1 sent. it from London, addressed to tie.' banker Geynnillor, at
2 Vienna, who afterwards became bankrupt, and the box contain¬
3 ing those valuable curiosities remained full fifteen years at the
4 cu-loni-htmse at Vicuna, unknown to me, notwithstanding many
5 inquiries. To my astonishment and regret, I learned, on mv
6 arrival at Vienna (July 520,1850), that the box, after an interval
7 of fifteen ye. rs, had been sold by auction, a fortnight previous
8 to mv arrival (July 5), for about three pounds, as belonging
9 to tli. creditors of Geymtiller, with a pretext, that the real pro¬
10 prietor no longer existed. 1 could not discover into whose hands
11 these precious antiques passed j and thus, in all probability, the
12 invaluable contents of the Bactrian scroll will be lost for ever to
13 the scientific world ! besides, the antiques which I sold in earlier
14 years to different private persons a* Cairo and Alexandria, the
15 various cabinets in St. Petersburg!!, Vienna, Paris and London,
16 possess a number of those which I collected.
17 At (’itlniJ / opened a great many cupolas (tombs), under the
18 protection of die Navvsuib Djubber-lvhan, and by so doing
19 aroused (he suspicion of lJost Mahomed, who thought that I
20 was carrying immense riches out of the country. Although 1
21 was so prudent as to deliver all the articles 1 extracted to
22 1)r. Gerard, who was then su Cahiil, on his return from Bokhara
23 to India, requesting hipi to hand them over to General Allard,
24 at Lahore, that ho might convey them to Bordeaux, yet Dost
25 Mahoiued give orders to the Governor of Barman to have
26 me plundered at the frontiers; and tluis I was robbed of all at
27 the fortress of Akrnbud; but l again received my property by
28 the interference of the Nawaul) Djubber-Kluui a.id General
29 Aviiubilc, the latter being then Governor of Pesbawur. Tearing
30 the cruelty of Mir M mad beg, at Koondoos, I delivered at Cabul
31 all my luggage to the caravan ready to set out for Halkh; and
32 dressed in the costume of the Affghan people, l proceeded in¬
33 cognito, accompanied by ten men, some of them my own
34 servants, and sqpie belonging to the Navvaub. My guide was
35 the old "icy-bcard. Kheiat, the same who conducted Alexander
36 Jinnies ami Dr. Gerard to Bokhara.