Claudius Bombarnac, Special Correspondent, Twentieth Century. Tiflis, Transcaucasia. Such is the address of the telegram I found on the 13th of May when I arrived at Tiflis. This is what the telegram ...

We were three minutes late in starting; it is well to be precise. A special correspondent who is not precise is a geometer who neglects to run out his calculations to the tenth decimal. This delay of ...

The boat did not start until three o’clock in the afternoon. Those of my companions who intended to cross the Caspian hurried off to the harbor; it being necessary to engage a cabin, or to mark one’s ...

I am always suspicious of a traveler’s “impressions.” These impressions are subjective⁠—a word I use because it is the fashion, although I am not quite sure what it means. A cheerful man looks at thin...

Travelers used to land at Mikhailov, a little port at the end of the Transcaspian line; but ships of moderate tonnage hardly had water enough there to come alongside. On this account, General Annenkof...

The ideas of a man on horseback are different to those which occur to him when he is on foot. The difference is even more noticeable when he is on the railway. The association of his thoughts, the cha...

The train arrived at Kizil Arvat, two hundred and forty-two versts from the Caspian, at thirteen minutes past seven in the evening instead of seven o’clock. This slight delay provoked thirteen objurga...

Before the train reaches Gheok Tepe I am back in the car. Confound this dromedary! If he had not managed to get smashed so clumsily No. 11 would no longer be unknown to me. He would have opened his pa...

We started to time. The baron could not complain this time. After all, I understood his impatience; a minute’s delay might cause him to lose the mail boat from Tien Tsin to Japan. The day looked promi...

At a quarter-past twelve our train passed the station of Kari Bata, which resembles one of the stations on the line from Naples to Sorrento, with its Italian roofs. I noticed a vast Asiatico-Russian c...

The Khanates of Bokhara and Samarkand used to form Sogdiana, a Persian satrapy inhabited by the Tadjiks and afterwards by the Usbegs, who invaded the country at the close of the fifteenth century. But...

Samarkand is situated in the rich oasis watered by the Zarafchane in the valley of Sogd. A small pamphlet I bought at the railway station informs me that this great city is one of the four sites in wh...

We dined an hour after the train left. In the dining car were several newcomers, among others two Negroes whom Caterna began to speak of as darkies. None of these travelers, Popof told me, would cross...

In 1870 the Russians endeavored without success to establish a fair at Tashkent which would rival that at Nijni-Novgorod. Some twenty years later the attempt would have succeeded, and as a matter of f...

Kokhan, two hours to stop. It is night. The majority of the travelers have already taken up their sleeping quarters in the car, and do not care to alight. Here am I on the platform, walking the deck a...

Kachgaria is Oriental Turkestan which is gradually being metamorphosed into Russian Turkestan. The writers in the New Review have said: “Central Asia will only be a great country when the Muscovite ad...

We are off on a Chinese railway, single line, the train drawn by a Chinese engine, driven by a Chinese driver. Let us hope we shall not be telescoped on the road, for among the passengers is one of th...

“Millions⁠—there are millions in that pretended mortuary van!” In spite of myself, this imprudent phrase had escaped me in such a way that the secret of the imperial treasure was instantly known to al...

When I awoke I seemed to have had an unpleasant dream. A dream in no way like those we interpret by the Clef d’Or. No! Nothing could be clearer. The bandit chief Ki Tsang had prepared a scheme for the...

In a moment the passengers, more or less bruised and alarmed, were out on the track. Nothing but complaints and questions uttered in three or four different languages, amid general bewilderment. Farus...

And so it was Ki-Tsang who had just attacked the Grand Transasiatic on the plains of Gobi. The pirate of Yunnan had learned that a van containing gold and precious stones of enormous value had formed ...

I, who wanted an incident, have had one to perfection. I am thankful enough not to have been one of the victims. I have emerged from the fray safe and sound. All my numbers are intact, barring two or ...

I have not seen Kinko for two days, and the last was only to exchange a few words with him to relieve his anxiety. Tonight I will try and visit him. I have taken care to lay in a few provisions at Sou...

On leaving Lan-Tcheou, the railway crosses a well-cultivated country, watered by numerous streams, and hilly enough to necessitate frequent curves. There is a good deal of engineering work; mostly bri...

And I, who wanted “incident,” who feared the weariness of a monotonous voyage of six thousand kilometres, in the course of which I should not meet with an impression or emotion worth clothing in type!...

“Peking!” shouted Popof. “All change here.” And Caterna replied with truly Parisian unction: “I believe you, my boy!” And we all changed. It was four o’clock in the afternoon. For people fatigued with...

If ever the expression, “sinking in sight of port,” could be used in its precise meaning, it evidently can in this case. And I must beg you to excuse me. But although a ship may sink by the side of th...