ROUND THE WORLD ON A BICYCLE.

Waikato Times, Volume XXVII, Issue 2207, 31 August 1886, Page 3

ROUND THE WORLD ON A BICYCLE.

Thomas Stevens, the intrepid English^ man, v* ho has ridden his bicycle across the American Continent, Europe, and Asia, as far as Afghani-tan, on his way round the world, has been obliged to turn back and take a new route. Writing to the editor of Bicycling yews, from Constantinople, under date of the 17th June, he says :— ll You have doubtless heard, long ere this will reach London, about my recent experiences in attempting to ride through Afghanistan to India ; how, after getting within an eight or ten days' run of Quetta I was taken prisoner by the Afghans, brought i?ack to Herat, and finally into Persia again. You may also have heard of my intention to reach India via the Caspiati and Black Seas to Constantinople, and thence via Suez Canal to Kurrachee ;so that you will not be surprised at this ■ brief letter being dated from Constantinople instead of somewhere well down in India, as it would have been had 1 been permitted to go ahead When on the eve of leaving Meshed for India, in the face of an order from the Legation at Teheran forbidding me cross the Afghan frontier at any point, I wrote you that I was going to try and cross the Scissen and Beloochistan deserts, the possibility that the whirligig of fortune might bring me back to Constantinople waa a thought that never even suggested itself. Up to the time the Afghans arrested me, I had encountered difficulties enough, goodness knows ; but so long as I was permitted to play the part of a free agent in meeting and overcoming them there wasn't much to complain of. It is one thing, however, to face physical difficulties, and venture among uncivilised people, and quite another thing to have the Government of the country you attempt to cross array itself against you to bar your progress and prevent you from venturing. I suppose it is something to have ridden a bicycle from London to Herat* and I am quite aware of having accomplished aomethi' q extraordinary in penetrating Afghani-tan as far as Furrah, in spite of the Ameer's orders ; for of several newspaper correspondents who came to Persia on purpQse to enter Afghanistan, not one succeeded in even crossing the frontier. But this is a cold consolation when regarded as an offset against being compelled to take a retreating and roundabout journey of 6000 miles by bicycle, rail and steamer in order to overcome the wretched little strip of 300 miles, or thereabouts between Furrah and the free roads of India. I was a prisoner with 'ye gentle Afghan*' a matter of nineteen days. I have no cause to complain of their treatment. So far as theit* enlightenment— or rather their want of enlightenment— regarding the treatment and entertainment of anything so utterly incomprehensible to them as a cycler and his wheel was concerned, they did their best to make things as pleasant and agreeable for me as possible. oVIy experience in the wild country south of Meshed and in Afghanistan will be far more pleasant to read about in the pages of the * Outing' magazine than it was to endure. Yet there are incidents that are most agreeable to remember, even if taken by themselves, and not in contrast with the less desirable experiences of the same time. For instance, the governor of Furrah, Mahmond Yusuph Khan, halfbrother to the late Ameer, Shere AH, after satisfying himself that I was English, and not a Russian spy, as they first tnought, loaded me with sweetmeats, and such like Oriental favours, and what was a really acceptable aud appropriate present at the time— for I arrived at t Furrah almost barefoot — a splendid pair of English walking-boots. The Ameer of Seistan was also a good sort of fellow ; he pitched a tent for me outside his summer residence at Ali-abad, sent me all sorts of good things to eat, and soldiers to keep the people from intruding, for the greater part of the day and night. You have no idea how one comes to appreciate this latter, until you understand what it is to have mobs breaking doors and committing all sorts of lawless acts to satisfy their insatiable cariosity, and to be the centre of a crowd, and the object of their inordinate inquisitiveness and garrulous comments, from the moment of reaching a place till well away frdm it. I don't think the Chinese can be any worse than the mobs of the Khorassan cities, and my experience with the latter ought to be of some advantage with the former. You have he,ard, perhaps, that whilst a prisoner at Herat I wrote to Col. Ridgway, of the Boundary Commission, asking him. if possible, to assist me through to India, and that for answer the governor of Herat received instructions to escort me back to Persia. In Tiflis a few days ago, a Russian officer of sufficient importance to be related to the Empress approached me and tried to pump me concerning the roads and the nature of the country down below Herat."

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