Journal of the Royal United
Service Institution
VOL. XIX. 1875. No. LXXX.
LECTURE.
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General
Perovsky, with a large force, was endeavoring to invade
the Khan's territory from Orenburg and Fort Emba, by a
route west of the Aral Sea. The reasons for entering upon
a campaign of so physically difficult and so morally
disturbing a nature have long been made public.
Insufficient compensation for the capture and enslavement
of Russian prisoners by Turkmen
had been obtained in the counter capture of Khivan
subjects; and a succession of unsatisfactory missions and
minor expeditions had finally culminated in the formation
of a somewhat formidable Russian Army of invasion. After
a long detention and several interviews with his royal
but uncivilized entertainer, Abbott was induced to
proceed, on the potentate's behalf, in the direction of
the advancing Northern foe ; but on reaching the shores
of the Caspian, he was attacked, plundered, and otherwise
ill-treated by Kazaks or Kirgiz, narrowly escaping with
his life and losing two of his fingers. Those who have
not read the narrative of a “Journey from Herat to
Khiva, Moscow, and St. Petersburg," will do well to
procure the book and trace in it the adventures of this
gallant Officer through months of peril and anxiety.
The late Colonel Sir Richmond Shakespeare. — An
account of Lieutenant Shakespeare's journey is to be
found in "Blackwood's Magazine" for June, 1842,
in which month the writer was fulfilling the duties of
Military Secretary to Sir George Pollock, who had halted
with his Army at Jalalabad, on the high road to Kabul.
This
same Officer, also an artilleryman, was chosen; it will
be remembered, on the occasion of the British advance
into Afghanistan in 1839, to accompany Major D'Arcy Todd
when detached to Herat on political employ. From Herat he
was dispatched to Khiva in 1840 — some five months
after Captain Abbott's departure in the same direction to
complete the negotiations which his brother Officer and
immediate predecessor had commenced for the release of
Russian captives, and his efforts in the cause were so
far successful that he was enabled to escort a large body
of these men to their native country. Whether or no the
collection and registration of the party by the Russian
Cornet Aitoff, also a prisoner in the Khan's hands, be
taken into account in estimating the share of merit to be
accorded to each actor in the drama, our verdict must be
passed on the actual duty entrusted to the British
Officer, and the mode of its fulfillment; and we can
surely affirm that the political utility of the
proceeding was no more conspicuous than its practical
philanthropy. It is not easy for all practiced travelers,
much less for worthy citizens of London who seldom quit
their own firesides, to appreciate fitly the service
rendered by a fellow-countryman in escorting 416 human
beings of exceptional typo from Khiva to Novo
Alexanclrovsk, across the Ust Urt ; but it was a feat
well worthy of record. On the 1st October he handed over
his charge to the Russian Governor at Orenburg at St.
Petersburg, in November, he received the personal thanks
of the Emperor for his labors ; and ho soon afterwards
reached England, to return to India in 1841 with a
well-earned knighthood.
As regards Sir Richmond Shakespeare's after career, I
will quote a
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