GEOGRAPHY AND ANTIQUITIES. 319 



what about those enormous tracts which lie immediately to the 

 north of the north-western mountains of British India, the Hima- 

 layas, and Cashmere? The answer which I have given in my 

 last address to the Royal Geographical Society is the most satis- 

 factory explanation which can be offered, and I here give the pith 

 of it. The Russians have not advanced beyond the chain of the 

 Thian Chan into any part of those territories in which the cities 

 of Kashgar, Yarkand, and others are. situated. These countries, 

 which until a few years ago were held by the Chinese, and are 

 inserted in all old maps as an integral part of the Chinese empire, 

 have entirely extirpated their conquerors, and the mass of the 

 natives, being Mahommeclans, are now under the rule of a brave 

 soldier of their own faith, who, under the title of the Ataligh 

 Ghazee, or leader of the faithful, has brought the people into a 

 state of perfect order, after having been in the most tumultuous 

 and insurrectionary state so long as the Chinese vainly attempted 

 to govern them. 



" The process by which an intercourse has been established 

 between this Eastern Turkistan and British India has been so 

 eminently characteristic of the efforts of a powerful trading nation 

 like our own, that a very brief account of it may be acceptable to 

 some of my hearers in this great mart of commerce. Tea plan- 

 tations having been successfully cultivated by our countrymen 

 upon the southern and lower slopes of the Himalayan Mountains, 

 it occurred to a most able British civilian, Mr. Douglas Forsyth, 

 who was diplomatically employed in Cashmere, that the popula- 

 tion of Eastern Turkistan having been so long accustomed to drink 

 tea, and having been entirely deprived of it since all intercourse 

 with China had ceased, would gladly hail the reappearance of 

 their favorite beverage, if a supply could be brought to them from 

 the south. Mr. Forsyth accordingly sent a small sample (a horse- 

 load only) of tea across the mountains, as a present to the great 

 ruler of this new kingdom. As this present was ' gratefully re- 

 ceived,' one of our British tea cultivators at Kangra, Mr. Shaw, 

 resolved to face all the difficulties of a passage through the lofty 

 mountains of the Karakorum and Kuen Lun; and, fitting out a 

 caravan bearing tea, he conducted it himself in safety by Yarkand 

 to Kashgar, where he was well received by the Ataligh Ghazee. 

 At first, indeed, things looked unpropitious, for Mr. Shaw was 

 proceeding fairly and simply as a British merchant, when there 

 arrived just at the same time a warlike-looking Englishman. This 

 was Mr. Hayward, late of the 72d regiment ; and for a time both 

 were placed en surveillance, but most amicably treated. In fact, Mr. 

 Hayward had been sent out by the Royal Geographical Society to 

 explore, if possible, that great desert plateau, the Pamir Land, 

 occupied entirely by nomacle Kirghis, in which the rivers Oxus 

 and Zerafshan have their rise ; but being unable to force his way 

 thither through certain disturbed tracts to the north-west of the 

 Punjaub, he took a route which led him to Yarkand. The arrival 

 of the two Englishmen, which at first seemed so unintelligible and 

 suspicious, turned out to be in the end most advantageous to all 

 parties concerned ; for Mr. Hayward had it in his power to fix 



