"E.Voiskunsky, I.Lukodyanov. The Crew Of The Mekong (англ.)" - читать интересную книгу автора

He gazed in silence across the green vastness, wondering what awaited
him beyond those deserted shores and the burning, shifting sands.
The flotilla cruised along the eastern coast of the Caspian until late
autumn. It stopped at Guryev, rounded the Mangyshlak Peninsula and sailed
southwards for a long time, mapping and describing in detail the strange,
deserted coastline. The sun blazed down on them. The barrels of water taken
on at Guryev became putrid; the men were tormented by thirst. But even
stronger than thirst was the yearning for distant Russia, for shady forests
and smoke rising from the chimney of one's own log cabin.
The flotilla sailed past a gap in the coastline through which the sea
rushed noisily. This was the mysterious Gulf of Karabugaz, eternally covered
with a dark haze of evaporation.
Then it sailed over a long, dangerous underwater spit that is now
called Bekovich Bank. After rounding the bank it entered Krasnovodsk Bay, a
place that slept the sleep of the dead amidst burning sands and hillocks.
In the autumn of 1715, one year after it had first sailed out into the
Caspian Sea, the flotilla returned to Astrakhan. The expedition had failed
to reach either Khiva or Bukhara, and it had not learned anything about gold
in that area. But it had confirmed the fact that the Amu Darya did not flow
into the Caspian and that its old channel had dried up. Also, it had mapped
the coast of the Caspian.
The expedition proved to be too small and unsatisfactorily equipped for
a long, dangerous overland journey.


On February 14, 1716, Prince Bekovich-Cherkassky was given a new
assignment. He was appointed Ambassador to the court of the Khan of Khiva
with instructions to proceed to Khiva along the Amu Darya, carefully
studying the river and examining the dam to see whether the river could be
turned back into its old channel instead of flowing into the Sea of Aral. He
was also to determine how many men would be needed to do that.
Rumour had it that Khan Shirgazy, who now ruled Khiva, was extremely
hostile to the local princes and was eager to consolidate his power. Prince
Bekovich-Cherkassky was instructed to persuade him to become a Russian
subject loyal to the tsar by promising to help him to unite his domain. In
return for putting a Russian regiment at his service the Khan would
presumably act in the interests of Russia.
The Prince was also instructed by Peter to send an intelligence agent
to Khiva disguised as a merchant to search for a water route to India.
By decree of the Senate the strength of the expedition was enlarged to
6100 men in three infantry regiments, two dragoon units, two Cossack
regiments, a marine detachment and a building crew. The building crew
included men experienced in the construction of fortifications. The
expedition also had scribes, interpreters, doctors and pharmacists.
The regiments and baggage-trains gathered at Guryev. Prince
Bekovich-Cherkassky set out for Guryev from Astrakhan, accompanied for a
short distance, as far as the Caspian, by his wife Martha and their
children. A fishing vessel followed the flotilla to take her and the
children back to Astrakhan.
Soon after they set sail the weather changed. A furious wind drove