1 60
2 sent it from London, addressed to the banker Geymuller, at
3 Vienna, who afterwards became bankrupt, and the box contain-
4 ing those valuable curiosities remained full fifteen years at the
5 custom-house at Vienna, unknown to me, notwithstanding many
6 inquiries. To my astonishment and regret, I learned, on my
7 arrival at Vienna (July 20, 1850), that the box, after an interval
8 of fifteen years, had been sold by auction, a fortnight previous
9 to my arrival (July 5), for about three pounds, as belonging
10 to the creditors of Geymuller, with a pretext that the real pro-
11 prietor no longer existed. I could not discover into whose hands
12 these precious antiques passed ; and thus, in all probability, the
13 invaluable contents of the Bactrian scroll will be lost for ever to
14 the scientific world ! Besides the antiques which I sold in earlier
15 years to different private persons at Cairo and Alexandria, the
16 various cabinets in St. Petersburgh, Vienna, Paris and London,
17 possess a number of those which I collected.
18 At Cabul I opened a great many cupolas (tombs), under the
19 protection of the Nawaub Djubber-Khan, and by so doing
20 aroused the suspicion of Dost Mahomed, who thought that I
21 was carrying immense riches out of the country. Although I
22 was so prudent as to deliver all the articles I extracted to
23 Dr. Gerard, who was then at Cabul, on his return from Bokhara
24 to India, requesting him to hand them over to General Allard,
25 at Lahore, that he might convey them to Bordeaux, yet Dost
26 Mahomed gave orders to the Governor of Bamian to have
27 me plundered at the frontiers; and thus I was robbed of all at
28 the fortress of Akrabad ; but I again received my property by
29 the interference of the Nawaub Djubber-Khan and General
30 Avitabile, the latter being then Governor of Peshawur. Fearing
31 the cruelty of Mir Muradbeg, at Koondoos, I delivered at Cabul
32 all my luggage to the caravan ready to set out for Balkh ; and
33 dressed in the costume of the Affghan people, I proceeded in-
34 cognito, accompanied by ten men, some of them my own
35 servants, and some belonging to the Nawaub. My guide was
36 the old grey -beard, Kheiat, the same who conducted Alexander
37 Burnes and Dr. Gerard to Bokhara.