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To western Asia (1878 - 1879) When Schuver arrived in Batum (Georgia) at the beginning of August 1878, visiting the Turkish lines there, he found that the the Turks were on the point of abandoning the city to the Russians after deliberately destroying the harbour facilities. Schuver was compelled to flee Batum for Trebizond from where he made two trips on foot to Erzerum, taking a different route each time. He also visited Armenia. In September he travelled, presumably on horseback, to Baghdad via Diyarbakir and Mosul. In October, accompanied by a priest from the Lazarist order, he again travelled to Armenia, obviously fascinated by that region.On 30 November he climbed Mount Ararat. [20] Schuver next ventured to Iran, crossing the border at Dogubayezid, and spending the winter of 1879-1879 in that country. His journey from Maku, close to Khvoy, to Tabriz, where he observed the shiite festival of Mohurram commemorating Hussein's martyrdom. Next he travelled with an Iranian army unit to Qotur, where he once more crossed the Iranian-Turkish border. In a forced march he took the roads, thick with snow, to Erzerum, continuing on to Trebizond by riding for five days and nights, almost without a break. Why all this hurry, as if the devil were hard on his heels? Perhaps he had a presentiment that his father, who had been struggling with health problems in the spring of 1878, was actually dying. | |
