Page:England & Russia in Central Asia,Vol-I.djvu/77

57 common object, India. If the Afglian crisis passes away without an Anglo-Russian war, we may expect a very important development in the Oxus question ; and the particular scheme referred to in these pages will in all probability be given precedence over every other. It may be of general interest to insert here a brief narrative of the various attempts that have been made by the Russian Government in the past to solve the question connected with the course of the Amou Darya. It was during the reign of Peter the Great that information first reached Russia of the Amou Darya possessing more than one bed, and the news was brought to the Russian court by a Turcoman chief named Hodja Nefes. A Circassian prince, Alexander Bekovitch, who was high in favour with the Czar, introduced Hodja Nefes to Peter, and the question of the course of the Oxus was detailed for the first time to a Russian audience. It is not strange to find that the Turcoman placed a more seductive lure than geographical research before the Czar and his advisers. "In the country bordering the Amou gold sand was pro-cured," and this raised a flutter of excitement in the bosoms of the Russian statesmen and courtiers, which operated far more potently upon their decision than any desire to lead the Oxus into the Caspian. But whatever the motives may have been, and however much Peter may have been induced by the representations of Hodja Nefes and his promises that the Turcomans would join heartily in any work to secure that end, we have only to judge of these things by the result.