Page:Kennedy, Robert John - A Journey in Khorassan (1890).djvu/104

 d'être of this establishment has altogether disappeared now that the Turcoman pirates, against whose predatory excursions it was directed, have, like their brethren on land, been brought under the iron discipline of the Russian Government. The islet of Ashruda, on which are built a few small, attractive-looking houses, and which is planted with trees, shrubs, and herbage, is gradually being washed away by the action of the sea, and will necessarily, in the course of the next few years, be completely abandoned. Here we disembarked our only other first-class passenger, the young and good-looking daughter of the naval commandant of Ashruda, as well as several second-class passengers, including the wife of a naval lieutenant belonging to one of the dispatch boats in the harbour, who was accompanied by a large family of dirty children and a miscellaneous collection of the commonest house furniture, which would be a disgrace to the cottage of the humblest English mechanic.

We were introduced by our Captain, a cheery English-speaking sailor from Courland, to the Steamboat Company's agent at Gez. He is an