The Great Trek of the Russian Mennonites to Central Asia, 1880-1884, Fred Richard Belk, 1976

and trans- ferred to an arbas (a high wagon) whose seven-foot wheels helped them cross the river easily. At Samarkand they exchanged Russian rubles into Bukharan money, purchased a ride on another mail wagon, and proceeded to the Russian border town of Katakurgan. Here they hired a Bukharan guide named Sultanbek, who promised for eleven rubles to get them to Bukhara within two days on his one-horse arbas. Sultanbek, however, did not carry out his promise because he soon intoxicated himself with opium. Penner then hired a Sart guide they met on the road, who successfully led them to the walled fortress city of Bukhara. Without delay, they went first to Trouble and Dispersion of the Brethren 113 the Russian embassy and then on to the palace of the khan where the Mennonite deputies were graciously received. When they re- turned to Kaplan Bek a few weeks later the news that the khan granted permission for them to move to Bukhara overjoyed all the brethren.* On hearing this report, some of the Molotschna people decided to go to Bukhara with their Kaplan Bek friends. In order to show their sincerity, however, they had to reconfess and rededicate their lives to Christ and go through a ceremony of laying on of hands by the Kaplan Bek elders. Some forty families decided to leave, but found out that they had to put up a 500-ruble bond in order to leave Russian territory. This bond was to protect the Russian gov- ernment. who feared they would be killed by hostile natives en route. The bond emphasized that the Mennonites would be losing all protection if they left.* The rumor that slavery and ‘‘girl stealing’ were the order of the day in Bukhara dissuaded several families from following up their plans.** This indecision on the part of the Turkestan Mennonites led to a split into three parties. The Peters faction decided to accept Russian law and stay in Turkestan; the Epp group made plans to leave Kap- lan Bek and Bukhara; and a small group seceded from the Kaplan Bek leadership and temporarily took up quarters in Tashkent. Some of this last group, including Cornelius Wall, later joined the Peters group when it moved to the Aulie Ata region of Turkestan.** July 1881 Evacuation of Kaplan Bek On July 25, 1881, in spite of warnings from other Mennonites and a new outbreak of illness, 26 families left Kaplan Bek for Buk- hara. Barely had they crossed the Keles River when an omen occurred: two wheels broke on two different wagons. During the de- lay for repairs, old Heinrich Schmidt, a senior member of the party, died. The next evening the funeral was held, and early in the morning he was buried in Kaplan Bek. The train then decided to divide into smaller groups for faster traveling; Martin Klaassen com- manded the first section and Hermann Jantzen the other.” A brief stopover at Tashkent found six Molotschna families ready to go along, and following a farewell service, eight or ten other families promis