Page:Thirty-five years in the East.djvu/101

The short description of my journey from Lahore, via Dhera-Ghasi-Khan and Guznee, to Cabul, was published by Colonel Sir C. M. Wade, in 1834, in the report of the Asiatic Society at Calcutta, with a map attached to it. The collection of plants which I made on this journey, I handed over to the late Baron Jaquin, Professor of Botany at Vienna, who placed them under the care of the late Doctor Endlicher and Professor Fenzel, to arrange them; a part has been already published, under the title of Sertum Cabulicum, and the remaining larger portion is near its completion, by Professor Fenzel. As for my collection of antiques, they are not unknown to the archaeological world. They were published in the year 1835, by the Asiatic Society at Paris, to which I had communicated all the results I had obtained by means of opening the cupolas (tombs) of Cabul and Jellalabad, as also the coins and cameos which I bought when traversing Bokhara. On account of this communication, I was admitted an honorary member of the Asiatic Society at Paris; but my collection thereby lost its pecuniary value in London, so that I was obliged to forward to Paris two gold pieces (mokadphisis) to a certain M. Rollin for 3,000 francs, that sum exceeding any offer made to me in London. Among other valuable curiosities, there was a Bactrian papyrus-scroll, which had not then been opened, and the reader may find it lithographed and published by the Asiatic Society at Paris in 1835. I believe that to be the only Bactrian manuscript which has ever been found. Having packed this collection in a case, I sent it from London, addressed to the banker Geymuller, at Vienna, who afterwards became bankrupt, and the box containing those valuable curiosities remained full fifteen years at the custom-house at Vienna, unknown to me, notwithstanding many inquiries. To my astonishment and regret, I learned, on my arrival at Vienna (July 20, 1850 ), that the box, after an interval of fifteen years, had been sold by auction, a fortnight previous to my arrival (July 5), for about three pounds, as belonging to the creditors of Geymuller, with a pretext that the real