Frederick Gustavus Burnaby soldier, traveler, writer,
pioneer balloonist, and at 6' 4" some say the strongest man in the
British army set out on an unofficial mission in 1875 to investigate
the motives behind Russia's exclusion of foreigners from Central
Asia.
Many people feared that the Russians were planning an
attack on India, Britain's most prized colony at the time. Burnaby decided
on the trip entirely on his own. With a gold-filled money belt he left
Victoria Station on November 30, 1875.
The trip was by rail, carriage, sleigh, and horseback from
southern Russia to Khiva, in what was then an independent khanate in
Central Asia in the middle of winter. Along the way the people and
their customs fascinated him.
The Turkomans sometimes decide the knotty point of
who is to marry the prettiest girl in their tribe in the [a] primitive
manner. On these occasions the whole tribe turns out, and the young
lady, being allowed her choice of horses, gallops away from her suitors.
They follow her. She avoids those whom she dislikes, and seeks to throw
herself in the way of the object of her affections. The moment that she
is caught she becomes the wife of her captor. Further ceremonies are
dispensed with, and he takes her to his tent.
Burnaby spoke Russian, Turkish, French, Italian, German,
Spanish, and a bit of Arabic, but this wasn't enough when he attempted to
court a local lady himself. He was forced to work through an interpreter.
There are a good many ways of telling a woman she is
pretty, but it is always difficult to do so through a third party
He
says "that thou art lovelier than a sheep with a fat tail"--
this appendage being a great delicacy amongst the Tartars --"that
thy face is the roundest in the flock, and that thy breath is sweeter to
him than many pieces of mutton roasted over bright embers.
Eventually, he reached his near-mystical destination, the
ancient slaving capital of Khiva.
The next morning we encountered .. the messenger whom
I had despatched with my letter to the Khan. .. his Majesty had received
my letter, and had sent him forward to escort me into the city, and to
say that I was welcome to his capital.
We were now fast nearing
Khiva, which could be just discerned in the distance, but was hid to a
certain extent from our view by a narrow belt of tall, graceful trees.
However, some richly-painted minarets and high domes of coloured tiles
could be seen towering above the leafy groves. Orchards, surrounded by
walls eight and ten feet high, continually met the gaze. Avenues of
mulberry-trees studded the landscape in all directions.
Burnaby tells a great, fun story. Reprinted eleven times
in its first year of publication, A Ride to Khiva became an instant
adventure classic, and made Burnaby a popular hero.
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