Afghanistān; but, as far as we are concerned, the operations have been carried out against our wishes--I may almost say, under compulsion. For the Amīr `Abd er-Rahmān infringed the terms of the arrangement entered into between England and ourselves in 1873, when it was agreed that the Afghans should not cross the Oxus, by pushing his boundary beyond that river and occupying Shugnān and Roshān on its right bank. The last complication on the Persian frontier dates from 1829--nearly seventy years ago. Throughout our frontier conterminous with China we have had no disturbance for more than a century. I am led to mention these significant facts in order to show that our policy in Asia is essentially a peaceful one, and that we are perfectly satisfied with our present boundaries. And I may claim to speak with authority, apart from my official position, for I have been personally concerned in all our important military and political movements in Central Asia for many years past. In 1868, when only twenty, I took part in the storming of Samarkand. In 1875 I was employed in the reduction of the Khānate of Kokand. In 1880 I led the advance guard in the conquest of Farghāna; and in 1881 I commanded the reinforcements sent to General Skobeleff from Turkestān, in his struggle with the Tekke tribes, and led one of the assaulting columns at the capture of Geok Teppe.” [Illustration: MAP SHOWING THE ADVANCE OF RUSSIA IN CENTRAL ASIA. Methuen & Co. London. _G. Philip & Son, 32 Fleet S^t. London_ ] FOOTNOTES [1] The Iranian branch of the Aryans is represented in our times by the Tājiks of Turkestān. Cf. _Les Aryens au nord et au sud de l’Hindou-Kouch_, par Ch. de Ujfalvy, _passim_. [2] More correctly Paropanisus. See an article on “Bactria,” by E. Drouin, in the _Grande Encyclopédie_. [3] The mention of Bākhdi (= Balkh) in Fargard 1 of the Avesta, is perhaps still older. [4] The Greek historians, following a tradition which made the conquests of Sesostris (Rameses II.) even more extensive than they really were, maintain that this conqueror penetrated into Bactria and Scythia. Rameses II. flourished in the thirteenth century before our era. Cf. Maspero, _Hist. Anc. des Peuples de l’Orient_, p. 225. Equally fabulous is the account given by Diodorus Siculus of the conquest of Bactria by Ninus and Semiramis in B.C. 2180. Cf. E. Drouin, _loc. cit._ [5] This was the most easterly town of the Persian Empire. Authorities differ as to the site, some identifying it with Ura Tepe. [6] The oases at the embouchure of the Oxus were anciently styled Khwārazm, from a Persian word signifying eastwards. They constitute the modern Khiva. Soghdiana comprises Bokhārā and Samarkand, and the nomenclature is derived from Soghd, the old name for the source of its wealth, the river known to the Greeks as the Polytimetus and to moderns as the Zarafshan. [7] Cf. Nöldeke, _Aufsätze zur Persischen Geschichte_, p. 23.