of security were compelled to seek their personal safety by a precipitate flight. The two brothers fled over the Pamir into the remote state of Badakshan, but so great was the terror caused by the successes of the Chinese that the prince of that country not only refused to receive them, but caused them to be slain, and sent their heads as a gift of propitiation to the Celestials. Fouta had followed hard upon their track, and succeeded in inflicting two reverses upon them in the elevated region of the Pamir. The more important of these battles took place near Sirikul, and the followers of the Khoja princes were driven from the field with heavy loss. Of the vanquished there escaped from the pursuit of the Chinese, and from the perfidy of their reputed friends, only the boy Sarimsak, who became the ancestor of the Khoja adventurers of a later period. Thus satisfactorily terminated the campaign in Little Bokhara, the conquest and annexation of which completed the task that Tchaohoei* had been charged to

*Tchaohoei described in a letter to Keen Lung his entry into Kashgar. The following are its principal passages. It was written from the camp before Kashgar on a date which corresponded with the 13th of September, 1759. "The two Hotchom" (Barhanuddin and his brother) "having learnt that your Majesty's troops were marching against them, abandoned their amusements in repairing the fortifications of Kashgar and Yarkand. They at once perceived that it would be impossible for them to resist your arms. They fled from their cities, and they dragged themselves and their families from hiding-place to hiding-place. The inhabitants of Kashgar, like those of Yarkand "-who had surrendered to Tchaohoei without offering any resistance before he advanced on Kashgar-“ surrendered to us with every demonstration of joy, which was a sign that they asked for nothing better than to live under the laws of your Majesty, to experience in their turn the effects of the goodness of your great heart which embraces all the world. They came before us, bringing refreshments, which I accepted, and caused to be distributed among the soldiers, whilst giving in all cases to those who brought them small pieces of silver, or other money, not under the name of payment, but rather as a reward. They appeared to me to be very well satisfied with the arrangement. I entered the city by one gate, and left it by another. The inhabitants covered me with honour. Some accompanied me throughout my progress, crying out frequently, 'Long live the great Emperor of China.' Others lined the streets through which I had to pass. They were kneeling, and remained in that posture the whole time that I was making my progress. I made them a short address, in which I pointed out the happiness that they were about to enjoy, if they remained faithful in their duty to your Majesty. At the same time I announced that those

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accomplish. Keen Lung's main idea had been realized. authority was set up in the midst of the turbulent tribes who had long disturbed the Empire, and who first learnt peaceful pursuits as his subjects. At the cost of considerable sacrifices he had attained his object; and it only remained for experience to test and for time to show the soundness of his views. and the practical advantage of what he had accomplished.

The Chinese commanders followed up this decisive success by the despatch of several expeditions into the adjoining states, although the exact extent and results of these campaigns have not been preserved as historical facts of which we can feel quite certain. The ruler of Khokand was either so impressed by his neighbours' prowess, or, as there is much reason to believe, experienced himself the weight of their power by the occupation of his principal cities, Tashkent and Khokand, that he hastened to recognize the authority of the Emperor of China, and to enrol himself among the tributaries of the Son of Heaven. The tribute which he consented to pay was regularly delivered at Kashgar by himself and his successor, and it was not until fifty years later that its discontinuance afforded some proof of the relaxing of Chinese vigour.

What the prince of a considerable state like Khokand consented to allow, the petty chiefs of the scattered Kirghiz hordes could not well refuse. One chief after another of these tribes sent in his acknowledgment of Chinese supremacy, and in return for their courtesy and friendly expressions they received various titles of honour and presents. Whereas the amongst them who had followed the side of the rebels would be sent to Ili, and that that would be the only punishment for a crime for which they deserved to lose their lives. I was frequently interrupted by fresh cries of, Long live the great Emperor of China! May he and his descendants give us laws for ever!' I at once gave orders for the preservation of public tranquillity, and for the prompt re-establishment of all things on their ordinary basis." The remainder of the letter is filled with a description of the Emperor's new province, which is very interesting, but which we need not quote.-See "Mémoires concernant les Chinois" (Amiot), tom. i. pp. 384-95.

• Sir H. Howorth says that the effect of these successes was to strengthen "a Mahomedan superstition that the Chinese would one day conquer the whole globe, when there would be an end to the world."

overthrow of Amursana and the incorporation of the kingdom of the Eleuths with the Empire had brought neither tranquillity to the Chinese nor prosperity to the new subjects on whom they had forced their yoke, the conquest of Kashgaria and the chastisement of its Mahomedan neighbours were very soon followed by the establishment of a firm peace throughout the whole of this region, and by its attendant era of prosperity. So far as was compatible with the preservation of Keen Lung's authority, Tchaohoei, when he drew up the scheme of administration, left the inhabitants as much liberty as he could, and the executive to which the charge of Chinese dominion was entrusted consisted of a native and Mahomedan official class.

For the present we can leave the Chinese victorious in Central Asia. Whether the results justified the means in this case, or repaid the cost must be matter of opinion, but it must be remembered that at no previous epoch in history has the western frontier of China been less disturbed by hostile attack than during the last one hundred and thirty years. This triumph had been won by the military skill of the two generals Tchaohoei and Fouta, as well as by the indomitable will and resolution of Keen Lung. Its results were assured and consolidated mainly, if not solely, by the admirable tact and moderation of Tchaohoei.

One event, and one only, remains to be recorded before concluding this description of the Chinese conquest of Central Asia. The Tourguts were the neighbours of the Eleuths in the days when Tse Wang Rabdan raised high his pretensions as the sovereign of Jungaria, and Ayouka was their chief. Not himself without courage and ambition, he feared in the Eleuth the qualities which he knew that he possessed, and which under more favourable auspices he might have exercised with practical effect. Ayouka saw in Tse Wang Rabdan an opponent too powerful to be resisted, and one of whom he could not but stand in awe. The Tourgut felt that the one chance of avoiding the danger that menaced him lay in a prompt withdrawal from the neighbourhood of the aggressive Rabdan. His followers shared his love of liberty, and, recognizing the gravity of the emergency, agreed to adopt his

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proposal, and to seek a fresh home beyond the sphere of their rival's influence. Ayouka took his measures with the necessary vigilance and precaution. Tse Wang Rabdan was on the eve of delivering his attack when he learnt that the Tourguts had fled into Russian territory, and were beyond his reach.

Ayouka had to march with his people across the steppes of the Kirghiz for many hundred miles before he reached the settlements of Russian authority. The movements of this considerable body of people created some alarm, but when the Government of Orenburg realized their intentions, a district between the Volga and the Yaik was allotted as their place of residence. There, as the faithful subject of the Czar, Ayouka lived out the few remaining years of his life, and his son succeeded to his position as chief without possessing the desire to return to his ancestral home by the Ili. For fifty years and more the Tourguts remained the contented dependents of the Russian Government.

The report of Keen Lung's victories reached their settlements on the shores of the Caspian, and they appear to have stirred in their hearts a memory of their own country. The race of tyrannical despots, of whom Tse Wang Rabdan had been not the worst but only the most notable instance, was extinct, and in their place had been established the milder and more just rule of the Chinese Emperor. The Chinese had not neglected to proclaim that the Tourguts would be welcome whenever they pleased to return to their old settlements; and the exactions of the Russian tax-collector and drill-sergeant, which were rendered more severe by the wars with his neighbours in which the Czar was constantly engaged, gave increased weight to considerations of sentiment and patriotic feeling. The Tourguts, however, might long have wanted the resolution to undertake a second journey across Asia, but for an outrage offered to their chief Oubacha, the great grandson of Ayouka. The Russian officials seized his son either as a hostage for his father's good conduct, or as a further recruit for the service of the Czar.

Whatever the motive of the outrage, it decided the Tourguts to no longer hesitate about the return to their

native state to which the friendliness of the Celestial Government invited them to come back. Towards the close of the year 1770 they, to the number of several hundred thousand, gathered in their worldly belongings, collected their flocks, and, breaking up their camps, which served them in the place of more permanent dwellings, began their return march to the district they had reluctantly and under the pressure of a great fear quitted half a century before. Eight months were occupied in traversing the region from the Yaik to the Ili, but the local forces were too few, and the means of summoning fresh troops too inadequate to allow the Russians to interfere with their movements or to molest their flight. The Tourguts reached their destination in safety, and became the faithful and peaceful dependents of the Chinese Emperor or Bogdo Khan. Their flight from east to west, and their return to their old settlements, contribute a picturesque episode to the establishment of Chinese power in Central Asia, and we may attribute their coming back after the proclamation of Chinese authority either to the hardships of Russian rule, or to the greater attractions offered by that of China. Certainly in the eyes of the Asiatics there never has been a more lenient or considerate government established over them than that of the Chinese in times of peace and domestic tranquillity.

The return of the Tourguts ten years after the close of active campaigning in Kashgaria came as if to ratify the wisdom of Keen Lung's Central Asian policy. The sneers and doubts of the timid or the incapable had been silenced long before by the prowess and success of Tchaohoei, but ten years of peace and prosperity had placed in still clearer light than military triumphs the advantages of the able and farseeing policy of Keen Lung. A strong frontier had been secured; the hostile and semi-hostile peoples and tribes of Mahomedan Turkestan had been overawed and converted into peaceful subjects; the reputation of China had been extended to the furthest bounds of the Asiatic continent; and the monarch who had conceived the grand scheme of *The reader may be referred to De Quincey's "Flight of a Tartar Tribe."