The Sun.
London, England, 1866-03-27 00:00:00

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Royal Geographical Society

An ordinary meeting of this society was held. yes-
terday evening--Sir Roderick Murchison in thech air.
In opening the proceedings Sir Roderick announced
that'information had been received of the safe arri-
val of Dr. Livingstone at Zanzibar, and that he was
about to proceed on his intended exploration.
Sir 11. RAWLINSON undertook to expose an imposi.
tion which for many years had mystified and misled
geographers respecting that portion of Central Asia
between Cashmere and the Russian territory. Docu-
ments, sketches, and maps are deposited in the ar-
chives of Petersburg giving a minute account of an
exploration of that almost unknown region stated to
have been made by a German gentleman, whose
name, however, was unknown, the maps being ac-
companied by 30 astronomical observations, where-
by the exact latitude and longitude of as many
places was said to have been settled. The Ger-
man asserted that he was commissioned 60 years
ago, by the Indian Government to explore that part
of Asia for the purpose of purchasing horses ; that
he was accompanied on his journey by Lieut. llar-
vey and 40 sepoys ; that, after having purchased
130 horses, he sent them under charge of Lieut.
Harvey and eight sepoys, but that the party were
plundered by a native tribe, and all the horses were
stolen ; that he afterwards purchased 930 more
horses, though what becOrne of them did not appear
that in consequence of a quarrel with the Indian
Government, who disbelieved the account of the
loss of the first lot of horses, he went in dudgeon to
St. Petersburg, and laid before the Russian Govern-
ment the results of his explorations, which were en-
tered in the archives of the empire. The accounts
of that portion of Asia said to have been so explored
have until very recently been assumed to be cor-
rect; the documents have been translated into diffe-
rent languages; the delineations of the country have
been copied into more recent maps ; and the lati-
tudes and longitudes so minutely given have been
relied on as correct. Sir Henry Rawlinson, having
suspicion of their authenticity, submitted the docu-
ments
to a most searching examination, and the re-
sult he has arrived at is that the whole account is
an elaborate geographical hoax. In some portions
of the documents the verisimilitude is so close that
it was very difficult to determine whether they were
true or false, but generally there was some weak
point which exposed their fallacy. For instance,
the object of the journey was stated to be to pur-
chase horses, but there are no horses in that part of
Asia he was said to have visited ; he described a
volcano he saw in a state of eruption, though
there are no known volcanoes in that region ; he
spoke minutely about having had a present from
the natives of a black rabbit, though no such animal
exists in the country ; he mentioned the inhabitants
of certain districts where the Mahometan religion
is almost general, as being_pagans ; he used words
that have no resemblance to words in any known
language, and he stated having travelled in two
days through an extent of country that would
require at least 15 days to traverse. Inquiries
had been made whether any expedition to purchase
horses about the time mentioned had been authorised
by the Indian Government, but no record of the
kind appeared, and no Lieut. Harvey was known to
have been in the Indian army. Sir Henry Rawlin-
son said that many parts of the documents were so
like the truth that he for sometime hesitated before
he could decide positively that the whole were fal-
lacious, but he had at last come to that conclusion,
and Lord Strangford, who had assisted in examin-
ing the evidence, fully concurred with him.
Mr. J. CRAWFORD, who was in the North of India
at the time the expedition was alleged to have been
undertaken, said that he never heard of such an
expedition, and that he could scarcely have failed to
do so had it really been undertaken. He stated
also, as to the story about the rabbit, that it was
undoubtedly erroneous, for there was not an indi-
genous rabbit in the whole of India, and there are
nowhere but in Spain any black untamed rabbits.
Mr. SANDERS, who had travelled in that part of
Asia described by the German, said that the Russian
map founded on those documents and maps he had
found generally correct.
Sir R. MunansoN thought the society were
greatly indebted to Sir Henry Rawlinson for having
so fully exposed the fallacies of the German with-
out a name, whom he might be said to have killed
over and over again.
The meeting then adjourned.