My search for Moorcroft's journeys

For several years, I had been looking for the book, Beyond Bokhara, written by Garry Alder. Published first in 1985, it had gone out of print long ago. Secondhand editions were available in online stores in the United States, but they were frightfully expensive. Moreover, none of them was prepared to ship it to India. I searched libraries, clubhouses and old collectors but nothing came out of it. For the last couple of years, I had given up all hope of reading the book and had stopped looking for it. A few days ago, I had this urge to search for it online one more time. And the book showed up in several Indian retail sites. I ordered my copy right away. Great is the joy of finding something you had given up as lost. We feel it frequently as children: the favourite pen in some remote corner of the study table, your treasured heap of Commando comics in the garage, or your pet T-shirt under a pile of quilts. But such experiences reduce as we grow up. The discovery of Beyond Bokhara was a journey back to those simpler pleasures of life.

It is not clear when the edition, which I have, was published. (It has been brought out by Delhi-based Low Price Publications.) Alder's introduction to this second edition of the book was written in January 2011. Its last line dedicates the book to Alder's three Indian "friends who share his interest in William Moorcroft". Two of them I too can count as friends - I had badgered them for several years to get me a copy of Beyond Bokhara.

The book is an account of the life of William Moorcroft (1767 to 1825) -illegitimate child of a village girl, veterinary doctor, servant of the East India Company, ladies' man and intrepid explorer. He was recruited in England at a very high cost and sent to India in 1808 to improve the quality of horses. Those were the years of conquest, and the East Indian Company needed capable horses for its cavalry. Moorcroft was put in charge of the stud farm at Pusa, not far from Patna. But he was a restless soul. He began to travel to various corners of the company's dominions to study the horses. From there, the transition to a political agent was swift. His first landmark journey was in 1812 with Hyder Young Hearsey, a Eurasian, to Mansarovar, through what is today Uttarakhand. (Hearsey was born to an English father and a native mother, and was named Hyder Jung after Tipu Sultan's father. Once he went to England for studies, he Anglicised his name to Hyder Young.) The two men travelled to Mansarovar as Gosains. On the way back, passing through Gorkha territory, Hearsey had treated the local commander, Hastidal Shah, for his bear wounds. In return, during the Anglo-Nepal war of 1815, Hastidal spared Hearsey's life after routing his forces. (Sudarshan Shah, the king of Garhwal, had sold the Dehra Dun valley to Hearsey for ~3,000 when he had run out of money. After the territory was annexed by the East India Company in 1815, Hearsey fought a long battle to get control of the valley, but all his efforts were in vain.)

Moorcroft's next journey came in 1819. This time he travelled to Kulu, past the Rohtang Pass into Lahaul and then Ladakh. After spending two years in Ladakh, he travelled to Jalalabad, Kabul and Bokhara. In August 1825, he came down with a fever and died a few days later. His second-in-command, George Trebeck, too died within days. But there's a twist in the tale: Moorcroft may have faked his death. Some historians insist Moorcroft trudged all the way to Lhasa and stayed there for another 12 years. After that, he was murdered while attempting to cross over to India. With so much adventure and mystery thrown in, you can't fault me for searching for Beyond Bokhara all these years.

bhupesh.bhandari@bsmail.in