The Journey of Two American Students from Constantinople to Peking. Out of print since the 1890s, the incredible true story of the first global bicycle expedition. “Very interesting….Two American college students, Thomas Gaskell Allen, Jr., an ... Read more

The Journey of Two American Students from Constantinople to Peking. Out of print since the 1890s, the incredible true story of the first global bicycle expedition. “Very interesting….Two American college students, Thomas Gaskell Allen, Jr., and William Lewish Sachtleben, are contributing to the Century magazine the narrative of their adventurous trip ‘Across Asia on a Bicycle.’ They left New York for Liverpool in Sixth month, 1890, and returned by way of San Francisco in the same month, 1893, the distance traveled on the bicycle alone being 15,044 miles, which is said to be the longest continuous land journey ever made around the world. In the current issue of the magazine they describe very graphically their ascent of the famous peak, Mount Ararat, on which, as it has been believed, Noah’s Ark rested after the Flood. This mountain has seldom been ascended, and these young men were the first Americans to accomplish the feat. They reached the top on the ‘Fourth of July,’ having started up on the 2nd. The peak is 17,250 feet high, and stands in the angle where Turkey, Persia, and Asiatic Russia meet.” -Friends' Intelligencer, Volume 51, January 6, 1894 CONTENTS BEYOND THE BOSPORUS THE ASCENT OF MOUNT ARARAT THROUGH PERSIA TO SAMARKAND THE JOURNEY FROM SAMARKAND TO KULDJA OVER THE GOBI DESERT AND THROUGH THE WESTERN GATE OF THE GREAT WALL AN INTERVIEW WITH THE PRIME MINISTER OF CHINA “Our bicycling experience began at Liverpool. After following many of the beaten lines of travel in the British Isles we arrived in London, where we formed our plans for traveling across Europe, Asia, and America. The most dangerous regions to be traversed in such a journey, we were told, were western China, the Desert of Gobi, and central China. Never since the days of Marco Polo had a European traveler succeeded in crossing the Chinese empire from the west to Peking. “Crossing the Channel, we rode through Normandy to Paris, across the lowlands of western France to Bordeaux, eastward over the Lesser Alps to Marseilles, and along the Riviera into Italy. After visiting every important city on the peninsula, we left Italy at Brindisi on the last day of 1890 for Corfu, in Greece. Thence we traveled to Patras, proceeding along the Corinthian Gulf to Athens, where we passed the winter. We went to Constantinople by vessel in the spring, crossed the Bosporus in April, and began the long journey described in the following pages. When we had finally completed our travels in the Flowery Kingdom, we sailed from Shanghai for Japan. Thence we voyaged to San Francisco, where we arrived on Christmas night, 1892. “Three weeks later we resumed our bicycles and wheeled by way of Arizona, New Mexico, and Texas to New York. “During all of this journey we never employed the services of guides or interpreters. We were compelled, therefore, to learn a little of the language of every country through which we passed. Our independence in this regard increased, perhaps, the hardships of the journey, but certainly contributed much toward the object we sought--a close acquaintance with strange peoples.” ** Less