Kashmir a
British-influenced buffer area between India and the encroaching
Russians. The Maharajah was the stereotypical Oriental despot,
unfortunately, and ruled his kinddom with an violent iron fist. The letter was read to the Society in January 1870, and in the
ensuing months more letters arrived and were read eagerly by
Rawlinson, but interestingly, were neither made public nor even
read to the Society's members. He described in detail his
findings, including information about the tribes in the area
that proved invaluable to Rawlinson's political agenda. The
Council of the Society wanted to minimize their explicit ties to
him, but absorbed with feverish exuberance stirring tales of his
narrow escapes, hardships, and findings. They voted him
another £300 travelling money, and in July, went into
their summer recess. They all wondered if their indefatigable
explorer would be able to continue his amazing trek across the
most forbidding mountain terrain in the world. |
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Next - Chinese Turkestan
- The large Blank Spot
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