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TUEKISTAN 
 
 VOL. ii. 
 

DERVISHES. 
 
 {Frontispiece of Vol. II. 
 
TUEKISTAN 
 
 NOTES OF A JOURNEY IN RUSSIAN TURKISTAN, 
 KHOKAND, BUKHARA, AND KULDJA 
 
 BY 
 
 EUGENE SCHUYLER, Phil. Dr. 
 
 KEMBKF. OF THE AMERICAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY AND OF THE IJIPEKIAL 
 RUSSIAN GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIEiT, ETC. 
 
 WITH THREE MAPS AND NUMEROUS ILLUSTRATIONS 
 
 IN TWO VOLUMES 
 VOL. II. 
 
 NEW YORK: 
 
 SCRIBNER, ARMSTRONG <fe CO. 
 
 1877. 
 
Copyright, 18?6, b? 
 1CHIBNER, ARMSTRONG- k SK5, 
 
 John F. Trow & Son, 
 
 IFRINTEKS AND BOOKBINDERS, 
 
 205-2T3 East \2tll St., 
 
 NEW YORK. 
 
CONTENTS 
 
 OF 
 
 THE SECOND VOLUME. 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 Mikhram —Approach to Khokand — Reception by theMekhter — TheAtalyk — 
 The palace — The armoury — Breech-loading guns and Berdan rifles — Paper- 
 making — The bazaar — Dull waiting — Restrictions and impositions on 
 Russian merchants — The Khan's idea of a commercial treaty — Yevgraf — 
 In pursuit of the Khan — Utch-Kurgan — Our presentation to the Khan — 
 Country life — Beliefs and superstitions — Andijan —The Khan Zadeh — 
 Ush — Forbidden to go further — Marghilan — Return to Tashkent — Sketch 
 of the Khanate — Its government — Heavy taxes — Discontent. . . , 
 
 CHAPTER X. 
 
 BtTKHAKA. 
 
 From Samarkand to Shahrisabs — A mountain pass — Kitab — My reception by 
 the Bek — Hospitality and amusements — Shaar — TheoldBek — The Bazaar 
 — Recent history of Shahrisabs — Tchiraktchi — Karshi — Its appearance 
 and its trade — The Amir's son — The Karshi steppe — The Amir's Camp — 
 Interview with His Majesty — Bukhara — The city — The Bazaar — Commer- 
 cial importance — My acquaintances — Public sales of slaves — Purchase of 
 a slave — Consequent difficulties — Outwitting the authorities — Unsuccess- 
 ful effort to go to Tchardjui — The shrine of Bohoueddin — Attempted 
 assassination — Kermineh — The Amir's favourite son — Ziaueddin — Katta 
 Kurgan. ... . 
 
 %*.+ 
 
 v, z 
 
VI CONTENTS OF 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ISSYK KTJL AND SEMIRETCH. 
 
 PAG I 
 
 Aulie-ata— Old ruins — Prester John — Spiders and tarantulas — Cockroaches 
 — Tokmak— The BuamPass — Lake Issyk Kul — Submerged cities — The 
 Tian Shan — No volcanos — The road to Kashgar — The Muzart Pass — The 
 Kara Kirghiz — Their legends — A court of Biis — Bad interpreters- 
 Attempt to navigate the Tchu — Signal defeat of the Khokandians at 
 Uzuu-agatch — The "White Tsar — Vierny — Chinese merchants — A Polish 
 refugee — General Kolpakofsky — Semireteh— Kussian and Cossack coloni- 
 sation—Navigation of the Hi — Kopal — Lake Balkash — Through Siberia . 119 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 KULDJA. 
 
 Altyn-Imel — Borokhudzir — Ruined towns — Cultivated country reverting to 
 steppe — Suidan — A Dungan town— The ruins of Hi — Early inhabitants 
 of Kuldja- -The. Usun and the Uigurs —Rise of the Oirat or Kalmuks — 
 Jungaria — Attempt to restore the empire of Tchinghiz Khan — Conquest of 
 Jungaria by the Chinese — New colonisation — TheTarantchis — The Solons, 
 the Sibos, and the military colonists — Return of the Kalmuks from the 
 Volga — Their settlements on the Hi- -The Mantchus and the Chinese — 
 The Dungans — Mutual hatred of all these peoples — Difficulty of govern- 
 ment — The Dungans rebel — They are joined by the Tarantchis- -Incapa- 
 city of the Chinese authorities — Success of the insurrection — Capture of 
 Hi and massacre of the garrison — Pillage and massacre of the military 
 colonists — Disunion of the rebels — The Dungan rule overturned by the 
 Tarantchis — Attitude of the Russians — The Tarantchi Sultan — Border 
 difficulties— The Russian conquest — A Chinese account — Excursion to 
 Lake Sairam Nor --Old Kuldja — The bazaars — A Chinese dinner — A 
 dramatic performance. — A Chinese Christian church — The up-country — 
 Resources of the valley— Cheapness of living — The present state of the 
 country. .... ........ 156 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE RUSSIAN ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Difficulties of administration — The Steppe Commission — Project for the govern- 
 ment of Turkistan — New projects proposed — Opposition to them — The 
 results of Russian rule — Financial and economical — Deficits — Cost of 
 government — Effect of the Russian administration— Character of the 
 officials — Personal relations of Russians to natives — What has been done 
 for the country — Roads — Schools — Hospitals — Passports —Too much civi- 
 
THE SECOND VOLUME. vii 
 
 PASS 
 
 lisation — Elective institutions — Change and variability of Russian rule — 
 Arbitrariness of officials — Influence of bad natives — Corruption and 
 venality— Corrupt officials unpunished — Consequent discontent — Evi- 
 dences of it in recent events. ......... 202 
 
 CHAPTER XIV. 
 
 THE KUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY XT* ASIA. 
 
 Alleged -mil of Peter the Great — Former Russian policy— It cannot be in- 
 ferred from the fact of conquest — There is really no policy — Prince Gortcha- 
 kof's circular — Difficulties arising from the constitution of the Government 
 — Fear of English remonstrances — Views against India — Paul's proposed 
 expedition — The neutral zone and the Afghan frontier — -The full powers of 
 General Kaufmann— Consequent awkwardness — General Kaufmann's 
 policy — The Diplomatic employe — Embassies — Presents — Relations with 
 Khokand — The commercial treaty — Karategin — Unquiet state of the 
 country — Rebellion of 1875 — The war with Russia —Violent struggle — ■ 
 Annexation of the Khanate— Bukhara — Disagreeable relations — The 
 Samarkand campaign— Commercial treaty — Subsequent relations — 
 Slave-trade — New treaty of 1873 — Afghanistan— Kashgar — Difficulties 
 attending friendly intercourse — Mission of Baron Kaulbars — Treaty — 
 Subsequent relations —Chinese frontier questions 258 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE EHIYAN CAMPAIGN' AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 Early relations of Russia with Khiva — Expedition of Bekovitch — That of Pe- 
 rovsky — Embassies — Recent relations — Expedition of 1873 — Statement of 
 grievances — Real reasons for the expedition — Its plan — The Turkistan 
 column — Want of provisions — Attitude of Bukhara — Change of route — 
 Khalata — Distress in the desert — Passage of the Amu — The failure of 
 Colonel Markozof — The Mangyshlak column — March of the Orenburg 
 column — It takes Khiva by storm— Simultaneous surrender to General 
 Kaufmann — The Khan reinstated — The Divan — Foraging forbidden — 
 Emancipation of the Persian slaves — Surveys — Reasons for the Turkoman 
 campaign — Butchery of the Turkomans — Story of an eye-witness— The 
 treaty of peace — Official explanation of it— The Amu Darya district — 
 Further expeditions against the Turkomans in 1873, 1874, and 1875 — 
 Exploring expeditions — Navigation of the Amu Darya — The Trana- 
 Caspian district — General Lomakin's expeditions — The Turkomans — 
 Affairs with Persia — Caravans 328 
 
 Conclusion > 887 
 
 YOL. II. a 
 
Till CONTENTS OF THE SECOND VOLUME. 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 PAOK 
 
 IV. The Kussian Policy regarding Central Asia. An Histobical 
 
 Sketch. — By Professor V. Grigorief 391 
 
 V. Eussia and Khiva 416 
 
 INDEX U6 
 
ILLUSTEATIONS 
 
 THE SECOND VOLUME. 
 
 Dervishes (by Verestchagin) ..... 
 
 Seid Mohammed Khudayar, Khan of Khokand {from a 
 
 photograph) ...... 
 
 Mozaffar Eddin, Amir of Bukhara {from a photograph) 
 
 Kirghiz Huts near Aulie-Ata {by Verestchagin) 
 
 On the Koad to Atjlle-Ata {by Verestchagin) . . 
 
 Tarantchi Cart {from a photograph) .... 
 
 A Batcha and his Admirers {by Verestchagin) 
 
 A Wayside Tomb {by Verestchagin) .... 
 
 Tarantchi Aksakab and his Attendants at Kuldja {from a 
 photograph) ...... 
 
 Dungan Women {from a photograph) .... 
 
 The Sin-Eater {by Verestchagin) .... 
 
 Pulat, the Arbakesh {by Verestchagin) , , 
 
 A Barber in Suidun {from a photograph) . . , 
 
 Ruins of Ili {by Verestchagin) . . 
 
 Frontispiece 
 
 To face p, 
 
 , 25 
 
 t> 
 
 
 83 
 
 ii 
 it 
 
 
 120 
 122 
 
 91 
 
 
 130 
 
 II 
 
 
 133 
 
 IJ 
 
 
 138 
 
 I* 
 
 
 167 
 
 •1 
 
 
 178 
 
 ' 
 
 • 
 
 28 
 
 ' 
 
 • 
 
 10) 
 
 • 
 
 • 
 
 161 
 168 
 
TURKISTAN, 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 KHOKAND. 
 
 Makhram- -Approach to Khokand — Eeception by the Mekhter — The Atalyk 
 — The palace — The armoury — Breech-loading guns and Berdan rifles — 
 Paper-making — The bazaar — Dull waiting — Restrictions and impositions 
 on Russian merchants — The Khan's idea of a commercial treaty — Yevgraf 
 ■ — In pursuit of the Khan — Utch-Kurgan — Our presentation to the Khan — 
 Country life — Beliefs and superstitions — Andijan — The Khan Zadeh — 
 Ush — Forbidden to go further — Marghi Ian— Return to Tashkent — Sketch 
 of the Khanate — Its government — Heavy taxes — Discontent. 
 
 In one of the letters I had received from the head-quarters of 
 the Khivan Expedition, I was told that it would perhaps be 
 inadvisable to go to Khokand while Mirza Hakim, the Envoy 
 of that country resident at Tashkent, and the Eussian Diplo- 
 matic Official were away, as possibly I might not be well re- 
 ceived in their absence. This advice, taken in connection 
 with current rumours, made me still more anxious to visit the 
 country ; and as I saw no chance of the speedy return of these 
 gentlemen from the Khivan Expedition — for Khiva had not 
 then been captured — I resolved to go as soon as I could find a 
 favourable opportunity. 
 
 Such an opportunity offered itself in the proposed visit 
 
 to that Khanate of Mr. F , a retired Russian officer, living 
 
 at Hodjent, who wished to buy timber for use in the bridge he 
 was constructing over the Syr Darya. Accordingly, we met at 
 Hodjent, and started off at five o'clock in the evening of 
 June 19 in a tarantas, our horses having being sent on with 
 our jigits and servants to the village of Kastakoz, as we were 
 
 VOL. II. B 
 
2 TURKISTAN. 
 
 desirous of postponing till the last minute what we knew would 
 he a wearisome horseback journey over a hot and dusty road. 
 
 Passing the little village of Ispisar, we soon reached 
 Kastakoz, about eleven miles from Hodjent, where we had 
 supper, and passed the night on the terrace in a large court- 
 yard of a native merchant. 
 
 We had in our party Abdullah, a young Tartar, the inter- 
 preter of Mr. F , and my own interpreter Andrei, an active, 
 
 trustworthy, and courageous young Russian, who had been in 
 this part of the country since he was twelve years old, and 
 spoke Turki and Kirghiz perfectly, and who, being dressed in 
 semi-Tartar costume, was usually taken for a Mussulman. 
 There were besides a rich Hodjent merchant, Haba Bai, acting 
 
 as Mr. F 's agent, and three jig Us. We each had a cart 
 
 for luggage, since in travelling in these countries one must 
 take beds and mattresses, as well as baths, and other necessary 
 articles. 
 
 We left Kastakoz at 5.45 next morning on horseback, and 
 after travelling over a stony plain, destitute of water and 
 verdure, we stopped for a short time to rest at the village of 
 Karatch-Kum, ' the robber sands,' just across the Khokandian 
 boundary. There are about a hundred families only living in 
 this village, but as it was market-day, the bazaar was full. We 
 drank tea and ate melons in a little court of the Yuzbashi, or 
 centurion, while he sent a messenger to Makhram, four miles 
 on, to announce our arrival, and we soon after started ourselves 
 for that village, seventeen miles in all from Kastakoz. 
 
 Makhram is a large square fort, with high crenelated mud 
 walls, standing on the steep bank of the Syr Darya, the other 
 three sides being protected by a deep moat, then dry. To 
 reach the little bazaar, opposite the sole entrance, which is on 
 the eastern side, we had to make the circuit of the moat, 
 keeping close to it to avoid the irrigating canals and culti- 
 vated land. Though we had letters to the Khan, and had thus 
 a right to official hospitality, we preferred to stop for our 
 nooning at a tea-house, in the almost deserted bazaar, the only 
 bazaar day there being Saturday. 
 
 The sun was intensely hot, and I was glad to scramble 
 down the steep bank of the river at the end of the street, and 
 take a bath in the muddy water. We improvised an awning, 
 
MAKIIILYM. 3 
 
 but a crowd of inquisitive spectators followed our every 
 movement. Presently the adjutant of the Bek came to us, ac- 
 companied by two men with long- wands, to learn who we 
 were, and whither we were going. Having been informed that 
 we were going to Khokand to see the Khan, they departed, and 
 soon after returned with a dostar-khan, the merit of which was 
 a tray of fresh ripe apricots. We then sent a small present to 
 the Bek, excused ourselves on account of fatigue for omitting 
 to visit him, and soon received in return a cheap silk gown. 
 
 Makhram, as the frontier fortress of Khokand, is a place of 
 some importance, and has a constant garrison of 500 men. 
 Some of these soldiers came to look at us : among them one 
 with a blue coat and red trowsers, another with a green coat 
 over a long white native shirt, and a small boy, a fifer, in a 
 blue jacket covered with brass buttons put on over his native 
 gown. Little did I then expect that these resting-places of 
 ours were in two years' time to be the scenes of battles, in a 
 war too begun, not by the Russians, but by the Khokandians. 
 
 At four o'clock we started off for Kandbaclam x — celebrated 
 of old for its almonds, which give it its name — making the 
 eighteen miles by seven o'clock. The latter portion of the 
 road was very pretty, shut in by gardens without end. Passing 
 at length between high clay walls, shaded by numerous trees, 
 and necked with golden spots from the setting sun, we came 
 to a tea-house in the bazaar, by the side of an ill-smelling 
 pond. I was too tired to eat, and amused myself by tossing 
 apricots and almonds to the crowd of boys who nocked from 
 all parts of the bazaar to gaze on the foreigners. This was 
 almost my first experience of horseback travelling ; and as I 
 had had but very little practice in Tashkent, and had scarcely 
 been on a horse for two years before, I ached all over, and 
 rubbed myself well with whisky, lest the next day I shoidd 
 be too stiff to move. It was a new thing for me to live thus 
 in public, as I was compelled to do during nearly my whole 
 
 1 Even Ye-lu Tch'u-ts'ai, when travelling 'with Tchinghiz Khan, speaks of 
 this : ' Around the city of Ba-lan (the Cbinese equivalent of the Persian bad am, 
 almond) there are everywhere ba-lan gardens; hence the name. The blossoms of 
 the ba-lan tree resemble those of the apricot, only they are a little paler. The 
 leaves are like the leaves of the peach tree, but a little narrower and smaller. 
 The blossoms appear in winter, the fruits ripen in summer.' 
 
4 TURKISTAJS. 
 
 journey; but our beds being spread in the open verandah, I 
 soon fell asleep, disturbed somewhat by the noisome odour 
 of the pond. I woke up the next morning feeling much 
 better than I had anticipated, and we started at five o'clock, 
 just as people were beginning to appear in the bazaar. 
 
 The town is one of considerable size, and contains several 
 mosques, one of which is handsomely built of burned brick. 
 The view on leaving the town was at first very fine, with snowy 
 mountains visible on the right, and other ranges appearing on 
 the left ; but we soon came to a large stony plain, about ten 
 miles across, covered with shifting sands, which are constantly 
 encroaching on the cultivated fields bordering the river. In 
 the middle of this waste is a small village, called Patar, built 
 of clay houses, without trees or the slightest sign of verdure, 
 and seemingly deserted. 
 
 Coming again into a cultivated country, and passing 
 through the pretty village of Yaka Tut (one mulberry tree), at 
 nine o'clock we reached the village of Bish-aryk (five canals) : 
 stopping at a tea shop, we rested during the heat of the 
 day, but tried in vain to sleep. The bazaar here was built by 
 Khudayar Khan and has regular narrow streets crossing each 
 other at right angles, but the market-day being Monday there 
 was then no animation. As we had a long ride before us, and 
 wished to get to Khokand before the gates were shut for the 
 night, we were compelled to leave at two o'clock, in spite of 
 the heat. Fortunately we found some shade from the trees by 
 the roadside, and came once in a while to a village where we 
 could quench our tormenting thirst with a bowl of green tea or 
 a juicy fruit. 
 
 At last we crossed a bridge over a large deep canal, traversed 
 a dyke through fields of rice, the young shoots of which were 
 then of a tender green, and gradually entered a more thickly 
 settled country, with enclosures on each side, and now and 
 then houses and shops, meeting at every step people coming 
 from the town. We soon saw in front of us, beyond the 
 gardens, a long clay wall, seeming fully two miles in length, 
 and in the middle, at the end of our road, a semicircular outwork 
 of even height with buttressed and crenelated wall. Passing 
 round this breastwork to the angle of the wall, we entered the 
 gate of Khokand. 
 
AKRIVAL AT KHOKAND. 5 
 
 Inside, the view did not much change. There were the 
 same fields and scattered houses, and it was not for some time 
 after passing cemeteries and gardens that we came on a 
 broad inhabited street. Trotting along as fast as I could, for 
 I had dropped much behind the main party, we followed the 
 street which led to the centre of the town, and passing the 
 large Medresse Khan, we turned to the right over a well-built 
 brick bridge, and were almost at once in the baaaar. We 
 fortunately reached the Zekat Sarai just before its doors closed 
 for the night, and were received with kind hospitality by Mr. 
 
 S , a Eussian merchant, agent of the firm of Pupyshef, 
 
 the most important trading house in Central Asia. Although 
 his rooms were small, the verandah was large, so that we had 
 space enough. 
 
 The Zekat Sarai, a large two-storey building surrounding 
 a square court in which our host had six or eight rooms and 
 storehouses, is properly the custom house of the city, being the 
 place where the official business of the Zekat or customs is 
 carried on, and where goods are stored until they have paid the 
 customs' duties. The chief customs' officer, the Mekhter, 
 usually spends the day there, from seven in the morning until 
 five o'clock in the afternoon, seated with his attendants and 
 officials in the verandah opposite to us, where he transacts all the 
 business, and all day long we were able to see goods weighed 
 and measured, and notes and records of various accounts 
 jotted down by the chief scribe on long rolls of narrow paper. 
 
 The next day, on finding that we had arrived, the Mekhter 
 sent for us, and accordingly about nine o'clock we presented 
 ourselves. When he saw us coming he put on a flowered chintz 
 robe, and rearranged the folds of his turban, so as to be quite 
 ready for us. He was an old man of about sixty, with a grey 
 beard and sharp twinkling eyes, kind in manner, but not very 
 remarkable for intelligence, and, from all I hear, of more sharp- 
 ness than probity ; at all events, he is very carefully watched 
 by two subordinates, thus having a double sort of inspection over 
 him. He received us very cordially, shook hands, asked us to 
 sit down, ordered some bread, cucumbers, apricots, melons, and 
 tea to be brought in, and asked us why we came. 
 
 Mr. F gave him an official letter from Tashkent, and 
 
 stated his business in general terms. I told him that I had 
 
6 TURKISTAN. 
 
 brought a letter to the Khan from General Kolpakofsky, the 
 acting Grovernor-Greneral, and that as I understood the Khan 
 was not in Khokand, but had gone to Namangan, I desired to 
 go there, to deliver it in person, and added that my object in 
 coming to Khokand was to travel through the country and learn 
 something of its people. 
 
 He thought I had better give him the letter, which I 
 refused to* do, on the ground that I ought to deliver it person- 
 ally to the Khan. He then told us we must stop there two 
 days until he could have an answer from the Khan, as he 
 had already sent to inform him of our arrival. He objected 
 to sending us on immediately, from fear lest the Khan might 
 be angry with him, professing to have no powers for such an 
 emergency. 
 
 Mr. F spoke of the bridge which he was building at 
 
 Hodjent, and laughingly said, that if they had bridges to build 
 in Khokand he would always be ready to construct them ; upon 
 which the old man brightened up, and said they had excellent 
 workmen for such purposes, and were perfectly capable of do- 
 ing their own work. He then enumerated certain articles 
 which were excellently made in Khokand, referred especially 
 to rifles, which he said were as well manufactured there as 
 they were at any place abroad, and showed us one or two trays of 
 ordinary Kussian manufacture, which he at first tried to pass 
 off as being of Khokandian fabrication, but afterwards ad- 
 mitted to be of foreign work, insisting at the same time that 
 the native productions were much superior in point of durability 
 and taste. 
 
 As soon as we returned to our own verandah, the Mekhter 
 sent a writer to take down accurately our names and our 
 business, and to know from whom were our letters to the Khan, 
 and subsequently sent again to inspect the letters themselves, 
 although without breaking the seals, in order that he might 
 assure himself of their existence. 
 
 I had heard in Tashkent that the diplomatic affairs with the 
 Khanate of Khokand, except in cases of letters addressed per- 
 sonally by the Grovernor-Greneral to the Khan, were always con- 
 ducted through the Mekhter, and as Mr. F— ■ — - had been in- 
 structed to carry on his business through him, we naturally 
 regarded him as something in the nature of a Minister of 
 
THE MEKHTER. 7 
 
 Foreign Affaire ; but to our great surprise we found he was a 
 person of very inferior rank, being simply the overseer of the 
 Customs, and that he had not the right of free entry into the 
 Khan's presence, and could do nothing in our matter without 
 consulting the Atalyk and the council which had been left 
 there in the Khan's absence. The Mekhter, Mullah Mir- 
 Kamil, had the rank of Merakhor, the seventh in the official 
 hierarchy. 1 
 
 The word * Mekhter ' itself means ' steward.' Although he 
 had charge of the customs ' duties, he was not in any way a 
 Finance Minister, as he had no part in the collection of the 
 haradj or tanap duties, or of the other receipts, such as rents, 
 &c, and merely paid the money he received directly over to 
 the Khan. Besides this, as I have said, two persons watched 
 him and controlled him to keep him from cheating. 
 
 About six o'clock that evening: a messenger came to us 
 from the Mekhter, bringing a box of sugar-candy, a pound 
 of coarse tea, and a tilla in silver (9s.), as something towards 
 our travelling expenses. We were of course, according to 
 the custom of these countries, the guests of the Khan, but 
 the Mekhter was evidently desirous of letting his master off 
 as cheaply as he could, and did not even offer us a place in 
 which to live, taking it for granted, as he said afterwards, that 
 we preferred to stay at the caravanserai. As I had made up my 
 mind to follow in all things the customs of the country, and had 
 been particularly told that I must both give and receive pre- 
 sents, I accepted what was sent. The messenger told us that 
 the Mekhter was very desirous of seeing us at his house, and 
 thought it very strange that we had not been there. To this 
 
 1 The higher official ranks in Khokand are as follows: - 
 
 1. Atalyk, the highest military officer. There is only one, — Ata Bek, who is 
 also one of the five Naibs or lieutenants. 
 
 2. Kvsh Bcgi (fowler), the corresponding civil grade, at present unfilled. 
 
 3. Parmanatchi, general (from Tadjik parman, Pers. ferman, firman, order). 
 
 4. Datlchah, colonel. 
 
 5. Pansat Bashi, commander of five Inmdred. 
 
 6. Taksaba (vessel filler), captain. 
 
 7. Merakhor, equerry. 
 
 8. Karaul Bcgi, guard commander. Yus Bashi, centurion. 
 
 9. Mirza Bashi, chief scribe. 
 
 The former high office of Ming Bashi, or commander of a thousand, has beeE 
 abolished. 
 
8 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 we replied that the Mekhter had never invited us to his house, 
 and that as he had preferred, contrary to all propriety, to receive 
 us at his place of business, we did not desire to intrude upon 
 him at his residence. We said further, that if he really wished 
 it, we should be glad to visit him, and asked when we should 
 go. The messenger replied that the Mekhter was then busy, but 
 would be glad to receive us at seven o'clock the next morning. 
 
 We rose at an early hour, and were on the point of start- 
 ing, when another messenger came from the Mekhter asking 
 us to hasten, as his master had been waiting for us a long time : 
 it was then only half past six o'clock. We immediately 
 jumped on our horses, and rode quite through the town to the 
 Mekhter's residence. We were shown through two spacious 
 courts surrounded by broad verandahs and were introduced into 
 a large room where the Mekhter was seated with other officials 
 Shaking hands with us without rising he requested us to go 
 into the next room, where he would immediately join us. This 
 was a large hall, the walls of which were covered with arabesques 
 and with rude paintings of bouquets and of flowers growing in 
 pots, while the beams of the wooden ceiling were carved and de- 
 corated, the intervals between them being filled with small round 
 pieces of willow wood, painted with red and gold arabesques, 
 on an ultramarine blue ground. The floor was well covered 
 with rugs and cushions, and the general effect was pretty. The 
 Mekhter with his attendants soon came in, and after the usual 
 greetings and commonplaces, sent us a dostar-khan, and excused 
 himself for a short time. Several of his officials remained, and 
 immediately asked us in a tone of reproach why we had come 
 thus early, as we had disturbed the Mekhter's sleep by this un- 
 expected visit. We explained the summons which we had 
 twice received, whereupon the officials denied that any mes- 
 senger had been sent, or that any person had authority to make 
 such statements. Of course this was a lie, and a very gratuitous 
 one, for no one would have dared to bring us such a message 
 from the Mekhter, without being authorised to do so. 
 
 We then sent out to the Mekhter the presents we had 
 brought for him, I giving a piece of satin for a gown, and Mr. 
 F a silver cup, pieces of cloth and other articles, amount- 
 ing in all to a large sum, for the Mekhter's influence was deemed 
 very essential to the success of the timber contract. In return 
 
THE ATALYK. 9 
 
 a cheap silk gown was put on our shoulders and we retired, net 
 however before we had asked the Mekhter if it would be 
 possible for us to see the Atalyk. He told us that he thought 
 the Atalyk would be disposed to see us, and that he would 
 endeavour to make arrangements to that effect. 
 
 It was not until the last day of our stay, however, that we 
 received a message from the Mekhter, that the Atalyk would 
 see us. In the meantime we had made the Atalyk's acquaintance 
 by ourselves, and had been most hospitably received by him ; 
 for on my return home I thought it best to send my inter- 
 preter to the Atalyk, with apologies for not having come to 
 him at once, and with a request for an interview. The visit 
 was fixed for the next morning. At seven the next morning 
 we rode out to the urda or fortress, situated in the north-east 
 part of the city, on low ground, and after going through a guard- 
 room under the vaulted entrance, and then to the left through 
 a group of soldiers, we were shown into a plain reception room 
 with whitened walls, and with a European grate in the fireplace. 
 It was apparently used for a storeroom as well, for robes and 
 other articles made up into parcels were lying on the shelves. 
 Arm chairs and stools covered with red cloth were placed for us, 
 and the Atalyk Ata Bek presently entered, a small thin old 
 man, with a white beard, and a very gentle pleasant face. He 
 had been commandant at Pishpek, and had surrendered that fort 
 to Colonel Zimmermann, and subsequently (at his own request, I 
 believe, to escape the wrath of the Khan) he had lived for three 
 years as a prisoner of war at Vierny and at Omsk. After the 
 Khan, he is now the most important man in Khokand, and as he 
 knows and respects the Kussians, he gives his master much 
 sensible advice, and restrains him from rash and headlong acts. 1 
 It is a strange proof of how little the Kussians know of their 
 neighbours, that in Tashkent the Atalyk was supposed to be 
 living in disgrace, and I was therefore astonished to find him 
 the Regent of the city. I apologised as well as I could for not 
 having brought him a letter from General Kolpakofsky, who 
 knew him well, and who had sent a verbal message to him in 
 case I should meet him. Ata Bek seemed very intelligent 
 
 1 This chapter was written in 1873, and all statements must be considered as 
 referring to that time. On the revolution in Khokand in 1875 Ata-Bek followed 
 his master in his flight to Tashkent. 
 
10 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 and well informed, made many inquiries about America, show- 
 ing that he had some elementary knowledge of geography, and 
 we had for some time a pleasant' conversation. He told us we 
 should be obliged to wait for the pleasure of the Khan to be 
 known before we could continue our journey, asked us if the 
 Mekhter were doing everything for us that we wished, and 
 was seemingly astonished to learn that he had not offered us a 
 house in which to live. During the dostar-khan, the Atalyk 
 excused himself, and on coming back sent a man to show us 
 the fortress. 
 
 This is a new citadel or urcla, 1 which has been built within 
 the last twenty years ; the old one, which occupied a much better 
 position, having been abandoned. It might be of some use for 
 the protection of the person of the Khan, in case of an emeute 
 in the city, but would certainly not stand against an invading 
 army. It is a large rectangular construction, with high clay 
 walls, containing several small courts and numerous buildings. 
 At the further extremity, beyond the large court, is the new 
 palace, much larger and more magnificent than any other in 
 Central Asia,— a fine building of two or three stories high, 
 with towers at the corners and two in the centre, the whole 
 front faced with glazed tiles, white, blue, and green, and a 
 large inscription — 'Built by Seid Mohammed Khudayar Khan, 
 in the year 1287 ' — running along the cornices. I was not 
 allowed to enter the palace owing to the absence of the Khan, 
 and to the presence there of many of his wives, and could 
 only see the facade for a few moments from the end of the 
 courts. 
 
 Among the various buildings through which we passed was 
 the Mint, but the workmen were manufacturing, not money, 
 but silver ornaments for bridles and harness, and we were in- 
 formed that the mint-master was also court jeweller, and did 
 any little jobs in silver or gold work that were required by the 
 Khan. In another room was a cannon foundry ; several guns were 
 already cast and were being finally finished. The largest piece, 
 which was then occupying the chief attention, was a twelve- 
 pounder breech-loading gun, the mechanism of the breech being 
 constructed after a Kussian pattern improved by native work- 
 
 1 The vroxd urcla is chiefly used in the countries on the right bank of the Syi 
 Darya, for what, in Bukhara, is called ark, meaning citadel or kremlin. 
 
MAKING BREECH-LOADING ARMS. 11 
 
 men. The most singular tiling was that the gun was not rifled, 
 and was far larger at the mouth than at the breech. Other guns, 
 some of them rifled, were lying on the floor, and near them the 
 large spherical balls used there, for the new artillery system had 
 not been thoroughly learned. Another room of the armoury 
 was devoted to the manufacturing of Berdan rifles. It seems 
 that two rifles had been bought or stolen from Eussian 
 soldiers and taken to Khokand, where they served as patterns, 
 and for the preceding four months the whole force of the 
 armoury had been working at these rifles, and had succeeded in 
 nearly finishing four of them. The imitation was tolerably 
 good, and the mechanism, although rough and loose in the 
 joints, worked fairly, but the barrel was not rifled, and I should 
 think that there would be considerable difficulty in manufactur- 
 ing the cartridges. These rifles were handed to me for inspec- 
 tion, on which I expressed my great pleasure at finding the 
 men able to do such remarkably good work, and promised 
 to inform the inventor of the adoption of his system by the 
 Khokand government. The workmen here do not receive 
 any regular wages, but are usually given their food and from 
 time to time a cotton gown. In some cases the labour is 
 compulsory, and without any remuneration whatever. In the 
 smithy men were engaged in boring musket barrels on a most 
 primitive plan. The borer was fastened to the centre of a 
 large mill-stone, which was kept in rapid movement by two 
 men ; the musket barrel, fastened to a block of wood and kept 
 in its groove by means of wedges, was pushed against the 
 borer by a crowbar in the hands of a lad. It was with some 
 little nervousness that I visited this armoury, for in the next 
 room to the smithy — with the sparks liable to come in at 
 any time through the half-open door — men were engaged in 
 manufacturing and filling rockets, the powder lying loosely on 
 the table. The rockets seemed very fair. 
 
 Eeturning again to the reception room, we bid the Atalyk 
 good-bye and received the usual robes of honour. 
 
 Khokand is a modern town, not more than a hundred years 
 old, and therefore has wider streets, and is more spacious than 
 most Asiatic towns. It is nearly square in form, and contains 
 I am told 500 mosques, which, with the average of thirty houses 
 to each parish, would give a population of 75,000, — as it seems 
 
12 riTRKISTAN. 
 
 to me a fair estimate, although many more inhabitants could 
 be accommodated within the walls of the town. 
 
 From the roof of the caravanserai we may see the whole city 
 spread out before us, and not only the city but the Khanate as 
 well. Immediately around us are the broad flat clay roofs of the 
 bazaar, most of the streets even being covered, so as to allow an 
 easy promenade from one end to the other. Near by, to the 
 left, is a group of mosques and medresses built of reddish grey 
 "brick, with high melon-shaped domes, the cornices covered 
 with blue and white tiles, forming texts from the Koran. In 
 front is the brick bridge of Kish-kupriuk, with its bold arch 
 over the little stream which divides the city, while above it 
 stands out the large medresse Khan. To the left are the beau- 
 tiful facade and portal of the Khan's palace, glittering in all 
 the brightness of its fresh tiles, blue, yellow, and green, for it 
 has but lately been built. Everywhere around are clay roofs, 
 half hidden in luxuriant verdure, and surrounding all the 
 brilliant green of the gardens and orchards. Owing to the 
 flatness of the ground, the town has not the picturesqueness of 
 Tashkent, but this defect is more than made up by the superb 
 mountain view. To the west and south-west are the low hills 
 near Hodjent, to the north the high Tchatkal mountains, 
 while on the east and south rises the magnificent snow-covered 
 range of the Alai, the very boundaries of the Khanate. We 
 see that we are in the midst of the small but charming valley 
 of Fergana, and were we but a few feet higher we could see its 
 life-stream, the Syr Darya. 
 
 In my rides through the town I managed to see most of 
 it, and nearly all that was interesting, although riding was 
 particularly uncomfortable on account of the heat, for we were 
 obliged to be at home by seven o'clock in the evening when the 
 bazaar was closed, and thus of course lost the pleasantest time 
 of the day. Besides that, I was constantly insulted and abused, 
 although I was not attacked, and the necessity of being con- 
 stantly on my guard destroyed to some extent the pleasure of 
 sight-seeing. 
 
 In a large square open place at the edge of the bazaar, 
 where fruit is sold all day long, are two large medresses, well 
 built of burnt brick picked out at times with blue tiles, and 
 surmounted by domes and small blue turrets. One is called 
 
PAPER MANUFACTURE. 13 
 
 Ali, and was built by Mussulman Kul. The other which is not 
 yet finished was begun by Sultan Murad Bek, the brother of 
 the Khan, in fulfilment of some vow. Near the bridge, of 
 which I have already spoken, is the spacious medresse Khan, 
 built by Madali Khan, containing rooms for 200 Mullahs. It 
 was, however, never completed according to the original design. 
 In the eastern part of the city is the medresse Mir, built 
 by Narbuta Bii about eighty years ago, and close by is a large 
 cemetery, with a primary school connected with its mosque, 
 where I stopped on one occasion and spent a pleasant half-hour 
 chatting with the Mullahs, who, although they saw that I was a 
 stranger, were very kind and polite. I had come there to see 
 the monument erected for the wife of Madali Khan, on which 
 were written the celebrated and frequently quoted verses : 
 
 Makshar kuni karam diram ul sarvi kommati 
 Har anda kham kurunmasa kil kur kiyuviati. 
 
 I hope to see at the Resurrection 
 
 Her of lovely slender form ; 
 If I do not see her then, 
 
 Go look after the judgment. 
 
 I found, however, that this monument had been destroyed by 
 the Amir Mozaffar Eddin, when he occupied Khokand, on the 
 ground that it was improper thus to honour a woman. 
 
 One of the greatest curiosities in Khokand is the paper 
 manufactory, situated just outside of the Minyatchu-vorak. 
 Most, if not all, of the paper used in Central Asia is manu- 
 factured either here or at the little village of Tcharku, also in 
 Khokand. The rags are alternately pounded and macerated 
 until they are reduced to a thick pulp, which is then collected 
 into a round ball. Portions of this are then placed in a tub 
 of water and well mixed together. The paper-maker takes an 
 oblong sieve made of thin grass stretched over a wooden frame, 
 and puts into it a certain quantity of the pulp, shaking and inclin- 
 ing it until it is equally distributed over the surface. After allow- 
 ing it to stand a few moments he turns it out on a board. In 
 this way one man can make about 300 leaves per day, which are 
 placed one on the other with layers of felt between, and sub- 
 mitted to a heavy pressure to squeeze out the moisture. In 
 the morning they are taken out and hung for drying on a wall 
 exposed to the south. The sizing and polishing is done in the 
 
14 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 bazaar by a different set of workmen. The size usually em- 
 ployed is a kind of dextrine found nearly pure in the roots 
 of the Shirash, a plant of the lily family, and the polishing- is 
 made by rubbing it with a smooth and heavy stone. By this 
 process the value of the paper is nearly doubled (from fifteen 
 to twenty or thirty kopeks a sheet). 
 
 Imperfect paper is, however, never thrown away, for at the 
 time of sizing holes or fissures are patched up with thin strips, 
 and the surface is made so even that defects can only be dis- 
 covered by holding the sheet up to the light. This paper, 
 which is usually grey, although sometimes coloured pink and 
 blue, is very firm and tough, and excellent for the gummy 
 ink with which the natives write. For the purposes of 
 Europeans it is of little use, and the Russians have to import 
 all the paper that they require. 
 
 The chief bazaar at Khokand is by far the best built that I 
 saw in Central Asia, — very regular, with all the streets crossing 
 one another at right angles, and with many of the shops built 
 of burned brick. The streets are wide, and the whole is covered 
 by a roof supported on timbers high up above the houses, so that 
 the bazaar itself is shaded, while yet plenty of fresh air comes 
 in at the sides. Since a fire about two years ago a portion of 
 the bazaar has been reconstructed in even a better way. There 
 are two bazaar days in the week, Thursday and Sunday. The 
 trade seems to be very large. 
 
 The bazaars in Khokand, — as in most other cities of the 
 Khanate, — belong to the Khan himself, who a few years ago 
 took possession of them, and receives the rents himself. 
 Some he bought, paying but a small proportion of their real 
 value, while others he simply seized, telling the owners that 
 they had enjoyed them long enough, and that now he in- 
 tended to have some profit out of them. The revenues from 
 these are by no means small ; for instance, the Cocoon Sarai 
 brings in 1,800 tillas (810/.) although it is used only for the 
 six or seven weeks when cocoons are in the market ; and the 
 rooms of the Zekat Sarai, where I stayed, are rented out for 
 200 tillas (90L) a year. This of course will be of great ad- 
 vantage to th® Russians whenever they take possession of 
 Khokand, as the revenues of the bazaars will at once become 
 government property, while in mc^t towns captured by the 
 
GOITKE. 15 
 
 Eussians, as in Tashkent and Hodjent, the revenues belong to 
 private persons, or are secured by vaqf to some religious or 
 charitable purpose. 
 
 As I lived in the middle of the bazaar, I had frequent 
 opportunities of lounging in it and of seeing the various trades 
 that were carried on there ; but there was nothing new or 
 different from that in Tashkent, nor were the goods sold better 
 in quality, with the exception perhaps of riding-whips, of which 
 an excellent quality is made at Khokand and sold very cheaply. 
 
 I was greatly struck with the prevalence of goitre, and it 
 seemed to me as if every third merchant was afflicted with this 
 disagreeable malady. Whether it has anything to do with the 
 use of snow water, I cannot say, but in fact the streams flowing 
 through the city are formed by the melting of glaciers, although 
 at distances of many miles. This was the only town in which 
 I noticed this disease, but I am told that it is also very prevalent 
 in Kashgar and Yarkand. 
 
 The structure of the bazaar renders it necessary to take 
 extra precautions against fire and robbers, and the bazaar is 
 closed every night at seven o'clock and patrolled by a guard 
 of soldiers. The parade of this guard was always an amusing 
 spectacle. The different bodies of troops were marched up to 
 take their positions at certain places, and the two fire-engines 
 were brought out ; one of Eussian work, and the other a clumsy 
 native imitation. 
 
 There are about 12,000 troops in Khokand, all under very lax 
 discipline. In the companies I saw hardly two men were 
 dressed alike, or armed in the same way. Some had sticks, 
 some rifles or flint-lock muskets, or more generally match-locks, 
 while some had nothing but the native club, the round brass 
 head of which was fastened on by a joint. The officers, besides 
 their belts and swords, had wands of command. Some soldiers 
 were in native dress, some wore a mixture of native and 
 Eussian, but the regular uniform seemed to be a loose jacket 
 and trowsers, the colour being apparently at the option of the 
 wearer, and the number and arrangement of the buttons being 
 also left to his taste. The buttons were all European, and 
 there were few more acceptable presents to the Khan than an 
 assortment of buttons. Many were plain, but most of them 
 were old Eussian military buttons, with not a few French, 
 
16 TUKillSTAN. 
 
 German, and even English, which had probably come up from 
 India. The words of command showed that some of the in- 
 structors had been trained in India, and others in Kussia. 
 Three particularly struck me : ' slushed na karaul ' (the Eussian 
 for ' attention '), ' carry arms,' and ' ardja (order) arms.' 
 
 When robbers are caught, they are severely punished ; for 
 the first offence losing one hand, and for renewed or aggravated 
 offences being liable to summary execution. When a criminal 
 is to be put to death, — and executions are very frequent there, — 
 he is taken through the streets of the bazaar, the executioner 
 following behind him, while the crowd hoot and pelt him with 
 stones. Suddenly, without a word of warning, when the ex- 
 ecutioner thinks the spectacle has lasted long enough, he seizes 
 him by the head, thrusts the knife into his throat and cuts it, 
 and the body sinks to the ground, where it is left for some hours 
 before it is carried away and the blood is covered with sand. 
 
 I just missed an execution of this kind, for three persons 
 had thus suffered only a day or two before my arrival, and 
 shortly after I had finally left Khokand, the various rebels 
 caught in the recent insurrection were put to death, when the 
 bazaar literally streamed with blood, which even trickled into 
 the Sarai where I had stayed. More than five hundred persons 
 were then executed. 
 
 Besides throat-cutting, hanging is not an infrequent punish- 
 ment, especially in the smaller towns, and criminals are some- 
 times buried alive, or, what is still more frightful, are impaled. 
 In impaling, the victim is sometimes tied to a cart, with his 
 legs fastened to the shafts, while the stake is fastened to 
 another cart, and then thrust into him with great violence, 
 after which it is stuck into the ground. At other times, the 
 man is more gently placed on the top of a pointed stake, which 
 has already been erected, and it is then the duty of each passer- 
 by to give his legs a pull. In this way the prisoner may live 
 in agony for a day or two. 
 
 This closing of the bazaar at such an early hour was one 
 of my greatest trials, as it confined us to the close and some- 
 times ill-smelling court of the Sarai during the coolest and 
 pleasantest time of the day ; and we were even prevented from 
 leaving the Zekat Sarai and going round the corner to the 
 Khan Sarai, where the other Russian merchants were living. We 
 
COMMERCIAL TREATIES. 17 
 
 could, it is true, go for a little while on the roof, but as soon as the 
 guards were in full force we were not allowed to remain there. 
 
 The Eussians then in Khokand were chiefly agents and 
 clerks of the two houses of Pupyshef, and of the firms of 
 Bykofsky and Kolesnikof. 
 
 The chief business consists in importing cloths and printed 
 calicoes from Russia, and in purchasing with them silk and 
 cotton, the staple articles of export. It is very often the 
 rase that merchants are obliged to sell prints in Khokand and 
 Bukhara at the prices quoted in Moscow, or even less, thus 
 losing all the expenses of transport, in the hopes of recovering 
 themselves by buying silk and cotton at low prices, and by selling 
 them at a great advance, and also by quickly turning over the 
 money embarked in such a way as to save some months of in- 
 terest by repaying the manufacturers of the prints before the 
 time of credit expires, and then obtaining another consignment, 
 or by having the use of the money in the meantime. 
 
 Commercial treaties, it is true, exist now with all the Central 
 Asiatic States, but the rulers know little what they mean, and 
 care less ; and the position of the Russian traders is at all 
 times disagreeable, if not dangerous. It is for instance stated 
 in the treaty with Khokand that no exports from that country 
 shall pay more than 2\ per cent., or a 40th part, as a zekat, or 
 duty, — it having formerly been the custom to charge Christians 
 double what was paid by Mussulmans, — and that no other taxes 
 or trade should be imposed. In spite of this, however, the 
 merchants in Khokand were obliged to pay in addition an 
 export duty of half a tilla (4s. 6d.) per camel load of cotton 
 of 576 lbs., amounting to nearly 3 per cent, more, and at 
 one time the Mekhter even insisted on a smaller camel load 
 paying the same sum. This, however, he was forced to change. 
 The merchants naturally sent a petition to the government at 
 Tashkent with regard to the unlawful cotton duty, and General 
 Kaufmann sent a letter of remonstrance to the Khan, who in 
 reply made no reference whatever to the stipulations of the 
 treaty, but said : ' Four or five years ago, when, by order of 
 my brother the Governor-General Colonel Schaufuss came as 
 our guest, he gave me a petition from His Excellency with 
 regard to cotton, and I, out of respect and a desire to please 
 my brother the Governor-General, accepted his petition, and 
 VOL. II. C 
 
18 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 reduced the duty from 60 tengas to half a tilla, and from that 
 time a duty of half a tilla from each camel load has become 
 habit zial with respect to both Eussian and Mussulman merchants. 
 Between the Eussian and the Mussulman merchants there ib no 
 difference. With reference to the former, by my orders the 
 Mekhter, Mullah Mir-Kamil, shows them in every case attention 
 and magnanimity. I do not know what would happen if I 
 were to put an end to the custom which has existed so many 
 years between us and the Russians, since in every state there 
 are many regulations of such a kind. You, as an educated 
 man, ought to know better than anvone else the customs and 
 regulations of every country.' Although this amusingly evasive 
 answer, — which considered the commercial treaty as a petition 
 which he had deigned to grant, — had been returned to the 
 Eussians the preceding year, they had taken no steps at the 
 time of my visit to bring about a better state of things. 
 
 In order to avoid insult, and even injury, the Eussian 
 traders, when in the streets, were accustomed to wear the native 
 dress. They were not allowed to live in any part of the town 
 they chose, but were restricted to the Sarais of the bazaars, 
 and were unable to mix freely with the natives. The native 
 merchants were forbidden by the Khan to invite the Eussians 
 to their houses ; and on one occasion, when a Eussian merchant 
 invited several native customers to dinner, the act was viewed 
 with extreme displeasure by the Khokand authorities. I can- 
 not help thinking that a different state of things would exist 
 were these foreign traders either English or Americans. They 
 certainly would not be willing to live cooped up in small un- 
 comfortable apartments deprived of all the comforts of life, to 
 say nothing of luxuries, such as postal communications. The 
 native governments have strenuously objected to the establish- 
 ment of postal routes within their territories, and unless a 
 letter from Tashkent be brought by a special messenger, it. must 
 be sent by some native, who may for days forget it, or who 
 simply in passing throws it in at the door, usually in a mutilated 
 state, as it has generally been opened by the frontier or the city 
 authorities. It was difficult for me to believe, until I saw it 
 with my own eyes, and it is difficult for Eussians to believe that 
 the Eussian Government, which claims to be in Central Asia for 
 the advantage of trade, and which gave out that Khokand was a 
 
SITUATION OF THE MERCHANTS. 19 
 
 vassal state, accorded so little protection to its merchants, and 
 lias such meagre information, even in Tashkent, about the state 
 of the country. It was natural to think that the Eussians 
 maintained in Khokand an accredited commercial agent, about 
 whom the merchants would naturally group themselves. Such 
 an agent would be protected either by a guard of Cossacks, or 
 by the influence of the Home Government, and he would 
 gradually produce a compliance by the native government with 
 every demand of the Eussian authorities. But nothing similar 
 to the English Eesidents in the native Indian states existed 
 here. The Eussians had no agent either secret or otherwise 
 in Khokand ; the diplomatic relations are kept up by the 
 Khokandian envoy, Mirza Hakim, resident at Tashkent, a man 
 who enjoyed but to a limited extent the confidence of his 
 sovereign, and who was universally looked down upon and 
 suspected by his countrymen, and by the Eussian diplomatic 
 employ ^,also residing in Tashkent. This agent once in two or three 
 years made a short trip to Khokand, where as the official guest 
 of the Government, he was surrounded with spies, occupied with 
 dostar-khans, and the exchange of presents, and was unable to 
 ascertain the real state of the country, and according to per- 
 sistent, if not well founded, rumours was in the pay of the Khan. ! 
 The merchants complained that in general they were treated 
 with discourtesy, and that their representations and statements 
 were disbelieved, if they conflicted with the official theories 
 which guide the politic? of Tashkent. 
 
 At the Zekat Sarai we had one frequent guest whose con- 
 versation furnished us with unfailing amusement and instruction. 
 This was a Eussian refugee, whose history had been most singular. 
 Mina Yevgrafef Gretchenko (commonly called Yevgraf) was a 
 Cossack from Novotcherkask, and had served in the Caucasus as 
 well as in the Imperial Guard, but for some reason or other had 
 been sent to serve at Omsk in Siberia. According to his story he 
 
 1 At Tashkent and Samarkand there was in this connection much talk of 
 wagon-loads of presents, of large sums of money, and of the payment of losses at 
 cards. Captain Terentief, in his Russia and England in Central Asia ' (St. 
 Petersburg, 1875), p. 332, says: 'The Khan of Khokand. among other things, 
 gave Mr. Struve the rank of taksaba — field-marshal of the armies of Khokand — 
 and bestowed upon him a velvet uniform with gold epaulets set with pearls and 
 precious stones. They say also that the taksaba receives the revenues of a grant 
 of land.' Full details of all these things were told to me in Khokand. 
 
 c 2 
 
20 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 bad a slight difficulty with a comrade over cards, in which he 
 threw a bottle at him, and left him either dead or severely 
 injured. He therefore thought it best to decamp, arid having 
 plenty of friends who furnished him with facilities to do so, he 
 was provided with a number of false passports and various 
 changes of dress, and gradually worked his way to Ar khan gel, 
 arriving there the very day the last steamer for England had 
 gone. Finding himself under suspicion at that place, he 
 returned down the Ural, and came to Petropavlovsk after 
 many narrow escapes. The first day at Petropavlovsk he met an 
 acquaintance from Omsk, and fearing recognition, and having 
 no alternative, went over the steppe to Turkistan and offered 
 to enter into the Khokandian service. Indeed there was 
 nothing else to be done ; and in addition the poor man was 
 forced to become a Mussulman, taking the name of Suleiman 
 Kul. This was more than twenty years ago. He married, at 
 first, the daughter of a Eussian prisoner, and it is said that 
 love for her had something to do with his original flight to 
 the country. He has served in various branches of the service, 
 has been in nearly all the fights against the Russians, and is 
 now a Yuz-bashi, or centurion, in the artillery. On the death 
 of his first wife he married a native, and lives entirely in the 
 native way. He is, however, but a skin-deep Mussulman, and 
 has remained a thorough Russian patriot, and would be delighted 
 to return, if even for a day, to Russian dominions. He could 
 do so by calling himself a Tartar, but he has friends living in 
 Russia, and does not like to go bick to them in that way. He 
 wishes to return as a Russian and a Christian, with his past 
 wiped out. He still speaks and reads Russian with fluency, in 
 spite of his long exile, and is as shrewd and observing a man 
 as one cares to meet, thoroughly acquainted with all that is 
 going on in the country, and might be of great service to the 
 Russians, if they knew how to use him. 1 
 
 On Wednesday, June 25, the Mekhter finally sent word 
 that the answer of the Khan had come, and that we could now 
 go on and join him at Namangan. 
 
 1 In 1875 Yevgraf saved the lives of Colonel Skobelef and Mr. Weinberg, 
 during their forced retreat at the time of the revolution -which dethroned Khu 
 dayar Khan, and accompanied them to Hodjent. He has since been pardoned by 
 the Emperor. 
 
IN PURSUIT OF THE KHAN. 21 
 
 We were delighted with this intelligence, crossed over to 
 tl e other side of the court to bid the Mekhter good-bye, and 
 started off as soon as possible, accompanied by three officials 
 sent by him, and an additional guard of a few soldiers until we 
 were well out of the town. 
 
 Starting at two o'clook, at about half-past three we reached 
 .Buvandy, a small village twelve miles from the city. The 
 road was very pretty, through fields and plantations with many 
 trees, and occasionally canals of clear water, the high moun- 
 tains being visible both on the north and south. Now and then 
 some fierce-looking man, with matchlock slung across his 
 back and heavy sword jangling against his stirrups, passed 
 us bearing messages from the Khan, or joined us to go in 
 company, so that when we left this village, where we waited for 
 some hours, we had a considerable company. 
 
 We rode on for five hours at a good steady pace, although, 
 as there was no moon, it soon became quite dark, through the 
 barren steppe and the sandy desert, which seems to surround 
 the city of Khokand on all sides, and at last arrived at a 
 wretched village of four or five huts. Here, in spite of cheer- 
 lessness and misery, we were glad to spread our blankets on the 
 ground by the side of a pond,— -for although we were the Khan's 
 guests, no other place was offered to us, — and slept until 
 morning, being too tired even for tea. 
 
 After a sound sleep, we were awakened early, and in an 
 hour we succeeded in getting off, when we changed our des- 
 tination, for we were told that the Khan had already left 
 Namangan, and was at Balyktchi, on the Syr Darya. After 
 two hours' hard riding, still over the steppe, with the mountains 
 visible to the right and left, we reached the village of Crur-tepe, 
 nine miles. Here we were put up in a small court intersected 
 by a narrow ditch of water, without a tree, and with no shade 
 save under one verandah, where we were greatly annoyed by 
 gnats, and with no shelter but an old hut with a muddy floor. 
 We, however, ate apricots, took tea and shurpa, a sort of rich 
 mutton-broth, and dragged through the day until two o'clock, 
 when, being too tired to ride, I set out in a cart. The road was 
 again through the steppe and sand, and finally over a barren 
 plateau, lying at some little distance from the Syr Darya. 
 
 Between the villages of Hama Bulak and Ming Bulak, we 
 
22 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 had a lovely view to the north. In the far background was a 
 high mountain range ; below this were lines of hills, and in 
 the middle distance the fertile valley of the Syr Darya full of 
 trees and villages, while rice fields and reeds filled up the 
 foreground. In the distance, on the other side of the river, 
 was seen Namangan, one of the most important towns in the 
 Khanate ; and to the south the snowy Alai range was always 
 in full view. 
 
 This was about five miles from Balyktchi. On approaching 
 that town, the road follows the river bank, and we had an ex- 
 cellent view of the meeting of the muddy and turbulent Naryn 
 with the placid and clear Syr Darya. The Naryn is, however, 
 the main stream, and imparts its muddy character to the river 
 for the rest of the course. The road turned away many times 
 from the river between the clay walls of the numerous gardens, 
 and again came back to it, and followed its edge till it seemed 
 to me as if I never should reach Balyktchi ; for I was fatigued, 
 it was now getting dark, my horse constantly stumbled, and all 
 except my interpreter and one jigit, were far in advance. 
 At last we turned up the hill, wound our way through the 
 bazaar, and went to the urda, where we were assigned to a 
 common court, and were told that the Khan was not here, but 
 had gone further on, to Utch Kurgan. 
 
 Our journey was in many respects greatly lacking in incident. 
 Oiten, it is true, we had fine scenery to look at, but no one 
 seemed to care for it, or to share my feelings for land- 
 scape. The officials who were taking care of us treated us in a 
 very offhand way, and provided nothing for our entertainment, 
 and consequently we were obliged to rely upon ourselves for all 
 our amusement. By far the most diverting of the party 
 was Ata Bai, the jigit of the interpreter Abdullah, an old 
 man who had lived in Khokand the greater part of his life, 
 and was addicted to the use of kukhnar, a narcotic drink 
 made of poppy-heads bruised in water. He prepared and 
 drank this in a most unblushing way, although constantly ad- 
 mitting it to be a weakness and a sin. His fits of the dumps, 
 when he could not have his usual modicum, madn him as 
 amusing as did the undue exhilaration which was caused by the 
 drink. He always had some jest, and succeeded almost alone 
 in keeping up our spirits. 
 
THE NARYN. 23 
 
 Leaving Balyktcki early the next morning', after a twenty 
 miles' ride we reached Haikovar, a small village. We 
 crossed the Syr Darya on a low crazy wooden bridge, the 
 road following the river for a little distance, and then striking 
 north. The whole country in this triangle between the Naryn 
 and Syr Darya is beautifully cultivated, and full of villages, 
 the canals being brought from the river Naryn, although the 
 immediate valley of the Naryn is a stony and barren one 
 There was constantly a beautiful mountain view to the north. 
 This part of Khokand, including Namangan and Andijan 
 further to the east, is by far the most fertile part of the 
 Khanate. The city of Khokand is situated in the midst of a 
 stony waste, and only the immediate vicinity of the town can 
 be cultivated, the water used there coming from a small stream 
 which flows the Alai mountains. 
 
 Sweltering in the heat, we were obliged to wait at Haikovar 
 the whole day ; for although it was only four miles to Utch 
 Kurgan, etiquette required us again to send to the Khan to 
 say that we had arrived thus far, and to ask if we could go 
 further. An answer finally arrived saying that a house had 
 been prepared for us, that new carpets had been spread down, 
 but that we had better travel when it was cooler, and that the 
 Khan would receive us in the morning. 
 
 At about five o'clock we set out over a horribly dusty road 
 through the bare steppe, and in an hour reached the bank of 
 the Naryn. The river is here 'very muddy and rapid, and 
 roars over the rocks like a cataract. Passing for some distance 
 along the bank, and meeting at every step with soldiers and 
 jlgits who were taking horses down to the river to be watered, 
 we passed through the little bazaar, now crowded with people, — 
 for the Khan had brought a large suite with him, — and were 
 conducted to a small garden, where the air was very oppressive, 
 • — by no means the place which had been promised to us. To 
 add to our discomfort, a great dust storm arose, and for five 
 minutes we could scarcely breathe, being obliged to bury our 
 faces in the pillows. The Mirza who was with us told us that 
 for that night we must content ourselves with tea, as it was too 
 late for him to procure us anything to eat. I had long 
 before felt like rebelling at our treatment, and had restrained 
 myself for fear lest I might injure Mr. F 's business; but 
 
24 TURKISTAN. 
 
 throughout the whole journey I had strongly objected to our not 
 being allowed to have our own way, and to being compelled to 
 follow implicitly the orders of the Mirza. The insolent manner 
 in which he gave us this last information made me thoroughly 
 angry : and I told him that he had informed us all along that we 
 were the guests of the Khan ; that as such I demanded better 
 treatment, and that I should insist upon having some supper 
 that night ; that it was still early, seven o'clock, and that as I had 
 seen the bazaar was yet open. The Mirza, impressed with my 
 tone, began to apologise, said that we should have something in 
 about three hours, and soon brought me in a dish of kavap, which 
 I and my interpreter ate alone, the others having gone to sleep. 
 We had been told that we were to be presented to the 
 Khan at the early salaam, and we consequently had to rise about 
 
 four o'clock. Mr. F put on a black frock coat, with all 
 
 his decorations ; but I. conjecturing that the Khan would not 
 know the difference between full and ordinary dress in an 
 infidel, and having no uniform, wore my usual grey tweed 
 suit, refusing a proffered native gown. After riding for half-a- 
 mile along the river bank, we came to a double line of ridiculous 
 soldiers, sitting cross-legged in the road, in the most absurd 
 uniforms, some with match-locks, and some with flint muskets, 
 which most of them held at ' present.' After riding a certain 
 distance, we had to dismount, and immediately our arms were 
 seized by various officials, — generals, as it turned out afterwards, 
 ■ — in long dark coats, and high fur caps, gold belts 5 and swords, 
 and three epaulettes, one on each shoulder, and one in the middle 
 of the back. We soon came in front of a large garden, where 
 at a distance of a hundred paces or more, there was a green 
 Bukharan tent, under which three men with white turbans 
 were sitting. Which was the Khan, I was unable to discern. 
 For some reason my movements were not as much restricted 
 as those of the others, and while my companions were forcibly 
 made to bow very low, I had a chance to look. The attendants 
 shouted out something in a loud voice, of which I could only 
 make out Khudayar Khan Kylsun. We were summoned to 
 deliver up our letters and presents, and were then immediately 
 brought back, even more quickly than we came. This 
 astonished me greatly, for I knew something of the order of 
 ceremonies at these courts, and had supposed that this was merely 
 

SEIU MOHAMMED RHUDAYA?,, KHAN OF KHOKAND. 
 
OUK RECEPTION AT COURT. 25 
 
 the preliminary salutation previous to advancing to the tent 
 and being personally presented to the Khan. Haba Bai, who 
 was a native of the country, although long settled in Hodjent, 
 and whose conscience perhaps smote him for something, was 
 seized with fear and trembling, thinking that he was being led 
 off to immediate execution, and even Abdullah thought that 
 we were going to prison. We were, however, after being led on 
 foot through the whole line of soldiers, only taken to a house 
 close by on the bank, occupied temporarily by the Bek of 
 Balyktcki, who spends his summers at Utch Kurgan. 
 
 This was the first time the Khan had been here during the 
 ten years of office of this Bek, whose house he was then occupy- 
 ing. The Khan every summer makes a tour of the provinces, 
 nominally for amusement and inspection, but really to obtain 
 largesumsof money in the shape of presents from the various Beks. 
 
 Bahmet Ullah Bek of Balyktchi was formerly a slave, but 
 the Khan fell in love with his sister, who was a great beauty, 
 and on his marriage to her freed him and made him Bek. 
 This sister had died, but had left a son, Urman Bek, then a 
 boy of twelve or thirteen years, who had recently been appointed 
 Bek of Namangan, and is the pet of his father, the Khan. 
 Bahmet Ullah was a fine looking man of about thirty-five, and 
 of very gentlemanly manners. 1 
 
 On reaching the house, we were ushered into the reception 
 room, where we sat on stools, while the Bek, in full uniform, — 
 three epaulettes and all, — accompanied by his brother, a handsome 
 young fellow in the service of the Khan, and by his little son 
 Namet Illah, told us that the Khan had ordered him to give 
 us hospitality, and that this, his temporary house, was at our 
 disposal. He then said that he would send for our luggage, and 
 that we were to remain there during our stay. As the house 
 was very pleasantly situated near the river, and had a large 
 garden with plenty of shade, we were delighted with the 
 change. The Bek asked us what we wanted, and told us that 
 everything depended on the Khan's pleasure ;. that no one 
 dared speak to him first on any subject, and that we therefore 
 must wait. We told him that we thought the Khan had not 
 treated us properly in not receiving us personally when we 
 
 1 A few weeks after my visit Rahmet Ullah was killed by the Kiptchak and 
 Kirghiz insurgents, by having a sharp stake driven through his head. 
 
26 TURKISTAN. 
 
 were the bearers of letters from the chief authorities at 
 Tashkent, but he repeated that everything there was at the 
 Khan's own pleasure, and that he, much less anyone else, did 
 not dare to criticise him, or speak to him. After conversation 
 of a slight nature, he left us with a tray of tea and melons, and 
 afterwards sent each of us a silk gown. When we were lounging 
 about the garden, the Bek got hold of the interpreter Abdullah, 
 with whom he had a long private conversation, trying to see if 
 we had not some more secret business than that which we 
 alleged. In the afternoon we sent the Bek some presents; 
 I giving him, among other things, a small compass set in gold. 
 He then came in to see us, and talked a long time in a very 
 
 amiable way, had a long conversation with Mr. F about 
 
 his business, asked a few questions about America, and then, 
 turning to the subject of the Russians, asked whether it was 
 true that the troops at Hodjent were being reinforced, and 
 showed a fair knowledge of the position of affairs there and 
 of the character of the new commander, as compared with that 
 of the old, as well as of the complaints made against the 
 administration ; he boasted greatly of the excellent army of the 
 Khan, which was capable of repelling any invasion, and then 
 referred to the 3,000 Kiptchaks whom he had in his own 
 service, evidently desiring to make the impression upon us 
 that the Khan was only waiting for an excuse to annihilate the 
 Russian power in Asia. 
 
 Toward night we bathed in the river, and had our beds 
 spread on the terrace in the garden, where we had our tea and 
 pilaf. We were lying there, half undressed, when a great 
 uproar was raised near by, and we found that one of the men 
 of the house had been stung by a scorpion. I made a slight 
 incision, and applied some ammonia which eased the pain, and 
 in the course of an hour or so he entirely recovered. The next 
 day I tried the same remedy on another man, but without 
 effect, perhaps because he had been stung in the callous part 
 of the foot. Soon after this — although it was now very late — 
 the Bek came to us again and had a long talk. He told Mr. 
 
 F that his business would probably get on well, and 
 
 that he would tell the Khan himself all that we desired ; but 
 he was unable to tell me whether I would be allowed to pursue 
 my journey or not, as the Khan had said nothing about it, 
 
I 
 
 LIFE IN TJTCH-KUKGAN. 27 
 
 although he thought that it would be possible. He said that, 
 according to custom, he had been obliged to show to the Khan 
 the presents we had given him, and that Hazret 1 had been so 
 much pleased with the small compass that he had retained it 
 in his own possession, and then the Bek hinted strongly that he 
 would like another. Compasses are much liked by Mussulmans 
 as they are used to show the Kibleh, or the direction of the 
 Kaaba at Mecca. 
 
 Life in Utch-kurgan was rather dull. The near vicinity of 
 the Khan, the crowds of soldiers, Kiptchaks, and all sorts of 
 people who filled the streets, united with the intense heat, 
 rendered it disagreeable to be out. And then there was the 
 fact that there was very little to see except the people. We 
 had to rise early, for after the sun was up there was no chance 
 of sleeping in the open air, and we had nothing to do all day 
 but to lie on our backs and talk with the various inmates of 
 the house, or wander round the garden and watch their occupa- 
 tions. It was a very good opportunity for studying native 
 life in a rich noble's house, for the number of retainers was 
 great. In one corner three or four cooks were occupied all day 
 long in killing and cutting up sheep, in washing rice and 
 boiling it into pilaf; for Rahmet Ullah Bek maintained a guard 
 of 200 soldiers, whom he had to feed from his kitchen. Then 
 there were the horses to be groomed ; and one old man and two 
 boys devoted themselves exclusively to the care of three 
 falcons, which had to be fed, exercised, and played with, in 
 expectation of another chase. The chief steward of the Bek 
 was also his tailor, and I watched him cut two whole pieces of 
 calico into shirts and trousers. There was an old secretary 
 who had very little to do, except to give a reading lesson to 
 Namet Illah, the Bek's little son, who had also three or four 
 other men engaged in looking after him. When all of these 
 people were not occupied with their own duties they were 
 either talking to us, examining the things which we had 
 brought with us — and for them nearly everything was curious — 
 or looking at the operations of the cooks, and gloating in 
 anticipation over their supper. Amusement there was none, 
 all games being strictly forbidden. Such things as dancing, 
 jugglery, and comic performances are, I am told, prohibited 
 
 1 ' Sanctity,' or ' Majesty,' used in speaking to or of high dignitaries or saints. 
 
28 
 
 TUKK1STAN. 
 
 in the Khanate, — the licentious Khan, having seen the error of 
 his ways, and having put on, for his people at least, a semblance 
 of virtue. Of praying there was very little ; occasionally in the 
 afternoon, or at sunset, some few more piously disposed 
 individuals would spread out a rug and make their supplica- 
 tions to Allah ; but prayer did not seem the pastime or excite- 
 ment which it is in the large towns. One poor old man, 
 
 &fVA^ 
 
 THE SIX-EATER. 
 
 however, I noticed, who seemed constantly engaged in prayer. 
 On calling attention to him I was told that he was an iskatcki, 
 a person who gets his living by taking on himself the sins of 
 the dead, and thenceforth devoting his life to prayer for their 
 souls. He corresponds to the ' sin-eater ' of the Welsh border. 
 
FOLK LORE. 29 
 
 With the exception of the book used by the secretary in giving 
 his daily lesson to the small boy, not another one was to be 
 seen, nor did there seem to be any attempt at story-telling 
 even. It was a very lazy and listless, though perfectly decorous 
 life. 
 
 We had a whole sheep given to us once a day for the 
 sustenance of our party, but were obliged to kill and cook 
 it ourselves, and as one of the arba drivers was speedily 
 found to be the most skilful cook, on him fell the burden of the 
 kitchen. 
 
 During the few days I passed in this garden I learned many 
 proprieties as well as many superstitions of Mussulman life. For 
 instance, I was shown how to eat a melon. According to the Koran, 
 when an animal is killed for food, its throat must be cut in order 
 that the blood may all run out. By transfer of ideas the 
 melon is treated in the same way. First, its throat is cut, that 
 is, a small incision is made in the end farthest from the stem ; 
 then its head is cut off by slicing off a small piece ; after that 
 it is cut up lengthways, and with one or two dexterous turns 
 of the knife the flesh is removed from the rind and cut into 
 small thin slices, which are pushed out alternately by the knife. 
 When a man drinks water, he should first take one swallow 
 slowly, while repeating to himself the name of Allah, and then 
 take two swallows, after which he can gulp down as much as 
 he pleases. When a person hiccoughs it is common to say, 
 ' You stole something from me.' This is supposed to bring 
 good luck. If you sneeze when I speak to you, it shows that 
 I urn right. If a person sneeze three times it is very unlucky. 
 Yawning is a most sinful and dangerous practice, and arises 
 from an evil place in your heart, hazzi shaitan, which is 
 getting ready for the reception of an evil spirit. Mohammed 
 never yawned, for when he was only four years old he was one 
 day seized in the desert by the angel Gabriel, who pounced 
 upon him like a bird and cut out the evil place from his heart. 
 If, therefore, you yawn, you should always put up the hand 
 with the palm outwards, so as to ward off the evil spirits 
 that will at once come to you. Among the more puritanical 
 folk laughter is also bad ; and it is said that Hanify, one of the 
 famous Mussulman doctors, lost half of Asia for Islam by laugh- 
 ing. Whistling also is bad. If a husband whistle, something 
 
30 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 will happen to his wife ; and if children whistle, their father 
 or mother will die. Whistling, too, is supposed to bring wind, 
 and the Kirghiz frequently whistle for that purpose. 1 A 
 buzzing in one's ears shows that a man is dead, and a prayer is 
 always repeated. There is a beautiful legend connected with 
 this. In heaven there is a tree, on each leaf of which is 
 written the name of some soul, and what men call a buzzing in 
 their ears is the rustling of one of these leaves as it falls from the 
 tree. If the noise in your ears be a ringing as of bells, then it 
 is a Christian soul whose leaf has fallen, and who is to die ; 
 and so for each faith the noise is different. There also exist 
 many similar superstitions with regard to the twitchings of 
 different parts of the body, called tentahnak. There is a little 
 bird named karlagatch, the forked tail of which is always 
 trembling. This tail, if you keep it about you, will always 
 ward off ill luck. It is, therefore, a very common part of a 
 woman's head-dress. There is another belief, too. about the 
 karlagatch. If, when you first see this bird in the spring, you 
 dig a deep hole in the ground under the big toe of your right 
 foot, you will find a coal. With this coal in your hand go and 
 stand in front of a mosque, bearing also a slim rod. You then 
 watch everyone who passes, and at last there will be a girl 
 wearing a large hat. You touch her with the rod, and make 
 her stop and go into the mosque with you, and you can then 
 obtain her hat, which will make you invisible, and allow you 
 to wander unseen wherever you please. 
 
 Among the Kirghiz the magpie [aha) is a very ominous 
 bird, and they carefully watch its comings and goings. If a 
 Kirghiz hear one of these cry, he goes out to look. If the 
 magpie be on the east, it means guests ; if on the west, a 
 journey; if on the north, bad luck; if on the south, some 
 remarkable event. With regard to the crow, there are similar 
 superstitions, and among others it is said that the Jcarga, or 
 ordinary crow, and the hoh-harga, or green crow of the steppes, 
 never met until the Eussians came. Before that the black 
 crow flew away before the green one came ; now both birds are 
 seen together. Either the stumbling or the snorting of a horse 
 while on a journey is considered a sign of good luck. In 
 
 1 Russian sailors also object to whistling on the water, as it is believed to call 
 up evil spirits, and produce danger or a storm. 
 
DIVINATION. 31 
 
 Bukhara, if, in crossing a stream, a horse stumble and let the 
 rider get wet, it is thought to be the greatest good luck. To 
 meet a woman unmounted, or with nothing in her hands, is to 
 have bad luck ; but if you meet anyone on horseback, especially 
 a young man, with something in his hands, you will have good 
 luck. If a hare run across a man's path while he is on a 
 journey, it foreshows ill-luck, and he usually goes back. 
 
 It is, however, the sheep, which constitutes his chief wealth, 
 that furnishes the Kirghiz with the best material for forecasting 
 the future. The shin-bone of a sheep is always placed above 
 the door of a kibitka to keep out robbers, and men sometimes 
 take one as a charm on a journey. In order to prove to me 
 the efficacy of this charm, one of the jigits told me the story 
 of a Kirghiz, who, when he was going on a long journey, was 
 besought by his wife to carry with him a small bag which she 
 gave him, and which he was always to keep fastened to the 
 saddle of his horse, and never to untie. After he had accom- 
 plished the fortieth day of his journey, his horse being weary, 
 his eye happened to rest upon this bundle, and he began to 
 wonder what he had been carrying so long ; on cutting it 
 open, he saw forty bones, which, thinking them to be a useless 
 burden, he threw away. That very night he was attacked by 
 robbers who had been watching him for forty days, and lost his 
 horse and everything that he had. 
 
 The most common method of divining the course of future 
 events, is to place on the coals the shoulder-blade of a sheep, 
 which has been carefully cleaned of the flesh. This is gradually 
 calcined, and the cracks, the colour, and the small particles 
 which fall away from it, denote good or bad luck or the various 
 accidents which may happen on an expedition. When a 
 Kirghiz is about to start on a plundering expedition, or indeed 
 on any task which requires luck as well as skill, he always first 
 tries this process, and sometimes will stop in the middle of 
 his way, light a fire, and consult this oracle. Another kind of 
 divination is very common, — kumalak, by means of dried sheep 
 dung. The Kirghiz selects forty-one balls of dung, and divides 
 them roughly into three heaps. He then takes four at a time 
 from each heap, until only four or less remain in each. The 
 remainder he also divides into three heaps, and again takes 
 from each by fours. Three more heaps are thus made, so that 
 
32 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 at last there are three rows of three piles in each. What is 
 left he divides by three, and sees whether the remainder be 
 one, two, or three. The varying numbers and positions of the 
 balls of dung- can be explained by an experienced soothsayer to 
 the intense satisfaction or to the disappointment of the one who 
 consults him. In the towns, stones or small knuckle-bones are 
 substituted for sheep dung, although at such a profanation the 
 Kirghiz would look askance. Persons even carry them always 
 about with them in a bag, so as to be never at a loss for means 
 wherewith to divine the future. This process is in some respects 
 similar to the divination by cards practised by gypsies, and by 
 almost every woman, young or old, in Eussia. Among the more 
 settled population, especially among the upper classes, fate 
 is usually consulted by more refined methods, practised by 
 individuals who devote themselves to that as a profession, and 
 in all the large towns there are regular astrologers. A falbin 
 foretells the future by opening the Koran at hazard, and en- 
 deavouring to explain the first verse that meets his eye in 
 regard to the event about which the question is asked. Another 
 book in use is the Jalal-eddin-rumi of Masnavi. This method 
 is in every way analogous to the Sortes Virgiliance, or to the 
 Bible lots practised among some Christian sects. Great regard 
 is paid to dreams, and their explanation is always a matter of 
 anxiety. There is, for instance, the process called istakhari, 
 praying for a fateful dream. The usual method is to consult a 
 holy man, or saint, and ask for the decision of heaven as to the 
 course about which you wish to be informed. The saint, on 
 retiring for the night, makes certain fixed prayers which are con- 
 sidered necessary, and has a dream appropriate to the occasion, 
 which he explains on the following day. The test of a dream is 
 nearly always resorted to in cases where a person wishes to join 
 a religious community. Such a person presents himself to the 
 pir, or leader, and asks to be a member. He that night recites 
 the istakhari prayers, and in the morning relates to the pir 
 his dream, in accordance with the character of which he will 
 be received into the community, or rejected. 
 
 One evening, towards sunset, I started out with Andrei to 
 walk a little by the river side, and look at the crowd. We 
 saw a calvacade pass us with two of the Khan's sons, stupid- 
 looking youths of sixteen and eighteen years, one of them 
 
BATHING UNDER GUARD. 33 
 
 carrying a falcon on his wrist. We walked along towards the 
 Khan's garden, where soldiers and jigits were standing, one 
 or two of whom rushed up and shook hands with us, and greeted 
 us politely, but we were soon told that it was forbidden to pass 
 there, and were ordered to go back. "We had no sooner turned 
 back, than another official came to us, and told us, that if we liked, 
 we could go on and look at the bridge over the Naryn. This 
 is a large rough wooden bridge, standing on wooden coffer piers 
 filled up with stone, extending and coming to a point up-stream 
 in the usual way, to keep off floating ice from the bridge. It 
 was built about forty years ago. As we came back the Khan 
 was coming from prayers, and we were obliged to wait for a 
 few moments, while the band struck up some Khokandian 
 anthem. The music was very droll, the band being composed 
 of four drums, three or four horns, and as many clarionets. We 
 heard here an amusing complaint of a soldier to the aksakal, 
 on account of his being abused and called names by some 
 comrade. As we passed the pavilion in which the Khan was 
 sitting, and made the usual salaam, we had a good view of 
 him. On arriving home, the official who had accompanied us 
 back expressed his surprise that we should have been allowed 
 to go out alone, and we were immediately overwhelmed with 
 reproaches at having dared such a rash proceeding ; conse- 
 quently, when three of us went to bathe that evening, only 
 across the road, we had a body-guard armed with matchlocks 
 and sabres, first of three, and afterwards of eight men, who sat 
 on the rocks and watched us, so that I could not help re- 
 membering stories of prisoners among Neapolitan brigands, and 
 wondering who would pay our ransom. 
 
 Late at night, although we were already going to bed, the 
 Bek, whom we had not seen all day, came and told us that my 
 journey would be decided upon the next day, at the same time 
 
 as F 's business. After a long talk he went away with 
 
 Abdullah the interpreter, and they had an interview with an old 
 white-bearded fellow, Mullah Turdali, the Eegent of Namangan, 
 who is one of the Khan's most intimate counsellors, and usually 
 accompanies him on his journeys. The Mullah seemed unable to 
 see any reason why the Khan should do anything for me, as the 
 friendly relations of Khokand existed only with Eussia, and not 
 with America, but st'll was willing to consider the subject. After 
 
 VOL. II. D 
 
34 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 some time the Bek came back, and told us that we should each 
 have papers given to us the next day, permitting us to travel 
 ■wherever we chose, and that every opportunity would be given 
 
 to F to purchase the timber he wished. He asked again 
 
 about America ; and I took occasion to impress upon him its 
 power and its relations with Eussia, and hinted that we could even 
 make an impression on Central Asia in connection with Eussia, 
 if it were necessary to do so. In a case like this, where I felt 
 that the future of my journey was at stake, a certain amount of 
 humbug seemed not only admissible, but absolutely necessary. 
 After praising once more the Khokandian forces and his 3,000 
 Kiptchaks, he left off war-talk, and went away. In half an hour 
 the Bek again returned, bringingwith him an India-rubber bottle 
 and an India-rubber air-cushion of mine, and wished to know 
 what they were, and how they were to be used. I had left these 
 articles fastened up in my bag, so that it was evident that he and 
 his friend the Mullah had been thoroughly investigating our 
 luggage. He was anxious to obtain some more presents for 
 the Khan, who, he said, was always very eager to get curiosities 
 and things that came from Europe, and began to talk a great 
 deal about inventions. We were able to tell him about many 
 curious things, at which he opened widely his eyes, and evi- 
 dently thought we were romancing. Although F said that 
 
 he was building the bridge for the government, the Bek told 
 him that he still made some profit out of it himself, and 
 refused to consider him a government agent, evidently taking 
 him for an ordinary merchant, and consequently declining to 
 allow him to have an interview with the Khan. He seemed 
 
 very well informed ; for Mr. F was building the bridge as 
 
 a private speculation, although under a privilege given by the 
 government. From what I had already seen, I thought that 
 if positions were reversed, the Eussian authorities would 
 have been more ignorant. He promised again to give me 
 a paper which would be addressed to all Beks and other 
 officials, allowing me to travel wherever I pleased, and offered 
 me also a jigit to accompany me ; but said that when I came 
 back from my journey, I must then come again to the Khan, 
 wherever he might be, and have an interview with him, when 
 he would be glad to talk to me, as he desired to see me, and 
 wished to give me a letter to take to Tashkent, to General 
 
OUR FAREWELL AUDIENCE. 35 
 
 Kolpakofsky, in return for his politeness. I evaded making 
 any promise, and simply replied that for my part I should 
 certainly be glad to have a personal interview with the Khan. 
 Considering that the Bek had lost his compass, I felt bound to 
 give him, in addition to the previous presents, the India- 
 rubber bottle which seemed to interest him ; and F , whose 
 
 affairs were evidently not going on in the best way possible, 
 went back with him to the room to meet again the old Mullah, 
 and sent a silver watch to the Khan, and, I think, made some 
 personal arrangements with the Bek about the purchase of the 
 timber, for it was found necessary to interest him pecuniarily in 
 the affair. In one of these conversations the Bek said that he 
 had some very pleasant news to communicate to us, — that the 
 Kussians had taken Khiva. ' This,' he said, ' is not news 
 which I have found in the street, or picked up at the bazaar, 
 but it came to the Khan by a special messenger.' 
 
 On Monday morning the Bek sent for us early, and we 
 found the old Mullah waiting for us. He gave us each a cheap 
 silk gown on the part of the Khan, and told us that we must 
 come and make a salaam in return for these presents, when we 
 would receive our passports, and could then depart on our way 
 in peace. Haba Bai received only a common calico gown, such 
 as the jig its got, and was exceedingly disappointed at being 
 thus lowered from the rank which he had claimed as a wealthy 
 merchant, and at being put below our interpreter, especially when 
 he had given a small telescope to the Bek. After some kavct/p, 
 which we had to beg from the Bek's cook, as our supply of 
 mutton was stopped that morning on account of our anticipated 
 departure, we went to the Khan in our new gowns and received 
 our bits of paper with the Khan's seal, and, holding them as 
 we were bidden between the first and second fingers of the right 
 hand, made a low bow. We were this time much nearer to the 
 Khan, and saw that he was a stout, pleasant-looking man of 
 about forty-five, with a brown beard. He even raised his hand 
 in salutation. 1 
 
 1 My passport, 'which was in Persian, read as follows : ' To all Hakims, all 
 Commandants of Forts, all Beks, all Amlakdars, and all Serdars : By this order be 
 it known that one Russian American envoy with his people travels in our country 
 for amusement, tomasha, and pleasant pastime, therefore to this Russian, in every 
 Vilayet and Kishlak where he may go, let nothing be done against the hospitality 
 which is due to our guest, or against his wish, and let the hospitality be shown 
 
36 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 Luckily, on account of the heat, I wore only the gown when 
 I went to how to the Khan, for when I came to pack up before 
 starting I narrowly escaped being stung by an enormous scorpion 
 which I found on the collar of my coat. The Bek came to bid 
 
 us good-bye, and gave F and myself each another silk 
 
 gown, and as road-money ten rubles in silver, as well as a smaller 
 amount to the interpreter Abdullah. Under the circumstances 
 there was nothing to do but to take the money, much as it went 
 
 against the grain. F started off immediately on his road 
 
 to Namangan, but I was detained for some hours waiting for the 
 jigit promised to me. Finally, about three o'clock I set off 
 with Andrei and my own jigit, and the Bek's jigit overtook 
 us when we got up the hill and were leaving the town. For 
 miles we went in a south-easterly direction through a barren 
 steppe, then through a well-watered and cultivated country 
 skirting low hills to the east, and came at last at eight o'clock 
 to the large village of Paita, twenty-four miles from Utch- 
 Kurgan. In some of the smaller villages we met half a-dozen 
 horsemen who were passing over the road, directing all the in- 
 habitants to clear it and to make it ready, as the Khan was 
 expected within two days. Whenever they came near a person 
 or house they shouted out at the top of their voices : ' His 
 Majesty Khudayar Khan is coming. See to it that the roads 
 be smooth, and that there be no mud nor uncleanness.' 
 All along the road large bodies of peasants were at work filling 
 up the holes and making it level and good. I could not help 
 recalling what in the Gospel of Matthew is told of John the 
 Baptist : ' The voice of one crying in the wilderness, Prepare 
 ye the way of the Lord, and make his paths straight.' 
 
 In order to try the effects of my new passport, I had sent it 
 before me by the jigit, who received the paper reverently and 
 pressed it to his lips and to his eyes, and had asked for a lodging 
 in a garden with good water, provender for the horses, and 
 supper for myself. 
 
 I was met at the edge of the town by a messenger, and con- 
 ducted to a garden belonging to the Serdar of the town, 
 where a terrace had been covered with rugs for me. One of 
 the tea-boys from the bazaar was there, and served me tea and 
 
 •which is due to him, looking at him (considering his position), and let masquerades 
 not be made of him, and let improper words not be spoken to him.' 
 
PRESENTS. 37 
 
 melons, and I had a supper of skuiya and pilaf, and every 
 attention was given to me. Even here, however, there were 
 scorpions, and having killed one while I was taking my tea, 
 I was glad to have my iron bedstead put up. I had taken a 
 cold at Utch Kurgan from bathing, and found it that night much 
 worse, and it continued to trouble me for weeks till I broke it 
 up with quinine. 
 
 While my men were packing up the next morning I had 
 time to make a survey of the garden, which was large and 
 really very fine. It was surrounded on all sides by a high clay 
 wall, was well irrigated, and besides containing many fruit trees, 
 was planted with pomegranates, quinces, grapes, cotton, china- 
 asters, and other flowers. Although the gardens in this country 
 are the usual places of abode in summer, the inhabitants rarely, 
 if ever, have any houses in them, preferring to sleep in the open 
 air on a raised platform which can be covered with rugs. Some- 
 times a tent, or kibitka, is put up, and there are always a few 
 stones or low clay mounds where fires are built and the pots are 
 placed for cooking. 
 
 I talked a long time with the Serdar, and gave him a silk 
 gown such as I had received from the Khan, at which he 
 was much pleased — probably never having had one so good 
 before — and immediately put it on, receiving the compliments 
 and congratulations of the bystanders. It is curious that in 
 Central Asia a man rarely thanks for presents until he is con- 
 gratulated on receiving them, and even then he thanks you only 
 for your congratulations. Except in cases like this, when pre- 
 sents are a payment — and a very dear payment too — for hospi- 
 tality received, the practice of giving presents, so prevalent in 
 Central Asia, is a great nuisance. A present cannot be refused 
 without offence, and if accepted, a present of like or of even 
 greater value must be speedily returned. Indeed, if a man 
 offer you a bunch of grapes he will say : l Sillau kiryakj a present 
 is necessary. In Tashkent the natives will even tell a Russian 
 the exact amount they expect to receive from him, and no sale 
 can be effected or service rendered without an immediate demand 
 for a sillau. It is accepted with an impassive face as a mere 
 matter of course. 
 
 The Serdar accompanied us through the town, which was 
 filling up with country people of all kinds, Uzbeks, Kiptchaks, 
 
38 TURKISTAN. 
 
 and Kirghiz, it being bazaar day, Tuesday. "We went through 
 continual gardens and occasional villages as far as the Syr 
 Darya, more than four miles, where my host left me, after 
 having seen me safely across the three broad streams on a cart. 
 I had to sit on a high seat, as the water covered the floor of 
 the cart. For four miles more we went through gardens, losing 
 our way once through wrong advice, but soon finding it again, 
 and arrived at Andijan about noon. 
 
 The large Khan Canal which runs through the town was 
 overflooded, so that in getting to the palace of the Bek to find 
 out where we were to put up, and in returning thence to the 
 bazaar, we were obliged to make a circuit of two-thirds of the 
 town ; the remark of Baber about the nine streams of water 
 flowing through Andijan seemed to me literally true. 1 
 
 I was given a house and a court at the bazaar, the same 
 that had been occupied by Fcdtchenko on his journey of explora- 
 tion, as inscriptions on the walls testified. While convenient 
 on many accounts, it was extremely unpleasant from the very 
 noisome odour which came to us with every breath of air, — the 
 real Central Asian bazaar smell. Toward evening I took a 
 walk through the bazaar, which is very large and fine, as Andijan 
 is the most important town after the capital, and is besides an 
 
 1 ' Of the districts on the south of the river, ore is Andijan, which has a 
 central posit : on, and is the capital of Fergana. It abounds in grain and fruits, its 
 grapes and melons are excellent and plentiful. In the melon season it is not cus- 
 tomary to sell them at the beds ; every one can eat them without pay. There 
 are no better Nashpatis (pears) produced than those of Andijan. In all Maver- 
 annahr, after the fortresses of Samarkand and Kesh, no town is equal in size to 
 Andijan. It has three gates. The citadel is situated on the south of the city. 
 The water-courses of the mills by which the water enters the city, are nine ; and 
 it is remarkable that of all the water that enters the city, none flows out of it. 
 Around the fortress, on the edge of the stone-faced moat, is a broad highway 
 covered with pebbles. All round the fort are the suburbs, which are only separated 
 from the moat by this highway that runs along its banks. 
 
 ' The district abounds in birds and beasts of game. Its pheasants are so fat 
 that the report goes that four persons may dine on the broth of one of them, and 
 not be able to finish it. The inhabitants of the country are all Turks, and there is 
 none in the town or market who does not understand the Turki tongue. The 
 common speech of the people of this country is the same as the correct language 
 of composition, so that the works of Mir Ali Shir, surnamed Navai, though he was 
 bred and flourished at Heri (Herat) are written in this dialect. The inhabitants 
 are remarkable for their beauty. Hodja Yusuf, so famous for his science in. 
 music, was a native of Andijan. The air is unwholesome, and in the autumn agues 
 are prevalent.' 
 
THE KHAN ZADA. 39 
 
 old place. I saw several medresses and a number of f>ne cara- 
 vanserais constructed of burnt brick inlaid with tiles, better 
 than anything 1 which I had seen at Khokand or Tashkent. 
 An escort of soldiers and officials accompanied me, and although 
 they somewhat hindered my free passage they were useful in 
 driving off the crowd which surrounded me at every step. On 
 coming home I sent Andrei to the Bek, to ask at what time I 
 could call on him. On reaching the palace his elbows were 
 seized, and he was dragged before the Bek with all the usual 
 etiquette, when the Bek told him that he would receive me the 
 next morning, if I greatly desired it, but he wished to know 
 why I was in such a hurry, as it was customary to stay in a 
 place a day or two before asking an audience of him. The Bek 
 was Nasr'Eddin, the eldest son of the Khan, and heir to the 
 throne, and therefore commonly called Khan Zada (the Khan's 
 Son). 1 
 
 When at the early hour appointed we arrived at the palace, 
 which is a new building, constructed with all the out-houses 
 and stables in the Eussian style from Bussian designs, we found 
 the Bek still asleep, and we were obliged to wait for some time in 
 the hot courtyard, where we were surrounded by inquisitive 
 people. At last I protested and said that unless I were shown 
 to a room within the palace, where I could wait until the Bek 
 was ready to receive me, I should return home. I was then 
 invited into a room filled with servitors and people of the 
 Bek, who were eating nuts and raisins and drinking tea, with 
 whom I had rather an amusing time. Two of them, I found, 
 were Tartars, who understood Eussian ; for the Bek had sur- 
 rounded himself by Tartar servants. 
 
 At last, we were sent for and were brought into the great 
 inside court-yard by an official who told us what to do. We 
 saw the Bek sitting at a window at the right, in a building 
 facing us. We bowed and then went up close to him on the 
 verandah where we were obliged to stand during the interview, 
 while he remained seated within the building. There was, how- 
 ever, none of the ceremony used with the Khan. The Bek held 
 out his hand to me, which I took ; and then he asked us to stand 
 closer to the window and talk with him. I found him a 
 
 1 Nasr'eddin took part in the rebellion against his father in 1875, and was 
 made Khan, but he was soon driven from the throne. 
 
40 TTJRKISTAN. 
 
 pleasant, full-faced man of about twenty-five, looking as if he 
 had a good disposition, and were a good liver. He had been in 
 Tashkent, where he had stayed for nearly a month, and had 
 acquired, to a certain extent, Eussian ways ; at least, as far as 
 dissipation is concerned, for, besides champagne, he was in the 
 habit of drinking a great deal of vodka. He told me, that now 
 I had come here, we must always be good friends, and that he 
 perfectly understood the reasons of my coming, for no two cities 
 in the world were alike ; that he himself had gone to Tashkent to 
 see something new, and had made many friends there. He then 
 asked me when I was going away. I told him that I desired to 
 go that day and asked him for a jigit, at which he said I should 
 stay longer, as he had remained twenty days in Tashkent and 
 therefore I ought to remain the same time here. I said my time 
 was very short and that I had already been two weeks in the 
 country ; to which he replied that Andijan was a very different 
 place from Tashkent and that I ought to stay and see everything 
 that was curious ; and that I might go where I pleased. I there- 
 fore, agreed to stay until the next morning and then presented 
 him with a silver horn for tobacco, at which his eyes brightened 
 up, and, with a smile, he said in Eussian, ' Na pamiat ' (in 
 remembrance). After a few compliments I bowed, and, in 
 accordance with the prevailing etiquette, asked him if I could 
 be allowed to go ; to this he graciously assented, and I was 
 taken to a little room on the other side of the court, where the 
 Bek's steward offered me a cup of tea and a dostar-Khan, far 
 worse than I had ever received from any petty village official. 
 I had barely put the cup to my lips, when the steward brought 
 me a second-hand gown of scarlet silk shot with gold, gave a 
 common one to Andrei and told me that I could now go, a per- 
 mission of which I was not slow to avail myself, first going back 
 into the court and bowing to the Bek. 
 
 Here, as elsewhere, I have related these personal and 
 apparently petty details, because they afford an index to the 
 spirit and disposition of the Khokandian authorities in their 
 dealings with Eussians. Although travelling as a private 
 person, I had come provided with a strong letter of recom- 
 mendation from the Eussian authorities, who had supposed that 
 a wish of theirs, expressed to the Khan, was equivalent to a 
 command, and that either would be submissively obeyed. When, 
 
THE AKSENAL. 41 
 
 on my return to Tashkent, I recounted the incidents of my jour- 
 ney, great astonishment was manifested and some persons went 
 so far as to say that I had greatly exaggerated them. 
 
 The most amusing part of my visit to the Khan Zada was 
 the return, when, in accordance with the etiquette to which 
 even the Russian Envoy had submitted, I was obliged to wear 
 my gown. I had more than a mile to ride to the bazaar, and, 
 seeing me thus attired and accompanied by several officials sent 
 by the Bek, the people all stood up and bowed to me as I passed. 
 One of the men sent by the Bek was instructed to tell me, that 
 his master would have been very glad to receive me quietly 
 in the evening as a friend, but that he was afraid of his father, 
 who was coming within a day or two and who disliked the Rus- 
 sians and did not wish his subjects to have much intercourse 
 with them. He would be glad, however, to do for me every- 
 thing that was possible ; and said, that if I had no vodka with 
 me and desired some, he would be very glad to send me a sup- 
 ply. Whether he thought that he was doing me a favour in 
 offering me some of his favourite drink, or that it was a necessity 
 to all Europeans, I do not know ; probably, the latter, judging 
 from what he had seen in Tashkent. 
 
 I told the messenger that I should like to visit the fortress ; 
 but in spite of the permission I had personally received from 
 the Bek, he said it would be impossible for me to do so, unless he 
 returned to the Bek and obtained his order. He went back, 
 but did not come to me again until late in the day. Meanwhile, 
 two gypsy women (Liuli) came in to look at us : they sang songs 
 for me, presented flowers, and tried their best to get some 
 money from me, all of which afforded us great amusement. 
 Gypsies — who are not uncommon in these countries — look very 
 much like the Kirghiz, but are easily distinguished from them, 
 being much handsomer and having more regular features. 
 
 When the messenger at last returned with the required 
 permission, we went to the new fortress, Yangy Urda, which con- 
 tains the former palace of the Bek,— a wretched, clay building, — 
 and some new constructions, evidently from Russian designs. 
 The guard was placed under arms near a number of old brass 
 cannon, some evidently of Chinese manufacture, and probably 
 captured in Kashgar. Considering the vicinity and the some- 
 time sway of the Chinese, it is remarkable that traces of 
 
42 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 Chinese influence have not been found in this and other cities. 
 The soldiers were as ridiculous in appearance as any I had 
 previously seen, and the officer in command wore Russian 
 epaulettes, bearing the cipher of the Emperor Paul I. On uhe 
 way home we stopped at the armoury, where rude muskets 
 were being made. The machinery is turned by water, and is in 
 every respect much better than that in the armoury at Khokand. 
 I saw there, to my great surprise, some plans of buildings, 
 apparently copied from French architectural books, bearing 
 French inscriptions, such as ' plain ' and ' eelevation.'' I supposed 
 at the time that some French designs had been obtained and 
 copied by the architect, but I subsequently learned that there 
 was an English or French Jew in command of the factory, who 
 was then absent, to my great regret, for he could probably 
 have given me much interesting information. 
 
 Andijan, now a town of 20,000 inhabitants, the chief 
 place of the Khanate after Khokand, and one of the oldest, 
 made a very pleasant impression upon me ; l whether it was the 
 picturesque streets and the many gardens, the palace of the 
 Bek, so much like a country house, the rapid swollen canal, 
 the bright and lively appearance of the people, or the greater 
 variety in food, I do not know ; possibly all these together, and 
 the last not least. I had, unfortunately, brought with me to 
 Khokand no cooking utensils, having been told I would every- 
 where find something to eat. That was quite true ; but we 
 became very tired of nothing but mutton cooked in the greasy 
 tasteless ways which are common here ; and it was difficult 
 to obtain any variety. At the same time it was too hot, and 
 I was usually too fatigued at night to be able to show my 
 servants any new or better methods of cooking. Here, at 
 
 1 Mir Izzot ullah, in 1812, says that Andijan was then abandoned. Nazarof 
 two years later, thus describes it: 'Andijan is on the borders of the territory of 
 Kashgar ; this town is surrounded by villages ; its suburbs abound in all kinds of 
 fruit; the inhabitants are agriculturists, they raise silkworms, and manufacture 
 cotton cloth. They trade with the Black Kirghiz across the mountains, who are 
 their neighbours, and who furnish them with animals. The only fortification of 
 this town is the house of the Governor ; it is surrounded by a wall pierced by four 
 doors ; a garrison of 10,000 men defends it ; every soldier lives with his wife and 
 his horse: the horse occupies the first chamber; the wife has only the second 
 which is less comfortable. A part of the produce of taxes levied on merchandise 
 is employed by the Government in maintaining the garrison. The houses are of 
 mud ; tho streets are tortuous and narrow.' 
 
SOLOMON'S THKONE. 43 
 
 Andijan, however, I was able to procure eggs, which were 
 really fresh, some chickens, which I had split and broiled on a 
 spit over the coals, and some fresh fish, which was a great 
 delicacy, as it was the first I had eaten for months. 
 
 The next morning, Thursday, an official came to say that 
 the Khan Zada had gone towards Utch-Kurgan to meet his 
 father, and that, consequently, I could get off without saying a 
 formal good-bye. He presented me, at the same, time with ten 
 tillas in silver to pay my travelling expenses. 
 
 The road led south-east over the hills, whence I got a 
 lovely view of the Andijan valley, then through a small 
 valley containing a village called Kashgar, then came more 
 hills, then a rather pretty valley, with cultivated fields and 
 trees in the foreground, and bare sharp hills beyond, and still 
 further off the distant mountains with yet a little snow left on 
 their tops. Coming down to this valley, and leaving the little 
 river, we halted, after fifteen miles riding, at the village called 
 Hodjavat, where on Saturdays there is a large bazaar. In an 
 open field, just on the edge of the town, stood the village 
 gallows, two very tall slim poles, firmly planted in the ground, 
 and united by a small cross-bar at the top, to which the 
 criminal is hung. No body, however, was dangling there at 
 this time. The plain here was well cultivated, but after 
 crossing the river, we skirted along some rugged limestone 
 and feldspar rocks. 
 
 The heat was intense, and we were glad enough, about five 
 o'clock, after a ride of thirty miles in all from Andijan, to 
 arrive at Ush. Here I was given a comfortable house, with a 
 large clean court, near the ' Throne of Solomon.' This cele- 
 brated rock, Takht-i-Suleiman, is a bare high ridge of rugged 
 stone, standing out of the midst of the plain, on the edge of 
 the town, in a way not uncommon in Khokand. An old 
 tradition represents it to be the place where the great Solomon 
 once established his throne, to look over that part of the world. 
 By a mixture of traditions, Solomon is also said to have been 
 killed here ; though, probably, this Solomon was some local saint 
 or hero who has become confounded with the Jewish King. A 
 square, solid, ornamental vnazar, or tomb, surmounting the 
 very summit of the rock, is supposed to cover his body, and 
 near by are shown various round holes, such as are occasionally 
 
44 TURKISTAN. 
 
 made in ravines by the action of loose stones and water, where 
 the numerous black dogs, which he brought with him, are 
 supposed to have drunk his blood and eaten his body. This 
 rock has been a sort of stumbling block to geographers, owing 
 to the exaggerated accounts of it which have come down to us. 
 Mir Izzet-ullah said that the Takht-i-Suleiman was ' a mountain 
 near Ush, on which is still shown the tomb of Asef Barkhi, the 
 vizier of Solomon ; its dimensions are very great.' Nazarof, 
 a Eussian, who was there in 1814, said : ' On the right hand, 
 on a cliff of these mountains, we saw two old buildings, under 
 which there is a great cave. The guide told us that these 
 buildings are called the Throne of Solomon, and that the 
 Asiatics of these parts, every year, come to worship at this 
 place, believing that on this spot the spirits made reverence to 
 Solomon. These buildings are inhabited by no one.' In fact, 
 the buildings are small, and utterly insignificant, and can 
 hardly be more than a hundred years old, if as much. Baber 
 makes no reference to Solomon's Throne in his description of 
 Ush, although I am inclined to believe that the hill he calls 
 Bara-koh is the same, as there is no other hill in the immediate 
 neighbourhood. 1 Beneath the rock there is a large garden, 
 
 1 Baber says: 'Another district is Ush, which is situated to the south-east of 
 Andijan, but more to the east, and distant from Andijan four farsangs by the 
 road. The air of Ush is excellent. It is abundantly supplied with running water, 
 and is extremely pleasant in spring. The excellencies of Ush are celebrated even 
 in the sacred traditions. On the south-east of the fort is a mountain of a beautiful 
 figure, named Bara-koh, on the top of which Sultan Mahmud Khan built a small 
 summer-house, beneath which, on the shoulder of the hill, in the year 902 (1496-7) 
 I built a larger palace and colonnade. Although the former is in the more elevated 
 situation, yet that built by me is the more pleasant of the two : the whole town 
 and suburbs are seen stretched out below. The river of Andijan, after passing 
 through the suburbs of Ush, flows on towards Andijan. On both of its banks 
 there are gardens, all of which overlook the river. Its violets are particularly 
 elegant. It abounds in streams of running water. In the spring its tulips and 
 roses blow in great profusion. On the skirt of this same hill of Bara-koh, between 
 the hill and the town, there is a mosque, called the Mosque of Juza ; and from 
 the hill there comes a great and wide stream of water. Beneath the outer court 
 of the mosque there is a meadow of clover, sheltered and pleasant, where every 
 traveller and passenger loves to rest. It is a standing joke among the common 
 people at Ush to let out the water from the stream upon all such as fall asleep 
 there. On this hill, about the latter end of the reign of Omer-Sheikh Mirza, 
 there was discovered a species of stone finely waved red and white, of which 
 they make the handles of knives, the clasps of belts, and other things of that sort, 
 and it is a very beautiful stone. In all Fergana, for healthiness and beauty of 
 situation, there is no place that equals Ush.' 
 
ush. 45 
 
 containing two or three small mosques, the residence of a 
 fraternity of recluses and their Ishan, to whom the pilgrim is 
 expected to give a gratuity. After climbing the narrow and 
 very steep path which leads to the top, I came to a large 
 stone and brick platform, built out in front of the tomb, from 
 which I had a magnificent view on every side of the whole 
 valley, the river, the town, the roads leading in all directions 
 with the villages along them, the narrow defile in the low hills 
 through which the river passes, and the splendid panorama 
 of the Alai mountains, in which I was shown the various passes 
 leading to the south. The mountains on the Kashgar boundary 
 were also dimly visible. I was told that Kashgar was 35 task, 
 over 200 miles from there, or a five days ride. Ush is a large 
 town standing on both banks of the river, which is spanned by 
 a bridge. On the other side is the fortress, an insignificant 
 building, and on this side was the large bazaar, which, as it 
 was a bazaar day, was filled with people, although I saw nothing 
 peculiar or remarkable there. 
 
 On coming back to the house, I found that my landlord had 
 sent tor a man who knew Eussian in order to learn what I and 
 my interpreter talked about ; but the jigit had proved faithful 
 tome, and had said that he should not allow such a proceeding, 
 as, in such a case, I would at once send a messenger to the Bek 
 with complaints. 
 
 Ush, being a town of the Bekship of Marghilan, is managed 
 by a Serkar. 
 
 From Ush I was very desirous of proceeding to Uzgent and 
 Tarak Davan, the pass leading to Kashgar, and even had some 
 idea of going to that place if I found the way practicable, only 
 hesitating because I had not previously thought of it and had 
 no letter of introduction with me. I also wished to go into 
 the Alai mountains to see some of the glaciers, and, striking 
 through the southern passes, to go if possible into Karategin. I 
 had heard .much talk of the danger of any attempt to penetrate 
 into Karategin ; but, as near as I could make out, these were 
 reports started by the Khokandian authorities to deter travellers ; 
 and judging from the inhabitants of Karategin that I had seen 
 (many of these men — swarthy, thick-set, good-natured fellows 
 — are employed at Khokand in the Zekat Sarai *), I did not think 
 
 1 These men used to collect in a circle in the Sarai court every evening, and 
 
46 TURKISTAN. 
 
 there would be any other difficulty than the natural obstacles of 
 the mountain passes, and, possibly, the scarcity, for a day or two, 
 of food. Besides the fact that Karategin is an entirely unex- 
 plored country, I had had my curiosity especially aroused by 
 hearing at Khokand that in the mountain passes there exist 
 inscriptions cut in the rocks in some European language. But 
 my designs, however, were at once frustrated by the action of 
 the Khokandian authorities. On sending to the Serkar he 
 told me that it would be impossible for me to go into the Alai 
 mountains, as the Kirghiz living there had risen in rebellion 
 against the Khan ; that the tax collectors who had been sent 
 there had been robbed, stripped almost naked, and beaten back ; 
 and that subsequently one of the men had been killed. That 
 as for Kashgar it was utterly impossible without the special 
 permission of the Khan, as the road there was often dangerous ; 
 but that if I were willing to give him a written paper that 
 I went of my own free will, and that whatever happened to me 
 the Russian Government would not hold them responsible for 
 my safety, he would consider the matter and, perhaps, allow me 
 to go. As I knew very well that should I give such a paper, 
 which would of course have no weight, they would themselves 
 either rob or kill me, I refused. Permission was also denied to 
 go to Uzgent, which I much regretted on account of the 
 ancient ruins — supposed by some to be of Greek origin — that 
 are said to exist there. Finally, the Serkar said that I would 
 be allowed to go to Naukat, which was close by, and where 
 there was no danger. I had asked for this, because I thought 
 that if I could get to Naukat it would be comparatively easy 
 for me to go on along the foot of the mountains, even without 
 permission. I entirely disbelieved the story about the dis- 
 turbances among the Kirghiz, knowing that it was a thing which 
 had been said to Fedtchenko and other travellers, and that it 
 was the usual mode of deterring them. I knew also enough 
 about the Kirghiz to believe that I would be even safer with 
 them than with the people of Khokand. The Serkar, however, 
 refused to allow me to start that day, but promised that I could 
 go early in the morning, and that the jigit who had accompanied 
 me from Andijan should go on with me. Late at night, the 
 
 after prayers and supper, one of them would recount tale after tale, and legend 
 after legend, until his comrades were asleep. 
 
TREACHEKY OF THE GUIDE. 47 
 
 jigit came to me and said that he had heard that there was to 
 be a military expedition against the Kirghiz, and that, as he was 
 in the army, he wished to go to Andijan and join it ; on which I 
 said he might do so if the Serkar would allow him and would 
 send another jigit in his place. 
 
 The next morning I rose at five o'clock so as to make an 
 early start, hut my jigit had gone off without permission, and I 
 had to wait for him, till at last I sent Andrei to the Serkar for 
 another ; but he found my own, who had been ordered to go on 
 with me. The Serkar sent to me a man who spoke a little 
 Russian, wished me a prosperous journey, and gave me a blue 
 cloth robe in return for the presents I had sent him the previous 
 day. I never saw the Serkar at all, as he always pretended to 
 be too busy to receive me. It was arranged that I should pay 
 him a visit of adieu, but, as it was evident he wished to escape 
 it, I thought it an unnecessary ceremony. 
 
 When we at last got off, the jigit, instead of taking the road 
 on the left of the Takht-i-Suleiman, which I believed to be the 
 direct road to Naukat, as I had had it pointed out to me when 
 I was looking at the view from the top of the rock, turned to 
 the right, and went through the bazaar. I insisted that this 
 was not the way ; but he assured me that it was the only good 
 road, and that it immediately turned to the left on the other 
 side of the rock. He said that there was another road, but it 
 was practicable for horses only and not for carts. At last we 
 turned to the left, and after a while came to a good beaten road 
 leading straight to the town, which we should have taken at 
 first. I showed this to the jigit, who then explained that 
 he had desired to show us the bazaar. We soon found by 
 inquiry of those whom we met that even this was not the direct 
 road, but was the road to Aravan ; that the direct road to 
 Naukat was perfectly practicable for carts, although ascending 
 a short steep hill of no extreme difficulty. As we were told 
 that the road we were then travelling was only thirteen miles 
 longer, we, wrongly as it turned out, concluded it better to go 
 on than to return. We skirted along some trap rocks, and 
 finally came into a pretty valley about eighteen miles from Ush, 
 where, across a small stream, is the little town of Aravan. We 
 had sent both the jigits on to the village with the Khan's letter, 
 for I would not trust this man alone, and we were therefore met 
 
48 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 by a considerable deputation, including several soldiers, and 
 shown to a house where we could rest. I then sent for the head 
 man of the village, and learned from him that Aravan — which 
 was marked on no map — was on the direct road to Marghilan, and 
 that we were nearly forty miles from Naukat, for which we had 
 originally started, and that there was no cart road either to the 
 mountains or to Naukat. This was disagreeable news, but it 
 seemed easy to procure one or two more horses and to pack our 
 baggage on them, which I resolved to do. I then complained 
 of the jigit who had deceived me, and demanded that he should 
 be sent back to Ush for punishment. He begged for mercy, 
 and confessed that he had purposely misled us, but that he had 
 done so by order of the Serkar, and that, consequently, it was 
 not his fault. The chief of the village told me that his son had 
 gone to the Khan, at Andijan, to consult about the Kirghiz 
 rising, and would be back that day, and that when he came, if 
 he thought it would be right for me to go to Naukat, I should 
 be provided with an escort ; but, that otherwise, I must go on to 
 Marghilan. When this officer came, he of course considered it 
 inadvisable to do as I wished, and said that there really was a 
 war, and that the Khan Zada himself was going on the expedi- 
 tion. I at first had some thought of going back to Ush, and 
 insisting on going at once to Naukat, but as from private in- 
 formation I gathered there really seemed then to be some ap- 
 pearance of war, and as I had but little doubt that my request 
 would be refused, I concluded to make bonne mine au mauvais 
 jeu, and to go straight on to Marghilan and thence back to 
 Khokand. When I sent for the Serkar, to ask for a jigit, he said 
 that we might go to Marghilan on condition that we made no 
 attempt to go to the mountains, as this would be impossible. 
 He then asked me for a pair of spectacles. With regard to our 
 complaints as to the jigit and to my treatment at Ush, he mildly 
 said, 'How are you going to act when you have to do with fools? 
 We find it very hard.' In spite of the refusal of my requests, 
 both the Serkar and his father were so civil and kind, that I 
 could find no fault with them personally. 
 
 We set off at five o'clock from Aravan, and, after travelling 
 nine miles over a pretty road through a cultivated country 
 with low trap hills on each side, we arrived at Ming-Tepe, where 
 we passed the night. Starting at eight o'clock the next 
 
MARGHILAN. 49 
 
 morning and riding fifteen miles, we arrived at noon at the 
 bazaar town of Kua-Kishlak where we had a good large house 
 with a courtyard, evidently belonging to some rich man, for it 
 was better built and cleaner than any I had seen in the 
 country. The rooms, which were prettily decorated, were very 
 cool, so that it was a good resting place. We found the town 
 occupied by soldiery, and on the road we constantly met soldiers 
 armed with matchlocks, in groups of from three to a dozen, 
 some on foot and some on horseback ; many of them were clad 
 in heavy coats of mail. We were told an expedition was going 
 against the Kirghiz from Marghilan under the command of the 
 Bek of Marghilan, Sultan Murad, the younger brother of the 
 Khan, who had been at Kua that day, but had left, just before our 
 arrival, for Andijan, in order to consult with the Khan. Starting 
 about three o'clock under a broiling sun and constantly meeting 
 soldiers on the road, we reached Marghilan — twenty miles 
 further— in the early evening, just before the closing of the gates. 
 
 At about eight miles from Marghilan, we passed the village 
 of Yaka-Tut ; and from that place to the city, the country 
 was a continuous garden. Just outside the gate we were 
 insulted by some natives, and the jigits came near getting us 
 into a fight. 
 
 Marghilan, which contains about 30,000 inhabitants, is 
 surrounded by a high wall, and in almost every street are pretty 
 little mazars, or chapels, built in the Persian style with bulbous 
 domes, mosaic fronts, and much alabaster fret-work. These 
 give to the town a bright and cheerful air. The streets of the 
 bazaar are chiefly covered over as at Khokand, and the bazaar is 
 full of fearful smells. 1 
 
 We were shown to a house with a neat courtyard and small 
 
 1 Marghilan was by the old writers called Marghinan. I again quote from 
 Eaber an interesting description : 
 
 'Another [district] is Marghinan, which lies on the west of Andijan, at the 
 distance of seven farsangs, and is a fine district. It is noted for its pomegranates 
 and apricots. There is one species of pomegranate named dana-kalian (or great 
 seed), which, in its flavour, unites the sweet with a sweet acid, and may even be 
 deemed to excel the pomegranate of Semnan. They have a way of taking out the 
 stones of the zerd-alu (or apricot) and of putting in almonds in their place, after 
 which the fruit is dried. When so prepared, it is termed Seikhani, and is very 
 pleasant. The game and venison are here also excellent. The white deer is found 
 in its vicinity. All the inhabitants are Sarts ; the race are great boxers, noisy 
 and turbulent ; so that they are famous all over Maverannahr for their blustering 
 
 VOL. II. E 
 
50 TURKISTAN. 
 
 flower garden, which in its palmy days had been very pretty 
 The rooms were of good size and tastefully decorated with 
 doors and windows in lattice work of arabesque patterns. On 
 one side of the court was a jutting balcony, arid on the other, 
 a large verandah. The Kurbashi in temporary charge of the 
 town refused, however, to do anything more for us, and told 
 us that if we wished for food, we could get it for ourselves in 
 the bazaar, and this we had to do, as the master of the house 
 refused to furnish us with cooking utensils or dishes, or even 
 bowls for tea. Although I was very tired, I was unable to sleep 
 on account of the predatory incursions of various dogs and 
 cats looking for the remains of our supper. I had intended 
 to stay the whole of the next day, but having soon exhausted the 
 sights, and disliking the inhospitable treatment I received, as 
 
 and fondness for boxing, and most of the celebrated bullies of Samarkand and 
 Bukhara are from Marghinan.' 
 
 Mir Izzet-ullah says : ' Here is the tomb of Sekander Jul-Karnain (Alexander 
 the Great). Silk and woollen shawls are very common there, but are inferior to 
 those of Kashmir. The walls of Marghinan aro of clay, and in a "very bad state. 
 There is in the town a lofty minaret built of burned brick.' This minaret I did 
 not see ; it has probably fallen down. 
 
 Nazarof speaks of Marghilan as being entirely unfortified, and says : ' The 
 houses of the city are built of clay without windows. The streets are narrow. 
 There are many great monuments and porticos, some of which are in good preser- 
 vation. In the middle of the city there is a large building like an open temple, 
 inside of which is a red silk banner. The Khokandians consider it very sacred, 
 and have a tradition that it belonged to the Padshah Iskender (Alexander the 
 Great), who, on his return from India, died in the desert, and was buried in this 
 place ; although Plutarch, Arrian, Quintus Curtius, and other commentators agree 
 that he died and was buried in Babylon, in the year 323 B.C. When a new governor 
 is appointed to Marghilan, the clergy take this banner and accompany it with 
 singing through the whole city to the governor with their congratulations. He, 
 as a mark of gratitude, ties to the banner, as a present to the clergy, a piece of rich 
 cloth of gold and various stuffs, and gives them money, bread, and apples. The 
 bazaar is built of several rows of shops, and on two days of the week is crowded 
 from morning till evening. The Government looks strictly after the weights and 
 measures. In this town they manufacture various kinds of goods, among others 
 Persian cloth of gold, velvet, and various Asiatic stuffs, which they send to Buk- 
 hara and Kashgar. From this latter place they receive tea, porcelain, ingots of 
 silver, dyes, and all the best Chinese wares. The inhabitants lead a comfortable 
 and tranquil life. The women are pretty, tall, and very coquettish. They fell in 
 love with the Russian Cossacks, and when they noticed that there were no Asiatics 
 near, they removed the veils from their faces, talked with them, and always praised 
 the Russian law which forbade polygamy. They also pleased the Cossacks. At 
 the sight of a woman, a Cossack always arranged his cartridge-box, and curling his 
 long moustaches, or clanking his sabre, tried to give himself a martial air.' 
 
HARDSHIPS OF THE ROAD. 51 
 
 well as the smells of the bazaar during the heat of the day, 
 I thought it better to go on twelve miles to a little village, 
 called Duvana. 
 
 When we sent for a jigit, the Kurbashi, in spite of the Khan's 
 lettei, refused to give me one ; but after much difficulty 
 we succeeded in hiring the jiglt we had brought from Aravan 
 to go on with us to Khokand. When we were all read} 7 to 
 start the Kurbashi's tardy hospitality at last came in the shape 
 of a dostar-khan with some apricots. The first six miles the 
 road was pleasant, through gardens and fields ; but after that 
 we entered upon a perfectly barren steppe, which extends for 
 over twenty miles and has no water. The village of Duvana 
 we found to be a wretched place, consisting of a few sheds, 
 and thoroughly worthy of the Duvanas or Dervishes who are 
 said to inhabit it. Not a tree was near, and there was no 
 water except that brought from the vicinity of Marghilan, but, 
 fortunately, there was a cool wind blowing and we passed the 
 day pleasantly, leaving there about five o'clock for Khokand. 
 
 About sunset we were caught on the steppe by a furious 
 dust-wind, coming from the west, which almost prevented our 
 breathing. 1 I took refuge in an arba, and let down the 
 felt in front, as we were obliged to face the storm, when 
 suddenly, without the least warning, a violent cold rain came on. 
 Although I wrapped myself up, as be?t I could, in native 
 blankets, I was entirely wet through. The storm soon 
 passed over, and we arrived, at a little after eight o'clock, at 
 the large village of Kara-tepe, where we were unable to find any 
 resting place. The Aksakal was utterly indifferent to us, and 
 said it was none of his business to wait on us, advising us to 
 seize on one of the shops in the bazaar, and turn the people 
 out ; and we were compelled to act on his advice and take 
 possession of the gallery of one of the shops. It was not, 
 
 1 This desert, which surrounds Khokand on three sides, is the same called by 
 Baber, the Ha-Dervish. 'Between Kandbadam and Hodjend there is a desert, 
 named Ha-Dervish, where a sharp wind prevails, and constantly blows from the 
 desert in the direction of Marghinan, which lies to the east of the desert, or in the 
 direction of Hodjend, which lies to the west, and this wind is excessively keen. 
 It is said, that certain dervishes having encountered the wind in this desert, and 
 being separated, were unable to find each other again, and perished, calling out, 
 "Ha, Dervish! Ha, Dervish!" and that hence the desert is denominated Ha- 
 Dervish unto this day.' 
 
 E 2 
 
52 TURKISTAN. 
 
 however, so comfortable as might be wished, being infested 
 by scorpions. As I'was thoroughly wet through, I was obliged 
 to change my clothes : the act outraged Mohammedan pro- 
 priety and brought down upon me the curses and abuse of 
 all the neighbours. After this, they refused us permission to 
 purchase pilaf, or even hot water for our tea. We had a 
 long dispute and finally had to send again to the Aksakal, and 
 get him out of bed — it was then quite late — when he compelled 
 the people of the nearest shop to furnish us with what we wanted. 
 
 The weather having become brighter, and the moon being 
 out, we started at half past twelve, and after travelling slowly 
 the whole night, on account of the muddy roads, we reached 
 Khokand at half past five in the morning. It was already very 
 hot, and the streets were frightfully filthy and muddy, it having 
 rained there, as we were informed, for three days in succession, 
 a most unusual occurrence. 
 
 On going again to my friends at the Zekat Sarai, I found 
 
 that F and his party had already arrived, having been to 
 
 Namangan, and having made a short trip into the mountains, 
 where he had, as he supposed, accomplished his business 
 successfully. I surmised, however, from my experience, that 
 the agreemeut between him and the Khokand authorities 
 would not be carried out in the way be expected ; and it after- 
 wards proved that the timber furnished was by no means of the 
 quality which had been shown him, by which he was put to 
 great embarrassment and loss. 
 
 F was then leaving, but, as my horses were tired, I 
 
 was obliged to wait until the following day. 
 
 That day, Wednesday, July 9th, the Mekhter sent his 
 secretary to me, saying he would like to see me, and I was asked 
 various questions about what I had done, and what had occurred, 
 and a fear was expressed that I was angry and dissatisfied. 
 I related in general terms what had happened, and said that 
 I had not at once presented myself to the Mekhter, because I 
 was feeling unwell, but that I should come to him presently 
 and take leave. When I went to see him, he was unwilling to 
 allow me to depart, and said that I had promised, on my return, 
 to go back to the Khan, who was now at Andijan, and wished 
 to see me personally, in order to talk with me about various 
 subjects, and to give me a letter for General Kolpakofsky. I 
 
THE MEKHTER'S OBJECTIONS. 53 
 
 told him that I had never promised to return to the Khan, 
 as he had said ; and that after the insults which I had received 
 on the road, I should certainly not do so, as I had no wish to 
 expose myself to them again ; that if the Khan were desirous 
 of seeing me, he should have received me as he ought to have 
 done when I went to Utch-Kurgan on his order, expressly to 
 see him ; that in not giving me a personal audience, he had 
 treated me with great impoliteness, and had paid but slight 
 regard to the letter of introduction which I had brought him 
 from the Eussian authorities. I then told him in detail of all 
 that had happened on the road. The Mekhter made excuses 
 for my being misled and deceived, and tried again to persuade 
 me to go to the Khan, saying, among other things, that General 
 Kolpakofsky would be sure to ask me what he looked like, and 
 that I could not tell him unless I had seen him ; to which I said, 
 that I had done my best to see him, and it was not my fault 
 that I had not. He then asked me, at all events, to wait in 
 Khokand for some days until he sent to the Khan to know if I 
 could be allowed to depart ; that if I wished to go to Andijan, 
 a jigit would be at my disposal to take me at once, but that 
 he would not give me one to go to Tashkent. I refused all 
 these propositions, and after a long dispute, I told him I ex- 
 pected to start that afternoon for Tashkent, where I had reasons 
 for being as soon as possible, and where I should relate all that 
 had happened ; and if there were any leave-taking necessary for 
 the Khan, I would write a letter from Tashkent, bidding him 
 farewell ; and further, that if he prevented my departure, lie must 
 take the responsibility upon his own head. He was extremely 
 angry at this, and finally said that he had asked me enough, 
 and that if I chose to be impolite, he would have nothing more 
 to do with me. 1 
 
 It was reported in Khokand that it was perfectly true that 
 there had been some slight disturbance with the Kirghiz, but 
 that the affair had entirely terminated. The Mekhter pro- 
 fessed to have information that forty of the leading insurgents 
 
 1 A year after, the Mekh*er was accused of stealing from the customs' receipts, 
 and was sentenced by the Khan to be suspended to a wicker bridge and trampled 
 on, as a sort of ordeal. Luckily for him he escaped alive, and was thus supposed to 
 have proved his innocence. Subsequently, he was poisoned by order of the Khan. 
 See Appendix I. at the end of Vol. I. 
 
54 TURKISTAN. 
 
 had been captured, and were shortly to be brought to Khokand 
 for execution ; and Yevraf, the Russian refugee, tried to persuade 
 me to stay, by telling me that not only should I thus have a 
 chance of seeing a wholesale execution, but that the discontent 
 in the city was so strong against the Khan and government, 
 that it was possible there would be a general insurrection, 
 which would terminate in the plunder of the houses in the 
 neighbourhood, and possibly of the bazaar. Having, however, 
 made up my mind to depart, I left that afternoon with only 
 my own interpreter, the jigit, and the cart-driver, and arrived 
 towards morning at Bish-aryk. YVe stopped there in a caravan- 
 serai, and the next afternoon I arrived at Makkram. I thought 
 that I would once more try my passport, so as to see whether 
 the Mekkter kad sent any orders against letting me pass, and 
 I was relieved on finding myself kospitably received by the 
 Bek, altkougk I did not see kirn. I was provided witk a large 
 garden and plenty of fruit, and was furnished witk supper. A 
 large number of tke inhabitants came in to see me, and as I 
 had made up my mind to start about midnight, everybody 
 lay down to sleep on the terrace, while waiting until I was 
 ready to start. Riding all night, I reached Hodjent at about 
 ten o'clock the next morning, after an absence of nearly a 
 month. 
 
 My journey had been in many respects disagreeable, but 
 not altogether profitless. I had acquired a knowledge of what 
 native rule was, and I had learned the extent and the character 
 of the influence exerted by Russia on its neighbours. 
 
 The Khanate of Khokand is an almond-skaped valley, in 
 extreme length, from Makkram to Uzgent, about 160 miles, 
 and in extreme widtk about 65 miles, surrounded on all sides 
 by mountains and mountain plateaus, which narrow down to 
 small hills at the narrow end near Hodjent, where there is the 
 only road into the Khanate practicable for wheeled vehicles. 
 It was early known as Davan (Ckinese Ta-wan) from its 
 mountains and passes, and was celebrated among tke ancients 
 as tke fertile valley of Fergana, owing its fertility in part to 
 the river Syr Darya, which, joined by the Naryn, flows through 
 its whole length, leaving about two-thirds of the country to 
 the south. The Syr Darya, in its lower course, is useless for 
 
CHARACTER OF THE COUNTRY. 55 
 
 irrigating purposes, being enclosed between higb banks ; and 
 the country is watered only by small streams which come down 
 from the mountains, but which are exhausted before they reach 
 the river. From the upper portion of the Syr Daiwa numerous 
 canals have been diverted for purposes of fertilisation ; two of 
 them, — the Khan canal, and the Mussulman Kul canal, — in re- 
 cent times. The mountains to the south consist of a vast plateau 
 rising into peaks of 19,000, and even 25,000 feet, and containing 
 many glaciers, known usually as the Alai and Kitchi Alai ranges, 
 although called the Southern Khokand mountains by Fedtchenko, 
 the only person who has ever explored them. 1 Through this 
 mountain range are several passes, leading into Karategin and 
 Kashgar, all accessible with difficulty. The Kendyr Tau range, 
 which separates Khokand on the north from the Russian posses- 
 sions, is by no means so high, and has one or two good roads, 
 especially one going to Tashkent, across the western extremity, 
 and another from Namangan to Aulie-ata. Nearly the whole 
 of the valley is fertile, with the exception of the sandy waste 
 which surrounds the city of Khokand. Although it is proper 
 to speak of Khokand as being one large valley, it is, in reality, 
 a series of small oblong valleys separated by low narrow ranges, 
 usual]y of trap, which, on the southern side of the river, seem 
 
 1 The Lite Mr. Fedtchenko, who carried on explorations in Central Asia for 
 several years under the auspices of the Imperial Society of Lovers of Natural 
 History, was in Khokand in all about two months and a half during June, July, 
 and August, 1871, and beside his wife, was accompanied by an assistant, a fowler, 
 and an interpreter. After having obtained the Khan's permission for his journey, 
 he went from the city of Khokand to Ispara (the old Asfara), and thence south 
 through Varukh to Jiptyk, a pass 12,500 feet high, where he discovered and ex- 
 plored the Stchurofsky glacier, not far from the glacier of the Zarafshan. Re- 
 turning to Varukh he proceeded eastward to Sokh, on the road to Karategin, and 
 then to Shahimardan, whence he went southward nearly to the Kara-kujuk pass, 
 although he was prevented from penetrating into Karategin by the official who 
 accompanied him. He succeeded, however, in crossing the Alai chain at Isfairam, 
 a pass 12,000 feet high, and went as far as the village of Kurgan, on the river 
 Kyzyl su, in the basin of the Amu Darya. Turning back, he proceeded through 
 the mountain ranges to Ush, went thence to Gultcha, Uzgent, and Andijan, and 
 returned by the way of Namangan and Tuz. A memoir on the chief incidents and 
 discoveries of his journey appeared in the 'Proceedings of the Imperial Russian 
 Geographical Society,' in 1872, vol. viii. No. 1. Since his unfortunate death, a 
 complete account of his travels in Khokand has been edited by his wife, the first 
 part of which was published in St. Petersburg in 1875; the second part has not 
 yet appeared. Six parts of the scientific descriptions of the collections of Natural 
 History made by him, have a 1 so been published. 
 
56 TURKISTAN. 
 
 always to run from east to west. Thus Marghilan is in its own 
 little valley, Ush is in another, and the villages between them 
 seem each to lie in a separate valley between rocky ridges. 
 
 The climate is more equable than in the districts of Russian 
 Turkistan, being warmer in winter, when but little snow falls, 
 and that late. On summer days the difference in heat between 
 Khokand and Tashkent is hardly perceptible, but the nights 
 are always cool and comfortable, and I found none when it was 
 uncomfortable to sl^ep under heavy blankets. 
 
 The mountains of the Khanate abound in minerals ; coal 
 formations have been seen cropping out near Isfara, and in 
 some of the northern mountains, while naphtha and petroleum 
 wells have been found in many places, especially on the north- 
 eastern frontier, near Ketmen-tepe. It is said that copper, 
 lead and iron, as well as inferior turquoises, are also to be 
 found. 
 
 Owing to the fertility of the soil and the excellence of the 
 climate the agriculture of the Khanate is in a most flourishing 
 condition. Wheat, millet and barley are largely cultivated, 
 the last of poor quality and used only for the food of horses. 
 Rice grows in great abundance everywhere, as also lucerne ; 
 but the two chief products of the Khanate are cotton and silk, 
 which are also the main articles of export. In point of 
 agricultural wealth, Khokand will, I think, not be found in- 
 ferior even to the valley of the Zarafshan, and it will be possible 
 to give a greater development to its resources by extending 
 the irrigation system, and bringing additional land under 
 cultivation. 
 
 The population of the Khanate is probably less than a 
 million, and is sharply divided into two classes, the settled 
 and the nomad. The settled class inhabits only the open 
 valley, and, with the exception of Namangan, and a few towns 
 to the north of the Syr Darya, occupies but a narrow zone 
 between that river and the foot-hills, in which most of the 
 towns are situated. The settled population are chiefly Uzbeks; 
 but m Khokand and the region of the west there is a 
 considerable number of Tadjiks, and, as in all of the large 
 towns of Central Asia, there are among them numbers of 
 Hebrews and Hindoos, and occasionally a few Afghans. The 
 nomads, whose hostility to, and rivalry with the settled popula- 
 
GOVERNMENT OF THE KHAN. 57 
 
 tion has been the cause of all the intestine troubles of Khokand, 
 are either Kara-Kirghiz or Kiptchaks ; in all they would not 
 number more than 300,000. The Kiptchaks, a warlike tribe 
 of Uzbeks, live to the north of the Naryn, and in the neighbour- 
 hood of Andijan. 1 The Kara-Kirghiz or Buruts, of whom I 
 shall speak more especially afterwards, inhabit not only the 
 mountains to the north of the Syr Darya, but also, and more 
 especially, those to the south, cultivating the land along the 
 foot-hills, and in the summer, driving their flocks for pasture 
 into the higher plateaus and mountain valleys. 
 
 Khokand is governed arbitrarily by the Khan, although 
 the various towns and provinces are intrusted to Beks who 
 have almost absolute power, with the exception of that of life 
 and death ; decisions in these cases being made only by the 
 Khan. They collect most of the taxes and disburse them 
 themselves, being responsible for the administration of the 
 government, and the support of their shares of the army. There 
 are, however, certain taxes which are the right of the Khan, 
 and with which the Beks have nothing to do ; and besides this, 
 although they are not obliged to account to him for any 
 money they get, they are expected to give him presents once 
 or twice a year. The exactions of the Khan were one of the 
 causes of the discontent of the population, which broke out 
 into so many rebellions, one of which has at last been successful. 
 The following extracts from a letter written in 1874 by a 
 native will show how reasonable the complaints were. 
 
 ' To keep the roads in repair, to build houses for the 
 Khan, to cultivate his gardens and to clean out the canals, 
 men are seized in all parts of the country and forced to work. 
 These get no pay, not even their food ; and besides this, when 
 half a village is forced to work, the other, half is compelled to 
 pay a tax of two tengas {lid.) a day for each man during his 
 work. Anyone who runs away or who refuses to pay is whipped. 
 Sometimes people have been whipped to death, and others 
 have been buried alive in the place of work. This same forced 
 
 1 The Kiptchaks are believed to be ancient Comanians, the Polovtsi of the 
 Russian chronicles, and the name Desht-i-Kiptchak was given to the whole Kirghiz 
 steppe. It is curious that Abdurrahman-Avtobatcha, the leader of the recent re- 
 bellion (1875) in Khokand, in one of his proclamations, uses this appellation, 
 which had hardly been heard since the Middle Ages. 
 
58 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 labour existed under previous Khans, but with less cruelty, and 
 the workmen at least received their daily food. Formerly, 
 the inhabitants had the right of collecting without pay grass, 
 reeds and brushwood ; now, everyone is obliged to deliver to 
 the Khan the half of what he collects, and these articles are 
 then sold by the Serkar at fixed prices. Besides this, every 
 cart load of reeds or brushwood must pay at the entrance of 
 the town half a tenga (2fcL), and at the bazaar a tenga {5id.) 
 more. Leeches were formerly free, but now the Klian makes 
 people pay for them four tcheka {^d.) a piece to the official 
 who lives near the pond where they are. When cattle are 
 sold, besides the ordinary zekat there must be paid to the- 
 Khan one tenga each on horned beasts, half a tenga on sheep, 
 two tengas on camels, and one tenga on horses or asses. All 
 imported merchandise, besides the zekat of one fortieth part, 
 or '2\ per cent., pays in addition 5 per cent, of the price to the 
 Khan ; this is called aminiana. Silk and cotton, when 
 exported, pay 10 tengas per camel-load. In sales on the 
 bazaar, men's and women's clothing, beds and silk stuffs and 
 other valuable objects }3ay half a tenga a piece; things of 
 less value, from one eighth to one quarter of a tenga. Soldiers 
 of the Khan are set every night to guard the shops, and for 
 this each shop must pay from two to ten tengas every four 
 months. On grain sold at the bazaar four tchekas (j^d.), 
 a tcharik (180 lbs.) must be paid. Vegetables and melons and 
 fruit pay from one to three tengas a load. This tax is called 
 tek-jai, or right of selling at the bazaar, and is in addition to 
 the haradj and tanap (land tax). Milk, sour cream, &c. must 
 pay a farthing a cup. Of every pair of ducks or wild geese sold 
 at the bazaar, the Khan takes one. On domestic fowls a farthing 
 each is paid ; and a tcheka (^ farthing) for every ten eggs. From 
 time immemorial the tribe of Liuli has got its living by 
 amusing the people, and leading monkeys, bears and goats 
 through the streets and villages. This means of earning 
 their livelihood has now been taken from them by the Khan, 
 who lias made it a source of revenue for himself. Khudayar 
 has set his agents over them, and has increased the number of 
 animals. On every bazaar day, in the large towns three times 
 a week, his showmen go through the bazaar with monkeys, 
 bears, wolves, hogs, goats and foxes ; every shop must pay four 
 
TAXES AND EXACTIONS. 59 
 
 tckekas. The buffoons of the Khan also go through the bazaars, 
 and all that they get goes to pay his kitchen expenses. 
 When an Imam is appointed to a mosque, he must pay the 
 Khan ten tengas ; and a Sufi must pay five tengas, or neither 
 of them will be permitted to perform his functions. If the 
 Khan learns that there is a family feast, or a circumcision, or 
 a wedding he sends his musicians there. The master of the 
 house must give each of them a gown, and besides, from two 
 to five tillas (18s. to 45s.) for the Khan. Every spring, out- 
 side of Khokand, there is a popular festival, called Dervish- 
 khana; and then every guild must felicitate the Khan and 
 make him a gift of money, according to its means, from 100 to 
 1,000 tillas (A51. to 4501). If this were not done the leaders 
 would be beaten and tortured. If the Khan desires a piece 
 of ground, or a garden, belonging to a private person, he forces 
 him to sell it, only paying him the price at which it was 
 originally bought, and taking no account of the present value 
 of the land or of the improvements made on it. Every person 
 wishing to leave the Khanate presents a petition and obtains 
 a pass, for which he pays two tengas. This pass is then pre- 
 sented to the Makhram, who receives one tenga, and at every 
 station on the road an additional tax must be paid. The 
 receipt of the taxes on grass, brushwood, and leeches, as well as 
 on pasturage, which is l^d. per month, for every head of cattle, 
 is entrusted to Sydyk Kuitchi, who pays to the Khan annually 
 20,000 tillas (9,0001). The haradj, or harvest tax, gives yearly 
 300,000 tchariks (a million bushels) of grain which are sold by 
 the Khan. In each district there is a special officer for this. 
 The district of Skarikana gives 9.000 tchariks, Balikytchi 
 100,000, Sokh 14,000, Nerkent 12,000, &c. The tanap, or 
 tax on gardens and orchards, produces 60,000 tillas (18,000£). 
 The Serkar receives the tolls on the Syr Darya, between 
 Balyktchi and Tchil-Makhram, the taxes on provision sales in 
 the bazaar, on the registration of marriages, which comes to 
 half a tilla (4s. 6d.), the tax on inheritance, one fortieth part, 
 and the tax on making salt ; and he pays annually to the Khan 
 20,000 tillas (9,0001). The zekat on the country people and the 
 nomad tribes, entrusted to Tchertchi-Bashi, gives 11,000 tillas 
 (4,850l). The Mekhter who collects the zekat from the 
 merchants, pays over 35,000 tillas {15,7501). The caravan- 
 
60 TURKISTAK 
 
 serais and shops built by the Khan, which number over 
 a thousand, are farmed out to a man named Issaie, and bring 
 into the treasury 30,000 tillas (13,500/). The cotton tax and 
 the brokers' tax bring in 10,000 tillas (4,500/). The oil- 
 presses, grain markets, silk markets, hay markets, and milk 
 markets, bring 5,000 tillas (2,250/). The exactions from 
 marriages and ecclesiastical nominations bring in also 5,000 
 tiUas.' 
 
 After this, it is not to be wondered that Kbudayar Khan 
 was able to leave Khokand with a fortune estimated at a 
 million of pounds sterling ; and is in a position to give, as he 
 has done, magnificent balls at Orenburg, his present place of 
 abode. 
 
 Not with regard to taxes alone, but in every other respect, 
 the Khan was a frightful tyrant. Under him neither virtue 
 nor life was safe. As a young man he was only a debauchee, 
 hut when he overthrew Mussulman Kul, his chief minister, in 
 1853, he became a murderer, and by the wholesale butchery of 
 20,000 Kiptchaks, though he himself had Kiptchak blood in 
 his veins, he excited the hatred of his subjects. One cause of 
 the dislike of the Khokandians for the Kussians was because by 
 their means — at least it was so believed — Khudayar was kept 
 on the throne. 1 
 
 1 For a sketch of the career of Khudayar Khan, and of the recent history of 
 Khokand, see Appendix I. at the end of Vol. I. 
 
BUKHARA. 61 
 
 CHAPTEE X. 
 
 BUKHARA. 
 
 From Samarkand to Shahrisabs— A mountain pass — Kitab — My reception by 
 the Bek — Hospitality and amusements — Shaar — The old Bek — The 
 Bazaar— Recent history of Shahrisabs — Tchiraktchi — Karshi — Its appear- 
 ance and its trade — The Amir's son — The Karshi steppe — The Amir's 
 Camp — Interview with His Majesty — Bukhara — The city — The Bazaar — 
 Commercial importance — My acquaintances — Public sales of slaves — 
 Purchase of a slave — Consequent difficulties — Outwitting the authorities 
 — Unsuccessful effort to go to Tchardjui — The shrine of Bohoueddin — 
 Attempted assassination — Kermineh — The Amir's favourite son — Ziaued- 
 din — Katta Kurgan. 
 
 My journey in Bukhara was in every respect a great contrast to 
 that in Khokand. The country was not so beautiful, hut it 
 showed the impress of an older and a more perfect civilisation. 
 The inhabitants were more amiable and had more refined 
 manners ; but they were also less simple and more ruse. My 
 reception was all I could desire. I was not looked upon as a 
 foreign spy and treated with indifference, if not contumely ; on 
 the contrary, externally at least, I was regarded as an honoured 
 guest, and was feasted and amused. The Bukhariots certainly 
 know what hospitality is, and showed me the best of it. With 
 all that, I do not believe that their real feelings to the Eussians 
 are very different from those of the Khokandians ; but they took 
 a different expression. In Khokand, they were shown by rude- 
 ness and impoliteness ; in Bukhara recourse was had to all the 
 finesse of diplomacy. 
 
 On Monday July 28, armed with letters from General 
 Abramof to the Beks of Kitab and Shaar and to the Amir, I 
 set out from Samarkand on my journey to Bukhara. As the 
 road over the mountains was impassable for wheeled carriages, 
 I had the day before sent my luggage, on a two-wheeled Buk- 
 
G2 TUEKISTAX. 
 
 haran cart, by the longer round-ahout road through Djam. I 
 had with me Andrei, my interpreter, and a Kirghiz jif/it named 
 Koims-Bai, whom I had brought from Tashkent, while another 
 jigit, a Persian, long, lean, and lazy, accompanied the luggage. 
 I was also accompanied by Abdurrahim, the Kurbashi or 
 Police-master of Kitab, who had been in Samarkand on some 
 errand from the Bek to General Abramof. The first sixteen 
 miles, as far as the village of Kara-tepe, I succeeded in accom- 
 plishing in a carriage, although the road, especially as we ap- 
 proached the mountains, was very bad indeed. Here the village 
 authorities had prepared a kibitka in the garden of a mosque, 
 and we soon had green tea and pilaf. Kara-tepe is a small 
 village, or kishlak (winter habitation), as it is called here, 
 situated among the foot-hills of the Samarkand range, and was 
 formerly a frontier fortress erected against incursions from the 
 side of Shahrisabs. It now contains, perhaps, a thousand inhabi- 
 tants, and is devoid of all importance. 
 
 Passing the night here, and starting early the next morning, 
 we followed for several miles the windings of the small clear 
 stream of the Katta-sai, until at last it disappeared, and we then 
 took a zig-zag course up the bare mountain. It was only 
 toward the top that our road became very steep and difficult, 
 on account of the large stones. This northern side of the 
 mountain is not entirely bare, but covered with a short, sparse 
 grass, upon which numerous flocks of sheep and goats were 
 browsing. By the much brighter green of the grass it was easy 
 to mark where the snow had recently melted ; for it lies here till 
 the end of June and middle of July. When we reached the top of 
 the pass of Takhta Karatchi — about 5,200 feet above the sea, a 
 broad flat platform of rock hemmed in on one side by great rough 
 blocks, — we let our horses rest while we enjoyed the beautiful 
 view before us of the valley of Shahrisabs, and of the serrated out- 
 lines of the snowy Hissar range beyond. Kitab, Shaar, and even 
 Yakobak and Tchiraktchi, with their surrounding villages, were 
 plainly seen ; although they looked like forests rather than cities 
 from the numbers of gardens and orchards. Indeed, Shahrisabs 
 means the ' green city.' The southern slope of the mountains is 
 far steeper than the northern, and is of bare gneiss and granite 
 rock. The zig-zag path was full of sharp and jagged bits of rock, 
 so that I found it far easier to descend on foot and have my 
 
A WELCOME. 63 
 
 horse led by a jigit. Indeed, but one of the party had a suffi- 
 ciently strong head to make the whole descent on horseback. 
 What made it more disagreeable was that a violent wind took 
 up the fine particles of the disintegrated rock and enveloped us 
 in clouds of dust. 
 
 In about four hours from leaving Kara-tepe we had crossed 
 the main ridge, and found ourselves on a dusty but tolerable 
 road among the hills, already on Bukharan soil, where we 
 were met by an escort of some twenty men sent by the Bek 
 of Kitab. The chief men of the party placed their hands on 
 their breasts, then took mine, said ' aman ' (the term of 
 welcome for one not a Mussulman), and immediately entered 
 into a long series of inquiries about my health and my journey. 
 Messengers were then sent on in advance, and we rode at a 
 leisurely pace eight miles further to the little village of Kainar, 
 which we reached about noon. Here the serkar, in a scarlet 
 robe embroidered down the back with white, attended by his 
 suite of jigits, showed me into a kibitka which had been put up 
 forme in a court- yard. I had barely time to bathe my face and 
 hands after my dusty ride when a procession entered with a 
 dostar-khan, consisting of nuts, sugar-plums, sweets, loaves of 
 sugar, grapes, and melons, which was speedily followed by green 
 tea, soup, boiled meat, and pilaf. 
 
 Kainar ' is a true kishlak, or winter habitation ; for, in 
 summer the whole population lives in the fields, and the village 
 is deserted. With the exception of the officials, no one was there 
 but a few idlers, who had strolled in from the country to have 
 a look at the Frenghi. After an hour's rest I started out again, 
 and before long descended into the valley and reached Urus- 
 kishlak, or Russian-village, a name coming down from very 
 distant times with a tradition that some Russians had lived 
 there —whether fugitives or suppliant princes at the court of the 
 Mongol conquerors, no one now knows. Here I found waiting 
 for me a new escort, consisting of the sons of the Bek of Kitab, 
 arrayed in the whitest of turbans and the most gorgeous of 
 robes, red shot with gold, and mounted on beautiful, richly 
 caparisoned horses. Again there were bows and hand-shakings, 
 and mutual inquiries after our respective healths and the well- 
 
 1 The name Kainar means ' boiling,' and is given to the village on account of 
 some bubbling springs. 
 
64 TURKISTAN. 
 
 being of our immediate relatives. From here onwards the coun- 
 try was green and inviting, but the wind and the dust-clouds 
 still followed us. Soon we forded the clear river of the Kashka 
 Darya, which gives life and fertility to all this valley as far as 
 Karshi, and had before us on a" little rise of ground the crene- 
 lated and battlemented mud wall (tchim 1 ) surrounding the twin 
 cities of Kitab and Shaar, which together constitute Shahrisabs. 
 Within the gate were gardens and orchards, and it was some 
 little time before we reached the true city wall. 
 
 Kitab differs in no respect from other Central Asiatic 
 towns : there are the same irregular, straggling streets, the 
 same clay houses, the same ditches of water, the same people. 
 As I passed through the streets, and especially through the 
 bazaar, everyone rose to greet me with signs, not only of 
 respect, but of pleasure. As I was leaving the bazaar the guard 
 was called out for me, but. unfortunately for the effect, not 
 quite quickly enough, so that I caught the men in the greatest 
 disorder, running to and fro, hastily adjusting equipments, 
 and trying, with but indifferent results, to stand in a straight 
 line. They wore scarlet coats, black trousers, and black fur 
 caps. Buttons were scattered over the breast in one or several 
 lines, as the wearer's fancy dictated, and on one soldier I 
 noticed buttons which bore the arms and numbers of English, 
 French, German, and Eussian regiments. The words of com- 
 mand were a mixture of English, Eussian, and Turki, and the 
 trumpeter blew his calls in a creditable manner. 
 
 Passing a large medresse, with its trees and its pond, I was 
 taken to a house near by, the residence of my guide, the Kur- 
 bashi Abdurrahim. Here carpets had been spread for me on 
 the balcony, where I could recline on silken mattresses and 
 cushions, and enjoy at my ease the really picturesque sight. A 
 little below me was a platform, also covered with Turkoman 
 carpets, where the sons of the Bek and a few other honoured 
 individuals took their places, sheltered from the sun by large 
 particoloured awnings. Still lower was a square pond, bordered 
 with trees, around which sat groups of people ; then came the 
 large lower court where the horses stood, which was soon filled by 
 a curious crowd, including many Hindoos ; and beyond all, rose 
 
 1 Tchim is literally turf or sod. See ' Note on Tchimkent,' vol i. p. 75. 
 
THE BEK OF KITAB. 65 
 
 mud walls and flat roofs, interspersed with trees. When I had 
 got rid of my heavy riding-boots and my huge Kirghiz leather 
 trousers, servants brought me a dostar-khan of more than 
 twenty dishes. By the rules of Bukharan etiquette this was my 
 entertainment, and no one else could partake of it unless I invited 
 them. Accordingly, after first breaking and tasting a small bit 
 of bread, I loaded a brazen platter with the choicest grapes and 
 apricots, and another with bread and sweets, and sent them 
 with my compliments to the sons of the Bek. When I was 
 beginning to get cool and comfortable the Kur-bashi asked me 
 if I would permit them to show me a dance. As I was perfectly 
 willing to be amused I at once consented, and in a few minutes 
 a dozen boys of different sizes came trooping in, and, after 
 a low obeisance, squatted on the carpet facing me. The 
 musicians tuned up, and the dancing began, and continued 
 without intermission for about two hours, when I graciously — 
 for I had already fallen into the habits of a prince — gave my 
 consent that the entertainment should cease. Had I not done 
 so, I believe the dance-mad natives would have kept it up till 
 the next morning. 
 
 Toward evening I was informed that the Bek was ready for 
 my formal visit, and I accordingly mounted my horse and set 
 out for the ark, or citadel. This is a huge artificial mound, 
 surrounded by high clay walls, and containing two large courts 
 and several houses. In accordance with Bukharan etiquette, I 
 was asked to dismount at the bottom of the steep incline lead- 
 ing up to the citadel. Various officials stood at the top, and the 
 sides as well as the neighbouring streets were lined by soldiers, 
 who gave me a military salute as I passed, with a great fanfa- 
 ronade of trumpets, while a large crowd pressed on after me. 
 At the entrance of the first court I was met by the Bek, Abul- 
 Gaffar. He immediately shook hands with me warmly, and 
 asked after my health and that of General Abramof, and then 
 conducted me into his reception-room, a fine large hall, with a 
 gaily ornamented ceiling, and walls stuccoed in arabesque 
 patterns. Abul-Graffar Bek was a fine-looking man of about 
 fifty-five, with a half-grey beard, and was evidently a person of 
 considerable intelligence. His father was then a very old man, 
 high in standing at Bukhara, and one of the chief councillors 
 of the Amir. The red-covered stools upon which we sat were 
 
 VOL. II. p 
 
66 TURKISTAK 
 
 the same that I had at the house of the Kurbashi, for I saw 
 them being carried in procession after me. The Bek — who 
 was simply dressed in a dark green silk gown — in a very cordial 
 manner inquired about my visit, and why I came, telling me 
 that I did right to go to Bukhara by that route, and thus see 
 their beautiful country. He, as well as the other dignitaries I 
 had met, had his ideas of America ; but they were very in- 
 distinct, for he seemed to think it a place about as large as 
 Bukhara, where people chiefly devoted themselves to the culture 
 of cotton. After repeated compliments and inquiries about my 
 health, he insisted that I should stay at least a day longer, 
 although I had promised the Bek of Shaar, who had sent a 
 special messenger to me, 'hat I would visit him the next day. 
 On leaving, he presented me with a gown of crimson and gold 
 stuff, of the kind worn in Russia by the priests, and of course 
 imported from that country. My interpreter and jigit each 
 received a silk gown. At the door I found, waiting for me, an 
 apparently very fine horse, with a gold-plated bridle, and em- 
 broidered harness. Politeness obliged me to mount and ride 
 him away, although I was nervous at the thought of going down 
 such a steep incline on a strange horse. On taking off the 
 saddle and trappings so that one could see him, I found him to 
 be an argamak to be sure, but very unsound, and worth, perhaps, 
 about three pounds sterling. 
 
 After dinner, the dancing boys were once more introduced, 
 but as I did not care to see them dance again, they merely sat 
 and talked with my host. I allowed my entertainers to send 
 for two or three mas kar abashes, or native comedians, who 
 amused us until late in the night with their comic representa- 
 tions of low life and of animals, constantly calling forth peals 
 of laughter from the spectators. 
 
 The night was cool and I slept till late in the morning. 
 After breakfast I sent Andrei to the Bek with my presents, a 
 piece of green satin for a gown, a box of fancy biscuits and 
 a box of sweets. The Bek kept him some time in con- 
 versation, and asked if I were not a relative of the Emperor, 
 for, although he knew that I was an American, he still 
 seemed to think that I was also a Russian. Shortly after he 
 sent a messenger to request me to write to General Abramof 
 and tell him how well I had been received, saying that he would 
 
 
ENTEY INTO SHAAE. 67 
 
 forward the letter. At the same time, he asked for a pair of 
 spectacles, saying that he was getting to be an old man, and 
 that his eyes were weak, — a request with which I was happily 
 able to comply. I walked out to the bazaar, but it was utterly 
 empty as it was not a market day, and with a temperature of 
 96 degrees Fahr., in the shade, I was very glad to get back to 
 the house, where I found another messenger from the Bek of 
 Shaar, saying that as he had made all his preparations to re- 
 ceive me he would be offended if I did not come that day. 
 Many persons came to talk with me, and one of them inquired 
 about Jura Bek, who was the ruler of the place until the city 
 was captured by the Eussians and given up to the Bukharans. 
 I afterwards found that a rumour had been spread that a friend 
 of Jura Bek had come, and that his popularity was the cause 
 of the anxiety of the people to see me. 
 
 After sending to the Bek to make my excuses for leaving, 
 and bidding farewell to the people who had charge of me, and 
 giving of course the necessary presents, I started for Shaar, 
 which was about six miles to the south-west. The Kurbashi 
 and the Mirshab accompanied me as far as the last mosque 
 between Kitab and Shaar. Passing between highly cultivated 
 gardens and fields edged round with trees I was met at the 
 boundary line by the nephew of the Bek of Shaar, with a large 
 suite, — all dressed in their ivbesof state — who' went through 
 the usual compliments and inq uiries. There were two runners 
 in front, for the custom there was for great dignitaries always 
 to have men running before their horses. I whipped up 
 in order to try to pass them — everybody following my example 
 —but none of us succeeded i» overtaking them. As we ap- 
 proached the city the crowd become very great, several persons 
 came up and shook hands, many bowed very low, especially the 
 Jews, who said in Eussian ' Zclravstvui ?' or ' How do you do ? ' 
 and the Hindoos, who were very obsequious. Near the fortress 
 the crowd was very great, and could with difficulty be kept in 
 order by the police who pushed them constantly back. Notice 
 had been given of my coming, and the whole city was there to 
 see me, and no doubt I amused the people as much as they did 
 me. At the Bek's express desire, I was taken immediately to his 
 palace. At the gate of the citadel, which stands on no eleva- 
 tion, and the earthen walls of which are fast crumbling down, 
 
 F 2 
 
68 TURKESTAN. 
 
 a guard of honour hailed me with a blast of trumpets, and 
 passing them and within the gates through several crooked 
 streets I came to a large open place, where three or four hun- 
 dred soldiers were drawn up in a hollow square to receive me. 
 There was another grand flourish of drums and trumpets and I 
 was astonished by a salute of cannon. Here I was presented to 
 two Ytczbashis, (centurions), wearing gowns made of Cash- 
 mere shawls, with highly wrought silver belts. Dismounting 
 from my horse I walked on with them past the ruins of the 
 Ak-Sarai, the splendid palace constructed by Timur, of 
 which there now remain only the two immense piers of the 
 front arch, solidly built of large bricks, and faced with blue 
 and white porcelain tiles inlaid in arabesques and in large 
 Persian and Arabic inscriptions. 
 
 In the interior court of the palace I was met and heartily 
 greeted by the Bek, Abdul-Karim Divan-Begi, — an infirm old 
 man with trembling hands. We sat down on a large carpet 
 spread on the raised platform at one side of the court, I at 
 one side and the Bek with the two Yuzbashis on my left, the 
 interpreter being at the corner between us. I gave the Bek 
 my letter from General Abramof, and he called a Mirza to 
 read it for him. Pie was exceedingly talkative, seemed anxious 
 to know all about me, and asked me if I were going to meet 
 General Kaufmann ? where I was going next ? how far it was 
 to St. Petersburg ? how much farther to America ? and many 
 similar questions. Among other things, he asked if it were 
 true that the Eussians had given back Khiva to the Khan. 
 ' Now, ; he said, ' that the Russians have taken Khiva, they 
 have taken all the cities possible. I suppose none is left for 
 them to take but England. Have you heard anything about 
 it ? ' I gravely replied that, although I thought the Eussians 
 had no immediate intention of capturing that large city, yet 
 that, with Alluh, all things were possible. I was somewhat 
 amused by this question, but I was afterwards told, that al- 
 though Abdul-Karim was a former tutor of the Amir, he was 
 at that time very ill-disposed towards him, and meant to ask 
 me, in the concealed parabolical way often used in these 
 countries, if the Russians were intending to attack Bukhara. 
 In the meantime, a dostar-khan of more than thirty dishes 
 was brought in, and excellent green tea was served. Besides 
 
THE BEK'S HOSPITALITY. 69 
 
 pilaf cooked in the different ways in vogue there — some of them 
 new to me — and various meats, there was an excellent green soup, 
 made of grape leaves. When I had eaten as much as politeness 
 required the dishes were taken away and sent to the house 
 assigned to me, where I found them spread out on my arrival 
 I cannot say that I was sorry, for the cooking at Shaar 
 was by far the best that I had found in Central Asia. This 
 time I was given two robes, one of them being of cloth of 
 gold. As it was against etiquette for me to mount my horse 
 within the palace, and the Bek was too feeble to come out of it, 
 a large white horse intended for me, covered with an immense 
 embroided cloth, was brought in and shown to me as a present 
 from the Bek, and I was congratulated by his officials. When 
 I had reached the proper distance, I mounted my new horse 
 which could scarcely be induced to move through the soldiers 
 and the dense crowd that constantly hindered our passage 
 through the town. 
 
 I was taken to the house of Seid Merekhor, the chief exe- 
 cutive officer of the Bek, the balconies and platforms of which 
 were covered with Bukhariot embroidered tents and awnings. 
 The platform devoted to me was covered with handsome rugs 
 and was very pleasantly situated. On one side was a rapid 
 stream, muddy to be sure, but the only water that could 
 be had ; on the other, a garden full of mint balm, balsams, 
 portulaca and other old-fashioned flowers, such as I have often 
 seen in old, half neglected country gardens of the West. When 
 I had finished the dinner which I had begun at the palace, I 
 had inflicted on me another dance by ten boys, of whom several 
 had performed the night before at Kitab. As the nephews of 
 the Bek came to spend the evening with me I had to allow the 
 ballet to continue till a late hour. 
 
 The continual firing of the soldiers, who were exercising at 
 the fortress, woke me up at day-light. The tea was bad and 
 the water still worse, for the river, which I had found perfectly 
 clear at Kitab, had not improved by irrigating the fields along 
 the way. I wanted to visit the bazaar and found myself 
 obliged to ask special permission of the Bek, for there seemed 
 to be an impression that something would happen to me if I 
 went out alone. I accordingly sent Andrei, with the usual 
 presents, to get the required permit. He did not return for 
 
TO TURKISTAN. 
 
 nearly two hours, being- kept by the Bek, who gave him break- 
 fast and made use of the time to ask all possible questions about 
 me and the object of my visit. Here as everywhere else my 
 interpreter, who was dressed like a Tartar, was taken for a 
 Mussulman, and the Bek exhorted him to serve his master 
 well, even though he were an unbeliever, and presented him 
 with a large turban suited to the requirements of a learned 
 Mullah. 
 
 Attended by several officials on horseback, and by one 
 runner to clear the way, I set out for the bazaar. It was 
 fortunately bazaar-day (here Thursday), and the whole town, 
 but especially the bazaar, was densely crowded. With the ex- 
 ception of one round building, with passages radiating from 
 the centre, where fine cotton and silk goods and small articles 
 were sold, the bazaar resembled in all respects those which I 
 had previously seen, each trade, keeping to its own locality. I 
 could find no English goods except a few thin muslins for 
 turbans, but I saw many Russian prints and calico and other 
 cotton goods, although most of the fabrics on sale were of 
 native manufacture. The only things special to the place were 
 skull-caps, embroidered in silk in the same cross-stitch used 
 by our ladies. The horse-bazaar was situated some little dis- 
 tance beyond the gate to the south. The crowd was very 
 respectful and the Jews were all extremely polite, for they 
 understand that the only relief from the restrictions under 
 which they now labour can be obtained by Russian inter- 
 vention. The garden of one of the mosques served as a tea 
 garden and was crowded with merchants and other natives 
 seated on the ground in all varieties of costume and drinking tea 
 served to them by boys. We went in and had a place made for 
 us between two small streams of water, and at once a large ring 
 of curious spectators formed around us. The mirshab who had 
 charge of me introduced some jugglers, one of whom played 
 tricks with a tame snake, while others ate fire, swallowed knives, 
 turned somersaults, and performed other gymnastic feats with 
 large knives strapped to their elbows and knees. This curious 
 scene amused me for nearly an hour, and the rest of the day, which 
 was fearfully hot, I spent at home, listening to two men playing 
 on the dutara, accompanied by a tambourine, and singing Uzbek 
 and Persian songs. I had some conversation with Seid Merekhor, 
 
THE BIRTHPLACE OF TIMUR. 71 
 
 and with his retainers ; but it is difficult talking to Moham- 
 medans, with whom you have nothing in common, and who 
 are watching you with suspicion because you are a foreigner and 
 a Christian. Some of them were much interested to know 
 in what way we punished criminals, and I found that in 
 Shahrisabs, from motives of humanity, they usually cut a 
 man's throat before hanging him. The gallows stands in the 
 sheep-market behind the chief medresse. 
 
 There are said to be in Shaar ninety mosques and three 
 rnedresses, which would indicate a population of about 20,000. 
 Kitab, which is somewhat smaller, has about 15,000 inhabitants. 
 Shaar and Kitab being surrounded by one wall, were anciently 
 known by the name' of Kesh, but now, when taken together, 
 are called Shaar-i-Sabz, 1 or the ' Grreen City,' a name given to 
 it even before Baber's time, on account of the gardens. Tirnur, 
 who was born at Kesh, at first intended to make it his capital, 
 but gave up the idea on account of the superior attractions of 
 Samarkand. With the exception of the Ak-Sarai, already 
 spoken of, there are no remnants of Timur's constructions. 
 The palace is a large house, covered with plaster in the ordinary 
 style, although apparently one or two hundred years old, 
 
 1 This should more properly be written Shahr-i-sabz, or even Shehr-i-sebz. It 
 is often pronounced Shehr-scbyz. The word Kitab means 'book,' and Shaar is 
 explained as the same as shahr, ' city ' ; but why these names were ever applied 
 would be difficult to tell. More probably, Kitab is a compound of ab, ' water.' 
 Baber thus describes the city: — 'Another province is Kesh, to the South of 
 Samarkand, at the distance of nine farsangs. Between the cities of Kesh and 
 Samarkand lies a hill called Amak Dayan, from which all the stones brought to 
 the city are quarried. In the spring, the plains, the town of Kesh, the walls and 
 terraces of the houses, are all green and cheerful, whence it is named Shehr-i- 
 Sebz (the Green City). At Kesh was the place of Timur Bek's nativity ; he made 
 incredible exertions to extend and render it his capital. He built a number of 
 magnificent edifices, and, among others, a lofty Twk, or arched hall, for holding 
 his court. On the right and left of this great Tak he constructed two smaller 
 Taks (or arched halls), for the convenience of the Bcks who attended the court, 
 and for the benefit of those who came to wait the result of their applications, 
 smaller Taks and saloons were constructed on all sides of the great hall of audience. 
 There is not in the world any Tak or arch that can be compared with the large 
 one, which is said to exceed even the Tak-e-Kesra. In Kesh there is a college 
 and mausoleum, in which are the tombs of Jehangir Mirza, and of several of his 
 family. As, however, Kesh was found not to possess the same requisites tor 
 becoming a great city as Samarkand, Timur Bek at last fixed on Samarkand as his 
 capital.' 
 
72 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 judging from the carved wooden pillars. None of the mosques 
 seem to be older. 
 
 The inhabitants made a more pleasing- impression upon 
 me than those of the other Bukharan cities, partly perhaps on 
 account of the warmth of their reception. It is evident, how- 
 ever, that the conditions of life there are different from those 
 which prevail in the rest of the Khanate. Slavery has nevei 
 been allowed there ; Shahrisabs, like Magian, Farab ; ana 
 other small Bekships, was until recently nearly always semi- 
 independent, bearing something of a feudal relation to the 
 Amir of Bukhara* The whole of Central Asia has probably 
 never been under one homogeneous rule. Tchinghiz Khan 
 divided his conquest among his children as appanages, and this 
 system was afterwards kept up. We see by the ' Memoirs of 
 Baber ' that in his time the appanage system was in full force, 
 and we know that it existed in Bukhara until comparatively 
 recent times. The effect of the appanage system was to give 
 each province a desire for independence, which in many cases 
 was to a certain extent realised. 
 
 Such was the case with Shahrisabs, and the efforts of the 
 present dynasty of Bukhara have always been to unite the 
 country, and abolish the semi-independence of the outlying 
 parts. With Shahrisabs this was very difficult, for this fertile 
 valley was separated from Bukhara by a desert, and from 
 Samarkand by a mountain range, the passes of which were 
 easily defensible. In the middle of the last century, after an 
 obstinate struggle, Bahim Bii, the Begent of Bukhara, suc- 
 ceeded in getting possession of Shahrisabs, and held it for five 
 years, but after his death the country again rebelled, and fell 
 under the rule of one of the chief families of the Kairosahj, 
 one of the Uzbek tribes of the neighbourhood. In the early 
 part of the present century, Daniar Atalyk, one of the most 
 remarkable of the rulers of Shahrisabs, governed the country 
 for twenty-five years, from 1811 to 1836, with the title of 
 Veli-n-niem. Both Mir Haidar and his son Nasrullah, endea- 
 voured to conquer the country, but met with such opposition 
 from Daniar, that they were obliged to withdraw. Daniar was 
 succeeded by his two sons, Hodja Kul, who reigned in Shaar 
 from 1836 to 1846, and Baba Datkha, to whose share Kitab 
 fell. Dissension broke out between the brothers, and Nasrullah 
 
HISTOKY OF SHAHRISABS. 73 
 
 profited by them to make a new invasion, hut hefore his army 
 had arrived, Hodja Kul had driven out his younger brothei 
 from Kitab, and then repulsed the Bukharans. Angry at this, 
 Nasrullah sent his cavalry twice a year to devastate the meadows 
 of Shahrisabs, and each time a truce was made which lasted till 
 the following foray. On the death of Hodja Kul, in 1846, Kitab 
 passed to his brother Iskender, and Shaar to his son Ashur-Kuli 
 Bek, who was very speedily driven away. Iskender took the title 
 of Veli-n-niem, which he retained until 1856, when, after ten 
 years of constant warfare, Nasrullah succeeded in capturing Shaar, 
 having first blockaded and reduced it by famine. Iskender forti- 
 fied himself in Kitab, but soon surrendered himself to the Amir 
 on advantageous conditions. He was sent with his family to 
 Bukhara, and received the revenues of Kara Kul for his support. 
 The Amir Nasrullah obtained in this way too the sister of 
 Iskender, Aim Keninghez, who was a remarkable beauty, but 
 who had just before been married. The husband was sent to 
 Tchardjui, and the chief families of Shahrisabs were colonised 
 in Tchardjui, Karshi, and other places. Nasrullah died four 
 years later, in 1860, and just before his death ordered Iskender 
 and all his family, including his own wife, Iskender's sister, to 
 be killed, partly perhaps out of vengeance, and partly out of 
 jealousy. 1 
 
 Scarcely had Nasrullah died, when Shahrisabs revolted 
 against his son Mozaffar Eddin, and elected two members of 
 the clan of Keninghez, Jura as Bek of Shaar, and Hakim as 
 Be-k of Kitab. 2 The Amir attacked Shahrisabs, but was obliged 
 to raise the siege, and conclude peace in consequence of an 
 invasion by Malla Khan of Khokand, who had taken Ura-tepe, 
 and was attacking Jizakh. The Beks acknowledged the pre- 
 cedence of the Amir, sent him yearly presents, and assisted him 
 with their troops in case of need, but did not allow him to 
 interfere in the internal affairs of the country. These friendly 
 relations were broken, in 1866, by the disorders consequent on 
 the defeat of the Bukharans by the Russians at Irdjar. Some 
 of the nomadic Uzbeks devoted themselves to wholesale 
 pillage* The Amir was shut up in Samarkand, afraid to show 
 
 1 I have given an account of the execution of Iskender and his sister in vol. i. 
 pp. 75-79. 
 
 2 See vol. i. p. 85. 
 
74 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 himself in Bukhara, where a strong- party had been formed in 
 the interests of his nephew Seid Khan. At last the Amir's 
 party gained the ascendancy, and Seid Khan and the defeated 
 leaders of the rebellion, took refuge at Shahrisabs. Some of 
 them were induced to return on promises of forgiveness, which 
 were at once violated. Jura Bek, therefore, refused to give up 
 Seid Khan to the Amir, and successfully resisted all attacks. 
 Finally the Amir thought it best to conclude peace, by which 
 he paid to each of the Beks 10,000 tengas, and in addition gave 
 to Jura Bek the honorary title of Latkha. Of the relations of the 
 Beks of Shahrisabs to the Eussians and of their attack on the 
 citadel of Samarkand, I have previously spoken, vol. i. p. 241 ff. 
 The final blow to the independence of Shahrisabs was given 
 by the Eussians. In the summer of 1870, during the absence 
 of General Abramof on the Iskender Kul Expedition, a band of 
 marauders attacked Prince Urusof, who was engaged in the 
 collection of taxes, and killed several of the Cossacks forming 
 his escort. Prince Urusof insisted that this attack had been 
 conducted by a certain Aidar Hodja, apparently well known in 
 the region, and in the service of Jura Bek. A message was 
 therefore sent to Shahrisabs demanding his instant delivery. 
 To this Jura Bek replied that he was not bound, either by any 
 law or by his conscience, to deliver up an innocent man ; that 
 neither Aidar Hodja, nor any other inhabitant of Shahrisabs, 
 had taken part in the attack ; and that moreover, Aidar Hodja 
 himself had been at the time in another place. He at the 
 same time wrote that he believed a certain Dervish, coming 
 from Kunduz, had taken part in the attack, and sent to the 
 Eussians a Cossack rifle which had been taken from him. The 
 Eussians still insisted that the leader was Aidar Hodja, and 
 again demanded his surrender. To this letter no answer was 
 received. Geneial Kaufmann therefore decided to make an 
 end of Shahrisabs, and despatched an expedition thither, under 
 the command of General Abramof. Kitab, after a vigorous 
 defence, during which the Eussian loss was heavy, especially at 
 the passage of the river, was taken by storm on August 26, and 
 Shaar immediately surrendered. The Beks fled to Khokand, 
 and Shahrisabs was immediately given up by General Abramof 
 to the Amir of Bukhara, as a proof that the Eussians desired 
 na further conquests. 
 

 TCHIKAKTCHI. 75 
 
 The last evening of my stay my host gave another entertain- 
 ment of dancing and jugglery, his chief secretary supporting a 
 variety of comic parts. 
 
 The next morning, at five o'clock, I went to take leave of the 
 Bek, who received me in a very simple and almost fatherly way. 
 He spoke of his old age and of his sons ; talked much about 
 God and God's will in allowing me to come to see him ; hoped 
 that I had enjoyed myself and sent, as usual, various messages 
 to the Kussian officials. His goodness and simplicity, if not 
 sincerity, made a strong impression on me, and I recall his 
 kind, old face with much pleasure. On leaving Shahrisabs, 
 Seid-Merekhor and his officials accompanied me beyond the 
 gate to the little village of Sharmitan. At the next small village, 
 about six miles from Shaar, I was invited to stop for tea in the 
 Amir's garden. The day was not too warm as there was a cool 
 and pleasant breeze. The road lay through the valley of the 
 Kashka, but the mountains to the south were almost invisible 
 through the haze. About four miles from Tchiraktchi we were 
 met by the retainers of the Bek, who had previously sent a 
 message to me at Shaar to offer me his hospitality, and we 
 went off at a gallop to the town, which is very small and insig- 
 nificant and almost in ruins. The chief bazaar was just op- 
 posite the gate. This place was formerly a dependency of 
 Shahrisabs, but is now governed by a Bek appointed directly 
 by the Amir. Salim Bek, whom I found ruling there, a son of 
 the Bek of Kitab, and a young man of about thirty-five, lived in 
 a mean, low house well situated on the high bank of the river. 
 He was very uncommunicative and seemed greatly under the 
 influence of the Eeis, who was constantly with him (but who, 
 I learn, was soon after removed for misdemeanours), and the 
 usual ceremonial meal, which I took with them, passed in silence. 
 1 was then presented with a horse and a gold embroidered 
 gown, and was conducted to a kibitka, which had been placed 
 for me near two large ponds of clear water, and at a short dis- 
 tance from the river, in the valley underneath the palace, the 
 Bek excusing himself from making any better provision for me 
 on the ground that he had but just entered upon the govern- 
 ment. I had barely got established there when a messenger ar- 
 rived from Karabak, sent by the Serkar, the aid of the Bek of 
 Karshi, desiring me to come on as soon as possible. I sent word 
 
76 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 to the Bek that I would come at once, as it would be pleasanter 
 to travel in the evening ; but Salim Bek was very desirous that I 
 should remain overnight, since he had had dancing boys brought 
 up from Shaar, there being none in Tchiraktchi. As it was 
 evident that he expected to amuse himself in entertaining me, 
 I yielded to his request. My supposition was correct, for in 
 the evening the Bek and the Eeis both arrived, and could 
 hardly wait to finish their tea and melons before they asked if 
 it were not time for the dances to begin. Lamps were lighted 
 and set around a raised platform, and apparently the whole 
 population of the town came down to see the show, until I was 
 forced to tell the Bek that I was very tired as a hint for him 
 to retire and let me put an end to the festivity. At sun- 
 rise the next morning I had a delightful view, — a green valley 
 with villages and fields on the other side of the river, and to 
 the north the mountains of Shahrisabs in two hig-h ridges 
 gradually sloping off to the plain. 
 
 It was a pleasant ride of a dozen miles to Karabak, the road 
 running through the steppe and through cultivated fields con- 
 stantly intersected by ditches, with the river on the right, now 
 near and now far off. The Hissar range was barely visible 
 through the heated air. At intervals I passed country people 
 and encampments of nomadic Uzbeks, and near Karabak I was 
 met by the Serkar of the place with his suite. A Bukharan 
 tent and awning were prepared in a court near a pond, and 
 breakfast had been made ready for me. At noon I left Kara- 
 bak, which is a very insignificant village, and made ten miles 
 more to Sham, where I was lodged in a kibitka beside a dried-up 
 pond in the garden of a mosque. Starting from here about 
 half-past two in the morning, I jogged along quietly, stopping 
 only for a cup of tea and a five minutes' nap under a shed at 
 the large village of Kanavat, six miles from Karshi. Three 
 miles from town I met the assistant of the Bek with his suite, 
 when we all alighted and embraced one another, each, however, 
 taking particular pains not to derogate from his dignity by 
 alighting too soon. I had soon learned whether to dismount 
 first or last, or whether to watch the motions of the dignitary 
 who met me, and so manage it that we should put our feet on 
 the ground at one and the same moment. 
 
 Karshi, which I reached about nine o'clock, is surrounded 
 
karsiii. 77 
 
 like nearly all other towns of Central Asia, by extensive 
 gardens. This seems strange here, as the river is dried up 
 long before it reaches Karshi, although in former times it 
 probably flowed quite to the Amu Darya. The irrigation 
 is carried on in summer solely by means of wells, from 
 which the water is drawn, sometimes by hand, and some- 
 times by rude machines, — wheels bearing earthenware jars. 
 There were many wells along the road as we drew near to 
 Karshi, and men were constantly employed in drawing the 
 water and emptying it into troughs for the use of travellers 
 and their horses. The principal street, into which we imme- 
 diately entered, was originally paved with huge blocks of stone, 
 once probably very well laid, bat now dangerous for an un- 
 practised rider, and I preferred the narrow unpaved strip at the 
 edge. The houses were all of clay, and were frequently two 
 stories high. As I drew neal* to the citadel I was met by the 
 oldest assistant of the Bek, Mirza Iraddin Divan-Begi, a 
 handsome Uzbek, who conducted me to his house in the large 
 square citadel, where he gave me a comfortable room, furnished 
 with two beds, a few chairs, and a table of reasonable height. 
 Usually in these native houses, even where special preparations 
 had been made, the seats were a foot higher than the tables. 
 I was then informed that my proper host, the Bek Nureddin- 
 Khan, the second son of the Amir and heir to the throne, a 
 boy of about eighteen, had gone to Khuzar, a distance of about 
 thirty-five miles. After dinner I was asked to go into the garden, 
 situated at the foot of the hill on which the house stood, where 
 carpets were placed for me in the shade, on the edge of a dry 
 deep pond, there being no running water here except in winter. 
 The Divan-Begi came down to see me, and I had a long talk 
 with him, as well as with several other officials who dropped in, 
 and who, apparently with great willingness, gave me what 
 information they could about the road to Kerki and Hissar and 
 about the country beyond. 1 The evening closed with the 
 usual entertainment. 
 
 1 Since then, in the summer of 1875, a Russian exploring party, although un- 
 fortunately intended rather for the pursuit of decorations than of information, and 
 including no scientific man except an astronomer, visited Hissar and penetrated 
 as far as Kulab. Nothing but a very brief account has yet been published, a 
 translation of which appeared in the 'Geographical Magazine' for November, 1875, 
 
78 TURKISTAN. 
 
 In the morning, I was informed that the Bek had just then 
 returned, but as I had heard no salutes and was unable to find that 
 anyone had gone to meet him, I began to think that his absence 
 was feigned. I was asked if I desired to see him, and replied 
 that I should certainly be very happy to pay my respects to 
 him, although I had nothing special to say to him. The Divan- 
 Begi went to him with this information and returned saying 
 that I should have an interview at one o'clock. At the ap- 
 pointed hour, I sent to the Divan-Begi to say that I was ready 
 to pay my visit, and he went to the Bek to see if he were ready 
 to receive me, but soon returned with many excuses on the 
 Bek's part, that as I had not yet been presented to his father, 
 the Amir, whose guest I was, and as he was only a boy and 
 stood in awe of his father, he did not dare to receive me, but 
 that if I insisted upon it, he would, perhaps, be able to meet me 
 in a casual manner, and hoped that I would not be offended. I 
 replied that my request to see him was dictated merely by 
 politeness and of a desire to conform to Bukharan usages, and 
 that while I would be very glad to make the acquaintance of the 
 heir to the throne, I certainly did not wish to insist upon it. The 
 messenger returned again, saying that the Bek was glad that I 
 was not offended, and would be very well pleased if I would 
 stay longer. He sent me, as a present, five handsome gowns, 
 and a white horse with bridle and trappings, set with cornelians 
 and turquoise. This really was a good horse, and the best 
 I received during my stay in the country, but he nearly broke 
 my neck, by running away with me the first time I tried him. 
 I sent the Bek some presents in return, and excused my hasty 
 departure. From that time until early evening, when I left, I 
 did nothing but receive his treasurer, secretary, and various 
 other officials, who came to make my acquaintance. On my 
 return to Samarkand, I learned that this refusal to see me was 
 owing to wounded pride, caused by the fact that I had not 
 brought a letter of introduction from General Abramof, while 
 I had had letters for the other Beks. It was the result of an 
 oversight on my part, as I refused a letter thinking I should 
 not go to Karshi, but expecting to find a more direct road from 
 Shahrisabs to Bukhara. 
 
 except a list of 67 elevations (some of them truly astonishing) and of 14 astronomical 
 determinations in the 'Turkistan Gazette,' No. 49, 1875. 
 
TEADE AT KAESHI. 79 
 
 During the morning, I rode about the city, which is a large 
 straggling place, although as it was not a bazaar day it seemed 
 nearly deserted. Not far from the citadel were three rue- 
 dresses, Ali, containing accommodation for 130 students — Ab- 
 dullah Khan, with room for 80, and Biki, intended for 100 
 students. Turning from the square, I came to a sardoba, a 
 curious large cistern, covered by an arched building, close by 
 which was a domed bath, the best, if not the only one in the 
 place. The bazaar was chiefly under cover, with paved streets. 
 But few goods were to be seen. 
 
 On market days, however, a large business is done in this 
 bazaar. The fields about Karshi are full of poppies, planted for 
 the seed and the capsules, and of tobacco, that of Karshi being 
 considered the best in Central Asia. Mulberry trees grow every- 
 where, although but little silk is produced. Karshi is a great 
 centre of the grain trade, being one of the chief places for 
 supplying the Bukharan market, grain being brought here 
 from all points in the fertile valley of the Kashka Darya, and 
 even from further off in the neighbourhood of Hissar, and 
 transported to Bukhara. Near Karshi too are the mines of that 
 peculiar, excellent, rose-coloured rock-salt, which is largely sold 
 throughout the whole of Central Asia. It is obtained in the 
 mountains about ten miles to the south of Karshi. Although 
 Karshi lies on the direct road of the trade between India, 
 Afghanistan and Bukhara, it derives no advantage from it, all 
 merchandise being taken directly to Bukhara without being- 
 opened ; some articles, such as tea, being afterwards sent back to 
 Karshi. For this reason tea and Indian wares are dearer there 
 than at Bukhara. Karshi is also the chief market for Turkoman 
 goods, and especially for their excellent carpets ; although most of 
 them seem to be sent on to Bukhara where they can be sold at 
 a greater profit, and at this season of the year I was unable to 
 find any there. There, too, is one of the chief markets for slaves. 
 I asked to see the slave market and was shown the sarai, but 
 saw no slaves, though I was told that the next day (Tuesday), 
 being bazaar day, some would probably be brought in for sale. 
 Near the bazaar is another medresse called the Medresse Sarai. 
 After passing through the western gate of the city I went round 
 the town through the gardens to a large mosque, on the south 
 side, which is especially used during the month of Ramazan and 
 
80 TURKISTAN. 
 
 at the festival of K urban, when its large gardens are filled with 
 people, who combine their prayers with dancing and other 
 amusements. The inside was very plain, consisting of nine 
 stone vaults. The front of the mosque was very handsome and 
 well proportioned, and was covered, as was also the cupola, 
 with blue and white tiles arranged so as to form texts from the 
 Koran ; but wherever hands could reach, even on the cupola, the 
 coloured glaze had been designedly and wantonly scratched off, or 
 the bricks knocked out. From the top I had a fine view of the 
 town and of all its surroundings. This mosque was built about 
 three hundred years ago, by Biki, a simple Uzbek, who ivas 
 made a Bii and governor of Karshi by Abdullah Khan, because, 
 when that monarch had once lost his way during a hunt, this 
 Biki had met him, put him in the right track, and shown 
 him the greatest civility without knowing his rank. This was 
 the same Biki who constructed the medresse bearing his 
 name. 
 
 Soon after leaving the town, on the road to Bukhara, W6 
 crossed the then dry bed of the river on a bridge of nine brick 
 arches, built by Abduilah Khan. The arches have all fallen 
 in but the brick piers remain, and a wooden bridge has been 
 constructed upon them. I was told that in the spring, the 
 water rises so high as to float away the roadway of the bridge, 
 which is replaced when the water has fallen. After riding 
 about eighteen miles in four hours through a well cultivated 
 country, I arrived at Karsan, a very large village, and, through 
 the stupidity of the messenger who had been sent ahead, had 
 to wait sometime in the dark streets of the bazaar, so that 
 it was nearly midnight before I could find the place prepared 
 for me. I was at last admitted to the garden of a mosque, 
 where I had supper, and, for the first time, found it almost too 
 cool to sleep in the open air. 
 
 It is difficult to exaggerate the unpleasantness of the jour- 
 ney from Karshi to Bukhara. During the whole distance, after 
 leaving Karsan, there is absolutely nothing but sand and a few 
 ruined stations over wells of bad water, which date, as everything 
 is said to date here, from the time of Abdullah Khan. The 
 heat was intense, and a strong wind constantly drove the fine 
 sand into our eyes and nostrils, and made riding very uncom- 
 fortable. Frequently the road was so drifted over with sand as 
 
THE KARSHI DESERT. 81 
 
 to be entirely lost, although there was usually visible in the dis- 
 tance the dome of some cistern, or some natural object, by which 
 to mark the way. Fortunately for me, tents had been erected 
 at most of the stations, and other preparations had been made 
 to receive me, with plenty of fresh water, fruits, and eatables ; 
 but for this I should have found the journey very difficult. It 
 was necessary to ride as much as possible early in the morning, 
 and then, resting at some station during the heat of the day, 
 to travel again in the evening. As I had with me the arba for 
 my luggage I could, when too tired, lie down in that, spread a 
 piece of felt to keep the sun and wind out, and get a little 
 sleep. The stations are still the same as those given in the list 
 of Khanikof. 
 
 On the morning of the second day, I arrived at the large 
 station of Karaul, the Caravanserai of which is in tolerably 
 good repair ; it consists of a number of vaulted rooms, sur- 
 mounted by low domes, around a square court. I found here a 
 large guard ; — I had had an escort for the two last stations 
 on account of the supposed danger from the Turkomans, 
 who, it is said, at times make raids on the caravans going to 
 Bukhara. Preparations were being made here to receive the 
 Amir, who was on his way to Karshi and Shahrisabs. We had 
 been told along the road that he had already left Bukhara for 
 the gardens, and that he was expected here in five or six days' 
 time, but about noon a man came to say that the Amir was 
 some eighteen miles from the station of Karaul, and that if I 
 wished to see him I must either go at once or wait there until 
 the morning. I sent back word that when it got a little cooler 
 toward evening, I would come to the Amirs camp, but that 
 had I known he was coming I would have waited for him in 
 Karshi. A couple of hours after, the man returned with an 
 answer, saying that his message was not believed. 
 
 "When I finally summoned up courage to brave the heat, I 
 found that the advance guard of the Amir had just arrived, and 
 for fully five miles I passed large bodies of troops straggling 
 on at intervals, I should think about 8,000 men in all. It was a 
 most curious army, — men in every kind of uniform, some on foot, 
 some on horses, camels, or donkeys, often several on one animal, 
 and as they were on the march, of course keeping no order. Most 
 of the men were armed with matchlocks, but a few had flint and 
 VOL. II. G 
 
82 TUEKlSTAi T . 
 
 percussion muskets, and many pikes and swords. There. were 
 several cannon, the smaller pieces being dismounted and carried 
 on camels, and there were three large heavy guns, drawn by 
 horses and camels. The troop of young nobles, part of the 
 special body-guard of the Amir, displayed more order, and were 
 much more richly dressed. They had with them a band, com- 
 posed of a large number of drums, trumpets, and clarionets, and 
 displayed many banners, one of them, I remember, being a 
 red tea-pot on a white ground. There were many Afghans 
 among the soldiers, recognisable at once not only by their fea- 
 tures but by their long black hair. One of them began to 
 threaten and revile us, and it was with difficulty that the 
 officials with us prevented a conflict. At last, after passing over 
 some low rocky hills, and marching through deep sand, we saw 
 before us some pools of brackish water looking like silver in the 
 sunset, and near by the guard of the Amir regularly drawn up 
 near a mud enclosure, where he kept those of his harem who 
 were selected to travel with him. 
 
 After passing the artillery, I was shown to a small green 
 t^nt at a little distance from the lest of the camp, and tea, fruit 
 and pilaf were immediately brought to me. The Mirza-bashi, or 
 Secretary of the Amir, and Mohammed Sherif Taksaba, 1 a son 
 of the Kush-Begi or Grand Vizier, came to see me. After answer- 
 ing the Taksaba's numerous inquiries, I told him I had a letter 
 to the Amir from General Abramof, but that it was in my arba, 
 which had not yet arrived, and that I would send it to him as 
 soon as it came. He said ' No,' — I had better deliver it myself 
 to the Amir, who would receive me for that purpose. Being 
 very tired, I soon went to sleep, although my rest was broken at 
 intervals by the noise and singing of the soldiers. 
 
 I was awakened at four o'clock by the Mirza-bashi with the 
 statement that the Amir was desirous of starting at once for 
 Karshi, and that he wished to see me before going, so that 
 I must dress and go to him immediately. After making myself 
 ready, I was told to wait until I was sent for. I waited in vain 
 until 9 o'clock with increasing ill-humour, when I sent for the 
 Taksaba, to ask the reason of this delay. He came to me im- 
 
 1 Tdksaba is a rank nearly equivalent to colonel. Mohammed Sherif, besides 
 being in attendance on the Amir in case of the reception of foreigners, was the 
 ohief Zekatchi, or customs collector. 
 

 MOZAFFAR-EDDIN, AMIR OF BUKHARA. 
 
INTERVIEW WITH THE AMIR. 83 
 
 mediately and said that the Amir was taking a nap, and that 
 the delay was entirely my fault ; that the Amir had been very 
 anxious to see me the night before, but had not done so because 
 I had not my letter of introduction with me ; and that he, the 
 Taksaba, had come to me early in the morning, but had feared 
 to wake me ; and that the Amir was waiting here a whole day, 
 merely to suit my convenience. I replied that, I was only 
 waiting for the Amir, and gave him my letter of introduction, 
 which he carried off, saying that he thought that the Amir 
 would receive me after he had breakfasted and finished his 
 morning business ; meanwhile, I was requested not to leave my 
 tent. At last about noon, we were told that the Amir was awake, 
 and was bathing, and in about half an hour, I was sent for. 
 
 As the distance was very short, we walked ; but as there 
 was no other shelter from the sun, I raised my umbrella, which 
 seemed to displease the Taksaba, who considered it, perhaps, an 
 infringement of the Amir's prerogatives. However, in spite of 
 all his remonstrances, I kept it up until I reached the door of 
 the Amir's tent, for I was convinced that the more I asserted 
 my dignity and stood up for my rights, the better I should get 
 on. I think that I was right. As I drew near, the masters of 
 ceremonies with their long wands, uttered the usual loud cry, 
 ' Khuclai Hazreti Amirni Mozaffar Mansul Kylsun ' — ' Grod 
 make his majesty the Amir Mozaffar powerful and victorious.' 
 On such occasions it is usual for the masters of ceremonies to 
 drag along the person who is to be presented to the Amir, but 
 my presentation being somewhat informal, they contented 
 themselves with merely touching my arm. The officials re- 
 mained outside, and I and my interpreter entered alone. 
 
 The Amir was kneeling on a broad low bedstead, raised a 
 few inches from the floor, and covered with silken cushions, 
 there being no other furniture in the tent except a few rugs and 
 cushions. As I entered he turned, and smilingly held out his 
 hand, took mine, and said, ' General Aman ? ' ' Is the General 
 well ? ' I replied, ' Aman,'' ' he is well.' He then gave his 
 hand to the interpreter, and motioned to us to sit down facing 
 him at the end of the tent on the right of the entrance. 
 
 Supposing it to be etiquette that he should speak first, I 
 kept silence, and had leisure to observe him. He was a tall, stout 
 man, with sallow complexion, and small, dark, uneasy eyes, 
 
 G 2 
 
84 TURKISTAN. 
 
 which he kept turning in all directions. His flesh looked very 
 flabby and unhealthy, and his hands trembled constantly 
 throughout the interview, as I have been told, from a too 
 frequent use of aphrodisiacs. His beard is very dark, but 
 rather thin. He "wore a plain grey silk gown and a white 
 turban. After waiting in vain for him to speak, and finding 
 the silence growing awkward, I said, 
 
 ' I have come with a letter from General Abramof.' 
 
 ' Yes, I received it,' he replied. 
 
 6 1 have been in Kitab, Shaar, and Karshi, where I was very 
 well received, and passed the time very pleasantly. 
 
 ' I am glad you were pleased. I am glad you came.' 
 
 ' I wish now to go to Bukhara, Kara-kul, and Tchardjui, and 
 then back to Samarkand.' 
 
 ' You must consider this country as your own, and travel 
 where you wish. Gro to Bukhara, Kara-kul, and Tchardjui, and 
 be our guest, and pass the time pleasantly. The Taksaba will 
 make all arrangements for you.' 
 
 I thanked him for this permission, and waited a moment 
 longer. He began to look uneasily towards the door, the 
 Taksaba appeared, and the Amir said, s Now go ; ' upon which 
 we immediately took our leave. On the way home I told the 
 Taksaba that the Amir had given me permission to go to 
 Tchardjui, and he said that he had himself heard it. I was 
 particular in saying this to him, because I knew that no 
 Russian had been allowed to go there, and I had been astonished 
 at having so readily obtained permission. 
 
 In connection with this interview, I may say that, after I 
 had returned to Samarkand, a report came from Bukhara that 
 the Amir was very much dissatisfied with me, alleging as the 
 reason that I had squeezed his hand too hard on being presented 
 to him. 
 
 Mozaffar-Eddin, although without the sternness and strength 
 of character of his father Nasrullah, inherited his cruel and 
 capricious disposition. His subjects detest him, and more 
 than that, believe him to be gifted with the evil eye ; so that, 
 on meeting him, or coming into his presence, they always 
 secretly make the sign which avails as a countercharm. In 
 these annual journeys to Karshi and Shahrisabs, he is always 
 accompanied by his army, not so much to protect himself from 
 
APPEOACH TO BUKHARA. 85 
 
 actual violence, as to assure himself of its fidelity, and to 
 prevent a discontented son, or a rebellious Bek, from winning 
 its favour while he is away, and shutting him out of the 
 capital. He likes also to wreak his vengeance on the inhabi- 
 tants of Shahrisabs by subjecting them to the inconveniences 
 caused by the presence of a large body of troops, and to the 
 exactions of the soldiery. 
 
 I had packed up, and made preparations for starting off, 
 when the presents from the Amir arrived, consisting of four 
 gowns and a richly caparisoned horse. The Taksaba told me 
 that the Amir had a garden at Kakan, six miles from Bukhara, 
 and another twelve miles off, and asked in which I preferred 
 to live. I was prepared for this question, for I had been told 
 that an effort would probably be made to prevent me from 
 living in the town, where I could too easily learn all that went 
 on. As I was anxious to see as much as I could, and did not 
 wish a long ride every day, I told him that I should prefer 
 living in the city itself, at which I think he was not very well 
 pleased ; but after reflecting a moment, he said that he himself 
 had a house there, and would be very glad if I would live in 
 it, and that he would send a man to prepare it for me. This 
 camp was about ten miles from the city wall, and after riding 
 two or three miles, we came to gardens and fields which 
 surrounded the city. The walls and enclosures seemed to be 
 better, but the trees we're smaller and not so thickly planted as 
 in the suburbs of Tashkent and Samarkand. 
 
 As we approached the city, the number of people we met 
 constantly increased ; peasants, merchants, and mullahs, on 
 foot, on horses, and on asses. It was bazaar day, and everyone 
 was coming away loaded with purchases. We passed village 
 after village, and indeed the whole. road, from the numbers of 
 small booths and shops, seemed to be one long bazaar. At last 
 we saw on the left the blue dome of the mosque Namazga 
 standing out from its green garden, and before us rose the 
 high clay walls of the city. The gate Sallia-Khani was com- 
 paratively modern in appearance, and surmounted by two large 
 towers of burnt bricks. We rode on through narrow streets paved 
 with hard clay mixed with small stones — almost as good at this 
 season as a Macadamised road — along the canal, and through the 
 bazaar, where a dense crowd collected about me in astonishment 
 
86 TTJRKISTAN. 
 
 and almost prevented my passage. We passed many mosques 
 and medresses, and rode through the Righistan with its markets, 
 the ark or citadel looming up to my right, and through more 
 narrow streets, almost to the city wall near the Uglan gate, 
 where I found the house intended for me. After o-oino- through 
 a narrow passage, there was a large court to the left intended 
 for horses, and then we passed into another, two sides of 
 which were occupied by the house; on the third were sheds, 
 which were usually rilled with horses. Two large rooms were 
 given to me on the tipper floor, with a large balcony, and I 
 was provided with chairs and a table, although the table was 
 so low that I was compelled to turn the chairs on one side, 
 in order to restore anything like proportion. At the end of my 
 balcony was a large store room containing clothes, silk mattresses 
 and pillows, bread, muskets, and other weapons, harness and 
 saddle cloths, and jars of various sweets. The ground floor 
 was occupied by the Mirzas and men of the house, and was also 
 used as the kitchen. The house did not belong to the Taksaba, 
 as he had informed me, but to a different man, who subsequently 
 made my acquaintance, and it has been of late the residence of 
 many Eussians who have visited Bukhara. 
 
 During the week that I spent at Bukhara, my days all 
 passed in very much the same way. In the early morning I 
 either made or received visits, then rode through the town and 
 visited the mosques and medresses, or lounged about the bazaar. 
 In the evening an entertainment of some kind, usually 
 dancing, was provided for me, and nearly always some ac- 
 quaintances were present. Already in Khokand I had got very 
 tired of native food, — pilaf, and greasy, fried or stewed, mutton, 
 — and had taken measures to have a slight change ; but with 
 only mutton, although the most excellent I have ever eaten, 
 and old tough chickens to choose from, my menu could not be 
 very varied, especially as there was no butter, nor any variety 
 of vegetables or seasoning. I taught my servants how to 
 prepare stewed kidneys, mutton chops, eggs in various ways, 
 and liver with tallow — the nearest obtainable substitute for 
 bacon — and I managed at all events to eat with considerable 
 relish. By tallow I do not mean candles, but the fat of the 
 kurdiuk, or rumps of the so-called big-tailed sheep, which is 
 by far the most delicate portion of the animal. The early 
 
NEIGHBOURLY CURIOSITY. 87 
 
 melons were now all gone, but those of midsummer were 
 coming in, usually much larger, and of much firmer flesh, and 
 equally good. Peaches of two kinds were plentiful, as were 
 grapes of all varieties, although not equalling those of the 
 Crimea or of Western Europe. The Husseini andSahibi grapes 
 were especially good; the celebrated Bukhariot plums which 
 were coming in season struck me as being hard and acid ; 
 but the purple figs, which I tasted for the first time, were 
 delicious. Flowers also seemed very plentiful, for a fresh 
 bouquet was brought to me two or three times a day, and the 
 natives, who are" very fond of flowers, had little sprigs of mint, 
 or other plants, stuck in their caps over their ears. 
 
 I had always been warned against the water of Bukhara, 
 which is very apt to give one the reslda, a disagreeable worm, 
 that makes its appearance through the flesh a year after- 
 wards; but I was told that fresh water had just arrived at 
 Bukhara, the dyke at Samarkand having been repaired, and 
 that as I could also have well water, there would be no danger. 
 I gave orders, however, to have the water always boiled before 
 giving it to me, although I suspect my commands were not in 
 all cases carried out. I looked uneasily the next summer for 
 the appearance of the unpleasant creature in one of my legs, but 
 fortunately escaped an attack. The water from the ponds must 
 certainly be very unhealthy. 
 
 Besides my own servants, there were several attached to the 
 house, and three or four secretaries, under whose special charge I 
 was>and who had orders to accompany me wherever I went. Gene- 
 rally speaking, they were very polite, and did not seem to object 
 to my seeing any part of the city, or anything which I wished. 
 
 The walls of the Bukharan houses always shut out one's 
 neighbours, but the fiat roofs afford a good opportunity for 
 looking into another court, if one desires to take advantage 
 of it ; and as there had been a great deal of curiosity to see me, 
 and especially to witness the dances and other entertainments 
 which were provided for me, the surrounding roofs and walls 
 were always covered with a crowd of women and children ; 
 and many a time I found the black horse-hair veil which 
 usually concealed their faces uplifted, and had a chance of 
 seeing the beauty, or rather the lack of it, of the Bukharan 
 women. 
 
88 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 I myself usually slept in a room, on a camp bedstead which 
 J had brought with me, but my interpreter lay on the balcony 
 outside. One evening we were annoyed by some stones or clods 
 of earth being thrown, and my interpreter's bed was struck with 
 one of them ; after this, we had the roof patrolled, to keep off 
 intruders. I was not sure, however, whether this missile was 
 intended as an act of hostility or as a friendly signal. 
 
 One evening, I was taken to a garden of the Amir, just out- 
 side the Uglan gate, where it was proposed to show me a ram- 
 fight. The garden, though a very large one, and occasionally 
 used by the Amir during the summer season, was not in a 
 flourishing condition, owing to the lack of water, the trees 
 being all small, and the vines unhealthy looking. Eam-fighting 
 is a favourite amusement among the Uzbeks, but of late years it 
 has somewhat fallen into disuse, and bets are readily made and 
 taken, in spite of the strict injunctions of the Mussulman law 
 against that practice. On this occasion the fight was unsuc- 
 cessful. Four large and excellent rams were introduced, and 
 went at one another with great delight, but after one or two 
 butts, three of them retired, and could not be brought up again 
 to the mark ; they were willing to engage with each other, 
 but the moment the largest, the victor, appeared, they imme- 
 diately turned tail and fled. 
 
 I am not surprised at the high idea Asiatics entertain of 
 Bukhara — it is officially called al sherif, the noble, although pro- 
 bably from religious reasons — for in spite of all its discomforts, 
 it made upon me a very strong and a very pleasant impression. 
 You cannot walk the street without seeing at once that it is really 
 a capital ; the persons at leisure, well dressed, and riding well 
 groomed and richly caparisoned horses, the crowd of idlers who 
 beset the market place, even the very narrowness of the streets 
 and height of the houses, the numerous bazaars, and the great 
 amount of trade which is constantly going on there, every day 
 seeming like a bazaar day, show you that this is a metropolis. 
 For a Central Asiatic, and especially for one coming from the 
 steppes, even the mild amusements allowed in Bukhara are not 
 despicable. There are plenty of mosques in which to pray, 
 and praying seems to be done as much for pastime as anything 
 else. There are plenty of shops at which to gossip, and ex- 
 cellent baths, and even, from all that I could learn, establish- 
 
 
THE RIGHISTAN. 89 
 
 ments of a worse character. In general the cities of Central 
 Asia are all alike, the same crooked streets, the same high clay 
 walls, the very colour of which at last offends your eyes, the 
 same windowless houses, with flat roofs everywhere ; but Bukhara 
 seems to have more individualit} 7 than the others; the houses are 
 more commonly of two stories, and frequently have balconies 
 with lattices or carved railings. There seem to be very few 
 gardens, and trees even are very rare, except about the ponds 
 of the mosques and along one or two of the canals, thus giving 
 the city a very different look from Tashkent or Ivhokand. In 
 my morning rides I was able to see almost every part of the 
 town, and to inspect all the buildings that were interesting, 
 either historically or architecturally. The mirzas who went 
 with me used to be somewhat astonished at my being able to 
 find the way, or even to tell them in which direction I should 
 go in order to reach a certain gate or mosque ; and once or 
 twice the Kush-Begi sent to know how I knew of the existence 
 of certain localities ; they were not aware that I had with me 
 the excellent plan of Khanikof, 1 if indeed they could under- 
 stand its existence. 
 
 At a short distance from my house, at the north-west side 
 of the town, was the Righistan or public place, which is im- 
 mediately in front of the ark or citadel, and is surrounded by 
 fine large mosques and medresses. On the west side of it, 
 which is raised above the rest, — a locality greatly frequented by 
 loungers — there is a large pond surrounded by trees, about which 
 are placed barbers' shops, tea houses, and refreshment booths of 
 various kinds. The rest of the square seems to be a general 
 market for bakers and butchers, dealers in skins, and small 
 wares of various kinds. It is the real centre of the city, 
 and from sunrise until evening prayer, is filled by a great 
 throng. To the right of the citadel, close under its lofty 
 walls, lie many pieces of cannon, of which some few seem to 
 be good, although the most of them are utterly worthless. Some 
 
 1 Inserted in his 'Description of the Khanate of Bukhara.' The name Buk- 
 hara is derived from the Sanskrit Vihara, a Beunion of Wise Men, a Monastery, 
 and, like several other names in Central Asia, is a relic of Buddhist influence. In 
 earlier times, and even in the sixth century, as we find in Chinese authors, the place 
 was called Nurni, or Numijket. In Appendix II., at the end of Vol. I., will ba 
 found an article of Professor Grigorief on the ' History of Bukhara.' 
 
90 TURKISTAN. 
 
 had been captured in Khokand, and as Jiey bear dragon 3 
 and other similar devices, had, probably, been previously taken 
 from the Chinese in Kashgar. The ark itself is a large square 
 mound, evidently artificial, for the ends of the beams on which 
 it is constructed are occasionally visible through the clay 
 wails. It is surrounded by a high crenelated wall, two lofty 
 round-topped towers guard the entrance, and high above is a 
 clock with Arabic numerals, made some years ago by Giovanni 
 Orlandi, an Italian enslaved in Bukhara. 1 From the entrance 
 
 1 Modesto Gavazzi, who, with Count Litta and another Italian, visited Bukhara 
 in 1863-4 for the purpose of buying silkworms eggs, and was imprisoned there by 
 the Amir fur thirteen months, gives an interesting account of Orlandi in his littlo 
 book, ' Alcune Notizie raccoltein un viaggio a Bucara,' Milan, 1865. Some of the 
 facts in this statement, especially those about the Russian merchant, I have had 
 recounted to me by Russians cognizant of the circumstances. 
 
 'His (i.e. Karataefs) predecessor as eloekmaker and artificer of the Amir was 
 Giovanni Orlandi of Parma, about whom we collected some information from an 
 old Negai, whom we knew in the last days of our stay in Bukhara, and who under 
 Nasrullah had lieen the companion of this poor man in prison. Orlandi was the 
 last European victim of Bukharan despotism, and what we have heard of him from 
 persons who knew him is enough to render his memory venerated as a man of 
 intelligence, of firmness of mind, and of nobility of character. Twelve or fifteen 
 
 years back there lived at Orenburg a certain Z , a Russian by birth, who 
 
 maintained an extended commerce with the Kirghiz Steppe and with the Khanates 
 of Central Asia, and was reputed, not without reason, to be the richest merchant 
 of that city, because, with a certain elasticity of conscience which was peculiar to 
 him, he knew how to get profit from every kind of business, and to find secret and 
 safe sources of gain. One of these was the sale to the Kirghiz of men whom he 
 inveigled, under pretext of colonisation, to an estate of his situated on the borders 
 of this steppe, which was from time to time invaded by bands of Kirghiz robbers, 
 who carried off all the people stationed there and sold them as slaves in Bukhara. 
 
 The infamous traffic was at last found out, Z was tried and condemned for 
 
 life to Siberia ; but as in Russia gold is omnipotent, and he could dispose of much 
 of it, it was found that he had died, although in reality he had in the meantime 
 changed his name to avoid the punishment. Orlandi had been sent to this estate 
 as a superintendent, and together with his companions had been carried as a slave 
 to Bukhara and sold to the Amir. As Orlandi was a Christian and a Frcnghi, the 
 Amir repeatedly tried to convert him to Islamism, and angry at his obstinate 
 refusal threw him into prison, and later condemned him to death. Orlandi would 
 not even then change his mind, but knowing that Nasrullah was a great lover of 
 mechanical works, promised to construct lor him a machine for measuring time, 
 and thus obtained his pardon. Orlandi then made the clock which is on the tower 
 over the palace gate, the only one which exists in all Bukhara. Nasrullah was 
 so satisfied with it that he appointed Orlandi his artificer, and gave him at the 
 same time his liberty. Orlandi then lived an endurable life with the fruit of his 
 labours, and as independently as he could under a government as capricious as 
 that of Bukhara. During this time he made a telescope for the Amir, who unfor- 
 
THE DUNGEON OF SHEEP-TICKS. 91 
 
 there is a steep incline to the top, where are the palace of the 
 Amir, his treasury, the house of the Kush-Begi, a mosque, the ab- 
 kha.neh or water reservoir, which serves also as a prison for state 
 offenders, and the Jean a-hhan eJi, that noted place of punishment 
 into which men used to be thrown to be slowly devoured alive 
 by sheep-ticks and other vermin. I had heard that this dungeon 
 had been abolished ; but people in Bukhara assured me of its 
 existence, and said that some criminals had been confined there 
 not long before ; the story however that in the absence of prisoners 
 the ticks are fed by raw meat to keep up their diet, is probably 
 untrue. At the right of the entrance, under the archway, is a 
 raised platform, where at certain hours the Kush-Begi is obliged 
 to sit, in order to learn the business of all who enter the 
 fortress ; during the absence of the Amir, when the Kush-Begi 
 remains above, another officer is detailed for this duty. 1 In 
 this passage mam r curious objects are hung on the walls, such 
 as an immense whip seven feet long, which is said to have be- 
 longed to the hero Rustam ; a snake-like staff of some saint ; 
 various battle-axes and halberds ; hammers of command (ai- 
 balta) ; a curious root brought by a Mecca pilgrim, &c. In a 
 word, this is the Amir's museum. 
 
 Passing to the right round the arJc and down through the 
 narrow high-walled street, we came to a mosque, called Masjid 
 Baliand, a Jumma mosque that is intended for the holding of 
 the Jumma or Friday public service. Properly speaking such 
 
 tunately one day let it fall from the top of a minaret near Bohoneddin. On re- 
 entering the city he sent immediately tor Orlandi to repair it ; but Orlandi that 
 day had been on a drinking bout in company with an Armenian or Hebrew who 
 ■was allowed to drink wine, and came to the Amir a little intoxicated The Amir 
 therefore condemned him a second time to death, but repenting shut him up again 
 in prison, enjoining him to embrace Islam if he wished his life to be spared. A 
 Cossack, then a slave in Bukhara, was ordered to persuade Orlandi to be con- 
 verted, which, according to him, was the only means of saving his life. He said 
 that a mere appearance of submission would satisfy the Amir, who wished an act 
 of submission rather than a formal renunciation of his religion, but Orlandi was 
 so firmly opposed to it, saying that he preferred death to shame, that the Amir 
 resolved on a hard trial. He had the executioner cut the skin of his throat, warn- 
 ing him that if on the morrow he should still be obstinate, he would have him 
 killed. The threat did not move him. and the next day he -was beheaded. This 
 happened in 1851.' 
 
 1 ' Sitting in the gate of the king ' is a very ancient cu*:om in the East, as may 
 be seen from many passages in the st">ry of Esther, and especially from Daniel ii. 
 48, 49. 
 
92 TURKISTAN. 
 
 a mosque should be large enough to contain the whole popula- 
 tion of the city, and this one will hold at least ten thousand 
 people within sound of the preacher's voice. It is one of the 
 largest and most solid constructions of Bukhara. The interioi 
 consists of a large open court, surrounded by a sort of wide 
 vaulted cloister of brick, two, and sometimes three aisles in 
 width. The walls, especially of the sides and back, where 
 the ground is lower, are all built of brick, supported b^ 
 immense buttresses. The front, which is in bad repair, has 
 a great arched portal covered with porcelain tiles set in 
 arabesques, and the roof is surmounted by tiled domes. 
 Opposite to this mosque, is a very tall round tower, called the 
 manari kalian or great minaret. The surface is covered 
 with pretty and curious designs in inlaid bricks, and on the 
 top is now a huge stork's nest. It is sometimes used as a place 
 of punishment, outrageous criminals being thrown from the top 
 and dashed to pieces on the ground below. The last person 
 thus punished was the noted robber Baban, who had taken 
 refuge in Samarkand, and had been sent back by General 
 Abramof in 1871. On the other side of the small square is the 
 medresse Miri-Horab, a very large and fine building, contain- 
 ing one hundred and ten students' rooms which open on the cor- 
 ridors and galleries that surround the court. The vaulting of 
 the corridors is very well done, and is inlaid in patterns with 
 tiles and coloured bricks, and in various niches are canopies of 
 alabaster work, similar in design to those seen in the Alhambra. 
 After passing through the bazaar, we came to a number of 
 large mosques and medr esses, the two largest of which are the 
 Medresse Kukoltash, and the Medresse Divan-Begi, and opposite 
 this latter is a large paved place with mosques on each side, 
 surrounding a square pond known as the Liabehaus Divan- 
 Begi. This pond, which is shaded by rows of mulberry trees, is 
 the constant resort of the idlers and loungers of Bukhara, and 
 is surrounded by markets, houses, and the booths of cooks and 
 barbers. As it is so large that, according to Mohammedan ideas, 
 the water is always pure, one may see people drinking, bathing, 
 or performing their ablutions at any hour of the day. 1 Near by 
 
 1 The Mussulman doctrine is that a pond of water is pure for religious pur- 
 poses, no matter what its real condition may be, if it be 10 altehins long by 10 
 altchins broad (23 x 23 feet), and if it contain three fingers of water, so that ia 
 tilling the water in the hollow of tho hand the bottom cannot be seen 
 
A EUKHAEAN BATH. 93 
 
 is a medresse, called Irnazar-Eltchi, of no very imposing ap- 
 pearance, founded by the Empress Catherine II. of Russia, who 
 gave the sum of 40,000 rubles to build a college in Bukhara 
 for Tartars and other Russian Mussulmans. Irnazar-Eltchi 
 was a Bukharan envoy sent to the Empress, and the local story 
 is that this money was given to him by Catherine after a liai- 
 son which she had with him. On the western side of the city, 
 near the Talipan gate, is a large medresse called Kosh Medresse 
 Abdullah Khan, supposed to have been founded by that sove- 
 reign, which consists of two large buildings on opposite sides of 
 the street constructed in the usual style, with two stories and 
 corridors about a central court. Continuing down the same 
 street, close by the gate Sheikh-Jelal are the medresses Jubar 
 and Hodja-Jelal, a large basin called the Haus-Van, and the 
 cemetery Jubar. Such cemeteries are not infrequent within 
 the walls of the town. None of the mosques and medresses in 
 Bukhara are as old as the great and splended ruins in Samar- 
 kand, unless perhaps the mosque Baliand, which, it is said, was 
 built by Timur on the ruins of another, and repaired by Abdul- 
 lah Khan ; the style of architecture is, however, the fame ; there 
 are the same ornamental tiled fronts and blue domes, although 
 the buildings are much lower, and minarets and towers are 
 rare. 
 
 There are many bath houses, the Bukhariots being very fond 
 of the luxury of a hot-air bath. The best of these is situated in 
 the bazaar, to which I was taken one night about nine o'clock, 
 when the bazaar was already deserted, except by the watchmen, 
 and the streets were dimly lighted by lamps slung across them 
 on ropes at intervals. The bath itself is nearly the same as the 
 Turkish bath, and certainly is not so good as that which one 
 finds in civilised countries. You enter a large room surrounded 
 by raised platforms covered with rugs, where you undress, and 
 then, wrapping a large cloth about you, you go into the next 
 room where the temperature is already very warm, and where 
 are a succession of square or octagonal vaults, with niches in 
 the sides for bathers. After remaining there some time to 
 accustom yourself to the temperature, you are taken into the 
 hottest room of all, where, after having water thrown over you 
 to make you perspire, you lie on your face and are rubbed and 
 kneaded by the bath attendant, who cracks all your joints and 
 
94 TURKISTAK 
 
 leaves you in a very weak and helpless state. After this you 
 are taken back to the room you left and placed in one of the 
 niches, thoroughly washed with soap and water, and again 
 kneaded. You are then wrapped up in your cloth, and go iuto 
 the front room, where, reclining on a cushion, you take green 
 tea and fruit and gradually dress. There is no regular pay- 
 ment, but you are expected to give whatever you please. This 
 process of kneading is much liked by the Bukhariots, even with- 
 out a bath, and often at night they have attendants to knead 
 them until they go to sleep. 
 
 The most important of the many bazaars in Bukhara are the 
 open bazaar on the Eighistan and the bazaar of Tchar-su, which 
 occupies the centre of the town, extending nearly from the Ark 
 to beyond the medresse Divan-Begi. The bazaar of Tchar-su 
 is interesting and peculiar; it has not the grandiose appearance 
 of the bazaar at Khokand, but it in every way shows that it is 
 an old haunt of trade. Not only are the sides of all the streets 
 filled with shops and caravanserais for the storage of goods, but 
 there are large numbers of timis, brick or wooden buildings 
 with passages radiating from the centre, where goods of special 
 kinds are sold. The timi of Abdullah Khan, for instance, is 
 appropriated to the trade in silk, velvet, and cloth goods, while 
 others are filled with cotton goods, shoes, caps, turbans, and 
 knives. 
 
 Bukhara is evidently the trading centre of all this region 
 of Asia, and one sees here productions from all parts of the 
 world. Besides the Bussian cottons and calicoes, I saw many 
 English, and even French and German goods. The English 
 goods are known chiefly by the name of Kabuli, on account of 
 being imported through Afghanistan, and are sold at a slight 
 advance only on Russian goods. As far as I noticed the English 
 goods were chiefly manufactured by Greek firms, such as Ralli and 
 Co., Petrococchino and Co., Schillizzi and Co., and by some Cal- 
 cutta houses. Among miscellaneous articles, I found American re- 
 volvers, at a price somewhat cheaper than in Tashkent. Strangely 
 enough Russian sugar is cheaper in Bukhara than in Tashkent, 
 and has often been re-imported to that place from Bukhara. 
 There was at this time only one Russian merchant in Bukhara, 
 Shmelef, the agent of the firm Bykoff Brothers , who occupies 
 two small rooms in the Aim Sarai, and who deals not only in 
 
THE TRADE OF BUKHARA. 05 
 
 cotton goods, but particularly in small and fancy articles. He 
 told me that most of the Russian trade was in the hands of Tar- 
 tars, but that the openings for it are very great, although unfor- 
 tunately neglected. A person of small means would even have 
 an advantage over a large trader, if he lived in Bukhara, dealt 
 in such European articles as there was a demand for, and 
 attended to his business himself. Such a small trader could 
 sell all his goods immediately, collect his debts at once, and 
 turn over his capital at least three times a year, making 
 each time a profit of fifty per cent. In Bukhara itself, for a 
 resident trader, there is little difficulty in collecting debts, but 
 the traders in Orenburg, Troitsk, and Petropavlovsk, who sell 
 largely on credit to merchants coming from Bukhara, lose 
 much money by bad debts. Unfortunately the Eussian law 
 does not allow foreign trade to be carried on by any one except 
 a merchant of the first guild, and the guild tax to be paid is so 
 large as to be a burden upon a person of small means. The 
 Russian merchants, although they adopt to a certain extent 
 the native dress, are not subject to the same restrictions as 
 in Khokand ; in other respects the commercial treaty is no 
 better carried out, merchants being obliged to pay in addi- 
 tion to the 2^ per cent, duty on exports, a further illegal duty 
 on cotton, amounting to at least 3 per cent. 2 
 
 1 One other Russian clerk lived in Hazliduin, looking after the cotton cloth 
 manufactured for the Russian troops. 
 
 2 In 1872 Mr. Petrofsky, the agent of the Minister of Finance, went to 
 Bukhara for the purpose of studying its commercial relations. I quote a few- 
 extracts from his account published in the ' European Messenger,' March 1873 : 
 
 ' Bukhara is the chief point of Central Asiatic trade, and is very important to 
 us, because the state and direction of this trade must govern our further move- 
 ments in Central Asia. Being an important depot of Russian and Anglo-Indian 
 ■wares, Bukhara carries on an immense and active trade with all the remaining 
 Mussulman countries, receiving from them their local productions and supplying 
 them in return with wares from her depots. The conditions of the Anglo-Indian 
 trade with Bukhara we unfortunately know very little about, but we know well 
 enough the commercial enterprise and energy of our rivals and our own Russian 
 carelessness and disposition to let matters take their course. "Who can guarantee 
 that with our carelessness with regard to the Bukharan market, all the trade with 
 Central Asia will not pass into the hands of the English or the Afghans; and 
 there are signs of it already. In that case we should of course have nothing left 
 to do in Central Asia. My previous ideas with regard to the bazaar of Bukhara, 
 I must admit, were far weaker than the reality. One has only to look at this 
 bazaar, at least five times greater than that of Tashkent, with its immense cara- 
 
96 TURKISTAN. 
 
 Some of the larger shops I came to know well ; such were 
 those of the armourers, where, in addition to chain-armour, 
 
 vanserais and timis of baked brick (24 of the former and 6 of the latter) filled tc 
 overflowing with all sorts of goods from distant India and from still more distant 
 Moscow, with its merchants from the Peshawuri to the Kazan Tartar, to see that the 
 Tashkent market can bear no comparison with this. From India and Afghanistan 
 there are brought the thousand objects of the so-called Attar trade (dye stuffs and 
 drugs), and about sixteen kinds of green tea, quantities of various cotton goods, 
 shawls, cloth of gold, opium, earthenware, metallic manufactures and printed 
 books. Six large caravanserais serve as store houses for Indian goods exclusively. 
 Persia supplies Bukhara with some dye stuffs, the so-called Ma shad muslin, silver, 
 pepper, arms, and large numbers of written and printed books. Prom Khiva 
 there are brought fur, robes, linseed oil, mutton -tallow, wheat, rice, apples, sheep, 
 poppy heads, copperas, and Russian goods, such as sugar, sugar-candy, iron 
 kettles, &c. Herat sends dried fruits, furs, sheep and slaves, and Merv Turko- 
 man horses and arms. Finally, the Bukharan bazaar is the market for all sorts 
 of local productions. In return she sends to these countries either her own, or the 
 productions of the neighbouring regions; to Afghanistan gold, silk, camel's hair, 
 goat's hair, madder, silk and half-silk stuffs, Russian cloth, velvet and satin, fur, 
 robes, horses, asses and even cats and nightingales ; to Khiva tea, tobacco, 
 opium, silk, madder, drugs and dyed stuffs, silk and cotton goods ; to Persia, gold, 
 lambskins, silk stuffs and Russian cloth and velvet. Even the bare enumeration 
 of countries and goods is enough to confirm my opinion of the commercial im- 
 portance of the Bukharan market, the yearly transactions of which are estimated 
 at not less than forty million of rubles (5.500,000Z.). 
 
 'Without studying the commerce of Bukhara we shall never put Central 
 Asiatic trade on a profitable footing for us, and will even perhaps finally lose it, 
 and it will then be too late for us to repair our mistake. At present I think we 
 can say that trade in Russian wares has here the first place, and the dependence 
 of Bukhara on the Nizhni Novgorod fair is felt at every step. Bukhara is literally 
 filled from top to bottom with Russian cotron goods, and there seems to me to be 
 at least six times as much of them as of English goods. ..... 
 
 ' The prices of all Russian goods in Bukhara are considerably less than at 
 Tashkent. During my visit there the difference in price of sugar, for example, 
 was five rubles a pud (in Bukhara eleven, and in Tashkent sixteen) ; they say 
 that the difference is even greater 
 
 ' All the trade in Russian goods at Bukhara is carried on either by the natives or 
 by Tartars.' 
 
 Mr. Petrofsky goes on to speak of the disadvantage to Russian trade of this 
 condition of things. He is of opinion that it would be better for the Russians 
 themselves to take their goods to Bukhara than to sell them at Moscow, Orenburg 
 and Troitsk to Bukharan merchants, whose credit cannot be guaranteed and who 
 frequently do not pay their debts. 
 
 ' The tea trade in Bukhara has passed entirely out of our hands. Immense 
 caravans (of even 5,000 camels) of green tea yearly come to Bukhara from 
 Afghanistan, and their loads are distributed through Bukharan possessions, 
 Turkoman Steppes, go to Khiva, and penetrate even to Khokand and Russian 
 Turkistan. There is literally no black tea to be found. The stores of green tea 
 in Bukhara are immense. It is impossible for Russian teas to compete with them. 
 
THE LIBRAE Y OF TDJTE. 97 
 
 matchlocks, and Khorasan blades, I found good American 
 revolvers no dearer than at Samarkand, of the jewellers and 
 the silk merchants, the booksellers and the dealers in Turko- 
 man and Persian rugs and carpets. After exhausting the shops 
 I accepted the suggestion of one of the Alirzas to have things 
 brought to my house, and every afternoon, therefore, I had 
 visits from dealers in silks, books, coins, and gems. Coins 
 were held at a high valuation, from some mistaken idea of 
 their worth. Among those which I procured were some good 
 specimens of Demetrius, Euthydemus, and other rulers of the 
 Gra;co-Bactrian dynasty, as well as of the rude contemporary 
 imitations struck in the neighbouring countries ; pieces of the 
 Golden Horde, of Timur, and of Afghan and Persian monarchs. 
 One remarkable and unique silver coin (now in the Asiatic 
 Museum at St. Petersburg), originally struck by one of the 
 Timurides, bore one mint mark of Baber at Samarkand in 903, 
 and another of the date of 904, stamped by Sultan Ali Alirza, 
 who expelled Baber from the city after his seven months' occu- 
 pation of it. I obtained also a few gems with Pehlevi and 
 Cufic inscriptions, and one with a finely cut female head of 
 Greek workmanship. 
 
 It seemed to me that books were unwillingly sold to an 
 ' infidel,' and I was sure that many I wanted were concealed 
 from me. Nevertheless, I obtained some relating to the history 
 of Bukhara which are more or less rare in Europe ; and one — 
 ' Lives of the Bukharan Saints ' — which was apparently un- 
 known. I was told that in the Treasury of the Amir there are 
 many books, written in languages unknown to the learned men 
 of Bukhara, which for that reason lie neglected. These books 
 are said to have come down from very ancient times. It 
 immediately occurred to me that they might be a remnant of 
 the famous library said to have been carried off from Brussa 
 by Timur, the fate of which has so long excited the curiosity of 
 scholars. It is long since Bukhara was sacked, so that it is 
 
 both on account of their comparative clearness and because the market is already 
 occupied. It only remains for us now to ke<=p this tea out of our dominions, giving 
 up all hope of crowding it out of Bukhara. What I hare said above refers onlv to 
 green tea. As for brick tea. viz. apple tea (alma tchai), I make an exception. The 
 tnergy of our merchants will, perhaps, succeed in crowding this tea out of 
 . Bukhara by means of the better quality which we receive from Eiakhla.' 
 VOL. II. H 
 
98 TURKISTAN. 
 
 
 possible that unknown literary treasures may exist there, and 
 the story of Timur's library ought not yet to be regarded as 
 wholly mythical — the fantasy of some Armenian monk. My 
 imagination was haunted with visions of lost classics, but unfor- 
 tunately, in the absence of the Amir at Karshi, it was impos- 
 sible to get a sight of the books. By a little strategy these 
 volumes might, perhaps, be obtained, but many precautions 
 should be observed ; lest, with the usual suspicion of Asiatics, 
 the Bukharan authorities imagine that the books are valuable, 
 and conceal or destroy them. 
 
 In general I travelled in European dress, once or twice only 
 putting on a turban and robe to visit the bazaar, but finding no 
 special advantage in so doing, as from my not speaking the 
 language I was immediately known to be a foreigner. One an- 
 noyance was that I was constantly surrounded by a crowd, 
 which hindered my movements, although it was frequently 
 driven back by the attendant Mirzas. I was usually treated 
 with civility, but I occasionally met with insult and abuse, and 
 there certainly was not the same respect and politeness paid to 
 me as at Shahrisabs and Karshi ; in fact in all the towns, 
 that had been occupied, even for a day, by the Eussian 
 troops, the behaviour of the inhabitants was much more re- 
 spectful. 
 
 What greatly pleased me at Bukhara was being able to talk 
 comfortably with all sorts of people. I often stopped in a shop 
 at the bazaar for twenty minutes or half-an-hour ; in the sarai 
 of my Eussian friend, I met Bukharans, Persians, and other 
 Asiatics, who were always willing to talk on almost any subject. 
 I liked much going into a Hindoo sarai, thinking that possibly 
 I might find some one who spoke English, but my efforts in that : 
 direction were vain, although the Hindoos were all glad to see 
 me, and to talk with me. In my bargainings at home I 
 had occasion to see the display of great varieties of character. 
 Then too, I had visits from various personages, official and 
 other, and I somehow managed to hear all that was going on 
 that was worth knowing. Since I found out that my talk was 
 repeated from one to another, — occasionally something I had 
 said in the morning, came back to me at night from the fourth 
 or fifth person, — and as everything I said or did was immedi- 
 ately reported to the Kush-Begi and often with variations, I' 
 
BUKHARAN ACQUAINTANCES. 90 
 
 took a special pleasure in letting out all I had heard, and in 
 showing as much knowledge 'as 1 could about Bukharan affairs. 
 I had been, to some extent, informed in Tashkent, about the 
 principal personages I should be likely to meet, and I have no 
 doubt that I often surprised them by some of my revelations. 
 As I knew of course that no end of lies were being told to me, 
 I sometimes invented a little myself in order to get at the 
 truth, and professed myself interested in a great many subjects, 
 which I had no care for, in order to obtain geographical and 
 political information. One of the Mirzas with me could, I 
 was told, speak Russian ; but he took great pains to conceal 
 that accomplishment from me, his self-composure not deserting 
 him even when I suddenly addressed him in that language. 
 
 Among the persons with whom I was brought in contact 
 the Kush-Begi, Mohammedi Bii, was of course the most promi- 
 nent. The day after my arrival, I paid him a formal visit, in the 
 citadel. He was an old man of about sixty-five, still hale and 
 hearty, with a full grey beard and a very kindly eye and face. 
 He was a Persian by birth, and in his youth had been a slave, 
 having become free by marrying one of the cast-off wives of 
 the Amir. Although I had occasion to have several disputes 
 with him, and had no doubt that he was a cunning old rascal, 
 his bonhommie was such that it was impossible to be angry 
 with him, and we parted the best of friends. He was exceed- 
 ingly talkative, and ready not only to ask but to answer ques- 
 tions, and on both my visits he kept me more than an 
 hour. His son, the Taksaba, Mohammed Sherif, was of a far 
 different character. Though personally a handsome man, with 
 his black beard and finely cut features, he had a face which 
 at once made me suspicious and on my guard ; his restless eyes 
 never looked at me directly, and in his talk he was always 
 evading the point. With all that, he was, as everybody told 
 me, even his official friends, very stupid ; at all events, he 
 was not bright enough to be consistent in his lying for ten 
 minutes at a time. My friend, the Russian merchant Shmelef, 
 was of a very different stamp, simple and frank, with long, 
 frousy hair and grizzly beard. Disliking all the natives and 
 thinking them utter rascals, he had yet been so long in Bukhara, 
 that he told me he felt ill at ease when he went back to Russia, 
 and he lived much as the natives themselves do. His assis- 
 
 H 2 
 
] 00 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 tant, an intelligent, handsome Tartar, named Muruk, was one 
 of the best specimens of a civilised Mussulman of the mer- 
 cantile class that I have met. A strong believer in his own 
 religion, he was tolerant of that of others, and was willing even 
 to admit the ridiculous side of some parts of bis own belief. 
 He had seen something of the world, and was an exceedingly 
 good man to show one the under side of Bukharan life. 
 
 There was another Tartar there, Karataef (called in Buk 
 hara Usta-Ali), who had become bankrupt in Eussia, and had 
 run away, twenty years before. Here he entered the service of 
 a merchant ; but when he wanted to return to Eussia, he was 
 forcibly retained by the Amir, and when he attempted to escape, 
 was caught and brought back. He is a clockmaker by trade, 
 but his chief employment now is that of confidential secretary 
 to the Amir. Knowing Eussia as well as he does, he has 
 been able to give the Amir much good counsel and has pre- 
 vented many difficulties. It was he who saved the lives and 
 alleviated the captivity of the Eussian Envoys sent by General 
 Tchernaief in 1865. He is, however, heartily tired of this 
 uncivilised country, and of the role which he is playing there, 
 and has expressed a desire to apply to the authorities at 
 Tashkent to have his offences condoned, and to be allowed to 
 return to Eussia. 
 
 By the Bukharan politicians I was looked upon as a spy ; 
 and no one was willing to believe the truth of my statements 
 as to who I actually was ; but the authorities made every inquiry 
 of all my servants, and even tried to bribe my interpreter to tell 
 them the exact truth. I have no doubt that my conduct, in 
 some respects, helped on this belief, for I had two disputes with 
 the authorities which, as they show the methods of Bukhariot 
 diplomacy, I will recount with some detail. 
 
 In visiting Bukhara I was especially anxious to learn 
 something about the slave trade, and if possible to see for 
 myself what was going on. The Eussian authorities had ex- 
 pressed their desire that the slave trade should cease, and had been 
 of course informed by the Bukharians that it had long since come 
 to an end. Nearly all the Eussian officials who had been in 
 Bukhara had been deceived in this respect, and an official 
 report had been made to General Kaufmann that the slave 
 trade no longer existed there. Merchants, however, told me 
 
BUYING A SLAVE. 101 
 
 that they had frequently seen public sales of slaves in the 
 bazaar, and my interpreter said that, on two visits to Bukhara 
 during - the preceding year, he had seen the slave market tilled 
 with Persians who were dying of cholera and hunger, for, in 
 the panic caused by the epidemic, they had not been fed ; and 
 the Agent of the Ministry of Finance had been able, in the 
 spring of 1872, to see slaves publicly exposed for sale. He 
 had made a report of this, but the matter had been passed over 
 without notice by the Russian authorities. I knew very well 
 that if I said to the Taksaba, or to any of the Mirzas with 
 me, that I was going to the slave market, measures would 
 be taken to shut it up, and I should be assured that nothing 
 of the kind existed there. I therefore said to the Tartar 
 Muruk, one day when I was at tea in the Aim-sarai, that I 
 should like to see the slave market, and he offered to take me 
 at once, as it was in the immediate vicinity. We started out, 
 without telling where we were going, and although the Mirzas 
 followed after, they were not in time to prevent us. Entering 
 into a large sarai, we went upstairs into a gallery, and found 
 several rooms, some of which were locked, and a number of 
 slaves — two little girls of about four years old, two or three 
 boys of different ages, and a number of old men — all Persians. 
 There were no women, either young or old, such being bought 
 up immediately on arrival. The slaves were shown to me by 
 an old Turkoman, who acted as broker, and who told me that 
 the market was rather dull just then, but that a large caravan 
 would probably arrive in the course of a few days. Without 
 the slightest idea of purchasing, but out of curiosity to see 
 how a sale was conducted, I asked the price of one of the 
 boys, a lively looking lad of fifteen, who had been stolen only 
 five months before from near Astrabad. I was immediately 
 asked to take a seat on a mat, and the room soon filled with 
 people, all of whom seemed to take much more interest in the 
 sale than did the boy himself, who did not understand what was 
 being said, the conversation being in Turki. The first price asked 
 was more than 1,000 tengas ( 30£.), which I gradually reduced 
 to 850 tengas {251.) ; the seller constantly dilating on the good 
 points of the boy, what an excellent jigit he would make, and so 
 on, the bystanders joining in on one side or the other. Mean- 
 while, I asked one of the men how be dared sell a Mohammedan 
 
J 02 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 as a slave, when he, as a Mullah, knew that it was strictly pro- 
 hibited by the Shariat. To this he indignantly replied, ' He is 
 not a Mussulman, he is only a Persian, a Kaffir. All Persians 
 are Kaffirs and unbelievers.' 
 
 It seems that some Mullah, in order to legalise the sale, 
 had declared that the Persian Shiites were not heretics, a? 
 they are regarded by the Turks and other Mussulmans, but 
 were absolutely infidels. 
 
 I thought that 850 tengas was too much to pay for the lad, 
 especially as I had no desire to buy him ; at the same time, the 
 wistful looks of the boy, who seemed very anxious to be bought, 
 smote my conscience a little, and I asked for the refusal of 
 him at that price, which was given. We then looked about in 
 the other rooms to find some more slaves, but were unsuccessful. 
 On my return to the Aim-sarai, I thought the matter over, and 
 finally concluded to purchase the boy, take him with me to 
 Russia, and, if an opportunity offered, send him back to his 
 friends at Astrabacl. I, therefore, sent one of the Mirzas aftei 
 the boy, saying that I had concluded to take him. He returned 
 bringing him, and with him came another broker, a swarthy, 
 thick-set fellow, from Kara-kul, a well-known slave dealer. But 
 now a difference arose ; the broker said that some one else had 
 agreed to pay 900 tengas (271.), and to give in addition two 
 gowns, and besides this, that the real owner was not there, and 
 that the other broker had no right to sell him to me. Finally, 
 after a long argument I persuaded the broker to give me the 
 boy, to take a portion of the price as hand-money, and to refer 
 the dispute to the Taksaba, who, as chief overseer of the bazaar, 
 had the settlement of all such matters. As I afterwards found 
 to my cost, it was very stupid in me not to retain possession 
 of the boy, for I sent him by the Mirza, together with the 
 broker, to the Taksaba. 
 
 When the Mirza came to me on reaching home, he informed 
 me that the Taksaba had decided in my favour, and that the 
 price which I had agreed to give was the correct one, that the 
 boy was a nice fellow, and well worth the money, and that he 
 had given orders that he should be delivered to me at six 
 o'clock. 
 
 At six o'clock the boy did not come, so I sent the Mirza 
 after him. He stayed away a long time, and at last came 
 
THE TAKSABAS .DUPLICITY. 103 
 
 back with a long story, saying that the master of the boy had 
 gone away, he believed out of town, for some circumcision 
 feast, but that it would be all right in the morning. 
 
 In the morning the boy did not make his appearance, but 
 an official did, sent by the Taksaba to ask after my health 
 and to know if there was anything he could do for me. After 
 a long conversation with him on various matters, during which 
 I took occasion to compliment the Taksaba and the Kush-Begi, 
 knowing very well that it would be repeated to them and 
 might render them more obliging, I asked about the boy and 
 insisted upon having him. The Mirza professed to know 
 nothing about the affair, but said that the Taksaba wished him 
 to tell me that he would himself call and see me in the after- 
 noon. As the afternoon, however, passed without his visit, I 
 asked the Mirza if he were not coming ; he immediately sent 
 a messenger to him, who returned with the answer that he 
 regretted very much his inability to come, but that he was 
 very ill, the reshta having suddenly declared itself upon one 
 of his legs. As I knew that he had been riding about the 
 bazaar all day, and had seen him myself in excellent health 
 in the street that morning, although he did not notice me, 
 I thought it rather strange that such a lingering and gradual 
 illness, should have become at once so violent, and sent the 
 Mirza back to say that I regretted extremely to hear that he 
 was ill, but hoped that his malady would soon pass, and that, 
 as I was unable to see him upon the subject of the slave boy 
 whom I had bought, and who had not, in compliance with his 
 orders, been delivered to me, I should be obliged to at once go 
 to his father, the Kush-Begi, and demand an explanation. 
 
 I had barely finished my dinner, when the Taksaba appeared, 
 accompanied by a venerable white-bearded man, who, as I found 
 out, understood Eussian perfectly, and had come to listen to 
 what I said to my interpreter. The Taksaba limped very 
 much as he came up the stairs, and pretended to be in great 
 agony. After much general conversation, I broached the 
 subject of the boy. 'Yes,' he said, ' they brought the boy to 
 me, and told me about it ; he is a very nice boy, but un- 
 fortunately he has run away ! ' 
 
 I expressed my surprise at this, for the boy knew that he 
 was going to be freed, and wished me to buy him. 
 
] 04 TUEKTSTAN. 
 
 He said he trusted I did not doubt bis word. 
 
 6 Certainly not,' I replied ; ' still, it seems to be very strange. 
 
 In reply to this remark, he said that people had frightened 
 the boy, by telling him that Greneral Kaufmann had freed all 
 the slaves in Khiva, and that they were, probably, all going to 
 be freed in Bukhara, and that on account of this story he had 
 run away. 
 
 This was so amusing that I burst out into a laugh, which 
 seemed to discompose him. He said that he knew Greneral 
 Abrarnof, and Greneral Kaufmann, but that me he did not know ; 
 he had only received a letter about me, and he did not 
 think that General Kaufmann would at all approve of my 
 buying a slave here. 
 
 Whereupon I said that I also knew these gentlemen, that 
 his acquaintance with Kussian generals was notbing to me, nor 
 did it matter to him who I was, that I had been at the bazaar, 
 and had seen merchandise publicly exposed for sale, and had 
 bought it ; and tbat all I wished to know of him as overseer of 
 the bazaar was whether he allowed his merchants to refuse to 
 fulfil their agreements. 
 
 He then said that the boy's master had become frightened 
 at a foreigner having bought him, and had taken him back to 
 Tcbardjui; at which I said that this seemed very strange, 
 because sellers are always glad of a good bargain, and he him- 
 self bad said that what I had offered was a fair price, especially 
 in the dull season. 
 
 After some more talk of this kind, the Taksaba said that 
 the slave trade was about to stop, and that he was sorry I did 
 this without asking his permission. 
 
 I told him that I had not come there to interfere with their 
 commerce, and that I did not know why I, as well as any one 
 else, had not the right to purchase articles openly exposed for 
 sale at the bazaar, without asking the permission of any one. 
 He again said that the slave trade had stopped, that these 
 were only some few ' remnants ' that were being sold — evidently 
 in fear lest I should be able to prove by means of the boy the 
 actual existence of the trade. 
 
 I told him that I did not doubt his words, although, at the 
 same time, it appeared very strange to me in this case, that 
 when a caravan of sixty slaves had arrived at Bukhaia the 
 
THE MIRZAS LIE. 105 
 
 night before, at nine o'clock, lie himself had given order that 
 it should remain outside the Kara-kul gate, in order that I 
 should not see it. 
 
 The Taksaba was so much confused at my knowing this so 
 soon, that he was only able to stammer, and say that if they 
 found the boy, they would be very glad to send him to me, and 
 that, of course, I should pay nothing for him, for they would 
 make me a present of him ; that if [ had only told him before 
 about it, he would have given me ten slaves, or if I had even 
 sent the boy to him, he would have arranged the matter, but 
 that as he knew nothing about it until that evening, he of 
 course had been unable to take any steps in the matter. 
 
 I was rather astonished at this denial of what he had pre- 
 viously said, and called on the Mirzas who were present, to 
 corroborate my words ; but they, as was very natural, although 
 it rather surprised me at the time, denied they had spoken to 
 him on the subject, or that I had sent them, or that they had 
 even seen the boy. When I afterwards privately demanded an 
 explanation of the Mirzas, they admitted that they had lied, 
 but said, * You know he is our master, and of course we must 
 say what he wishes.' 
 
 At the moment I was very angry, though I endeavoured to 
 keep within moderation, and the Taksaba remarked that it was 
 evident I did not believe him, when he said that he had nothing 
 to do with it, and had given no orders to hide the boy, and added, 
 in a regretful tone, that he had come to be merry with me, 
 and ease his pain, but that he felt insidted by my words. 
 
 I told him I regretted this very much, that it was ex- 
 ceedingly disagreeable for me to speak to him about business, 
 but that I thought that the boy could be found, as I knew 
 very well that a man so high in position as he must know all 
 that passed in Bukhara, that it was very difficult for slaves to 
 escape, as the penalty by law was death, and that I expected 
 he would send me the boy by eight o'clock in the morning, for, 
 if I did not receive him, I might be obliged to take steps which 
 might be disagreeable to him. 
 
 He at last turned the conversation, by asking if I had any 
 curious European things to show him. I was sorry to tell 
 him, that, as I had left St. Petersburg very hurriedly, I had 
 brought almost nothing with me, but finally produced my air- 
 
106 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 cushion, which I showed to him, and asked him to accept, as it 
 would be good for his leg, he having just described to me the 
 symptoms of his illness ; and with that we parted. 
 
 The next morning the Taksaba, as usual, sent a man to 
 talk with me, and find out all that I was doing ; and I after- 
 wards went to the bazaar by a round-about way, and sent 
 Andrei in native dress to the slave market. He found there 
 one boy and the two little girls, and his visit was, apparently, 
 unsuspected. I then sent him to the Taksaba, to stir him up 
 on the subject. He offered Andrei a piece of silk as a present, 
 and 150 tengas in money, and told him to persuade me not to 
 be so hard on them, and to endeavour to put me in better 
 humour. As regards the boy, he beat about the bush. I was 
 informed in another way, that he w s waiting for an answei 
 from the Amir, to whom he had written on the subject, to 
 know if the boy should be delivered to me. I told Andrei that 
 he should make no difficulty about accepting all the bribes 
 that were offered to him, as it might allay suspicion, but only 
 on condition that he should tell me all that occurred. 
 
 The next day the Taksaba himself came to me, with his 
 Eussian interpreter ; we had another talk about the boy, in 
 which he utterly denied having seen him, or having made 
 the statements which he had made to me two days before. 
 This was said in such a way as to make me very angry, and 
 I immediately rose and told him that I could not permit 
 him to lie to my face, that I saw there was no use talking to 
 him any further, and that I desired no further intercourse 
 with him. 
 
 At this he was taken very much aback, and, as I afterwards 
 heard, said that I evidently did not understand the Bukharan 
 mode of doing things. It is, I believe, considered impolite to 
 remember what a man has said five minutes before, if it be 
 contradicted by anything he says five minutes after. 
 
 That same day, after sending off the Mirzas for something 
 else, I went to the slave market myself, but found that one of 
 the Mirzas had been too quick for me, and was there before 
 me ; the whole place was shut up, not a slave was visible, and 
 the Turkoman trader, with whom I had made my first bargain, 
 denied ever having seen me, or ever having had the boy whom 
 I described ; but after some pressure, he confessed that the 
 
ANOTHER SLAVE BOUGHT. 107 
 
 master of the boy bad taken him away by order of the 
 authorities. 
 
 I was convinced by my first conversation with the Taksaba, 
 that it would be impossible for me to obtain the boy back, but 
 resolving not to be outwitted by him, I made up my mind to 
 purchase another, if it were possible to do so. I knew very 
 well, and indeed I had been so informed, that the authorities 
 were very fearful that I should show the boy in Samarkand 
 and Tashkent, as visible proof to the Russians, not only of 
 their falsehoods, but of the present existence of the slave trade. 
 I, therefore, sent out Pulat, my arbakesh, or cart-driver, whom 
 
 PULAT THE ARBAKESH. 
 
 I had taken at Samarkand, who knew the city, his family living 
 there, and who seemed to me a very straightforward, faithful 
 man, to find oat if a slave could anywhere be purchased. After 
 remaining away all day, he came back in the evening, and said 
 that he had found a boy about seven or eight years old, who could 
 be had for 700 tengas [2\l.) and a good gown. I immediately 
 gave him the money, and directed him to purchase the boy and 
 buy him some clothes, for in Bukhara, unless a special bargain 
 be made for the clothes, the slaves are delivered to you in a 
 state of nature ; in buying a horse one does not have the saddle 
 and bridle thrown in. The boy whom I thus purchased, turned 
 
108 TUKKISTAtf. 
 
 out to be very small and ±oeble, although intelligent, a Persian, 
 from near Meimana, who had been stolen from his parents, as 
 he was playing on the steppe with other boys, by the Salor 
 Turkomans, some three years before. His recollections of his 
 parents were very slight, and as he did not seem to know his 
 real name, I took the liberty, which in these countries is 
 always allowed on the purchase of a slave, and named him 
 Hussein. The arbakesh passed him off as his brother, and 
 although I think people in the house suspected the truth, yet 
 no one made any remark. 
 
 Having thus succeeded in outwitting the Bukharan autho- 
 rities, I resolved to make one last trial with the Kush-Begi for 
 the recovery of my first purchase, and at the last interview I 
 had with him, we talked on the subject for a long time. But 
 he so completely absolved himself from all blame, so smiled 
 and regretted, that there was nothing to be done with him. 
 I attacked his philanthropy, and quoted the sentence from the 
 Shariat, that ' to free a slave is a work pleasing to Grod,' and 
 asked to be allowed to complete the good work. He agreed 
 with me in all I said, and promised, if the lad could only be 
 found, to free him, and give him to me, but that he could not 
 think of his guest paying money. Although the Kush-Begi and 
 the Taksaba offered me so many slaves as presents, they were 
 very careful not to give me any. 
 
 I of course carefully concealed my new purchase till the 
 time of my departure. When the Taksaba came to bid me 
 ' good-bye,' I told him that although I wished to part with 
 him on good terms, I was perfectly aware of all that had been 
 done with reference to the boy ; that I had regretted very 
 much that he had retained him, as I had given him my word 
 that I would buy him and free him, and disliked to be false 
 to it ; that I understood he feared I would show the boy in 
 Samarkand as a proof of the existence of the slave trade, but 
 that he need not be anxious about that, as I had bought 
 another for that express purpose ; and I then produced the 
 little Hussein, at which the Taksaba was in such rage and 
 confusion as to be almost speechless. 
 
 When I reached the shrine of Bohoueddin, about six miles 
 from Bukhara, the former master of Hussein met me, and said 
 that the government had already discovered that it was he who 
 
 
ABOLITION OF THE SLAVE TllADE. 109 
 
 had sold the boy, arid that he was anxious to receive him hack, 
 being willing to repay the price, for he feared that, if he left 
 him in my hands, he would probably have his head cut off. 
 
 I told him I did not wish for my money, and certainly could 
 not give up the boy ; and that if he had his bead cut off, I 
 should have no regrets, but should feel that he had been served 
 perfectly right. On this he went off: but as we were about 
 starting, he returned, and tried to take the boy by force ; my 
 jigits soon put him to flight, and I was able to bring the boy 
 safely to Samarkand and St. Petersburg. 1 
 
 This purchase was the subject of a great deal of comment 
 in Samarkand and Tashkent, some few declaring that it was 
 impossible that I could have bought the boy, when the govern- 
 ment had official evidence that the slave trade did not exist ; 
 but most people were very much delighted that so decisive a 
 proof of its being carried on could be given, although they ex- 
 pressed a doubt aa to whether General Kaufmann — then absent 
 in Khiva — would be very well pleased, as he had just then 
 gained great fame by abolishing slavery in Khiva, while he had 
 allowed it for years to exist within 200 miles of the capital of 
 Russian Asia. I was afterwards pleased to learn that on the re- 
 turn of the army, General Kaufmann concluded a treaty with 
 tbe Amir, by which the slave trade is for ever abolished in 
 Bukhara. 
 
 At my interview with the Amir, I had asked for permission 
 to visit Tchardjui, having a desire to see the Amu Darya, and 
 especially to know what was going on there, for Tchardjui is a 
 place of exile for Bukharan political offenders, and it is said 
 that the treasure of the Amir is kept there so as to be ready 
 for any emergency. 
 
 On my first visit to the Kush-Begi, I told him that the 
 Amir had given me permission to go, to which he had said 
 ' Yes I know all about it, my son has told me.' Several times 
 subsequently, in conversation with the Taksaba, I spoke of going 
 to Tchardjui, as soon as I should have finished my visit in 
 
 1 The boy Hussein, who displayed remarkable cleverness and intelligence, 
 remained with me for two years at St. Petersburg, going to school, where he 
 learned to read and write Eussian and a little of German. He was afterwards 
 apprenticed to the Court clockmaker, a worthy Tartar of the Mussulman faith. 
 
1 1 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 Bukhara, and even promised to stay a day or two longer on 
 my return. My proposition was always received with assent, 
 and no objection of any sort was made. When I felt I uad 
 seen sufficient of Bukhara and was ready to go on, I told the 
 Taksaba, on one of his morning visits, that I proposed, that 
 evening, to start forKara-kul and Tchardjui. He immediately 
 began to dissuade me, and said that the road was very bad ; 
 that for two days I would be without water ; and that, further, 
 it was impossible for a cart to travel on that road. I told 
 him that I knew all about the road, and had calculated all these 
 difficulties, and did not intend to let them stop me. He then 
 said that the road was dangerous ; that the Turkomans were be- 
 setting this route ; and that I might get into some danger. I 
 laughed at the idea of a road being dangerous so close to the 
 capital ; but he assured me that it was really so, and begged me 
 not to go. He asked me if I had not heard of Sadyk, the cele- 
 brated robber chief, who, with his band, was then on this road. 
 I told him that I thought he was mistaken, for that I knew very 
 well that after the capture of Khiva, Sadyk with his Turkomans 
 had gone far on the other side of the Amu. He then said the 
 ferry over the Amu was dangerous, and that although I might 
 be safe on land, he would not be willing to guarantee the risk 
 of my crossing the river on the unsafe boats. He then re- 
 turned to the Turkomans, and said that the road was so dan- 
 gerous, that the Bek of Tchardjui, the son of the Amir, had 
 sent word, only the day before, that no one should be allowed 
 to go there. I still persisted in my intention, and he then desired 
 two weeks time, to write to Greneral Kaufmann, and see whether 
 he wished me to go, and asked why Greneral Abramof had not 
 mentioned it in his letter. On my refusing to wait, he said 
 that it would be necessary to ask permission of the Amir. I 
 told him that I had already done so, to which he himself could 
 bear witness. This he admitted, but said that I ought to have the 
 consent in writing, as a verbal order amounted to nothing ; that 
 this was their usage ; that I could not go without an escort, and 
 that he must get permission from the Amir to give me one ; that 
 if I would wait, they would ask the Amir for his consent, and 
 would make other arrangements for a safe and pleasant journey, 
 and would even give me a carriage as far as Kara-kul. He spoke 
 of Russians who had desired to go to Kara-kid, but who had 
 
NO HOPE OF TCHARDJUI. II. 
 
 been deterred on bearing the danger of the road. I told hirn 
 that I knew very well that Mr. Struve had been frightened by re- 
 ports of fevers (an idea, which he at once seized, and told me, 
 that the fever was raging frightfully there), while Mr. Petrof- 
 sky insisted to the last on going, and was only prevented b} 
 the positive refusal of the Kush-Begi. I finally told him that 1 
 intended to start that afternoon or the next morning, and that 
 if he took measures to prevent me, I should at once return to 
 Samarkand and tell of the difficulties placed in my way. 
 
 That evening Karataef came to me on the part of the 
 Kush-Begi, and endeavoured to dissuade me from going, using 
 very much the same arguments. The next morning I went to 
 see the Kush-Begi, and told him of my intention to start at once 
 for Tchardjui. He argued with me for half an hour on this 
 subject, telling me, among other things, that it was a great 
 pity I did not mention this subject to him at first, for then 
 he would have had time to obtain the Amir's consent ; that he 
 refused to recognise the verbal consent of the Amir as valid ; 
 and that although he was ruling in his place, he could do nothing 
 without a written order. 
 
 I told him that his son had been witness to the interview, at 
 which he seemed astonished, saying that his son had never 
 mentioned the fact to him, and sent for him to hear what he 
 had to say. Of course the Taksaba did not appear, and although 
 1 reminded the Kush-Begi that he himself had said at my first 
 interview that he already knew of this from his son, he seemed 
 unable to bring the matter to his recollection. He said that 
 if I had only arranged this matter at first, before I had been there 
 so long, and had only gone at once, the case would have been 
 other ; that I could even have started apparently for Khiva, and 
 turned down to Tchardjui — thus admitting that the road was 
 passable — and referred to the fact that Milutin, a young Kussian 
 officer (son of the Minister of War), had gone two-thirds of the 
 same way, a few weeks before, in perfect safety. ' But now,' 
 he said, ' you have been so long in Bukhara, that everybody 
 knows you are here, and is talking about you ; so if you go to 
 Tchardjui people will say that Bukhara is good for nothing 
 now-a-days, because foreigners are going everywhere, whereas 
 you might easily have deceived them by going at first.' 
 
 Finding it impossible to dissuade me, the Kush-Begi finally 
 
112 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 raid that I could not go without an escort. I asked if the 
 decision were final ? He said it was. I then said that I should 
 be very glad to accept an escort ; on which he seemed to think 
 that there might be danger to me from the very escort, and 
 desired me to give him a written paper that if I should be killed, 
 or anything should happen to me, the Eussian Government would 
 not hold the Amir responsible. I told him that on the contrary 
 I would give no such paper, as I had been especially requested 
 not to do so ; but that further, if a, finger were raised against me, 
 or I were injured in any way, the Bukharan Government would 
 be held responsible. 
 
 This seemed to frighten him a little, and he insisted the 
 more on the necessity of an escort. I asked him if I could have 
 the escort to-day. ' No.'—' To-morrow ? '— ' No.'—' When ? ' 
 — He was not sure I could have it at all, but he should be 
 obliged to write to the Amir, and in the course of five days 
 would probably receive an answer, saying whether I could have 
 an escort or not. 
 
 I then said, ' You do not permit me to go to Tchardjui to- 
 morrow ? ' 
 
 'No.' 
 
 ' Very well,' I replied ; ' in that case I shall start at once for 
 Samarkand.' 
 
 At this the face of the Kush-Begi became radiant ; he was 
 delighted to think he was not going to have the responsibility of 
 my journey to Tchardjui ; and, in fact, the announcement that 
 I was to leave Bukhara immediately seemed to fill him with 
 great pleasure, and with a feeling of relief. I think I must 
 have worried him a great deal over these various matters. 
 He was then as cordial as possible, hoped that we should always 
 be good friends, and said that he would do everything to make 
 my return journey pleasant, and would instruct everybody on 
 the road to treat me well. 
 
 On my return to Samarkand, I had a copy given to me of 
 a letter he then wrote to General Abramof, speaking of my visit 
 in pleasant terms, and saying that I had expressed a desire to go 
 to Tchardjui, that the Bukharan Government had been anxious 
 to facilitate me in every possible way, but that on hearing that 
 the road was dangerous, I had of my own accord declined to 
 go. 
 
AN ATTEMPT AT ASSASSINATION. 113 
 
 True to my determination, I left Bukhara the next day 
 (August 13). The Taksaha and Karataef came to bid me good- 
 bye, bringing me some tea and three pieces of silk. We had 
 rather a stormy scene, but finally parted on good terms. 
 
 Leaving Bukhara by the Mazar gate, I rode through 
 gardens and fields along a dusty road to Baha-Uddin, the shrine 
 of a celebrated saint, at a distance of six miles from Bukhara. 
 We found an immense bazaar going on there, and the streets 
 were thronged with a crowd of people of every class and con- 
 dition, beggars and pilgrims preponderating. As I passed 
 through the crowd, a respectably dressed Mullah walked close 
 to my side ; he had a large stone in his hand, and was muttering 
 to himself, ' Just let me hit him, and he will drop dead at 
 once, and there will be one Kaffir the less.' Fortunately Andrei 
 noticed this, and immediately rode at him, when he dropped 
 the stone and retreated some distance, and then picked up 
 another and threw it at Andrei. At this Andrei and the jigits 
 ran after him and drove him across the ditch into a large open 
 field, where they beat him soundly with their whips, and left 
 him half dead. He protested against this treatment, saying that 
 he was a Mullah, and that they had no right to beat him. I 
 did not at first understand that the man actually proposed to 
 kill me, supposing he was merely reviling me, as people oc- 
 casionally did ; but when I found that there was a struggle, 
 I fired my pistoL into the air, in order to show the crowd that I 
 was armed, and passed on without further trouble. Had this 
 man been wise enough to keep his own counsel, he could easily 
 have disposed of me. 
 
 We were soon brought to a small house, near the shrine of 
 the great saint of Central Asia, Hazret Baha-Uddin, or Hazret 
 Nakshband, who, it is said, died in 1303. The tomb of the 
 saint is in a small enclosure about twelve paces square, raised 
 about six feet above the ground, with a small temple-like 
 mausoleum at the top, covered with old bushes and grass, and 
 with the usual rams' horns and rags with which all sacred 
 places are decorated, having in every way an uncared-for look. 
 At one side is the inscription, and let into the wall near it a 
 black stone, called Sianghi Murad, which all pious pilgrims 
 rub with their hands, and touch with their face and beard, an 
 operation which leaves evident traces on the stone, and which is 
 
 VOL. II. I 
 
114 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 supposed to cure and to prevent all maladies of the head. I, 
 being a Kaffir, was exempted from this ceremony, but my 
 attendants all performed it. Two or three monks near by 
 received money for this privilege, as did others for pointing 
 out another small inscription. The Ishan had also to be paid. 
 This tomb stands in one corner of a square court, enclosed on 
 two sides by mosques filled with graves, said to be of the 
 descendants and pupils of the saint. Here are also the tombs 
 of the great Abdullah Khan, and of Daniar Atalyk. The 
 mosque on the south of the shrine is said to have been built 
 by Hakim Kush-Begi. A large portico at the side contains a 
 great number of dingy chandeliers, brass and bronze, some of 
 which with the silver plating nearly rubbed off are evidently of 
 Russian workmanship. From this mosque there is a long 
 narrow passage to the street, with another mosque at the right 
 side, full of pilgrims and beggars, who almost despoil one of 
 whatever money he may have with him. Still, one should not 
 be ungenerous, for a visit to this shrine, which ranks next to 
 Mecca in sanctity, would be sure to alleviate the future punish- 
 ment even of a Kaffir pilgrim. 
 
 Starting from this place about half-past three o'clock, we 
 arrived at six at the village of Kuyuk Mazar, about twelve 
 miles further, where we had refreshment, and where we were 
 advised to pass the night, but we concluded to go on twelve miles 
 more to Varganzi. Here we were placed in a caravanserai, 
 and a large verandah was given up to my use. The whole 
 road from Bukhara to Varganzi, and especially in the vicinity 
 of that place, led through well cultivated gardens and fields, 
 this being one of the best parts of the Khanate. Shortly after 
 my arrival, there came a message from the Kush-Begi to 
 inquire about my health, and to say that the man who attacked 
 me had been arrested and brought to Bukhara, and that they 
 were desirous of cutting his throat, but had been obliged to send 
 to the Amir to know if they could do so. I sent back word that 
 when the man should be punished, I hoped that he would be 
 punished publicly, so that all the people might know that they 
 could not molest or insult a foreigner, and requested the Kush- 
 Begi immediately to write to General Abramof at Samarkand, 
 informing him what had been done with this man. The last 
 dav that I spent in Tashkent, a merchant, an acquaintance of 
 
KERMINEH. ] 15 
 
 mine, arrived from Bukhara, and told me the various rumours 
 he had heard about me among the people ; very exaggerated 
 stories about my actions, and especially the belief that I was a 
 minister in disguise from St. Petersburg, to find out the actual 
 condition of affairs at Bukhara, and that, as I had been dis- 
 satisfied at the action of the government, the Kussians would 
 shortly invade and conquer the country. I asked him about 
 the man who had attacked me, and he said that he was still in 
 prison, and had not yet been punished, and that the popular 
 belief was that I had sent a letter to the Amir, requesting him 
 to be detained for the present, as I desired to behead him with 
 my own hands ! This is the last I heard of him. 
 
 Starting from Varganzi at half-past six o'clock in the 
 morning, passing several Mazars, or tombs, by the way, and 
 taking tea at a village called Bustan, on the edge of a narrow 
 canal, on the shady side of a small shop, we reached Malik, 
 about twenty-four miles further, at about noon. I went the 
 whole way in my arba, as we passed through a desert steppe, 
 and it was very windy and dusty. There were rumours here 
 of Turkomans and robbers, and we always had an escort of 
 two or three horsemen. At Malik, which was formerly a 
 town of some note, there are the ruins of a very large castle 
 (or caravanserai), with arched windows, the whole building 
 being somewhat in the Gothic style, with minarets at the 
 corners ; the drawing of Lehmann gives, to one who has seen 
 it, a very fair idea of the building. We rested here for a 
 few hours in a very small hot room, and while we were 
 taking our tea, the son of the Divan Begi of Kermineh came to 
 meet me. Near Kermineh, which was twelve miles further, 
 we were met by an escort, and I was asked if I wished to go 
 through the bazaar into the town, or by a round-about road. 
 I of course preferred the bazaar, and was then told that the 
 people there were very bad, and might perhaps insult me or 
 throw stones at me ; upon which I said that if they dared to 
 do so in the presence of their rulers, they should be taught 
 better. They then agreed to take me directly through the 
 town, but we went by a round-about way which led through 
 a small part of the bazaar to the house of the Divan Begi, where 
 1 was given very comfortable apartments, and a platform on 
 the edge of a large square pond of fresh water, shade 1 by some 
 
 l '2 
 
116 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 great elms. After a little repose, I walked to the house of 
 the Bek, which was near by. In the fortress square there 
 was a long line of soldiers, who saluted me with a fan- 
 far snade of trumpets as I passed, and a crowd of richly 
 dressed people stood on the slope which led to the small fort 
 containing the palace. The Bek, a small, but intelligent-looking 
 boy of thirteen, Seid Abdullah, a son of the Amir, who was 
 sitting by the window when we were shown in, rose and gave 
 me his hand, and asked after the health of the Emperor and 
 that of the Governor General. We then took seats, and the 
 Bek, who was dressed in a dark red silk robe and white turban, 
 immense for his years, remained silent, leaving the Divan Begi 
 to speak in his name, and only as we were leaving the room, 
 and had already made our last salaam, he suddenly cried out to 
 remember him to the Emperor and to the Governor General 
 when I saw them. This Bek is the favourite son of the Amir, 
 who frequently calls him to Bukhara, and apparently intends 
 him as his successor. He maintains a little court, with all a 
 boy's love for finery and display. Everyone here is obliged to 
 dress richly, with girdles if not gowns of Cashmere material, 
 and daggers in heavy gold sheaths carved and set with precious 
 stones. As we were going out, the Namaz was cried, and 
 everyone rushed off as fast as possible to get to prayers in the 
 mosque opposite the palace, before the Bek himself should go 
 in. The scene was very amusing. Eobes were brought to me, 
 which were much handsomer than I had received at any other 
 place ; one of my seven robes was of Cashmere stuff, worth 
 about thirty pounds. Among the presents I had brought for 
 this Bek were some toys from Tashkent, including a small 
 trumpet and a velocipedist going by clockwork, with which he 
 was very much amused, although he immediately put them out 
 of order. 
 
 Kermineh is a small town with four mosques and one 
 medresse, and contains nothing of interest except one mosque, 
 which is comparatively ancient, standing on the edge of a pond. 
 In the house of the Divan Begi I did not lack for entertainment. 
 My host had formerly been a merchant, had resided at Oren- 
 burg, and had even been to the Fair of Nizhni Novgorod ; he 
 was a shrewd, observant man, who had outgrown many preju- 
 dices, and whose conversation was agreeable and instructive. 
 
ZIAUEDDIN. 117 
 
 His enlightenment seemed to extend to bis household, for even 
 his son, a bright little boy of five, had no objection to being 
 petted by the strangers, and amused us greatly by his babble. 
 
 The next afternoon we went to Ziaueddin, twenty-four 
 miles, stopping for refreshment at Tash-kupri-uk, or Stone 
 Bridge. At Ziaueddin I was lodged in a part of the palace of 
 the Bek, who was himself out of town, and did not return until 
 the next morning. It was his duty to see that the dykes of 
 Samarkand, which turn the water into Bukhara, were always 
 kept in good order, which necessitated his going there two or 
 three times a year, and as he had been much with Eussians, he 
 was far more civilised and agreeable than any of the other Beks 
 whom I met. Ziaueddin seems to consist only of the Bek's 
 palace, and of a square outside on which a bazaar is held, each 
 trader being accommodated with a small clay conical mound, 
 of exactly the shape of the hill of the white ant. 
 
 The next day I went on as far as Shirin-hatun, where I 
 passed the night in a large garden, having stopped only for an 
 hour at Mir, where lodgings had been prepared for me ; and the 
 next day (August 17), about ten o'clock, I arrived at Katta 
 Kurgan. 
 
 The last days of a journey seem to one always more fatiguing 
 than the previous ones, and the whole distance from Kermineh 
 to Katta Kurgan was very wearisome. The road lies at the edge 
 of a beautiful country, the celebrated district of Miankal, with 
 the low mountains or hills to the south always visible, but is 
 itself on the high ground which is not watered or cultivated, 
 and as the soil is of clay the dust was more than a foot deep 
 and like an impalpable powder. I was, therefore, all the more 
 pleased to go to a place where I could find at least some 
 civilisation in the residences of the District Commandant and 
 in the post station, not to speak of my travelling carriage, 
 which was a very agreeable change after so much horseback 
 travelling. Though I had had some discomforts, and a great 
 many disputes with the authorities and other disagreeable in- 
 cidents, I look back to my journey in Bukhara with extreme 
 pleasure. Not only was the country itself interesting, but the 
 government, no matter how suspicious and jealous, as far as 
 hospitality went, did everything in its power to render me 
 comfortable. Still, it seemed like getting to another world to 
 
118 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 arrive at Katta Kurgan, eat civilised food, enjoy rational con- 
 versation on ordinary topics, and, more than all, to meet, after 
 such a long absence from female society, as the wife of one of 
 the officers, a well-known French actress from the Theatre 
 Berg at St. Petersburg. I found also at Katta Kurgan a very 
 good friend of mine, whom General Abramof had kiudly sent 
 to meet me at the frontier, and after a pleasant evening spent 
 at the Commandant's, we got into our travelling carriage and 
 by morning were safely back in Samarkand. 
 
 Throughout the whole of my journey I had endeavoured to 
 maintain my independence, had refused to allow myself to 
 be bullied or imposed upon, and had insisted that no one 
 should consider me his inferior, being siiffieiently acquainted 
 with the native character to know that the more respect I 
 demanded, the more I should receive. I had the satisfaction 
 of enjoying myself while travelling, even, or perhaps I may 
 say especially, in my disputes with the Taksaba, and of re- 
 turning in safety. 
 
 When, two months later, a Eussian colonel passed through 
 Bukhara on his way home from Khiva and asked the officials 
 what had been going on, he received the reply : ' An American 
 was here for ten days, and kept the Bukharan people completely 
 under his control.' 
 
ISSYK KUL. 119 
 
 CHAPTER XI. 
 
 ISSTK KUL AND SEMIEETCH. 
 
 Aulie-ata — Old ruins — Prester John -Spiders and Tarantulas — Cockroaches 
 — Tokmak — The Buam Pass — Lake Issyk Kul — Submerged cities — The 
 Tian Shan — No volcanos— The road to Kashgar — The Muzart Pass — The 
 Kara Kirghiz — Their legends — -A court of Biis — Bad interpreters — 
 Attempt to navigate the Tchu Signal defeat of the Khokandians at 
 Uzun-agatch — The White Tsar — Vierny — Chinese merchants— A Polish 
 refugee — General Kolpakofsky — Semiretch — Eussian and Cossack colonisa- 
 tion—Navigation of the Hi — Kopal — Lake Balkash — Through Siberia. 
 
 I had been warmly invited to go to Khiva after the capture of 
 that city, and I might easily have done so from Bukhara before, 
 and perhaps even after, my dispute with the Kush-Begi about 
 Tchardjui. I could have proceeded by road to the little fort 
 of Ustyk on the Amu-Darya, and could then have descended that 
 river in a boat almost to the very walls of Khiva, a journey at the 
 utmost of about four or five days from Bukhara ; but the coming 
 back would have been a very different matter. It would have 
 been very difficult to ascend the river against the current, and 
 riding up along the river bank or through the desert of Khalata 
 where the Russian army was so nearly lost, was more than I cared 
 for after my experience in the waste of Karshi. I could, indeed, 
 have gone on from Khiva by steamer to Kazala, but this would 
 have brought me out in a place far from my base of operations, 
 for I had left my carriage in Samarkand, and most of my luggage 
 and the few curiosities I had picked up in Tashkent. Having 
 seen Khokand and Bukhara, I felt that my curiosity for 
 that region of Central Asia was entirely satisfied, for I knew 
 that the Khivan oasis did not differ in any great respect from 
 the countries which I had already seen. Then, too, ugly 
 rumours were rife about the condition of the Russian army, a 
 campaign against the Turkomans had been begun, and there 
 
120 TURKISTAR 
 
 were widely credited and apparently well-authenticated reports, 
 — which fortunately proved untrue — of the massacre of Russian 
 garrisons and of the defeat of separate detachments. When, 
 therefore, I returned from Bukhara, I was desirous of pressing 
 on as fast as possible towards Issyk Kul and Kuldja, but I was 
 delayed for a few days waiting for authentic intelligence about 
 the movements of Mac Gahan, who, I was erroneously told, was 
 on his way to Tashkent. It was not, therefore, until the even- 
 ing of September 9, that I finally started from Tashkent, 
 after having been accompanied by some kind friends to a little 
 country house called Izbushka, on the edge of the town, 
 where many ' God-speeds ' were wished me amid the sparkle of 
 champagne. A moonlit drive brought me the next morning 
 to Tcbimkent, and after staying a few hours to look again at 
 the town and to call on the Prefect, I started off through the 
 mountains eastward. An unlucky hill did some damage to 
 my carriage, and I was forced to pass the night at Mashad, a 
 little valley between some hills. The mountains here are not 
 high, and I reached Aulie-Ata without difficulty at sunset the 
 next evening, passing on my way the double peak of Kazikurt- 
 ata, about 7,000 feet high, one of the many Asiatic mountains 
 on which Noah's Ark finally rested after the flood, and where 
 some pieces of it are still to be seen by believing eyes. 
 
 Aulie-Ata, which is situated on the rapid river Talas, pro- 
 bably near the site of the well-known ancient city Taraz or 
 Talas, is now but an insignificant country town, important only 
 as the chief place of the district, and as a market for the 
 Kirghiz, who live in large numbers among the neighbouring 
 mountains. It was taken by storm by General (then Colonel) 
 Tchernaief, on June 16, 1864, with a loss of only five wounded on 
 the part of the Russians, and of over 300 killed on the part of the 
 Khokandian defenders — the first step of the memorable campaign 
 of 1864, which has resulted in the Russian conquest of nearly the 
 whole of Central Asia. Since that time the place has greatly 
 increased in population and in business, but it is still a straggling, 
 shabby looking village with almost no trees, set down on the 
 bare steppe. At one time there was an idea of making this the 
 administrative centre of the province, and when General Kauf- 
 mann went to Turkistan, in 1867, he was undecided whether to 
 place his capital at Tashkent or at Aulie-Ata. 
 
MKM 
 
 
THE LEGENDS OF AULIE-ATA. 121 
 
 There is a road through the mountains from Aulie-Ata to 
 Namangan, which is of some commercial importance, especially 
 for the trade in cattle and sheep. In 1869, above 300,000 
 head of sheep, worth more than 700,000 rubles, passed on this 
 road from the steppes to Namangan. The whole distance is 
 165 miles, and the usual time consumed is eight days. The 
 two passes are not high, although on account of the snow they 
 cannot be crossed by horses or camels during two months of 
 the winter. 
 
 Aulie-Ata owes its name to the tomb of a patron saint of 
 the Kirghiz — Aulie-Ata, holy father, said to have been a certain 
 Kara Khan and a descendant of the Sheikh Akhmed Yasavi, 
 who is buried at Turkistan. The tomb itself, which is an 
 ordinary brick building, is in a woeful state of dilapidation, and 
 is by no means as interesting as the similar monument erected 
 over the grave of Assa-bibi, some female relation of Kara 
 Khan, which can be seen on the road-side ten miles west of the 
 town. Ten miles below Aulie-Ata on the Talas, amidst the 
 sands of the Muyun-kum, are the ruins of what was apparently 
 a city, called by the natives Tiume-Kent. 1 
 
 Tradition says that a maiden once lived here who was 
 beloved by the prince of the Divs, giant spirits who dwelt in 
 the neighbouring mountains. In order to prepare a fit re- 
 sidence for her, this Div began to build a city, and for that 
 purpose threw down immense stones from the mountain of 
 Mak-bal. The city was never finished, but its remains are still 
 visible, called by the natives Akhyr-tash (Akhyr-tepe), or 
 Tash-kurgan. The legend may be absurd, but the ruins, which 
 are about thirty miles east of "Aulie-Ata, are very curious. They 
 consist of an immense unfinished building, 600 feet by 450, of 
 reddish sandstone, the lower layers of the front being built of 
 large stones seven feet long by four broad. Mr. Lerch, 
 who investigated this ruin, thinks that it was intended for a 
 Buddhist monastery. The scattered stones are supposed by the 
 natives to have been mangers, or feeding-troughs, for an encamp- 
 ment, and hence the name Akhyr-tash, stone-manger. The 
 Chinese traveller, Tch'ang Tch'un, who passed here in 1221, 
 says : ' We travelled westward along the hills and after seven 
 
 1 These ruins, which have never been investigated, may perhips prove to be 
 those of the city Talas. 
 
122 TURKISTAN. 
 
 or eight days" journey the mountains suddenly turned to the 
 southr We saw a city built of red stone, and there are the 
 traces of an ancient military encampment. To the west we 
 saw great grave mounds placed like the stars in the Great Bear.' 
 These mounds also still exist, and from a short distance they 
 indeed appear to be seven disposed like the seven stars of the 
 Great Bear. In reality, however, there are sixteen mounds of 
 different sizes, the largest being from 200 to 250 paces in cir- 
 cumference. They are called by the Kirghiz, Jitte-tepe, or the 
 seven mounds. On one of them Mr. Lerch found a stone bear- 
 ing a Mantchu inscription, relative to a victory of the Chinese 
 over the Jungars, in 1758. 
 
 Indeed, all this region is to the geographer classic ground. 
 Here began the Min-bulak, or 'thousand springs' of Hiouen 
 Thsang; here too was the realm of Prester John, that semi-mythi- 
 cal, Christian pope-king so celebrated in mediaeval histories ; l 
 here was the country of the Karakidans, and a little to the north 
 lay their capital Bala Sagun ; and here was the great highway 
 between the East and the West along which passed so many 
 travellers from Zemarchus and Hiouen Thsang to Rubriquis and 
 Tch'ana- Tch'un. 2 
 
 1 Prester John now seems to be thoroughly identified with Yeliu Tashi, the 
 founder of the realm of Karakitai, who, after his conquest of Eastern and 
 "Western Turldstan , became known by the title of the Gur-Khan, and had his 
 capital at Bala Sagun. A full account of the legend of Prester John and of the 
 modifications which it underwent, will be found in the interesting book of Dr. 
 Augustus Oppert, ' Der Presbyter Johannes in Sage und Gesehiehte.' See also 
 Yule's 'Cathay,' pp. ] 73- 182, and his second edition of 'Marco Polo,' vol i. pp. 
 229-233, and vol ii. pp. 539-513. Professor Bruun, of Odessa, in his article on 
 the ' Migrations of Prester John,' (Odessa, 1870) propounds with some fcrco a 
 theory that he was Prince John Orbelian of Georgia. 
 
 2 For a slight sketch of t tie routes taken by the great mediseval travellers, see 
 Appendix III., at the end of Vol. I. 
 
 Bala Sagun, for reasons which I in part stated in the ' Geographical Magazine,' 
 December, 1874, p. 389, and January, 1875, p. 25, seems plainly to have been in 
 the valley of the Tchu, although not necessarily on the very hanks of that river. 
 In the present state of our knowledge it would be impossible to identify it 
 with any particular place. It-kitchu, the place proposed by Mr. Howorth (-Geog. 
 Mag.' July, 1875, p. 216), is a Turkish, but not Kirghiz, name meaning, 
 ' Dog-ford,' given probably on account of the shallowness of the Tchu at that 
 place. 
 
 I cannot find that there is the slightest reason of any kind for confounding Bala 
 Sagun, which is probably of Persian origin, with the Mongol word Balghasun, city, 
 and am at a loss to imagine how the idea arose, and why it is so persistent. 
 
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TARANTULAS AND PHALANGES. 123 
 
 The kind Prefect of Aulie-Ata wished me to wait a few 
 days, and to accompany him twenty miles into the mountains 
 to a great Kirghiz festival. Gladly would I have availed 
 myself of this invitation to see something more of the Kirghiz, 
 who now, after my experience of the Sarts, seemed patterns of 
 simplicity, manliness and virtue ; but I thought that there 
 were better things in store for me. North of the mountains I 
 seemed to breathe a different air. I had left the fanaticism 
 and the narrow life of the sedentary populations of Central 
 Asia behind me, and was again on the Steppe in a most 
 healthful and delightful region. All along my right was the 
 beautiful Alexandrofsky range, with many of its summits then 
 white with snow. At almost every step I crossed rivulets 
 trickling down from the hills, showing well the truth of the 
 old name, ' the thousand sources.' The road was good, the 
 horses were fresh, and I drove the whole distance from Aulie- 
 Ata to Ak-su, 150 miles, in 24 hours, including all stoppages. 
 At Merke there is a small military post, but there is nothing 
 there of interest, and 1 cared not to stop longer than for dinner, 
 on account of the kara-kv^rt spiders which infest this region, 
 about the venomous qualities of which I had often heard. 
 
 The spider called kara kurt, or black worm, by the Kirghiz, 
 (the scientific name is, I believe, Latrodectes lugubris), is not 
 larger than the finger-nail, but it has the power of jumping 
 several feet, and is by far the most venomous of all such vermin 
 native to this country. It is said that its poison will kill a 
 man, although I have never known of authenticated instances ; 
 buo I was told that the Kirghiz who live on the small streams 
 coming down from the Alexandrofsky range, especially in the 
 neighbourhood of Merke, annually lose many animals through 
 the bite of this spider. It lives in the grass, and there is a 
 belief that it is unable to walk over a woollen substance, for 
 which reason the Kirghiz, as well as the Cossacks and the soldiers, 
 always spread down large pieces of felt, on which to sit. More 
 terrible in appearance, although less deadly, are the tarantulas 
 and phalanges. The tarantula (Lycosa singoriensis) is black, 
 with a body of the size of a pigeon's egg, covered with dark 
 brown or black hair. The phalange (Solpuga araneoides and 
 $ intrepida) is of a yellowish or reddish brown, also with long 
 hair, and when walking seems as large as one's two fists. They 
 
1 24 TURKISTAN. 
 
 frequent the steppes, and live in the sand, but a.e rarely found 
 in gardens or villages. 
 
 A Mantchu officer, in an account of his travels in Eastern 
 Turkistan, in 1777, gives a curious and nearly correct descrip- 
 tion of the phalange. 
 
 He says, ' The pa-tcha tchung (the insect with eight legs) is 
 found everywhere in the countries of the sin kiang (the new 
 frontier — Turkistan). It resembles the spider, and is of a 
 roundish form, and of a dirty yellow colour. It has eight not 
 very long legs, and a reddish brown mouth. The mouth is formed 
 by four branches. "When the insect bites iron, it caa be heard. 
 The body of it is yellowish green, the skin is transparent like 
 that of the silk-worm. It is found in damp places, near canals, 
 and also in the houses. The larger ones are of the size of a 
 hen's egg ; the smaller ones are as big as a walnut. They run to 
 a light as moths to a candle. When a violent wind blows 
 they quit their holes, and, aided by the wind, enter the houses. 
 They run very quickly, and when angry, rise on their eight 
 legs and attack men. If one should happen to creep upon a 
 man's body, he must not touch it, but wait until it goes away 
 of its own accord, when there will be no danger. But as soon 
 as one interferes with the insect, he is bitten immediately. The 
 poison enters the body, causes great pain, and penetrates to the 
 heart, and to the marrow of the bones. When in such a case 
 immediate help cannot be obtained, the man's body will mortify 
 and death will ensue. When he has been only slightly bitten, 
 if he catch the insect and bruise it, there will be no danger. 
 But when it has succeeded in spitting a white web on the 
 wound, death will be inevitable. Sometimes the sap ex- 
 pressed from the plant si-is' as (a kind of madder plant, rubia) 
 and applied to the wound is useful, but generally out of a 
 hundred men bitten by the pa-tcha tch'uny only one or two 
 escape. The Mohammedans say that the only means of cure is 
 calling in an Akhun to read from the holy book, but I have 
 often heard that the Mohammedans bitten by this insect, when 
 they turn for help to the Akhuns, often die before the reading- 
 is finished.' 1 With its four jaws the phalange makes four little 
 holes, but the bite is much less deadly than is stated by the 
 
 1 ' Description of Jungaria and Eastern Turkistan,' by the Monk Hyacinth ; p. 
 218. St. Petersburg, 1829. 
 
BLACK-BEETLES. 125 
 
 Chinese author. Mr. Fedtchenko held the opinion that there 
 was no poison whatever in the phalange, as its teeth have no 
 openings through which poison can run, and as he found in it 
 no poison bag. Mrs. Fedtchenko was bitten by a large one 
 with no consequences except a slight pain, although, as she was 
 bitten through her clothing, the instance was not decisive 
 The Cossacks and the soldiers, who are very frequently bitten, say 
 that at first the pain is no greater than the sting of a gnat, and 
 that it is even difficult to find the place of the bite ; but that 
 after some time the pain spreads through the whole body, and 
 is attended with fever and great exhaustion. 
 
 It is curious that Eitter, in an interesting digression, while 
 citing the description of the Chinese traveller whom I have 
 quoted above, from some preconceived idea concludes that the 
 insect spoken of was not a phalange, but a cockroach (Blatta), 
 and endeavours to show that the black-beetle, or cockroach, 
 came into Europe through Siberia from Central Asia. But 
 strangely enough the true black-beetle is not found in Turkis- 
 tan, and the one now to be seen in the Eussian houses is of a 
 different species. In Eastern Siberia, too, it does not exist, the 
 river Ob forming a sharp boundary line, on the west of which 
 even at the very first station, cockroaches are abundant, while 
 on the other side there are none at all. The Eussians have 
 various superstitions connected with this disagreeable beetle, 
 and consider that its presence in the house brings good luck. 
 They therefore have frequently endeavoured to naturalise them 
 in Eastern Siberia, but always without success, and the peasants 
 with a tone of sadness say, ' They cross the Ob and die.' Eitter 
 also says that Turkistan was the birth-place of the bed-bug, 1 but, 
 as I have said before (vol. i. p. 149), bed-bugs were never known 
 there until introduced by the Eussians. On this Fedtchenko 
 remarks that it was formerly very much the fashion to point to 
 Turkistan as the native country of many of our cultivated and 
 domestic plants and animals, through ignorance of that region, 
 but that the result of his travels was to show that Turkistan 
 received nearly all its animal and vegetable population from 
 the neighbouring countries, by the migration of forms which 
 were, of course, to some degree changed by the new conditions 
 
 1 'Die Erdkunde von Asien,' vol v. pp. 453 -461. 
 
126 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 which they found there, and by the consequent struggle for 
 existence. 1 
 
 After leaving Ak-su we seldom met any Sarts, hut on the 
 contrary numbers of genuine Eussian peasants, for here begin 
 the Russian colonies. 
 
 Opposite Pishpek are the highest peaks of the Alexan- 
 drofsky range, 15,000 and 16,000 feet high. As we ap- 
 proached Tokmak, near the banks of the Tchu, the country 
 became marshy and the road was through meadows covered 
 with tall grass and reeds. Both Pishpek and Tokmak were 
 small Khokandian forts which were taken by the Russians, 
 under Colonel Zimmerman, in 1860. The old town of Tokmak, 
 about fifteen miles above the present place, of which now only 
 almost undistinguishable ruins exist, was formerly the capital of 
 a principality and gave to the Mongols the name for all the 
 country to the west — the realm of Kiptchak. 2 Tokmak is now 
 the chief town of a district, and has a Russian population of 
 about 800. The town was built here to be near the junction 
 of the road to Issyk Kul and the Naryn with that going north 
 over the Kastek Pass to Vierny, but as in order to avoid 
 the Kastek Pass, the Vierny road has now been taken very 
 much to the west, joining the other road at Pishpek, it is 
 proposed, on account of the unhealthiness of the site, arising 
 from the fevers caused by the surrounding marshes, to 
 abandon it and to change the seat of the administration to 
 Pishpek. 
 
 Leaving my carriage and luggage at Tokmak, I took a light 
 post-cart for an excursion to Lake Issyk Kul. Beyond Tokmak 
 our way lay again through the reedy lowlands until we came to 
 the ford over the Tchu, a few miles above the town. Here we 
 found a small picket, and one of the Cossacks piloted us across, 
 for the current is so rapid and deceitful that it would be 
 difficult to cross without a guide. We went on twenty miles to 
 Kara Bulak, on the Little Kebin, at the mouth of the Kastek 
 Pass, and then turned south-east till we recrossed the Tchu, 
 
 1 Fedtehenko : — 'Travels in Khokand,' p. 42. 
 
 8 In the ' History of East Mongolia ' by Sanang Setzen we find (as for example, 
 under the years 1196-1452) frequent references to the wars between the Mongol 
 Khan and the Sultan of Tokmak, by whom we must understand the iShah of 
 Kharezm. 
 
THE BUAM PASS. 127 
 
 over a fine bridge, just below the place where it receives the 
 Great Kebin. Here the banks of the Tchu, as well as of the 
 Kebin. are rocky and precipitous, and the river, confined 
 within a narrow space, rushes swiftly by, forming picturesque 
 rapids and cataracts. The view from the bridge, as well as that 
 from the bank above it, is very fine. We soon entered the 
 mouth of the Great Buam Pass, separating the Alexandrofsky 
 range from the two parallel chains of the Trans-Hi Ala-tau. 
 The road crossed and recrossed the torrent, now passing on a 
 cornice through a narrow defile, and again coming out on an 
 open valley, where the stream grew wider and shallower, and 
 where were sometimes small green meadows and clumps of 
 willow and hippophae. The scenery was certainly very grand, 
 but owed its beauty entirely to the immense masses of bare 
 rock, and to the contrasts in colour observable, some being 
 of a rich reddish purple sandstone conglomerate, and others 
 of black trap with occasional patches of yellow, grey and 
 brown. I missed much the trees and verdure which give the 
 charm to the Eocky Mountain canons, the only defiles with 
 which I can compare this pass. The view on descending the 
 pass was much finer, the point of view and the consequent 
 scenic effect changing at every step. The precipitous walls of 
 rock rose so high on either hand that we were unable to see 
 the snowy summits of the more distant mountains, and dark- 
 ness overtook us when we had reached the station of Kok- 
 Moinak, at about the middle of the pass, where we, therefore, 
 spent the night. A drive of fifteen miles the next morning 
 through similar scenery brought us to the head of the pass at 
 the station of Kuternaldy. In one or two places we should 
 have found it difficult to get by another vehicle, but in general 
 the road was excellent, and I could not help thinking of the 
 great changes which had taken place here since the visit of 
 Mr. Semenof, in 1856. The old road, Koi-yul, or sheep-path, 
 at times traversed by Kirghiz horsemen, we saw winding up 
 and down the sides of the cliffs, sometimes fifty or sixty feet 
 above our heads. 1 
 
 1 In the dialect of the Kara-Kirghiz, as also in the Altai, a pathway over 
 precipitous crags bordering a river is called bom, or with some pronunications 
 buam; hence the name of this pass. Kuternaldy corresponds to the Pisse-vache of 
 the Alps. 
 
128 TUKKI8TAN. 
 
 At Kutemaldy we were already in the open country, partly 
 meadow, partly sedge-land, and partly gravelly plains which in 
 general slope gradually down to the Issyk Kul, although a slight 
 rise of ground prevented our seeing the lake. After changing 
 horses, I went on one station further to Turu-aigyr, on the 
 lake shore. To one born and bred on the banks of a great 
 lake there could be nothing more beautiful than this expanse 
 of water, especially after months passed on dry and barren 
 steppes. The day was bright and warm, the lake was of the 
 deepest, richest blue that I have ever seen on water, contrasting 
 and harmonising with the mountains of a warm reddish and 
 purplish brown, which surrounded it on all sides. Above these 
 was a range of snow-covered mountains — the Terek-tau — while 
 the sky was of a light transparent blue. On every side the 
 view was magnificent, for even behind me the crests of the 
 Kungei Ala-tau were now covered with snow, and in some of 
 the valleys I saw what seemed to me to be glaciers, although 
 they were more probably large snow-drifts. I remained here 
 all day trying to get my fill of the view, if it were possible, 
 thinking that at sunset it would be still lovelier, but alas ! no 
 sooner had the sun disappeared than the summits of the 
 mountains became cold and dark, and only on the lower hills 
 were there quick-changing shades of crimson and purple. With 
 the descent of the sun, too, it became very cold, and I was glad 
 to drive at a quick pace back to Kutemaldy, congratulating 
 myself on being so lucky as to have had a fine day, and on 
 having had the good sense not to go farther where the lake 
 might have been too wide to see easily across it. 
 
 During the day I rode through the sedge and the clumps 
 of bushes down to the water, for Turu-aigyr was fully two 
 miles from the edge of the lake. It was curious how still and 
 deserted the lake seemed, for not a boat was visible. I had 
 wanted to go out in the fishing-boat which belonged to the 
 Russian station-master, but we found one of the oars broken, 
 and it seemed pleasanter to lie on the sand and look at the 
 mountains, or to wander along the shore and pick up with 
 wonderment the human bones which were to be seen at every 
 step. For a distance of several miles here, as well as at a 
 place at the eastern end of the lake, the shore is thickly strewn 
 with skulls and bones, sometimes in a very perfect state. The 
 
THE LEGENDS OF ISSYK KUL. 129 
 
 Kirghiz relate that on this spot, in ancient times, a great 
 battle was fought, and that these are the remains of the slain. 
 Others say that here stood a city, the inhabitants of which were 
 so wicked that there was a second flood, which drowned tirem 
 all and formed the lake. This legend is also recounted in a 
 form somewhat recalling the old story of Midas. Over an un- 
 believing people who lived in this valley, there once ruled a 
 childless Khan, who had long prayed to heaven to grant him 
 an heir. At last his prayers were answered ; but through 
 some fright or fault of his wife, the long deferred son, to whom 
 was given the name of Jany Bek, had the ears of an ass. He suc- 
 ceeded in concealing these marks of his origin until the death of 
 his father. When he himself ascended the throne he had recourse 
 to severe measures, for every barber who shaved his head was 
 immediately put to death. At last lots had to be cast as to 
 who should shave the Khan and then die. Once the dreaded 
 task fell to an adroit young fellow, who succeeded in so pleasing 
 Jany Bek, that after swearing secrecy and fidelity he was allowed 
 to live, was retained as the Khan's constant barber, and was 
 subsequently made his prime minister. Years passed, and 
 once at a hunt his falcon outstripped that of the Khan, and in 
 thoughtless exultation he cried out : ' My falcon is better than 
 the falcon of ass-eared Jany Bek Khan.' He thought too late 
 of what he was saying, and to escape death fled to the moun- 
 tains, sometimes returning at night to the city. On one of 
 these visits, whilst at the well in the public square, out of 
 sorrow for the renewed cruelties of the Khan, he prayed God 
 to send punishment on him, and on his corrupted people who 
 endured such a yoke. His prayer was heard in heaven, and 
 water began to flow out of the well in such abundance that it 
 submerged the city, and formed Lake Issyk Kul. 
 
 As it is known that in former times cities existed on the 
 lake shore, this theory has gained much credence, but the 
 skulls which I picked up seemed to me to belong to Kirghiz, 
 and all the bones were, I thought, of recent origin, only so 
 much discoloured, as might be expected after lying a few 
 years in the water. I understand that in the mountains near 
 here, on the banks of a stream, there are Kirghiz cemeteries, 
 and I think it probable that with the melting of the snows in 
 VOL. II. K 
 
130 TTJKKISTAN. 
 
 spring some of the graves are washed aAvay, and the bones 
 carried into the lake, where they are thrown up again by the 
 waves, especially after storms. But besides bones, other 
 objects are found in the lake, especially large tiles and bricks. 
 The rooms in the station house were paved with such square 
 and diamond-shaped tiles, some plain red, others covered with 
 a blue glaze, which had been obtained partly from the lake 
 and partly from ruins ploughed up by the peasants. At a 
 place on the northern side of the lake called Koroi-saroi, and in 
 two places at the eastern end, remains of submerged cities are 
 still to be seen a few feet under water. Many objects have 
 been found here, some thrown up by the waves and others 
 fished out of the water, chiefly broken pottery and pieces of 
 metallic vessels, a number of which are preserved in the col- 
 lections of the Imperial Kussian Geographical Society. In 
 1847 two ornamented copper kettles were found on the south 
 shore of the lake, and were given by the Kirghiz to the Khan 
 of Khokand. Among other things, I have seen a small lamp 
 which bears an inscription in an entirely unknown alphabet, 
 although one letter is said by Mr. Lerch to bear a strong 
 resemblance to a letter of the Manichsean. Old Chinese maps 
 place the city of Tchi-gu on the shore of Issyk Kul, and on 
 the Catalan map, of 1375, there is marked on the southern 
 shore a JNestorian monastery containing the bones of St. Mat- 
 thew. These ruins have never been carefully investigated, but 
 in 1869 General Kolpakofsky examined some of them, and 
 says that between the mouths of the streams 2nd and 3rd Koi-su 
 at seven feet from the shore, and at a depth of three feet, there 
 are visible traces of brick walls which go parallel to each other 
 at a distance of a few feet until the depth of the lake prevents 
 their being seen. He also saw a large stone on which was 
 carved the representation of a human face, and which he suc- 
 ceeded in getting out of the water. 1 Subsequent observers, 
 who had succeeded in rigging cut a boat, assured me that 
 especially near the river Tub, on a clear day, they could see the 
 remains of buildings. Stone statues of men and women of the 
 same character as those found in the steppes of south Russia 
 are of not infrequent occurrence at the eastern end of the 
 
 1 Memoirs of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, 1870, p. 101. 
 
SUBMERGED RUINS IN ISSYK KUL, 131 
 
 Issyk Kul, and north of the mountains in the neighbourhood 
 of Vierny. 1 
 
 The fact that ruins are visible under the water would seem 
 to show either a subsidence of the soil, or that the lake is 
 higher than it once was. At the same time near Turu- 
 aigyr the lake shore is divided into terraces, and these, I 
 believe, are always to be seen except where precipitous rocks 
 come close to the water, showing that the lake has been at 
 different periods higher than its present level. The lake 
 receives forty or more small streams, and as it has now no 
 outlet the water is brackish, but not sufficiently so to be un- 
 pleasant to drink in small quantities. It contains abundance 
 of fish. Issyk Kul, the name by which it is known among the 
 Kirghiz, means a warm lake, and was given to it either on 
 account of the numerous warm springs that exist on the 
 southern shore, or from the fact that it does not freeze in the 
 winter except with a thin crust along the edges. It was 
 called by the Chinese Zhc-hai, which has the same meaning, 
 and it has also sometimes received the names of Yan-hai in 
 Chinese, and Tuz-gul in Kirghiz, meaning salt-lake, while by 
 the Kalmuks it is called Temui^tu-Nor, or the iron lake, it is 
 said on account of the ferruginous black sand found on its 
 shores, which the Kirghiz smelt into iron, and use. 
 
 The northern shore of the lake is called the Kungei, or 
 sunny-side, while the southern shore is called the Terskei, or 
 dark and cold side, names which have been also applied to the 
 two mountain ranges closest to the lake. 
 
 1 These statics are spoken of by a Chinese traveller Sui-Sun who was in that 
 region in the early part of this century. He says : ' Into the north-eastern end 
 of Lake Issyk Kul there flows the river Kou-ken-bag. To the east of this river, 
 along the shore of the lake, there are ruins of a city, and a stone statue lies in the 
 grass. The statue represents a man girt with a sword, who holds his right hand 
 on his sword, and places his left hand against his forehead. The stone is much 
 spoiled by time, and it is therefore difficult to find out when it was made.' He, 
 however, adds that he did not see these statues himself, although he looked 
 carefully for them. He quotes what was said about them by the Chinese General 
 De-Jo, who had seen them in 1805, but who. on account of his age and weak 
 memory, could not remember the exact place. 'The Chinese,' he says, 'think 
 that these statues were either tombstones of the burnt sovereigns, or statues 
 representing ranks in the official hierarchy such as in the time of the Tan dynasty 
 it was customary to place on the 'ombs of sovereigns.' Mem. Imp. Russ. Geo°\ 
 Soc. 1870, p. 103. 
 
 K 2 
 
132 TURKISTAN. 
 
 Between the Issyk Kul and the Tchu there is a very small 
 stream, the Kutemaldy, running out of a marsh near the Tchu 
 and usually flowing into the lake, although frequently the 
 water is almost stationary. At the spring floods it is said that 
 even a good portion of the water of the Tchu runs into the 
 lake. The lower portion of the Kutemaldy is almost like a 
 canal, and the natives insist that it is entirely artificial, and was 
 constructed by the Kalmuks a century ago for irrigating 
 purposes, or in order to draw off the waters of the lake, and 
 thus reclaim the land occupied by it. 1 
 
 The recent explorations of Kussian officers have taught us 
 that the TianShan is not the simple mountain chain that it was 
 formerly supposed to be, but that it constitutes a great Alpine 
 region extending far to the south of Lake Issyk Kul, and 
 forming with the Pamir and the Himalayas the mountain centre 
 of the whole Asiatic continent. 
 
 The axis of this Tian Shan Alpine region is apparently from 
 north-east to south-west, the elevation rising gradually to the 
 south and east, and sinking on the side of Kashgar much more 
 rapidly. Lake Issyk Kul is 5,300 feet above the sea's level, while 
 Lake Son Kul is 9,430 feet, and the Tchatyr Kul 11,210 
 feet. The main ranges run from north-east to south-west, but 
 are cut by other smaller ones in a north-westerly and south- 
 easterly direction. The centre, although not actually the 
 highest part of the whole region, is the plateau or range of 
 Ak-shiiraik, in a recess of which is the great Petrof Glacier, 
 the true source of the river Naryn. There are many peaks 
 between 14,000 and 20.000 feet high, and south-east of the 
 eastern extremity of Issyk Kul is the lofty mountain of Khan- 
 
 1 Referring to what I said in vol i. p. 54, I find that, according to Ritter, an 
 old Japanese map of the fifteenth century, constructed on materials gathered by 
 Buddhist missionaries in the beginning of the seventh century, makes the Issyk 
 Kul run into the Tchu and the Tchu empty into the sea of Aral. Considering 
 how errors are always liable to creep into maps of a little known country, and how 
 ■until a very few years ago, the Issyk Kul was supposed to be the source of the 
 Tchu, we cannot perhaps attach much importance to this map, but Ritter is decidedly 
 of opinion that when lake Issyk Kul was formerly at a higher level it debouched into 
 the Tchu, and that the Tchu, instead of stopping in the marshes near the Saumal 
 Kul actually communicated with the Syr Darya near its mouth. An itinerary 
 quoted by him says the same thing. 
 
THE TIAN SHAN. 133 
 
 Tengri, the altitude of which, although not accurately measured, 
 is estimated at over 24,000 feet. 1 Both Humboldt and Ritter, 
 on the basis of notes contained in the Chinese annals, believed 
 that the Tian Shan was of volcanic formation, and that active 
 volcanoes had existed there in recent times. Four particular 
 localities were pointed out ; the mountain Pe-shan, north of 
 the city Ku-tche, the neighbourhood of Urumtsi, a mountain 
 near Turfan and the island Aral-tepe in Lake Ala Kul. Even 
 as far back as 1840 Schrenk showed that on the Aral-tepe and 
 near the Ala Kul, there were no volcanic formations at all, and 
 recent Russian explorations in the Tian Shan have come to the 
 same result. Severtzof is of opinion that the fire in the 
 mountains to which the Chinese historians refer, may have 
 been caused by the ignition of the seams of coal, or of the 
 carburetted-hydrogen gas filling the cavities of the seams. 
 
 Captain Sosnofsky during his passage up the Black Irtysh, 
 made some particular inquiries regarding the volcanic region 
 north-west of Urumtsi, and was told that there was a place 
 in that neighbourhood called Jin, from which steam constantly 
 arose, and that near this crevice there had existed from ancient 
 times three pits, where persons afflicted with rheumatism or 
 skin diseases were in the habit of bathing. The temperature 
 was very high. Captain Sosnofsky came to the conclusion that 
 there was no reason for supposing this locality to be volcanic. 
 
 The most important road through the Tian Shan is that 
 extending from Tokmak and the Buam Pass to Kashgar, by 
 the way of Fort Naryn, a small fortification erected on the 
 upper Naryn, in 1868, by Colonel Kraiefsky, in order to establish 
 the authority of Russia over the mountains. In consequence 
 of an anticipated war with Kashgar, orders were given in the 
 
 1 Much interesting information about the interior of the Tian Shan may be 
 founds in the account of Mr. Semenof, a translation of which was published in the 
 Journal of the ' Royal Geographical Society' for 1869 p. 311, and in that of 
 Baron Osten Sacken, id. 1870, p. 250; but for more exact geographical informa- 
 tion it is necessary to turn to the ' Travels in Turkistan and the Tian Shan' by 
 the naturalist N. Severtzof, St. Petersburg 1873, a portion of which was translated 
 in the Journal of the R. G. S., 1870, p. 313, and a German translation of the 
 whole of which was published as Appendices xlii and xliii to Petermann's ' Mit- 
 theilungen,' 1875 (the maps here are much fuller and better than in the Russian 
 edition), and to the ' Materials for the Geography of the Tian Shan ' by Baron 
 Kaulbars, published in the fifth volume of the 'Geographical Memoirs of the 
 Imp. Russ. Geog. Soc. St. Petersburg,' 1875 
 
134 TTJRKISTAN. 
 
 spring of 1872 to construct as far as this fort a road passable 
 for artillery and carts. A detachment of soldiers was sent out, 
 and in less than five months, under great difficulties, the road 
 with its bridges was completed to the Naryn — a distance of 
 ninety-six miles. The road leaves the Buam Pass at the station 
 of Kok-moinak, then crosses the Tchu, then the pass of Kuak- 
 ky, which separates that river from the Kotchkur, and then by 
 the Juvan Aryk Pass, through easier ground. During the march 
 of the detachment the river was crossed by means of a bridge of 
 arbtls, high two-wheeled carts, a method not uncommon in 
 Central Asia, and by which in a war against Khiva the whole 
 of the Bukharan army is said to have been transported across 
 the Amu Darya. The wheels of these carts offer but little 
 obstruction to the current, and even on such a river as the 
 Tchu the bridge could be placed in position in half-an-hour, 
 and drawn out again in ten minutes after the troops had crossed. 
 The distance from the Naryn. to Kashgar is about 175 miles, 
 and although the road is not yet passable for carts, it is by no 
 means a difficult one. On commiserating the station-master at 
 Kok Moinak on the unpleasantness which he must experience 
 in being shut up there during the whole of the winter, he told 
 me that neither in the Buam Pass nor on the shores of the 
 Issyk Kul is there very much snow in winter, that the road is 
 never closed, and even that carts, and not sledges, are used 
 throughout the winter. He said, too, that for two stations only 
 on the road to the Naryn was the travelling sometimes rendered 
 difficult during the winter by the snow. 
 
 To the east of Lake Issyk Kul, close under the peak of 
 Khan-Tengri, there is another pass, the Ice or Muzart Pass, 
 which is of great importance as being the shortest means of 
 communication from Kuldja and the valley of the Hi to Ak-su 
 and Kashgar. 
 
 In the old Chinese times the road over the Muzart was kept 
 in a tolerable state of repair, and pickets were stationed at 
 intervals to keep it open, and to hew steps in the ice. 
 
 The accounts of Chinese travellers ' speak of the terrors 
 and difficulties of this pass, and the explorations of Prussian 
 officers show that these were not exaggerated. The pass was 
 first visited in 1867 by Mr. Poltaratzky, but he succeeded in 
 
 1 One of these, that of Hiouen Thsnng A.n. 029. I quote in Appknbix III., at 
 the end of Vol. I. Another i* given in Father Hyaijmth*s ' Jungaria,' p. 221. 
 
THE MUZAKT PASS. 135 
 
 reaching the first summit only, although he thought that he 
 had attained its top. It was next explored by Colonel Tchai- 
 kofsky, in 1870, as well as by Baron Kaulbars, but neither could 
 get further, and even that point, which Kaulbars estimates at 
 11,000 feet above the sea, was attained with very great 
 difficulty. In 1871, however, Captain Shepelef went the 
 whole length of the south Muzart Grlacier to the neighbourhood 
 of the Kashgarian picket on the southern side of the Tian 
 Shan. Much of the road lies over the moraines of glaciers, and 
 even over the glaciers themselves, which are so full of fissures 
 that temporary bridges have to be made for the passage of 
 caravans. In one place at the mouth of a defile, the slope was 
 so great and the fissures were so numerous, that the glacier pre- 
 sented to Baron Kaulbars the aspect of a cataract of ice. A 
 Russian post is stationed at the north entrance of the defile, 
 and a Kashgarian picket on the southern side of the Tian Shan 
 near the pass itself. 
 
 Colonel Tchaikofsky told me that at the northern end of 
 this pass there is a large stone erected, on which a human face 
 is roughly drawn, and in addition to which is a long inscription 
 in characters which he supposed to be Thibetan. In the defile 
 itself he found a Chinese block-house, in perfect order. In 
 this neighbourhood there is excellent hunting for the rnarali, 
 or mountain deer, especially in the spring when they have 
 shed their horns. These deer are then shot by the Kirghiz 
 for the purpose of getting the gelatinous masses which have 
 not yet developed into new horns, and which the Chinese buy 
 at enormous prices, for this substance is considered an aphro- 
 disiac and forms part of the marriage portion of every well-to-do 
 Mongolian and Chinese bride. The exact manner of using it 
 is not known. When fresh the horns are soft and gelatinous, 
 so that if properly cooked they might be palatable and even 
 efficacious ; but after they have rotted and been pulverised it 
 is difficult to imagine anything more repulsive. 
 
 The neighbourhood of the Issyk Kul, and in general the 
 valleys of the Tian Shan, as well as the Alai mountains and the 
 Pamir to the south of Khokand, are inhabited by the true 
 Kirghiz, called by the Chinese and the Kalmuks Burnt, and by 
 the Russians Kara-Kirghiz (Black Kirghiz) or Dikoka/menny 
 Wild Mountain) Kirghiz, to distinguish them from the Kazaks, 
 
136 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 who have erroneously and accidentally obtained among tne 
 Russians the appellation of Kirghiz. 1 There are some reasons 
 for supposing this race to have been originally of the same 
 extraction as the Finns, and many persons consider them a 
 mixed race of Turks and Mongols ; 2 but at all events they 
 must at a very early period have become Turkicised, for even 
 the Chinese historians of the seventh century, to whom they 
 were known under the name of the Khagas, show by the words 
 they cite that they then spoke a Turkic language. They are 
 there described as being fair-skinned and light-haired, and 
 although now most of them are dark and black-haired, yet 
 individuals of the original type are not unfrequently met with 
 among them. As the Khagas, they seem to have possessed a 
 higher civilisation than most of the Asiatic tribes, to have 
 inhabited a wide extent of country, and to have been in 
 intimate relations with the Chinese, the Arabs, and Eastern 
 Turkistan. 3 
 
 In the 10th century the might of the Khagas began to 
 decline, the Uigurs and other nations threw off their supre- 
 macy, and they for a while disappeared from history, only to 
 return to it again in the second half of the thirteenth century 
 under their present name of Kirghiz, in Chinese Ki-li-ki-tsi. 
 The movements among the nomad tribes between the tenth 
 and thirteenth centuries seem to have cut the Kirghiz in two, 
 so that while the greater portion of them lived in their present 
 habitats in the Tian Shan and the Pamir, another division of 
 them remained on the upper waters of the Yenissei, where, 
 even as late as the eighteenth century, they gave much trouble 
 to the Russian colonists. During the eighteenth century they 
 disappeared, partly cut off by the attacks of the Kalmuks and 
 of other hostile tribes, and partly absorbed by them, while only 
 
 1 See also vol i. p. 30. Kara-Kirghiz is an appellation -which is thoiight to 
 be borrowed from the Kirghiz-Kaisaks, given, as they say, to denote their 
 low origin, and supposed want of nobility, but, according to Mr. Radloff, because 
 for a long time they refused to embrace Mahommedanism, unbelievers being called 
 by Mussulmans Kara-Kaffir, ' black infidels.' Kirghiz is the only name they 
 themselves use. 
 
 2 Klaproth and Abel Pemusat class them among the people of Germanic race. 
 
 3 An exceedingly interesting account of the Khagas from Chinese sources is to 
 be found in Ihe ' Collection of Information about the Peoples anciently inhabiting 
 Central Asia' by the Monk Hyacinth ; vol. i. pp. 442-451. St. Petersburg, 1851. 
 
THE KARA-KIRGHIZ. 137 
 
 a small remnant was able to join the rest of their race — too 
 small to leave any impression of this exodus on their traditions 
 or legends. 
 
 At the end of the last century these Kara-Kirghiz were 
 subject to the Chinese, who on several occasions gave them 
 protection against the attacks of the petty Beksof the provinces 
 of Khokand and Tashkent. Subsequently they came under the 
 dominion of Khokand, but in the troubles at the death of 
 Madali Khan, in 1842, they made themselves practically inde- 
 pendent. Owing to the disputes and wars between the dif- 
 ferent tribes, especially those of Bogu and Sary-bagysh, those 
 inhabiting the Issyk Kul region asked one after another to be 
 taken under Eussian protection. A few of them, however, owe 
 allegiance to the ruler of Kashgar. Those living in the Alai 
 and the Pamir in part recognise a nominal allegiance to the 
 Khan of Khokand. They are divided into two great divisions ; 
 On, right, and Sol, left. To the first belong the tribes of Bogu, 
 Sary-bagysh, Suit (Solty), Sayak, Tchon-bagysh, Tcherik, and 
 Bassyz, who live throughout the Tian Shan on the river 
 systems of the Tekes, the Issyk Kul, the Naryn and the Tchiu 
 The left division includes the tribes of Saru, Munduz, Kontche 
 (Kutchu), and Ktai, and is distributed through the Alai and 
 the Pamir. As only two tribes are thoroughly known, but 
 vague estimates can be formed of their numbers ; but it is 
 thought that the Kara-Kirghiz within the Eussian dominions 
 number about 200,000, and that there are, perhaps, 150,000 
 more in Eastern Turkistan and Khokand. 
 
 The manners, the customs, and even the dress of the Kara- 
 Kirghiz are, in most respects, similar to those of the Kirghiz 
 Kaisaks, and in general there must be a similarity among all 
 nomadic tribes under similar conditions in northern Asia. In 
 religion they, like the Kirghiz Kaisaks, are nominally Moham- 
 medans, although few of them have ever heard of the existence of 
 Mohammed, and still fewer know any of the prayers or practice 
 any of the observances of that creed. They retain traces of 
 their old Shamanism. According to Bardashef l the rite of 
 fire-worship is celebrated on Thursday nights ; ' grease is 
 thrown over the flames, around which nine lamps are placed. 
 Prayers are also read, if there be any one present able to read 
 
 1 Quoted by Veiiiukof. 
 
13S TURKISTAN. 
 
 them, during- which the worshippers remain prostrate.' Their 
 Shamans wear long hair, and caps and sleeves of swan's down. 
 They are even fonder of music and poetry than are the Kirghiz 
 Kaisaks, and one of their favourite recreations is to listen to 
 singers of epic ballads, one of whom is to be found in every 
 encampment, and with every expedition. They possess an epic 
 poem, the Manas, part of which has been written down by Vali- 
 khanof and by Kadloff. It is, Valikhanof says, an encyclopaedical 
 collection of all the Kirghiz mythological tales and traditions 
 grouped round one person, the giant Manas, being a sort of 
 Iliad of the Steppe. 
 
 There is a legend deriving the name of the Kirghiz, which 
 they themselves pronounce K y rg v z, from forty maidens, ki/rk 
 kyz; and the story goes that the daughter of a certain Khan, on 
 returning one day from a long excursion with her forty hand- 
 maidens, found her tents pillaged, and but one thing left alive 
 in them — a red dog, whom the Kirghiz consider the father of 
 their race, while the name itself is borne in remembrance of 
 their mothers. Some tribes are silent about the red dog, and 
 say that the forty maidens were impregnated by the foara of 
 Lake Issyk Kul, but the legend in one or the other of these 
 forms exists with many variations, not only among the Kara- 
 Kirghiz themselves, but also among the surrounding tribes, and 
 even as far back as the time of the Mongols a Chinese writer 
 repeats the story. 1 The claim of descent from animals is not 
 uncommon among the Asiatic tribes, and is widely spread 
 among those of America, and such legends have frequently been 
 looked upon as significant of a very ancient origin for the 
 people who possess them. There exist also traditions of a 
 similar nature with regard to the origin of the various tribes, 
 who all try to connect themselves with the hero Togai. The 
 tribes of Suit, Sary-bagysh and Bogu claim to be descended 
 from Togai by his lawful wives, while the Sayaks were merely 
 the offspring of one of his concubines, for which reason these 
 last are looked upon with contempt by the other tribes, and 
 were formerly frequently reduced to slavery. As to the Bogus, 
 it is related that near the present site of Fort Naryn there is a 
 
 1 With this legend it is interesting to compare the story given by King 
 Hethuni of the people living beyond Khatai, for which see Appendix III., at the 
 end of Vol. I. 
 
THE KAKA-KIRGHIZ. 139 
 
 mountain called Ala-Myshak — the spotted cat — through which 
 runs a tunnel. One day while out hunting the mountain deer, 
 a Kirghiz of the tribe of Sary-bagysh came by accident to this 
 place, and seeing a light coming from the other end of the 
 tunnel, ventured into it. When about halfway through he met 
 an animal with horns, which he took for a deer and killed, but 
 on dragging it to the entrance he saw that it was a man with 
 horns like those of the deer (bogu). Soon a woman with similai 
 horns ran up, fell weeping on the body, and said that it was hei 
 brother. Not knowing what to do, and repenting his involun- 
 tary murder, the Sarybagysh proposed to expiate his crime by 
 marrying the woman, and from them came the tribe of Bogu. 
 
 Among the Kara-Kirghiz the Manaps, or tribal and family 
 chiefs, claim a sort of aristocracy as being descended from 
 Togai. Beneath them are only the common people, bukhara, 
 and the slaves, kul, although in those tribes under Eussian ruh 
 slavery has now been abolished. Notwithstanding that by the 
 Eussian regulations the Manaps have no legal power, they 
 still have an enormous influence among the tribes and the 
 greatest respect is paid to them, as in general, in any place 
 where the patriarchal system exists, respect is paid to age. 
 Among the Kara-Kirghiz the son never becomes entirely 
 emancipated from his father, although when he reaches the age 
 of twenty he usually has a tent set apart for him, and cattle and 
 sheep are given to him for his subsistence. He does not reach 
 full age until he is thirty, and his accession to the dignity of 
 manhood is marked by a feast, at which he must undergo the 
 ceremony of having his moustaches shaved. He is then 
 declared to be a man, and to be able to take part in the 
 councils ; but even this he cannot do if his father be present, 
 for as long as his father may live he is supposed to be acting 
 only as his deputy. Besides the Manaps there are always 
 honoured Kirghiz — not necessarily of the aristocracy, called 
 Biis, who are something in the nature of judges, and to whom 
 disputes are referred for decision. Under the Eussian adminis- 
 tration the Biis have been made into actual judges, and are 
 elective from each district ; indeed, one is now located in 
 every aul, or village. 1 
 
 1 For further information about the Kara-Kirghiz, see Eadloff's ' Observations 
 iur les Kirghiz,' in the ' Journal Asiatique,' 1863, No. 9 ; Willi. Schott ; ' Uber die 
 
140 TURKISTAN. 
 
 On my return to Tokmak I found there a large encamp- 
 ment of Kara-Kirghiz, and soon learned that an extraordinary 
 session of the Biis of the two large districts of Tokmak 
 and Issyk Kul was taking place. Each single Bii has juris- 
 diction over those cases only which do not exceed one hundred 
 rubles, five horses, or fifty sheep ; cases involving amounts up 
 to ten times that sum are given over to a council of Biis ; while 
 the extraordinary sessions of the Biis of two districts are held 
 to consider cases arising between the Kirghiz of those different 
 administrative divisions. 
 
 The Biis, who were all big, stout, well-to-do looking men, 
 were seated on the ground in a circle in a large hibitka. In 
 the centre was a small table, at which sat the Prefect of the 
 district, while the interpreter with his bundles of papers, had a 
 chair near by. The proceedings were marked by regularity 
 and good order. Plaintiff and defendant told their stories, 
 which were supported, if necessary, by witnesses. The inter- 
 preter related the gist of the case to the Prefect, and made a 
 short note of it in his book, and after a consultation of the Biis 
 of each district, first separately and then together, the decision 
 was entered in the book and they affixed their seals. 
 
 When the Prussians established the courts of the Biis, they 
 abstained from appointing the Biis, which would have been in 
 perfect accordance with native customs, but introduced the 
 system of election, which was foreign to all Kirghiz traditions. 
 There is now disagreement among the Russian officials as to 
 the value of the present system. Some maintain, with very 
 great appearance of truth, that the elections are a mere farce, 
 as they are entirely in the hands of the tribal leaders and of 
 the aristocratic families who compel the choice of their sons 
 and adherents, so that the Russian system is only tending in 
 an indirect way to strengthen the influence of the Manaps. 
 Others, while admitting the truth of this, think the system in 
 itself a good one, but propose that the influence of the Manaps 
 should be counteracted by a similar pressure from the district 
 prefects. In this case why would it not be simpler, and give 
 on the whole greater satisfaction, if the Russian authorities 
 directly named the Biis ? As it is, if a Kirghiz can obtain a 
 
 achton Kirgisen ;' in the Abhandlungen der Konigl. Akademie der Wissencliaftcn 
 zu Berlin, 1864: and Michells' ' The Russians in Central Asia.' 
 
INTEEPEETEES. 141 
 
 little influence with the Prefect, or -with his interpreter, he can 
 always manage in some way to have the decision of the Riis 
 set aside, or reversed by the authorities. One upright Eussian 
 magistrate, if he were willing to forego the formalities, red 
 tape and paper-smudging so dear to his race, could accomplish 
 more for justice and for order among the Kirghiz, both of 
 mountain and of steppe, than all the pseudo-autonomy and the 
 fictitious elective system that has of late been introduced. In 
 the present state of things, in matters of grave importance, or 
 for anything which concerns the Eussians or the Government, 
 the Kirghiz, as well as all the other natives, are entirely in the 
 hands of the interpreters. 
 
 In general these interpreters are a sorry set, which is strange 
 considering the number of Asiatics in the Russian service, and 
 the excellent appliances which exist in Eussia for le ruing the 
 Oriental languages. With the exception of a few officers who 
 have received a fair education, and who are sometimes honest 
 and capable, they are Tartars who have wandered to this part 
 of Asia for the purpose of making their fortunes, or Kirghiz 
 who have been picked up on the steppe, or who have been 
 serving as jig its. They usually kno^' no Persian, have but an 
 imperfect acquaintance with the Uzbek dialect, and understand 
 Eussian still less. Sometimes they are mere Cossacks, unable 
 to read or write, who have learned the languages simply by 
 picking them up in their daily intercourse with the natives. 
 It is no wonder that such interpreters make glaring, and even 
 amusing mistakes. I remember a case which produced no 
 little sensation in Samarkand. A Sart came to the judge to 
 complain that Nur Mohammed, one of his neighbours, while 
 setting fire to the house of Kalian Musha, had through care- 
 lessness burnt down four acres of ripe wheat belonging to him. 
 The judge, who thought he should have two cases to try, imme- 
 diately ordered the arrest of Nur Mohammed. On a subse- 
 quent examination he enquired why Kalian Musha did not 
 appear to give evidence, and was told that Kalian Musha had 
 been burnt up with all his family at the time the house was 
 set on fire. At this unheard-of atrocity the judge got much 
 excited, and it was some time before the united efforts of 
 several interpreters were able to convince him that the whole 
 difficulty was one of mistranslation — that Kalian Musha was 
 
142 TURKISTAN. 
 
 the name given to a sort of large rat which ate grain, and that 
 the fire was caused by an attempt to burn this animal's nest. 
 
 On one occasion General Kaufmann received a letter from 
 the Amir, and was greatly annoyed on opening it to find that, 
 according to his interpreter, it was addressed to the Emperor 
 Alexander. Fortunately there was an officer present who knew 
 Persian better, and on examining the letter it was found that the 
 phrase which caused the trouble was one of mere compliment, 
 calling the General a second Alexander the Great. At the 
 public reception in Tashkent of the son of Khudayar Khan, 
 General Kaufmann said, ' By coming here to visit me, you 
 show that you are the obedient son of your father and a faith- 
 ful servant of your country.' The interpreter, to the wonder- 
 ment and amusement of the natives, rendered this ' By coming 
 here to see me you show that you are really the son of your father.' 
 
 In a letter from Khudayar Khan to General Kolpakofsky, 
 which treated of the rebellion in 1873, there was this phrase: 
 'The Kirghiz of their own accord (onb as K) caused the surround- 
 ing (tchit) places to rebel,' which was translated by the official 
 interpreter thus : ' The Kirghiz went out from the city Nash to 
 the city Teh it.' 
 
 But such curiosities of translation might be indefinitely 
 multiplied. The worst feature of the present system of inter- 
 preters is that these can take advantage of their position to 
 deceive both Eussians and natives, and the latter especially 
 suffer greatly. The orders of the Russians are falsely translated 
 to them, and sums of money are extorted from them under the 
 pretence of setting things straight. 
 
 As the Kastek Pass is no longer used for vehicles, from 
 Tokmak I turned back on my road as far as Pishpek, and 
 then went north to the station of Konstantinofskaya, where 
 there is an excellent bridge over that shallow, muddy, and 
 utterly useless river — the Tchu. A few weeks after I passed. 
 Mr. Kopylof, the clerk of Mr. Kuznetzof, a well known 
 merchant and contractor for the post stations, attempted to 
 descend the Tchu, in the hope of being able to discover the 
 practicability of sending cargoes of grain and forage as far as 
 Lake Saumal-Kul, whence there would only be one hundred 
 miles transport to Fort Perovsky, for the better provisioning 
 

 THE TCHU. 143 
 
 of the post stations in that region. For the first forty miles, 
 the current was rapid, and the river constantly made turns. 
 After that, at the mouth of the Kurgaty the river widened out, 
 the current became less rapid and the stream wandered from 
 one side of the bed to the other. Further on the river flowed 
 through reeds, through mud fiats or between hillocks of sand, 
 until, about forty miles below the junction of the Kurgaty, it 
 branched off from the old bed of the river, which, according to 
 the Kirghiz, was abandoned about thirty years ago. Here the 
 river divided into ten streams which soon after reunited into one ; 
 but it then became so shallow that it was impossible to proceed, 
 and further explorations had to be given up. The travellers 
 passed the night in the rushes, constantly alarmed by the cries 
 of tigers and lynxes. The next day they began to ascend the 
 river and in many places were obliged to drag the boat after 
 them, and they soon found that it was impossible to penetrate 
 through the marshes and muddy flats. The boat became so 
 leaky, that it was of no further survice, and it became neces- 
 sary to abandon it and everything that was in it. Fortunately 
 they fell in with some Kirghiz, from whom they hired camels, and 
 proceeded directly to Aulie-Ata across the desert Muyun Kum. 
 Although I left Konstantinofskaya early in the morning, 
 yet crossing the mountains, through even this low pass, was 
 slow work, and it was already night when I reached the station 
 of Uzun-agatch, a place memorable in Kussian annals in this 
 part of Asia, for here in October, i860, General (then Lieu- 
 tenant-Colonel) Kolpakofsky with 800 men and six guns utterly 
 routed an army of 19,000 Khokandians and Kirghiz, and thus 
 permanently established the power of the White Tsar on the 
 north of the Ala-tau. 1 The Khokandians, under the command 
 of their ablest general, Khanayat Shah, had started about 30,000 
 
 1 It is a curious fact that this title of ' White Tsar ' is really of Chinese origin. 
 In 221 B.C. Tsin-Shi-Hicang, adopted, instead of his former appellation of Vang, 
 prince, the title of Hivavg-Ti or Ruan-Bi, the supreme ruler who nourishes and 
 cares for all creatures. The title still continues as that of the Emperor of China. 
 The character which was pronounced hwang was formed by the addition of the 
 small character bai, white, above the character vang, prince. When the Mongols 
 conquered China, and assumed the title of Hwang-Ti they translated it literally 
 into Mongolian as Tchagan Khagan, White Khan. This was subsequently adopted 
 by the Russians for Asiatic use in the various forms of Ak-Khan, AJc -Padshah 
 and Iiiely Tsar, or White Tsar. This name, however, was never spread amrng 
 
144 TURKISTAN. 
 
 men strong-, fully expecting to rebuild Tokmak and Pishpek, 
 which had been destroyed, and to drive the Kussians from 
 Semiretch. They had gained over the Kara- Kirghiz, and had 
 secured at least the passive co-operation of the Great Horde of 
 Kirghiz Kaisaks, to whom they had promised the booty to be 
 obtained from sacking Vierny. The wives and daughters of 
 the Russians in Vierny were even apportioned by name among 
 the various chiefs and sultans. Yevgraf, the Russian renegade, 
 who accompanied this army, told me that Khanayat Shah was 
 in such high spirits that he even promised him five Russian 
 slaves. The plan was not a bad one. There were few Russian 
 troops disposable, and most of these had been concentrated at 
 the small fort of Kasttk, at the mouth of the pass, where it 
 was expected that the attack would first be made. There was 
 another detachment at Vierny, with a small force at Uzun- 
 agatch to keep open the communication, while all the rest 
 had been sent to occupy the fort on the Hi, and keep 
 open the communication with Siberia. Kolpakofsky was 
 left almost to himself, as the authorities at Semipala- 
 tinsk pooh-poohed the reports of the approach of the Kho- 
 kandian army, and, in orders written even after the affair 
 was all over, laughed at the possibility of a Khokandian invasion 
 at that late season of the year, and forbade any useless move- 
 ment of troops. Khanayat Shah and the Khokandians, instead 
 of attacking Kastek, as was expected, crossed the mountains 
 by another road, and, making a circuit, attacked the post of 
 Uzun-agatch, intending after capturing that place to leave part 
 of the forces to blockade the Kastek, and then to enter Vierny 
 almost without opposition. But unfortunately for him the 
 general to whom he had entrusted the attack on Uzun-agatch 
 was half-hearted ; the Russians held out well, and one messen- 
 ger succeeded in getting through the lines. As soon as Kolpa- 
 kofsky knew what the actual state of the case was, without 
 losing a moment of time, he marched with all his troops out 
 of Kastek, and attacked the Khokandians from the other side, 
 completely defeating them. Yevgraf, who was with Khanayat 
 Shah, heard the cannon and recognised the sound of the Russian 
 
 the Russian peasantry, and when therefore we find the title of 'White Tsar' in 
 a popular document, as, for instance, in the recent address of the Polish Uniates, 
 we may be sure that the paper is of official origin. 
 
VIERNY. 145 
 
 guns, at which in his inmost heart he was delighted. "When 
 the main body of Khokandians learned of the sortie of the 
 Eussians, they were so disheartened that they resolved on an 
 immediate retreat, and, after crossing the mountains, the army 
 soon dispersed and found its way back to Khokand in small 
 bands. On the return, Yevgraf asked Khanayat Shah where 
 were his Kussian slaves, — a question which nearly cost him his 
 head. 
 
 At the next station I found a Cossack waiting to escort me 
 to Vierny, and on arriving there I was given a comfortable 
 lodging in the house close to the post station belonging to 
 Mr. Kuznetzof, from the windows of which I had a pretty view 
 of the Ala-tau, the lower slopes of which had been covered the 
 night before with a thin fall of snow, which formed a strong 
 contrast to the red rocks and to the remains of the dark-green 
 pine forests, with which these mountains were once well clothed. 
 The top of the range, which is in many places 14,000 feet 
 high, was covered with perpetual snow, and further to the 
 left beyond the first range rose the great pyramidal peak of 
 Talgar, 17,000 feet in height. The town of Vierny itself is at 
 an elevation of 2,400 feet, at the very foot of the mountains, 
 and stands on the little stream Almatinky, the name of which, 
 like the Kirghiz appellation of the town, Almaty, is derived 
 from the abundance of apples (cdmci) in the neighbourhood. 
 
 This Trans-Ili region was first occupied in 1853, and the 
 next year a small post was established here. Cossacks and 
 colonists were sent here from western Siberia and Eussia, and 
 what was at first an outpost had in 1871 more than 12,000 
 inhabitants. 1 The several parts of which Vierny is composed — 
 the two Cossack stanitzas of Great and Little Almaty, the old 
 town, the new town, and the Tartar suburb, — though rapidly 
 fusing together, give the place a somewhat straggling air ; still 
 it has in every way the appearance of a flourishing Eussian, or 
 rather perhaps Siberian town, presenting a complete contrast 
 to all places south of the mountains. The streets are wide and 
 
 1 Change of circumstances has also Drought about a change of name. It was 
 formerly called Viernoye, an adjective in the neuter gender, qualifying nkriepleiiie, 
 meaning 'the faithful fort' ; but since the appointment of the Governor-General of 
 Turkistan in 1867, it has become a city and has iherefore changed its termination 
 to a masculine one — Vierny — to agree with gorod, city. 
 
 VOL. II. L 
 
146 TURKISTAN. 
 
 regular, and the houses are mostly built in the Eussian style. 
 Th«:re are the shops with their glaring and picturesque signs, 
 the large official buildings, the dirty little hotels, the club, and 
 everything which goes to make up a Russian town. The place 
 has thrived so much that it is now being almost entirely re- 
 built in brick, and ten years hence will have a much solider 
 and steadier look. Even in 1871 there were 239 brick houses, 
 but now the new quarter of the town, where will be placed all 
 the Government buildings, is nearly finished. It is the popu- 
 lation, however, that distinguishes Vierny from other towns ; 
 for here we have all the races of this part of Asia, Sarts, 
 Tartars, Kirghiz, Kalmuks and Chinese, and even a few Afghans. 
 The Kalmuks with their brown faces and long queues, riding 
 on cows and oxen, strike the traveller at once, and show him 
 that he is approaching the Chinese border ; in fact the Kalmuks 
 and the Chinese form the main reliance for labour here. The 
 trade in everything is rapidly increasing, and the commerce of 
 the steppe, which formerly had its head-quarters in Kopal, is 
 now coming to Vierny ; besides this, caravans, which formerly 
 passed through Vierny without stopping, now usually break their 
 journey here and sometimes use this as a distributing point. 
 There are several Chinese merchants established here, and I am 
 told that through their economy and diligence they are getting 
 the greater part of the commerce into their own hands, much to 
 the annoyance of the somewhat careless Russians. There are a 
 number of saw-mills, brick-kilns, distilleries and breweries, and 
 in every way a spirit of enterprise is shown, so superior to that 
 of Tashkent that it cannot be accounted for only by the ten 
 years longer which the town has existed. There are two 
 Russian schools, a school for Mussulman children, a trade- 
 school for the education of artisans and good workmen, and 
 a school of gardening and fruit-culture. The chief means of 
 amusement are the club and the public garden. The latter is 
 a piece of ground under the care of the gardening-school, 
 which is even now a pleasant place of resort, and will in time 
 be pretty. At present most of its verdure consists of half-wild 
 apple-trees and grape-vines, although I found also a fair show 
 of flowers. On one side of the garden is a pavilion which is 
 used during the summer by the club, and here one evening in 
 a week there is what is so well known in Russia as a * musical 
 
OPIUM SMOKING. 147 
 
 family-evening,' with illuminations, music, dancing 1 , supper 
 and the eternal yeralash and preference, without which the 
 non-dancing portion of the guests could not possibly spend a 
 happy hour. 
 
 One of my first duties at Vierny was to pay a visit to 
 General Eossitzky, the acting Governor of the province, whom 
 I found domiciled for the summer in three large kibitkas at 
 one end of the public garden. In a rainless region like this 
 no more pleasant country residence can be devised than these 
 roomy, cool felt tents. He promised me everything in his power, 
 and especially with regard to my proposed visit to Kuldja. 
 
 Among the numerous persons whose acquaintance I made 
 in Vierny there were three who struck me as being particularly 
 remarkable. One was Mr. Kuznetzof, a typical Siberian 
 merchant, whose enterprise has done much, not only for Vierny 
 but also for Tashkent. Another was Mr. Berintzef, also a 
 Eussian merchant, but of an education far better than is common 
 in that class. He was able to give me much information about 
 the trade of the place, and concerning its relations with Kashgar 
 and with the Steppe. He also kindly introduced me to the 
 two leading Chinese merchants, both intelligent men, who 
 spoke what one might call ' pigeon Eussian,' for it bore 
 exactly the same relation to Eussian as the ' pigeon English ' 
 spoken in the treaty ports does to English. I found them at 
 dinner, and as it was the first time that I had seen chopsticks 
 in actual use I was glad that my presence did not hinder them. 
 They seemed to have many friends, for during my visit several 
 Eussians and Sarts dropped in for the purpose of having a pipe 
 of opium. I found the process of smoking so interesting that 
 I at last concluded to try a pipe myself, but I took only a few 
 whiffs, and therefore escaped with but a slight headache. The 
 smoker reclines on a rug with a pillow under his elbow, and 
 at first devotes himself to arranging the opium. A needle is 
 dipped into a dark viscous half-liquid preparation, and the 
 drop that is taken out is then heated for some time over a 
 small lamp till it hardens, when it is again dipped into the 
 bottle until a good-sized ball is obtained. This, after being 
 dextrously turned over the lamp on the point of the needle, 
 and then shaped in the palm of the hand, is placed on the 
 pipe, — not in the bowl, however, for there is none. The pipe is 
 
 L 2 
 
148 TURK 1ST AN. 
 
 merely a tube, from the end of which a ball like an egg depends, 
 above which is a small pointed tube set at right angles to the 
 pipe. On this the ball of opium is stuck, which in smoking 
 it is necessary to hold constantly over the flame of the lamp. 
 The vapours of the opium, entering into the ball where the 
 residue collects, are thus a little cooled before reaching the 
 mouth. The taste was extremely bitter, yet with a tinge of 
 sweetness. 
 
 I found that besides the trade in tea and manufactured 
 goods, the Chinese buy up all objects of jade, and even the 
 large pieces of unworked stone brought from Kashgar, for 
 which they are willing to pay large prices, and which they 
 then send back by way of Kiakhta to China. After the 
 capture of Kuldja they even bought up porcelain and vases, 
 and whatever was saved from the general wreck, to send 
 back to China. Besides this another of their specialties is 
 commerce in the young horns of the mountain-deer from the 
 neighbourhood of Issyk Kul, of which I have already spoken. 
 
 The man who interested me perhaps more than all the others 
 was Mr. Poklefsky-Koziel, a Pole. He had been educated at 
 the Staff Academy, and when the Polish rebellion of 1862-3 
 broke out, was a Colonel on the staff at St. Petersburg. He 
 ran away and joined the insurgents, and was for a long time the 
 commandant of the Underground Government of Warsaw, the 
 orders of which were universally respected by the Poles. The 
 Kussians were never able to find out the source whence these 
 proclamations emanated. When the rebellion was on its last 
 legs, he escaped to Germany, and going to France, entered into 
 the service of a railway company. During the Franco-Prussian 
 war he was commander of the Vendean Brigade. After the 
 war, everything was disordered, he could get no position to suit 
 him, and he was at the same time afflicted with a sort of home- 
 sickness ; besides this, he bad to provide for his wife and child. 
 He therefore made propositions for his return, and asked for 
 his pardon, which was granted, and he was told that he might 
 freely return to Eussia. He had no sooner arrived there, than he 
 was arrested and confined in the fortress at Wilna ; but after some 
 months he was released on the condition that he would enter 
 the army as a private soldier, although he was allowed to retain 
 his decorations and rank. He chose the Cossacks of Semiretch, 
 
GENERAL KOLPAKOFSKY. 149 
 
 and, when I 6aw him, he wore the uniform of a common soldier, 
 although he was relieved from actual military duty, had been 
 given the position of architect of the new city, and was received 
 as an equal and a comrade by all the officers except one. 
 
 I heard of another political prisoner, a certain Schwartz, 
 from the Baltic provinces, who had been sentenced to confine- 
 ment in the fortress at Vierny. This arrival somewhat 
 astonished the authorities of that place, for there was no 
 fortress in which to confine him, and he was therefore placed 
 in the ordinary prison. When Mr. Ashton Dilke was in Vierny, 
 a few weeks before me, the chief of police was so struck with his 
 real or fancied resemblance to this Schwartz that he had him 
 constantly followed by a detective, and even reported to the 
 Governor the necessity of arresting him, — a castastrophe which 
 was avoided by the letters and proof of his undoubted identity 
 which Mr. Dilke possessed. 
 
 In speaking of people at Vierny I ought not to pass over 
 General Kolpakofsky, the Governor-General of the province, 
 although I saw him only in Tashkent. The son of a subaltern 
 officer of the province of Kherson, he was born in 1819, and at 
 sixteen years of age entered the service as a common soldier 
 among the volunteers of the Lublin Infantry regiment. In ten 
 months he was made a non-commissioned officer, and remained 
 such until 1841, when he received a commission. He served for 
 a long time in the Caucasus, and afterwards in Transylvania 
 during the Hungarian war, until in 1852 he was transferred 
 to Siberia where he has passed the remainder of his life. He 
 was for many years stationed in the inhospitable Berezof, the 
 well known political settlement where many of the grandees of 
 the last century passed years of exile. Ultimately, in 1858, he 
 was transferred to the district of the Ala-tau. No man is more 
 thoroughly acquainted with the country over which he rules. 
 With an excellent constitution, and of indefatigable energy, he 
 has ridden over every part of it, passing whole days in the saddle, 
 in which he is so unwearied as to receive from the Kirghiz the 
 sobriquet of ' the iron seat.' He understands the people too, 
 and although he rarely shows his acquirements, he knows well 
 the Kirghiz language, and is therefore a difficult man to deceive. 
 Once already at Uzun-agatch he saved for Russia this whole pro- 
 vince, and if anyone now can put down corruption in Turkistan, 
 
150 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 restore to the Eussians the confidence of the natives, and 
 diminish the great expenditure of men and money, which has so 
 long heen going on, and is apparently destined to increase, it 
 is he. A very short stay in Semiretch is enough to convince 
 anyone of the vast difference between the administration of that 
 province and the rule of the officials at Tashkent. 
 
 The province of Semiretch, or seven rivers, received its 
 name from the seven largest of the numerous streams which 
 water it, — the Lepsa, the Vaskan, the Sarkan, the Ak-su, the 
 Karatal, the Kok-su, and the Hi. 
 
 Much of it is steppe and much a barren desert, but in the 
 parts adjacent to the mountains, which are well watered, there 
 are many fertile valleys, where great quantities of grain are 
 raised, and where even greater harvests could be produced. 
 Much wheat is now sent to feed the troops at Tashkent, and 
 were there better communications, much could be sent to the 
 stations west. Unfortunately there is a lack of forests. When 
 Eussian colonists first arrived, the lower hills and the mountain 
 valleys were covered with trees, but now they are nearly 
 denuded, and the administration has been obliged to take 
 strict measures to preserve what little there is left by limiting 
 the right of cutting timber, although even this seems to avail 
 but little, and it may become necessary to station guards over 
 the forests. It was with the view of extending tree-culture 
 that the school of gardening was founded at Vierny. 
 
 I have previously spoken of Eussian colonisation in Semi- 
 retch. The Eussian colonies are for the most part along the 
 northern range of the Alexandrofsky mountains, in the vicinity 
 of Tokmak, on the northern and eastern shore of Lake Issyk Kul, 
 or on the high road leading from Vierny to Sergiopol. The 
 provinces of the Syr Darya and the Zarafshan have not yet been 
 opened to colonisation, owing, in part, to the fact that the land 
 question has never yet been settled. 
 
 I passed through many of these colonies on the road, and I 
 stopped at some of them and entered into conversation with 
 the farmers, by far the greater number of whom were peasants 
 from the provinces of Voronezh, Tambof, and Saratof. They 
 seemed quite satisfied with their lot ; indeed, so far as mere 
 physical well-being and immunity from taxes is concerned, they 
 are far better off than they were in European Eussia. They 
 
COLONISTS AND COSSACKS. 151 
 
 are given their lands either gratis or at a low price, the pay- 
 ments extending over a long period, and they are freed from 
 taxes and duties for a term of years. They make the journey 
 at their own risk, and usually with their own horses and oxen. 
 The fertility of the soil and the personal independence possible 
 on this remote frontier more and more attract immigration, and 
 during the last two or three years the number of colonists has 
 considerably increased. 
 
 The remarks in the Eussian papers about emigration to 
 Central Asia refer to these settlements only and not to the 
 region about Tashkent. 
 
 It is important to distinguish between the Eussian colonies 
 and the Cossack settlements. The former colonisation was 
 voluntary, but the latter was forced. As soon as this region 
 was annexed it was considered necessary to plant it with Cossack 
 stations, in order that there might be a population capable of 
 cultivating the soil, and able, at the same time, to keep off the 
 Kirghiz and the Khokandians. 
 
 In order to supply this want, a certain quota was taken 
 from the various £ rmies of the Ural, Orenburg, and Siberia, who 
 were formed into what was called the new line along the Irtysh, 
 a portion of whom were subsequently known as the Cossacks of 
 Semipalatinsk. In addition to these real Cossacks, peasants 
 were drafted from various localities in Eussia and sent to the 
 frontier, given tools with which to build houses and cultivate 
 the land, provided with arms, and told that they were in the 
 service of the government, and were to regard themselves as 
 Cossacks. These for the most part constituted the Cossack 
 army of Semiretch. Having none of the traditions of which 
 the Cossacks of the Don and the Ural are proud, they have not 
 the same military spirit, and with difficulty keep up their 
 organisation ; the Siberian Cossacks are, in fact, considered the 
 worst of all the Cossack troops in service in Central Asia. 
 
 In passing through their settlements it was noticeable that 
 they seemed far less independent than the ordinary Eussian 
 peasants, and that they led a lazier and more useless life, 
 devoting themselves either to hunting or to the pleasures of 
 the dram-shop, while their wives were left to look after the 
 family property. At the same time they endeavoured to pre- 
 serve a certain chic of their own, which occasionally appeared 
 
152 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 in curious forms. For instance, all along the Irtysh the Cossacks 
 seemed to consider that it was the correct thing to speak Tartar, 
 in the same way as persons in good society in St. Petersburg 
 and Moscow prefer to speak in French when in public. It was 
 therefore amusing sometimes to have them answer our questions 
 in good Russian and then talk to one another in Tartar. 
 
 From Vierny the post road goes nearly north until it comes 
 to the ferry over the Hi, at which there is a small fort. We 
 crossed the yellow, muddy river on a large barge filled with 
 Kirghiz and their horses, and for miles on the other side we 
 made but slow progress, on accotmt of the depth of the sand 
 and the violence of the wind, The Hi is formed by two rivers, 
 the Tekes and the Kunges, both rising in the Tian Shan and 
 uniting a little above Kuldja, where they are joined by another, 
 the Kash. Its general course is west to near the Hi station, 
 where I crossed it ; it then turns north-west until it falls into 
 Lake Balkash. The successful navigation of this river would 
 be of great service to the province of Semiretch, and even to 
 that of Syr Darya, especially by bringing coal down from 
 Kuldja, and thus supplying Vierny and other towns with fuel 
 at cheap rates. A pud (36 lbs.) of excellent coal now costs at 
 Kuldja from five to six kopeks (ll-|cZ.) while a sazhen of wood, 
 which is in heating capacity equivalent to 60 puds (2,160 lbs.) 
 of coal, costs at Vierny fifteen rubles (21.), so that, with easy 
 means of transportation, the houses and factories of Vierny 
 could be supplied at far cheaper rates than at present, without 
 at the same time injuring the country by denuding it of trees. 
 The river would naturally be used also for the transport of fruits 
 and grain from Kuldja, and of manufactured goods and spirits 
 to that district. 
 
 One of the first steps taken after the occupation of Kuldja was 
 to explore thenavigation of the river, and in 1871 Captain Fischer 
 descended it from Old Kuldja to the station of Hi. According 
 to his report from Old Kuldja to New, or Mantchu Kuldja, 
 the Hi is navigable at high water only for about two-and-a- 
 half months during the year, and then with very great difficulty, 
 on account of the shoals and gravelly banks. From New 
 Kuldja to the Hi station, 280 miles, it is easilv navigable at 
 high water, and practically navigable at all times of the year. 
 The section from the Hi station to Lake Balkash, about 240 
 
NAVIGATION OF THE ILL 153 
 
 miles, was explored in 1856 by Mr. Kuznetzof in a vessel 
 constructed on Lake Balkash, which was sent with flour bought 
 at Karkaralinsk, to the north of the lake, and was towed up the 
 Hi. Although the river was proved navigable, yet the voyage 
 was never repeated, as the venture was a losing one, the flour 
 being considered too dear. It had been proposed to construct a 
 small tug and to tow boats up and down the river ; but ap- 
 parently the trade has not yet sufficiently developed to admit 
 of the possibility of this enterprise. 
 
 From the Hi my way lay north-east, sometimes north, as 
 far as Kopal, always through a pleasant country, and usually 
 close to or among the mountains. I travelled fast, for the 
 roads weie good, and the post here, as everywhere in Sibeiia, was 
 well managed. The small Siberian horses have, however, 
 one peculiarity. They resolutely refuse to be harnessed, and 
 act as though they were still in a wild state. We had all 
 to take our seats in the carriage before the side horses were 
 put to, each of which required two or three men to hold him 
 until the traces could be attached. No sooner was that done 
 than the men would quickly spring to one side and our horses 
 would start off at a gallop, keeping it up for two or three miles, 
 and then subsiding into a steady easy trot, after which they 
 were as mild and docile as could be wished. 
 
 The stations were comfortable and well built. One of them, 
 I noticed, had before the door two stone monuments carved to 
 represent human figures, such as are often found in the steppes 
 of Southern Eussia, and which are supposed to be relics of the 
 ancient Scythians. 
 
 At the station Altyn Imel I turned to the right to Kuldja ; 
 but I reserve an account of that excursion for another chapter. 
 
 Kopal, which is finely situated in a valley among the 
 mountains on a little stream of the same name, was founded in 
 1841, and has now about 5,000 inhabitants. It is well built, 
 with spacious wooden houses, and maintains two schools, two 
 churches, and a mosque. It formerly did a very thriving 
 business in the steppe ; but as this has now been chiefly 
 transferred to Vierny, the importance of the town has diminished. 
 Two hours' drive from Kopal brought me to the station of 
 Arasan, the watering-place of Semiretch. Here are some hot 
 sulphur-springs (Arasan), which are much frequented in 
 
154 TURKISTAN. 
 
 summer. Bathing-houses have been erected in a pretty garden, 
 opposite to which is a small hotel for sojourners. Smaller 
 mineral-springs exist in several parts of this region, the most 
 notable of which are those lately brought to notice near Lake 
 Sairam Nor, and which for many ages have been the resort of 
 Kalmuks and Kirghiz. 
 
 We were now within the limits of the Great Horde, and 
 frequently met Kirghiz on the road, sometimes changing their 
 camp and travelling across the steppe with long files of horses 
 and camels laden with their kibitkas and household goods, and 
 sometimes in small parties, apparently out hunting, for they 
 carried on perches fixed to their saddle-bows falcons and 
 burkuts, large golden eagles which will bring down deer, foxes, 
 and wolves. Just beyond Arasan is the Hasfort pass (named 
 from General Hasfort, formerly Governor-General uf Western 
 Siberia), at one time considered exceedingly difficult, and the 
 descent from which was indeed so steep that we thought it 
 best to walk down and save the carriage, which by this time was 
 showing in every part the signs of hard service. From the 
 station beyond a road turns to the right through a little Kalmuk 
 colony, now collected at Sarkan, to the Cossack settlements about 
 the station of Lepsa. At the station of Arganaty I ascended a 
 ridge, the last on our road, and had in the early morning a 
 good glimpse of Lake Balkash. 
 
 This lake is called by the Kalmuks, Balkatsi Nor, Great 
 Lake, and by the Kirghiz, Ak-Tenghis, or White Sea, Ala- 
 Tenghis, or Striped Sea, on account of its islands, or simply, on 
 account of its great size, Tenglus, the Sea, Its greatest length 
 from WSW. to ENE. is about 330 miles, while its greatest 
 breadth in the SW. part is 60 miles ; it being at its narrowest 
 place, opposite the mouths of the Karatal and the Lepsa rivers, 
 only from five to ten miles wide. 
 
 Its N". or NW. shore is raised above the lake like terraces, 
 covered with a sandy steppe, through which no river runs into 
 the lake, even the largest one flowing in this direction, the 
 Tokran or Aitek, being absorbed by the sands before it can 
 reach the beach. The Ayaguz, at its extreme NE. corner, flows 
 at the base of these terraces, and then reaches the lake in times 
 of high water only. The southern shore has quite the opposite 
 character, for in many places the change from dry land to 
 
LAKE BALK ASH. 155 
 
 water is so gradual that it is almost impossible to say where 
 the lake begins and the land ends. From the lake nearly to 
 the foot of the mountains stretches a vast steppe of sand and 
 sand hills bearing no vegetation but saksaul and similar 
 shrubs. It was evidently formerly connected with Lake Ala 
 Kul through the low sandy region which we passed after leaving 
 Arganaty, and the Ala Kul has since become divided into three 
 or four small lakes. Even now, along the shores of the Balkash, 
 bays are being turned into lagoons and then dried up by the 
 action of the sand drifted by the winds. 
 
 This sandy waste — the former bottom of the lake — being 
 once passed, although with great difficulty, the road was easy 
 enough to Sergiopol, a wretched hamlet, the last station in 
 Semiretch. I had no sooner entered into what is officially Siberia, 
 although geographically speaking, I had been in it since Vierny, 
 than the weather changed and such a violent rain storm came 
 on that I was obliged to seek refuge for several hours in the 
 station, where I was soon joined by a Russian captain, who was 
 travelling with his wife, the latter being dressed, I suppose for 
 convenience, in man's clothes. I at last came to Semipalatinsk, 
 an important district town which seemed far more Tartar than 
 Russian, where I was detained several days by the rain ; and then 
 after much difficulty in recrossing the Irtysh, slowly travelled 
 along the left bank of that river, having constant delays in 
 getting post-horses on account of the Kashgarian envoy, for whom 
 many horses had been bespoken, until I reached Omsk. Here I 
 found that I was too late for the last steamer for Perm, down 
 the Kama, and that in addition, the roads through Western 
 Siberia were impassable on account of the mud. I was there- 
 fore obliged to turn again southward through Petropavlovsk and 
 Troitsk to Orenburg, a route which was not without interest 
 as showing the commercial possibilities of the Kirghiz steppes ; 
 and, after seeing once more my friends in that place, went directly 
 to Samara, where I was but too glad to leave my carriage. Here 
 I fortunately found the last steamer down the Volga to Saratof, 
 where I took the railway and arrived at St. Petersburg on 
 November 1 5, after an absence of about eight months 
 
156 TURKISTAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XII. 
 
 KULDJA. 
 
 A.tyn-Imel — Borokhudzir — Ruined towns — CultiA'ated country reverting to 
 steppe — Suidun — A Dungan cown — The ruins of Hi — Early inhabitants 
 of Kuldja — The Usun and the Uigurs — Rise of the Oirat or Kalmuks — 
 Jungaria — Attempt to restore the empire of Tehinghiz Khan — Conquest of 
 Jungaria by the Chinese — New colonisation — The Tarantchis — The Solons, 
 the Sibos, and the military colonists — Return of the Kalmuks from the Volga 
 ■ — Their settlements on the Hi — The Mantchus and the Chinese — The Dun- 
 gans — Mutual hatred of all these peoples — Difficulty of government — The 
 Dungans rebel — They are joined by the Tarantchis — Incapacity of the 
 Chinese authorities — Success of the insurrection — Capture of Hi and mas- 
 sacre of the garrison — Pillage and massacre of the military colonists — 
 Disunion of the rebels — The Dungan rule overturned by the Tarantchis — 
 Attitude of the Russians — The Tarantchi Sultan — Border difficulties — The 
 Russian conquest — A Chinese account — Excursion to Lake Sairam Nor — 
 Old Kuldja — The bazaars — A Chinese dinner — A dramatic performance 
 — A Chinese Christian church- — -The up-country — Resources of the valley 
 — Cheapness of living — The present state of the country. 
 
 From the station of Altyn Imel, we turned to the right up a 
 lono - and gentle slope to a depression in the low range that rose 
 between us and the valley of the Hi, — the pass of Altyn Imel, 
 or ' the golden saddle.' Naturally there is a legend of some 
 Kalmuk chief, who, pursued by his enemies, was obliged to 
 bury in this spot his golden saddle ; but it is probably the name 
 that has given rise to the legend and not the legend to the 
 name, which easily originated from the outline of the ridge-top. 
 The descent on the other side was much steeper; the road 
 zigzagged down between abrupt, rocky slopes, and a little 
 stream gurgled by its side, marking its path by a line of ver- 
 dure. Before us lay a great plain, bounded to the north and 
 east by mountains, while to the south the Hi shimmered in the 
 distance. This gravelly plain made an excellent road, and in 
 
A DESTROYED CIVILISATION. 157 
 
 three hours and a half we made the thirty miles which separated 
 us from the gorge of Koibyn, seeing no living thing to the 
 right or to the left except a herd of saigas and an old grey 
 wolf that sneaked away just out of shot. 
 
 Koibyn is a natural cleft in the low hills which serves as 
 the bed of a small stream and in most parts also forms the 
 only road. Even on a fair day the road is rough enough, but 
 woe betide the traveller who meets with a sudden rain-storm in 
 this long and crooked gorge, for streams then seem to pour 
 down from every rock and in a few moments the water rises to 
 a great height. In spite of the roughness the drive was a 
 pleasing one, for the steep and scarped rocks were of many 
 varying yellow, red and purple hues, owing to the presence of 
 ochre and iron ore, while their bases as well as many little 
 islands in the bed itself were covered with what seemed for 
 Asiatic mountains luxuriant foliage. On a little plateau at the 
 end of this defile was a rude cottage from which we at last un- 
 earthed a Russian and some Kalmuks, who after much delay 
 furnished us fresh horses. A winding road up the side of the 
 gorge taxed all the strength of the animals, but that once over 
 we went on quickly over the plain to Borokhudzir, where the 
 white walls of the barracks glimmered faintly through the dark- 
 ness. This was formerly the extreme Russian post on the frontier 
 of the old Chinese province of Kuldja, and here during the 
 Dungan insurrection a corps of observation was stationed to 
 prevent infringements of the Russian boundary. 
 
 The next day's journey was one of painful interest, for here 
 on every hand were seen the traces of the ruin and devastation 
 wrought by the recent insurrection, — dried-up canals, abandoned 
 fields, withered forests and every few miles dismantled and 
 ruined cities which but ten years before had sheltered a civilised 
 and hard-working population. 
 
 Soon after leaving Borokhudzir it was necessary to cross 
 the river Usek, which, at that time of low water, ran in several 
 shallow streams through an immense waste of large stones and 
 boulders. "While not dangerous, the passage was in the highest 
 degree slow and annoying, giving me constant apprehensions 
 lest the wheels of the carriage should be wrenched off. In 
 June and July, however, when the river is full from the melting 
 snow, it is rapid and exceedingly dangerous, and all the neigh- 
 
158 TUKKISTAK 
 
 bouring steppe is turned into a marsh with the overflow, breed- 
 ing myriads of mosquitoes which drive the traveller half-dis- 
 tracted. Fortunately on my journey there were so few of these 
 pests that I hardly needed the pretty Chinese brush made of a 
 wnite horse tail, which had been pressed on me by a friend as 
 an indispensable accompaniment to my journey. On the 
 further side of the river-bed, on a high steep bank (Jar or yar), 
 are the ruins, now almost indistinguishable, of the town of 
 Jarkent, and passing this we soon came to the ruins of another 
 formerly flourishing town, Akkent. Here it was necessary to 
 wait for some time, as there were no horses, and I employed 
 the interval in inspecting the ruins, as many walls of houses- 
 were still standing, some covered with carved tiles or with 
 curious frescoes. 
 
 Shortly after leaving Akkent the road passed close under 
 the walls of Tchimpantzi. The walls were still perfect, though 
 the gates were gone ; but inside of them not a single house 
 was left standing. Close by the gate I noticed a large stone 
 with inscriptions in Chinese, Mantchu, and Arabic characters, 
 which I carefully copied, thinking that they might possibly be 
 of interest. On showing my copy afterwards, and having it inter- 
 preted to me, I found to my great amusement that I had taken 
 all that trouble to copy the door-plate of a former official, and 
 I was told that, under Chinese rule, every official was obliged 
 to have his name and titles written up in large letters over his 
 door. In many cases there were painted signs, but the richer 
 men had them caned in stone. 
 
 The ruins of Khorgos (Kurgash), which were a few miles 
 further on, presented nothing but mere mounds of earth partly 
 overgrown with grass. For nearly forty miles from this place 
 there used to be an artificial forest planted by the Chinese and 
 maintained by constant irrigation. With the massacre and 
 flight of the inhabitants the irrigation system was neglected 
 and abandoned, and the trees are therefore rapidly perishing. 
 I saw the forest in all states, from the fresh, green, and healthy 
 woods to those where all the large trees had withered and died, 
 and where the young were feeble and sickly, as well as that 
 where the trees had entirely disappeared, and where the land had 
 once more reverted to the condition of a bare and barren steppe. 
 Passing another ruined town, which I was told was Alimtu, on 
 
A CHINESE CITY. 159 
 
 the stream of the same name, and near to which was probably the 
 ancient Almalyk, I came to the city of Tchin-tcha-ho-dzi, — a 
 town left unharmed, having been chiefly inhabited by Mussul- 
 mans. It was a curious sight with its high, thick, battleinented 
 walls surmounted by tall towers, its arched gates, its wide 
 streets, and its unmistakable Chinese smell, — a smell which it 
 is impossible to describe, mingled of opium, of garlic, and of filth 
 of every kind ; but which, once perceived, is never forgotten. 
 I knew it at once, for it was the most highly concentrated 
 form of that faint, curious, pungent odour which hangs about 
 boxes and parcels brought unopened from China and Japan. 
 It was then too late to look at the town, and we quickly 
 changed horses, and after twelve miles more came to the town 
 of Suidun, and to the kind hospitality of Captain Bozhovitch, 
 a Montenegrin in the Eussian service. 
 
 My first occupation in the morning was to look at the totvn. 
 Such a changement de decors in five days, which are all that, 
 are necessary for a journey from Tashkent to Kuldja, is rare. 
 Instead of narrow, crooked streets there were broad, straight 
 avenues shaded with trees ; instead of windowless houses built 
 of mud, the blank walls of which stared one in the face at every 
 turn, there were fine buildings of brick, beautifully carved 
 and moulded, roofed with tiles, and with latticed windows and 
 porticoes. Instead of female forms swathed in long, shape- 
 less dressing-gowns, and faces hidden by black horsehair veils, 
 there were stout, healthy, and smiling women chatting over 
 their marketing, the bright orange-coloured marigolds in 
 their wonderful coiffures, or their coquettish little caps, con- 
 trasting well with the indigo blue of their gowns. Instead 
 of Sarts and Uzbeks in gowns and turbans, there were Chinese 
 and Dungans in wadded petticoats, short jackets, long mous- 
 taches, and pig-tails. 
 
 A walk on the flat top of the city wall, which was wide 
 enough for a carriage-road, quickly gave me an idea of the 
 town, which is built on the same plan as all the other fortified 
 cities in the province. The town itself is nearly or perfectly 
 square, surrounded by a high, thick wall solidly faced on both 
 sides with bricks. A battlement surrounds the top of the wall, 
 and in the middle of each side there is a gate protected by a 
 circular bastion, and over the gate a steep-roofed tower. Out- 
 
160 TURKISTAN. 
 
 side of the wall there is no ditch, but the gardens and villages 
 begin at once. From the four gates run two wide streets at 
 right angles across the town, each quarter being then divided 
 independently by narrower streets and alleys. The buildings 
 are all of brick, in many cases faced with large square tiles 
 set in diamond shape, frequently with broad ornamented circles 
 made also of brick, which had been carved before it was burnt, 
 set into the sides. These bricks were of excellent quality, 
 from four to six times as large as ours, of a grey colour and 
 very hard. Evidently much care had been used in selecting 
 and mixing the clay, in moulding the bricks (for the edges 
 were very sharp,) and in baking them. The roofs, which 
 were usually curved from the ridge-pole, were of tiles cf the 
 same material alternately convex and concave, the lov\er row 
 of tiles having pendant ornaments decorated generally with 
 the face of a lion. The corners were frequently raised like 
 the brim of a hat and ornamented with dragons or other 
 animals. In the windows were always delicate gratings or 
 lattices, sometimes prettily carved, on the inside of which, 
 in lieu of glass, was spread thin oil-paper. Nearly every house 
 had a little garden with trees, vegetables and flowers. The 
 most interesting building of all was the mosque of the Dungans, 
 or Chinese-speaking Mohammedans, built almost like a pa- 
 goda, with two or three stories, increasing in height as they 
 went up, and each surmounted with a curved roof with moulded 
 and carved ornaments on the corners and peaks. The mosque 
 stood back in a court, around which were houses belonging to 
 the mullahs. Inside it was bare, excepting a few plans of 
 Mecca with Arabic and Chinese inscriptions, and prayers and 
 texts from the Koran written in large letters on hanging scrolls. 
 In front of what is now the guard-house, but which, probably, 
 was formerly an official residence, is a large stone lion seated on 
 a carved pedestal. In his half-open mouth he holds a large 
 ball carved from the same block, which revolves freely in his 
 his mouth, but which cannot be taken out without breaking 
 the figure. I was shown through the town by La-tchu-yan, a 
 fat, jolly-looking Dungan, now, under Eussian rule, the Aksakal 
 of the place, who afterwards invited me to his house. Over 
 the door, as of old, w T as the large painted sign in three lan- 
 guages denoting his official rank. His reception-room was 
 
THE SUIDUN BAZAAR. 
 
 161 
 
 not large, but very comfortable, looking out on bis little 
 garden, and was well furnished with screens, vases, and por- 
 celain. 
 
 In spite of the smells I was much interested in walking 
 through the bazaar, which occupied the greater part of one of 
 the wide avenues crossing the town. Besides the little shops 
 on each side there were many booths partly covered with 
 
 ifflaiiBiih-,— : - 
 MHWinl'.!,,, 
 
 it 
 
 A BARBER IN SUIDUN. 
 
 square umbrellas of matting, partly open, and the. chief trade 
 seemed to be carried on in the open air. Here everything was 
 different from Central Asia, — not only the articles in ordinary 
 use, but even the very vegetables. Here were beets, large egg- 
 plants, onions and other vegetables unknown in Tashkent, 
 loaves of light, very white, and also very tasteless bread, but 
 still real bread and not cakes. The butcher's shops were 
 
 VOL. II. M 
 
162 TURKISTAN. 
 
 different in character, and there were even stalls where men 
 sold candy and barley -sugar. I was much interested in the 
 operations of the barbers in the streets outside of their shops. 
 The poor man who came to be shaved was made to sit on a 
 narrow wooden stool and then recline almost horizontally on a 
 cane-covered rest, where he closed his eyes and looked as if he 
 were about to undergo some unpleasant surgical operation. 
 
 From Suidun, in company of Captain Bozhovitch, La-tchu- 
 yan, and some attendants, I made an excursion to the ruins of 
 the former capital of the province, known by the various names 
 of Hi, Hoi-yuan-tchen, New Kuldja, or Mantchu Kuldja. 
 For the whole distance, about ten miles, the road lay through 
 a country which had formerly been well cultivated, but is 
 now a desolated waste. At last we approached the edge of the 
 town, when heaps of ruins presented themselves on every side, 
 and sometimes a whole wall or a roofless house could be seen. 
 Soon the ruins extended on both sides of us as far as we could 
 see, and in front of us up to the very walls of the fortress. 
 These were the suburbs and the outside town which had been 
 inhabited by the merchants, and by all who were not of 
 Alantchu or of Chinese race, altogether, I was told, about 
 75,000 people. Inside of the fortress walls, which were too 
 strong to be destroyed, a similar scene met our view ; but 
 here the destruction had been much more complete. The two 
 broad straight avenues were still plainly visible, as they were 
 too wide to be encumbered with ruins ; but the other streets 
 were all blocked up by the fallen houses, and their course could 
 scarcely be traced. Of the lofty tower which stood in the 
 centre of the town at the intersection of these two avenues, 
 two stories still remained standing ; elsewhere there were but 
 fragments of walls. Many buildings, especially the official 
 ones, had been utterly razed to the ground ; although some of 
 these, as for instance the Governor's palace, had been blown up 
 by the defenders when they saw that all hope was lost. The 
 ground was everywhere covered with fragments of pottery, 
 among which I found a few Chinese coins, and in some places 
 was really white with little fragments of human bones, while 
 skulls and even nearly complete skeletons could at times be 
 seen. Nothing had been left that was worth carrying away ; 
 even the beams of +he houses had all been torn out, to serve 
 
THE RUINS OF ILL 
 
 163 
 
 either for firewood or for new constructions. Standing on the 
 walls, each face of which was 1 ,400 yards long, I obtained a full 
 perception of the size of the place, and of the ruin wrought there. 
 On every side were ruined houses or heaps of bricks, and close 
 under the wall flowed the Hi, formerly a scene of life, now 
 utterly deserted. To the right could be seen the white 
 roofless wails of the Eussian factory. In all this extent there 
 are but one or two inhabited houses, where live a few Dungans 
 
 RUINS OF ILL 
 
 who have recently come there. We went there to make our 
 tea, and found at the side the court of a large Buddhist 
 temple, with the frescoes on the walls only half effaced, but with 
 all the large idols, which seemed to have been made of earthen- 
 ware or baked clay, shattered almost to the foundations. In 
 front of this temple, as indeed in front of every official 
 residence, ran for some distance a blank but highly decorated 
 wall, and through the intervening space it was formerly 
 
 M 2 
 
i 64 TUJRKISTAN. 
 
 forbidden to pass. Indeed before the governor's house such an 
 act would have brought the penalty of death. 
 
 On my remarking to La-tchu-yan how deserted the whole 
 place was, he said : ' It is accursed ground, no one will ever 
 live here again,' and with a chuckle informed me that he him- 
 self had been the leader of the Dungan army which took the 
 place. I then plied him with questions, but as his answers 
 had to be translated from Chinese into Tarantchi by one in- 
 terpreter, and from Tarantchi into Eussian by a second, con- 
 versation was difficult. He summed it up however, very 
 tersely. ' We besieged this town for two years ; at last we 
 took it. That morning there were in it 75,000 people with 
 the army ; that evening not a soul was left alive.' Many were 
 butchered at once ; man) 7 killed their families and then them- 
 selves ; and many ran to the steppes only to be cut down there, 
 or to die in a few days from starvation. 
 
 It is time for me to tell the story of the insurrection 
 which wrought all this devastation, but in order to do that I 
 must first unravel the tangled web of nationalities which 
 covered the whole country. 
 
 The first we know of this country is that in the second 
 century B.C. the Usun, who have been identified by many 
 scholars with the ancestors of the Teutonic race (Suiones), were 
 driven out from Mongolia by the Huns, and settled in the 
 valley of the Hi in the neighbourhood of Lake Balkash. They 
 were accompanied and followed by the Yuetchji (who have also 
 been identified with the Getae and the Goths), but then, find- 
 ing the country too well occupied, turned southward to ancient 
 Sogdiana in the region of Samarkand, and founded an empire of 
 their own on the ruins of the Graeco-Bactrian kingdom. The 
 Usun became a powerful people, but, becoming harassed by 
 frequent attacks of the neighbouring nomads, in the fourth 
 century of our era again migrated, and in the early part 
 of the seventh century became subject to the Turks, and 
 entirely disappeared from history. Then came the Uigurs ; l 
 and after them the valley of the Hi passed into the hands of 
 the Kara-Kidans, until these, in 1218, were conquered by the 
 
 1 The word Uigur probably means ' confederates ' or ' allies,' a name of a kind 
 frequently given to Asiatic nations. The Uigurs were chiefly of Turkish race 
 but may have included tribes of a different stock. 
 
THE OIEAT. 165 
 
 Mongols, long before which time Almalyk, the capital of the 
 province, must have been a large and flourishing town. In the 
 partition of the realm of Tchinghiz Khan among his sons, this 
 region, with others, fell to the share of Jagatai, and his successors 
 possessed it until Timur came there with fire and sword, and 
 made it a part of his extensive dominions. 
 
 Then followed a confused period of dissensions between 
 Mongol princes and Mongol tribes, during which we are led to 
 believe that the civilisation of Almalyk and of the neighbouring- 
 cities of the valley of the Hi entirely disappeared. 
 
 During the supremacy of the descendants of Tchinghiz, 
 Jungaria was the camping ground of three powerful Mongol 
 tribes — the Tchoros, the Hoshot, and the Torgot. About the 
 middle of the fourteenth century disturbances arose in China, 
 which soon turned into a war for independence; the Chinese 
 threw off the Mongol yoke, and Togon Timur voluntarily 
 abandoned the luxury and civilisation of Pekin, and sought 
 refuge in a poor kibitka on the sandy shore of Lake Dal-Nor, 
 about which his ancestors had formerly wandered. He did not 
 long survive his change of circumstances, and died the next year, 
 1368. His successors enjoyed neither power nor respect, and Mon- 
 golia became the prey of contending factions. The strongest of 
 them imposed its chief on the Khan, as a vizier, who, under the 
 name of taitsi or taishi, really exercised the supreme power. At 
 the end of the fourteenth century this taitsi was the powerful 
 prince Eliutei, who enjoyed such a reputation among the 
 Mongols, that his descendants received the name of Eliuts. 
 The three Jungarian tribes of Tchoros, Hoshot and Torgot, then 
 formed a union to counteract the tyranny of Eliutei, elected 
 the Tchoros prince Mahmud as their chief, and took the name 
 of Oirat or ' confederates.' Eliutei was unable to stand out 
 against Mahmud, and from that time the Oirat had a pre- 
 ponderating influence, the office of taitsi becoming hereditary 
 with the chiefs of the Tchoros until, in the fifteenth century, 
 this tribe separated into two, the Tchoros and the Durbot, when 
 the members of the union became known as the Durben Oirat, 
 or ' Four allies,' and extended their influence over all Mongolia. 
 
 The steady aim of the allied tribes was to recover China for 
 the heirs of Tchinghiz, and wars were frequent, until at last, in 
 1450, the Oirat defeated the Chinese in a very sanguinary 
 
166 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 battle, took the Emperor prisoner, and marched to the walls of 
 Pekin. Chance alone saved China. The Mongols retired to 
 the steppes ; the taitsi Esen, who had killed his brother-in- 
 law the Khan, and usurped his throne, was assassinated ; and 
 the most brilliant period of the Oirat power was at an end. 
 They were unable to maintain their influence in Mongolia, and 
 for a century and a half they almost disappeared from history. 
 
 At the beginning of the seventeenth century the head of the 
 union, Khara-Khula, with the intention of exercising absolute 
 sway, began to limit the rights of his allies. Many of the 
 petty chiefs, who possessed some strength of their own, 
 endeavoured to make themselves independent. Some of them 
 even left Jungaria, and settled in Siberia, which was already 
 occupied by the Eussians. It is probable that it was at this 
 time, on account of this secession from the confederacy, that 
 they received from the Tartars and Kirghiz the name of 
 Kalmyks, Kalmaks, or Kalmuks, as Kalma, Kalmak, and 
 Kalmaklyk, in the East Turkic dialects mean, ' remnant,' 
 ' remaining,' ' rest.' The first small tribe which came to Siberia 
 and entered into relations with the Russian authorities, was 
 that of Telengut, under Abaka. Soon afterwards the clan of 
 Uriankhai, under Altyn Khan, so well known in Siberian 
 history, abandoned the confederacy. 1 
 
 Jungar, or Jungaria, is a name of much older origin than 
 either Oirat or Kalmuk ; for in the seventh century the 
 Western Dulgas had divided into tribes, and further into two 
 divisions, those of the right hand, Jun-gar, or eastern division ; 
 and those of the left hand, Boron-Grar, or western division. 
 The country of the western division, now the Kirghiz Steppe, 
 fell under the dominion of other races, and the name Borongar 
 disappeared ; but Jungar still continued, although it came into 
 general knowledge only about the middle of the seventeenth 
 century. 2 
 
 One of the sovereigns of the Oirat, the son of Khara-Khula, 
 Kho-no-kho-tsin, also known as Bator Kun-taitsi, a title he 
 had received from the Dalai Lama of Tibet, meaning ' swan 
 
 1 ' Historical account of the Oirat or Kalmyks,' by the Monk Hyacinth : St. 
 Petersburg, 1834. 'Works ' of Senkofsky, vi. 27 : St. Petersburg, 1859. 
 
 2 The name Jungaria is also variously transliterated, as Tchungaria, Dsun- 
 garia, Zungaria. 
 
TARANTCHI AKSAKAL AND HIS ATTENUA.N IS AT KULDJA. 
 
THE REVIVAL OF JUNGAEIA. 167 
 
 prince,' greatly extended the power of his people and evidently 
 dreamed of reviving in its full extent the ancient empire of 
 Tchinghiz Khan. 1 On his death, in 1654, the throne fell to one of 
 his twelve sons, Zenga, whose elder brother Galdan had early in 
 life become a Lama and had been brought up in Tibet at the Court 
 of the Dalai Lama. Zenga was murdered by some of his younger 
 brothers, and Galdan then obtained from the Dalai Lama per- 
 mission to throw off his priesthood and returned in 1671 to his 
 tribe, where he avenged the murder of his brother and led his peo- 
 ple to conquest after conquest, his great aim being to reduce to 
 obedience the Khalkas Mongols who were supported by the Em- 
 peror of China and who were at last obliged to take refuge within 
 Chinese limits. In the meantime the children of his brother 
 Zenga were growing up ; Galdan therefore put them all to death 
 with the exception of the eldest, Tsevan Eabdan, who escaped to 
 the valley of the Borotala, and while Galdan was engaged in his 
 eastern wars, founded a new realm in his rear. The Chinese, to 
 whom he made overtures, made common cause with him, and 
 the power of Galdan was at last overthrown in 1697, soon after 
 which he himself died of the small-pox, alone and abandoned in 
 the Kirghiz steppe. Tsevan Eabdan was not only a successful 
 prince, but was really the heir to Galdan's Sovereignty. The 
 Oirat all submitted to him ; he was recognised by China and 
 Russia ; he subdued many petty Mongol princes from the Altai to 
 Lake Balkash, and compelled the cities of Eastern Turkistan, as 
 well as Samarkand, Bukhara and even Balkh, to pay tribute to 
 him, colonising the more disobedient of the inhabitants of these 
 countries in the valleys of the Hi and of the Borotala. He also 
 subdued one horde of the Kara Kirghiz and used them to coun- 
 teract the invasions of the Kirghiz Kaisaks from the west. He 
 then married the daughter of A}iika Khan of the Torgouts, 
 another branch of the Oirat living along the Irtysh, but soon 
 fell out with him, utterly defeated him and compelled the 
 Torgouts to move westward, until in 1703 the last of them 
 crossed the Ural and settled in the lower regions of the Volga, 
 where they are known as Kalmuks. He then conquered the 
 southern branch of the Oirat in Tangut, and acting with bad 
 faith put to dea;h their prince, whose title he then gave to his 
 
 1 ' History of the Oirat or Kalmyks,' by the Monk Hyacinth, p. 63 : St. Peters- 
 burg, 1834. 
 
168 TURKISTAN. 
 
 own son, attacked Tibet, and even opposed the Lama. He was 
 also successful in a war with China. Graldan Tsyran, the son of 
 Tsevan Eabdan, who reigned from 1727 to 1745, pursued a 
 similar career of war and bloodshed. He was succeeded by Ins 
 son, who was murdered by a brother, arid he in turn by another 
 brother, until the latter was overthrown by two tribal leaders 
 Davatsi and Amursana. These two conspirators quarrelled 
 among themselves, and Amursana was beaten and went to Pekin, 
 where he was well received by the Emperor Kien Lun as a 
 vassal of the Empire, and was given lands and titles. He sub- 
 sequently received Chinese assistance to make himself the ruler of 
 Jungaria. The joint expedition was successful, and in 1755 the 
 forces of Davatsi were completely overthrown in a campaign of 
 five months, Davatsi himself being captured and taken to Pekin. 
 Amursana, however, found that instead of being a sovereign 
 prince he merely held a honorary Chinese rank. He therefore 
 incited his people to rebellion. His armies were beaten, and 
 he was forced to take refuge with the Russians in Tobolsk, 
 where he died of small-pox in 1757. At that time the Chinese 
 Emperor was so strong and the Russians were so weak in Asia, — 
 their attention at the same moment being taken up in Europe by 
 the Turkish wars, — that in order to buy peace they conveyed the 
 dead body of Amursana to Kiakhta and gave it up to the Chinese. 
 The Emperor Kien Lun had no intention of giving up 
 Jungaria ; he even extended his new dominions by the conquest 
 of Kashgar and Eastern Turkistan. The rebellion of the Jun- 
 garians gave the Chinese an excuse for getting rid of them, and 
 they were massacred indiscriminately ; so that, while before the 
 conquest there were in Jungaria 24 uluses with a population of 
 600,000 souls, at the end of 1756 not one Jungarian remained, 
 those who had not been killed having sought refuge among the 
 Kirghiz or the Russians. The country was therefore open for 
 settlement, and inhabitants were found by sending military 
 colonies from Mantchuria, by deporting Chinese criminals 
 and by bringing agriculturists from Eastern Turkistan, 6,000 
 families of whom were settled there at one time. For the 
 purpose of keeping the country in order, the city of Hi, or what 
 is called Mantchu Kuldja, was built as the seat of government 
 and was settled by Mantchus. Six other forts were erected ; 
 one of them, Bayandai, in the immediate vicinity of Hi, con* 
 
THE TARANTCHIS. 16» 
 
 tained a Mantchu garrison, while the other five, Khorgos, Shin- 
 sui-ho-dzi (Tchin-tcha-ho-dzi), Suidim, Losigun, and Tchim- 
 pantzi were defended hy Chinese soldiers. 
 
 It is owing to these wars and invasions with their constant 
 changes of population, and to the measures taken by the Chinese 
 Government that the region of Kuldja has its present curious 
 mixture of races and peoples. 
 
 The settlers from Eastern Turkistan hecame known as 
 Tarantchis, literally agriculturists, or millet-sowers, from taran, 
 millet. Their position was very much like that of the former 
 Crown peasants in Russia. They were settled along the rivers 
 and canals on both sides of the Hi, and each of the original 6,000 
 families received a piece of land of about 32 acres in extent and 
 was obliged to furnish yearly 32 tcho of grain, which, according 
 to the prices of grain and the comparative value of money would 
 be worth about 2l. 10s. In 1834 the number of families had 
 increased to 8000, and their yearly rent amounted to 256,000 
 tcho. Besides this tax the Tarantchis were obliged to furnish 
 extra grain and horses in case of war, and were frequently called 
 upon for labour upon canals and other government works. 
 They were governed by officials of their own race, who were 
 however the obedient tools of the Mantchu rulers at Hi, the 
 seat of their administration being in the Tartar town of Kuldja. 
 No restraints were placed on the exercise of the Mohammedan 
 religion, and it may be imagined that the attachment of the 
 Tarantchis to it was increased rather than lessened by living 
 amongst people who do the two things which Mussulmans 
 abhor the most, — who worship idols and who eat pork. In 
 every Tarantchi settlement there was an Imam and a Mullah, 
 and everywhere there were mosques and school-houses ; so that 
 from 30 to 40 per cent, of the people could read, although 
 only about 10 per cent, could write. Almost the only Chinese 
 influence apparent upon them was that the women were un- 
 veiled. 
 
 The language of the Tarantchis differs but little from that 
 of Eastern Turkistan, being a descendant of the old Uigur 
 dialect, and, although it has received many words and a 
 peculiar colouring from the influence of the surrounding Kai- 
 muk, Chinese, and Mantchu colonies, yet, according to Mr. 
 Radloff, it is far more, specifically Turkish than any Turkish 
 
170 rUKKISTAN. 
 
 book printed in Constantinople. That dialect which is pecu- 
 liarly Tarantchi was chiefly heard in the town of Kuldja, while 
 small agricultural settlements frequently retained in a great 
 measure their original speech, one, for instance, speaking the 
 dialect of Turfan, and another that of Kashgar. 
 
 The military colonists were brought from Dauria, in north- 
 western Mongolia, and consisted of Solons, who are still famous 
 in all China for their skill in archery, and Sibos, a tribe on 
 whose gratitude the Chinese government could especially 
 count, because at the accession of the Mantchu dynasty they 
 were freed from their slavery to the Mongols. Both 
 tribes were given rich lands, the Solons on the right bank of 
 the Hi, between the Usuk and the Kunges, and the Sibos on 
 the left bank of the Hi, opposite the Tartar Kuldja. They 
 paid no taxes, but, on the contrary, received from the govern- 
 ment a salary equal to about ten shillings a month. All the 
 men capable of bearing arms were counted in the active army, 
 although in time of peace not more than a thousand men were 
 actually under arms. 
 
 These colonists were divided into fourteen banners or 
 sumuls, six of Solons and eight of Sibos. 
 
 About the middle of the present century two new sumuls 
 were formed out of both tribes, and were settled among the 
 Solons. Each sumul received land which was considered 
 sufficient for 500 families, so that altogether they were counted 
 as 8,000 families. As each family-plot was of considerable 
 extent, it was calculated that each could produce at least three 
 fighting men in case of war, which would thus bring the con- 
 tingent up to about 25,000 men. The Sibos speak a Tuugnz 
 dialect very similar to the Mantchu, and, for that reason, those 
 who received an education were most commonly employed 
 as writers and clerks in all the offices of the province, while 
 pure Mantchus who have been educated usually become so 
 Chinese in habits that they utterly forget their own language, 
 and learn it only as they would a dead tongue. In this pro- 
 vince, owing to the Sibos, Mantchu was spoken and written 
 with greater purity than elsewhere. The dialect of the Solons 
 differs in some respects from that of the Sibos. 
 
 To these were added some Tchakhars. The Tchakhars 
 had formerly been a ruling race in Southern Mongolia, and at 
 
TCHAKHARS AND KALMUKS. 171 
 
 one time had even exacted tribute from China. The Mantchu 
 dynasty on its accession, profiting by the internal dissensions 
 of the Mongols, succeeded in annihilating the power of the 
 Tchakhars. Even after 150 years there may have been some 
 discontent among them, or the Chinese government must have 
 remembered with discomfort their former might, and thought 
 it best to avoid a possible insurrection by colonising them. 
 The Tchakhars could not complain, because they received 
 subsidies on the road to lands in their new country, and excellent 
 pay. They were colonised with the Solons and Sibos. 
 
 The country being secured in this way, it was perfectly safe 
 for the Chinese to send there the Jungars and the Oirat who had 
 previously sought their protection ; and subsequently they also 
 allowed many to come back who had fled from the massacre 
 and had taken refuge among the Kirghiz. The number of these 
 colonists was soon increased by the return of the Kalmuks. 
 
 Soon after the final emigration of the Oirat tribes to the 
 Volga, the Emperor Kiang-hi, being curious to learn the cause 
 of this great movement, and having at the same time some 
 business with the Court of St. Petersburg, sent an ambassador, 
 in whose suite was Tuli-shen, the secretary of the Imperial 
 Council, on a mission to the court of the Kalmuk Khan on the 
 lower Volga. This embassy was allowed by Peter the Great to 
 proceed through Siberia, and the journal kept by it is full of 
 curious interest. 1 
 
 The Kalmuks were touched with this mark of interest of 
 the Chinese Emperor, and from that time, in spite of the 
 Eussians, kept up relations with the court of Pekin. When 
 they heard that Jungaria had been conquered and depopulated 
 by the Chinese, supposing that the country would remain 
 vacant, they made up their minds to return to it, only a small 
 number preferring to remain. They set out from the Volga in 
 January and February 1771, and after an eight months'. march, 
 attended by much suffering, harassed and distressed by the 
 Kirghiz, — a journey that has been immortalised by De Quincey 
 in his ' Flight of a Tartar Tribe,' — arrived at Jungaria only to 
 find the Chinese in full possession of the country, and to learn 
 that they must either become subject to them, or fall into the 
 
 1 This journal -was translated by Staunton under the title, ' Narrative of the 
 Chinese Embassy; London : 1821. 
 
172 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 hands of the Khirgiz or of the Bussians who were slowly pur- 
 suing- them. They chose the former alternative, and thus the 
 population of the 'new line' or 'new frontier,' as the province 
 of Hi, together with Eastern Turkistan, was called, was in- 
 creased by nearly half-a-million of souls. 
 
 The Kalmuks were allowed to settle in the excellent pasture- 
 grounds on the Kunges and Tekes, where they still live under 
 the name of Torgots. Like the Kirghiz, they lead a nomadic 
 life, and devote themselves to the breeding of cattle and horses. 
 Some few of them about the river Nilka have mixed with the 
 Tartars and have become agriculturists. The Kalmuks are all 
 Buddhists. Their chief priest in the valley of the Hi was a 
 Khamba Lama, who during the summer lived in a temple on the 
 Tekes, but during the winter came to another temple on the right 
 bank of the Hi, between the Tartar and the Mantchu Kuldja, to 
 which once a year the Dzian-Dziun, or Mantchu governor of the 
 province, came for prayers with all his officials in state and 
 ceremony. At first no taxes were laid upon the Kalmuks, but 
 subsequently they were obliged to furnish the agricultural and 
 military colonists with 2,000 cattle and 500 horses yearly, and, 
 furthermore, were obliged to serve in the copper and lead mines, 
 and to supply a contingent of soldiers for the frontier pickets. 
 
 All these different races were kept in order by a military 
 force of Mantchus and Chinese, and the governors and the 
 higher officials were in all cases Mantchus. 
 
 The Governor-General, or Dzian-Dziun, lived in Hi, the 
 Mantchu Kuldja, while the amban of Eastern Turkistan, re- 
 siding at Kashgar, and that of Tarbagatai, resident at Tchu- 
 gutchak, were subject to him. A force of 6,000 Mantchu 
 soldiers was kept up, of which 5,000 garrisoned the fortress of 
 Hi and 1,000 were stationed in Bayandai. The Chinese troops, 
 which were called those of the Green Banner, raised, not 
 by conscription, but by recruitment, as in England and America, 
 amounted to 3,000, and were stationed to the number of 500 
 in each of the five forts of Khorgos, Shin-sui-ho-dzi, Suidun, 
 Losigun, and Tchimpantzi. The other half of the Khambi, as 
 this force was called, were settled on the same terms as military 
 colonists on the right bank of the Hi, between the Solons and 
 the Tarantchis ; and from the river to the mountains the whole 
 force was under the government of a Mantchu officer. 
 
THE DUNGANS. 173 
 
 Besides the forces of the Green Banner, criminals, chiefly 
 from Southern China, were sent to the Hi provinces, where 
 they were known as Tchampans. They were put to forced 
 labour of the hardest kind in the mines for three years ; but 
 after that were allowed to live freely in the province, except 
 that, in case of war, they were all counted in the infantry. In 
 the country they were for the most part either fishermen 
 or carriers, and in the cities workmen of the lowest class or 
 thieves. 
 
 The agricultural Tchampans were reckoned at about 5,000 
 men, and were chiefly settled near the banks of the Hi, where 
 they devoted themselves to the cultivation of opium. They 
 were the most despised portion of the population, and were 
 subject to persecutions and hardships of all kinds. 
 
 But to all these nationalities yet another was added, — the 
 Dungans. These are supposed to be remnants of the old 
 Uigurs, who, under the name of Gfao-tchan, were in very early 
 times colonised in the provinces of Han-su and Shen-si, to the 
 number of 800,000 men. Later we find people in this 
 province, in all probability the same, because they were Mo- 
 hammedans, known by the name of Salar, who by their frequent 
 insurrections gave much trouble to the Chinese authorities. 
 Still later we find in the same place the Dungans, who had 
 become Chinese in dress, language, and manners ; in short in 
 everything save their religion, of which, however, they knew 
 but little, although they rigorously observed the two dogmas 
 of abstinence from the use of swine's flesh and of spirits. The 
 Dungans are a healthy, hardy race, in pari perhaps owing to 
 their temperance and abstinence from opium, and are bolder 
 and braver than the Chinese. For this reason they have always 
 been found to be excellent recruits, and the police force in 
 Pekin is, or was lately, drawn almost entirely from their ranks. 
 In this manner many of them came to the new western 
 provinces as hired soldiers, and after their term of service had 
 expired, the most of these, finding a livelihood easy, remained 
 there. At the same time one of the chief occupations of the 
 Dungans is the carrying trade, and most of the carters in the 
 north of China are of this people. A regular post route was 
 established to the Hi, along which many flourishing towns 
 grew up ; and as the Dungans in the exercise of their trade 
 
174 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 followed this route, many of them settled in these towns, so 
 that at last in some of them, as in Urumtsi for instance, they 
 constituted the main population. In 1862 in the province of 
 Kuldja, they were estimated at 60,000 souls. 1 
 
 In order to govern this mixture of races, the Mantchus were 
 obliged to rely in a great part upon the hatred between the 
 different nationalities; but as Mr. Radloff remarked in 1862: 
 ' Woe to the Mantchus if the hatred against them ever becomes 
 stronger than the hatred of these races to each other ! If only 
 two of them unite, the power of the Mantchus in the West will 
 be for ever annihilated.' Events proved how true his words 
 were. 
 
 During the infancy of the colony the Chinese government 
 was kind and considerate, giving good pay to the military 
 colonists, and granting subsidies and alleviations of various 
 kinds to the others. With 1826, however, began a time of 
 calamity for the province, and especially for the Tarantchis. 
 During the war not only were they obliged to deliver a 
 double quantity of grain and forage, but they were compelled 
 to transport it with their own horses to the scene of military 
 operations. At the same time the winter was so unusually 
 severe that the trains of transport-horses perished, and many 
 hundreds of Tarantchis were frozen to death on the road. 
 Things were getting worse and worse, when finally the Chinese 
 succeeded in repressing the insurrection and in restoring order. 
 But the affairs of the province had only begun to look a little 
 better, when, in 1834, it was considered necessary to dig the 
 canal Tokus-tara-osten, to provide for additional culture and 
 settlements. The work was difficult, and lasted two years. 
 After this came bad harvests and other calamities ; and besides 
 forced labour, heavy taxes had to be paid for the improvements, 
 so that it was not till 1839 that the agriculturists began to 
 better their position. In 1836 there had been an attempt at 
 rebellion under the leadership of a Persian, but this was pu ' 
 
 1 For a fuller account of the races inhabiting Kuldja, see ' Daslli-Thal in Hoch 
 Asien und seine Bewobner,' von Dr. W. Eadloff, in Petermann's 'Mittheilungen ' 
 for 1866, pp. 88, 250. The articles of Mr. N. Aristof on Kuldja in the second 
 volume of the ' Turkistan Annual ' are worth consulting, as also those of Baron 
 Kaulbars in the second and third volumes of the same publication, the 'Sketches of 
 Semi retch' of Colonel Khoroshkiu in the ' Turkistan Gazette ' for 1875, and the 
 article of Colonel Veniukof in tiie 'Bulletin' of the Imperial Russian Geographical 
 Socie+v for 1871, p. 333. 
 
DISCONTENT OF THE DUNGANS. 175 
 
 down, the leaders were executed and banished, and many 
 Tarantchi settlements were plundered by the soldiers. Again, 
 during new disturbances in Kashgar in 1840 and 1844, the 
 agricultural settlements had to suffer heavily. Still the 
 Tarantchis were so oppressed that they hardly dared even to 
 think of insurrection ; and when the Dungan rebellion broke 
 out, they did not at first join in it. 
 
 It was the Tarantchis and the native Mussulmans that the 
 Chinese chiefly feared as a source of disturbance, and it was 
 against them that their precautions were all directed. The 
 danger, however, was to come from another and unsuspected 
 source, — the Dungans. These people had long been discontented 
 with their position in the country in which they had, as it were, 
 surreptitiously established themselves. Vigorous and industrious, 
 they had at one time squatted on outlying lands and had under- 
 taken to cultivate them ; but as whole districts had been set apart 
 for the use of military colonists, even though much of the soil 
 remained uncultivated, the colonists complained and the Dungans 
 were removed. They then sent a petition to the Emperor, saying 
 that they as well as the rest were his children, and that they 
 were desirous of gaining their bread by working the land. This 
 petition was heard, and certain lands were set apart for them. 
 After this arrangement the causes of their discontent are not 
 easily explainable. The Dungans were under no special dis- 
 advantages as compared with the other peoples ; on the 
 contrary, they occupied a position in some respects better than 
 many, but yet they had a contempt as well as dislike for the 
 Chinese and the Mantchus, — whose strength and character were 
 enfeebled by their misuse of opium, — and they felt in themselves 
 that they were better men. 
 
 The financial condition of the country, it is true, made every- 
 one discontented, but not the Dungans more than others. The 
 government at Pekin, exhausted by wars and dissensions, had 
 not only for many years neglected to pay either the regular troops 
 or the military colonists in the province of Hi, but even desired to 
 collect taxes from them. High officials among the Mantchus 
 were devoting all their energies to making their personal fortunes, 
 as well as to grinding out of the merchants and farmers, — 
 for on both of these fell the burden of the distress, — enough 
 to give them the actual means of subsistence. Instead of 
 
176 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 lessening the number of troops, and thus trying- to economise 
 the resources of the country, the Government had recourse to 
 financial speculations, — some of an indefensible character. For 
 instance, they resolved to give to the copper money a forced 
 value, and began to coin large yarmaks, equal in actual value to 
 fifteen small yarmaks, which they endeavoured to make pass 
 for one hundred yarmaks. The action of the Government was 
 immediately imitated by private persons, for it was easy 
 enough to make moulds, and to melt down the small yarmaks 
 and reissue them at their higher value. Threats and the most 
 severe punishments availed nothing, and at last the Government 
 was obliged to issue a decree that the large pieces should 
 be taken at their real value of only fifteen yarmaks. This 
 excited a new storm of discontent, and a revolution seemed on 
 the point of breaking out ; the palace of the Governor- 
 General at Hi was mobbed, and he was forced to make a 
 promise that the pieces should be taken for a month at forty 
 yarmaks, after which they would be worth only fifteen. 
 During this month at least twenty times as many pieces were 
 presented as had been coined by the Government, so that there 
 was an immense loss to it, as well as to all honest people. 
 Subsequently great mining speculations were undertaken ; 
 expensive works were constructed in many places to open silver 
 mines, but no silver was discovered. Searches for sunken 
 treasures in the river Kash were similarly fruitless ; and in 
 this way large sums of money were wasted, and many families, 
 especially of Tarantchis and Kalmuks, were ruined. 
 
 To return to the Dungans. In 1860 a conspiracy was dis- 
 covered, having for its object the murder of the Governor 
 General and other officials, which was easily suppressed ; but it 
 would have cost the life of the Eussian Consul had it not been 
 for his diplomatic skill and presence of mind. He had hired 
 a Dungan to prepare some sable-skins which he destined for a 
 coat, for, in addition to their monopolising other trades, the 
 furriers were nearly all Dungans. As the Consul was in no 
 hurry he gave the Dungan a room in the Factory, and told him 
 to come and work there at his leisure, so that it was fully a 
 year before the skins were ready for use. The man was paid 
 and sent away and nothing more was thought of him. More 
 than a year after (this was in 1860), a Mantchu officer who 
 

 UNJUST SUSPICIONS. 177 
 
 #as frequently sent by tlie authorities for conference with the 
 Consul, made him a visit, and in the course of the conversation 
 spoke of this Dungan, asking if he still lived at the Factory. 
 The Consul replied that he had not been there for a year. 
 The conversation took another channel. It seemed strange 
 to the Consul that the officer had no special business, and 
 that he should remain so long talking of indifferent matters. 
 Again there was an allusion to the Dungan, and the Consul 
 was asked what had become of him. He expressed his 
 surprise that this man's fate should weigh so heavily on the 
 officer's mind, and when a third remark was made, and the 
 question was again put whether he was not still there, Mr. 
 Zakharof laughingly said : ' Why you can look through the 
 Factory if you please; it would be difficult to hide a man 
 here.' This answer seemed perfectly to satisfy the officer and 
 lie went away. A few days afterwards some of the Governor's 
 . council called on the Consul and explained to him the circum- 
 stances, saying that a conspiracy of Dungans had been dis- 
 covered ; that on this very man had fallen the duty of assassi- 
 nating the Grovernor-Greneral, and that it was said that he was 
 living in the factory under the protection of the Eussian 
 Consul. The officials added, 'We all know you, and know that 
 you would be incapable of assisting in such a plot, but still 
 there were two or three members of the Council who so 
 insisted that all foreigners were villains, and that the Russians 
 must have some connection with the conspiracy, that we 
 almost came to blows; we therefore took this measure of 
 finding out.' 
 
 If, instead of taking the matter in good part, Mr. Zakharof 
 had become angry, and had stood on his dignity and demanded 
 satisfaction for the supposed insult to his honour and to his flag, 
 the Chinese would probably have been convinced of his participa- 
 tion in the plot, and in all likelihood the Factory would have 
 been sacked and all its inmates murdered. The position was 
 very similar to that at Tien-tsin, and had the French Consul 
 there shown a little more adroitness and not at once resented 
 the action of the Chinese as an insult to his flag, that frightful 
 massacre might perhaps have been avoided. 
 
 Although the insurrection in Kuldja was an entirely inde- 
 pendent one, imder native leaders, yet it seems to have had a 
 
 VOL II. N 
 
178 TURKISTAN. 
 
 certain connection with the rebellion of the Chinese Mussulmans 
 which broke out in the province of Shen-si in 1862 and rapidly 
 spread to Han-su, Li-tchuan and Yunnan. 
 
 This rebellion was not entirely suppressed, but the insurgents 
 were driven out of Han-su and took refuge in the various towns 
 on the road to Kuldja. many of which were, as I have before 
 said, thickly settled with Dungans, and especially in the town 
 of Urumtsi, where a Dungan government began gradually to be 
 established. The news of the insurrection in Han-su reached 
 Kuldja towards the end of 1862 and at the beginning of 1863 
 many Dungans from different places collected in Shin-sui-ho dzi 
 to plan an insurrection. At first they coidd come to no agree- 
 ment, but finally two fanatical piiests succeeded in getting 
 together a few hundred men and attacking the little town of 
 Targi. Their plan, however, was defeated ; many were taken 
 prisoners, and their leaders were beheaded. The severe action 
 of the authorities seems to have had its effect, and there were 
 no new disturbances until March 1864, when there was a riot in 
 Khorgos, which was immediately put down ; but in the summer 
 news was received of the rebellion in Ku-tche, of the capture of 
 Urumtsi by the Dungans, of the murder of the Mantchus and 
 of the Chinese living there, to the number of 1 30,000, and of 
 the burning of a part of the town and of the bazaar with all its 
 rich depots of tea. The capture of Urumtsi gave the Dungans 
 great force, as it cut off the province of Kuldja from communi- 
 cation with China either by the ordinary northern route or by 
 the southern one. It also had a great effect upon the state of 
 things in that province, for from Urumtsi the Dungans marched 
 towards Manas, and the Govern or- General sent a Solon officer 
 with an army of several thousand men against them. As the 
 Chinese army was by far the more numerous an immediate attack 
 might have dispersed the rebels, but divided counsels prevailed, 
 there were negotiations, and finally when the battle did come off 
 the Chinese forces were beaten and had to return to Hi. A 
 rebellion in that province at once broke out. 1 
 
 1 Jn the slight account which I shall eive of it, I shall chiefly follow the report 
 of a Chinese official, Lu-tmn-han, -who had come to that province as a student in 
 1856, had taught in schools, and had subsequently bought an official post. He 
 wrote a detailed report of the rebellion and of the capture of Hi, as well as another 
 subsequently on the occupation of the province by the Eussians, which were 
 
OFFICIAL INCAPACITY. 179 
 
 After this, the disturbances among the Dungans daily in- 
 creased, so that the Governor-General began to call to Hi single 
 bodies of troops and of Sibos, and to impose extraordinary taxes 
 on all the merchants. The acting Eussian Consul, with most oi 
 the Eussian merchants and all the Cossacks, except one who had 
 been left thereby mistake, had gone from Kuldja a few months 
 before on account of the dangerous state of affairs. Now, when 
 the Governor imposed on the Tashkent merchants living there 
 a tax of 300 horses, the rest of them ran away and crossed the 
 frontier. Gradually 8000 troops were collected in the citadel 
 of Hi and the Mantchus began to take heart, when they were 
 alarmed by the news that the Dungans had finally succeeded in 
 persuading the Tarantchi inhabitants of Kuldja to take sides 
 with them. A state visit which the Governor paid to the 
 mosque had no effect, and a day or two after street fights began 
 at night in Old Kuldja, news of which was immediately brought 
 to Hi, and in a few hours disturbances began there also. The 
 rebels had now gained an important central point, but if the 
 Mantchus had acted with energy, had collected all their troops 
 and directed them against that city, and had possessed at the 
 same time the slightest courage or capacity for command,' they 
 could easily have crushed the growing insurrection. This, 
 however, they did not do ; on the contrary, they waited quietly 
 in the citadel until attacks were made against them. After 
 beating these off, they finally resolved to send a body of troops 
 to attack the united forces of Tarantchis and Dungans, who had 
 entrenched themselves at Da-di-pu, a few miles to the east. 
 They were defeated and came back in disorder. But the Dun- 
 gans apparently also suffered greatly, for they made no attempt 
 at pursuit, and for a few weeks both sides were quiet. A few 
 days after an order arrived from Pekin removing the Governor- 
 General Tchang and replacing him by his assistant Ming, the 
 amhan of Tchugutchak. Unfortunately the new Governor acted 
 with as much stupidity and folly as the old one had done. A new 
 attack was at once ordered on Da-di-pu, but was repulsed with 
 great loss, the infantry being surrounded and very many of them 
 massacred. 
 
 destined for the Chinese Emperor, but which, by some means, found their way into 
 Fussian hands, and were published by Professor Vas\liof in the ' Eussian Messen- 
 ger ' for May 1872. 
 
 n 2 
 
180 TUEK1STAK 
 
 The Dungans now began to undertake more active opera- 
 tions. They divided into two parts and regularly besieged the 
 fortresses of Hi and Bayandai. At the same time by promise 
 of plunder they persuaded the Kirghiz to join them, and many 
 families and tribes crossed the frontier and began plundering the 
 Chinese settlements. A good portion of the outer city of Hi 
 had now been destroyed, but the burning of the Russian Factory 
 seemed to inspire the Governor with special terror and he re- 
 peatedly sent to the Russian authorities at Semipalatinsk with 
 requests for help. Finally, towards the end of the year, a great 
 battle was fought, in which the Dungans were entirely defeated 
 and were obliged to leave the district. Then was the favourable 
 moment had the Governor taken advantage of it, as the Kir- 
 ghiz, who had only joined the Dungans while they were in luck, 
 had now abandoned them, but he feared for the safety of the 
 city and refused to march his troops out. As a last resort 
 therefore, the Dungans, seeing themselves in straits, made 
 overtures to the Tarantchi peasants, — the rebellion up to this 
 time having been confined to the city dwellers. Then, with- 
 drawing 1>heir forces from near Hi, they bent all their energies 
 to the siege of Bayandai, and in the beginning of 1865 took it 
 by btorm. The garrison of about 8,000 men, with their com- 
 mander, was all killed, with the exception of two soldiers, who, 
 with their noses split, were sent to Hi. Houses were plundered, 
 the peaceable Chinese with their wives and children were 
 strangled, and the young girls enslaved. 
 
 The fall of Bayandai seemed greatly to encourage the 
 insurgents, who, before this, were in such desperation that 
 they had sent to Urumtsi and Ku-tche for assistance, and on the 
 news of the capture of Bavandai, a defensive and offensive 
 league appears to have been entered into. In the meantime 
 Suidun was also surrounded, but the Governor could afford it 
 no assistance. At this time also the insurrection broke out in 
 Tarbagatai, so that after the capture of Tchugutchak and the 
 occupation of the country, the Mantchus were entirely cut off 
 from any communication with China except through the 
 Russian territory. Shortly after, a letter arrived at Semipala- 
 tinsk from the Governor again asking for assistance, and 
 begging that a packet of official documents might be trans- 
 mitted to Pekin. The siege of Hi slowly progressed, varied 
 
ACTION OF THE KALMUKS. 181 
 
 only by a sortie which the Governor made against Da-di-pu, 
 and which was repulsed with great loss. Meanwhile the 
 Dungans had begun measures which it could easily have been 
 seen would be successful. They sent small bands to plunder 
 and ravage all the lands of the military colonies, thus com- 
 pelling the ' banners ' that had stayed at home to take their part 
 in order to save their own property, and detaching even others 
 from the Mantchus. The Kalmuks on the river Tekes had 
 not sent the assistance demanded by the Governor, being 
 angry that he had not assisted them when they had been 
 attacked a few months before by the Kara-Kirghiz. At last, 
 however, when their great temple on the Hi had been 
 plundered by the Dungans, their Lama excited them to 
 revenge. They therefore marched down to near Hi and sig- 
 nally defeated the insurgents, who after that dared no longer 
 show themselves in the vicinity. The harvest was now ripe, 
 and the giain was greatly needed by the suffering garrison 
 and town population, but no one dared to reap it for fear of 
 the Dungans. The Governor therefore ordered the Kalmuks to 
 gather the harvest, but, as they were nomads who despised 
 agriculture, they refused, and when threats were offered, they 
 all decamped, and no persuasions could bring them back. 
 After their departure the Dungans immediately resumed 
 operations. Of the frightful position of affairs in the fortress, 
 we learn something from Colonel Eeinthal, who was there in 
 July and September 1865, to obtain information on the position. 
 It is much to be regretted that the Russian Government did 
 not act upon the information contained in his reports, and 
 either give some active support to the Chinese authorities, or 
 itself occupy the country to prevent bloodshed. 
 
 The scarcity of provisions in Hi became such that the Gover- 
 nor at last saw himself obliged to dismiss his last auxiliaries, the 
 Thagor Kalmuks. In the meantime both Solons and Sibos were 
 being attacked and plundered, and were obliged to make peace 
 with the insurgents, so that only Hi, Khorgos, Losigun, and 
 Suidun, remained in the hands of the Mantchus. Hi was now 
 entirely surrounded, and it was resolved to reduce it by famine. 
 The situation there was indeed frightful ; all the provisions had 
 been exhausted, and the only food was horses, dogs, and cats. 
 Typhus so raged that from 50 to 100 men died daily. The 
 
182 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 dead lay untamed in the streets, and the furniture and the roof- 
 bearns of the houses were used for fuel. Finally, about the 
 middle of January the Dungans made an attack ; they blew 
 up two bastions and one of the gates, and burst into the 
 fortress. Men, women, and children were indiscriminately 
 murdered, and many spared their enemies the trouble by 
 killing first their families and then themselves. All the 
 Mantchus sought refuge in the Governor's palace, which they 
 defended with the courage of despair. Tchang, the former 
 Governor, fell into the hands of the insurgents and was at once 
 murdered, but the others, as the Chinese reporter puts it 
 ' fulfilled their duty of devotion,' i.e., they blew up the palace^ 
 and all perished in the ruins. Some treasure was doubtless 
 found in the houses, and in the palace of the Governor 80,000 
 ounces of silver were discovered, but in all probability much 
 still remains buried in the city. After a few weeks rest the 
 Dungans turned towards the northern cities, took Suidun and 
 Losigun almost immediately, while the town of Khorgos, where 
 many rich merchants had taken refuge, made peace with them 
 by paying a very heavy contribution, and surrendered on a 
 promise of safety. The Tarantchis then returned home and 
 the Dungans went northward, but returned in five days and 
 fell upon this city, plundered and burnt it, and put all the 
 inhabitants to the sword. The Dungans then made an attack 
 on the Solons, who had before this entirely submitted to them, 
 burnt all their towns and murdered the inhabitants, so that the 
 remainder fled for refuge to the Russian territory, hotly pursued 
 by the Dungans, who killed many in their flight. 
 
 The Dungans and the Tarantchis had kept together as long as 
 they were in the face of a common enemy ; no sooner were 
 they masters of the situation than dissensions broke out 
 between them. The two parties met in April 1867- near Old 
 Kuldja, when the Dungans were badly beaten and lost their 
 leader, Mayagur Akhun. A month later the Dungans collected 
 a new force, increased by many of their race from Ur unit si, 
 amounting in all to 10,000 men, and attacked a force of 
 Tarantchis, Sibos, Mongols, and other inhabitants of that 
 locality, at Da-di-pu, whom they defeated and compelled to fall 
 back on Bayandai. There the retreating army made a stand, 
 and remembering how the Duno-ans had started the insurrec- 
 
TARANTCHI RULE. 183 
 
 tion, and bow they had everywhere murdered, robbed, and 
 pillaged, resolved to strike one more blow for their lives, and 
 made a sudden onslaught, which so overwhelmed the Dungans, 
 that few of them escaped from the battle. Those who did not 
 flee to Urumtsi or over the Russian frontier, were obliged to 
 submit to the Tarantchis. Late in the summer of the same 
 year there was a report that a Chinese army was on its march, 
 which so excited the Sibos and the few remaining Mantchus 
 and Chinese with joy, that the Tarautchis grew seriously 
 alarmed, and proposed to massacre them all to avoid disturb- 
 ances; but the Sultan and the Akhun did not agree, so that 
 their lives were preserved, although they were subject to all 
 kinds of persecution and extortion. 
 
 From that time on the Tarantchis ruled the country. They 
 bad had many a change of leaders since the beginning of the 
 insurrection. Their first chief, Abdrasul Amir, an influential 
 man in old Kuldja, was murdered by Mazam Khan, who had 
 been released from prison by the Chinese on his promise to use 
 his influence in putting down the insurgents, whose leader 
 he immediately became. In the capture of Bayandai he was 
 killed by an adventurer from Andijan named Patcha Hodja, 
 who hoped, with the assistance of some of his countrymen, to 
 accomplish in Kuldja much the same as Yakub Bek was then 
 doing in Kashgar. Patcha was soon disposed of, as was also his 
 successor, who was followed by a certain Maltchet Akhun, a 
 Tarantchi, and the leader of that race at the time of the 
 capture of Hi. He in his turn was relieved of the cares of 
 sovereignty by Abil Ogla, or, as he is sometimes called, Ala 
 Khan, who sewed him up in a sack and threw him into the 
 river. Abil Ogla, who had been a leading man in Kuldja 
 before the insurrection, now took the title of Sultan. After 
 the massacre of the Solons by the Dungans, their vacant 
 territory had been immediately occupied by Kirghiz, some 
 coining from the country to the north, and some from Siberia. 
 These continued to plunder the country, and caused many 
 more to seek Russian protection. In this way the emigrants 
 during 1866—7, amounted in all to about 5,000 souls, by far 
 the most of them being in a state of utter destitution. They 
 were temporarily settled in the districts of Kopal and Vierny, 
 and assistance was given to them by General Kolpakofsky in 
 
184 TURKISTAN. 
 
 food and money, for which he subsequently received the thanks 
 of the Government at Pekin, and had conferred upon him by the 
 Emperor of China the dignity of Mandarin of the first class, 
 with a robe of honour embroidered "with dragons, which, being 
 placed on the same footing with a decoration, he received the 
 special permission of his own Emperor to wear on state 
 occasions. The Chinese Government after they had recovered 
 possession of Tchugutchak, demanded the release of all those 
 emigrants who had been in the army or in the military 
 colonies, and as the Chinese authorities had always been very 
 exact in delivering up Eussian refugees, it was thought proper 
 to comply with this request. In consequence of the insuffi- 
 ciency of money and supplies, their return to China was 
 postponed until 1868, and in the autumn of that year, 3,500 of 
 them, after marching 600 miles, encamped for the winter near 
 Tchugutchak, where in fact they were obliged to remain for 
 several years, as the place marked out for -their colonisation was 
 not then ready. More than a thousand, however, refused to 
 obey the orders of the Chinese Government, preferring not to 
 remove so far from their former settlements, and resolved 
 either to stay under Eussian rule or await an opportunity to 
 return to their homes. 
 
 During the whole of the insurrection all the efforts of the 
 Eussians had been directed to keeping the frontiers intact, but no 
 movement whatever had been made to interfere. The districts 
 of Vierny were then governed through Semipalatinsk, and 
 Semipalatinsk in turn received its orders from Omsk, the 
 capital of Western Siberia. As far as concerns Central Asia, 
 the attention of the Eussians was concentrated on the new line 
 of frontier and on the occupation of Tashkent and the adjacent 
 regions ; as far as China was concerned, the only object was to 
 keep up good relations and to do nothing that might injure 
 them. 
 
 When Semiretch became a province of the government of 
 Turkistan under General Kaufmann it was evident that the 
 policy here would change. The first attempt of the insurgents 
 to enter into relations with the Eussians came from the 
 Dungans of Tchugutchak, and immediately after the rising 
 there in January 1865, the Imam of Tchugutchak hastened to 
 inform the Eussian Vice-Consul that the Factory was still safe, 
 
TKOUBLES WITH KUSSIA. 185 
 
 being watched over by the Dungans, and invited him to return 
 and renew commercial relations. 
 
 These, as well as two subsequent letters, remained without 
 answer, as the government could not take upon itself to enter 
 into relations with persons who had taken possession of a city 
 of a friendly power. After the capture of the citadel in 1866, 
 the Dungans again tried to enter into relations, promising to 
 satisfy all the Eussian complaints. 
 
 These letters also remained without reply, and as the Dungans 
 thus became convinced of the hostile disposition of the Eussians, 
 and were at the same time influenced by a report circulated by 
 the Chinese, that Eussian troops were to march against them, 
 they decided to abandon Tchugutchak and its vicinity, and to 
 settle in the neighbourhood of Manas. They thus left for a 
 time the whole country between Manas and the frontier, 300 
 miles, utterly depopulated, and it so remained until it was again 
 easily occupied by the Chinese forces which advanced with 
 Zhung, the new Dzian-Dziun, in 1871. 
 
 The kind reception given to the refugees, and the establish- 
 ment of a corps of observation on the frontier, inspired the 
 Dungans and Tarantchis in Kuldja, during the insurrection, 
 with fear of the Eussians, and for that reason at first they took 
 great care to prevent any infringement of the boundaries by 
 the Kirghiz or others. In the early part of 1867 there had 
 been a slight conflict with the Dungans at Borokhudzir on the 
 frontier, in order to protect the Solons who were seeking Eussian 
 protection, but otherwise there were no dealings with either 
 Dungans or Tarantchis until 1869, except that, in 1868, the 
 Tarantchis having learned that there was a report that they 
 were intending with an army of 40,000 men to fall upon 
 Vierny, sent a messenger to one of the Kirghiz chiefs to deny 
 it, and to express their desire and intention to live in peace 
 and amity with the Eussians. 
 
 In March 1868 the Sultan Abil Ogla sent two envoys to 
 Vierny with letters expressive of his desire for peace, and 
 asking that measures might be taken to restore the plunder 
 which the Eussian Kirghiz had taken from his subjects. To 
 this the General commanding replied in a friendly way, saying 
 that he was at his post to put down marauding expeditions on 
 the Eussian side, and asking similar measures to be taken on 
 
186 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 the part of the Tarantchis. A second envoy came in the same 
 year, but was stopped and robbed on the way. The robbers, 
 who turned out to be Eussian Kirghiz, were arrested, and all 
 that had been taken was restored. Yet, in spite of all this, 
 robberies continued even on the Russian post-roads, and al- 
 though it is probable that in all cases the marauders were 
 really Eussian Kirghiz, yet they made the province of Kuldja 
 their head-quarters, and returned there as to a safe retreat. 
 In order to put this down a small expedition was made in 
 October of that year, and 20,000 head of cattle were taken 
 from the Kirghiz. At the same time a part of the forces at 
 Borokhudzir advanced to Khorgos and took from the Kirghiz 
 5,000 sheep. In this way mutual complaints arose and mutual 
 demands for indemnity, which gave rise to many embassies from 
 the Sultan, and finally to the mission of Baron Kaulbars to 
 Kuldja at the end of 1870. 
 
 The efforts at arrangement turned out to be fruitless, and 
 there is some reason to believe intentionally so. General 
 Kaufmann had begun to think that the existence of this little 
 IDrincipality could no longer be allowed ; fears were expressed 
 that it would fall into the hands of Yakub Bek of Kashgar, 
 who was then making great progress in his war against the 
 Dungans of Urumtsi and Turfan. It was for this reason that 
 the Muzart Pass was occupied, as I have already mentioned. 
 
 Finally, when matters had reached a head, preparations 
 for an expedition were made, the forces at Borokhudzir were 
 increased, and General Kolpakofsky took command of them. 
 A shrewd and well written report was sent to St. Petersburg, 
 showing all the reasons which rendered it necessary to occupy 
 : Kuldja for the security of the frontier, and to counteract the 
 designs of Yakub Bek, and asking permission for a movement. 
 
 Almost simultaneously, the Tarantchis having luckily at- 
 tacked a Russian outpost which had crossed the boundary; the 
 onward movement was begun. The campaign was rapid and 
 decisive. On June 24 the main forces left Borokhudzir, on 
 the 28th they defeated a body of Tarantchis, about 4,000 in 
 number, at Alim-tu : on the 30th they drove them from a 
 position in front of Tchin-tcha-ho-dzi, and immediately occupied 
 that city. On the next day, July 1, they occupied Suidun 
 without oppositj >n. On July 3, near Bayandai, the Sultan 
 
A CHINESE ACCOUNT. 187 
 
 sent in his submission through his envoys, one of whom was 
 his son. In the evening of that day he delivered himself 
 up, and on the next, July 4, General Kolpakofsky entered the 
 capital. 
 
 The Kussians, however, were unable to stop one further 
 act of barbarity. When the Tarantchis in Kuldja learned the 
 surrender of their Sultan they wreaked their vexation and 
 despair on the poor Dungans and Chinese. During that night 
 they massacred more than 2,000 in the city and in its neigh- 
 bourhood. On the next day, when this became known, 
 General Kolpakofsky informed the Sultau and his counsellors 
 that, if this massacre did not cease, they should answer for it 
 with their heads, The threat took effect, but the worst had 
 already been done. The troops, in advancing from Bayandai 
 to Kuldja, found everywhere mutilated bodies, and wounded 
 and dying men. In one of the canals just outside of the city 
 were 500 corpses, which it was said had been brought out from 
 Kuldja at daylight and thrown there. 
 
 Lu-tsun-han, in reporting the Eussian occupation, says : 
 ' Once again they fought ; the Turkistanis were dispersed, each 
 one seeking to save his life. The Dzian-Dziun of Semiretch 
 ( General Kolpakofsky) accepting the declarations of submission 
 botli from the Chinese and the Turkistani troops, and assuring 
 them of mercy, immediately marched to Suidun. Here the 
 Turkistanis and the Chinese Mussulmans again met the enemy 
 in battle. The balls and bullets of the Eussian army flew like 
 a shower, like a flight of grasshoppers. Of wounded and killed 
 of every kind of people there were not few. The Turkistanis 
 were defeated, and in great confusion returned to the city of 
 Kuldja. The Dzian-Dziun of Semiretch quieted in every way 
 those who remained in Suidun, both Mantchus and Chinese, 
 both soldiery and civilians, as well as the Chinese Mussulmans, 
 not harming anyone ; not even a single blade of grass, nor a 
 single tree, nor a fowl, nor a dog received any harm or injury, 
 not a hair was touched. All this is owing to the orders of the 
 Dzian-Dziun of Semiretch. . . . 
 
 ' But, although the Turkistanis (after the submission of the 
 Sultan) in words expressed their submission, yet their poisoned 
 tongues did not vanish. There were many instances that in lonely 
 places they actually caught Mantchus and Chinese and killed 
 
188 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 them. Happily heaven did not permit the human race to end. 
 Now the leader of the great Eussian Empire, the Dzian-Dziun 
 of Semiretch, with his army, inspired with humanity and truth, 
 has quieted everyone. This petty foreign power 1 saved the 
 nation from fire and water, it subdued the whole four countries 
 without the least harm, so that children are not frightened, 
 and the people submitted not without delight and ecstasy.' 
 
 The authorities at St. Petersburg were not over pleased at 
 the occupation of the new territory, and although General 
 Kolpakofsky received the St. George, he did so not, as is custo- 
 mary, by the will of the Emperor, but in a still more compli- 
 mentary way on the vote of the Chapter of the Order. The, 
 Foreign Office immediately informed the Chinese government 
 of the occupation of the province, and declared its readiness to 
 restore it to China whenever a sufficient force could be brought 
 there to hold it against attacks and to preserve order. So far 
 this has not been done, and the question of the permanent 
 occupation and annexation of the province still remains un- 
 decided. 
 
 The Sultan Abil Ogla was taken to Vierny, where he still 
 resides. He was allowed to keep all his property, which was 
 said to be very considerable., as at the time of his capture he 
 had, among other things, 6000 horses. He seems to have been 
 loved by his people for his goodness, generosity and justice, but 
 nevertheless he had constant fear of secret enemies, — as indeed 
 well he might have had considering the fates of his predecessors 
 and the passions raging among the insurgents, — so that he 
 rarely slept at home, but spent the nights in the houses of his 
 most devoted adherents. After he arrived at Kuldja and was 
 presented to General Kaufman he said that the previous night 
 was the first time he had slept with a feeling of safety and 
 comfort since he had mounted the throne. 
 
 From Suidun I made another excursion to Lake Sairam Nor, 
 north of the range of Borokhoro. Captain Bozhovitch gave 
 me six Cossacks as an escort, and I had besides for the first day 
 the company of a young Eussian officer. As it was some distance 
 further to go by the regular road, we took a short cut across the 
 
 1 A touch which shows the true Chinese official writing to his Empercir. 
 
THE TALKI DEFILE. 18P 
 
 meadows for twenty miles until we reached the opening of the 
 Talki ravine. Through some misapprehension of the Kirghiz 
 guide we lost our way and had to make a greater circuit, first 
 through plains covered with dry and yellow grass, and then over 
 a higher steppe thickly overgrown with wormwood. The entrance 
 to the ravine was in some respects different from any that I 
 know. Instead of gradually rising and imperceptibly penetrating 
 among the mountains, we came to a cleft, as it were, in the 
 high mountains which seemed to rise directly out of the plain, 
 where the little river Talki came hounding over the rocks in a 
 succession of pretty cascades. The ascent began at once. In a 
 dozen paces we had turned a corner and had immediately found 
 ourselves between high walls of rock completely shut out from 
 the plain and apparently in the very heart of the mountains. 
 After the bare and desolate mountains which I had so frequently 
 seen I was unprepared for anything so charming. The vegetation 
 was superb, especially on the eastern side of the ravine, where 
 wild apples, wild apricots, elms, poplars, and willows grew 
 in profusion, often festooned with the luxuriant and familiar 
 foliage of the wild hop. It was then autumn, and the leaves of 
 the trees were becoming yellow and red with a brilliancy that 
 I had not expected to find out of America. The road was 
 everywhere excellent, for this was the old Chinese road, and 
 although the bridges had been destroyed it mattered not to us, 
 who were on horseback. This road was built by the Mongols to 
 keep up their communication with Central Asia, and from the 
 number of times that we had to cross the very clear but icy- 
 cold stream of the Talki, I think that there might have been at 
 least the forty-eight bridges, of which the old historians speak. 
 The road was renewed by the Chinese after their capture of the 
 province and was only abandoned during the recent insurrection. 
 A very small sum would suffice to put it in complete repair as 
 a carriage road. About ten miles up the defile we reached a 
 Cossack picket, where we were to pass the night, as darkness 
 and cold were rapidly coming on. The half dozen Cossacks 
 stationed there, who had been quite alone all the summer except 
 for the passing of Kirghiz migrating from beyond the moun- 
 tains, or for the occasional visits of a topographer or a surveyor, 
 were delighted to meet their comrades and equally glad to be 
 regaled with the sheep which we had brought with us. As theii 
 
190 TURKISTAK 
 
 share towards our supper some of them went out to the stream 
 and brought in some nice fish. Although the clay had been so 
 warm, the night was very cold and we were glad to have a fire 
 kept up all night in the middle of our kibitka. The next 
 morning I resumed my journey towards the lake, but unfortu- 
 nately the Eussian officer who was accompanying me received a 
 message from his commander to return immediately and take 
 charge of a party of soldiers who had served out their time and 
 were returning home. I was therefore obliged to proceed alone. 
 As we went on the valley got narrower and steeper. At last, 
 after riding twelve or thirteen miles we ascended a very steep 
 hill, and no sooner had we reached the flat rocks on the top than 
 we beheld before us a scene of wonderful beauty. Immediately 
 below, although at an altitude of 7,200 feet, lay the lake of 
 Sairam Nor, of a rich dark blue, apparently oval, about twenty 
 miles long by fifteen broad, on every side of which rose high 
 mountains, those beyond being often covered with snow. I 
 thought I could discern where the pass lay into the valley of 
 Borotala, and to the eastward there was an evident opening 
 through which the old road went on to Manas and Urumtsi. 
 After enjoying for a while the view we went down to the shore 
 of the lake, where we rested for a few hours near a little spring 
 of excellent water and took our lunch. The water of the lake 
 is slightly saltish and is unfit for making tea. From the shore 
 the water of the lake was beautifully clear, and small objects 
 could be discerned at the bottom from a distance of many feet. 
 The natives believe that the lake throws up on the shore 
 whatever impurity may be cast into it, and they insist that 
 there are no fish there. I walked along the edge for some 
 distance without seeing any, and did not even see the shrimps 
 which Mr. Dilke told me he had found there. The legend 
 is that the spirit of this lake appears in the form of a stony he- 
 goat with great horns and a thick beard, and that misfortunes 
 follow its appearance. In the mountains on the west and south- 
 west of the lake are numerous warm springs of a medicinal 
 character, called arasan by the natives. Beyond the Ohala-tau 
 mountains to the north is the valley of the Borotala, a stream 
 which runs through sandy plains parallel to the Hi, but exactly 
 in the opposite direction, falling into Lake Ebi Nor. The fall 
 of ground is very singular, as in the seventy miles which separate 
 
LAKE SAIRAM NOK. 191 
 
 the Sairam Nor from the Ebi Nor the difference of altitude is 
 6,500 feet. The regular post-road to Tchugutchak left the 
 road from Urumtsi to Sairam Nor at Kur-kara-usu, but there 
 was another more direct road possible for carts which went 
 through the defile in the Ala-tau near the head of Lake Ala 
 Kul at a place called Sabada, famous for its violent winds. This 
 is a deep cut through the mountains, and whenever there is an 
 east wind it blows with such violence through this pass that it 
 can be felt even at SergiopoL 250 miles further. 
 
 Mr. Zakharof, in passing through it, was met by what the 
 Kirghiz called only a moderate wind, and was immediately 
 obliged to leave the main road and take a steeper path through 
 the mountains. The Cossacks who rode in front of him were 
 laid up for several days with sore eyes caused by the sand and 
 gravel. He told me that the accounts of Eubruquis and others 
 were literally true ; for that when there was a violent wind it 
 was impossible for horses or camels to stand against it, and 
 large pebbles were sometimes carried along by it. 
 
 Nor is a Mongol word meaning lake, corresponding to the 
 Turkish word Kid, but as to the origin of Sairam, which the 
 Chinese write Sai-li-mu, there is much doubt. The Mongol 
 name, Sairam Tchagan Nor Klaproth translates as ' The 
 Great Lake of Tranquillity.' It is apparently the same as 
 Sut-hul, or ' Milk Lake,' mentioned by King Hethum in his 
 ' Journey to the Court of Mangu Khan.' The old monk Tch'ang 
 Tch'un gives an excellent description of it, which I cannot 
 forbear quoting. 
 
 ' After having left the sandy desert, we travelled five days, 
 and stopped on the northern side of the Yin Shan. The next 
 day, early in the morning, we proceeded southward on a long- 
 slope seventy or eighty miles, and stopped in the evening to 
 rest. The air was cold ; we found no water. The next day we 
 started again, and travelled south-westward, and at a distance 
 of twenty li suddenly got sight of a splendid lake of about two 
 hundred li in circumference, enclosed on all sides by snow- 
 topped peaks, which were reflected in the water. The master 
 named it the Lake of Heaven. Following the shore we de- 
 scended in a southern direction, and on either side were nothing 
 but perpendicular cliffs and rugged peaks. The mountains 
 were covered to their summits with dense forests, consisting of 
 
192 TURRISTAK 
 
 birches and pines more than a hundred feet high. The river 
 winds through the gorge for about sixty or seventy li with a 
 rapid current, sometimes shooting down in cascades. The 
 second prince, who was with the Emperor at the time he went 
 to the west, first made a way through these mountains, cut 
 through the rocks, and built forty-eight bridges with the wood 
 cut on the mountains. The bridges are so wide that two carts 
 can pass together. 
 
 i We passed the night in the defile, and left it the next 
 morning ; we then entered a large valley which stretched from 
 east to west, well watered, with abundant grass, and here and 
 there some mulberry trees or jujubes.' 
 
 A short drive of about twenty miles easterly from Suidun, 
 brought me to what is called Old or Tartar Kuldja, formerly 
 known as Kuren. Under the Chinese rule it was the seat of 
 the administration of the Tarantchis and Mussulmans, then the 
 capital of the rebels, and now the chief place of the Russian 
 administration. 
 
 On the road I passed the ruins of Bayandai, one of the six 
 great fortresses built by the Chinese to control the country ; 
 now, hardly one stone is left upon another. 
 
 At Kuldja I was most hospitably received by Colonel 
 Wartmann, the Russian commandant, who occupies the Sultan's 
 old palace in the citadel. Apart from the warmth and kind- 
 ness with which I was greeted, and which I never shall forget, 
 an additional charm was added to my stay in tins curious and 
 uncivilised town of the far East, by finding there excellent 
 servants, and the cleanliness, the neatness, and the thousand 
 little conveniences which tend to make up the comfort of an 
 English home. 
 
 But the pleasure and comfort within doors could not long 
 detain me from the strange world without. The appearance of 
 the town is much like that of Suidun, but it is built on a larger 
 and grander scale. It is nearly square, each side being about 
 a mile in length, and is surrounded with high and thick walls, 
 which are sufficiently well built to withstand a vigorous 
 attack, and are so wide at the top as to allow carriages to pass 
 on them. Two broad streets cut it into four equal parts, and 
 these are again sub-divided by numerous lanes and alleys. 
 
 One soon sees that Kuldja was a Tartar town, and that the 
 
THE KULDJA BAZAAR. 193 
 
 Chinese polish and civilisation it acquired was superficial. 
 Except the two mosques and some of the large buildings which 
 belong to the Government, there are but slight traces of 
 Chinese architecture in the broad streets and in the smaller 
 lanes. All the houses are built of clay, with flat roofs, as in 
 the Uzbek countries of Central Asia. Even the palace in the 
 citadel bears few traces of Chinese taste, and these few are chiefly 
 in the form of lattices and some slight ornamentation on the 
 walls. It has indeed been somewhat refitted, but in general, 
 except for its larger size, it is no different from houses of rich 
 merchants in Tashkent. Most of the long streets of Bazaar- 
 Kutche, just outside of the citadel, are given up to Tarantchi 
 shops, which are for the most part small and insignificant, but 
 just beyond the suburbs, where Dang Dungan and Maimatcheu 
 begin, the bazaar is tenanted by Dungans and Chinese indis- 
 criminately. The majority of the shops are larger and more 
 comfortable than at Tashkent, and the dealer is separated 
 from his purchasers by a counter, or at least by a railing. 
 Besides the shops there were many dealers, who had nothing 
 but a board on trestles on which to display their wares, while 
 others were merely itinerant vendors, carrying all their goods 
 on a tray slung about their neck. 
 
 In spite of renewed visits I found little of value that had 
 come down from the Chinese times ; all articles of worth or 
 beauty, such as porcelain and bronzes, had been bought up 
 by the Eussians soon after the conquest, and little can now 
 be obtained except by what is tantamount to force — by asking 
 the Aksakal to send private people to you who have articles 
 to sell. All the good jade articles that had been found, had 
 been gradually bought up by the Chinese merchants, and sent 
 back to China through Kiakhta. All the articles I could ob- 
 tain were of slight value, such as chop-sticks, slippers, spec- 
 tacles, mandarins' buttons, and bows and arrows. 
 
 I was shown several mills on the outskirts of the bazaar, 
 amongst others, an exceedingly interesting paper mill, and a 
 factory for the manufacture of vermicelli, where the paste, 
 after being properly prepared, was placed on a perforated 
 board raised several feet above the floor, and allowed to descend 
 by its own weight. 
 
 The two most remarkable buildings in the town are the 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
194 TUEK1STAN. 
 
 great mosques ; the Jumma mosque of the Tarantchis, which ia 
 situated within the walls, and the Dungan mosque just outside. 
 These, judging by their size and their Chinese architecture, 
 were in all probability constructed at the expense of the Govern- 
 ment. They are faced with large diamond-shaped tiles, and 
 the walls, as well as the friezes of the cornices, are profusely 
 ornamented with arabesques carved in burnt clay. The roofs 
 are large and flaring, with turned up corners in the well-known 
 Chinese style. The Dungan mosque has a wonderful minaret, 
 built of small-roofed pavilions one on top of the other, making 
 a most bizarre effect. The floors of the mosque are of tiles, 
 and there is little ornamentation within, except around the 
 point which marks the direction of Mecca. 
 
 There is but one Buddhist temple in Kuldja, and that is 
 not yet completely finished ; but what interested me more than 
 either this or the mosques, was a small Christian church which 
 had been established years before by French and Italian 
 Catholic missionaries. These Catholics, who had not for many 
 years been visited by missionaries, were among the first who 
 welcomed the Eussian troops subsequent to the occupation. 
 After going through one or two courts and narrow passages we 
 came to the church, which was a small room. Besides 
 a rude altar with a crucifix, there were two pictures, 
 one of Christ and the other of the crucifixion. Over the altar 
 was a large Chinese inscription. I asked the cheerful young 
 deacon who accompanied us, what that meant. He found 
 some difficulty in expressing himself, but at last slowly said 
 Deus. That was the utmost extent of his Latin conversation, 
 but on my handing him one of the mass books, he read it 
 fluently enough, although with a pronunciation which was at 
 least singular. Whether he understood it is a different 
 question. 
 
 In one of my walks I had the advantage of being accom- 
 panied by Bushri Haupi, the Tarantchi Aksakal of the city, 
 still a young and handsome man, who gained his prominence by 
 being a good rider and a favourite of the last Sultan. In the 
 various commotions he has succeeded in amassing a good 
 fortune, and his rule is strict if not just. Wherever we went, 
 all classes of the population seemed to stand in great awe of 
 him, and at once explained to him in detail anything I desired 
 

 A CHINESE RESTAURANT. 195 
 
 to examine ; but agreeable as was his company, I began to 
 think that it was perhaps not my best introduction to the 
 ( onfidence of the natives. I therefore preferred for the most 
 part to go about alone, looking into the shops, peeping into 
 the manufactories and mosques, and walking lazily through the 
 bazaars and squares, watching the sports of the children, or 
 looking at the Tarantchi women with their blue gowns and 
 pretty embroidered caps, to being accompanied by an official 
 like Bushri Haupi. But if I wished to ask questions I fared 
 badly, for if Bushri Haupi did not go, it was necessary to 
 t:ike two interpreters, one who could speak Russian and 
 Tarantchi, and the other Tarantchi and Chinese. 
 
 One morning an officer of my acquaintance invited me to 
 breakfast with him at the chief Chinese restaurant. The 
 ground-floor was given up to the lower classes of the population, 
 while the upper story was reserved for persons who wished for a 
 more substantial meal or for more luxury, — not that the luxury 
 was in any case very great. The walls were lined with wooden 
 tables, at the sides of which were placed rude benches ; but at 
 the table which had been prepared for us in one corner were 
 placed Chinese chairs. The board had been well scoured, and 
 all the apparatus for eating was clean and neat. The room 
 served for a kitchen as well as a dining-room. In the middle 
 was a great furnace, and at the further end were cooks in 
 white gowns and aprons, busily engaged in carving, chopping, 
 and mixing the great variety of dishes necessary for any well 
 ordered meal. Exactly what we ate I am unable to say; 
 but strict orders had been given that no meat should be 
 used in the preparation of the dishes except fowls and mutton, 
 for the Chinese are greatly addicted to the use of pork, 
 which in this region is not always sound. I found every- 
 thing, with the exception of some of the sauces, exceedingly 
 palatable, and the delicacy of the preparation and the beauty 
 of the dishes added greatly to the pleasure of the repast. 
 Everything was served in small bowls, and we were provided 
 with chop-sticks, although as a general rule the Chinese carry 
 these for themselves, and my friend had had the forethought to 
 send by his servant some forks and spoons. Great care hail 
 been taken in the arrangement of the dishes ; the mutton, 
 for instance, was cut in small thin slices and symmetrically 
 
 o 2 
 
196 TURKISTAN. 
 
 arranged in a bowl, the edge of the white fat being tinted a 
 delicate rose colour. A salad was made of exceedingly thin slices 
 of radish, each of which was pure white with a red border, and 
 to relieve the dish were a few strips of green pepper. Other 
 dishes, such as rice and fowls, were slightly tinted with saffron 
 or relieved by the bright red of fresh peppers or the dark 
 green of leeks. The number of vegetables found here was 
 really surprising, especially after the paucity of them through 
 Central Asia. We had brought with us a bottle of wine, for 
 the only drink to be obtained besides tea was an extremely 
 strong liquor called by the various races Ju, Junjun, or Shau- 
 ju. This liquor is made by the fermentation of barley, sorghum, 
 rice, and other grains, and contains sixty per cent, of pure 
 alcohol, a great quantity of fusel oil, and sometimes a mixture 
 of opium. The taste is disagreeable and the odour is in the 
 highest degree disgusting. The little which I took seemed like 
 liquid fire. During the Chinese rule ju was distilled under 
 government supervision, and an excise duty was levied upon 
 it. It appears that it is now freely manufactured, but it has of 
 late been found necessary to prohibit its sale where troops are 
 stationed, as its effects are sometimes poisonous. The Russian 
 soldiers are exceedingly partial to it, on account of the length 
 of time the effects of intoxication produced by it last. They 
 say that when they get over being drunk, all they have to do 
 is to warm themselves a little in the sun, and they feel again as 
 happy as ever. 
 
 On the order of the Commandant, Bushri brought to us one 
 evening some Chinese musicians and comedians. The mu- 
 sical instruments were few and simple. One of the musicians 
 had a kind of flute, another a guitar with two strings, while the 
 third filled in the harmony by beating with a little stick on 
 three porcelain bowls of different sizes, which he held in his 
 hand. The music was very singular, and I was not sufficiently 
 accustomed to it to perceive all its beauty. It must have had 
 some beauty as the natives seemed to enjoy it greatly. We had 
 one or two dances by a man dressed in Chinese costume, who 
 held a long stick of bamboo covered with little bells and jingling 
 pieces of metal. The comedians were only two, a man, and a 
 boy dressed as a woman. They wore the ordinary Chinese 
 dress, except that they were masked for the occasion by the 
 
POPULATION OF KTJLDJA. 197 
 
 application of flour and a little red chalk to their feces, 
 by odd wigs, and by a few bits of trumpery finery about their 
 clothes. The first piece, which was in the nature of an opera 
 sung in alternate strains, represented first a courtship, then the 
 joys of early married life, and finally the distress of the wife at 
 the long absence of her husband on some trading expedition. 
 He returned, but only to relate with grief to his wife that he 
 had lost all his money and was utterly ruined, and to upbraid 
 her that during his absence she had spent what little he had 
 left at home. Then followed mutual reproaches, threats of 
 suicide and murder, and finally a reconciliation, which was comic 
 in the extreme. The other piece was a farce, but of such a 
 very Chinese character that it was impossible for me to learn 
 what was the subject or what were the situations. Apparently 
 ■ — to judge from the laughter of the few spectators who under 
 stood Chinese — the jests were of the broadest character. 
 
 Of the population of the city of Kuldja, which is estimated 
 at 10,000, the Tarantchis constitute fully one-half. The 
 number of Tarantchis in the province is now estimated at 
 about 40,000. Baron Kaulbars gives the highest total popula- 
 tion of the province at 130,000, divided as follows : Tarantchis, 
 40,000; Dungans, 10,000; Chinese and Sibos, 5,000; Kalmuks, 
 30,000; Kirghiz, 35,000; and Torgots, 10,000. The number 
 of Dungans is probably over-estimated, while the number of 
 Chinese is in reality more. Other investigators estimate the 
 total population at less than 100,000. We know that before the 
 insurrection the number of Dungans was about 60,000, of Chinese 
 100,000, and of Mantchus 80,000, of which last hardly 500 now 
 remain. According to these data the nomad population have 
 remained about the same, because they suffered little during the 
 war. The total population of the country during Chinese times 
 would have been at least 350,000, i.e. three and a half times more 
 than it is now. From this it is easy to understand the devas- 
 tation caused by the war, and the ruin which, owing to the 
 diminution of the population, fell upon the trade, agriculture, 
 and prosperity of the country. 
 
 The resources of the province are still great. The soil is 
 fertile, and needs only patient industry and care to render it 
 very productive. As to minerals, the mountains abound in 
 iron and copper, and coal of a very excellent quality is found 
 
1 98 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 within fifteen miles of the city of Kuldja. This coal is constantly 
 worked, as it forms almost the only fuel of the population, and, 
 in spite of the general rise in prices caused by the Eussian 
 occupation, the price of coal, according to the quality, is from 
 3 kopeks to 5 kopeks a pud (5s. to 8s. a ton). Other articles 
 of consumption are as cheap in proportion. Beef and mutton 
 cost l^d. to 2d. per. lb., and a fowl can be procured for 2d. 
 Flour costs 20 kopeks, or Id. for a pud of 36 lb. ; unground 
 wheat is half that price, and rice is less, whilst other grains are 
 even cheaper. Prices of grain and flour have doubled and even 
 tripled since the advent of the Eussians, as in 1870 a little 
 more than 100 lb. of excellent flour sold for 18 kopeks. The 
 trade of the province is at present unimportant, and even in 
 the Chinese times, in spite of the efforts made by the Eussians 
 to encourage commerce, neither the imports nor the exports 
 ever reached 30,000/. per annum. 
 
 Almost everything I saw in the valley of the Hi led me to 
 believe that this was in every respect the richest portion of the 
 Asiatic provinces recently occupied by the Eussians. In the 
 present unsettled state of affairs — as the Eussian Government has 
 not yet decided whether it will retain this province, or restore it 
 lo the Chinese — Eussian colonisation is not allowed. While 
 Kuldja offers a rich field for Eussian labour it is open to doubt 
 whether Eussian peasants, with their shiftless habits, would be 
 able to make as much out of the country, and support as large 
 a population, as did the Chinese with their economy and well- 
 organised system of cultivation. It, however, seems to be the 
 only part of Central Asia that will ever repay the expenses 
 bestowed upon it ; and, from economical and other motives, it 
 woidd seem to be very unwise for the Eussians any longer to 
 entertain the idea of giving it up to China, even should the 
 Chinese send an army sufficiently large to preserve order in the 
 event of the province being handed over to them. At present, as 
 the Eussians have but a small garrison there, the population is 
 only kept down by the mutual hatred of the different races 
 composing it. At the time of my visit there were rumours of 
 an approaching Chinese force, and that the Eussians were soon 
 to evacuate the country. I heard a Tarantchi say, ' As soon as 
 the Eussians have turned their backs we will massacre all the 
 Chinese and Dungans who are left.' The few Chinese still re- 
 
THE KUNGES VALLEY. 199 
 
 foaming in Kulclja have frequently stated that in the event of 
 the Eussians abandoning the country they would either precede 
 them or accompany them. 
 
 The Russian administrators are naturally greatly impeded 
 by the uncertain tenure of their sway ; and as they regard their 
 occupation as possibly merely a temporary one, they are unable 
 to take any measures looking to the permanent improvement 
 of the country or of its inhabitants. Temporary measures, how- 
 ever, have been taken by Colonel Wartmann, who has established 
 a small school for the benefit of the Russian soldiers as well as 
 of those natives who desire to learn Russian, to which he has 
 succeeded in attracting about thirty native children. In 
 addition to this six sons of Cossacks were placed at a Dungan 
 school, and at the time of my visit were rapidly displaying 
 great proficiency both in Chinese and Kalmuk. As I was 
 unable to hear of more than one person in the Russian service 
 who spoke these languages, the boys will, in the course of a 
 year or two, undoubtedly be of great use. 
 
 The inhabitants of the immediate neighbourhood of Kuldja 
 are nearly all Tarantchis, this being the region in which these 
 people were settled by the Chinese authorities. With but few 
 exceptions they are agriculturists. The valleys of the Kunges 
 and of the Kash are inhabited by the Torgots and the Kalmuks, 
 remnants of the old Jungarians and descendants of those 
 Kalmuk tribes who, as I have before mentioned, returned from 
 the Lower Volga in the beginning of the last century. I had 
 no opportunity during my short stay to get so far into the 
 valley, but as the condition of these people is of some little 
 interest, I shall quote a few observations from a report of Mr. 
 Aristof, who visited them in the spring of 1873, and who was 
 for some time director of the chancery for the affairs of Kuldja, 
 and is an exceedingly well-informed and careful observer. 1 
 ' The valley of the Kunges,' he says, ' is the natural prolonga- 
 tion of the valley of the Hi to the east, extending about 
 110 miles from its union with the Hi to the mouth of the 
 defile from which it issues ; its breadth is from ten to twenty 
 miles. Including the salt pools and places destitute of water, 
 no less than half of this valley is fit for agriculture, and it is 
 able to support at least 2,000 families. The middle and the upper 
 
 1 Quoted by Khoroshkin in ' Turkibtan Gazette,' No. 13, 1875. 
 
200 TUREISTAN. 
 
 parts of the valley are the best in regard to the abundance of 
 water, pastures, and meadows, as well as for forests. The lower 
 part of the right bank for about thirty miles is waterless and 
 salt, but the left bank of the Kunges, even on its lower course, 
 is only in places covered with salt pools, and is watered by the 
 river Tsanma and by canals brought from the Tekes, which 
 formerly irrigated a great extent of the arable land now aban- 
 doned. In the upper part of the valley, and in the mountain-, 
 there are many species of trees, such as poplar, apple, apricot, elm, 
 fir, birch, and mountain-ash, besides many kinds of bushes and 
 shrubs. The valley of the Kunges is lower than that of the Tekes, 
 but the climate is warmer, and is nowhere unfavourable to agri- 
 culture. The river is everywhere deep, and flows chiefly in one 
 channel, which has a rocky character only in the upper part of 
 the valley. There are few fords. 
 
 ' During Chinese rule the valley of the Kunges was occupied 
 by nomad Kalmuks of the tribe of Arbun, who now live 
 on the Kash. Since 1871 the valley of the Kunges has been 
 occupied by Torgots, who came here to be under Russian pro- 
 tection from the Yulduz and from Karashar, where they were 
 oppressed by the Kashgarians. The Kunges valley is not en- 
 tirely suitable for nomads and their herds, for although forage 
 is abundant it is very warm in summer, and in the winter the 
 snow is deep. I therefore met in the valley but a very small 
 number of aids with sheep. The greater part of the auls 
 wander during the summer in the mountains between the 
 Kunges and the Tsanma and along the Tsanma and Jirgialan. 
 Here there is plenty of room for them and much grass. The 
 upper parts of the mountain valleys abound in excellent land, 
 owing to the abundance of good soil and water, but the 
 grass is woody, high, and broad-leaved. The Torgots have 
 their winter quarters on the Jirgialan, and especially in the 
 mountains between the Kunges and the Kash, next the tribe 
 of Arbun. Until the Mussulman insurrection the Karashar 
 Torgots were governed by a Khan, who exercised immediate 
 authority over fifty sumuls and companies. In all there were 
 fifty-four sumuls, with one hundred to two hundred kibitkas 
 in each. At the beginning of the insurrection the Khan went 
 to Pekin for the usual presentation to the Emperor, and after 
 that could not return to his tribe, because the Chinese, in part 
 
THE TOEGOTS. 201 
 
 by promises and favours and in part by threats, retained him in 
 Mongolia, so as through him to keep up relations with the 
 Torgots, from whom they expected to receive help in their 
 campaign against the Mussulmans. Up to 1871 the Khan could 
 not return to his people, in part through the difficulty of getting 
 to the Yulduz through the Mussulman countries. After the occu- 
 pation of Kuldja in the autumn of 1871 the Torgots emigrated 
 from the Yulduz to the Kunges, and the Khan was informed by 
 General Kolpakofsky that he could return to his people. He did 
 not, however, return, for the Chinese were unwilling to let slip 
 from their hands a force which could act upon one of the races 
 living in the valley of Hi. In consequence of this instructions 
 were given that no order of the Khan, in whose name the 
 Chinese began to collect cattle, grain, &c, should be obeyed by 
 the Torgots. After the departure of the Khan for Pekin the 
 second Prince, Gun, was the most powerful individual. In 1871 
 he came to the Kussians as the head of the race, and was after- 
 wards entrusted with the task of relieving the Torgots. The 
 other princes and chiefs, however, did not leave him, and con- 
 tinued to have relations with the present Khan and with the 
 Chinese Government. With them were associated the wife of 
 the Khan, who with her two sons had remained amongst the 
 people, and the Lamas, of whom there are very many among 
 the Torgots, and for whose support heavy contributions are 
 yearly raised from the people.' 
 
202 TURKESTAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XIII. 
 
 THE RUSSIAN ADMINISTRATION. 
 
 Difficult 'es of administration — The Steppe Commission — Project fol the 
 government of Turkistan — New projects proposed — Opposition to them 
 — The results of Russian rule — Financial and economical — Deficits — Cost 
 of government — Effect of the Russian administration — Character of the 
 officials — Personal relations of Russians to natives — What lias been done 
 for the country— Roads — Schools — Hospitals — Passports — Too much civi- 
 lisation — Elective institutions — Change and variability of Russian rule — 
 Arbitrariness of officials — Influence of bad natives — Corruption and 
 venality — Corrupt officials unpunished — Consequent discontent — Evidences 
 of it in recent events. 
 
 The extent of the country occupied by the Russians in Central 
 Asia, — 325,000 square miles English, as large as Germany and 
 Italy — together with its scanty and scattered population of 
 1,600,000 men, no more than that of Denmark, and its 
 distance from the home government, have rendered the work 
 of administration a difficult one. 1 Th^ real strength of the 
 Russians —the power by which they keep down or attach to 
 themselves the native inhabitants— has been, and must for 
 some time be, the army, which in 1873 numbered about 
 36,000 men, including the Cossacks, and which, since the 
 capture of Khiva and the war in Khokand, has been con- 
 siderably increased. But no sooner had the first step in 
 conquest been taken, and the permanent occupation of Tash- 
 kent been decided upon, than the Russian Government set 
 itself seriously to work to provide some method for the civil 
 administration of the country, and endeavoured to give the 
 
 1 This is the Russian estimate without the more recent acquisitions of Kuldja, 
 the Amu Darya district and Khokand, -which would bring up the population to 
 2,500,000 — a large estimate, though less than that of Switzerland, — and the extent 
 of territory to 460,000 square miles, equal to that of the Austrian Empire, Ger- 
 many, and Belgium taken together. 
 
THE STEPPE COMMISSION. 203 
 
 inhabitants a more settled government and better laws than 
 they had enjoyed under their native rulers. 
 
 The movement of 1864 for the formation of a new line to 
 fill up the gap between Fort Perovsky and Vierny, and of which 
 the unforeseen result was the capture of Tashkent, had been 
 made by troops moving both from Siberia and Orenburg under 
 the orders of two Governors-General. Colonel — afterwards 
 General — Tchernaief, after the withdrawal of General Verevkin 
 had for some time almost independent command, and with great 
 good-sense administered the newly acquired territory with as 
 little change as possible from native usage and native law, and 
 by means of native officials. On his recall in 1866, General 
 Komanofsky was appointed Governor, with only a few general 
 rules to guide his conduct in the administration ; but, instead 
 of having an independent command, he was made subject to 
 the orders of the Governor-General of Orenburg. At the same 
 time, in order to learn the special necessities of that part of the 
 steppe which had been newly annexed, as . well as of the city 
 population, which was so different in character from the 
 nomads, a special commission was appointed, consisting of Mr. 
 Giers and Cols. Dandeville, Geins, and Protsenko, which devoted 
 itself for two years to travelling over the country and to study- 
 ing the wishes and interests of the population. 
 
 This commission — known as the Steppe Commission- — did 
 very good service, and in the spring of 1867 was ready with a 
 report and a project for the better government of the country. 
 The experience of two years had also been useful in showing 
 the Government what it was necessary to do. The project was 
 referred to a committee composed of delegates from the Minis- 
 tries of War, of the Interior, and of Foreign Affairs, under the 
 presidency of the Minister of War, was accepted with modi- 
 fications, and was put in force for a term of three years. The 
 most important of the changes decided upon by this committee 
 were to detach Turkistan from the province administered by 
 the Governor-General of Orenburg, and to add to it a part of 
 the Siberian province of Semipalatinsk, now known as Semi- 
 retch, and place them under the rule of a separate Governor- 
 General, who should report only to the Emperor at St. Peters- 
 burg, and who should have full powers granted to him in certain 
 respects so as to meet emergencies. Against this arrangement 
 
20-4 TURKISTAN. 
 
 General Kryzhanofsky, the Govern or- General of Orenburg, 
 naturally protested, on the ground that such an arrangement 
 would be premature, as it would be necessary first to bind the 
 region somewhat more strongly to Eussia : for Turkistan being 
 far off from the rest of the empire, and separated by regions 
 inhabited by nomad tribes, an independent administration 
 would seek the motives for its acts exclusively in Central 
 Asiatic life, and would sooner or later come to be in disaccord 
 with the interests and the views of the Imperial Government. 
 General Kryzhanofsky added : ' The period of conquest without 
 a determined purpose has now passed ; therefore the causes also 
 have ceased which would render indispensable in Turkistan 
 persons of authority with wide powers, so that all that the 
 political, military, and administrative needs demand can be met 
 by a military governor acting within the fixed rights given to 
 him.' Another reason was, that as a great part of the province 
 of Turkistan was inhabited by Kirghiz, of exactly the same tribes 
 and families as those in the province of Orenburg, the Kirghiz 
 would be forced to live under two administrations, a state 
 of things which would be productive of disputes and difficulties. 
 
 Experience has shown that the reasoning of General 
 Kryzhanofsky was sound, but at the time he was alone in his 
 opposition. 
 
 Mr. Giers and Colonel Protsenko were opposed to inclu- 
 ding Semiretch in the new province, as the interests of the 
 Siberian frontier were so totally different from those on the side 
 of Khokand and Bukhara; but the military authorities, having 
 once resolved on creating a new Governor-General, wished 
 to provide him with a sufficiently large territory over which 
 to rule, in order to prove the necessity of his appointment. 
 One other resolution was arrived at by the committee, which 
 was that the interests of the State demanded that all the ad- 
 ministration be concentrated in the hands of the War Office. 
 
 The main features of this project are as follows. The 
 Governor- General is appointed directly by the Emperor, and 
 has much the same powers as Governors-General in other parts 
 of the country, with the exceptions provided for by the project. 
 He has besides the right in case of need to suspend the regula- 
 tions or to make exceptions to them. He is at the same time 
 commander-in-chief of the forces, and possesses full power to 
 carry on diplomatic relations with the neighbouring countries. 
 
THE FIRST PROJECT. 205 
 
 The amount of his salary, which is said to be 50,000 rubles, 
 is not fixed by the regulations, but is determined by a 
 direct order of the Emperor. Under him are the two provinces 
 of Syr Darya and Semiretch, each governed by a Military Gover- 
 nor, receiving a salary of 7,000 rubles, appointed on the nomi- 
 nation of the Ministry of War, and having a general position 
 similar to that of Governors of provinces in other parts of the 
 Empire. The Military Governor of Semiretch is at the same 
 time the Ataman of the Semiretch Cossacks. These Governors 
 are assisted by a council known as the Provincial Eegency, 
 appointed, with the exception of the heads of departments, by 
 the Governor. 
 
 The province of the Syr Darya was divided into the districts 
 of Kazala, Perovsky, Turkistan, Tchimkent, Aulie-ata, Kurama, 
 and Hodjent, besides the city of Tashkent, which forms a 
 separate administrative division, and that of Semiretch into 
 the districts of Sergiopol, Kopal, Vierny, Issyk Kul, and Tokmak. 
 At the head of each of these departments or Uyezds is a Prefect 
 or commandant, who has both the police and the general super- 
 vision of all the inhabitants of the district, Eussian as well 
 native. The Prefects receive salaries of 2,000 rubles; and 
 although originally resembling in functions the district police 
 officials in the provinces of European Russia, they now occupy 
 a much more powerful and independent position. The nomad 
 population, chiefly Kirghiz, is divided into auls and volosts, 
 the auls comprising from one to two hundred families, and the 
 volosts about ten times as many. These subdivisions are governed 
 by administrators and elders chosen by the people themselves, 
 and under the supervision of district prefects, who have power to 
 remove them in case of failure of duty. Among the settled 
 population one aksakal, literally 'greybeard,' is chosen over 
 each considerable village by the vote of the people themselves ; 
 and in the cities each ward has its own aksakal, whose duties 
 are the same as those of the elders in the police administration 
 among the Kirghiz. 
 
 Justice is administered by courts of three kinds — a military 
 court, which judges natives for inciting to rebellion, attacks on 
 on the post or on military transports, and for the murder of 
 Christians, or of persons who have declared a desire to become 
 Christians, as well as for the murder of officials. For the trial 
 of Russians and for that of natives for most other criminal 
 
206 TTJRKISTAN. 
 
 offences, as well as for the settlement of disputes betweeD 
 Eussians and natives, courts are established on the basis of the 
 general laws of the Empire. For all disputes between each 
 other , and for some of the lesser crimes, the natives are allowed 
 courts of their own. In the courts of the nomad jDopulation, of 
 which I have already spoken, 1 the judges are called Kiis, elected 
 by the population, and judge according to the tribal and 
 national traditions. These courts also decide cases of baranta 
 or pillage, and of murder when committed by Kirghiz on each 
 other. In the towns the Kazis, or native judges, deciding 
 according to the Shariat or Mussulman law, are allowed to 
 remain ; but as they are made elective by delegates from the 
 population their importance in the eyes of the natives is 
 much diminished. For the management of the municipal and 
 the communal affairs of the cities and villages in the province 
 of the Syr Darya inhabited by natives, and for collecting the 
 taxes, there were instituted ' economical communal regencies, 
 the members of which are elected for three years at the same 
 time with the aksakals; and although they are under the general 
 direction of the aksakals, and of the district prefects, they are sup- 
 posed to have a freedom of action, and no regulation pertaining 
 to the local needs or to the taxes is thought to pass without 
 their assent. Some of the taxes imposed during Mussulman 
 rule are retained, such as the haradj and tanap, or taxes on 
 land, and its products being fixed at one-tenth of the harvest. 
 The zekat, or customs duty, 2 was fixed at 2\ per cent, on the value 
 of all goods imported into the country, and the same tax is 
 imposed on the trading capital of merchants. A tax is im- 
 posed on the nomad population of two rubles seventy-five 
 kopeks for each kibitka or family. 
 
 As the native inhabitants have to provide for the payment 
 of their own officials, as well as for the repairs of bridges and 
 post-roads, and for the erection of prisons and Government 
 buildings, another tax is imposed upon them, called the 
 zemskij, or communal tax, the amount of which is to be 
 settled by the police administration and by the Russian officials, 
 and is then levied directly on the towns and villages by the 
 Communal Regency. 3 
 
 1 Vol. i. pp. 166-169; ii. p. 140. 2 See vol. i. pp. 204-6. 
 
 8 Vol. i. p. 305. 
 
THE NEW PROJECTS. 207 
 
 Although the term during which this project was to stand 
 expired in 1871, the country has been governed in the main 
 according to its provisions up to the present time There are, 
 however, certain exceptions. The district of Zarafshan, which 
 was annexed in 1868, never came under them, and the rule of 
 the Governor has therefore been almost of an arbitrary kind. 
 The position of affairs in Kuldja and in the Amu Darya Kay on 
 is similar. Certain changes, too, were made in the regulations 
 by the Governor-General, in accordance with the powers granted 
 to him, and among others the haradj and tanap taxes were 
 merged in one general land-tax, which was divided en bloc 
 among the villages, and which has since that time constantly 
 increased in an arbitrary manner, as no survey or measurement 
 of lands has been made. While the government of the pro- 
 vinces still remains in the hands of the Ministry of War, 
 certain exceptions have been made. Instead of the financial 
 arrangement proposed by the regulations, district treasurers 
 and a central finance bureau were established upon the same 
 basis as those, in European Eussia, subject, not to the control 
 of the Ministry of War, but to that of the Ministry of Finance. 
 Soon after a bureau of control was established in Tashkent 
 independent of all other branches of the administration, which 
 has been productive of great good in reducing expenses. The 
 postal system — the sphere of which was subsequently enlarged 
 by the addition of telegraph lines — was taken partly out of the 
 hands of local authorities and rendered subject to the Ministry 
 of the Interior. 
 
 When the term of the regulations expired — in 1871 — an 
 order of the Governor-General forbade, until the decision of the 
 land settlement, the closing of any sales of real estate by the 
 natives ; in other words, one of the most important rights of 
 civil society was annihilated. It may be added to this that the 
 instructions which, by the regulations, were to be drawn up 
 for the administration of the district prefects never went into 
 force, and the administration of each district was, therefore, 
 different from that of the others — sometimes in the most essen- 
 tial particulars — thus securing no unity of law or method. 
 
 In 1871 a new project was drawn up, but was not approved 
 at St. Petersburg, and was returned for reconsideration. It 
 was again brought up, in an amended form, in the autumn of 
 
208 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 1872, but it did not even then receive the Emperor's consent. 
 In the winter of 1874-5 another and more carefully considered 
 project was brought from Tashkent, and was immediately 
 discussed by a commission containing delegates from all the 
 ministries interested in it. 
 
 The objections to this project were so serious from a finan- 
 cial point of view, that General Kaufmann, seeing no hope of 
 the project passing the Council of the Empire, withdrew it, but 
 presented it again in an amended form in the early part of 
 1876. It is said that this project meets with the same oppo- 
 sition from the Ministry of Finance as did its predecessor. 
 The officials of Turkistan have been so long in the habit of 
 spending large sums of money Avithout control, that they have 
 provided for the necessities of the Grovernment on what is, for 
 Russia, a very extravagant scale. The ordinary expenses of the 
 Grovernment are to be increased by the new project to almost 
 double what they were under the old regulations. The expense 
 for the police administration of a city like Vierny, for instance, 
 of 12,000 inhabitants, is estimated at 13,800 rubles, while 
 similar cities in European Eussia demand only from 3,000 
 to 5,000 rubles a year. 1 It must be admitted, however, that 
 
 1 The present annual expense for the police government of Vierny is only 
 1.200 rubles, so that the allowance in the new project is eleven times greater than 
 the old. The police of Wilna, a city of 69,464 inhabitants, costs only 13,845 
 rubles. The police in Petrozavodsk, Polotsk, Pinsk, Altsensk, and Berdiansk, 
 cities of about the same size as Vierny, costs from 2,57-5 to 4,448 rubles yearly. It 
 is proposed to expend on the police administration of Tashkent 29,600 rubles, or 
 three times as much as at present. As the native town has its own police, the 
 maintenance of which is a separate item of the budget, this expense is chiefly for 
 the small Eussian population. Even were the expense for the benefit of the 
 ■whole population, the cost of the police in Kishinef, a city of 94.124 inhabitants, 
 is only 17,158 rubles, and in Saratof, of 84,391 inhabitants, is only 15,328 rubles. 
 The inhabitants of Kishinef and Saratof pay 18 kopeks per head, while the much 
 poorer Tasdtentians pay 37 kopeks, twice as much. In Kief the police adminis- 
 tration has 50 members and costs only 24,473 rubles: in Tashkent for a. personnel 
 of 1 1 it is proposed to spend 29,600 yearly. The total pay of the Prefect of Tash- 
 kent, according to the project, will be 5,500 rubles, surpassing that of all police- 
 masters (in St. Petersburg these receive 4,450 rubles, in other cities from 1,182 
 to 1,478 rubles), and of vice-governors (who receive from 2,273 to 3,441 rubles a 
 year), and equalling that of many governors (29 Eussian governors receive from 
 5,350 to 5,380 rubles each yearly.) For the chancery of the Governor-General 
 52,800 rubles is set apart, surpassing the cost of the chancery of every other 
 governor general except that of Wilna. The yearly expense of the Governor- 
 General's chancery at Moscow is 36,561 rubles, at Kief, 54,048 rubles, at Oren- 
 
EXTRAVAGANCE AND ECONOMY. 209 
 
 the Ministry of Finance looks upon this from a purely bureau- 
 cratic point of view, seeing no reason why the expenses of a 
 provincial district, or city government in one part of the 
 country should be more than in another, and believing that, 
 notwithstanding the distance from St. Petersburg, the expense 
 of administration in Turkistan should be no more than in other 
 remote provinces, such as Yeneseisk or the Amur. 
 
 From a general point of view, however, the ideas of General 
 Kaufmann are more probably correct, for it is impossible to 
 find honest men, who will prove themselves at the same time 
 capable administrators, for the beggarly salary which they in 
 general receive. It is perfectly well known that in the pro- 
 vinces of European Eussia almost every police and administra- 
 tive official adds to his scanty income two or three and even 
 ten times the amount properly received from the Govern- 
 ment, — getting it in various ways out of the public. In this 
 case, however, while the salaries have been greatly raised, the 
 clief increase of expenses arises from an increase in the number 
 of officials, who are already far too many. Where the Ministry 
 of Finance is clearly right is in thinking that the importance 
 of Turkistan to the Empire and the necessities of its administra- 
 tion do not demand so great an expenditure of money, and that 
 some of the bureaux and boards of administration comprised in 
 the project are utterly useless and unnecessary, and will only 
 cause a waste of money. Such, for instance, is a Forest Depart- 
 ment, — in a country where the trees can almost be counted on 
 one's fingers, — which, with its central board of administration, 
 its officials in each district, and its officers and guardians, is ex- 
 pensive and superfluous. The Mining Department is open to 
 almost the same objection. 1 The Ministry also objects to paying 
 
 burg, 39,234 rubles; at Riga. 33,412 rubles; of Eastern Siberia, 40,242 rubles ; 
 of Western Siberia, 35,090 rubles ; and at Wilna, 67,628 rubles. By the present 
 system the expenses for the civil administration of the province of Turki&tan are 
 nominally 438.340 rubles; by the new project they are estimated at 1,360,570 
 rubles, or more than three times as much. In extent the province of Turkistan 
 ("without Kuldja and the Amu Darya) is about equal to that of Semipalatinsk or 
 Tomsk, and in population it is rather less than the provinces of Perm or Viatka 
 in European Russia. 
 
 1 For the Mining Department, the sum of 12,750 rubles yearly is asked 
 
 beside the 28,000 annually spent in exploration for coal. It is also proposed to 
 
 establish a central Bureau of Archives, at a cost of 5,500 rubles yearly, of which 
 
 2,000 rubles go to the salary of the Direct jr. It would har lly be supposed that, 
 
 VOL. II. P 
 
210 TURKESTAN. 
 
 22,000 rubles a year for the support of the 'Turkistan Gazette,' 
 while the ' Journal of the Ministry of Ways of Communication,' 
 and the ' Journal of the Ministry of Crown Domains,' cost about 
 7,000 or 8,000 rubles a year only, and are of much more 
 importance and use. 
 
 Another and perhaps more serious objection to the new 
 project, which has also been a drawback of late to the general 
 efficiency of the administration of Turkistan, is the attempt 
 made to apply Russian laws to the natives, and to assimilate 
 the administration of the country to that of the other provinces 
 of the Empire. The attempt to introduce the benefits of a 
 high civilisation, and especially the effort to spread elective and 
 democratic institutions among people whose education for ages 
 has been entirely in an opposite direction, is a most dangerous 
 one. Gen. Tchernaief, who as an administrator was unequalled, 
 and who seemed to know by instinct what it was be^-t to do, 
 strongly condemns the present methods of the Russian adminis- 
 tration, and lays great stress on the rule which he adopted 
 when he was at the head of affairs, that the Russian power should 
 not be placed at the head of the local administration, but as it 
 were on one side, so as merely to control the Government and 
 to protect the inhabitants in case of injustice ; in other words, 
 his idea was to allow the country as much as possible to govern 
 itself in accordance with the old-established laws and institu- 
 tions, thus giving the Russians — by not mixing in the details 
 of the government — a greater moral power, and effecting an 
 enormous saving of money and forces. Another officer of great 
 experience writes as follows : ' The new regiine will assimilate 
 the position of Asiatics to that of Russians and subject them to 
 the same laws, notwithstanding the fact that our Government 
 on annexing the country formally declared to the inhabitants 
 that their judicial system called the Shariat should be 
 guaranteed to them. This declaration constituted one of the 
 chief elements of our moral and political influence over the 
 natives. Of course Russian legislation must be applied sooner 
 or later to the Asiatic peoples who enter into the circle of our 
 
 in the ten years of Russian rule enough important papers had accumulated to 
 render such a bureau necessary. The Archives of the Senate at St. Petersburg 
 cost but 6,144 rubles a year, those of the Ministry of Crown Domains but 2,164 
 rubles, while two of the most important Archive Bureaux in the Empire, at Wilna 
 and Kief, together need only 6,109 rubles. 
 
THE COST OF CONQUEST. 211 
 
 possessions, but it would be better for this to be brought about 
 later than sooner, for it is impossible to use constraint with 
 regard to the manners and customs of the country, and annul a 
 regime of tolerance, especially when we do not even know the 
 country which we wish to reform from top to bottom. In 
 acting thus we committed a great fault, of which our antago- 
 nists have always taken advantage. It is evident that there 
 ought to be no question about introducing new things into a 
 country where we have not yet succeeded in acquiring a just 
 idea of the old.' 
 
 With these remarks on the theory and character of the 
 Eussian administration in Central Asia let us now consider 
 how these ideas have been carried out, and what the effect has 
 been on both the Eussians and the natives. 
 
 We will first consider this from a financial and economical 
 point of view. The actual cost of the conquest was very slight. 
 When the first movement in Central Asia was made General 
 Tchernaief received 15,000 rubles for the expenses of the cam- 
 paign, and General Verevkin 200,000 rubles, to which subse- 
 quently 50,000 more were added ; 23-1,000 rubles only were 
 spent, the remaining 10,000 being transferred to Genera 
 Tchernaief. Tchernaief was greatly in need of money, and 
 was obliged frequently to give receipts for the camels and the 
 provisions he took, and also to borrow from the natives. In 
 reality the first campaign was conducted almost entirely upon 
 credit, and when the commission settled up affairs it wa 
 found that the whole cost of the conquest was only 519,500 
 rubles. This was exclusive of two journeys of General Kry 
 zhanofsky, which cost perhaps half that sum, and of the pay 
 and rations of the troops, which they would equally have drawn 
 had they remained at home in the provinces of Ornburg and 
 Western Siberia. The campaign of General Eomanofsky in 
 1866 is estimated at 250,000 rubles. The expedition which 
 resulted in the capture of Samarkand cost 150,000 rubles. In 
 this way the cost of acquiring nearly the whole of the territory 
 at present occupied by the Eussians amounted to 900,000 
 rubles, of which 500,000 were paid by Bukhara as a military 
 contribution. Of course the Khivan campaign and the late 
 campaign against Khokand, to say nothing of the expeditions 
 
 p 2 
 
 ii 
 
212 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 in the mountains of the Zarafshan, against Shahrisabs and 
 Karshi, and the expedition against Kuldja, have materially 
 added to this cost, but the extension of territory caused by 
 them has been in reality but slight. 
 
 Central Asia was then thought to be a rich country, and 
 was regarded almost as a promised land. It was believed that 
 not only would it support the troops stationed there, but that 
 it would also afford large and increasing revenues to the Govern- 
 ment. What I have said in a previous chapter about the 
 commerce, agriculture, and mineral resources of the country will 
 show how far this was in reality from being the case. 1 It is. 
 probable that the erroneous idea of the resources of the region 
 had some influence in the establishment there of a Grovernor- 
 Greneral and in making Turkistan a separate administrative 
 region. At the time the argument certainly was used that this 
 would cost no more than before, for no more troops would be 
 necessary, and that there would be merely a transference of ac- 
 counts from Orenburg and Western Siberia to the new province 
 of Turkistan. It was stated in the report to the Committee 
 of Ministers of June 30 (July 12), 1867, that the military 
 administration of the new province, with all the local military 
 boards dependent upon it, would not be any further drain upon 
 the Imperial treasury, as all the expenses could be met by the 
 moneys already at the disposal of the Minister of War, in con- 
 sequence of the economy which would be effected in the ad- 
 ministration of the military districts of Orenburg and Western 
 Siberia, from the territory of which the new province was taken. 
 It was said also that the military-civil administration, although 
 it was a source of new expenditure of considerable amount, 
 would yet make no real difference to the Imperial treasury, as 
 all these expenses would be covered by the province itself, a 
 considerable portion of which would still be left free to aid the 
 Treasury in covering the expenses of the troops. This, however, 
 has proved to be very far from the truth. The military ex- 
 penses of Orenburg and Western Siberia have not to any per- 
 ceptible degree diminished, but have rather increased. The 
 army in Turkistan, owing to new military movements, has been 
 constantly increased, and the military expenses are far beyond 
 what was expected ; they even exceed those of Orenburg and 
 
 ' See Chaps. V., VII., and VIII. 
 
INCOME AND EXPEND1TUKE. 
 
 213 
 
 Western Siberia combined. In addition to this actual increase 
 of expenses the revenues have been so small as not only to leave 
 no surplus, but even to prove insufficient to cover the expenses 
 of the administration. 
 
 So far, there have been only deficits in the budget of Tur- 
 kistan, which have increased year by year, until in 1872 it 
 amounted to 5,500,000 rubles, and in 1873 it was probably 
 more than 7,000,000 rubles. The income and the expenditure 
 of Turkistan for the five years from 1868 to 1872 were as 
 follows, in rubles ] : — 
 
 Year 
 
 1868 . 
 18(39 . 
 
 1870 . 
 
 1871 . 
 
 1872 . 
 
 Total 
 
 1,204.906 
 2,356,2-11 
 2,915,983 
 2,102,955 
 2,008,374 
 
 10,588,459 
 
 Expenditure 
 
 4,392,940 
 4,592,460 
 6,114,883 
 6,820,945 
 7,576,116 
 
 3,188,034 
 2,236,219 
 3,198.900 
 4.717.990 
 5,567,842 
 
 29,497,414 
 
 18,908,955 
 
 In these statements of expenditure are not included the pre- 
 liminary expenses for the army for articles which are made in 
 Kussia. These enter into the general budget of the Empire, 
 where there is no comparison of one part of the country with 
 another, so as to show what would be properly charged to the 
 province of Turkistan. Besides this there were received in 
 
 1871 400,000 rubles as a war contribution from Bokhara, which 
 are not included in the budget, but were spent without account 
 there. The revenues of the Zarafshan district from 1868 to 
 
 1872 do not appear in the budget, being until that time at the 
 special disposition of the Governor-General. These revenues 
 amounted to 335,458 rubles in 1868, to 454,931 rubles in 1869, 
 to 762,058 rubles in 1870, and to 1,414,092 rubles in 1871. 
 In 1873 the taxes were diminished, and the revenues were 
 included in the general budget. 
 
 An idea may be obtained of the capacities and state of the 
 country by analysing one of the budgets, say for the year 1872. 
 
 The income of the country is of two kinds : first, that 
 coming especially from the country itself and its population ; 
 
 1 The income for 1875 was estimated at 2,509,234 rubles, showing no great 
 development of the resources of the country in the last three years. 
 
214 rUEKISTAN. 
 
 and, second, that which is, as it were, moved on from Bussia, 
 obtained from the Kussians who live there. The local revenues 
 amounted to 1,328,200 rubles only. Of these the personal taxes 
 and taxes on kibitkas amounted to 566,000 rubles, the road-tax 
 brought 1 54,000 rubles, and the tax on land and its products 
 brought 276,000 rubles. The duty from internal trade was 
 15,000 rubles. The entire indirect taxes on articles of con- 
 sumption, including the duty on articles of foreign trade, 
 amounted to 224,000 rubles, to which should be added the duty 
 on tea imported from India, amounting to 10,000 rubles. The 
 receipts paid to Government for articles sold were 13,000 
 rubles, from Government property — as, for instance, rents of 
 shops in the bazaar — 32,400 rubles ; and for freights on 
 steamers of the Aral flotilla, 800 rubles. The coal taken from 
 the Government mines amounted to 4,600 rubles ; but the 
 quantity actually sold in 1872 brought in only 100 rubles. 
 Wood and timber brought in 8,500 rubles. This shows the 
 unproductiveness of the country and the undeveloped state of 
 its mineral wealth. There were collected 21,400 rubles of 
 previous taxes ; and, among smaller items, foreign passports for 
 natives brought in 700 rubles. The revenues received chiefly 
 from Russians were as follows : Direct taxes of various kinds, 
 6,200 rubles ; in direct taxes, from articles of consumption, 
 255,000 rubles, most of which was from the excise on spirits. 
 The taxes for rising in official rank brought in 1 9,000 rubles 
 in the year ; the postal revenues amounted to 44,000 rubles ; 
 and the telegraph, which was at that time open to Vierny only, 
 3,000 rubles ; while the sale of powder and cartridges brought 
 in 1,200 rubles. The sale of treasury notes produced 16,000 
 rubles ; the sale of various Government property, such as medi- 
 cines, useless things, &c, brought in 14,000 rubles ; and private 
 work at the Government printing office was done to the amount 
 of 2,500 rubles. The return of money illegally obtained from 
 the treasury, fines, and the pension capital brought in 20,000 
 rubles. The chief increase in articles of revenue is in the 
 excise on liquors, the stamp-tax on documents, and the postal 
 revenues. The excise on liquors and rights for sale of liquors 
 in 1868 was 114,000 rubles; in 1869, 129,000 rubles; in 
 1870, 213,000 rubles ; in 1871, 240,000 rubles ; and in 1872, 
 255,000 rubles. The stamp-tax produced in 1S68 3,000 rubles, 
 
EXPENSES IN 1872. 
 
 215 
 
 and in 1872 26,000 rubles ; but this was not placed on a proper 
 basis before the year 1870. The postal revenue was only 9,800 
 rubles in 1868, and in 1872 was 65,300 rubles. As the natives 
 do not use liquors to any extent, it being' against the principles 
 of the Koran, the excise is paid, of course, by the Russian 
 population only ; and as in the course of five years the produce 
 of the tax has more than doubled, it would seem as if the 
 Russian population had also doubled in that time. It is, how- 
 ever, not probable that the Russian population of Turkistan is 
 more than 100,000, from which must be deducted the Tartars, 
 who do not drink ; consequently every Russian in the province 
 during 1872 paid a tax of at least two rubles per head for the 
 right of drinking ; a large sum as compared with the usual 
 statistics for the use of liquors in other populations. It was 
 at first expected to unite all branches of the administration 
 under the War Department, but this was found to have a very 
 bad effect upon the finances of the country, and it subsequently 
 became necessary to take the finances, as well as the post, away 
 from the control of the military. Since that time a branch of 
 the control department has been established in Tashkent, 
 which has succeeded not only in greatly reducing the expenses, 
 but in returning to the treasury sums which had been erro- 
 neously taken from it. 
 
 The main items for expenses in 1872 are in round numbers 
 as follows : — 
 
 1. Salaries and expenses of officials 
 
 2. Pay and maintenance of the army 
 
 3. Horses for the cavalry and artillery 
 
 4. Medical department of the army 
 
 5. Building expenses . 
 
 6. Lighting and heating 
 
 7. Munitions of war . 
 
 8. The Aral flotilla . 
 0. Travelling expenses 
 
 10. Transportation 
 
 11. Postal expenses 
 
 12. Printing Office . 
 
 13. Extra expenses 
 
 14. Schools. 
 
 15. Geological and economical investigation 
 
 16. Provincial expenses, roads, budget, &c. 
 17- Assistance to Cossack troops, &c 
 18. Various expenses . 
 
 Rubles 
 
 802.40: 
 
 3,015.200 
 
 1,249,100 
 
 138,800 
 
 205,000 
 
 252,900 
 
 36.900 
 
 57,800 
 
 129,200 
 
 222,700 
 
 696,800 
 
 29,700 
 
 486.200 
 
 12,600 
 
 29,300 
 
 146,1 jO 
 
 38,700 
 
 51,400 
 
216 TURKISTAN. 
 
 The total expenses amount to 7,576,186 rubles; to this 
 sum should be added at least 500,000 rubles for the expenses 
 for articles for the army, &c., made in other parts of Eussia, 
 but destined for this province. If we at the same time deducted 
 those revenues raised exclusively from the Eussians residing - in 
 the country, about 361,000 rubles, we should find the real local 
 income as about 1,627,000 rubles, while the expenses would be 
 8,000,000 rubles. 
 
 It will be seen that the expenses of government are very 
 large, but it is difficult to say exactly where economy should 
 begin. Before the recent war with Khokand, and the popular 
 discontent manifested at the time, good judges of the country — 
 men who had themselves served there — believed that only half 
 the present number of troops was necessary, but it is doubtful 
 whether such is now the case. Such a diminution of the troops 
 would of course materially reduce the expenses. There are 
 also other things which, perhaps, are not great in themselves, 
 but which mount up to a large sum. For instance, the ex- 
 pense of the Tashkent fair, during T872, amounted to 150,000 
 rubles — an expense utterly useless and uncalled for. The 
 sum of 30,000 rubles is expended on the repairing and 
 keeping up the house and garden of the Grovernor-Creneral ; 
 30,000 rubles a year are also given to the horse-breeding esta- 
 blishment, which. — although if properly cared for, it might be of 
 some service to the country, — is not an absolute necessity, and 
 serves merely as a comfortable berth for certain members of the 
 Governor-Greneral's Chancery. When the province of Turkistan 
 was brought under a separate Governor-General it was thought 
 that it might probably reduce the expenses of Orenburg and 
 Western Siberia, but experience has shown that the expenses of 
 these provinces are not at all diminished, and we have the 
 addition of very large sums to keep up the officials, and staffs of 
 officials, who are now in Tashkent. As Turkistan is a separate 
 governorship-general and military district it must have all the 
 central administrations, in order that it may be entirely inde- 
 pendent of others. Thus, there is a central administration of 
 artillery, a central administration of the army, a central adminis- 
 tration of the finances &c, ail of which could be quite as well 
 managed at Orenburg or Omsk. General Tchernaief, who cer- 
 tainly knows the country as well as anyone, in a long and able 
 
COST OF PROVISIONING- TROOPS. 217 
 
 report which he made in 1872 to the Ministry of Finance 
 expressed his strong opinion that it would he advisahle on finan- 
 cial as well as on political grounds to return to the old order of 
 things — to abolish the office of Governor-General, and to restore 
 the province of Turkistan to the Governor-General of Orenburg. 
 
 At the time of the march of the Russian troops to Tash- 
 kent it was thought that it would be of great advantage to 
 occupy the fertile oasis of Central Asia, for one reason, among 
 others, that it would be so much easier and cheaper to support 
 the troops. It is questionable, however, whether this has proved 
 to be the case. In 1872 the Treasury spent, for the provision 
 of the army, 972,777 roubles, which, with an average of 
 30,000 enlisted men, the number returned, would cost 32^ 
 rubles per man ; and in these figures are only included flour 
 and groats. The expense therefore is enormous, but it is 
 easily understood when we see that a quarter of flour costs in 
 Tashkent from 10 to 12 rubles, which in almost any province 
 of European Russia would be considered a famine price. The 
 maintenance of the cavalry is still dearer. The number of horses 
 belonging to the Government in the whole district is between 
 4,000 and 5,000, and 1,000,000 rubles is spent for forage, con- 
 sequently about 200 rubles per horse; yet this is the country 
 where we are constantly told that the harvest is sometimes eighty 
 to one hundred fold, and that twice a year, while clover and hay 
 can be cut four times a year. Although cattle-raising is the main 
 occupation of the Central Asiatic Steppes yet the Government 
 pays not less than 2 rubles 40 kopeks for a pud (36 lb.) of 
 beef or mutton, a price which would even be dear where cattle- 
 breeding was unknown. 
 
 There is one curious thing in connection with the prices 
 paid for provisions : grain is dear because there is a tax of ten 
 per cent, on the products of the land. The Government in 
 1872 received as the produce of that tax 276,000 rubles, and at 
 the same time spent about 2,000,000 rubles for flour and forage. 
 Ten per cent, on this is 200,000 rubles, and supposing that three- 
 fourths of these provisions were produced in the country, the 
 Government must have paid itself, in the province of Syr Darya, 
 at least 150.000 rubles of this tax from one hand into the other. 
 The remainder of the sum received, therefore, 126,000 rubles, 
 must have fallen on the population, which in the province of 
 
218 TURKISTAN. 
 
 Syr Darya is not less than 800,000, who, it follows, were sup- 
 ported on 1,260,000 rubles, while 30,000 troops required 
 2,000,000 rubles. It would seem from this that something 
 must be wrong with the commissariat or with the financial 
 system. It is evident from the foregoing that Turkistan is 
 not, and will not be for some time to come, a self-sustaining 
 province ; but, at the same time, such a result could hardly be 
 expected in the ten or twelve years that the Russians have 
 had possession of the country. 
 
 The primary objects which led to the occupation of Central 
 Asia were rather military than financial ; and as long as the 
 province is considered valuable from a military and political 
 point of view the financial burden must be borne. It seems, 
 however, difficult to expect great ultimate profit from the. 
 country from any point of view ; the utmost that can be desired 
 in this case is that strict economy be practised, the expenses of 
 the country reduced, and its capacities developed, so as to 
 diminish the burden as much as possible. Many wars will 
 constantly be made, and the Russians will have to go further 
 on, not with the desire of conquest, but from circumstances 
 over which they have no control ; for in such a case it is 
 always necessary to maintain the prestige of the country, 
 and not allow the neighbouring powers to take advantage 
 of any seeming weakness or hesitancy. 
 
 So much has been said in Russia, of late, of the cost of the 
 government at Turkistan, that, by a skilful manipulation of 
 figures, an effort has been made on the part of Tashkentian 
 officials to prove that, instead of there being a deficit of nearly 
 19,000,000 rubles during the five years, 1868 72, there has 
 been, on the contrary, a surplus of nearly 4,000,000 rubles. 
 This has been done by deducting from the expenses all those 
 which relate to the support of the army, or indeed to the mili- 
 tary forces ; and this method of viewing the subject is advanced 
 on the ground that the cost of defending the frontier and of 
 maintaining intact the boundaries of the Empire should not 
 fall alone upon the province where the troops are stationed, but 
 should form part of the general expenses of the Empire, of 
 which the province in question should bear its own proper 
 proportion only. There is, indeed, a grain of truth in this, but 
 the 40,000 troops now stationed in Turkistan are not there for 
 
THE COST OF TUEKISTAN. 219 
 
 the sole purpose of protecting the frontier. Their main raison 
 d'etre is to keep down and govern the population of the pro- 
 vince. Besides this, in estimating the cost of Turldstan to 
 Russia it would be unfair to leave out of view the military 
 expenses, because, had the province not been occupied, these 
 military expenses would not have existed. With the exception of 
 the few Siberian, Orenburg, and Ural Cossacks who have been sent 
 into Turkistan, the troops are all local, as may be seen by their 
 being called Turkistan battalions. They are acknowledged as 
 an army for the purpose of defending Turkistan, and were 
 enrolled for that purpose. They are an addition to the mili- 
 tary forces of the country, no regiment or company of which 
 has been abolished to make room for those new battalions. It 
 may not, perhaps, be necessary that the province of Turkistan 
 should be able to pay the whole expense of its government, but 
 in that case the question must necessarily arise to every 
 reflecting man, what are the advantages resulting from the 
 occupation of the province which counterbalance so great an 
 additional expense ? \ 
 
 The effect of the methods of Eussian administration in 
 Central Asia upon the troops and officials themselves is a 
 matter of curious inquiry. In this respect I can hardly do 
 better than rely upon the report (written in 1871) of an officer 
 who at that time held a high position in Turkistan, which, 
 being written from an almost exclusively military point of view, 
 is all the more valuable. According to this authority the na- 
 tives profess profound respect for the Eussian army, for it is, in 
 their eyes, the only expression of Eussian power. ' The military 
 instruction and the morale of our soldiers have sensibly 
 improved. The victories which they have gained over the 
 Asiatics, and the tradition of former exploits, have raised 
 their spirit and rendered them capable of supporting unheard- 
 of fatigue. Our troops have done more than could be 
 desired. They construct houses for their own needs a d 
 establishments for the administration. They clear up the 
 old roads and make new ones. They cut wood, assist in the 
 colonisation of the country, and furnish vigorous workmen. 
 It is impossible to sa.' that they execute all these works 
 without prejudice to their military qualities, although their 
 
220 TURKISTAN. 
 
 actual state is very satisfactory, especially for a country such 
 as Central Asia. In order that they may attain the desired 
 degree of perfection which the Eussian army ought to present 
 much time is necessary, as well as a whole series of reforms, 
 which would tend to ameliorate their condition. For our 
 troops in Turkistan to attain the desired degree of instruc- 
 tion they should first of all be relieved from the outside 
 work that occupies the greater part of their time. Their 
 moral state and their discipline will reach the desired degree 
 of perfection when the Administration is able to satisfy their 
 most pressing needs and give them their arrears of pay which 
 are still due. The spirit of our army will be raised when it 
 sees that the Government is careful of its good maintenance, 
 and that measures are taken to prevent it from suffering 
 any delay in its supplies. 
 
 ' But the true scourge which engenders the moral unhealthi- 
 ness consists in the corps of officers. That is an essential point 
 in the defective condition of our military organisation in 
 Turkistan, which in more ways than one merits the attention 
 of our Government. As long as the military administration 
 does not give up the habit of getting rid of its bad officers by 
 sending them to Turkistan, and as long as the army of this 
 region does not cease to serve as a refuge for the scum of 
 military society, we cannot in any way elevate the "morale of 
 the army or organise its discipline on a more solid basis. In 
 the mass of the army this category of officers passes unseen, 
 especially where large bodies of troops are collected together ; 
 but in Turkistan, where the troops are disseminated over a vast 
 territory in small numbers, and where the best officers are kept 
 at the principal points, the bad officers must necessarily paralyse 
 by their presence results which could be obtained through 
 ameliorating the corps of officers of Turkistan, by sending out 
 young officers who had finished their courses in the superior 
 military schools. With what eyes, in truth, can we regard a 
 great part of the officers which the Guard and army furnished 
 to the troops of Turkistan ? Most of them, pressed by circum- 
 stances which they themselves create, by an irregular life, so 
 that they find themselves incapable of fulfilling the simplest 
 duties of their profession, seek to pass into the army of Turkistan 
 as the only hope of regaining their lost time. The presence of 
 
OFFICERS AND OFFICIALS. 221 
 
 bad officers in the ranks of this army, not to speak of the 
 deplorable influence that it exercises on the soldier, creates 
 serious embarrassments in the military administration, for the 
 reason that the facibties which war in Asia presents to officers 
 to distinguish themselves and to obtain promotions pushes on 
 individuals with whom the Government does not know what 
 to do when they have reached the rank of colonel. They claim 
 superior employments when they have never fulfilled the duties 
 of subalterns. Simple good sense indicates that it would be 
 much more rational to send to a country where promotions are 
 obtained with greater ease than anywhere else officers capable 
 and worthy of exercising superior functions.' 
 
 The institution in Turkistan of a local military government, 
 which has taken the name of Civil Military Administration, 
 constitutes also one of the principal causes of the defective 
 condition of the troops. The best officers, on account of their 
 good instruction, easily obtain places in this administration, 
 which presents to them without contradiction more advantages 
 than would be offered to them by simple service in the army. 
 There are few officers who do not pull every string of intrigue 
 in order to secure some place in the local administration, which 
 will guarantee to them notorious advantages over the ordinary 
 service. The enormous difference that exists between the posi- 
 tion of an officer who makes part of the administration and that 
 of a simple officer of the army poisons their mutual relations 
 and feeds a continual antagonism between them. On the other 
 hand, the very organisation of the local military administration 
 has encouraged a state of things which keep up among officers 
 of all ranks relations which should not be tolerated in the 
 military service. For example, an officer in the army who should 
 desire to pass into the administration, or to obtain a commis- 
 sion, or to be sent as courier to St. Petersburg, would address 
 himself, not to his immediate chiefs, but to the persons from 
 whom he hoped to have the greatest chance of success. Thanks 
 to the continual tendencies of the local administration to over- 
 pass the sphere of its action and of its authority, it has known 
 how to arrange it so as to obtain all that it wants. 
 
 It is to its influence, therefore, that the officers have 
 recourse to obtain their desires. 
 
 The decisions of the administrative authorities with regard 
 
222 ' TURKISTAN. 
 
 to the steps taken by aspirants to positions as members of the 
 local administration are sometimes contrary to the usual for- 
 malities. It is thus that the nomination of officers of the army 
 to administrative posts is made by a decree of the Governor- 
 Greneral without the preliminary authorisation or consent of 
 their superior chiefs ; and these latter, seeing the futility of 
 their efforts to ameliorate the state of the troops confided 
 to them, and to create a good body of officers, prefer to 
 quit the country. It is difficult to measure all the gravity 
 of the consequences which can result from such a state of 
 things, and the corrupting influence which it must exercise 
 on the discipline of the officers, in consequence of the arbitrary 
 acts of the persons entrusted with the superior administration 
 of the country, as far as the nomination of officers of the army 
 to administrative posts is concerned. The absence of all regu- 
 lations on this head, notwithstanding the frequent notifications 
 that have been made by the Government to the authorities of 
 Turkistan inviting them to conform to the prescriptions of the 
 regulations of military service, is very detrimental. 
 
 The best officers of the army naturally seek in every possi- 
 ble way to take part in all military operations, in order 
 to obtain rewards which may recompense them for all that 
 they endure in ordinary times in comparison with their 
 comrades who exercise administrative functions, and whose 
 service is easier, more lucrative, and more advantageous as 
 concerns their career. After having obtained an advanced 
 grade they covet in their turn the administrative posts. 
 
 It is, besides, to be remarked that in purely military service 
 the officers of the army meet with rivals even among the civil 
 functionaries. These latter sometimes take upon themselves 
 the duties of aides-de-camp, of ordnance officers, or chiefs of 
 control, and sometimes of officers of the staff; that is to say, 
 that they intervene in the dispositions and against orders 
 without understanding them. The soldiers ridicule these im- 
 provised military men, and the officers take offence at them, 
 for these intruders enjoy a great influence over the superior 
 officers, to the prejudice of the army. 
 
 ' All that has been said sufficiently proves that the army cf 
 Turkistan, the only source of our power in Central Asia, is 
 considered as a gate through which one ought to pass in order 
 
FAVOURITISM TO FUNCTIONARIES. 223 
 
 to create for himself an advantageous position outside of its 
 ranks. For that reason we ought not to be astonished that 
 this same army is worse cared for in other respects. Crown 
 lodgings have been taken away from military commanders to 
 be given to the officers of the local administration, for whom 
 the Grovernment has extended its kindness so far as even to 
 construct country houses. The chiefs of the sections of the 
 Chancery of the Grovernor-Greneral receive salaries and presents 
 far superior to those of generals. In 1870 the extra rewards 
 of each of them surpassed the total of the salary and per- 
 quisites of the commandant of the artillery of Turkistan. 
 The pecuniary rewards that the simple copyists of the same 
 Chancery received for having taken part in the expeditions of 
 1870 were greater than those received by officers of merit for 
 all the hardships that they underwent.' The preponderance 
 exercised by the administrative element, and the preferences 
 granted to it to the detriment of the military class, explain 
 with sufficient clearness why our officers of merit, who know 
 very well that the army constitutes at present the only source 
 of Russian political preponderance, profess hostile feelings to- 
 wards the functionaries of the local administration ; and if they 
 are not devoted to their profession they seek by every possible 
 means to leave the precarious position which they occupy in the 
 ranks of the army. Under the influence of all these conditions 
 most of the officers of Turkistan think little of their army service, 
 and are not in a state of absolute subordination to their imme- 
 diate chiefs, who cannot obtain for them lucrative situations. 
 
 ' One of the essential conditions for the good morale of 
 the army is the regular provisioning of the troops, which is a 
 proof of the constant solicitude of the chiefs with regard to 
 their subordinates ; but, as respects the commissariat, the 
 military region of Turkistan is far from being in such a situa- 
 tion that we can say with assurance that the troops receive all 
 they need and remain satisfied. The provisioning of the troops 
 is done in a slow and indecisive manner. The service of the 
 commissariat is subjected to a crowd of minute formalities and 
 to the requirements of the Control Department, which are applied 
 with difficulty under the conditions which govern the troops 
 of Turkistan, and especially the Cossack troojas. These last 
 generally leave Turkistan in exchange for others without 
 
224 TURKISTAN. 
 
 having received all the articles which ought to be furnished to 
 them, which provokes correspondence without end between the 
 staff of the Cossacks and the commissariat of Turkistan. This 
 correspondence takes much time from the service of the com- 
 missariat, and prevents it from occupying itself with current 
 affairs and the provisioning of the army of Turkistan, which 
 produces continual discontent in the army. Complaints 
 come from every side, and remain disregarded. The troops 
 suffer from this state of things, — to which it is impossible to 
 see any end. The true cause of all this disorder consists in the 
 insufficient number of the employes of the commissariat de- 
 partment, which cannot suffice for such a vast region as that 
 of Turkistan. The absence of capable and experienced indi- 
 viduals, and the defects in well-organised communications, are 
 also two of the principal causes of this state of affairs. ' 
 
 ' The administration of the engineering department is also 
 one of the sources of difficulties. It contains several good 
 officers, but it is badly directed, for its chief gives more import- 
 ance to his role of subordinate to the Commander-in-Chief of 
 the region than to his own functions. The investigation 
 which has been carried on, and which has already revealed 
 many abuses, will certainly explain the bad state of engineer- 
 ing works in the region of Turkistan, which are slowly carried 
 on, thanks to the penury of the administration of the engineers, 
 the resources of which have been so restricted as not even to 
 permit winter lodgings to be constructed for all the troops of the 
 region. In the month of November of last year (1870), two 
 battalions of sharpshooters of Tashkent (2nd and 3rd), be- 
 longing to the best troops of the region, were still encamped 
 in their huts, and themselves worked in making bricks to 
 build barracks, which were not ready before the end of the 
 month of December. At the same time a bazaar was built 
 quite close to the barracks, which cost 40,000 rubles. By 
 passing the winter in a place which had just been built, and 
 was consequently very damp, the soldiers suffered much; and 
 they must have been astonished at the activity displayed by the 
 administration in the construction of the bazaar, while a small 
 portion of the sum which this edifice cost would have spared 
 them much suffering by erecting for them suitable winter 
 lodgings. It is evident that such facts cannot exercise a 
 
EUSSIAN CIVILISATION. 225 
 
 salutary influence on the morals of the soldiers and officers. In 
 other localities of the district of Syr Darya there are also no 
 barracks, and the soldiers are crowded in hovels, which occa- 
 sions among them much disease. The commissariat and the 
 administration of engineers leaves, as we have seen, much to 
 be desired.' J . . . 
 
 ' In the eyes of the natives we are far from being on the 
 moral height on which we ought to have placed ourselves as 
 soon as we arrived in Central Asia. We have not been able 
 to inspire the natives with confidence, which ought to be the 
 principal source of our moral influence and of our political 
 preponderance. The high moral qualities which ought to have 
 carried the civilising mission of Russia to the natives have been 
 wanting. The most of the functionaries of our administration 
 in Central Asia have been distinguished by their bad characters. 
 They have wasted the money of the crown on their own plea- 
 sures ; and, notwithstanding that several of them have been 
 pardoned while their inferiors have been condemned, the inves- 
 tigations which the Government ordered to discover the guilty 
 parties lingered on for several years, and remained without 
 results. The natives see all these regrettable facts, and com- 
 ment on them in their manner. They say, " How are the Rus- 
 sians better for us than the Khokandians ? They also take 
 away from us our daughters and our wives, and also love presents 
 and waste the money of the Tsar, as the Beks wasted that of 
 the Khans." 
 
 ' The Asiatics have not found in us what they hoped to see, 
 and what we promised them ; and consequently they can with- 
 out the least scruple point their fingers at our social sores, for 
 they see them and understand them better than we. Our ex- 
 ample produces on the people that we have conquered, as well 
 as on their neighbours, an impression much more unfavourable 
 than will at first be believed. Our civilising mission has been 
 limited up to this time only to the propagation among this 
 people of our paper money, and in return we appropriate all 
 their faults. That cannot give them a high idea of our moral 
 superiority. And this is the reason why for a long time since 
 
 1 The evils here complained of have since been partly remedied, and the state 
 of the troops is now greatly improved. 
 VOL. II. Q 
 
226 TURKISTAN. 
 
 "we have not pretended to rule the Asiatics otherwise than 
 by the continual pressure of our arms. 
 
 'In pointing out the principal causes which derange all 
 the springs of our moral influence in Central Asia we must 
 consider for a moment the question of the present organisation 
 of the Grovernment of Turkistan. The general administration 
 of the country has no uniformity, and shows in no way the 
 presence of an established principle or a unified power. The 
 divergency of views and conduct is felt at all grades of the 
 official ladder, and maintains a continual antagonism between 
 the different organs of the Government, which gives rise to 
 parties and renders a settled policy impossible. Each party 
 forms the centre of a group of persons eager for office and 
 profit. Such a state of things enfeebles our morale, and, 
 thanks to it, our civil and military employe's are busy for the 
 most of the time, not in doing their duty, but in carrying on 
 intrigues for which our administrative system in Turkistan 
 offers a vast field. Everybody thinks only of making a quick 
 career, of occupying an advantageous post, and of obtaining 
 increased rank, and nobody gives himself the trouble to take 
 into account the duties imposed upon him by the fact of his 
 being a Russian, and by the civilising mission which Eussia 
 pursues in Central Asia. Thanks to the condition of our 
 administration itself, our functionaries arrogate to themselves 
 the right of explaining their duties as pleases themselves. At 
 Tashkent, which is the centre of the administration, there is 
 no public life, for properly speaking there is no society — there 
 is nothing to unite men who are fully absorbed in their own 
 thoughts. The chief evil consists in the confusion of the 
 military and administrative powers, and in the complete absence 
 of any distinction between them. The superior military and 
 civil authority is concentrated in the person of the Governor- 
 General, who is at the same time the commander-in-chief of 
 the military forces of the region ; but in inferior instances it is 
 divided between the chief of the chancery of the Governor- 
 General and the chief of staff of the region. According to the 
 law the action of the first should be confined to purely ad- 
 ministrative affairs, but in reality he enjoys all the prerogatives 
 of a chief of staff, especially in all that concerns the local 
 administration of the country. The officers who administer 
 
EVILS OF MIXED ADMINISTRATION. 227 
 
 the country depend much more upon the chief of the chancery 
 of the Governor-Greneral than upon the chief of staff. In the 
 provinces the two powers are, again, united in the persons ot 
 the military governors, who are at the same time the com- 
 mandants of the troops of their provinces. They unite the 
 two distinct powers divided in the preceding instances, the 
 interests of which, thanks to the actual regime, constantly 
 clash and sometimes become hostile. In the districts the 
 military-administrative authority is further divided between 
 the administrators of the districts and the chiefs of the troops 
 who are quartered there. These last are sometimes in great 
 perplexity, not knowing to whom they ought to turn, whether 
 to the military commanders upon whom they directly depend 
 or to the representatives of the administrative power, who 
 enjoy considerable influence, and consequently in these cases 
 they prefer to obey those who at the given moment have most 
 weight with their superiors. 
 
 'The preponderance which the military-administrative ele- 
 ment exercises to the prejudice of the army is hardly an 
 advantage for our influence in Central Asia. In the eyes of 
 the natives the military uniform does not enjoy a great im- 
 portance. In their conscience they regard the military com- 
 manders as the sole representatives of power and force. They 
 do not understand that a chief can inflict a punishment or a 
 fine without being able to make his orders respected by the 
 force of bayonets. In the eyes of a native a chief by rank only 
 who does not command soldiers is not a chief, but as, at present, 
 the influence and credit enjoyed by the military chiefs of the 
 district depends chiefly upon the degree of favour which they 
 have been able to obtain for themselves with their superiors, 
 it very often happens that the natives address themselves in 
 their affairs by preference to commanders of troops, who cannot 
 satisfy them, for fear of encroaching upon the rights of the 
 persons set over the administration of the country. This, of 
 course, provokes continual discontent among the natives. On 
 the. other hand, the commanders of the troops seek by all means 
 to acquire the goodwill of the administrative authorities, and 
 for greater security prefer to submit to their orders even in 
 purely military affairs. It is evident that our influence cannot 
 become consolidated so long as such a regime exists. The 
 
 Q 2 
 
228 TURKISTAN. 
 
 army, which represents our force, and the administration, which 
 is the expression of the civilising order which we have intro- 
 duced into the countries conquered by our arms, are two distinct 
 elements which cannot be amalgamated without hindering the 
 progress of the work we pursue in Central Asia. The com- 
 mander of the troops ought to be detached from the adminis- 
 tration of the country and to enjoy a complete independence 
 in the sphere of his activity. But a purely military adminis- 
 tration was also indispensable, and we ought to have begun by 
 declining every interference of the civil element in the affairs 
 of the country. We were not sufficiently strong morally to 
 admit the existence of a civil administration independently of 
 the support of the military element. As the creation of a 
 mixed administration — military and civil — which is what has 
 been introduced into Central Asia, presents only an accumu- 
 lation of military and administrative functions, the sole result 
 is to confuse the situation. In order that the results of our 
 conquest may be consolidated the administrative element must 
 be prevented from interfering in military affairs. The two 
 powers must act separately, and consequently there must be 
 an entire separation between the civil and military adminis- 
 trations, or the civil administration must be replaced by a 
 military element. Since we feel ourselves too weak to govern 
 without the help of military force, we ought to yield to a purely 
 military organisation, supporting ourselves by the force of 
 arms, which is for the moment the only stay of our political 
 role, and which still continues to exercise its prestige on the 
 natives. in spite of the fatal blows that have been given to our 
 moral influence by our defective administration in Turkistan. 
 So long as this administration exists we cannot make ourselves 
 respected, and our army ought to make unheard-of efforts to 
 regain the ground which our administration has made us "lose. 
 The full powers which are enjoyed by the persons who administer 
 different localities encourage them to use their authority arbi- 
 trarily, without consulting the real state of things or the true 
 interests of our situation. They sometimes arrogate to them- 
 selves political roles, and, strong in the protection which 
 they enjoy near the superior authorities, they sometimes permit 
 themselves to utter threats and defiances which they are not 
 able to carry out by arms, and which are attended by the 
 
FALSE ECONOMY. 229 
 
 gravest consequences. Such proceedings can only degrade us 
 in the eyes of the natives. 
 
 ' As long as the present regime continues in fr rce our ad- 
 ministration in Central Asia will remain sterile, and our com- 
 merce can only progress under the patronage of our bayonets. 
 In undertaking our civilising mission in the East we had prin- 
 cipally in view the opening of new markets for our products, 
 which would not support the competition of Europe. In com- 
 parison with the state of Asia, Kussia will always be a civilised 
 power, but it cannot consolidate its military and political 
 influence so long as its administration gives the example of 
 internal confusion. It will be still more difficult to counter- 
 balance the resistance offered to it by a powerful and pre- 
 eminently commercial nation, whose resources are far above 
 those which are at present at the disposa'l of the actual ad- 
 ministration of Kussia for advancing its mission in Central Asia. 
 
 ' The demands for extraordinary credits remain several months 
 and sometimes a year or more without being satisfied. Con- 
 sequently arrears are not paid, and the provisioning and the 
 arming of the troops are subject to delays which cannot but 
 cause discontent. The army of Turkistan is placed in 
 thoroughly exceptional conditions, and cannot be assimilated 
 in administrative relations with troops of other regions of the 
 Empire. The insufficiency of the financial resources set apart 
 for the administration of Turkistan, and the deductions made 
 by the central Grovernment from the demands of the Tur- 
 kistan Administration, with the sole object of economising, 
 evidently cannot improve the course of events in Central Asia, 
 or restrict the expenses, which are necessitated by circum- 
 stances. In all other parts of the Empire the financial 
 administration is able to satisfy the demand for credits with 
 promptitude and without the least embarrassment, while in 
 Turkistan it allows delays which cause much suffering. I have 
 been able to judge to what point these delays are hurtful. 
 They exercise the worst influence on the morals of our army, 
 for the officers and soldiers remain several months without 
 receiving their pay, and it is not astonishing that the former 
 regard their position as precarious, and exert all their efforts 
 to obtain a place in the administration of the country. The 
 position of the soldier is far from being as disadvantageous as 
 
230 TURKISTAN. 
 
 that of an officer, for in Turkistan the troops can find resources 
 in work. Most of the workmen and artisans are soldiers, and 
 earn much money. The native population does not furnish good 
 workmen to the Russians, and accordingly the greater part of 
 the residents and the employes in the administration are 
 obliged to have recourse to the labour of soldiers. Unhappily 
 the number of military workmen is very restricted, and cannot 
 satisfy the always increasing demand of the population. It 
 follows that the soldiers, feeling themselves masters of the 
 situation, only augment the price for their work, but the true 
 evil is that the artisan-soldiers receive orders from the officers 
 and officials, and for the most of the time fulfil them in a 
 very bad way. They often insist upon being paid in advance, 
 either wholly or in part, without fulfilling their orders, and 
 such things remain unpunished. The pecuniary relations which 
 are thus established between the officers and soldiers, who know 
 that their superiors cannot find workmen except in their ranks, 
 and that consequently they are in their hands, produces an 
 injurious effect on the morals of the soldiers, and especially from 
 a disciplinary point of view. It is, moreover, to be remarked 
 that drunkenness is widely spread among the troops; and 
 owing to this vice, which is a great scourge, the conscientious 
 execution of orders is very rare. 
 
 ' It has often been my duty to bring soldiers before a court- 
 martial for drunkenness, but they almost always found pro- 
 tection with their immediate chiefs, who, for fear of producing 
 the discontent of their subordinates, sought in every way to 
 excuse them. It was with great difficulty that I succeeded in 
 obtaining a verdict of condemnation against a soldier of the 
 Arsenal, who had his private lodging, wore a civil dress, and kept 
 a carpenters shop and a drinking-house. This individual took 
 part payment from fully twenty persons under the pretext of 
 guaranteeing by the money he received a contract for wood 
 which he had with the Government, and deceived them all, for 
 he neither performed nor repaid the advances. The consumption 
 of spirits in the army takes prodigious dimensions. Our 
 medical staff has always condemned the usage introduced 
 into Turkistan of regularly furnishing the troops with liquor 
 together with the rations. This usage has a pernicious effect 
 upon the morale of the troops in habituating them to the 
 
 . 
 
THE CONDITION OF THE TROOPS. 231 
 
 use of strong drinks. On the other hand, the advantage of the 
 use of whisky in exceptional circumstances cannot fail to be re- 
 cognised when a certain dose of cordial can be of real service to 
 the soldiers, and the commissariat ought to have in store a 
 supply of whisky for the use of the army in case of war. The con- 
 tinual distribution of spirits ought to be abolished, and the money 
 that the commissariat can economise under this head ought to 
 be applied to increase the meat ration received by the soldiers. 
 ' The military instruction of the troops in Turkistan is 
 without any preconceived plan. The military authorities do 
 not take into account the tactical education of the soldiers. 
 Their exercise at every review ought to terminate with a 
 tactical manoeuvre. The military commanders, after being 
 convinced that their soldiers are accustomed to the exercise of 
 arms and know how to manoeuvre, ought to set them to resolve 
 some tactical problems, as, for example, the passage of a river, 
 the occupation of a strategical position, the attack on a height, 
 &c. Without this tactical education, to which the military 
 administration at present attaches very great importance every- 
 where except in Turkistan, our armed forces in Central Asia 
 will always be inferior to the Eussian troops of other districts. 
 It will perhaps be alleged that our brave soldiers of Turkistan, 
 even without this tactical instruction, know how to conquer 
 their enemies. This allegation is just, but it is not neces- 
 sary to lose sight of the fact that our soldiers have so far 
 had to struggle against undisciplined and badly armed masses 
 only ; consequently they could easily conquer them without 
 possessing the fighting qualities which are indispensable in a 
 war against regular armies. The courage and self-denial of our 
 troops are two superior qualities which make them triumph 
 over all obstacles in a war with half-savage people. But our 
 army in Central Asia will have many other difficulties to 
 overcome in Asia itself, and will have to confront very different 
 enemies as, after having triumphed over barbarian hordes, 
 we approach nearer to India — they will have to struggle against 
 enemies armed in the English way, and therefore in possession 
 of every means of offering an obstinate resistance to us. The 
 purely moral qualities, and the aptitude for the use of arms, 
 cannot guarantee to our troops in the future the same success 
 as that which they have achieved against irregular masses. 
 
 /N 
 
232 TURKESTAN. 
 
 It is especially necessary to take pains with the military 
 instruction of the Cossack troops, and to make of them a true 
 combative force, for at present their organisation leaves much 
 to be desired. The greatest power of our armed force in 
 Turkistan is represented by the Cossacks, who have received 
 no military instruction, and can only fight in irregular masses. 
 As regards tactics they hardly differ from the nomadic hordes 
 which we have to fight. The short period of their service, 
 which does not allow them to learn the trade of arms while 
 fighting side by side with organised troops, and their being 
 scattered over a vast territory, would oppose great difficulties 
 to every effort tending to transform their masses into a well- 
 organised combative force. In this respect it would be desirable 
 that measures should be taken to remove the inconveniences 
 presented by the Cossack troops, whose presence in Turkistan 
 has no other effect than that of augmenting the expenses 
 incurred by the army in our Asiatic possessions. The natives 
 have no fear of our Cossacks, considering themselves their equals 
 in tactics. It is absolutely necessary to increase the term of 
 service of the Cossacks to five years, to give them a special 
 chief, who could constantly watch over their military education, 
 and to unite their scattered masses in a single body. So long 
 as there is no chief of the cavalry vested with entire authority, 
 and thoroughly competent in his sphere, we cannot expect any 
 profit from the Cossack troops. The corps of Cossack officers 
 is. far from showing the qualities which have generally been 
 attributed to the children of the Don and the Ural. Those 
 amongst them who are not nominated to the command of a 
 sotnia, which procures for them certain profits, are impatient 
 for the arrival of the Cossacks who come in exchange, thinking 
 it the day of their deliverance. Many of them try by every 
 means possible to leave Turkistan before their time, and neglect 
 their service. They sometimes push their neglect so far as to 
 cause the most flagrant insubordination among their inferiors. 
 It is natural that under such conditions the Cossack troops 
 will become in time a real cause of embarrassment for our 
 military organisation in Central Asia.' 
 
 Since this report was written the state of the Eussian troops 
 in Turkistan has no doubt greatly improved, although they are 
 still lax in discipline. The importance of a sincere opinion 
 
RUSSIAN INTERCOURSE WITH NATIVES. 233 
 
 from one thoroughly acquainted with the subject, is so great 
 as, I think, to justify the long quotations I have made. 
 
 The Steppe Commission, of which I have spoken, which 
 elaborated the project of 1867, worked honestly to discover the 
 needs of the country, and drew up their report in the interest 
 both of Eussia and of the natives and for the purpose of giving 
 to the region a fairly good government. The Eussians have 
 always displayed a certain facility in dealing with half-civilised 
 peoples. Personally they have not so much of that contemp- 
 tuous feeling towards the natives which is so marked in the 
 dealings of the Anglo-Saxon race with people of lower culture 
 and civilisation. This is plainly shown from the fact that they 
 do not hesitate to entertain social relations with them. There 
 is not that feeling of the vast difference which separates, or 
 which in the opinion of some should separate, an inferior from 
 a superior and ruling race, so that Eussian officers and officials 
 are willing not only to receive natives in their houses but do 
 so receive them and meet them upon terms of social equality. 
 It is questionable whether in some cases this does not diminish 
 the authority of Eussian officials, for I have sometimes seen 
 natives display less respect towards Eussian officers in their 
 dealings with them than would have been permitted to Eus- 
 sians of similar social rank. Indeed, it may be said that the 
 natives hold aloof from the Eussians rather than the Eussians 
 from the natives, a circumstance in part due to an antagonism 
 of religion rather than to a difference of race. But the gulf 
 between the conquerors and the conquered has been widened 
 and deepened through defects inherent in methods of govern- 
 ment subsequently developed, as well as through the faults of 
 the administrators, of which I shall speak later on. 
 
 When the Eussians advanced into Central Asia they found 
 many ready to welcome them, partly because they were discon- 
 tented with the law of the Khan and of the Amir, with the 
 extortions that were practised and with the frequent execu- 
 tions, and because they desired anything for the sake of peace 
 and quiet. Immediately after the Eussian occupation there 
 was a great feeling of relief and of assurance that every man's 
 life was safe and his property secure from arbitrary taxation 
 and seizure. The Eussians, too, manifested at first a desire to 
 
234 TTJRKISTAN. 
 
 improve the condition of the natives, and some of the measmes 
 which were taken were properly appreciated ; but with the 
 abuses which crept into the administration these measures were 
 turned from their proper destination, and the administrators 
 seemed to care more for their personal advantage than the 
 welfare of the Government. What has been actually accom- 
 plished for the people, therefore, is really very little. 
 
 Another officer, writing in 1872, after five years' service 
 in the country, during part of which time he was a district 
 prefect, writes : ' We constantly demand more and more from 
 the population. With regard to taxes, unfortunately, we are, 
 always demanding more and more. But wmat have we ourselves 
 done for the people ? We have, indeed, given them quiet. 
 We have protected them from rapacious neighbours, and we 
 have lessened the constant capital punishments. But that is 
 all. To the economy and the life of the people we have 
 brought absolutely nothing except eloquent speeches made in 
 Tashkent and in the sessions of various commissions." This is 
 perhaps the pessimistic view of one who, as I well know, had 
 devoted himself heart and soul to the interests of the people 
 under his charge, and who found no reward for his work except 
 discontent, as he was constantly overruled by the higher powers 
 in Tashkent, and even in years of bad harvests was obliged 
 to exact increased taxes. 
 
 The Russians have done something for the material interests 
 of the country, and have endeavoured even to accomplish more 
 than they have done, though their efforts, sometimes from 
 wrong direction, have failed. The roads are being greatly 
 improved, which seems a little strange when good roads are 
 almost unknown in Russia itself. Bridges are being constructed 
 over the chief rivers, and canals for purposes of irrigation 
 are being projected. Russian engineers, however, have yet to 
 learn from the natives with regard to irrigation, nearly all the 
 attempts in this direction having proved failures. 
 
 I have already spoken of the little which has been done for 
 commerce and manufactures, of the commercial treaties which 
 are practically useless, of the effort to establish a fair, and of the 
 failure of so many projects for starting factories for spinning 
 cotton and silk, not to mention others of less importance. Rus- 
 sian colonists not being permitted to settle in the province of the 
 
EELIGIOUS FREEDOM. 235 
 
 Syr Darya, the Russians have had no opportunity, except in the 
 immediate vicinity of the larger cities, of showing the natives 
 improved methods of agriculture. But even in this respect 
 nothing but failure has resulted. The growth of cotton, as I 
 have before remarked, has not been improved ; and even the vine- 
 yards and mulberry plantations in the neighbourhood of Tash- 
 kent, owing to carelessness and inefficiency, have proved failures. 
 
 As far as religion is concerned the conduct of the Kussians 
 is deserving of the highest praise. No restrictions have been 
 placed on Mohammedan worship or practice except that the Der- 
 vishes have generally been forbidden to appear in the streets, 
 being considered disturbers of the public peace. No efforts 
 have been made to spread Christianity ; and although churches 
 exist in Tashkent and in the various garrisons, and there is 
 a bishop of the province, General Kaufmann has speedily put 
 down all missionary projects. The consequence of this is that 
 Mohammedanism, instead of growing stronger, has grown 
 weaker, the natives not having been led to attach themselves more 
 dutifully to their religion because it has been forbidden by the 
 Kussians. On the contrary, the abolition of native functionaries 
 to compel the performance of regular religious rites has allowed 
 much indifference and carelessness to creep in. 1 
 
 Sanitary measures in the cities have been taken by the 
 Russians, hospitals have been established, and during the cholera 
 time a well-organised method of visitation attended with ex- 
 cellent results was arranged for the purpose of preventing the 
 spreading of the disease. These things the natives begin to 
 appreciate. 
 
 As far as education is concerned the Kussians have done 
 but little. In Samarkand, owing to the vigorous efforts of 
 the prefect — himself a Mussulman — a small school was opened 
 for the instruction of Mussulman children in Russian ; but at 
 the time of my visit no schools for natives under Russian 
 auspices existed either in Tashkent or in any other town in the 
 province of Syr Darya, except the small Kirghiz schools in 
 Perovsky and Kazala. It has several times been proposed to 
 introduce the teaching of Russian and modern sciences into 
 some of the Mussulman high schools, and this project was 
 upon the whole viewed with favour by the authorities ; but 
 owing to the lack of initiative the matter was neglected. In 
 
 1 See vol. i. pp. 161, 162. 
 
236 TUEKISTAN 
 
 1875 General Kaufmann had a plan for the regular establish 
 ment of a scholastic district in Turkistan, subordinate to the 
 Ministry of Public Instruction, and inspectors have already 
 been appointed. This, however, chiefly refers to the education 
 of Eussian children. For the instruction of Mussulman chil- 
 dren, it is necessary to begin at the beginning, and this will 
 more easily be done by a private initiative assisted by the 
 Government, than by a plan of schools under the direct manage- 
 ment of the central government. But in Eussia it seems 
 impossible to do anything unless a regular system be provided, 
 with all the grades of directors and inspectors, visitors and 
 teachers, with all the usual bureaucratic apparatus, and with a 
 constant interchange of reports and documents. 
 
 One of the Eussian institutions which has been introduced, 
 although without that profit which the Eussians perhaps ex- 
 pected, is that of passports. In the independent countries of 
 Central Asia passports have never existed, except in the form of 
 protections issued by the Khan, or Bek, to persons who specially 
 demand them. For that reason the rule which was made, that 
 every native travelling from Eussian Turkistan into the other 
 countries should be provided with a passport, has not favourably 
 impressed the natives, being considered a financial measure 
 adopted for the purpose of obtaining the fees which are to be 
 paid when the passport is given ; for in the native countries, 
 of course, the passport is never looked at. These passports 
 are in Turki on a printed form, which for some reason bears a 
 Persian heading, the meaning of which was intended to be 
 ' open leaf,' the term by which a certain class of passport is 
 known in Eussia. In Turki the words for ' open ' and for 
 ' bitter ' are very similar, so that the translator in asking the 
 appropriate Persian word obtained the word for 'bitter.' The 
 passports, therefore, are headed talkh nameh, or ' bitter paper,' 
 a name which the natives find singularly appropriate. 
 
 One great defect of the Eussian administration has been 
 the introduction of institutions which were not in consonance 
 with the feelings and the usages of the natives. Such has 
 been the introduction of elective institutions, the Mekkeme, 1 or 
 
 1 The Mekkeme of Tashkent was a sort of City council with the functions of a 
 court of justice, founded by General Eomanofsky. Its members were partly Sarts 
 and partly Kirghiz, elected by a popular vote. It was never useful, circumstances 
 soon compelled a change in its constitution, and it is now practically abolished. 
 
THE ELECTIVE SYSTEM. 237 
 
 City Council of Tashkent, the Aksakals and Regencies chosen 
 by the settled and nomad population, and the elective judges. 
 What was intended to be a real advantage to the natives, in 
 allowing them to have a certain voice in the management of 
 their affairs and in enabling them to express to the Russians 
 the wishes of the population, and to explain their own customs 
 and traditionary observances, degenerated into a mere farce. 
 If the population chose as their representatives men of great 
 popularity, and who previously had exercised considerable in- 
 fluence in the country, these elections were viewed with 
 distrust, as showing the fanatical spirit of the people, and were 
 frequently set aside. It was always easy for the Russian 
 authorities to insist upon the election of any one they wished. 
 The result has been that many persons refuse to allow them- 
 selves to be elected, and even abstain from voting, so that the 
 members of the Provincial Regencies are, in fact, named by the 
 Russian officials, and serve merely as their tools. 
 
 "With regard to the judges, the power of the Russian Grovern- 
 ment to appoint Kazis is admitted even by Mussulman law. 
 Under the Mussulman rule the Kazis had always been ap- 
 pointed by the chief of the state, and their appointment by 
 the Russian authorities would only have been the carrying out 
 of an old custom. In practice either bad and weak men are 
 chosen, because they are able to secure Russian influence, and 
 perhaps enjoy a certain popularity amongst the natives, or men 
 are chosen who were Kazis under the Mussulman rule, and 
 are able to get into their hands an amount of power and in- 
 fluence which render them objects of suspicion to the Russian 
 authorities. The first case is equally bad, for the decisions of 
 inefficient and corrupt judges in the end necessarily caused 
 distrust and complaint, and the Russians are obliged to inter- 
 fere either to quash the decisions or to insist upon their being 
 carried out, which excites discontent under the Russian rule. 
 The interference of the Russians in these affairs has sometimes 
 been very injudicious. For instance, lately, Azim Kazi, of the 
 Bishagatch ward of Tashkent, who had a very bad reputation 
 amongst the natives, was not re-elected, in spite of the sup- 
 port given to him by the Russian authorities. But, as the 
 successful candidate was accused of being a fanatic, his elec- 
 tion was quashed, and the choice of Azim was rendered obli- 
 gatory, — the people were simply ordered to elect him. 
 
238 TUEKISTAK 
 
 The elected members of the Regencies and of the councils 
 have no voice in the management of affairs, and are never con- 
 sulted. All the resolutions are drawn up by the district or 
 local commanders, and the natives are ordered to set their sea] 
 to them. Sometimes these decrees are explained to them, some- 
 times not. It is seldom that they are written out in Turki, so 
 that the natives have no method of ascertaining for what they 
 have voted, except through the explanations of the interpreter. 
 An official report says : ' No member of the economical Regency 
 knows either the rules or the duties of the Regency, a fact 
 which I ascertained by personal conversations with them. The 
 estimates are made up not only under the influence but directly 
 by the orders of the district prefect. The expenses are in- 
 creased by no reason emanating from the Regencies, but by 
 the will of the prefect, the members of the Regency naively 
 assuring me that the taxes for the general purposes of the dis- 
 trict had been augmented by the will of the White Tsar — that 
 so the hakim, or prefect, had stated to them.' 
 
 One of the consequences of this system is that in almost 
 every district there is some shrewd native, who has learned to 
 speak Russian, who has succeeded in ingratiating himself with 
 the officials, and who is used by them and uses them for the 
 purpose of oppressing the natives and making the fortunes of 
 individuals. Sometimes these natives bear an official character 
 — usually that of a native assistant to the prefect. Sometimes 
 they are simply private friends of the officials. The latter 
 position was enjoyed by Said Azim in Tashkent, of whom I 
 have already spoken, while an example of the oppression worked 
 by a native official may be seen in the case of Omar, in the 
 district of Kurama. 
 
 Another difficulty arising out of the ignorance of the 
 Russians of the country and its institutions, as well as of the 
 temporary character of the regulations, is the constant change 
 in the laws and decrees. Both governors and prefects are 
 constantly making new regulations and changing in some 
 slight respect either the duties of the inhabitants or the ways 
 in which they should be performed. These changes are es- 
 pecially observable in all that concerns taxes, and it is here 
 that they are most deeply felt by the natives. Many years 
 ago a prominent inhabitant in Tashkent said to a Russian 
 
NATIVE FEELING. 239 
 
 general, ' We could understand if the Eussians tormented us to 
 get money out of us as the Khokandians did, but we cannot 
 understand the reasons which induce the Russians to spend 
 their own money for the purpose of tormenting us without 
 getting any advantage for themselves. What he meant by 
 ' tormenting ' was the constant efforts of the local administra- 
 tion for what they imagined to be the welfare and advantage 
 of the natives in ways which they could not understand. I 
 fear that such a remark would hardly be uttered now, as it 
 begins to dawn on the native mind that the Eussians are as 
 eager for money as were the Khokandians. On this subject I 
 will quote from a paper written by the Prefect of Ura-tepe, in 
 1872, to explain the cause of the riot at Hodjent in the spring 
 of that year. 1 
 
 1 This mob, discontented with the orders of the Government, 
 is an expression of the dissatisfaction of the whole population 
 with the entire series of quickly succeeding supplements, ex- 
 planations, additions, and institutions, which were foreign to all 
 the ideas of Central Asiatics. That the confidence of the popu- 
 lation in the sincerity of the Eussian rule has been rudely 
 shaken by such constant changes I am deeply convinced. It 
 has been shaken, and cannot help being so. On every new re- 
 gulation the natives look distrustfully. It cannot be otherwise. 
 I explain this by facts of which I was in part an eyewitness 
 and in part an agent, for more than once I have been obliged 
 to declare one thing and afterwards to do another. 
 
 'On the organisation of the districts in 1868 we collected 
 thousands of people and talked to them of the elections, saying 
 
 1 This Prefect — Captain Antipin — who "was a remarkable exception to the 
 general rule of officials in Tashkent, and who during the years he was at Ura- 
 tepe thoroughly devoted himself to the welfare of the people under his charge — 
 was so indignant on hearing that the riot at Hodjent was attributed to vacci- 
 nation only, that he considered it his duty to write a paper showing the true 
 cause of the mob to be the general discontent with the Russian rule, and ex- 
 plaining the cause of that discontent. This paper, to which he signed his name, 
 was intended for publication, but was previously submitted to a high military 
 official at St. Petersbiirg, who, in turn, showed it to General Kaufmann, who then 
 happened to be at the capital. The General forbade the publication and re- 
 quested the destruction of the manuscript. The Prefect was at once removed 
 from office, and was sent away from Central Asia, as being ' politically worth- 
 less. Fortunately a copy of the document had been kept, and was afterwards 
 published in the ' Eussian World.' 
 
240 TURKESTAN. 
 
 directly to them : " Choose from your masses really good men 
 who mean well towards you, men who are capable and honest, 
 and can understand and appreciate your wishes, and who 
 will always have in view the advantage and welfare of the 
 people and the increase of their prosperity. Choose men 
 who will be really mediators between you and us, for the 
 Government cannot listen to requests proffered by a whole 
 crowd. Mediators are necessary to tell us of your real needs, 
 and we shall always be ready to listen to them and find a just 
 reply." This was, so to speak, the introductory speech with 
 which each of us engaged in the work of organisation turned 
 towards the people, and I believe called out the warmest sym- 
 pathy from the native population, and caused them to look on 
 their delegate as a man in whom they reposed a special trust. 
 The rich and ambitious men even intrigued and contended with 
 each other to be elected aksakals or members of the Adminis- 
 trative Regency. But a year passed, another passed, and these 
 delegates, in consequence of the imperative requests for one 
 thing or another, turned out to be merely agents of the higher 
 power without any real share in the administration. No one 
 consulted with them or listened to them about the wants 
 of the people, and they themselves dared not speak, for orders 
 were given to them which they were obliged to obey. At last 
 these delegates were not received further than the anteroom 
 of the district prefects, and sometimes they were even turned 
 out of the doors of the Government offices by the mere scribes. 
 When there was such a contempt on the part of the Russian 
 authorities for the representatives of the population, it is not 
 astonishing that the importance of the native representatives 
 fell ; and now, instead of trying to secure these offices, many 
 delegates refuse the honour. Such a position of the native 
 delegates is not in consequence of the arbitrariness of the 
 authorities nearest to them, although in one way these last 
 are partly to blame. Instead of turning the attention of the 
 superior authorities in Tashkent to the injurious effects of 
 certain proposed measures, they, as a rule, limit themselves to 
 the literal fulfilment of the orders emanating from Tashkent, 
 not entering into the position of the inhabitants or the condi- 
 tion if the country. On the other hand, the civil administra- 
 tion seems to forget that we are in Central Asia, where much 
 
INCREASE OF TAXES. 241 
 
 is unsuitable that is possible in Eussia. It leaves without due 
 attention the character and needs of the people, and it seems 
 to desire to show that everything is possible for us, that every- 
 thing- can be done, and that it is only necessary to order, 
 exactly as would be the case in the province of Yaraslav. 
 
 ' On the organisation of the districts the following taxes 
 were declared to the whole population collected in the bazaars : 
 1. The haradj, or one-tenth of the harvest, instead of the one- 
 fifth which had up to that time been collected. 2. The tanap 
 tax in its former quantity, though not from a tanap of 140 
 feet wide and long, as before, but from one of 175 feet square, 
 according to the abundance of the harvest, and according to 
 the prices fixed for each kind of produce. 3. A tax for the 
 salaries of the aksakals and their officials according to a decree 
 of the community, in the proportion which it should think need- 
 ful and proper. 4. Instead of a bazaar tax from shops and 
 country people who brought their productions to the bazaar, it 
 was decided to take one-fortieth part of the capital of the shop- 
 keepers who had on hand wares of the value of not less than 
 40 tillas (150 rubles). As concerns the nomad population the 
 zekat on cattle "was retained and a Jcibitka tax of 2r. 75k. was 
 established on each Jcibitka. At the same time a proclamation 
 was made to the people that besides these taxes nobody should 
 pay anything more to anyone, that this law was made once for 
 all for increasing the prosperity of the people, and that an end 
 had been put to all arbitrary acts and unlawful taxes and con- 
 tributions which had existed under the rule of the Beks and 
 the Khans. Let us see how these promises were kept. 
 
 ' 1. The haradj had been declared to be one-tenth part of 
 the harvest. Not a tenth alone, however, is taken, but as much 
 as is ordered by the authorities at Tashkent, who two years 
 ago turned the haradj into a fixed land-tax which might be a 
 tenth, a twentieth, or perhaps a half of the harvest, even during 
 the two years in succession of bad harvests — in 1870-71 in the 
 district of Hodjent. We must suppose that the haradj, which, 
 in direct opposition to our original promise, had been turned 
 into a land-tax, did not aid in increasing the welfare of the 
 taxpayers and consequently that of the whole mass of the people. 
 
 ' 2. The tanap tax has met with the same fate. It also, from 
 being a tax dependent upon the quantity of the harvests and the 
 
 VOL. II. K 
 
242 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 prices of produce, has been turned into a fixed tax, which has 
 been increased every year, notwithstanding the bad harvests 
 of 1870-71. The amount taken from the tanap lands in ac- 
 cordance with superior orders was not higher than in preceding 
 years. The Administrative Regency of the district in these two 
 years proposed to diminish the tax or to defer collecting it, 
 as there had been no harvest, and pointed to the fact that, 
 according to the ancient customs of the country, the rulers had 
 always entered into their situation, and when assured of its 
 reality had diminished or had entirely given up the tax ; but the 
 requests could not be taken into consideration by the District 
 Prefect, because he had already received his orders that a fixed sum 
 of taxes must be raised ; although in order to explain his refusal 
 in some way he felt himself obliged to say that the declaration 
 of the Eegency was false and improper. 
 
 * 3. The tax for the salaries of (he aksakals and other officials. 
 On the organisation of the district it had been stated to the people 
 that besides the Government taxes the population should take 
 upon itself the support of the aksakals and of the elders of the 
 aids, paying them a certain salary according to the judgment of 
 the community, but under this head there were afterwards in- 
 vented by the administration many other taxes under different 
 names, which altogether are now united under the general head of 
 " taxes for the economical needs of the community." It is easily 
 intelligible that the mass of the community cannot sympathise 
 with these taxes, which, in opposition to what had been stated 
 on the organisation of the district, have been increased to almost 
 double what they were. This increase of taxation has of course 
 corresponded to the gradually increasing needs of the people ; 
 but still, to the majority of the population, this tax seems only 
 a means of getting money out of them for some purpose they 
 do not understand. I will give an example. In the begin- 
 ning of the year 1870 there was at Ura-tepe a session of native 
 officials from all the villages for passing the budget proposed 
 by the District Prefect for the general needs of the community. 
 In this budget were certain expenses, besides the salaries of 
 the ahsakals, with new names ; and the amount to be raised 
 was considerably greater than in former years. At this session 
 there were more than 300 persons. Each item of the pro- 
 posed budget was fully explained to them, but still the dele- 
 
BROKEN PROMISES. 243 
 
 gates did not admit the necessity of the new expenses. Some 
 of the rich and respectable people, who were not delegates, 
 asked my permission in the name of the whole community 
 to give their opinion about these taxes. I allowed them 
 to do so, and here are their exact words : " The tax for the 
 communal expenses and the salaries of the aksakals accord- 
 ing to the decision of the community is in our opinion un- 
 necessary. The persons elected can very well serve for three 
 years, receiving as much from the Government as their ser- 
 vices deserve, but increase of taxes is by no means necessary. 
 If this increase be made through the wish of the Grovernor- 
 General, then let him say so and order it, and it will be col- 
 lected, for we consider his wish as law. If this tax be made 
 by the order of the White Tsar, and be necessary for the sup- 
 port of the Eussian soldiers who have given peace and protec- 
 tion to the country, to-morrow even we will give twice as much 
 as this sum and all that the Grovernment will consider necessary 
 and possible for the district of Ura-tepe." 
 
 ' 4. From the nomad population it was declared that there 
 would only be taken a kibitka tax of 2r. 75k. from a kibitka, 
 and that the zekat on cattle should be in proportion, but that 
 there should be a small additional tax for the salaries of 
 aksakals and of aul elders to be fixed by the community. All 
 this was declared in 1868, but since then a new tax — a road-tax 
 of 75k. on a house or kibitka — has been imposed, both on the 
 nomad and on the settled population. There was afterwards an ad- 
 dition to the taxes for the economical expenses of the community, 
 so that at last the payment for each kibitka was brought to five 
 rubles and even more. This road-tax and the tax for the general 
 expenses excited at the time much criticism, and not criticism 
 alone. It is perfectly well known that in order not to excite 
 the discontent of the people on account of the imposition of 
 new taxes in 1869 and 1870, these taxes were paid by the Ad- 
 ministrative Kegency out of the proceeds of the haraclj and 
 tanap taxes. 
 
 ' The reasons for this were that at the organisation of the 
 district there had been no mention of the road-tax ; and as the 
 sum raised for the payment of the salaries of the aksakals had 
 already been made into a fixed tax, the Administrative Regenc}', 
 understanding that the declaration of the new taxes would 
 
 E 2 
 
244 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 bring upon themselves suspicion that the tax had been imposed 
 by their sanction, as the people formerly believed that the 
 Government had once declared that the tax would never be 
 increased, thought it better for the first years of this new tax 
 to take the sum ordered by the Government from the tanap 
 and the haradj, increasing these taxes in a proportionate measure. 
 
 ' Although this action of the Regency — the illegality of 
 which is apparent — was known to the superior authorities, it 
 was thought best to say nothing about it. In this way, notwith- 
 standing the promises to the people to impose on them no taxes 
 except those declared on the organisation of the districts, yet- 
 during a period of nearly three years a whole series of new taxes 
 had been inflicted upon the poor population, which even without 
 that had been impoverished by the preceding wars and dis- 
 turbances. These taxes, which brought us no actual profit, 
 necessarily had a very injurious influence on the material pros- 
 perity of the inhabitants, who at the same time see no necessity 
 for them. Therefore, when these supplementary and new taxes 
 little by little became known to the people, when the haradj of 
 the tenth, and the tanap according to the harvest and the fixed 
 prices for produce, were turned into a fixed tax ; and further, 
 when the zekat on cattle driven to the bazaar, which had been 
 abolished on the organisation of the districts and replaced by 
 the kibitka tax (to which were subsequently added a road-tax 
 and a tax for the general needs of the community,) was still 
 collected in spite of the formal promises of the Administra- 
 tion ; and finally, when the bazaar-tax, which had been abolished, 
 was replaced in the form of a tax upon weights and measures, 
 it became evident to the people that the promises for diminu- 
 tion of taxes which had been made on the organisation of the 
 district were only empty words, and they became convinced that 
 the demands of the Russian Administration were gradually be- 
 coming worse and worse under the new taxes and imposts which 
 had been passed upon the people for the last three years. 
 They then proposed to pay the haradj and tanap, not as one- 
 tenth, but as one-fourth of the harvest, and they asked to be 
 freed in that case from all other taxes and imposts of any kind, 
 which ruined the poor and were burdensome even to the rich. 
 
 ' It is clear, then, that since the occupation of the country by 
 the Russians the condition of the population, in spite of all her 
 
LEGAL AND ADMINISTRATIVE METHODS. 245 
 
 promises, has not only not grown better, but, on the contrary, ia 
 every day getting worse and worse. How far this constant 
 increase of taxes and imposts can go, the population of course 
 cannot understand. It is therefore not s f range that the fiighf- 
 ened imagination of the Asiatics saw in the late collection of 
 statistical information the desire of the Administration to get 
 hold of their whole property. An instance of this belief is the 
 fact that after the registration of property made for the purposes 
 of statistical information several natives went to Eussian acquain- 
 tances and asked them if a fowl could be taken to the bazaar 
 for sale, or did it already belong to the Government ? With 
 such a state of the popular mind it is evident that only a 
 spark is necessary to inflame it.' 
 
 But no matter what institutions the Russians may introduce 
 into Central Asia, it would seem hopeless to expect anything 
 . like good government until either the character of the officials 
 is changed or they are submitted to a stricter discipline and 
 inspection. It seems almost impossible for a Russian adminis- 
 trator to conceive of such a thing as legality. They are strict 
 in observing the forms of law so long as they relate merely to 
 modes of procedure and to the filing and signature of papers, 
 but overstep it at once the moment it seems easier or more 
 convenient for them to do so. I am not now referring only to 
 officials in Turkistan; how to confine the administration within 
 the strict limits of legality is a subject which has exercised 
 many statesmen and political students in European Russia. 
 It seems to be a principle firmly implanted in their official 
 breasts that law and respect for law are very good things for 
 ordinary everyday life, but that the moment a circumstance arises, 
 which in the opinion of the official most nearly concerned is ex- 
 ceptional, law is no longer practicable, but that what he calls 
 administrative methods must be employed. To those who have 
 been brought up to respect the law this constant overstepping 
 and transgression of legality seems scarcely conceivable On 
 the Central Asiatic, who of course has no idea of what Russian 
 law is or in what way it is transgressed, the arbitrary action of 
 the officials produces a similar and yet different effect. This 
 arbitrary action and these administrative- methods are seldom 
 alike in two adjoining districts, and a native can hardly help 
 regarding the whole system as an irresponsible tyranny of the 
 
246 TURKISTAN. 
 
 worst sort. Under Mussulman rule his Khans and his Beks 
 were tyrannical, but still they were Mussulmans, men of his own 
 race and of his own belief, with similar character and holding 
 to the same customs and traditions. Cruel and tyrannical as 
 they were in many respects, there were certain bounds which 
 custom forbade them to overstep, and were these bounds too 
 greatly or too frequently passed the popular discontent was 
 such as to drive them from power. But for the Eussians there 
 seem to be no limits. They are of an alien faith, they seem to 
 know little and care less about the old customs and traditions 
 of the country, and to a man of Tashkent or Hodjent, who 
 knows nothing of the intricacies of Russian law or of the 
 methods of Eussian administrative life, honour and prosperity 
 seem to be at the mercy or the whim of the Eussian official. 1 
 
 1 Mr. N. Pet-rofsky, in a remarkable article on Khokand in the ' Messenger of 
 Europe,' October 1875, says : ' As concerns the Mussulman despotism destroyed 
 by Eussian institutions, it would be difficult for us to guarantee that these institu- 
 tions seem less arbitrary and despotic to the natives than did their former Mussul- 
 man ones. Under Mussulman sway tyranny and arbitrary rule indeed existed, 
 but this tyranny was far from being without limits, and was as much a product 
 of the country as were all its other institutions, morals, and customs. It was 
 native there and it was understood there. Although the Mussulman ruler and 
 his officials educated in the same milieu and with the same ideas as his subjects 
 acted arbitrarily, they nevertheless knew well where their tyranny could begin 
 and where it ended, knew its extent and its limits. In consequence of their ex- 
 clusively religious education of the same character as that of the whole mass of 
 the population, and of the common character of their life, of their customs, and of 
 their habits, the Mussulman rulers confined their tyranny within certain well 
 known and fixed limits, and their arbitrariness was considered as a necessary attri- 
 bute of their power, without which the very existence of their rule would be in- 
 conceivable. On the other side, the people too looked on this arbitrariness with 
 the eyes of their ruler, seeing in him not a tyrant and a persecuting despot, but a 
 lucky favourite of fortune, who had received the right to arbitrary and uncon- 
 trolled power. Brought up with such ideas the native of Central Asia well 
 knew all the ramifications of this tyranny, from the Bek to the lowest Aksakal 
 inclusively, for the ground on which and the limits within which the arbitrary 
 power was exercised, were as well known to the first as to the last. In a word, the 
 native was. at home with Mussulman tyranny. He had ages ago been accustomed 
 to its existence, and knew how r to live under it. From a European point of view 
 such an arbitrary rule as we see in Mussulman states, may of course appear 
 horrible, but from a Mussulman point of view it is perfectly natural and legal. 
 The rebellion against Khudayar Khan is no proof to the contrary, but rather 
 strengthens my position. Khudayar Khan lost his Khanate because his tyranny 
 ceased to be Mussulman and became a mere mad exercise of power unlimited by 
 any traditions. If this despot, instead of the unconcealed and, so to say, open 
 pillage of his subjects, had covered it up by fictions of law, or by the rules of the 
 Shariat (as the Bukharan Amir does) and had continued it, he would have re- 
 
CORRUPTION. 247 
 
 It is not only the fact that cases of glaring corruption and 
 venality have occurred, but that these cases when brought to the 
 notice of the Governor-General have frequently been condoned, 
 and the guilty officials allowed to go unpunished, which has 
 exerted a very bad influence on the minds of the natives. The 
 superior officials have their favourites, and are disposed to 
 uphold them in spite of charges of maladministration. The 
 natives have been hindered in every possible way from making 
 complaints. They have even been turned away from the house 
 of the Governor when they had assembled there to present 
 a petition. 
 
 A very striking illustration of this was shown in the 
 management of the Kurama district, one of the most fertile 
 and thickly settled of all the provinces, surrounding, but not 
 including, the city of Tashkent. The prefect of this district 
 is said to have levied 90,000 rubles of illegal taxes, all of 
 which he spent for his own use, besides Government money, and 
 yet he resided within five miles of the palace of the Governor- 
 General, and was known to be living in a style, with frequent 
 dinners, suppers, and gambling parties, entirely impossible upon 
 his small salary. Among other charges against' him was one 
 with regard to a misappropriation of savings funds. These 
 
 mained on the throne, and would probably never have been compelled to journey 
 to Orenburg from " unavoidable circumstances." ' After describing the various 
 projects for the government of Turkistan, and the changes introduced into the 
 laws, the author continues: 'It is necessary to remark that neither the first regu- 
 lations nor the project which was subsequently applied, were ever translated into 
 the native language. The natives were expected of themselves to understand the 
 — for them — complicated organisation of the Russian government, and to guess 
 at the relations of the various branches of the administration which were quite 
 new to them, and not easily intelligible. If we add to this that Turkistan has but 
 few men who know the native languages, and has great need of good interpreters, 
 it will be understood with what eyes the natives look upon our institutions, even 
 ■were they the best and most perfect in the world. Naturally these institutions 
 appear to the natives to be far more arbitrary and far more tyrannical than those 
 under which they formerly lived under Mussulman rulers, not because they are 
 really arbitrary and tyrannical, but because, seeing their frequent change, the 
 native is not able to understand and explain to himself either the meaning of the 
 frequent changes, or the existence of these institutions. All this — I say it without 
 finding fault — creates among the natives a general discontent with the Russians, 
 which is not diminishing, but on the contrary is increasing, and is being propa- 
 gated in the neighbouring Khanates, excising vain hopes for the return of what 
 they have lost, and encouraging them to such acts as the constant demands for 
 the return of Samarkand, and even to the invasion of our territories.' 
 
248 TURKISTAN. 
 
 funds had been instituted for the benefit of the population, but 
 by a subsequent regulation, approved by the Grovernor-Greneral, 
 permission was given to spend them on the administration needs 
 of the district. This money, about 22,000 rubles, entirely dis- 
 appeared, and no accounts of expenditure were given, although 
 it was said that part had been given to the horse-breeding 
 establishment, and that part had been used in fitting up the 
 house of the prefect. This affair was creating a great im- 
 pression when I was in Tashkent, in 1873, and finally a series 
 of inquiries ensued as to the disposition of the money — in- 
 quiries which for a long time remained without answer. The 
 natives complained also that money had been taken from them 
 at different times, on all sorts of pretences, and in an entirely 
 illegal way. A decree had been issued forbidding all peisons 
 to cross the Syr Darya at any other point than the places speci- 
 fied in the order, threatening persons who did so with being 
 sent to Siberia. The points specified were places belonging 
 to the friends of the prefect. At last matters became so 
 scandalous that the Governor-General was obliged to take 
 some notice of it. He therefore removed the prefect from the 
 district, and sold his property for the benefit of the Crown, 
 not realising, however, one-twentieth part of the sums which 
 had been misappropriated. But, instead of punishing this 
 man, he merely removed him to another locality, stating that 
 he considered him a most useful official. 
 
 A letter from Tokmak, dated May 3, 1873, published in the 
 ' Golos,' No. 172 of that year, stated a similar occurrence with 
 regard to the savings funds in the district of Tokmak. Since 
 1865 a tax of twenty kopeks on each kibitka had been col- 
 lected from the nomads of Semiretch, to be devoted to the 
 general needs and to the demands of the local Kirghiz, espe- 
 cially for making loans to them. This fund, with the interest, 
 amounted in 1871 to more than 23,000 rubles. Up to 1873 
 not a single Kirghiz had received any of this money on loan or 
 as a grant, and out of this Kirghiz capital more than 18,000 
 rubles had been applied for other purposes — 10,000 for loans, 
 5,000 of which were not to be repaid. In this sum were in- 
 cluded the journeys of different officials and their extraordinary 
 expenses, searches for coal-mines, the expenses of completing 
 and repairing the house of a former assistant-prefect, and loans 
 
TOKTURE. 249 
 
 were even to be made to Eussian merchants, one for 8,000 rubles, 
 for completing a distillery. The conduct of the Prefect of the 
 district of Perovsky was investigated, and he was removed for 
 extortion and bribery. Instead of being punished he was 
 appointed to the district of Aulie-ata, where his conduct again 
 called for investigation, and he was removed for exacting an 
 illegal contribution from the natives on the occasion of a 
 demand for camels for the Khivan expedition. Other persons 
 have in like way been removed from one post for maladminis- 
 tration, and have immediately received another. An employ^ 
 in the Construction Department, in addition to advances for 
 work subsequently not performed succeeded by forged orders 
 in obtaining from the treasurer at various times an amount 
 stated to be about 15,000 rubles. When this was first dis- 
 covered, his friends, including the acting Governor, whose duty 
 it was to arrest him, endeavoured to make up the amount, 
 or to so arrange the accounts us to cover up the defalcation ; 
 but the deficit finally proved too great, and it became necessary 
 to take official notice of the isuct. He was allowed to escape ; 
 but meanwhile the matter had become so well known that he 
 was again arrested, and will probably at last be brought to trial. 
 
 On the other hand, any persons who endeavoured to en- 
 lighten the public as to the state of affairs were immediately 
 punished. Correspondence with newspapers was strictly for- 
 bidden, and the commandant of the district of Ura-tepe was 
 removed and sent out of the province, for a paper on the riot at 
 Hodjent, of which I have already spoken. 
 
 In some cases acts, not only wrong in themselves, but 
 bringing with them very important consequences, have been 
 committed, not from a desire of personal gain but from a wish 
 to appear zealous in the performance of duties, or from motives 
 of intrigue. A case which happened in 1873 is especially 
 noticeable. An officer named Eman, in possession of a con- 
 siderable amount of Government funds, gave information that 
 he had been robbed by the Kirghiz. The chief Kirghiz living 
 in the neighbourhood of the alleged occurrence were arrested, 
 and after a long examination twelve of them acknowledged 
 their guilt, though the money cuuld not be found. While their 
 trial was going on Eman committed suicide, leaving a letter 
 in which he stated that he was not the honest man that had 
 
250 TURKISTAN. 
 
 been supposed, as lie had himself spent the money and made 
 the excuse to clear himself. The Kirghiz were then, of course, 
 released ; but the question arose, why had they confessed ? and 
 on an investigation it was found that the judicial officer, Baron 
 
 Of of Vierny, had extorted confession from them by means 
 
 of torture, a practice wholly at variance with Russian law 
 and certainly very disastrous for Russian influence amongst 
 
 the Kirghiz. As the result of this investigation, Baron Of ■ 
 
 was transferred in the same capacity to the district of Perovsky. 
 There was another case in the same neighbourhood, at 
 Kopal, where a district prefect had been robbed, beaten, and 
 severely wounded. As he was most deservedly unpopular for 
 the extortions he practised upon the natives this was not to 
 be wondered at. Over sixty Kirghiz were accused of partici- 
 pating in this act, the chief of them being the Sultan Tezak, 
 holding the rank of a major in the Russian service, the most 
 aristocratic and respected of all the Kirghiz chiefs, and a well- 
 known and lifelong friend to Russia. The chief evidence 
 against him was that some of the property stolen from the 
 prefect was found in his tent. One investigation succeeded 
 another, until a Cossack finally confessed that he had placed 
 these articles in the tent of Tezak at the instigation of the 
 judge himself. It is said that this was done because the judge 
 wished to please the clique of officials at Tashkent by con- 
 victing of robbery and sedition a man very much favoured by 
 Gfeneral Kolpakofsky, of whom they were jealous. Among the 
 papers of the investigating commission is a letter from the 
 prefect to the judge with regard to the means of obtaining 
 this evidence. For various reasons it was long impossible to 
 finish the investigation, for as soon as a commission showed a 
 leaning to the side of the authorities of Semiretch, it was im- 
 mediately dissolved by Gfeneral Kaufmann, — but it was thought 
 necessary to remove the judge and bestow upon him a similar 
 post in the city of Hodjent, where his methods of administer- 
 ing justice also gave rise to loud complaints. 1 The effect of 
 such a proceeding was, of course, to make the natives 
 thoroughly displeased with the workings of the Russian courts. 
 A decision was finally rendered in 1875 by the Senate at St. 
 Petersburg, by which Sultan Tezak was acquitted. This was 
 
 • See vol. i. p. Ill 3. 
 
A BE VISION. 251 
 
 regarded as a great triumph for the authorities of Semiretcb 
 over those of Tashkent. 
 
 Another case of the ill-advised action of the authorities, 
 regardless of the effect produced upon the natives, was the 
 forced contribution of camels during the Khivan campaign, in 
 spite of promises of payment. Of this I shall speak more fully 
 in another chapter. 
 
 There had been so much said at St. Petersburg, not only in 
 Government circles but in the papers, with regard to the dis- 
 orders of the Eussian administration in Central Asia, that when 
 General Kaufmann returned to Tashkent, in 1875, he felt it 
 necessary to take some measures to bring about a better order 
 of things, or, at least, to ascertain where and to what degree 
 the disorders existed. He therefore commissioned officials under 
 his immediate orders to make what is called in Eussia a ' re- 
 vision' of several of the districts in which official corruption and 
 disorder had been said to exist to a great extent. The powers 
 granted to these inspectors were very limited ; they were not 
 to go below the surface of things, and were to abstain as far as 
 possible from questioning the natives about abuses alleged to 
 exist, and were chiefly to confine themselves to the mere inspec- 
 tion of the books and the accounts of the different adminis- 
 trations. In spite of the limitations imposed upon them, the 
 inspectors of the districts of Kurama and Hodjent, and of the 
 city of Tashkent, brought to light a very remarkable state of 
 things. They found that in many cases no accounts whatever 
 had been kept, that expenses from the communal sums had fre- 
 quently been authorised by the prefects and the military gover- 
 nors without votes of the Eegencies, and that money had been 
 paid out in large sums for alleged expenses without receipts, 
 while the papers which did exist gave evidence of the extra- 
 vagance and mismanagement of the officials. In Tashkent, for 
 instance, the zemsky tax for the communal needs increased from 
 16,000 rubles in 1868 to over 86,000 rubles in 1874, and it was 
 found that, although the accounts were properly arranged under 
 different headings, money had often been paid from one account 
 for expenses incurred in others, and even for purposes that did 
 not properly come under any title. Some of the heaviest items 
 were large yearly sums for the repairs and refurnishing of the 
 residences of the Prefect and his officials. In Hodjent matters 
 
252 TUHKISTAN". 
 
 were fully as bad. The zemsky tax for comtrmnal needs in- 
 creased from over 16,000 rubles in 1869 to nearly 64,000 
 rubles in 1874. In addition to this, in 1874, 18,000 rubles 
 were collected as city taxes in Hodjent and Ura-tepe, over 9,000 
 rubles as a tax on weights, and 6,000 rubles as the bazaar-tax. 
 In 1873 the taxes were even greater. The total taxes, exclusive 
 of the land-tax and the tax on trade, which came to tbe general 
 Grovernment — those only which were intended for the support 
 of the native administration and the economical necessities of 
 the district, had increased from 17,000 rubles in 1869 to 
 107,000 rubles in 1873, and 96,000 in 1874, while the receipts 
 for 1875 up to August amounted to 78,000 rubles, which would 
 make 134,000 rubles for the completed year. The land and 
 other taxes belonging to the Central Government between 1869 
 and 1875 increased by 52^ per cent., while the highest estimate 
 of increased population was not more than 1 9 per cent. 
 
 In speaking of the expenses at Hodjent in IS 73 the official 
 report says: — 'The expenses as compared with 1872 have 
 increased five times, and have increased in an entirely unpro- 
 ductive and arbitrary way, as they have not been called out 
 by the actual needs of the population. Notwithstanding the 
 enormous increase of the estimates, expenses have been allowed 
 which were not included in them, and which were not even 
 ratified by the vote of the Eegency, although not the highest 
 significance should be given to the votes of the native officials.' 
 In confirmation of the justice of this conclusion I may quote 
 the vote for the purchase of a carriage for the use of the 
 Eegency of Hodjent. No member of the Regency ever once 
 used this carriage, although it was a very expensive one. 
 We must be astonished at the relative moderation of the 
 prefect who could have ordered a still more original decree to 
 be made than this one about the carriage. I am compelled to 
 believe that such freedom in the dispensation of the communal 
 funds necessarily leads to evil results, demoralises the officials 
 who have charge of them, exhausts the means of the population, 
 wastes them in an unproductive manner for the natives, and 
 leads not only to present but to future evil, by destroying the 
 confidence of the natives in the Russian administration, which 
 takes charge over them and gives them nothing. 
 
 * Special attention should be turned to the expenses for the 
 
• 
 
 ADMINISTRATION OF HODJENT. 253 
 
 repairs of roads, building's, and bridges, which demanded more 
 than 5,000 rubles. What called out such a great expense, 
 whether it was absolutely necessary at the given time, whether 
 the repairs were properly conducted, whether the prices for the 
 work and material are regular, are questions which are not to 
 be answered by any entries in the books or papers of the 
 Kegency. Nothing in the accounts show us that this and 
 similar great expenses were called out by any necessity. The 
 formation of an army of jigits which existed only on paper ; 
 the construction of a hospital of four beds for a population of 
 150,000 men, and the yearly expense of 2,000 rubles for the 
 repairs of this one room ; the construction of a house for the 
 district prefect on a large scale, and with luxurious furniture, 
 which cost over 28,000 rubles; the heating of the Government 
 buildings, which cost nearly 4,000 rubles, although in 1872 but 
 1,000 had been necessary; the appointment of an inspector of 
 public buildings, with a salary of 600 rubles, who in the leisure 
 time allowed from his official duties fulfilled the functions of 
 cook for the district prefect ; the wages of gardeners and of 
 watchmen, the allowance made without guarantee to the district 
 prefect, to the judge, and to other persons ; special grants of 
 money to assistants of the district prefect and district physician 
 — all these were expenses which were not called out by the 
 communal needs, and are not to be justified by economical 
 considerations, and certainly bring no advantage to the local 
 population. We can only wonder that the military governor 
 confirmed the tax estimates which had increased in this re- 
 markable way. Notwithstanding the uncontrolled calculation 
 and formation of the estimates, the expenses are constantly 
 greater than the sums assigned to meet them.' 
 
 In explanation of one item given above the report in 
 another passage states that a whole band of jigits, or mounted 
 messengers, was formed, the cost of maintenance of whom for 
 one year was estimated in 1872 at over 12,000 rubles, being 
 double the expense for the communal needs in 1870. Nothing 
 in the accounts shows the actual number of jigits or the salary 
 paid to them, but the report states that this is really very 
 small, the remaining money going into the pockets of the 
 officials. From other sources I learn that the wages of the 
 jigits are seldom more than twelve rubles a month, and a 
 
254 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 prefect seldom has more than five jigits in actual service at 
 the same time. 
 
 The inspection of the Kurama district brought out even 
 worse results, but I have not yet been informed of the details. 
 A high official, however, remarked that what was now going on 
 in the district of Kurama made the occurrences in that district 
 of which I have already spoken seem mere child's play. 
 
 The Russian maladministration naturally could have but 
 one result — that of causing discontent among the natives. 
 Before the war with Khokand this dissatisfaction was not be- 
 lieved in by the higher authorities, until circumstances occurred 
 which rendered it very plain that in certain districts the 
 population was disaffected to the Russian rule. Ordinary inter- 
 course among the natives, even without making special in- 
 quiries, was sufficient to bring to light the same state of feeling. 
 
 The occurrences to which I refer were these: — In 1871 an 
 attack was made on the station of Kara-su, on the high road 
 between Tashkent and Hodjent. One officer was killed, and 
 the station was destroyed. Although this was at first supposed 
 to be merely an act of marauders, it was afterwards found to 
 be the work of a political conspiracy, in which the Tashkent 
 people had been asked to take part. The leader was the 
 Ishan Ish Mohammed Kul, a well-known fanatic, a disciple of 
 a Khokandian Wahabi preacher, Sufi Badal, and his expedition 
 of some twenty men went out quietly from Tashkent by a 
 roundabout way and then fell upon the post-station, with the 
 aim of breaking the communication, exciting the country which 
 lay beyond, and inviting the Khokandians to an invasion. 
 The Government was warned of this movement several days in 
 advance, and might easily have prevented it, but they refused 
 to act, believing there was nothing serious on foot 
 
 In 1872 there was a great disturbance in Hodjent, to which 
 I have already called attention. This disturbance necessitated 
 the action of the troops, and the mob was put down and its 
 ringleaders were executed. It had been stated at the time 
 that this riot had occurred in consequence of the order for 
 general vaccination, which the natives thought to be a process 
 for branding them, for the purpose of employing them as 
 recruits for the army. The real cause, as has been shown, was 
 discontent with the increased taxation. During the early 
 
DISCONTENT. 255 
 
 spring- of 1873, in consequence of disturbances in the district 
 of Tchimkent, most of the Kirghiz inhabiting that region left 
 the country, preferring the sands of the Kyzyl-Kum desert to 
 being under Kussian rule. Their movement, however, was 
 made in vain, for, after the Khivan expedition, the whole of 
 Kyzyl-Kum was formally annexed. 
 
 The circumstances attending the war with Khokand are, I 
 think, quite sufficient to show the feeling of the population. 
 Before the siege of Hodjent the Khokandians had put them- 
 selves in communication with the aksakale and other native 
 officials of the neighbouring districts, and the Bek of Makhram 
 had even spent two days in the city of Hodjent. His presence 
 there, although known to many of the inhabitants, was concealed 
 from the Eussians. As soon as the Khokandians approached, the 
 natives of the districts through which they passed immediately 
 joined them, taking part in the attacks upon the Kussian post- 
 stations and in the murders of officers, alcsakals, and tra- 
 vellers, while the city population remained quiet, waiting to see 
 which side gained the preponderance. 
 
 Government officers began to open their eyes, and the 
 consequence was that arms were distributed to all the Kussian 
 inhabitants, and no one was allowed to go through the streets 
 unless armed. In some of the bureaux the clerks even sat at 
 work with their muskets at their side. I have every reason to 
 believe, from many circumstances which have come to my 
 knowledge, that the chief reason of the Khokandians maintain- 
 ing such a desperate resistance against the Kussians was from 
 fear of being brought under Kussian rule, and the assistance on 
 which they confidently counted, in case of success, from all 
 their fellow-believers within the Kussian boundaries. In a 
 communication which I received from an influential Kash- 
 garian official, it was stated that Yakub Khan was con- 
 stantly receiving petitions from the inhabitants of Tashkent 
 and other Russian towns urging him to invade the country 
 and relieve them from the Russian yoke. 
 
 In this connection it is interesting to refer to some articles 
 
 which were published in the newspaper * Moskva,' in 1867 ' by 
 
 Professor Grrigorief, in which he sketched the policy which in 
 
 his opinion should be pursued in Central Asia. This was -oon 
 
 » Nos. 23, 24, 32, 53, and 54. 
 
256 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 after the conquest of Tashkent, and it is curious to see how ex- 
 actly some of the prognostications of the writer have been realised. 
 'If we sit still in Tashkent for a year or two the people in 
 Khokand will begin to think that this proceeds from nothing 
 else but our weakness, and from the impossibility of further 
 conquest, and will again try to measure their strength with ours. 
 Asiatics are wonderfully forgetful, and quickly as they give 
 themselves up to fear, are none the slower in recovering their 
 self-confidence. The Khokandians can also be incited to take 
 up arms against us by the discontent of the local population 
 with our rule in Tashkent. If this arise from any mistakes of 
 the Russian administration , the Khokandians will hardly fail 
 to profit by such a favourable occurrence. We cannot count 
 on the permanency of the good disposition towards us of the 
 inhabitants of the districts of Turkistan and Tashkent, especially 
 because these people are accustomed to internal disorders, to 
 political revolutions, and to the change of rulers, — habits which 
 are not easily lost ; and besides this, they will be excited by the 
 leligious influence and secret intrigues of Bukhara. One of the 
 English statesmen best acquainted with the East says, " I 
 don't know a single case where the close relation of a civilised 
 people with an uncivilised one, have not turned to mutual 
 hatred in the course of three years." ' Professor Grigorief 's idea 
 was that the number of troops should be the smallest number 
 for keeping internal order and protecting the country from 
 invasions, every effort being made to proportion the cost of 
 governing the country to its resources ; and he thought that it 
 would be better to collect the troops at different points, from 
 which they could easily be moved, rather than dispose them in 
 small bodies throughout the country. ' Great care,' he said, 
 ' should also be taken that the relations between the soldiers and 
 the native women do not produce disorder. The murders of 
 Grigboyedof at Teheran and of Burnes at Kabul were due to 
 intrigues with women. Next in importance to the trouble 
 caused by the intrigues of the soldiers and the native women, 
 nothing in Asia so excites the discontent of the natives against 
 these troops, and consequently against the Government which 
 these troops serve, as the dearness of the prime necessities of 
 life, aid especially of provisions, which is the inevitable con- 
 sequence of the acquisition of a larger number of consumers. 
 
TEUE PEOGNOSTICATIONS. 257 
 
 Should 10,000 Eussian troops come into the country of Tashkent 
 there is no doubt that from the time of their arrival the prices 
 of our provisions would be raised in Tashkent, and in the other 
 places where the troops were stationed they would be much 
 higher than they were before. The cause of this is the poverty 
 and small productiveness of the country. Asia is rich only in 
 the imaginations of those unacquainted with it. To agriculturists 
 and land-owners the raising of the prices for the productions of 
 the soil cannot fail to be pleasing, but afterwards, when the 
 dearness spreads to other articles of consumption, in consequence 
 of which the profits of the country people turn out to be fictitious, 
 this class becomes discontented. As concerns merchants and 
 artisans, the dearness growing up from the new order of things 
 will certainly not dispose them to the new rule. How this 
 cause of discontent can be removed, I do not know. The ad- 
 ministration of the conquered country will cause the greatest 
 difficulty. There should be no attempt to impose foreign ideas. 
 There should be as little bureaucracy as possible, and in general 
 the government should be carried on by the natives as far as 
 may be.' 
 
 The dearness of provisions of which Mr. Grigorief speaks, 
 was speedily brought about, 1 and the period of discontent is 
 now coming on. The relations between the Russians and the 
 native women, which have been in a measure approved by the 
 authorities as means of extending Eussian influence, are fre- 
 quently productive of difficulties, several instances of which 
 came under my knowledge. A sentence in Professor Grrigorief's 
 account of the expulsion of the English from Afghanistan is 
 singularly applicable here. 2 ' Many husbands and brothers for 
 the love of gain sold their wives and sisters to the foreigners, 
 but they were the first to raise cries against the insults thus given 
 to religion, — cries which were at once taken up by the Mullahs, 
 who carried these complaints into all the by-ways.' 
 
 1 See vol. i. p. 285. 
 
 2 The whole of this passage on Afghanistan is a very true description of the 
 state of things in Turkistan. ' Kabulistan and Kafiristan ' (Eussian translation of 
 Eitter's ' Erdkunde'), p. 895. 
 
 VOL. II. 
 
2C8 TURKISTAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XIV 
 
 THE RUSSIAN FOREIGN POLICY IN ASIA. 
 
 Alleged will of Peter the Great — Former Russian policy — It cannot be 
 inferred from the fact of conquest — There is really no policy — Prince 
 Gortchakof's circular — Difficulties arising from the constitution of the 
 Government — Fear of English remonstrances -Views against India — 
 Paul's proposed expedition — The neutral zone and the Afghan frontier — 
 The full powers of General Kaufmann — Consequent awkwardness — 
 General Kaufmann's policy-^-The Diplomatic employe — Embassies — Pre- 
 sents — Relations with Khokand — The commercial treaty — Karategin — - 
 Unquiet state of the country — Rebellion of 1875 — The war with Russia 
 — Violent struggle — Annexation of the Khanate — Bukhara — Disagreeable 
 relations — The Samarkand campaign - Commercial treaty — Subsequent 
 relations— Slave-trade — New treaty of 1873 — Afghanistan — Kashgar — 
 Difficulties attending friendly intercourse — Mission of Baron Kaulbars — 
 Treaty —Subsequent relations — Chinese frontier questions. 
 
 The fictitious character of the so-called testament of Peter the 
 Grreat l is now so well established that it would be absurd to 
 discuss the principles there laid down for the conquest of Europe 
 and of Asia, or to investigate the reasons dictating such a 
 policy. 
 
 Professor Grrigorief, who, from his profound and intimate 
 knowledge of the history and literature of the country, and 
 from his practical experience at Orenburg, as Governor of the 
 
 1 The forgery of the will of Peter the Great was due to the desire of Napoleon 
 to frighten Europe, and thus to give him excuses and pretexts for entering upon 
 his Moscow campaign. It first appeared in the book called ' Des progres de la 
 puissance russe depuis son origine jusqu'au commencement du XIX" siecle,' pub- 
 lished at Paris in 1812, by Lesur, pn attache of the Department of Foreign 
 Affairs, without doubt on the express command of Napoleon I. Many copies of 
 this book were taken by the Duke de Bassano with the army. Lesur does not 
 say that he had ever seen this will, and gives no proofs of its existence, but 
 merely says in his introduction : ' On assure qu'il existe dans les archives par- 
 ticulieres des Empereurs de Russie des Memoires secrets ecrits de la main de 
 Pierre le Grand, ou sont exposes sans detours les projets que ce prince av.iit con 
 511s, qu'il recommaude a 1' attention de ses successeurs et que plusieurs d'entre euv 
 
WILL OF PETEB THE GREAT. 259 
 
 Lesser Horde of Kirghiz, is certainly the greatest Eussian 
 authority on Central Asia, has plainly shown the vacillation, 
 the ignorance, and the want of good sense which marked the 
 policy of Kussia towards Asia from the reign of Peter the 
 Great to that of Alexander II. in an article which I have trans- 
 lated in Appendix IV. at the end of this volume. The circum- 
 
 ont, en effet, suivis avec une persistance pour ainsi dire religieuse.' When in 
 1836 the Polish question had been for the moment finished, and the Eastern 
 question seemed menacing, and it became again necessary to show Russia's desire 
 of world-conquest, the will reappears, but this time re-written in more diplomatic 
 and preciso language, in the form of an actual testament in 'Les Memoires du 
 Chevalier d'Eon,' by Gaillardet, one of the celebrated collaborators with A. 
 Dumas of the melodrama 'La Tour dp Nesle.' It is here introduced as follows: 
 ' En meme temps que l'acte d'adhesion d'Elisabeth au traits de Versailles, le 
 Chevalier d'Eon avait apport6 un document precieux dont il dut la decouverte 
 a son intimity sans bornes et a, ses investigations sans controle dans les archives 
 les plus secrets des tzars. Ce document, dont tout le monde a pari 6 depuis 
 1812, dont 1'existence etait connue, mais que nul ne possedait et n'a pu repro- 
 duce, fut remis confidentiellement par le Chevalier d'Eon, avec un travail special 
 sur la Russie, entre les mains de l'abbe de Bernis, ministre des affaires £trangeres, 
 et entre celles du roi Louis XV lui-meme, en 1757. C'est une copie litterale 
 et fidele du testament laisse par Pierre le Grand a, ses descendants et a ses 
 successeurs au trone moscovite.' Neither the famous — or infamous — Chevalier 
 d'Eon, nor M. Gaillardet, can be considered as authorities on an historical ques- 
 tion. In 1839 a Polish writer, Leonard Chodzko, in his ' La Pologne illustree,' 
 brought up again the will, with still greater details. He 'says : ' Ce fut en 1709 
 apres la bataille de Pultawa, que Pierre I traca le plan de son testament qu'il 
 retoucha en 1724. Par un hasard dont les incidents romanesques seraient supeiflus 
 ici, l'ambassadeur de France pres la cour de la czarine Elisabeth, en 1757, trouva 
 moyen de prendre copLe de cette piece etrange, et aussitot il lYnvoya a Versailles, 
 avec toutes les reflexions que merite un pareil document.' 
 
 Finally, during the Crimean war, in 1854, M. J. Correard published a map of 
 the successive enlargements of Russia since the time of Peter the Great, and 
 added in the margin a copy of the supposed will, with a still more exact account : 
 ' Ce testament politique fut esquisse par Pierre I" en 1710 apres la batai le de 
 Pultawa, retouche par lui en 1722, apres la paix de Nystadt, et formule definitive- 
 ment par le chancelier Ostermann. II fut connu de Louis XV et de ses ministres 
 des l'annee 1757.' In this state has the legend come to us. 
 
 See 'Les Auteiirs du Testament de Pierre le Grand, page d'Histoire.' Paris: 
 E. Dentu, Libraire-Editeur, Palais-Royal, 17-19 Galerie d'Orleans, 1872. 
 
 It is almost unnecessary to remark that the language and the expressions as 
 well as the ideas in this alleged will, are such as never could have been used by 
 Peter the Great or in his time. The statu archives of Russia are liberally open 
 to all historical students, but no one has ever yet been able to find there this 
 famous will, nor, in spite of the allegations of M. Gaillardet and M. Chodzko, has 
 anyone succeeded in discovering the copy of the document in the French archives. 
 
 There are strong reasons for believing that the only will left by Peter the 
 Great — that naming his wife as his successor — was forged by Catherine and 
 Menshikof immediately after his death. 
 
 s 2 
 
 i , 
 
260 TUKKLSTAN. 
 
 stances of his present official position will explain the reason 
 why he did not touch upon the policy which has been pursued 
 during the present reign ; but what his opinions are on that 
 subject are to be found in the letters in the 'Moskva.' 
 
 The policy of Kussia cannot be concluded merely from the 
 conquests and extensions of territory, without taking into 
 account the causes of these movements. Yet this is what is 
 usually done ; and the fact that since the Crimean war Kussia has 
 annexed considerable portions of the three khanates of Bukhara, 
 Khokand, and Khiva is put forward as a proof of a scheming 
 policy and of a plot to dominate the whole of Asia. With much 
 greater force might it be said that the extension of British rule 
 in Asia is the result of a long-matured and traditional policy of 
 Asiatic conquest ; yet no one who knows how the spread of 
 British rule in India and in the adjacent countries has been 
 brought about would think of accusing the English Govern- 
 ment of such a design. Why, then, should such accusations be 
 brought against Kussia? Simply because there is a widely 
 spread belief in Western Europe — and irrational ideas of this 
 kind are often hardest to eradicate — that as Kussia is governed 
 (so it is thought) by a single will, and as the political steps 
 of Kussia are taken without the publicity which attends such 
 measures in constitutional countries, Kussian statesmen are 
 almost preternaturally wise and skilful, and that there exists a 
 traditional and hereditary policy. Such a policy would be 
 difficult enough anywhere, and it does not and has not existed 
 in Kussia ; in fact not only in Asiatic but in other Eastern as 
 well as in European affairs Kussia is guided by no policy 
 whatever, except so far as yearly and almost daily changing 
 circumstances may dictate. Were it to be generally admitted, 
 — I will not say as true, but even as possible, — that Russia had 
 no foreign policy except that of carrying out such views as 
 might for the moment seem advantageous, the present situ- 
 ation of affairs both in Europe and Asia might be more easily 
 understood and difficulties might be better avoided. 
 
 It seems, therefore, exceedingly unfair towards Kussia to 
 bring up the Circular issued by Prince Gortchakof after the 
 capture of Tchimkent as a proof of the bad feeling of the Russian 
 Government in its dealings with Central Asia. Under ordinary 
 circumstances such a step as that taken by Russia in 1864 for 
 
PRINCE GORTCHAKOF'S CIRCULAR. 261 
 
 rounding off her frontier and filling up the gaps between the 
 lines of the Syr Darya and of Siberia would have excited no re- 
 mark and would have needed no explanation. But England had 
 always been jealous of the independence of the Central Asiatic 
 Khanates ; and the English press,- — with a feeling which would 
 seem to imply that it believed the English hold on India to be 
 weaker than it really is, — immediately raised a cry of alarm, as if 
 this were an advance made towards wresting that great empire 
 from English hands. Prince Grortchakof, therefore, thought it 
 best to explain the object of the movement in a circular which 
 he issued to the different Eussian embassies and legations. In 
 that circular the Prince set forth what were undoubtedly the 
 true reasons for the Eussian advance. He also stated that 
 there was no intention of advancing further, for this campaign 
 had been undertaken purely to prevent the necessity of sub- 
 sequent campaigns. ' We find ourselves,' he said, ' in face of 
 a more solid, more compact, less unsettled, and better organised 
 society ; and this marks with geographical precision the limits 
 to which interest and reason prescribe us to advance, and at 
 which we must halt, because, on the one hand, any further 
 extension of our rule meeting henceforth, not with unstable 
 communities, like independent nomad tribes, but with more 
 regularly constituted states, would exact considerable efforts and 
 would draw us on from annexation to annexation into infinite 
 complications ; while, on the other hand, having henceforth for 
 neighbours such states, notwithstanding their backward con- 
 dition and the instability of their political action, we can 
 nevertheless be assured that to the common advantage regular 
 relations will one day be substituted for the disorders which 
 have hitherto paralysed the progress of these countries.' 
 
 There would seem to be no ground for charging Eussia 
 with duplicity in this Circular, for there is nothing in it which 
 was not at the time generally believed. Its great fault was 
 in believing that the home authorities, with the peculiar system 
 of government which prevails in Eussia, would be able to 
 control the movements of the generals in command, and in 
 thinking that the Khanates of Central Asia were well-organised 
 states, that political relations might be had with them, and that 
 they would be amenable to reason or would respect the obliga- 
 tions of treaties. Prince Grortchakof could not then know 
 
 // 
 
26;? TURKISTAX. 
 
 that General Tchernaief, in violation of orders, would the next 
 summer attack and capture Tashkent. He was misinformed 
 also as to the value of the country annexed. One thing, how- 
 ever, he saw clearly, — although the efforts necessary were much 
 less considerable than he had supposed, — that a further exten- 
 sion of rule over the Khanates would lead from annexation to 
 annexation and to infinite complications. How some of these 
 annexations were brought about and why some of these attacks 
 took place I shall endeavour to explain. 
 
 I referred above to the peculiar constitution of the Russian 
 Government. This has a more important bearing on the 
 Asiatic policy of the Empire than has been generally supposed. 
 Each minister being independent and responsible only to the 
 Emperor, there is no Cabinet, properly so called, and can be no 
 united policy. The councils of ministers do not so much 
 discuss questions of policy as questions of detail^the solution 
 of which depends upon two or three ministers jointly. Some- 
 times a subject is deemed so important that a special com- 
 mission is appointed to study it and to come to a conclusion, 
 which may or may not be ratified by the Emperor. Still, even 
 in this case, as each minister has the right of a personal 
 audience with the Emperor, when he can explain in detail all 
 his arguments for the proposed measure, the decision of the 
 commission may be set aside almost as soon as it is made. 
 A striking instance of this occurred in the formation of the 
 Trans-Caspian military district The plan for the establish- 
 ment of this district was opposed both by Prince Gortchakof 
 and by the Minister of Finance, the one on political and the 
 other on financial grounds, and it was rejected by a lar e 
 majority in the commission specially appointed to consider it. 
 Yet the united influence of the Grand-Duke Michael and of the 
 Minister of War was so strong as to obtain the Imperial sanc- 
 tion to the scheme but a few days after. 
 
 It will be seen from this one example that it is possible for a 
 measure to be put into operation although it may be contrary to 
 the ideas and desires of the Foreign Office. But this is not an 
 isolated case ; such things are of constant occurrence. The 
 difficulty in such cases is that in the end no one is respon- 
 sible, not even the n ernment, for it is guided by no settled 
 policy. As matters now stand there are five distinct ruleis 
 
TOO MANY HEADS. 2G3 
 
 over large provinces in Asia, all of whom have differing 
 interests, and some of whom are in constant rivalry, if not in 
 actual bad relations with each other. All are nominally de- 
 pendent in military matters upon the Minister of War ; all are 
 practically independent of the Foreign Office ; all have the right 
 of reporting personally and viva, voce to the Emperor, and really 
 acknowledge no other authority. These are the Grand Duke 
 Michael, the brother of the Emperor, and the Lieutenant of the 
 Caucasus, and the Governors-General of Orenburg, of Turkistan, 
 of Eastern and of Western Siberia. The Governors-General of 
 Turkistan, of Eastern and of Western Siberia, on account of 
 the affairs of Kuldja, have to do with Chinese officials, and in 
 spite of telegraphs and post-roads each of them pursues a 
 policy which at times differs from that of each of the others, as 
 well as from that of the Russian Minister at Pekin, who acts 
 under the direct instructions of the Foreign Office. The 
 Governors-General of Western Siberia, of Turkistan, and of 
 Orenburg have different methods for the government of the 
 Kirghiz, who are nearly equally divided between the three 
 provinces. General Kryzhanofsky and General Kaufmann, as is 
 well known, look at the affairs of the Steppe and of the Central 
 Asiatic Khanates from entirely different and almost irrecon- 
 cilable points of view. The Grand Duke Michael, to whom 
 the Trans-Caspian district has lately been subjected, has still 
 different ideas, and in his anxiety to find some occupation 
 for the large army placed under his orders frequently makes 
 propositions to the Ministry of War, which, on account 
 of foreign complications that would arise, are as often re- 
 jected by the Emperor on the advice of Prince Gortchakof; 
 and yet almost without exception they are merely adjourned 
 and not utterly forbidden, for we see that the Grand Duke is 
 sometimes allowed to carry out his plans on a smaller scale 
 than he at first intended, as well as to take steps for larger 
 projects, and we know the great influence which both the 
 Grand Duke and the Minister of War have with the Emperor. 
 
 The fears of English remonstrances and of diplomatic 
 complications have had great influence on the Russian policy 
 in Asia. The Foreign Office has been exceedingly annoyed 
 by the persistent manner in which, on each movement 
 of troops, questions have been asked in Parliament, or the 
 
264 TUKKISTAN 
 
 British Ambassador has hinted or stated to Prince Gortchakof 
 his desire to know the reasons for such a step ; and not un- 
 frequently movements quite insignificant in themselves have 
 been forbidden for fear of English remonstrances. This has 
 not been unnoticed in the Eussian press. A recent book on 
 Central Asia l says : ' This has caused us to explain to England 
 every one of our movements, to quiet her with regard to our 
 intentions and to define our policy. This cannot but have its 
 effect on our actions, which receive a tinge of indecision and 
 display a possible fear of awakening vain apprehensions on the 
 part of our rival. The wish to quiet the English disbelief in 
 us and to give no cause for English protests has made us look 
 through our fingers at many greater or less breaches of inter- 
 national law on the part of Khiva, Bukhara, and Kashgar. 
 England would never have permitted half of these wrongs 
 and insults. Our moderation, however, has been vain. In 
 the eyes of Englishmen we have won nothing, and if England 
 for a time appears to believe in us and to be friendly, the 
 feeling is not sincere.' 
 
 It is impossible to believe that there is any settled inten- 
 tion on the part of the Eussian Government of making an 
 attack on India, or even of preparing the way for it, nor is 
 there any desire for the possession of India. Young men in 
 the army of Turkistan, whose only thought is for advancement 
 and decorations, may, indeed, talk loudly ; but the men who 
 control the policy have no such thought. What might happen 
 in case of a war between Eussia and England on other ques- 
 tions is, indeed, hard to say. If Eussia could then — easily for 
 
 1 ' Russia and England in Central Asia,' by M. A. Terentief, p. 252. St. 
 Petersburg, 1875- "While not sharing all the opinions or approving the tone of 
 Mr. Terentief, who is very chauviniste and needlessly hostile to England, I fre- 
 quently refer to his book in this chapter, because when serving in Central Asia 
 he had access to the papers contained in the chancery of General Kaufmann, and 
 may, therefore, when he quotes documents, be considered as an authority. Many 
 of the facts which he mentions in the book referred to, I already knew from 
 other sources. During the later years of Mr. Terentief 's stay in Tashkent, he was 
 a violent opponent of General Kaufmann, and was seeking information of every 
 description to convict him of maladministration and incompetence. After the 
 administration of Turkistan had been attacked in the Russian press senrch wag 
 made for a writer with a ready pen, and the officials of General Kaufmann's staff 
 succeeded in presenting to Mr. Terentief ' convincing arguments ' for defending 
 rather than attacking the General's administration. This may in some measure 
 account for the two different lines of thought which run through his book. 
 
DESIGNS ON INDIA. 265 
 
 herself — make a diversion on India she would certainly be 
 justified in doing so, but the position of Eussian affairs in 
 Turkistan is hardly such as to allow her to do so for many 
 years to come, to say nothing of the distance of Turkistan 
 from European Eussia, the bad communications, and the inter- 
 vening deserts and mountains between Turkistan and India, 
 which would render such a movement exceedingly difficult, if 
 not impossible. The only danger to India from Eussia lies 
 through Persia. Experience has proved that all invasions of 
 India have come through Afghanistan, and Afghanistan can 
 only be approached by Eussia through Persia. 
 
 The Emperor Paul, from his hatred of the English and his 
 sympathy with Napoleon, did, indeed, propose an expedition to 
 India, but his plan was so wild that even Napoleon laughed at 
 it. His idea was that Eussia should concentrate in Astrakhan 
 25,000 regular troops and 2,000 Cossacks. France was also to 
 send a body of 35,000 men up the Danube to the Black Sea, 
 when they were to be conveyed in ships to Taganrog, and were 
 then to march to the Volga and sail to Astrakhan. From 
 there both armies were to go to Astrabad, and it was expected 
 that the troops could march from Astrakhan to the Indus in 
 forty-five days. Napoleon having refused to consent to this 
 expedition, Paul resolved on undertaking it with his own 
 means ; and in order not to make the conquest too much of 
 a burden upon the Government, he intended to effect it by 
 means of the Don Cossacks alone, to whom he presented India 
 in a letter of January 12 (^24) to General Orlof, the Ataman 
 of the Don Cossacks, in which he said : ' All the wealth of 
 India will be your reward for this expedition.' The Cossacks 
 were to march from Orenburg to Khiva and Bukhara, and 
 thence to the Indus. Several other letters with new orders 
 succeeded, and Orlof promised to undertake the expedition and 
 carry it out successfully. The Cossacks prepared for their 
 march, which was fixed for the beginning of May, when on 
 the night of March 23 the Emperor Paul suddenly died, and 
 the change of Government put a stop to the whole plan. 
 
 In the early part of the Crimean war another project for 
 the invasion of India was presented to the Emperor Nicholas 
 by General Duhamel, but Eussia's attention was too much 
 taken up with what was passing on the Danube and in the 
 
266 TURKISTAN. 
 
 Crimea to pay much attention to it. The success of such an 
 expedition would, of course, depend upon which country had 
 the preponderance in Persia, for it is only with the consent if 
 not the active co-operation of Persia that such a plan would 
 stand the slightest chance of fulfilment. 
 
 Apprehensions for the safety of her Indian possessions led 
 England to engage in the only negotiations on the subject of 
 Central Asia which have yet taken place. They were begun in 
 the early part of 1869 by Lord Clarendon, who in a conference 
 with Baron Brunnow, the Kussian Ambassador, said that while 
 Her Majesty's Grovernment had not the slightest cause for alarm 
 in the rapid progress of Eussia in Central Asia, yet something 
 must be done to allay the excitement and the suspicions of the 
 British public and the British press. He therefore proposed 
 what became known as the ' neutral zone,' - that there should 
 be a strip of territory between Russia and the Indian possessions 
 the neutrality of which should be guaranteed by both parties. 
 Prince Gortchakof received this suggestion in very good part, 
 and proposed that Afghanistan be selected as that zone. This, 
 however, did not suit the views of the Indian Grovernment, which 
 was by no means desirous of having Afghanistan remain neutral, 
 — so far at least as England was concerned. Subsequently Lord 
 Clarendon had an interview at Heidelburg with Prince Grort- 
 chakof on this subject, and still later in the autumn of the 
 same year Mr. Forsyth, as the representative of the Indian 
 Government, visited St. Petersburg, and held several conferences 
 with Prince Grortchakof, and other Eussian ministers. It was 
 found that a neutral zone in its strict sense was impossible. 
 The idea of the Indian G-overnment then was to establish on 
 the frontier of each country a girdle of semi-independent states, 
 those nearest India — Afghanistan, Khelat, and Yarkand ( Kash- 
 gar) - to be subject to British influence, and those on the other 
 side of the Oxus, including Bukhara and Khokand, to be 
 subject to that of Russia. As the plan of independent or semi- 
 independent states was found an impossible one, it was barely 
 proposed to Eussia, and after several conferences it was sub- 
 stantially agreed, that ' Afghanistan should be completely 
 outside the sphere within which Eussia should be called upon 
 to exercise her influence,' while it was understood that all the 
 countries to the north of that should be considered to be under 
 
THE AFGHAN FRONTIER 267 
 
 Russian influence, and that no interference should be made 
 there by England. The only question to decide was as to the 
 actual boundaries of Afghanistan, it being agreed that all the 
 countries in the effective possession of Shir Ali Khan, and which 
 had formerly recognised the sovereignty of Dost Mohammed, 
 should be considered as Afghanistan, and it was arranged that 
 the memoranda and papers on this subject should be submitted 
 to General Kaufmann, as the person nearest the spot capable of 
 judging the question, in order that he might report to the 
 Russian Government what the actual boundaries of the country 
 were. The matter drifted on, for no reports were received from 
 General Kaufmann, who seemed to find it exceedingly difficult 
 to ascertain the real boundaries of Afghanistan, in spite of the 
 pressing reminder of Sir Andrew Buchannan in the autumn uf 
 1871. Finally, on October 17, 1872, Lord Granville wrote a 
 dispatch to Lord Augustus Loftus, for communication to the 
 Russian Government, in which it was stated that the English 
 Government not having received any information from Russia, 
 had been obliged to make up their minds from the best infor- 
 mation they could receive, and had concluded to consider as 
 fully belonging to the Amir of Kabul : — 1. Badakshan, with its 
 dependent district of Vakhan, from the Sarikul (Woods' Lake) 
 on the east, to the junetion of the Koktcha River, with the Oxus 
 (or Penja), forming the northern boundary of this Afghan 
 province throughout its entire extent. 2. Afghan Turkistan, 
 comprising the districts of Kunduz, Khulm, and Balkh, the 
 northern boundary of which would be the line of the Oxus from 
 the junction of the Koktcha River to the post of Khoja Saleh 
 inclusive, on the high road from Bukhara to Balkh. Nothing 
 to be claimed by the Afghan Amir on the left bank of the Oxus 
 below Khoja Saleh. 3. The internal districts of Aksha, Seripul, 
 Maimena, Shibberjan, and Andkhoi, the latter of which would 
 be the extreme Afghan frontier possession to the north west, 
 the desert beyond belonging to independent tribes of Turkomans. 
 4, The Western Afghan frontier, between the dependencies of 
 Herat and those of the Persian province of Khorassan, is well 
 known, and need not here be defined.' l 
 
 1 Sir Henry Rawlinson (in his ' England and Russia in the East,' London, 
 1875, p. 310), seems to claim on one point a still greater extent of territory. He 
 states that in paragraph 1 the words ' on the west ; the stream of the Oxus ' were 
 
268 TURKISTAN. 
 
 This despatch brought out a reply from Prince Gortchakof, 
 conveying the report of General Kaufmann, and a memorandum 
 by Mr. Struve, who claimed that Badakshan and Vakhan were 
 not subject to the rule of Shir Ali Khan. Prince Gortchakof 
 therefore, objected to having them included within the limits 
 of Afghanistan under his objection. He, however, subsequently 
 withdrew his objection, as he said, to please the English 
 cabinet. He added, ' We are more inclined to this act of 
 courtesy, as the English Government engages to use all its 
 influence with Shir Ali, in order to induce him to maintain a 
 peaceful attitude, as well as to insist on his giving up all 
 measures of aggression or further conquest. This influence is 
 indispensable. It is based not only on the material and moral 
 ascendancy of England, but also on the subsidies for -which Shir 
 Ali is indebted to her. Such being the case, we see in this 
 assurance a real guarantee for the maintenance of peace.' When 
 this correspondence came to be published, some alarm was felt 
 as to the obligation of England, implied in the last paragraph 
 of Prince Gortchakof 's note, to maintain Shir Ali's peaceful at- 
 titude and to restrain him from all measures of aggression or 
 further conquest. It was said that this committed England to 
 an armed intervention for the preservation of peace. Mr. Glad- 
 stone, in a speech in Parliament (April 23, 1873), repudiated 
 this responsibility, saying that the influence of England was 
 only to be exercised by means of friendly advice. The Russians 
 looked upon this as a formal repudiation of the whole trans- 
 action on the part of the English Government, for it was evident 
 that Russia would not guarantee the inviolability of Afghanistan 
 territory, if the English did not agree that they would compel 
 the Amir to respect the territory on the other side of the Oxus, 
 ■ — territory which is now Bukharan, but what will probably 
 some day be Russian. The * Official Gazette,' remarking on Mr. 
 
 accidentally omitted after the words 'the Oxus of Penja,' and he maintains there- 
 fore on the basis of subsequent explorations that the main stream of the Oxus is 
 not to be taken, as that rising in Woods' Lake, but a branch to the north rising in 
 the little Pamir Lake, which, under the name of Murghabi, flows down the Shugnan 
 valley. He has accordingly thus marked the boundary on his map. The official 
 documents, however, published both by the English and the Russian Governments 
 expressly mention the branch rising in Wood's Lake. It certainly was not the 
 intention of the Russians to include in Afghanistan the principality of Shugnan 
 which is now well known to belong to Bukhara. 
 
ENGLAND AND RUSSIA. 269 
 
 Gladstone's explanation, said : ' If England has preserved her 
 freedom of action Eussia has also preserved hers, and con- 
 sequently the two Governments have not in reality pledged 
 themselves to any inconvenient obligations which might have the 
 effect of placing them in false relations.' In reality, therefore, 
 the matter remains exactly where it was before the negotiations 
 of 1869 and 1872 were begun, except that an agreement has 
 been brought about as to what are the boundaries of Afghanistan. 
 Unless some new arrangement should be made, Russia has a 
 perfect right, in case of troubles on the Oxus, to cross it and 
 inflict punishment upon the troops and provinces of Shir Ali. 
 
 The attitude of England toward Russia with regard to 
 Central Asia, can hardly be called a dignified one. There are 
 constant questions, protests, demands for explanations, and even 
 threats — at least in the newspapers and in Parliament — but 
 nothing ever is done. Outcries were made about the expedition 
 to Khiva, but when the occupation had once become a fait 
 accompli, the same men and the same journals said that no 
 harm was done. Again there were outcries and questions about 
 the possibility of a Russian movement on Kashgar. Now, after 
 Khokand is occupied, the conquest of Kashgar is looked upon as 
 not so alarming after all. At present there is a similar uneasi- 
 ness about Merv, and the Russophobist party are using all their 
 efforts to show, either that the Russians must not be allowed to 
 take Merv, or if they do take it, that Herat must be occupied. 
 In all probability Merv will be occupied by the Russians, and 
 in all probability the English Government will do nothing at 
 all. It would seem wiser and more dignified, instead of subject- 
 ing the Russian Foreign Office to constant petty annoyances, to 
 allow the Russians plainly to understand what limits they could 
 not pass in their onward movement. A state of mutual sus- 
 picion bodes no good to the relations of any Governments. 
 
 One of the great causes of the Russian advance in Central 
 Asia, and one of the greatest difficulties with which the 
 Foreign Office has had to deal, has been the full powers 
 granted to General Kaufmann to carry on diplomatic relations 
 with the neighbouring states. Whatever reason might have 
 existed for this at first, now that the post-roads are in better 
 order, and that the telegraph is completed to Tashkent and 
 Hodjent, the policy of Turkistan should certainly be entirely 
 
270 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 governed by tnat of the Government at St. Petersburg. 
 These powers, however, General Kaufmann has regarded as 
 the apple of his eye. There are the best reasons to believe that 
 full details of the actual state of the relations between the 
 Khanates and Tashkent have not always been communicated to 
 the Home Government, and that at times formal permission 
 has been asked and explanations have been given only after 
 military expeditions have actually started. The policy which 
 has prevailed at Tashkent, so far as it can be distinct from the 
 policy at St. Petersburg, has been a purely personal one. The 
 great desire of the Governor-General has been to play the part 
 of pacificator of Central Asia. With this view treaties were 
 made with various states — which were far from being kept — by 
 which, in the opinion of many- not only at St. Petersburg but 
 even in Tashkent, to say nothing of those abroad who followed 
 the movements, — the surrounding Khanates were reduced to 
 vassalage. How far this is true may be seen from the late war 
 with Khokand. It being supposed that both Khokand and 
 Bukhara were perfectly subdued, and were ready to carry out all 
 the wishes of the Government, the campaign against Khiva was 
 undertaken without great necessity, but to round off the whole 
 with a successful military expedition, which would put down the 
 last elements of disorder in Central Asia. 
 
 One consequence of this full power has been to keep up 
 diplomatic relations where properly no diplomatic relations 
 should have existed. When the Khanates had been once awed 
 by force of arms, the Russians might well have taken a leaf 
 from the English policy in India, and have appointed residents 
 near each of the Khans, whose position would indeed have been 
 a semi-diplomatic one, but whose duties would have consisted, 
 with the help of a guard of native Cossacks, in enforcing the 
 orders of the Governor-General. 
 
 No attempt, however, has been made at anything like this. 
 The Russians have never maintained in any of the Khanates an 
 official or secret agent who could give them information. They 
 have trusted to the reports of prefects and commanders on the 
 borders, and to the effect of occasional missions. The nominal 
 conduct of diplomatic affairs was, up to the end of 1873, in the 
 hands of Mr. Struve, the son of the well-known astronomer, 
 and now the Russian minister in Japan. Since that time they 
 
PRESENTS. 271 
 
 have been conducted by Mr. Weinberg, a dependent of the 
 Foreign Office. Diplomatic relations have been kept up by 
 occasionally sending special missions — frequently without any 
 special object except the interchange of compliments — to Kho- 
 kand, Bukhara, and even Kashgar. These missions are fre- 
 quently, but not always accompanied by the diplomatic employe. 
 In addition to this, the Khokandian Government up to its 
 fall maintained in Tashkent a resident envoy, one Mirza 
 Hakim, a man of little repute in his own country, but a 
 favourite of the Khan. 
 
 The Eussians complain that their Government shows no 
 firmness in its diplomatic relations, and does not assert the 
 influence to which it has a right from its actual power, and 
 accuse the diplomatic employe and other envoys of yielding too 
 much to what is called Asiatic usage. One of these usages is 
 that of giving and receiving presents. When Eussia first 
 opened relations with the Khanates, and when it was itself in 
 outward character an Asiatic power, it is but natural that the 
 system of presents should have been maintained. It was, how- 
 ever, found exceedingly burdensome. The Khans approved of 
 it in order to obtain rich presents from the Tsars, as well as to 
 reward their favourites at Eussian expense by sending them on 
 missions. In consequence of this, it became necessary to issue 
 an order that Asiatic envoys could not be received more than 
 once in three years, and then only under special circumstances, 
 and that the direct relations between the countries should be 
 carried on by the governors of the nearest provinces. 
 
 When the Eussians, by the occupation of Tashkent, came 
 into close relations with Bukhara and Khokand, it would have 
 been far wiser if they had asserted their own customs, and 
 refused either to give or receive presents. Having at that time 
 inspired the neighbouring Khanates with awe, it would have 
 been easy to have maintained their ground. For presents and 
 expenses of ambassadors, a very large sum is required. ' The 
 Governor-General for Turkistan receives for these purposes 
 35,000 rubles yearly ; but this sum is quite insufficient to cover 
 the actual outlay for the reception of ambassadors and the pur- 
 chase of articles for presents. In consequence of this, the 
 Governor-General is obliged to give to one presents received 
 from another, or else to sell those presents, in order with the 
 
272 TURKESTAN. 
 
 money thus obtained to purchase others to be given in 
 return. The second method is, perhaps, to be preferred to the 
 first, so as to prevent the absurd incidents which it is said 
 sometimes formerly happened. The Bukharan Amir, for ex- 
 ample, in the horses sent him from Khokand, recognised the 
 same animals which he had previously given to the Bek of 
 Tashkent. These horses, with their gorgeous trappings, had 
 succeeded in making several visits, and had returned to their 
 own stable. But even now it sometimes happens that the robes 
 sent from all quarters to Tashkent get mixed, and instead of 
 Khokandian robes, Bukharan robes are sent to Bukhara, so that 
 people believe there that the present has not been accepted, 
 but has been returned. Every right thinking man must admit 
 that this system of presents is a very bad one. A certain sum 
 is assigned to the higher officials for presents, which is all spent, 
 in addition to certain varying amounts realised by the sale of 
 presents received in exchange. The remainder of these presents, 
 however, does not constitute the property of the Treasury, 
 but of the officials ; so that a lover of such things without 
 spending a penny can form an excellent collection at the cost 
 of the Grovernment. Every agent who is sent to the Khanates 
 is in the same way allowed by the Gfovernor-Gfeneral money for 
 presents. The agent repeats the procedure, and if he be an 
 adept he never returns with empty hands. Of course the mis- 
 sions to the Khanates generally fall to the diplomatic employe. 
 This is his monopoly. In his case the presents bear no propor- 
 tion to those given to other people ; . . . . for instance, the 
 Khan of Khokand created Mr. Struve a taksaba — field- 
 marshal of the Khokandian army .... and gave him a velvet 
 uniform with gold braids, ornamented with pearls and precious 
 stones. They even say the taksaba receives money in the shape 
 of the rents of vaqf lands. 1 . . . .' 
 
 With this system the dignity and importance of the Eussian 
 Grovernment are lessened. Another usage to which the Eussians 
 have unthinkingly conformed, is to appear before the native 
 Khans and Amirs dressed in native robes, a conformity to 
 custom which the natives have never appreciated at its real 
 value, but have regarded as a proof of the Eussians' weakness, 
 and of their desire to keep up good relations even by acts which 
 lower the national dignity. 
 
 1 ' Russia and England in Central Asia,' by M. A. Terentief. pp. 331, 332. 
 
RUSSIAN ENVOYS OF OLDEN TIME. 273 
 
 In one case even a member of a mission to Bukhara was so 
 desirous of doing - everything that politeness required, that to 
 all appearances at least he kissed the hand of the Amir at the 
 farewell interview, a circumstance which did not increase the 
 respect of the Bukharans for the mission. 1 
 
 In former times Russian envoys did not allow themselves to 
 perform acts so derogatory to the dignity of the Russian names, 
 as witness the instances given in the paper of Professor Gri- 
 gorief, Appendix IV., at the end of this volume, and especially 
 the demeanour of Khokhlof, the Russian envoy to Bukhara in 
 1620, of the Brothers Pasukhin in 1669, and of Nikiforof, envoy 
 at Khiva, in 1841. 2 
 
 1 ' Russia and England in Central Asia,' by M. A. Terentief, p. 337. 
 
 2 In 1620 Ivan-Khokhlof was sent on a mission to the Bukhar.m Khan, Imam 
 Kuli. In his instructions it was said that if any duiies or payment should be 
 demanded in order to admit him to the Khan, he should not pay them, but should 
 return ; and that if the Khan invited him to his table he was not to accept the 
 invitation except on condition that no other foreign envoy should be there, or if 
 any should be there, that they should sit below him. Khokhlof penetrated to 
 Samarkand, and was there received by the Khan. On going into the palace one of 
 the officials desired to take the Tsar's letter from Khokhlof's hand, who refused to 
 give it up. On presenting to the Khan the compliments of the Russian Tsar, and 
 seeing that he did not stand up at the mention of the Tsar's name, "he remarked to 
 him that in similar cases out of respect to the name of the Tsar all kings were 
 accustomed to rise. The Khan immediately complied, excusing himself on the 
 ground that it was so long since he had received a Russian envoy and had heard 
 the words of the Tsar, that he had forgotten, and assuring him at the same time 
 that the omission was unintentional, and that there was no unfriendliness or real 
 want of respect. 
 
 In 1669 the brothers Pasukhin were sent to Bukhara by the Tsar Alexis. The 
 day before their reception by the Khan the envoys demanded that in the first place 
 there should be no other envoy received at the same time, and secondly, that horses 
 should be sent for them. On being answered that this was not customary in 
 Bukhara, Pasukhin replied that horses from the Tsar's stable were given to the 
 Pukharan envoys in Moscow, and that therefore they must be similarly treated. 
 Not only was this request complied with, but every other made during the mission 
 — which was very successful. 
 
 Captain Nikiforof was sent on a mission to Khiva in 1841, immediately after 
 the unlucky expedition of Perovsky. Although he was accompanied by only a 
 small escort of twelve Cossacks, instead of cringing an I yielding to all the demands 
 of Khivan etiquette, he did exactly the opposite, and by his bold demeanour and 
 his rude and almost brutal treatment of the Khan's officials, he succeeded in 
 inspiring great respect. Seeing the great delays in the negotiations, he roughly 
 stated to the Khivans what the Russian Government would henceforth consider as 
 the boundary, and threatened every Kbivan with death who should be found on 
 the other side of it. This was shortly after the murder of two pliant English 
 envoys in Bukhara. 
 
 VOL. II. T 
 
274 TURKISTAN. 
 
 In forming a judgment on the methods and the results of the 
 Russian policy in Asia, it may be of use to consider the relations 
 of Russia with each country separately. 
 
 FIKST — KHOKAND. 
 
 By the campaign of Tchernaief in 1864-5, and the subse- 
 quent capture of Hodjent in 1866, the Khan of Khokand was 
 restricted to a very small portion of his former territory, — which 
 had at one time extended west to the mouth of the Syr Darya, 
 and north almost to Vierny, — and was left to govern a small 
 fertile territory completely surrounded by mountains, except on 
 the western side near Hodjent. At that time the Russians pro- 
 posed to occupy also the province of Namangan, thus limiting 
 the Khokandian rule to the south of the rivers Syr Darya and 
 Naryn, and General Romanofsky himself was desirous of rectify- 
 ing his then irregular frontier by occupying the city of Kho- 
 kand and by the conquest of the whole country. But thf shrewd 
 advice of Ata Bek caused the Khan to send envoys to con- 
 gratulate the Russians on the capture of Hodjent from the 
 Bukharans ; and as there had been no actual cause for war 
 except the, feeling supposed to prevail in Khokand, General 
 Romanofsky was reluctantly compelled to abandon the project. 
 He was soon afterwards removed, and as the policy indicated by 
 the Government at St. Petersburg was always against fresh 
 conquests, and as nothing occurred on the side of Khokand of such 
 great importance as to render a war absolutely necessary, the 
 country remained unattached until the rebellion of 1875 made 
 Russian interference imperative. 
 
 On his arrival at Tashkent late in the autumn of 1 867, 
 General Kaufmann informed Khudayar Khan of his accession to 
 power, and requested him to send an envoy to conclude a treaty 
 of commerce. Subsequently, on account of the movements of 
 troops in Khokand and fears of a change in Russian policy, he 
 was obliged to write the Khan an assuring letter. To this the 
 Khan replied with an autograph letter and an envoy, who 
 assured General Kaufmann that the movements of troops were 
 only the usual autumn manoeuvres caused by the distribution of 
 winter clothing. General Kaufmann informed the envoy in plain 
 terms of the demands which he had to make with regard to the 
 rights of Russian traders, and the diminution of the duties, and 
 
COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH KHOKAND. 275 
 
 sent by him a copy of the treaty which he proposed. A small 
 Eussian mission went to Khokand at the same time for the 
 purpose of investigating to some extent the resources of the 
 country. To the conditions of the treaty the Khan would not 
 at first consent, maintaining that he could not allow Eussian 
 merchants to travel freely over the country, as he could not 
 guarantee them against attacks from the more fanatical of his 
 subjects. In addition to this he desired to send an embassy to 
 St. Petersburg, and, if this could not be allowed, at all events 
 to obtain a letter directly from the Emperor, assuring him of 
 peace and friendship, which would be a guarantee of good rela- 
 tions independently of the change of the Eussian governors, for, 
 with all the respect he had for them, he could not but notice 
 that in the course of three years there had been four Eussian 
 commanders, each of whom had proposed his own conditions for 
 peace. 
 
 General Kaufmann replied to the Khan formally and deci- 
 sively in a letter of January 29 (February 10), 1868. 'The 
 great Eussian Tsar never allows any dissension between the 
 Khans and the people in the countries neighbouring to us. 
 Your Highness writes that you cannot answer for the crimes of 
 some of your subjects with regard to Eussian traders. To this 
 I reply, either they must obey your commands or they do not 
 acknowledge your authority ov. r them. A nation must have a 
 head. Those of your people who, in spite of your commands, 
 do harm to Eussian merchants, must then obey my orders. I 
 cannot allow unruly and independent people in the neighbour- 
 hood. The general quiet demands that they shall submit either 
 to you or to me.' To Mirza Hakim, one of the envoys, 
 General Kaufmann spoke in strong terms of the indecision of the 
 Khan, and said that if he had wished to occupy the Khanate he 
 would not have wasted time and words, but would before that have 
 moved his troops and ended the whole matter. At last the Khan 
 withdrew from his pretensions of carrying on direct relations 
 with St. Petersburg, and agreed not only to accept the Treaty 
 of General Kaufmann as the representative of the Emperor, but to 
 sign it as well. The main privileges secured by the treaty were 
 five : 1. The right of Eussian merchants to visit all the towns 
 in the Khanate ; 2. That of establishing caravanserais and depots 
 for goods where they wished ; 3. That of having caravaii-bashis 
 
 t2 
 
276 TURKISTAN. 
 
 or commercial agents in all the towns of the Khanate ; 4. The 
 reduction of the customs duties to 1\ per cent., and the 
 rendering them equal both for Christians and Mussulmans, 
 and, 5. The free passage through Khokand of Eussian caravans 
 desiring to go into the neighbouring countries. The treaty 
 was finally signed, arid was approved by the Emperor in 
 November 1868. 
 
 This treaty was never carefully observed. Additional duties 
 on cotton and silk were imposed, as I have mentioned on p. 1 7, 
 vol. ii., and difficulties were placed in the way of freely travel- 
 ling in the country. The Eussian merchants resident in 
 Khokand were kept under the severest restrictions, and one 
 was even attacked and nearly killed, an offence which was con- 
 doned by a small compensation paid by the Khan. 
 
 In the Eussian campaign against Samarkand, the attitude 
 of the Khan was anything but favourable to the Eussians, and 
 his troops were kept ready while he was on the watch for an occa 
 sion to attack the Eussians in the rear. The speedy capture of 
 Samarkand, and the reports from the Eussian camp of his envoy 
 Mirza Hakim, who was greatly under Eussian influence, 
 kept him for the moment quiet. The Eussians seemed so 
 satisfied with the results that finally, as a mark of satisfaction, 
 General Kaufman n allowed Mirza Hakim to go to St. Petersburg, 
 where he was received by the Emperor. After his return 
 Khudayar Khan was invested with the order of the first class of 
 St. Stanislas, and a slight difference was made in the title by 
 which the Eussians addressed him. A year later, in December 
 1869, Khudayar made a complaint to the Governor-General 
 against the Amir of Bukhara, saying that in subduing the Beks of 
 Hissar and Kulab, he had fallen upon a vassal of Khokand — Shir 
 Ali, the Bek of Karategin — who had consequently been obliged 
 to take refuge in Khokand. Negotiations were therefore entered 
 into on this subject with the Amir, and he sent to Tashkent as 
 his excuse a letter of Shir Ali, which showed his participation 
 in the disturbances in the Bekship of Hissar. Khudayar 
 declared this letter to be forged, and sent for comparison a 
 genuine letter of Shir Ali. The seal did indeed seem to be a 
 counterfeit one, and the Governor-General proposed to the Amir 
 to return Karategin to its lawful ruler. In the meantime Shir 
 Ali Khan raised some troops and marched into Karategin, but 
 
KAEATEGIN. 277 
 
 was defeated by the united forces of the Beks of Kulab and 
 Hissar and was taken prisoner. 
 
 Wishing to avoid any contest between the rulers of Buk- 
 hara and Khokand, because the success of the former would 
 lessen the moral value of the Eussian protection received by the 
 latter, General Kaufmann proposed to Khudayar Khan to restore 
 Karategin to its former ruler, Mozaffar Shah, who was kept a 
 prisoner in Khokand, and asked the Amir in return to free Shir Ali. 
 The compromise was accepted by both sides and was immediately 
 put into execution. 1 In this way Karategin was formed into a 
 practically independent state lying between Khokand and 
 Bukhara, and the Eussians succeeded in attaining a sort of moral 
 weight and influence in the concerns of that locality. Although 
 the Khokandians claimed a nominal sovereignty over Karategin, 
 it was never enforced, and certainly, of late years especially, 
 since the Kirghiz insurrection, the rulers of Karategin have 
 paid no tribute to the Khan, nor recognised in any way his au- 
 thority over the country. 
 
 After the capture of Shahrisabs in July 1870 Jura Bek and 
 Baba Bek fled to Khokand, but owing to his previous enmity 
 combined with the threatening demands of the Eussians, the 
 Khan consented to infringe the laws of hospitality and de- 
 livered the fugitives at Tashkent. Mr. Strove was then sent 
 on a mission to Khokand to thank the Khan for his action and 
 to discuss certain questions which had never been satisfactorily 
 settled. Among these were the regulation of the boundaries, 
 the settlement of the claims of Eussian merchants, the explan- 
 ation of the circumstances which had delayed the return of Mo- 
 zaffar Shah to Karategin, the appointment of a permanent agent 
 in Khokand, and indemnity for the attack made by the moun- 
 taineers on the Cossacks of Colonel Dennet during the expedition 
 in the Upper Zarafshan. This last claim the Khan for some 
 time resisted, but finally, through the advice of the more sensihle 
 of his councillors, he yielded, and paid the sum of 5,000 rubles, 
 part of which went to those wounded and to the families of the 
 killed, and the rest to the fund for regimental churches. To 
 the request for permission to appoint a permanent agent the 
 Khan gave his consent, as indeed he had done on one or two 
 previous occasions. But curiously enough, as soon as the consent 
 1 Terentief, id. pp. 43, 71. 
 
278 TTJRKISTAN. 
 
 was obtained the Eussian authorities thought no more about it 
 and no permanent agent was ever appointed. 
 
 A contrary course would have been much more beneficial to 
 Eussian interests, for a resident agent, if a man of ability and 
 well supported, could have succeeded in obtaining a strong moral 
 influence over the Khan, and the Eussians would have been 
 sufficiently well informed of the state of the country to have 
 foreseen and prevented the explosion which resulted in the war 
 of 1875. It seemed, however, at that time to General Kaufmann 
 as well as to Mr. Struve, that the Khan was even then thoroughly 
 a vassal of Eussia, and opportunity was taken to propose to him- 
 the conquest of Kashgar. Yakub Khan had not at that time 
 been recognised by the Eussian Government, which was consider- 
 ably disquieted by the attitude he had taken, and it was thought 
 to be a very shrewd plan to get rid of him in this way, and 
 instead of two neighbours to have but one. Khudayar Khan 
 could not, however, sum up resolution enough to agree to the 
 proposal, and did nothing more than declare his readiness to act 
 as mediator between Yakub Bek and the Eussians. 
 
 In 1872 the Khan's eldest son, Nasreddin, Bek of Andijan, 
 was allowed to visit Tashkent, where he remained for about 
 three weeks. Although he engaged there in secret intrigues 
 against the Eussians, this visit was thought greatly to strengthen 
 Eussian influence in Khokand. 1 
 
 Khudayar Khan, who had never been a popular ruler, and who 
 had twice been driven from the throne on account of his cruelty 
 and rapacity, continually excited discontent among his subjects, 
 and more especially among the nomad tribes of Kiptchaks and 
 Kirghiz who lived in the mountainous regions of the north-east 
 and south-east. Eebellions therefore were frequent, and a revolt 
 broke out in 1873 which, though quelled for the time, was re- 
 newed in 1874, and finally, in 1875, terminated in the war which 
 led to the occupation and annexation of the Khanate by Eussia. 
 
 The policy of the Eussian administrators during these insur- 
 rections seems to have been a mistaken one. They endeavoured 
 to remain neutral, but they were so insufficiently informed of 
 the position of affairs and of the actual state of feeling in Kho- 
 kand, that they did not seem to understand that they were looked 
 upon as the protectors and supporters of the Khan ; and indeed 
 
 1 See also pp. 40, 142. 
 
DISCONTENT IN KHOKAND. 279 
 
 tLe Khan would have been dethroned long before had it not been 
 for the fear of the inhabitants that the Russians would imme- 
 diately march into the country and restore him. The officials at 
 Tashkent did not seem to have sufficient foresight to see that the 
 absorption of the Khanate by Russia was inevitable sooner or 
 later, and that their best plan therefore was gradually to prepare 
 the way for this by gentle means, so that the end might come 
 without a shock. They further believed that the Khan was an 
 obedient vassal, and they lulled themselves into a false security ; 
 if they thought at all about annexation, they thought that the 
 fear inspired by their arms throughout Central Asia was such as 
 to render conquest a work of the greatest ease. This would have 
 been true a few years ago, but of late the Russians had lost their 
 moral weight in the country, and the natives of the Russian pro- 
 vinces had become discontented. They had begun to look upon 
 their new rulers as no better than their old. They had published 
 their discontent in letters and petitions to the neighbouring 
 countries, and the people in Khokand had not only resolved to 
 attempt all rather than come under Russian rule, but had begun 
 to believe that the Russians were weaker than they had previously 
 supposed. 
 
 At the outbreak of the rebellion in 1873 both Kirghiz and 
 Kiptchaks so hated the Khan that they were inclined to be 
 favourably disposed towards the Russians. 1 Many of them 
 migrated across the boundary and asked the Russians to inter- 
 vene and dethrone the Khan, and afford them protection. Nor 
 was this movement confined to the nomads. Similar petitions 
 were received from the inhabitants of towns. Had the Russians 
 in the summer of 1873 chosen to occupy Khokand they could 
 have done so without striking a blow, for both nomads and Sarts 
 would have joined them, and the Khan would have been driven 
 into exile at the first news of their advance. General Kolpakof- 
 sky saw this, and telegraphed to St. Petersburg for permission to 
 intervene, but the diplomatic storm with regard to the occupa- 
 tion of Khiva was then in full blast and permission was refused. 
 
 When the Russians declined to interfere on the side of the 
 
 nomads it was believed that they maintained the side of the 
 
 Khan, and as the feeling grew more and more bitter against 
 
 Khudayar Khan it increased proportionately against the Rus- 
 
 1 See Appendix I., Vol. I. 
 
280 TURKISTAN. 
 
 sians. Finally, in 1875, a step was taken which without a 
 doubt increased the hostile feelings against the Eussians and 
 possibly precipitated the conflict. 
 
 It was resolved to prepare for an expedition against Kash- 
 gar. 1 In order to accomplish that end more speedily, it was 
 desirable to send a part of the troops through Khokand, and 
 Mr. Weinberg, the diplomatic official, was despatched on a 
 mission to Khokand to secure the consent of the Khan to the 
 passage of troops. Colonel Scobelef accompanied him, charged 
 to explore the pass of Terek Davan leadiug to Kashgar. The 
 mission took as a propitiatory offering to Khudayar Khan a boy of 
 seventeen, named Abdul Keriin Bek, who had been put forward 
 by the Kirghiz as a pretender to the throne. Abdul Keriin 
 had lived in Hodjent all his life, knowing nothing of his ex- 
 traction until the year before, when he was approached by the 
 Kirghiz, and when he was removed to Tashkent on the com- 
 plaint of the Khan, while his chief adviser, Abdul Kaum, was 
 sent to Tchimkent. His surrender had never been asked for, 
 and was entirely gratuitous on the part of General Kaufmann. 
 This, like the surrender of Tokhtamysh Bek of Shahrisabs to 
 the Amir of Bukhara, being contrary to the rules of asylum and 
 hospitality wdiich even Central Asiatics recognise, was not only 
 a shameful act on the part of the Russian authorities but it 
 turned out contrary to their expectations; it lowered rather 
 than increased their influence with the natives. In surrender- 
 ing Abdul Kerim, General Kaufmann, it is true, requested the 
 Khan to be gracious and pardon him, which, indeed, he pro- 
 mised to do. The boy, who was confided to the care of Ata 
 Bek, was lost sight of in the ensuing rebellion. 
 
 The Russian mission, with a guard of twenty-two Cossacks 
 and jigits, accompanied by Mirza Hakim, the Khokandian envoy, 
 arrived at Khokand on July 25, 1875. 
 
 When permission was asked for Colonel Scobelef to make 
 his investigations of the mountain passes, the Khan consented, 
 but said that part of the country was unsafe owing to disorders 
 
 1 It has been said that this expedition was in consequence of an arrangement 
 made between General Kaufmann and Colonel Scobelef, by which to secure the 
 good-will and family and court influence of the latter, who had been formerly opposed 
 to General Kaufmann. For this purpose he was to be allowed to head a mili- 
 tary expedition, and to receive the honours and advantages which accrued from it 
 
THE RUSSIAN MISSION IN DIFFICULTIES. 281 
 
 which had broken out among the nomads, although he had sent 
 4,000 men against them under the command of Abdurrahman 
 Aftobatcha, and hoped that quiet would soon be restored. The 
 Khan, however, seemed troubled by the course events were 
 taking, and was disposed to listen with calmness to the advice 
 given him by Mr. Weinberg on the part of General Kaufmann 
 with regard to the treatment of his people, who urged upon 
 him more moderation and justice. 
 
 A few days later, on July 31, a report reached the capital 
 that Nasreddin, the Khan's eldest son, had gone over to the 
 rebels, and that the cities of Ush, Namangan, Andijan, and 
 Assake were occupied by them. It became known at the same 
 time that the real head of the insurrection was Abdurrahman 
 Aftobatcha, who had been sent to quell it. The next day 
 information was brought that the Khan's brother, Sultan Murad, 
 Bek of Marghilan, had joined the insurgents. They had that 
 day occupied Marghilan and were already within thirty or forty 
 miles of Khokand. Khudayar Khan then resolved to put him- 
 self at the head of the troops which remained favourable to 
 him and to march against the insurgents. The Russian envoys 
 unwisely decided to accompany him, thus giving him the ap- 
 pearance of having Russian support. The march was fixed for 
 August 3. but during the preceding night the greater part of 
 the Khan's army, together with his second son, Madamin Bek, 
 abandoned him to join the insurgents. Resistance was no 
 longer to.be thought of, and Khudayar Khan decided to place 
 himself under the protection of the Russian envoys and to seek 
 a refuge in Tashkent. The Russian merchants in Khokand, 
 with their clerks and assistants, also joined the mission. 
 
 The exit from the city through the excited and angry mob 
 was attended with considerable difficulty, but after a ride of 
 two days under constant attack the party reached Hodjent in 
 safety. The Russians had two jigits killed, while one dis- 
 appeared. The retreat was a perilous one, for the party fell 
 at one time into an ambuscade, and the soldiers who started 
 w 7 ith the Khan abandoned him from time to time, and always 
 fired at the Russians as they were leaving. Some of the 
 messengers sent to Hodjent for assistance were killed, but one 
 finally arrived in safety, and a force of troops was immediately 
 iespatched to the boundary. The Khan was accompanied by 
 
282 TURKISTAN. 
 
 his younger son, Urman, Ata Bek, the Atalyk, Mullah Maaruf, 
 Bek of Sokh and nephew of Khuclayar, and a suite of 643 
 people, many of whom were women. He had also a large 
 train of carts, on which he succeeded in bringing part of his 
 treasure, to the amount of over a million pounds sterling. For 
 the bravery shown during this march each of the Cossacks was 
 subsequently recompensed with the Cross of St. George, and 
 a grant of 14,000 rubles was made by General Kaufmann to 
 cover the loss of baggage and equipments, each Cossack receiv- 
 ing 500 rubles as his indemnity. 
 
 Mr. Weinberg insists that a hazavat or religious war 
 against the Eussians was proclaimed at the opening of the 
 insurrection. This, however, was not believed at the time, 
 and the subsequent friendly overtures to the Eussians made 
 it in their opinion improbable. The arrival, however, of 
 the Eussian mission, which, by accident, coincided with the 
 opening of the insurrection, the surrender of Abdul Kerim, 
 and the protection afforded to the Khan, his family, and his 
 treasure, all, doubtless, had their weight in inspiring the in- 
 surgents with the belief that the Eussians were taking the part 
 of the Khan and would endeavour to restore him to the throne. 
 It was, therefore, but natural that they should attempt to gain 
 time in order to be themselves the first in the field. 
 
 When Colonel Scobelef and Mr. Weinberg returned from 
 Khokand, General Kaufmann was at Vierny on a tour of in- 
 spection, but hastening his departure he arrived in Tashkent 
 on August 12, with the intention of taking such measures 
 as would be necessary for the protection of the frontier. A 
 few hours before his arrival a Khokandian envoy appeared 
 bearing a letter from Nasreddin, who had been elected Khan 
 after the flight of his father, as well as letters from the three 
 chiefs of the insurrection, Abdurrahman Aftobatcha, Mullah 
 Issa Aulie, and Halyk Nazar Parmanatchi. In these papers the 
 causes of the insurrection were stated to be the crimes which 
 Khudayar Khan had committed against the Shariat and his 
 oppression of the people, facts which, it was stated, were 
 necessarily well known to the Governor-General. A desire was 
 expressed to live in peace with the Eussians, and a hope was 
 indulged in that there would be no change in the relations 
 between the two countries. General Kaufmann answered the new 
 
RELIGIOUS WAR PROCLAIMED. 283 
 
 Khan, with a promise to recognise him as such if he would bind 
 himself to carry out all the treaties and engagements entered 
 into by his father, and would recompense Eussian subjects for 
 any losses they had sustained during the rebellion. This 
 answer was returned with some confidence, because the Russians 
 believed the young Nasreddin would prove a pliant tool, as he 
 was known to be good-natured, not fanatical, to have adopted 
 many Russian habits — especially that of drinking vodka — and 
 they thought that from his visit to Tashkent he would have a 
 knowledge of Russian ways and of Russian aims. But, almost 
 at the same time with the letter, emissaries had been sent 
 to stir up the inhabitants on the border, and proclamations 
 had been issued, which were soon circulating throughout the 
 country, calling upon all good inhabitants to rise against the 
 Russian t} 7 rants and to unite with the Khokandians in a war 
 for the faith. As usual on the proclamation of a religious war, 
 a formal summons was sent to the Russians to become Mussul- 
 mans. 1 
 
 1 This proclamation was brought to Hodjent by an officer, Eichholm, who had 
 been taken prisoner at the station of Murza-rabat. It is curious enough to be 
 given entire. 
 
 'To the Russian officers and to all officials my words are as follows: — In con- 
 sequence of the evil character of Khudayar Khan, which resulted in careless- 
 ness in regard to his subjects, his troops, and his realm, and in consequence of his 
 tyranny, by the order of the All-highest God, and to punish our carelessness, part 
 of our possessions fell under your rule. The said Khan thought only of earthly 
 rule, and, therefore, for some years was friendly to you, for which reason we were 
 greatly discontented, and waited until the fulness of time came. Now all the 
 nomad and settled inhabitants there, small and great, who consider themselvfS 
 Mussulmans, have agreed, since the mouths of all have become one month, 
 and their heads one head, and have sent many troops to the side of Aulie-Ata 
 and many to Tashkent out of Desht-i-Kiptchak, and we are here. By our 
 Shariat we are bound to fight with you, — so says the All-high God. If we win we 
 shall be warriors for the faith ; if we die we shall be martyrs. We strive for one or 
 the other. By our Shariat it is necessary once to ask you to accept Islam. If you 
 wish to turn to the true way and become Mussulmans, then you will become our 
 brothers, and more than our brothers. If you do not consent to this we shall fight. 
 At the present time we advise you to accept Islam. If you consent, then using the 
 mercifulness of God, and of the Prophet, we grant you life and will be merciful 
 towards you, and will raise you even higher than you are; but if you say that 
 you are not content to become Mussulmans, and shall ask us to grant you 
 mercy, and allow you to remove with your families in your former place of abode, 
 we will consent even to this ; but if in obstinacy you do not consent, and you have 
 a desire to fight, then we will fight, and one side or the other shall be turned to 
 ashes. This is the aim of our wishes. By our law and custom we cannot refuse 
 this. Our God and our word are one. Consider, as becomes you, the profit and 
 
284 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 A small force had been long before sent lo Tilau, on tna 
 road leading across the Kendyr Tau mountains to Khokand, tc 
 watch the frontier, but little attention was paid to the rumours 
 of disturbances, and no attempt seems to have been made to 
 find out, by means of native spies, the exact position of affairs 
 in Khokand. When, therefore, on the night of August 6, 
 authentic intelligence reached Tashkent that bands of Kho- 
 kandian troops had entered the district of Kurama, and occu- 
 pied the village of Ablyk, and that a force estimated at 10,000 
 men was descending the valley of the Angren ; when, the next 
 day, Khudayar Khan arrived with his suite, who soon spread 
 rumours of all kind among the native population ; and Avhen, 
 shortly after, news arrived that Hodjent was besieged, that 
 post-stations were destroyed, and communications with Tashkent 
 entirely cut off, the bewilderment and excitement of the Eussian 
 population speedily reached a great height. General Golo- 
 vatchef was at once sent with a force to Tilau, while Colonel 
 Scobelef, with a body of cavalry, undertook to patrol the 
 district ; and the intelligence, which quickly came, that the in- 
 vaders had been dispersed and had retreated homewards, hardly 
 succeeded in allaying the panic. Eumours of every kind were 
 rife ; — that Piskent had been burned, that Aulie-Ata had been 
 attacked, that the Khokandian troops were but a few miles from 
 Tashkent, and that on a certain day the town would be attacked, 
 that Abdurrahman Aftobatcha had even sent an order to the 
 stud at Kaplan-bek, demanding that seventy horses should be 
 furnished for the breakfast of his soldiers, and that the popula- 
 tion of the native town was about to rise. The presence of the 
 numerous followers of Khudayar Khan did much to increase the 
 excitement, and was very probably dangerous, as, although these 
 men were enjoying Russian hospitality, they inveighed against 
 the Russians as infidels, and endeavoured to excite sympathy for 
 the Khokandians. It therefore, became necessary to disarm 
 them, and for that purpose companies of troops were sent out 
 at night to the bazaar, near which the Khan was living, and 
 into the native town. The Khan was also despatched as soon as 
 possible to Orenburg. 1 
 
 the harm which will be to you. Send an answer quickly. If the bearei of this 
 give our words verbally, I beg you to believe him. The 22nd of Reljib, 1292. 
 Sealed, Mci.lah Aeivuiirahman Paramanatchi, Son of Mussulman Kul. 
 1 For the convenience c-f Mrriaije it bee -.me necessiry for the Khan to change 
 
ALARM AT TASHKENT. 285 
 
 In anticipation of an attack the Prefect ordered the natives 
 to take all their goods from the fair-grounds, which were situ- 
 ated on the outskirts of the city, while many people in the 
 bazaars, under the influence of the panic, buried their valuables. 
 Arms from the Government arsenals were distributed to all the 
 Eussians, and strict orders were given that no Eussian should 
 appear in the street without them. In some of the Government 
 departments the clerks even sat at work with their muskets by 
 their sides. Orders were also issued that in case of an attack 
 the women should be sent to the fortress, and the men should 
 collect near the house of the Governor-General and round about 
 the church. The night before the anticipated attack on the 
 town all the troops were withdrawn from the barracks— thus 
 leaving the city defenceless— and were stationed in the fortress, 
 where they were kept under arms all night. 
 
 Better news from Hodjent soon relieved the anxiety and 
 allowed the inhabitants to breathe more freely. 
 
 The alarm at Tashkent was not without reason, for the 
 inhabitants of the districts of Kurama and Hodjent were not 
 slow in yielding to the persuasions of the Kbokandian emis- 
 saries, though many of them were shrewd enough to make their 
 aid conditional on the defeat of the Eussians, while subsequent 
 investigation proved that the aksakals appointed by the Russians 
 had been the first to side with the Khokandians. Besides this, 
 three stations on the post-road from Tashkent to Hodjent, as 
 well as that of Nau, between Hodjent and Samarkand, had been 
 burned and sacked, and the station masters and post-boys had 
 either been murdered or carried off as prisoners. Travellers 
 shared the same fate. The heads of two officers at Nau were 
 cut off, and two others on the Tashkent road were taken 
 prisoners and were threatened with death unless they turned 
 Mussulmans. 
 
 into Russian notes the silver he had brought with him from Khokand. He first 
 went to a branch of the Government Bank, where he received for a khokand 14| 
 kopeks, the real value, but finding that the Treasury received the khokand at the fic- 
 titious rate prevailing at Tashkent of 20 kopeks, he transferred his business there, 
 thus subjecting the Treasury to an actual loss, and remaining himself under the 
 impression that the Government Bank had endeavoured to cheat him of a con- 
 siderable percentage. When he was about to start, it was discovered that one 
 of his boxes of silver had been stolen. The Russians refused to allow him to wait 
 to find it, but promising that the police would find it, sent him off in great 
 haste. 
 
2«6 TURKISTAN. 
 
 The movement of General Golovatchef towards the Angrtn 
 and Tilau was attended with complete success. A large "body of 
 Khokandians, estimated at 5,000c was speedily dispersed, while a 
 smaller body of 800, under the command of Zulfukar Bek, 
 sustained a desperate struggle with the Cossacks and finally ran 
 away, leaving half of their number dead upon the field. The 
 district of Kurama was in this way entirely cleared of marauders, 
 and the road from Tashkent to Hodjent was reopened. 
 
 Even before the news of the attack on Hodjent, a battalion 
 of sharpshooters and a division of mounted artillery had been 
 despatched there, and it now became necessary to advance with 
 sufficient force not only to relieve Hodjent from danger, or to 
 retake it if already captured, but to enter upon an offensive 
 campaign. Including the troops already sent to Hodjent and 
 those under command of General Golovatchef in the district of 
 Kurama, the whole force amounted to 16 companies infantry, 
 20 guns, 9 sotnias of Cossacks, and 8 rocket-stands ; in all about 
 4,500 men, with 1,500 horses, commissariat, artillery, and 
 engineer-trains, and a military hospital of 150 beds. Provi- 
 sions were carried for fifteen days, and for the purpose of 
 transport it was necessary to hire 1,500 carts at Tashkent at the 
 rate of 30 rubles a month each. The expedition was com- 
 manded by General Golovatchef, while all the cavalry was placed 
 under the orders of Colonel Scobelef, for which purpose it was 
 necessary to select the Cossacks in such a maimer that he should 
 have no ranking officer. 
 
 General Kaufmann in person, with all his staff, accompanied 
 the expedition, taking with him Jura Bek and Baba Bek of 
 Shahrisabs, and Seid Bek of Farab, who were devoted to Kussia, 
 and had a grievance against Khudayar Khan, and who proved 
 themselves of great use. The road being now clear, and the 
 difficulties which retained for a time a portion of the troops at 
 Kuiluk being obviated, the march was successfully accomplished, 
 no Khokandians being seen except a few scattered marauders 
 in the distance, and General Kaufmann with his main force 
 arrived on August 30 at Hodjent, from before which the enemy 
 had already disappeared. 
 
 Of the details of the attack on Hodjent I have already 
 spoken (vol. i. pp. 316 to 319). A day's rest was given to the 
 troops, and on September 1 the expedition set out for Makhram, 
 
THE BATTLE OF MAKHEAM. 287 
 
 where, according 1 to all reports, the main body of the Khokan- 
 dians was collected. The first camp was on the banks of the 
 Syr Darya, at Ab-khurek. The next day's march brought the 
 troops to Karatchkum, near which they were exposed to a 
 running- fire from large bodies of Khokandians, who, however, 
 kept themselves at a considerable distance on the hills, and with 
 each charge of cavalry dispersed to meet again further on. 
 
 The camp at Karatchkum was about three miles' distance 
 from the fort of Makhram, the only fortified position between 
 the frontier and the city of Khokand. This is a large square 
 fort with battlement ed walls, surrounded by a deep ditch 
 situated on the very bank of the Syr Darya, and guarding the 
 road, for it is at the narrow opening of the valley of Ferghana, 
 the ground in the neighbourhood soon rising into low hills and 
 then into mountains. The sole entrance to the fortress is on the 
 eastern side. The Khokandians had increased the ordinary 
 defences of the place by making a fortified camp on the 
 southern side, as also by directing the water from the irrigating 
 canals in such a manner as to inundate the road for a, long 
 distance, and to turn the immediate neighbourhood of the fort 
 into a marsh. 
 
 The troops left Karatchkum at five o'clock in the morning 
 arranged in order of battle. They had no sooner began their 
 march than they were annoyed by the Khokandian cavalry, 
 which appeared first on their right and then surrounded them 
 on all sides ; but some Cossacks thrown out as skirmishers, with 
 rockets and artillery, succeeded in keeping the enemy at suffi- 
 cient distance, so that the march was not imptded. General 
 Kaufmann had command of the movements of the day in 
 person. 
 
 Having obtained information of the obstacles in their way, 
 General Golovatchef suggested that a flank movement should be 
 made to the right, so that the troops should march along the 
 hills until the fort was passed, when by a direct movement the 
 place might be taken without entering upon the inundated 
 ground, or being exposed to the immediate fire of the fort. 
 
 This was safely accomplished, and as soon as the troops had 
 passed the further angle of the fort, they stopped. Guns were 
 then placed in position, and a cannonade directed against the 
 town which lasted for nearly an hour. A battalion of sharp- 
 
288 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 shooters was then directed to assault the works. In spite of 
 the enemy's fire, and supported by their own artillery, in a 
 quarter of an hour the Russians had carried the outworks and 
 put the Khokandians to flight. This battalion was closely 
 followed by another, and, the fortified camp thus taken, the 
 troops advanced by the bridge over the moat, and placing their 
 shoulders against the wooden doors, by repeated blows keeping 
 time to a soldiers' chorus, they burst the gates down and entered 
 the fortress. They were met by scattered shots from the roofs 
 of houses ; although few of the enemy had been left in the 
 fortress, and these quickly took to flight. In less than an hour 
 the whole place was cleared. In the meantime the Cossacks 
 under Colonel Scobelef, and the rocket batteries under Captain 
 Abramof, attacked the masses of the enemy's cavalry drawn up 
 in the gardens to the right, and after a short hand-to-hand 
 contest put them to flight, and pursued them along the banks 
 of the river for five or six miles. Many were cut to pieces, 
 and others were driven into the river and drowned by 
 ' hundreds.' On returning, the Cossacks suddenly came upon 
 another large body of cavalry, and while hesitating to attack 
 them, a fortunate discharge of rockets by Captain Abramof put 
 them to flight, and the Cossacks returned to Makhram. 
 
 This was the battle of Makhram, which was immediately 
 heralded as a wonderful victory, the number of the Khokan- 
 dians being estimated variously at thirty, forty, and fifty thou- 
 sand men. 1 The Russian loss was eight wounded and six 
 killed, including Colonel Khoroshkin, an excellent officer, who 
 had devoted himself to the study of the country, and had con- 
 tributed many valuable articles to the ' Turkistan Gazette ' 
 and the ' Military Journal.' The native loss it is difficult to 
 estimate. Official reports state that in the fortified position 
 and the fortress 100 bodies were found, and that on the scene 
 of the cavalry fight nearly 1,000 bodies were buried, besides 
 those who were drowned in the river, who were killed at a 
 distance, or whose bodies were carried away. 2 In Makhram the 
 
 1 The number of the enemy in this as in all the subsequent contests is doubtless 
 very greatly exaggerated, for which it would probably be easy to find a reason. 
 40,000 which frequently occurs, — is, in Turlri, Kyrk-mivg, which is generally used 
 by the natives as an indefinite expression for a great number. 
 
 7 A military reader might perhaps estimate the severity of the engagement by 
 learning that 149 artillery shots were fired, 29 rockets, and 9,387 rifle cartridges. 
 
EFFECT OF THE VICTOKY. 289 
 
 Russians captured 39 pieces of artillery, 1,500 muskets and 
 matchlocks, besides falconets and sabres, and more than 50 
 banners and standards. They also found a provision of powder 
 and ammunition, including shells and lead, as well as flour and 
 forage, which last was exceedingly welcome. 
 
 In one of the glowing reports it was said, ' Thus by one blow 
 we have annihilated the idea of the fanatics to raise against the 
 Russians all the Mussulman population of Central Asia.' This, 
 as will be seen, was by no means strictly true, but naturally the 
 defeat inflicted upon the Khokandians did produce a great effect, 
 especially among the surrounding population. Proclamations 
 were sent out at the same time by General Kaufmann urging 
 all persons to return to their occupations, placing the country 
 under Russian rule, promising mercy and safety in case they 
 should remain obedient to the Russians, and assuring them 
 further that Khudayar Khan, who had lost the throne in conse- 
 quence of his crimes, should not return to it. The surrounding 
 inhabitants soon came in with protestations of submission and 
 with provisions for sale. 
 
 The troops remained at Makhram, waiting. for the arrival 
 of transports from Hodjent, for three days longer, and on 
 September 7 advanced toward Khokand. On the way General 
 Kaufmann was met by envoys from the new Khan Nasreddin with 
 presents and a letter explaining and apologising for the ' acci- 
 dental conflict of troops upon the frontier and the consequent 
 unpleasantness.' General Kaufmann refused to receive the pre- 
 sents, and declared to the envoy that he could not answer such a 
 letter, but that he would explain himself personally with the 
 Khan of Khokand. At the same time word was sent that if the 
 Khan and inhabitants of Khokand should meet him with proper 
 submission and with dosturkhans, the troops would do them no 
 harm, but that if they should attempt to resist, Khokand would 
 be stormed and destroyed, and 'the blood of the unhappy victims 
 would fall on the heads of those guilty of disobedience and unjust 
 war against the Great White Tsar.' Issa Aulie, who had accom- 
 panied the mission, received a severe reproof from General 
 Kaufmann for his duplicity and evil conduct towards the Russians, 
 and was not allowed to depart, being retained ' until he could 
 
 In the affair of the previous day, on arriving at Karatchkum. l'p.sides 7 rockets 
 and 9 artillery shots, 2,795 cartridges were discharged. 
 VOL. II. U 
 
290 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 explain the part which he had played in exciting the Mussul- 
 man movement in Khokand against the Russians.' 
 
 The march from Bish-aryk to Khosh-Kupyr had the character 
 of a triumphal procession. Everywhere along the road the 
 inhabitants came out to meet the troops and present dosturkhans 
 to the commander. 
 
 A new mission arrived from Khokand, consisting of a deputa- 
 tion from the merchants of the town, and an envoy from the 
 Khan sent a dosturkhan and returned all the prisoners which 
 remained from those who had been taken at Nau and the 
 various post-stations, among them being the little daughter of 
 Dr. Petrof, who had been beheaded at Nau. The prisoners — 
 who had all had their heads shaved — reported that they had 
 been well treated, the women and children being confined in 
 the harem of the Khan. 
 
 The information obtained by Colonel Scobelef during his 
 mission at Khokand now proved of good service, and the troops 
 were led round the walls of the city to the gate of Sary Mazar, 
 on the southern side, where was the most convenient place for 
 attacking the city in case of resistance. No resistance, however, 
 was offered, and on September 10 the troops occupied the gates 
 and part of the walls without a shot. The Khan came out 
 to meet General Kaufmann, who, accompanied by his staff, 
 entered the city, rode for a short distance along the streets, and 
 then, together with the Khan, returned to his camp. For 
 some days the Russians remained encamped at the gates 
 of Khokand, where a bazaar soon grew up to which the natives 
 brought cattle and provisions for the soldiers. The topographers 
 used the time in making surveys of the country in the neigh- 
 bourhood. It became necessary, on account of the unhealthiness 
 of the situation, to change the camp to the other side of the city, 
 and General Kaufmann, with his usual love of theatrical display, 
 chose this as an occasion to march the troops through the town. 
 He accompanied them, and made a short visit to the Khan as 
 well as to the former envoy, Mirza Hakim. Meanwhile, there 
 being rumours of an enemy's force gathering in the mountains 
 near Isparah and in the vicinity of Kandbadam and Makhram, 
 flying columns were sent out from Khokand and Hodjent and 
 soon dispersed the small marauding bands. 
 
 Although the Khan came every day to the Russian camp 
 
ABDURRAHMAN STILL BELLICOSE. 291 
 
 with news of what was going on in the city, yet there had been 
 hut little response to the proclamation issued by General Kauf- 
 nianu, and no declarations of submission had been made by 
 Marghilan, Andijan, Namangan, or other large cities in the 
 Khanate. General Kaufmann had sent a special messenger to 
 Marghilan, requesting the elders of the place to be sent for con- 
 ference, in order that he might convey to them the will of the 
 Emperor, but no one appeared. A letter, indeed, was received 
 from Sultan Murad Bek, of Marghilan, in which he expressed a 
 hope for the renewal of the former friendly relations, and subse- 
 quently another paper was received, stamped with the seals of 
 seventy elders of the Kiptchaks, among them Abdurrahman 
 Aftobatcha, the subject of which was, that as the fate of war 
 had given the Eussians the victory over the Mussulmans, it 
 befell them to ask that the people should receive the same 
 quiet as the city of Khokand enjoyed. General Kaufmann 
 again demanded that a person should be sent to his camp 
 with whom he could confer, but no one appeared. It is strange 
 that this appeared surprising to the Eussians when they had 
 retained as a prisoner Issa Aulie, who had accompanied the 
 first mission from Khokand. 
 
 In the meantime intelligence had been received that the 
 Aftobatcha was making a resistance, and had compelled the 
 Bek and the inhabitants of Marghilan to join him, and was col- 
 lecting a large force in the immediate vicinity of that place. 
 Although the inhabitants of Khokand were apparently sub- 
 missive, they yet seemed uneasy. The bazaars were almost 
 empty, few of the shops were opened, and even those few ex- 
 posed but a small quantity of wares of any kind for sale. It 
 was, consequently, considered necessary to send forces towards 
 Marghilan for the purpose of examining the condition of affairs, 
 and of putting down any attempted resistance that Abdurrah- 
 man Aftobatcha might make. 
 
 General Kaufmann, therefore, set out with the troops from 
 Khokand on September 17 for Marghilan; but on the 19th, 
 Abdurrahman, who was encamped at Gurgil, three miles from 
 Marghilan, with a force estimated at from 5,000 to 10,000 men 
 and four guns, suddenly gave up the idea of fighting and re- 
 treated, his forces rapidly dispersing, and it was said that he 
 left Marghilan with only his Kiptchaks, who were devoted to 
 
 u 2 
 
292 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 him, and "who still, according to a Russian account, numbered 
 from 3,000 to 5,000 men. 
 
 On the next day, as the Russians took up their position 
 close to Marghilan, a deputation came out from the city, gave 
 their complete submission, and asked to have the city spared. 
 The same night a flying column, composed of Cossacks, rockets, 
 and artillery, with two companies of infantry in carts, was sent 
 out under command of Colonel Scobelef to follow up Abdurrah- 
 man and his band. This column followed up the traces of 
 Abdurrahman and turned off the direct road to Assake as far as 
 Ming-tepe, near the mountains, where there was a small engage- 
 ment, the combatants being rendered nearly invisible on account 
 of the dust. The Russians suffered no loss, and found forty 
 bodies of the enemy. Scobelef then pushed on as far as Ush, 
 which he reached on September 22. The city immediately 
 surrendered, and, after a stay of two hours, the cavalry passed 
 on the road to Karasu ; but as it was reported that Abdurrah- 
 man had finally been abandoned by nearly all his followers, and 
 as General Scobelef had received orders from General Kaufmann 
 not to go too far in pursuit, he returned on the next day to 
 Marghilan. His advance to Marghilan, and the capture of L T sh 
 had for the moment a good effect. Andijan, Balyktchi, Shahri- 
 khana, Assake, and many villages immediately sent in their 
 submission, and Halyk Nazar, one of the three leaders of 
 the insurrection, was delivered up. Before his departure from 
 Ush, General Scobelef levied a heavy contribution in provisions 
 and horses upon that city, sent to Uzgent to demand the sub- 
 mission of all the Kirghiz, and to say that if Abdurrahman, 
 who it was thought had taken refuge there, were delivered 
 up, the city would be spared. 
 
 The whole of the country in this way having given in its 
 submission, General Kaufmann supposed that peace and quiet 
 were thoroughly restored, and that the end of the expedition 
 was reached. He therefore invited Nasreddin Khan to Mar- 
 ghilan, in order to arrange terms of a treaty of peace. By thia 
 treaty ISTasreddin Khan was to pay the sum of 3,000,000 rubles 
 ^410,000L), as a war indemnity, in the course of six years, and 
 was to cede to the Russian Government all that part of the 
 country north of the Syr Darya, the chief town of which is 
 Namangan. Everybody was pardoned in honour of the occasion, 
 
MULLAH ISSA AULI& 293 
 
 including Issa Aulie and Halyk Nazar, and even those natives of 
 Tashkent and Kurama, Russian subjects, who had taken part in 
 the war. But, to quote a Russian account :— ' It was soon appa- 
 rent that with these humane measures it was necessary also to 
 take severe action against those who knowingly counteracted 
 our plans and actions, and had an injurious influence upon the 
 young and still inexperienced Khan. One of these evil-minded 
 persons turned out to be Mullah Issa Aulie. His cunning- 
 speeches had a very bad influence upon all with whom he was 
 brought into contact. At a council which the Khan assembled 
 the day before he was to sign the treaty, Issa Aulie, in the 
 presence of two Eussian officials, dared to speak impudently to 
 the Khan. This had to be stopped. The commander-in-chief 
 of the armies called the Khan and all his high officials to his 
 camp, and, explaining to the Khan and to all who surrounded 
 him the injurious influence which some of those highest in 
 rank had upon him, ordered that Issa Aulie, Zulfukar Bek, 
 and Mahmud Khan Tiura, three of the chief persons who had 
 incited the people to rebel and to fight against the Russians, 
 should be arrested and immediately sent to Siberia.' * It is 
 almost unnecessary to state that the Russian account goes on 
 to say that this arrest produced an excellent impression, and 
 that many of the suite of the Khan expressed delight and 
 pleasure at this act of justice. 
 
 Nasreddin Khan was now left to his own resources, and on 
 the 5th of October the Russian troops left Marghilan, and on the 
 8th arrived at Namangan. According to Russian accounts, which 
 seem not a little amusing when compared with what happened 
 subsequently, the inhabitants of Namangan, even before the 
 treaty, expressed to the Russians their delight and gratitude at 
 the defeat of the Khokandians, and ' that they had been for 
 ever freed from these robbers.' 
 
 After the treaty was signed, a deputation was naturally 
 sent from Namangan, to which Greneral Kaufmann returned 
 a suitable answer. In consequence of this a written address, 
 expressed in the most fulsome terms (Namangan was near 
 enough to Tashkent to know how such things should be 
 managed), was sent to Greneral Kaufmann, expressing the utmost 
 delight at his kindness in receiving them as subjects of the 
 1 'Golos.'No. 304, 1875. 
 
294 TURKISTAN. 
 
 White Tsar. Nor did the inhabitants confine themselves to 
 words, 120 carts were sent for the use of the soldiers on their 
 forward march, and 40,000 cakes of bread were provided for 
 them. On the banks of the river a large tent with a dostur- 
 khan was prepared for General Kaufmann. The road from the 
 river to the tent was covered with silk stuffs, and while the 
 General walked from the bank to the tent, silver coins were 
 showered down upon him. 
 
 General Kaufmann thanked the representatives of the people 
 for this reception, urged them to live according to their law? 
 and not to listen to the advice of evil-minded people, and 
 always in any circumstances of life to speak the truth. ' When 
 on the other bank of the Darya I met with much lying and 
 falsehood, I hope that here this will not be,' said the com- 
 mander-in-chief. ' The Russian law demands that everyone 
 shall live peaceably and grow rich. Let every one of you live 
 as the law requires, and pray to God as his fathers have taught 
 him. God is one, and both Eussians and Mussulmans all pray 
 to the same God. The Russian law does not force anybody's 
 conscience, nor demand that God should be prayed to in one way 
 rather than in another. It only demands a good and just life.' 
 
 When all the troops had crossed to the right bank of the 
 Syr Darya a loud hurrah was raised for the Emperor. ' Cross 
 yourselves, children,' said General Kaufmann, turning to the 
 crowd of soldiers surrounding him. ' We are now in our own 
 land, and God grant that here shall be good fame of us from one 
 end to the other.' x This annexation of the district of Naman- 
 gan was made on General Kaufmann's own responsibility without 
 waiting for the authorisation of the Emperor, which did not 
 arrive until long after. 
 
 The Eussians, however, had not been long in Namangan 
 before the hasty arrival of Mr. Kuhn and Captain Petrof, 
 who had been sent from Marghilan to Andijan to pursue scien- 
 tific investigations. They had been ill-treated by the inhabi- 
 tants, and reported that Andijan was again in insurrection. 
 
 It was, therefore, considered best to punish that city, and an 
 expedition of 14,000 men and eight guns and four rocket 
 stands was sent thither under the command of General Trotzky. 
 
 1 ' Golos,' No. 30i. Letter from Namangan, September 27 (October 9), 1875, 
 
PUNISHMENT OF ANDIJAN. 295 
 
 This expedition set out on October 10, and on the evening of 
 the next day encamped a few miles from Andijan. 
 
 The armed forces in the city were estimated by the Eussians 
 to be between 60,000 and 70,000 men, under the leadership of 
 Abdurrahman Aftobatcha, which was a little strange, considering 
 that a few days before he had retreated to the mountains with 
 only three or four followers. All the bridges had been broken, 
 and Pulad Bek, who had been proclaimed Khan by the Kirghiz, 
 was encamped in the neighbourhood with 15,000 Kirghiz, for 
 the purpose of attacking the Eussians in the rear and cutting 
 off connections. Pulad (or Fulat ; Bek professed to be the son of 
 Atalyk Khan, the son of Alim Khan, one of the former rulers of 
 the country ; but in reality he was a tobacco-seller of Piskent by 
 the name of Mullah Iskak, who the year before had been chosen 
 by the Kirghiz to personate the real Pulad Bek, and was by 
 them proclaimed Khan. The real Pulad Bek, who was then 
 eighteen years old, was living quietly with his mother in 
 Samarkand. 
 
 As Abdurrahman showed no signs of submission, it became 
 necessary to take the city by storm, and General Trotzky, 
 dividing his command into three detachments, entered the 
 city the next day. The streets through which the troops passed 
 were barricaded, and it was a hand-to-hand contest to reach the 
 centre of the town, where the palace of the Bek — which had 
 been built by Nasreddin in Kussian style — was situated. 
 Here the three detachments met, but, after a stay of two or 
 three hours, it was considered that the object of the expedition — 
 to punish Andijan — would be completed if the troops retired, 
 burning everything on their way. They found retreating, 
 however, as difficult as advancing, and their whole movement 
 through the town was a running fight. One detachment, how- 
 ever, having provided materials from the powder which had 
 been found in the palace, was able to set fire to the bazaar and 
 all the chief buildings on the route, and, on leaving the town, 
 the greater part of it was in flames. The fortified camp was 
 reached in safety, but, as it was necessary to complete the 
 punishment and prevent the inhabitants from putting out the 
 fires, Greneral Trotzky, two hours after the retreat, sent out six 
 guns under cover of two sotnias of Cossacks, commanded by 
 Colonel Scobelef, and the city was bombarded for three hours. 
 
296 TURKISTAN. 
 
 Meanwhile, the Kirghiz had come near the camp, and had 
 kept up a sharp fire upon the soldiers remaining there. 
 
 The next day, being convinced that the city had suffered 
 great loss from the fires, and feeling assured from the report of 
 spies that the inhabitants admitted their inability to contend 
 with the Russians, and that no harm could be done to the Kir- 
 ghiz and Kiptchaks, — who were considered the real hos lie 
 elements,— by the further ruin of Andijan, General Trotzky 
 thought his best plan was to give a little rest to his troops, and, 
 the next day, retreated to Namangan. He, however, profited 
 by the time he had left to give the city, and especially the 
 bazaar, a further bombardment. On October 15 he retired in 
 the direction of Namangan, burning and ravaging all the 
 villages and farms on his route, 1 but his march, as far as the 
 river, was accomplished under a heavy fire from the enemy, 
 who closely followed him. On October 17, however, the enemy 
 was not in sight, and he met with the troops of General Kauf- 
 mann, who— not having received any intelligence, his messengers 
 having been intercepted — had marched out to meet him. 
 
 The losses from October 12 to 16 consisted, according to one 
 of the Russian reports, which vary, of ten killed and seventy 
 wounded, but private letters state the actual loss to have been 
 from four to five times as many. From the official reports, 
 even, it is impossible to consider the attack on Andijan aa 
 anything less than an unsuccessful attempt at an occupation 
 of the city and a forced retreat. Officers who were present 
 confirm this, and it is no wonder then that the natives con- 
 sidered General Trotzky beaten. The telegrams of the com- 
 mander-in-chief to St. Petersburg about this affair represented 
 that Andijan was taken by storm ; and, immediately upon this, 
 General Trotzky was presented with the Cross of St. George, 
 of the third class, and with a gold-mounted sword. 
 
 On the return of the troops to Namangan, it was found that 
 the state of affairs' in the newly-acquired province, which had 
 expressed so much joy at its annexation, was not entirely satis- 
 factory. The inhabitants had abandoned their villages and 
 formed bands under the command of Batyr Tiura, the former 
 
 1 The Russian officers were apparently unaware of the negotiations which had 
 taken place at St. Petersburg to ensure the success of the Brussels Conference on 
 the laws of war ! 
 
KASBEDDIN DEPOSED. 297 
 
 Bek of Namangan. The little expeditions sent against them 
 produced no decided results, as the nomads always succeeded 
 in evading the troops. 
 
 General Kaufmann, however, considered the state of affairs 
 such as no longer to necessitate, or indeed to warrant, his pre- 
 sence in the country, and he therefore started for Hodjent on 
 October 28 with the whole of his staff and a portion of his 
 troops, leaving in command Scobelef, who, by a telegram from 
 St. Petersburg, had just been raised to the rank of major- 
 general, in the suite of the Emperor, as a reward for the services 
 he had rendered during the campaign. Unfortunately, the 
 march of General Kaufmann was harassed by Kirghiz and 
 Kiptchak bands, and the troops were under fire for the whole 
 distance. The natives, therefore, may be pardoned for thinking, 
 as they did, that Greneral Kaufmann had retreated because his 
 position was no longer tenable. 
 
 Shortly after the unsuccessful attack of General Trotzky on 
 Andijan, the inhabitants of Khokand, learning the conditions of 
 the treaty which their Khan had concluded, and being displeased 
 not only with them but with him, drove him out of the city in 
 such order that he was unable to take with him either his 
 wives or his treasure, as his father had done. Nasreddin arrived 
 alone at Hodjent, almost the same moment as General Kaufmann. 
 Khokand was immediately occupied by the partisans of Pulad 
 Bek, and Abul Gaffar, the former Bek of Uratepe l — who had been 
 living for many years in Tashkent as a Eussian pensioner, but 
 who had made his way to Khokand on the first outbreak of the 
 war, — seized upon the Government. 
 
 Soon after the departure of General Kaufmann from Naman- 
 gan so much disturbance was created in the provinces by 
 marauding bands, that General Scobelef found it necessary to 
 take a portion of his command to Tiura-kurgan, a small fortified 
 town eight miles west of Namangan, where on November 4 he 
 defeated the band of Batyr Tiura, and at the same time punished 
 the city for its share in the rebellion. Thence he went on to 
 Tchust. He had, however, no sooner left Namangan than the 
 Kiptchaks of the neighbourhood, joined by many from the other 
 side of the Syr Darya, entered the city, the inhabitants of which, 
 who had so lately received the Eussians with joy, rose to a man. 
 
 1 See ;o\. i. p. 87. 
 
298 TURKISTAN. 
 
 An attack was made on the small force of Russians in the yet un- 
 finished citadel, and on the camp outside of the town. The 
 Russian troops succeeded in defending themselves until, on the 
 7th at noon, General Scobelef arrived, having- heard of the state 
 of affairs at midnight before, and having had a severe fight for 
 the last eight miles of his march. Placing sixteen guns in posi- 
 tion, the next day he bombarded that portion of the city occupied 
 by the Kiptchaks and then advanced to the storm, which was 
 rendered unnecessary by the flight of the enemy. Most of the 
 town, however, was destroyed. The Russian loss is set down as 
 six killed and thirty-two wounded, the Kiptchak loss at 3,800 
 killed ! The soldiers were then quartered in the few houses that 
 remained. 
 
 Meanwhile the state of anarchy in Khokand which followed 
 the expulsion of Nasreddin was giving the Russians serious 
 disquiet, and Makhram was occupied by the forces under 
 Major Rodzanko to protect the Hodjent frontier. 
 
 The defeats inflicted on the Khokandians at Andijan and 
 Namangan, and even the wholesale destruction of their villages 
 and towns, did not seem to dishearten them. It was found that 
 large bands of nomads were collected in the neighbourhood of 
 Balyktchi, a city situated near the junction of the Naryn 
 and Syr Darya. It was reported that several bands of 3,000 to 
 4,000 men each were collected near the city, and that in the 
 city itself were fully 20,000 armed men. In consequence of 
 this on November 4 General Scobelef set out for Balyktchi and 
 after a sharp fight defeated the enemy and took the city, where 
 he found a quantity of provisions. The enemy's bands at once 
 dispersed, and General Scobelef returned to Namangan. 
 
 As the population of the Khanate was still unquiet General 
 Scobelef received orders from General Kaufmann to ravage 
 during the early winter the territory situated between the 
 Naryn and Syr Darya, which was considered the centre of the 
 Kiptchak population. The people could not then escape to the 
 mountains, but would be concentrated in their winter quarters, 
 and it would be a convenient opportunity for inflicting a 
 serious punishment on them. On January 6 General Scobelef 
 set out from Namangan with a command of 2,800 men, 
 crossed the Naryn, and in spite of the severe cold pursued his 
 march up the northern bank of the Syr Darya — or, as it is 
 
SURRENDER OF ABDURRAHMAN. 299 
 
 here called, the Kara Darya — destroying Paita, the chief Kip- 
 tchak settlement, defeating a band of Kiptchaks, and destroying 
 everything on his route as far as Sarkhaba, which he reached 
 on January 14. After a small fight here he pursued his way to 
 Andijan, where, ' according to exact information,' 30,000 of the 
 enemy were collected. After four or five days spent in recon- 
 noissances, ' in order to avoid the shedding of blood,' siimmonses 
 were twice sent to the city to surrender. These summonses 
 remained without result, and the last messenger was killed. 
 On January 20 the village of Iskylik was taken by storm, and 
 a battery was at once stationed to bombard the city. After 
 firing 500 rounds two storming-columns entered and soon found 
 their way to the centre of the town, where another battery was 
 placed, and continued the bombardment for the rest of the day. 
 The next day the troops met with no opposition and occupied 
 the city. The Russian loss was two killed and seven wounded ; 
 ' the loss of the enemy was immense.' On the 22nd General 
 Scobelef occupied the palace (although, according to General 
 Trotzky's report, it had been burned), and on the next day 
 made a reconnoissance in the direction of Assake, to which 
 place the Khokandians had retreated. 
 
 On January 30 information was received that Abdurrahman 
 Aftobatcha was, with 15,000 men, only six miles from Andijan, 
 and was preparing an insurrection in the town, with the idea of 
 falling upon the Russian forces. General Scobelef then advanced, 
 but did not discover the enemy until he had nearly reached 
 Assake, which place he took after a hard struggle. He stated 
 the Russian loss to be ten wounded, while of the enemy forty 
 corpses were found on the spot. 
 
 As the result of this battle the towns of Shahrikhana and 
 Marghilan sent in their submission. General Scobelef returned 
 to Andijan, and on February 1 Abdurrahman made proposals 
 for a conference, which was held on the 5th, and he surren- 
 dered unconditionally, together with Batyr Tiura, Isfendyar, 
 and other chiefs, relying on the mercy of the Emperor. 
 
 After the surrender of Abdurrahman the whole country was 
 at the mercy of the Russians, but it became difficult to know 
 what to do. By this time the population of Khokand, which 
 had so hastily dethroned Nasreddin, had become discontented 
 with the exactions which they suffered under Pulad Bek and 
 
300 TURKISTAN. 
 
 Abul Gaffar Bek, and a deputation was sent to Hodjent to 
 Nasreddin asking- him to return. He finally decided to do so, 
 and went to Makhram to watch for a favourable opportunity. 
 On February 23 he left Makhram and advanced to a village in 
 the immediate vicinity of Khokand, where he was attacked by 
 the partisans of Pulad Bek and completely defeated, barely 
 escaping with his life to Makhram. In some way or other 
 he had made the inhabitants believe that the Eussians greatly 
 desired his return, and now, after the surrender of Abdurr- 
 ahman, the chiefs were uncertain whether they ought to 
 receive him or not. 
 
 Pulad Bek took refuge in the Alai mountains, near Utch- 
 kurgan. A small force was despatched after him, which took 
 the town, capturing at the same time many of his supporters, 
 and standards, weapons, and ammunition. 
 
 Nasreddin then succeeded in reaching Khokand, but in view 
 of his weak character and the disturbed state of the country, 
 orders were given to General Scobelef to occupy that city, which 
 he did on February 20. He found there 62 guns, and large 
 supplies of powder and ammunition. 
 
 Long before the campaign in Khokand was actually finished 
 General Kaufmann had gone to St. Petersburg, and General Kol- 
 pakofsky, who was now in command, considered it necessary to 
 go personally to Khokand to bring order into the country. To 
 render this easier Nasreddin Khan, Abdurrahman Aftobatcha, 
 and other prominent persons, who had shown great hostility to 
 the Eussians, were sent prisoners to Tashkent. 
 
 On the anniversary of his accession (March 2) the Emperor 
 signed an order for the annexation of Khokand, and General 
 Kolpakofsky, who had just arrived, proclaimed to the inhabi- 
 tants that their prayer to become Eussian subjects had been 
 granted, and that the whole country was now annexed to Eussia, 
 and would be known as the district of Ferghana (its ancient 
 name). It was placed under the rule of General Scobelef. 
 
 Soon after this Pulad Bek was captured by an energetic 
 Kirghiz and brought to Margin] an, where he was hanged, on 
 the ground that he had killed twelve Eussian soldiers whom he 
 had taken prisoners. 1 The official reports are silent as to any 
 
 1 The fate of the non-commissioned officer Thomas Danilof, although it was 
 not known until long afterwards, excited great indignation. He was captured 
 
RESULT OF ANNEXATION. 301 
 
 prisoners being taken on either side, but we know from other 
 sources that not only had the road from Namangan to Hodjent 
 been unsafe since the first occupation of that territory, but that 
 marauders had even penetrated within the Eussian lines and 
 there captured small bands of people. All the transports from 
 Hodjent to Namangan were compelled to go under a strong 
 escort, and on one occasion two Eussian officers with twelve 
 Cossacks had been captured and killed. 
 
 It seems that quiet has not entirely been restored even by 
 the annexation, for we find that several tribes of the Kara- 
 Kirghiz — especially the Bogus — refused to take part in the 
 general submission of Khokand and concentrated themselves in 
 Gultcha, under command of Abdullah Bek. General Scobelef 
 was sent there with a considerable force, and succeeded in 
 obtaining the submission of all the Kirghiz chiefs, with the 
 exception of Abdullah Bek and two of his companions, who fled 
 further into the mountains, whither they were pursued by 
 jigits. 
 
 The events of this last campaign will probably open the eyes 
 of Eussian administrators, who will see that a country which it 
 would have been easy to secure by proper means has been found 
 the hardest of all to take by force of arms ; and although this 
 is not so much owing to the warlike character of the nomad 
 population as to the hatred which has grown up of recent years 
 to the Eussians and the dislike to falling under their rule, it 
 remains to be seen whether this province, ravaged as it has 
 been by the orders of Eussian generals, will be easily governed ; 
 and it is to be hoped that this at least will bring the Eussians 
 to see the necessity of better administration and of a wiser 
 treatment of the natives. 
 
 The new province of Ferghana will probably be of advantage 
 to Eussia in relieving the treasury, and will not be —like so 
 
 while forming purt of a convoy between Tashkent and Namangan. Every effort 
 was made to induce him to become a Mussulman, but he remained faithful to the 
 last, and displayed remarkable fortitude when he was shot at Marghilan bv order 
 of Pulad Bek. The punishment of Pulad Bek seems to have been well deserved, 
 for during the last days of his power he had revelled in execution, and when 
 Marghilan was again occupied by the Russians it was found impossible to place 
 troops in the citadel on account of the putrid blood and the numbers of unburied 
 corpses. He particularly exercised his rage against the women and the retainers 
 of Khudayar Khan and the family of Abdurrahman. 
 
302 TURKISTAN. 
 
 much other conquered territory — a mere barren acquisition. 
 The Russians estimate the number of its inhabitants at 960,000, 
 but this is probably far too large ; 600,000 even would seem a 
 large estimate. Mr. Kuhn, who accompanied the expedition 
 for the purpose of making historical and statistical researches, 
 estimated the revenues of the country under Khokandian rule, 
 including only those which were allowed by the Shariat — the 
 haradj, tanap, zekat, and salt tax — at about two and a half 
 millions of rubles (340,000^), a sum equal to the whole revenues 
 of Russian Turkistan, up to the Khokandian Campaign. It is 
 doubtful, however — bearing in mind the injuries inflicted upon 
 the country by the war — whether for many years it will equal 
 this amount. The Khan by his exactions obtained much more. 
 
 SECOND — BUKIIARA. 
 
 The relations of Russia with Bukhara were always much 
 pleasanter than those with the other Central Asiatic countries. 
 Even before the reign of Peter the Great there were exchanges 
 of embassies, which after that time became more frequent, 
 and the caravan trade was unrestricted until the capture of 
 Tashkent. The Amir of Bukhara then took up a hostile 
 position, imprisoning Messrs. Struve, Tatarinof, and Glukh- 
 ofsky, the Russian envoys sent to him by General Tchernaief, 
 in retaliation for which all the Bukharan merchants within the 
 Russian lines were placed under arrest. He was, however, so 
 thoroughly defeated by General Romanofsky at the battle of 
 Irdjar, — one result of which was the loss of Hodjent, — that he 
 released the envoys and made peace, although no definite treaty 
 was signed. The basis of one had been drawn up by General 
 Kryzhanofsky and approved by the Emperor. General Kauf- 
 mann had introduced into it certain alterations, chiefly insist- 
 ing that relations should be carried on exclusively with the 
 G-overnor-Greneral of Turkistan; and in September, 1867, the 
 treaty was sent through the Bukharan envoy to the Amir for 
 signature. Instead, however, of the ratification of the treaty 
 the Amir sent a new envoy with a letter. In the meantime Lieu- 
 tenant Sluzhenko and three artillery soldiers had been captured 
 by the Bukharans on the road from Tchinaz to Jizakh ; and 
 Sluzhenko, by means of torture and threats of death, had been 
 
HESITATION OP THE AMIR. 303 
 
 forced to embrace Mohammedanism, and to become instructor 
 of the Bukharan troops. From these circumstances, and from 
 the action of the envoy it became evident that the Amir did 
 not really desire peace, but was waiting for an opportunity to 
 fall again upon the Eussians. General Kaufmann, who in the 
 meantime had arrived, sent a new demand to the Amir, insist- 
 ing upon the immediate ratification of the treaty and the 
 release of Sluzhenko. In March a letter was received from 
 the Kush-begi with information of the release of Sluzhenko and 
 his comrades, but giving an evasive reply about the treaty. 
 At the same time disturbances began to take place all along 
 the Bukharan frontier, although there is good reason to believe 
 that these were not instigated by the Amir, but were set on 
 foot by the two hostile parties who were discontented with 
 him. The evasive conduct of the Amir and these disturbances 
 were the immediate cause of the campaign which ended in 
 the occupation of Samarkand and the annexation of the district 
 of Zarafshan. 
 
 I have given an account of this campaign in Vol. I. pp. 
 241-247, but there are still a few details which may be 
 interesting. Before risking his fortune again in contest with 
 the Russians the Amir tried to obtain allies, but the exertions 
 of his nephew, Mohammed Farissakh, at Calcutta and Constan- 
 tinople had been fruitless, and even the Khan of Khokand had 
 refused assistance, being desirous of watching the turn of events 
 and waiting his opportunity. To obtain money for the war 
 the Amir had recourse to two extraordinary taxes on merchants, 
 and to raising the value of the tenga from 64 tchekas to 132 
 tchekas. As the silver had already been taken from circulation 
 the course of the tenga rose to 200. The consequent stoppage 
 of trade and the distress of the people excited much discontent 
 against the Amir ; and the fanatical Mullahs, being indignant 
 at the sum taken from their incomes as teachers in the mosques, 
 accused him of using the money for other purposes, and there- 
 fore insisted more strongby on the proclamation of a religious 
 war. 
 
 The Amir, however, was still undecided, and put off the 
 declaration of war from one feast to another, till finally, at the 
 festival of Kurban Bairam, when he was absent at the shrine 
 of Baha-uddin, the leading Kazis and Mullahs published a 
 
304 TURKISTAK. 
 
 decree declaring the necessity of a religious war against the 
 Eussians. The Amir on returning to Bukhara was so ill- 
 treated by the mob that he immediately withdrew and retired 
 northwards to Hizhduvan. The disorders in Samarkand had 
 been so great that Osman, the commander of the troops — a 
 runaway Cossack — had been obliged to march out to quell 
 them, and had lost 62 men in doing so. At Hizhduvan the 
 Amir, learning of the affair near Jizakh, and of the desertion 
 of the Afghans under Iskender Khan, immediately went to 
 Kermineh and proclaimed a war. 1 
 
 General Kaufmann at first intended to make the province 
 of Samarkand into a semi-independent state under Seid Khan, 
 the nephew of the Amir, but finding him too much under the 
 influence of the Beks of Shahrisabs gave up that project and 
 made two propositions to the Amir, one of which was that he 
 (the Amir) should pay 150,000 tillas (750,000/.) and receive 
 back Samarkand ; the other being that he should pay the 
 expenses of the war — about 18,000/.- -while Samarkand and 
 its provinces should be annexed to Russia. Neither of these 
 propositions was accepted. The battle of Zera-bulak followed, 
 which ended in the complete defeat of the Amir and in the 
 repulse of the troops of Shahrisabs from Samarkand. 
 
 The Amir then offered an unconditional capitulation, re- 
 questing only an interview with the Emperor to ask permis- 
 sion to go to Mecca. This proposition General Kaufmann 
 rejected, saying it had never been his intention to destroy the 
 Khanate of Bukhara. What were his motives in refusing the 
 advantages which would have been brought to Eussia by the 
 occupation of the whole country, or which would have ensued 
 even from accepting the proposition and then restoring the 
 Amir to the throne as a dependent prince and actually ruling 
 the country through him, have never been known, but it must be 
 remembered that the whole campaign was in positive dereliction 
 of the orders of the Emperor to make no further advances. 
 
 Mozaffar Eddin was therefore left in possession of all of 
 Bukhara west of Katta Kurgan. The valley of the Zarafshan 
 up to that point was annexed to Eussia, and by a secret article 
 of the treaty which was signed on June 23 (July 5), 1868, the 
 
 1 See vol. i. pp. 88, 89. 
 
REVOLT OF THE KATTA TIURA. 305 
 
 Amir bound himself to pay 125,000 tillas (80,000£.) during the 
 course of a year. 
 
 The capture of Samarkand and the disastrous peace excited 
 great discontent against the Amir among his own subjects, 
 especially among the fanatical Mussulman party; and his eldest 
 son, the Katta Tiura, the heir to the throne, was induced to 
 take up arms against him, and issued a proclamation, in which 
 his father, on account of his peace with Eussia, was declared to 
 be an infidel and to be unworthy to rule. The Katta Tiura 
 was then in Shahrisabs, and the Amir advanced with his army 
 to Tchiraktchi, hoping to forc^ Jura Bek to give up his son. 
 
 General Kaufmann, to show his friendly disposition, at the 
 same time ordered General Abramof to make an advance on 
 Kara-tepe, Urgut, and Djam, so as not to allow the Beks of 
 Shahrisabs to afford the Katta Tiura any real aid. The Katta 
 Tiura, therefore, entered into negotiations with the Turkomans, 
 with the Kirghiz, with Khiva, and with Sadyk, the celebrated 
 Kirghiz chief, who got hold of Nurata, and marched on to 
 Kermineh, where he had been named Bek. The Amir, 
 frightened at this, left a small body of men at Tchiraktchi and 
 returned to Bukhara, on which both Tchiraktchi and Karshi 
 were immediately occupied by the Katta Tiura. The attitude 
 of the Eussians, however, compelled Jura Bek to withdraw with 
 4,000 troops from Karshi, and the movements of the Katta 
 Tiura were therefore stopped. The Amir at the same time 
 advanced from Bukhara, defeated Sadyk at Kermineh, and 
 restored his power. Another Kirghiz chief, Nazar, with 
 10,000 men, besieged Khatyrtchi, and a part of his force 
 crossed the new Eussian boundary, over which they were 
 speedily driven back. The Turkomans made forays in the close 
 vicinity of the city of Bukhara, so that the Amir was almost 
 besieged. 
 
 The Eussians pursued a policy which has been several times 
 adopted by them, but not always with success. They thought 
 it better for their interests to keep the weak, unpopular ruler 
 on the throne of Bukhara, rather than allow him to be over- 
 thrown by his son, who was young and energetic, and was not 
 animated by too great friendship for Eussia. It was feared 
 that the Katta Tiura in case of success would not recognise as 
 binding the treaty made by his father. 
 
 VOL. II. x 
 
306 TURKISTAN. 
 
 At this juncture, in order to give some active assistance to 
 the Amir, who had at last applied for aid, General Kaufmann 
 sent an expedition under Greneral Abramof to Karshi, which 
 was immediately taken. In order to prove the peaceable in- 
 tentions of the Eussians and their sincere desire to assist him, 
 the Eussian troops after two days were withdrawn, and Karshi 
 was delivered up to the Amir, who was so pleased at this that 
 he then requested the Eussians to conquer Shahrisabs for him ; 
 and the Beks of that city, being disturbed by the Eussian re- 
 connoissances, of their own accord sent in their submission and 
 agreed to return the town of Yakobak. The Amir, however, 
 refused to receive the Katta Tiura, who turned for refuge to 
 Greneral Abramof, and begged him to reconcile him to his 
 father, whom he would henceforth obediently serve. The 
 Amir then agreed to pardon his son, who, however, feeling 
 doubts of his sincerity, again requested the protection of 
 Eussia ; but after receiving permission to go to Samarkand he 
 turned on the road and occupied Katyrtchi, where he executed 
 many of his opponents. He then moved on Kermineh, but 
 the Amir was before him, and he therefore fled to Nurata, and 
 thence to Khiva, Afghanistan, and at last to Kashgar, where he 
 lives half a prisoner in the fort of Yangy-Hissar. 
 
 These circumstances prevented the Amir from paying his 
 contribution punctually, and he delayed still more owing to 
 rumours that a new Governor-General with a new policy 
 was to be appointed in place of Greneral Kaufmann, and on 
 account of the disorders in the Kirghiz Steppe, which seemed 
 seriously to threaten the Eussian domination. But the dis- 
 orders were quelled, Greneral Kaufmann returned, and finally, 
 in 1870, the last quota of the contribution was paid. Whether 
 or not there may have been some ambiguity in the terms of 
 the treaty, the Bukharans certainly seemed to think that 
 Samarkand would be returned to them, for they took every 
 occasion of bringing up this question. 
 
 In the autumn of 1869 Seid Abdullah Fattah Khan, a 
 younger and the favourite son of the Amir — commonly known 
 as the Tiura- Jan — was sent in company with two officials on 
 an embassy to St. Petersburg. In spite of the warning received 
 from General Kaufmann that missions must not address the 
 central Government on any political question, the Tiura-Jan on 
 
THE TIURA-JAN. 307 
 
 his reception by the Emperor did proffer the prayer of the 
 Amir for the return of Samarkand. The categorical refusal of 
 the Emperor did not seem to convince him that the request 
 would not be granted, and he still endeavoured to talk on the 
 subject with statesmen at St. Petersburg. On the return of the 
 embassy the Tiura-Jan again addressed General Kaufmann on 
 the subject, but to no purpose. 1 The feeling on this subject 
 among the Bukharans was so strong that on several occasions 
 when Russian embassies have gone to Bukhara rumours have 
 circulated in the city that they came for the purpose of 
 restoring the Zarafshan province ; and even when I was in 
 Bukhara in 1873, during the time of the Khivan expedition, 
 questions were put to me as to whether the Russians did not 
 at last intend to fulfil their agreement. 
 
 Until the Shahrisabs expedition in 1870 nothing of particular 
 importance occurred in the relations of the two countries except the 
 reconnoissances in 1869-70 in the Kyzyl Kum, the settlement of 
 the Karategin difficulty, and the defeat on Bukharan territory of 
 the robber band of Baban, who, with twenty-five other prisoners, 
 was delivered up to the Bukharan authorities for execution. 
 
 Before the return of the Tiura-Jan from St. Petersburg there 
 were rumours in Tashkent that the Amir was in negotiation 
 with Khiva and the Afghans for a campaign against Russia, and 
 Colonel Nosoviteh was therefore sent to Bukhara to find out what 
 was taking place, and to assure the Amir of the friendly dispo- 
 sition of the Russians. He found an Afghan embassy there, but 
 the cautious Amir had already given them an evasive answer which 
 could easily be construed into a refusal to enter into their plans. 
 
 In the summer of 1870 General Abramof undertook the 
 Iskender Kul expedition, 2 which resulted in the annexation 
 of the upper valley of the Zarafshan. This was immediately 
 followed by the capture of Shahrisabs, the expulsion of Jura 
 and Baba Bek, and the delivery of the country to the Amir, 3 
 
 1 The Tiura-Jan, who had been marked out by the Amir as his heir, subse- 
 quently died of a lingering disease. A Russian physician was sent to him from 
 Samarkand, but he was unable to arrest the malady. 
 
 2 See vol. i. pp. 280-283. 
 
 3 For an account of this expedition see p. 74. It should have been there 
 stated that, after the capture of Shahrisabs. Aidar Hodja, the man for whose extra- 
 dition the expedition had been nominally undertaken, was tried by the Russian 
 authorities and was acquitted. 
 
 x 2 
 
308 TURKISTAN. 
 
 who agreed to pay to each of the exiled Beks a pension of 
 2,000 rubles a year. It has, however, been found very diffi- 
 cult to exact the payments, and sometimes they have been long 
 in arrear. The surrender to the Amir of Shahrisabs, as that of 
 Ivarshi previously, was made against the wish and in spite of the 
 protests of the native population, who much preferred to remain 
 under Russian rule than to be under that of Mozaffar Eddin. 
 
 The bad harvests of 1870 produced not only great distress 
 but great discontent among the population, who accused the 
 Russians of not allowing sufficient water for irrigation to pass 
 through the Zarafshan into Bukharan territory, and also of 
 forbidding the sale of grain. In consequence of this, as I have 
 explained in another piace, 1 a joint commission was appointed 
 to regulate the water supply. 
 
 In 1871 there was an occurrence which was rightly estimated 
 by many as derogatory to Russian dignity. The Beks whom 
 the Amir had appointed to his newly acquired province of 
 Shahrisabs were in some degree in sympathy with the popula- 
 tion of that country, and were therefore popular. They could 
 not help thinking that they owed in great measure their posi- 
 tions to the Russians. When therefore in 1871 General Kauf- 
 mann paid a visit to Samarkand, these Beks, one of whom was 
 named Tokhtamysh, came to Samarkand to pay him their 
 respects, and, as he entered the city, took part in the national 
 game of baiga. According to Bukharan etiquette persons of 
 their rank should do this in the presence of their lawful 
 sovereign only. Hearing of this the Amir immediately re- 
 moved them from their dignities, and ordered their property to 
 be confiscated, on which they fled to Samarkand. Although 
 the Bukharan Amir had never given up Russian deserters, yet 
 General Kaufmann, wishing to ingratiate himself in every 
 possible way with the Amir, complied with his request and 
 ordered the Beks to be sent to Bukhara, expressing, however, 
 the hope that the Amir would pardon their faults. For some 
 time they were in exile at Tchardjui, but subsequently were 
 restored to favour. 
 
 The relations of Bukhara with the Porte, in consequence 
 of a certain Abdul Hai having been received in Constantinople as 
 the envoy of the Amir, caused a diplomatic correspondence, when 
 1 Vol. i. p. 288. 
 
DOUBLE-DEALINGS OE THE AMIE 309 
 
 the Amir formally promised henceforth to abstain from direct 
 relations with the Sultan. In spite of the benefits conferred 
 upon the Amir, of the numerous friendly embassies, and of other 
 means taken to assure him of the friendliness of the Russians, 
 he likes them no better in his heart, though his experience of 
 their strength leads him to avoid as far as possible causes of 
 conflict. He has, however, made no efforts to carry out the 
 treaty of commerce, the Russian merchants being compelled 
 to pay illegal duties (although a portion has been refunded). 
 For two years the Amir did not pay to the exiled Beks of 
 Shahrisabs the sums due to them, notwithstanding repeated 
 requests from the Tashkent authorities. It is strange that 
 these requests were not made in a more forcible form, but it is 
 probable it was feared the Amir might be hostile during the 
 Khivan expedition. When the Khivan expedition started there 
 was general fear in Bukhara that it was directed also against 
 that city, and merchants even sent away their property and came 
 to Samarkand to be out of harm's way. At one time the terror 
 was so great that the population proposed to seize upon the 
 Amir and deliver him up to the Eussians. The Amir, however, 
 professed friendliness towards the Russians, met them at the 
 frontier with messages and presents, and sent an envoy with 
 the expedition. He also furnished a certain amount of pro- 
 visions and camels, though, with the exception of a small pre- 
 sent, these were sold at high prices and not given away. He 
 further held himself ready to take advantage of any circum- 
 stances favourable to himself; and while he was sending kind 
 words and worn-out camels to the Russians he was giving his 
 blessing and opening his purse to three Turkoman chiefs, who 
 left Bukhara for Khiva. The Russian authorities, however, 
 considered it best to wink at his conduct, and to reward his 
 friendliness and the equanimity with which he .regarded the 
 establishment of a Russian fort at Khalata, within the Bukharan 
 territory, by bestowing upon him a narrow strip of country on 
 the right bank of the Oxus which had been in dispute between 
 him and Khiva. 
 
 Nothing had been said in the commercial treaty with regard 
 to slavery or the slave-trade, but it was impressed upon the 
 Bukharan authorities that the Russians disapproved of this 
 shameful traffic and desired its immediate cessation. In con- 
 
310 TUEKISTAK 
 
 sequence of this the Bukharans gave out to the Russians that 
 the trade in slaves (the slaves here are all Persians) had entirely 
 ceased, and dust was thrown in the eyes of the Eussian officials 
 who came to Bukhara, so that the diplomatic employe made a 
 report to General Kaufmann in 1870, in which he stated that, 
 after careful investigation, he was convinced that, in deference 
 to the wish and principles of Russia, the slave-trade had entirely 
 ceased. Merchants, however, who had better opportunities of 
 seeing, knew that it was going on in full force, but their reports 
 were disbelieved in Tashkent. Mr. Petrofsky, the agent of the 
 Ministry of Finance, was in Bukhara in 1872, and having seen 
 with his own eyes the sale of Persian slaves in the bazaar, 
 made a strong report to General Kaufmann, of which no notice 
 was taken. 
 
 My purchase of a slave at Bukhara caused a certain sensation 
 at Samarkand and Tashkent, as it was at the same time as the 
 release by Greneral Kaufmann of the Persian slaves at Khiva ; 
 but the act was viewed with favour by most persons, official and 
 otherwise, for it was said that I had given the Government 
 actual proof of the existence of the forbidden traffic. Some of 
 the more outspoken partisans of the Governor-General were 
 displeased, wrongly thinking that my action was intended as 
 an inuendo against him. 
 
 After the close of the Khivan campaign Mr. Struve was sent 
 on a mission to Bukhara for the purpose of making a new treaty. 
 This treaty was signed by the Amir on September 28 (October 
 10), 1 873, and a clause was inserted in it which read : ' To please 
 the Emperor of all the Russias and to enhance the glory of his 
 Imperial Majesty, his Worship the Amir SeidMozaffar has ordered 
 the shameful traffic of human beings, which is contrary to the 
 laws of humanity, to be henceforth abolished in the dominions 
 of Bukhara. In accordance with this resolve, Seid Mozaffar 
 will give the strictest injunctions to all his Beks and a special 
 order will be sent to all the Bukharan frontier towns to which 
 the slaves are transferred from neighbouring countries for sale 
 to Bukharan subjects, that, besides the cessation of the slave- 
 trade, if, contrary to the order of the Amir, slaves shall be 
 brought thither for sale, they shall be taken away from their 
 masters and immediately set at liberty.' 
 
 Unfortunately, the Russians have always found it more easy 
 
TEEATY OF 1873. 311 
 
 to make treaties in Central Asia than to enforce their observance, 
 and I have received information from Eussians as well as from 
 natives that since this treaty the slave-trade has rather in- 
 creased than diminished, although slaves are no longer sold pub- 
 licly in the open market, as was done when I was in Bukhara. 
 
 By this treaty it was also provided that the strip of territory 
 on the right bank of the Amu Darya from Kukertli to Meshekli, 
 and thence to the Russian boundary, should be taken from 
 Khiva and transferred to Bukhara; that Russian steamers and 
 other vessels should have the right to navigate the Amu Darya ; 
 that Russians should be allowed to build piers and storehouses 
 on the Bukharan bank, and for the safety of which the Bukharan 
 Government should be responsible ; that all the towns and vil- 
 lages in the Khanate should be open to Russian commerce ; and 
 that Russians should be allowed to travel without molestation 
 anywhere within the Khanate, with no other duty levied than 
 the one of 2\ per cent, ad valorem on goods belonging to Russian 
 subjects, exported or imported ; that Russian merchants should 
 be allowed to send their goods through Bukhara free of transit 
 dues ; that Russian merchants should be allowed to have cara- 
 vanserais and commercial agents in all the towns ; that commer- 
 cial engagements between Russians and Bukharans should be 
 considered sacred ; that Russian subjects should be allowed to 
 exercise all branches of industry permitted by the Shariat, 
 and should be allowed to purchase real property ; that the Buk- 
 haran Government should not permit anyone to arrive from the 
 Russian territory, whatever might be their nationality, unless 
 provided with a special permit from the Russian authorities ; 
 that the Amir should appoint a resident envoy at Tashkent ; and 
 that the Russian Government should be permitted to maintain 
 a resident agent at Bukhara. 
 
 The Russians have, thus far, made very little use of the rights 
 granted to them by this treaty, for no Russian vessels have as 
 yet sailed on the Amu Darya waters within Bukharan territory ; 
 no increase of Russian commerce has taken place, and no Russian 
 agent has yet been appointed to reside at Bukhara. It cannot 
 be said that the relations between the two countries have been 
 improved by this treaty. On the contrary, during the Kho- 
 kandian war in 1875 the Amir was on the watch for an oppor- 
 tunity to attack the Russians on the side of Samarkand, and 
 
312 TURKISTAH". 
 
 G-eneral Abramof forbade Eussian caravans going to Bukhara, 
 on the ground that if they did so their safety could not he 
 guaranteed by the Russian Government. 
 
 The conquest of Bukhara — except for the purpose of getting 
 control over the greatest market iu Central Asia, and of putting 
 an end to an independent, and sometimes troublesome Moham- 
 medan State — will probably not have for the Russians the 
 same advantages as that of Khokand. The agriculture of the 
 country is in poor condition and Mr. Sobolef brings up weighty 
 reasons to prove that the area of cultivable land is being 
 gradually and rapidly diminished by the encroachments of the 
 desert. 1 There is probably no reason to look for the occupation 
 of Bukhara by Russia before the death of thf 1 Amir, whom 
 the Russians, in spite of the loud complaints of his people, will 
 probably continue to maintain upon the throne. 
 
 THIRD AFGHANISTAN. 
 
 Russian relations with Afghanistan appear to have begun 
 after Abdurrahman Khan had taken refuge on Russian soil. 
 Abdurrahman before this had requested Russian intervention 
 in Afghanistan, and had promised to submit it to Russian rule. 
 His overtures had been refused ; but at last, finding himself 
 under too strict surveillance in Bukhara, he wrote : ' You know 
 that our country is submitted to English protection. I place 
 my hope in you, because I know very well that the possessions 
 of the White Tsar are much larger than those of the French, 
 German, and English taken together. Going to Vizir and 
 Mashad, and learning there that Iran (Persia) is under the 
 protection of the White Tsar, I came through the steppe of the 
 Tekke Turkomans to Urgentch (Khiva), with the purpose of 
 going on to you.' The reply to this of February 7 (19), 1870, 
 was not received by Abdurrahman, as he had already gone to 
 Samarkand. In this General Kaufmann promised him a good 
 reception, but told him that he was to have no hope of assist- 
 ance against Afghanistan, giving the reason for this as follows: 
 ' The present ruler of Afghanistan has been recognised as 
 the lawful sovereign of that country by England, which is 
 friendly with us, and until he breaks the peace and makes a 
 
 ' Bulletin of the Imperial Russian Geographical Society, for 1873, vol. ix. p. 
 259. 
 
ABDURRAHMAN KHAN. 313 
 
 disturbance on the frontier of Bukhara I have no reason to see 
 in him our enemy.' When Abdurrahman reached Tashkent 
 he made the following new requests : first, to receive 3,000 
 muskets and seven cannon, even should they be taken from 
 the Bukharans ; second, to form a military organisation of 
 Afghans and Persians who had at previous times come to 
 Bukhara ; third, to obtain the permission of the Amir to establish 
 himself at Kerki or Shirabad, in order to send proclamations 
 to his adherents in Afghanistan ; and, fourth, to be allowed to 
 keep his suite. General Kaufmann refused to assist him in any 
 way, and informed him that any relations with his friends in 
 Afghanistan would be unpleasant to the Eussian authorities ; 
 but that his suite, which consisted of 221 persons, he could retain 
 in Samarkand if he could do so on the money assigned to him. 
 As the money seemed to be insufficient, Abdurrahman sub- 
 sequently dismissed the greater part of his followers. The 
 Foreign Office approved of this decision of General Kaufmann 
 and in a letter of May 16 (28), Mr. Stremovukhof, the Director 
 of the Asiatic Department, suggested that it might be better 
 to send Abdurrahman into the interior of Eussia in order 
 to avoid complications. 'After the friendly exchange of ideas 
 with the English Cabinet with regard to Central Asian affairs, 
 our Government tries to remove anything which, without 
 bringing us any actual advantage, may be a reason for exciting 
 distrust.' 
 
 Greneral Kaufmann considered this a good opportunity to 
 remove any misunderstanding, and at the same time to enter 
 into friendly relations with the Amir of Kabul, and accordingly 
 on March 10 (22), 1870, wrote to Shir Ali about his reception 
 of Abdurrahman Khan. In this letter he said : ' The domains 
 of the White Tsar in Turkistan, and the lands now subject to 
 you, do not have a common boundary. We are separated by 
 the Khanate of Bukhara, the ruler of which, Seid Mozaffar, has 
 concluded a peace with Eussia, and is in the friendship and 
 under the protection of the great Emperor of all the Eussias. 
 Therefore between us there cannot be any misunderstanding, 
 and we, although distant neighbours, ought to live in peace and 
 union. I have no intention to intervene in the internal affairs 
 of Afghanistan, both because you are under the protection of 
 the English Government- which, as you well know, is in friend- 
 
314 TURKISTAN. 
 
 ship and concord with the Government of the White Tsar — and 
 because I do not see on your part any intervention in the affairs 
 of Bukhara. Afghanistan and Bukhara ought to have nothing 
 in common, and each of these two countries ought to live its own 
 life without troubling itself about what its neighbour is doing.' * 
 This letter of General Kaufmann seems to have been in full 
 accord with the opinion expressed to him almost on the same 
 day, March 18 (30), by Prince Gortchakof, that, in view of the 
 noticeable change in public opinion consequent on the frank 
 exchange of views between the Ministry and the London Cabinet, 
 it was indispensable to take measures for the contradiction of 
 any false reports which might circulate in Central Asia. Baron 
 Brunnow, however, in a despatch of March 18 (30), con- 
 sidered that there should be no direct relations between General 
 Kaufmann and the Amir of Afghanistan, and that all such des- 
 patches should be sent through St. Petersburg. This General 
 Kaufmann considered an infringement of the full powers 
 which he had received from the Emperor, and he therefore 
 paid no attention to the suggestion. In the meantime a rebellion 
 broke out in Afghanistan because the Amir was thought by 
 many of his subjects to be too subservient to the English. Infor- 
 mation about the course of events was received by the Russians 
 both through their mission at Teheran and through the corre- 
 spondence of the friends and the adherents of Abdurrahman. 
 After this insurrection was put down, about the end of August 
 1870, General Kaufmann received an answer to his letter. In 
 this Shir Ali Khan said : ' When I received from you the 
 promise that the Russian Government would neither secretly 
 nor openly by means of an army intervene in the affairs of 
 Afghanistan, and that the enemies of Afghanistan would not 
 receive help from you, I was greatly gladdened.' He then 
 stated that on receipt of General Kaufmann's letter he had 
 consulted with the Viceroy of India, and had forbidden his 
 officials to mix in the affairs of his neighbours or to trouble 
 them, or to allow any armed parties to cross the frontier. i All 
 this,' the Amir added, ' was done not by me alone, but on con- 
 sultation with the representative of the English Government, 
 
 1 This, as well as much else with regard to Afghanistan, is quoted from 
 Terentief, id., pp. 154-191. See also 'Parliamentary Papers on Central Asia,' 
 No. 2 (1873). 
 
ISKENDER KHAN. 315 
 
 the Viceroy of India, who very well understands the friendly 
 relations existing between his Government and the Kussian 
 Tsar. From my conversation with him I am fully convinced 
 of the friendship of the two Governments, and I am now assured 
 thaf quiet will reign in my empire.' It is worthy of remark 
 that all the letters of General Kaufmann to Shir Ali are accom- 
 panied by an English translation, for the greater convenience of 
 the Indian authorities, to whom it is expected they will be 
 transmitted. 
 
 A further correspondence was called out by the desire of 
 Iskender Khan, the nephew of the Amir, to return to Kabul. 1 
 General Kaufmann communicated this to the Amir, and asked 
 him to pardon and to receive back this prince. To this the 
 Amir replied favourably, and General Kaufmann in his turn 
 congratulated him on the close of civil war in Afghanistan. 
 Iskender Khan, however, did not return to Afghanistan, but 
 was allowed to go to St. Petersburg, where he was given the 
 rank of lieutenant-colonel, and attached to the Hussars of the 
 Guard, with a salary of 4,000 rubles. His position there, how- 
 ever, was peculiar, he not being considered regularly in the 
 service or capable of advancement. To the annoyances of 
 this position was added an unpleasantness arising out of the 
 treatment of his follower, Eamdil Khan, who had been received 
 as a cadet in the convoy of the Emperor. At an inspection 
 Eamdil Khan, who had done good service in Turkistan and had 
 been decorated, was struck by the adjutant. Iskender Khan 
 took the part of his friend and demanded from the adjutant 
 a public apology before the soldiers. There was an altercation, 
 and Iskender sent a challenge to the commander of the convoy, 
 who refused to accept it ; and Iskender then declared that the 
 first time he met him in the palace he would insult him. For 
 this he was placed in the guard-house for six days, while Eam- 
 dil Khan was also arrested and sent to the Caucasus, though 
 he was subsequently recalled. Iskender Khan immediately 
 resigned, entered into negotiations with the British Embassy, 
 and went to London, where he was well received by the English 
 
 i Iskender Khan had been driven out of Afghanistan during the intestine 
 troubles, and had put his Afghan followers into the service of the Amir of 
 Bukhara. Owing to the treatment which he met with in that country he had 
 gone over to the Russians just before the Samarkand campaign, as I have men- 
 tioned on p. 241, vol. i. 
 
316 TURKESTAN. 
 
 Government and assigned a small pension, on which he is still 
 living in England. With Tskender Khan's family influence and 
 his remarkable capacity, it is to be regretted that the Eussians 
 did not better appreciate how useful he could be to them. 
 
 The authorities at Tashkent have been considerably annoyed 
 by the disturbances in Badakshan, over which place the Eussians 
 had, by their arrangement with England, acknowledged the 
 suzerainty of Shir Ali. The natives of that country were un- 
 willing to submit to the Afghans, and since Afghan troops were 
 sent there in 1873 there have been several attempts at rebellion, 
 caused in great part by the former ruler of the country, Jahandar 
 Shah, who had been dethroned by his nephew, Mahmud Shah. 
 Abdurrahman Khan has, since he came to Samarkand, married 
 a daughter of Jahandar Shah, and Shir Ali has given one of his 
 daughters in marriage to Mahmud Shah ; so that it is the old 
 feud being fought over again in this limited territory. Jahandar 
 Shah took as the bases for his attempts Shugnan and Kulab ; 
 but it is said that since the failure of his last expedition in 
 August 1874 he has taken refuge among the Turkomans. 1 
 
 FOURTH — KASHGAR. 
 
 Yakub Khan, the present Amir of Kashgar, was a native of 
 Piskent, near Tashkent, and had signalised himself in 1853 by 
 being for a time an officer in Ak-Masjid at the time of its 
 capture by the Eussians. In 1864, about the time Tashkent 
 was taken, he went to Kashgar as one of the lieutenants of 
 Buzurg Khan Hodja, a descendant of the ancient Hodja rulers, 
 who, taking advantage of the insurrection just beginning, desired 
 to re-establish the realm of his ancestors. The facts of his career 
 are well known ; how, after using Buzurg Khan as long as the 
 shadow of his name was necessary, he threw him off and made 
 himself the sovereign of the country ; how he extended his rule 
 to the eastward by the capture of Aksu, Turfan, and Urumtsi ; 
 how he took in succession the titles of Atalyk Grhazi, and Badau- 
 let, and in the end that of Amir, conferred upon him by the 
 
 1 Terentief says, p. 189: 'It is to be hoped that these rebellions -will be 
 periodically repeated, and that the disorders in the other provinces will compol 
 the Amir of Kabul to withdraw his troops from Badakshan.' 
 
EAELIEST RELATIONS WITH KASHGAR. 317 
 
 Turkish Sultan in 1873 ; and how, from a mere adventurer, he 
 has become the most powerful of Asiatic monarchs. 
 
 For a long- time the Russians refused to recognise him, that 
 is to say, they made no treaties with him and refused to allow 
 his envoys to come to the Court at St. Petersburg, although 
 naturally they did not abstain from those slight relations which 
 generals on the border are obliged to maintain with neigh- 
 bouring powers. As Yakub Khan disliked the Russians, he 
 closed his country to Russian trade. No merchant, therefore, 
 ventured to Kashgar, until in 1868 the merchant Khludof, a 
 brave and enterprising fellow, started out from Vierny with 
 a small caravan of goods. His caravan was attacked soon 
 after crossing the border, and he was obliged to return. He 
 then sent some presents to Yakub Khan, and requested the 
 admission of his caravan. The presents were accepted, and the 
 attack on the caravan was explained as being because the 
 authorities had no official knowledge of its character. Khludof 
 then obtained from the Governor of Semiretch a letter to 
 Yakub Khan certifying that the venture was purely a com- 
 mercial one. This obtained for him the desired permission, 
 although the caravan was detained on the road. Khludof was 
 received by Yakub Khan, and by his boldness and straight- 
 forwardness produced such an impression upon him that he 
 agreed to send his nephew, Shadi Mirza, to Tashkent to con- 
 clude a commercial treaty. 
 
 The construction of Fort Naryn in the same year (1868) 
 had, perhaps, some influence in producing this change in the 
 views of Yakub Khan to favour Bukhara, and therefore hasten 
 on the construction of the fortress. All of the Naryn country 
 had been recognised as Russian territory by the treaty of Pekin 
 in 1860, but it was first occupied in 1863, when a Russian 
 detachment destroyed the Khokandian fort of Kurtka, which 
 had been built within the Russian boundaries. 
 
 Shadi Mirza together with Khludof arrived at Vierny in 
 August 1868. He brought a letter from Yakub Khan to General 
 Kaufmann, who had just gone on leave to St. Petersburg. For 
 this reason, as well as because the letter of Yakub Khan to 
 General Kaufmann was not expressed in polite terms, Shadi 
 Mirza was not allowed to go on to Tashkent. 
 
 With regard to the accusation of hindering trad i Yakub 
 
3 1 8 TURKISTAN. 
 
 Khan wrote : ' The land of the great Russian Tsar is great and 
 broad, and full of all the sorts of wise men and artificers that 
 there are in the seven great lands. Our land in comparison to 
 yours is a poor ruin. Now, after the destruction of the Chinesb 
 power, during six years all has been destroyed that was good 
 and that which commerce had created, so that nothing remains 
 of it all. This was the reason why your rich merchants were 
 not allowed here, for they could find nothing here but ruins.' 
 
 General Kolpakofsky informed Yakub Khan of the depar- 
 ture of General Kaufmann, mentioned the breach of polite form 
 in his letter, and demanded the surrender of two Kirghiz robbers, 
 Omar and Kaitchi, and the return of some prisoners they had cap- 
 tured. The letter of General Kolpakofsky was sent to Kashgar by 
 Captain Reinthal, who was the first officer that penetrated there. 
 In spite of renewed interviews with the Khan, in which he was 
 treated with great politeness, he was unable to succeed in 
 inducing him to come to an agreement for protecting trade. 
 Yakub Khan, however, consented to send out an expedition 
 to the settlement of the Kirghiz tribe, and captured the 
 guilty parties, although he kept them in Kashgar as a kind of 
 guarantee for the return of Shadi Mirza. The Russian captives 
 he sent on to Vierny. 
 
 General Kaufmann, on receiving a report of what had 
 taken place, granted Shadi Mirza permission to come on to 
 St. Petersburg for conference with him. In answer to a letter 
 about preventing trade, General Kaufmann insisted that com- 
 mercial relations should be entered into, and proposed a treaty 
 of exactly the same character as those concluded with Bukhara 
 and Khokand. Shadi Mirza was not, however, received by 
 the Emperor, and returned to Kashgar in January, 1869. 
 In April a letter was received at Tashkent, in which Yakub 
 Khan thanked General Kaufmann for the presents he had 
 received, and promised to take care of the Russian merchants on 
 condition that the Russian troops should not pass the frontier. 
 He said : ' For the passage of caravans and merchants, quiet 
 and safety are needed ; and for this it is necessary to fix a 
 boundary, so that merchants may come either from Russia or 
 from other nations.' 
 
 Knowing that Yakub Khan would not be disposed to respect 
 the treaties made by the Chinese, General Kaufmann in his 
 
OCCUPATION OF KULDJA. 319 
 
 reply, insisted that the Russians were right in constructing 
 the fort at Naryn, as it was on ground which had been made 
 theirs by treaties with his predecessor the Chinese Emperor _, 
 and although since that time the country had passed into his 
 hands, that fact could have no influence upon the boundary 
 which had once been established. He offered, however, to 
 appoint a commission to fix it accurately, and again demanded 
 the return of one of the copies of the commercial treaty signed. 
 To this letter no answer was received. The conditions pro- 
 posed were not agreed to, and the merchants met with the 
 same hindrances and obstacles as previously. 
 
 Meanwhile Yakub Khan endeavoured to enter into friendly 
 relations with the Dungans and the Tarantchis, but his efforts 
 seemed to be without result. He then changed his plans, and 
 in the beginning of 1872 made war on the Dungans, the pretext 
 being about the Torgots or Kalmuks who had been living in 
 the valley of the river Yulduz, and over whom Yakub Khan 
 claimed to have suzerain rights. The Dungans at first had the ad- 
 vantage, and occupied the cities of Karashar, Kutche and Sairam, 
 but hearing of Yakub Khan's approach, they abandoned them 
 after pillaging the merchants and murdering many of the in- 
 habitants. The forces of Yakub Khan advanced, laid siege to 
 Turfan, and, after a four months' siege, took it in July 1870. 
 
 The Russians, fearing that the object of Yakub Khan was 
 the conquest of the province of Kuldja, thought it better at 
 least to keep a watch upon his movements, and therefore 
 occupied the Muzart pass. In spite of the difficulties of the 
 pass, Yakub Khan had ordered that all the caravans coming 
 into the valley of the Hi should take this way, and had sent a 
 force of men to improve it, establishing in addition a picket at the 
 southern side. As in spite of the Russian occupation of this pass, 
 Yakub Khan would easily have been able to take possession of 
 the valley of Kuldja, difficulties with Kirghiz marauders were 
 made an excuse, and Kuldja was occupied by the Russians in 
 1871. 
 
 Yakub Khan, somewhat alarmed by the advance of the 
 Russians, as well as by the position of affairs in the Chinese 
 provinces of Han-su and Shen-si, took precautionary measures by 
 fortifying the town of Aksu, and sending Akhrar Khan on an 
 embassv to Calcutta. 
 
320 TURKISTAN. 
 
 Direct relations with Yakub Khan having been broken off 
 for so long, General Kaufmann, having lost all hope of persuading 
 him, resolved to make use of the Khan of Khokand. He there- 
 fore, as I have already said, proposed to Khudayar Khan to use 
 his supposed suzerain rights over Yakub Bek, expel him, and add 
 that country to his dominions. Khudayar Khan having refused 
 to lend himself to the plans of the Governor-General, all that 
 could be done was to have him act as mediator. At the request 
 of the Russians, therefore, Khudayar Khan sent Sarymsak 
 Udaitchi with a letter to Yakub Khan, counselling him to make 
 peace with Eussia, as the Russians would easily be able to over- 
 throw him. Yakub Khan, while receiving the envoy with 
 respect, insisted upon being treated as an equal, and took up 
 that tone in his reply. In answer to the advice of holding 
 friendly and commercial relations with the Russians, he said : 
 ' The Russians that have come here look at these localities and 
 become acquainted with the state of the country, and there- 
 fore it is better to forbid their coming, for they are a restless 
 and crooked-minded people.' Before the receipt of this insult- 
 ing letter, another messenger had gone from Khokand with a 
 letter from General Kaufmann, himself, who, after mentioning all 
 the unfriendly actions of Yakub Khan, and all the measures 
 taken by the Russians for friendly intercourse, pointed out to 
 him the necessity of following the example of Bukhara and 
 Khokand in their relations with Russia, if he did not wish for an 
 unavoidable and severe punishment. 
 
 The threat contained in this letter was in earnest. The 
 Russians had decided upon war, if nothing else could bring 
 Yakub Khan to reason, but while preparations were being made, 
 Mirza Hakim was induced to write a letter to a certain Akhrar 
 Khan, a Khokandian formerly high in service under Khudayar 
 Khan, who had been for some years living in Kashgar, inform- 
 ing him of the preparations, and advising a more sensible mode 
 of conduct. Akhrar Khan, by direction of Yakub Khan, replied 
 that the Governor-General would do very well if he carried on 
 friendly relations by himself, but that if he undertook to manage 
 affairs through Khudayar Khan he could accomplish nothing, 
 and further relations would not lead to the desired end ; ' although 
 the Badaulet well knows the might and greatness of Russia, still, 
 as a brave man, he hopes in God and will never refuse to fight, 
 
COMMERCIAL TREATY WITH KASHGAR. 321 
 
 for he does not fear death, and considers it a good fortune to die 
 for the faith.' 
 
 To the letter of General Kaufmann Yakub Khan replied 
 personally. He said : ' The last envoy who brought your letter 
 was not a Eussian, not because there were no Russians to send, 
 but because you seemed to think Khokand and Bukhara only 
 worthy of this honour. If the Russians believed in my good 
 wishes they would send me one of their men, which woidd show 
 me their kind intention, and which I would consider a proof of 
 their good disposition towards me. If your words be really an 
 expression of good will towards me, let some one come to us of 
 more account than your merchants. Send me some Russian, 
 or even a Tashkent Sart, though he be only a shepherd, and 
 I will send back to } 7 ou an envoy of my own.' 
 
 In this way Yakub Khan compelled the Russians to take 
 the first step. General Kaufmann then resolved to despatch a 
 mission, of which Baron Kaulbars was the head, and to which 
 were attached an engineer, a topographer, and a merchant, the 
 duties of the last being to study the commercial capabilities of 
 the country. In the meantime, however, the military prepa- 
 rations were proceeded with. Bodies of troops were stationed 
 on the road from Lake Issyk Kul to the south, and a military 
 road through the mountains was completed as soon as possible. 
 All the necessary supplies and munitions were sent to Fort 
 Naryn, near the Kashgar frontier, where they still remain. 
 
 Yakub Khan at first received the Russian embassy very 
 well, but when he found that the military preparations still 
 continued, he soon changed his tone to one much more threat- 
 ening and warlike ; and it was not until the advance of the 
 troops had been stojmed that he consented to sign the com- 
 mercial treaty. 
 
 Mr. Kolesnikof, the merchant connected with the embassy, 
 returned home through the Terek Davan pass and Khokand in 
 order to pursue his commercial investigations, while the rest 
 of the embassy took the usual route by Fort JSTaryn. The con- 
 clusion of this treaty was marked by an amusing instance of 
 flattery. The treaty was actually signed on June 10 (22), 1872, 
 but Baron Kaulbars managed to have it dated on May 21 
 (June 2), the day of St. Constantine, and immediately wrote to 
 General Kaufmann that as a mark of especial goodwill Yakub 
 
 VOL. II. y 
 
3£2 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 Khan had insisted on signing the treaty on the day of his 
 (General Kaufmann's) patron saint. Such a despatch was, how- 
 ever, a little stronger than General Kaufmann cared to send to 
 St. Petersburg, and the wording of it was so altered that it read, 
 6 out of special regard for the Emperor of Kussia, the Amir 
 had signed the treaty on the saint's day of the Grand Duke 
 Constantine, the Emperor's brother.' 
 
 This treaty differed in many respects from those previously 
 concluded with Khokand and Bukhara. Yakub Khan was 
 much pleased at the conclusion of the affair, and that he had 
 now been recognised as an independent sovereign, and asked 
 to be allowed as a still greater favour to send an envoy to St. 
 Petersburg who should be presented to the Emperor. ' This,' 
 he added, ' will be for me a great mercy, that you should lead 
 me, a man of nothing, to the sun, and that to my share should 
 fall a drop from that great sea.' General Kaufmann consented 
 to this request, and the Mullah Tarap Hodja, the first Khokan- 
 dian envoy, went to St. Petersburg in the summer of 1873, 
 was received by the Emperor, was taken to the reviews, and 
 was treated with great consideration. 
 
 In spite of the new commercial treaty, however, the course 
 of matters did not much change in Kashgar as far as Russian 
 merchants were concerned. In 1873 Mr. Pupyshef fitted out 
 a caravan which he sent to Kashgar under the charge of his 
 clerk Somof. The caravan reached the town of Kashgar in 
 safety, but Somof was not allowed to go farther than the cara- 
 vanserai, and his trading expeditions to Yarkand and Khokand 
 were entirely forbidden. Yakub Khan bought the greater part 
 of the goods for himself, and allowed the merchants of Kashgar 
 to buy only one-third. Besides this, Somof was obliged to wait 
 for more than two months without being paid, and it was only 
 in the middle of October that he received his pay in Chinese 
 yambs (gold coins), at the rate of 128 rubles each, while the 
 real commercial value was only 115 rubles. In this way, for 
 goods which were worth 48,000 rubles he received only 33,000 
 rubles, besides paying the duties which were exacted from him. 
 
 On the return of Somof to Tashkent explanations of his 
 conduct were demanded from Yakub Khan, who, however, denied 
 all the allegations of Soinof, maintaining that this merchant 
 had not in any way been opposed, and but had full power of 
 
COMMERCIAL RELATIONS. 323 
 
 going where he pleased, and that he himself did not buy any of 
 the goods, but that one of the custom-house agents had bought 
 them in his own name, thinking that he might get them cheaper. 
 At the same time the Kashgarian ruler sent four merchants to 
 Tashkent who had known the progress of the whole affair. 
 The commission in Tashkent, after having made an investi- 
 gation, found that the loss actually sustained by Mr. Pupyshef 
 was 12,000 rubles, and Yakub Khan was therefore requested to 
 pay this sum. He immediately expressed his willingness to pay 
 not only the 1 2,000 rubles but even ten times more. ' Our 
 Government,' he wrote, ' is young, mistakes are possible, and 
 they should not be too severely punished.' Months, however, 
 elapsed before the money arrived. 
 
 In the meantime the English mission of Mr. Forsyth had 
 been in Kashgar, and Yakub Khan felt that he could take even 
 a stronger tone. The roads leading to Russia were well fortified, 
 and Bek Kuli, his able son, had returned after a successful 
 expedition against the Chinese. He had received the title of 
 Amir from the Sultan of Turkey, he had declared himself his 
 vassal, and had begun coining money with the inscription ' Saltan 
 Abdul Aziz.' He now wrote again to the Russian authorities, 
 still promising to send the money soon, but adopting a very 
 lofty style : ' I have great desire,' he wrote, ' to live in peace 
 with my brother the Emperor of Russia, and as I have heard 
 that his daughter is married to an English prince, I desire 
 to send a mission to congratulate him.' 
 
 Notwithstanding the ill-success of Somof's caravan, the 
 merchant Morozof sent to Kashgar in the summer of 1874 
 a caravan with goods to the value of 25,000 rubles. As if to 
 prove what the Kashgarians had maintained, that Somof's" com- 
 plaints were ill-founded, the caravan of Morozof was very well 
 received. What goods were not sold to private individuals 
 were bought by the treasurer of Yakub Khan. The members 
 of the caravan, both Russian and Kirghiz, were allowed during 
 the seventy days of their stay to go freely through the town in 
 their own costume. They suffered not the slightest hindrance 
 and all of their complaints were immediately redressed. 1 In 
 
 1 The information about Morozof s caravan is taken from a letter in the ' Golos,' 
 of November (12) 24, 187-4, written from Semipalatinsk on October (10) 22. In 
 a previous letter, the Semipalatinsk correspondent gives currency to the rumour 
 
 y 2 
 
324 TURKISTAN. 
 
 spite of this the relations of Kashgar to Russia are no better, 
 and the Russians seem determined in some way or other to find 
 an excuse for attacking the country. 
 
 The troubles about trade being such in 1874, General Kauf- 
 mann despatched to Kashgar Colonel Reinthal, the same who was 
 there in 1368, nominally to take Yakub Khan some presents 
 on the part of the Governor-General, but really, if he found 
 it possible, to discuss the question of appointing a resident 
 commercial agent in Kashgar, he being the person fixed upon 
 for the permanent appointment. His reception there was such 
 that he thought it imprudent to bring up the question in official 
 interviews ; while in private conversations with the Kashgar 
 officials — who had full information from Tashkent of his in- 
 tention — he utterly denied that any such purpose was intended. 
 The Russians had always proposed by their commercial treaties 
 to secure to themselves the right of having consuls or com- 
 mercial agents in the surrounding countries, but unfortunately 
 they had rendered this word by caravan-bashi, which really 
 means the ' leader of the caravan,' a man of no more real im- 
 portance than the conductor of a railway train. The Kash- 
 garians, however, held the Russians to the strict letter of the 
 treaty. They knew what caravan-bashi meant, and they were 
 indisposed to let a merchant or political agent reside there 
 under this name. Reinthal therefore returned without a shadow 
 of success. This was probably the reason of the projected 
 campaign against Kashgar in the spring of 1875, which cir- 
 cumstances turned into a war against Khokand. 
 
 A curious incident should perhaps be mentioned here. In 
 the early part of 1875 a woman named Satara Patcha, a half- 
 sister or cousin of Yakub Khan, who had been living for some 
 time at Constantinople, where she had been received with 
 honour by the Sultana Valide, went through Odessa and Russia 
 
 that the complaints of Russian merchants in Kashgar and other countries are 
 frequently unfounded, the pretended losses having been invented by the clerks 
 and agents to conceal their own peculations. He is careful, however, not to 
 vouch for the truth of this statement, and in the case of the caravan of Pupy- 
 shef, I have every reason to believe that the complaints were well founded. It 
 may be remarked that the news in regard to Central Asia given in the ' Golos,' 
 by the correspondent at Semipalatinsk, never agrees with the, statements coming 
 from Tashkent. In both cases the letters are written by officials, but Semipala- 
 tinsk is in the province of Western Siberia, and the correspondents belong to 
 b)stile camps. 
 
EFFORTS TO NEGOTIATE AT ST. PETERSBURG. 325 
 
 on her way to Kashgar. By the permission of the Ministry of 
 Finance she was allowed to take the presents from the Sultan to 
 Yakub Khan and her other luggage through the Custom-house 
 without duty. She went through Siberia and arrived in safetj 
 as far as Kopul, where she was arrested by Russian officials sent 
 from Yierny, who searched her baggage, took from her ail her 
 letters and papers, and detained her for some time in Vierny 
 under arrest. 
 
 Both in 1874 and 1875 strong efforts were made to prove the 
 complicity of Yakub Khan in the disturbances in Khokand, and 
 Seid Mahmud Yakub Khan, who had been for some time a 
 Kashgarian envoy at Constantinople, was refused an official 
 audience until a telegram could be obtained from General 
 Kaufmann that nothing compromising had been discovered 
 about the conduct of the Kashgarian Government. This envoy 
 had before been in Constantinople as well as in India, and was 
 the one who accompanied Mr. Forsyth's party from India to 
 Kashgar. He professed the readiness of Yakub Khan to make 
 a postal treaty and to accept a Russian consul, but the main 
 object of his mission was to secure the freedom of a young girl, 
 a relative of the Khan living in Tashkent, whom a great partisan 
 of the Russians, Said Azim, had endeavoured to marry without 
 her parents' consent. The Russians endeavoured to put him off 
 by referring him to General Kaufmann, but it was only after the 
 Emperor, on his reception, had signified his wish that he should 
 go to Tashkent to meet General Kaufmann, and had promised him 
 a safe conduct — for he was originally a native of Tashkent — 
 that he promised to go. He went, met General Kaufmann on 
 the road, and succeeded in obtaining the release of the girl. 1 
 
 During the last few years the idea has obtained some cur- 
 rency in Russia that it would be well to aid the Chinese to 
 re-occupy Kashgar, or even to conquer it by Russian troops and 
 hand it over to the Chinese. It is thought that it would be 
 far more advantageous to have as a neighbour the Chinese 
 Government, which acknowledges treaty obligations and with 
 which negotiations are more easily managed, than the small 
 Uzbek principality under Yakub Khan. Persons who think 
 this, believe also that Russia should not extend her frontiers 
 beyond the Tian Shan, which forms a natural and excellent 
 
 1 See vol. i. pp. 99, 100. 
 
326 TURKISTAN. 
 
 boundary. Against this opinion some objections have been 
 raised, chiefly on the ground that for many reasons it would be 
 impolitic to introduce Chinese rule again into that region. 
 When Kashgar is taken, therefore, unless there be a strong 
 Chinese army in the immediate neighbourhood, it will probably 
 remain in Eussian hands. 
 
 FIFTH KTJLDJA AND TARBAGATAI. 
 
 "With regard to the circumstances which led to the occupa- 
 tion of Kuldja, and concerning the present tenure of that 
 country, sufficient has been said in Chapter XII. It will be 
 remembered that the province is only held temporarily by 
 the Russians, who have promised to restore it to China as 
 soon as a sufficient Chinese force is brought to restore order. 
 The Chinese force has not yet appeared, although the rumours 
 of its approach have been frequent. One cause of its delay, it 
 is said, has been that it has been obliged to stop en route to 
 sow and reap sufficient grain to support it. The difficult cir- 
 cumstances under which the inhabitants of the province are now 
 placed — owing allegiance to the Chinese Government, and yet 
 being under the temporary rule of the Russians — together with 
 the interests of Russia itself, have compelled the administrators 
 of the province several times to propose that the status of 
 Kuldja be once for all settled ; but thus far their propositions 
 for the permanent occupation of the country or for its abandon- 
 ment, have been rejected by the Foreign Office, and the status 
 of indecision has been maintained. It is now, however, scarcely 
 probable that Russia will relinquish the province, as her interests 
 are greatly against such a step. In any case she will hardly do 
 so until Kashgar shall have been occupied by Chinese troops. 
 
 Between Kuldja and Siberia is an enclave which is known by 
 the name of Tarbagatai, the chief town of which is Tchugutchak, 
 close to the Russian frontier. Here the Dungan insurrection 
 was speedily put down, and the Chinese have for some years 
 been in full possession. A new Dzian-Bziun Zhun was ap- 
 pointed in 1871, and since he has been on the spot, relations 
 between him and the Russian commanders have been at times 
 somewhat strained. This is owing in part to his claiming 
 authority over Kuldja, and endeavouring to instil into the minds 
 
THE DZIAN-DZIUN. 327 
 
 of the inhabitants that the Kussians will soon abandon the 
 country, and that the Chinese will return ; and in part to the 
 peculiar conditions under which diplomatic relations are carried 
 on. The province of Semiretch is annexed to Turkistan, 
 although neither by the character of the country or by that of 
 the inhabitants has it anything in common with the other parts 
 of that region. General Kaufmann, as Governor-General of 
 Turkistan, has full powers for diplomatic relations, and is there- 
 fore in frequent correspondence with the Dzian-Dziun from the 
 side of Vierny and Kuldja. On the other hand the Governor- 
 General of Western Siberia, who is more nearly interested in 
 the proceedings of the Dzian-Dziun, has no full diplomatic 
 powers and is obliged to conduct his affairs — except in minor 
 matters — through the Foreign Office and the ministers atPekin. 
 The natural result of this is that a state of confusion arises, 
 which the Dzian-Dziun occasionally turns to his advantage. 
 
Sft 8 TURKISTAN. 
 
 CHAPTER XV. 
 
 THE KHIYAN CAMPAIGN AND ITS CONSEQUENCES. 
 
 Early relations of Eussia -with Khiva — Expedition of Bekovitch — That of 
 Perovsky — Embassies — Recent relations- -Expedition of 1873 — Statement 
 of grievances — Eeal reasons for the expedition — Its plan — The Turkistan 
 column — "Want of provisions — Attitude of Bukhara — Change of route — 
 Khalata — Distress in the desert — Passage of the Amu — The failure of 
 Colonel Markozof — The Mangyshlak column — March of the Orenburg 
 column — It takes Khiva by storm — Simultaneous surrender to General 
 Kaufmann — The Khan reinstated — The Divan — Foraging forbidden — 
 Emancipation of the Persian slaves — Surveys — Reasons for the Turkoman 
 campaign — Butchery of the Turkomans — Story of an eye-witness — The 
 treaty of peace — Official explanation of it — The Amu Darya district — 
 Further expeditious against the Turkomans in 1873, 187-1, and 1875— 
 Exploring expeditions — Navigation of the Amu Darya — The Trans-Caspian 
 district — General Lomakin's expeditions — The Turkomans — Affairs with 
 Persia — Caravans. 
 
 The Russians came into communication with Khiva in the 
 early part of the seventeenth century. As early as 1620 there 
 were diplomatic relations, and about the same time the Cossacks 
 of the Yaik or Ural, who w r ere in the habit of robbing every- 
 body they met, plundered some Khivan merchants, and having 
 found out from them about their city and its unguarded state, 
 o^iickly went through the steppe and actually took the town of 
 Urgentch. They loaded a thousand carts with spoils, and 
 carried off nearly a thousand women. Their success proved 
 their ruin, for on their way home they were attacked and cut 
 off from water ; they were compelled to abandon everything, 
 and were killed nearly to a man, and the memory of their 
 exploit lives only in tradition. A second expedition of the 
 Cossacks had the same fate, and a third fared even worse. 
 Being caught by a severe winter the Cossacks lost the road, 
 and were obliged from hunger to kill and eat each other, while 
 the survivors were captured and enslaved by the Khivans. 
 
EXPEDITION OF PRINCE BEKOVITCH. 329 
 
 The fourth campaign is the well-known one of Prince 
 Bekovitch-Tcherkasski, in the time of Peter the Great. 
 
 It seems that in 1700 an ambassador from the Khan Sha- 
 niaz came to Peter the Great and begged him to take the 
 Khivan nation under Eussian protection, which he agreed to 
 do, and confirmed this consent in 1703 to the new Khan, Aran 
 Mohammed. No actual result however, followed, until in 1713 
 a certain Hadji Nefes, a Turkoman, came to Astrakhan, where 
 he became converted, and told many stories of the gold which 
 was to be found along the valley of the Amu Darya, and how 
 the Uzbeks had closed the old channel of the stream which had 
 flowed into the Caspian, and suggested to the Eussians to break 
 down the dam and restore the river to its former channel. At 
 the same time, Peter the Great received information from 
 Prince Gagarin, the Governor of Siberia, that in Little 
 •Bukhara there was gold sand. The mines in the Ural and 
 in Siberia had not yet been discovered, and this information 
 excited at once the interest of the great monarch, who ordered 
 two expeditions to be fitted out, one from Siberia into Little 
 Bukhara, and another to Khiva under Prince Bekovitch. 
 
 Prince Bekovitch occupied three years with surveys of the 
 eastern shore of the Caspian and the establishment of various 
 fortified positions, and it was not until June 1717 that he 
 moved over the steppe towards Khiva with an army of 3,500 
 men, 6 guns, and a train of 200 camels and 300 horses. 
 When about a hundred miles from that city on the banks of 
 the Amu Darya, he had a decisive battle with the Khivans, 
 which lasted three days and ended in their complete defeat. 
 The Khan surrendered himself entirely to the mercy of the 
 Eussians, and after obtaining the full confidence of Prince 
 Bekovitch, proposed to him to go and take actual possession of 
 Khiva, after dividing his army into several parts for the greater 
 convenience of provisioning it. This was no sooner done than 
 the Khivans treacherously fell upon the separate portions of 
 the expedition, massacred them almost without exception, and 
 sent the head of Prince Bekovitch as a present to the Amir of 
 Bukhara, who, however, refused to accept it. 
 
 Even this disaster did not prevent an ambassador of Peter's, 
 the Italian Florio Beneveni, from penetrating to Khiva and 
 being well received there. This was in 1725. a few months 
 
330 TTJRKISTAK 
 
 after Peter's death. Subsequently a large number of Eussian 
 embassies visited the country, but none of them were ever able 
 to bring the Khivan Khan to terms, or to induce him to stop 
 capturing and enslaving Eussians, or even to free those who 
 were already in bonds there. 
 
 The disorderly state of the steppe induced General Perov- 
 sky in 1829 to undertake a new expedition against Khiva, with 
 5.000 men, 22 guns, and a train in which, besides horses, there 
 were 10,000 camels, and as many as 2,000 Kirghiz to take 
 care of them. This expedition was, as is well-known, a com- 
 plete failure, in consequence of the ruinous idea that, on 
 account of the want of water in the steppe, it would be easier 
 to make the campaign in winter, and that Eussian soldiers had 
 nothing to fear from the cold. 1 The march, accordingly, was 
 begun at the end of autumn, but unfortunately winter set in 
 sooner, and was much more severe than usual. There was 
 considerable trouble in furnishing the camels, and those that 
 were furnished did not live, so t at Perovsky was obliged 
 to retreat when he had got only half-way. The retreat was 
 awful : the provision supplies had not arrived, the transports 
 were lost in the constant snowstorms and whirlwinds, and the 
 expedition returned without seeing the enemy, but beaten by 
 the cold, with but one-third of its original number of men, and 
 those in a most wretched and miserable condition, and with 
 only 1,000 of the 10,000 camels which had been taken with it. 
 
 Lest the Khivans might take heart by the failure of 
 Perovsky's expedition, it was resolved at once to send another. 
 Before, however, the arrangements for it had been completed, 
 the Khivans saw their danger, and in the summer of 1840 sent 
 an envoy to Eussia with 418 Eussian captives, and the Khan 
 issued an order forbidding the capture and purchase of Eus- 
 sians. The next year Nikiforof went to Khiva as Eussian 
 envoy ; but, although he awed the Khan and all his officials 
 into a state of complete deference, he was obliged to depart 
 without accomplishing anything. In 1842 another Eussian 
 envoy — Danilefsky — was sent to Khiva, and succeeded in in- 
 ducing the Khan to sign a treaty promising not to engage in 
 
 1 Some Russian accounts ascribe this plan, as well as the defective arrange- 
 ment?, to a settled desire on the part of the chief of staff, a Pole, to ensure the 
 failure of the expedition, in revenge for the Russian acts in Poland. 
 
KHIVAN HOSTILITIES. 331 
 
 hostilities against Eussia, or to commit acts of robbery and 
 piracy. The only real result, however, of this mission was the 
 extension of the geographical knowledge of Central Asia. 
 Every article of the treaty remained a dead letter. 
 
 The very next year Khiva protected the famous brigand 
 Kenisar, and soon after sent emissaries among the Kirghiz, and 
 even sent forces against the new Kussian forts in the steppe ; 
 and in 1858 Colonel Ignatief — now General, and Ambassador at 
 Constantinople — on speaking of the treaty made with Danilef- 
 sky, was told by the Khivans that nobody believed such a docu- 
 ment, and that they were unable to find it in their archives. 
 In the same year Captain Butakof suddenly appeared with a 
 steamer in front of Kungrad and excited great terror among 
 the population. 
 
 Although the Khivans from that time on did not stop their 
 old habit of capturing and enslaving the Russians on the banks 
 of the Caspian, and of pillaging and enforcing tribute from the 
 Kirghiz who were under Russian subjection, and stirring them 
 up to mutiny, yet the attention of Russia was so much taken 
 up with the territory on the Syr Darya, and the strengthen- 
 ing of their position in that region, that they were unable to 
 insist on the Khan of Khiva complying with their demands. 
 
 The letters of the Governor-General were either un- 
 answered, or messages were returned which were considered 
 insolent, and when in 1869 and 1870 the Khivans were accused 
 of aiding the rebellion of the Kirghiz, 1 and of committing many 
 depredations on the Russian post routes, the patience of the 
 
 1 With regard to this accusation General Tchernaief, in the ' EussH Mir ' of 
 February (2) 14, 1875, made the following remark :— ' The Khivans did not excite 
 the Kirghiz to rebellion, on the contrary, they were made to rebel by the intro- 
 duction of the new regulations composed under the supervision of the Ministry of 
 War, the liberal and humane aims of which somehow always meet a strange fate. 
 So it was in the present instance. Instead of the expected gratitude of the popu- 
 lation for the introduction of the humane and liberal regulations, the only reply 
 was rebellion. 
 
 ' When Cossack detachments were sent out to put down these disturbances, the 
 Kirghiz threw the blame on the distant Khivans, and the officials accepted these 
 excuses to cover their own mistakes. In this way the idea grew up at St. Peters- 
 burg of the instigation of the Kirghiz by the Khivans, who had no thought for 
 foreign undertakings when they could scarcely maintain themselves at home 
 against the Turkomans. We must remember, too, this fact, that when we are 
 quiet our neighbours are quiet, but as soon as we excite the discontent of our own 
 Kirghiz, some of our neighbours are immediately found to be to blame.' 
 
332 TURKISTAN. 
 
 Government became exhausted. It was resolved that some 
 means must be taken to put an end to this state of things. P\>r 
 this, however, time was necessary, and owing to the difficulties 
 in reaching Khiva, which had proved so formidable to other 
 expeditions, it was necessary to send out various preliminary 
 expeditions to survey the roads over the steppe. 
 
 During the summers of 1871 and 1872 the part of the 
 -Kyzyl Kum lying to the north of Bukhara was explored by 
 the Eussian surveying parties almost to the Khivan limits, and 
 for some years also small detachments were sent from Kazala, 
 and the country as far as Min Bulak, and the Bukan-Tau 
 mountains was carefully investigated. The Governor-General 
 of Orenburg also sent detachments to explore the country 
 south of the Emba. On the side of the Caucasus the Eussians 
 in 1869 established a fort and a naval station on the bay of 
 Krasnovodsk, 1 and subsequently another at Tchikishlar at the 
 mouth of the Attrek ; and in 1871-2 expeditions were sent, 
 nominally to explore the old bed of the Oxus, but really to in- 
 vestigate the road to Khiva to as great a distance as possible. 
 
 These expeditions brought the Khan for a while to reason, 
 and in the beginning of 1872 he sent embassies to Fort 
 Alexandrofsky and to Orenburg, thinking to establish good 
 relations with the Governor of Orenburg and with the Lieu- 
 tenant of the Caucasus, and thus gain friends against the 
 administration of Tashkent, which he seemed to think inde- 
 pendent of the others. The Government consented to deal 
 with him on two conditions : first, that he should immediately 
 free all Eussian prisoners in Khiva, as well as the Kirghiz held 
 there ; and secondly, that he should give satisfactory explana- 
 tions to the Governor-General of Turkistan about the letters 
 received from him. These conditions were, however, refused 
 by the Khan. ' However great, therefore,' says the ' Invalid,' 
 in its official explanation of the causes of the expedition, 
 ' Eussia's patience and love of peace, they must have their 
 limits. The dignity and interests of the State do not allow 
 
 For another Eussian view of the relations of the Kirghiz to Khiva see 
 Appendix V. 
 
 The disturbed state of the Kirghiz steppe seems to have been somewhat ex- 
 aggerated, at least in 1873. Mr. MacGahan crossed the Kyzyl Kum without 
 difficulty, and met with no opposition until he came to the Russian outposts. 
 
 1 See Appendix V. 
 
EEAL REASONS OF KHIVAN CAMPAIGN. 333 
 
 that the insignificant ruler of a half barbarous nation should 
 dare with impunity to disturb the peace and liberty of our 
 subjects and the safety of trade, and insolently reject all our 
 efforts for establishing good relations with him. Mohammed 
 Eahim Khan, by his weakness and by the obstinacy of his 
 advisers, has himself called the tempest down on his country. 
 The final refusal by Khiva to fulfil our demands renders it 
 necessary to enforce them by other means, and show this 
 Khanate that the steppes which surround it cannot protect it 
 from deserved punishment.' 
 
 But there were other reasons than these which had their 
 influence in bringing about the Khivan expedition. 1 
 
 It had become almost impossible to conceal the maladmini- 
 stration of Turkistan from the authorities at St. Petersburg. 
 Indiscreet persons sometimes wrote letters to St. Petersburg 
 newspapers when some more glaring fact came to the public 
 notice, and the Ministry of War, which had the supervision 
 of the Government of the province, occasionally asked questions 
 which were exceedingly awkward to answer. At the same time 
 the financial condition of the province gave rise to apprehensions 
 at St. Petersburg. People were beginning to say that Turkis- 
 tan was not worth the money that was spent in maintaining it, 
 and especially was this the case when it became known that 
 the deficits in the budgets were constantly increasing. Attacks 
 were made on General Kaufmann in high circles at St. Peters- 
 burg, and his position became somewhat wavering. Indeed, 
 a paper by General Tchernaief, on the administration and 
 financial condition of Turkistan, was considered of such con- 
 sequence that it was shown to the Emperor by the Minister of 
 Finance, and created such a strong impression on him, that 
 General Kaufmann found great difficulty in replying satisfac- 
 torily to it. 
 
 It was desirable, therefore, to do something which would in 
 a measure divert the attention of the public from the adminis- 
 tration of Turkistan, and excite, if possible, the feeling of the 
 country in support of General Kaufmann. Nothing seemed 
 easier for this purpose than a new war, and though an expedi- 
 
 1 After the vivid picture of the Khivan expedition given by Mr. MacGahan, I 
 should hesitate to speak of its details, were it not that being in the country at the 
 time, and not accompanying the troops, I saw it under a somewhat different light. 
 
334 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 tion could easily have been made against Kashgar — in fact 
 the idea had been entertained, and stores had been collected for 
 it — yet the apparent submission of Yakub Khan put this out of 
 the question. At the same time Khiva being nearer to Kussia, 
 there being so many scores to pay off against that country, 
 and it being possible easily to arouse the patriotic feeling of 
 the country by the tales of barbarity exercised towards Eussian 
 captives, and by the disturbance of Eussian commerce and 
 communications, a war in that direction presented much greater 
 advantages. There was perhaps, too, in the Governor-General's 
 mind a feeling that a successful Khivan expedition, while beiug- 
 in itself an achievement of considerable merit, would in a 
 satisfactory way round off his whole Asiatic career. He had 
 begun as a general in the conquest of Samarkand. He had 
 succeeded in inducing Khokand, Bukhara, and Kashgar to 
 make commercial treaties which appeared very well on paper, 
 no matter how delusive in practice, and the conquest of Khiva 
 would place him before the world as successful in the role 
 which he had aspired to play — that of the pacificator of 
 Central Asia. At the same time in a war against Khiva he 
 would have the support of nearly every person in Tashkent. 
 The officers, almost without exception — and one could hardly 
 blame them for it — were always desirous of some new expedi- 
 tion by which they could win crosses and rewards. The 'St. 
 Anne's fever,' as Mr. Grant Duff aptly expressed it in the House 
 of Commons, is very prevalent in Turkistan, and more than 
 one expedition in Central Asia has been undertaken, with really 
 no higher aim than to secure decorations for the men who 
 carried it on. 1 
 
 General Kaufmann came to St. Petersburg, and with his 
 winning manners and social popularity — for in St. Petersburg 
 he unbends and casts off the dignity which oppresses him at 
 Tashkent — succeeded, after a struggle, not only in strengthening 
 his position, but in obtaining permission for the expedition 
 against Khiva. It was, however, expected that the expedition 
 of Colonel Markozof from the Attrek, in the autumn of 1872, 
 would probably render this unnecessary, as with some good luck 
 he might have captured Khiva by a coup-de-main, and it was 
 
 1 This was in a great measure, if not entirely, the case with the expeditions 
 against Karshi, Shahrisabs, and Kuldja. 
 
PLAN OF THE CAMPAIGN. 335 
 
 not until the failure of this expedition l became known that steps 
 •were taken for the immediate fitting out of a large expedition. 
 
 The great difficulty in an expedition against Khiva — as 
 General Perovsky found out — is that of getting there. The 
 population of the Khanate was small, and from the experience 
 of Russians in Asia it was known that, however warlike they 
 might be, the undisciplined forces of the Khan could not stand 
 against modern cannon and breech-loading rifles. But Khiva 
 was an oasis in the midst of a desert lying 600 miles from 
 Tashkent, 930 miles from Orenburg, and 500 miles from Kras- 
 novodsk on the Caspian, the only three places which, it was 
 thought, could serve as bases of operations. It was impossible 
 to send troops by water, partly because there were not sufficient 
 transports at Fort No. 1, and partly because the mouths of the 
 Amu Darya were shallow and unfit for navigation. 
 
 General Kaufmann proposed, therefore, to make a double 
 attack upon Khiva by a force taken from the army of the Cau- 
 casus, which was to proceed through Krasnovodsk or Tchi- 
 kishlar on the Caspian, and by another from Tashkent, which 
 was to proceed by way of Jizakh through the desert close to 
 the northern boundary of Bukhara, hoping by diplomatic means 
 to prevent that Khanate from attacking them in the flank. 
 With this latter was to be united a small force, drawn for con- 
 venience from Orenburg, which was to start from Fort No. 1 on 
 the Syr Darya, proceed to the Amu Darya, and along the right 
 bank of that river until it met the detachment from Tashkent. 
 
 General Kryzhanofsky, however, the Governor- General of 
 Orenburg, who had been called to St. Petersburg to consult 
 with General Kaufmann and the Grand Duke Michael, the 
 Emperor's Lieutenant in the Caucasus, on the subject of the 
 expedition, argued that this plan could not be followed, as it 
 left open the steppes between Orenburg, the Caspian, and 
 Khiva. This region had always served as a shelter for depre- 
 datory bands of Khivans, and it might be expected that 
 either the Khivan army or various bands of Turkomans, in 
 order to escape from the attacks of the Russian forces, would 
 march into the Ust-Urt, and by making dissensions among the 
 Kirghiz create much disturbance ; they even might possibly 
 
 1 Colonel Markozof reached Igdy, but was obliged to retreat, after being 
 attacked by the Turkomans and losing most of his camels. 
 
336 TTJKKISTAK 
 
 attack the post-road and Orenburg- itself. General Kryzhan- 
 ofsky, therefore, proposed that the whole expedition should 
 proceed from Orenburg- ; or that, at least, in case of the accept- 
 ance of General Kaufmann's plan, another force should be sent 
 from Orenburg directly south, along 1 the Western shore of the 
 Aral Sea, which might meet the other troops in front of Khiva. 
 This would protect the steppe against the Khivans, and in 
 case, on account of the floods of the lower Amu Darya, the 
 Tashkent expedition should find it impossible to reach Khiva, 
 it would be able to render effective assistance to the expedition 
 of the Caucasus. The representations of General Kryzhanofsky 
 had their weight, and it was decided to allow him to send this 
 detachment, although it was never expected that it would reach 
 Khiva, but that it would confine itself to keeping communi- 
 cations open. Finally, in December, 1872, the plan of the 
 expedition received the Emperor's sanction. It was said at the 
 time that the vote in the Council, which was presided over by 
 the Emperor in person, stood 35 for the capture of Khiva to 9 
 against it, and that Prince Gortchakof was in the minority, 
 believing that it would be better to punish Khiva than to 
 take it. 
 
 The whole expedition was to be placed under the immediate 
 command of General Kaufmann, who was to accompany the 
 detachment sent from Tashkent, and who was desirous of re- 
 taining for himself the honour of capturing Khiva. Strict 
 orders were, therefore, given to all the detachments that in case 
 they reached the frontiers of the country sooner than tne 
 column from Tashkent, they should halt, fortify themselves, 
 and be ready to lend assistance to the Turkistan column as soon 
 as they heard of its arrival. In no case were they to attack the 
 city or to enter into negotiations with the Khan. Minor 
 changes were subsequently introduced into the scheme on ac- 
 count of the difficulty of procuring camels. The detachment 
 of the Caucasus was divided into two : one, under Colonel 
 Markozof, was to start from Tchikishlar on the Attrek, and ad- 
 vance directly to Khiva by the southern ridge ; the other, under 
 Colonel Lomakin, was to start from Fort Alexandrofsky in the 
 peninsula of Mangyshlak, joining the column from Orenburg 
 about Kungrad. Four steamers of the Aral flotilla, with barges 
 of provisions in tow, were to pass through the Sea of Aral from 
 
STAET OF THE EXPEDITION. 337 
 
 Fort No. 1 and to attempt the ascent of one of the mouths of 
 the Amu Darya. Preparations of all kinds were proceeded 
 with as fast as possible, in order that the expedition might 
 be ready to take the field in the early spring. The Turkistan 
 detachment was, as I have said, divided into two columns ; one 
 a small subsidiary column moving southwards from Kazala and 
 Perovsky, was under the command of Colonel Grolof ; the other, 
 the main column, which was to rendezvous at Jizakh and then 
 move westward, was commanded by General Golovatchef, the 
 military governor of the province of Syr Darya. The Kazala 
 column was accompanied by H.I.H. the Grand Duke Nicholas 
 Constantinevitch, and the Jizakh column by H.I.H. the Duke 
 Eugene of Leuehtenberg. In all, the forces of this detach- 
 ment comprised 3,420 infantry, 1,150 cavalry, with 20 guns, 2 
 mitrailleuses, and 8 rocket-stands, making altogether about 
 5,500 men. For the trains it became necessary to obtain a 
 large number of camels — 8,000 according to official reports l — 
 which were chiefly hired from the Kirghiz of the province of 
 Syr Darya, with a promise that 50 rubles would be paid for 
 every one that died. 
 
 The Jizakh column left the river Kly on March 28, and on 
 April 11 the different detachments all came into camp at the 
 wells of Aristan Bel Kuduk, a distance of about 80 miles. The 
 troops, in spite of unseasonable snowstorms, had not much 
 suffered, and the number of sick was small. Great difficulties 
 had, however, been experienced, for the Kirghiz fearing that 
 they never Avould receive pay for the camels — which was, 
 indeed, actually the case in the end — naturally furnished their 
 poorest and weakest animals. In consequence of this the 
 camels perished so rapidly from exhaustion and insufficient food 
 that it was found impossible to move from the bivouac on the 
 Kly with all the provisions, &c, it was desired to take. Many 
 stores were therefore left there under charge of a small guard, 
 and more were soon after abandoned en route. In addition to 
 this there were difficulties about the provisions. The biscuits 
 which had been sent with the expedition had been stored for 
 several years at Tashkent and Tchinaz, and had become entirely 
 worm-eaten and mouldy, so that they were uneatable and were 
 
 1 Private information collected in the various districts makes this as many aa 
 14,000. 
 
 VOL. II. Z 
 
338 TUKKISTAN, 
 
 thrown away. It was, therefore, necessary to obtain from 
 Samarkand five hundred quarters of wheat, which was hastily 
 baked into biscuits, while a large quantity more was ordered. 1 
 
 At the wells of Temyr Kabuk the Beks of the neighbouring 
 Bukharan provinces of Nurata and Ziaueddin met General 
 Kaufmann with a few camels and some supplies of fuel and 
 forage, which they had been ordered by the Amir to collect 
 there. These supplies, as well as the presents sent by the 
 Amir, were received with gratitude and as a mark of friendli- 
 ness. General Kaufmann retained both Beks with him to the 
 end of the campaign, though whether as guests or as hostages 
 is not precisely stated. 
 
 The Amir of Bukhara had taken this step partly because he 
 had been asked, and partly from a desire to propitiate General 
 Kaufmann, as he constantly feared that the troops would turn 
 and attack Bukhara. 2 However, as they proceeded further, and 
 the difficulties of their position became better known at Buk- 
 hara, the Amir somewhat changed his tactics. The sutlers and 
 contractors who were sent from the expedition into the Buk- 
 haran provinces to purchase grain and stores, were forbidden by 
 the authorities to export them, and orders were given that they 
 should receive no camels for their caravans. It was only after 
 a melee, in which one of the Kussian clerks killed a Bukharan, 
 and on threatening that the troops would turn against Bukhara, 
 that the caravans were finally allowed to depart. The attitude 
 at Samarkand of General Abramof, who was always ready for 
 a march, had an effect upon the Amir, and finally additional 
 provisions under the charge of Bukharan officials were sent 
 on to the troops at Karak-ata. According to the official report 
 the Amir refused to receive any pay for these provisions, but 
 other information makes it appear that most of the supplies 
 were not the property of the Amir but of private contractors, 
 who were well paid for what they furnished. What was given 
 in the way of presents by the Amir himself was very little ; 
 for this, however, he received warm thanks. 
 
 The Khan of Khiva, meanwhile, having become convinced 
 that the Kussians were in earnest about the war, repented, and 
 sent an embassy to Kazala with a letter and excuses, and twenty- 
 
 1 ' Golos,' No. 148, 1873. Letter from Samarkand of April 21 (May 3). 
 * See page 309. 
 
CHANGE OF KOUTE. 339 
 
 one Eussian slaves. 1 The expedition, however, had already 
 started, and the letter of the Khan, with the information of 
 the arrival of the embassy, was forwarded to General Kaufman n 
 and reached him on his march. He immediately gave orders 
 that the ambassador should be sent on to him, and that tho.se 
 of the prisoners wbo desired to serve in the expedition could 
 join tbe Kazala column. 
 
 During the halt at Aristan Bel Kuduk, which was necessary 
 to refresh the troops, it was decided to change the route of 
 march. It appears that, by the rules of the order, the Cross of 
 St. George can be given to the chief of staff of an expedition 
 only when the route successfully followed has been prepared by 
 him. Now Colonel Trotzky, who was the chief of staff of the 
 expedition, had not personally engaged in the preparation of 
 the route which was to be followed, it having been drawn up 
 for him at the office of the staff at Tashkent. Therefore, in 
 order to render him eligible for the military decoration, in the 
 event of the success of the expedition, it became necessary to 
 make a considerable change in the route. It was resolved, 
 therefore, that instead of taking the route first proposed by a 
 well-known road to the Bukan mountains and the wells of 
 Min-Bulak, and then south-westerly to the Amu Darya at 
 Shura-khana, to follow a new road through Khalata to Utch- 
 Utchak, which seemed to be shorter, but of which absolutely 
 nothing was known. Orders were therefore sent to the Kazala 
 column to change its direction, and meet the rest of the 
 expedition at Aristan Bel Kuduk. That column, a portion 
 of which left Kazala on March 21, arrived at Irkibai on April 6, 
 where the troops erected a small fort which they named 
 Blagovestchensky. On April 14 it arrived at Bakali in the 
 Bukan mountains, and advanced from thence to Aristan Bel 
 Kuduk, where it formed the rear-guard of the whole Turkistan 
 detachment. 
 
 After obtaining a fresh supply of 800 camels from the 
 Kirghiz of the Kyzyl Kum tribes, General Kaufmann set out 
 from Aristan Bel Kuduk on April 23 and 24, and on May 6 
 the troops were all collected at Khalata in a fair condition, 
 notwithstanding the long marches, the intense heat, and the 
 violent winds. Here it was considered necessary to fortify a 
 1 See vol. i., p. 49 ; and also Appendix V. 
 z 2 
 
340 TURKISTAN. 
 
 mound, on -which had previously been the tomb of the saint 
 Kbala-ata, to serve both as a defence and a provision depot. 
 The works were commenced on May 6, the day of St. George, 
 who gave his name to the fort, and three days later the fort 
 was finished and the Eussian flag was hoisted. 
 
 Now began the real difficulties of the campaign. The 
 eighty miles of good road which had been supposed to exist 
 between Khalata and the Amu Darya turned out to be 120 
 miles of deep and shifting sand, about which little information 
 could be procured, and where, as far as could be ascertained, 
 the only water was at the wells of Adam Krylgan, about 
 twenty-four miles from Khalata. The name, Adam Krylgan, 
 meaning ' man's destruction,' seemed to be particularly appli- 
 cable to the region. The first detachment which was sent out 
 from Khalata, ' after going a short distance, was attacked by 
 Turkomans, and two officers who, almost unattended, were in 
 advance of the troops were wounded. After a slight skirmish 
 the Turkomans rode off. General Kaufmann arrived at Adam 
 Krylgan on April 12 at midnight. The place was an utter 
 desert, with a few bad wells, including some new ones which 
 had been dug by the first Eussian detachment, and without 
 a sign of vegetation. 
 
 After a day's rest it was proposed to send the troops on by a 
 march with three halts of six hours each to Utch-Utchak on the 
 Amu Darya. The advance-guard started shortly after mid- 
 night and marched until nine o'clock in the morning, in all 
 about thirteen miles, when they halted for their first rest. It 
 was found, however, that the sands were so heavy and the 
 camels so weak, that the rear of this detachment did not arrive 
 at the rendezvous until rive o'clock in the evening. The heat 
 was so intense, and both horses and camels were so worn out, 
 that further advance was impossible. It therefore became 
 necessary for some of the troops to return to the wells of Adam 
 Krylgan and fetch Water for the rest. 
 
 Affairs were now desperate. It was impossible to advance, 
 and it seemed shameful to retreat, while the small quantity of 
 water at Adam Krylgan rendered it ruin to remain, for the 
 supply which had been brought was nearly exhausted. Even 
 had it been desirable for the expedition to return to Khalata, 
 and then retrace its steps and pursue the route first chosen 
 
DESPAIR AND SAFETY. 311 
 
 to Min Bulak, this was impossible on account of the lack 
 of transports. For a moment it seemed as if the army would 
 be entirely lost in the desert. General Kaufman n despaired, 
 and gave orders that should anything happen to him the 
 command of the expedition was to be given, not to General 
 Golovatcbef, but to Colonel Trotzky, his chief of staff. 
 
 Finally a hope of safety appeared in the shape of a ragged 
 Kirghiz who had joined the Kazala detachment on the march 
 from Irkibai, and whose excellent qualities the Grand Duke 
 Nicholas and Colonel Dreschern had been the first to discover. 
 He said that a few miles to the right of the road were the wells 
 of Alty Kuduk. General Kaufmann handed him his pocket 
 flask and offered him a hundred rubles reward if he would 
 bring it back filled with water. This was done, and a portion 
 of the troops was immediately sent to Alty Kuduk, where the 
 wells were found to be few, and, what was worse, deep, but yet 
 there was water. The pontoons were then unloaded and filled 
 with water to serve as drinking troughs for the remaining 
 horses and camels. The expedition was preserved, and after 
 a halt of several days pursued its way in small detachments 
 and by slow stages to the Amu Darya, which it reached on 
 May 23, in eleven days instead of two. 
 
 Of the 10,000 camels with which the expedition had been 
 provided, but 1,200 now remained. The whole road from 
 Khalata was strewn with camp equipage, with officers' baggage, 
 and with munitions of war. Ammunition and stores had in 
 several places been buried in the sand, with the expectation that 
 subsequent detachments would be sent out from Khalata for the 
 purpose of recovering them. An officer who passed over the 
 road a few weeks subsequently, told me that the whole distance 
 was covered with the skeletons and decaying bodies of camels 
 and horses, the stench from which was intolerable, while the 
 articles strewn along the road made it appear almost like a 
 bazaar. Nevertheless the expedition was safe. Water had 
 been reached, and the troops, in spite of their sufferings from 
 heat and from thirst, were in fair health and in good spirits, 
 which they soon had occasion to prove, for near Utch-U tchak 
 there was a skirmish with a small body of Turkomans under 
 Sadyk. 
 
 Pursuing its way down the right bank of the river, on May 
 
342 TURKISTAN. 
 
 28 and 29, the expedition came in sight of a fortified camp on 
 the opposite shore, guarding the ferry of Sheikh-aryk,from which 
 they were greeted with a heavy artillery fire. The Eussian 
 guns were immediately put into position, the camp shelled, and 
 the Khivans, who were supposed to number about 4,000 men, 
 under the command of the Divan Begi Mat Murad, abandoned 
 their camp and retreated. The Eussian loss was only two 
 horses killed, which in two hours were eaten by the hungry 
 troops. The two pontoons which could alone be brought from 
 Khalata had before this been put together and were going 
 down the river, and together with the cavalry succeeded in 
 capturing eleven boats belonging to the enemy, a lucky acqui- 
 sition, as otherwise it would have been difficult if not impos- 
 sible to cross the river. 
 
 The passage of the Amu was begun on May 30 and ended 
 on June 3. 
 
 On May 28 a deputation from the town of Shura-khana, on 
 the right bank, had appeared at General Kaufmann's camp, 
 offering the submission of that city, and a detachment of 
 cavalry was therefore sent there, remaining four days. Here 
 the army succeeded for the first time in finding sufficient 
 forage and fresh provisions (although the soldiers were reduced 
 to rags frum the loss of their baggage) ; for in consequence of a 
 proclamation issued by General Kaufmann, the inhabitants of 
 the villages, feeling that their lives would be safe, had begun 
 to appear in the camp bringing articles for sale. 
 
 The town of Hazarasp was occupied on June 4, after being 
 abandoned by the enemy. Here General Kaufmann received a 
 letter from the Khan Seid Mohammed Eahim, informing him 
 that the Eussian prisoners had been sent back, and declaring 
 his readiness to comply with all the Eussian demands, but 
 asking that the movements of troops should be stopped. 1 
 General Kaufmann replied, calling attention to the hostile 
 
 1 Here is an extract from this letter. ' In your letter you speak of freeing the 
 prisoners. In fact, we have from five to ten Russian men, but they are not at all 
 prisoners, as they were not captured by my troops, but they were bought with 
 money from the Kirghiz and the Adaef tribes, and we from friendship to you 
 only keep them. 
 
 'You ask us to send back with the prisoners an envoy to talk about the con- 
 clusion of a peace which would still further strengthen our friendly relations. With 
 that purpose we sent you Murtaza Hodja Bii, who, however, was unable to go to 
 
THE KHAN PEOTESTS. 343 
 
 disposition of the Khan for the last six years, and said that 
 although he was ready to conclude a treaty of peace and friend- 
 ship, he should yet continue to advance, and counselled him to 
 disband his troops in order to save his country from devastation. 
 Here he also received a despatch from General Verevkin, saying 
 that the Orenburg detachment expected to be at Yangy Ur- 
 gentch, and would meet him if necessary at Hanki. Informa- 
 tion received from the inhabitants gave further news of General 
 Verevkin's movements, and showed that he had already arrived 
 at Kosh-kupyr, twelve miles from Khiva. Of the 1,200 camels 
 which had arrived with the expedition, 700 had been sent 
 back to Alty-Kuduk to bring on as much as possible of the 
 baggage with the detachment of Colonel Novomlynsky which 
 had been left there. Of those which remained only 300 were 
 serviceable, and it became necessary to find carts, 500 of which 
 in the course of a few days were taken from the inhabitants, and 
 formed the train of the army. 
 
 On June 8, after leaving a small garrison in Hazarasp 
 General Kaufmann and the troops set off on the road to Khiva, 
 a distance of forty-five miles. The night before the march 
 another envoy from the Khan arrived bringing to General 
 Kaufmann a renewal of the former desire for peace, and stating 
 that he had sent back the Eussian prisoners who had been in 
 captivity in Khiva, and therefore he did not understand why 
 the Eussians had invaded his territory from different sides. 
 
 Tashkent through Bukhara. At that time a letter wis sent from the Governor of 
 Orenburg to the Kirghiz Zagyr Bii with a request to free the Russians. A similar 
 letter was brought from Tcheleken by the Tchudor Sary Ishan from the commander 
 of the troops there. Learning that Murtaza Bii could not go through Bukhara 
 we sent with the messenger who had left two of our own people to Orenburg and 
 Tcheleken, and promised to send back the men that we had detained, but neither in 
 Orenburg nor in Tcheleken did they receive our envoys or enter into communication 
 with them, declaring that all that was entrusted to you. On the return of these 
 envoys we confided the Russians who were with us to Murtaza Bii, and sent them 
 through Kazala, and ourselves waited in peace and quiet. We hear our envoy has 
 had an interview with you, and has given up your people, but up to this time we 
 have received no news directly from you. Meanwhile your armies began to appear 
 in various parts of our possessions. Then the inhabitants began to defend their 
 families, went out to meet you, and, as far as possible, tried to keep you back. . . . 
 'If your wish was to receive the return of your prisoners, you have it already. 
 If you want anything else, say so; according to our ability we will fulfil it. If 
 you desire to conclude a treaty, then remain where you are, and do not come 
 through the inhabited districts.' 
 
344 TURKISTAN. 
 
 He asked General Kaufmarm to reply, and explain to him 
 his conditions. The envoy was ordered to return to Khiva and 
 declare to the Khan that the General would make conditions 
 with him in Khiva only. 
 
 Owing to the constant raids of the Persian Turkomans 
 across the Attrek, and to the report that many of them had 
 gone to Khiva to take part in the hostilities against Russia, 
 Colonel Markozof, the commandant of Tchikishlar, felt it 
 necessary to give them a severe lesson before he began his march 
 to Khiva. Accordingly, on March 12, he crossed the Attrek, and 
 on reaching the banks of the Grurgan, he found large masses, of 
 Turkoman horsemen assembled, but these quickly dispersed and 
 fled in disorder across the river. In pursuing them Colonel 
 Markozof even crossed the Grurgan and entered what was 
 certainly Persian territory ; but he reported that he was 
 received in a friendly way by the commandant of the Persian 
 fort of Ak-kala, who thanked him for the punishment he had 
 inflicted upon the rebels. He returned across the Attrek on 
 March 8. 
 
 It was now time for the expedition to start for Khiva, but 
 Colonel Markozof had only 2,600 camels, part of them furnished 
 by the Turkomans, and part captured in the late raid across 
 the Attrek. It was therefore impossible to send the number of 
 troops at first proposed, and it was rendered necessary to limit 
 the column to 20 compauies of infantry, 4 sotnias of Cossacks, 
 and 16 guns, together with sappers and rockets, in all 2,200 
 men, with provisions for two and a half months. 
 
 The proposed route was by Bugdaili and Aidin to the Uzboi 
 — the old bed of the Amu Darya — and thence by Topatian, Igdy, 
 Ortakuya, and Dandur to the ruined fort of Zmukshir, forty 
 miles west of Khiva, where he was ordered to await the arrival 
 of the Turkistan detachment. The distance from Tchikishlar to 
 Khiva was estimated at 523 miles. The detachment set out on 
 March 31, and on April 29 reached the wells of Igdy, about half 
 way. The condition of the troops was much affected by the 
 severe heat, which most inopportunely and unexpectedly came 
 on, and by the long forced marches they were compelled to 
 make, it being Colonel Markozof's desire to reach Khiva and 
 if possible capture it before the arrival of the other detachments. 
 
 Near Igdy the advanced guard was attacked by some Tekke 
 
FAILURE OF MARKOZOF. 34.5 
 
 Turkomans, but the Cossacks soon put them to flight and 
 captured 267 men, as well as 1,000 camels, 5,000 sheep, and 
 many arms. From Igdy to Ortakuya was supposed to be three 
 marches, or over fifty miles, through deep sand and with no 
 wells. The troops were therefore provided at Igdy with 
 sufficient water for double that distance, and they were to 
 move from Igdy by four small detachments from April 30 to 
 May 3. The weather was now intensely hot, and on May 1 a 
 Reaumur thermometer, adjusted for marking up to 55°, showed 
 52° (149° Fahr.) at ten in the morning, and about mid-day 
 burst. When but a short distance from Igdy, the troops were 
 so overcome by heat, many having had sunstrokes, and the 
 supply of water was even then so nearly exhausted, that it was 
 proposed by the guides to turn off to the wells of Bala Ishem, 
 but Colonel Markozof refused, on the ground that to do so 
 would be wasting time and making the actual route longer. 
 He pressed on therefore until he had advanced fifty miles 
 from Igdy, but the position of Ortakuya could not yet be 
 ascertained. The detachments were now all separated from 
 one another, and each one was in the same desperate pre- 
 dicament. It became necessary to send scouts to search for 
 the wells of Bala Ishem, and then to bring water from them 
 by camels to refresh the troops. The losses became at last so 
 great, that the impossibility of advancing was evident even 
 to Colonel Markozof. They had not yet reached Ortakuya, 
 and from there to Dandur and Zmukshir were waterless deserts 
 of still greater extent. A council of war was called, and it was 
 resolved to return to Krasnovodsk. The retreat from Igdy 
 began on May 4, many of the troops from illness and weakness 
 having to be carried on camels, and on May 26 the last of 
 the detachment reached Krasnovodsk, having been followed 
 for nearly the whole distance by bands of Turkomans, who 
 from time to time attacked them. ' Almost the whole expe- 
 dition was ill. Sixty men died of sunstroke. The troops 
 returned to Krasnovodsk without their arms. The camels, 
 the booty of the Turkomans, and various provisions, were 
 abandoned in the steppe. One staff officer threw away a full 
 service of silver plate and all his conserves. The expedition 
 returned in a most miserable state.' ' Some of the cannon 
 
 1 From a letter in the 'Exchange Gazette,' June 10 (22), ) 873, for publishing 
 •which the newspaper immediately received a -warning. 
 
346 TURKISTAN. 
 
 had to be buried in the sand, but were afterwards recovered, 
 and many rifles were brought in subsequently by the Kirghiz 
 and friendly Turkomans. 
 
 In addition to the other difficulties the expedition had been 
 put to the greatest straits on account of the scarcity and bad 
 quality of the provisions, the supplying of the troops having 
 been entrusted by favour to a rascally Armenian contractor. 
 
 Although the expedition of Markozof was in this way a 
 complete failure so far as any direct influence on the success of 
 the Kbivan campaign, yet his previous movements on the Attrek 
 had no doubt somewhat hindered the resistance of the Khivans 
 by keeping back the Tekke Turkomans from sharing in the 
 contest. There could be no doubt that apart from the bad 
 provisions the failure of the expedition was directly due to the 
 bad management of Markozof, who was ambitious of winning 
 for the army of the Caucasus the glory of taking Khiva. The 
 officials of the Caucasus shielded him as far as possible, and 
 in the official reports he was absolved from blame ; but not- 
 withstanding this, he soon afterwards felt himself obliged to 
 resign. 
 
 The formation of the Mangyshlak column had been caused 
 by the disturbances among the Adaef Kirghiz in January, 1873, 
 — which had been started, it was said, by Khivan emissaries — 
 who refused to furnish camels for the expedition. The dis- 
 turbances were soon repressed, but it was thought best to 
 send troops to Khiva through that district for the moral effect 
 which would be thereby produced both on the Kirghiz and on 
 the Khivans. The order for the formation of the column was 
 only received in the Caucasus on March 12, but preparations 
 were immediately begun, and on April 26 the expedition, under 
 the command of Colonel Lomakin, composed of 12 companies 
 of infantry, 6 sotnias of Cossacks, 6 guns, rockets and sappers, 
 amounting to about 2,000 men, set out for Kinderli, south of 
 Mangyshlak, which had been 'agreed upon as the rendezvous. 
 Owing to the careful disposition of Colonel Lomakin the column 
 arrived on May 24 at Kungracl, having accomplished in twenty- 
 nine days a march of 400 miles through a desert country, the 
 greater portion of which had been hitherto unexplored and was 
 scantily supplied with water. The forced marches of the last 
 
THE ORENBURG COLUMN. 347 
 
 seven days, which were rendered necessary to join the Orenburg 
 detachment, had severely tried the troops, but still they arrived 
 in Kungrad in excellent condition. Here Colonel Lomakin 
 came under the orders of his superior, General Verevkin. 
 
 The Orenburg column, although not the most numerous, 
 was perhaps the best prepared to encounter the difficulties of 
 the route. It was well fitted out and provided with everything 
 necessary, and as far as the Emba the men, who were warmly 
 dressed, were conveyed in sledges, while kibitkas were erected at 
 night to shelter them. The different parts of the column were 
 sent from Uralsk and Orenburg between February 25 and March 
 9, and met at the fort on the Emba. The forces amounted in 
 all to 3,461 men, 1,797 horses, 12 guns and mortars, and 
 6 rocket-stands, and were placed under the command of Lieu- 
 tenant-General Verevkin, an officer experienced in steppe cam- 
 paigns, who in 1864 had taken Turkistan, and had since that 
 time been Governor of the Ural Cossacks. For their transport 
 10,391 camels were provided. 
 
 By March 30, the troops had all collected on the Emba, but 
 were obliged to wait some days for the transports, which had 
 been delayed in consequence of the severe snow-storms. On 
 April 11, the main forces of the troops left the Emba, the 
 advanced guard having started four days before. As far as 
 the Aral Sea the country had been thoroughly explored by the 
 yearly expeditions sent out into the steppe for a long time 
 previous, and it may even be said that the whole route was 
 well known. The troops, therefore, after suffering no privations, 
 and after no marches of great difficulty, following the western 
 shore of the Aral Sea, arrived at Kungrad on May 20. 
 
 Kungrad, which had been deserted by its inhabitants, was 
 occupied without opposition, and General Verevkin was there 
 joined by the detachment under the command of Colonel 
 Lomakin. Here General Verevkin learned of the sad fate of the 
 detachment sent from the Aral flotilla, which had penetrated up 
 to Ulkun Darya, one of the mouths of the Amu Darya, nearly 
 to Kungrad. On May 19 a small detachment of ten men, a 
 lieutenant, and a topographer, was sent out to examine the dam 
 of the Ulkun Darya, and to report to General Verevkin. They 
 were betrayed by their Kirghiz guide and were attacked and 
 
348 TUKKI3TAN. 
 
 killed, and their headless bodies were found six miles beiow 
 Kungrad. 
 
 Leaving' Kungrad on May 4, the now united columns of 
 Orenburg and Mangyshlak pursued their march up the river, 
 having, on May 27, a sharp skirmish with Khivan troops before 
 Hodjeili on June 1, and another near Mangyt; and, after some 
 further skirmishes on June 2 and 3, having been obliged to 
 build a bridge 189 feet long over the canal at Klytch Niaz Bai, 
 they encamped on June 7 in a pleasure garden of the Khan, 
 called Tchanaktchik, scarcely three miles from the northern 
 gate of Khiva. 
 
 On June 5 General Verevkin received an envoy from the 
 Khan, with a letter asking for a truce of three or four days, 
 sa}?ing that he had sent a similar letter to General Kaufmann, 
 and that he desired nothing so much as to live in peace with 
 the Russians. At the same time he urged the Greneral not to 
 change his conduct towards the Turkomans, whom he regarded 
 as unruly subjects, and as really his worst enemies. General 
 Verevkin considering that this letter was written with a view 
 of gaining time paid no attention to it, but proceeded with 
 his march. The same day General Verevkin received his 
 first direct communication from General Kaufmann in a 
 note (written in German to avoid being intercepted) dated 
 June 2 from the left bank of the Amu Darya. For some days 
 no further intelligence was received, but, on the contrary, 
 rumours were prevalent that General Kaufmann, after crossing, 
 had been obliged to retreat again to the river, in consequence 
 of the lack of provisions and transports, so that he was 'still 
 seventy miles from Khiva. 
 
 The constant attacks from small bodies of the enemy, and 
 reports that the Khan was determined to make a last stand 
 before the walls, brought General Verevkin to the belief that it 
 would be unsafe to wait any longer for General Kaufmann, and 
 that it was necessary to take energetic measures. At mid-day 
 on the 9th a reconnaissance in force was made close to the 
 walls, for the purpose of placing a breaching battery and 
 beginning the bombardment of the city. The troops were 
 obliged to march along the road, which was cut with canals, 
 where they were attacked by sorties of the enemy ; and as 
 they approached the walls, they were exposed to the full fire of 
 
ATTACK OX THE CITY. 349 
 
 the guns mounted over the gate, which were well aimed. The 
 cannonade on both sides continued for some time and General 
 Verevkin, who had come out to inspect the works, was severely 
 wounded in the head. At four o'clock a deputation came out 
 from the city, to ask for a cessation of the cannonade and for 
 conditions of peace. Colonel Sarantchef, who bad taken the 
 command after Verevkin had been wounded, replied that the 
 artillery would cease provided no further shot should be fired 
 from the walls, but that conditions of peace could only be 
 made with General Kaufmann, and that if the firing- from the 
 walls continued, the bombardment would go on until the city 
 was reduced to ashes. 
 
 The first attack upon the walls before General Verevkin was 
 wounded was made with such vigour that it would have been 
 very easy then to have stormed the place, and Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Payarof asked General Verevkin for ladders for the 
 purpose. Verevkin refused, and ordered the troops to retire 
 from the walls, but still kept up the cannonade. 
 
 No sooner had the deputation departed than the Khivans on 
 the walls again began their fire, and a second envoy then 
 appeared, saying that the Khan should not be held responsible 
 for the firing, as this was done by the Yomud Turkomans, over 
 whom the peaceful inhabitants of the city and the Government 
 had no control, and that the Khan himself had fled, leaving the 
 Government for the present in the hands of his uncle Seid 
 Amir Ul Umar, an imbecile old man, and that he had sent an 
 embassy to General Kaufmann to place himself and the city 
 entirely in his hands. Of course no reply could be given, 
 except that it was a matter of indifference from whom the 
 firing came; and that as long as it was continued the bombard- 
 ment would be kept up. 
 
 In the evening a letter was received from General Kauf- 
 mann, saying that the Tashkent column was seven miles east 
 of Khiva, asking General Verevkin to join him at eight o'clock 
 the next morning at a bridge three miles from the east gate 
 of the town, and adding that the uncle of the Khan, who was 
 charged with the Government, had promised at that time to 
 surrender to him the city. The Eussian loss on that day was 
 4 killed and 36 wounded. 
 
 The next morning (June 10) General Verevkin, who per- 
 
350 TURKISTAN. 
 
 sonally was unable to move on account of his wound, sent 
 Colonels Lomakin and Sarantchef with a portion of the troops 
 to the rendezvous appointed by Gfeneral Kaufmann. They had 
 no soner gone there than the firing again began from the 
 north gate, against the troops left in the camp. Colonel 
 Scobelef therefore was obliged to renew the bombardment and 
 silence the hostile fire, and finally stormed and captured the 
 north gate with a loss of 15 killed and wounded. 
 
 At the moment this was taking place, Greneral Kaufmann 
 was receiving the peaceable submission of the city on the other 
 side. The uncle of the Khan had come out with the Khan's- 
 younger brother Ata Jan, the Inak Irtagali, a cousin of the 
 Khan, and other persons of distinction, with presents, and had 
 given themselves entirely into the hands of the Kussians. 
 The gate was thrown open, and orders were sent to Colonel 
 Scobelef to cease firing, as the city was already occupied. As 
 soon as the noise of the cannonade was no longer heard, the 
 troops, with colours flying and music playing, made their trium- 
 phal entry into the city. When the music of the advancing 
 column was heard, Colonel Scobelef, who by means of a rocket 
 fire had cleared the streets and penetrated to the palace, judged 
 it best to retire to his camp. 
 
 Gfeneral Kaufmann occupied the Khan's palace, and placed 
 a guard there to preserve the property and the safety of the 
 harem, the inmates of which had remained, and orders were 
 given to disarm the inhabitants. He then visited the camp of 
 the Orenburg detachment, although without seeing Greneral 
 Verevkin, and returned to his own. On June 11, the anniver- 
 sary of the birth of the Emperor Peter the Great, a Te Deum 
 was said, as well as a mass for the repose of the souls of Peter 
 and of those of the men who in his time had died in the war 
 against Khiva. The troops, under the command of Greneral 
 Gfolovatchef, remained in the city until June 13, and on the 
 day following went to their camps, after occupying with a slight 
 force three of the gates. 
 
 The great object of the exjjedition was now accomplished. 
 Khiva at last had been punished, and was in the hands of the 
 Russians. But in spite of the precautions which had been 
 taken that Gfeneral Kaufmann should have all the glory of the 
 expedition, circumstances brought it about that the troops of 
 
THE HONOUR OF THE CAMPAIGN. 351 
 
 another detachment entered the city first. In fact the whole 
 honour of the expedition belongs to the Orenburg detachment, 
 and the views of the Orenburg authorities before the organisa- 
 tion of the expedition were completely justified. The detach- 
 ment of the Caucasus under Markozof had been unable to corje 
 with the desert, and had been obliged to turn back. The 
 Turkistan detachment had nearly shared a similar fate, and if 
 it succeeded in reaching the Amu Darya, in crossing it, and 
 in advancing to the capital, it was owing to the fact that no 
 troops of importance were sent against it, the whole attention 
 of the enemy being directed to resist the advance of Greneral 
 Verevkin. The Khivans supposed that the desert would be 
 sufficient to prevent General Kaufmann from reaching the 
 Amu Darya, and the small bands of Turkomans who met him 
 at Utch-Utchak, and were encamped at Sheikh-aryk, were 
 hastily collected and sent there. It is the opinion of many 
 who took part in the campaign, that if the whole force of 
 Turkomans had tried to prevent Greneral Kaufmann from 
 crossing the Amu Darya, and if they had displayed the same 
 spirit as they did during the Turkoman campaign, they would 
 have greatly impeded his crossing, and perhaps ha^e prevented 
 him from marching to Khiva. The crossing at Sheikh-aryk 
 then occupied five days, while on the homeward way, in crossing 
 at Hanki with much greater facilities, ten days were consumed. 
 The Orenburg detachment, to the formation of which Greneral 
 Kaufmann had given a reluctant consent, in order to protect 
 the steppe against Khivan and Kirghiz marauders and the 
 Mangyshlak detachment which joined it, and which had been 
 formed by mere accident, were the only ones which were well 
 organised, which found a good road, which met with few 
 disasters, which encountered the enemy in force and suffered 
 considerable loss, 1 which arrived safely, and which captured 
 the city. Had the advice of the authorities at Orenburg been 
 followed at first, no other expedition would have been neces- 
 sary, and Khiva could have been taken quietly, without dis- 
 cussion, and without the consequent diplomatic unpleasantness. 
 
 1 The combined Orenburg and Mangyshlak detachments lost during the whole 
 campaign 30 killed and 101 severely wounded. The total loss of the Turkistan 
 detachment up to the capture of Khiva was one killed and four wounded in the 
 skirmish near Khalata. 
 
352 TTJKKISTAJN. 
 
 It now became necessary to put a stop to the anarchy which 
 prevailed in the country, and to take some measures to provide 
 it with a Government. Ata Jan, 1 the brother of the Khan, who 
 had been elected to fill the place of the fugitive Seid Mo- 
 hammed Rahim, was temporarily confirmed in this office ; but 
 Greneral Kaufmann, hearing that the former Khan was among 
 the Yomuds, wrote him a letter advising him to return. This 
 was sent on the morning of June 13, and on the evening of 
 the next day the Khan, without going to Khiva, came to 
 the Russian camp and gave himself up. As he seemed to 
 be a young man of good capacities, although he had never 
 applied himself to business, and was the lawful sovereig-n, he 
 was retained by General Kaufmann as Khan, under the guidance 
 of a special council or divan, composed in part of Russians 
 appointed by the Commander-in-Chief, and in part of Khivan 
 magnates, the chief of whom was the Divan Begi Mat Niaz, who 
 was considered to be the only man in Khiva who had shown 
 good sense and used his judgment during the struggle. 2 Mat 
 Murad, the former chief councillor of the Khan, who always 
 exerted a hostile influence to Russians, together with his con- 
 fidant, Rahmet Ullah, was sent under arrest to Kazala and 
 subsequently to Russia. 
 
 These arrangements being made, Greneral Kaufmann declared 
 to the population of the Khanate the mercy of the Emperor, on 
 condition that they should live quietly and peaceably, and 
 occupy themselves with their business and with agricultural 
 labour. The excitement ot the population gradually ceased, 
 the streets again filled with people, and the bazaars were re- 
 opened. Strict orders were given at the same time to the 
 soldiers to send out no foraging parties and to take nothing 
 from the inhabitants, but to pay cash for everything at the 
 bazaars. This was a mercy which the inhabitants had 
 scarcely expected, and to which they were not accustomed ; 
 and not only were they not thankful for it, but they began to 
 abuse it, for frequent complaints were made of the marauding 
 propensities of the soldiers, in many cases unjustly. In one 
 
 1 He subsequently entered the Kussian service as a cornet of cayabry in the 
 Caucasus. 
 
 2 Mat Niaz afterwards came to St. Petersburg to submit to an operation of 
 lithotomy, in consequence of which he died in March, 1875. 
 
ABOLITION OF SLAVERY. 3£3 
 
 case a soldier was sentenced to be hung for stealing a cow 
 The evidence of the native accuser had been accepted without 
 other proof, and he was only able to escape because his com- 
 rades and the officers of his company proved that the cow had 
 followed the company ever since crossing the Amu Darya. At 
 another time six soldiers were ordered to be shot ; but these 
 severities were exciting such discontent among the troops— 
 officers as well as soldiers — that at the personal request of the 
 two Grand Dukes the men were pardoned. There was certainly 
 some excuse for the soldiers, for owing to the hardships of the 
 march and to the loss of their baggage they were almost naked 
 and without their usual comforts. 
 
 The question of the liberation of the Persian slaves, which 
 was next to be considered, seems to have been first raised by 
 General Verevkin, who had freed those Persians who joined 
 the troops, and on June 12 had telegraphed concerning them 
 to the Governor of Astrakhan. Two days afterwards he wrote 
 to General Kaufmann upon the subject, and received a reply 
 that this question would be proposed to the new divan. It 
 was considered that it would be unbecoming of the Russian 
 armies to allow the institution of slavery to exist in Khiva, 
 even though the whole of that country had not come under 
 Russian dominion, but the most impelling reason for the eman- 
 cipation was, that slaves who had run away from their masters 
 had begun to rob, pillage, and murder ; and the masters, fearing 
 to be deprived of their slaves, were imprisoning and torturing 
 those who remained to prevent them from running away. 
 
 On June 24, therefore, by the direction of General Kauf- 
 mann, the Khan issued an order to his people abolishing slavery, 
 and commanding them to free their slaves under penalty of 
 severe punishment. The slaves were to be allowed to remain 
 in Khiva or to return to Persia, as they chose. Those Persians 
 wh o desired to return to their country were ordered to collect 
 at the bazaars — of which there were thirty-seven in the Khan- 
 ate — where their names would be recorded by an officer, and 
 then they could choose their elders and go to the village of 
 Naiman, which was the point of assembly. From thence, in 
 parties of five or six hundred, they were to be sent to Krasno- 
 vodsk, and thence on Russian steamers to Persia. Some of them, 
 however, preferred to go by way of Mashad ; but in consequence 
 
 VOL. II. A A 
 
354 IURKISTAN. 
 
 of the dangers to which they would be exposed by this route 
 from Turkomans, they were ordered to go by the way of Kras- 
 novodsk. We have accounts of but two parties actually sent 
 to Krasnovodsk, one of which was attacked by Turkomans, when 
 the Persians were either killed or reinslaved. 1 There were 
 estimated to be 30,000 slaves in the Khanate, but it is supposed 
 that not more than 5,000 of these were actually freed before 
 the departure of the Russians. 
 
 During the encampment of the troops at Khiva, opportunity 
 was taken to make surveys of the country lying between Khiva 
 and the river, as well as of the chief canals, and officers were 
 sent to study the resources of the Khanate. 
 
 In order to collect information about the Turkomans living 
 within the Khivan boundaries, the Orenburg detachment was 
 despatched on July 1 to Kunya Urgentch, and from thence 
 to Hodjeili, while Colonel Grlukhofsky, with the cavalry, made 
 an expedition to Lake Sary-Kamysh, a salt lake about 200 miles 
 to the south-west, in order to investigate the old channel of the 
 Amu Darya, and to connect the surveys of Khiva with those made 
 in the preceding years by topographers sent out from the 
 Caucasus. 
 
 On both these expeditions the troops were everywhere well 
 received by the natives, who not only professed their entire 
 submission but showed it in deeds, as they provided lodging 
 and provisions for the troops at every station free of cost. 
 
 In spite of the fact that the guns taken by the Orenburg 
 detachment were by order of General Kaufmann delivered up 
 partly to him and partly to the Khivans, the officers of the 
 Tashkent detachment were not satisfied. They had started on 
 the campaign for the purpose of obtaining decorations and in- 
 creased rank. There had been great intrigues before the cam- 
 
 1 A letter in the ' Moscow Gazette ' quoted in the ' Journal tie St. Petersbonrg,' 
 October 12 (24), 1873, says a courier sent from Petro-Alexandrofsk, in coining from 
 Tashaur to Iliali, saw the bodies of hundreds of Persians who had been massacred 
 after the Russians left the country. 
 
 A letter from Khiva in the ' St. Petersburg Viedomosti,' of the same date, says 
 1,600 slaves were killed since the departure of the Russians. 
 
 The same statement is repeated in the ' Russki Mir.' 
 
 The ' Moscow Gazette ' of October 16 (28), 1873 says a courier from Shura-khaua 
 to Mangyshlak saw hundreds of corpses of Persians by the roadside. 
 
THE TURKOMAN CAMPAIGN. 355 
 
 paign began as to the persons who should accompany it, and 
 further intrigues during the course of it for prominent and 
 advantageous commands. Decorations, it is true, had been 
 distributed with a lavish hand for the skirmish near Khalata, 
 as well as for all those on the banks of the Amu Darya. Nearly 
 every officer had, three times at least, been presented for reward 
 — for having safely made the march over the desert, for having 
 crossed the Amu Darya, and for having reached and entered 
 Khiva. Still there had been no actual fight, and the Cross of 
 St. George — the highest esteemed reward — could not be given 
 without that. Something had to be done, and it was suggested 
 to make a campaign against the Turkomans. Now the Turko- 
 mans had not only been pardoned equally with the other in- 
 habitants of the Khanate by the proclamation of General Kauf- 
 mann, but immediately after the capture of Khiva, and before 
 June 16, the Yomuds had sent to the Eussian camp their elders, 
 whose rank and importance had been confirmed by the assurance 
 of the Khan, with proffers of submission. These proffers had 
 been received, and they had been promised that they shoidd 
 be untouched as long as they lived quietly and neither robbed 
 nor pillaged. More than this, the expedition of Colonel 
 Grlukhofsky to Sary-Karnish had been in the very midst of the 
 Turkomans ; the officers of the surveying parties had lived 
 among them, had shared their hospitality, and had been treated 
 with the greatest kindness. The officers of the Turkistan 
 detachment, on their march back to Kunya Urgentch and 
 Hodjeili, spoke in the highest terms of the honesty and straight- 
 forwardness of the Turkomans in their dealings, and considered 
 them as faithful friends in time of peace, as they had found 
 them bitter and brave enemies in time of war. 
 
 Still it was not difficult to find reasons. The Turkomans, 
 and especially the Yomuds, had never been obedient subjects 
 of the Khan ; on the contrary, they had exercised control over 
 him. When the Eussian troops retired they might again 
 assume this control, and excite him to hostile acts against the 
 Russians. It was said that peace would be impossible unless 
 the Turkomans were made thoroughly to feel the Russian 
 power, and that the Khan even would not be able to pay the 
 money obligations which he was entering into with the Eus- 
 sians, unless he succeeded in collecting some tribute from the 
 
 A A 2 
 
356 TURKISTAN. 
 
 Turkomans — a thing which before had been of very rare oc- 
 currence. 
 
 ' With these views General Kaufmann decided that, profiting' 
 by the presence of the Kussian troops in the Khanate, it was 
 necessary in some degree to change the order of things regarding 
 the Turkomans, materially and morally, by subduing their 
 pride and their license.' 1 It was, therefore, determined to lay 
 upon the Turkomans a penalty of 300,000 rubles, which was to 
 be their share of the indemnity to be paid by the Khan. 
 General Kaufmann then invited to Khiva the elders of the 
 Yomud Turkomans. Within a week, on July 17, seventeen of 
 the twenty-five elders who had been invited presented them- 
 selves. ' This delay served as a new proof how strange and 
 unintelligible it was to the Turkomans to be obedient and to 
 fulfil the orders or demands of anyone.' 2 When they were 
 assembled General Kaufmann informed them that he had de- 
 cided to place a contribution of 300,000 rubles (41,000?.) upon 
 the Yomuds, of which one-third must be paid within ten days 
 from July 19, and the remaining 200,000 rubles, within five 
 days more, and that all must absolutely be paid by Sunday, 
 August 3. The elders declared ' after some hesitation,' as the 
 official report puts it, that the contribution would be paid. 
 It was no wonder that they hesitated. The Yomuds were a 
 nomad people, whose sole wealth consisted in their flocks 
 and herds, and they had no ready cash. It was impossible 
 even to raise it by the sale of their cattle or their corn, or 
 even of the jewels and ornaments of their wives and daughters, 
 for where were the purchasers to come from ? And what was 
 worse, it was obligatory to pay the contribution in money and 
 not in kind. 
 
 Then followed an evident breach of faith. The next day, July 
 18, five of the elders were sent back to their families and tribes 
 to declare the necessity of paying the contribution, while the re- 
 maining twelve were retained as hostages until the money should 
 all be paid. As if to make it still more evident that his real 
 meaning was war, on that very day Greneral Kaufmann, by a 
 written order to Greneral Golovatchef, 3 directed the forces to 
 
 1 Official report. ' Military Journal,' December, 1873. 
 
 2 Ibid. 
 
 3 No. 1167 dated at Khiva, July 6 (18), 1873. 
 
ORDERS FOR BUTCHERY. 357 
 
 inarch and attack the Turkomans without even waiting 1 for the 
 fifteen days to expire. After stating the fact that the contribution 
 had been laid, General Kaufmann went on to say : ' To follow 
 more closely the payment of the contribution by the Yomuds, 
 I ask your Excellency to start with your detachment for Hazavat 
 on July 7 (19), and to encamp in a suitable place. If your 
 Excellency ' sees that the Yomuds are not occupying them- 
 selves with getting together money, but are assembling for 
 the purpose of opposing our troops, or perhaps even for leaving 
 the country, I order you immediately to move upon the 
 settlements of the Yomuds which are placed along the Hazavat 
 canal and its branches, and to give over the settlements of the 
 Yomuds and their families to complete destruction, and their 
 herds and property to confiscation.'' 
 
 The disposition of the troops was to be such as to cut off 
 the Turkomans from the steppe and to surround them, so that 
 in case of disobedience they should have no hope of escape. 
 Orders were the same day sent to the Commander of the Oren- 
 burg detachment, directing him to go to Kyzyl-takyr and 
 watch the Turkomans there, and if he saw the least sign of 
 opposition to the troops, or a desire to migrate into the steppe, 
 
 1 The style of the Russian orders is worthy of remark. The amount of orders, 
 despatches, and reports written during a short campaign — for the rule seems to be 
 that every order must be in 'writing — is astonishing, and every paper is written 
 with the greatest formality, the appellation of Excellency and the full official rank 
 being used in every possible place. As a consequence, each commander of a ,JJ 
 
 detachment is obliged to carry with him a large staff of clerks and writers, which .' J? 
 seriously impede his movements. The present Minister of War, seeing the diffi- p\y 
 culties arising from this system, made an effort to change it, but of late the bureau- 
 cratic formalities seem to have become worse than ever. Unfortunately I have 
 lost my note of the number of huge volumes filled with the correspondence of the 
 different detachments which took part in the Khivan campaign, but I remember 
 that the sight of them both astonished and amused me. As an example of this, 
 in the official report published in the ' Military Journal,' November and December, 
 1873, the first report mentioned of General Kaufmann, dated March 21 (April 2), 
 is No. 76. The last, of September 3 (15), is 2,309. To take other examples at 
 random, the report of General Golovatchef, dated July 26 (August 7), 1873, 
 is No. 1,376. That of Colonel Sarantchef, then commanding the Turkislan 
 detachment, on July 28 (August 0), is No. 1,321. About eighteen days later, 
 on August 15 (28), he had reached No. 1,495. Colonel Lomakin, the commander 
 of the Mangyshlak detachment, on September 1 (13), issued No. 416; and on 
 September 19 (October 1), No. 498. These, however, are nothing to what the 
 commander-in-chief of a military district writes, for we find that on October 24 
 (November 5), 1873, the commander of the forces in the Orenburg military 
 district had already reached No. 10,475 during that year. 
 
358 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 or assist their fellows at Hazavat canal, or make common cause 
 with them, to proceed at once to the work of slaughter. 
 
 Greneral Grolovatchef set out on July 19, and matters went 
 so fast, that on the 20th and 21st he was already able to report 
 that the Turkomans showed yet no signs of collecting the money, 
 but, on the contrary, were assembling together with the evident 
 intention either of running away or of attacking the troops, and 
 he had therefore, owing to the strict orders of the Commander- 
 in-Chief, felt the necessity of punishing them, and had burned 
 their villages along the road. These reports brought out another 
 order from Greneral Kaufmann, July 10 (22), No. 1,217, 
 approving of his conduct, but advising him to preserve the 
 grain rather than burn it, as it might be sold or used by the 
 troops. He informed him also that he had allowed the hostages 
 to go in order that they might influence their tribes and save 
 them from ruin. He further added : ' If the Yomuds become 
 submissive, stop ravaging them, but keep watch of what is 
 being done among them, and at the least attempt to migrate, 
 carry out my order for the final extermination of the disobe- 
 dient tribe.'' 
 
 Greneral Grolovatchef s campaign against the Turkomans 
 lasted until July 30, when he returned to Ilyali, and met there 
 the Orenburg detachment under Colonel Sarantchef. On the 
 25th, 27th, 28th, and 29th, there was some hard fighting with 
 the enemy. On the 27th, at night, Greneral Grolovatchef had 
 intended to make an attack upon the Turkoman camp, but 
 just as he was about starting, his own camp was attacked by 
 the Turkomans, and had it not been for the presence of mind 
 of the commander of the sharpshooters, the Eussians would 
 probably have all been massacred. 
 
 In the meantime the Turkomans had cut off communication 
 between Greneral Grolovatchef and Khiva, and for five days 
 Greneral Kaufmann received no reports. He therefore decided 
 to advance to the assistance of Grolovatchef, and left Khiva on 
 July 27, reaching Ilyali on the 31st. 
 
 The butchery and the destruction by the troops had been so 
 great that the Turkomans now showed signs of yielding, and 
 on August 1 Greneral Kaufmann received deputations asking for 
 mercy, and promising to return to their former habitations. 
 The next day he assembled the elders of several tribes, and 
 
ACCOUNT OF AN EYE-WITNESS. 359 
 
 insisted on receiving in twelve days' time a contribution to the 
 amount of 310,000 rubles. Finding- out, however, that they 
 had little ready money, he proposed to them to pay half the 
 sum in camels. To help in raising this sum the Turkoman 
 women had to strip themselves of all their ornaments, and 
 bring them into the Russian camp for sale at whatever prices 
 could be obtained. Every necklace and bracelet thus given 
 up will leave a long legacy of hatred. 1 
 
 At the end of the appointed time, August 14, the Turko- 
 mans had succeeded in paying only one-third of the sum 
 demanded, and as General Kaufmann thought it unwise to forgive 
 the remainder, he retained twenty-seven influential Turkomans as 
 hostages until the whole amount should be paid. The next day 
 he returned from Ilyali with the Tashkent detachment to Khiva, 
 and in passing through the lands of the Yomud tribe of Bairam- 
 Shaly, he demanded of them a further contribution of 108,000 
 rubles, and took fourteen of their elders and influential chiefs as 
 hostages. 
 
 It is impossible here to enter into the details, interesting as 
 they may be, of the Turkoman campaign, which indeed were 
 excellently set out by Mr. MacGahan, who accompanied the ex- 
 pedition. 2 In addition to his account, the report of another 
 eye-witness may perhaps be interesting. It was taken down 
 from his own lips : — 
 
 ' When we had gone about twenty-five miles from Khiva, 
 General Golovatchef said before a large number of officers in my 
 presence : " I have received an order from the Commander-in- 
 Chief - I hope you will remember it and give it to your soldiers. 
 This expedition does not spare either sex or age. Kill all of 
 them." After this the officers delivered this command to their 
 several detachments. The detachment of the Caucasus army 
 had not then arrived, but came that evening. Golovatchef 
 called together the officers of the Caucasus and said : " I hope 
 you will fulfil all these commands strictly in the Circassian 
 style, without a question. You are not to spare either sex or 
 age. Kill all of them." The old Colonel of the Caucasus said, 
 " Certainly, we will do exactly as you say." 
 
 1 These Turkoman ornaments were subsequently exhibited at St. Petersburg, 
 and at the Geographical Congress at Paris in 1875. 
 
 2 'Campaigning on the Oxus.' London, 1874. 
 
360 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 * On the 7th, when we began to meet the Turkomans, these 
 orders were again brought to mind, and nearly everyone whom 
 we met was killed. The Cossacks seemed to get quite furious, 
 and rushed on them with their sabres, cuttiug everybody down, 
 whether a small child or an old man. I saw several such cases. 
 I remember one case in particular which I could not look at 
 for more than a moment, and rode hastily by. A mother, who 
 had been riding on horseback with three children, was lying 
 dead. The eldest child was dead also. The youngest had a 
 sabre cut through its arm, and while crying was wiping off the 
 blood. The other child, a little older, who was trying to wake up 
 the dead mother, said to me u Tiura — stop." The Turkomans 
 were much enraged at these things, and cut one Cossack into 
 pieces before our eyes. 
 
 ' On the 1 3th we were in camp, and the camp of the enemy 
 was ail about us. We saw them on every side. They seemed 
 to be numberless. We had a picket of eight men with an 
 officer stationed on a little mound in front of the camp. Of 
 course on the attack of the enemy the pickets are at once 
 withdrawn. This was three o'clock in the afternoon. Suddenly 
 we saw all the soldiers raise their muskets to fire, and an officer 
 raise his sabre. A sotnia of Cossacks was ready on horseback, 
 but the Greneral did not seem to understand, and did not order 
 them to advance. 
 
 ' Suddenly we saw some Turkomans creeping up from the 
 reeds on one side. A number of Cossacks, without order, at once 
 started forth, but before they could ride 200 paces, the men in 
 the picket were entirely cut to pieces without having had the 
 chance to fire a shot, the Turkomans having stolen in the mean- 
 time sixty camels from different parts of the camp, where they 
 were out of reach. The men were frightfully mutilated. We 
 ouried them the same day. The Cossacks were greatly enraged 
 at this. 
 
 'The next day we stayed in camp waiting for the Turkomans, 
 but none came. On the 1 5th we were constantly on our guard. 
 At midnight the Greneral ordered a wagenbury to be constructed 
 at once. My men aroused me and told me of this, but I went 
 to sleep, and told them to go on and take my tilings there as 
 last as possible, but let me sleep. Everybody was working 
 as hard as possible, for an attack on the enemy had been 
 
A NIGHT ATTACK. 36. 
 
 ordered for early dawn, before they had made their morning 
 prayers and ablutions. The wagenburg was only half done 
 when the order was given to advance, and contrary to all rules 
 the cavalry was sent out first. They went along a narrow road 
 intersected with canals, not noticing that many Turkomans 
 were lying hidden in the grass on each side. After going- 
 some distance they suddenly found themselves face to face with 
 a large body of Turkoman cavalry across the road, whose inten- 
 tion was to take the camp. The Cossacks turned face and fled, 
 followed by the Turkomans, and all hurried in one mass into the 
 camp. The utmost confusion ensued, and for twenty minutes I 
 did not hear a single command or see any order, and we thought 
 that the whole affair was lost, until the commander of the 
 rocket-battery brought his rockets into play. The rockets 
 were damp, and for a time did not explode. At last two went off 
 well, and the Turkomans who were coming on were much 
 frightened, thinking it some new form of warfare. While the 
 Turkomans were still in confusion, the commander of the sharp- 
 shooters brought his men up and put in line one company after 
 another, who immediately opened fire on the enemy. The 
 Turkomans made several charges, and each time were repulsed 
 by the steady fire of the sharpshooters. Several hundred bodies 
 were left on the ground. Grolovatchef was not wounded until 
 after the affair was quite over. When the enemy were re- 
 treating, and though still in sight, Golovatchef came up and 
 rode along the line, thanking the soldiers for their valiant con- 
 duct. As he rode along the line of the sharpshooters near the 
 end, a single Turkoman lay in ambush in the grass. He sud- 
 denly rushed out, and with a cry attacked Grolovatchef with 
 uplifted sabre and wounded him on the wrist. He again raised 
 his sabre and would undoubtedly have killed him had not a 
 soldier in the line pierced him with his bayonet. The soldier 
 received the thanks of the General and a cross. 
 
 'That same day and the next we began to pursue the Turko- 
 mans, who were very much disheartened by the result of their 
 attack. We burned — as we had done before — graiu, houses, 
 and everything which we met, and the cavalry, which was in 
 advance, cut down every person, man, woman, or child. Many 
 of the men had gone, although a few of them got up and fired 
 at us. They were generally women and children whom we met. 
 
362 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 I saw much cruelty. The infantry came at a run behind, 
 running fully eighteen miles, and continued the work of murder. 
 
 'This continued on the 16th and 17th. On the night of the 
 16th we had a severe fright. We took care to be far enough 
 off from the camp of the Turkomans, and we posted extra 
 guards, besides throwing up a small fortification. As an extra 
 precaution the soldiers were commanded to sleep with their 
 rifles, and not to stack them, lest the Turkomans should make a 
 sudden rush and carry them off. In the middle of the night 
 nine Persians ran away from the Turkomans and came to us. 
 Two soldiers on guard saw their tall caps in the dark, and taking 
 them for Turkomans they fired at them, killing one. This 
 caused instant alarm in the camp, and much worse confusion 
 prevailed than on the loth. The soldiers rushed for their 
 muskets, and not finding them stacked — forgetting entirely that 
 they had them on the ground with them — were in the wildest 
 disorder, all exclaiming in one voice that the Turkomans had 
 made an attack and carried off the muskets. It was some time 
 before they recollected that they had slept with them instead of 
 stacking them as usual. I saw Grolovatchef in his shirt sur- 
 rounded by a lot of soldiers with their bayonets presented. He 
 asked me what I had seen, and I told him "Nothing," that I 
 found it was only a false alarm. He waited some little while, 
 and soon everybody was laughing over the adventures of the 
 night. Colonel N. — a very nervous man — went crying before 
 the regiment, saying that the Turkomans had cut his throat, 
 and continually spat, saying that it was blood, and it was 
 some time before he got over the delusion. 
 
 ' The rest of the night passed quietly. The next day we 
 continued burning carts and grain, and this was the time when 
 the Duke of Leuchtenberg was nearly killed. He was com- 
 manding four sotnias of Cossacks, and imprudently went on in 
 advp^nce. Four Cossacks went ahead of him, and crossed a little 
 bridge over a canal ; a Turkoman rushed out, holding his pike 
 by both hands, knocked over two of them at once, and wounded 
 the other two. The Duke of Leuchtenberg went on apparently 
 without noticing this. "We were all on the roadside, I was close 
 behind him. He pulled up to one side to allow the Cossacks to 
 cross the bridge. Seeing the Turkoman, I thought that the 
 Duke would certain! v be killed; I rushed behind him, took out 
 
THE TREATY OF PEACE. 363 
 
 my excellent American rifle with explosive bullets, and aiming 
 from behind him I fired at the Turkoman at a distance of about 
 thirty feet, and fortunately killed him. I thought at first I 
 had shot the Duke, for he put up his hand to his head and came 
 near falling 1 from his horse. The ball must have passed within 
 three inches of his ear. He immediately asked who it was, and 
 the soldiers all called out " Grromof ! " and then he jumped to 
 the ground, kissed me, and thanked me.' 
 
 Notwithstanding the facts stated by Mr. Gromof, from all 
 the information I have been able to collect, I quite agree with 
 Mr. MacGahan, that General Golovatchef personally is innocent 
 of the savagery which accompanied the Turkoman campaign. 
 He did nothing but unwillingly obey imperative orders, and 
 tried rather to mitigate than to increase their effect. 
 
 Before the departure of the troops from Ilyali, General 
 Kaufmann sent Colonel Scobelef to investigate the road from 
 Zmukshir to Ortakuya, the place which the detachment of 
 Markozof had not been able to reach. Leaving Zmukshir on 
 August 16, Colonel Scobelef went south-west as far as the wells 
 of Nefes-guli, six miles from Ortakuya, and returned on 
 August 23 to Khiva, having ridden 373 miles in seven days. 
 
 His reports and propositions having been approved by the 
 Emperor, on August 24, the day after his return from the 
 expedition, General Kaufmann signed a treaty of peace with 
 the Khan of Khiva, the main provisions of which were as 
 follows : — The Khan acknowledged himself as the faithful 
 servant of the Emperor of Eussia, and renounced all direct 
 friendly communications with the neighbouring Sovereigns and 
 Khans, and the closing of any treaties witli them, engaging 
 himself at the same time to undertake no military expedition 
 without the knowledge and consent of the Kussian authorities. 
 The frontier between the two countries was to be the Amu 
 Darya, following its westernmost branch to the Sea of Aral, 
 thence along the shore of that sea to Cape Urgu, and thence 
 along the southern slope of the Ust-urt to the supposed former 
 old bed of the Amu Darya. All the right bank of the Amu Darya 
 and the territory on that side previously belonging to Khiva 
 was annexed to Kussia. The navigation of the Amu Darya was 
 exclusively reserved for Kussian boats, but Khivan and Buk- 
 haran barges could have the right of navigating it bv special 
 
364 TURKESTAN. 
 
 permission from the Eussian authorities. The Eussians gained 
 the right to establish ports, factories, and depots on the left 
 bank wherever they wished, the safety of which was to be 
 guaranteed by the Khan. The towns and villages of the Khan- 
 ate were to be opened to Eussian commerce, and Eussian mer- 
 chants and caravans could travel freely through the country. 
 Eussian merchants who carried on trade with the Khanate 
 were to be exempt from zekat, or any trade duty, and were to 
 enjoy the right of gratuitous transport for their merchandise 
 from Khiva into the neighbouring countries. They coidd also 
 have resident agents, could acquire landed property, and could 
 be taxed only by agreement with the Eussian authorities. 
 Commercial engagements between Eussians and Khivans were 
 to be strictly respected, and all complaints of Eussians against 
 Khivans were to be at once examined and satisfied. Eussians 
 were to have priority over Khivans for the settlement of their 
 accounts. Complaints of Khivans against Eussian subjects were 
 to be submitted to the nearest Eussian authorities. No persons 
 of any nationality coming from Eussia were to be admitted 
 without a proper Eussian passport, and criminals were to be 
 immediately returned. Slavery was to remain abolished. 
 Finally, an indemnity of 2,200,000 rubles (274,000^.) was 
 imposed on the Khanate to cover the expenses of the war, but 
 as the revenues of the Amir were insufficient to cover this 
 amount, it was to be paid by terms with interest at five per 
 cent. These payments were fixed at 100,000 rubles for the first 
 two years, and gradually increased until 1881, when they were 
 to be 200,000 rubles a year, and were to be paid either in 
 Eussian paper money or in silver. The first payment was to 
 be made on December 1 (13), 1873, and the last payment on 
 November 1 (13), 1893. 
 
 By the strictness of these conditions, and especially by that 
 which agreed to annual payments of large sums out of a very 
 meagre revenue for twenty years, Eussia secured the right of 
 intervening in the Khanate at the slightest provocation. As 
 if to render it impossible for the Foreign Office at St. Peters- 
 burg to reject the treaty, it was published in the ' Turkistan 
 Gazette ' at Tashkent before the authorities at St. Petersburg 
 had had time to consider it. The annexation of the right bank 
 of the Amu Darya called out many expressions of discontent in 
 
OFFICIAL EXPLANATIONS. 365 
 
 the English newspapers, as it seemed in disaccord with the 
 promise of Count Schouvalof when he was in London in 1873 
 previous to the Khivan expedition. 1 The reproaches of the 
 English press had, perhaps, some foundation, and certainly 
 touched a sore spot at St. Petersburg. The official journal, 
 therefore, in printing the treaty, published an account of the 
 reasons which had forced Russia to take this step. 2 
 
 After speaking of the various attempts to bring the Khan 
 to reason, the article goes on to say : ' After the want of success 
 of these reiterated attempts, an expedition was decided upon. 
 Its aim was first to chastise the Khan for the past, and then 
 to create such a state of things as would protect our subjects 
 from the Khivan s and Turkomans, and render possible the 
 development of pacific commercial relations. The special 
 difficulty of this problem was that the fundamental bases of all 
 the states of Central Asia are so precarious and so unstable, 
 that it was to be feared that in inflicting a merited chastise- 
 ment upon Khiva that country would cease to exist as an 
 independent state. Such a result would have in no way 
 coincided with the views of our Grovernment, which hitherto 
 has used its constant efforts to sustain and consolidate the 
 autonomous existence of the other states bordering on us in 
 Central Asia, as, for instance, Bukhara and Khokand. When 
 Khiva had been occupied, and we were able to study the 
 conditions of the life of the country, we became convinced 
 that even with the best will on the part of the Khan and his 
 counsellors to keep up good and neighbourly relations with us 
 
 1 The Eussians knew very well the English opinion about an expedition to 
 Khiva from the questions which had been put to them before it was mooted. It 
 ■wis understood at the time in St. Petersburg that up to this point the English 
 had been careful to say nothing about the expedition proposed at that time, in 
 order not to complicate the question of the Afghan boundary. The statement of 
 Count Schouvalof was consequently in a measure unasked for. It -was believed, 
 therefore, that he was unauthorised to make it in its fullest extent as a promise on 
 the part of the Emperor, but merely as an expression of the Emperor's inten- 
 tions at the time. It was seen that Khiva was an indefinite term, that could apply 
 either to the city or to the Khanate. The city, indeed, was not by the treaty 
 to be occupied by the Russians. Unfortunately, the intentions of the Emperor 
 and of the Government at St. Petersburg in this, as in other cases, were over- 
 ridden by the inexorable logic of facts. Circumstances arose which made it 
 impossible to carry out these intentions. For a strong opinion on this subject 
 see Sir H. Rawlinson's ' England and Russia in the East,' p. 381. London, 1875. 
 
 2 ' Government Messenger,' November 30 December 12), 1873. 
 
366 TTJKKISTAN. 
 
 he lacked the force necessary for the purpose, for his influence 
 over the nomad and semi-nomad Turkomans was intermittent. 
 Often it is null, and it sometimes happens that he, as well as" 
 his subjects, have to submit to the ascendency of these brigands 
 of the steppes. 
 
 ' Thus after the departure of the troops of our expedition 
 the same depredations and incursions would infallibly have 
 begun again and would have demanded a new punishment, and 
 then no effort of ours would have succeeded in preserving the 
 autonomous existence of Khiva. 
 
 ' It became, therefore, necessary to provide against a contin- 
 gency so little to be desired, which would have exposed us to 
 great sacrifices and to a grave deviation from the programme 
 of our policy in Central Asia. 
 
 ' For this reason it was judged indispensable to establish a 
 fortified point provided with a sufficient garrison, in order to 
 guard our frontier against the attacks of the brigands, to pro- 
 tect our caravans and those of the Khivans, and at the same 
 time to support the Khan if he were threatened by the Turko- 
 mans. The best point to choose for the establishment of this 
 fort would have been the southern coast of the Sea of Aral, 
 which would have ensured us a communication by water with 
 the mouths of the Syr Darya. Unfortunately this coast was 
 covered with continuous marshes, presenting no locality favour- 
 able to the erection of a fortified station. It therefore became 
 necessary to construct this fort on the right bank of the Amu 
 Darya. Besides this, it was necessary to assure the communi- 
 cations of the fort and its garrison with the province of Tur- 
 kistan. Without speaking of the difficulties of navigation of 
 the Lower Amu Darya— in winter it becomes entirely im- 
 passable, and there is no other way than the Steppe — it was 
 judged indispensable to annex to our possessions the arid desert 
 which extends between this fort and the province of Turkistan. 
 Certainly, if any other guarantee could have been found which 
 would have effectually assured us for the future, the preference 
 would have been given to it. But sterile and burdensome as 
 such acquisition is to us, it was inevitable, seeing the Khan of 
 Khiva had declared he would be able to fulfil his obligations 
 towards us only upon the absolute condition of having a Kussian 
 fort near him as well as a body of Kussian troops. His wishes 
 
THE RUSSIANS WITHDRAW. 367 
 
 went even further. He asked again and again that Russian 
 troops should in future be maintained in the very city of Khiva. 
 Besides, as has been said above, this solution was the only one 
 to guarantee our frontiers and commerce, and thus avoid in 
 future the necessity of a new expedition with all the conse- 
 quences that would follow, that is, the definitive destruction 
 of the Khanate of Khiva, a consequence which would be 
 entirely contrary to our political principles and our views upon 
 Central Asia.' 
 
 Two months having elapsed since the capture of the city of 
 Khiva, and arrangements having been made, as it was supposed, 
 for the settled government of the Khanate, the troops took 
 their departure. The Mangyshlak detachment left Khiva on 
 August 21, arriving on the 30th at Kungrad, and pursuing a 
 more favourable route than they had taken on the advance, 
 they reached Kinderli on September 24, having marched in 
 going and returning 1,120 miles. Ey October 18 the troops 
 had returned to Petrofsk in the Caucasus. 
 
 The Orenburg detachment, after the Turkoman campaign, 
 remained at Kyzyl-Takyr, and subsequently had been stationed 
 for some days at Kunya Urgentch. Starting from there on 
 August 13, they arrived at Emba on October 6, where they 
 separated, returning to their old quarters at Uralsk, Orenburg, 
 and Orsk. Without counting the moves made against the 
 Turkomans at Sary Kamysh, this detachment had marched over 
 1,800 miles. The Turkistan detachment arrived at Hanki on 
 August 24, and spent ten days in crossing the Amu Darya — a 
 work of some difficulty, as the river there was divided into 
 three branches, and it was necessary to cross two islands, 
 changing the baggage each time from the boats to carts. 
 Remaining some time on the other side of the river Shura- 
 khana, where they were occupied in building the new fortress 
 of Petro-Alexandrofsk, the troops finally started from that point 
 on September 17, the cavalry being directed to go across the 
 Kyzyl Kum to Perovsky, and the rest of the forces taking the 
 former route by way of Khalata and Jizakh, and by October 
 25, the last echelon had arrived in Tashkent. The whole 
 march, there and back, was 1,190 miles. 
 
 General Kaufmann's reward for the Khivan campaign con- 
 sisted in the Cross of St. George of the second class, given for 
 
368 TURKISTAN. 
 
 the defeat in a pitched battle of the enemy's army, consisting 
 of at least 50,000 men, or for the capture of an enemy's 
 country. Although this was not exactly what he desired, as he 
 had expected to be made Count of Khiva in the event of the suc- 
 cessful termination of the campaign, yet it placed him in the 
 first rank of Eussian Generals, since there were only four or five 
 others who had received similar decorations, and of the cavaliers 
 of the first class there were none, except the Emperor of 
 Germany, who had received it for the battle of Konigsgratz. 
 
 The other officers were suitably rewarded, and the men 
 received each a medal to be worn in memory of their participa- 
 tion in the campaign and a ruble each extra pay. 1 
 
 The officials in Turkistan, however, took care that other 
 honours should be in store for the troops on their return. 
 Orders were issued that voluntary subscriptions should be made 
 for a memorial to General Kaufmann and the Khivan cam- 
 paign, which was to take the form of a scholarship at some 
 university. As these orders were issued by their superiors, no 
 officer felt at liberty to decline a subscription. In addition to 
 this the inhabitants at Tashkent raised triumphal arches and 
 spent a large sum of money for General Kaufmann's reception. 
 The sum taken from the native population of Tashkent for this 
 purpose, under the head of ' general expenditure,' was at one 
 time 15,000 rubles, and at another time a sum of nearly 
 an equal amount. Seeing what was being done in other 
 places, Colonel Golof, the Prefect of Perovsky, had so far pre- 
 vailed upon the Kirghiz that they in the same voluntary 
 way subscribed 3,000 rubles for the Khivan memorial. 
 
 The cost of the expedition it is impossible to estimate with 
 accuracy. When the campaign was decided upon General 
 Kaufmann asked the ministry of finance for 300,000 rubles, but 
 this sum was expended long before the troops had actually left 
 Tashkent. The only data that have yet been published are 
 those for the expenses of provisions and transport of the 
 Orenburg detachment, which amount to 1,423,735 rubles 
 (nearly 208,000/-.). On this basis the expedition must have 
 cost at least 7,000,000 rubles (nearly a million sterling). The 
 expenses of the expedition were, however, in a slight degree 
 
 1 The best paid private soldier in tlio Russian army receives, besides rations 
 and uniform, only 3r. 60k. (or about ten shillings) per annum. 
 
THE AMU DARYA RAYON.' 369 
 
 lessened by not paying for the camels which had been used, 
 although unfortunately the loss fell upon the poor Kirghiz. 
 
 The Tashkent detachment, as I have already stated, took 
 8,800 camels from the various districts, for which they agreed 
 to pay 50 rubles each in case the animals died. As the 
 camels nearly all perished, it became necessary to pay 400,000 
 rubles. The Prefect of Perovsky, thinking this a good occasion 
 for showing his zeal, and the good feeling of the Kirghiz popu- 
 lation of his district, informed the people that the Eussian 
 Government would never pay for these camels, and that it 
 would be much better to make a present of them to the 
 Eussians. By the use of threats and proper persuasions, he 
 succeeded in getting them to sign an address to General Kauf- 
 mann to that effect. His example was followed in some of the 
 other districts, and the result is that most of the inhabitants 
 feel that they have been actually robbed of the camels by the 
 Government. The action of the Kirghiz was reported to the 
 authorities at St. Petersburg, and before the real explanation 
 of the matter had become known there — although as late as June 
 4 (16), 1874 — General Kaufmann succeeded in obtaining a 
 rescript signed by the Emperor thanking the inhabitants of the 
 province of Turkistan for their noble conduct, and their loyalty 
 expressed by such a great sacrifice. 
 
 The newly annexed territory at the mouth of the Amu 
 Darya, to which was given the name of Amu Darya Eayon, con- 
 tained about 216,000 inhabitants, the majority of whom were 
 nomad Kirghiz, Karakalpaks, and Turkomans- and five towns, 
 the chief of which were Shura-khana and Tchimbai. 
 
 The region was not very productive, but it was thought 
 that by putting a tax of 3 rubles 60 kopeks on each of the 
 6,000 settled population, and a tax of 3 rubles per head on the 
 others, that, together with the bazaar and trade duties, a 
 revenue of 200,000 rubles per annum could be obtained. To 
 keep the province in order, a fort was built in the garden 
 belonging to the Vizier Mat Niaz, six miles from the ferry at 
 Hanki, and two from Shura-khana. This was garrisoned by 
 nine companies of infantry and four sotnias of Cossacks, while 
 the works themselves were defended by four guns, four mortars, 
 and several cannon taken at Khiva. The chief command of 
 
 VOL. II. B B 
 
370 TURKISTAN. 
 
 the troops, as well as of the district, was given to Colonel 
 Ivariof. 
 
 It had been foreseen by many persons acquainted with 
 affairs of Central Asia, that the campaign against the Turko- 
 mans would excite them against Eussian rule, would cause 
 them to take the first opportunity of attacking the Khan as 
 well as the Eussian troops, and would lead to serious results. 
 The Grovernor-Greneral of Orenburg stated with regard to this, 
 that it would be necessary to repeat expeditions against the 
 Turkomans for many years, that the region of Khiva would 
 become a second Caucasus, and that in the end the Eussians 
 would probably be obliged to take Merv. 
 
 This prediction was not long in being partly realised. In 
 October 1873, the Yomuds, out of revenge against the Khan 
 and the Uzbeks and the Kirghiz who had favoured the Eussians, 
 began plundering the towns and villages, and compelled the 
 Kirghiz to seek shelter on the Eussian or right bank of the Amu 
 Darya. A little before, a caravan of 100 camels, transporting 
 stores to Petro-Alexandrofsk from Khalata, was attacked and 
 pillaged by a band of Tekke Turkomans. Another caravan 
 coming down the river from Bukhara to Khiva, was attacked by 
 Turkomans, who fired upon it, and forced the men to abandon 
 their boats. 
 
 The Eussian troops were immediately ordered to descend 
 the river as far as Utch-Utchak, where the Tekkes had crossed 
 the Amu Darya. On October 8, after having proceeded 133 
 miles, they came upon them on the banks of the Amu Darya 
 and completely routed them. Nearly all those who were not 
 killed were drowned, as only eight succeeded in reaching the 
 opposite shore, while five were made prisoners. The various 
 bands of Tekke Turkomans then retreated to Merv. Colonel 
 Ivanof next proceeded down the Amu Darya to the Kuvansh- 
 Jarma branch and to Daukara. This movement had the effect 
 of causing the Turkomans, who were ignorant of its object, to 
 cease for a time from their depredations, so that the Eussians 
 would need no excuse for crossing to their side of the river. 
 
 As the result of his explorations, Colonel Ivanof thought it 
 best to remove the greater portion of the garrison of Petro- 
 Alexandrofsk to Nukus, a point of considerable strategical im- 
 portance, situated at the beginning of the Delta. Here was 
 the best passage over the river, and here also was the terminus 
 
IVANOFS RAID. 371 
 
 of a good road going to Kazala and the Syr Darya. Besides 
 this, near Nukus there was abundance of saksaul and other 
 shrubs suitable for fuel, and the proximity of the large town of 
 Tchimbai assured the troops of a sufficiency of provisions. It 
 was found that the fort of Petro-Alexandrofsk had been con- 
 structed in a very unhealthy locality, so that a large number of 
 soldiers were constantly in the hospital. 
 
 About this time the Khan of Khiva sent a mission to 
 Colonel Tvanof with 70,000 rubles as part of the tribute which 
 he was to pay to Eussia for that year. He also, at the sugges- 
 tion of a Kussian officer, assembled the Turkoman elders and 
 made them promise to live in peace, to return all the property 
 seized from the Kirghiz and the Uzbegs, and to send to Khiva 
 all the Turkomans who had been guilty of pillage. 
 
 Although the Turkomans had been frightened into quiet by 
 Colonel Ivanof's march, yet they immediately broke out again 
 as soon as he returned to the fort. They again began to pillage, 
 plundered the inhabitants all along the bank of the Amu 
 Darya, and even crossed over to the right bank, with the inten- 
 tion of attacking the Kirghiz about Daukara, and burned 
 forage and tents that had been prepared for the use of the 
 Eussians by the inhabitants. Colonel Ivanof was therefore 
 obliged to set out with another expedition, which left the fort 
 of Petro-Alexandrofsk on January 4, 1874. 
 
 He advanced to Nukus without meeting the enemy, and 
 then hearing that they were collected in large numbers on the 
 Laudan canal, called out the reserve troops from the fort, 
 returned up the river to Kiptchak, and crossed it on the ice. 
 The left bank of the river for several miles was lined with 
 large bodies of Turkomans who followed the movements of the 
 Eussians, and occasionally fired at them. 
 
 After informing the Khan of the reasons of his presence on 
 Khivan territory, and asking him to send a Khivan agent to 
 him, he marched to Kazi Murad, a Turkoman encampment. 
 The Cossacks were sent in front to ravage the country, and so 
 well did they perform their duty, that when the main body 
 arrived there was nothing to be seen but smoking ruins. 
 
 Colonel Ivanof had proceeded but a few miles further, 
 when, to his great surprise, the country was found to be entirely 
 under water, which was the more astonishing as in winter the 
 
 B B 2 
 
372 TURKISTAN. 
 
 canals are all dry. It was found, however, that the Turkomans 
 had cut the dykes of the canals. As the water was rising 
 rapidly, it was necessary to recall the Cossacks who were burning 
 houses and encampments in all directions, and to return to 
 Kazi Murad. Thence the column marched south to the town 
 of Mangyt, where was the only remaining bridge over the 
 canal, and came upon the winter encampment of the (xultcha 
 Turkomans, which they at once demolished, the Cossacks per- 
 forming the work of destruction at a distance of a few versts 
 off, while the infantry did it in an equally effective manner 
 along the line of march. 
 
 At Mangyt Colonel Ivanof was informed by the Khan that 
 the Yomuds of Hazavat had submitted. Although he did not 
 fully believe this, he agreed to respect their lands and turned 
 southward. The Tchaudurs, warned by the fate of the Grul- 
 tchas, at once gave in their submission, and agreed to pay the 
 contribution demanded of them and restore the booty they had 
 taken. After reaching Old Porsu, where Prince Bekovitch and 
 the Russians were murdered in 1717, the troops returned to 
 Kiptchak and waited until the river was free from ice, when, on 
 February 5, they crossed over to the right bank. The Bek of 
 Kiptchak being suspected of complicity in the Turkoman raid, 
 was removed by the Khan at Ivanofs request. 
 
 The raid of Colonel Ivanof had such an effect on the 
 Turkomans that, during the summer of 1874, they remained 
 tolerably quiet, and the Russians had leisure to occupy them- 
 selves with the construction of the fort at Nukus. But the site 
 selected, which had been surveyed in winter, was no healthier 
 than Petro-Alexandrofsk, and had the disadvantage of being 
 sometimes overflowed. In addition to this, work had been 
 commenced in a place where building material — i.e. clay for 
 making bricks — was not to be found, and had to be brought 
 some distance at considerable expense. It was therefore 
 decided to leave the main body of troops at Petro-Alexandrofsk, 
 and to erect only a small fortified post at Nukus, which would 
 accommodate 350 men. This was ready by October. 
 
 During the summer new troops came from Kazala, and, at 
 the same time, those soldiers whose term of service had expired 
 were sent back. These movements were interpreted by the 
 Turkomans to mean that the Russians were weak, and were 
 
EXPLOKING EXPEDITIONS. 373 
 
 endeavouring to make a great display of their forces by sending 
 out soldiers in boats to Kitchkine-ata, then across the Tchimbai, 
 and back again in carts to Nukus. There were rumours, also, 
 of a league being entered into with the Karakalpaks who up to 
 this time had been comparatively peaceable. Colonel Ivanof, 
 therefore, summoned the Biis of the Karakalpaks to meet him 
 at Tchimbai. The Biis were so frightened at being called, 
 that they assembled the next day, when they were told that 
 they must furnish lists of the population. This, upon various 
 pretexts, all but two declined to do, whereupon they were 
 immediately surrounded with Cossacks and arrested. Being 
 told they would not be freed until the lists had been presented, 
 they agreed to furnish them, and, on the next day, handed 
 them in. Colonel Ivanof informed them that the lists repre- 
 sented less than the actual population, and then the Biis — 
 expecting death, as the Cossacks had their rifles pointed at them 
 — immediately added more names. Unquestionably they would 
 have made additions as long as the Russian officer desired. ' By 
 this arrest we not only did not attain our purpose, but we ex- 
 cited the ill-feeling of the population against us, as they greatly 
 reverence their Biis.' 1 
 
 ^Notwithstanding the peaceful aspect of affairs, Colonel 
 Ivanof did not consider it wise for the Amii Darya exploring 
 expedition sent out by the Imperial Geographical Society to 
 ascend the Amu Darya further than Petro-Alexandrofsk, 2 nor 
 to cross to the left bank of the river, as the chief problems to 
 be settled by the expedition were on the left bank of the river, 
 i.e. the former channel of the Oxus, and the irrigation system. 
 The expedition, therefore, did not accomplish as much as was 
 expected. It was under the leadership of Colonel Stoletof, and 
 consisted of Severtsof, the naturalist ; Smirnof, the botanist ; 
 Sobolef, for ethnological and historical research ; Karazin, the 
 artist of the party ; and of several topographers and lesser 
 officers. It was also accompanied by Major Herbert Wood, 
 an English officer of the Eoyal Engineers. 3 
 
 1 Golos No. 231, 1874. Letter from Tchimbai, July 25 (August 6). 
 
 2 It had been the original intention to proceed to the Bukharan boundary and 
 perhaps even further. 
 
 3 The book of Major Wood, ' The Shores of Lake Aral,' his articles in the 
 'Geographical Magazine.' and his papers read before the Eoyal Geographical 
 
374 TUEEISTAN. 
 
 At about the same time with this expedition, another one, 
 under the auspices of the Society of the Lovers of Natural 
 History at Moscow, called the Aralo-Caspian expedition, was 
 sent out to make surveys and explorations in the Ust-Urt, and 
 to investigate the level of the Aral Sea, as well as to make 
 geological and zoological researches. 
 
 In connection with the Amu Darya exploring expedition 
 the steamer ' Perovsky,' a vessel drawing three and a half feet 
 of water, succeeded in ascending the river as far as Nukus, 
 which it reached on August 6, and subsequently went up as far 
 as Petro-Alexandrofok. 1 The trip to Nukus was accomplished 
 by a new route. Vain efforts had been made to ascend the 
 Ulkun and Kitchkine ; finally, the steamer went to the Grulf 
 of Tustche-bas, ascended the Yany-su, although with some 
 difficulty on account of the shoals, to the Lake Daukara, and 
 then went up the Kuvansh-Jarma to Nukus. It is considered, 
 however, that the question as to the feasibility of steam navi- 
 gation on the Amu Darya cannot be settled by the observations 
 made during this one trip, and that further explorations of 
 the channel are necessary. 
 
 In the autumn of 1874 the disorders of the Turkomans on 
 the left bank of the Amu Darya again began. The Tekkes 
 from Merv sent down a band and committed some depredations 
 to the south of Pitniak. Merchants with caravans coming from 
 Bukhara were also attacked and pillaged, and a party of Persians 
 returning to their country from Bukharan territory were attacked. 
 A troop of Cossacks with a rocket battery was therefore sent 
 up the river as far as Meshekli, and produced for the moment 
 good results. 
 
 During the course of December the Khan of Khiva sent 
 the last payment of 100,000 rubles due from him for that year, 
 and promised to collect if possible something from the Turko- 
 mans. He professed, however, his inability to do anything 
 with these unruly subjects, feeling the necessity of Kussian aid. 
 
 It was finally thought best by Colonel Ivanof to repeat the 
 
 Society and Geographical Society of Geneva contain so far the best account that 
 has been published of the expedition. Articles by Stoletof and Sobolef relating to 
 special points of the expedition have appeared in the bulletin of the Imperial 
 Russian Geographical Society. 
 
 1 Several interesting papers on this expedition have appeared by Colonel 
 Thilo, Mr. Barbotte de Marny, and Mr. Bogdanof. 
 
THE TURKOMANS AGAIN PUNISHED. 375 
 
 lesson he had given the Turkomans the year before ; and there- 
 fore starting from Petro-Alexandrofsk on January 19, and 
 crossing the river near Hodjeili on the 28th, he made an excur- 
 sion over the whole of the Turkoman territory, recrossing the 
 river at Hanki on February 13. He visited in succession all 
 the tribes of the Turkomans, except the Tchaudurs and Kara- 
 jengeldi, who had been punished in 1874. The detachment 
 met with no resistance and did not fire a single shot, although 
 during its march through the encampments of the Kill Yomuds 
 it destroyed everything within its reach. Every tribe was 
 so frightened by this that they at once sent their elders to 
 proffer their submissiou, asking for peace, and offering to pay 
 the war indemnity which had previously been levied upon them. 
 It was, therefore, necessary to punish only the few villages of 
 the Imral tribe which sent no deputation. As to the punish- 
 ment inflicted upon the Kid Yomuds I quote from an official 
 report, 'Invalid,' No. 55, 1875:— 
 
 ' On January 29, after crossing to the right bank, the detach- 
 ment marched upon Kunya Urgentch. From his place of 
 crossing Colonel Ivanof sent Murtaza Bii, the Bek of Hodjeili, 
 to all the Turkoman tribes with proclamations calling them to 
 order and obedience. Giving out that from Kunya Urgentch 
 he would move to Kyzyl Takyr, Colonel Ivanof on the 29th 
 marched thirty-three versts and encamped at the canal of 
 Esaul Bashi near Kunya Urgentch. On the 13th the column 
 passing through Kunya Urgentch, instead of moving south, 
 turned to' the north-west and made for the Kul Yomud settle- 
 ments, which began eight versts from the town and extended on 
 both sides of the Khan-ab canal. The appearance of the column 
 in these encampments was entirely unexpected ; the settlements 
 next to Kunya Urgentch were more especially taken by sur- 
 prise, and no one had time to leave. The Kul Yomuds, 
 numbering about 1,000 kibitkas, had taken an even more active 
 part than the other tribes in the recent disorders ; they had pre- 
 vented compliance with our demands, had attacked the Persians 
 on their way home in August 1874, had refused to obey the 
 Khan, and had assaulted Mat Niaz and other dignitaries of the 
 Khan who visited them in June 1874 to warn them of the con- 
 sequences of their conduct. For these reasons Colonel Ivanof 
 determined to punish the Kul Yomuds severely, so as to induce 
 
376 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 the other tribes to submit and fulfil our demands. Stationing 
 his troops in the grounds of Boyandur, he detached 150 Cos- 
 sacks under Colonel Novotreshtshenof with orders to fire all 
 the villages within five versts of the camp. The troops were 
 especially enjoined to confine themselves to the destruction of 
 houses and movables and the seizure of cattle, without touching 
 the inhabitants. The Cossacks rapidly carried out the task set 
 them, and within two hours the country traversed was laid 
 waste ; fire and smoke rising in every direction indicated that 
 the threatened punishment had overtaken the guilty. The 
 first hut destroyed by the Cossacks belonged to Bakar, who led 
 the Kul Yomud bands in their attack on the Persians ; Bakar 
 himself was taken prisoner and handed over to the Khivan 
 authorities. To give the Kul Yomuds, who were said to be 
 gathering for defence at a medresse fifteen versts further on, 
 no time to recover, Colonel Ivanof, leaving the greater part of 
 the detachment at Boyandur under the command of Lieutenant- 
 Colonel Komarof, put himself at the head of three companies, 
 two sotnias, two guns, and a rocket division, and in the night 
 of the 30th marched to the remoter settlements. The rumour 
 of a hostile gathering proved unfounded ; on the contrary, all 
 the aids were found deserted, and there were signs that the in- 
 habitants had left in a hurry and taken with them only 
 their cattle and most valuable property. Successively traversing 
 and destroying all the various settlements of the Kul Yomuds, 
 the medresse and encampment of Ata Murad and Avas Turdi 
 alone excepted, the column returned to Boyandur on the 31st. 
 The Kul Yomuds migrated further west in the direction of Sary 
 Kamish. 
 
 When near Khiva Colonel Ivanof received a visit from the 
 Khan, which he subsequently returned in the capital himself, 
 where he and his escort were well received by all the Uzbeg 
 population. In these interviews Colonel Ivanof gave the Khan 
 to understand that the Eussian troops could not always come 
 to his assistance, and that it was time for him to take some 
 means for keeping the Turkomans in check without Eussian 
 aid. He urged him immediately to send troops to arrest the 
 originators of the disorders, and recommended him no longer to 
 treat the Turkomans like a privileged part of the population 
 but to place them on an equality with the rest of his subjects. 
 
TURKOMAN CONTRIBUTIONS. 377 
 
 Not approving of the idea of the Khan to cut off the water 
 supply from the Turkomans, he counselled him on the contrary 
 to provide them with water on condition that any new canals 
 they should require should be dug by themselves and not by 
 the Uzbeks as before. Colonel Ivanof also insisted that the 
 Khan should immediately impose some tax, even though a 
 slight one, upon the Turkomans, for only on payment of a tax 
 ■vould they begin to consider themselves the Khan's subjects. 
 He recommended the removal of the more troublesome elders, 
 and said that it would be well not always to use harsh measures 
 but sometimes to employ mildness and flattery, as the majority 
 of the inhabitants now showed themselves to be really desirous 
 of living in obedience. 
 
 The Khan then proposed to make a personal visit to the 
 Turkomans, an idea which was warmly approved of by Colonel 
 Ivanof, who thought that a personal visit would acquaint him 
 with the real state of affairs, and procure for him the goodwill 
 of the other inhabitants. 
 
 During the expedition the Turkomans paid 26,000 rubles 
 of the penalties imposed upon them in 1873 and 1874, and 
 soon after the return of the troops they sent 10,000 more. 1 
 Subsequently a further sum was received from the Khan on 
 the part of the Turkomans, as well as 2,278 rubles as an 
 indemnity from the Bukharans for the sheep stolen at Kabakli, 
 and a further indemnity of 661 rubles to the merchant Dukof, 
 whose caravan was robbed by the Turkomans in January 1874. 
 
 In accordance with the advice of Colonel Ivanof the Khan 
 did make a tour through the Turkoman country, where he was 
 very well received, and imposed upon them a tax amounting 
 altogether to 40,770 tillas, i.e. about 73,000 rubles. 
 
 In November 1873 after the Khivan expedition, the Grand 
 Duke Michael, the Lieutenant of the Caucasus, presented to 
 the Emperor a project for forming all the Steppe region between 
 the Caspian and the Sea of Aral into a military district sub- 
 ordinate to the Caucasus. General Lomakin was at once 
 sent to Krasnovodsk to draw up a memorandum on the measures 
 
 1 Up to the end of March, 1875, the Turkomms had paid 67,287 rubles. The 
 "whole sum imposed upon them in 1873 was 418,500 rubles, of which 261,837 
 rubles were paid, leaving a balance of 156,663 rubles still due from them. 
 
378 TUKKISTAST. 
 
 which might develop the whole region and bring proper Rus- 
 sian influence to bear there. While there he had a conference 
 with some of the elders of the Turkomans and engaged thern 
 as well as the leaders of the other tribes to come to Krasnoyodsk 
 in the spring of the next year, 1874. 
 
 By the regulations for the government of the new Trans- 
 Caspian district which were signed by the Emperor on March 
 21, 1874, — although the project had just been rejected by an 
 Imperial Commission, in consequence of the objections of the 
 Foreign Office and of the Finance Ministry — the boundaries 
 were stated to be from Mertvii Kultuk on the north to the river 
 Attrek, the boundary between Eussia and Persia, on the south, 
 and from the eastern shore of the Caspian Sea to the western 
 boundary of the Khanate of Khiva, including in it also the 
 islands near the coast. The region was divided into two 
 prefectures, that of Mangyshlak with the fort of Alexandrofsky, 
 and that of Krasnovodsk, which was temporarily under the 
 personal supervision of the Governor. 
 
 The regulations were in nearly all respects similar to those 
 established for the Kirghiz in the provinces of Orenburg and 
 Turkistan. Taxes were to be levied on the Kirghiz at the 
 rate of three rubles a kibitka, but upon the Turkomans at 
 half that rate. The regulations, however, contained an expla- 
 natory clause that this kibitka tax would be imposed pro- 
 portionately to their degree of submission to the Kussian 
 protection and authority. Further taxes for the purpose of 
 native administration were also to be imposed at rates to be 
 decided upon by the inhabitants themselves, as in Turkistan. 
 
 General Lomakin was at once appointed Governor of this 
 district. The chief reason for the formation of the Trans-Caspian 
 district was probably not so much for the purpose of intro- 
 ducing order among the nomads as to give the large army 
 stationed in the Caucasus something to do. With this view 
 both the Grand Duke and General Lomakin occasionally make 
 proposals for new expeditions, which sometimes even involve 
 an increase of territory. 
 
 In 1874 a reconnaissance was made up the Attrek and a small 
 fortification established there. In 1875 propositions were made 
 for another and a much stronger reconnaissance in the same 
 direction, with the idea of establishing a strong fortified post 
 
EXPLORATION OF THE UZBOI. 379 
 
 about sixty miles from the mouth of the Attrek which would be 
 of use as a sanitarium for the troops, and would, at the same 
 time, be of service in keeping the Turkomans quiet, or ' for au j 
 ulterior movement.' 
 
 This plan, however, required a great expenditure of money, 
 and when proposed to the Emperor was forbidden. Permission 
 was given to send out the ordinary reconnaissance parties only as 
 is customary at all frontier posts during the summer months. 
 
 In accordance with this permission General Lomakin 
 started out with several companies of infantry, one sotnia of 
 Cossacks, four guns and a rocket battery — in all about 1,000 
 men— for the exploration of the Uzboi, the old bed of the Oxus, 
 as far as Sary Kamysh, which, it will be remembered, was the 
 farthest point reached by Colonel Glukhofsky from the Khivan 
 side, in the explorations during the summer of 1873. The 
 pack-camels for the expedition, 574 in number, were brought 
 to Krasnovodsk from Fort Alexandrofsky, Mangyshlak, under 
 the convoy of one company of infantry, and a sotnia of 
 Cossacks. The route followed was along the east coast of the 
 Caspian to Kinderli, and thence along the narrow neck of 
 the land separating Kara Bugaz bay from the sea. It was 
 necessary for the camels to swim over a strait of 164 yards, 
 and, in spite of the strong current, only two were lost. The 
 whole march was of more than 400 miles, and was accom- 
 plished in twenty-three days, although in one part for fifty- 
 seven miles no water was found, and the soldiers were mostly 
 young men on their first campaign. From Krasnovodsk part of 
 the troops were taken in boats over the Michailovsky Gulf 
 and part marched round by land to the rendezvous at the wells 
 at Mula Kari, which the whole expedition left on June 8, 
 reaching the Uzboi on the 11th. The Uzboi presented the 
 plainly marked bed of a vast river. The road along it was 
 constantly cut up by great sandy hills sometimes seventy feet 
 high, and it was besides frequently necessary to cross from one 
 side of the Uzboi to the other, descending and climbing the 
 steep and almost perpendicular banks. In the bed there were 
 many lakes of salt and fresh water, and many wells, in which, 
 however, the water was generally salt and bitter, or sulphurous. 
 The march through the sand was very difficult, especially from 
 the wells at Arvatu to Igdy where for forty miles there was 
 
380 TUKKISTAN. 
 
 no water. Igdy was reached on June 20, the soldiers bearing 
 the march well, having" constantly a three days' supply of water, 
 as well as pressed vegetables and extract of meat. They were 
 obliged twice a day to drink tea. On June 22, a small party 
 consisting of a topographer, a technician, and a commercial 
 agent were sent out under an escort to Bala Ishem and thence 
 to Sary Kamysh, where in accordance with a previous agreement 
 they were met by an escort from the Khan of Khiva. The main 
 body of the expedition meanwhile, remained for ten days at 
 Igdy, waiting for news, and sending out every day eastward to 
 cover the reconnaissance. This camp life was very painful 
 as the heat sometimes rose to 110° Fahr. in the shade and to 
 more than 122° in the sun, and the constant wind covered 
 the men with sand and dust, while much suffering was caused 
 by the bad water. On receiving news of the safe arrival of the 
 topographical party at Sary Kamysh the expedition started 
 back from Igdy on July 1, and on the 15th arrived at its starting 
 place, Mula Kari, with thirteen men ill in consequence of the 
 heat, two having died on the road. 
 
 The surveying party met at Tcharishli supplies of water 
 sent by the Khivan authorities, made a complete survey of 
 Sary Kamysh, and then returned by a more direct way and 
 reached Krasnovodsk even before the main detachment of 
 Lomakin. 
 
 The expedition was put to no trouble by the Turkomans ; 
 on the contrary General Lomakin several times received depu- 
 tations from them. The first party, consisting of several Tekke 
 Turkomans, came to him at Igdy, with declarations of submission 
 and proffers of service. Others joined the detachment on the 
 return journey, bringing for sale carpets, flour, and even sheep, 
 with other provisions. 
 
 The impression produced by this expedition resulted in the 
 whole steppe becoming quiet, and 500 Persian slaves freed 
 at Khiva passed safely through the Turkoman steppe on their 
 way home. 
 
 After giving his troops a short rest, General Lomakin set 
 out again for Tchikishlar, and from there pursued the recon- 
 naissance of the Attrek as far as Tchat. About 100 miles to 
 the south of Mula Kari are the great fresh lakes of Tchairdy and 
 Bugdaiby. Here were found to be great encampments of the 
 
THE ATTEEK EXPEDITION. 381 
 
 Yomuds of the Attrek and the Gfurgan, who had come there for 
 the second time that year, after having finished their harvests. 
 There were as many as 2,000 kibitkas, and it was remarkable 
 that these were belonging to two colonies formerly hostile, the 
 Jafarbai and Ak Atabai. They had been reconciled by the 
 Eussians in 1874, and since that time had agreed to camp to- 
 gether, and to organise a mounted force of 500 men to watch 
 the movements of the Tekkes. 
 
 On the Attrek also Greneral Lomakin met with many en- 
 campments of the Tcharva or nomad Yomuds of different tribes, 
 having fully 4,000 kibitkas. These, — the most savage and rudest 
 of all the Tcharva nomads acknowledging Eussian authority, 
 and the terror of the Persians at Astrabad, — were up to 1873 
 implacably hostile to the Eussians. Greneral Lomakin reported 
 that all had now changed, for not only did they show no un- 
 easiness at the presence of the Eussians, but they even met them 
 with the greatest good will. 
 
 Twenty-five miles south east of Bugdaili, the Eussians found 
 the ruined town of Mest-devran (Mestorian), which, from its 
 size and from the remains of aqueducts, must have been at one 
 time a very large and important town. Masjid, a few miles 
 further on, appears to have been an ancient necropolis, being 
 full of temples and mortuary mosques. All of this region was 
 watered by means of aqueducts brought from the Attrek, 
 which Crossed the river Sumbar in large brick pipes over two 
 large bridges. The traces of these conduits were clearly seen 
 on the banks of the Sumbar, and the direction of the aqueduct 
 was traced for nearly its whole length. A range of mounds 
 crowned with small forts, extends all the way from Tchat to 
 Mest-devran, and from there on to Kara-tepe on the Caspian, 
 south of the Gfreen Mound. These forts were in all probability 
 intended to protect the aqueducts and the tilled land from 
 incursions of nomads. 
 
 The expeditions of Colonel Stebnitzky, Colonel Markozof, 
 and Greneral Lomakin, have acquainted us somewhat with the 
 Turkomans inhabiting the steppe eastward of the Caspian. 
 The three branches to be found there are the Yomuds, the 
 Gfoklans, and the Tekkes. The Yomuds on the Caspian belong 
 to the tribe Kara-tchuka, and are divided according to their 
 kind of life — settled or nomad, — into Tchomura and Tcharva. 
 
382 TUBKISTAN. 
 
 The Tcharva Yomuds live in the valley of the lower Attrek, 
 fishing in the mouths of the rivers and planting the fertile 
 lands. Pasture is easily found along - the banks of the Grurgan 
 for their cattle. They have but few camels. The Tcharva 
 Yomuds remain between the Gurgan and the Attrek during 
 the winter months. In March they migrate to the north 
 of the Attrek, and encamp there on the right bank, or near 
 lakes Tchairdy and Bugdaily, along the Uzboi or even near 
 the Balkan mountains, extending north as far as the Grulf 
 of Kara Bugaz, and east as far as the wells of Igdy. The 
 Tchomura and Tcharva are closely connected. Sometimes 
 a father will be settled and his sons nomads ; and sometimes a 
 nomad will become settled or a settler will turn nomad. Alto- 
 gether they are estimated to number 15,500 kibitkas, or about 
 80,000 souls. East of the Yomuds live the Groklans, of whom 
 we have as yet but vague information. Nearly all that is 
 known is that their encampments extend as far as the source of 
 the Grurgan and the country of the Kurds. There are also some 
 of them on the upper Sumbar and the Tchandyr. They number 
 but 3,000 kibitkas, or about 15,000 souls. They were formerly 
 much more numerous, but many of them were taken by force 
 to Khiva, and others went there of their own accord to fight 
 the Persians at the time of the campaign of Mahmud Shah on 
 the Grurgan. Nearly all are agriculturists and some cultivate 
 silkworms. As they are not nomads they have but few camels. 
 The Tekke Turkomans occupy a long narrow oasis extending 
 from north-west to south-east between the chain of the Kuren 
 Dag and a series of sandy hills about 20 miles from the moun- 
 tains. It is said that the constant northern winds are removing 
 these hills further to the south and thus diminishing the area 
 of the oasis. This valley, which is chiefly known by the name 
 of Arkatch, is watered by numerous streams descending from 
 the Kuren Dag, and is excellent for agriculture. A series of 
 43 small forts extends the whole length of this valley from 
 Kyzyl-arvat, 45 miles south-east of Igdy, to the south-west of 
 Merv. 
 
 The Tekkes can be considered as half sedentary. Their 
 villages are large and they submit to a certain point to the 
 authority of their elders, thus constituting a society in some 
 measure organised. The result of this is that among the othei 
 
THE TEKKES. 383 
 
 tribes who are scattered and have no internal organisation, the 
 Tekkes are considered the strongest. With their excellent 
 horses they have become the terror of their Persian neighbours 
 on account of their raids or alaman which sometimes extend 
 to Mashad and even to Herat. 
 
 In 1872 Colonel Markozof and Colonel Stoletof made a re- 
 connaissance of a part of the Tekke oasis and visited some of 
 the forts, which were abandoned by the inhabitants at their 
 approach. These circumstances permitted the Russians to see 
 a Tekke aul in its ordinary state. The kibitkas were arranged 
 on the two sides of the fort. In the kibitkas were found bags of 
 lice, wheat, and sorghum, carpets, felts, and household articles. 
 In one was an apparatus for melting copper, and in others were 
 agricultural tools of primitive forms, and looms for weaving 
 carpets. Horses, cattle, pigs and fowls wandered about the 
 kibitkas. Near the forts were small gardens planted with poplars 
 and sown with cotton. Small water-mills were also established 
 near each fort. The inhabitants of the Tekke oasis, as far as the 
 fortress of Anev, called themselves Akhal to distinguish them 
 from the other Tekkes further south near Merv. The Tekkes 
 are nominally under the Khan of Khiva. Formerly they paid 
 annually one camel for each fortress, which has now been re- 
 placed by about 12 rubles a year for each canal. About seven 
 years ago the Akhal Tekkes were governed by an independent 
 Khan named Nur Verdy Khan. He enjoyed absolute authority, 
 but at last, tired of the constant quarrels of his tribe, he abdi- 
 cated and retired to Merv. Since then there has been com- 
 plete anarchy. The Akhal Tekkes are divided into two distinct 
 families, the Tokhtamish and Utamish, who are always rivals. 
 The Tokhtamish, who are three times more numerous than the 
 Utamish, usually have the upper hand, but the others have 
 always obeyed with bad grace. They all feel themselves 
 menaced on one side by Russia, on another by the Persian 
 Kurds, and on the third by the Khivan Yomuds. They felt 
 the necessity of unity, and at the end of January 1875, a council 
 was held, at which several thousands of persons were present 
 from the fortresses and tribes, and after a long debate they 
 elected Berdy Murad Khan, the son of the former Khan Nur 
 Verdy. He refused the position unless they conferred upon 
 him the right of life and death, and gave him the heads of four 
 
384 TTJRKISTAN. 
 
 brigands who had ieen guilty of many murders and robberies 
 shortly before. This was refused by the assembly, and the 
 fortresses in small groups elected separate chiefs for themselves, 
 the five nearest the Eussian frontier known as Besh Kala and 
 peopled by Tokhtamish, being placed under the rule of Son 
 Khan. 
 
 Most of these Turkomans have been brought into some 
 kind of relations with the Eussians since the formation of the 
 Trans-Caspian district. The friendly intercourse was begun 
 with the Jafarbai and Atabai Yoinuds in 1873-4, and assist- 
 ance was promised them against the Tekkes, and it was sug- 
 gested that the Eussians should undertake to obtain the release 
 from the Tekkes of 500 prisoners in the hands of the Kurds. 
 In 1874 also General Lomakin addressed letters to the Tekke 
 Khans and Aksakals advising them to be at peace with Eussia. 
 A month later an answer was received from Son Khan and two 
 others in the name of the Tekkes, declaring their readiness to 
 obey orders of the Eussian Government, and protect Eussian 
 and KM van caravans passing between Krasnovodsk and Sary 
 Kamysh. They also solicited Eussian protection against the 
 Persian Kurds and Goklans, desiring at the same time to enter 
 into communication with the Khan of Khiva and the Eussians 
 on the Amu Darya, in order to restrain the Khivans from 
 molesting them on their camping ground. 
 
 In answer General Lomakin demanded the release of the 
 artillery soldier who was a prisoner at Merv, but neither he 
 nor Colonel Ivanof has been able to obtain it, and the soldier is 
 said to be still in the hands of the Turkomans. 
 
 This beginning of friendly relations with the Turkomans did 
 not prevent a band of 500 strong of the Aral Turkomans in 
 October 1874 from falling upon and pillaging the village of 
 Dashly, 25 miles from Krasnovodsk, carrying off 150 prisoners 
 and leaving 80 killed. Letters were sent to Sofi Khan demand- 
 ing the return of the inhabitants and of the booty, but this 
 apparently has been followed by no result. 
 
 This action of the Turkomans led some of the Eussian 
 newspapers to insist upon the necessity of bringing all the 
 Turkomans under control, and for that purpose fortifying the line 
 of the Attrek, which was now acknowledged as the boundary of 
 Persia, although it was contended that the natural boundary was 
 
RUSSIA AND PERSIA. 385 
 
 the Kara-su, to the south of the Gurgan. 1 The Attrek was first 
 officially recognised by Eussia as its boundary with Persia in 
 1869. It appears that on receiving intelligence of the cam- 
 paign of Krasnovodsk in that year the Shah, on December 16, 
 asked the Kussian Minister, Eeger, to obtain assurance from the 
 Emperor that the movement at Krasnovodsk had as its only aim 
 the development of trade with Turkistan, and that it was not 
 the intention of the Eussians to mix in the affair of the Yomuds 
 living on the banks of the Gurgan and the Attrek, and tbat they 
 would not construct any fortifications on the banks of these rivers 
 or at their mouths. Beger telegraphed about this to Prince 
 Gortchakof, and received a reply saying that the Imperial Govern- 
 ment admitted the sovereignty of Persia as far as the Attrek, and 
 consequently had no intention of raising fortifications in that 
 iocality. This answer was communicated to the Shah on De- 
 cember 25, and produced such a pleasant impression that three 
 days after the Persian Government permitted the Eussian 
 merchant-steamers to go to Murdab and Enzeli equally with 
 sailing vessels, a right which Eussian diplomats had for ten 
 years vainly endeavoured to secure. 2 
 
 The newspaper article to which I have just referred seems 
 to have been written by a person acquainted with the course of 
 events, for propositions have been made to the Central Govern- 
 ment for occupation of territory beyond the Attrek, for the 
 purpose of putting down the Turkomans, and there is reason to 
 believe that the idea of the annexation of the whole Caspian 
 coast now belonging to Persia has been brought up for 
 consideration. 
 
 In spite of what happened in 1873, before the Khivan 
 expedition, the Persian Government — owing perhaps to English 
 suggestions — has strongly objected to any interference by 
 General Lomakin in the affairs of the Turkomans on the 
 southern side of the Attrek, and a sentence in one of his pro- 
 clamations to the Turkomans called out a rather sharp corre- 
 spondence. There can be little doubt that the relations with 
 the Turkomans will compel Eussia to advance as far as Merv, 
 
 1 'St. Petersburg Viedomosti,' January 14 (26), 1875. 
 
 2 Terentief, ib. p. 98. See also the despatches of Mr. Ronald Thomson in 
 the Parliamentary return of Correspondence respecting Central Asia, No. II., 187«5| 
 pp. 20, 25, 39. 
 
 VOL. II. C C 
 
386 TCJRKISTAN. 
 
 and possibly permanently to occupy that town. It is very 
 questionable, however, whether such a step would have the im- 
 portance which has been attributed to it by influential organs 
 of the English press. Merv is a half-ruined village in the 
 Tekke oasis, and as a base of operations is in no way superior 
 to the Amu Darya, except by being a short distance nearer 
 the confines of India. Even in case of war it could never be 
 more than a base of supplies. 
 
 Another consequence of the Khivan campaign has been the 
 establishment of direct, though infrequent, commercial relations 
 between the Khivan oasis and Krasnovodsk. Several caravans 
 have been sent that way, most of which arrived in safety, 
 although one was attacked and pillaged. Several of these 
 caravans have belonged to Colonel Grlukhofsky, who in 1874 
 had an idea of starting trade with Afghanistan, and sent a 
 caravan as far as Mashad. A writer in the ' Allgemeine Zeitung ' 
 of March 3, 1875, on the subject of these caravans, accused 
 the Eussian Government of having an underhand policy in 
 sending out military expeditions under thi guise of trading 
 caravans. In this, injustice has been done bo ' to the Eussian 
 Government and to Colonel Grlukhofsky. The Eussian Grovern- 
 rnent allows its officers to engage in commercial pursuits, when 
 not incompatible with their official duties. Of this St. Peters- 
 burg is filled with examples. Colonel Grlukhofsky is a young 
 and ambitious officer, who has taken a distinguished part in 
 the Central Asiatic campaigns. He has a large private fortune, 
 and is, moreover, something of an enthusiast, and believes that 
 the Khivan oasis is immensely rich, and that with proper effort 
 its trade can be developed, as well as that the Amu Darya can 
 be turned into its ancient channel in the Caspian Sea. It is 
 true that valuable political information may be obtained by 
 means of these caravans, but is not important information, 
 geographical, political, &c, always obtained by commercial 
 ventures in a new country ? 
 
CONCLUSION. 387 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 An attempt has been made in the preceding- pages to portray 
 accurately and impartially the social and economical condition 
 of the various countries of Central Asia and the present political 
 relations of those countries, as well as to show the way in which 
 those relations have been brought about. An impartial ob- 
 server will, I think, be convinced that these relations are the 
 natural consequence of many simple and unforeseen circum- 
 stances, and of accidents which possibly may not have been 
 sufficiently guarded against, and that it is unnecessary to 
 assume the theory of a settled plan of conquest, or to adopt 
 extreme views on either one side or the other. Where there 
 is a desire to find fault or always to see some hidden motive, 
 simple reasons seem insufficient or may be overlooked, and 
 there are few circumstances which are not capable of an abstruse 
 and far-fetched explanation. 1 
 
 Central Asia has no stores of wealth and no economical 
 
 1 As examples of what Machiavellian motives may be adduced to explain the 
 circumstances — however small in themselves — take the following : — Prince Gort- 
 chakof, in November 1869, in a conversation with the British Ambassador about 
 Kashgar, said that as the Russians had no diplomatic relations with Yakub Bek 
 while the Government of India appeared to have dealings with him, Mr. Forsyth 
 might assure the Atalyk Ghazi that the Russians had no hostile intentions against 
 him. This request of Prince Gortchakof has been interpreted by English 
 authorities to evince a desire on the part of the Eussian Government to conceal 
 the dealings which they actually had with Kashgar, for Mirza Shadi had come 
 on an unsuccessful mission to St. Petersburg to General Kaufmann in 1868. and 
 at the same time Captain Reinthal had been in Kashgar. Everybody knew that 
 Mirza Shadi had been in St. Petersburg, for accounts of it had appeared in the 
 newspapers and it could not be concealed, and it was also known that he had not 
 been received by the Emperor, because the Emperor would not recognise Yakub 
 Bek as a sovereign prince, but as the rebellious vassal of China. As far as con- 
 cerns Reinthal, there is not the slightest reason to suppose that Prince Gort- 
 chakof knew of his visit to Kashgar, as General Kaufmann does not send a report 
 of all his proceedings to the Foreign Office, and Reinthal besides was sent, not 
 
 c c 2 
 
388 TUEKISTAN. 
 
 resources ; neither by its agricultural nor by its mineral 
 wealth, nor by its commerce, nor by the revenue to be derived 
 from it, can it ever repay the Eussians for what it has already 
 cost, and for the rapidly increasing expenditure bestowed upon 
 it. Had Eussia known fifteen years ago as much about the 
 countries of Central Asia as she does now, there can be hardly 
 a doubt that there would have been no movement in that 
 direction. Even the steps taken in 1864 would not for a 
 moment have been allowed. 
 
 Despite the drain upon the Imperial exchequer, it is prac- 
 tically impossible for Eussia to withdraw from her position in 
 Central Asia. Notwithstanding the many faults which may be 
 found in the administration of the country, the Eussian rule 
 is on the whole beneficial to the natives, and it would be 
 manifestly unjust to them to withdraw her protection and leave 
 thern to anarchy and to the unbridled rule of fanatical despots. 
 Apart from this moral consideration, that of her prestige in 
 Central Asia would be sufficient to keep Eussia there even at a 
 still greater loss. 
 
 On the contrary, as far as one can foresee Eussia will be 
 compelled in the future to advance still further. It seems 
 now to be impossible for her to remain where she is. Kashgar, 
 Bukhara, and the Turkoman country must either be annexed 
 or they must be reduced to a position of real, and not nominal, 
 vassalage. 
 
 This accomplished, Eussia will have arrived at a true ethnical 
 and political boundary. She will have under her rule in 
 Central Asia all of the Mohammedan peoples of Turkish 
 race. On the east her neighbour will be China ; and as the 
 
 from Tashkent, but from Vierny. Even after the account of Eeinthal's journey 
 was finally published, it was believed in certain quarters in England, that this 
 was then done lest the, English mission in Kashgar should find out for themselves 
 the visit of Eeinthal, and then accuse the Eussians of duplicity. Now for an 
 example on the other side, Captain Terentief, in his book 'Eussia and England 
 in Central Asia,' compares what was said about the roads from India to Kashgar 
 by Shaw, and how easy and accessible they are in that direction, and what has 
 been said by subsequent expeditions, by which accounts are given of the difficulties 
 of the mountain passes, and draws the conclusion that at first the English tra- 
 vellers accidentally told the truth, but that since then there has been a persistent 
 effort on the part of the English authorities to blind the Eussians, by making 
 them think that a natural barrier exists between Kashgar and India, when, in 
 fact, there is an easy road ! 
 
THE ETHNICAL FRONTIER 389 
 
 Russians are not disposed to get into difficulties with that 
 empire we may expect few boundary disputes. On the south 
 the frontier will be the Oxus, separating the Russian domains 
 from Afghanistan, as agreed upon by arrangement with 
 England. Although the rulers are Afghans and of different 
 stock, yet the inhabitants of Balkh and the province south, as 
 far as the Hindu Kush, are of Turkish origin. This range 
 would therefore form the true ethnical frontier of Russia on the 
 south, and it must be remembered that mountains are always 
 better barriers and boundaries than rivers. On the west the 
 Russian frontier will join that of Persia, which is inhabited 
 by men of a different race, and, although Mussulmans, yet of a 
 sect violently hated by the inhabitants of Central Asia. If any 
 difficulty with England ever arise, it will probably be in Persia, 
 — where at present Russian influence is paramount — and not 
 elsewhere. 
 
 How Russia is to repay herself for the money she spends 
 in Central Asia it is difficult to say. The construction of a 
 railway, while it may bind the country more strongly to Russia, 
 in consequence of ease of communication and facilities for the 
 transportation of troops, can hardly develop a region which, as 
 long as it is inhabited by the races now living there, seems to 
 have reached its highest point. It is hardly probable that 
 an influx of Russian colonists with their shiftless ways will 
 improve the position of affairs. But one issue seems possible — 
 to introduce into Central Asia the patient and economical 
 industry of the Chinese, notwithstanding the physical, moral, 
 and political difficulties to be overcome. Under the Chinese 
 Kuldja was a productive and a thickly settled country ; under 
 them Kashgar — which is now worthless — was flourishing ; and 
 with their help we might reasonably look for a great increase 
 in the productiveness and the prosperity of Khokand, Bukhara, 
 and Russian Turkistan. 
 
391 
 
 APPENDICES. 
 
 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 THE RUSSIAN POLICY REGARDING CENTRAL ASIA. 
 AN HISTORICAL SKETCH. — BY PROFESSOR V. GR1GORIEF. 
 
 There was a time when orthodox Russia seemed thoroughly Tartar. 
 Everything in it, except its religion, was permeated and impreg- 
 nated with Tartardom. It was permeated and impregnated then 
 by Tartardom in the same degree, if not more so, as it is now by 
 the ideas of Western Europe ; and as European ideas, which have 
 already for a century and a half affected the higher and more in- 
 fluential classes of the Russian people, are the weaker as their 
 influence extends to the lower and poorer classes, so especially the 
 top and branches of the Russian tree were then affected by Tartar- 
 dom, but the trunk and roots less. And not only in externals — in 
 dress, manners, and habits of life — did the Russian princes and 
 boijars, the Russian officials and merchants, imitate the Tartars, but 
 everything, their feelings, their ideas, and their aspirations in the 
 region of practical life, were in the strongest way influenced by 
 Tartardom. Our ancestors received this Tartar influence during 
 two hundred years — at first from an unwilling, but afterwards from 
 an habitual conformity to the tone, the ma.nners, and the morals 
 that reigned at Sarai on the Volga, which in its time played in 
 relation to us the same role that subsequently fell to the lot of 
 Paris. Russia continued to seem Tartar even after the fall of the 
 Golden Horde. During the continuance of the whole Moscow 
 period, up to the very time of Peter the Great, the statecraft and the 
 political management of the Russian Tsars and magnates continued 
 to be in every respect Tartar ; so that without an acquaintance 
 with real Tartardom it is impossible correctly to understand and 
 estimate many phases in Russian history from the fifteenth to the 
 seventeenth century. 
 
392 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 Thanks to having identified themselves in such a way with 
 Tartardom, our ancestors succeeded in freeing themselves from the 
 Tartar yoke. They had learned the weak sides of the Horde, and 
 they succeeded in turning to their own profit whatever was really 
 sensible in Tartar statecraft. It was in consequence of their com- 
 plete acquaintance with Tartardom that the rulers of Moscow were 
 able to carry on their affairs in relation to it as skilfully as they did 
 after the fall of the Golden Horde. The Tsars and their counsellors 
 understood at that time what they wanted, what they ought to aim 
 at, what was possible and what was impossible, as well as the means 
 and methods by which all this could be best accomplished One of 
 their most skilful and fruitful political methods was their habit of 
 calling into their service those distinguished men of the Horde who 
 for some reason or other did not get on well at home. By means 
 of these immigrants, who appealed accompanied by a greater or 
 smaller number of followers, the Muscovite Grand Princes and 
 Tsars obtained first, an excellent military force, which they used 
 against their enemies as well on the east as on the west of Russia ; 
 and secondly, an excellent support against their own selfish and 
 disobediently disposed hereditary boyars. It would have been a great 
 and a dangerous political mistake to have left these incomers in their 
 Mussulman religion. Considering their importance and influence, 
 there might have been formed in time out of these unchristian 
 foreignejs-mi-el©m«n4-in_ihe_liigiiest degree injurious to theTState, " 
 _on account of their n ot^elonging 1 to the orthodox religion, which 
 fhsrrconsfn^nted and still constitutes the basis of the Russian nation. 
 Fortunately this mistake was avoided, not because it was foreseen 
 in time, but because it was impossible, considering the ideas of the 
 whole Russian world at that time and its conditions of life. If not 
 in the first, as usual, at least in the second generation the Tartar 
 immigrants into Russia became orthodox, and entering thus into 
 the flesh and blood of the Russian people, strengthened instead of 
 weakened the Empire which was then in coarse of foundation. 
 But as it was impossible to turn every useful an! valuable Tartar 
 at once into a Christian, and as the unavoidable perspective of 
 becoming Christianised in Russia might have served as a pre- 
 ventive to their permanent or temporary immigration, a clever 
 method was found of getting out of this dilemma. There was 
 founded within the boundaries of Russia a special Khanate, where 
 the useful immigrants from the Horde might remain Mussulmans 
 without injury to their true and faithful services to our political 
 interests — the Khanate, or as it was called, the Kingdom of Kasi- 
 mof, which during two hundred years successfully performed the 
 functions allotted to it. 
 
RUSSIAN POLICY IN ASIA. 393 
 
 Although during the existence of the Golden Horde the 
 boundaries of Central Asia not only reached to the Volga, but were 
 moved still further westward into Europe, still, according to the 
 present geographical nomenclature, it is impossible to call, in any 
 strict sense, Central Asiatic the policy of the Russian rulers with 
 regard to the Tartar dominions which arose beyond the Yolga on 
 the ruins of the Golden Horde. Properly speaking, we came into 
 contact with Central Asia, and wei'e able to act with regard to its 
 peoples in one way or another, only on the union with Russia of 
 the kingdoms of Kazan and Astrakhan. If, after the downfall of 
 these branches of the Golden Horde, no little time elapsed before 
 Russia began to advance into the steppes of Central Asia, it is 
 impossible to say that this was caused by the unskilfulness of the 
 Muscovite rulers. Before penetrating so far into the East, the 
 Muscovite Tsars had to attain much more important aims on 
 the western and southern confines of Russia. They had to live 
 through many troubles in its very heart, and it seemed necessary 
 in any case to bind thoroughly to them the newly-conquered Trans- 
 Yolga country by turning it from a Tchudish and Tartar land 
 into a Russian one. How well they understood the way to 
 complete such a difficult transformation, is shown in the most 
 brilliant manner by the part played by the Kazan region during the 
 ' troublous times ' for Russia, some sixty years after the conquest 
 of the north-eastern Trans-Yolga country. We did not advance 
 into Central Asia during the seventeenth century, for the very 
 reason that we were then far better acquainted with it than in the 
 following century, and because the character of its steppes and that 
 of its nomad population were thoroughly known to us. Incontro- 
 vertible proofs of this acquaintance are presented to us not only 
 by the ' Book of the Great Survey,' but by a remarkable work of 
 the Dutch writer Witsen, who obtained, and could only obtain, in 
 Russia that information about Central and Northern Asia, which 
 astonished Europe at the end of the seventeenth century. 
 
 In consideration of the impossibility and the unprofitableness of 
 schemes of aggrandisement in Central Asia in the circumstances in 
 which Russia was placed during the seventeenth century, the Mus- 
 covite rulers in relation to this part of Asia had first, to keep up that 
 prestige of Russian strength and Russian greatness, which, by the 
 conquest of Kazan and Astrakhan, they had obtained in the most 
 distant regions of the Mussulman East ; second, as far as possible 
 to prevent the nearest nomads from pillaging attacks on their 
 borders ; and third, to have a care for the commercial interests of 
 their subjects, not forgetting even another interest of ft at time — 
 which was common to us, with all the rest of Europe — the ransom [ 
 
394 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 from Mussulman hands of orthodox Christians who had fallen by 
 various fates into slavery. 
 
 ' If you want others to respect yon, first respect yourself.' The 
 Muscovite Tsars and officials were impregnated to the marrow of 
 their bones with this maxim, and therefore looked after the honour 
 and dignity of Russia in relation to foreigners with a care which 
 in later times has unfortunately been forgotten. In the sixteenth 
 and seventeenth centuries, this care constituted a characteristic 
 trait of our diplomacy. It is well known that when even in the 
 time of Vassili III. an embassy arrived in Moscow from the 
 Sultan Baber, who had just founded a most powerful and rich 
 monarchy in Afghanistan — the news of this had not yet reached 
 us — the Tsar, while receiving the ambassador politely, and agreeing 
 to the mutual freedom of trade which Baber desired, did not order 
 him to be called ' brother ' in the document, as the chronicler 
 observes, for he did not know for sure who Baber was, whether 
 an autocrat, or only a sub-officer of the Indian realm. 
 
 The Nogais, whose encampments bordered all the eastern 
 frontier of Russia, from the Caspian Sea to Siberia, were in the 
 sixteenth century very dangerous neighbours for us. JSTeverlheless 
 Ivan the Terrible did not allow Ismail, although he was our very 
 good ally, and we prized his friendship, to name himself in docu- 
 ments (as Ismail wished to do by old habit) either his father or his 
 brother, considering both designations derogatory to the dignity 
 of the Autocrat of the Russian land. In 1589, when the famou3 
 Abdullah Khan of Bukhara sent to the Tsar Feodor Ivanovitch an 
 ambassador with a letter, the letter was not received, because 
 written without the Tsar's titles ; and by command of the Tsar, the 
 boyar Godunof answered Abdullah, that all sovereigns write to his 
 Tsarish Majesty with due respect, and to him, the boyar, with love 
 and compliment. He at the same time informed the Khan that if 
 the T.-ar had not placed his ambassador under ban, it was only 
 through his intercession, together with that of the other boyars, 
 and he proposed to the Khan to smooth over the insult which had 
 been offered, promising to use all his efforts that relations might 
 not be broken off. We know how little Russia in 1620 had suc- 
 ceeded in recovering from the disorders of the ' troublous times,' and 
 yet the young Michael Feodorovitch, who sent in this year Khokhlof 
 as Ambassador to Bukhara, strictly ordered him to give no presents 
 if they should be demanded for his admission to the Khan ; and 
 if in dining with the Khan there should be ambassadors from other 
 powers (there might happen to be among them an ambassador from 
 Persia, or from the Indian realm of Baber, or from the Osmanli 
 Sultans) to demand that he, the Russian Ambassador, should be 
 
RUSSIAN POLICY IN ASIA. 395 
 
 given a place higher than the rest, and, if this should not be 
 accorded, not to dine. The first Russian Ambassador to China, the 
 boyar's son, Baikof, who was sent thither in 16-54, was not received 
 by the Emperor, as is well known, because he did not consent to 
 submit to the undignified reception and ceremonies, which, however, 
 were considered obligatory on all foreign ambassadors from what- 
 ever place they came. In our turn, when we received embassies 
 from the Central Asiatic rulers, we strictly observed in our 
 negotiations with the ambassadors the relative political weight of 
 their masters, and usually appointed for their reception officials of 
 the lower grades. In order to inspire and keep up a high idea of 
 ourselves abroad, it was not considered prejudicial even to be 
 boastful. Thus, for example, in the instructions to Novosiltsof, 
 who was sent in 1585 as ambassador from the Tsar Feodor Ivano- 
 vitch to the Emperor Rudolf, he was ordered to say with regard 
 to our Asiatic relations that ' The sovereigns living along the 
 confines of our country — the Khan of Kyzyl-bash, the Bukharan 
 Tsar, the Turkistan Tsar, the Kazak Tsar, the Urgentch Tsar, 
 and the Georgian, Izyurian, Kalmuk, Shemakha, and Shenkal 
 rulers — these now are all peaceable with the Kj^zyl-bashes and 
 with each other, according to the instructions and counsel of our 
 sovereign, and in all great matters in which friendship or enmity 
 to anyone arises, they write and report of that to our lord ; and 
 with regard to that our lord writes and orders them ; and they 
 are in eveiwthing obedient to our lord, and send frequent embassies 
 to our lord with great respect and deference.' Four years after 
 this, not much less than this was said to the ambassador of the 
 German Empire at the Moscow Court — 'that the Bukharan Abdula 
 Tsar, and the Tsar of Urgentch, and the Prince of Izyur are all 
 in the power of our lord.' It is very possible that in his turn 
 the famous Abdullah, the terrible and mighty ruler of the countries 
 along the Syr and the Amu, who was called by us the ' Bukharan 
 Abdula Tsar,' said very much the same thing to the ambassadors 
 of the Great Mogul ; that the Tsar of Moscow reported to him 
 about everything, and was in his full power. All the cases, how- 
 ever, of the boasting of which we speak, that are known to us, 
 relate exclusively to the reign of Feodor Ivanovitch, wherefore 
 perhaps, wa -nay ascribe this exaggeration not to the usual habit 
 of our diplomacy in the seventeenth century, but to the influence 
 on governmental matters of Godunof, a Tartar by extraction, and 
 consequently a diplomat in the special Tartar sense. 
 
 As regards the second problem — the repression of attacks on 
 the Russian settlements by the neighbouring nomads, we in the 
 sixteenth and seventeenth centuries knew very well that this task 
 
596 APPENDIX IY. 
 
 was impossible for a central government, and for that reason the 
 Moscow antborities did not interfere, but left the matter entirely 
 to the frontier commanders. The only exception to this rule, as 
 far as is known, was the construction for the defence of the 
 settlement on the left bank of the Kama, against the incursions 
 of the Bashkirs, Kirghiz, and Kalmuks, of a row of walls, ditches, 
 and fortifications from Biely-yar on the Volga to the river Ik 
 beyond Menzelinsk — a line of defence which received the appella- 
 tion of the ' Trans-Kama line.' As concerning the frontier com- 
 manders, they in proper cases acted with the forces of the very 
 people who had been pillaged, and paid off the nomads for the 
 devastation they had wrought by a similar destruction of their 
 settlements. Such a position of things naturally called the Cossacks 
 into existence, and they developed on the Siberian frontier as well 
 as on the Taik and the Terek. . Serving as a barrier against the 
 brigandage of the nomads, the Cossacks at the same time took the 
 offensive not only against them, but sometimes also against the 
 settled states of Central Asia, as witness the bold attempts of the 
 Cossacks of the Taik to get possession of Khiva. Thanks to the 
 Cossacks the Russian name continued to remain terrible in Central 
 Asia without any special measures to that end on the part of the 
 central government ; and the government, prizing their services 
 and deserts, had the good sense to look through its fingers at the 
 fact that these profitable arms were not always obedient and sub- 
 missive ones. 
 
 The natural productions of Russia being much demanded by 
 Asia had from of old brought Asiatic traders thither. When 
 Kazyan and Astrakhan fell, through which the Russian trade with 
 the East had been carried on, ambassadors came to Ivan the 
 Terrible from Samarkand, Bukhara, and other places, asking for a 
 'free road for guests.' The commercial relations with Central 
 Asia were profitable for Russia, and therefore ' the road for guests ' 
 was willingly opened ; but we understood even at that time that it 
 would be still more advantageous if we could provide ourselves 
 with the Asiatic wares that we needed by buying them at the place 
 of production by means of our own merchants. For that reason 
 the Moscow Tsars showed the greatest favour to those of their 
 subjects who were bold enough to penetrate into the Central Asiatic 
 markets through the hostile steppes full of marauders which 
 separated them from us. The effoi't to obtain for the Russian 
 merchants who went to Central Asia the same rights and conve- 
 niences which Central Asiatic traders had in Russia, was the chief 
 reason which in the seventeenth century called out an embassy 
 from Russia to the Central Asiatic sovereigns. The demand for 
 
RUSSIAN POLICY IN ASIA. 397 
 
 the liberation of the Russian prisoners who were in slavery there 
 was put in merely from motives of humanity, and the prisoners 
 who returned to Russia with our ambassadors were not received 
 gratis, but were ransomed with money. Another aim of the em- 
 bassies was to obtain correct information about the political con- 
 dition of the countries to which they were sent, since the intelli- 
 gence brought by the Asiatic traders could not always be depended 
 upon. 
 
 If our affairs beyond the Volga did not advance, the amour projore 
 of the government found abundant compensation in the constant 
 success with which the Russian dominion extended over the wander- 
 ing and pastoral natives of Siberia. About 1640 we had already 
 begun to take firm hold on the Amur. This movement brought 
 us into contact with the nomads of Central Asia on another side, 
 the north instead of the west, and here apparently we met with 
 great success. One after the other various little tribes of Turkish 
 and Mongol race voluntarily gave their allegiance to us, and in 
 1636 Altyn Khan, the important ruler of Urunkhai had already 
 become subject to Russia. But our late Chinese scholar, Hyacinth 
 Bitchurin, was the first of European writers to remark ' that nomads 
 consider allegiance a bargain with their conscience, in which 
 they expected to win at least four to one, and for that reason 
 when a favourable case arises they rival each other in their readi- 
 ness to declare themselves subjects, but, if they be deceived in 
 their hope of winning four to one, they are shrewd enough to repay 
 themselves by pillage, rapine, and murder.' For that reason we 
 said that our success in obtaining the submission of the nomads in 
 the southern regions of Western Siberia was only apparent; in 
 reality all declarations of submission on their part were tricks by 
 which they hoped to get from us presents and other advantages. 
 They understood this very well in Moscow, where even in 1623 
 there was an order not to allow Kalmuk and Urunkhai embassies 
 fco come there. Court vanity, however, which was pleased with the 
 appearance of such embassies and their submission, got the better, 
 and the comedy of bringing nomads to the oath of allegiance, in 
 spite of the complete admission that it was no more than a comedy, 
 continued to have constant success on the diplomatic stage during 
 the rest of the seventeenth century, as well as up to the latest 
 times. 
 
 [Notwith standing the rapid political growth of the Russian 
 Empire, we could not arrange matters with the Crimean Horde in 
 the seventeenth century, or even up till nearly the end of the 
 eighteenth. This is known to everybody. Probably very few, 
 however, know that in the seventeenth century Russia was exposed 
 
398 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 to the danger of a new invasion of Mongols and of a new struggle 
 with them. The fact is that the former strong, and afterwards 
 much weakened, union of Jungarian Mongols, known to their 
 western neighbours by the name of Kalmuks, but at home by the 
 name of Oirat, began in the commencement of the seventeenth 
 century to take new strength, and among the Jungarian rulers there 
 axose the idea of establishing the old realm of Tchinghiz in its former 
 extent and greatness. At least we see that while the head of the 
 most powerful Kalmuk tribe of Tchoros, the renowned Bator Kun- 
 taitsi, strove to weld the Oirat into a unity under his rule, the head 
 of another tribe, Gushi-Khan, immigrated with a part of his sub- 
 jects to the south-east to Khukhu-nor, and founded there an inde- 
 pendent government, obtaining afterwards supreme power even over 
 Thibet ; and Ho-Urluk, the head of the tribe Torgout, moving from 
 the Ii'tysh to the sources of the Tobol and of theEmba, crowded the 
 Kh'ghiz to the south, then conquered the Nogais, whom we consi- 
 dered our subjects, overcame the Turkomans in Mangyshlak, and 
 finally in about 1636 passed over the Yaik, went around Astrakhan, 
 and settled with his Horde on both banks of the Lower Volga like 
 a conqueror, not asking in the least the consent of the Russian 
 Government for such an immigration into Russian dominions. In 
 this way the Mongols in a very short space of time again made 
 themselves the conquerors of the countries from Siberia to India, 
 and from China to the Caucasus. The Horde had as many as 
 50,000 Idbitlicis, and could place in the field 30,000 well-armed 
 horsemen, and after it came in the same direction to the Volga 
 crowds of other Kalmuks. The Mongols of Baty invaded Russia 
 with probably no greater number of soldiers, and if the situation of 
 Russia at this time was not the same as it was in the thirteenth 
 century, for there was a unified autocracy ruling, it was still in the 
 highest degree difficult. The wounds of ' the troublous times ' had 
 hardly been healed ; the population was exhausted physically and 
 economically ; the Imperial treasury was empty ; the submission of 
 the Cossacks was not to be trusted to ; the military endurance of 
 the streltsi and other soldiery was doubtful, and aUhough peace had 
 been concluded with Sweden and Poland, still if a trouble had arisen 
 for Russia on the East, the Swedes and Poles would have again 
 broken out. What aided us was that the Kalmuks and their leaders 
 had neither the skill nor the discipline of the army of Tchinghiz 
 Khan. They therefore contented themselves with the acquisitions 
 they had made, and, settling on the Volga, limited themselves to 
 pillage of the neighbourhood and to excursions to Astrakhan, where 
 in a contest with its defenders Ho-Urluk was killed, according to one 
 report in 1643. There were no means of expelling the Kalmuks 
 
RUSSIAN POLICY IN ASIA. 399 
 
 from the territory they had occupied. It only remained, therefore, 
 to admit the accomplished fact, and try to cover the blot on our 
 honour by turning the uninvited guests into subjects, if only in name, 
 which, from the readiness of nomads for this bargain, was easily 
 arranged. In 1655 the Ambassadors of Shukur Daitchin, the son and 
 successor of Ho-Urluk, swore the eternal allegiance of the Kalmuk 
 people to the Tsar Alexis. How little real meaning this allegiance 
 had is evident from the fact that Shukur Daitchin and his successor 
 several times after that entered into new treaties with the Russian 
 government, did not pay them a kopek, but on the contrary received 
 tribute from them in the gu ; se of constant salary ; continued to 
 consider themselves as before as members of the Oirat league ; 
 were in constant relations with Jungaria, Thibet, and even China ; 
 entered on the government of their people without the Tsar's con- 
 firmation ; received new immigrants from Jungaria ; and sent back 
 there whole thousands of people without the knowledge or consent 
 of Moscow. In the year 1712 the Khan Ayuka, already with the 
 knowledge and consent of our government, received an ambassador 
 from the Chinese emperor, while the Russian Tsars themselves had 
 not been honoured by a single Chinese embassy in their capital. 
 In a word, living in the Russian dominions, the Kalmuk Khans 
 acted not as subjects but as allies of Russia ; and the Kalmuks 
 really were our allies, as were other native tribes within the domains 
 of the Empire up to about 1780, the time of the conquest of the 
 Crimean Khanate. 
 
 At the end of the Moscow period we came into contact with 
 China. We were brought into this contact by the successes of the 
 Siberian Cossacks on the Amur, which disquieted the Chinese 
 government. We had for a long time desired to trade with China 
 through Mongolia. For the establishment of regular commei'cial 
 relations with this great Empire our first embassy had been sent to 
 Pekin in the year 1654 by the Tsar Alexis. This was followed by 
 other not more successful embassies. Our successes on the Amur 
 ended, as is well known, in our yielding to the Chinese without the 
 slightest need, by the Rertchinsk treaty of 1669, the left bank of the 
 Amur, which had never belonged to them ; and in this way we shut 
 up for ourselves for more than a century and a half our most con- 
 venient way to the Pacific Ocean. It would have been well enough 
 if we had been compelled to such a disadvantageous cession by the 
 consideration of the great weakness of our defensive and offensive 
 forces in Siberia, and by the danger of coming into armed conflict 
 with the Mantchus, who had just conquered China, and, governed 
 by the wisest politician of his time — the Emperor Kansi — were 
 still in the full lust of conquest ; although a danger of this kind 
 
400 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 could have been hardly well founded in view of the comparatively 
 enormous efforts which it cost the Mantchus to subdue the insigni- 
 ficant fort of Albazin. The cause, however, of the conclusion of 
 the Nertchinsk treaty must be considered to be our desire imme- 
 diately to carry on a trade with China, just as if we could not live 
 without this trade, and as if it had not been more advantageous 
 and desirable to the Chinese than to us. The question why our 
 affairs with the Chinese were so unsuccessfully carried on we gene- 
 rally like to explain by the interference of the Jesuits. It is much 
 simpler to explain it by the general truth that knowledge is stronger 
 than ignorance, and that we in Moscow and St. Petersburg never 
 knew the weak sides of China, and were unable to prize those ad- 
 vantages which we have more than once had in relation to this 
 power, in consequence of the positions of its affairs in Mongolia and 
 Jungaria, and were therefore not in a condition to profit by them. 
 The wily Chinese saw with whom they had to do, were obstinate, and 
 obtained what they wanted. 
 
 That man alone can despise his people who recognises no worth 
 in himself. If Peter the Great really succeeded in doing much 
 that was great, it was because he believed in the Russian people, 
 and measured their strength by the marrow of his own soul. This 
 our reformer showed even in his designs with regard fco Central 
 Asia. He had no aspiration to conquer it, but was attracted by 
 other ideas ; first, to give to Russian trade a way through the 
 steppe to the treasures of India, which he knew had given wealth 
 to his friends the Dutch, and to other western European nations who 
 had got there by sea; second, to bring into Russia the gold which, 
 as report had told him, was to be found in masses in a river near the 
 city of Irket (Yarkand) — a second Asiatic El Dorado — a country of 
 which they said that it lay in the possessions of the Kalmuk prince, 
 somewhere on the south of Siberia and on the east of Bukhara. 
 Notwithstanding such indefinite knowledge of the position of Irket 
 and of the road from Bukhara to India, Peter decided on making a 
 road thither for his subjects by military force, without, however, 
 conquering the countries through which the proposed road should 
 go. This was the combination of a genius ; and due justice has not 
 yet been given to it by the biographers of the great Emperor, because 
 they, being unacquainted with the history of the East, have never 
 been in a position rightly to estimate its value. The realization of 
 this combination was founded on a deep understanding of the 
 political condition of the countries of Central Asia at that time, 
 which, we are forced to say, Peter was the first and the last of our 
 statesmen of the eighteenth century to possess. By means of an 
 embassy from Khiva, which had appeared in Moscow at the very 
 
RUSSIAN POLICY IN ASIA. 401 
 
 beginning of the century (1703), with a proposal from the Khan tc 
 swear allegiance to Russia, and from other sources, Peter knew 
 that the Khivan and Bukharan Khans were so little the actual 
 rulers of their subjects, and were ' so much oppressed by them,' 
 according to the just expression of Peter himself, that in order to put 
 them down they would willingly accept any foreign aid. On these 
 data he decided to send to Khiva and Bukhara a military force of 
 considerable strength (5,000 men). A part of this force was to 
 be left with the Khivan and Bukharan Khans as a guard, which 
 would guarantee to them the obedience of their subjects, and at the 
 same time their personal dependence on Russia, while with the rest 
 measures were to be taken to open a road to India and Irket, and 
 to send thither a Russian commercial caravan. 
 
 In the condition of affairs in Central Asia at that time this 
 project was in no way subject to risk, and would have been crowned 
 with full success, if the Emperor had not spoiled the whole affair by 
 confiding it to Prince Bekovitch-Tcherkasski. Peter then naturally 
 thought, as many do now, that in dealing with cunning Asiatics it 
 was best to use an equally cunning but perfectly devoted ' Eastern 
 man.' This was a great mistake. To succeed in dealings with 
 Asiatics it is necessary to lay aside all cunning. Had the Emperor 
 entrusted the undertaking to some capable and decisive Russian 
 like Kotlyarefsky or Tchernaief it would have been splendidly 
 carried out. Tcherkasski, with his Asiatic cunning, was entrapped, 
 and, as is well known, ruined both himself and his army without 
 the slightest profit. The other expedition, too, from Tobolsk to 
 Irket, under the command of Captain Buchholtz, did not attain 
 its purpose, because the purpose was unattainable, but it Jed at 
 least to the firm establishment of the Russians on the Irtysh. It is 
 remarkable that with the peculiar sagacity and grandeur of his 
 ideas, Peter was able also to see the value of the idea of turning 
 the Amu- Darya into its old bed to the Caspian. The idea was not 
 carried out by him on account of the ruin of Tcherkasski, and still 
 remains only a project. With regard to China Peter followed 
 the near-sighted policy of the old Moscow Court ; but we may 
 suppose that if he had lived longer he would have clearly seen the 
 state of affairs there ; for at the end of his reign, in 1722, he sent 
 Captain Unkofsky as ambassador to the Kalmuk sovereign, 
 Tsevan-Rabdan, in order to learn exactly the condition of Jungaria. 
 It is evident that the importance of this subject to Russian 
 interests had begun to be plain to his all-embracing mind. 
 
 Under the successors of Peter the Great the prominent men 
 of Russia were imbued with 3uch a deep contempt for their whole 
 VOL. II. D D 
 
402 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 past, and strove with such zeal to accept without choosing every- 
 thing that came from "Western Europe, that in a very short time 
 they entirely forgot everything which they before knew, and among 
 the rest lost all that knowledge and understanding of Asia which 
 Muscovite Russia had possessed. Through their ignorance of 
 everything that touched Asia, and especially Central Asia, they 
 fully reached their aim — they made themselves real Europeans who 
 had. never had any idea of a nomad life or of the condition of the 
 Steppes. Independently of that, a great number of foreigners from, 
 the West had entered the Russian service, and these immigrants 
 were used without distinction not only for European and internal 
 affairs but also for Asiatic matters. It is natural that under such- 
 conditions our policy with regard to Central Asia during the 
 eighteenth century must have been far inferior to the policy not 
 only of the sixteenth, but even of the seventeenth century, with no 
 slight loss both to the interests of the Russian people and to the 
 honour of their government. 
 
 Peter, I have just remarked, began to look into Jungarian 
 affairs, from a true understanding of what enormous advantages 
 might have been gained for us in regard to China. Had we been 
 able to manoeuvre skilfully during the struggle between the Man- 
 tchus and the Kalmuks, we might have forced the Court of Pet in 
 to very great concessions in favour of our trade, and to the fulfil- 
 ment of all our wishes (such as the establishment of a Russian 
 Consulate at Pekin). We could even have penetrated, according 
 to Peter's idea, to Irket itself. Unfortunately, the significance of 
 Jungarian affairs for our interests was, it seems, lost from sight at 
 the death of the great Emperor, and we, in our negotiations with the 
 Chinese, did not show ourselves in the part of threatening creditors, 
 but in that of submissive debtors — a proceeding which nowhere 
 and never has led to success. Instead of supporting the Kalmuks 
 as far as was conformable to our national advantage, we with great 
 equanimity allowed the Mantchus to overwhelm this neighbouring 
 people, and our deference to the conqueror of Jungaria, the arrogant 
 Kien-long, was carried to such a degree that when the last warrior 
 for the independence of his country, the indefatigable Amursana, 
 was compelled to conceal himself in the limits of Siberia, and died 
 there of the small-pox, the Siberian authorities, in order to assure 
 the Court of Pekin of the reality of his death, twice carried the 
 body of the unfortunate ruler to the boundaries .of China. Once 
 having allowed the fall of Jungaria we could not, even if we wished, 
 obtain anything from China, and nolens volens we wore compelled 
 in our relations with the Chinese to yield to all their whims. The 
 Dutch suffered still more in Nagasaki from the arrogance of the 
 
RUSSIAN POLICY IN ASIA. 403 
 
 Japanese, but they at least got some advantage from it. Our trade 
 "with the Chinese, while placing our national character in a shameful 
 light, was at the same time disadvantageous from an economical point 
 of view. Russian wares were almost constantly sold to the Chinese 
 at prices which did not pay for their production, and for Chinese goods 
 the Russian consumers were obliged to pay three times their value. 
 The causes of this were, as is well known, the absence among the 
 Russian traders with China of any feeling of common interest, while 
 the Chinese merchants, on the contrary, were distinguished by the 
 close relations which bound tbem together, and a common method 
 of action. Let us admit that the removal of these causes lay outside 
 of the power of our government, but in that case, why were all its 
 efforts to keep up a trade which, by bringing loss to the Govern- 
 ment and ruining the credit of the Russian name in Asia, served 
 only for the reprehensible gain of a very small number of large and 
 petty traders devoid of all feeling of patriotism ? Let us remark 
 also, that from ignorance of how to carry on our affairs we our- 
 selves gave up the right which was accorded to us by the treaty of 
 JNertchinsk and confirmed by that of Barinsk (1727), to send com- 
 mercial caravans to Pekin, and we ourselves lessened our trade with 
 China by confining it to the frontier town of Kiakhta. One privilege 
 remained to us which no other European government had — that of 
 constantly keeping in Pekin a Russian religious mission ; but this 
 mission, the only object of whose existence was to keep up ortho- 
 doxy among the descendants of the captive defenders of Albazin, 
 who had already become Chinese, was, through its composition, and 
 through the character of its members, unfit to cope with the learned 
 and crafty Jesuits, and never had, and never could have, any 
 influence on our commercial or other relations with China. 
 
 Our affairs on the trans- Volga boundary of Russia were carried 
 on in the eighteenth century no better than on the southern Siberian 
 frontier. The rule of the Empress Anne was remarkable, as we 
 read in the school-books of Russian history, for the voluntary sub- 
 mission of the numerous Horde of Kirghiz who had formerly been 
 hostile to us. This happened in 1734 In St. Petersburg there 
 was a great rejoicing at this event, and it was recalled to mind that 
 Peter the Great limself had been of the opinion, as it was said, that 
 ' this Horde, though a nomad and light-thinking people, was yet 
 the key and the gate of all the lands and countries of Asia,' for, 
 according to European ideas, people supposed that because they 
 had received the allegiance of one of the Kirghiz Khans they had 
 gained possession of this key, had entered into and had passed 
 through the wished-for gates beyond which the treasures of India 
 
 d d 2 
 
404 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 were open to us. In consequence of this we already set about 
 establishing a flotilla on the Aral Sea, and sent caravans to Tash- 
 kent, Bukhara, and further. Affairs, however, did not turn out 
 quite as was expected. A spectacle of another kind was shown to 
 us, which before that had hardly been seen in history. In order to 
 defend ourselves from our new subjects we were compelled to shut 
 ourselves in by a line of fortresses with large garrisons, while up to 
 this time the boundary had been entirely open. This happened 
 because our rulers had forgotten the axiom we have mentioned, 
 that ' swearing allegiance is regarded by nomads as a bargain which 
 binds to nothing, but in which they expect to gain four to one, and 
 that for a mistake in their calculations they revenge themselves by 
 pillage and incursions.' "We took words for facts, and of course we 
 were obliged to experience the consequences of such short-sighted- 
 ness. Our new subjects showed themselves to be most evilly-dis- 
 posed enemies, so that during nearly a whole century all the efforts 
 of the government to reduce them to obedience — efforts which 
 cost no little money — seemed utterly fruitless. From beyond our 
 lines on the Yaik (Ural) and the Irtysh during all this period we did 
 not move one step further into the Kirghiz Steppes, and we consi- 
 dered it a great good fortune if their inhabitants did not break 
 through these lines, ravage our villages, and carry off the people 
 into slavery. The task of taming nomads strong in numbers, de- 
 fended by the vastness and the barrenness of their steppes, cunning, 
 eager for booty, and passionately fond of their wild liberty, was of 
 course no light undertaking, but still it was possible, for it has at 
 last been accomplished. So that if we fruitlessly wasted nearly a 
 hundred years in performing this task, it is evident that we did not 
 know how to set about it. In very truth the history of our efforts 
 to turn the Kirghiz from nominal into real subjects is in the highest 
 degree comic from the impracticable character of the measures used 
 and their want of correspondence with the aim — an impractic- 
 ableness and a want of correspondence which came from the most 
 complete ignorance on the part of those who managed this matter, 
 not only of the passions of the nomads and the springs which set 
 them in action, but even of their language, their religion, their 
 ideas, and their manners. It was natural that under such conditions 
 almost every step of ours was a mistake. 
 
 How great were these mistakes may be judged from the few 
 following examples. We imagined that the Kirghiz were the same 
 ethnographically as our Volga Tartars, and therefore for one hundred 
 and twenty years we carried on all our correspondence with them in 
 the Tartar language in the full assurance that we were communicating 
 with them in their native tongue which they fully understood, while, 
 
RUSSIAN POLICY IN ASIA. 405 
 
 in fact, it was exactly the same as writing to Spaniards in Italian, or 
 to Italians in Spanish, or to Poles in Serbian. Still worse results 
 followed ; another misunderstanding of ours was, that the Kirghiz 
 were Mohammedans, whereas in the last century they were almost all 
 Shamanists, and a large number of them remain so to this time. At 
 the epoch of their nominal union with Russia only a very few of the 
 Khans and Sultans had a confused idea of the dogmas of Islam and 
 performed some few of its rites. Not a single mosque then existed 
 in the Kirghiz Steppes, not a single mullah performed there the rites 
 of the Mussulman religion, and if since that time the Kirghiz have 
 really become Mussulman to a considerable degree, it is only owing 
 to our taking them for Mussulmans and to our treating them as 
 such. An incontrovertible proof that the Mussulman propaganda 
 in one or another form went into the Kirghiz Steppes from the side 
 of Russia is the circumstance that especially those Kirghiz who live 
 along our lines have become Mussulman, while the old genuine 
 Shamanism is kept up, even at the present time, among those Kirghiz 
 particularly who wander in the neighbourhood of Khiva, Bukhara, 
 and what was formerly Khokand, that is, in really Mussulman coun- 
 tries. From a purely political point of view our greatest mistake 
 was our considering the Kirghiz Khans as European rulers, and the 
 Sultans as a kind of feudal aristocracy, in consequence of which we 
 supposed that if the Khans and Sultans were on our side the people 
 would be obedient to us, and for that reason we courted the Khans 
 and Sultans, treated them well, gave them presents, and had to do 
 only with them. Meanwhile nowhere in the world had the heads 
 of the nation and the aristocracy by birth so little meaning, so little 
 real strength, as the Kirghiz Khans and Sultans. If any one of 
 them attained to any influence, so as to be able to draw a crowd 
 after him, he reached this not because of his ' white bone,' but on 
 account of his personal worth, and personal qualities have gained 
 exactly the same influence for simple Kirghiz of the ' black bone.' 
 
 The most decisive of the efforts to change the relations between 
 the Kirghiz and Russia which had existed, from the time of their 
 being received into allegiance, were made in the reign of the Em- 
 press Catherine II. Her intentions were good, but they were not 
 carried out, not only because the great Empress sti'ove for what 
 at that time and under those circumstances was impossible, but also 
 because the measures which were takeu for carrying them out were 
 marked by an idyllic Europeanism and at the same time by the 
 greatest bureaucracy. According to the ideas which prevailed for 
 gome time in St. Petersburg, the Kirghiz were simple-minded, 
 rude shepherds, who did not eat bread because they did not know 
 the taste of it, who did not till the fields because they did not know 
 
406 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 how to set about it, 1 who allowed their cattle to perish in the storm? 
 because they did not know of the existence of sheds, who froze 
 themselves in winter in their felt tents because they were unac- 
 quainted with the carpenter's art, and if they were sometimes 
 given over to robbery it was only because they were forced into it 
 by the injustice and oppression of all sorts which they endured 
 from our Cossacks and in general from the Russian population on 
 the Ural and Irtjsh lines. In accordance with such notions orders 
 were given to teach the Kirghiz the use of bread, to give them 
 lessons in hay-cutting, to construct sheds in which they could 
 winter their cattle, and houses where they could themselves live. 
 It was forbidden to send out military expeditions into the steppe 
 to punish marauders. Large sums were given for the construction 
 of mosques, with schools and caravansarais attached ; the Kirghiz 
 scholars were to receive every day some money for their nourish- 
 ment, and the fathers were to be induced to send their children to 
 school by presents, certificates of good conduct, etc. It was finally 
 decided to extend to the Kirghiz the action of the ' Institution for 
 the Government of the Provinces,' and to prepare them for this by 
 the foundation in Orenburg of a ' Boundary Court,' where Kirghiz 
 would sit together with Russians, and in the Steppe of ' Judicial 
 Tribunals ' subordinate to this Court, composed only of Kirghiz 
 (illiterate) with clerks taken from the mullahs (Tartars), whose 
 duty it was to look after all the arrangements for carrying on justice 
 as contemplated in the ' Institution ior the Provinces.' They were 
 to annotate all the papers which were presented, to write them out in 
 thejournals, to set forth extracts, to make protocols and registers, to 
 write the hours of meeting, to put down the questions, and to compose 
 reports, communications, orders, etc., etc., all in forms given by the 
 Russian authorities. The persons chosen for such and other duties 
 were obliged to take oath, and were confirmed in their positions by the 
 Empress with a considerable salary in money and grain. The greater 
 part of the proposed measures were put into execution, but as might 
 be expected the Kirghiz could neither understand nor estimate rightly 
 such anxious care in their behalf. They did not desire either to 
 settle in the huts constructed for them, to learn in the schools 
 
 1 Similar ideas seemed to have obtained even id the present century. When 
 the Bashkirs were being converted frrm a nomad to a settled life, it was 
 found necessary to instruct them how to till their fields. Many ploughs were 
 therefore sent out from Moscow, and as they arrived in the beginning of winter, 
 it was thought that no easier method of instruction could be employed than by 
 compelling them to plough the snow which covered the steppes. The Bashkirs 
 became expert in the use of this agricultural implement, but somehow or other 
 they could uever understand the object of their labours! 
 
RUSSIAN POLICY IN ASIA. 407 
 
 founded for them, to pray in the mosques huilt for them, or to judge 
 or be judged in the tribunals established for them (the members of 
 the last, however, went regularly to Orenburg to receive their pay) ; 
 and they continued as before to quarrel among themselves, and to 
 make pillaging excursions against their neighbours. It became 
 necessary at last to give up the pleasing hope of introducing order 
 into the steppes by means of such a panacea as the ' Institution for 
 the Provinces,' to abandon all attempts to civilize a half-savage people 
 by petting and playing with them, and not only to change the 
 measures which forbade sending an armed force to punish marauders, 
 but even to take stronger measures of just retribution by seizing 
 the relatives or even the neighbours of the guilty parties. 
 
 But among the measures which were impracticable, either 
 through their idyllic or their bureauci'atic character, there was one 
 which was perfectly just, and completely answered the aim of 
 bringing all the order then possible among the Kirghiz. This was 
 the removal of the great obstacle to it, which existed, as the 
 government at last understood, in the power of the Khan over the 
 Kirghiz, which, in consequence of their national character, did not 
 in the slightest degree keep them down, but through personal am- 
 bition constantly excited the passions of the people and caused dis- 
 order. In 1786 the Khan of the Lesser Kirghiz Horde, Nurali, was 
 driven out by his people, after a reign of thirty- seven years, injurious 
 both to Russia and his subjects, and died at Ufa. Our government^ 
 profiting by this circumstance, thought it advantageous not to name 
 his successor. Unfortunately this decision was soon changed. In 
 1791 Irali, the son of Nurali, was raised by the Empress to the 
 rank of Khan, and there was again for very many years the same 
 disagreeable confusion, as prejudicial to us as it was to the Kirghiz 
 themselves. 
 
 The disobedience and the marauding of the Kirghiz made us 
 angry so much the more that they prevented our trade with the 
 settled countries of Central Asia. The development of this trade and 
 its extension to India were the constant dreams of the statesmen of 
 Russia of that time who paid any attention to Asia. It was espe- 
 cially with the hope of reaching these aims that we were rejoiced, 
 as we have seen, at the submission of the Kirghiz. Their Khans 
 constantly promised to convey commercial caravans to Central Asia, 
 and from thence to Russia in perfect security, but their subjects as 
 constantly took from these caravans a heavy contribution, or com- 
 pletely pillaged them. Under such circums lances our commercial 
 relations with Central Asia could not flourish, and frequently were 
 entirely stopped for a very long time. Besides this they were 
 carried on from the Orenburg line almost exclusively with Bukhara 
 
408 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 and Khiva. In order to keep up and strengthen these relations 
 we coquetted even with Mahomniedauism. It is well known thai 
 one of the best colleges in Bukhara was constructed at the instiga- 
 tion of the Empress Catherine, who gave 40,000 rubles for it, 1 and 
 it was more than once proposed to establish a city at the month of 
 the Syr-Darya, and to populate it at first, in consequence of the dis- 
 agreeableness of the locality, with criminals condemned to exile, but 
 this idea never passed from paper into reality. With Khiva we 
 could still carry on trade from Astrakhan by way of the Caspian 
 Sea and the Turkoman Steppe, but the ' Caspian Turkomans, 
 although certain of their ' elders ' had sworn allegiance to Russia even 
 in the time of Peter the Great, did not fall behind the Kirghiz in 
 their marauding disposition, and even the Khivans, remembering 
 the destruction of Bekovitch, and constantly fearing revenge for 
 their breach of faith at that time, avoided coming into close rela- 
 tions with ns on that side where they thought they were the least, 
 protected from the Russian arms. Judging from their own feelings 
 and ideas they could never understand that people in Russia might 
 forget about the fate of some thousands of their compatriots who 
 had been tortured to death or had lingered on in slavery. "We, 
 oppressed with other and more important cares, had not the slightest 
 thought of the revenge which the Khivans feared, and were ready 
 to hold out a friendly hand at any time. When the Khivan Inak 
 (the ruler of the Khanate) became blind, and decided in 1792 to 
 ask the Russian government to send him an oculist, his request was 
 at once granted. In Asia such humanity cannot be prized at its 
 worth. Our indulgence and long-suffering were considered nothing 
 but weakness : and these, together with the want of capacity which 
 we showed in arranging matters with the Kirghiz, over which 
 Asiatics could not but laugh, and the superfluous politeness which 
 was shown to the embassies of their insignificant rulers, greatly, if 
 not entirely, destroyed the respect which from the time of Ivan the 
 Terrible had surrounded the Russian name in the neighbouring 
 East. They got accustomed to consider us as people who did not 
 understand anything, who could be easily deceived, and who allowed 
 themselves to be insulted with impunity, and it must be admitted 
 we deservedly had such an unenviable reputation. At the end of 
 the reign of Catharine the unsatisfactory character of our know- 
 ledge of Asia, and the ineffectual nature of our policy were appa- 
 rently acknowledged by the government itself; at least we see that 
 in order to acquaint ourselves with the countries in the basin of the 
 Amu and the Syr, Russian officials were sent there in 1792 from 
 
 1 See p. 93. 
 
RUSSIAN POLICY IN ASIA. 409 
 
 Siberia (Burnashof and Pospielof) who gave to us very curious 
 information for that time about the Bukharan and Tashkent pos- 
 sessions. 
 
 Still less important was the trade which was carried on with 
 the settled population of Central Asia from Semipalatinsk and 
 Petropavlovsk on the Irtysh line, where merchants sometimes 
 arrived from Tashkent, Khokand, and the cities of Eastern Turki- 
 stan ; but it is necessary to mention that with the Kirghiz them- 
 selves a barter traffic arose on the lines which had been newly 
 established against them, a trade very important in its amount and 
 very profitable for us. This advantage was the only one which 
 their nominal allegiance brought us. 
 
 At the same time with the Kirghiz another nation had sent a 
 deputation to the Empress Anne, asking to be taken into allegiance 
 — which was of course done — the Karakalpaks, half settled, half 
 nomad people living at that time along the rivers Sjr and Kuvan. 
 After that, however, as neither people was necessary to the other, 
 we entirely forgot about them and they about us. Let us notice 
 also that in the year 1740 the Khivan Khanate was acknowledged 
 as being in subjection to Russia even by the famous Nadir Shah of 
 Persia, for the reason that our subject Abul Khair, Khan of the 
 Kirghiz, had been chosen Khan in Khiva, and had reigned there 
 for some days. 
 
 To the eighteenth century must be referred also our first 
 attempts to begin relations with Japan, which from 1637, as is well 
 known, had refused all intercourse with Christian nations except 
 only the Dutch, who had declared themselves not to be Christians. 
 The cause of this was the shipwreck of some Japanese about 
 1780 on the coast of Siberia. These efforts came to no result, 
 except that the shipwrecked Japanese were obliged to teach their 
 native language in the public schools at Irkutsk in order to form 
 Russian interpreters to carry on our relations with Japan. Japanese 
 was in this way the first of the Eastern languages which was offi- 
 cially taught in Russia. 
 
 A new attempt to establish relations with Japan was the first act of 
 our Central Asiatic policy in the nineteenth century. It began in 
 consequence of the first voyage of Russian ships around the world, 
 on which they set out in 1803, but instead of the expected profit it 
 brought us harm, for, on account of the prejudicial conduct of our 
 ambassador, it ended in the just hostility of the Japanese towards 
 us. Attempts at closer relations with Khiva and Bukhara were 
 repeated by despatching embassies to these countries in 1819-20, 
 but their only fruit was the enrichment of Russian and European 
 literature by the excellent books of Muravief, Meyendorf, and Evers- 
 
410 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 maim. In order to keep up the trade with Bukhara, which suffered 
 from the Kirghiz marauders as well as from the Khivan robber. 
 bands, we conceived the idea of sending caravans thither under a 
 military convoy. The first attempt at such an armed caravan was 
 made in 1824, but was very nnfortunate notwithstanding the 
 convoy, the outfit of which cost the government 230,000 rubles in 
 assignats. The caravan was robbed, and an attempt of this kind 
 was not repeated. The missions of Putimtsef to Jungaria in 1811, 
 and of Nazarof in 1814 to Khokand, for obtaining information, were 
 fruitless. Our relations to China were distinguished by Chinese 
 immobility. In this way during the first quarter of the nineteenth 
 century our policy with regard to Central Asia was in aims, 
 methods, and results as unsuccessful and as unworthy of Russia as 
 it was in the eighteenth century. We had no aims of aggrandise- 
 ment ; there were no efforts at subjection or conquest ; all our care 
 was limited to the modest object of obtaining equality in commer- 
 cial relations with the petty settled countries of Uzbekistan ; but 
 even this, notwithstanding all our exertions, we were in no wise 
 able to obtain. The Bukharan, Khivan, Tashkent, and Khokandian 
 traders went about through the whole broad extent of Russia, as if 
 at home, in perfect safety ; bought Russian wares from the manu- 
 facturers at the place of production ; and for their own goods which 
 they had imported they were able, in the absence of competition, to 
 fix most advantageous prices. Russian traders, on the contrary, in 
 consequence of the vexation, oppression, and even danger to life to 
 which they were exposed, as being Christians, in Bukhara and the 
 other countries of Central Asia, were compelled entirely to give up 
 their journeys thither, and if they sent caravans into those coun- 
 tries, it was only with the aid of Tartar clerks, on whose honesty 
 they could not always depend. Even these agents, on account of 
 their Russian citizenship, were obliged to pay double custom duties 
 for their goods, were not allowed in any other places of the Khanate 
 except the capitals or those towns which lay on their route, and 
 were therefore obliged to make their purchases from the merchants 
 of the capital at second or third hand. We do not even speak 
 of the obligatory presents to the Khans, to the high officials, and 
 even to the lesser ones. It frequently happened that all their 
 goods were taken from them by the Khan at low and arbitrarily 
 fixed prices. What government in the world could remain indif- 
 ferent to such a state of affairs, to such unequal rights to the detri- 
 ment of their subjects ? The removal of this inequality was, as has" 
 been said, the chief object of all our diplomatic relations with the 
 Central Asiatic rulers, but it was wrong for us to negotiate with 
 them as with equals. We ought to have merely given orders, so 
 
RUSSIAN POLICY I.ST ASIA. 411 
 
 ranch the more because we had the power of compelling them to 
 the fulfilment of our demands without recourse to military force. 
 The Central Asiatics knew of this possibility, and nevertheless 
 made no concessions to us, but were even very haughty. Why ? 
 Because from long experience they knew that our authorities did 
 not take advantage of this possibility, not knowing of its existence, 
 just as they did not know of many other modes of action which 
 could be used on a closer acquaintance with the past and present of 
 Eastern countries and nations. As a specimen of how slight was 
 our acquaintance with them, we may state that even about 1850 
 the Siberian administration asked that of Orenburg to explain the 
 meaning of the word baranta, although this term had been used in 
 official papers almost every day from the time that the Kirghiz had 
 been received into allegiance ; that is, for a hundred and twenty 
 years they had talked about what they did not clearly understand. 
 
 The reign of Alexander I. did not pass entirely without profit, 
 at least with regard to the actual introduction of Russian power 
 and the benefits of civil order into the Kirghiz steppes. In 1810 
 we moved further into the Ural steppes, cutting off from them on 
 the Orenburg line a district with very rich salt mines, known by 
 the name of the Iletsk district, and colonising it with Russians. 
 Afterwards, having been convinced by a long and dear experience 
 of the inutility to the Kirghiz and the injury to us of the rule of 
 the Khaus, we finally abolished the title of Khan, first in the 
 Siberian, and then in the Orenburg steppes. The government of the 
 people in both places was confided to Kirghiz chosen by the Russian 
 government, with the participation, or under the surveillance only, 
 of our officials. In consequence of this, in the parts of the Kirghiz 
 steppes nearest to the Irtysh, Russian Kazak villages appeared as 
 centres of the administrative districts as early as 1824. About the 
 same time the topographical survey of the Kirghiz steppes was 
 undertaken — a measure which apparently had nothing in common 
 with politics or the Kirghiz administration, but which was impor- 
 tant to both. 
 
 During the reign of the Emperor Nicholas I. measures for 
 strengthening the union of the Kirghiz steppes with Russia brought 
 a great part of its inhabitants into almost perfect submission. In 
 1834 a fort was built on the north-eastern coast of the Caspian Sea 
 with the aim of preventing the marauding incursions of the Adai 
 Kirghiz, and in the following year a new military line was esta- 
 blished between the river Ural and Ui, and all the region which 
 was in this way cut off from the trans-Ural steppes was united to 
 the territory of the Orenburg Cossack army. On the side of Siberia, 
 in the trans- Irtysh steppes, there continued to be formed districts 
 
412 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 ■with. Russian colonies in their centres. Seeing the end of their 
 disorderly independence, that part of the Siberian Kirghiz which 
 was not willing to snbmit to this rebelled nnder the banner of the 
 Sultan Kenisar Kasimcf, who also succeeded in raising a part of 
 Mis fellow-countrymen — the Orenburg Kirghiz. Quickly moving 
 with his followers from the Siberian steppes to those of Orenburg 
 and back again, during six whole years he kept the Russian 
 authorities in continual alarm. All our efforts to defeat and capture 
 him proved vain, until in 1844, being pursued by the Russian forces, 
 he was compelled to take refuge in the settlement of the Kara 
 Kirghiz, and was killed in a fight with them. 
 
 The result of this rebellion was that in order to prevent as far 
 as possible similar attempts, small fortifications were erected during 
 the following years in the eastern parts of the trans-Ural steppes, 
 on the rivers Turgai and Irghiz, after which the Russian fort Raim 
 rose at the mouth of the Syr-Darya. By means of this we had the 
 possibility of becoming better acquainted with the Aral Sea, which 
 up to this time had been known only by name. In 1848-49 two 
 ships which had been constructed in Orenburg, and had been 
 brought in parts to Raim, made a survey of the Aral Sea, in the 
 course of which a geographical discovery was made in this small 
 mediterranean basin, just as might have been the case in some 
 remote part of the ocean. A whole group of islands of considerable 
 size was discovered, of the existence of which even the inhabitants 
 of the coast had no suspicion. In this way what had been supposed 
 possible in the reign of the Empress Anne was not actually carried 
 out until 115 years after, under the Emperor Nicholas. At last we 
 had really arrived from the side of Orenburg on that Syr-Darya 
 which long before, in the first printed maps of Russia, had been 
 marked as the Russian boundary against the settled countries of 
 Central Asia. Meanwhile, in a parallel way from the side of Siberia 
 there was also a further extension of Russian limits within Central 
 Asia, and our power became established there. In 1845-7 the 
 Great or Old Kirghiz Horde found it to its advantage to become 
 submissive to Russia ; for although it had once before sworn alle- 
 giance to us in the last century, it had depended more or less on 
 the rulers of Tashkent and Khokand. This new acquisition com- 
 pelled us, in order to defend it from its neighbours to erect the 
 fortifications of Kopal at the foot of the Jungarian, and Yiernoe at 
 the foot of the Khokandian Ala-tau. An end was also found to the 
 steppes on the extreme south-east, and the overflow of the Russian 
 Sea began to beat then with its waves the rocks of the Tian Shan 
 mountains. 
 
 When we had ouce received the Kirghiz steppes into our alle- 
 
RUSSIAN POLICY IN ASIA. 413 
 
 giance, we ought naturally to have attempted to turn this nominal 
 into a real subjection, as without that it would be impossible not 
 only to develope our trade with the settled countries which _ie 
 behind these steppes (a trade from which, although entirely without 
 reason, great advantages were expected), but it would also be im- 
 possible to give security to the Russian settlements which bordered 
 on the steppes. Once having succeeded in reducing the Kirghiz to 
 obedience (the clearest proof of which was the revenue we began to 
 get from them), and having introduced all the order and quiet we 
 could into the steppe, it became our duty to preserve them from 
 hostile attacks on the south by the Khokandians and Khivans. 
 The pretensions of the Khivan Khans on the Kirghiz, which had 
 grown much stronger since the beginning of the present century, 
 were limited, however, to temporary imposts on the tribes which 
 were nearest to them, and did not specially interfere with the quiet 
 of the steppe in general. The Khokandians acted otherwise. 
 Having established themselves about 1820 on the right border of the 
 valley of the Syr and along the southern slopes of Kara-tau and 
 Alatau by a line of mud forts, they not only regularly took tribute 
 from the local and neighbouring Kirghiz, but from time to time 
 penetrated with large bands into the trans-Ural and Tchu steppes, 
 and wrought great devastation, accompanying it with the most 
 frightful barbarity. After the construction of Viernoe and Raim, 
 we stood face to face with these barbarians, and we were inevitably 
 obliged to meet them with arms. As Asiatics do not practise 
 political common sense, which would forbid them to begin a struggle 
 that was disproportionate to their means, and as the Khokandians 
 had not the slightest idea of the strength of Russia, and at the same 
 time showed no desire to leave off their marauding expeditions, 
 their hostile relations to our Kirghiz naturally ended to their great 
 discomfiture. By the end of 1853 almost all the Khokandian forts 
 in the valley of the Syr, including the strongest, Ak Masjid, 
 had fallen in our hands. It was also necessary to punish the 
 Khivans, not for their old faults, which had well-nigh been for- 
 gotten by us, but for their frequent attacks on our caravans going 
 to Bukhara and on the Bukharan caravans coming to us, and for the 
 protection which they gave to the still disobedient Kirghiz, who 
 captured the Russian traders and fishermen on the Caspian Sea, in 
 consequence of which Khiva became the chief market for the 
 Russian slave trade, and thousands of Russians were there in 
 torture. After long wavering as to how to set about this punish- 
 ment, it was finally resolved in the year 1839 to undertake a 
 military expedition against Khiva ; but, as it is well known, 
 through the severity of the winter, the Russian forces were obliged 
 
414 APPENDIX IV. 
 
 to return when they were still far from reaching the bounds of the 
 Khivan Khanate. It is true that, terrified by this movement, and 
 still more by the detention of the Khivan traders in Russia — a 
 measure which should have been applied long before — the Khivan 
 Khan gave up a part of the Russians who were kept there as 
 slave? ; but immediately after affairs went on as before. The 
 Khivans again robbed our caravans ; again bought up the Russians 
 who were captured by the Turkomans and the -Kirghiz ; so that the 
 embassy which was sent in 1842 in order to arrange things peace- 
 ably, had little result except the collection of new knowledge about 
 the Lower Amu Darya (published by Danilefsky and Basiner). In 
 order to prevent the attack of the Caspian Turkomans we established 
 a constant cruising service of armed vessels in the southern part of 
 the Caspian Sea, from a station that had been agreed upon with 
 Persia in the Gulf of Astrabad ; but this fleet in general had little 
 effect, and it defended from the attacks of the Turkomans rather 
 the Caspian shores of Persia than the Russian commercial vessels 
 in the northern part of that sea. During the period under consi- 
 dei'ation the commercial relations of Bukhara, which were so bad 
 for Russia, did not change for the better. We profited by the 
 request of the Bukharan Amir to send him people skilful in search- 
 ing for gold (he had received information about our gold mines in 
 Siberia and the Ural), only to send into Bukhara in 1842 several 
 scientific officers and mining engineers, who on this occasion visited 
 Samarkand and other places of the Khanate, which had hitherto 
 been inaccessible to Europeans, and brought back to us precious 
 scientific information (Khanikof, Lehmann, and Butenief). 
 
 As regards China we began to prize the trade of this empire, as 
 it had been established at Kiakhta, still more than the trade with 
 Bukhara, and although it was unprofitable to us we were ready to 
 sacrifice everything in order that it might not in any way cease 
 even for a short time. During the continuance of the war which 
 the English declared against the Chinese in 1840, we could, if we 
 had only wished, have obtained many advantages ; for the Chinese 
 authorities, then entirely unacquainted with Europe, turned of 
 themselves to the members of our Pekin mission for counsel and 
 explanation ; but for some reason or other we thought it necessary 
 not to meddle under any pretext in this dispute, and we considered 
 it a great diplomatic victory that by the treaty of Kuldja in 1851 we 
 legalized the trade with Western China through Kuldja and Tchu. 
 gutchak, which had been very quietly carried on without any 
 special permission from Buktarmy, Petropavlovsk, and Semipala- 
 tinsk from the very beginning of the present century. According 
 to this treaty we obtained the right to construct factories in Tchu- 
 
RUSSIAN POLICY IN ASIA. 415 
 
 gatchak and Kuldja, and in the latter place to have our own consul. 
 Towards the end of the period under consideration the fear of 
 quarrelling with the Chinese began, however, to yield to other 
 political views. We began to think about recovering the territory 
 which had been lost by us without the slightest reason by the 
 treaty of Nertchinsk, and about navigating the Amur to the Pacific. 
 With this aim military operations along this river began against 
 the Chinese in 1853 ; but it is necessary to say that even this 
 matter, which had lain dormant for more than one hundred and 
 sixty years, was begun too soon, for its advantages are still in the 
 future, and mean while its has succeeded in acting in a very 
 disadvantageous way on the prospects of Eastern Siberia. 
 
 At least, with regard to Japan we were not behind the other 
 European nations in our success, having opened relations with it in 
 the proper time _and with energy. During the last days of the 
 reign of the Emperor Nicholas a treaty was concluded with that 
 country at Simoda, by which Russian vessels were allowed to enter 
 the three ports of Simoda, Hakodati, and Nagasaki ; Russia was 
 allowed to have a consul in one of the first two ports ; and a very 
 important condition was made that all the rights and privileges 
 which should be given in future in Japan to other nations should 
 be at the same time extended to Rn-ssian subjects. In this way, to 
 us, together with the Americans, belongs the honour of forcing a 
 breach into this Great Britain of the Eastern Ocean, hitherto inac- 
 cessible. 
 
 In the castle of Gripsholm on Lake Malar there lie two immense 
 cannon of the time of Ivan the Terrible, brought from Novgorod 
 during the ' troublous times ' by General Be La Gardie. The Swedes 
 with pride point out these trophies to foreigners, and it is not even 
 unpleasant for a Russian to look at them when he remembers the 
 battle of Poltava and its consequences for Sweden. In the same 
 way, without the slightest disagreeable feeling, we can admit the 
 unsatisfactory character of our Asiatic policy since t^e time of Peter 
 the Great, knowing that during the present reign flJrno^t all our 
 former failures have been gloriously wiped out, and that the Russian 
 name in Central Asia is now as terrible and enjoys the same respect 
 as it did after the fall of Kazan and Astraknan. But we do not 
 undertake an estimate of our activity in thip part of Asia during 
 the last twenty years, because the view of a contemporary may be 
 near-sighted and prejudiced, and also because *w\ do not have at 
 hand sufficiently full and truthful data. 
 
41b APPENDIX V. 
 
 APPENDIX V. 
 
 RUSSIA AND KHIVA. 
 
 The following is the substance of an account of the relations with 
 Khiva preceding the Khivan campaign of 1873, given by Terentief, 
 in his ' Russia and England in Central Asia,' chapters v., vi. : — 
 
 ' Immediately on his arrival in Tashkent, General Kaufmann 
 wrote to the Khivan Khan, Mohammed Rahirn, a letter of November 
 19 (December 1), 1867, in which he informed him of his appoint- 
 ment and arrival, of the full powers granted him by the Emperor, 
 and of the movement of our detachment beyond the Syr Darya for 
 the purpose of punishing the marauders who pillaged our caravans, 
 &c. But this letter was evidently understood as a desire on the 
 part of the Governor-General to curry favour, and the Khivans 
 immediately took a lofty tone. 
 
 ' The Khan did not even answer it himself, but committed the care 
 of his correspondence to his attendants, who in their turn hastened 
 so little that the answer was received only in February 1868. 
 Knowing that Mohammed Rahim, who was only twenty years old, 
 was more occupied in hunting with falcons than with business, which 
 was carried on by his ministers, we did not expect from Khiva any 
 special politeness. The tone of the answer surpassed our anticipa- 
 tions. The Khivan Kush-begi wrote : " Every lord rules his own 
 lands and neither the people there, of old subject to him, nor his 
 army ought to cross the boundary and in this way break the peace. 
 Further, your statement that both sides of the Syr Darya belong 
 to your rule is apparently an infringement of previous treaties, 
 since the southern side of the Syr Darya belongs to us. If, on the 
 southern side of the Syr Darya, rebels disturb caravans, we will 
 put them down ; but if they attack the caravans on the other side of 
 the Syr Darya, that is your work." 
 
 ' In view of his journey to St. Petersburg the Governor- General 
 decided not to answer this letter until his return, and in the mean- 
 
RUSSIA AND KHIVA. 417 
 
 time to look up the question of the treaties to which, the Khivans 
 referred. It was decided also not to change the de facto occupation 
 of the left bank of the Syr Darya, and of the whole course of the 
 Kuvan and the Yany Darya to Lake Aktcha-kul, since the Kirghiz 
 of the district of Kazala migrated along these rivers, passed the 
 winter there, and left agriculturists there during the summer. 
 
 ' From the beginning of the winter of 1867, in order to protect 
 these Kirghiz from the pillage of the Khivans, detachments had 
 been sent out from Kazala and Perovsky to Irkibai, and even 
 further, if the weather allowed. This measure up to 1873 continued 
 to give satisfactory results. As concerns the juridical side of 
 the question the researches made in St. Petersburg proved that 
 there were no treaties regarding the boundaries; and although the 
 Khivans had raised the question during the mission of General 
 Ignatief, he had declined to decide the question, on the ground of 
 the impossibility of exactly defining the boundary-line between 
 countries the outlying provinces of which were inhabited by nomads 
 only. 
 
 ' Khiva seemed to take no lessons from the capture of Samar- 
 kand, and even held her head high. All the robber-chiefs who had 
 previously carried on their raids under the banner of the Amir, 
 such as Sadyk, Nazar, &c, and all the Russian traitors, as the 
 cornet Atarakul and his brothers, as well as the rebellious son of 
 the Amir, the Katta Tiura, found a refuge in Khiva. The Khan 
 gave many of them money for their support, and proposed to the 
 Katta Tiura the rank of Khan of the Turkomans subject to Khiva. 
 The Amir, however, soon demanded the surrender of his son, and 
 Khiva — thus placed between the laws of hospitality and the demands 
 of a near and powerful neighbour — took the middle course and 
 advised the Katta Tiura to leave the country. Atamkul started to 
 go with him, but was caught, put in chains, and incarcerated for 
 four months in prison. . . . 
 
 ' During the troubles with the Kirghiz the proclamations of the 
 Khan and his ministers filled the steppes, the Khivan emissaries 
 were profuse in promises, and the small detachment sent out by 
 the Khan grew in the imagination of the Kirghiz into great armies, 
 and stimulated them to all soi'ts of depreciations. How submi 5sive 
 were even those Kirghiz authorities supposed to be loyal can be 
 judged from the reports of the Volost rulers. Iset Kuty Barof 
 very naively communicated on May 22 (June 3), that " hav- 
 ing received information of the arrival of the Khivans on the 
 borders, and an invitation from them to come, I and Niaz went. 
 They asked us, ' On whose side are you ? ' We answered ' On 
 
 VOL. II. E E 
 
418 APPENDIX V. 
 
 both.' The Khivans took from us three merchants ' and 1,000 
 sheep." 
 
 ' In one of the proclamations issued, to which the seal of Moham- 
 med Rahini Khan was affixed, it was said that according to the 
 treaties with Russia the boundary was first the Ural and after- 
 wards the Emba, and that the advance of the Russians beyond the 
 Emba was an infringement of the treaties. " You and all the Kir- 
 ghiz tribes," the Khan wrote, " unanimously agreed to separate 
 yourselves from the infidels, and decided to smite them with the 
 sword of Islam. This is known to him who rules on the threshold of 
 the refuge of Islam, and therefore we send to you troops, with the 
 Esaul Bashi Mahmud and Makhram Khudai Ntizar." By other 
 proclamations in the name of the emissaries the Bii and elders 
 were invited to come to Khiva for consultation about the intended 
 movement. The Divan Besfi also encouraged the rebels, and 
 promised that the Khan's troops would soon come to their aid. 
 It is possible, indeed, that these documents may have been forgeries, 
 as forgeries are not uncommon in Central Asia. . . . 
 
 ' Various Russians captured in the subsequent disturbances were 
 sent on to Khiva. 
 
 ' ISTot wishing at once to have recourse to harsb measures, 
 the Governor- General tried to bring Khiva to its senses by diplo- 
 matic means. In a letter of August 12 (24), 1869, the Khan 
 was told (1) That incendiary proclamations in his name had been 
 sent to our Kirghiz and Turkomans. (2) That his officials, 
 attended by troops, had come within our limits, for the purpose of 
 exciting disorder among our subjects. (3) That some Russians 
 had been carried off to Khiva, where they were kept with his know- 
 ledge. (4) That rebels and robbers, running away from the 
 Russian dominions, find hospitality and protection with him. 
 
 ' A demand was made at the same time that such offences should 
 not be repeated, and that the guilty parties should be punished for 
 their infringement of the frontier. "I do not wish to think that all 
 this was done with your knowledge," added the Governor- General, 
 " and would be glad to believe that you have no hand in these 
 things. Similar acts were committed formerly by Khokand and 
 Bukhara. Ton know the consequences." 
 
 ' On receiving fresh information regarding the disturbances in 
 the Bukan mountains another letter was written, dated Septem- 
 ber 20 (October 2), demanding the punishment of the marauders, 
 the return of the men who had been taken, and the liberation of 
 the Russian and Bukharan subjects that had been captured. No 
 
 1 Iran Burnashof and his companions. 
 
RUSSIA AND KHIVA. 419 
 
 answer, however, was received to either of these letters, and the 
 messenger by whom they had been sent was kept under arrest in 
 Khiva. This messenger w r as a Kirghiz from Perovsky, Sultan 
 Daulet Bushaef. Leaving Perovsky on September 19, 1869, in 
 fourteen days he arrived in Khiva, where the people met him with 
 glad cries of JEltohi, Bltclii ! (Ambassador). The Ministers, however, 
 not content with his answer, did not receive him as such. To the 
 question of the Kush-begi as to the opinion of the Russians about 
 Sadyk, Bushaef replied that the Russians considered him one of 
 their leaders ; for wherever he appeared he always enticed the 
 Russians, and gave up to them the cities that he defended ; that 
 the Khokandians were obliged to him for the loss of their cities ; 
 that the Bukharans had paid for his support by Samarkand ; " and 
 now he is with you," added Bushaef. Next day this messenger 
 was disarmed and placed under guard, where he remained for 
 three months. 
 
 ' As the disturbances in the Orenburg steppes did not cease, a 
 detachment was sent from Kazala to the Tany Darya and another 
 from Jizakh to the Bukan mountains. The latter had also the 
 purpose of marking out the new boundary-line with Bukhara. 
 
 ' The Khan, hearing of the advance of the detachment to the 
 Bukan mountains and of the establishment of a post at Krasnovodsk, 
 gave up the Russian messenger, Bushaef. The landing at Kras- 
 novodsk seems to have made a strong impression. The Khan 
 immediately sent a force of cavalry to poison all the wells on the 
 road to Krasnovodsk by throwing dead dogs into them. A new 
 citadel was constructed in the city and armed with twenty guns. 
 The chief branch of the Amu Darya, the Taldyk, was turned aside 
 and various canals were cut, so as to render it shallow and impassable 
 for Russian ships. A small fortification was constructed at Cape 
 Urgu. The Russian Kirghiz migrating to Khiva were freed from 
 all taxes on condition of giving troops in case of war. . . . 
 
 ' As it would have been disadvantageous to have the Khivan 
 Khan consider the expedition which occupied Krasnovodsk as an 
 independent undertaking and not in conformity with the general 
 direction of our policy in Central Asia, General Kaufmann, imme- 
 diately on receiving information of it wrote to the Khan on 
 January 18 (30), 1870, telling him of the purpose of the settlement 
 ■ — to construct a commercial depot and protect the Kirghiz from 
 the attacks of Turkomans. He, at the same time, reminded the 
 Khan in very strong expressions of his previous demands in regard 
 to permitting Russian merchants to come to Khiva, and adding 
 that he had written already three times to him, but had received no 
 
420 APPENDIX V. 
 
 answer. " You have even allowed yourself, against all law, to 
 detain my. messengers. Such conduct can no longer be endured. 
 One of two things — either we must be friends or enemies. There 
 is no middle course between neighbours. There is an end to 
 all this, and if I do not receive a satisfactory answer I shall take 
 one." 
 
 ' A month after this letter was sent, on March 9, Bushaef re- 
 turned, having obtained an answer from the Divan Begi to the 
 second letter and from the Kush-begi to the third. 
 
 ' The first wrote that the Khivan tax collectors had always gone 
 to the Bukan mountains and collected taxes from the Tcharu tribe 
 and from the caravans. " This is no novelty," he wrote ; " the Buk- 
 haran merchants are witness to it." As concerns the Hebrew who 
 was taken prisoner there the Divan-begi explained that no one knew 
 anything about him, and the robberies on the Bukan mountains 
 were ascribed to Russian Kirghiz, since the Khivan tax collectors 
 had only ten men, and not eighty, the number of the robbers. 
 
 ' The Kush-begi wrote in much more detail. " Our master does 
 not at all wish war ; on the contrary, he desires quiet and the wel- 
 fare of his people. We wish the same to you. However, some time 
 back Russian troops have crossed our frontier and marched against 
 us." Further, in defence of his proclamations and emissaries, the 
 Kush-begi said : " Your Kirghiz complain to us that the Russians 
 do not allow them to migrate within the Khivan borders, as 
 w T as formerly the case, and that besides they oppress and kill 
 them. To quiet these Kirghiz and to punish these marauders I 
 sent them from five to ten officials." With regard to the prisoners 
 he said : " The Kirghiz brought to us three Russians, and desired to 
 obtain froiu them payment for their relatives who had been killed, 
 and for property which had been stolen, but he who sits under the 
 shadow of Ood cooled with the waters of prudence the naming 
 hearts of the Kirghiz, refused to allow the punishment, and took 
 away the prisoners, who can be returned in case the Russian troops 
 be forbidden to cross the frontier, and the Kirghiz be indemnified 
 for the property which they had lost." 
 
 ' On March 25 (April 6) General Kaufmann replied with a 
 letter in which he said that the Russian troops had marched to a 
 place occupied by Russian subjects who needed protection against 
 robbers, and that wherever the subjects of the White Tsar lived 
 they remained his subjects, and for that reason the lands along the 
 Yany Darya as far as Lake Aktcha-kul had always been considered, 
 and would always be considered Russian, as well as the Bukan 
 mountains and all the road from the Kyzyl Kum to Irkibai, on the 
 
RUSSIA AND KHIVA. 421 
 
 Yany Darya, in accordance with the treaty made with. Bukhara, and 
 that no one else had the right to collect any taxes there. 
 
 ' On April 26 an answer was received from the Khan to General 
 Kaufmann's letter of January 30. With regard to Krasnovodsk the 
 Kush-begi wrote : " The contents of your last letter show a great 
 ill will. From the foundation of the world until this time there 
 never was an example that one ruler, for the quiet of another, and for 
 the welfare of foreign subjects, constructed fortresses beyond his 
 own frontiers, and sent thither his troops. Our lord desires that the 
 White Tsar, according to the example of his ancestors, should not be 
 carried away by the immensity of the empire entrusted to him by 
 God, and should not seek to obtain the lands of others. This is 
 not the custom of great sovereigns. If, relying upon the strength 
 of his armies, he wish to make war against us, then before the 
 Creator of the heaven and earth, before the Great Judge of all earthly 
 judges, all are equal, both the strong and the weak. To whom he 
 wishes he gives the victory. Nothing can be accomplished against 
 the will and the predestination of the Most High." 
 
 ' Seeing how little importance the Khivans attached to the Rus- 
 sian demands when unsupported by force of arms, General Kauf- 
 mann reported to the Ministry of War the necessity of changing 
 relations with Khiva, and suggested in case of war that one expe- 
 dition be sent from Tashkent, and another from Krasnovodsk. By 
 a letter dated March 25 (13), 1870, the Minister of War informed 
 General Kanfmann that his views had met with the Emperor's 
 approval. 
 
 ' Meanwhile the Khan of Khiva sent an envoy to Krasnovodsk, 
 but on the way he had interviews with Turkomans, and counselled 
 them to unite against the Russians. Colonel Stoletof, the com- 
 mander of Krasnovodsk, however, had received orders from the 
 Minister of Foreign Affairs to have no negotiations with the 
 ambassador except for a private agreement with regard to the 
 protection of commercial caravans, but to refer him to the Governor- 
 General of Turkistan as the person having the necessary full 
 powers. 
 
 ' In the spring of 1870 there were new disturbances among the 
 Kirghiz at Mangyshlak ; and Colonel Rukin, with a detachment, 
 having been surrounded by the enemy, is said to have shot himself, 
 while the rest were taken prisoners. 
 
 ' The catastrophe of Rukin, the attack on Fort Alexandrofsky, 
 the burning of the Nicolai station and of the neighbouring light- 
 ships, came one after the other ; and if there had not been assist- 
 ance rendered from the Caucasus, the fort, notwithstanding its 
 fourteen guns, wouid have been taken by the rebels. Although all 
 
422 APPENDIX V. 
 
 this could not be directly ascribed to the Khivans, yet the evidence 
 of the rebel prisoners plainly pointed to Khivan intrigues ; some 
 Cossacks taken prisoners by the Kirghiz were sent by them to 
 the Khan, and soon after received into his service ; while the rebels 
 found in Khiva not only a refuge but protection. 
 
 ' As the Khan refused compliance with our demands General 
 Kaufmann thought it unwise to have any further diplomatic relations 
 with Khiva, and began to prepare for war, so as to put an end to 
 this state of things. Preparations were rendered difficult because 
 the bad harvests of 1870 had caused a great rise in the price of 
 provisions. Still, by May 1871 we were ready, and the Bukharan 
 Amir consented to allow our troops to pass through his dominions. 
 Meanwhile Khiva also made preparations. It was decided to under- 
 take the expedition of 1871 against Khiva from the Turkistan 
 side, the other two detachments from Orenburg and the Caucasus 
 taking a defensive position merely, and sending out small detach- 
 ments in order to prevent the migration of the Kirghiz. The 
 troops sent into the Barsuks and the Ursturt kept the Steppe from 
 rebellion, and our Kirghiz forces did not allow the Khivans to 
 penetrate within our frontiers. The Khan determined to seek an 
 alliance with Bukhara, but his ambassador, Baba Bii, was arrested 
 by the Amir on a hint from Tashkent. 
 
 ' At this time, however, the question of war had already been 
 postponed on account of the final rupture with Kuldja. As General 
 Kaufmann had decided to avoid immediate relations with Khiva, 
 and as the Amir of Bukhara had proposed to act as mediator to 
 remove the misunderstandings, the conditions were proposed, that 
 Khiva should give up all Russian prisoners, should refuse 
 further protection to marauders, and should send an embassy 
 to Tashkent. The Amir released the Khivan envoy, and sent with 
 him one of his own, Hadji Urak, who was treated with a certain 
 contempt by the Khivans, who expressed surprise at the indif- 
 ference of Bukhara. The Khan, in the final audience with the 
 Bukharan envoy, said, " Let the Governor-General send me a polite 
 letter with propositions of friendship and a promise not to cross 
 w r ith his troops the boundaries of my possessions, and I will then 
 free the eleven soldiers wdiom I keep prisoners, and will stop pillage 
 and robbery. If he will not do that I shall not give up the prisoners, 
 and all will be as it was before ; and it is known to God alone what 
 will happen after that." The reply of the Khan to the Amir, — 
 which had no seal, and consequently showed a want of respect, — 
 denied the justice of the Russian complaints against Khiva. 
 
 'Murtaza Bii, the envoy sent back with the letter, was instructed 
 fco enter into communication with the Governor-General. Knowing 
 
EUSSIA AND KHIVA. 423 
 
 already by experience how little success could be expected from 
 the negotiations with the Khivans, and especially in view of the 
 categorical tone taken of late by the presumptuous Khan, the 
 Governor- General decided not to receive the Kb i van envoy in 
 Tashkent, but to negotiate with him through the Amir of Bukhara. 
 In case of the ill-success of these negotiations it was proposed 
 once for all to finish with Khiva, but not sooner, however, than 
 affairs had been arranged with Yakub Bek and with Kuldja. 
 
 ' Meanwhile Khiva, frightened by the simultaneous advance of 
 two columns — that of General Golovatchef from Jizakh, through the 
 Bukan mountains, and Colonel Markozof's from Krasnovodsk — 
 decided on coming to terms, and sent two embassies in the beginning 
 of 1872 (Murtaza Bii and Baba Nazar Atalyk), one to Tiflis and the 
 other to Orenburg. In spite of the order of the Emperor — which 
 was well known to the Khivan Government — that relations should be 
 carried on exclusively with the Governor- General at Turkistan, the 
 Khivans, it is evident, doubted the solidarity of the relations with 
 the adjoining Russian provinces, and hoped in Orenburg and Tiflis 
 to find a support against the demands of Tashkent. 
 
 ' In a letter to the Grand Duke Michael the Khan wrote as 
 follows : — " Be it known to your friendly heart that from the olden 
 time alliance has existed between our high governments. Our 
 relations have been sincere, and our friendship is strengthened from 
 day to day, as though the two governments constituted one govern- 
 ment and the two peoples one people. But last year your armies 
 established themselves at Tcheleken, on the coast of the Kharesm 
 Gulf, under the pretext of commercial aims. Not long ago a small 
 detachment of these troops advanced as far as Sary Kamysh, which 
 as from of old belongs to us, but returned thence. Besides this, 
 from Tashkent and Ak Masjid Russian troops have advanced to the 
 wells Ming Bulak, lying in our hereditary possessions. It is un- 
 known to us whether the Grand Duke knows of this or not. 
 Meanwhile, we have never done anything which could interfere 
 with our friendly relations to you. Four or five of your people 
 were captured by some Kirghiz, but we took them away and keep 
 them with us. If you wish to keep up friendly relations with us, 
 then conclude a treaty that each of us shall be contented within 
 our lawful boundaries. Then we will return to you all your pri- 
 soners. But if these prisoners serve you only as a pretext for war 
 against us, with the aim of extending your dominions, then the will 
 of the Almighty be done." 
 
 ' The envoys were stopped, one at Temur-khan-shura and the 
 other at Orenburg, and were told that they would not be permitted 
 to go either to the Imperial Court or vo the Lieutenant of the 
 
424 APPENDIX V. 
 
 Caucasus, and that no letters could be received from them until the 
 prisoners were released and an embassy sent to Tashkent. The 
 Khivans saw the mistake, but no longer wished to rectify it. 
 Instead of sending an embassy to Tashkent they sent one to India 
 with a request for help against Russia. The Viceroy, as was to be 
 expected, advised them to make peace with Russia, obey her 
 demands, and yive no cause for further dissatisfaction.' 
 
TURKISTAK by Eugene Seliuyicr 
 
 
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 According to the latest topographical surveys 
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INDEX. 
 
 ABB 
 
 ABBASIDES, the. 365 
 Abbot, 361 
 
 Abd-er-Rezzak, 375 
 
 Abdrasul Amir, ii. 183 
 
 Abdu-Baisher Peak, legend of, 311 
 
 Abdul Aziz, 380 
 
 Abdul Hai, ii. 308 
 
 Abdul Kaum, 357, ii. 280 
 
 Abdul Kerim, 358 
 
 Abdul Kerim Bek, 357, 359 ; ii. 280 ; 
 surrender of, ii. 282 
 
 Abdul Kerim Devan Begi, ii. 68, 75, 
 338, 339 
 
 Abdullah Bek, ii. 301 
 
 Abdullah bin Hamid, 365 
 
 Abdullah Khan, of Bukhara, 70, 72, 
 112, 230-232, 286, 287, 380, 381; 
 ii. 33, 394; tomb of, ii. 114 
 
 Abdullah, the Interpreter, 2, 11 
 
 Abdullah Manim, 383 
 
 Abdullah Nameh, 381 
 
 Abdullatif Mirza, 252, 340, 380 
 
 Abdurrahim, ii. 62 
 
 AbdurrahmanAftobatcha, 317, 348,355, 
 358 ; ii. 57, 281, 282, 284, 291, 295, 
 299 ; abandoned by nearly all his fol- 
 lowers, ii. 292 ; retreats, ii. 291 ; sent 
 prisoner to Tashkent, ii. 300 ; surren- 
 ders, ii. 299 
 
 Abdurrahman Batyr, 339, 359 
 
 Abdur Rnhman Khan. 260 ; ii. 312, 313, 
 316; appearance of, 261; correspon- 
 dence with General Kaufmann, ii. 
 312, 313; interview with, 262 
 
 Abdush Kur Datkha, 280 
 
 Abel-Remusat, ii. 136 
 
 Abi (irrigated lands), 286 
 
 Abil Ogla, Sultan, ii. 183, 185, 188 
 
 Ab-Kaneh, ii. 91 
 
 Ab-Khurek, ii. 287 
 
 Ablai Khan, 34. 71 
 
 Ablutions, 121 
 
 Ablyk, 188 
 
 Abramof, Captain, ii. 288 
 
 AGR 
 
 Abramof, General, 92, 110, 112, 114, 
 233, 234, 243, 267, 389 ; ii. 62, 65, 
 68, 74, 78, 3i)5, 306, 307, 312, 338; 
 assaults -wall of Tashkent, 114; com- 
 mands Iskender Kul expedition, 281- 
 283 
 
 Abu Bek, Khali f, 154, 155 
 
 Abul Faradj, 408 
 
 Abul Feiz Khan, 255, 383, 384, 386 
 
 Abul Gaffar Bek, 88, 241, 243, 280, 
 312, 339 ; ii. 65 66, 297, 300 
 
 Abul Ghazi, 105, 330, 376, 377, 378, 
 381, 383, 384, 385 
 
 Abulkhairides, the, 379 
 
 Abul Khair Khan, 31, 34, 71, 377, 379, 
 381; ii. 409 
 
 Abul Seid, 340 
 
 Abu Muslim, 369 
 
 'Account of journey to the west,' 394 
 
 Accusations against Russia, ii. 260 
 
 Adaef tribes of Kirghiz, ii. 342, 346 
 
 Adam Krylgan, wells of, ii. 340 
 
 Adamoli, 200 
 
 Adras, 190 
 
 Adrasbar, 69 
 
 ' Adventures in Central Asia,' 263, 
 264, 
 
 Adzi bai, 338 
 
 Afghan Amir, the, ii. 267 
 
 Afghan sore, the, 148 
 
 Afghan Turkisran, ii. 267 
 
 Afghanistan, ii. 266, 306, 312, 386, 
 394; politics, 150, 262; Rebellion 
 in, 2'iO ; ii. 314; Russian relations 
 with, ii. 314 
 
 Afghans, 123, 186 ; ii. 56, 82 
 
 Africa, 371 
 
 Afrosiah, 236 
 
 Afzul Khan, 260 
 
 Agatchly, 229 
 
 Agengeran river, 51, 323 
 
 Ag-on, 397 
 
 Agovanie, 406 
 
 Agriculture in Central Asia, 289-297 
 
426 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 AGR 
 
 Agricultural products, ii. 56 
 
 Ai-balta, ii. 91 
 
 Aibugir lake, 28 
 
 Aidar Hodja, ii. 74, 307 
 
 Aidin, ii. 3-44 
 
 Aiekh river, 406 
 
 Aim Keninghez, ii. 73 
 
 Aim Serai, ii. 94, 101 
 
 .Aitek river, ii. 154 
 
 Ak Atabai tribe, the, ii. 381 
 
 Ak Darya, 286, 288 
 
 Akbal Tekkes, the, ii. 383 
 
 Akhmet, 14, 15 
 
 Akhmet Yassaviit : see Yassavi 
 
 Akhrab, 339, 340 
 
 Akhrar Khan, ii. 319, 320 
 
 Akhsi, 324, 375 
 
 Akhyr-tash, 398, ii. 121 
 
 Akhyr-tepe, ii. 121 
 
 Akjar, 61, 321 
 
 Ak-julpas, 26 
 
 Aklcent, ii. 158 
 
 Ak-Khan, ii. 143 
 
 Ak-Mametef, 14, 21 
 
 Ak-Masjid, 64, 67, 351; ii. 413, 416, 
 423 
 
 Akmolinsk, 404 
 
 Ak-Padsha, ii. 143 
 
 Akeakal, ii. 205 
 
 Aksakals, 377 ; ii. 206, 241 ; in Tash- 
 kent, 103 
 
 Ak Serai, ruins of, 255 ; ii. 68 
 
 Aksha, ii. 267 
 
 Ak-su river, 343, 375, 410 ; ii. 126, 
 150, 319 ; derivation of name, 275 
 
 Ak-tag, 390 
 
 Aktash mountains, 321 
 
 Aktau mountains, 241, 274, 275 
 
 Aktcha-kul Lake, ii. 417 
 
 Ak TengMs, ii. 154 
 
 Ala Eddin Mohammed, Sultan, 34 J, 
 
 400, 405 
 
 Alai mountains, 51, 274 ; ii. 12, 22, 45, 
 
 55 
 Ala Khan, ii. 183' 
 Alak-tugul-nor, 401 
 Ala-kul, kke, 400, 401, 405,410; ii. 
 
 133, 155, 191 
 Alaman, ii. 383 
 Ala Myshak, ii. 130 
 Ala Tau mountains, the, 34, 397, 400, 
 
 401, 402, 405; ii. 127, 128, 145, 191 
 Alatcha. 123, 189 
 
 Ala Tengis, ii. 154 
 Albazin, ii. 400, 403 
 Albedil, Major, 245 
 Al Biruni, 367 
 Ale, English, 79 
 
 Alexander the Great, 115, 366, 369 ; ii. 
 142, 411; Legend of tomb at Mar- 
 
 AMT 
 
 ghilan, ii. 50; legends of, 277; at 
 
 Samarkand, 236, 237 
 Alexander Lyceum, 302 
 Alexandria, 237 
 Alexandrofsky, Fort, 46 ; attack on, ii. 
 
 421 
 Alexandrofsky ran^e, the, 37, 54, 393, 
 
 398, 400, 402, 404, 410 ; ii. 123, 126, 
 
 127, 378 
 Alexis Tsar, 9 ; ii. 399 
 Ali, disputed rights of descendants of, 
 
 155 
 Ali Khalif, 154 
 A-li-ma, 395, 396, 397 
 A-li-ma-li, 399 
 Alim Bii, 352 
 
 Alim Hadji Yunusof, 90, 91, 225; im- 
 prisonment of, 100 
 Alim Khan, 341, 343, 347, 348, 359 
 Alim Kul, 112, 350, 351, 352, 353, 358 ; 
 
 death of, 93 ; regent, 73, 75 
 Alim Patcha, 343 
 Alim Tu, ii. 158, 186 
 Allah Kul, 346, 347 
 Alleged instigation of Kirghiz by Khi- 
 
 vans, ii. 331 
 'Allgemeine Zeitung,' the, ii. 386 
 Alma, ii. 145 
 Almagest, 331 
 
 Almalyk, 396, 405, 410; ii 159, 165 
 Almatiuki, ii. 145 
 Almaty, ii. 145 
 Almonds, ii. 3 
 Alpine region of Central Asia, 274; ii. 
 
 132 
 Alps, the, 402, 404, 405 
 Altai Mountains, the, 390 
 Altcbin, 203 
 Alti Soldamis, 400 
 Alty-Kuduk, ii. 343, 347 
 Altyn Bishik Mountains, 311 ; legend 
 
 of the, 311 
 Altyn Imel, ii. 153, 156 
 Altyn Khan, ii. 397 
 Alum on the Fan, 279 
 Alyama, 167 
 
 Amban of Torbagatai, the, ii, 172, 179 
 Amban of Eastern Turkistan, the, ii. 
 
 172 
 America, Bukharan idea of, ii. 66 
 American towns, 76 
 Americans, 46 
 Aminof, Baron, 276, 282 
 Amir of Balkh, the, 48 
 Amir of Bokhara, see Mozaffar Eddin 
 Amir el-Muminim, 386 
 Amir of Kabul, ii. 267, 313 
 Amir Khan, 341 
 Amir Nasrullah, the, 386 
 Amir Said, 383 
 
INDEX. 
 
 427 
 
 AMI 
 
 Amiri Reshid, 370 
 
 Amiri Shedid, 370 
 
 Amlak lands, 299 
 
 Ammonia, ii. 26 
 
 Amu Darya, the, 50, 68, 105-110, 148 
 331, 335, 337. 339, 340, 347. 351. 
 363, 364, 367, 379 ; ii. 342, 386, 395, 
 401 ; ancient bed of, 53 ; annex- 
 ation of right bank of, 364 ; ex- 
 ploration of, ii. 373 ; navigation of, 
 221, 222; ii. 363; old bed of, ii. 
 363 ; probable explanation of change 
 of course, 53-55, 59 ; right bank of, 
 ii. 363 ; Russian reasons for annex- 
 ing right bank of, ii. 365-367 ; trade 
 route along, 221 
 
 Amu Darya Rayon, the, ii. 369 
 
 Amulets, 130 
 
 Amur, the, ii. 397, 399, 415 
 
 Amursana, ii. 168, 402 
 
 Amusements in Central Asia, 126-140 
 
 Amuye, 364 
 
 Ancient Necropolis, an, ii. 381 
 
 Andi, 111 
 
 Andijan, 187, 339, 347, 348, 351-354, 
 356, 358; ii. 38-43. 281; armoury 
 at, 41, 42 ; Baber's description of, ii. 
 38 ; bazaar at, 38 ; Bek of, 39, 40 ; 
 bombardment of, ii. 296; expedition 
 against, ii. 295 ; Nazarof's descrip- 
 tion of, ii. 42 ; palace at, 39-41 ; 
 population of, 42 ; road to, ii. 38, 42 ; 
 revolts against, ii. 294 ; stormed by 
 Russians, ii. 295; surrenders to Rus- 
 sians, ii. 292 
 
 Andrei, ii. 2, 39, 69, 70, 106, 113 
 
 Anev, Fortress of, ii, 383 
 
 Angren, river, 323, 325 ; ii. 284, 286 
 
 Anjini, 28 
 
 Ankibalekh, 406 
 
 Anne, the Empress, ii. 403 
 
 Ansyr, 202 
 
 Antimochus, 237 
 
 Antioch, 402 
 
 Aphrodisiacs, ii. 135 
 
 Apollodorus, 367 
 
 Apothecaries in Tashkent, 180 
 
 Appak family, the, 342 
 
 Appanage system in Central Asia, ii. 
 72 
 
 Appendix I. 337-359 
 
 Appendix II. 360-389 
 
 Appendix TIL 390-411 
 
 Appendix IV. ii. 391-415 
 
 Appeudix V. ii. 416-424 
 
 Apple (alma), 396 
 
 Apples, 296 
 
 Apricots, 296 
 
 Aqueducts, ii. 381 
 
 Arabesques, ii. 194 
 
 ARM 
 
 Arabian nights, 80, 226 ; geographers, 
 50 ; writers, 111 ; horses, 129 
 
 Arabic inscriptions, 62, 71 ; language. 
 110 ; names, 389 ; physicians, 150 
 
 Arable land in Zarafshan Valley, 284 ; 
 in Central Asia, 284, 285 
 
 Arabs, the, 154, 340 ; at Katta Kurgan 
 and Kukertli, 109, 110; in Samar- 
 kand, 23? 
 
 Arab Shah, 373, 374 
 
 Aragatzofu, 405 
 
 Aral flotilla, 44, 50, 320, 336; con- 
 struction and cost of, 56-60 ; fate 
 of detachment for Khiva from, ii. 
 374, 378 ; formation of, 56 ; fuel for, 
 57, 58 ; statistics of traffic, 60 
 
 ««Aral. The Shores of Lake ' (Wood's), 
 ii. 373 
 
 Aralo-Caspian basin, the, 28 
 
 Aralo-Caspian exploring expeditions, 
 28 ; ii, 374 
 
 Aral Sea, the, 15, 16,22, 23, 26, 31, 47, 
 49, 50, 53, 55, 57 ; ii. 374 ; analysis 
 of water of, 27, 28 ; depth of, 28 ; 
 former extent of, 28; level of, 28; 
 view of, 27 
 
 Aral steamers, the, 58, 59 
 
 Aral Turkomans, the, ii. 384 
 
 Aral-tepe, ii. 135 
 
 Aran Makhmet, ii. 329 
 
 Arasan, ii. 153 
 
 Aravan, ii. 48 
 
 Arba, the, 130 
 
 Arborsecco, the, 138 
 
 Arbun, tribe of, ii. 200 
 
 Arbuz, 297 
 
 Arc 1 1 geological journey in Turkistan in 
 1867 by P. Lerch, 363, 401 
 
 Archery, ii. 170 
 
 Architecture, Persian, inherited from 
 Babylonia, 248 ; in Samarkand, 251 
 
 Archives of the Ministry of Crown 
 Domains, ii. 210 
 
 Archives of Senate at St. Petersburg, 
 ii. 210 
 
 Archives at Wilna and Kief, ii. 210 
 
 Argamak horses, 129, 153, 338 
 
 Arganaty, ii. 154, 155 
 
 Argoz, 53 
 
 Aristan Bel Kuduk, 68; ii. 337, 339 
 
 Aristof, Mr., ]i. 174, 199 
 
 Ark, ii. 10, 65 
 
 Arkatch. ii. 382 
 
 Arlekh, 406 
 
 Armenia, 405, 407, 408 
 
 Armoury at Andijan, ii. 41, 42; at 
 Khokand, ii. 10,' 11 
 
 Army, Amir of Bukhara's, ii. 81, 82 
 the Khokandian, ii. 15, 16 
 
 Army contracts, 98 
 
428 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 ARS 
 
 Arshin, 203 
 
 Arslan Khan, 370 
 
 Art a mis, 367 
 
 Artillery, Khokandian, ii. 10 
 
 Arunhazi, 32 
 
 Arvatu, ii. 379 
 
 Aryan race, the, 105 
 
 Ary river, 51, 74, 320 
 
 Arzaz, 53 
 
 Arzengan, 408 
 
 Asad, 329, 330 
 
 Asef Barkhi, ii. 44 
 
 Ash, 151 
 
 Ashtarkanides, or Astrakan Dytasty, 
 
 381 
 Ashula, 344, 359 
 Ashur-Kuli Bek of Shaar, ii. 73 
 Asiatic Museum at St. Petersburg, 384 
 Asiatic ■water-mill, 101 
 Asoh, 407 
 Assa-bibi, ii. 121 
 Assadullah Bek, 91-95 ; account of 
 
 Alimkul's death, 93 ; account of 
 
 Malla Khan's murder, 92 ; women's 
 
 dance at house of, 136, 137 
 Assafcetida plant, 228 
 Assake, ii. 292 
 
 Assassination, attempt at, ii. 113 
 Asses, 130, 278 
 Astrabad, ii. 415 
 Astrakhan, 35, 38, 411; ii. 265, 329, 
 
 393, 396, 415 
 Astrakhan dynasty, 383 
 Astrakhanides, the, 382, 384 
 Atabai, ii. 22 
 
 Atabai Yomuds, the, ii. 384 
 Ata Bek, 113, 354, 356; ii. 7, 9, 10, 
 
 274, 280, 282 
 Ata Jan, ii. 350, 352 
 Atalyk, the, 348. 359, 384; ii. 7, 9, 10 
 Atalyk, the, of Khokand, 113; ii. 9 
 Atalyk Ghazi, the, ii. 387 
 Atamkul, ii. 417 
 Ata Murat, ii. 376 
 Atna, 332 
 
 Attack on Col. Dennet, ii. 277 
 Attack on Station of Karasu, ii. 254 
 Attempt to prove that Turkistan pays 
 
 for expenses of keeping, ii. 218 
 Attila, the, 391 
 
 Attrek, the, ii. 344, 381, 385 ; reconnais- 
 sance of, ii. 380 
 Audkhoi, 367 
 Aul, 19 ; ii. 205 
 Aulie-ata, 37, 41, 75, 111, 350, 391, 
 
 393, 409, 411 ; ii. 120, 123, 205, 284; 
 
 appearance of, ii. 120; capture of, ii. 
 
 1 20 ; climate of, 327 ; geographical 
 
 features of country surrounding, ii. 
 
 122 ; origin of name, ii. 121 ; storm- 
 
 BAN 
 
 ing of, ii. 120 ; tomb at, ii. 121 ; 
 
 traditions of, ii. 121 
 Autehi pass, 275 
 
 Autobiography of Tamerlane, 374 
 Avas Turdi, ii. 376 
 Avher, 407 
 Ayaguz river, ii. 154 
 Ayub, legend of, 191, 193 
 Ayuka Khan, the, ii. 167, 399 
 Azeni sect, the, 156 
 Azim Bai, 99 
 Azim Kazi, ii. 237 
 Azim Khan, 260 
 Azim Seet, 156 
 Azof, 401 
 
 BABA BEK, 340; ii. 277, 286; 
 character of, 87 ; expulsion of, ii. 
 
 307 ; history of, 85 
 Babaef. 264 
 
 Baban, ii. 92 ; defeat of, 307 
 Baba Nazar Atalyk, ii. 423 
 Baber, 337, 378, 379; description of 
 
 Andijan, 38 ; description of the 
 
 Khokandian Desert, 51 ; description 
 
 of Marghilan, 49 ; description of 
 
 Samarkand, 238, 240 ; ii. 71, 97, 394; 
 
 description of Ush, 44 
 Babylonian Calendar, 334 
 Bactria, 366 
 Bactrian, 237 
 
 Badakshan, 364 ; ii. 267, 316 
 Badam, 395 
 Badaulet, ii. 320 
 Baha Uddin, 158; ii. 113, 303 
 Baiga, 41, 268; ii. 308 
 Baikof, ii. 395 
 Bakali, ii. 339 
 Bakar, ii. 376 
 Bala Ishem, ii. 345, 380 
 Balan 395 ; ii. 3 
 Bala Sagun, 112, 395 ; ii. 122 
 Balcony, 120 
 
 Balkan Mountains, ii. 382 
 Balkash, 402, 405 
 Balkash Lake, 30, 54, 402 ; ii. 152, 
 
 154, 155 
 Balkatsi Nor. ii. 154 
 Balkh, 48, 97, 260, 348, 361, 368, 
 
 410; ii. 167, 267 
 Balkhi, 364, 367 
 
 Balls of the Governor-General, 82 
 Balyk, 368 
 Balyktchi, 35G ; ii. 21, 22, 23, 25, 51, 
 
 298 ; capture of, 298 
 Bang, 127 
 Banking facilities in Tashkent, absence 
 
 of. 204 
 Ba-pu, 395 
 
INDEX. 
 
 429 
 
 BAR 
 
 Barak Khan, 232 
 
 Bara-kok, ii. 44 
 
 Baranta, 39; ii. 206, 411 
 
 Barbers in the Tashkent Bazaar, 180 
 
 Barbieri, 200; ii. 162 
 
 Barbotte de Marny, ii. 374 
 
 Barbus fluviatilis, 277 
 
 Barchin, 400, 401 
 
 Bardashef, ii. 137 
 
 Barkul, 409 
 
 Barley, 290, 398 
 
 Barley-sugar, ii. 162 
 
 Barsuks, ii. 422 
 
 Bashkirs, their language and origin, 
 numbers and occupation, 3 ; house 
 of a batchelor, 4 ; yamstchiks, 4 ; 
 housekeeping, 5 ; ii. 396, 406 
 
 Basiiis Bat;izzi. 360 
 
 Basiner, 361 ; ii. 414 
 
 Bassano, Duke of, ii. 258 
 
 Bassj'z, ii. 137 
 
 Batchas, 132-139; description of a 
 performance of, 133, 134; former 
 prohibition against, 132 ; respect paid 
 to, 133 ; retained by men of rank, 
 133 
 
 Bitchu-Nuin, 405, 407 
 
 Baths at Bukhara, ii. 3, 4, 9 
 
 Batman, 201, 202 
 
 Bator Kuntaitsi. ii. 166, 398 
 
 Batu, 400, 406, 407 ; generalissimo, 
 405 
 
 Baty, 378 
 
 Batyr Bek, 32, 91 
 
 Batyr Khan Tiura, 357 ; ii. 296 ; defeat 
 of, 297 ; surrender of, 299 
 
 Bayandai, ii. 172 ; capture of, 180 ; 
 ruins of, 192 
 
 Bayktchi, surrender of, ii. 292 
 
 Bazaar-Kutche, ii. 193 
 
 Bazaars in Bukhara, ii. 14, 15, 16, 94 ; 
 in Karshi, 79 ; in Kazala, 46 ; Kir- 
 ghiz, in Tashkent, 183, 184; at 
 Urntepe. 311; in Hodjent, 314; 
 in Sbaar, ii. 71; in Tashkent, 173, 
 174, 175; in Turkistan, 73 
 
 Bazem dance, 133-138 
 
 Bear, the Great, 325 
 
 Bebalma, 321 
 
 Bed-bug, 149; ii. 125 
 
 Beets, ii. 161 
 
 Bei, dynasty of, 366 
 
 Bek of Andijan, 348 
 
 Bek of Tashkent, 348 
 
 Bekovitch-Tcherkaski, Prince, 322 ; 
 ii. 372; campaign of. ii. 329; defeats 
 Khivans, 329 ; massacred, 329, 401, 
 408 
 
 Bek Murad Bek, 340 
 
 Bek Kuli, ii. 323 
 
 BOL 
 
 Beklar Bek Medresse Tashkent, 101 
 
 Bek Nureddin Khan, ii. 77, 78 
 
 Bek of Khokand. ii. 25, 26, 27 
 
 Bektchurin. Professor, 14 
 
 Belkhi, 365 
 
 Benedict, Friar, 400, 401 
 
 Bentinck, 376 
 
 Berbalikh, 406, 409 
 
 Berdan rifles, ii. 10 
 
 Berdy Murad Khan, ii. 383 
 
 Berezof, ii. 149 
 
 Berintzef, ii. 147 
 
 Berkent, 406 
 
 Beshbalikh (Bishbalik), 406 
 
 Besh Kala, ii. 384 
 
 Bestan, 407 
 
 Beznosikof, General, 222, 361 
 
 Biaz, use of at Tashkent, 189, 190 
 
 Bibi Khanym, Medresse of, 249, 250 ; 
 tradition of, 251 
 
 Biely Tsar, ii. 143 
 
 Biely-yar, ii. 396 
 
 Bie-shi-ba, 394 
 
 Bie-shi-ba-li, 398 
 
 Biesze-ma, 395 
 
 Bigayat cataracts, 109 
 
 Bii, 384 
 
 Biis, the, 166-169 ; among Kara- 
 Kirghiz, ii. 139, 141 ; elections of, 
 ii. 140, 141 ; jurisdiction of, ii. 140 ; 
 at Tokmak, council of, 140, 141 
 
 Bikasab, 190 
 
 Biki, ii. 79, 80 
 
 Binaket, 340 
 
 Birth, customs and superstitions at, 140 
 
 Biscuits, ii. 337, 338 
 
 Bisermins, the, 401 
 
 Bish-agatch, 103 
 
 Bisharyk, ii. 53, 54, 290 
 
 Bishbalik, 410 
 
 Biskent, 324 
 
 Bitter Paper, ii. 236 
 
 Black bone, 32 ; ii. 405 
 
 Black Irtysh, 403, 405 
 
 Black Kirghiz, 30 
 
 Black Kitayans. the, 400 
 
 Black Sea, ii. 265 
 
 Blagovestchensky, Col., ii. 339 
 
 Blankennagel, 361 
 
 Blowgun, the, 129 
 
 Blue Horde, the, 377, 378 
 
 Blue Sea, 50, 53 
 
 Bock, Admiral, 48 
 
 Bogandof, Mr., ii. 374 
 
 Bogari, 287, 288 
 
 Bogdanovitch, 223 
 
 Bogra Khan, 365 
 
 Bogu, ii. 137 
 
 Bolak, 395 
 
 Bob, 395, 398, 399 
 
430 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 BON 
 
 Bones in Lake Issyk Kill, ii. 128 
 Book of the Great Survey, the, ii. 393 
 Books in Bukhara, ii. 97 ; used at 
 
 school, 164 
 Boots, 123 
 Boris, 382 
 Borokhoro, ii. 188 
 Borokhudzir, ii. 157; fight at, ii. 185 ; 
 
 outpost at, ii. 186 
 Boroldai, 32C 
 Boron Gar, ii. 166 
 Borotala river, 395 
 Borotala valley, ii. 190 
 Boshan. 390 
 Bos-su Canal, 102, 103 
 Boundaries of Afghanistan, ii. 267, 269 
 Boundary Court, ii. 406 
 Boundary of Khiva, ii. 418 
 Boundary of Persia, the, ii. 384 
 Bourre de Soie, 198 
 Bows, 128 
 
 Bows and arrows, ii. 193 
 Boyandur, ii. 376 
 Boyars, ii. 391, 392 
 Buzhovitch, Capt., ii. 159, 188 
 Brandy, 297 ; distilled by Jews, 297 
 Brass workers in Tashkent, 176, 177 
 Brazil, indigo imported from, 182 
 Bretschneider, Dr., 188, 238, 397, 398; 
 
 notes on Chinese Mediaeval travellers 
 
 to the West, 394 
 Bricks, Chinese, ii. 160 
 Bridge of Arbas, ii. 134 ; at Hodjent. 
 
 323 ; ii. 34 ; at Karshi, ii. 80 ; 'over 
 
 the Kashka, ii. 80 ; over the Naryn 
 
 at Utch Kurgan, ii. 33 ; over Naryn, 
 
 ii. 33 ; over Syr Darya, ii. 23; over 
 
 the Tchirtchik, 324, 325 
 Briteh-mulla, 200 
 Brodofsky, 291 
 Bronzes, ii. 193 
 Brunow, Baron, ii. 314 
 Brnssa, 240 ; ii. 97 
 Brunn, Prof. Philip, 401 ; ii. 122 
 Buara Pass, the, ii. 127 
 Buchannan, Sir Andrew, ii. 267 
 Buchholtz, Captain, 322 ; ii. 401 
 Budai, 291 
 Budatcha, 95 
 Buddha, 78, 368 
 Buddhist, 38; influence in Central Asia, 
 
 ii. 89 ; monastery, pieces of, ii. 121 ; 
 
 temple in Kuldja, ii. 194 
 Buddhist temple, ruins of, ii. 163 
 Bud-khaneh, 78 
 Bugdaily, 344, 381 
 Bugdaily lake, ii. 380, 382 
 Bugun river, 51, 74 
 Bukan mountains, the, ii. 339 
 Bukan-tau mountains, 68, 274; ii- 332 
 
 BUZ 
 
 Buke'ef, 34; horde of Kirghiz, 1 
 
 Bukhar, 368, 385, 386, 387, 388, 389 
 
 Bukhara. 45, 48, 71, 85-97, 113, 123 
 130, 132, 147, 148, 149, 150, .82, 
 184, 342, 344, 345, 346, 347 348, 
 350, 351, 353. 395, 407; ii 61- J 18, 
 167, 265, 266, 267, 305. 438 343, 
 370, 374, 394, 356. 400 401, 104, 
 Ab-Khaneh at, ii. 91 advantages of 
 conquest of. ii. 312 , approach to, ii. 
 84, 85 ; ark at, i: 89. 90 ; army of, 
 ii. 82 ; artillery a'., ii. 89,' 90 ; 
 bazaars in, ii. 94 ; camp at, ii. 82 ; 
 clock at, ii. 90 ; early name of, ii. 89 ; 
 famine in, ii 292, 293; fruit at, ii. 
 87 ; houses at, ii. 87, 89 ; irrigation -of, 
 286, 287 ; Khana Khaneh at, ii. 91 ; 
 Kush Begi of, ii. 91 ; legendary 
 origin of, 277; life in, ii. 86; Ma- 
 narai Kalian at, ii. 92 ; museum at, 
 ii. 91 ; native society in, ii. 98 ; 
 production of silk at, ii. 193; Rig- 
 histan at, ii. 89, 90 ; relations of 
 Russia with, ii. 302-312; relations 
 with the Porte, ii. 308; slave trade 
 said to be abolished in, ii. 310; 
 streets of, ii. 88; trades, ii. 91-97, 
 214, 219 ; trade routes with, ii. 220, 
 221 ; water of, ii. 87 
 
 Bukharan Amir, the ; s<e Mozaffar 
 Eddin, 
 
 Bukharan frontier, disturbances on the, 
 ii. 303 
 
 Bukharan Tsar Abdullah, the, ii. 395 
 
 Bukhar-Khudats, 312 
 
 Buktarmy, ii. 414 
 
 Bula, 394 
 
 Bulumgtir Canal, 286 
 
 Bum, 132 
 
 Bu Mekhet, 364 
 
 Buran, 5 
 
 Bureau of Archives at Turkistan, ii. 
 209 
 
 Burham, 380, 381 
 
 Burial, similar practices of the Russians 
 and Asiatics with regard to, 151, 152 
 
 Buriats, 38 
 
 Burkuts, ii. 154 
 
 Burnashof, Timothei, 338, 361, 382; 
 ii. 409 
 
 Burnes, 361, 383 
 
 Burnisk, ii. 403 
 
 Buruts, 30. 338 ; ii. 57 
 
 Bushaef, ii. 420 
 
 Bushri Haupi, ii. 194 
 
 Butakof, Lieut. 55, 57 ; ii. 331 
 
 Butakoff, Admiral, 361 
 
 Butenief, 361 ; ii. 414 
 
 Buttons, ii. 15 ; in Bukhara, ii. 64 
 
 Buz, 189 
 
INDEX. 
 
 •431 
 
 BUZ 
 
 Buza, 37, 126 
 
 Euzgunteh, 182 
 
 Buzruk Khan, 353 
 
 Buzurg Khan Hodja, ii. 316 
 
 Buzzing in the ear, legend relating to, 
 
 ii. 30 
 Bykofsky, Mr., ii. 17 
 Byzantium, 390, 391 
 
 CAILAC, 403 
 Calais, 223 
 Calcutta, ii. 303 319 ; Railway to, 223 
 
 Calenders in Central Asia. 329 to 335 
 Camels, 19, 20, 213, 366; ii. 337- 
 
 340 ; as beasts of burden, 218, 219 
 Canal Khan, ii. 38, 55 
 Canal, Mussulman Kul, ii. 55 
 Canals, 399, ii. 377 ; in the Zarafshan 
 
 valley, 286, 287 ; failure of at Tash- 
 kent, 103 
 Candy, ii. 162 
 Cannon, Chinese, ii. 41 
 Cannon foundry, ii. 10 
 Cannon of Ivan the Terrible, ii. 415 
 Cape Urgu, ii. 363 
 Cara Catayans, the, 402 
 Caravan-bushi, ii. 324 
 Caravanserai at Tashkent, 184, 185- 
 
 219, 221 
 Cards, 128 
 
 Carpets, 77; ii. 79; manufacture of, 184 
 Carpini Piano, 401, 409 
 Carts, 130 
 Caspian Sea, the, 27, 28, 31, 34, 46, 50, 
 
 53, 55, 391, 405, 406 ; ii. 394, 401 ; 
 
 armed vessels in, ii. 414 
 Catalan map, ii. 130 
 Cathay, 404 
 Cathedral, Tashkent, 78 
 Catherine II. ii. 259, 405, 408 ; founds 
 
 a mosque, ii. 93 
 Cats, 130 
 
 Cattle, 325, 326 ; ii. 383 
 Caucasus, 91, 197, 391 ; ii. 398 
 Causes damaging Russian influence in 
 
 Central Asia, ii. 226, 227, 228 
 Cemeteries, 151 
 Chaldean calender, 331 
 Champagne, 97 
 
 Character of Russian officials, ii. 245 
 Charmoy, Professor, 374 
 Chase, the, 128 
 Chaussee at Samarkand, 232 
 Cherries, 296 
 Chess, 128 
 Chetara, 131 
 Children, games of, 128 
 China, 34, 35, 150, 190; 338, 366,391, 
 
 COL 
 
 395, 396, 410, 411, ii. 395, 398, 399, 
 
 ii. 401, 402, 403 ; trade with. ii. 400 
 China and earthenware, dealers in, 187 
 Chinese account of Lake Sairam. ii. 
 
 191 ; coins, ii. 162 ; contest with the 
 
 Oirat, ii. 167; cookery, ii. 196; 
 
 dishes, ii. 195; embassy ii. 399; 
 
 emperors, ii. 338, 340, 342, 343, 
 
 403. 339 ; farce, ii. 197; government 
 
 makes Gen. Kolpakofsky a mandarin, 
 
 ii. 184; influence, ii. 41; lake, 50; 
 
 musicians and comedians, ii. 196; 
 
 opera, ii. 197; porcelain, 187; re- 
 staurant, ii. 195; smell, ii. 159; 
 
 travellers, 188, 236; ii. 134; at 
 
 Vierny, ii. 146, 147 
 Chcdzko Leonard, ii. 259 
 Cholera, 148, 149, 162; in Tashkent, 
 
 132 
 Choliatse, the, 390, 391 
 Chop sticks, ii. 193. 195 
 Christian church at Tashkent, 78 ; in 
 
 Kuldja, ii. 194 ; Bussian, at Tulek, 
 
 67 ; at Samarkand, 238 
 Cilicia, 405, 408 
 C rcassia, 8 
 Circumcision among Kirghiz, 37, 40, 
 
 110-142 
 Citadel of Hodjent, 314 ; of Kitab, ii. 65 
 Cithara, origin of, 131 
 City of Tashkent, ii. 205 
 Civil administration of Central Asia, ii. 
 
 202 
 Civil military administration, ii. 221 
 Clans of Uzbeks, 106, 108 
 Clarendon, Lord, ii. 266 
 Clarionets, 132 
 
 Classes of population, ii. 56, 57 
 Clavigo, 238 240 
 Climate, ii. 56 
 Climatic zones, 326-328 
 Clock at. Bukhara, ii. 90 
 Club at Yierny, ii. 146 ; Tashkent, 79, 
 
 83 
 Clytus, 236 
 Coal, ii. 56, 197; at Kuldja, ii. 152; 
 
 for the Aral flotilla, 57, 58 
 Coalfields of Central Asia, 319, 321 ; of 
 
 Upper Zaraphan, 278 
 Coal-mines at Kokine-sai, 319 
 Cochineal, 182 
 Cockroaches, attempt to naturalise, ii. 
 
 125 
 Cocom Serai, ii. 14 
 C'coons, silkworms. 196, 197 
 Coins, 341. 344, 370,399; ii. 97: of 
 
 Abul-I'eiz, 883 ; of Abul Ghazi, 385 ; 
 
 in Central Asia, 203; of Mir Haidar, 
 
 385; of Zutchi, 401 
 College in Bukhara, ii. 408 
 
432 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 COL 
 
 Colleges, 163, 165 
 
 Colonies, German on the Volga, 203 
 
 Colonists, Eussian, 102; ii. 126, 145, 
 
 150, 152; Ushri, in Central Asia, 
 
 298 
 Comania, 400 
 Comanians, ii. 57 
 Comedians, 137 
 Commandant of Uratepe, removal of, ii. 
 
 249 
 Commerce and manufactures, ii. 234 
 Commercial enterprise, Eussian, 207 ; 
 
 in Tashkent, 207 
 Commercial pursuits engaged in by 
 
 Eussian officers, ii. 386 
 Commercial relations of Bukhara. 414 
 Commercial relations with Central 
 
 Asia, ii. 407 
 Commercial treaties, ii. 17 
 Commissariat in Turkistan, the, ii. 223 
 Communal ownership of land, 298, 301 
 Communal Eegency, ii. 206 
 Communications, efforts to improve, 
 
 221 
 Conclusion, 387, 388, 389 ; Central 
 
 Asia can never pay expenses, ii. 388 ; 
 
 Eussia cannot now withdraw from 
 
 Central Asia, ii. 388 ; Eussia com- 
 pelled to advance, ii. 338 ; Eussia's 
 
 ethnical and political boundary in 
 
 Central Asia, ii. 388, 389; position of 
 
 Chinese labour in Central Asia, ii. 
 
 389 
 Condition of people since occupation of 
 
 country by the Eussians, ii. 245 
 Condonation of offences, ii. 247 
 Conduct of the prefect of the district of 
 
 Perovsky, ii. 249 
 Connolly, 361, 259 
 Constantinople, 152, 355, 389; ii. 303, 
 
 308, 324 
 Contemporary coins of Khokand by V. 
 
 Gregorief, 337 
 Contomanni, 403 
 Contractors, 98 
 Cooking in Khokand, ii. 42 
 Copper, ii. 197 ; in Central Asia, 322 ; 
 
 ii. 56 
 Cornwallis, Lord, 303 
 Correard, M. J., ii. 259 
 Cosmetics, 180 
 Cossack colonists in Siberia, ii. 145, 150, 
 
 152 
 Cossack houses, 129; origin of the 
 
 name, 8 ; picket at Talki, ii. 189 
 Cossacks, the, 5, 6. 30. 45, 49, 61, 75, 
 
 115. 116, 136; ii. 390; of the Don 
 
 revolt, 8: communal rights of, 10; 
 
 erroneous notion with regard to, 7 ; 
 
 expedition against, 8, 9 ; expedition 
 
 DAR 
 
 asainst Khiva, ii. 328 , inferiority 
 of Orenburg, 16; pioneers of Eussian 
 civilisation, 7, 8; religion of, 10; 
 impris:raed by Kirghiz, ii. 422 
 
 Cotard, 223 
 
 Cotton goods, 189, 336; ii. 383 ; prints 
 at Tashkent, 189 
 
 Cotton, cultivation of, 285, 294 ; gather- 
 ing of, 295 ; production of, 295 ; sow- 
 ing of, 294, 295; Surat, 296; sea, 
 296; trade, 215 
 
 Councils, ii. 238 
 
 Count of Khiva, ii. 368 
 
 Cour-. of Maugur-Khan, 402 
 
 Courts, 166-171 
 
 Crime in Tashkent, 103 
 
 Crimea, ii 266 
 
 Crimean Horde, the, ii. 397 
 
 Crimean Khanate, ii. 399 
 
 Crops, summer and winter, 290, 291 ; 
 in the Zarafshan vallev, 287, 288 
 
 Cross of St. George, ii 339 
 
 Cufic inscriptions, 70 
 
 Cultivable land in Central Asia, 284, 
 285 ; in Zarafshan valley. 284 
 
 Cultivation, methods of, 290, 291 ; of 
 the Zarafshan valley, 284 
 
 Culture, former, of Syr Darj-a valley, 
 67 
 
 Customs duties, 206, 207 
 
 Customs line of Orenburg-Siberia, 213 
 
 Customs Office in Khokand, ii. 5 
 
 Cypresses, 399 
 
 DABA, 217, 218 
 Da-di-pu, ii. 179, 181, 182 
 
 Daich (the Yaik or Ural), 391 
 
 Dainlof, Thomas, ii. 300 
 
 Daka, 189 
 
 Dakhme-Shahan, 363 
 
 Dalai Lama, ii. 166-168 
 
 Dalobian Khan, 390 
 
 Dalu, 329, 330 
 
 Damgan, 407 
 
 Dancing, ii. 65, 66, 76 ; boys at Urgut, 
 271 ; former prohibition against, 132 ; 
 objections of Said Azim to, 99 ; re- 
 spect paid to, 133 
 
 Dandeville, ii. 203 
 
 Dandur, ii. 345 
 
 Dang Dungan, ii. 193 
 
 Danial Bii, 384 
 
 Daniar Atilyk at Shahrisabs, ?i. 72, 
 114 
 
 Danilefskv. 361 ; ii. 331, 414 ; at Khiva, 
 ii, 330 
 
 Dankara, ii. 370, 371 ; Lake, ii. 374 
 
 Danube, ii. 265 
 
 Dargam canal, 286 
 
INDEX. 
 
 433 
 
 DAR 
 
 Darkha Pass, 275 
 
 Darvaz, 343 
 
 Darya, 50 
 
 Dashly, ii. 384 
 
 Dashty Kazy, 277 
 
 Datkhah, ii. 7 
 
 Daud Darai, 192 
 
 Dauria, ii. 170 
 
 Davan, ii. 54 
 
 Davatsi, ii. 168 
 
 D'Avezac, 401, 404 
 
 Davy, 374 
 
 Day, division of the, 33o ; length of, 
 156; names of the, 332 
 
 Deception by guide, ii. 47, 48 
 
 Decorations, ii. 355 
 
 Decree forbidding persons to cross Sjr 
 Darya, ii. 248 
 
 Decrees of Tamerlane, 374 ; ii. 238 
 
 Deer horns, trade in, ii. 148 
 
 Defects of the Russian administration, 
 ii. 236 
 
 Defremery, 370, 373 
 
 Degwines, 374 
 
 De Jo, ii. 131 
 
 De la Croix, 114 
 
 De la Gardie, Gen., ii. 415 
 
 Delphinium, 182 
 
 Demaison, 361, 387 
 
 Demetrius, 237 ; ii. 97 
 
 Demonstrations on return of Khivan 
 
 Expedition, 82 
 Denga, derivation of from the Asiatic 
 
 tenga, 153 
 Dennet, L t.-Col., 281 
 De Quiney, ii. 171 
 
 Dervish Khan, 232 ; at Samarkand, 257 
 Dervishes, 158, 159, 160, 161 ; worship 
 
 of, 158-161, 235 
 Description of the Khanate of Khokand 
 
 in its present condition, 337 
 Desert of Karshi, ii. 80, 81 ; near Kho- 
 
 khand, ii, 51 
 Desht-i-Kiptchak. 232; ii. 57 
 Despatches, ii. 357 
 Detention of the Khivan traders in 
 
 Russia, ii. 414 
 ' Deux Historiens Armeniens',' 408 
 Dextorno, ii. 14 
 
 Diet and cooking on the Steppe, 21, 22 
 Digmai, 188, 317 
 
 Dikokamenny Kirghiz, 30, 368 ; ii. 135 
 Dilke, Mr., ii. 149, 190 
 Dimitri Tsarevitch, 153 
 Din-Mohammed, 386 
 Dioscorides, 150 
 
 Diplomatic, employe, ii. 272 ; missions, 
 ii. 271 ; relations with Khokand, ii. 
 6, 17, 18, 19. 
 Discipline of Russian soldiers, 175 
 
 TOL. II. IF 
 
 DUN 
 
 Discontent among the natives at Rus- 
 sian maladministration, ii. 254 
 Diseases, 147, 148, 149 
 Dishonest Prefect, a, ii. 248 
 Disorder among the nomads, ii. 281 
 Disorders in the Kirghiz steppe, ii, 
 
 306 
 Dissenters, 10 
 
 Distilleries, 207 
 
 District Prefects, ii. 205 
 
 Disturbances in the Bukan Mountains, 
 ii. 418; in Hodjent, ii. 254; in 
 Tchimkent in 1873, ii. 255 ; at Man- 
 gyshlak, ii. 421; in the Orenburg 
 steppos, ii. 419 
 
 Divan, ii. 352 
 
 Divan Begi of Khiva, 50 
 
 Divan Begi Mat. Murad, ii. 342 
 
 Divan Begi Medresse at Bukhara, ii. 92 
 
 Divination, ii. 31, 32 
 
 Division of provinces, ii. 205 
 
 Divorce, 124, 125, 143, 146 
 
 Divs, the, ii. 121 
 
 Dizabulus, 390, 391 
 
 Dizakh, 407 
 
 Djam, ii. 62, 305 
 
 Djenghiz, Kadr, 365 
 
 Djete Jagataides, the, 375 
 
 Djete Ulus, the, 373 
 
 Doda Mohammed, 97 ; merchant of 
 Tashkent, 118, 119, 122, 197 
 
 Dogs, 130, 399 ; food of, 404 
 
 D'Ohsson's ' Histoire des Mongols,' 372 
 
 Don, the, 8, 236, 401; coal brought 
 from, 57 
 
 Door-plates, Chinese, ii. 158 
 
 Dostarktian, 120, 121 ; ii. 3, 289, 290; 
 a Bukharan, ii. 65 ; in Shaar, ii. 68. 
 69 
 
 D.^st Mohammed Khan, 260 
 
 Dowry, 143 
 
 Dragendorff, Prof., on medicine 149, 
 150 
 
 Dreschern, Colonel, ii. 347 
 
 Dress of the natives, 122, 123, 124 
 
 Dr nks. 126. 127 
 
 Drosbkies, in Tashkent, 81 ; in Samar- 
 canJ, 234 
 
 Drugs in CVntral Asia, 149, 150 
 
 Drums. 132 
 
 Drunkenness amongst soldiers, ii. 230 
 
 Drunken bazaar, the, 175 
 
 Dsungaria, ii. 166 
 
 Dubrovin, 360, 383 
 
 Duff, Mr., ii. 334 
 
 Duhamel, 28, project of, ii. 265 
 
 Dulaneh, 130 
 
 Dungan insurrection, the, ii. 157 
 
 Dungan mosque, a, ii. 194; at Suidun, 
 ii. 160 
 
43-i 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 DUN 
 
 Dungans, the, 410; ii. 173, 193, 197, 
 319; advance towards Manas, ii. 
 178; capture Urumki, ii. 178; cha- 
 racter, ii. 173 ; conspiracy of, ii. 176 ; 
 defeat of the, ii. 181 ; discontent of, 
 ii. 175 ; leave Tchugutchak, ii. 185 ; 
 occupations of, 173; overpowered by 
 Tarantchis, ii. 182, 183; rebellion of, 
 ii. 179, 182 
 
 Durben Oirat, the, ii. 165 
 
 Durbot tribe, the, ii. 165 
 
 Dustam, 131 
 
 Dust wind, a, ii. 51 
 
 Dutch, the, ii. 400, 402, 409 
 
 Duties, illegal, ii. 17 
 
 Duvana, the village of, ii. 51 
 
 Duvanas, 158 
 
 Dyes, 182, 366 
 
 Dye-stuffs, 182 
 
 Dzian-Dziun Zhun, ii. 172, 179, 185, 
 326 
 
 I RAGLES, 338; ii. 154 
 a Earthquakes, 71, 79, 328 
 Eastern customs in Russia, 151. 152 
 ' Eastern Turkistan,' by V. Grigorief, 
 
 338 
 Easter, Russian, 47 
 Ebi Nor, lake, 396; ii. 190, 191 
 Ebn Baithar, 150 
 Economical regency, the, ii. 238 
 Ediger Hodja, 338, 359 
 'Edinburgh Review,' 391 
 Edrisi, 370 
 Education, ii. 169, 235; of girls, 165; 
 
 in Tashkent, 162, 165 
 Effect of Russian administration on 
 
 troops and officials, ii. 219 
 Egg plants, ii. 161 
 Egypt, 150 
 Eichholm, ii. 283 
 Ekopruk, 406 
 Ek-tag, 390 
 Ek-tag Altai, the, 390 
 Elders, ii. 205 
 Election of Kazis, ii. 206 
 Eliutei, Prince, ii. 165 
 El-Mokanna, 369 
 Eltchi, ii. 419 
 
 Emba, the, 15, 47 ; ii. 347, 367, 398 
 Embroidery, 188 
 Emigrants from Kuldja to Siberia, ii. 
 
 183, 184 
 Emil, 400, 402 
 Emperor of Germany, 368 
 Emperor Khubilai, 372 
 Emperor Nicholas I., ii. 411 
 Emperor Rudolf, the, 395 
 Empress Ann, the, ii. 409, 412 
 
 FAT 
 
 Empress Catherine, ii. 408 
 Engineering department, Administra* 
 
 tion of, ii. 224 
 Engineering skill of natives in construct- 
 ing canals, 289 
 England, 387 ; ii. 269 
 England and Russia, ii. 261, 264, 269, 
 
 365 
 English manufacturers at Bukhai'a, ii. 
 
 94, 96 
 English mission in Kashgar, ii. 388 
 English missionaries, 38 
 Eukakh, 406 
 E tail, 301 
 Enzeli. ii. 385 
 Epaulets, ii. 24, 42 
 Etpiius, 402, 404, 405 
 Erak, 407 
 
 Eraskh (Araxes), the, 407 
 P>deni, 339 
 
 Erdeni Bek, 339, 359, 386 
 ' Erdkunde,' Ritter's, ii. 257 
 Erman, 334 
 Ertitch, 406 
 
 Esaul Bashi, canal of, ii. 375 
 Esaul Bashi, Mahmud, ii. 418 
 Esen, the Taitsi, ii. 166 
 Eskedjiket, 367 
 Establishment of a post at Krasnovodsk, 
 
 ii. 419 
 Etel (Volga) river, 405 
 Europe, 366 
 European travel forbidden in Central 
 
 Asia, 48 
 Euryangium, 181 
 Euthydermus, 237; ii- 97 
 Eversmann, 361 ; ii. 409 
 Evidence in law courts, superstitious 
 
 practices in default of, 170, 171 
 Exactions of the Khan, ii. 57, 89 
 Executions, ii. 16 ; in Shahrisabs, ii. 71 
 Expenses of Tashkent, 104 
 Exploration of country south of Emba, 
 
 ii. 332 
 Exploring expeditions of road to Khiva, 
 
 ii. 332 
 Export duties, ii. 17 
 Expulsion of the English from Af- 
 ghanistan, Grigorief 's account of the, 
 
 ii. 257 
 Extraordinary credits, demands for, ii. 
 
 229 
 Extravagance and mismanagement of 
 
 officials, ii. 251 
 Ezdedjerd, 369 
 
 "I? AIR. Irbit, 209 ; Nizhni Novgorod 
 J 209 ; Tashkent, 207, 208, 209, 210, 
 212 
 
JNDEX. 
 
 435 
 
 FAL 
 
 Falbin, ii. 32 
 
 Falcons, 128, 338 
 
 Falgar, 279, 280, 283 
 
 Famine in Central Asia, 292, 293 
 
 Famished Steppe, 108. 226 ; difficulties 
 of crossing the, 227 ; projects for 
 irrigating the, 227 
 
 Fanaticism of Central Asia, 162 ; Mus- 
 sulman, 161 
 
 Fandarya, 275, 277 
 
 Farab, 87, 279, 280, 283 
 
 Farsang, 203 
 
 Fazil Bii, 339 
 
 Fazyl Eek, 357 
 
 Fedor, Tsar, 53 
 
 Fedotof, Ivan, 382 
 
 Fedtchenko, 181, 278; ii. 38, 46, 55, 
 125; on silkworms, 198 
 
 Felt, manufacture of, 183, 184 
 
 Fenn, 399 
 
 Feodor Iranovitch, the Tsar, ii. 394, 395 
 
 Ferdonof, merchant, 323 
 
 Ferghana, 338, 340, 358, 394 ; ii. 300 
 
 Ferghana Valley, 51 ; ii. 54 
 
 Ferhat, story of, 108 
 
 Festival of the Elevation of the Holy 
 Cross, 406 
 
 Figs, ii. 87 
 
 Filaria, 147 
 
 Filature, silk, 199 
 
 Finns, ii. 136 
 
 Firdusi, 105 
 
 Fire-arms, manufacture of, 178 
 
 Fire-engine, ii. 15 
 
 Fire worship, ii. 137 
 
 Fischer, Captain, ii. 152 
 
 Flavitsky, Mr., 323 ; ii. 1, 2 
 
 Flax, 294 
 
 Fleas, 149 
 
 Flood, ii. 120 
 
 Floods of Syr Darya, 52 
 
 Florio Beneveni. 360, 382 ; ii. 329 
 
 Flotilla on the Aral Sea, ii. 404 
 
 Flour, ii. 198 
 
 Flowers, use of, ii. 87 
 
 Forage, ii. 338 
 
 Forests, cultivation of, ii. 158 ; lack of, 
 iu Semiretch. ii. 150 
 
 Forsyth, Mr., ii. 266, 387 ; mission, 
 ii. ,323 
 
 Fort No. 1, 44, 57, 58, 65, 148 ; ii. 
 335, 337 
 
 Fort Mo. 2, 46, 52, 55, 61, 62, 63 ; Rus- 
 sian, on the Steppe, 32, 33 
 
 Fort Alexandrofsky, 46 ; ii. 379 
 
 Fort Naryn, ii. 133, 317 
 
 Fort Perovsky, 52, 53, 54, 55, 57, 58, 
 60, 62-64, 350, 351 ; capture of, 64; 
 description of, 64, 65 
 
 Fort Rain, 44; ii. 412 
 
 GES 
 
 Fort St. George, ii. 340 
 
 Fortifications, at Cape Urgu, ii. 419 , 
 of Kopal, ii. 412 ; on the Turgai and 
 Irghiz, ii. 412 
 
 Fortress at Khokand, ii. 10 
 
 'Forty turns,' 123 
 
 Fovitsky, Colonel, 319, 320 
 
 Fowls, ii. 196, 383 
 
 Frsehn, 381, 401 
 
 Fraser, the Mussulman, 38, 361 
 
 Fraternities, religious, 158 
 
 Freight, 220 
 
 French and Italian Catholic mission- 
 aries, ii. 194 
 
 French influence in Andijan, ii. 42 
 
 Fruit, 365 ; in Bukhara, ii. 87 
 
 Fuchsine, 182 
 
 Fuel, ii. 338 ; for Aral flotilla, 57, 58 ; 
 at Kuklja, ii. 152 ; in Tashkent, 102 ; 
 at Vierny, ii. 152 
 
 Fulstein, Gerburt von, 263 
 
 Funeral custom. 1 -, 151, 152 
 
 Funeral feasts, 151 
 
 Funerals, 150, 151 
 
 Furniture of native houses. 120 
 
 Further extension of Russian limits 
 within Central Asia, ii. 412 
 
 GABRIEL, Archangel, 153, 182 
 Gaillardet, M., ii. 259 
 Galdan, 150; ii. 167 
 Galdan Tsyran, 112; ii. 168 
 Galtchas, 106, 277, 278, 311 
 Galvers, 202 
 Gambling, 128 
 
 Game of the grey wolf, 268, 269 
 Games in the Zarafhan Valley, 278 
 Gantzak, 408 
 Gao-tchan, ii. 173 
 Gap, 151 
 
 Garber, Colonel, 360, 383 
 Gardening school, ii. 146, 150 
 Gardens, 297 ; ii. 37 ; at Paita, ii. 37 ; 
 
 at Tashkent, 101, 102 
 Gate, sitting in the, ii. 91 
 Gates, of Derbent, 406 ; of Tamerlane, 
 
 231 
 Gems, ii. 203 
 Genealogical Table, of the sovereigns 
 
 of Khokand, 359 ; of rulers of Xo- 
 
 histan, 280 
 ' Geographical Magazine,' ii. 373 
 Geographical Society of Geneva, ii. 374 
 Georgian ruler, the, ii. 395 
 Gerburt von Fulstein, 263 
 German colonies, 2 
 German prisoners, 395 
 Germans, ancestors of, 105 
 ' Geschichte der Chalifen,' 368 
 
 f f 2 
 
436 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 GET 
 
 Getse, ii. 164 
 
 Ghazi, or Conqueror of the Infidels, 
 
 342 
 Giaz, 202 
 Gibon, 50 
 
 Giovanni Orlandi, ii. 90, 91 
 Girdle of semi-independent States, ii. 
 
 266 
 Girdles, 123 
 
 Girei, Kirghiz Sultan, 30 
 Girls, education of, 165 
 Giug, 405 
 Gizhitzky, 79 
 Glacier, Muzart, ii. 135 ; Petrof, 50 ; of 
 
 the Zarafhan, 276, 281 
 Gladishef, 360 
 Gladstone, Mr., ii. 268 
 Glass, manufacture of, 188 ; works, 37 
 Glauber's Salts, 69 
 Glukhofsky, Colonel, ii. 302, 354, 379, 
 
 386 ; his trading adventures, 220 
 Godunof, ii. 394, 395 
 Goitre, ii. 15 
 
 Goklans, the, 381, 382, 384 
 Gold, ii. 400; in Zarafshan, 278; in 
 
 Central Asia, 322 
 Golden Horde, the, 376, 377, 378, 380, 
 
 391, 392, 393 
 Golden Mountain, the, 390 
 Gold mines in Siberia and the Ural, ii. 
 
 414 
 Gold sand in Little Bukhara, ii. 329 
 Golo-donaya Steppe, 226, 227 
 Golof, Colonel, ii. 337, 368 
 Golovatchef, General, 243 ; ii. 284, 286, 
 
 287, 337, 347, 350, 356, 357, 358, 
 
 359, 363, 423 ; narrow escape of, ii. 
 
 361 
 Golubef, 401 
 Gomar, 341 
 Gortchakof, Prince, 302; ii. 260,261 
 
 262, 263, 266, 314, 336, 387 
 Goths, the, ii. 164 
 Government, ii. 57 ; chancery expenses 
 
 at Riga, ii. 209 ; chancery expenses 
 
 in Eastern Siberia, ii. 209 ; chancery 
 
 expenses in Western Siberia, ii. 209 ; 
 
 chancery expenses at Wilna, ii, 209 
 Government of India, the, ii. 387 
 Governor General's palace at Tashkent, 
 
 78 
 Gowher Shadi, 375 
 Gowns, 188 
 Grreco-Bactrian coins, ii. 97 ; dynasty, 
 
 the, 237 ; kingdom, ii. 164 
 Grain, 336; cause of dearness of, ii. 
 
 217 ; at Karshi, 79 ; produce of taxes 
 
 on, ii. 217 ; production of, 292, 
 
 293 ; table showing rise of prices of, 
 
 285 
 
 HAI 
 
 Grard Duke Michael, ii. 262. 263, 335, 
 
 377, 423 
 Grand Duke Nicholas, ii. 337, 347 
 Granville, Lord, 223 
 Grapes, 297, 399 
 Graves, 151 
 Grazzi, Modesto, ii. 90 
 Great and Little Barsuk, the, 401 
 Great Bear, the, 397 
 Great Mogul in India, 340 
 Great Mogul, the, ii. 3£5 
 Great Survey, Book of the, 50, 53 
 Great Wall, the, 365, 391 
 Great White Tsar, ii. 289 
 Grebenkin, 292 
 Greeks, the, 50 
 
 Green Banner, troops of the, ii. 172 
 Green Mound, the, ii. 381 
 Green pepper, ii. 196 
 Gretchenko, Jevgraf, ii. 19, 2C 
 Greybeard, ii. 205 
 Grib, 382 
 Grigorief, Prof.. 360; ii. 237, 257, 258, 
 
 273, 391 ; views on Turanians and 
 
 Scythians, 105, 109 
 Grimm, Dr., 27 
 Gripsholm, castle of, ii. 415 
 Gromof, Mr., 79 ; ii. 363 
 Guberlinsky Mountains, 16, 22 
 Guilds, the thirty-two, 173 
 Guinea-worm, 147 
 Guitar, origin of, 131 
 Gulf of Corea, 390 
 Gulf of Karabugaz, ii. 382 
 Gulf of Tustche bas, ii. 374 
 Gultcha Turkomans, the, ii. 372 
 Gumagur, 406, 409 
 Gur' Amir. 252 
 Gurgan, the, ii. 344, 382, 385 
 Gurgil, ii. 291 
 
 Gurkhan. the, 371, 372; ii. 122 
 Gushi-Khan. ii. 398 
 Guz, 107. 367 
 Gypsies, ii. 41, 42 
 
 HABA BAI, ii. 2 
 Ha-Dervish desert, ii. 51 
 Hadji Bek, 353 
 Hadji Bii, 343, 345, 359 
 Hadji Nefus, ii. 329 
 Hadji Urak, ii. 422 
 
 Hadjis Ijma-u-Ummet and Kea's sup- 
 plements to Koran, 154, 155 
 Hafistas, 234, 235 
 Hafiz, 163 
 Hafiz Tanysh, 381 
 Hafta, 332 
 Haider Razi, 404 
 Haie-tic-shan, tho, 299 
 
INDEX. 
 
 4 37 
 
 HAI 
 
 Hiir-ullah, 127, 225, 226 
 
 Hakim Bek, ii. 238, 271 ; at Kitab, ii. 
 73, 74 
 
 Hakim Kush Begi, ii. 114 
 
 Hakluyt, 400 
 
 Hakluyt's voyages, 404 
 
 Hakodati, ii. 415 
 
 Halvah, 121 
 
 Halyk Nazar Parmanatchi, ii. 282, 292 ; 
 pardoned, ii. 293 
 
 Hammer, 371, 372 
 
 Hanbal, the, 1C6 
 
 Ilau dynasty, the, 366 
 
 Hanifet, the, 156 
 
 Hanify, ii. 29 
 
 Hanki, ii. 343, 351, 367, 369, 375 
 
 Hansu, ii. 173, 178, 319, 371; insur- 
 rection at, ii. 178 
 
 Haradj, 103, 303; ii. 206, 241, 302; 
 year, 331 
 
 Harness, 129, 130 
 
 Harvests, 290; in the Zarafhan, 291, 
 292 ; bad, ii. 308 
 
 Hasarasp, ii. 343 ; occupied, ii. 342 
 
 Hasfort, General, ii. 154 
 
 Hasfort Pass, ii. 154 
 
 Hatem, 408 
 
 Hayton, 408 
 
 Hazavat, ii. 282, 357 
 
 Hazavat Canal, ii. 358 
 
 Hazorasband, 69 
 
 Hazret, ii. 27 ; meaning of, 73 
 
 Hazret Bohoueddin, tomb of, ii. 113 
 
 Hazretti Turkistan. See Turkistan. 
 
 Hazyr, 192 
 
 Hebrew quarter at Samarkand, 259 
 
 Hebrews, 46, 111 ; ii. 5, 6 
 
 Hedjiwan, battle of, 379 
 
 Hejra, 369 
 
 Hellwald's 'Die Eussen in Central 
 Asien,' 387 
 
 Hemp, 294 
 
 Henry III. of Castile, 238. 374 
 
 Herat, 260, 261 ; ii. 267, 269, 383 
 
 Herodotus, 370 
 
 Hethum, King, 395 ; ii. 191 
 
 Ilii-lie-wa, 398 
 
 Himalayas, 278 ; ii. 132 
 
 Hindoos, 111, 184, 185, 186 
 
 Hindoo temple, 184 
 
 Hindoo usurers, 186 
 
 Hindu Kush, the, 363 
 
 Hiouen Thsang, 366, 368, 390, 391- 
 394, 410 ; ii. 122 ; mention of Tash- 
 kent by, 1 1 1 
 
 Hippophae, ii. 127 
 
 Hissar, 88, 97, 148, 271, 278 ; ii. 276, 
 277; expedition, ii. 77; range, 175; 
 ii. 62 
 
 HUI 
 
 Historians, 236 
 
 Historical information about the Kirghiz 
 Kaisaks, 382 
 
 History of Armenia, 408 
 
 History of the Mongols from Armenian 
 sources, 408 
 
 History of Vardan the Great, 408 
 
 Hizhduvan, ii. 304 
 
 Hodja Akrar mosque at Tashkent, 101, 
 256 
 
 Hodja, Hussein, 70 
 
 Hodjakent, 102 ; coal at, 319 ; climate 
 of, 327 
 
 Hodjakul, ruler of Shaar, ii. 72 
 
 Hodja Nuin, 407 
 
 Hodjas, the, 99, 337, 339, 343; mar- 
 riages of, 142 
 
 Hodjavat, ii. 43 
 
 Hodjeili, ii. 354, 355, 375; skirmish at. 
 ii.' 348 
 
 Ilodjent, 51, 102, 158, 187, 313-319, 
 339. 340, 342, 343, 349, 352, 354, 
 357. 395; ii. 205. 280, 284; air of, 
 314; approach to, 313; attack on, 
 ii. 286; bazaar at, 314; bridge at, 
 ii. 1 ; capture of, ii. 274; citadel of, 
 314 ; commercial importance of, 315 ; 
 expedition for relief of, ii. 286 ; fruits 
 of. 314 ; Khokandian attack on, 316, 
 317, 318; riot at, in 1872, 316, 317, 
 318 ; Russians capture, 316 
 
 Hogg, Reynold, 360 
 
 Hoi-yuan-tchan, ii. 162 
 
 Ho-lin, 398, 399 
 
 Homar, 341 
 
 Homiak, 198 
 
 Hondar, 341 
 
 Houiberger, 361 
 
 Horde, Lower, 71 
 
 Horde, Middle, 71 
 
 Horde of Batu, 408 
 
 Hordes, derivation of, 30 
 
 Hordes of Kirghiz, 3<> 
 
 nori, the month, 406 
 
 Horse-Lreeding, ii. 248; at Kaplan 
 Bek, 102 
 
 Horse-flesh, 37, 125 
 
 Horse-races, 41 
 
 Horses, 41, 129, 130, 287, 366, 399 ; 
 ii. 383 ; Siberian, ii. 153 ; sweating 
 blood, 338 ; Turkistan, 102 
 
 Hoshat, the, ii. 165 
 
 Ho-Urluk, ii. 398, 399 
 
 Houses, Central Asiatic, 77 ; at Tash- 
 kent, 118, 119; in Kuldja, ii. 193 
 
 Howorth, Mr. H. H., 404 ; ii. 122 
 
 Huan-Di, ii. 143 
 
 Hufia, 158 
 
 Hui ho (Mohammedans), 396, 399 
 
 Hui-ku (Mohammedans), 394 
 
438 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 HUL 
 
 Hulagu, 308 
 
 Hulava, 406, 407 
 
 Humboldt, ii. 133 
 
 Hunmu-lien, 308 
 
 Huns, the, ii. 164 
 
 Huotchou, 304 
 
 Hur-habis land, 2u0 
 
 Husbandry, systems of, 280, 290 
 
 Husbands, rights and obligations of, 
 
 145, 146 
 Hussein Bek of Margian, 87, 279, 280 
 Hussein, the little slave, ii. 108, 109 
 Hu-sze-wo-lu-do, 395 
 Hut, 329. 330 
 Hwang-Ti. ii. 143 
 Hyacinth, Bitchurin, ii. 397 
 Hyacinth, the monk, 237: ii. 166, 167 
 Hydraulics, native knowledge of, 289 
 
 jAXARTAI, 105 
 
 J. Iaxartes, 50, 104 
 
 Ibn Batuta, 377 
 
 Ibn-el Athir, 370 
 
 Ibn Haukal, 340 
 
 Ibn Khaldun, 370 
 
 Ibn Khaukal, 370 
 
 Ibn Khordadbah, 370 
 
 Ibodullah Bek, 88 
 
 Ibrahim Datkha, 345 
 
 Ice on Syr Darya, 327-8 
 
 Ich (the Emba), 391 
 
 Iconium, 408 
 
 Igdy, ii. 345, 379, 382; Russian retreat 
 
 from, ii. 345; wells of, ii. 382 
 Ignatief, Colonel, ii. 331 ; General, 222, 
 
 361 ; ii. 417 
 Ik, the river, ii. 396 
 Ikhan, fight at, 73, 74 
 Ilan-balekh (serpent town), 406 
 Ilansu river, 406 
 Has Ping-li, 338 
 Ilek Khan, 370, 371 
 Iletsk district, the, ii. 411 
 Hi, garrison at, ii. 172 ; rebellion at, ii. 
 
 178, 179; siege of, ii. 180-2 
 Hi river, 54, 397, 398. 401, 410 : ii. 102 ; 
 
 course of, ii. 152 ; ferry over, ii 152; 
 
 navigation of, ii. 152, 153 
 Hiali, ii. 354 
 Hie, 395 
 Ill-advised actions of authorities, ii. 
 
 250 
 Ilyaii, ii. 358, 359, 363 
 Imam, the, of Tchugutchak, 15? ; ii. 184 
 Imam Kuli, ii. 273 
 Imamet, doctrine of, 155 
 Imil, 400, 410 
 Impalements, ii. 16 
 Imperial Chinese post-roads, 410; 
 
 ISP 
 
 commission, ii. 378 ; Geographies! 
 Society, ii. 373; Russian Geographi- 
 cal Society, 383 ; ii. 374 
 
 Imral tribe, the, ii. 358 
 
 Inak, the Khivan, ii. 408 
 
 Increased taxation, ii. 241, 242, 213, 
 241 
 
 Inclau, 182 
 
 India, 48, 90, 97, 1 50, 156, 182, 366, 367, 
 368, 370, 372, 382 ; ii. 398, 400, 401, 
 407 : to Kashgar, roads from, ii. 388 ; 
 Kaz ; s abolished in, 168 
 
 Indian ink, 182; goot, 185 
 
 Indiffereut officers, ii. 220, 221 
 
 Indus, ii. 365 
 
 Ink, 182 
 
 Inscriptions, ii. 168 ; in Karatrgln 
 mountains, ii. 46; Mantchu, ii. 122 ; 
 Thibetiau, ii. 135 
 
 Inspection of the Kurama-district, ii. 
 254 
 
 Institution for the government of the 
 provinces, ii. 406 ; ii. 407 
 
 Insulted by natives, ii. 49 
 
 Interest on loans, 168 
 
 Interpreters, ii. 141, 164, 195; incapa 
 cities of, ii. 141, 142 
 
 Intoxicating liquor, 126 
 
 Irali, ii. 407 
 
 Iran, Persia, 105; ii. 312 
 
 Iranians, 105 
 
 Irbit, 209 
 
 Irdana or Erdeni, 338 
 
 Irdane, the Kush Begi of Bukhara, 344 
 
 Irdjar, battle of, ii. 302 
 
 Irghiz, tort of, 18, 22, 24, 25, 49 
 
 Irghiz river, 23, 25 
 
 Irjar, battle of, 312, 316 
 
 Irket, ii. 400, 401, 402 
 
 Irketi, 322 
 
 Irkibai, 47; ii. 339, 417 
 
 Irkutsh, 38; ii. 409 
 
 Iruazar Eltchi, at Bukhara, Medresse, 
 ii. 93 
 
 Iron, ii. 56, 197 ; in Central Asia, 322 ; 
 foundries, 178; pates, the, 394; ore 
 i.i Zarafs^an valley, 286, 289 
 
 Irrigation, unsuccessful efforts of Rus- 
 sians at, 103; of the district of 
 Bukhara, 287 ; canal, failure of, a< 
 Tashkent, 103; at Karshi, ii. 77; re- 
 gulation of, 289 ; wells. 289 ; of the 
 Zarafshan valley, 286, 289 
 
 Irtysh, the, 322, 409, 410; ii. 155, 398, 
 401, 404 
 
 Isaieff glass works, 317 
 
 Isbyjab, 75 
 
 Iset Kutebarof, 388 ; ii. 417 
 
 Isfara, 339, 35* 
 
 Isfi n lyar surrenders, ii. 299 
 
INDEX. 
 
 439 
 
 ISF 
 
 Isfidjab, the modern Tchimkent, 393 
 Ishan Hodja, attempted abduction of 
 
 his daughter, 99. 100 
 Ishan Ish Mohammed Kill, ii. 254 
 Ishan Sthib Hodja, visit to the Mosque 
 
 of, 158, 159 
 Ishkar, 188 
 Ishrat Khana, 256 
 Iskatchi, the, ii. 28 
 Iskender Khan, 231, 232, 241, 261, 380, 
 
 381; ii. 73, 304, 315, 316 
 Iskender Kul expedition, 281-283; ii. 
 
 307 
 Iskender, lake, 275, 276, 277, 282 
 Iskender, rulrr of Kitab, ii. 73 ; his 
 
 execution, 95, 97 
 Iskvlik taken by storm, ii. 299 
 Islam, 38, 154-158, 366, 369 
 Islam, religious orders of, 158 
 Islamism v. Christianity, 171, 172 
 Ismail, 379; ii, 394 
 Ismail Sefevi, 378 
 Ispahan, 72 
 Ispirak, 182; ii. 290 
 Ispissar, 318 : ii. 2 
 Issa Aulie. 358 ; ii. 289, 291 ; pardoned, 
 
 ii. 293 ; sent to Siberia, ii. 293 
 Issaief, 188 
 Issyk Kul, lake, 30, 50, 54, 55, 129, 148, 
 
 392, 410; ii. 105, 205 ; feeders of, ii. 
 
 132; fish in, ii. 131 ; former extent 
 
 of, 54; legends connected wih, ii. 
 
 129; objects in, ii. 130; present 
 
 connection with, and former discharge 
 
 into the Tehu, 54 ; scenery at, ii. 128; 
 
 skulls at, ii. 128; -warm springs in, 
 
 ii. 131 
 Istakhari, the, ii. 32 
 Istar, the goddess, 331 
 Istemes, 22 
 
 Italians in Bukhara, ii. 90 
 Italians purchase silkworm's eggs, 200 
 Itch-kiri, 119 
 It-Kitchu, 404 ; ii. 122 
 Ivan III. Vasilievitch, 377, 380 
 Ivan Burnashof, ii. 418 
 Ivan Kalita, grand prince, origin of 
 
 name of, 153 
 Ivan the Terrible, ii. 394. 396 
 Ivano*', Colonel, 375, 376, 377, 384; ii. 
 
 370, 371, 372, 373 
 Iymil, 402 
 Izium, 297 
 
 Izyurian ruler, the, ii 395 
 Izzet Ullah, 383, 385 
 
 TADE, ii. 193 ; trade in, ii. 148 
 t) Jadi, 30, 32, 93 
 Jady, 111 
 
 JOB 
 
 Jafar^ai, the tribe, ii. 381, 384 
 
 Jagafar Iman, 192 
 
 Jagag, 402 ; the lake, 402 
 
 Jagatai, 337, 405 ; ii. 165 ; the men of, 
 109 ; language of the Uzbeks, 109 
 
 Jagataide Mahmud Khan, 378 
 
 Jagataides, the, 365, 372, 373, 375 
 
 Jahandar Shah, ii. 316 
 
 Jaihun (Oxus) river, 407 ; the, 364 
 
 Jalan Uta, 274 ; the defile of, 232 
 
 Jam.m Darya, 52, 55, 56, 68 
 
 Jambai, 232 
 
 Jam Darya. 68 
 
 Jamkend. 68 
 
 Jamtchii Bii. 339 
 
 Jan 1 ak-kh (Tchangbalik), 406 
 
 Janckint, 400, 401 
 
 Jan Hodja, Kighiz hero, 32 
 
 Jani Bek, 30, 379, 380 ; ii. 129 
 
 Janide, 381 
 
 Jauy Darya, 52 ; tradition as to arti- 
 ficial formation of, 52, 55 
 
 Japtn, 196; ii. 415 ; relations -with, ii. 
 409 
 
 Japanese, ii. 403, 409 ; maps, ii. 152 
 
 Japhet, 376 
 
 Jar-Kent. ii. 158 
 
 Jarkin, 348 
 
 Jarkvn, 359 
 
 Jauza, 329, 330 
 
 Jaxartes, 50 
 
 Jend, 68, 371 ; ruins of. 62 
 
 Jenkinson, Anthony, 50 
 
 Jenushka, 290 
 
 Jesuits, ii. 400, 403 
 
 Jewellers in Tashkent, 176 
 
 Je-wish women, veiling of, 124 
 
 Jews, 48, 49; tneir girdles, 123; at 
 Samarcand, 259 ; at Shaar, ii. 67, 70 
 
 Jews' harps, 132 
 
 Jezeri, 374 
 
 Jidda, 268 
 
 Jigits, ii. 253, 280 
 
 Jihangyr Hodja, 342 
 
 Jihun, 50 
 
 Jil, 333 
 
 Jin, ii. 133 
 
 Jintchi, 111 
 
 Jitte-tepe (the seven mounds), ii. 121, 
 122 
 
 Jizak'i, 68, 88, 147-149, 226, 229, 23G, 
 241, 341, 342, 351-353; ii. 335, 337, 
 ii. 367. 423 ; attack of the fortress 
 at, by General Tchernaief, 229 ; cap- 
 ture of, 229, 230 ; climate of, 327 ; 
 commandant of, 308 ; fortress at, 
 229 ; storming of by General Kry- 
 zhanofsky, 229, 230*; unhealthinef.3 
 of, 230 
 
 Job, legend of, 191, 193 
 
440 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 JOU 
 
 Jougeri, 374 
 
 Journal Asiatiqne, 408 
 
 Journal de St. Petersburg, 358 
 
 Journal of the Asiatij Society of Bengal, 
 338 
 
 Journal of the Ministry of Crown 
 Domains, ii. 210 
 
 Journal of the Ministry of Public Ins- 
 truction, 360 
 
 Journal of the Ministry of Ways of 
 Communication, ii. 210 
 
 Ju, ii. 196 
 
 Judge at Hodjent, murder of, 313 
 
 Judges, ii. 237 
 
 Judicial tribunals, ii. 406 
 
 Jagara, 291 
 
 Jugglers, ii. 70 
 
 Jujubes, ii. 19'-} 
 
 Julek, 56, 58, 66, 67, 79, 91 
 
 Jumma Friday, 156, 332 
 
 Jumma mosque, 173 ; ii. 194 
 
 Jungar, ii. 166 
 
 Jungaria, 369, 375, 409; ii. 399, 400; 
 Koan of, 31, 112; colonisation of, ii. 
 168-174; history of. 146-188; 
 nationalities of, ii. 164-174 
 
 Jungarian massacre of Chinese, ii. 
 168 
 
 Jungarian Mongols, ii. 398 
 
 Junjun, ii. 126 
 
 Jura Bek, ii. 277, 286, 305 ; at Shaar, 
 ii. 67, 73, 74, 85, 138, 167, 241 ; 
 attack on Samarkand, 245, 246 ; cha- 
 racter of, 86 ; expulsion of, ii. 307 ; 
 his history, 85 ; negotiations with 
 Kaufmann, 244 
 
 Justice, 366 
 
 Justice, administration of, among 
 Kirghiz, ii. 205 
 
 Justinian, emperor, the, 350 
 
 Juran Aryk Pass, ii. 134 
 
 Juveini, 372 
 
 KABAKLI, ii. 377 
 Kabul, 97, 410 
 Kabulistan, ii. 257 
 Kadyr Khan, 365, 370 
 Kae-tch' ang, 394 
 Kaffir (unbeliever), 73 
 Kaffirs, 111, 124 
 Kaidu Khan, 386 
 Kaikand, 406 
 Kainar, ii. 63 
 Kairosaly. ii. 72 
 Kaisak. 30, 377 
 Kaitchi, ii. 318 
 Kakan, ii. 85 
 
 Kalai Afrosiab, or original site of 
 Samarkand, 236 
 
 EAR 
 
 Kalama, 189 
 
 Kalentar Bek, 85, 158, 257, 260 
 
 Kalian Musha, ii. 141 
 
 Kalignium. 66 
 
 Kalim, 143, 144 
 
 Kalmuk religion, the, 172; ruler, the, 
 395 
 
 Kalmuks, the, 34. 35, 369; ii. 136, 146 
 154, 166, 167, 171. 172, 197, 199, 
 319, 389, 390, 399, 402; defeat 
 Dungans, ii. 181 ; embassy to, ii. 
 171; history of, 166, 167; mission 
 from China (Hyacinth's), 171 ; reli- 
 gion of, 172; residence of, 172; 
 return to Jungaria, 171; settle on 
 the Volga, ii. 167 
 
 Kalym, 43 
 
 Kama river, the. ii. 155, 396 
 
 Kamarya, the, 329 
 
 Kamelan gate of Tashkent, the, 114, 
 116 
 
 Kamotz, 406 
 
 Kana-khnneh, ii. 91 
 
 Kanavat, ii. 76 
 
 Kandabam, ii. 3. 4, 290 ; its mosques, 
 ii. 4 
 
 Kandahar, 260, 262 
 
 Kand-su-Kent, 75 
 
 Kangli, 391, 400, 402 
 
 Kansi, the emperor, ii. 399 
 
 Kansu (sug;ir water), 97, 369 
 
 Kaplan Bek, horsebreeding establish- 
 ment at, 102 
 
 Karabair, 129 
 
 Karabak, ii. 76 
 
 Karabugaz, ii. 379 
 
 Karabugut, 55 
 
 Kara Bulak, ii. 126 
 
 Karabutak, fort of, 62 ; garrison of, 24, 
 25; hospitality of commandant of, 
 24 ; sterility of situation of, 21 
 
 Kara-Darya, the, 286, 287, 28S ; ii. 299 
 
 Kara Hulagu, 405 
 
 Karajar Noyau, 373 
 
 Karajengeldi, ii. 375 
 
 Karaknffir. ii. 136 
 
 Karakalpaks, the. 107, 353; ii. 369, 
 37^, 4i)9 ; Biis of, ii. 373 
 
 Karak-ata, ii. 338 
 
 Karakedans. ii. 122 
 
 Karakhan, ii. 121 
 
 Karakhatai, the, 365, 371, 398, 404, 
 406 
 
 Karakhatayans, the, 371 
 
 Karakidans, the, 371 ; ii. 164 
 
 Kara Kirghiz, the, 30, 350. 354, 4 9 ; 
 ii. 57, 135-141; legends of, ii. 138; 
 origin of race of, ii. 136 
 
 Karakitai, ii. 122 
 
 Karakitans, 372 
 
INDEX. 
 
 441 
 
 EAR 
 Karakorum, 152, 223, 372, 400, 402, 
 
 408 
 Kara-Kulja, the river, 51, 353 
 Karakul, Lake, 275, 379, 286, 287 ; ii. 
 
 84, 110 
 Karakum Desert, the, 26, 28, 29, 30, 
 
 401, 409 
 Karaktchi (Fort No. 21), 52 
 Karakurt, the, ii. 123 
 Karamazar, 322 
 Karamzin, 401 
 Karasai, gate of, 114 
 Karasai river, 51 
 Karashar, ii. 200, 319 
 Karashar Torgots, the, ii. 200 
 Karasu, attack on, 86 
 Karasu, the, ii. 292, 385 
 Karataef, ii. 90, 100, 111 
 Karatal river, 55 ; ii. 150, 154 
 Karatau mountains, 51, 67, 75 
 Karatchkum, village of, ii. 2, 287 
 Karatchuka tribe, the, ii. 381 
 Karategin, 280, 343, 348 ; ii. 45, 46, 
 
 276, 277 
 Karateginese at Khokand, ii. 45 
 Karatepe, ii. 51, 62, 305, 381 ; fight at, 
 
 43 
 Karaul, ii. 81 
 Karaul Begi, ii. 7 
 
 Kara Uziak river, 52 ; attempt to clean 
 channel of, bb, 56 ; exploration of, 
 56 
 Kara Yasi, 348 
 Karazin, the artist, ii. 373 ; his novel 
 
 on Tashkent life, 83 
 Karga, ii. 30 
 Kari, 163, 203 
 Karkaralinsk, ii. 153 
 Karlagatcb, ii. 30 
 Karn, the, 333 
 Karnan mountains, 188 
 Karoi Saroi, ii. 130 
 Kars, 405 
 Karsan, ii. 80 
 
 Karshi, 97, 107, 110 ; ii. 64, 76, 77, 305, 
 306, 308, 334 ; desert of, ii. 81 ; 
 trade of, ii. 76-80 ; tobacco, 294 
 Kasaba, 173 
 Kasem-Beg Mirza, 38 
 Kash, the river, ii. 152; seaches for 
 
 treasure in, ii. 176 
 Kashan, 248 
 
 Kashgar, 51, 67, 88, 95, 99, 100, 105, 
 339, 342, 350, 353, 354, 358, 365, 
 366, 369, 375, 391, 392, 410; ii. 45, 
 46, 200, 266, 278, 306, 316, 387; 
 preparations for expedition against, 
 ii. 280 ; trade derived from, 217, 220 ; 
 village of, ii. 43 
 Kashgaria, 343 
 
 KAZ 
 
 Kashgarian envoy, a, 1 00, • ii. 155 
 
 Kasbgarians massacred by Chinese, 343 
 Kashka Darya, the river, ii. 64, 275, 
 
 283 
 Kasim Ibn Abbas, 247 
 Kastakoz, ii. 1, 2 
 
 Kastek pass, the, 397; ii. 126, 142 
 Katta Bek, 279, 280 
 Kattakurgan, 148, 149; ii. 117, 118; 
 
 Arabs at, 1C9, 110 
 Katta-sai, ii. 62 
 
 Katta Tiura, the, ii. 30, 306, 417 
 Kaufmann, General, 49, 65, 81, 162, 
 358, 389 ; ii. 100, 104, 184, 263, 274, 
 277, 278, 282, 286, 289, 290, 294, 
 297, 300, 302, 305, 306, 308, 312, 
 313, 314, 315, 317, 318, 320, 321, 
 322, 324, 325, 327, 333, 334, 335, 
 336, 338, 339, 340, 342, 343, 344, 
 347, 348, 349, 350, 351, 352, 353, 
 354, 355, 356, 357, 358, 359, 363, 
 368, 380, 387, 416, 419, 420, 421, 
 422 ; address to, ii. 369 ; attacks on, 
 ii. 333 ; balls of, 82 ; Cossack guard 
 of, 81; court of, 81; difficulty with 
 Central Asiatic Society, 84 ; execution 
 of a Mullah, 251 ; frees slaves, ii. 104, 
 109 : plan of attack on Khiva, ii. 335 ; 
 reasons for Khivan campaign, ii. 334 ; 
 reception after Khivan campaign, ii. 
 367; reward for Khivan campaign, 
 ii. 367 ; triumphal receptions of, 82 
 Kaulbars, Baron, ii. 174, 321; mission, 
 
 to Kuhlja, ii. 186 
 Kaus, 329 
 Kavap, 125 
 Kavardak, 125 
 Kayalik, 403, 405 
 Kazak, 8, 30, 104, 377 
 Kazak Tsar, the, 395 
 Kazala, 15, 18, 21, 26, 44, 47, 48. 49, 
 50, 64, 68; ii. 205, 337, 338, 339, 
 343, 372, 417; acquaintances at, 47; 
 arrival at, 29 ; bazaar at 46 ; com- 
 mercial importance of, 45 ; reception 
 at, 46 ; departure from, 60 ; Swiss 
 travellers at, 48 ; talk of Khivan 
 campaign at, 47 
 Kazalinsk, 44 
 Kazan, ii. 393, 396, 415 
 Kazi Kalian 166, 169; of Bukhara, the, 
 
 344 
 Kazikurt-ata, ii. 120 
 Kazi Murad, ii. 371, 372 
 Kazis, 98, 166, 168, 169, 171 ; ii. 237; 
 corruption at elections of, 169; elec- 
 tion of, 169; powers of the, 169; 
 qualification for office, 169 
 Kazna, oriein of word, 153 
 Kaznatchi, 153 
 
442 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 KAZ 
 
 Kazuin, 407 
 
 Kazvini, 381 
 
 Kebin river, ii. 126, 127 
 
 Kemangeh, 131 
 
 Kenchak, 402 
 
 Kendyr Tau, defiles of, 341 ; ii. 284 
 
 Keneghez, 107 
 
 Kenisar, 32; ii. 231 
 
 Kenkhan, the court of, 402 
 
 Kenninghez, 87, 99 
 
 Kent, 75 
 
 Kentchak, 404 
 
 Keou-koue, 409 
 
 Kerait Van Khan, 372 
 
 Kerki, ii. 313 
 
 Kerman, 372 
 
 Kermineh, ii, 115, 116, 304, 305, 306; 
 
 Bek of, ii. 116; bazaar at, ii. 115; 
 
 Divan Begi of, ii. 116; hostility of 
 
 natives at, 115 
 Kesh, 255, 379, 394; Baber's descrip- 
 tion of, ii. 71 
 Keshmish, 297 
 Ketmen-tepe, ii. 56 
 Khae, 340 
 Khagas, ii. 136 
 Khalagar, 108 
 Khalai Afrosiab, 236 
 Khalata, 21 ; ii. 355, 339, 340, 342, 
 
 347, 367, 370; Russian fort at, ii. 
 
 309 
 Khali ava, 198 
 Khalif Ali, 386 
 Khalif of Bagdad, 398 
 Khalifs, 154, 155, 368 
 Khalil, 374, 375 
 Khamba Lama, the, ii. 172 
 Khambi, the, ii. 172 
 Khamil, 391 
 Khan of Khiva, the, ii. 338, 374, 380, 
 
 383 
 Khan ab canal, the, ii. 375 
 Khanate of Khokand, 354 
 Khanavat, ii. 76 
 Khanayat Shah, 91, 92, 163, 352; ii. 
 
 144 
 Khan Hodja, 339 
 Khanikof, Mr. N. V., 108, 240, 339, 
 
 361, 363, 386; ii. 89, 414 
 Khan Serai at Khokand, ii. 16 
 Khan Shaniaz, ii. 329 
 Khan Tengri mountain, 391 ; ii. 132, 
 
 133 
 Khan Zada, ii. 39, 40 
 Khan Zada Arash Kul, the, 264 
 Khan Zada Nas'r eddin, the, 356 
 Khans, the, embassies to, ii. 397, 399 
 Khara-Khula, ii. 166 
 Kharashar, 391 
 Kharezm, 340, 364, 367 
 
 Kharezm Gulf, ii. 423 
 
 Kharezm Shahs, 365, 371 
 
 Kharezmians, 365 
 
 Kharlukh Karakhanides, 371 
 
 Kharlukh sovereigns, 371 
 
 Kharlukhs, 370 
 
 Khartchukh mountains, 406, 407 
 
 Khatai, the, 371, 407 
 
 Khatyrtchi, 288 ; ii. 305 
 
 Khelat, ii. 266 
 
 Khendakhuir, 406 
 
 Khian-lung, the Emperor, 338 
 
 Khiva, 31, 33, 68, 81, 107, 108, 190, 
 196, 360, 361, 382, 401; ii. 265, 279, 
 305, 306, 396, 400, 401 ; attack on 
 walls of, ii. 349 ; baggage abandoned 
 on march to, ii. 339, 341 ; bombard- 
 ment of, 349, 350 ; capture of, ii. 35 ; 
 detachments for attacking, ii. 337 ; 
 difficulties of reaching, ii. 335 ; em- 
 peror consents to expedition against, 
 n. 336 ; General Perofsky's expedi- 
 tion against, ii. 330; indemnity to 
 be paid by, ii. 364 ; intense heat on 
 march to, ii. 344, 345 ; production of 
 silk at, 193; route for trade with, 
 220; Russian embassies to, ii. 330; 
 Russian loss at, ii. 351 ; Russian 
 prisoners from, 49, 50 ; slave trade 
 at, ii. 353 ; stormed, ii. 350 ; sub- 
 mits, ii. 350; surveys of ii. 354; 
 t ade of, 215; treaty with, ii. 331, 
 363 
 
 Khiva, Khan of, 50; ii. 144; aska 
 India for help, ii. 424 ; visits Colonel 
 Ivanof, ii. 367 
 
 Khivan campaign, the camels for, ii. 
 337, 341, 369 ; change of route of, ii. 
 339; cost of, ii. 368; intrigues con- 
 nected with, ii. 354, 355, 422 ; reasons 
 for, ii. 333; talk of, 15, 47 
 
 Khivan embassies to Fort Alexandrof- 
 sky and Orenburg, ii. 332 
 
 Khivan envoys, ii. 423 
 
 Khivan memorial, the, ii. 368 
 
 Khivan oasis, the, ii. 386 
 
 Khivan Yomuds. ii. 383 
 
 Khivans abuse Russian mercy, ii. 352, 
 353 
 
 Khivans. false accusations of, ii. 353 
 
 Khiva oder Kharezm, 364 
 
 Khludof, 207 
 
 Khodrie, 138 
 
 Khodzidjan, 338 
 
 Khoja Saleh, ii. 267 
 
 Khokand, 97, 85, 92, 93, 94, 95, 105, 
 130, 132, 136, 337, 338, 361, 386, 
 387, 388; ii. 1-60, 266, 277, 280, 
 297, 409 ; agriculture of, ii. 56 ; area 
 of, ii. 54: bazaars at, ii. 14, 15} 
 
INDEX. 
 
 443 
 
 KHO 
 
 birdseye view of, ii. 12 ; character 
 of, ii. 54, 55 ; emperor orders annex- 
 ation of, ii. 300; form of, ii. 10; 
 from 1841 to 1864, 338; garrison of, 
 ii. 15; gate of Tashkent, at, 114; 
 government of, ii. 57 ; Khan of, 71, 
 72 ; Khanate of. ii. 54 ; minerals of, 
 ii. 56 ; mosques at, ii. 11 ; population 
 of, ii. 11, 12, 56; preseut unsettled 
 state of, ii. 301 ; production of silk 
 at, 193 ; relations of Russia with, ii. 
 274-302; Eussian advance to, ii. 
 289 ; taxes of, ii. 57-60 ; topographi- 
 cal situation of, ii. 12 ; trade of, 215, 
 219 
 
 Khokandian spy in Tashkent, a, 97 
 
 Khokandians, the, 338, 339 ; defeated 
 in Kurama. ii. 286 ; occupy the village 
 of Ablvk, ii. 284 
 
 Khokhlof, Ivan, 240 ; ii. 273, 394 
 
 Kho-no-kho-tsin (Bator Kun taitsi), ii. 
 166, 167 
 
 Khorasan, 361, 407, 409 ; ii. 267 
 
 Khorgos, ii. 158, 178 ; riot at, ii. 178 
 
 Khorkhut, 62, 63 
 
 Khoroshkin, Colonel, ii. 174, 288 
 
 Khosh-Kupyr, ii. 290 
 
 Khotar, 190, 198 
 
 Khudaidad, 374, 375 
 
 Khudayar JBek of Marghilan, 339, 340, 
 341, 348 
 
 Khudayar Khan, 337, 341, 345, 347, 
 348, 349, 350, 351, 352. 353, 357, 
 358, 359, 387, 388; ii. 24, 25, 35 
 246, 274, 277, 278, 279, 280, 281, 
 282, 284, 286, 320 ; at Orenburg, ii. 
 60 ; excites discontent, ii. 278 ; in- 
 Tested with order of St. Stanislas, ii. 
 276 ; leaves Khokand, ii. 282 ; quar- 
 rels with Jura Bek, 85 ; treasure of 
 ii. 285 
 
 Khudayar (son of Shir Ali), 348 
 
 Khudof, ii. 317 
 
 Khukhu-nor, ii. 398 
 
 Khulm, ii. 267 
 
 Khurram Serai, 338 
 
 Khutapai, 406 
 
 Khutbe, 341, 385 
 
 Khuzakh, 406 
 
 Khuzar, 275, 293 ; ii. 77 
 
 Khvalym Sea, 53 
 
 Kiafsen, 304 
 
 Kiakhta, 207; ii. 193, 408 
 
 Kiang-hi, Emperor of China, ii. 171 
 
 Kibitka, 35 
 
 Kibitka tax, ii. 206, 241 
 
 Ebleh, 156 
 
 Kie-choang-na, 392 
 
 Kief, 400 
 
 Kien-long, ii. 402 
 
 KIT 
 
 Kien-lun, Emperor of China, ii. 168 
 
 Kigin, 390 
 
 Ki-li-ki-tsi, 399; ii. 136 
 
 Kinderli, ii. 346, 367, 379 
 
 Kingdom of Dogs, 409 
 
 Kingdom of Kasimof, ii. 392 
 
 King Hethum, 401, 405-409 ; ii. 
 138 
 
 Kin-shan, the, 394 
 
 Kiptchak, 107 ; ii. 371 
 
 Kiptchaks, the, 345, 350, 354, 355, 356, 
 357, 387; ii. 26, 27, 34, 57, 278, 
 279 ; ask Russians to dethrone Khu- 
 dayar, ii. 279; Bek of, ii. 372; 
 butchery of, ii. 60 
 
 Kirakoz, 408 
 
 Kiranda, 150 
 
 Kirei, the, 372 
 
 Kirghiz, the, 6, 7, 8, 19, 21, 23, 28, 29, 
 30, 37, 68, 70, 75, 107, 354, 355, 356, 
 357, 377, 407 ; ii. 135, 141, 197, 278, 
 279, 305, 337, 342, 396, 398, 409, 
 413; agriculture of, 37; Bukaref 
 horde of, 134; calender, 333-335; 
 cemetery of, 62 ; changing quarters, 
 
 29 ; contractors, 18, 19; courts, 166, 
 167; difficulties with, ii. 186; dis- 
 orders among, 32, 33, 34 ; division 
 of races of, ii. 136 ; dress and occupa- 
 tion, 35, 36 ; ii. 137 ; elective govern- 
 ment of, 32 ; expedition against, 
 ii. 40 ; expeditions of, 36 ; nocks 
 and herds, 34 ; food and drink of, 
 37 ; forays against, 341 ; great horde 
 of, 30, 31, 34; ii. 152, 154; history 
 under Russian protection, 31, 32 
 inner horde of, 34 ; insurrection of, 
 ii. 358 ; join the Dungans, ii. 180 
 Kaisak, 30, 106 ; Khans, ii. 405 
 kibitkas, 35 ; language and origin 
 
 30 ; lesser horde of, 30, 31, 33, 34 
 manners and customs of, ii. 137 
 middle horde of, 30, 31, 34; mis 
 sionary enterprise among, 38 ; mul 
 lahs, 33; musical instruments, 132 
 ravage Kuldja, ii. 183 ; rebellion of, 
 ii. 46, 53, 54; religion, ii. 137 
 scholars, ii. 406 ; schools in Perofsky 
 and Kazala, ii. 235 ; steppes, 366 
 Sultans regent of, 32, 33 ; taxes, 345 
 taxes on, ii. 378 ; their different 
 names, 30 ; trade with, ii. 409; type 
 of race, 34, 35 ; visit to a kibitka of, 
 61 ; wealth of, 34 ; women, 40 
 
 Kir-it (grey dog), 372 
 
 Kirk, 107 
 
 Kitab, 85 ; ii. 64, 276, 277 ; citadel o£ 
 
 ii. 65 
 Kitai, 107 
 Kitan, 399 
 
444 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 KIT 
 
 Kitehik-Mohammed, 378 
 
 Kitehkine, ii. 374 
 
 Kitchkine-ata, ii. 373 
 
 Ki-tse-li ba-sze, 398 
 
 Klaproth, 338, 362, 408, 409; ii. 136, 
 
 191 
 Kliutcharef, 338, 349, 361 
 Kly river, ii. 337 
 Kljtch Niaz Bai, ii. 348 
 Knives, manufacture of, 177 
 Knuckle-bones, 128 
 Kohik, 239 
 Kohistan, history of, 279, 280 ; political 
 
 division of, 278 ; Russian occupation 
 
 of, 281 
 Koibyn, ii. 157 
 Koisi, ii. 130 
 
 Kok-bura, game of, 255, 268, 269 
 Kokine-sai, 319 
 Kok-moinak, ii. 127 
 Kokssarai, 251, 255 
 Koksu river, ii. 150, 274 
 Kok-tash, the, 254, 255, 256 
 Koktcha river, ii. 267 
 Koktchi, 103 
 
 Kolesnikof, Mr., 218; ii. 17, 321 
 Kolpakofsky, General, 81 ; ii. 5, 9, 130, 
 
 143, 144, 183, 184, 186, 187, 279, 
 
 300, 318 ; in Kuldja campaign, 186, 
 
 187, 188 ; life and character of, ii. 
 
 149, 150 
 Komarof, Lieut.-Col., ii. 376 
 Kong-yu, 393 
 Konigsgratz, ii. 368 
 Kon-kai river, 321 
 Konos-bai, ii. 62 
 Konstantin, the steamer, 57 
 Konstantinofskaya, ii. 142 
 Kontche, ii. 137 
 Kopal, 405 ; ii. 153, 205, 325; climate 
 
 of, 327 
 Kopylof, Mr., ii. 142 
 Koran, the, 70, 71, 154, 163, 164; of 
 
 Othman, 256 
 Koroi-Saroi, ii. 130 ; origin of, 153-155 
 K'o-san, 395 
 Kos-aral, 57 
 Kosaref, Col., 46 
 Kosh, 290 
 Kosh-kupyo, ii. 343 
 Kosh Medresse Abdullah Khan, ii. 93 
 Koshpul, the, 305 
 Kostakoz, 318 
 Kotchkur, ii. 134 
 Kotlyarefsky, ii. 401 
 Kou-ken-bag, ii. 131 
 Kraiefsky, Col., ii. 133 
 Krasnovodsk, ii. 335, 345, 353, 354, 
 
 377, 378, 379, 380, 384, 385, 386, 
 
 421, 423 
 
 KUR 
 
 Krasny Yar, 2 
 
 Kremlin, 153 
 
 Krm;in, 407 
 
 Kryzhanofsky, General, 24, 46; ii. 208, 
 204, 263, 302, 335, 336; plan of 
 attuck on Khiva, ii. 336 
 
 Kshtut. 87, 276, 277, 280, 282 
 
 Kshtut Darya, 275, 278 
 
 Ktai, ii. 137 
 
 Kua-kishlak, ii. 49 
 
 Kuakky, ii. 134 
 
 Kua-tehou, 391 
 
 Kudjan, 395 
 
 Kufiristan, ii. 257 
 
 Kiihlewein, 361 
 
 Kuhn, Mr., ii. 294, 302 
 
 Kuiluk, 102, 325; ii. 286 
 
 Kukan, 338 
 
 Kukertli, 110; ii. 311 
 
 Kukhnar, 127 ; ii. 22 
 
 Kukoltash, Medresse of, ii. 92 
 
 Kul, ii. 191 
 
 Kulah, 343; ii. 316 
 
 Kuldja, 409; ii. 147, 148, 152, 153, 
 192, 396, 397, 415, 433 ; absence of 
 Chinese architecture in, ii. 193 ; 
 campaign against, ii. 186-188; cli- 
 mate of, ii. 327 ; field for Russian 
 labour, ii. 198; fiual rupture with, 
 ii. 422; history of, ii. 164-188, 326, 
 334; insurrection at, 178-188; na- 
 tionalities of, ii. 164-174; occupied 
 by Russians, ii. 319 ; palace in citadel 
 at, ii. 193 ; Russian relations with, ii. 
 184-186 
 
 Kuli Kalan, fight at, 283 
 
 Kul-kalian, 277 
 
 Kuiluk, 406 
 
 Kul Yomuds, ii. 375, 376 
 
 Kumakur, 409 
 
 Kumalik, ii. 31 
 
 Kumys, 37, 126 
 
 Kundash, 147 
 
 Kunduz, ii. 267 
 
 Kungei, ii. 131 
 
 Kungis river, ii. 152, 170, 200 
 
 Kungrad, 47, 48, 107; ii. 331, 336, 346, 
 348, 361 
 
 Kungut, 181 
 
 Kunik, 401 
 
 Kunya Urgentoh, ii. 354, 355, 367, 375 
 
 Kurama, 102; ii. 205, 286; live stock 
 in, 326 
 
 Kurban Bairam, festival of, ii. 303 
 
 Kurdiuks, the, 326 
 
 Kurds, ii. 382 
 
 Kuren, ii. 192 
 
 Kuren Dag, the, ii. 382 
 
 Kurgash, ii. 158 
 
 Kurgatz, the, 393, 404 ; ii. 148 
 
INDEX. 
 
 445 
 
 KUE 
 
 Kurkan, 373 
 
 Kur-kara-usu, ii. 191 
 
 Kurmenta river, 51 
 
 Kurtka, Khokandian fort of, ii. 317 
 
 Kush Begi, Doulet, the, 384 ; Leshker, 
 the, 344 ; of Bukhara, the, ii. 91 
 
 Kushelef, 340 
 
 Kutb Eddin Mohammed, 372 
 
 Kutchambai, 5 
 
 Kutche, 391 ; ii. 133, 178, 180, 319 
 
 Kutchkunji, Sultan, 379, 380 
 
 Kutebar, 388 
 
 Kutebarof, 32 
 
 Kuteibi-ibn-Muslim, 369 
 
 Kutemaldy, ii. 127, 128 
 
 Kutf-i-Tcherdani, 254 
 
 Kutuktchin, 406 
 
 Kuvan river, the, ii. 409, 417 
 
 Kuvansh Jar, the, ii. 370, 374 
 
 Kuyuk Khan, 400, 408 
 
 Kuyuk Mazor, ii. 114 
 
 Kuzebai, 3 
 
 Kuznetzof, ii. 142, 145, 147, 153 
 
 Kyrk-ming, ii. 288 
 
 Kyzyl-arvat, ii. 382 
 
 Kyzyl Bash, Khan of, ii. 395 
 
 Kyzyl Bash, Lake, 402, 405, 410 
 
 Kyzyl Kum, 68, 69 ; ii. 339, 367 ; ex- 
 plored, ii. 332 
 
 Kyzyl-Takyr, ii. 357, 367, 375 
 
 LABORATORY at Tashkent, 80 
 Labours of the Oriental section of 
 
 the Imperial Archaeological Society, 
 
 337 
 Ladak, 223 
 
 Lake Alakul, ii. 155, 191 
 Lake Balkash, ii. 152-155 
 Like Dal Nor, ii. 165 
 LakeEbi Nor, ii. 190, 191 
 Lake Kyzyl Bash, 402, 405, 410 
 Lake of Heaven, 395; ii. 191 
 Lake of the Spotted Bull, 401 
 Lake Sairam Nor, ii. 154, 188, 192 
 Lamas, ii. 201 
 Lamps, 127 
 
 Landan Canal, the, ii. 371 
 Land tenure in Central Asia, 297-303 
 Land, prices of, 297 ; settlement, 298, 
 
 300-303 ; settlement, 298, 300-303 
 Lands of the Khan, 299 
 Larkspur, yellow, 182, 309 
 La-tchu-yan, ii. 160 
 Lathes, 18S 
 
 Latrodectes lugubris, ii. 123 
 Laudan, 222 
 Lavalet, M., 223 
 Law Courts, 166, 167 
 Lead ore, 321, 322 
 
 MAC 
 Leather, 183 
 Leeches, tax on, ii. 58 
 Leeks, ii. 196 
 
 Lelimann, 36, 240; ii. 115, 414 
 Lemfinc, 401 
 
 Lenormant, Mr. P., 248, 249, 332 
 Leprosy, 147 
 Lepsa river, ii. 150, 154 
 Lerch, Mr., 68, 75, 104, 312, 361, 364, 
 
 384, 397, 400, 401 ; ii. 121, 122, 130 
 Lesseps, M. de, 222, 223, 224 
 Lesser Horde of Kirghiz, the, 388, 401 ; 
 
 ii. 407 
 Lesur, ii. 258 
 Leuchtenberg, Gromof saves Duke of, 
 
 ii. 362, 363 
 Liabehaus Divan Begi at Bukhara, the, 
 
 ii. 92 
 Liang-tehou, 391 
 Library of Timur, 240 ; ii. 97 
 Library at Tashkent, ii. 97 
 Lice, 149 
 
 Life, Mussulman, 118-172 
 Lilio, Calender of, 332 
 Ling tchau, 391 
 Lin-yu, 398 
 Liquors, 126, 127 
 Lisofsky, 376 
 Lisoftchiki, 376 
 List of coins of Khokand, 337 
 Li-tchuan, ii. 178 
 ' Literarisches Centralblatt,' 389 
 Litta, Count, ii. 90 
 Little Armenia, 408 
 Liuli, 111 ; ii. 41 
 Lizards, giant, 323 
 Loftus, Lord Augustus, ii. 267 
 Lomakin, Colonel (General), ii. 336, 
 
 346, 347, 350, 357, 377, 378, 379, 
 
 380, 381, 384, 385 
 Losigun, ii. 169, 172 
 Lotteries at Tashkent, 80 
 Love chase, 42, 43 
 Lower Volga, the, ii. 398 
 Lubb-ul-tevarikh, 381 
 Lucerne, 290 
 Lui Yu, 188 
 Lung-gu, the river, 398 
 Lun-t'ai-hien, 394 
 Lutherans, 2, 3 
 Lu-tsun-han, ii, 178, 187 
 Lycosa-singoriensis, ii. 123 
 
 Tl/TA-A, 399 
 
 MacGahan, Mr. J. A., 1, 15, 21, 
 24, 64, 65, 66, 308, 309 ; ii. 332, 359, 
 363 ; his ride across the Steppe, 65, 
 66; ii. 120 
 
446 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 MAD 
 
 Madali Khan, 342, 343, 344, 345, 347, 
 
 355, 359; ii. 13, 137 
 Madamin Bek, 272, 344, 359; ii. 281 
 Madder, 294 
 JVIadrin (future successor of Buddha), 
 
 407 
 Magasin Asiatiqne, 338 
 Magian, 87, 276, 279, 280, 283 
 Magpie, ii. 30 
 Mahmud, 371 
 
 Mahmud Khan, 341, 342, 380 
 Mahmud, Prince of the Tchoros, ii. 
 
 165 
 Mahmud Shah, ii. 316; campaign of, 
 
 ii. 382 
 Mahmud Sultan, ii. 44 
 Mahmud Tiura sent to Siberia, ii. 293 
 Mahmud Yakub Khan, Kashgarian 
 
 Envoy, 100 
 Mahsum Hodja, 337, 339, 341 ; report 
 
 of, 338 
 Mai-Bulak, 323 
 Maidan Yuldash, 341 
 Maimatchen, ii. 193 
 Maimena, ii. 267 
 Maines, village communities, 303 
 Maize, 291 
 Mak-bul, ii. 121 
 Makhram, ii. 54, 286, 290; battle of, 
 
 ii. 288, 289; Bek of, 319; fortress 
 
 of, ii. 2, 3, 287 ; submission of in- 
 habitants of, ii. 289 
 Makhram Khudai Nazar, ii. 418 
 Makhtab, primary school, 64, 65, 163 
 Malar Lake, ii. 415 
 Malcolm, 384, 386 ; ' History of Persia,' 
 
 385 
 Malik, 156 ; ii. 115; ruins of castle at, 
 
 ii. 115; sect, 156; station at, 227; 
 
 wells at, 227, 228 
 Malik Shah's Calendar, 332 
 Malla Bek, 348, 350, 351, 388 
 Malla Khan, 136, 163, 352, 356, 359; 
 
 ii. 73 ; murder of, 92 
 Maltchet Akhun, ii. 183 
 Mamun, the Jew, 259 
 Management of municipal and com- 
 munal affairs, ii. 206 
 Manaps, 368 
 
 Manas, ii. 138, 178, 185, 190 
 Mandarins' buttons, ii. 193 
 Mangere, 374 
 
 Manghit, 384; Biis the, 384 
 Manghit, the, 106 
 Mangu, 403 
 Mangu Khan, 398, 405, 406, 407, 408 ; 
 
 court of, 404 
 Mangyshlak, ii. 354. 357, 378, 379; 
 
 (Fort Alexandrofsky) ii. 336 ; co 
 
 luran of, 346 ; ii. 351 
 
 MED 
 
 Mangyt, ii. 372 ; skirmish at, ii. 348 
 
 Maniakh, 368, 390 
 
 Manichsean alphabet, ii. 130 
 
 Mantchu Kuldja, ii. 162 
 
 Mantchus, ii. 197, 399, 400, 401 
 
 Maqrizi, 331 
 
 Maracanda, 236 
 
 Marali, the, ii. 135 
 
 Marco Polo, 138, 139, 238, 372, 391 
 
 Mareri, the month, 406 ' 
 
 Marghilan, 338, 347, 348, 349, 352, 
 353 ; ii. 49, 50, 281 ; Baber's de- 
 scription of, ii. 49 ; Mir Izet Ullah's 
 description of, ii. 50; Nazarof's de- 
 scription of, ii. 50 
 
 Markham, 238, 374, 375 
 
 Markozof, Colonel, ii. 334, 336, 344, 
 345, 383, 423 ; bad management of, 
 ii. 346 ; expedition of, ii. 346, 351, 
 381 
 
 Marriage, 142 ; among Kirghiz, 43 ; 
 ceremonies of, 144 ; limitations of, 
 145; obligations of, 145; presents, 
 143; restrictions on, 145; tempo- 
 rary, 145 
 
 Mashad, 111; ii. 120, 312, 353, 883 
 386 
 
 Masjid, ii. 381 
 
 Masjid Bali and Mosque, ii. 91, 92 
 
 Maskarabashes, 137; ii. 66 
 
 Massacre of Kiptchaks, 350 
 
 Massacre at Kuldja, ii. 187 
 
 Masudi, 370 
 
 Matcha, 279, 280, 281, 283 
 
 Matchlock, the, 128, 129 
 
 Mat Murad, ii. 352 
 
 Mat Niaz, ii. 369, 375 
 
 Matthew, St., bones of, ii. 130 
 
 Maverannahr, 105, 337, 340, 363, 364, 
 365, 366, 367, 368, 369, 370, 371, 
 372, 373, 378, 379, 380, 381, 383 
 
 Mayagur Akhun, ii. 182 
 
 Mazam Khan, ii. 183 
 
 Mazanderan, 407 
 
 Mazang, 111 
 
 Measures, 201, 203 
 
 Measures for strengthening the union 
 of the Kirghiz steppes with Russia, 
 ii. 411 
 
 Mecca, 90, 355 
 
 Mediaeval travellers in Central Asia, 
 390,411 
 
 Medicago sativa, 290 
 
 Medicines, 149, 150; native, 149, 150 
 
 Medresse, Abdullah Khan at Bukhara, 
 ii. 93; Ali, ii. 13; Barakhar, 163; 
 Beklar Bek at Tashkent, 101 ; Bek- 
 lar Bek at Karshi, ii. 79 ; Bibi 
 Khanym, 249, 250 ; Hodja Jelal, ii. 
 93 ; Irnazar Eltchi, ii. 93 ; Ju'oar, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 447 
 
 MED 
 
 ii. 93 ; Khan at Khokand, ii. 5, 12, 
 13 ; Kukol Tash, 163 ; ii. 92 ; Mir, 
 ii. 13; Miri Horab, ii. 92; Kustam 
 Bek at Uratepe, 310, 311 ; Shirdar, 
 310; Tilla Kari, 252; Ullug Bek, 
 251 
 
 Medynsky, Colonel, 103 
 
 Mekasim, 303 
 
 Mekhter, difficulties with, ii. 52, 53 ; 
 its meaning, ii. 7 ; of Khokand, the, 
 ii. 5-9 ; ordeal of, ii. 53 ; poisoned, 
 ii. 53 
 
 Mekkeme, ii. 236 
 
 Melons, 297, 299 ; mode of eating, ii. 
 29 
 
 ■ Memoires du Chevalier d'Eon,' ii. 259 
 
 'Memoirs of Mirza Shems,' 338, 343, 
 367, 385 
 
 'Memoirs of the Imperial Russian 
 Geographical Society,' 337, 382, 390 
 
 'Memoirs of the Imperial University 
 of New Russia,' 40] 
 
 Menander, Protector, 390 
 
 Menshikof, ii. 259 
 
 Menz-linsk, ii. 396 . 
 
 Merakhor, ii. 7 
 
 Merchants, ii. 17, 18; attack on, ii. 
 276 ; prominent, 97 
 
 Merke, 393, 40+; ii. 123 
 
 Mertvii Kuituk Bay, the, 391 
 
 Merv, ii. 269, 370, 374, 382, 383, 384, 
 385, 386 ; colonisation of, 109 ; name 
 given former inhabitants of, 106 
 
 Meshekli, ii. 374, 311 
 
 Meski, 404 
 
 Messenger of Europe, 338 
 
 Messenger of the Imperial Russian 
 Geographical Society, 339 
 
 Mest-devran (Mestorian), ii. 381 
 
 Metal- work, 177 
 
 Meteorological observations, 326, 328 
 
 Metricke land, 298 
 
 Metropolitan Crysanth, 361 
 
 Mevat land, 298, 299 
 
 Mevquefe land, 298 
 
 Meyendorf, 361, 385 ; ii. 409 
 
 Miana, 407 
 
 Miankal, 379; the district of, ii. 117 
 
 Michailovsky, Gulf, the, ii. 379 
 
 Michell, the Messrs., 387 
 
 Middle Horde, the, 388 
 
 Mikhail, 57 
 
 Military Journal, ii. 288; instruction of 
 troops in Turkistan, ii. 231 
 
 Milk-haradji, 299 
 
 Milk-ushri, 299 
 
 Milky way, 335 
 
 Millet, 291, 398 
 
 Mills, in Central Asia, 101 ; at Kuldja, 
 ii. 193 
 
 MOH 
 
 Milutin, ii. Ill 
 
 Minaret, 251 ; in Bukhara, ii. 92 
 Min-Bulak, ii. 122, 332, 339, 347 
 Mineral springs, ii. 153, 154 
 Minerals, ii. 197 ; production of, ii. 56 ; 
 
 wealth of Central Asia in, 319-323 ; 
 
 on the Yagnan and Fan Darya, 27S 
 Ming, 106, 279 ; tribe of, 339 
 Min^'amban, the, of Tchugutchak, ii. 
 
 179 
 Ming-Bashi, ii. 7 
 
 Ming-Basbi, 347 ; Hakki Kill, the, 343 
 Ming Bulak wells, ii. 423 
 Mingepe, ii. 48 ; engagement at, 292 
 Ming-uruk, 80, 81 
 Mining department of Turkistan, ii, 
 
 209 
 Ministers, 262 
 Mint at Kriokhand, ii. 10 
 Mir Alim, 358 
 Mir Haidar, ^79, 280, 287, 385, 386 ; 
 
 at Sharisabs, ii. 72 
 Mir Izzet Ullah, 338, 341 ; ii. 42, 44 ; 
 
 description of Marghilan, ii. 50 
 Mir Said, 388 
 
 Mir Seid Belki Sheikh, 253 
 Miri Horab, Medresse of, ii. 92 
 Miriie land, 298 
 Mirkhond, 370, 373 
 Mirky, 404 
 Mirza, ii. 271 
 
 Mirza Abdullah Ba^ai, 95, 96 
 Miiza Abul Talib, 386 
 Mirza Akhmet, 350, 353 
 Mirza Bashi, ii. 7 
 Mirza Hakim, 246, 356; ii. 1, 19, 275, 
 
 276, 280, 290, 320 
 Mirza Iraddin Divan Begi, ii. 77 
 Mirza Kashbar's story, 95 
 Mirza Megdi, 383 ; Shadi, ii. 387 
 Mirza Yusuf, 139 
 Missionaries, English, 38 
 Missionary enterprises, refusal to allow 
 
 at Tashkent, 1 62 
 Mission from Khokand, ii. 290 
 Mission of Nazarof in 1814 to Khokand, 
 
 ii. 410 
 Missions of Putimtsef to Jungaria, ii, 
 
 410 
 Mistaken policj 7 , ii. 405 
 Mitchell, John, 38 
 Mizan, 329, 330 
 Mogayan Darya, 275, 278 
 Mogul, 186 
 Mogul calendar, 333 
 Mohammed Ali, 71, 337, 342, 386, 387, 
 
 388 
 Mohammed Amir, or Madramin Bek, 
 
 344, 357 
 Mohammed Bii, ii. 99, 109, 110, 111, 112 
 
448 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 MOH 
 
 Mohammed Farissakh, ii. 303, 333, 418 
 Mohammed Eahim Subankul Mutevali 
 of the Medresse Hodja Akkrar, 348; 
 ii. 415 
 Mohammed Shakyr, 187 
 Mohammed Sheihani, 378 
 Motammed Sherif, ii. 99 
 Mohammed Timur, Sultan, 379 
 Mohammed Yar, 380 
 Mohammedan legislation, 169 
 Mohammedanism compared with Chris- 
 tianity. 171; among Kirghiz, 37, 38; 
 strengthened by Russians, 38 
 Monetary unit, 203 
 Money in Central Asia, 14, 203 
 Mongol. 3, 4. 5 ; barbarities, 237 
 Mongol domination, influence of on 
 
 Russia, 152, 153 
 Mongolia, 372, 373, 400, 411 ; ii. 399 
 Mongols, the, 375, 376.408, 410; ii. 
 
 189, 398 ; attack of, 340 
 Mongols of Baty, the, ii. 398 
 Months, names of the, 329, 330; Kir- 
 ghiz, 334 ; legends of the, 329, 330 
 Monument to the wife of Madali Khan, 
 
 ii. 13 
 Morals, 124 
 
 Morozofs caravan, ii. 323 
 Mosaics, 70 
 Moscow. 90, 380, 382 ; ii. 392, 394, 397, 
 
 399, 400 
 Moscow p> riod, ii. 399 
 Moscow Tsars, the, ii. 396 
 Mosques, Baliand at Bukhara, ii. 91, 93 ; 
 Dungan at Suidun, ii. 160; Shah 
 Zindeh at SamarcaDd 235, 247, 
 248; Abdullaktif at Uratepe, 311 
 Hazret at Turkistan, 70. 71, 72 
 Hodja Akharar, T*sl>k-nt, 101, 256 
 worship at the, 156, 157 
 Mosquitoes, ii. 158 
 Mountain deer, ii. 135 
 Mountains in Khokand, ii. 55 
 Mount Arai, 405 
 Mount Taurus, 406 
 Mourning for the dead, 151 
 Movement for formal ion of new line, 
 
 ii. 203 
 Mozaffar, Eddin, 342, 353, 388; ii. 
 304, 308; appearance of, ii. 83, 84; 
 character of, ii. 84 ; his action at Shah- 
 risabs, 85 ; occupies Khokand, 92, 93 ; 
 his executions, 95 ; interview with, 
 ii. 83, 84 
 Mozaffar Khan, 355 
 Mrmn, 407 
 Mufti, 162, 167 
 
 Mugojar mountains, the, 16 22 
 Mukaneddin Hodja, a visit to, 166 
 Mula Kari, ii. 379, 380 
 
 NAG 
 
 Mulberry trees, 195; ii. 192; leaves o£ 
 speculation in, 196 ; culture of, 196 
 
 Mu! f uzat-i-Timury. 373 
 
 Mulhids (the assassins i, 407 
 
 Mullah Bek of Makhram, 319 
 
 Mubah Hair ullaD, 225; on amusementfl| 
 127, 128 
 
 Mullah Iskak, ii. 295 
 
 Mullah Issa Aulie, ii 282 
 
 Mullah Maaruf, ii. 282 
 
 Mull»h Mir Kamil, 357 
 
 Mullah Tarap Hodja, ii. 322 
 
 Mullah Turdali, ii. 33 
 
 Mullahs in the Steppe, 33, 37 
 
 Mull ihs, Tartar, 37 
 
 Muller, 340, 360 
 
 Mumyn, 358 
 
 Munduz, ii. 137 
 
 Murad Bek, 347, 348 
 
 Murad Bii, 343 
 
 Murad Khan, 359 
 
 Muravief, 361 ; ii. 409 
 
 Muravin, 360 
 
 Murdab, ii. 385 
 
 Muren, 397 
 
 Murgha\ 363, 364 
 
 Murtaza Bii, ii. 343, 375, 422, 423 
 
 Muruk, ii. 100, 101 
 
 Murza, Rabat, remains of caravan of, 
 ii. 283 
 
 Muscovite grand princes, thp, ii. 392 
 
 Muscovite Tsars, the, ii. 393, 394 
 
 Mushet, 187 
 
 Music, 131 ; ii. 196 ; in Khokand. ii. 33 
 
 Musical instruments, 131, 132; ii. 196; 
 
 arnonj the Kirghiz, 39, 40 
 Mussa Mahomet Bii, Governor of Tash- 
 kent, 89 
 Mussulman Kul. 346, 347, 348, 349, 
 350. 351, 355, 358, 386 ; ii. 60 ; death 
 of, 3:0 
 Mussulmans, birth and early life of, 
 140; Chinese, ii. 159, 160; circum- 
 cision, 141. 142; equality of, at 
 prayers, 157; fanaticism of. 86; 
 house, a, 118; life of in Tashkert, 
 118: marriage of. 142, 143, 14*; 
 religious rites of, 160, 161; ii. 159, 
 160 
 Mutchal, the, 333 
 Mutton, 366 
 Muvui Khan, 390 
 Muyun-kum, ii. 121, 143 
 Muzart Pass, 392, 410; ii. 134, 319 J 
 
 oceiip-ition of, ii. 186 
 Myshenkof, 276 
 
 N 
 
 ADTR Shah, 31. 341, 383 ; ii. 409 
 Nagasaki, ii. 402, 41 n 
 
INDEX. 
 
 449 
 
 NAG 
 
 Nagora, 132 
 
 Naib, 385 
 
 Naimans, the, 106, 396, 400, 405, 406, 
 
 410; ii. 353 
 Nakshhandi, 158 
 Naman (prayers), 106. 121, 122 
 Namangan, 323, 339, 334, 356, 358; ii. 
 
 281 ; annexation of, ii. 295 ; bom- 
 bardment of, ii. 298 ; revolts at, ii. 
 
 298 ; road from Aulieata to, ii. 
 
 121 ; tobacco at, 249 
 NamazDigar, 121, 122 
 Namazga, mosque of, ii. 85 
 Nankin, 409 
 Nanty, 125 
 
 Naphtha springs, 323 ; ii. 56 
 Napoleon's Moscow campaign, ii. 258 
 Narbuta Bii, 339, 340, 343, 359, 386 
 Nari-pai Canal, 287, 288 
 Narshaki, 363, 366, 369, 370 
 Naryn fort, ii. 321 
 Naryu river, 51 ; ii. 23, 319 ; bridge over 
 
 the, ii. 33 
 Nasim Toga, 357 
 Nasreddin Bek of Andijan, ii. 39-41, 
 
 278 
 Nasreddin Khan, 281, 282, 283, 289, 
 
 292, 300, 359 ; sent to Tashkent, ii. 
 
 300 ; submission of, ii. 290 ; treaty 
 
 of peace with, ii. 293 
 Nasrullah, 85, 117, 166, 191, 280, 342, 
 
 344—351, 388 ; attacks Shahrisabs, 
 
 ii. 72, 73; at Shahrisabs, ii. 73; 
 
 conquers Upper Zarafshan, 297, 280; 
 
 executes Jskender of Shahrisabs, 95, 
 
 97 
 Native courts, ii. 206; dishea, 125; 
 
 house, description of, 119, 120; 
 
 opinion about taxes, ii. 243 
 Natives, influence of, 98,99 
 Native view of Russian advance, ii. 225 
 Nau, 312, ii. 285 ; fight at, 318 
 Naukut, ii. 46, 47, 48 
 Nauruz, 334 
 
 Navigation of Syr Darya, 55-57 
 Nazar Bek, 359 ; ii. 305, 417 
 Nazarof, Lieutenant-Colonel, 245, 361 ; 
 
 ii. 42, 44 ; description of Marghilan, 
 
 ii. 50 
 Nectarines, 296 
 Nefes-guli, ii. 363 
 Negotiations with England, ii. 266 
 Negri, 361, 387 
 
 Nertchinsk, treaty of, ii. 399, 400 
 Nestorian monastery, ii. 130 
 Nestorians, 403 
 Neutral zone, ii. 266 
 New boundary line with Bukhara, ii. 
 
 419 
 New Kuldja, ii. 162 
 
 TOL. II. G G 
 
 OLD 
 
 New lin^the, ii. 172 
 
 Niaz, ii. 417 
 
 Niasbash, 225 
 
 Niazbek, 102, 113; capture of, 113 
 
 fort of, 349 
 Nicholas, the Emperor, ii. 412, 415 
 Nicknames, 117 
 
 Nicolai Station, burning of the, ii. 421 
 Nicolai steamer, 57 
 Nijni Novgorod, fair at, 45, 209 
 Nikiforof, ii. 273 ; at Khiva as Russian 
 
 envoy, ii. 330 
 Nikolai, 360 
 Nikolaiefsk, 3 
 Nil, 132 
 
 Nilka river, ii. 172 
 Noah's ark, ii. 120 
 Nogai, 108 
 Nogai Kurgans, 102 
 Nogais, the, ii. 394, 398 
 Nolde, Baron, 313, 316, 317, 318, 319 
 Nomenclature, Geographical, 274, 275 
 Nor, ii. 191 
 
 Northern courts, the, 366 
 Norzaisan lake, 394, 410 
 Nose-rings, 124 
 Nosovitch, Colonel, ii. 307 
 Nouruz Aklimed, 380, 381 
 Novgorod, ii. 415 
 Novpmlvnsky, Colonel, ii. 343 
 Novosiltsof, ii. 395 
 Novotreshtshenof, Colonel, ii. 376 
 Nukus, 222 ; ii. 370, 371. 373, 374 ; fort 
 
 of, ii. 372 ; observations at, 328 
 Numi, ii. 89 
 Numijket, ii. 89 
 Nur, 379 
 Nurali. ii. 407 
 
 Nurata, 148; ii. 305, 306, 338 
 Nurata mountains, 241 
 Nurekin, the Kirghiz Sultan, 337, 349 
 Nur Mohammed, 349, 350 
 Nur Verdi Khan, ii. 383 
 Nu-tch, i-kien, 393 
 Nystadt, peace of, ii. 259 
 
 OATH, mode of administration of 
 170 
 Obrutchef, General, 32, 57 
 Obrutchef, the steamer, 57 
 Official rank in Khokand, ii. 7 
 Officials, Russian, 98 
 Oils, 181 
 
 Oil wells in Khokand, 323 
 Oirat, the, ii. 165-168, 398 
 Oirat League, the, ii. 399 
 Old Jungarians, ii. 199 
 Old Kirghiz Horde, the, ii. 412 
 Old Porsu, ii. 372 
 
450 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 OLD 
 
 Old Tashkent, remains of, 226 
 
 Omar Bek, 88, 241 
 
 Omar Khalif, 155 
 
 Omar Khan, 339-343, 345, 348, 359; 
 ii. 238, 318 
 
 Omar Sheikh Mirza, 340 
 
 Omar Veli-n-neim, 341 
 
 Omyl, 400, 402 
 
 Onions, ii. 161 
 
 ' Open leaf,' ii. 236 
 
 Opium, 127 ; smoking, ii. 147, 148 
 
 Oppert, Dr. Augustus, ii. 122 
 
 Or, the river, 22, 23, 406, 409 
 
 Orders, religious, 158 
 
 Orenhurg, 9, 11-16, 24, 29, 33, 34, 45, 
 46, 47, 57, 58, 60, 75, 358, 409, 411 ; 
 ii. 155, 335, 343, 347, 367, 378; 
 Cossacks, 12, 15, 16; column, the, ii. 
 347 ; detachment, the, ii. 351, 367 ; 
 English house at, 38 ; English mis- 
 sionaries at, 38 ; foundation of, 9 ; 
 Kirghiz, ii. 412; trade of, 34, 35 
 
 Organa, 403, 405 
 
 Organum, 403, 405 
 
 Oriental expedition of the ambassadorial 
 Frikaz, 389 
 
 Oriental Historical MSS., 360 
 
 Orlandi, Giovanni, ii. 90 
 
 Orlof, General, ii. 265 
 
 Ormsk, ii. 155, 184 
 
 Ornas, 400, 401 
 
 Orsk, 15, 17, 21-24, 386, 409 ; ii. 367 
 
 Ortakuya, ii. 345, 363 
 
 Oshi, 338 
 
 Oshrusene, 312 
 
 Osman, 376 ; ii. 304 
 
 Osmanlis, 376 
 
 Osmanli sultans, ii. 394 
 
 Osrushna, 364 
 
 OstenSacken, Baron, ii. 133 
 
 Ostermann, ii. 259 
 
 Otliman Khalif, 154, 155 ; Koran of, 
 256 
 
 Otrar, 68, 361, 380, 395, 407 
 
 Oxus, the, 28, 50, 53, 88, 237, 361, 364, 
 367,371, 391,394; ii. 267; ancient 
 bed of, 53 ; exploration of ancient bed 
 of, 222 ; see Amu Darya, except where 
 mentioned by name 
 
 PAALLADTI, Father, 238 
 Pacific Ocean, the, ii. 399 
 Padshah, 386 
 Painting eyebrows, 180 
 Paisa, 201 
 Paita, ii. 36, 299 
 
 Pi'ace of the Khan at Khokand, ii. 10 
 Palorak, 275, 281 
 Padu-kia, 391 
 
 PET 
 
 Pamir, ii. 132 
 
 Pansat Bashi, ii. 7 
 
 Paper manufacturing, ii. 13, i4 
 
 Paper mill, ii. 193 
 
 Parasites, 149 
 
 Paris, ii. 391 
 
 Parmanatchi, ii. 7 
 
 Paropamisus, the, 363 
 
 Parsang. 203 
 
 Partchin, 401, 407 
 
 Pashadmrda (Afghan sore), 148 
 
 Pass of Takhta Karatchi, ii. 62 
 
 Passports, ii. 236 ; in Khokand, ii. 35 
 
 Pasukhin, Brothers, ii. 273 
 
 Patcha Hodja, 280, 281 ; ii. 124, 163 
 
 'Paths,' 186 
 
 Patkanof, K. P., 408, 409 
 
 Paul's expedition, the Emperor, ii. 265 
 
 Pauthier, 238, 398 
 
 Pavements in Tashkent, 101 
 
 Payarof, Lieut.-Colonel, ii. 349 
 
 Peaches, 296 
 
 Pebrine, 198 
 
 Pekin, 338, 339, 342, 343, 399, 410; 
 
 ii. 402 
 Penjakent, 274, 277, 278, 284, 286 
 Pension, of Abdurrahman Khan, 261 ; 
 Baba Bek, 86; Jura Bek, 86; Said 
 Khan, 88 
 Peppers, ii. 196 
 Perfumes, 181 
 Perm, ii. 209, 155 
 Perofsky, ii. 205, 337, 367, 368, 369, 
 
 417 ; prefect of, ii. 369 
 Perofsky, Fort, 3-1, 52, 53, 51, 55, 57, 
 58, 60-64, 65, 66, 67, 73 ; climate of, 
 327. 
 Perofsky, General, 388 ; ii. 330, 335 
 Perofsky steamer, 57, 58 ; ii. 374 
 Persia, 360, 372, 383, 384, 402, 407, 
 409 ; ii. 394, 409 ; boundary with, 
 ii. 385 ; correspondence with, ii. 385 ; 
 connection with India, ii. 385 
 Persian, government, the, ii 385 ; his- 
 torians, 109; ins -riptions, 231 ; Kurds, 
 the, ii. 383, 384 ; language, 84, 109 ; 
 slaves. 50, 109; ii. 102, 353 
 Persian Turkomans, raids of, ii. 344 
 Persians, the, 109, 178, 179, 195, 391; 
 ii. 374, 382 ; freed at Khiva, ii. 380 ; 
 killed by Turkomans, ii. 354; at As- 
 trabad, ii. 381 ; in Turkistan, 109 
 Personal audiences with the emperor, 
 
 ii. 262 
 Pervvshin, 322 
 Pe-shan, 390 
 Peshawur, 97 
 Peter the Great, 322. 377, 382 ; ii. 959, 
 
 302, 329. 391, 400, 403 
 Peter. nann's ' Mittheilungen,' ii. 133 
 
INDEX. 
 
 451 
 
 PET 
 
 Petro-AIexandrofsk, Fort, ii. 354, 367, 
 
 370-375 
 Petrof, Mr. P. N., 383 
 Petrof, Captain, ii. 294 
 Petrof glacier, 50; ii. 132 
 Petrofsk, ii. 367 
 Petrofsky, Mr., ii. 246, 310, 338, 346 ; 
 
 on Bukharan trade, ii. 95, 96 ; on 
 
 silk culture, 193 ; trade statistics, 
 
 213 
 Petroftsi, 377 
 Petroleum, ii. 56 
 
 Petropavlovsk, 34 ; ii. 155, 409, 411 
 Phalange, ii. 124, 125 
 Pheasants, 66 
 Phulad, 395 
 Physicians, 149, 150 
 Picquet, the Swiss traveller, 48 
 Pigs, ii. 383 
 Pilaf, 125 
 Pilau, 125 
 'Piling earth,' 170 
 Pilmen, 125 
 Ping, 399 
 
 Pir Mohammed, 380, 381 
 Pishan, ii. 133 
 Pishpek, 351, 400; ii. 9, 126 
 Pi-shui, or White Water, 393 
 Piskent, 324, 348 ; ii. 284 
 Pistachio trees, 327 
 Pitniak, ii. 374 
 Plane trees, 270 
 Piano Carpini, 400-402 
 Plates of the fountain of the Dragon, 
 
 338 
 Pleiades, 334 
 Ploughs, ii. 306 
 Plums, 296 
 Poisonous fish, 277 
 Poisonous spiders, ii. 125 
 Poland, ii. 398 
 Polar Star, 335 
 Polefsky-Koziel, Mr., ii. 148 
 Poles, the, 377 ; ii. 398 
 Police in Tashkent, 103 
 Polish Uniates, ii. 144 
 ' Pologne illustree,' ii. 259 
 Polovtsi, ii. 57 
 Poltaratzky, Mr., ii. 134 
 Poltava, ii. 415 
 Pomegranates, 399 
 Pontoons, ii. 342, 347 
 Pope Innocent IV., 400 
 Poplars, ii. 383 
 Popof, A. N., 382 
 Poppies, 227, 294 ; ii. 79 
 Population of Central Asia, ii. 202 ; 
 
 city of Kuldja, ii. 197 ; Khokand, ii. 
 
 11, 12 ; Shahrisabs, ii. 71 ; Tashkent, 
 
 77, 104: Turkistan, 104 
 
 QUI 
 
 Porcelain, 187; ii. 193 
 
 Pospielof, 338, 361 
 
 Post roads, 18, 26 
 
 Postures in worship, 15, 17 
 
 Potanin, 361 
 
 Pottery, manufacture of, 187 
 
 Powers of General Kaufmann, ii. 209 
 
 Prairies of Talas and Kentchak, 404 
 
 Pratz, 27 
 
 Prayers, 121, 122 
 
 Prefect of Kurama, ii. 247 
 
 Presents, ii. 271, 272; custom of giving 
 
 and receiving, ii. 7, 37, 66 ; from 
 
 Khan of Khokand, ii. 35 
 Prester John, ii. 122 
 Pretensions of Khivan khans on Kkir* 
 
 ghiz, ii. 4 1 3 
 Primary objects leading to occupation 
 
 of Central Asia, ii. 218 
 Prince Bekovitch Tcherkasski, ii. 329 
 Prince Constantino, 406 
 Prince Gagarin, ii. 329 
 Prince Gur, ii. 201 
 Prince Izyur, ii. 395 
 Prince Kurd, 406 
 Proclamation of Khan of Khiva, ii. 
 
 417; of religious war, ii. 283; of 
 
 General Tchernaief, 115, 116, 
 Productiveness of soil, 291 
 Project of Steppe Commission, ii. 203 ; 
 
 for forming Steppe region into a mili- 
 tary district, ii. 377 
 Protsenko, Colonel, ii. 203 
 Province of Turk'stan, ii. 209 
 Provisions, high price of, ii. 257 
 Pskent, 324 ; ii. 316 
 Ptolemy, 331 
 Public opinion of General Kaufmann's 
 
 administration, ii. 251 
 Pud (Russian weight), 197 
 Pugatcheff, 9 
 P'u-la, 395 
 Pulad (Pulat) Bek, 359, 406; ii. 295, 
 
 297, 299, 300 
 Pulndji, 375 
 Pulat. ii. 107 
 Pultawa, Battle of, ii. 259 
 Punishment. 152 
 Pupyshef, Mr., ii. 5, 17, 322, 323 ; cara- 
 
 van to Kashgar, ii. 322 
 'Purchas, His Pilgrims,' 400 
 Pustiak, 346 
 P'u-su-man, the, 396 
 
 QUAILS, 130 
 Quatremere, 375, 404 
 Quinces, 297 
 Quintus Curtius, 236 
 
 G G 2 
 
452 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 KAB 
 
 P ABTGA-SULTAN-BEGIM, 71 
 
 XL Races in Turkistan, 105, 106 
 
 Radish, ii. 196 
 
 Badlof, Dr. 334; ii. 136, 169, 174 
 
 Bahim Bek, 338. 359 
 
 Rahim Bii, 339, 383, 384, 386 ; at 
 Shahrisabs, ii. 72 
 
 Bahim Khan, 280 
 
 Bahim Ku'li Khan, 386 
 
 Bahmet Ulla Bek of Balyktchi, ii- 25. 352 
 
 Railway, a Central Asiatic. 222, 223 ; 
 General Beznosikof's plan for. 222 ; 
 M. dp. Lesseps' plan for, 222, 223 
 
 Bairn, Fort, 44, 56 ; ii. 413 
 
 Ramangan, 157 
 
 Bamdil Khan, ii. 315 
 
 Barn-fighting- at Bukhara, ii. 88 
 
 Bashid Eddin, 404 
 
 Basti resti, 374 
 
 Bawlinson, Sir Henry, 367 
 
 Recitations or lectures, 165 
 
 Reconnoissanee of the Attrek, ii. 378 
 
 Beconnoissances in the Kyzyl-Kum, ii. 
 307 
 
 ' Kecueil des Voyages et des Memoires 
 publie par la Societe de Geographie,' 
 400 
 
 Befreshments, 121 
 
 Begencies, ii, 238 
 
 Bei, 407 
 
 Beinthal, Captain (Colonel), ii. 181, 
 318, 324, 3S7, 388 
 
 Beis, the, 161, abolition of office of, 161 
 
 Beichenbach, Dr., 196 
 
 Bejen Khan of Bukhara, 255 
 
 Belation between Tarantchi and Chi- 
 nese Dungans, ii. 198 
 
 Relations of Russia with Afghanistan, 
 ii. 312-316; Bukhara, ii. 302-312 ; 
 Ka^hgar, ii. 316-326; Khokand, ii. 
 ^74-302 ; Kuldja Tarbagatai, ii. 
 326, 327 
 
 Religion, ii. 235 
 
 Religious laxity, 161 ; orders, 138 ; tole- 
 ration, 162 
 
 Remusat. 362, 398 
 
 Reshta, 147 ; ii. 87 
 
 Besidents, diplomatic and commer- 
 cial, ii. 19 
 
 Besources of Kuldja, ii. 197 
 
 Besult of attempts to introduce bene- 
 fits of high civilisation, ii. 210 
 
 Bevas, the Swiss traveller, 48 
 
 Rheum, 398 
 
 Bice, 398; ii. 196 
 
 Biding, careless, 174 
 
 Rifles, ii. 6, 11 
 
 Bigaya, 304 
 
 Bighistan at Bukhara, ii. 89 ; at Samar- 
 kand, 251 
 
 RUS 
 
 Eiot at Hodjent, 316 ; ii. 239 
 
 Bitter, 337, 362, 360; ii. 132, 133 
 
 'Boad for guests,' ii. 396 
 
 Boad mending, ii. 36 
 
 Boad pass, 2, 6 
 
 Boad to India from Pekin, 410 
 
 Roads, Chinese, ii. 189-191 
 
 Roads through Tian Shan, ii. 133, 134 
 
 Robberies on Bukhan mountains, ii. 
 
 420 
 Robbery by Eman, ii. 249 
 Rock inscriptions, 231 
 Rodionof, Captain, 65, 66 
 Rodzanko, Major, ii. 298 
 Rokastan, 407 
 Bomanofsky, General, 95, 117, 316, 
 
 389 ; ii. 202, 203, 236, 274, 302t 
 Bossitzky, General, ii. 147 
 Rouge, 181 
 
 Royal Geographical Society, ii. 373 
 Royalty descended, 405 
 Rulile, value of. 197 
 Rubruquis, 402-405, 408 ; ii. 122, 191 
 Rugs, 184 
 Ruins, Janikend, 68 ; in Kuldja, ii. 
 
 158, 162; of Sauran, 68 
 Bukin. Colonel, ii. 421 
 Bussia and Central Asia, trade between, 
 
 216 
 Bussia and England in Central Asia, 
 
 ii. 388. 416 
 Bussia and India, ii. 264 
 Bussia and Khiva, 416-424 
 Bussia and the Kirghiz, 404, 405, 406, 
 
 407 
 Bussian administration, ii. 211-217 
 Russian army in Central Asia, ii. 202 
 Russian Bible Society, 38 
 Bussian envoys, ii. 273 ; action of, ii. 
 
 281 
 Bussian expedition, against Shahrisabs, 
 
 ii. 74; in Kyzylkum, 68 
 Bussian institutions in Central Asia, 
 
 ii. 236 
 Bussian mile compared with Mussul- 
 man mile, ii. 245, 246 
 Bussian orders, style of, ii. 357 
 Bussian policy, with Kirghiz, 311-334; 
 
 regarding Central Asia, ii. 391-415 
 Bussian reception in Central Asia, ii. 
 
 233 
 Bussian slaves, 387; ii. 413; returned 
 
 from Khiva, ii. 339 
 Bussian soldiers in Central Asia, 25 ; 
 
 food of, 265 ; habits of, 266 ; uni- 
 
 form of, 264 
 Bussian spies, supposed murder of, 48 
 Bussian traders, ii. 410 
 Bussian Tsars, ii. 391, 399 
 Bussian weakness, ii. 272 
 
INDEX. 
 
 453 
 
 EUS 
 
 Russians, Asiatic influence on, 151 153 
 Russians in Central Asia, what they 
 
 have done, ii. 234 
 Russians leave Khokand, the, ii. 294 
 Russians lose weight in Khokand, the, 
 
 ii. 279 
 'Russki Mir,' the, ii. 331 
 Bussophobist party, the, ii. 269 
 Rustam Bek, college of, 311 
 Rusti rasti, 374 
 Ruy Gonzalez de Clavigo, 374 
 Ryedkin, Colonel, 25 
 
 SABAD or Savat, 364 
 Sabots, 311 
 Saese or Scythians in Turkistan, 105 
 Sacred number, 143 
 Saddles. 129 
 Sadsk, ii. 305, 347, 417 
 Sadyk Bek, 353 
 Saffron, ii. 196 
 Saganak, 68 
 Sahmi, 406 
 Saholef, Mr., ii. 312 
 Said, 385 
 Said Azim, ii. 238, 325 ; at the 
 
 mosque, 157 ; attempted abduction 
 
 of a girl, 99 ; influence and intrigues 
 
 of, 98, 99, 100 
 Said Bek of Farab, 87 
 Said Khan, 88 ; claims Bukharan 
 
 throne, 88 
 Said Pulad Khan, 358 
 Sai-lan, 397, 399 
 Sai-li-mu, ii. 191 
 St. Anne*s fever, ii. 234 
 St. George, cross of, ii. 282 
 St. Louis of France, 402 
 St. Petersburg, 21, 38; ii. 155, 306, 
 
 315, 400, 403 
 Sairam, 188-192 
 Sairam Nor, 395, 396, 397, 398, 402, 
 
 41)9, 410; ii. 154, 191, 319 
 Sairam Nor, the, 406 
 Saksaul, 57, 58, 66 ; ii. 371 ; nature of, 
 
 57 
 Salad, ii. 196 
 Salar, ii. 173 
 Sale of Persian slaves in the bazaar at 
 
 Bukhara, ii. 310 
 Salaicornia, 181 
 
 Salim Bek, of Tchiraktchi, ii. 75 
 Sallia-Khani Gate, the, ii. 85 
 Solovief the historian, 152 
 Salt, ii. 79 ; mines, 323 ; tax, ii. 302 
 Samanide, Ismail, 370 
 Samanides, the, 364-365, 368, 370, 371 
 Samantchi, 351 
 Samara, 37 ; ii. 155 
 
 SCH 
 
 Samarkand, 85, 87, 105, 106, 107, 108, 
 109 ; 225-267, 279, 280, 337, 341, 
 345, 348, 351, 360, 361, 365, 366, 
 379, 381, 382, 388, 394, 395, 407, 
 409, 410; ii. 304, 305, 308, 312, 338 ; 
 396, 417 ; administration of, 266, 
 267 ; Baber's description of, 239 ; 
 capture of, by Russians, 241, 242, 
 243, 244, 245, 246, 247 ; a Christian 
 See, 238 ; meaning of name of, 
 236 ; mosques at, 254 ; Russian so- 
 ciety in, 266 ; steamer, 47, 48, 59, 
 64 ; subdmits to Tsevan Rabdan, ii. 
 167; traditions of, 236, 237; view 
 from the citadel of, 233 
 
 Sanang Setzen, ii. 126 
 
 Sanitary measures, ii. 235 
 
 Sanjar, Sultan, 263 
 
 San-thsai-thou-hoe'i (affairs of Man), 
 409 
 
 Saracens, 402 
 
 Sarai, 377; ii. 391 
 
 Sarantchef, Colonel, ii. 349, 350, 357, 
 358 
 
 Saraskh, 407 
 
 Saratan, 329, 330, 331 
 
 Saratof, 1, 2, 7, 308; ii. 155 
 
 Sardoba (cistern), 228 
 
 Sarikul (Wood's Lake), ii. 267 
 
 Saripul, 407 
 
 Sarkan river, ii. 150, 154 
 
 Sarkhaba, fight at, ii. 299 
 
 Sarnack, 198 
 
 Sartakh, 406, 407 
 
 Sart, Mr. Lerch's definition of the word, 
 104 ; its use, 105 ; disease, 148 
 
 Sarts, the, 64, 78, 340, 345, 347. 348, 
 350, 352, 387 ; ii. 279 ; origin of, 
 104, 105; their singing, 131 
 
 Saru, ii. 137 
 
 Sarvada, 282, 364 
 
 Sary-bagysh, ii. 137, 138 
 
 Sary Kamysh, ii. 367, 376, 379, 380, 
 384, 423 ; General Glukhofsky's ex- 
 pedition to, ii. 354, 355 : Lake, ii. 354 
 
 Sary Mazar, Gate of, ii. 290 
 
 Sarymsak, 348, 352, 359, 388 
 
 Sarymsak Udaitchi, ii. 320 
 
 Sary-su, river, 54, 55 
 
 Satara Patcha, ii. 324 
 
 Sauces, ii. 195 
 
 Saumal Kul, 54 ; ii. 132, 142 
 
 Saur, 329 
 
 Sauran, 68, 69, 183 
 
 Savings' funds, 102 
 
 Savran (Sauran), 407 
 
 Sayaks, ii. 137, 138 
 
 Schaufuss, Colonel, ii. 17 
 
 Schiltberger, 238, 374, 401 
 
 Schmidt, Prof., 27 
 
454 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 SCH 
 
 Schools, 163-165; for the benefit of 
 Russian soldiers, &c, ii. 199 ; in 
 Samarkand, ii. 235 ; at Yierny, ii. 
 146 
 
 Schott, Captain, 56 
 
 Sch'iuvalof, Count, ii. 365 
 
 Sebrenk, 401 ; ii. 133 
 
 Schwartz, political prisoner at Vierny, 
 ii. 149 
 
 Sclavonians, ancestors of, 105 
 
 Scobelef, General, ii. 20, 280, 282, 288, 
 290, 292, 297, 298, 350, 363 
 
 Scorodosma fcetidum, 228 
 
 Scorpion bite, ii. 26 
 
 Scorpions, ii. 37 ; bitten by a, ii. 26 
 
 Scotch missionaries, 38 
 
 Scull caps, once worn by Russian 
 nobles, 153 
 
 Scythians, the, 105, 236, 367 ; ii. 153 
 
 Sea of Aral, 411; ii. 363, 366 
 
 Seal, used on death-warrants in Buk- 
 hara, 95 
 
 Scbuktekinide Mahmud, 370 
 
 Sects, Mussulman, 155, 156 
 
 SeiVvides, 379 
 
 Segnakh (Saganak), 406 
 
 Seid Abdul Kasim, visit to the college 
 of, 163 
 
 Seid Abdullah Bek of Kermineh, ii. 116 
 
 S. d Abdullah Fattah Khan, ii. 306 
 
 Seid Akhmed, 378 
 
 Seid Amir Ul Umar, ii. 349 
 
 Seid Bek of Farab, 280, 283 ; ii. 286 
 
 Seid Khan, 241 ; ii. 74, 304 
 
 Seid Mahmud Yakub Khan, ii. 325 
 
 Seid Mercekhor, ii. 69 ; the house of, 
 ii. 69 
 
 Seid Mohammed Rahim, ii. 342, 352 
 
 Seid Sultan Khan, of Khokand, 114, 
 340, 352, 353, 354, 359 
 
 Sekeljiket, 366 
 
 Seldjuk, 371 
 
 Seldjukides, the, 365, 370, 371, 406 
 
 Sembat, 408 
 
 Sembat, General, 405 
 
 Semenof, Mr., ii 127, 133 
 
 Semipalatinsk, ii. 155, 184.209,409,414 
 
 Semiretch, 409; ii. 150, 151, 184, 205, 
 327 
 
 Semiseant, 236 
 
 Semitic races, 105 
 
 Sengakh (var Sengau, Ongau), 407 
 
 Senkofsky, Prof., 363 ; ii. 166 
 
 Sergiopol, ii. 155, 205 
 
 Seripul, ii. 267 
 
 Serkar, 304; ii. 45, 47, 48 
 
 Serpul, 389 
 
 Sesame, 181, 182, 183; at Ura-tepe, 
 ii. 242 
 
 Setaria, 398 
 
 SHE 
 
 Settlement of the Karategin difficulty 
 
 ii. 307 * 
 
 Severtsof, the naturalist, 393 ; ii. 373 
 Seyid, 385 
 
 Shaar, ii. 67-71 ; Akserai at, 225 ; ii. 
 68 ; bazaar of, ii. 70 ; Bek of, ii. 68, 
 75 ; citadel of, ii. 67 ; dances at, ii. 
 69 ; entry into, ii. 67 ; jugglers at, 
 ii. 70 ; mosques at, ii. 71 ; population 
 of. ii. 71 ; water at, ii. 69 
 Shadi, 347 
 
 Shadi Bek of Kshtut, 87, 2S0, 282, 283 
 Shadi Mirza, ii. 317, 318 
 Shadi Mulk. 374 
 Shadiman Hodja, 351, 352 
 Shadman Malik, bridge of, 233 
 Shafi, the, 156 
 Shagreen leather, 183 
 Sbahmulk, 375 
 
 Shah Murad Khan, 190, 351. 352, 359, 
 385. 388; Bek of Khokand, 92; 
 elevation to the throne, 92, 93 
 Shah-nameh, the, 105 
 Shah of Persia, the, ii. 385 
 Shahrikhana, 343, 358 : submits, ii. 
 
 299 ; surrenders, ii. 292 
 Sbahrisabs, 85, 342, 347, 348 ; ii. 277, 
 30S, 334 ; Baber's description of, ii. 
 71 ; delivered to Amir of Bukhara, ii. 
 307 ; history of, ii. 72-74 ; inhabitants 
 of, ii. 72; meaning of name, ii. 71 ; 
 palace at, ii. 71 ; punishment at, ii. 
 71 ; Russian conquest of, ii. 74 ; sub- 
 mits, ii. 306 
 Shahrukh, 339, 353, 359, 375 ; Bek, 
 
 337, 339 
 Shah Zindeh. mosque of, at Samarkand, 
 148, 235, 247 ; offerings at the shriue 
 of, 249 ; prophecy relating to, 247 
 Shaikantaur, 103 
 Shakespeare, 361 
 Shakmunia (Shakya Munya, or Buddha), 
 
 407 
 Sham, ii. 76 
 
 Shammanism, 38: ii. 137, 138, 405 
 Shamsiya, the, 329, 332 
 Shansi, 371 
 Shariat, the, 169 
 Sharmitan, ii. 75 
 Shash, ii. 236 
 Shauju, ii. 196 
 Shav'ing, 180 
 Shaw, Mr., 104; ii. 388 
 Sheep in Central Asia, 326 
 Sheep-bones, ii. 31 
 Sheep-dung, ii. 31 
 Sheep-ticks, ii. 91 
 Sh^hab-Eddin, 401 
 
 Sheibani Khan, 112, 340, 377, 378, 379, 
 380, 3S1 
 
INDEX. 
 
 455 
 
 SHE 
 
 Sheibani Nameh, 363, 378 
 
 Sheibanide, the, 379, 380 
 
 Sheikh-aryk, ii. 351 ; ferry of, ii. 342 
 
 Sheikh-Nur-Eddin, 375 
 
 Sheikh-ul-Islam, 72 
 
 Shemakha, ruler, the, ii. 395 
 
 Shenkal, ruler, the, ii. 395 
 
 Shen-si, ii. 173, 178, 319 
 
 Shepelef, Captain, ii. 135 
 
 Sheraffei, 97, 98 
 
 Sheref-eddin, 373 
 
 Shibberjan, ii. 267 
 
 Shiite, 91 
 
 Shikarpur, 111, 184 
 
 Shin-sui-ho-dzi, 172; ii. 169 
 
 Shir Ali, 343, 345, 346, 347, 348, 388; 
 ii. 268, 276, 277, 313, 314, 315, 316 
 
 Shir Ali Khan, 260, 359 
 
 Shirabad, ii. 313 
 
 Shirash, 11-14 
 
 Shiraz, 7<», 370 
 
 Shirin-hatun, ii. 117 
 
 Shirin and Ferbat, story of, 108, 109 
 
 Shir-Naib, 117 
 
 Shmelef, ii. 94, 99 
 
 Shoemakers in Tashkent, 183 
 
 Shooting on the Steppe, 23-24 
 
 Shopkeepers' tax, ii. 241 
 
 Shugnan, 343 ; ii. 316 
 
 Shukur-Daitehin, ambassadors of the, 
 ii. 399 
 
 Shurakhana, 54 ; ii. 339, 342, 354, 367, 
 369 ; submits, ii. 342 
 
 Sianghi Muiad, ii. 113 
 
 Siberia, 34, 75, 77, 100, 358; ii. 154, 
 394, 397, 398, 399, 402; conquest 
 of, 8 
 
 Siberian Cossacks, the, ii. 399 ; houses, 
 ii. 153 ; Kirghiz, the, ii. 412 ; mes- 
 senger, 382, 408 ; trade, 46 
 
 Sibos, ii. 170 ; dialect of the, ii. 170 
 
 Sibyar, 103 
 
 Sie-mi-sze-kan, 236 
 
 Siganak, 364 
 
 Sihun, 50 
 
 Si-liao, the, 395 
 
 Silk, 366; culture, school of, 201 
 filatures, 199 ; goods at Tashkent, 
 190; legend on origin of, 191 ; pro- 
 duction of, 193, 194; statistics of, 
 216 ; trade, the, 216 ; trade of Cen- 
 tral Asia, the, 190-201, 216; wind- 
 ing, 198, 199 
 
 Silkworms, 194 : ii. 382 ; diseases of, 
 197, 198; ?ggs, 194; speculations 
 in, 199 
 
 Sillau, practice of giving, h. 37 
 
 Silver in Zaraphan, 279 
 
 Silver on the Fan, 279 
 
 Sinioda, ii. 415 
 
 SOL 
 
 Sin Eater, the, ii. 28 
 
 Siren (i.e. Sairam), 364 
 
 Si-shu ki, 398 
 
 Sisian, 407 
 
 Sitard, 131 
 
 Sitting postures, 119 
 
 Siundj Hodja, 379, 380 
 
 Si-yu-lu, 394 
 
 Sketch of the history of Khokand in 
 recent times, 337 
 
 Sketches of the Khanate of Khokand, 
 338 
 
 Skin diseases, 148 
 
 Slave, purchase of, at Bukhara, ii. 101, 
 109, 310 
 
 Slavery, ii. 309 ; in Khiva, the Khan 
 abolishes, ii. 3.53 ; not allowed in 
 Sharisabs, ii. 72 
 
 Slaves from Tashkent sold in Khokand, 
 97 
 
 Slave-trade, ii. 309, 310; increase of, 
 ii. 311 ; in Bukhara, ii. 100-109 
 
 Slippers, ii. 193 
 
 Sluzhenko, Lieutenant, ii. 302 
 
 Smoking, 126, 127 
 
 Snow, in Buam Pass, ii. 134; melting, 
 52 ; sold in bazaars, 73 
 
 Snow-storms. 5 ; ii. 337 
 
 Snuff, 127 
 
 Soap, 181 
 
 Sol>olef, Colonel, ii. 54, 374 ; the ethno- 
 logist, ii. 373 
 
 Society, Central Asiatic, 84 ; its diffi- 
 culties, 84 
 
 Society for encouragement of Bussian 
 trade, 84 ; Bussian, in Samarkand, 
 226; native, of Tashkent, 85-100 
 
 Society in Tashke^, 83 
 
 Society, Imperial Bussian Geographical 
 81; its lack of interest in country, 
 84 
 
 Society of \atural History and Anthro- 
 pology, 84 
 
 Society of the lovers of natural history 
 at Moscow, ii. 374 
 
 Sofi Khan, ii. 384 
 
 Sofora. 182 
 
 Sogd, 379 
 
 Sogdia, 390 
 
 Sogdiana, 236, 237 ; ii. 164 
 
 Sokh, ii. 282 
 
 Soldier, the Bussian, his position in 
 Turkistan, ii. 230 
 
 Soldiers, accusations against, ii. 353 ; 
 •hardships of, ii. 353; Bussian, in 
 Central Asia, 264, 266 
 
 Solomon's throne, 353 ; ii. 43, 45 ; 
 traditions of, ii. 43 
 
 Solons, the, ii. 170; massacred by 
 Dungans, ii. 183 
 
456 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 SOL 
 
 Solpuga araneoides, ii. 123 
 
 Solpuga intrepida, ii. 123 
 
 Somof, ii. 322 ; caravan of, ii. 323 
 
 Songs of the Batchas, 135 ; of the 
 Dervishes, 258 
 
 Son Kul, Lake, ii. 132 
 
 Sorghum, 291 
 
 Sori, 407 
 
 Sorokin, Ivan, 382 
 
 Sosnofsky, Captain, 390 
 
 Sotnia of Cossacks, 45 
 
 Spaski, G. J., 382 
 
 Special commissions, ii. 262 
 
 Special Steppe Commission, ii. 203 
 
 Spectacles, ii. 193 
 
 Spiders, 228 ; ii. 123 
 
 Spies, supposed murder of Russian, 48 
 
 Sport, 66 
 
 Stags, 393 
 
 Stanislas, Julien, M., 394 
 
 State of Transoxania, 378 
 
 Statues found in Steppe, ii. 153; near 
 Dsyk Kul, ii. 130 
 
 Staunton, ii 171 
 
 Stchedrin, 207 
 
 Steamers on Aral Sea, 47 
 
 Stebnitzky, expedition of Colonel, ii. 
 381 
 
 Stellio Lehmanni, 323 
 
 Stempel, Major, his advance on Samar- 
 kand, 21-5 
 
 Steppe, the, 1, 13, 15, 17, 18, 20, 21, 22, 
 23, 24, 25, 26, 32, 102 ; acceptation of, 
 ii. 204 ; animals of, 23 ; appointment 
 of General Kryzhonfsky, ii. 204 ; 
 birds of, 23 ; character of, 22 ; com- 
 mission, ii. 201, 233; crossing the, 
 22 ; famished, 227, 228 ; flowers of, 
 227, 228 ; Golodnaya, 226 ; imagi- 
 nary dangers of, 21 ; main features 
 of, ii. 204, 205 ; rivers of, 23 ; vege- 
 tation of, 67, 227, 228 
 
 Stewart, 373, 374 
 
 Stoddnrt, 259, 361, 387 
 
 Stoletof, Colonel, ii. 373, 374, 383, 421 
 
 Stone bridge, 232 
 
 Storks, 71 
 
 Strabo, 50 
 
 Strashny-Senukovitch, Colonel, 24 
 
 Stremovukhof, Mr. ii. 313 
 
 Struve, Mr., ii. 19, 270, 272, 277, 278, 
 302, 310 
 
 Stud at Kaplan-Bek, ii. 284 
 
 Suan-tuan, the, 396 
 
 Sub-divisions of populations, ii. 205 
 
 Submission of the numerous Horde of 
 Kirghiz, ii. 403 
 
 Su, dynasty of, 366 
 
 Sufi, the, 157, 348 ; Bek, 359 
 
 Sufi Badal, ii. 254 
 
 Suidun, ii. 159-161, 169, 172, 188 
 
 192; attack on Dungans at, ii. 180 i 
 
 bazaar at, ii. 161 ; houses of, ii. 1601 
 
 walls of, i>. 159 
 Sui Lun, ii. 131 
 Suiones, the, ii. 164 
 Suk, 355 
 Sukulkhan, 406 
 Suleiman Bii, 339 
 Sulhuk, 158 
 Su-li, 392 
 Suit, ii. 137, 138 
 
 Sultan Abil Ogla, ii. 183, 185, 188 
 Sultan Ali Mirza, ii. 97 
 Sultan Baber, ii. 394 
 Sultan Bek, 279 
 Sultan Daulet Bushaef, ii. 419 
 Sultan Hazert mountains, 276 
 Sultan Kenisar Kasimof, ii. 412 
 Sultan, Kirghiz, 32, 33 
 Sultan Mahmud, 342, 359, 379 
 Sultan Murad, 348 ; ii. 281 
 Sultan Murad Bek, 353, 359 
 Sultan Murad Bek of Marcjhilan, ii. 49, 
 
 291 
 Sultan Tezak, ii. 250 
 Sultans of Egypt, 408 
 Sumach, 183 
 Sum bar, the river, ii. 381 ; the upper, 
 
 ii. 382 
 Sumbul, 181, 276 
 Sumbula, 329, 330 
 Summons to the Russians to become 
 
 Mussulmans, ii. 283 
 Sumuls, ii. 170, 200 
 Stin-Sze Kan, 236 
 Suna Ami, 349, 359 
 Sunday Bazaar, the, 175 
 Sunnites, 91, 155, 156 
 Sunstrokes, ii. 345 
 Superstitions, ii. 29, 30, 31, 32 
 ' Supplement a l'histoire generale dea 
 
 Huns, des Turks, et des Mogols,' 363 
 Surkhab, 275 
 Surma, 180 
 Surnai, 132 
 
 Survey, Book of the Great, 50, 53 
 Survey of the Aral Sea, ii. 412 
 Sut Kul or Milky Lake, ii. 191 
 Su-ye, 392, 393 
 Suzak, 356 
 Sweden, ii. 398, 415 
 Swedes, ii. 398 
 Sweetmeats, 121 
 Swiss travellers, 48 
 
 Sword-blades, manufacture of, 177, 178 
 Sybi Khan, 393 
 Synagogue at Samarkand, 260 
 Syr Dayra, the, 28, 30, 51, 52, 53, 54, 
 
 102, 105, 106, 236, 363, 368, 386, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 457 
 
 SYR 
 
 387, 391, 401, 407, 411 ; ii. 335, 
 337, 416, 417 ; course of, ii. 54, 55 ; 
 attempts to improve it, 55, 56 ; ferry 
 over, 226 ; tolls on, ii. 59 ; ice on, 
 327, 328 
 
 Syr river, ii. 409 
 
 Syrtlanof, Captain, 267 
 
 Syrym, 32 
 
 Sy shekku Khan, 393 
 
 TABARI, 369 
 Tabriz, 72 
 
 Tabushin, 275 
 
 Tad, 106 
 
 Tadjik dialect, the, 109, 367 
 
 Tadjiks, 102, 104, 105, 106, 108, 109, 
 278; ii. 56; language, 109, 110; 
 origin of, 105, 106 ; their character- 
 istics, 108 ; villages of, 102, 106 
 
 Taftazani, 374 
 
 Taganrog, ii. 265 
 
 Taitsi, ii. 165 
 
 Takhta Karatchi, pass of, ii. 62 
 
 Takht-i-Suleiman, ii. 43, 45 
 
 Taksaba, ii. 7, 82, 101-111 
 
 Talas, 391, 395, 398, 401, 404, 406, 
 410 ; ii. 120, 121 ; the river, 397 
 
 Ta-la-su-mo-lien, 396, 397 
 
 Ta-la-sze, 395, 399 
 
 Talgar, ii. 145 
 
 Talkhnameh, ii. 236 
 
 Talki defile, the, 395, 397 
 
 Talki pass, the, 410 ; ravine, the, ii. 189 
 
 Talki river, the, ii. 189 
 
 Ta-lo-sse, 393 
 
 Talus Hakim, 192 
 
 Tambourine, 131 
 
 Tamdy, 68 
 
 Tamerlane, 231, 238, 239, 369. 73; 
 legends of, 277 ; the army of, 340 
 
 Tana, 401 
 
 Tan dynasty, ii. 131 
 
 Tanais, 236 
 
 Tanap, 103, 303, 305; ii. 206, 241, 
 302 
 
 Tangut, ii. 167 
 
 Tanning, 183 
 
 Taragai river, 50 
 
 Taran, 200, 276 
 
 Tarautas, 18 
 
 Tarantchi shops, ii. 193 ; women, ii. 
 195 
 
 Taranchis, ii. 197, 199, 319 ; calamities 
 of, ii. 174 ; defeat the Dungans, ii. 
 182; defeated by Russians, ii. 184- 
 186; language of, ii. 169; origin of, 
 ii. 1 69 ; relations with Russians, ii. 
 181-186 ; rule Kuldja, ii. 183 
 
 TCH 
 
 Tarantulas, ii. 123 ; legends of, 250, 311 
 
 Taraz, 395, 404; ii. 120 
 
 Tarbagatai, ii. 326 ; insurrection in, ii. 
 180 
 
 Tarikhi Mukhim Khan, 363, 381 
 
 Tartardom in Russia, ii. 391 
 
 Tartars, 12, 14, 102, 104, 108, 48, the, 
 376, 405; of Nogai Kurgan, 102; 
 Turkish langunge used by, 3, 8 ; 
 women, veiling of, 124 
 
 Taryk, 291 
 
 Tash, 203 
 
 Tashanr, ii. 354 
 
 Tashi Lin-va, 396 
 
 Tashkent, 45, 66, 67, 338, 339, 340, 
 341, 349, 350, 352, 353, 354, 358, 
 360, 361, 375, 379, 388, 389, 410; 
 ii. 193, 313. 335, 337, 343, 377, 388 
 404, 409, 423 ; alarm at, ii. 285 ; 
 capture of, 112, 113; different races 
 among the inhabitants of, 104; dis- 
 traction of trees for luel at, 102 ; 
 divisions of the town of, 103 • failure 
 of irrigation canal, 103 ; its history, 
 111,112; its streets, buildings, walls 
 and gardens, 101 ; origin aud meaning 
 of the name, 111; population, 104; 
 proclamation of General Tchernaief, 
 115, 116; taxes. 103, 104 
 
 Tashkentians, 59, 207, 338 
 
 Tash Kupriuk, 232 
 
 Tash Kurgan, ii. 121 
 
 Tatarinof coal field, the, 320 
 
 Tatarmof, Colonel, 319 ; Mr., ii. 302 
 
 Tataristan, 406 
 
 Taurus, 407 
 
 Ta-wan, ii. 54 
 
 Taxation, amount of, 305, 306 
 
 Taxes, ii. 211 
 
 Tax for the salaries of the Aksakals, 
 &c.,ii. 242 
 
 Taxes in Khokand, ii. 57, 60 ; in Kuldja 
 under Chinese, ii. 169 ; Tashkent, 
 103, 104; native, in Tashkent, 204, 
 in Zarafshan, 306 ; of Orenburg Kair- 
 ghiz, 34 
 
 Tchagan Khagan, ii. 143 
 
 Tchaikofsky, Colonel, theory of course 
 of Amu Darya, 53 
 
 Tchaikofskv, Colonel, ii. 135 
 
 Tchairdy, i'i. 380, 382 
 
 Tchakhars, the, ii. 170, 171 
 
 Tchaksa, 201 
 
 Tchalkar lake, 23 
 
 Tehampans, ii. 173 
 
 Tchanaktchik, ii. 348 
 
 Teh'ang-ba-la. 395 
 
 Tch'ang Tch'un, 372, 395-398, 406 ; ii. 
 121, 122, 191 
 
458 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 TCH 
 
 Tch'ang, Governor General, ii. 179, 182 
 
 Tch'ang Te, 395, 398-400, 401, 402, 
 410 
 
 Tch'ang Tchun, the Chinese traveller, 
 188, 132. 227, 237, 240 
 
 Tchao-hoei. the Chinese General, 338 
 
 Tchapan, 122, 123 
 
 Tchar, fortress of, 406 
 
 Tchardara, 68 
 
 Tchardjui, 184, 279; ii. 73, 308; permis- 
 sion to visit, ii. 84 ; visit forbidden, 
 ii. 109-112 
 
 Tcharik, 201, 202 
 
 Tcharishli, ii. 380 
 
 Tcharku, ii. 13 
 
 Tchar-su bazaar at Bukhara, ii. 94 
 
 Tcharu tribe, the, ii. 420 
 
 Teharva, ii. 382 ; grounds, the, ii. 381, 
 382 
 
 Tchat, ii. 380, 381 
 
 Tchatch, 111, 112, 365, 367 
 
 Tchatch mountains, ii. 12 
 
 Tehatkal mountains and valley, 102 
 
 Tchatyr Kul, ii. 132 
 
 Tchaudurs, the, ii. 372, 375 
 
 Tehaudyr, the, 382 
 
 Tcheka, value of, 203 ; ii. 303 
 
 Tcheleken, ii. 343, 423 
 
 Tcherik, ii. 137 
 
 Tcherkess, 8 
 
 Tehernaief, General, 75, 103, 112, 113, 
 114, 115, 116, 117, 124, 175. 353, 
 388, 389 ; ii. 120, 302, 331, 333, 401 ; 
 campaign of, ii. 274 ; his behaviour, 
 116; his capture of Tashkent, 1 12— 
 115; his proclamation, 115, 116; 
 men, 266 ; receives deputation from 
 Tashkent, 89 ; title among the na- 
 tives, 117 
 
 Tche-shi, 393 
 
 Tchi-gu, ii. 130 
 
 Tchikishlar, ii. 335, 336, 344, 380 
 
 Tchilek, 241-243 
 
 Tchilim, 126 
 
 Tchillya, 198 
 
 Tchilmanda, 131 
 
 Tchil-petch, 123 
 
 Tchim, ii. 64 
 
 Tchimbar, ii. 369, 371, 373 
 
 Tchimkent, 51, 73, 74, 75, 112, 349, 
 350, 357, 398, 41 1 ; ii. 120, 250 ; cap- 
 ture of, 75 ; derivation of, 75 
 
 Tchimpantzi, ii. 158, 169, 172 
 
 Tchimur, 399 
 
 Tehinars, 270 
 
 Tchinaz, 68, 113, 114, 226; ii. 337 
 
 Tchinaz fort, occupation of, 113, 114 
 
 Tchinghiz, ii. 398 ; army of, ii. 398 ; 
 dynasty of, 238 
 
 Tchinghiz Khan, 106, 112, 188, 236, 
 
 TEU 
 
 238, 337, 365, 372, 373, 394, 395, 
 410 ; ii. 165, 372 ; Prince, 1, 2, 3, 34 
 
 Tchinghizides, the, 372 
 
 Tchini, manufacture of, 187, 188 
 
 Tchin-tcha-ho-dzi, ii. 159, 169, 186 
 
 Tchiraktchi, ii. 75, 244, 305 
 
 Tchirtchik, 51, 113, 115, 182, 349; 
 river, 51, 102, 226, 324 
 
 Tchjan-Tsiang, 237, 366 
 
 Tchomura, ii. 382 
 
 Tchon-bagysh, ii. 137 
 
 Tchoros, the, ii. 165, 398 
 
 Tchu, 54, 55, 292, 392, 393, 402, 404, 
 405, 410 ; ii. 126, 127, 142 ; naviga- 
 tion of, ii. 143 ; its rise and connec- 
 tion with lake Issy-kul. 54 ; former 
 course, 54, 55 ; scenery from bridge 
 over the, ii. 127 
 
 Tchudar Sary Lshan, ii. 343 
 
 Tchugutchak, 400, 405, 410; ii. 166, 
 191, 326, 414, 415 ; captured, ii. 180; 
 fairs at, ii. 184, 185 
 
 Tchumatch Bii, 339, 359 
 
 Tchumtchu Khan, 95 
 
 Tchupan-ata, hill of, 233, 239 ; fight at, 
 242, 245 ; legend of, 233 
 
 Tchurnak, 71 
 
 Tehushvara, 125 
 
 Teh ust, ii. 297 
 
 Tchusta, 344 
 
 Tea, 37 ; houses in Tashkent, 179, 180 
 trade of Bukhara, ii. 95, 96 ; statis- 
 tics of, 216, 217 
 
 Teaching, method of, 165 
 
 Teich, Mr., 27 
 
 Tekes, the river, ii. 137, 152 
 
 Tekke ad, a, ii. 383 
 
 Tekke oasis, the, ii. 383 
 
 Tekke Turkomans, ii. 346, 380, 382 
 attack by, ii. 345; attacks of, ii. 370 
 route of the, ii. 370 
 
 T. kkes, the, ii. 374, 381 
 
 Telegraphs at Tashkent, 204 
 
 Tele Kul, 54 
 
 Temur-khan-shura, ii. 423 
 
 Temurtu-No!', ii. 131 
 
 Temyr Kabuk, ii. 338 
 
 Tenga, 153 ; ii. 303 
 
 Tenghis, ii. 154 
 
 Terek Divan, ii. 280 ; pass the, 51 ; ii. 
 321 
 
 Terek, the, ii. 396 
 
 Terekli, 18, 26 
 
 Teremai, 287, 288 
 
 Tereutief, ii. 385, 388, 416; M. A., ii. 
 272, 273 
 
 Ters, valley of the, 393 
 
 Terskei, ii. 131 
 
 Teutonic race, ancestors of in Jungaria, 
 ii. 164 
 
INDEX. 
 
 459 
 
 TEV 
 
 Tevvekel, 30 
 
 Thaethsing y thoung tchi, or Great Geo- 
 graphy of Chinese empires, 338 
 Thang, dynasty of, 366 ; dynasty, the, 
 
 393, 410 
 
 Thibet, 410; ii. 398, 399 
 Thilo, Colonel, 28 ; ii. 374 
 Thompson, George, 360 
 Thomson, Mr. E., 361 ; ii. 385 
 Thousand sources, ii. 122, 123; 390, 
 
 392, 393 
 Throne of Solomon, the, ii. 43-45 
 Thsian Thsionen, 393 
 Thsing-tchi lake, 392 
 Tian Shan, the, 50, 54, 274, 278, 390, 
 
 394, 395, 409 ; ii. 132-135, 325; 
 inhabitants of the neighbourhood of, 
 ii. 135, 136; mountains of, ii. 132 ; 
 133; roads through, ii. 133, 134 ; 
 135 
 
 Tie-mu-r-ts'an-ch'a, 399 
 
 Tienstin, massacre at, ii. 177 
 
 Tigers, 227 
 
 Tilan, ii. 284, 286 
 
 Tiles, 187 ; enamelled, 70 
 
 Tilla, analysis of, 204 ; value of, 203 
 
 Timi at Samarkand, "257 
 
 Timis at Bukhara, ii. 94 
 
 Timur, 238, 247, 249; ii. 68, 71, 97; 
 coins of, ii. 97 ; at Khokand, con- 
 structions of, ii. 71 ; library of, 240; 
 ii. 97 ; the name, 375 ; the tomb of 
 70, 71, 72, 110, 252-255; throne 
 of, 254, 255 
 
 Timur's wife, 249, 250, 256 
 
 Timurides. the, 340, 374, 375, 378 
 
 Tingabalekh, 406 
 
 Tish-kari, 118 
 
 Tiume-Kent, Euins of, ii. 121 
 
 Tiura-Bek-Yiura, 342 
 
 Tiura Jan, the, ii, 306, 307 
 
 Tiura Kurgan, 358, ii. 297; fort of, 
 356 
 
 Tobacco, 294; use of, 127 
 
 Tobaeva, 5 
 
 Tobol, the, ii. 398 
 
 Tobolsk, ii. 401 
 
 Togai, ii. 138 
 
 Togon Timur, ii. 165 
 
 Toins, the, 407 
 
 Tokan, 19 
 
 Tokhfil, 198 
 
 Tokhta Nazar, 348, 359 
 
 Tokhtamish, 340, 374, 383, 384 
 
 Tokhtamysh, ii. 308 
 
 Tokhtamysh, Bek of Shahrisabs, ii. 280 
 
 Tokmak, 54, 351, 392, 400; ii. 126, 
 150, 205 
 
 Tokran river, ii. 154 
 
 Tokto Mohammed, of Andijan, 338 
 
 TUH 
 
 Tokus-tara-osten canal, ii. 174 
 
 Tomasha, 136, 137 
 
 Tomb of Saint Khala-ata, the, ii. 240 
 
 Tomsk, ii. 209 
 
 Topographical survey of the Kirghiz 
 Steppes, ii. 401 
 
 Topography of Khokand, ii. 54-56 
 
 Torgot, ii, 398 ; Khan, ii. 201 
 
 Torgots, ii. 165, 172, 197, 199, 200, 201, 
 519 
 
 Tornau, Baron, 155 
 
 Tozai Khan, 342 
 
 Trade between Eussia and Khokand, 
 ii. 17; at Bukhara, ii. 94-96; of 
 Bukhara, ii. 214; with Bukhara, 
 ii. 410 ; Central Asiatic, 45, 56 ; 
 in Tashkent, 212; Kazala, 43; Kir- 
 ghiz, 34; of Khiva, 215; of Kho- 
 kand, 215 ; of province of Khuldja, 
 ii. 198 
 
 Trade routes, 219 ; Bukhara, 219 ; Kho- 
 kand, 219 
 
 Trades depot at Kazala, 45 
 
 Trades in Tashkent, 174 
 
 Trading, indifference of natives, to, 176 
 
 Trans-Caspian district, ii. 378 ; boxui- 
 daries of, ii. 378 
 
 Trans-Ili region, ii. 145 
 
 Transoxiana, 366, 368, 380 
 
 Transport, means of, 218 ; cost of, 219, 
 220 
 
 Trans-Volga coimtry, the, 393 
 
 Travellers murdered at Balkh, 48 
 
 Travelling, amusements of. 20 ; dangers 
 and difficulties of, 21, 26, 29; ii. 14, 
 15, 18 
 
 Travels of Pospielof and Buruashof to 
 Tashkent, 339 
 
 Treachery of a jigit, ii. 47, 48 
 
 Treaty, of Kuldja, ii. 414; of Nert- 
 chinsk, the, ii. 403, 415; with Buk- 
 hara, ii. 310, 421 ; stipulations of. ii. 
 311; with Japan, ii. 415; with 
 Khiva, ii. 417; with Khokand, ii. 
 275, 276 
 
 Trebizond, 391 
 
 Trees, destruction of, 102; veneration 
 of, 138 
 
 Troitsk, 12, 34 
 
 Trotzky, General, ii. 295, 296, 339, 
 347' 
 
 Trumpets, 132 
 
 Tsanma river, ii. 200 
 
 Tsar Alexis, ii. 273 
 
 Tsar of Moscow, the, ii. 395 
 
 Tsar, White, 115, 117 
 
 Tsevan Eabdan, ii. 167 
 
 Tsin-Shi-Hwang, ii. 143 
 
 Tub, river, ii. 130 
 
 Tu-hiu, 390 
 
460 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 TIU 
 
 Tiumen-aryk, 52 
 
 Tukhmak, 182 
 
 Tu-kue, the, 392, 393 
 
 Tuli Khorason, 372 
 
 Tulips, 60 ; wild, 26 
 
 Tuli-shen, ii. 171 
 
 Turan and Iran, 105 
 
 Turanian, neighbours of Transoxiana, 
 the, 367 
 
 Turanians, 105 
 
 Turbans. 123, 189 
 
 Turfan, 369; ii. 133, 319 
 
 Turgai district, 12, 33 
 
 Turki. dialect, 109 ; language, 52, 84, 
 language of the Uzbeks, 103, 109; 
 princes, 237 ; races, 105 
 
 Turkish names, 389 ; race, 34 
 
 Turkistan, 31, 51, 102, 342, 360; ii. 
 205 ; city, 70, 75, 91 ; detachment, 
 the, 351,367; Gazette, 226; ii. 210, 
 288, 388 ; population, 100 ; Tsar, ii. 
 395 
 
 Turkoman campaign, account of an 
 eye-witness, ii. 359-363; a ' wagen- 
 burg' ordered, ii. 360; confusion in 
 camp, ii. 361; Gromof's account of, 
 ii. 359-363 ; no quarter shown in 
 the, ii 360 ; reasons for, ii. 355 
 
 Turkoman country ravaged by Bus- 
 sians, ii. 371 
 
 Turkomans, the, 48, 106, 107, 369; ii. 
 305, 340, 344, 345, 347, 348, 351, 355, 
 356, 357, 358, 369, 371 ; beginning 
 of friendly relations with ii. 
 384 ; butchery of, ii. 358 ; danger 
 from, ii. 81 ; disorders of, ii. 374 ; 
 horses of, 129; hostages of, ii. 359; in 
 Mangyshtak, ii. 398 ; inhabiting 
 the Steppe eastward of the Caspian, 
 ii. 381 ; Khan of, imposes tax on the, 
 ii. 377 ; Khan of Khiva visits the, 
 ii. 377 ; ornaments of, ii. 359 ; pay in- 
 demnities, ii. 377 ; proposed cam- 
 paign against, ii. 355 ; punished, 
 ii. 375, 376 ; sui prise Eussian 
 camp, ii. 362 ; taxes on, ii. 378 
 
 Turks, the, 367, 405 
 
 Turquoise, 322 ; ii. 56 
 
 Turu-aigyr, ii. 128 
 
 Tus, 407 
 
 Tuya-Tartar canal, 227, 286 
 
 Tuz, 347 
 
 Tuzgul, ii. 131 
 
 Tver, 201 
 
 Typhus at Hi, ii. 181 
 
 Tyranny of Khudayar Khan, ii. 60 
 
 UBEIDULLAH, 379, 380, 381, 383 
 Udjan, 364 
 
 TIST 
 I Ufa, 3, 162; ii. 407 
 
 ' Uigurische Sprachmonumente,' 370 
 
 Uigurs, the, 365, 369, 370, 371, 391; 
 ii. 136, 164, 173 
 
 Ulama, 374 
 
 Ulanburn, 395 
 
 Ulkun, the, ii. 374 
 
 Ulkun Darya, ii. 347 
 
 Ulug Bek, 71, 231, 375; astronomi- 
 cal papers of, 332 ; observatory of, 
 233 
 
 Uhmgur, the river, 398, 405 
 
 Unkofskv, Captain, ii. 401 
 
 Unnecessary diplomatic relations, ii, 
 270 
 
 Unran, ii. 178 
 
 Upa, 181 
 
 Upper Irtysh, 410 
 
 Upper Oxus, 391 
 
 Upper Zarafshan, ii. 277 
 
 Ural Cossacks, 7, HI 
 
 Ural mountains, 16, 33 
 
 Ural river, 5, 8, 9, 10, 11, 13, 16, 17. 
 22, 31, 34, 129 
 
 Uralsk. 6, 33 ; ii. 347, 367 ; Cossack 
 labour market at, 7 
 
 Uralsk Kirghiz, 33 
 
 Uralskoe, 24, 25 
 
 Ura-tepe, 88, 92, 113, 148, 278, 284, 
 310, 311, 312, 339, 340, 341, 342, 
 349; ii. 249; climate of, 327; his- 
 tory of, 312 
 
 Urda, ii. 10 
 
 Urda bazaar, 158, 175 
 
 Urgentch, 401; ii. 312, 328; Tsar of, 
 ii. 395 
 
 Urgut. 279, 280, 283 ; ii. 305 ; bazaar 
 of, 271 ; capture of, 242 ; dancing 
 at, 271, 272 ; Hindoos at, 273 
 
 Urman Bek, 359 ; ii. 282 
 
 Urmitau, 281, 342 
 
 Ursturt, the, ii. 422 
 
 Ush, 339, 353, 354, 356 ; ii. 43-48, 
 281 ; Baber's description of, ii. 44 ; 
 Solomon's throne at, ii. 43, 45 ; sur- 
 render of, ii. 292 
 
 Urumtse, 342, 409, 410; ii. 133, 174, 
 180, 199; capture of, by Dungansj 
 ii. 178 
 
 Urungan river, the, 410 
 
 Urunkhai embassies, ii. 397 
 
 Urush Kishlak, ii. 63 
 
 Urusuf, Prince, ii. 74 
 
 Urusokhan, 406 
 
 Usek rixer, ii. 157 
 
 Ush Turfan, 343 
 
 Usma, 180 
 
 Usrushna, 312, 394 
 
 Usta Kasim, 187 
 
 Usturt, the, ii. 335, 363, 374 
 
INDEX. 
 
 461 
 
 TJST 
 
 Ustyk, ii. 119 
 
 Usuk river, ii. 170 
 
 Usurers in Tashkent, 186 
 
 Usury forbidden by Mussulman law 186 
 
 Usun, the, ii. 164 
 
 Utamish, the, ii. 386 
 
 Utbi, 370 
 
 Utch Kurgan, 356; ii. 23-35, 370; 
 
 life in, ii. 27 
 Utch-Utchak, 349 ; ii. 339, 340, 347, 
 
 351, 370 
 Uyezds, the, ii. 205 
 Uzbek, 377, 379 ; Khan, 377 ; invasion, 
 
 the, 362 
 Uzbeks, the, 30, 106-109, 129, 338, 340, 
 
 345, 347, 352, 362, 369 ; ii. 56, 329 ; 
 
 characteristics of the, 106, 107 ; clans 
 
 of the, 106, 108; language of the, 
 
 108, 109 ; origin of name of, 106 
 •Uzbek state of Khokan,' by W. H. 
 
 Wathen, the, 338 
 Uzboi, the, ii. 379, 382 ; exploration of, 
 
 ii. 344, 379, 380 
 Uzgent, 355 ; ruins at, ii. 46 
 Uzunagatch, ii. 149 ; Khanyat Shah, 
 
 at. ii. 144 ; Kolpakoftky at, ii. 144 ; 
 
 Eussian victory at, ii. 143 
 
 T7ADJAN, 364 
 > Vakhan, 364 ; ii. 267 
 
 Valide, Sultana, the, ii. 324 
 
 Valikhanof, ii. 138 
 
 Valley of Fergana, 337; of Kash.ii. 199 ; 
 of Kunges, ii. 199 : of Zarafshan an- 
 nexed to Russia, ii. 304 
 
 Vambery, Mr. 360 ; ' History of Buk- 
 hara,' review of, 360-389 
 
 Van, 372 
 
 Vang, ii. 143 
 
 Vaqf lands, 163, 298-300 
 
 Vardan, 369 
 
 Vardenis, 405 
 
 Varganzi, ii. 114 
 
 Variations in level of Isyk Kul, ii. 131 
 
 Varsaminor, 277, 281, 282 
 
 Vashan, river, ii. 150 
 
 Vasilief, ii. 179 
 
 Vassili III. ii. 394 
 
 Vegetables in Kuldja, ii. 196 
 
 Vegetation of the Steppe, 67 ; quickness 
 of growth of, 76 
 
 Veils, 124 
 
 Veliaminof Zernof, Mr. 337, 349,382 
 
 Veli-n-niem, 385 ; ii. 72, 73 
 
 Venality, ii. 247 
 
 Veniukof, Colonel, ii. 174 
 
 Verestchagin, Captain, 46, 47, 48 ; pro- 
 hibits going to Khiva, 47, 48 
 
 Verevkin, Colonel (General), 48 ; ii. 
 
 WHE 
 
 343, 347, 348, 349, 350, 353 ; wound- 
 ed, ii. 349 
 
 Verkh, origin and use of word, 152 
 
 Vermicelli, ii. 193 
 
 Vise Regnorum Auctore al-Istakhri, 
 364 
 
 Viatka, ii. 209 
 
 Viceroy of India, ii. 315 
 
 Viernoe, ii. 412, 413 
 
 Vierny, 81, 327, 351, 397. 404; ii. 305, 
 325, 388 ; character of, ii. 146 ; Chi- 
 nese at, ii. 147; name of, ii. 145; 
 personages at, ii. 147-149 ; position 
 of, ii. 145 ; road from, ii. 152 
 
 View from Pass Takhta Karatchi, ii. 62 
 
 View of Ministry of Finance of expenses 
 of administration in Turkistan, ii. 
 209 
 
 Views of Indian Government, ii. 266 
 
 Vihara, 368 ; ii. 89 
 
 Vitkevitch, 361, 387 
 
 Vizir, ii. 312 
 
 Vladimir, Grand Duke, 41 
 
 Vladimir, Monomakh, cap of, 153 
 
 Vodka, ii. 283 ; in Khokand, ii. 40, 41 
 
 Volcanoes in Central Asia, ii. 133 
 
 Volga, the, 2, 371, 377, 402; ii. 265, 
 391, 393, 396, 397 ; German colonies 
 on 2 ; region of the, 337 
 
 Volga Tartars, ii. 404 
 
 Volosts, ii. 205 
 
 Von Gutschmidt, Prof., 389 
 
 Vorontsof-Dashkof, Count, 389 
 
 ' Voyages des Pelerines Bouddhistes,' 
 394 
 
 WAHABI sect, the, 156, 172 
 Wakh, the, 391 
 
 Walls of Khokand, ii. 4 ; of Tashkent, 
 101 
 
 Wartmann, Colonel, ii. 192, 199 
 
 Watches in Bukhara, 176 
 
 Water, ii. 92 ; communications in Cen- 
 tral Asia, 221, 222 
 
 Waterfalls, 277 
 
 Water-melons, 297 
 
 Water-mills, 101 ; ii. 383 
 
 Week days, 332 
 
 Weights and measures, 201, 202 ; veri- 
 fication of, 202 
 
 Weil, 368 
 
 Weinberg, Mr., ii. 20, 271, 280, 281, 282 
 
 Wells in Kyzyl-kum, 69 
 
 Wells, poisoned, ii. 419 
 
 Western Asia, 366 
 
 Western China, trade with, ii. 414 
 
 Western Jungaria, 371 
 
 Wheat, 398, ii. 338 ; production of 
 291, 292 
 
462 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 WHI 
 
 Whips, ii. 15 
 
 Whirlwinds of snow, 5 
 
 Whistling, ii. 30 
 
 ' White bone,' 32 ; ii. 405 
 
 White mountains, the, 390 
 
 White Tsar, 115, 117 ; ii. 238, 294, 312, 
 314, 420; origin of title, ii. 143 
 
 Will of Peter the Great, ii. 258 
 
 Wines of Central Asia, 297 
 
 Wives, influence of, 146, 147 ; numbers 
 of, 145, 146 ; position of, 146 : privi- 
 leges of, 145; rights of, 145, 146 
 
 Wolff, Dr., 259, 361 
 
 Women, dancing of, 136, 137, 140 
 dress of, 123, 124; Kirghiz, 40 
 morals of, 124; seclusion of, 152 
 unveiling of, 124 
 
 Wood, Major H., ii. 373; theory of 
 course of the Oxus, 54 
 
 Wood turning, 188 
 
 Words of command, ii. 16 
 
 Words, eastern, in Russian language, 
 152,153 
 
 Wrestling, 128 
 
 Wu-duan, 894 
 
 Wu-sun, 398 
 
 yENOPHON, 128 
 
 YAGNAU DARYA, 275, 276, 278 
 279, 280 
 Yaik, the, 8, 9, 400, 401 ; ii. 396, 398, 
 
 404 
 Yaik Cossacks, ii. 328 
 Y'ailaks of the Uzbeks, 309 
 Yaka-tut, ii. 49 
 Yakobak, ii. 306 
 Yakub Bek, 353 ; ii. 183, 186, 278, 320, 
 
 423 ; attempts to abduct his niece, 
 
 99, 100, 
 Yakub Khan, 64, 91, 92, 95, 99, 324, 
 
 350; ii. 278, 316-325, 334; opposes 
 
 Russian trade, ii. 318, 319; titles of, 
 
 ii. 316, 317 
 Yalantash Bahadur, 251, 252 
 Y'ambs, ii. 322 
 Y'anhai, ii. 131 
 
 Yangy-Hissar, 342, 343 ; ii. 306 
 Yangy-Kishlak, 269, 270, 272 
 Y"angy-Urda, fortress of, ii. 41, 42 
 Y'anikent, 401 
 Yanitski, M. 223 
 Yany Darya, the, 52, 287 ; ii. 417 
 Y'any Kurgan, 232, 243, 389 
 Yany-sabak pass, 275, 281 
 Yany-su, the, ii. 374 
 Yarim Padshah (half king), 81 
 Yarkand, 75, 322 ; ii. 266 
 
 ZAR 
 
 Yarmaks, ii. 176 
 
 Y T arra-Afgani (Afghan sore). 48 
 
 Yassy, 70, 72 
 
 Y'axardes, 371 
 
 Yaxartes, the, 365, 386 
 
 Yazub Bek, ii. 387 
 
 Yazykof, 53 
 
 Yeframof, Philip, 240, 318, 360 
 
 Yeliu-Tashi, 371, 372 ; ii. 122 
 
 Yellow river, 399 
 
 Ye-lu-Tch'u-ts'ai, 236, 394, 395 ; ii. 3 
 
 Y r eman, 398, 400, 402 
 
 Yeneseisk, ii. 209 
 
 Yenissi, ii. 136 
 
 Yermak, 8 
 
 Yevgraf, ii. 19, 144 
 
 Yinshan mountains, 394, 395, 396 
 
 l'i-tchou, 394 
 
 Yi-t'ien, 394 
 
 Yi-tu, 399, 400 
 
 Yi-Yiin river, 399 
 
 Yomuds,the, ii. 349, 355, 356, 357, 370, 
 
 380, 381, 385 ; of the Attrek, ii. 380 ; 
 
 of Bairam-Shaly, ii. 359 : of Hazavat, 
 
 ii. 372 ; contributions placed upon, ii. 
 
 356 
 Yucca, 309 
 Yulbars Khan, 340 
 Yuldash Parnamatohi, 279, 280 
 Yulduz, the river, ii. 200, 319, 334 
 Yule, Colonel, 404, 405; ii. 122; 
 
 'Cathay and the Way Thither' of, 
 
 391 
 Yultchi, 237 
 Yuniisk, 28 
 
 Y'unus Hodja, 339, 340, 341 
 Yunus Khan, 378 
 Yus Ming Kysh, 106 
 Yus Uzbek, tribe of, 107 
 Yusuf Hodja, 342, 347 
 Yuzbashi, ii. 7 
 
 ZAGOSKIN, 28 
 Zagyr Bii, ii. 343 
 
 Zakharof, Mr. (Russian Consul at 
 Kuldja), 402; ii. 177, 191 
 
 Zamin, 88, 309, 364 
 
 Zang-ata, feast of, 138, 139, 140; 
 shrine of, 138 ; women's dance at, 
 140 
 
 Zarafshan district, annexation of the 
 upper, 283 ; arable land in, 284 ; 
 disturbances in, 283 ; expedition to 
 the upper, 281, 283 ; irrigation of, 
 286, 289 ; productiveness of Valley 
 of, 291, 292 ; regulation of water in 
 Upprr, 288, 289 
 
 Zarafshan Mountains, 102, 188, 191, 
 
INDEX. 
 
 463 
 
 ZAR 
 
 195, 274, 275, 310; passes in the, 
 
 275, 276 
 Zarafshan river, 276, 277 ; tributaries 
 
 of the, 277 
 Zekat, the, 204, 205, 206 ; ii. 206, 
 
 241, 302 ; abolition of, 206 ; receipts, 
 
 213 
 Zekat Serai, 5, 11, 14, 16 ; ii. 5 
 Zemarchus, 368, 390, 391 ; ii. 122 
 Zemsky Tax, 305, 306 ; ii. 206 
 Zemtchuzhnikoff, Mr , 227, 228 
 Zenga, ii. 167 
 Zerabulak, battle at, 245 
 Zera Bulak, battle of, ii. 304 ; heights 
 
 of, 389 
 Zernof Veliaminof, 363, 381 
 Zhe-hai, ii. 131 
 Zflung (the Dzian-Dziun), ii. 185 
 
 ZUR 
 
 Zianeddin, ii. 338 
 
 Zianeddin, 288, 289; ii. 117 
 
 Zimmerman, Colonel, ii. 9, 126 
 
 Zodiacal months, the, 330 
 
 Zone, the apricot, 327 ; fourth, 328 ; 
 
 northern, 326 ; peach and almond, 
 
 327 
 Zikr, 158 
 Zil, 132 
 
 Zinet-et-Tavarikh, 370 
 Zodiak, 329, 330, 331 ; months of the, 
 
 322-329 
 Zongian, 407 
 
 Zulfukar Bek, ii. 286, 293 
 Zultchi, the, ii. 164 
 Zumkshir, ii. 344, 345, 363 
 Zungaria, ii. 166 
 Zurnukh, 407 
 
 THE END.