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While journeying northward on his way back to St. Petersburg, Mr. Schuyler, as we have already stated in the summary of his route, turned from his direct course to visit Kuldja. In the course of this excursion, he came to the town of Suidun on the Mongolian border. The contrast between this town and the places through which he had been traveling is thus gracefully drawn: Instead of narrow, crooked streets there were broad, straight avenues shaded with trees; instead of windowless houses built of mud, the blank walls of which stared one in the face at every turn, there were fine buildings of brick beautifully carved and molded, roofed with tiles, and with latticed windows and porticoes. Instead of female forms swathed in long, shapeless dressing-gowns, and faces hidden by black horsehair veils, there were stout, healthy, smiling women chatting over their marketing, the bright orange-colored marigolds in their wonderful coiffures or their coquettish little caps contrasting well with the indigo blue of their gowns.
The bazaar too, showed the same contrast. This occupied the greater part of one of the wide avenues crossing the town. Besides the little shops on each side, there were many booths covered to some extent with square umbrellas of matting partly open, and the chief trade seemed to be carried on in the open air. Here were beets, large eggplants, but still real bread and not cakes. The butcher's shops were different in character and there were even stalls where men sold candy and barley-sugar. It was also interesting to watch the operations of the barbers in the streets outside their shops. The poor man who came to be shaved was made to sit on a narrow wooden stool and then recline almost horizontally on a cane- covered rest, where he closed his eyes and looked as if he were about to undergo some unpleasant surgical operation.
There are numerous incidents of personal adventure which show that Mr. Schuyler did not accomplish his self-imposed mission of investigating this interesting country without some risk. Just as he was leaving Bokhara he narrowly escaped assassination at the hands of a respectably dressed mullah. The watchfulness of one of his attendants saved him from this fate. The address and determination which Mr. Schuyler displayed, in face of the opposition of the officials, in purchasing a slave-boy in Bokhara and taking him to St. Petersburg, thus demonstrating the existence of the slave trade in the province named, deserve the highest praise. He had the substantial satisfaction, moreover, of knowing that this act was one of the causes, if not the sole cause which brought about the ratification of a treaty with the Amir, forever abolishing the slave trade in Bokhara.
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A barber in Suidun
Vambery - England in the Orient
Foreign retirees in Manchuria
Japanese priest crosses desert to Tibet
An early traveler in Egypt
First Japanese Buddhist Temple in America
Waiting in Ulaan Baatar
Central Asia after the battle at Penjdeh
Underground City near Bokhara
Public Opinion 1885
Central Asia
Bokhara
