IIIF Color HighRes
National Institute of Informatics - Digital Silk Road Project
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| IIIF Color HighRes |
| Southern Tibet : vol.7 |
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Citation Information
CHAPTER XIV.
ELPHINSTONE. - MIR IZZET ULLAH.
The first Europeans who brought us any certain knowledge of the Kara-korum were MOUNTSTUART ELPHINSTONE and other members of his mission. When Napoleon sent General Gardanne to Persia in i 8o8 , and seemed to intend to carry the war into Asia, the British Government decided to send an embassy to the Amir at Kabul, and, as the Amir was • known to be haughty, the mission should be equipped magnificently, and an excellent selection of officers should accompany it.I Elphinstone was the chief. The embassy left Delhi on October i 3th, i 8o8. As so many able officers took part in this important expedition it was not surprising that it should bring back important geographical results.
The following quotations from his narrative will furnish an idea of Elphinstone's view regarding the mountains between India and Eastern Turkestan. The northern
frontier of the kingdom of Kabul is formed by the mountains of the eastern Caucasus, yid
which are, however, included within the western part of the boundary there formed i
by the Oxus.2 Hindustan and Kabul are everywhere bounded on the north »by
a chain of mountains which is covered with perpetual snow, for almost the whole
of that extent,» and all the great rivers appear to issue from it. »From Brahmaputra to Kashmir it is called Hemalleh. From Kashmir it turns S. W. to the high snowy peak of Hindoo Coosh .... From Cashmeer to Hindoo Coosh, the whole range is known by the name of that peak.» Farther west to the meridian of Herat he uses the name of Paropamisus.
Elphinstone did not place the water-parting on the chain of mountains which, when seen from the southern side, could be supposed to form the natural boundary of Hindustan and Kabul. He understood that one has to look »farther north for
the ridge that terminates the natural division, in which those countries are situated,
and contains the remotest sources of their greatest rivers. — Our geographers
~~.
I \7ountstuart Elphinstone: An Account of the Kingdom of Caubul.... etc. London 1815.E 2 Op. cit., pag. 84 et seq.
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