upon the Imperial troops, and, although no steps were immediately taken to retrieve it, the fact had not been forgotten. There appears to be little doubt that the Miaotze were not alone to blame for this unsatisfactory state of things, and that much of their turbulence and misconduct should rightly be attributed to the provocation offered them by the local mandarins both civil and military.

The Miaotze recognized the authority of tribal chiefs and heads of clans. They were by nature averse to agricultural pursuits, and chafed at the restraints of a settled life. Their courage and rude capacity for war enabled them to hold and maintain a position of isolation and independence during those critical periods which had witnessed the disintegration of the Empire and the transfer of power from one race to another. Each successive wave of conquest had passed over the face of the country without disturbing their equanimity or interfering with their lot. The Miaotze remained a barbarian people, living within the limits of the Empire but outside its civilization, and the representatives of some pre-historic race of China. When Keen Lung mounted the throne their position was practically unchanged, and their late success seemed even to warrant the supposition that their independence was more assured than at any previous period. Nothing happened to disturb this persuasion until the year 1771, when Keen Lung had ruled the Empire for more than thirty-five years.

In that year the Miaotze had broken out in acts of disorder on a larger scale than usual, and whether incited to commit these depredations by the pressure of want or by the arrogance of the Chinese officials, there is no question that the area of their raids suddenly became extended, and that the Chinese troops met with further discomfiture. Whereas the Miaotze of Kweichow had hitherto been the most turbulent, it was on this occasion their kinsmen of Szchuen who carried their defiance to a point further than the Emperor could tolerate. Orders were, therefore, issued for the prompt and effectual chastisement of these hillmen, and troops were despatched against them for the purpose of reducing them to obedience. The troops marched, but

THE MIAOTZE.

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their valour proved of little avail. The Miaotze were victorious in the first encounter of the war, and it was made evident that in order to subjugate them a regular plan of campaign would be requisite.

Rendered over-confident by these preliminary successes, the Miaotze completed by an outrage the defiance they were resolute in showing towards the Emperor. They murdered the two officers he sent to their capital to negotiate, and they completed the insult by tearing up the letter which Keen Lung had condescended to write to them. The excessive pretentions and ambition of the Eleuth princes had compelled Keen Lung to take up the settlement of that question and to prosecute it with vigour. Success beyond precedent had attended his efforts, and established the wisdom of his policy of "thorough." The outrages committed by the Miaotze led him to the conclusion that similar energetic action in this quarter might very possibly be followed by results as satisfactory and as conclusive as those that had been attained in Central Asia. Just as he had decreed the annexation of a vast region beyond Gobi for reasons of state, he now ordered from scarcely less weighty causes the destruction of the Miaotze.

The Miaotze of Szchuen inhabited the mountainous region in the north-west corner of that province, which skirts a remote portion of Tibet. Their two principal settlements were known, from the names of streams, as the Great Golden River and the Little Golden River districts. The occupation of these settlements became the principal object with the Chinese Emperor, for he well knew that, when these hillmen were deprived of the only spots capable of sustaining themselves and their flocks, they would be obliged to recognize his authority and to accept his law without murmur. It only remained for Keen Lung to select some competent commander to give effect to his wishes, and to carry out the military scheme upon which he had resolved. The necessity for exercising care in such a choice had been shown by the tardy and meagre results of Alikouen's campaign in Burmah, but either the etiquette of the court. or the dislike of the Emperor prevented the recall of Fouta,

whose great capacity rendered him the fittest leader for the post. Keen Lung's choice fell upon Akoui, by birth one of the noblest of the Manchus, and, as the result was to show, of talent equally conspicuous.

When Akoui reached the scene of operations he found that the gravity of the situation had been increased by the excessive confidence of those in command. One of the lieutenants of the border had worsted the Miaotze in an engagement, but, carried away by the ardour of pursuit, he allowed himself to be enticed into the mountains, where his detachment was destroyed almost to the last man. Akoui had, therefore, to devote all his attention to the retrieval of a defeat that might easily have been avoided. Several months were occupied in collecting the necessary body of troops, and a sufficient quantity of supplies for their use during a campaign that might prove of some duration in a barren region where means of sustenance were almost unprocurable.

The district of the Little Golden River formed the first object of Akoui's attack. The Chinese troops advanced in several bodies, and the Miaotze, assailed on all sides, were compelled to precipitately evacuate the territory. In less than a month the first part of Akoui's task had been successfully performed, and the Little Golden River settlement became incorporated with the province of Szchuen and accepted the Chinese law.

The second portion of his undertaking proved infinitely more arduous, and the Miaotze collected all their strength to defend their possessions round the Great Golden stream. The king or chief of the Miaotze was called Sonom, and, undaunted by the overthrow of his neighbour, he prepared to defend his native valleys to the last extremity. So resolute and unanimous were the Miaotze to fight to the death in defence of their last strongholds, that they refused to listen to any terms for a pacific arrangement, and even the women took up arms and joined the ranks of the combatants. The advance of the Chinese troops was slow, but being made systematically there could be no doubt that it would prove irresistible. The narrowness of the few passes, the natural

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A BREACH OF FAITH.

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strength of fortresses built on the summit of mountains and protected on several sides by precipices, and the impossibility of effectually utilizing their superior numbers, all contributed to retard a decisive result; but, notwithstanding all these obstacles, the Chinese steadily approached Sonom's chief stronghold of Karai.

At last the Chinese appeared before the walls of this place, within which the entire Miaotze population had been driven. The Chinese completely surrounded it, and there was no room for hoping that starvation or an assault would not speedily terminate the siege. Under these circumstances Sonom expressed a desire to surrender on the guarantee of their lives to himself, his family and his people. Akoui had no authority to grant such terms, and, as Sonom refused to trust to the indulgence of the Emperor, the siege continued. When Keen Lung learnt that this petty opponent was reduced to the last extremity, he sent word that the lives. of the chief and of all his followers might be spared. Whereupon Sonom surrendered, his fort was destroyed, and the Great Golden River district shared the fate of the Little Golden district, and became portion of the province of Szchuen.

Akoui was largely rewarded, and Keen Lung rejoiced at being able to congratulate himself on having permanently settled one of the oldest and most troublesome internal difficulties that beset the Empire. The Miaotze of Kweichow took the lesson inculcated by the chastisement of their kinsmen in Szchuen to heart, and refrained from causing the Chinese officials the trouble they had been wont to produce on the borders of civilization. A great quantity of treasure and several thousand lives had to be expended to attain this result, but once attained there could be no doubt that a serious blot on the efficiency of the administration had been removed, and that a well-timed act of vigour had sufficed to establish tranquillity in another part of China.

Although Keen Lung had passed his word that the lives of his captives should be spared, he neglected to keep his word, thus leaving himself open to the charge of a breach of faith, which it would have been better for his reputation to

have avoided. Sonom, the chief members of his family, and his principal officers, were all executed within the precincts of the palace; and the other Miaotze captives were exiled to Ili in Central Asia. The motives which induced Keen Lung to proceed to such lengths of severity, if not of absolute cruelty, on this occasion, are not known. His moderation was usually conspicuous, and we can but suppose that the intensity of the general antipathy to the savage Miaotze, who were regarded as only half-human, led him to sanction measures he would not otherwise have permitted. The spectacle of the heads of these brigand chiefs placed in iron cages over the gates of his capital could not have added much to his personal gratification, nor could it have proved any very great deterrent to those disposed to rebel.

The province of Shantung was also the scene about this time of disturbances that caused some anxiety to the ruler. A rebel named Wanlan had been the leader of a considerable seditious movement, and the people appear to have suffered greatly, first from his exactions, and then from the presence of the army sent by the Emperor to put down the insurrection and to reassert his authority. However, Keen Lung's ends were attained in this case as elsewhere, and, before Akoui returned to the capital, peace had been restored in Shantung.

Although Fouta had accepted, or been compelled to take, a subordinate command under Akoui in the Miaotze campaign, he had been secretly piqued at the slight thus cast upon him; and when he returned to the capital and found Akoui the object of the Emperor's esteem and affection, he allowed some disparaging remarks to escape from him. Akoui's friends were all powerful, and the hero of the Pamir received little consideration when he ventured to assail the reputation of that popular and influential general. Keen Lung, who attached so much importance to the subjection of the Miaotze, that he raised Akoui from the Red to the Yellow Girdle rank, would not listen to petitions to deal leniently with the bluff, outspoken soldier, who in his turn became the object of all the evil tongues in the army and at the court. Fouta was accordingly sentenced to death, and his execution in the year 1776 served to show the inconstancy of fortune,